A/N: Very sorry for the lack of an update for a while. I got my laptop back from the people at DELL, who informed me the problem i was having was that there were a few screws loose, which means all they did over a weeks period, was tighten some tiny screws.... But anyway thankyou very much all of you that took time out to review my first chapter, i didnt like it very much how it turned out but I guess that some people did. after reading and re-reading this chapter I feel a bit better about this one, but if you have any problems with it please dont hesistate to tell me what im doing wrong. Thankyou to everyone who takes the time to read my (meager) work. Oh, and if you do happen to like it (im not getting my hopes up, i promise), your welcome to tell me, it would go a long way to raising my spirits and help me to try and become a better writer.

The almighty disclaimer: I dont own Love Hina, if i did, why am i spending my time writing something im not getting paid for?

Chapter 2 – No second Chance

The sting of sunlight in her face beckoned her awake. The woman slowly opened her eyes to search for the source of the unwelcome intrusion on her sleep; she found it moments after she had wiped the sleep from her eyes.

The window that she thought she had closed last night lay slightly ajar, the gap large enough to produce a sliver of sunlight which was now blinding her.

Motoko let out a sigh as she stretched her arms out, she had been having the most wonderful dream, she knew that it had been make-believe but she had enjoyed it nonetheless.

She had dreamt that Urashima had come back, that he had come back for her to confess his love to the kendo girl. Motoko smiled slightly as she recalled how she had perceived Urashima in her dream; he had looked quite different to when she had last seen him.

He had been a fair bit taller, easily a match for her own height, she had known that she had been dreaming before then, but that had been the detail that had cemented it in Motoko's mind.

He was a bit… bigger too. Motoko blushed slightly as she thought of his stature in the fantasy; he had looked like he had been trapped in a gym whilst he had been away.

Motoko replayed in her mind how in the dream Urashima had returned to Hinata-sou, how he had headed directly to Motoko's room to confess, only to be confronted by Naru-sempai.

Motoko scowled as she remembered Naru-sempai beating the living hell out of Keitaro for all of the 'stupid' things he had done, but Urashima refused to let her Naru-punches stop him from reaching the woman he loved. He somehow got past Naru-sempai and entered Motoko's room.

The warrior-woman recalled being in her bedroom, but she had been sat in silence in the middle of the floor, it had been dark all around except for the space she occupied which had been bathed in a bright white light.

Motoko let out another sigh as she rolled over to look at the space where the 'event' took place in her fantasy. In the dream, Keitaro had walked in and started talking, Motoko couldn't hear the words but she knew that he had been proclaiming his love for her. As he had gotten closer and closer, the pounding in Motoko's heart increased. She could almost feel his light touch when he had placed his hand upon her cheek.

Motoko closed her eyes as if to remember the moment better, she saw in her minds eye how Urashima had removed his glasses as he got closer still, so that their lips had nearly touched, she held her breath to wait for the perfect kiss, and then…

"Mew!"

'Mew!?'

Motoko opened her eyes slowly to search out what had made the strange sound. She didn't have to search though, as right in front of her, she could see it. Well almost.

A sort of blurry yellow and green shape was right in front of Motoko's face, its own lips placed upon hers.

Motoko's heart sank, she hoped against hope that it wasn't what she knew it was. She remained calm as she pulled away from the kiss, the kiss that had been meant for Urashima, and looked into the beady eyes of her eternal tormentor and nemesis.

"Mew!" It proclaimed as it held up a flipper.

"T-t-t-turtle…..TURTLE!!!!" Motoko let out a high pitched squeal as she batted at the thing that had taken her precious kiss away from her.

She looked in terror as her hand swipes were easily avoided by the flying water demon, which was merrily dodging her attacks with a smile on its face. Motoko cursed herself for getting so into the dream that she had left herself unguarded from the turtle… she would punish herself later for her ineptitude with more training but right now she had to get away from the evil, happy, turtle…

After a few more chops her attacker seemed to relent its assault on her for a moment; Tama-chan backed off and looked at Motoko as if it were puzzled by her response to the kiss. Motoko took the chance and reached for her sword, she knew exactly where it lay as she sent her arm out to the side of her futon.

'I will take care of this vile thing once and for all; I will chop it up and serve it to Su-chan for breakfast!'

Her own smile appeared on Motoko's face as her hand made contact with the wooden shaft that was the hilt of her blade. With one hand she removed the cover of her futon, the other bringing the sword towards her; she readied herself to do battle with the awful creature.

'Shinobu-chan will be upset, but she is too young to see the evil of this beast, I will rid Hinata-sou of this demon!'

Tama-chan continued to look confused and a little upset by Motokos reaction, but the kendo girl didn't care, all she wanted was to get rid of the horrible thing. Out of bed now, she unsheathed her sword and began to say the words of one of her clans techniques, determined to end the turtles life.

"Shinmeiryuu, Hiken Zankuu…" She stopped mid-sentence as she brought her sword down, the resulting blast was less than she had intended but still managed to create a miniature whirlwind from her blade. The mini-tornado cut through the room and towards its target, it seemed to capture the helpless Tama-chan and propelled her through Motoko's bedroom window.

Once the whirlwind had left with its prey, the room returned to its earlier serenity. Motoko, now stood, was confused somewhat why she had not sent the turtle… into the stratosphere with her Ki blast.

She looked up at where she had forced the creature to leave, the window, now shutter-less, was no longer shielding Motoko's eyes from the suns rays. The young woman brought her empty hand up to her face to protect her eyes from the sudden light, but then took it away and waited for the discomfort to recede.

Once her pupils had adjusted, Motoko walked towards the window and looked out onto the landscape below Hinata-sou, last nights downpour had cleared the skies of clouds and all she could see above was the colour blue.

"Urashima would have been upset if I had destroyed the… thing." She told herself softly.

When Motoko had been reciting the words of her Zankuusen she had immediately thought of Urashima. So many times he had been the recipient of her Ki blasts; it had become a habit of hers to think of him when she used her clans' techniques.

'That was why I could not kill the turtle.' The kendo girl thought as she put two and two together.

Motoko continued to look out as a smile formed on her face.

'The old Motoko would have seen this as a sign of weakness, she would have trained for days upon days to show that I really didn't care what Urashima thought. I would have put the lapse down to me still being sleepy or something ludicrous like that.'

The smile on Motoko's face grew, she never used to smile like this either.

'It is all because I finally admitted to myself that I love Urashima, ever since the day that I was able to be honest with myself I have never been happier.'

Motoko's smile faded as she remembered how she had felt once the 'pervert' had left Hinata-sou with Naru-sempai.

'I was happy at first, I was able to train and study in peace, I didn't have to be on edge and keep an eye on him to make sure nothing was happening. I thought that in that time my skills had sharpened and I was gaining a lot of ground in my studies.'

Motoko tried to smile at what happened next, but only half succeeded. Now that she was being honest with herself, there was no point in lying about it; it still hurt thinking about what happened.

'But when it finally came around to taking the test for Toudai, I was overconfident of my abilities; I had no idea how hard it would actually be. I just assumed that since Urashima had been able to gain entry, then it would be no problem for me, a 'superior' female.'

How wrong she had been. Motoko remembered the pain she felt when she had found out that she had not been accepted, not only that but failed at something that 'perverted male' had been able to do.

The kendo girl sighed and shook her head as she recalls what came to pass the months that followed.

'I didn't let it go; I could not let it go that Urashima had bested me, I was furious at myself, and at him.'

Motoko's full smile returned to her, it was during this time that she had had the ultimate epiphany.

'Urashima was all I could think about. When I wasn't studying, I was taking out my anger towards him in my training. After a week or so of studying and training until I passed out from exhaustion, the anger started to subside, but I was still thinking about him.'

Motoko propped her face upon the window sill with her hands as she reminisced with herself.

It had taken her weeks to figure out why she was no longer angry at Urashima's achievement; she had been studying math problems late on one night and could not accomplish one task in particular. After two hours of calculating things still didn't add up right for her, she lost her temper, as she had done many times whilst studying math's, and threatened to give up getting into Toudai. It had been then when she asked herself how Urashima had conquered such a task.

'I then realized how hard this must had been for him, he had already failed the test three times, I could only imagine how upset he must have felt to find out that he hadn't made it, time and again. It was then that I realized the strength of Urashima's will, having only failed once I was nearly giving up, but he had kept going, even when we had all given up on him. He even had to look after everyone who lived here too, including me. I never understood how kind he had been until I was in his shoes, sort of speak. He didn't have to help us; he could have, and should have, gotten on with his studies instead of trying to help us with our problems. I am still ashamed of how I repaid his kindness, it was not his fault that he is forever clumsy, he did not deserve to be blown to bits every single time he tried to help.'

After that Motoko had completely forgotten her studies and began to focus upon her memories of Urashima, how he had never given up on any of them and how he was willing to help at the expense of himself. The more and more that she thought about all of the things that he had done, the more she came to admire him. He was no 'weak male', she had realized, but a good man, and he had deserved better from her.

'Even after this revelation, I still thought of him. I had thought of males as only mindless perverts, who only wanted one thing. But Urashima had not been like that, he had only wanted us to succeed and to achieve our dreams. I keep thinking of all of the times he had helped me, how he made me feel better about myself when I was feeling down, he makes me believe in myself, no matter what.'

Motoko picked herself up from her perch at the window; she looked out once more at the scenery, and said, softly,

"Because he always believed in me… and now that I can see and admit this, I can admit how much I admire and love him."

Before the young woman turned away to get dressed and head downstairs for breakfast, one more thought went through her mind, the thing that had been bothering her since her discovery, ever since she realized that she had been jealous of Naru-sempai when they had set off together:

'How can I get my second chance with Urashima?'

A/N: Thanks for being able to stomach the whole of that chapter, after i read the first chapter i came to the conclusion that Motoko was very much OOC, i just wanted to explain how she changed over the course of Keitaros absence. Again if you like (or dislike) it, please just take a few moments to say what you liked/didnt like. Thanks again.