Hi there,
I hope you enjoy this chapter. It's for the song We are the Sound by The Afters. It's pretty short and basic, but I personally love the simplicity of it all. :D I appreciate all of the readers, and all the helpful and encouraging reviews that have been left on these one-shots. I hope you continue to like it, but I wanna know when you don't. :)
Sincerely,
Hot Mess 12
Now is the time we have
Take it, never give it back
It was midnight. Temari could tell by how high the moon was in the sky. It was a half-crescent moon, but its light was as strong as a full moon. Hiding in the shadows was not her best forte. It never had been. She would rather attack head-on and beat the crap out of her opponent than sit and wait to get the upper hand.
It was crazy how easily Shikamaru could walk through the forests outside of Konoha. He look so calm and collected, but she knew better. The only time he ever went walking in the forests was when he wasn't sure what to do next. It was when he was at his weakest. It was a time when Temari almost didn't recognize him.
He walked past the tree she was perched in without as much as a glance given to its direction. His hands were placed in his pockets as they almost always were, and she was blown away when he started talking.
His words were soft and contemplative, but they existed in the ear-shot of her.
Say what you mean to say
This could be your only chance
"That was a stupid move. Of all of the things I said, I had to say that." Shikamaru looked up at the moon. It was bright, but it was comforting to know that he wasn't the only thing alive at this time of night. Out here, the crickets chirped, but that was the only company he would ever have.
Temari landed softly on the ground, but she leaned against the tree. She was just going to watch him tonight, but this Plan B seemed more fun to her. "So, what exactly did you say wrong?"
She loved bothering him because he would have to analyze everything. In his mind, he only had one chance at whatever he was bothered by. That was the amusing part in this game she played with him.
Everybody's watching out
For someone who can show them how
Shikamaru stopped his slow walk instantly. Of all the things she could have done on her free night, she chose to follow him. She was what he knew to look out for when he was trailing off in his thoughts. She was the bright spot anyways.
Though, tonight she was the last person he wanted to show up amidst the trees. "It's nothing."
He turned to face her as he spoke. He kept a calm and relaxed facial expression to try to throw her off; however, he knew it didn't help. She had heard what he had said, and there was no way around that.
She was frustrating. She was so frustrating that he had gone to Choji about her earlier. Shikamaru had no idea to approach her about what was on his mind. It was disturbing that she was the bright side of his thoughts. After his sensei's death, she brought him smiles every time she visited. That, in itself, was disturbing to him. He didn't hate to smile or anything. He just never pictured himself smiling around her so much.
So, Choji had been his lost hope at a straight answer, and it was an utter disaster. Choji chalked it up to the love bug.
Now, love was the furthest thing from what he felt for her. It was not possible to feel anything more than friendship for her. She was not a person to fall in love with him so the feeling had to be mutual.
But apparently, everyone else in the village didn't feel quite the same way. Ino spread the news like the gossiper she naturally was. And, it never ceased to amaze Shikamaru how many people whispered when he entered a shop or restaurant.
He chalked it up to his horrible luck as a Nara, but he knew the truth. He was in the one thing he hoped he would never truly be in: love. On top of it all, it was with someone as troublesome as they got.
He stood in front of her now. And for the first time in his life, he was truly terrified of a woman. Women naturally scared him, but this was a different type of fear. It was a fear of rejection. And that was his biggest fear.
That was why he never tried. He had no one there to show him how to go about bringing this up to a woman. He wouldn't ask any women in his village because none of them would keep it secret. He wouldn't ask the men because they were either perverts, naive, or in his father's case, to lazy to really give any helpful advice. That meant he was on his own with Suna's princess.
That, in itself, was a scary thought.
To be what they wanna be and
Stand never backing down
Still, Shikamaru was a noble shinobi. He had learned from his own sensei that backing down from any fight was unacceptable for the protection of the village. And yet, he had forfeited the match with Temari. To this exact moment, he knew that he had plenty of energy to finish her off, but for some reason, he didn't want to hurt her to an extremity. That was one detail, and he liked the way she looked at him with fear. She was out of control, and that look had been enough to let her enjoy her freedom again.
Now, he was in her shoes. He knew how she was feeling. He was helpless and hopeless to her every whim.
She spoke in her most menacing voice. "So, we really don't have all night for you to think of an elaborate and detailed answer, crybaby. What did you say wrong to me?"Shikamaru knew how to win a battle with her. He had to get her mad first. She'd lose her cool after that happened. "Whoever said I was talking about you?"
She stood out of the moonlight's view to hide her red face, but he could see right through it. She knew that he was playing around with her. That pissed her off.
Here we are
Here we are
They stood face to face as he drew near to her. He wasn't sure why he was beign bold. That wasn't his style at all, but the element of surprise would catch her off guard. That was the one thing he wanted more than anything tonight. He shoved her against the tree she was near. He trapped her in between his arms, and she looked away. "I said that I wanted to be your friend."
They were silent for awhile before she spoke. "Yeah, I figured it was something like that."
We are the sound
We are the siren
We're all around
And we won't stop singing it out
They were the type of people that brought out the worst and best of each other. That was the part of their budding relationship that spoke louder than any set of words. Everyone could see it, but they denied it.
Until that night. The night when the moonlight shown on each other perfectly. The night when they had no idea why they found themselves so uncomfortably close. The night when their lips touched; the night when their lips touched for more than a chance encounter.
The kiss spoke like words could not. It magnified the feelings they kept discrete and away from each , it didn't last long. She pushed him away and slapped him. Even though she accepted the kiss gracefully, she couldn't accept what was happening. She darted off with Shikamaru smiling. And suddenly, she was stopped. She was unable to move her body.
Shout it out
Like you believe it
We'll break it down
When we all start singing it out
Shout it out now
He wanted to shout with her under his brief control. So, much unlike himself, he decided that was his best course of action. She would have to hear him that way. "You can't do that!"Temari sighed. She wasn't going to scream back at him. At least, she wasn't going to do that tonight. "Do what?"Shikamaru kept up his angry rant. "You can't expect me to accept things as they are after tonight! You are the most infuriating woman I have ever met, and yet, I care about you more than anything!"
Shikamaru simmered down after his last sentence. He went out of control. He didn't think of any more moves to make in his head. He didn't want to. She was the one person that he liked to think about being spontaneous with.
Temari stood there as Shikamaru released his jutsu. She walked toward him, and without saying a word, she hugged him. She never hugged anyone. It wasn't something she like doing, but he wrapped his arms around her, and after the cold chill of the night hit her for hours as she had watched him, she didn't mind it as much as she thought she would. She shouted her emotions at him in the most unusual way. She used her small amount of kindness to show him that it wasn't ending with tonight.
Silence is an enemy
That keeps us from the things we need
It ages but it never grows
So quiet that we start to bleed
The next day she was scheduled to return to Suna, and without saying a word, they headed to the gates from her temporary home. It killed both of them to swallow their pride and talk, so they refused to do it.
They needed each other, but they couldn't expect anything to blossom from what happened the night before. It just wouldn't happen with everything that was in their way. That was the detail that stung them the most.
Temari just sighed. Shikamaru looked over at her and smirked. "You know, if I didn't know any better, I would say you're avoiding the subject."She kept walking and kept looking forward. She'd break down otherwise, and she was too stubborn and headstrong to do such a thing like that. "I didn't realize there was a subject that was supposed to be brought up."
"Okay." Shikamaru saw the gates, and he knew that for now, this was an ending. And the beginning wasn't as bright as he thought it would be.
Lets shake it off and let it go
Forgetting what we think we know
She shook the feeling off as nothing more than an upset stomach, but she knew better. She had fallen for him, but she did more than that. She let him in.
It was exactly what her downfall would be, but she forgot that as she approached the gates. "How about dinner?"Shikamaru glanced in her direction, and she looked back more confidently than she thought she would. "Huh?" Shikamaru knew that was pitiful, but he wanted to make sure that he heard her right.
"The next time I come here, take me out to dinner." She smiled at him like she always seemed to do.
That was the best sign of acceptance to him. He simply nodded and smirked. He looked up at the sky.
We'll make it all a memory
We're taking back control
That was the best sign of acceptance to him. He simply nodded and smirked, which she shortly followed in.
She waved as she left with a huge smile pasted across her elegantly rigid face. She was the biggest contradiction known to man. But she was in control of her life, and Shikamaru admired that.
He turned and headed to the Nara residence once she was out of view and on her way. He tilted his head up to the sky. It was a beautiful day for cloud watching. For the moment, he would take back control of his life. But the second she returned, he would surrender to her. That was the curse of the Nara men; however, as he remembered her scary beautiful smile, the curse didn't seem too bad.