"A dream is a wish your heart makes. . ." Shikamaru heard singing from over the hill where he was peacefully relaxing. His first instinct was to think it was Ino, but Ino couldn't sing.

"When you're fast asleep!" A familiar ditzy blonde came up over the horizon of the hill.

Shikamaru was propped up on his elbows and he turned to who the disturbance was. When Takara saw him looking at her she waved her arm frantically over her head and went running towards him.

Two hundred reasons for her coming to him came to mind but none of them seemed quite right.

What did she want, Ino's whereabouts? No, she wouldn't come all the way out in the forest for that.

Did she need money and think that because they bonded yesterday that he'd just give it to her? No, she wasn't a mooch.

But then, maybe she just wanted to be around him? No, he quickly dismissed that thought. It must have been about Ino.

"Hey Shikamaru-kun. I have something to show you today." She said "today" like she'd be coming every day. He innerly groaned.

Then he had a thought, that he wouldn't have to suck up to Ino about "proving himself", but he dismissed that thought as well. He was going to give up on the troublesome girl.

"Oh, I'm sorry. Were you sleeping? I didn't mean to wake you."

"What makes you think I was sleeping?"

"Well, you look really sleepy. And Ino-chan says you're lazy." Taka smiled as though it were funny.

"Of course," he mumbled and sighed.

"Well, Shika-kun--"

"Shika-kun?" No one had called him that before. Not even his mother gave him pet names.

"Yeah, it's your name now, okay?" She beamed at the look of anguish on his face.

"Fine." Shikamaru gave up and smiled, but only a bit.

"Well, look here! I brought my favorite book ever to show you. It's a book of fairy tales. What do you think of fairy tales?"

"Fairy tales? What about them?"

"Like, do you like them, or which one is your favorite?"

"I don't know. I don't read them. I'm not a kid."

Needless to say, Takara was offended. She propped her wrists on her hips and dropped her jaw.

"They're not childish! They're romantic and sweet and all wonderful classics. Here, I'll show you. Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess. . ."

"Oh man. . ." Shikamaru muttered, not expecting nor wanting to hear a princess story.

But against his will, Takara proceeded through the Frog Prince story. Like she did for Sasuke, she put her heart into telling said story.

She told of the princess dropping her golden ball into the well, and of the Frog fetching it in exchange for her hand in marriage. But the Princess, not wanting to wed a Frog, ran back to the castle and left him.

The Princess was later having dinner with her father, the King, when the Frog came into the dining hall and asked to be seated with them for the meal.

Of course the Princess said no, but when the King heard of their verbal pact, he agreed to enforce it.

The Frog sat on the table near the Princess and asked for her to feed him. The Princess became fed up and went to her bedroom to escape the Frog.

Once there, though, she set her hand under her comforter to lift it up to find the Frog.

She became angry and was scared enough so she took the Frog and flung him at the wall.

The Princess, not meaning to really hurt him, picked him up to find he was severely injured. She apologized a million times and cried for him but his life was fading.

Then, out of impulse, she laid a single kiss on his lips. Magically, he began to transform.

The little Frog changed into a handsome Prince!

He told of the evil witch who cast this spell upon him for being shallow and how the kiss of a loving princess could save him. The Princess and Prince married the next day and lived, together, happily ever after.

By the end of the story, Takara's eyes were glittering and sparkling. She seemed on Cloud Nine by the "happily ever after".

"Fantastic, right!?"

"How cheesy. . ."

Takara's heart dropped into her stomach, which proceeded to drop into her colon. Then her colon imploded.

"How can you say that?!. . . ."

"How can a kiss from a woman make you less shallow?"

"It implies love!!"

"How can you fall in love with a frog?"

Takara poked Shikamaru's nose, pushing it back like that of a pig.

"You're more of a frog than a prince, you know!!"

"I know what I am, and I know what I'm not. And I'm no prince."

"Well fine then! Whatever! I d-don't care. . ." But, instead of storming off angrily as Ino would have done, Shikamaru was surprised when she plopped down next to him.

"Why are you still here?"

"Am I not welcome? I'm sorry I called you a frog." She smiled sheepishly.

"No, I thought you'd run off. Get mad a run away like a woman."

"Well first of all, I'm not just any woman. I'm a princess!" She pumped her fist in the air, earning a raise of eyebrows. "And I had a nice time watching the sunset with you yesterday, so I wanted to do it again today. Is that all right with you?"

"Sure, go ahead."

"You know what? I think you'd like the fairy tale more if they had songs with them. You wanna hear a song?!"

"Uh--"

Taka giggled dove into another story, one of her other favorites, Mulan. Technically, she wasn't a princess, but she was put in great honor like a princess at the very end, so Takara counted her.

Her favorite thing about that story, by far, was the song, Reflection. She enjoyed singing it and felt it described her, sort of. So, she put her whole heart and soul into singing.

Shikamaru was dumbfounded by her singing voice. It was like being in a theater play only in reality, or some surreal dimension, or-- some fairy tale story.

She didn't break in her notes, and though he wasn't talented in music, he thought she could go into the business.

Even more so, the way the dwindling light shone from the sky, orange upon her, and the way the clouds painted the background purple, pink, yellow, silver, and orange again, it appeared so unreal, so-- beautiful.

When she finished(though he wished she hadn't) she advanced through the rest of the tale.

After the story telling, the sun was nearly set.

One glance at the stupefied expression on Shikamaru's face, though, and Takara was set into hysterical laughter. His jaw ajar and his eyes wide that way looked too cute!

Her laughter confused the boy even more. What could possibly have been so laugh-worthy?

"What are you laughing about?" He was almost insulted.

Taka didn't stop laughing to answer. She loved these few precious times when something very funny or very engaging was taking place, so she could just let herself laugh.

Laughing had a special refreshing feeling that tantalized her senses. She loved to just let it go, even long after the said funny thing had lost it's funniness.

"Hey, what's the big deal?!"

"You-- You-- You--" Takara could barely manage laughing and breathing at the same time, let alone talking as well.

"What's so funny about me?" Shikamaru was now thoroughly insulted. 'Figures,' he thought.

"Your face, it looked so goofy and adorable!" Her laughter was subsiding. She pinched his cheek and pulled in a little bit like a touchy visiting aunt. "So cute!!"

His face lit up red for reasons he didn't care to think about. Takara just kept giggling and pinching. She took herself it upon herself to poke and pinch at his face making him make silly expressions.

It couldn't have been any funnier to her, but to him, it was anything but funny. It was humiliating and embarrassing.

He tried to fight her off, but every time he pushed her off, she'd come back on him, pushing him over and poking at him. He couldn't even use his real strength on her because she, as is obvious, was a girl!

He backed up yet again to avoid being picked and pinched in the face and she plopped herself down at his feet instead of advancing.

"Sorry, Shika-kun. That was kind of stupid of me, but you looked so silly I couldn't help myself!!"

Still red in the face, he gave her a nasty look, but he couldn't help but to smile. "Ch, troublesome woman. . ." was all he could manage.

"Shika-kun, don't bind yourself by those woman-man things. When comes down to it, it's whoever it's smarter, really, and that can be a man or a woman." To add to her point, she poked him in the stomach.

A gasp escaped from his mouth and he snapped up into a sitting position, grasping his wound.

"What is it, Shika-kun?"

"Nothing, and quit calling me that." Shikamaru was beginning to grow annoyed.

"Okay, Shishi-kun." A groan and a giggle, and you can guess which each came from.

Then a malicious idea hit Taka. She dove her fingers into Shikamaru's side. With a yelp he grabbed her wrist and glared hard.

"Cut it out." Great, he could feel his face turning red again.

Prideful Takara wouldn't give up just like that, though.

"You just wait, Shika-kun, 'cause when you least expect it, I'm gonna get cha."

"You better not."

"Okay, okay. . ." But her expression told a different story, something along the lines of her having something different planned.

"Shika-kun, tommorrow you have to bring your favorite thing ever, okay? 'Cause I showed you mine."

"What? Listen--"

"Please, Shika-kun? It's not fair that I show you mine and you don't show me yours. Please? I'll be good." She puffed out her lip and did an outrageous puppy dog pout.

He sighed again. "Fine."

"Awesome, thank you!!" Takara hugged him tight around the shoulders, again changing the color of his face to red.

"Buh-bye, Shika-kun!! Gotta go!!" She waved behind her head and raced off giddily, trying to make it home before she broke curfew.

When Shikamaru caught up with himself and cleared his throat of the frog in it, he shouted to her retreating figure. "Don't call me 'Shika-kun'!!"

He thought he heard her laugh, but maybe he was just imagining it.

Chuckles, laughs, and giggles,

However they are said,

They have so many meanings:

They are how love is bred.