Warmth
© Story: Seth
© Characters: Masashi Kishimoto
Neji's face turned beet-red and he was about to stammer something when Shikamaru interrupted. "My apologies, Hinata-san, but I'm afraid that this is entirely my fault." He said.
"I needed to see Neji about an urgent mission, so I invited him along to talk somewhere private. Just now I slipped on this rock and accidentally pulled your cousin along for a midnight swim."
Hinata chuckled. "So I see." she said. "You two should change into something dry, it's too cold to stay out in wet clothing. Neji will lend you some of his clothes."
Shikamaru graciously offered Neji his hand and pulled the speechless Hyuuga out of the water and winked at him. "I have no doubt," He said, "that he'll be very glad to invite me in and get us out of these clothes."
Neji's blush darkened even more and he quickly pulled Shikamaru up and dragged him along to the house, leaving a chuckling Hinata behind.
If Neji had thought this through for only a moment, he would have known that Hinata already knew what had happened between him and Shikamaru, were it by using her byakugan to see if he was around or by the way he held the other boy's hand. As it was, however, he was too embarrassed to think about such things.
"You jerk!" he hissed to Shikamaru as he pulled the younger man along. "What if she had picked up on that hint? She would definitely found out about us!"
Shikamaru sighed. "For a genius, you can be fairly clueless, Neji." he said. "She already knew about it before we saw her just now."
Neji stopped abruptly and turned to Shikamaru. "Why would you think that?" He asked incredulously. "She didn't see us on the rock together, right?"
Shikamaru grinned. "Ah, but still she knew." He said. "Think about it. If you were looking for someone, what would the first thing you'd look for?"
"Their chakra signature." Neji replied immediately, "But why..."
Realisation hit him like a brick in the face. "Oh no..." He groaned. "Damn byakugan. But now what? She will definitely tell uncle about us, and then it's all over..."
"I don't think she will." Shikamaru said thoughtfully, and urged Neji on to keep walking. "I knew that she knew, and she knew that I knew it. Yet she still accepted my excuse about me slipping and falling, even though most ninjas would never be stupid enough to slip on such a broad surface. No, I think she realised that we wanted to keep things to ourselves for a while, and accepted this. That's why she didn't ask."
Neji raised an eyebrow at Shikamaru, but there wasn't anything he could think to say that would oppose such a theory. He sighed. It hadn't even been an hour, but he was already sure that it would be -to use Shikamaru's words- troublesome to have a genius for a boyfriend.
As if he had read Neji's thoughts, Shikamaru grinned and ruffled the older man's hair. "Don't worry, I'm not like this all the time." He said. "Only when I need to be. Don't worry, I'm sure our secret is safe with your cousin."
They had almost reached the mansion by this time, so they both kept quiet until they had emerged from the maze of hallways and corners and safely reached Neji's room. Neji closed the door behind them with a sigh and walked over to his closet. "You're taller than me, so I'm not sure if my clothes will fit you." He said, "But it's all I have."
Shikamaru wrapped his arms around Neji from behind and kissed his wet hair. "I'm sure I can manage to walk home wearing something that is slightly small on me, don't you worry." He said.
Neji shivered at the touch, but, conscious as he was of his environment, pushed Shikamaru away and threw a pair of pants and a shirt in his direction.
Shikamaru caught them gracefully, but missed the towel which followed, so that it ended up draped over his face in a very ungraceful manner. "Why thank you, I love you too." He muttered. He placed the towel on Neji's desk, near which he was now standing, placed the clothing next to it and began to strip out of his wet clothes.
When Neji turned around to face Shikamaru, he was confronted with a very interesting view; Shikamaru's ass. Shikamaru, who had been in the process of taking his shoes off, straightened his back and kicked his shoes off. The tanned man grinned at Neji and started pulling up his shirt.
Neji could but stare as the other unabashedly removed first his shirt and then his pants, leaving him in only his underwear. Shikamaru stretched his back and groaned. "I had no idea I was this cold until I took my clothes off." he said, and shivered. "Why are you still dressed, anyway?"
He got no verbal reply as Neji pulled him closer and hugged the younger man close to him. Shikamaru laughed. "Why Neji, did I excite you this much? Next time I'll put in an effort."
"Shut up." Neji mumbled. "I'm just glad that you're with me now, okay?"
Shikamaru hugged Neji back. "So am I." He said. "But no matter how much I hate pointing this out... you're still wearing wet clothing and I'm freezing my ass off here. Would you mind to continue this conversation either during a hot shower or when wearing something dry?"
Without another word, Neji pulled him along to the bathroom.
As soon as he turned the shower on, the entire bathroom was filled with the noise of falling water. This comforted Neji; at least this way, no one would be able to hear what was going on in there if they weren't too noisy. He glanced at Shikamaru, who was looking at him expectantly and looked away quickly. "Would you mind not staring at me?" Neji mumbled. "I'm not really comfortable with that yet."
Shikamaru chuckled. "And yet you do me the favour of staring at me when I so much as take my shirt off." He kissed Neji on the tip of his nose. "You little hypocrite." He whispered. Without further ado he turned his back to Neji, dropped his underwear and stepped into the shower, closing the curtain behind him.
Neji swallowed loudly and slowly started taking his wet robes off. When he was completely naked he gathered up all of his courage, opened the shower curtain just a crack and slipped in behind Shikamaru.
The younger man didn't turn around when Neji entered, but when he felt Neji's hands encircling his waist and a soft cheek pressing against his back he couldn't fight back the grin that appeared on his face. So Neji was actually very shy. Interesting... Shikamaru registered this fact and stored it away for use in the future.
Neji felt Shikamaru's chest rumble when he laughed, and decided that he liked that feeling. "So you're not disappointed?" He muttered against Shikamaru's tanned skin.
Shikamaru shook his head. "How could I be disappointed?" He asked. "I had set out with the intention to tell you about my feelings and I was fully prepared to be rejected and maybe punched in the face as an added bonus; how can I be disappointed when I end up standing next to you in the shower instead?"
Neji chuckled as well. "Fair point." He admitted. He let go of Shikamaru and reached up to the pull the elastic band from Shikamaru's hair.
Shikamaru, who hadn't even noticed that he'd forgotten to take it down, was surprised by Neji's action. He turned around to face Neji and raised an eyebrow. Neji shrugged. "I wanted to see what you look like with your hair down." He muttered and averted his eyes.
Shikamaru grinned. "Then look at it, because leaving it down all day is too troublesome." He said. Neji, however, had suddenly discovered that he was also interested in an entirely different part of Shikamaru's anatomy and tried his best not to stare at it too blatantly.
Shikamaru followed Neji's gaze and blushed slightly. "Ah, that." He said and scratched the back of his head. "Sorry, but when we fell earlier you landed on top of me and just now you looked so cute and-"
Neji put a finger to his boyfriend's lips and cut off the embarrassed stream of words. "I'm honoured." He said, "so stop being embarrassed already, you troublesome boyfriend."
Shikamaru sighed. "And now you're stealing my word." He said, but smiled none the less. "I'm so glad that we spoke to each other tonight." He sighed and hugged Neji close to him.
Neji felt a shiver run up his spine and nodded wordlessly. The water cascaded down their bodies and enveloped them in a safe cocoon of warmth, of privacy that couldn't be broken. They said nothing, they didn't move; they just stood there together and enjoyed being close to each other.
To be continued...