Hello again! Time for another installment of this story! I think I will start doing the 5 days a week thing… In fact, because Summer vacation is next week, I might even be able to post multiple chapters! One in the morning, one in the evening. But who knows, I might end up getting lazy. But one thing is certain. I will finish this thing. I don't care if it takes me 2 years, this thing will not be abandoned for all time, never to be completed. I have read some VERY good fan fiction, but they were unfortunately put on hiatus for some reason or another. Whether the author lost interest, lost access to a computer, or even gasp died, I do not know… All I know is, I do not want to leave my readers hanging like that. Of course, if ya die, that can't be helped. Er, enough of my babbling, let's get on with the story!

---Kouji Tamino

-----

Love Hina Next

Chapter 21: Secrets Revealed During a Game of Dare and Truth!

And so, it continued to rain. For hours, in fact. Shima looked out the window in amazement. "Shit, it's really raining out there, isn't it?…" He looked over to Rikina and Tokimi, who had their heads buried into their books. They were all still dressed in their sweat clothes.

Rikina, a bit annoyed, looked up to Shima. "Well duh… Now you're either studying with us, or leaving us alone and getting out of here…"

Shima frowned. "All right, no need to get all pissy about it… Besides, don't we all deserve a break since we did that all-nighter last night?"

Rikina glared at him. "There are no breaks for us… We are trying to get into Tokyo U! We can't afford to take breaks!"

Suddenly, Kitsune burst into the room. "Hey! Why don't you kids take a break from all this?" She smirked, peeking at Rikina through an open eye. "Rikina, Naru never worked this hard during her studies! She at least found some time to herself…" She looked at Rikina's messy room and sweat dropped. "And she found some time to clean up, too…"

Rikina slammed her books on the table. "For god's sake, doesn't anyone freaking knock anymore?!" She calmed down and stood up. "Fine, I'll take one break…" She stared at Kitsune. "But only one break… There are only a few days until the exam…"

Kitsune chuckled. "Trust me, this will be worth it," she said, mischievously.

Tokimi raised an eyebrow. "Um, I don't like how you said that!"

Shima sweat dropped. "Yeah, tell me about it…"

-----

In the lounge, everyone gathered around, a bowl of snacks on the table. Even Jin and Static, both a bit soaked, were there. Rikina raised an eyebrow. "Wait, what is Jin doing here?"

Shinobu smiled. "Well, they came here a few minutes after the rain had begun. In fact, they're the ones who suggested that we all play a game to lighten the mood that the rain's been putting us all in…"

Rikina pouted, crossing her arms. "But I like the rain…"

Jin grimaced. "Peh, you would…" Rikina gave Jin a death glare that shut him up.

Ema smiled. "Alright then, everyone! What kind of game should we play?"

Kimomo smiled. "How about Truth or Dare?"

Kitsune chuckled. "Girl, I like your style!"

Shinobu frowned. "I don't know…"

Kimomo pouted. "Aww… Come on!"

Shinobu thought for a bit, then finally answered. "Alright, but keep it clean…" She motioned toward Ami and Nina. "You know, the young ones…"

Kitsune frowned. "Aw, that's no fun!"

Shinobu smirked. "Take it or leave it!" She walked into the kitchen. "I'll go get the rest of the snacks…"

Kitsune sighed. "Alright, then… I'll go first…" She smirked. "Tokimi! Truth or dare?!"

Tokimi frowned. "Why do I have to go first? Oh, never mind… Truth…"

Kitsune rubbed her chin. "Damn, it's gotta be clean, huh?…" She thought for a moment before finally speaking again. "Tokimi, what is the most embarrassing thing to happen to you?"

"Oh, wow… Um…" Tokimi blushed. "I think that would have to be back in high school… It was the very first day… My skirt was way too loose, so I had to keep holding them up while I was standing. On my way to gym, I hugged a friend in the hall. When I let go, I forgot about my skirt and it fell down. Almost everyone in the hall saw, and they were talking about it all week…" She looked down, a bit embarrassed that she told them all that. She smiled a bit. "One day, the teasing got out of control… Everyone began pointing and taunting and laughing… And then, someone pushed me, making me fall into a trash can. I began crying, and everyone laughed harder… But one boy, told everyone to shut up, and he helped me out of the trash can… My eyes were filled with tears, and my glasses fell off, so I couldn't see him very well. He quickly ran off, and I never saw him again…"

Shima's eyes widened slightly. "Tokimi, what school did you go to?"

"Um, Tokyo Metropolitan Kokusai High School…" she answered. "Why, did you go there?"

Shima quickly shook his head. "Um, no!"

Tokimi looked a bit disappointed. "Oh, I see…" She sighed, looking around. She wondered why the game wasn't continuing.

"…To-ki?" Nina chirped.

Tokimi looked up. "Huh, Nina?"

"I'm not sure how you play this game, but I think it's your turn… No one's said anything for two minutes!"

Tokimi blushed. "Oh! I'm sorry, everyone…" She looked around the room and stopped on Shima. "Shima, truth or dare?"

Shima smirked. "I'm feeling kind of daring right now… Dare."

Tokimi ran a hand through her hair. "Um… I dare you to…" she smirked. "…punch Static in the head every time some says something starting with the letter 'S'…" she shrugged. "It was all I could think of at the time…"

Static's eyes widened. "Eh?! Why me?!"

Kitsune yawned. "Lame, Tokimi…"

Tokimi glared. "Hey, there's not much we can do!"

Shima chuckled, then pointed to Ami. "Ami, truth or dare?"

Ami blushed a bit at being picked. "Um… dare…"

Shima cackled evilly. "Perfect… Ami, forgive me for this, but I dare you to lick Rikina on the cheek!"

The girls all looked at him in disgust, except for Kimomo and Kisune, who both laughed. "Way to go, Yamato!" Kitsune yelled, still laughing. "You managed to get a good one in!"

Ami pouted. "I… I don't wanna…"

Kitsune smirked. "You have to, Ami… Otherwise, you have to take off a piece of clothing…" She chuckled as Ami blushed.

Shinobu just happened to walk in, carrying in some more snacks. "I said, keep it clean… Make up some other consequence…"

Kitsune frowned, standing up. "Oh come on, Shinobu… You're taking all the fun out of this…"

Shinobu set the snacks on the table. "Then don't play it with the younger girls around, then…"

Kitsune huffed, then sat back down. "Fine, fine…"

Shima sighed. "Alright, you don't have to do it, Ami… And oh yeah!" He looked over to Static and punched him three times.

"Ow!" Static yelled. He glared at Shima. "I hate this game…"

Ami sighed, then licked Rikina on the cheek. Rikina resisted screaming, glaring at Shima with a 'I am going to kill you' look. Shima chuckled. "Way to go, Ami! Your turn!"

Ami looked around, then looked to Kimomo. "Kimomo… Truth or dare?"

Kimomo squealed. "Ooh! Truth!" She quickly slipped a cup into Ami's hand. "Here, drink this…"

Ami shrugged, and drank the liquid in one gulp. Ami blushed, then looked down to the ground. "Um…" she asked her question quietly. "What is your greatest fantasy?"

Everyone gasped. Kitsune burst out laughing, rolling on the floor. "That's great! You go, Ami!"

Kimomo giggled. "Oh, how embarrassing… Let's see… I think it would have to be on the beach, two guys, in both of my --"

Shinobu quickly covered Kimomo's mouth. "Okay, that's enough of that!!"

Shima punched Static.

Kitsune smirked. "Hey, Ami's the one who asked… That means she doesn't mind… Right, Ami?"

Ami blushed even more, then nodded.

Kimomo giggled. "Oh well, you probably all get the point…" She smiled at Jin. "Right, Jinny?"

Jin nodded like a mindless zombie, twitching and drooling. "Uh huh…"

Rikina rolled her eyes. "God, Kimomo is such a… I dunno, I'm too disgusted to think of a word…"

Kimomo giggled. "Rikina, you are too uptight…" She leaned over to Rikina and gave her a kiss on the lips.

Jin, Static, and Shima simply stared, noses bleeding.

Rikina quickly yanked her face away. "Ugh! Your breath smells like booze… Have you been drinking?"

Kitsune looked into her bag. "Hey… someone stole one of my bottles!"

Shima punched Static three times.

Ami hiccupped, then blushed again. She glared at the older girls. " Darn you… I wan boobies…"

Shima raised an eyebrow. "Ami's drunk?…"

"Hee hee…" Kimomo giggled, also intoxicated.

"Kimomo…" Tokimi glared.

Shinobu looked at the table to see that all of the snacks were gone. She was a bit surprised that all the snacks were already gone, but shrugged it off, picked up the empty bowls and plates, and went back to the kitchen. "I'm going to get some more snacks!"

Shima punched Static again.

"Don't worry about it, it wasn't that much!" She began giggling uncontrollably. "Oh my… Anyway, it's my turn now, isn't it?" She stared at everyone, her vision a bit blurry. "Whee, the room is spinning… Erm, Jin! Truth or dare?!"

"Hm?" Jin muttered, snapping out of the trance he was put in by the earlier trance. "Oh!" He shook his head and slapped himself a bit. "Um, truth!"

"Since you and Static seem to have known Yamato for a while, tell us about the most embarrassing thing that's happened to you guys!"

Jin burst out laughing. "Boy, do I have a story for you!"

Shima quickly got up, blushing. "I'm going to go help Shinobu with those snacks!" He quickly ran into the kitchen.

Kaolla giggled. "Shi-kun must be embarrassed by what happened, then?"

Jin chuckled. "He should be! Okay, here we go! One night, Shima, Static, Amuro, and I went out to go do some graffiti on the rival high schools walls... Well, Shima's rival high school… The rest of us went to a different school… He always was the nerd of the gang… But then we get caught by the cops, so we hopped into Amuro's car and bolted! We sped down the road, but we had to stop because of some turtles…"

Kimomo twitched. "Turtles?…"

Jin raised an eyebrow. "Yes, turtles… Static was driving and he has a soft spot for turtles… Anyway, the cops caught up with us, but me and Shima ran off. We ran until we ran into what we thought were hookers… We walked to them and got hand cuffed. Turned out that the cops had been trying to catch us for quite a while…"

Rikina smiled. "Serves you two right… Perverts…"

Tokimi frowned. "Hey, I heard about that… It was on the school newsletter! One of our students, plus 3 other boys had tried to graffiti another school but got caught by the cops!"

Just then, Shima and Shinobu walked back in. They set the food on the table. Tokimi walked up to Shima and socked him in the face, sending him flying into a wall. "Jerk! You lied! You said that you didn't go to my school!" She gasped. "Does that mean that… Were you the one that helped me up that day?"

"Um…" Shima muttered. "Well, you see…"

Tokimi frowned sadly. "Please… Tell me the truth…" Everyone looked on in silence.

Shima stood up and shook his head. "No, it wasn't me…"

She clenched her fist, "Then… Why did you lie?"

Shima looked away. "I don't know…" He walked out of the room and up the stairs. The others looked on sadly.

Tokimi bit her lip, a bit hurt that Shima would lie to her. "Shima…"

Kitsune frowned. "… I think it's game over, folks…"

Nina groaned, having eaten almost all of the snacks herself. "Ugh, too much food…"

Sarah smacked her own forehead, sighing.

-----

Shima sat on the floor, staring at the ceiling. He sighed. "Damn it…"

Suddenly, there was a knock at his door. He answered it. It was Sarah. She stared at him, expressionless. "So, what are you hiding, anyway?"

"Nothing!" Shima yelled. "Now get out!"

Sarah sighed. "Fine, fine…" She turned around, but looked back to Shima. "But you'll have to fess up sometime…" She walked out of the door and closed it.

Shima frowned. "Whatever…"

End of Chapter 21.

-----

And that is the end of this chapter… Hopefully, there will be one tomorrow… But either way, I'll see you later this week!

---Kouji Tamino