Before Shikamaru could think past the thoughts of quit smiling like an idiot, the door to her hospital room swung open and Sakura immerged with a clipboard, not bothering to look up from it as she started speaking.

Shikamaru retreated from her bedside immediately and stood up with a slouch, attempting to transcend his awkwardness and channel unconcerned laziness.

"Yeah, Tenten, sorry for keeping you waiting, you are free to go. Your sensei and teammates made your condition seem a lot worse than it really is. I just talked with Shikaku, and he told me to find you and tell you to report to his son, Shikamaru, and that would free up the hospital bed. I can call Ino, and see if she knows where…"

At this point she finally looked up from her paperwork with an "oh!" and smiled.

"This makes my job a hellova lot easier." She fished a jar of cream out of her white overcoat pocket. "Every four hours. Keep her hydrated." She slapped it in his palm, smiled again, and walked out.

Shikamaru and Tenten were left staring at the door that she had just come through.

"Did you plan that?" Tenten asked suddenly, still gawking at the door without blinking.

"Would it impress you if I had?" Shikamaru dared to raise an eyebrow slowly in her direction.

"Maybe." She shrugged impartially.

Side-stepping the question, he shifted gears. "Come on, let's get you out of here."

(l)

"You are telling me you eat on the roof of your apartment?" Tenten asked as he helped her gain purchase at the top of a fire escape ladder.

"Only on nice days like this, you can't beat the view really." He had a plastic table and chairs hidden by a service fan. He had even gotten Shino to come up and play a game of shogi with him recently. The Aburame had given him a run for his money and the strategist in Shikamaru loved a good game.

It wasn't like he could fit the table, even as small as it was in his apartment. If he was lucky he would get a chair to fit in and then barely have enough room to sit in it. The roof provided an excellent view of the sky, a tree half destroyed in the Pane attack, a dirty alleyway, and a breathtaking skyline of a residential part of Konoha. Luckily, the cool breeze that settled in for the evening did not line up with the sordid alleyway that would have made eating dinner on the roof unbearable.

They lounged in their plastic chairs and ate amicably on the roof as they watched the sky turn from blue to pink and stretch into smears of purple and grey.

They talked fondly of teammates and shared mission stories until the last chill of spring reminded them to get back inside before it became too late. Reluctantly, Shikamaru shuffled into his apartment, not wanting the evening on the rooftop to end.

"I have your laundry," Shikamaru pointed a lanky arm to the corner where he had meticulously folded and in some cases, refolded every bit of her wardrobe.

A shy smile crossed her face as she mumbled a humble thank you. He brought out the jar in his pocket and some extra strips of white gauze. With a few hand seals and some extra bandages, he was able to seal more of the salve into the strips so that it released in approximately four hours, give or take.

It would be a complete lie if he were to say that he didn't enjoy her proximity, the pure heat and scent rolling off of her body as they huddled close. He traced the white edges of her scars with the pads of his fingers as he worked over her nearly healed skin.

Shikamaru had known from anatomy class that the skin was the largest organ. It was an organ based on sensory and took in a ridiculous amount of information all at the same time such as pressure, heat, or pain. Shikamaru was indulging himself in applying the ointment to her largest organ, relishing in the immaculate condition that her skin was in, even if he did run into miscellaneous tiny white scars along the way. Her skin was super soft, and he had a feeling that she didn't use lotion like a maniac as he knew that Ino had the habit of doing. Her skin was like velvet to the touch, and the sweet scent of her hair was plugging his nose so that he had to seriously focus on the task at hand or he was going to get slapped for being so voyeuristic in his ministrations.

"That should hold all night," he said as he turned over her wrist in his hands to inspect his work one last time. "The jutsu should break the bandages and the new ointment underneath will cover over what I just put on. That should be the last round you need. It should be completely healed by the morning."

"Thanks," Tenten slowly took her wrist back, almost hesitantly as she inspected it over. Shikamaru just stood there while she grasped one hand around the other over the bandages and then back to the other hand. She looked up at him, a feint blush dusted on her cheeks. "Shikamaru," she spoke with more hesitation, "Would you mind if…" she trailed off and circled her hand around her wrist more out of nervous habit than an inspecting of his handy work. He didn't want this kind of timid reaction from her. He didn't want her to be this shy around him, especially if she was asking him for help.

"Tenten, you know you can ask me anything." His voice was low and soothing. Tenten looked at him with a bit more of a smile briefly before trying to gather a bit more of her confidence.

"I was just wondering if I could borrow a shirt to sleep in tonight. All of mine are smaller and I want to be able to put it on without disturbing the bandages. You did such a good job of applying them, I would hate to have it all ruined because my shirt doesn't stretch."

Shikamaru wasn't going to let that happen on his watch. He pulled out a shirt from his hamper without inspecting it all that well and handed it over to her eagerly. She accepted it with another grateful thanks and hurried off to the bathroom to change.

Shikamaru ran through his normal routine after she had emerged, perhaps spending a bit more time brushing his teeth than normal and put on extra deodorant just to be on the safe side. Tenten was already curled up on what he now considered her side of his bedroll when he emerged. He snuck in to his side, trying his best not to disturb her. Remembering that he still had his shirt on, he quickly sat up, and removed it out of habit more than anything else. Even though it was going to be another chilly night, his blanket was warm and he was after all, sharing heat with another body beside him.

He slipped his hands behind his head as if cloud watching, careful not to let his overly long arms or elbows disturb the kunoichi beside him in any way. He was far from sleepy; his mind raced with all of the activities of the day. He thoroughly enjoyed spending time with Tenten. It was hard for him to imagine anything but her at the moment. Her team, on the other hand, was a total drag. He was going to have to formulate a plan to bypass any other annoyance from them in the future. His eyes, though focused on the ceiling, kept drifting over to the sleeping form whose breath was even as if in actual slumber, or close to it.

"Good night, Tenten," he said softly anyways. He hoped that he had not startled her.

"Good night, Shikamaru," she replied back, not nearly as groggy as he originally thought her to be. "Thanks for letting me borrow your shirt. And for taking care of me, and for supper." She tacked on a bit muffled, as if mostly speaking to her pillow.

Shikamaru broke a lazy smile, "You weren't as troublesome as I had originally thought."

To this she rose and took the bait, turning over quickly, taking the blankets with her in a knotted twist.

"Excuse me?" She propped herself up on her pillow with her elbows and then poked him below his closest pectoralis muscle. "You thought I was troublesome?"

"Ow, watch it woman, that was my rib you just knocked out of place." Shikamaru rubbed the sore spot right under his armpit with irritation, but didn't move much beyond that.

"Excuse me?" Tenten's voice reached a higher octave, "Did you just call me woman?"she asked incredulously. He had gotten her riled up now. She was clutching her pillow and looked like she was ready to pounce on him. Shikamaru daringly closed his eyes with a smirk hiding on the corner of his lips. He painstakingly drawled out, "I retract my first statement. Apparently you are going to be as troublesome as I had originally thought."

He heard her intake of breath, the shocked gasp as she inhaled and exhaled sharply. "Oh, I'll show you troublesome!"

And with that, she grabbed the pillow out from underneath his head and hit him square in the face with it. He barely had time to stop smiling before he swiftly pinned her to the bedroll, not using his shadow bind but brute strength to flip her over and give her a few seconds to realize that he had her gently restrained beneath him.

"As much as I would like to continue this," and boy did he ever, "My father will savagely kill me if the training partner that he picked for my mother becomes damaged in any way under my watch."

"You think you could do some damage to me, Nara?" she questioned daringly, squirming slightly beneath him and he lost the connection with his brain for a good couple of seconds. He wasn't quite sure if her words were meant to be as seductive as he found them or not. He chalked it up to his gutter brain and kept his message clear.

"You get better first. Then we can go toe to toe." He tried not to think of other body parts that he wanted matched up in that way.

"Ha!" she kept her voice low, "I don't want a fair fight, not with you. I will get paybacks for that troublesome and woman comment. Mark my words, Shikamaru." Her words came out playful, but he had a feeling that her paybacks weren't going to come in a way that he didn't necessarily not like.

He let her see his full on smirk this time, "I'm up for the challenge."

"I don't fight fair." She raised an eyebrow, egging for him to disapprove. He looked her over, a sweeping glance that inspected every inch of her body from the tips of her toes to the top of her head.

"No, you don't." He drawled as he completed his scrutiny of her body. "I'm counting on it, but for now, to be continued."

"Truce. For the next ten hours. And," she paused to make sure that she had his attention, even though he knew that she knew that she already had it, "I am keeping your shirt."

Shikamaru looked down at the navy blue Nara clan shirt that had his clan symbol embroidered on the outer cuff of the worn tee. He probably had a dozen or so of them. Other than the small emblem on the sleeve, they were monochromatic and plain. He would gladly give her more if she wanted them.

Shikamaru shrugged and reluctantly got off of her, he rolled to his side with much effort and replaced his pillow back behind his head. Then, as if reading his mind, she stated what he had been thinking.

"It looks better on me anyways."

(O) (o) (o) (O)

A/N: Thank you to my fans, and the last person who reviewed this. I found your lovely comments in my inbox and felt compelled to try and finish this chapter sooner than later. Thank you for the motivation and inspiration! Your input and feedback fuel me to continue on as a ff writer. Props to you, all of my faithful readers! I had to write, scrap and rewrite this chapter until I was satisfied. I hope you all are too.

Cheers!

Jaggedjacket