companion piece to the alternative tsafv2 version

Gamble

"Check her out," Ino said with far too much admiration. When Ino began to speak like that, they should be worried. "She is just so…. badass."

"I told you." Choji responded, smiling to himself as Shikamaru set down their drinks and took his seat in the booth. "They say she's never lost."

"That's impossible," Shikamaru said offhandedly, accidentally even. It's off-the-cuff. He didn't want to get involved in this conversation in the first place. But Ino was frowning at him now, so he continued. "Everyone has lost at some point. There is some skill involved, but cards are, mostly, about luck. That can't be honed."

"It certainly is possible," Ino shot back, looking away and stretching her neck to try and see above the crowd surrounding the table in back. "How do you think she got this reputation?"

"She is good," Choji tried, soothing over both sides. "Regardless if she has won every game or not, there is no denying it: she is one —" he cleared his throat " —badass… poker player."

Ino nodded and Shikamaru shrugged. He hadn't wanted to go out tonight in the first place. Much less to this place, where Temari had built up a name for herself. No one came to this bar without the intention to watch — or play — cards with her. And Shikamaru had no interest in doing either. Especially with her.

Ino had a very different expectation of the night. She was the one who had invited (forced, rather) Choji and him to come.

"I hear she's also really attractive. Like, super hot." Ino added.

Choji hummed. "We should go over at some point and watch a round."

Attractive? Yeah, so Shikamaru couldn't really deny that. Temari was attractive. Whatever, super hot. And sexy. Definitely sexy. Or, at least, he'd always thought so. Thought so from the moment they met.

"You should play her, Shikamaru." Ino declared after taking a sip of her drink. "If anyone can beat her, it's you."

"You might be overestimating him," Choji countered, patient, as though truly considering the situation, but Shikamaru knew Choji was really just trying to bait him on. "This girl is supposedly pretty smart. She might be smarter than Shikamaru."

She wasn't, but Shikamaru wasn't about to say something so revealing to his friends.

"Please," Ino waved her hand dramatically. "Shikamaru is the smartest guy in the world."

He sighed. "Well that's certainly an exaggeration." He should just go home. Only decorum kept him here, and he had never cared about that before. He should just leave.

Shikamaru moved, putting his hands on the table and about to announce his departure, when he was interrupted by a loud whooping, followed by heavy applause from the crowd over where Temari supposedly sat.

"She won," Ino said quietly, leaning in. "Told you."

Choji turned around to look at the seemingly impenetrable crowd surrounding her table. "Maybe you should play her?" He titled his head, thinking it over. "Even if she wins, you'd certainly give her a run for her money."

"I'd rather not give anyone a run for anything."

Though he was beginning to be somewhat swayed by the idea. He would be interested to play. He would be more interested to beat her. He'd always liked winning against her.

"You're scared to lose, aren't you?"

He shrugged again, not wanting to delve into his reasoning.

"Shikamaru Nara," Ino's voice got deeper, her words slower. "You go over there and play the next game or so help me I'll—"

Rather than hearing Ino's threat, Shikamaru waved a hand in acquiescence. "Fine, fine. I'll do it." He was bound to see her anyway. Plus, he had a feeling (more like a strong hunch) that Ino had brought him here specifically so that he would play, which meant she wouldn't give up until Shikamaru agreed to sit for a round. Might as well get it over with.

Shikamaru slid out of the booth and made his way over to the crowd. It took some effort, but he was able to push through it quicker than expected. In the center, on one side of a square wood table, sat Temari, shuffling a deck of red and white cards. Her bangs were pulled back with a barrette and she was grinning to herself.

Wow. He was surprised to see how much he remembered that smile. He'd never really thought about it, but… wow. He felt the familiarity like a pang in his chest.

"Who's next?" She asked, lips still taught (probably off the recent win) and eyes down at the cards between her fingers.

There's no real pause. There was already someone on-deck, it seemed, and the man was stepping up as Shikamaru recklessly (stupidly) interrupted.

"I'll play." He said it too wildly, like he was in too much of a hurry, like he wanted to play her — which he didn't. And, worse, even if he was interested… he didn't want her to think he was.

He swallowed. He bit his tongue. He tried to breathe.

There was a pause now. Temari, eyes still downcast, stopped shuffling, eyes wide.

And then, after a moment, she began to look up.

He could see the instant her eyes caught something familiar in him, somewhere down by his hip, and then he watched, slowly, as her eyes wandered up to see his face in confirmation. She was surprised. She hadn't expected him.

Good. It gave him some of the composure he had lost solely at seeing her again.

Temari was always better at concealing things — always better at painting whatever picture she wanted (it's probably why she was so good at cards) — and in only seconds, she was at ease and smiling at him; though it didn't look genuine.

Still. He knew that smile too.

"Excuse me," an older man beside him said when Shikamaru took another step forward. "I'm actually next in line. There is a queue, you know."

Temari, eyes bright and never leaving Shikamaru's, held up her hand. "No," she said, short. "Let him play." She finally flicked her eyes to the man in line, "Sorry. Remind me next time you're here, and you'll be the first on my list." She turned to the rest of the crowd, dropping the cards from her hands. "This will be my last game of the night."

The man opened his mouth to protest, but Temari had already moved on. She gestured to the seat across from her, and Shikamaru sighed, moving in to take it. Even the inflections in her tone were familiar and they ran like electricity down his spine.

"Last game of the night?"

Temari smirked. "Don't think I've forgotten the circumstances of how we met," she said calmly. Maybe she was calm? Maybe, apart from the initial shock, his presence before her was of absolutely no consequence? Shikamaru was working to keep his face passive, his yawn frequent, even though his mouth was dry just looking at her.

Temari stuck out the deck. "Cut," she ordered, and after he did, she took the cards back and began to deal. One to him, one to her, and on as such.

"So why are you playing this game tonight, Nara?" She asked, going back to a last-name basis. "You don't appear to be seeking a challenge." She looked at him under her lashes. "You never were."

Shikamaru shrugged. I'm terrified of that skinny blonde girl over there, and rightly so? Or, perhaps, I've thought of nothing but you for over a year?

"Maybe I just wanted some entertainment," he said instead.

Temari finished dealing and he picked up his cards. She watched him carefully, taunting: "and is this entertaining you?"

He looked over his hand and then back up at her. He looked at the cut of her mouth and the light of her eyes. She'd always liked to tease.

"It certainly is."

Temari smirked, continuing to hold his gaze for longer than socially acceptable. But then, after long seconds of baiting him, she broke the contact and picked up her own cards.

"So," she asked, tone light and casual, as though it were just a regular conversation, a regular meeting between players, "what's your ante?"

"Don't you usually bet drinks?"

"Okay then," she blinked up at him, heavy under her lashes again, and then went back to her hand. "One round of drinks, on the loser."

He nodded and the game began.

Shikamaru took in his cards. He would exchange two. No, nevermind. Three, including the red queen. That allowed for more combinations. Mathematically, three new cards was his best bet. He glanced up at Temari. She was holding still, eyes trained carefully on the hand before her. Swallowing, Shikamaru looked back down.

"It's been a long time, Nara."

His head shot up. He hadn't expected her to say anything. He hadn't expected her to bring that up (it hadn't ended well - he had wanted one thing, she had assumed another).

"Yeah." He said. Temari wasn't looking at him, but was clearly smiling at his reaction, so he looked back down to his cards, keeping steady. "Since the end of that class."

Temari chuckled half-heartedly. "And how is your…" she thought it over, "senior year going?"

"Classes start on Monday."

"Ah," she said, finally mixing around the order of her cards, deciding her best options.

"And you? How's graduate school?"

"Nothing to write home about."

He didn't respond, and as she continued shuffling her cards around, Shikamaru took one and moved it, letting the others remain. Nevermind. He'd keep the queen.

"So?" She ventured after a minute of silence. "Raising the stakes?"

Shikamaru met her gaze and shrugged. "If you'd prefer."

The corners of her lips turned up. "I would."

"I have only $100 in my wallet, maybe."

"I thought you used to carry around tons of cash, daddy's money and all that."

"Oh right," he said, remembering exactly when they had called it off. "I'm working now. Got a new place and everything."

She laughed. "Whoa. You're almost a real adult now."

He rolled his eyes.

"And finally." She continued, waving he hand, looking away from him. "That bed was honest-to-god horrible."

"For disliking it so much, you sure liked to be in it."

Her smile didn't waver, but Temari glanced up at him again, eyes narrowing. He felt vindicated.

She spoke slowly, and with a hint of malice. "By the time I fell asleep, I was usually too worn out to care is all. So, one-hundred then?"

God. She always knew how to get under his skin.

He leaned back in his chair and nodded.

"I'll match," she said. And he set down his cards to reach into his pocket. He slipped four twenties and two tens from his pants. He only had a five left. He placed the money on the table between them. She followed suit with her own bills. She left her wallet on the table. It was new; he didn't recognize it.

"Did you two used to date?" Someone from the crowd asked.

Without looking over his shoulder to where the voice had come from, Shikamaru replied. "No."

Temari only looked at him, her sly smile much too familiar.

Shikamaru pulled out two cards and laid them face down on the table. With his the tips of his fingers bearing into the cards, he pushed them toward her. "Draw two."

She waited until he took his fingers off the back to reach for them. Then she took two from the top of the deck and pushed them forward. He took the news cards, but didn't turn them over. Suddenly, he didn't care about the cards. He didn't care about the game.

He wasn't sure what it was — maybe something in how she drew two from the deck, or the way she patiently waited for him to deliver his original two to her? Maybe it was the way she watched him, the way she evaluated the options before her?

But suddenly he can't stop looking at her. He can't look down or away or move to turn the facedown cards on the table up to the rest of his hand. He can't do anything but watch her.

Temari's smile, held mostly in place the entire game, wavered.

"What are you staring at?"

She had asked him the same question once before, a year and a half ago. It was the first thing she ever said to him. He wondered if she remembered.

They had also been in a bar then; a much crappier one right off campus. He had been staring at her the whole night, and, finally, right before he was about to leave, she confronted him. You, he had answered, because she knew the answer before she'd asked. She was his TA. He was always staring at her back then. Before that night too. Through half-a-semester of class. He'd always been staring and she'd always known why.

You look young, she'd said. He didn't want to tell her he was only nineteen. She was beautiful and smart, already accomplished. Certainly going for older guys. He had wanted her to go for him.

Want to play a game of poker? She'd asked. He'd had no choice but to agree. I'll win, she'd said. Okay, he'd responded.

Tonight, when she said now - when she inquired what he was staring at - she did so without any inflection. Without any hint of reflection. It hurt. She must not remember.

"Nothing," Shikamaru said, this time.

Temari tilted her head, considering him, and then let it go, looking away and exchanging her own cards, drawing three new ones for herself.

That had all happened a long time ago, but when he looked at her, it didn't feel like any time had passed at all.

"Any bets?" Temari asked, collapsing the cards held before her and placing them facedown on the table.

He'd always liked her eyes the most. This whole time he'd been focusing on her smile, but it was really always in her eyes, wasn't it? She was always challenging him. She was always so much work.

He'd never wanted to try so hard in his life.

Carefully, Shikamaru lifted the two she'd given him, adding them to his hand.

Hm.

"I'm not going to fold." He said, looking back at her, holding her gaze. "But I don't have any more money on me."

Temari hummed, thinking it over, eyes never leaving his. "If I win," she offered after a moment, "you have to clean my house. Dishes, toilets, everything."

He wasn't against it. It meant he'd see her. It meant he'd be back in her apartment.

"And if I win?"

Temari bit her lip, thinking.

He saw the moment she thought of it: the way her smile changed, the way her eyes narrowed.

It was always a game. She was always a game. He had always just been trying to win.

"If you win, you can take me home tonight."

Maybe he'd known it was going to go this way. Maybe, the moment she took him on and said it was her last game of the night, he'd known the eventual wager.

She might have been always been something to beat, but she also always seemed to forget that he too held cards.

"How does that benefit me?"

The crowd had already stirred when she made the offer, but now there were a series of murmurs and, out of the corner of his eye, Shikamaru saw some money switching hands.

Across from him, Temari's mouth fell into a hard line, but she wasn't unamused. "If you don't see any benefit for you, there is no need to accept it the proposal. Submit something else."

Shikamaru didn't really have to think about it, and there was no point in playing dumb when he knew exactly what coming home with him — her coming home with him — would mean.

There was no point either, now, in pretending like he didn't want it. She too knew what it meant for him to sit down at her table. She knew what he wanted. She'd always known.

"I'll take it." He exhaled, slow, watching her watch him, knowing what he wanted to ask — what he had always wanted to ask, even that first night last year. "But, I'll raise as well. If I win, you try it out. You don't limit it to sex, like last time."

Temari's expression changed once again, lips slightly parted and eyes burning into his, and he wondered how so many people could lose to her playing poker when she was so easy to read.

"If I win?"

She wasn't turning it down.

"I won't come clean your place, but I'll hire a maid to work for you. For three months. I'll starve, but I'll do it. Clean better than I ever could."

Temari held her breath and broke eye contact to lift her cards once more. She studied them, brow furrowed, and the sighed, slow, nodding. "Deal."

Shikamaru licked his lips. His cards could be seen by the people behind him, but none of them seemed to be speaking or making any indication of the hand he was holding. He glanced back.

Ino and Choji were there. He wasn't sure when they'd come. Maybe as soon as he had.

By Ino's expression — her arms crossed and features clearly unimpressed with what was unfolding before her — she had long figured out that the TA he was sleeping with last year was his current opponent. Choji, by contrast, was riveted, and when Shikamaru turned to look at him, he nodded in encouragement.

"Do you really think you'll win?" Temari asked, and it pulled Shikamaru's attention back.

He stared at her, trying to keep his face neutral. He'd had practice playing against her before.

"I'll risk it."

He didn't doubt he would win. Hadn't doubted it when he'd sat down fifteen minutes before. And if, by some chance, he happened to lose, he didn't doubt she'd come home with him anyway. Offering sex like that wasn't too attenuated from expressing actual interest in having sex with him again, was it? And when Temari expressed interest in something, she very rarely didn't get her way.

She smiled, more honest and open than he had seen all night.

Carefully — confidently — she laid out her cars, face-up, on the table. One by one.

A good portion of the crowd whooped, and the people standing in the middle, unable to see either hand in advance, started exchanging money back and forth.

"Well, Shikamaru," she said, and he smiled at her use of his first-name, smiled at the aplomb in her voice, "it looks like all your well earned money is mine." Without hesitation, she reached out, palm covering the cash in the middle of the table. She didn't even look at him as she pulled it back.

He waited a moment, cleared his throat, and then reached out to stop her, covering her fingers with his own. "You may want to check my cards before you go assuming things."

Temari stopped, caught by surprise. Then she scoffed and sat back, pulling her hand from his and leaving the money halfway between the center of the table and her end, shaking her head in annoyance.

"I had a straight flush," she said sharply, putting emphasis behind her hand. "It's almost impossible to beat that. No way you got a royal flush. This isn't shogi, Shikamaru. This is mostly about luck." She huffed, narrowing her eyes at him. "You can't win every game with your intelligence."

The room was silent. Everyone was looking to him. Except him - he was looking to her.

"Maybe not," he conceded, beginning to drag the pot to his seat. She let him move back, taking the cash with him, until he was once more situated in his chair, shoulders relaxed. She wasn't breathing. And then, carefully, he lifted his cards and began to lay them face-up on the table. "But I won this one."

a/n: when reediting this (still 2020 kick), the a/n in the original version worried that i was writing too many aus 😂😂