Author's Note: The 365 Project is an experimental multi-fandom project to write and post at least one short every day for the next year, not including my semi-regular bi-weekly updates. For more details, see the relevent section in my profile. This is The 365 Project, 25 July.

In the immortal words of Samuel L. Clemens... "Persons attempting to find a motive in this narrative will be prosecuted; persons attempting to find a moral in it will be banished; persons attempting to find a plot in it will be shot. BY ORDER OF THE AUTHOR."

Disclaimer: "Love Hina" is the creation and property of Ken Akamatsu, used for entertainment purposes without permission or intent to profit.

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"Announcing The Engagement"

By J.T. Magnus, 'Turbo'

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Urashima Keitaro was an early riser by anything but choice; he was risen by chaos, by schedule, sometimes by the smell of food... but the simple truth was that most of the time, he'd rather sleep in. So it was, perhaps, a unique quirk for something that didn't enjoy getting up early that he did so nearly every morning. Doing so allowed him a chance to peacefully enjoy his morning before the usual chaos began, a glass of warm tea, the daily paper, the first light of day, things he had learned to never take for granted. He never expected that day's paper to cause him to spit his tea across the room, fortunately maintaining enough of a mind to remember that other residents of the Hinatasou were still sleeping and some of them were underage, so yelling out a rather profane exclamation in demand of information would probably not be the best course of action.

Throwing the paper down, Keitaro began to stalk back and forth, unsure of what to make of what he had just read. If he didn't know better, he would suspect this was one of Kitsune's tricks, but he didn't think even she would go this far for entertainment. What Keitaro did know for certain was that it wasn't true, what he had read. If it had been, he would have certainly known, he would have been there for it. Frowning, Keitaro took another quick look at the newspaper to find their number, then walked over to the phone.

Twenty minutes later, after innumerable recitations of the standard lines and an exhausting run-around, Keitaro had finally managed to get in contact with someone at the newspaper who could actually help him. The feeling of relief this brought to him was short lived as while he was caught up in conversation, Aoyama Motoko entered the room and picked up the same newspaper which Keitaro himself had been reading earlier. He was about to ask her not to read it when the department editor at the newspaper came back on the line and began to answer Keitaro's question of who had sent in the notice that he had read. Motoko's face with through an impressive array of colors and expressions as she looked at the newspaper and read the same announcement which Keitaro had, then finally settled on 'red' and 'murderous' as she looked up from the paper to the Hinatasou's manager. There was fire in Motoko's eyes as she drew her sword from its sheath at her waist and started slowly stalking towards Keitaro...

"Urashima! How dare you commit this... this travesty!" She snapped at him, at the same time the newspaper told him the name he had wanted, then Motoko lunged towards him.

"Uh, thanks! Bye!" Keitaro quickly said into the phone before tossing it at Motoko, slowing her down for as long as it took her to cut through the handset.

"Meet your death like the man you pretend to be, Urashima!" Motoko snarled at him.

"Agh! It wasn't me!" Keitaro shouted as he barely avoided the tip of Motoko's blade, "Tsuruko! The paper said Aoyama Tsuruko placed the announcement!"

"My sister?" Motoko looked at him for a moment, unsure of whether or not to believe him.

"They said it was her, honest!" Keitaro repeated his claim, "Call them yourself if you want!"

They both looked down at the phone that Motoko had sliced in two.

"Uh... maybe use one of the other phones?" Keitaro suggested.

Motoko started into another room, intending on placing her own call - not to the newspaper, but to the appearant source of the problem, and didn't react when Keitaro carefully followed her.

-o0o-

"Oh, hello, Little Sister," Tsuruko answered the phone too-cheerfully, "I take it you're well?"

"Were you behind this, sister?"

"I don't have the faintest idea what you mean, Motoko-han," the elder Aoyama sister replied, smiling, "Is something wrong?"

"You know what is wrong, sister!"

"No, Little Sister," Tsuruko smiled still as she shook her head, "I don't believe I do."

"My and Urashima's engagement was announced in this morning's newspaper," Motoko reminded her venomously.

"It was?" Tsuruko's delight was obvious, even over the phone line, "How wonderful for you, Little Sister, you must remember to tell me how he asked and you said 'yes'. Though I'm a little disappointed; I expected better of you than to tell your own family after the newspaper, we didn't even know the two of you were a couple!"

"We are not a couple!" Motoko shouted into the phone so loud that it echoed.

"Motoko, dear, you shouldn't shout like that, it's not proper," Tsuruko chided, pointedly ignoring the body of her sister's exclaimation.

"We are not a couple," Motoko repeated herself at a slightly-less deafening volume.

The other Aoyama put disappointment in her tone, "Oh, Motoko-han, you're breaking the engagement already? I haven't even had the chance to inform Mother and Father of your coming nuptials, they would've been so excited..."

"There are no 'coming nuptials'," Motoko was starting to get angry, "There is no engagement, we are not a couple... and you, sister, are a sick person."

"Perhaps," Tsuruko replied teasingly, "But at least I have a husband to 'play Doctor' with, Little Sister."

"Tsuruko!" Motoko shouted again, this time with a blush so deep that it made Keitaro, watching, wonder what Motoko's sister had said to her.

"There's still time to reconsider before you make the newspaper print a retraction, you're aware," Tsuruko continued her teasing.

Words failed Motoko and she let out a growl of frustration as she slammed the phone down, never to hear her sister break into amused laughter from Motoko's reaction, "I hate her sometimes..."

"So..." Keitaro rubbed the back of his head nervously, "Did she say why she did it?"

Motoko spun around, drawing her sword as she did, and pointed it at Keitaro, "And I am not exactly happy with your continued existance at this point in time, either, Urashima!"

When Motoko lowered her sword and stalked past him, muttering about 'insane sisters' and 'perverted managers', Keitaro was left frowning in confusion, asking himself, "What'd I say?"