A.N. Bad author, BAD! I know that I should update my other fics, and…I dunno. Maybe I'll take'em down and redo'em or something but right now I've jumped on the Naruto bandwagon and have a million and two fic ideas. This is one of them. Just a fluffy one-shot.
Disclaimer: Shikamaru and Ino belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Ando, Destry, Isamashii, & Shakino belong to E-vay on DeviantART. Story inspired by the song "Why Don't You Kiss Her" by Jesse McCartney, but the story itself belongs to me.
Why Don't You Kiss Her?
"Oh, for Pete's sake, Ando! Wouldya do us both a favor and just tell her already?" Shakino sighed irritably as she flipped a page in her fashion magazine.
"Would you shut UP, Shakino?" The boy responded, blushing furiously. "I'm trying to think of my next move!"
"You should be thinking about your next move…on Destry."
"Next move? He hasn't even made a first move on her." His mother piped from the kitchen.
"Argh! Would you both just SHUT UP? Why do you always assume that's what I'm thinking about?" The crimson blush on the kid's face reached his ears.
"Cuz you are." Both women replied simultaneously.
"Mendokuse. Would you two leave him alone? We're trying to do something."
Ando breathed a sigh of relief as his father came to his rescue. Now maybe he could try to concentrate on the game...which wasn't really working out that well. Shikamaru, reading his son's body language like a book, tossed a glance toward his oldest child.
"Shakino…go help your mother in the kitchen."
The only response he got from her was a raised brow. He just watched her expectantly.
"Dad!"
"Shakino." He replied in a stern voice, then gave her the notorious "look" that every parent seems to acquire once the have children. Sighing in defeat, the girl threw her magazine onto the couch and begrudgingly made her way toward the kitchen.
Ando looked up at his father curiously, and his father just nodded his head toward the game in reply.
So, he tried to concentrate once more. Dang it, he was never really good at this game! Why couldn't his dad just challenge him to a Soul Caliber match or something? That would be so much easier that Shogi.
"Think 100 moves ahead."
Ando sighed in frustration, put his elbows onto his knees and rubbed his temples. This would be so much easier if his dad wasn't the reputed undefeated Konoha Shogi champion. Oh, and was once an ANBU captain.
"It's impossible." He finally said. "You beat me for the fiftieth time tonight. Why don't we just say that I suck at this game and save myself the embarrassment, dad?"
"Mendokuse. Don't give up so easily, son. You've still got a fighting chance."
"Yeah, in the next 1,000 years maybe."
"No, no. All you have to do is pay attention."
"Dad, I…" Ando's eyes re-focused on the board. "I seriously don't see anything that I could do that would make a difference at this point. You win."
"Really?" his father just folded his hands underneath his nose and intently watched his son.
"Yeah! I've…done everything that I could do and now…I'm finished."
"Well, sometimes the simplest move you could make could change the entire outcome of the game."
"Do I seriously have one of those moves in my corner right now?" Ando asked half excitedly, glancing furiously about the board.
"You always do." He answered with a warm smile.
Gumption revived, Ando looked even closer at the board, carefully analyzing the move of every piece.
"Oh!" Ando's face brightened with enlightenment and he took a game piece and made a move that finally put the odds on his side. "Sweet!" Shikamaru watched as his son's self-esteem puff up a few notches.
Then watched it deflate once more as Shikamaru made his final move.
"Checkmate."
"Aw, c'mon dad! Couldn't you have let me enjoy my high for a few more minutes before making my self-esteem take a nosedive?"
Shikamaru chuckled softly. "What fun would that be?" He stood up. "C'mon, help me feed the deer."
Ando began dumping the heavy bag of feed into the trough.
"Okay, so by 'help me' feed the deer, you meant 'you feed the deer, son'."
Shikamaru leaned against the wooden fence post as he chewed on a piece of straw.
"Why do you think I had kids?"
Ando growled as his father chuckled.
"So what's this about Destry, son?"
Ando fumbled with the bag, nearly dropping it. Some of the deer came up and started nuzzling him for the feed.
"Aw, dad. Not you too." He turned to look at his father, who arched his brow in a sign for him to continue. "Argh! It's nothing. Seriously! She's just my best friend! I wish you would all just let it go!" His eyebrows knit in irritation.
Shikamaru was quiet for a few moments, absorbing his son's words in. There was a time when he had the exact same feelings for a certain blonde on his team.
"Just your best friend, eh?"
"Yeah, and because of that, EVERYONE thinks that I have a crush on her…which I don't."
Ando put down the bag of feed as he watched the deer come up one by one to the trough.
"Have a crush on who, Ando?" a familiar feminine voice inquired.
Ando stiffened. "Destry!" He turned, blushing furiously. "Hey! What are you doing here?"
"Nothing. Just dropped by to see if your sister was busy. Didya need any help with that?" Destry pointed to the feeding bag as she began bouncing on her heels. Ando suddenly became very interested in his trench coat.
"Nope. Nope, got it all done. But, uh, thanks anyway."
"Okay. That's cool. Hey, let's train later on, okay? I want to show you something my dad taught me! It's so cool!" her green eyes sparkled vivaciously.
"Yeah, okay. Sounds great." He slowly brought his eyes up to meet hers. "See ya later, Des."
"Bye Ando! Hello and goodbye, Mr. Nara!" she added, waving to Shikamaru, who just gave a small wave to her in return.
Ando was too busy blushing/looking at his shoes to notice that his father's gaze had once more returned to him. But once he raised his eyes to meet his father's, he sighed. Shikamaru just had a brow quirked. That meant that he knew. There was no hiding it now.
Ando shuffled over to his father, folding the feed bag.
"Okay…maybe I do…a little."
"A little, huh?"
"…"
"…"
"…Okay! A lot." He returned to staring at his shoes.
"So why don't you tell her?"
"Wh-whaat?" Ando sputtered, face turning crimson. "Tell her? Are you crazy? What kind of person just walks up to somebody and says 'Hey, I like you more than just a friend'?'"
"Someone who likes someone a lot."
Ando threw his dad a 'ha-ha' look.
"Seriously, dad. I'm not going to do that. That would be like…suicide."
"Why?"
"Well, was it that easy for you?" Ando leaned against the fencepost next to his father, looking up at the sky as it was slowly unveiling the stars.
"Well, of course not."
"So why are you giving me advice?"
Shikamaru didn't respond to his son, just gazed up at the sky.
"Why don't you kiss her?"
Ando lost his balance and nearly fell to the ground.
"Wh-wh-whaaat?"
Shikamaru smirked.
"That's what you think when you go to bed, isn't it?"
Ando quickly stood to his feet and dusted himself off. Shikamaru didn't have to look; he knew the kid was blushing.
"G-geez, dad! Where did that come from?"
"Believe it or not, I had the same problem."
"Tch. Whatever. Aren't those thoughts too 'troublesome' for you?"
"Doesn't stop you from thinking them."
Ando was quiet, still a bit taken off-guard by his father's last question.
"She could be having the same problem, y'know."
"What problem?"
"But you'll never know unless you tell her."
"You're telling me that you actually went through the trouble of overcoming your deepest fears of rejection just to admit to your best friend that you liked her, banking on the miniscule off-chance that she might like you back?"
"Yeah."
"…You've got to be joking."
"How do you think I married your mother?"
"MOM was your best friend?"
"One of them."
"And you liked her?"
"Obviously."
"Man, you two have like nothing in common! You are so laid back and she's so loud and bossy! How did you become friends?"
"We were on a team together."
"Oh, right. Ino-Shika-Cho. And so, you started to like her?"
"Eventually."
"And so you just…walked up to her and told her the news one day?"
"No."
"Eh?"
"I predicted that my chances with her were slim to none and I didn't fit her knight-in-shining-armor persona."
"Mom says YOU were her knight in shining armor."
"Not back then."
"Oh really? Who was it?"
"An Uchiha."
Ando sighed knowingly and chuckled.
"You didn't stand a chance."
"Neither did you."
Ando sat up, an offended look on his face.
"In the Shogi game. You didn't stand a chance to win that one either, remember?"
"Oh, yeah. But I gave up because I knew I didn't stand a chance."
"No, you wanted to give up, but you didn't. Y'know why?"
"You kept telling me that I still had a chance."
Shikamaru smiled, hoping his son would catch on.
"Yeah, but, something like this isn't a game of Shogi dad. It's real life. Real hearts get broken in this game. It's not like you can just start over."
"So you just give up?"
"No!" he said indignantly.
"Then what are you doing?"
"…"
"Ando," Shikamaru put his arm around his son's shoulder. "During the game, I wouldn't let you give up so easily because you still had a chance to win. You still could have walked away from the game at that point, but you didn't. If you would have walked away, you would have never known that you had that one last move that turned the game around. Even when you stayed, and saw the move, you still could have walked away. Why not?"
"Because I saw the move and I wanted to know…"
Shikamaru's hand tightened on his young son's shoulder.
"If I could win. But I didn't win. I ended up losing."
"But you never would have known you even stood a chance if you would've just walked away from the opportunity. You took that chance that that move could be the right one; and it was."
"It was? Even though I lost?"
"Even though you lost."
"So, you're telling me that even if I get blown down by Destry and it completely ruins our friendship, it would still be the right move?"
"Mendokuse, boy! Don't be so dramatic." Shikamaru returned to his lazy stance against the fence post.
"But it could…I could…"
"Regret is troublesome, son. Forget about it and the what-ifs. It's still early enough in the game, and you'll never know if she feels the same way unless you try."
An orange/blonde blur suddenly morphed in from Ando's peripheral.
"Try what, Ando?"
"Oh, nothing." He shoved his hands in his pockets and suddenly found his shoes interesting. "Me and my dad were just talking'."
"All right, cool. Hey! Wanna see that new move I was talking about earlier?"
Ando glanced at his father, who just smiled and said,
"It's still early enough." His double meaning instantly caught by his son.
He then grinned back and he turned his gaze to Destry.
"Sure."
"Okay! I'll show you it on that tree in your backyard. It's so radical! It'll blow you away! giggle Literally!"
"On a tree? Why do you have to show me on a tree?"
"Well, I could try it on you if you want…"
"Nope, that's fine. Tree it is.
Destry giggled once more and grabbed Ando's hand. "C'mon! I can't wait to show you! Isamashii will be soo jealous!"
"All right, I'm coming, Des. Slow down, wouldya? It's not like the tree is going anywhere."
The children's laughter continued as they ran toward the backyard. Shikamaru closed his eyes; feeling accomplished, and absorbed the quiet night air for awhile.
"Oh, Shikamaru. I didn't know you were so romantic!" two feminine arms wrapped around his neck.
"Mendokuse."
"Playing matchmaker with our son. How cute!"
"I wasn't playing matchmaker. I was just giving him advice."
"Uh-huh, advice on how to kiss the girl of his dreams?"
"Troublesome woman, why does everything have to be so lovey-dovey with you? We were just having a father-son talk like my father and I used to have."
"Oh, really? So…you and your father had talks like that? Your father is the one I should be thanking for setting us up?"
"Troublesome woman…" Shikamaru muttered, a blush coming to his cheeks.
Ino giggled, and brushed some of her blonde hair from her face.
"So…" She began twirling his hair as she towered above him from behind. She was standing on the fence and leaning on his shoulders. "Wanna go upstairs and play Ino's revised version of 'shogi'?"
Shikamaru smirked and turned around to throw his arms around his wife and kiss her passionately. Ino was a bit taken off guard, but she quickly recovered, and embraced him, fervently returning his kiss.
"Just as long as you promise to king me." He whispered to her with a grin.