Their friendship wasn't something complicated like what she had with Ino. There was never a big falling out, and there was never any sort of tension, Sakura mused as she absent-mindedly tapped the eraser end of a pencil against her lips. Shikamaru was on her porch with a cigarette perched between his fingers, idly flicking ashes into the tray that Sakura had set out for him over a year ago while she was attempting to break a code Tsunade had given to her. She hadn't asked for him to show up, she hadn't even known if he was back from the mission in Suna yet, but there he was when she got home. Napping on the leather recliner in the living room turned study. However surprising it had been to see him when she had gotten home, it wasn't a rare occurrence. No words were spoken, there was no need to make pointless conversation, that wasn't what these visits were about. It had taken some time to get used to the silence between them when he had started showing up, but after a few weeks it was a welcome reprieve. Because, between the hospital and sharing the workload of a Hokage with Shizune, silence was a gift. It was something that only the friendship with Shikamaru could give her.

Her thoughts were interrupted with the sound of the screen door opening and closing and the scent of tobacco permeating the air. Sakura faintly remembers a time where she would have grumbled about the nasty scent making its way indoors before shaking herself out of it.

Shikamaru plopped into the couch next to her, raising his legs to rest on the coffee table, and plucked both the scroll and pencil from her hands, writing rapidly in the margins for a few minutes before shifting it towards Sakura so she could peek at the contents. Moments later, and a few corrections from both parties, the scroll was bound and sent via messenger hawk to the Intelligence Division.

"Move in with me."

There was a pause where all that could be heard were cicadas through the screen door.

"Okay."

With what could only be described as a smug grin, he turned his head to hers with a loll. But Sakura continued with a smile of her own, "But you're telling your mother." The grin was wiped off and replaced with a scowl.

"Why do we have to tell her specifically anyway, it's not like we're getting married."

"You know damn well that if you don't tell her, she will treat it as such. Not to mention that if you don't, she will kick your ass six ways to sunday."

After a single, resigned nod of agreement, she slouched against her, sliding until his head met her thighs.

"If I'm telling her, you're telling Ino."

Letting out a huff of air, she pulled his hair out of his ponytail and started running her fingers through it, detangling the minor knots, "She'll be easy, I'll slip it by her when she's with Sai and run like hell before she realizes. By the time she catches up to me, she will be too tired to be angry at me."

"There is no chance of that working."

"I won't know if I don't try."

"You'll be dead when it fails."

"I think you are seriously underestimating the effectiveness of Sai's ability to distract."

"It depends on which form of distraction you want him to employ," Shrugging as well as he could with half of his body sunken into the couch, "Also we are definitely getting rid of this couch."

"Tell me which would work in our favor, Seduction or Anger? And obviously, your couch is clearly the better choice, mine has had countless amounts of shinobi crashing on it," She gave him a light poke to the side of his cheek pointedly, "and your couch feels cushier than my bed."

"If he makes her angry directly after you tell her, that gives you an opening to run away." The space between his eyebrows creased, "Did we tell her that we are dating?"

Sakura's hands paused for an instant before resuming, "I wasn't told we were dating, how long have we been together?"

"We're dating."

"Ok."

"It's been a few months I believe. Started when you gave me that ashtray."

"You forgot to tell me that we have been dating for a year?"

"Has it really? Wow, time flies."

"Shikamaru."

"Sakura." He opened an eye and gave her a look, "You stopped again."

Looking down at her hands, she gave a weak chuckle.

"How were we supposedly dating if one of us hasn't been aware of it?"

He shrugged again before answering, "You should have known all the signs were there."

"Are you trying to make me pull out your hair?"

"God, woman," he got up with a laborious sigh before locking onto her eyes with an intense gaze. "Have you really been unaware?"

"I think I would know if we were together, Shikamaru that's not something someone can just miss."

"I cook for you-"

"Unwillingly."

"If it were truly unwilling would I continue to show up? Anyway. I cook for you, I actually go out with your friends when you want to, you come with me to hang out with mine, you go to tea with my mother, Tsunade recognizes that any 'classified scroll' either of us recieve is shared with the other, I gave you Jasmines on your birthday and I actually make an effort to be around you. Like I said all the signs."

"How was I supposed to know that you don't do th-"

"Sakura."

"You're right." She conceded a blush high on her cheeks.

Shikamaru hummed, looking out the window, the crease between his brows reappearing, "I suppose I could have done something to make this more clear."

Sakura tilted her head in question but before she could voice it, a pair of lips brushed gently against hers, like a wordless request, before she threaded her fingers into his hair and surged up to meet his lips with insistence. Unlike his usual demeanor, the kiss was dominating, devouring her like it had been building between them for months. His arm snaked around her waist and pulled her body tightly against his, mouth moving against hers with an amount of passion that she had never known him to possess. The taste of the cigarettes entered her mouth but as disgusted as she should of been by it, it just made her feel more heady and desperate because it was just so Shikamaru that it felt right. But just as quickly as it grew heated, the kiss ended, with slightly laboured breathing Sakura looked up at Shikamaru, his hair tousled slightly due to her ministrations and lips just a shade darker than they had been before.

"So?"

Sakura felt the flush on her face darken faintly before she pulled his head back down to lock lips once more.

"You know this doesn't get you out of telling your mother. And I'm punishing you for keeping our relationship secret from me for a year, so you're telling my team."

"Troublesome woman."