Chapter 4
Tenten moves into the passage on silent feet, a hand placed protectively over her enlarged belly. The small size of the apartment made it easy for her to make out the noises, metallic clanking and groaning wood, coming from the room she had dubbed entirely her own. She had a good idea of who could be in there, he hadn't be in bed when she woke- and with the number of protective seals and traps he'd had set up around the apartment only so few could intrude. What bothered her was that when she had awoke and in sleepy confusion of the strange sounds had reached for the dagger, strapped under the mattress on her side of the bed, she had drawn a blank. Even the knives in the false-end of the bed's headboard drawer were gone. For all her earlier stealth she couldn't keep her voice down when she walked in on her husband, in the process of taking down her prized jaden sword. "What the hell is going on?!" Rock Lee flinches, in an exaggerated Rock Lee manner that means he jumps a foot high and nearly drops her sword. "Be careful!" she shrieks as he fumbles with it. "Not a hand on my trophy, I don't even DUST it so what gives you the righ- and you MOVED the iron cases...!" She goes speechless, taking in the rest of the room she realises that many other things of hers had been disturbed; and there were loaded boxes around. She could kill him, SERIOUSLY; if all of her weapons weren't being confiscated without her knowledge and consent, if she was allowed to mold Chakra during pregnancy; she would pounce on him. As it were she could only count to ten backward. "... It's for the baby's sake." She tunes into Lee's explanation. " It wouldn't do to have this many dangerous objects lying around-" " they're not 'lying around', they were in their places" she gestures to the walls where they used to be hung and the empty cases where they used to be displayed. "These places were unprotected, a baby could reach your weapons AT. ANY. TIME. We can't have an arsenal in a family home, imagine if a four year old grasped ahold of this." He points to a 3 meter long double edged blade erected beside him. "It's nailed to the wall, and it's not like I don't lock this place." Lee looks at her, a fear in his eyes she recognised from her mother, and realised his fear as her own: the compromised safety of her child. "Come a day we fail to lock the door, are you willing to risk it?" There is a pause. " All of them?" She sighs as he nods. " Do not worry, sweet love. I am removing the weopons in our home and dipositing them into the safety of the sword shop, there your deadly arms of fierce death shall be untouched and pose no danger on the longevity of our unborn youth." He pushes her out, suggesting that she relax and rest more. In the morning she wakes up without Lee again. She still hears sounds coming from her room and wonders if he had been at it all night. She stops at her door on the way to the kitchen, tempted to go in and see if there wasn't one hiding spot he hadnt found-one sharp blade left- then shakes her head and goes to make breakfast. "Oh, come on." She's exasperant, the dishes were plastic and so was the silverware, there wasn't even a bread knife!. Stomping she goes to the room to talk to Lee because really, REALLY!... but words die on her tongue when she walks into a baby wonderland. There are balloons hanging from the ceiling and plenty more on the floor, her pedestals have been made shelves for toys and books, a window overlooking a sunrise had been painted on the wall, as well as other cute drawings on the wallpaper. Her husband, paint splattered, is making minute preparations on a crib below the wall-window. "Wow..!" He smiles brightly at her though he looks seconds from collapsing. " My flower has arisen. Good morning, lovely Tenten!" She waves her hands wildly, grinning. " THIS is what you were up to... It's awesome." Youthful, even. " There wasn't any other room in our humble abode, I had to make the baby room here." He says apologetically, but she can't see anything to be sorry about. " Don't sweat, I just wished you'd come out to me from the start, I would've helped." " My delicate angel reconstructing a room, NO. I would never let you do manual labour, not when the doctor said you shouldn't strain yourself so close to delivery." She chuckles as he approaches her with a steel ballon, twisted into the shape of a sword as sharp as her round belly. " This, my dear, is a weapon you may wield." SHe acts out miaming him and he dramatically acts out dodging and being stabbed; she likes the sound of laughter in her baby's room.