Disclaimer: Oh no, not another one of these to write. I don't own Naruto, okay?

-0-

"Baby-sit Kimiko? Oh sure, we can handle it," Temari smiled at Kurenai, who stood outside the door to Shikamaru's apartment with a glad look. The woman's energetic young daughter escaped from her mother's protective hands and into the abode, leaping onto the stomach of a sleeping Nara.

"Oof! Hey, watch it!"

His half lidded eyes took in the sight of a three year old girl sitting on his midriff, a grin plastered on her adorable face.

"Uncle Shika!" she exclaimed, arms wide open as she begged him to carry her.

Oh, it's only her, not some random cat.

He complied and lifted her up with one strong arm as her tiny arms wrapped around his neck. She giggled as he reached into a drawer in his bedroom desk and pulled out a lollipop for her. Turning, he noticed Temari and Kurenai at his bedroom door, looking slightly amused.

"Baby-sitting again, Kurenai? For how long this time?" Shikamaru had his free hand on his waist.

"Until Friday—I've a two day mission," the ruby-eyed one replied, somewhat worried that it would inconvenience her junior this time round.

"You've done a great job since she was a baby, is it still alright?"

He nodded, she left Kimiko's belongings in a small cloth bag on his bed, and then she took her leave. Without a husband to support her daughter and her, Kurenai still took up missions as a source of income. Usually Sakura, Ino or even Hinata would offer to baby-sit for her while she was away (Tenten didn't know her well), but Shikamaru would do it sometimes. Custody of Kimiko would go to him if anything happened to her, for sure. Knock on wood.

Now Temari and Kimiko had met before, but neither knew the other very well. Temari had no idea that Shikamaru had ever baby-sat before until now.

The blonde hesitantly walked over.

"Um, hello there, Kimiko-chan…"

The man looked at her with curious but amused eyes. It was an awkward moment for the kunoichi, he knew, and the word 'pedophobia' came up in his mind, though he would hardly consider this a fear of children. For her, it was a fear of outright rejection, rather.

Kimiko, wondering why the woman was so nervous, merely reacted by laughing and sticking the lollipop she was sucking on in Temari's lower left ponytail. She broke out into a great laughing fit when she saw the blonde attempt to vainly pull the sweet out.

It was no use. The sweet had stuck to the strands of rough, spiky blonde hair and would not come off. Shikamaru, temporarily shedding his gentlemanly side, joined the little girl.

"Nice hair accessory," he guffawed, "there's a pair of scissors in the kitchen—I could get them for you."

"Cut my hair off?! You little--"

She let out a low growl in exasperation and proceeded to the bathroom, presumably to try to wash the offending piece of candy off. Setting Kimiko down, he cheekily stood outside the door and proclaimed that it was more effective to have the entire ponytail hacked off. Temari opened the door and hurled a bottle of green tea scented body scrub at his head. It knocked him right at the back of his head, messing up his own ponytail. Smirking after watching him wince, she slammed the door closed again.

Sweet revenge for TW2, I guess. She has a strong arm.

He looked around for the bottle of liquid soap so he could put it back after the woman was done with her hair, and then realized Kimiko was gone.

Congratulations, you have to take care of mini-Houdini!

Rushing around his small apartment, he found her in the kitchen, opening the drawers to use as steps to get to a bag of lemon gumdrops on the counter.

Darn Temari and her sugar cravings!

Hurriedly, he picked her up and used his right knee to push the drawers back, just before she could heave herself onto the counter top. Handing the open bag to the little girl, he sighed, allowing her to reach in to grab as many as she could grab in her tiny fists and cram in her mouth.

Temari, hair wet and let loose to reach just past her shoulders, entered the compound with a towel around her neck to see the three year old helping herself to her sweets. She gave Shikamaru a 'could-I-have-my-stuff-back' look.

"Look, it'll just be two days, and I've already told Kurenai I'd take care of her. Could you help me, please? I'll buy you another bag when this is over," he begged. Temari rubbed her forehead.

"All right, since I told Kurenai-san it'd be no problem. The kid can have the gumdrops."

Kimiko pulled at her caretaker's shirt.

"Tee-vee," she squeaked, pointing to the living room. He nodded, put her down and watched as she ran over to turn the aforementioned television on. Grabbing the remote, she switched the channel to the kids' channel. Temari's favourite show was on, a reality television series featuring ninja in high-tension physical contests to test their agility, speed, strength et cetera. It contained some obscene language when contestants failed courses, so she couldn't possibly watch it with Kimiko. Turning away, she continued drying her hair with the towel.

Two days, right?

She noticed her room-mate kept staring at her and shot him a curious look.

"What's wrong?"

"It's…a bit weird," he hesitated.

"What is?"

He pointed to her hair.

"Your hair is down. I've never seen it down before, and you look…funny."

"Funny?" He had a point; no man outside of her family had seen her with her hair down—her female acquaintances occasionally liked to mess with it. He was used to seeing her hair in the usual four ponytails.

"You like it?" she teased. He ignored her and moved on to accompany his charge on the couch. She swore she saw him blush slightly. Maybe it was out of shyness; he was not the type to openly say he liked something, after all.

Then again, what does he look like with his hair down?

-0-

"Green tea scented body scrub."

Shikamaru looked at Temari, who sat next to him on a bench while they watched Kimiko play in a playground. Her rough blonde hair was let down this time, the first time she had let it down in public. He still felt it awkward, but he told himself he would get used to it. She did look better with it down after all…

Whoa there, stop with those thoughts!

...Wait, was that?

"You have a problem with my choice of toiletries?" he raised a curious eyebrow at her, but she merely smirked, blonde fringe concealing those cat-like eyes.

"Oh, I don't know. My brothers won't go near scented soap. They think the normal kind is more…masculine. Menthol is as far as they'll go."

The male narrowed his eyes, not expecting this to become a topic of conversation.

"Well, I like it, so what's wrong?"

"It's queer," she calmly replied.

Her fringe was blown away from her face to reveal a slightly surprised expression when her roommate let out a deafening 'SAY WHAT' in her face, bright pink tingeing his cheeks.

She blinked and quipped ever so innocently, "doesn't 'queer' mean strange?"

"Not in today's context, stupid woman," his voice suddenly went low and soft. He whispered the colloquial meaning of 'queer' in her ear. Her lips rounded in an 'oh'.

"Still, I think that meaning can be applied to my statement. I mean seriously, I thought men didn't like that sort of scented stuff. Unless…"

"I'm straight, okay? I just like the smell, after all."

"I can tell," she pouted, "what with your chauvinistic comments. It—"

He covered her mouth with a rough hand.

"Shut up and keep an eye on Kimiko already."

-0-

Kimiko would not stop whining when Temari tried to put her to bed. She wanted to watch some more television, but she wouldn't let her.

"Tee-vee!" she whined and struggled when the woman tucked her into Shikamaru's bed. It was nine o'clock and the man had gone to fetch a not-so late night snack. Nine o'clock, however, was the young girl's bedtime, and the woman felt the three year old needed to shut up and go to sleep already. Obviously, the little raven-haired one had other ideas. Lashing out, she poked Temari in the eye and kicked her in the chest, leaving her stunned long enough to escape, pulling off the covers and running out the room in her bright pink pinstripe pyjamas. By the time the caretaker's vision had cleared and she had headed out of the room to look for her charge, the young girl had turned on the television and was enjoying a children's program featuring several white fluffy bunnies singing nursery rhymes.

Why the heck does the station air programs like this after the little kids are long asleep, huh?

Her patience wearing down, the blonde turned off the blaring box and lifted the girl off the sofa, the younger one whining the entire time. When the woman set her on Shikamaru's bed once more, she started to cry. At that moment, Nara returned from his shopping trip, hearing his precious god-child's crying as he set the paper bags on the kitchen counter.

"What's going on?" Shikamaru entered the room and carried Kimiko in his arms, patting her back to soothe the child and glaring coldly at his roommate. He was clearly unhappy. Temari gave a nervous grin, but fell silent. It wasn't her fault the kid was crying, was it?

"Alright, Kimiko-chan," the man ignored his companion and instead turned to the child in his arms, "you need to get to sleep or you won't have energy to play tomorrow, okay?"

The girl nodded with innocent ruby eyes, letting him tuck her into bed. The blonde observed in envy as Shikamaru sat on the edge of the bed next to Kimiko and told her a short bedtime story. It was the Three Little Pigs, ninja-style, to be exact.

The little girl was asleep within five minutes. Temari had been trying for fifteen.

-0-

"Kimiko's occupying your bed," Temari sat herself down beside Shikamaru on the sofa as the latter watched the nightly news.

"I'm occupying the study, so where'll you sleep, Nakimushi?"

"I used to sleep in the study before you came," he droned lifelessly, "so I guess I'll be sleeping on the sofa this time round."

"You can't sleep on the sofa!" the kunoichi protested.

"Well I've passed out drunk here before so what's the difference?" came the indifferent reply. He rolled his eyes.

"Unless you want to share—"

She smacked him across the face before he could complete his sentence, blushing slightly.

"Uncle Shika?" Kimiko peeped out of the door of Shikamaru's bedroom, clutching her pillow in a tiny hand, "nightmare. I scared."

Shikamaru sighed and shook his head. Another one of those days.

"Looks like I'll be accompanying Kimiko-chan."

He stood up and turned off the television, dragging himself over to the little girl. When this happened Kimiko needed someone beside her while she slept so she would feel secure. The door closed and Temari found herself alone, silently lamenting her lack of ability in taking care of children. Eventually she turned off the lights and retreated to her room. She would be turning in early that night.

-0-

A/N: Hmm, this chappie's a bit too choppy for my liking, hopefully the next one'll be less choppy.

The part with the meaning of the word 'queer' really happened to me before, when I told my younger brother some years ago that I found his behavior 'queer'. My dad's jaw dropped and he told me.

Anyway, enough of my crappy author's notes, I'd like to thank darkchocol8807 and EmeraldGreen4Life for reviewing (I'm getting review starved) and yes, I did read the second one's all caps 'UPDATE SOON'. Both of 'em. Hopefully, the next update won't take as long.

Review,dammit!