What A Drag... || Shikamaru x reader

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Edited: 29/05/24

Reuploaded: 06/06/24

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My Dad started crying.

"D-Dad? Why're you crying?" I asked, loosing concentration on the ice, and finding myself falling feet first into the pond. I stood up and pulled a lily pad off my head.

"Look what you've done," I shook my head in disappointment before jumping out of the pond, Yoshino quickly rushed over to me.

"I'm sorry... You just looked like... m/n," Dad said quietly as Yoshino led me into the house.

"Let's get you a dry set of clothes," Yoshino told me before looking over to her son, "Shikamaru, come on."

"Why me?" he asked, shoving his hands into his pocket, and looking away.

"Because you're the only one with clothes around her size," his Mother told him, he just replied with a 'tch'.

"Follow me," he grumbled, walking into the house, I followed after him while Yoshino and Shikaku stayed behind, obviously trying to get my Dad to stop crying. He's such an emotional mess sometimes, it's sweet though.

"Here," Shikamaru threw a set of clothes at me along with a towel, "take a shower and get changed."

I nodded and took the stuff, going in the direction he was pointing. I quickly showered and then changed into his clothes before walking out and laughing. He looked up from where he was sitting on his bed at me confused.

"Why're you laughing?" he asked with a yawn.

"Well... It would seem your clothes fit me perfectly. Are you really that small?" I asked him, he dropped his head and sighed before getting up.

"First off, I'm still growing," he said before stopping in front of me and taking the towel from my hand and throwing it on my hair and drying it, "second, if you don't actually dry your hair, then you'll get sick."

"Whatever, weirdo," I replied, sitting on the floor as he knelt behind me and kept drying my hair. Why does it feel like he's mothering me?

Yoshino's PoV

"You're still an emotional mess?" Shikaku asked f/n.

"Oh, shut up. My little girl just grew up in front of me," f/n retorted as we walked through the hallway and to Shikamaru's room, "she looked exactly like m/n for a moment there."

We reached Shikamaru's room, and I started to slide the door open before stopping at a small crack to see Shikamaru drying y/n's hair as she sat and read a rule book for a card game.

"What're—" Shikaku started before I shushed him and pointed to the doorway, keeping it still as he peaked in and chuckled quietly before moving away and allowing f/n to look in. He froze again. Memories of his younger self popped up in my head and I just ruffled his hair.

"Come on, let's let them have a little space," I suggested before looking at him angrily, "and you'll explain why you and m/n decided to just up and leave so suddenly 10 years ago."

"Yes ma'am," he says quickly before walking back to the living room and flopping to the ground. We joined him, I sat and watched f/n's expression sadden again as Shikaku sat down beside me and rested his head on my shoulder.

"Explain," he said, f/n nodded.

"We were only going to be gone for a month or two, that's what we told the Hokage, at least. But then we got into some trouble and were too ashamed to return home. A year later, m/n is pregnant with y/n, and we finally found a place to settle. A nice little house in the mountains. It was perfect until we were found again, you know, by them back when y/n was around 2 or 3 years old. Since then we've just been hopping from town to town until recently when we found ourselves near Konohagakure," he explained to us, his gaze never leaving his hands as he thought about it, "when m/n was killed, it was horrible. Y/n never smiled or laughed ever again, she seemed like this blank, expressionless girl who was incapable of feeling emotion. But then outside, she got so happy that our families jutsu had given her a shadow—even if it's just on the ice that she has it. She still smiled and even laughed!"

"Then you became a bubbling mess," I added.

"Then I became a bubbling mess," he repeated. We sat in silence, all just enjoying each other's company.

"It feels like the old days, before all this ninja stuff," Shikaku broke the silence.

"Yeah. It's nice," f/n agreed, looking out the door and into the now dark and star littered night sky, "if anything happens to me. I can trust you to look after y/n, can't it? I don't want her to go back to how we used to live."

I felt both myself and Shikaku freeze in shock.

"Nothing's going to happen to you!" Shikaku exclaims, sitting up straight.

"And even if something did happen or didn't happen, you can always trust us with your little girl," I assured him before we fell silent again.

"Thank you," he whispered.

Your PoV

"Ha! I beat you again!" I said throwing the cards down onto the table with a small smile. Shikamaru just looked around the cards in shock before throwing his own cards down and exhaling as he fell to the ground.

"How do I keep losing to you?" he asked before opening his slide door that led outside and peered out at the night sky.

"You just aren't good at the game," I replied before standing and walking outside, sitting down, and looking up at the moon.

"No. I'm not bad, I'm just tired," he protested, I chuckled.

"Sure whatever you say," I yawned and laid on the ground, staring up as clouds passed by and owls flew overhead. Suddenly I felt something against my legs and jolted up to see Shikamaru using me as a cushion.

"Hey, don't you think you're pushing it a little bit?" I asked him, he just shushed me.

"Hey, you've got dry clothes and I've got a cushion. Really it's a win, win situation, don't be a pain and make me get up again," he told me bluntly as he stretched, I sighed and flopped to the floor again, placing my hands behind my head and closing my eyes. Listening to the calm surroundings around me. Off in the distance was a group of grasshoppers, making beautiful melodies while a household somewhere were laughing and having fun.

Is this what it's like to have a home?

Being able to recognise all the sounds around me so easily and be able to...

Drift off to sleep even with someone at my feet?