= = = = = = = = = = =
Love Hina - Halls of Magic
Chapter 2 - A trial without the Sword
-Gredival
= = = = = = = = = = =
The thrusting blade was easily pushed aside with a quick double parry. The black sword swung across at the open chest. The sword cut through the air - but nothing else as the man was already ten yards away.
"Hundred Blossom Profusion Strike!"
The black sword came from his left sweeping to the high right with incredible speed. His hand clasped around the handle clumsily and it swung hard to his left parrying the blow, the enemy blade caught between the cross section of the blade and hilt. His left hand, open palm, came to strike at the swordswoman's grip. Seeing the strike, she disengaged the man's sword and threw herself backwards - the palm catching nothing but air.
The woman skidded on her sandaled feet backwards, her sword held out to her right side as she faced her enemy. The dust floated between them like a thick fog. He gripped his sword's handle, holding it in a defensive position. She brought her sword into striking position and pushed off the ground to the man like an arrow thrusting her sword forward. His sword came in an arc pushing the blade to the side as he shifted to his right. He bent his wrist changing the direction the sword faced, and swung upwards. Bending backwards the sword passed over the swordswoman's body harmlessly, and without missing a beat she completed the back flip, also sending her feet to connect with the man's head. She landed on her feet just in time to watch her opponent fall to the ground.
Hina was at his throat the next second. "Checkmate." The sword slid back into its sheath with a click. "I believe it's Sixteen to Twenty-eight now?" Motoko Aoyama, Shihan of the God's Cry School, said more than asked
Keitaro rubbed his head, and nodded.
"Sempai are you all right?" Shinobu asked as she rushed over to Keitaro.
"Yeah I'm fine," Keitaro said as he picked himself up.
"That's it for today." The swordswoman walked towards the Hinata House, then turned back to face Keitaro. "You're getting much better," Motoko said with a small smile on her face. She stepped into the apartment complex wiping her forehead with her sleeve. She wasn't lying when she said Keitaro was getting better; it was beginning to become the workout that she had promised.
"Motoko!" Su called from the lobby. "You have mail!"
Motoko walked into the lobby and took the envelope that Su offered her. It's from the testing center, she thought noting the return address. She tore open the envelope and snapped the papers opened. Motoko gaped at the result of the test, her mouth hanging agape. If it weren't for the slight twitching, one could easily have mistaken the woman for a statue. Applicant has very little aptitude, other career opportunities should be considered.
"Motoooko?" Su poked at her stunned friend innocently from the side, Motoko not noticing a bit. The princess noticed the piece of paper in the older girl's hand. "What'cha got there?" Su asked, reaching over Motoko's back and grabbing at the paper.
"Wha? Gah no!" Motoko snapped, fleeing to keep her test results from the younger girl's eyes. She ran out of the lobby and bolted up the stairs trying to keep one step ahead of the pursuing princess. She didn't notice Keitaro walking down the stairs until she plowed into him sending them sprawling to the ground. Motoko groaned as she slowly picked herself up. Keitaro glanced upward rubbing his sore head.
His vision came to rest on a view of Motoko's chest, provided by her loose hakama top. Motoko looked down to see Keitaro's bulging eyes. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and Keitaro scrambled away, already pleading for his life.
"You bastard!" the kendo yelled as she lunged at the archaeologist. However when Keitaro turned to face Motoko, he was holding a piece of paper. "Ack! No my test! Don't look at that!" the girl cried as her blade connected with the landlord's chest, sending him half flying half skidding down the hall. The tactic didn't work however; Keitaro crashed into the wall with the paper floating down on top of his head in front of his eyes. Motoko simply slumped over. Her long black hair draped over her face.
What is he doing? Motoko thought to herself as Keitaro's hand clasped around her own. "Let me go Urashima!"
"Hey look Motoko, come with me to town and we can pick up some things to help you study, and we can sit down later tonight."
"...Do you really mean it?" Motoko asked softly, looking up at Keitaro, her voice vulnerable and weak.
"Yeah of course," Keitaro said with a nod.
----
Keitaro flipped through a book in his hands idly. Motoko stood twenty feet away to his side, also trying to look over the books. Her eyes turned to look at her friend. He was wearing a simple black T-shirt with an open white shirt and khaki slacks. His slim glasses had slipped down his nose a little giving him, what she thought, a slightly sophisticated look. A strap crossed his chest and the bag connected to it hung low to his side. She noticed him glance up and she buried her face back into the book in her hands.
Keitaro walked over, "Hey find anything good?"
"This one has some okay things," she lied. She hadn't even read a page of the book. Well she had, but it was more like her eyes were moving across pages without anything really registering. The same way a student reads assigned literature, to get in done and not absorbing anything.
"Well I think this one could help," Keitaro said, offering her a thick book. "I need to go pick something up, I'll meet you back here in a few minutes, okay?"
"Yeah sure," Motoko replied, taking the book.
Keitaro strolled through the isle and out the sliding doors of the bookstore into the spring sun. He squinted a bit while his eyes adjusted to the more intense sunlight. The plaza wasn't crowded but it was far from deserted. Plenty of shoppers and window shoppers strolled through the streets, each appearing to be without a care in the world to the oblivious people all around.
Haitani and Shirai sighed as they leaned back against the restaurant doors, the boredom on their faces easily readable, as if painted on paper charms attached to their heads. They blinked slowly as they watched Keitaro passed in front of them. They looked at each other slowly and back at the passing Keitaro.
The taller man reached out and grabbed the clueless archaeologist. "You don't say hi to your best friends?!" Haitani asked.
Keitaro blinked as he looked at the pair. "Uhh, who are you again?" Keitaro asked innocently, scratching his head as if to accentuate his mental lapse.
"I'm Haitani!" the man said shaking Keitaro.
"And I'm Shirai!" the shorter one added.
Keitaro studied them a bit, then a wave of recognition swept past Keitaro's face, "Oh hey!"
"Don't hey us!" the annoyed Shirai instructed. "And aren't you supposed to be in Kyoto with Naru?"
"Did she finally break up with you?" Haitani ventured.
"And on your honeymoon too!" the other man remarked as he sighed, shaking his head in pity of Keitaro.
"Guess we'll have to bring you out to get you drunk and over her," Haitani added, readjusting the small lenses on his face as he talked.
"It also means Naru is free too now," Shirai interjected.
"It's not like that!" Keitaro yelled waving his arms at them.
"Then what are you doing here then?" Haitani questioned looking at the archaeologist suspiciously.
"Well we were in Kyoto but we had to come back," Keitaro explained. "The hotel was flooded and we couldn't find a room.
"Urashima?" Motoko asked, walking up to the three-man group. Shirai and Haitani looked at each other again, then at Keitaro then at Motoko. They proceeded to drag a confused Keitaro away, leaving Motoko blinking bewildered by the spectacle.
"You're cheating on your wife already you dog?!" Shirai accused as he gripped Keitaro in a headlock.
"How could you do that to Naru?" Haitani sighed, shaking his head. "Well I guess she'll need a shoulder to cry on and someone to talk to..."
"Will you guys cut it out already?!" Keitaro wailed. "I'm just helping Motoko study."
"Ah an older married tutor and landlord helping his younger beautiful tenet... One thing leads to another..." Shirai started, his voice trailing off, the rest explained by the pair's snickering.
"What the hell have you been watching?!" Keitaro asked them as he hit both of them on the head. "Get your minds out of the gutter! You guys have spent way too much time around Kitsune!"
----
"All right, a client comes to you in confidence and has the location of an alive kidnapped person that will die without medical attention," Keitaro read aloud from the book. "You are legally obligated to tell the police, or keep confidence?"
Motoko's mouth formed a thin light as she considered the question, her hand twirling her pen idly while she concentrated. A small grunt of discomfort, as from the difficulty of the question, escaped her lips. She stopped the twirling pen with her thumb, and answered, "Tell the police, important of the life takes precedence over my lawyer client confidence."
"Good!" Keitaro congratulated her cheerfully. "You are freed from confidence obligations because you are allowed to commit a crime to prevent a bigger one," he explained, reading the answer from the book, "and you have the legal obligation to bring forth evidence about missing people to the police."
Motoko sighed and leaned back, her arms propping her up as she slouched back. Her head, pulled by gravity, pointed skywards looking at the roof above. "Never thought law would be so complicated," she admitted to Keitaro.
"You never did tell me," Keitaro started, setting down the study book on the table, "why you wanted to become a lawyer, so what made you enter law school?"
"Hm, I never really thought about it," the Kendo answered, redirecting her gaze to Keitaro. "Idealism," she answered after a second, looking away into the view of her window. "The God's Cry sword is about protecting the innocent... And in law you think it's just about defending the innocent and prosecuting the wretched of the world then it turns out to be just so..."
"Muddled?" Keitaro finished. Motoko nodded, turning her glance back to Keitaro.
"Maybe I'm not cut out to be a lawyer," Motoko wondered aloud.
"The most important thing is that you enjoy what you do," Keitaro told her. She quirked an eyebrow, "I know may sound kind of weird but that's the only way to be happy. You're good at a lot of things, but you need to find something that you can pour your heart into."
Motoko couldn't help but wonder when Keitaro got so deep. "Urashima..." the girl closed her eyes, "are you happy?"
"Well I'm not saying things couldn't be better," the Hinata Landlord started, scratching the back of his head. "But, overall yeah I'm pretty satisfied, why do you ask?"
"...Have you ever wondered sometimes, about, how things would have been if you had made different choices?" the tenet ventured. "Would you be happy?"
"I don't know, maybe and maybe not... I just kind of fell into archaeology," Keitaro answered.
"What about different parts of your life, your choice to live and stay here for one. And your choice of wh-" Motoko's voice trailed off as she looked away.
Keitaro's hand patted Motoko's shoulder softly. "I don't think I would be as happy as I am if it were not for the Hinata House and..."
It was her turn to finish his thought this time, "Naru."
Why am I crying? Motoko thought to herself as she felt herself sobbing, trails of wet tears down her face. Keitaro's arm wrapped around her in an attempt to console the crying swordswoman. She turned around and threw herself onto him, as if she were afraid he would disappear.
Keitaro stayed there, pangs of guilt flicking daggers at his heart. He knew the sorrow of an unrequited love. The vestiges of pain he felt at the memory of insignificance to Seta were still very sharp. But he knew he never had to see Naru marry someone else.
"Hey Keitaro, Shinobu told me you we-" Naru started as she slid the door open.
"Uh I can explain!" Keitaro blurted out nervously. Motoko, noticing just how close she was to the man, immediately distanced herself in the presence of his wife. She shook her head furiously, angry at herself for her moment of weakness.
"Explain to the wall!" the hotheaded Naru retorted as her fist closed the distance to the rambling Keitaro's face. She stormed out of the room throwing back a "You pervert!" for good measure.
Keitaro got up and rushed to the door, and looked back at Motoko, torn between consoling his friend and running after the woman he loved. Motoko made it easy as she nodded silently. He was gone.
I cry... because she's the one he cares for, and for once in my life I have lost... and there is nothing I can do about it, the God's Cry School Shihan thought, sighing as she watched him disappear. "You never did give me an answer..."
----
"Naru!" Keitaro called as he chased after her.
"Why are you chasing me?" Naru snapped. "Go off and be with Motoko! See if I care!"
Keitaro was about to respond as he tripped on a rock sending him barreling to the floor - and crashing into Naru.
"Naru, nothing was going on," Keitaro tried to assure her, extending his hand to touch her cheek softly, brushing away some stray hair.
"...I know that," Naru said picking herself up. She extended her hand and helped Keitaro up, then pulled him close, brushing her lips against his in a quick kiss. She backed away quickly and strode, arms spread wide to the edge of the cliff. "It's just I don't know what I would do in Motoko's position. It has to be hard for her. And... I guess I'm still scared sometimes about us..." she said leaning against the railing.
"You have my heart," Keitaro said softly.
"Yes, but you have hers," Naru replied turning around to face Keitaro. The wind blew gently, blowing out her long brown hair like a wave. With a wistful smile she turned around facing the setting sun again. Keitaro felt as if he couldn't take his eyes off her, but moved to join her. Naru silently wrapped her arm around him.
"Sometimes I get scared too," Keitaro admitted, "but as long as you're with me I know everything will be fine. You once told me that the most important thing was how we felt about each other, and I know things aren't problem free but I'm happy."
"I'm happy too," she said, resting her head on Keitaro's shoulder, smiling.
The sun had begun to set bathing the area in a golden warm light as it departed. The sky was painted red and orange, the blue of the day gone, as the fiery star disappeared under the horizon of the Earth. For however magnificent the display was though, it could not compete with the girl's simple smile.
Motoko could only sigh with a bittersweet smile as she watched from the window in the hallway.
Author's Notes: Okay before anyone kills me I had ended this project long ago then I realized when I logged into FF.net after a long absence the Chapter didn't even upload. I still have a few ideas for this fic, so it has hope of seeing a third chapter when I finish with my current project (a redo of my Gundam fic).
Love Hina - Halls of Magic
Chapter 2 - A trial without the Sword
-Gredival
= = = = = = = = = = =
The thrusting blade was easily pushed aside with a quick double parry. The black sword swung across at the open chest. The sword cut through the air - but nothing else as the man was already ten yards away.
"Hundred Blossom Profusion Strike!"
The black sword came from his left sweeping to the high right with incredible speed. His hand clasped around the handle clumsily and it swung hard to his left parrying the blow, the enemy blade caught between the cross section of the blade and hilt. His left hand, open palm, came to strike at the swordswoman's grip. Seeing the strike, she disengaged the man's sword and threw herself backwards - the palm catching nothing but air.
The woman skidded on her sandaled feet backwards, her sword held out to her right side as she faced her enemy. The dust floated between them like a thick fog. He gripped his sword's handle, holding it in a defensive position. She brought her sword into striking position and pushed off the ground to the man like an arrow thrusting her sword forward. His sword came in an arc pushing the blade to the side as he shifted to his right. He bent his wrist changing the direction the sword faced, and swung upwards. Bending backwards the sword passed over the swordswoman's body harmlessly, and without missing a beat she completed the back flip, also sending her feet to connect with the man's head. She landed on her feet just in time to watch her opponent fall to the ground.
Hina was at his throat the next second. "Checkmate." The sword slid back into its sheath with a click. "I believe it's Sixteen to Twenty-eight now?" Motoko Aoyama, Shihan of the God's Cry School, said more than asked
Keitaro rubbed his head, and nodded.
"Sempai are you all right?" Shinobu asked as she rushed over to Keitaro.
"Yeah I'm fine," Keitaro said as he picked himself up.
"That's it for today." The swordswoman walked towards the Hinata House, then turned back to face Keitaro. "You're getting much better," Motoko said with a small smile on her face. She stepped into the apartment complex wiping her forehead with her sleeve. She wasn't lying when she said Keitaro was getting better; it was beginning to become the workout that she had promised.
"Motoko!" Su called from the lobby. "You have mail!"
Motoko walked into the lobby and took the envelope that Su offered her. It's from the testing center, she thought noting the return address. She tore open the envelope and snapped the papers opened. Motoko gaped at the result of the test, her mouth hanging agape. If it weren't for the slight twitching, one could easily have mistaken the woman for a statue. Applicant has very little aptitude, other career opportunities should be considered.
"Motoooko?" Su poked at her stunned friend innocently from the side, Motoko not noticing a bit. The princess noticed the piece of paper in the older girl's hand. "What'cha got there?" Su asked, reaching over Motoko's back and grabbing at the paper.
"Wha? Gah no!" Motoko snapped, fleeing to keep her test results from the younger girl's eyes. She ran out of the lobby and bolted up the stairs trying to keep one step ahead of the pursuing princess. She didn't notice Keitaro walking down the stairs until she plowed into him sending them sprawling to the ground. Motoko groaned as she slowly picked herself up. Keitaro glanced upward rubbing his sore head.
His vision came to rest on a view of Motoko's chest, provided by her loose hakama top. Motoko looked down to see Keitaro's bulging eyes. Her eyes narrowed dangerously, and Keitaro scrambled away, already pleading for his life.
"You bastard!" the kendo yelled as she lunged at the archaeologist. However when Keitaro turned to face Motoko, he was holding a piece of paper. "Ack! No my test! Don't look at that!" the girl cried as her blade connected with the landlord's chest, sending him half flying half skidding down the hall. The tactic didn't work however; Keitaro crashed into the wall with the paper floating down on top of his head in front of his eyes. Motoko simply slumped over. Her long black hair draped over her face.
What is he doing? Motoko thought to herself as Keitaro's hand clasped around her own. "Let me go Urashima!"
"Hey look Motoko, come with me to town and we can pick up some things to help you study, and we can sit down later tonight."
"...Do you really mean it?" Motoko asked softly, looking up at Keitaro, her voice vulnerable and weak.
"Yeah of course," Keitaro said with a nod.
----
Keitaro flipped through a book in his hands idly. Motoko stood twenty feet away to his side, also trying to look over the books. Her eyes turned to look at her friend. He was wearing a simple black T-shirt with an open white shirt and khaki slacks. His slim glasses had slipped down his nose a little giving him, what she thought, a slightly sophisticated look. A strap crossed his chest and the bag connected to it hung low to his side. She noticed him glance up and she buried her face back into the book in her hands.
Keitaro walked over, "Hey find anything good?"
"This one has some okay things," she lied. She hadn't even read a page of the book. Well she had, but it was more like her eyes were moving across pages without anything really registering. The same way a student reads assigned literature, to get in done and not absorbing anything.
"Well I think this one could help," Keitaro said, offering her a thick book. "I need to go pick something up, I'll meet you back here in a few minutes, okay?"
"Yeah sure," Motoko replied, taking the book.
Keitaro strolled through the isle and out the sliding doors of the bookstore into the spring sun. He squinted a bit while his eyes adjusted to the more intense sunlight. The plaza wasn't crowded but it was far from deserted. Plenty of shoppers and window shoppers strolled through the streets, each appearing to be without a care in the world to the oblivious people all around.
Haitani and Shirai sighed as they leaned back against the restaurant doors, the boredom on their faces easily readable, as if painted on paper charms attached to their heads. They blinked slowly as they watched Keitaro passed in front of them. They looked at each other slowly and back at the passing Keitaro.
The taller man reached out and grabbed the clueless archaeologist. "You don't say hi to your best friends?!" Haitani asked.
Keitaro blinked as he looked at the pair. "Uhh, who are you again?" Keitaro asked innocently, scratching his head as if to accentuate his mental lapse.
"I'm Haitani!" the man said shaking Keitaro.
"And I'm Shirai!" the shorter one added.
Keitaro studied them a bit, then a wave of recognition swept past Keitaro's face, "Oh hey!"
"Don't hey us!" the annoyed Shirai instructed. "And aren't you supposed to be in Kyoto with Naru?"
"Did she finally break up with you?" Haitani ventured.
"And on your honeymoon too!" the other man remarked as he sighed, shaking his head in pity of Keitaro.
"Guess we'll have to bring you out to get you drunk and over her," Haitani added, readjusting the small lenses on his face as he talked.
"It also means Naru is free too now," Shirai interjected.
"It's not like that!" Keitaro yelled waving his arms at them.
"Then what are you doing here then?" Haitani questioned looking at the archaeologist suspiciously.
"Well we were in Kyoto but we had to come back," Keitaro explained. "The hotel was flooded and we couldn't find a room.
"Urashima?" Motoko asked, walking up to the three-man group. Shirai and Haitani looked at each other again, then at Keitaro then at Motoko. They proceeded to drag a confused Keitaro away, leaving Motoko blinking bewildered by the spectacle.
"You're cheating on your wife already you dog?!" Shirai accused as he gripped Keitaro in a headlock.
"How could you do that to Naru?" Haitani sighed, shaking his head. "Well I guess she'll need a shoulder to cry on and someone to talk to..."
"Will you guys cut it out already?!" Keitaro wailed. "I'm just helping Motoko study."
"Ah an older married tutor and landlord helping his younger beautiful tenet... One thing leads to another..." Shirai started, his voice trailing off, the rest explained by the pair's snickering.
"What the hell have you been watching?!" Keitaro asked them as he hit both of them on the head. "Get your minds out of the gutter! You guys have spent way too much time around Kitsune!"
----
"All right, a client comes to you in confidence and has the location of an alive kidnapped person that will die without medical attention," Keitaro read aloud from the book. "You are legally obligated to tell the police, or keep confidence?"
Motoko's mouth formed a thin light as she considered the question, her hand twirling her pen idly while she concentrated. A small grunt of discomfort, as from the difficulty of the question, escaped her lips. She stopped the twirling pen with her thumb, and answered, "Tell the police, important of the life takes precedence over my lawyer client confidence."
"Good!" Keitaro congratulated her cheerfully. "You are freed from confidence obligations because you are allowed to commit a crime to prevent a bigger one," he explained, reading the answer from the book, "and you have the legal obligation to bring forth evidence about missing people to the police."
Motoko sighed and leaned back, her arms propping her up as she slouched back. Her head, pulled by gravity, pointed skywards looking at the roof above. "Never thought law would be so complicated," she admitted to Keitaro.
"You never did tell me," Keitaro started, setting down the study book on the table, "why you wanted to become a lawyer, so what made you enter law school?"
"Hm, I never really thought about it," the Kendo answered, redirecting her gaze to Keitaro. "Idealism," she answered after a second, looking away into the view of her window. "The God's Cry sword is about protecting the innocent... And in law you think it's just about defending the innocent and prosecuting the wretched of the world then it turns out to be just so..."
"Muddled?" Keitaro finished. Motoko nodded, turning her glance back to Keitaro.
"Maybe I'm not cut out to be a lawyer," Motoko wondered aloud.
"The most important thing is that you enjoy what you do," Keitaro told her. She quirked an eyebrow, "I know may sound kind of weird but that's the only way to be happy. You're good at a lot of things, but you need to find something that you can pour your heart into."
Motoko couldn't help but wonder when Keitaro got so deep. "Urashima..." the girl closed her eyes, "are you happy?"
"Well I'm not saying things couldn't be better," the Hinata Landlord started, scratching the back of his head. "But, overall yeah I'm pretty satisfied, why do you ask?"
"...Have you ever wondered sometimes, about, how things would have been if you had made different choices?" the tenet ventured. "Would you be happy?"
"I don't know, maybe and maybe not... I just kind of fell into archaeology," Keitaro answered.
"What about different parts of your life, your choice to live and stay here for one. And your choice of wh-" Motoko's voice trailed off as she looked away.
Keitaro's hand patted Motoko's shoulder softly. "I don't think I would be as happy as I am if it were not for the Hinata House and..."
It was her turn to finish his thought this time, "Naru."
Why am I crying? Motoko thought to herself as she felt herself sobbing, trails of wet tears down her face. Keitaro's arm wrapped around her in an attempt to console the crying swordswoman. She turned around and threw herself onto him, as if she were afraid he would disappear.
Keitaro stayed there, pangs of guilt flicking daggers at his heart. He knew the sorrow of an unrequited love. The vestiges of pain he felt at the memory of insignificance to Seta were still very sharp. But he knew he never had to see Naru marry someone else.
"Hey Keitaro, Shinobu told me you we-" Naru started as she slid the door open.
"Uh I can explain!" Keitaro blurted out nervously. Motoko, noticing just how close she was to the man, immediately distanced herself in the presence of his wife. She shook her head furiously, angry at herself for her moment of weakness.
"Explain to the wall!" the hotheaded Naru retorted as her fist closed the distance to the rambling Keitaro's face. She stormed out of the room throwing back a "You pervert!" for good measure.
Keitaro got up and rushed to the door, and looked back at Motoko, torn between consoling his friend and running after the woman he loved. Motoko made it easy as she nodded silently. He was gone.
I cry... because she's the one he cares for, and for once in my life I have lost... and there is nothing I can do about it, the God's Cry School Shihan thought, sighing as she watched him disappear. "You never did give me an answer..."
----
"Naru!" Keitaro called as he chased after her.
"Why are you chasing me?" Naru snapped. "Go off and be with Motoko! See if I care!"
Keitaro was about to respond as he tripped on a rock sending him barreling to the floor - and crashing into Naru.
"Naru, nothing was going on," Keitaro tried to assure her, extending his hand to touch her cheek softly, brushing away some stray hair.
"...I know that," Naru said picking herself up. She extended her hand and helped Keitaro up, then pulled him close, brushing her lips against his in a quick kiss. She backed away quickly and strode, arms spread wide to the edge of the cliff. "It's just I don't know what I would do in Motoko's position. It has to be hard for her. And... I guess I'm still scared sometimes about us..." she said leaning against the railing.
"You have my heart," Keitaro said softly.
"Yes, but you have hers," Naru replied turning around to face Keitaro. The wind blew gently, blowing out her long brown hair like a wave. With a wistful smile she turned around facing the setting sun again. Keitaro felt as if he couldn't take his eyes off her, but moved to join her. Naru silently wrapped her arm around him.
"Sometimes I get scared too," Keitaro admitted, "but as long as you're with me I know everything will be fine. You once told me that the most important thing was how we felt about each other, and I know things aren't problem free but I'm happy."
"I'm happy too," she said, resting her head on Keitaro's shoulder, smiling.
The sun had begun to set bathing the area in a golden warm light as it departed. The sky was painted red and orange, the blue of the day gone, as the fiery star disappeared under the horizon of the Earth. For however magnificent the display was though, it could not compete with the girl's simple smile.
Motoko could only sigh with a bittersweet smile as she watched from the window in the hallway.
Author's Notes: Okay before anyone kills me I had ended this project long ago then I realized when I logged into FF.net after a long absence the Chapter didn't even upload. I still have a few ideas for this fic, so it has hope of seeing a third chapter when I finish with my current project (a redo of my Gundam fic).
