Red Lanterns
Velutlunas
Shino was watching the festival from the hilltop, watching the red lanterns being taken down; the bob of paper, the wafted warbling laughter and muted music drifting up at him as he sat. He was content to watch from the outside. He knew his teammates would be down on the festival grounds; Kiba laughing and surrounded by family and extended family, dogs running like water through the crowd, and Hinata would be quietly beautiful in a traditional Kimono, the perfect lotus blossom as her father walked proud and tall through the crowd like royalty. Shino's own father was on a mission, and his small clan keeping to themselves, mostly because there were so few of them left and so often misunderstood.
Shino hadn't really known what to expect from the group he was put into, but had found (oddly enough) that he enjoyed their presence. Hinata was quiet, a sweet glow on his periphery - a timid moonflower with a silky subtle fragrance... and then there was Kiba.
Shino's pale brow drew together in thought behind his dark glasses. His coat was open, as alone he was safe to wear it unbuttoned and the small holes in his skin would not disturb others. The full moon was leaving blue shadows on the ground and touching the world in its quiet frost, a silvery tang that highlighted Shino's smooth brow, high cheekbones and strong jaw. It glinted from the dark glasses and muted the soft line of his mouth as he leaned back on his palms; a rare moment when he let the posture that was centered slip and relaxed enough to sift through his thoughts.
Kiba was different. He was like no one Shino had ever met: loud, impulsive, wildly charismatic, crooked grins and sharp teeth. He didn't walk so much as cavort places and a small part of Shino envied his freedom.
Shino frowned slightly at the thought. Freedom? Wasn't the meditation, the control, all something his father was teaching him to allow him to reach a kind of clarity that brought true freedom? He stared at one of his kikaichuu thoughtfully as it crawled slowly across the back of his hand. He lifted his finger, watching it crawl determinedly upward, then rotated his wrist pointing his hand down again, watching it stubbornly turn and march back up, this time over the back of his hand, clinging tenaciously as the blue tracery of veins shook with his heartbeat.
He was lost in the slow figure eight rotations, watching the bug move when he heard the crashing and yipping through the underbrush behind him. He also heard a colorful use of profanity as something larger muttered and kicked its way through. Shino couldn't have stopped the small smile if he'd tried as Akamaru came bounding gleefully out of the tree line and propelled his small puppy body delightedly at Shino, catching him on the chest with two paws and licking at his exposed neck with the joyous abandon only a puppy could manage. 'And Kiba,' a small part of his mind supplied helpfully.
Kiba cleared the forest edge moments later and pushed his hood back, scrubbing at his wild hair grumpily while tossing an easy grin at Shino. "There you are!" He said happily and moved to flop next to him, shoulder brushing Shino's and throwing him even more off balance.
"Where else would I be?" Shino asked calmly, voice rumbling in his chest and his heart was beating... an odd little beat and half rhythm that made him wonder briefly. He decided cautiously to think on it later finding that the heat radiating from Kiba's shoulder was more of a distraction to his contemplation at the moment. He leaned back more, allowing the acceptable distance between them.
"I dunno? At the festival maybe?" Kiba replied, folding his legs under him to sit Indian style and cocked his head down at the view, the paper lanterns faint blurs of red.
Shino remained silent and tilted his chin in acceptance of that idea but didn't confirm or deny his reasons for staying separate. He could almost feel the urge to fidget rising in his new companion.
"The moon wasn't hung to be watched alone, you know." Kiba said with a grin, and he moved, shoulder bumping into Shino's again.
Shino frowned at the odd tension under his skin at the touch. His bugs weren't restless, so there was no reason for the sensation. "I..." And Shino realized he didn't have anything to say, but had been responding unconsciously to Kiba's apparent need to fill spaces with sound, like building blocks. The other boy stacked and piled words between them, filling Shino's silence with bright tenor colored vowels and edges of wooden consonants.
Kiba paused, turning those odd eyes on Shino, his tattoos darker, almost indigo in the soft light of the full moon. "That's what my mom always says when the moon's like this. She calls it a coyote moon, and it was like that when she met Dad... or really met Dad's dog, Komeru... apparently he tackled her and licked her until Dad showed up. Dad says Komeru chose for him." Kiba shrugged and his hands were never still, tugging at this and that of his or Shino's clothing, toying with the hem of Shino's shorter pants, or tracing the bottom seam of his coat sleeve.
"Ah." Shino said, allowing the noise to show Kiba he was listening. He was trying to control the odd jump and twitch of flesh whenever Kiba's fingers brushed his calf or forearm.
"I wonder if that's what Akamaru will do?" Kiba said thoughtfully, reaching over to scratch his puppy behind his ears, not seeming to care that it was in Shino's lap the puppy had curled, tongue lolling happily.
"Possibly." Shino temporized, enjoying the slight weight of the dog against his thigh and moving to stroke the coarse fur turned silky from care and brushing. Shino thought sometimes that Akamaru was better groomed than his owner.
"I hope he picks someone good then. I don't want him to go picking someone all bossy and talky like Ino... or that Sakura girl. She's just too... " Kiba shrugged eloquently and reached over to scratch Akamaru some more.
Shino almost flinched at an odd electric surge when his fingers brushed Kiba's. "Hinata then?" He inquired, one dark brow arching upwards.
"Naw... I love her to death, but she's like my sister. You know how that goes. Why? Do you want to date Hinata?" Kiba asked peering up into the dark frames and Shino could read an odd confusion on his face.
"No." He said simply, not understanding why he was finding it so difficult to breathe.
"Oh, 'cause you two would make a good match I think sometimes. So quiet together, not like she and I... I'd just bowl her over. I think I need someone who can stand up for themselves, but still lets me do what I want... but isn't too needy. Or... oh hell, I dunno." Kiba grimaced and Shino felt the odd urge to smooth his hair back, much like he was doing to Akamaru at the moment.
"You'll know." Shino whispered and lifted his hand slowly to push back Kiba's wild bangs in a fit of whimsy. He told himself that it was simply to discover if the boy's hair felt like fur.
He watched Kiba blink once then tilt his head slowly into the hand running through his red brown hair. He watched the contented sigh and was surprised to hear one of his own.
"I hope so." Kiba mumbled, leaning into Shino's long fingers and the quiet boy watched as they thread through the heated dark tangle easily. Softer than he'd ever expected and he belatedly wondered how often he'd mused on the texture of Kiba's hair.
"You will." Shino reiterated firmly, moving to stroke through Kiba's hair again, watching the contrast of it against moon silvered skin.
"Yea..." And Shino noticed that Kiba was rumbling contentedly, a low thrum of sound that vibrated the air between them and seemed to rattle his heart causing it to beat harder. He watched Kiba's eyes close and pondered the odd translucency of his eyelids, could see the delicate tracery of the simple folds of skin and wondered what they felt like and his fingers were moving. A simple exercise in discovery he told himself as they stroked over temple to smooth an eyebrow and settle moth wing light against the slippery skittering skin there.
"Kiba?" He said the other's name so quietly, a question of something that for once he didn't really know what he was asking and the other boy just nodded under his fingertips and twisted, squirming to lay his head in Shino's lap. Akamaru huffed and moved over to the grass beside Shino's thigh to curl again and tuck his chin over his back paws, yawning widely once, lugubrious tongue flickering as it curled.
"S'okay, you can pet me too." Kiba grinned widely with his eyes closed and his fingers settled steepled together across the zipper of his fur lined jacket. His legs were sprawling, feet rocking back and forth, never still.
Shino found himself looking down, watching his fingers trace idly along one eyebrow before the odd tension bubbling within him urged them further. He felt the skin under the tattoos and marveled at its smooth texture, the odd rise of it at the edges the along the hard ridge of the bridge of nose. He traced the contours of nostril before he found his fingers hovering uncertainly above Kiba's lips. He was warm but the night had been brisk, crisp and mildly chilled before. He could feel the smooth slide of Kiba's breath as it parted lips - tempting fingertips.
"S'okay Shino, I won't bite." Kiba murmured, cracking one eye to peer up at him, and those words, the soft lift of muscle was enough to brush Kiba's lips lightly against his fingertips. He was... trembling.
"I... know that." He said softly, not sure where the gravel had come from that was flavoring his voice: deeper, rougher. His chest was tight and there was this dizzying pressure of heat building, tightening under his skin; a buzzing that had nothing to do with anger or fighting, but everything to do with his fingers hesitating above Kiba's mouth.
"Here, I'll help." Kiba said quietly, and Shino wasn't sure he'd ever heard Kiba's voice quite like that before, but he knew he wanted to hear it again. He felt Kiba's fingers before he even noticed the other boy's hand moving, one by one as they wrapped lightly around his wrist, thumb first. It was a shock of butterfly wings against the inside of his wrist, and he contemplated whether or not Kiba could feel his heartbeat slipping sideways under that thumb but the thought was shattered and replaces so quickly as the rest descended. Time was moving oddly, and Shino knew he shouldn't be able to feel each finger this strongly, knew something was different about all of this. But then- then his fingers were there, smoothing slowly along Kiba's bottom lip, pressing into the fullness, marveling at the give even as with one small twitch of forefinger Kiba's mouth was opening.
Shino gasped at the silken wet heat of the inside of Kiba's lip before he paused to dwell on the little shudder that Kiba gave, the odd strangled noise that shook out of the boy in his lap, the tightening of fingers on his wrist. But then, he was watching as Kiba's mouth close around his finger, tongue darting against him and he understood the tremble, couldn't have stopped the shaking in his muscles if he'd tried. And oddly he didn't want to try, just wanted to press further into the heat, feel the welling of honeybliss under his skin. Wanted to draw his finger slowly, feel the pressure of suction as Kiba's tongue curled around the intrusion.
He wanted... something now. "Kiba?" He heard himself ask and Kiba's eyes opened slowly, sadly, pleading with him. And Shino understood, not at a conscious level, but his body was moving, curling over the boy in his lap, legs stretching out in front of him as Kiba slid toward his knee, oddly graceful in this slow moving time as the heat of him charged the currents of need that raced through Shino.
"Yes." Kiba said, a command and those fingers were tugging at his wrist, moving his fingers to slide along the long strength of jaw, stroking the silken skin just behind his ear curiously, toying with the hair even as they moved, Shino down and Kiba up. Pausing for just a moment, breathing the same breath before...
Shino realized with a start of heat and fire and honey that swept through his veins, even as his eyes closed that he was kissing Kiba. That those slightly chapped lips were against his own, and he could feel Kiba's heartbeat under his fingers, but that didn't matter now, nothing mattered but this moment, this... tranquility he'd found against the other boy's mouth. A disquiet he hadn't consciously realized he'd been carrying finally set to rest.
"Coyote moon," Kiba whispered against him and Shino smiled, knowing that even now, the silence could be filled.
To their left, Akamaru sighed happily and went to sleep, his job done.
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