His alarm blared loudly beside his bed. He'd woken up just before it went off, and now even though it was ringing he didn't see the point in doing anything to stop it. He just stared at the ceiling listening to the noise for the longest time until her remembered. Today he was meeting her. He immediately scrambled to silence the alarm and jumped into the bathroom to get ready.
Work was the same as usual; rearranging the Hokage's schedule, signing reports and organising the never-ending stacks of files. He knew he would have to stay late if he wanted to get the Shinobi Union work finished but that didn't bother him. He was willing to put off working tonight.
It was nearing four o'clock in the afternoon. He'd been staring at the clock the whole day, willing the hands to go faster and waiting for that little hand to do exactly what it just did; strike four. As relaxed and nonchalantly as possible, he eased up out of his chair and said, "Should I head to the gate Lord Sixth?"
Kakashi looked up from the report he was examining and said, "How many times do I have to tell you? Stop with the 'lord' already. Yes, you may go if you're really that desperate." Shikamaru looked at him quizzically. "Well you haven't been watching the clock all day long for nothing, go!"
"Of course Kakashi sensei." Shikamaru tried to walk as normally as possible, but it felt like his body was overflowing with excitement. How did normal people walk? Was it this fast? Was it faster? He closed the door and started striding towards the village gates. Behind him, Kakashi allowed a small smile to creep onto his face. Love huh? he thought to himself.
She'd been travelling for days on end to get here, but for some reason in this final stretch of her journey she had more energy than ever before. The last time she'd seen him was a month ago at the Shinobi Union, and the closest they'd got to being alone was a group dinner with the principal representatives of each village. The letters she'd received and written in between had kept her going, but that was nothing like seeing him in person. She couldn't remember ever being more excited.
She arrived at the village gates and welcomed all the familiar sights; the green trees with warm sunlight peeping through and spots of cool shade in the shadows created on the ground.
"Well, hello Lady Temari you've finally made it!" She spun round to see Izumo and Kotetsu waiting at the front gate.
"Oh hey, has Shikamaru come by yet?" she asked wondering if she'd missed him.
"No, not yet but he knows you're meant to be arriving about now." That idiot she thought. Had he forgotten? How could he forget something that had been on her mind for a whole month? Of course Shikamaru Nara would be the only man with the nerve to leave her waiting after a month of excitement.
He sped up to the village gates to see her waiting, no, he could see from here she was fuming. What was she so angry about? He'd left as soon as possible without Kakashi noticing something was up. "Temari! Hey, what's up?" He clocked Izumo and Kotetsu and realised he needed to keep this as normal as possible.
"What's up? You left me waiting here for ten minutes that's what's up. God, you're insensitive." She shoved a bag in his hand and started walking. He raced to catch up with her.
"Whoa, whoa, whoa, slow down. I've been later than ten minutes before and you've never cared that much. What's going on with you?"
She looked around and pulled him into a side street. It was so narrow that with the two of them and Temari's bags there was barely room to move between them. "What's going on is I've been excited about seeing you for a whole month. It doesn't feel like you've been thinking the same thing." She looked down and released her iron grip on his forearm.
"Is that all?" he said, tilting her face up to face him. He gave her a soft smile and leaned down, closing the already narrow gap between them. They both dropped the bags, and she pushed him up against the wall of the alley. For a minute they were all hands and lips as he found hers again, and again, needing to feel her sides, her back, her face and bring it all impossibly close to him. He pushed back, this time forcing her against the wall and pushing her up so she wrapped her legs around him and rested on his hips. He pulled away saying, "I missed you too," and was back on her neck, making her laugh and sigh all at the same time.
After a while she got down and brushed herself off. "Well we're continuing that when we get home," she mumbled breathlessly.
"You do know how to torture a man don't you?" he sighed, and picked up a bag despite her protests that she'd managed to carry them all the way from Suna anyway.
They sat on top of the Hokage mountain as the sun set over Konoha. They leaned against a rock, her encircled in his arms and both looking out over the village. "I've missed this," she said, idly stroking his arms up and down as they sat. They watched the world go dark, and watched the clouds come out covering the starry sky.
She told him of all the things that she'd done in the last month, specifically all the people that had pissed her off for various reasons. She told him about her fight with the phone company and the deal she managed to get out of it. He simply listened and took in her presence, in his opinion her perfection, and knew then he loved her. He loved everything about her, even the things he should have hated; specifically the things anyone else would hate. He kissed her cheek and almost said it, but decided against it. This moment was perfect; and he knew deep down that he didn't need to say anything. She already knew it all and more.