A/N: I found this old story of Shikamaru and Temari in one of my old files. With the few changes I made, it hopefully makes a cute Christmas story :)

It was already dark out when two people made their way through the deep snow. It was Christmas Eve and the lights on the trees along the small path that lead to the Yamanaka household shone brightly. The atmosphere might be even considered peaceful if not for the two people arguing along the way.

"Why did I let you drag me here again?" Temari asked.

"Because Tsunade said that I'm your guide so I have to show you around, even if it's a drag."

"When it's such a drag why are we even here?"

"You know Ino, she can get really troublesome if you don't go to her parties, so we are here to avoid trouble." Shikamaru replied bored.

Temari sighed annoyed. She still didn't understand why she had to be here. Sure, he was her guide in Konoha, but she could have found her way around alone. If he wanted to be at this party he should have gone alone. This was definitely not how she had planned her Christmas Eve to go, but here she was, about to attend a party she hadn't even know about a few hours ago. Well at least she could spend some time away from paperwork.

When they finally arrived at the front door and Ino opened, Temari looked around. She could already see the living room from the door and it was decorated in bright colors with more Christmas decoration then she was sure all people in Suna owned together.

"Hey Shikamaru." Ino smiled brightly at them and hugged her teammate.

For some unknown reason Temari felt angry when she saw the two so close together. Shikamaru and Ino were teammates and friends, Temari knew that, but somehow seeing this made her heart hurt. The Suna princess shook her head violently. These strange feelings kept appearing around the lazy genius and if she was completely honest with herself she knew why she felt that way. However she wasn't ready to admit it, even to herself.

"Hello Temari." Ino finally greeted her. "I'm glad that you decided to come along."

"I had no choice." Temari mumbled annoyed.

Ino didn't react at all to Temari's clearly fool mood and invited them in. Seeing Choji standing near by Shikamaru wasted no time and pulled Temari over to Choji.

"Hey Shikamaru and Temari." Choji smiled friendly at them.

Temari had to smile too. This was the company she liked more.

"You were already at the buffet?" Shikamaru pointed at the food on his friend's plate.

"Of course. You should really try this, it's delicious."

"Sure, I'm hungry anyway. Do you want something too, troublesome woman?"

Neither Shikamaru nor Temari saw Choji's eyes widened at his question.

"Just get me something you would eat too." Temari smirked.

"What a drag." With that the lazy shinobi left for the buffet.

When he was out of sight the Suna princess looked back at Choji, only to find a surprised look on his face.

"What?" She asked bluntly.

"I can see what Ino meant." Her confusion must have shown on her face, because Choji added. "Finally Shikamaru puts effort into something."

Before she could ask what he meant by that Shikamaru was back with two plats.

"Here." On the plate that he gave her the food was carefully arranged while the foot on his plate looked messy.

"Thanks." Temari smiled softly at him, not noticing Choji's knowing smile.

'If these two would only see what is right in front of them.'

After a while their other friends came over and Ino suggested a party game.

"What about we play our special mistletoe game?"

The rest of the party guests weren't happy about this, but Ino wouldn't let anyone decline.

'How troublesome.' Shikamaru thought.

He had always succeed in avoiding this game, but this time Ino had dragged him to the table when he hadn't payed attention for a moment. To be honest the reason why he was distracted was that he had wanted to see Temari's reaction on this suggestion. Sadly she had shown none. What he didn't know was that she was so unaffected because this game was unknown in Suna.

When everyone had found a seat around the table Ino explained the game, guessing that maybe Temari wouldn't know the rules. Up on hearing that two people were supposed to go into a closet with a mistletoe hanging in it and kiss, the sand kunoichi's eyes widened.

'She can't be serious. This game is ridiculous. What if it is me and a guy I don't know. I'm not doing this.' She looked around to see all the foreign faces until her eyes met Shikamaru's. 'Maybe there is a slight chance that it will be him...'

Her thoughts were interrupted when the game started. One by one some people were chosen and Temari's nervousness rose. Suddenly the bottle stopped on her.

'No way am I going to give my first kiss to some idiot. This is enough.'

She was about to stand up when Ino announce her partner.

"So it's Shika and Temari."

The Suna princess immediately stopped in her tracks. The next thing she knew was that Ino pushed her and him in a closet. Ino closed the door with a huge smile and the two were left alone in the dark.

"I'm sorry for Ino. She always plays this game at her Christmas parties. I shouldn't have dragged you here."

"So this is nothing new for you?" Temari's jealousy was coming back. With how many women had he already been in this situation?

"No. Actually I could always avoid this, but this time she caught me off guard."

Temari relaxed a bit at hearing this, but it was short lived when she remembered that they were still alone in a dark closet.

"Um...What do we do now?" She asked a little unsure.

"Well according to the rules we should-"

"I know the rules genius. I meant what do we do now, not what we should do according to the rules."

"I'm not forcing you to kiss me, troublesome woman. It's your choice." Shikamaru shrugged.

"No, you are not giving me the responsibility here, you are in this too." Temari snapped.

"Now here I was trying to be a gentleman and you get angry. What a drag."

"Gentleman? You were chauvinistic."

"It's too troublesome to argue."

There was a long silence between the two, none of them knew what to do now.

"Let's just get it over with." Temari stated and approached Shikamaru, but he shook his head.

"No reason to force yourself. I will just lie and say we kissed and that's it."

When she was obviously so annoyed that he was here with her, then maybe he shouldn't have intervened in the game.

"I should have let the bottle end up on someone else." He mumbled.

"What was that?"

"I manipulated the bottle with my shadows so you didn't have to be in this closet with a stranger and had to kiss him. However now, I think you would be happier if it wasn't me being here with you right now."

Temari gasped. He had really made the effort, so she wasn't forced to do something she didn't want to. Suddenly what Choji had said came to her mind. Did the lazy genius really care so much about her? Maybe the feelings she was getting around him were mutual. She had to know.

"Shikamaru I-"

"You have four minutes left." They heard Ino's voice from outside the door.

"Can't you just let us out of here?" Shikamaru asked annoyed.

"No." Came Ino's answer from outside.

When they heard Ino go back to the table silence fell again.

"Did you really manipulate the bottle?" Temari asked softly.

"Why should I lie? It's too troublesome."

The Suna princess bit her lip. Should she just listen to her heart? Deciding to not think of the consequences for once, she moved closer to Shikamaru and cupped his cheeks with her hands.

"The truth is that I really like you, lazy ass."

She didn't give him the opportunity to answer as she pressed her lips to his. At first she was afraid that he didn't feel the same way, but after the moment of shock wore off he pulled her closer by the waist and kissed her back.

Their lips meet shyly and softly, seeing that they were not used to this. For both of them it was their first kiss. Slowly Temari relaxed into the kiss and move one of her hands into his hair, which was surprisingly soft. After a few second however they needed air and pulled away from each other.

"Couldn't await my answer, could you troublesome woman?" Shikamaru asked while catching his breath.

"I think that I know the answer already." Temari smirked.

"Well let's make sure you got the answer right." He smirked back, and pulled her closer again.

When their lips were about to meet again the door opened and Ino came in.

"Time is up lovebirds."

Temari and Shikamaru blushed. They had completely forgotten that there was still a Christmas party outside.

"Are you two together now?" Ino asked, smiling brightly at them.

A/N: The answer is pretty clear ;-) Merry Christmas :)