Forgotten Thoughts || Shikamaru X Temari

chapter 10

Shikamaru wasn't sure if he felt like answering. He didn't want to talk about this, but when Temari started blaming herself that caught his attention. "No!" He said, accidentally raising his voice. He didn't mean to and he knew Temari was starting to break again. She wasn't yelling and she was blaming herself. In the time since they had broken up she hadn't blamed herself. Ever. Shikamaru got up and took a seat in front of her. "No, you did nothing wrong."

"Then why..." Her voice was shaky and tears were welling in her eyes. "You can even lie... I'll except anything! Just give me a reason." She looked at the ground. She wondered in Shikamaru caught her flinch when he raised his voice.

"Fine.. I'll tell you.." He turned around in his place so he was no longer looking at her. He didn't want to see her reaction when he confessed. "Ino came to me one day. At the time she had been having problems with Sai and she was trying to come up with a way to see if he still liked her. She would come to me and complain almost everyday. Then one day she got an idea. She asked me if I would pretend to sleep with her. When the time was right Sai would walk in and see us and that would be it." He grabbed at the cave floor, digging. Dirt forced it's way under his nails as he recalled the events so clearly. "Except he didnt walk in. You did. We didn't do anything and we hadn't planned on it either. I could never.. To think that you thought I would-." His voice got softer the more he spoke. It was just above a whisper. His voice cracked as the last sentence escaped his lips.

Temari looked down, her voice cracking and soft. "I didn't want to believe you did, Shika... And if you would have told me I would have been fine with it..." A few stray tears fell down her cheeks. "B-but you wouldn't tell me why... Or anything... Think of it, walking on on something like that and knowing that you've known Into for a long time...." Her hands were on her knees, her nails digging into her flash, soon breaking skin. Yet somehow, she couldn't feel the pain, nor the blood running down her knees. "I'm sorry..."

Shikamaru couldn't distant himself any longer. He moved over and took Temari into his arms. "You did nothing wrong. I shouldn't have agreed to help Ino. I'm so sorry." He held her tightly. She shook in his arms as tears ran down her cheeks. He wasn't sure if it was the weather or the crying that make her shake, probably both. "If you keep crying your tears will freeze." He said, wiping them away. "What have you done?" He took her bloody hands in his.

Temari let him, she didn't fight his embrace. Instead, she welcomed it, she even slightly calmed down. "I-I don't know..." She looked at the blood on her hands, she couldn't even feel it. Her nails were unkept, sharp. Dirt was packed under the nails. A lot of things were messier than they had once been. Her hair was slightly ratted, her clothes were wrinkled more than normal. She tended to worry about everyone else, and not herself anymore.

"Wait here." Shikamaru stood up and put his shoes on then grabbed a pot from his bag. He ran out of the cave not even caring about the fact that he was half naked (lol). He found his way over to the pond and broke a hole in it then filled the pot with water. After he had enough water he returned to the cave and set the pot over the fire.

Temari dug through her bad again while he was gone, grabbing a scroll. She open the scroll, which had a blanket in it. She wrapped herself in it. Soon, she zoned out, staring at a wall. All her thoughts were about Shikamaru. She still loved him, and it hurt to know her chances of getting back together with him we're probably pretty low.

While Shikamaru was heating the water he looked over to Temari and noticed she had a blanket around her. "Hey, where did you get that blanket?"

"I'm surprised you didn't go through my, perfectly dry, bag to look for supplies." She says, sarcasm dripping from her voice as she fought to regain control of her own emotions. "Which has food, food pills, blankets, and other necessities."