a/n: okay another quick update. This one was co-written (basically my story board and heathrowe's writing because am going au-mode these days, so give appreciation to her because she is a great author and a joy to work with/ mentor (because she is a child and knows nothing)).

This fulfills a request from Lauren j. for them in a war. Hopefully it filled the request well.

Swallowed

"What do you think?"

"About?"

"Tomorrow."

Shikamaru glanced up from the papers before him and raised his brows at her. He wondered how long she had been awake. Temari waited. He sighed and resumed his reading, "it doesn't look good."

Temari gave a small laugh and rolled onto her back. "Don't give me vague, half-ass answers now, Shikamaru."

The corners of his lips quirked and he absently ran a hand through his loose hair. The smile was only a pretense though. His body was hot, probably from the sex, but his blood ran cold. Both of them were running on lead now. Exhausted and hungry and worn and so fucking terrified that he was surprised he wasn't empty at this point.

He stretched his legs beneath the makeshift desk in the makeshift house which was really just a few boards stuck together pretending to provide shelter. It worked though- well enough, and had for the past three years.

"Are you scared," she asked.

Temari was on the bed, one leg bent and propped up. She had fallen asleep pretty soon after. He'd had trouble sleeping recently. Always, actually. It had been a favorite pastime of his growing up, and he did it frequently, he just never had done it really well. Now his insomnia was worse.

Shikamaru looked back up from the desk. Her head was turned and she was staring at him, waiting patiently for an answer. "Yeah."

"You aren't scared often."

"Not when I don't have a reason to be."

"But you're scared now?"

"Yes."

"God," she said, staring back up at the ceiling. She threw her forearm above her head and it landed back on the bed with a light thud, "you're such a girl."

"Aren't you?" He defended.

Temari thought about this for a moment and then shrugged. "I think I've accepted it."

"Death?"

She rolled onto her side to fully face him, nodding. Temari could sleep. He had been surprised the first time they had sex: how quickly she fell asleep afterwards. It wasn't like they were really fucking. It wasn't really hard or long or tiring. But she always slept. Dense and well and deep. There were times he thought she might have been sick or something, so light was her breath and heavy her eyelids.

But her sleep was always short. Usually she didn't stay the whole night, waking up after an hour or two and then leaving. Then there were some days when she didn't leave. He thought that maybe, on those days, she wanted company.

He watched as her fingers danced over the curve of her hip. The pads of her finger tips were rough and dry, but somehow the skin of her stomach and thighs remained soft throughout the war. He had found himself wondering before, whether her skin would be even softer had he ever touched her outside the war. He huffed, looking away. "Stupid," he said absently.

"I'm being realistic," she justified, "if we're going to die, I might as well fight my best without any wayward expectations. If I'm too concerned about staying alive, I probably won't kill as many people as I would have."

Shikamaru sighed and looked back up at her. He wondered whether she was kind of relieved or not. Would it be easier to die? He wondered whether he kind of felt the same way.

"That's an awfully narrow minded view, don't you think?"

She licked her lips without giving answer.

"What about all the things you could do if you lived? You could see Kankuro again."

"No use thinking about that." He watched as she sat up and stretched. "You said it yourself, Shikamaru. 'It doesn't look good.'"

"I didn't say we were going to die."

Temari rolled her eyes. "Are we going to die?"

He gave a shrug. "Yeah, I'd say so."

Temari nodded and then threw her legs over the edge of the bed and stood up. She walked over to him. He watched her movement carefully, the locomotion of limbs, one step in front of the other. It was autumn, and much too cool to be so idly naked, but besides the hardness of her nipples, she gave no inclination that she felt the cold. When she was before him, she leaned down and planted her lips on his.

The kiss was hard and heavy and kind of depressing. When she was done, she straightened and walked back to bed. This time she fell onto her stomach, facing him with her chin propped in her hands.

Shikamaru continued to watch her. He never really got sick of it. But he wasn't really aroused. His bones felt weak and brittle.

"What about kids?" He prodded. "You'll never have kids. Or get married. Don't you want to do those things?"

"What's your problem here?" Temari shifted in place. "Of course I'd like those things. But I've accepted my fate, isn't that the better thing to do?"

"I just don't like your mentality, is all."

"Mine seems significantly better than yours."

"I think if you have no inhibition about death, you're more reckless on the battlefield." Shikamaru rubbed a thumb over his lip. "…when you have nothing to lose, it's harder to win, I think."

Temari took a long breath, moving once more to sit up, crossing her legs beneath her. "Would you rather I go in with some prospect to live?"

He shrugged. slumping further in his seat. "I think so." He certainly had reasons to live; things he thought about every day.

"How about," she proposed, "if we both get out of this alive, we'll get married?"

Shikamaru stopped; then blinked. "Oh?"

"Is that enough incentive?"

He found it rather fitting that any sort of declaration of love would be said in such a manner between them.

They had been in this relationship for a little over a year now. Not particularly long. But even when they'd began that, it had seemed rather fitting. It wasn't difficult, they were both rather adaptable and easy and actually kind of pathetic people.

They had sex because sex was nice. They did it because they were lonely and broken. And they did it with each other because there had never really been anyone else.

Shikamaru licked his lower lip. "Well, will it give you incentive to stay alive?"

Temari thought his over and then shrugged. "Yeah, I guess."

"We'll get married then."

"But we're going to probably die before that."

He thought it would probably be really nice to be married to her. He would add that to his list of things to do. "Yeah. Probably."

There was silence again as they sorted through their own separate thoughts.

"Would you really marry me?"

He glanced at her. "Yeah."

"Ah. You know, I always thought we would get married one day."

"You and I? What, are you in love with me or something?"

"Maybe."

"That's vague."

She shrugged.

"Well," he continued, "I might be in love with you too, if that's any consolation."

She didn't seem particularly surprised. "'Might be'?"

"I have no other references to go on."

"You've never had another girlfriend?"

"I've dated," he said in answer.

She smiled to herself and flipped over again to her back, lying sideways to the bed. "Too bad." She said softly.

"Hm?"

"About tomorrow."

"I thought you'd made peace with it."

"I have," she said, rubbing her eyes. "But I think I'd rather try with you."

He gave a small laugh.

There was more silence. Shikamaru went back to the documents in front of him. He was only rereading old papers or orders that probably didn't apply as Madara's army was proposed to arrive by noon the next day.

"Shikamaru," she said after a while, in a low drawl. "Come back to bed."

He sighed and stood up, stretching. On his way, he pulled off the thick sleeved shirt he'd donned earlier, as well as a pair of drawstring pants. He slipped beneath the covers and she moved to follow suit. They lay beside one another. Temari shifted and bumped her knee into his thigh, but didn't move away.

Staring at the ceiling, Shikamaru gave a low exhale. "You know," he said, "I am really happy you're here."

She rolled over and closed her eyes.

"I'm only guessing," he continued. "We've experienced miracles before."

"Eh."

"I'm only saying…" he rolled to his side and placed a hand on her ribcage, "I could be wrong, you know. I could be wrong about this."

Temari leaned into him. "No," she whispered quietly. "No, you're not. You never are." Outside, a strong gust of wind shook the house.

(edit:)reminder: I DID NOT WRITE ALL THIS! all the reviews are great, cause I definitely finalized/outlined the whole story, but beides my edits and the plot, the base of every sentence was heathrowe and it'd be really nice if in your reviews you give half to her. Seriously. I appreciate your kindness, but she takes credit for half of this.

...

I'm telling you guys. Fucking Alexz Johnson titles. I can't stop.

Please send more requests and reviews my way, they're really great and actually are what give me incentive to work!

Love.

p.s. who started watching city hunter?!