A/N: yay! My first ShikaTema in what, 3 years? I've missed this couple (they need more screen time or page time in the manga! Screw the rest of the plot, I want to see them! And I don't care what that one part after Episode 5 of Shippuuden or whatever said, I think they're still secretly dating/going to date!) and so I thought I'd revisit them. I plan on writing more for them, too. They're just too lovable to resist, ne?

So here it is. To celebrate 3 years of ShikaTema love.

Please read and review! I want to know what people think. xD

OO

Some Kind of Fate

OO

Clouds. Ah, clouds. Like bright white majestic ships, sailing across a sea-like sky... Gracefully, slowly...

Shikamaru didn't just stare at clouds all day, they seemed to haunt him in his sleep as well. Dreams of himself laying in a field of untouched green grass, gazing up at a sky full of plump, fluffy cumulus clouds. It was no wonder he got such restful sleeps, no matter what the circumstances... But sometimes, his sleeps didn't end so pleasantly.

"Hey, pineapple head!"

Oh, God. He didn't have to wake himself up fully to realize who it was. It was painfully obvious, he knew that voice better than anyone else's voice in the world.

"Yoohooo! Get up already, you lazy bastard!"

Why now? He had been drying his darnedest to escape this, and now it had caught up to him?

Something blunt jabbed him in the stomach, causing his stomach to heave and send him flying upright. "I'm up, I'm up, you crazy woman!" he spat, rubbing his stomach tenderly.

Temari stood beside him, smirking proudly, clutching her fan against her hip. "Finally. Don't you sleep enough? You're always nodding off, are you a narcoleptic or something?"

Shikamaru rubbed his eyes, groaning. "Who cares if I am?" he droned.

Temari swiftly plopped down beside him and laid her fan across her lap. "Must be bad genes," she commented, sending Shikamaru a sneaky grin.

He rolled his eyes and sank onto his back, letting out a deep sigh as he tried to ignore his new companion and resume his cloud-watching. He prayed that she would respect the silence that he so enjoyed, he prayed with every fiber of his being...

But this was Temari.

"C'mon, already. Are you just going to lay here starin' up at the sky all day?" Temari frowned and crossed her arms under her breasts, something that caught in Shikamaru's peripheral but he refused, just refused to acknowledge the mound of cleavage that act created.

"Yes," he responded simply. Hm... if he squinted, that cloud looked like a stick of dango...

A few moments of quiet followed - sacred, cherished moments. Moments like these often made him tolerate Temari enough to look past the stark differences between them.

But he knew he was fated to marry that woman, he just knew it. God was a terrible and sardonic entity, and so far he seemed to love watching him squirm. He had a very sick sense of humor. But surprisingly, the idea of getting married to Sabaku no Temari wasn't all that disappointing. In a way, it was almost a relief.

Every time Shikamaru looked at her, really looked at her, he could see it. The inner light in her, the inner beauty that she tried to cover up with gruffness and sarcasm. He even saw the trembling little girl trapped inside if he looked long enough. Thankfully though, he rarely had to look hard to sneak a peek of cleavage.

"Ow!"

She had jabbed him in the crotch, cackling.

Shikamaru slapped her hand away and shot her a glare. "What was that for?" he demanded.

"You were pitching a tent in there!" Temari stated matter-of-factly, folding her arms again.

"I was not! And why were you even looking there?" Try as he might, he couldn't dispel the blush that was creeping to the surface of his cheeks.

"I'm sorry, I took one look at you and then BAM! There's this huge boner practically in my face!"

"You're sick!"

Temari stuck her tongue out at him, and then gave him a lewd smile. "So what were you thinking about?"

"Nothing. That kind of stuff just randomly happens with guys."

"I know. But you're no ordinary guy, and I could see it written all over your face - you were thinking about something." She leaned in close, puffs of breath hitting his cheek. "Something dirty."

He shivered slightly and scooted away from her. "Go away, Temari."

"I bet you were thinking about me, weren't you?"

"What! Why the hell would I waste my time doing that?" He turned to look at her, and was surprised by her expression.

Her eyes were heavy-lidded, and her lips were pouting in the slightest of smirks, and her robe was falling open just the right amount to offer him the perfect view. He gulped.

"Why do we do this?" She asked suddenly.

"D-Do what?"

"This!" Temari gestured around them, sighing. "It's obvious you and I like each other, even though you try to cover it up with everything you've got. So why are we still pretending we don't know?"

He turned away. He had no answer.

"Unless I'm somehow completely mistaken." She frowned.

"It's just..." Shikamaru tilted his head back and gazed up at the sky, as if it would drop some miraculous answer down into his lap. "It's just that it's kinda awkward, in a sense. You're what, 3 years older than me? And it's the fact that once the guys get a hold of that info, they're never going to let me live it down."

She shrugged. "You never seemed to care what they thought before. Why care now?"

"That, and your brothers are fucking scary."

A smile spread across her lips. "Yeah, I guess they are." She slid onto her back, folding her arms behind her head.

Suddenly, the silence didn't feel so comforting. It felt suffocating, like he had to say something - right then, right there, or else everything would vanish. She had thrown him the bait, and now he had to take it.

He rolled onto his side, and without a word, he snaked his arms around her and crushed her against him, smashing his lips down on hers in what must have been the most atrocious, unskilled kiss in history.

But instead of pushing him away like he had thought she would, instead she slowly draped her arms around him, and pushed her lips back against his.

He didn't know what to do next, so he held the kiss there and waited for her to grow tired of his lack of skill. For everything else in the world he knew, he certainly didn't know how to kiss. Yet.

Temari slowly pulled her lips from his, yet kept her arms planted firmly around him. "Well?" She murmured against his lips.

"Well..." He vocalized back. He pulled away just enough to be able to glance down and see a great view of her cleavage, and smiled lecherously in spite of himself.

Yep, he was now certain that he was going to marry this girl. And God wouldn't be the only one laughing in the end.

The End.