#the rest of the blog is not like this btw | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

domoz · 4 months

Text

For 7/7 for the follower milestone celebration: Hika/Tobi, Wherein Hikaku realizes some things about his relationship status.

Considering that he's still recovering from an illness, Hikaku should have been in bed for hours already. Instead he stayed up and made tea for his guest, some part of him unwilling to send him home and put an end to the strange warmth of the past few days.

It's been nice having someone stay over to take care of him like this, and Hikaku is certain that Tobirama wouldn't do that for just any of his student's guardians. Or coworkers. Or occasional mission partners. The fact that Hikaku falls under all three categories may have influenced Tobirama's decision, but privately, he hopes that his motivation was more personal.

The two of them drink their tea in companionable silence, Kagami sleeps deeply a room away, exhausted from Tobirama's efforts to keep him occupied. The domesticity of it all makes Hikaku's heart twist with something like hope. He wants more, wants to ask if he can have it, and yet at the same time finds himself wary of asking for too much. Tobirama just spent days cooking for him and making sure his fever was under control and looking after his ward. He's probably eager to return to his own home and a night of solitude.

So when the pot of tea is emptied and Hikaku moves to wash it, he keeps an eye on Tobirama as he turns down the hall. He stops to look in Kagami's room, his face softening as he takes in the sight of his student, no doubt sprawled across a futon, but when he turns to go down the hall to Hikaku's room, rather than leaving, Hikaku clears his throat. His voice is still slightly hoarse from illness, and Hikaku swallows down a cough so that his next words will be believed, "I truly appreciate your help over the last few days, but I'm well enough now that I'm sure you could go home. if you'd like."

Tobirama turns to him with a slight frown, and it's pure selfishness that has Hikaku hoping that he will protest, even if he knows that he'll end up insisting that Tobirama go home.

"I don’t think I understand." He says, quiet enough to not risk waking Kagami, "Would you rather move into my house? It's smaller, but I suppose it's no hardship to get Anijia to add some extra rooms…"

He trails off, eyebrows furrowing as he considers the logistics, and Hikaku can only stare. This happens sometimes, where Tobirama gets ahead of himself and leaves everyone else behind. Hikaku has been getting better and pulling him back and making him explain himself, these days but he's not quite sure where to start with this one.

"No, I mean…" He hesitates, not wanting to seem overly rude, "I'm feeling better. So you don't need to stay if you don't want to."

Tobirama leaves the dim hallway to join Hikaku again in the kitchen. He's frowning -- some would say that Tobirama is an angry or even expressionless man, but Hikaku has come to find that there is a wealth of emotion in his frowns. This one seems thoughtful.

"I'm not sure why I would, unless you see a need. Don't married couples typically cohabitate?"

Hikaku's mind runs blank for a long moment -- much as he would like to blame the lingering sickness on the way he can't pull a thought together, he knows that's not why. He carefully sets down the cup he'd been washing.

"Pardon?" He manages after a moment, and it's a minor miracle that his voice doesn't crack. "When did we become a married couple?"

Hikaku wasn't sick enough that he wouldn't remember something like that, and he would have remembered otherwise, but Tobirama's frown deepens to look something like concerned.

" Four days ago." He says. "Or three months, depending on which clan's traditions you're honoring."

"Oh?" Is about as much as Hikaku can manage to vocalize in response, leaning heavily on the countertop. If Tobirama is joking, he can't tell, and he doesn't know if he wants him to be or not. Tobirama crosses the kitchen and leans in close as if to examine him. He meets Hikaku's eyes.

"You didn't know." When Hikaku shakes his head dumbly, Tobirama takes him by the elbow to pull him away from the kitchen and into the tatami room. Tobirama has touched him like this before. More commonly, recently, but on top of everything else it has Hikaku's entire body warming enough to make him dizzy. Tobirama glances at him from the corner of his eye.

"You should sit down." He says. And Hikaku does, as soon as he's near enough to a cushion to do so. He scrubs at his face for good measure, too. Tobirama joins him a moment later, same as he had when they still had tea to drink, but now he sits with his chin in one hand, finger tapping at his cheek in thought.

"I think this must be some sort of cultural difference." Frustratingly unruffled by it all -- though that's just Tobirama, really -- "Technically you proposed to me. Twice over."

"Did I?" Hikaku finally finds some words, however faint they may be, "Would you mind… Explaining?"

Tobirama nods, but he doesn't respond right away, finger still tapping away.

"I think I might understand where the misunderstanding started." He says after a long moment. "When Kagami asked me to teach him and you allowed it."

He's gotten ahead of himself again, Hikaku thinks, forcefully numb so as not to become hysterical. Kagami had come begging to let the Senju teach him years ago, back when the village's survival wasn't a sure thing and Tobirama was looked at with wariness by even the most peace loving of the Uchiha. Hikaku had thought long and hard about it, how it might make peace more likely to work, how Tobirama -- stranger that he was at the time -- would have better opportunities to re-start the war than to hurt a child. Mostly, he had been convinced by the brightness in Kagami's eyes that he hadn't seen there since the boy's mother had died and Hikaku had been the only one left to take him in. Saying that was where it all started was correct in many ways, but Hikaku still has no idea how that relates to them being married.

The look on his face must clue Tobirama into his incomprehension, because he tilts his head and continues.

"…It's considered traditional in the Senju for a teacher's first student to join their family in one war or another, be that marriage or adoption. But I don't have a child of my own near Kagami's age, and he already has a guardian." At Hikaku's continued silence, he prompts, "…Which left you and I coming to an agreement."

"We don't do anything like that in the Uchiha." Hikaku replies carefully. And then, louder, unable to help himself, "You're saying I proposed to you that long ago?" And you never said anything?

"Not exactly. Technically, I should have started courting you at that point, but the political climate was…" Tobirama hums, still so infuriatingly calm about it all -- but why wouldn't he be, he's apparently known this whole time, "…Not exactly ideal. And I thought that a relationship built on mutual trust would be a stronger one."

"I suppose I can agree with that. But… If that wasn't the proposal, what was?"

"The end of last fall." Tobirama says immediately, "We took some time after work to visit a tea house and ended up coming back here."

Hikaku nods. He remembers. Specifically, he remembers feeling like had fallen too deep in his feelings and staying up the rest of the night after Tobirama had left, wallowing in what to do about them.

"I left my fur collar behind. You returned it in the morning."

Tobirama stops speaking, as if that's all there is to say. Hikaku blinks. His head feels so stuffed he half-wonders if maybe his sickness has actually worsened and this is some kind of hallucination.

"And… that was the proposal?" He finally gives in and asks.

Tobirama nods, but his frown returns, disapproving at Hikaku's tone.

"Of a sort. Traditionally you would have stolen it from me, and I would have won it back from you by hunting something for you. If you accepted it, we would be married by Hatake custom."

"…The deer." Hikaku says, dumbstruck. Tobirama nods, looking a hair smug.

That had been one of the stranger things that had happened to him in recent memory, and in hindsight he really should have looked more into it. Tobirama had been gone on a mission and when he had come back the first place he had gone had not been the hokage tower or his own him, but to Hikaku's and with a freshly hunted buck over his shoulders. And because it was Tobirama, he had assumed that it was purely practical. That he'd stumbled upon it, didn't want to waste it, couldn't bring it to his brother because Hashirama didn't eat meat. And he'd hoped -- had been right, apparently -- that maybe it was a part of Tobirama's odd way of showing affection, had accepted it, even though he'd never processed and animal that large before, then forgotten to question it when Tobirama spent the afternoon walking him and Kagami through it.

In retrospect, Tobirama had become markedly more physically affectionate after that. Hikaku had just thought they had bonded.

"But… You didn't move in then." Hikaku tries, in an attempt to make some sense of things.

Tobirama's eyes dart away at that. If he were anyone else he would look chastised.

"I was aware that there was a chance you weren't familiar with the custom, or didn't understand it fully. And-- Well, I'm not a Hatake, I'm a Senju." He pauses, biting at his bottom lip in an uncommon show of hesitance. "In their eyes, even for a private relationship, I needed to declare that I would take care of you to our clan head, and not be challenged."

Which happened about four days ago, by Hikaku's estimation. He'd heard it, had been flattered and half-convinced he was dreaming at the time, and the way Tobirama had come home with him, and made him food and kept his fever down and watched over Kagami, and he'd wished more than once, that things could stay that way.

"Hold on." He says, and activates his sharingan for a brief moment, just to be sure. But it's no genjutsu. The pull of chakra makes his head begin to ache, again and Tobirama's eyebrows shoot up, though he doesn't startle or tense like he used to.

"…I don't think Madara-sama realized what you were doing." Is all he can think of to say, for some reason.

"Hmm… I suppose if you didn't there's a good chance he didn't either." Tobirama tilts his chin up as he thinks. "Is that a problem? I can tell him tomorrow."

Is that a problem. Hikaku can't imagine he'll take the news of a surprise marriage well, and he'll take it worse if he hears it coming from Tobirama.

"Uh--" Hikaku tries to interrupt only to start coughing. It's not as bad as it has been for the past few days, but it's enough to have Tobirama leaning forward to rub between his shoulders -- which in turn makes Hikaku's face heat, and Tobirama frown and reach forward to take his temperature, like he thinks his fever has returned. Hikaku leans back before he can decide he needs another dose of medicine.

He takes a wheezing breath. "I should probably be the one to tell him." And then, when he realizes that he's going to have to explain this -- which means some part of him has already just accepted this. Tobirama has been quietly planning on marrying him for years, apparently, and has managed to do so without Hikaku even noticing. That is --

"You know, you really are an excellent shinobi." He takes a measured breath and shakes his head at Tobirama's questioning look, the squirming in his chest that feels like it could have become tears or uncontrolled laughter at any moment fades, just a little. "Well, alright. What about Uchiha marriage customs?"

"Did I miss one?" Tobirama eyebrows furrow, "I know my gifts weren't all traditional, but I felt like they were more likely to be used if they were useful."

"…Your gifts -- ah." If he thinks back on all the little things Tobirama has given him since he started teaching Kagami, he probably has managed to meet all the criteria for a proper courting. He was always the one to replace Hikaku's tea in the office when it ran out, would hand him a new bundle of exploding tags on missions -- which were probably handmade, knowing him, and he uses the stationary set and inkstone Tobirama had given him nearly every day. He just -- hadn't been thinking of them as that sort of gift.

Hikaku blushes so hard that it makes his jaw ache, but he forces himself to carry on, "Your gifts were fine, but my clan doesn't really acknowledge a marriage without a ceremony of some sort. At the temple, preferably."

"Ah." Tobirama closes his eyes, resembling, for a moment, a cat that's just smelled something it didn't like, but drops the look a moment later, "If it's important, then we ought to."

Something warm blooms in Hikaku's chest, peeking through the shock. He'd been spending so much time hoping, but maybe it really can be this easy.

"I'll let you know." His voice nearly gives out at the end, weak still weak from the illness. "But I think I need to lie down, for now."

He's not exaggerating, the conversation has left him feeling exhausted, and it must show because he hardly even tries to stand before Tobirama is there, helping him up. Even once he's on his feet, he keeps his hands here on Hikaku's wrist, and there, near his elbow.

And that's not even new; coming from Tobirama... Hikaku feels silly for not realizing there was something going on.

They stand like that for a moment, face to face, before Hikaku looks down to see the way Tobirama's touch lingers.

Is there even a reason for him to be shy with what he wants any longer? Honestly.

"You know. If we're married there's no reason for you to sleep in the guest room."

"You're probably not contagious anymore." Tobirama agrees, "I'd be interested, if you'd have me."

"Yeah." Hikaku reaches out and takes Tobirama's hand back, "I'd have you. Let's go to bed."

#oops! no writing tag #naruto blog for naruto things #hikatobi #and then hikaku got a solid 8 hours and woke up well rested :)#….great fic to start the new years on right? Right #Imagine if YOUR your crush was being really nice to you and noticing you #And you were like haha what if I confessed someday #And then they turned to you and were like. btw weve been married for months

24 notes · View notes