Fried Broccoli?!
So yeah, finished my first theme for 30_kisses and posted that one, so I figured I'd do the same for 50_shinobi. So here's the first theme I did for them.
Title: Deep-fried Broccoli
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: NejiHina
Rating: PG
Theme: #2: deep-fried vegetables.
It was that time again. “That time” being roughly a quarter past six in the evening, one of the many times of the day that Hyuuga Hinata had come to bemoan in her daily life. Quarter past six was when dinner was served, and dinner in and of itself was nearly always a trial. This dinner would be no exception, it seemed, as she stared at the plates sitting on the neatly-dressed table in front of her. Well, as neatly dressed as any table with a toddler in a highchair placed nearby could be. At least the mess tended to confine itself to the quarter of the table where Hirako’s food sat.
Not that her daughter was a picky eater. No, it seemed that her 19 month old offspring took after her mother in regards to her taste in food. That meaning that she was jovial, accepting, and fairly non-critical of new things or “strange” dishes. To Hirako, food was food, and she laid into it the way most children of the age of nearly-two laid into a bowl of chocolate icecream.
But, like so many other things in life, a victory on one front seemed to mean a loss on another. That “other front” at the moment came in the form of her five year old son, who stubbornly refused to eat his food. Thus the plate of simple grilled fish, rice, and deep-fried vegetables sat relatively untouched. Or…at least the vegetable part sat untouched. Rice and fish were enough of a staple in any child’s diet that it would have been unheard of for a normal, healthy little boy to not eat them. Vegetables, on the other hand, were a different matter entirely.
Which meant that Hyuuga Hinata sat at her place at the table and stared down Hyuuga Hiori as he sullenly poked at a crusted piece of broccoli with his chopsticks, small mouth pulled into a frown. She couldn’t help but smile at the picture he made, dark eyebrows pulled together in a small mimicry of the expression she could swear was permanently etched into his father’s forehead. Well, at least whenever he wasn’t around her. That was when he smiled, when the two of them were alone.
“Hiori, eat your vegetables. They’re good for you. Aren’t they, Neji-kun?”
A sidelong glance to her left revealed the other taxing part of the evening’s meal as she watched another pair of dark brown eyebrows draw together into the same frown, that familiar downturn of mouth spreading as a second pair of chopsticks prodded browned vegetables as though they were about to leap up and attack at any moment. The object of her comment simply poked a carrot out of the way and gave a non-committal grunt in response.
Frowning herself, she narrowed her eyes at the familiar figure of her husband, wondering how a man who commanded ANBU, who stared down danger and garnered the respect of everyone in the entire village, could be so childish as to be stubborn over something as simple as a few vegetables. Especially after she’d gone to the trouble of frying them, even though she didn’t like for Hiori to eat so much fried food. At least she’d hoped the crispy and spiced coating of flour would potentially entice her recalcitrant spouse and defiant offspring to add some balance to their diets.
But then, there was a reason she always smiled when she watched Hiori practicing his Juuken. The little boy really was his father’s son, from the tip of his sharp nose to the ends of his long hair, to the bandages he insisted on wearing around his forehead in adoring mimicry of his parent. Never mind that Hiori had no reason to wear them. He did so anyway. He was even like Neji in other ways. The same stubbornness, the same stoic manner and tendency towards a superiority complex that came with being one of the most gifted students in his Academy class. Not to mention so many of those quirks and idiosyncrasies that she equated with her mate.
However, at this moment, Hinata was in less of a mood to smile and giggle over the small traits and charms that marked the men in her life. Right now, she was a tired mother of two who had not only finished her own mission earlier that day, but done the housework and cooking that she refused to let the servants of the Hyuuga compound do for her, and was not about to deal with not one, but two stubborn Hyuuga men.
She glanced up as Neji stood, wiping his mouth and heading for the door without a word. And without touching his portion of the hated vegetables. With an aggravated sigh, she shook her head.
“Neji. You forgot to eat your vegetables. Don’t set a bad example for Hiori, please?”
He paused for a moment, then gave a shrug. Hinata felt her teeth grit slightly at the easy way he shrugged it off. This was NOT going to end well. Returning her face to it’s normal easy smile, she shook her head.
“Neji, I made them just for you and the kids, so please sit back down and eat them.”
Glancing back over his shoulder, he regarded her with a level gaze, white eyes flickering from the plate to her face and back again, as though weighing which was the more hazardous option. Shaking his head, he declined again.
“You can eat them, Hinata. You know I don’t like those things. Besides, Hiori has you for a good example, doesn’t he? And I’ve got mission reports to do. If I’m late with those, Tsunade-sama won’t be happy.”
As he turned to go again, she felt the vein pulse slightly in her forehead, fists clenching by her sides as she regarded the back of her husband’s head with some degree of venom. Oh, it would make the perfect target for that pot sitting on the table, wouldn’t it? Pushing that thought aside, regardless of how tempting it might have been, she instead stood up and slammed palms down onto the flat surface of the polished wood, white eyes boring holes into the back of his head.
“Hyuuga Neji. You will walk RIGHT back here and you will EAT those vegetables and set a GOOD EXAMPLE for your son, or else you can explain to your team-mates why you are SLEEPING IN THE ANBU BARRACKS FOR THE NEXT WEEK!”
Time slowed, seconds ticked by, and the smallest, almost imperceptible shudder passed through Neji’s frame. This…this was dangerous ground to be treading. Because as much as the stoic Hyuuga hated vegetables of all sorts, he hated making his wife angry as well. Not only because the simple fact of making her angry or upset branded him an asshole regardless of whether it was his fault, but because he had learned, within the first month or so after they married, that outward appearances aside, Hyuuga Hinata DID in fact possess not only a temper, but the backbone to use said temper in several damaging ways. And perhaps it was due to the simple fact that he’d been on the receiving end of said temper several times in the past that Neji stopped, and without a single word made his way back to the table and settled himself down, glaring at a piece of broccoli before starting to eat. It would seem, at least in this instance, that an angry Hinata was a far more frightening and daunting concept then the dreaded fried vegetables.
Cross-posted to hyugacest, sunnyday_love, hinatafans, 50_shinobi, chuunin, fanfic_no_jutsu, narufanfic, naruto_fanworks, inter_clan, naruto_het, narutofans
Title: Deep-fried Broccoli
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: NejiHina
Rating: PG
Theme: #2: deep-fried vegetables.
It was that time again. “That time” being roughly a quarter past six in the evening, one of the many times of the day that Hyuuga Hinata had come to bemoan in her daily life. Quarter past six was when dinner was served, and dinner in and of itself was nearly always a trial. This dinner would be no exception, it seemed, as she stared at the plates sitting on the neatly-dressed table in front of her. Well, as neatly dressed as any table with a toddler in a highchair placed nearby could be. At least the mess tended to confine itself to the quarter of the table where Hirako’s food sat.
Not that her daughter was a picky eater. No, it seemed that her 19 month old offspring took after her mother in regards to her taste in food. That meaning that she was jovial, accepting, and fairly non-critical of new things or “strange” dishes. To Hirako, food was food, and she laid into it the way most children of the age of nearly-two laid into a bowl of chocolate icecream.
But, like so many other things in life, a victory on one front seemed to mean a loss on another. That “other front” at the moment came in the form of her five year old son, who stubbornly refused to eat his food. Thus the plate of simple grilled fish, rice, and deep-fried vegetables sat relatively untouched. Or…at least the vegetable part sat untouched. Rice and fish were enough of a staple in any child’s diet that it would have been unheard of for a normal, healthy little boy to not eat them. Vegetables, on the other hand, were a different matter entirely.
Which meant that Hyuuga Hinata sat at her place at the table and stared down Hyuuga Hiori as he sullenly poked at a crusted piece of broccoli with his chopsticks, small mouth pulled into a frown. She couldn’t help but smile at the picture he made, dark eyebrows pulled together in a small mimicry of the expression she could swear was permanently etched into his father’s forehead. Well, at least whenever he wasn’t around her. That was when he smiled, when the two of them were alone.
“Hiori, eat your vegetables. They’re good for you. Aren’t they, Neji-kun?”
A sidelong glance to her left revealed the other taxing part of the evening’s meal as she watched another pair of dark brown eyebrows draw together into the same frown, that familiar downturn of mouth spreading as a second pair of chopsticks prodded browned vegetables as though they were about to leap up and attack at any moment. The object of her comment simply poked a carrot out of the way and gave a non-committal grunt in response.
Frowning herself, she narrowed her eyes at the familiar figure of her husband, wondering how a man who commanded ANBU, who stared down danger and garnered the respect of everyone in the entire village, could be so childish as to be stubborn over something as simple as a few vegetables. Especially after she’d gone to the trouble of frying them, even though she didn’t like for Hiori to eat so much fried food. At least she’d hoped the crispy and spiced coating of flour would potentially entice her recalcitrant spouse and defiant offspring to add some balance to their diets.
But then, there was a reason she always smiled when she watched Hiori practicing his Juuken. The little boy really was his father’s son, from the tip of his sharp nose to the ends of his long hair, to the bandages he insisted on wearing around his forehead in adoring mimicry of his parent. Never mind that Hiori had no reason to wear them. He did so anyway. He was even like Neji in other ways. The same stubbornness, the same stoic manner and tendency towards a superiority complex that came with being one of the most gifted students in his Academy class. Not to mention so many of those quirks and idiosyncrasies that she equated with her mate.
However, at this moment, Hinata was in less of a mood to smile and giggle over the small traits and charms that marked the men in her life. Right now, she was a tired mother of two who had not only finished her own mission earlier that day, but done the housework and cooking that she refused to let the servants of the Hyuuga compound do for her, and was not about to deal with not one, but two stubborn Hyuuga men.
She glanced up as Neji stood, wiping his mouth and heading for the door without a word. And without touching his portion of the hated vegetables. With an aggravated sigh, she shook her head.
“Neji. You forgot to eat your vegetables. Don’t set a bad example for Hiori, please?”
He paused for a moment, then gave a shrug. Hinata felt her teeth grit slightly at the easy way he shrugged it off. This was NOT going to end well. Returning her face to it’s normal easy smile, she shook her head.
“Neji, I made them just for you and the kids, so please sit back down and eat them.”
Glancing back over his shoulder, he regarded her with a level gaze, white eyes flickering from the plate to her face and back again, as though weighing which was the more hazardous option. Shaking his head, he declined again.
“You can eat them, Hinata. You know I don’t like those things. Besides, Hiori has you for a good example, doesn’t he? And I’ve got mission reports to do. If I’m late with those, Tsunade-sama won’t be happy.”
As he turned to go again, she felt the vein pulse slightly in her forehead, fists clenching by her sides as she regarded the back of her husband’s head with some degree of venom. Oh, it would make the perfect target for that pot sitting on the table, wouldn’t it? Pushing that thought aside, regardless of how tempting it might have been, she instead stood up and slammed palms down onto the flat surface of the polished wood, white eyes boring holes into the back of his head.
“Hyuuga Neji. You will walk RIGHT back here and you will EAT those vegetables and set a GOOD EXAMPLE for your son, or else you can explain to your team-mates why you are SLEEPING IN THE ANBU BARRACKS FOR THE NEXT WEEK!”
Time slowed, seconds ticked by, and the smallest, almost imperceptible shudder passed through Neji’s frame. This…this was dangerous ground to be treading. Because as much as the stoic Hyuuga hated vegetables of all sorts, he hated making his wife angry as well. Not only because the simple fact of making her angry or upset branded him an asshole regardless of whether it was his fault, but because he had learned, within the first month or so after they married, that outward appearances aside, Hyuuga Hinata DID in fact possess not only a temper, but the backbone to use said temper in several damaging ways. And perhaps it was due to the simple fact that he’d been on the receiving end of said temper several times in the past that Neji stopped, and without a single word made his way back to the table and settled himself down, glaring at a piece of broccoli before starting to eat. It would seem, at least in this instance, that an angry Hinata was a far more frightening and daunting concept then the dreaded fried vegetables.
Cross-posted to hyugacest, sunnyday_love, hinatafans, 50_shinobi, chuunin, fanfic_no_jutsu, narufanfic, naruto_fanworks, inter_clan, naruto_het, narutofans