I had not been expecting to write this, much less post it, but here I am...doing exactly that. This is as OOC as I'll ever write Shikamaru (that is if I ever write him again) and I'm pretty sure there's exactly a million stories featuring him entitled "Nicotine".

But I digress.

A certain song of the same title has been playing over and over in my head for nearly a week now, and while washing dishes one night I realized I could probably turn it into a cute, short ShikaIno story.

That...kinda didn't happen. I originally meant to write a song-fic, but as it turns out, this thing is only inspired by the Panic! At the Disco song. So there you go. I hope you enjoy it. (There's links-broken-up links- to the song on Youtube and the lyrics at the end.)

I don't own Naruto (can you believe Naruto is going on hiatus until the beginning of next year?!) nor do I own Panic! at the Disco or the song, Nicotine. If I did, I'd have Brendon Urie singing me awake every morning. With an acoustic guitar. Ahem.

She was humming that same damn melody again. It probably wouldn't bother him so much if he knew what song the melody belonged to, but unfortunately, Shikamaru Nara wasn't that into music.

His girlfriend, Ino, on the other hand, was.

Even now, as she stood at their stove, her body swaying to the beat of the song playing in her headphones, she continuously hummed the same little part.

"What is that?" he asked in exasperation, pulling out his pack of cigarettes, tapping one out and lighting it. She glanced over her shoulder, her long blond hair obscuring half of her face.

Her hair did not her sly smile.. "It's soumen." she replied, her hips rocking steadily to the beat. The look on her face told him that she knew exactly what he was asking, but was playing coy instead.

Troublesome.

She'd been torturing him with the same melody for almost a week now, at home and at work where she walked by his office every once and while singing something about Nicotine. His initial thinking had been that she was getting ready to do her 'you should really quit smoking, Shika 'speech, because he was pretty sure he due for her next attempt to get him to quit the habit. He'd quickly realized that the word fit into her humming somewhere, somehow, along with "cause your love's a fucking drag, but I need it so bad".

She just smiled whenever he asked her about the song. And his pride wouldn't allow him to sound like an idiot trying to mimic the melody to somebody else to get answers.

"Cause your love's a fucking drag, but I need it so bad." She sang aloud as she turned back to her pot.

"What is that?" he asked again, putting more emphasis on the end of his sentence.

Ino chuckled as she resumed her sorta-dancing at the stove. "Is it really driving you that crazy?"

"No."

"Oh. Okay then."

…

"…Fine. It's driving me crazy." He deadpanned.

She snorted out a laugh. "You just can't admit that it probably really is, can you?"

He looked away with a huff, the grin on her face so teasingly sneaky. He took a drag from his lit cigarette, blowing smoke circles with practiced ease. He knew it would annoy her, she'd constantly asked him to not smoke in the kitchen.

"How many times have I asked you-" she started.

"Tell me, and I'll put it out." He countered.

Ino rolled her eyes. "Really? Do I look that easy?"

She was right. So Shikamaru got to his feet and ambled toward her, taking another long drag and releasing it. With his cigarette dangling expertly from his lips, he pulled a struggling Ino in his arms, ignoring her screeching and the spoon clattering to the floor.

"Damnit Shikamaru! Let me go-!"

He disregarded her words as he swept her hair over her shoulder and ran his other hand over her cheek.

"Don't get ashes in dinner, idiot!" Ino scolded. He took the cigarette from his mouth and dropped it in the sink behind them, where it met water and sizzled out. When he leaned in to kiss her she leaned her face back as far as she could, surprised to find that she couldn't bring her hands up to stop him. Shikamaru had trapped her hands at her sides.

"Don't. You. Dare." Ino threatened, glaring at him. She hated kissing him when he'd just finished smoking, usually demanding that he go gargle mouthwash or eat a mint. But then, there were sometimes…

Shikamaru trailed his lips across her jaw, nipping at the column of her throat before finally making his way to her ear, planting light kisses around the shell of the sensitive appendage. Ino shivered slightly, still weakly trying to break his grip on her hands. She moaned unintentionally when he took her lobe into his mouth and gently sucked, careful not to dislodge her earbud. Shikamaru snickered.

"So what's the song?" he drawled. His warm breath caused goose bumps across her moistened skin and he felt her nipples hardened against his chest. The corner of his mouth lifted into a smirk as he felt her shudder underneath his hands when he kissed her just below her ear.

"You so don't play fair." She complained as she pulled in a trembling breath. Her face was red and Shikamaru took a moment to bask in the knowledge that she responded so easily to him. And him to her. Just looking at her flushed appearance was enough to make him want to drag her down to the cold tiled floor and have his way with her.

But, priorities first.

"Of course, I don't play fair. I'm a genius." Shikamaru said, waiting for her to roll her eyes. She did. "So are you going to tell me what the song is, or are you going to make me go back to torturing your poor sensitive ears? And if that doesn't do it, I will move on to other…susceptible body parts."

Ino laughed throatily. "How about I tell you, and you still do all those things?"

"I think I can manage that." He replied. Ino removed one of her buds and placed it into his ear and immediately he was assuaged with staccato beat of the song and a familiar voice singing, comparing love to nicotine. He looked down at her grinning face.

"It reminds me of you." She said. "Plus, it's Panic! At the Disco, so of course I've been playing it over and over."

He listened on and shook his head. "Nope. Not me." Shikamaru disagreed, pulling her closer to him, slipping his hands underneath the back of her purple t-shirt. "I love you back."

"Ahh, this is true." She agreed as she arranged arms around his neck, tugging his hair free of its leather band. "And I have no plans to cut ties from you. It is right about one thing, though. I do need you so bad." She said, kissing him full on the mouth, smoky breath and all.

Song: youtu. be/YmBOI3_m7Gs

Lyrics: goo. gl/voStQZ (goes to AZLyrics, but I shortened the url because FF was being stubborn about keeping the vidal parts of the original link.)