"Got a day off today?" Temari murmured as she rolled over to settle her head on top of Shikamaru's chest. The shinobi immediately wrapped the arm closest to her around her and pulled her closer.
A Friday was just dawning—the sun's rays only beginning to stretch its lazy arms into Shikamaru and Temari's room at around 5 am.
"Yeah. Naruto and I got all our work done somehow and we both get a break. Finally." Shikamaru leaned over and placed a kiss on Temari's head as he sighed. "I'm gonna take Shikadai into the forest later today."
"Finally, you can spend some time with him. He's missed you—I can tell."
"I've missed him too." Shikamaru then snorted lightly and held Temari tighter to him. "Let's go back to sleep. I don't wanna spend my only day off not sleeping in."
"Lemme guess: it would be a drag if you didn't sleep in?" She smirked and looked up at him.
He snorted a little louder. "Heh, something like that."
Temari scoffed and closed her eyes again for sleep, feeling the soft consistency of Shikamaru's breathing under her ears. She fell into a deep sleep… only to be awakened by Shikadai's crying two hours later.
Temari rushed to Shikadai's room and picked up the little baby. "Ohh, little fawn, what do you want now?" She did everything she could do: she checked his diapers (perfectly clean), fed him a little bit, held him in her arms and rocked him, even sang to him even though she was a terrible singer. Even so, he would not stop crying. "Oh god, what else could you possibly need?"
"Tem, let me see him." Shikamaru suddenly appeared in the doorway to the room.
"What are you doing up? It's barely past 7, you'd normally be passed out right now."
He gave her a look. "I know, but I couldn't go back to sleep with Shikadai still crying so I gave up and came in here to see what I could do."
Sighing, she gave Shikadai to his father. In mere seconds, he stopped crying and started making soft noises of content, his chubby little hands reaching up to touch his father's face.
"It's a wonder how you manage to quiet down Shikadai so easily every time that I can't." Crossing her arms, Temari smiled.
Shikamaru leaned closer down to Shikadai and gave him a kiss on the forehead. He stared down a little longer at the small child giggling and gurgling in his arms and sighed. "How troublesome. I don't feel sleepy anymore. Might as well just get up." He left the room still carrying Shikadai.
When Temari walked into the kitchen after cleaning herself up a bit in the bathroom, he heard Shikamaru cooing, "Hey, little fawn, we're gonna take a little trip to the forest today so we can say hello to all the deer."
"Are you trying to make breakfast for the two of you?"
Shikamaru turned around—still holding Shikadai, mind you—and shrugged. "Keyword 'trying'."
Temari laughed softly. "I'll make breakfast for your outing, just focus on getting him bundled out to go outside."
Smiling, he gave his wife a kiss on the cheek. "You're the best."
Temari smiled back and leaned into his kiss. "You know it."
xXxXxXx
"There you go, Shikadai, all ready to go," Temari smiled as she put the little beanie on him. She then focused her attention to Shikamaru with a stern face. "Don't place him on the ground without a blanket, don't diverge your attention from him for even one second—and oh god don't you dare let a deer eat my baby I swear to god I will have your ass—"
"Tem, relax. I won't do anything like that. And you already have my ass," Shikamaru said with a smirk.
She blushed slightly but regained her composure and shoved the picnic basket into his free hand. "Have fun, baby." She kissed Shikadai on his nose. He giggled with delight and grabbed his mother's nose for a moment. "And you too, I guess." She gave Shikamaru a kiss on the lips. "See ya for lunch! Don't be gone long!" she said as she waved Shikamaru and Shikadai goodbye.
"If you really need to see him that bad, we're literally only 10 steps away from the house!" Shikamaru called back.
When they got to Shikamaru's favorite clearing in the deep green hues of the Nara Clan Forest, he set down a blanket and the basket, lay down, leaning his head on a large tree, and placed Shikadai on his chest. Some deer came out of the trees, curious about what their master was doing in there that day. A doe came up to sniff Shikadai and the basket. She proceeded to lick Shikadai and he let out a shriek of delight. "Hey, I remember this one. She's the first one to approach you when your mama and I first introduced you to the deer. I think she really likes you." Shikamaru noted. He gave the deer one stroke on the head, and then she walked away.
Shikadai giggled in response. Shikamaru couldn't help but smile and kiss his son, who surely had to be the most adorable baby in the world. The baby suddenly looked up at the sky, eyes wide and completely entranced at what he was looking at. Shikamaru followed his gaze and smiled. "You like clouds, huh?"
The child cooed with happiness. The weather was spectacular this morning—a beautiful sunny day with large white clouds being carried across the ocean sky with a light breeze. It was perfect napping weather, despite that Shikamaru had just woken up.
"Feeling sleepy? I know I am." He had begun to talk to the child, but noticed that he was already snoozing away on his father's broad chest. Shikamaru shrugged. "When in Rome." He closed his eyes and joined his son in a light slumber, leaving their breakfast untouched.
xXxXxXx
"Shikamaru? Shikadai? It's almost time for lunch—"
Temari went out to look for the father-son pair, only to find the two of them snoozing away under the shade of a tree. She smiled gently at the sight of the two. Shikamaru was lying down with his head against the trunk of the tree and one hand resting on Shikadai's back, while Shikadai was lying on his stomach, his little hands curled up into fists on Shikamaru's chest.
"You guys didn't even eat breakfast." She scoffed and picked up the basket quietly, careful not to wake them. Stepping back, she took out her camera and quietly took a picture.
This is definitely gonna be hanging on the wall in a cute little frame.
𝘾𝙧𝙚𝙙𝙞𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙇𝙞𝙩𝙩𝙡𝙚 𝙩𝙤𝙬𝙣 ➪ 𝙞 𝙛𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙪𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙧 '𝙎𝙝𝙞𝙠𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙖 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙠𝙖𝙙𝙖𝙞 𝙛𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣'
☟︎︎︎
(𝘼𝙡𝙡 𝙨𝙝𝙞𝙠𝙖𝙩𝙚𝙢𝙖 + 𝙛𝙖𝙢𝙞𝙡𝙮 𝙛𝙖𝙣𝙛𝙞𝙘𝙨 𝙖𝙧𝙚 𝙖𝙙𝙤𝙧𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙚!)
