Hey gaiz. Long time no see. 8D So I found this old thing rotting away in my laptop. It sounded pretty good from my perspective so I tried to finish it. Thought I'd add another ShikaTen (platonic, this time) to the ol' archives. Here's to hoping I haven't lost my touch with these two.

As for the title... Although it isn't purely a dialogue fic, I think it's the dialogue that's important. It shares the same theme as the Shika+Ten I wrote before it, "Exchange", in that it is "an exchange of words between two friends". You can also see it as me being lazy, but the other reason's more profound, right? XD

Disclaimer's: Characters aren't mine, though I like to exploit them in my writing.

Exchange II

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Shikamaru, Tenten

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It was a little bit unexpected, a little bit out-of-the-blue, but Tenten complied with the abruptly given message and bounded off after the person who had given it to her. They stopped near a group of deer grazing along the edges of the fenced-in clearing, and that was when he turned to her, dark eyes flat, tone, oddly empty and monotonous.

"She's mad at me," he stated. When Tenten attempted to open her mouth to offer him some consolation, he ignored her and went on. "She hit me. No, 'slapped' would be a more appropriate term, wouldn't it? Because she hits me all the time. But this time was different because she slapped me, which should explain why my face is a bit swollen. I could use a bag of ice, but that is beside the point. It hurts more than I thought it would and I can't for the LIFE of me figure out WHY…"

He rambled on and on and on, becoming philosophical at one point, brutally plain at another, and Tenten nodded, listening quietly, because she had known for some time now that whenever something bothered Nara Shikamaru so much that it shook him to the core, his only solace (odd as it sounded) was to talk about it.

Albeit, by rambling in what could pass as a punctuation-less monologue.

Shikamaru's mind was, to put it quite plainly, in a state of complete and utter shock. He couldn't explain it to himself – why it affected him so – but there it was, suspended in a limbo-like numbness brought about by that one bit of physical contact that had been inflicted upon him less than an hour ago. Of course, his body was still functioning normally. He was breathing. He was pacing. He was talking, wasn't he?

It was just that his mind - or a part of it - simply couldn't keep up.

"I don't understand this at all... Everything was going smoothly so I thought it would be that way for the rest of the night. Believe me, I conjured about a hundred possible scenarios in my mind – a hundred! – and I never saw this coming. So why?" He heard his own voice twinge with something that bordered along hysteria. What was this feeling? Why couldn't he put a name to it?

Two hands, as calloused as his but not any less kinder than their intentions, grasped his shoulders. Tenten was standing before him.

"Enough," she commanded, and suddenly finding himself without a protest, he obeyed. "Deep breath, Shikamaru. Inhale... Exhale..."

Inhale.

Exhale.

The soothing effect of the oxygen that entered his system slowly overtook the numbness.

"Good," she murmured, the look in her eye softening. "Now, from the beginning."

He nodded once, looked down. "She hit me–"

"NO." Tenten glared. She shook him and forced him to look at her. "From the beginning, Shikamaru."

A bit of his usual, annoyed, this-is-troublesome expression seeped into his face then, but he complied without further argument.

Because, as his expansive memory proved to him time and again, she would listen.

He started off grumpy and defensive, narrating when, where, and how that conversation had began. It was nice, he was saying, I was actually starting to enjoy myself...

Then his shoulders sagged and the corners of his mouth tightened when he came to the part where everything went wrong. The words that cut more deeply than the slap. Recalling them - repeating them for Tenten's ears - was pure agony, but he needed her, his friend, to hear them and to tell him why each word seemed to trigger a jagged sort of pain that was equivalent to the feeling of a thousand needles jabbing his body at once.

There was a short period of silence that trailed after his last few words. Tenten was looking at him HARD. He almost flinched.

"But the point of this entire conversation is that she hit me," he said.

She made an exasperated noise and shook her head. "No, it isn't."

"If it isn't, then what is? Obviously I provoked her somehow, but what did I do? She has never hit me like this–"

He stopped when he saw the look in her eye.

"Do you want my opinion or not?" she asked in a tone that was deceptively calm. Maybe he couldn't help but be a bit repetitive whenever he was like this, but she knew he didn't come to her to be coddled.

He clamped his mouth shut, eyes averted down.

"She hurt you real bad, didn't she?" she began again, this time softly.

"Oh, is it really that obvious?"

"Shikamaru."

He ducked his head, and muttered an apology; screwed his eyes shut and pressed the heel of his palm against his forehead. "I can't seem to keep myself from being rude today, Tenten, so you'll have to forgive me…"

"It's fine, I understand. But you'll have to let it all out slowly, okay?"

He nodded.

"Now answer me: she hurt you?"

"Yes."

"I don't just mean the slap, but right here, too?" Tenten placed a hand over her chest. She felt a little ridiculous talking to him as if he were a child, but how else was she to explain this to him?

He nodded again, and for a moment she thought he was going to cry. That was how things ran in a standard television drama, anyway: comfort, drama, lots of tears...

But she'd nearly forgotten that this was Nara Shikamaru she was talking to, and guys like him had experienced worse things than a little relationship trouble.

"You'll have to understand that this isn't something I can help you fix, Shikamaru. Even if you gave me every detail of it and made me analyze the situation more than a hundred times." She smiled at his brief chuckle; she'd voiced out one of his thoughts after all.

Then his lips strained into a thin, remorseful line. "Just make things clearer for me," he muttered. "Beat some sense into this confoundedly messed up mind of mine. You're good at that." And for the first time since the beginning of their conversation, he offered her a tiny, teasing smirk. "Hyuuga says you're the best thing that happened to him, you know."

She scowled. "Liar. As if Neji'd say a thing like that."

"He does, my dear Tenten. Don't you see it in the way he looks at you?"

As she swiped at him, she inwardly marveled at the smooth change in his attitude, and realized belatedly that the conversation was at its closure. So like him to end their talk in a manner that didn't involve anything too uncomfortable (or, as he would put it, troublesome).

"Hey Shikamaru."

He looked down at her from his current sanctuary – the tree's lofty branches – his expression amused and not unduly worried that she would catch him (though his grip on the branch above was quite firm), and replied, "Yeah?"

"She likes you, so she'll forgive you… So don't worry about it anymore."

A thoughtfulness entered his face as he averted it to the side. "I'll keep that in mind."

"So... What do you say to a truce?" she asked, "Breakfast at Ichiraku? You owe me that much for waking me at four in the morning."

"Hm? Thought you were used to it. Rumours say Hyuuga has you on a strict morning sparring schedule." He had arched an eyebrow and affected innocence, though it was the lilt in his tone that gave the tease away.

"You keep mentioning him so I take it you want to be impaled?"

Her tone was honey-sweet and dangerous, further emphasized by the fan of steel that glinted in her right hand, but he laughed anyway, jumped down, and held his hands up in the universal sign of surrender.

The kunai were put away and together they walked, talking again but about less serious things. She wanted to see if she could make that grin last a little longer throughout the morning because she knew reality would come soon to take it away.

She probably succeeded. He probably let her.

Because that's what their friendship is.

-

End

End Notes: Ending might be too abrupt, but then again I haven't written anything in a long time. Really wanted to make this a ShikaTen but well... I fail before the more popular pairings. OTL (btw, I don't think I named the girl who caused Shikamaru so much grief. Was leaning more towards Ino but you can also choose to see it as Temari. Isn't it awesome how flexible this story can be?)

Hope you enjoyed, at least. :D