A/N: Just a little idea I had for Halloween. I thought it would be fun, but I'm not sure if anyone would play that game. But hey, that's why we call it fanfiction! Happy Halloween, everyone!
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"I don't want to go if she's going to be there."
"Oh come on now Shikamaru, how old are you? Ten?"
The night was cool and crisp, the perfect late October night. Breaths turned to silvery-white puffs that were carried away by the slight breeze that rattled the leaves on the trees, causing more of them to snap off their respective branches and drift to the ground to meet their brethren. The sun had long since set and the evening was wearing on, so those children that had been wandering the streets, going house by house to collect their candy, we toting their sacks home and rubbing their sleepy eyes. The moon hung high in the sky, full and illuminating the lawns of the residential neighborhood that Shikamaru, Ino, and Chouji were trekking through, lighting houses who had turned off their porch light to indicate that they were out of candy and were too far out of the reach of the sparse streetlights that stood every couple hundred yards.
Despite the fact that there was no more candy to be had, the trio was dressed up for the occasion. Ino looked absolutely frigid in the scraps of cloth that constituted a "sexy" nurse outfit, whereas Chouji looked rather comfortable in his lumberjack costume, and Shikamaru…well, he had gotten the bright idea to go as a rather shirtless samurai, meaning that Ino had goaded him about how cold he was going to be until they had run out of time and nearly left her place late. Like she was one to talk, her costume barely covered the vitals, but she insisted that beauty was pain. Shikamaru was perfectly comfortable, though. He liked the cold. What he did not like was Temari, and it was an unfortunate fact that Ino had conned him into going to the annual Sabakuno Halloween party.
Shikamaru would have preferred staying home that night, which was saying something, since his mother was throwing a little party of her own.
"Ten and a half," he corrected her with the utmost of authority, and kicked at another bunch of leaves that had piled up on the sidewalk and gotten in the way. They scattered across the pavement, orange, red, brown and yellow, illuminated by both the moon and the streetlight ahead of them.
"Augh! Well, you're going anyway," Ino insisted, as if he wasn't already walking beside her. They'd already been over this, and Shikamaru didn't understand why they needed to go through it again, which was exactly how he managed to mouth along with her as she continued to speak. "You're already dressed up. Besides, Temari will probably be too busy to pay any attention to you."
To say that Shikamaru and Temari had history was a huge understatement, and their history was anything but pleasant. He'd been a sophomore when she had transferred in for her senior year. From the start there was a mutual spark, and it wasn't the good kind of spark. She was loud, obnoxious, self-centered, and the kind of girl he absolutely hated. She thought he was a lazy, worthless good-for-nothing. And yet Shikamaru could just not avoid her, whether it was because she had to take gym class with him, or math, or she chose to join the debate club at the exact same time he did. Unfortunately, the debate club was not a cathartic experience at all, and they still argued outside of class, whenever and wherever they could, to a menacing degree.
But all that was nothing compared to the beginning of the spring semester. Shikamaru had been minding his own business, going about his day, except for one small thing: he happened to bump into one of the music department brats and her little posse. She had always had some grudge against him—why, he would never know—and it was looking like there was a nice hospital stay in his future, when Temari came to his rescue. It was both the luckiest and most embarrassing moment of Shikamaru's lfe, and that was when he determined that she was the scariest woman he had ever met, with a frightening smile to match.
After that, Temari had little time to rub it in his face that he pretty much owed her his physical well-being, and had gone off to college. Without her around the school, things seemed much quieter, but she was never too far away. It was a college town, and not a huge one at that, so he saw her more than often enough at the coffee shop, at the store, all sorts of places, and whenever he did, she took the liberty to poke and prod at him, tease him. Except it was even worse, because there was little he could do to combat it, especially being in public. With his mother a lot of the time. Who laughed along with Temari. Thus, his true hatred of her had really begun after her graduation. It wasn't even that she herself did really terrible things to him, no, just a lot of little things that slowly piled up and grated on his nerves.
Like when she found out what his name meant. After that, she'd taken to calling him 'Deer Boy'. As if he had some choice over what his parents had named him. He couldn't help it if they'd chosen to name him after some ancient family tradition. He did his best to brush her off, but a force like Temari was like a powerful windstorm— you thought you were safe, that there was a lull in the storm, but then she just bowled you over when you least expected it, and there was absolutely nothing you could do but try to hold on for dear life.
"I didn't like her in high school, why would I like her now?" Still, Shikamaru wasn't above trying to convince his friends otherwise, even though he'd already tried several times before. He had to rationalize that socializing near Temari was a lot more troublesome than trying to argue his piece on why he should not have to go to this stupid party.
"Because most people, people who aren't you, actually mature as they get older."
Ino had this way of being right in the most condescending ways, but Shikamaru did his best to ignore it, instead turning to Chouji, his best friend, who had been walking behind them the entire time, listening and munching on one of the chocolate bars he'd procured from one of the houses.
"Back me up Chouji."
Chouji was supposed to be his wingman on these sorts of things but instead he got a half-hearted shrug from his best friend. "Sorry Shikamaru, she's right…"
"Of course I'm right," Ino beamed, flipping her hair over to her other shoulder just to show off.
"And for all the times I backed you up…" Shikamaru grumbled.
"Come on, it's right up ahead!" Ino grabbed his arm and forcefully tugged him towards a house at the end of the cul-de-sac.
Now that they were in college—his little trio all freshmen, Temari a junior—things were a little different. Whereas they wouldn't have been allowed to attend such a party in high school, their parents seemed to be a little more allowing on the curfew front, although Shikamaru had promised Inoichi that he'd get his daughter in at a "reasonable hour". If worse came to worst, and Ino came home late, the complaint would be passed onto Shikamaru's father who would really do nothing. Shikaku was the one who had convinced Yoshino to let him stay out late for such a big event in the first place, otherwise his mother never would have let him go. He was second in laxness to Chouji's dad, who trusted his son in every way possible, something that both Shikamaru and Ino envied a lot of the time.
The house ahead was brightly lit, with all sorts of decorations out front, and not just the hokey sort of decorations that you could buy at the store. These were hand-made, well-done decorations that managed to actually look spooky, and from where they stood at the end of the walkway to the front door, they could hear the music coming from inside, just loud enough to be fun, but not enough to disrupt the neighbors. Ino was absolutely giddy as she pulled her male accompaniments along like
Shikamaru felt physically ill at the thought of willingly facing Temari, but when Ino enthusiastically knocked on the door, Temari opened it for them, gave the usual sorts of welcomes, and then was off, back to entertaining whatever other guests she had. His illness gave way to a puzzled look, glancing at Chouji who shrugged again before following Ino inside and heading straight for the snack table, while he chided him and told him not to eat everything there, to leave some for the other guests.
Well, he couldn't stand outside forever. Breathing deep, Shikamaru stepped inside and closed the door behind him. Looking around, he had to admit that it was a pretty nice place. The front door left him standing in the living room, and he could see the kitchen through an open doorway beyond him. To his left was a dining area of some sort, which he could only tell by the table pushed against the wall. There was a set of stairs dividing the two, and beyond that, he couldn't see any more of the house, but he knew there had to be more. It hadn't exactly been small on the outside.
All around him, people were dressed in a variety of costumes, none of them worried about the chill outside, staved off by the warmth of the house's interior. It was the usual assortment of witches, vampires, zombies, Frankensteins, along with your normal gag costumes. As he pushed his way further inside, he could see Sakura in a strikingly similar nurse costume to Ino's—there would be drama over that later—who was chatting up Lee, looking utterly enthralled with her and dressed predictable in his karate uniform. Poor Lee, so unimaginative. He could see Naruto's head over the crowd, talking to Kiba who was decked out with at least a pimp hat, and probably the rest of the costume to follow. Tenten in a rather slinky witch costume seemed to be trying to explain Hinata-turned-Fairy, while Sai watched on, dressed as a school boy.
There were others there, he was sure, more of his classmates. And of course, the woman of the hour: Temari. Surrounded by a gaggle of men, he actually saw one of their hands wander towards her posterior, and she immediately smacked him away, with that fire in her eyes that Shikamaru remembered from when she'd saved him. He hated that phrase, but it was true, and it was scary. The guy seemed to take the hint and the little group wandered off with their friend, tails between their legs. She'd said something as well, and while he hadn't heard her, if he knew Temari, it was something about castrating them.
But that was what she got when she was dressed up as some sort of slutty pirate captain, with her bust practically popping out of her shirt and her skirt stopping just short of bearing too much.
Heaving a sigh, Shikamaru went to shove his hands in his pockets, and realizing he didn't have any one this costume, went to sit on the couch that had just freed up -- to wait around for something exciting to happen. He didn't know what exactly he was expected to do at this party, now that he thought about it. He had never been much of a partier, he didn't like getting drunk, he wasn't a socialite like Ino, he wasn't the kind of guy who could be friends with anyone like Chouji. Breathing deep, he leaned his head back, closing his eyes and exhaling slowly. Great. This was going to be a pretty boring couple of hours. He'd probably leave before his friends did, and Ino might get pissed off the next day, but that was something he'd have to deal with. He didn't want to sit there all night, after all. Maybe he could fall asleep where he was, if he just—
When the cushion sank down next to him, he could tell that someone had joined him on the couch, and he cracked one eye open to take a quick peek as to who could be there. His heart sank. There, in all her blond, teal-eyed glory was Temari, looking the picture of evil. He felt sick again very suddenly. He had thought he was in the clear when she'd barely spared him a glance upon his arrival.
"So glad you could make it, Bambi," Temari said with a smirk, a smirk directed right at him. It pierced his heart, but apparently wasn't fatal enough to induce the sweet, sweet death he craved whenever she was around him.
"Don't get your hopes up," Shikamaru grumbled in return, turning his gaze back to the ceiling. "I didn't come to see you. Ino dragged me along."
"Oh, I'm hurt, Shikamaru! I thought we were friends." In melodramatic fashion, Temari placed a hand over her heart, feigning pain. "I can't believe you!"
"Good."
"Well, I'll just take pleasure in the fact that you're here against your will," Temari said with a smirk, bouncing off the couch and turning to face him. With the way she leaned over, not only was he sure that she had to be flashing someone, but he also got a nice, full view of the cleavage. That low-cut top of hers really left little to the imagination, and Shikamaru couldn't stop staring. She obviously noticed, and reached out to tilt his chin up, and turn his gaze towards her eyes. "Have fun."
In the brief seconds where he locked eyes with her, they were aflame with something scary, and Shikamaru didn't want to know what. He was thankful when she flounced off to torture someone else for a while, leaving him frightened and worried for his sanity on the couch.
Shikamaru spent much of the party sitting somewhere, drinking a bit of punch, munching on a cookie here and there, but Temari was busy with other things. Now that she knew the Nara boy was here, she had a plan, and she was busy putting it into motion, descending upon Ino and Sakura in the middle of one of their usual arguments and breaking it up for the better good of her plan. Once she told them in whispered tones—just in case, of course—they seemed to reconcile immediately, and set off on the duty that she had given them. Now it was up to her to get to the rest of the guests and let them know that the party would be over for them at around eleven or so, enlisting the help of her middle brother, despite the fact that she knew, just knew, that he would be rude about it. NEvermind that, people would come to her parties anyway.
Shikamaru watched as the number of guests started to wane, until all that was left behind were a select handful of his former classmates, maybe fifteen altogether. Every one of those faces was one that he recognized, and he realized how many of them went to college together. It was strange, but not unheard of in this town, since there were massive discounts for locals to attend. *** And there were a lot of faces that weren't there anymore, that had gone off to other colleges. At that point, Temari rounded up everyone, in their various states of inebriation, and brought them into the livingroom where Shikamaru was still sitting. He had hardly moved from that room at all, and was actually back to sitting on the couch where he'd sat when he first arrived. Ino sat next to him first, then Chouji on the other side of her, as Temari took center stage in the middle of the room.
"Since it's just us now, we're going to play a game," Temari announced, and suddenly, the room was abuzz again. Someone had the thought to move over to the stereo and either turn it off or turn the sound down enough that it wasn't audible from where Shikamaru was standing.
"You've all heard of Seven Minutes in Heaven, right? Well, try Seven Minutes In Hell." Temari smirked devilishly, and some of the girls seemed to be greatly amused by the prospect, meaning that there was something that Shikamaru didn't know. He was about to ask Ino when Temari continued. "So here's how we mix up the game. Ladies, you'll go into one room, guys into another. Pick which one of you is going to go first, then blindfold them. They'll then be led to the designated room where they'll have to make out, seven minutes, and no talking what-so-ever. When the seven minutes is up, they can take off the blindfolds and come out. It's that easy."
There were looks exchanged between Ino and Sakura, and then over to Tenten. Mosly Shikamaru worried about Ino and Sakura, because those two girls never got along if they weren't plotting something. But if they got Tenten in on the deal too, and all three of them were looking at Temari, then that meant they were up to no good, and he wanted to know what it was. He briefly thought about leaving, but he was sure to be singled out if he did. Damn it.
"Now, we'll need someone to be a runner between the boys and the girls, and it should probably be a boy since there are more of you," Temari explained further, and Shikamaru perked up at the sound of it. "Any takers?"
Shikamaru was about to raise his hand, but he wasn't quick enough. Sai got there first, and everyone nodded. He supposed it made sense. With a sigh, Shikamaru sat back. Ino was looking rather pleased, while Chouji was looking just as confused as he was. Temari exchanged some words with Kankurou, and then the men and women were divided up and herded off into their respective rooms, presumable to start choosing. Shikamaru was at the back of the pack, dreading what was going to come of this arrangement, and realizing that it could lead to absolutely no good.
When it came to the ladies, they already knew what they were doing. Temari still led them off to her bedroom, which would be their homebase, while the men were in the guest room.
"Alright girls, this is it. Blindfold me."
There were no questions asked, no one debated that Temari was going first. They all knew that it was what would happen, and a few of the men knew as well. But for the sake of those that didn't, Temari put the blindfold on anyway. Just a precaution, really. The only men they'd told were the ones that they could ensure would be in on the deal, so the others…well, what they didn't know for now wouldn't hurt them, but she was entirely sure that everyone would have it figured out by the end of seven minutes. And she thought herself rather ingenious. While she waited, blindfolded still, she pulled her hair ties out and handed them off to the nearest person, fluffing her hair idly. Didn't want her victim guessing who she was by her signature style, after all.
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"Okay Shikamaru, you first."
He didn't catch who had said it, having been paying more attention to the carpet, but he certain heard it and his gaze snapped up. "What?" He sounded not so much offended but definitely apprehensive. "Why me?"
"Hey, hey, you agreed to play, didn't you?" Now Kiba was smacking him on the back and looking rather smug about this.
"Don't worry Shikamaru, I bet they'll send out a really good kisser first!" Next was Naruto's hand on his shoulder, the blond grinning widely.
Naruto and Kiba just didn't seem to get it. The rest of the guys seemed to be muttering their agreement together. Glancing around the room at each and every one of their faces, Shikamaru knew that he wasn't going to get out of this easily. Now that it had been suggested, everyone seemed to be set on it. He couldn't back out now, though. Everyone would know that he had chickened out, yes, even the women. And he couldn't stand for that.
"Fine, fine, give me the—"
Before he could get out his sentence, Sai was already attacking him with the blindfold, ensuring that Shikamaru's world was basked in pure darkness. Great. Just great. He wasn't exactly nervous still. He wasn't shaking in his boots. He just didn't want to do it was all, but as he had already mused, there wasn't any turning back. He heard footsteps and the door closing, and while Sai went and checked to see if the women were ready as well, the rest of the guys chattered around him. They weren't talking to him, just past him, and he was fine with that. He found a wall to lean on until he heard the door open again.
"Alright, they're ready."
Now Shikamaru knew why they had chosen Sai. Not only were his expressions impossible to read, but so was his voice. Could somebody even have a poker voice? Was that really possible? Either way, Shikamaru was suddenly being led back down the hall by a few pairs of hands, and everyone was talking about how awesome this was going to be. He could hear the guffaws from the boys side and the girlish chuckles from what was presumably the girls all gathered together as well. He tried to listen for whose laugh wasn't there, but it was impossible. The next thing he knew, he was being shoved into the closet that he had been shown earlier, and he presumed his new makeout partner was too. At least, once the door was closed, as per the rules, he was able to take off the blindfold, and he could hear the shifting that indicated that she was doing so as well.
The scent of strawberry shampoo, an unidentifiable perfume, and something minty drifted into his senses, and he realized he should have taken a breath mint…but after that, he breathed deep. It smelled nice. Despite his heart racing and the fact that he was fighting every urge to say something, he reached out and found her bared arm. From there he could trace upwards, over a bit of unidentifiable cloth, to her bared shoulder, and finally to her neck. He realized that if he wanted to take the chance, he could have groped around to find out what he costume felt like, but then he risked touching her in a way that she wasn't going to like, and things could only get worse from there.
Really, it was okay, he could do this. He could win a chess game in ten moves. He could get accepted to all the top colleges in the nation. He could win himself full tuition. He could outsmart most of his professors. He could makeout with a girl. Right? Ri—
Before he could process what was going on, her lips were pressed firmly again his as her cold, slender fingers pressed into his shoulders and pushed him against the wall. He let out a small, surprised squeak, but nothing more as he succumbed to whatever this girl had to offer. She was already pressing her tongue against his lips to pry her way in, and he was powerless to stop it. Who knew his first kiss was going to be with a stranger in a dark closet?
It was an easy way to pass seven minutes. His hand, which had been on her neck, slid up and tangled n her hair, while his other hand went to her waist to pull her closer. Leaning into the wall, her body pressed against his, there was no way this couldn't have been enjoyable. Shikamaru was not an inherently sexual person, but having this thrust upon him, he couldn't say no. He would have hesitated forever. But she had taken command of the situation, which normally he would have bemoaned, and it was turning out to be a rather enjoyable experience. Now to find out who this girl was. Sakura? Hinata? No, the hair was too short. Not Ino, this wasn't her perfume. Tenten had her hair up, and so did Temari, which left it to one of the girls that he was unfamiliar with.
Whoever she was, he liked what she was doing with her tongue, and while he enjoyed what she was also doing with her hips, it didn't bode well for his sanity once they got out of the closet. It was going to be straight to the upstairs bathroom with him after this, and that was an unpleasant thought. Not wanting to think about that, he focused all of his energy into meeting her attentions one for one, not letting anything go unmatched. When she pressed into him a little further, he let his hand slide down a little more. When her tongue toyed with his, he toyed right back. Not only was it passionate, but it didn't take a whole lot of effort for the boy with no enthusiasm.
In fact, he was surprised when light hit his closed eyes and cool air wafted in from outside the closet, indicating that the door had been opened. He didn't want to stop and hesitated to draw his lips away from hers…and he didn't have to, because she did first. Sighing deeply, Shikamaru opened his eyes, and while he didn't know who he had been expecting to see…
The last person he had expected was Temari.
There were those eyes again, with that flame in them that told him he had fallen right into her trap. He knew, in that one glance, in that cocky smirk, before he stumbled his way out of the closet into the waiting group of his friends, that she had planned this. There was no doubt about it. With the way Kiba and Naruto had acted. And Shikamaru never felt so betrayed in his life. Not only that, but he found it so difficult to believe that Temari had sparked something like that in him. That he'd actually wanted to touch her.
Even more, his regret lay solely in that he had been tricked. Try as he might, he found that he couldn't hate that he had just been making out with Temari.
"Okay everyone, back to your bases!" Temari announced jovially, clapping her hands, but Shikamaru grabbed her shoulder and spun her around to face him.
"You did this on purpose," he hissed, looking none too pleased with her, or anyone around them.
Everyone stopped to stare. Nobody had really expected Shikamaru to take it poorly. The expectation had been that he would laugh sheepishly and blush a lot and never want to talk about it again, but not that he would get mad. But he was mad, and he didn't even know why. He couldn't place a finger on it, and that just made him a little more frustrated. And she was looking at him with a mixture of shock and disbelief.
"Well, yeah, of course," she said, seeming to not understand what was making him so angry. And she shouldn't be expected to, he didn't know either. "But it's just a game Shikamaru. Laugh. Have some fun. It's funny."
"It's not funny."
With that, he let go of her arm with a little shove, tromping his way downstairs, while everyone behind him murmured amongst themselves about 'what was his problem?' and 'jeez, it's just a game.' Shikamaru didn't want to hear it. His feelings weren't a game. Storming through the kitchen, Shikamaru spotted a pack of cigarettes with a lighter laying on top and grabbed them with total disregard as to who they belonged to. He didn't give a damn, he'd pay them back in full later if they had a problem with it. He just needed to get out of that house, and landed on the spacious back porch. And for a while, he stood out there alone, leaving enough time for him to light up, despite how much his hands were shaking. It felt even colder outside now, but the shaking wasn't from the chill in the air.
Finally, a couple minutes and the better half of that cigarette later, Shikamaru heard the screen door behind him open and shut gently, and the soft clack of heels on the stained wood deck. He knew it was Temari even before she leaned against the railing next to him, craning her neck as if trying to get a good look at him. She plucked the burning cigarette from his fingers as he drew back to exhale, hold it out of his reach. He didn't care to fight, and it wasn't his to begin with. He didn't say anything at all, not about that, not about why she was here.
Because he didn't know what to say. He couldn't explain his behavior, he couldn't explain all the emotions coursing through him. He didn't want to admit that maybe, just maybe, that seven minutes was enough to make him think twice about whether he actually hated her, or whether some secret part was really attracted to her. He didn't know how to explain that. Of course she was intelligent and strong and curvy and didn't go on all those fad diets that girls like Ino did. Bless her soul, he just couldn't keep up with it. And Temari dressed nice but didn't seem the type to buy new shoes every week. Not to mention that the scent of her perfume and strawberries was still fresh on his memory.
"Hey, what's your problem?" she finally said, and it seemed like it was an effort to sound comforting, even though she was using the wrong words.
"Don't worry about it," he mumbled, burying his face in his arms, as if it might make her go away.
"But I am worried about it." He flinched as she placed an arm around his bare back, but he couldn't deny that she was warm as she moved in a little closer. "Come on Shikamaru, we were just trying to have fun. I didn't think you hated me that much, I thought it might be a good way to…you know, patch things up. Come inside now, don't be a crybaby about it."
"I'm not crying!"
But hot tears stung his eyes and he hurried to wipe them away, even if she couldn't see. But the way his voice hitched was a telltale sign, and if she didn't figure it out, then she wasn't actually Temari. She had always seen right through him.
"Do you really hate me that much?" She sounded almost sad as she asked it, like she was trying not to and failing.
"It's not that."
"Then what?"
Shikamaru paused. She was right. Then what? What was it? What was it that made his legs turn to rubber and his stomach to do flips whenever he was around her? Was it really hatred? Or did he just convince himself of that, because the great Shikamaru couldn't ever fall in love with such a troublesome woman? She broke half of his plan. Not only did she nag, but…she was far too beautiful to ever fit into the image of the average wife he had. But when he tried to recalled who that average wife was, he could only imagine Temari's face.
He needed to know what was going on here.
In a second, he had her flipped around and pinned against the railing, and this time, he was the one pressing his lips to hers. For her part, she didn't resist, except for the brief moment of surprise in which she'd dropped the cigarette she had been playing keep-away with. He didn't see how it rolled across one of the deck boards before extinguishing itself, as it had been so close to doing beforehand. Temari was amazingly receptive to his touch, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him in closer. All he could do was grip her by the shoulders and kiss her with everything he had, with more vigor than he'd put into it mere minutes ago in the closet. Everything was happening so fast, and it was overwhelming, but in that kiss, he knew what was really going on.
And he hated to admit it, he didn't hate Temari. He was madly in love with her.
Breaking away, he met her eyes and they were…softer now. Gentler. And happy. Happy wasn't something that he normally associate with Temari. He liked it. It was actually adorable. And here he was, already describing Temari as adorable. That was just wrong, and he knew it, but he couldn't help it. She had such beautiful eyes, too, he could have gazed into them all night. And her hands playing across his bare chest again were so nice, and delicate to boot. He had always associate pain with those hands, in the form of whatever kind of smack or punch she wanted to issue to him.
"Now come inside. I'm not letting you catch your death," she insisted, slipping out from beneath him and moving towards the door. He saw Ino and some other duck back inside when he turned around, heard them all giggling and running off towards somewhere else in the house. "I'm not letting a little hypothermia kill you. That's my job."
He'd thought too soon. There was that devilish smile again, but he couldn't resist her as she pulled him back inside. And once the door was closed behind him, she pushed him against it. He was curious as to what she was on about now, as she leaned against his chest, tilting her chin up so that she could look at him. He never realized how much taller than her he had gotten, it had happened to gradually, but at that moment, it was readily apparent.
"And if you're a good boy, I might even warm you up later," she smirked, before removing herself from him and trotting off to wherever everyone had gone. He could hear he shouting as she gathered everyone together for the next round, announcing that she wasn't going to be participating again, and neither was Shikamaru. He didn't hear any over protests.
What had he just gotten himself into? Shikamaru wasn't exactly sure, but he knew that he was in for quite the ride. He'd come here expecting to leave early and be in as little contact with Temari as possible. But now…wait, what had just happened? Had he just gotten conned into dating her? Sure it hadn't been said outright, but with the way that she was announcing that they wouldn't be participating in the game anymore…
She'd tricked him, twice that night. And he hadn't even said 'trick or treat'.