Title: S'more Peeps
Author: Lovesrainscent
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and do not stand to make any profit from posting this story.
Summary: Temari, Hinata, a ski resort, a hot tub, chocolate, graham crackers and marshmallow Peeps hearts. What's not to love? A light-hearted and 'sweet' story about an inattentive boyfriend and a rather close new friendship.
S'more Peeps
It had seemed like a good idea at the time.
"Come on, it'll be fun," Ino had assured her.
That should have been her first clue that the trip would be anything but.
Whoever thought strapping two pieces of wood to your feet and hurtling down a mountain qualified as fun should be turned over to Kankuro for his use in testing his next poison.
Princess Koyuki and Naruto had maintained a fast friendship over the years. This spring she had invited him and his friends to go skiing, staying at her lodge in the mountains in the Land of Snow. Schedule conflicts had arisen and unfortunately Koyuki herself could not attend but she insisted that the group for Konoha still vacation at the lodge as her guests. And so here they were.
Temari thought back to the events leading up to this epic fail of an event.
"Oooh, spring skiing," Ino's eyes had practically sparkled at the thought when Sakura had told them that Naruto indicated they were all included in the invitation.
And amazingly enough, even Shikamaru wasn't resistant to the idea. In his opinion, skiing was the perfect sport. "What's not to love?" he had asked her when she'd seemed surprised that he actually wanted to go out and do something. "You ride the lift up and gravity does the rest to see to it you get back down."
So now, here Temari was, perched on top of a mountain wondering at what point sanity had left her. She put her life on the line nearly every day on missions. She did not see why risking that same life now was suddenly referred to as recreation.
"Having fun, Temari?" Ino called back over her shoulder as she swooshed past her, long limbs looking elegant in her tight black powder pants and fur trimmed vest, blond ponytail streaming in the sun behind her.
"Great!" Temari grumbled after her, following it up by muttering something underneath her breath that sounded suspiciously like bitch.
Sakura glided up next to her. "Doing okay, Temari?"
"Sure. Okay. Never better," the Suna kunoichi lied. She was not okay. She hurt everywhere. Her legs were complaining from being forced into a rigid position in the ski boots. Her hands and arms ached from the death-grip she was maintaining on her poles. And her ass hurt from falling down on it so much. Hell, parts of her body that she didn't even know existed hurt.
Sakura wasn't buying her denial. She eyed her friend suspiciously. "Would you like me to ski with you for a while?"
"No. I'm fine. I just need to practice some more."
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Really sure?"
"Yes, Sakura. I'm really sure."
"I don't mind."
The Konoha medic's pity was the last thing Temari wanted at the moment. Dammit, she was capable! She was a jounin! She was balanced and coordinated. She ought to be able to do this. "Sakura, please, just...go on and enjoy your day. I'll keep on making runs until I get the hang of it."
"Okay. If you're sure."
"I'm sure." Temari managed a wan smile that she hoped was more reassuring than she felt at the moment. Effortlessly, Sakura pushed off and zoomed down the hill to catch up with Ino who was lazily carving perfect S-turns down the slope.
Temari went over her checklist in her mind. Tuck your body, weight forward in the boots, elbows in at your sides, poles slightly up and behind you and...
"To your left," a loud, pleasant baritone voice startled her and she jerked her head to her left, looking over her shoulder and promptly lost her balance, falling over onto her backside into the snow. Chouji skied past her. He turned from several feet below and looked up the hill at her struggling to get to her feet, arms flailing, skis crossed.
"Need a hand, Temari?" he asked.
"No. I've got it," she huffed finally struggling to right herself. She jammed one pole into the snow below her downhill ski and at least stopped the sliding motion that was causing her to nearly do the splits on the mountainside.
"Well, Shikamaru's right behind me. He'll be along any min... Oh, hey, look, here he comes now."
And so he did. Effortlessly. He skied right up to her. "Hey."
"Hey yourself," she huffed.
"Doing all right?" he asked.
Inhaling sharply, Temari then replied tersely. "I. Am. Fine."
"Really? Because you don't look fine."
Murderous fury clouded her face. "Look. Just ski already. I'll see you down at the bottom."
"You're sure?"
"I'm sure."
"Well, okay, I'll make a couple of runs with Ino and Chouji and then check in on you."
And with that he skied off to catch up with his former teammates. Temari was left to ponder his words. 'A couple of runs'. Meaning he could be up and down the mountain two or three times in the amount of time it would take her to complete a single run. How humiliating.
Everything about this sport sucked. Her skis were rentals and they sucked. She didn't have any proper outerwear of her own which sucked. 'Don't worry' Shikamaru had said. 'We can rent some when we get there.' Which was fine as long as you didn't mind wearing a shapeless black bib and an equally shapeless black coat that was two sizes too large and smelled like somebody else's sweat. She thought enviously of Ino's fetching powder pants and Sakura's stunning white Spyder jacket with bold splashes of red accent. She on the other hand must look like a lump of coal here on the mountainside.
And skiing seemed to be the only sport she had ever encountered where she could be both cold and hot at the same time. It was winter, it was cold, there was snow on the ground yet she was working up a sweat struggling to keep her balance or else fighting to right herself every time she fell down.
Then she looked up the hill and saw the absolute worst thing in the world about skiing.
Kankuro.
Neither one of the two of them had ever been skiing before. Who in Suna did? But he took to it naturally, like a duck takes to water, while she was here...alone...on a mountainside...suffering.
Although her younger brother wasn't exactly skiing. No - adding insult to injury, he and Kiba were on snowboards. Rather lethal snowboards, judging by the speed at which they were hurtling down the run above her.
She watched with satisfaction as Kankuro wiped out in front of her. However, her little brother was laughing as he did so. He seemed to pop back up with no effort at all, no criss-crossed skis, no struggle to regain balance. Nope, he just hopped right back up and continued down the mountain, racing to catch Kiba and dodging other innocent skiers... like her.
Life sucked. Skiing sucked. She wanted to go home.
Three falls and a mere three hundred feet of vertical descent later, Temari heard her name.
"Temari! Hey Temari!" echoed a chorus of voices.
She looked around, to her left then to her right. No one she recognized.
"Hey, Temari, up here!"
Glancing up she saw Shikamaru and Chouji on the chairlift, Ino wedged snugly between them. They were waving cheerily at her.
"Hey - we must have missed you at the lift line. We're going on up the mountain on the higher lifts, catch you on the way down!" Shikamaru called down to her. Ino leaned forward to wave and a clump of snow fell from her boot, landing squarely on Temari's shoulder.
No, they hadn't missed her at the lift line - she hadn't made it down the godforsaken mountain to the liftline yet.
The lift was moving briskly and as they sailed out of view overhead they probably didn't hear Temari's 'fuck youuuuuuuu' trailing off behind them.
Tired, cold, sweaty, stinky, aching and grumpy, Temari painfully made her way down the mountain as best she could.
"Plant your pole where you want to turn, Temari-san," came a pleasant voice behind her.
"Wha-?" she started, afraid to look over her shoulder fearing that she would fall down again.
"Like this, see?" said Hinata in her gentle way, illustrating how to lightly plant one pole in the snow ahead of her in the direction she wanted to turn. The pole became the center of her graceful arc. She paused now facing uphill to Temari a few feet away. "Placing the pole slightly in front of you and turning around it helps you maintain your balance. You try it."
Finally! Useful information! Not unhelpful platitudes like "Hey, how's it going." That was the skiing equivalent of "have a nice day." It basically meant that the asker didn't give a damn one way or the other as to whether you were having a nice day or whether everything was going 'okay'.
"O-okay," Temari said hesitantly.
Trying to emulate Hinata she eased herself slightly downhill and then before she picked up too much speed she extended her pole a little, placed the tip in the snow and voila - she glided around the turn without falling down! Perhaps not as gracefully as Hinata but nevertheless - she did do it.
For the first time since stepping into her skis that day, Temari managed a smile that was not faked. Weak, but not fake. Hinata beamed back at her.
The Hyuuga heiress took the lead and skied a small distance down the slope, traversing the width of the mountain to and fro
Under Hinata's mild tutoring Temari managed to snowplow the rest of the way down and into the lift line. She was especially proud of that last maneuver as she had not wiped out nor had she taken out the small children that seemed to be underfoot - and outskiing her.
Their chair arrived and after they settled in Hinata reached into a jacket pocket and held out a slim rectangular something and spoke the most wonderful word imaginable. "Chocolate?"
"C-chocolate?" Temari stammered in disbelief.
Hinata nodded. "Of course. You always have chocolate when skiing. See - look - this chocolate is meant for skiing, it's designed for it. The pieces are even shaped like little mountains."
Temari studied the chocolate bar and realized it wasn't purely rectangular at all, but rather somewhat tetrahedral, or at least a series of small tetrahedra. It was like a little tiny row of mountain peaks. Hinata snapped off one and handed it to her.
She accepted the piece gratefully and as she let it dissolve in her mouth she admitted that she might have to re-evaluate the concept of skiing. Any sport that had its own chocolate designed for it couldn't be all bad.
The next run down went far faster and was infinitely more enjoyable with Hinata's company. And once again, there was chocolate on the lift ride back up. This was extraordinary. Temari was so used to hanging around with the girls that Shikamaru hung around with that she felt she hardly knew Hinata Hyuuga at all. Ino was so hyper-conscious about any calorie that passed her lips and Sakura was such the uber-medic that she disdained anything that wasn't "healthy" in her book. Temari was certain that neither of the two of them would be sharing candy with her on the lift.
After about three more runs, Hinata surprised her once again by another magic utterance. "I think I'm done. What do you say we call it a day?"
Done? It was only about two in the afternoon. Shikamaru said these damned lifts ran until four or five. She was certain she'd be stuck out here for at least a couple more hours. "Ummm...yeah...sure," Temari stumbled at her answer afraid she might jinx it, afraid it might evaporate away like a genjutsu and she would find herself still perched atop the Mountain of Death.
Like a stray dog, Temari followed Hinata back to Koyuki's lodge, their steps in their heavy ski boots resounding solidly on the heavy timber flooring of the lodge. The girls went to their separate rooms and after a shower regrouped to share a nice long soak in the rotenburo, steam rising around them in the frosty air, gazing out at the beautiful mountains that seemed far less threatening now. Temari had to admit that even her most knotted of muscles were starting to relax although she was thinking her calves might never forgive her.
"We could set up for apres ski, if you like, Temari-san," Hinata suggested as they were leaving the bath. "Or perhaps you would like to rest?"
"Apres-ski? What's that?" Temari asked.
"After-ski, a time for socializing. This lodge has a wonderful group room with fireplace, we could setup there so things are ready when our friends return. But of course, if you are tired you should rest."
"No, no, I'll be glad to help," Temari insisted feeling that offering to help would be the least she could do to repay Hinata for her attention and kindness today.
At first she thought about suggesting that they just tell Koyuki's staff what they wanted until she saw how meticulous Hinata was about her preparations. Even though she did use the staff to order and fetch things from the kitchens, it was Hinata herself who did all the arranging. And the table she sat was stunning, Steamed rice cakes and soba, hot tea and hot chocolate, chilled Asahi and warm saki and even a bowl of ice that held rainbow shot glasses of vodka. And for sweets there were green tea cakes and strawberry dakfuku. While Temari was eying the bowl of iced vodka glasses and wondering just how early one could start drinking around here she heard an unmistakable rattle of cellophane.
Curious, turning to the direction of the sound she saw Hinata opening a small box of something red. They looked vaguely familiar but...
"What do you have there?" she asked her dark-haired new friend.
"Oh, aren't they cute? I got them in Konoha before we left. I thought they'd add a whimsical touch to the table, plus it's so close to Valentine's day, I thought they were appropriate. What do you think?" She held up one red, sparkly heart-shaped candy from the box. The logo on the box was unmistakable, Peeps.
"I...I thought those were only available in the spring," Temari stammered in disbelief. She'd never seen Peeps Hearts before.
"Well, I think they're expanding their product line to cover more seasons. I thought we could use them to make S'mores."
"What're S'mores?" Temari asked, wondering how anyone could improve on the pure sucrose, gluten-free goodness that was Peeps. Or even why they'd want to.
"Temari-chan! You've never had s'mores before?" Hinata echoed Temari's disbelief from a moment ago.
The blond just shook her head.
"Let me show you," Hinata smiled, offering to demonstrate.
Then before Temari could stop her, she skewered one heart on a stick and held it over the fire.
No! Why was she incinerating a perfectly good Peep! Temari strangled a cry in her throat as Hinata rotated the heart-on-a-stick toasting it until she was satisfied. Then she placed it over a square of chocolate that she'd positioned on a graham cracker, covered it all up with a second graham cracker and pressed them together. Proudly she offered the concoction to Temari as the chocolate and squashed marshmallow started to ooze from the corners.
"Here you are, your very first s'more."
"Why are they called s'mores?"
"Silly, once you've had one, you'll want some more."
"Oh," Temari studied it dubiously. It still seemed like a waste of a perfectly good Peep.
"Come on, try it," Hinata grinned.
Temari bit down, crispy not-to sweet cracker and sticky marshmallow and melted chocolate combined in the most intensive taste sensation she'd ever experienced.
"OH, GOD!" Temari couldn't help but cry out. "Holy Shit, Hinata..."
Hinata blushed pink.
"I, um, mean Holy Cow, Hinata," Temari added taking another bite. "Mmmm...oh...this is...this is fantastic." Her knees were wobbly and her head was spinning. For the first time in her life she understood the expression better-than-sex. Clearly, this qualified. It certainly beat most of the one-speed-roll-over-and-go-to-sleep-sex she and Shikamaru had been having lately. "I, um, I think I better sit down," Temari mumbled, then added with reverence, "God, Hinata, I think I love you."
Hinata beamed. "Good, isn't it?"
Weakly Temari nodded, finishing her s'more and licking each one of her sticky fingers clean. What she needed now was a cigarette. For a moment she thought about going up to the room and getting Shikamaru's pack and lighter but just then their crowd of friends started streaming in.
In no time, Hinata's beautiful display and hard work were a distant memory as a dozen hungry shinobi set to work on it. Not that that wasn't Hinata had intended in the first place, she certainly had wanted her friends to enjoy it, it just pissed Temari off that no one even bothered to thank Hinata. They were all so busy laughing and chatting and eating that they just took Hinata and her hard work for granted.
As the group broke up for their own turns at the onsen, Shikamaru came over to her, placed a peck on her cheek then yawned and stretched and announced he was tired and was going upstairs to sleep. Temari recognized the peck on the cheek - it was the 'please-don't-wake-me-up-because-I'd-really-rather-sleep-than-have-sex-with-you-tonight' kind of a kiss. Dammit. And there were Peeps available, too.
Soon, only she and Hinata were left.
"S'more, Temari?" Hinata asked, offering another red-crystal-sugar bejeweled graham cracker treat to her.
Temari just licked her lips and smiled.
A/N: I really have no idea why I wrote this. Just inspired by the recent snows, I guess. Plus those infamous little Peeps have reappeared on the store shelves. Anyway, what did you think? Loved it? Hated it? Could care less? Let me know. Reviews and comments are appreciated.