Draw With Me

Chapter 2

The suns of many days rose and fell upon Hinata Onsen. The cherry blossom petals had long since ceased falling from their hosts, swept away from the landscape either by the coastal breeze or by the laborer's broom. The trees and grass were green, the weather was hot, and the cicadas buzzed loudly from their wooden perches. Every form of life was filled with hustle and bustle, and yet, the landlord of the town's prominent all-girls dormitory on the top of its highest hill remained with idle hands.

Not to say that Keitaro was not pulling his weight as manager. Quite the contrary, Hinata Sou had not looked so pristine since before its conversion from an inn to a dormitory. Freed from the bondage of endless study, he had ample time to complete his daily chores and spent his afternoons and evenings meandering about the complex, making small talk with his tenants, or scribbling absentmindedly in his sketchbook.

Though his mind had not been entirely made up on whether or not he would continue to pursue his promise from long ago, he had taken Kitsune's advise seriously, and tried not to think too much about the near future. In most cases, telling someone not to think about something was a surefire way to trigger such thoughts more intensely, but in Keitaro's case, he found the idea quite liberating, as though a tremendous weight had been lifted from his shoulders, and he could once again breathe easily.

Though his relationships with his tenants were mixed at best, Su was, well, Su. She loved to play with Keitaro. And by her definition, playing with him meant performing all sorts of borderline criminal experiments on his person and following him around the complex endlessly, even when he walked around for no reason at all. None of this was to mention her kicking him squarely in the face as hard as she could whenever she happened to be within earshot when he returned from the market. His relationship with the foreigner was, perhaps, one of the few that had not changed significantly.

One that did, on the other hand, was his relationship with Shinobu. The girl was quite distraught after learning of Keitaro's failure, and her reclusive behavior intensified to a level not seen since the new manager first arrived at Hinata Sou. He could understand why she had shut herself away from him and everyone else in the house. She looked up to him, and believed fervently in Naru's story that if he could somehow pass the test and enter Tokyo University, then his lie about being a Toudai student would no longer be. He let her down tremendously; he had become accustomed to doing so, but it pained him whenever the two occasionally crossed paths and she would not look him in the eye.

In regards to Motoko, Keitaro gave the swordswoman the widest berth possible. She did not think highly of him, and she still resented the fact that he was the landlord of Hinata Sou. Knowing this, as well as the fact that the kendo-ka had a short fuse, he decided the best course of action was to simply avoid her.

He discovered through trial and error that the young woman kept a rigid schedule, something he had expected from someone so well disciplined. From his estimation, she rose invariably at sunrise to train until Shinobu woke up to prepare breakfast. She then retired to change into her school uniform, ate breakfast, and left for school before either of the other two middle-schoolers. Oddly enough, she was the last to return home after school, likely because of kendo club, Keitaro surmised. She went to her room, changed, and immediately began to train until dinner. With this wealth of information, it was effortless for Keitaro to remain out of her way.

And while he tried to remain outside the bounds of the radar of one of his tenants, he longed to remain within the range of another's. He knew and understood well that Naru was not the long-lost woman he forged that unforgettable promise with so long ago, and yet he could not shake her from his thoughts. If anything, he had grown to admire her even more ever since the wheel of fate turned them in separate directions.

There was something about her being a student in a prestigious college that seemed to bring out the best in her, so Keitaro thought. She became much more friendly and cheerful, and she pounded on him for his peeking accidents much less frequently, although she still gave him a good tongue lashing for his efforts. He had always thought her beautiful, but the way she wore her clothing and makeup lately had made her look more mature, and even a little sexy, though he dared not mention that to her face lest he incur the young woman's fury.

With all of this newfound free time on Keitaro's hands, he made it his mission to try to ask Naru out on a date, and not just as friends, though he quickly discovered a major hurdle in this endeavor. With Naru's course load and Keitaro's work schedule, he could hardly ever catch the woman both alone and available for conversation. When she was alone, she was doing homework or chores. When she wasn't doing homework or chores, she was hanging out with Kitsune or one of the other tenants. When she was available to talk, he was too busy taking care of things around the inn.

After weeks of starts on stops on the front of his love life, today would be different.

"What's eating you, kiddo?" Kitsune asked after peering over the top of her fashion magazine and noticing an obviously flustered Keitaro pacing about the entryway, scratching his head such vigor she thought he was trying to rip his scalp from his skull.

"I'm gonna do it today, for sure," Keitaro mumbled in reply, giving Kitsune a double take when he realized what she had called him yet again. "And would you stop calling me that, already?"

"Nope!" Kitsune riposted with a cheeky grin. She sat up in her seat on the sofa and placed her magazine on the coffee table. What she was watching right now was much more entertaining than reading the latest celebrity gossip. "What are you going to do for sure, anyway?"

Like an animal caught in a snare, Keitaro froze in place. After a few seconds of silence, he said, "Oh, nothing. Nothing at all, actually."

The manager's nervous laugh was about as effective at hiding his lie as telling the truth outright, a fact not lost on Kitsune, who obviously had a superior wit. "That's interesting. If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were waiting for someone to come home." Kitsune's honeyed voice dripped with sugary, but poisonous venom.

She knew something was up since the week before when she noticed Keitaro trying to work up the courage to talk to Naru after dinner. His mouth was half opened, reaching out in Naru's direction when she swung open the door to the kitchen to get a glass for her fresh bottle of warm sake. He failed to notice that she had seen him, and she thought it cute the way he tried to play the situation off as though nothing happened.

This scenario played out several times over the course of a few days. The poor kid, Kitsune thought, he had to be fit to burst by now. The very thin thread he hung upon seemed to be holding despite her taunting, as he tried to deny that he was waiting for anyone. "If you've got a message you want to pass along to Naru, I'll be more than happy to deliver the message for you."

Kitsune would have sworn to anyone if they had been in the room with them that they would have heard the distinct sound of something snapping in Keitaro's head. "No, I couldn't possibly let you tell her that!" Keitaro blurted, forgetting himself momentarily. A fatal mistake.

Kitsune giggled rather loudly for Keitaro's liking. "I figured you were trying to get her alone for some reason, but I didn't think you'd be so bold as to confess to her already, Keitaro."

Keitaro's shoulders slumped. He knew when he was defeated, and there was no use trying to deny it. He shuffled to the armchair across from Kitsune and fell into the seat with a muffled thud. "I wasn't going to say that, exactly."

Kitsune shifted in her seat, tucking her legs underneath her bottom. "Why don't you enlighten me, then?"

Keitaro closed his eyes and shook his head slightly from side to side. Kitsune had some otherworldly power that could suck the truth out of hardened mobster. Why she was not working on the police force as an inspector was a mystery to him. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that her radar only reacted to juicy gossip that profited none but her own interests.

"Well?" Kitsune asked, gesturing in a circular motion with her hand, a clear motion that told Keitaro he should get on with it already.

"A date," he replied, reeling in his chair as soon as the words left his mouth with a bitter aftertaste. He was in a world of trouble now, and not because Kitsune would tell anyone about it. The question was, whom would she NOT tell?

"I see," Kitsune replied, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "An indirect attack. Wine her and dine her first, and then tell her how you feel. That's a brilliant idea."

Keitaro, who had been reaching for his wallet to pull out some hush money to give to the fox, leaned forward in his chair upon hearing Kitsune's reply. "Wait, you think it's a good idea after all?"

"Nope," Kitsune replied instantly with an impish grin.

Keitaro's body slumped over. "I knew you'd say that," he muttered.

"Now just isn't the best time, kiddo. She's so wrapped up in her classes right now she doesn't have the time for romantic gestures. She's already shot down three candidates since she started at Toudai."

Keitaro began to feel a bit sick. "So when do you think?"

Kitsune shrugged her shoulders. "Probably in a couple of years."

Keitaro spluttered. "A couple of years? You can't be serious!"

"No, I'm not."

Keitaro slumped over in his chair once again. What he wouldn't give to get a straight answer from his only reliable source of information regarding Naru.

"I don't even know where that girl's head is at right now," Kitsune added, throwing her hands up into the air. "She's not exactly the most up-front person when it comes to her feelings, if you couldn't tell already."

Keitaro nodded absentmindedly. "So you're saying that I shouldn't do it, right?"

"Not necessarily," Kitsune replied, shaking her head slightly. "All I'm saying is that if you decide to give it a shot, don't be surprised if she says no."

Keitaro let out a heavy sigh. The only thing for certain about the whole situation was uncertainty, and that did nothing to quell his fears.

"And who knows, she just might say yes," Kitsune bookended the conversation by leaving Keitaro with a glimmer of hope. She just couldn't help herself. He seemed so sincere that she felt it would be a crime to shoot all of his hopes down like that. If he had asked her out instead of Naru, could she really say no to that hopeful face?

Kitsune picked her magazine back up and quickly opened it to a random page to hide the blush on her face from the ronin sitting across from her. He would not have noticed anyway, as he was staring at the ceiling, lost in thought for several minutes after their conversation ended.

And think about it he did. For an entire week Keitaro pondered over whether or not to try to ask Naru out. And the more he did, the more Kitsune's words weighed on his mind. It was indeed a tremendous risk. He would be putting their friendship on the line for something more. The last thing he wanted was to have another tense relationship with one of his tenants. Dealing with Motoko was hard enough.

As he usually did when faced with what he considered an impossible choice, he sketched the scenarios and their possible outcomes in his sketchbook. In the first, he drew simple sketches of him asking her out, she says yes, and they live happily ever after. In the second, he asks, she refuses, and he is left all alone. In the third, he does not ask, Naru ends up with a hunk of a man, and he is left alone as in the second scenario. In the fourth and last scenario, Naru ends up asking him out, much to his surprise. He scratched that one out with a few quick strokes of his pencil. Impossible.

Tapping the tip of his pencil eraser against his chin, he pondered over the three possible scenarios, and his only choice quickly became clear to him. If he did nothing, then nothing would come of it. When it came down to it, he hated that possibility more than anything else. If he stuck his neck out there, he had at least a shot at success.

"Why the hell not?" he asked himself. "I've got nothing to lose anyway." His choice made, Keitaro closed his sketchbook, rose from his desk, and walked with purpose from his room.

Unfortunately, Naru was not yet home from class. So he waited patiently in the entryway. So patient in fact, that he had fallen asleep on the sofa, only to be woken by the sound of the front door sliding open, the wooden frame striking against the block with a dull clunk. "I'm home!"

Keitaro snapped upright at the sound of the voice of whom he had been waiting. "Welcome back," he breathed, his voice coarse from being still half-asleep. He fixed his glasses, which lay crooked across his nose and hung off of his left ear, and stole a glance at his wristwatch. Two hours had passed since he last checked. "Wow, was I asleep for that long?"

Naru changed into her indoor slippers and made her way over to the armchair and sat down. "I couldn't tell you. I just got here."

"How was class?" Keitaro asked, oblivious to the fact that this was, perhaps, his best opportunity to speak to Naru alone in weeks, and he was wasting it on meaningless small talk.

"I swear," Naru grumbled as she lay her head back against the backrest and looked up at the ceiling, "It would have been more entertaining to watch paint dry. That old fogey we have as a professor takes twenty minutes to explain the most obvious things. I feel like I'm just wasting my time being there. I could learn better from reading the textbook."

Keitaro cracked a bit of a smile. "I'll bet your read the text before the lecture anyway, didn't you?"

"Isn't that what good students are supposed to do, anyway?" Naru replied matter-of-factly.

Keitaro laughed softly. At least some things about her had not changed, he thought. "I guess so. I probably wouldn't have read it beforehand."

If time did heal all wounds, for Naru at least, that one was still sore. "I'm sorry."

"Really, you don't need to apologize. It wasn't your fault I didn't make it."

"Even still, I was the one tutoring you. Of course I'm going to feel responsible."

Keitaro chuckled. "To be fair, Narusegawa, you weren't exactly serious about tutoring me."

Naru scowled. "You trying to pick a fight with me?"

Keitaro shook his head vigorously. "No! I'm just saying that you had to focus on yourself first. And I'm glad, because I would have felt terrible if I had interfered with your studying so much that you ended up failing with me, or worse, instead of me."

Naru's expression softened instantly. With the shoe firmly on the other foot, she could understand Keitaro's feelings. If the situation were reversed, if she were the one with the ridiculously low marks (perish the thought), and caused someone sure to pass with flying colors to fail, she would likely never be able to forgive herself. In this, she and Keitaro were kindred spirits.

"So don't beat yourself up over it anymore, alright?"

Naru smiled weakly at her landlord. "I'll try not to. But still, it would have been nice if both of us had made it."

"I know," Keitaro said quietly. Time had yet to fully close that wound for him as well.

In an effort to dispel the depressing air about them, Naru slapped her thighs with her open hands. "So anyway, have you given any thought about what you want to do now? You're going to try for Toudai again, right?"

Scratching at his cheek with his index finger, Keitaro replied with a nervous chuckle, "Actually, I haven't put much thought into it at all. I don't have any idea what I'm going to do now."

Naru looked at the ronin as though a small alien burst from his mouth and started dancing on his head. "You haven't thought about it at all? That's just crazy!"

"You're probably right," Keitaro replied, nodding his head. "But I talked to Kitsune a while back and she made some good points. I've been chasing what has turned out so far to be an impossible dream for most of my life, and I deserve a break. And as much as it pains me to admit it, I've actually enjoyed not worrying over every little moment not spent with my head in a book these last few months."

Naru turned pensive for a moment before replying. "I'll give you that. You can be a hard worker when push comes to shove. But are you sure you should really be taking to heart advice on life from someone like Kitsune? I shouldn't need to tell you that she's not the most responsible person in the world."

Keitaro nodded his head and smiled. "That's the point."

Naru's eyebrow twitched as she tilted her head to one side. "Huh?"

"I've been responsible for everything pretty much my whole life. For just a little while, I've been able to let go of all of the baggage I've been lugging around with me all these years and just be myself. Don't get me wrong, that doesn't mean I'm shirking my responsibilities around the inn. It's just been nice not spending every waking moment thinking about someone whose name and face I can't even remember."

Naru grinned at the man. "I'm impressed, Keitaro. You're a lot more interesting a guy than I would have given you credit for. Well, whatever makes you happy I suppose. I just hope you're still giving your future a little bit of thought."

"I will," he promised.

Naru stood up and smoothed out her skirt. "I'm gonna go take a bath now. Don't get any funny ideas," she pointed at Keitaro threateningly. Almost as an aside, she added before walking away, "This was kind of nice. We should talk like this again sometime."

Keitaro watched the young woman walk up the stairs towards her room, a stupid grin playing across his face. "She actually wants to talk to me? Ah…I'm so happy right now I could just…hold on a minute." His smile vanished in the blink of an eye as he suddenly recalled the reason he had been sitting there waiting for her in the first place.

Jumping out of his chair, he managed one step towards the stairs before he noticed something flying towards him out of the corner of his eye. He had no time to react as the foot of the resident scientist, Su Kaolla, slammed with full force against his cheek, sending him tumbling over the back of the sofa he had just been sitting on.

"Goooooooooood afternoooooooooooooooon, Keitaro!" Su greeted the ronin with a sugary voice that belied the violence she had just committed against him. If it was true that when a girl likes a boy she tends to hit him playfully, than Su Kaolla liked Keitaro Urashima so much it was dangerous.

"W-welcome home…Su-chan," Keitaro replied hoarsely, squinting at the three blurry Su's squatting over his prone body with toothy grins. "Perfect timing, as usual, I see."

"Heehee," Su giggled, excited about the latest test she planned to perform using the hapless Keitaro as a guinea pig. "I need some help with something, Keitaros."

"Of course you do," Keitaro replied as he slowly slinked to a seated position as he regained his bearings. There was no use trying to escape the clutches of this foreigner once she had sunk her teeth into her prey. Of all people, Keitaro was fully aware of this. "I'd be more than happy to help."

Though the sarcasm dripping from Keitaro's voice could not possibly be overstated, the notion that Keitaro did not, in fact, wish to participate as a human meat shield in Su's latest maniacal machination was completely lost on the blond girl. "Woohoo!" she exclaimed in joy and, grabbing at his hand with freakish strength, pulled him to his feet and ran up the stairs to her room with her favorite person in the whole world in tow.

Three hours later, battered and bruised, Keitaro nursed his sore shoulder with a bag of ice wrapped with a dishtowel, and his empty stomach with the leftovers of Shinobu's recently prepared dinner. He verbally cursed his rotten luck, as it was his favorite dish, though it was only good freshly made. Reheating the dish sapped the life out of the meal, much like Su had almost quite literally sucked the life out of him with her latest invention.

Pawing at the rice in the bowl in front of him with his chopsticks, he clucked his tongue for the fifth time since he sat down at the dining room table. With a heavy sigh, he set the chopsticks down across the rim of the bowl, giving up at last. "Thanks for the meal," he whispered, though there was no one else in the room.

As was usual for the ronin when he went about his daily chores, he used the time in which he cleaned the dishes he had used for his half-eaten meal to think. What to do about Narusegawa? After missing a golden opportunity this past afternoon, how long would he need to wait before fortune smiled upon him in such a manner once more? If he were to ask her out on a date, and if, by some small chance, she agreed, would it be because she accepted his feelings? Or would she simply acquiesce out of pity?

Keitaro reached across the sink and turned off the water after rinsing his rice bowl one last time for good measure and placed the porcelain dish on the towel next to the sink for drying. After pulling a clean dishtowel from the drawer next to the sink, he heard the door behind him squeak open.

Motoko paused in the doorway for a breath when Keitaro's eyes met her own. Keitaro noticed the beads of sweat forming on her brow. She must have just finished her evening exercises, Keitaro thought.

"Oh, it's you," Motoko said coolly.

Keitaro's forced smile wilted under the frigidity of the kendo-ka's greeting. He turned his attention back onto his task at hand when she glowered at him as if to say, "What the hell are you looking at?"

Making a half-hearted attempt to ignore the looming presence behind him, he kept his eyes closed as he dried off a plate, listening to Motoko's slippers sliding across the hardwood floor with every step she took as she poured herself a glass of juice from the fridge and made her way out the same way she entered.

When the door to the living room clicked shut behind him, Keitaro released the breath he did not realize he was holding. Looking down at his hands, he realized he had been drying the same plate for over a minute. It was likely completely dry before Motoko had even opened the refrigerator door. "I really am an idiot," he said, shaking his head as he placed the pristine plate back into the cabinet with the others.

Kitsune's words suddenly rang between the young man's ears as he reached out towards the next dish.

"Don't worry so much."

"Why don't you do what you want to for once?"

"Shake things up a bit."

He laughed at himself. All this time, he had thought he was doing his best to live up to that advice, and yet, he just realized, he had done nothing of the sort. He was wasting these precious days away. Naught would be changed until he made it happen himself. "Yeah, I really am an idiot, aren't I?" he asked himself.

Tossing the damp dishtowel over the rest of the dishes he had yet to finish drying, Keitaro walked out of the kitchen with a resolve he had never felt before in his young adult life. He made his way towards the stairs, pausing briefly to say to Motoko, who was sitting on the lounge chair drinking her juice, "My name is Keitaro. Keitaro Urashima. In the future, I'd like you to refer to me by my name, Motoko-chan."

Motoko's jaw might have hit the floor had it been able. The shock to her system was too much, and she could not formulate a suitable reply for the man before his feet vanished from sight up the staircase. Dumbfounded, she turned her head towards Kitsune, who had a hand over her mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

"I think you just got told, girlfriend," Kitsune said.

Keitaro rapped his fist on the door of room 304 repeatedly. "Narusegawa, are you in?" he called out.

"Hold on a second," he heard Naru cry out from inside the room. Though his heart was beating so fast it might explode from his chest at any moment, Keitaro felt oddly calm as he waited patiently outside Naru's room.

A silhouette approached the door, opened it a crack, and Naru's head appeared through the partially opened portal. "What is it? I've got a lot of homework to finish for my morning classes tomorrow."

"Narusegawa, no…Naru," Keitaro began, using the girl's given name for the first time since they had first met.

"Please go out with me."

A/N: Thanks to everyone still sticking around for this story. From here on, shit gets real. Leave a review and tell me what you think. Comments, critique, flames are all welcome. C