Part XII
"Kiba, you probably should go home, at least for Christmas," Naruto said.
"I'm not going home," Kiba replied absently. "I've told you before. I'm going with you."
It was now the second week of the university's Winter break, and one week from Christmas. Naruto was planning to go back to his grandparent's on the coming Friday and staying through Christmas.
"But you haven't even called anyone," Naruto continued.
"Glarg," Kiba said. "Ok, I'll call now."
The two were still laying in bed, having not yet gotten up that morning. Kiba leaned across his boyfriend to retrieve his phone from the nightstand, leaning down further than necessary to lightly bite Naruto in the side as he grabbed the phone. Naruto jumped, startled from the unexpected touch of his lover's teeth. Kiba put his index finger to his lips.
"Shhhh," he said to Naruto as he hit the appropriate contact icon for his mother. As he listened to the rings, he began absently tracing circles over Naruto's naked stomach. "Hello, it's your son, Kiba."
"Well, I know that," his mother replied. "I saw it on the ID."
"I'm not coming back during break. I'm going to a friend's house for the holidays."
"Really, Kiba? A friend?" was the sarcastic reply. "Are you just staying at your apartment so you don't have to come home?"
Kiba didn't reply.
"I don't know why you can't come home for a few days..."
"Are we all set?" Kiba interrupted. "I've already made other plans."
With a flick of his thumb, Kiba ended the call, tossing his phone down next to him on the bed. Naruto giggled nervously.
"That sounded like it went well," the blonde said.
"Come here, you," Kiba said, rolling over onto his boyfriend and gazing down into the deep blue eyes. He leaned down and kissed Naruto. "Make me forget about the world..."
xXxXx
Thursday came along without too much hast. The two boys had been enjoying the laziness of the break from classes. Sometimes not even getting dressed or going out of the apartment except to take out Akamaru. Much of the time was spent reading or watching movies.
That evening, Kiba was lounging on the floor next to the couch, upon which Naruto was laying, reading the copy of The Monk that Kiba had given him for his birthday.
"What part are you at now?" Kiba asked as he absently stroked Akamaru's paw.
"The Bloody Nun," Naruto answered, glancing down and smiling at how comfortable Kiba looked with his dog.
"I can't wait for you to get to the end!" Kiba enthused. "The best part is when the enraged mob literally tears the Prioress to shreds!"
"I know," Naruto said, laughing. "You told me about twenty times now. That would be so horrible to die like that..."
"She shouldn't have been so inhuman," Kiba said. "Maybe they wouldn't have done it then."
Naruto chuckled again at his boyfriend's enthusiasm for one of the most gruesome parts of the story. He closed the book and set it on the end table next to the couch.
"Kiba," he said as he reached down to run his fingers through the boy's thick, brown hair. "I want to give you your present now...is it all right if it's early?"
"Only if you take yours early too," Kiba answered.
Naruto leapt up from the couch and went to the bedroom, rummaging around through his bags. He emerged a moment later with a small wrapped package with a red bow on it. He handed it to Kiba.
"I had a really hard time keeping this hidden, you know," he said, "since it's your apartment and all."
Kiba laughed and told Naruto to wait while he went and retrieved the present he had gotten for Naruto. He returned with a wrapped box and a plain envelope and handed them to Naruto.
"Open yours first," Naruto said.
Kiba pulled the bow off and tore the wrapping paper from the black box. He lifted the lid off and found a black velvet pouch inside.
"Hmmm," he said. "This looks like a tobacco pouch. Do you want me to start smoking?"
"Just open it!" Naruto said.
Inside the velvet pouch, Kiba found a bracelet with alternating beads of black onyx and white calcite beads. A sterling claps held the two ends together.
"Thank you, Naruto!" Kiba exclaimed. "I love it!"
"You're welcome," Naruto said as he helped put the bracelet on Kiba's wrist. "And I love you."
"I love you too," Kiba said and gave his boyfriend a quick hug. "Now open yours, the box first!"
Naruto pulled the ribbon from the package and carefully opened the wrapping paper in a slow manner. He pulled the box from it's sheath of paper and put it on the floor to pull off the lid. Inside were three button-down shirts, neatly folded and arranged in the box: one black, one orange, and one white.
"Oh!" Naruto said as he pulled them out one by one. "I'm going to wear these for the next three days! Kiba, they are great, thanks very much."
"Don't forget about the envelope," Kiba reminded him.
"Oh, that's right," Naruto said picking up the envelop and opening it. He pulled out several sheets of paper and looked at them. It was an application for a US passport.
"This is kind of a strange gift," he said as Kiba giggled a little at the confused look on the blonde's face.
"This is very serious, Naruto," he said, but couldn't help from grinning. "I've thought about this a lot for the past month, and I want us to take a long vacation this summer. Please let me do this for you."
"Kiba," Naruto said. "That will cost a lot of money."
"I knew you'd say that," Kiba said. "I know you don't like it when I spend money on you excessively, but this is something I really want to do for both of us. I'm really being selfish in a way because I really just want to be with you someplace where absolutely no one else can intrude. Please let me just do this, for both of us. And it will be so nice to spend the time idly before the Autumn semester starts."
"I don't know..." Naruto said. "Where would we go?"
"Italy," he said, "but that's all the information you get now, because I want it to be a surprise. Will you give in and go along?"
"I can tell how much you would like to do this," Naruto answered. "So, OK, I won't try to derail your plans. Thank you so much, it's so nice of you to plan a vacation for us."
"Thank you!" Kiba cried thinking he would have had more of a fight to convince Naruto to go with him. "I love you more than you'll ever know!"
"I love you," Naruto said, kissing Kiba softly. "I've got another gift that I wanted to keep hidden until the absolute last minute. I'll be right back."
He came back a few minutes later with an oddly shaped parcel of wrapping paper. Akamaru instantly jumped up and started wagging his tail.
"How does he know?!" Naruto cried. "I got this for him and thought I had kept it completely hidden!"
"I don't know," Kiba said with a sigh. "He's an odd dog, sometimes I think he's human."
Naruto tossed the parcel to Akamaru who caught it from the air and trotted over and set it down in front of the fireplace. He looked up at the two boys and barked.
"Get it, boy!" Naruto said. "It's your present."
Akamaru barked again before pouncing on the present and tearing at the paper with his teeth and paws. A couple minutes later he had torn the paper off enough to pull out the stuffed octopus inside, and it was only seconds after that that he found the squeaker inside and began biting it to hear the noise over and over. Then he looked at Naruto and barked again, tossing the toy into the air and catching it and then settling down in front of the fireplace with his new possession.
"That was nice of you," Kiba said. "I can tell he likes it a lot."
"Yeah, I didn't want to forget him," Naruto said.
"What time do you want to leave tomorrow?"
"Probably around 8:00, if that's not too early."
"OK, I should be able to manage."
xXxXx
The drive back to Naruto's home was uneventful as usual except for halfway when it started snowing again. The temperature was above freezing though, so the roads stayed clear, and they arrived a little after 11:00.
All the usual greetings had taken place and Naruto and Kiba had gone upstairs to Naruto's room to unpack and rest for a while. Kiba was enjoying being with his boyfriend and sharing the holidays with him. The whole house was decorated. There was a large tree in the front room, an evergreen garland had been wound around the bannister of the stairs, and various other decorations had been placed throughout the house. Kiba loved the scent of the evergreens, and it reminded him of being in the woods.
The two were laying together on Naruto's bed. Kiba was half falling asleep and Naruto was busy sending and receiving text messages.
"Ummm," the blonde said, "Sasuke wants to know if you will meet him so he can apologize to you in person."
"I'm not sure..." Kiba said.
"He's really a nice guy," Naruto said. "Don't worry about it, just talk to him. He really is sorry, and it would be nice if we could all be friends. I have known him for my entire life you know."
"OK," Kiba relented as he looked back at his boyfriend. "How bad can it be? You'll be there anyway."
"Ummm," Naruto said suddenly looking anywhere except directly at Kiba. "He want to go with you alone..."
"Ugh...seriously?" Kiba groaned. "Why?"
"I'm sure he's embarrassed about the whole things," Naruto said. "Just meet him and talk to him. I'd really appreciate it."
"Gahhhh," sighed Kiba. "When and where?"
"He wants to take you to lunch tomorrow, at the little tavern uptown. It's really good. They have awesome hamburgers."
xXxXx
The next morning, Kiba woke up kind of dreading his meeting with Sasuke. He didn't really believe that the Raven was going to do anything like last time, it was just that meeting new people put Kiba on edge. He wanted to do this for Naruto though, so he would just have to deal with it. At 11:30, Sasuke arrived to pick him up. Naruto hugged him and kissed him.
"There but for the grace of God go I," Kiba said. Naruto laughed and pushed him out the door.
"You'll be fine," he said. "And have fun!"
Kiba got into the passenger seat of Sasuke's blue WRX STI. He felt slightly awkward, but knew it had to be worse for the other boy.
"Hey," Sasuke said, backing the car out of the driveway and onto the street.
"Hey" said Kiba.
"I'm really sorry for how I acted last time I met you and for what I said to you. It was a stupid, ignorant thing to do. I'm sorry, and I hope you forgive me and we can be friends."
"It's ok," Kiba said. "I forgave you when Naruto told me what you had said to him when he met you that Saturday."
"That's cool," Sasuke said. "I'm glad."
They pulled up to the tavern a few minutes after leaving from Naruto's house and went inside. It was very dimly lit and looked to Kiba like it had not been thoroughly cleaned in ages. There was a row of tables lined up down the middle of the large, open room, and booths along the one side and back wall. On the opposite side was a long bar. In another room, there were pool tables. The two sat down at one of the booths in the back.
"This place looks pretty shady, but the food is great," Sasuke said. "Naruto and I used to skip class in middle school and high school to come eat here sometimes."
"Yeah, it looks a little janky," Kiba said as he looked over the menu that had been placed in front of him by a haggard looking waitress along with a glass of water.
Sasuke didn't bother to look at his menu, but sipped his water waiting for Kiba to decide.
"What are you studying in school?" he asked, causing Kiba to look up as if he had been startled.
"Oh, something to do with literature," he answered. "And a history minor. I haven't picked a major yet for certain."
"That's cool," the Raven replied. "You and Naruto probably have quite a bit in common then. Every time I used to show up at his place when we were little, his nose would be stuck in a book. I just never really got into it too much."
"Yeah, we're always talking about books and writers. What's your major?"
"I'm going into geothermal engineering."
"Dude, that sounds terrifying," Kiba said making Sasuke laugh.
"It is a lot of work," he said. "It's really interesting though. I'm enjoying it so far, but now I'm getting into my major courses and it's going to be considerably tougher from here on out."
The waitress returned to take their lunch order, interrupting their conversation.
"I'll have a double with everything plus extra cheese, French fries, and a Coke with grenadine," Sasuke told her.
"Hmmm, that sounds good," Kiba said. "I'll have the same."
The waitress left without further discussion.
"How long have you and Naruto been dating?" Sasuke inquired. "I hate that I was so lame in high school when he confessed to me and I acted to ridiculous. I thought he would be better off without me as a friend since I couldn't be what he wanted, but really, I'm sure he needed a friend at that time more. I guess I make pretty bad decisions, so you probably should never ask me for advice or anything."
"Yeah, I'll have to remember that," Kiba said with a laugh.
"How do you like CDCBU? I would have gone there too, if they had my major."
"I like it," Kiba said. "I've had a really good time, and most of my classes are cool, most of the professors are interesting."
"Good. My school is kind of uptight. If you aren't like a third or more generation who's gone there, you're pretty much nobody."
"That sucks," Kiba said as the waitress brought out their food and drinks. "This better be good."
After the first bite, Kiba devoured all the food that had been brought to him. Sasuke and Naruto had been right, it was super delicious.
"Gah!" he said after finally finishing everything. "That really was excellent!"
"I told you it would be," Sasuke laughed.
"I'm going to make Naruto bring me here again before we go back. How long will you be home before you go back to school? We're supposed to go back sometime after Christimas, but maybe we should all hang out again before..."
Kiba had become comfortable with the Raven in their short span of time together over lunch. He was still slightly guarded though due to what happened when they had met at Thanksgiving. For some reason though, he felt like it was all right, maybe because Naruto and Sasuke had been friends for so long. He felt he would like to hang out together again though.
"Here, let me give you my number," Sasuke said. "Then you will have it too and we can all figure out a time to meet up."
"Cool," Kiba said. "I think Naruto would like that also."
xXxXx
That night, Naruto was talking with Kiba as they lay in bed together.
"I'm really glad you and Sasuke got along today," the blonde said. "He told me he'd like to come and visit at school sometime. Would that be all right?"
"Yeah," Kiba said. "He's pretty cool when he's not being a jerk,"
"My name for him was always 'bastard' ever since we were little," Naruto said. "So it's funny you say that. He always called me "loser."
Naruto then leaned in and started kissing Kiba's neck. Kiba's hands slid down Naruto's chest from his shoulders, he pulled Naruto's tshirt off over his head, letting it fall to the floor. They began kissing each other, Kiba's tongue entering his boyfriend's mouth, sliding against his own tongue. Kiba gently squeezed and rubbed Naruto's nipples as they continued kissing, at which point Akamaru fled to the unoccupied bed.
Naruto used his arms to push Kiba over onto his side, so that he was now facing the wall. Then he buried his face in his boyfriend's thick, brown hair, inhaling his scent. He wrapped his arms around Kiba and began kissing the back of Kiba's neck which sent thrilling sensations through Kiba's body.
"MMMmmmm" Kiba sighed. "I'll give you head, but just keep doing that for a minute..."
"I kind of wanted something else tonight," Naruto whispered into Kiba's ear. Kiba immediately tensed like a stretched rubber band. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing..." Kiba lied.
"Kiba, I felt you suddenly become tense just now...We've been together for a month, but we haven't had sex yet beyond sucking each other off. I'd kind of like to be with my boyfriend completely..."
Kiba had become silent and withdrawn now and didn't answer.
"Don't do this again," Naruto pleaded. "I'm here for you, and I want to understand you, but I can't if you don't tell me anything."
"I..." Kiba began, but his conscious spoke to him first.
"Don't tell him! He'll despise you and dump you like what happened last time!"
"I'm sorry..." Kiba said, pulling his knees up to his chest.
"It's OK," Naruto said as he wrapped his arms around Kiba again and hugged him. "I love you, and I'm here to support you. Maybe tonight wasn't really the best night to bring up something new, seeing as how we're in my grandparent's house, in a single bed. Can we talk more about this when we get back to school?"
"Yes," Kiba said, somewhat forlornly. "I want you to know it's not you. I'm just different..."
"I love you, Kiba," Naruto said.
"I love you too, Naruto," Kiba said, feeling safe held in his lover's strong arms. He only wished he could fall asleep instantly though, so he wouldn't have to listen to his damned conscious any longer...
"It's really kind of funny, you know...you're a whore but you won't have sex with your boyfriend! You'd rather have Sasuke fuck you anyway. I know you thought he was hot today at lunch and you kept looking at him when you thought he wouldn't notice. His dark eyes...you liked them, didn't you?"
