Four Words

If Ino hadn't said those four words to him, he wouldn't have been standing on Temari's doorstep.

He was about to turn away when Ino's words played back in his mind.

"You've nothing to lose."

And she was right. He had nothing to lose.

Except his friendship with Temari, his will to live and pretty much everything that kept him sane and happy.

He pushed his negativity aside for what was easily the tenth time that minute and knocked on the door.

He counted ten beats before he panicked, a million thoughts ran through his head at such a high speed that they were probably running into one another and killing themselves before he got a chance to process them properly.

What if this wasn't her house?

What if she was away?

What would happen if he forgot what he was here for and she laughed at him?

What if-

"Who the hell are you?"

He looked up to see what could only be described as a pair of emos.

One of them wore a black hoodie with two pointed corners pulled over his head, a sliver of painted face was slightly visible underneath it.

The second had bright red hair (no, not ginger, RED) and dark eyeliner coating his eyelids.

"Well?" The hooded one asked again.

Her knew it, he'd gotten the wrong address.

"Kankurō, don't speak like that to strangers." The red head said softly

Kankurō - he remembered that name from when Temari had phoned her brothers the first time she came to his house!

"Hi," he said after clearing his throat. "my name is Shikamaru, I was wondering if Temari was here."

"Oh, so you're the guy she's been ditching us for. We meet at last..." The hooded boy lifted his head slightly to get a better look at Shikamaru.

After sizing him up for a moment, he shrugged and called over his shoulder.

"TEMATO! SOMEONE'S AT THE DOOR FOR YOU!"

"KANNELONI IF YOU CALL ME THAT ONE MORE TIME I SWEAR!"

Temari hopped down the stairs and looked at Shikamaru for a split second before breaking into a smile.

"Hey," she said as she walked up to him and pulled him into a hug.

"Ew, gross," Kankurō grimaced.

The second brother nudged him. "We should go..."

"Shut up, Gaarlic."

The red head frowned.

"Why must you two act so immature?" He asked, rolling his eyes and going up the stairs, dragging the hooded boy behind him.

"What's up?" Temari asked as she pulled away from him.

"Are your brothers always like that?" He asked incredulously.

"Yup!" She beamed proudly in the direction they'd gone in.

Shikamaru nodded before looking at her straight in the eye.

He had nothing to lose, he reminded himself.

He clung to those four words as he spoke.

"Temari, will you be my girlfriend?"

Her smile faltered and was replaced by a look of shock

before she smiled again, even wider.

She answered with four more words.

"Of course I will."

A/N: Aaah, siblings.

I'm both happy and sad to inform you that there are only three more chapters after this! (unless y'all want an epilogue)

I just based the sibling bants in this chapter off of genuine conversations I have with my sister-I'm the Kankurō of the family, even though I act more like Temari, constantly taking care of my two idiot siblings. Oh well...

I wasn't going to originally put this chapter in but I got an urge to write this after someone I hooked up with ONCE was convinced we were dating. I mean, dude. It was just a kiss-get over it. So yeah, now that that's settled, they are dating *officially* ;)

And now ***drumrolllllllll*** the reviews:

whattadragg~ haha, I can sense the excitement through the screen XD! I'm glad you like!

SilverMoon6817~thankyou bean! Don't be nervous! All will be revealed in probably three days time! It's almost over, you can do it!

ohud63~ heehee, hope I didn't disappoint ;) more indeed, I hope you like, m'dear!

Righteo, y'all know the drill, fireflies. See you tomorrow!

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~Lee