And Envelopes

Xxx

The envelope on the desk took up little to no space, but it took up all of Temari's attention. She walked into her Konoha office expecting a mountain of paperwork and nothing more. While that is indeed what she got, she did not anticipate a small, simple, white envelope with her name written in the corner.

During her stay in Konoha she got an envelope every day after that one, and every day the letters inside would get longer. Sometimes a small arrangement of flowers would accompany it. The writer never signed their name. But she knew the handwriting. She knew who it was.

And she loved it.

Everyone questioned and everyone guessed. Some of the guesses were obscure, guesses of men she had never met, of men she wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Most of the time, the guesses were correct.

She never said they were right.

The first few envelopes contained letters that were not the least bit emotional or romantic. It was the envelope that had the necklace lazily stuffed inside where it had started;

'I saw this today while I was picking up food for the house. I just thought it was nice looking and I thought of you. It's not much.'

One wouldn't call the words scribbled onto the paper 'romantic'. It was just a simple compliment. But it was a lot considering it was him.

Temari looked forward to it each day. She needed to see those envelopes like she needed blood in her veins. The envelopes made her heart miss a beat. How she was on the outside told a whole different story. A story where she scoffed at the envelopes and resented them.

Then flowers started to pour in.

The first few were simple, single stems of baby's breath in a plastic cup. The envelope that was with it was short, like the one that came with the necklace.

'You probably have a bunch of these. I don't even know what they are. I know you like flowers. It's not much.'

Every letter that came with a gift said the same thing at the end. It's not much. No. They were everything to her.

The longer letters were her favorites. They told her about his day before he walked her to the office and what he did after. He would sneak sweet nothing's between paragraphs.

'It's weird, I used to think about a myriad of things when I stared at the clouds. Now I only think of you. Troublesome.'

Over time his letters were getting heavier and heavier with love and emotion. They told her how much she meant to him, how she turned him around. How he would be nothing without her. They told her how much he loved her. How he wished she could stay or how he wished he could come with her.

It was getting hard.

Then came the day she found no envelope. No gift, no flowers. There was nothing.

Temari woke up earlier to get a head start on paper work, not giving her a chance to meet up with him so he could walker her there. She scolded herself when she felt threatened by tears spilling out of her. 'It's only paper. I'm not going to cry over a man.'

An hour after she started the work for the upcoming exams she heard the doorknob turn. She was ready to punish whoever had the gall to walk into her office without knocking. She stopped when she saw Shikamaru. Envelope and a cup with baby's breath in hand.

"You're here?" His voice shook slightly, giving away his nervousness towards the situation.

"I wanted to get here early so I can get a head start on some work. You're up earlier than usual."

He nodded and looked down at the ground, lifting his hand with the envelope slightly so he could explain his reason for being up. His mouth was too dry to say anything.

"I knew it was you. You should have tried different handwriting and speech patterns."

"I tried. It didn't feel right."

"You know, Shikamaru," she walked over and pulled the envelope out of his hand, "the more of these you give me, the harder you're making it for me to leave Konoha."

"I guess that was my plan in the long run."

"Always a few steps ahead of the game."

Shikamaru looked like he wanted to die. He got caught. He never thought she would catch him. He knew she would figure it out. The thought that she might catch him never came to mind.

"Well, if that was your plan, Smart Guy, it worked."

The envelope fluttered to the ground when she dropped it to wrap her arms around him.

Maybe maybe maybe. I just might do a separate fic of every letter Shikamaru wrote. I would have done it here, but I just didn't have the time if I wanted to put it up by today. I'm sorry for that.