Love Hina Fan Fiction

After the Rain Has Fallen

By Kraven Ergeist

Nothing could have prepared them for this. There had been no warning. No reason. No time to prepare. One day, they just received a phone call, and then the whole of Hinata-sou was gathered in mourning.

Keitaro just wasn't speaking to anyone. Everyone who lived in that building felt obliged to console him, but he just kept turning people away. Shinobu tried fixing his favorite meal. Even Motoko took the time out of her day to try to coax him out of his room. But he would just shrug them off and respond in monosyllabic sentences.

Nobody could figure out what to do. There really wasn't anything to do. This just hadn't been in anyone's plans.

An air of destitution had fallen over the residents. Nobody felt like doing much of anything. The hot spring had seen such little usage that it was starting to go into disrepair. Dinner, cleaning, everything felt like such a chore. Haruka and Kitsune hardly came home from the bar anymore. Makoto spent more and more time practicing, but just couldn't concentrate on what she was doing. Kaolla and Sarah spent most of their time away from the inn. Everyone just kept finding reasons to stay away from the Hinata-sou. The whole building was starting to become something of a ghost house.

For a while, things lingered on like that. The residents would go about their lives without saying much to each other. Everyone mostly kept to themselves. But then one day, Motoko came home with Keitaro's midterm grades. That got quite a few concerned faces.

"Our professor says that if he doesn't pull his grades up, he'll fail the semester."

Everyone had been collected for a staff meeting of sorts. It had taken some doing to get everyone together. Su had, by far, been the hardest to find. But once Kitsune had learned of the news, she'd leapt at the opportunity to locate all the members of the inn.

"Finally! A chance to break Keitaro out of this slump he's been in!"

Kitsune's seemingly sudden revival received another fair share of odd stares.

"Kitsune…" Haruka calmly interjected. "In case you haven't noticed, we've all been kind of depressed lately. It's only reasonable."

"Yes," Shinobu voiced. "I mean…we all miss Naru. Maybe we should give him some more time."

Kitsune just clenched a fist. "We've given him time. It's been three months since it happened. But if he doesn't get on with his life, he'll end up regretting it for the rest of his days!"

Motoko nodded. "I agree. Keitaro should not be allowed to linger on like this."

"He's just sad that Naru's gone," Shinobu pointed out. "Give him a chance."

"Yeah, but this is Keitaro we're talking about here," Sarah said, as she meandered into the living area, Kaolla hot on her heels. "Frankly, we're lucky he hasn't shipped off to Bora Bora by now."

"Hey, Kitsune…" Haruka pursed her lips. "Why are you being so insistent about this?"

"Well, somebody has to be," Kitsune frowned. "You all see it, don't you? Keitaro's needed our help in the past. We've always managed to get him back on track before. I see no reason not to do the same thing now! And if I have to be the one to remind you all, then so be it!"

"But what about Naru?" Haruka frowned. "I mean…you were such good friends before."

Kitsune just scowled at her old drinking buddy

"She was like a sister to me, Haruka. And I'll be damned if I'm gonna let her husband waste away like this, no matter what the reason. She wouldn't want that. Not Naru."

Everyone held their silence.

"Now, I say we help him out while we can," she urged. "Come on guys, it's the least we could do."

Motoko stood up, holding up her shinai. "I'm in."

Shinobu nodded, weakly. "I'll…I'll help if I can."

Kaolla just grinned. "Well, you know I'm in."

Sarah just grunted. "Well, since it seems that it's gonna be the predominant activity around here, I guess I'm in too."

Haruka shrugged. "I don't know if I'll be any help, but I'll do what I can. He's my nephew after all."

Kitsune grinned. "Alright, we're all set. Now, here's the plan…"

xxxxx

Keitaro was still lying in bed, but from the dark circles under his eyes, Kitsune could tell he hadn't been sleeping. The shades were drawn and there was hardly any light in the room as Kitsune quietly slipped in. The residents had maintained their resolve not to enter without knocking, but Kitsune had opted specifically not to adhere to that particularly modicum of politeness. As dreary as Keitaro was at this point, she doubted he even heard her come in.

For a while, she sat next to his futon, away from the direction his head was turned. She didn't know if he was asleep or just lying there, but she wasn't sure she wanted to get his attention just yet. She hesitated – her plan called for his forcible removal from his room and being taken with the rest of the group for a day out on the town, but now that she was here, out of site of the others, she wasn't sure what to do. She had come in here, fully intending to yank him out of bed. She was certainly strong enough, and Keitaro was neither heavy enough to hinder her, nor strong enough to resist her.

Licking the dry from her lips, she finally spoke out.

"Keitaro?"

There was a stirring of bed sheets as Keitaro turned his head over and his eyes opened laboriously.

"What do you want?" he groaned like a cancer patient in the throes of chemotherapy, squinting through pained eyes at someone who wouldn't let him die in peace.

The prone figure of torment was pitiable enough to stop even the always-cheerful Konno Mitsune from responding with anything remotely encouraging.

"Well…" she bit her lip, trying to remember that steady resolve she had not long ago. She was doing this for the sake of her best friend's memory, and more importantly, for Keitaro's sake, who was her landlord, valued friend, and occasional subject of scandalous torture. But no matter how much she wanted to just drag him out of his room and back into the real world, when faced with the sullen look on his face, all she wanted to do was crawl into that bed and start crying all over again.

Now there was an idea to think twice about. It was pretty clear that both of them could have used a decent snuggling right about then. But he needed one from his wife, not from her slovenly beer-swilling roommate. No, what he needed was to wake up.

"You haven't shown your face in months," Kitsune though, pointing out the obvious. As soon as the words left her mouth, she felt like a moron. Positive reinforcement, you dumb ass! Don't point out something that'll just make him feel even more like shit! Give him a reason to get out a bed, don't just tell him what he's been doing wrong! You don't need to be a psychologist to know that!

With a grunt, Keitaro rolled back over, looking away from Kitsune.

"Would a vacation help?" Kitsune blurted out. "You always used to just go on some voyage overseas whenever things got you down, so…"

Damn it, where was her usual wit? She couldn't think of anything snappy or enticing. Before, all she'd have to do was flirt with him to get a reaction, but that would only add to the problem in this case. Realistically, ever since he and Naru had gotten married, she'd never really been able to talk to him, not honestly. She used to have such fun with him, and now…

"Damn it, Keitaro, the rest of us care about you too!"

Keitaro pulled the covers over his head. "…Leave me alone."

Kitsune gritted her teeth. "Yeah, that's right, just shut everyone out! Now that you've lost the love of your life, that life isn't even worth living for anymore? Is that it?"

The lump under the quilt just grunted.

"Stop acting like a child, Keitaro! God, What did Naru ever see in you? It took you years for you to even tell her that you loved her! If you had just had the balls to confess to her from the start, you would have so much more time together than you actually had!"

The lump beneath the quilt released another sound, only this time it sounded like a muffled scream.

Kitsune just crossed her arms. "Fucking child…"

With another muffed agonized scream, the comforter flew across the room as Keitaro hurled himself up on his hands and knees, and glared at the woman with eyes tear soaked red.

"Get out of my life and leave me be!" he screamed loud enough to rattle the wooden doorframe. "I don't deserve your sympathy, Mitsune! So just…fucking leave me ALONE!"

Kitsune's normally narrow eyes had widened to disc shaped. She'd never seen Keitaro act this way before. She'd seem him cry before. She'd seem him yell before. But never before had she seen him so furious, so helplessly grief-stricken. He was gasping for breath after his outburst, head hung, cold sweat and tears dripping from his face onto the tatami floor.

Kitsune eventually found her voice. "We all miss her, Keitaro…but…well, misery loves company, so…we're all here for you, Keitaro. You need to-"

"No…" he panted, fists clenched in anguished frustration against the floor. "You don't understand…you just don't understand…"

Kitsune shook her head. She wasn't going to fall into that all too familiar trap of unfalsifiable excuses. "Keitaro, listen…"

"No, you listen…" he breathed, his eyes hidden in shadow, his voice ragged and torn. "I'm not worth the effort, Mitsune. I don't deserve to call you my friends. You all should hate me…should have kicked me out years ago. If you did…maybe Naru wouldn't have…"

Kitsune had to stop herself from groaning in disbelief. "Keitaro, what are you talking about? It wasn't your fault at all."

"Yes it was!" he shouted again, collapsing in another bout of sobbing tears. "God damn it, yes it was! It was my fault!"

Kitsune let out belabored sigh. "Keitaro…how on earth could it have been your fault that a truck driver fell asleep at the wheel? It was an accident, Keitaro! No one's fault!"

"She wouldn't have been there if we hadn't gotten into an argument that night!"

That made Kitsune hesitate. That was new information to her.

"What do you mean?"

Keitaro pushed himself back onto his futon and sat on his knees, eyes lowered. "The night it happened…we had a fight. I'd forgotten the groceries that week, and all we had was cup ramen. Nothing serious, just a little spat. One of those things that you forget about the next morning. But then…she stormed out of the inn…and then…and then…"

Kitsune was honestly speechless. She didn't blame him of course. That was ridiculous. But she could see clearly how he'd put all the blame on his shoulders. Three months, dealing with that sort of guilt…

Her arms were around him before she could think.

"Keitaro…" she breathed, holding him tightly. "I'm sorry, I'm so sorry! I didn't know! I'm sorry."

To her surprise, he didn't push her away or try to break free. He just sat there, shaking, taking the affection with a loathing self-hatred, the kind where you enjoy something when you know you shouldn't be. Kitsune knew it well. Because right at the moment his arms came around her and he buried his crying face against her shoulder, she felt the exact same feeling.

She didn't know whether to urge to stroke his shoulders came from a desire to comfort him or to relieve her own agitation, pent up from all the stress of losing her best friend, having to put up with the foul mood that had come over Hinata-sou, and dealing with a sulking landlord who she had never really seriously considered until that very moment.

Though he'd caught her interest when he'd first arrived, he'd practically sold himself to her best friend, even though it had taken him years. And she wasn't complaining, not really. He was fun to tease all the same, and she'd had her sights set on Seta back then. With the goal-oriented archeologist constantly on the move, and with Haruka constantly one-upping her in vying for his attentions, she'd all but lost hope.

But despite it all, she had still considered Keitaro her friend. Her friend, who she constantly teased and flirted with, and thought about once or twice when she was all alone in the baths. He never faulted her whenever she was late on her rent (which was often), never took her baiting seriously (which was also often), never spoke ill of her or anyone for that matter. While she couldn't exactly call it a crush, she always found herself wondering if, aside from poor fortune and a lack of motivation or a smidgen of coordination, there was anything about Keitaro Urashima that she didn't find endearing.

The day he'd gotten engaged though, she'd dispensed with those thoughts, keeping them in the back of her mind where they'd stayed up until that very moment. Now all the sudden, he was in her arms, and instead of thinking about how devastated he was at losing Naru, or of how much he needed a friend at that moment, all she could think about was how warm his body felt, how tightly he embraced her, how he simply buried himself into her.

Good gods, why did he have to fit so perfectly in her arms?

"I'm the worst…"

The sobbing, shaking Keitaro Urashima just continued to embrace the unwelcome guest, content to soak in her much needed and much neglected comfort, ignorant of the guilty pleasures bore by the fox in his arms.

xxxxx

A/N: Well, this ended up coming out a lot angstier than I had intended, but I suppose it was inevitable, given the twist I used to get these two together. This is my first Love Hina fan fiction. I will be writing more chapters in the near future.