Photogenic Reality

This is officially the longest proper story I've ever written. Yay? Whatever...it's, like, half three in the morning here and the only reason I started writing this now is 'cause I can't sleep at all, and I can't be bothered doing anything else...

This started out okay...I thought it was kinda funny...hmm...lemme know what you think...

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Shikamaru blinked and rubbed his eyes. The first thing he noticed was...it was dark outside. What time was it? His gaze slid lazily to the digital clock at his bedside.

'9.30 pm. You've got to be shitting me.'

He groaned and, finding absolutely no reason to get up, was about to roll over and fall straight back to sleep when he realised that he hadn't woken up without reason.

And there it was again. That disgusting noise that sounded half-way between a strangled bird and some sort of horrific air-raid siren. God damnit he hated his apartment buzzer.

Rolling out of bed, a hand absently flying up to relieve his hair from it's tie which he'd been to lazy to remove before sleep, he stumbled a little around the room, trying to locate the light switch.

What kind of bastard woke people up at this time of night?! Silently swearing vengance on whoever the unlucky individual was, he slid a hand up in front of him, blindly feeling around for the phone thing to tell whoever it was to fuck off.

"Ungh..." he answered, eyes closed heavily as he leaned against the wall in the darkness of the hallway, the speaker clasped to his ear.

"Dude, you okay?" was the question at the other end. "You're not hungover or anything are you? Hurry up and let me in, man."

"...Huh?"

"It's Kiba, you dork. Lemme in!"

Lacking the energy and a properly functioning brain to argue back, he slammed his thumb against the button, unlocking the door downstairs for Kiba to enter.

He threw the speaker back to its perch, sliding down the wall and vowing to stay there until Kiba had to break in and rescue him from drowning in his own drool. It wasn't long before he heard a cheerful knock and groaned again, tumbling over to his knees and crawling over.

He would have laughed at himself if he'd been of sound mind as he grasped the door handle and twisted it with practiced ease, the rest of him remaining on the hall floor. Kiba's face appeared above him, looking around inside, confused.

"Where are you?" he asked the seemingly empty, darkened room. Only Shikamaru's small 'mphrr...' from the floor drew his attention downwards, and he promptly burst into laughter. "Dude, you still look wasted!" he cried happily, stepping inside and removing his shoes, watching in amusement as Shikamaru attempted to close the door by uselessly flapping an arm at it, lying face down. Eventually taking pity on him he leaned in and closed it easily, gaining a hoarse grunt of thanks.

"You just gonna stay there?" he asked, shrugging his jacket off as he grinned. Shikamaru made a sort of nod/twitch motion, to show that yes, he was going to stay there. "Well, I'm just gonna help myself to your house 'cause I brought this movie that I've been desperate to see and I ain't wasting my time," he explained, walking away, flicking lights on as he went.

A tick formed slowly in Shikamaru's eye, and he rolled over onto his back, bashing into the wall in the process.

"What...why you here?" he asked, apparently breathless from the movement. Kiba only laughed again, this time from the kitchen.

"You never called to tell me not to come, so I did! What's the number for that pizza place? I'm fuckin' starving..." he rambled, wandering around the small kitchen area, opening cupboards and checking the refridgerator.

"'S'on the freezer..." he grumbled, somehow dragging himself to his feet and stumbling into the room, then throwing himself unceremoniously into a chair. Kiba grinned at him, snatching the scribbled phone number from the freezer door and whipping his cell phone out.

"What you want?" he asked as it rang in his ear, still watching the Nara struggle to come to terms with conciousness. Shikamaru blinked, frowning slightly.

"Cheese..." he grumbled. Kiba nodded, visibly holding back his mocking laughter. He'd save that for later... "Movie d'ya get, 'neway...?" Shikamaru asked through a yawn, bending backwards over the chair and stretching like his life depended on it. Kiba blinked for a second before answering.

"Um...Icha Icha Paradise: The Movie..." he said rather quickly, wondering when the hell they'd pick up the damn phone. All of a sudden there was a voice on the other line, and any question Shikamaru was about to ask, with his eyebrow arched sceptically and a dissaproving cough, was forgotten.

Shikamaru didn't care for a lot of movies. They usualy required concentration, and as much as he loved sitting doing nothing for hours on end, concentrating was troublesome. He particularly disliked pointless, plotless, mind numbing movies. They were the worst. Not only did you have to concentrate, but it was for absolutely no cause. There was nothing to concentrate on, yet you had to keep watching. Pointless!

Deciding that it was already too late to tell Kiba to take his sordid film and get the hell out of his house, he simply grumbled a few choice curses and shuffled through to the living room, flopping down on the couch and simply lazing, wondering idly whether Kiba would mind if he went back to sleep.

"Pizza'll be here soon..." he heard Kiba announce as he followed his 'host' through and took a seat beside him, relaxing back and grinning wolfishly again. Shikamaru frowned, but didn't say anything. "Have you been asleep all this time?"

Shikamaru nodded.

"You haven't got up even once?"

Shikamaru shook his head.

"Aren't you dying for a piss?"

Shikamaru nodded.

"Are you gonna go?"

Shikamaru shook his head.

"Why not?"

"Too far away..." he grumbled. Kiba snorted and sat up a little.

"Want me to help you?" he sneered. Shikamaru glared at him, but quickly gave up as it hurt his head.

"No. I'll go in a minute," he said as firmly as one could with a pounding headache and a large hovering cloud of lethargy.

"'Kay...can I stick the movie on now?" Kiba asked eargerly. The half-dozing lump of pyjamas formerly known as Shikamaru twitched a little.

"Why'd you bring porn over?" he asked irritably, not moving from his somehow comfortable spot of almost falling off the couch. Kiba frowned.

"It's not porn! There's a great plot, attention to detail, lovable characters and touching moments!" he declared, standing up and working out how to use Shiakamaru's rather abandoned television.

The opening scene featured a girl sucking healthily on a banana.

"I'm peeing..." Shikamaru grumbled, rolling himself to the floor and crawling through the house to the bathroom, his legs apaprently refusing to support him in anyway possible.

Somehow managing to stand as he relieved himself, the buzzer went again.

"Get that," he shouted to the house, hearing Kiba laugh again and the thump of his socked feet pouding the floor as he passed by to let the delivery boy in.

"That was quick, ne?" he asked, leaning against the wall beside bathroom door as Shikamaru flushed and washed his hands.

"Well, they're only downstairs... And I order from there all the time so..." he exlained, shuffling to the door and poking his head out. Kiba was at the front door, peeking out the peep hole.

"Why don't you just go downstairs? They're right there," he said, face squashed against the wood. Shikamaru grunted, rubbing the back of his head as he walked over to join Kiba by leaning against the wall and fighting gravity from pulling him to the floor again.

"Too lazy..." he sighed. Kiba smiled and opened the door to the young man holding two flat steaming boxes, his free hand poised to knock.

"Uhh..."

"Thanks! How much?" Kiba asked happily, accepting the boxes and shoving them into Shikamaru's arms, almost toppling him over again.

"Twelve fifty...hold up! You're that guy from the jeans commercial!" the boy squealed. Kiba grinned, counting out notes and nodded.

"Yeah I am," he said, a trace of pride in his voice. Shikamaru merely grumbled something about egos and moved through to the kitched, starting to search for a couple of clean plates. A few minutes later he heard the door close and Kiba was beside him, snatching a slice from one of the boxes on the table.

"You get recognised like that a lot?" Shikamaru asked, pouring some orange juice in a glass for himself. Kiba shrugged, walking to the fridge to inspect the contents.

"Sometimes..." he said vaguely, wiping his hand on his jeans as he finished eating and pulling a bottle from the refidgerator. "Can I?" he asked, holding it up. Shikamaru nodded, walking over to replace the juice, his shoulder bumping against Kiba's accidentally.

"Uhh...I dunno how hungry I am..." he admitted, shuffling back over to the table to pick up the pizza and carry it through to the living room. Kiba shrugged, following suit.

"Don't matter, I'll eat it," he said easily, setting his own things down beside Shikamaru's on the low table and throwing himself beside the other on the couch, the movie still playing in front of them.

"I didn't know you were a fan of Icha Icha..." Shikamaru said eventually with a smirk. Kiba grinned.

"'Course I am! They're awesome!" he announced, holding his pizza slice high in the air in celebration. He smiled and leaned back, half taking the movie in, half wondering what he was doing at work the next day. "I don't get recognised a lot..." he heard Kiba said softly after a while. He glanced over.

"Huh?" he asked. Kiba's face was illuminated by the slightly blue light of the t.v. screen, the flickering image creating a moving glow acoss his skin, making his seem even more animated than usual even though he was simply sitting there, staring forwards.

"People don't usualy recognise me 'cause of my tattoos. Normaly phorographers cover them up 'cause they don't like them...but you don't," he said, looking over and smiling. Shikamaru blinked, watching Kiba smile at him genuinely. He sighed.

"I like your tattoos..." he said eventually, rather quietly, and he wondered if Kiba even heard him over the scandalous noises coming from the star of the movie. He looked back to the screen, seeing a certain amount of movement which made him blush slightly.

"Thanks...me too," Kiba whispered, following his gaze back and watching the film easily.

After twenty minutes Shikamaru got sick of the mindless sex on his TV screen and turned to look at Kiba to see if he was actually enjoying it. Apparently, he was. His eyes seemed a little out of focus, and his jaw was a rather slack.

"Pfft...hentai..." he grumbled as he stood to fetch another drink from the kitchen. He was attacked by a spectacular coughing fit as he kicked the door to the fridge shut, and ended up having to stick his face in the sink, drinking straight from the tap to ease himself. When he came back up, breathing heavily and tears in his eyes, Kiba was standing in the doorway.

"You okay?" he asked, simply watching him as he righted himself, arms folded and frowning slightly. Shikamaru nodded, heaving a sigh and sitting at the table to rest a moment.

"Must've smoked too much last night or something..." he breathed. Kiba snorted, making his way over to the fridge.

"Those things'll kill ya..." he said grandly, grabbing another can of whatever it was. Shikamaru didn't even know how that particular drink found its way into his apartment, let alone a six pack of it.

"Tell me about it..." he sighed, leaning back. "I always knew I'd regret taking it up..."

"I don't get it... Did you do it 'cause you thought he'd think you were cool, or mature or something?" Kiba asked, spinning around and joining him at the table. Shikamaru raised an eyebrow at him, still slumped back in his chair.

"Huh?" He had no idea what Kiba was on about.

"Y'know, 'cause you said your sensei got you hooked. I just don't get why you let him, that's all," Kiba shrugged. Shikamaru blinked.

"You remember me telling you that?! I don't remember me tell you that!" he frothed, glaring angrily across the table at the laughing model. "And I didn't 'let him', actually. He offered me one, which I turned down. Then later on I asked for one to try," he elaborated. Kiba, still smiling, nodded easily.

"Okay, whatever... I was only curious..." he sighed. Shikamaru sighed, flopping forwards to lean on the table.

"Sorry..." he mumbled, glaring at the small pile of dirty dishes beside his sink. Kiba laughed again, though softer this time.

"It's okay. So...tell me more about this old sensei of yours," he said, smirking and leaning back, propping both feet up on the table. Shikamaru stared at him, head resting on the arms folded on the table top.

"Why?" he asked. Kiba shrugged.

"Just seems like...you're not easily influenced by other people. So this guy must've been special to be able to make you smoke," he explained. Shikamaru frowned, glancing down to the worn table surface.

"He didn't make me..." he grumbled, voice muffled slightly by his arms. "But...he was kinda special..." he said even softer. Kiba blinked a little, and swung his legs back to the floor so he could lean across and closer.

"How?" Shikamaru shrugged at the question.

"I dunno...we had a really good relationship, more like friends or brothers that anything else. We had everything in common, except that he smoked and I'm a bit lazier...but we always got on really well. What?" he asked, suddenly noticing the strange way Kiba was looking at him. The other blinked, shaking his head.

"No, nothing...but you guys were tight, yeah?" he asked, apparently trying to appear nonchalant.

"Yeah...but anyway, it's not like he's gone forever. I can call him anytime," he said, shrugging easily. Kiba smiled.

"Well that's cool, at least..." he offered, but Shikamaru frowned a little, slowly losing himself in thought.

"It's a bit more difficult now, since he has a kid and stuff..." he said quietly, and couldn't help but feel a little guilty that he hadn't made it to the wedding, or that he'd been too scared and reluctant to take the place of godfather to Asuma's son. He couldn't be weighed down with that kind of responsibility, not at his age when there was so much going on at the moment. It wasn't his fault...was it?

Drowned in thoughts of the past and present, Shikamaru didn't notice Kiba's intensely worried gaze.

Kiba was a dog lover, his whole family were. He'd grown up with them. Some said he was one in a human body. As such, his instincts were better than some women's, and he always understood when something wasn't right. Naruto knew; Kiba had been the one turning up at three in the morning, with take out ramen and crappy videos, when he'd been feeling particularly down about Sasuke

Kiba knew there was more to this story, and it wasn't good. It made Shikamaru feel bad for some reason, and he didn't like that.

"Well, you two'll get together when the time's right. Planning's the key, see? Planning..." he said wisely, nodding with himself and effectively bringing Shikamaru from his stupor. The other nodded, forcing a small smile to ease Kiba's ovbious tension. "I'm sorry...do you want me to leave?" he asked tentatively, gazing at Shikamaru shyly from under long lashes. Shikamaru blinked slightly.

"Wha-...no. I don't, why?" he asked, frowning a little in confusion. Kiba shrugged, leaning back again, resting his arms behind his head.

"Just seems like you wanna be alone with your thoughts...but if that's not the case, I guess it's alright," he smiled. Shikamaru nodded, sitting up slightly to rest his chin on his hand, staring at Kiba uselessly. He was tricky to figure out. For some reason, it pissed him off that Kiba was so intuitive, and yet he always had no idea what thought was fleeting through the model's mind.

"Don't you want to watch your movie?" Shikamaru asked, staring boredly at the fridge and wishing very much that he had the willpower to go over and get a drink from it. Kiba shrugged.

"'Snot as good as I thought it'd be..." he sighed, sitting up and stretching, squeezing his eyes shut as his muscles tugged upwards. Shikamaru blinked and watched this, frowning slightly at the curl of heat he felt in his stomach.

"Well...soft porn rarely is..." he mumbled. Kiba laughed and slumped forwards on the table, leaning across and close to Shikamaru's elbow.

"Y'know why it's called soft porn?" he asked, mischief glinting in his eye. Shikamaru shook his head. "'Cause it doesn't get you hard," he grinned. Shikamaru smiled.

"I guess I shoulda seen that one coming, eh?" he said with a small laugh. Kiba grinned even wider and sat back, slopping his arms over the back of the chair.

"Nah, I'm serious though, it's half a wank. It gives you half a wank, man," he said, half yawning, but laughing slightly at the same time.

Shikamaru sighed. How he could go from reminicing about the past in a rather...emo way, to talking about masturbation to soft porn, in less than half a minute, was beyond him. He sighed, he blamed Kiba...

He almost fell out of his chair when the phone rang suddenly. Kiba bounded over to the wall where it hung and it took Shikamaru yelling at the top of his slightly hoarse voice to get him to leave it.

"Moshi moshi..." he half yawned into the reciever, slumping against the wall ever so slightly. Kiba only snickered quietly and sat to watch him.

"Shikamaru, when you come in tomorrow I want you in my office immediately. Apparently there was some kind of mix up with our bookings for the christmas shoot and we're a photographer down. You're going to be doing it instead so I'll brief you tomorow about it," Tsunade began talking immediately, not giving him a chance to prepare. He blinked rapidly, clutching the wall for support.

"Huh? What christmas shoot?" he asked slowly. He heard her sigh exasperatedly and shuffle something about on her desk.

"There's a magazine who use our models for their christmas issue every year, surely you knew that? Anyway, as I said, you'll be filling in. It's a big job so youbetter be prepared because you have to lighting aswell, since they can't seem to get off their lazy asses and do it..." she grumbled. He nodded, then realised she couldn't see him.

"Alright...so I'll just come up to your office tomorrow?" he asked slowly.

"Yes, and then we'll go up to Studio One together and I can show you the floor plan because it's rather intricate and you're better off knowing the layout before hand," she told him, and sending a quick goodbye before hanging up.

"Oh well..." he sighed, hanging up and shuffling over to his chair. Kiba watched him expectantly, waiting for him to tell all. "Yeah, I'm gonna be helping out on the christmas shoot apparently..." he explained. Kiba grinned widely.

"I love christmas shoots! They're so fuckin' funny, Tsunade always gets all wound up, and all the girls are always like 'I don't wanna be an elf, damnit!' and last year they let Akamaru in. He was a reindeer!" he said proudly, nodding for emphasis. Shikamaru smiled.

"Well...I dunno if I'm looking forward to it just yet..." he sighed. Kiba frowned but didn't argue back. Instead he flashed a glance at his watch and whistled lowly.

"What time are ya in tomorrow?" he asked.

"Seven," Shikamaru said, not bothering to hold back a wide yawn.

"I'll get going then. Sounds like you've got a busy day tomorrow, and since it's, like, eleven now, you should get some sleep since you look like your dying," he explained, standing up and stretching. Shikamaru blinked and watched lazily as Kiba walked to the hall to get his jacket and shoes.

Eventually following him through he stretched out too, shocked at how tense he was. "Guess I'll see ya tomorrow, then..." he sighed, a hand falling to the door handle to let Kiba out. Kiba only nodded, and pressed a fleeting kiss to Shikamaru's bottom lip.

"See ya!" he called, dashing down the hallway without a second glance. Shikamaru frowned, sucking on his lip slightly as he closed the door.

Kiba was right...but he had no idea why they had already kissed twice. He also had no fucking clue regarding Kiba's feelings towards him...maybe he made out with all his friends...maybe it was just a thing that happened around Konoha...

The image of Sasuke flashed up again. He growled and blinked hard to clear his head.

Stumbling past the living room, and not even caring that Icha Icha was still playing loudly, he flung himself into his bedroom, and all but threw himself on his bed.

Besides...it wasn't like someone like Kiba could ever really like someone like Shikamaru, right?

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Hmm...whatever. Just lemme know if it's okay. The next one's gonna be fun, I pwomise.

xxx