Spending Christmas with Troublesome Women

Rating: T

Part One: The First Time

Part one in my two-part ShikaxTema Christmas story

Feeling the spirit, baby. This is for Meesah, Merry Christmas. Hope the lame presents from me don't kill you.

XxxxX

Bored. As usual. It was Christmastime, and Gaara had conveniently forgotten to schedule her a trip back to Suna. Not that they really celebrated Christmas.

That was more of a family holiday.

Ad though it was true, they were family, it was only in name.

This time around, she wasn't quite sure WHY she was in Konoha. The hokage must have known, because she signed the visa. A standard scroll was given to her, with an updated version of they new laws involving foreigners, and a mission statement.

Wait… mission statement?

"Why didn't I check earlier?" Temari hissed, annoyed at herself. When she finally found the official notice leaf, it had been shoved behind the toilet.

"Erm… I'm not even going to ask how that got there." She mumbled to herself.

Opening it, and passing over the laws briefly with no emotion, the excitement grew in the pit of her stomach. Perhaps something to be happy about after all! And sure enough, at the bottom, there was the Hokage's rushed and loopy writing.

Mission Statement:

You presence over the holidays has been requested by an anonymous man.

And then, even sloppier writing was found at the bottom. It looked like something someone would write when they were drunk enough to still be able to hold a pen properly.

It's Shikamaru, haha.

Damn, she should have known better. No one would just randomly call her over to Konoha Christmas eve and just randomly leave her there.

"Very funny, Nara. Because ruining my Christmas is SO, FUCKING, FUNNY!" She crumpled the scroll with her fist. Against her will, she felt something burning in her eyes.

She kneeled on the bathroom with her fists pressed against her forehead. Because the truth was, it was the farthest thing from funny she could imagine. This was the cruel type of humor she would have never expected from Nara, who's taunts were more like flirting than anything.

She didn't want him to do something horrible like this. Because truly, he wasn't that bad. This just topped the bill.

And then, she suddenly stood up.

"What the hell was he thinking?" she asked aloud. And she intended to find out.

XxxxX

Shikamaru, who was staring at his Christmas tree was startled by the sudden violent knock on his apartment door. Was his mother back … AGAIN? She had allready done the tree, and he promised her he'd be there the next morning…

Plus, it was like, 8 now? And a Tuesday night too. Shikamaru knew what his parents did on Tuesdays… though, it could have been different now that he moved out.

Nonetheless, he still had to answer the door. He didn't really fancy the idea of paying for it to be replaced.

He clicked the lock and swung open the door, slowly.

"Mother, I told you I'll-"

Whoa.

"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?!" He was pressed backwards, as a very angry woman thrust herself into his presence.

"My holidays are screwed up enough with out being called anonymously over here, and being left in that cold apartment building! Did you honestly think I'd appreciate spending Christmas Eve in Konoha with no fucking idea why I was here?!"

Shikamaru had been stumbling backwards, her finger pressed hard against his chest. His back hit a wall.

"And then! Then you tell people ALL ABOUT you funny little joke, at the expense of someone who has no clue what's going on!!" It hadn't happened yet, but she could imagine it being so.

Shikamaru turned his face to the side, preparing for a blow. He could see angry tears in the corners of her eyes.

"I can normally stand your stupid jokes, and taunts. For years, I've taken them like they were nothing, returning them with some of my own, even! But this is cruel! Who wants to be called away from their family on Christmas. Who cares how dysfunctional it is?! Who cares that Gaara can't even get a break off work?! Who cares Kankurou's always off spending the night with some woman?! Who cares?!? It's still a happy day!" She wanted to believe it, but somehow couldn't. But home was better than this.

Shikamaru was surprised at her sudden confession of the Sand Siblings' family life dynamic.

"Dumbass! Heartless bastard! I'll kill you for this!" It was halfhearted and strangled. The finger on his chest turned into a fist. Two fists, actually.

Shikamaru opened his eyes. She was hunched over, almost on the floor. After a moment, he dropped down to her level, and brushed away the hair sticking to her splotchy red face. Even Temari managed to look somewhat angelic when she cried – something Shikamaru had never seen her do.

He noticed her bags by the wide open door. Did she actually intend to leave in this weather? IT had been snowing steadily all week.

"Whoa, whoa, Temari, slow down." He said, as gently as he could manage. "What's going on?"

"You know what's going on!" she cried, more feebly this time. He saw a tear fall on to her leg. She looked at him, sitting up. "Gaara sent me over here… four days before Christmas saying I had a mission! And I check the scroll, and it said that you'd anonymously called me over here, for no apparent reason! I could be home now! Warm! Drinking hot chocolate and listening to music!"

Shikamaru's eyes widened a little bit, and he swallowed, trying to get moisture into his now, parched throat. His tongue wouldn't work. It had suddenly swollen to the size of Texas.

"I didn't mean for- I wanted you to-" He stumbled over his words, something that rarely happened. He tried again.

"I figured you-" She slapped him, a sudden action he hadn't been expecting.

"Asshole!"

"STOP! Stop, Temari, STOP!"

She was collecting her bags in a rather violent manner by the door.

"And you can't even tell me why!" she was mumbling rather loudly to herself. More tears were streaming down her face.

Shikamaru hurriedly grabbed his shoes, and ran after her. "I'm serious, stop!" he cried angrily. "What a pain-in-the-ass!"

And Temari kept running, running, running. The snow stung her bare ankles and numbed her toes.

She didn't get far before Shikamaru snagged her sleeve. Temari whipped around, ready to slap him soundly. He caught her wrist swiftly with ease.

"I swear, if you so much as-"

He cut her off. "You never listen, do you?"

His lips were pressed against hers. Hard. At first, she was resistant, wondering what the hell gave him the right to kiss her. But then she began to relax, the tension leaving her raised hand. She longed for him to snake his arms around her waist, press against the back of her head, and overtake her mouth with his tongue.

But he just stood there, unmoving, kissing his worst enemy like it was normal.

What seemed like days, really only lasted less than a minute. She was shivering, not dressed for the snow that was dusting her hair in clothing. He looked cold too, hair falling out of its usual ponytail into his face.

Shikamaru stretched out a hand, and brushed away the hot tears that still lingered on her face.

"Is there a problem spending Christmas with me?"

She dropped her bag.

No, there was not.

XxxxX END OF PART 1 XxxxX

Review and maybe I'll marry you.