"Normalcy" chronicles the time period in volume 9 of the manga between parts 76 and 77. 76 is when Keitaro and Shinobu go out on a date. Part 77 is where we learn about Seta and Haruka's relationship. I'm attempting to stick to story and stick to character. However, I like to deviate a bit, especially in Motoko's case, mildly in Haruka's. Everyone else is pretty much the same. I'd like to comment now that this is very short and very expository. Anyway, have fun. By the way, "This indicates internal conversation" (Thinking)

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Normalcy
01 – Photographs and Friendships
SethSolare

"OW! That hurts!" Keitaro whined. "Don't wrap it too tight"

"It's your fault, you know. You should really stop walking in on them. If you keep this up, you'll be wearing that cast forever," Haruka responded.

Keitaro's wounds from his flight that evening weren't shaping up to be fun. As wonderful as it is not to die, it still hurts a lot, apparently. After a good two minutes of air time, Keitaro finally landed at the steps of teahouse. And when he landed, his aunt was standing there with some bandages.

"It's pretty amazing, really. She hadn't punched you out of the springs in two days. I have to say, that's a new record," Haruka said.

"Like you're actually keeping track. Besides, she kicked me," he said matter-of-factly. She glared at him for a second and punched him in the arm. A blinding pain shot up past his shoulder and exited through his mouth. "You didn't have to do that!" he said as she walked away.

"You need to start being more appreciative of women. And speaking of women, I heard you blurted out some crap to her a while back. You know, when you were hospital after the thing at Tokyo U," she said, pointing to it.

"You know about that?" Keitaro tilted his head to the side, a bit puzzled.

"Some of the girls don't keep me out of the loop. Kitsune, especially," she said as she began preparing some tea. Most of the girls didn't talk much to Haruka. Mainly, she kept to herself in the teahouse. Kitsune, however, loved to gossip. And, since most of her stories dealt with Naru and Keitaro, she had to tell someone. "Has she said anything back?"

"We're talking again, if that's anything to be proud of. We talk about school and Shinobu's food. But really, that's it. Nothing exciting. Nothing about her even rejecting me."

"Well, you know what that means right?" Haruka said as she placed a cup of tea in front of Keitaro. He looked up at her, speechless. "It means that she doesn't hate you. Which means that she either, A, likes you. Or, B, only wants to be friends."

"Is there a C?"

"Well, she could hate you."

"Right," Keitaro looked down at the tea, discouraged. It wasn't a big deal that they hadn't been able to talk much about being in love. Or that they hadn't had a non-awkward conversation recently. It was just that lack of knowledge.

Haruka looked back at Keitaro. She couldn't help wondering if he had ever seen him actually sad. Depressed, even. It was new, since he had either been freaking out or just tired. She thought back to Seta. At times, when he showed up in town, they would talk secretly. Haruka didn't want any of the girls or Keitaro in her personal life. It made her depressed enough thinking about him. Worse yet, he had already been in town for several days. Every day, he had been trying his best to talk to her. And every day, she did her best to avoid that.

After a few seconds, Keitaro looked up to Haruka who had taken a seat in front of him. "Conversations don't feel normal anymore, you know? She and I try to talk. We're studying together and we just try talking. Talking about food, classes. You know, stuff we used to talk about. Everything just feels awkward."

"I don't really know what to say. But, what I do know is that I know exactly what you're talking about. And really, all your conversations from now on are going to feel strange." Haruka stood up from her seat and went up to her room above the teahouse. "Please, Keitaro, lock the place up. I'm sorry I can't chat. Tired." She raced up to her room before she started crying.

"I almost cried in front of Keitaro. This is stupid. I'm a grown woman. I shouldn't be pining over an idiot like Seta anyway. He's selfish, inconsiderate, and… a jerk. Doesn't think about anyone else. Doesn't care about how…"

She slid into her room in case Keitaro might come up. But she heard the door closing outside and the lights from downstairs were gone. She sneaked over to her window in the darkness of her room, peaking past the side to see Keitaro slowly climbing his way back up the stairs back to the house. After a few seconds of watching him, she attempted to compose herself as she walked around her room.

Turning on the light next to her bed, she sat down with an old photo album. She flipped through pages and pages of photos, some of Keitaro's childhood, some of the girls when they first came, pictures of grandma Hina. Towards the end of the book, she had placed about four pictures, each with their own page. Each one was of her and Seta.

"Every time he comes up, we talk. We talk and talk and the only thing that happens is that we feel stupid. And I feel like crap. And nothing ever feels normal."

She sat in her bed thinking about nothing else except her awkward conversations. All the while, she felt her face burn up and her eyes hurt. Closing the thick photo album, she tossed it on the ground before turning off the light in her room and laying down.

--

"She just left. I hope she's alright," Keitaro thought as he hobbled back up the stairs in his crutches. He slid open the door to the house and walked inside. He guessed that the girls were still in the bath since the downstairs light was still on. "I guess I can just go to bed."

He turned to go up the stairs and up to his room. In his mind, he thought about Haruka's words. It wasn't always going to be abnormal for them. But, constantly, he always thought that his desire for things to be normal again would be stripped away by the fact that he had made that confession to her.

It looked bad enough that he went on a date with Shinobu. Granted, it was a nice date. He had fun. And she was so sweet. And as much fun as she was, she was still too young. If she were older. "Oh what am I thinking? Shinobu's in middle school. That's just wrong."

A second after turning the corner, Keitaro bumped into Kitsune. "Hey, you alright?" she asked.

"Heh, you know me. I'm practically indestructible," he said, faking a smile.

Wow, he's really screwed up over this. And it's all her fault, too. If she hadn't been such a crappy friend to him, he wouldn't be all mopey like this. Kitsune smiled at him. "I'm going to get something to eat and head up to Naru's room. Want me to tell her anything? Hmm?"

"What do you mean?"

"That we're in love, silly!" she said as she wrapped her arms around him. At this, Keitaro flailed his arms around. He let out a scream, as pathetic as it was, that was short, and just overall sounded abnormal for him. "Oh please. You know I'm kidding. Have a good night's rest, Kei," she said as she pulled herself off him and quickly dashed downstairs.

Keitaro stared at her fleeing body as she disappeared around the corner. "Weird."

After collecting his crutches, he slid open the door to his room and went inside. It was pretty boring, as usual. On his table, he left his little print club album out. The night before, he had been staring at it, reminiscing of the two photos he took with a girl. And since the second photo, some of the girls took print club photos around the town and stuck them in the book when he wasn't looking. Even Motoko was in it.

However, next to the book, oddly, was a yellow doll. Naru's Liddo-kun sat on the desk, though a bit droopy. Sure, the stuffed animal was old, but it had a lot of meaning for both of them. Next to the doll, was a small note.

"I'm sorry," Keitaro read the neat handwriting. It was in English, too. He felt funny reading her English handwriting. It was just nice knowing that it was something that they shared, studying English.

Keitaro stared at it for a few more minutes before looking at the plywood covered hole in his ceiling. Above, it seemed that shadows were still moving across the room. He went back to the desk and picked up Naru's note. He flipped it over and grabbed a pen.

- -

"I wonder if he's back yet."Naru paced around her room. After punting him out of the springs, she felt pretty terrible. "I mean, he did walk in on us. But…"

She sighed heavily turning toward the hole in her floor. She noticed light coming out of it, now. She simply stared at it for a bit, frozen. It was difficult enough trying to get that apology in. She had hoped something cute like that would make him forgive her.

After pacing a bit longer, she heard footsteps outsider her door. A figure stopped and knocked. "He could've just gone through the floor." She smiled at the door as she waited, hoping it would make him a bit more anxious. She started counting to ten in hopes of making him sit it out. But, at three, the door just opened, and she felt stupid.

"Geez, way to open the door," Kitsune said, as she took a seat on the floor, beer can in hand. In the other, she held a sandwich that was already half-eaten. "Want some?" she asked, presenting both to Naru.

"No. I just thought you were uh, you know. Whatever. Anyway, what do you need?" Naru asked nervously.

"What? Need? Nothing, really. Just wanted to talk. About you and Keitaro, really." She took another big chunk out of her sandwich.

"What about him? He deserved to get kicked out like that."

"I mean that you're stringing him along. And it's really mean. AND you're hurting him. A lot," she said in a low voice. And at that point, Naru just stared. She stared at Kitsune for a few seconds, realizing that she had just blurted out something very emotional, something unlike Kitsune.

"What do you mean?" Naru asked shakily.

"What do I mean? I mean that he told you he loves you and you do absolutely nothing. You do nothing, which means you're being mean to him. And he doesn't deserve that. If you don't love him, tell him. At least that frees him up for me."

Naru, staring at her best friend, felt dumbfounded. Kitsune hadn't said anything like that, before. Does she really like him?

"I'm not being mean to him. It's just," she stopped for a second. For the past few months, she thought about what he said. Constantly, she'd go back and replay that night. He sounded panicked, not sincere. It wasn't the way he was supposed to say it. "It's just that I feel like I can't talk to him. I can't tell him because, you know, what if things change? I mean, they're already crappy now."

"What do you mean by that?" Kitsune seemed irritated. And Naru was simply taken aback by her attitude.

"I mean, uh, like, nothing's," she stopped again. She thought and looked for the word, "normal. It's not normal. We talk and it's just uncomfortable. Like, we can't say a word to each other and not feel weird." Kitsune's expression changed, slowly.

"What do you mean, 'weird'?" Kitsune asked softly.

"Just, weird. Like we can't talk or anything. I want to give him a response, but I really don't know what it could be. I don't know what to think."

"I think you should try and be honest. Don't you?"

"I want to. Really. But, you know what? I don't want all of this to change. I don't want us

to be together now and then screw things up later. I don't want there to be this weirdness between all of us and the others. I don't want to hurt him, Kitsune."

"You should try harder not to. I mean, he might end up not wanting to be with you if you keep that up."

Naru felt more defensive at that statement. "Do you think I want him to leave me? Of course not. And you know me, there're like, no times, ever, that I have said that I want to be with someone. But you know what? I can't take it, I need to be with him." Naru collapsed to the floor.

"But?" Kitsune asked, quietly.

"But it's too hard. I don't want him to reject me. I want to be with him. Rarely do I say that I want to be with anyone. But him? I just don't know. I have no idea what to do."

Kitsune finished eating her sandwich. At this point, she realized she had pushed Naru too much. "I guess I'll go to bed." And Kitsune stood up. She walked over to Naru and kissed her on the forehead. "Go to sleep. No use in thinking about it tonight, hmm?"

As much as she wanted to feel sad, she didn't cry. She just felt bad. And she sat on her floor staring at her closed door thinking absolutely nothing.

Then, from behind her, the piece of plywood slid off. From the floor, Liddo-kun climbed out and sat on her floor. Without a sound, the board slipped back into place as Naru crawled over to the stuffed animal. When she picked him up, though, Liddo-kun dropped a piece of folded paper from his hand.

"I'm sorry, too," she whispered as she read the terrible handwriting.

- - -

Alrighty. It's been forever since I've written anything on I haven't had the motivation, in a long time. But, I spent a the past few weeks re-reading the manga from beginning to end. Twice. I wanted to write something that seemed interesting. And, as usual, I like the romantic/drama stuff more than anything.

I should get to the point. Anyway, I spent a lot of time studying relationships and how people work with each other. I've always wanted to write something that shows the depth of why people want things. I've been wanting to studying the psychology and sociology of human relationships and communication.

This particular story involves the desire to have a normal relationship. Usually, when there is a weirdness between two people that have a "history," as they say, there is this awkward time when it becomes difficult to talk. Most of the time, you have conversations with that person. You want, more than anything, to be able to talk to them, and that's it. Just talk. But every time you talk, you just feel stupid. Conversations about "your day at work" or "how hard school is" or "how good your lunch was" become difficult to talk about. You feel as though you can't say anything and feel okay about it.

What's worse, at some point, it becomes difficult to say, "Hello."