Summary: Shikamaru thinks that, for once, it was probably best he did nothing at all. (Rating: G)
A Moment Stolen
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Right from the start, Shikamaru sensed several things at once even as he struggled to clear the cobwebs muddling his brain from the aftermath of a nap. Though his eyes remained closed, he gathered that the sun was probably setting by the red he could see from behind his eyelids. His legs had fallen asleep as well, and he tried to flex his toes to get the blood circulating again.
But what he noticed above all else was the weight that pressed against the crook of his neck and how warm the left side of his body felt. The feeling was just a bit too disconcerting, and for all of his genius, Shikamaru had no idea how he was supposed to react. Nervous, perhaps, though that obviously wouldn't help in the least.
He shifted his butt a little to relieve the numbness but abruptly froze when he felt the weight stir against his shoulder. It was a moment longer before he finally allowed himself to breathe, a slow steady exhale of air escaping through his parted lips.
This was most definitely, entirely, very very troublesome.
Still, there was no other way to proceed but carefully. He sat rooted to the grass as he cracked, first, one eye open to gauge the position he had somehow gotten himself into. And then he found that he couldn't move at all as he openly stared at the bundle of blond leaning against him.
The spikes of her hair tickled his jawline, and Shikamaru was simultaneously struck by how incredibly strange yet normal it was that she had fallen asleep on him. But what threw him completely off-kilter was the way she looked. He realized, then, that he had never had the leisure to really look at her - to really trace his eyes along the soft curves of her face and take in all the little details that made her so distinctly Temari.
It was odd, when he thought about it, how her face could be so familiar to him and yet it was like he had never truly seen her at all. It occurred to him that the opportunity to actually look at her like this had never before been granted to him. It made him think of the way she often stared at him, with the kind of intensity that made him focus on her gaze alone - so much so that he couldn't look at anything else.
Now though, as he took in the entire composition of her face, he became overwhelmed by a different kind of discovery. Awake, Temari seemed to constantly be cloaked by a tight, defensive demeanor borne more from habit than anything else. But asleep, she lay almost carelessly against him with her shoulders slacked and the creases of her face smoothed by the relaxed slumber. It made him a little bit embarrassed to be watching her in this kind of intimate manner, and he briefly wondered how long he had before she woke up and found herself leaning on him so freely.
She would kill him, he thought.
He knew, without a doubt, that she would pale slightly before she pushed him off in a hurry and perhaps smack him in the head as color rushed back to her cheeks. Or something violent like that. Never mind that she was the one who fell asleep on him.
But until then, he thought there was no reason he should speed along that consequence by waking her up. Besides, this was kind of nice. And with that thought, Shikamaru closed his eyes and drifted back to sleep with a satisfied smirk on his face.
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Still experimenting. I'm not very satisfied with the way this turned out, but geez, how did I manage to write so many words about absolutely nothing happening? Reviews are greatly appreciated, thank you. I'd love to hear what other ShikaTema fans think. :)
Written: May 3rd, 2006 (606 Words)