Love Hina is owned by Ken Akamatsu


A Cat Got Your Tongue?

He wondered what the time was and looked over towards his alarm clock on his left and came face to face with Motoko, she had cat ears on. 'Oh that's cute, just like my dream.' he thought. Then his brain caught up with the situation he had fallen asleep in Motoko's room. He jerked awake and sprang out from under her, dumping her onto the floor. His brain caught up some more and realized that she might still eat him if he was not careful and annoyed her. They watched each other for a long moment.

'Ok not going with the blood and ripping with teeth yet.' Finally Keitaro spoke "We need to talk."

"Yes we do." Motoko replied.

Silence reigned. They were not looking at each other, finding the floor, the walls and the ceiling more interesting. The silence continued.

When the silence became too much for her Motoko spoke. "One of us should speak before you commence your studies at Tokyo University."

"Your ears are showing." Keitaro said but they had vanished before he finished speaking.

The night before he had been thinking hard about what he knew about werecreatures, the movies had only so much to say about them. He had come up with many questions. 'Well might as well start with the first one.' He thought. Keitaro looked directly at Motoko "What are you?"

"I am a Sagittarius." She glared at him while saying that then looked lost for a moment and lowed her gaze again.

"That's not what I meant." You could hear the irony dripping off his voice. "You are a werecreature aren't you?" She nodded "What type of are you? Some sort of cat right?"

"Panther." Keitaro moved towards her and sat down a short distance away. Not too near to intrude on her space by a wide margin, but not so far as to seem totally afraid of her.

'Ok she is keeping it short.' "Are you going to kill me?"

"No!" Another short glare.

'That is a load off my mind' "Are any of the other girls werecreatures?"

"No. I'd know if they were."

"Are you a danger to me or the girls?"

"No!"

"Are you going to turn again soon?"

"For the next two nights I shall transform."

"As a cat are you dangerous?"

"No."

"Do you need me to leave my window open so you can get back in? My window is easier to get to than yours."

She looked up suddenly the question had completely blindsided her. She had expected to be evicted from Hinata dorms but instead he was helping her. "That would be most helpful. Thank you."

He remembered the night that he thought he saw the panther from the kitchen. "I saw you transformed before right?" She nodded "There was no moon that night. How?"

Her answer surprised him. "I am not a werewolf. They are forced to transform into wolves on the full moon. I am a werecat we transform on the new moon. It is the night of the new moon the night before and the night after that we are forced to change. Yet at any other time I may change at will," While saying this she brought out her tail ears and claws "but the new moon I must change into a cat and the night before and after was like last night a partial transformation. It starts as the sun touches the horizon and completes when the sun completes setting. I can accelerate that changes if I wish to. The reverse is true at daybreak. I may slow the transformation if required, but I can regain my form as soon as the sun is above the horizon." She hid the cat features again. "For cats like me the night of the full moon we cannot change at all. The night before and the night after we can only do a partial transformation if we wanted to."

"Oh. Um that is complicated but I think I got it. Do you need help with Su? She sleeps with you most of the time after all. I can keep her a few nights when you need to change. If you want my help tha..."

He didn't get any further in his offer than that as Motoko lunged at him engulfing him in a hug and started crying into his shirt. "Why are you being so kind to me Urashima? Why are you not evicting me from the residence? Why are you not screaming for everyone to come here and exposing my secret?"

'To hug or not to hug? That is the question.' He thought a large internal battle was taking place. He did not want to take advantage of the hot girl squishing her self onto him. Unfortunately there was nothing to distract him except Motoko shifting about while crying.

The hug won out. It seemed like hours that he was comforting her were they were on the floor. It was closer to ten minutes. She finally stopped crying but did not let go of him.

Keitaro thought she was ready to continue talking so asked "You said about werewolves and cats. What other types are there?"

"Among us cats there are four major tribes. Tiger, Lion, Jaguar and Leopard. Panthers are a sub clan of the Jaguar. The other families are bats, bears and wolves. Each of them have their own tribes and clans."

"The way you said that it was like you learnt it in school or something." He smirked at her. She smiled back.

"I learnt it from an old weretiger. After I became a panther I searched out others like me she told me everything I know about us." Motoko smiled as she reminisced about her old teacher.

'God she is beautiful when she smiles. No must stop bad thoughts.' "Um how'd you became a panther? Were you bitten by another one?"

"No you can't become one from a bite. I was in an accident when on a school trip. I needed a blood transfusion. The only way to become a werecreature if you are not born as one is to take the blood or flesh of one. Transfusion, transplant or consuming it."

'Ok she might kill me for this question but it's worth it.' "Why did you fall asleep on me?"

Her answer was to blush and give him a punch to his face. Keitaro picked himself up off the ground. She refused give a real answer to that question.

"I was serious if you need me to help with Su or to keep my window open then I will." Keitaro repeated.

"Window only on the new moon please, that is tonight by the way. We will talk about Su another time."

They parted company soon after that. Motoko heading to the roof to do her morning practice and Keitaro decided to have a bath before getting an early start on his work around the dorms.


Breakfast was tense. Everyone else noticed the tension between the manager and the resident sword master. Motoko fled as soon as she finished her food.

Naru turned to Keitaro and asked "What did you do to her?" in the special voice she used just before pounding Keitaro.

He was prepared for it and said in a very calm voice "Nothing. What makes you think I did anything?"

It threw the Hinata inquisition squad right of his trail.


That night he had spent an hour filling in his calendar so he could keep track of the phases of the moon. He left his window open before falling asleep.

He never noticed the cat climbing in and falling asleep next to him.


Motoko woke at sunrise and quickly made her way to her room.

Why had she woken up in Urashima's room? She knew she thought differently as a panther compared to as a human but that was the panther her thinking? At least she had another good nights sleep. She needed to clear her mind time to meditate.


Over the next weeks Keitaro was enjoying the tranquility around Motoko. Right after he discovered her secret she had been very tense for a few days, but she had completely relaxed around him. Now that she knew her secret was not going to be spread to all the tenants that is.

The two of them had spoken many times.

They had spoken on what it meant to be a were-creature. She and the panther were one. While in human form she had an instinct about who were were-creatures around her and a few cat like behaviors like the instinctive distrust of other carnivores, translated that meant people. No wonder she was so antisocial.

Part transformed she had better agility and also behaved slightly like a domestic cat. No wonder her behavior when Keitaro was petting her.

Fully transformed she had no human thoughts she was completely panther or rather werepanther. She knew not to harm humans and she knew friends and family from others but it was all senses, primal instinct and cat type thoughts but could understand speech somehow.

They had spoken on when she first found out what she had become and how her sister helped her hide her condition from her sword school so she wouldn't be exterminated. Apparently they were of the mentality exterminate demons first ask questions never. That explained a lot. She had come to Hinata dorms to avoid being discovered. The excuse was so she could recuperate from the accident. Then to stay with the friends she had made at the new school.

He thought he had finally started to understand her a little better. Why she was not close to anyone and why she kept everyone else at a distance. But why did she hate all men for?

Over those same weeks the residents started to notice changes in Motoko's behavior. Kaolla immediately noticed her being more relaxed around the dorms but thought nothing of it. Kitsune noticed her being more relaxed, attacking the manager less and even sitting next to him at meal times. Shinobu took some time to notice how it was quieter now that her sempai was not being thrown around so much. Naru was the last to realize, she noticed them being on first name basis and all the time Motoko was spending talking to the manager, sometimes hours without incidents of perverseness from him. Sarah was oblivious to it all.