Finally finding her name on one of the tables in the dining room, Temari slowly scanned around. The room was filled with antique furniture worth millions probably and also painting as big as 3 doors. The young lady did not like that lifestyle. She was also coming from a wealthy family, but at the death of their mother, their father remarried and left them in the city. He barely kept in touch with them, only providing them with a 3-bedroom flat and a small allowance. He was involved in some political parties and he did not serve him right. Her extended family also cut ties with them and the trio became "the rejected".
This was one of the reasons which motivated the sibling to seek a new refuge, a new home. Far from all of the negativity in Kaze no Kuni, coming to Hi no Kuni felt like a long quiet river. But tonight she had mixed feelings. She was happy to do something for Christmas Eve, her classmate Shikamaru was not around so much so it was a bit boring, the food was good but the atmosphere reminded her of back home.
After a few minutes, everybody was seated including Shikamaru and his family. They were on the table next to Temari's table. Once their eyes met, Shikamaru smiled at her and said without a sound "I will come after".
The No Sabaku was seated at the table of the 1st maternal cousins. The 9 other guests on the table were around her age, they were all from the Kosei's clan. One girl, probably younger than her, asked after the first meal was being removed:
"You are not part of the Kosei clan nor the Nara clan, why are you here, and why are you sitting on OUR table?"
Temari was pissed, she didn't ask to be at this table either, she was a guest like everyone else and deserved to be treated as such.
"Is this how Kosei's member treats someone else guest? Why do you ac–"
The left hand of Shikamaru Nara gently rested on the table between the two ladies. Shikamaru sensing a strange vibe from the table just behind him decided to intervene. He came behind Temari and stopped the conversation by imposing a physical barrier between the two. Still standing behind Temari's chair, he then turned his head to the right and asked his guest
"Temari, how is everything? If you need something else let me know. With your injury, I don't want you to move too much on your own."
He then removed his hand from the table and turned to his cousin
"Yneya, I made the table seat arrangement, if something does not suit you, feel free to go and eat in the living area."
After this intervention, the rest of the dinner went quiet at Temari's table. At the end of the dinner, the guests were kindly requested to walk further at the back to get into the ballroom. In this chaos, Shikamaru could not spot Temari, before he realized it was already time for the present exchange. The Nara would usually disappear around that time not wanting to thank everyone for their useless present. Before he managed to get out the ballroom to look for Temari, his father grabbed his arm.
"This is for you, from your guest."
His father did not put the present under the tree as requested by the young lady, he knew his son would not look under the tree. Shikamaru, surprised at first, opened the little card and could read the following lines
[Thank you Nara, I hope this will be like a childhood souvenir you always craved for.]
The second head of the Nara clan opened the box to find a small handmade bracelet made of nylon thread and two seashells, the ones Shikamaru left out of the box on Temari's table. Shikamaru told her that those two dark and ugly ones were the best out of the box full of perfectly white and brown seashells. In the middle of their 4 hour's talk, Shikamaru went to the fridge to pick up another beer and started again to play with the seashell box. He was jealous she had kept something so useless but so meaningful. Shikamaru was moved, people would usually give him meaningless presents and also useless. The fact that Temari, half asleep, still took note of his crying complaints and made herself this bracelet for him really moved him. He also had a present for her, but he needed to find her first.
The dark-haired boy walked all the way back to the main entrance to find his classmate shivering, angrily staring at her phone. Without a second thought, Shikamaru embraced her from the back. Temari almost jumped out of surprise, she then felt the warm breath of Shikamaru.
"Thank you for coming and for the present. I really like it. I also have something for you".
He pulled out of his pocket 3 tickets. Temari could not believe it. She mentioned half asleep the other night that she would dream of attending with her two brothers the Sun Vibration musical show which would come to Konoha City in 4 months. It was the only show they would have after 10 years. Tickets were sold out in 2 minutes and cost a fortune. She could not hide her smile and timidly thanked Nara for his thoughtful present. She put the ticket in her bag and heard
"Don't tell me you wanted to leave without saying goodbye? Actually now, I am free. Let's enjoy our Christmas Eve, the real one."
Shikamaru picked Temari up and walked to the right door leading to the Nara's residence.
"You can get changed, there are a lot of new clothes for guests to use in our guestroom. We also have a swimming pool where we should go and cheer for that long boring night."
Temari asked multiple times to be put down, she even tried to get off his arms but she was frail lately as she also lost a few kilos the past few months. The guestroom in the Nara's residence was humbly decorated. As mentioned by Shikamaru, the large wooden wardrobe was full of new clothes of different sizes, for men and for women. When she left the ballroom, Temari wanted to go back to her flat. She walked as fast as she could to the main hall and started to request a taxi using the different apps available. No taxis were available at that time of the night and with this weather. She found one option but that cost 4 times more than what she paid on her way here.
After Shikamaru's present and kind suggestion, she was now in the Nara's guestroom, looking for a cute swimming suit. The blonde girl started to question her own behavior. What was the real reason she decided to come to the house of this not-so-close classmate, during such an intimate family celebration.
Was she expecting something out of this? In front of the guestroom, was Shikmaru's old bedroom.
Shikamaru was now sitting on the floor in front of his room, facing the guest room door. He was reading on his phone some news article while waiting for his guest to come out. On his side, Shikamaru just wanted to get to know Temari better, he already liked her but he needed to see more of her real personality. The potential physical proximity was also something he was looking forward to.