Constructive Possession

A/N: luna101, I didn’t think it would be feasible, but after writing this chapter I have a different opinion on the matter. I’m not promising anything, but a KibaKabu side-fic is looking really good to me right now! Keep an eye on my profile!



Peace-Love-Yaoi, yes, Kabuto is definitely a receiver. Read on to find out more about what he likes and why he wants Kiba.



rest.more, OMG can you see it? Tanned skin, short curly brown hair, a green polo and snug-fitting blue jeans? I am DROOLING! Kiba is awesome!



yaoilovergirl, it was either that or GRAVY! Read on to find out what happens.



tenshi I’ve got more for you right here. Enjoy!



Nite Nite, all I can say is that Kiba is hard-headed. Not to worry, though, Kabuto is nothing if not diligent in his resolve. Read on to find out more!



Fire on Ice, what I love about their dynamic is that it can go either way from here. They will remain friends, but not without a few moments here and there to spice things up.



Okay, my updates are coming a bit later recently, and it’s all due to the fact that the pairing of Kiba and Kabuto, friendship or otherwise, is a complex one. There is a lot of psychology behind it I am trying to capture but I don’t know that I’m that gifted a fanfic writer yet. Kiba is coming around to the reality that he likes both girls and boys and is starting a new friendship with a man who also likes girls and boys, Kiba most of all as you know.



To all those who celebrate it, I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving! My fridge is loaded with sweet potato pie, pumpkin pie and carrot cake roll left over from Thursday. Help!



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Warning: unbeta’d; language; angst; humor; yaoi



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



Kiba was in the process of preparing their dinner. He looked up to find Kabuto standing there, staring with an expectant look on his face. When had he emerged from his bedroom?



“You in there, Inuzuka?” the smaller man asked.



“What?” was Kiba’s response.



“I asked if there was something to drink in those bags you brought in.”



“Oh.” Kiba turned his head in the direction of the refrigerator. “I put some stuff in your fridge and—do you know there’s something in there that looks like a penicillin farm? It’s gross.”



“That’s because it’s a penicillin farm.” Kabuto moved closer. “So what are we drinking?”



Kiba pulled the door of the refrigerator open. “I tried to cover all the bases, so I brought you water, soda and Guinness™.”



Kabuto looked inside and, sure enough, there was a six-pack of Guinness on the bottom shelf. He raised his eyebrows. Irish beer. Kabuto remembered the Inuzuka’s reaction when he had brought the beer to taller man’s apartment. The fact that Kiba had gotten over his anxiety to return the favor was very telling.



“That’s kind of you, Inuzuka.”



Kiba scratched the back of his head. “It’s nothing you haven’t done for me, Yakushi.”



Kabuto smiled. The evening was off to a good start.



“So…how are you feeling?” Kiba asked.



Kabuto gestured with his hand and answered, “I’m fine. It’s fine Inuzuka, you don’t need to worry.” Kabuto made his way toward the loveseat in the living room area and sat down. “I was right back in the saddle today.”



“Yeah, I heard.” Kiba turned to check the pizza in the oven, and then turned toward Kabuto. “Still, I’m…sorry about your teeth.”



“Don’t give it another thought. I’m being fitted for replacements in a week. After that no one will ever know they were missing.”



“That sounds expensive. Why don’t I take care of that for you, since it’s all my fault anyway?”



“Because it isn’t all your fault.” Kabuto stood up then, trying to camouflage the immense giddiness he was feeling at the Inuzuka’s chivalry. “I tried to kiss you, remember?”



“I know that, but…” Kiba responded as he forced away the memory from his mind, “How many doctors and dentists have you been to in the past 48 hours? It isn’t fair that—“



“It’s fine.” Kabuto walked closer. Slowly, though, because he could tell the Inuzuka was feeling anxious. “Why did you come here tonight?”



Kiba made a face then. He wasn’t expecting the question. “I was worried about you. After Tuesday night, I thought…well, I didn’t know what to think, or what you might have been thinking. I came here tonight to try to make things right between us.”



Kabuto snorted. “If you’re here to salve your guilty conscience, then feel free to leave whenever you like.” He turned to make his way back to the loveseat to sit down.



Kiba’s jaw dropped. What are you saying? “I thought we were going to be friends, Yakushi!”



Kabuto sat down calmly, turning to look at Kiba. “We are friends. That was established on Tuesday night. It won’t change as long as that is what we both want.”



Kiba shook his head. “Then what—“



“You think I didn’t know about you? Inuzuka I’ve worked with you for two years. I noticed you right off the bat when I got assigned to the day watch. You are all vigor and strength and sparkly personality. And you love animals. It was impossible for me not to notice you.”



Kabuto continued. “Eventually, my curiosity about you got the better of me, so I snuck into a couple of the happy hours at the cop hangouts around town where I thought you’d make an appearance. I would go inside and find myself a spot to sit and observe your interaction with people. I watched the men and women watching you, and I watched you watching the men and women. You probably won’t like hearing this, but one doesn’t have to be bi or gay to recognize a man who is attracted to other men in addition to women. Your discomfort with being attracted to men made you stick out like a sore thumb even then.”



Kabuto ran a smoothing hand over his drying hair. “I’m not exactly sure when I noticed your growing crush on Neji Hyuuga, but I know that by the time it was obvious to me it had become obvious to others. I also noticed that it seemed to be bringing out the worst in you--the harder you worked at denying it, the more of an asshole you became until nobody wanted to deal with you. My guess is that no one called you on it for fear of ending up—oh, I don’t know--short two teeth.”



“So don’t come to my place pretending to care when you’re really just feeling guilty. You did the only thing you were going to do in that situation. I knew that going in.”



Kiba ran an agitated hand through brown curls. A mixture of guilt, shame and frustration at the Yakushi’s revelation picked at his nerves. The situation still didn’t make sense to him. “Then why go in? If I’m such an asshole and a loose cannon, why risk it?”



Kabuto got up slowly then, never taking his eyes off the man in front of him, and advanced. “Because I wasn’t willing go on watching you be reduced to walking misery all because you didn’t want to face your truth: that you, Kiba Inuzuka, like boys as much as you like girls.”



Kiba closed his eyes. You, Kiba Inuzuka, like boys as much as you like girls. It was the first time he’d heard someone else make that statement, and the sound of had his heart beating in second gear. He let the statement wash over him, saturating him with a truth he wouldn’t--couldn’t--deny.



Not at that moment.



“It’s true”, Kiba admitted, taking a deep breath.



“And I don’t care how much of an asshole you’ve been”, Kabuto finished in a voice too near the Inuzuka for comfort, “you don’t deserve that misery.”



Kiba opened his eyes. He could see the Yakushi standing in front of him with an expectant look on his face. He could feel his heartbeat thumping madly in his chest.



And he could smell pizza.



Kiba responded quickly, grabbing the mitts and donning them to open the oven and remove the pizza. He placed the tray with its bubbling pizza on the stovetop and closed the oven door. It hadn’t burned, thank goodness. He shed the mitts and placed them on the counter next to the oven.



Kabuto looked on silently. That ass should be bronzed, he thought to himself, quirking a brow.



“You know”, Kiba began, still facing away from Kabuto, “I find it ironic that you accused me of being here for myself and not for you, considering…”



Kiba turned around then. “Did you hear yourself just now? ‘Oh, I put my health on the line for you, because I think you’re such a swell guy and I just couldn’t stand for you to be unhappy.’ What am I, a girl? You think it’s that easy to bullshit me, Yakushi?” Kiba snorted then. “I think it’s time for you to come clean.”



A forced chuckle made its way out of Kabuto’s throat. He grabbed his ponytail, letting it slide through his hand before releasing it, a gesture that was not lost on his guest.



His hair is almost as long as Hyuuga’s—and thick, Kiba thought to himself. I never noticed before.



“Well, you know, you have a point there, Inuzuka”, Kabuto responded. “On your worst day I don‘t think anyone would mistake you for a girl.” Kabuto scanned Kiba’s body from his head of brown curls down to his sneakered feet and back again with his eyes for emphasis.



Ah, temptation, the Yakushi thought to himself.



“You’re right. My motives aren’t quite as altruistic as I’ve implied. There’s a lot more to all this and, well, I thought I’d have more time before I had to explain it. It’s…complicated.”



Kiba sighed. He wanted to know everything. “I’ve got all night, Yakushi.”



Does that mean if I drag this out you’ll spend the night? Kabuto gulped. “Well, you might want to grab that six-pack in the fridge. I told you, this gets complicated.”



“Are we having pizza, then?”



“Why not? We can talk over here where it’s comfortable”, Kiba responded, gesturing toward the loveseat.



The structure of Kabuto’s apartment was nearly identical to that of Kiba’s, except smaller. In front of the loveseat was an old coffee table. Not far from the coffee table on its opposite side was a stand bearing a 52-inch color television.



Kiba took a knife he found in a drawer and split the pizza down the middle. He cut across the pizza again until there were four slices on the tray. He grabbed the six-pack from the refrigerator with one hand, grabbed the pizza tray with the other hand, and made his way over to the living room area to set them down on the table.



Kabuto walked into the kitchen and grabbed napkins before following the Inuzuka to the living room area.



Kiba divided the beers between them. They each grabbed a bottle, opened it, and took a long swig.



“Aaah”, they breathed in unison.



Kabuto looked at Kiba then. Do that again. “You developing a palate for Irish beer, Inuzuka?”



“I guess I am.” It was good beer. Kiba took another swig, and then stared down at the bottle as he held it with both hands, recognizing it for what it was: cold comfort. He was waiting for an explanation something told him he wouldn’t like, from the man who was sitting a little closer than Kiba wanted.



Kabuto could see the tension in Kiba’s posture. He took a long swig of his own beer, and then set it on the table in front of him.



Here we go, Kabuto thought to himself.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



“You know", Kabuto began in a low, calm voice, "I remember catching bugs when I was very young, and then studying them for a bit before yanking their arms and legs off their bodies so I could study them some more. I was always fascinated by how the whole represented the parts. Altogether a bug is a bug, a portion of our ecosystem, but take it apart and you discover that it tells an even greater story. I was always interested in the stuff that l couldn't tell just by looking at something--at anything, really."



"Now, when you're a young boy, pulling arms and legs and wings off a bug is common. No one bats an eye. Of course, when I got older I graduated to small animals, and that wasn't so common. There I was in middle school, this scrawny boy in big glasses with gray hair pulverizing animals into parts in order to study them. Needless to say, I didn't have any friends. I can still remember walking down the hall and hearing the kids whisper 'there's that weird kid'."



"Then came high school, and if you can imagine the worst thing that could have happened to you in high school, that's what happened to me most days. My only ace in the hole was my brain." Kabuto tapped his head with his pointer finger and continued. "I was a straight-A student, which got the attention of the jocks. Imagine my surprise to discover they found me useful! Oh, man, did I follow them around like a lovesick puppy. It gave the word pathetic a completely new meaning! I wanted them to accept me so badly that I did their homework for them, all of them. No one else knew, of course; it had to be a secret. When we were out in public they reamed on me--insulted me, spit on me, threw footballs at my head. But in private, when they needed a grade that made the difference between eligibility and ineligibility, I was the one they came to."



Kabuto shook his head at the memory. "I never turned them away, and I never let them down."



Kabuto took another swig of his beer and then continued. “One guy, a football player, took a...shine to me." Kiba's brow quirked at the revelation. Kabuto glanced at the man. "He was everything you’d expect a star high school athlete to be: built like a Greek god, fast, strong...beautiful. He had quite a following at our school. I remember doing his homework and meeting him to make the handoff, as it were. That's when he told I deserved a reward for all that I'd done for the jocks at our school. Then he threw me a curve ball: he told me he'd caught me staring at him. He told me he thought I was cute in a fragile way. Now, I didn’t know I was bi—I didn’t know what I was. I like anyone who likes me, that’s the way it’s always been. So to say that I fell for it, hook, line and sinker would be an understatement. The next thing I knew I was on my knees in front of the guy and he was coming in my mouth. When it was over, he pushed me away from him and then warned me that he'd hurt me if I told anyone." Kabuto looked up at Kiba then, who was watching him intently. "Even now I wonder if he's somewhere close by, waiting to wail on me for telling our secret."



"That of course was only one of many excruciating experiences I had in high school. Man, I was lucky to get out of that place alive. It never got any better--the more I got wailed on the more I shied away from people, and in the end there was no way to get around being the 'weird kid.'”



Kabuto wasn’t watching Kiba. He was too preoccupied with the memories. He turned his bottle of beer up to his mouth and didn’t stop drinking until the bottle was empty.



"Fast-forward to now--I'm 31 years old. I don’t have friends. I've never been on a date or had a naturally-occurring sexual experience. And what do I do for a living? Forensics--pulling apart the seen to analyze the unseen. My stock in trade since I was a boy."



Kabuto grabbed another bottle of beer and proceeded to open it. He wanted to risk a glance at the other man, but didn’t. He just decided he’d wait for him to ask a question. In the meantime, he’d busy himself drinking.



Kabuto’s words rang in Kiba’s mind. He could easily have been one of those shmucks from that high school. He never realized that kind of behavior could have such a profound effect…he couldn’t even imagine an existence so lonely.



Kiba thought of the surroundings—the dark depressing walls of the tiny apartment in a substandard apartment building in a crappy neighborhood and developed increased understanding for the man sitting next to him. Kabuto definitely knew a thing or two about misery.



“So…you want to be friends with me because…you see me as an athlete like the ones you went to high school with?” Kiba asked.



“You’re the type of person I’m drawn to, yes, but I think you’re a much better person than any of the guys I went to high school with Inuzuka.” Kabuto risked a glance at him then. Kiba’s brows were furrowed, as if confused. “I helped them in high school because I liked them and wanted their friendship. I helped you for the same reason.”



Kiba looked at him then. “You kissed me for a different reason, Yakushi.”



“No I didn’t. I was trying to help you then too.”



“That’s not all you were trying to do.” Kiba focused his eyes on his host. “You may as well know now that I don’t see you that way, Yakushi, I never did. We can be friends…as long as we both want that, but you need to understand that the attraction is only one-sided. I know I never consciously indicated otherwise and I won’t accept responsibility for your wounded heart.”



Kabuto met Kiba’s eyes then. “Ha!” he exclaimed, gulped down his second bottle of beer without stopping and then slammed the empty bottle down on the table in front of them. Kiba watched him, his brows furrowed in confusion.



Kabuto stood up then, looking down at Kiba with mirth in his eyes. “My wounded heart? You are such a drama bitch! I never said anything about being in love. All right, so I happen to think your ass is the nicest of all the men and women on the day watch. So what? I know I’m not the only person you work with who feels that way.”



Kabuto plopped himself back down on the couch with a sigh, aiming a smug expression at his guest and wondering how long it would take for the statement to sink in.



Before Kiba could respond, Kabuto continued. “Listen Inuzuka, I know you’re skittish around me because you’ve suspected what I just admitted to you since the beginning, and you’ve been right all along. But now you need to understand something. Two nights ago I tried to kiss you and lost two teeth in the process. Henceforward there will be no more attempts like that from me. You want friendship, you get friendship. Besides…” Kabuto grabbed the third and final bottle of beer and opened it, “I know on my best day I could never even come close to being anything like Neji Hyuuga.”



Kabuto made to turn the bottle up to his lips but Kiba stopped him with a hand on his forearm. “You’re drinking those awfully fast, Yakushi.”



Kiba’s eyes were intense. Kabuto met his eyes with his own and wondered which of his previous statements had been responsible. Whether or not it was his intention, Kiba wore his emotions like a wardrobe. It was one of the things about him that Kabuto found appealing.



“If I don’t drink them fast they’ll get warm.”



“They’re fine as long as you don’t open the bottle.”



“Then I guess I had better drink this one then, hadn’t I?” Kiba, knowing he’d lost the argument, moved his hand away. Kabuto tilted the bottle and drank from it until it was half-way empty. Some of the beer spilled from one corner of his mouth, leaving a trail down his chin that dripped onto his clothing.



Without warning, Kabuto lifted the hem of his tee-shirt to wipe the beer from his chin, revealing his pale midriff again. A stunned Kiba looked away, though trying not to make it obvious. Kabuto snorted.



“Kabuto”, he stated, replacing his shirt.



Kiba turned to him slowly. “What?”



“My name”, Kabuto responded. “If you and I are going to be non-sexual friends, then I want you to call me Kabuto.”



When Kiba didn’t respond Kabuto raised his eyebrows. “Okay?” he added.



Kiba was busy trying to imagine what the Yakushi would have asked him to call him if they were going to be sexual friends. “What does that mean?” he asked.



“It means I want you to call—“



“Not that, I mean your name. What does it mean?”



“No one has ever asked me that.” Kabuto finished off his third bottle of beer, and then belched loudly. “There we go”, he added, patting his stomach, and then looked at his friend. “Kabuto is Japanese. It means ‘helmet’¹.”



“Seriously?” Kiba asked. He was trying to divert the discussion to something less squirmy than who else at work liked him or Neji Hyuuga or what Kabuto looked like out of his clothing. He knew he’d have to talk about those things eventually, but for tonight, he just wanted to know that they were on the same page.



‘Helmet’? What the fuck were his parents on when they came up with that?



Kabuto belched again, and Kiba blanched.



“Listen, Yakushi—“



“Ka-bu-to.”



Kiba rolled his eyes. “Fine, dammit. Kabuto. I’ll agree to not make our friendship about my guilt as long as you agree that this is friendship only.” Kiba extended his hand. “Does that work?”



Kabuto looked down at Kiba’s extended hand, then back up at Kiba’s face.



“Kiss me”, Kabuto demanded.



Kiba frowned. “The fuck? Like hell. Didn’t you hear a word I just said? Shake my hand, Ka-bu-to.”



Kabuto shook his head. He wasn’t sure, but he thought those three beers might have gone to his head a bit faster than they should have. Could the painkillers he’d taken the day before still be having an effect? He looked at the pizza sitting on the table untouched. Was he actually tipsy? It would go a long way toward explaining why he’d just ordered an armed, emotionally unstable male cop to kiss him.



“Fuck that, Inuzuka. I gave you your first guy-on-guy kiss and you almost dislocated my jaw. You owe me a do-over.”



“That kiss was bullshit and so is this. Now shake my fucking hand before I pull my Glock and fire on you at point-blank range.”



“You won’t do that. You’re going to do what I told you to.”



“And why would I do that?”



“Two reasons. One, because despite all your blathering about not being attracted to me, you can’t help being curious.” While Kiba was busy fighting the blush and before he could deny it, Kabuto continued. “And two, because you need me.”



It was on the tip of Kiba’s tongue to deny it all. Old habits do die hard. But he didn’t say anything. He just knew that if he did, he’d find himself in a situation where he would again be apologizing to the older man, and hadn’t there been enough of that this week already?



“I’m not asking for tongue, just…think of it as redemption.”



“You said you weren’t going to try anything like that anymore.”



“I said I wouldn’t try to kiss you anymore. No one said anything about you kissing me.”



“Why can’t I be redeemed by you and me shaking hands?”



“Aren’t you the one who came here feeling guilty?”



Check mate. “Fuck.” Kiba ran the extended hand through his brown curls, a gesture that was not lost on his host. He wanted to reach a hand up to run through them as well. So to Kiba’s shock, he did.



Kiba’s body stilled. His first instinct was to defend himself, but he didn’t. Kabuto was demonstrating his trust that Kiba would not hurt him anymore.



Kiba had to admit that the gentle, playful movements of Kabuto’s hand in Kiba’s hair were actually pleasant. He blinked slowly. Kabuto had been right about Kiba needing him. But now there was another, more important issue that Kabuto had made that evening. Kabuto needed Kiba too.



And as Kiba watched the smaller man’s expression change as he wove small fingers through his curls he knew their friendship would sorely test him. But he committed himself that not only would he try not to hurt him anymore, but he wouldn’t let anyone else hurt him either.



Kabuto sighed. They are as soft as they look, he thought to himself. “No. Kiss.”



Kabuto reluctantly pulled his hand from Kiba’s hair. “Look at me,” he commanded the younger man, who complied. “I know I’m no Neji Hyuuga.”



God dammit. “Would you stop with the—“



“I won’t ever ask you to do this again.”



There was something there in Kabuto’s voice then, a something that erased all of Kiba’s reluctance. Kabuto wasn’t trying to convince Kiba to sleep with him. He just wanted to know honest intimacy, or as Kabuto had put it earlier, a ‘naturally-occurring’ experience, and he wanted it with someone he could trust not to hurt him.



Kiba gathered his wits. He’d thought about what it would be like to kiss a man, but he’d never done it. How would he go about kissing a woman? There was a technique, sure. Would that work on a man?



Kiba looked hard at the man next to him, who was waiting with an expectant look on his face for him to make a move. Kiba licked his lips, and watched as Kabuto followed the movement with his eyes.



“Lean in”, Kiba directed in a soft voice. Then slowly, the two men leaned in to each other.



“Technically”, Kiba stated, the words coming out as heated puffs of air against the Yakushi’s waiting mouth, “you didn’t ask me to.”



Then Kiba closed his eyes and his mouth descended. There were no hands, just the application of soft, steady pressure from Kiba’s warm, closed lips against the other’s. Kabuto’s lips were also warm and surprisingly soft, and tasted of Irish beer, the kind Kiba had recently developed a palate for.



I’m kissing a man. I’m kissing Kabuto Yakushi.



Willingly.



I’m kissing a man.



It’s not bad.



Kabuto’s heartbeat was so intense it was jolting his entire body. He wondered if the Inuzuka could tell. For all his convincing, he knew there was nothing that would have stopped the Inuzuka from simply getting up from the couch and walking out, nor would their newfound friendship have suffered for it. Kabuto wasn’t sure which comment he’d made had actually done the trick, but he was too into what was happening to care. Kiba Inuzuka was sitting in his living room kissing him. On purpose.



This, he knew, would keep his spank bank brimming for a year.



Kiba broke the kiss and leaned away, absently licking his lips. Kabuto reluctantly followed suit, thinking to himself that, for a do-over, it was a rave. Kiba had effectively redeemed himself.



Awkward silence hung in the air between them. To end it, Kabuto spoke.



“Your uh…pizza’s cold. And your beer is warm.”



Kiba’s quick response caught the Yakushi off-guard. “Nuke the pizza and refrigerate the beer. I brought a video to watch, that is, if you’re up for it.”



Kabuto’s eyes lit up. “I am if you are.” The delighted man got up from the loveseat, lamenting the loss of the proximity and thankful that he had only gotten half-hard from their kiss. A small, half-hard penis was easy to camouflage in baggy sweatpants. The Inuzuka would never find out.



He’d also never find out that, in Kabuto Yakushi’s 31 years of experiences he’d never actually kissed a man until he met Kiba Inuzuka. They had in fact been each other’s first male kisses.



Kabuto placed the pizza in the microwave to reheat while Kiba cleared the empty beer bottles from the table to throw away. It occurred to Kabuto that they’d spent two nights that week together. So much had changed so quickly, but Kabuto really wasn’t surprised. He’d been on the path to where they were at that moment for a long time.



Not a mirage, Kabuto thought as he watched his gorgeous new friend putter around in his apartment.



An oasis.



~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*



A/N:



(1) According to leafninja.com. http://www.leafninja.com/fullbio.php?p=Yakushi_Kabuto



WOW! Just—wow! What do you guys think? Kiba and Kabuto are now officially friends. I’m leaving a lot of little details unaddressed in here for future reference in case I want to move forward with this pairing in this AU; the evolution of Kiba Inuzuka and Kabuto Yakushi is, for the purpose of this fanfic, complete.



Kiba has come a long way since chapter two, hasn’t he?



You know what that means, of course…it’s time for the dinner party! Woohoo!



Stay tuned and please leave a review with your thoughts!