Another Boring Day

Another boring day. And, to top it all off, Temari was still recovering from an injury from her latest mission. Her back was killing her, forcing her to stay home when she could be doing something constructive. Not that she could really complain. With the pain in her back, she wouldn't want to be training, much less fighting. She let out an annoyed squeel, flopped down on the couch, and stared at the ceiling, taking only a second to wince.

Shikamaru, on the other hand, had only just woken up. He trained better in late afternoon anyway (longer shadows and all that) and saw no need in ever seeing the morning hours. Stretching and yawning, he tramped into the living room, cracking an eye open when he could sense Temari in the room. Blatantly ignoring that it was just past noon, he greeted her with a "mornin'."

"Afternoon!" was Temari's yelled reply as she attempted to sit up. "Do you have any idea how long I've been up!" Bored as all hell. By now, she'd sat up all the way, but not without much effort. Automatically, her hands moved to massage her lower back. Not that that helped much, really.

"Probably since the asscrack of dawn," he replied, ambling over and sitting down next to her, muddy brown eyes concerned. He frowned at her, giving her an analytical look. "What happened to your back?"

She frowned, annoyed that he hadn't noticed last night when she'd returned from her mission. He'd probably been to anxious to sleep to notice she was even there. "Damn Sound nin got a hit in. Just happened to be a good one."

Orochimaru was still a threat, even though he hadn't shown his face for quite some time. Periodically, spy missions were assigned. Temari had been joyed by the idea of it, but now she wished she'd just taken the stupid escort mission instead.

He sighed. "If it's bothering you so much, you should see a medic-nin."

He knew she wouldn't, unless she was on her death bed, but it needed to be said. He leaned back on the couch, still watching her carefully, trying to figure out just how much it was bothering her.

"No way!" she replied, nose scrunching up in disgust. She wasn't about to admit to weakness. No, she could take the pain.

It was then that she attempted to stand again to show him that she fine. Bad idea. Just leaning forward enough to pull herself up was enough to send a sharp pain throughout her entire back, sending her back down, hitting her head on the back of the couch.

He shook his head at her and reached over, wordlessly taking a hold of her shoulders and pulling her gently towards him. He knew that the motion would hurt a bit, but he made up for it by carefully focusing chakra to his fingertips and massaging her shoulders slowly.

"Troublesome woman," he chided her jokingly.

She'd opened her mouth to yell at him for hurting her more, but instantly shut it, letting out a content sigh when he started massaging. For a moment, she wondered why he'd never told her he could do that before, but the thought was brushed aside as he worked. It felt good!

He rolled his eyes and scowled at the back of her head as his thumbs hit one hell of a muscle knot. He added more chakra to his fingertips to try and work it out without causing too much pain. He silently marveled at the fact that she could even move with a knot like that in her back, but kept up the light teasing. "You need to learn how to relax."

"You do enough for the both of us," she said, eyes closed. As he worked on the knot, the pain subsided a little. "You need to learn how to get up before lunchtime."

"Bah, that's too troublesome," he grumbled. "Not like I can train before the afternoon anyway."

"Oh! I've got an idea! Learn things you can use before the afternoon!" she exclaimed. "What if something happened in the morning and you were called to fight? Would you tell them to wait til the afternoon to start?" Not even a second later, she corrected herself. "Nevermind, I don't even want to know the answer." She suspected he'd either say yes or some smart ass answer.

He smirked, amused that she knew him well enough by then to correct herself on such a subject. "I know what I can do before the afternoon, it's just not much. We always trained in the morning when I was a genin." After a moment's pause, he added, "And my shadow jutsus won't work at high noon at all."

"Have you ever considered trying something other than shadow jutsus?" she asked, though she really couldn't say much on that subject. Sure, she knew other things (and she knew he did as well,) but she relied heavily on her fan and wind jutsus.

"Yes." He trained with kunai and shuriken just as often as he trained basic and shadow jutsus, and his aim was pretty damn good. He was no Tenten, but he could hit his targets a good majority of the time.

"How about getting up early to train with them. You'd get more-" She paused as he hit another large knot before continuing. "done that way." Plus, maybe then she could train with him more.

He purposely lessened the chakra flow just to make the going a bit less smooth, just to get his emotions across about waking up earlier. "I'd rather not."

"Ow!" Obviously, he'd gotten his point across. She'd have to attack him in his sleep one morning once this stupid injury was gone just to smite him. "If you're not gonna do it right, STOP!"

He snickered quietly and focused his chakra again, this time being more gentle to make up for it (and possibly avoid revenge, though he doubted that). He propped his chin on her shoulder, grinning slightly as he continued to work out the knots in her back. "Yeah, yeah, I'll do it right."

It didn't take much longer for Temari to be able to relax her tense muscles a little. The relief was almost enough to make her jump for joy, but she still didn't dare. Bad back, you know. Instead, she decided she'd do something for Shikamaru in return.

Once he was satisfied that he had worked out every knot, he slumped against her, wrapping his arms around her loosely. "Better now?"

She answered by leaning into him and letting out another sigh. She most certainly did feel better. Perhaps she could pull Shikamaru outside to train. Or maybe she'd thank him by not. He'd be spared again by his fingers' wonderful ability to bring her such pleasure.

He took that as a yes and grinned, pressing a light kiss against the side of her neck as a "you're welcome". As much as she drove him insane, he was glad to be able to help her for a change.

She shifted, bringing her lips to his in a quick, light kiss. "Where did you learn to do that?"

"Neji," he said with a shrug. Who else but a Hyuuga would figure something like that out?

"Tight laces does massages. What doesn't the guy do?" Don't get the wrong idea. She admired the Hyuuga for his abilities and strength, but other than that, she couldn't stand to be around him for too long. He could be a cendescending jerk-off, and that never went well with Temari. Still, she couldn't resist her next statements. "Maybe I should be with him. Then I might get more of those massages. Probably better ones, too."

Sigh. "Ungrateful woman. Can't even appreciate a massage."

"Of course I appreciate it! Hmph. Can't even take a joke."

He tightened his hold on her, pulling her closer against him, and smirked. "Good. Because it was a pain in the ass. I'd rather have it be appreciated."

"Yeah, yeah." Despite her uninterested tone, she snuggled into him, finiding a comfortable position and finally relaxing her entire body. "Do you want a prize?"

"That'd be nice."

"Well? What do you want?"

He shrugged, staying silent and acting as if he didn't care.

She rolled her eyes and said, "You won't get anything unless you tell me what you want."

"Yeah, yeah... Just you is fine." He was perfectly content just sitting there like they were. Not that he would mind if she were to move, but just this was acceptable.

"You already have me," she replied through a short laugh. "Fine, I'm all yours today. I'll do just about anything you want." Keywords: just about. There's always a catch.

He didn't miss her careful wording, but nevertheless grinned at her. A plan started forming in his mind, carefully taking into account the 'just about' she'd thrown in. "All mine, huh."

From his words, she knew he'd thought of something. "What do you have in mind?" she asked cautiously.

"Nothing," he lied, knowing she'd see right through it, and leaned back slowly to lie down on the couch, dragging her along with him. Keeping up his nonchalant act, he continued, "Maybe a nap later."

"No, I think you had something else planned." To her relief, the unexpected movement wasnt' painful at all.

"What makes you think that?" he asked, still grinning. One thing could be said for waking up at noon: When he did wake up, he was wide awake. Teasing Temari came just as easily as it would in the mid-afternoon.

What could be considered both a good thing and a sad thing would be that Temari could tell even the slightest difference in Shikamaru's voice. She could tell that he was smiling, or maybe even grinning. "What's keeping you from telling me what you really want?" A smirk began to form as she said the words.

He kissed just behind her right ear amusedly. "I'm sure you already know what I want, that's what."

"Well, you won't get anything until I hear you say it." If he knew anything about her, he had to know she was stubborn. She'd set her mind to hearing it, and that's what she was going to do. Either he could say it, or he'd get nothing. That's all there was to it.

"I already did say it," he argued, only slightly annoyed that she was just as stubborn as always even after the massage. "I said I wanted you."

"Ok." It was close enough. "Then take me."

He loosened his hold on her so that she would be able to turn around, but his grin faded for a quick moment. "Are you sure your back feels better enough for this?"

Answering his question with another question, she asked, "Are you confident in your abilities?"

He snorted. "Confident enough to wonder if I'll need to give you another massage."

Finally turning around to face him, propping herself up, she looked into his eyes. That comment sounded about as confident as she carried herself, which seemed odd for Shikamaru, but, she told herself, he was probably joking or meant it in another way. "I would thoroughly enjoy another massage."

"Troublesome woman," he said with a low chuckle, then pressed his lips against hers.

Author's Notes: Those at the shikatemari community at Livejournal have probably already seen this. XD;; I was bitching at TurboRikku about her derailing my train of thought on the previous drabble and we wound up with a TemaShika version. We were bored, have mercy.

This is technically a roleplay, so credit where it's due: TurboRikku was Temari, I was Shikamaru.