Love Hina: I Can't Stand this Anymore

Chapter 01 of 02

By Kylera

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Love Hina. I do not own Love Hina. So please don't sue me. I do not own Love Hina.

Rating: PG-13 for implied mature themes. Press "back" now if that bothers you.

Accompanied by her pet cat Kuro, Urashima Kanako looked down from the second floor railing, looking down at two familiar figures cuddling under a canopy of leaves. The sunlight shining down through the leaves created a unique effect of shadow and light on the couple underneath. Arms moved gently up and down backs while heads occasionally shifted from left to right, all during the time two mouths tried to give themselves away to each other.

However, the black-haired manager was only focusing on one person: the male, currently on the receiving end of what looked like his most frazzling kiss to date. With short, brown hair, a slim but built physique, only slightly visible through his sleeveless T-shirt, and a boyish look tempered by a very defined jawline, her adopted brother, Urashima Keitaro, was a looker by her, and by other women's, books.

As her eyes angled slightly to his left, intense pangs of jealousy gripped her, which translated into white knuckles on the innocent wooden railing. The sudden attitude change startled Kuro, as it jumped off of the perch it was on earlier. Instead of having her brother in her sights, her crosshairs were trained on the giver of the kiss, a tenant by the name of Narusegawa Naru. Her self radiated some form of outward confidence while long, flowing brown hair, topped by a pair of "antennas" came down like an eternal cascade. A svelte physique topped the list, and this was more than likely a looker in Keitaro's book.

Suddenly, all that jealousy drained of itself as soon as it occupied Kanako, and in its place there was a mix of depression and longing. The squeezed wood finally got a breath of relief as two hands stopped gripping it like a vice. 'How could he be attracted to a girl like...her?' the black-haired manager thought as said couple finally stopped kissing and settled for simply staring at each other. 'Why her?!' she mentally screamed as her hands tried to squeeze the life out of anything within reach, which caused more silent screams of anguish from the wooden bar once again. 'I would've sworn that he was attracted to EVERYONE in this frigging dormitory...well, maybe except Shinobu...' she trailed, and shuddered when a mental image of her twenty-one-year-old brother picked up their sixteen-year-old resident chef bridal style, kissed her passionately and walked into a hotel room. Shaking those disturbing thoughts out of her head, she continued, 'But among all girls, it just had to be her.' The anger dissipated again, letting the wood breathe, and it transformed to said longing. 'Brother, how am I supposed to deal with the fact that you have another one you care for?' she asked herself forlornly. 'All I wanted was to make you...' she trailed once again, and let out a very deep sigh.

"Mine," the younger sister breathlessly worded.

The unsuspecting couple cuddled together while sitting on a big rock, both hearts content for once in their chaotic lives. Both were in their target university, Tokyo University, one on his fourth try and the other on her second. Both didn't have to suffer over feelings not being requited or feelings not being shown. However, one of them made an assumption that would only provide a false sense of security:

His sister finally left him alone. Alone with Naru.

"So," Naru cooed as she snaked her slender arms around her boyfriend's neck gently and gently sat herself on his lap. "We've come a long way, eh?"

Keitaro responded with a peck to her nose first. "Yeah, university, Kyoto, vacations," he trailed, as he brought up memories from the past two years he spent in the ex-Inn. Some were good, some weren't as good, but either way, he remembered them, and it brought a smile to his face. His curious girlfriend decided to poke him out of his reverie and ask the question unworded. "Oh, just remembering the slightly older times, nothing more," he answered with a laugh. She smiled as well, and soon both relaxed into a peaceful quiet. With nothing much in mind, both just rocked gently back and forth as a cool, slow wind enveloped the couple.

By now, Kanako had just about enough of watching the couple all lovey-dovey and drooling with affection, did a 180 on one heel, and strode back to her room, her pet in tow. While the interior of the room looked very much like the other tenants' rooms, her plain-looking wardrobe was anything but plain inside. Once the two doors opened, whips, handcuffs, crossbows, nets, rope, rings and long strips of black cloth, among other things, made themselves known to viewers. The shine reflecting off the handcuffs reflected the new, unblemished surface of the leather whip while the sharpness of the arrows could instill fear on those whose head was pointing towards. Their owner smirked as she picked up each piece of her arsenal and looked through it, almost with a loving gaze. She picked out a few weapons from her innocent-looking wardrobe, and opened her armoire next to it. Rummaging through a ton of Gothic clothing, she finally found her layer of leather wear. Gently picking it out of the armoire, she looked though the nicely pressed and folded clothes, which she knew by heart how they looked and felt. A minute later, she picked out the outfit of choice, and set it on her bed while re-arranging her armoire drawer to how it was before. On top of the outfit, she placed a bound net, a couple handcuffs and a few mysterious vials in a manner that would suggest execution. After all that was done, only one thought ran through her mind.

'Soon, brother. Soon, you'll see me as a woman, and not some sister. I'll make sure.'

Later that night, as a clock in the living room announced the time as midnight, the Inn was found sleeping and dark...dark except one room. In the one light room, its tenant was putting on a skintight one-piece that covered her entire self save her head and hands and hooked a utility belt to her slim waist. Its various hooks held onto a net and a pair of handcuffs while a carefully padded pouch held some vials. Kanako looked over herself in the mirror, admiring her black-clad figure. A smile graced her face, though its significance was something that covered a lot of reasons. After seeing enough of herself, she flipped the lights and snuck out of her room, tiptoeing against the wall while peeking on both sides of herself, making sure no one, or nothing for that matter, was awake. With moves only seen in spy novels, she crept, crawled, jumped, walked and ran her way to the manager's room.

As expected, her dear brother was asleep, softly snoring and occasionally turning his head from one side to another. For a minute, Kanako could only stop but admire the extremely boyish face that he seemed to have acquired in his sleep, somehow accentuated by the way the blanket was spread out on top of him and not covering his feet, but once that minute was up, she shook her head, mumbling, 'I'll see that as much as I want after all is said and done.' With the same amount of skill she showed while coming there, she crept into the room, and approached the landlord. The younger manager came close enough to feel his breath tickle her face, which she kept suppressed for fear of waking him, or the tenant above, up. After an unintended, but pleasant, examination of his face up close, Kanako flipped out a pair of handcuffs and was about to roll her brother on his stomach, when his voice froze her.

"Kanako...don't do that," he mumbled in his sleep, absolutely oblivious that the target of his sleeptalk was literally inches away, frozen in shock. Said tenant could only hope that Keitaro was still asleep, but was too scared to turn around and find out for herself. As her cold and calm demeanor broke down, fear and uncertainty took over, during which Kanako could only debate whether turning around and facing him was a good idea or whether knocking him out Naru-style was a good idea. After a good five minutes of internal debating, she painfully turned around, only to see that her object of desire was fast asleep, oblivious of everything. Sighing with relief, she attempted to take out those handcuffs, but once they left the safety of the hook, the younger Urashima started fumbling with it, almost as if she was juggling two other mysterious objects along with the handcuff. After a nerve-racking half-minute's worth of tossing, she shoved them back onto the hook, desperately trying to calm herself down, which fifteen minutes' worth of breathing accomplished.

'Tonight was too freaky. I'd better retreat for now,' Kanako thought, still nervous, as she practically bolted for her room, with no care for whether she made any noise or not.

What she didn't realize was that the handcuff she just juggled with fell out of the hook, and next to Keitaro's sleeping form on his futon.

(Cue rooster here)

The Inn greeted the next morning like it always did, a calm, quiet first half-hour in daylight, followed by a concert of repetitive battle cries, crashes, explosions and laughs, often conducted by its manager, and concluded by said manager screaming until it became distant. Once the orchestra regrouped, the rest of the day passed by with occasional bursts of energy, followed by silent lapses.

During these short lapses, Kanako found herself replaying what happened the previous night, scarcely 10 hours ago. Her mind constantly replayed the snippet involving her brother unknowingly call out to her. While in retrospect, she shouldn't have let it shock her like it did, she also realized that dumb luck followed Keitaro around that seemed to help him at the strangest of times. While said luck could use a lot work on the timing, it more than just helped when it decided to rear its head out. This revelation tired Kanako significantly as her shoulders slumped forward and her eyes drooped. Kuro felt the sudden change in her mood to something it was not familiar with and gave its owner an inquisitive look. "It's nothing, Kuro-chan. Kanako just didn't get any sleep last night," she told the cat. It looked for a moment longer, and as if it accepted the reason, turned away. She continued to watch her object of affection, once again intertwined in the arms of the object of hatred, sighed and walked away from the scene, this time without the confidence and objectivity she had a day ago.

Night came again, and the Inn greeted it in the same way like it did yesterday: one light on, a million others off. Kanako tried again to "convince" her brother as she raided her arsenal and clothing. Remembering the almost-critical mistake she made the night before with the juggling, she only picked up the vials from yesterday and tucked them into the cushioned compartment in her utility belt. Once she verified that her belt was free of anything that remotely resembled dangling materials, it was back to the armoire of Goth and leather. However, instead of opening the one from last night, she decided to open the one underneath, revealing a great number of shiny articles. Hoping tonight was 'the night', she donned a PVC one-piece that only covered her front torso and her rear end with a glaring, shiny red that would put many well-maintained fire trucks to shame. While she used the same amount of stealth and grace to jump out of her room, she forgot to notice one critical factor that could throw everything up in the air.

A curious Tama flying in front of her room.

Upon reaching her brother's room, Kanako peeked in, and slightly relaxed upon seeing her brother asleep once again. Once again, she decided to take some time off and observe him sleeping. A grin adored his face tonight as he stayed still in one position; said grin created one on Kanako's usually stoic face as she couldn't help but admire the manager. It also created an even greater desire for him, in body and spirit, and the unintended side effect brought her back to reality and the task at hand. Once again, she scoped his sleeping position, but instead of getting to work immediately, she decided to sit out any more surprises Keitaro might have in his sleep. The next five minutes Kanako spent were longer than even the most intensive and painful martial arts training sessions she could remember in recent memory, for nothing happened but Keitaro shifting once to face the other side and Kanako's legs tightening up from crouching for so long. Once her mental timer buzzed, she got up and crawled back and decided to get back into action.

Little did she know, another proverbial wrench threw itself into the mechanics of her plan. As the younger manager approached the sleeping manager, another bout of attraction took a grip on her and before she knew it, Kanako found herself staring down at her brother's face, his breath tickling her once again. This time, she was helpless in stopping herself as her lips covered what little distance there was between hers and his and both closed in a chaste kiss. Suddenly, what was a kiss in a trance became a kiss in a panic, as the sleeping Keitaro unknowingly decided to turn what was an innocent spar to a full-blown battle. Kanako's eyes widened as the passion level went off the charts and Keitaro's tongue tried to break through her clenched teeth, constantly probing for a way in. In her daze and sudden infusion of wanton passion, Kanako slightly dropped her jaw, providing more than enough access for the desperate tongue to weave in and explore. Kanako moaned as the passion emanating from her sleeping unrequited lover translated into a rising heat in her own body. It was (or wasn't) helping matters, given the fact that her PCV suit was literally a second skin on top of her svelte form and it was only adding to the heat. A vicious cycle of passion becoming heat becoming passion took place as Kanako could only continue kissing as if her life depended on it.

As the battle of the lips continued, Kanako sat through all her memories, from the earliest she could remember to the most recent one yesterday. She saw images of a younger Keitaro, washing her hair in the Inn many years ago, laughing and talking like they were truly related brother and sister. Images of them running, playing and sleeping together also flashed through her mind, which temporarily made her forget about the kiss at the moment. The shower memory triggered yet another memory, one in which Keitaro was washing his little sister's hair, while saying with great enthusiasm, "Ka-chan, when we grow up, let's run this inn," he said, and finished, "together!"

Suddenly, the cycle broke, the machine came down, and all senses came back online as Keitaro started caressing Kanako's naked back. However, even though her brain yelled to stop, her body couldn't, or didn't, respond to its frantic calls, and the black-haired girl only continued her liplock with Keitaro. The brain finally galvanized the body as Keitaro's hand found itself pushing through the skintight suit covering her shapely posterior and caressing it. Shocked and confused, Kanako broke the extremely pleasant kiss and landed on her butt, feeding pain up Keitaro's arm and jerking him awake.

"Uhh? What?" he groggily asked. In the dark, and that too without his glasses, he could see nothing but one big black and gray blob, and that wasn't enough to get him to his senses. What happened next, however, did the job. Panicked, Kanako jumped up and ran out of his room like a bat out of hell, her only objective to get back into the safety of her room. The repetitive running sent strong vibrations through a futon-clad Keitaro as he jerked awake and fumbled for his glasses. By the time he donned them, however, nothing was amiss in his room but yet, he felt like something was afoot. Wrapping a robe, he stealthily walked around the Inn, up and down the floors, looking for anything to signify a break-in. A missed half-hour of sleep yielded nothing being different, so Keitaro chalked it to an overly energetic Kaolla sleepwalking and promptly fell asleep in his futon once again.

Once in the safety of her own room, Kanako sat against the wall, breathing heavily and trying to calm the raging pulse that was the byproduct of sprinting from the manager's room to hers in a matter of seconds. Her wide eyes showed shrunken pupils as her numb mind replayed what happened earlier tonight. Her left hand instinctively went up to lightly rub her lips as Kanako was reminded of the intensity of that brief moment in his room. Even simply remembering it already rose her body temperature significantly, making her fidget in her skintight suit. Throwing caution to the wind, she immediately got herself out of the suit, and if anyone was paying attention at that time of the night, he or she would've heard moans and continuous mumblings of "Brother".

(Cue rooster)

Kanako got up as her biological clock struck the hour and groggily dragged herself out of the futon. On usual days, she would be alert to her surrounding, but today was going to be anything but usual. An unusually groggy young manager simply looked at herself in the mirror, barely realizing that she was in the nude, and that some strange substance coated her hands and most of her legs. Sniffing her fingers, the scent of her own body fluids immediately brought her back to the world of the living as Kanako found a bathrobe, put it on, and made a mad dash for the hot springs like a bat out of hell. Retaining the same speed, she disrobed and immediately covered herself in the warm water, sighing as the dried fluids washed off of the skin, getting absorbed by the hot springs. For once, a smile without any malicious intent graced her features as the springs did its magic on her tired body. It also beckoned her to go back to sleep once again, taking her back a good fifteen years, to the same hot springs. Once again, two kids were in there, splashing each other, giggling and swimming like nothing mattered. As an exasperated teenage Haruka and a grinning Grandma Hina looked on, both finally settled down, fatigue catching up.

After catching their breaths, the duo got out of the springs and grabbed a pair of chairs, placing one in front of another, facing in one direction. A young Kanako sat on the front one while her only slightly older brother sat behind. He fished a hat-like cover that would keep moisture from flowing down its wearer's face and put it around Kanako's head. "Ka-chan, let's run the inn together when we grow up, okay?" he said with glee as his hands gently worked out on his younger sister's head. A beaming Kanako turned back to face a smiling adopted older brother.

"Yes! Yes!"

"Yes what, Kanako?" someone broke said girl's reverie. She looked up immediately to come face-to-face, or more like nose-to-nose, with the resident fox, Konno Mitsune. The oldest among all the females living in the Inn, Kitsune, as she insisted on being called, scrutinized the younger resident's rapidly reddening face, trying to put that and her yells earlier together. Her narrow eyes narrowed even further, if such a thing was possible, yet, no results came from her temporary intense thinking. As her bent-over physique straightened itself out to make her stand fully in her young and ogle-worthy glory, she simply decided to tease. "Let me guess, it's a boy right?"

Kanako froze. Her face registered shock as she simply looked up at the older woman, who had a smirk on her face. "And I was only kidding...my my," the platinum-haired resident murmured, mulling over her recent discovery. It was also not a mere rumor that the adopted sister of the landlord harbored more than just sibling affections for said landlord, and she also tried to use the fact that they were not blood-related to the best of her advantage. Of course, all failed when just about everyone witnessed one passionate kiss shared by her object of desire and object of hatred. "You know, just because the two of you aren't blood-related doesn't mean that you are allowed to seduce your own brother."

The younger sister gathered her wits as she faced a now-sitting Kitsune in the hot springs. "ADOPTED brother, mind you," she retorted, making extra-sure that the 'adopted' part came out with enough ketchup and mustard to make it known. "No need to worry about incest, if that's what you're worried over."

Kitsune sighed, shaking her head. Her platinum hair swayed gently back and forth as she tried to comprehend the logic of the younger Urashima. 'If anything, what they do share in common besides the family name is a rock-solid stubborn attitude in certain things,' she thought wryly, observing her under the pretense of drinking warm sake. Kanako glared at the older woman before settling for simply looking at her reflection. Just as the older woman was about to send a salvo of teases Kanako's way, she noticed the downtrodden look instead of her cold stoic look plastered on the younger manager's face. Sighing, Kitsune decided to scoot over to Kanako's position, surprising the younger woman.

"Obviously, since you're too hardheaded like your brother to listen, I'll just say one thing and shut up," Kitsune said, subdued. Her voice went down a few more decibels, "Just don't do anything stupid." Kanako stopped whatever she was doing at that moment, as the older resident's last advice bounced in her head. The advice-giver quietly left, leaving Kanako alone once again.

"Don't do anything stupid..." she whispered to herself. Suddenly, her head jerked upward, a new confidence spreading through her exhausted body, giving it an energy she realized she would need. Purposefully, she got up, walked out, dried herself, dressed and walked back into her room, her mind set on a different method. All this time, she thought, 'Don't do anything stupid.'

Once again, night came. However, Kanako didn't bother herself with choosing what piece of weaponry would go where on top of what. Instead, she fished out a simple white lingerie set and an equally simple white dress from her armoire, two sets of clothing that stuck out of her usual wardrobe like rice in a pack of barley. She donned the simple clothes, and before grabbing the door that lead out to the hallway, took a deep breath.

"Brother, please accept me tonight. I will not play any tricks."

Having said that, she stepped out of her room, and slowly walked towards the manager's room. As she took each step, her heart thumping could be heard louder and louder. Each step she took muted out one thing surrounding her at a time. After what seemed like five hours, though in reality, only five minutes passed, the younger Urashima stopped in front of the manager's room. A quick look on the door revealed no lights, and peaks on both sides of the hallway reported no one. After one more breath, she gripped the door handle, shaking worse than a leaf trying to live out a storm. Using all her willpower, she steadied herself, and gently slid the door open. However, all her tension and nervousness snapped when a single sound made itself present.

"Myuh!"

"Tama? What is that thing doing-" was all she could ask before something froze her from head to toe. Instead of seeing a lying manager, she saw a fully upright manager, sitting on a makeshift chair. The moonlight from the back darkened his features to the point that Kanako would've needed a flashlight to see it, but his semi-spiky hairstyle and lean physique, not to mention a certain flying turtle perched on his head, gave it away: Urashima Keitaro was up, and very much so.

"Kanako...we need to talk," he simply said.

Author's notes: So, how was it? I wouldn't be surprised if you folks thought OOC was in the air, but I hope the piece somewhat justified it. I'm also sure I'm going to get some flak over the rating; personally, I would've put something like PG-15 if such a thing existed. As for me, I'm going to write the final chapter. Alrighty, so...reviews and comments, okay??