Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to Love Hina.

Pre-Read by: Zenapax

I Fell For You In San Francisco: At Last! Their Date

Keitaro feels groggy and moody, not wanting to get out of bed. He still remembers the fight he got into yesterday. Usually, he can recover quickly enough to where he only feels the pain for a few minutes. But since no one beat him up for a while, it took him a lot longer to recover. He still feels bad for letting Shinobu save him. Then he remembers that they have a date today, which makes him energetic. He grabs his glasses on the night stand, but feels a piece of paper on top of it. He puts on his glasses before reading the paper.

Sempai ^_^-

Went out to get a few items for our...well...you know. Be back in a few hours.

-Shinobu ^_^

With a smile on his face, he puts the paper back on the night stand and checks the clock to see that it's 9:30. He doesn't know what time Shinobu left, back figures that she'll be back around 11 o'clock. He gets out off the couch and gets dressed in a white shirt and black short before leaving the room. He goes to the hotel gym to work out a bit. He took weight training last semester, felling a bit stronger when he spared with someone and less pain when any of the girls beat him up. He works out for 45 minutes before feeling hungry. Not wanting to leave the hotel area, he goes into DOT Restaurant and Bar for breakfast. When he finishes, he decides to go back to the room to take a shower. When he sees the elevator, he notices the doors a closing. He starts to run, screaming for whoever is in there to hold it. To his surprise, someone throws their hand in between the door, causing it to open again. He gets in, heavily breathing a little.

"Thank you," he says, not looking at the person.

"Your welcome." For some reason, the voice sounds familiar. He turn towards the person and is a little surprise at who he sees.

"Shinobu?" She turns to him and almost drops the bag she's carrying.

"Sempai! What are you doing in here? I thought you still be in the room?"

"I was working out in the hotel gym and ate breakfast," He now notices the bag she's carrying. "What in there?"

"Here?" She lowers her head. "Some stuff I got for today." There is a tense silent until the elevator doors open to their floor and walk to their room.

"So, do you need to shower first?" Keitaro asks.

"Why don't you go first? I'll take at least an hour in there to get ready." Keitaro seems a bit surprised to hear this. He knows her for being a quick dresser and not ready caring about appearance. Then again, he always thought she looks good in anything and is born beautiful.

He agrees and goes in first. It only takes him 10 minutes to shower and other things. Once he's back in the living room, Shinobu makes a mad dash to the bathroom. Knowing that she'll be there for at least an hour, he takes his time and finishes watching Strawberry Eggs. He goes into the bedroom and grabs the Parasite Eve VCD figuring that she'll be done somewhere around the middle of the movie. To his surprise, his finishes the movie and she still isn't done.

Two hours have passed since Shinobu went into the bathroom. Keitaro plays hearts on the computer and is about to start his fourth game when he hears the bedroom open. He looks and sees that she is decked out. She's wearing a green kung-fu dress, pantyhose, kung-fu shoes, the tennis bracelet that her mom give her at her last birthday and the earrings he just bought her. He can also tell that she put on some red lipstick and a little eye shadow that matches her dress perfectly.

"How do I look?" With a twirl, he notices that she braided her hair in ponytail instead of her pigtails.

"You...look...amazing!" He smiles. "Now, if you had wings on your back, you'll look like Dotta from Sorcerer Hunters." They both laugh. He looks at his own clothes and feels a little out of place wearing only khaki pants and a plain blue shirt under his coat. "Maybe I should change?"

"It's OK Sempai. I don't mind you dressed like that." She grabs him by the arm. "Come on! Let's go!" She drags him out the door and onto their date.

They wait at the bus stop and take the number four bus. during the ride, Keitaro can tell that Shinobu is eager about this day by the look on her face. But he doesn't know why though. He has seen her go alone with Tsuyoshi on a few occasions. It always made him jealous when they do. He thought they were going out, but doesn't know anymore. "So Shinobu, what are we going?"

"It's a surprise." They sit in the bus for a few more minutes until Shinobu grabs him by the hand, signaling that they have come to their stop. They get off at the corner of Post and Kearny, going three and a half blocks south to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Inside the museum are levels of art work. Since the first floor is where you purchase your tickets and the art shop, they go to the second level. There, they see lots of architecture and design models, drawings and furniture like Bird's-Eye-View Rendering of the Proposed Airport at China Basin by J.R. Miller and T.L. Pfuleger. The third level is where most of the paintings are. They enjoy viewing paintings by Diego Rivera, Salvator Rosa and Jacob Lawrence. The forth level showed a combination of paintings and sculpture. They were intrigued by Jeff Koons' Michael Jackson and Bubbles statue. On the fifth level, there were many photographs. They enjoy Bruce Murray, Yong Soon Min and Lewis Carroll the most. They also saw an exhibition called Girl Culture by Lauren Greenfield. Keitaro seem to enjoy it the most, but was mostly drooling over all the girls in the pictures. He made sure the Shinobu didn't see him doing that. The sixth and last level shows an exhibition of Chinese art work. They like Fang Tu's Infinite Sky, Infinite Earth No. 9, Hong Hao's Selected Scriptures and Liu Wei's New Generation from the exhibition. Once they were finish, they took the elevator to the first level and checked out the art store. The only thing either of them purchase was the Girl Culture book, which Keitaro bought.

After spending two hours in the museum, they walk across the street onto Yerba Buena Garden. They felt pretty comfortable which each other holding hands as they walk by other couples. Feeling hungry, they go into a large building called the Metreon. Since they don't know where to go first, they check the map to see where they can eat. They agree to go to a Mexican restaurant called Luna Azul. They order nachos that are large enough for three or four people and Sprite for themselves. Shinobu also gets a raspberry crepes for herself. The two eat a late lunch while having a casual conversation.

"So, is the reason why you left before I woke up because so you can check out the place for our date?" Shinobu takes a bite of the nachos before speaking.

"Kind of. My original plan just to buy this dress, but I I didn't have enough room for it in my suitcase. So I ended up buying another one. I hope you don't mind."

"Well, I do have to pay an extra change for having more luggage, but I don't mind paying for it."

"Thanks." She smiles at him. "Anyway, I realize that I was near the museum, so I decide to check it out and the surround area." Shinobu takes another bite of the nachos, but starts fanning her mouth. She takes her drink and brings to inhale it.

"Are you..." Keitaro beings, but feels something hot in his mouth. Like Shinobu, he takes his drink and inhales it. "Man! That was hot!"

"I know. How come it become hot all of a sudden?"

"I don't know?" They examine the items on the nachos. They know everything on the plate but the small round green things. They each take a chip and move all the green things away from the nachos. They finish their main meal while Shinobu begins to eat her crepes. "How is that?"

"It's very good." She takes another bite before pushing it towards Keitaro. "You want to try?" He nod and takes a bit.

"WOW! This is really good."

"Want to share it?" He gives her a confused look, but agrees to her kindness. After they finish eating, they head to the ticket counter in the Metreon and purchase movie tickets to watch a movie called Better Luck Tomorrow. They go on the elevator and ride it to the third level. They get off and go in to watch. Once the movie was over with, they walk back to the elevator.

"What made you want to watch that movie Shinobu?"

"While researching movies that were playing here, I read that this movie showed Asians more as Americans. Since we don't know much about Americans, I thought it would be nice to see a movie of how Americans act." Keitaro quickly recalls the movie before speaking about it.

"Well, if that's how Americans act, I think they're wilder than us. But the movie itself was good."

"Yeah. But I didn't like when Ben..."

"Whoa!" Keitaro waves his hands wildly as the elevator doors open. They step inside before he continues. "Are you talking about the scene near the end?"

"Yeah."

"Please don't. That was just disturbing." She nods, not telling him anymore about it as the elevator doors open to the first floor. They notice a working mini-photo booth and decide to get a picture of themselves. Keitaro is pretty happy getting one with Shinobu, since he doesn't have one of them together. After receiving their sheet, they walk out the other side of the Metreon and notice that the sun is about to set. Keitaro looks at his watch. "Maybe we should go Shinobu. It's almost 8 o' clock." He turns to her, who looks a little disappointed.

"Oh. So you are tired already?"

"No. No." He began to blush. "It's just it's getting late. We should be getting back, but if you know of something else to do, we can do it." Shinobu starts to smile.

"You mean it?"

"Yeah."

"That's great! I been meaning to show you this place I found." She takes him by the hand and leads him down 4th Street to the corner of Folsom, where they see the Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center.

"You wanted to take me bowling?" Shinobu gentle slaps Keitaro's arm.

"No silly!" She lets out a giggle. "I want to go ice skating with you." Keitaro is a little dumbfounded about her decision. The last time he ever went ice staking was when is was nine years old. He remembers that his pants were badly wet from falling on the ice every minute and remember all the kids laughing at him. He vowed that he wouldn't ice skate again.

"Are you sure?" He says, thinking of a reason not to skate. "I mean, what if you fall?" She lets out a louder giggle.

"Don't worry about me. I'll be just fine. Come on!" Knowing that thee is no way out of this, he agrees and go inside the ice staking arena. They get their stakes and go over to the bleachers to tie their stakes. When they do, they go to one of the lockers and put their stuff away. Shinobu hands the key to Keitaro, since he has pockets. The two of them head to the rink. He nervously makes his way towards the ice as she gets on it. He watches her, admiring how to gracefully move around the rink like an Olympic figure skater. Just finishing her first lap, she notices that he isn't skating. She goes out of the rink and goes to him. "What's wrong Sempai?"

"Nothing. I..." Shinobu grabs him by the hand.

"Then come on! It's lots of fun!" She quickly walks back onto the rink, bring Keitaro with her. She holds go of his hand, skating at her own pace. He tries his best to keep his balance, but falls flat on his face. He picks himself up, but falls again. He crawls to the hockey bench and picks himself up again. Getting his balance, he pushes his skate and starts to glide. He does it again with the another skate, but fall on his back.

"Can't skate either, huh?" He looks up to see a woman with long dark brown hair, extending her arm to help him up. "Need a hand?" He takes her arm and lifts himself up, holding on to the edge of the bench. He thanks her, but as he tries to push his skate, he slips and knocks down the woman as they slide to the end of the rink.

"I'm sorry ma'am." He tries to get up, but fall on her. A big guy with light brown beard skates towards Keitaro and stop in front of him, having some of the ice shavings hit him in the face.

"Are you trying to hit on my girlfriend?" The man looks really mad.

"Barry! No!" The woman gets up, but falls on her butt. Barry leans her a hand up before explaining. "He's like me. Can't skate."

"You sure?"

"Not everyone can skate very well and play for the San Jose Sharks like you, Barry Burton." He sinisterly looks at Keitaro.

"Sorry man." He grabs the woman's hand. "Come on Claire. Let's go." The two skate away, leaving Keitaro still on the ice. Shinobu sees him and skates towards him.

"What are you doing on the ground?" He gets angry at her for asking that question as she helps him up to his feet. Once he gets his balance, he brushes off the ice shavings on his body. He wants to yell at her for brings him here, but when he looks to her, he doesn't want to hurt her for planning this date.

"I can't skate," Shinobu seems surprised by this.

"You can't?"

"I can't. I haven't even made it half way around the rink yet."

"You want me to hold your hand? At least until you can skate on your own." Keitaro smiles and holds her hand. The two of them start to glide and get only five meters before Keitaro falls, bring Shinobu with him. Luckily, she falls on top of him.

"I'm sorry. I was never good at this."

"It's OK. Let's get up and I'll teach you." After getting up, they skate together, hand in hand. Shinobu teaches him the basics of ice skating. After a few minutes, Keitaro is amazed of how quickly he picked it up.

"Wow! This is great!" He says, noticing that he went around the rink ten times and hasn't fallen yet. "So this is what it feels like to ice skate. You're a great teacher." Shinobu giggles and smiles at him.

"Thank you." An announcement is made over the loud speaker that they need to clean the ice. Shinobu and Keitaro leave the rink and waits patiently on the bleachers for the zamboni to clean the ice.

"I was wondering Shinobu," he asked. "Where did you learn how to ice skate? I don't remember you ever telling anyone this before."

"Oh that." She starts to blush a little. "It's like my little secret."

"Secret?"

"Yeah. The only other one who knows this is Tsuyoshi." Keitaro isn't surprised by this fact.

"So, he taught you?"

"No. No. My parents used to take me to a ice skating place or the lake we used to live near when it froze during the winter time before the divorce. They taught me how to skate forwards, backwards, stopping, even how to fall. But I liked it when we skated together. My mom would take my right hand and my dad would take my left. Then we would step onto the ice together. I was scare, but with them holding me, I knew that nothing bad would happen. I felt like the happiest girl alive when we were out there, skating as a family. I wish we still did that." Keitaro notice her shred a tear just before finishing. He knows that her parents are doing well with each other, but nothing is official. He puts his arm around her for comfort, sensing she might cry more.

"That's a great story Shinobu. But why did you keep it a secret?"

"I felted that after the divorce, anything we did together was meaningless. It wasn't until you helped me get along with the others that I realize there was meaning with all the good times with my parents. I went back to ice skating when I started high school. Tsuyoshi was the only one that knew I could ice skate because he wanted to learn how. I'm glad that you know how to ice skate." She leans her head on his arm, watching the zamboni finish cleaning the ice and leave the rink. They wait a few minutes for the water completely dry up as the people go back to skate. Once they can't see anymore water on the ice, they get up and go back skating, holding each other's hand.

An hour goes by before they notice it's almost time to leave. Not wanting to wait to return their ice skates, they get off the rink, grab their things in the locker and return the skates.

They leave the arena, entering the San Francisco night sky. Keitaro notices Shinobu quivering a bit from the cold. He takes off his coat and puts it around her. When he does, both their stomachs growl. They giggle at each other, then look for a place to eat. They see a fast food restaurant called Jollybees across the street and decide to eat their. They both order an Aloha meal with lemonade and a side order of rice. Their were a bit surprised to find a pineapple slice in the burger, but eat it anyway. Once they are done, they leave and try to catch a taxi, knowing that it's bit dangerous getting a bus. They wait for a minute when a taxi does pull over. Stopping, they both hop inside.

"Where to?"

"The Radisson Miyako Hotel please." Keitaro tells the cabbie.

"Radisson Miyako Hotel?" The taxi driver says, turning around. "Hey! It's you two again!" Shinobu and Keitaro don't know what the cabbie means until they get a look at the driver.

"Wow. You too."

"Small world." The cabbie lets go of the break and drives away. "So, you two going to admit that your boyfriend and girlfriend?"

"What?!" Shinobu cries out in a high pitch tone. "We're just...on a friendly date. We are not...doing anything with each other."

"What ever you say miss." He goes down two blocks, turning into Geary Street before speaking again. "So, where did you go on your date?"

"Well," Keitaro began. "We went to the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, watched a movie at the Metreon and ice skated at the Yerba Buena Ice Skating and Bowling Center."

"Did you two have fun?"

"Yes we did." The rest the ride back was silent. Like before the cab driver pulls in front of the Radisson Miyako Hotel. "So, how much?" He hesitates answering him.

"Hmm...what are you two doing tomorrow?" Shocked, they look at each other, then back at the cabbie.

"We don't have anything planned," Shinobu tells him.

"Maybe go to Lombard Street to see the crooked street," Keitaro adds. "But other then that, just packing. We're leaving the day after tomorrow. Why?" The cabbie takes a deep breath before speaking.

"Then the ride is sixty-five dollars."

"What?!" Both Keitaro and Shinobu are enraged. They didn't pay near that much the first time they rode with him. And it was a longer distance too. " Sixty-five dollars?! Why?"

"It's just, I have these two Giants' tickets," he says, showing it to them. "They're for a baseball game tomorrow against their hated rivals, the Dodgers. I was going to go, but I have to cover for someone. Do you want them? I wouldn't have asked if you were doing a lot tomorrow."

"How much are the tickets?"

"Each ticket cost thirty-two dollar. But I like you two, so it's twenty-five each. The rest is the cab fee." Keitaro looks at Shinobu. He's unsure if she'd like to go to a baseball game. Sure. She was on the softball team, but never did she watch a baseball game back home.

"What do you think Shinobu? Do you want to go?"

"Yeah!" she quickly says. "I haven't been to one in a long time." He was a surprised by this fact. He guessed he doesn't know her as well as he thought. With nothing planned for tomorrow, he agrees and purchases the tickets from the cab driver.

"Thank you sir. If you like, I can also drive you guys to Lombard Street before the game. The ride will be free."

"That would be great."

"All right then. The game starts at one, so what time do you want me to pick you up?"

"How long will it take to get to the stadium?"

"From Lombard? About ten to fifteen minute, depending on traffic." Keitaro talks with Shinobu about what time the cabbie should pick them up. Once they agree on the time, he turns to the cabbie.

"Pick us up at around eleven-thirty."

"Will do. I'll be in front around then." They exit the cab and walk back to their room from their exciting date.

Note: I'm inaccurate describing things in the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. I haven't been there since October of 2002. So if you go there, I maybe wrong on a few things.

Warning: Please don't use this story as a guide to San Francisco. I don't want to be responsible for you getting lost!

GOOD OR BAD, PLEASE REVIEW =)