Title: The First Step: Denial
Author:
Pairing: Shikamaru x Temari
Genre: Romance & Hurt/Comfort
Word count: 1906
Rating: T (Contains words inappropriate for children)
Disclaimer: Naruto belongs to Kishimoto Masashi
Summary: Modern!AU. Shikamaru had a crush for Temari for 4 years, and he had hidden it well. Until the wedding of Naruto and Hinata, he had blurted out thing he had tried to hide. How did Temari react to it?
The Wedding
The wedding was beautiful by the time the day actually came. Everyone knew it was going to be. The whole company, of course, join this special event, with the family of Hinata and some of the businessmen wanting to co-operate. There was just one thing, because Naruto had some best friends from who-know-where so he insisted on inviting them all. Even if he didn't invite them, Hinata would invite the Sand Siblings (it was the ridiculous form that Naruto had exclaimed to call the sibings – the head of Sand Company so now everyone had called that). They were one of their best friends after all. Hinata and Temari with other girls had developed some soft of friends with each other. Hinata even offered Temari to be one of her bridesmaids like Gaara as Naruto's groomsman, with no small stir. Although no more of a stir than Sasuke as Naruto's groomsman (Sasuke had to settle for sharing the role under the pressure of Naruto and a very unhappy Sakura – who he didn't really want to see or deal with).
Shikamaru wasn't part of the wedding party directly but they (they here meant Sakura and Ino) had put him in charge of decorating the hall. That would have all been well bad Sabaku no Temari not come up to him on occasion and outright told him that he did a poor job at leadership and that he would never be done in time if she didn't take over the operation. Temari should have had a job of her own to take care of for the wedding (such as the dress or the make-up as every other girls) but she would have none of it (well, please, this was Temari you were talking about).
Their confrontations didn't go unnoticed either. The other people who participated in the decoration job were placing bets on which of the two would come out unharmed from their quarreling. Sparks flew, along with threats (just from Temari, of course) but nothing came of it... by the time the vows were recited it was all forgotten. Seemingly. Shikamaru avoided looking at Temari as she stood there, her beautiful, strange but beautiful self until she gave him a grin and he felt his stomach do a bit of a flop. She didn't wear her hair in the usual ponytails, but a perfectly neat bun at the back of her head. She also wore a little make-up, with the light shadow around her eyes deepened the blue-greenish eyes of her, and the red lipstick only made her lips look fuller and more oustanding. The bridesmaid dress set off her curves perfectly. If he remembered, this was the first time he saw her in a real dress, except for the casual dress she wore to office. Yup, she looked beautiful, strange but beautiful.
However, he couldn't look at her. He avoided her all throughout after the dancing and celebrations had been going on for some time and he was at his table looking around next to his best friend, Chouji, who was trying to shove every food into his mouth. No one really questioned about him anyway, 'cause he was always like this, lazy. Just that he was here alone that time was because of another reason.
She (yup, his reason, a troublesome woman) finally sought him out again and flopped beside him, "Have you ever danced before?"
'Hi, Shikamaru, how are you? Great not ot be biting your head off for a change.' He gave her a dark look, while appeared still lazy, "Dancing is troublesome." He had held the same opinions on things like dancing (or everything) since he knew to talk, to walk or even since he knew to think about the world. Now he was twenty-one, and he was pretty sure he didn't change his mind.
"Come on." Temari pulled him up out of his seat and started jumping around franticallly with him in tow until the song ended and a slower one began, probably quite fortunately because jumping around like she was front row at a concert did very little for the people caught in the way of her limbs. Now settled though her hands sought his waist and Shikamaru was just about ready to change his mind entirely about how troublesome dancing was, or anything else was. The woman in front of him who he had known first as an opponent in the economic world, then as a friend and a partner, one of his best friends and now maybe more than just friendship was all but melting into him – not uncomfortable with the suit or lazy as usual. Most importantly though she was not yelling at him and trying to take over his duties, treating him like a seventeen-year-old boy again when he just started to go to the real life. Dancing, or everything now was an exception for Temari because this was a special day for her friends and there was much more of a relaxed atmosphere to it than any of the days before it, where she was more taken with her job than letting loose.
"Great. I lost Kankuro. He was probably going somewhere flirting with other girls." Temari pulled a face and Shikamaru was awestruck. "Gaara was being kept by Naruto. I don't understand Naruto, you know. He both wants talking to Gaara and dancing with Hinata at the same time. Though it seems that he wasn't going to let her cousin have her for any longer today. He is a good guy, but he is still an idiot." Temari blabbered into Shikamaru's neck as they danced, keeping it casual and friendlike even though it was hard for Shikamru to see it that way.
It was his first dance. She was paying attention to him. She radiated that same energy whenever she was at work, which irritated him, but then it grew on him quickly. As he realized there was a certain spark to the girls that made you covert it the more and more you saw it; like gold dust sprinkled all over the skin, not that Temari wouldn't have still been beautiful without it.
"Yeah, he is troublesome, but a good guy. He did have some effect and success in the company; well, I have too." He said as if to say: "I'm not a little high school kid anymore." He didn't even know exactly what he wanted at that time, like seeking her approval, but not just that, he wanted a little recognition that he had in fact grown up now (respect would have been nice as well, but he would take what he could get).
"I know. Just remind you that I've had to help you two out of the bind a few times." Temari provoked with a forked tongue but a jovial attitude.
Shikamaru gritted his teeth, "Once".
"The lost file. So two."
"I could handle it. You just want to take it. And it wasn't even my fault. Chouji was the one doing it, I was checking. Just..." He sighed, defeated, "got tired".
"Not tired now? It's almost bedtime surely crybaby."
It was 4 in the afternoon, and Shikamaru was not thrilled about the jibe.
"You know, you can always cry to call ma...ma." She continued and she just couldn't lay off this same jokes for 5 seconds being with him. Always like that, teasing him or arguing with him.
He would have rolled his eyes but he was nervous, she was still touching him (leaving goosebumps under his suit), grinning at him with that wicked grin of hers and making him feel like lightning was going to start coming from his own fingertips with the power that he felt just holding her in his arms.
He had always wanted a normal life, normal job, an average wife, having 2 children: a girl first then a boy, retiring when the children grew up and got married, then died before the wife at the age of 60 or 70. Looking at his father only made his decision more firm. However, before he went to the working life, his father had looked at him, shook his head and told him that as a Nara man, he would never be content with the easy girl, no one like Ino more specific to the advice. That as every man in Nara clan, he would end up with a troublesome woman like his mother. Those words had meant absolutely nothing to the young Shikamaru until that very moment.
"You're hot." He blurted out suddenly like he was about to start boasting about his games again and just said whatever came to his mind about all the new and exciting things he was experiencing. Sometimes, Shikamaru could not just held back. Even a genius had to make a mistake sometimes.
Temari's eyes widened and she missteped putting down a foot on his toes with some strength, causing the tear ducts in the corner of his eyes to loosen a tiniest amount. So much for appearing like a little kid and a crybaby in front of her again, because a tear trickled down and he probably looked pretty foolish (even though she was the one to stamp on him).
"Not that you weren't hot before, I just never noticed because you were always too busy barking orders." He couldn't help from digging himself a shallow grave, bumbling through his conversation as if it was his first time to have a talk with her and his excitement was getting the better of him. "Did you want to go for a walk?" He was hopeful. Stupidly. In hindsight he should have known his request would be flat out denied. He should have asked her something to do with the work instead that would have sounded much less like he wanted a date. But of course, she would realize if he did that. He would never be the one ot ask about work.
"I have work to do. Excuse me." Temari responded stiffly and pushed him away as the song ended, storming off toward her brothers who she had just caught scene of.
Shikamaru didn't chase after her, just sat down and looking around again, sighing loudly. Chouji found him, taking two plates of cake with him, after eating like a large amount of food, and handed him one plate. Shikamaru watched as Temari hugged Naruto and Hinata for a monstrous amount of time and then made her exit, her eyes went in a line straight past him as she turned and left. She was followed immediately by her brothers and Shikamaru's face grew glummer and glummer. What was that his father had told him? That he sought a troublesome woman and there was no greater challenge than Sabaku no Temari.
Chouji could tell that Shikamaru didn't really look like he wanted eating or everything now, and he really didn't look like he was doing something either. He followed the trail of his best friend's eyes to the Sabakus that were leaving. "So this is about you and Temari-san? She always treats you like a real kid, if I remember correctly. What are you gonna to do?" Shikamaru just sighed, leaning against the backwards of the chair. His eyes wandered to the ceilings, focused on nothing in particular. "I don't know." A loud and long sigh escaped him, while his friend still eating looked at him and patted his shoulder sympathetically.
Author Note: This is the first time I had written a fanfiction, and in English. English is not my first language. So there will probably many grammar and vocabulary mistakes in this fanfic. I hope all of you can review and give me comments on how do I do this.
I have learnt writing the structure of a fanfic from paws-bells, so if anyone of you finding this familiar, then you probably have read one of her stories. And if you are reading this, thank you and sorry for not asking permission from you, paws-bells, if you mind.
I am inspired to write this fic from a story written a long time ago that I didn't remember the name. If anyone knows, please informed me. I would be appreciated.
Last but not least, thanks for reading!
Your reviews fuel my passion for writing. So please review if you like this fic!
