Disclaimer: I do NOT own NARUTO.
"What's your favorite color?"
Ino blinked and stared at the brunette male beside her. The question just seemed to come out of nowhere. "Why?"
Shikamaru pursed his lips faintly as if in thought and continued to stare up at the clouds. "I dunno. Just felt like asking."
The platinum blonde chunin rolled onto her side, smiling when the soft blades of grass tickled her cheek. Now, she was so close to him she could almost hear his steady breathing if she leaned in a little further; just a little closer. Ino noticed her comrade, lover, and friend blush the lightest shade of red and couldn't stop herself from letting a giggle escape her glossed lips. "Purple; its purple Shika." They had been in a relationship for a year yet Shikamaru still stop from turning red when they were in close proximity to the other. To her, it was cute although the male lying next to her would beg to differ.
"I should've figured as much." He said lazily and closed his eyes, enjoying the gentle breeze and warm rays of the sun coming together against his skin. The conversation he attempted to start didn't have any purpose really. He just wanted to hear her voice at that particular moment. Maybe find out things, like her favorite color for instance, along the way. Shikamaru loved that voice although he would never admit to it aloud. Ino would never stop bragging if he told her something like that.
Ino ran a slender hand through his locks, successfully realizing the brunette's ponytail. It didn't surprise her at all when the strategist didn't so much as even move. This was their usual after all whenever both of them were free of missions or other duties. She watched as the brown strands fell around his head and at that moment she could have sworn that Shikamaru was the most handsome male in Konoha. Ino smiled again when Shikamaru opened his peircing eyes and pulled her half way on top him, giving her a chaste kiss to the lips as Ino continued combing through his hair with her fingertips. "I also like green too." She said in that soft tone she had a habit of using in their intimate moments and brushed their lips together one more time.
"Really?" The male questioned, feigning interest as he was absorbed in the calming affects Ino had on him. He would have asked why but he knew that Ino would tell him anyway.
"Yeah" Ino twisted a lock around her pinky finger and with her free hand, she traced his jawbone. She knew Shikamaru loved when she touched him like this; not too sexually or innocently. She loved touching him too. "Because it looks good on you." Ino whispered into his ear, making sure her breath brushed against that special spot on his lobe and the lazy nin sucked in a tiny breath.
"Yeah well ... I guess purple's a pretty cool color too." He finished and brought a calloused hand up to cup her chin. "I'm saying that because you wear it." This earned him a blush. As a response the teenage strategist reached his arms behind her until he felt the soft elastic material of a hair tie and pulled, enjoying the long blonde locks that cascaded over her back and framed her face, silky strands touching his own skin. "Your eyes look like an even paler shade of blue now that your hair's down." He mused more to himself than to Ino and fingered a thick lock. "Maybe …" He trailed off; thinking. He had always been a hard thinker at heart. Even over the small stuff. It just didn't appear that way most of the time because of his lazy attitude. "Maybe it's because of that super blonde hair of yours."
"Or it could just be that I'm gorgeous and your love for me is causing my delicate features to appear that much more enhanced!" Ino bragged half joking, half actually serious and rolled off her topic of interest so they could resume their cloud watching as the evening set in and some of the prettier colors of clouds began to appear with the orange, blue and pink sky. She had never been a fan of cloud gazing until he strolled into her life and made it enjoyable.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes and smirked at the statement made by his seemingly ever physically confident girlfriend. Ino would always be Ino. He could always find reassurance that with a steadily changing world, she would always be the same. Not even his love for clouds and stars could compete with her.
OWARI
A/N: … This one really surprised me while I was writing it because I never liked ShikaIno to begin with. I just thought it would be fun to challenge myself and do a pairing I never wrote before. So because of that, I think I could be slowly falling in love with the pairing and writing this was cool, so yeah. Um expect more of this pairing outta me XD It's good to try new things hehe.