Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.

A/N: I have been asked to write more ShikaTema smut and so I did lol Honestly, I just adore this pairing. They're absolutely perfect. End of story. Also, I dedicate this one-shot to MikiLovesShikaTema because, as it's obvious, she loves this ship and because she assured me I'm not deranged lol

Enjoy.

Hours

She never let anything storm its way into her heart and shake her foundations to points of no return, but his absence was slowly and genuinely killing her. Fears haunted her throughout the whole day, but now they gripped her entirely and she found herself squeezing the bedsheets with her fists and pressing them closer. Nothing seemed to discard her worry and it only became worse with every passing hour.

"Just a damn regular mission, Temari, you're raising hell about one mission."

"Yeah, because I thought you respect my wishes, Nara!" Temari pointed at him and his furrow deepened. "I suppose I was wrong. Maybe I was wrong about you from the very start, the only wishes you respect are yours!"

Shikamaru slightly fazed at her harsh tone and looked at her, a tad surprised. Then he tore his gaze away and slowly turned around with the intention of leaving the room, hands in his pockets, but at the first step his body relaxed back again. The pause before he decided to speak was so long that she didn't think he'd break it at all.

"I gave an oath to protect my village and serve its people the way my father did. And his father before." He uttered, finally heading for the door. "This means a lot to me, so try to at least pretend you care."

She reiterated his bitter last words to her before leaving; biting her chaffed lips almost to blood, her free hand pressing against her eyes so that it could somehow stop the tears that welled up in them. Dammit, when did she become whiny? She's always been the strong one, avoiding tears and emotional outbursts of any kind in front of her brothers while growing up.

It was completely out of her control, though, she couldn't stop her body from trembling now.

Regular mission? Then why wasn't he home yet, thirty hours after he was supposed to be? And why did they have to quarrel just before he left? She was so mad at him for taking the decision to go on a mission without discussing it with her or, which was worse to her then, prefer to go on a mission instead of spending the weekend with her. She completely excluded the possibility that…

Temari took a shattered breath, pulling the sheet up so that she could try and wipe her tears.

What if he was hurt? What if he doesn't return at all and she's left with her crushing guilt? It was so damn selfish of her to attack him like this. How could she know? The anger and the frustration blinded her and she paid the price now – burning at a self-made stake.

Temari sniffed, passing her hand over her forehead. Her body ached and she only sought a way to escape the intrusive questions and scenarios in her head that pulled her down like an anchor. The silence extended, but her heartbeat was still quick and her mind wake with terror.

And then, after what seemed to her like an hour of staring in the darkness of the bedroom, she heard the sliding of a shoji in the distance.

Temari's breath hitched and she stood up, feet moving on her own and lips quietly pleading that it wasn't bad news. She followed the fusuma, now lit up with the ethereal tint of the clear moonbeams, and crossed the living room to get to the lobby where the light was already switched on.

The view half-shocked her, but she only needed a moment to emerge on top of the haze and near him at her slowest pace, hand tentatively reaching for him as if he was an apparition. Shikamaru was pale and tired, with badly wrapped bandages around both his arms and neck. The wounds were everywhere and she wondered why he hasn't consulted a medic-nin to properly heal them.

The tears streamed down her cheeks, but she was mute. The lump in her throat was so big that she was convinced it won't let her speak at all. Instead, she just peered into his eyes silently, in hopes that he'd read the remorse in them. He shifted, his eyes passing over her, on his way to the bathroom and she hurried to follow.

Temari refused to acknowledge the stubborn haze that blurred vision and the heaviness that pressed her chest, and instead focused her full attention on sliding Shikamaru's blood-stained flannel off him with slow, measured movements. The reveal of all the new cuts underneath had her pause for one full moment of thick silence before she turned away. Her instinctive drive turned the water of the shower on, to her side, but her eyes betrayed her and she hurried to close them, letting the guilt sift through her.

The water soaked into her cloth as well, but she couldn't care less. She had to fix some serious issues and she didn't know where to start.

A shiver ran through her when Shikamaru's hand slipped around her waist and she gave him a shocked look.

"You've been crying for the last eight hours and you'll dehydrate if you don't stop soon." He stated, with a perfectly even intonation.

"You don't know that." Temari pouted, feeling the strong urge to fold hands, but Shikamaru's hold didn't allow her. Her breaths hitched when he slightly rumpled the matter of her nighty, pulling it up. She faced him with a little furrow, then a blush caught her and she stepped back to the tiled wall, drawing him with her.

Temari tried her best to hide the prickle that spread over her skin when it came in touch with the coldness and the way that moist had turned her nighty into a slick second-skin, contouring her bare body most revealingly. The mounds of her breasts, the oval of her stomach and the swells of her hips.

Shikamaru scanned her over quickly as he closed the space between them even more, forcing her to shallow her breaths and remain still. His grazed knuckles skimmed against her cheek thoughtfully.

"Yes, I do."

It occurred to her that her skin was not quite presentable… especially if she adds the fact that she didn't really sleep in those last thirty hours, but that thought passed quickly, exchanged with another.

"Shikamaru-" Temari started, hoarsely, but his grimace of annoyance silenced her. She knew that expression.

She gathered the strength to nod. Alright. No talking. He needed no explanations or excuses… or apologies. Maybe that was better. Her shaking hands reached for the loose end of the bandage around his neck and slightly pulled him closer, eyeing the scars over his body with a frown and a newly-formed lump in her throat.

Shikamaru locked her eyes with his, as if… searching for something there. Unbelievable. How could he worry about her when it was fair for him to be angry and mad at her? It almost felt like she deserved his wrath… or at least a little yelling. Perhaps she looked more messed up than she thought she did. Pulling the bandage a little closer, she forced him to press their bodies together.

"Use me… punish me. Everything you need." Temari breathed out in his ear. "That's the only way for you to save me from hating myself for the rest of my life."

"Tempting," Shikamaru commented absently, lips brushing over her neck. "And if I refuse?"

"I'll beg you either way," Temari admitted, in his ear, and felt a wave of heat overtaking her body at the notion. Shikamaru, on the other side, backed away with a furrow that instantly made her smile. He had positively not expected her to advance so quickly. And with good reason, what they have always been really good at was the perfectly balanced, but long teasing.

"Sorry, I…" He uttered, then looked at her with clear frustration. "You can't just throw in things like that. I really intended to shower and go to sleep." The added flatly, "If you haven't noticed, everything hurts me."

Temari but her lip, shrugging. All this time, he still hasn't gotten used to her endless teasing and obscene imagery. In any case, his remark could've been offensive to her seductive abilities if she didn't know him as well and if she wasn't convinced sleeping was the real love of his life.

She stepped to him, one of her legs smoothing between his, painfully slow.

"Temari, I swear-" Shikamaru warned, but his voice hushed and Temari chuckled quietly in his ear. She loved him because he's always been easy to break and it was a matter of seconds before he gives in. If he didn't want her apology, she had to establish it through the hard way. Oops. The steady up-and-down strokes of her knee were ceased immediately by his forceful slam on the tiled wall and the use of a convenient but angered curse as he ripped her cloth apart.

"Troublesome minx." His words muffled in her mouth as their tongues mingled together in a frantic, needy series of kisses and heavy breathing.

"I need you too." Temari huffed feverishly, trying to cope with the feeling of being clenched against the wall, with her legs wrapped tightly around Shikamaru's waist and her wish in the process of accomplishing.

"Ouch."

"Sorry." Temari vibrated with a breathless chuckle. "Seems like I can't touch you anywhere."

"Then don't," Shikamaru ground his teeth menacingly but unsurprisingly did not leave a caustic comment when Temari roamed her way down his chest and core, and pushed down his pants eagerly, despite that he hissed with the pain of it all, breaking their kiss for a moment.

A harsh shiver coursed through him when he intertwined them, pressing himself against her with a measured, calculated force and causing her body to writhe against his in response. She sighed, head thrown back, but the pleasurable sensation came with a sting of guilt. Shikamaru was likely overstraining with keeping her whole weight up against the wall on top of trying to not collapse himself. He needed a few seconds to come to his senses, it gave him away.

"Dammit, we should've gone to the bed. I'm more tired than I thought."

"It's not late for that," Temari suggested, backing away with her hands wrapped around his neck. "If it'd be easier for you."

"Like anything's ever been easy with you," Shikamaru grunted, shifting away from the wall, hands holding her tight.

"It's not like I'm fat or something, though," Temari spoke in his ear as he stopped the water and walked directly to their bed next door.

"Mm…" Once they laid down, Shikamaru was busy tasting her again, but his intonation was merciless enough.

"How dare you?!" Temari carved her way down his back, using the advantage of her nails, which made Shikamaru groan in its turn.

"Stop trying to kill me, woman! I was joking."

"He was joking," Temari repeated in a low voice, nibbling at his lower lip harshly.

"I am not in the mood for quarreling," Shikamaru growled at her, backing away enough to have a good look at her body as she lied on the dark sheets.

Temari raised a brow at his examination before using the grip of her legs to exchange their places and loom over him in return, with a bite of her lip.

"Temari, what are you doing?" Shikamaru protested, trying to sit up, but she pushed him back on the sheets and leaned in, enjoying the way his breath hitched at the friction she caused between them. She knew he was overly tired and ready to get this over with quickly, but it was just something she loved doing to him because of his terrific reactions.

She ground against him slowly and his hand instinctively clenched the soft skin of her hip. His eyes slightly veiled and his breaths turned sharper and more frequent.

"What, is that nice?" Temari bit her lip, starting to repeat the motion just as slowly. There was something about this that always collapsed his system and turned him into a weak mess of moans. Maybe it was the friction, the stringing up of nerves or it was just her domination, it was rare that he lost his control over her body and failed to oppose to her in any way. She only managed to get him to this state through that slow and teasing reiteration.

Her only mistake was that she stopped because it nearly upset him. Heartbreaking, she thought, noticing the quick shift of anger in his features. Shikamaru sat up, grabbing her hair and pulling it back with a frenzied excitement glazing in his eyes. "Who allowed you to be on top in the first place?"

Temari let out a puffed out moan as he pressed her lower back to himself and used the moment she had her head thrown back to nibble and suck at her bare neck. Her fingers dug into his shoulders, the slight pain coming to her as a dose of adrenaline. Oh god, he was so good at this.

The sensations came along with that guilt she tucked at the back of her mind. She really had to let him sleep, but couldn't help it. Something about those red marks and contoured veins on his skin just turned her on and activated a heating pulse between her thighs.

As he backed away, she used the moment to grind her hips against his and slide her nails slowly down his back, making sure she'd add to the scars. Seemingly, she confused his senses strongly enough because he didn't even shiver in pain anymore.

"You bastard," Temari muttered, biting at his ear. "I am not gonna be the only one to explain the hickeys to my friends later."

"Temari, no." Shikamaru tried to warn her, attempting to push her away, but she bit at the skin on his upper shoulder and this time felt him shudder underneath her sensibly. Then he growled in anger. "Damned vixen, I told you- I present Konoha at the Union of the Nations- "

Temari moved to his mouth and plied her tongue against his hungrily in order to silence him, but he leaned back, scowling at her. "Your friends like those things, but if I show up like this in front of my friends…"

"Mm, heard that before." She continued the kiss, demanding another deep kiss and whispering words in-between her renewed thrusts. "Don't pretend you don't like it, dear." Then she paused, smirking. "Your friends only wish they had me."

Temari urged him to reply and he did, his ragged, loud breaths in her ear gradually turning into moans and his clumsy thrusting against her slowly becoming an impulse. She knew he was exhausted as hell, but that was her way of apologizing, it's always been, so whenever she felt the need replacing his common sense, it was when she calmed down.

She knew her Shikamaru would rather sleep than put up with her, but something had changed his mind. Maybe seeing her upset. Or seeing her naked. Or both.

"Keep going," His grip on her was increasing its intensity, but he refused to stop kissing her not until the pleasure didn't take over her and she had to throw her head back in order to continue building up the delightful tension.

Shikamaru's voice sent shock waves of electricity down her spine, interweaving with hers, and for a moment she lost her perceptions with the scorching high that hit her. She tried to stifle her cry as much as she could, biting her lip hard, but Shikamaru leaned closer and uttered a dominant "Don't do that." into her ear as his hand found her mouth and his thumb divided her lips to hear her moan at the last ripples of her peak and the coming of his, the waves of heat and daze that coursed through him, and the shattered groan that slipped through his control.

His warm touch traced the line of her spine upwards, making her shiver pleasantly and press herself tightly against him, the only thing resonating in her mind for the moment was how badly she had wanted him to return so that she could hear his voice again.

Their kiss went on, but in a tad more leisured tempo and Temari began to feel the spreading ache all over her body, now, as they relaxed a little. Her eyes lidded open as she smiled mischievously. "Would that be all, Shikamaru-sama?"

He puffed, amused by the humble tone of her servant girl alter ego. So profoundly different from what she was like in front of others. Surprisingly, he loved her playing coy or being shy when he was tired, but when he wasn't the do-not-touch-me-until-I say-so game was his absolute favorite. Especially if she counted his Shadow Techniques as touching.

"Something funny?" Temari tilted her head when he backed away a bit. He loved this game, but never admitted it. The honorific title gave some odd spark to his dark eyes, apart from the possessive aggression she managed to wrest out of his even and mostly tranquil existence whenever she talked to old and childhood male friends from Suna. Those were fun times.

She raised a brow at his continuous observation. "What?"

"Really cute of you to cry for me." Shikamaru looked at her through narrowed eyes as she brushed back the sable locks of his hair absent-mindedly. She could feel the heat rising to her face anew, even though she made a great attempt at keeping her mysterious air and seductive expression on.

"I wasn't crying for you, I was crying for myself and for the great weekend you ruined with your absence," Temari announced adamantly, her finger still enjoying the strands of his hair. He was so attractive when his hair was loose, she mused, it was sinful of him to keep it tied all the time.

Shikamaru looked at her thoughtfully as if he was intently calculating something and she felt his eyes burning a hole in her, but he remained silent and proceeded to lean back on the pillow, pulling the covers over them. A small smile flashed on her lips as he grimaced in pain.

"Ugh, great. Now everything hurts me more." Eyes on the ceiling, he exhaled, still allowing her to stay on top of him and play with his hair.

Temari licked her chaffed lips, glancing at him for a moment. He appeared so calm that it stung her immediately. She laid her head on his chest and tried distracting herself with his heartbeat. Her fingers skimmed over the scarred tissue at her disposal, ignoring the blur of her eyes stubbornly. Then she tried clearing up her tight throat a bit.

"Um, Shikamaru?"

The continuous silence bothered her, but she was scared to turn her head and face him so she kept on with her intrusive touching. Her hands already trembled treacherously, though, so she stopped, curling her fist. She slowly shifted next to him and her gaze locked with his, finally gathering the courage to show him that she was fighting tears.

He furrowed, on the verge of speaking up, but she did it first.

"It's just…" Temari forced her voice out and it came out as a whisper. Taking a breath, she tried again, "I know this village is your home, but it's not like this for me, ok?"

Shikamaru nodded.

"I feel alone and I get all scared and freaky and sad." She muttered in frustration. "I can't function here for five minutes without you so…"

"And you had to skin me to prove how much you missed me," Shikamaru said, fazing her.

"Stop complaining!" Temari thumped him, enjoying the way he flinched in pain, and managed to smile faintly, wrapping her hands around his arm quickly before he decides to oppose.

"Alright. Can I sleep now?" He sighed, clearly trying his best (not trying at all) to make himself look like he cared for her answer deeply.

"Yes."

"Cool." Shikamaru turned his back on her, perhaps with the idea of detaching from her, but she hugged him anew, pressing her body to his.

"I'm sorry for those things I said to you." Temari murmured, eyes closed.

"Be quiet, please."

Temari chuckled silently, opening up a pause. Her smile faded as she started listening to his even breathing and swallowed, suddenly aware how much she's really missed it. Two days was a terribly long amount of time. It took her a few more minutes to fight her pride, but her fear won, eventually.

"I love you."

"Shh."

Temari bit her lip. "Ok."

A/N: Shikamaru shushing Temari is my mood lmao Hope you liked it!

(Ohmygosh, really sorry to the fans of my on-going fic, I just really, really love smuffy one-shots, can't help it.)