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Temari did not love Shikamaru. Not at all. Not even a little bit.
And even if she did, there was not a single chance she’d admit it. And not to Kankurou of all people. Not that there was anything to admit. She barely even tolerated the guy. Sure, he was intelligent and capable but he was also the most frustratingly lazy person she’d ever met.
They dropped from the trees and slowed to a walk as they made their slow approach to the village.
Temari could feel her pain-in-the-ass brother’s eyes on her before she turned toward him and saw the stupid smug grin plastered on as thick as his face paint. Her hand itched to reach for her fan. She didn’t though. Her family had been doing well for several years, no attempted murders or maimings of relatives. She wouldn’t be the one to break that streak.
“So, Temari…” He drawled, as his grin grew. Perhaps she’d reconsider not breaking that streak.
“Shut it.”
“Does he normally wait by the gate or meet up with you later?” Kankurou said with the playful aggression that only a sibling could manage.
She turned to her brother and fixed her coldest glare on him. Unfortunately having grown up in the same harsh and often frightening situation as her he didn’t shrink in on himself. A childhood avoiding the wrath of your baby brothers bloodlust sure made it easy to stand up to intimidation. Much to her frustration. She wished he was at least a little bit intimidated by her. It’d make travelling with him easier.
“You must miss him,” Kankurou said, as he tugged on his hood absentmindedly, “what, with the way you’re rushing toward that gate.”
Temari made a show of straightening her shoulders, staring in the opposite direction and slowing her walk. She ignored him as best she could as the village gates came into her field of vision. What was Gaara thinking? Sending Kankurou with her? She would have been perfectly capable of exchanging medicinal herbs with Konoha’s hospital alone.
Missions to Konoha, whether as a member of the alliance or representative of Suna, she was always grateful for. And not just because she got to see Shikamaru, as one of her idiot brothers thought. Shikamaru barely had anything to do with it really. Nothing to do with it, she corrected herself. She liked the time travelling alone and seeing some of the people of Konoha -not just Shikamaru- and the village she’d grown a certain fondness for over the years.
“Do I need to have words with him? You know, as your brother.”
Her head whipped toward her younger brother so fast pain shot down the muscles of her neck. “Don’t you dare speak to Shikamaru.”
“Shikamaru?” Kankurou smiled, doing his best to play dumb. Not that Temari was buying it. “That Nara kid? Aren’t you a little old for him Temari?”
Despite the heat that had rapidly flushed her cheeks she was staring at Kankurou with the sharpness of her wind scythe. She was going to murder him. Knock him over the head with her fan, slice him up into little pieces and feed him to Gaara for sending him along with her.
And too old? She eyed her brother threateningly. Three years was hardly too old for him. Shikamaru was an adult, like her, and a soldier. Not that it mattered. Because she definitely wasn’t in love with Konoha’s (maybe even the allied forces) laziest ninja. It just bothered her that Kankurou was talking about her like she was some old hag and Shikamaru a sweet little genin. She wasn’t an old hag, and she wasn’t too old for him. Not that it mattered!
She stopped and kicked her foot into the dirt in a way that she knew looked too childish and ridiculous for a shinobi of her calibre.
It only brought him amusement. Because of course it did.
She stepped toward him, jamming her finger into his chest as hard as she could. “Another word Kankurou and…” Temari paused, threatening to destroy his beloved puppets could result in her fan meeting its demise, “and I’ll tell everyone you’re dating a puppet.”
“But I’m not.” Her brother looked at her like she'd lost her mind. And maybe she had.
“They don’t know that,” Temari powered on, despite her lack of pride in her threat. “And perhaps date is a generous word… Who knows what you get up to locked away in that little workshop at all hours of the night?”
Kankurou muttered under his breath, quiet enough that Temari couldn’t make out what he said. She fixed her eye on him once more before they continued toward the gate.
Aside from the two guards she assumed were hidden under the cover of the shelter Temari could see a small group huddled by the gate. Shikamaru was one of them, she knew that without seeing. He was always there. But the spiked ponytail and too relaxed pose was a dead give-away. Her eyes also settled on pink hair, Sakura obviously, and the perfectly styled hair and clothes of Ino.
It was normally just Shikamaru. Maybe Kakashi if it was something serious. She definitely wasn’t disappointed by the presence of two of her only female friends. Two of her only friends at all if she was being honest.
“Hey look! There’s your boyfriend, Tem.”
Temari whipped around, her hand stretched out to strike her brother across the back of his head. Kankurou fled, a wicked laugh sounding behind him.
She had no desire to chase after him. There was no chance she was embarrassing herself like that. She only hoped her brother had a limit to his stupidity.
“Kankurou! Temari!” Ino’s voice echoed down the road, as Kankurou stepped into the village. Temari still lagged some way behind but raised her hand in acknowledgement.
Shikamaru was still casually supporting himself on the of the posts when she arrived. “Temari,” he smiled.
“Shikamaru,” she acknowledged, a small creeping onto her face despite her attempts to remain straight-faced. “Ino. Sakura.”
The two kunoichis smiled pleasantly, greeting her in earnest.
“So,” Kankurou said, rubbing a hand across his stomach. “Lunch?”
“Lunch sounds great,” Ino smiled sweetly and suspiciously, “unfortunately Sakura is really desperate for those medicinal herbs Kankurou. Right, Sakura? You said you needed them for a surgery, this afternoon?”
Sakura paused, eyes fixed on Ino for several moments before conceding. “That’s right.” Shikamaru sighed and stuffed his hands in his pockets as he shot a pointed look at Sakura. Ino gleamed, as Sakura mouthed a silent apology.
“Maybe you two can get lunch while the three of us head to the hospital?” Ino smiled as she nudged Shikamaru with the subtlety of a hungry Akimichi, and nodded toward Temari.
Temari and Shikamaru met eyes, as they stared each other down in a game of chicken. Temari’s cheeks warmed as his eyes looked at anything but her. He was embarrassed. It was quite the sight for a shinobi as generally unfazed as Shikamaru to look so cute as his eyes glanced over her momentarily. Not cute, she corrected herself, just different. His cheeks flushed pink, and Temari conceded to herself, maybe a little cute.
“It’s settled then.” Ino clapped her hands with a grin that rivalled Kankurou. “Come on Forehead, Kankurou, let us leave these two to each other.”
“Be good!” Kankurou winked. Heat radiated off Temari, and whether from her flushed cheeks or her ever-growing desire to murder her brother she wasn’t sure.
Temari avoided looking at Shikamaru until the other three had disappeared from sight, sniggers echoing behind them as they walked away. Her cheeks were still flushed, and so were his when their eyes fell upon each other again.
“Sorry about that,” he shrugged, managing to come across as much more casual than his cheeks should allow. “You know what Ino’s like.”
“It’s okay if you don’t want lunch,” Temari said in a voice that came out much too loud and much too quick. Idiot!
Shikamaru flinched backwards at her unnecessary outburst. “No, it’s fine. I mean, I wouldn’t mind lunch. With you.”
“So…” Temari turned away from Shikamaru toward the village centre, feeling slightly more confident. “What do you feel like Nara?”
“Your choice,” Shikamaru said as he kicked his foot off the post and began walking ahead of her, saying something about troublesome women under his breath.
Planted in spot Temari looked up to see Shikamaru ahead of her, hands in pockets looking over his shoulder still with the lightest of pink dusting his cheekbones. “You coming or what?”
She smiled and came into step alongside him. Their arms gently brushed against one another as they made their way into Konoha’s market district.
It came to Temari as they sat down at a secluded little tea house that she’d not stop smiling since being alone with him. Not at all. Not for a moment. And maybe, maybe, that she liked Shikamaru more than she cared to admit.
Temari didn’t love him. Not yet.
But one day, maybe one day she would.
Still, there was not a chance she’d give Kankurou the satisfaction of a confession.
Shikamaru caught her eye over the quaint little table and smiled in a way that had her cheeks warming all over again.
Not yet, but one day.