-four-
If I just lay here, would you lie with me and just forget the world?

Ino was having trouble keeping her eyes open. Music was streaming into her ears very loudly and yet she was still falling asleep. The training must have taken a bigger toll on her than she thought. Lucky for her that she didn't have to man the flower shop today. So she was off the hook for a little nap…

What was she talking about, off the hook for a little nap? She had mental things to sort through, to analyze. Not overanalyze, of course. Not like Sakura. Never like Sakura…

Did she or did she not like Nara Shikamaru? Now that was a good question. One that could use an answer. One that she wanted an answer to. But unfortunately, it was too complicated. For an half-asleep Ino, of course it was too complicated.

Shikamaru, Sasuke. What's the stupid difference?

She drifted off to sleep in a cloud of confusion.

--

"Hey, Ino, where do you keep the…" Shikamaru stopped talking when he noticed that the person he was talking to was fast asleep, curled up on her bed with her iPod on and going strong. He could hear the faint sound of cymbals crashing from her ear buds.

He debated what to do. He could just close the door softly and let her sleep, which was the easiest course of action, as he hadn't fully even come into her room yet. Technically, he was still standing outside of it and he had just poked his head in.

Or he could sit down next to her and keep her company and not feel so damn lonely himself. He could suddenly feel the tiredness creep into his system. The training must have taken a bigger toll on him than he thought.

He decided the debate was over. He went to his room, got his iPod, and then trod back to Ino's room, where he crawled onto her bed and leaned against the wall, stuffing his ears with the earphones. Then he sighed and closed his eyes. He had been going to ask Ino where they kept the food in this house, but since she was asleep and he was starting to get tired and lazy, eating could wait until later.

He let loud rock fill his ears while at the same time he reached over Ino's body and turned her iPod off. She wasn't listening to it anyway. Might as well not have her waste her eardrums.

Shikamaru thought about things. The things had happened recently. His house burned down. He still wondered why and how. But that was a useless train of thought. He'd never find that out unless he really made an effort, and making an effort was not something he was known for.

And then he came to temporarily reside here, although it already felt like he'd lived here forever (except for the fact that he didn't know where the food was). And then there was Ino. The loudmouth teammate that suddenly didn't seem so bad once you got to know her. And Shikamaru didn't know if he actually knew her yet. But it sure felt like it.

The tiredness gripped Shikamaru tighter, clouding over his precise thought processes. He struggled to keep his eyes open, to stay awake. He tried to shake himself mentally but instead found himself sliding down the wall to his right side. Then his head hit the nice and soft bed and his eyes closed as if lying down was the trigger.

Man, this could be very bad if she—anyone—found me like this, was his last conscious thought. He didn't put much effort into making sense of it either. He just let himself sleep.

A little nap couldn't hurt.

--

Ino didn't know what exactly woke her up, but wake up she did. Her eyes opened and she knew immediately that something was different. Her eyes traveled to the iPod lying next to her. The screen was black. It was turned off even though the ear buds were still in her ears. That meant she had fallen asleep listening to it. But how did it get turned off?

She rolled onto her back and nearly rolled over the body lying next to her. What the…? She turned her head and saw Shikamaru sleeping soundly next to her, music still blaring into his ear from his iPod that was still on. She turned it off, doing him the same favor that he had done for her, and then just looked at him for a while. She had never seen him so peaceful and relaxed. Well, maybe she'd seem him this relaxed before, him being a lazy bum and all. But peaceful was a different story.

She got up slowly, careful not to disturbing him, and slid carefully from her bed, not wanting the absence of her weight to wake him up. Then she tiptoed out of the room, closing the door behind her, and plodded to the kitchen, yawning.

That nap had been really refreshing. She smiled as she padded barefoot onto the cold kitchen tile to the row of cabinets above the countertop. She opened the third one from the left and pulled out a box of crackers. Then she hoisted herself up to sit on the countertop and started munch on the snack.

For some reason, her mind traveled back to the morning when she had found Shikamaru in her house, just out of the shower, and with no shirt on. She mulled over her reaction, or rather, her overreaction. She'd come a long way from that, she realized. When she had woken up not five minutes ago and found Shikamaru asleep next to her, she hadn't done anything more than just stare at him. And not in a disgusted way.

She knew that if he had tried something like that a week ago, he probably would have been in the hospital by now.

But then again, he wasn't trying anything, she reminded herself.

The ding of the doorbell interrupted her thoughts. She set down the cracker box and wandered to the door. She then looked through the peephole and promptly groaned.

Oh, no. Not Sakura.

"Hi, Ino!" she said cheerfully when the door opened. Ino looked at her pink haired friend, unconvinced by her friendly greeting.

"What do you want?" Ino replied.

"Well, I'm fine, thank you. And how are you?" Sakura said with a big sarcastic smile. Ino scowled. "Being friendly to me once in a while won't kill you, you know," Sakura responded to Ino's scrunched up face.

Ino sighed. "I wouldn't know because I've never tried. So what do you want?"

Sakura then promptly elbowed her way past Ino into the house. Ino rolled her eyes and closed the door behind her. So much for trying to be friendly.

"My mom wanted to thank your parents and...you, I guess, for helping with the flower arrangements for her party. They were a 'smash hit.'" Sakura held up her hands in quotation marks. Ino could see that she had a basket on one arm. It swung forward when she held up her hands. "So, she made you guys some cookies to enjoy," Sakura finished, handing Ino the basket. It was covered with a red-checkered cloth and the cloth was tied down with a matching red ribbon. How quaint.

"Oh, well tell her thanks. And thanks for delivering them," Ino said, taking the basket and putting it on the countertop behind her. They had traveled to next to the kitchen, which was a tad too far from the door for Ino's tastes. "She really shouldn't have made them, actually. I mean, you paid for the flowers and all."

"Yeah, that's what I tried telling her, believe me," Sakura reassured Ino. "But she insisted, and when she insists something, nothing can stop her…short of a life threatening fire, or something."

Ha, what a funny analogy, Ino thought dryly and as if that was his cue, Shikamaru opened the door to her room and stepped outside, rubbing his eyes sleepily. His clothes were wrinkled and out of place and he looked more tired than before he took his nap. "Hey Ino, I'm…" Then he noticed Sakura and froze.

"Ino, isn't that your room?" Sakura asked, keeping her eyes on Shikamaru and pointing in his direction. Ino paused as well, her heart rate accelerating a little. Her eyes locked with Shikamaru's and she tried her best to communicate to him through her eyes to make up some sort of story as a quick cover up. The last thing Sakura needed to know was that they had taken a nap together.

"I couldn't get the earrings out from behind the dresser, sorry," he said suddenly, throwing up his hands in mock frustration.

Ino sighed in pretend exasperation. "It's a necklace, Shikamaru. And did you try moving the dresser away from the wall?"

"No," Shikamaru said, his signature bored look coming over his face.

"But that's what I needed your help for in the first place!"

"It was heavy," Shikamaru complained.

Ino placed a hand to her forehead and rubbed. "Why do I always get stuck with the useless boys?"

"Okay, well, I'll catch up with you later, okay Ino?" Sakura said hurriedly, probably able to sense an incoming tempest between Ino and Shikamaru. She patted Ino—almost sympathetically—on the arm. "I've gotta go."

"Bye, Sakura," Ino said, walking her to the door. Ino gave her one last final wave goodbye. "Thanks for the cookies!" she called after the pink-haired girl and then closed the door. She felt her heart beat start to slow as she leaned against the closed door and sighed deeply. That could have been a lost worse than it turned out.

"There's cookies?" Shikamaru questioned no one in particular. He walked past Ino and into the kitchen, in search of the food.

When Ino came in sight of the kitchen, Shikamaru was already munching on one, the cloth that was covering the basket knocked aside. The ribbon was lying limply beside it. Ino loved ribbons. She reached up, redoing and retightening her ponytail. Then she grabbed the ribbon from the counter and tied it into her hair. "Are they good?" she asked. Shikamaru simply nodded, taking another bite of his cookie. Ino reached into the basket for one herself.

"Thanks for lying to Sakura. I don't know what she would have done if…" Ino stopped, wondering how exactly to put it without making it sound like it really was scandalous. She took a bite of her cookie to buy her thinking time.

"…if she knew the truth, I know," Shikamaru finished for her. Ino nodded, giving him a small smile. He finished his cookie and gave the ceiling a sweeping glance. "Girls are so complicated."

"You have no idea," Ino agreed, taking a large bite of her cookie. She watched as Shikamaru swung himself over the back of the couch in the living room and reached for the TV remote. Then he sat down comfortably and clicked it on. "Are you actually going to watch this time?"

"I'll think about it," Shikamaru replied.

A/N: Wow, so pretty much you have my permission to shoot me. (Well, unless you want this story to continue.) This update was way way overdue. I'm so so so sorry. But summer is coming around the corner, as probably all of you are acutely aware of, so I'll try to update more then and write more then. I already have more written of this story (but I couldn't figure out why this chapter was so ridiculously short, sorry). All I have to do is split them up into chapters and post them. I still can't get onto this website on my home's desktop computer, which is the one I usually use (but I'm working on that), so I have to still sneak onto my mom's laptop. It's going to seriously die soon... X.x

So anyway, I'm sorry for the long delay. I will try to be a better person from here on out. Mmkay? Thanks for reading and thank you to all my lovely reviewers that have been waiting patiently and dealing with my dilatory self. c:

Until next time! (Which won't be far away, I promise!)