Harima POV

I have a new favorite band. I mean the guys in the band were just so awesome. Kiba…was just so talented. Had he written a song yet? At one point, I fell asleep because there were no more CDs and no one else to bother me, so I put my feet on the table and a book over my eyes and took in the music. The last song spoke the most to me. It was funny.

I felt more than heard the people leave the underground club. The hot stuffiness was eroding away and I could breathe normally. Sweet freedom, I thought dryly. I heard the dollar bills rustle in Temari's hands as she counted the money.

I had more fun tonight than I'd ever had. I began to wonder if I was getting a share of this money. There was a freaking lot of it.

"I'm rich! Rich, I say!" Kiba yelled. He must have been talking about the money haul we made. I chuckled within myself. He was crazy.

"So what's the plan now?" I heard Temari ask. I was about to ask the same thing.

"The after party…" Neji said simply. "At my house…"

Naruto and Kiba snickered. "After party is an understatement." That could only mean one thing. The guys were planning an orgy. Good thing I had to go home tonight. Somehow, I'd rather be called a suicidal bitch than wind up pregnant.

I stretched and packed up to go home. Akamaru, who had been either hiding or guarding me under my chair, chased his tail, sat and looked up at me as if to say "You're leaving now?"

"Hey, Akamaru. I have to go home now." I shoved my stuff in my bag and tossed it over my shoulder. "But you be a good boy for Kiba-kun, okay?" I bent down to his level and he jumped me and licked my face. I loved him too.

I thought nobody noticed when I started up the stairs. That was the way I wanted it. They made me wear a skirt today and they were not going to do anymore damage to my soul. Ino would drag me to the Hyuuga house if she could get her hands on me quick enough.

The sky was totally dark when I looked outside. I'm glad my left hook was known as an illegal weapon. Of course, hailing a cab around here was going to be torture. I might as well have taken the express train.

I'd walked about three blocks away from the underground club and I was almost at the train station when I heard my name being yelled out. I was the only one out on the street this late at night so whoever was calling me must have meant me. That and I was certain that I was the only Harima in the world.

"Harima! Wait up!"

I turned around and saw Kiba running towards me. I slowed my pace to let him match my strides. He looked tired for once.

"Are…you…crazy?" He asked. I looked at up at him. Did he finally go crazy in club fumes? "You can't walk by yourself at night. You might get kidnapped?" He raged on and on.

"Kiba-kun…"

"I mean, I already don't like you going home where you know you're in danger…" he continued.

"Kiba-kun…"

"I mean, I hate that you do that to yourself!"

"Kiba! You can walk me home if you want to…" That sounded too demanding. No I've done it.

That shut him up real quick. He looked down at me and smiled. I smiled too. His smile faded a little bit and then returned. "Good choice, Harima."

I could have made it home by myself, but either way I was happy that he wanted to walk me home. I never understood the male urge to be the alpha male of anything. Especially Kiba. I made it to my apartment building.

"You live in an apartment?" Kiba asked. "I always thought you would live in a small house, but an apartment?" He was cute but I needed him to shut up.

We stepped up the metal stairs and the metal clangs made my teeth itch. There, outside my door, was Ryu leaning on the wall outside the door, smoking a cigarette. I stopped in midstep and started to turn around but he'd seen me.

"Harima…decided to come home I see…" he said slimily. "Welcome home." He smiled that smile he had when he first made a pass at me. I was scared all over again. Ryu's devilish grin melted away when he saw who was with me. You can feel the static between the two.

"What the hell do you want?" Ryu asked. "Why you still hanging around this slut?" Huh…slut was a new one.

"She's no slut! You no good son of a bitch!" Kiba swore. I turned around to look at him. He met my eye and shut up.

"She's a slut if she's still hanging around you." That tore it, I would kill him myself! As much as I would have loved to use my left hook on his nose, I couldn't do it.

"Harima…" Kiba said, turning my face to his. "Remember what I said. I'll always be around." I gritted my teeth and blushed. What I would've done jump his bones right then and there. I smiled at him and wished that I could kiss him, but I didn't. I pulled away from him and bolted into the house before Ryu could touch me.

I tried to imagine Kiba's expression when I left, but I couldn't see it. I peeked out of the window. He and Ryu were talking pretty heatedly. What could they be talking about? I went into the kitchen to get a snack. I was long overdue for my midnight snack. I found my container of SOUL CANDY I bought when I was ten, but never opened. What I wouldn't give to come out of myself.

They were out there for five more minutes before Ryu came in and slammed the door. "Harima..." He said in that singsong voice that sent a chill down my spine. I bolted for my room and reached for the door to close it, but there was nothing there. I started to panic. I looked around and there next to my room was the door to my room. I had to hide. There was nowhere to hide…he had me. He finally had me.

He leaned on the doorway. "I hope you didn't think that bringing that moronic douche was going to stop me." I was scared shitless. No, I was more than scared shitless. This was my horror movie moment. This is how I'm going to die. I couldn't cry or scream or anything. I lost all use of motor skills. I looked around for a way out, but there was only the window. The window only led to the fire escape and even then, I couldn't get too far.

"I need you to handle something, Harima…" he said stepping toward me. I backed away, but he caught me and "kissed" me again. He picked me up over his shoulder and got me on my bed. I struggled under him. "This might hurt you a little bit now but it would only be for now…"

Those words cut through me like a knife through butter. Concentrate on something else, Harima I said to myself. I heard something land on the fire escape but it was probably the kid that lives above us trying to make his action movie again.

I screamed bloody murder. I'm serious. When most people say that, they have no idea the power it holds. Bloody murder. Still, we were talking about the guy who thinks bloodshed of females is funny. What the hell had I done to deserve this?

Kiba POV

"You get lucky tonight, kid?" Ryu asked me like we were friends. "You kept her out pretty damn late."

"Don't talk about Harima that way," I snapped. No one could talk about Harima that way. "Why the hell are you doing this to her?"

Ryu chuckled. "She's a girl. Girls were put on this earth to make more men. To hell with this falling in love crap." He lit another cigarette as he glared at me.

"Harima…is not going to fight you. She's scared of you. You're taking advantage of that," I said. "I don't even know why she came back here."

Ryu smiled that smile that struck fear in Harima's eyes. "She knows she wants it. You know you got some nerve coming here after you sucker punched me."

"She doesn't want anything from you. If I could, I'd kick your ass right here and now." I said getting more and more angry.

"So you did get lucky!" he exclaimed. "Was she any good?

"No, Harima's not like that and neither am I."

"Fine then. Get the hell out of here. I got work to do!" he said opening the door and stalking into the house. He slammed the door after himself. I heard him say her name and I tried to get in but the door was locked shut.

"Damn!" I said. I had to find her window and save her. I ran to the end of the hallway and found her fire escape. I jumped up and climbed onto the iron-wrought fire escape. I saw to shadows behind the blinds of a window. This must be Harima's room.

"I need you to handle something, Harima…" one shadow picked the other oneup and threw it on the bed. It yelped. "This might you a little bit for now but it's only for now."

That night, I discovered something that made me angrier than I've ever been. It froze my heart and clouded my judgment. It was my red cape to a bull. It was the sound of Harima Riuzi's scream.

Out of rage I shouldered the window in and it fell at the foot of the bed so it didn't hit anyone, but Ryu didn't look very appealing with one hand up her shirt and the other reaching up her skirt. That skirt was giving her hell. It made me crazy.

Harima looked both relieved and embarrassed when she saw my face. Ryu stood up snaking his hands back to himself. Harima brought her knees to her chest in the corner of her bed. She looked like Akamaru did when we first got him and Hana tripped over him

"Damn kid, you're tearing up my place," he said lazily. I clipped him in his face and fell against her dresser. He got back up and I climbed through the window to commit murder to whatever my fist landed on. Hurting her was unforgivable and I would not let him get away with it.

I was blinded with fury, if that makes any sense. I wasn't thinking about anything except how he was screwing around with Harima. Then I kind of blacked out.

When I came back to myself, Ryu was on the floor and his face looked like I put it in a blender. There was a twinge of guilt but that was because Harima had watched the whole thing. This should have proved what I said to her.

She shifted her stare from me to Ryu. She didn't know what to think.

"You see what I mean, Harima?" I said harshly. She locked her daze on my eyes, hooking onto every word. I sat in front of her as she tried not to cry. "Do you see what you do to me?"

She whimpered. "Did he do anything?" I demanded, grabbing her shoulders. She looked down but didn't answer. "Harima!"

I didn't bother to wait for her answer so I went to her dresser and shoved random stuff into my backpack. I wasn't going to let her stay here with that sicko.

"Come on," I said. "You're not staying here."

Harima hesitated and looked at me. Then she started to move off of her bed and onto the floor. She tiptoed around Ryu quietly. When he stirred, she shrieked and fliched. I grabbed her arm and pulled her over to me. She never met my eye.

It was four in the morning and I'd just kicked a grown man's ass for a girl I was crazy about. At least I could never say my life was uneventful.

Harima never looked as tattered as she did then. She looked angry and embarrassed and didn't say a word. On the train to my house, she leaned on my shoulder and I thought she was asleep. I was still angry at Ryu for violating Harima and Harima for going back there when she knew that something like that was likely to happen.

Then she started talking.

Harima POV

He saved me. I thought it would just be a dream that would never happen, but Kiba saved me. I've never seen anyone kick someone's ass as badly as that. I guess I was kind of stupid for going back to Ryu when he wasn't exactly coming in my room to tuck me in at night.

Kiba led me to the train station, never letting go of my hand, which was clammy and cold in his hands. I was just trying to process the whole thing. On the train, he guarded me from anyone that was lecherous enough to look at me. Without meaning to, I leaned on his shoulder. I was really sleepy so I didn't bother to pick my head back up.

I decided to tell him everything.

"It wasn't the first time he's ever tried that…" I started. Kiba looked down at me, confused. So I continued. "That night he came to get me from the mall? That was the first time. The only reason he didn't do it that night is because I locked him out."

He didn't say anything and I took it as his way of saying it was my turn to speak.

"Tonight, he took the door off the hinge so I couldn't lock him out. So he got farther than he did the first time."

"How far did he get the first time? Why the hell did you let him do that to you?" Kiba demanded.

"Don't you think I know that, Kiba? I can't keep staying in someone else's house!" I snapped. "He's all I got!"

"Where the hell is your mom? All this talk about Ryu, you've never talked about her!" Kiba responded.

I recoiled. "Hell if I know!" Hot tears streamed down my face. "I haven't seen my mom since we moved here!"

His face softened. "Harima…"

I had to cry right then and there. I buried my face in his shirt sleeve and did not hold back. He moved himself so that I was no longer on his shoulder, but on his chest. He rested one hand on my head and the other on my back.

"Stop crying Harima," he sighed. "I hate it when you're upset."

"Why does it matter to you?" I asked. My voice was groggy and I sounded horrible. "Why did you come to save me anyway?" I pulled away to look up at Kiba and wipe my eyes.

"I kind of thought that was obvious enough, but I guess not," he said. He put a finger under my chin and smiled at me. My heart raced faster and faster the closer he got to my face.

As the space between my lips and his closed…

"You have reached downtown Konoha. All passengers must get off the train at this stop…"

Perfect. Kiba pulled away with a vein pulsing hard on his temple. "Come one Harima," he said grabbing my arm and his backpack. I got up and followed him. We got off the train and I noticed that we were the only ones there.

Kiba turned me around to face him. That wild smile of his dominated my judgment. "You don't think I forgot that easily did you?" He threw my arms over his shoulders and kissed me.

Oh my God, I thought. He kissed me. He's still kissing me. I guess there was nothing left for me to do since I couldn't pull away. He had hold of my arms. I guess all I could do was close my eyes let it happen.

Somehow I never thought I'd have my first real kiss in a train station at four in the morning and he saved my virginity.