Hige had just finished tying his shoelaces when he heard his doorbell ring.

"Coming!" he called as he used the couch to push himself up. Hige unlocked the door and opened it, not at all surprised to see Kiba there.

"Yo," Kiba grinned.

Hige laughed and stepped aside with a shake of his head.

"Thanks for not dragging my ass out of the apartment," said Hige after he'd closed the door.

"Right," said Kiba suspiciously. "Which is exactly why you put on shoes."

Hige looked down at his sneakers and flushed. "Well, it's normal for me to think I'm going somewhere." Hige shrugged. "People haven't actually come over since Blue and I-" Hige looked away.

"Look, Hige," said Kiba seriously. "Blue's out of your life now. You don't have to keep thinking about her. Move on, because by the look of things, she certainly has."

Hige sighed, his light and not-so-upset mood having been completely shredded by the thought of Blue. "Sometimes I'm really not so sure. It just felt so odd with her, but now that she's gone, I wonder if I was only afraid that things would have worked with us."

Hige kicked off his shoes next to where Kiba had set his and sat on the couch. Kiba sat next to him, and Hige turned on the television.

Neither Hige nor Kiba spoke for the next half hour, unless it was to comment on something on the show they were watching.

Hige glanced at Kiba out of the corner of his eye. Well, he couldn't deny that Kiba was attractive, but guys were just never the thing for him. Or at least they never had been. All Hige could think about were the things that Kiba had said. What if he should give Kiba a try? He couldn't just wait around for Blue, even if that was absolutely not what he was doing.

"Dang, Hige, what has you thinking so hard?" asked Kiba with a slight laugh.

Hige was brought out of his thoughts quickly. "Nothing really." Hige felt the warmth creep up to his cheeks. Oh no, he was so not blushing.

"Sure," Kiba said sarcastically. "And that's exactly why you're blushing. You were thinking about Blue weren't you."

"No I wasn't!" Hige looked away. Well, it was either do or die at this point. Sink or swim. "I, well, I was thinking about you actually." Hige flushed and felt more like sinking.

"Seriously?" Kiba looked rather surprised. "I mean, I thought you weren't going to go for guys."

"Well, has it worked for you?" sighed Hige. "Since Cheza died, I mean. Have you been happier with guys?"

Kiba thought about it for a minute. "Well, yeah." He paused. "But of course, that's only because I've never met another girl like Cheza."

Hige simply nodded.

"Look, you should think about it before jumping into anything like that," said Kiba. "But I think I should probably go now. No offense, but it's kind of gotten a little awkward."

"No, wait!" rushed Hige as Kiba stood up to leave. Hige grabbed onto his hand and Kiba sighed and sat down.

"Hige, you really don't seem all together right now."

Hige huffed. "I'm perfectly together. You're right, I should experiment a little bit. I mean, I'm young, I have time."

Kiba nodded. "Yeah, that is true." Kiba was sorely tempted to tell Hige that he couldn't just try things with people, especially since emotions always got involved, but he just didn't have the heart to.

"Look," Hige took in a deep breath. His stomach filled with butterflies that he'd never even noticed were there. "You'd made an offer, right?"

"Are you talking about the other day?" asked Kiba.

Hige nodded. "Yeah."

"Hige, have you even kissed a guy before?" Kiba looked at him curiously.

Hige flushed and shook his head. Kiba simply sighed and leaned closer to Hige, their lips almost touching. "I can stop any time you want me to."

So many ideas ran through Hige's head. Dammit, the problem with choosing swim over sink, do over die, is that you actually have to go through with it. He could smell Kibas after-shave, or soap, or something. Whatever it was, the smell was completely intoxicating and clouded his mind way too much.

Before Hige could shrug it off and say 'screw it', he let his lips press against Kiba's. Kiba didn't deepen the kiss or anything, it was just simple and chaste, almost like his first kiss, which in a sense it was a first kiss.

Kiba pulled away after a few seconds. "Well, now you've kissed a guy. Any sparks or ideas as to what you're going to do?"

Hige shook his head. The butterflies in his stomach, in fact, had worsened, and not to mention something else had grown along with the amount of fluttery insects in his stomach.

Author's note: Hey everyone! I'm really sorry for the shortness of this chapter. Gah, I wanna kick myself b/c I can't seem to make them longer! Anyways, please keep reviewing, I seem to be at a slight standstill, and reviews help with that. Honestly! But I would like to ask everyone how many chapters they would like to see for this fic. I wasn't exactly sure. I'm thinking about 12, but if anyone else has any ideas of any sort, please let me know.Thanks! Aeorith