Okay, so I just wanted to let you guys know I've given up on the random prompts and am now just writing whatever comes to mind! Hope this still lives up to what you guys want, and please continue to PM me with any prompts.

8: The Talk

Knocking on the door of Temari's apartment, Shikamaru exhaled and checked his watch. He was a little early but that wouldn't matter much to Temari. In fact she'd probably be impressed. The sound of her door locks opening was becoming familiar to him now, and he smiled as the door opened.

"Hi...- oh." He stopped speechless when a familiar but unexpected face greeted him, frowning.

"Nara?!" Kankuro lost control of his face for a second as he processed what was going on. When Temari had told him and Gaara they could stay at hers but she was going out for the night, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't curious about her date. She hadn't told them anything other than this date was coming by at eight to pick her up, and they were under no circumstances to open the door if he knocked. As Kankuro slowly put the pieces together, he finally understood why.

Shikamaru awkwardly cleared his throat and sheepishly asked, "Is Temari in?" deciding to play it as if they had some work to do. When Kankuro didn't reply, didn't move aside to let him in and simply eyed him suspiciously, Shikamaru added, "I just need her to come to the Hokage tower to sign something."

"Yeah, yeah, relax Nara we already know it's a date. She's not home yet but you can wait in here."

"Great," Shikamaru muttered as Kankuro reluctantly stepped aside for him to step in and shut the door behind him.

"No flowers, huh? At least the others brought flowers." Shikamaru shot Kankuro a glare.

"She doesn't like them." he said plainly, although he really had his mind on the others Kankuro mentioned. Gaara looked up from his book and gave Shikamaru a small nod.

"Have a seat, Shikamaru. It's nice to see you in a non-professional setting. We haven't had the chance to talk properly for a while. How are you?"

"Yeah, actually," Kankuro interrupted, "this is a great chance to catch up, Shikamaru. Tell me, how long have you been screwing our sister?" He stood above the now seated Shikamaru, arms crossed accusatorially. This was going to be fun, Shikamaru thought.

"Not that it's any of your business, but I haven't been 'screwing' your sister. We're both adults and we've just been going on a few dates."

"Just dating? What, you think you can just mess around with her and have some fun?" Kankuro edged closer, towering over Shikamaru. Shikamaru in turn forced himself to sit up confidently.

"It's nothing like that. Anyway, you're her younger brother aren't you? Why are you getting all protective?" Shikamaru quipped.

Kankuro scoffed and stepped into Shikamaru's personal space. "You trying to get smart with me? Come here, I'll show you whose younger, you little cocky-"

"Kankuro, calm down." Gaara sighed and put down his book. "We're her only family, Shikamaru. Of course we're going to be protective. We're a lot closer than we used to be." He stood and circled round to face Shikamaru. The two brothers stared at Shikamaru, arms crossed and eyes boring into him.

"So if you do anything to hurt her, you'd be on our bad side. And that's not somewhere you want to be. Understood?"

Shikamaru stood up to join Kankuro and Gaara. He looked at their serious expressions and sighed. This was a real drag, and completely unnecessary. He could almost laugh. "Guys, I'm not going to hurt her. She's the only girl I've ever liked; I'm not going to screw this up intentionally. And besides, if I ever hurt her you two would be the least of my worries." The two sand ninja looked at each other confused.

"Did you not get what we just said, Nara? Man, I thought you were meant to be the genius."

"Let's just say," Shikamaru said smirking, "I'm a lot more scared of your sister than I am of you two."

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late, has Sh-" Temari called out as she entered, but stopped abruptly when she was met with the sound of her brothers laughing with her boyfriend. "What's going on? I told you two not to open the door!" she scolded through gritted teeth.

"Chill, Tem, we've just been catching up with your boyfriend." The way Kankuro dragged out the last word made her roll her eyes. "You could've told us you were dating the Nara kid."

"Well, to be honest this was exactly the situation I was trying to avoid. Who I date is none of your business. And I also don't want this to spread around yet so you keep your mouths shut am I clear?" The three men shared a look; she really was terrifying. "You ready to go Shikamaru?" She held the door open expectantly.

"Yeah, lead the way. It was good to see you guys," he said to Gaara and Kankuro as he headed off.

"Yeah good to see you too Shikamaru. Remember what we talked about." Kankuro winked at Shikamaru while Shikamaru just laughed uncomfortably. "Have a good night kids!" Kankuro waved awkwardly down the staircase.

"Shut up Kankuro!" Temari yelled, not even turning to wave him off. "Sorry about that, I hope they didn't say anything weird. They have a habit of interrogating my dates." she explained.

"Oh? And just how many dates is that?"

"Oh shut up," she drawled, punching him in the arm.

"Just give me a ballpark figure! Because mine is a big fat zero. Apart from you."

She sighed. "They weren't dates, just people the village elders set me up with. I hated them all." She stopped to face him at the bottom of the stairs. "Well? Seems my brothers didn't faze you, I'm impressed." She leaned forward on her elbows towards him.

"Yeah, well, it's gonna take more than protective brothers to keep me away from you. Like I said to them, there's someone who scares me even more and I put up with her every day." She smiled at him as he bent down the rest of the distance between them and locked his lips onto hers.

"Nara!" A voice boomed from Temari's floor, "I can still see you!"