Closure

Temari ignored her lover; too busy practically snarling at Neji to even call her on her ignorance. The blonde had been Shikamaru's upgrade from Sakura, and Sakura was her upgrade from Shikamaru. She never imagined that Shikamaru could upgrade from being in a relationship with two young, beautiful women at once. And to think that his upgrade was a man! A man, for a man with an 11-inch cock who enjoyed pussy as much as she knew Shikamaru did? It was unthinkable!

But this man, she begrudged, was not just any man—he was simply the most beautiful man she'd ever laid eyes on, a cop like Shikamaru, with a similar personality. Suited to him--just like he’d told her.

And they looked amazing together.

The two women had gone in search of Shikamaru, at Sakura’s pleading. Their relationship had evolved to a stage where they considered bringing children into the equation, but Sakura was still feeling guilty for the way they had dumped Shikamaru all those years ago. She needed closure—a fact Temari found ridiculous. But Sakura was her love, her partner, her mate.

And so, together, they made a plan.

It hadn’t taken them long to locate Shikamaru. They discovered through research that he had become a decorated Special Investigator with his department. Sakura practically squealed when they spotted them all having lunch, but Temari, even as she watched him, still refused to believe he’d actually made something useful of himself.

She didn’t want to believe he was no longer the layabout she remembered. She wanted to deny he’d become even sexier, with his expensive sunglasses and holstered firearm. She didn’t want to think that his mother, who was aging very well, supported this—this fling—he was having with his partner. His very male partner.

Was he taking that ridiculously long thing up his ass? Seriously?

She didn’t want to believe that the Shikamaru they’d cast aside was happy without them, let alone happier, and certainly not happier with a man.

For the life of her, though, she wasn’t sure why. Shikamaru Nara was ancient history. Why did it matter?

“Listen, Temari, I think we’re getting way off base here.” Sakura placed a gentle hand on her lover’s shoulder. She didn’t understand Temari’s hostility, but they could discuss it later.

Sakura turned to Shikamaru then. “Shikamaru, our running into you today wasn’t a coincidence.”

“Oh?” Yoshino asked.

Sakura shook her head. “I asked Temari to help me find you.”

She walked back over to where Shikamaru stood, facing him, took a deep breath, and removed her sunglasses.

There. Crystalline green eyes looked at him, as stunning as he’d remembered. She smiled then, another hopeful smile that reached her eyes.

Shikamaru thought it was beautiful. He reached up slowly, and then removed his own sunglasses.

Piercing dark eyes met bright green for the first time in nearly six years. He watched the way the gentle wind tousled the pink hair that framed her face. He’d always thought Sakura defined prettiness, not the other way around.

The others looked on in silence.

“You look good, Shikamaru”, she began. “You look…healthy.”

“Thanks”, was his monosyllabic reply.

When she realized he wasn’t going to at least respond in kind, she continued. “I uh, the reason we came, uh…gods, this is harder than I thought it would be”, she babbled awkwardly, looking away.

Sakura had imagined this differently. She had imagined holding Shikamaru’s hand in hers, imagined seeing him smile. She had imagined privacy…space. She had imagined forgiveness.

That was the closure she’d hoped for.

Instead she was standing outside in public beneath the noon sun. A smirk was the closest thing to a smile she’d seen from Shikamaru since they’d arrived. His mother was standing guard right beside them.

Shikamaru was even armed.

Sakura took a deep breath and tried again, focusing her eyes on her ex-lover. “Things ended…badly between us. Temari tried to convince me it was fine, but when we didn’t hear from you…it’s not always a good thing when someone disappears from your life without a trace.”

Sakura fiddled with the sunglasses in her hand. “Temari and I really love each other, Shikamaru. Neither of us knew things were going to happen the way they did—“

“If you came all this way to try to justify what the two of you did, then spare me the unsolicited rhetoric”, Shikamaru interjected. There was boredom in his voice.

“That’s not it”, she responded in a rush, shaking her head vigorously. She suppressed the urge to look at Temari, knowing the blonde would convince her with only a look to abandon her efforts and leave.

Sakura was determined to finish this. She decided cutting to the chase would be most effective.

“Temari and I want children”, she told him. “We intend to start a family. I couldn’t do it…I mean I could, I-I will, b-but there was something else I needed to do first.”

This would have been the part where Sakura reached for Shikamaru’s hand, but decided against the attempt.

She looked into hard, dark eyes and gulped. “I need to tell you that I’m sorry, Shikamaru. I’m sorry for the way things happened. I-If I’d been a better person, things would have gone differently.

Y-you believe me, don’t you?” she asked, and then wondered why she’d bothered.

Instinct compelled her to look away again, but she fought it. “I know my apology is coming late, and may not be very welcome, but I couldn’t move forward until I could look you in the eyes and tell you that I never meant for things to happen the way they did. Temari and I are…happy, and we want you to be happy too.”

Her voice…it was someone else’s. The words sounded so alien to her ears. She had had a wild hair to rehearse an apology, but ended up discarding the idea.

A genuine apology was one of those things you just couldn’t rehearse.

“I’m sorry Shikamaru”, Sakura repeated, her voice stronger. “And I wish you the best, with your work, and your new love—“ she looked back toward Neji—“everything.”

She looked away again helplessly, still fidgeting with the sunglasses in her hand. This was one of the hardest things she’d ever done. She was choking on her guilt, on her humility. And Shikamaru hadn’t said anything.

“Gods on a ship!” Sakura heard behind her. “Shikamaru, we came a long way to apologize to you. What are you waiting for?” Temari asked. Her lover was suffering standing there. Was it too much to ask of the man to accept her apology?

“Your apology”, Shikamaru responded without missing a beat. “But I’m well aware that we’ll all be at least another six years older before I get it.”

“I’ll need to hear a thank you for dumping you before I award you with an apology for doing it.”

Shikamaru shook his head then. “You haven’t changed either”, he assessed. “You still insist on challenging the alpha male for pack leadership. I’m surprised you threw me out instead of killing me in my sleep.”

“What would that have accomplished? I was trying to clean up a mess, not create a bigger one”, Temari responded.

“Temari!” Sakura shouted, turning to look at her. “Sometimes your support is anything but supportive.”

“Can we go now?” she asked Sakura.

Sakura sighed and turned back to Shikamaru. She wasn’t sure what she needed to see in his eyes, but it wasn’t there.

She nodded. “It was good to see you again, Shikamaru”, she heard herself say.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“Fun times, Pocahontas”, Temari said as she walked away.

“Mrs. Nara”, Temari acknowledged as she approached the spot where the three of them stood.

Good riddance you harpy, Yoshino thought to herself.

Temari slipped an arm around Sakura’s shoulders and tipped her face up. “Well done”, she told her in a gentle voice before pressing a sweet kiss to her lips.

Sakura gave herself to the kiss, feeling her anxiety melt away. The dust was settling after their little adventure, and Temari was still with her, holding her. Life was good.

Neji and Yoshino feasted their eyes. It was rare for them to see two women expressing their feelings for each other in public that way, even though they both knew it was being done to spite Shikamaru.

The Nara had to look away. Seeing them embrace sharpened the images already violating his peace of mind.

To say nothing of the half-hard it was giving him in the broad light of day. To think that they could still affect him like that, after so much time…

The two women broke apart, smiling at each other. Sakura replaced her sunglasses on her face and they turned, together, to go back the way they came.

“Sakura”, they heard after taking two steps. They both stopped and turned around.

“Good luck”, Shikamaru said.

Sakura’s face lit up with a big smile then, not because of what Shikamaru said, but because whatever she had been looking for in his eyes was now trained on her.

Thank you, Shikamaru, Temari thought to herself, looking on.


~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

The trip back to the station would have been a quiet, overly-pensive one were it not for Yoshino Nara, who boisterously declared she had never met a woman with a more chronic case of penis envy in all her life and made everyone laugh in spite of themselves.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Mrs. Nara had not been gone a full minute before the team of Hyuuga and Nara were called into Captain Hatake’s office.

This suited Shikamaru just fine.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

“I’m sorry you had to see that”, Shikamaru told Neji.

In honor of the unusual day they’d had, they decided to have their dinner while soaking in Neji’s large bathtub. Shikamaru currently sat between Neji’s legs while the Hyuuga fed him sushi from a nearby tray.

“Would you prefer to have encountered them again by yourself?” Neji asked.

“Well, no, but you could have done without watching me arguing with Temari”, Shikamaru answered.

At the mention of the blond, Neji’s resolve disintegrated. He had to ask.

“Shikamaru”, he began, “did you actually have sex with that woman?”

The Nara turned his head to look at his lover, who wore a perplexed expression. “Are you kidding? We fucked the way we argued. It was sensational.”

Neji had put together the pieces in his mind, but now he needed confirmation. “So you dated the pink one first, and then dated the blonde, and then they formed a ‘Shikamaru Nara ex-girlfriends club’ and ended up in a relationship with each other”, he stated.

“Yes, yes, yes and yes”, Shikamaru responded, leaning back against Neji’s body more.

“And then they invited you to be part of the relationship with the two of them.”

“Yes again.”

“So why did things go south?” Neji asked, and Shikamaru chuckled.

“Honestly? I introduced a strap-on into the relationship for them to use when I wasn’t available”, Shikamaru responded. “Temari is especially gifted with that thing.”

“Mm, I don’t doubt it.” Neji didn’t want to imagine the aggressive blonde sporting a strap-on. People would need to lock up their daughters.

“So, in effect, you brought about your own demise”, Neji concluded.

That’s when it hit him. “She wanted you to bottom, didn’t she?” the Hyuuga asked.

“No, Neji”, Shikamaru responded, “she expected me to bottom. I came back from visiting my folks and we had a discussion. I made it very clear I wasn’t taking that thing up my ass. My shit was on the lawn in the pouring rain less than two weeks later.”

That’s harsh. “And you actually told your mother everything?” Neji asked.

Shikamaru shook his head. “They all assumed the relationship dynamic was to blame, and in a way, I guess they were right. You’re one of only two people to whom I’ve ever confessed the whole story.”

Neji’s eyes grew wide. Gods on a ship! Neji had endured many things, but nothing as bizarre as Shikamaru’s previous relationship had been. In Neji’s case, his family arranged the same kinds of encounters with the same kinds of people, so there were few surprises. It was easier to prepare yourself psychologically when you knew what was coming.

But how did a man prepare for being unceremoniously dumped by the two women he was dating for refusing to take a strap-on dick up the ass?

“Do you miss them?” Neji asked, biting his lip. Shikamaru had been in love with them. It seemed natural that being with the two of them again would dredge up past memories.

“I did at first”, Shikamaru answered. “I mean I did time with them for two years, you know?”

He reached for a long, wet lock of Neji’s hair, fingering it with a sigh. “The truth is, I was a mess. Forgiving them was hard. I felt like my purpose had been stolen from me, and I was bitter. Loneliness turned me into this pathetic thing I didn’t recognize. Guilt and shame kept me locked away from the rest of the world, not eating, not sleeping, having manic throwing fits or breaking down into spontaneous crying jags, even after I graduated.”

Shikamaru paused to remember before continuing. “I never really let myself open up to anyone about it, not even my mother. I just…sort of…wallowed in the misery I felt I deserved.

Then I entered the academy, and I guess I developed the sense of purpose I needed. I stopped feeling sorry for myself and got busy learning how to be a cop, so I didn’t really have time to miss them anymore.”

Shikamaru felt Neji’s arms tighten around him.

“Then graduation came, and my first year as a rookie beat cop. I experienced some brand-new heartache in that year, stuff that made losing those two seem like nothing. This time, I was forced to go to counseling, and it ended up being the catharsis I needed.”

Your other confession, Neji thought to himself.

“My second year was easier. I found my niche in the minute details of the work. Little by little life was showing me who I was, and where I belonged.

Then you and I became partners, and it was like the final piece of the puzzle being put into place. I was less freaked out by my feelings for you than I would have imagined I’d be. I saw you as a reflection of me in ways that meant something. You were my QC¹—as long as we worked well together, I was doing it right. You became very important to me, Neji. As important as my career, as my folks—as important as they’d once been. I wasn’t willing to gamble our partnership in order to tell you how I felt about you.”

Shikamaru looked back up at Neji again. “Lucky for me, you’re a lot braver than I am.”

At that moment Neji felt like the smartest man on the planet. Who knew how much more time might have passed if he hadn’t made a move when he did? How many more moments of this bliss they would have forfeited? They might never have made it to where they now were, wrapped around each other in Neji’s large bathtub and feeding each other sushi from a porcelain tray.

Shikamaru’s love for him made Neji feel ten feet tall. He knew he would spend his life loving the Nara with everything he had and still have love left over for the next life.

“I despise them for what they did to you, Shikamaru”, Neji responded. “But I’m grateful too.”

Shikamaru smiled. “Yeah, me too.”

The Nara maneuvered the two of them in the hot water until he was straddling Neji’s lap, facing him with an expression of love.

He wound his arms around his lover’s neck and smiled. “That was quite an arousing response you gave Temari this afternoon”, he told him, bending his head to brush his lips against the pale column of Neji’s throat.

“It was the truth”, Neji responded, offering his neck for better access. “Did it get you hard?”

“It got me started”, Shikamaru admitted.

Neji bent to kiss a lightly tanned shoulder. “And then they were kissing, and that finished the job.”

“Well, not finished”, Shikamaru clarified.

“I noticed how you looked away”, Neji told him.

Shikamaru raised a dark brow. “That didn’t get you going, just a little?” he asked his lover.

Neji made a thinking face, something no one but Shikamaru would ever see. “Maybe a little”, he confessed.

Shikamaru’s face lit up. “A-ha, so there’s a heterosexual hidden in there someplace after all!” he declared with a chuckle.

Neji was glad it was hot in the tub, so Shikamaru could not tell he was blushing. “More like a voyeur, to be fair”, he responded, his voice low.

Shikamaru squirmed in his lover’s lap, feeling his passion rising. It was a major turn-on to know that Neji enjoyed the scene that afternoon. “A voyeur who gets off on watching two women together”, he clarified in his own sensual, sexual voice.

Neji slipped his hands down from Shikamaru’s back, cupping his ass and squeezing gently. “Not nearly as much as I enjoy being with my male lover”, he assured him.

“You don’t need to tell me that twice”, Shikamaru told him.

He leaned in for a kiss and Neji met him, their tongues dueling with each other before their mouths sealed together in a kiss that communicated volumes.

Around them, the water lapped an uneven rhythm.

“Hey”, Neji called as they broke apart.

Shikamaru looked into half-lidded pale eyes.

“I love you”, Neji told him.

Shikamaru smiled. “I love you too”, he replied, and kissed him again.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

A/N:
(1) Quality Check.

I miss this AU! I worry that I’ll start something I won’t finish if I focus on one area for too long, so I switch AU to keep that from happening. This one is, by far, my favorite one. Right now I only have ONE WIP – Inevitabile Resveglio. I don’t know what I’ll do once I’ve completed that fic. I’d love to hear your thoughts on that.

Kyuubi1010, this one is for you. I hope you enjoyed it. Happy birthday lady, and many, many happy returns!!!!!