Playing House
Summery- Shikamaru hated playing house
Ino watched her feet while she walked with Choji, usually Shikamaru would walk her home too, but he had left as soon as Asuma Sensei had said that training was over. Choji walked beside her silently, usually he would chat with her while they walked in a friendly manner, but today he was surprisingly quiet and he wasn't even eating. All this should have clued her in that this was not going to be a normal walk home, but despite the fact she was usually pretty observant, she hadn't even noticed.
Pushing some hair out of her eyes, she sighed trying to conjure up a picture of Sasuke kissing her, nope her mind went right back to Shikamaru .It was so troublesome…great he was burrowed so firmly into her brain she was even starting to think like him. Fabulous.
"Hey Ino?" Ino's head popped up; relieved for the distraction from her troublesome thoughts…she did it again…Wonderful. She opened her mouth to answer, but he interrupted her before she could.
"Shikamaru's a good guy. A great guy actually. To you he might not seem like much, since he's not really popular, or handsome, or anything of the traits you think are important, but he's intelligent and skilled and self sacrificing and those actually are traits that are important. He can protect you, you think Sasuke would do that? You think he'd stand there and hold you will you performed your Shintenshin no Jutsu and smell your hair. And yes Shikamaru does smell your hair, I think after all these years he's timed it perfectly so he can take a few big whiffs before you wake up." Choji laughed a little, but then his face became serious again. "Ino, you never even give him a chance. He likes you, he always has. Even when we were forced to sleep over each other's houses when we were little. Remember how you used to make him be the daddy when we'd play house? He hated playing house, but he always did for you. He likes you, even though he's always been too stubborn to admit it, even to himself. He likes you Ino and either you go and tell him you like him too, or you tell him that there's no way you would ever go out with him, so he can get over you and go out with one of the other girls that like him. "
Ino was obviously shocked, a bit disoriented actually, so she croaked out the first thing that came to her mind," Other girls like Shikamaru…"
Choji shook his head, smiled and grabbed the still walking Yamanaka Ino tugging her back, "we're in front of your house."
Ino nodded dumbly as Choji pulled a bag of chips out of his pouch smiling at her, "Well, if you'll excuse me, I've got a date."