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"You're killing me here," Shikamaru groans, glaring at Naruto's general… everything. He's rocking from foot to foot, tapping his hands on his thighs, and humming all at once, making him a bit of a sensory nightmare.
Ino makes a quiet noise of agreement, her nose wrinkled in distaste.
Naruto hops in place a few times to glance into the mission hall. He frowns at whatever he sees, not that it would be any different than when they arrived ten minutes ago.
"What'd'ya think the delay is?" Naruto wonders, unbothered by their disapproving stares as he starts snapping his fingers after he stops jumping around.
"Could be anything," Ino shrugs.
"It's a drag," Shikamaru grumbles. They're only here to confirm their completed job, but there's still four teams loitering outside the doors just like they are, so even if whatever trouble is happening in the offices gets resolved, they'll be waiting a while.
"Ugh," Naruto complains, "can't we come back later? Isn't it just a waste of time to stand around here?"
"We're not off duty until our report is submitted," Shikamaru sighs.
"You're just being lazy like always," Naruto accuses.
Shikamaru stares at his rapidly blinking eyes. He tugs on his ear as he frowns at Shikamaru's lazy slump. Shikamaru starts puzzling about his inability to be still. He's always twitching, but Shikamaru hasn't seen him this severely wound up since they were still in the academy.
Ino knows it too and must see the calculating look that's crossed his face because she swings open the door of a nearby supply closet and shoves him into the empty doorway. He instinctively tries to grab the doorframe to stop himself, but Ino's also shoving Naruto after him and the blond collides with his side before Shikamaru can get his balance right.
"Great," Ino says from the doorway as Shikamaru lands uncomfortably under a surprised Naruto. "You can be the one to solve this problem."
Shikamaru's got a lap full of a squirming blond and an elbow buried in his gut. He glares up at Ino, but knows he won't be fast enough getting to his feet to stop her from shutting the door so he doesn't bother trying.
"Or maybe you can find something to keep you both busy," Ino devilishly smirks as the door creeps closed. "Don't say I never did anything for you, Shikamaru. Have some fun."
The door clicks shut, dooming them to total darkness. Shikamaru doesn't doubt that Ino will have stuck a seal to the entrance, ensuring they're totally trapped until she decides to free them—likely whenever it's their turn to report in.
"What's that supposed to mean," Naruto grumbles, orienting himself and picking up some of his weight off of Shikamaru's legs.
Shikamaru sighs, and banishes the images Ino just planted in his head, thankful Naruto's oblivious enough that he hasn't caught on.
"She's just causing trouble," Shikamaru tells him, "You all right?"
Naruto hums and Shikamaru feels him stand to inspect their new surroundings. He tries the door handle, but unsurprisingly, it remains shut. Shikamaru had taken the vocalization as an affirmative, but Naruto just… doesn't stop humming. He even throws a few clicks of his tongue into the mix.
"You're still doing that," Shikamaru notes as he stands.
"—Watch your head, Shika—" Naruto warns, hand stretching out to block him from nailing the crown of his head on a shelf. "And— uh— yeah, sorry."
"It's fine," Shikamaru brushes off, blinking as his eyes adjust to the lack of light, "I just thought it was because you were bored."
"Most of the time it is," Naruto admits. "But some of it—" Naruto interrupts himself to hum some more. "—some of it I just can't help."
Shikamaru's brain puts a lot of puzzle pieces together suddenly. "You have involuntary ticks."
"Yeah, that's what my pervy sensei calls them too," Naruto agrees, "ticks, or whatever. Today's been kind of a bad day."
Shikamaru ponders that for a moment. His brain starts sorting all of Naruto's habits into voluntary ones, and the ones he can't stop. He had been having a tougher time today, twitchy and distracted, not to mention uncharacteristically frustrated.
"This is a really small closet," Naruto notes with a waver. He clicks his tongue a few more times.
It is very small, and it smells overwhelmingly stale. Like parchment, ink, wax and a decade of dust.
"What's up," Shikamaru asks when Naruto proceeds to only get jumpier the longer they're trapped in the darkness.
"I don't—" Naruto says, accidentally bumping into Shikamaru's chest and swiftly jerking away. Shikamaru has to scramble to catch him so he doesn't whack his skull off a shelf, returning the favor Naruto had just done him. He thinks he hears Naruto whimper. Shikamaru doesn't think he's ever heard Naruto make a sound of such abject fear before.
"I don't really like tight spaces," Naruto admits in a murmur, eyes squeezed shut tight like he can make his surroundings disappear if he tries hard enough. He hums another long note.
"Why's that?" Shikamaru asks, hoping to gauge the best way he can comfort the other.
"When this all started— the ticks, I mean— I was still really young and it was kind of unpredictable and didn't happen very often at first, but whenever I had a bad episode the orphanage director used to tell me to stop," Naruto starts to explain, practically vibrating from his building nerves. "Except I couldn't stop it, and if I tried to suppress it, it would just get worse, and worse, and more disruptive. An' she always thought I was ignoring her on purpose, ya know? So she'd yell and drag me off and lock me in the broom closet until I stopped."
Shikamaru's heart goes out to the little boy who must have gotten frequently confined against his will as he listens to Naruto hum. He doesn't stop this time, so Shikamaru pulls him into his arms, hugging him close. He hopes Naruto's old orphanage director got what was coming to her. He had just been a scared kid.
"Stress probably just makes it worse," Shikamaru thinks out loud.
Naruto makes noise of agreement under his humming and nods against Shikamaru's shoulder. His hands carefully settle across Shikamaru's back.
"I've got you, Naru," Shikamaru promises, "You're safe with me."
"I know I am," Naruto easily agrees, even going so far as to tack on a, "duh."
Shikamaru's stomach swoops with his overwhelming fondness. He licks his lips. "Alright, wise guy. Did you want me to force Ino to let us out? Or I suppose you could always break down the door."
"But then the old granny would make me fix all the damage I would cause," Naruto groans. "Besides," he tentatively continues, "being in your arms is kinda nice."
"Spirits above," Shikamaru laments with a groan, feeling his cheeks flush.
Naruto chuckles and pulls back a bit to flash his impish smile at him. The one that always spells trouble. "Hey, Shika, why did Ino think you'd find being locked in a small space with me fun?"
"Oh," Shikamaru dully drawls, feeling his soul escape his body, "so you think your funny?"
He giggles and clicks once. "Embarrassing you is always a little funny. I missed it when I was gone."
He clicks a lot more, and cuts off the string of them by forcing himself to hum. "Is that what she meant? Fooling around in the dark? It's was the only reason I could think of, at least."
"Yeah," Shikamaru relents, loathe to lie to him just to save his own pride. "That's what she meant."
"And… you would want that?" Naruto questions, fingers drumming against Shikamaru's back. "You'd enjoy doing that?"
Shikamaru considers his options, and considers the jumpy boy in his arms. "If it were you? Yeah."
"Oh," Naruto says. His fingers curl into Shikamaru's vest. "I think— if it were you— I'd want that too."
Shikamaru's heart starts racing. "Yeah?"
Naruto hums, this time in agreement. "I can't help but feel that it'd be a shame to waste this perfect opportunity that Ino's provided us…"
Shikamaru scoffs a laugh. Count on Naruto to forever be an eager opportunist.
"Is that so?" Shikamaru drawls.
"It's dark, so sorry if I screw this up," Naruto says before closing the little space that remains between them and brushing their lips together.
It is unsurprisingly, poorly aimed, but Shikamaru cups his jaw and realigns their lips before Naruto can think about pulling too far away from him.
It not an over complicated kiss, but calling Naruto eager may have been an understatement. He squeezes Shikamaru closer until their entire bodies are pressed together, and Shikamaru actually backs himself against the wall in an attempt to not let himself be completely consumed by the other man's intensity.
Being the sole point of Naruto's focus is intoxicating. Shikamaru finds that he wants to hoard it all for himself if this is the reward. The wet slide of their lips is heavenly. Who needs air when this is so, so much better?
Naruto breaks their kiss with a hum, and he ducks his head and presses his lips to Shikamaru's exposed neck to muffle the noise. This time, feeling the vibration of his hum echo through his skin, Shikamaru is the one to tighten his hold on the other. Naruto stops and freezes for a minute as he processes the action.
"You liked that didn't you?" Naruto pulls back to ask with bubbling laughter. His hand twitches like it's loath to leave Shikamaru's warmth as he pulls it away to tug on his ear. He's still boxing Shikamaru against the back wall.
"That a problem?" Shikamaru grouses, squinting at the grinning boy.
"Nah," he giggles, "It makes me really happy actually. That you like one of my ticks like that."
Shikamaru rolls his eyes, "I like you, doofus. Including your ticks."
Naruto grins at him, eyes squinting from his mirth. "I like you too, Shikamaru," he replies.
"I hope so, if your kissing me in a closet," Shikamaru grumbles.
Naruto is giggling this time when he leans back in to slot their lips together. It's still just as invigorating. Shikamaru feels like his whole body comes to life under Naruto's touch.
He slips his hand under the other's jacket, rucking up the material of his tee and brushing his fingers against the sliver of hot skin he exposes. Pressed against the wall like this, he feels Naruto shiver at the contact.
Naruto separates their lips so he can swallow down some air, but Shikamaru is swift to tug him back in, using his surprise as an excuse to slip this tongue past Naruto's lips. Another hum bubbles up from his friend as Shikamaru greedily explores Naruto's slick mouth. Naruto's panting against him, and it's every fantasy Shikamaru's ever had come to life.
Just when Shikamaru thinks things may be going a little too far given their literally in the main branch of their workplace, the door handle turns with a quiet snick. Even given their soon to be audience, they're both far too reluctant to part their lips immediately. Still, Naruto's brain seems to catch up and realize that he's about to have freedom from their enclosed space, and he does eventually turn away from Shikamaru towards the exit.
"Geez, I didn't actually expect you to—" Ino cuts off whatever insult to Shikamaru's character she had lined up with a choked off laugh. She skips to the point, "We're up next."
"Finally!" Naruto bounds over to the doorway, squinting against the new flood of light just like Shikamaru is. He fixes Ino with a narrowed look of seriousness as Shikamaru laments the end of this opportunity. He licks his saliva slick lips and hopes it's not about to be immediately obvious they've been fooling around to whoever they're about to report to. He hopes it's not Iruka.
"Promise to never lock me in a closet again."
Ino amusement fades and she studies Naruto's intense expression. Always good at reading people (not that Naruto has ever been hard to read) Ino seems to understand he's being extremely serious.
"I promise, knucklehead. I didn't realize it would be a problem," she tells him.
He hums and glances over his shoulder to him, "I guess not if it's with Shikamaru, but still."
Ino nods, "I get it. Let's get moving so we can get the hell out of here."
"Agreed," Naruto cheers, and Shikamaru dutifully follows after his gallop towards the offices.
Ino snickers when she looks at him.
"Don't even start," he grouses, "I'm totally paying you back for that."
"Why?" She demands with a pleased smile. "I did you a favor."
Shikamaru shoots her a glare. She ignores him. Naruto retraces his steps to grab their wrists and pull them along a little faster. He's grinning in excitement and still a little flushed and rumpled from Shikamaru's touch.
Just back to business as usual, Shikamaru supposes, except now he knows that Naruto tastes like ginger candies and that his skin is remarkably hot.
He's really not sure he'll survive their debrief now.
He sighs and glares at Ino again, "This is your fault."
"A little distraction is good for you," Ino laughs, "you're so serious and stressed out otherwise."
Naruto glances over his shoulder to meet his gaze, pausing before he pushes open the halls doors. There's warmth and mischief twinkling in his blue eyes.
"The faster this report is over, the faster we can go back to what we were doing, right?" Naruto says with a sharp little grin.
Shikamaru's throat goes dry, but his brain realizes he has a point and stops running in circles in favor of focusing on the necessary information they're about to convey. Ino, seeing his sudden clarity, laughs all the way to the nearest desk.
Shikamaru tries to ignore her, but Naruto is trying to smother his own snickers, and yeah, okay, maybe the entire situation is kind of bizarre and funny in the surreal way that makes you think 'wait did that really just happen?'.
Any hope of an efficient debrief dies when Iruka looks up from the scroll he's cataloguing and meets Shikamaru's eyes. It's all Shikamaru can do to smother his bark of laughter with a hand.
Ino's folded in half, breathless in seconds.
"Care to enlighten me as to what's so funny," Iruka deadpans dryly, face set into stern professionalism, but his eyes are warm with his own disguised amusement.
Naruto shakes his head with a hum. "All I can say is that Ino locked me in a closet," he giggles.
Iruka stares at his former pupils, who are making quite the scene in the mission hall, and decides he doesn't want to know.
"You may as well give me your scroll," he sighs.
They're all too busy cackling to even try.
