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cr3sswellsgf · 2 months

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matching jammies - nejiten week '24

day 2 - gezelligheid (dutch) A convivial, cozy, or warm atmosphere. The warmth of being with loved ones, or seeing a friend after a long absence.

The snowstorm outside didn’t seem to be willing to relent anytime soon, but that wasn’t all that unusual for late December in Konoha. Blankets of pure white snow coated the streets and slicked the windows, creating the idealistic picture of a winter wonderland. It was the perfect setting for creating snow angels or having a snowball fight, Tenten thought, but with them coming up on the coldest month of the year, she couldn’t imagine getting pelted in the face with snow in these particularly frigid temperatures would be very comfortable.

Which was particularly why she’d insisted on everyone staying inside that day, much to her twins’ absolute and utter dismay.

“It’s getting pretty late,” Tenten murmured, brows furrowed, and bit down on her bottom lip. Her eyes flicked up to the clock once again, almost instinctively, and she was again met with the fact that Neji was supposed to be here hours ago.

Despite the world being fairly peaceful, the Fourth Great War having ended five years ago (along with the whole ‘let’s blow up the moon!’ thing from three years ago), shinobi were still needed, and especially capable Jōnin like Hyūga Neji. This time, he was tasked to lead a team of two Chūnin on a mission in the Land of Silence. She didn’t know anything past that, though— he wasn’t allowed to share any specifics with her, but she imagined she had a basic idea of the objectives.

Tenten knew he could take care of himself and of those with him, she trusted him implicitly, honestly, but whenever he was late coming home from missions, she still couldn’t help but worry.

What if he was hurt? What if his subordinates were hurt? What if they encountered—

“Mamaaaaaaa,” a sulky voice came from behind her, little feet padding on the kitchen floor and cutting her train of dreary thoughts short. She could practically hear the pout that was surely on her two year old daughter’s lips. “When’s Papa coming home?”

Ah, yes. And then there was this little munchkin. Tenten had accidentally fallen pregnant with twins, a boy and a girl, two years ago, around this time. Thankfully, it was a fairly easy pregnancy.

Too easy, in fact, to the point where they didn’t find out until around seven months in. By chance, at that. Was quite the way to celebrate Neji’s twenty-first, that one.

(And then it was even more surprising when they went for their first checkup and found out they were having, not one, but two children. But that’s a story for another day.)

The brown-haired woman sighed, picking her adorably sleepy—though Hibari was vehemently insistent on denying this—daughter up. “Soon, baby.” She planted a kiss on Hibari’s cheek and fixed her sweater, absently wondering if she should turn the heat up a little more. “Are you cold?”

Hibari shook her head, tiredly nuzzling into Tenten’s neck. “Can we play in the snow, at least?” Unlike her twin brother, Hibari was very vocal. Sakura told her that they were both incredibly advanced for their age, speech-wise, but Hibari was a lot more outgoing than Hao, and therefore a lot more chatty.

If there was someone who did not let her terrible grammar and weird conjugational habits (like exclusively using the word ‘talk’ in the past tense, no matter what) stop her from speaking her mind, it was Hyūga Hibari.

“It’s too cold right now,” Tenten responded, repeating that same explanation for what seemed like the millionth time that night. And then, in a playfully chiding tone, she said, “And it’s too late now, anyway. It’s way past your bedtime.”

Hao was already asleep on the couch, wrapped up in Tenten’s knit throw blanket, having gotten too tired to stay up waiting for his dad. It was a valiant effort, and Tenten didn’t blame him— it was just past midnight by now, and she frankly wished Hibari would just let herself sleep, too. And, well, he was also two years old.

“You sure you’re not sleepy?”

“Yeah.”

“Sure?” Tenten walked back to the living room and folded herself on the couch next to Hao’s sleeping form. Hibari nodded again and nuzzled into her mom’s chest.

A tell-tale sign that she was about to surrender to sleep.

Smiling, Tenten reached over to grab the second throw blanket they had draped over the couch, and adjusted it over the two of them

“Wanna watch a movie?” she asked, voice quiet so as not to wake up Hao. Tenten’s master plan was to put on a Christmas movie, have Hibari utterly entranced and engaged for, like, thirty minutes, before she would inevitably fall asleep. Worked every time.

When Hibari replied in the affirmative and Tenten put the movie on, she was finally free to fret over her husband once more.

And so they sat there; all three of them on the couch next to each other, Tenten and her two chunky two year olds, bundled up in cosy Christmas pyjamas and warm knit blankets. It was a sweet sight.

︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶

When Neji quietly unlocked the front door of his house and walked in, absolutely and utterly exhausted from that week-long mission abroad, he was surprised to see that warm, yellow light coming from the living room.

Hm. It was probably one of two things: either Tenten was still awake, probably reading or watching a movie (she did that sometimes after the kids went to bed, taking advantage of any alone time she could get), or Tenten was reading or watching a movie, and ended up falling asleep on the couch. Also a likely possibility, and usually an inevitable consequence of the former.

With a small, amused huff, Neji took off his cloak and hung it up by the door, and stepped over the threshold. “I’m home,” he said lowly, if only out of habit rather than out of a real need to alert his wife. As expected, no response came. He made his way to the living room, where a large, prettily-decorated Christmas tree sat in the corner, dimly illuminating the room along with the fairy lights Tenten had strung around. The only other source of light was the television, which was playing one of Tenten and Hibari’s favourite holiday movies (Hao found it a little too scary), The Nightmare Before Christmas. The volume was very low, though, and the credits had started playing at some point before he walked in.

And again, as expected, Tenten was asleep on the couch.

Her long, brown hair was unbound, falling in waves over the back of the couch, and her lips were slightly parted, making way for quiet huffs of air. What surprised him upon walking closer, though, was the toddler laying on her chest, and the other one asleep next to her thigh. All in matching red and white pyjamas, by the way.

He sighed, exasperated but without any real annoyance. He should’ve known they’d wait up for him. Or, well, try to wait up for him.

It was touching.

One of Tenten’s hands was automatically patting Hibari’s back, as if by muscle memory—which meant she mustn’t have fallen asleep that long ago—while the other was holding the remote. Silently and with the easy grace of a seasoned shinobi, he grabbed the remote control from her lax grip (which, okay, wasn’t difficult whatsoever), and turned the television off, before walking to the corner of the room and turning both the decorative tree lights and the string lights off. He was starving and in desperate need of a relaxing bath, but he would carry all three of them to bed before making something to eat. They’d gone through the trouble of trying to stay up and welcome him home, but the mission had unexpectedly dragged on, and with the snowstorm outside, it had all delayed their travel plans. So the least he could do for them was to tuck them in.

“Neji?”

He turned around at the whispered proclamation of his name.

“I’m home,” he said simply, smiling tiredly at his wife. She blinked rapidly, as if trying to dispel the sleepiness, and gently set Hibari down. “I’ll come to you,” he said hurriedly, noticing how tired she was and not wanting her to get up. It was fine that she’d woken up, he supposed—he could still carry her to bed regardless. At the last second, he decided to keep the fairy lights that were strung behind the television on. Despite his words, Tenten still got up and quickly made her way to him, meeting him halfway.

“Welcome home,” she murmured into his chest once she was close enough, having all but thrown herself at him. Her hands grabbed onto the back of his shirt, as if of their own accord. She exhaled, “I missed you.” Immediately, a pair of strong arms wrapped around her, and he basically crushed her to him.

“I’ve missed you more than you can imagine, my love,” Neji breathed tiredly, inhaling her sweet smell, and both of them were content to stay in that embrace for a long moment. She could feel the tension leave his body—the way his toned muscles relaxed under her touch and his shoulders drooped. And Tenten honestly would’ve been content to stay like that for the rest of the night, practicality be damned, but much to her dismay, Neji’s arms loosened around her. She pouted at the loss of contact, and made a sound that was much more fit for her daughter to make than it was for a twenty-three year old woman. He rolled his eyes, amused, and planted a kiss on the top of her head. “I’m sorry. I probably smell. I’ll hug you all you want after I shower; I promise.”

Tenten braced her hands against his chest and stood on her tippy-toes, promptly kissing his scruffy cheek. “You really don’t,” she said honestly. “Smell, I mean.” And it was true—even after a week-long mission with no access to his nice soaps and fancy shower products, Neji still smelled nice. Because everything else wasn’t enough, he just had to add ‘always smells good’ to his résumé, apparently. With a yawn, she said, “I’ll go put the kids in their beds and then I’ll heat up your food while you shower and change into something comfortable.”

He covered her hands with his, rubbing gentle circles across her knuckles. “You don’t have to do that,” he argued softly. “You can just go to sleep, darling. Really, I can do the rest.”

She hummed. “I know I don’t,” she yawned again, “but I want to.” She had already turned around and started gently extricating the blanket out of Hao’s grip, and the look she gave him over her shoulder dared him to argue, and while the refutation was at the tip of his tongue, he let it die.

“Thank you,” he murmured, wrapping his arms around her from behind. He spoke so sincerely, brushing her ear with his lips, “You’re incredible.”

She grinned at him, and with an adorable little wink, teased, “I know.”

︶⊹︶︶୨୧︶︶⊹︶

Once she heard the water shut off, Tenten started heating up Neji’s share of their dinner that night—homemade herring soba. This would’ve been so much better fresh, she thought, a touch sadly. She’d gone through the trouble of making everything from scratch (save for the smoked fish, of course), and she would’ve loved if he had gotten to taste it right after it was done. Oh, well. It wasn’t like she regretted putting in the effort regardless— she didn’t have much to do today anyway.

Soon enough, Neji walked out of their room in a matching pyjama set in his size and a towel around his neck. Once his eyes found her and then fell on the bowl of noodles in front of her, it was like his whole body softened. His gaze softened, and his shoulders dropped.

This girl, he thought, was sure to be the death of him.

“C’mere,”

She obliged, pushing herself off the table with a small smile. The moment she was close enough, he pulled her into a rough hug, lifting her off the ground. Over the past few years, Neji had, not unlike some of their other friends, grown considerably in height. When they were teenagers, he’d had some two inches over her, but now, at the age of twenty-three, that difference had increased to what must’ve been something like nine, if she had to guess. His body had filled out considerably, too. (The wonders of testosterone, am I right?) After the War and his fatal injury, he had had to spend upwards of a year recovering and recuperating, and then he had to spend the next year regaining his strength and training, little by little, but he managed. It was a miracle he’d survived in the first place, though.

The curse mark had disappeared, removing any doubts that he could’ve been alive, but somehow, medics found a very weak pulse, which was enough for them to work with. It was so on brand for him, though—denying the odds so intensely.

Tenten squeaked gleefully, the noise dissolving into giggles when he pressed his lips to hers. “You,” he was saying between bruising kisses, “are not real.” She looped her arms around his neck and wrapped her legs around his middle, giggling into the kiss but unable to come up with a witty comeback of any kind. “God,” he groaned, “I love you so much.”

Ah, there it was.

She grinned against his lips, and mustering up her most annoying, smart-alecky voice, she interjected, “Um, the name is Tenten, actually, but thanks—”

Neji rolled his pretty eyes spectacularly, without any real annoyance (when had he gotten so mushy?), and he scoffed a laugh. Of course she’d say that. “Oh, shut up.”

When she giggled again and nuzzled her face into that spot in his neck, he allowed himself to fully enjoy this moment, letting go of that knee-jerk guilt he felt whenever he got something good, for once.

And when, after a moment or two, she murmured a very quiet, “I love you, too, Neji. I’m glad you’re home,” into his skin, he let himself think he deserved it.

thank you to my lovely oomfie @lubdubu for letting me borrow hibari & hao LOVE YOU DEARLY!!!

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