Okay, so I don't feel like continuing to write my paper anymore (I'm over halfway, I can take a break!) so I'm back with chapter two! I decided it'll be a present before I leave for my break at the end of the week, since I REALLY don't know when I'll update after that. Curse you college papers!!!
And yes, so I reread the epilogue from "Exiled" and apparently that takes place four and a half months after the start of the fic, so just to make sure we're (and by that I mean me, lol) are on the same page:
"Oblivious" takes place 6 months (I upped the time a smidgen) after the beginning of "Exiled" and 1.5 months after the epilogue.
Ergo, Shika and Neji have been dating for 6 months.
AND the only people who know they've been dating are Sakura (she's kinda known from the beginning) and Chouji and Ino (they've known for the last 1.5 months).
Okay! I'm all good and know where I am. Now, enjoy chapter two and I hope you like it. I'll be back before the end of March, I promise with chapter three!!
"Speaking."
'Thinking.'
In the words of Puss in Boots, "Es not mine." And sorry for any grammar/spelling mistakes, too!
Chapter Two – Wake Up Call
One eye was raised cautiously open, looked left, then right, then left again before it closed and an slight /sigh/ was heard.
Shikamaru groaned slightly as he remembered exactly where he was at the current moment. It was not a groan out of frustration, but rather one of disappointment at the lack of warmth beside him. But upon hearing the sound of water splashing against tiles coming from outside the open bedroom door, he relaxed.
Promptly turning over on his stomach, with his head buried under the pillow and quickly fell back asleep.
It was a little strange, not five minutes before, when he woke up and found himself not cocooned in his usually sea of fleece blankets (since his room was always the one that fluctuated in temperature and mostly toward the cooler side) but Shikamaru did not panic.
Yes, a normal person would have freaked out, jumped ten feet in the air and then begin to question where they were, who kidnapped them and why? But Shika, no, he just made sure that he was alive and not dreaming? Check. There was no trap waiting to be triggered and for him to die? Check. And was he in a comfortable spot that just induced one into never leaving it again due to the warmth and softness of these particular blankets? Check, check, check!
No, Shika was well aware, after only a second's hesitation, that he was in Neji's bedroom and not his own. He was still a little hazy as to how he had gotten there in the first place, only remembering the latter portion of his return from the mission, and by that I mean the part where Sakura almost knocked him off his feet in one blow.
However, none of that mattered to him at the moment. He didn't have anywhere to go and hell if he was going to go home. He was too comfortable and was going to mooch off his boyfriend as much as possible. For that moment, that meant going back to sleep and dreaming of how, when he was much more rested and healed, he would take every opportunity to playfully molest his boyfriend in their (his inner self did a little jump and /squee/ which Shika would NEVER admit to anyone) house since, while Shika was lazy he had to hone his senses and abilities somehow.
And what better way than that, honestly?
Yet, Shikamaru was still the lazy shinobi we all know and love, at least while he was sleeping under his pillow, for if he was anything but he would have noticed there was soon to be a visitor come calling to the house that was soon to be his in part.
Neji had always been an earlier riser, even when he did not get much sleep. It was almost instinctual to him and despite his efforts he never did learn to sleep in, at least not for long.
Shika had tried to "cure" him of this habit by doing something uncharacteristically of himself and tiring Neji out so much he would HAVE to sleep in longer. He did this on numerous occasions as the Nara was not one to give up easily and could bide his time to think of the best strategy. But fate was on Neji's side, or at least not on Shika's, as the Hyuuga still managed to wake early though he remained quite tired and…sore for the rest of the day.
Today was a normal day like any other though, and one in which Neji wished he could have somehow slept in like his lazy boyfriend was doing now. After getting home from his own late mission last night and finding Shika asleep in his bed he wanted nothing more than to spend the rest of the week, hell the year even, curled up beside him, not having to worry about a damned thing.
Sadly, life was not like this and fate always seemed to screw him over.
Yet, on this particular morning, he was up and about doing his normal routine but with the exception of preparing breakfast for two instead of one. He smirked, thinking, 'This is how it's going to be from now on. I still can't believe it, but then I'm sure the lazy-ass doesn't even remember. That'd be just like him.'
Neji "hmph-ed" at the last though but smiled anyway as he continued preparing food for the two of them.
One thing still worried him though. What to tell his friends, and more importantly, his family.
For awhile he had wanted to broach this subject with Shikamaru, about telling their friends of their relationship but the timing was never with them. When they were first going out they had kept things to themselves since it was the first really serious relationship for either of them. But when things began to progress and they became more comfortable then time seemed to edge away. First, Neji would be assigned a mission only to come back and find Shika gone. When they weren't missing one another amidst mission assignments they spent their time together not worrying about anything or anyone but the other.
The subject never really had come up, until last night when Neji finally took the initiative that he had been wanting to take and asked Shika to honestly commit to their relationship (like the two them weren't already though, but he figured this way, quicker bedroom satisfaction with the wait for him to get his slow-moving ass over to the apartment).
So now, things were going to get interesting.
'What the hell am I going to tell uncle? Or anyone for that matter?' Neji thought to himself and then his eyes widened considerably and he almost burned the toast.
'What am I going to tell Gai-sensei, Ten-ten and Lee?!?!...Nothing. I will tell them NOTHING. Yes, that'll work. They don't need to know. It's my life, not theirs. If they happen to find out through some means then so be it but it won't be me. Now, Shika on the other hand…maybe I can get him to tell them, and everyone else. It'd get him to do something productive for once…"
It was while Neji was musing to himself on how to solve this problem and thinking of how to get one's boyfriend to do all the work by planting subliminal messages that he heard a very audible "What the hell?" from the bedroom and it wasn't coming from Shikamaru.
Shikamaru was peacefully sleeping when he heard footsteps in the room approaching the bed.
Thinking it was Neji who wanted to drag him unceremoniously out of bed as he did every other morning he stayed there, Shika thought nothing of it.
"Gah, Hyuuga I thought you had more tact than me! Here you are sleeping the day away when you know we were supposed to meet at the gate, "said a cocky voice which dripped with superiority issues that Shikamaru recognized as the second loudest nin in Konoha, second after Naruto of course.
"Don't tell me a little mission took that much out of you?" asked the voice as the owner pulled the pillow off of Shika's head before the lazy nin could fully register it was happening.
Shikamaru grudgingly turned over, now fully awake and knowing he wouldn't get back to sleep with what was about to go on, and narrowed his eyes at the real intruder to the house this time.
"What the hell?" Kiba shouted and Shikamaru clasped his hands to his ears, still not ready to interpret noise that loud and this early in the morning.
Kiba stared at Shikamaru for a moment, the pillow forgotten in his hand, and asked "Shikamaru? What are you doing here? This is Neji's place, right?" Shika rolled his eyes and nodded his head as Kiba went on to ask, "Then where is he?"
"Right behind you."
Both shinobi then looked at the newest person to enter the room. Shikamaru had an dubious look on his face as he looked from Neji to Kiba and back while Kiba just scratched his head.
"What are you doing in my home Kiba?" Neji asked slightly perturbed now that one of the people he was just thinking about having to tell was standing in the middle of his bedroom.
"Uhh…I was trying to find you. We were supposed to meet a half-hour ago at the gate to go over plans for the mission next week and you didn't show. So I came to get you and thought you were just out of it from getting back from your mission last night and all and instead I find Shikmaru here, " Kiba stated with a quizzical look and one eyebrow raised questioningly.
"Yes, well, you've found me. Now, get out before I make it so that I won't have to make that meeting."
"And why wouldn't you make it now that I'm here?" Kiba asked skeptical.
Neji glared at the younger nin. "Why do you think?"
Kiba took a step back and looked to Shikamaru. "Is he serious?" He asked, not needing to state the implied maiming and/or torture that Neji alluded to before.
Shika did his best at a glare but it just came out looking confused since it was still too early for him and shook his head 'yes.'
He then grudgingly got out of bed, yawned and ran his hands through his hair that was still down and turned to Kiba, the person who interrupted his sleep, his SLEEP. That was just wrong. Very, very wrong.
"Next time Kiba," Shikamaru started, "Just use the door. That's what it's there for."
Kiba scoffed, "Yeah, I know but windows are just so much cooler! Allows for a more stealthy approach. And it worked too! You didn't notice me." He smirked.
"That's because I was asleep, baka. I didn't expect to have to be alert for strange visitors in my own home." Shika said, closing his eyes and pinching the bridge of his nose bdtween thumb and index finger.
At this, both Kiba and Neji looked at Shikamaru who apparently didn't realize what he said since sleep was still trying to lure him into getting back into bed.
"Your home? I thought Neji lived here and you lived with Chouji. Are you moving into his place?" Kiba asked, the wheels slowly turning in head, making sense of the situation looking from one to the other.
Neji had turned away from Kiba, opting to be angry toward the still open window, a faint pink tinge adorning his cheeks.
Shika sighed, looked to Neji who gave him a quick glance then averted his eyes, a smiling slightly and leaving his boyfriend to decide on the course of action who sighed again and turned to Kiba.
"Yes Kiba, not that it's any of your business, but I am moving here though it was decided recently. And no," he held up his hand to stop Kiba from asking his next question, "Neji is not leaving, he's staying here. We're both going to live here."
"Ahhh…but that doesn't make any sense. Neji, I didn't think you liked people except yourself and Shika why would you dis Chouji to move in with someone like this guy unless…" Kiba began to ponder when realization suddenly dawned on him.
"You—you two are together!" He shouted loud enough for both nin to cover their ears. "When did this happen?! How?! Why didn't you tell anyone?! Why didn't you tell me?!" Kiba's incessant questioning began to grate on both Shika and Neji's nerves.
"It was none of your concern Kiba," Neji said, trying to be if not nice then at least civil. "I will meet you in twenty minutes to discuss the plans for the mission, as I said I would, at the gate. Now, leave and close the window on your way out. I don't want people ogling my half-naked boyfriend because you left the window open."
Shika looked at Neji and said, "Possessive, are we?"
Neji stopped glaring at Kiba and walked over to Shikamaru, wrapping his arms around him. "Well," he said, "I've got good reason to. I can't let other people try to think they can steal you from me, or do you want that to happen?"
"Nah," Shika replied, bending his head to meet Neji's inclining one, "Too troublesome to do anything, besides I like here enough to stay don't I?"
Neither boy noticed that Kiba had already exited the room in favor of leering outside at a sight he never would have thought to behold.
'I can't wait to tell Shino! He'll get a kick out of this!' he thought as he ran toward his and Shino's house.
Meanwhile, inside…
Shika pulled away from Neji as he felt decidedly chilly from the draft entering the room.
"Damn Kiba for not closing the window and now he knows too," he muttered as he FINALLY closed it.
"I'll make sure he doesn't forget again when I see him in a little, though I think he's smart enough no to use this entrance again. So what if he knows. At least he's one less to tell. If I were him, I'd be afraid of what I might interrupt next time I go nosing around other people's homes, ne?" Neji commented.
Shikamaru fell back onto the bed. "You know, he might still be outside, hiding, we can scare him off for sure this time." He said, wiggling his eyebrows.
"Oh really, and here I thought you wanted to sleep the day away." Neji said as he came and sat on the bed beside the other.
"Well, I'm up for sure now, but I can think of some ways that could get me tired again pretty quickly." He said trying to feign that innocent look Neji knew and loved.
"Really? What did you have in mind?"
Okay, so I finished this chapter, much LONGER than I thought it'd be but I liked how it came out. And now Kiba knows! Yay! That makes four, but you know it'll be five just as soon as he tells Shino, lol.
Well, I really do have to finish my paper now. Due tomorrow!! Not good!! But this was a good break. Except the next chapter before the end of March since I will be very busy after I return from my trip to foreign nations, wooh! See ya and hope you enjoyed the reading!
And thank you to dark-nigh-sky, psychotic KAT, Hanai-kun, kittypon and Paachaaaw for your reviews. I loved them and heart you all! Thanks!!
