Chapter 2

Theme: Marriage

"I can express no kinder sign of love, than this kind kiss."

Shakespeare, Henry VI Act I Scene I

When he heard sniffling coming from the empty parlor, he knew he'd found her.

He rapped gently on the door and the sniffling paused. Her voice sounded wet and miserable as she asked, "Who's there?"

"Shikamaru. Can I come in?"

Even from behind the heavy door, he could still hear the panic in her voice as she replied, "Shikamaru, what are you doing here? You're not supposed to see me in my dress!"

He scoffed lightly, and said, "That'd be the first time ever that you aren't begging me to look at a new dress."

Through another sob, she protested, "I'm serious! It's bad luck and I don't need anything else to go wrong today." He sighed heavily and leaned against the door frame.

"Well I'm serious too." He went to rake a hand through his hair, before remembering that he ought not screw it up. Letting his hand fall to his side, he said, "Ino, if you're crying, I gotta fix it. Especially today. And I'm pretty sure not doing that would be way worse luck than seeing your dress an hour before I'm supposed to…"

Tradition didn't mean much to him, but it meant a lot to Ino. So he took a deep breath and added, "But if you'd rather, we can talk like this."

There was a low sniffle, and he could just picture her trying to delicately wipe her nose with a tissue. Because he knew better than to think Ino went in there without a box of tissues. Despite everything he couldn't help the smile that tugged at the corner of his mouth.

"Shikaaa… That was so sweet. Why do you always make me smile when I'm the saddest?"

"That's sorta part of the job, isn't it?"

He could hear genuine affection in her voice, as she said "Well… thanks for taking on the job."

He slid to the floor and rested his back against the door.

"Well I'm not done yet. So why don't you tell me why you're crying."

He could sense her chakra move, accompanied by the rustling of heavy fabric, and he knew that she'd gotten up to come and sit against the other side of the door, same as he was. She took a big shaky breath and in a huge rush, said,

"It's just that… the florist mixed up my order with some tasteless harpy and so I'm stuck with bright orange tiger lilies instead of the purple roses and white calla lilies that match my bridesmaid dresses and the truck with my flowers in it is stuck in traffic somewhere, so there might not be any flowers at the wedding at all because I'm certainly not using the orange ones. I knew we just shoulda used our shop, but dad said this would be better than me running around like a crazy person trying to get my own order together. How is this better?! This is not better! Orange and purple, Shikamaru! Yuck!" Her hysterical indignation was carried through her tone very well, and in his mind's eye, Ino was sitting on the floor, red-faced and crying, with her nose in the air about the audacity of orange flowers.

"And then some little kid comes running through the women's dressing area, trying to help with the flower crisis and steps on my veil and tears it. My veil, Shikamaru! It was the one my mother wore! And now instead of having a cathedral-length veil, they'll have to cut it to waltz length. Which doesn't sound like a big deal, I know, but it was my mother's, Shika! I've been waiting to wear it forever and it was how she was going to be with me on my wedding day and now I've let it get ripped!"

He could hear her begin to sob again, and wished she wasn't so stubborn as to keep him on the outside. Usually when she got like this, he'd just hold her until she stopped. That was something he'd learned the hard way with girls (i.e. Ino): sometimes they don't want you solving their problems. They just want to be held. Granted, this was a bit worse than usual...

But she regained control once more and with only light hiccuping, picked up her story.

"All of that was manageable enough, but then, while I'm trying to get my veil fixed, talk to the florist on the phone, and get put into my dress all at the same time, my aunt Tsukio bursts into my dressing room and starts yelling at me." A dull thud reverberated through the door, and he knew that Ino had thumped her head against it.

"You know how she and my dad's sister hate each other? Well somehow the place settings got mixed up and they're going to have to sit by each other at the reception and I told the wedding planner that they were supposed to be on opposite sides of the room, but they're not, and this is why I can't trust that woman with things like my flowers!" She took a deep breath to get her anger under control. "Anyway, aunt Tsukio came in and screamed at me and said I didn't know what I was doing and I was ungrateful for her presence and– "

Shikamaru interrupted her: "Are you telling me someone really yelled at you at your wedding? Troublesome..." The last part he grumbled to himself.

He couldn't believe the audacity of some people. The whole chaos that surrounded a wedding pretty much buried the point of the event in the first place, if you asked him. But girls went crazy when it came to weddings and Ino was no exception. She'd been dreaming about her wedding since she was a little girl – he knew first-hand. And if it made Ino happy, then that's what they'd do, troublesome as the whole thing was. As far as he was concerned, his job was to ask for her hand, show up for the ceremony, and make sure she was happy throughout the process; he didn't really care if they got married in a barn.

"Yes! She burst in and started yelling! And I just… I just… I didn't want to cry in front of her but the more I tried not to, the harder it became to stop, and I knew I was ruining my makeup, but I couldn't help that either and so I had to get away, and now here I am, sitting in a big dark, empty room on my wedding day feeling sorry for myself because this was supposed to be the happiest day of my life!"

With that she broke back down into sobs. And Shikamaru sighed as he tried to figure out how to fix that through a door.

So it wasn't what she'd hoped for. And yeah, there was no small bit of bride-crazy in that rant, but Ino'd had a damn rough day. But maybe that was all the more reason to bring it back to the basics.

"Ino. It's our wedding day."

She sighed tiredly, and it occurred to him that she'd picked up this mannerism from him. With a strained patience that carried through the wood, she said, "I know that, Shikamaru, it's just how girls are, we just take possession that way. I know it's your day too."

He shook his head. "That's not what I meant. Yeah, it's our day, but I meant more that it's our wedding day. The day we wed."

"I know what wedding means." she grumbled halfheartedly.

"It means," he began, in a low, level voice, "that no matter what horrible things happen or don't happen, at the end of the day, Ino, you know what is going to happen?"

He waited, and in between her deep breaths and sniffs, she whispered reverently, "We're gonna be married."

He couldn't stop the grin as he agreed. "Yeah. I'm going to be your husband. And you're going to be my wife. And we're going to be married." He heard the hitch in her breath.

"You know I love you, right?"

Very quietly, he heard, "I know."

"And orange flowers won't change that, your mean aunt won't change that, and your mother will be with you today even if that veil bursts into flames. I hope it doesn't, obviously, but the point is–"

He was interrupted by the long, low creaking sound of the door he was leaning against being pulled open. Turning halfway around where he sat, he saw his bride-to-be, standing before him in yards and yards of lacy white fabric, hair piled elegantly on top of her head and eyes puffy and black-rimmed from crying her mascara off.

Shikamaru stood slowly, and as he rose up to tower above her, her eyes never left his.

"Ino… you look…" She blushed and spun back and forth a bit, her billowy skirts swishing around her.

"Do you… do you like my dress? I know I've messed my face all up – it looks ugly right now, but-" He reached out and brushed his knuckles across her cheek and very matter-of-factly told her,

"Ino, I've known you our whole lives. And I've never once found you ugly." She held his gaze and slid her hand up to cup his face. He smiled and leaned into her touch. "And I wouldn't dare start now – especially not when you're wearing your new dress."

She whispered, almost too quietly to hear, "This is a special dress. I'll only wear this once, you know."

He nodded against her hand and swallowed the lump in his throat. "Nn. It's a very special dress."

She cocked her head to the side coyly and said, "You look really handsome in your tux, Shika."

Shikamaru could admit to himself that standing there with her, both of them dressed in once-in-a-lifetime clothes (at a wedding he had privately considered unnecessary and over the top for the last eight months), he felt completely overwhelmed.

Something clenched around his heart like a vice at her soft, teary smile, and the feeling that this was very much a beginning clogged his throat. The words weren't there to express; they often weren't. But Ino - his high-maintenance, loud, demanding Ino - somehow understood him without them, and so he hoped she'd understand him now as he turned his head to kiss her palm and simply said, "You look so beautiful."

She grinned at him shyly. "Just now, behind the door, when you said all of those things… You made me really, really happy. And I love you too, you know."

He stepped even closer and said, "I do."

And they both felt the gravity and premonition as he leaned down and softly kissed his future wife. Her lips tasted like tears, but she smiled against his mouth and cupped his cheek with her other hand as well. And Shikamaru was pretty sure he'd done his job correctly.

When they broke apart, he reached down to take her hand and began leading her back to her dressing room.

"I'll talk to your aunt for you, Ino. You don't have to deal with her." She smiled up at him, trying to wipe some of the black smudges from around her eyes.

"Thank you, Shika. For everything."

Suddenly from around the corner, Sakura bounded towards them.

"Oh you found her, thank goodness!" Grabbing Ino's free hand with hers, she said, "Come on, let's get you ready to be married!"

And Shikamaru let go of her hand slowly, and Ino let herself be dragged off by her best friend.

She looked over her shoulder and said quietly, "I'll see you at the altar."

Sticking his hands in his pockets, he grinned at her as she was being led away while still trying to face him: "I'll be waiting for you."

Satisfied and happy, she bit her lip and turned back around, letting Sakura drag her away. Shikamaru turned and headed towards the groom's dressing room, a small smile glued to his face. As the two girls walked off, he heard Sakura say,

"I can't believe you let him see you in your dress before the ceremony! That's bad luck, Ino!"

But Ino scoffed and said, "Oh Sakura, I have my Shikamaru. I don't need luck."

A/N: The theme was marriage, and though I took it in more of a wedding direction, it was supposed to focus on the fact that weddings are meant to start a marriage, not just be a wedding. Anyway. Hope you liked it.

More to come soon!