Kyle Dohring

This was based before the renovations in the Love Hina series. That means that Keitaro never said "Narusegawa,
I love you!" With his ankle sprained, and Narusgawa still dosen't know the truth about Mutsumi Otohime,
no Christmas special, nor the spring or LH agains, so there are some things to clear up, non?


One Step Too Far



"Ara... I forgot my study book again." Mutsumi Otohime exclaimed, with her hand on her forehead in her familiar
fashion. Almost on que, her study partners face-faulted and gave her confused looks.
" Mutsumi, your memory fails you so much lately, are you feeling ok?" Keitaro inquired, his face a mix of
laughter and concern.
"Oh, I'm fine, I'll just go and get it from home, see you two soon!" Otohime replied, and started walking out of
Hinta Inn.
"Wait! You can just look off one of ours!" Naru tried to stop her, but the 21-year-old ronin was already heading
down the stairs and out the front exit of the dorm.
"She really should get an organizer or something," Keitaro Urashima sighed, his head drooping from boredom, "that's
the third time this month this has happened..."
"Even if she does get one, she'd probably just forget it with her other books." Naru Narusegawa said, looking up
from her book for a moment before going back to studying.

About five minutes later, Keitaro looked up.
"Naru, how do you do question 7?" He inquired, a quizzical look on his face.
"You could be talking about something from one of the five chapters we're doing. Come over here and show me."
Naru sounded exhausted. It was hard for her, Keitaro thought, when she had to put up with him all the time.
"Well it's this one right here..." Keitaro leaned over to point it out, but he slipped and fell. Lo and behold,
when the dust settled, his outstretched hand was resting on her breast.
"You... BAKA!!!" Naru yelled and punched him out the door.
"Ouch... Naru, I didn't..."
"You never 'mean' to, you make me sick." Naru got up and walked by Keitaro's body and down the stairs. "I'm
going to lunch."

Urashima gave up and let his head hit the floor.
"I'll never get her..." Keitaro complained, "as soon as I think I get her, she suddenly
changes and I end up going through a wall."
He laid like that for long moments, trying to figure out the latest roadblock in the way of their relationship.
He finally gave up and was just trying to get up when he heard a concerned voice calling him.

"Sempai! Sempai! Are you ok Urashima-sempai?" It was of course the only female in the dorm that openly showed
concern for him, Shinobu Maehara.
She tried to help him up, but he shook his head.
"I'm alright, just thinking."
They walked down the stairs to see Otohime coming through the front door.

"Oh, hello Keitaro, are you done studying already? Ara... Did I faint again?" She looked around, her smile
never fading.
"No, no. We're just having lunch. Come on, Shinobu-chan made a great lunch I hear!" At that Shinobu blushed.
It was a known fact that she had a crush on the ronin, but she never tried to tell him openly.
They walked into the dining room just in time to see Naru walk out and head upstairs.

"Naruuu, where are you going?" Otohime asked.
"Studying. Done with lunch." Naru walked back to their room and closed the door.
"Naru…" Keitaro protested to no one in particular, "Why do you have to be so stubborn?"

*************

Keitaro ate his lunch in scilence, despite Otohime's attempts to create conversation.
"Keitaro... Why are you so upset? Did I do somethinq wrong?" She looked upset, puzzled, and worried.
"No! No, it's nothing about you." Keitaro said, tryinq to think of what to say, "It's about Naru,
she's been meaner and meaner to me lately, and I have no idea why..."
"Oh, well if you need to, you can stay at my home, it'll be fun! We could-"
"I couldn't do that at all Otohime, I have my duties as kanrinin to do" He noticed her mood darkening,
and quickly tried to change the subject, "we better qo back and start studying."
"Right!" Keitaro was relieved to see her cheerind up, "lets qo!"

However, something, or someone to be precise, was blocking his path.
"Heyya Keitaro!!!" It was Su Kaolla, the dorm's resident troublemaker, well half of the team anyway.
Her best friend Sara MacDougal was her partner in misceif, and Keitaro wondered where she would pop out of to
hit him with some hard object.
"Hey Su, what is it?" Keitaro replyed while trying to look unconspicous while trying to search for Sara.
"Guess what!!!" Su continued, "I made another invention!!!"
"Really?" Keitaro prayed under his breath, "Is it one of those mecha-tamas that you always make?"
"Nope." He let out a sigh of relief, but hopes were soon shatered when he heard, "It's MEGA MECHA TAMA!!!"
A walking turtle came out from around the corner and its eyes glared red.
"Fire!!!" Su yelled into a control box.
The robot started pelting bombs at him that reminded him of when he first met Su and her tanks.
"AAAAAA!!!! Stop it!!!" Keitaro was making a mad dash for his room, and just rounded the corner at the stairs
to see a rocket blow up where he would have been if he hadn't turned.

Keitaro flung open his door to see Naru quietly studying. She looked up at him, and then quickly went back to
her books.
"Narusegawa..." Keitaro began, but was interupted by an explosion in his back, and was sent flying through
his window, and out into the open. He dashed away again, but got another hit.
"Su!!! Shut that thing off!!!" He yelled, and Su, having been pleased that her invention worked, directed
mega mecha-tama to go back to storage. He had no idea where that was, and somehow, that made him feel better.

By the time he got back to his room, Naru and Otohime and were hard at work studying. Keitaro got back to his spot
and started working, when he realised that the question he had problems with has still unanswered.
"Naruseg..." He started to ask, but naru just slid her notes to him, and he looked through them, finally finding
the question. He looked over Naru's answer, but it helped him understand what to do about as much as a kick in the
head solves a headache.
"Narusegawa, could you-"
"Ask Otohime, she knows." Naru interupted him, and Keitaro turned to Mutsumi.
"What one is it Keitaro?" She asked politely. Urashima pointed it out.
"Well, first you have to...."

After Mutsumi had left, Naru went up to her room and shut the door.
"What has gotten into her, things like that hapen all the time." Keitaro thought aloud, "I wonder if her patience
just snapped. It's most likely all my fault..."
Then, he got an idea.
There was a hole that separated his and Naru's rooms. If he could just look inside and see what she was doing,
not that he wanted or expected to see her changing or something along those lines, he could see what the problem
was. He got up on top of his table, and was about to poke his head through, when Kitsume, or Mitsune Konno,
which was her real name, slid the door open.
"Before you spy on Naru, you have your job to do. Oh, and during lunch she was muttering something to herself,
I think I caught "Keitaro" in there many times, you may be in deep trouble." She casually slid out of view,
and called back, "She may not keep forgiving you forever you know!"

That hit Keitaro like a brick. He started thinking. What if she never talks to me? What if she never even
looks at me, or even worse, what if she doesn't have a chance to know how I really feel about her?

Wiping that from his mind as best he could, he started getting to work. His first stop was the hot springs.
If no one was there, he would start there, and if there did happen to be someone in the bath, he would take
a circular route around the inn, and end there.

When he arrived, the springs were empty. Ok, he thought, time to get to work. Cleaning the hot springs
was basically just sweeping leaves and dirt from the rock around the water. He had only actually been in
the water a few times. One was that fateful first event where he met Naru away from school, and then
other times where he was sure that the girls weren't going to be around. As he was cleaning though, a
figure wearing a towel came around the door that separated the hot springs from the inn, and it was none
other than Naru Narusegawa. Keitaro tried to shield himself, but instead of his usual beating, Naru
just looked at him with a face so full of menace that he almost trembled by looking at her.
"Get out." She commanded. Keitaro stood dumbstruck for a second before saying,
"Naru, I wanted to just tell you that-" but he was never given a chance
"I SAID GET OUT!" She screamed at him. He again could not believe that she could posses so much hatred for
him, that much anger. Naru, obviously outraged at the fact that he still wasn't gone, picked him up by
his collar, dragged him toward the door, and threw him back into the inn. He tried to get up as soon as
he could but Naru had slammed the door before he could utter a sound.

**************

He completed his rounds in a depression that made all the girls at Hinta Inn upset, even his aunt Hakura Urashima,
who was rarely bothered by anything. After he was done, he walked past the door to the springs, not even
caring if Naru had left yet. When he got to his room, he hesitated before turning around and going back
out to the front of the inn, and left to go for a walk.

He hardly even thought as he wandered the streets, and barely even acknowledged it when he ran into Otohime.
"Oh, hi Keitaro, what are you doing?" She asked, looking happy as usual. He, on the other hand, just simply
walked past her and deeper into town, away from the inn.

Mokoto Aoyama was practicing her sword combat skills when Mutsumi walked up behind her.
"Ara... Do you know where Naru is?" She asked Mokoto. She turned slightly, and eyed the woman.
"I think she's still in her room, why do you ask?" The swords master inquired.
"Oh, its just that Keitaro was acting strange, and when that happens, Naru is usually mad at him." She
replied mater-of-factly, "So if I find out what's wrong with Naru, Keitaro can be happy again!"
At that Mutsumi turned around and headed down to Naru's room.

On the way though, she bumped into Kitsume, who was havily drunk.
"Oh, ichss the turtle lady!" She babbled, "What bringess you hure?"
"Well actually im looking for Naru-chan," Otohime explained, "Do you know where she is?"
"Ooohhh, Naruuuss gone for a wulk, hiccup!, but shesss purty mad at Keicharo" It was obvious to Mutsumi
that Kitsume would have quite a hangover the next day. She quickly thanked the drunkard and sped out to find Naru.
Well, she would have sped out, except that she fainted, either from the excitement of what was going on or
just over-exertion.

************

Naru walked aimlessly though the town like Keitaro, but unlike Keitaro, her mind was fast at work, going over
and over in her mind all the reasons she hated him.
1. He was a pervert who would stop at nothing to get some action, no matter with who, he even attacked poor
Shinobu!
2. He was dumb. I mean, at least Mutsumi was smart, she just never did something crucial, like write her
name on a test paper, or fainted before she got to the test center and had to be taken to the hospital.
Keitaro on the other hand, was a third year ronin, who, it looked like, was about to become a fourth pretty
soon.
She made a mental note of all the things she could find wrong about him, but couldn't help but think about
the times where they shared something special, like that one time when they accidentally broke each other's
glasses while on a vacation, and neither of them knew the identity of the other. They went on a great date,
and when they finally realized that they had spent the day together, they were amazed at the things that
the other could do, like not be a pervert. She tried to cast these thoughts aside, but they kept coming back.
She almost tried to hit her head against s nearby building, she could not give in to him again, she could NOT
be used again for his perverted pleasures.
She continued waling, oblivious to the fact that Keitaro was just a block ahead of her.

*************

Keitaro finally had one thought. If he was so awful and worthless, which is exacly what the could hear Naru
screaming in his face, he may just not ever come back. He decided that once and for all, he was going to end it.
He turned to go back to the inn to get his things, when he brushed past none other than Naru Narusegawa.
"Naru...?" He said under his breath as he saw her walk by, not knowing wither she had seen him or not, and
turned again. If he didn't touch her, and was careful of his footing, he may just be able to survive talking
to her, hopefully without loosing his teeth. He tried to think of his words carefully, but in the end just
blurted out,
"Narusesawa, wait!"

************

Meanwhile, Mutsumi had just woken up.
"Ara... Not again..." She murmured, "I wonder what Naru is doing right now.

************

Narusegawa was actually frozen. She had just been found out by the one person who she wanted to see the least
right now, or ever for that fact. She then followed her suit, and ran. She ran as fast as she could, and
got a few people mad along the way. She didn't care. The only thing going through her mind was just to run,
and to get away from HIM. However, Keitaro, used to running toward, and away from Naru, caught up to her
without a lot of trouble. She stopped again, and turned.

***********

Otohime was wandering through the city streets, desperately trying to find the only girl who could make Keitaro
feel happy. She knew that, if given a choice, he would pick Naru over herself, and whenever Keitaro was
glad, she felt better. Although she gave it her best effort, she accidentally walked by the spot where the
two people who she was trying to find were.

***********

"Naru, please listen, I'm really-"
"Sorry, I know," Naru fumed, "It'll never happen again, and yet it always does. You are the most perverted,
ignorant, persistent, hateable person that I have ever known!" At that, traffic around the two stopped,
the people started to keep about a two meter distance between themselves and the enraged brunette.
"Narusegawa, you don't understand," Keitaro tried to explain, "I never wanted those things to happen, I
never did! Ever since I saw you at the hot spring, I've been so clumsy, it's like I can't even think
properly around you... Narusegawa, I really want to be with you."
Naru stood dumbfounded, not knowing wither to throw forgive him, or punch to orbit. She finally
made a decision. She ran.

End of Chapter one