thankyou to the lovely people who reviewed; you inspire me! this chapter is for all of you. i have chapter 4 about 1/4 written, but uni is crazy atm, so...
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but if I did, Shikamaru would be known as the Konoha's Shirtless Shadow User...XD
Glasses
The receptionist with the grating voice and the fantastic legs looked up from the computer monitor into a pair of narrowed brown eyes.
"Yes? Do you have an appointment, Nara-san?"
Shikamaru winced slightly. Her voice had not improved since his appointment one week ago. When the chills had finished raking up his spine and making his ponytail quiver, he gathered courage and squinted down at her.
"Er, no I don't, but Sakura, I mean, Haruno-sensei said it would only take a minute to pick up my glasses, so I could come in her tea break."
The pretty Barbie doll face looked at him doubtfully, knowing how sacred the pink-haired kunoichi's break time was to her, but the green jounin vest the lazy man sported seemed to reassure her.
She stood up and silently (to Shikamaru's relief) led him down the hallway and knocked at a familiar door, then opened it and stood back to allow him entry.
When the pony-tailed jounin appeared, Sakura was on the phone, occupied with the tail-end of what was evidently a highly entertaining conversation.
"I know, I know, it's gonna be a hoot!" she snickered into the phone, her back to Shikamaru. "What? Get a photo? Don't be stupid, you can get one yourself! No…well, I picked them actually…oh don't worry, you're gonna love it! Ok, look, I gotta go ok," glancing up at Shikamaru, "Yeah, I'll see you later, ok Ino, see ya."
Shikamaru raised an eyebrow as the pink-haired medic gave him a dazzling smile.
What's she so happy about? She and Ino are way more troublesome when they're friends…I wonder what they're cooking up now…
"Sorry about that," Sakura gestured him to a chair, "Ino was just…,"
"It's ok," the shadow user said, gratefully flopping down into leather comfort.
Sakura nodded and turned to a small box on her desk, hiding a smile. Man, it's too easy to hide things from Shika, he's too lazy to ever try to find out anything.
"Well, I have your prescription here, Shikamaru. Since you were too lazy to pick out a design for your own frames, I had to choose one for you. I think you'll be happy with these."
She turned, fighting down giggles and held out a simple brown leather glasses case towards him. Without much interest apparent in his face or posture, Shikamaru took it from her and opened the case without ceremony, gazing down at the contents.
Sakura watched him, becoming impatient as he simply continued to look, with a peculiar expression increasing in intensity on his face.
"Well? Don't you like them? I chose them after a careful analysis of your facial features and personality factors in order to get a pair that would match you perfectly!"
An adorable pout began to form on the kunoichi's pink, shapely lips. Shikamaru's face twisted slightly as he picked up the glasses in one hand and held them up for her inspection.
A pair of huge, bright orange cat's eye spectacles dangled from his grasp.
"Sakura? Kindly tell me what the hell is this?" His eyebrow was beginning to twitch.
"What are you talking about?" The medic's clear green eyes shone innocently down on him with a look that could have melted Uchiha Itachi into a puddle of besotted goo.
"'What am I talking about?' All I need is a gold glasses chain and I can be calling the bingo numbers at the next Konoha Senior Citizens' Potluck Night, with people calling me BEV!" he felt like screaming the last few words, but couldn't be bothered.
"Shikamaru, I'm so sorry, I thought you would like them." The pink lips were trembling and the green eyes could have made Orochimaru go "Awwww!"
"Anyway, Sakura," Shikamaru's eyes were squeezed shut, to shield himself from the eye damaging fashion crime in his palm and the soul-sucking look on the kunoichi's pretty face, "You've had your fun and I even bothered to play along. Can I have my REAL glasses now?"
The pink-haired medic burst out laughing, clutching her stomach, while the lazy shadow-user rolled his eyes (which were still shut) and tossed the orange monstrosities onto her desk.
"Shikamaru!" Sakura gasped through her laughter, wiping her eyes, "How did you know?"
"Simple. The thickness of those lenses indicated that those glasses are to be used by a long-sighted person. I'm short-sighted. Also, you measured the width of my face last week so my glasses would be the right size and anyone would be able to tell at a glance that those glasses are meant for someone with a much wider face than mine."
He shrugged.
Sakura grinned to herself, impressed. Amazing, and I thought he wouldn't have known enough about optometry to pick up that about the lenses differences. Just shows, he isn't called a genius for nothing.
"I'm sorry, Shikamaru, I just thought it would be good for a laugh. Here are your real glasses."
Fighting down another wave of giggles, she handed him a different case produced from her coat pocket; small, slimline, of black leather, which could be fitted into the scroll case of a jounin vest and even included little fastenings on the back, enabling it to be attached to a kunai pouch for extra convenience.
Opening his eyes, Shikamaru lifted the lid and gazed at his new glasses. Hmm, they look alright, not fancy, but not boring. They look…simple…efficient…professional…
"Yeah, they look good. I like them. Thanks a lot Sakura."
He looked up at the kunoichi. She was standing over him, arms folded and a very pointed look on her face as she stared first at the glasses, then at him, then at the glasses again. Shikamaru sighed. He didn't even have to ask.
"Ok, fine, I'll put them on. Might as well get used to them from the beginning."
Unfolding the small, sleek, stainless steel framed glasses, the shadow user lifted them to his face. Sakura watched with bated breath.
The moment of truth was finally here.
Shikamaru plus glasses equals...?
The pink-haired medic had been sorely tempted to leave him with the orange cat's eye frames and be done with it. Knowing Shikamaru, he would have been too lazy to bother getting another pair.
But as much as Inner Sakura had wanted to laugh herself stupid at the image of the pony-tailed jounin calling bingo numbers with a bad perm and flowered dress at the Konoha Community Hall, Outer Sakura couldn't bring herself to disgrace her friend THAT much.
Ino had voted for a pair of large black horn rims, saying that Shikamaru behaved like an eighty year old anyway, so why not go with it.
Tenten had said that with small, round rimmed prescription sunglasses, the shadow user could form a BeeGees' tribute band with Shino and Ebisu, while Tsunade had begged her to include a gold eyeglasses chain, in memory of that old lady who had tried to get her to come to the Konoha Senior Citizens' Potluck Night.
It was actually Naruto who had chosen the orange cat's eyes, but only after Sakura had promised he could keep them if the lazy genius turned them down.
(After which, Sasuke had privately extracted a promise from her that the glasses would be destroyed immediately and that Naruto would never wear them. "I'm trying to steer him away from orange," the black-haired jounin had said to her desperately.)
"So," Shikamaru dropped his hands onto the chair's armrests and looked up at the pink-haired medic with a bored expression. "What do you think?"
Snapping out of her thoughts, Sakura looked at him.
The look turned into a stare.
The stare became a gawk.
The gawk gave way to outright ogling.
The lazy shadow-user stared back at her, a small line of annoyance forming between his eyebrows.
"Well, fine, if they look that bad, you don't have to say anything, but can you make the staring a LITTLE less obvious? Man, how troublesome…" he muttered.
"Take me…" Sakura interrupted throatily, her voice quivering with desire.
Shikamaru jumped violently.
"What?"
I did not just hear that…did I?
Jade green eyes blinked once, then twice.
I did not just say that…oh kami, I did.
The pony-tailed jounin stared up at her, brown eyes wide in consternation, as porcelain-smooth white cheeks flushed as pink as cherry blossoms.
"Errr, I-I mean take…this…er…this cloth with you, for free, to clean your glasses with!" Sakura shoved the folded cloth into his hands, then yanked the surprised ninja to his feet and began to push him out the door, babbling feverishly.
"And don't forget to polish them whenever they get dirty, or else you won't be able to see well and that'll just defeat the whole purpose of getting glasses to begin with, won't it? Hahaha…and don't sit on them or anything, can't have you coming back here and needing a new pair in five minutes, can we? Ahahahah…"
Still laughing nervously, Sakura shoved Shikamaru out the door and slammed it firmly behind him, then fell back, leaning against the door, hands pressed to her flaming pink cheeks.
"Sakura! What the hell?" his annoyed and bewildered voice reached her clearly through the wood.
"I'm on my coffee break! Leave me alone! I'll see you later!" she shouted rather disjointedly, not moving from her position against the door.
Silence.
Then Sakura, pressing her ear to the wood, heard footsteps shuffling down the hall in the direction of the waiting room, accompanied by a faint "Troublesome…"
Green eyes slightly unfocused, the kunoichi walked back to her desk and almost fell back into her chair, arms hanging limply over the armrests, head tilted back to stare at the speckled cream ceiling.
She was not looking at the ceiling, but an image.
The image burned into her brain; a sharp-featured, sun-darkened face with narrow brown eyes, gazing up at her from behind sleek, glinting silver spectacles.
The way the frames rested lightly on smooth, angular cheekbones, how chocolate brown irises were neatly bisected by a line of silver, flashing and dazzling.
The sidepieces curled snugly over shapely, curving ears (such nice ears!), setting off the silver rings that hung from firm, delicious-looking ear lobes (and since when had she had an ear fetish!).
She could remember every detail.
But it was more than just physical. Shikamaru was a genius, everyone knew that, but now, he looked like one.
And suddenly Sakura realized that she liked the genius type. Especially geniuses who looked so…cool.
She grimaced to herself. Ok, poor choice of words.
How about…powerful…calm…collected, with a scowl that sent shivers down your spine as the light reflected off polished glass, hiding his eyes, hiding his thoughts, hiding his burning passion until he swept her into his arms and fiercely…
The pink-haired 19 year old groaned and flopped forward, propping her elbows on her desk. She had more patients to see in a few minutes, but she had a feeling she wouldn't be able to give them her undivided attention.
Not with images of a tall, dark, newly bespectacled and inexplicably attractive shadow-user running rampant in her head. Sakura groaned again.
At least my question was answered, she thought ruefully, Nara Shikamaru plus glasses equals…
AN: equals what indeed? XD