My Trip To... | ShikaIno

Day 5 - Night Night

"Do you... Do you really think I'm a nagging bitch..?"   

"What?" Shikamaru asked, surprised that she would actually think he meant it. He had been so out of it last night. He could only remember bits and pieces. He had no memory leaving the Rose and Crown Pub or beginning to drink again. He remembered eating a bit in the cafeteria but everything else was a bit of a blur. He only wished that he didn't remember the look on her face when she had thrown a drink in his face. Her eyes had been watery and the downward curl of her lips had been like a pin in his chest. 

It looked a lot like what she looked like now. 

A new memory that Shikamaru wasn't going to look gleefully upon while knowing he was the cause of it. It was going to haunt him like last night had done to him all day. He could barely remember what he had done when he had awoke. All he knew was that it was all his fault. Thankfully or maybe un-thankfully, his texts were the perfect evidence to show what an ass he can be.

"Nothing," she suddenly declared and almost magically she seemed to right herself back into place. He could see it on her face already. Ino Yamanaka didn't cry. Ino Yamanaka didn't fall apart in public. Ino Yamanaka was flawless. All those barriers went flying back into place and he knew he had lost his chance at making it better for her. Instead he had allowed for all her shields to come right back up as she easily wiped away the couple of stray tears that dare fall without her permission. After that she was back to normal.

Or at least somewhat normal but he could see the small differences. The pinch around her mouth which would usually be slightly pouting. Not that he stared at her lips or anything. Or how her eyes still had a slightly watery look to them. Yet none of this made her unsightly to him. If anything...

He abruptly rubbed at his eyes. He needed to grab a hold of himself. Getting all into Ino's looks right now was not going to get him back into her good graces again. If anything, she would probably get all suspicious of him if he started stringing poetry together about her and her sun spooled hair. He would just make things worse.

It seemed to be what he was good at, lately.

He finally pulled his hand away from his face, blaming his hangover that had been plaguing him all day since he had woken up. It was only the second hangover he had ever experienced. His father and his two best friends had thought it would be a fun way to spend a Friday night getting Choji and him drunk. While the night had filled with poker and beer, his morning was spent over a toilet with his mother nagging both his father and him at the same time. It was her true skill in life. He had never been sicker in his life and had vowed to never experience something so troublesome again.

It was the true reason why he always controlled himself around alcohol from then on. Even to this day, he couldn't have a sip of his father's favorite brand of bottled brew without feeling like losing his guts on the floor. He wasn't one for unnecessary pain.

Yet he knew he had put himself in that terrible situation last night. He couldn't blame other people for what had occurred last night.

"Ino," he stated with as meaningful of a voice as he could manage, "I'm sorry." He had never meant the words more in his life. While Ino could be irritating and persistence, he knew it came from a good place. It wasn't like Ino to be relentless for nothing. She always had a purpose in mind and he had just taken it terribly last night. Really, he knew he should just be truthful with her.

But the thought of the rejection that would come afterwards made him feel like he could get sick again and he had already spent too much of his days spent over seamless white porcelain. No, he just wanted to make things better. Or at the very least, makes things as good as they use to be, which meant getting back on Ino's good side and being her friend again.