WARNING!: Excessive abuse of hyphenations.

O-(o)

Shikamaru's heart slammed hard into his chest, and for a few minutes the only thing he could hear was how loud it beat in his own ears. His mom was going to start fighting again? Hadn't his father and himself worked damned hard to prevent her from being on the front lines all this time? He knew his father, as strong as he was, would be a shell of a man if he lost her. Did his father know? Was that what his mom left to go talk to his father about? Was he just now being informed about this?

Shikamaru raced up the stairs to find his parents. His mother was in a sparing outfit, strapping a weapon's pouch to her hip with fumbling fingers like a genin, she had been out of the field so long. Shikaku, naturally, had a firm scowl on his scarred face, and what seemed like a permanent growl in the back of his throat ready to rumble a dissent of his wife's actions.

As soon as Shikamaru entered the room both parent's eyes fell on him. His mother's eyes landed on him with a proud smile, and he would describe his father visage as pouting at the moment, if it weren't so unmanly. The man looked like he was going to put someone through the wall at any moment he was so displeased. Displeased, and unable to do a damn thing to change it. Shikamaru stuffed his own panic down and did his best to look for some kind of silver lining. He'd seen enough clouds in his day that he knew they all didn't have one, but he really didn't want to be the person his father put through the side of the house with a comment that wasn't going to be helpful.

"Don't worry, I will make dinner just as soon as I get done training with Tenten." She turned to pacify her husband with a small squeeze to his forearm and Shikaku only seemed to furrow his brow at the thought.

"I will not have my wife finish training only to have to make dinner too." He turned a wary eye to his son. "Shikamaru and I will have dinner waiting for both of you when you get done sparring." His mom beamed and gave her husband a jubilant hug, and he noticed his father wrap his arms around her as if it were the last time he would ever see her again. He gently but firmly held his wife, his partner, and the mother of his only child so tenderly it made Shikamaru even more alarmed concerning his mother's safety.

"Tenten is a good kunoichi, Dad," he found himself saying, "Mom's in good hands."

"I know," his voice was muffled as he nuzzled his wife's neck and fisted his fingers through her hair.

"Stop that," she batted his hand away playfully, "Tenten is pretty strict about my hair being out of the way when we train." She touched the sides of her hair in search for any loose fly-aways.

"Good," the man grunted back to her, "Makes good sense to have your hair tied back."

It wasn't like Shikamaru could argue. His father had made him tie his hair back early on in life and it served him well. He never could get why Ino had half of her bangs in her eyes just for the sake of looking good. Not that he thought that it did, but who was he to judge fashion trends? Suddenly his thoughts wandered to what Tenten would like with her hair down. The moment passed so briefly he pushed it aside and smiled at his mother instead.

"Congratulations, Mom," he hugged her again, "I'm proud of you."

As soon as his mother had departed for her training, his father looked him over with a knowing eye and they both remained silent until they had reached his father's liquor cabinet and downed a shot of sake each.

"So Mom," Shikamaru began.

"Yeah," Shikaku poured another shot and Shikamaru happily drank to that sentiment. There was another long pause before Shikamaru spoke up again.

"Tenten really is a good kunoichi, Dad." It was the only thing he could think to say to comfort the man.

Shikaku poured another round, "I know I handpicked her myself." He downed the shot quickly after that statement while Shikamaru just stared at his father. He knew? How long was his last mission? Too long. It made sense now ,the half garbled message his father left on his answering machine. His father had probably slurred it in his maudlin state into the phone at the late hour only the night before. Shikamaru hadn't been home in weeks and the cold efficiency apartment that was waiting for him seemed like a shoebox in comparison with his parent's old house as the message bounced around the sterile walls. The decision to move out was necessitated by the amount of damage done to the Nara property and other clan residents. His parents had housed relatives that he hadn't even known existed after the devastation that Pein had left, and Shikamaru volunteered to find a new spot to stay until his father deemed it necessary to live on clan property again.

"How long was this in the works?" he found himself asking after draining the small sake cup.

"Too long," his father responded with a gruff voice.

"Why her?" Shikamaru couldn't help but ask, not that he had any complaints about her. He knew Tenten was good. He had fought with her in the war.

"It was between her and Anko." He paused to finger the lip of the cup with the pad of his finger, "I thought that Anko might be a bad influence on your mother. That," he looked his son in the eye, "and I didn't want Anko's boyfriend sniffing around our property. Tenten is single and just as capable, so she won out in the end."

Tenten was single? His mind drifted back to the slope of her neck as he watched her walk to the house and the way her hips swayed as she gracefully took each step. There was something about the swish of the fabric while she walked that had Shikamaru lingering behind her on the way home that evening. His buzzed mind wouldn't allow him to push the thought out so easily, and his eidetic memory only served to placate his need to keep his attention solely on the brown eyed girl. He played back the touch of her skin against his hands, the smell of her hair as he pulled her closer and the slight blush on her cheeks when she caught him staring so intently at her. But it was those eyes, he thought, that were better looking than any cloud-watching day he had ever had. He wanted another opportunity to get up close and personal with them again, and the desire to do was so strong, he wondered if he might have had too much to drink.

It turns out he had had too much to drink. Shikamaru proved that after charing his thumb medium rare on a frying pan trying to flip over the fish before they burned in an effort to make dinner with his father. Shikaku had given him a stern look, something of a suck-it-up-and-be-a-man glare mixed with a don't-you-dare-burn-yourself-again-or-your-mother-will-find-out-we've-been-drinking-and-my-ass-will-be-in-trouble scowl. Shikamaru quickly bandaged it up and set the table, opting for a job where he couldn't flay open his skin with the slip of a knife or cause anymore bodily harm to his skin with fire.

The women had finally returned, sweaty and out of breath from the night's workout.

Shikamaru was just getting around to putting the tea on the table when a flash of lightning lit up through the glass patio doors and thunder boomed almost instantaneously afterwards.

"My guess is that your aunts and uncles are staying out at the Akimichi's tonight," Shikaku drawled as he placed the rice on the table. "They were out fixing roofs on their property earlier. I doubt they will be traveling in the storm to make it back tonight. I hope they are able to fix them before the storm hits."

"I should get going then," Tenten stated hastily throwing a thumb over her shoulder to the door, "I don't want to get caught in that either."

"Too late," Yoshino muttered as she peered out the doors surveying the spate of rain that came down in sheets, "Why don't you have dinner with us and we will see if it dies down by the time we've finished?" Shikamaru noted that his mom was wearing her polite don't-argue-with-me smile.

"I don't want to be a bother, a little rain never hurt me," she tried to wave it off and headed to the door.

"Don't be silly," Yoshino smiled sweetly, "The guys worked so hard to make us a meal; it would be a shame to let so much food go to waste."

Shikamaru could tell that Tenten really didn't want to impose. He also knew it was nearly impossible to argue with his mother, especially since she was being so reasonable about it. Shikamaru had to admit her manipulation skills were always sharp.

"You wouldn't let my son's burning his thumb to make dinner go to waste, now would you?" Shikaku passively asked as he shook his head wearily as if to state "there is no hope for our boy" to Yoshino who had raised an eye brow with authority at her husband. It was the beginnings of I-leave-the-house-for-an-hour-look that faded quickly with a roll of her eyes instead because her husband had smirked at her with a sparkle of mischievousness in his eyes. It may or may not have been accompanied by a subsonic chuckle that registered so low in decimals levels that only Inuzuka dogs would've be able to hear it.

Tenten just gave a dumbfounded look as if she didn't know whether or not his father was kidding, he said the sentence so seriously. Then Tenten cleared her throat and looked like she was hopelessly trying to suppress a giggle as her gaze landed on Shikamaru's charred thumb.

"I suppose I should stay," she stated with a straight face, "since you and your son went through so much trouble."

Dinner passed amiably between the members of the Nara clan and their guest for the evening. Tenten had even managed to get his dad roaring with laughter after telling him about the time Gai had bought some special scrolls for Tenten at a store where she was not old enough to purchase such potentially deadly weapons as only a mere genin. He had pocketed the delicate rice paper and ink for demo tags in his jounin vest before leaving the store. Right as Tenten had asked if he got the scrolls with eager anticipation, Lee had come up to him and had given his sensei a bone-crushing hug. She remembered hearing the pop of the bottle and Gai opening his vest up to show the inky spot that no doubtedly destroyed each finely hand-crafted fragile paper. Gai managed to answer Tenten's question by way of saying: "Half-off, damaged."

When diner was over, Yoshino and Shikaku insisted on doing the dishes together and that Shikamaru go and show Tenten where she would be sleeping. Tenten looked like she was going to argue, but the two Nara parents proved to be a formidable wall of we-won't-take-no-for-an-answer as they superimposed their arms over their chests and looked at her with authority.

"Wow, they really have that scary-parent-no-jutsu down, don't they?" Tenten marveled as they made their way upstairs.

"It's also code for they will be fooling around in the kitchen for the next half-hour or so. You're lucky my dad wasn't feeling my mom up when we left." He muttered with a gravelly voice.

"I can't argue with a warm place to stay the night." Tenten supplied happily after a bit of silence. Was she always so optimistic and cheery? How was her disposition able to be so comforting to him somehow? Even just being next to her was starting to make him more prone to smile. He made it a point to accidentally lurch into her space as they reached the top step just to get another fantastic whiff of her alluring aroma, which only seemed to get better after a workout. Her scent was mixed with the Nara grounds, something he never thought he would find pleasant on anyone, but it somehow made hers more appealing, almost like she was meant to parade around the grounds to formulate the heavily smells just for him. If he was an Inuzuka, he would describe it like some primitive territorial thing, his woman smelling like his land. What could be better than that? His smell on her, that's what.

That totally had to be the sake making him think that way. He realized that he had hours to sober up and a full meal, but he blamed the alcohol despite the genius in him blaming his hormones instead. That, and the possibility that he might have had a little bit of a crush on her since he first saw her at the chunin exams, but he was determinedly lazy enough that he had ignored such things. He blamed her proximity for the weird way he was thinking.

"I don't have anything to sleep in. Can I borrow some clothes?" She asked this so innocently, and yet Shikamaru's head could only get caught up in just how good she would look if she only wore one of his old shirts….and nothing else.

"I can hunt something down for you," he tried not to sound excited about it, but coming from him, it probably just sounded like anyone else's normal tone.

"Thanks," she smiled at him. It wasn't a smile that was formed out of just polite pleasantries. She was smiling for him, as if she thought he was special. Not special as in stop-trying-to-eat-the-paste special. Special just-for-him special. He wanted more of those. More smiles directed at him from Tenten that made his brain go fuzzy were at the very top of his list of things that he needed more of.

"I will set you up to sleep in my old room since my aunt and uncle won't be there tonight."

"Wow," Tenten said as if she were impressed, "You really don't have to go through so much trouble. I can couch it, seriously."

"Trust me," Shikamaru tried to not look too disgusted as he spoke, "With my parents being amorous downstairs, you don't want to have to sleep on the last place they desecrated."

Tenten laughed at the comment, though he could tell that it wasn't done maliciously or at his expense. He needed more earfuls of her musical laughter. It was just as addicting as her smile or scent.

"Better hurry with your shower before the power goes out." Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets in an effort not to look anxious as lightning flashed in the hallway window. The proceeding boom shook the house and rattled the pictures on the walls.

She winked as she shut the door, as if to say she would be right on it.

Shikamaru shuffled into his old room hoping the power did go off so he had an excuse to enter the bathroom while she was showering.

Okay, so his hormones were officially kicking his lazy ass.

O_(0)

A/N: No fish slaps…yet.

Which, by the way, fish slaps? Really?

Be careful what you ask for…