Mist turned on the bench, her bare skin still glistening with water as her muscles strained with the movement. She shifted upright and Shikamaru heard the floor boards next to him creak as Ino took a step back. Her eyes had gone wide with fear and the color had drained from her. He realized she was scared, he was so stupid, they should have locked Mist's mind until they were ready to question her, until Ino was more comfortable.
He began turning himself towards Ino but stopped as he realized Mist had risen to her feet wobbling slightly before planting them in a wide stance to stabilize her chakra drained body. Torn between protecting Ino from Mist and coming to her side to comfort her, not knowing Mist's next move he looked frantically between the two. She was unpredictable, but he had a seed of trust for her after fighting at her side.
Ino's breathing picked up and her movements backwards became quick and anxious. Mist was harmless in her current state so Shikamaru made the decision to turn fully towards Ino, corralling her back into a set that he pulled out from the small table in the middle of the cabin.
She was hyperventilating now and Shikamaru leaned forward so his face was close to hers, trying to ground her, giving her nothing but him to look at. Her breath caught in her throat and her eyes went wide as she looked over his shoulder and he instinctively straightened and turned, but he wasn't quick enough.
Shikamaru saw Mist move in slow motion, but he seemed to be shocked into stillness or maybe he felt like what would happen was not an attack. He watched like a bystander at a circus act as Mist brought her hands to either side of Ino's face. They glowed in way that reminded him of Ino's healing technique, but they were different. It wasn't blue light that they emitted, it was a warm yellow light, like she had caught a fleck of setting sun and held it in her palm.
Ino's body flinched waiting for pain, her eyes screwed shut, a line forming between her brows as her face contorted in fear and hands flew up defensively, but as Mist made contact her body began to ease. Her face relaxed and Mist slowly knelt down in front of her, still gently holding Ino's face.
Her breathing became slow and even and it almost appeared as if she was falling asleep, until she softly opened her eyes in a dewy submissive way he recognized. Shikamaru observed Ino's movements, knowing what she would do next, but so surprised by it he almost wasn't sure.
Ino's hands slide gently across Mist's shoulders and up her neck, as they moved she leaned down to her. Their lips brushed delicately, and the girl didn't pull back in surprise or flinch in dissatisfaction, she simply tilted her head up further towards Ino and parted her lips. The light from her hands intensified, illuminating both their faces so they looked like two celestial bodies that had orbited to close to one another. Gravity pulled them in even further.
In the small space that appeared as Mist shifted her head and opened her mouth he saw a light like the glowing one in Mist's hands pass between their mouths, but before the kiss could deepen, the light went out and Mist's body went completely limp falling to the ground in a heap.
Ino blinked dazedly and brought two fingers up to brush across the surface of her lips looking bewildered as if she had woken from an odd dream. She scrutinized her fingers trying to find some clue as to what she had done and why, and then she looked down at Mist.
Shikamaru continued to watch, stunned into stillness. He felt flushed from the events that had unfolded in front of him, his mind still trying to piece them into something that made sense.
He didn't move as Ino dropped down to the floor intimately checking the girl's pulse. He could see her body relax and knew she had found a beat.
Ino took a deep breath letting it out slow as she lightly skimmed her finger tips over her forehead and down her cheeks. She looked back down at Mist before lifting her from the floor and easily carrying her over to the large bed at the back of the cabin. Ino knelt on the soft mattress, it creaked as she shuffled across before carefully laying Mist down on the far side, then sitting back and reached for the covers which she pulled over them both.
"We can sleep now Shika." Ino spoke quietly sounding almost half asleep.
Shikamaru snapped back into his body. He felt detached from what had just happened. Like it was a far-off memory which he couldn't full distinguish. Its realness was indiscernible.
He watched as Ino pulled back the covers next to her up as a gesture to him that he should join them. He reluctantly made his way to the bed unzipping his flak jacket and dropping it carelessly to the ground before pulling off his thick pants and hauling his under shirt over his head.
He could see Ino wriggling under the covers to remove her shirt and pants as well, realizing they wouldn't be comfortable to sleep in. She threw them out and onto the floor in a haphazard pile.
Shikamaru moved slowly into bed, hesitant about his actions. His mind raced with questions and faltered at conclusions, but he stayed silent, not coming to a full consensus on what he should say.
"What was that?" He asked.
His voiced echoed in the dark cabin and he felt like he had disrupted something, like he had childishly heaved a rock into a peacefully flowing stream just to see its reaction.
He didn't receive a reply from either of his bed mates, but he heard Ino shift under the covers and then felt the warmth of her bare skin ease into him. She nuzzled her head against his shoulder and rested a hand across his chest. His heart beat fluttered underneath it at the unfamiliar act of intimacy, but then it slowed as her peaceful presence seeped into him.
His mind fell quite, a feeling he hadn't had for a very long time, and without knowing it he drifted into sleep. Two lambs laying with the lion.
An early morning hue of sunlight filled the cabin. It was filtered through the canopy of trees that sheltered the structure outside leaving the room in a haze of dim light, but Shikamaru's internal clock brought him out of sleep.
He didn't feel groggy, like most mornings, he felt renewed.
He blinked himself into consciousness, but what woke him fully was an even warm breeze that rustled his hair and played at his ear. Sending electricity from the base of his brain to the very bottom of his spine. He leaned his head into the feeling, and closed his eyes relishing in it. When he finally opened them again he looked down to find a slender hand resting quietly across his bare chest.
His eyes tracked across the well-kept nails, over the slim wrist, down the strong forearm, up the smooth biceps and shoulder to a tranquil face, and all the events of last night came crashing down on him like a load of bricks.
He tried not to flinch at the thought as not to wake the sleeping beauty entangled in his arms, but his mind began to race again and he needed to move to slow it down.
He shifted in increments to disentangle himself from Ino, until he finally stood from the bed. He looked down at her sleeping silently and ran his hands through his loose hair in a way that might keep his head from popping off and bouncing around the cabin like a ball. Then his eyes moved over her to the heap of covers that was Mist. She hadn't moved an inch in the night, she was completely dead to the conscious world and that put him at ease in some small way. She wasn't troublesome when she wasn't moving.
He took a deep breath in an attempt to slow his racing heart and then cringed as he smelled the dry sweet and earth on him.
Get clean. That was any easy enough job with little thought. He moved around the cabin quietly, trying to focus on the task and not let his mind wonder down a path of worry. Warming another pot of water over the fire and bringing it into the small sauna. Don't think. He paid one last look at the pair sleeping on the bed and reassured himself they could be left alone for the short time it would take him to clean up. Don't think.
He closed the sliding door and lit the small fire under the midnight stones. Don't think.
There was a skylight making up almost the entirety of the ceiling in the small space and it let in enough light to allow him to see what he was doing. Peeling off his boxers he felt the sweat begin to form on his skin as the room heated and he dipped the wooden ladle into the pot bringing out a large serving of water that he pored over his face and hair. Don't think. He spooned out a few more helpings before dipping a clean washrag into the water looking down to find the places on his body that would need the most attention. Don't think.
Just as he progressed to wash his chest the door slide slowly open and he stood dumbfounded and completely naked as Ino rubbed sleep from her eyes. It took her only moments to step into the small space, and slide the door silently closed behind her. Shikamaru wasn't thinking.
"Wha-" Ino moved in close and pressed a finger to his lips to silence him.
"We don't want to wake her." She whispered.
It took no time for her to peel her black chest wrap and underwear off, but Shikamaru watched as if it was in slow motion. Her movements seemed foreign to him. He had seen her in this state many times, but there was something about the comfort and closeness of this act that was unfamiliar. Maybe it was the night of sleeping next to her, not that he hadn't spent countless missions doing so, but for all the times they had spent entangled in each they had always avoided the intimacy of sleeping over.
She looked up at him with hooded lust filled eyes as if to say 'your move' and Shikamaru's doubts of familiarity combusted into nothingness. He wouldn't have to think he could loose himself in her for awhile. His mind focused in on the perfect curve of her full lips and he gave in.
He wrapped an arm around her back, feeling the firm muscles tense at his eagerness. She let out a passionate breath as a kiss enveloped her lips, and he wasted no time sliding his hands down her back and over her smooth ass to her legs, lifting them up to rest on his hips.
He could hear his heart beat in his ears when she rocked her hips longingly against his body sending heat down to the bottom of his stomach. He pulled away from her to catch his breath and leaned a hand against the door behind them, breathing heavy into her neck, her back pressed against the cool wood.
Ino wouldn't accept his slow pace and planted kisses along his jaw, running fingers up and down his arms and back and letting out moans of desire against his ear, before playfully biting the lobe. He couldn't resist her, she was a pure glowing sun that he couldn't pull himself out of orbit from, even when she burned so bright it threatened to engulf him in flames.
Shikamaru growled low in his throat, almost warning her not to test the little control he had left, but she skimmed her hand down his stomach, smiling at the way his muscles jumped and curled into her touch against his will. He didn't wait for her hand to reach its finally destination, he couldn't.
She gasped in surprise when he tilted her legs back and her body shifted down enough to let his hard member glide against her core. He couldn't help the smile that formed on his face as her head lulled back and she attempted to shift her weight so she could repeat the sensation.
Shikamaru decided to make this a lesson in patience, maybe in some way it was even payback for the emotional whiplash she was giving him, his grin widened. He let her legs down and moved his hands painfully slow up her sides, bringing her arms above her head and kissing her neck to draw heavenly noises from her lips. Once she had let her guard down he moved in, trapping her wrists between one hand and bringing the other down between her legs.
She looked up at him longingly and he couldn't keep his lips from her even if it was a lesson. He knew he had found the sweet spot when her legs began to shake, and her breathing became uneven. He almost got caught up in the moment, but quickly pulled his hand away when even her wrists twitched with anticipation.
She looked up at him with her brow furrowed in a mock anger. He chuckled and she held back a smile as best she could.
He let her hands down and she gave him a toothy grin before Shikamaru realized the teacher would become the student. Ino forced him back onto the bench, straddling him as she flipped her hair over one shoulder, filling the small hazy room with the nostalgic scent of flowers and fresh earth. He took in a deep breath of her scent and let it out in a euphoric groan as her walls came down on him. He couldn't slow the pace she had set, but gripped her hips in an effort to rock into the spot that drew quick breaths from her mouth. Guiding her to the edge they had been to many times before.
Something was different about her movements though. He'd never witness this pure unbound lustfulness from her. She moved like she was searching for something she had never felt before, blindly shifting against him as if it was their first time, discovering that her mouth fit best against the crock of his neck and clinging to the hair at the back of his head like it was the only thing that kept her from floating away into the sky.
Ino's pace began to pick up and he could feel the muscles in her thighs begin to twitch again. He couldn't hold her back from the edge this time, but he decided he'd push her, reaching between them to find the bundle of nerves that would send her over.
She arched away from him and he braced an arm around her back so that he could feel the wave of euphoria ripple through her. Her final moan was music to his ears as he felt her walls pulsate around him and her thighs spasm.
He waited for her body to settle, resisting the urge to he had to reach that state of euphoria too. She leaned forward into him, arms encircling his neck and looked at him in such a way that a new heat flared in his chest. A warmth that made time slow to a halt and he felt something that he could only equate to the sorrow of missing someone even though they are right there in front of him.
The sunlight that fell through the ceiling above cast light over the perfect line of her nose, the dew of sweat on her cheekbones and the curve of her upper lip. It left a shadowed glint in her sky blue eyes that he peered into trying to read her, he could see her forming a thought, and her lips moved like she was about to say something, Skikamaru's heart beat faster, but she quickly killed the thought with a deep kiss.
His mind was wiped clean again.
She began to move once more, but he could tell that her thighs still ached from her orgasm and he shifted them both so that her back was on the bench, one of his legs was planted on the floor and the other knelt on the wood. Pushing himself down into her, he resuming their pace. It wasn't long before he felt the tension build under his stomach and he lurched one final time forward, his vision went white and he was pushed out of his body, only to fall back to earth, finding his face buried in the flower scented hair at Ino's neck.
He breathed her in one last time before pulling his weight away from her. He found it harder than usual to leave her side, not feeling her body breath against his or the warmth of her skin reassuring him. Shikamaru pushed the puzzling thought from his mind and sat down on the bench, trying to catch his breath.
"I'm leaving for my mission today."Ino said breathily still laying on the bench next to him.
The sentence hung in the air twisting and turning with the smoky heat rising from the black embers in the sauna.
"It's the one I took so I could get that file." She continued wanting to fill the room with more words.
"I know." Shikamaru said flatly.
He felt an ach in his chest and pushed that away too.
"Well, get out then. I need to clean up before I leave." She said with a huff.
He tried not to think about her tone, because it was attached to heavily with the thoughts he was trying to suppress. Shikamaru stood taking one last ladle of water to poor over his body, then picked up his boxers and slide the door open slightly reaching a hand out to grab a towel from the shelf just outside, he wrapped it around his waist. He willed himself not to look back at Ino as he left the room, but his eyes wouldn't listen and the ache in his chest flared as he watched her smoothly twirl her long hair up into a bun. He thought he must be some kind of sadist wanting to probe at that feeling again, but then he slide the door shut and the room was quiet.
He quickly busied himself again pulling some dried goods from the cupboards to make oatmeal and putting on a kettle for tea. He sat at the table not touching the bowl or the cup of tea and despite his best efforts his mind wandered.
What would he do about Mist? Where did he start? How long would she be out for? How long would Ino be gone for? Why did that ache in his chest tell him he wanted her to stay? What was she about to say in there? What happened last night? What the hell was he doing with these troublesome women?
The sauna door slid open and he was jolted from his thoughts.
"I didn't know showering off warranted a standing ovation."
Shikamaru didn't realize he had stood and fell back into his seat feeling foolish. Ino's temperament had done a complete 180. She smiled at him laughing off his reaction and moved back towards the bed to collect the rest of her cloths slipping them on effortlessly.
She looked down at the lump of covers that was Mist.
"She should be out for five days at least." Ino said crossing her hands over her chest in a calculated manor. "I'm surprised she even got up last night, but whatever she did drained her completely. That kind of exertion would have fried he chakra networks. To protect her body her mind will have put itself in a coma like state. For most ninja I'd calculate a week maybe two, but she's…"
Ino trailed off, shaking her head with a slight grin.
"She's a fighter."
"Should you lock her mind until you're back?" Shikamaru probed.
It would have put his mind at ease, so that he didn't have to watch over Mist 24/7. He didn't even want to think about returning to work, but his absence would be noticed and may even be suspicious after the run in they had the night before.
"No." Ino said flatly." I thought about that, but it may affect her recovery. The mind is so intimately connected to the body and chakra network that it may be harmful."
Ino turned to face Shikamaru. She could sense his uneasiness but the look on her face was reassuring. Her blue eyes gazed at him in an all knowing way and she took a few steps towards him.
"I'm only supposed to be gone for 3 days. She'll be like this until I'm back and then we can deal with it then." She said taking a few more steps.
When did she become so willing and sure of this whole thing? Why wasn't she freaking out like he was?
"You need to go in today. Do paper work, go about your day like nothings out of the ordinary."
A few more steps and he was in range of her radiating heat.
"You'll be fine."
She reached a hand up to his cheek, and Shikamaru closed his eyes fighting the mindless spell she put on him. He needed to ask her more about Mists condition and what he should do next. She needed him to direct his strategy, to put is mind on the right tracks.
He heard the floor boards creak as Ino shifted onto the balls of her feet. She planted a gentle kiss on his forehead and then he felt her warmth leave him, he felt empty. He opened his eyes to find that she was already at the door slipping on her shoes to leave and then before his mind righted itself she had closed the door and the room felt quiet and hollow.
He kneaded his hands against his face trying to shake the feeling. Turning back to Mist he decided to follow Ino's instructions.
He dressed, put his shoes on, payed one last look at the lump of blankets and resealed the door.