Anime: Love Hina

Genre: Romance/General

Rating: Pg 13

Chapter Four

Melting Ice

By Fanficzgrl

Living Together

The night was still and quiet at the dojo except for some faint snuffling sounds that could be heard in a partially lit room. Motoko pulled her knees in closer to hers as she wrapped herself with the covers on the futon.

It was such a sad night for Motoko. First she lost her sister, and then, she got deceived by her new brother-in-law's brother who she had almost…ALMOST liked. Today was supposed to be a happy occasion, yet Motoko felt that she had never been so sad before. She felt betrayed and lonely, a painful combination that gnawed at her chest.

Letting out a deep sigh, she felt some of the pain leave her. She was exhausted for the day and slowly fell into a deep slumber, especially when her eyes were tired of crying. She was so unaccustomed to this behaviour that it weighed heavily on her youth and accelerated some years of her life probably.

The next morning, Motoko woke up feeling like she had fought a long battle for days just before. Her muscles whined of fatigue, unwilling to move, and it had seemed to her that she'd gain weight all on her head overnight. It'd felt like a ton! Pressing on a few spots where some of the nerves are, Motoko tried to sooth her senses and clear her mind. She didn't even drink any alcohol yesterday, so how could she possibly be drowsy! Perhaps Motoko was drunk from feelings rather than brew.

Slowly, Motoko recovered, and made her way out of her room. Even though sick and cranky, Motoko managed to fix her bed before she left, trying her best to make like nothing had changed since yesterday. However, something did change and it can't be reverted. The dojo was quiet, too quiet for Motoko's liking for that matter. Even the rustling of dry grass outside sounded loud in Motoko's ears when silence prevailed over the almost vacant expanse.

"Maybe I'd put some wind chimes up to liven things a bit here," Motoko thought. She looked around and found pieces of shells and cuts of dried bamboo stems that would make great wind chimes when they were assembled together. All of a sudden, Motoko found herself happy again, satisfied that there was something to occupy her mind with.

She set to work, boring holes out of the shells and bamboo pieces and carefully, she strung colourful strings through them with her long, slender fingers. Finally, she had tied them to a base when she realized that she needed a long rope to hang the finished product over the dojo's threshold. She looked about the dojo, but failed miserably in finding the perfect ribbon or rope to tie the wind chimes. Then, she caught sight of the red celebrative ribbons that were thrown across the walls just the day before. The painful memories lurked once again in her mind and she threw the wind chimes that she'd just made onto the ground in desperation.

Motoko's head spun as she found herself engulfed by the demon of loneliness. She shuddered, her body muscles twitching uncontrollably, and wrapping her arms around herself, she tried to make the pain go away-but it didn't. Motoko could almost hear the maniacal laughter of whichever hell demon of loneliness was taunting menacingly at her and she fought desperately with it in her mind to make it vanquish. The more she fought, the more tired she grew and ultimately, the more the likeliness of her to lose the mental battle.

"Motoko?" a voice suddenly called to her, pulling her from the sucking warp hole.

Motoko lifted her head, and found herself gazing into the eyes of her sister. Tears welled in her eyes, the orbs of emerald and grey mixed in together in an inseparable concoction.

"Ane-ue!" Motoko almost cried aloud, despite the tears and mucous that had collected in the pit of her throat, preventing her from projecting her own voice. What'd came out was a muffled raspy voice.

Motoko threw her arms out as she propelled herself into Tsurko's arms, but then found herself halting when she saw that someone was behind Tsuruko at that time as well. It was a man, and more precisely speaking, it was the man who had taken away her sister, and the man whom Motoko hates-Seta.

"Brother-in-law," Motoko said in the coldest voice that she could possibly manage, "Good morning."

Seta was a bit surprised by the sudden change in tone of Motoko's voice but neglected it as he beamed at her, greeting her with a cheery, "Ohayou."

Motoko looked at the man and wondered why he was so happy for. "Ah, of course," Motoko thought, "He has her sister now-of course he should be happy. It's only her who's the one who's not happy now. One person's happiness for another person's happiness-I'm sure it's an equation that many math teachers would agree with."

"What has brought you here?" Motoko questioned him.

"Your sister and I have came to bring you good news!" Seta exclaimed as he placed his arms around his new bride's waist.

"And what may that be, dear brother-in-law?" Motoko asked, obviously discontented by the display that her brother-in-law had put up.

"Hey," Seta said, "drop the formalities, just call me Seta, we're family now! In fact, the reason why we came here today is because we wanted to remind you that you're always a part of our family and that you should live with us. Families should stick together and you know your sister-she would never leave you behind."

"I'm sorry for all the trouble that I have caused you, Seta," Motoko said, picking up on the casual name that Seta had insisted her on using, "but I think I'd be better off living here where I should be."

"Motoko," Tsuruko spoke up, "Why don't you listen to us and just come with us. You're so lonely here and I can't help but worry how you're going to fend for yourself alone."

"Don't worry," Motoko said, "I've grown up pretty much alone all my life-except for you being there, so I think I can take perfect care of myself. You don't need to worry about me. I don't want to intrude on your life."

"Don't say that!" Tsuruko exclaimed, "You know we would never think that!"

Seta nodded in response, his facial orientation finally organized into a serious expression for the first time in Motoko's eyes.

Motoko looked back from the two and saw the almost pleading look in Tsuruko's eyes and the meaningful sincerity on Seta's face, probably expressed by the way his lips were pulled tightly together in a grim line.

"Do this for me," Tsuruko said.

Motoko thought for a while and decided that she might as well assent to their request, remembering how lonely she had been just a while ago and how this may be an opportunity for her to make sure that her sister doesn't get abused by the man.

"Fine," Motoko said, her resolve dissolving. Motoko glared to her brother-in-law to see if there was a look of regret on his face but was surprised to find none. In fact, he was smiling rather broadly. Strange, Motoko thought, very strange…

After having her belongings packed, which didn't take too long, as they soon realized that Motoko didn't have much possessions with her except for a few garments, accessories that can fill a small box, and her bokken and katana that she'd be condemned if she had abandoned them.

After travelling in Seta's car for half an hour, the car ride finally stopped and Motoko realized that they were finally there, at her new residence. Motoko somewhat clumsily climbed out of the car and found herself staring at a slightly aged, but large building. The building was tall, being three stories tall, and the entrance was graced by a fluffy pink door mat which brought out the homey feel to the building. The slates that adorned the roof tops were a elegant pink and the building emanated a warm feel, probably due to its slight resemblance to the dojo. The only difference was that it'd probably have more rooms and furniture in it than the dojo.

"It's an old run-down inn that our parents had left us," Seta told Motoko as he helped her out of her coat, "It was originally called Hinata Inn but when it got down to our hands, me and my bro didn't know what to do with it so we just made the entire place our house. The place may be a little shabby in appearance but me and my bro adored this place when we were young. Each crack and splinter in this building has our memories in them."

"I think I can understand," Motoko said as she thought back to the way that she'd thought of the dojo, and how much it resembled the way Seta was talking passionately about the inn.

"There's a lot of vacant rooms in here that we use as storage or utilities room such as a miniature library and a gaming quarters where we keep all our video games in."

"Our room is on the second floor, Motoko," Tsuruko said as she handed Motoko a pair of sandal like slippers. "Yours is going to be on the third floor."

"Am I the only who occupies that floor?" Motoko asked, can't help but wonder a bit whether they had purposely put her up there to prevent her from intruding on their lives.

"Nope. Keitaro, my boy, has his room there too." Seta replied whole-heartedly.

Motoko's eyes widened realizing that she'd be living on the same floor as the man who she had almost fallen in love with. "Umm…I don't think so, perhaps I'll take a room down here…"

"They're all used as storage rooms, Motoko," Tsuruko answered, " And besides, we've already gotten your room decorated for you. I'm sure you'll love it."

"Yea right," scoffed Motoko. This was getting bad…really bad…

"Has Tsuruko-san's sister arrived?" Motoko heard a familiar voice call out from upstairs.

"Yup! She's here!" Seta called back in his bear-like voice, which Motoko had just wished he would suppress, not that it would help anyways. Motoko had felt, at that moment, an urge beyond description's strength to hide behind her sister's long pants.

The footsteps thundered louder and louder as he approached ground level where Motoko was and Motoko gulped slightly as she watched where the staircase was, knowing that just any second now, the man's face would pop up again.

However, to her surprise, instead of walking down to greet her, Keitaro literally fell to his knees to meet her when he stumbled down the stairs.

The three sweat dropped as they watched Keitaro pull himself together once again.

For a man of his physique, he sure is clumsy, Motoko thought.

When she found herself looking at the man again after being slightly perturbed in her thoughts, she found her locked in a magnetic gaze with him. Keitaro's eyes were wide with surprise when he discovered that the sister of Tsuruko was actually the girl whom he had met at the ball yesterday night!

Since yesterday night, he had been thinking, non stop, about the girl who'd strolled past his life. He had thought that he would never be able to see this girl who had left such a deep mark on his memory under such a brief moment in time. He'd almost felt like the prince from the story, Cinderella, and put up posters to look for that girl again. Foolish of him, he should have noticed it right away when he recognized the similarities that she and her sister shared-the tall, slender figure, pale skin, and expressive eyes that played tantalizingly at his mind. He'd almost felt like running into her to embrace her in his arms to welcome her to his life once again, but refrained from doing so, knowing wise enough to not do something as stupid as this. He'd never get away from her impression of him as being a pervert if he'd done that. He gave himself a little mental pat on the back for thinking before his actions.

Motoko didn't want to look into Keitaro's eyes anymore, fearing that looking into them any longer would make her somehow physically or mentally blind. His eyes' colour was a deep brown that had almost seemed black in a way that made Motoko shuddered a bit under her skin. A tinge of pink was starting to rise to her cheeks as she felt her blood warm with the adrenaline that coursed through her body. She cursed lightly at herself for having skin that conveyed all her feelings to everyone. Whenever she was embarrassed, it didn't take long for others to realize that by seeing the blush that would appear on her face. She felt disadvantaged in a sense, always having her feelings apparent for others to judge. The lack of insecurity made her all the more determined to keep her feelings to herself in the attempt to protect herself.

"Motoko…" Keitaro said, as he reached his hand out to shake hers. Motoko shook herself out of her reverie as she landed her gaze on his hand. Slowly, she gripped it, electric shocks trailing down her spine and shook the hand briefly, for she didn't want to hold his hands any longer than she needed to. A second was enough, definitely enough.

Fanficzgrl: Okay, here's another wondddddderful chapter by me! Aren't you guys just all so gratified after reading this story? Awww….I'm touched. I really am! Thank you for all the support and I'll continue to work my hardest to keep the updates going. I guess I'm usually updating once a week now so please keep an eye out for Melting Ice. I, too, hope that I can melt your hearts with the warmth of this story :D Now go on! Click that button right there and write me a review. I know you want to XD