AN: Trumpets sing and the crowd roars as SecondSeraphim FINALLY updates his story. He promises the crowd to ONLY work on this story for a while instead of the various oneshots he keeps posting.

Tea Between Friends

Chapter 4

By Second Seraphim

Shinobu was drinking the wine.

Shinobu was drinking the marriage wine.

Why was Shinobu drinking the marriage wine, Keitaro asked himself as he watched her guzzle what little remained in the bottle. And better yet, why wasn't he stopping her from drinking the wine.

Most likely because he was in shock.

Kitsune, for that matter, wasn't that much better off. She too just stood there and stared for what seemed like minutes but was in fact just a few seconds as Shinobu drowned the remains of the bottle Su had brought for Kitsune to drink.

Speaking of Su, she spoke breaking the two of them out of their trance. "Gee Shinobu, that's really smart!"

"Shinobu!" Keitaro exclaimed, coming to. "What are you doing?"

"Eh?" Shinobu asked, dropping the now empty bottle on the ground. "I'm sorry, what was that Sempai?"

"Why did you drink that?" he demanded, his eyes bugging at the thought of what Naru would do to him if she found out what exactly his youngest charge had done.

"Oh? I know I'm not supposed to drink but I was very thirsty all of a sudden. Am I in trouble?" she asked, looking up at him with big puppy dog eyes which Keitaro found impossible to be mad at. "Well, no, I mean yes, I mean…I don't know! I'm not mad at you but…didn't you hear what Su said about that being a marriage wine?" he demanded. Shinobu chuckled.

"Oh? Is this that wine?"

'Of course its that wine! What other wine would it be?!'Keitaro screamed in his head, but in real life only sighed, "Yes Shinobu, it was that wine."

"Oops," she said, taking a step. Almost immediately, she felt the world spinning around her and found herself falling. Letting out a gasp, Keitaro leaped forward and caught her just in time. "I gotcha!"

"My hero," Shinobu mumbled, leaning up to give him a kiss on the lips. She missed and got him on the cheek instead. "Opps…missed," she slurred before trying again only to land on his nose this time. The tipsy girl giggled. "Trying to thank you, but I think I'm too drunk…try again when I'm sober…good night," she said, and then fell silent.

"Er, Shinobu?" Keitaro asked, breaking out of the trance he had been in since the first kiss. The only answer he received was the sound of soft breathing. He looked toward Kitsune for support, but she was still frozen solid from watching Shinobu drink. Seeing that she would be no help at the moment, he instead turned toward Su, even though he didn't really think she would be any help.

To his surprise howeverthe blonde gajin calmly slid her arms under Shinobu to pry her loose, a sympathetic look on her face, coupled with a look of worry. As she began to pull Shinobu from Keitaro's arms however the bluenette awoke with a start.

"I'm awake I'm awake!" she insisted, pulling herself out of Keitaro and Su's arms. She immediately began to fall forward again, this time to be caught by Su. "And drunk!" the tanned girl stated, helping Shinobu to her seat. "I didn't think the wine would have this much of an effect on you Shinobu…are you ok?"

"I'm just fine," came the reply. Just then Tama flew by; Shinobu reached up into the air and grabbed the turtle, before shoving her into her mouth the next moment.

"Gah! Shinobu, no eating Tama!" Su exclaimed grabbing hold of the front end of the reptile and doing her best to pull it out of her friend's mouth. Meanwhile Keitaro pulled his gaze from the apparent case of role reversal to check on Kitsune, who still stood there. Touching her on the hand, he asked if she was ok.

"Uh, what?" she asked broken from her stupor by the touch. He repeated his question. "Oh yeah, I'm fine. Just a…just a case of déjà vu." she answered, moving to sit back down on her seat. Keitaro sat down as well, but not before sparing Kitsune one last glance. "I told you I'm fine." she insisted. Deciding to take her word for it, he turned away just in time to see Su succeed in rescuing Tama from Shinobu. It was just in time as well, as Naru walked back into the room a moment later, an ice pack pressed against her head.

"You ok?" both Keitaro and Kitsune asked simultaneously, both blushing as they realized what they had done. If Naru noticed she didn't show it; instead she just waved it off.

"Yeah, I'm good. Just a bit of swelling. It will go down in a couple of hours," she answered, glancing at Shinobu, who was wavering in her seat like she might fall down any moment. "Er, are you alright Shinobu?" she asked the bluenette. Shinobu giggled.

"Just fine Naru-sempai" she answered. She then proceeded to fall unconscious, her face in her food.

"In you go," Kitsune said as she helped Shinobu climb into bed. After she had fallen into her food Keitaro had decided that it would probably best for the girl to sleep it off. And so, despite having a broken leg, he somehow managed to carry the girl up the stairs to her room, to Naru's great displeasure (and, had she been awake, Shinobu's joy. As it was she was in the middle of a dream of Keitaro carrying her to their room on their honeymoon.)

Once there Kitsune roused the girl from her sleep, then proceeded to help the half-conscious girl change into her pajamas before helping her climb into bed. Nearly the moment her head hit the pillow the girl was asleep again, a soft sound, almost a purr, emanating from her. Kneeling down on one knee so as to make sure Shinobu was tucked in well, she was surprised when the girl's arms reached around her and pulled. Her balance upset from the position she was in, Kitsune fell on top of the younger girl, their faces just a few inches from each other.

"Sempai…" Shinobu muttered in her sleep, and Kitsune couldn't help but smile. She was dreaming, and thought that Kitsune was Keitaro. It was cute.

It stopped being cute a moment later when Shinobu pulled her head down the last few inches and kissed her.

'Gah!' Kitsune thought to herself, 'Ok, calm down. This is not the time to panic.'

Shinobu stuck her tongue into her mouth.

'Time to panic time to panic!'

"Sempai…" Shinobu muttered again, letting go of Kitsune's mouth for a moment to moan her love's name again. Kitsune used this momentary reprieve to break away from the grip holding her down. Standing up quickly, she cast a glance at the girl before turning to leave.

'Note to self: TELL NO ONE ABOUT THAT EVER,'she thought as she headed to the door, pausing for a moment as she reached Shinobu's alarm clock. She deliberated for a moment, then reached over and switched off the alarm. After all the next day was a Saturday and the more of the alcohol Shinobu could sleep off the better.

Exiting the hallway, she was surprised to see Keitaro still there. "How is she?" he asked, a worried look on his face. Kitsune gave him a smile to calm him down. "She's fine. She'll have one hell of ah hangover come morning, but beyond that she's ok."

At that piece of news Keitaro let out a breath he didn't know he had been holding. "Thank goodness. I don't know what she was thinking drinking that!" he exclaimed, causing Kitsune to give him a look.

"You really aren't the brightest apple on the tree are you?" she asked, causing Keitaro to blink.

"Huh?"

"Never mind"

"Ok…speaking about that whole marriage thing…do you think Su was joking?" he asked. Kitsune shook her head.

"Knowing her? Who knows? I'll ask her when I see her tonight; she's staying with me remember?"

"That's right…thanks. Um…I guess I'll go now. I've got some stuff to do before I go to bed for the night. See you in the morning?"

"Don't see why you wouldn't. I'm gonna go do the dishes then head to the springs for a bit, if you need me." He nodded then disappeared into his room, sliding the door shut after him. Kitsune looked after him for a moment before turning and making her way back to the kitchen.

As she had expected, Naru had finished eating already and vanished, probably to her room. To her surprise however Su hadn't done the same; instead the usually hyperactive genius was standing in the kitchen calmly washing the dishes, a thoughtful look upon her face. "Penny for your thoughts?" Kitsune asked her, startling Su so that she almost dropped the cup the was wiping.

"Oh Kitsune! I'm sorry, I didn't hear you come in," she explained apologetically. Kitsune waved it off.

"Don't worry about it. Looked like you had something on your mind. I mean, I don't think I've ever seen you that thoughtful without it leading to Keitaro getting blown up. So, what's on your mind?"

"Is…is Shinobu ok?" Ah. So that's what had been worrying the girl. Understandable; they were best friends after all.

"Don't worry, she just needs to sleep it off. She'll be fine by morning, though she'll probably have a killer headache," she explained. Su seemed to relax as if a huge weight had been lifted from her shoulders. "That's good. I didn't know what effect it would have on her. It...works differently on women from MolMol," she explained. Kitsune waited to hear more, but apparently it was all she was going to get from the girl. That's fine, she had other questions for her, and she could always find out what she meant by "works differently" at another time. Right now there was something more important to ask. Gesturing for the girl to move over so that Kitsune could take charge of drying, Kitsune cleared her throat after a minute.

"Uh, Su honey? About that marriage wine…"

"It is only enforceable if drunken in the presence of a temple priestess," she answered before Kitsune could fully ask the question. The fox let out a sigh of relief. "That's good," she said, at which Su raised her eyebrow. "Surely marrying Keitaro wouldn't be that awful a thing would it? Shinobu certainly didn't seem to mind."

Kitsune chuckled. "Well, that's Shinobu you know."

"I'll ask you not to make fun of my best friend."

"I wasn't making fun of her!" Kitsune insisted, the seriousness in Su's voice catching her off guard. "What I meant was being married to Keitaro is something she would want, because she loves him. I don't. Besides, marriage just isn't for me. I like to be free."

"I see," Su said as she finished washing the last plate, putting it in the stack for Kitsune to dry. She turned to leave, pausing as she reached the doorway. "Freedom," she began, causing Kitsune to glance at her, "must get lonely sometimes," she said, walking out of the room before Kitsune had a chance to answer her. She stared after her for a moment before turning back to her work. Quickly dying the last of the dishes off she returned to her room to find that Su hadn't yet gone to bed. Grabbing a change of clothes she headed down to the baths.

To her chagrin she was not alone; there leaning up against her favorite rock was Naru. Trying her best to keep the scowl off her face, Kitsune slid into the water beside her and stretched. "Evening"

"Hmm? Oh, hey Kitsune I didn't hear you come in. I was just going over some of my notes in my head."

"'Course you were."

"Huh? What's that mean," she asked, sitting up and fixing Kitsune in her gaze. Kitsune just shrugged. "Nothing, forget it."

"You're not still made at the drinking thing are you? I said I was sorry," Naru said, not sure what, if anything was wrong. Which in itself was part of what was wrong in the first place, Kitsune noted frowning.

"No Naru, that's not why I'm angry…Keitaro told me what happened between the two of you," she said. Seeing the confused look on Naru's face, she sighed. "He told me that he told you loved you."

"I see," Naru said neutrally, her face devoid of emotion. "And did he tell you my answer?"

"Yeah," Kitsune answered, suddenly angry with her friend again. "Jack shit that's what! How could you do that to him? You might not like him Naru but you could have at least told him as much!"

"Why do you care?" Naru demanded, punching the water. "What's it matter to you what goes on between me and that pervert?"

"STOP CALLING HIM THAT!" Kitsune screamed into her face, causing her to flinch.

"Kitsune?"

"It matters to me because he's human Naru. He doesn't deserve to be strung along like that, not knowing where he stands," she said, her voice getting louder near the end. Realizing she was almost screaming, she forced herself to calm down and lower her voice. So I ask you why; why didn't you answer him. Why did you walk away?"

"Because I didn't know what to say alright!" Naru yelled back at her. Kitsune stared at her.

"Are you serious? You didn't know what to say?"

"I…I don't know if I love him."

"Then why not say that? Why not just tell him that you don't know for sure how you feel? It wouldn't have been the best answer, but it would have been better than nothing!"

"I shouldn't have to…he shouldn't have told me that yet…I wasn't ready for it."

"So your saying he should have waited? Bull. He knew what he wanted and he went for it. Would you have had him wait till you were ready to make up your mind? Tell me, how long would that have taken? Would you have him just waiting there, never knowing if he had a future with you or not, missing out on other opportunities that passed him by? How would that have changed anything? How would your relationship have changed then?"

"I-I don't know?"

"I know," Kitsune said, sighing. "He's…he's hurting bad Naru. And it's your fault," she said, standing up to leave. Naru looked up at her friend, a hurt look on her face at Kitsune abandoning her. "If you're going to make a decision, make it soon. You might not have a chance much longer." At this Naru looked at Kitsune questioningly. She sighed again, her friend once more surprising her in her obliviousness. "You might not know how you feel about him Naru, but there are those in this house that do, and they won't wait forever.," she said, turning and climbing out of the bath. As she reached the door to the changing room Naru's voice made her pause. "Including you?"

Kitsune paused, Su's words from earlier floating in her head.

She left without a word.

AN: Wow. That was short. I mean, really short. I feel bad for vanishing that long only to post such a short chapter, but I've been busy. Senior year of college and all that.

Anyway, this chapter was supposed to be tacked on to the end of the last chapter, but I felt that it was getting too long and cut it off. I fully expected this chapter to be twice as long as it is but it just didn't turn out that way; its not that I cut anything out it just ended up shorter. I promise the next one will be longer.

To the guy who keeps leaving me anonymous reviews insulting me. Wow. How brave of you to leave an insult while anonymous. Your parents must be proud. Here's an idea; if you don't like my story STOP READING IT ALREADY.

To everyone else: thank you for the reviews. I'm actually a bit surprised over how well this story is doing and I just want to thank you all for the reviews.

Here's a shout out to my beta Nodoka Miyazawa, for without whom you would have an even harder time trying to read my story.