The Home I Crave

Invitation

The following days of your marriage were not so different from the first one in terms of establishing a routine and working to follow it, making the necessary adjustments along the way. You convinced yourself that focusing on this while performing your tasks as your father's advisor was the best way to adapt to your new life.

However, you weren't still convinced that this was enough to diminish your discomfort, specially when you were at home with your husband.

Tobirama's routine and habits were not so difficult to understand after all: he had his time to take care of everything and never procrastinated; you soon saw that thanks to his Shadow Clones, he reached a level of competence that a normal person would take years to achieve, or never would. You were still getting used to see them around the house without getting a fright and even worked with them sometimes; they did you favors in return, such as offering you help when you had to do something outside the house or giving you valuable information to make your life easier in the village.

None of this could make you feel that it was easy to deal with the man himself, though. After trying to maintain a light conversation with him two or three times without success – if it was because of his lack of interest in this type of conversation or because you didn't know how to start them, you couldn't tell – you found yourself avoiding his company whenever you don't have to work together. It wasn't hard: you only had lunch together (Tobirama took his dinner to the office), and when one of you was at home, the other was probably in a meeting with Hashirama, so that you didn't spend much time in each other's company. Besides, you barely spoke between yourselves in the few times you both were at the Hokage's office. It was true that the light mood of the older Senju brother turned things a little easier, but the weird sensation that established itself between you would come back as soon as you left his presence.

Things were even stranger at night. You rarely would go to bed at the same hour: you used to sleep earlier, and while you prepared yourself to bed you would only see Tobirama leaving his office when you went to your bedroom; most of the times, however, he even left the office at all. Sometimes you wondered if he spent the nights there, but there was this time when you woke up in the middle of the night and found the other side of the bed empty; you touched it and noticed it was cold, as if nobody laid there that night, which confirmed your suspicions.

Days have passed since you started living together, but he never took you nor made any advances towards it. Yes, you both agreed in delaying the wedding night because you were tired and weren't comfortable – you didn't have a single chance to talk before the ceremony, after all. But the days would come and go and almost no familiarity grew between you two: except for the forehead kiss he gave you during the ceremony, you haven't kissed yet; you haven't shared a hug or holding hands either. At first, you considered the possibility of taking the initiative instead of just waiting for him: with only you two living in that house, you had enough privacy; besides, just like the portrait you found at Mito's house, the real Tobirama was indeed an attractive man. It wouldn't be that hard to give yourself to him – but he didn't give you any chance. You never spent much time in the same room except when you were working, and you would sleep first and not see when he'd come to bed while he would wake up and leave before you can notice.

He seemed to be fleeing from you as much you were fleeing from him now.

***

That morning in particular came quieter than you expected, even though you were already used to the silence that dominated the house whether Tobirama was with you or locked inside his office. Maybe this quietness was the reason you didn't notice the sun was high in the sky and got late to your tasks.

You took care of yourself in a few minutes and went to check your task list: most of the things there still could be done immediately, but some of them you'd probably have to leave for the night now.