Content Warning: Y'all, this chapter is dirty, I don't know what to tell you. We blew past smut and went strait to porn. I gave Shika the reins and the boy just ran with them so like… don't fucking judge me, it's all his fault. I'm going to hell, but I'm taking all of you with me so either get in the hand basket or avert your eyes!

I-can't-believe-I-wrote-this-but-you-deserve-it. XOXO, VB.

- Memory -

Shikamaru's legs might as well be jello for all the good they're doing under him right now. Sakura's last word reverberates through his body, pinging the back of his brain like a pinball machine. He truly doesn't need this shit, it's already hard enough not coming as it is.

The girl of his dreams is currently on her knees, face smashed into the pillows while he takes her hard from behind. He's got one hand drilling bruises into her hip while the other fists roughly through her hair. She's babbling moans a hundred miles a minute, guaranteeing his undivided attention when her walls constrict hard around his length and oh sweet god-

Her orgasm practically strangles his cock, dragging hard cries from the pits of his belly.

Where he usually sees stars, today he's seeing constellations. He glares daggers at the freckles across her shoulder, desperately counting them in a attempt to keep Sakura from dragging him over the edge with her. Her echoing moans are audible velvet and her lips are bruised from how hard he's been kissing her.

All of this to say, he's one stiff breeze away from absolutely fucking losing his shit, which can not happen after the word she's just said to him.

Daddy.

Daddy.

The fucking balls on this girl.

She'd said it as a joke, not knowing what it would do to him. She'd said it as a joke, not knowing what it would do to her.

But Shikamaru hadn't taken it as a joke. Instead, he's spent the last twenty minutes aggressively reminding her he's not a damn genius for nothing. His arsenal is equipped with three months worth of nights spent hyper-fixating on her body, memorizing all of her quirks and tells.

After carrying her back into their now shared bedroom, he'd bent her over the edge of her mattress and fucked her deep enough to make his own knees buckle. The results of his good works are currently dripping between her spread knees, soaking into sheets they won't have time to wash.

"Did…did you just…" His voice trembles. He can't even say it or he's going to lose it.

"Y-Yeah, I think I did." She gasps heavy, looking between her knees to the mess she's just made. "Shit, I didn't even think my body could do that-"

He hadn't known either, but he'd suspected. That first night together in the Ryokan, she'd gushed a little as she came. But that hadn't been the highlight of his evening. No, the highlight had been the nonsense words they'd cried out together, their voices echoing through the back acres of the Ryokan. It had been realizing they didn't just have deep friendship, but also puzzle piece bodies that fit together in a criminal way.

He's been trying out different angles of penetration on her ever since, dialing in her body like a precision machine. He's been trying to make her squirt again like his life depended on it, his job made easier with time and attention.

It also didn't hurt that she had a praise kink so big you could practically see it from space. Out of the house or in the office, all he had to do was whisper a quiet "Good job, babe-" or "That's my girl-" for her legs to become a fucking slip-and-slide.

Here in the heat of a spring afternoon, he'd finally figured out exactly what she liked, and what tempo it took to completely unravel her. This moment was inevitable and admittedly hard earned, and now he's shamelessly basking in it.

Fuck, she was still so wet…

"We should probably strip the bed before it stains-" She says, making to slip herself off his cock.

"Don't you dare move." He growls dangerously. His fingers dig deeper into the crevice of her hip, trying to keep her from squirming around him. He's still buried up to the hilt inside her, furiously pinching back a release he's not ready to surrender yet. Good lord, if she so much as twitches her ass he's going to have a field day.

"But I-"

"Isaid…Don't. Move."

Sakura looks up and back at him, even with his fingers still fisted in her hair. Her wicked smile is so sharp it could cut glass. "Why not?" She teases, knowing it's a loaded question.

Why not? Because he's a desperate man. Because he can't believe he's actually between her legs right now. Because the word Daddy is still echoing through his head and he's pissed to discover he's got such a basic kink.

But he doesn't reply with any of these answers. He's about to wipe that smirk strait off her face.

"Because you're coming again." He says, flipping her over. She slides off his cock in the most delicious way, leaving him throbbing and hungry for release. But he's even hungrier for something else and a guy has to have priorities.

A thrill runs through him as he easily manhandles his girl, eliciting a yelp from her rosebud lips. "Wait, again?" She cries out.

"Don't ask question." He warns, low and serious. He's not interested in winding them down yet, not when he's just found second gear. Despite her protestations, Sakura begs for his tongue with soft, mewing noises that spin his thoughts into cotton candy. He dips down, chest to chest, and kisses her like kissing is its own event.

He interlaces their hands together and drags her wrists up towards the headboard. She's pliant and willing and so eager when he takes what he wants from the depths of her mouth. Her legs wrap up around his waist, cradling him between thick thighs as he pins her arms above her head. He grinds his hips against her decadently, loving how slick she feels along his length.

"Tighter." Sakura murmurs against his lips, and his hands become vices around her wrists. With her arms firmly pinned overhead and the hard length of his erection between them, they ignite all over again. He consumes her mouth, distracting her long enough to run more bands of shadows down her arms.

She tugs at her bound wrists experimentally as he trails hot kisses down her sides. Then at once, he snaps her knees up and out, rolling the flat of his tongue hard between her legs.

The noises Sakura makes should be illegal because she is, in a word, loud. Like, full throat full volume crying his name like a fire alarm. She throws her head back against the pillows, her body arching clear off the mattress. To be fair, he's eating her pussy like he's mad at it, yanking her ass back when she tries to squirm away from him.

He starts out just sucking on her clit, but soon he's slipping three fingers inside her, working her G spot in tandem with his tongue.

"I-…fuck, Shika-"

He doesn't care how long it takes, he's not coming up for air until her thighs are crushing his head. He wants her legs clamping around him so hard he suffocates and dies down here. Really, of all the ways a ninja could go, between Sakura's legs is a totally acceptable last moment.

Another chain of moans. His shadows bind tighter. Sakura thrashes against her restraints. Shikamaru spells her name on repeat with his tongue.

"Fuck, fuck, fuuuuck-" She yells.

Every time she audibly cries out, he sinks his fingers deeper inside her. He can feel her second orgasm building, helpless against his encyclopedic memory of her curves. Heaven help him, he wants to give this to her so bad, but he also wants to take his time. He wants to drag out her release as long as possible so she understands what he can do when he's highly motivated.

"Please, I need my hands…" She begs, rolling her hips hard into his mouth. Her voice breaks into another cry and he nearly comes undone from the taste of her alone. She begs loud until he releases her wrists because God Damnit, he can't help himself. On their first night together Shikamaru had known he would do anything and everything Sakura asked him to…

But that doesn't mean that she's in charge.

She might decide what, but he decides how. How is the fun part, anyway.

He doesn't give her wrists back for free, he trades her bondage for something better. The second Sakura's hands are loose, she's scrambling for a pillow to throw over her face, screaming into it now without restraint. While she's busy gasping out tongue-tied praises, his shadows slip down the length of her body. He wraps her nipples between umber ribbons and fucks her with his tongue for all he's worth.

He gets too enthusiastic, too hyper-fixated. He follows the tempo of her moans instead of the other way around. There's a beat of silence right before she comes, and suddenly she's falling apart in his arms. Her knees snap hard around his head, hips bucking wild in the throws of her release.

Only now does he devour her, coaxing her orgasm into multiple waves that wrack her body with aftershocks. She screams agony after agony into her pillow and still Shikamaru refuses to relent. He's determined she will have no rest until her soul officially leaves her body.

Even after she collapses back onto the bed, he gently rolls his tongue over her clit until she palms his forehead, making him stop.

"You are such an asshole-" She chokes out, voice hoarse from multiple rounds of ecstasy.

But she's the love of his life, so he knows her by heart. She's pretending to be annoyed right now, but she's got that dopey look she gets when she's being spoiled.

He pulls himself up to a seat with a chuckle, wiping his mouth on his discarded t-shirt. Beside him, Sakura drunkenly muttering obscenities. She says things that sound like 'Asshole' and 'Death of me.' It would be so easy to just sit here forever and watch her pretend to be mad that he's so damn good at his job.

Be he isn't done with her yet, they still have one more to go. His dick is still impossibly hard, and he knows exactly how he wants to play this last one out.

"What was that about?" Sakura finally asks, peeking out at him from the shield of her pillow. She's barely coherent enough to string words together, eyes fluttering like she's about to pass out.

"I'm just preemptively making up for lost time." He replies, brushing a stray lock of hair from her face. He shifts so his back rests against their headboard. God, he'd going to need a cigarette so bad after this.

"Okay, but have you never heard of moderation? I still have to walk after this, Shika-"

"Fuck moderation, and don't fall asleep on me. We're not finished making you come yet."

"Bullshit!" She says, suddenly sitting up beside him. She crosses her legs and pulls the sheets up around her, shielding her tits from his appreciative gaze. "Seriously, how am I suppose to function today when you keep liquifying my brain?! It's going to take me the whole god damn walk to River just to recover from that last one!"

But Shikamaru just watches her, taking in the fruits of his hard work. Her hair is messed up and tangled from his fingers, and her lips are swollen from his bruising kiss. She's never looked more beautiful to him than she does right now. He wants to pull her down into his arms and let her heartbeat lull him to sleep. But more than that, he wants to be with her. He wants to feel her clench around his cock just before he loses himself inside her.

Even though they've never done it before, he thinks he can make her hit 3 this time. He just has to be strategic about it, fixating on a different part of her for each orgasm. Mind, Body, Soul. Completion.

"If you want me to stop, just say stop…" He drops his voice low into his chest, dragging fingertips up the soft skin of her hip. His other hand likewise slides up her thigh, a wayward thumb just barely brushing her wet heat.

Sakura breath hitches in her throat. Her eyelashes flutter, still hungry with want. He always knows just how to touch her…

"…Don't stop." She says with barely audible breath.

And so, with the determination of someone highly motivated, he leans in and slips a hand up the back of her neck. This time, when he kisses her, it's heat with patience. His lips promise her all that is still to come, for the next twenty minutes and the next twenty years.

"If you can't walk, I'll just have to carry you the whole way there." He delivers the line in a monotone way that undercuts just how much he means it, but Sakura knows him back to front too. She knows better than to underestimate the lengths he will go to just to maker babble his name senselessly.

Her lips part again, and he knows he's won.

"You are so…troublesome." She growls, but then her arms are around his neck. He drags her forward to straddle his hips, head thrown back to kiss her fully. She tastes like oranges and smells like them. It's an overwhelming combo that makes his cock throb wildly where it glides between her legs.

"Can you…put me on the dresser?" She asks. Her words are suddenly quiet, almost shy.

Oh god, this woman…

Because he knows what she's really asking of him, and he wants it just as badly as she does. He doesn't break their kiss to answer, he just slips his arms under her ass and picks them both up to an easy stand. Three months of brutal training with Asuma has made him significantly stronger lately. He lifts her now like she weighs nothing at all, grateful for every agonizing pushup.

There's oceans rushing through his lungs as he carries her over to her dresser, depositing her ass on the very edge. Her legs wrap once more around his waist as he notches his thick tip inside her, grinding up into blissful heat.

That first thrust feels like coming home, her walls stretching tight to take him completely. His hands become slow, focused and methodical. He's forceful without forcing, measured without measuring. He works her body now the same way he did back at the Ryokan, reenacting their first time together in excruciatingly delicious detail.

He's fantasized about that first night together several times. It seems he's maybe not the only one.

"I love you…" Sakura sighs in a breathy voice he knows he'll end up replaying later.

"I love you back-" He says against her lips. He says it with his hands and he says it with his time. He works his cock in long, deep strokes that make her legs tremble against his ribs. Every time he slides out, she moans and melts as his tip unravels her. Every time he thrusts in, his vision blurs with stars.

They move. She moans. He fucks her deeper. They build towards their tandem release. He talks her through this last orgasm with small commands and low spoken words.

"Breathe." He says, and "It's okay, let go…"

"Wait, I need-" She stutters, even as he feels her clenching tight around him. He's going to make her come if it's the last thing they do.

"What…What do you need?" He asks against her neck, tongue swirling into the dip of her collarbone. His arms are fully wrapped around her waist, holding her flush against his chest. If there's one thing he loves, it's the way she leans into him, trusting him to support her weight.

She pulls back just enough to look him in the eyes. "Can I…show you something?" She asks.

And because he also loves the way she's blushing, he doesn't ask any further questions. He just nods, prepared to follows her cue. Really, he would follow Sakura anywhere. Into battle, off a cliff, into the far off realms of Forever After. He'll go anywhere she asks him to, because together they can survive anything.

When he nods, she dips her forehead to his, pressing their brows together in a gentle touch. The world shimmers and displaces around him, their room transforming into a different one. The light turns dark and the air turns hot. He doesn't even have to look around to know where Sakura has taken them. The sound of cicadas is hint enough.

His breath hitches, and their bodies still. Inside her Resonance, they're back at the Ryokan. They are back inside the bubble of his favorite memory, where the air sings of summer and smells like jasmine. It feels so real, like stepping back in time. She has…no idea how monumental this night was for him.

"Is this okay?" She asks, still somewhat shy.

He doesn't know how to speak because he still isn't breathing. This was their very first night together. The night he'd decided he couldn't keep pretending he felt less for this girl than he really did. The sentiment is still hold true, even now. He can't pretend he isn't bound to her for good, that he doesn't belong to her in every way that matters.

He decides to communicate with the language she understands best. His eyes touch her all the places his hands can't. He pulls her tighter into his chest, burning away her shyness with his scorching mouth. She groans at the friction of him deep inside her, even as their fluids drip down her legs.

He rocks them together in a synchronized dance, his heartbeat running sprints inside his chest. 'More.' He thinks, and Sakura gives it to him.

"Shika, I…I'm gonna-"

"I know. I've got you-"

With every hard thrust, he drives them closer to the edge. But even still, Sakura's trying to hold the Resonance around them. He loves this memory, but he wants her with him now.

"Eyes up, beautiful." He says against her lips.

"What?" She gasps, hips rolling against him.

"Eyes on me, don't look away until I say so." He's telling, he isn't asking.

And heaven help him, she stays connected. Her sharp green eyes stay fixed on his, glossy with lust and vulnerability. They aren't side by side, they are within each other, an impossible harmony of past and future.

"I've got you." He says again, louder this time. He's demanding, begging her to follow him over the edge of their shared release. He grips a hand around her throat, thumb steering her jaw back towards his mouth. He keeps her from pulling away, the eye contact spiraling them into blissful oblivion. They come together hard, and it's everything-

He feels Sakura's resonance shatter around them just as her orgasm shatters her too. Thank God she's crying something into his mouth, because otherwise he'd be babbling senseless, exposing things he isn't ready to say.

That he's going to change her life and change her last name. That he doesn't care in which order they do it, just so long as they do it all together. That even as he takes her with forceful thrusts, everything he has is hers for the asking, should she want all of it or nothing at all.

On the tail end of his release, he finds words in his throat. It comes out in a guttural slur like he's speaking in drunken cursive. He thinks it's going to be a predatory 'Mine' but finds out it's actually quite the opposite.

"Yours-" He says, their bodies pressed together. And that really was the truth of it. Whether she was ready tomorrow or in another 10 years, it really didn't matter to him. He was doomed to love her irrevocably. This was just the beginning of it...

Sakura collapses forward into his chest. It takes all of his focus just to stay standing, he's nearly as spent as she is. He places a final kiss on her neck, then carries her boneless body back to bed. They fall together, intertwined in each others arms, panting and completely drained. Sakura's face is still red and flushed when his eyes flutter shut, content to sleep for a year.

When they wake up an hour and a half later, he's found he has a new favorite memory. 'This one.' He thinks, adding it to the list. He knows there will be hundreds more to come, but this moment is...his.

They speed shower and grab their packs in a manic rush, but through all if it he can't take his eyes off his girl. All Sakura can babble about is how late they are, but Shikamaru is lost in his own private thoughts.

'Absolutely fucking worth it.' He affirms, shouldering both their packs as they head for the door.

And just when he thinks he knows Sakura completely, she surprises him yet again. She grabs the collar of his flak jacket and drags him down. She sears him senseless with a final kiss.

"I'm getting you back for this when we get home." She says, and heaven help him if he isn't weak in the knees.

"Promise?" He murmurs. Shit, he's begging...

"Promise." She says, letting him go.

And with the turn of a key in a door they now share, Sakura and Shikamaru step out of their first adventure and into the next of many to come, fingers intertwined together.

Their apartment echos with shared memory.

- With Love, the End -

DON'T WORRY, THE PROPOSAL CHAPTER IS STILL TO COME.

I can't even begin to tell you how much it means to me if you have made it here to the very end. I've never written...anything before, except for a tiny one-shot 10 years ago that eventually became ch.1 of this story. If you are here, then you've made my dreams come true. Thank you for being a reader of this story that means so much to me.

I wanted to write a story about different dilemmas: Physical Attraction vs Emotional Intimacy. A love interest who is already in their prime VS A love interest who still has some growing to do. I wanted a story where all the characters had flaws, but that was what made them interesting.

I've only ever read the Naruto manga, but at the end of the story it became all about these God tier Jutsu and external strength. I wanted to write a story why all our characters find INNER strength, because that's when the original Naruto was really about. All of this to say, I wanted to give you something you haven't already read before in the vast vast archives of fanfiction. If I accomplished that, please consider leaving even a one word review. Review counts help others find my work, and it would absolutely mean the world to me.

There MAY be a Linger 2 sequel that revolves around Tayuya/Shika/Saku/Kakashi in a Sasuke/Orochimaru recovery arc, but I have a feeling I'd only be writing it for myself LMAO, so we'll see. I hope to see you around in one of my future stories. Until then - XOXO, VB

- UPCOMING WIP -

ASYLUM - An AU Shika/Saku supernatural Enemies-to-Lovers ghost story.

Shikamaru is a ghost cursed to haunt the site of his brutal murder just as his past haunts him. One day, he meets a girl who can not only see him, they may just have an enemy in common. He can't fucking stand how Sakura keeps meddling in his afterlife, but for now he's willing to put up with her. With her help, he might finally get revenge on the Demon who killed him and his mentor all those years ago.

But bit by bit, Sakura worms her way past his guarded exterior until finally he will have to choose: Embrace the hatred that will help him take down his enemy? Or embrace the warmth of an impossible love he was never meant to have.