Curry of Love 13

Curry of Love</i>
GuyLee: Baby Booties

It was probably Lee's favorite place in all of Konoha, greater even than the Academy roof or the training field he had managed to claim as his own. As a young boy he had stumbled upon this pond in the early spring, when a new family of ducklings had just been trying out their sea legs. He had come every day after that to lie on his stomach on the creaky old dock and watch the small yellow balls of fluff grow.

Maybe it was because of that strong association with childhood that Lee had come here to try and sort out the big tangled ball of emotion he'd become.

He'd known, sort of academically, for months now that his wife was pregnant. Hinata had told him as soon as she'd found out, and he'd watched with some fascination as Hinata's smooth belly began to swell a little in the front like a hill on the horizon. He'd been thrilled when Sakura had announced to them that they weren't just having one baby, but two, and picking out names that they liked from books and dictionaries had been a game he and Hinata had been enjoying for weeks now. It had all been just interesting and exciting until that morning, when he'd felt a little foot hit the palm of the hand he'd had resting on his wife's belly.

Suddenly, this wasn't as fun anymore. These children weren't just ideas or little figures he'd sketched on a page to look like their beautiful mother. Underneath, where he couldn't see, there were two tiny people with fingers, toes, eye lids and heartbeats. They had smiles and personalities and they were his.

It had really hit him then for the first time. These weren't babies he could play with for a little while and then send home. They had half his genes. It would be his responsibility to raise them to be polite, respectful, and strong. They were depending on him to teach them right from wrong, and how to help others, and what it meant to be a human ninja. They would need him to be an example, and a caretaker. A nurturer, provider, protector.

In short, everything he'd wanted but hadn't had growing up.

Lee had never known his father. He didn't even know who the man was. From what he'd managed to work out over the years, his mother had been very young when she'd gotten pregnant with him-only fifteen –years-old. When she'd told the father, he'd skipped town, disappearing from their lives forever and leaving his mother to work two jobs and look after him on her own.

Where was he even supposed to begin? Hinata had purchased shelves of books on how to be a good mother, but not one of them mentioned anything about what was expected of him other than to support her. At this point, though, what could he really do? He couldn't carry the baby for her, and she was starting to get exasperated with him going and fetching every little thing for her. When his attempt to make her lunch had resulted in peanut butter and jelly sandwiches stuck to the ceiling, Hinata had finally banished him outdoors for a little while.

Feeling rather like a child in time out, He had come here in search of answers and found nothing. Not even comforting baby ducks, though it was still early spring.

Heavy footsteps on the dock behind him caused Lee to half turn, and his eyes widened in surprise before he could manage a weak smile. "S-sensei! What are you doing here? You are supposed to be resting."

Not two months ago, their teacher had gone on a mission that had been nearly fatal for him. Lee had left Hinata behind, then just three months along, to spend several nights curled up in an uncomfortable chair by his teacher's bedside until it was clear he would pull through. Even then he had only recently been released from the hospital into the care of his still fairly new wife.

Guy waved him off, dropping down to sit beside his students as he slid out of his sandals. "Shizune says I'm doing much better, and it's good for me to get some fresh air."

"I see," Lee said quietly as Guy slid his feet into the water beside his former student. It looked like his teacher wasn't going anywhere for a while. "It is good that you are recovering so quickly, sensei. I have missed your guidance in my training."

Not that he did much training anymore. He still liked to keep his body in prime condition, to get stronger, but he was a taijutsu teacher at the Academy now, so he had homework to grade and lessons to plan. Sometimes training as rigorous as he liked fell by the wayside and that was only bound to get worse when the babies came. Unless, he realized with some anxiety, Hinata spend more time with them than him, and left him with more free time than he knew what to do with while she played the role of the fabulous mother she was born to be.

Having babies was suddenly starting to sound less and less fun.

A comfortable silence settled between them for a moment as Lee softly kicked his feet back and forth, sending small ripples around the pond. A breeze picked up, and his sensei seemed to take it as his cue to speak. "You look like you have something on your mind."

"Really?" Lee clenched his hands in his lap, smiling a little. Guy-sensei always had been able to read him like a book, able to tell without more than a thought when his smiles were faked. It took a moment before Lee could decide what to say, and he finally settled on, "Hinata vetoed my idea of naming the second one after you, if it is a boy. I do not think she meant any disrespect. I just do not think she likes your name. She has her heart set on Hinode for the first one."

"Well, I don't think my name works is as youthful with a different last name anyway." Guy chuckled, a far away look on his face. "I am honored you would think so highly of me as to want to name your child Guy."

Lee didn't know what to say, and this was probably the most awkward conversation Lee had ever had with his teacher. He should just be able to tell Guy-sensei what was bothering him. Shizune and Guy had had a child only a little over a year ago. Guy-sensei had been in this position, and surely would know what to do.

Except Lee could only remember his excitement over the coming baby. His instance that his team participate in every part of the preparation, because as 'older siblings' they had a right to, and the look of utter joy on his face when he'd held the heavily pregnant Shizune in his arms. Not once had he shown any of the fear Lee felt right now about just not being good enough. Usually it was so easy to share his feelings with the older Jounin, but right now he wasn't even certain what they were himself.

With a look of fondness that Lee was used to seeing only when his teacher started going on 'about the good old days when his students still needed him', Guy said slowly, "I remember when Shizune and I were making our list of baby names. It was difficult, because all of you had such good suggestions. Once we saw him, though, only your suggestion of Reiki seemed to fit."

The word itself had several meanings, but when Lee had stumbled on the obscure kanji meaning mysterious turtle it had jumped to the top of his list. It had been a thrill for him when his name choice was selected for his sensei's healthy young son.

"Until I saw him, I misunderstood a lot of things." Lee glanced up, looking at the older man fully for the first time. Guy was looking evenly back at him over the top of the glasses he'd now taken to wearing full time. "It wasn't until he was here that I realized what it really meant to have a baby. Taking care of you three and caring for Reiki are not the same at all."

It never failed to amaze him that Guy-sensei always knew exactly what Lee needed to hear. "Were you nervous?"

"Nervous?" Guy laughed heartily, clapping the younger man soundly on the back. "Lee, for the first time in my life I was terrified! Here was this little guy with my eyes, nose, and chin looking up at me like I knew what I was doing, and I didn't have a clue. It was ten times worse than receiving my team. With you, I knew how to be a ninja. I knew I could teach you the skills you needed to survive if you were willing to work to perfect them.  I didn't even know the right way to prepare a bottle for Reiki. You could train on your own; he couldn't even lift his head. And so small in my hands…" Guy held them up as if to demonstrate, clenching and unclenching his fingers, "I could have so easily crushed him without meaning to. I didn't know what to do."

"You? But you seemed so calm!" Lee couldn't help feeling a little deceived, no matter how irrational it was. He'd always thought his sensei never hid anything he thought or felt.

"Did I? I thought for sure you must have seen my hands trembling." Guy grinned at him, putting an affectionate hand on Lee's head. "That's how you feel now, isn't it? Unsure of what to do with these tiny lives that in your hand?"

"What if I mess this up, sensei?" The words came out in a rush now, much like when he'd been a young boy. "It is not like at the Academy or every where else where there is someone to tell me if I am doing it right or not. There is no law to say how to raise them right. You just…you do it, and if I get it wrong there is no way to fix it. Worse, I will get it wrong twice over. They are going to come out small, and innocent, and perfect and I will be the one to mess it up."

"Ah, my poor Lee," Guy smiled at him, ruffling his hair a little. "Of course you will make mistakes. We all do. I made many with you as a team."

"No you didn't," Lee interrupted hotly, glaring at his sensei for even suggesting it. "You believed in us."

"And taught you things that it may have been best I wait to do, or not at all." The look on his teacher's face was deadly serious now. "You will make mistakes, and even when you try your hardest so will your children. They will suffer, and so will you watching them. But that is when you teach the most important thing of all-how to return to your feet and endure." Guy pulled him into a one armed hug while Lee stared, wide eyed. "That was what brought me comfort as I held Reiki for the first time. It was wisdom I learned from the three of you. Whatever else I may have done wrong, I had taught you the most important thing the best I could."

"You did very well, sensei!" Lee let himself be held in the hug for a moment longer before leaning back to grin at his teacher.

So he didn't have a father to learn from, maybe, but he had something better. Hadn't Guy-sensei always loved them unconditionally? He'd supported them and been safety for them when the world fell apart, as it often did. In recent years he'd tried being a little more his own person, allowing his hair to grow out and changing his clothes, but still he tried to emulate the example of the best man he had known. Why should that stop now?

"So, my still young student, are you hoping for two boys or two girls?"

"I think one of each sounds just right."