The leering sun rays forced him to open his eyes - his vision was still unclear, foggy. He sat up and yawned, rubbing his neck.
What a drag it was to sleep on the couch, he thought to himself as he attempted to rub away the soreness.
A whiff of food flew past his nose – He stumbled and crawled his way to the kitchen.
Someone was standing at the pristinely clean stove in his apartment; that has not been used more than three times since he moved in here.
In a haze, he approached the figure, wrapping his arms around the waist of whoever this person was.
"Ino." He murmured, as he buried his nose into the blondness in front of his eyes.
"Nope, wrong guess." That sassy, low voice popped a bubble in his sight - at that moment he realized that he was burying his head onto the well-toned shoulder of that woman. Much wider, much firmer shoulder.
He flinched and released her from his embrace.
"Better deal with your morning wood first," she smirked at him, eyeing his lower body and returning her gaze at his face. "Breakfast would be ready in a few minutes."
"Troublesome," he muttered, glancing at his down under, his manhood proudly erect. He rolled his eyes back and went into the bathroom.
Shikamaru walked out of the bathroom, and saw two sets of breakfast on the table, complete with matching utensils – it is a miracle that she managed to make all these with the limited supplies in his refrigerator.
Temari sat on the table, sipping from a mug that has a delicate flower on it.
He frowned at the sight – he immediately recognized it.
It was Ino's favourite mug - Something that she forgot to take away when she left…
Temari realized that he was staring – not at her, but at the mug.
"Are you going to sit down and eat, or is this mug so attractive you'd skip breakfast just to look at it?" She snapped, pulling him out of his little space of reminiscence.
He took a seat across, and began to cut his way through the sausages and sunny-side up eggs.
He put a morsel in his mouth – phenomenal.
"You sure can cook," he could not help himself but get another bite.
Temari sniggered at him. "I bet Ino can't cook, can she?" She ended her tease with a laugh, only to realize that the man sitting across the table was not shuddering like he normally does.
His face darkened for a second. He said nothing and took another bite, his lazy expression returning to his face, his lips shut tight.
Seeing that he was not willing to talk about it, she decided to eat her breakfast silently.
Shikamaru remained quiet, as he took the dishes from the table and entered the kitchen. Temari took the mug and followed him.
He said nothing as he turned on the tap and started to scrub the dishes with a sponge.
Temari poured hot water into the mug. "Thanks for blowing my hair dry last night."
She said absentmindedly, causing him to stop moving for a second.
"I thought you were asleep." He said; she realised at that time that his tone was usually in a monotone, flat and uninterested.
She smirked, taking a tiny sip from the mug.
Something just got over him last night.
He saw her sleeping, her platinum blonde hair spraying across the pillows, a damp print crept onto the bed sheets and pillow cover.
"What a drag," he smiled and helped her up.
Gently, he blew her hair dry as she smiled sweetly, her eyes barely opened.
He planted a kiss on her forehead, and laid her head back onto the pillow with a towel beneath her head.
Shikamaru sighed, washing the soap bubbles off the utensils.
He put the clean dishes on the empty rack and walked into the living room.
She started burying herself in the paperwork, as if nothing had happened.
He joined her, as the numbers and words began to fly in front of his eyes, the certain memories of a girl with blue eyes seemed to be buried deep within the stacks of papers.
The only perplexed thought on his brilliantly intelligent mind was how on earth did he took this woman from hell to be Ino.
She took occasional glances at the man across the table, scratching his head in annoyance.
She knew he was avoiding talking to her; he knew that she was going to ask about this Ino.
That girl in the photographs of his study – platinum blonde hair, crystal blue eyes, smile dripping with honey, willowy figure with arms tangling with a lean boy with a lazy smile and another chubby one with tiny smiling eyes.
She was pretty in her platinum Barbie way; different from her own toned, sassy self, but Temari learnt long ago that beauty came in all shapes and sizes – although she was still jealously doubting how is it possible for such a tiny frame to exist.
How is it possible to hold all those organs in …?
"Oi, you finished?" His voice rang, and she found herself staring at the man, his expression half annoyed, half bored.
"Ye-yeah." She stammered a little, not fully recovered from the sudden interruption of her chain of thoughts. "Here, take a look."
He took the paper from her hand, and glanced at it.
"This should do," he gave an affirming nod. She took it back from him and placed the papers into the binder.
"If that's the case, I will go home now," she said, gathering pieces of papers from the table.
"In that?" He stared at her – she was still dressed in his t-shirt and shorts.
Only realizing it by that time, she looked away, her face blushing. "It is not exactly like you can wear the clothes from yesterday, they are all crumpled and sweaty."
"Erm… I will call a taxi then." She shoved the computer into her bag.
He shrugged. "I will drive you home."
"You have a car?"
"I just don't drive to work, it is close and it would be too troublesome to find a parking space." He took the box of documents from her. "I will get changed, you grab your stuff and we can go."
She looked hilarious, yet she still managed to pull it off and looked stunning in her messy state.
Over the t-shirt and shorts, she wore her suit jacket; at the same time, she was wearing her high-heeled shoes and her hair was messy as it flowed naturally at the side of her face. She placed her dirty clothes in a paper bag, and slung her handbag over her shoulder.
If it was not the streets of Konoha, she could have pulled this look off on a high end brand's highway show.
He wished he could take a photo of her and blackmail her like how she played him with their little encounter, but he knew she would kill them both before she lets him do that.
"Keep you eyes on the road," she ordered him, he could feel her gaze boring into his skull; his gaze returned to the road, jam packed with cars.
Damned holiday drivers, he thought to himself. Damn it all.
After inching their way through traffic, taking a few wrong turns, he found himself at the entrance of a stylish modern apartment building, complete with a lobby with marble floors and post-modern artwork that even Shikamaru has trouble understanding what it was.
Temari waved gracefully at the security guard at the counter, although the man did seem to look surprised to see her in her awkward state. He quickly looked away as Temari's elegant smile turned into a deadly glare.
She let out a sigh of relief as they entered the elevator, leaning against the wall of the elevator.
He could not help himself but chuckled. She reacted with another glare from hell - he felt like the side of his face was burning.
They said nothing as the lift stopped on the twenty-third floor.
She stepped out and turned left, he promptly followed.
She placed her thumb onto the scanner and punch in the password with her finger with ease.
The door beeped, she pushed her way into her apartment.
He followed her into her space - surprisingly it was decorated with pots of plants, which made her apartment serene and elegant looking.
She collapsed onto the cream coloured sofa after kicking off her heels, sighing in relief.
"Go ahead and take a seat." Temari pointed at the armchair adjacent to hers with her toes.
Shikamaru took off his shoes and slumped himself into the armchair.
"Your place is nice." He complimented. "Never took you as a plant person." Temari smiled. "I like looking at them – not much green at where I am from."
He was reminded that she lived in a desert country - where her company made money by pumping oil from deep within the earth.
She turned towards a small pot of cactus on the side table, atop of the green stubbed plant was a blooming red flower. "Apart from this, nothing can grow in the desert. It is always amazing how things can grow without you noticing."
Shikamaru stared as if she was a great philosopher, who knew a lot about the world and finally a woman he could have a decent conversation with-
"Well," she said. "Why don't you tell me more about yourself?"
She flashed him a grin, a provocating, seducing grin.
And she decided to turn back into the devil she is when he found some respect for her.
"Aw man," he groaned. "What a drag."
He realized that he was facing a window, with a clear view of the sky.
White, fluffy clouds floated in the blue canvas in front of him – one, two …
"Are you going to leave me hanging?" He realized that a zoomed-in image of Temari appeared in front of his face, mesmerising teal eyes and all. He leaned backwards.
"Well?" Her hands were on her hips, leaning forward.
"Troublesome," he muttered. "I better go home." He headed for the door, hands shoved in his pocket.
"No fun." She blurted. "No wonder Ino dumped you."
His footsteps halted and turned around. "What?"
"I said, you are no fun, that's why she dumped you." Temari said, crossing her arms in front of her chest, taking a step towards him. "Girls like fun, and you are everything but fun."
Shikamaru could feel a vein popping at the side of his head; he walked towards to her.
"Just because I fucked you doesn't mean you can talk like you know me." He snapped.
Temari's eyes widened and huffed. She managed to stir up some fire in this lazy ass's heart. She did not know whether she should be flattered or scared.
"You-" He cut her off with a ferocious attack on her lips, his hands scurrying and got hold of her hips.
Instinctively she placed her hands in front of her chest and attempted to push him away. He was violent, ruthless – unlike his normal lazy self; he pecked and purged his way through her lips, sliding by her teeth and greedily sucked onto her tongue, attempting to suck the life, that sassiness out of her lungs.
She was agitated, gasping for breath. Her hands kept pushing onto his chest, as hard as they could; but he held her close, close enough –
Smack.
He parted his lips from hers abruptly, his hand proceeded to hold onto his right cheek.
Temari panted, glaring at him. She was still red from the sudden assault – huffing, panting, gasping for breath. She was bending forward, her hand in front of her knee following through her action.
"You men are all dogs," she said, her teal eyes burning with anger. "Fuck you."
And she slammed the door in his face, throwing his shoes at him.
The ring of the elevator woke the man, who slammed his hand onto his face in exasperation.
"What the fuck have I done…" He growled at himself. "What a drag."
Monday is going to be a very, very long day.
Author's note:
Haha another chapter! I wonder if it made you more confused or clear things up haha
Anyway, enjoy! Do review and tell me how you feel about this.
V.S.V xoxo
