all the pretty lights
Summary: When she sees him for the first time he's sitting in the university courtyard, his eyes closed, and ignores the world. (Spoiler: it goes downhill from there.) Drabble Collection- Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru. AU.
Warning: Experiment. Drabble collection, challenge: no more than 500 words per chapter. (Complete)
Set: University AU.
Disclaimer: Standards apply.
A/N: So different. I think I haven't done anything like this in the past. Hence the warning for experimentalism.
1/25
The courtyard never was quiet.
Shikamaru should have disliked it for that reason alone. But somehow, the voices of the many students milling across it that mixed with the sounds of the rustling leaves and birdsong, and the ever-changing sky above it carried a calming note. The up and down of the volume level correlated with the beginnings and endings of the lectures being held in the lecture halls surrounding the courtyard. At noon, when everyone headed towards the cafeteria purposefully, it was especially busy. Came the evening, it became quieter, the university not falling asleep completely but rather switching to night shift. Security detail, hassled grad students, people walking their dogs. Still people, still sounds – but subdued.
A world in itself.
Shikamaru should have disliked all that, as much as he disliked the hectic volume of the city and voices rising in anger and derision. He should have disliked it as much as he disliked large crowds and maybe even people in general. But the courtyard was like a detached universe, a world inside a bubble. He had found it on his second week at the new university; a busy, walk-through place that, nevertheless, seemed abandoned as soon as he closed his eyes.
"Really, why can't the man see reason!"
Usually, he was able to shut out the voices in a way that blended them into the general white noise that was lunchtime. This time, however, a voice cut through his peace, sharp and loud. Usually, Shikamaru would just have kept his eyes closed, but something in the voice made him look up. His gaze travelled the courtyard to find the source: it was a blonde woman, dressed in a jeans and blouse, averagely tall and more or less pretty. She had not especially raised her voice and yet it carried, all the way over to where he sat on the stone wall. Shikamaru watched her through slanted eyes: high heels, handbag, very – from what he knew – fashionably dressed. Impeccably, even. She was with another woman with almost pink hair who looked as enraged as the blonde one, and a blond guy who appeared to be desperately trying to give invisibility a shot. My deepest sympathies. If it wouldn't have been so troublesome, Shikamaru would have snorted.
"I've been telling her," blondie said, her voice sharp. "But she just won't listen. Why does she keep doing it? He has a brain of the size of a peanut! She has to realize…"
Shikamaru tuned out her rant.
The two women and the man continued on through the courtyard and towards the western exit that led to building that housed the humanities. This time, he did snort in disdain.
Psychologists.
