Rating: T
Summary: He'd be there for her, today, tomorrow, always, forever.
a/n: Here's the second part! Enjoy x
His dark eyes looked at the engraved name before him;
Nara Shikaku
It still hadn't fully registered in his head that his father was no longer going to be here for him. He looked at his mother who was trying so hard to keep calm, trying not to burst into sobs and loud screams. She was hurting just like he was but neither could muster enough to let the hurt show.
"It's okay to cry," he finally spoke.
She looked at him and she smiled, "he'd scold me."
"Since when have you been scared of dad?" he smirks, "last I recall the man was whipped."
His mother gives him a small smile before her eyes land back on the stone before them. His mother leans forward and presses her small hand on the stone before letting out a small laugh, Shikamaru winces at how bitter and sad it sounds.
"I can imagine him looking down at us," she chuckles, "he's probably saying 'serves you right, troublesome woman'."
"That man is the epitome of-"
"How's Ino holding up, Shikamaru?"
He sighs softly, "she's not holding up, she's just, I don't know how to explain it."
"You should be there for her," she tells him, "God know that girl's had it bad and you tell her if she needs a place to stay she's always welcome at our home."
"Don't worry, mom," Shikamaru smiles, "I'll look after her."
"I wouldn't expect any less from you."
Inoichi's funeral had been two days later, per request of Ino, she had told Shikamaru that she wanted to give him a bit to recover so he could attend with her. Friends of Inoichi had come but no family and he knew that was due to the fact that he didn't really have any, meaning neither did Ino.
He had clung to the girl throughout the whole thing while she sobbed, she hadn't been as livid as when they first told her but she was still shaken up.
"I miss him, Shikamaru," she had cried into his shirt.
But he didn't know what he should tell her because lying and saying it would be okay just wouldn't be fair to her. So he could only hold her tightly and tell her he wouldn't leave her and that'd he be her support.
When the time came to leave she had refused and she had pleaded with him to allow her to stay. He couldn't let her stay alone so he explained to his mother what he planned to do. When everyone was gone, he watched Ino drop to her knees before the two graves. Her blue eyes were locked on her father's grave and she was still crying, loudly, and he just didn't know what to do.
He stood a few inches behind her and when she let out a heart wrenching scream he knelt and placed his arms around her. She had hit him and she had begged him to bring him back, bring them both.
But once again he had no words for her.
So he let her cry and scream until she grew tired of it and eventually she had fallen asleep on his lap. He couldn't blame her for feeling this way, she was grief-stricken, unable to comprehend why everything was slowly being taken away from her. She was lost, that's all.
He ran his hands through her blond locks before looking up at the two gravestones that held both of her parent's names.
"I'll always be here for her, I swear it on my life," he told them, "so don't even worry yourselves up there."
He pressed a small kiss to her temple and picked her up, he wouldn't fail her parents, he couldn't.
When they actually did become roommates he was glad to see her happy. She wasn't just lying around looking like a fragile, little girl, no, she was up and running, telling him how everything should be and look. He would've found it troublesome had he not wanted her to be her old self again.
And had he not been completely taken with her, but that was something completely off topic at the moment.
She's still hurt, it's only been six months since her father's death, making a move on her is completely out of the question. Even if his mother saw this situation in a different light, saying things like "if you don't make a move on her someone else will". His mother was crazy, she was just trying to be the same demanding mother she's always been, especially now that he was the only male around to pester.
"So how about we go somewhere tonight?" she suggested looking up from her textbook.
He yawned and nodded, "I know what we can do."
"Then should we go?"
"Make sure you bundle up, wouldn't want you to get a cold, it'd be troublesome to look after you," he smirks.
"It's only October," she scoffs, slamming her book shut, "I'll be fine."
"So you say, bundle up, troublesome," he sighs placing his book on the coffee table.
She pouts but listens to him nonetheless and that night he takes her out to his favorite napping spot. At first she's mumbling about only going to boring places and only doing boring things but after a while she sits back and looks up at the night stars with him.
He cracks an eye open and looks at her face, her blue eyes twinkling brighter than the stars above. He chuckles to himself as he notes that it's just like Ino to even outshine the stars themselves.
"It's beautiful," she whispers, "thank you, Shikamaru."
He doesn't reply and just pretends to have fallen asleep, but his heart's racing and he can almost hear his mother's voice in the distance;
"You're in love, aren't you?"
He smirks and mentally notes that yes, he certainly is.
For one reason or another he decides that he's had enough, that Ino is too beautiful and too perfect for someone so lazy and unmotivated as himself. She's slowly becoming her old self and he's glad, he's fucking elated that she's finally coming around and that she won't be a shell of her former self.
So he does what someone as stupid (despite his IQ of over 200) himself does and decides to date another girl.
And he hates how every step of the way he's comparing her to Ino. The girl, is a spitfire and she's funny, she's like an older version of Ino, minus all the yelling and raving that Ino does when she's mad.
Temari is her name, she's pretty and he can't help but find that she's a blond with blue eyes, but they aren't like Ino's.
He's almost sick to his stomach at how easily he'll find himself comparing both of them, Ino usually comes out being better somehow.
They've met recently, he doesn't know what either woman thinks of the other. He had almost hoped to catch Ino off guard and watch her squirm in jealousy but the girl had smiled and wished them the best, she had even scolded him for failing to report his relationship to the girl.
Temari, well she hadn't said anything about Ino, she hadn't scrutinized her like she usually does with someone she first meets. Usually Temari has something to say about someone, being that she's very perceptive, but the girl has remained silent about the other girl and it almost seems like Temari has forgotten Ino even exists.
"Shikamaru."
He looks up from his textbook, which he hasn't really been reading and gives her a nod to show her he's listening. Temari has a strange look on her face, he's never seen it on her before.
"I've kept quiet about this but I feel like I should express how I feel," she starts, "it wouldn't be fair if I just got mad without you knowing why."
"What's up?"
"It's about your roommate," she sighs, "what's her name again?"
"Ino," he answers without missing a beat, "her name is Ino."
"Well, I just don't think it's right for you to be leaving in the same apartment as her," Temari frowns, "we're dating and it just looks-"
"Ino and I are friends," he tells her sternly, "nothing more, if you haven't noticed."
"I see the way she looks at you, Shikamaru," Temari snaps, "you're stupider than you look if you haven't noticed it yourself!"
For some reason her words bring him some form of satisfaction but he reminds himself that this is Yamanaka Ino and she's never once given him a hint on wanting to be something more than friends so why would Temari assume that? It was foolish on her part.
"She's a friend, she thinks of me as a friend and I think of her as a friend," he says, almost bitterly, "just friends."
"And why didn't you tell her we were dating?" she hisses, "where you tryi-"
"Ino can get a bit rowdy when someone close to her begins to date," he grits his teeth, "that's why."
"I don't want you living with her," she frowns, "Shikamaru, as your girlfriend that is my one request."
"Te-"
She shakes her head as she slips her books into her bag, "don't say anything else, just please."
He watches her leave and almost throws everything in sight at the frustration he's feeling. Because even if things are certain with Temari there's always a part of him that hopes Ino will want him some day and that's the part that's beginning him to stay with Ino instead. The rational and real side of him is just laughing, telling him that it's been years since he met Ino and nothing's changed since then, so why would he bother with uncertainties?
"Tch, how troublesome."
He ends up listening to his rational side, and he slowly distances himself from Ino. She seems better off anyways, his rational side states, she's smiling and laughing again with all her friends, you don't fit.
He hates how right that voice is.
So in the end he moves out and as much as he wants her to stop him she doesn't. She waves goodbye and makes him promises to visit some day in the future and he nods and promises he will.
But it hurts, it hurts how she won't give him her heart just as he gave her his all those years ago.
Two years later and he finds himself in a small bar along with Choji, Sasuke and Naruto. Choji had been invited first, Sasuke had come because he needed a break from his rampaging wife who was also currently pregnant, and Naruto, well he was an idiot who needed to be everywhere.
"So how'd Ino take it?" Choji ask, looking at him carefully.
He had frowned because he wasn't sure what the man was asking, "how'd she take what?"
"He's talking about your wedding to Temari," Naruto scoffs, "and they call you a genius, my ass!"
"My wedding?" he frowns, "well she'd said she'd have to check her schedule, an-"
"That's funny," Sasuke states monotonously.
"What is?"
"She's told Sakura she isn't attending," the stoic man tells him.
"Man, I don't blame her," Naruto chuckles, "I mean, you basically make her fall i-"
"Naruto," Choji warns.
The blond raises his hands in mock defense, "I'm just saying."
"It isn't our place," Sasuke tells him taking a sip from his drink.
"What isn't?" Shikamaru frowns.
Naruto only gives him a sympathetic glance before telling them he's has to get home to his beautiful wife and dragging Sasuke along as well. Once it's only him and Choji he looks at the man, his eyes begging for answers to the weird conversation that just transpired.
"I won't say anything," Choji tells him, "but you should know something."
"And what is that?"
"For someone with an IQ of over 200 you sure are an idiot."
He looks at his reflection and wonders why he's even here, his rational side states because this choice had security. His other side, the foolish side, claims that despite that he isn't even happy so what was the real point of all this.
He fixes his tie before looking at the other occupants in the room; Naruto's glaring at Sasuke as said man teases him about his inability to tie his tie properly without Hinata's help. Neji is currently scrolling through his phone, ignoring everyone else in the room. Kiba is busy trying to place a bow tie on a very hyper Akamaru and then there's his best man, well he's missing, Shikamaru hasn't heard from him at all and he wonders if he'll make it on time.
Perhaps he wasn't as okay with this as he claimed to be.
There's a small knock at the door and he mutters a quick "come in" before a pregnant Sakura walks in with a nervous smile. Sasuke is the one who approaches her first and tells her that she shouldn't be walking around so much, but one small punch to the gut shuts him up.
"I wanted to speak with Shikamaru," she smiles politely, "please, it's important."
"Sakura-chan the wedding star-"
"I said please," the woman grits her teeth.
"You heard the beautiful woman, Shikamaru," Naruto chuckles nervously, pushing him towards the door, "now out you go."
He follows the woman out only because he knows well enough that she's probably delivering a message from the person he wants to see most. She gives him a very small smile before releasing a small sigh.
"She'd hate me if I told you this," Sakura smiles, "but she's going to the states today."
He frowns, "Ino is?"
"Yes."
He doesn't like the anger that begins to swell up inside of his stomach as he looks down at the pink-haired woman.
"Why?"
"Well," she starts, her eyes drifting away from him but before she speaks someone else cuts in.
"Because watching you marry another woman isn't appealing to her."
He looks at Choji and shakes his head, "what's that mean?"
"You're so dense despite your impressive IQ," Sakura smiles, "it's a shame."
"She loves you, you idiot," Choji sighs, "it's wrong for me to tell you but what's the point now? She's leaving in a few hours and you, well you're getting married to another woman."
"She's so stupid," is all he can muster, "how can she just do that to me?"
"Yeah, she's really stupid," Sakura chuckles, "but you are as well, look at yourself, marrying another woman for the sake of forgetting her."
Shikamaru wants to yell, he wants to let Sakura and Choji know just how frustrated he is with Yamanaka Ino and her demanding self. He wants so badly to chase after her and tell her that he loves her too, always has, always will.
But how can he do that to Temari?
"Shikamaru."
He turns around and watches Temari approach him slowly, she's wearing a t-shirt and jeans and her hair and make-up are done to perfection.
"Why aren't you ready?" he frowns.
She shrugs, "I just don't feel like marrying you anymore."
He almost gapes at her statement, "Wh-"
"Close your mouth, you look stupid," she laughs.
Before he can answer she turns on her heel and heads down the corridor, his eyes stay glued on her and before she's out of sight she turns back with a large smile spread on her lips.
"Don't be stupid and good luck!"
She disappears shortly after and he's left gaping in the corridor. He's about to slide down against the wall before he feels someone's hand on his shoulder. Naruto's blond hair comes into sight as he grins and chuckles.
"Go get her, man!"
And he doesn't know why but he moves, he starts to run and run. His mind isn't registering where he's going or what's he's doing but his legs seem to know where he needs to be, with who he needs to be with. The drive there, where there is, is agonizing and everything is still happening so quickly.
He finds her at her parents grave, promising to be back and he can't help the thundering beat of his heart. He doesn't know why he chose to come after her, why he left Temari for her, he figures it had something to do with loving her.
So he tells her everything that he's kept in his heart until now and she's crying and she's begging him to stop. He doesn't and he just tells her every single thing he's been dying to let her hear. And when he finishes speaking he pulls her in and hugs her tightly, promising to himself to never let her go anymore.
"Thank you, Shikamaru."
He kneels before the graves and chuckles, "hey there, it's been a while."
It's begun to get slightly warmer and he's glad because he doesn't have to deal with Ino's constant moaning about having to wear a coat and looking like some marshmallow.
"So I've told my dad but I wanted to tell you guys too," he smiles, "It's only fair and right."
He doesn't receive a response but it's not like he was guaranteed one in the first place, "I know you were probably expecting Ino here but this is a surprise for her, I just need to tell you so I feel a bit more assured and a lot less like some asshole."
He pulls out a velvet vox and chuckles, "I wanted to marry your daughter, and I can't promise her much but I will make her happy and I will always look after her."
Shutting the box and slipping it back inside he looks up at the sky, "I'll always be there for her."
"Daddy, who's this?"
He looks down at the small child clinging to his hand tightly, "that's your grandfather."
"Oh," she beams, "is that mommy's daddy?"
"Yeah," he chuckles.
"Does he look like mommy?"
The smaller girl releases his hand and walks towards the stone before pressing her small hand to it, "look he's right here."
He looks at the picture and nods, "yeah, his name is Inoichi."
"Oh," she giggles, "he's got 'Ino' too, daddy!"
"Is that so?" he smiles.
"He looks happier than grandpa Shikaku," she giggles behind her small hands.
"If they were here you'd be spoiled rotten," he chuckles.
The small girl only smiles as she moves to the grave next to her grandfathers, she looks carefully at the small picture on the grave before beaming.
"She's pretty," she tells him, "who is she?"
"That's your grandmother," he smiles.
"Well no wonder mommy's so pretty," she giggles.
He chuckles before looking at the graves, "she's met my old man so I figured she'd like to meet you guys too, Ino's currently out with Sakura doing whatever it is they do, you saw her when she was just a bundle but now she's all grown up."
"Daddy, who are you talking to?" she asks.
"Your grandparents," he smiles.
"They can hear?" she gapes, "that's so cool!"
Before he can indulge her further the small girl walks back up to the graves and grins, "I'm Nara Inoko, I'm only five but daddy and mommy both say I'm real smart, nice to meet you."
Shikamaru chuckles as the small girl bows before coming back to him. He picks her up and they wave goodbye before leaving back to the car.
"Daddy," the small girl calls out to him.
"Yeah?"
"I love you very much," she smiles.
"And I love you."
"Mommy too?"
"Mommy too," he chuckles.
"Lots?"
"Lots."
Everything is as it should be, he muses.
ES: Not sure how I feel about the ending, a part of me likes it and then the other part of me is kind of like "why?" His side was a bit less sad because Ino was the one hurting, I just really wanted to fit in what I couldn't fit in, in Ino's side.
Inoko is a figment of my imagination but she's very cute in my eyes. Honestly, my headcanon is that since Shikamaru already screwed himself over with the whole "marry only a plain girl" when truly he married a really beautiful girl, it'd only make sense to have a boy first. But I found myself writing Inoko before I knew it so I stuck with it.
Drop a review by and let me know what you think and thanks for reading both!
