"The kid is yours."
"What?" Neji stumbled backward until the backside of his calf hit the coffee table and he hissed in pain.
TenTen's arms stretched out towards him, "Sit, will you?" She asked tentatively. Neji's body fell limply on the cushions and TenTen settled next to him, hands clutching her knees.
"We never -"
"I will explain," she interrupted. TenTen rubbed a hand on her cheeks to wipe away the drying tears. "After you passed away we had a…situation. Each one of us was captured and trapped in a sort of dream and in mine, you were still alive. I had just saved Konoha and the people were cheering me on, and you were behind me, rubbing my shoulders, telling me that you were safe and sound because of me. I-"
"…You?" Neji prompted.
TenTen took a deep breath, her fist clenched and unclenched, "I told myself When will I ever have another dream of Neji that feels so real? I should make the best out of it. So I dragged you to the back of the building, undid my pants, took off yours. Then you pushed me up against the wall and we…did what we did." Her lips curled into a bittersweet smile, "It wasn't very romantic for a first time, really it was just a quickie. When I woke up I genuinely thought it had been just a dream, a few months later I started having symptoms and at the same time I heard Shikamaru's theory that those dreams weren't a work of fantasy but actual different dimensions that we were thrown in temporarily. I took a test and ran to Lee, I was terrified. What was your family going to say? Were they going to take my baby away as soon as he was born? Lee told me not to worry and the next day we left the village on a long, low ranked mission. We stayed in a rural village until I gave birth and then we came back, Lee told everyone that the baby was his and he had it with a woman from he met while we were away, and that I was just helping him raise the child." TenTen turned around to meet Neji's wide eyes and clasped his hand. "Oh Neji, thank goodness he doesn't have the byakugan! I was so worried your family would take him and mark him, I knew how that branding ruined the better part of your life and I didn't want my baby to suffer the same fate. So Lee gave him that stupid haircut and that even stupider nickname, and we hid him under a false identity." TenTen looked away, "You know the rest."
Neji ran a hand through his hair trying to find an order to his thoughts, he cleared his voice, "Does the kid know that I'm his father?"
TenTen shook her head, "No, I never told him his father's identity. As he grows up I feed him a little more information. He's a good kid, he knows that he has to keep it a secret and never asks for more that I tell him."
Neji pinched the bridge of his nose and squeezed his eyes close, "Well, now that I'm back your little plan flaws. What am I supposed to do? Live with a son that doesn't know who I am?"
"Do you hate the idea of having a child?" TenTen asked, leaning on the couch in Neji's direction and he sighed, looking away from her pleading eyes.
"No, I don't hate it. But until a few days ago I was nineteen, and now I'm suddenly thirty-two and a father. This is not how I envisioned my life to be at all. Back then I had the vague idea that after the war I was going to formally ask you out and of course I would have loved to marry you and have a family in its own time." Neji stared into the fire and failed to notice the way TenTen's gaze dropped to her feet, "It's just happening to fast."
"I've been alive these past thirteen years, and they haven't been fast at all, especially without you."
Neji looked back at TenTen, noticing the tears brimming her eyes again he immediately felt guilty over his words, sure these were his true feeling but he could have put them out a little more gently.
"No one's asking you to be something you don't want to be. Of course I'll take your will into consideration since this situation is mostly my fault."
Neji felt a sudden urge to reach out and trace her chin with his fingertips, TenTen's words got caught in her throat and her lips started quivering. Neji was entranced by her lips and remembered how soft and pliant they had been just a few minutes ago. He didn't want to make TenTen cry or feel faulty, he wanted to make her happy, smiling, but the idea of having a child and the newly discovered taste of her body underneath his palms - the fact that she willingly kissed him back – was just too much for him to process. His thumb wiped away a half dry tear from her cheekbone. "All I'm trying to say is," her mouth moved under his grazing touch, "You're not used to the idea of being a father, but Metal isn't used to the idea of having a father either."
Neji let his hand fall and reclined his head backward, "Please, tell me you didn't really name the kid Metal."
TenTen gathered her knees underneath her and gave him a serious look, "Of course not. I named him Hizashi like your father, I – I thought you would have liked that, if you had been alive."
Neji's hands were suddenly back on her shoulders, they ran up and settled on the nape of her neck, his face was near but TenTen could only see part of it through her half lidded eyes. Damn, she'd been alone for far too long and Metal being at Lee's on this particular night was just terrible, leaving the two of them together alone, on this special night when Neji felt so hormonally straight forward and she had practically no resistance, was the worst idea ever and it was certainly bound to disaster. "Oh good," Neji whispered, half relieved of her answer, "My son can't have a lame name." And before TenTen knew it, he was kissing her again, and her back was flattening against the cushions of her couch.
