I would have had this done earlier, but Kathy seems to be pulling mainly night shifts so it's been difficult to get her to work unless it's about 5 AM.

I really want a doughnut... Maybe I'll go to the store tomorrow.

This is the story behind Temari's sake incident (mentioned in the last chapter), and is also the beginning of Temari and Shikamaru's relationship.

Temari lay back on the couch, staring up at the ceiling in complete boredom, wondering when Shikamaru was going to get back to the apartment. She'd been waiting for over an hour for him to get his lazy ass back from doing whatever he was doing -probably watching some stupid cloud like the moron that he was- and she was getting tired of it. She didn't know what she was going to do if he didn't get back soon, but she did know that it was going to be violent and would probably piss him off.

Just as she was revving herself up to do some serious damage the front door swung open and Konoha's lazy genius was staring at her with his usual bored eyes.

"What are you doing here?" He asked her, his husky voice sending little thrills down her spine that she easily hid, continuing to lounge on his couch as if she hadn't a care in the world. As if she hadn't broken into his apartment and invaded his personal space.

"I got bored with being babysat and so I decided to come bother you for some kicks."

He sighed as if she were the most irksome woman he had ever encountered -and she supposed that she was- and closed the door behind him, hanging his chunin vest on a peg by the door before continuing in, stripping off his shirt as he walked past the couch to get to his dresser. It was only by sheer force of will and the thought that she would not loose in this battle they waged that kept Temari from watching him as he changed.

But she cursed the bastard for not getting an apartment that had rooms. What the hell was the appeal of a place that was just one big open space with a tiny raised kitchen in one corned and an even smaller bathroom in the other.

"Got any beer?" She asked easily, continuing to stare up at the ceiling as he finished, listening as he stepped up into the kitchen.

"No."

Temari wrinkled her nose. All she wanted right now was to pick at the Nara for a little while and drink some alcohol while she did it, not that big of demands, really.

"Well then, what do you have?" She asked, sitting up to glare at him over the back of the couch. "And if you have any of those fruity little wine coolers I'm going to lose my lunch after I murder what's left of your already castrated and stunted male pride."

The man raised his eyes to the ceiling as if to ask for divine council and opened one of the cupboards. "I have sake."

"Sake?" Temari asked disbelievingly, not able to remember if she had ever had the drink before.

"Kiba left it over here one day, probably the same day he drank all of my beer." Seeing the look on her face he sighed in exasperation. God, this woman was so annoying. Wasn't she the one that had broken into his peaceful apartment and disrupted what could have been a very nice afternoon of him doing nothing? She should be grateful he was offering her anything.

"Take it or leave it, Woman."

Temari glared at him. "Fine, I'll take it. And stop calling me woman, you ass."

"You're a woman, so I call you woman." He said as he started heating the drink up.

"Yeah, well, since you're a lazy bastard can I call you a lazy bastard?"

"You already do." He reminded her, "Frequently."

"Because you are." She told him easily. "And I may be a woman but when you call me that you're insulting my entire gender and that makes me want to shove you face first into a meat grinder."

Shikamaru stopped what he was doing briefly to wonder at how he could actually half-way like the woman's company even with her gruesome and bloody threats. Maybe he needed a psych evaluation.

Grabbing the cups he walked over to the couch and sat on the floor on the other side of the low coffee table, waiting for her to slide onto the floor opposite of him before he poured her drink.

"You know," She said pleasantly as she sipped. Not all that bad, though she still preferred beer. "I was going through all of your things to look for porn to lord over you and I wasn't able to find any." He stared at her unblinkingly for a moment, unsurprised that she had went through his things, trying to figure out where the conversation was going.

"And I just thought that it was an extremely strange thing for an eighteen year old man not to have any little dirty pictures or magazines, so I decided to go through your clothes -cute boxers by the way-" God, it was so fun to make him blush. "And you'll never guess what I found." She stared at him for a moment unblinkingly before he sighed, deciding the best way to get all of this to go by would be to humor her for a bit.

"You found nothing."

"I found nothing." She confirmed, nodding. "I mean, what the hell? Even I have porn, so what's the deal with you?" Shikamaru stared at her for long dragging moments and she could almost think -from the way he wasn't reacting and from his blank stare- that his thought process had ground to a halt. But she knew better than to think that. She knew that his brain never stopped working, analyzing everything and coming up with plans upon plans.

He was smart, and that was kind of sexy. And annoying.

"You have porn?" He finally asked, and Temari smirked as she drank the rest of the drink remaining in her little cup.

"Yep, toys too. More." She demanded, holding out her cup for him to refill, only to have him continue to stare at her in shock as a blush crept slowly across his face. She had to hold back her wicked grin, hiding it behind her impatience as she practically shoved her cup into his nose.

He was so fun to play with.

After two more cups and some more teasing Temari found that her head was pleasantly cloudy and her body warm. Stretching her arms up above her head she fell onto her back on the floor, closing her eyes as she tried to hold onto all of the happy feelings that were swimming through her.

She didn't think she'd ever felt quite so delicious before.

"Shikamaru~" She singsonged, giggling at the way his name felt coming off of her lips.

Shikamaru sat up and leaned over the table, looking down at the flushed form that lay on the floor, sighing heavily at how much more troublesome his evening had become all because of one woman.

"You're such a lightweight, getting drunk only after three cups." Temari opened her eyes and pouted up at Shikamaru childishly, flinging her hand up and poking him in his nose, both annoying and confusing the man.

"Noooo~ I'm not drunk!" She scolded, her hand falling back down to her side as Shikamaru frowned down at her.

"Oh, then what are you if not drunk?"

"I'm all... tingly." Temari said as she smiled and slid her arms up over her head, arching her body up slightly as she stretched, giggling again. Shikamaru flushed slightly at the sight and was thankful for her inebriated state for a moment. Not only would she have gotten onto him for ogling her if she had been in her right mind but he also would have never heard the end about his childishness if she had seen the blush at a simple thing like her stretching.

"You know," Temari said, her voice low and husky, sending little electric prickles down Shikamaru's spine that he did his best to ignore, "I'm always so... tingly when I'm around you." She opened her eyes back up and looked at Shikamaru again, her eyes filled with the bleary warmth of alcohol and another warmth that hit Shikamaru like a punch to the gut.

"It starts here," She said as she pressed a hand to her abdomen, slowly trailing her fingers up to press in the middle of her chest, "And then I feel all tingly and warm here and my heart won't stop beating." She blinked up at the wide-eyed man that was leaning over the little table to look down at her, grabbing his hand before he could react and bringing it to her breast.

"Feel that? It's always so fast and loud when you look at me that I think it's going to just come right out of my chest." She sighed, removing her hand from his and closing her eyes again, not looking up into the face of the now furiously blushing Nara.

After swallowing roughly, his Adam's apple bobbing, Shikamaru pulled his hand away from the woman's chest as he tried to think about anything other than the fast that he had just groped Temari and that she had basically forced him to.

It had been... soft.

Clearing his throat and trying to force away the blush that now covered almost his whole face Shikamaru stood up and walked around the table, bending over so that he could grab Temari and get her onto the couch before anything else happened. She was unpredictable the way she was at the moment and Shikamaru didn't want anything more to happen in case she remembered when she was back to normal and then tried to kill him.

But one of her legs moved and tripped him, making him fall towards her, catching himself with a hand on the either side of her head as he just barely stopped himself from landing fully on top of her.

"Shikamaru..." She sighed, shifting slightly beneath him as he shoved himself back up, her legs twisted with his keeping him from getting up all of the way. Shikamaru gaped at the sight before him: Temari's face flushed from the alcohol and her eyes clouded with it, her arms thrown wantonly above her head as she looked at him warmly, a happy little smile on her lips as her loosened hair tangled around her face. The top of her yukata had loosened and had fallen apart enough to reveal the red lace of a bra and more her lightly tanned skin, the garment opening further to reveal more of her with every breath she took.

Her hands moved until they were pressing against his abs, sliding upwards over his chest slowly and sensually as said she arched unconsciously, this time his name leaving her lips on a moan. Grabbing her hands by her wrists Shikamaru quickly removed them from him while he still had the good sense to, pinning them above her head as she moaned again and all of the blood in his head began the decent downwards.

"I had a dream like this once," She murmured in a husky voice that very nearly made him shiver, "Where you held me down with your shadow jutsu so that I couldn't move and then you touched me." Shikamaru stared wide-eyed down into her flushed face and her parted lips, wondering what the hell he was supposed to be doing with all of the information that she was giving him. He knew for certain that he wasn't going to act on any of it, not when she was drunk and out of her right mind. You just didn't do that to a woman, even if she was being incredibly tempting.

"Won't you touch me, Shika-kun?" Temari purred, arching again as Shikamaru almost lost his resolve at the inciting way the woman beneath him had said his new nickname.

"Keep your hands here," He told her, not all that sure what she would do with them if he let her free, "Got it?"

Hoping that she was about to get her way and live through her secret fantasy Temari eagerly nodded, watching as Shikamaru slowly pulled away and sat back, making a hand seal. But, she noted with some puzzlement, it was the wrong one.

Just as she was opening her mouth to question him Shikamaru growled "Sleeping jutsu." and her eyes snapped closed, her body going limp on the floor.

Breathing out a ragged breath Shikamaru roughly rubbed his hands over his face. After managing to free himself from her legs he stood up, looking down at her wearily.

Really, he should just leave her there on the floor in repayment for just how much trouble she had been for him, that way she'd wake up sore and hungover, and if she remembered anything that she had done it would torture her just that much more.

But even while thinking of these things Shikamaru bent down and lifted her limp body up, her head lolling to his shoulder as he carried her over to his bed, laying her down and pulling the blanket up over her before turning and going over to the couch to lay down and go to sleep himself.

He figured that he'd have a long and difficult day ahead of him the next day because of the blonde that was currently lightly snoring in his bed, and that he had better get as much sleep as possible.

Temari rolled over and buried her face in the pillow, breathing in the foreign and masculine scent of woodsmoke and cinnamon, smiling slightly at it. She didn't know why her bed smelled like a certain little lazy Nara, but she wasn't going complain.

It was a really nice smell.

But thinking about the strange experience of her bed smelling like Shikamaru made her realize that she was not laying on top of the soft cotton sheets of her hotel bed and that the thin little mattress beneath her wasn't familiar.

And then, as the last wisps of sleep drifted away, she remembered.

Temari snapped up in the bed, her eyes quickly searching every inch of the apartment to see if the little Nara was anywhere to be seen, just waiting for her to wake up so that he could lord everything that had happened last night over her head. She had basically thrown herself at him last night trying to seduce him, and nothing had even come out of it since the bastard had been a complete gentleman and hadn't done anything to her, putting her under a sleeping jutsu and then giving her his bed.

Blowing out a breath Temari hurried quietly over to the door where her shoes were, her face set determinedly as she decided that she'd just have to never look at or talk to Nara Shikamaru ever again. Simple enough.

Just as she was slipping her first shoe on the bathroom door opened and she was caught, freezing in place the moment their eyes met. Shikamaru sighed, looking almost disappointed at her and the fact that she was running away, and took a step towards her.

"Temari-"

"I have no idea what happened last night or why I did any of that, especially since I had only three little pansy glasses of that stuff when I can go through cases of beer without any problems what so ever, so we can just blame the stupid sake." She was blushing, she could feel it and she knew that the stupid idiot across the room could see it. She was blushing and backing away from him as he came closer to her and she hated the stupidity of those signs of weakness.

"All we have to do is forget about this whole thing and never bring it up or even think about it again and- Will you stop coming closer because I swear if you even think about taking one more step I will beat you so badly that they won't even be able to identify the body!" Her back hit the wall behind her and her eyes widened before narrowing on his as he continued to get even closer, glaring furiously as that damnable blush continued to grow on her face.

"I mean it, you stupid lazy bast-" And his lips were pressing against hers to cut her off as his hands hit the wall on either side of her head, caging her in as he furiously assaulted her mouth and her senses, giving no mercy as he forced her mouth open so that he could plunder.

She was frozen in place for a moment before she began to melt, and for a moment she allowed herself to be carried along before her good sense came back to her. Mentally biting off a curse Temari moved her hands to his shoulders, gripping hard as she tilted her head and began the battle for dominance -a battle she was determined not to lose.

Temari managed to kick off her one shoe as she shifted her hold and jumped up so that her legs were twisted around his waist, knocking Shikamaru off balance so that he stumbled back a few steps, his control faltering for just the barest moment as Temari immediately swooped in for the kill, commanding the kiss and him.

She tore the tie out of Shikamaru's hair to let it free, quickly burying her hands into the strands gripping hard as she pulled back to look into his eyes and pant. "Bed." She growled, nipping his chin, "Now."

And as his hands shifted to grip her butt as he strode over to the bed, still under the hard assault of her mouth, all Temari could think was that it was about damn time.

Tada!

I don't know, but as soon as I wrote down that line in the last chapter this came to me and I knew that I had to write it down.

Hmm... Whenever I write for this couple it's either Temari being tortured or them in bed. Maybe I have a problem...

Pfft. Please, I know I have a problem.

Well, my winter break is over at school so I'll be going back tomorrow and I'll be starting my math class (this year we only had half year courses in some of the classes)

Happy new year!