The chattering. The noise. The laughter. It just keeps getting louder.
If you ignored the noise filling the room you could hear the rhythmic beat of a certain chunin's head as it connected over and over with the fake wood of his desk. His hands were covering his ears and his eyes were closed. He was trying to ignore the dozen people in the room. He didn't even know that many people and he certainly didn't know why they were in his room. At a screeching laugh that rang in his ears even through his hands he jumped to his feet. His chair fell to the ground and rolled into a corner, hiding from the wrath of its master.
"Out! All of you! OUT!" He pointed to the door. Twenty one eyes and a pair of dark glasses fell on him. Shikamaru was tempted to poke Ino in her eye just to make it where only twenty eyes were looking at him, but he didn't. He just pointed at the door. "Get out." He said again, and they all slowly, very slowly, walked out. The door slammed and a girl screamed. He snickered, but seeing the trash that had somehow gotten dropped on his previously spotless floor he frowned. He couldn't for the life of him think of how they got trash in the room. Maybe mobs like that spontaneously produce trash? As he was picking up loose sheets of paper he heard the faint creak of his door.
"I THOUGHT I TOLD YOU TO GET OUT!" He turned to glare at whoever had dared to come back, he was fully prepared to choke said person with the trash they had left whenever he saw who was standing in his doorway looking both shocked and offended at the same time. Then again, the Hyuuga always looked like something offended him. Except when he was with Hinata. That must be why he was there. He was looking for her. He stared at the wall for a second trying to remember if she had been one of the trash producing chattering moblings. He snickered when he remembered that she had been. She had come with Kiba and Shino to say hi and when Ino started messing with her hair, telling her she should wear it this way and that, they'd been forced to stay. The embarrassed girl had nearly died when Naruto had smiled and said that her hair looked nice in some retarded up do that Ino had been foolish enough to try. "Hinata left already," he replied returning to his janitorial duties. He picked up a banana peel and stared at it. Had Chouji been eating a banana when he came in? He tossed it at the trash can near the door.
"Watch it."
He turned to see a truly disgusted Neji holding the banana peel at arms length. He laughed and pulled the pile of paper into his arms. "You can just drop it in the trash can," Shikamaru said as he dropped the bundle into the can. A few papers bounced off the edges and fell to the ground, but he ignored them. There would be more by the end of the day. He had yet to even begin his work.
"Food shouldn't go in trash cans with papers. You should have a separate one."
Shikamaru looked up at Neji as he stood half in the door half out holding a banana peel and sighed. "Go find one if you can then," he said as he sat down behind his desk. Seeing as his chair had not magically reappeared under his descending bottom and there was nothing for him to sit on except air, and the ground a few feet below he fell. His pony tail could still be seen over the desk, and it started to rise, slowly turning into a red faced Shikamaru head. His dark eyes narrowed on the yellow fruit covering. It was all that things fault. It wasn't really. The peel hadn't done anything except hang from Neji's pale fingers the entire time. It hadn't laughed when he had fallen, or cowered further into the corner, but Shikamaru couldn't take it out on Neji or his chair. He'd need something to sit in later, and Neji... well he'd probably end up hurt after that. He stalked towards the door and grabbed the peel from Neji as he stormed into the hallway.
His footsteps completely overshadowed Neji's light steps as he followed him up the stairs. Two and a half flights later Shikamaru stopped and threw the peel at the ground. He continued up the stairs, but only made it two steps before Neji coughed. You know the cough. Not the cough that says I have something in my throat and I'm trying to get it out, or the cough that says I'm trying to hide laughter because I'm not supposed to be laughing. It was the cough that says you need to pick up the banana peel because its wrong. IT'S WRONG to leave it on the stairs, somebody could fall and you don't want that do you? Shikamaru spun at that cough. He stared down at Neji, liking the fact that he was looking down on him. He glared and tried to say with his eyes that he wasn't picking it up and he couldn't make him.
Neji shrugged and bent down to pick up the peel, but Shikamaru moved. He didn't want anybody picking it up. He stepped on the peel to keep Neji from retrieving it. And we all know what happens when you step on a banana. You fall. Seems rather cartoony doesn't it, but its true. And Shikamaru did just that. He fell. Forward. Down the stairs. Onto Neji, who being the nice person he was didn't jump out of the way to keep from falling himself, but actually tried to stop Shikamaru from falling. It didn't work. They both ended up on the landing. Shikamaru had hit his head just a little too hard on one of the steps and was now sleeping soundly with his head on Neji's chest. Neji was rubbing his own head and groaned as he sat up. Shikamaru's head as it lost its resting place fell to the ground with a hollow thump. Neji's eyes widened and he turned to check on Shikamaru who was still sleeping, although it probably couldn't be called sleeping, unless you consider being knocked out sleeping.
Shikamaru's head and pony tail alike bounced in the air occasionally hitting Neji's back as he carried them down the stairs. He didn't know what to do. Or how he could explain how a chunin and someone with his reputation had fallen down a flight of stairs because of a banana peel. He had that peel in his hand, it was a little worse for the wear, but still whole. He wouldn't leave it for some unlucky person to follow their example. He decided that one of their houses would be better than a hospital. The only problem with that was that he didn't know Shikamaru's family. Oh and his house? He had this odd feeling of being a caveman. Me Thrug. Thrug carry boy cave. Thrug eat. He shrugged, it was a one shouldered shrug since Shikamaru was slung over the other one. To his house it was. He wasn't dropping off the unconscious boy off at his family's house without explanation.
The smell was the only thing Shikamaru could smell when he woke up. It was the smell of laundry soap. And it was all around him. He rolled over and realized his hair was down when it got snagged under his shoulder. He sat up and rubbed his head, there was a huge bump on it. On the night stand sat his pony tail holder. He slipped it onto his wrist and looked around at the room he'd never seen before. He was in a bed he'd never seen before. And it smelled like soap he'd never smelled before. Where was he?
"Are you awake?"
"No," Shikamaru said as a dark head poked in through the barely open door. The smile that spread across Neji's face was almost as unexpected as waking up in his bed.
"Good to see there's no permanent damage to your brain."
Shikamaru frowned as he swung his legs over the side of the bed. He stood up and black filled his vision. He swayed and hand landed on his elbow steadying him. He turned and when his vision cleared he looked at Neji who was looking at him with an analyzing gaze. He looked at his eyes for a little too long and Shikamaru pulled away. Immediately regretting it he grabbed at Neji as he almost fell again.
"Sit back down." Neji said sitting him back on the bed. He disappeared out the door only to return with a plate of food. The plate wasn't steaming, like a new plate would, and when it was lowered enough for Shikamaru to see he realized why. Those were definitely reheated leftovers. It was the only way that chicken could look that fake. Even though the look of the food was disgusting, the smell when it replaced the clean soap smell made his stomach growl. He snatched the plate and shoved food in his mouth. It reminded him of how Naruto ate, and he slowed down.
"You like my cooking?" Neji was watching Shikamaru eating from his perch at the end of the bed. The muffled yes, and the continuous nods made him laugh. "Do you want me to call your parents for you?" Shikamaru stopped his shoveling and looked at Neji. The look screamed for him not to.
"My dad would never let me live it down. And my mom would gripe at me non stop about missing... my first day." He stuck the final bite of food in his mouth and put the plate on the bed. It was snatched off the bed almost as soon as it was set down. Neji held it, looking like a butler waiting for an order, all he needed was the tux and towel over his elbow. Neji returned to his offended look from before. Obviously you don't lay plates on bed. Especially not Hyuuga beds that still smell like detergent. After a few moments of awkward moments Shikamaru stood up again. He stood still gathering himself before walking around Neji and out the door.
"Your cooking?" Shikamaru asked when he saw the kitchen. It was spotless as all the rooms were, but that wasn't what had made him ask. The bag on the counter was. It was one of the bags from a restaurant down the street. "I reheated it," Neji said from behind Shikamaru he looked like he wanted the bag to disappear and Shikamaru along with it. Shikamaru laughed and sat at one of the kitchen tables. Laughing had made his head hurt and his intentions of going back to the tower were destroyed.
"And you did a good job." Neji was taken aback by the comment. He couldn't tell if he was mocking him or if he really thought that he had done a good job. He had tried. The last time he had reheated anything he'd burned it. Burned it so bad that his stove had to have been replaced. He was so worried that he was going to burn down the house this time that he had one of his cousins help him. She'd laughed at him, but had helped nevertheless. Really she had just told him when to take it off. He shrugged off the confusion and decided he was going to put the rest of the leftovers back in the refrigerator.
He looked up at Shikamaru who had been quiet for a while and was shocked to find that he boy had fallen back to sleep. He remembered something about people who have concussions and going to sleep and panicked. He shook Shikamaru softly and after a grunt of disapproval brown eyes opened into a slit and looked at him sharply.
"I think I'm going to call your parents." Neji got up from his knees where he had gone to rouse Shikamaru and went to call, but the hand that wrapped around his wrist and the pleading look stayed him. "Please don't. I'm fine really." Without realizing it he sighed and took a step closer. Shikamaru's hand fell and he stared at the table before him in a daze. "I'm going back to the tower now." The words seemed to be a spell, as if just by saying it he would magically be transported back. He hadn't moved or anything. Neji thought he had fallen asleep again when suddenly he stood.
"Bye," he said walking to the door. He got it open and wobbled slightly as he stepped out. Neji followed. Shikamaru didn't seem to notice, and if he did he didn't care because he continued on. He looked like he was going to fall a few times, but as Neji stepped forward to catch him he caught his self and continued on. By the time they got to the tower Shikamaru was leaning against Neji and his arm was draped over the Hyuuga's shoulders.
The chair was still cowering in the corner. It hadn't moved. The trash was still gathered around the can. It hadn't moved. Even the door was still partly open. Nothing had moved at all. Neji straightened the chair, and barely kept Shikamaru from sitting down on nothing again at the same time. "You really should go home." Shikamaru ignored him and started pulling papers to him. The dull look in his eyes said that he wasn't really reading anything his eyes were skimming over. Neji stood in the corner holding back laughter as Shikamaru went through all of it. His eyes flicked back and forth between the papers and Neji. He was getting frustrated. "I can't work with you watching me!" Neji closed his eyes and snickered. "Just leave, you can check on my tomorrow if you want."
"How do I know you won't go back to sleep?"
"I won't!" In truth Shikamaru had every intention of going to sleep as soon as the bothersome boy left. His head hurt, and his eyes kept trying to fall out. At least that's what it felt like. "I'll finish this and then go home."
"You won't."
Shikamaru started to protest but stopped. It was true, and he wasn't going to deny it this time. A few minutes later Shikamaru threw all his papers at Neji and jumped angrily at him. He said something, but it was muffled by Neji's chest as he fell against it. His arms wrapped around him to keep him from falling.
Neji was walking back to his house with a smile on his face. He was happy enough that when he tripped over a rock he laughed. There was nothing that could ruin his day now. He opened his door and stepped through as if he was floating on cloud nine. If he had been floating though, the infamous banana peel would not have caused him to slip and fall. He could deal with the banana. He was seeing Shikamaru tomorrow.
A/n: Yay! I wrote something new! Its AMAZING! I haven't written anything in like a month.