Title: Game of Stares

Characters/Pairings: Temari, Ino, ChoIno

Summary: Because, apparently, their relationship was more or less just a game of stares.

"Love is really just a game of stares." Temari suddenly remembers a certain jonin saying that to her one time.

Ino, who was sitting on a nearby chair, swiveled to face her direction. "What?"

Temari shrugs and plays with the pen in her hand. But the other blonde does not take that as an answer and glares and pouts (in a cute way, Temari would've said if she were outspoken enough to consider calling the same gender cute). Temari sighs and decides to reply, knowing Ino probably wouldn't stop until she gives a proper one.

"When you look at a person and they're not talking, there's always a reason, right? Atleast, usually," Ino nods and she carries on, remembering how Shikamaru explained to her these things, "Sometimes, it's because something happened. Sometimes because nothing did. Most of the time, it's because of feelings," she wrinkles her nose in mild disgust. She leans back a bit and props her feet on the table, the vague feeling of boredom tugging at the ends of her ponytails.

"You stare at someone when you love them, but, half the time, it's not that that's important, it's how that person responds to it," she can almost feel Ino tense all of a sudden. She can see from the corner of her eyes Ino adjusting awkwardly on the chair, and the tediousness suddenly leaves her body. She tries not to scrunch up her face, and remembers a certain brown-haired teammate of the Konoha nin.

She does not know Ino or Choji well enough, they're like people who are in the cross of friend and acquaintance, and she only knows the obvious things about them, being with them long enough to know of their antics, but never interacting good enough to know more. It's not much of a secret as it is a fact that Choji has feelings for Ino, and that Ino is not sure how to react to it. Temari isn't sure if she likes him or not.

She tries to word her next sentences right and ends up saying, "You look away more than you look back." She wasn't entirely sure if she meant people when she said you, and she had a feeling Ino wasn't either. Ino looks away with an unreadable look and expression, and she uncertainly continues on, wondering if she'll get an answer of her own, wondering if the other will, too. Is she ready?

"Shikamaru told me," she says slowly, "that you deny it when you turn away." She does not admit it, but she's almost as uncomfortable talking about it as Ino is. They're relationship was a whole lot more touchy than she could handle, the lazy ass would be a better person in her place. She's not even so close to them yet, and emotions have always been a far too delicate subject for her to take. She sighs inaudibly. "It hurts."

Temari takes her chances and looks at the girl. Her eyes are glassy and she almost wonders what the other is thinking, but she stops herself just in time. She's never been good with feelings, she's always acted on instinct, and she's not considered it much to give advice or even bother talking about it. Somehow, there's always been someone better to handle the job, she's just the girl kicking ass, really. What she has with Shikamaru isn't as mind-boggling as people would probably look for, or want. She only acted on instinct again, and there had always been this unsaid agreement, what is done is done. What Ino has, what Choji has, they're a totally different thing.

Temari looks up and wonders if she should call Sakura up, they had been close, right? And she's much more in tune with these emotions stuff, right? Ino looks like she needs someone to talk to, or someone to help out, and god knows she's not the person for that.

Then she looks up and doesn't think when she asks, "Are you ready to look back?" Ino's head shoots up and, as if someone up there was watching, the boys enter the room with Choji happily eating barbeque and Shikamaru holding bottles of water with that blank look. Choji doesn't notice the unsettling silence before it disappears, but Temari knows Shikamaru did, but he doesn't say anything.

Ino follows Choji flop down on a nearby couch and Temari almost swears she can see from her eyes a tiny yes.

These are a bunch of drabbles I think of randomly. Half the time, the characters are strangers to me. Naruto is the kind of anime that has every character and every relationship you can possibly think of (or atleast, it comes close) so I decided to write down teh good ones and make them fanfiction and post them. :D

This was actually hard doing. It was initially supposed to be Shikamaru instead of Temari, but I just couldn't make it IC. First try, he was overly emotional. Second try, he was too unemotional. I didn't really wanna try another time so I decided to put Temari in. I like it. Temari and Ino. 's good :3.

I don't really know how I should feel for this particular drabble. Oh well. The others weren't particularly good either.