Summary: Sometimes, you just gotta jump and trust that you're gonna live through the fall.
Genre: Romance/Hurt/Comfort
Word Count: 1,084

One Giant Leap
bysimplyme26

It's not fair.

It's not FAIR.

IT'S NOT FAIR.

Just when I start to fall for the lazyass, just when I'm actually learning to open up to SOMEONE..

I grip his hands tighter. Out of frustration. Out of desperation.

Suddenly, the overhang beneath me starts to crack. The ground literally tilts forward and I can't help but open my eyes in alarm, and watch as tears drop to his face.

I can't believe I'm fucking crying.

"Temari." His voice is hoarse and cracked. Like he's been screaming all day. "Let go."

Stupid. What a stupid thing to say. "No." I hold on tighter, to emphasize my point. But then I feel his fingers loosening themselves from my grip, pushing my hands away, pushing himself away and towards his death.

His DEATH!

"DON'T YOU DARE! I SWEAR, I WILL FUCKING JUMP DOWN WITH YOU IF YOU LET GO, NARA!"

My head's spinning like crazy. My teeth are grit. My heart just stopped. I don't know. I'm probably crying again. Fuck. I hate this. I hate this feeling of helplessness and desperation. There has to be something, something we can do. I just.. I can't let him die. I'm not gonna let him die. We're gonna live through this. This is not gonna be the end, Goddamn it!

"Jump." He says suddenly.

I open my eyes, staring right at him like he's crazy. He sounds crazy. "What?"

"I said, jump." His eyes are strong and firm, his lips set in a thin line- the look he gets when he has an absolutely crazy idea, an idea that you wouldn't think would work. "Trust me."

That hits me. I hold on to his hand tighter. I guess that's all he needed to say.

With a forceful kick to the ground, I jump. And then he jumps. I stumble a bit, trying to find my center of gravity, but when I do, I'm like.. flying. I can't believe I'm actually falling face first, without any safety equipment, and enjoying it.

"Take out your fan!" I hear Shikamaru cry abruptly through the sharp gusts of wind, his eyes fixed on the ground below and his arms flailing.

I give him a confused look. "Shikamaru, I can't glide through this! The wind current's too strong; it'll blow us away!"

He looks at me, with that annoying, all-knowing smirk on his lips. "I wasn't thinking of gliding through it!" The look he's giving me reminds me of his words.

Trust me.

I don't even have to think. Quickly, I pull out my fan from behind.

"Okay, now at the count of three, swing it at the ground!"

Ooooh. I get it.

I give him a firm nod. He smiles, and fuck if I don't love it. Suddenly, he grabs at my shoulders, pulling me towards him, and grabs my waist from behind. My entire body stiffens and I can practically feel his lips on my ear. I gasp, because he's never touched me like this.. It feels nice.

This is really not a good time to be distracted.

"Ready?"

I breathe, shifting my hold on the butt of the open fan. "Yeah."

He nods nervously, his chin pressing against my shoulder. "One."

I just realized, it's easier falling feet first when someone's there to balance you out. "Two."

His hold around my waist tightens, as I muster all the chakra I have for this one swing. "THREE!"

WOOSH!

Suddenly, we're sent up, and then down, with a resounding thud. I land sideways, bringing my fan up to break my fall. Unfortunately, my fan doesn't do much of anything as I feel my right arm receiving most of the damage. Ow, fuck that hurts. Damn it, it's probably broken now. Although, I did expect the fall to be much harder. I guess it's a good thing it wasn't.

"That went better than I expected."

Turning my head, I see Nara. Of all the things he could be doing, he's smirking at me- smirking like he knows something- something I don't want him to know. I just pray to God that something isn't what I think it is.

So I quickly opt to change the subject. "That broke my arm, you bastard." I spit out, clutching at the arm I just undoubtedly broke.

But his smirk doesn't fade. Instead, he's crawling- Shikamaru Nara is actually crawling- towards me, and I get this uneasy feeling at the pit of my stomach.

"So," Fuck. "You would jump right after me?"

He just had to bring that up. I literally push his face away, looking to the side to regain my composure and ignoring the feel of his lips against my open palm. "Shut the fuck up, Nara."

For a minute, he laughs. And then- seriously- he kisses my palm. He KISSES MY PALM. As in, there was audible smooching. I tear my hand from his face and look at him like he's just violated me in the most horrifying of ways and I'm sure my face is as red as Gaara's hair and I inwardly curse this little ass for making me act like such a freaking school girl.

He stops, looking to the side embarrassedly, when he hasn't really done anything wrong. "Sorry. I didn't mean.."

"Oh shut up." I almost laugh. How bipolar is he? "And I forgive you for kissing like a nine year old."

He cracks a lazy grin, the only kind of grin he can ever muster without looking uncharacteristic. "I guess you can do better?"

I bite back a laugh. "Is that a challenge, Nara?"

He shrugs, grinning.

I grin back. And with a strong resolve, I grab a fistful of his shirt and smash our lips together and instantly, it takes my breath away.

Just . . . yes.

Suddenly- "Temari." He mumbles against my lips, kind of making me smile.

I hum a reply.

"I think," He murmurs between kisses. "I think we should take you to the hospital."

I pull away, chuckling. It's sort of sweet that he can't even forget a small little fracture when we're on the verge of making out. "We should." I nod and lift myself up.

As we walk through the streets of Konoha, attracting the attention of a few villagers, I couldn't help but be glad that I jumped.

END

A/N: Yeah, the end was rushed. It annoys me how much I half-ass my fics nowadays. Yeah, yeah, I know. If it annoys me so much, then I should start working to make them better, right? But I'm a little busy, what with finals and everything.. And I'm kind of trying not to be act so OCDish when it comes to finishing my fics. I'm seriously becoming obsessive with these that it's starting to be academically unhealthy.