Title: Tulips
Fandom: Naruto
Pairing: Shikamaru/Ino
Rating: PG(-13)
Word Count: 592
Summary/Description: A couple petals broke away, and lay slightly against each other on the ground, like two parted lips.
Warning/Spoilers: Spoilers for the Asuma arc, up to about chapter 340, thereabouts? Implied sexual situations.
A/N: Written for Omnivorously for the 'write me this pairing in a dysfunctional way' meme. Future!fic; let's say ten years.
Disclaimer: Not mine. Don't sue.
When Ino woke up, the guy was gone. It was just as well; she would have simply ended up getting distracted, and she might have been late. She didn't want that; she hadn't been late in five years.
What's-his-name left his hitai-ate tangled up in the sheets; Ino left it hanging on the door to her apartment in case he came back to get it. That was unlikely, though. He was ANBU, and rarely had cause to wear his forehead protector. And in any case, he was very, very lazy. Ino could tell from just one night with him. On one hand, it was annoying as hell (he might've rolled over and gone to sleep if she hadn't straddled him and made him make her come) but on the other, it was almost… endearing.
Ino knew exactly what to make of that.
She locked up and made her way down the building. Her neighbours were already up and about; she could hear them puttering about in their rooms. The sun wasn't quite high in the sky yet, only about midway, and a light breeze made the tree branches and the bright clothes hanging on the lines rustle and sway.
She hit the road, and headed north through the village. It wasn't very far; she'd gotten her new apartment with that in mind. Her parents were also close by, which was both a benison and a curse. Her mother had been particularly… cloying, as of late. Ino nipped by the shop, waited outside until her mother went into the back for something, dashed inside and grabbed a couple of snowy tulips (he wouldn't care what kind of flowers she got, so long as they were white) and was gone before she was noticed.
The flowers hung sort of limply in her hand as she strode down the street. She hadn't looked before she grabbed them; their edges were a little frayed, their petals a little weak. Softly, softly, she stroked them with a thumb before her own sentimentality made bile rise in her throat.
Come noon, she would be leaving for a mission with Chouji. She thought it might kill her this time. Not the mission, but…
At the entrance to the cemetery, Ino spotted Kurenai and her son standing over Asuma-sensei's grave. The plot she was headed for was right next to Kurenai, and Ino vacillated for a moment or two before ducking behind a wall. She felt bad, but not that bad. She wanted to be alone, and couldn't bear to make conversation, not at this time in the morning, and not with her. Ino was actually surprised to see the older Jounin here; she usually favoured paying her respects at the monument.
After about ten minutes, when Kurenai and her child had moved on, Ino stepped out from behind the wall. The cemetery was deserted. Just as it always was.
Ino gave a short bow at Asuma's grave before moving on to the one next to it, and sitting down abruptly on the grass.
She touched the headstone briefly and laid the two limp flowers down before it. A couple petals broke away, and lay slightly against each other on the ground, like two parted lips. The sadness was already descending on her, but she shook it off. She never liked to come here with tears in her eyes. Her eyes rose to the sun in the sky; it was about nine o'clock, and she was right on time. She smiled.
"I thought about you last night, Shikamaru," she began.
A/N: White tulips are used to claim worthiness or to send a message of forgiveness. Which… doesn't have much to do with the fic, but I wrote it and titled it before I bothered to look it up, um. ¬¬