Safety

Pairing: NejiTen
Word count: 947
Prompt used: When You Say Nothing At All
WARNINGS:  For once, FLUFF! WAFF! BEWARE! Also, mentions (quite a lot actually) of sexual activity between a married man and woman.
Disclaimer: It would be a VERY different manga if I owned them. Trust me.

Safety

Laying stretched out across three dryers was doing weird things to her abdominal muscles. In some ways it was probably more of a work out than she'd gotten in the week since her wedding day. She and Neji had defied all their friends predictions and let training take a back seat during their honeymoon. There had been other, more interesting, things to do.

TenTen grinned to herself at this, running her tongue around the cherry lollipop she was currently enjoying. Those new extracurricular activities were the reason she and Neji were currently locked in the small laundry room at the Hyuuga compound, using all of the machines to wash everything they owned. Neji was stripped down to his very last pair of boxers-which he intended to wash with the final load when a new pair was clean-while she had on one of his shirts that went well passed her knees and nothing else.

She could get rather used to this marriage thing.

The best part of this late night activity, however, was not the pleasurable view. It was the utterly perplexed look on Neji's face as he looked at the baskets of cloth at his feet, up at her, to the washing machines, and back down the line again.

Maybe if she hadn't laughed at his confession about never having done laundry himself before he wouldn't have insisted on doing this without her help. It hadn't even really been the idea that he'd survived 22 years without doing a load that had made her laugh, either; it was that he was embarrassed to have his usual laundress, Hinata, wash their sheets.

Personally, TenTen didn't see the problem. They were newly weds, Hinata would have known what to expect. Then again, maybe she was missing the point and that was the whole issue.

"You have to separate them first," she said cheerfully, licking her cherry treat as she sat up.

Someone was going to come for the loads in the dryer eventually. She couldn't wait to have to explain this to them. Hopefully it would be Hiashi. The Hyuuga clan head had attempted to give Neji a talk about performing his duties as a husband that had had them both leaving his office red faced and flustered. It would be a lot of fun to get a glimpse of his face when he realized that performance wasn't an issue for the Hyuuga genius.

She choked a little on her sucker as she tried not to laugh too hard at that mental image.

Neji quirked an eyebrow at her and shook his head, seeming to decide he didn't really want to know. That was probably a wise decision, as he would have been mortified to know what was going through her mind. She was tempted to tell him anyway, just to see what he would do. The look of unabashed horror that would cross his face whenever she did something totally outlandish always made it worth any embarrassment she might have felt.

Sometimes she wondered how he put up with her. They were, as it seemed everyone needed to point out, so very different.

Where Neji had been raised to be comfortable with walls, borders, etiquette, and masks, TenTen was bound only by her own desires. She could, and did, do as she pleased with just about everything. With no parents, no family, no real past that she knew of, there had never been anything to tie her down.

It had taken Neji two years to convince her that a steady relationship with him wouldn't set limits on her freedom, and three more to get her to agree that having some place to really and truly call home was not only pleasant, but desirable.

He gave her a place to rest her wings when she grew weary of taking on the world alone, and though he protected her, he worked hard to never keep her behind him. They were partners, and he made sure she knew it.

Even his willingness to learn how to do laundry said something.

That didn't mean, though, that it was off limits to give him a bad time about it. He'd think something was wrong if she didn't. "I can see my underwear in your white's pile. You should probably take it out if you don't want pink shirts."

Neji glanced up at her, pale eyes widening a little, as if pleading with her to move it herself.

TenTen could only laugh, pulling her knees up to her chest and pushing the stick of her sucker to the side of her mouth. "What's with the face? You had no problem taking them off of me."

With a scowl, Neji crossed the room to stand in front of her. There was silence for several moments before, with a smirk, Neji reached out and stole the sucker from her mouth. He gave it one long slow lick before he put it in his own mouth, and turned around to get back to his separating.

Only then did TenTen's heart slow down enough for her brain to work, and she let out a indignant yelp before standing and launching herself at Neji's back. He caught her easily, swinging her around to land on her back in the pile of the dirty clothes. One pale hand removed the sucker from his mouth so he could kiss her until her breath came only in gasps and her eyes were closed.

When she opened them again, she was being buried as he continued his sorting on top of her, but she found it difficult to care. No sucker and no shaky ground, maybe, but she had Neji. That was enough.