Part three of my series of Tumblr drabbles to celebrate reaching 500 followers. I've never written ShikaTema before!
"I've finally found it," she said, and Shikamaru blinked open an eye to watch as his new wife kicked open the door to their new home - damaging the fine paper in the process - to thrust a leather-covered package into his unwilling arms.
He didn't say anything yet, as she was bound to-
"-I've found a game I can beat you at, Nara." And there it was: the hands-on-hips pose he associated with Temari the most. "It's from all the way across the sea, I've heard, and I've been studying up on it while you have no idea how to play."
Her triumphant smile rained down upon him from his position on the floor. A long time ago, Temari had said she wouldn't agree to marry him until she beat him at one of the games he loved to play; countless defeats at shogi had led her to finding new and unusual challenges to spring on him, but he'd won them all. He looked up at the gently swelling curve of her belly, maneuvering himself into an upright position to help her sit down. According to the rules of their competition, they wouldn't be married at all, if it weren't for that particular… happy accident.
"Alright, what is it, Nara?"
She pulled the covering off with a flourish, the elegance of her hand movement testament to her skill with dancing in the wind.
"Ah," Shikamaru said, reading the finely printed text on the ornate lacquered box she has revealed.
"Ah, what?"
"Chess."
"Yes, that's what the merchant called it."
He sighed heavily, preparing himself for the inevitable temper. "Chess is… very similar to shogi."
"Oh."
"Yes, oh." he watched as she glared down at the box instead of him. "Would you like to play something else?"
Temari's angry teal gaze flickered up to him. "I'll set up the board, shall I?" she murmured through gritted teeth.
He destroys her. The defeat lingered with him into the night, quite unlike any of the other times he played against her, and as she shifted uncomfortably beside him Shikamaru worried about why she reinstated the challenge in the first place. He'd thought… I thought we both won when we got married.
It was possible Temari didn't feel that way. As the young head of the Nara family he was hardly impoverished, but Temari came as close to ninja royalty as existed. When he'd stayed in Suna before their marriage her quarters bordered on opulent, and though he'd built her a beautiful house in the centre of the Nara land it might just not compare. There was nothing of her homeland here except for a beautifully maintained fan above the mantelpiece, and he suspected she was afraid of the deer.
Nosing his face into his wife's tangled blonde hair, Shikamaru pressed a kiss against the hot skin of her temple, closed his eyes, and planned.
It took two weeks, throughout which Temari challenged him to several games of chess and he almost threw one to stop her rampages in the back garden. But the newest Nara was far from foolish, and he knows she'd pick up on any attempt to deliberately lose. It wasn't a risk worth taking.
Sighing at the troublesome nature of pregnant women, Shikamaru sat and surveyed his setup from his perch in the doorway. Redesigning the back room had been a tricky task; gone are the thin Konoha paper doors and crisp tatami sheets - instead the place is a cavalcade of imported Wind tapestries and rugs, a heady smoke burner making him feel decidedly lightheaded sitting pride of place in the corner.
And after several phone calls with Kankuro - who still delighted in calling him brother - there sat in the middle of a low table the most incomprehensible-looking game he'd ever laid eyes on.
It had to have at least five hundred game tiles, none of which appeared to have any connection with one another, and the different environments listed on the board seemed to blow it straight out of a game of strategy into a game of invention. Shikamaru had no idea how to play it.
It was perfect.
When she came home from her checkup at the hospital with Sakura - and Shikamaru had begged the medic to extend it for as long as possible, temper notwithstanding - Shikamaru was there at the door to welcome her home. Of course, if he wasn't working he was lazing, and the gesture made the former Suna kunoichi immediately suspicious.
When she wouldn't budge from her spot in the hallway and he had to resort to gently picking her up and carrying her through to the room, Shikamaru considered whether or not the whole thing was a good idea. When Temari burst into huge, uncontrollable tears at the sight of the small Wind-inspired nook, he was halfway through cursing himself into oblivion when she grabbed hold of the sides of his head and kissed him soundly.
"What is this?" she cried, wriggling out of his grasp with far more dexterity than a pregnant woman had any right to. Running a finger over the smooth wood of the table, her face was alight with curiosity.
"Ah…" he scrubbed a hand at the back of his neck, embarrassed. "I thought you might…"
"I love it," Temari said firmly, hand beckoning him to sit down. "And you even found a copy of the Go-hyakumonogatari!"
"Is that what it's called?" he murmured, sending her a small smile as he sat across from her, watching his wife as she spread the tiles with expert ease. "Your brother said you played this a lot as a child. Would you like a match?"
"Oh, I haven't played in years…"
"And I haven't played at all, so it's perfect."
"But-" and Temari paused in her sorting, unsure. "But it's a game for children. I don't think you'll enjoy it."
"It is?" Shikamaru appraised the board critically. "And you like it?"
"I-"
"If you like it, I love it already." he paused, reaching out carefully. Temari could be a lioness if she chose, but she just grasped his hand tightly. "And if you teach me now, I can teach the little one to beat you too."
His unfettered laugh rang around the house even as he dodged the heavy tile flicked at his head with lethal precision.
"Do you feel a little more at home, now?" Shikamaru asked when they were a little way into the game.
"Darling-" Temari said, indulgent, and he started at the unfamiliar nickname. "It might take a little while to get used to, but home is- home is anywhere with you."
"Even with the deer?"
"Especially with the deer. Now, pass me the fifty-fifth night, please."
He complied. And when she thrashed him, and danced around the house for days, Shikamaru thought they'd found a game to play together for life.