A/N: Just a lil something I whipped up whilst I should have been studying, oops. I was listening to some awesome music and took inspiration for the title from "Smile like you mean it" by the Killers. I love them.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
Please fave/review, enjoy and also, Naruto isn't mine.
I'm not sure if I should make it a two-shot later?
Smile Like You Mean It
It was quite simple really. There was nothing too complicated about it at all.
Nothing.
But for some reason, he found himself wondering how on earth this was possible.
How was it possible that this woman-no, this deity- was lying next to him.
He had been watching her for a long time. Not in a creepy stalker way, but in an observant way. He noticed her small habits. Her quirks.
He noticed how when she smiled, the right corner of her mouth tugged up a tiny bit more than her left. How she would always swivel her drink in her glass before drinking it, and how she always blew on her hands before leaving her house, regardless of how hot it was.
He liked her little quirks, and he told her that, but that still didn't explain why her eyes were fixed on his as she remained on her side. He swore she was smiling lightly at him. He could only stare.
He had asked her out once, and actually been surprised when she'd said yes. Of course he was surprised. He knew what she was like.
But she'd said yes. And that was what mattered.
They had never been very open about their relationship, they didn't officially tell their friends until they'd been together for a few months, and that suited both of them fine.
Neither of them saw Temari's lineage as an obstacle, there was no need to.
They got on well with each other, it was that simple.
As was his current situation, yet he was still completely mind-blown that Sabaku no Temari was on the ground before him, only a little distance away.
He had been lying there peacefully, waiting and waiting for what never came, and what did come was a lying-down-Temari.
It was baffling.
Granted, this wasn't the first time he'd been this close to her, and certainly not the first time he laid down next to her, certainly not.
He'd taken her back to his apartment one of the days, one where she wasn't drunk, and he was mildly (and pleasantly) surprised that this sober-Temari was actually allowing him to hold her and lead the way to his bedroom and-well, one thing led to another, and no one was complaining the next day, that was for sure.
But Nara Shikamaru still couldn't wrap his head around this one, very simple problem.
Why did Sabaku no Temari, the desert princess, the desert tempest, the troublesome woman and the object of his daydreams, why did she do that?
Her smile-yes, she was definitely smiling- didn't waver as he propped himself up on one elbow, taking in the scene.
Everything was beautiful; the trees, the sunlight that was shattered by branches to form a glowing mosaic on her figure, her teal eyes. Even the red was beautiful. The crimson red blood that seeped from her side as she lay there, smiling triumphantly at his confused face while he pondered over the question 'why'.
Why did Temari take the hit?
He was simply lying there, waiting for the final blow. He was out of chakra, and he couldn't move his legs. To top it all off, he had six broken fingers.
He thought that Temari was further back with the rest of the squad, he had gone ahead to scout and hadn't been subtle enough.
"Crybaby, you're welcome."
He wondered why she had used that old nickname. He hadn't heard it in years.
That's when he realised he was crying.
"Don't worry, I took him out, he just had an explosive tag on him. I'll be fine."
The scene before him begged to differ, her blood was spreading around her like wildfire, her eyelids were drooping. Even her thousand-watt smile was dim. She was fading.
She was bleeding out.
Using his elbows, he dragged himself over to her and pressed a hand to her waist where the blood was seeping out at an alarming rate.
"Yeah," his voice cracked in his throat, as though reflecting his heart that was shattering in his chest. "You'll be fine."
She smiled pitifully at him but winced as he applied more pressure to her wound in a desperate attempt to ease the bleeding.
A desperate attempt which he made in vain.
"You'll be alright, Tem. I swear."
She opened her mouth to say something, but the only sound that came out was a choking noise before blood oozed from her mouth.
"You'll be alright." He repeated, reassuring himself more than her.
She nodded.
"You'll be a-alright Tem, you'll be fine, you'll be fine, you'll be fine." He was gasping now, and the material of her vest was so saturated in her blood that it was dark and the folds clung to her almost like a swimsuit.
"You'll be fine!" He was choking and spluttering and he hardly took any notice in her closing eyes.
"You'll be fine."
"Guys! We found them!"
A group of five crashed into the clearing where he lay, his hand still on her waist, his mouth still repeating the words.
"You'll be fine."
A girl with pink hair stepped forward hurriedly and put a hand on his shoulder.
"Let me take a look."
"She's fine." His crazed eyes met her worried ones and he moved his hands away from her blood-soaked side and let the medical ninja take over.
"She'll be fine." He repeated looking at the other people who had gathered around them.
Kiba, Chouji, and Ino gave him reassuring looks while Sai looked at him blankly.
"I've sealed her wound, she's lost a worrying amount of blood though, we need to get her to a hospital now!"
With Chouji carrying Temari, they made their way back to Konoha.
The only thought that kept him afloat was her voice saying.
"I'll be fine."
O
He remembered the first time they'd fought together. As a team.
How she defeated the opponent in just a few simple moves.
And then the smile.
How to describe how that smile made him feel...
He couldn't find the words, he knew it would be easier just to lie. It would be easier to steal from a hundred stories and explain in words so familiar to you that you would swallow it whole.
He could say his knees went weak, his breath caught in his chest. But that wouldn't be true. His heart didn't speed up or stop or even stutter. That's the sort of foolish thing that happens in stories...
How to explain that smile?
It's like if you were to go out in the early days of winter, after the first freeze of the season. Go out and find a pool of water with a thin sheet of ice across the top of it, clear and cold, and take a step on it.
Near the edges it will hold you. But slide out farther. Farther. There is a place where the ice will just barely hold your weight. That's what the smile did to him. That's what it made him feel. The ice splinters below your feet and reaches out from where you stand like elaborate spider webs.
Silent but powerful.
Shikamaru did not feel as though he were standing on brittle ice about to give way beneath him, no. He felt like the ice itself. Suddenly shattered, with cracks spiralling out from where she'd touched his heart. The only reason he held together was because his thousand pieces were all leaning together. He feared that if he moved, he'd fall apart.
So he simply stared at her for a moment as he gathered his thoughts and found himself smiling at her mere seconds later.
O
He was at her bedside holding her hand when it hit him.
He may never see that smile again.