A/N: This chapter is unrelated to the first chapter. I just want somewhere to put my other ShikaIno stuff.

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ShikaIno Lyrics Prompt

Heartbreak Warfare by John Mayer

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He had already told himself over and over to stop this. She had told him to stop it. Chouji told him. Kiba told him. Fuck, even Kurenai.

That's why nothing would have stopped him from feeling less guilty when he woke up, laying naked in her bed with his head was pounding, his mouth dry, and trying not to vomit over the side of the bed. Even rolling from his back to his side was difficult. After succeeding to peel one of his eyes open, he could see from the curtain that was slightly open in the window that it was still early in the morning—not too light, not too dark.

Every time they did this, it ended the same way. They'd fight, throw vicious words at each other. They ended up leaving angrier than the last time they saw each other and wouldn't speak to each other until the next time.

Shikamaru couldn't tell if he was going around in circles or just spiraling into chaos.

With her, he couldn't be sure.

She was already awake, probably had already been awake for some time now, and it seemed like she was tidying up the room in nothing but her bra and underwear. She was slamming the drawers a little too hard, so he knew she was angry.

He sat himself up in bed, his hair hanging messily around his shoulders and swallowed, trying to get some moisture down his throat. "Ino…" Shikamaru began, running a hand down his face first and then running his fingers through his tangled, unbound hair.

She ignored him, keeping her back to him as she tossed clothes in a pile and garbage in her trash simultaneously.

"I'm sorry."

"We said we'd stop this," she said in a clipped tone, as if she'd already heard his thoughts. Probably did.

"Yeah," he sighed. Under his breath, "I know."

"Do you?" She whirled around, the blond of her hair swirling behind her. "You can't just come home from Suna and back to me anymore. Back…" her eyes flashed, "in my bed. As if you didn't come straight from hers!"

He had just come home from his mission. He ate barbecue with Chouji, had one too many beers with the rest of the boys, and ended up stumbling back to Ino's apartment. The last thing he barely remembered was grabbing her face and kissing her once she had opened her door.

"It's not like you tried to stop it," Shikamaru closed his eyes as he reasoned, leaning back on to her headboard, remembering the urgency that he had felt in her touch and her lips had matched his own.

Her eyes tightened guiltily and turned back away from him, stomping towards the opposite end of the room. He opened his eyes to watch her, noticing bottles of red wine and medicine lined up in a row on her vanity, and he winced again. She must have been drunk last night, too. Ino grabbed one of the small bottles of medicine that were still full, twisting it open with trembling fingers.

"What is that?"

"I'm having trouble sleeping," she snapped. "Sakura prescribed these for me." Ino threw the pill her mouth and reaching for an almost-empty glass of wine to wash it down. She finished swallowing and set both the bottle and glass down, taking in a deep breath. Ino walked over to her vanity's chair, picking up a silky, purple robe and shrugging into it.

She came towards the bed, smoothing out her own unruly hair and tucking a section behind her ear before turning and sitting on the opposite side facing away from him.

"We can't do this anymore," she said in a whisper, tears now streaming down her face. "I can't hurt Sai like this anymore!"

The stabbing in his chest he felt whenever they were together was worse when she said his name, and Shikamaru shot back venomously, "Sai, Sai, Sai, it's like when he came around, I didn't even know who you were anymore."

"Don't give me that bullshit," she spat at him. "As if you're not all about Suna, all about Temari. I don't even know who the fuck you think you are." She gave him a nasty laugh. "Do you even live here anymore? Are you even from this village? Your head always seems like you're elsewhere." Ino wrapped her arms around herself, and suddenly her face just fell. She looked so vulnerable, like she was a child again and Shikamaru fought the urge to reach for her. "Even with me."

Her face just looked exhausted. In the back of his mind, he wondered just how stressed she was. Was she getting enough sleep? Was she eating enough? Was she having trouble at work? It hurt that he didn't even know these things anymore.

"Why are we doing this?" She interrupted his thoughts. "I...I miss you when you're gone, Shikamaru. And when you come and do this, I can't help it either. It's hard for me, too, you know, but this isn't making it any easier."

He wanted to tell her he didn't want to agree. That he was about to explode and scream and tear his hair out and say fuck it and just take her and leave everyone else behind. That all she had to do was just fucking say so and he would be hers. And she would be his. And he knew she felt exactly the same way about him. But the words were stuck in the lump in his throat, just like every damn time before. "Ino—"

"No!" She interrupted, covering her ears with her hands and shaking her head, "Stop it! I don't want to hear it anymore." Her shoulders were shaking so he knew she had started to cry. "I don't want to hear it! I don't want to hear that you're sorry. I don't want to hear anything that comes out of your fucking mouth."

You're breaking my heart.

"I—"

"I don't want to hear that you love me," she whispered fiercely.

Her heart squeezed, remembering his rough voice in the night whispering it in her ear as he held her, remembering the pain she saw in his eyes mirroring hers. It was wrong. It was a lie. And yet it was all she wanted.

Life just wasn't fucking fair.

She got up and gathered his discarded clothes, handing them to him with her eyes cast down and hair hiding the expression on her face. "I think it's best if we don't see each other for a long time."

He swallowed thickly. "You're right," he managed to say, before she turned quickly and ran into the bathroom, slamming the door, the sound of the lock making a resounding, final click.

As if she had finally shut him out of her life forever.

Shikamaru slipped on his sandals, closing the front door behind him, and he leaned his head against it, staring up at the cloudless sky.

The muffled sounds of her sobbing never stopped haunting his dreams.