A/N: Spring break, how i love thee, SO MUCH. (Ack, i haven't updated this since september?! Bad me...) It really is a sign that i don't get on this site enough when it takes me a whole 10 seconds to remember how to upload documents. 10 seconds is a long time! What fail...

This one's basically some pointless, flirty fluff that i came up with one wonderfully hot spring afternoon as i sat in my sweltering bedroom pretending it was summer. :D

Summary: The weather outside is frightful; the sun is so not delightful. But maybe some good can come out of a heat wave?

Scorching

"It's hot."

"Yeah, thanks. Hadn't noticed."

"You know what? Shut up."

"Quit complaining. You're not the only one suffering."

Ino crossed her arms and "hmph"-ed, but then uncrossed her arms a moment later because her skin was too hot to even her own touch. Everything was too hot to her own touch. The blinds were drawn, but the sun was so bright in the sky that it made the white linen glow, poorly filtering the sunlight out of her living room.

"Well, if you're getting so annoyed, why don't you just leave?"

"What? Hell no! Do you think I want to burn to a crisp out there?"

Ino groaned. "Well, you're pretty much burning to a crisp in here also. God, I hate it when it's this hot. I think I'm sticking to the couch."

"I know for sure I'm sticking to the couch," Shikamaru grumbled, then pulled an arm off of the faux-leather. It made a distinct skin-peeling-off-of-leather sound, before his arm thumped back down onto the cushions. "I figured you would at least have air conditioning."

Ino let her head fall back onto the backrest, and she stared grumpily at the ceiling where the fan swirled the warm air around uselessly. The droning buzz of it only served to add to her irritation. "And why would you assume that?"

She heard Shikamaru shrug next to her. "It seemed like something you would indulge yourself in."

"Sorry to disappoint you."

The conversation fizzled out, both too lethargic to work their vocal cords. Ino was sure she was melting, and was glad Shikamaru wasn't tactless enough to point out that she looked like a tomato, with her face so flushed. She didn't think she had enough energy to hit him if he did, anyway.

The temperature was reportedly above one hundred Fahrenheit, hot enough to make a Popsicle melt in minutes, or the tub of ice-cream they had been eating turn to a liquidy mess before they had had enough. But warm ice-cream was not at all appetizing, so now the container lay abandoned on the coffee table.

Ino heard a sprinkler turn on next door, shortly followed by the sound of children splashing through the spray. She tried to imagine the cool drops of water raining down on her arms and legs, but all she could picture in her head was them evaporating centimeters before they touched her.

"Shika?" she began, then paused because she really, really didn't feel like speaking anymore. It took way too much effort.

"Huh?" he asked finally, after she hadn't continued for a good minute.

"Y'wanna g'outside?" she slurred. Great, now making coherent sentences was a challenge.

"What?"

She tilted her head to the left, and her cheek stuck to the couch. "You wanna go outside? And turn on the sprinklers? And lie under them or something?" She had managed a whole three sentences, and was sure that she would never speak again.

Shikamaru blinked his brown eyes at her, looking every bit as reluctant to move as Ino felt herself.

"Is there a way to skip straight to the lying under them step?"

Her eyes drooped shut. "No." So much for turning mute.

"Then no."

"M'sure we'd be less hot if we di'n just sit here."

"I'm sure you're right. I just don't want to stand up."

"M'neither…"

The side of her face slipped a bit farther down the backrest of the couch, and she slumped over to the left uncomfortably.

"There is one plus," Shikamaru said after a pause. "You sound pretty hilarious when you start slurring your words together."

"Mmm," was the only answer Ino could supply. Her head drooped lower.

"Are you dying?"

"Mmm."

"Ah. Okay."

Ino let out a weak chuckle. Then resumed slouching over until her forehead met something solid and searing.

"Agh!" she exclaimed, and scrambled away from Shikamaru as though electrically shocked.

Shikamaru jumped from her sudden outburst. "Shit, what?! Give me a heart attack, why don't you?" He looked much more awake now, and was giving her an accusing glower, but Ino didn't pay attention to that.

She stared daggers at his shoulder, the tan skin exposed since his shirt sleeves were rolled back as far as possible. She could still feel his skin burning against her forehead, and didn't miss the fact that she didn't find it all that bad of a feeling. But it was still pretty bad, because –

"God, Shika, you're like, crazy hot!"

He sniggered, looking pleased, and Ino rolled her eyes exaggeratedly before fixing her eyes on his. "That's not what I meant, and you know it. Try to control that ego of yours, please?"

"That's pretty hard to do when you compliment me like that. Not that I can blame you."

Ino gave him a look. One of her looks. "Oh? Oh really? And what might that mean?"

Shikamaru ticked them off on his fingers. "One, you find me unbearably attractive. Two, you just can't keep that attraction bottled up inside anymore, and can't help proclaiming your love to me. Three, –"

"Love?" Ino wrinkled her nose. Shikamaru smirked.

"Three," he continued, "you find me unbearably attractive."

Ino gave him a blank stare, waiting to see if he was finished, and when certain that he was indeed, said, "Well, your brain is obviously suffering from this heat wave, firstly because I have at no time proclaimed my love for you, and second because your one and three are exactly the same."

His eyes didn't leave hers. "So?"

"So," Ino sighed, "you plus extreme heat equals a slightly out-of-it Shika." She let herself relax back into her former position, back into the indentations her legs and back had made in the couch. The sticky cushions seemed to mold around her limbs, and slowly her eyes shut again.

"But I'm your extremely attractive slightly out-of-it Shika," Shikamaru said after a minute of the fan humming above them.

"My extremely attractive Shika?" Ino couldn't stop the grin that bloomed across her lips. He really was too much.

"Yeah. Right?"

"Mm-hmm, right. Of course you are." She had meant to sound sarcastic, but wasn't able to completely accomplish that.

Shikamaru's fingers began to patter up Ino's arm, like scorching little bullets. They were light on her skin, but the after-effect left tingles. It left a kind of giddy feeling in her stomach as well, not her heart and not her gut but everything. Her insides. In her opinion, it was the single happiest feeling in the world.

"What are you doing?" she snapped jokingly, swatting his fingers away. He nimbly twisted his hand out of her grasp and enclosed his fingers around a few loose strands of her hair, and tugged gently.

"Shikamaru, stop it!" Ino giggled, the stifling heat and Shikamaru's irritatingly charming little gestures too much for her. It was the type of laughter when you couldn't tell if you were trying to be angry or happy; Ino just let herself laugh without trying to figure out which it was.

When her fit subsided, her shoulders no longer bouncing against the leather, she made a noise at the back of her throat and shook her head to no avail. Shikamaru wouldn't let go.

"Irritating person, hand me my water," she sighed.

"Why? So you can attack me with it?"

Ino pounded her fists against the cushion. "Just give it to meee." It was back to the giggles again. They erupted from her throat in continuous bubbles of sound.

"I think you're going crazier than I am," she heard Shikamaru laugh, but the cool surface of her glass of water was pressed against her arm a moment later. As soon as the layer of condensation touched her arm, the water trickled down, surprising her and causing her eyes to shoot open.

"Oh, cool, thanks," she said after she realized what it was. She took it from him, the condensation instantly making her hand slippery. "Didn't think you'd actually listen." She promptly overturned the glass of water over her head, soaking herself and much of the couch.

Shikamaru stared at her in a stunned silence. "What…?" he began to ask, but Ino placed the glass back on the table and slouched forwards.

"Okay, g'bye," Ino said, and with that she slid off the couch and landed in a heap on the floor. Her shorts and shirt had patches of water all over them, but that was absolutely fine because the carpet less hot and sticky than the accursed couch. Why hadn't she thought of this sooner?

"It's nice down here," she mumbled, placing a hand under her ear. "Nicer, I guess. Still pretty terrible, actually. Wish we had hardwood…"

She heard Shikamaru grunt something, heard a rustling noise, and then felt him land heavily on her legs.

"Ow! Get off!"

His arms were slung across both of her legs, and his head was resting on the side of one of her knees. Not exactly the most comfortable position – especially since they were both squished into the narrow space between the couch and the coffee table – but he seemed not to notice.

"Genius," he proclaimed. "Heat rises. All we have to do is lie on the ground and we'll be fine."

"Yeah, that's nice and all, but my legs are not the ground." She wriggled her legs to prove her point, but Shikamaru didn't budge.

"Too tired," he yawned.

"You're cutting off my circulation."

"Are you calling me fat?"

"Yes, if you don't get off."

"Mm, I'm fine being fat today."

"Shika."

"Hm?"

"Shika."

"What?"

"I'm warning you."

"What? I'm comfortable."

Ino rolled her eyes. "But you're too hot, so get off."

Shikamaru snickered. Ino slapped a palm to her forehead. "No, not like that. Jeez, how do I live with you? Seriously…"

Shikamaru shifted, snuggling himself more comfortably into the awkward position he was in and wrapping his arms more snugly around Ino's shins. "'Night, Ino," he sighed, and then yawned again.

Ino let out a long breath through her nose. "Goodnight, my incredibly hopeless Shika. Even though it's only three in the afternoon…"

She did, however, fall asleep in the muggy heat of the day, thoughts drifting off slowly into unconsciousness as she listened to Shikamaru's slow, even breathing. When she woke up again, stars peppered the sky. She noticed this because the blinds had been pulled back from the window, which had been opened to let in the cool night air.

Night, which meant that her mother must have gotten back from work…how long ago? There was no clock in the room, so Ino pushed herself up onto her elbows to see if she could catch a sign of life in the house. Silence.

The table had been moved, miraculously without waking either of them, it seemed. Shikamaru was spread on his back a few feet away, still deeply asleep. Near his feet Ino noticed two pillows and a few blankets. Had her mother done all of this? She must have.

Her eyes were heavy; sleep still sounded like an appealing idea. Ino crawled over to the pillows and took one, placed it next to Shikamaru, and soon fell back asleep with her forehead against the warm skin of his shoulder.

A/N: Four more to go!