A/n: this was a request made on tumblr for a valentine's day set of drabbles. (most) of the prompts were given to me. They go backward in time and are all sequentially connected, though they don't need to be read that way. All around below 200 words.

Dedicated to chibiver as a belated x-mas/pre-valentine's day gift! =p

10. Proposal

"I'll marry you."

She had been staring at a spot on the wall for the past ten minutes, silently baiting her time before he came to his senses and bolted. She wasn't expecting him to speak, but even if she had been, these were certainly not the words she would've anticipated.

"I'll marry you," he repeated, taking a step closer. "Now, if you'd like."

Temari narrowed her eyes, taking a step back. "Just because I'm pregnant doesn't mean I'm looking to get married. I'm not the kind of girl that has some shot-gun wedding because her boyfriend forgot a fucking condom."

"That's not what I'm say—"

"You don't have to marry me, Shikamaru!"

"You misunderstand," he defended, coming closer still, "this has nothing to do with you being pregnant. That is just a convenience, I've been planning this for weeks anyway."

9. Shogi

She never used to play with him. She had known early on that he loved the game and he loved to play it with those close to him.

He always figured she just never knew how to play. So when he saw a set in her living room, he couldn't understand why she denied whenever he offered; and it took him a while to figure it out.

That's why, almost a year after they had stared doing whatever it was they were doing, when she sat down across from him and dragged the shogi set between them, it meant much more to him than any I-love-you ever could.

8. Sweat

It seeps into the sheets and mattress below them, and even though she lies away from him afterwards in an attempt to cool off, it is no use whenever she hits the wet spots all over the bed.

It never used to be an issue for her, but when it's with him, she cannot stop sweating. She doesn't understand it—sex with him does not require extraneous effort, if anything, her completion seems to be easier. And yet, she is dripping in perspiration every time he finishes. It doesn't help that he refuses to let her be afterwards, and whenever she moves away, he follows and pulls her back.

The sweat never goes away then, and she wakes up even hotter with burning skin pressing against her back and a heated breath wet against her neck.

But she's beginning to mind it less and less.

7. Smiles

In the morning as she makes coffee and he moves around her while trying to make breakfast for the two of them, he smiles between yawns.

They pull out two chairs and never speak as he ponders and she reads. When they finish eating, she washes the dishes in return for his cooking. He hums incoherently and she smiles to herself.

Before she can leave the kitchen he touches her and sometimes they kiss and usually the kiss is soft and quiet and sometimes it can turn into much more and then she has to unbutton her nightshirt all over again.

And the both of them smile. He figures he smiles the most during those mornings.

6. Heart

Before they go to bed together she can hear his heartbeat. It used to turn her on immensely, knowing how erratic he was, later it reassured her, now it only scares her.

She can feel his heartbeat when she is against him, hard and serious, feeding him life and giving her happiness. Sometimes, if he is already asleep, she practices evening her breath so that their rhythms will match.

This scares her. Their relationship was founded on a drunken declaration—surely they weren't fated, they are much too complicated in their own right to ever be divinely paired with another. But for some reason, when she is with him, she can't imagine the reality of being anywhere else.

She is never able to make her beats match his in tandem, but his is a perfect counter-point to her own, and for now, that is enough.

5. Cunnilingus

His breath is hot on her thigh for a moment before he moves.

And then she jolts, hands scrabbling for purchase against the sheets. He can feel rather than see her heels digging into the mattress and he hears her heavy breathing and labored grunts and keening gasps. She presses herself closer to him and he grips her hips a bit too hard, but it is too late for her to notice anything so mundane.

4. Walking

They're very good at walking. Hell, they're great at it. They're not superior to others in the way they put one foot in front of the other, but in terms of when they walk together, in tandem, as two people—they are perfect.

3. Breath

Shikamaru drums his fingers against thigh, watching her ribcage expand with each breath. He can't imagine it's normal to take such large exhalations, especially in sleep, but she does. It worried him at first, how deep her breath seemed to be. But now, after sleeping by her side a fair amount of times during the past few months, he has long forgotten his concern. Instead, he is keen to watch her sleep and to count her breaths and to know that the deeper they are, the more peaceful she must be.

She is comfortable around him, much more so than before. She sometimes acts apprehensive and dignified in her relationship, seemingly unaffected by him. She wants to be strong and he likes her strong but when she sleeps and she takes these deep breaths he can be the strong one as she lets her guard down, and he likes that too.

2. Argument

"It's been eight weeks since we copulated."

"Must you use that term?"

She sighed, "it has been eight weeks since you stuck your cock inside my—"

He waves a hand to cut her off, grimacing. "Never mind."

"So," she says after a bit of silence, "are you going to ask me to resign after this? I think it'd be easier on us both if I discontinued working as the ambassador."

Shikamaru's eyes, which had previously found solace in her feet, shot up to glare at her, "that isn't what I meant when I said we needed to talk."

She gave a small frown, "what is it then?"

"Well," he began, wringing his hands and looking back down at the floorboards, "as you said, it's been a few months since we… slept together, and since we had a previous platonic relationship, it is important for us to discuss these kind of things to figure out where we stand."

Temari raised a brow, pausing for emphasis before inquiring, "and where do we stand?"

1. Valentine's Day

"We should have sex." Temari decided, finding the light switch and turning it on.

Shikamaru choked. "We—what?"

"I think we would be good at it, you and I."

"You're just saying this because it's Valentine's Day and you don't have a boyfriend."

She mused on this for a moment as he leaned in the doorway. "No. Sex does not equate love. I'm proposing that we have sex, not a relationship."

"Right." Shikamaru said, face turning red and collar feeling much too tight.

"So," she ventured, "are you coming in?"

Okay, the end! A short little piece. A strong counter fic in comparison to my last one, on just about every front.

I implore all of you to take these same prompts and write a Valentine's Day drabble collection! There are so many other ways to interpret them. Seriously, I wrote like... 5 different things for each one!

Plus, it would be awesome if other people did this too.

Have a happy spring! (thank you to everyone who gave me prompts/requests/etc.)

Oh, and review please!