A/N: Now that the story has really started, I should tell you some background info.

I've been really racking my brain to try to think of when exactly this story takes place. I know that all of the characters are around 17 or so, but a lot of the stuff that actually happened in the manga doesn't happen in my story (for example, Sasuke and Asuma are still around). So, I guess this story will just have to be part of a completely contrived plot line, in relation to the bigger picture. I'm sorry if some of you do not like that, but that's how it has to be. Unless you want to give me more headaches.

In any case, I hope you don't worry about chronology too much and just let the flow of the story sweep you up and carry you away...

-one-
Starts out easy, something simple, something sleezy...

Ino yawned in silence and opened her eyes. Morning. Her favorite time of day. Everything was fresh in the morning. Everything hinted at something great that could happen.

Of course, nothing great ever did happen.

But Ino was content, because the morning was her time. In the morning, her mom and dad were still asleep and the house was silent. In the morning, she could stretch and watch TV or even pole dance (not that they had a random pole in their house) if she wanted to without being seen.

Yes, morning was a good time in life. Ino threw back her blanket and got up, searching with her toes for her piggy slippers that Sakura had gotten her one year for a joke. Yeah, some joke.

She found them, finally, by looking with her eyes. She placed her feet in them, stood up, and stretched. The small white T-shirt she always wore to sleep rode up on her stomach. She sighed and pulled it back down again to the waistband of her baby blue shorts when she had thoroughly stretched herself silly.

She had no idea what she was going to do this morning. She thought about it as she rummaged through the clothes piled haphazardly on a nearby chair. She found what she had been looking for: a bright magenta blanket; she draped it over her shoulders as she yawned again. I didn't matter what she did. It just mattered that it was morning and morning felt good.

Ino had perfected the art of opening the door to her room without making a sound. She did so now, and crept out into the hallway, listening to the silence. Until she realized it wasn't complete silence. Then she frowned and glanced to her left further down the hallway.

There was a dull buzzing sound coming from behind the closed door of the bathroom. A sound of someone taking a shower.

Clutching the blanket tighter around her body, she tiptoed toward the bathroom. The fact that someone had pervaded her morning silence pissed her off. This, she knew, was going to be a bad day because of this.

Right when she got to the closed door, she heard the water turn off. She held her breath and stopped where she was, straining her ears to hear through walls. The floor creaked as the someone probably stepped out of the shower, but there was no other giveaway sounds. Ino sighed and blew at the strand of hair that always was in front of her eyes. She leaned against the wall and waited.

And all the while she belittled the person probably getting dressed right now.

But seriously, though. Don't they know that morning is MY TIME? They always take showers AFTER. That's how it goes!

After what seemed like an hour later, she finally heard the doorknob pop, the sound that meant it had been turned from the other side and now it was unlocked. Ino pushed off from the wall and starting taking a deep breath, fully intent on lecturing her mom…or dad. How dare they…

The door opened, and out stepped Nara Shikamaru.

Ino's eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"Oh, hi Ino," he said, scratching his still wet head of hair in awkwardness and embarrassment. "What a surprise to see you here." He clutched the towel that was draped over his shoulders tighter around his body.

"SHIKAMARU?!" Ino almost screamed in shock. "What are you DOING HERE?"

"Well, I…"

"You're IN MY HOUSE! What are you doing in my house? In the MORNING? How did you get in my house? You pervert! GET OUTTA MY HOUSE!"

Shikamaru sighed. He could feel the stirrings of anger start at the bottom of his stomach. Oh man, I knew this was a bad idea. "Look, Ino, just let me explain…" he started, waving his hands around to get her screaming head's attention. But it wasn't the hands that did it. It was his bare chest.

"AND YOU DON'T HAVE A SHIRT ON??? OH MY GOD. Get out! Get out! GET OUT! DADDD!"

"Ino!" Shikamaru hissed, trying to get his teammate to shut up. "Oh man…"

Ino wasn't waiting for her dad to help her, although she was thoroughly convinced that he would once he caught sight of a shirtless Shikamaru in his house where his daughter also, coincidentally, resided. The next thing Shikamaru knew, he was being wheeled toward the front door.

"Ino, what are you…?"

"Get out and never sneak back into my house AGAIN!" And with that, Shikamaru got pushed out of the house of Yamanaka Ino. Without his shirt on.

"What a drag…"

"Ino, what do you think you are doing?" Ino's father finally made his appearance after Ino had closed the front door and locked it securely. Ino frowned at him.

"Thanks a lot for backing me up, DAD," Ino snapped at him. "Shikamaru had been taking a shower IN OUR HOUSE. And since you didn't come out in time to help me throw him out, I did it myself. And now, I'm going to go to bed and mope all day because my day's just been…" Ino's exaggerations were interrupted by her puzzled father.

"Wait, sweetheart, you threw Nara Shikamaru out?"

Ino exhaled impatiently. "Yes. I did. Your daughter is capable of physical aggressiveness, as she is a Leaf Village chunin…"

And her father started to laugh. Like, really laugh. It started nice and manageable and turned into a loud chuckle and then a full out fit of guffaws. Ino looked at her father in confusion, one eyebrow raised and the other deeply furrowed.

"Dad, are you drunk?"

"No, and I'm not hung over either," her father managed to squeeze out in between laughs. Ino looked at him witheringly.

"Well, thanks for clarifying. I was oh-so worried."

"Sweetheart, didn't you know that Nara Shikamaru and his father are going to be staying with us for a while?" her father finally said after he had regained the ability to breathe air. He was still wiping his eyes though.

"Wait, what?" Ino asked, her mind finally taking her father seriously.

"Oh yeah, their house burned down just last night and I went out to see how they were. And I guess I just decided to invite them to live with us, spur of the moment!"

Ino was blank. And shocked.

"So I think," her father said, this time wheeling Ino toward the front door, "you should open that door and say welcome home to your buddy Shikamaru."

Ino opened the door. Ino looked at Shikamaru who was still standing miserably on her doorstep, clutching his towel. Ino watched as he looked up at her. And Ino said, just like a robot, "Welcome home."

She didn't remember if Shikamaru said anything back to her. She was still in too much shock.

--

"So it's really true that your house burned down?" Ino asked as she leaned against the checkout counter at her parents' flower shop. Her elbows were on the counter top and her chin was resting in her cupped hands.

"Yep," Shikamaru said it as a fact. He had just come in a few minutes before after his training session with Asuma-sensei and his face was still glistening with sweat.

"Wow, that sucks," Ino said, picking at her nails. "I can't imagine what it must be like."

"It isn't all that special," Shikamaru said. He was sitting on the floor on the other side of the checkout counter, his back leaning against the wood. He leaned his head against the wood as well. There was a slow spinning fan above them that was slowly cooling off his face. He closed his eyes.

"Yeah, but still, all your stuff is gone."

"I guess."

"Don't you miss any of your stuff?"

"I didn't have anything that was important."

"Oh."

Tired of standing up, Ino pulled a nearby stool over to the counter and sat on it. It was just the right height for her to be able to lay her arms and head on the countertop and not have to strain herself doing it. In the thick silence and comfortable warmth of the flower shop, she started to slowly fall asleep…

"INO!"

Ino sat up with a start, fully awake. She tottered dangerously on her stool as she tried to shake sleep from her system. "H-How may I help you?" she blurted out automatically, trying to cover up her embarrassing moment.

Then she heard familiar laughter and she didn't feel too keen on apologizing anymore.

"What do you want, Sakura?" Ino spat out the girl's name.

Sakura was still trying to control her giggling fit. "Ah, that was priceless. Both you and Shikamaru jumped at the same time." Sakura wiped her eyes and shifted a basket she was carrying from one arm to the other. "So, what are you two doing here, anyway?" Sakura asked, making it sound like she had stumbled upon something scandalous. Ino sighed. She and Shikamaru had just fallen asleep at the same place and the same time. What was so scandalous about that?

"What do you want?" Ino asked in an exasperated tone. She propped her chin back up with an elbow on the counter. Then she yawned, bored already with her "customer."

Sakura finally dropped the teasing act. "My mom wants flower arrangements. Lots of them." She sighed, as if this was a terribly large burden. It was going to be a heavy one, certainly, if her mother really did need "lots of them." Sakura reached into a cloth bag she had slung across her body and pulled out a small white piece of paper that Ino guessed was a list. "She wants ones that match the kitchen, the dining room, the living room, and the downstairs bathroom."

Ino raised an eyebrow. "And what color would these happen to be?"

"Light green, golden honey yellow, baby blue, and light brown," Sakura recited, adding, "respectively," at the end as an afterthought. She finally looked up from her list to see Ino's amazed and amused face.

"And what is this for?" Ino asked.

Sakura sighed again. Another large burden. "A very large and obnoxious dinner party where she wants to impress all her friends. And which I can't get out of."

"Bummer," Shikamaru commented. Sakura nodded her head in a tragic way and then her face grew stern and bossy.

"So, are you going to help me pick out flowers and arrange them, or what?" Sakura demanded of Ino. "I have a very tight schedule today."

"Fine," Ino relented, standing up and smoothing out her purple skirt. As she stood up, Shikamaru stood up as well, surprisingly. Ino walked around the counter toward Sakura and gave Shikamaru a teasing smile. "What, are you going to help me arrange flowers?"

Shikamaru scowled at her. "I'm heading back to the house," he said in his traditional lazy way, avoiding Ino's question. "I'll see you there?"

Ino opened her mouth to say, "Okay," but Sakura beat her to words. "Wait a minute. 'The house?' What are you talking about? And how come you," –she pointed at Ino when she said this— "are going to see him there?"

Uh-oh. Sakura had that look on her face. Ino's mind calculated. If she lied to Sakura now but got discovered later, it would be worse than just telling her straight off. But if Ino told straight off, the rumors would only get started sooner.

But the rumors wouldn't be as serious, because early rumors are always the ones that people laugh at and dismiss for petty jokes.

Having made up her mind, Ino opened her mouth to speak again and again was beaten to it.

"What's it to you?" Shikamaru drawled at Sakura. He looked over at her with narrow eyes and dared her to pursue the topic. Ino felt like running to the nearest wall and bashing her head into it. Now Sakura was going to be more adamant about it than ever. But instead of head banging, Ino used that head to make a mental note to kill Shikamaru when she got home.

Oh, and guess what? Sakura dared.

"Ino happens to be my friend, Shikamaru. I would like to know what is going on in her life. And besides, I'm curious." She smiled sweetly at him and his scowl darkened.

"I'm assuming that you mean homicidal friends?" Shikamaru countered and before the situation could get any worse, Ino stepped in.

"Sakura, why don't we start with those flower arrangements? You did say that you have a tight schedule."

"Have fun at your party," Shikamaru said to Sakura as he walked out the door. Sakura made a face at his retreating back.

Ino braced herself, closing her eyes and planting her feet. This was not going to be a pretty hour or so. In terms of conversation with Sakura, at least.

As soon as Shikamaru was out of sight, Sakura let Ino have it, starting with the typical first question right on cue: "So what is going on between you two?"

"I think for the light green room, we should start out with some goldband lilies, shouldn't we?"

A/N: Poor Ino. I was feeling very sorry for her as I wrote this chapter. Haha.

So, I'll keep this note short. Feedback would be much appreciated and I thank all the people that reviewed the short prologue. I hope you enjoyed it and will continue reading. Thank you so much for reading it.

And until next time...!!

(Happy New Year! Get those resolutions resolute!)