[Shikatema Prompt! Just after the war's ended, while everyone's recovering, Ino overhears Shikamaru's dream. Horribly embarrassing matchmaking ensues- from teasing to dropping hints to making Shikamaru and Temari share a medical tent.]

Late prompt fill is late

"So, why am I in this tent with you?"

He sighed.

Where does he begin?

Well, he could, theoretically, start with that earsplitting squeal. He knew Ino was a girl and was full of surprising and suspect sounds but he didn't anticipate the caterwaul that erupted from her mouth. Girls – he should have known Ino was listening in when he thought he was privately confiding with Choji about the details of his dream.

And yet as his voice was low (even for him) and he was trying to tell his best friend about how he was aware, apparently, so was the blonde as she had burst between them, grabbed his hands, and positively bounced up and down, saying she wanted to help.

He didn't need help, he had sighed, but the words (as always) flew over her head as she shook his captive hand with such vigor that he felt as if his arm had somehow morphed into a noodle. "I got you, I got you," she had repeated, her voice slowly going from excited to sly, a change that had Shikamaru very, very nervous.

So the blonde had tailed him all day even as he was checking in with the ninjas he was in charge of, like an unwanted shadow, loudly muttering nice things to do for her. Things like, "maybe you should check on her, she might appreciate that" to "you know, you should go visit her or something." He briefly contemplated setting the record straight, grabbing Ino by the shoulders, and just explaining how none of those ideas would work, but that was much too troublesome and, knowing the blonde, would do close to nothing to dissuade her.

And when her eyes lit up, he frowned as her lips curved into a cross between a smirk and grin as she clapped his hands together between hers (just the action already had him recoiling). She had patted him on the shoulders. "Go to the medical tent."

Here they were.

Temari's lip curled as she sat down on the prop-up bed tucked into the corner. "Seriously – my injuries aren't bad at all." Her arms folded over her chest (he tried to ignore the shifting of other) and her tongue clicked. "but the Konoha medical-nins all but shoved me in here."

"How peculiar," he replied, trying to keep his voice steady. God damn it Ino, he thought rather viciously, why do you like to do this with me…

He sat down on the other bed, sighing again, shrugging off the flak jacket before discarding it on the middle of the floor. "We like to be thorough," he added as he steepled his fingers together, elbows resting on his knees. Temari's eyebrow raised but a chuckle escaped her lips, a low, rather harsh sound, not nearly as earpleasing as the other bouts of laughter he had heard from other girls in his village. And yet, whilst it wasn't the most pleasant of sounds, there was a roughness and toughness to it that touched him in ways any other laughter wouldn't have been able to.

So this is what's like to be whipped, he grimaced, though her chuckles died down and she cleared her throat, he couldn't help but to notice as she drew one leg over another, creamy thighs rubbing together as she sat up. "You've always been, ah, quite thorough, haven't you?"

Her voice - still sharp, still laced with suspicion – somehow seemed quieter, almost fond, as her lips softened into a smile. It was a smile he realized he was somewhat used to seeing nowadays, just the small upturn of his lips somehow satisfying and fulfilling. It was a smile just meant for him, or maybe he was monopolizing – overthinking, as he was prone to doing. But her blue eyes weren't steeled nor hard, just relaxed, as if she were at ease when she was around him. He hoped so, at least.

He smirked. "Always two steps ahead."

And then her stance shifted as the double-entendre wasn't lost to her: rather her eyelids fluttered and redness touched her cheeks for the briefest of seconds. His mind flew to the implications – what was her dream? Was it similar to his? Was he in her dream? What was going through her mind?

He felt that weird magnetic feeling again – where he was drawn to her, where he found himself leaning forward over his steepled fingers and he was about to roll onto his feet and sit beside her. In fact the only thing stopping him from doing that was his own conscience, kicked back into gear as it screamed at him to think – try to stop acting upon his urges and just be rational – something he never had a problem with.

It was that stupid, stupid dream.

But she was leaning forward too, the dusting of red still present in her face as her eyes clouded – clouded but seemed somewhat vulnerable as her walls fell in pieces around her. She seemed somewhat abashed, her stance still somewhat withheld as opposed to oppressive, and for those fleeting moments, he realized that – whilst Temari was a hardass – she was still a girl.

A girl who liked flowers, took care of her brothers, handled relations between their two nations with such superiority that he almost forgot about how much responsibility she had always shouldered.

But the fragile moment shattered as the curtain drew back with violence.

"Sooooo Temari," was the horribly perky voice, the two of them jumping and straightening, Shikamaru trying to hide the sudden rush of heat that flew to his head. Oh God. The blonde burst into their tent, her overly familiar tone also apparent in her stance as she threw her a very wide smile. "You know, my boy Shikamaru here a real romantic type-"

He groaned and buried his head into the nearby pillow.

But Temari's voice sharply reverted back to its scathing quality, any trace of fondness painfully banished from her tone as she replied testily, "Oh really?"

And then Ino began to yammer her head off, whatever she was saying he wasn't even sure was true about him though he had to admit, it wasn't a terrible effort of "selling" him. Either way, he just wanted her to leave, and seeing Temari's face, he almost laughed as it was a mixture of fury, mortification, and annoyance.

"Okay Ino, you can stop now," he murmured.

"- long walks on the beach, that kind of guy –"

"I'm not one for that," Temari replied testily, the konoha-nin silencing nearly instantaneously. Now she had shifted forward, her eyes flashing dangerously as she palmed her weapon, resting against the bedframe. "In fact, I'm much more for the fiercely action kind of guy." As Ino sputtered, her eye caught his and there was something aloof and teasing about it – challenging, like the troublesome woman she was.

His teammate was by his side, him barely registering as she whispered: "I have flowers outside, the ones she like – I asked Kankuro – so you know, you can give them to her when you get a chance –"

"Point of interest, still here," Temari deadpanned as Shikamaru slapped a hand over the kunoichi's mouth. He spun the blonde around with ease before all but shoving the ninja out the door.

"I don't need help," he hissed, but Ino shrugged and gave him a knowing look. He groaned – she knew him too well – but he narrowed his eyes anyway. "Okay, maybe in that sense, but start moving." The blond shot him another look but she complied, marching away whilst positively seething.

He let out another breath, not a sigh but more of a groan, as he turned to go back into the tent. His eye suddenly caught a colourful explosion set off to the side – a bouquet of beautifully arranged flowers awaiting him. He grimaced – leave it to Ino to create the most intricate of bouquets – but as he stared, he noted the roses. Flowers, yes, but barbed and dangerous, but yet the most beautiful of them all; for they were different, unique, sly, full of life –

"Get your ass back in here, Nara!"

- And ridiculously scary, he sighed, as he swallowed his quickly-retreating dignity. One might even say they (and she, by extension) were troublesome.