Day 40
Ino woke up mid-morning, yawning widely. She surveyed her surroundings and asked herself Damnit, what happened to my room? The question loomed in her head until her brain started turning its gears up to speed and replaying her memories of the previous day, from the news of her new weekend plans to the sweet goodnight kiss before she went to bed. That's right, she confirmed, I'm staying with Shikamaru and Choji this weekend.
She crawled out of the king sized bed and over to her suitcase, then tugged off her oversized souvenir T-Shirt from the local zoo (she had never been there herself, actually. It was a shirt she had jacked from Shikamaru's room long before when she cleaned it) and replaced it with a smaller, more comfortable graphic tee with various crazy designs. Deciding, like she did every weekend morning, that she would stay in her flannel pants for the time being, she walked out the door and trudged down the stairway.
Choji had beaten her downstairs, and was fishing through Shikamaru's pantry and fridge for some good breakfast food, "Morning, Choji."
"Morning!" He said cheerfully, pulling himself out of the pantry with a box of Aunt Jemima's Original Pancake Mix, smiling, "Found the mix, thought I'd make pancakes for you guys today."
"Excellent." Ino smiled, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She sat on a stool at the bar-counter that separated the kitchen from the living room, watching Choji mix the ingredients together for the batter. She yawned again as Choji cracked one of the eggs and began stirring the concoction together, "What time is it?"
"Ah….. almost ten." He nodded, "I'm almost done with this. Could you go get Shikamaru? Pancakes are better fresh, and I'm almost done with these."
"…you think he'll get out of bed?"
"With the right motivation." He laughed and finished stirring, then pulled a spatula out of one of the drawers, "Whacking normally works for his mother. Just go get him, all right?"
"Sure." She nodded, sleep finally leaving her and her energy beginning to build back up. She hopped off the stool and up the stairway, to his room. She didn't bother knocking, she just flung open the door. He'd never open the door for her anyway, not this early.
"Shika-a-a," She sang, walking over to his bed and sitting on its edge, "Wake up, Shika, Choji's making pancakes and if we don't get down there fast enough he just may eat them all." A muffled grunt was heard from underneath the comforter where Shikamaru hid himself from the morning light. Ino tugged the thick blanket from his sturdy grip – a little surprisingly strong for one such lazy person in the morning – and threw it to his feet. Shikamaru cringed at the sudden light change, but still refused to wake up. She sighed and lay down beside him. "Oh, come on, please wake up? You sleep nearly all day anyway!"
"Mmm…" he grumbled. Ino smiled, glad to have gotten through to him. However, contrary to her belief, Shikamaru instead snaked both of his arms around her and hugged her body close to his, rested his head on his pillow and mumbled again, "Five more minutes."
Ino blushed and giggled lightly, raised both hands to rest on her shoulders and sighed contentedly. Five minutes couldn't hurt…
However, to her surprise, Shikamaru kept to his promise and five minutes later, he pulled himself up from his bed and crawled out to his bathroom. Ino sat up, a little drowsy once more, and furrowed her brow in confusion. She was sure one such person as lazy as him would push for more time to sleep…
She snapped out of that when she saw Shikamaru trudge back from the bathroom, then shift threw a pile of clothes laying on his dresser. He picked up a green t-shirt, sniffed it, and gave it his approval, then tugged it on and searched for a suitable pair of pants to change into. As Ino observed him in his normal morning routine, she realized something…
His hair was down. And he looked good with his hair down. She had honestly never seen him without that black mass of hair pulled back in the usual ponytail that resembled he top of a pineapple, and was so sad now she never had.
"Ino," he grunted to her, grabbing a rubber band off his nightstand to pull it back with, and reached his hands to the top of his head to do so, "Get up."
"No!" She shot up to her feet and grabbed his hands, pulling them away from his hair, "I like your hair that way!"
He stared down at her, eyebrows raised, and shook his head, "It's troublesome that way," and swiftly pulled it back without her consent. Shikamaru then grabbed her arm and pulled her out the doorway, "Come on, let's go get breakfast."
Ino stared at him strangely as they walked back into the kitchen, where Choji had just finished flipping the last pancake and had stacked them all onto a plate that sat beside him at the stove. He smiled at them both, turned the stove off and set the plate down on the kitchen table, "Good morning!"
"Good morning." Shikamaru said back in an uncharacteristically perky tone. Ino's jaw dropped as she watched him walk over to the fridge, back straight and his feet completely leaving the floor with each step. She began piecing the events into her head and drew up her own conclusion…
Shikamaru's a morning person!?
Shikamaru looked up to her and cocked an eyebrow as he poured himself a glass of orange juice, "What is it?"
"N…nothing." She blinked. This is so unlike him! He's such a lazy ass… wouldn't he be just as useless in the morning as he is in the day? Why can't he just be like this all the time!? None of it makes sense!
"Ino!"
"What!?" She snapped out of her thoughts and put her attention on Shikamaru.
"Do you want any orange juice?" He asked, shaking a carton of it in one hand.
"Oh, yeah… sure."
Ino watched him reach into the cabinet for another glass, set it onto the island counter and fill it with orange juice. Well, I guess it makes enough sense… he's so lazy all the rest of the day, sleeping whenever he can… I suppose there's one time in the day he's got to be at least somewhat energetic. I just never expected it to be morning…
"Ino, come on! Stop daydreaming and sit down to breakfast." Shikamaru shouted to her from the table, where he and Choji had already sat down. She nodded and quickly joined them.
"Sleep well?" Shikamaru asked, reaching for the first pancake on the stack and picking it up with his fork.
"Yeah," Choji pursed his lips and grabbed the next one, "I had this odd dream, though. There were a bunch of cupcakes chasing me…"
"That's because you eat too much, Choji, they want their revenge." Shikamaru poured some syrup onto his pancakes, "What about you, Ino?"
Ino jumped in her seat, and looked at the two buys on either side of her. Both of them looked back expectantly, "Oh, yeah, fine."
"Are you going to eat anything?"
"Yes!" She took a pancake off the center plate and took the syrup after Choji had drenched his pancakes in it. Shikamaru shook his head, not bothering to ask, and proceeded to eating his food. Ino looked over to Choji and frowned. Why wasn't he surprised about this?
She shrugged and ate her food as well, he would be used to whatever Shikamaru acts like at any time, he's known him longer.
But as Ino fiddled with her food and ate slowly, Choji and Shikamaru were scarfing down the last of their meals. Choji went onto his second helping, but Shikamaru yawned, leaned one elbow onto the table…
…and fell asleep right there in his seat.
Ino sighed and took a bite,
"There you are."
Ino leaned into the doorframe of Shikamaru's bedroom door, her arms crossed and her eyebrows knitted into a frustrated glare. Shikamaru opened one eye from where he lay napping on his bed and raised his eyebrows in question. Ino sighed and stepped inside.
"While I was on the phone with Sakura, you and Choji mysteriously disappeared. I have yet to find him yet, but here I find you. I don't know why I didn't look here first." Shikamaru grunted in reply to this and closed his one open eye. Ino sighed and looked down on him, then lightly kicked the foot of his bed, "I'm bored, Shika." She whined.
"Why don't you clean my room again?" He yawned. She shrugged and obliged, knowing there was nothing better to do., and set to work. After a short, silent moment, Ino paused in the middle of gathering the dirty laundry scattered on the floor, and looked back over to his bed. A question posed itself in her mind.
"Shikamaru, why didn't you ever tell me you were a morning person?"
"A what?" He asked and opened both eyes this time to question her.
"A morning person! You were so… energetic this morning compared to how I usually see you. Why is that?"
He shrugged, "I don't know. I never noticed."
"It must be because you sleep so much, that once you've woken up in the morning you just can't sleep anymore. Your body needs to exert some sort of energy before it can rest any longer."
"Yeah." He agreed, hinting in the tone of his voice that he would rather be sleeping, like she said, instead of discussing this matter.
"Oh, get up." She dumped the laundry in the bathroom's hamper before walking over to his bed and tugging on his arm. She succeeded in getting him to sit up, but not to get him to stand. She sighed and plopped down beside him on the bed, then leaned her head onto his shoulder. "This laziness of yours is contagious."
He smiled triumphantly and reached an arm around her waist, hugging her to him. "My lifestyle is my choice, Ino."
"And I shouldn't mess it up." She sighed. Shikamaru leaned over and kissed her forehead.
"Thank you."
"Anyway," She looked out the window and noted the position of the sun, "It's getting late, and we haven't eaten dinner. Not to mention I don't know where Choji is or when he'll show up."
"Hmm… I'm not really that hungry." He snaked his other arm around her waist and hugged her tighter, then lowered his head down to hers in order for their lips to meet. She kissed him back with full force, and he tugged her down with him onto his bed…
"Hey guys!" Choji yelled into the dark house when he returned later that night, "Sorry I ran off like that! I saw a commercial on TV for this restaurant and… hey… where'd they go?" Choji scratched his head and closed the door behind him. After pulling his shoes off, he wandered into the home of his best friend, checking the entire first floor and the backyard before moving upstairs. He looked from Ino's bedroom door to that of Shikamaru's – both were closed shut. He shrugged and headed to his own room.
"Ah, it's late. They must have headed to bed already."
"Shikamaru?"
"Yeah?" He yawned, and turned his head so he could gaze into those shining blue orbs he had grown to be so fond of.
Ino snuggled deeper into his embrace and smiled, "You know, I wouldn't want you to be as energetic as you are in the morning all the time. I love your laziness."
He smirked, "Glad you see it my way."
She prodded him in the ribs with a finger, frowning, "Hey, don't think you can all high and mighty now."
"Wouldn't dare," he yawned again, rested his head beside hers and quickly fell into a deep sleep.
Sure enough, the next morning Shikamaru wasn't exactly a morning person anymore.
(dances her I-can-post-quickly-now-oh-yes-I-can dance)
Wahaha. So I was talking with my buddy Firey (FFN account being firey171, though she has yet to really write anything yet….) the other day, and I says to her, I says "Firey, do you think Shikamaru would be a morning person or be ten thousand times more useless than usual?"
And she says "….dude…. he would so be a morning person."
So morning person he became! And Ino became utterly confused :D
Thaaaaaaaaaaaaaat was amusing.
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Save Dsneyworld, kids.