"For a genius, you're pretty stupid, you know that?"

"It was supposed to be romantic..."

"We're stranded in the middle of nowhere, Shikamaru."

"Aren't camping trips supposed to be about exploration and spontaneity and all that?"

"They're about staying alive, and at this rate, you might have some trouble doing that."

He scratched the back of his neck in the way he often did when exasperated or uncomfortable. His eyes continued to scan the map, searching for the faintest clue as to where they were.

"Let's just give up and call for help."

"No!" he insisted. "This is a weekend where we are just a regular couple, not a pair of shinobi. You are not allowed to summon anything or perform any jutsu or behave in any way remotely similar to the terrifying kunoichi I know you are. We're going to set up our tent here in this clearing, enjoy a nice weekend away from work and civilisation and obligations, and then we can consider finding our way back."

"If you think we're sharing the same tent tonight after all of this, you're sorely mistaken."

"Tch," he muttered. "I try and do something nice for you, and this is the thanks I get. This is why women are so troublesome..."

"How you managed to get us lost when you have an IQ of over 200 is beyond me," Temari continued as if she hadn't heard him at all. "Don't you always plan hundreds of moves ahead? What went wrong, Nara?"

"I did it deliberately!" he snapped, surprising his girlfriend momentarily. Calmer, he said, "I wanted us to have forty-eight hours to ourselves where no one could reach us and you couldn't even think about your job. Tem, you've been in Suna for the last month, and as soon as you returned, you buried yourself in meetings and paperwork. I've missed you, goddammit, so sue me if I'm being selfish keeping you here to myself."

There was a brief period of silence, during which Shikamaru tried his hardest to gauge how she would react, since she had somehow become a statue as he spoke. What on Earth is she thinking? he wondered, frustrated at her poker face. It was usually so easy to tell what she was thinking, but this was a rare exception.

Then, the corners of her mouth twitched up. Without a word, she began threading the poles through their dedicated sleeves in the tent while Shikamaru merely stood and watched.

"What are you doing?"

"I want to give you the thanks you complained about not receiving earlier," she said casually, bending over to pick up the edge of the tent fabric and offering her boyfriend a nice view while she was at it. "And I need a place to give it to you in, understand?"

He smiled to himself and couldn't help but think about just how lucky he was to love her.

"So, you're just gonna stand there while I build this tent all by myself?"

Without another second of hesitation, he leapt into action.