Words Worth Spoken

Chapter 11. Weddings

"Have you ever thought about what your wedding would be like?"

Shikamaru turned to Temari with a confused expression on his face.
"No, why do you ask? Have you?"

Temari laughed softly, "ya when I was little, I would go through every single photo of my parents wedding over and over again. I always wanted a wedding just like theirs."

Shikamaru smiled at her, their faces getting closer and closer together until their lips were locked together in a passionate kiss. Things escalated quickly from there and the night continued, thankfully without Kankuro interrupting. Their first night together.

~ three years later ~

Shikamaru was sitting in front of a shogi board, opposite from him sat Temari. She was staring at the pieces with such concentration it looked as though she was glaring at them. To this day she had not beaten Shikamaru in a game of shogi. He was just too good, but she was fixated on beating him. Just as Temari was about to move her 'queen' someone called the couple from the living room. They sighed as they stood up, glancing at each other, they went to the living room to see Yoshino sitting with Ino and her mother, Dorothy.

Temari tilted her head in confusion, Ino was getting married tomorrow you would think she'd be too busy to visit friends, unless this wasn't just any visit.

"Hello Shikamaru! Hello Temari!" Ino waved happily at the couple, the corners of her mouth turned up in a suggestive smirk, "so what were you two doing?"

Temari crosses her arms looking determined, "we were playing shogi, I swear I was going to win this time!"

Shikamaru raised his eyebrow at her in amusement and shook his head. "So to what do we owe the pleasure? You couldn't have come here just to say hello, you're getting married tomorrow, you have much more important things to attend to."

Ino sighed "You're right. I'm not just here to say hello." Ino suddenly looked slightly embarrassed and uncomfortable. "You see the elders of our clans have been talking and well... I'm getting married and Choji is getting married and we're probably going to have kids. The elders want to keep the Ino-Shika-Cho trio going with the next generation, so they wa-"

"They want me to marry Temari. Am I right?"
Shikamaru cut Ino off, he knew this might happen. Temari's eyes widened and Ino just nodded.

He sighed, "tell them we'll think about it."
He didn't mind the thought of marrying Temari, in fact he would be very happy to, but he also didn't want to push their relationship or go too fast.

Ino and her mother left, leaving just Shikamaru, Temari and Yoshino in the room.

"I think it would be lovely to have grandkids running around."

Shikamaru's eyes widened and Temari flushed a light pinkish red.

"Well you two get back to your shogi and talk about perhaps getting married, you've been together for three years, don't you think it's time to tie the knot?" Yoshino left the room and the couple went back to Shikamaru's room.

. . .

It had been four days since Ino had come to Shikamaru's house and told him and Temari about the elders' wishes and they hadn't talked about it. People at Ino's wedding had asked them if they were going to get married but they just replied with a 'maybe' or 'we'll see'. They were avoiding the subject though both knew they had to discuss it sooner or later.

Temari was sitting in her bed when she heard a knock on the door, Shikamaru came in and sat down next to her. He sighed,

"Temari, we need to talk about what Ino said." He looked her in the eye hoping this wouldn't push her away.

"Ya, we do..."  Temari looked away, she stared out the window at the reflection of the night sky on a pond.

"This is troublesome so I'm going to just get it over with, Temari are you ready to get married?"

There was silence for a while before Temari turned her gaze to Shikamaru, "yes, I am"

He nodded, "I love you"

She smiled "I love you too"