Shikamaru was pretty sure that he had gone completely insane. Since he was smiling, and couldn't help himself from doing so, it didn't concern himself much as he probably thought it should. Shikamaru, the world's laziest ninja, was happy to be doing a mundane chore such as laundry, and all with a big fat smile on his face. He lifted a balled up shirt from the pile and shook it out, thinking of the kunoichi that it belonged to. He folded it neatly with the others, making sure that the lines were straight where he creased the sleeves back. He wasn't even close to being this meticulous when it came to folding his own laundry. Somehow it gave him great pleasure that he was able to do something to help Tenten out, even if it wasn't that big of a deal and wouldn't nearly mean as much to her as it meant to him. His sloppy smile didn't waver as he settled the neat piles of clothes into one of his hampers. He made sure it was one of his hampers. He wanted to give her a reason to come see him again. Perhaps he would have to go to her in order to "get it back."

He also knew his little crush on her was getting out of hand. The better part of his intellect rationalized that he should not put as much effort into troublesome things such as emotions or let himself be comfortable with this infatuation. He then figured that his higher brain functions could take an extended vacation while he let his happy heart take the lead for a while. All things considered, he liked thinking of Tenten this way, even at the expense that she might not return the kinds of feelings that he had for her. He was willing to take the risk.

He stared for a bit at the clothes in his hamper, perhaps a little too satisfied at how well her clothes looked inside of it. He liked the thought of her things next to his. The notion was ridiculous. It was girlish and silly and even though he knew it, he still couldn't wipe the fatuous grin off his face. Somehow, he didn't care. He wanted to be with Tenten, and even stupid, completely irrational things like this were causing him to smile.

Now if he could just get her here…

He tried to regain some coherent thoughts about everything that needed to be done about the reconstruction. He still had to talk to his father about details…really boring details and permits and legal fees…

Now that his scowl was back full force he headed out to his parents to find his father.

He looked dubiously at the front door half open and immediately took his hands out of his pockets. It wasn't like either of his parents to leave the front door open. His mom would have screamed herself hoarse yelling about how we are ninja and we do not leave this door open! Shikamaru was instantly alert and searching stealthily through his parent's house, checking for any sign of a struggle or break-in. Lights were on, but he couldn't sense any chakra signatures in the house.

Then he spied smeared red all over the counter as he rounded the corner to the kitchen. Then the dishtowels saturated on the sink, soaked with blood came into view as he followed the trail further into the house.

Something bad happened.

He slammed the front door as he headed to the hospital, hoping desperately that his parents were okay.

When he had gotten to the hospital, a team of injured shinobi had walked in minutes before him, so he had to wait patiently for someone to be free enough to help him with his inquiry about his parents. Cold tiles and harsh, florescent lights pierced his view of the blindingly white hospital. The smell of stale disinfectant was overwhelming; it was no wonder the Inuzuka preferred their own clinic when injured. They no doubt had better and safer ways of sterilizing that wouldn't leave even someone who wasn't a tracker like himself wanting to run far and wide from the overriding stench of chemicals and solvents. Shikamaru tried to focus on the inevitable headache that would ensue after being exposed to a healthy amount of irritating substances. He did the math in his head. Bleach, plus blinding lights, times frustration, minus pertinent information, equaled instant migraine. He wouldn't think about how one of his parents might be critically injured. He wouldn't let his brain linger on the possibility that it might have been from the poisonous plants and how it might have affected Tenten as well. He couldn't let himself dwell on such things; he'd go mad if he did.

Instead he rolled over how much he was going to yell at them for leaving the front door open and forced himself to think about how his head was going to hurt very soon. His dark eyes settled on a clock that wasn't hanging quite straight on the wall as he tried not to let his mind wander.

He couldn't figure out who he was more worried about, one of his parents getting injured or Tenten's condition worsening. It seemed a horse a piece.

He also tried not to think about what that meant.

He couldn't wait any longer.

He roamed the halls, careful to duck certain personnel as he checked for three familiar chakra signatures. He nearly fell over with relief when he came across his parents sitting on a gurney whispering to each other as they brushed their shoulders against one another affectionately. Despite that the pre-teen in him from 10 years ago wanted to puke at how his parents were quietly flirting with each other like teenagers, in the hospital no less, the young adult in him currently who just wanted his parents alive, now kind of understood them a bit better as he collapsed on his knees in front them. He was overcome with relief.

He let his head fall in between their knees on the gurney. He tried to will his heart to start beating regularly again. His mom began to pat his head gently, weaving her hands through his hair as his breathing regulated.

"I dropped by the house…"

They were probably looking at each other, possibly wondering why his statement came out in a strangled whisper. He could feel the weight of his father's hand on his shoulders. Shikamaru lifted his head to look at them both.

He managed to find his voice. "You both scared the crap out of me. What happened?"

"Your mother cut herself cooking dinner. It was my fault for…distracting her." Shikaku scratched his scars with a bandaged hand lazily as he avoided eye contact with his son. Shikamaru didn't need more than that description to make the connection to what happened in the kitchen. No doubt his father's bandaged hands didn't help the situation at all. Shikamaru spied his mother's hurt hand sitting limply on her lap. Because of his father's injuries, he was unable to heal her there on the spot and then rushed her to the hospital. Three wrapped fingers. His mother was fine.

"Shouldn't it be a rule not to fool around while one of you is sick or injured?" Shikamaru stood up and forced his hands in his pockets and promptly balled them into fists. He didn't realize how angry he had suddenly become. The frustration could be heard in his voice. He was a patient man, but losing it fast. "Or at least not around sharp pointy objects…I don't care how kinky you guys get." He was nearly yelling now. His parents exchanged glances at each other at the strange role reversal that had occurred, "And for that matter you left the front door open!" Their eyebrows shot up in disbelief that their son had the audacity to castigate them this way.

Shikamaru took a calming breath as he closed his eyes and willed all of the nonsense in his life to disappear. He finally opened them to the sound of his parent's quiet laughter.

Rubbing his temples with a bit more force than he intended, he muttered an exaggerated "troublesome" before heading down the hall away from the source of his oncoming head ache.

…

He happened upon Tenten's room before he it even registered he was looking for it. That made his surprised reaction to hear her call his name as he walked by all the more believable. Suddenly all the tension that formed after leaving his apartment until that moment faded away as he back-pedaled a few steps to the entrance of Tenten's hospital room.

She smiled up at him as she coyly fingered her blanket with two scared fingers, fidgeting nonchalantly in an upright position on her bed. Her head was bent low, as if she wasn't sure she should have gotten his attention in the first place, and then she looked up at him through thick eyelashes with a coquette quirk to her features as she met his gaze. Shikamaru finally remembered his tongue after a few beats of taking in her cute and suddenly shy demeanor. Even in a hospital gown and covered with bandages, Tenten was quite breath-taking.

"Hey," he spoke by way of trying to sound casual, "how are you feeling?" He was glad his hands were firmly in his pockets as his palms were starting to sweat. Her hospital gown was pooled around her shoulders, exposing the long curvature of her neck and elegant collar bones. Shikamaru tried not to stare at how her skin seemed to glow even in the harsh brightness of the florescent lights.

He really wasn't expecting such a candid answer from her.

"Terrible." She muttered mostly to herself as she looked up at him fully with those dark-honey brown eyes of hers, intense and staring Shikamaru down like she was going to ask something, but then quickly changed her mind. She turned her head to the side instead, as if she were ashamed of herself for speaking so bluntly, knowing he had heard her confession.

"Sorry," she apologized immediately for her honest reply, "I mean I am fine," she said as she forced a fake smile on her face, all the while her eyes pleaded with him silently to pick up that she was far from it.

Shikamaru instinctively found himself at the side of the bed, setting himself down on the large part of it that wasn't covered with her body.

"What is it?" He was smitten. Oh, the woman could have asked for his spleen and he would have surgically removed it then and there for her. He raked over her form quickly to assess whether her condition had been exasperated during the course of her hospital stay. He had no way of knowing whether her skin had gotten better or worse without removing the strips of cloth and inspecting her wounds. "Is it bothering you? Do you need me to get a doctor?"

Tenten shook her head slowly, keeping her eye contact locked with his. The look in her eyes suggested something else, though he wasn't able to read exactly what it was that the kunoichi wanted from him.

"No, I…" she trailed off and bowed her head with shame once again for bringing up her umbrage with whatever it was that caused her to say "terrible" as a response to how she was doing. Another fake smile to him as she perked up to try to cover it up again, "Really, I am fine." It sounded like she was trying to convince herself. "I just don't have an affinity for hospitals is all."

Ah, he could relate to that. The sheer boredom alone was enough to drive him insane.

Shikamaru took his hand out of his pocket to scratch his chin thoughtfully. It occurred to him as he did it that he picked up the mannerism from his father and quickly dropped his hand to her knee and gave what he hoped was a friendly squeeze. He gave her a smirk, letting the mischief settle in his eyes. Tenten gave him her undivided attention with bright, impish features at his next words.

"Then let's get you out of here. Are you up for a jail break?"

A/N: Load up on your vitamin D this winter. It's going to be a long one.