Sky's Content (Nara Shikamaru) [22]

So Much Better

"Do you really think this is a good idea?" I ask, "I mean, last time I was in a forest I tripped and sprained my ankle. And that was when I wasn't blindfolded."

"All you do is complain, holy crap." Shikamaru tells me, his grip on my hand tightening a little.

It's my birthday and Shikamaru has blindfolded me, taking me to a 'secret' location. So far from what I can tell by the smell of trees and the sounds of crumpling leaves/branches we're outside of Kohona in some forest. Which isn't all that helpful considering Kohona is surrounded by forests.

"Well when you wake me up at five am, all I really feel like doing is complaining." I tell him, trying to concentrate on my footing.

"I told you, we need to get there before nine, and at this rate we're not going to make it."

"We could make it if you took this blindfold off." I point out.

"The blindfold stays on." He confirms.

"Fine," I mumble.

Because of the blindfold Shikamaru and I have been holding hands for the better part of two hours. Which is awesome, but I would still prefer to know where I'm going, or why it's taking hours for us to get there.

"Can't we just take a break?" I complain, starting to drag my feet.

"No breaks." He tells me, "You used to wake me up at this time. I don't get why you're complaining."

I feel a twig snap under my left foot, "Yeah but that was when I wasn't sleeping during the night. Now I sleep fine." Well except for last night anyways.

"I told you to get to sleep early."

"I didn't think you meant that early." I yawn, covering my mouth with my free hand.

"Jesus. Just another twenty minutes."

"I thought you said we weren't going to make it for nine."

"I thought you said you were going to be quiet."

"I never said tha-" I start, but trip over a root on the ground and fall into Shikamaru's back. I grab a bunch of his shirt, trying to regain my balance. "See! This is exactly what I was talking about."

He sighs and turns around, helping me to stand back up. "You need to calm down." He says and moves some hair out of my face.

When he touches my face I bite my lip. "You need to let me see." I tell him.

He laughs a little and takes my hand again, pulling me forward. "20 more minutes."

***

We stop walking and Shikamaru let's go of my hand. "We're here." He tells me and I start to raise my arms to take off the blindfold. But before I can, Shikamaru grabs onto my arms and puts them back down. "Let me."

There's a pause and suddenly I feel this weight on my body, urging for me to lurch forward. And even though I'm blind I know that Shikamaru is standing in front of me, not even two inches away. I feel his hands on the back of my head as he starts to untie the blindfold, but once it's untied he doesn't remove it right away.

I feel like he going to kiss me. If he did I don't think I would mind so much. "Close your eyes." He tells me and pulls off the blindfold. He walks around me and puts his hands on my shoulders, "Okay, open them."

I slowly open my eyes and let the light shine into them. "Gah..." I cringe and block the sun with one hand.

After a few seconds of squinting the scene around me starts to come into focus and I feel Shikamaru's grip tighten, "Now don't freak out." He whispers into my ear.

Once my eyes are fully adjusted I look in front of me and I come face to face with not just one, but about ten deer in a small clearing. My mouth drops and I back up into Shikamaru.

He laughs and pulls me closer to him, "I told you not to freak out." He repeats and a deer comes closer. Shikamaru then grabs my hand and holds it up to the deer, letting it pet itself under my hand. "See, they like you."

I guess we're on land Shikamaru's clan owns, but I thought that it was restricted only to family members. How did he convince them to let me on it if this wasn't work related? I try to think of what to say but the only thing that comes to mind is, "This is why you needed to wake me up at five am?"

He immediately drops his head and rests it on my shoulder, "I show you this amazing thing and all you do is complain."

"Yep."

Shikamaru lets out an exasperated sigh. "I've rubbed off on you too much." As he says this, he subconsciously rubs his right hand up and down my arm. The irony is not lost on me.

"Yep." I repeat.

He laughs and lifts his head, "Well this is the only time of day I could guarantee the deer would be here."

I turn and face Shikamaru, "It's amazing." I tell him.

He smiles and for the first time today I notice what he is wearing. He is in a black t-shirt and his usual pants, but the only thing I really see is his ripped arms staring me right in the face. Holy crap.

But as we're standing the there the deer start to circle around him. I never thought in a million years I'd see how he is with the deer. His parents already made it seem like it's this huge secret that only people in the family knew.

He smiles and pats one on its side. Then he grabs my hand again and starts to walk into some trees, out of the clearing. "Where are we going?" I ask, holding onto his hand as well. As we turn around a thick bush of trees I freeze the second I see it, causing Shikamaru to stop with me.

We're at the top of a mountain and the view goes on for miles and miles. Shikamaru laughs and pulls me closer to the edge. This feels like one of those scenes you see once in a lifetime. I take in deep breath of the cool mountain air; so fresh it's absolutely amazing.

"Now don't tell me you're going to complain about this." Shikamaru says and sits down leaning back on his hands.

I sit down beside him, debating whether or not to put my hand on his, but decide against it. "I don't think anyone can complain about this." I breathe in more of that intoxicating air.

He smiles and lies back, putting his hands behind his head, "The perks of being a Nara."

"What, are you trying to recruit me?" I ask him half joking, half serious.

He laughs a little, but never responds. I look down the mountain and try to burn this image into my mind, knowing that I would soon forget its amazingness.

I can't believe that Shikamaru would bring me here to see this. Old Shikamaru wouldn't have thought this was interesting or amazing. I bet he would have said something like: 'who cares what angle you see the forest from? It's still filled with annoying bugs and animals that want to eat you.'

"What are you thinking about?" I turn over to Shikamaru and see he's looking at the sky.

"I was just thinking about how you would thought this was boring a few years ago." I start to fidget with my hands, feeling the bones in one hand with the other.

"Yeah, but I'm more interested in the fresh air up here. Breathing this air and looking at the clouds really makes you feel like you can float away with them."

I look up to the sky; the clouds today are full, and fluffy. I take in another deep breath, "Yeah I can see that." I tell him and we just lay there staring at the clouds with the deer for who knows how long.

After the deer continue on their way, Shikamaru sighs and gets up, walking over to a tree. "Time for some food." He reaches behind the tree to grab a string on a pulley. Once he starts to pull down on the pulley a basket drops down right in front of him.

"You made food?" I look at him in disbelief as he unties it.

"Kind of. Most of it is takeout." Since that basket was here already that means he had to make a trip out here before picking me up. Wow.

I laugh and walk over to him, "Of course." I hold out my hands and he gives me the blanket from the basket.

The blanket is cool, and I shiver a little when I open it up. He must have some ice packs in there. I place the blanket on the ground and smooth it out, "So is this all you have planned for my birthday or is there more?" I question.

He places the basket down on the opposite side of the blanket and starts to pull out the food. "There's more." He tells me.

I sit down and move my hair to one side, a move he seems to notice. "Shikamaru Nara. Mr. I'm-too-lazy-to-pick-up-a-pencil-to-write-my-test."

He laughs, "That was eight years ago." He hands me a box of sushi.

"Ok. I suppose you have kind of changed in the past eight years." I open up the box and take out the chopsticks.

"In the past two years." He corrects me, "At least."

I smile and pick up one of the sushi rolls, putting it in my mouth. "So," Shikamaru starts, "I know we have been avoiding this, but tell me about Suna. From start to finish."

I tense up, and swallow the food in my mouth. "Uhm, there's not much to tell." I say and open up the bottle of water Shikamaru laid on the blanket for me.

He cringes a little, "That bad?"

I look to the side, avoiding eye contact. "Well I wouldn't call it bad, just... not good. I mean like, for the two years I was there, I only really knew a few people outside my family. It's not like I had much."

"What about Keisuke? You said he liked you didn't you?"

"Yeah he did. Or rather does but-" Wait a second.

"Keisuke?"

"My Dad's apprentice. Well former apprentice. He like loved me or something."

Shikamaru paused, "Oh." He seemed bothered by the fact Keisuke likes me.

"Don't worry. I only care about you." I reassured him and wrapped my arms around his chest. "I'm definitely sleeping right?"

"If you were actually awake, would I do this?" He told me and leaned down, kissing me.

"You!" I throw whatever was in my hand at him, which happened to be the open bottle of water. "You kissed me!" I scream.

He blinks a few times and wipes the water off his face, "What are you talking about?" He tries to deny it.

I crawl over to his side of the blanket and start to hit him in the arm over and over. "You kissed me! On the last day of the mission, I told you about Keisuke and then you kissed me!"

"Calm down!" He grabs my arms and restrains me like it was nothing. "Besides you kissed me back." He reminds me.

"Yeah because I thought I was dreaming!" I shout, only realizing the implications of what I said, afterI said it.

"So you dream about kissing me?" He questions and my face starts to become hot. Very, very hot.

"That- That doesn't change the fact that you took advantage of me while I was half asleep!" Well I wasn't exactly sleeping. I was awake, but I wanted it to be a dream so I convinced myself it was.

"I wouldn't call that taking advantage of you, especially when you took that opportunity to pull out my elastic." He tells me, his hands still gripping my arms tightly.

I pout and try to pull my arms free, "Were there any other times you did that then?" I whisper. I feel so embarrassed asking, but I have to know.

He laughs and lets me go. "No there was no other times that I kissed you in your sleep."

I cross my arms and look away, trying to get the blush on my face to subside. "Just don't do it again okay?"

"Fine, from now on every time I kiss you I promise to make sure you're one hundred percent awake for it."

Well that didn't help the blush subside.

I wrap my arms around my legs and lower my face into my knees, "Why do you say stuff like that?" I think I'm blushing so hard that I might pass out from the sudden blood rush to my head.

Shikamaru kneels in front of me, lifting my head up to look at him. He looks so... content. He just managed to snake out of me that I dream about him and he seems happy about it. "I see you still blush really easily." He comments, his right thumb lightly stroking my jawline.

I get up and hit him, "And I see that now you're manipulative, scheming and don't like to use doors!" I yell at him, hitting him over and over again.

He turns and waits for me to stop hitting him, "Are you done?" He asks.

I hit him one more time for good measure, "Okay, now I'm done."

"Good." He says and grabs his bottle of water, opens it and pours it all over me.

I look at him, mouth agape and all he has to say is, "It's only fair, you did it to me."

So of course I try to hit him again, but when I do he grabs me and pushes me down to the ground, getting on top of me. Now there's not even three inches between us and the atmosphere goes from playful to serious in a second flat.

Both of us are silent, and all I can hear is the chirping of birds and rustling of trees around us. He looks down to my neck, sees the ribbon around it and starts to untie it. If it was anyone else, I'm sure I would stop them immediately, but even after all this time Shikamaru is the only one I will let touch my neck. Once he pulls the ribbon away he looks at the scar on my neck and sighs. He runs his thumb over the raised edges of it, examining it.

Then, he tilts my head back and lowers his. The second I realize what he's doing I grab onto his shoulders, bracing myself. His lips lightly touch my scar and I tighten my grip, my nails digging into his skin. But it doesn't seem to faze him as his lips stay on me and after a few seconds he lifts his head to look into my eyes.

The second he does, I swear my heart skips a beat.

He runs his fingers through my hair and leans down, hesitating just before our lips touch. The only thing I can hear now is my heart pumping harder and louder with each beat. This is just unbearable, waiting for him, but I'm frozen. My body is telling me to lift my head and I can't.

After a few ragged breathes, he asks me, "You're one hundred percent awake right?"

I feel like I can't breathe. Every breath I take is so shallow; the only way I know I am breathing is by how painful it is. I nod, "One hundred percent."

Then without any more pause his lips touch mine, so softly it's as if he's not even kissing me at all. I don't think we've ever kissed like this before. All our other kisses were always either quick or needy and desperate. But this... this is longing. This is savouring. This is...

My eyes start to burn as I feel the tears gush out of them and the second Shikamaru notices he pulls back. "Why are you crying?" He asks, bewildered.

I hug him tightly; "I... I..." I try talking but the sobs make it impossible.

He sighs and wraps one arm around me, then rolls to the side, turning me with him. He then grabs onto me with his other hand and he holds me, waiting for the tears to subside.

I bury my head into his chest, something I haven't gotten the chance to do in years. His smell starts to overpower my senses and I feel this overwhelming sense of nostalgia. Even though the month after my accident was one of the worst months of my life, it was also one of the best. Knowing that every morning I got to see Shikamaru was so comforting.

After a while I speak up, "Shikamaru," I look up to him and we share another savouring kiss.

"What is it?" He asks, gently rubbing my back.

"Are we together again now?" My voice croaks, adjusting to speaking again after all that crying.

He furrows his brow, the mood suddenly ruined. "What is it with you and definitions?" He pauses, "Do you want to be together?"

I want to say yes, but when I try to speak nothing comes out. I sit up and cover my face, trying not to start crying again. He sits up as well, putting his arm around my shoulder. "Yuri we don't have to if you don't want to. Just because we kissed-" He starts but I cut him off.

"I want to, I want to but..." My stomach rumbles and I suddenly remember how hungry I am. I haven't eaten since Shikamaru woke me up this morning and I wouldn't even call that a meal. He gave me a sandwich and said 'Eat it on the way', which when you're blindfolded is a pretty hard thing to do.

Shikamaru turns back to the food and grabs his bento, "Why don't we just eat? We can talk about this later."

I nod and wipe my face. "Okay." I walk over to my side of the blanket, picking up my food.

***

After we had eaten we started to head back to Kohona and even though we had kissed we continued on like it never happened.

"So Kyori she had to be one of my better friends in Suna. We worked together pretty closely and not to mention she was the only one that didn't make it seem blasphemes for not liking Keisuke." I grab my neck to cover it up as some people pass by. After what happened earlier my ribbon seemed to have disappeared.

Shikamaru laughs, "Okay you have got to tell me about Keisuke. I got to know what my competition is like."

I shake my head, a small smile on my face. "Fine. Keisuke is two years older than me, brown hair, brown eyes, is probably around your height and is overall a nice guy."

"Ouch. A nice guy." Shikamaru comments.

I give him a look and continue, "He knows about you. Well actually he kind of hates your guts. You shouldn't be in the same room as him any time soon. But you know, he cares about me. He put up with a lot of my crap: the avoiding, the rudeness... just a lot." Keisuke didn't really deserve how I treated him, but my heart has been set on Shikamaru. It always has.

"Can we stop? I'm tired of all this walking." I comment and Shikamaru nods. We were in Kohona and nearing our bench so I start to head there.

As we're walking up those familiar steps, Shikamaru looks at me oddly and I raise an eyebrow. But when we reach the top I realize he was looking at me that way because on the bench there's a box with a dark red ribbon on top of it. I turn to him, "You planned this all out?"

"Told you there was more." He tells me and I pick up the box, placing it in my lap after we sit down.

"So you planned me getting tired just as we got close to our spot?" I say kind of jokingly.

"Our spot?"

I feel myself blush slightly and I hit him in the arm, "Shut up."

"Jesus, when did you get so abusive? You're lucky I'm a ninja and your puny punches do nothing to me." He comments and puts an arm behind my waist.

I shake my head and look down to my present. It's pretty small, so probably it's jewelry. Like I said, the ribbon is a deep red and the box itself is black. I pull off the ribbon, place it beside me and then proceed to open the box. When I take off the lid and lift up the tissue paper, I see a gorgeous silver bracelet with a charm of a deer attached to it.

Immediately I feel a wave of emotions. I stop breathing and I feel a pull in my chest. "It's... It's beautiful." I tell Shikamaru and pull it out of the box, putting it on my arm. I can't believe he would get me something like this.

I twist my arm back and forth to look at it in full detail, but as I do, I notice something. "Wait a second," I grab his hand behind my waist and bring it in front of me.

Something I noticed earlier was on his right hand Shikamaru was wearing a ring. I hold his hand up to mine and it's a perfect match to the bracelet. "They match."

He shrugs, "Yeah. I figure this way when I'm on a mission we have a reminder of each other."

I pause, "Say that again?" If he just said what I thought he did I don't think I can stop myself from falling in love with him all over again.

He repeats himself; "I got them so we have a reminder of each other when the other is not around."

I look down to his hand that was still in mine and interlace my fingers with his. I know he did all these horrible things to me, but two years ago he would have never planned out such an elaborate birthday as this. He wouldn't have woken me up a five just to see the deer. He wouldn't have prepared food or done anything he is now. "Shikamaru, this is the last time I can do this."

He sits up straight, "You mean, us?"

I nod, "You've already broken my heart so many times and if..." I struggle to say the words, "if you break up with me again I'm done. I'll be broken forever."

He squeezes my hand, "I know."

I turn to him, tears filling up my eyes. I can't believe I'm about to do this but, "Don't break me again. Please don't." I beg him, the sobs taking over.

He wraps me into a tight hug, "I won't this time. I promise."

"Please don't. Please don't." I beg him again and again.

"I'm not going to Yuri." He lifts my head from his chest and kisses me, "I'm not going to. I swear." He reaffirms.

"You swear?" I ask him, bracing myself on him as I lose all the strength from my arms and legs.

"I swear." He kisses me again and again, as if kissing me enough times would make me believe him.

And after enough times I wanted to believe him, I wanted to so badly that it hurt. I miss kissing him. I miss holding him. I miss the way he made me laugh. I miss the way he sometimes would look at me when he thought I wasn't looking. I just... I missed everything so much.

I pull away and rest my forehead on his, "Okay." I give in. "Okay." I close my eyes and let tears subside.

He sighs, "I made you cry two times in one day. I feel like such a jerk."

I laugh a little, "You are one."

Shikamaru wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me closer to him. "Do you prefer dream Shikamaru then? I'm pretty sure he's never been a jerk to you."

I shake my head, "No, dream Shikamaru is nice and all, but all we ever do is make out."

He laughs, "I knew it. I'm way better than that guy anyways."

I nod slightly, "So much better."

---------------