Author's Note: Greetings and salutations, everyone! I present to you all, Borrowed Pencils by me, lovelyjalepi! I hope you all will be able to enjoy this short story of mine that's centered around the ShikaTema pairing along with a slight suggested reference to the ObiRin pairing as well.
This short story is dedicated to all those people who are obsessed with stationery and school/office supplies just as much as I do. Growing up, I've been taught to share what I have with other people if I'm able to. Regardless of one's belief, generosity is a universal virtue and this story is all about that. Happy reading!
Temari no Sabaku and Shikamaru Nara were not best of friends, in fact, they hardly ever spoke to each other at all. However, their relationship took a turn when Shikamaru randomly asked Temari for a pencil one day.
"Hey, Temari, could you lend me a pencil? I didn't carry one with me," Shikamaru asked Temari, the latter of whom was currently working on her astronomy homework.
"And, who says I'll let you borrow a pencil from me just like that," Temari said, crossing her arms across her chest. This resulted in a sneaky glance from Shikamaru as the outfit she wore did nothing to hide off the amazing figure she had. She wore a silk scarf that was tied around her bust with a black satin lace camisole underneath. For the lower half portion of her body, she wore wide-legged denim shorts with the bottom of the shorts being folded and there were fishnet tights underneath. Temari hardly ever wore makeup as she was often seen by Shikamaru and the rest of the school to be involved in the basketball team and the makeup she wore would go to waste as she'd just sweat it all off. But, what caught Shikamaru's attention the most was the giant oversized bow she wore over her head, oddly enough, it looked adorable on the athletic blonde but the lazy genius wasn't about to admit it to her that he found her cute.
"I just figured you'd be a generous person and lend a helping hand to your fellow classmate but I guess not," Shikamaru says with shrug.
Temari eyed Shikamaru for a few seconds before letting out a sigh, "Okay, I'll let you borrow a pencil. It wouldn't do us any good for the school's lazy genius to not have a pencil with him." Temari handed him a blank wooden pencil and for several seconds, their fingers touched before Temari released her hold on the pencil.
"Thank you, Temari, you're one real lifesaver," Shikamaru told her with a small smile. Temari only gave him a nod in response before returning back to her astronomy homework that she still needed to finish working on. Before Shikamaru left the girl alone, he said, "By the way, nice bow. It looks good on you, you should wear it more often, that green color really brings out your eyes." And with that, Shikamaru walked away leaving behind a surprised Temari who gasped in the process.
"Is something the matter, Temari?" Asked another voice, Temari turned around to find a worried Rin Nohara, her big brown eyes were filled with concern for Temari.
Temari shook her head, "No, Miss Rin, everything is alright. I was just a little shaken up by what Shikamaru said to me, that's all."
The brunette woman pressed her hands together, a warm smile now forming on her face, "My stars, I was worried there for a second. But, Honey Friend, don't let Shikamaru scare you. Although he might not look the part, the boy is actually a sweetie but he'll deny it if you ever told him that he was one."
Temari laughed, "I see."
"I forgot to mention this earlier but I really like your bow, Temari! It's very pretty and it looks absolutely perfect on you, Honey Friend."
Temari blushed, even after having Ms. Rin Nohara as her homeroom teacher for almost four years, she still wasn't used to the kindhearted woman's nicknames that Rin would say to every student on campus out of affection.
"Thank you, Miss. My grandmother's cousin who I call grandmother as well visited us and she bought me and my brothers all gifts with the bow that I'm wearing on my head being one of them. You know...Ms. Rin, you're not the first person to have complimented me on my bow," Temari admitted causing Rin's eyes to widen in surprise before a naughty smile formed on her face.
"Honey Friend, I'm not surprised by that. I'm sure there were plenty of other people who've complimented you as well," Rin said to her before giggling, "Such as a certain someone by the name of Shikamaru Nara."
"Who said that it was Shikamaru?" Temari spoke out, her voice raising to a louder volume causing the students and staff nearby to look at her.
"It was just a hunch of mine. Call it a hopeless romantic's intuition perhaps," Rin replied. "I'm sorry to end our conversation so shortly but I best get going now, Honey Friend, Mr. Obito Uchiha, and I still have to work out the arrangements for the upcoming field trip." Rin waved Temarai goodbye which Temarai copied in return watching the young teacher leave the area before sighing to herself.
"Why am I so affected by him? It's not like we're two lovebirds flirting or anything. We barely even speak to each other at all so it can't be that I've got feelings for him," Temari said to herself, "Whatever. I have astronomy homework to complete."
Borrow a pencil from Temari once, Temari will give it to you with no hesitations. Borrow a pencil from Temari twice, Temari will wonder just what happened to the other pencil but she will give it to you. Borrow a pencil from Temarai thrice, she'll start to get annoyed by you. And, borrow a pencil from Temarai twelve times, well, then, you best better hope that you have gotten yourself a proper reason as to why you'd constantly need to borrow a pencil from her.
"Damn you, Shikamara Nara! Just how many damn pencils must you need to take from me? You've taken twelve pencils from me already and I swear, if you ask me for a pencil one more time, I'll go off on you because I'll have no more pencils left and it's all because of you." Temari shouted from the school's rooftop. It was late after school and Temari often stayed behind for several hours because she was part of the schools' basketball team. For Temari, shouting out to one of the lesser-used rooftops of the school allowed her to destress as she's often got pent-up frustrations, and letting them all out by screaming allowed her to calm down and release any tension.
"That's not nice…," said a voice from behind causing Temari to jump. She turned her head around to find the owner of the voice.
"Shikamaru...what are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at your home already, sleeping your butt off after doing who knows what you do at home after school," Temari asked him, her eyes staring at the ground not wanting to face him after he caught her cursing his name out.
"I could you ask the same question, Temari no Sabaku. What are you doing here so late in the afternoon? I know that basketball practice ended an hour ago but you're still here…," Shikamaru replied, "Besides, I was taking a nap at the benches but because of a certain someone, I was woken up by the loud sounds of their shouting."
"Why does it even matter to you that I'm not at home, anyway?"
"It doesn't."
"I'm still waiting for you to return all those pencils you've "borrowed" from me."
Before Shikamaru could answer, his phone rang and the boy left to attend to his phone call leaving Temari to collect her things and leave the school campus before he could even notice that she was gone. It wasn't until Shikamaru was done with his phone call that he realized that the blonde girl was gone.
"Fuck, why did she have to leave," Shikamaru complained, "It's Friday and I won't be able to see her until Monday."
"Temari, there you are," called out Shikamaru as he ran towards the girl's locker room where there was an outside waiting area.
"Are you here to borrow another pencil from me," Temari asked him, glaring at him.
Shikamaru shook his head, "No, no, I'm not here to ask you to lend me a pencil. I just came here to apologize."
"What for?"
"Well, I've borrowed so many pencils from you and the reason why I haven't been able to return them to you is that I gave them all away to the nearby shrine."
"Why would you do that for," Temari demanded, a scowl appearing on her face.
Shikamaru took a deep breath before answering, "Are you aware of the Konoha tradition of students giving a pencil to the local shrine for good luck?"
"No," Temari confessed, "Even though my family and I have been living in Konoha for seven years, I still am not familiar with all of the many traditions and cultural practices of the city."
Shikamaru nodded, "Okay, so, basically, in Konoha, there's this old tradition of students giving pencils to the local shrines in hopes that their educational career will turn out to be successful."
"But, wouldn't you use your own pencil for that," Temari asked?
"Yes, you could do that but one of the shrine seniors told me that if I got a pencil from the prettiest person in school, I could get even more good luck than if I were to use a pencil from my own collection," Shikamaru answered, turning his head to look at the distance not wanting to face Temari.
Temari gasped loudly causing Shikamaru to look at her in curiosity.
"Do you really think that I'm the prettiest person in the school? Are you sure that you didn't mean Sakura Haruno, Ino Yamanaka, TenTen Wu, Hinata Hyuga, or someone else," Temari asked him?
"No, I didn't mean anyone else. If there was a beauty contest being held in school and I were to be the judge of it, I'd pick you again and again, Temari no Sabaku," Shikamaru told her, his cheeks coloring red.
Temari bit her lip, "So...um, did you get any good luck from my pencils or what?"
Shikamaru gave her a shy smile, "I've got more than enough luck because of you. Seriously, did you put magic into those pencils or what? My cousin, Rahayu was able to have a safe birth, my mother and her childhood friend were able to reunite with each other, and, I was able to see my second cousin, Yuwana get asked out by the boy she likes."
"Wow, that's so wonderful to hear, I'm glad that everything turned out great for them but what about your grades? Isn't that the whole reason why you took my pencils?"
Shikamaru shrugged, "They were always great. I didn't really need any luck at school, to begin with, I just wanted my family members to have good things happening to them."
"Oh, I see," Temari said, readjusting the giant oversized bow she wore on her head.
"I see you're wearing that bow again," Shikamaru said before handing her a gift bag.
"What's this?" Temari asked, taking out the item inside the gift bag revealing to be a pack of multiple wooden pencils in various different colors.
"Although they're not the pencils I borrowed from you, I figured that I still have to repay you back one way or another," Shikamaru told her, "Do you like them?"
Temari grinned at him, a rare sight for Shikamaru to see especially when it was one directed towards him. "Yes, I do. Who knew that you could be a sweetie, Shikamaru."
At the mention of the word sweetie, Shikamaru laughed, "Fuck, you sound like Miss Rin now."
Temari placed the packet of pencils back inside the gift bag only to pull it out with a card. She opened the card to read the writing inside of it.
Out of all the beautiful girls in our school, will you be the one to go to prom with me?
Yes or No
You must check the box with a green ink pen.
"Damn it, I don't carry any green ink pens with me," Temari groaned out of frustration.
Shikamaru chuckled, "Don't worry, I do. Here, I'll let you "borrow" it from me." Shikamaru handed the green-colored pen to Temari who took it from his hands, their fingertips touching before Temari began to write down a response to Shikamaru's prom proposal. After a few minutes, Temari handed him back the card for him to read. Much to Shikamaru's enjoyment, Temari check-marked yes and there was an extra note at the bottom.
Yes
When and where do we meet up? Do you want me to drive us there? Would you like to stop by Shingara and Samosas Castle before we arrive there? I am really fond of their shingaras and their chicken tandoori with naan bread. If we can go there, I'll pay for dinner!
"Here's your pen, thanks for lending it to me," Temari told him, holding out the pen for him to grab but Shikamaru shook his head.
"You can keep it. I wrote my phone number there," Shikamaru says, pointing to the piece of paper that was taped to the pen.
Temari nodded, "Oh, so that's why there were a bunch of numbers there."
"I have to get going now but I'm so glad that you've agreed to go to the prom with me. I honestly didn't want to go but Mr. Obito Uchiha insisted that I go and he was the one to help me out with creating this prom proposal in the first place."
"Mr. Obito Uchiha sure does know how to woo a person, doesn't he," Temari laughed.
Shikamaru laughed as well, "I guess so. I mean, it worked on you. And, why didn't you tell me that you liked Shingara and Samosas Castle? I love that place, we should go there one day. Why wait for prom? How about this Saturday?"
Temari thought for a short moment before answering, "Sure, I'm free on Saturday. We can do that."
"Great, it's a date then!"
"Yes, it is," Temari added.
"I'll see you tomorrow, Temari. Feel free to call me tonight, I'll be waiting for your phone call," Shikamaru said, waving her goodbye.
And with that, Temari was by herself as she stared at the green pen in her hand with Shikamaru's phone number written on it. Temari placed the pen in one of the breast pockets of her shirt before walking her way to her car that was parked outside the school campus. Without Temari noticing, there was a person who watched Temari with a smile on her face.
"So, this was the reason Obito-kun didn't come to the movies with me," Rin said with a smile. "I always did find them cute, I'll have to give Obito-kun a kiss or something like that for making my ship set sailing to First Date Island."
The End.
Author's Note:
Index
Shingara: Shingaras are what a lot of people know as samosas, fried or baked pastries filled with potatoes and other vegetables most commonly seen in a triangular cone shape. but in the Bengali community, shingaras are what they call samosas as there's an additional different type of food named samosas as well.
Samosas: Samosas can be either fried or baked pastries filled with potatoes and other vegetables most commonly seen in a triangular cone shape or, they can be triangle-shaped baked or fried pastries filled with chicken or other meats.
Chicken Tandoori: Tandoori chicken is a chicken dish that is prepared by roasting chicken marinated in yogurt and spices in a tandoor, a cylindrical clay oven but it can be cooked in a regular household oven as my mother does.
Naan Bread: Naan is a leavened, oven-baked flatbread.
All this talking and writing about food is making me hungry. Fun fact, I actually had chicken tandoori with naan bread today and that was the reason for me making Shikamaru and Temari visit a South Asian restaurant because all of the food listed above are eaten all throughout South Asia. My mother made chicken tandoori with naan bread as a celebration because my siblings and I are to start school on Monday, August 16, 2021, but if you just want to eat chicken tandoori with naan bread, by all means, go for it!
On another note, I'd like to thank you for reaching this far in my work. I hope this was an enjoyable reading experience for you. Feel free to give me a like, comment, and follow! I'll accept creative criticism and fun feedback so if you have any, don't be shy and leave me one! If any of you want to see a special bonus prom story, send a message or a comment about it and if I can get at least two comments requesting for a ShikaTema prom story, I'll see if I can do just that! Thank you all so very much for reading! Stay blessed!
