Kankurou is still asleep when Kiba wakes up the next morning, which means it's probably way too early because he's not particularly been prone to sleep in so far.

Good. He doesn't want to stay in this bed more than strictly necessary.

Also, there are piss stained sheets in his bathtub that he doesn't wish for anyone in his household to wake up to.

He has to grab a few clothes still before he makes his exit – the ones he wore yesterday have seen things – but seems to be able to do so discreetly enough not to startle his guest.

He changes swiftly in the bathroom after that, pisses somewhere decent this time, stuffs all the wet over-night soaked mess in a grocery bag, and he is out the door with Akamaru before anyone in the apartment has made a move.

[8:15] Kiba: Had an accident last night. Going to the laundromat. Don't use the bathtub I put the sheets in it. Will clean later. Sorry.

Shino is not going to be happy with this news. He has never been hard on Kiba about the incontinence itself – bodies are hard, he of all people knows it very well – but he can definitely be hard on him about failing to do what he needs to and, this time in particular, even after he had explicitly expressed worry for him and notified him that he was getting dissociated.

While he cannot help his body's dysfunctions, he had the tools and external help to realise last night was a risky night and the resources to protect himself and their brand-new furniture, and simply didn't use them. That's on him, and he is most definitely going to have to clean that bathtub himself.

[8:18] Kiba: Also confessed to Kankurou last night.

[8:19] Kiba: He said it's not like that for him

[8:19] Kiba: I'm sorry for the awkward morning

He is also half ashamed he fled the confrontation and left Hinata and Shino to handle Kankurou freshly out of bed after all this, but he needs a moment. For now, he will focus on taking care of the laundry and, in the meantime, hide his miserable self somewhere safe.

"You're up early," Hana notes upon opening the door in a jogging, old t-shirt, and pair of slippers. One of her dogs is pushing at her side to greet Akamaru already, triggering an expectable waggy tail on the other end. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm hiding from Shino and Kankurou."

Her mouth opens in a silent "Ah."

"What have you done this time?" she asks, moving over to let him come in.

It's not his first time dropping by unannounced to find shelter from life for a little while and, by far, not the worst time either. It will happen again, too, they both know it, but she more than happily takes on this role. She's lost too many opportunities to protect him in her life to let a single one pass now. Even if the only things left for him to be protected from are awkward conversations and puppy crush heartbreaks.

"Oh, you know," he says while stepping into the apartment and gesturing vaguely at the air in front of him. "Got sad and high. Pissed on the couch. Had to let Kankurou help me out at 3 a.m. Confessed and got rejected. Basic stuff."

"Ouch."

He lets himself collapse on the couch with a sigh.

"Yeah."

"Was he crass about the piss thing?"

Kiba shakes his head.

"Tragically not. He was super kind and level-headed and I have no reason to be upset with him. He just doesn't like me back."

Part of him thinks it would maybe be a little easier if Kankurou had been an asshole. He would have something to anger himself over and move on.

But in truth, he's glad that he isn't, and will, apparently, still keep Kiba around as a friend after everything.

"It sucks," Hana concludes. "I'm sorry."

"Yeah."

Kiba has left the bed by the time Kankurou wakes up, but he is not very surprised by that fact. He arguably didn't seem extremely comfortable with sharing in the first place, and probably escaped at the first occasion he got. Still, it's better than if he had had to sleep on the floor or just not at all.

There is no sign of him or Akamaru in the living room either when he gets up. It's not very surprising either, they usually go on a walk together first thing in the morning and come back around for breakfast later, but Kankurou would have been reassured to see him safe and sound and possibly somewhat sober this morning.

Possibly, he's not the person Kiba wants checking in on him today, though.

"Hi, Kankurou," Hinata greets from the kitchen. "How are you doing?"

Good question, actually.

He doesn't know the answer to it and, more than that, realises he doesn't know how much of everything that happened is something he is allowed to share with her.

"Did Kiba…"

She cuts him short in his attempt to phrase his question as vaguely as possible.

"Yes, he texted us. About the pee and about you two."

"Cool."

It's a good thing, presumably. Means he doesn't have to break the news down himself or try to lie to protect Kiba's privacy. It doesn't leave a whole lot of space for his, though.

"I'm sorry," he feels the need to say. "I didn't know. I hadn't noticed. I wouldn't have come if I knew. It must have been a very long three weeks for him."

Hinata shakes her head.

"It was surely uncomfortable in some aspects, but he liked it. Maybe a little too much even, that's why it hurts. And he wouldn't have wanted to let you alone in this anyway. It's all good."

Kiba did not seem all good last night, Kankurou notes, but decides to keep the comment for himself. Surely, she knows him better than he does.

"I liked it too," he says instead. "A lot. I didn't think I would." He bites his cheeks. Stupid. "Sorry, I didn't mean that as in- I just don't like being with people. In general. It's not you. But it was different, being here."

She chuckles.

"I know. It was like that for me too." She tilts her head. "Well, no, probably different. I have a big family. I've always lived with people. You've been in your studio for years. But I didn't like it either. And with Kiba and Shino, I discovered that there were other ways to do it. It's not always without friction. Like today. I'm not sure we're going to see Shino a lot because the couch is unusable, and the bathroom smells bad, and he's upset at Kiba for not listening to him and they will need to have a talk. But the talk will happen, and it will work out, and they know to give each other space until then. In my family, no one talks. If things don't work, you just have to keep going all the same and hope they magically do. It's different here. Things move. People breathe. It's precious."

He nods.

"It is. Thank you for letting me have a bit of it for a while."

"You should say it to Kiba," she notes.

"He's not there," he argues in return.

"He will come back."

"I certainly hope so."

Kiba does, indeed, come back a few hours later with clean pillowcases and, as Hinata predicted, knocks sheepishly at Shino's door to spend a moment with him. When he comes out of there an hour later, he doesn't dwell in the living room and goes to put his shoes back on.

"I'm gonna go to the park with Akamaru," he justifies when feeling brave enough to look Kankurou back in the eyes and acknowledge his worried gaze on him.

"Can I come along?"

He's not wholly sure what he's trying to achieve with this, or how it may go, but he's not satisfied with how they left things yesterday and evidently Kiba is not very comfortable with the situation either.

Reason would suggest giving him some space to process the rejection, that it will be fine after that, and once it's done, they can go back to being friends like normal again, and in another context, Kankurou would probably do that. But it is not another context. And the context is that Kiba got himself overly stoned over him, pissed himself, and stood there half naked with his scars-covered body and his confused, vulnerable, and watering eyes while Kankurou helped him out, and he doesn't feel like leaving him alone without another chance at talking to him and make sure he's alright.

Kiba stares him down for a few seconds and evidently doesn't settle on an answer.

"I have thoroughly been avoiding taking the physio appointment I'm supposed to, so I sure it'll do me some good if I tried to have a walk every once in a while," he offers as an excuse they can both choose to believe in as to why they would be doing this together. If it's easier.

Kiba nods.

It seems to be.

"Right. Good idea. I'll wait for you to have packed your things outside the building."

The first part of their walk goes relatively well, all things considered. Kiba is still tense at the start, but being in the fresh air with Akamaru always cheers him up and soon enough he is chatting away about the neighbourhood, the park they're heading to, and the habits he and his dog have built here since moving in last month.

Kankurou, on his side, has taken his crutches with him in an attempt to be safe and reasonable for once, and not cause more problems for the two of them than they already have. By the time they reach the park, he is already very grateful for this bout of self-indulgence.

"I think I need to sit down for a bit," he admits when a free bench makes its appearance in his field of view. He gestures at the path before them. "But you can go on with your thing and meet me later. I don't want to ruin your walk or anything."

Kiba gasps.

"You're not ruining anything!" he exclaims with an assurance that soothes Kankurou's anxiety a bit. (His anxiety about being a burden, but mostly his anxiety about Kiba's defeated look of the previous day.) "We can play fetch and run around while you rest, it's all good."

And G-d do they play fetch.

At first, Kankurou thinks he's just going to sit for five minutes, let his tired overcompensating back muscles catch a break, and that they'll go back to wandering around once that's done.

Past the ten-minute mark, however, Kiba is no less energetically throwing his ball around and Akamaru is no less enthusiastically running after it and, at this point, Kiba is starting to run alongside him as well, and it's not looking like they're about to stop.

There's something fascinating in watching them like this. All the slouching and hesitancy that Kiba had been dragging around lately have completely disappeared. His cheeks are reddened from the effort of following Akamaru in his excitement and, after a moment, some of his hair starts sticking to his forehead and temples with sweat. It's endearing and soft, and Kiba's glowing happiness is contagious and makes him feel warm and relaxed in turn.

The idea of going back to his studio seems pretty sad and lonely all of a sudden.

Well, not really all of a sudden. It's probably been building up for a while already and he just didn't let himself realise it because he thought it to be inevitable and good. Thought it was just how things were for him: being around people too much is impossible, for their eyes turn into hands digging through his gut when they stay on him too long. But Hinata's right. There are different kinds of people, and different kinds of eyes.

"I could stay," he says when Kiba walks back to the bench to grab his water bottle.

"Where?"

"Your place. You said you were sad I'm leaving. I could stay."

Kiba frowns.

"I didn't say that to guilt trip you into staying."

"You didn't. I just- I-" He what? What is he attempting or suggesting here? To stay in Kiba's bedroom indefinitely while he stays on the couch pining for him? "Can we pick up yesterday's conversation, please?"

He's not certain what he has to say, but he's certain he hasn't said enough.

"Sure," Kiba says without moving from where he's standing.

It's a little intimidating and uncomfortable but Kiba is not known for enjoying sitting down so Kankurou doesn't say anything.

"The- confession took me a little aback and it was late and we were both tired and I didn't know what to say."

"You said what you had to, it's enough," Kiba assures. He doesn't enjoy this conclusion, but he's still not going to try and tear a different one from Kankurou.

But Kankurou has a different one to offer.

"I didn't. I think what I have to say is, I've never dated anyone. And I'm not particularly interested in romance in general. Or sex for that matter. I said I didn't feel the same about you because, frankly, it hasn't crossed my mind to wonder if I did. About you, but about anyone else as well. I don't- know how you know when it's like that. And I don't know if it's ever like that for me. But I know I like you a lot. Spending this time at the polycule's place was precious for me. I liked it. And I like being with you."

He pauses and takes a big breath. This isn't really something he's talked to with anyone. Vaguely Temari who has probed once or twice at his dating life until she got the message that it wasn't his thing. It's not a too hard admission to make for him, but it takes a bit of work to put into words a thing that he has not been thinking about and it's the whole point of what he's trying to say. But, more importantly, it's hard to say because he's saying to someone who is evidently not feeling the same as he does and for whom all of this matters.

"I guess what I'm saying is if you want me to tell you 'I like you in a romantic way for sure, let's make out and date' or you'd just rather stay friends, then we should stay friends because I can't say that. But if 'I'm willing to try it out and see what it is and can be' is an offer that you're interested in. I'd be happy to."

For the longest time, Kiba doesn't answer anything and Kankurou lets him.

Then Akamaru nudges his palm with his nose and head and seems to successfully tear him out of his dumbstruck paralysis.

"Yeah. Yeah, okay. I can do that." He seems nervous still, but sort of in a cute way this time. "What do you want to try?"

He's not sure. He has no idea what he's doing. But he'll find something.

"I guess we should try sharing the bed again. I'm not gonna let you on the couch for another month. Unless you want me to go back to my studio, of course. I can do that."

Kiba shakes his head.

"No, stay. Well, if Shino and Hinata are cool with it but. I think they'll be."

"Cool. Then… I can't do the whole hand-holding thing with the crutches," he says with an apologetic shrug, "but we could kiss if you want."

Kiba blinks.

"Are you sure?"

Kankurou laughs.

"Not at all. But are you still in?"

It takes him another few seconds to gather his composure properly and nod enthusiastically.

"Yes."

Kankurou grunts upon pushing himself off the bench with his crutches, and finds himself standing very close to Kiba and his red sweaty face. After a brief moment of hesitancy, Kiba figures he's the only one who can do it in this configuration and puts a hand on the nape of Kankurou's neck to pull him closer.

Kiba's lips are salty and warm and rough. He kisses him once, twice, then risks the tip of his tongue out and it brushes against Kankurou's. He finds that he likes the contact of his palm and fingers on him more than his mouth, but that the proximity and heat feel nice.

Kiba pulls out.

"Was that okay?" he asks when Kankurou doesn't say anything.

"I don't know," he admits, then flashes Kiba a smile. "We'll have to do it again to find out."