Kindred

A/N: Many thanks to all who reviewed. Tyra, stay with me please!

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Anyone watching the two of them strut through the dining room would swear two things: one, that they owned the place. Shikamaru and Neji were all power and confidence, the kind that came with knowing something important that no one else had a clue about.

And two, that it was a dream. Shikamaru was all silent male intensity, a tanned well-defined physique in a white button-down shirt and dark trousers belted around a trim waist. His hair was pulled up and away from a smooth neck adorned with his kanji necklace. Neji was an even more overwhelming vision--tall and pale, his long, smooth dark hair bound near its end at the small of his back. He wore a white button-down shirt with gray trousers and a matching vest. His sleeves were rolled back from his wrists and a simple but expensive timepiece adorned his left wrist. Together they were beautiful, breathtakingly so; each exuded his own power, intensity and a potent, profound sexuality that was simply impossible to ignore.

Impossible indeed. It was an alter-conscious effort to assess their surroundings at they were seated at their table, and the fact that most of the patrons in the room were watching them and talking about them quickly became obvious. In fact, no one in the room seemed to understand the meaning of the word coy: not the raven-haired man sitting at a booth with a group of people and winking; not the lone blond man sitting at the bar staring at the pair while rubbing circles into his thigh with one hand; and not the older, apparently well-to-do redheaded woman sitting at a nearby table who was currently licking her lips and batting her eyes at them while rubbing her fingers across her obviously fake décolletage. Haven’t these people any sense of decorum? Neji and Shikamaru were being totally eye-fucked.

No sooner had they been seated and exchanged glances that their host withdrew, and a server approached their table. She was a lovely, slender young woman, with blond hair pulled back neatly into a bun at the nape of her neck, lush lips and big, round brown eyes framed with impossibly long lashes. Her uniform was nearly identical to Shikamaru’s outfit, a detail that was not lost on either of the three of them.

“Good evening, gentlemen”, she began in a happy voice, “I’m Candace, and I’ll be taking care of you this evening.” She smiled so hard she thought her face might crack. This wasn’t Candace’s station! The server to whom this section was assigned lost a bet that was made the second the stunning duo entered the restaurant together—to Candace, who now had the honor of being the most envied server within a mile.

Candace looked at Shikamaru. “Can I start you off with something to drink?” She was momentarily struck by the intensity she saw in Shikamaru’s own equally brown eyes. My goodness, she thought to herself.

Shikamaru didn’t respond. He stilled at the sudden, gentle touch of Neji’s hand on his arm, a gesture that was not lost on the server. Shikamaru turned to Neji then, whom Shikamaru decided was staring at him as intently as anyone else in the room at that moment. The thought inspired a shudder Shikamaru had to fight down.

“May I?” Neji asked, and Shikamaru decided that not only was he not sure what the question meant, but that the answer was a vehement yes regardless.

“Be my guest”, was Shikamaru’s calm response. Neji pulled his hand away slowly…Shikamaru silently protested the loss of contact. Then Neji turned his pale eyes on their server.

“Have you any junmai-shu¹?” Neji asked in that potently proper, masculine voice of his. Candace didn’t hear him. She was all at once lost in Neji’s eyes. What an unbelievably beautiful man! Candace was a looker and knew it, and knew she could not compare to the man who was now looking at her. She was certain she’d never seen eyes like that on a human before, and that face…he had the face of an angel, all soft eyes and sharp nose and delicate mouth. Candace imagined seeing those eyes glazed with passion, and kissing that mouth…remembering the way the angel had touched his companion, though, it suddenly occurred to her that maybe he held that honor, and she was all at once jealous of them both. It was ridiculous that two such beautiful men should be with each other.

“Candace, are you with us?” Shikamaru asked. Candace shifted and then blinked.

“I’m sorry?” she asked in response. Candace looked at Shikamaru, then back at Neji. She seemed confused.

“I asked if you serve junmai-shu here.” Neji risked a quick glance at Shikamaru, who had his eyes trained on their server.

“We serve everything listed on our beverage menu, sir.” Her attempt to camouflage her sudden annoyance was quite obvious to both men.

“We haven’t received a beverage menu, Candace”, was Shikamaru’s slow response. She blinked again. What is he talking about? Candace darted her eyes across the spots on the table where the menus should have been placed and noted their absence. She then looked at her hands…and realized she’d spent the last minute standing at their table hugging their menus to her chest. Candace had forgotten to give them their menus! She blushed furiously, unwrapping her arms from the menus and handing them to the duo at the table. Candace couldn’t make eye contact now, not after that. She simply stood there, staring at the floor around her feet, and silently praying it would open up and take her down.

“Candace, we need a moment to review the menus.” Shikamaru’s tone, while polite, was resolute. He was also giving her the out he knew she desperately wanted.

“Of course. I’ll come back in a few minutes to take your order.” Candace turned on her heel and took off before the resulting ‘thank you’ could reach her ears.

Neji opened his menu, absently aware that it was still warm from Candace’s body heat, scanning its contents. He was accustomed to having people react to him the way that Candace had. His particular appearance had the effect of throwing people off-kilter—it was one of the reasons he was so effective at fraud investigation and one of the things that he brought to their team.

But there was a new fact finding purchase in Neji’s mind that not even he could deny: Shikamaru wielded that same power, in the same if not greater amount. Neji had always appreciated Shikamaru’s powerful aura and the way he used it to gain advantage over others, but it wasn’t until tonight that he realized that aura was so potently sexual in nature. Shikamaru was an attractive man, and Neji knew this. The Hyuuga had observed women respond to him in the course of their work on many occasions. But as Neji sat across from Shikamaru at their table tonight he’d noticed, perhaps for the first time, the way that kanji necklace the Nara wore was framed by his clavicle and wondered, if he put the kanji symbol between his lips and licked it would he be able to taste Shikamaru on it?

Yes, it was Shikamaru’s aura, it was very sexual in nature…and Neji liked it, he decided, smirking.

Very much.

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Candace made her way past the bar, where a very amused tanned, green-eyed man with curly brown hair waited, his arms folded across his chest.

“There was blonde moment for the archives!” he declared, smiling deviously.

“Shut up, Barry!” she hissed, moving quickly past him to the kitchen. The sound of clapping, whistling and subsequent murmuring could be heard afterward.

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The two gorgeous men perused their menus in as companionable a silence as possible under the circumstances. They were both very aware: aware of the attention they were receiving from the patrons in the restaurant, and individually aware of the other. Neji wanted to sit closer to the Nara rather than across from him and Shikamaru couldn’t stop imagining what it would be like to have Neji’s curtain of hair sliding down his naked body. Would it smell like sake? Would it tickle? Shikamaru risked a glance at Neji, who was reading the beverage list thoughtfully, and realized he was lost. Shikamaru wanted Neji. Period. And if he never had sexual relations with anything ever again, it would be worth it to bring Neji to his bed. Of course the price for that, if he ever managed to achieve it, would be his business and personal relationship with Neji, to say nothing of the risk to his career. Shikamaru was willing to risk what was good in his life for something better; he wanted it that much. He was no fool.

Neji was worth it.

The issue then became timing. Shikamaru would move, but he would move strategically. After all, strategy was his special gift.

“Stop it”, commanded the sexy voice from across the table. Shikamaru blinked as Neji’s eyes met his own. Shikamaru looked away. He didn’t bother denying he’d been staring; Neji always knew when he was being stared at, and by whom, as though he had eyes all over his head. Thankfully, he saw nothing unusual in Shikamaru’s behavior.

“I was just wondering if you knew what you wanted.” Neji blinked once, slowly, processing all the hidden meaning in the question and wondering if Shikamaru could see the answer in his eyes. Yes, Neji thought to himself, I know what I want. I want to run my tongue from the nape of your neck, all the way down your naked spine to your—

“Neji? Don’t go camping on me, big guy, we still have to order.” Neji blinked again and shifted his eyes once around the room to reorient himself. He noted the other patrons were still staring, and seemed to be getting restless. Shikamaru eyed him warily.

“What’s going on in there?” Shikamaru asked him. The Nara could practically hear the gears spinning manically against each other in Neji’s mind.

“Well,” Neji responded, closing the menu, “they don’t serve junmai-shu, but have the unmitigated gall to carry not only honjozo-shu² but koshu³, as if anyone would drink that abomination. Furthermore, I’m wondering if they will serve rare meat upon request.”

Shikamaru chuckled. “Come on, koshu’s not that bad, is it?”

“Are you kidding? They may as well be serving Sapporo Black Label Beer.”

“Well, I am having the koshu. Today has been a day for living dangerously.” Shikamaru hadn’t had koshu before, but in light of his most recent epiphany was feeling adventurous.

Shikamaru noted the noise level of the restaurant increasing and didn’t miss the way Neji had emerged from his daydream to discuss the menu. The Nara knew his partner well enough to know that something was on his mind that he wasn’t ready to discuss—or wouldn’t while sitting there at the table. Shikamaru decided it was time to break up the monotony.

“Listen, I gotta make”, he told Neji, pushing his chair back and rising from his seat, “if Candace beats me back here just order my drink for me, all right?”

“Got it”, was Neji’s answer as Shikamaru turned and headed toward the back of the restaurant. The Nara could feel eyes on his every step, and silently wondered to himself how people managed on so little of their actual brainpower.

By the time Shikamaru was pushing open the door of the men’s bathroom he was aware he was being followed. Well, someone was coming behind him, at least; but his instinct told him that person had been waiting for an opportunity to get either he or Neji apart from the other. Shikamaru braced himself.

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A/N:
(1) junmai-shu translated means pure sake. No adding of distilled alcohol.
(2) Honjozu-shu is sake with a tad of distilled alcohol added.
(3) Koshu is aged sake with a honeyed flavor.
(4) When Shikamaru tells Neji he’s “gotta make” he means he has to make water, or go number one. Whichever you prefer.

Thanks to Wikipedia for that data, for I know nothing about sake except not to drink too much of it at once. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sake

Candace totally drops the ball in this chapter. No offense to any blondes who happened to read this, it’s all in fun. ^_^