Ino took to the slopes a few times, but found herself checking her phone more and more frequently instead. Finally, she gave up and headed into the lodge to grab some hot cocoa, while Sakura and Hinata continued to race down the mountainside. She ordered a mug from the hotel restaurant and curled up in front of a roaring fire, iPhone in hand.
An unread text from Kiba was waiting for her.
From: Kibaaaa
Hey there, hot stuff.
She blamed the sudden heat in her cheeks on the warmth in the ski lodge. There was no way she was blushing like some girl with her very first crush.
And over somebody like Inuzuka Kiba at that! He was the boy version of her. Loud and obnoxious and a hot drunk mess. Things would never work out between them, they were just too similar.
But somehow, that mattered less than she felt like it should. She was having a good time flirting back and forth with him, now that she'd relinquished any hope of a relationship with Shikamaru and he seemed to have given up on Sakura as well. Their drunken sex marathon a few nights prior had certainly been plenty of fun, and at the very least, she discovered they were sexually compatible.
If she was having such a good time, why should she dismiss Kiba as a serious contender in her quest for romance? He was a good person, and besides his smelly dog, she couldn't think of a single thing to fault him for.
And when he complimented her, butterflies, actual butterflies, exploded in her stomach. Not even looking into Shikamaru's fathomless black eyes could accomplish that. Kiba made her giddy.
Frankly, I'd be stupid NOT to pursue something with him, she thought, taking a sip of the too-hot cocoa and cursing when it burned her tongue. But I have to be sure he's serious about it. With my luck, he'd probably end up in bed with Temari, too.
She rolled her eyes, pissed off with her own train of thought, and blew on her cocoa before lifting it to her lips for another swig.
"Well hey there, gorgeous, fancy seeing you here."
Ino reacted faster than lightning.
Her elbow flew up into the face of the suave guy behind her trying to chat her up. There was a crack, a suspicious-sounding crack that often accompanied a broken nose, followed by a familiar voice shouting, "HOLY SANTA CLAUS SHIT WHAT THE FUCKING HELL!," and then a body hitting the floor.
Ino jumped to her feet and whipped around, eyes wide in horror as she saw Kiba himself, kneeling on the ground and holding his nose, which was currently gushing gores of blood all over the plush antique carpet.
"Uh...hi, Kiba?" she squeaked. Oh crap they found us oh crap oh crap I broke Kiba's nose he'll probably hate me but he's so cute so I hope he gets over it and we totally bang or some shit and I hope the doctors can put his nose back on because I can't bang him if there's a hole there instead it'd just be too tragic and...
Naruto popped up behind the couch she'd been sitting on as well. He took one look at Kiba, doubled over in pain and trying to keep the blood in his nose where it belonged, and burst out laughing.
"SHE GOT YOU GOOD YOU ASSHOLE!" he howled. "DATTEBAYO!"
By now, they had attracted a fair amount of attention. Everyone was looking at them with wide eyes, three teenagers who were violent and rowdy and everything every single adult ever despised in a teenager. Ino's eyes narrowed as she snapped, "What the hell are you all looking at? M.Y..B!"
"The hell does that mean?" Naruto wondered, tears of mirth streaming from his eyes as he skillfully avoided vengeful retaliatory punches from Kiba.
"Mind your own fucking business," Sasuke clarified, emerging from behind the couch as well with his arms crossed. He looked annoyed and smug all at once, a typical look for him.
Three against one flat out is unfair,thought Ino. Sakura, Hinata, where the hell are you guys?
"Give it up, Ino, we got you," said the fourth member of their entourage. Ino stiffened and whirled around to see Shikamaru, speaking to her as if nothing was wrong, as if nothing had changed between them. He was wearing a coat and jeans, his ponytail hidden by a beanie, and he smelled like cigarettes.
A devious smirk crossed her face as she approached him with slow, measured steps, rather like a fox who had caught a particularly fat, naive squirrel. He had his hands in his pockets as always, and didn't flinch when her smirk widened.
"Missed you, Shikamaru," she said sweetly.
He raised an eyebrow, and stuttered out a protest when she slipped two fingers through one of the belt loops on his jeans. The other guys' eyes widened; on the floor, Kiba let out an angry snarl.
Until she glared at Shikamaru fierce enough to burn a hole through his head, hissed, "See how much use you'll get out of your precious dick after this," and emptied the rest of her cocoa right down his pants.
There was a moment of complete silence throughout the entire lodge. Everyone saw it, everyone felt Shikamaru's pain as though it were their own, and finally, Naruto collapsed to the floor in hysterics.
"OH MY FUCKING CHRIST BABY JESUS!" he yowled. "INOOOOOOO! YOU ARE AMAZING!"
Shortly thereafter, Shikamaru collapsed to the floor in hysterics as well. Only instead of peals of laughter, he was releasing screams of hellacious agony, holding himself and rolling around on the carpet cursing Ino's name. Kiba momentarily forgot his broken nose and burst out laughing as well. Even Sasuke couldn't help the dark chuckle that escaped him, and the rest of the lodge followed suit.
I cannot believe how fucking good that felt, thought Ino, staring at a writhing Shikamaru in amazement. She set the empty mug down on the coffee table, grabbed her coat, and knelt beside Kiba to plant a kiss on his cheek.
"Call me later, huh?" she asked him sweetly, and he looked up at her, his face covered in blood, his eyes watering from the impact, and a roguish grin crossed his features as he nodded in affirmation. With that, she ruffled his hair fondly and danced right out of the lodge, leaving four boys in hysterics, two boys in pain, and one boy head over heels for her, broken nose and all.
xoxoxo
His nose hurt like hell.
She'd gotten him real good. A solid elbow right to the face. It only took nine pounds of pressure to break a nose, and Ino was deceptively strong. He didn't want to imagine how much force was behind that.
He was starting to like her. Really like her. The kind of like where, if he wasn't careful, he ran the risk of starting to love her.
Ino, like Sakura, and Hinata for that matter, was the kind of girl who commanded boys' hearts. If he didn't watch his step, she'd have him eating out of the palm of her hand in no time.
Sasuke and Naruto ran to find the girls, while he and Shikamaru nursed themselves back to relative health in the bathroom. Kiba stood in the handicapped stall, staring at his reflection in the mirror and trying to coax his nose back into its previous position. Ino's dastardly elbow had smashed it into an unrecognizable shape, the type of shape one makes with the purple Cranium clay trying to model something no one would ever be able to guess. Tweaking his nose now, even gently, brought on a wave of tears, but he really felt for Shikamaru in the next stall, who was attending to "what was left of his dick."
"I feel you, man," Kiba called sympathetically.
"It's so red," Shikamaru whispered. "So red. I think these are third degree burns. That bitch third degree burned me."
You burned her first, Kiba thought dryly, but now wasn't the time to rub salt in the wound. (No pun intended.)
Oh hell. Pun intended.
"You think it'll ever work again?" Kiba asked, unable to keep the grin off his face. In a way, he had to thank Shikamaru's dick. If he hadn't used that dick on Temari, then Ino wouldn't have given up on him and jumped into bed with Kiba. In a way, he was very grateful. To whatever was left of it.
"It's just a burn," Shikamaru snapped, foultempered in the wake of this humiliating injury. "Of course it'll work again. And in the meantime, you can suck it."
"Hey, guys!" Naruto's loud voice reverberated painfully off the tiles of the massive restroom as he swept inside. "If you'r done being pathetic and the biggest pussies in the history of ever, we got good news!"
"What could possibly be good news at a time like this?" Kiba snapped. "My nose looks like ham and Shikamaru's dick got burnt off!"
Naruto burst out laughing again as Shikamaru cursed them all from his stall. Saske's impatient voice interjected with, "There's a huge blizzard coming this way. They're locking down the lodge. All of us are stuck here for the night."
"And how in the hell is that a good thing?" Kiba demanded. "We can't afford to stay in a place like this!"
"They're comping the room for us to make up for the inconvenience," Naruto said gleefully. "A free night here, all expenses paid! But the best part?"
Kiba heard, heard Sasuke smirk.
"The girls are stuck here, too. We've got 'em."
xoxoxo
note..Things have gotten a tinge dull and draggy lately in Catch You Later, so hopefully this spices things up! Next chapter: The Most Dangerous Game, ski lodge edition. I'm really on a writing kick right now so hopefully I can crank out another chapter or so tonight!
dedicated to.. Any girl who has ever wanted to dump a mug of cocoa down a boy's pants. Put your paws up.