He woke up just like always. No matter how late he went to bed the night before, he always woke up at the same time. This habit hadn’t changed from his days at the academy when he was a kid.
“Haah.” Shikamaru yawned, staring up at the familiar ceiling. “Hm?”
There was an unusual scent in the air. He sniffed at his clothes to find they were permeated with the smell of fried meat and cigarette smoke and remembered that he’d stayed out late drinking with Choji the night before, something he hadn’t done in a while. By the time he’d gotten home, it was the middle of the night, and naturally, Temari and Shikadai had long since gone to bed. But changing his clothes was far too much hassle, so he’d simply taken off his jacket and rolled onto his futon. Before he knew it, it was morning.
“I didn’t take a bath,” he muttered.
Most likely, the tub was still full of water, cold by now, of course. Thoughtful Temari. Even though she hadn’t known when he’d be home, she had no doubt heated plenty of water and put the lid on the tub to keep it warm for him to enjoy later. And now that he was thinking about it, he was pretty sure supper had been laid out for him on the kitchen table, covered in a cloth.
“Aaw, crap.” Choji’s invitation had been so sudden, he’d forgotten to tell Temari. He covered his face with his arm. “What a drag.”
The fact that he hadn’t called, the fact that he hadn’t gotten in the bath, the fact that he’d fallen asleep in his clothes—it was all entirely on him. He thought of all the things he’d soon have to say: I know. I know it’s all my fault. You don’t have to tell me…
“Dammit!” He yanked himself up into a sitting position. His head was clear, at least. No ninja could drink so much it would have an effect on them the next day.
Cold water or not, it was time to get in that bath. He slapped his cheeks a couple times to psych himself up. His hair was still tied back, but stray hairs were poking out all over the place thanks to all the tossing and turning he’d done in his sleep. The ends of these drooping hairs stabbed annoyingly into his forehead. He undid the tie to release his hair and shook his head furiously from side to side.
“Woh-kay!” He tried to cheer himself on, but his heart was still heavy. He opened the sliding door and stepped out into the hallway, startling his son, Shikadai, who looked up at him with wide eyes.
“M-morning,” Shikamaru said, his voice hoarse.
“You got a cold?” Shikadai asked, his sharp gaze too much like that of his mother.
“Nah, just talked a little too much yesterday.”
Choji always raised his voice when he was drinking, so Shikamaru also ended up talking more loudly in order to hold up his end of the conversation without being drowned out. Plus, he smoked more because he was enjoying himself, so a night out like that inevitably put an extra burden on his throat.
“Hey, Dad?” Shikadai whispered, leaning forward to bring his face in close. “Mom’s in a pretty bad mood this morning.”
Shikamaru could have guessed that, just as he could have guessed that the cause of that bad mood was his own self.
He could hear the sound of chopping on the cutting board from the kitchen down the hallway and past the living room. It was much more violent than usual. She was pretty angry.
“Sounds like.” He smiled bitterly.
Shikadai bumped him with his shoulder. “Good luck.”
His son sounded so grown-up now. It felt like only last week that he was bursting into tears at the slightest fall. With his tied-back hair, Shikadai looked so much like Shikamaru, especially from above.
He tousled the boy’s head fiercely.
“Stop it. You’ll get cigarette stink on me.”
“Quiet, you. Don’t get all cheeky with me. Go to work. You got some attention with the chunin exams, so I know you’re getting harder missions these days. Unless you focus, you’ll only be holding your teammates back.”
Now that he thought about it, it was the chunin exams that had gotten people paying attention to him too. The exams were also where he’d met Temari for the first time. Enemies when they met, married now. You never knew what would happen in life.
“You eat breakfast?” he asked his son.
“Yeah.”
“You’re all set?”
“Pretty much,” Shikadai replied, rolling his eyes.
“So then get going already.” Shikamaru reached for his son’s hair again, but Shikadai ducked away.
“I am.”
“Good luck.”
“Honestly. What a drag.” Shikadai glanced at Shikamaru with reproachful eyes and then headed out the front door.
Kid seriously reminds me of a certain someone…
Himself, of course. Shikadai didn’t just look like his dad when he was younger; he grumbled like him, too.
“Now then.”
Shikamaru took a few deep breaths, then went into the kitchen.
“‘Morning,” he said to his wife’s back. She didn’t turn around. “I’m gonna jump in the bath.”
He got no answer. Which was only natural.
With a heavy heart, he reheated the bath and got in, lost in thought. How much yelling was he in for exactly? Or would he get the silent treatment for a few days? Just thinking about it made his stomach shrink into itself.
He got out of the bath and dried off carefully. Changing clothes is such a drag, he thought. He opened the bathroom door to find a stack of freshly washed and neatly folded work clothes before him. Slipping his arms through the sleeves of the shirt, he picked up the jacket in one hand and headed to the living room.
Temari was sitting on the floor in her usual place at the low table. Warm rice and miso soup were laid out together with fried fish where Shikamaru sat. The usual Nara family breakfast.
He sat down quietly.
“Sorry about yesterday,” he said with a smile to his silent wife, who had her eyes lowered.
At times like this, the best thing to do was to simply apologize. If he tried to offer up excuses, all he would get in return were a myriad of counterattacks. This was Shikamaru’s secret to success, cultivated through long years of married life.
“Thanks for breakfast.” He clapped his hands together in thanks and picked up his chopsticks. He took a sip of miso soup and dug into the rice. “This is great.”
First, compliment her. He had to focus on at least not making his wife’s mood any worse. The whole thing was his fault. He would show her how wholly sorry he was.
Normally, she would have said something to reproach him by now, but her mood was apparently worse than usual this morning.
Why?
Stinking of smoke, falling asleep without getting in the bath, not eating supper, forgetting to call her—it had all happened any number of times before. So then why today, now of all times, was she this angry?
Although he’d complimented her on the breakfast he was shoveling down, he couldn’t actually taste a bite of it; he was too focused on his wife sitting silently beside him. He finished half of the fried fish and started in on the other side. His rice was almost gone.
“More rice?” Temari finally spoke.
“Please.” He smiled and held out his bowl.
Temari refused to meet his gaze as she accepted the bowl and piled fresh rice into it. “Here.”
“Thanks.” On a normal day, he would accept the bowl without a word, but today, he thanked her without thinking.
“Um,” he said, digging into the fresh rice. He didn’t actually have anything in particular to say, but he knew he should say something.
Temari beat him to the punch. “Do you remember what day yesterday was?” she asked, her voice thorny.
Shikamaru felt an arrow of ice shoot through his heart.
Oh crap!
Their wedding anniversary. He had forgotten right up until that very second. With all the clean-up work after the remaining members of the Otsutsuki clan had crashed Shikadai’s chunin exams and the preparations for the Five Kage Summit in a few days, it had completely slipped his mind.
He set his chopsticks down and lowered his head so swiftly that he nearly slammed his forehead into the table. “I’m sorry!”
“You forgot.”
“I’m so, so sorry!”
Temari’s gaze was sharp, like the tip of an icicle. A cold sweat broke out on Shikamaru’s face.
“I know you’re busy as Naruto’s advisor, so I won’t say too much really,” she said. “But yesterday, at the very least, I would have liked it if you could have had supper at home.”
“I will definitely make this up to you.”
“I’m gone forever if yesterday happens again.”
“I know. But it definitely won’t!”
“You’ll be late for work. You have to get ready for the meeting of the Five Kages, don’t you?”
She was right. He needed to head out pretty soon, so he quickly put the rest of his breakfast in his belly and stood up.
Temari started to clear away the dishes.
“I’m really sorry. Forgive me.”
“You’re going to be late.” She turned her back on him in the kitchen.
“I’ll get going then.”
Outside, he walked, shoulders slumped, along the road that led to the Hokage Residence. He looked up at the sky and let out a sigh. Snowy white clouds drifted from west to east.
“Family,” he muttered. “What a drag.”