Chapter Four Plans and Schemes
Keitaro gazed on the loveliness of his wife, erotically draped in her new lingerie, and caressed her under her chin with the fingers on his left hand. With his right, he pulled her to him and kissed her deeply, passionately. Naru responded with passion of her own. Tongues intertwined. Hands roamed. He gently began laying her down on the futon, as she trembled in anticipation.
"Woof!" Hachi commented, licking Keitaro's face.
Naru and Keitaro glared at the dog in irritation and sexual frustration.
"Ordinarily, I love you, Hachi… but not right now," Keitaro growled.
Sighing, Naru threw on a yukata. After checking herself to make sure there was nothing visible that Kitsune would tease her over or Kokeru would leer about. "I'll be right back," she told Keitaro. She grabbed the leash, attached it to the dog, and took him down the hall to Sara's room.
A few minutes later, she was back, without the dog. She hurriedly shed her yukata and slid onto the futon next to Keitaro. "So," she said with a seductive smile, "where were we?"
Keitaro pulled her to him, his hands cupping and caressing her intimately in the way she liked. "I think we were about-"
KNOCK KNOCK
"Umm, Naru? Are you busy?" Shinobu called out, shyly.
Sighing, Keitaro made sure his lower half was covered and flopped back onto the futon, while Naru put her yukata back on, shaking her head in disbelief. She opened the door a crack. "Yes?" she asked, hoping she sounded more friendly than she felt at that particular moment.
"We're out of the fish you like for your pregnancy protein. Would you like chicken, or should I go to the store before dinner?" Shinobu sensed something was a little bit off with Naru's smile today.
"Chicken should be fine," Naru said with a forced cheerfulness that hid her urgency. "Sorry, I'm in the middle of something…"
"Oh, I'm sorry. I… hope you feel better." I must have caught her needing to use the bathroom, she thought. She has pretty strained look to her.
Closing the door, and giving an exasperated sigh, she yanked off her yukata and climbed back onto her futon. Keitaro smiled and put his arm around her waist and pulled her to him. Naru responded passionately, seductively slipping off the straps of her lingerie as Keitaro began to caress her-
KNOCK KNOCK
"Heya, Naru-yan!" Su's voice called out. "I'm gonna test fire my latest mechatama now! You wanna watch?"
Naru gritted her teeth and tried not swear. "Not right now, thanks!" She turned back to Keitaro, aggressively pushing him down on the futon, while yanking off her top. Keitaro responded, grasping her roughly and pulling her down to him and-
KNOCK KNOCK
"The next person to knock, dies!" Naru muttered, as Keitaro nodded in agreement. "WHO IS- erm, who is it?"
"Ara, Nacchan!" Mutsumi called out. "Did you really give Su permission to fire her rockets again? I don't think that's safe."
Did I give her permission? Naru tried to remember what she had said to Su. "I'll be down to deal with it in a few minutes. I'm a bit occupied at the moment…" I hope I have privacy that long anyway.
"Oh my…" Mutsumi said, realizing Naru's tone sounded urgent, and hoped it didn't mean she didn't realize the seriousness. "I'll just have the fire department on speed dial," she said, hinting that Naru might want to reassess her priorities.
"Fine!" Naru said, right now neither recognizing nor caring about the warning in Mutsumi's tone. She turned back to Keitaro, eyes blazing. "Hurry up!" she said, her eyes blazing, "before somebody else comes by!"
"Uhh, right," Keitaro said, rather intimidated. He eased her down on the futon again, and positioned himself to-
KNOCK KNOCK
"Naru, I've collected most of the rent," Motoko called out, and Kitsune has the rent for the tea hou-"
The two women instinctively ducked as a heavy chair flew through the sliding door. They shrank back, seeing Naru glaring at them, her battle aura clearly visible as she stood there, looking like a naked angel of death.
"LEAVE. US. ALONE!" she said in an almost demoniacally possessed tone.
"Erm, right…" Kitsune said, her instinct for self preservation, overriding her desire to make a crude wisecrack.
"We'll tell you at dinner," Motoko said, wondering if her school's obligation to oppose demons applied in this case, before deciding discretion was the better part of valor.
After the two beat a hasty retreat, Naru turned back to Keitaro and straddled him. "Hurry dammit!"
Keitaro lifted the blanket and looked down to his hips. "Ah, well, actually I think I lost my-"
There was a sound of rapid footsteps coming down the hall. "Naru!" Haruka shouted, "Su started another fi- what the hell is going on in here?"
"GYAAAAAA!" Naru shrieked, in a combination of frustration and aggravation.
"I'll handle it," Haruka sighed.
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Naru and Keitaro walked back to Hinata House from the Love Hotel. Neither of them liked to use it—it tended to leave them feeling cheap, with the passers by assuming they were having an affair—but things were getting ridiculous trying to find time for intimacy over at Hinata House, so they put up with the disdainful.
"You and I need a vacation," Keitaro sighed. "I had no idea you had so many people banging on your door."
"Only when I urgently need to do something else," Naru said glumly. "But we need umm… us time… and lately we're not getting it." She blushed a little at her Freudian overemphasis of the last word. It was easier before they were married, and weren't being intimate. But nowadays, the interruptions were less welcome. "But how are we going to keep the place from burning down when we're gone?"
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"I think," Haruka said, on the patio, as they watched the fire department leave, "You all are relying too much on Naru and Keitaro. We need to bring back the position of 'dorm mother.' They both work, and they're married, and need time for both. They probably won't ever have the time to devote as they did when they were single."
"Time for both?" Shinobu asked innocently.
The others stared at her, sweatdropping at her naiveté.
"Well, when a man and a woman love each other very much…" Kitsune began with a leer.
"AUUU!"
Motoko nodded, ignoring the interruption. "And after they have their baby, they're going to have less time. I know we're all busy with school, but if they can't manage the place, they probably will have to sell it. I'd like to put that off as long as possible."
"Your sister dropping hints again?" Kitsune asked.
"She's suggesting that I consider some omiai if the government keeps blocking the reopening of the school," Motoko replied sweatdropping. "She says, 'We have to keep an eye on the next generation of the school.' And she doesn't seem likely to have another child anytime soon, you know how it is these days…"
It's part of the problem as to why we have a super-aging population in Japan, Mutsumi thought, sighing. Aloud, she said, "It's important to help them so they don't think that having multiple children is an impossible task." She, like her mother, thought that large families were important, and did all she could to support Naru's impending motherhood. Encouraging that was part of why she was going into OB/GYN despite the fact that it was a rapidly shrinking school of medicine.
"Hmm," Shinobu mused aloud. "I wonder who would be best for that role. Mutsumi, Kanako and Su have their final tests to prepare for." It could be Motoko or I, since we won't be graduating this year. Of course, now that Takane had expressed an interest in her, she viewed her free time as more valuable than she used to. Glancing over at Motoko, it looked like the older woman was trying to avoid catching anybody's eye. She looked at Haruka. "You did a good job before. Would you consider doing again?"
Haruka shook her head. "I don't mind helping out but I'm married—nominally at least—so some day I might have to go off and bail Seta out of trouble."
The others sweatdropped. Seta had been home from Molmol for slightly over a week before he came home in the middle of the day, waving a map, packing his bags, and rushing to the airport. Haruka had to literally bail him out, as he had forgotten that the map was not allowed to be taken out of the university library.
"Well," Kitsune said, "if I could get people to cover for me at the tea shop while I'm doin' it, I could take over the job."
The other girls burst out laughing.
"I'm going to punch ya all in the head now," Kitsune said in a sweet tone.
"It doesn't have to be that complicated," Naru said, walking over with Keitaro.
At least she looks much less tense now, Kitsune thought. But she kept it to herself. Mutsumi needed to go shopping for more bandages.
"What we need is for someone—or a rotation—to be in charge when Keitaro or I aren't available. I mean, I think most of what you came up to talk to us about could have been handled by somebody else, while we were unavailable." She emphasized the word to let the others know that when the door was closed, they were supposed to be off limits. "I think you all have an idea of who you trust when we're away ordinarily. So you don't need to have somebody give up their life for us."
She sat down on a chair, hoping that would solve the matter. Instead she was barraged with a lot of "what about" questions. Come on, guys, this isn't rocket science, she thought wearily.
Haruka gave a sympathetic smile. Back when she was dorm mother, they had done the same thing, until Naru gained confidence and became the unofficial leader of the girls."
Surprisingly, it was Su who first picked up on Naru's fatigue. "Come on, guys," she said, "Naru-yan's tired!"
"I bet she is!" Kitsune smirked. "It takes a lot of energy to f- OWW!"
"Ara, did you have anything else to contribute?" Mutsumi asked sweetly—implying that further input would be discouraged—while massaging her knuckles. Ouch, how does Naru bear that?
Everyone sweatdropped.
"Why don't we just decide day to day who's available and most responsible when they're not available?" Su continued.
"Not a bad idea," Motoko nodded. "We should work out a plan to do that."
"Well, you'll all have a chance. Naru and I decided we're going to have a quiet time together, this weekend.
You can see who's going to be trouble and who won't, Haruka thought. The ones who are the good kids look like deer in the headlights. The troublemakers look like foxes in the hen-house. Unfortunately, Sara was one of the ones looking like a fox. Haruka fixed a baleful glare on her.
"Well, Shinomu can cook and clean!" Su volunteered.
"Hey! I have a date coming up!" Shinobu protested.
"Well, we can jan-ken-pon for who cooks that day," Su said.
"Maybe you better buy your meals that day?" Keitaro asked, helpfully, as the girls began forming a circle.
The others, insulted by the clueless implications of that statement, gave him an icy glare, before preparing to face off once again.
"What's all the noise about?" Nagumo asked, coming down the stairs. Either she had gone to bed really early or got up really late… neither was a good sign of character.
"Naru and Keitaro are going away for the weekend!" Ema said, with a deer in the headlights look.
"Oh good, I can avoid paying the rent for another week!"
"Get back here, bakayaro!" Naru shouted, running after her.
Nagumo was faster on her feet and ran up the stairs. Naru followed. There was the sound of pounding at the door. Then silence. Naru came down the stairs, winded and shaking her head in disbelief.
"She came up with another brilliant excuse?" Kanako asked.
"She climbed out of her window, actually."
"She's on the top floor!" Motoko said , mirroring Naru's disbelief.
"Look," Keitaro said, before the others could swarm Naru again. "You should be fine for the weekend! Just think for yourselves and don't do anything foolish."
"Well, make up your mind!" Sara cackled.
Kitsune chuckled and Haruka glared.
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They ended up having another Hinata House Emergency Attic meeting. Motoko had called it, and except for what Kitsune called the deka (Naru, Keitaro and Haruka), and Shinobu were absent.
"Okay," Motoko said. "So, we'll survive with Keitaro and Naru away. But I am worried about Shinobu. We don't know anything about him. Since she's so naive, somebody from a rich family might try to take advantage of her."
"We could track him down on campus!" Kanako suggested, see what sort of man he is."
"Ara, are you sure the two of you are acting from the right intentions?" Mutsumi asked, trying to be the adult in the room. Apparently she was the only one trying. Kitsune and Su were exchanging conspiratorial glances. Su was already field stripping her Naru detector.
"What are you implying?" Motoko asked gruffly.
"Nothing. Just raising a point of concern." She kept her voice cheerful, but winced internally, remembering the disaster when Shinobu and Motoko were caught in the Hot Springs while Keitaro and Naru thought they were alone.
"Anyway, I can do a background check," Kanako offered. "And maybe he has a profile on MySpace, or this new Facebook thing out there. Maybe Twitter, but I bet that never catches on."
"It's a good idea," Motoko nodded in approval. "Any others?"
"It might be fun… erm, informative if we could find out where he was taking her," Kitsune leered. "We could watch… and make sure she's safe while Kei and Naru are on their sex weekend."
"Ugh," Ema said. She'd had enough of accidentally watching when she was trapped in the hot springs with Motoko and Shinobu on that mortifying evening. "Don't be gross!"
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Keitaro and Naru sat, fingers interlaced, on the swings in the old forgotten playground where they and Mutsumi had first played as children.
"Do you think they'll be all right?" Naru asked.
"I hope so," Keitaro replied. "But you do need a break for a weekend. Before I came back from Pararakelse, I didn't realize how much they relied on you to do the thinking for them. You need to get away from that, and I'd like to do that in a place where the staff actually believes us when we sign the register as Mr. and Mrs. Urashima."
"You need to get away too," Naru murmured. While he was getting better in dealing with his PTSD, he sometimes would sometimes be melancholic, staring off across the ocean, or wake up from dreams, bathed in sweat. She liked to make herself available to him, soul and body to comfort him in those times. The problem was, as her pregnancy progressed, she wouldn't be able to do the bodily option as often. So yes, as Kitsune would so crudely put it, it was at least partially a "sex weekend," but she decided she didn't give a damn what Kitsune thought. We are married, after all!
"Just as long as they don't somehow wind up in Kujukuri," Keitaro said, remembering how they kept colliding in the past.
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Shinobu wasn't sure where the others disappeared to, but as she was cleaning the kitchen alone, she had a strong suspicion as to why they had. She loved the other girls as friends—sometimes feeling like the sisters she never had. But, auuuu, sometimes they drove her crazy!
Her cell phone rang suddenly and, wiping her hands on her Awa Awa baby chick apron and looked at it. It read TAKANE. Hands trembling, she hit the the talk button. "Moshi moshi. This is Shinobu Maehara. How can I help you," she said, hoping she sounded sweet and not spazzing.
"Hello, Shinobu," Takane's melodic voice replied. The two of them exchanged a string of pleasantries before Takane got to the point of his call. "I was thinking that we should take advantage of the weather forecast, and visit one of the nearby beaches where we can enjoy the sights." He hesitated as if he suddenly had doubts about the attractiveness of the idea. "I understand there's a festival going on there too."
"I- I'd like that," Shinobu stammered. "Which one would you like to go to?"
"Not far from Tokyo," he said, feeling great relief from the bubbly response. "I thought we'd go to Kujukuri."
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Author's Notes
I've been asked if I'd do lemons. The answer is no. This first scene—a diet lemon lime generic soda—is as close as I'll get to "lemon" in my writing. (I give my stories an M rating as a safety margin in case the language violates the standards for a T rating).
Jan-ken-pon. Rock Paper Scissors
"The deka." A Japanese slang term for police, based on the English word "detective." While using the term "fuzz" would have fit, it didn't really evoke the right sense.
"I am worried about Shinobu" While Motoko has gotten over her mistrust of Keitaro, that doesn't seem to have carried over to other men, which her older sister said began when she caught her and her future husband sharing a kiss. I figure that mistrust, combined with seeing herself as guardian of the house, would come into play here.
"Shinobu and Motoko caught in the Hot Springs" Which took place in Forever and a Day.
"And maybe he has a profile on MySpace, or this new Facebook thing out there. Maybe Twitter, but I bet that never catches on." In 2006, Facebook and Twitter were just getting started while MySpace was the big thing—but I had completely forgotten it existed before doing research.
Kujukuri. A beach about 2 hours away from Tokyo. Popular to visit year round.
"Awa Awa baby chick apron". In Maison Ikkoku, wore a baby chick apron saying "piyo piyo." (Peep peep). Akamatsu had a cute parody of this, where the baby chick had spiral eyes, saying "awa awa" (onomatopoeia for panic)—which was entirely fitting for Shinobu.