A/N: Thanks for all the great reviews! Some of you might have been waiting for this chapter for a while. I hope it's tasteful, and I hope you enjoy.

"You don't even have a television?" she asked as she sat on his futon, which was also his bed. "Wow, your apartment is really small."

"Gee, thanks," he grumbled, handing her a cup of tea. His bedroom was actually attached to the kitchen, the only doors in the place being front door itself and the one between the bedroom and bathroom. A screen usually separated his eating area from his sleeping area, but he had moved that aside as Ino entered to create more space.

"Can't you afford a larger place?"

"What's with the third degree?" he groaned, rubbing his head. He was starting to think that asking Ino over was too troublesome. He hadn't had anything particular in mind when he invited her, but he was beginning to regret his choice. "I don't like television. I'd rather read or watch the sky. I probably could afford a larger place, but then I couldn't save up as much money."

She took another sip of her tea. "What are you saving for?"

"Oh, I'm not sure," he replied, setting his teacup on the floor and lying back on the futon. He was glad he had managed to keep the place tidy for a couple of weeks or he'd be getting hell for that, too. "I guess I want to get married someday and buy a house or something. I'm too lazy to come up with a real plan."

"That's right, you always did want a family." She polished off her cup and poured herself another. "I had forgotten. Is that why you broke up with Temari? She didn't seem like the nesting type."

"Pretty much. She was fun, though. Whipped my ass into shape pretty good."

"She helped you train?"

Shikamaru smiled, remembering. "Are you kidding? Temari only liked to do two things: train and, well, I'm not going to tell you about the second thing."

Ino grimaced, blushing. "I think I can figure it out," she mumbled, setting aside her cup and looking around. The light was fairly dim, since he only had a single lamp to illuminate the entire room. "Stupid Temari."

"Were you jealous?" he asked, honestly curious. Ino was being oddly open, and he had always wondered about how she had felt.

"Hell yes!" Ino snarled. "She just whisked you off to free-love-land and I never heard from you again. I really thought she was cool until she did that." She took a deep breath, face guarded as she looked at him. "Do you ever hear from her?"

Shikamaru shook his head, watching the steam rise up from the teapot on the tray he had placed on the futon. "Nope. I've written her several times, but she never answers. I'd like to be friends with her, but I guess she's all-or-nothing."

"I can understand that," Ino sighed. She glanced around the room again. "So, did you, you know, here?"

"Er, well, yeah," he replied, feeling extremely awkward. Wanting to give her an eye for an eye, he asked, "What about you? Did you sleep with any of your boyfriends?"

Ino blushed deeply and shook her head. "No."

His eyes widened, and he stared at her. "You've never? Not even once?"

She hung her head, burying her face in her knees. "No, not even once. One time, one of them tried, and I wouldn't let him, and he got violent. Luckily I'm well-trained, so nothing happened, but I was really, really afraid."

Shikamaru felt an unreasonable anger well up inside of him, making it difficult not to find out who it was and then go beat the living snot out of him. Dammit, there it was again; being around Ino made him want to do troublesome things. Luckily, he was lazy to the core, and the feeling passed as quickly as it had arrived. "That must have been really awful for you," he murmured, sitting up and putting an arm around her. "Is that why you were weird about coming over?"

Ino peeked at him from over the top of her knee. "Yeah," she mumbled.

He sighed, rubbing his temples. "You know I would never, ever hurt you or try to make you do something against your will, right?"

"I know, but I was reminded of that, for a moment." She raised her head and looked into his eyes. "I really do love you, and I really do trust you."

They sat in silence on the end of his futon, holding hands and basking in one another's presence. Eventually Shikamaru rose, put the tea away, and returned to find her lying down, head pillowed by her hands. One of her long, creamy-skinned legs was bared to the thigh, making his heart beat faster, but she didn't seem to notice how beguiling she was. "Tired?" he asked.

"No," she replied, patting the covers next to her. He realized as he lay down next to her that she had the chrysanthemum in her hand, twirling it between her fingers. "Did you know that all the flowers you've ever given me had meanings that have something to do with love?"

Shikamaru snorted. "Figures. I only picked that last one on purpose. I guess my subconscious was trying to tell me things I wasn't ready to know." He fell silent for a few moments, then something occurred to him. "So if you thought I was trying to tell you I loved you, why didn't you come after me?"

She examined the flower closely, a half-smile on her face. "I thought you weren't interested, so I didn't want to be the bird that keeps slamming itself against the window, not realizing that there's glass there." The flower fell onto the coverlet from her hand as she sat up, leaning over him. "What about you? If you liked me, why didn't you do anything?"

"Oh man, you are way out of my league. You're too pretty, you're too smart, you're too talented. I thought you'd just laugh at me, I guess."

"Am I laughing now?" she asked, her face serious. Her hands reached up and untied the thong holding up his hair, his wiry locks tumbling every which way. His heart hammered in his chest as she straddled him, getting a good look at her cleavage as she bent over him and opened his shirt wide. Her fingertips left burning trails across his skin, his breathing becoming more labored, and he felt his body immediately respond to her. Her eyes widened, making him blush, but she didn't say anything and didn't move away, her hands still roving over his bare chest. Blood pounded in his ears as she left a trail of kisses down the side of his throat, a moan escaping him. Ino was so tentative, so gentle; it was the opposite of any touch he had previously known. She was driving him crazy, but he didn't want to frighten or upset her.

"Ino," he groaned, arching his back, and she slid her fingers down the grooves in between the muscles of his abdomen.

"You're gorgeous," she murmured. "You're incredibly well-built."

"That's what you get when you date a ninja," he said, hands clenched into fists. Ino took his wrist and hauled him to sitting, although she remained in his lap. He swore she was rocking her hips slightly just to drive him crazy. She slid his shirt off of his shoulders, dropping it onto the floor next to the bed, and pulled her own kimono down, exposing her shoulders and collarbones. He sighed and pressed his forehead against her skin, wanting her more than anything he'd ever wanted in his entire life.

"What's the matter?" she asked as he leaned against her, not moving.

"This is so troublesome," he muttered against her skin, feeling lightheaded as he inhaled her scent.

"Don't you want to do this?" she asked, an edge creeping into her voice.

He looked up into her eyes. "Oh yeah, I want this badly," he admitted. "It's just that I want, well, I don't want you to feel like-"

"Hush," she murmured, smoothing his hair back out of his face. "If I get uncomfortable, I'll tell you to stop, and then you'll stop, okay?"

"Mmmm," he agreed, brushing his lips against the flesh of her neck. Ino shuddered, throwing her head back, and he supported her with his long arms, hands wrapped around her ribcage as he tasted her skin. Suddenly her hips snapped forward, hitting him in the chest and knocking him backward.

She reached up and undid her obi, her kimono falling open and revealing her body to him for the first time. Tossing aside her clothes, she lowered herself atop him, and he groaned at feeling her bare chest against his skin. Her mouth hovered near his, and he took advantage of the opportunity, wrapping his arms around her as he kissed her and drew her closer. "What you don't seem to understand, Shikamaru," Ino whispered into his hear when the kiss was broken, "is that I want you just as much, if not more, than you want me."

Shikamaru could only nod, overwhelmed by the goddess above him, his hands and mouth full of her presence. He wanted to tell her how beautiful she was, how much she meant to him, but he was lost in the sea of her skin, unable to touch her everywhere at once. "I love you," they murmured simultaneously, pressing their foreheads together and laughing, and then his universe was filled with nothing but the sights, scents, and sensations of Ino until well into the night.