Love Hina


Disclaimer: This episode of Love Hina is of my own creation. I do not own any portion of Love Hina. "Love Hina" and all related characters, names, etc. are ©1999-2004 Ken Akamatsu/Mixx Entertainment Inc. Love Hina is a trademark of TOKYOPOP®. All rights reserved.

Note: This series takes after the "Love Hina" manga since I haven't seen any of the anime. I keep on hearing some of the major differences between it and the manga, and it saddens me that they would change the original story so much. It sucks, but I will eventually watch them to see for myself. I promise.


Different Promises
Chapter 10:
Motoko's Departure



Keitaro groggily opens his eyes, the bright early morning sunlight waking him up. Grumbling to himself, he gets up from the couch and stretches from side to side, hearing his joints crick and pop as he does so. He looks over at the couch he was just sleeping on, rubbing the back of his head. "Man, that wasn't as comfortable as I thought it was gonna be. I should probably buy a new couch just in case one of the girls decides to fall asleep on it, I don't want any of them to feel like I do right now." Storing it away on his mental 'To Do:' list, he shakes his head, getting himself fully awake before he walks upstairs to his room to get his clothes for the day.

On his way up, he bumps into an equally sleepy looking Shinobu, who is on her way downstairs. "Good morning Shinobu," he kindly greets.

"Oh, good morning sempai," the young girl responds, pausing for a moment to yawn slightly. "What were you doing downstairs so early in the morning?"

Keitaro rubs the back of his head with an embarrassed smile. "Well I was sleeping on the couch. Motoko went in my room last night and we talked for a bit. She then fell asleep and I didn't want to disturb her so I let her sleep on my futon."

The youngest member of the Hinata House holds in her feelings of deep jealousy directed at the samurai girl for getting so close to her sempai. 'I wish I could sleep in sempai's futon…maybe with sempai in it,' she thinks with a heavy blush.

Unfortunately for her, the landlord notices and kneels down so they are eye level. "Are you okay Shinobu, you're looking a little red." He places his hand on her forehead. "You're pretty warm, are you coming down with something?"

Shinobu backs off quickly, her face reddening even more. "N-N-No!" She stammers out. "I'm fine sempai! I really am!" She backs down the steps, trying to make a getaway. "I-I have to make breakfast for everyone so I'll see you in a little bit sempai!"

Keitaro reaches out and rubs the top of her head affectionately, a fond smile on his face. "You know, you're so kind and caring of everyone here. You're a really special young woman Shinobu." He turns around with a wave, heading upstairs.

The young girl feels her knees buckle. "He…he called me a young woman!" she whispers, placing a hand over her rapidly beating heart. "Oh sempai…"

______

Keitaro reaches his door and is about to slide it open when the self-preserving part of his brain sharply reminds him why he was sleeping downstairs on the couch on the first place. Thanking that part of his mind, he knocks on the door lightly and waits for a response. When none comes, he inches the door open and peeks inside. Motoko is sleeping soundly on his futon, her face buried in his pillow. Smiling to himself, the young man creeps inside and past Motoko to his dresser, opening it and grabbing some clothes. He takes off the shirt he is wearing and places it on the floor, unaware that he is being watched.

The young samurai woman awoke the moment Keitaro entered the room, her years of heavy training alerting her to the extra presence coming towards her. She instantly calmed when she recognized Urashima's calm and inviting aura. She turns her head and cracks open an eye as she hears him open his dresser and dig through it. A faint blush graces her cheeks as he removes his shirt, leaving him dressed only on his boxers. Memories of earlier in the previous day when she saw him in a similar state in the shower pop into her head, only last time she didn't get a good look at him before he screamed at both her and Narusegawa to get out. This time, her eyes drink in his lean figure without hesitation. As he puts on a white button up shirt and begins to button it up, she accidentally lets out a small sigh of disappointment. Her eyes widen as she realizes what she just did.

Keitaro pauses as he hears a soft sigh coming from his left. He turns and sees Motoko beginning to sit up, a guilty expression on her face. "Good morning Motoko!" he greets. He then notices the digital clock on his dresser and it is now six o' clock in the morning. A large sweatdrop forms on the back of his head. "Heh, sorry if I woke you up, I was trying to be real quiet. Guess I messed up," he adds, rubbing the back of his head.

"No, you didn't," she begins, slowly getting up and making sure that the oversized shirt she is wearing is covering her appropriately, "I normally awake around this time to meditate before my morning training." The young woman suddenly looks away embarrassedly. "I am sorry for intruding into here like I did last night and bother you with my problems…it's just…" she trails off as Keitaro walks up to her and places a hand on her shoulder.

"Hey, you don't need to say you're sorry for anything. Even though I was part of your problems, I'm glad that I could help. I just want you and the rest of the girls to be happy here." He begins to blush lightly. "So now that you're awake, is it okay if you can leave my room so I can finish getting dressed?" Motoko nods once before turning around and leaving. Keitaro's eyes can't help but watch the samurai girl as she leaves, soaking in her long, shapely legs and how much he can see of them while she's in that shirt, almost to the point where her panty clad rear is about to show. The young man quickly shakes his head to get rid of the numerous dirty thoughts. He rushes over to the door and closes it. 'Man, what's gotten into me?' he thinks to himself in surprise. 'I mean, I've always been interested in girls…but never this interested before. Haitani and Shirai would be proud of me,' he adds with a chuckle. He leans over and pulls one of his legs into his pants. "This place is starting to bring out the pervert in me."

______

A couple of hours have passed and everybody has awakened and are currently enjoying another delicious breakfast from Shinobu, although almost everyone is distracted by Motoko, who has brought her traveling bag and her sword, which is wrapped up, to the table with her. Kitsune decides to break the ice. "Say Motoko, what's with the stuff ya got there?" Everybody stops eating to look at her, wondering what her response will be.

The young swordswoman calmly places her chopsticks down onto her plate. "I apologize for bringing this up so suddenly, but I will be leaving in just a little a bit for three days for the kendo club's training camp."

Naru sweatdrops slightly. "You're right, this is really sudden. So the camp's an overnight one?"

"Yes, and I will be leaving as soon as I have changed after I finish my breakfast." She picks her chopsticks back up and begins to eat again. The rest of the group shrugs their shoulders and resumes eating as well, except for Su, who is giving her sleeping companion an odd look.

Kitsune pauses from her meal when she feels a deep shiver run down her spine. 'What the hell was that?' she thinks to herself. 'Oh well,' she begins, a sly smile appearing on her face. 'Now that Motoko's gonna be out of the picture for a few days, I'll have Keitaro all to myself! Now I can finally go out with him and not worry about her sneaking around and stalking us or something.' She takes a sip of her sake. 'You better be ready Keitaro, cause I'm gonna give you the time of your life!'

______

A little while later, breakfast is finished and the group splits to go do their own things for the day. Keitaro walks up to Motoko's room and is about to knock on her door when it suddenly opens and the swordswoman emerges, wearing her school uniform. The second she looks at him, she turns her head away in shame. "I am sorry for not telling you of this sooner. It had completely slipped my mind. I only remembered earlier while I was meditating. Please do not be upset with me."

Keitaro rubs the back of his head. "Uh…I actually just wanted to tell you to have fun and have a safe trip."

Motoko blushes slightly, now feeling a bit foolish. "Oh…I…thank you," she replies with a formal bow. She quickly looks around to see if anybody is watching. Satisfied that nobody is, she leans forwards and embraces the young man. "I will miss you."

The landlord tenses for a few moments, but relaxes and returns the hug. "Yeah, I'll miss you too," he replies. They back off one another and make their way downstairs, where everybody else has congregated to say bye to their friend. As the samurai girl kneels down and puts on her shoes, Kitsune walks up to her, a light smile gracing her features. "Don't get me wrong, but isn't camp kinda…high-schoolish?" She leans in and whispers into her ear, "Oh and don't worry about Keitaro, I'll take real good care of him for you!"

The young swordswoman sharply stands up to her full height, which is just about six inches taller then the older woman. "There are two things I want you to remember Konno," she responds in an emotionless, yet quite intimidating voice. "One: I am a high school Sophomore, and Two: if you attempt to do anything morally wrong with him, when I return I will treat you as if you are a vile, perverted male, and you know how I despise them," she finishes with a low hiss.

Kitsune holds in the deep shudder that is longing to come out, knowing all too well that her threat is quite sound…and how painful it will be if she tries anything funny. 'Damn,' her mind grumbles, 'and I had such fun plans in store for him.' She sighs lightly and frowns at the other young woman. "Alright, alright, I won't try anything funny with him…that he doesn't want to do," she adds in a completely inaudible whisper to herself.

Motoko nods once and then grabs her gear, preparing to depart. The rest of the group shouts, "Have a safe trip!" as she raises a hand to wave goodbye. As the group begins to break up, Kitsune notices Su, who is still waving slightly, a lost look on her face. Sudden past memories pop into her mind and her body stiffens up in thought. Thinking quickly, she begins to rush away, grabbing Shinobu and taking her along too. "Time to hide Shinobu!"

"Huh? Why" the younger girl asks, looking very confused.

As they make a hasty getaway inside, Keitaro watches Motoko leave, both of his hands resting on the back of his head. 'It sucks that she's going to be gone,' he thinks to himself, 'but at least it's for only three days.' His eyebrows rise slightly as he senses a presence nearing him. He looks over to his right as Su closes the distance between them, grabbing his arm with an innocent smile. "Um…hi Su," he responds, both he and Naru, who is several feet from him, looking confused as the young foreign girl giggles at him, still holding his arm.

From inside, Kitsune and Shinobu watch, the older looking relieved, yet also disappointed. "Damn, looks like Keitaro's the new victim." She shakes her head slightly. 'And there goes all my fun plans for him,' she mentally adds with a near growl.

Shinobu watches Kitsune, still looking confused. "I don't get it, is there something wrong with Su?"

"You know how Su always needs to latch onto somebody?" She waits for the younger girl to nod before continuing. "Well, being her play partner is really, really difficult. Even I had trouble with her!"

"Oh," Shinobu begins in realization, "now that you mention it, you were Su's play partner before Motoko came, weren't you?"

Kitsune nods slightly. "Yep, I'm the one who taught her Japanese too." She suddenly places a hand on her cheek, blushing deeply. "Physically, Motoko's the only one with the strength to keep up with Su, especially at night. Boy, is that rough!" She pauses for a moment as a deep shudder runs down her spine. "Just thinking about it gives me the chills!"

The youngest member of the Hinata House blushes as well, a shocked look on her face. "Huh? At…at night?"

______

For the next couple of hours, Keitaro goes about his daily duties as landlord, cleaning and inspecting around for anything that needs to be either repaired or replaced. The only thing that is off about this picture is the fact that Su has been staying close to him the entire time, whether she is just holding onto his arms, getting a piggyback ride from him or wrapping her legs around his neck and swinging upside down behind him like a pendulum. Finally, Keitaro's patience wears out. He stops in his tracks, unlatches the young girl's legs from his neck and lifts them high up behind him. As he feels her place her hands on the back of his legs, he lets go and she flips her legs backwards, gracefully landing on her feet with a large smile on her face. The landlord rubs the back of his head. "Um Su, not that its bothering me or anything, but why are you following me around?"

"Cause I like you!" the foreign girl answers with a giggle. "You're fun!"

The young man raises an eyebrow at her strange behavior. "Well I like you too, but now I have to go to my room and tally in the costs for the repairs and the monthly rent for you girls." He starts to walk away, but Su leaps onto him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a death grip.

"But I wanna stay with you! I promise not to make a peep so come on, please?" The faintest traces of tears appear in the corners of her eyes, which have now retained the puppy dog look. "I promise I won't get in the way of your work! C'mon Keitaro!"

The Tokyo U student's shoulders slump as he sighs deeply. "Alright, okay! Just…don't cry anymore, okay?"

The tears and the sad look instantly vanish and Su begins to giggle, "Okies!" as Keitaro face faults onto the ground.

______

Keitaro sits in his room, mulling over several papers, each of which concern money, whether it be for intake or outtake. The first sheet is the basic costs for living, which mainly includes all of the regular utilities. The second sheet has the costs of all of the supplies, daily maintenance and repairs done lately, which is rather large, seeing as how the Hinata House has been in such a bad state of disrepair for quite some time. The final sheet has down all of the girl's names and their monthly rent, which is due soon. The young man tries to concentrate to see how much he will need to withdraw from his newly acquired funds for the dorm for this month, but cannot. The main source why he can't is currently swinging from his ceiling light.

Su, completely against her promise earlier, is making as much noise and a ruckus as humanly possible, probably even more so. The young foreigner, while swinging from his light, kicks down his closet door and mutters, "Oopsie, I broke it," before proceeding to run inside it, tossing clothing and boxes everywhere. From there, she leaps onto his bookshelf and digs through it. "Hmm, no dirty magazines?" she thinks out loud. The young girl then climbs atop of it and looks around. "Wow, this is a pretty clean room!" As she hops off, several books fall to the floor. Su proceeds to rush over to Keitaro and peer over his shoulder. Her eyes lock on her name written down on the paper with everyone else's for the monthly rent dues. "Hey, that's me!"

"Yes Su," the landlord replies, his right eye twitching slightly. "I'm trying to figure out how much everything is going to cost for this month." He suddenly stands up and walks over to the tea sat he has against his wall. He picks up the kettle, frowning as he feels how light it is. "Damn, um, Su? Can you stay in here while I go downstairs and get some water so I can make us some tea?"

The young girl stands rigid, going into a sharp salute. "Aye aye sir!"

Keitaro chuckles at her rambunctious behavior. "I'll be back in just a minute." He takes a few steps out of his door when a petite body flying into him from behind suddenly knocks him forward and the two go tumbling straight for the stairs.

______

Down on the main floor, Naru walks out of the kitchen with a small tray of snacks. "Thank you Shinobu," she calls into the kitchen, "these will be perfect for me to snack on while I study."

"You're welcome Naru," the young chef replies, smiling her sweet smile.

As the long haired young woman walks into the living room, she spots Kitsune lounging on the couch, flipping through the channels with the remote control and sipping some of her saké. "What's wrong, no horse races today?"

The fox eyed girl looks up and smirks at her best friend. "No, they were on earlier. I did pretty well this time. I won enough to pay rent for the next couple of months and still have enough to get some nice sake!" she finishes with a large smile. "So you off to study?"

"Yeah," she replies. "The mock placement test is coming up real soon, so I have to study hard and see how good my chances are at making it into Tokyo U."

"Well good luck girl." Kitsune raises her bottle up towards her friend before lowering it back down and taking a sip.

Naru shakes her head with a smile. "Thanks." She then makes her way over to the stairs. 'I can do it!' her mind cheers on. 'I've been studying for the last two years and I've gotten the top scores on the last couple of practice tests. There's no way I can fail!" She is about halfway up to the second floor when a loud ruckus in front of her catches her attention. She looks up and her eyes go wide as she sees both Keitaro and Su tumbling down the stairs, coming straight for her. "Oh sh---mmph!" what she says is cut off as they collide and she becomes part of the human wrecking ball. As they hit the railing, their combined weight proves to be too much for the old thing and it breaks, sending the three young people on a crash course for the floor below.

Kitsune looks up from her programs as she hears all the noise above her. "Hey you guys, could you shut the hell…" she pauses as a large shadow appears overhear, belonging to the three tangled people who are about to fall right on top of her. Her eyes open slightly and she mutters a quick, "Oh," before Keitaro, Su and Naru fall onto her with a tremendous *SMASH!*

Keitaro is the first to open his eyes and assess the damage. The couch Kitsune was lying on has crumpled under them, meaning he has even more reason to get a new one. Su and Naru are sprawled out on top of him and Kitsune, being quite lucky, rolled a bit to the side before getting hit. She is right next to the landlord, also pinned down by the two younger women on top of her. Keitaro checks where his arms are. His right is wrapped around the top of what's left of the couch. He tries to move his left, but it is stuck under the girls somewhere. Being brave, or quite foolish considering where he is living and his position right now, he moves his fingers a bit, feeling Kitsune tense up next to him. "Whoever's doing that," she begins, "please stop. That really tickles."

"Sorry," Keitaro mutters, but moves his fingers again for good measure, chuckling slightly as a small giggle escapes the fox eyed woman. His body suddenly goes extremely stiff as he feels a hand start to move down where it shouldn't be.

Naru moans softly as she regains consciousness. "Ouch that hurt," she says, her anger pointed towards the extremely nervous young man below her. As she begins to push herself up, she stops as her hand rests on something. "Hey, what's this big thing?" she wonders out loud. Because of her position, she can't see what it is she is holding on to. She adjusts her grip so she is holding it better, not noticing Keitaro below her, who is now trembling from nervousness at his current predicament. "Wow, this is strange," she begins, "it's getting even bigger and real hard!" She hears Kitsune gasp under her, the slightly older woman realizing what's being held onto.

Just then, Su sits up and shakes her head, getting her hair out of her face. "That was fun!" she cheers. "I'm going back up the stairs and wait for you to come up so we can do it again Keitaro!" she giggles as she leaps off the small group and rushes up the stairs.

With the young girl's weight now off of them, Naru begins to get off as well, but now she finally gets to see what she has a very good handful of. Screaming out in surprise, she jumps off of Keitaro and Kitsune, a mortified look on her face. She places a hand over her mouth, but then remembers that that is the hand she was just gripping Keitaro's best friend with. She jumps back again with another scream, holding her hand away from her as if it were poison, too shocked to even say a single word.

Kitsune gets up and angrily makes her way to her friend. Her fingers twitch slightly, just itching to slap her friend. Holding that urge back, she opts to yell at her instead. "Damn it Naru!" she shouts, getting her friend to flinch back in surprise, "could you stop all of this pervy crap! When Keitaro first got here, all you could say about him was how much of a pervert he was, or actually how much of a pervert you thought he was, but if anybody's the pervert here, it's you." As the long haired young woman begins to respond, Kitsune holds up a hand to quiet her. "Don't stop me now, I'm on a roll," she begins. "Now Keitaro's a guy, and all guys are gonna have some naughty thoughts and stuff now and then, they can't help it, especially if one's living in an all girl's dorm, but I haven't seen him do anything perverted in any way." She pokes the other girl in the chest, getting her point through more thoroughly. "You were the one who was staring at him naked in the shower and you're the one who was just groping him like there's no tomorrow!"

After she finishes this, Keitaro, who was beginning to stand up, albeit rather shakily, falls back to the floor, his face flaming from embarrassment. 'Oh God,' he thinks, 'why did she have to remind me of that?!'

Naru tries to cover her face to hide how red she is, but is doesn't work since even her hair has somehow reddened up in her embarrassment and shame. She is about to weakly respond, when a soft whimpering to the side gathers up everyone's attention. Shinobu is standing at the entrance to the living room from the hallway, her hands tightly gripping her apron, tears welling up in her now extreme puppy dog eyes. "Y-You were doing…bad things to sempai?" she says in a barely audible whimper. "How…how could you?" she adds with a large sob before darting through the living room and out the front door.

The young Tokyo U aspirant takes one look at her best friend, who has placed her hands on her hips and still looks upset, and then over to Keitaro, who is too embarrassed to even look her way. With a sigh, Naru takes off after the young chef in hopes to calm her down. The landlord's tenseness instantly leaves as Naru leaves the Hinata House. He begins to walk towards the stairs, in hopes of going to his room and trying to forget everything that has just occurred, when a hand on his shoulder stops him. "You're not getting away that easily buddy," Kitsune begins, trying to sound stern but coming off more as playful.

Keitaro turns around, his body tensing in preparation for being either hit or yelled at, or one then the other. After a few tense moments, nothing happens. He slowly cracks open an eye to see what is going on, and notices that Kitsune is still standing a little in front of him, not looking like she is getting ready to hit him. With a sigh of relief, his body relaxes, quite foolishly not witnessing the sly smile spread across the young woman's face. Without warning, she grabs his arm and proceeds to drag him towards the stairs. "K-Kitsune!" he begins, "what are you doing?"

Her plain response is, "You owe me."

"Uh…what for?"

The fox eyed girl stops dragging him along for a moment to turn around and look him straight in the eye. "We have have kissed once or twice, but when it comes to the more fun things, Naru's now got two over me, and I intend to change that right now," she finishes while licking her lips seductively.

Keitaro's eyes widen and he begins to pull away from the slightly younger woman to escape, but strangely enough, she is keeping him in place. "Come on!" he whines, his voice trembling slightly. "Don't fool around like this Kitsune! It's not funny!"

Kitsune then pulls the landlord very close, her breasts squishing up against him and instantly making him sweat. "I'm not fooling around with you," she says, her voice a bit deeper and sexier than normal, "at least, not yet."

All current activity in Keitaro's brain comes to a screeching halt after this, a deep shiver running down his spine, as well as a jolt of activity from his 'buddy' downstairs. "Um…uh…Kitsune, I'm not too sure that we should…we shouldn't do anything. I-I don't think I'm ready yet."

"Don't worry," she begins with a small smile, "I'll be gentle…unless you want to get a little rough," she adds, her smile turning quite foxy. She then continues to drag the young man upstairs, intending to go to her room.

As they reach the top, a loud, "Yay! Here I come!" snaps Keitaro out of his daze as both he and the fox eyed girl turn to see the source of the voice. Their eyes simultaneously widen as they see Su rushing at them from the landlord's room, intending on repeating their earlier tumble down the stairs.

"No! Su! DON'T DO IT!" … *SMASH!*


To be continued…

______

Author's notes: Heh, this has been the longest delay in updates for this chapter so far. Sorry, but I was trying to focus on some of my other ones that I haven't updated in nearly two months. I was sitting on this for nearly three weeks with no good brainstorms. I had a few pages done, but nothing else was coming for a while. I'm probably gladder to get this done and posted then all of you loyal readers are to read it. Like I've said in almost all of my recent updates, I'm working a lot more now Monday-Friday and I'm usually pretty drained when I get home, but I will continue to write as the ideas keep coming and I get more inspiration from all of you people who are glad to read my work.

Oh, and I'm guessing that some of you might have noticed that I tried to bring in some of Keitaro's personality, well the personality that we know and feel pity for in the manga and anime. I went through some of the previous chapters and noticed that at times I did make him a bit suave, something I was trying not to do. I'm not going back to fix them or anything, but I will be more careful to try to watch what I'm making him do or say in my later chapters.

Poor Keitaro, he never has it easy does he? With Motoko gone for a few days, Kitsune has now upped her flirtatious personality a lot more so she can be the predominant woman in the young landlord's heart, although Su constantly hanging around will put a major rehashing on her plans. What will the foxy lady try now? – lighthawkdemon

Questions or comments? E-mail me at: lighthawkdemon@yahoo.com