The next morning, or afternoon, I woke half in the bed, half out, with Shikamaru still asleep. He had grabbed my arm in his sleep and was still on top of it. I could feel his chest pressing against it as he breathed in and out, which was bare except for the bandages I had wrapped around it. I extracted myself and went through the processes of ridding the pins and needles from my arm. Akamaru had slept on the floor, understanding somehow that it wouldn't do for him to be in the bed.

I called Shikamaru's parents and Tsunade to let them know he was safe. Tsunade yelled at me and told me to yell at him, and also told me to wake him up and feed him as much meat as he'd eat. His mom was just happy to hear from me.

I tossed together a half-assed omelet for Shikamaru and me; the one thing that Temari had taught me to cook that hadn't ended with a fire extinguisher. When I came back to my bedroom, arms laden with plates full of food, Shikamaru was standing on one leg in the middle of the room trying to pull on some pants.

"Get your ass back in bed!" I scolded, feeling like my mother as I set the plates down and pushed him back into the bed. "You're on the mend, just stay in bed today."

"Can't I at least have pants?" He mumbled, still woozy from the pain pills I had given him to help him get to sleep last night.

"Dude, what's the point in pants if you aren't going anywhere?" I asked as I retrieved one of the plates. "Can you feed yourself?" His response was just to make a chirping noise and open his mouth. Before I knew what was happening, I was laughing and the toast had spilled on the floor and I was cursing at the fallen toast while still laughing and Shikamaru was laughing at me and cursing the pain while trying to stop laughing. It was the first time in a long time I had laughed at all, and it felt so damn good.

When we calmed down I gave him my toast and we sat and ate and occasionally talked about something random and insignificant. I felt so relieved to just be there with him that I couldn't think of any greater happiness. I would have been content to just stay in my room with Akamaru chomping on the toast by my feet, just eating and talking and smiling. But eventually we swung around to the big topic.

Shikamaru twisted to get his glass of orange juice from the table and ended up re-opening his side wound, so I took the bandages off and washed off the blood and tried to get it to close again.

"You know, I could call Ino or Sakura over here, they'd be back by now." I offered.

"Nah, these are my badges of victory. I'll let them heal naturally, even though it's a pain. I was worth it though, getting him."

I focused on the bandages beneath my hands. "I knew you would."

There was silence for a while, and when I looked up at him I realized he had been staring at me. I suddenly became aware that Akamaru had left at some point, and we were the only ones in the room.

"No you didn't. You were scared that he'd get me." My eyes widened and for a moment I felt like I had let everything slip, and he could see every last bit of me, every thought I'd ever had, every emotion I'd ever felt...

"It's okay." He smiled a little. "Everyone was scared he would. Even me."

I focused as hard as I could on tying the bandage and then I sat back. He was looking at me with that unintelligible look again, the one that I still didn't understand, that I felt like I would never understand. So I decided right then and there to put it all out on the line.

"Temari told me she was homosexual..." I paused, not knowing where to go from there, but Shikamaru beat me to the punch.

"So." He said, letting a horrible resignation resounding throughout that single syllable, "I guess you know about me then. I'm sorry, I know you're my friend and I should tell you these things, but I never could. I seem to be irrationally afraid of you hating me. And my mom is always going on about grandkids whenever Temari's over... I just don't want to disappoint her, you know?" He had said almost everything like he was on auto pilot, but he met my eyes for the briefest of seconds and began to choke up. He barely managed to add "It's such a pain."

I could barely process what I was hearing.

"Shikamaru, Temari told me she was gay, and so that's how she could tell... about me. She told me that she knew how it felt and if I ever needed someone to talk to, I could talk to her. She didn't say anything about..." I made a vague gesture at Shikamaru. "But do you really mean... ?"

He was giving me that look again. That look that I could never understand.

"Kiba, I... Yeah. I'm gay. Do you really mean... ?"

"Yeah." I sighed in relief and almost laughed. "Yeah, me too."

"What about Hinata?"

"She knows. We comfort each other. Not like sex, I just..." I took a deep breath. "I just have been having really horrible nightmares for a long time. And she helps by letting me sleep with her. Sleep in the same bed as her. But she's really like a sister to me."

"So did Temari catch on about these nightmares or what?" He asked, a little confused.

"God no, that was before they started." I waved my hand dismissively, hoping he would just let the subject die, but he must've sensed how much they upset me. Honestly, I was just lucky to have hid them from him this long.

"Then, what where they about?" I saw the genuine concern on his face and I knew that I couldn't get out of this one.

"They were..." I started, and then stopped. I looked down at my shoes, and too embarrassed to talk to Shikamaru, I talked to them. "About... About you. Getting hurt. Every time the dream begins I can tell you're going to get hurt and every time I fight as hard as I can to save you but every time I watch you die. Ever since the-"

His lips suddenly crashed against mine. His arms were around my neck, his fingers in my hair, his chest pressing against mine in an urgent need for contact. But most of all, his lips caressed mine, pulled at mine, bit at mine, captured mine in every way they could. I was too shocked to really kiss him back, but when he pulled away, embarrassed, I grabbed his hand and pulled him into a hard hug, squeezing him as tightly as I could.

"Shikamaru..." I whispered, unable to get anything more out. He was hugging me back now, and I could feel his tears starting to soak my shirt again. "Shikamaru I am so sorry. I love you so much." I was crying too.