Aaand another ShikaTema oneshot.

I'm such a sap and I don't even care. This ship is my fave.

The timeline here is early Shippuden.

Shikamaru found himself a little annoyed as he ate his lunch. It wasn't anything terribly troublesome, but it irked him all the same.

The source of his irritation sat across from him, completely unaware of his issue, and yes it was most definitely his issue and his alone.

It wasn't her fault.

Temari went over one of the trillion reports needed to be read and approved for the Chunin exam, somehow able to read sufficiently despite the bustling noise of the restaurant the two were in. One hand held the paper that she was reading as the other shoveled barbecued pork and rice into her mouth.

The two had been paired up to organize the Chunin exams. It was a drag, but he supposed he could have worse partners. He actually liked her well enough, if he was honest with himself, even if she was hot-tempered and hard-headed. Just as a friend, of course. Nothing else. Seriously.

But no, the fiery attitude or stubbornness of the Suna kunoichi was not his current problem.

Unable to stand it, he blurted. "What color are your eyes anyways?"

"Hm?" His two problems were now staring him dead in the face as Temari looked up from her report at him. "Sorry, what?" she asked, a confused look on her face. "I was in the middle of reading, y'know, it's rude to blurt stuff out."

He ignored her jibe and repeated his question. "What color are your eyes?"

"My eyes?" she stared at him incredulously, her confusion growing. "Uh, I dunno." she said slowly, secretly interested in where this conversation was heading, "I've never really even thought about it," she lied, eying him like he had grown another head or something.

He supposed his question had been a little out of the blue.

Her confused look quickly morphed into a teasing grin and she kicked his shin under the table. "You staring at my eyes, Nara?"

Shikamaru scoffed and leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes. "Of course, why wouldn't I?" he responded, indignant and completely, entirely oblivious to Temari's teasing. His eyes were closed, so he missed the very quick, very faint reddening of her cheeks.

He continued, "they're so annoying. Are they blue? Are they green? It's like just pick a color, sheesh."

There was silence for a good ten seconds. Puzzled, Shikamaru opened his eyes.

Temari was giving him a very hard look.

"What?" he offered lazily.

"You're an ass." She said quietly, turning back to her documents.

He raised his eyebrow at that. "Huh? What-"

She abruptly stood up and he stopped talking. She reached into the pouch at her waist and tossed a couple bills onto the table before collecting her papers.

"Where are you going?" He asked, growing more and more confused. "I usually pay," he noted dumbly, staring at her money on the table.

She promptly ignored him, walked right past him, and out of the restaurant.

Shikamaru stared at the money for a few more seconds before sighing and bringing a hand to his temple. "Women." He grumped, "So. Unbelievably. Troublesome." What was her problem now?

He reached out and took Temari's money off the table, replacing it with his own. He put her money in his pocket, intending to give it to her later.

He found her working as normal in their office, a little room at the end of a hall on the second floor of the Hokage tower. He strolled in, dropping her half eaten food he had boxed for her on the desk along with her money.

"What was that all about? Everything okay?" He asked her.

Once again he received nothing but silence. She determinedly didn't look at him and kept those troublesome eyes glued on her paper.

He held back a sigh. So it was going to be one of those days.

Whatever, he reasoned, it's not like they were all that chatty normally, so he shrugged it off and got to work.

He still couldn't shake the feeling that he had done something wrong, though.

She left work before him that night, which was rare, and her money was still on the table, though she had taken her food with her. He had offered to walk her to her Konoha apartment but was again met by silence.

When she slammed the door so hard his water glass spilled over his desk and onto his lap, his suspicion that he had angered her became a realization.

Shikamaru stared at the shogi board.

"Shikamaru."

His head jerked up to look into the grizzled face of his father. Shikaku had an eyebrow raised and the faintest of smirks on his face.

"Eh?"

"It's been five minutes."

"Tch, you know I like to take my time when I play," Shikamaru muttered, still distracted.

"Normally yes, but this is the first move."

Startled, Shikamaru scanned the board. Hadn't he made the first move a couple minutes ago? He had been pretty lost in thought.

"What's troubling you, son?"

Shikamaru decided to play evasive. "Lots of things are troublesome in my life."

"It's the Sand woman, huh?"

"Eh?!" Shikamaru stared blankly at his father, his mouth hanging open. After a few seconds he closed it and morphed his facial features into a glare. "Are you sure you're not a Yamanaka?" he grumbled.

Shikaku laughed, reaching over the board and tugging lightly on Shikamaru's ponytail. "You and I are not so different, boy. I too once had my own romantic struggles with a feisty woman."

Shikamaru rolled his eyes and prayed he wasn't blushing. "We're not like that, it's not like that."

"So you say," his father said, his tone jovial despite the seriousness of his face. "So what's going on? Maybe your old man can teach you something other than jutsu and shogi, eh?"

Shikamaru was silent for a few seconds, weighing his options.

On one hand, talking about this kind of stuff with your Dad was troublesome and embarrassing.

On the other hand, he honestly really didn't want the silent treatment from Temari tomorrow.

"She's mad at me," he finally admitted, "and I don't know why."

"Hmm..." his father crossed his arms and closed his eyes, exhaling deeply. "The age old problem for us foolish men."

Shikamaru said nothing, opting to instead stare pointedly at the ceiling, waiting for his father to continue.

"So what did you do?"

"Eh? I just told you I have no idea." Shikamaru said, impatient and irritated.

"Well obviously you did something or she wouldn't be mad at you."

"Tch, don't you think I know that? I already said-"

"Did you call her fat?"

"What!?" Shikamaru tried not to shriek, "of course not! She's not fat anyways, why would I-?"

"Were you being chauvinistic?"

"I don't think so-"

"Did you insult her appearance?"

"No, I..." Shikamaru trailed off, mouth open and eyes staring into the distance.

"You did, didn't you."

"I don't think so, I mean..."

"I've raised a moron."

"Temari's not like that, she wouldn't care about what I said!"

"So you did say something," Shikaku said, his tone grave. "Out with it, boy. What was it?"

"Well, I said her eyes were annoying, but I didn't mean it like that, I meant-" He was cut off when his father reached over the shogi board and lightly smacked the back of his head.

"Oi," Shikamaru rubbed the spot, sick of being interrupted. "What's the big idea? Who're you, Mom?"

"You joke. Pray your mother never finds out about this," his father said darkly, and Shikamaru had to agree.

He did want to live to see his twenties, after all.

"As I was saying," the younger Nara continued, "there's no way Temari would get offended over something like that. She doesn't care about her appearance. She's not like Ino or Sakura." He turned slightly red, "besides, I didn't even mean it like that. It was a compliment."

Shikaku stared at his son incredulously, and if circumstances were different Shikamaru would be slightly proud to make his genius old man look so stupefied.

"So..." he said slowly, looking at his son, utterly bewildered, "you're trying to tell me that you think describing a woman's eyes as 'annoying' is a compliment? You might be even stupider than I was with women when I was your age. I was never that clueless."

"I didn't mean it like that though," he protested, "really!"

"Well then I suggest tomorrow you sit her down and tell her what you really meant." The seriousness in Shikaku's tone made Shikamaru groan out loud.

"Do I have to? That's..." his face turned redder, and he was glad it was dimly lit in the shogi room, "troublesome..." he finished lamely.

"I don't care how troublesome it is. Do it because if you two aren't back to good terms when you get home tomorrow I'm telling your mother all about this."

Shikamaru went white as a sheet. "You wouldn't dare."

"Try me." His father showed no signs of jesting.

He sighed again.

Shikaku grinned at him and stood up.

Shikamaru stared down at the untouched shogi board. "What about our game?"

"I think I've checkmated you enough for one night." His father winked. He walked over to his still sitting son and ruffled his hair. "Goodnight, son."

Shikamaru watched him leave, perplexed. His hand unconsciously went to his messed up hair and a small smile played at his lips. Sure, manly signs of affection from his father weren't too uncommon but he hadn't had his hair ruffled since he became a chunnin.

"Goodnight, Dad," he called as his father left the room.

Obviously this was pretty important to his dad, so he guessed he should just man up and apologize to Temari. It was gonna be a serious drag, but his father was threatening him with his mother, a usually taboo threat in their rare disagreements, so he knew it must be serious and that his father was seeing something that he, Shikamaru, was obviously missing.

He went to bed that night anxious for the next day, his stomach a bubbling mix of apprehension and nervousness.

He arrived at work the next day, still unsure how he was going to approach this apologizing thing.

Temari was there, at her desk. She didn't so much look at him as he walked in. The stupid money was still on her desk too.

Shikamaru sat down at his desk and began the endless cycle of paperwork, though not all that much was getting done as he couldn't really focus.

He sat there for what felt like hours but what was in reality probably all of ten minutes before he stood up and walked over to Temari.

He took a deep breath and hoped he wouldn't end up getting hurt. He had analyzed everything and decided being straight-to-the-point was his best bet.

"I'm sorry for what I said yesterday."

Temari froze in the middle of writing a sentence. It was brief, but Shikamaru caught it. She resumed her writing and graced him with nothing but a scoff.

"Really, I am." He tried to put the sincerity he felt into his languid tone.

No response. He felt a twinge of annoyance.

"Look, I'm trying to apologize here, the least you can do is look at me." He grumbled.

She finally snapped her head to glare at him then, eyes blazing. "Oh, I'm sorry," she said scathingly, "I thought I was doing you a favor by not pestering you with my annoying eyes."

Shikamaru fought the heat spreading across his face as he mentally prepared himself for his next words. He knew he was going to have to say them since last night and knew there was a ninety-five percent chance she was either going to hit him or laugh at him.

"Your eyes are beautiful."

The words were true, but he instantly felt like an idiot and he knew he was having no luck hiding the embarrassment from his face.

Here he was, a lazy Konoha chunin, telling the Kazekage's sister who was three years his senior she had beautiful eyes. If he had been looking at someone else in his own position he would've laughed at them.

Temari just snorted, turning back to her paperwork. "Gotta say, lame attempt at backtracking Nara."

"I'm not backtracking," he defended himself. He still had his pride, at least. "I standby what I said, your eyes are annoying, but they're beautiful too, really."

Temari turned back to look at him, irritated and a little confused. "Now you're just making no sense. I'd quit while you're ahead before I start hitting you."

Shikamaru continued as if he hadn't heard her. "I guess they're annoying because they're beautiful," he said, sounding like he was realizing it for the first time.

He was relieved to see the anger fade a bit from Temari's face, but it was mostly replaced with confusion. Realizing she was waiting for an explanation, he felt his face heat up again.

"It's just, what I meant was, uh, y'know, when we're talking about work and stuff and I have to concentrate on that, it can just be annoying because your eyes...well, they're really pretty and sometimes I get distracted." He finished lamely, "I really am sorry if that's why you're mad at me. I didn't meant to hurt your feelings or anything. I was mostly talking to myself anyways."

He felt like such a fool.

Temari took a second to take that in. She kept her face painfully neutral, and Shikamaru entertained the thought of just walking back to his desk...or pitching himself out the window.

Yes, the window might be a good idea, he mused, his eyes drifting towards it. Not high enough of a fall to kill him but maybe his head would get a good whack and he could forget this ever happened...

"That," his attention was drawn back to Temari as the Sunan kunoichi stared hard at him. Her face morphed into a smirk, bordering on a real smile. "that was the sappiest thing I've ever heard."

Was he just imagining it or was her face pink?

He didn't think he had ever felt more embarrassed or humiliated and instantly went on the defensive. "Y-yeah? Why are you blushing then?" He blurted childishly.

"W-what?!" He got immense satisfaction at the way she paled instantly, "I'm not blushing! You're the one who's as red as a tomato!"

"Only because you insist on making my life so troublesome." He mumbled to the floor, hanging his head in what he hoped was a manly and indignant fashion.

He jumped when he felt her hand on his shoulder, and quickly looked at her. "Thanks, crybaby," she smiled at him, a real, toothy smile that had his stomach doing flip flops and his brain whispering traitorous things to his carefully structured life plan. "That..." he could tell she was struggling on what to say, "well, that means a lot to me, that you think my eyes are nice."

Shikamaru watched in amazement as Temari's face slowly turned bright red. Out of all the Temari's he could picture, a blushing Temari was one he never thought he would see.

He was speechless for a good ten seconds before he smirked at her, "now who's the tomato?"

The hand on his shoulder squeezed down hard and he winced.

"Shut up," she said, still smiling. "Let's get back to work. Try not to get lost in my eyes," she teased.

He inwardly groaned, how was she so good at getting the last word in?

Three days later and everything had been back to normal with Temari. In fact, Shikamaru would go as far as saying that things were even better.

They now sat on the same side of the booth when they went out to eat and she poked and prodded him and teased him even more than usual. He outwardly complained about it but inwardly didn't mind even a little.

He also walked her back to her place every night after work.

But it was time for her to go back to Suna, and he wouldn't lie and say he wasn't disappointed.

"It's only gonna be a month until I'm back, stop looking like a kicked puppy," she teased as he walked her to the gate. It was early and hardly anyone in the village was awake. Why Temari liked early take-off times, he'd never understand.

"Tch, I think you're giving yourself too much credit here," he smirked at her, purposefully walking slower to extend the time it took to get to the gate. He knew she noticed but she didn't comment.

"I'm not," she said it so confidently it was obnoxious. "Poor Shikamaru, he's gonna miss me and my beautiful eyes. What shall he fill his days with while I'm away?"

Shikamaru couldn't help the chuckle that escaped his lips. "You make me sound like a damsel in distress."

"Well you are a crybaby," she grinned, bumping into his shoulder with hers.

He just shook his head and tsked.

They had finally reached the gates. Shikamaru stopped walking and Temari took two steps ahead of him before turning to face him.

He looked at her eyes. They really were beautiful, he told himself. She was beautiful.

Man, he'd like to kiss her.

The thought pulled him up short. Whoa. That came outta nowhere.

But did it? He shook his head, suddenly a little relieved that she would be leaving for a month and he would be able to clear himself of such troublesome thoughts. No use entertaining the unobtainable, he reasoned.

He was startled out of his thoughts as Temari poked him on the nose. "Helloooo, Earth to Shikamaru? Did you hear me?"

"Huh?" he said dumbly, staring at her.

"I said make sure to get those approved files of the genin of the Cloud back to Kumo in two weeks. The Raikage will be all over our asses if he doesn't get them in time."

"R-right," he stammered, "you got it."

Temari paused for a moment and observed him. She grinned teasingly at him, "what's the matter with you, you weren't thinking of doing something dumb like kissing me, were you?"

Joking. She was joking. He should've realized that.

He really, really, should have.

Instead he felt himself heat up and said, way too quickly, "N-no!"

Temari was no fool, she saw his reaction and merely laughed. The teasing smile never left her face. "That's a shame," she said slowly, eyes terrifying and mischievous, "because I don't think I would've minded if you had been."

He knew she was joking, and he felt a nagging voice in his head say "run."

The other, more irrational part of him said "screw with her."

"Well if that's the case then," he said in an overly-suave voice, taking a step forward and closing the distance between them.

He saw the initial panic in Temari's face, before it was replaced by something he couldn't describe. That only lasted a second though before the smirk was back and her face was pure determination.

He was just about to step back and laugh it off when she reached forwards and grabbed his face. She took two steps towards him and planted her mouth on his.

It was everything he had assumed a kiss with Temari would be. Bold and passionate, just like her. That was about all the thinking he did before his brain promptly short-circuited and he lost himself in the taste of her lips. Kiss her back. He finally told himself, and complied.

The kiss lasted a good twenty seconds before Temari came up for air, breathless, red-faced, and grinning wildly.

Shikamaru just gawped at her, 100% sure he was just as red as she was.

"That," she panted, "was very nice." She stood up straight and slugged him on the shoulder. "I might just have to do that again with you sometime," she said smugly, reaching out with a finger and closing his open mouth. "See you in a month." She winked at him and turned on her heel, walking down the road.

He watched her go, telling his brain that it was okay to start functioning again.

When she was fifty feet away she turned her head sightly over her shoulder to look back. He waved at her.

She froze, and even from this far he could see her furious blush. She obviously wasn't expecting him to still be there. She waved back at him and flashed him that grin again, before continuing on.

Shikamaru watched her until she was out of sight and then turned his gaze to the clouds.

He really should wipe this stupid grin off his face before he walked back into town...

I'm entertaining the idea of turning this into a two-shot, with the second chapter being more from Temari's POV. Would you guys wanna see that? Also, if you liked this I have two other ShikaTema oneshots so you should check those out too :)!

Happy International Women's Day!

I hope everyone who read enjoyed! Ciao!