Shanan had slept off a little of her drunkenness and sat up to see Sasuke preoccupied with Naruto across the room.
"Shanan!" she heard Shikamaru shouting from the opposite side of the room.
She looked over in the direction that she knew he was and saw him with the Kazekage and his siblings.
Shikamaru nodded his head for her to go over to him, so she clumsily made her way to their table. He looked really handsome as he stood up to greet her with a hug.
"Hey, sorry I've been so busy today," she told him as she hugged him back tight. They hadn't seen much of each other since those couple of days together.
"It's alright. You did a really good job," he said before turning to look at the sand villagers. "You know Lord Gaara and Kankuro... and my date, Temari," he said tentatively.
Shanan immediately felt a rush of anger and jealousy as soon as the words left his lips.
Temari smiled and held her hand out. "We've met several times, you look really flawless today."
Shanan forced a smile as she looked at Temari's hand. "Oh, that's probably not a good idea right now," she said honestly. She could barely keep herself from falling apart at the moment, she was still drunk and there was no way she wouldn't turn Temari into a puddle if she touched her. "I do hope you guys are enjoying yourselves. Please stay as long as you'd like. Lord Kazekage," she said as she bowed slightly.
She turned away from them and glared at Shikamaru out of the corner of her eye before she walked over to the bar to drink more.
Shikamaru looked at her incredulously as she walked away. He knew she'd be really upset, but it still kind of hurt to see her look at him that way.
"I wonder why she wouldn't shake my hand," Temari wondered out loud.
"She just gets overwhelmed. Probably from the stress of planning the wedding," he explained calmly, even though he was visibly angry and still staring over at Shanan.
"Is everything alright?" Temari asked him.
"I'll be right back," he said as he walked away.
He went and casually sat next to Shanan who had already taken a few shots.
"I'll just take the bottle, thanks," she said to the bartender.
"I'll take a shot," Shikamaru said as Shanan glared at him again.
He didn't look at her until he'd taken a few shots himself. They both just sat there angrily as he worked up the courage to say what he wanted to say.
"You're being really immature, you know that?" he finally said.
Shanan laughed as tears already started forming.
"You called me over there and sprung 'this is my date' on me. In front of your date. Why would you put me on the spot like that?" she asked as she slurred her speech. Probably a bit too loudly.
Shikamaru dropped his head back, already completely exasperated. "I kept meaning to. But I knew you'd be upset. I don't ever want you to be upset. I'm sorry if I don't do everything right. But you also can't expect me to just be by myself forever. You're married to Kakashi. And after that last time together, it just is what it is. And... I kinda like her."
She suddenly looked at him as though he'd completely betrayed her as she stood up next to him. "You kinda like her?" she asked at barely a whisper before hardening her face into a scowl. "Then go and be with her," she said as she started to storm off.
He grabbed her arm gently, he knew she was pretty drunk, but they needed to finally talk about this. They knew they should have a long time ago, but they held on for as long as they could anyway.
"Let go of me. I don't want you to touch me." She said angrily as she tried to pull away, she was too drunk to figure out how to wriggle free, though.
"Stop. You're making a scene. Just come and sit," he said as he tried to stay calm.
"No, I'm done talking to you and I don't want you to touch me," she said loud and shakily as tears poured down her face.
"Why are you being like this? What do you want from me? I tried so hard to just wait for you," he said as his voice broke and tears started running down his face. "Shanan, stop..."
She was still trying to pull away from him, but she was really struggling. "Let go of me! I don't want you to touch me anymore! I don't wanna talk to you anymore! I don't wanna look at you anymore!"
She was still crying and a lot of people were watching them at this point, including Sasuke, who was really confused as he hadn't even noticed her wake up. He started to go and intervene, but Naruto stopped him and shook his head at him.
Shikamaru grabbed her by the waist and held her in place and Shanan slapped him across his face as she continued to yell at him to let her go.
He looked at her through pained eyes as he whispered and sobbed. "Please... I don't want you to hate me..."
Shanan stopped trying to get away from him as she looked at him furiously. "I do hate you," she said softly as her face shook. "You're moving on from the part of me that still loved you more than anything."
He finally let her go as he continued to sob.
She stood in front of him and continued to cry and look at him with so much contempt.
"This really hurts. So yeah, I hate you, Shikamaru." She hadn't wanted to say that to him. But she didn't know how else to explain her feelings in the state she was in.
Shanan forcefully wiped the tears off of her face and turned away and walked towards the door and left.
"I should go and walk her home," Sasuke said.
Naruto put his hand in front of him. "No, Sasuke. He's gonna go after her. Just give them a minute. Ok? I think this might be it."
He didn't want to. But he listened to Naruto and just waited.
Shikamaru stayed put for a minute to try and calm the tears down as he stared at the ground with his hands in his pockets. Sadness quickly being replaced with anger and disbelief. She was married. She was with Kakashi. And that was clearly never going to change. He wiped his tears and casually made his way to the door, because he didn't think that she should have the last word on this and she had really hurt his feelings.
He walked out and lit a cigarette before looking around to see where she was.
When he'd finally spotted her, he could see that she was walking slowly with her shoes in one hand and keeping her long dress off of the ground with the other as he started after her angrily. All he wanted to do was to yell at her and tell her that she really had a lot of nerve, making him feel guilty.
He made it about ten feet behind her when he heard that she was singing. And, for whatever reason, he decided not to interrupt her.
So he continued to follow her as she walked slowly, swaying to her song. His own anger slowly fading as he continued to smoke his cigarette.
At one point she even stopped to bob her head and dance drunkenly in her spot and he couldn't help but smile at her as she did.
He decided that now was the time to talk to her. He turned around and sent his shadow possession jutsu behind him. He felt it as it intersected her shadow, but she continued singing without missing a beat.
He slowly turned the both of them around and she was still swaying her head and smiling as she continued to sing while looking at him. Seemingly not surprised to see him or to be caught in his jutsu.
He couldn't help but shake his head as he looked at her and made her drop her shoes before he had them start walking.
She was still singing and smiling as they closed the distance between them.
Once she was right in front of him, he didn't release her from the jutsu right away, but she stopped singing and reached up and grabbed his cigarette and took a deep puff from it before flicking it away.
"You're such a brat," he said as he put his arms around her waist and pulled her close to kiss her. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and pulled him in deeper.
So she didn't hate him. And she was a brat that had clearly absorbed his shadow possession ability at some point.
They both seemed to pull their lips away at the same time and he brushed his hand down her cheek.
"I think it's clear that we'll both always love each other..." he said before kissing her softly again. "But if you're not gonna leave Kakashi and choose me, then I have to try and move on. I'm sorry, I don't want to. Please don't hate me," he begged her.
She looked at him apologetically. "I will never hate you. Even if I say I do."
"Promise?" he whispered.
She nodded gently as she stared into his eyes.
"That is, I mean, if she'll even still want me after all of that."
Shanan didn't want to let him go, especially not to someone else. But she knew that she was being really unfair. And she wouldn't leave Kakashi. She didn't want to. She loved him more than anything.
She smiled softly at him as she pulled him in for a hug.
"She'll still want you. Trust me." She buried her face into his chest as she closed her eyes. "Shikamaru, I'm so sorry, you deserve so much happiness and I've just been really selfish. I still wanna be selfish. But I won't be anymore." She looked up at him and tears were running down her face again. "I'll be happy for you and whoever you end up with."
Shikamaru laughed a bit as soon as he recognized what she was about to say.
"When you get married, I'll be there. When you have kids, I'll love them as my own, because their dad's my best friend," she whispered through tears as she pulled his lips back down to hers for one final kiss...
They stood there hugging and absorbing each other's warmth for a while before making their way back to apologize to everyone for the scene. And Shanan apologized to Temari, but really only for the sake of Shikamaru, before she went back to where she had been sitting and put her head down. She was still pretty drunk.
"Are you alright?" she heard Sasuke ask.
She lifted her head to look at him with tears in her eyes.
Sasuke hated seeing her so heartbroken, so he knelt beside her and whispered. "Hey, I know it's hard. But you already have Kakashi and he really adores you." It was hard for him to say it, but it was harder seeing her cry, "and I'll always be here for you. I promise," he said as he wrapped his arms around her and let her cry into him.
He didn't let her out of his sight for the rest of the night and after they saw Naruto and Hinata off, he walked her home and helped her into bed before crashing on the couch, since Kakashi seemed to be stuck at work.