Right. So my friend and I were hanging out, listening to my iPod, and we started discussing how the song sounded like something Kiba and Gaara would sing. The concept made me squee, so when I got home, I wrote this out.

I'm a little reluctant to put this up, because it's pretty damn sugary (let's face it), but I'm going to do it anyway. To see what the reaction is. Sick bags can be provided for those fluff-haters out there XD

Disclaimer: As usual, I'm stealing characters from Kishimoto. For that, I apologise.


"I learnt a song for you," Kiba said, strumming a chord as if that somehow confirmed this fact.

"Yeah?" Gaara sat up a little straighter. He liked it when the chunin made time to learn a song for him – more than he'd ever actually admit aloud.

"Mmm hmm." Another chord.

They were sitting outside underneath their tree, basking in the warm air of the early summer evening, enjoying the last of the sunshine as it began to slip towards the horizon.

"Are you going to let me hear it?" the sand nin asked after a minute or so.

"Maybe," the other grinned back, a sharp-toothed grin that still made his stomach do somersaults whenever he saw it. "You wanna hear it?"

Of course he did.

"Maybe." Gaara leaned back, resting on his elbows as he mirrored his boyfriend's casual tone. "Depends whether you suck or not."

"Gee thanks." With a snort, the boy shot him another smile, making him melt just a little around the edges, and the random chords formed into a series of notes that sounded familiar.

He realised what the song was just before Kiba started to sing.

"When I made up my mind, and my heart along with that..."

Then, as suddenly as it had started, the music stopped, leaving the Kazekage a little breathless and more than slightly put out.

"Is that all you can do?" he demanded, trying and failing to keep the annoyance out of his voice. "You're a total prick-tease."

Kiba merely leaned forward, looking at him in an intense manner that was both worrying and disarming. Gaara got the impression that he wasn't going to like what he was about to say.

"You know, I've never heard you sing."

Bingo.

"That's because I can't!" The desert shinobi felt his face flushing red under that compelling gaze.

"Bet you can," the other replied smartly, looking vaguely amused as embarrassment washed over the features in front of him.

"Kiba," Gaara's voice was low, serious. "Believe me, I can't sing. I'm terrible at singing. And I especially don't want to sing in front of you.

"Why not?" Was that hurt in his eyes? Both surprise and shock were present, certainly.

"Because you have a good voice. A really good voice. I'd just feel self-conscious if I sang."

"Please, Gaara." Hazel eyes beguiled him, bewitched him, he wanted to jump into them, into that warmth, even though that wasn't actually possible. "For me?"

Low blow, he thought, gritting his teeth. Oh God, he couldn't resist the expression on Kiba's face. Teeth dented his bottom lip as he sighed deeply, resigning himself to his fate of hideous mortification.

"Alright. But don't laugh."

"I wouldn't," the leaf nin promised, his whole damn face lighting up, momentarily dazzling. "I'll sing with you. You know the words to this, right?"

He thought about saying no and denying the knowledge of any lyrics to any song, but the idea of singing with Kiba, overshadowed as he would be, was appealing. Plus he couldn't bear to disappoint those eyes.

"Yeah," he mumbled quietly, blushing even more, and a hand reached up to his face, obviously meant to calm him but actually having the opposite effect.

"Don't panic," the soft voice said. "I'm not going to shoot you just because you can't sing. I just want to hear what you sound like. I won't laugh. Promise."

It made Gaara feel a little better, but not much. The hand returned from his cheek to the neck of the guitar, and the song started again, creating the sensation of a million butterflies suddenly migrating to the pit of his stomach. It wasn't a nice feeling. His hands were trembling.

"When I made up my mind, and my heart along with that, to live life not for myself, but yet forgot, somebody said, 'Do you know what you are getting yourself into?'"

It was an emotive voice, a beautiful voice, and even though he should have felt threatened by it, he found himself strangely soothed. Maybe singing wouldn't be so bad after all. He knew that there were two voices in this song, and he was sure that Kiba was aware of this as well. Actually, he realised, that was probably why he picked it, the sneaky bastard.

"When I finally ironed out all of my priorities..." and the smile on his face when Gaara joined in with the end of the line was worth any embarrassment. Kiba wasn't wincing, which was a good sign, so somehow he got the confidence to continue and they sung together to the strains of the guitar. "...and asked God to remove the doubt that makes me so unsure of these things I ask myself, I ask myself 'Do you know what you are getting yourself into?'"

Alternating lines for the chorus, the Suna nin remembered, which would be nice. At least, the idea sounded nice. Really nice.

"I'm getting into you because you got to me, in a way words can't describe. I'm getting into you because I've got to be your essential to survive, I'm gonna love you with my life..."

Hearing their combined voices sent tingles down his spine.

But he froze as Kiba held up a hand as it came to the beginning of the second verse, and he was suddenly terrified, more self-conscious than he'd ever been before, certain that the leaf shinobi hated his voice and never wanted to hear it again. He looked down in humiliation, cheeks aflame, until the playing stopped momentarily, fingers tilted his chin up, lips brushed his for the briefest of seconds.

"You won't know this bit," the other said mysteriously. "Join in for the last line, OK?" If he wanted the sand nin to join in, he couldn't be that bad, right? Right.

But what the hell was he talking about? Of course he'd know it. He knew this whole fricking song off by–

"So I looked at you and said 'I kind of view you as the sun', and for one second, our eyes met, and you met that with a question..."

Oh God. Nobody had ever changed the words of a song for him before. And it made him in equal parts so embarrassed and so exhilarated that he only just remembered to join in with the next line.

They carried on into the chorus, Gaara singing at the normal pitch, Kiba's voice rising above, and it was better than anything he'd ever heard in his life. And then the brunette held up a hand again, singing the last sentence on his own, meeting the other boy's eyes, smiling, completely knocking him for six, but through the self-restraint (he didn't want to damage the instrument, after all), the Kazekage didn't miss the navy All-star nudging his leg, indicating that for the next verse, he was on his own. All his nerves came flooding back, he swallowed hard. But he took a deep breath and sang as best he could,

"I've been a liar and I'll never amount to the kind of person you deserve to worship you. You say you will not dwell on what I did, but rather what I do. You say 'I love you and that's what you are getting yourself into'..."

Then Kiba's voice was back, he stopped feeling like he was about to faint and they harmonised through the remaining choruses, fingers moving up and down the frets with natural ease and he remembered that those fingers had been on him, in him, and this moment, this voice, this person was enough. More than enough.

He caught the other's eye, smiling, as he prepared to sing the ending line, alone, so that Kiba would knew he meant it.

"I love you and that's what you are getting yourself into."

Silence fell, they both stared at each other, unwilling to break it because it felt too delicate to interrupt.

It was the leaf nin, eventually, who cleared his throat and looked away.

"Wow...um...that was..."

"I know," the redhead grinned sheepishly, shrugging his shoulders in a self-deprecating manner. "I warned you I couldn't sing though, in my defence."

The guitar was abandoned on the grass as Kiba quickly scooted over to him, probably earning himself some nice grass stains for his trouble. Gaara's breath hitched as warm hands covered his cheeks, a forehead pressing against his, mouth close enough to be a distraction.

"Gaara," he watched those lips say, and the movement was captivating. "Shut up."

The kiss that followed erased all retorts from his mind.


Thanks for reading – hope it wasn't too cringe-inducing and awful =D

This song is fcking awesome, btw – I suggest you look it up if you haven't already heard it. And the rest of Relient K's stuff as well.