Luck is Never On My Side
Light filtered in from the expanse window into the stuffy room and struck the wooden table. The sound of the birds twittering outside and the chatter inside the room seemed to melt together making it hard for her to distinguish a chirp from a word. Even if there had been no twittering, all the voices within ran into one another so that the noise seemed to be just a loud unintelligible whisper. It sounded just like a lullaby to her ears, a lullaby that was very well nearing into delivering her to a nice long nap; it was a fight just to keep her eyes open. Beside her, Nara Shikamaru was staring at the ceiling in disinterest. Temari couldn't say for sure if he was listening or not; Shikamaru, interestingly enough, paid attention even when it seemed like he was not. He could appear to be sleeping, but might have heard every single word. Tsunade was resting her chin on her palm, eyes glazed over. Temari was sure the Hokage was only paying half attention.
Meanwhile, the elders were arguing ceaselessly over some topic that really had no merit: the next Hokage. Everyone in Konoha, shinobi and civilian alike, knew who the next Hokage would be. Even the Suna inhabitants knew. Arguing about it was just a pointless waste of time.
And sleep.
Temari did her very best to stifle the loud yawn that slipped from her mouth. It didn't work very well. She slouched down in her chair as the pointed eyes of the elder council turned to glare at her critically. Even when she was at her best, the council looked at her as if she were a traitorous bug. Sure, she understood why they looked at her that way, but even if it was more or less justified, the look in itself was more than just a little annoying. Especially since she was always working her ass off for them. Shikamaru smirked at her obvious discomfort from the elders' fierce looks.
Temari gritted her teeth in frustration. "Hypocrite." She hissed at him. His eyes glittered. Underneath the table Temari balled her hand into a tight fist.
He was making fun of her!
How dare he?! He was always dozing off during meetings, and unlike her current situation, he never had a feasible reason. The moron was just lazy.
Tsunade straightened. "Well, we should discuss the more pressing issue."
The council members looked stonily at the current Hokage.
Temari silently thanked the higher deity in charge for the deflection in hostility. Foreign ambassador really wasn't worth the money she was paid.
"Temari-san?" Tsunade prodded.
Temari straightened and reached for the folder she'd placed on the empty space of the table before her. The sooner she was done, the sooner she could rest her weary body on a bed.
Oh, a bed. How she longed to just drop onto the hotels soft warm bed.
She pulled the papers out of her folder and flicked through them sluggishly, trying to find the correct one.
Her heart sped up as her fingers grazed over the sheets without finding the most important sheet. Her fingers stopped on the very last sheet in the folder.
No…
"Temari-san?"
Temari shut her eyes tight and counted slowly to ten. With a heavy and decisively annoying feeling in her gut she opened her eyes and replied tersely through gritted teeth. "I don't believe I have the calculations necessary."
One of the elders gawked at her in a mixture of astonishment and disgust, "You didn't do–"
"Of course I did it!" She snapped in annoyance. Temari ground her teeth. "I just…don't have it with me."
Shikamaru snickered silently.
Without a second thought Temari acted out on her anger and kicked the lazy man swiftly under the table.
His laughter stopped abruptly, replaced instead with a half-hearted grimace.
"Let me just drop by my hotel and I'll bring the paper back." She was honestly surprised she could talk as intelligibly as she could with her teeth ground together as strongly as they were.
"I'll accompany her." Shikamaru volunteered lazily.
"No, you–" Temari began, but was cut off by an elder.
"Just go get it." The elder snapped.
Temari felt her control over her demeanor slipping. "Very well." Temari pushed herself away from the table and walked out of the room, desperately trying to convince herself not to damage any property (or people) on her way out.
Things would be fine. The paper was on the table, she'd get it, present it, and voila, no hours wasted.
Shikamaru smirked at her again as she made her way swiftly through the village.
"Wipe that expression off your face before I ground you into dust, Nara."
He shrugged, "I just find it humorous that the responsible one forgot–"
"I did not forget. I just…don't have it." She finished rather lamely. She just had to have deemed herself the 'responsible one', didn't she? Ugh, he was going to annoy her about this forever.
"Did you even do it?" He pressed again, a teasing smile on his lips.
She growled, "Of course I did. Why do you think I'm so tired?"
"Partying." She stopped in her tracks and turned on him, ready to knock him out. He held up his hands in front of him in self defense. "Hey! Joking! Calm down, will you? It's not so bad. You did it. You just pick it up, bring it back, dilemma solved."
"Shut up." Temari turned away from him and continued on her trek back to the hotel. Some days that boy just did not know when to shut up.
He rolled his eyes at her. "You're crankier than usual."
"What did I say?!"
"Alright, alright, woman!" He grumbled. The lazy shinobi drew his hands up behind his hand, dark eyes watching the clouds as he walked.
Sometimes, she really hated Shikamaru.
He was lazier than a damn cloud and regardless, everything always went well for him. He might do something ten minutes before it was needed and he pulled it off with great splendor. He never had to stay up at ungodly hours to finish something. He could just do it in two minutes.
Ooh, yes, sometimes she hated him.
Though that hatred was just because at those times, she wished she could be him.
Still in the same grumpy mood, she reached the hotel and yanked open the door with way more force than necessary. She marched up the stairs bitterly, Shikamaru following after her languidly. She opened the door to her room, making sure to slam the door in the lazy shadow ninja's face behind her, and crossed over to the table where she'd been working on the papers.
It was one giant heaping mess.
Temari pushed papers aside and thumbed through the sheets looking desperately for the right one.
"Uh…Temari?" Shikamaru interrupted uncertainly.
"What?" She snapped angrily, not at all happy, considering she cold not locate the necessary paper. Shikamaru held a shredded piece of paper up for her to see. "This wouldn't happen to be it would it?"
Temari's anger tripled. "What did you do to it?!"
"Not me." He defended. "Your dog."
"I don't have a dog!" She screamed at him.
"Fine, your neighbor's dog. Whatever. Furry little thing with blue eyes."
Temari stared at him for a few second before kicking the wall. "I hate this day!" She slumped to the floor arms crossed and eyes squeezed shut. "I hate, hate, hate today!"
Shikamaru crouched before her. "Temari?"
"Go away, Nara," She grumbled, feeling tears behind her eyes. She didn't want to cry over something this ridiculously stupid, but she was just beyond frustrated. Why did everything always go wrong for her? Why? Why was she cursed with such infernal luck?
No matter what she did or how hard she worked, things never ever went smoothly for her. There was always a snag, always a catch, always something else.
"You can–"
"Just shut up and go away!" She snapped at him still trying to hold back the tears.
He sighed in annoyance. After a moment's pause he spoke again, "Fine; let's spar."
Her eyes flicked open in shock. "What?"
"You need to release your irritation. You obviously don't want to talk it out right now, so let's spar."
He had never agreed to spar with her on any of the numerous occasions she had practically begged him to. Why was he…What…Why now? "Why?"
He blinked. "Why, what?"
"Why would you spar–?"
"Because you're obviously frustrated and this will help."
"But why for me?" She understood why he might suggest something so out of character for Ino or Chouji, they were his best friends; but she…she was just that bossy, loud, Suna girl who was always pestering him. Why would he bother doing something so decidedly troublesome for her?
He looked slightly uncomfortable. "You're important to me."
Temari blushed a bit. Before she could think through her actions, she found her arms were wrapped around the indolent man.
She was hugging him.
She jumped back immediately upon the realization of her actions. She didn't think she'd ever had a real friend, so what she had done was simply on impulse. She didn't even know if it was right, what she did. She didn't want to screw it up. She awkwardly rubbed her shoulder. "Umm…Won't the council…"
"I can take care of it." He shrugged. "Don't worry." He smiled slightly at her. "And after the spar, I can help you redo the numbers."
She bit her lip and smiled. "You're not so bad." She brushed her hair out her eyes. "You know, for a lazy crybaby anyway."
He rolled his eyes.
Some days, she hated herself.
Some days, she hated her luck.
Some days, she hated the world.
And some days, she hated fate.
But then fate reminded her even though it liked messing her up, it always gave her someone to pull her through the trouble.
Thank goodness for friends.
They were there even when you didn't know they were.
(Even though sometimes, you hated them just a little bit too.)
A/N: This story was inspired by a very annoying day I had about three months ago. I spent all night doing a stupid lab write-up for Chemistry and shoved the info in my bag. Upon getting to school I realized I'd neglected to stuff the most important part in my bag. There's three lost hours of sleep completely wasted. After spilling out this story, I'd managed to erase the negative feelings and managed to cram the necessary info out by the end of the day. My teacher allowed me to turn it in by after school that day, and I managed it, though I considerably owe my best friend a lot for being able to finish it.
Although, sometimes my best friend gets on my nerves with her amazing luck. Call it envy. I'm the girl who's always bumping into things, losing things, forgetting things, or have other people lose my things. I'm sure if I had a pet, my things would end up eaten too. And my lovely best friend always has things magically work her way even when they shouldn't. She's the poster child for good luck and I'm the poster child for bad luck. Wondrous isn't it?