Disclaimer: Not mine
Drown
Quite a few days had passed since Kitsune's biopsy and soon afterwards, she had gotten her test results.
They were mailed to her, just copies of them. The hospital had called to ask how she would like to receive the news. At that moment, everyone had been in the living room near her. They were having a birthday party for Su.
Because of that, she chose being mailed. Not much to be said about that in itself. However, crying in front of everybody was not on her to-do list.
Everyday on afterwards the phone call, Kitsune would go down to get the mail. When she received the packet, she ran upstairs to hide from anyone. She didn't know how she would react.
As she opened the room door, she heard a faint lilting music. The shamisen. Frowning, she made her way over to the radio to turn it off. Stopping in front of it, she reached out her lithe hand then paused.
It sounded nice right now. It suited the moment.
Calm.
Enigmatic.
Haunting.
Kitsune straightened up and brought up the packet. From there, she proceeded to rip it open. She was impatient.
The envelope slipped to the floor silently as Kitsune skimmed through the results. She stopped as she found what she was looking for.
It was funny how she didn't feel any emotion at the results.
She had been expecting a racing heart and maybe some sort of strange facial expression that slips onto people's faces on times like these.
But she calmly shuffled back to the first page and began to read every single word.
She had been prepared for that, she later realized. There had been a little bit of hope but it wasn't as magnified.
After she had reviewed her results, she set them into a drawer and left her room. Some fresh air would be good now.
On the way outside, she passed a few family members, Su, Sarah and Mutsumi.
When they saw her face, their reactions were mellowed out. They offered smiles and went over and hugged her. That was when tears began. Once that happened, it was as if magically, everyone began to filter in and give his or her support to Kitsune.
All the females were tearful. Naru couldn't stop crying. Naru and Kitsune's mother held each other before reaching for Kitsune. They both took it the hardest.
Everyone else seemed to be handling it like them. Emotions were high and everyone was comforting someone. It seemed as if they had all held that little morsel of hope close to their hearts but in the end, it was wrenched away.
Kitsune could understand why they behaved like that.
Her tests were positive. She had liver cirrhosis.
.~.
As had been promised, Kitsune had taken her whole family around Hinata. She took them to the industrial section and then the downtown area.
They fell in love with every place there.
After that, she took them to the temple where they celebrated the Cherry Blossom Festival every year.
(AN: Is that the festival's name?)
They weren't quite as pleased at this site than at others. They complained that ones at Kobe were better.
At that, Kitsune had just rolled her eyes.
"Of course you have better ones! Kobe is very old compared to Hinata." Grudgingly, everyone agreed that comparisons could not be made.
After touring the rest of Hinata with an actual tour group, The family returned home. The next few days were spent in harmony. However, that would soon end.
.~.
Everyone at Hinata was stressed at the moment. Her brother, Ryuichi had to go back because his company had lost the deal with a British company because its American counterparts didn't approve of the foreign software exchange plan. He wasn't surprised, he had said.
"The plan was too pricey anyways. We need to lower the cost of the Japanese Intel Processes and Japanese SCSI software. I don't understand why they priced it so high. It's really old. Our Linux or Cisco I can understand but SCSI? If we keep this up, we'll be dead. Like we almost are now." He rationalized. He and his family were going to leave alone but Kitsune's whole family decided to leave together.
The departure came and went.
Emotions yet again ran high. Relationships had been forged but now they were going to be held at a distance.
Kitsune's mother took it hardest. Once she got over her tears associated with Shinobu, she'd go on to Motoko and burst into tears all over again. It was comical for the rest of the group.
Seta and Haruka also dropped by to see the family off.
Kitsune's mother felt a need to thank Haruka a lot for her presence in her daughter's life. Haruka waved it off as nothing, but it could be seen that she had tears in her eyes.
The family was soon gone, leaving a trail of silence and solitude. The drifting away began. Each went to their own place, doing what had to be done.
Soon, only Kitsune was left. It was going to be hard without her family. She hadn't told them everything that needed to be told.
Like, for example, her addiction.
She was still addicted to the alcohol.
And she remembered feeling torn when she had to throw away her alcohol.
Whenever she would see a glass of sake or beer or something of the sort, she would crave. Her stomach would literally itch for the drink.
Her body would retch forward for the liquor.
But then would come the guilt. Shadowing herself and covering her cravings. She would then crawl into a shell, knowing what would happen if she got a hold of the alcohol.
She would drink it without inhibition.
Kitsune wouldn't stop for anyone. Not even her mother.
With those final contemplations, Kitsune turned on her heels and walked back to the house.
.~.
The day was restless.
Nothing to do.
No one to talk to.
Everyone was gone out on an errand.
Or a class.
Or a business trip.
Or a field trip.
And because of that, Kitsune was left alone at home. Again.
She was utterly bored. Usually she would sit down and listen to her shamisen music. But she'd done that three times already.
Her next option would be to go down to Haruka's place. But she was away with Seta. They were going to excavate a site together. Without Haruka there was no one.
Kitsune changed her position on the couch once again. Now she was splayed over the couch with her head hanging off, upside down.
There was nothing to do. Nothing!!
Kitsune jerked up and sat properly. She grabbed a magazine and began flipping through it. Nothing.
She threw down the magazine and flipped on the television. Nothing.
Kitsune sighed as she turned the television off. Can you say bored?
She sighed as she decided to sit. Yes. Just sit. Sit and do nothing.
Then the phone rang. Kitsune sprang up, clutching her heart.
That was completely uncalled for.
Kitsune frowned and answered the phone.
When she answered, in the background, she heard laughter.
"Hello?"
There was a laugh then a pause. "Oh. Hello? Kitsune?" It was Naru.
"Naru? What's going on? Where are you?" There was more laughter and Naru joined in.
"Oh! Kitsune. Sorry. Look, me, Keitaro and a few of the others are going to go out to dinner. Uhhh…I think Su is coming home and so is Sarah. Shinobu will come home too."
"Sure. Have fun." Kitsune hung up. She limply let her hand fall near the phone. They were going without her. No use in grumbling. They were younger and with their friends. Keitaro was older in age but in spirit and mentality, Kitsune knew that she was.
"No use in crashing their party." She muttered. They were probably were thinking in her best interest anyways. Why? They would probably go drinking. Bar-hopping.
Once again, no problem.
There was a knock on the door. Kitsune got up and answered. It was Sarah, Su and Shinobu. They marched right past Kitsune, laughing and joking.
"Kitsune! I'll have your dinner ready shortly!" Shinobu smiled at Kitsune.
"Sure Shinobu. Do you need help?" She shook her head no.
Kitsune nodded and went into living room. The cooking would have given her something to do. Now she was bored…again.
'My life is so redundant…' she thought.
The doorbell chimed. Kitsune twirled around suddenly. Once again, she didn't expect it.
Kitsune made her way over and opened the door harshly.
What she saw shocked her.
"Kentaro?"
.~.
Wow. It was five pages long…like all my other chapters…. Sorry. This one is better than my last chapter.
That one was horrible. Absolutely yucky. Very choppy. This one is too. But I felt that the choppiness helped show how much her life has changed.
I got a Love Hina DVD. I thank my friend for it. But the English voices are annoying! I'll try the Japanese version. Later.
Thanks for the reviews. And thanks to The Epyon Avenger for putting me on their favorites list. Yay!
Reviews:
dennisud-I try to keep the chapters as accurate as possible. Otherwise it'll just be silly. I did think about the AA meeting but it didn't fit into what I had planned. But thank you for the suggestion. It was indeed a very, very good idea!
velocet-Don't feel mean! What you did was really good! If you hadn't pointed it out, I would have kept it there until someone flamed me for it. So yeah…But thank you for the compliments on the detail. I was so happy! My friend actually got me the DVD and I watched it to see if you were right. And you were. It's not as good as the manga. But it helps give me an idea of accents and everything else. So that's good. Haruka is small here but the next fic has three major characters and I would say she is the second most important.
Cheshire Cat5-Hi! You were the only one that noticed how quickly she gave in! I felt that she hasn't seen her mother in such a long time so she would be like "Yeah sure whatever". But also that she's had time to bring her addiction level down. It's there but not as magnified. It might be hard to go in-depth on emotion here for me. I don't really know how. I tried but it didn't turn out that great. Sorry!
mr-winkie-Yay! You reviewed! I almost got worried when you didn't. Sorry…thank you for giving me time. I thought it might be good to get this out there then get out another one next year.
Kai5- Thank you for the compliments! I feel so loved! I didn't really think of it as a tearjerker. I thought that scene was done poorly. But thank you!
Book of Doom- That sounds cool. Maybe I will e-mail you about it. I think I might need it. Thank you so much!