Author's Note: oh man, totally at a loss for words. gah… can't believe I actually wrote this. It just FLOWED out… oh, and they're supposed to be old…er than they are. Maybe like.. late teens, early twenties-ish. but yeah, do enjoy. im really really sorry for this…
-Crysthur
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Standing in the shadows outside her house, he watched her invite him inside. He was one of those nameless, random guys who constantly asked her out, one of those guys she had always turned down and never given a second glance… Yet now, there she was. On a date with one of them. And inviting him into her home. He could see their shadows, moving around inside through the window… As he watched them, he searched himself for some sort of emotion. Anger, pain, betrayal, grief… anything. But there was none of that. Instead, he found a sort of peace, a relief that it was finally over.
He was well aware that for some time now, their relationship had been dying. There had been love there once, and at that time, he had been so sure that she was the one for him… but as time passed, those silences that at used to be the comfortable quiet of two people content to be in each other's presence had changed into the awkward silence of two people who had nothing left to say. Her kisses were no longer affectionate; there was no emotion behind them. They were more of a custom now, a routine.
He continued watching them through the window. He saw her turn, as if sensing his presence, and looked on as she came up to the window and saw him. For a moment, the look on Ino's face might have been shame, shame at the fact that he had caught her with another man, but it quickly faded away. She looked at him straight in the eyes, and an unspoken understanding passed between the couple… the former couple. With only a slight, sad smile of goodbye, Shikamaru turned away from the window, away from her, and melted into the shadows of the street.