HODAMN, it's been over a year since I updated this...:\ Crap. Sorry guys.

Now that everyone has gone and forgotten this fic I'll decide to revive it for a chapter. After that epic of a manga chapter I had to do something. And this chapters been sitting around on my hard drive for a LONG while. I haven't quite been thrilled with it so I left it alone to edit through later and haven't done anything with it yet. So, I thought I'd dust it off and try it out. Enjoy!

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After Temari was dressed and Shikamaru had eaten a couple more cookies, they headed out for the morning. Instead of turning towards the Hokage's mansion, they passed by Shikamaru's house. He didn't want them to worry, because he was sure they were going to.

"Mom? Dad?" Shikamaru ventured as he opened the front door.

"Shikamaru!" his mother ran to the front door. "There you are! I was so worried! You're father's already in the fields with the deer. Where were you? I couldn't help but worried you had fallen unconscious somewhere!" Yoshino gasped as she grabbed a hold of Shikamaru's arms as if planning to never let him leave her grasp again.

"Well, I was over at Temari's place for dinner and I got sleepy after she made me this really great soup—not as great as yours though!" Shikamaru quickly added after his mother's odd look after his compliment about somebody else's cooking and not her own. "Anyway, after dinner I fell asleep on her futon while she was making cookies and she let me sleep there, not bothering to wake me up to let me go home." Shikamaru folded his arms, staring at Temari.

"Hey, I tried to wake you up. Many times, I even tried with the scent of the freshly baked cookies." Temari shrugged.

"He is such a heavy sleeper, isn't he?" Yoshino giggled, all traces of alarm and anger was gone.

"Sure is. Would you like some of the cookies I baked last night, Mrs. Nara?" Temari offered.

"I'd love some!" Yoshino exclaimed, taking the little package Temari had brought with her.

"You're being the kiss ass, now." Shikamaru mumbled to her with a smirk on his face.

"Oh, shut up." Temari hissed at him.

"We'd like to stay longer, but Temari has to get to work as Suna Ambassador for the Exams, Mom." Shikamaru called as Yoshino put the cookies away in the kitchen after she had one.

"Oh, yes. Of course. Come by tonight and we can have a big dinner for your first day at work!" Yoshino grabbed Temari's hand with a big smile on her face.

"Oh, of course!" Temari returned the smile with a few nervous giggles.

"Really, Mom? Temari and I can just go grab a quick bite to eat, I don't even know when she'll be done today. We may work late." Shikamaru explained.

"We'll be done, by six-thirty at the latest, Shikamaru." Temari told him. Shikamaru sighed; his attempt to evade another family dinner was thwarted.

"All right, we'll come back for dinner." Shikamaru nodded, defeated.

"Great! Be productive today!" Yoshino waved them out the door. Shikamaru gave an embarrassed sigh.

"Yeah, yeah, thanks, Mom." Shikamaru returned the wave. "You really want to eat there again?" Shikamaru hissed. "You remember a couple nights ago…"

"Oh, Shikamaru, tensions aren't that high between us anymore." Temari kissed his cheek. "Besides we already decided that I won our match in the Exams, so we won't have to fight any more." Temari laughed.

"Why you—!" Temari ran towards the Hokage's building trying to induce a chase. Shikamaru sighed. "Troublesome…"

"Can't catch me!" she shrieked.

x

Many hours and lots of paperwork later, the sun was setting as evening was taking the afternoon skies.

"Temari, you have the papers from this file all over the place! Where does this form belong? In this file? Or this file? Hell, it could be from this file for all I know." Shikamaru growled, extremely frustrated.

"Just stick it somewhere, I'm done for today and I want dinner at your house now." Temari groaned as she laid her head down on the desk.

"Well, if three teams from Suna are mixed up and lost from the Exams it's not my fault." Shikamaru snapped at her. "This is what I get for trying to help with your paperwork!"

"Come on, Shikamaru. I'll get it straightened out I just don't want to do any more today. Let's call it quits for today." Temari suggested. Shikamaru groaned.

"Okay, whatever, I don't care either." Shikamaru nodded, putting down the files he had in his hands.

"Shikamaru, I'm not saying I don't care. I'm saying I'm tired and I'm done." Temari bitterly explained, standing up, raising herself to full height.

"And I'm saying that you're giving up. We only had a half an hour left, if that, of organizing—which is easy—and you're giving up." Shikamaru shrugged.

"I'm saying it's been a long day and you need to shut up." Temari moved her lips onto his in a quick kiss as she wrapped his arms around his neck. His shoulders relaxed for a moment only to tense up once he realized what she was doing to him.

"Temari…you can't just—"

Her lips jumped over his again.

"I said to shut up. I'm done for today, and you aren't going to object." Temari demanded as she kissed him again.

"Temari…" Shikamaru pulled away, his face was bright red and he was angry he was being taken advantage of, women were way to troublesome! "I'm going to stay and clean up. You can go on to my parents' house, I don't care."

"I can't just leave you here, let's just go." Temari pulled on his hand. "This is my job not yours."

"Then do your job, Temari!" Shikamaru growled. "You spent three days screwing around with me, it's time to get down to work. This isn't vacation time anymore."

"Shikamaru, I've never seen you like this…" Temari mumbled.

"Well, I'm tired of you constantly taking advantage of me and telling me what to do. I am the man in this relationship!" Shikamaru shouted. Temari stared at him for a moment and blinked a couple times and then she started to giggle.

"You're so serious," Temari grinned.

"I'm damn serious, do you think this is a joke?" Shikamaru shouted.

"C'mon, Shikamaru, relax a little bit. I know you're the man in this relationship," Temari grinned as she repeated what Shikamaru said. "I don't take advantage of you…"

"More than you'd like to admit. You influence me to do things all the time," Shikamaru explained.

"Oh, like this?" Temari asked as she placed her lips on his once again.

"Temari, stop." Shikamaru pushed her away.

"All right, I'll finish up the last of the paperwork," Temari sighed. "Damn you, Nara."

x

"You're a little bit later than I expected," Shikamaru's mother called as the two entered the house. "But I kept everything warm!"

"Sorry, work kept us a little longer than expected." Shikamaru sighed, rubbing his head.

"That's perfectly fine, we understand." Shikaku nodded.

"Now, come sit down and eat! You must be hungry!" Yoshino smiled at the two.

"Extremely! Thank you, Mrs. Nara." Temari smiled brightly as Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

"Something going on, here?" Shikaku asked as he sat down.

"No, no." Shikamaru sighed.

"Shikamaru's just complaining again…" Temari shrugged as she heaped food onto her plate.

"Oh, I'm complaining?" Shikamaru laughed.

"Can we save the bickering for another time? The only dinner I've had with you two is one where you've been at each other's throat. Now are you two together or not? Can you at least act like you like each other around us?" Shikaku asked.

"Sorry, Dad." Shikamaru apologized, glaring at Temari.

"Sorry, Mr. Nara." Temari also apologized, staring at Shikamaru.

The tense affair continued through dinner. Yoshino tried to start conversation a couple times which Shikaku picked up once or twice but Shikamaru and Temari stayed silent. The dinner affair finished and Shikamaru and Temari hardly uttered a word to each other.

"Well, you'll have to let us know when you don't hate each other. Maybe we have dinner then and maybe we can talk a little more then." Shikaku started to stack some of the dishes irritably.

"Shikamaru, can I talk to you outside for a moment?" Temari asked.

"Yeah, whatever." Shikamaru shrugged. He led Temari out the front door to the cool evening air.

"It's nice to get a little cool air." Temari started.

"What, Temari? I had to put up with bullshit all through dinner, cut to the chase." Shikamaru groaned.

"I really don't want to fight in front of your parents." Temari told him.

"You should have thought of that when you were busy being a bitch about your job." Shikamaru shrugged.

"Shikamaru!" she gasped. "I'm leaving for Suna in a couple days. I don't want to spend our last two days together bickering like this!"

"You're right. Can you at least get some serious work done the next couple days though? The Hokage is going to kick my ass if she finds out the Suna ambassador wasn't getting any work done because her escort was messing around with her the entire time." Shikamaru shoved his hands in his pockets.

"I'm dedicated to what I do, Nara. I won't let my work get away from me." Temari growled.

"Good, because it sure didn't seem like you had any dedication this afternoon when you wanted to quit after nothing got done at all." Shikamaru retorted. Silence hung in the air for a moment. Temari choked over what seemed to be a sob and she hurried off down the road. Shikamaru made no effort to call her back and apologize. He just sulked back inside. When his parents tried to approach him about it he snapped and hurried to his room where he fell asleep without changing out of his clothes. He was exhausted after the full day's work and the grueling dinner he had just experienced.

x

The next couple days were weird for the both of them. The work was done, however both Shikamaru and Temari didn't like it very much. They stiffly did the work and after it was done, they went their separate ways for the night. Soon the day came when Temari had to leave for her own village. Temari had packed everything the night before. She had considered asking Shikamaru to come over and help or at least keep her company. They had barely spent any personal time together since the dinner they had at Shikamaru's parents' house. She sighed to herself as she slung her bag over her shoulder. They had agreed to meet at the gate to say their goodbyes. She had been waiting for the past ten minutes and almost was about to leave and talk to him at the exams when she saw him running towards her.

"There you are—" Temari scolded. She paused. Something was off that she couldn't quite place.

"Sorry, I was held up at the Hokage's." Shikamaru's gasped for air. He shrugged a bag over his shoulder.

"The Hokage's…?" Temari asked. Shikamaru smirked.

"I'm going with you," Shikamaru smiled at her confused face.

"You—" Temari continued to stutter.

"I realized you were right the other night when you said I had never been to Suna and you always come to Konoha." Shikamaru explained. "So I just finished explaining to my parents and the Hokage I will be joining you in Suna for a little while."

"You're going to leave your village?" Temari asked.

"Only for a little while." Shikamaru shrugged. "Like a vacation…I haven't had one in a long time."

"What if your village needs you?" Temari asked.

"Like I said, everything has been taken care of I've just been to the Hokage's. Jeez, I try to do something nice and all you can do is ask questions. How troublesome." Shikamaru sighed.

"Oh, Shikamaru." Temari rolled her eyes. He smirked at her and she wrapped her arms around his neck in an embrace.

"We should get going…it's a three day journey to Suna, right?" Shikamaru asked.

"You better get used to it!" Temari grinned.

"I guess…" Shikamaru smirked.

"So when we get to Suna…" Temari started. "Are you staying with me or somewhere else?" Temari asked. Shikamaru was taken off guard by the question.

"I…er…well—I suppose that's up to your brothers." Shikamaru stumbled, suddenly thinking of the Kazekage and the Puppet Master of Suna. Temari giggled quietly.

"I'll give them a stern talking to beforehand." Temari laughed.

0o0o0o0o0

Lol, what does Temari do when she's the Suna Liason...? All I could think of was PAPERWORK.

For now, this is where I'll leave it until I get a bolt of inspiration to possibly write more...(like Shikamaru's adventures in Suna!) But this was as far as I had really planned when I originally started the small-ish fic. But I may pick it up again someday. If you all ask really nicely. And I have a load of free time. And I get one of those 'I NEED TO WRITE SOME SHIKATEMA FLUFF NAO' moods. Such as the last manga chapter(try not to spoil but!)...REUNITED ON THE SAME PANNEL. I hope something more than 'Tch, troublesome' eventually happens between the two...D:

THANKS FOR ALL THE REVIEWS I'VE RECEIVED. They really mean a lot to me. So thank you.