A/N: Ah, the ordeals of trying to update fanfics...Thank you so much for the patience on this new chapter! I kept on telling myself, "Okay I will get out the next chapter tomorrow." I actually had it written down in my little planner. And then all these ugly plans kept popping up like homework. And the certain banning of other fanfictions. -Ahem- Excuses, I know. I just wanted to let everyone know how much I love their reviews and how it makes me feel fuzzy on the inside and make me laugh and how they just make my day (scratch that, they make my life) in general. They fuel me to write and the criticism is so great, so thank you yet again. Okay, I know you just want me to shut up and get to the actual update. So, here it is!!
xOx
"I'm taking a walk." Shikamaru stood up. "And next time you can sit yourself in your own damn chair." The front door slammed as he left.
It was silent.
"Thank you for the dinner, Mr. and Mrs. Nara it was delicious." Temari stood up, leaving the hardly touched dinner. She followed out the door Shikamaru had just left. Temari ran through the streets, past the lit up shops. Some young men wolf- whistled at her and her kimono as she passed, and she ignored them. She reached the building they were at that afternoon and ran up the stairs to the roof. It seemed that afternoon had been days away when it had been only hours. She saw a figure sitting down on the small platform and he slammed his fist and groaned in frustration.
"You aren't going to start crying are you, Mr. Crybaby?" Temari teased from the stairs.
"You already ruined my night, do you have to make it worse? Leave me alone with my stupid clouds." Shikamaru growled at her. As he said this it went dark as the clouds moved over the moon to show their anger at Temari for calling them stupid.
"Look," she came all the way up the stairs and ventured towards him. "I didn't mean to…pick a fight."
"Well, it happened."
"I'm-I'm sorry." Temari apologized. "I'm sorry I called you lazy and saying that all you cared about was yourself."
"You should be sorry because I do care about other things other than me and my clouds." Shikamaru told her. "I care about playing Shogi, I care about my family, I care about my friends, my comrades, and I care about this village…I care about you. So don't say I don't care about anything." Shikamaru continued.
"I-I know, Shikamaru. I'm sorry." Temari found his hand in the dark and gently placed hers on his. The clouds started to move away from the moon in approval of the two.
"C'mon, I'll walk you home." Shikamaru mumbled as he pulled her hand as she stood up. They got down to the street and headed in the direction of Temari's apartment.
"For all it's worth, you looked really nice tonight." Shikamaru complimented.
"You're only sucking up now." Temari laughed.
"No, I liked your hair down, it was different from what I was used to…" he told her.
"Well, you got to see my hair let down, let's let yours down." Temari laughed as she pulled at Shikamaru's hair.
"Oy—troublesome—woman—!" Shikamaru grunted as she pulled his hair. It finally came out. Temari giggled at him.
"You think it looks stupid, don't you?" Shikamaru growled at her. "Let me put it back."
"No, I like it better this way…it's different from what I'm used to." Temari mocked him.
"Quit it. Troubesome, nosy, curious woman!" he shot at her.
"You're the troublesome one here. Is that all you can ever say? It's like you're a broken record!" Temari rolled her eyes as Shikamaru put his hair back and they reached her apartment.
"Er…well, here's your apartment." Shikamaru said, both of them lost the playfulness they had a minute ago. Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets.
"Yep." Temari messed with the folds on her kimono.
"Uh, since you're here early for exam stuff…and you're here…you know to spend more time with me, we can meet tomorrow morning sometime." Shikamaru suggested. "We can meet on top of the building where I sit to watch the clouds at ten o' clock."
"Are you sure you don't want to meet outside my apartment? That way if I'm late you can come right on up." Temari flashed him a devilish smile. They had gone the almost whole day without a mention of it. What was worse, this was an intentional mention by Temari. Shikamaru went absolutely red and tripped over his words.
"I—but—well—and—Goodnight, see you tomorrow." he hurried off. Shikamaru could hear her giggle as he left as fast as he could. As he ran down the streets he almost ran straight into Naruto and Hinata already drunk with laughter from their conversation.
"Damn, Shikamaru. You're going pretty fast there, and you're face is flushed. Did you just come from Temari's place again? I heard she was in town." Naruto laughed. At his side, Hinata giggled.
"Shut up, nothing happened this time okay?" Shikamaru hissed at him. "Why are you always around when I don't need you anyway?"
x
The next morning Shikamaru woke up earlier than he had wanted to. This was the one day he could have slept in a little more and not been upset. He hoped that today wouldn't be nearly as bad as the day before. Shikamaru got up and went to the kitchen where his mother was making breakfast. She hadn't said anything to him when he arrived home last night.
"You're father is already out. He received summons for a mission from the Hokage early this morning." His mother told him as he took a seat at the table.
"This early?" Shikamaru sighed with a yawn as to indicate how untimely it was.
"You had a late night last night…did you sort out everything with Temari-san?" she asked. He rubbed his eyes with another yawn and dropped his head on the table.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to—"
"No, we 'sorted everything out'." Shikamaru spoke to his lap. He sat up again. "I'm meeting her again today in a couple of hours."
"Oh, I'm so glad to hear that!" his mother chimed as she pushed his breakfast towards him. How can she be like this so early? Is she human? Shikamaru grumbled to himself.
He decided to head to the building earlier than he had planned. Maybe he could relax for a little bit and collect his thoughts. When he arrived Temari was already there, waiting.
"You're here early!" they both accused each other.
"I couldn't sleep, so I got up and decided to come early and wait. What's your excuse?" Shikamaru asked as he came to sit next to the Sand kunoichi.
"Oh, I figured I wouldn't give you the chance to catch me up in my apartment." Temari giggled. Why did this have to keep coming up?
"I'm going to strangle you!" Shikamaru grabbed her shoulders and pushed her flat against her back on the small bench platform as he threatened her.
"Not if I strangle you first, you idiot!" Temari pushed him off and flipped him over. She pinned him down flat and he was amazed at her strength.
"Holy shit." Shikamaru breathed.
"What do you expect? I have two brothers. One of which had a demon sealed inside of him. I had to know how to defend myself, especially from cowardly runts like you who want to strangle me." Temari laughed with a little evil hint to it. Shikamaru had to fight off he urge to either try and hurt her again or kiss her. He wasn't exactly sure where the impulse to kiss her came from; it really stunned him for a moment. He noticed she did have really soft lips and…where the hell was this coming from? Temari grinned at him almost as if she knew what he was thinking. Damn, if she were a mind reader too, he'd be screwed.
"So what did you have planned for today?"
"Not being strangled." Shikamaru rubbed his arm as he got up and shook off his strange thoughts.
"Sounds good…what else?"
"I dunno, you're the one who surprised me with this visit from out of the blue. You expect to come here and just have me entertain you?"
"Pretty much." Temari nodded.
"Well, don't expect me to start jumping around like a trained dog just for your entertainment." Shikamaru grumbled.
"In that case, let's go do something." Temari smiled at him.
"What do you want to do then?" Shikamaru asked.
"We'll walk around the village. The village will entertain us enough." Temari decided.
"Whatever."
They got up and walked down the stairs to the bustling streets. For a little while they just walked down the streets watching random people.
And that pointless walking led them to the shopping district where Temari's eyes lit up. She wanted to go to every shop to look. For about an hour Temari continuously pulled Shikamaru's arm out of its socket, yanking him from shop to shop. In almost every shop Temari bought at least one trinket. Once she ran out of money she started to ask Shikamaru.
"What? No I'm not paying for your useless junk!" Shikamaru would reply.
"Just this once! I'll pay you back! I promise!" Temari begged. It would only be a couple ryo there or ten ryo there, a hundred ryo here and soon Shikamaru had no more money left on him.
"You cleaned me out!" Shikamaru exclaimed as they walked down the street, weighed down with Temari's bags. "I was going to take you to lunch but now I don't have any money! Is this what its like to be married!? How troublesome!" Shikamaru groaned. They headed back to her apartment and Temari put all of her things away while Shikamaru waited outside. Temari only rolled her eyes as she came outside again and they started to discuss lunch.
"Oi, Shikamaru!"
"Temari! I can't believe it's you!"
The two spun around to meet Choji and Ino.
"Hey, we were just going to go get some barbeque. Want to come with?" Ino asked.
"Only if it's your treat. Temari just cleaned out my wallet because I had to buy all this junk for her." Shikamaru groaned.
"Alright, Temari!" Ino laughed. Temari grinned at her giving her the V for victory sign.
"Yeah, our treat." Choji told him, earning a little sympathy from his friend.
xOx
A/N: Sometimes I think I write too much fluff, but people seem to like lots of fluff. So…just want to find a happy medium. Feel free to flame and yell and scream that they were way too OOC and that would never happen and the fluff was oozing so much you had to gouge your eyes out with whatever object you had nearby. Reviews make me happy and are useful and the bestest!!
Next time I'll try to update SOONER than a month!! DX
