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Chapter Three. More than Friends?

Over the next few weeks, Shikamaru and Temari spent almost every moment together. It wasn't as if they 'liked' each other or anything, they just found each other very good company. It was the first time he had ever actually considered her a friend... Though he guessed that he had always been her friend after the Chunin exams.

It was then that they found themselves in a bar not far from where she was staying. How she had gotten them in, he didn't know. The two of them were seated in the far right corner, at a booth that seemed to be reserved for her. Strange. The smell of the building was terrible, and it was hard to even breath. Smoke flew though the room as if it was what made the air itself. Shikamaru silently vowed to himself as he coughed for about the millionth time that night, that he would never smoke in his life.

After a drink or two, Shikamaru gave up. Drinking wasn't really his 'thing' anyway. Though, that didn't stop Temari. What ever he said, she would just block it out and take another swig. By now her cheeks were stained with red, and she definitely wasn't someone he imagined he would like to be around when drunk.

"Um, Temari," He started uneasily, "I should really be getting back now-"

"Aw, come on! Stay for a while longer!" She pleaded with a slight grin on her face.

"No, really." Shikamaru stood from his side of the table. "I'll see you later, 'k?"

Temari jumped up abruptly, slamming the palms of her hands on the brown table top. "No! Sit back down!"

She was starting to make a scene, but most of the people around were staying out of it. Shikamaru lifted his arms in front of him. "Temari, I really have to go, I shouldn't even be here." He looked at her a bit more strictly. "You shouldn't even be here." He made up his mind. "Come on, we're both going home."

Temari looked appalled. "Why?" She asked, placing her hands upon her hips. "Why should we get going now?!"

Shikamaru sighed. "Now, Temari. We'll talk about it later-"

He was cut off by the blond as she flung herself onto his shocked form. She wrapped her arms tightly around his neck. "Please, Shika-kun! Don't make me leave! I don't want to go back to that deadening inn, it's so dull!"

A blush slowly started to rise on his own cheeks as he searched around him at the laughing faces. He even saw a man look at him as if he were pushing him on to do something. God...

"Listen, Temari..." He started, but couldn't finish. He saw something extremely terrifying. Something so dreadful, it wasn't even worth explaining.

Across from him he saw the back of someones head that looked highly familiar, seeing as he had only known him since he was born, and across from him was a man equally familiar, pointing at Temari and himself with a drunken wicked grin.

He had to get out. Now.

The blond man that had spotted him joked wildly with his two companions. The three of them had been friends for as long as he knew, or so his father always told him. And, speaking of his father...

"Shikamaru, is that you?"

He froze. It wasn't as if he could move anyway, Temari still holding him and all...

"Shikamaru!" His father shouted, suddenly out of his prior drunken state.

Oh God... Not now...

The shadow user deftly-awkwardly-grabbed Temari by the wrist and pulled her around. She gave a slight sound of surprise as he swung her around and pulled her towards the entrance as swiftly as he could.

Once out of the bar, he could still hear his father calling out to him from the entrance.

Gotta keep going...

"Where are we going?!" Temari demanded, pulling back when Shikamaru tried to trail away.

He didn't have time for this. "I'll tell you when we get there, okay."

"Fine."

Shikamaru led her farther and farther into the city, away from the bar, and his storming father. Why couldn't they had left sooner? What would his mother do to him once his father got home?

Shikamaru was abruptly pulled out of his revere as Temari spoke.

"I know this place... Weren't we here before?" She asked, still drunk. And, as it might add, a bit tipsy.

The shinobi stopped, searching his surroundings. Yes, they had indeed been here before. It was the same park...

Shikamaru felt a slight blush intrude his cheekbones. He hadn't even noticed where he was headed.

He hurriedly pulled his arm back to scratch the back of his head. "Um, yeah. Sorry 'bout the whole-"

Temari squeezed his hand a bit tighter, causing him to stop and stare at the attaching limbs. He had forgotten about that too...

"You know," The blond started, smirk slowly rising on her moonlit face, "you have the cutest look on your face right now, it almost makes me want to kiss it."

What?!

Shikamaru pulled back, suddenly fearful of the creature before him. Suddenly afraid of the woman in front of him... suddenly terrified by the woman that happened to be becoming more and more beautiful by the second...

Temari leaned forward, her body came closer and closer to his own, but all he could look at was her face. He suddenly was aware of her her eyes, her green eyes that seemed to sparkle on their own, without the help of sun or moon. He saw her hair, that seemed to mimic the likes of his own, in a slightly different way. Geeze, and she called him pineapple head... He saw her clothing, the same thing she had worn the day Naruto had come back from his training, and the same week her younger brother was killed. Her lips were like rosy jewels... God, had he ever thought of anyone like this before?!

In that moment, Temari stopped. She just... Stopped. Temari quickly let go of his hand and turned away from him, but not before he saw the slight blush on her face. And it wasn't from the drinking.

Shikamaru felt a slight air of disappointment. Why? He didn't know.

No, he did know. He was just to stubborn to admit to it.

"Shikamaru, I'm sorry-" She started, but for the first time, it was he who cut her off.

He had made up his mind, and he wasn't going to let the moment go. Sure, it wasn't like him, and hell, he had never expected her to be more then a friendly acquaintance... But still, there was this feeling... And he knew that it was either now, of never. And now, he didn't think he could live with the later.

Shikamaru re-gripped her wrists with both hands and brought her close to his body.

"Shikamaru!" Temari gasped, extremely shocked by what he was doing. He could tell now that she knew exactly what was going on, and that she hadn't been drunk at all after they had left the bar.

He just smirked as he leaned down, closer and closer to her slightly parted lips.

Unexpectedly, Temari's lips came up to meet his own, reassuring him that, indeed, she wanted it. This was definitely a new sensation for him, this 'kissing' thing.

As his hands loosened, her own slowly slipped out and traveled on to the back of his neck, where they rested. He didn't even question as to where to move his own this time, they sort of just moved on their own. His hands slowly, but assuredly, found their way to her waist, where they stayed.

He couldn't tell how long they had stayed like that, but it must have been for a while, seeing as both of them were gasping for breath after they broke away from each other.

Again, both of their cheeks were stained red. It seemed as if he was doing a lot of blushing ever since she showed up.

Slowly, reluctantly, they let go of each other, each taking a slight step back.

Temari looked at him quizzically, making him even more nervous. "Listen, Temari... I'm-"

A smirk abruptly found its way onto her face as she quickly closed the gap they had just created. "Just shut up." She said as she pulled him back into a kiss.

Seeing as she pretty much threw herself on him, Shikamaru fell backwards onto the soft plush grass.

This, of course, didn't phase either of them as they continued on with their... business.


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One week later...

"When are you coming back?" He asked, gently letting the female shinobi go from their light embrace.

She just grinned. "Depends, will I get to meet that wonderful lady from last time? She was quite a person, I'll tell you that."

Shikamaru sighed, scratching his head. "I should know, I live with her..."

Temari patted him forcefully on the back. "Aw, come on! I'll be back as soon as I can, Okay? Try not to cry too much while I'm gone." She tuned towards the entrance of the village.

The shinobi scoffed. "Like I'd cry for you." He replied stubbornly, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Temari turned back to face him and copied his stance. "Yeah right! I'll bet you'll be shedding tears like a baby once I'm gone!" She smirked. "You couldn't live without me!"

"Oh really? And what about you cant I live without exactly?" Shikamaru inquired.

"This." She stated simply, grabbing him around the waist and claiming his lips for her own.

He hated it when she did that, mainly because she knew that, indeed, he felt as if he couldn't live without it... now.

When she let him go, he found himself blushing, again.

He definitely still wasn't comfortable with her doing that in public.

Before he could regain back his composure, she had already started for the gate. "I'll see you later, Lazy ass!" She called out to him as she passed though the gates of Konoha, and back to her own village.

It had traveled though his head countless times since that night in the park, how they were even going to keep something up from so far away. You know, living a whole three days away from each other and all. He had even thought about what would happen if, say, another war broke out. What would happen then? He had even conversed with Ino about it. She always seemed to have good advice for him in that area.

She had told him something that would stick in his mind forever...

She had told him, that sometimes... with love... it just doesn't matter.


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Fin.
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