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“Well? How did it feel?
His eyes fixed on the floor, he began, “like time stopped for me…?”
“And?”
“And what?”
“That’s it? Would you do it again?”
“If I had the chance to, yeah. Who wouldn’t?”
Ino sighed. “And you say you don’t like her?”
“...I don’t know.”
“Then let me ask you this, Shikamaru. Do you not like her, or are you afraid she doesn’t like you? Are you afraid of being hurt?”
He pursed his lips, and after a few moments of silence Ino gathered her things and began to leave. “Think it over. I’ll hear what you have to say about it tomorrow.”
And boy, did he think about it. He lay on his bed, staring at the ceiling and replaying the day’s events in his head, over and over.
Well, not the entire day’s events. And not really many events. Just the one. The one where he kissed the princess of Suna.
Elated as he was, he could not stop thinking about whether he overstepped his boundaries. Did he force himself on her? He just couldn’t remember whether she smiled before it happened. Or after. Maybe during?
So he played it again. Naruto requesting him to fetch the paperwork due that day. Him walking to the records office in the basement. Her being there, verifying Suna’s biannual report on the Chuunin exams. Her purple skirt ending just between her thighs and knees, fishnet tights hardly extending two inches below her skirt (why did she need it?) Him reaching for the papers on the shelf beside her. Accidentally knocking the back of her shoulder. Her glare when she turned, and the change of expression when she registered that it was him; as if to say, “oh, it’s you.”
“Sorry, it was an accident, I swear,” he started. He didn’t really get to finish. As he trailed off, their eyes met. In about a minute of the inexplicable silence and the dry warmth of the basement (and, possibly, Shikamaru’s one-and-a-half-year crush on her that he swears is nothing, but that hardly counts as a cause, right?) he leaned in. His central problem for the remainder of the day was his inability to remember whether she also leaned in.
“Did you ever think, Shikamaru, that you could walk up to her and just ask her?”
“Oh my god, Ino, you’re right! Why didn’t I think of that? I’m so stupid! ‘Temari, good morning! Hey, remember when I kissed you and didn’t bother to observe whether you seemed interested? Let’s talk about that real quick,’” Shikamaru mocked.
Chouji looked up. “Why don’t you try again?”
“What?”
“Try again. This time, you’ll know.”
“That’s… kind of a good idea, Chouji,” Ino began.
“What? Are you insane? Just so I’m clear, if she likes me I’m all good, but if she doesn’t, if I was wrong the first time around and she was uncomfortable, you suggest I go back, try make her more uncomfortable, just to be absolutely sure she doesn’t like me? And this sounded like a good idea to you, Ino?”
“It’s a horrible idea. But since we’re talking about you, Mr. I-refuse-to-have-a-conversation-about-my-feelings, it's a pretty good idea. You can go the long route.”
“I’m not doing that. I know I don’t seem the most enthusiastic to live, but I’d like to stick around. On Earth. She’s staying for two weeks. If I ever see her, I’m walking the other way.”
Ino sighed again, visibly annoyed. “You know what? I’m tired of this shit. Fine. Suit yourself.”
She didn’t mean it.
“Temari! Hi, how are you?”
Temari looked back, confused. “I’m… good? We met just a few hours ago, Ino, you already asked me. Are you alright there?”
“Oh, you’re right! Silly me,” she looked down at her hands, both strained from carrying two bags in each hand. Or rather the bags seemed strained from gripping on for dear life. “Oh my, look at me! Apparently, having met you already isn’t the only thing I’m forgetting. I seem to have left a bag behind.”
“Here, I can help you carry these while you bring the other one…” Temari offered.
“Oh, I couldn’t ask you to do that, that’d just be too rude. But…” she smiled.
“Yeah?”
“Could you be a dear and get that last bag for me? It’s in the records office, right behind the Hokage’s unit.”
So there she was, behind the Hokage’s unit, no bag in sight. Shikamaru had no problem with it, except that she happened to be there exactly when he was. And he seemed to be caught not in a crossfire but in something more… well, intentional.
“Ino didn’t mention that the bag she left behind was a douchebag.”
“Good morning to you too. If I were you I’d probably give up on the bag. Or bags, seeing how Ino’s fake one doesn’t exist and the real one would like not to.”
“If I were you I’d stop giving opinions nobody asked for, because when you were twelve a really smart, beautiful fifteen year old said she didn’t want it. And if your insufferable self couldn’t be stopped I’d at least quit giving it to the same person again.”
“...my bad,” Shikamaru looked up, realising, and smiled. “Turns out I don’t catch things quite right at once. Mind telling me anything I might have missed, once more?”
“I haven’t said anything that you could have heard.” Temari said as she stepped forward. A challenge.
“So you have said something. Done something, and I haven’t been observant.”
“No shit, Genius of Konoha. Do they hand out that title after consideration or do you play darts to choose the guy who gets it?”
“They suck at both, so they give it to whoever seems least likely to die so that they don’t have to think about it for a while.” She smiled. He was doing something right. Or so he hoped. “Is this ‘doing’ of yours an ongoing thing? Or do I have to stakeout like some cat-catching genin?”
“I’m usually subtle, but since you’re as dense as they come I’d decided to give you a little something more concrete to work with.”
“...Which was?”
“Oh for fuck’s sake, you pathetic man,” She reached out and grabbed his green flak jacket, ready to punch him. He accepted his imminent fate, eyes instinctively shutting.
And then she kissed him.
She kissed him .
She didn’t let go of the jacket, even when he eventually pulled back. Maybe the punch was deferred, not voided.
“That concrete enough for you, or you still can’t smell a clue?”
“So… last week. You weren’t put off?”
“Right, let’s see. Last week, when I was minding my business, you walk in, knock my shoulder, look me straight in the eye like we’re in some folk tragedy, kiss me, get flustered, and leave without a word. What exactly am I supposed to feel about that?”
“...I’m sorry. I thought I forced myself on you, and I was so embarrassed, my mind went blank–”
He couldn’t finish. She pulled him back in, inches from herself, close enough that Shikamaru’s heart threatened to let him carry on this conversation without it. “Try again. I’m looking for some positivity today.”
“Uh…” he began, his eyes unable to pick between her looking at her eyes or lips. When she tensed her brows, the disappointment beginning to show, he lost all reason. He didn’t know how he could fix this, but he had to do something. He had to say something.
“I guess I haven’t been very honest lately.”
“So the kiss was dishonest? Impulsive, no more?”
“No, you’ve got it all wrong,” he said, leading her hands away from the jacket and around himself. “The kiss was the most honest, and nothing else was. I didn’t want to run away and I didn’t want to avoid you. I didn’t want to stop talking to you. I miss you when you’re in Suna, and think about how long six months are. I miss you when you leave, and think about how fast two weeks go by. My friends think I’m stupid for not saying anything, and maybe they’re right, but you never said anything either, and I didn’t want things to change.”
“Stop right there. I didn’t say anything? Are you fucking kidding me? Every time I come here I’m trying to give you hints like it’s nobody’s business, but somehow you are so dense that it’s become everyone’s business but yours. Everyone in this village has caught on except you, don’t try to pin this one on me. You couldn’t recognise a hint if it grabbed you by the vest and kissed you in the face.”
For a second, neither said a word. And then both broke into a chuckle. “Maybe I’ll take the fall this time. Troublesome woman.”
“You’re not done here. You were right; you don’t catch things quite right at once. So I’ll remind you: I said, I’m looking for something positive today,” she said, smiling, her hands still lodged behind his back.
“I think I’ll need that reminder a lot more, going forward. But for now…”