Ahh, the infamous fourth chapter. Enjoy it, I worked hard.

Forgiveness

"Mutsumi!" The dimwit yelled, running through the building. 'This sucks! The fact that I'm the last to know everything that goes on here is bullshit!' He cursed himself, his fortune, and everything else in his current situation. Although he had to admit that he didn't have to fly off the handle, it wasn't entirely his fault. As he turned a corner, heading for the first floor bathroom, he violently met the business end of a certain young, dark skinned girl's miniature army of odd looking turtle shaped tanks.

"Fire," Su squealed joyfully "Enemy sighted, fire!"

"Gah!" Kietaro slumped down and hit the floor as a teensy pellet hit his stomach with all the force of a bullet train. As tears welled up in his eyes, He staggered upward, using the wall for support. "There's something wrong with your toys, Su." He coughed.

"Wazzat?" the girl asked inquisitively.

"I'm still walking, aren't I?" he gave her a wink. He had learned to have infinite patience with Su and her war toys.

"Hai!' Su smiled and put a hand up to her face in a half-cocked salute. Keitaro patted her head and continued running. He stopped in his tracks and turned.

"Oh, Su?" he craned his neck toward her.

"Hmm?" she purred, lowering her salute.

"Have you seen Mutsumi?" He asked

"Oh…" she lowered her head in a solemn bow.

"What's wrong, what happened?" Keitaro started walking back toward Su. She raised her head, smiling.

"Nope!" Su laughed, and ran away, her trusty tanks following. The young landlord just stared after her. ' weird…'

Mutsumi

Crying, the woman stumbled into the kitchen. Throwing what was left of the groceries onto the counter, she slumped down, back against the cabinets, and finally just let the tears come. Stupid men and their overreactions. She wasn't crying from the fight, but mostly from her skinned knees and bleeding nose. It really hurt. She curled into a ball and tipped into a fetal position on the hardwood floor. As the blood formed a pool near her face, she stared down at the most beautiful ruby red liquid. It was getting into her hair. She thought back on Motoko, Keitaro, that stupid apple.

Wiping her nose, she got up. She could feel her knees aching. They shuddered as she tried to balance herself. She heard footsteps. Guiding herself along the wall, she quickly slinked out of the kitchen.

Keitaro (again)

"The grocery bag?" Keitaro gazed upon the brown paper sack hastily thrown onto the counter top. As he walked toward the bag, his foot almost slipped out from under him. Kneeling down, he swiped his finger through the liquid. 'Blood?'

"It's a damn shame nobody's home to see how you've totally messed up this time, Onii-chan" Konoko walked in behind him, empty sake glass in her hands. She placed it in the sink and walked over to where the boy was kneeling.

"Don't you have a séance to go to or something?" Keitaro snapped.

"Oh, that one really hurt." She quipped, slapping him on the back of the head. "You know, she's probably in her room, you idiot."

"There's blood on the floor." Kitsune walked into the room, all squinty-eyed with drunkenness. "Mop it up," she burped, grabbing a bottle of wine out of the refrigerator.

"I thought that you, Naru, and Shinobu were out?" Keitaro asked.

"Correction, they are out. I decided to stay in, I-" she stopped, thought about it, and walked out of the room.

"Well… That was productive. Keitaro, go fix your mess, I'll clean up." Konoko said, shaking her head.

"Th-thanks." He nodded, turning and walking to Mutsumi's bedroom. But as he strode past the second floor bath, he noticed someone was in the new private shower. He slid open the door, and found Mutsumi's clothes scattered on the carpet in front of the bath tub. He could see the slender form of her body through the curtain. He walked into the light mist of the bathroom and closed the door behind him.

"Who's there?" Mutsumi's sing-song voice came from behind the curtain.

"It's me," Keitaro said shakily, taking notice of the bloodstains on the blouse that lay strewn on the floor. "Are you alright?"

"Oh, you." Her voice sounded pained again. "What do you want?"

"I just wanted to find you to see if you were okay, there's blood trailing through practically the whole building."

"Well, when my nose bleeds, it pretty much pours. Not to mention my knees and hands."

"Look, I'm really so-"

"I don't need your apologies, Kei-kun. I know you meant no harm." She said smoothly, poking her head out from behind this shower's drapes. She was smiling, and her nose had stopped bleeding. She receded back into the confines of the little square of ceramic tile, and turned the water off.

"Towel please, Keitaro?" She asked.

"Oh. Sure." He obeyed absent mindedly. Turning his head down and closing his eyes out of both respect and embarrassment as the beauty stepped out of her shower. He felt her hand on his chin, gently lifting his head upward. Their eyes met, and the world around them seemed to freeze.

She moved her hand to the back of his neck and pulled him closer to herself.

"I want to tell you something, Keitaro." She whispered into his ear.

"Yes, Mutsumi?" The shocked and very dazed young man replied. She backed up a bit, so that they were right in from of each other.

"I love you." She whispered. The young man was taken aback. Where did thid come from? Though he didn't have time to ponder as she smashed her lips against his.

Dreams come true.

Well, that's it for this installment. Stay tuned, children! Oh, and, in your comment, tell me if I should write out a love scene for the next chapter taking place in the bathroom, right at the moment this chapter ended, or if I should just skip to afterward. Either way, they're hooking up. Just, with the second option, you wont have to read about it.