Everything We Had : A ShikaIno Songfic Twoshot © inogirl13
Naruto © Masashi Kishimoto

Inspiration: "Everything We Had" by The Academy Is…

Rated T to be safe (and a little language); characters are in their early 20's; a tad OOC and AU; set in winter

A/N: This fic has been sitting in my head/in my notebook/on my PC since March. I had gotten it written about a third of the way through before the plot bunny decided to go skipping along to someone else's brain. I would get on the computer, open up the document, then just leave it there, unsure of where I wanted the fic to go. Then that indescribable surge of creative energy came to me and I quickly finished the first chapter. I hope you guys like it, and the second (and final) chapter may be up by this upcoming weekend.

A knock on the door. The shuffling of sheets. These were the first sounds to greet my ears after waking from a peaceful slumber. I shot my eyes at the clock: 1:25 AM. "What a drag…" I thought as I lugged my feet across the carpet to the door of my apartment. Prying my eyelid up, I peeked through the peephole and found a distraught blonde trembling under a thin navy robe.

Ino.

How uncharacteristic she looked, violently shivering from the intense cold. Why didn't she wear a jacket? How hard was it to throw one on? Troublesome woman.

I opened the door suspecting to be yelled at, but only greeted by silence. "Ino?" I said, breaking the numb air. She crossed her arms and quietly murmured, "May I come in?" Thrown off by her disturbingly somber attitude I soundlessly stepped back. She walked by me, and I was hit with a blast of icy wind.

"Well, it happened again," she said, sighing and slapping her hands against her thighs. The robe flew away from her body as she did so, and I saw that she only had on a t-shirt against her frail body. I stayed silent. When in doubt, remain silent. It keeps you from saying something that could mess up everything. She plopped down on my couch and curled her bare legs up next to her. I sat down on the opposite end. "I'm here for her, but we're not getting all touchy-feely," I thought. She stared straight ahead, picking at her nails.

"I put myself out there, give away my heart, love with everything I have…and for what?" Her head fell at her rhetorical question and she sniffed, "…only to be thrown down again. I wish I could just…not care so much, or—Kami—fall so easily, but…I don't know." We sat in silence for a few minutes. Then finally she piped up, "What was it like?" I was startled; I didn't know what she meant. What, am I to read minds? Then I felt her watery eyes on me, and her soft voice, "You know…with Temari…" She said the name is if it were a struggle to form the sounds. She knew I had been broken by the sand princess, but the bigger heartbreak had to be the one by the blonde woman sitting next to me. Sure I'd dated from time to time, but usually to no real avail. She was the only face my heart had ever known. The same face that was crumbling in front of me. If I were a different man—a better man—she'd be swooning in my arms right now. I'd be showering her with soft kisses, pecking away all her tears. But I'm Nara—hardass—Shikamaru, and I don't "work" that way. I realized how long her blue eyes had been staring at me, and just how long I hadn't answered her question. Thinking of my lost blonde paramour, I spoke, trying to sound firm and unwavering. I cleared my throat, "Well—ahem—it hurts for a while…It's-it's all you can think about…" Those watery cerulean eyes searing into me—raw, shattering—she sat, her full attention on my words. "…then, you know, eventually…you forget. Life moves on. It…usually doesn't come up again." I saw her shoulders slump. Okay, so maybe that wasn't the entire truth. Maybe it haunts you day after day, knowing you're so close to someone, yet you've lost that deep connection. But I couldn't tell her that. I mean, look at her face! She pouted, "I'm sorry, Shikamaru…" Her name dripped from her mouth like elixir, a poisonous honey with enormous power over me.

As if it just came to her, she blurted, "What about…what about when we were…"Her words trailed off and she grabbed her iconic silver hoop earring. Much like the one I wear. It's habit now to keep it in. I was surprised that I could actually recall the day I started wearing it again. It was only a couple of years ago…

"Shikamaru! Shikamaru!" And there came my nagging blonde teammate (and girlfriend of 4 months) running towards me, her blonde her flopping against her bare shoulders through the fields outside Konoha. Damn, she knew where to find me. I'd been resting on my favorite hill, but there was no escaping her. She finally reached me and gracefully sat down, not even out of breath. I drowsily shifted my eyes to her beaming smile then closed them again. Troublesome woman.

"Oh, Shikamaru!" She sang into my ear. I groaned in response.

"Guess what I found, Shika-kun." I was not much into the mood of guessing, but I feigned interest by sitting up to face her. At least if I humored her, she'd leave me be quicker. She didn't seem to be expecting an answer because she unclenched her delicate fingers and revealed a pair of simple silver hoop earrings. I recognized them immediately as a gift to Ino and me when we were young. For some reason, we religiously wore them when we were kids.

I rubbed the back of my neck and yawned, "I stopped wearing that thing years ago."

Ino looked down on them, smiling. "I still remember the day we opened them. I could figure out why I only got one. And you made this adorable little face and said that they were for girls. Do you remember what Daddy told us?" She looked up at me with earth-shattering blue eyes and leaned forward, placing her hand on mine, "They would bond us forever…" Her eye contact suddenly broke and she flicked her eyes to his ear where the earring once dutifully hung. She held his earlobe between her thumb and pointer finger and smirked, "Hey, look. The hole never closed up." She then carefully picked one of the earrings out of her hand and slid it in place. There was something incredibly appealing about her soft fingers on my skin and the proximity of our lips. But then she pulled away, and I brushed off the moment. She opened my hand and stuck the other one in my palm. Turning her head slightly, she commanded, "Now you do me." Obviously not wanting to get the blonde upset, I tried to precisely insert the hoop without appearing flustered as she had once more leaned in close to me. It was in that moment that the harsh Ino exterior seemed to melt away, and I saw—for the first time after being lifelong friends and teammates—that she was capable of being gentle, feminine, even—dare I say it—angelic, and boy it was a sight to see. The fact that annoying headstrong Ino could pull off such a delicate demeanor was intriguing, and devastatingly alluring. It was in that moment that everything started to haze—Ino's white blonde hair was flowing in the soft summer air; her eyes were sparkling; her smile was drawing me in—and I realized the crazy idea that I was in love with this exceedingly troublesome, mind-numbingly beautiful woman.

In my reverie, I hadn't noticed that Ino had been mumbling to herself, or to me, I'm not really sure which. I picked up the end of her private monologue, "I just…loved him so much. His smile, his mysterious eyes…the way he held me tight like he might never let go…" Her last words were wavering and I looked down on the blonde caving in on my couch. She was, no doubt, talking about her pretty boy boyfriend. How she had the heart to talk about him like that after he hurt her was disgustingly beyong me. I felt a surge of anger run through my veins that someone had hurt my Ino, but I didn't have a chance to act on it. Suddenly the dam burst from the blonde's eyes. and her tears came pelting out like hail. She yelled through her tears, "I need Bruno Mars!" Fishing through her bag, she pulled out some big purple headphones. I saw her turn the dial all the way up. There was no way she'd hear me with those things on. She snapped the headset over her ears and curled up against my chest. This was bad, this was really bad…this was a job for Chouji. I pulled out my cell phone, hoping my best friend would know how to handle a heartbroken ticking time-bomb. While the phone was ringing, I stared at her, almost sent to tears myself by her absolute breakdown. I almost wanted to keep talking until she smiled again. I'd give anything to get that smile back. But what the hell would I even say to mend a broken heart? Oh, what's the difference? She wouldn't hear me anyway with those headphones on. She'd never realize that I…I…

"I still love you…"

TBC

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