Chapter 6

Haruka was locking the downstairs door of her tea house, and she spotted three old men walking down the road in the night fog coming off the river. She knew who they were, but what she wondered is what business had brought them out.

She listened quietly at the door to try and catch their conversation. Hear ears strained to hear anything but the cackling of old men laughing to themselves. The only thing she heard clearly as they passed by was "..... and he almost woke up this time"

Another one said "One more time should ......." The voices disappeared down the street.

She thought furiously, 'They can't mean Keitaro can they?' as she finished locking the door. What she didn't notice is the large dark shape that flew off from the top of the wall on the other side of the street from her. It had also been listening to the old men.

She picked up the phone and dialed granny Hina's number.

"Hello?"

"Granny, I think they are after Keitaro again, like they did when he was a child, and I think they are doing it again. Umm... do you think he is ready?"

"Ha! I bet you thought I was really there?" Haruka's vein in her forehead began to pulse with frustration. "Well guess what... I'm Not, but I will give you one guess where I am. ... ... ... You didn't try to answer that did you, didn't you learn the first time? Well leave a message after the beep. That is unless now you are too embarrassed too." BEEP

"Granny, I think they are after Keitaro again, like they did when he was here last time. Do you think he is ready? Also a side note... You know how I hate it when you make the answering machine like that."

She hung up the phone and said "I hope he is ready, this time we may not be able to stop them." She then took out one of her small white poison sticks and lit it, letting the comforting smell surround her.

Naru's eyes opened and it was dawn. 'What is the matter with me, yesterday I behaved like a total idiot, I even yelled at Kitsune.' She looked around her disheveled room, and then started gathering up things. She replaced all the books on her bookshelf, and gathered up the papers that were scattered around the room.

'Today I am going to talk to Keitaro, and tell him how I feel, and how it upsets me when he's always helping Motoko and the others,' she thought. She figured that yesterday was something she just needed to get out of her system.

'First things first' she thought, 'I'm gonna go apologize to Kitsune and Motoko. They are my friends and I have been pretty upset lately, and I may have acted a little out of whack and said or did some things to upset them. Besides, it's entirely his fault anyway,' she thought.

She looked at her alarm clock, it was still only 6 am, so she decided that she would clean her room some more. She finished picking up her room, and gathered all of her clothes into her laundry basket that she kept up here. She also had some down in the laundry room. 'I think I have about a loads worth of laundry, I'll do that'

She went down stairs, and got the detergent off the shelf, and gathered up all of her clothes that she would wash in this load. She opened the washer, and realized someone had left their cloths in the washer, and she began pulling them out to put in the dryer. It didn't take her but a few seconds to determine that these were Motoko's clothes. What surprised her is the bold lacy hot pink bra that she pulled out. "My My" she said as she was pulling it out, and she soon spotted the panties too. 'Motoko wearing something this bold, I'd have never thought to see the day' she thought.

Suddenly her eyes bulged out, as she spotted a pair of Keitaro's pants, and then she saw a pair of his boxers. She had known right away that they were his; she had seen them many times. She further examined the laundry and spotted the rest of the clothes he was wearing last night.

She walked out of the laundry room in a kind of stupor and a thought crossed her mind 'Why are Motoko and Keitaro doing laundry together?' She suddenly remembered a small voice in the middle of the night that said, "Please, don't. ... No, stop talking, and just hold me..."

'That pervert!' She stormed up the stairs to Motoko's room and slammed open the door. "What is going on in here!" she yelled. Then she realized that the room was very empty, and Motoko's futon was still rolled up from yesterday. It meant Motoko hadn't even used it, because it wasn't being aired out.

She became very quiet and walked down the stairs and opened the door to Keitaro's room a crack, and peeked in. She then slid the door closed, and then stepped away from the door. She walked to the entry way, and slowly put on her shoes while desperately trying to hold back the tears. She then went outside and went for a walk that was haunted by a voice that said, "Please, don't. ... No, stop talking, and just hold me..."

Motoko was smiling, she didn't know why but she was just very happy. Her whole body was relaxed and refreshed. It was like she hadn't had real sleep her whole entire life and that this was the first night she truly was refreshed. She was regaining her senses and she realized that she was lying clutching something wonderfully warm. She also noticed that it was pressed up against her bare skin of her breasts and stomach, and it was very smooth. She opened her eyes, and found Keitaro's face right next to hers.

She began to panic 'How did I end up here?' she asked herself, and she tried to calm her racing heart. She then realized that her robe had come open and she was mostly lying naked with Keitaro and her arms had somehow grabbed hold of him in an embrace. She didn't want to wake him up and have him find them like this, so she tried to disentangle her arms. She also became aware that their legs were also entwined. She slowly tried to move away and realized that his arms had become wrapped around her also.

'Why don't you just lie here for a while it will be all right, he's probably still out of it after that boulder crushing impact last night' her brain thought. The temperature of her face just rose what felt like another few degrees, as she became embarrassed at her own thoughts. 'What if someone finds us like this' she thought. 'Just a few more minutes it will be ok, no one will find out' said another thought of hers. She relaxed again and waited. The rhythm of his breathing was very soothing, and she felt at peace. 'So this is what it feels like to wake up next to someone that you ... love,' she thought. She almost was about to go back to sleep she was so relaxed.

'No.... he is still in love with Naru, this isn't right.' She decided that she had better some how get out of this situation.

After much wriggling she finally got one of her arms loose. The contact on her chest of his bare skin somehow thrilled her and caused her to blush while she was trying to escape his arms. Her heart was pounding so hard and her face was felt like it would burn up as she tried to carefully climb out from under the. Soon she found her progress dampened because Keitaro had somehow wound up laying on most of her robe. Her arm was still in the sleeve of her robe, and both her arm and the robe were pinned under him. At first she tried to recover both her robe and her arm out from under him, and then thought that it might just awaken him to their embarrassing situation. So she gave up on recovering the robe as not to wake him, and pulled her arm out of the sleeve. She quickly made sure none of her robe was sticking out from under the blanket. She looked around the room, and went over to Keitaro's closet. She grabbed a shirt that would pass as a night shirt. She also grabbed one of his boxers from the third drawer down in his dresser, and put them on. She had known right where he kept his boxers. Mostly she knew because as of late, her curiosity was getting the better of her, so when Keitaro was out running errands, she was in his room investigating.

She made her way to the door and peeked out. 'Good no ones there' she thought as she stepped out and closed the door behind her. She started to go back up the stairs to her room, and when she had reached half way, Shinobu rounded the corner and spotted Motoko on the stairs.

"Oh... it's true!" she cried, and ran down the hall.

'Oh... No!' Motoko thought 'she knows something' and she began to give chase. Motoko having much longer legs and being in excellent athletic condition had caught up to Shinobu in no time.

"Shinobu Wait!" and she grabbed a hold of Shinobu's arm.

She pulled Shinobu around to face her, and saw Shinobu's face full of tears.

"What's going on?' she asked a very teary faced Shinobu.

"Kaolla said you were sleeping with sempai last night, your even wearing his clothes" she cried.

"Shhhh. Not so loud, you'll wake everybody up. Don't say it like that," Motoko said. 'I completely forgot about Su' she thought, 'she would have come last night to try and sleep in my room. What am I going to do now?'

"So ... it ... is ... true" she said in between her sobs.

Motoko thought furiously and then said "Well, you see Naru had hit him out into the bath, he hit his head on that large boulder in the middle of the springs and split it in half with his head! I helped him back to his room, and stayed by his side all night. I did it because I was worried. It is because that's the worst hit I have ever seen him take. You should see the size of the lump on his head. I didn't want to leave his side, so I borrowed some of his clothes." Motoko then thought 'Why am I lying to a child, she is going to suspect something more if Su says anything else. Well it isn't really a lie, its kind of the truth... I did stay by his side.' Motoko then turned so as to not let Shinobu see her blush.

"Is sempai hurt badly?" Shinobu asked.

Motoko then said "I think he will be ok, I just didn't want to leave his side after I got out of the bath, so I borrowed some of his cloths so I wouldn't have to leave for one second. I am going to get some herbs out of my room that may help him now that he is sleeping a lot calmer than he was. Maybe you should make breakfast just in case he wakes up." With that she let go of Shinobu's arm.

"Is it ok if I check on sempai?" she asked.

"Oh I think its ok just don't move him but don't take too long because the smell of your cooking might help wake him up."

"I won't, I'll hurry" she thought

'Please just don't look under the covers' she thought about him being quite naked and her robe under him. She then proceeded to walk down the hall to the other wing to get some clean cloths out of her room.

After Shinobu was halfway down the stairs, Motoko's pace quickened, and she darted into her room, and grabbed some clean cloths, and quickly took Keitaro's clothes off. She then briefly paused as a weird thought came to her. She picked up his clothes, and smelled them. It smelled a lot like Keitaro, and then she realized that it wasn't just the clothes that smelled like Keitaro, because she could still smell him on her arms. She tossed his clothes into her closet and closed the door and put on a pair of blue panties and bra, another from the new collection that she had recently purchased. She grabbed a black T-shirt and a pair of cargo pants that she had. She quickly darted out of her room and down the hall as quietly as she could, and quickly returned to Keitaro's room.

As she arrived, Shinobu was standing over him and whispered "I hope that you feel better soon sempai" and looked over at Motoko. She then walked up to Motoko and surprised Motoko with a hug. "Thank you for taking care of sempai last night, I'm sorry I kind of made a fuss over nothing," She whispered. With that, she bounced down the hall to the kitchen to begin breakfast.

'Phew' thought Motoko, and then she felt bad for deceiving Shinobu.

She closed his door and she then quickly went over to Keitaro, and decided what she was going to do. She pulled the covers down a bit, and she pulled her robe more underneath him and picked up his arm, and put it in the sleeve of her robe. Then rolled him back onto his back, and put his other arm in the other sleeve. She really didn't want to try and dress him in something else and this would be easier anyway. She really didn't want him to wake up on her while she was putting underwear on him. It was better this time because she wasn't naked like she was earlier. If he woke up now, and caught her pulling the robe around, she could make some kind of an excuse about the robe. She quickly closed it over him, and pushed it closed under the covers as far down as she could reach without exposing him, and tied the waste sash off, and then replaced the blanket.

Her heart had been pounding the entire time she was doing this. She had expected to get caught by someone doing what she was doing. 'What was I doing' she thought. She was a bit dumbfounded where did all this behavior come from? Sneaking around, lying to Shinobu, sleeping with Keitaro even. 'Well I didn't do anything except for sleep with him, it's not like we ...' she didn't finish her own thought, but the blush in her face let her know that her body knew what she was thinking. 'Gaah... where did that come from' she thought and tried once again to control her racing heart.

She checked the bump on his head, it still looked pretty nasty but it was half the size it was the night before. She found the washcloth that she had been using and went to the kitchen to get more ice. Shinobu was making a western style breakfast including eggs and pancakes and sausages.

"This is one of his favorites," she said to Motoko.

Motoko was putting ice out of the freezer in the washcloth. "I'm just replacing the ice that melted" she said back.

"Will the herbs help?" She asked.

Motoko jumped because one of her little white lies had just come back to haunt her. She calmly turned, and said rubbing her head "I forgot I was all out, I will have to write Tsuruko for some more, but he will be alright with out them, they would have just helped a little bit more. You know him; he walks away from accidents that would kill any normal human being." She nervously laughed.

"Oh. If you say so, I believe in you Motoko," she said.

"If I don't come out and get breakfast, could you please bring mine and Keitaro's into his room, while I watch over him?" she said to Shinobu.

"Sure, I can do that" she replied.

"Thanks, Shinobu, you are wonderful."

She closed the freezer door and quickly made her way back to Keitaro's room. She put the iced washcloth on his forehead, and then slipped out and checked on Kitsune...

Kitsune was still sound asleep, so she closed the door,

'What am I going to do about Su' she thought. 'Na, I think Shinobu will "explain" things for everybody, so when Su slips and says I spent the night with him, everybody will just brush it off.'

Motoko may not have learned any rules on the playground when she was younger, but when one is thrown into deep water, one must learn to swim or drowned. Motoko had always been one to learn quickly from experience, and boy was she learning.