You cannot have light without darkness, after all, he mused as he watched Temari sleeping in bed next to him.
There must be balance.
When Temari was sleeping, it was night. At least to Shikamaru.
His own sun had set.
In the past that was what he enjoyed. Hiding in the shadows but now he just wanted sun all the time.
He couldn't wait for her to wake up.
She made him feel like such a child. But that was the way he wanted it.
She was the light in his life.
He felt her stir.
"Wakey, wakey sleeping beauty", he whispered, kissing her gently on the cheeks.
"Mmmm", she grumbled as she allowed Shikamaru to kiss her. "Since when did you get to be a morning person, Nara?"
As reply he kissed her again.
"Not that I'm complaining...", she exclaimed weakly.
"Because now I have something to wake up to! Someone I can't wait to see again when I open my eyes", he said as he kissed her again. "I love you, Temari."
"I love you too, you big dope."
"How much you'll never know", he whispered, kissing her once more.
"You know, a girl could get used to this!", she replied.
"That's the plan!", he added quickly.
"You know, it's been almost three months since I've been here now", Temari said softly.
"Two months, three weeks and one day actually", he replied with a smile.
"Showoff!", she exclaimed.
"You know, it's time to get out of bed. You promised you were going to come help me feed the deer this morning", he said as he admired her reclined form.
"Five more minutes!", Temari pouted up at him.
But his face was mock stern.
"Two more minutes!"
He just looked at her.
"One more minute!", she exclaimed loudly.
He laughed. "And I'm supposed to be the lazy one!"
"Yeah, since when did you start being so un-lazy?", she demanded.
"Since I had something worth being un-lazy for!", he replied as he bent to kiss her. She wrapped her arms around him as they shared a long kiss. His arms encircled her back as he gently hauled her to her feet. "It's not that I'm lazy, it's just that I don't care. Except when it comes to you. That's why I'm not lazy. Because with you around, life's not a drag anymore", he said softly, gazing into her eyes.
She cried with happiness and tried to hide it as she leaned against him for a long moment. But her rhythmic movement gave her away. Still, he knew better and simply continued to hold her.
"I love you, Shikamaru", she said softly, looking up at him with love in her eyes.
"I know", he said simply as he tilted her head up and kissed her again.
He watched as she bent down to feed the deer.
The sun was at her back as the deer stood on the grass. The sky was so blue behind her and the clouds dancing up in the sky above her.
But he only had eyes for her.
She was his sun.
His whole reason for being.
It had taken them both some time but now here they were.
Walking the same path.
Together as one.
He walked up to her as she looked up.
He took her hand and they walked away from the deer.
They were finally going home.
FINIS
Thank you everyone for reading, reviewing and supporting my writing.
I am out of ideas for this arc for now so will mark it as complete.
I hope you enjoyed.
Please read some of my other stories, which have a different flavour to them.
I will keep writing but need a break from ShikaTema for now.
But maybe there is a sequel somewhere. The idea of a baby arc left by a reviewer?
Again, thank you everyone.