[Stop talking like you can marry me whenever you feel like it.]

She shifted a little beside him, her hair brushing his cheek as she swatted restlessly at a fly that buzzed just as lazily as he felt. He was used to the quiet buzzing, but evidently in the desert, it was something she had to adjust to. The buzzing suddenly silenced as she all but snatched the innocent insect out of the sky, crushing it in her fist.

She was a terrifying woman indeed.

"You were saying?" she said almost innocently as she wiped her palm against the grass. Shikamaru sighed – although Temari eventually started joining him on cloud-watching sessions, she was as restless as ever. It was like she didn't know that the objective was to sit and relax. Even though she lay opposite of him, her head by his but otherwise her body sticking in the other direction, her (jerky and guarded) movements exactly the opposite of soothing.

He rolled his eyes. "Nothing," he muttered. His gaze followed another cloud drifting lazily by, though he heard her shifting once more. Impatience spiked along his spine – can't the woman just sit still – and he blinked reflexively as her blonde hair scratched his cheek.

"You were saying something." Her voice was testy, curt, not at all soothing or calming. It completely broke the mood of the scene, though it wasn't exactly jarring or unwelcome – just different – a different he was getting used to. "Don't let me stop you."

He snorted, and even she chuckled too. "I was saying what I want out of life."

"Do go on."

Her voice was light, teasing, closer to his ear than he expected, but out of his peripheral he could see that she had turned her head towards his.

Shikamaru shifted once more, tucking a forearm underneath his head and another resting lightly on his stomach. "Well, after I become the Hokage's advisor-"

She erupted into a derisive snort – a rough, brash sound that wasn't at all cute but yet somehow womanly. She coughed once and swallowed. "-sorry," she said, not quite sounding sorry at all,

He carried on anyway, "- I would settle down with a girl." His mind said the next words for him – that is, a regular girl, not too ugly or too pretty – but somehow they stuck to his tongue, refusing to escape his lips. He didn't dwell on it too hard (he already suspected he knew why he didn't want to say them, anyway) and launched on. "Get married, have two children."

"Sounds like the life," Temari sighed, though her voice was muffled as she turned her head back upright, her hair scratching against the dirt and grass. His fingers drummed his abdomen, another cloud lazily drifting by. She suddenly swallowed and her voice sharpened. "But idealistic, isn't it?" He felt wind brush by his ear. Surprise caused him to sit up, the Sand shinobi mirroring his movements, and they stared at each other.

"You're a shinobi, Shikamaru. You don't know if you'll even come back tomorrow."

"Aren't you pragmatic," he muttered, and though her eyes narrowed momentarily, she flopped back down, the moment passing.

"I'm just saying," she said, her voice still brash but he could tell she was trying to be bracing. He lowered himself back down, their black melting into blonde as their cheeks brushed.

They fell into a comfortable silence, his mind still buzzing, though the soft breeze had lulled the two. Just as he felt his eyes droop, he felt slim yet calloused fingers tangle into his hair. It was comforting - an offer of apology.

"Two children, one girl, one boy. Preferably the girl is born first. I'd retire…" his voice dropped though his mind still raced, his vision blurring from focused to unfocused. "Spend the days with my wife… listening to her yell at people… mainly our son…" he yawned. "She'd be the scariest kunoichi, even though she's not even a Konoha native…"

But before his eyes fully shut, he winced and growled in pain as the fingers in his hair suddenly tensed and pulled. "Oy," her voice was cutting, almost a little bemused. His mind caught up to his voice as his head whipped towards her.

Their eyes met and he swore, for the umpteenth time, even she could hear his heart pound.

"Stop talking like you can marry me whenever you feel like it," Temari seethed, though the anger didn't reach her eyes. Whilst her voice was scathing, it was also slightly teasing. In his sleepy stupor, he felt his head swimming in that brilliant teal. But then she blinked and the contact was broken. "Seriously. Unlike you I don't want to settle down so fast."

"Ever the pragmatist," he teased as his vision blurred once more. She was close, too close, his body still feeling tired as the enticement of sleep was almost too much to pass up. "I'm a dreamer, remember?"

She clicked her tongue and she rolled her eyes, though he almost missed the motion. She called him something but the specifics were lost to his sleepy ears, Fingers danced along his forearm, which, decidedly, was now his pillow, the movements soft and soothing along his skin.

Sure, he was a dreamer, but it was pretty much inevitable.

They were dating, after all.