Shikadai stared in disbelief at the bouquet of pink roses on his door step.

"What the hell?" He muttered as he bent to get a better look at the sweet smelling flowers.

He knew who they were from, who they had to be from, because they were addressed to him and only one person in this world knew that pink roses were his favorite. And he had only told the other boy because he knew Inojin wouldn't make fun of him for not only having a favorite flower, but pink roses as a favorite. After all, the other boy ran a flower shop with his mother and painted birds of all things in bright neon colors, so if Inojin made fun of him for liking pink roses then the blond was a hypocrite.

He could feel his cheeks warm in embarrassment.

Being an omega was bad enough, he had done everything he could think of to be more manly to make up for the embarrassment of presenting that way and yet… he was somewhat thrilled to have received such a beautiful bouquet of flowers from his closest friend. Sure he knew there was no reason to be embarrassed to be an omega, and his family and friends loved him no matter what, but he felt like his dynamic would over shadow the first gender he was actually born with, so he tried to be more manly… by not admitting he liked pink roses… that he had just gotten for no reason… why was Inojin giving him these for no reason?

"Oh my, how beautiful!" His mother's voice startles him as she approaches from behind.

"The card says they're for me. But not who they're from." Shikadai tells her. It's true, at least, and there was no way he would tell the women who they were from even if the card did say.

His mother laughs and tells him to bring them inside while she looks for a vase.

"What's going on?"

Great, his father's home to. Inojin probably did this on purpose!

I told him I didn't want anyone to know I like pink roses. And yet he pulls a stunt like this… what a drag.

"Someone sent our son flowers! I think he's got an admirer." Temari told her husband, a rare smile on her face as she filled a vase with water.

"Huh, is that so? Any idea who?"

Oh god, please don't tell me my dad of all people is going to get all overprotective of me or something just because I'm an omega.

"There was no name on the card." He says quickly, wanting this over with as soon as possible so he could march over to Inojin's place and ask him what the hell this was all about.

His father gives him a knowing look, but doesn't press.

"Well I'm sure we'll find out soon enough. Whoever sent these must really like you, Shikadai." His mother takes the roses from him as she goes on about a time before she met his father that she had a crush on an omega, but it just wasn't meant to be and she got together with his father, a beta, and had him.

He was actually shocked his alpha mother wasn't getting all territorial over her little omegan son at the thought of a mystery alpha crushing on him.

Only it wasn't a mystery alpha, it was his childhood friend who hadn't presented yet messing with him and-

"Oh, did you hear?" Shikamaru asks, eyes pointedly on Shikadai, "Inojin finally presented, night before last. He's an alpha. Maybe we should set you up on a fake date with him to catch you admirers attention and draw them out so we can meet them."

Was it just him, or did his father sound smug about something? No, that was definitely the same tone his father used when he won a bet, but was still trying to fake boredom.

Shikadai only allowed his jaw to drop open for a second before closing it and turning around.

"I'm going to go train for a while." He calls over his shoulder before leaving.

"I swear to god, if you sent those over because you felt obligated to as an alpha, I may have to hit you." Shikadai hisses when he finds Inojin.

"Hello to you to." Inojin greets with that oh so fake smile he learned from his father.

They're on the training lot with Inojin sitting under a tree painting some bird or another on a scroll for later use, and Shikadai standing above him glaring down halfheartedly.

"Inojin." Shikadai growls.

Inojin looks up from his painting now, seemingly confused, but Shikadai knows his friend better. Inojin knows what he's talking about and is messing with him now that he knows Shikadai is all riled up.

"Did I make a mistake? You did say the pink ones were your favorite. I grew them special."

Shikadai isn't sure how to respond to that, maybe he doesn't know his friend as well as he'd like to think. Shikadai is no expert on flowers, but he knows it takes weeks upon weeks to grow them, so if Inojin grew them special for him then he would have had to of started before either of them had presented. And both boys had thought they would be betas, so there was no way this was a gender thing.

"You grew my favorite flowers… special?"

"Yes. Did they not turn out okay? I thought you'd like them."

"I do… I just don't understand why you'd do that. Why you'd leave flowers on my doorstep or even grow them special for me." Shikadai confesses.

"Because I like you. I liked you before we presented, even. And I wanted to show it through the flowers to let you know I'll listen to you and remember what you have to say no matter how small anyone else thinks it is. Everything you tell me is a big deal. My mom doesn't know I like you, but she did tell me if I like someone this is the most romantic way to go about letting them know, I guess it didn't come out right though because I'm about as socially awkward as my dad." Inojin says, trailing off a bit at the end as he seems to consider his parents very different advice and how he could have done things better.

It was clear now he wasn't making fun of Shikadai, and truly wanted to make the Nara happy. And Shikadai being all angry about something as stupid as pink roses made him think he'd done such a simple, sweet thing wrong.

Crap.

Shikadai sighs. Inojin is to honest for his own good.

Sitting down next to Inojin and curling into the alphas side Shikadai does what he can to make up for his momentary aggression.

"I loved the roses. But I'm not use to my dynamic yet and I get a little touchy sometimes. I'm sorry." He whispers.

Inojin smiles a real smile at this, a soft one that can't be faked. And he puts his painting aside to lay with Shikadai better.

"Good. That makes me happy."

Shikadai hums and lets his dynamic takeover for a while, he can let his fake manliness go for a while if he can just stay comfortable like this with Inojin by his side.

And for a moment he doesn't mind his dynamic overshadowing his gender. He's a Nara anyway, he can control the shadows cast over him if it gets to bad, and he decides he's just fine with that so long as it's his special pink roses casting the shadow.

His special, beautiful, sweet smelling roses, painted by his sweeter smelling, drop dead gorgeous, special hunk of an alpha...

Short, sweet, and to the point. Just how I like it.

I came up with and wrote this over the course of today after being inspired by the sight of how my mother had arranged the roses I gave her from mothers day.

Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading!