Category: Romantic Fluff
Characters: Sakura Haruno, Shikamaru Nara
Good day, everyone! Here's my story for ShikaSaku Week Hanami's Day Six prompt, "Like Air in My Lungs (I Need You)." Enjoy!
"Ino. Have you ever loved someone so much that it hurts?"
Sakura's eyes were lidded as she gazed forlornly out of the café window. Her hand was curled around a cup of black tea that was long since cold, over half full of the dark brew. The rain was pounding against the glass beside her; the glass looked as if it were frosted with the pumping streams that were cascading down the smooth, clear surface like a steady waterfall. For the thousandth time that morning, she sighed deeply and looked out the corners of her eyes at her friend, lips pursed in a self-pitiful pout.
"Sakura." The click in her tongue indicated that she was in for a chiding. She closed her blue eyes as she set down her cup of green tea with a shake of her head. "Shikamaru has been broken up with Temari for three weeks now! Why are you here moping to me when you could be making your move?" Sakura groaned loudly and slammed her forehead down onto the table, making the cups rattle and silverware jump.
"It's too soon! Shouldn't I wait at least a month?"
"Girl! You waited six months before he even started dating her! It's not like they were together for a super long time; they went on three dates," the blonde scolded her critically. Sakura groaned into the finished wood of the small café table. "Hey. Look at me, will ya?" Obediently, Sakura lifted her head to peer at her with big green eyes; Ino was leaning her cheek in her hand and smiling sympathetically. "I know how hard it is for you to reconcile with your feelings after the whole Sasuke thing petered out, but if you never take any risks, Sakura, you're gonna live your life full of regret." Ugh. I hate it when she's right, the kunoichi thought with a dour pout as she sat herself up and ran a hand over her wearied face.
"I know," she grumbled in agreement. She turned to glance out of the window once more. The wind whisked up the rain to all but throw it against the glass in furious pitter-patters. The perfect parallel to her tumultuous mood. I just… Don't want to ruin the status quo, she continued silently as her eyes drifted halfway shut. The rain continued to pour.
Sakura had bid Ino a good evening and begun the wet, rainy trek home. The rain pounding continuously on the rubbery layer of the red umbrella she was holding over her head like a shower of bullets. The dirt street was flooded with numerous, deep puddles of dirty rainwater that splashed up the sides of her bare calves with every squelching step. Sakura tilted the edge of the umbrella up for a moment to peek up at the sky; it was choked with ashy gray clouds that rolled with quiet thunder and flashes of bright white lightning deep within their bellies. No doubt, it would be a long time before the rain let up. With a small sigh, she dropped her head back down, chin striking her chest. In such dismal weather, it was nearly impossible not to brood. Her hand curled up around her heart as it clenched tightly in her chest. She had asked Ino if she had ever loved someone so deeply that it hurt, because all Sakura felt these days was a dull aching beneath her sternum- the low, throbbing pulse of insurmountable longing. It was a painfully familiar feeling, one she had lived with for several years, and sometimes she wondered if her love for Sasuke had diminished at all, if maybe she were confusing her little crush on Shikamaru with these deep feelings of hers.
Then she would see him- just like right then, as he trotted out of the door of a small convenience store with one hand in his pants pocket and the other tossing a small plastic bag of canned coffees over his shoulder. Sakura stopped in her tracks, green eyes wide as they beheld him grimacing up at the stormy heavens.
"Man, what a drag… I should've checked the weather forecast today. This is getting old," he muttered. His legs were splashed up the side with mud and Sakura could clearly see dark spots littering his clothes, evident of still-drying rain spatters. Had he walked there in the pouring rain? He apparently didn't notice her, as he hopped down the store's steps to land with a light splash in the muddied street below and start walking in the opposite direction. Sakura flushed and dipped her umbrella down to cover her face. She didn't want him to notice her, and yet her heart was screaming in agony, wishing dearly to be greeted. She clenched her teeth as it constricted angrily within her chest; her ears rang with the rush of blood and Shikamaru's soft, splashing footsteps. Her eyes flickered as the toes of his boots appeared just under the rim of the umbrella, passing her left side. She could go unnoticed. She could.
But did she want to?
"Sh-shikamaru!" she cried before her mind could stop her. Water jumped around her feet in a wide, curving arc as she whirled on her heel, and she accidentally threw the umbrella up too high, cause a sudden burst of raindrops to crash down into her face. Startled, she wiped at it quickly with her sleeve before blinking the water away to see Shikamaru staring at her with widened eyes. A mortified blush blazed across her cheeks, but she had already called out to him, so she had no choice but to stand her ground. "D-do you want me to walk you home? It's pouring… You could catch cold." She wished more than anything that her voice came out more confident. Hinata could run circles around her.
"You live in the opposite direction, though," he frowned and rubbed at the back of his neck awkwardly. The coffee cans jingled with the movement. Sakura stared slack-jawed at him for a second. How stupid she must look! Of course it would be weird offering to walk him home when they lived on completely different sides of time.
"U-um, I'm just out for a walk. I'm not going anywhere in particular, so, it doesn't matter to me," she recovered lamely. His black eyes met hers for a moment, calculating. She wondered if he could see the nervousness blooming in her spring green depths.
"Well, you gonna bring the umbrella over here or you gonna just let me stand out in the rain?" With a squeak, she scampered over to him, hoisting the umbrella up to accommodate his tall frame. He slipped his hand back in his pocket as he turned to begin walking in step with her. Her legs were significantly shorter, so she had to set her pace almost twice as much as his to keep up. The umbrella bobbed up and down over their heads as she scuttled along beside him. "So what brings you out for a walk in this ugly weather?"
"O-oh, um, I met Ino for lunch at a café earlier, but I just wasn't in the mood to go home yet." At least it wasn't a total lie.
"What, do you two get together once a week to exchange gossip or something?" he sniffed teasingly. Sakura's face turned the color of her hair; yeah, basically, that was what they were doing. Shikamaru blinked at her stunned silence, then began chuckling. "Sounds about right. Lemme guess- Ino just had to spill that me 'n Temari aren't a thing anymore, right? Can't tell her anything." She couldn't tell by the tone of his voice if he was actually angry that the blonde was spreading his business around or if he was just mildly amused; it was blank, void of much emotion at all, and when Sakura peeked up at him she saw that his face was pretty much the same. He stared straight onward with slightly lidded eyes. He looked deep in contemplation.
"… Did you really like her?" she asked quietly. If he was sad, she wanted to be there to comfort him, as his friend. However, part of her was terrified for him to answer that he had possessed strong feelings for the girl. That would just drive the nail into the coffin that contained her own feelings.
"No," he answered, almost a little too easily. Sakura's heart skipped with hope. She then flushed with shame. Why should she be happy that his relationship with Temari hadn't worked out? That was a terrible thing! His eyes shifted to bore into hers again, making her wince slightly. Was she supposed to say something? What should she say? Sakura was just brutally honest; it was especially hard with Shikamaru to act all unperturbed.
"S-so… You're the one who called it off?"
"Yeah."
"Why?" The question burned like fire on her tongue. Temari was smart and capable; honestly, Shikamaru would be lucky to have her. Of course, the answer could be as simple as he wasn't feeling it. That was a perfectly reasonable answer, but doubt poked at the back of Sakura's mind. The two had always had great chemistry, even to the point that people had assumed they were dating. It was almost certain that they would hit it off. So why…?
Shikamaru suddenly stopped, and she followed suit, looking at him in bewilderment. His hand slowly came up to wrap around hers that was holding the handle of the umbrella; blush shot up her arm to creep up her neck and face, and had Shikamaru not been gripping the handle tightly, the umbrella would be shaking from the quiver that had gripped her body. His dark eyes glittered with something that Sakura couldn't place- amusement? Glee? Maybe a faint bit of derision? It was an intense stare that had a pleasurable shiver propagating from her head to her toes and back. She felt it, again, that suffocating constriction in her chest that made her lungs burn. The love that hurt. Electrified, she could only gawk up at him and wait for him to speak.
"Because I was just trying to kid myself out of the fact that I was already in love with somebody else." His words were but ghosts, drifting over Sakura's blush-stained face in feather-light wisps. She was so enraptured by them that she didn't even react when the bag of coffee cans clattered loudly to the ground, nor when both his hands rose to gently cup her face. For some reason, only one thing and one thing only was on her mind.
"Have you ever loved someone so much that it hurt?"
"Every damn day."
The seconds between his answer and what happened next were forever a blank period in her memory. Like a record skipping, she was suddenly just there, umbrella discarded and arms around his neck and lips furiously smashing against his in a desperate, heated kiss. The cool rain cascading down her skin foiled the burning sensation of lust flourishing through her insides like fire; everywhere his hands landed- her neck, her hips, her back- there bloomed fiery pleasure as her nerves short-circuited. Sakura hadn't realized up until then how short of breath she was. As soon as his lips met hers, it felt like pure oxygen flooded her lungs, swelling them to maximum capacity. It was like he breathed life into her; she couldn't breathe without him, she loved and needed him that much, and so she refused to part her mouth from his even as her head began to dizzy with lack of breath. When his tongue dipped into her mouth to eagerly tangle with her own, her knees buckled and she slumped against him, mind foggy as she began to slowly spin into suffocation. It felt so good. It felt like a part of her was made whole again.
She was panting hard when he forced himself away from her. Despite her gasping breaths, her face still chased his as it left, her mouth lamenting the loss of the taste of him, like bitter coffee and green tea and spices. He supported her limp frame with his sturdy arms as she slowly came down from the impossible high. She blinked as her mind came back to her. The rain had picked up considerably and they were both now dripping wet, beaded raindrops falling from their chins and elbows and seeping into their clothes to darken the fabric. Sakura laughed lightly as she swept a few of the pink strands that had plastered to her face.
"I let go of the umbrella," she mused bashfully and looked down the street to see it rolling like a tumbleweed far down the street. She turned back to see that they had been standing in front of his house the entire time. Now I have to walk all the way home in the rain… Sakura didn't mind it, really. With the gentle, bubbling heat pulsing through her body at the moment, she doubted the chill of the rain would be able to reach her at all. Shikamaru seemed to have other ideas, though.
"What a pity. Guess you're not going anywhere until the rain lets up." Her face turned beet-red at the sultry growl in his voice. She squealed in surprise as he suddenly hoisted her up, and her legs snapped closed around his hips on instinct.
"Shi-! Shika-!" she stammered uselessly. Her brain was far too fried to form coherent words. He gave her a twisted, mischievous smirk as he whirled on his heel to march up the path leading to his residence, while Sakura's nails dug down into his shoulder in a white-knuckled grip. "Have you lost your mind?!"
"I'm quite lucid, thank you," he purred as he kicked the garden gate latch up and opened it with a foot. He kicked it shut behind him, not seeming to care at all that it only bounced back open to begin flapping back and forth in the wind. "What, do you really wanna go on your 'walk' that bad?" Her face continued to flush at his teasing words. Of course she didn't want to go on a damn walk! Mortified and shamefully excited, she leaned forward to bury her face into his shoulder as he carried her into the empty house.
It was certainly not how she expected to spend the rainy day, but boy, did she have some gossip for Ino for their next café meet-up…
