Title: Liminality
Pairing: Shikamaru/Temari
Rating: T
Disclaimer: I do not own these Naruto characters and stand to make no profit from posting this story.
Liminality (from the Latin word līmen, meaning "a threshold") is a state of being on the "threshold" of or between two different existential planes.
For Coelha-chan who has been waiting for me to get back to Shika/Tema.
Liminality
Shikamaru yawned, stretched and shivered slightly as he got up, placing his feet on the chilly floor. He looked out the window and shook his head in dismay – a blanket of heavy, grey clouds threatening snow covered the sky to the horizon. He sighed, it was going to be a cold, wet, messy day. Not at all the type of weather he liked. Sure the sky was covered in clouds but not those puffy cumulonimbus that contrasted so nicely against cornflower blue. Rather these were the type that parked themselves over Konoha and dumped snow for days on end. Bleah.
He showered in tepid water because the pipes were so cold it was taking forever for the water to warm up and he was late already. He dressed quickly, ate a small breakfast then headed out to meet Temari. Today's meeting with her fell somewhere along the lines of guide duty. Although lately those lines were getting rather blurred and seeing Temari was becoming more of a "wanting to see her" kind of affair rather than a "having to" kind of assignment. Still there was always enough wiggle room in the definition of his responsibilities so that if anybody asked he could truthfully answer that he was escorting her to or from something that really was on her appointment book for sometime later that day.
He shoved his hands in his pockets. It was turning out colder than he expected and the wind was picking up a bit too. A few faint snowflakes sputtered here and there. These clouds weren't doing anything to improve the day. It was actually rather late in the morning, but the thick covering of grey gave the day a perpetual twilight feeling to it.
The feeling was somewhat imposing, but he sensed there was something else as well. He couldn't quite define it and that bothered him. The air was heavy with the threat of snow but it wasn't actually snowing yet. There was a sense of anticipation in the air like what he'd felt when as kids, looking out the window, they would all wish so hard that it would snow and they could skip school. But the clouds held back. They weren't ready, not yet.
He arrived at her apartment and knocked at the door. He shivered a bit and stamped his feet to warm up. She answered it smiling, "So, ready to take me Christmas shopping?"
He groaned. "Man, Christmas shopping? Are you serious? What a drag. It's only four days to Christmas, the shops will be out of merchandise and packed with people." He rolled his eyes at her. "You don't even celebrate Christmas in Suna."
She flipped her hair back and she pulled a cloak about her. "Well, I still need to bring my brothers back something don't I - a souvenir? I go back in a week. Besides, it's the thought that counts.
He shook his head, wondering just what kind of a souvenir or Christmas present she'd pick out for her sociopathic brothers. What did one get for a resurrected jinchuuriki and a maniacal, homicidal puppet-master who wore more make-up than his sister did?
They wandered through crowded streets, with him watching her smile at all the sparkling Christmas decorations in shop windows, along street-fronts, in the cafes and tea-shops, smirking at her all the while, himself. She looked like a little girl and it was fun to see the same old tired, cliche decorations appear new again in her eyes.
He explained the colors and the evergreen and the lights to her, the circle shape of the wreath, rebirth after the death of winter and so on. She nodded trying to absorb it all, Suna being rather seasonless with bright blue weather throughout the majority of the year.
She noted the mistletoe hanging above store fronts and asked him about it. He sighed and droned in his best schoolteacher voice, "Winter solstice is a threshold. You stand at the boundary between the old year and the new. It's a time of transition, normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behavior are relaxed. It can lead to new perspectives. Mistletoe at the doorway is a ritualized way of expressing that. People can kiss beneath the mistletoe because at the threshold they aren't breaking any of the regular social boundaries or taboos that may normally exist between them."
She stood looking over at him, smiling, honest curiosity in her voice. "Well, thanks for the textbook definition, but why isn't anyone k….?"
She didn't get to finish the word 'kissing'. Shikamaru placed one hand at her waist and with one finger of his other hand under her chin he tipped her face up to him. He closed his eyes and kissed her softly, in the doorway, under the mistletoe with the snow finally falling in earnest all around them. Her lips were soft and warm beneath his. None of this actually felt like movement – it felt merely more like being with her.
He really couldn't tell you how long the kiss lasted.
But he did note that when the kiss ended, Temari didn't pull away from his side.
As they turned to enter the store he left his hand at her waist.
And she didn't pull away from that either.
A/N: If I had anything to do with it, that whole "Sasuke Retrieval Arc" would have been referred to as the "Shikamaru Liminality Arc" but hey, they didn't ask me!
I have no idea if they celebrate Christmas or go Christmas shopping in Konoha. Please don't flame me. It worked for my story.