I spent forever trying to get this posted to the site. It kept erroring for whatever reason. So, after a few days, it started working. Rawr. This chapter was completed like... days ago, though.

There's a nice surprise at the end of this. I know you're just burning with anticipation. Also, this chapter's a bit more adult. Again, even with its rating, I'm sure by now that those who're still reading are mature enough to handle it. I mean, those were girls kissing back there.

And by the way, in the opening scenes where I mention the merry-go-round (I'm writing this note as it has just happened), I spent nearly an HOUR trying to figure out what the hell it was called. I was about to say screw it and say, "the metal thing with the bars and it spins and stuff." Oh yeah, and I was kidding about the quote. But it would be awesome if I did it.

- - -

Pink Camellias
12 – Resistance
SethSolare

- - -

"I don't get it. I just want to be happy," Motoko sighed. She pushed herself forward on the swings, staring at the sand pile she made between her feet. Her hands descended from the chains and into her lap. Slowly, she took in a deep breath and sighed again.

Keitaro, after listening to her talk about without his saying a word, felt absolutely useless. Countless times he had helped the girls with whatever problem they had. However, his love life wasn't all roses, too. He and Naru fought their fair share, aside from the normal punching, kicking, and flying. However, to have to be breaking up over something like family was hard. "Motoko's pretty much made her decision."

"I'm sorry, Keitaro. This is probably too much work for even you to handle," Motoko said sadly as she stood up. Her voice broke a bit, her eyes stung, her cheeks flushed. She began to walk off.

"You should tell your sister you're not leaving," Keitaro said solemnly. "Just say it."

"But, it's not that simple," Motoko responded, her spirit defeated.

"No, it's simple. It's just not easy." Keitaro stood from his swing and walked over to her. Motoko sat down on the merry-go-round in the center of the playground. She sank her feet into the depressed area of sand where children ran in circles. Keitaro sat on the opposite side, facing inward to the circle and to Motoko's back. He leaned his back on one of the bars and sat quietly.

After some silence, Motoko spun the thing around with her legs, tucking her long skirt under them. While spinning around, she turned around on the merry-go-round doing as Keitaro did, leaning back on one of the metal bars. The two faced each other as it spun slowly down to a stop.

"You're right," Motoko said, after some time.

"Yeah. Life's never easy. It's almost always simple, though. I mean, the more complex things are a divorce when kids are involved. That's complex, I'd say. However, in the aspect of life, simple and complex are totally different than easy and hard. I mean, telling Naru that I love her is simple. Actually doing it?" Keitaro shrugged. He admitted that it was just far too difficult to even admit to anyone that he loved that girl for the longest time.

"You know, last night, I told Kitsune that I loved her," Motoko said matter-of-factly.

"You did? Wow, that's pretty amazing," Keitaro said excitedly.

Motoko sighed, "I don't even know if I believe myself, though."

"Wait, what?" Keitaro asked in disbelief.

"Part of me thinks that I just said that because I was sad I was losing my first love. I mean, I don't even know if I really love her," Motoko said, sniffing.

"But she loves you. She'd do anything to make you happy," Keitaro reasoned.

"I know. I know. But, we've only been dating for a few days. And we admitted we loved each other. You and Naru took months to develop that. I just don't want to rush anything."

"Well, okay, maybe a few more things in life are complex. But, as complex as that is, it's at least an easy thing. Just hold off on making an honest commitment," Keitaro said.

"What? That's a horrible idea. Do you mean I should just lie to her and string her along for a few days, weeks, or months until I make up my mind? Don't you think that's cruel?" Motoko asked, her voice beginning to break again.

Keitaro thought about it how that was basically the description of Naru and his relationship. "Sure, in the end we were together. But, I guess we were just lucky," he told himself. He reached further into his mind for a better solution.

"Or, you could just say that you're not sure – that you need more time." Keitaro couldn't think of a better solution for her. He felt then, at the point, he was just making stuff up to make her feel better.

Motoko sighed. She tilted her head up to the sky, hoping for some kind of divine intervention. Her mind was nearly ready to tune out the world until the sound of a familiar voice came fading back into her conscious mind. She looked over at Keitaro who had a worried look on his face.

"Hey, uh, I know it's kind of bad of me, but I have to go, Motoko. I wish I could help more, but I guess I'm just sorry," he bowed to her. He began to run off after Naru who had finally found her missing date. Motoko's shoulders dropped, suddenly feeling bad that she had caused the two to miss out on their date.

"I'll just tell her that I made him late," she said in head. Again, she tilted her head back up to the sky her eyes closed. After a few seconds, she opened them again. But, instead of a sky, another familiar person had come into view, staring down at her.

"You look down," he said. "Well, you're looking up, but you look sad."

She rolled her eyes, as she turned around from her seat and faced the young man who had greeted her. "That was a really terrible joke, Yumi."

- -

Shinobu walked calmly through the market. With a peaceful smile, she walked through the crowded streets and looked for all kinds of fresh foods for dinner. On her arm, she carried a wicker basket. She felt old going to the market with a basket that looked like that, but it was useful and served its purpose.

She felt renewed after resolving any tension with Su. Su cried for nearly half an hour. Oddly enough, the blonde haired girl seemed pretty mellow again after all of that. Shinobu, while picking up some bananas, felt oddly happy about that.

As her hand reached for the ripe bunch, they were picked up by another person. She felt slightly surprised, since her mind was elsewhere. She snapped back into the real world to see someone she didn't expect to see. Her heart raced. A chill ran down her spine.

"So, you didn't want to see me, and yet here you are," Keisuke said to her.

"How'd you even find me?" her voice was angry.

"Oh come on, you always talk about how you love to go to the market. You always go at the same time. And, I also know that you always buy bananas when you used to take me shopping with you," he said slyly. He reached into his pocket and paid the vendor for the bananas. Shinobu rolled her eyes as she tried to simply walk away from him. After receiving his change, Keisuke raced up to her, dropping the bananas in the basket she carried at her side.

"You don't have to be so cold," he said, trying to be cute.

"You're a jerk, you know that? You're a cheat. And you're scum," she objected.

He shrugged, looking over at her with a smile. "You know, I've never been that bad of a guy. Besides, it was just a kiss."

"You know, if you'd been more sincere, I'd be inclined to forgive you. But, instead, you decided to be smug," she picked up her pace, trying to simply walk through the crowd. However, he simply kept pace with her.

"You know I'm not horrible. You trusted me. You know I'm probably one of the best guys around," his tone was different. He seemed to act like he cared.

"Yeah, way to put yourself up on a pedestal. I feel so sorry I broke up with you," she said sarcastically.

"Really? Then how about this?" he said, stepping in front of her path. She immediately halted. He was much taller than her and far more intimidating. Her heart began to beat incredibly fast. Her breath quickened and stuttered.

"What do you want?" she asked, trying to get more aggressive.

"I know you miss me. And we could just go back to my place and do, well, what we did last time," he suggested. He looked at her seductively. He was, indeed, an attractive guy by any means. And, when they were dating, such a seductive look had cost her more than just making out.

"You have some nerve," she said. She felt her body quiver in what felt like fear and anger. "You're asking me if I want to have sex with you after you cheated on me? You're an ass," she said turning the other way.

"You said that last time. And I remember you asking if we could meet up again later that night," he said. He placed a hand on her shoulder and turned her around. She barely resisted him.

"I know that I want to be with you," he said. Those words, unlike the others, felt sincere to Shinobu. She looked up at him with a look of pain and disbelief. For the months that they were together, she was happy. Emotionally, the relationship was moving along nicely. Physically, it was a bit fast. However, to Shinobu, that really meant absolutely nothing.

"You cheated," she said, her voice barely audible above the crowd. She tried to sound mean and hateful. Instead, she was fearful. She knew that if she didn't get away, she'd give into him. "It's how why I did it with him the first time."

"Look, let's just go back to my place and we can talk. Just talk," he said convincingly. He pulled her in close to him, kissing her on the forehead. Shinobu, as much as she tried to resist, couldn't push herself away from him. Her blood seemed to go cold. Her legs began to feel much weaker. And whatever strength she had that made her want to run was rapidly vanishing.

"It's not just gonna be talking, Keisuke. You took advantage of me last time," Shinobu said.

"Yeah it will. You can trust me," he said. "I love you, Shinobu."

The words quickly snapped her back into reality. She picked her head up as her eyes drilled into his. Her chills came back again. This time, though, her legs felt strong, her spirit felt renewed. She heard the basket in her hand drop to the ground. And, at the same moment, a large thud accompanied it.

It was only after the sounds that she noticed that her fist was clenched. Keisuke took hold of his jaw, as a red mark appeared there. A cut on his lower lip began to drip with blood. Regaining his bearings, he looked at Shinobu in disbelief. She looked back in anger.

"I never want to see you again. You're the worst person I've ever known. You're weak. You're pathetic. You're scum. You don't deserve me, you worthless piece of trash. You don't deserve anyone. I will never see you again."

Shinobu picked up her basket, and walked away. The crowd watched in amazement and seemed to make way for the girl.

Shinobu smiled to herself the whole way home.

- -

Motoko waited by a lamp post as Yumihiko paid for the ice cream. She felt slightly uncomfortable even accepting this from him, but he so easily persuaded her. He returned to her with her cup of chocolate with fudge pieces. He smiled as he ate from his cone of chocolate chip ice cream.

"What?" she asked, looking over at him after a second bite.

"You're eating ice cream with a cup and spoon. It's so much better in a cone," he said.

"I've never liked cones. They have that weird waffle-grate thing at the bottom that never has any ice cream in it and it's just all wafer. It's kinda gross," she said between bites.

"If you get a waffle cone, they don't put that wafer stuff at the bottom." Yumihiko smiled as he ate his own ice cream.

"Well, yeah, but then it drips through the little opening at the bottom," she began to smile. She resisted the temptation to smile, trying to put on her air of feeling like crap, but it didn't work. Yumihiko laughed as a ridiculous, suppressed smile crept across her face.

"See? I told you this would make you feel better."

"Stop it," she couldn't help but smile now.

"So why don't you tell me what's wrong? I mean, now that you're smiling, it's not all bad anymore."

Motoko sighed as she scooped a huge chunk of ice cream into her mouth. After having sufficiently downing as much she could of that bite, she began to talk. "I've been told that I need to leave Hinata."

"By who?" he asked.

"My sister," she sighed. "She apparently has a problem with Kitsune being a girl. If she was a guy, then Tsuruko would be more than happy that I probably snagged me man and some schooling all at once."

"Your family's really traditional when it comes to marriages and stuff, I guess," he said.

"My sister married when she was, like, 18 or 16 or something. I can't remember exactly. But she was really young. I mean, it's like we're back in ancient Japan or something," she said, trying to make herself feel better. She admitted to herself, though, that she still appreciated part of that life.

"Was it an arranged marriage or something?" he asked. He was about halfway done with his ice cream cone and he part of it began to dribble down through the bottom of this cone.

"No, actually. She was probably 18, now that I think about it. I mean, she does actually love him and she chose to marry him. I guess picking who you want to be with only means something if it's a guy," she said, as she took the last bite of her ice cream. She looked over at Yumihiko who was still only partially finished. She felt a little embarrassed that she finished before him, so she didn't want to throw away the cup. She figured she'd just keep scraping away at the melted pools ice cream at the bottom.

They walked in silence. Yumihiko didn't say much as he finished what was left of ice cream. They didn't have any intended destination, they just simply walked. After a few minutes of aimless, silent walking, Motoko suddenly couldn't take the silence anymore.

"I bet if things had worked out between you and me, I wouldn't have to leave Hinata," she said nervously. After she said that, though, she felt a feeling of stupidity wash over instead. "Oh, yeah, good job, Motoko. Remind him that you're entirely off limits even though he still probably…" her mental voice trailed off.

"Nah, your sister would probably find something wrong with me. I'm not strong enough or I didn't take kendo or something," he laughed nervously. Yumihiko slowly looked over at Motoko as she came to a stop. She stopped in front of where he found her, the old playground.

"Am I doomed to be alone forever?" she asked. She didn't care who answered that question; she wanted it answered.

Yumihiko turned his body to hers, looking directly into her eyes. "You won't be alone forever," he said with a smile, his voice calm. He sounded so peaceful, so sure. Part of Motoko felt his energy, his emotion, transfer to her. She smiled back at him.

"Why do you say that?" she asked, still feeling unconvinced.

"You're such a smart and sweet girl, Motoko. No one could ever pass that up. Not only that, you're such a strong person. You're a role model for most girls. You're respectable, you're honest, and yet, you still have that sweet, emotional, womanly side to you. The part of you that can still fall in love," he said.

Motoko's smile faded. She felt sad at his words. She felt like a liar. She felt like she was betraying Kitsune by simply letting him say these things about her. She wished, with all of her heart, that Kitsune would come there and say those exact same things to her. Instead, though, it was someone else. Someone else was telling her why anyone would love her.

She inched forward into Yumihiko's body. She wrapped her arms around his back as she pulled him in closer. Yumihiko, who felt slightly taken aback by this, didn't fight at all with her. He simply let her come as close she wanted to. She walked into him, now holding him close to her body. She placed her head on his shoulder, closing her eyes.

In his arms, she was lost. Her body seemed to float. However, she didn't want to be happy. She wanted to feel miserable with him. But, as that floating feeling grew, her desire to feel horrible floated away as well. She ignored whatever feeling of dislike for this was growing.

But, as her mind floated away, she thought back to the night before. She remembered how she held onto Kitsune. She remembered how happy she was with her. She thought back to Kitsune's warm touch and her gentle kiss. She wanted that at that moment.

She replayed the words that Yumihiko said in her head. But even as they replayed, she could only hear Kitsune's voice saying them. She desired to have that woman in her arms and tell her all those things. She wanted Kitsune to say over and over again that she loved her.

Then, Yumihiko's gentle touch pulled her even closer. Her held onto her like he did after their date a few days ago. And this act, his pulling her in, slowly brought her back to conscious thought.

However, something else, something more startling brought her back much faster. She felt Yumihiko's hands drop away. She opened her eyes, backing away from him. A look of horror crossed her face as she realized what she had just been doing. And, then, she turned toward the sidewalk. As if through some kind of spiritual connection, she knew what she would find there.

"And here I thought I'd go out and find you to tell you I convinced Tsuruko to let you stay. Silly of me for caring, right? I mean, it's not like I matter or anything." Kitsune looked at the two, her jaw quivering. She swallowed hard before running away from there as fast as she could, turning away before her tears could be seen by Motoko.

Motoko stood for only half a second in disbelief at herself. Then she quickly turned to Yumihiko. "I'm sorry I did this to you, but I know I love her, now," she said as she ran off in pursuit of Kitsune.

- - -

I pulled an all-nighter for this one. I decided I didn't want to end the story just yet. I had a burning desire to put a cap on the whole Keisuke thing. The ending from before seemed far too open ended and I just didn't want to leave it like that. Plus, throughout the entire series of Love Hina, Shinobu didn't show a satisfactory change of character. I mean, even Su became a cutesy girly-girl at some point in the series, in contrast to her crazy self. (If you don't remember, think back to when she went on a date with Keitaro). I think the only one that gets an excuse for that is Sarah, and that's because she's just a kid and is a really minor character. Shinobu, on the other hand, was basically a flake for the entire series. (No offense to everyone that loves her, because I know we all do. P ) It kinda made me sad that she didn't get to be all crazy or mad or anything. The most she did was only during the anime and that was about the kissing episode. Also, it just kinda made me happy to write that.

As for Motoko and Kitsune, I feel like I didn't do enough for them. I feel like I'd be ending it prematurely if I wrote the original ending which was that Motoko came home and it was all happy. Yumihiko being left out in the original ending seemed too open ended as well. This revision closed that door and brought a better meaning to the way I'm planning to end this fic.

Or maybe I'll pull another crazy thing and keep it going. .

SS