Disclaimer: Gee, why is this fan fiction if I own Naruto? If I did, Shika-kun would take over from Naruto permanently. On with the fan-fic!
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"She kicked you in the chest?"
Temari glared at Shikamaru, who was trying his best to stifle a laugh. Finally, he gave up holding back and broke into a chuckling fit.
"Frankly," he guffawed, "it's not very hard for her to miss."
TW2 held her hand up as if to hit him, teal eyes hardening with a dangerous edge.
"Tell me why I shouldn't strike you off my 'to kill' list," she threatened. He gulped, mentally chiding himself for being such a smart aleck. Why would she have a 'to kill' list? She wasn't an ANBU now, was she?
"Because then you'd have to take care of Kimiko by yourself?"
The caretakers simultaneously turned to the source of a shrill, excited little girl's voice; Kimiko ran towards their bench from the playground, a bunch of something pink, green and white in her hands.
"Uncle Shika, lookie!" she chirped, standing on tiptoe to show her godfather the posy of flowers she had gathered, "pretty flowers!"
He gently hoisted her onto his lap, and once the little girl settled down, she shoved the flora into his face.
"Very pretty, Kimiko-chan," he lightly pushed the vegetation away, "but Uncle Shika is a man. Men don't like flowers, women do." Then he turned to smile at his roommate. Temari seemed a bit surprised to be included in the conversation. Normally he would keep babbling to the little girl in as basic a form his language could get while forgetting the woman's existence.
Who, me?
Kurenai's daughter noticed what her godfather was hinting at, looking at her flowers and then at the woman. Hesitantly, she held the posy to her female caretaker.
"Call her Temari-neechan," Shikamaru told his goddaughter. She fell silent as the other female's nervousness grew.
"Auntie Tem-Tem!" she spouted suddenly. Temari fell off the bench in astonishment. Her roommate chuckled.
That is a good name for TW2.
Nara helped her up, letting Kimiko stick a poppy behind the woman's ear. She handed her a daisy next, smiling like the child she was.
"I think she wants you to put that behind her ear," the male whispered to his companion. She gulped and tried as gently as it could to place it behind the girl's own ear. The three year old giggled once she was done, then left the rest of the flowers with her godfather before running for the swings. He caught Temari's hand before she could remove the poppy, clucking his tongue in an old-fashioned way.
"Keep it on, or you'll upset her," he warned, "what, is it giving you an itch?"
"No, it's just a little annoying. I feel ridiculous."
"When you're taking care of a kid, abandon your ego," Shikamaru sighed, "they don't have a clue what 'embarrassment' means yet."
He has a point, for once…
She grumbled and folded her arms. It was Thursday, so Kurenai would pick her daughter up at noon the next day. It was currently eleven in the morning, so twenty-five more hours' with that troublesome brat, minus the ten hours or so she would spend sleeping meant fifteen hours, and minus bath-time (which Shikamaru handled, expectedly), that would mean fourteen hours left with her. Her face fell as her stomach let its emptiness be audibly known, in a large growl that scared off a pigeon pecking at the pavement nearby. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at her as she shrugged defeated, then pulled out a sandwich from a woven tote bag he had with him, containing Kimiko's belongings and other peripherals.
"Here," Nara pushed the food into his roommate's hands, "I bought this from the convenience store earlier to snack on, but you can have it. Hopefully, it'll help you last to lunchtime without your tummy complaining again."
'Tummy'. She had only ever heard a word like that come out of a five year old, so it was…strange when Nakimushi said it. She stared at the innocent looking tuna sandwich in its triangular clear plastic cover in her hands, debating mentally if she should accept the man's gift.
"Are you eating it or not?"
She harrumphed at Shikamaru's rather curt question/demand and peeled the two halves of the plastic apart with a loud 'clack' before taking a big, not very lady-like bite out of the sandwich, munching hurriedly as if to say 'I'm, eating it, okay?!'.
"Slow down, you'll digest better. When you eat fast, pockets of air are trapped in your stomach. That's why people burp."
"I know that! Basic academy science!"
"The same applies with talking while you eat, woman," he stated, "so use your mouth to eat now, not to rant at me. And the less it goes out the front door, the more it goes out the back."
Temari choked on her sandwich at the last fact her roommate mentioned, prompting him to thump her on the back. She coughed, keeping the food in her mouth before swallowing it again.
No need for the Heimlich maneuver. I am so beating him to a bloody pulp if his hands get three feet too near my waist.
"What did you say that last part for?"
"I don't know," he smirked, "maybe I just like pissing you off."
That smirk.
That signature Nara smirk of his. He was feeling proud of himself.
She hit him upside the head.
"Ouch! That hurt, what was that for?"
She smirked at him, sandwich in hand.
"Maybe I just like beating you up."
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Ino cooed as she carried the little girl in her arms. Shikamaru wondered what on earth had driven him to stop by his childhood teammate's family flower shop. The woman was going nuts over the arrival of Kurenai's child. Temari, on the other hand, started examining the various floras present, this being the only place where she saw tens of species of flowers in one place. Her hobby being botany, one could understand the desert kunoichi's excitement. Then desert held few opportunities to practise botany after all.
"Here, Auntie Ino has a nice flower for you," the sapphire-eyed platinum blonde bent down a little and pulled a vermillion parrot tulip from its vase at the end of the counter, giving it to little Kimiko.
"There, a friend for the daisy in your pretty hair," she smiled in satisfaction as the three year old held the flower gingerly and sniffed it. Nara reached into his pocket for his wallet, obliged to pay for the tulip.
"It's on the house, Shikamaru," the woman assured him with a wave of a slender hand, "since Kimiko-chan loves pretty flowers, doesn't she?"
"Yeah, Auntie Ino," she chirped. The blonde-haired person ruffled her long, thick black locks.
"Then is Auntie Ino pretty?"
"Yes she ish!"
She was so excited over the little girl she could not think straight, he could tell. Silently, hands shoved deep into his pockets, he made his way to Temari, who was examining a kind of rose.
"Do you want me…to buy that for you?" he offered apprehensively. Why he did that he had no idea.
"I don't think it'll be worth it," the female stood up from her semi-squat, rose in hand. "I like flowers because there are so many parts I can pull off to examine. This Rosea centuriflora has more than enough petals for me to pull off, and pulling off petals is good fun."
He shuddered inwardly as Ino shot her a slightly shocked look. Of all the people she could confess a liking of torturing flora around, she had to say it around a florist, in a flower shop, nonetheless. He wondered how long she had been resisting the urge to strip the poppy Kimiko had put in her hair of all its petals, separating it into its various compartments. Petals, stamens, pistil…
"I'll have this, thank you," Temari produced a note from her wallet and handed it to Ino, who handed the woman her change with some hesitation. The older woman's attention turned to a small shop across the street from Yamanaka's own. She set the rose back on the counter, went over to the tote bag at the end near the entrance and kept her back to them.
"I'll just be grabbing something to eat later, Nakimushi," she turned and walked out the door, the little bell ringing to signal her departure.
"I don't know what you see in her, she's…crazy," Ino shed her overly nice attitude for her more Ino-like, frank one once the other female was gone.
"Eccentric. I prefer the word 'eccentric'," Shikamaru replied, unfazed. He had to admit that he found Temari strange sometimes, but it was her mind, her body darn it and he could do nothing to change her behavior.
"That word doesn't even begin to describe her," her manicured eyebrows furrowed slightly in mild suspicion, "why do you let her stay with you? You could let her take up residence at forehead-girl's place—billboard brow and she would get along."
He simply shrugged and looked exceedingly bored.
"Because she's useful?"
"I don't like the sound of that. You just needed someone to take care of the mess that you call home didn't you—"
"It's not like that," he interrupted. Her blue eyes widened slightly in shock. She had known him practically all her life and rare was the time he spoke before letting someone else finish what he or she was saying. He had never been the kind to cut in.
"Okay, I admit it, I'm lonely. I need moments to myself sometimes, but not perpetually. It becomes boring after a while. Boring is what she is the extreme opposite of."
"You could get a dog. Or a cat," she bit her tongue. She would not lose to the logic of an eternally lazy smart-ass.
Cats. Why does everybody I know like cats so much? Moreover, dogs, who knows what they eat before you let them lick your face?
Kimiko whined and demanded to be put down, before scuttling to the back of the shop where the bathroom was located. Absent-mindedly, the man fingered the rose on the counter. Ino could be nice sometimes, but she poked her nose much too eagerly into everybody's business, especially his. Why did it matter so much to her anyway?
The rose was appealing, pastel pink layers of delicate paper-thin petals in layers seemingly amounting to the hundreds. Putting his index finger in the middle, he gently pushed the inner petals away to reveal a small cluster of stamens, tiny in comparison to the mass of petals. It was a bit like Temari, he guessed. Layers of emotional facades covering and protecting a core of weakness, even if it was tiny. Layers built up steadily over years of turmoil and hardship to hide the little thing that kept her human. She was tough, bitter, blunt and occasionally crass and violent, but she did have a soft side, unlike what practically everybody around her believed.
To find it you just had to look very very carefully.
"Nakimushi?" Temari stepped back into the flower shop, plastic bag of something that smelt meaty in hand. Champon, probably. The poppy in her hair was missing. He frowned and pointed to her ear.
"Relax, its here," she reached into the tote bag on the counter and retrieved the poppy," I wasn't going to order with that behind my ear."
So that's why she went over to the bag before she left.
"You looked better with it anyway," he joked. Her left eyebrow arched.
"Sorry, I didn't catch that last part."
He shook his head.
"Nothing."
Who knew what she would do if she had heard.
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A/N: I have an urge to write SasuTem. Don't ask me why. Leave a review and either tell me to snap out of it or suggest an idea for a SasuTem non-romance oneshot, I've been wondering if I should write one. Spellchecker keeps going back to 'English(U.S)' everytime I change it to 'English(U.K)'. The wonders of technology.
As always, review :)