Chapter 4: Heart Ache

The rest of the day went on along a similarly odd progression of Kiba's drama. Kiba refused to acknowledge me beyond cold looks and swiftly giving me the cold shoulder. I was at first entertained by the petulance of my crush and friend, but then I was irritated then infuriated. He was mad at me for speculating his change in interest towards me? What gave him the right to be mad, he had been blatantly ignoring me for months, and now suddenly he cares? I avoided the lunch room and my friends for the day so I could brood over the obnoxious behavior of Kiba. I was beyond irritated by the end of the day, when the school bell rang the bitter taste of spite was in my mouth once again and I was glad to return to my apartment to beat up my karate bag which had seen much since I beg my training at the age of 9.

But my journey home was not so simple, since I was interrupted by none other than Kiba Inuzaka himself. He stopped while I walked down the pavement towards the train station and he said "Naruto, we need to talk." And at this, after the months of neglect and solitude, I snapped. I responded in the most bitter and passive aggressive tone ever "We need to talk? Isn't that rich, considering that you have been ignoring me for the past two months. Why should I talk to you right now? You have not spoken to me for more than a sentence at a time and now you get insulted when I am surprised by your concern for how I am. Figure out if you actually still want me to be your friend and then come back to me!" And with that Naruto shoved him aside and almost stomped of towards the station. Not looking back at the damage and not entirely caring to either.

Kiba's POV:

There I was standing in the middle of the sidewalk, having just gotten yelled at by Naruto. To be honest I felt terrible for what I had done to him. I had actively avoided Naruto since the end of Christmas vacation and now he had finally told me off. I looked down at the side walk as I tried to avoid crying in public. I felt like a coward for what I had done to him and I silently walked back to my apartment where I would sit and brood over how to deal with the fact that my best friend was mad at me and even worse I was head over heels in love with him.

I reached the apartment and had expected for Hana to still be at RPI and for my mom to be down stairs in the clinic. But I was mistaken and before having known this I collapsed against the closed door to be found by Hana. She startled me and tried to wipe away the tears as if she didn't hear me crying and see how red my eyes were. She knelt down and with a look of deep concern and loving voice asked "What's up little bro?" And before I could even begin she grabbed my hand and said "I know what will cheer you up!" and she walked me into the kitchen where I finally smelt the aroma of fresh made chocolate chip cookies. I was drooling at the sight of the steaming tray of cookies when she sat me down and made a small assortment of cookies and filled two cups of milk for us and set them on the table along with herself in the chair next to me and said "Eat." And with that I ate the cookies and guzzled down the milk as I had not eaten in ages. She sat by and chuckle at my wolfish eating habits as she usually did and then finished her cup of milk before letting me finish.

Once I was done she looked at me and asked "Feeling better?" and with that I sighed and said "Yes." lying again. She rolled her eyes as she did so very well and said "Cut the crap or I will get mom to ask you." And with that I was faced with a decision, give my mother to snoop in my life, or find a confidant in my sister, I picked the latter. I sighed and said "I have a crush on someone I have known for ever and I think they wouldn't like me if I told them." being short and sweet with my confession. She asked a stunningly insightful question, which was "Is it Naruto?" I gasped and looked at her with awe, how had she come to that so quickly. When I asked her she softly chuckled and said "You are acting like a love sick teenage girl and it was even worse when Naruto was over during Christmas break. I suspected that Naruto was not the only one with homosexual tendencies." She said proud of her power of observation. I asked "Are you mad?" Hana laughed and said "Of course not, Little Bro. Two of my best friends were gay so I have absolutely no problem with you. I love you remember." I sighed and said "Thank you Hana, I love you too." Hana smiled and then proceeded to asking me "So what's the problem with Naruto?" I paused before explaining my past three months of quiet longing and love sickness.

It was the day after Christmas and Naruto had slept over, he was on the couch next to mine and he was still asleep. We had built this habit of hanging out every holiday since we were kids. Sun was streaming into the room through the shades and onto Naruto's sleeping form as I walk into the room with two cappuccinos that my sister made for us. He is peaceful in his sleep with a bizarre serenity about him that seems to elude the world the rest of the time. I am stunned by not only his serene appearance, but by his appearance in general, never had I admired my friend as a person and not just a lifelong pal. He had grown so much since they were kids, becoming a tall and athletic boy with gorgeous blonde hair and his still stunning aqua blue eyes. I continued to think about how he had grown through the years. After he had come out he had grown so used to adversity from bigots at their school and that incident at Konoha co. that he had grown to be a bit more resolute, but also less joyous. I missed his smile, I mean his real one. and for some reason my chest started to hurt, this was a pain that I was unfamiliar with. It was not bad, but not good, as I continued to admire Naru, the pain grew more and more. Before I could stop myself I leaned into him and pecked him on the lips. I was absorbed into that second of beauty. His lips were soft like petals and they tasted sweet like honey. But when I remembered he could wake up at any moment I started back and ghosted over to the window so he wouldn't wake up to find me hovering over him if he did. I stood at the window in shock at my actions and simply let my heart settle down before I raised the shutter blinds and turned on the radio which was playing, to my misfortune, Hot and Cold by Katy Perry. Naruto's blue eyes fluttered open before he sat up and stretched while smiling at the sun. There was the ache again, attacking my chest with the beauty of my best friend. Naruto looked at me with his smile and waved at me silently before gapping at the caramel cappuccinos my sister made for us and guzzled his down. With a smile and a sigh he put the cup down and I chuckled at his foam mustache that was left over from the cappuccino. I looked bemusedly at his confused grin before I pointed out the foam and he rolled his eyes before wiping his lips with his sleeve in his blatant and boyish fashion that had me grinning from ear to ear. We spent the rest of the morning together watching Arrested Development and laughing our guts out at the hilarity of the Bluth family before he left for work. I waved him off and caught myself admiring his legs and ass as he walked down the hall and down the stairwell. I ran to my room and relieved myself before gasping and realizing that I was enamored with my bisexual best friend.

The next few months around Naruto were hellish, I could not avoid checking him out every time we saw each other and I barely avoided actually flirting with the guy. I had to avoid his gaze as much as possible so to not experience my cheeks turning crimson with a blush that would hint towards my crush. In the end, my crush resulted in myself avoiding my beautiful best friend just to avoid my feelings for him. But the more I did so the more cold he would grow and the loneliness in my heart would devour me each night. In my attempt to fall out of love my heart felt like it had grown chained to the happiness and love of that gorgeous man. I could not bear this anymore, so yesterday I traipsed up the streets of Manhattan into Naru's H&M and I invited myself over to his house for vacation. Of course he did not refuse me and he agreed with a joke, punch on the shoulder and a smile that I could tell was faked. I left with an excited flutter in my chest and went to Starbucks to tell Nate, who knew about my predicament since I drunkenly confessed to my love for Naruto on New Year's Eve, the good news. Nate was alone at the counter because Hill was on break down the street at Dunkin Donuts which she preferred to Starbucks. I told Nate that I would be trying to bring up the nerve to ask Naru out on a date and he said "Really!? That is so awesome dude!" and then he hugged me from across the counter and said "Latte's to celebrate!" and then proceeded to make a delicious caramel latte for me and a hazelnut one for him. He drank his as we talked about his troubles with getting Sean to get up the nerve to ask him when Sean burst into the café with only three other customers inside and said "Nate, I need to talk to you!" and I stared with bemused shock at the rosy cheeked boy and I raised my eyebrows at Nate who responded with a smirk and said "Yes?" to Sean as I left the two to their affairs, suspicious that Nate's work was effective on the cute boy with buzzed hair, pierced ears and grey eyes and a tattoo. I smirked as I exited the café encouraged by the events taking place.

K: Hey, Naruto! What's up?

N: Watching a movie, you?

K: Not much, you seemed a bit off at H&M today, is something the matter?

I was trying to pry out some information on his troubles while I could for the evening.

N: Nothing, I was just tired, thanks for asking tho. Ttyl.

I sighed at the blatant lie and tried to ask him more, but after the third text I gave up and accepted that he either shut his phone off or was ignoring me in some other fashion. I went to bed in my spider man tee and boxers, anxious to find out what was wrong with my best friend and hopefully future boyfriend.

I woke up to the sound of my sister's singing of the song Unwritten by Natasha Bedingfield (Who was undervalued by society in my opinion) and I chuckled as I rolled out of bed and shut off my alarms that were meant to wake me in a minute any ways. I hopped up and grabbed my clothes I was gonna wear and went into the shower. I spent the majority of the shower having dirty daydreams about my foxy friend and relieving I pesky morning wood that persisted to present issues since that morning with Naruto. Once I was out of the shower, dry and dressed with deodorant I admired myself in the mirror wondering if I would be enough for Naru. I was greeted with the familiar rivets of my abs and muscled chest, pleased with the effectiveness of my regular work out sessions with Nate and Hill. I looked at my legs and lower regions, pleased with both, especially my perky rear which I planned on using to lure in Naruto eventually these next two weeks. I looked up in the mirror to be greeted by my own brown eyes and hair that seemed to make girls and guy melt with the help of my muscled arms. I was confident that Naru would cave in to my love and affection easily if he was exposed to my physical side. I dressed in my blue V-neck, black jeans, black shoes and my favorite leather jacket and proceeded to wolf my breakfast of eggs and sausage down. I yelled out a good bye to my family and I left for yet another school day, and yet another day to get Naru interested in me.

I got in school left with time to find Naru before my first class started. I knew immediately to go to the library to be greeted by a sullen and lonely blonde who was buried in one of the most miserable books ever. A few moments Kiba got up after having said "I'm your best friend for Pete's sake." And stormed out of the library. Had Naruto really believed that Kiba didn't care or was he just trying to be distant. He spent the rest of the day brooding over Naru's words from this morning while avoiding the apparently icy boy until after school when I stopped him and said "Naruto, we need to talk." The words that followed were heart breaking. Naruto had blamed me for his loneliness and anger since Christmas as he rightly should with words that pierced my heart. Had I really hurt him so much? And after explaining parts of the past two months and two days to my sister she said "Grow a pair and stop hurting Naru, he is my friend too and if you want him to love you back there is nothing stopping you." She smiled at me while saying this and she got up saying "Think about a way to sweep Naru off his feet while I'm at the clinic covering your shift." And before I could thank her she was down the hall, out the door, laughing at her own bluntness as I stared at my dog Akamaru who sat there beside me and thinking about Naruto and how I would make things up between me and him.