[thread] [Gettin' Your Groove Back] [open]

[bl0nd_ambition]

As soon as Ino could ditch the crutches, she knew it was time to go out and play. It was depressing having to sit around her room, batting off cats, and not having much to do beyond getting Shikamaru to drag her to various places. Everyone, it seemed, was down lately because of one thing or another. Whether it was Obito or personal stresses no one

Comments

[rhapsodyinsleep]

Shikamaru remembered the last time he had ran out of breath like this. It was a tip given by Kakashi that had set him running and looking all over the Queens borough for Ino, despite the fact that she might've been still angry at him and would give him a hefty smack for having ignored her when he just came into school. This was different though, seeing that he couldn't find her anywhere. When he heard the news that she could do without the crutches, well, if there ever was a time to be cautious, this was it.

And sooner than he knew it, she was gone. Not that he didn't let her have her own time to herself, God knew that he needed time for himself, too. He only had the notion that maybe without her crutches, she would immediately think that she was back to Superwoman mode, ready to dance her heart away or even attempt to fly. Thing was, even if you took away the crutches, you still had the cast, too. He wasn't very keen in seeing her going through another injured leg period.

So he hit all the dance practice areas and only after a hefty sigh of annoyance did he venture outside of the school, finally coaxing himself to go inside a small bar nearby the school. He told himself that if he didn't see a speck of suspicious blonde, he would high-tail it out there and call it a night.

Nothing ever turned out as planned for a Nara, this was a well-known fact.

Jaw slackened to a point that it was useless for locomotive usage, Shikamaru witnessed something worth eye-twitching over and that could make Mrs. Yamanaka beam with pride that her daughter could probably do a better job at giving lap dances better than she did. Not very sure what to do, (seriously, what could you do when you saw people you knew, girls, doing...was this cheating?) Shikamaru took a seat away from the blonde pair, but only as far as it took so there was some plausible visual.

Turning around in his seat, he jumped slightly at seeing another familiar face, this time, it was Tenten, someone that hung out with Ino a lot and probably knew more about Ino's love life than Shikamaru was willing to deal with in a minute. "Christ," he exhaled sharply, literally shaken at the moment, but not enough to quickly correct himself. "I mean, Tenten. Hi."

He couldn't help being slightly miffed that his girlfriend was taken at the moment by another blonde girl. What was it with blondes, seriously?

[bl0nd_ambition]

Her leg was aching something fierce. Ino still wasn't sobered up nearly enough but she was starting to feel the ache of her wound. Maybe the lap dance wasn't such a good idea. It had certainly cheered Temari up, though, and that was really all that mattered, wasn't it?

She spotted Tenten in the dress she told her she HAD to by and limped over. A silly, slightly drunk grin was on her face but all in all, Ino was okay. Maybe she was getting better at this drinking thing.

Was that Shikamaru next to Tenten? In a BAR?

Oh, this was her lucky night.

Since there were no other chairs available and her leg was going to mutiny on her any moment, Ino just took it upon herself to sit between Shikamaru's legs. She remembered his "heavy" remark and so did not sit ON his legs. She didn't really want to be called fat a second time, thank you very much.

"Hi," Ino said cheerfully.

[rhapsodyinsleep]

Sooner than you can say "hopscotch", suddenly Shikamaru had the troublesome blonde in his lap. He, of course, did a double-take, since he remembered quite vividly that Ino had been only occupying Temari's lap a few moments ago. Try seconds. It was scary, knowing that she could move that fast.

"Uh, hi." he slowly greeted, trying to get a reading from her face, seeing if she was drunk or not. Her face was still flush, which was a strong indication that maybe she was. "Sorry, I'm taken already. Try someone else," he tried, observing her with a raised-eyebrow look. Now that she was here between his legs, Shikamaru wished that he or she was somewhere else.

[bl0nd_ambition]

What was he talking about? Sometimes Shikamaru was so strange. Ino gave him her own raised eyebrow, wondering what it was that he was going on about. It wasn't like she was sitting on his lap or doing something embarrassing. And who the hell was he taken by?? He was supposed to be taken by her last time she checked!

"Don't be like that, there are no other seats and my leg hurts!" Ino pouted, lower lip jutting out dangerously. "You don't have to be so mean." It was her "omg pain and suffering how can you be soooo cruel" voice that she had perfected over the years, though Shikamaru was mostly immune to her whims now. That didn't mean she still couldn't try.

Man, she was seriously out of dancing shape. One little dance and she was already tired. The alcohol probably didn't help but that was another story.

Ino leaned up and gave Shikamaru a kiss on the cheek. "Don't make such a sour face! ♥"

[rhapsodyinsleep]

Sometimes Shikamaru really didn't understand Ino. She was so strange, if only because alcohol was always that stranger she refused to reject and Shikamaru couldn't find a way for her to just "say no" to it. It wasn't like he was shooing her off of him, just testing to see if she was still drunk or not.

As of now...he still wasn't sure.

"I'm not making a face," he quickly shot back, still slightly scowling but at a significantly different amount after the kiss. Now he was scowling even more that she was doing this in front of everyone. But there were no words to stop her, only a steady hand holding her by her waist so that she wouldn't fall off of the small seat that was definitely not originally designed for two.

"I didn't know you were celebrating on be crutches-free. Should've told me."

[bl0nd_ambition]

Hmm, Shikamaru was still very shy about any sorts of PDA. She would have to limit them to the right time and place. Ino behaved herself for the most part and let him hold her up without much of a fuss. She was having a decent night-- there was no need to ruin it by having an argument in a public place.

"I just tried calling you a little while ago but you were out of the room," Ino rubbed her knee, regretting her little show earlier because the alcohol was wearing off and her leg was killing. She wondered where she put the sweater she was wearing earlier. Now that she wasn't dancing, it was feeling a bit chilly. At least Shikamaru was providing some body warmth. "But it's good you're here, anyway. You needed to get out. Should I get you a drink?"

It couldn't hurt to be a little nice to him, especially when he didn't look particularly pleased with her. She was straining herself, she was making a spectacle of herself, and she was probably embarrassing him. Ino would try-- try being the keyword-- to behave a bit better.

[rhapsodyinsleep]

His eyes followed her hands a looked down at her knee. She really did fool him a minute ago, seeing her move around like that all over Temari, it made him think that she was miraculously healed, but now it said otherwise. "Does it hurt?" He looked at her again, this time slightly serious than before, only slight traces of a scowl left on his face. It wasn't that he was upset at her, it was just that he always treated her like she was his responsibility. Even if he didn't want the job, it would eventually end up that way and right now with them having a whole new standing with each other, it was a little bit more important.

His hand moved down her thigh to reach her knee, gingerly touching it. He didn't have any kind of medical training, but he knew something was swollen or not right by touch. Besides, his mother didn't feed him all those medical books when he was small for nothing. She really did mean to kill him with medical school in the near future. Thank goodness for his father's own talent with distracting the crazy woman's ideas with smoky logic.

[bl0nd_ambition]

"No, no, I'm fine! I'm just a little sore. You know this humidity is a killer. And maybe I overdid it a little," she looked embarrassed at being caught (not to mention getting her leg groped) but tried not to show that she was in any pain. Shikamaru tended to be a bit of a worrier and it wasn't that big of a deal. "I'll stay off of it tomorrow and rest."

Maybe.

It probably hurt more from being unused for so long rather than from the initial break. Her leg muscles felt cramped which sucked but she would live. Ino was much too excited to get rid of her crutches to just sit around. Life was so boring when one was forced to sit all the time.

"I'm fine! Really."