"Kiba?" Sakura squinted at the man in front of her. "What are you doing here?"
The man pulled out an earbud, eyes widening. "Haruno?" He'd shaven off the stupid goatee he'd cultivated throughout college and trimmed his hair so that it resembled the messy bedhead of his youth. If he hadn't been carrying his shoulder bag with the iron-on patches of his dog Akamaru, Sakura would have never recognized him.
"Woah, is that you, Haruno? I could ask the same of you," Kiba said, grinning at her. "Long time no see." His eyes scanned her from head to toe, and he gave an admiring whistle. "You clean up well. Waiting for someone?"
"Blind date," Sakura replied, giving a slightly embarrassed laugh. "He's probably bailed on me by now, though. It's already been thirty minutes."
"Man, that sucks," Kiba said sympathetically. He checked his phone. "Heh. If it makes you feel better, I think my date's bailed on me too."
"No way!"
"Yeah," Kiba said, shrugging. "Meh. I wasn't expecting anything, anyway. You wanna ditch our dates and hang out together instead?"
"Sure," Sakura agreed, adjusting her shoulder strap. "Haruo sounds like a lame name, anyway," she grumbled. She began to walk to the entrance, but stopped when she didn't hear Kiba's footsteps behind her. She turned around. "Oi, Kiba. You coming or not?"
"Did you just say Haruo?" Kiba said, looking oddly pale.
"Yeah," Sakura said, confused. "Inuzuka Haruo." She stopped when she realized something. "…Wait. You're Haruo?"
"Ssshhh," Kiba hissed, eyes darting around to check if there were any passerby that had overheard their conversation. "Don't say it out loud. It's embarrassing." Sure enough, the tips of his ears were slowly turning red. "Let's just—go somewhere else to talk, yeah? There're too many people here."
It was kind of cute.
Sakura cleared her throat and tried not to think about Kiba's ears. "Sure," she agreed. "Park?"
This date was turning out to be a lot more entertaining than Sakura had expected it to be.
"So," Sakura said. "'Haruo'? 'Spring man?'" She coughed to hide a snicker, but she was pretty sure that Kiba noticed.
"That's me," Kiba said, sighing. "Inuzuka Haruo. You can blame my sister for that. If it was up to me, I would have introduced myself as Kiba." He glared at her. "You better not tell Naruto, Haruno."
"I'm not making any promises."
"Haruno!"
"Fine, fine," Sakura relented. "I didn't think Kiba was your real name, anyway."
Kiba flushed. "It's a nickname my older sister came up with," he groaned. "Then Shino heard it, and it stuck. At least it sounds better than Haruo."
"Haruo's a perfectly fine name," Sakura hastily assured him.
"Just call me Kiba," Kiba said uncomfortably. "Anyway, I'm surprised to see you back in the singles market, Haruno. Thought you got hitched with what's-his-face. Mr. Pretty Boy."
"Things didn't work out," Sakura said shortly. To her relief, Kiba didn't push for details.
"Eh. Didn't like him much, anyway," he said before mercifully changing the topic. "So, how've you been doing?"
They chatted about their current jobs and life in general. Through their conversation, Sakura learned that Kiba's sister had contacted Hinata to set Kiba up with one of Hinata's friends.
"One-san told me that I was spending too much time with animals and not enough time with my fellow humans," he grumbled. Sakura laughed, amused.
"So you're a veterinarian, now?" she asked.
"Not yet," Kiba corrected, puffing out his chest. "Still in training. I only have a few years left." He stiffened, then sneezed. "Ugh, it's cold."
"Let's head back inside," Sakura suggested. "In the meantime, you can drape this over yourself. Wait a mo." She dug into her shoulder bag before producing a tartan wrap.
"Your bag is ginormous, Haruno," Kiba sniffled, amused. "Achoo!"
"Shush. Here, put this on," Sakura said, tossing the wrap at him. While Kiba obligingly wrapped it around himself, she added, "I hope you don't mind that there's a bit of dog fur on that."
Kiba froze, hands still clutching the cloth. "Dog hair?" He yanked off the blanket. "Ohhh, shit."
"Yeah. Hey, you okay?" Sakura looked at Kiba's face. "You don't look so good." Kiba didn't answer. "Kiba?" Kiba started hyperventilating. "Kiba? What's wrong?"
"C-can't breathe," Kiba gasped, face ashen, struggling to catch his breath. His shaking fingers scrabbled at his front pocket; he pulled out a plastic inhaler and took a few puffs. "J-just give me a second."
Sakura waited until Kiba's breathing came under his control.
"S-sorry to freak you out," He wheezed, looking embarrassed. His cheeks were tinged with pink. "Allergies."
"You okay? Oh my god, Kiba, I'm so sorry," Sakura said, feeling guilty. Kiba shook his head.
"It's all good," he said, sniffling. "But man, that was intense. You keep a dog or something now?"
"Yeah," Sakura admitted. "I went to the shelter to adopt a dog." She grinned, thinking about Kakashi snoozing on the sofa. "He's such a cutie. Even Ino likes him. I think. She was telling him to protect me before she left, that silly pig."
"Really? That's interesting. I'd have thought the opposite. Doesn't she hate dogs?" Kiba laughed. "I saw her hissing at a dog, once. That was pretty funny."
"She seemed to be okay with Kakashi afterwards, so I guess she's fine now," Sakura said, shrugging. She brightened. "Wanna see a pic?"
"Sure."
Sakura flipped through her photo album until she came across a picture of Kakashi happily gnawing at a bone. Kiba stared at the dog intently.
"Do you have any videos of him?" Kiba asked after a moment.
"Tons of them," Sakura said. "Here's one from this afternoon." She tapped on the screen, and Kakashi's static image began to gambol around Sakura's living room. "Sorry, my house is a mess."
"May I?" Kiba said.
"Of course." Sakura handed Kiba her phone and Kiba switched back to the previous image of Kakashi. "What did the shelter say he was?" He asked absently, squinting at Kakashi's feet.
"A Siberian husky."
"He looks like he has some wolf in him," Kiba commented. He zoomed in on Kakashi's feet. "See his feet? They're webbed. His legs are also cow hocked—they turn inward here," he indicated a spot on Kakashi's leg, "and his toes point out, like so. Wolves' legs do that. It's less common in dogs." He zoomed out of the picture. "He has a lot of wolf-like features: narrow chest and shoulders, long, lean legs, straight tail. The blue eye's most likely from the husky side of the family, since wolves don't usually have blue eyes after adolescence. Anyway, h e's pretty skinny for a dog his size." Kiba frowned at Sakura's phone. "You said that he was a rescue?"
"…Kiba, I'm impressed. You actually sound smart," Sakura said, both half-jokingly and half-admiringly.
Kiba scowled. "HEY."
"Kidding, kidding," Sakura said, laughing. "I always knew you had a brain."
After dinner, Kiba dropped her off in front of her apartment building.
"Thanks for dinner, Kiba," Sakura said. She hesitated before deciding, oh, what the hell. "…Hey. Do you want to come up?"
"I think I'll have to pass for today," Kiba said. "You know," he gestured to himself. "Allergies."
"Oh, okay. Do you have time to hang next week? I'll buy dinner, since you bought it this time," Sakura said.
Kiba hesitated. "Um," Kiba said, looking uncomfortable. "I don't think I'll have time. Sorry."
"That's fine," Sakura said, trying hard not to feel disappointed. Kiba reached into his pocket and took out a notepad. He jotted something down, peeled off the post-it note and handed it to her. "Call my sister if you have trouble managing him," he told her, avoiding eye contact. "Wolf-mixes are harder to control than your regular dog, so if anything happens, call her, okay?"
"Alright. Thanks, Kiba."
"See you around, Haruno."
Sakura waited until Kiba's car vanished from view before trudging toward the direction of her building.
"The date was a flop," she told Kakashi later that night, nursing a bottle of wine. "Why do I even try."
The memory of Sasuke standing in her doorway from a few nights ago appeared in her mind's eye, unbidden. She shook her head to dispel the memory. Something wet bumped against her hand, and she looked down. Kakashi blinked up at her, blue eye looking longingly at the bottle in her hand. He licked his chops.
"It's not for you," she told him, even though it was pointless (he couldn't possibly understand her, could he?) She took another swig, finishing the bottle. Kakashi whined mournfully. Sakura ignored him.
"Can't believe I got friendzoned by Kiba, of all people," she muttered. "Utter ass." Kakashi nosed her knee, and she ruffled his fur.
"C'mon, boy. Off to bed we go," she told him, reluctantly getting up.
When she opened the door to the bedroom, Kakashi headed straight to the bed.
"No, no. Bad boy," Sakura scolded. She pointed at the new dog bed they'd bought earlier in the afternoon. "That's my bed. Yours is over there. Get up, Kakashi."
Kakashi, however, refused to budge. He just looked at her pitifully with his one eye and whined.
"Kakashi."
Kakashi whined again and rolled over on his side.
Sakura sighed, feeling tired and drained and drunk. "I'll let you sleep next to me this once, okay?" She told the dog. "You'd better not shed all over the sheets. And stick to your side of the bed. You can't hog the blankets, either." Kakashi rolled over to lick her face before rolling back to his side. He wriggled happily.
"Night, Kakashi." She reached over to turn off the bed stand lamp.
Sometime in the night, she felt something shift over to her side. She heard something snuffle.
"Kakashi, no," she mumbled. "Go over to your side. It's stuffy." Kakashi didn't respond; instead, he pressed closer to her body. "Errmmphh. I'm spoiling you too much," she told him crankily.
He gave something that sounded like a low, masculine chuckle.
Strange, she though before she drifted off to sleep, Kakashi nestled in her arms.
She blinked her eyes open when she felt the sunlight on her face. Brand-new morning, brand-new day. She groped around for her phone, and reflexively jerked her hand away when she felt something.
It was probably Kakashi, she thought. She touched it again gingerly. It felt like human skin, warm to the touch. Not Kakashi, then. Certainly not Kiba.
"Ino? Did you break in again?" Sakura yawned, rubbing away the sleep grit from her eyes. Weird. She could have sworn that Ino had gone back to her own house yesterday. "Pig?" She rolled over and froze.
It wasn't Ino who was lying next to her in her bed.
Shocked, Sakura opened her mouth to scream before something clamped over her mouth.
"Don't move," the stranger whispered into her ear, voice hoarse from sleep. "Shhhh."
"Mmmfmmmffmmfmmf," Sakura managed to say indignantly. The stranger sighed, and suddenly, Sakura found herself pinned against her bed under the man's weight, looking up into his face.
He was ridiculously beautiful, but that wasn't the point.
The fact remained that:
1. He was in her bed
2. Stark naked
3. She didn't know how he got there in the first place.
The man sighed. "It's too early in the morning for this," he murmured. One hand still firmly pressed against Sakura's mouth, he snuggled closer to her. "Mm. Stay like this for a little bit, mmkay?"
"MFMFMFMFMFMMF."
The man patted her on the head with his other hand. "Good girl," he said drowsily, eyes already closing. He laid his head against her chest, and within moments, he was sound asleep, blissfully un aware of the fact that there was only a thin summer blanket between their intertwined bodies.
Fucking hell.
More importantly, where the flying fuck was her dog?