Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto…obviously…or I would be stinking rich.

A little bug that popped into my head tonight and refused to leave me alone even though I was trying to work on other things…so enjoy!

Congratulations

Shikamaru Nara thought that his phone was exploding.

That was the only explanation for the fact that it kept alerting him with his text tone and was about to vibrate itself off of his desk.

He caught it in a last minute dash from the door of his private office and snatched it out of midair.

What the hell is going on…? The young engineer wondered. He'd just gone to the bathroom and come back to find that his phone had somehow accumulated 54 messages! Unless he had somehow passed out while standing at the urinal, this should not be possible.

He scrolled through his screen of incoming texted, seeing friends, family, co-workers, plenty of people who he had forgotten that he even had the number of and plenty from his longtime boyfriend Naruto Uzumaki. Seeing the first few words of each message, Shikamaru saw lots of congratulatory messages, though he couldn't see what he was being congratulated on, nor could he fathom what he had done to earn the congratulations.

Before he could click on any of the messages to see just what the hell was going on, his phone gave a little shake before a concussive song began to play as the picture of a well-tanned blonde man with a cheesy grin slipped onto his screen.

Sliding the green circle across his screen, the dark-haired man put the phone up to his ear.

"Naruto…what the hell is going on?" He demanded immediately, before his brain could take in the cheering and jubilation that was clearly in the background of wherever Naruto was. There was shouting and singing and chanting and Naruto was laughing and gasping as though he was jumping around and dancing while trying to talk to Shikamaru on the phone.

Which frankly, knowing Naruto, was entirely possible.

"They did it Shika! They did it! They did it! They did it!" And Shikamaru knew that the blonde was jumping up and down as he chanted.

There was something niggling in the back of the Nara's mind, thinking that he should know what the other man was talking about, but his overworked brain wasn't making the connection.

"Who did what?" He said with a sigh as he slipped into his chair and rubbed at his temple, still nursing the tension headache that fellow idiotic engineers at his company has instilled in him two days prior.

"The Court!" Naruto laughed into the phone.

And Shikamaru's eyes snapped open. He sat up straight in his chair, eyes falling onto a photograph that sat on his desk, next to one of his parents from when his father was still alive, of himself and Naruto dirty and exhausted but giddy smiles locked onto their faces as they moved into their first house together.

"I can't believe those old farts did it but they did Shika! They did!"

Marriage discrimination had gone before the highest court in the land. Shikamaru had refused to pay attention to the case, to listen to the arguments, or the news reports about the trial. He refused because he could not let himself get hopeful, knowing how backwards so many still were. He refused to be heart-broken when the ruling came back that either made no change or somehow made the situation worse.

Shikamaru was too much of a realist to believe in hope. To think that the court would ever rule their way.

Naruto on the other hand, had been following avidly. He had read all the articles, listened to the recordings of the arguments in court, followed all of the pundits' arguments, and kept his eyes out for more. Knowing that the ruling was either going to drop today, on Friday, or after the weekend on Monday, the blonde had taken both days off so that he could be outside of the courthouse, could be one of the first to hear the verdict.

"You mean…" he whispered into the phone, unable to find the words.

He swore he could hear the blonde smile into the phone, "They ruled for us Shika. They said that they have to let us marry. That denying marriage to us is discriminatory. Shika – it's real. It's really real!"

Shikamaru grasped at his shirt. Hidden away under his shirt and tie, slipped on a simple silver chain, was a ring that Naruto had given him on their fifth anniversary. A grin started to slip onto his face, his lips tugging up as he thought of that fact that Naruto had a similar ring around his neck, probably sitting proudly on top of a rainbow t-shirt today, in fact the blonde might be playing around with it right at this moment, just like he was.

A knock on his office door startled the Nara and he literally leapt to his feet, making a quick excuse to Naruto and hanging up, wondering just what his boss wanted with him. He couldn't think of any egregious errors that he could possibly have made recently that would call the man down from the upper floors to see him.

"Hello Mr. Sarutobi," he exclaimed, "What can I help you with today?"

The wizened old man chuckled. "I just wanted to come and congratulate you on today's court ruling."

Shikamaru's eyes widened – he had been unaware that the CEO of their company had even known of his relationship. He wasn't in the closet at work, but he didn't exactly bring it up all the time either, and while some of the guys he worked with regularly knew, they weren't exactly the gossipy type to be talking about it all over the company either.

"Uh…thanks sir." He said after a long moment.

The old man chuckled again, and the Nara would have sworn that the old man's eyes twinkled at him for a second. "I also wanted to remind you that you have quite a bit of paid leave saved up…"

The sentence trailed off, and Shikamaru knew what was being hinted at. He smiled and scratched at the back of his head a bit, "I do, don't I sir." He said softly. "Guess I should find something good to use it on."

"Indeed."

With that, the man slipped out of his office and Shikamaru slipped back into his chair.

He shook his head, unable to believe that they were here. That history had actually come to this point.

He glanced at the photo once more and smiled, the one that only Naruto ever saw. It was soft, and tugged up higher on the right, causing a few crow's feet to form, only on that side, lips parted just slightly.

Silently, he reached up and unclasped the chain from his neck and slid the ring free. He rubbed his thumb on it once and then pushed it home on his left ring finger. He marveled for a moment at how wonderful it felt there, like the missing piece of a puzzle being put into place.

Biting his lip, he focused back on his work, determined to finish up tonight and not pull overtime.

He had better things to be doing today.

So obviously this was inspired by the recent Court Ruling in the US. I was trying to work on other things and it came up in a conversation (read: screaming match) between my ultra-conservative sister and ultra-progressive sister and the idea of this story just kinda popped into my brain and wouldn't leave until I had written it down. So enjoy!

Please leave a review - they are inspiration for me to keep writing!