Shikamaru...
Shikamaru was not drunk enough for this.
That said, he wasn't sure he'd ever actually reach a suitable level of inebriation to be able to both take part in Ino's game nights and keep his sanity in tact, but that was beside the point.
He cast his eyes around the group which was seated on the floor around Ino and Sai's coffee table, watching Naruto lean the forgotten Uno cards against each other in an effort to make a house only for Sasuke to subtly nudge the table right before it could be completed. Twice. To Shikamaru's immediate left, Kankurou was nursing what could easily have been his fifth beer, and he was fumbling with the sleeves of Kiba's hoodie. Hinata and Chouji were engaged in a conversation which seemed, to Shikamaru, more like Chouji talking at the girl, and Hinata nodding, taking sips of her cider, and wincing. Behind where the pair were seated on the floor, Gaara was sprawled on the couch, his ankles draped over Neji's lap, only moving to reach his drink which he'd perched on the arm. Shikamaru could respect that tactic. He felt Temari move slightly beside him, presumably to keep from getting a dead limb.
Sakura was stretched out beside Tenten, a stack of coasters balanced on her head in the vague shape of a crown, a joint perched between her fingers. Only she, Neji, and Kiba were smoking that night, and Kiba...
Well Kiba was high off his ass, reaching forward to stroke the top of Tenten's lip with a deep frown. Tenten cringed slightly and leaned away from him with a disgusted expression.
"What the fuck, Kiba?" She snapped as Kankurou reached out to tug Kiba back against his side where he could cause no harm to any unsuspecting individual.
"I was just wondering..." Kiba trailed off, squinting at Tenten's lip as if something fascinating was to be found there.
"Wondering what?" Tenten gave him a careful look, her eyes darting to Kankurou then back again.
"I was wondering why moustaches aren't called 'mouth-brows'."
Tenten looked mildly amused for a fraction of a second before her eyes narrowed at Kiba.
"And what prompted such an existential thought?" She asked steadily, but Shikamaru could see right through her easy tone. He leaned forward, passing his arm over Kankurou's shoulder to pluck the joint from Kiba's fingers before he could speak and dig himself into an even deeper grave. He held the blunt up for Tenten to see it, and held up three fingers on his other hand to let Tenten know that "out of it" would be far too weak a term to describe Kiba's current state of mind.
Shikamaru heard an "oof" somewhere behind him and could only assume that Naruto had witnessed the whole interaction.
Kiba pouted at Shikamaru before leaning further into Kankurou, mumbling something reminiscent of "the emo nerd is bullying me, babe. Make him stop." Kankurou rolled his eyes and patted his boyfriend's head comfortingly, offering Shikamaru a grateful nod.
Tenten seethed quietly on the other side of the coffee table and Sakura rubbed her shoulder, muttering "it could be worse, last month he told Kankurou he was just a placeholder until he finds a dealer who's willing to date him."
At that, Tenten laughed and relaxed.
"This is so boring," Ino announced as she walked back into the sitting room with a fresh tray of drinks. "Lee would be yodelling right about now if he were here."
"Lee would also have dented your table, set fire to someone's hair and suggested a game called 'take a shot every time someone blinks'," Neji pointed out calmly as he took another sip from his can of light cider. Much like Shikamaru, the elder didn't trust their friend group's ability to not cause an explosion once alcohol was added to the mix.
"Shut up, wimp," Naruto smirked. "Lee would also have been on his fourth can by now."
"Yes, what an achievement," Neji mumbled.
Naruto beamed at his apparent concession and clinked his can to Neji's.
"To Lee," he smirked.
"To Lee," that was Temari.
Shikamaru startled, she hadn't spoken much all night, and her voice suddenly appearing so close to him surprised him.
A few people lazily grunted or raised their drinks by a fraction in acknowledgement of the toast and Ino groaned again.
"Guys," she whined. "What can we play now? This is meant to be a game night so unless you want us to play another round of uno-"
A collective bout of protests erupted at the mention of the card game. Even Gaara cringed when the game was mentioned, which was the first visible sign of life the boy had expressed since he and Temari had arrived around two hours previously.
"I thought not," Ino huffed. "So what do you wanna do?"
"Kankurou," Kiba said under his breath, earning a hurried swat from his boyfriend.
Ino wrinkled her nose and Naruto's house of cards collapsed into a pile as its maker burst into fits of laughter.
"Ew, ew ew ew," Gaara blocked his ears forcefully, knocking the can of pink gin he'd been nonchalantly sipping at right off the arm of the sofa on which it was perched. "I didn't need to hear that, I really didn't need to hear that."
Temari wasted no time heading into the kitchen to grab some paper towels and soak up the mess Gaara had made.
"What I'm sure Ino meant," she announced once everyone's respective responses to Kiba's outburst had died down, hunkering down to press the towels to the ground as Ino watched on, her expression like that of someone whose soul has left their body. "Was 'We've unanimously agreed that Uno is shit, so what game do we want to play instead?'"
"Just Dance!" Naruto exclaimed.
"There isn't a console here, moron," Sasuke snapped, but Shikamaru could see a faint smile curling on his lip, giving away how endeared he was, really. Naruto stuck his tongue out at the darker haired boy and Chouji offered "Ouija" up to the table. Sasuke, Temari and Gaara perked up at the mention of demon-summoning but the idea was quickly shut down at Ino's protests that talking to the dead was not a game, and that if it were anyone else's house she wouldn't actually mind, but she actually had some items of value to lose.
"We could just do a drinking game," Tenten suggested.
"Last time we did a drinking game, Lee and Saku-" Kankurou began.
"Don't say it, you snake," Sakura interrupted without missing a beat.
Sasuke raised his eyebrow at that and cast Sakura a sidelong look.
"Besides," Sakura continued, brushing swiftly past any questions being thrown her way. "Lee isn't here this time, which lowers the probability of a catastrophe down by at least seventy five percent."
Ino sighed.
"What game, then?" She asked.
"Spin the bottle?" Naruto offered, peering over to where Hinata sat with about as much subtlety as a brass band in a library. Meaning he just turned and stared. Hinata quickly looked at the coffee table and picked at her nail varnish with fervour.
"Some of us are taken," Kankurou snapped, gesturing to Kiba, who was half on his lap, half on his shoulders, and then extending his hand to squiggle his fingers at Sasuke and Sakura.
"Wow," Ino drawled. "Thanks for acknowledging my relationship."
"Sai isn't here, your relationship currently doesn't qualify," Kankurou shrugged. Ino looked as though she was on the verge of protesting, but Tenten held her hand up.
"We can do never have I ever?" She suggested.
"Last time we played that it got old fast," Naruto whined, pouting dramatically. "I wanna spin a bottle."
"We can do Truth or Dare," Came Temari's voice from the kitchen. Shikamatu hadn't even noticed her leaving to bin the paper towels. "Spin the bottle and then ask whoever it lands on?"
Naruto's eyes lit up at that and a few people shrugged noncommittally at her suggestion.
"Okay," Tenten agreed. "All in favour?"
A few people put their hands up, others grunted and the group took that as their cue to pull open a few more bottles.
It went something like this:
Sasuke spun the bottle, it landed on Neji, who chose truth.
"What happened with Lee and Sakura the last time you guys played a drinking game?" Sasuke asked, earning a collective eye roll from everyone present.
"Boo," Gaara called. "Can we disqualify Sasuke for making this boring from round one?"
Neji flicked Gaara's ankle and gave Sasuke a disappointed look.
"They were playing beer pong and it ended up with both of them using furniture from around my apartment as blankets. I never needed to see your girlfriend curled under a floor mat just to prove she knew more about thermal insulation than Lee."
"See?" Kiba huffed. "Sasuke killed the mood that was already pretty dead to begin with. I say we excommunicate him,"
"Hear hear," Naruto and Gaara chimed in, with Gaara leaning forward to fist bump Kiba in approval.
"Exco- you're not a church?" Sasuke snapped.
"Neji," Ino sighed. "I know you're not the most qualified but please spin the bottle and return some life to this party."
Neji spun the bottle and it landed on Naruto, who happily shrieked 'Dare!' Before it had even come to a stop.
"I dare you to give your phone to Sakura and let her pick a random number for you to dial. Once they pick up, tell them you're pregnant with their child and hang up." Neji said this softly, as if he was just telling Naruto that the shop was out of bread, and it took Shikamaru a second to pick up on what had just been said. Sakura gleefully took her friend's phone, scrolled through his contacts and dialed somebody, before leaning forward to press the phone to Naruto's ear so he wouldn't see who was being dialed. Naruto had visibly paled at Neji's words, but he pulled a confident smile on his face as they waited for the call to be answered.
After a tense silence, the telltale flurry of indistinct noises came from Naruto's mobile and the blond looked like he'd seen a ghost as he processed the voice. Not one to lose a dare though, he swallowed thickly and opened his mouth to speak.
"I-I'm pregnant!" He gasped. "I'm pregnant and it's yours."
He hung up quickly and flung his phone (albeit gently) in Neji's direction. It ended up hitting Gaara's ankle from where it was propped up on Neji's lap and the red head flinched.
"Well?" Temari asked. "Who was it?"
Naruto covered his face with his hands and groaned.
"My Politics TA," he whined through his fingers.
"You made him call Kakashi?" Sasuke hissed at Sakura, in shock, before holding up a hand for a high-five. "Nice one."
When Sakura reached up to high five her boyfriend, he interlaced their fingers and they held hands behind Naruto's back as he continued to seethe.
"I want you all dead," he moaned. "I'm selling you to an organ harvester, Neji. And you, Sakura? Kindly perish."
The night continued with a similar pattern, and after about thirty minutes, things finally kicked off in a way that made Ino say 'finally' when Tenten turned to Gaara, who picked truth, and had to answer an emotionally distressing "kill fuck or marry" between Lee, Sai and Neji.
"I-" Gaara cast his eyes around the room and they settled on Neji awkwardly. "Um… I'll marry you because you're actually here."
Neji nodded solemnly and raised his can slightly in acknowledgment as Gaara went back to melting on the sofa.
"I'd f- sleep with Lee and kill Sai," he said finally, after a considerable amount of thought considering the fact it was just a game.
"Why would you kill Sai?" Ino asked with a pout, "don't kill him!"
"Would you rather he said he'd fuck Sai?" Kiba asked pointedly. Ino's eye twitched.
"I retract my statement," she sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Feel free to kill him."
Gaara spun the bottle and it landed on Kankurou. With a crooked smirk, he dared his brother to kiss any one of the girls present. Kankurou scrunched his nose up at his younger brother and wordlessly beckoned for Tenten to lean forward, over the coffee table and allow him to press his lips to her temple.
Naruto let out a displeased 'boo' but Shikamaru didn't miss Kiba's glare lingering on the girl as she moved back to rest against the couch and wiped at her skin with her sleeve.
"You never give me forehead kisses," Kiba grumbled, shifting to be closer to Kankurou, who rolled his eyes and patted his hair.
"Later," he huffed, reaching forward to spin the bottle. When it stopped on Ino, he asked her who she'd pick to have a one night stand with, she hissed at him that she was in a relationship, before promptly adding "Neji. He's single, presumably straight and probably wouldn't be weird about it afterwards."
"Yeah, but during," Tenten offered, and they all rounded on her.
"What?" She asked.
"Nothing," Neji said hurriedly.
Ino narrowed her eyes and spun the bottle, her eyes darting between Neji and Tenten as she did so. She grumbled something incoherent when it landed on Shikamaru.
"Truth," Shikamaru said hurriedly, before anyone could convince him to pick Dare.
"C'mere," Ino beckoned, motioning for him to come closer with a sweep of her hand. "I'll whisper it to you."
Shikamaru knew instantly that he'd made the wrong choice.
Surprisingly, Ino's question seemed like an innocent one.
"Without looking, guess roughly how long your foot is,"
The question was odd, sure, but he was glad for something that wasn't too demanding.
"About nine inches," he shrugged. And then it hit him.
"You liar," Gaara hissed from the couch.
"Yah, you picked Truth, Shikamaru!" Naruto called. "What the hell?"
Shikamaru glared at Ino, who was laughing quietly, and then across to Temari, who was giving him a careful look.
"I didn't lie," he sighed. "You're just jumping to conclusions."
"Right," Kiba drawled. He carefully raked his eyes down Shikamaru's body before going "meh, I like mine better anyways," and dropping his head back to Kankurou's shoulder.
"Thank you for being so verbal about your hesitance," Kankurou said tightly, before giving Shikamaru a once over just as his boyfriend had.
Shikamaru rolled his eyes and returned to his spot between Temari and Kankurou.
"Nine?" Neji asked sceptically.
"Nine," Shikamaru confirmed, glaring at Ino. He spun the bottle and it landed on Tenten, who still looked a bit out of it since Shikamaru had answered his question.
"Truth," she said distractedly.
"What's Neji's kink he isn't letting us in on?"
With a loud groan, Neji let his head roll back onto the back of the couch. Tenten snapped out of her daze and cast a conspiratorial look around the group of people gathered.
"Where to start, my friends?" She began, earning a 'he said kink, not kinks' from Neji, who was pointedly ignored by absolutely everyone. "Let's just say… he likes being tied up, for one."
Kiba's head shot up at that, and he gave Neji an appreciative nod.
"Good taste, my man," he grinned. "Good taste,"
Temari looked at Kankurou and arched her eyebrow. All her brother responded with was turning his head down to look at the floor and pursing his lips, his ears going red.
"And he likes roleplaying," Tenten giggled.
"As what?" Naruto asked, his eyes darting between Neji and Tenten.
Hinata was staring at her cousin as if he were a whole new person, and Chouji excused himself to go fetch roasted peanuts from the kitchen.
"The usual," Tenten shrugged. "Teacher student, doctor patient and the likes."
"Who are you?" Sasuke asked, his eyes wide.
"Hey, we don't kink shame in this house," Ino frowned. "But Neji, wow."
Tenten gave her friend a smile and spun the bottle.
"Temari's turn!" She said happily as it came to a halt. "Truth or dare?"
"Dare, please," Temari replied.
"Hmm," Tenten bit her lip and looked around the room for inspiration. "Okay, do body shots with Sasuke."
"Veto," Temari said, without missing a beat. Shikamaru wasn't sure why, but he relaxed intensely as she refused to do it.
"Why?" Ino asked.
"Because I'm not a home wrecker," Temari shrugged. "Sakura is literally right there, and even if she wasn't, I wouldn't do body shots. Not with someone who's in a relationship, anyways."
"With Shikamaru then," Gaara said suddenly. Shikamaru's heart skipped a beat. He could not be serious… he was about to protest when he caught a tiny movement in the corner of his eye and he turned around to find Temari looking at him carefully.
"Okay," Temari said, and the floor gave out completely.
What? He thought.
"What?" Kankurou snapped.
"...what?" Temari asked. "It's a dare, isn't it?"
"Tequila!" Tenten called excitedly. "And salt and a lime!"
"I don't have limes," Ino muttered as she stood up. "I've got lemons though."
Shikamaru wasn't exactly sure how it ended up this way: he'd been quiet all night, keeping out of trouble, monitoring his alcohol intake enough to just be bordering on tipsy, and yet-
And yet here he was, watching his alleged friends sweep empty cans and bottles and Uno cards from the coffee table as somebody (he didn't think to check who) tugged off his shirt and he was being pulled onto the now empty table.
"This looks like a cult initiation," someone whispered, but he didn't dare move his gaze to find the speaker. He was too busy staring straight at Temari, who was kneeling beside him with an awkward expression on her face.
"You okay with this?" She asked, addressing him directly for what seemed like the first time that night. Shikamaru would like to say he took this opportunity to pull himself out of the danger zone.
Shikamaru did not pull himself out of the danger zone. He wasn't sure what it was that compelled him to say what he said- maybe the worried look Temari was giving him, or the wolf whistle (the sound most likely being Kiba's doing), or the excited clapping- but he tugged the most arrogant smirk he could muster onto his lips and didn't avert his gaze.
"Let's give them a show," he announced.
Quicker than he could account for, he felt a line of salt being sprinkled across his chest, a tacky, plastic shot glass overfilled with tequila being perched on his abdomen and a wedge of lemon being pressed to his lips.
"Bite down," Hinata instructed. Wait, Hinata?
He opened his mouth and held the lemon by its skin.
"Let's do it!" Sakura cheered. Shikamaru was acutely aware of all his friends watching as Temari- the Temari. The I-will-not-hesitate-to-skin-you-if-you-cross-me Temari. The annoyingly troublesome woman who has been invading his thoughts for an obscene amount of time this past year- give him one final, cautious look. An invitation to spit out the lemon and go "just kidding!". He holds the lemon firmly and quirks an eyebrow at her, giving her a what are you waiting for? look.
Temari sighed, but he caught a flush riding high on her cheekbones as she leaned forward, bracing her hands on the coffee table and-
Fuck.
He felt her tongue as it dragged down his chest in a smooth motion, catching the salt as it went along. When she pulled off, her cold breath hit the line she'd just traced and Shikamaru used all of his self control to avoid shivering. As she moved to wrap her lips around the rim of the shot glass, Shikamaru felt his hips jerk slightly- mainly from the image of her being right there and embarrassingly close to his crotch. He felt some of the drink spill onto him, but the glass remained standing, and Temari caught it between her lips, throwing her head back to down it. His stomach felt sticky, and he was cringing at the sensation, but suddenly, Temari's tongue was on him again, lapping up the small line of tequila that was making its way down his torso.
Suppressing a groan had, quite frankly, never been harder.
Before he could panic, or maybe before she could panic, Temari moved up to his face and it was ridiculous, really. Shikamaru knew it as he felt it that it was ridiculous. He should have felt incredibly horny but when he looked at her, her fringe tousled, her hoodie too baggy and earrings lopsided, her smile something slightly forced with her slightly chipped front tooth on display he didn't feel as his body told him he should. He didn't feel ridiculously turned on or anxious to touch and undress her he just felt… he felt in love. And he saw it- he saw his damn reflection, swimming in her eyes and coming to the surface looking stupid with that lemon in his mouth as her face got closer to his. He saw how stupidly in love he was, and he wondered how it was possible that she didn't see it too.
Before he knew it, Temari was shutting her eyes and leaning forward to bite down on the pulp of the lemon which he held between his teeth, one hand pressed to his chest to keep him still, and everything felt like he was in a bubble, trying so hard to keep stock still and not jolt forward to claim her lips. He was acutely aware of how close hers were to his, but he didn't move, just let her bite down, felt some of the juice run into his mouth, bitter and sharp as he let it go and she pulled away.
Once she was out of his space, the atmosphere around the dissipated, like water glugging down a wide-mouthed drain, and the room sharpened harshly back into focus: Hinata squealing, Kankurou and Gaara pointedly looking away, Kiba fake-retching, Ino watching with her jaw hanging slack.
Once he could gather his thoughts, Shikamaru stood from the coffee table and excused himself, saying he wanted to wipe off the tequila that was left on him. He rushed to Ino's bathroom, switched on the light and breathed heavily, trying hard to clear his thoughts. How could she not know? How could she have missed the looks, his lame fucking jokes, his weak compliments, his inability not to fidget, even slightly, every time she addressed him, and his over confidence the very next moment. How could she not know that the only reason he even bothered showing up to his astronomy lectures is because she was there, to tease him for being late, to poke him awake every Thursday for their nine am, to call him Astroboy whenever they got a test back and his grade ranked high on the list, but never high enough to out rank hers.
"Hey, Astroboy,"
He glanced up and caught sight of Temari in the reflection of the bathroom mirror, her head tilted as she leaned against the door frame nervously.
"Hey," he replied, suddenly conscious of the fact he hadn't pulled his shirt back over his head before leaving the sitting room.
"I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable out there," Temari said quietly, "I should probably have asked you if you were okay with it before accepting the dare."
"Not at all," Shikamaru shook his head. "I'm happy you did. I mean- not happy but I'm not- it didn't… I wasn't uncomfortable? I didn't dislike it, I mean. I… I liked it?"
Temari pursed her lips to hide a smile as she nodded faintly.
"You liked it?"
"Uh…" Shikamaru wasn't sure whether or not this was a trick question. He could never be sure with her. "Yes?"
Temari stepped away from the door frame and into the bathroom, shutting the door behind her and leaning back against it, keeping her eyes on him the whole time.
"Is there anything else you like, by any chance?" She pushed further, burrowing her hands deep into her pockets and clearly trying hard not to look away from his eyes.
And this was it. A very faint line in the sand that Shikamaru looked at and thought 'this can mean a lot.' 'This can change a lot. This can change everything.'
He took a deep breath and stepped over the line.
"You, I guess," he answered, his voice nowhere near as smooth and certain as he would have liked. "I like you."
A smile curled onto Temari's lips and her eyes narrowed into crescents as she beamed at him unreservedly.
"Truth or dare, Astroboy?" She asked, stepping over a line of her own, clearly.
"Dare," Shikamaru whispered, barely processing the fact she hadn't laughed at his confession because she was suddenly so present in his space, close enough for him to smell her perfume and hear the slight tinckle of the chain she wore on her wrist.
Her eyes darted down to his lips momentarily as she seemed to make up her mind on what to ask him. With a slightly mischievous twist to her smile, she leaned in, close enough to take his air and breathed:
"Guess."
A/N: hiiiii it's been a million yearsiamsosorry
But! Anywho here is a piece I wrote for a secret Santa event for Loknika, which I hope she enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing. This fic will be up on my ao3 which I still havent posted on hopefully later on today but knowing me that probably means by October. Thank you for all the well wishes in comments and dms, it means a lot and I hope you forgive me for this super long absence!
Become a Beta: if you want to contribute to the writing process/be bombarded with crying emojis from me,, join my discord server- the group chat code is ZMSxJ43 I look forward to seeing new faces!
As I mentioned, this was for a secret santa event which was organised in yet another discord server which I feel I should mention- there are invites to it on my own server and it's a shikatema server so if that interests you, well you've come to the right place!
Alrighty, au revoir~
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~L