A/N: I originally intended for this to be a two-part story but for the life of me, I could not! So it will be in three parts. Sorry to disappoint; no lemony snickies here, just pure fluffballs. Also, I really did plan for this to be a PWP thing but my writer self needed even just a little bit of substance. I probably messed up my portrayal of Temari here (though I do imagine her to master both her soft side and mischievous, ferocious side), but blame that on creative freedom and whatnot. Honestly, this chapter seems so bland since it didn't turn out how I wanted it to so please bear with me on that and I promise to do better on the next one! Thank you for your support, everyone!
When she roused from her nap two hours later, Temari was on her back and she rolled languidly to her side only to be met with more bed space rather than a warm body which she expected to be there. Blinking her teal eyes open, she scanned the room and found her husband's head peeking from the doorway of the kitchen.
"Lunch is here," he said softly.
Nodding, Temari sat up and was a bit surprised when she felt the cloth of the inn's yukata. If her memory served her correct, she fell asleep naked. A soft smile grazed her lips when she realized that Shikamaru must have dressed her while she was sleeping. How exceedingly thoughtful of him.
The pair of them sat beside one another by the table once more and said their pleasantries. Temari was slightly pleased that their food was not plated out of the ordinary this time. "I guess it would not be as fun as the first time you see it, no?"
"At least one of us had fun," Temari muttered, reaching for her chopsticks.
Shikamaru snorted. "Lighten up, hime."
The woman in question chose to ignore his comment. "Ano…arigatou…for dressing me up while I was sleeping. It seems you remember that I don't do very well with cold temperature."
The shinobi looked at his wife. Her cheeks were tainted pink and she was looking towards her lap, chopsticks in hand but not really moving them. He set his own chopsticks down and tilted her chin so his eyes could meet hers.
There could never be enough words to describe how beautiful she was. Sure, Shikamaru was already acquainted with the fact that she was smart, strong, logical, and just overall brilliant. Heck, they've been really close friends for years and he would be an idiot if he didn't notice that. And Shikamaru was no idiot.
However…it was only very recent that he had come to acknowledge that she was beautiful as well, and not just because her smile was radiant that it could light up the rest of his tomorrows. No, even if she weren't smiling, she was a gorgeous sight to behold. Now, he thinks back to almost every instance that they had worked together.
From that taunting look she gave him when they fought in the chuunin exams, to that smirk she threw him when she saved him from Tayuya, the surprised look that briefly graced her features when she saw him behind her when he had come to her aid against Kujaku, to the many variations of determined looks whenever they were on their diplomacy errands…Even in the midst of war, there was something alluring about this woman in front of him.
"Shikamaru…?"
Blinking his eyes, he was pulled from his daydream by her voice. It seemed he had indulged far too long and she was staring at him in mild confusion. "G-Gomen. My thoughts of you distracted me from…well, you."
Temari swallowed slowly. "Right…"
"I mean…you don't have to thank me for that. You're a strong and independent woman and you can take care of yourself just fine even without me. So, just let me do all the little things that I can to make your life easier and you don't have to thank me for it. I like that I get to be useful to you in tiny, little ways."
He watched as the pair of teal eyes half-hooded themselves and witness how her blush intensified, even going as far as spreading to the tip of her ears. Shikamaru felt his hand being pulled away from her cheek and the next thing he knew, her lips were on his as she was kissing him gently yet firmly. The shinobi returned it without question and shortly, he felt her arms wind slowly around his neck.
"You make it sound like you married me because you wanted to be a butler," she said and then chuckled after she pulled away from him.
Shikamaru feigned confusion and quirked his brows together. "Were you under the impression that it's not my reason?"
Temari grinned and then laughed softly. "Well, I suppose I can work on ordering you around…" she said playfully.
Clothed in traditional wear and geta sandals, the Nara couple walked through the fields that was near the vicinity of their inn. It was a new parcel of land that Kakashi ordered his team to start developing in order to cater to the village's growing population and need for new places to set up business and facilities.
"How clever of Kakashi to split this new district into industrial and traditionally recreational," Temari remarked, watching without focus the construction that was opposite the side of their inn. She was sure there was some noise-cancelling jutsu in play so the nearby residents wouldn't be disturbed.
Shikamaru looked at her and squeezed her hand softly. "What makes you think it was Kakashi's idea?"
The Suna princess looked up at her husband and smirked. "Right, okay, Mr. Smartypants. I apologise for not realising it was your brainchild," she bantered, but then turned a little softer. "That was brilliant of you to suggest, anata."
"So it's just clever if it were Kakashi, but it's brilliant because it's me?" Shikamaru grinned.
"Of course. You're my husband. You should be nothing short of brilliant. Else, I'd be hard pressed to desire being seen walking alongside you," she said coolly.
The shinobi chuckled and led them to sit on an empty bench that overlooked almost all of the village. "So, you mean to say you have recognized my brilliance long before? You have been seen walking beside me for more than five years now."
Temari sat down beside Shikamaru and slid her arms around his own, laying her head on his shoulder. "More or less."
"Damn, hime. Exactly how long have you had a crush on me?" he joked.
"I'll answer that if you answer it, too," she said with a smirk, knowing she was more likely to admit it than him. It was unspoken truth between them, that even though she seems to be a tsundere—or a himedere, like he so insists—she was the one who was more courageous in accepting and talking about her feelings.
Shikamaru liked to make her blush and make her embarrassed but she gets over it quickly. He, on the other hand, is a bit emotionally crippled, as if he suddenly loses his 200+ IQ rating whenever he talked about his feelings. It was an occasion so rare when he would talk about his emotions but he greatly compensates for it through doing.
"N-Nani?" he sputtered, a little flabbergasted. "That's a joke, you know."
Temari's smirk grew. "I know, but let's see if you can man up on this one."
Shikamaru scratched his temple and rolled his eyes. "Mendokusai na…"
"Oh? Nani? Did I marry an emotionally incapable man?" she jibed, hands tightening their grip on his muscular arm. "Shall I call you crybaby again? I didn't think you'd revert to it after all these years of proving to me you aren't exactly one."
"Damn, hime," he said the words again, and he thinks silently that it'll be a phrase that'll leave his mouth frequently for the rest of their lives together since his wife was a bit vicious with her words. Not that he'll have it any other way, though. "I say one thing and you say a million other things."
Harrumphing, Temari crossed her legs and sat against the bench. Her hold on his arm loosened but her hands remained touching him. "Am I sensing you're already considering returning me to Suna?"
"Tch. Anata wa mendodesu."
"Fine, fine," she crooned naughtily. "I'll pack my things first thing when we get home. Such a pain after a week's worth of preparing and transferring my belongings here in Konoha."
His eyes rolled once more and he had to marvel at how resilient they were that they weren't permanently stuck, rolled to the inside of his skull. "Does it mean that much that you know?"
Chuckling, Temari poked his side. "You're so touchy," she muttered. "I didn't say it was a requirement to answer it. I said 'I'll answer if you answer it, too.' I didn't compel you to. You compelled yourself. Which leads me to believe that you desire my answer more than I desire to know of yours. Ne, anata?"
"You were taunting me."
"Ah, don't act like I haven't done anything of the sort before, Shika. I've thrown you far worse taunts than that and you've handled them all superbly."
"This is different."
Temari looked at him curiously, unable to help pushing him just a little. "How? Because we're talking about us, something concrete, as opposed to how we were before when we vehemently blurred the line between friendship and something more so many times? Don't tell me you enjoy that better."
For a moment, he thought she was annoyed at him at his awkwardness about him and his emotions but when he turned to look at her, his wife's smirk was one of the biggest he had ever seen and her eyes spelled mischief. Kami-sama. This woman would be the death of him. And what a sweet death it would be.
"In the hospital after that flute bitch," he blurted out, his mouth working before his mind could. When Shikamaru realised what he had said, it was his turn to blush a deep red. His head turned to face the village once more, expecting a snide remark of some sort. What came, however, was a kiss on the cheek.
Temari laid a hand on his cheek, making him subconsciously seek more of her warmth, and turned him to face her. "That's very flattering even if I don't exactly understand why you would. I mean, we barely knew each other then. And our encounter before that involved me wanting to slice your pineapple head off with my Tessen."
Shikamaru merely shrugged, his abashed expression still very much evident. "It was a crush. It basically screamed 'fuck logic!'."
"But you couldn't have picked a better time? I was undergoing puberty then; I hardly looked my best…" she lamented with a small pout.
"W-Well…I-I…You know…" he stammered, eyes going from one side to another as he scrambled for an explanation. "You were—"
She silenced him with another soft, quick kiss. The man endured enough of her teasing for the day. She might be the cruellest kunoichi but the 'cruellest' stopped there. It wouldn't sit well with her if she were dubbed as 'cruellest wife', too. "Hush. You don't have to tell me anything if it's making you uncomfortable."
Frowning, Shikamaru shook his head. "I want you to know…" he said softly, the tips of his ears burning red.
Temari smiled warmly at him, squeezing his arm in an assuring manner. "Mm. Maybe you do, but if it's making you uncomfortable, then I won't expect it of you. Wanting a something is different from doing something when it's making you feel vulnerable. You don't have to, Shikamaru. It's fine."
There was no hint of sarcasm on her tone, nor were her words laced with teasing. It was just simply his wife wanting him to take his pace about this, given his difficulties regarding the matter. However, they were married now. He had married his first (and only) crush, the woman of his dreams both literally and figuratively. He wanted to give her everything, including everything of himself. And he knew he had to start somewhere.
"I guess…" he started though he sensed that Temari thought it was the end of their conversation when she smiled warmly at him once more. Shikamaru had other plans in his mind, though. "I guess I just really appreciated how you stayed with me when I was waiting for news on our friends' operations…"
The confession startled Temari a bit but she stayed silent, not wanting to discourage him or anything.
"You didn't have to, but you did. Your brothers already headed to the inn that was prepared for the three of you but you stayed waiting even if it were such a long wait. You even saw Oyaji scold the soul out of me but afterwards, you still treated me like a worthy shinobi. I wasn't then, not at the time, but there was no difference to you. I guess I just…subconsciously made it a goal to be worthy of your treatment of me then."
Temari smiled at the memory and looked up at him once more. "Thank you for sharing that with me, Shikamaru. I really appreciate it," she said softly.
"I should be sharing these things with you anyway; you're my wife now. And before that, we're close friends who basically matured alongside each other," he replied. "I guess I just don't want…I mean, I kind of hesitate telling you not because I don't want to, but because I don't exactly know how to. I don't want to look stupid fumbling over my words."
The blonde princess shook her head lightly. "You said it yourself, anata. I'm your wife now. Looking stupid or sounding stupid is the last worry you should have around me. I'll take you as you are without question, raw or polished, without second thoughts. Besides, you rarely ever look stupid, smartass."
Shikamaru smirked. "Tch, I can enumerate the times when you told me I did."
It was her turn to roll her eyes now. "Never mind that now. You held out your end of the rope; it's time I do mine."
Shikamaru couldn't point out why but in those few seconds of her thinking in silence regarding the question posed, he was slightly nervous of her answer. And it was ridiculous because he has her now, he's got nothing to lose anymore. Then again, she was probably right; he did desire her answer more than she desired his.
"Mm. I suppose I admitted to myself that I admired you after you saved me from that sword bitch. Funny how you saved me from getting my neck slashed when I tried to slice yours the first time we met," Temari chuckled, which made her husband follow suit.
"Well, we didn't really have the most romantic of meetings, no?"
"Heh! You were far too lazy to be romantic. I wasn't going to hold my breath," she snorted.
Shikamaru grinned as his wife settled from her chortling. "…So you didn't have a crush on me?"
Temari looked at him from the corner of her eye. "I wouldn't call it that, no. It wasn't a slow burn kind of thing like yours. Yours, it seemed, developed over the years. I guess mine did too, in a way, but I didn't know it. So that makes you correct in telling me that I was oblivious to my own feelings. It was everything all at once and fuck, was it the most overwhelming several days ever."
"What do you mean?"
Temari sorted her thoughts out the best she could. Going through the myriad of emotions was difficult enough; explaining the situation even harder. "You asked me out after the events at the Land of Silence, yeah? And it would be weeks before we saw each other once more. When I got home, I didn't immediately think of it. I had my duties to fulfil after the mission and I attended to them along with some more diplomacy work from Konoha. I guess you could say that I wasn't particularly excited on dealing with it so I worked myself to the bone until I finished everything. My brothers had to practically beg me to take a week off…"
"Now that I think about it, you seemed far too relaxed when I asked you out. And then of course there was the time at the Shinobi Alliance meeting…"
"A story for another time," she assured him. She was sure Shikamaru saw the tears that were threatening to spill from her teal eyes before she walked away from him. "Anyways…when I finally got the alone time I both needed and dreaded, I began to think about your offer and about us…from the moment we first met until then. It seemed my feelings escalated to that of the romantic sort without my conscious knowing.
"I didn't know how to deal with it that it physically pained me to even think about it because I had to wait before I saw you next and even then, we had a three-day distance. It was most difficult because I knew to myself that I'd have a confirmation of what I felt when I saw you in person. But I couldn't just leave for Konoha without valid reason.
"And it didn't help that you didn't contact me after your offer, you ass. It was awful being made to wait and not having a clue whether it was in vain or what. Perhaps you could say that it's the reason why I walked on eggshells when we looked for Naruto and Hinata's wedding gift, why I had that reaction when you told me we needed to go to the inn," Temari said, the memory making her blush fiercely. "You dug on every exposed nerve I had that day."
Shikamaru smiled a little apologetically, silently admiring how easily she could explain herself and her emotions to him. Then again, he thought that it was no different from what she does when they were growing up. She has been treating him like he was her best confidant and now that he realizes that, he feels so honoured. "No wonder…"
"Anyways, I am getting bored just sitting here and staring at the village. I am going to live the rest of my life here; I sure as hell don't want to be tired of it after just a week," she said, standing up and taking his hand. "Take me to somewhere I've never been before."
"Will do, hime," he said eagerly, squeezing her hand and leading the way.
