First Love, Second Chance
A Love Hina Fanfiction

by Vermilion-ZERO

Disclaimer: Obviously, I don't own Love Hina. If I did, this wouldn't be fanfiction, now would it?

Wise-ass.

Though I've been drawing and writing some of my own fiction, this is my first fanfiction, much less my first LH fanfic. So please bear with me. Don't worry, this isn't a self-insert and there will be no OCs.

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Prologue:

All Over Again

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The sakura trees are in full bloom, leaves falling and blanketing the area like pink snow. It was a day of celebration: the official union of two destined lovers, childhood sweethearts. It was a day that a legendary inn-turned-girls-dormitory-turned-back-into-inn (and then back to a girl's dorm, many would argue) saw the marriage of it's owner, Urashima Keitaro, to his long-time classmate, study partner, and best friend, Narusegawa Naru, who, after a colorful moment with her new husband, decided to keep her original name.

After helping her husband into the limousine by applying physical force to the back of his head with her clenched fist, the newlyweds sped off into the distance to enjoy their honeymoon. Given Naru's disposition, however, it's not likely any consummating will be done this night. Such is the life of Urashima Keitaro.

Watching their friends' limo disappear into the streets of Hinata, the girls of Hinata-Sou began wrapping up the festivities and cleaning up the mess. Of course, this really meant the resident fox-lady, Kitsune, would pass out in the living room after all the drinking she did in celebration, or in preparation for getting out of having to do some cleaning. One can never be too certain of this particular vixen's true motives.

Laying on the couch next to Kitsune would be her drinking partner, co-worker/owner of the Tea House formerly run by Urashima Haruka (who would presumably now be Noriyasu Haruka), and ever-cheerful Watermelon Girl, Otohime Mutsumi. At some point during the reception, one of her trademark watermelons managed to find it's way airborne and make an emergency landing against her skull. Apparently, the Molmolian Princess, Kaolla Su, decided Tama-chan would make an excellent side dish to the wedding cake, and during the process of "convincing" poor Tama that she should find a happy home in her tummy (which meant chasing her around), she kicked the aforementioned watermelon towards the hapless Okinawan flower.

"Oopsies..."

Over the years, Mutsumi's health improved to the point that fainting spells no longer plagued her on an hourly basis. As such no one was really prepared for the sudden forced unconsciousness that would allow gravity to take control of her body and begin a perilous plummet straight downward. No one except a well-trained warrior of the Shinmei-Ryuu. Moving across the floor swiftly and almost silently (she was wearing heels, after all, it's a wedding reception), the warrior-woman, Todai scholar, and clandestine romance author, Aoyama Motoko, saved her friend from suffering further head trauma, catching her well before her head came into contact with the floor.

"Su-chan, I had thought you had grown out of this..." she scolded without any real ire. She had come to think of the young foreigner as a younger sister she never had, and had watched over her since her early teens when she would hang from her back and tug her hair. Motoko smiled lightly at the memory, and had to stifle a laugh at the thought of Su doing that now, despite how much she's grown.

"Sorries, Motoko! I just thought adding Tama to the cake would make it even yummier!" the tanned blonde replied with a beaming smile, as she always does.

"Auuu! Mutsumi-sempai's hurt!" came a cry from the kitchen, now entering the room. Maehara Shinobu had grown into quite a beautiful young woman, though some of her childhood mannerisms never quite left her. Many would say it is what defines her personality, and there have been times Motoko and even Naru would have to "punish" males that would dare try to take advantage of her because of it. After several charges of aggravated assault and many ensuing lawsuits for medical expenses and damage to property, they quickly learned not every male is impossibly indestructible and as forgiving as a saint like the one they had been, for lack of a better term, abusing for the last few years.

"Worry not, Shinobu-chan. Mutsumi-sempai just had a little...mishap," Motoko replied, casting a glance at Su, now rubbing the back of her head with a sheepish grin. "I shall put her down next to Kitsune. Do you require any assistance?"

Releasing a sigh of relief, Shinobu gently shook her head. "Sempai's friends...erm...Shin...something...and Hai...ku..?" Looking to her friends, she can see that they can't remember their names, either. "Well, to make up for that pass one of them made at your sister..."

Shinobu and even Su took a step back at Motoko's reaction to the mere mention of such a...MALE act! Against her family, no less! Somehow, the famed Hina Blade appeared in her hand despite the fact that she hadn't been anywhere near it since the wedding started. Flailing her arms around as if that would stop any Shinmei-Ryuu technique, Shinobu strained her synapses to finish her sentence before another lawsuit incident would occur.

"Auuu! Motoko-sempai, p-p-please stop! Your s-sister already has them doing the bulk of the cleaning outside! They're already sweeping all the sakura!"

At this, Motoko seemed to calm a little, and Su could not resist the temptation.

"Motoko, I had thought you had grown out of this..." she said with a smirk that fit Kitsune more than it did her. The swordswoman's eyes went wide at the realization of what she almost did, and that Su had just one-upped her. This was not lost on Shinobu, either, who unsuccessfully stifled a giggle and caused the raven-haired warrior to color slightly in the face, though she would turn away from her younger companions to conceal it. Satisfied that no patients would soon be visiting the ER with all expenses paid by Hinata-Sou, Shinobu returned to the kitchen to finish the last of the cleaning.

"Hmph...serves them right. If you do not mind my absence, Su-chan, I shall retire to my room to meditate. Perhaps all the preparation for this day has made me...irritable," Motoko reasoned out loud.

"Ya mean yer peeved cuz you weren't the one marryin' Keitaro?" Su chimed in, much to the chagrin of her former playmate. While she was still youthful in that she would speak before thinking, she had grown up enough to know when she said something she shouldn't have, and this was one of those times. The anxious air that had hung over Motoko in her embarrassment almost immediately vanished, giving way to surprise, contemplation, and eventually loss.

Oh, she had given up Keitaro to Naru before, as she believed it was the honorable thing to do. This was only after she had admitted that she loved him, however, and made an active effort to win his affection. She had even gone so far as to fight him in armed combat to prevent him from re-uniting with his girlfriend while trying to convince him that he would be better off returning to Hinata-Sou with herself and not Naru. She had shed tears after her defeat, as he had used the Boulder Cutting Blade, her signature technique, against her. She felt her heart skip a beat at the thought that he had learned such a high-level technique of her school, almost as if they had another thing in common, something bringing them closer together. The reality then hit her, though: she had given him everything she had, physically and emotionally, and he rebuffed her on both accounts. She had felt the sting of defeat by this man before, but not rejection, and thus the tears began to flow.

She had lost twice that day.

In the span of mere seconds, all this came to her, and she began to feel despair worm its way into her heart once more. However, having so much practice at reigning in her emotions and putting up a mask, she turned to Su with an unaffected exterior, which unsettled the teen genius more than if Motoko had been angry or even upset with her.

"Do not be absurd, Su-chan. I am happy for Urashima. After all, he accomplished the last of the 3 goals he sought after in his life. He was accepted into Todai, became an archeologist, and is now married to the woman he loves. Why would I be angry about that?"

"Urashima?" She hasn't called him that since her hair was short... thought Su, her head tilted and beginning to fill with worry, but still she plastered a wide smile upon her face, attempting to add some levity. I know she loved him more than even Naru or Mutsumi...she had to if she was willing to let him go... "Hehehe...ya got me, Motoko. Guess yer going up to yer roomroom, huh?"

The swordswoman nodded with a smile that seemed about as genuine as a cubic zirconium wedding ring, and ascended to her room as Su retreated to hers, the younger girl saying something to herself about working on a new project. Arriving in her room, Motoko moved toward her sword-rack ntending to place the Hina Blade back upon it, when her hand holding the sheathed weapon stopped, her eyes casting down upon it.

This very blade...it is an heirloom of the Urashima family. I may have sealed it, but it belongs to him...to Keitaro...

Here, she holds the blade to her heart, her eyes shut tight as though it would actually stop the tears from flowing, falling to her knees.

...just as my heart does. Why is it so hard to let him go? He is gone now...married to Naru. He can never come back...he will never leave her. Spirits willing nothing happens to Naru, I could not bear to only have Keitaro's heart mine after being broken as such. He does not deserve such pain...not after all that I have inflicted upon him...

Flashbacks scream through her mind, unbidden, of all the times she attacked Keitaro for being a "pervert." Her recent troubles with male Todai students hitting on Shinobu forced her to realize that no other man except Keitaro could and would have taken the punishment she and Naru would apply almost daily. His strength of will and fortitude, to never raise a hand back at them, to never oust them from the building he himself owned, to endure such punishment while striving for what seemed like an impossible goal, all the while attempting to earn the affection of a woman who seemed to despise him, it filled her with guilt and shame.

He never deserved it...any of it...I had abused him with my sacred techniques so much...he actually learned them! It is divine punishment...it has to be...all this time...it was really I who was unworthy of him...if only...if I could...

Finally, the grief and guilt overran her senses, and she found herself succumbing to emotional and physical fatigue. Still clutching the Hina Blade to her chest as the darkness welcomed her, she had one thought on her mind.

A second chance...

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Suddenly, Motoko's eyes shot open, and she found herself kneeling in front of the sword-rack in her room, a sheathed blade still in hand.

Did I fall asleep meditating? How undisciplined of me...what would Anu-ue think of me doing such a thing...?

Rising off her knees and moving her legs about to rid them of the numbness, she took a look around her room and noticed something...off.

Wait...the sword-rack...!

Looking more closely, she noticed the sword-rack wasn't the same one she used to hold the Hina Blade. It seemed to be made to hold a long, hilt-less, straight blade.

How could this be! I have not had use for this rack since I had... "SHISUI!"

Finishing her inner monologue vocally, Motoko finally noticed the blade in her hand was not Hina, but in fact, Shisui, the blade originally given to her by her sister, Tsuruko. That blade was eventually destroyed by Tsuruko herself after a lie between Motoko and Keitaro had been exposed, and Shisui paid the price for that deceit. Although the situation had been resolved, Motoko felt that, even if it were possible, repairing Shisui would have gone back on the punishment that Tsuruko handed to her. After all, it was originally Tsuruko's blade to begin with. By this time, Motoko also noticed that her several other changes, now looking herself over.

My...my dress...I am wearing my hakama and gi...but I am certain that I did not change! In fact, I do not even recall actually meditating!

Moving over to her mirror, she gave herself a closer look, picking up details only a trained warrior's eye could see.

I am shorter...judging by the tightness of my chest bindings...my bust seems to have decreased. It is as if I have regressed in age...

Putting that nonsensical thought out of her head, Motoko eventually figured that the simplest explanation was that she was dreaming. After all, she had spent the last few minutes before falling asleep, as she assumed, mulling over her past. To prove her point, she decided the time-tested method of pinching herself would suffice, but was shocked when she felt pain. She was even more shocked that she decided to pinch her own rear for some reason.

This...does not seem to be a dream...maybe this is some sort of vision? But what am I supposed to see...or do? If I am indeed in the past...when exactly am I?

As if on cue, she would have her answer in the form of Naru screaming in the distance.

"HELP! A PEEPING TOM! A PEEPING TOM IN THE HOT SPRINGS!"

It cannot be...

With Shisui at her side, Motoko ran towards where she heard the scream, feeling a sense of déja vû as she moved swiftly through the halls.

It is exactly like that day...so long ago...could it really be...? It...it is...!

Time seemed to slow down as Motoko rounded the corner, finally getting sight of what all the screaming is about. Running away from all the girls is a young man, clad in only a towel, running through the halls of Hinata-Sou with a pair of panties on his head. Motoko found herself stopping in place, and nearly dropped Shisui upon realization of who it was, and what was happening.

It was Keitaro's first day at Hinata-Sou, and his life would be very different from here on out.

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END Prologue

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First off, I want to apologize to everyone who had been following and supporting this story for my lack of updates. As I'm also an artist I've been struggling more with that end and used writing this story as a way to take a break from that. Once I got back into the swing of things I found myself less enamored with writing, then life, as it has a tendency of doing, decided to get in the way.

Having seen many older stories recently finding closure, in particular "At the Crack of Dawn" by Boombubble and "Love Hina: A Friend in Need" by Tezza1502, I realized leaving even a handful of readers hanging was betraying the faith they had put into me by choosing to read and review my work. I will do my best to correct this. As such, I'm going over each chapter and trying to get my mindset back to where it was when I was first writing this. There was merely spelling and grammar corrections in this chapter but the next will probably have a more significant change as someone pointed out the scramble scene needed work.

Finally, this is a shout-out to all authors out there with great stories that need closure:

"A Ronin Fit for a Samurai" and "The Breaking Point" by Supreme Ky

"Sakura Kisses" by GlazedandConfused

"This Is Not Your Dream, This Is Our Dream" by Minh Toshihiro

"Leaving" by Shadowed-Moon2525

"A Long Sought After Dream" by St. Jack

"Courtship Rituals," "Growth," "And Life Goes On," and "A Moment Worth a Lifetime" by Irritus185

"As Fate Would Have It" by NuclearToast

"The Wisdom of Snow" by Garasu

"The Romantic Tales of Love Hina" by NaruFlip

"The Ebb and Flow of Things" by The Wonk

"Love Hina: Stubborn Kind of Fellow" by Tsurumaki

"Journey of the Flower Maiden" by riderofdragons

"Love Hina: The Path of Love" by Zero Eiyuu

"Su Kaolla with a License to Thrill," "Early Return," "Handyman Keitaro," and "Visiting Kyoto" by Hawk

"Finding a Way Home" by Wolfwing

"Falling for the First Time" by Andrew Joshua Talon

Please, guys! Don't leave us hanging!