Disclaimer: see part 1

Sister, Sister

Part 3 – Drinks and Drunks

By Random1377

"Never… again…"

Kitsune sagged into one of the seats in the Café Hinata, resting her forehead on the counter as Haruka gave her a contemplative stare. "Had a fun time with the kids, did we?"

Scowling up at her, Kitsune grumbled, "For someone not serving me sake after what I just went through, you're awfully lippy."

Haruka yawned. "Your tab is behind," she said casually. "Can't serve you until you settle up."

"Aww!" Kitsune moaned. "Please? Just this once? I really… really need a drink."

"Just like you really, really needed a drink last week," Haruka said blandly, "and the week before… and the week before. This is the good stuff, you know – I don't serve Thunderbird around here."

Kitsune sighed. "I get it," she mumbled sadly, "no drinky without the cash. Hey," she said suddenly, "you don't need an extra hand around here, do you?"

"Well," Haruka said thoughtfully, "I guess I could always-"

"Excuse me."

The two women looked up as the door to the teahouse banged open and a tall, darkly tanned stranger strode in.

"I don't suppose either of you have seen a rather short man, have you?" she asked. "About yea high, with glasses, kind of twitchy – looks like he's just done something wrong?"

Kitsune and Haruka exchanged a glance before coming to the same conclusion.

"Keitaro."

"Ah," the woman at the door said, "so you know him." Looking around, she snapped her fingers. "This must be the Hinata teahouse Kaolla told me about, so that would make you," she pointed to Haruka, "Aunty Urashima, am I right?"

Haruka pursed her lips, rubbing her cigarette out in the ashtray as if suggesting there was something (or someone) else she would rather be rubbing out. "I prefer, 'Haruka,'" she said coolly, "and Keitaro's not here right now."

"How disappointing," the woman said gloomily. "Any idea where I might find him?"

"Well," Haruka said casually, "you might follow the other three women that just went looking for him five minutes before you got here… they might have found him by now. They went up the hill to the south."

The woman shrugged. "I think I'll just wait here for a while, if that's ok," she said brightly. "Do you have a bathroom? It's been a while since I left my home country, and I've been pretty focused on my goal, so I haven't really had much time to… well, you get the picture."

Haruka gestured to the back of the teahouse, where the tall stranger politely excused herself. As soon as the woman was out of sight, Kitsune leaned across the counter and whispered, "What the hell is going on?"

"Beats me," Haruka shrugged. "Naru came in a little while ago looking for Keitaro, and when I said I hadn't seen him, she just cursed and left. When I looked out the window, I saw her running down the hill to the north with Motoko and her sister."

"Wait," Kitsune said. "Down the hill? You just told that woman they went up the hill – to the south."

This observation drew another shrug from Keitaro's aunt. "I don't know her from Adam," she said dismissively. "Why would I help her?"

Kitsune grinned. "Well, she did mention Kaolla by name," she said lightly. "She might be a cousin or something like that."

"That might be true, but-"

For the second time in five minutes, the front door to the teahouse banged open.

"Where is she?"

Haruka and Kitsune stared, open-mouthed, as Kanako stalked into the teahouse wearing what amounted to two paper grocery bags worth of covering – and seemed, actually, to be made of two paper grocery bags.

"Where is that slut?"

Intuitively grasping who the slut in question was, Haruka said, "Don't go trashing my place. She's in the can."

Kanako strode over to the bathroom door. Scowling deeply, she growled and pounded the wall next to her. "There's no one there," she reported through clenched teeth. "The window in the back is open, too… damn, she's slippery!"

"Must've heard her coming," Kitsune mused, keeping her voice low as Kanako disappeared into the bathroom. "What's this all about?"

When Kanako reappeared, she had regained her aloof, detached attitude – a considerable feat, Kitsune thought, since the girl was wearing sacks for underwear. "Do you have a shirt I can borrow?" Kanako asked calmly. "Mine got torn."

"Not if you're going to go chase after that girl and get into a fight in it," Haruka snorted. "Go get something from the Hinata Sou – maybe something that doesn't tear as easily."

As the girl colored and started for the door, Kitsune grabbed her arm. "Hang on a sec," she said lightly. "Sit down… have a drink… tell us what the hell is going on."

"I'm not much of a drinker," Kanako said doubtfully. "What's that she's pouring? Is it strong?"

"Of course not," Kitsune said, waving a hand dismissively at the watermelon schnapps Haruka was pouring into a glass. "It's sweet."

"Are you kidding me?"

"No, really, it tastes just like candy!"

"Well," Kanako said, "maybe just one…"

Five shots and one tanked Kanako later, Kitsune knew all she needed to know about the situation.

( 0 0 0 )

Keitaro was starting to feel like a fugitive – or perhaps a little past the 'starting to' phase. Everyone's gone crazy, he thought, peering through the foliage at the back of the Hinata Sou to see if anyone was inside the dorm. What the hell is a shito anyway?

He thought he remembered hearing the name in an old cartoon he used to watch, but couldn't remember what it meant. Not that it really mattered that much, though, since (in his mind anyway) even if he was one, it didn't explain why Motoko's sister was trying nail him to the wall or why Su's sister was trying to just nail him.

Now if Amalla was built like Kaolla, it would be easier to resist, he thought, deciding that the Hinata Sou was empty enough for him to sneak in and hide, but she's got those legs… and that chest… and those lips… and… God, Naru would kill me just for thinking all of this.

Tensing his body to slip out of the tree line and into the Hinata Sou, Keitaro crouched low, counting the number of steps he would be in the open, and therefore visible to any insane swordswomen or passing, sex-crazed foreigners that may have been watching.

He could not keep himself from shrieking like a girl as something heavy dropped out of the trees and landed squarely on his shoulders.

"Found you!"

"Ahh! Don't kill me! Don't rape me!"

Keitaro figured by yelling both, he was covered.

A delighted, childish giggle kept him from running screaming into a large oak tree directly to his left, but only just barely.

Childish? he thought. Neither one of them is childish…

"K-Kaolla…?"

Still clinging to his back, the girl used Keitaro's shoulders as a brace and leaned forward until her face was hanging upside-down in front of his. "Do I get to chose?"

"Huh?" Keitaro was too relieved to come up with something more eloquent.

"I don't want to kill you," Kaolla said brightly, "so I guess-"

"Wait – I wasn't saying you should do either one, I was saying don't do either one!"

Kaolla's smile only faded a little before regenerating its original wattage. "Well," she said brightly, "the day's not over yet. So what are you doing hiding in the bushes, Keitaro? Did you squeeze Motoko's-"

"I didn't squeeze anyone's anything," Keitaro cut in quickly, finally succeeding in shrugging Kaolla off of his shoulders. "Now can you not make so much noise? I don't want anyone to hear me."

"Oh I see," the girl cried, pounding her fist into her open palm. "We're being trepidacious! Secretive! Furtive! Crafty! Sneaky! Sly! We're-"

"Trying to be quiet!"

Keitaro slapped a hand over his mouth as a face suddenly appeared at one of the Hinata Sou's windows. Thinking fast, he shoved Kaolla in front of him and ducked down low, hiding behind her… which, needless to say, took a lot of ducking. In fact, by the time he was confident that she was blocking anyone from seeing him, he was practically curled into a ball behind her.

"Are they still looking?" he whispered hoarsely, thinking that of all the residents, only Kitsune and Shinobu would be safe.

"Uh huh," Kaolla said, waving happily at the house. "And they're coming out to see… oh! Hey, Keitaro, it's my sis-"

There was a soft gust of air behind Kaolla's back, and when she turned around to see what was going on, she found only a few swirling leaves to show that Keitaro had ever been there.

( 0 0 0 )

An animal being chased by a predator will naturally seek higher ground. Furthermore, the instinct to flee will lead a prey creature in the fastest path away from danger, then, once a safe distance has been reached, back to the den. So when Keitaro ran into the woods to escape from Amalla, eventually circled back around to the other side of the building and crept inside to find a good hiding place.

What he did not know, of course, was that Kitsune watched a lot of Animal Planet.

"Hiya."

"Gah! Kitsune!" Keitaro gasped. "Don't… don't do that!"

Kitsune looked the beleaguered manager up and down… and grinned.

"Two months rent."

"I… I beg your pardon?"

Holding out her hand, Kitsune clarified, "Two months rent… and you can hide in my room."

"Huh?"

"It's perfect," Kitsune said gleefully. "No one would suspect lil' old me of hiding you, and I'm a little behind, sooooo… you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours."

"Hey, we're home!"

Keitaro paled as Naru's voice rang out from the foyer.

"Unless you'd rather talk it out with them," Kitsune drawled.

Biting his bottom lip, Keitaro glanced towards the stairs, but he frowned as he felt a (with Kitsune, anyway) familiar feeling.

"Can you take your hand out of my pants?"

Looking innocent, Kitsune quickly retrieved her hand, looking at it as if it belonged to someone else as it slowly unwrapped itself from around his wallet.

"Sorry, she coughed, "old habits and all that.

"…n't know," Motoko's voice muttered, sounding dangerously close, "maybe he is – why don't you check and I'll look up here."

"Better think quick," Kitsune mumbled, grabbing Keitaro's hand. "Come on, let's hide in my room until Motoko's gone past, then I'll come out and ask what all the-"

"Nah, we'll just check up there with you – he wouldn't hide in the kitchen anyway."

Kitsune and Keitaro stared at each other in horror, and before Keitaro could even blink, Kitsune was shoving him into Naru's room. "This is closer," she hissed, "Naru and Motoko's sister are coming up the back stairs – we're trapped!"

Darting into the room, they slid the door shut as quietly as they could and backed up against the wall.

"He's not in Shinobu's room," Motoko's voice reported, "and Kitsune's is locked. I knocked, but she didn't answer."

"Haruka said she was in the tea house about ten minutes before we got back," Naru's voice replied. "Kaolla's around here somewhere, but I don't know where Shinobu is."

"I think I heard the dryer going," Tsuruko observed, "does she do a lot of laundry?"

"Most of it," Naru replied. "Let's go ask her if she's seen Keitaro."

Kitsune and Keitaro heaved a similtanious sigh of relief.

"Oh, wait a sec," Naru said suddenly, "gotta get something out of my room."

"Damn it," Kitsune said, quickly slapping a hand over Keitaro's mouth, "they're coming in here."

Thinking fast, she shoved the startled young man under Naru's covered table, holding him up against her and keeping him from screaming with fear as the door slid open. From where they were, they could not see Naru enter the room, but they heard her footsteps… and a moment later, the footsteps of Motoko and Tsuruko following her in.

"Aren't you a little old for teddy bears?" Tsuruko commented evenly. "I mean, you're what, nineteen, twenty?"

Immediately – by instinct – Keitaro's eyes shot in the direction of Naru's dresser. Funny, he thought absently, I've seen white, and red, and black, and even purple, but I thought only Shinobu had teddy bear-

"It's a Liddo-kun," Naru said archly, "and it's very important to me."

Ohhh… Keitaro thought, never mind.

"And who invited you in anyway," Naru demanded. "Wait outside."

"A moment," Tsuruko said calmly. "There is something…"

Keitaro's eyes nearly bugged out of his head as Tsuruko's blade abruptly punched through the table and landed squarely between his back and Kitsune's stomach. Though the girl behind him didn't speak above a whisper, Keitaro could feel her breath puffing against the back of his neck as she gasped, "Son of a bitch!"

Tsuruko may have heard this had Naru not simultaneously shouted, "What the hell do you think you're doing?"

"Someone is here with us," the woman explained.

"Well that doesn't give you the right to put a hole in my table!" Naru exploded. "Get out of here before you ruin something else!"

"Under the table," Tsuruko murmured, seeming to not hear Naru's outraged cry. "I can sense… someone's ki. It's-"

"It's Keitaro!"

Keitaro could hear a pair of startled gasps at the sudden, intrusive announcement, and he barely contained a groan as he thought, Kaolla…

"He's under there," the young girl was saying. "My Keitaro detector says so."

"That kid needs a new hobby," Kitsune muttered, clearly resigned to the fact that the gig was up. "Let's just-"

"You."

"Ahh," a voice Kitsune did not recognize – but one that Keitaro knew very well, in spite of his limited exposure to it – replied. "I had not expected you to be here, Aoyama. I knew your younger sister was here, but to see you again after all this time… how entertaining."

"You two… know each other?"

Naru's uncertain question was definitely the one on everyone's mind.

"Indeed," Tsuruko said coolly. "When I was first seeing my husband, this… woman tried to take him from me to learn the secrets of his sword school."

"Oh, you're not still angry about that, are you?" the newcomer asked dismissively. "That was so long ago, and besides, he chose you in the end, didn't he? You should be happy I didn't mark him as my own and make him come home with me."

"You did mark him!" Tsuruko shot back. "In several rather prominent places!"

"Well so did you," the other woman replied, "in your way, of course… the gifts, the ring – you staked your claim very clearly and-"

"Yeah, but I didn't bite him!"

"Well I must admit that I got a bit carried away, but-"

"Defend yourself!"

She's really mad, Keitaro thought as the sword was suddenly yanked out of the table. I wonder where Amalla bit him…?

Deciding that it would be best not to ask, Keitaro tried to think of a way to get out from under the table without drawing attention to himself. He would not have to worry about a distraction, he thought, since Tsuruko, at that moment, let out a deafening war cry and flung herself at her opponent.

"Wow, she's flexible," Naru commented, giving rise to several rather vivid images of what might be happening in Keitaro's mind. "Hey, hey damn it, don't do that in my – oh, that was my favorite lamp! Come on, knock it off!"

From the sounds of the fight, Keitaro decided it must have been one hell of a duel, though for the life of him, he could not imagine what Amalla was defending herself with – or what kind of training she had that allowed her to repel Tsuruko's attacks.

She must be good, he thought, hell, to get past Kanako she would have to be good – to hold her own against Tsuruko, she must be really good!

Keitaro's eyes widened as the woman in question abruptly dropped to the ground and rolled under the table, ending up with her nose less than four inches from his. They stared at each other for several moments, both too stunned to speak. Then, slowly, a smile spread over Amalla's features, and she leaned closer, knowing that Keitaro had nowhere to run.

A moment before their lips met, she whispered three words in her lowest, most seductive voice, sending shivers strong enough that Kitsune felt them running up and down Keitaro's spine.

"I found you…"

Continued…

Next chapter: "That can't be good for his lower back…" "How many licks?" "Oh don't worry, I won't make him scream too loud." "She'll get a ticket for indecency!" "Shinobu, you've just got to sleep with him."

Hawker-748 pre-read, which is good cuz I messed up a bunch in this chapter. Heh.