Chapter thirteen (Ending one)
Motoko shivered. It had gotten a lot colder in the past few days, and she hadn't gotten used to it yet. She still wasn't positive if it was really the cold, or just the absence of warmth within herself, though. The fact that the temperature drop had come the first day of Keitaro's absence was just a little too convenient for her to ignore.
She shrugged, and continued her kata. Her feet danced around the rooftop, weaving intricate patterns that no human eye could follow. Her blade sliced through the air, carving it into a thousand filaments with every swing. She was a vision of perfection as she nimbly bounced hither and yon about the rooftop. On the surface, anyway.
Inside, Motoko was a wreck. Two days ago, Keitaro had left her to "collect his thoughts," in his words. Soon after that, Motoko had gathered her friends and told them both of her mishap, and their decision regarding it. They'd offered what comfort they could, and then everything had more or less resumed its pace as per normal. Motoko had gone to train, Kitsune had settled down with some sake to watch the races, and Su had dragged Shinobu off to test some new invention.
Motoko hadn't been able to train then, though. She'd gone back to her room and stared at the wall for a long time. She'd tried many things to perk herself up, and eventually found herself continuing an old story that she hadn't thought about in years. A silly, pulp romance thing she'd written back in the days when she was mooning over Keitaro. Silly, yes, but still fun to write. After all, those stories could mean something to someone in the future, so she'd never thrown any of them away.
It hadn't taken her mind off Keitaro, rather, it had made it worse. She started weeping mid-composition, but ignored it. She didn't want to allow herself to feel so weak over a simple two-day absence. She ignored her tears and let them fall onto the paper until it grew so damp she had to re-write a page. She had given up and slept, then, but badly.
Here she was, now, at the end of that horrible, dragging two
(hundred thousand million)
days. Keitaro was... where? She didn't know. He still hadn't come back from wherever it was that he'd gone. Motoko had resolved to stay awake until he arrived, though. Partly to berate him for making her worry so, but mostly just so she could kiss him. (It's strange,) Motoko thought, (how familiar kissing him begins to feel to me. How familiar having him near to me is beginning to feel... I do wonder what he's decided with his time spent thinking. I hope he's not running away...) Motoko stopped. Blocked out all conscious thought and physical movement. She looked around for something to concentrate on, and found a small imperfection on the floorboard she was standing on. She gazed.
All thoughts fell away. Her world came to consist of herself and that small mark on the wood. She trapped her seditious, hurtful inner monologue inside it and didn't open the door for a full five minutes. She slowly relaxed her fierce concentration. It wouldn't do to start that again. Not until Keitaro comes home at the very least. (...and he will come home,) she added to herself. She walked downstairs. She needed a drink. She'd been practicing for near three hours now.
The phone rang as she was coming out of the kitchen. Ring, ring. That same noise it had made when Keitaro picked it up that day, and ironically enough, just as significant. She answered.
"Moshi moshi, Hinata-sou." She kept it formal when using the phone, as she always did. Whoever it was replied without hesitation.
"Moshi moshi, is Kitsune there?"
"Yes, I believe so... Let me go fetch her for you." Motoko put the phone down and walked out into the common area, only to find a note on the couch next to a large stain that appeared to be sake. It read:
I've just gone out to pick up my winnings. Finally picked a good horse this time.
-KitsuneMotoko sighed. Forever the unorthodox one would be Kitsune.
She returned to the phone.
"I'm very sorry, but she's not here. She left to pick up some money at the racetrack. I could take a message for you, if you'd like."
"...Motoko?" All of sudden, it clicked. This was Naru. She felt a hot flush take hold of her face, and the guilty feelings she'd had that day came flooding back. She couldn't say anything. She just listened to Naru's breath. She held her own breath; for fear that letting it out would start something she didn't want. Naru spoke again.
"Motoko... are you still there? Please, if you are, speak up. I need to talk to you."
"I... I'm still here, Naru-san."
"Good. I need to say this." Motoko gulped and prepared herself to be verbally lambasted to the point of tears. It wouldn't be anything she didn't deserve, kami knew.
"I don't blame you for what happened, Motoko. I realize now that I was begging for it to happen. You all loved him, and I knew that. Still, though, I treated him so coldly most of the time... I'd only show affection when nobody was looking. I kept my kisses in the closet, and he hated it. I could tell. So... I've come to realize that this is a little of my fault, as well."
"..." Motoko was silent. Naru had stopped talking, and Motoko couldn't think of a way to reply to that. She was shocked. Now, two out of three corners of their peculiar little triangle had shifted some of the blame away from her. She was the only one who still thought it to be entirely her fault. How could she respond to this?
"Motoko... I don't want to lose either of you to this. I need time, but I will return. Would that be all right with you? Would you... like to see me again, sometime?" Motoko gulped at Naru's new words. If Naru was going to return after her baby was born, what new horrors would this summon? She thought briefly about telling her right now, as to deter her from returning, but thought better of it. Instead, she left the subject be entirely.
"I... I'd like that. I think Keitaro would, too." She kept her reply tactful, not in any way betraying the romance that had become prevalent between them recently. Naru seemed happy to hear this.
"Yeah, I know he would. I got the chance to talk to him a couple of days ago when he picked up the phone by mistake. I'm still so angry at him, but it was good to hear his voice." Motoko took a second meaning in those words, and posed a question.
"Does that mean you're still angry with me, as well?"
"Well, yes. You two did me grievous emotional harm, and I don't think I'll ever forget it, but I can forgive. Give me time, is all. Notice you don't see me coming home tomorrow." Naru laughed, and all at once Motoko could hear a certain iciness behind it. Naru was intent on coming back and whisking Keitaro back into her arms, Motoko could see it now. She was going to be sorely surprised when she returned (Or so I hope...) her thoughts added.
"Well, I can understand that, Naru-san. The doors of this place will always be open to you. I'll tell Kitsune that you called, okay?"
"Okay, Motoko-chan. Goodbye."
(click)
Motoko sat down heavily on the nearest thing she could; this happened to be a small stool next to the table that held the phone on it. She sighed, and took a sip of tea. (Well, this certainly puts things at a new angle.) Motoko's thoughts wandered to dangerous places while she drank, not even trying to stop them this time. (She said she talked to him two days ago... Maybe she convinced him to go to her in England? What if Keitaro's... gone?)
"NO!!" She started, and looked around her. Her fists had hit the table she was sitting at, and they had splitered it. Her teacup was smashed, and she had cut herself in three places from the wreckage. She still didn't realize that she'd spoken aloud.
"What do you mean, 'No'?" A voice. It had come from the doorway. It was male. She dared to risk a glance. Him.
"Keitaro!" She leaped from her seat and ran over to him, falling onto him and smothering him with kisses. She gripped him so tightly that after a moment or two he said:
"Ano, Motoko-chan... I'm sorry to interrupt the moment, but you're hurting me." She looked at herself and saw that she had him in a vise-like grip. She relaxed. Loosened her arms. She kissed him more. More, and more. Kisses came and kisses went, and still she had to kiss him. He stopped her after a few minutes.
"Motoko-chan, I think we should sit down and talk about... our situation. After all, the reason I left was to think of a plan, ne?" He laughed, and put an arm behind his head. He looked adorable. She kissed his nose.
"Of course, Keitaro-kun. Come, let's go to my room. We will have more privacy up there." She took his hand and began to lead him upstairs. (Privacy?) he thought, as they ascended the staircase, (The Hinata-sou looks like it's totally empty, though...) Before he had time to think much more about anything, though, he found himself in Motoko's room. She sat crosslegged on her futon, and there was a chair up next to the wall, empty. He took it. She spoke.
"So, Keitaro-kun. Tell me what you've been thinking about these past two days." He took a breath, clasped his hands on his lap, and began.
"Ano, soon after I left, I decided that I'd probably have an easier time of deciding where to go if I went to the train station. Y'know, I could look at all possible destinations and then just pick one."
"Like throwing darts at a phone book." Motoko supplied.
"Something like that, I guess, but I didn't end up getting on a train at all. I ran into Mutsumi-san, you remember her.
"Of course, though I haven't seen her in a while," Motoko said, with a gleam of ice in her words, "and what did you two get up to?" Keitaro missed the jealous note, something that Motoko was glad for. She didn't want to be like Naru, pushing Keitaro away with coldness.
"Well, we went for a walk to catch up on some things. You'd think she went to a different university than I, we see each other so infrequently. On our walk, I told her of our situation here. She invited me to come stay with her for the weekend so I could save money and have a listening ear all at the same time." Keitaro got up and walked over to Motoko's futon, and sat down on it next to her. He put a hand on her leg. His touch sent all kinds of wonderful feelings through her.
"Wasn't she... well, a little disappointed with the news?" Motoko had to ask. "She's always had a very... well, large, obvious soft spot for you, Keitaro-kun." He didn't even look nervous as he replied, which made Motoko feel much better. Keitaro was an awful liar; he must be telling the truth.
"Well, she was, but she was still very sympathetic and attentive. She listened, and she made me look at the situation with a new light. I used to see it as a curse; not just for me but for both of us. I mean, there are a lot of things we have to change now, ne?" Motoko nodded, but Keitaro didn't let her say anything before pressing on. "Motoko-chan, she made me realize that this is not bad, this is just different. Life throwing one of its famous curveballs at us, you know? I think that us, raising a baby, would be... well, something to remember, ne?"
Motoko stared at him. His face was honest and open. She knew he would never hurt her. She knew that if there was one man, no, one person in the whole world that she could get through this with, it was him. She hugged him tight, and spoke.
"Keitaro-kun, it would indeed be something to remember. Would and will."
"There is one thing I'm worried about, though. Tsuruko. What will we tell her?" Motoko shuddered against him, and he noted that. (I'm guessing, from that, that she still hasn't thought of anything to say at all, if she's even thought of telling her yet.) Keitaro thought. Motoko spoke again.
"Ano... I've not really thought of how to break this to her yet. It's going to be a disaster no matter which way we come at it, though. I'm young, I'm not married, and—" Motoko stopped. She stopped because when she said that, Keitaro had reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black, velvet-covered something. A box.
"Something I picked up on over in America. They have so many interesting traditions, but this one particularly struck me." She barely heard him.
"Wh-what would that be?"
"Well, in America, when someone desires to marry someone else, they get on their knees and they offer them a ring. Over there they generally use gold set with a small diamond, but I thought you might like this better." Keitaro got up, then knelt in front of the futon, bowing his head. He extended his hand that was holding the something, which she now knew to be a box. It was open, and lying on the silken cushion therein were twin jade bands. Each one had incredibly fine kanji characters carved on the inside face. They read: 'New beginnings'. Motoko couldn't speak. She reached out and took one of the rings.
She held it up, placing it and her hand above her bedside lamp. The jade caught the light that rose from the bulb as steam from a boiling pot, and threw it back into her eyes in a thousand, no a million, different pieces. It was beautiful. She slid it onto her finger, still not saying a word, and turned to Keitaro.
"Ano... is that a yes, then?" Motoko face-vaulted, then jumped to her feet, brandishing her newly adorned fist in his face.
"Baka! Of course it is! Would you even doubt what I feel for you now?!" Keitaro recoiled in fear, and she mentally hit herself. (There I go again. I've got to stop pushing him from me like this. Keitaro doesn't have nerves to match his invincible body, and I don't want to go the way of Naru...) she spoke again, her tone softer this time. "Keitaro-kun, I'm sorry. I... I accept." Keitaro grinned at her.
"Well then, I've solved another of our problems for us, then, ne?" Motoko was puzzled.
"What problem are you referring to, precisely?
"The problem of what to tell Tsuruko. She would most certainly understand why you are pregnant if she found out you'd taken a husband, wouldn't she?" Motoko thought about this. She was supposed to carry on the Shinmeiryuu school, yes, but so was Tsuruko, at one point or another. Things had just... changed, that's all. Perhaps something else could be arranged.
"That's certainly possible... You know, Tsuruko was supposed to inherit the school at one point herself, before she took a husband."
"Well then, why don't the two of us go see her sometime in the near future to talk about it? I've got no classes on the weekend."
"...Keitaro, you baka, nobody has classes this weekend. There's a paleontology conference going on there Friday through Sunday." Keitaro face-vaulted, then righted himself, put an arm behind his head and laughed.
"Oh, of course. I'm sorry, Motoko-chan, I forget the dumbest things sometimes." Motoko smiled herself, then reached out her hand and caressed his arm gently.
"I wouldn't have you any other way, you know that?"
"Yeah, I know."
They kissed, then, because nothing else would have sufficed to fill the moment. After another few minutes, fiancé and fiancée were sound asleep; each wrapped in the body heat of another; preparing themselves for the journey and inevitable confrontation that Friday's coming would mean.
End Chapter thirteen
((Well, whatch'all think? I liked this chapter notsomuch as some of the others, but I feel it does my vision of the Keitaro/Motoko ending much justice. This is going to be the happier of the two endings, but they will both be happy in the end, I promise. I'm going to put an epilogue on the end of each of them that will depict things as being totally hunky-dory, and it will all make sense and work out. I can do it, for I am a genius!
Now, as I always say: REVIEW, PLEASE! :D))