30 Day Challenge

Day 4

Prompt: Rock Band AU

Ship: Kankukiba

Other information: Modern AU, in the same universe as "It's Just A Cigarette" (same festival, different set so Shikamaru and Temari are already together)

*~*~*~*~*

Everything was going to plan. No one had messed up any of their parts: Rock Lee wasn't speeding up sporadically, Shikamaru wasn't missing notes to make his work earlier, Naruto wasn't off pitch, Neji was perfect as always and Kiba's guitar hadn't lost a string. It was going so smoothly, even Shino, who was observing their every moves from the side of the stage, was somewhat impressed with their work. 

Kiba was lost in the music. Each note he plucked resonating in his soul, each chord strummed made his heart hum, he was in what some may call 'The Zone'. His solo was coming up, his body went to the front of the stage as though it was operating on autopilot, his head banging was unrestrained, he felt freer than any bird, whether it'd be the pigeons he used to feed with his grandma and sister at the park or the red robins Akamaru had chased earlier, he had nothing to halt his joy.

Or so that's what he thought.

Earlier, at the start of their set, the crowd had had some fun chucking water bottles at them, and they threw some back. The sun had been beaming down on them after all, it was well beyond 30°C and the coolness of the water had been more than welcomed. At the time that was. The problem with throwing water came in the shape of slippery surfaces, especially at the front of the stage where most of the projectiles had landed. Said unsteadiness wouldn't have been a problem if not for the fact that Kiba's mind was elsewhere. 

His foot slipped, and the next thing he noticed was how light he seemed to have gotten, and the lack of floor under his feet. He was falling, and falling fast. He was only a foot or two from the dried grass right in front of the stage when he realised the inevitable, the only thing he could do was hug his old Bessy to cushion her fall - he would never forgive himself if he ever damaged it. He closed his eyes and waited for his impending collision with the ground. 

He felt a sharp pain in the middle of his back, shooting down to all of his extremities. It was, however, much less painful than what he had expected. The most surprising was the sound that came from right next to his ears, a scream of agony followed by a pained chuckle. Kiba opened his eyes only to be met with dark, asphalt eyes, surround by a thick purple line, slightly winged at the corner, and a pained smirk followed with a, "You seem to have fallen for me" before the man who had called him dropped him. This time the pain went to his rear and was much less prominent.

Kiba looked up to the man and recognised him as one of Shikamaru's new girlfriend's brothers. He had actually caught himself intrigued by the taller man a few times, after all, it wasn't every day you came across someone oozing such "I don't give two fucks what you think about me" vibes as the man in question had. This time though, he didn't seem as laid back as he usually was, he was holding his shoulder and obviously holding back any sign of pain he could, yet miserably failing at such a task. 

"Wha-" Kiba started dazed, his back and butt were still throbbing but he had escaped something worse thanks to the man in front of him, "are you okay?"

"I... should be... fine" the other responded in between troubled breaths.

"KANKURO!" a feminine voice called out from the stairs next to the stage, closely followed by hurried footsteps, "Are you okay?"

"I think my shoulder's fucked but other than that, I've never been better,"

"Let me se- OH... that looks everything but good... I'm gonna call an ambulance," she pulled out her phone hurriedly.