Chapter 4 - Old crushes and New Cooks
89-Wow, I really couldn't have been more obvious about this chapter. What if kind, blissfully ignorant, charming Seta, was turned into a ruthless, cold hearted, but still suave Ates. Wow. I really love sarcasm.
Keitaro stood on the third floor, gathering his material, after a hard days chores. In truth, this was nothing compared to the chores he had to do at his parents shop everyday, before he moved out. As he placed the final mop, he heard a scream from downstairs. Rushing off, he hurtled down the stairs with surprising agility. He headed towards the kitchen where the scream had come from. The scene that confronted him was bizarre to say the least.
Kitsune was sprawled along the table gulping gallons of water, Su was running around, Motoko was really hot and blustering, while Naru was yelling at them, a dish of her cooking in her hand. "Com'n, it wasn't that bad. Fine, you cook." Motoko mumbled something about not being able to, while Kitsune was still busy drowning herself. Su, of course brandished about six hot sauce bottles in her hand and started advancing on the stove. Naru stopped her. "No way Su, last time we let you, we had to call the water department and order tanks of it to finally get rid of all the hot sauce," Naru sighed, "Oh well, we'll just have to order out. Again."
Keitaro sweatdropped and walked to Kitsune. "How often does this happen?" he asked with a bit of astonishment in his voice. Kitsune jumped with a start and turned around blushing madly. "Everytime we make the mistake of letting her cook." "How often is that?" "Every night." "I see." Before Naru took up the phone, Keitaro called out. "STOP!" Naru gasped a little and turned around annoyed. "oh, it's you baka pervert. We told you to clean Hinata Sou." "I did." "Stop lying, no one's that fast, especially a baka ronin like you." "Just go see for yourself." "Fine. Motoko, watch him."
Naru walked out of the kitchen for a minute, before rushing up to check the other floors. She walked back in a little later. "How, everything's clean. How. You must have hired someone and snuck them in while we were busy." "Busy lazing around you little." "WHAT!?" "Oh nothing. Cleaning Hinata Sou is nothing compared to the chores I had to do at my parents pastry shop before I moved out." "Whatever." "Um, about diner, I'll cook." Naru rolloed her eyes and left. Motoko and Su left also, trying to kill time. This left Kitsune and Keitaro. "Well." said Keitaro, observing the mess Naru had left critically, "Looks like I have my work cut out for me."
An hour later found diner done and Keitaro relaxing talking to Kitsune. "Well, I guess we've never really had a chance to talk like I've done with almost everyone else. If you consider getting threatened with a boiling pot a stew talking." Kitsune chuckled slightly, still uncomfortable under his gaze. Out of nowhere, Keitaro pulled out a bottle of sake. Opening it, he took a sip. Wiping the opening, he offered it to Kitsune who graciously accepted. After a few sips, conversation started on its own.
"So, you're the manager of Hinata Sou now?"
"Yeah, but I get the feeling that I might be leaving."
"I would worry more about Naru than Motoko. If you can survive her, you can probably survive anything."
"Wow, I don't think I've ever been so terrified of anything in my life."
"You get used to it, if you stick around that is."
"Yeah. So, I know some basic stuff about you Ms. Konno. Age 21, short platinum blond hair, grey-green eyes, when you can see them, etc. I'm Urashima Keitaro, 21, black hair, oak eyes, about 5'6", with a moderate dislike for binge spending. But that's pretty basic stuff. Why don." "AREN'T YOU DONE? We're hungry." Keitaro siged, remembering he still had to serve dinner. Ushering Kitsune into the dining room, he prepared the dishes.
He walked in to the dining room, carrying his dishes and placing them in front of the girls. "It's looks good, but let's try it." Naru said, tryin not to drool at the sight of Keitaro's masterpiece. Several dishes later found the girls with contented smiles. Keitaro went to get something. He came back with a box about four feet high. He placed in the center of the table. "To start my new time here at Hinata Sou, I made this for everyone with hope of getting on the right foot, so to speak." He said, while opening the box, he revealed his greatest achievement. A large, hand crafted chocolate cake. Drool once again began to drip from the girls mouths as they gazed upon heaven's dessert.
Keitaro woke up in his futon that morning with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Last noght had gone amazingly well, given their initial meeting had been less that friendly. They had all enjoyed the food so much, they volunteered to help with the dishes. He had finally collapsed onto his bed after a nightcap around midnight. He had woken up to an empty house, Motoko being on her weekend retreat, Naru out doing shopping with Kitsune and Su just . somewhere. He sighed, deciding to walk around town.
After browsing through some odd shops, Keitaro stopped at a small quaint family restaurant for some tea. Seating himself at one end of the room, Keitaro ordered a small green tea. Looking around, he spotted a small girl with blue hair. Thinking she looked familiar, he strode over to her and took the seat across from her. "Excuse me miss, but I couldn't help but notice you look really familiar." he stopped when she looked up, shocked to see someone there. She was even more surprised when she saw who it was. "Oh mister, I'm really sorry, but you left your notebook on the bench and I really am sorry." she stuttered, before breaking down into hysterics. Feeling responsible, Keitaro tried to calm her down. "Com'n don't cry. I don't blame you for anything." When she showed no signs of stopping, he suggested, "How about we head to a nice inn I manage just up the hill. You can explain everything there." She nodded slowly before once again breaking down. Sighing, he paid both their bills and left with the tear stained girl.
The walk to Hinata Sou was unremarkably dull and silent. When they finally got up the hill, they entered Hinata Sou, still silent and deserted. After getting some tea, Keitaro sat down in the living room with the girl. "So.um.what's your name?" he asked, trying to break the ice.
"Shinobu." She answeed nervously.
"I'm Keitaro Urashima. Manager of this building. So .er.what about the notebook, Shinobu?" Shinobu hurried to take it out of her bag. Keitaro suddenly gasped as he remembered her. It had been the day before getting his results back. He had sat down on the bench across from her on some street and had subconsciously begun to make a sketch of her. Some wise ass had stolen his notebook and dropped it in front of her. He had run off, to scared and embarrassed to deal.
"Oh," he said accepting the green notebook from her and rubbing the back of his neck, "I would really like to apolo." Keitaro was cut of as Naru's fist made it's way into his jaw. He got knocked out and sent flying from the impact. Shinobu had once again broken down. Naru, thinking that it was because Keitaro had tried to rape her went to console the girl. "There, there, he's gone. He wont hurt you." At this, Shinobu burst into even more tears. Kitsune, being wiser than Naru, said to the girl, "Don't worry, he'll be fine." Shinobu calmed down enough to introduce herself and explain what had happened. Over this time, Motoko and Su had returned and met the girl.
"And that's what happened. I'm really sorry." Shinobu softly said. "Oh" muttered Naru, realizing her mistake. It was now dark. "Oh crap, we forgot dinner. Look's like we'll have to order out again. Now that Keitaro isn't here." "Um..I can . cook." Shinobu stammered. Kitsune smiled slowly and led the girl to the kitchen.
Elsewhere in Tokyo
Keitaro woke up with a stinging headache, in the middle of a street. He slowly stood extracting himself from the asphalt. As he cursed his bad luck and tried to work out where he was. All of a sudden, a van careened onto the side street and barreled onwards towards him. Keitaro stared like a deer caught in head lights. I was obvious the driver was drunk or just really bad. Either way, Keitaro was screwed. As the van plowed through yet another trash barrel, the man finally pulled the hand brakes, swerving to avoid Keitaro. Missing him by inches, the man stopped the van and got out.
"Sir, are you okay?" he asked, completely oblivious to his head, which was now gushing blood everywhere. Keitaro sweatdropped and answered; "I could ask you the same thing."
The man chuckled before offering Keitaro a lift, which he was about to refuse after the driving demo he had just seen, but realizing that it was this or wander aimlessly around Tokyo for hours. Reluctantly accepting, Keitaro got in to the van with the man, only to get attacked by a rambunctious 12 year old blond girl. "What are you doing in my papas car?" she accosted. The man came in and the girl acted as if the were greeting each other. "Wow, I've never really seen Sara warm up to someone so fast. My name is Seta. Yours would be?"
"Keitaro Urashima." Said a nervous Keitaro, eyeing the young girl, who had started to drag him to the back, a malicious gleam in her eyes. "I'm headed towards Hinata." "Really? So am I. What a coincidence." Seta responded, failing to notice Sara start to pummel Keitaro.
The ride was fairly silent albeit the occasional murmurs of struggle in the back. They had almost fallen over a bridge twice, crashed into twelve different trashcans, kill over thirty cats all in one go. Once they arrived at Hianta Sou, Keitaro crawled out, barely recognizable from his beating, now shattered and scarred for life. Seta let out a whistle. "This is exactly where I was heading. If I recall correctly, it's an all girls dorm. What are you doing here? I'm here to ask the manager for a room for my girl Sara here." Keitaro gulped, eyeing the blond American with nervousness. "Well, you found him."
89-Wow, I really couldn't have been more obvious about this chapter. What if kind, blissfully ignorant, charming Seta, was turned into a ruthless, cold hearted, but still suave Ates. Wow. I really love sarcasm.
Keitaro stood on the third floor, gathering his material, after a hard days chores. In truth, this was nothing compared to the chores he had to do at his parents shop everyday, before he moved out. As he placed the final mop, he heard a scream from downstairs. Rushing off, he hurtled down the stairs with surprising agility. He headed towards the kitchen where the scream had come from. The scene that confronted him was bizarre to say the least.
Kitsune was sprawled along the table gulping gallons of water, Su was running around, Motoko was really hot and blustering, while Naru was yelling at them, a dish of her cooking in her hand. "Com'n, it wasn't that bad. Fine, you cook." Motoko mumbled something about not being able to, while Kitsune was still busy drowning herself. Su, of course brandished about six hot sauce bottles in her hand and started advancing on the stove. Naru stopped her. "No way Su, last time we let you, we had to call the water department and order tanks of it to finally get rid of all the hot sauce," Naru sighed, "Oh well, we'll just have to order out. Again."
Keitaro sweatdropped and walked to Kitsune. "How often does this happen?" he asked with a bit of astonishment in his voice. Kitsune jumped with a start and turned around blushing madly. "Everytime we make the mistake of letting her cook." "How often is that?" "Every night." "I see." Before Naru took up the phone, Keitaro called out. "STOP!" Naru gasped a little and turned around annoyed. "oh, it's you baka pervert. We told you to clean Hinata Sou." "I did." "Stop lying, no one's that fast, especially a baka ronin like you." "Just go see for yourself." "Fine. Motoko, watch him."
Naru walked out of the kitchen for a minute, before rushing up to check the other floors. She walked back in a little later. "How, everything's clean. How. You must have hired someone and snuck them in while we were busy." "Busy lazing around you little." "WHAT!?" "Oh nothing. Cleaning Hinata Sou is nothing compared to the chores I had to do at my parents pastry shop before I moved out." "Whatever." "Um, about diner, I'll cook." Naru rolloed her eyes and left. Motoko and Su left also, trying to kill time. This left Kitsune and Keitaro. "Well." said Keitaro, observing the mess Naru had left critically, "Looks like I have my work cut out for me."
An hour later found diner done and Keitaro relaxing talking to Kitsune. "Well, I guess we've never really had a chance to talk like I've done with almost everyone else. If you consider getting threatened with a boiling pot a stew talking." Kitsune chuckled slightly, still uncomfortable under his gaze. Out of nowhere, Keitaro pulled out a bottle of sake. Opening it, he took a sip. Wiping the opening, he offered it to Kitsune who graciously accepted. After a few sips, conversation started on its own.
"So, you're the manager of Hinata Sou now?"
"Yeah, but I get the feeling that I might be leaving."
"I would worry more about Naru than Motoko. If you can survive her, you can probably survive anything."
"Wow, I don't think I've ever been so terrified of anything in my life."
"You get used to it, if you stick around that is."
"Yeah. So, I know some basic stuff about you Ms. Konno. Age 21, short platinum blond hair, grey-green eyes, when you can see them, etc. I'm Urashima Keitaro, 21, black hair, oak eyes, about 5'6", with a moderate dislike for binge spending. But that's pretty basic stuff. Why don." "AREN'T YOU DONE? We're hungry." Keitaro siged, remembering he still had to serve dinner. Ushering Kitsune into the dining room, he prepared the dishes.
He walked in to the dining room, carrying his dishes and placing them in front of the girls. "It's looks good, but let's try it." Naru said, tryin not to drool at the sight of Keitaro's masterpiece. Several dishes later found the girls with contented smiles. Keitaro went to get something. He came back with a box about four feet high. He placed in the center of the table. "To start my new time here at Hinata Sou, I made this for everyone with hope of getting on the right foot, so to speak." He said, while opening the box, he revealed his greatest achievement. A large, hand crafted chocolate cake. Drool once again began to drip from the girls mouths as they gazed upon heaven's dessert.
Keitaro woke up in his futon that morning with a sense of pride and accomplishment. Last noght had gone amazingly well, given their initial meeting had been less that friendly. They had all enjoyed the food so much, they volunteered to help with the dishes. He had finally collapsed onto his bed after a nightcap around midnight. He had woken up to an empty house, Motoko being on her weekend retreat, Naru out doing shopping with Kitsune and Su just . somewhere. He sighed, deciding to walk around town.
After browsing through some odd shops, Keitaro stopped at a small quaint family restaurant for some tea. Seating himself at one end of the room, Keitaro ordered a small green tea. Looking around, he spotted a small girl with blue hair. Thinking she looked familiar, he strode over to her and took the seat across from her. "Excuse me miss, but I couldn't help but notice you look really familiar." he stopped when she looked up, shocked to see someone there. She was even more surprised when she saw who it was. "Oh mister, I'm really sorry, but you left your notebook on the bench and I really am sorry." she stuttered, before breaking down into hysterics. Feeling responsible, Keitaro tried to calm her down. "Com'n don't cry. I don't blame you for anything." When she showed no signs of stopping, he suggested, "How about we head to a nice inn I manage just up the hill. You can explain everything there." She nodded slowly before once again breaking down. Sighing, he paid both their bills and left with the tear stained girl.
The walk to Hinata Sou was unremarkably dull and silent. When they finally got up the hill, they entered Hinata Sou, still silent and deserted. After getting some tea, Keitaro sat down in the living room with the girl. "So.um.what's your name?" he asked, trying to break the ice.
"Shinobu." She answeed nervously.
"I'm Keitaro Urashima. Manager of this building. So .er.what about the notebook, Shinobu?" Shinobu hurried to take it out of her bag. Keitaro suddenly gasped as he remembered her. It had been the day before getting his results back. He had sat down on the bench across from her on some street and had subconsciously begun to make a sketch of her. Some wise ass had stolen his notebook and dropped it in front of her. He had run off, to scared and embarrassed to deal.
"Oh," he said accepting the green notebook from her and rubbing the back of his neck, "I would really like to apolo." Keitaro was cut of as Naru's fist made it's way into his jaw. He got knocked out and sent flying from the impact. Shinobu had once again broken down. Naru, thinking that it was because Keitaro had tried to rape her went to console the girl. "There, there, he's gone. He wont hurt you." At this, Shinobu burst into even more tears. Kitsune, being wiser than Naru, said to the girl, "Don't worry, he'll be fine." Shinobu calmed down enough to introduce herself and explain what had happened. Over this time, Motoko and Su had returned and met the girl.
"And that's what happened. I'm really sorry." Shinobu softly said. "Oh" muttered Naru, realizing her mistake. It was now dark. "Oh crap, we forgot dinner. Look's like we'll have to order out again. Now that Keitaro isn't here." "Um..I can . cook." Shinobu stammered. Kitsune smiled slowly and led the girl to the kitchen.
Elsewhere in Tokyo
Keitaro woke up with a stinging headache, in the middle of a street. He slowly stood extracting himself from the asphalt. As he cursed his bad luck and tried to work out where he was. All of a sudden, a van careened onto the side street and barreled onwards towards him. Keitaro stared like a deer caught in head lights. I was obvious the driver was drunk or just really bad. Either way, Keitaro was screwed. As the van plowed through yet another trash barrel, the man finally pulled the hand brakes, swerving to avoid Keitaro. Missing him by inches, the man stopped the van and got out.
"Sir, are you okay?" he asked, completely oblivious to his head, which was now gushing blood everywhere. Keitaro sweatdropped and answered; "I could ask you the same thing."
The man chuckled before offering Keitaro a lift, which he was about to refuse after the driving demo he had just seen, but realizing that it was this or wander aimlessly around Tokyo for hours. Reluctantly accepting, Keitaro got in to the van with the man, only to get attacked by a rambunctious 12 year old blond girl. "What are you doing in my papas car?" she accosted. The man came in and the girl acted as if the were greeting each other. "Wow, I've never really seen Sara warm up to someone so fast. My name is Seta. Yours would be?"
"Keitaro Urashima." Said a nervous Keitaro, eyeing the young girl, who had started to drag him to the back, a malicious gleam in her eyes. "I'm headed towards Hinata." "Really? So am I. What a coincidence." Seta responded, failing to notice Sara start to pummel Keitaro.
The ride was fairly silent albeit the occasional murmurs of struggle in the back. They had almost fallen over a bridge twice, crashed into twelve different trashcans, kill over thirty cats all in one go. Once they arrived at Hianta Sou, Keitaro crawled out, barely recognizable from his beating, now shattered and scarred for life. Seta let out a whistle. "This is exactly where I was heading. If I recall correctly, it's an all girls dorm. What are you doing here? I'm here to ask the manager for a room for my girl Sara here." Keitaro gulped, eyeing the blond American with nervousness. "Well, you found him."
