What's up, everybody? Miss me? It's been a long, long time since I last updated this… You might be thinking, "Oh… Here you go again with your little delays, Sexee Kakashi… We'll be expecting a whole lot, you miserable jerk." Sorry… I've been very busy lately with… Well, uh, pretty much everything- school, paperwork, reports, deadlines and other things… Hope you'll learn to forgive me…
Well, I must say that last chapter (24) wasn't all that good… Although some said it was, in their reviews. Thank you for reviewing on that chapter! I've had enough time to reflect and I finally made my decision to redo it! I was trying to hard to write a straight lemon when I clearly can't, so guess I'll just stick to doing fluff… Heheheh… Note to self: Never do a lemon, unless it's yaoi… I do better lemons in yaoi, you see. So here it goes… The redone chap…
Aki-chan, I am terribly sorry for not being present for ages…
Chapter 24- Something's Not Right
It was a week after they got married, after attending lots and lots of late-night parties and a week after seeing Inoichi off to Hawaii… It's been a week for them already, but it still seems as if nothing has changed. Still they felt that casual bond they had when they were still single and didn't feel like a married couple. Shikamaru was starting to feel quite awkward towards his newly-wedded wife, and she felt the same way towards him too. What is that could be missing?
"Shikamaru… I don't feel married at all…" Ino sighed, swinging her legs alternately as she sat on the bed, "I'm sorry, dear but I just don't feel anything new after we got married… It's like something's still lacking somewhere…"
Shikamaru looked at her with those lazy eyes of his, making Ino sigh even more and feel all the more hopeless with this relationship. It was just seven in the morning and Shikamaru was still too sleepy to discuss anything at that time. Ino scratched her head in annoyance and sighed stressfully. "There hasn't been any magic happening lately, has there?" she told him, slowly getting out of bed, "I think a little spark is what we're missing, Shikamaru…
"You aren't paying any attention to me at all, are you?"
Shikamaru blinked his eyes and yawned, still feeling very idle at the start of the day. "Sorry, Ino…" he said, "You know how distracted I can be moments after waking-up…" "You bet I do…" Ino growled, clutching her fists, "You've been really annoying lately… It's quite sad… I think you seemed kinda sweeter before we got married." Shikamaru saw where this conversation was going, as Ino was getting really pissed-off and started walking around the room with her arms crossed, he slowly rubbed his eyes and got up to make the bed.
"Wow. It's a miracle you even bothered to fix that." Ino sighed, "You should make yourself a little more useful around the house, honey."
"Heh." Shikamaru smirked, "I hate the way you scold me like that. But I also love it, somehow… C'mon, it's still too early for a fight… I promise I'll help around whenever I'm not too busy with work." Then, he slowly walked over to where Ino was standing and hugged her gently to calm her temper down. "You're getting pissed again, Ino… Come on, lemme see a smile! I don't like it when you're angry," Ino scoffed at him and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Oh fine, you're right." She said, "I really am overreacting… But I really can't help thinking that there's something missing! Is there anything we still haven't done?"
"Well… We haven't had our honeymoon yet, that's for sure." Shikamaru answered, scratching his back, "Is that the answer you were looking for? If it's a honeymoon you want, just tell me where you want to go… It'll make a good excuse for leaving stacks of unfinished documents on my desk in the office."
"Wow, that's exactly what I was thinking! A honeymoon with just you and me." Ino replied, finally lightening-up, "I'll make a list of choices right after breakfast and we'll choose our destination together, okay?" After giving her husband a nice, tight squeeze, she skipped happily out the room and went down the stairs to cook breakfast.
"So that's all she wanted, huh?" Shikamaru smirked, "You could've told me the first place then, Ino!" Then, he followed her downstairs to get the day started.
It was an ordinary breakfast, nothing that special. They had pancakes, bacon and coffee with milk and cream. "I remember our date in Starbucks…" Shikamaru giggled while stirring his cup, "You got so addicted to coffee after that; I found it rather amusing and cute."
"So, um… Where do you want to go, Shikamaru?" Ino asked him, "I've already made a list of possible choices in my mind! I hope you'll consider one of them,"
"Hit me." Shikamaru replied, expecting a whole bunch of bizarre ideas from his wife. "Let me guess… Paris, Canada, or maybe even Italy? Or how about London?"
"No, nothing like that, Shikamaru!" Ino answered as she put sugar in her coffee, "I was sorta thinking that it would be nice to spend our night somewhere in the country! I'd find it more romantic if we had our honeymoon in Tokyo, or in Osaka, or Kyoto, or Okinawa… It would be splendid! Plus, it wouldn't cost us as much as if it were in other countries. I hope you'll understand,"
"Okay, I understand. If that's what you want, I'd be glad to have our honeymoon in Japan." Shikamaru replied, "Okinawa seems like a nice place, with a nice beach and a nice sunset… How about we go there? I've already been there in one of my business trips, but I'd love to experience going there with you."
"So it's settled then! Okinawa it is!" Ino replied, smiling happily at him. "So… When do you plan on going? Anytime's fine with me! As long as you're not too busy,"
"I haven't been having that much paperwork recently, so sometime within the week would be great." He answered, slowly slicing his pancake. "We could leave for Okinawa on Thursday and come back to Konoha on Saturday or on Sunday! We'll have enough time to go sight-seeing and souvenir-shopping for everyone."
"Yup. And get busy!" Ino added. "Yeah, that too…" Shikamaru replied blushing, while scratching his head, "How could I forget that?"
I've been so addicted to Bleach recently, but that won't stop me from doing this fic.