Roadside Blues
The air was cold enough this autumn morning that you carried a heat lamp out to your fruit stall by the road past the edge of Konoha. It didn't pay much to be a ninja and those did what they would in order to keep their head above water. You set the lamp in the cold ground and aimed it on the small cartons of fruit, then settled in your jackets and scarves and gloves and puffed song into the air, watching it swirl up, up, into the sky, and then disappear.
People came by. Some stopped to chat, little bought anything. The fruit was getting old, bruised from carrying it day by day, out and back to your stall by the road. You bit into a wrinkly apple and sighed.
"We do what we will," you said. "It's all that we can."
You heard footsteps in the dirt and you smiled, recognizing that slow, shuffling, gait and leaned back in your chair and closed your eyes.
The footsteps stopped in front of the stall.
"Hey there, stranger," you said, opening one eye.
Shikamaru's ears were tinged with red, his lips pink-purple, and his hands dug deep into his pockets. He looked tired.
Recently the Hokage had taken to sending Shika as a kind of ambassador to other villages and towns. A negotiator of peace, or a required visit to ensure that peace would be maintained. These missions weren't difficult, but they were many and long, and now that the winter was approaching they were dropping towards deathly cold as well.
"How come you're always here whatever I come and go? Don't you get sent on missions?"
You stood from your chair and guided Shika by the arm into it, and you turned your heat lamp so it glowed red on his face. He sighed.
"If I went on too many missions," you said. "Then who would give you fruit, and talk, and heat on your way back from a mission in the cold, Shika-kun?"
He looked up at your happy face. "Ch," he replied. "Most troublesome of them all."
While he warmed his aching hands and feet under the heat lamp you searched through the apples until you found a crisp, undamaged, Macintosh hiding near the bottom. You rubbed it on your shirtsleeve and handed it to Shika.
He bit into it with a snap, and looked it over in his hand as he chewed.
"I don't have any money with me," he said.
"It's on the house," you replied.
You thought you heard another traveler approaching, so you turned and looked down the dirt road and found it empty. When you turned back towards Shika he was looking up at you, with a rare smile on his face. You smiled back and stole the apple from his hand and took a bite, and giggled as Shika feigned annoyance.
"I should go," he said after your laughter trailed off.
He stood and approached you by the front of the stall. You looked at one another in silence, listening to the trees blow and the gravel crackle along the road. Shika took your chin in his hand and stepped forward, planted a small, cold kiss on your lips.
"That's your payment for the apple," he said, smiling, and snatched it from your hand.
He started off down the road and you watched him. He turned. "You'll be here next time?" he called.
"I will!" you called back, and waved until he disappeared.