Chapter 2: Daisies and the Lamp

Mahiru's POV

It was a beautiful day, a stark difference from the stormy weather of yesterday. I returned home after dropping off the package of coffee beans at the Hokage's building. After seeing Shikamaru's shinobi headband on his arm, I figured that it was the best place to deliver something as discreetly as possible.

I checked on my potted plants on the rooftop as I worried myself silly.

What if he's still mad? He seemed like an awfully nice person for helping me, and, oh, oh—

Oh, who was I kidding. I was undeniably childish to him, and being a weepy idiot to someone who was obviously having a hard time. It would be unsurprising if he never came back again.

I sighed. Can't deny that he was really attractive. Even if he completely chewed me out.

Satisfied that my plants were safe, I trotted down to the second (technically the ground) floor where my private quarters were. My walls were painted a seafoam green and decorated with the seashells I collected from years past at the beach. Garlands of pretty, twinkly fairy lights adorned the door to my bedroom.

Not to brag, but if I was an interior designer, I'd be pretty damn good at it.

I pushed open the door and went to search for my box of origami paper. Every year, I folded 1000 paper cranes for the kindergarten I worked at with my best friend, Momoka. The shop itself didn't make any money since I lent out the things for free, so I worked at the kindergarten three-quarters of the week.

After collecting the paper, I ran downstairs to begin folding, flipping the switch that opened the skylight on the way. Bumping into a plastic figurine of a frog, I grabbed it by the head and steadied it before it tumbled down the stairway.

Whew.

"Are you always this clumsy?"

My eyes widened and I looked up. "Shika—oh my goodness."

The tips of his ears were pinking as he shoved a small bouquet of daisies into my face.

Dazed, I accepted the bouquet, confused. "What's this for?"

He rubbed the back of his neck, evidently not sure how to begin. "I didn't…yelling at you like that…it's wasn't on purpose." Shikamaru shifted his stance uneasily.

Oh. Oh.

It was silent for a few moments before he tried to speak again.

"I…got the coffee beans. Thanks."

I unhinged my jaw. "…You're welcome." Squeezing the stalks of the flowers tightly in my hands, I breathed in its scent. "Thank you very much. These are the first flowers anyone has ever given me."

This seemed to unnerve him, because he started fidgeting even more and his ears got even redder. Finally, he sighed. "Don't worry about it." His ears returned to its normal color.

"Um…"

Well, this is awkward.

"Want to…stay for some coffee?"

He looked a little relieved. I wasn't sure why—maybe because I didn't get mad at him or something. "Yeah."

Shikamaru watched me as we sat on the floor, him sipping his coffee (I do think that I converted him) and me folding away in a myriad of colors.

"Isn't it troublesome to do this paper folding stuff?" he asked as he examined a purple-colored crane.

"Well, sure, but I like to do it," I answered, finishing off a yellow one and plopping it into a jar.

"Don't you have to work?" he asked bluntly, tossing the violet bird into the glass jar with the yellow once he was done with it.

"The store is my job," I answered simply. "It's an inheritance that my great-uncle gave me. Never met him before but he's really wealthy, so he provides for me as long as I keep the shop alive and collect stuff. But I work at my friend's kindergarten—it's called Himawari Youchien, and it's about the cutest thing ever."

"That's the life," he commented. Slurrrrp. He drained the mug of its caffeine.

"It is," I agreed. "I don't know what I did in my past life, but it must've been good. Anyways, I'm not really good at anything in particular except for collecting and taking care of kids. I flunked out of Ninja Academy, did you know that?"

"I wasn't aware that anyone could flunk out of the Academy," he commented dryly, although I didn't understand the joke behind it. "What'd you do?"

Taking a break from the cranes, I leaned back on an ottoman instead and folded my hands onto my lap. "It wasn't as much as what I did do, it was what I didn't do. Basically I wasn't compatible at all with the profession, so I transferred to a regular school instead."

He reached for one of the papers and folded a lopsided airplane lazily, tossing it and watching the plane float through the air. "Where are your parents?"

"Not here."

Shikamaru glanced sideways awkwardly.

"…I meant that they're not here here. They're still alive, just not in Konoha." I laughed quietly. "Went off on their worldly travels. That's where a lot of my stuff comes from."

Shikamaru grunted in reply, eyes still on the airplane.

"What about you?"

"Huh?" He looked up, looking slightly disoriented.

"I've told you about myself, but I don't know much about you," I elaborated.

He was quiet for a moment before I started regretting my decision. What if I touched on something unmentionable? Like, what if he had some kind of terrible past and now I dug it all up and—

"I have a frustratingly intelligent father and a vicious, tyrant of a mother. I'm a Jonin. I like playing shogi and go." He paused. "Oh, and I was sent here by my mom to get some kind of lamp."

My mind flashed back to Yoshino-san, who had come into the shop a couple days before to borrow the malamba lamp. "Oh, are you Yoshino-san's son?"

He shrugged, yawning. "Nara Shikamaru, that's me."

"Aaaah, I get it now. Hold on, let me find the lamp." Retreating to the far corner of the room, I stepped over a pile of books and ducked underneath a hanging lamp to find what I called The Clutter Stash. Filled with an assortment of toys, books, items, and collectibles, it was large and almost impossible to navigate through unless, of course, you were experienced like me.

It took me several minutes to find what I was looking for. "Aha!"

Victoriously, I held up the green lamp with dancing tomatoes in hula skirts for Shikamaru to see. His eyebrows drew together as he eyed the lamp doubtfully, mumbling something about his mother's taste or whatnot. In any case, I thought that the lamp was cute. A little funny, but come on, it was unique!

Standing on my tiptoes, I reached for the lending slip hanging on a hook on the wall, scribbling onto it with a crayon:

Nara Yoshino

Malamba lamp

2 weeks

Asakusa Mahiru, Asakusa Unit 4

I ripped the slip off its pad and handed it to Shikamaru. "Tell your mother that I hope she has a lovely tomato party."

"Tomato party?" Even Shikamaru couldn't hide his disbelief.

"You mean you didn't know?"

He gave me a pointed look and tucked the slip into his pocket. Glancing at the lamp doubtfully, he edged away slightly.

"You're not planning on ditching and leaving the lamp here, are you?" I asked suspiciously. "Yoshino-san will be awfully disappointed, if you know what I mean."

Although his expression didn't change, Shikamaru's Adam's apple bobbed up and down, expressing his nervousness.

Yeah. No kidding. The first time she came, she got so mad at one of the other customers that she punched the lights out of him.

"Tsunade-sama will kill me if I ditch work any longer," he said quietly, hauling the lamp up with a grudging, why-do-I-have-to-do-this air.

I nodded. "Sorry for keeping you so long. Thank you for the flowers."

Shikamaru nodded once, meeting my eyes. I felt a hot flush creep up my neck, threatening to explode.

"S-See you around?" I called hopefully to his back.

He didn't reply, but waved his hand in assent before disappearing behind the bead curtain. At least, I think it was in assent. Or was he saying, "You're annoying, go away"?

Shoot.

Shopping bag in tow, I darted out the house and locked the door tightly. It was no good letting thieves in.

Now...where to? I scanned over my mental list and mapped out my route.

First to the flower shop to pick up some flowers for Momoka's birthday. Then, to the bookstore to sell some used books. And finally, down to the daycare where I would take over for Momoka for the day.

I hummed as I skipped to the closest flower shop: Yamanaka Flowers. The main daycare teacher, Momoka, was the most adorable person ever. Thin, pretty, and mature, she was the idol of every girl and the crush of every boy (at the daycare, at least). The daycare had been of her own making, a dream of hers ever since middle school. She had a boyfriend who was handsome and tall, and she was my best friend. As an employee and her friend, I knew that she deserved the day off instead of working full-time with me as a part-timer like it usually was.

The clerk was a girl I'd never seen before (then again, I didn't go to the flower shop too often), with almost white-blonde hair tied in a long ponytail. She greeted me brightly. "Hi, welcome to Yamanaka Flowers! My name is Ino, can I help you?"

"I'm looking for a bouquet," I told her. "For a birthday."

"Great! Do you have anything particular in mind?" She stepped around the counter to join me in looking at the rows of bouquets at the wall.

"Uh..." I glanced at the bewildering array of flora and winced. "My friend likes sunflowers, but I don't want to give her only sunflowers, you know? Something more feminine…Do you have any suggestions?"

"I can make a customized bouquet for you," Ino suggested. "Maybe some sweet peas or some daisies?"

I thought of my own daisy bouquet at home and glanced down at my intertwined fingers. The hairs on the back of my neck flared and prickled as I flushed.

Ino eyed me speculatively. "Sorry if I'm being overly presumptuous," she said slowly, "but did you happen to get a bouquet of baby daisies this morning?"

Paling, I stepped away from her. "Did you spy on me?" I whispered, horrified.

She snorted. "No, I sold them to the idiot who gave it to you!" She chortled again, this time in a victorious manner. "Ha, Shikamaru'll never know what came over him," she muttered.

I probably looked really confused, because she glanced over at me and giggled. "Sorry, it's just that I've never gotten a piece of gossip about Shikamaru that was this juicy-man, I have to go tell Mrs. Nara ASAP." She laughed again.

"Uh, do you know Shikamaru?" I asked, puzzled.

"Do I know him? Sheesh, I grew up with the kid!" Ino folded her arms. "We were teammates back in our genin days, and boy, was he a pain in the butt."

"Oh!" I smiled tentatively at her. "Well, I'm Asakusa Mahiru."

"Yamanaka Ino." She took my hand and pumped it up and down eagerly. "We should hang out sometime. I'll put some makeup on you—it'll make you look so much prettier."

"Uh…" I hesitated. "I don't really like the feel of makeup…it kind of makes me sick. Sorry."

"Oh, don't worry about it. Maybe on a special occasion, then." Ino bent down, flipping her gorgeous blond hair over her shoulder. "Hmm, sunflowers, sunflowers…ooh, you know what would look absolutely precious? Sunflowers with yellow lilies and roses. Maybe with something green to add some color variation—what do you think?"

"Great!" I actually wasn't super sure, but I trusted her judgment. Besides, yellow was Momoka's favorite color.

"Cool, I'll go to the back and put it together. It'll take about 15 minutes, do you have anywhere you need to go?"

"I'll be at the bookstore, then," I said. She waved me off.

Ino seemed nice, but I wasn't sure I liked her all that much. A little bit too girly-girl for me.

The bookstore wasn't very busy, as usual. I walked up to the bookkeeper, a young woman named Beni. "I'm here to sell some books!"

Beni smiled, pushing up her glasses and putting down her book. "Morning, Mahiru. Let me see what you've got."

Rummaging in my shopping bag, I dug out two books that my father sent me. I'd cracked it open, read the first chapter, couldn't put it down, and was horribly embarrassed and ashamed of myself.

I kept my metaphorical hat on and pushed the books toward her. Pretend you didn't read it, pretend you didn't read it, pretend you didn't read it…

"Icha Icha Paradise?" Beni exclaimed. Half the people in the bookstore turned. I shrunk in my shoes. "Isn't this a vintage copy? It's worth a lot!"

"Uh, is it?" I laughed uneasily. "Well, I, uh, don't need it or anything…like, I've never even read it or anything—"

"Awful liar, little girl," Beni interrupted, thumbing through the pages. "Anyways, no need to fear, everyone's read it at least once, even if they claim otherwise. Unfortunately, my bookstore doesn't endorse these books anymore due to a rather untimely incident a couple weeks ago, but I know someone who will pay a pretty penny for these."

"Oh! Really?" I brightened. Anything to rid my home of the scandalous tome.

"Yeah. I don't know his address, but if you really want to sell these, we can keep it at the store and I can sell it to him on your behalf, and I'll give you the money the next time you drop by." She smiled, but muttered something like "Maybe that'll teach him to stop bothering me" under her breath.

I had nothing against the deal, and I'd known Beni for a while, so I agreed and gratefully handed the books over. "Anything good in stock?"

Her sour expression disappeared immediately. "Yup! I have something that I think you would adore—it's called To Make a Life." She handed me a book that had a simple teal blue cover. "It's about a bird who falls in love with a sick invalid through a hospital window."

I raised my eyebrows. "Really? Well…that's interesting…but it's kind of—"

"Out of the ordinary?" Beni finished. "Right? I stole this to read at home and finished it overnight. So. Good."

"Then I'll take it!" Anything Beni recommended was sure to be amazing.

Burying my nose deep inside the book, I began walking zig-zaggedly through the street as I trotted back to the flower shop.

I had an awful habit of mouthing the words that I read out loud.

"The first time I saw him, it was winter. Cold months even for my teal blue feathers. Even more so for his pale, pale skin and even paler eyes…"

"Whoa, watch it, kid!"

I slammed face-first into someone's rock hard shoulder. Hearing my jaw clack together roughly from the collision, I backed away, swaying slightly. When the stars had been blinked away from my eyes, I refocused at the man in front of me.

Actually, man was a bit of an overstatement. Sure, he was big, and tall (probably over two heads taller than me?) but he looked no older than I was. Maybe seventeen, or even eighteen if I had to stretch it a bit.

"Sorry," I apologized, though I felt a bud of annoyance sprout as I glanced up at his self-righteous, arrogant scowl.

It turns out my judgment of him was correct, because the moment I apologized, his scowl turned into a full-blown sneer. "Sorry won't cut it, little girl. You just dented my new shinobi headband, you know that?"

So that's why my nose hurt so stinking much. I glanced at the headband attached to his sleeve, cheeks warming up as I remembered my visitor that very morning.

But Shikamaru was leagues better than this kid, Big and Scary was just a genin!

Then again I wasn't even ninja status.

Shoot.

"Well?" Big and Scary prodded me roughly on my shoulder. "What are you going to do about it, huh, punk?"

Punk? Sure, I'd been told that sometimes I didn't say the right things, and sometimes I was downright rude to people, but I was not a punk.

"Are you stupid?" I demanded, subconsciously realizing that I was only goading him on and doing nothing to reassure that I was going to be in a relatively safe state by the time I got to the kindergarten. Nevertheless, my brain worked slower than my mouth did.

"Why on earth would you think a girl like me could put a dent in your headband with my nose?"

I think I had some logic in that phrase, because he seemed to be thinking about it himself. "Well, pay up, buddy," he snarled, evidently deciding to swindle me of my money instead of thinking. "This is my first day as a genin and I'm not going to let you get away with ruining my precious headband!"

He shook his headband in my face, which I realized did have a rather ugly dent in it.

Is my nose that hard?

Big and Scary's scowl stretched into a creepy leer. "Unless you want to pay with your body."

This was enough. I kicked my foot up (I was wearing pointy cowboy boots) and jabbed my heel into his calf. "Pedophile!" I shouted.

Again, my lack of athletic ability gave me a slower reaction time in comparison to the genin. Just as I turned to scurry off in relative (childish) victory, he hooked a hand on the back of my shirt and thrust me to the ground, where I (literally) ate the dirt.

Owwwwww…

Blinking dizzily again as my head took a harsh bashing for the second time that day, I tried to scramble to my feet before the incoming giant could land another hit on me. The world spun and swerved out from under my feet, and I stumbled to the floor again (thankfully, avoiding a head injury this time).

I couldn't help noticing that my eyes and nose were leaking like a faucet. With blood or tears, I didn't know. Maybe both.

"HEY! What are you doing outside of my shop? To a girl, no less!"

Smack smack smack smack

"Ugh…"

There was the sound of flesh eating the ground and then an eerie silence, except for the crunching of footsteps coming closer to me, and…

"Holy mackerel, are you okay, Mahiru?" A strong arm lifted me up and started brushing clods of dirt off my face. "You took…quite a fall. Come on, I know medical ninjutsu."

It was Ino. She glanced at me worriedly. "Hey, you okay? Talk to me."

"…Ouch," I finally said, my voice wobbling a little at the end.

She smiled sympathetically. "It's all right, I took care of the dumb guy. Let's go—can you walk?"

I nodded, but she let me lean on her anyway as we hobbled back to the florist's shop together.

I changed my mind.

Ino was a good girl.

"Mahiru! Where were—oh my God, what happened?" Momoka shrieked loudly, dropping a broom and rushing over to cup my cheek gently.

Ino was, fortunately, a medical ninja, and healed most of my cuts and scrapes. She said, however, that the bruise on my cheek wasn't going to fade as easily. Thankfully, instead of a glorious looking eggplant stain, my cheek was tinged in an olive green color.

"Happy birthday!" I yelled loudly, whipping the flowers out from behind my back and shoving it into Momoka's face. Maybe this would distract her.

It didn't. She smiled gratefully at me and accepted the bouquet before resuming a frown. "What happened to your cheek, Mahiru?"

Uh-oh. The Mommy voice came out.

"I fell," I said honestly. "You know, the usual." Not so honest.

She sighed. "Well, go and get ready. The kids will come any second."

"…Aaaand you're not going to work today!" I announced, tying my apron around my waist and pinning on a nametag in the shape of a sunflower.

Momoka cocked her head. "You don't mean…"

"Yes. Yes I do mean." I started pushing her out the door. "Don't worry about today, I can handle it. Just go have fun with your boyfriend and forget all about working."

"But you can't possibly take care of 20 children by yourself!" Momoka protested.

"Oh, yes I can!" I yelled over her voice, effectively drowning her out. "I can totally handle this."

I totally couldn't handle this.

I had grossly overestimated my child-caring skills.

The room was a mess, two vases were broken, three kids were crying, and to top it all off, we were well behind schedule.

Chaos. This was chaos.

"Everyone, let's play a game!" I yelled loudly over the hubbub, about to have a seizure.

When they had gathered, I crouched down and pressed my finger to my lips. "Let's all play the quiet game. Whoever's the quietest and doesn't move will get extra animal crackers at snacktime." I stood up. "Remember, I have eyes all around this room!"

Then I used the chance to dash into the adjacent room, rip the business card out of my back pocket, and punch in the numbers frantically.

"Hello, Yamanaka Flowers, Ino speaking."

"Hi, Ino, this is Mahiru. I hate to bother you so soon, but…"

"Shikamaru! Shikamaru!" Ino burst into the Hokage's room, breathing heavily. Where was that stupid guy?

"Sorry for interrupting, Tsunade-sama, but have you seen Shikamaru?" she asked, out of breath.

"Shikamaru?" The Hokage paused to think. "He should be in a meeting, but I believe it will end in about fifteen minutes. Why?"

"Tsunade-sama," Ino's voice took on a wheedling tone, "don't you think Shikamaru would focus so much more on his current duties if he experienced some jobs that he definitely wouldn't enjoy doing?"

"…Explain."

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