Ch.5: Little Deer

It turned out, in her quest to prove she wasn't cute, all she did was prove she was a total klutz. She'd already tripped four times (not counting the four times coming out of the house and walking to the carnival) and dropped almost everything she closed her hands around. Through this, she'd ruined lunch (twice) and a very cuddly teddy bear she'd happily won in a ring toss.

Shikamaru had snickered when those incidents happened. (Even though he had to buy her lunch three times and only one of those times the food was actually consumed.) She'd glared at him. (Mostly because she really liked that teddy bear.) It was almost enough to make her regret coming.

Almost.

She might have regretted it, if she hadn't found she actually liked carnivals; they were pretty fun. Odd that Suna had never had one before. Temari plucked another cottony sticky pink fluff from the stick Shikamaru was holding and popped in her mouth. Cotton candy she particularly liked. Spun concentrated sugar that came in different colors, what was not to love?

Shikamaru's fingers pulled at the fluffiness and he slipped a small piece in his mouth.

He'd refused to let her hold the cotton candy, (with a huge smile, of course) on the pretext that she'd probably drop it the second he handed it over. Temari only let him hold it because she was pretty sure he was right. That and she was starting to feel bad that he was wasting so much money.

Just a little bad though.

The yummy sugariness melted in her mouth. It was almost better than cookies. Almost. Chocolate still topped it anyday.

She pointed to an odd looking booth. "What's that?" It had gun looking things (they couldn't really be guns right?), targets, and the nicest looking deer stuffed animal (among other lame prizes) on the wall.

"A shooting game." He looked at her. "I really can't believe you've never been to a carnival."

"So…they let you shoot guns?"

"Water guns." He clarified.

"How do I win?"

"You aim correctly enough and shoot enough water at the bull's-eye, you get a prize."

"How much—"

"You just have to beat the other players."

"How many players does there—"

"At least four."

"How much is the—"

"The animals on the top row are for first place, the animals on the bottom for second."

She thought she should have been bothered that he could guess exactly how she was going to finish her question so that he didn't have to wait for her to finish and could just answer. She thought that should've creeped her out, but it really didn't.

In fact, it was rather nice.

She grinned. "I wanna play. I want that cute little deer."

"Are you kidding?" He looked at her baffled. "You can barely walk; I doubt you have the proper dexterity necessary to win any of the prizes."

"Shut up." She snapped. "Just watch." Storming over she took a seat and gave the guy in charge the money. Shikamaru stood behind her a skeptical expression on his face. Temari rolled the water gun around in her hand, examining the whole thing. She pressed the trigger to test it. A nice jet of clear water spurted out. "I'm ready." She told the guy in charge.

Behind her Shikamaru scoffed.

Hmph! She'd show him. She pointed the gun at the target and started as soon as the guy gave the go ahead.

She didn't even bother glancing at the people next to her, and didn't stop until the water in her gun seemed not to come out anymore. She looked at it. "Hey, what gives?"

Shikamaru chuckled. "That's it."

"Oh." She chirped up. "Who won?"

The guy in charge then announced some peaky boy in the corner had won. Temari scowled. Shikamaru chuckled again. "Not bad. You were third; I really thought you wouldn't even come close."

She stuck her tongue out at him.

"Oh, real mature, Temari."

She played three more times, her eyes glued to the cute little deer.

Then of course, some dumb little boy had to win first and take her deer.

"Hey!" She said to him. "That's mine!"

"I won it." The boy muttered.

"But it's mine." Temari wasn't normally a complaining type, but that deer was just really, really cute.

The little boy stared at her. (He was about maybe twelve) "I'll give it to you if you kiss me, slut."

Behind her, she could feel Shikamaru stiffen.

Temari blinked. "What kind of pervert are you, kid?"

"Then too bad, bitch."

Temari growled and was two seconds away from pounding the little boy into a slimy little puddle, but of course she didn't get to do that as Shikamaru lightly pushed her back and leant down towards the little boy. Again, Temari wished she could read his lips since Shikamaru's just moved so damn little! His hand was clamped around the boy's collar and his lips were moving oh-so slowly. The boy's sneer turned into a frown and his eyes seemed a little scared. Shikamaru stood up, his dark eyes glaring at the little boy.

"I'm s-sorry, M-miss." He stuttered, eyeing Shikamaru warily and bitterly.

Temari looked back and forth between the two males horribly confused.

"I'll buy the deer from you." Shikamaru told him. "Twenty bucks."

"Thirty."

"Twenty-five."

"Forty."

"Thirty."

"Fifty."

"Oh, fine, boy. Fifty." Shikamaru dug his hand into his pocket and counted out fifty dollars.

Temari stared at him aghast. "Shikamaru, what are you doing? That deer isn't worth ten bucks!"

Shikamaru ignored her and traded the fifty dollars for the pretty deer. The boy scampered off then, but not before giving them a dirty look. Shikamaru handed the pretty little critter to her then.

It was even prettier in her hands. It had soft brown fluffy fur, beady shiny black eyes, tufts of white on the smooth brown coat, and soft dark antlers. She hugged it to her body impulsively.

Shikamaru looked at her with a smile. "You're just so—"

She glared at him. She knew what followed that word. Cute. Cute. She was not cute! "Don't you say it." She warned

He leaned forward his lips brushing against her ear. "Say what? Beautiful?"

She blushed. "Jackass."

"Oh, jeez, Shikamaru," a new voice exclaimed, completely aghast.

Temari turned to look at the speaker.

Oh…It was that brunette – Tenten.

Her hair was still pinned up into to buns; she was wearing baggy pants, a light colored sleeveless pink top, and was holding a pink icicle in her thin fingers. "This is the twit everyone keeps talking about? Lee described her as nice."

Temari blinked. Who was Lee?

"He's always wearing green." Shikamaru muttered softly to her. "Dark hair, big eyes."

Oh! That one. He was weird. Very nice and amiable, but weird nonetheless. Apparently he and Gaara were friends – Temari didn't bother to ask how, Lee had just up and introduced himself to her one day when she was working.

They'd chatted for ten minutes in which Temari decided he was very spunky, spoke very oddly – never conjoining any words –, and very determined.

"You know, it's all subjective (1)." Temari said absently, not really thinking of what she was saying. "Ino calls me a freak. Naruto weird. Kankurou a bitch. Perceptions differ."

Tenten stared at her oddly before licking her icicle. "How do you know Kankurou?"

"He's my brother."

Tenten dropped her popsicle. "What?"

She shrugged. "…He is." Honestly, that was a peculiar reaction. She understood when people were shocked that she and Gaara were related, but honestly, she somewhat resembled Kankurou in appearance.

"He's your brother?"

"Is it really that unbelievable?"

Tenten looked at her in severe annoyance. "No, I really should've guessed. You're a bitch and your brother's an asshole."

Temari was torn between glaring at the offending brunette and sighing in exasperation. Kankurou could be an unseemly asshole, but having someone else call him that bothered her. (Even though he probably deserved being called as such.) She settled for hugging the deer to her chest closer and staring at the girl with the buns speculatively.

"Do you know what that damned moron just did?"

Wowza, she was real pissed off, Kankurou must have done something serious or this girl had a temper. (Due to Temari's earlier interactions with the brunette she was leaning more toward the second one, but with weird people who really knew.) "…Not really, no."

"He just – he that – that JERK just treated Hinata like shit to catch Ino's attention. He's playing Ino's stupid little—"

"Bluey?" Temari asked at the same time that Shikamaru sighed in annoyance. Temari looked at her date.

"Ino is…for lack of better word," he explained lazily, "the biggest bitch in this town. She can be really kind, but she usually chooses not to be."

"Kind? Kind my foot." Tenten spat. "I hate that blonde."

"What's she doing to Bluey?" Temari asked, feeling concerned for the demure looking female she remembered from the store. Bluey was possibly the nicest and most tolerable customer that the damn shop had on a semi-daily basis.

Tenten scowled. "Would you stop calling her 'Bluey'? It's disconcerting."

"Sorry. What's she doing to Hinata?"

"She finds it funny to pick at her self-esteem and makes to manipulate her into doing the most – just horrid things." Tenten's lips were wrapped into the most disgusted expression. "Ugh."

"Oh." The way Tenten's lips were pursed Temari could only assume the hatred ran much further than it seemingly appeared. This one's anger probably ran way back. "The passive-aggressive thing."

Shikamaru eyed her in appreciation.

Tenten stared at her in shock. "You know what passive-aggressive means?"

Temari scowled. "What do I look stupid to you?" She snapped vilely at the brunette. Temari could take most jabs, but being called stupid was not one she favored. No, not at all.

"To be honest, yes, you do." Tenten said bluntly. "Besides, you seem like the dumb blonde type. I assumed Shikamaru was with you because of the way you looked."

"I don't look like anything. I look like a loser, what kind of a reason is that?" Temari defended. (She really didn't think she looked like anything other than an outcast who was dipped in the wrong side of the gene pool. She was too tall (taller than most guys), had pretty big feet (there goes the Cinderella plot), her nails were bitten to a quick (real lady-like right), her hair was dry and scratchy (broom-ish was a better description), and her body was a bit wide (not fat, not skinny, just…wide.) She couldn't be a model if her life depended on it.) "And hair color has nothing at all do with personality. Am I to assume you're boring because you're a brunette?"

"Smart and dull would be the common stereotype." Tenten corrected a bit detached.

"You're a annoying, you know that? Making snap judgments just because of my hair color. You need a reality check, tidbit." Temari huffed.

Just then, an idea occurred to her. I assumed Shikamaru was with you because of the way you looked. Did he do that often?

Tenten stared at her completely baffled. "Tidbit? What the hell?"

"You're short."

"And you're tall." Tenten restored.

"It's nice to know you two are plainly aware of each other's height." Shikamaru drawled.

Tenten's eyes narrowed. "Giant."

"Shrimp."

"Bigfoot."

Temari's lips pursed. "Flatchest"

"Porcupine."

"Chipmunk."

Shikamaru sighed. "Can we stop?"

Both girls turned to glare at him.

He lifted his hands in surrender. "Sorry. Just a suggestion."

They turned to start insulting each other again, but Temari found she was out of arsenal. Even chipmunk had been a stretch. The girl did have chubby cheeks, but nothing too big of a deal to be honest. The brunette probably had tons to pick at her with. Temari was far from perfect.

Ugh.

Tenten opened her mouth to say something but closed it. She sighed in annoyance. "This is stupid. Let's just start over okay?"

"Why—?" Temari was about to snap 'would I bother doing that with you', but Shikamaru nudged her (more like kicked her) with his foot. He gave her a meaningful glance. Oh fine. I'll be nice. "Fine."

Tenten chuckled. "Tenten."

"Temari." She paused, "I hope you realize I'm not a nice person by nature. I say stupid things and laugh at stupider things – you better not go off and act all pissy just because I call you freak or something like that."

Tenten blinked. "I'll try to remember that."

"Your hair's strange by the way."

"So's yours." Tenten replied dumbly.

"Mmkay."

Tenten shook her head as if to clear out the insanity of their previous conversation. She looked at Shikamaru meaningfully, "You're a bit nuts." She turned to Temari, "And I mean that in the most platonic way possible."

She shrugged. "I think he's nuts too. Though my reasons differ from yours."

"Have you seen Neji?" She asked Lazy.

Shikamaru shook his head.

"Alrighty, then." She gave Temari one last speculative look. "See you later."

"I like her better than Ino." Temari informed Shikamaru as she walked off.

"You're an odd one."

"In the good way?"

"The very best way."

Temari tugged her skirt lower. The damned thing kept rising up. That was it; she'd never wear an Ino production ever again. "How do you know her?"

"I know mostly everybody, Temari; this is small town."

Temari rolled her eyes. "Humor me."

"She's Neji's girlfriend and Neji and I have quite a few classes together. He's supposed to be a genius too."

"Do I know Neji?"

"Probably not. He's really quiet, tall, he's Hinata–or should I say Bluey–'s older cousin."

"Mmm…" Temari listened as her boots crunched the dried up yellow leaves on the grass. "What did she mean by dating me because of how I looked?" She blushed as she asked that last question, feeling stupid and insecure for asking it.

"She knows I used to like Ino. That's what she's basing her assessment on."

"So you don't like her anymore?"

"No." His answer was clipped, calm, and deciding.

"How long were you dating?" She tried asking again, pressing further.

He shrugged and said nothing.

She sighed. "Is this the part of the story you don't want to tell me?"

"Maybe, sometime in the future."

"Hn." Because really, what could she say to that? Tell me now? What if knowing the story changes how I feel? What if the story's important to – just to? "Twenty questions works better when all questions get answered."

Shikamaru smirked. "I wasn't even aware we were playing."

"We are now."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "So what question are you on?"

"As you hadn't noticed we were playing, I'm going to say I'm on question number one."

"Now, I'm sure you've asked at least one question." He teased.

"Can you prove that, oh brilliant genius?"

"You just asked me a question."

"That doesn't count!"

"I think it does."

"Cheater." She pouted.

"Question two."

She stuck out her tongue at him.

Real mature Temari, she reminded herself.

He laughed.

"Fine." She pouted again. "What's your favorite color?"

"Green."

"What's your favorite thing to do?"

"I like watching clouds."

She blinked. "Are you serious–? That doesn't count, by the way!"

"I am."

"WHY?"

"Does that count?"

"Shut up and answer the question."

He shrugged. "It's relaxing."

Relaxing? Oh, jeez, he definitely wasn't a prince. "What dessert is your favorite?"

"Lollipops."

She grinned. That was the cutest thing. "What season do you like?"

"Winter."

Oh. She paused. Temari didn't much anything about a real winter. In Suna they were lucky to get a centimeter's worth of snow. Winters over there just consisted of slightly cooler days, colder nights, and on rare days a chilly wind.

"Why?"

"The snow mostly. It's annoying because it's very cold and wet, but it's also very…nice. Most people won't go out in the snow so there's less people to deal with and everything just looks prettier when there's white frost dusted everywhere. Plus, it makes things better for hot chocolate and the seasons are just nice." He paused. "You've never had a real winter have you?"

"No. No." She repeated softly. "Is it really nice here in Konoha? Like is it like that winter that happens in the movies?"

He smiled. "Better."

"Mmm…"

He pulled at her blonde tufts in amazement. Temari ignored it, though she liked the fact that he was interested in her hair.

"What do you think of my hair?"

"Unique. Spazzy." He smirked. "Cute." He let his hand fall back to his side.

"That's not the right answer." She scowled. "What's with the earring?" She lifted her fingers to toy with the small silver hoop. "Is it like real silver or that fake dollar stuff?"

"It's not really cheap, but not really expensive either." He was blushing just the tiniest bit. Temari had the impression that it had to do with the fact that her fingers were teasing at the little hoop. She absently wondered what he'd do if she took the little silver metal in between her teeth, her tongue lightly brushing against his earlobe as she did. She immediately dismissed the thought, embarrassed it had occurred to her at all. "My dad thought it would be…amusing to get me drunk when I was eight. He gave me vodka – coercing me to drink it as a consequence every time I lost him at chess. I may be a genius, but I still can't beat my dad at chess. So anyway, I got drunk and in another twisted perversion of my dad's," she dropped her fingers from the hoop in his ear, incredibly intrigued by the story, "I was somehow goaded into getting a fucking piercing." He winced as if recalling the experience. "My mother gave me hell for it later. Chased my dad around the house with a frying pan and yelled at me for two whole hours."

"Well, that doesn't make any sense." Temari said. "If you didn't like the piercing you could just never stick an earring in and it would eventually push out and revert to normal. And with hair like yours, all you'd have to do is wear it down for a while and your mom would never be the wiser."

"Chouji – my best friend – felt bad for me, and annoyed too I think, because I was complaining about it the whole day, so he pierced his ear too. Then Ino went and got hers pierced because she felt left out." He shrugged. "It didn't seem…decent to just erase a memory like that."

She grinned, her fingers toyed at his hoop once more, "That's adorable."

He blushed. "Well, next question."

"Your turn."

"You only asked ten."

She was actually more than a little surprised that he was keeping count – and that his count matched hers. (She had been cheating as she counted, dismissing certain questions…) "Let's go half and half."

He chuckled a bit. "You'll regret it."

"I always regret everything." She shrugged. "I might as well make the choice that ruins me."

He walked lethargically not saying a word until he came across a small stone wall. He sat upon it lazily his dark eyes drawing up to some unknown figure. Temari took a seat beside him tucking her legs underneath her. The she scowled and sat straight upon realizing she couldn't quite sit like that unless she wanted to give all the passerby a good look up her skirt. Her feet now dragged upon the grass, her foot tracing imaginary patterns in it as the boy beside her just looked at some point in space she couldn't quite imagine. Their proximity sent jolts through her skin and that fact made her more than just a little uneasy. It was a nice feeling, but Temari didn't much trust 'nice' feelings when it came to members of the opposite sex – it never tended to work out like she imagined (this was including romantic and platonic relationships).

"Are you gonna ask me something anytime soon?"

"You're very impatient." He noted calmly.

"Yes. I am." She snapped, peeved by his carefree attitude. How could he do that?

"What's your favorite color?"

"You spent all this time thinking up that question?"

He looked at her, but not in irritation or even amusement. She didn't know quite what it was.

"Violet."

"Are you a natural blonde?"

She snorted. "Of course I am."

"Is there any particular story behind your affinity for sugar?"

"Not really. I just like it."

"What's your favorite animal?"

"Weasels."

He raised an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yes."

"Do you prefer to read or watch TV?"

It was an odd question, she thought. "Read. I know surprising considering how ineloquent I am, but I really like to read."

Their was a glitter in his eyes as if her response had deeply amused him. "I wouldn't call you ineloquent." The dark haired boy seemed to mean it, but she found she really didn't believe it. As far as she was concerned, she was very ineloquent. "Why'd you move here?"

She shrugged. "Problems in Suna. Mostly monetary, but lots of stuff revolving around Gaara."

"Doesn't your father supply any money?"

"That bastard? Hell no. He's dead. Government ceased his money. Even when he was alive he didn't do a single thing for us. Glad he's dead."

"What's your brother's story?"

"Which one?" She asked this question with slight trepidation, a gnawing feeling in the pit of her stomach. She knew where this was going.

"Gaara."

She hesitated and traced a circle in the grass blades. The tiny deer in her lap looked up at her somberly.

"You don't have to answer that if it's…you know, a sensitive topic for you."

She bit her lip. "I…I don't want to, for a few reasons. One, being it's not my story to tell. Two, telling might…ruin some things. And three, I don't know if I trust you enough to talk about things like that yet."

He nodded. "Fair enough." He inclined his head. "Simple questions then." There was a slight pause and his brow furrowed. "Why are you so adamant against be called 'cute'?"

"That's supposed to be simple?" She rolled her eyes at him to cover up her embarrassment. As was her custom when the conversation turned to her, she tugged at her hair. "Cute girls are those bony little twits who fall for the first guy they meet and end up giving everything away for a bunch of stupid empty promises."

His eyes stared blankly at her, and that was the only sign she had for his next action. His lips then quirked up, he bent forward the slightest bit, and the most raucous laughter split from his lips.

She stared at him for a while; completely unbelieving the lazy lanky boy could really laugh like that. It's not like she'd said anything funny anyway. "What is so funny?"

His body shook and his eyes were creased in amusement.

She never wanted to hit him more.

"You're just adorable."

"Forget you, Nara." She pushed herself off the wall and made to stalk off, but his fingers clamped around her wrist pulling her back. Her skin tingled at the contact.

He grinned up at her. "I'm sorry, okay?"

"No." She brought her boot down on his foot. "Not okay."

He winced and his grip on her wrist dropped, his hand instead heading to his foot.

Of course, him letting go of her wasn't a very good option for Temari. The minute his hand left her wrist she sort of slid forward from the lack of pulling force and dropped straight onto the grass.

Which is how she found out the grass was wet.

And muddy.

Damn Konoha. In Suna the worst that could happen was she got dust on her clothes. Here she not only got wet, but she got stained with mud. You couldn't dust that off, you could barely wash that off (you know, while you were still wearing it.)

"Damn, woman!" He hissed out in pain.

"You laughed at me." She retorted as if it explained everything.

"And you kicked me. HARD. I'd say you overreacted."

She struggled up out of the muddy mess. "Well I hope you now realize I have a tendency to do that."

"I'll keep that in mind." He stood up, rubbing his foot as he did. "Have I pissed you off big-time yet?"

"What?"

"I know I've irritated and annoyed you, but have I really angered you?"

She scoffed. "Not even."

She expected him then, to turn around giving her some excuse about her being too much trouble and walk off to his buddies. Instead he just inclined his head at her. "Remind me not to do anything to really infuriate you then." He grumbled. With a lazy movement his fingers closed around the soft brown toy deer. He pushed the little thing in her own hand, her heart beating furiously as his fingers touched hers. "You're way too much trouble you know that?"

"Then fuck off."

He smiled at her. "And you're horribly vulgar." His fingers brushed the golden bangs out of her eyes. "And clumsy too. But I can't help liking you."

"Shut up." She scowled to cover up the fact that she liked the attention he gave her.

She turned her head away from him, wanting desperately for him not to see her blush. That might just affirm his hypothesis that she was cute. Ugh. That was the last thing she needed.

Standing there with him, she could think of the first thing she wanted.

A/N: The part with the little kid made me squeamish. I don't know why…Oddities.

(1) Subjective perceptions are more like that the perceptions differ from person to person. Like everyone sees everything differently