Part I

Kiba walked forlornly across campus, towards the building where he most often found his classes being held. It was a rather bright, cheerful day and the weather was warm, but there was a slight chill in the breeze that would blow every so often. Looking upwards, toward Heaven, Kiba took note of the large, white clouds. which hung in the deep blue sky. It reminded Kiba of a day that seemed like it had happened ages ago, but really only a single year had passed

Summer's well on he through to himself as he pulled open the door of the building and walked in. Good, old Browne Hall…you just sit and wait for me to come back, don't you?

He climbed up the two flights of stairs to the third floor, turned left down a hallway and located classroom 215. It was an average-sized classroom with long tables stretching across the length of it instead of individual desks. Kiba sighed. Individual desks afforded more isolation from his fellow students. He took a seat at the far side of the second row back from the front of class. In his experience, he had found this area of classrooms most often sparsely populated. Kiba took the can of cappuccino he had brought from his messenger bag and opened it, taking a drink and then setting it onto the tabletop. He then took out a tablet of paper and a pen, silently hoping that all three classes that he had that day would let out early.

It was the first day of the autumn semester and his first class of the semester, which was a literature class on Romantic Poets. He had arrived early on purpose so that he would be able to get the seat he wanted. There was no one else currently in the classroom, but after another ten minutes or so, students began to wander in. Kiba gazed out the window, hoping no one would sit close by him, or better still, no one would even sit in the same row as he was.

He vaguely noticed the professor come into the room and begin unpacking some papers out of a battered briefcase. His hair was thinning rapidly, and he was wearing an ill-fitting, off-the-rack suit that was probably at least twenty years old. Kiba watched in amusement as he shuffled around. His large spectacles kept sliding down his nose, giving him and even further befuddled appearance.

A moment later, Kiba was annoyed to find someone hurriedly walking towards him, so he quickly turned to look out the window again. It was no a couple minutes after 9:00 so the class had technically begun, even though the professor hadn't spoken yet. The young man, much to Kiba's further annoyance sat down right next to him, even though the row had indeed stayed empty.

"Hey," he said to Kiba, "Just made it…"

Kiba turned to him to smile icily, but then was taken aback at the young man's appearance. He was quite handsome with dark blonde hair that was long and fell over his face and deep violet eyes. Kiba was immediately superficially attracted to him and was thrown off his guard. He smiled weakly and then turned back to look out the window. He made a mental note to arrive later on Friday so that he could possibly sit behind this student to stare at him without him noticing.

"Hey," they young man tapped Kiba's shoulder, forcing him to turn his attention back to his handsome face. "I'm Koji.

"How do you do?" Kiba asked.

"Wow, formal," Koji joked. "What's your name?"

"Inuzuka Kiba,"

"Nice to meet you, Kiba," Koji said with a laugh. "Are you always so formal?"

"I am myself," Kiba said, becoming somewhat irritated.

"Oh, sorry," Koji said. "That's a good thing to be. I don't know many people who go about being someone else."

"That isn't what I meant."

"I know, right?" Koji said. "I was teasing you to get you to relax a little. I'm not going to bite your head off. You seem so guarded. Is it hard for you to open up to people, get to know them?"

Kiba's was quite annoyed now. He hated people telling him how he was feeling, whether it was correct or not. And this person who he had never seen before in his life telling him exactly what he was thinking was especially annoying. He turned his attention to the front of the class thinking that perhaps he should sit as far away from Koji as possible on Friday. Upon looking up to the professor, Kiba found him to be staring at the two with a cross look upon his face. Kiba was immediately embarrassed.

"May I begin now?" the professor asked, making Kiba squirm in his chair uncomfortably.

"I'm sorry," Koji said. "I shouldn't have been talking so much to my friend, Kiba. We'll behave better the rest of the semester. I promise."

The professor laughed good-naturedly as Kiba rolled his eyes. The professor then began passing out copies of the class syllabus. Kiba begrudgingly took the copy that Koji passed to him with a wide grin.

"Sorry I got you called out like that," he whispered. "I know that's probably the last thing you wanted, being an introvert and all…"

Kiba's eyes widened in both surprise and annoyance at this comment. He nearly felt compelled to say something back, but then thought better of it. He didn't want to entice any more conversation out of Koji.

The professor had chosen to go into his first lesson after going through the syllabus, which further lowered Kiba's mood. Not only was he not going to get out early like he had hoped, but he was forced to stay next to Koji.

Finally, at 9:25, the professor noticed the time and dismissed the class and Kiba stood up, trying to get past Koji before he got up. Instead, Koji stood up, blocking the way, and then began walking with Kiba out of the classroom.

"Sorry again about that, guess I'll see you Friday, Kiba" he said as they reached the hallway. "I need to find a bathroom. I've had to piss for an hour."

Kiba just grinned slightly and then walked off in the opposite direction, thinking that it was fortunate that his next class was on the same floor, just around the corner, but because of the time, the classroom was likely already clogged with students. Kiba entered the classroom and there were several students already seated. Quickly scanning the room to find the most isolated area, Kiba walked to the front of the room and took a seat at the end of the front row, where only one girl was seated at the opposite end of the long table. There was no instructor or professor in the room yet, so Kiba pulled out his phone to check if he had any text messaged. He didn't, so he placed it onto the table next to his writing tablet. He slowly was drumming his fingers on the tablet when someone sat next to him.

"Kiba!" Koji said. "We have two classes together. It must be a sign we're going to be friends."

Kiba cringed slightly and turned to look at Koji, raising an eyebrow.

"No don't worry," Koji said with a laugh. "I'm not going to embarrass you like last class."

"Oh, I'm so glad," Kiba said, trying to be sarcastic.

"Yeah, I know, right?" Koji said. "So what's the rest of your schedule this semester. Wouldn't it be funny if we have every class together?"

"The likelihood of that must be remote," Kiba said, looking forward as the professor entered and walked to the front of the class.

"You there!" she said with a heavy Russian accent and pointing to the girl in the front row. "Lower those shades, it's far too light in here."

"Oh shit," Koji whispered. "Cease communication immediately!"

Kiba couldn't help but giggle at that, and he felt that maybe Koji wasn't so bad after all.

"Velcome to Russian Drama!" the professor nearly yelled. "And I don't mean Putin's latest publicity stunt!"

Koji inhaled a sharp breath and Kiba felt that he wanted to burst out laughing at the comment. This caused Kiba to want to laugh also.

"To be sure," the professor continued, "Putin is rather dramatic. How many of you remember that meteor that went flying over Siberia a couple years ago and exploded? You know, when I first saw the video, I though 'What's Putin done now?,' but as it turns out, it was just a meteor."

Kiba saw Koji bow his head down and hold his arms around himself, which made Kiba want to laugh even more now. He quickly turned away so as to try and calm himself.

"Oh go on boys," the professor said. "Let's all laugh and get it out."

At that Koji burst out laughing, his face turning red, and Kiba doing the same. The professor even chuckled at their enthused amusement.

"All right, now let's get down to business," the she said. "I don't make a syllabus because I never follow it anyway, so we're just going to go all over the place. Hopefully I don't lose any of you…"

As the class ended, the professor gave an assignment for reading for Friday's class and then dismissed everyone. Koji and Kiba stood up and Koji walked over to the professor, who was standing at the desk in front.

"I didn't mean any disrespect, professor," he said. "Just the way you put that about the meteor was so funny. I actually think President Putin is a very complicated and fascinating person."

"Vell, he's a bit odd, but no one can deny that he's very smart," she replied. "I often wonder about him, but thank you for telling me. I took no offense."

"I'm looking forward to the class, too," Koji said. "I think it will be a good learning experience."

Kiba found himself standing around, waiting for Koji to finish talking to the professor and wondering to himself why he hadn't bolted and gotten away when he had the chance.

"You're brother is waiting," the professor finally said.

"Oh, he's my friend, Kiba," Koji said turning to where Kiba was waiting. "Well, I think so anyway, I just met him in our class we had before. I embarrassed him though, so maybe he won't want to be friends with me."

"Oh no, you were bad?" the professor asked and then said to Kiba. "You forgive him though?

"Oh," Kiba was caught off guard. "Yes, it was nothing really…"

"Awesome!" Koji exclaimed. "Well, see you Friday then."

He turned and stopped a moment for Kiba to walk ahead of him and then they departed the classroom. They walked down the hall to the stairs and walked down to the bottom and out into the sunny morning.

"Hey, you never did tell me the rest of your schedule," Koji said. "What is it?"

"Ummm, I have these two classes with you, which are Monday, Wednesday, and Friday," Kiba began. "And then I have Introductory Creative Writing this afternoon, which is a Monday, Wednesday class. On Tuesday and Thursday morning, I have a World Literature class and Tuesday night I have a history class, Imperial China."

"Wow, that's a pretty busy schedule," Koji said. "Are you a fourth year?"

"No, I'm now third year," Kiba said. "What about you?"

"I'm a second year," Koji answered. "My major is going to be dramatic arts and playwriting."

"Really?" Kiba asked. "I see then why you would take Russian Drama, but how does the Romantic Poets class fit into that?"

"It doesn't really," Koji admitted. "But I had planned to hopefully use some of the poems as reading pieces in some of my other courses."

"I see," Kiba said. "That would be interesting."

"Yeah, hopefully," he said. "The other classes I have are Interpretive Reading, Expressing Emotion in Acting, and I'm taking a soccer phys ed course."

"Hmmmm, you're going to be busy too it sound like."

"I hope not too bad," Koji said. "Hey, what are you doing till your next class?"

"Oh, I should go home and take my dog for a walk," Kiba said. "He gets a little wily if I'm away too long."

"Oh, cool, you have a dog," Koji said. "I love dogs, or really any animals. That must mean you don't live in the dorms, right?"

"That's true," Kiba said. "I have an apartment off campus."

"Wow, that would be really nice," Koji said. "My roommates are kind of annoying at times. I have three of them. I live in Harmony Hall, which is kind of comical, since the four of us aren't very harmonious at all most of the time."

"That's kind of funny," Kiba remarked. "You should call it the Hall of Supreme Harmony, like at the Forbidden City."

"Hey, that's kind of clever," Koji said with a laugh. "You're all right, Kiba. Although I thought so before, now I think you are for sure."

"Oh, ummm, thanks," Kiba said, looking down at the ground. "Well, I guess I should get going then. I'll see you later."

"Cool cool," Koji said and then pulled out his phone. "Hey, I don't know when your other classes are, but text me sometime. Seriously, I would welcome any opportunity to be away from my roommates."

"Sure, ok," Kiba said, typing the numbers into a new contact as Koji recited them to him. He then sent a text message to Koji so he would also have Kiba's number.

"Have a nice afternoon then," Koji said as he and Kiba parted ways.

Kiba walked quickly off campus and back to his apartment. He was relatively certain that he would not run into Naruto during the week because of how the two had previously planned out there schedules when they had still been dating. Most of their classes overlapped and Kiba's classes got out early than Naruto's. So, Kiba planned to head for his apartment as soon as he got out of class so as to reduce the already small chance that he might see his former boyfriend.

Kiba still felt immensely hurt by what he considered Naruto's ending their relationship by moving out and thereby (at least to Kiba's mind) abandonment of him. Kiba had been hurt previously so many times that he came to believe that it had almost been inevitable that Naruto would also leave him at some point and it had caused him to become unreasonable and fatalistic when Naruto had expressed his need for some time away from Kiba. Naruto hadn't really meant to convey that he wanted to break up with Kiba by going back to live in the dorm, but instead, he had initially been thinking of how best not to hurt Kiba with his infatuation with his best friend, Sasuke, which Kiba still had no knowledge of.

As Kiba walked down the residential streets to his apartment, he thought about how easily things could change, and usually not for the better.

Once again I find myself alone, he mused to himself. Quite alone.

"But you're so foolish about it," his conscious answered. "You get rid of one Naruto and then start liking the first person you see who resembles him…"

I do not like Koji that way, Kiba answered to himself. And I absolutely have no plans to date anyone ever again.

"You're going to start fucking around again, aren't you?"

No, absolutely not. I don't want anyone in any way anymore.

"Call Kankuro…or Chouji will find someone you can hook up with…"

Quiet, you, Kiba said, compelling his conscious into silence.

He arrived at his apartment and walked up the outside stairs to the front door, unlocked it, and pushed it open. Akamaru pushed his way out onto the landing, looking around and then sniffing the air and whining.

"He's not here, Akamaru," Kiba said. "We both need to get used to it…"

Akamaru whined once more before running back inside and laying down forlornly in front of the fireplace.

"No," Kiba repeated. "He's never coming back, so we should just accept it."

He kicked off his sneakers and walked into the kitchen to make a sandwich. He made one for himself and also one for Akamaru, who readily ate it up as Kiba sat at the table watching in amusement. After he finished eating, he lay down on the sofa and looked at his phone, which he had felt vibrating while he had been eating. The first text had been from Sasuke

Kiba, will you please call me tonight? i'm worried i haven't heard from you in a few days. at least text me please.

Be patient, Sasuke, Kiba thought. I don't want to lose you too, but I can't talk to you yet.

The second text was unexpectedly from Koji

Hey kibie, i really am sorry about this morning, and i know ur probably thinking i should just shut up and stop apologizing, and i will now that i've said it again, haha…but it was nice to meet you and i'm glad that you r in 2 of my classes. see ya later!

He quickly replied back:

Don't call me 'kibie'

Then he put the phone down on the floor and slid it so that it glided over the carpet to the opposite side of the room, thus preventing him from communicating further.

He looked over to the clock on the little CD player on the countertop leading into the kitchen and sighed since it was nearly time for him to go back to campus for the third and final class that day. He dragged himself off the sofa and put his sneakers back on, deliberately leaving his phone lying on the floor. After picking up his messenger bag, he headed back out the door and off to his class.