Temari rolled her eyes for what must have been the sixth time. Just listening to the Leaf Nin was grating on her nerves, or maybe it was the fact that she had to concentrate insanely hard just to keep from ogling him. "Stupid boy," the words huffed out under her breath as she tore her eyes away from him yet again and tried to count the grains of sand she could see outside the window.
She had gotten to one thousand one hundred and thirty two when her brother asked for her opinion on Shikamaru's observations of Suna's current defensive strengths and weaknesses. Caught completely off guard and without a clue as to what the distractingly attractive man standing before Gaara's desk had said, Temari's next course of action was not thought out and when she later looked back on it she would realize just how insane it made her look. But really it wasn't her fault she swears.
"Yeah… Sure. Whatever the smart ass Leaf boy thinks; I'll get on it right away." With that said she ignored the confused looks on both their faces, opened the window, and jumped out. Temari landed softly, put her fan on her back and ran as fast as her legs would carry her to the house she shared with her brothers.
"How troublesome," Shikamaru slouched lazily against the window sill.
Gaara looked out of the fifth story window with curiosity. "I have never seen her jump out of a window before; at least not one that wasn't on the ground floor."
"Well I guess I will head back to Konoha." Shikamaru headed for the door.
"Stay at my place for tonight. I want to send a thank you to Lady Tsunade for lending you to me. That and there is a storm coming and you won't make it out of the desert before it gets here." Gaara sat back at his desk and started to compose the letter he would send with Shikamaru.
Temari walked into the sun-filled house, took her sandals off, and headed for her refuge, leaving a trail of clothing along the way. Thank goodness Kankuro was on a mission. Turning on the bathtub faucet she pulled her favorite bubble bath off the shelf removed the cap and inhaled deeply. The smell of orange osmanthus filled her nostrils and she hummed to herself as she added a couple capfuls to the water. Watching the bubbles form as she let her hair down.
She sank down into the bath water and let the calming effect of the combination of blissful sent and steaming water had roll over her. She was half asleep when she heard the front door open and close. Thinking it to be Gaara she allowed her mind to go back to the enjoyable state of blankness it had been in.
Shikamaru's thoughts were troubled as he headed to the Sabaku house. Thinking about Temari always gave him a headache, though if he was honest with himself it also gave him a nose bleed more often than not. Temari confused him and Shikamaru hated being confused. As he opened the front door to the house he decided to put it all out of his head, after all trying to figure out women was worse than writing mission directives for Naruto.
He noticed Temari's fan propped up against the wall and immediately sank back into his meditation of how troublesome women were. Muttering under his breath Shikamaru started to head to the guest bedroom. He didn't notice the trail of garments until he found himself staring at a pair of what he was sure had to be Temari's panties. They were white with little tulips on them. Shikamaru then did the one thing that a genius of his caliber should have known better than to do. He picked them up.
Temari rose from her bath feeling calm and at peace. Wrapping a towel around herself she opened the door to the bathroom. In less than a millisecond all benefits from Temari's bath were eradicated by the sight of Shikamaru standing in the hall holding her panties in his hands. Temari then blushed so crimson that all of Hinata's blushes nearly paled in comparison. Her embarrassment was quickly replaced by rage and with no thought at all as to her current attire she planted a round house kick in the middle of Shikamaru's stomach.
The kick sent him to the middle of the living room where he landed hard enough to knock the breath out of him. He laid their stunned with Temari's panties still clutched in his hand and the beginnings of a nose bleed that had nothing to do with the punishment he had just received.
"You jerk," Temari screamed as she ran to her room.
Once in her bedroom, Temari threw on the first thing that came to hand; a yukata that she had recently mended a tear in. As soon as she could pull herself together she was going to march right out there and give that Nara boy a piece of her mind. Pacing back and forth across her room, Temari paused when she heard a loud crash in the kitchen. "Would serve him right if the whole house came crashing down on him." Temari said, her fists tightening at her side. "Damn it! I better go check on the idiot. Don't want Gaara getting upset for letting his house guest kill himself in the kitchen. I would rather have him mad for actually killing him myself."
Temari stalked down the hall to through the living room and to the kitchen to see Shikamaru searching through the cupboards. "What? Are my panties not enough? You have to steal the china too?"
Shikamaru whirled around at the sound of her voice and tried to put more space between them. Temari just grinned.
With what would have been seen by some to be a defeated shrug, Shikamaru leaned against the counter and looked Temari square in the face. "This is troublesome."
Temari then notice the blood dripping from his nose and sneered slightly. "I didn't think I had kicked you hard enough to make you bleed." Temari pointed to a stool at the counter. "Sit there," then turned around without waiting for her order to be obeyed.
Shikamaru sat on the stool hoping that Temari wasn't just being a sadist and waiting for an opportunity to knock him senseless again. He watched her retreat down the hall and open a closet, she returned with a first aid kit in her hands.
Temari sat the first aid kit on the counter and let out the breath she had been holding. It was hard to be mad at the big distraction sitting on the stool in front of her when said distraction was bleeding. Taking out the gauze she snipped a piece off the roll and started to dab at Shikamaru's face with it.
Sitting there, letting Temari clean up the blood on his face, Shikamaru couldn't help but notice how well the yukata fit her and how good she smelled. If he wasn't careful he was going to get hit again, though if she was like this every time after she lost her temper Shikamaru could learn to like it very quickly. He must have let some of his inner thoughts show on his face because Temari's brow showed the beginnings of a frown.
"I'm sorry. I wasn't thinking." Shikamaru knew it was lame as it passed his lips but with her standing so close he was at a loss for words.
A light blush spread across Temari's face. "You should be."
Temari had finished cleaning him up and turned to close the kit, then walked to the garbage can in the kitchen to throw away the bloody gauze. Shikamaru took this to mean he was free to stand and went to the freezer to get some ice for his stomach.
He was just turning around when suddenly Temari was right in front of him. He looked at her warily as she seemed to think through some course of action then with a nod of her head she pushed him against the fridge and kissed him. Her lips were soft and the kiss hesitant.
Shikamaru didn't need to be a genius to know to kiss her back. The ice fell to the floor as he moved his hands up, grazing her sides with his finger tips and sending chills up and down her spine. He cupped her face then wrapped his arms around her and wove his fingers into her damp hair. Temari hummed deep in her throat and melted against him.
The sound of a throat clearing made both Shikamaru and Temari pull away in surprise. Temari whipped around to see none other than her little brother standing there watching her. She jumped away from Shikamaru with the look of a child getting caught with their hand in the cookie jar. Shikamaru had the nerve to grin crookedly and mumble what she swore was the word 'troublesome'.
Gaara looked from Shikamaru to his sister and back to Shikamaru then said in all seriousness, "Though I am glad to see the two of you getting along so well I would hate to see the alliance between Suna and Konoha end because I had to kill you for breaking my sister's heart."
Shikamaru lay sprawled out on his bed; hands behind his head, wondering why dating had to be so troublesome. Along with his 'thank you' to Lady Tsunade, Gaara had sent a message to Naruto about what had happened in the kitchen, it would seem Naruto and Gaara liked to keep in touch. Troublesome. Naruto told Sakura of course, who then told Ino, who then told all of Konoha. Troublesome. Though it did diminish the number of fan girls he had to evade, just one of the not so troublesome things about dating Temari. It would seem the girls of Konoha were wise enough to stay away from anything Temari claimed as hers. Temari… Still Troublesome. Even more so because in his state of shock he had put her panties in his weapons pouch. How exactly are you supposed to give a woman back her panties without having her or her brother end you?
A/N: So this is all Hakusgirl Katsuko's fault. Really I blame her. Not necessarily in a bad way though. I want to thank my sister for reading it and telling me it needed more.