Love Hina: A Manlier Side?
A/N -- Whoa...20 reviews with just two chapters! I never expected so many to come in just from two chapters!!! And not only that, most of them are positive! That does it, I'm continuing this one.
Chapter 3: Keitaro makes his rounds
Naru stood there, unconscious, with her hands feeling her lips. Even thought a good half-hour passed since Keitaro went back up to his room, she still could feel his lips, and moreover, she could still hear what he said, 'That's how you seduce someone.' She sat down again and tried to sort out what happened in her head, and for once, the usually bright and smart girl was stumped. Finally she walked over to her bookshelf, took out her diary, cleared some space for it on the table and started writing, hoping that writing it out might clear things up.
Dear Diary,
Sigh...I don't know where to begin. Guess I should start from what happened earlier in the day then. I found myself covered up on a futon in the living room. I was downright confused because the last thing I remember was being in the hot springs trying to drag out the other girls and fainting, that too naked. But along with Kitsune and Shinobu, I found myself in a robe. I immediately suspected Keitaro did something perverted again and took advantage of me, or the other girls along with me, but before I could go and knock him out, I realized that I was too weak and tired to even stand up, let alone walk up a set of stairs. Not only that, but Motoko had the same thoughts and decided to act on it, despite my warning about her weakened condition. She headed upstairs, and for once, I felt sorry for our manager and awaited any loud noises.
But no! You wouldn't believe how surprised I was when there was absolutely NO noise whatsoever. About a minute after Motoko took off, Keitaro came down, carrying her, apparently knocked out by her sudden burst of strength. With the help of Tama-chan, he placed her in bed and warned me and Kitsune, who was also awake, not to overexert ourselves. Not only did he do that, he also looked at Motoko…almost like how a father looks at his child, not as a man that has perverted thoughts.
Naru continued recounting the rest of the day but stopped short right before the point when Keitaro came in.
Then I wanted to see whether he really changed or whether he was being a jerk and I invited him to study with me. I know, it was unusual of me to ask him to come because it is usually him who comes to me. Anyways, I went into a fake nap to see if he would try to take advantage of my lack of awareness to kiss me or worse, like last time, but no! More surprises! He placed a pillow under my head and covered me with a blanket, apparently assuming that I was really asleep. He even sounded genuinely sorry for having me study with him and within me, doubts bubbled. Maybe he did change, but I convinced myself he didn't. So I took one of the most potentially dangerous moves of my life – I tried to seduce him. I started stripping in front of him, but instead of seeing him fall backwards with a nosebleed and gawking, he only gave me a peek! Just one small peak and straight back to the books!!! I swear, I have never been this confused in my life. Then, he got up and picked up his books, but before leaving, he asked whether I knew what I did wrong. I only gave him a blank look, and he then kissed me. Oh my, I'll admit just to you that he was a good kisser, but what he said after probably convinced me more than anything else. He said, "That is how you seduce someone," and walked out.
Diary, I don't know what it is, but my feelings for him have never been this strong. But I still don't know what to make out of it yet. I hope I can figure out something soon, before this drives me nuts more than the exams themselves. Ciao for now.
She finished writing and closed the diary. Then she turned to the yellow Liddo-kun doll, intending to see if she could talk to Keitaro. She crawled over to the doll, lifted it and looked down to see if he was around.
"Keitaro?" she started, but stopped shortly. The room was empty and clean and the only way she could tell was by the books he used earlier in the day: they were neatly stacked on one corner of his desk along with his pencils. "Not here," she mumbled to herself. "Maybe he went to take a bath?" She replaced Liddo-kun and walked out, heading towards the small section enclosed just for Keitaro. When she reached there, she knocked on the door and waited for an answer. Silence was the result. "Keitaro?" she called out. "Are you in there?" Still no answer. She then placed her ear against the door to see if she could pick up on any sound. Absolutely nothing. Finally, she had enough of waiting and slowly opened the door. When she heard no reaction, she snuck her head in to find…no one. The wooden bathtub had no trace of water whatsoever, nor did any part of the bathroom floor. 'Maybe he's cleaning the springs,' she thought as she headed over to the attached balcony and peeked out. Although she couldn't see anything, she did hear a soft scrubbing noise coming from there, and she headed for the hot springs. She got there, opened the door and started, "Keita—" before getting cut off.
What Naru saw absolutely stunned and silenced her. It wasn't the fact that Keitaro was scrubbing away at the sides of the hot springs; he always did that and it was expected of him as a manager. It was the fact that he was scrubbing while being half-naked. She had seen him half-naked before at the beach, but never this closely and carefully, and she could see various curves and crevices spread evenly throughout his upper body. He didn't have muscles like those who competed in Mr. Universe competitions, but daily strenuous activities that consisted of scrubbing walls and cleaning floors, just to name a few, had given him quite a workout and a chiseled look. The thin layer of sweat that resulted from the constant scrubbing only accentuated his muscular look as it reflected the sunlight off of his body, giving it a glow of sorts. 'Oh my,' she mouthed as she blushed furiously. "So manly," she whispered to herself. Unknown to her, Kitsune picked just the moment to come in.
"A-ha! I knew you had something for our manager!" Kitsune exclaimed, apparently having picked up Naru's slip. She broke out of her admiration for the said man and looked at Kitsune, surprised and embarrassed.
"N-no! I only wanted to talk with him!" Naru tried in vain to explain, but she knew that her best friend nailed her. She was saved from more embarrassment by Kitsune by none other than the one that caused it.
"Eh? Narusegawa? Kitsune-san?" Keitaro asked, noticing both women. Both suddenly turned to him. Kitsune noticed Keitaro and also had the same reaction as Naru. "Umm, are you two OK? You're blushing quite heavily," Keitaro asked, totally oblivious of the fact that he was causing them to blush. "Anyways, I just finished cleaning so if you want to use it, go on ahead! I'm going to grab something to eat," he finished as he put away the cleaning gear, wiped himself with a towel and headed for the kitchen still wiping himself. Two pairs of eyes trailed his figure until he disappeared.
"Oh my…" Naru and Kitsune both mumbled, both having never blushed this heavily.
Keitaro entered the kitchen to see Shinobu up and cooking dinner. "Oh, are you feeling better?" he asked. The young blue-haired girl turned to face him.
"Yes, Sempai!" she said happily. Then she noticed what Keitaro was wearing, or what he wasn't wearing, and immediately blushed. "Umm…Sempai?" she asked timidly.
"Hmm? Something wrong?" he asked, concern evident in his voice. Being one of the youngest residents, Keitaro had a special piece of kindness for her.
"Why…why…why are you not wearing any clothes?" she asked, even more timidly, her gaze down and looking at his shorts instead of his naked upper half.
"Oh!" Keitaro said, laughing, "That's because I'm almost out of clean T-shirts so I thought I'd save what few I have until the laundry's done. Anyways, I'm hungry and I don't think I can last until dinner, so do you have a snack I can munch on for a while?"
Shinobu looked up at him, and registered his question after a few seconds. "Yes! Hang on a second," she answered. The young girl opened the refrigerator, picked out some noodles from a couple nights ago and put it in the microwave. Thirty seconds later, she took out the now-heated noodles and picked out a pair of chopsticks. "Here you go Sempai," she said as she approached him with the noodles. Then she tripped on her own sandals. "Ack!" she screamed.
"Whoa!" Keitaro let out as he grabbed the noodles with one hand and used his body and the other hand to keep Shinobu from falling, pretty much hugging her. "You OK?"
She was in her own little world. 'Sempai's body is so firm! Sempai's hugging me! Sempai's hugging me!' She was then shaken out of her little world by the said man shaking her gently. Her eyes snapped open, and she pushed herself off of him back onto her feet. "I'm sorry!" she said, looking down and feeling ashamed, both for falling onto him and having lewd (lewd to her) thoughts of him.
Keitaro waved her off. "No worries, Shinobu-chan! Thanks for the noodles!" he thanked and walked out of the kitchen. He walked over to the couch in the living room and started eating, savoring the good taste. 'Nothing beats Shinobu's cooking, especially after a hard day's work,' he thought to himself happily. Just then, from the corner of his eye he noticed an incoming brown figure. He placed the noodles down on the table got up and stuck his hands out just above his waist.
Suu had ran and tried to jump-kick Keitaro as per usual. But Keitaro looking ready to catch her caught her off-guard as she launched herself and she couldn't do anything to stop. She landed right into his arms as a result instead of slamming into Keitaro's head. He looked down at her with a gentle smile, which she returned with a confused expression.
"Suu-chan, you shouldn't do that kind of thing, you can get hurt," the manager gently chided her. "And I don't want to see you get hurt like that."
Suu, however, did not hear anything he said. She couldn't help but observe how even more similar Keitaro and her brother back home looked. It first started with his height and face shape, but she noticed how much stronger Keitaro had become and how similar it seemed with her brother. Then his gentle and soft voice finally tricked her into believing that Keitaro WAS her brother. "Oniisan…" she whispered, looking at him, her face slightly blushing, though it was quite hard to tell because of her naturally dark skin.
"Hmm? Did you say something?" Keitaro bent closer to hear closer. Suu then got herself out of his arms and just stood there like a docile puppy, looking at him like he was her world (A/N – Vol. 10 Chapter 84). "Well, at least you're fine. Just don't play too roughly or you can get hurt again," Keitaro gently warned, Suu simply nodded and softly walked back towards her room while Keitaro went back to eating his noodles. 'She's awfully quiet, wonder what's in her mind?' Keitaro wondered as he ate. 'No matter, she should be herself when food comes around,' he finished with a smile. He got up, took the dishes back to Shinobu, who took it while keeping her gaze down, and headed upstairs to take a shower.
Soon after, Motoko woke up. 'Where am I?' she asked, surprised to see her room instead of Keitaro's. 'Oh! Urashima!' she realized that she still owed him an apology for falsely accusing him of perversion. She made herself presentable, adjusted her hair and her clothes and walked out of her room, her eyes scanning for the only male resident of the inn. She first headed to Keitaro's room, where she found no one, then asked the residents around. She noticed that everyone fidgeted and looked extremely uncomfortable at the mere mention of his name. 'What happened to everyone?' she wondered. 'Oh well, I'll see him at dinner, I'll apologize then. I should meditate before dinner in order to at least make up for the missed time in practice,' she thought as she headed for the patio. The swordswoman walked up to the patio to see Keitaro meditating. 'Urashima?' she said mentally and noticed his short dark hair. The she stopped; she could feel something…pleasant and welcoming from him. She concentrated on him on the spiritual level and noticed a soft aura emanating from him. 'That…that is his aura?' she asked herself, quite surprised to see something so strong and pure from someone she deemed as a weakling and a pervert. 'He seems very manly today,' she mused, then panicked. What if Keitaro heard? Fortunately, the aura remained the same, meaning that he hadn't heard anything. Motoko then decided to meditate and sat down next to him. 'It seems different. It seems easier today to meditate. It seems like I feel at ease when he is around,' Motoko mused. Soon, if anyone were to come by and didn't know better, they would've assumed those two to be twin statues.
Some time later, Shinobu announced that dinner was ready and everyone gathered around the table. Keitaro noticed one of the seats was empty. "Say, what happened to Sara?" he asked, curious.
"Seta-san came by and picked her up while you were hard at work," Kitsune answered. She, along with Naru, immediately noticed the more literal meaning behind what she said, then covered their mouths and blushed furiously while suddenly becoming interested in their food.
"Oh, that answers it," he replied, relieved that she didn't go missing. "Well, let's eat!" He started eating his food, but noted that the table tonight was unusually quiet. Even in the beginning, when Sara was not around, there was always a lot of talking; even Shinobu, the shyest of all the residents, would say something. But tonight's dinner was that of absolute silence, save the sounds of food being eaten. He clandestinely observed all the girls individually and noticed that none were willing to make eye contact whatsoever. Finally his curiosity got the better of him. "Why is everyone so quiet today? You girls all seem very nervous about something." He didn't know how close he was to the truth.
"Umm…yeah, we actually are," Naru answered for everyone truthfully. At this point, all the girls' anxieties reached a new peak, for they were all hoping that he didn't ask for a reason.
"Ah…" Keitaro trailed. 'I can imagine Narusegawa being nervous; after all, she does have a test so I know what that feels like. Or Shinobu as well, she's quite timid so that's understandable. But Kitsune, Motoko and Suu?' he pondered as he ate slowly. 'Ack, Kitsune's confusing to begin with so that's that of her. That brings me to Motoko and Suu. Motoko is usually cool and calm, but she seems to be displaying a lot of emotion today. And Suu is always enthusiastic when it comes to food, but she's eating hers very slowly. What ARE with these girls tonight?' he tried to rack his head for any logical reason but came up with none. Soon everyone was done with their meals, in part because of the lack of talking and they excused themselves, leaving Keitaro to his musing and guessing. A minute later, he finished his meal and looked up to see the table empty save for him and Motoko, who apparently was waiting for him. "Oh, Motoko, did you want to talk to me?" he asked. 'Maybe I can use this time to ask her what's in her mind.'
"Yes. Umm," she hesitated before continuing, "Urashima, I apologize," she finished, looking down in shame.
"For what?" Keitaro asked, surprised and confused. He couldn't recall any moment when Motoko did something wrong to him intentionally. "If it's about all those times of sending me flying using your sword techniques, I forgive you. I know you never meant any ill will and you were defending what you thought was right."
"No, it's not that," she said. "You see, earlier today, when I saw myself wearing the robe from the springs, I thought you had…" she trailed. Keitaro looked at her in confusion. Motoko looked up, looking very pensive. "I thought you had taken advantage of me," she finished in a whisper and looked down again. 'That's it, now I'm lower than Urashima.'
"That's perfectly all right, Motoko-chan," Keitaro replied. This caused Motoko's eyes to grow wide, but she didn't lift her head up. "I would've thought the same thing if I were in your shoes. And besides," he paused as he gently cupped Motoko's chin and pushed her chin to see her face, "I would never take advantage of any of you here. You all mean too much to me to do that," he finished with a soft smile. He then saw the tension break inside the girl and turn into relief as she let out a small smile of her own.
"Thank you very much, Urashima Keitaro," she said.
"Think nothing of it," the manager waved her off. He was about to take his dishes to the kitchen when Motoko stopped him again.
"Urashima, can I ask a request of you?"
Keitaro turned to face her. "Sure, what do you need?"
"Today, when I meditated by you, I felt a great sense of ease and peace. Can we meditate together in the future?" she asked, somewhat self-conscious of herself.
"I don't see why not. I am thinking about meditating every evening before dinner. How does that sound?"
"It sounds most agreeable. Thank you again," Motoko agreed, smiling. She then turned around and headed back to her room.
'Phew, that takes care of Motoko. Now to see what Suu's going nuts over,' Keitaro marked off her name in his head and took the dishes to the kitchen. He washed all the dishes, then dried them and put them back to where they belonged. About fifteen minutes later, he headed towards Suu's room and found himself outside her door.
*Knock knock*
"Suu-chan?" he called. He heard a lot of noise coming out of her room, and finally the door opened to show Suu, wearing her usual school uniform, but not her cheery attitude. Instead it was replaced by something more demure. "Suu-chan? Are you feeling OK? Was it something I said?" he asked, worried over her sudden change in attitude.
"No," Suu answered softly while shaking her head.
"Then?" Keitaro asked. Suu then grabbed his arm.
"Can we talk inside?" she asked, her eyes pleading to agree. Keitaro nodded and Suu took him inside into her room…or rather, her forest. There were trees all over the place and Keitaro wondered how and where she slept at night. A few seconds later, Keitaro sat down in a chair next to the window while Suu sat on a sturdy branch.
"So what is it that you wanted to talk about?" he asked, then noticed a red hue on a nearby branch. He looked outside the window to see the red moon, then turned seconds later to see Adult Suu sitting in front of him on the exact same branch.
"Keitaro," Suu (this is Adult Suu until I say so) said, then stopped. Then she got on her feet, put her arms around Keitaro's neck and pulled him to his feet. "Kiss me," she simply said.
The said man had another dose of confusion. "Why?" he asked. Suu's face saddened a bit.
"Earlier today, when you caught me like that and bent close to me, I saw my brother in you. At that point, it was no longer simply 'Keitaro reminds me of my brother back home'. It was more like 'Keitaro IS my brother back home'. You see, you are no longer a reminder to me. Instead, you ARE my brother, at least when I'm here. That's how much I miss my home," she finished, while wiping a tear from her left eye.
Keitaro's face went gradually from confusion to sympathy as he listened to the foreign girl spill. He looked at her, not changing the position whatsoever. "But what good would my kissing do? I may be your older brother here, but I can never replace him," he pointed out softly.
"That's why I want you to kiss me. So I know that you aren't him," Suu argued back softly. Her eyes gave that pleading look again and Keitaro realized that she would break down if he denied her the kiss. Without a word, he wrapped his arms around her back, brought his head closer to hers and gently covered the girl's delicate lips with his own. Suu, initially surprised at his wordless movement, didn't do anything but lightly kissed back. Both locked lips for a while, and finally broke apart, much to Suu's disappointment.
"Did that help you?" Keitaro asked, looking at her face.
"Yes," Suu whispered. Her eyes were closing slowly and her breathing was becoming slower and more even. "Thank you….Keitaro," she whispered. Keitaro picked her up and noticing a pillow on one of the thicker branches, guessed that this was Suu's bed. He placed her on the branch stomach down and covered her with a blanket. As he did that, he saw the red glow in the room darken and noticed that Suu was back to her younger self.
TBC
A/N – OK, due to popular demand, I shall be continuing this fanfic, along with whatever else I'm working (LH – Diaries and NGE/Macross crossover). Thanks for the reviews and please keep them coming!!!
A/N -- Whoa...20 reviews with just two chapters! I never expected so many to come in just from two chapters!!! And not only that, most of them are positive! That does it, I'm continuing this one.
Chapter 3: Keitaro makes his rounds
Naru stood there, unconscious, with her hands feeling her lips. Even thought a good half-hour passed since Keitaro went back up to his room, she still could feel his lips, and moreover, she could still hear what he said, 'That's how you seduce someone.' She sat down again and tried to sort out what happened in her head, and for once, the usually bright and smart girl was stumped. Finally she walked over to her bookshelf, took out her diary, cleared some space for it on the table and started writing, hoping that writing it out might clear things up.
Dear Diary,
Sigh...I don't know where to begin. Guess I should start from what happened earlier in the day then. I found myself covered up on a futon in the living room. I was downright confused because the last thing I remember was being in the hot springs trying to drag out the other girls and fainting, that too naked. But along with Kitsune and Shinobu, I found myself in a robe. I immediately suspected Keitaro did something perverted again and took advantage of me, or the other girls along with me, but before I could go and knock him out, I realized that I was too weak and tired to even stand up, let alone walk up a set of stairs. Not only that, but Motoko had the same thoughts and decided to act on it, despite my warning about her weakened condition. She headed upstairs, and for once, I felt sorry for our manager and awaited any loud noises.
But no! You wouldn't believe how surprised I was when there was absolutely NO noise whatsoever. About a minute after Motoko took off, Keitaro came down, carrying her, apparently knocked out by her sudden burst of strength. With the help of Tama-chan, he placed her in bed and warned me and Kitsune, who was also awake, not to overexert ourselves. Not only did he do that, he also looked at Motoko…almost like how a father looks at his child, not as a man that has perverted thoughts.
Naru continued recounting the rest of the day but stopped short right before the point when Keitaro came in.
Then I wanted to see whether he really changed or whether he was being a jerk and I invited him to study with me. I know, it was unusual of me to ask him to come because it is usually him who comes to me. Anyways, I went into a fake nap to see if he would try to take advantage of my lack of awareness to kiss me or worse, like last time, but no! More surprises! He placed a pillow under my head and covered me with a blanket, apparently assuming that I was really asleep. He even sounded genuinely sorry for having me study with him and within me, doubts bubbled. Maybe he did change, but I convinced myself he didn't. So I took one of the most potentially dangerous moves of my life – I tried to seduce him. I started stripping in front of him, but instead of seeing him fall backwards with a nosebleed and gawking, he only gave me a peek! Just one small peak and straight back to the books!!! I swear, I have never been this confused in my life. Then, he got up and picked up his books, but before leaving, he asked whether I knew what I did wrong. I only gave him a blank look, and he then kissed me. Oh my, I'll admit just to you that he was a good kisser, but what he said after probably convinced me more than anything else. He said, "That is how you seduce someone," and walked out.
Diary, I don't know what it is, but my feelings for him have never been this strong. But I still don't know what to make out of it yet. I hope I can figure out something soon, before this drives me nuts more than the exams themselves. Ciao for now.
She finished writing and closed the diary. Then she turned to the yellow Liddo-kun doll, intending to see if she could talk to Keitaro. She crawled over to the doll, lifted it and looked down to see if he was around.
"Keitaro?" she started, but stopped shortly. The room was empty and clean and the only way she could tell was by the books he used earlier in the day: they were neatly stacked on one corner of his desk along with his pencils. "Not here," she mumbled to herself. "Maybe he went to take a bath?" She replaced Liddo-kun and walked out, heading towards the small section enclosed just for Keitaro. When she reached there, she knocked on the door and waited for an answer. Silence was the result. "Keitaro?" she called out. "Are you in there?" Still no answer. She then placed her ear against the door to see if she could pick up on any sound. Absolutely nothing. Finally, she had enough of waiting and slowly opened the door. When she heard no reaction, she snuck her head in to find…no one. The wooden bathtub had no trace of water whatsoever, nor did any part of the bathroom floor. 'Maybe he's cleaning the springs,' she thought as she headed over to the attached balcony and peeked out. Although she couldn't see anything, she did hear a soft scrubbing noise coming from there, and she headed for the hot springs. She got there, opened the door and started, "Keita—" before getting cut off.
What Naru saw absolutely stunned and silenced her. It wasn't the fact that Keitaro was scrubbing away at the sides of the hot springs; he always did that and it was expected of him as a manager. It was the fact that he was scrubbing while being half-naked. She had seen him half-naked before at the beach, but never this closely and carefully, and she could see various curves and crevices spread evenly throughout his upper body. He didn't have muscles like those who competed in Mr. Universe competitions, but daily strenuous activities that consisted of scrubbing walls and cleaning floors, just to name a few, had given him quite a workout and a chiseled look. The thin layer of sweat that resulted from the constant scrubbing only accentuated his muscular look as it reflected the sunlight off of his body, giving it a glow of sorts. 'Oh my,' she mouthed as she blushed furiously. "So manly," she whispered to herself. Unknown to her, Kitsune picked just the moment to come in.
"A-ha! I knew you had something for our manager!" Kitsune exclaimed, apparently having picked up Naru's slip. She broke out of her admiration for the said man and looked at Kitsune, surprised and embarrassed.
"N-no! I only wanted to talk with him!" Naru tried in vain to explain, but she knew that her best friend nailed her. She was saved from more embarrassment by Kitsune by none other than the one that caused it.
"Eh? Narusegawa? Kitsune-san?" Keitaro asked, noticing both women. Both suddenly turned to him. Kitsune noticed Keitaro and also had the same reaction as Naru. "Umm, are you two OK? You're blushing quite heavily," Keitaro asked, totally oblivious of the fact that he was causing them to blush. "Anyways, I just finished cleaning so if you want to use it, go on ahead! I'm going to grab something to eat," he finished as he put away the cleaning gear, wiped himself with a towel and headed for the kitchen still wiping himself. Two pairs of eyes trailed his figure until he disappeared.
"Oh my…" Naru and Kitsune both mumbled, both having never blushed this heavily.
Keitaro entered the kitchen to see Shinobu up and cooking dinner. "Oh, are you feeling better?" he asked. The young blue-haired girl turned to face him.
"Yes, Sempai!" she said happily. Then she noticed what Keitaro was wearing, or what he wasn't wearing, and immediately blushed. "Umm…Sempai?" she asked timidly.
"Hmm? Something wrong?" he asked, concern evident in his voice. Being one of the youngest residents, Keitaro had a special piece of kindness for her.
"Why…why…why are you not wearing any clothes?" she asked, even more timidly, her gaze down and looking at his shorts instead of his naked upper half.
"Oh!" Keitaro said, laughing, "That's because I'm almost out of clean T-shirts so I thought I'd save what few I have until the laundry's done. Anyways, I'm hungry and I don't think I can last until dinner, so do you have a snack I can munch on for a while?"
Shinobu looked up at him, and registered his question after a few seconds. "Yes! Hang on a second," she answered. The young girl opened the refrigerator, picked out some noodles from a couple nights ago and put it in the microwave. Thirty seconds later, she took out the now-heated noodles and picked out a pair of chopsticks. "Here you go Sempai," she said as she approached him with the noodles. Then she tripped on her own sandals. "Ack!" she screamed.
"Whoa!" Keitaro let out as he grabbed the noodles with one hand and used his body and the other hand to keep Shinobu from falling, pretty much hugging her. "You OK?"
She was in her own little world. 'Sempai's body is so firm! Sempai's hugging me! Sempai's hugging me!' She was then shaken out of her little world by the said man shaking her gently. Her eyes snapped open, and she pushed herself off of him back onto her feet. "I'm sorry!" she said, looking down and feeling ashamed, both for falling onto him and having lewd (lewd to her) thoughts of him.
Keitaro waved her off. "No worries, Shinobu-chan! Thanks for the noodles!" he thanked and walked out of the kitchen. He walked over to the couch in the living room and started eating, savoring the good taste. 'Nothing beats Shinobu's cooking, especially after a hard day's work,' he thought to himself happily. Just then, from the corner of his eye he noticed an incoming brown figure. He placed the noodles down on the table got up and stuck his hands out just above his waist.
Suu had ran and tried to jump-kick Keitaro as per usual. But Keitaro looking ready to catch her caught her off-guard as she launched herself and she couldn't do anything to stop. She landed right into his arms as a result instead of slamming into Keitaro's head. He looked down at her with a gentle smile, which she returned with a confused expression.
"Suu-chan, you shouldn't do that kind of thing, you can get hurt," the manager gently chided her. "And I don't want to see you get hurt like that."
Suu, however, did not hear anything he said. She couldn't help but observe how even more similar Keitaro and her brother back home looked. It first started with his height and face shape, but she noticed how much stronger Keitaro had become and how similar it seemed with her brother. Then his gentle and soft voice finally tricked her into believing that Keitaro WAS her brother. "Oniisan…" she whispered, looking at him, her face slightly blushing, though it was quite hard to tell because of her naturally dark skin.
"Hmm? Did you say something?" Keitaro bent closer to hear closer. Suu then got herself out of his arms and just stood there like a docile puppy, looking at him like he was her world (A/N – Vol. 10 Chapter 84). "Well, at least you're fine. Just don't play too roughly or you can get hurt again," Keitaro gently warned, Suu simply nodded and softly walked back towards her room while Keitaro went back to eating his noodles. 'She's awfully quiet, wonder what's in her mind?' Keitaro wondered as he ate. 'No matter, she should be herself when food comes around,' he finished with a smile. He got up, took the dishes back to Shinobu, who took it while keeping her gaze down, and headed upstairs to take a shower.
Soon after, Motoko woke up. 'Where am I?' she asked, surprised to see her room instead of Keitaro's. 'Oh! Urashima!' she realized that she still owed him an apology for falsely accusing him of perversion. She made herself presentable, adjusted her hair and her clothes and walked out of her room, her eyes scanning for the only male resident of the inn. She first headed to Keitaro's room, where she found no one, then asked the residents around. She noticed that everyone fidgeted and looked extremely uncomfortable at the mere mention of his name. 'What happened to everyone?' she wondered. 'Oh well, I'll see him at dinner, I'll apologize then. I should meditate before dinner in order to at least make up for the missed time in practice,' she thought as she headed for the patio. The swordswoman walked up to the patio to see Keitaro meditating. 'Urashima?' she said mentally and noticed his short dark hair. The she stopped; she could feel something…pleasant and welcoming from him. She concentrated on him on the spiritual level and noticed a soft aura emanating from him. 'That…that is his aura?' she asked herself, quite surprised to see something so strong and pure from someone she deemed as a weakling and a pervert. 'He seems very manly today,' she mused, then panicked. What if Keitaro heard? Fortunately, the aura remained the same, meaning that he hadn't heard anything. Motoko then decided to meditate and sat down next to him. 'It seems different. It seems easier today to meditate. It seems like I feel at ease when he is around,' Motoko mused. Soon, if anyone were to come by and didn't know better, they would've assumed those two to be twin statues.
Some time later, Shinobu announced that dinner was ready and everyone gathered around the table. Keitaro noticed one of the seats was empty. "Say, what happened to Sara?" he asked, curious.
"Seta-san came by and picked her up while you were hard at work," Kitsune answered. She, along with Naru, immediately noticed the more literal meaning behind what she said, then covered their mouths and blushed furiously while suddenly becoming interested in their food.
"Oh, that answers it," he replied, relieved that she didn't go missing. "Well, let's eat!" He started eating his food, but noted that the table tonight was unusually quiet. Even in the beginning, when Sara was not around, there was always a lot of talking; even Shinobu, the shyest of all the residents, would say something. But tonight's dinner was that of absolute silence, save the sounds of food being eaten. He clandestinely observed all the girls individually and noticed that none were willing to make eye contact whatsoever. Finally his curiosity got the better of him. "Why is everyone so quiet today? You girls all seem very nervous about something." He didn't know how close he was to the truth.
"Umm…yeah, we actually are," Naru answered for everyone truthfully. At this point, all the girls' anxieties reached a new peak, for they were all hoping that he didn't ask for a reason.
"Ah…" Keitaro trailed. 'I can imagine Narusegawa being nervous; after all, she does have a test so I know what that feels like. Or Shinobu as well, she's quite timid so that's understandable. But Kitsune, Motoko and Suu?' he pondered as he ate slowly. 'Ack, Kitsune's confusing to begin with so that's that of her. That brings me to Motoko and Suu. Motoko is usually cool and calm, but she seems to be displaying a lot of emotion today. And Suu is always enthusiastic when it comes to food, but she's eating hers very slowly. What ARE with these girls tonight?' he tried to rack his head for any logical reason but came up with none. Soon everyone was done with their meals, in part because of the lack of talking and they excused themselves, leaving Keitaro to his musing and guessing. A minute later, he finished his meal and looked up to see the table empty save for him and Motoko, who apparently was waiting for him. "Oh, Motoko, did you want to talk to me?" he asked. 'Maybe I can use this time to ask her what's in her mind.'
"Yes. Umm," she hesitated before continuing, "Urashima, I apologize," she finished, looking down in shame.
"For what?" Keitaro asked, surprised and confused. He couldn't recall any moment when Motoko did something wrong to him intentionally. "If it's about all those times of sending me flying using your sword techniques, I forgive you. I know you never meant any ill will and you were defending what you thought was right."
"No, it's not that," she said. "You see, earlier today, when I saw myself wearing the robe from the springs, I thought you had…" she trailed. Keitaro looked at her in confusion. Motoko looked up, looking very pensive. "I thought you had taken advantage of me," she finished in a whisper and looked down again. 'That's it, now I'm lower than Urashima.'
"That's perfectly all right, Motoko-chan," Keitaro replied. This caused Motoko's eyes to grow wide, but she didn't lift her head up. "I would've thought the same thing if I were in your shoes. And besides," he paused as he gently cupped Motoko's chin and pushed her chin to see her face, "I would never take advantage of any of you here. You all mean too much to me to do that," he finished with a soft smile. He then saw the tension break inside the girl and turn into relief as she let out a small smile of her own.
"Thank you very much, Urashima Keitaro," she said.
"Think nothing of it," the manager waved her off. He was about to take his dishes to the kitchen when Motoko stopped him again.
"Urashima, can I ask a request of you?"
Keitaro turned to face her. "Sure, what do you need?"
"Today, when I meditated by you, I felt a great sense of ease and peace. Can we meditate together in the future?" she asked, somewhat self-conscious of herself.
"I don't see why not. I am thinking about meditating every evening before dinner. How does that sound?"
"It sounds most agreeable. Thank you again," Motoko agreed, smiling. She then turned around and headed back to her room.
'Phew, that takes care of Motoko. Now to see what Suu's going nuts over,' Keitaro marked off her name in his head and took the dishes to the kitchen. He washed all the dishes, then dried them and put them back to where they belonged. About fifteen minutes later, he headed towards Suu's room and found himself outside her door.
*Knock knock*
"Suu-chan?" he called. He heard a lot of noise coming out of her room, and finally the door opened to show Suu, wearing her usual school uniform, but not her cheery attitude. Instead it was replaced by something more demure. "Suu-chan? Are you feeling OK? Was it something I said?" he asked, worried over her sudden change in attitude.
"No," Suu answered softly while shaking her head.
"Then?" Keitaro asked. Suu then grabbed his arm.
"Can we talk inside?" she asked, her eyes pleading to agree. Keitaro nodded and Suu took him inside into her room…or rather, her forest. There were trees all over the place and Keitaro wondered how and where she slept at night. A few seconds later, Keitaro sat down in a chair next to the window while Suu sat on a sturdy branch.
"So what is it that you wanted to talk about?" he asked, then noticed a red hue on a nearby branch. He looked outside the window to see the red moon, then turned seconds later to see Adult Suu sitting in front of him on the exact same branch.
"Keitaro," Suu (this is Adult Suu until I say so) said, then stopped. Then she got on her feet, put her arms around Keitaro's neck and pulled him to his feet. "Kiss me," she simply said.
The said man had another dose of confusion. "Why?" he asked. Suu's face saddened a bit.
"Earlier today, when you caught me like that and bent close to me, I saw my brother in you. At that point, it was no longer simply 'Keitaro reminds me of my brother back home'. It was more like 'Keitaro IS my brother back home'. You see, you are no longer a reminder to me. Instead, you ARE my brother, at least when I'm here. That's how much I miss my home," she finished, while wiping a tear from her left eye.
Keitaro's face went gradually from confusion to sympathy as he listened to the foreign girl spill. He looked at her, not changing the position whatsoever. "But what good would my kissing do? I may be your older brother here, but I can never replace him," he pointed out softly.
"That's why I want you to kiss me. So I know that you aren't him," Suu argued back softly. Her eyes gave that pleading look again and Keitaro realized that she would break down if he denied her the kiss. Without a word, he wrapped his arms around her back, brought his head closer to hers and gently covered the girl's delicate lips with his own. Suu, initially surprised at his wordless movement, didn't do anything but lightly kissed back. Both locked lips for a while, and finally broke apart, much to Suu's disappointment.
"Did that help you?" Keitaro asked, looking at her face.
"Yes," Suu whispered. Her eyes were closing slowly and her breathing was becoming slower and more even. "Thank you….Keitaro," she whispered. Keitaro picked her up and noticing a pillow on one of the thicker branches, guessed that this was Suu's bed. He placed her on the branch stomach down and covered her with a blanket. As he did that, he saw the red glow in the room darken and noticed that Suu was back to her younger self.
TBC
A/N – OK, due to popular demand, I shall be continuing this fanfic, along with whatever else I'm working (LH – Diaries and NGE/Macross crossover). Thanks for the reviews and please keep them coming!!!