Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. If I did would I really be here? No of course not. If you review I'll give you Spandex Cookies!… Wait, Gai stole them. Sorry. L

Girl in the Window

Ino added some more red roses to the flower arrangement in the window. Outside the snow fell like soft feathers. The icicles on the window frame and the patterns of frost on the window pane made the flower shop look like a cottage carved from crystals. Inside Ino hummed along to a Christmas carol as she lifted the bouquet of flowers onto the middle of the window display. She looked out briefly at the snow and sighed. Then getting up gracefully she stepped out of the display and went to a table in the back room. Sitting down she began to look through the holiday order forms as she ate her dinner.

The back door swung open, letting in a gust of cold air and a girl with black hair. She was laden with frost and bags of groceries. Ino jumped up to help Hinata put everything away. Together the two girls went upstairs to their house, they shared with their best friends. Tenten and Sakura were cleaning up the two bedroom upper suite when the girls walked in.

"Aah! Hina! I just cleaned the floor. Noooooooooooo!" Sakura fake cried.

Hinata smiled a little and quietly apologized. Ino helped them finish cleaning before going down to lock up the shop. She filled out the log book of purchases that were made today, then she moved the flowers into the mini green house for the night.

"Ino! We're going to sleep. You should come up soon." Tenten called down the stairs.

"Hai!" Ino called back.

Ino, however, did not go upstairs to sleep for quite sometime. She instead sat in the shop making the flower arrangements they would need for the next day. She sat in the shop and carefully made the bouquets. She was so wrapped up in her work that she didn't notice the boy standing out side in the light of a street lamp.

Shikamaru walked slowly along the street, scuffing the snow covered ground with his feet. He stopped under a street lamp and looked around him. He would head over to Choji's from here and go home once his mother had left on her business trip tomorrow. He sighed and glanced at a flower shop window. It was framed in ice and it sparkled in the moon light. Inside there was a girl. She was wearing a dark blue top and a pair of scuffed, dirt covered jeans. Her long blonde hair was pulled back by a blue headband and her bright sky blue eyes sparkled happily as she put the finishing touches on her flowers. She sat back on her heels and rubbed her eyes tiredly. Then she placed the flowers on a pretty table in the window. The roses were there earlier when Shikamaru had been making plans with Choji. But the girls had changed them. Now they seemed to catch the eye of anyone walking by at this time of night. Why was she still awake? Did she live there alone? Who is she? Millions of questions ran through Shikamarus' head as he walked on.

Inside the shop Ino smiled happily as she finished the last arrangement. She sat back on her heels and saw a boy standing under a street lamp. She shook herself and lifted the newly arranged roses back into the window display. As she turned around to go upstairs to bed, she couldn't help but look out the window into the street. There was no one there. No, there were a few people, but the boy she thought she saw was gone. She yawned. There was probably no boy, she was just seeing things because she was tired. She turned off the shop lights and slowly climbed the dark stairs.

The next day there was an early customer. The woman came by at about seven o'clock and placed an order for tiger lilies, and orchids. She said that her grandson would come by to pick them up at around noon. Ino logged the order under the grandson's name. Nara Shikamaru. She showed the elderly woman to the door and waved good bye cheerfully as the old lady walked away. Ino went back into the store and polished the surfaces of the shop. It was shining and ready to receive the day's customers.

"Choji! Let's go! Obaasan needs me to pick up some flowers." Shikamaru yelled down the hall at his friend.

Choji trundled up the hall and pulled on his coat and boots, muttering about not getting enough breakfast. Shikamaru sighed and dragged him out the door.

"Obaasan wants the flowers at her house in fifteen minutes. We can get something in the village square." he said as Choji slammed the front door.

They walked to the village and stopped briefly to buy something to eat. Then they began to search for the only flower shop in the square. When they finally found it they were quite unimpressed. It was a small shop. It was quaint and the window was quiet eye catching. But it blended in with the surrounding shops. Sighing Shikamaru and Choji walked across the street and pushed the door open.

A bell rang above the door making Ino look up from her flowers. She was at the very back of the store, finishing up the order the old woman had placed this morning.

"Hello?" an uncertain voice called.

"Is anyone here?" another voice came from the front of the store. This voice sounded very bored.

"Hai! In the back!" she called.

There was the sound of shuffling feet and two boys appeared in amongst the flowers.

"I don't see her." the first voice said.

Ino giggled and stepped out from behind the bouquet. She pushed a few more orchids in to the bunch and looked at the very out of place customers.

"Hi, can I help you?" she asked, looking back and forth between the two.

One boy was gazing open mouthed at all the flowers and the other was staring at her, like he had seen a ghost.

"Uh, are you ok?" Ino waved a hand in front of his face.

He seemed to snap back to reality because he blinked and took a step back. Ino looked at him expectantly, waiting to know why they were here.

"Are you wanting to place an order, just browsing, or are you two picking something up?" she asked, because they clearly weren't going to tell her.

"Y-yeah. I'm picking up an order." Shikamaru managed to stutter, swallowing hard.

"Oh ok. This way then." Ino wiped her hands on her apron and led them to the desk near the back of the store.

She flipped open the order book. She flipped through the pages asking, "Could I have you're name please?"

"Nara Kitsune. Or Nara Shikamaru. Knowing Obaasan she put the order in my name. Tch." Shikamaru said rolling his eyes.

Ino stopped flipping the pages and looked at him hard.

"What?" he asked sounding annoyed.

"Oh nothing. It's just when she came by this morning, well I thought you'd be different, that's all." Ino said. "I was just finishing up your order actually. I'll be right back." she spun on her heel and strode back into the sea of flowers.

She came back shortly and place the flowers on a piece of brown wrapping paper. She wrapped them quickly and put a piece of white and gold paper over top of the brown paper. Smiling she handed him the order and said cheerfully, "That'll be $22.50 please."

Shikamaru choked and Choji whacked him on the back.

"$22.50? Obaasan said it was pre paid!" he looked very distressed.

Ino giggled and patted his shoulder.

"I'll cut you a deal. How much have you got right now?" she asked

"Uh, $15.00 even." he replied.

"So that makes you $8.50 short. 'Kay. I'll throw you a line. $15.00 even and you buy me lunch. Then we'll be square. I'm not actually free today, but I am Friday. Say 12:30ish?" she grinned.

Shikamaru sighed and nodded. Only his Obaasan and his mother could have cornered him better. Ino smiled brightly and showed the two dumbfounded boys to the door, while doing an uncanny impression of the Cheshire Cat.

After they left Sakura came down and looked at Ino carefully.

"What are you so happy about Missy?" she said accusingly.

Ino just grinned. Sakura, who really wanted answers, resorted to drastic measures to get the truth. She tickled it out of Ino ,who reluctantly admitted defeat. The story poured out over hot chocolate and Sakura's grin got bigger and bigger, making Ino very uncomfortable.

"You are so wicked Ino." said Sakura at the end of her story, sounding shocked. Then her evil smirk replaced itself on her face. "I love it."

They burst into peals of laughter and outside the snow fell down, constantly reminding everyone that Christmas was fast approaching.

Friday came and Ino was alone in the shop waiting, for something, anything to happen. The door swung open just as she was about to scream in frustration and boredom. Shikamaru walked in carrying two bento boxes. Ino smiled and waved from the desk. He walked over and put the bento on the desk in front of her.

"Oh, bento! Yum! And I was just starting to get hungry." she smiled, and Shikamaru sat down sighing.

"Women are so troublesome." he muttered into his sweater. "Ouch!"

Ino had whacked him upside the head with the shop's order book. Shikamaru glared at her and she giggled at him. He couldn't help but smile a little when she tossed her hair over her shoulder. Wow, she was so beautiful.

"What are you looking at?" she asked him, blushing slightly.

"Huh? Oh nothing. Just thinking." he answered quickly.

Ino's profile was framed by the afternoon sun, and Shikamaru admired her beautiful face for a while. While they ate Ino asked him a question that surprised him.

"When you first came to the shop, why were you all pale? Like you had a big scare or something?" she looked at him intensely, making him look away and hide the pink creeping up his cheeks.

"Well the night before, I ran away from home. I had a fight with my mom. She left on a business trip the next day, so I ran off to Choji's house. It's happened a lot. And when I was walking past the shop I looked in and saw you in the window. I dunno, I guess I kinda thought you looked like an angel. I was a little surprised when you turned out to be so, so, so, different than what I expected." Shikamaru didn't look at her.

Why won't this troublesome woman look away? She was making him blush and he was very embarrassed now. Then he heard Ino get up from her chair. She went around behind him and put her arms around his shoulders.

"I saw you too. I was sure that you were just a hallucination, but at the same time I knew you were real. Weird huh?" she heard Shikamaru chuckle and he stood up.

"Hey no fair!" Ino pouted.

Again Shikamaru just laughed lightly. The door swung open and Choji walked in closely followed by Sakura.

"Shikamaru! Your mother's back! She's looking for you. I think she has some news for you!" Choji gasped for breath and Sakura got him a glass of water.

Shikamaru sat down hard in a chair.

"Troublesome woman." he muttered into his hands.

Ino gently put a hand on his arm.

"You should go." she said quietly.

" Yeah I probably should otherwise I'll never hear the end of it." he sighed rubbing his eyes.

"Later Ino, Sakura. Let's go Choji."

The bell rang again and the shop door swung shut. Ino sat down again.

You looked like an angel.

She felt her cheeks heat up, and she bent her head over the log book and pretended to add up the accounts. Although she had only know Shikamaru for a short time, she really liked being with him. She pondered this as she finished the log book and some orders for tomorrow. Then she went out to do her Christmas shopping, leaving the shop in Tenten's hands.

Ino didn't see Shikamaru for about four days, but she did think that she saw him when she was fixing the window display at night sometimes. She was a little worried but when she went to see Choji about it he didn't seem know what was going on either. Finally after four days he walked into the shop and immediately got yelled at.

"Where have you been? You think it's ok to disappear for days then just waltz in at midnight 'cause you feel like it?" Ino whisper-yelled because it was in fact midnight and the other girls were asleep.

Shikamaru just grinned and let her yell herself out. Then he put a finger to her lips and silenced her effectively. She blushed a shade of bright pink that put her roses to shame. She looked at him. He was smirking and blushing a little.

"Shika-" she was cut off by something against her lips. It wasn't his hand.

His arms wrapped around her and pulled her close. She embraced him and let the kiss wash over, while returning it warmly.

"Hm, 'bout time you two." said a voice from the door way.

They broke apart and saw Sakura there smirking and holding a camera phone (records videos). "Now we have this moment to cherish forever and ever." she grinned wickedly and bounded up the stairs shouting for Hinata and Tenten.

Ino was about to go after her but Shikamaru grabbed her arm. He swung her around and kissed her again. And again. She finally gave in and kissed back.

"You wont be getting a Christmas present this year. " she said quietly.

"Oh? Why not?" he asked looking disappointed.

"Because, you took my first kiss. And that is a pretty good present as far as I'm concerned." she giggled.

He ignored that statement and kissed her again. To someone on the outside it looked like angel and a very deserving person.

Ok! So how do you like it? I'm taking a leaf out of Kugi-Chan's book and letting you vote on the next story. Pick one:

#1:

He stopped under the streetlamp and looked through the window. She was placing a poinsettia in the window display. She looked up and saw him watching her. Flashing a shy smile she turned and ran into the depths of flowers behind her.

#2:

"Ino, since you can't cook here are the take out we want tonight." she handed the menu to a very annoyed Ino.

Then she turned and looked at the two boys, who blushed and looked away.

"What? Never seen a girl in pj's before? She asked.

#3:

The bell jangled as the door swung shut and he shook the snow off his boots. He walked a little further into the shop. Something moved among the flowers who was it. A girl walked around a very big vase of flowers. When she saw him her eyes sparkled.

"Can I help you?"

Ok! Vote away! I wont update till I get at least five reviews for this story though, so if you want more review please! Mwha!