The Calm Before The Storm

The advice you get

In the end Shikamaru had decided to go to the annual cherry blossom festival with Naruto as their date. He had thought something simple would be nice but only eating ramen or leisurely cloud watching came to mind and it just didn't seem appropriate for their first date given that those were things they could do as friends too. And ramen just wasn't very romantic if you asked him. Romantic. He couldn't believe he was actually going on a supposedly romantic, if all went well that is, date with someone. And that someone was Naruto no less.

He had been so nervous the whole week he'd actually lost weight. He kept thinking of worst possible scenarios which was one of his strengths as a team leader but wasn't very helpful in relationship matters he'd come to notice.

The date would be in a few hours and he was already getting dressed for it. He had asked Ino and Chouji along to help him get ready for the date since he was pretty clueless about dating. And he knew those two, or Ino at least, wouldn't shut up about it if he didn't tell them about his first ever date. Ino particularly had been really excited about it which had made Shikamaru feel tired and strangely only more nervous.

"So how did you find the courage to ask her out? Oh, and did you give her the flowers by the way?" Ino asked while she was finding the right clothes for Shikamaru to wear.

"Well... I thought about what you said and what my father even said and truthfully I wasn't even really planning on asking just then but it just came out and... In the end they said yes so it went well I suppose," Shikamaru explained. "I gave the flowers to them too", he admitted still a bit embarrassed for giving actual flowers to Naruto. Thankfully he had really liked them though. They were still on their kitchen table looking even more fresh and pretty if that was possible. Naruto was taking really good care of them.

"And? Did she like them?" Ino asked beyond curious about Shikamaru's mystery date.

"Yeah, surprisingly they seemed to like them." Shikamaru smiled slightly trying to relax.

"Of course! Every woman loves getting flowers especially from handsome men."

Shikamaru had to chuckle a bit at the constant assumption that Naruto was a woman. He wondered how Ino would react if she knew it was Naruto. Or how anyone would react.

"Hmm, I wonder if I even qualify then though..."

"What are you saying? You're plenty handsome when you're not frowning too much and you clean up very nicely. Right, Chouji?" Ino said almost insulted at Shikamaru's demeanor.

"She's right. I'm sure your date will see that as well." Chouji smiled at him and it did calm his nerves a bit but not by much. There was still that niggling fear at the back of his mind that what if he had dreamed the whole exchange between them and Naruto had never actually agreed to go on a date with him. Or worse, what if Naruto decided after the date that he didn't like Shikamaru after all since the date was so bad.

"Shikamaru?" Ino asked the worry clear on her face seeing Shikamaru's gloomy look. "It will be fine, don't worry about it", she tried to reassure him. "You asked us here to help and that is what we'll do. You are going to look so handsome, she won't even want to look at others and you'll have a wonderful evening. And if, I said if, it doesn't go well it's not the end of the world. You'll still have plenty of friends who are there to support you. Chouji and I will even listen to you cry about it and eat all the ice cream we can get  if that's what you need", Ino winked. "And there's Naruto too, I'm sure he'd do just about anything to cheer you up since he's just that kind of person", Ino laughed.

Shikamaru burst out laughing when he saw an image of the three of them sitting on the coach eating ice cream a crying Shikamaru between Chouji and Ino who were trying to comfort him only to have an extremely worried Naruto barge in demanding to know where Shikamaru was and who had dared to hurt him. Well obviously that wouldn't happen, since Naruto would have been the cause of that particular heartache but still...