Shikamaru/Temari. I've become enamored of this pairing, so watch out, you'll be seeing alot of it within the next little while. This is not, in my opinion, as good as Second Oddest Couple (see my profile if you want to read it), but it's decent enough to post. Thank you for reading.
Something New
by
Redex
He was fascinated by her feet. She didn't quite understand why.
They lay together, post-coupling calm and drowsiness keeping her from commenting on his firm gaze on her feet poking up under the covers. She wiggled her toes to make him smile, and he caught the hint.
"You have beautiful toes."
She laughed and snuggled her face into her arm, fitting it just so in the crook of her elbow. The fact that she was marviously naked and in his bed after sex and the only thing he was looking at was her toes was something she found very... Shika.
She knew herself that the nails were painted black, a common Sand woman habit, they usually were. They curved like normal toes, she supposed, not particularly long or thin or fat or stubby. They were perhaps rather worn with heat and sandal-calluses, but that was to be expected.
"Thank you," she answered belatedly.
His eyes finally moved from their preoccupation to her face and he just kissed her, seeming to suck out her soul and cup it in his mouth.
She liked his mouth. If it was her toes that did it for him, so be it, as long as she got that mouth. Those lips didn't really look scrumptious at first glance like some did, and they weren't full and pouty either, they were actually really thin, but well taken care of. They looked particularly good after being kissed a few times, blooming pink. He had perfect teeth, with no hint of the cigarette yellowing she had detected in his father. And then a surprisingly dexterous tongue that she had developed a fetish for all its own.
"You have a beautiful mouth," she proclaimed, yawning and showing off her own. He decided that it was a good idea to try using it again, and she agreed.
And when she ended up tangled and panting again, despite her previous exhaustion, he paused for just a moment in his ministrations to place kisses on her toes and she moaned when he decided to put to use that tongue in a miraculous new way that resembled the stairway to heaven.
"Shi-ka..." she whimpered, drawing him up to her and forcing a movement into more action, despite the fact that the previous experience had almost been enough on it's own to put her over.
On top of her he was always ifrowning/i, as if he was working out a go strategy and trying to get it just right, but he always was just right as far as she was involved. That frown never went away, as many times as she complained to him about it. Now whenever she saw him frowning, no matter how serious the circumstances, she always thought of that frown hovering over her right up until the moment before he came.
Because then the frown broke and he got a look on his face of complete wonder, as if he was seeing the world as it was for the first time ever, and he would shiver under her hands, rigid for a taunt moment before he melted into her arms completely with a sigh that made her feel like the most beautiful thing on this earth.
Sometimes she had to remind herself that he was younger than her, that she had been his first. He was so damnably smart and such a complete wiseass that he acted like someone twenty years older, the way she usually liked her men.
Shikamaru was different, though, in the fact that she could lay with him afterwards, and in fact looked forward to it sometimes as much as the sex beforehand. She liked to study his chest under her cheek and touch his face and stop being strong, in only for a few moments. He liked her strong, she knew that, but he also knew that this softness was there, so she took a little time with him every now and then to just be the scared little girl that she felt like.
She lay awake all night even though she knew she shouldn't, praying for forever. His slow breathing brought her to sleep as the sun was coming up.
She liked him. Maybe she even loved him. He was something different, he saw her as something different, and he respected her and was maybe even a little scared of her, and he always knew. She didn't know how it was going to work; he was here in the valley and she was off in the sand, and they were both ninjas, both with life-threatening jobs in dangerous times, and they could always end up at war with each other at any moment, even.
But he was so there, so present when he was with her physically, she couldn't bear to say no. Maybe it was because it was his first time, his serious enthusiasm and steadfast belief that it would continue was rubbing off on her, and she was making it work just so she wouldn't break that remaint of innocence in an otherwise mature boy.
So every time she left for home, she never really thought of going home any more. She was leaving it in him.
He gave her a little ring, and when she told him that it definitely didn't fit on her finger, he gave her a meaningful look and said that it was a toe ring. That made her smile and he kissed her, on the lips because it was difficult to get to those feet at the main gates.
"I don't have a present for you, but don't expect one. It's not like I have a lot of money. But, I'll be back."
"That's enough," he shrugged, hands shoved in pockets.
They said their farewells and she walked out of the village for what seemed like both the millionth and second time.
When she was out of sight of the gates, she sat down by the side of the road and removed her sandal, carefully placing the little spiral around a toe. A black bead offset her nail polish and she smiled. A rustling in the bushes surprised her, but she was too close to the village to be scared of an attack. It turned out to be her brother, producing an immediate new message to be taken out.
He waited while she got her sandal back on.
"Why did you have your sandal off?"
She paused for a moment as they walked down the path.
"I'm in love with him."
"What?"
She just smiled, looking up at the sky. Well. This was something new.
Comments? Critique? Declarations of Undying Love?