To rainyrhapsody: Thank you for your review! I really appreciate your support! ^_^

I know it has been a while, but the chapter is longer than usual. I hope you enjoy, guys! :)

-X-

The Roof
by Clementive

-X-

Her apartment is a mess.

She should have never trusted Tenten, Ino tells herself again, but at this point of the night, it has become a senseless rambling, evoking nothing but disconnected words and the lingering emptiness between them. Her thoughts juggle together, her whole body already bent. Her father called twice earlier and left two messages. She didn't listen to them. She is hot and clumsy, her hand pushing her back again when she catches herself on a table.

She is surrounded.

Bodies push back against her and the room is suffocating her. Nothing glides past by as it used to, it sticks to her skin, it encircles her neck where her choker necklace is. Its fake beads beat against her collarbone when she walks stiffly through the horde of bodies toward the kitchen. People, she corrects herself through the foggy maze of her mind. She is the body. The Dead Woman Walking. Wherever Ino turns, her eyes catch a face contorted in the build-up of a smile, or another one frozen mid-laugh, throat exposed, head thrown back. Her heels stick to the sticky floor when she reaches the kitchen.

"Where's Tenten?" Ino shouts to no one in particular, but she is only greeted with non-communicative shrugs.

Pinching her lips together, she grabs a plastic cup filled to the rim on the counter and pivots on her heels. The liquid bounces, but she does not look down. She is not careful, she is reckless, her skin ablaze, her insides curling into themselves because there is no more room to breathe.

It is not only the music pounding in her skull, the elbows brushing her sides, and the sweaty strands of hair sticking to her arms, it is the howling inside. The too short skirt. The oppressing urge she has to destroy the party, crash the lights, the alcohol, and make them all leave her apartment. She wants to yell. Behind her, someone shouts, rising his glass of beer, the liquid spilling onto the floor. She grits her teeth, pausing, wondering. Ino can barely make out what he is saying, she cannot understand the celebration. She knocks back her drink and her nails crushed the plastic cup leaving it without ceremony among a pile on the coffee table. Her skin grows vibrant, tingling in her extremities and the deafening music rattles her bones. Yet, she cannot distinguish between the sensation of her spiralling raging thoughts and the alcohol burning down her throat.

She finally sees her roommate's dark hair styled into buns and flips her hair over her shoulder before making her way toward her. Ino taps on her shoulder and Tenten turns, her smile widening when she sees her. The guy she has been talking to raises a brow at her, smiling coldly, but Ino does not care. Her apartment is a mess. Her life is a mess. This, she can register.

"Yamanaka! I'm glad you've finally joined us!" Tenten screams in her ear and she pushes a plastic cup in her hand.

Ino winces. 'Finally'. There had been no 'finally', no relief when she emerged from her room. She preferred the loud crowd to her father's calls; her bedside table was still buzzing, the screen was still flashing, when she left her room.

Yet, she had to force herself into a dress, in applying her make-up, then in choosing her shoes. She didn't want to go out of her room. And she wonders if Tenten knows that she has not shed a tear over Shikamaru. That she probably was never in love. That now she is afraid she has scattered herself too much over their five years together.

"You said this was supposed to be a small gathering of people!" Ino hisses after licking her lips, but the music swallows half her words, alcohol and anger eating at the others. Even then, Tenten shrugs, her eyes tweaking with mischief.

"Oops."

Tenten says it like she does everything else: without pause, as if questions and problems are not to be taken seriously. She doesn't ask, she states and takes, then her attention drifts and nothing still holds her back. For the briefest moment, Ino envies her. For the briefest moment, she imagines herself carefree, reaching for another cup, the meaning of break-up with Shikamaru long forgotten. But she wants to be the romantic girl who cries about first times, lost times, memories still infiltrating her thoughts, and kisses. She wants to be the mourner. Not the angry girl. Not the girl who has spent days in her room, her fists clenched because she used to have everything figured out about her future. Now, she has nothing but a pile of memories she cannot keep herself from revisiting, straightening, and spinning into something that was never there.

"You're the one cleaning this mess afterward," she hears herself say, but Tenten grabs her arm before she can spin on her heels and head back toward the kitchen.

"I'll be back, love. C'mon, Ino!"

She watches Tenten's head bounce with the music in front of her and Ino has the sudden urge to cry. As a child, she has pulled Sakura forward in life the same way and they headed toward nothing. They tumble out of the apartment, then down the hall. When the cool air hits her skin, her head clears, the music fading into the background. Tenten lets go of her arm and her smirk half hidden in the darkness as she turns around, one heel on the second step of the fire escape stairs. She wriggles her eyebrows one last time, before climbing up the stairs toward the roof and Ino finally laughs out loud. Her hair sticks to her forehead and back of her neck, as she races up. They elbow each other, laughing and cursing about their heels. When they reach the roof, they kicked them off, still gasping for air. Ino bends down, then decides against it. Her tight are slick with sweat. She rolls on her back. Above, there are no stars, just darkness.

Then, Tenten leans in, her head hiding the sky. Ino grunts, because she was floating and drifting and somehow, that Tenten downstairs was comforting. Tenten who does not care. Tenten who does not listen to her. Tenten who does not know. But she does all these things and Ino wonders if the fact that she does not notice it more often just proves that she is the terrible friend.

"I never liked Shikamaru."

"Shut up, Tenten. Jesus. Please, I don't—"

Ino massages her temples, then unsteadily rolls over her stomach, trying to drown Tenten out. Her mouth fills with the scents of concrete and grit while the ground warms against her skin. She should have kept drinking.

"He snores!"

Ino laughs again, its sound hollow and half-heartened. Silently, she begs Tenten to stop there. She holds her side, because she fills it all simmering to the surface. Her nails dig into her sides. She fears the explosion, the damning words that would reveal that she is lost. That she has been lost for years. A lost angry girl without a plan. Ino has done everything out of habit, planned everything from the day she met Shikamaru, to her college days and now she isn't sure about anything. Shikamaru was a routine. So was pre-med. There are still no tears, just a dormant anger.

"Who is that?" Tenten hisses, straightening her back in a jerk.

She hears voices, whispers, then shouts and she grunts as she dusts herself up. She picks her heels up, the world swinging slightly.

"Well, this conversation was fun, but gotta run and make sure nothing is set on fire by your small gathering. I'll let you deal with whoever if going to drunkenly throw himself off the roof."

Then, Ino sees him, and she has nothing to say anymore.

She glances down at the pavement. 6 stories. Blankly, the windows blink back her, worlds hidden behind drawn curtains, few with still open lights and curtains. Few inviting, tempting. Lighthouses for a lost girl found by her childhood best friend. She glances back up and Tenten has her hands on her hips, her frown deepening. Even above, the lights are rare.

Then, he sees her, and he has everything to say.

"Hello, princess."

"Who the hell are you?"

"A friend."

Ino lets her heels fall back at her side, their thud louder in the silence that follows. Tenten looks at her but she doesn't look back at her. She cannot.

A friend, Kiba called himself while they have not seen each other in years. While every time they do see each other, one of them imagines them for more than they are and they grow angrier against the world, against each other. They break apart, every time, used to climbing mountains and mountains to find each other, and she is weary, because mountains crumble. He left the village years ago, while being the only constant in her life.

It takes Kiba one leap to jump on the roof from the fire escape and he spins on his heels, lowly whistling to himself. His hair spikes in all direction, his tattoos appear as odd marks on his cheeks in the darkness, but he is dressed in a suit. The rings around his thumbs faintly gleam and when he faces her again, he's smirking. He's both the boy she remembers and the man she thought he would never become.

"Hey! Is anyone going to answer me?"

"It's alright, Ten. You can go downstairs."

"What? You're sure?"

Tenten's smile freezes on her lips and she barely breezes out the words, carefully watching her. Tiredly, Ino waves her hand between them.

"Kiba, Tenten. Tenten, Kiba. We went to high school together."

"So, I know that if Ino doesn't want me here, she can puke on my shoes. Like last time." Kiba smiles wolfishly, bowing his head slightly.

"Shut it, Inuzuka or I swear I will."

Ino glares at him, reddening at the memory of vomiting in front of him when they were stuck in the jail cell. He shrugs, playfully wriggling his eyebrows, but his laughter rings true. Comforting. Strong. She does not understand how these years apart could have brought them closer.

Still frowning, Tenten opens her mouth, but then chooses against it when she sees them hunched, gravitating toward each other.

"Throw him off the roof if he bothers you. Or scream!" Eyes narrowed to slits, Tenten pauses on the first step. "I can't believe you keep boys a secret from me. We'll have a conversation about this, young lady."

After Tenten disappears, they don't speak for a while, not until they sit on the edge and their legs tangle in the void. Ino breathes in slowly and she can tell he has found his way back. She is the one stalling behind this time. She may not lash out, she may not end up in a jail cell like he did when he was younger, but she has given up on her herself.

"So, who invited you?"

"I was in town and Daddy Yamanaka," Ino rolls her eyes and smacks his arm, but he grabs her hand, his eyes widened with contained laughter. "Your father told me you moved out. He called, you didn't answer... I showed up here and there was a party. By the way, I saw your panties when you ran up those stairs."

He laughs and jumps back up before she can smack him again.

"Alright, alright, I saw nothing."

Her blush spread to her neck, watching him intensely as he crouches back in front of her. She has not thought in a while about him, and all the could-have-been's, but he is solid, broader than she remembers, and on his way to becoming a lawyer. Becoming someone. She can see that he's done being angry against the world.

"I heard you are now living in the big city."

He nods, twisting his ring around his thumb.

"Yeah, I'm only here for the night."

Cocking his head on the side, he waits for her to tell him about herself. He knows her father had told him about him, making him an example of a "boy who now stays out of trouble". She wonders what he sees when he looks at her now that she is nowhere near becoming someone. Now that even with the alcohol in her system, it doesn't dull the anger, the weariness, and the hint of sadness that dampens everything she does.

"You heard about Shikamaru and me, is that why you're looking me like that?"

"No. I just really did see your panties," he smirks.

"God, you're immature!"

Turning her head away from Kiba, Ino masks her expression, the nervous jerkin her hand as she pushes back her hair from her forehead. She is terrified of what is left for her in the present—now and then, always opposed, always changing—the leap between everything has stretched and she wants to ask him how he did it. How he found himself again.

If she would ever find herself.

"Kiba..." Ino stops. She looks straight ahead, aware of the void below. Her skin hums, suddenly alive by the enormity of everything. Below and above. Nothing would hold her back, if she jumped and she is afraid of living her life like this. Unplanned. Unexpected.

"I think you should scream."

"What?" She looks at him, the word loudly echoing back to her. Except they don't bounce off any wall, or anyone. It is just them and her discomfort.

"Scream." He shrugs, running a woobly hand in his hair. "I screamed a lot when Hinata left me and threw the word 'ambition' in my face. For a shy girl, she could pommel anyone to the ground with words."

"Shikamaru told me nothing about ambition. He was the one lacking it."

"I know and you told him, yeah?"

"No," she whispers, her lips set in hard line.

"What happened then?"

She furiously shakes her head. She wants to believe they can't pick up where they left off when they stopped talking. She wants to believe it is the alcohol making everything between flow, but nothing is that easy, she knows. Shikamaru's not being in her life anymore doesn't mend the years they had spent apart or the fact that she envies his quiet confidence, or that he speaks about Hinata like she should be speaking about Shikamaru. However, she doesn't want to speak. She doesn't want to name the feelings Shikamaru had, unbeknownst to himself, for another girl. She doesn't want to say that if she cared about him enough to let him go, he never cared enough about her to push himself. To make plans. To be honest to himself and her. To make him want something troublesome with her.

She wishes they had cared more than they did.

Disillusioned. That is what she is now.

Happy. That is what Shikamaru is now.

"I don't want him back, if this is what you're expecting," she mutters, her eyes fluttering between his and his lips. And the sky. And below.

She only wants her plan back, because there is nothing more painful than being lost.

"I still think you should scream."

"Oh my god, my father asked you to have this conversation with me."

"Naw," Kiba chuckles and her breath quickens. It hammers her skull painfully, her insides freezing with the guilt of not returning her father's calls.

He leans in closer and she startles, feeling his eyes bearing into hers.

"Do you want something to drink?" Ino clears her throat and carefully stands up.

"Are you going—"

"No, I'm not go puke on your shoes," she snaps violently, her hands shaking, drawing useless circles above her head. She should scream. She should fly. She should. She should. Her hands curl shakily at her sides, instead. "Would you stop with the same jokes already?"

"Fine," he huffs but she knows he is trying to quell a laugh while inside her, the tears rise.

When they go down, he is so near, his breath is all she can hear. His warmth, is all she can feel. She grips her high heels tighter then jumps on the ground. She shakes off the tears. She shakes herself off. She can't think of him like that. She can't use him like that.

A friend, he said.

The door of her apartment is ajar, but the music is gone. Traces of spilled drinks cover the floor and any surface that isn't occupied by plastic cups and bowls of chips. Ino drops her keys by the door, sighing deeply. She tiptoes toward the kitchen, Kiba laughing silently behind her. There is a note on the fridge with hearts and a drawing of a roof and Ino quickly scans the paper where Tenten describes that she would rather sleep at her parents's than in this filth. She balls the paper.

"Water, soda?"

"You're boring."

"Vodka, it is."

Cursing under her breath, Ino tosses around plastic cups, loudly opening the cupboards as she searches for glasses. Quietly, Kiba stops her, prying her fingers from the bottle of vodka. She carefully leans back as he takes a sip. Never taking his eyes off her, he hands her back the bottle.

"I think about yelling all the freaking time," Ino admits and alcohol rolls in her mouth.

Her tongue is thick, refusing to weigh down words. She drinks again. His arms hold her into place; they are both wondering about the proximity, both advancing by inches even if when the world stills, they stand still too near or too far away. The middle is disregarded. They loved each other in the past, or they will love each other. For now, they are close, they hang on and they won't let go. Ino wipes her mouth and she can feel his sad chuckles build and rise in his chest.

"I haven't talked to my mom in years."

He is the scream under her skin.

He is the anger within her core.

Kiba rests his forehead against hers and her lids flutter shut. She pushes the bottle back behind her, and her head spins and he is no anchor.

"I didn't come for this," he slurs thickly, his lips against her cheek, then her throat.

"Why did you come then?"

She holds his cheek, still hesitating between drawing him closer or pushing him back.

"You were supposed to fall in love first."

When Kiba kisses her, he offers her nothing but the present. One night, one time. Her skin hums as she grips her waist, pulling her closer, sucking her into a world that stands still. His hands tangle themselves in her blond locks, igniting a shiver that rests at the bottom of her back. She finds herself reaching for his neck, then his tie. She pulls, unbuttons, kisses and nibbles on his below lip. He is not a lifesaver. She is her own current, her own force. He growls against her mouth when he touches her stomach with both his hands. Her body arches off the counter. Her nails lightly pressed against his back, his shirt falls onto the floor. Releasing her lips, Kiba pants silently, watching her as his fingers still over the hem of her skirt.

'Just now," she reminds herself, even though when he touches her again, she doesn't want to think anymore. She closes her eyes and there is only them, braced against each other, at once united and apart.

She would find herself tomorrow. Someday. The next morning he would be gone. Until he finds her again. And again. Because they are still nothing but a half drawn circle yet to be completed.

-X-

I rarely write make-out sessions, but I made an exception for Kiba and Ino. ;) Please, take the time to review! Thank you! :)

Next chapter will be in Kiba's POV.

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