Shikamaru prayed to every deity he could think of that the bits and pieces and figments he was able to recall from last night were only a dream and not a memory. He still felt a bit groggy as he perched himself up on his arms, rubbing his eyes with the back of his hands thinking and mumbling another quick litany of pleas and curses as realization hit him full force.
She was gone.
There was no note left, the shirt he had given her last night was also gone, there wasn't even a long hair of hers that was in his apartment to signify that she had even been there the night before.
That was all very frustrating.
He dragged his hamper down to the local laundry mat in hopes he could meet up with Tenten "accidentally" to explain himself. The laundry mat was surprisingly empty, and the shadow-user quickly got his clothes washed and dried in record time. He used the intermittent time while his loads were sucking up all of his free coins to check the local shops and see if he could randomly bump into her there. With no such luck, he quickly folded his laundry and dropped it off at his apartment and headed off to the Nara clan estates to see if he might be lucky enough to catch her there training with his mom.
Whatever cool of the evening lingered was quickly wearing off, and the heat of the noon sun was quickly starting to penetrate through his flak jacket to the point where Shikamaru wanted to take it off.
His father was busy talking to some surveyors equipped with blueprints under their arms, heartily chuckling at a joke and pointing to where the construction of the land was going to be when Shikamaru walked up to them. Whatever panic about Tenten he felt, it would have to wait until he was able to settle things with the city workers concerning getting the housing situation fixed on their property.
They were there ahead of schedule, whether that was his father's doing or they were simply just early, it didn't really matter. Shikamaru suffered through all the formalities with his father, accommodating the two men by taking them out to lunch at the nicer part of town. He caught a glimpse of her as they were walking off of their property, and it took all of Shikamaru's self-control not to turn around and pull her aside and talk to her. As they shuffled into a booth at the restaurant, Shikamaru noticed as he looked out the window that there was a new restaurant that opened up on the opposite side of the street. Steel lanterns hung around the sign outside, and Shikamaru could faintly make out a large expansive garden in the back of the restaurant.
It looked like the perfect place to take Tenten on a date.
He memorized the name of the place and was determined to ask Tenten out before all of the construction was done to the new houses on the north side of the Nara property. Once he had set that in his mind to do, it was easier to focus on the meeting with his father.
Once they filled out more paperwork and signed on the dotted lines, they were able to start as soon as the next day. Shikamaru couldn't help the smile that fell on his face. It was a new beginning.
When he followed his father back to their estates, he was hoping that he might catch Tenten coming in from her training session with his mom. Instead he came into his parent's house full of confusion, with his mom nearly hysterical and Tenten trying in vain to calm her down. Tenten was in the kitchen soaking wet from head to toe while his mom tried to strip the wet clothing from her body and Tenten trying to fight her off. Her murmured voice was a mixture of apologies, cursing and concern for the younger girl. His dad's low voice raised above all the commotion, and everything stopped except the small chattering of Tenten's teeth.
"What's going on Yoshino?" Shikaku nearly demanded of his wife. Shikamaru was wondering the same thing beside him as he finally shrugged off his chunin jacket, and his mother stopped tugging on Tenten's sleeve, much to her relief, and spoke so fast that Shikamaru only heard every third word of what she was saying.
That indicated that his mom was stressed, although why she was mauling Tenten was anyone's guess at this point. Shikamaru noted that the vent to the kitchen was right above the saturated weapon's mistress, and that his dad was known to crank the air conditioning on hot days like today. That would account for why her teeth were chattering.
As for why she was wet and why his mom was furiously trying to get her out of her clothes, well, Shikamaru wasn't able to keep up with his mother's frantic and speedy explanations. Tenten tugged the sleeve on her shirt down, scratching at her wrist casually as she did, which sent Yoshino off into an almost super-sonic screech that had everyone jerking their arms up in the air in self defense.
"DON'T SCRATCH AT IT! IT WILL MAKE IT WORSE!"
Tenten immediately held her hands up in the air away from her body letting the older woman know that she had no intention of disobeying orders. Yoshino started in on trying to tear her shirt off again, and continued her mutterings of insanity while Tenten did her best to explain what was going on.
"I fell into a patch of poisonous plants. We aren't sure if we got back in time to wash the toxins off. She hosed me off outside and told me that I needed to get out of my clothes so that the poison doesn't spread. Hey," she redirected her attention to Yoshino, "I can undress myself ya know," at this Yoshino stepped back as if it were a revelation from Kami himself, "I would also like to do it in a much more private venue. I don't think here is very appropriate." It wasn't meant to be much of a chastisement, more like a statement to calm the woman down as she motioned to her son and husband.
At this his mom blushed, BLUSHED of all things, then mumbled an apology and backed off.
"If I can borrow some spare clothes I can just change in the bathroom." She stated this in a hushed voice as her thumb pointed over her shoulder. Tenten offered up a simple solution.
"Shikamaru," his father's voice commanded, "Go get her a change of clothes and the salve on the top shelf of the medicine cabinet. Yoshino, that jar is almost out, you're going to have to get more," there were two head nods to him in compliance. "You," his father pointed a tanned, leathery finger in Tenten's direction. "Get in the bathroom and take those clothes off pronto. I am going to find the plants you fell into and make sure that the medicine we have will work for the remedy. Then," he spoke while looking at his mother, "I will make sure they are destroyed for good. We cannot have people here on our property building new houses while these plants are still alive." At this she simply nodded again, and the group, having direct orders, dispersed to follow them out accordingly.
Shikamaru took three stairs at a time in his hurry, riffling through his old dresser again grabbing at the clothes in his haste. Then he nearly knocked everything over in the medicine cabinet trying to find the salve. His father wasn't right when he stated that it wouldn't be enough; the container was only half empty. He palmed the small jar in his hand and headed back down stairs. His father probably just wanted to give his wife a job to calm her down and distract her so that she would no longer potentially get herself exposed to the contagious toxins or to cause further harm to Tenten.
Once downstairs he knocked cautiously on the door and handed Tenten the clothes. "No itching," he reminded her through the door as she got dressed. "I have the salve, I can help you put it on when you are done."
"This is the third day in a row I am wearing your clothes," Tenten commented offhandedly as she peeled the wet clothes off like a banana. "I have the shirt you lent me last night, by the way. I wanted to wash it today after I got done with sparing with your mom before I gave it back to you since I knew you had to do laundry, too. And I wanted to talk to you about…" she trailed off with a very muffled "ut oh," following afterwards. If Shikamaru hadn't strained himself to hear it, he wouldn't have.
"What do you mean 'ut oh,' Tenten?" Shikamaru tried to make her finish even as he pressed his ear against the door to listen for more sounds. He heard her hiss and wince, doing her best to try to hide the sounds from him.
"You are not going to want this shirt back," she answered in a shaky voice.
"What's going on? Tenten, open the door," he tried to keep alarm out of his voice, and it took every bit of composure not to break down the door. "Let me in," even as he spoke the door clicked open, and he could see the red splotchings begin to form over her exposed skin on her hands and wrists. The markings were an angry red, and Shikamaru caught her hand just as she aimed to itch again at her wrist. His hand wrapped around her forearm and he noted the expanse of his hand was big enough to completely cover her slender arm. "No scratching," he castigated in a low voice just as her other hand came up to scratch the one he had pinned down. He quickly grabbed it as well, then realized how very close they suddenly were to each other in the small bathroom. Her skin was still cold and damp from when his mom had hosed her off. His body pressed almost flush against hers, and he fought hard not to slam her up against the sink and plant a drudging kiss on her lips. The collar on the over –sized tee was off set that he could tell that the poison had spread to her neck with the possibility of reaching to parts of her back as well.
Her slender neck was prickled with the rash, and Tenten writhed beneath his grip to try and free a hand to scratch again. This time he did pin her up against the sink using the leverage of his weight and height to his advantage. The tension between them was palpable and the air was charged with raging pheromones as hormones surged and he had to struggle to keep them both in check.
"No scratching," his voice was husky with the promise of more touch, and Tenten raised an elegant eyebrow at him in a challenging way as if to say in a very sassy tone, or what?
His body so close to hers, his nose was plugged with her scent, even as it was almost washed away from the spray of the garden hose. It mixed well with the laundry smell of his old shirt, and Shikamaru had to steady his features to a neutral position not to close his eyes and breathe deeply from the tantalizing smell. After a few even breaths, he was sure he could continue, even as his eyes examined hers while he kept his grip firm but gentle. "If you scratch, it spreads it. That would be-"
"Troublesome?" Tenten guessed as she cocked her head to the side, exposing more raw, sanguineous flesh that Shikamaru couldn't help but scowl at.
"Promise me that you won't scratch until I apply the salve," again she squirmed beneath his grip, but this time he felt it wasn't so much from trying to escape him as it was to capture his attention.
"I will make no such promise. Instead, I promise that I will scratch as soon as you release me." She closed her eyes and writhed some more, "It itches like crazy."
How was he supposed to apply the salve if she was so stubborn? He needed to distract her long enough to apply it to the parts of her skin exposed by the plant's biotoxins. He leaned in towards her, slowly letting his face inch closer to hers. He nuzzled close by her face in the air, causing her to turn her head just so to accept the kiss. As soon as she closed her eyes to receive it was when he made his move. It took every ounce of his self-control not to just give in and kiss her. Her breath hitched and her eyes shot open when she realized that he had let go to form seals.
"I see you've picked up a few tricks," she spoke after a moments of composure to steady her voice. His shadow held her in place while he applied the ointment to the raw areas of her wrists freely without her having to mimic his movements.
He gave an apathetic shrug, "Improving one's skills is generally a good thing in the ninja world. Helps us not get dead on the battlefield." He moved from one wrist to the other, "Are you telling me that you couldn't take Temari given the opportunity for a re-match against her?" The coating was going on quickly and he hoped that his mother came back with a larger jar of it when she returned. If Tenten needed a second coat there probably wouldn't be enough.
"Let's not get crazy," Tenten acknowledged his comment with an even tone that did not speak of any hard feelings towards the sand kunoichi as she watched him apply the salve, "Temari is a seriously formidable opponent," then almost as an afterthought she added, "You should know that being so close to her."
Shikamaru paused in his rhythmic application to the slender inside of her wrist. "Oh, really? And why is that?" He tried to drawl all this out in a bored tone, but somehow the thought of Tenten thinking that he was with Temari for anything other than absolutely having to be in the same space as that infernal kunoichi pissed him off more than cared to admit.
"A genius doesn't spend that much time with a lethal and talented kunoichi like Temari without knowing her potential danger, political or otherwise."
He brushed up against her once again and stated so close to her that he only need to speak in a low whisper to be heard perfectly, "There is no otherwise and we are not that close." The conviction in his voice was firm and he used his proximity to draw a steady finger to her collar and pull the neck down past her shoulder so he could see just how far down the prickly wheals had spread. She complied by turning her head slowly so that he could examine her, a movement that almost mimicked submission as she turned away from him and clenched her jaw.
"How far down does this go?" Shikamaru asked after tenderly rubbing more slippery ointment to her neck. He had gone down as far as he could go without sticking most of his arm down her shirt and pressing up flush against her again. Not that he didn't want to flatten himself up against her, he just needed to get this stuff on to combat the irritants of the poison so that she could get better and possibly flatter herself against him of her own free will some day. Soon. Maybe. Hopefully.
"Not too much farther," she answered, and Shikamaru realized that he could feel the rises on her skin so he himself would be able find the ending point. All he had to do was stop when the skin tissue felt free and clear of swelling and bumps. The whole process would be easier if he could get her to turn around and he could lift her shirt from the back and see what he was doing so he didn't miss any areas. He figured that if he only had a little further then he could just finish where he was at and make her turn around and make sure that everything had gotten a fair amount of the salve on it afterwards. He found the process strangely intimate, the whole applying of a thick, oily substance to her skin. The swiping back and forth was almost like petting her skin to an unheard beat as he rhythmically continued his ministrations.
Somehow he must have let himself get lost in his actions and hadn't realized her lips where in his ear, so close he could feel them on his lobe as she whispered his name.
"Shikamaru."
(O)
A/N: I know, this got terribly long. I apologize. You guys have been wonderful about reviewing and alerting and favoriting my stories that I have decided to tell a funny story about the time my brother went to Peru if I reach over one hundred reviews for any of them. You may or may not find it funny depending on how much Spanish you know and if you get how twisted my brother's humor is. (Not the same brother with the baby seals mind you.) I am not doing this bribing; merely as how happy I will be if I get so many reviews. And if you really want to know and can't take the suspense, then PM me and I will give you the story any ways.
