Written for my friend on LJ, nerein. I also wrote it because I'm in love with crackpairings.

Pairing: ShikamaruHinata

Challenge she issued: Include apples, snow, and a scarf. Attempt to include fluff, and anticipation. Make sure to have SakuNeji as a sidepairing.

Warnings: ShikaHina. Cuteness. Unbeta-d.

Note that: I assume the relationship is already started.Also, note that I love criticism, so feel free to nitpick.

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Snow's Promise

There was something about the promise of snow that made Hinata smile. It was a chance to sit, or lay with someone hand in hand, a chance to conveinently forget to bundle up and steal a part of his scarf and sit just a little bit closer. She looked out the window, pale eyes searching for the first snowflake to fall.

Not yet, she prayed. She pulled on her coat, her mittens, and grabbed her shoes. Back to the window.

Nothing. Good.

She ran down the hallway, pulling two apples from a bowl on the table and put them in her pockets.

Outside it was cold, and her eyes shifted to the fog of her breath back to the sky. Tapping her shoes against the door frame to make sure they wouldn't slip off, she closed the door behind her.

She met Sakura at the gates of the Hyuuga manor. "Hello Sakura-chan," she greeted, smiling at her friend. "Neji-niisan should be out soon." He'd been bundling up when she cut through the side branches living quarters to get to her preferred entrance.

Sakura gave a smile, teeth chattering. "Thanks."

Nodding, Hinata left. She ran through the town, getting to the park as fast as she could. He was right where she expected him to be.

"Shikamaru!" she called, waving a hand as she got into his sight range. Taking her seat next to him, she pulled off a mitten and took the apples from her pocket, handing one to him. "I had no time to eat breakfast," she explained before he asked.

He nodded, taking a bite. "Well, your timing is perfect."

Blinking upward, she smiled. The snow had held off for her, waiting until she was with him. Maybe it was all that time she'd spent with Shino as a genin, all the times he'd said how important it was to be in tune with nature and the weather that let her get there just as the first snowflake decided to fall, but she didn't think that to be the case at all.

She and Shikamaru watched the first snow of the season for four years now, and it always held off just for them.

His hand snaked out of his pocket and stole hers before she put the mitten back on; she smiled and scooted closer.

Yes, it was the promise of holding hands, stolen kisses here and there, shared scarves, apples long since forgotten... Seeing his cheeks redden even though he wasn't blushing, laying there until her hair was the only thing of her pale form that could be picked out from the thick blanket of snow... Hearing the three blessed words, knowing they'd be together until the end...

All of it made the promise of snow so much sweeter.