Chapter Text
“Neji, this is Lee, Lee, this is Neji.” He clung behind his papa's leg, “Don't you want to come out and say hello?” He shook his head, little fingers digging into the fabric as he tried to scoot a bit further behind Minato.
“He's a bit shy.” He heard mother apologize on his behalf from nearby. “Lee, why don't you show Neji your crayons? You two can draw together.” He sniffled but hesitantly led the other boy to his coloring spot. Their dads were talking about stuff in the yard so his mother had gotten a part of the porch ready for him with his paper and crayons, as well as snacks. He watched her walk back inside as Lee sat down at his little drawing table, nervously searching out his crayon's where they sat in their box. He would draw a few turtles and then he'd definitely feel better.
Neji was not shy. He sat hip to hip with Lee and began asking about his pictures. He wanted to draw himself as a ‘taijutsu’ master, but Lee wanted to draw turtles and frogs for his little brother. Naruto was down for a nap. Mother was inside, she had Paper Work to do, it was important and Lee had to ask before touching any paper on the desk in the office to make sure it wasn't there for Paper Work. His papa also had Paper Work but he usually didn't bring it home. The paper set out for them was okay to use, and he pushed a piece to Neji, who began to scribble with his tongue poking out just over his bottom lip. He focused back down on his work, the turtle was shaping up nicely, he began to draw flowers around it.
He spotted his uncle and a few cousins when he next looked up from his coloring- that had been an adjustment, he had a lot of cousins who were bigger than him, but they really liked him. His favorite cousin was Yugure, since she didn't mind when he followed her around and clung to her. Kakashi was nice too, and Uhari because they were about the same age and she liked to sit quietly and draw with him. He hoped that she would come, she did sometimes when his oji came to visit.
Neji, he observed when he thought he could get away with looking, looked like his daddy very much. Like a little Mr. Neji's dad. Except... Neji was wearing a green shirt with black overalls. It wasn't too different from some of Lee's own clothes- but Neji's dad had worn the really fancy clothes that his uncle Kurama usually wore, or close to them. They were white too. Mother never let Lee wear white while roughhousing or painting, because it got dirty easily. He was also very messy, and smiled a lot bigger than his daddy did. Lee understood that though, his smile wasn't as big as his papa's smile.
“Hey kiddos.” His uncle, Haruki had come over to drop off Uhari, who waved at him, small but friendly, and he waved back. Neji got up and hugged her, which she allowed. Lee saw Neji flinch because she probably shocked him. She shocked everyone. She'd even shocked Naruto once, and he had started crying- mother had been a little upset since he'd just fallen asleep. Lee knew she hadn't meant to, but she got a little scolded anyway. About being careful with babies. Lee was always very careful with his little brother. Uhari giggled at the pinched look on Neji's face. Definitely shocked then.
Lee was a little sad to see his babiest cousins were not brought with. He had only gotten to see them a few times in the last month since they were born. He especially liked his cousin Yasushi, because they both had the same hair. He also wasn't nearly as loud as his other new cousins. That being said, Gaara and Sai were both being held by his Inei oji. He really hoped that they'd get brought over soon so he could play with them, but they seemed sleepy. They were older than his little brother but not too much younger.
“Lee.” She held out her hand and he took it, barely flinching at the little spark on his fingers when they touched that raced up his arm. “Here.” She dug in the pocket of her pretty flower print jacket, it matched her older siblings, maybe not flowers but they were the same shape. He smiled when she put a few plum candies in his hand. “Don't chew. Just melt, okay?” She always brought treats for him, and looked over both himself and the other little ones in their family though he didn't like to see himself as a 'little one'.
“Okay.” She gave a few to Neji too. With that she sat down with them and began to doodle something herself. He looked over her shoulder and saw that she was making a picture of herself in a hiate with muscular arms...
There was laughter in the yard, Lee looked up and saw Neji's dad and his uncle were roughhousing. It was different from how his papa play-fought with him, but it still looked fun. They traded hits, but there wasn't any flinching or hair pulling, and no crying either. So his mommy didn't step in, which was the important thing. He and Uhari had had a fight once and pulled each others hair, and that was the scariest his mommy had ever been. She had scolded them both about playing nice. Lee was still embarrassed about it, especially since his mommy had only stepped in because Uhari was beating him up... They'd gotten over it quickly after that.
“Wanna?” Uhari had poked him, but he shook his head no. He didn't want to play-fight right now. Also Uhari was usually a little rough with him. Even after the fight they got in where his mommy stepped in. Instead Neji enthusiastically agreed, and they thankfully went to the soft grass to tussle. Lee clapped when Uhari pinned a squirming Neji, and she let the other child up once he went limp as a kitten. It was a very fast fight...
“You three fighting?” He hurried to hide behind one of his pictures as a boy around his older cousins age popped up. Where did he come from? He was so quiet...
“Sparring.” Uhari huffed, little arms crossing. Neji nodded, hopping from foot to foot before lunging to hug the bigger boy's legs. Uhari did her best to look intimidating despite being so much shorter than him.
“Not so bad for a spar.” His eyes landed on Lee, and it was the weirdest thing. He looked like Lee! “Huh, and who's this little man?” They even had the same eyebrows. He didn't seem to be making himself look different either. Uhari shuffled in front of him, arms out from her sides as she raised her shoulders. She looked like an angry feral kitten.
“Lee, he's my cousin.” She was puffed up protectively, likely noticing Lee was uncomfortable and waning to protect him.
“Oh, so you're Lee! I've heard about you.” He carefully and slowly extended a hand to Lee. “Nice to meet you, my name is Maito Gai.” He studied the offered hand. Covered in bandages and calluses, healing cuts. Like his papa's hands, maybe more hurt, but...
“...nice to meet you...” Gai smiled big at that. Lee took one of his fingers and shook the much larger hand, before hiding behind Uhari again.
Lee didn't speak much, mostly it was Neji and Uhari asking him to show them stuff after that. Even he could tell Gai had some notable skill. When he came within sprinting range, Lee was up and running for his papa's legs, clinging and feeling shy. He had tried to be friendly enough after all.
“Oh Lee.” He was scooped up and held, hiding himself against his papa. He snuggled in as his papa kissed the top of his head. “This was a little bit too much at once, wasn't it?” He nodded yes to it, and his papa patted his back. “Why don't we go in together and check on Naruto?” He tried to hide his smile.
“Okay...”
Naruto was awake, and sleepily sitting up. He made grabby hands, and his papa set him in the pop up with Naruto, who hugged him, wobbling and falling into him. He didn't mind, trying to help his baby brother stand on his wobbling feet.
“Ah... you wanted to cuddle your brother more than your papa?” Naruto giggled, and Lee fluffed up his hair until he looked like a dandelion. “My boys are so cute...” He sniffled and Lee and Naruto both gave him a look, the one their mother gave him when he started crying over nothing. “Right, right. Naruto, we need to change you. Then papa is going to give you your snack so mommy can finish her zoning requests for the planning office.” When picking both boys up, Naruto grabbed their papa's nose. He didn't howl when Naruto tugged it, but made a funny noise when Naruto tried to put his freshly in a nose fingers to papa's mouth. Lee giggled at the face papa made trying to avoid them. "Hey, ew, stop."
Lee sat on the nursery floor, knowing better than to try and help his papa change Naruto. He giggled hearing some of the noises papa made while doing it, mostly just grossed out little noises. Once in clean footie pajama's, they stopped in to his mother's office to say hello and check on her, though she was very busy looking and would spend more time fussing over the both of them later in the day once she finished whatever she was working on now. After the short visit it was time for Naruto's snack.
“I wanna feed him...” Lee began to plead the moment they entered the kitchen, softly and pathetically.
“Okay, okay, you can help, Lee.” He beamed. Naruto looked very cute in his high chair, and his papa let him feed him his first few bites. The cute excited noise he made each time he took a bite made Lee wiggle happily in his seat... it didn't make for a steady hand. After maybe a few minutes of Lee messily scooping up apple sauce and getting it mostly in his brother's mouth, his papa took over, letting Lee keep sitting on his lap to tell Naruto about the picture he drew him. His baby brother listened but it was hard to say how much he likely understood, or how distracted he was by his snack.
“Let's get you both cleaned up, and then we can show everyone how big he's gotten.” Lee had to wash his hands, and Naruto needed to be changed into something else even after his mouth had been cleaned, which called for a second outfit change. He had plenty of clothes however, seeing as they both were swamped with hand-me-downs from their cousins at all times.
Lee squeaked happily seeing Naruto would be wearing the blue onesie that matched his own shirt, and black socks like his own black pants. His papa said something about not being able to do it forever when he carried Lee and Naruto back outside. He took Naruto's chubby little hand across their papa's chest as he brought them back out.
Naruto kicked his little socked feet, unconsciously squeezing Lee's hand as he looked around and didn't seem likely to ever let go. The only down side was that they made a beeline towards the other adults so his papa could keep talking.
“He's gotten so big... what have you two been feeding him?”
“Your husband said he's normal for his age.” Papa pushed Lee’s uncle with his shoulder, but was grinning. He always seemed happy when talking about Lee or little Naruto.
“Lee looks like he could be Gai's little brother.” Neji's dad gave the man who looked a lot like the boy from earlier a teasing look. “Are we sure you're not his birth father-!” He was jabbed by the man who... admittedly looked like Lee.
“Kids can be very sensitive, Hizashi. Even as a joke you shouldn't say that.” Lee didn't understand the quick glance most of the grown ups gave to him then one another.
“Hmm, you're right. I apologize, Lee, that was thoughtless of me.” That was another thing Lee was still getting used to. Grown ups apologizing to him. Sometimes he didn't even know what they did wrong like now, but they still said sorry even if he wasn't sure what caused it. He had been a little freaked out by it but now... he thought it was a good thing. It made him feel special and seen. Haruki oji leaned down a bit, eyes soft as he made sure Lee knew he was talking to him.
“Are you growing your hair out, Lee?” He touched his hair at the question before nodding shyly. His uncle grinned. “It looks very nice.”
“Like... like mother...” He mumbled, and his papa fawned, kissing his head loudly. Naruto parroted the sound, giggling.
“He's so sweet, isn't he?” His papa did this often. He was very emotional about certain things, and Lee felt lucky to be one of those things. Mother was too, always holding onto him in some way, his hand, in her arms, gently reaching to make sure he was close. But papa. Papa fussed. Papa nuzzled him and scooped him up, his rough stubble made Lee giggle when it would rub on his cheek on early mornings when they gathered to brush their teeth as a family. Papa was always excited to carry him around, in his arms, on his back or shoulders, and he gave Lee every hug he asked for with a sort of wild eyed pride and excitement. Lee was not aware but Minato was touched that his adopted son who had some trust issues and was so incredibly shy would light up and run to him as if he alone was his sole shelter. That he could make the small, scared looking boy he and his wife had coaxed into their family grin so brightly. That wasn't to say he thought Lee didn't love his new mommy just as much, but... but he could already tell. Lee was his little daddy's boy and that was more than fine for him. Naruto clearly preferred Kushina, though he didn't hate him or cry when held, but he looked more comfortable with her- maybe because of their shared fox.
Lee felt safe with his papa, and that was what mattered.