Akane woke up feeling worse than she usually did. Her head was still pounding from the night before. She’d tossed and turned all night in her sleep, and she felt like someone had glued her eyelids shut. She could feel the sunlight streaming through her apartment window, so she knew she was running late. Her alarm had gone off three times already, but she couldn’t seem to make herself leave her bed.
Akane considered taking the day off. If she did, she could sleep without having to worry about being late. Maybe then she would actually be able to rest. She knew she needed to rest, but Kakashi had given her the job of rebuilding this house… She needed to see it through. But her bed was so soft and inviting… Akane tossed and turned, her body mimicking the back-and-forth going on in her brain. She’d all but decided on sleeping the day away when a knock came from her front door. Akane had never had a single visitor in her home, much less one at nine in the morning. Her brain defaulted, as it often did, to an imminent threat. Shit, she thought. I’m not awake enough to fight.
Akane was careful not to make any sudden movements. She hadn’t been awake long enough to be coordinated, so anything she did quickly would be something she did clumsily. When her feet were finally firmly on the ground, she inched her body closer to her front door. Her muscles grew more and more tense with every step she took. When she reached the door, she took a couple of deep breaths before she raised her arm.
Akane slowly—painfully slowly—reached her hand towards the knob. She’d almost grabbed it when the mystery enemy knocked again. Akane snatched her hand back, folded it tightly against her chest, and nearly jumped out of her skin with a tiny yelp. The adrenaline coupled with the embarrassment from her squeak woke her up a bit, and she snatched the door open with her left hand. Her right was balled into a fist and was up, ready to be thrown.
With the door open, she only caught a glimpse of the intruder’s silhouette before launching her fist forward. She raised the left, ready to swing again, when the first one was caught by a hand that felt all too familiar.
“Good morning, Akane,” Shikamaru said as he smirked around the lit cigarette hanging from his lips. He gently lowered her arm for her. “Are you always this cheerful in the morning?”
#
When Shikamaru realized she was still coiled up tight, he decided to try and coax her into relaxing.
“Easy killer,” he said with a half laugh. “Are you alright?”
“Sorry,” Akane said. She snatched her hand back with a little more force than was necessary. “I thought you were a bad guy.”
“Not usually.”
Akane’s brow furrowed. She had not had enough caffeine to decipher cryptic messages. “What do you mean?”
Shikamaru grinned and shrugged. He looked over Akane. Her feet were bare, there were no bottoms that he could see, and her tattered sleep shirt fell to the middle of her thighs. Damn, they’ve gotten thick and juicy… Shikamaru thought, but his salacious thoughts ended there as his eyes wandered up to her face. Her hair was still in the messy bun she’d obviously slept in, her eyes were bloodshot with deep bags underneath them, and her skin was paler than usual. The only color in her face was a faint blush that was flashing across her cheeks and growing darker the longer he looked at her.
“Are you okay, Akane?” he finally said.
“Yes, I’m fine.” She was already starting to close the gates, but Shikamaru needed to say something. Every day, his worry for her grew, and his concerns were not unfounded.
“Are you sure? You just… You look exhausted,” he said softly.
“Wow, just what every lady wants to hear. Thank you.” She rolled her eyes and started to close the door. Shikamaru reached out a hand to stop it.
“I’m sorry. Really. I’m just worried about you.”
She rolled her eyes again and threw in a scoff for good measure. “Since when do you care enough about me to worry?”
It was Shikamaru’s turn to be confused. He knitted his brow, frowned, and lowered his voice. “I always have, Akane.”
Akane’s blush intensified into a deep scarlet. She shook her head as if trying to empty her brain. “What are you doing here, Shikamaru? I have to get ready for work.”
“I know,” he said, finally dropping his hand from the door. It didn’t seem like she was still intent on slamming it in his face. “But it was getting pretty late, and I hadn’t seen you in town yet. I figured I’d come by and check on you.”
“Well, I’m fine. So you can go. Tell Kiba I’ll be there soon if you see him.”
“Actually, I’m helping you today, too. So I’ll just wait here.”
Her eyes narrowed into something dangerous. Shikamaru knew he’d have to be extremely careful with his next words.
“You’re not crashing my job site,” she said.
“You’re right. I’m not. I’m just helping; I’m entirely under your direction.”
Her eyes narrowed a bit more, and Shikamaru worried that he’d said the wrong thing. But after a few beats, a grin crept across her face. She asked, “Entirely under my direction?”
Shikamaru nodded.
“Great,” she said as the grin widened. “Go home.”
“Anything but that, darling.”
Shikamaru didn’t think it was possible, but her blush deepened even more. He’d hoped it would. He’d known her long enough to know what words and phrases made her heart flutter, and he had a lot of lost time to make up for.
“Fine.” She opened the door wide as she spoke. “You can wait on the couch while I get ready.”
#
“You didn’t mention Choji was coming back today,” Akane said as she and Shikamaru approached the nearly completed house.
“Yeah, I asked him last night after I left your place. Sorry, I didn’t think to mention it when your fist came flying at my head.”
Akane elbowed him in the ribs, but she smiled at the same time. Shikamaru was lost in the wonder of it when, all too soon, it disappeared from her face. Her mouth resettled into its usual almost-a-frown position, and Shikamaru’s heart wrenched.
“Hey, guys!” Choji called when he saw them. “Maruten dropped off the plaster, but we were waiting on you to tell us where you want us to start.”
Akane’s eyes suddenly came sharply into focus. She locked in, giving Choji, Kiba, and Konohamaru direction. Shikamaru and Akane both knew they didn’t need it; they were waiting on her orders out of respect for her. Akane appreciated her friends and their kindness more than ever in that moment, and Shikamaru marveled at how confident she’d become since they were teenagers.
When she finished with the others, Akane rounded on Shikamaru. “You can go help Konohamaru with that wall,” she said as she pointed.
“And what are you going to be doing today?” Shikamaru asked.
Akane’s eyes widened and her jaw tensed. “Are you saying I’m not pulling my weight?”
Shikamaru countered her sass with some of his own. “No, Akane. I asked what you’re doing today. You announced everyone else’s plans. Am I not allowed to be interested in what you’re doing?”
Shikamaru grinned as her jaw tightened and her cheeks pinked. “I’m going to help Kiba and Choji. Their wall is longer, and three sets of hands will be better than two. Now hurry up. I promised Kakashi we’d have this house done by tomorrow at the latest.”
Shikamaru dropped his voice enough that the others couldn’t hear and made sure to deepen it just a bit. “I’ll do anything for you, darling. Just keep telling me where you want me.”
A couple of sounds came out, but none of them were coherent. Shikamaru grinned and walked over to Konohamaru. Akane stood, still frozen in shock, for another few seconds before she seemed to remember where she was. She stormed over to Kiba and Choji and threw herself into her work.
This is going to be fun, Shikamaru thought. As long as I can get her to rest before her body completely gives out.
Akane tried not to notice how the boys were working at least three times faster than her. She really did. But once she noticed, she couldn’t stop noticing it. The real problem was there didn’t seem to be anything she could do about it. Hell, Akane couldn’t even make herself care that she was dragging, much less actually move faster. But noticing it and realizing she didn’t care was stressing her out. Akane couldn’t comprehend just how tired she was. She’d been tired for so long and it was such a slow escalation that Akane hadn’t been able to see when her “being tired” had flipped into full-blown chronic fatigue, even with everyone around her telling her that she needed to pull back. She’d decided that was just who she was, and she wished people would quit telling her how bad she looked all the time. She fought through the weariness in her soul until almost one p.m.
“Everyone good to break for lunch?” Akane called to her crew.
They wordlessly dropped what they were working on and made their way over to her. Choji had packed lunches for everyone, and he started passing them out. Food in their hands, the group sat together in one of the two rooms they had left to finish. They formed a sort of half-circle, and Akane sat as far away as she could without feeling like she was being rude. Shikamaru surprised her by sitting right next to her.
The boys laughed and joked as they ate, but Akane ate in silence. She was happy to be with them; she just didn’t have the energy to multitask. Halfway through their meal, the boys quieted and focused on eating. Akane felt a twinge of guilt. She hoped she wasn’t bringing the mood down.
When they had almost finished eating, Shikamaru turned to Akane. He whispered, “Are you feeling alright?”
Holy hell was she sick of that question. “Yes, Shikamaru. I. Am. Fine,” she bit out. Akane made no effort to keep her voice quiet, and the other guys turned their attention to her.
Shikamaru spoke at a regular volume. “I want to believe you, it’s just… Well, you kind of look like you’re about to pass out.”
“I think you look great, Ms. Akane!” Konohamaru called to her.
Shikamaru shot him a warning look, and Konohamaru dropped his attention back down to his lunch. “I know you’re tired of hearing it,” he continued. “But none of us wants you to have to be carried out of here on a stretcher. If you want to go home and rest, I’ll take you. Then I’ll come back here and make sure the work gets done. I promise.”
Akane had a small surge of energy from the fiery rage burning its way through her veins. “I don’t care what you promise. I don’t. And I really don’t give a shit if you think I look terrible or that I’m incapable or whatever the hell it is you’re thinking about me. This is my life, and I don’t need you trying to control it!”
Akane slammed her lunch down and stormed off back into the room they were working on. The boys exchanged glances, shoveled the rest of their food in, and joined her. Akane ignored them for the most part. The only thing she couldn’t completely ignore was Shikamaru’s eyes on her. He watched her every move, and she knew it was slowing him down.
Her wall was almost done; the only thing left to do was up to Kiba and Choji. She had made up her mind to tell off Shikamaru. She would tell him to go help someone else or just go home or just go. She didn’t particularly care where he want, but seeing him and feeling his eyes on her was pissing her off. It took a lot of energy to be angry, and she didn’t have any to spare. She stomped down the stepladder and turned to face him.
But she turned too fast, and stars and spots danced across her vision. She let out a small sound, but no words followed. Akane’s vision went completely dark.