It all started innocently enough. Shikamaru slouched with his normal scowl on his face in the booth across from Ino beside his best friend Choji. It was the end of the lunch rush at one of Choji's favorite BBQ places, and they were waiting to have their order taken. The portions were ridiculously large, one of the benefits of the long established eatery, and for the price they were charging, it was pretty decent deal. Ino was busy pressing her ice water cup to her flushed face in between wiping of a mixture of sweat and condensation from her glass.

It had been a strenuous workout; his team had pushed themselves farther than their sensei would have normally, perhaps knowing that they didn't have him there to whip them into shape became the impetus for such a rigorous training schedule. Shikamaru glared out of the window they were seated at. He squinted into the late afternoon sun, and noted the large water spots against the double panes. Judging by the deep happy blue at the sparse edge of the sky almost lost against the skyline of Konoha, he might be able to get some serious cloud watching in during his flex time today. The heavy meal he was going to consume would inevitably lead to a nap in a grassy meadow. It was going to be a perfect afternoon.

Team Gai was making their way down the street, looking exhausted from their training, and discussing something amongst themselves as they opened the door to the restaurant.

"I don't understand why you can't let me run home to put leftovers away, or at least let me send a clone to do it," Tenten complained to her teammates.

Neji shook his head. "You are going to need your chakra levels high to complete our training. It is why Gai suggested this place to eat. The portions are larger than most restaurants. We need all the time we can get to start practicing."

They continued the discussion as they came upon them, and team Gai either waved or smiled at them and made their way into the booth behind Ino. The high-backed booths were another reason Shikamaru liked this eatery, as it served to satisfy his antisocial nature after training. He was grateful they didn't have to share conversation with the other team dining out, and Shikamaru let his head rest on the overstuffed cushions of the booth behind him as he listened to the whir of the over-head fans and the idle chatter of the other team. He tried not to be nosy, really, but Lee seemed to be louder than usual and suggested to Tenten to talk to the Akimichi behind her to see if he could help her with her predicament. Choji looked up from his menu at him with a brief sideways glance of confusion to his friend. Shikamaru unhelpfully just shrugged his shoulders.

Tenten popped her head over the top of the booth and smiled politely with a simple, "hey guys."

The two boys dumbly nodded at her arrival. Ino didn't bother to look above her where Tenten resided and sipped her ice water through her straw nonchalantly as she continued to scrutinize the menu.

"Hey Choji, if I order the number three, would you be able to eat half of it? It's not these guys favorite; they want to order a large order of spring rolls instead. Neji is kind of a baby when it comes to spicy…ow!" Tenten jerked her head down to her teammate who no doubt hit her at the snide comment. It left just one hand on the top of the booth and one of her buns visible to them as she briefly chewed them out.

"You don't even finish those spring rolls, anyways," Tenten argued after her retaliation which shook the back of Ino's side of the booth. Shikamaru and Choji exchanged dubious glances at each other until the Weapon's Mistress surfaced again, "Anyone like spring rolls?"

Choji and Shikamaru didn't have time to answer, because Ino suddenly piped up, which shocked the hell out of them since she had been quiet the whole time and they almost forgot she was there.

"Trade me spots," she announced, "spring rolls are my favorite, but I normally can't order them because I can't eat them all. This works out well." Then she crawled out of the booth and headed to the one behind her.

Tenten smiled, then looked up to Choji, "Well?" she asked Choji, who looked stunned by the whole ordeal of trading teammates, even if it was just for the lunch hour. "Mind if I join you?"

Shikamaru was about to speak up that she didn't need to come over to their booth to share the plate, she could easily send it over as soon as she ate her fill, when the man beside him spoke up instead.

"Red rover, red rover, let Tenten come over." Choji replied before Shikamaru could let out his dissent.

She smiled before ducking down, and Shikamaru used the time it took her to scramble over her teammate to shoot his friend a disapproving look. Choji gave him a stern eyebrow raise back at him, aphonically telling him to be nice. This earned him an audible grunt of disgust from him as she slid into the booth where Ino had just been as Choji and Tenten exchanged smiles.

Tenten looked slightly offended by the derision, and quickly wiped the smile off of her face at his blatant act of unwelcome to her.

"Don't mind him," Choji quickly apologized for him with a playful wink. "He still thinks girls have cooties."

Shikamaru couldn't help but roll his eyes at her slight blush as the two shared a laugh. Choji placed a foot on top of his and started to apply pressure, never once taking his eyes off of the girl in front of him. Shikamaru looked stupidly from under the table where Choji's foot threatened to crush his own and back to his friend beside him. The threat to behave himself was duly noted.

"Let me out, I need to use the bathroom," Shikamaru interrupted Choji's anecdote, the one he always told to impress a girl. Choji smiled half-heartedly to him, and got up to let him out.

Once out of the booth, Shikamaru made a quick apology, and dragged Choji down the narrow rows of booths to a secluded corner. The Akimichi shook off Shikamaru's death grip with a frown.

"What the hell?" Shikamaru started in.

"That's my line," Choji countered, then with a confused look he asked, "What are you doing?"

Shikamaru straightened and hissed in a hushed tone, "What are you doing?" he pulled him in closer, "are you flirting with her?" he accused.

"So what if I am?" he shook the man off again. "What difference does it make to you?"

To this, all Shikamaru could do is gape, until something entered his brain and he responded with it before he got a chance to fully think it through, "She's not interested, why are you wasting your time?"

If Shikamaru was shocked by his pernicious comment, the hurt in his friend's eyes certainly clued him in that he had crossed a line.

"Thanks, Shikamaru." He said bitterly, "I'll keep that in mind." And he was already slipping back in the booth and smiling at Tenten before his supposed genius brain could tell him that he had just acted like a jerk to his best friend. He sauntered back after using the loo, only to find that Choji had ordered his favorite plate for him, so Shikamaru figured he had no hard feelings. It wasn't until he took a bit of his food and realized that Choji had mixed in a heaping spoonful of red pepper flakes in it while he was gone that the thought occurred to him that he just might happen to still be pissed at him after all.

Shikamaru smiled to cover up that his tongue had been scorched and quickly swallowed before draining his water glass. So much for a full stomach to help lull him to sleep in a bunny filled meadow.

"Something wrong with your food, Shikamaru?" Tenten asked as he had just pushed the plate in front of him.

"Too spicy," he muttered with an askance look at his friend, who ignored the comment and continued to forage his plate innocuously.

"I can get you a new plate," she offered picking it up before Shikamaru had a chance to protest. "I'll be right back."

As soon as she was out of sight, Shikamaru shoved his friend hard in the shoulder, causing him to drop his chopsticks.

"Asshole," Shikamaru growled, "this just proves that Tenten is nice to everyone, not just you. You didn't have to sabotage my lunch. I thought you had had more respect for food than that." He ended his comment with another sigh of disquiet before Tenten came back with a steaming plate full of his favorite dish.

"Seems yours got mixed up with Lee's. He orders the same thing only with extra spices. I figured they mixed yours up when I overheard Lee say something about his being bland. Half his plate was gone before he realized it. Cook apologizes and says your meal is on the house." She explained and then began to eat again, completely unaware of the scathing look Choji was giving him as he superimposed his arms across his chest.

"Sorry Choji," Shikamaru muttered, and humbly took a bite of his food, deftly avoiding his look of killing intent and frown the man firmly pinned on him.

"What's wrong?" Tenten asked innocently, looking up from her plate of food. Choji quickly reassured her that nothing was wrong with a smile.

"Clumsy me, I dropped my chopsticks, I will be right back," he winked at her and quickly left to booth. Shikamaru noticed that the color increased on Tenten's cheeks from his subtle flirting, making the scowl on his face deepen just a bit more.

He took the time that Choji was away at the table to observe the kunoichi. She was pushing her food around her plate aimlessly, then suddenly she looked up at him with an embarrassed look.

"Do you know if Choji is seeing any one?" she rushed out firmly, folding her hands in her lap nervously.

Shikamaru chewed slowly several more times and swallowed before answering. "Why?"

Shikamaru was hoping that he wouldn't have to answer her directly before Choji returned. She cleared her throat and swallowed her pride.

"I was just wondering," she tried to make it seem like an offhanded comment than the serious question that it was. Then she looked up with all sincerity into Shikamaru's eyes for the answer, a bare part of her soul laid out before him as she waited for him to respond. The moment of vulnerability didn't go unnoticed and Shikamaru only managed to continue to chew anther bite of his food in reply. Luckily he had stalled long enough for the man in question to return to the booth and pick up eating where he had left off.

Tenten returned the man's reticence with a wry look before smiling all out as Choji looked up at her. The two chatted affably with each other throughout the rest of the meal, much to Shikamaru's annoyance.

As it turned out, Choji had just moved into her apartment complex a few days ago, and Tenten had very much noticed his presence there.

"My last apartment was a hole in the wall." Choji laughed at his misfortune, "a place down on Second,"

"And Main?" Tenten interrupted with awe at the coincidence.

"Yeah. Don't tell me you lived there before too?" She nodded with a laugh.

"Mr. Hiri-"

"Sashi" Choji finish with her, "yeah. Hell of a nice guy. The place was a dump though. You said live in the Torokuma Building, too?" Choji asked.

She nodded. "We just got back from a mission yesterday, I saw you this morning in the laundry room before I rushed off to practice."

"Oh, yeah," Choji realized with awe, "I was a bit distracted by the washer eating my coins mercilessly to say hi, sorry. I believe I was cursing at that metal can when you were getting something out of the vending machine."

"Yeah, you will want to avoid that one." She pointed out, "The super has yet to replace it, or put an out of order sign on it. And use the dryer all the way in the corner if you can." She spoke quickly, remembering, "It has the loudest buzzer, so you can hear it all the way in the basement if you leave your kitchen window open when your laundry is done."

"That is very clever," Choji commented, "I wish I had the sense to talk to you earlier instead Hulk-smashing the washer before training this morning."

Shikamaru noted the look of amusement in her eyes as they made their way up to the counter to pay. She playfully touched his shoulder in mock shock, "You didn't! Mr. Hakinawa will have a conniption!"

Choji was smiling back, "There may be an Akimichi-sized dent in the side by the coin slot," he said leaning in conspiratorially, "Don't tell anyone."

Then Choji turned his attention to the counter and paid for both his and Tenten's plates. Shikamaru was thoroughly agitated by this. They were openly flirting with each other and it was making him nauseous. Not to mention he was paying for her meal; Choji was laying it on thick.

"You didn't have to pay for the entire plate," Tenten argued, trying to give Choji at least her share of the meal. Choji clearly refused by shaking his head and putting his hands in the air to avoid touching the proffered money.

"No, consider it hush money for not telling anyone about the washer," he leaned in closer to whisper loudly, which earned a giggle from Tenten. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear in a coquette manner as she adjusted her gaze on him, and Shikamaru rolled his eyes as he muscled between them up to the counter to pay.

"Your meal was free, Shikamaru," Choji voiced to his friend, who sufficiently wedged himself between the two, clearly irritating them both. Choji sniffed at him and stared at him and his rude behavior, eyes half-lidded. He did not look amused by Shikamaru's antics.

It was enough of a break though, as the rest of team Gai was getting antsy for Tenten to follow them out of the building to resume training. Tenten brushed past Shikamaru, before he could stop it and Choji trucked behind her effectively cutting him off from another frontal assault. He decided to catch up, if only to continue to be obnoxious in his attempt to deter her from talking to him.

"Nakimori-sama in 304 will insist you come over tonight for dinner. She makes all the handsome young shinobi stop by at least once a month to make sure they eat a large meal. And since she's already asked me about you, I told her I would extend the invitation if I ran into you today."

Shikamaru found himself rolling his eyes as she continued. "I could come over early, help you unpack, if you like."

"I'd like that," Choji smiled again. "What apartment number are you?"

"411, end of the hall, you're in 403, right?"

"Yeah, same floor."

Neji was clearing his throat impatiently. "See you after training," she waved, and team Gai disappeared down the street.

There was a moments lingering after they had left, Ino finally came up between them and grabbed Choji's arm with out asking, a now very lively smile on her face.

"I am going to help get you ready for your date!" She squealed, dragging the Akimichi behind her.

The alarm on Choji's face would have been humorous, if his puppy-dog eyes hadn't pleaded with Shikamaru to kill him on the spot. Shikamaru figured he'd been enough of a jerk to his best friend for one day, and decided to help the poor man out instead of being a hindrance. He followed behind them, shoving his hands inside his pockets with a defeated sigh. So much for cloud watching, he thought abruptly.

"He's mine today, Ino," Shikamaru insisted, "he still has to unpack and I promised that I would help him do that today. You can play dress up later."

For a moment there was a bit of tug of war on Choji's massive arms as he was yanked back and forth between the two, each one shouting at each other and turning red.

"As much fun as this is guys," Choji pulled out his clan's jutsu and grabbed each of them with a giant fist and pulled them apart, "I think there is enough of me to share. As long as you both behave." He pinned them each with a stern look, "why don't you both come over. Ino," he looked at her first, "you can help me look presentable, and Shikamaru," he breathed a heavy sigh as he turned in his direction, "just be nice." It sounded threatening, and the slight squeeze the man used to constrict his chest confirmed that Choji wasn't speaking lightly.

They both nodded and Choji let them go, taking off in the direction of his apartment leaving Ino and Shikamaru to dumbly look at each other and blink. Then Ino tore off after Choji with a child's shriek of delight, talking faster and higher and louder than what his current decibel threshold could handle and he instinctively held both hands up to his ears as he walked.

Women were so troublesome.

(o)