Author's Note: Omg! Dammit this was such an annoying chapter to write! I don't know what it was about it, maybe it was that I had no idea what was going to happen, because what I first planned wasn't working for me so I completely changed it and shit came out of nowhere. What the hell is wrong with me? What's wrong with the bloody WORLD? How come this is my longest chapter when it was so freakin hard to write. I'm serious. It was like, two hours on one page. It's like DIE I HATE YOU! Stupid story.

But its worth it if you guys enjoy it. It's okay. Don't feel bad. I just tend to angst a lot. Ooooh well.

Pairings: KibaxIno (is back!), DeidaraxIno. I think that's it. God help me if I can't remember. –dies-

I'm closer to you

Than I was in the start

But I dive right in

And you tear me apart

I remember the chapter number! This one is 11 :O

Kiba had spent the first hour of the night pretending to stare dully at his glass, under the guise that he had attended simply for the promised alcohol, and was unhappy at the state of emptiness. His best friend, Shino, a PI, kept assuring him that the wine would be served soon enough, and Naruto – the bastard – kept trying to put the Alcoholics Anonymous number into his mobile.

Dick.

In actual fact, he would have considered having the coloured drink a particularly annoying (if not tempting) little obstacle. He would much rather stare through the clear glass to the loud, rambunctious blond who was clinging to that stupid cop-drop Sasuke.

That guy had rubbed Kiba the wrong way ever since they started attending the police academy together.

Him, Naruto, Sasuke, some other emotionless prick he could never remember the name of, all learning under the tutelage of off-duty CIA agents and police academy teachers alike. Kiba remembered his senior mentor with some fondness – a gorgeous woman with long black hair by the name of Kurenai, who had taken a special interest in him. She'd helped Shino too – even though he was not technically part of the organisation – and would take them both along on set-up stake outs. She would have done everything in her power to protect them, but Kiba made sure it'd never come to that. After all, women were meant to be protected, right? That was a man's job. That's what his father had told him before he died, anyway.

Heh… As if Mum and Hana need me looking after them in the first place….

Sasuke had gotten some perverted, lazy bastard, who was always known to have his head in a scary (brilliant – no, wait -) orange book. Maybe that's the reason he was such an ass all the time. It's not like his role model was anyone special to take advice from.

Well. Maybe the socially-retarded agent was doing something right after all. Either by way of tutorage or self training, Sasuke had excelled anyway. He was constantly top of the class. He passed the gun course (at first) with flying colours, and beat everyone in tracking (only just, dammit!), he was a pro at handling (seducing) the grieving families, and he aced interrogation. Whatever. You name it, he could do it. Not that he was very popular for acting like he did. To Kiba, policing was about working as a team to take down the enemy. Sasuke had never grasped that concept. Kiba and Naruto always worked well together. Even that other guy was a little better than the number 1. angst-ridden copper Sasuke Uchiha.

What did Ino want with a guy terrified of guns anyway? He was just a melodramatic little shit as far as Kiba was concerned. Cut the bull and get over it already. It wasn't like he was the only person who had crap in his life. Even if there was nothing wrong with a policeman before he started, seeing mutilated corpses and having to interview distraught relatives about something you knew was hopeless took some toll.

"Did they suffer?"

Yes.

"… No… They died quickly. They wouldn't even have felt it."

His first murder case. The truth didn't matter.

Kiba had thrown up, and had to hold onto Naruto's shoulder to stay standing. Strange… the blond never showed weakness like that….

He looked up from his glass as Ino got to her feet, making some sort of awkward flinch away from the other guy sitting to her left. He watched as she dragged Sasuke along in her wake towards the middle of the room. Kiba was one table away from the closest one from the door, and hadn't even noticed the Hyuuga bastard and his assistant come in.

Oh. That's right. Go and greet them. Happy, happy, happy.

Sasuke and Ino. Neji and Tenten. Blah, blah, blah, holding hands. Speak to her speak to him, hold his hand, stay away from the stupid middle class idiotright

Oh, he was in a good mood.

A great one.

Couldn't get any better.

"Hey, it's Sasuke! Haven't seen that bastard in ages!" Naruto said cheerily, ever the persistent ray of fucking sunshine. He had followed Kiba's irritated gaze towards the four upperclassmen, and was already getting up from his seat. Next to him, Hinata Hyuuga shuffled her chair over so that he would have more room to stand. Kiba scowled as he went off towards his old classmate.

"Is there anything wrong?" Shino asked. His head was turned in Kiba's direction, but as always, his sunglasses had been kept on – even though they were inside. He could be looking anywhere for all Kiba knew.

Now that I think about it… That's actually a good idea.

He could have a lot of fun with that.

"Nope. Nothing. I'm just really, really bored."

"… There's meant to be entertainment booked."

"They're not doing a very good job of it."

Shino sighed. Kiba looked around and saw Hinata eyeing him wearily. He felt guilty. She always made him feel guilty. Ever since he missed that… that one shot….

"Hey! Kiba! Look who it is!" Naruto grinned, practically blinding him with his stupid, optimistic smile.

Kiba leaned back in his chair, raising his chin to the other man, and more or less ignoring him. Shino greeted him politely, not even attempting a smile. This weird-looking guy to the left of the PI, who had been busy balancing as many pieces of cutlery on his fingertip as possible, shot to his feet and put his hand to his heart.

"Mr. Uchiha! Dutiful worker of whom I must protect! It is I! Lee! From the eleventh floor!"

Everyone stared at him as he continued. Sasuke looked just about ready to swallow his own tongue.

"Even though Miss. Haruno's feelings towards you appear to be absolute, I will do my best to protect you too!"

"… Hn…"

Lee promptly sat back down, having said his piece. His eyes were alert, darting all around the room. He looked like he was suffering from some sort of massive sugar overload, like he had gone completely hyper after sitting still and containing himself for so long.

Kiba leant back in his chair, pouting angrily, and refusing to look Sasuke in the face at all. He busied himself with gazing past the other man's shoulder, at the person who had been occupying most of his attention for that night. Sasuke, while his eyes slowly narrowed more and more as Naruto attempted to engage him in conversation, noticed the stare. He turned slightly, realised what the copper was looking at, and focused him with a glare so intense, it could have melted a hole through metal.

-----------------

When Naruto finally allowed Sasuke to leave – thanks to the suggestion of Hinata herself – Kiba relaxed slightly. Slightly being the key word here. Seeings as though they were still way too close to each other for his liking – had Ino had some bout of separation anxiety when he came over to Kiba's table? She wouldn't let him go – he wasn't too pleased. He returned to his former position, head resting on his arms, staring through the glass.

If he had been paying proper attention, he would have noticed the silent staring from Hinata to Naruto, the blushing every time he turned his head, and the long breath released through Shino's nose whenever it happened. He would have noticed that Naruto kept glancing over his shoulder towards Ino's table whenever he could – whenever he thought no one was watching.

But, unfortunately, everyone knew that Naruto wasn't the most subtle of people. Hinata saw every time he did it, and her shy smile got even less and less throughout the time they spent together.

Kiba growled as the lights suddenly dimmed, making him unable to see anything – especially not Ino, who was mostly hidden from his angle by two black haired men in black suits. He straightened up. Stupid Uchiha's and their stupid camouflage abilities. Stupid bastards, the whole lot of them.

Bastards.

Bastards.

Bastards!

Some guy was getting onto the stage, opening the lid of the grand piano. He looked familiar… in a bad sort of way. Kiba knew he knew him from somewhere. Somewhere he wasn't ever supposed to be….

What was it?

As pale fingers struck the first chords, Naruto shot his companion a quick look through the shadow. Both men struggled to figure out where they knew the pianist from.

As the Christmas carol was sung, Kiba just put his head back down on his folded arms and replaced his frustrated, confused face with his familiar scowl. He was a bad tempered old shit tonight.

Stupid asshole of a pianist… Heh. Pianist… Couldn't we still have the lights on while he did this? He's not that great. He didn't need a spotlight. What if I was doing something and they turn the lights off and then I can't see anymore, and I end up hurting myself – or someone else? Bet they never thought of that, did they?

This is stupid. This whole stupid party is stupid.

He blinked as Sasori's spotlight changed, moving to another position and making it so that he could see through it to Ino's table. They were all barely lit, but he could pick out the shining white skirt and the pale blond hair. His mood lightened considerably.

Wait… What are they doing?

He got to his feet as swiftly as possible as Ino held her face in her hands, shoulders shaking. That Sasuke-fucking-asshole had fucking punched her! What the fuck was wrong with this girl? Why go out with a stupid shit like him when Kiba was right there and liked her so much? He started towards her, ignoring the angry hisses of the people he was blocking. As she changed direction, so did he. She was slinking around the back of the dining hall, heading towards the door.

------------------

"I'll kill him."

"Don't be stupid."

Kiba growled, eyes adjusting to the sudden brightness of the staircase outside the dining room. He and Ino were there alone; him, standing against the door, and her leaning tiredly on the wall across from him.

"Ino. He hit you."

She tossed her hair back behind her shoulder. "He didn't mean to. It was an accident."

I knew he was sensitive about his family, but… Itachi is all he has left…. Why was he so violent?

"Your cheek is fucking purple."

She turned her gaze to the floor, seeming too tired to argue with him. Quietly, she pulled a small pink mirror from her handbag, and looked at the injury herself.

He was right. It had already bruised pretty badly.

I didn't even think it was that hard…

But she hadn't had many head injuries. They're always quick to bruise, and prefer floods to trickles when the skin is cut.

It wasn't too big, just along the line of her left cheekbone. But it was noticeable. Very noticeable. She needed something to cover it. Her hair would be okay if it was only for a short amount of time, but the night wouldn't be over for hours yet, and she had to stay for cleanup.

"All it needs is a bit of cover-up," she said, half to Kiba, half to herself. "It doesn't hurt much when I move it, so it'll be fine. What's the worst that could happen? I stay quiet a little more than usual? Everyone'll probably be thankful."

"If you shut up they'll know something's wrong," he snapped, crossing his arms and glaring at her through narrowed brown eyes. Her attempts at humour were lost on him. He was too fucking pissed off. And worried. And pissed off.

"I hate you."

"I don't care."

"You do."

"I do. And you don't. So it's fine."

She just scowled at his serious face, and returned her attention back to the mirror. One hand held it to her face while the other one went digging around in her handbag, feeling for the foundation she had brought along.

Ah, makeup could make it all better…

"Can you hold the mirror for me?" she asked. To her defense, it was unreasonably difficult for her to apply it with one hand. That's what bathrooms were for. With basins and sinks and big mirrors she didn't have to hold!

"No. I want to take you home. Or to a doctor. Either way is fine with me."

He eyed the mirror as if it had played a massive part in injuring her. It reminded him of those people that weren't involved in the actual murders, but that hid the bodies anyway, and thought they were guiltless. Obstructing justice.

Burn, bastards.

"What? You wouldn't! I worked so hard on this stupid thing, and you're not taking me away from it! Besides! This is like, nothing! It's just a little bruise -"

Lucky the doors were so thick, otherwise Kiba's frustrated shout would have been heard by everyone. "It looks like someone has smashed a fucking plum all over your cheek!"

"It's not that bad!" she countered, throwing her mirror to the floor angrily, mentally wincing as it hit the ground and smashed.

Seven years. Ah, crap.

Both were silent, then Kiba sighed, dropped his tightly crossed arms to his sides. They both stared, each trying to make the other understand.

Eventually he knelt and picked up the mirror.

"You don't have to -"

His irritated growl cut her off. Couldn't she just let him pick the freakin' thing up? He was already there, he was already doing it, couldn't she just be happy with the favour and not make a big deal? What the hell was with women anyway?

"Fine. Do what you want. I don't care," she spat, irritated that someone she was fighting with was being mature.

"Here," he said, holding the pocket object and suddenly seeming taller than he ever had before. "Take your stupid mirror back."

"Fine!" she snapped, slapping her hand on the mirror and making to take at back. She groaned inwardly at his gasp of pain. She didn't want to lift her hand.

This is not a nice night. This sucks. It sucks it sucks it sucks.

--------------

"You think people will come looking for me?" she asked, sighing as she shifted in the uncomfortable waiting seats at the hospital. "We're gonna be in here for ages, you know that? Casualty sucks."

She'd lightened towards him once she impaled his hand with glass.

"Well. If you hadn't shoved this crap through me, we wouldn't be here."

She punched him on the arm, and immediately felt bad. He could see it in her face. It made him smirk.

"People are looking at us weird," Ino observed, changing the subject and shooting a 'what are you looking at' glare to some freak across the room with a heavily bandaged foot.

"That's because I'm a wife beater and you tried to fight back for once, succeeded, and felt bad, because I'm going to be even angrier, and beat you even harder next time." He fought back a wide-eyed stare from a woman a couple of seats away from him.

He seemed to have worked that out kind of thoroughly.

"Oh."

"Yeah. Oh."

Kiba sighed, leaning back in his chair and cradling his arm. Was that rain he heard?

Probably.

Just their luck. They had to walk there in the first place. True, it was only a couple of blocks away, but it was raining heavy. It was raining so bad that when some idiot who'd gotten drunk and tried to feed children to Chihuahuas and gotten beaten up by a gang of mothers because of it opened the door to come and whine to Casualty about how unlucky he was, water from outside was released all over the floor.

Not nice.

In fact, crappy!

Kiba snarled his protests. Ino, who usually would have done the same, was having to laugh at him to keep from crying.

"Kiba Inuzuka?"

The nurse from the ward announced his name, and he and Ino looked up at her. Her eyes darted from Ino's face to Kiba's hand, and immediately she lit up in a bright, fake smile. Everything will be okay. Domestic violence. It's okay. You don't have to be embarrassed.

"Would you like to come through?"

"Yeah… okay…." He sounded resigned.

Ino went to follow him, but the nurse placed a hand on her shoulder, gave her a long, hard 'I know what you're going through, you don't have to be in there with him' look, and wouldn't let her through. The blond secretary started to say something, and caught sight of Kiba's face just before the door closed on her.

Where the hell do you think you're going?

-----------------

"Sasuke? Yeah. It's me - …. No, I'm fine. I just had to take one of my friends into Casualty. He hurt his hand…. No it's not just an excuse! I'm fine! No – No, shut up. I said shut up! I might be here for awhile, so just have fun without me, okay? I'll be back as soon as I can, alright?"

She listened dully to his protests. Why did the guy ever bother arguing with her in the first place? It was futile, after all. If she wanted to do something, she would do it. Honestly. What was he going to do, come down to Casualty himself?

She shuddered at the thought.

Disastrous.

She checked her watch. She'd been there for twenty minutes. Kiba had been inside for five. She was happy, in a way, that he got priority. He had glass shards in his hands, which needed to be taken out lest it get infected. Plus he was still bleeding. She remembered this one time, ages ago, when she had had to go to hospital. She was suffering from serious migraines, and they made her wait for almost four hours, bumping her back for what they considered more serious cases. By the end, it felt like her head had just torn apart.

She sighed and sank down in her chair, playing with the end of her white skirt. God those Christmas earrings were a pain. Fuzzy and heavy with lights and stuff. Maybe she should turn those off….

She sighed as her phone went off again.

"Sasuke, what the hell do you – Oh. Hi, Deidara…? Why are you using Sasuke's phone?"

"I don't have your number."

Oh. Der.

"What's up?"

In the background, she could hear Tenten's voice. She seemed to be trying to get people to talk to each other. Neji told her dully to stop trying a couple of times, and Sasori was laughing politely at jokes Sakura was making. Hidan was saying something, but she couldn't understand much of it.

"Oi. Deidara. Who're you talking to? That doesn't look like your phone."

The blond model sighed, and through the phones it sounded like a huge burst of static.

"You need to come back here."

"I don't want to walk in the rain," she told him. Why would she want to go back? She felt too bad about Kiba anyway. She wouldn't go until he'd been bandaged up and everything, no matter the stares she had to endure from the people around her. Were they still going on about that?

Urgh.

"Fine. See you later then."

He hung up.

---------------------

"Um… hey. I'm Kiba Inuzuka's friend? Are you done with him yet? It's been like, half an hour already. There wasn't that much glass, was there?"

"Oh, right… him. We had to take him away… for… surgery." The nurse was lying. How obvious did they want to get?

"Why does he need surgery? It wasn't that serious!"

"I just do what I'm told."

Ino scowled darkly, and watched with narrowed eyes as she closed the door and went around to the counter behind the glass where people had to fill out their details before they were admitted.

"See…. That's the one I was talking about…."

"Poor girl…. She must be so scared of him to still be here…."

"Yeah…. We can't let her in no matter what. It's best for her to just get away why she can…"

"… Called Social Services….

The blond slapped her head in frustration. Maybe it would be easier to just go.

"Ino!"

She swung round to see a slightly damp Deidara walk through the door, shaking off a black umbrella and pushing back blond hair from his eyes. She walked over to him, arms crossed.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, closing the door behind him to stop the water that was flooding around her feet. "I was going to come back eventually."

He smiled and frowned in turn. "What happened to you?" His eyes darted around the room, trying to find the 'friend' she was meant to be there with.

Ino shrugged, put a strand of hair behind her ear. "Nothing much. Just had a bit of an accident."

Deidara stared at her hard, then closed his eyes and dipped his head backwards, stretching out his neck. When he finally looked back at her, he appeared nonchalant about the whole situation.

"Mmmkay… Come on then," he offered, grinning as he opened the door again and both of them were hit by the wind and rain. Ino slapped at his arm, getting him to close the door.

"You're completely destroying these clothes! Deidara, you must think about what you're doing."

"I apologise," he told her, dipping his head gracefully. Stepping in front of her, he opened the door again, flaring open the umbrella and holding it out like a shield. "This time, I'll protect you and your beautiful clothes, milady. Never fear."

Ino smiled reluctantly, and looked away towards the admittance desk. The nurse managing it was giving her a less-than-subtle encouraging smile. No way will we let you be near him, she was saying. Go with the nice man.

Did she dare? Kiba would be so pissed…. And she would feel really, really bad. But she did have to get back to the party. Otherwise everything would go downhill without her!

Obviously.

She sighed, left Deidara, who sneered at the rain as it soaked through the bottoms of his pant legs, and left a message saying sorry, and that she had had to go with the do-good nurse.

"Okay. Let's go."

I'll admit it, I'm strung out by your touch

But I can't get enough

We are so unstable

Unstable, by Adema. One of my much-loved bands that no one has ever heard of.

Now. We have a bit of a dilemma. Chief among them, I'm going to Bush School in two days, and that goes for the whole week. Tents, sex ed and geography. I love geography. Anyway. Lots of contact with people, which means separation anxiety towards my computer and my cat. Talent nights, spiders (eep), snakes (YAY! D) and other such campy things. Wow. Haven't camped for a very long time.

Um, I know that some of the bits in this chapter were a little unrealistic. So there's really no need to comment on that. Every time I post something it is critically evaluated, so there is very little possibility that there is something I didn't mean to put in here. I'm sorry, by the way, for the spelling mistakes in last chapter. I am disgusted.

Anyway, so unfortunately, next chapter might be a bit late… like the others. I'm sorry, I just really have to get on top of all my other stupid shit.

Oh! Speaking of shit, Stephanie. You better fucking hurry up, otherwise I might have to smash your piggy bank. If you love your piggy bank half as much as I do, then this means you will want to join it in the depths of hell, and its quite a considerable threat. OR of course, I could rearrange your circulatory system while you're still conscious.

Anyway, Au Revoir.

Quote: leche ma chatte