Disclaimer: Do not own anything.
Like Her Heart
There were always things that needed explaining.
Like the sky.
When they were much younger, she'd asked Shikamaru why the sky was blue. He'd very slowly explained to her, like the way you would to a curious child that it had to do with the sun and wavelengths and atoms. Not, as she had previously believed, that it was sad.
For a long while she didn't understand the full concept of what he had explained to her that day, but every time it rained she ran his words through her head. And every time she felt better in the knowledge that, if she went outside she wouldn't be covered in pent up teardrops.
There were always mysteries to be unraveled.
Like sunsets.
A couple years later she'd asked, if the sky was blue, why were sunsets red? He'd used the same slow voice he had used the first time she'd asked him something. Though this time as he went to speak in low tones of scattered light and absorption and the atmosphere, she noticed his voice was a little deeper, just a little softer than before.
So, at the beginning of the night, when the sky was filled with a deadly shade of red, Ino forced herself to repeat what Shikamaru had told her that day. She didn't dare to think about a candle burned to the wick and about to go out, letting the darkness reign in.
There were always issues to take into consideration.
Like life.
After another couple of years she found him on a random hillside, staring lazily up into the cloudy afternoon sky, another question poised on the tip her tongue. She sat beside him for a minute, and then asked quietly what the meaning of life was. Her fingers toyed lightly with the grass blades between them, half of her expecting a scientific answer, the other half expecting nothing at all. She waited, and this time his reply was a smooth, deep rumbling from his chest, rolling off his tongue to hang on the air like a blanket around them. He told her, quite seriously, that life was to hug your dog, kiss your mom, say something nice to your friends, and stare at the clouds.
Ino wasted no time in pointing out to him that she didn't have a dog, and he didn't hesitate upon telling her that that wasn't his problem.
She was positive he let her hit him.
He was positive she let him call her troublesome.
This time it wouldn't be until a particularly dark night that Ino would bring to mind that day on the grass field, her arm and his words between them. She said his words out loud then, loud enough to be heard clearly above the rush of water - washing the blood that wasn't hers but hurt as if it were off her pale body.
"Life was to hug your dog, kiss your mom, say something nice to your friends, and stare at the clouds."
She repeated it, again and again until the water ran cold against her skin.
Life was not to kill everyone and everything, to take life away and never give it back. Life was not blood splattering on her face, a weapon cold in her hand, and screams that never had the chance to be voiced, even though she heard them all too well.
"Life was to hug your dog, kiss your mom, say something nice to your friends, and stare at the clouds."
The next day Ino made it a point to start living.
And then there were some circumstances when there were things that you didn't need to question.
Like her heart.
Ino had never once questioned what love was, so it came as a bit of a shock when she found herself once again lying next to Shikamaru, so close that their arms were actually touching, that he brought himself out of his lazy daydreams enough to ask.
"What's love?"
The question was asked plainly enough, he'd placed no emphasis on any of the words, and his posture made it seem as though he didn't really care if she gave him an answer or not. Unfortunately for him, Ino had known him too long, knew him too well to underestimate the fact that Shikamaru had actually initiated a serious conversation. This was important to him, for one reason or another.
"It's where we belong."
It's all she had to offer, from his smile, it was enough.