Shikamaru woke up and glanced at the clock. It was six. He groaned and turned over on his side, but couldn't go back to sleep and instead lay there thinking about the places he should show Temari. Nothing much popped in his head, so later at breakfast he asked his father.
"Hmm... Depends on the girl. They all like different things," he said with a half-glance at his wife, who was busy working in the kitchen.
"What're you talking about?" Shikamaru's mother asked over the counter suspiciously and wiped her hands on her apron, "Shikamaru has a girlfriend?"
His parents laughed hysterically.
Shikamaru put his hands behind his head and tilted his chair backwards, "What's so funny about that?"
"So you do?" his mother inquired cautiously.
"No, Temari's just here representing the Sand for the upcoming Chuunin exam," he said and then poked his fork into his egg, asking his mother, "are you sure this is edible?"
His mother peered at the egg.
"What's wrong with it?" she asked through gritted teeth.
"There's"
"Nothing dear, Shikamaru's just a little tired from returning so late last night," his father interrupted, with a weak laugh towards his furious wife.
"BUT HE SAYS THAT EVERY MORNING!" she screamed, waving her spatula threateninly.
"Oh, but he doesn't mean it... Right Shikamaru?"
"Yeah yeah whatever."
His mother stormed into her room, throwing down her apron and muttering about "those ungrateful bastards". A few seconds passed in silence as father and son stared at each other and sighed in unison.
"What's wrong with her? Yelling at the smallest possible of offenses... Yeesh, I don't see how you can put up with her," Shikamaru grumbled.
"I do what I can. And your mother's cooking isn't that bad," he pointed out.
"What're you talking about?" came a shrill shriek from the bedroom.
Shikamaru thought it would be a good time to leave.
Temari was ready by the time he arrived.
"Why're you bringing the fan?" he asked, eyeing it wearily.
"Oh," she patted it, "Don't worry, this is only if you do something bad."
Shikamaru looked stricken, obviously taking her words seriously.
"Yup," she continued, "so you'd better treat me to everything."
They left the hotel and walked into the bustle of the city. Temari would stop and look at items on display.
Twice she ordered for Shikamaru to buy her something; a little clay model of a pig eating a hot dog as a present for Kankurou, and a miniature gourd that she thought Gaara would like. Shikamaru noticed she hadn't asked for anything for herself and so took the initiative and bought her a charm she'd been looking at.
It took them quite a while to get to the clothes store; Shikamaru thought Temari would like it, as Ino would always insist on dragging his team in whenever they passed.
"Okay," she said when she saw it, "fine. Now what?"
Shikamaru said nothing. He already considered himself dead meat; everything else he had planned that day was based on either what Ino or his mother wanted to do. He felt it was better just to surrender and get it over with.
"Nothing. I thought you'd like this place."
Her eye twitched. Temari forced a smile, "I guess you don't really know me that well."
"Who's fault is that?" he asked pointedly.
Temari stroked her fan and he shut up. Shikamaru was relieved though, that she hadn't chosen to yell at him, something his mother would've surely done.
"C'mon, I'm hungry, let's go eat," she groaned finally.
"Bossy," Shikamaru muttered, but without much conviction.
The metal slats of Temari's fan hit him lightly on his back and he hurried to the nearest food stall.
They ate in silence for a few minutes until Temari couldn't bear it anymore and finally addressed the issue that'd been bothering her since she was in the car with Kankurou.
"Why aren't you a jounin?"
Pause.
"Well?" she demanded, even though she was sure she knew the answer.
Shikamaru sighed, "It's just too troublesome."
"Did you even try?" she scoffed.
"Yes, but I failed," he said matter-of-factly.
Temari contemplated about whether or not she should continue the conversation, but judging by his expression he couldn't care less.
"You failed." she stated doubtfully.
"Yes."
"How come?"
"What do you mean how come?"
"You're not a bad shinobi."
Shikamaru shrugged. "There was a written part."
Temari waited. "...So?"
"What do you mean so?"
"I mean so what if there was a written part?" she explained patiently.
"I fell asleep."
Temari gaped at him and floundered hopelessly,"What? You fell asleep? How? But- What about the jounins who were testing you?"
"They didn't wake me. And why should they? They couldn't care less whether or not I'll pass." Shikamaru set his chopsticks on his bowl, adding thoughtfully, "I don't think they saw me though. I sat at the back of the room and they were getting pretty sleepy too; I guess it never occured to them to stay awake because someone was cheating. Or sleeping. They were just there to keep anyone from leaving the room."
"But it's always better for a village to have more jounins!"
Shikamaru shrugged. "Whatever."
"Then... What about your parents?"
"I don't know. They're pretty annoyed I guess, but they're not very disappointed. They didn't even expect me to get this far."
Temari wondered which reaction would be best in this case but decided to smirk half-heartedly and continued eating her food, processing the "new" bit of information about Shikamaru.
"Is it really different? Now that Gaara's the kazekage?" Shikamaru turned to look at her.
"Nope. It's no different from when our father was the kazekage." Temari said hollowly, fixing him with a stare.
"Oh right." Shikamaru paused, "There's a meeting tomorrow at nine in Hokage-sama's office. You're supposed to attend."
"Okey."
"I'll be there to pick you up at eight thirty tomorrow."
Temari nodded and grabbed her fan, "You ready to go?"
Shikamaru was surprised when Temari asked if they could do whatever he usually did in the afternoons; it was probably the most selfless thing a girl had ever done, he thought.
But when he told her what he normally did, she greeted it with scorn.
"You like to sleep in the afternoons?" she asked incredulously.
"Yes. What's wrong with that?"
"Well, what about training?"
"I do that later."
"How lazy are you?"
After much discussion, and a lot of questions on Temari's part, the two decided to go and look at the clouds, at least for a little while.
"Hm," Temari sighed.
She was sitting down, her fan beside her, gazing upwards at the strange shapes the clouds took as they drifted past. She marvelled at the blue of the sky, and the white wisps of mist that seemed to be trying to free themselves from the cloud's larger bodies.
Shikamaru opened an eye lazily from where he lay beside her. "You see? It's not boring."
"It's relaxing I suppose," Temari hugged her knees, "But I don't think I could stay here for very long without falling asleep."
"Then sleep," Shikamaru answered with a smirk, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.