Forced Wedding

Getting back

He noticed her presence as soon as she arrived and stood outside his apartment. Since they had attacked the Yoshida's, and she had returned to the village, he hadn't seen her again. He was in charge of coordinating the inspection of the grounds, conducting some of the interrogations of the captured, as well as supervising several of these, so he was alternating between the two villages and his free time was quite scarce. She was rearranging her house, and slowly rebuilding her life again.

Tenten entered through the window and he wasn't alarmed, he just turned in bed so he could see her. She made a visual inspection of the place, she had never been there before, turned her eyes to the bed and their gazes met.

"I can't sleep," she mumbled excusing herself, "I haven't been able to sleep well for a long time and..." he didn't answer, just lifted the blanket, moved a little more towards the wall and indicated that she could climb into bed with him. She curled up next to him resting her head on his chest without saying anything else, he hugged her and he could feel that a few minutes later her breathing was rhythmic. She had fallen asleep so he simply closed his eyes and imitated her.

He looked at the clock and because of the time he had to get up to go to work, she was still sleeping soundly so as carefully as he could, he got out of bed without waking her up. Would she be angry for leaving her alone? Hopefully not, because he really had to go. He went to the kitchen and prepared breakfast, on the night table next to the bed he left the food for her. He returned home after 11 p.m., he could see with satisfaction that the food wasn't there. A few minutes after he was in bed the scene was repeated, she was there in front of him and in a mute agreement he allowed her to get into bed.

That was how that rest of the week had gone, but the next day he had to go to the Lightning village again, they were almost done vacating the place.

"Tenten?" she was falling asleep.

"Tell me," she answered in a whisper.

"I'll be a few days away from the village," she looked up, "if you want you can stay here, I'll do my best not to take too long," she only nodded and hugged him, readjusting herself to sleep.

That was the only conversation they had had in those days, she was looking for him to be able to rest, and with her by his side the dreams that had tormented him for so long were finally disappearing. Before leaving he thought about it seriously, and together with breakfast he left her a copy of the key to the apartment, so she could stop entering through the window.

He was away from home for three days and when he returned the routine continued.

~ 

He woke up with his senses alert, someone had arrived and was approaching the window, so in a nimble movement he jumped out of bed and went out the window, blocking with his body the view inside because Tenten was there.

"Shikamaru," he greeted dryly.

"Tsk," the Nara clicked his tongue, "We found a clue about where the last fugitive is hiding, we have a meeting at the barracks."

"Understood, I'll be there in 10 minutes," he would put on his uniform and head to the place.

"Wait," he was going to turn his back to him but he stopped, and the Nara paused, "Tsunade also sent me to check that Tenten is okay, but she's not at her home," he felt his back tense up, "do you happen to know where she could be?" he didn't answer, he just moved to the side of the window allowing him to see Tenten lying down and sleeping.

Shikamaru didn't say anything else and left, he entered again and started to get his uniform ready without making noise. How long had they hidden their relationship? more than 3 years, and now in an almost fortuitous event they had been discovered. He denied to himself, he couldn't say that they had resumed their previous relationship because they only slept together, they only gave each other peace.