Temari let Shikamaru lead her out of the front door, almost tripping over a man with a lampshade over his head as they left. He practically marched down the walkway and into the street, heading off into some unknown direction.

Frowning, Temari pulled her arm from Shikamaru's grasp and stood her ground. "Why are you being such a jerk?" she asked, anger obviously evident in her eyes and voice.

Shikamaru turned on her, eyes narrowed. "I got you out of there, didn't I? And now I'm taking you home. How does that make me a jerk?"

"You know what I'm talking about!" Temari shot back. She pointed back to the building they had just vacated, her gaze matching his. "Sitting in there, calling me out! Acting like I'm just some thing that's there to amuse you!"

"I never said that." he replied, looking at her as if she was going crazy. She was definitely, without a doubt, drunk. Her movements were over-the-top, her voice a little to loud and a little too rough. She couldn't control herself.

"You didn't have to! You sat there, in front of everyone!"

"Of course I did," he said, pointing an accusatory glare at her. "And so did you. In front of everyone, you kissed me. And then you fully denied it."

"I kissed you? I kissed you! I barely touched you! And do I have to mention how absolutely raving drunk I am right now?"

"No," he said calmly, crossing his arms against his chest, "you're doing quite well displaying that by just breathing."

A low growl rose in Temari's throat. "Do you have something to prove to those people in there? Is that why you acted the way you did just now?"

"No."

"Then, please, enlighten me, because I would love to know why you suddenly pulled a 180 and went into complete bastard mode." She stood there, expectant, her arms crossed against her chest, mimicking his lazy stance. There was a very smug look on her face as he said nothing. "I thought so," she said, laughing to herself. "Men. You're all the same, aren't you? You just want a piece of ass to parade around and show off to all of your friends. Women aren't trading cards!"

"You are such a hypocrite," Shikamaru said once she was finished, and her mouth dropped.

"A...I'm a h–You!" She suddenly pointed to him. "Where the hell do you get off–!"

"You sit there and you tell me that all women are different, that everyone has a different personality, different tastes, and then you go and lump all men into one category. One derogatory category, I might add. That, Temari, makes you a damn hypocrite."

"Listen to yourself sometime!" she replied. "Because what you just said flips around on you!"

"But you don't deny it's truth," he said, and she opened her mouth. She said nothing. "You're so much for women's rights, yet you take every step you can to bring the male population down a peg. Did it ever occur to you that maybe I asked you those things because I really wanted to know? Did you ever think I wondered about it because I might like you?"

She narrowed her eyes at him, leaning forward a bit. "Don't do this to me," she told him gravely. "Don't lecture me when I'm drunk and can't form a good argument. Don't hit me when I'm down."

In return, Shikamaru took the remainder of Temari's beer that he was holding and downed it, tossing the bottle to the curb and into the gutter. "There. Even. Go."

"You are impossible."

"You're drunk. I'm drunk. What do you want to say?"

Temari placed a hand above her eye, trying to soothe the headache that was emerging there. "Maybe I think you are cute in those jeans and maybe I was checking you out that day at work. And you going up there tonight and doing what you did might have been one of the best things anyone's done for me in a long time." She turned her head up to look at him, blue eyes dark in the streetlight. "So maybe...I did kiss you for it. Maybe...I like you, okay? Stupid as it sounds, I do. But the way you acted a little bit ago was downright ugly. It was rude, Shikamaru. It was like you didn't even care about me...you just wanted to get an answer out of me and you were going to do anything to get it. And it made me wonder just what the hell I was doing here to begin with."

"You came with TenTen," he reminded her.

"What the hell!" she cried out, practically jumping in the street. "Did I even know TenTen before this party? I'm in University, for crying out loud! I went to school in Suna, not Konoha!"

Shikamaru looked slightly puzzled. "Then why did you come to the party?"

Temari sighed heavily. "Think about it, idiot!"

"Me?"

"Oh, my God!" Temari said, sounding relieved. She looked as if she wanted to fall onto the street from the emotion. "Aren't you supposed to be smart?"

"Why didn't you say anything?" he asked her. "Why did you keep denying it?"

"People are allowed a little privacy in their lives, Shikamaru. Can't I be granted that?"

"Will you deny it tomorrow?"

"I think the question should be if I remember any of this tomorrow," she said, laughing. He did not look amused. "It depends...on where, exactly, this goes."

"Where do you want it to go?" He actually sounded slightly nervous. Did he not do this much? Had he ever dated before? Temari kept asking herself these questions, but could not seem to ask him any of them.

"I...don't know," she replied. "I think, maybe, we should have a conversation when we're a little more...ah, sober." She smiled prettily at him and tucked a strand of hair behind her ears. "I could still use that walk home, though."

Shikamaru took Temari by the elbow and began to walk with her toward the University dormitory. "What? An independent woman like you can't walk herself home?" he asked cheekily.

She slapped him on the chest with her free hand, laughing. "Obviously not. I mean, look at Gaara. What are those heathens going to do with his hotter, more developed sister?" She cast a sidelong glance in his direction. "Besides, I left my pepper spray at home."

Shikamaru raised his eyebrows. "Pepper spray?"he questioned.

Temari shrugged. "I tend to use it when I'm drunk. Reflex."

"Remind me never to piss you off when you have that."

"How 'bout you just don't piss me off period, pineapple head?"

"Maybe," he mused, "if you stop calling me pineapple head."

"Don't wear your head like a pineapple and I won't call you pineapple head, pineapple head." She ruffled his hair, watching him frown. "Besides, your hair looks good like this. Less pineapple-y."

Shikamaru laughed. "You are so drunk."

"I am," Temari replied, "and now I think I'm going to go over to that bush and be sick."