Troublesome.-Shikamaru love story-

Chapter Four: Friends

I woke up screaming that night. Kiba came into my room to make sure I was okay, but my family was so used to it he was the only one that bothered anymore. Images of Kura's mangled body haunted my sleep. The helplessness I felt because I couldn't help her. I felt the bile crawling up my throat and ran for the bathroom. I threw up. I had dreamt myself sick. After I was finished I flushed the toilet and brushed my teeth. There's no way I'd be able to sleep again, no matter how tired I was.

I went back into my room and checked the time. 1:00 AM. I sighed and went downstairs. I pulled on my sandals and left. I didn't care that I was still in my tank top .and shorts that I was sleeping in. Barely anyone was out this late anyways. I went to the second place I thought of. The first place being the bar, but I could no longer go there. Instead, I went to the second place I thought of, Shikamaru's house. Of course I couldn't knock, so when I go there I jumped right up to Shikamaru's bedroom window and knocked on it.

He instantly got up and opened the window. Almost like he was waiting for me. "I was beginning to wonder if I'd have to look for you at the bar again," he said when he slid the window open silently. I gave him a weak smile and climbed in his room. He closed the window and looked at me. I could just see his cheeks turn red in the moonlight. "Wha-" I began to ask until I realized he was looking at my clothes that revealed more skin on me than he's probably seen before. My cheeks became hot with redness too when I realized this. We both looked away from each other awkwardly.

"So, uh, you had a nightmare?" Shikamaru broke the awkward silence after a few minutes. "Yeah," I whispered as I took off my shoes and set them by the door. "You can take the bed, I'll sleep on the-" I cut him off before he finished, surprising us both by saying: "No." I looked down at my feet embarrassed at my sudden outburst. "I-uh-I'd feel more comfortable if you were in the bed with me," I blurted out, my face heating up more with each word. "If that's okay with you," my cheeks must be on fire by now. "Uh, yeah," was all he managed. I slid into the bed under the covers, Shika right behind me. I lay on my side facing the wall and facing away from him. I don't know why I was reacting so stupidly to him lately but I didn't like it at all.

I was staring at the wall fighting sleep as much as I possibly could. I didn't want to have another nightmare. Suddenly arms wrapped themselves around my waist. I felt my body tense in surprise. Shika rested his chin on my shoulder so that the side of his face was on the side of mine. "Go to sleep, I'm right here if a bad dream comes along," he whispered. I relaxed into his embrace. Something in me wanted to stay like this forever

--

The next morning we were woken up by a shocked Choji. He walked in and started to say "Hey, Shika-" but then his sentence ended up as "Uh-ah! S-sorry, I didn't mean to interrupt!" Of course, we both woke up when the door opened, but shot up when he began to speak. My eyes widened and my mouth stayed shut. Shikamaru sighed a "troublesome" and shook his head in annoyance. "It isn't what it looks like," he promised. Choji looked between us a little unsure, calming down when he saw we both had our clothes on. "So, uh, we were wondering if you wanted to come out to lunch with us," Choji said to Shikamaru. Shikamaru glanced over at me, causing Choji to do the same. "You can come too, Ame!" He added. Shikamaru agreed and told him we'd meet them-whoever else "them" were-there.

I opened my mouth to tell Shika I didn't have clothes-hopefully a good enough excuse to get out of this mess-but he cut me off. "You have a spare set of clothes in my closet," he said as if he read my mind. I sighed. "You aren't getting out of this," he told me as he grabbed his clothes and left to get dressed in the bathroom across the hall. I went to his closet and saw he was right. I forgot I left spares here just in case. I pulled on the spandex pants and baggy dark blue hoodie that used to be Kiba's.

When I was done Shika walked in. Honestly, we never really cared if the other saw us getting dressed, so long as we were wearing undergarments. It just never happened, not like we tried to make it happen. I guess me showing up in his room last night in such little clothes caught both of us off guard. I looked over at Shika. He wore black capris with a black shirt that would've showed his chest had he not been wearing his fishnet undershirt. We grabbed our shoes and I followed him downstairs. I greeted his parents, they were used to my late night appearances and didn't really mind. We pulled on our shoes and left.