It's another very short chapter. However, unlike traditional chapters I've written, this one picks up right where the other left off. And for good reason.

Of course, on the upside, some books are near 100 chapters long and only 1 thing happens, maybe two paragraphs worth of stuff. If that's how I separated my chapters, I'd have probably 30 or more. Of course, those people make money. I don't even own Love Hina, the characters, or anything else. You know, just in case someone asks. .

By the way, there's a reason I say all that stuff. Because even though this is a short chapter, it has the greatest amount of sections in a chapter.

- - -

Pink Camellias
17 – Aftermath
SethSolare

- - -

Minutes ticked by as Motoko simply stared at the counter surface past her still full cup of tea. She pushed the cup forward, sinking her head lower to the counter. Every one of her limbs began to wilt. She looked up, attempting to clutch the cup of tea. However, trying with all her will, she couldn't lift the cup. Her whole body felt entirely shocked.

Struggling to control her own tears, she willed herself to stand up. She pulled her body up, trying to not weaken herself. But, as should straightened up, a shiver ran through her. Closing her eyes, she hunched back over the counter top. Her breathing became labored. Her body quivered. Her eyes stung.

"What have I done?" she kept asking herself. "Is this because… Is this because I love her?"

She shook her head. "I just hurt my friend," she convinced herself. "I hurt her and this – this isn't love." She felt a tear slide down her face, another shiver through her body.

Then, someone else popped their head into the kitchen. "Kitsune, could you get the tea out here? I've been – oh. Where's Kitsune?" Haruka asked, looking at Motoko.

"What?" she responded, surprised to even see anyone.

"Oh, uh, I told Kitsune," Haruka started slowly, "about your sister. She's here. She and I were gonna talk this morning. You know, stuff."

"Sh-she left," Motoko said, using her wrists to wipe away her tears quickly.

"Do you want to talk?" Haruka asked softly.

Motoko felt her body shudder, her throat began to tighten. Her mouth opened slowly. Her breaths became shallow. And, with a quick surge of energy, she darted past Haruka, past Tsuruko, and out into the street. As she turned toward the stairs to the house, she ran into a body. It grabbed at her wrist.

"Hey. Are you okay?" Keitaro asked.

She looked up at him – dazed, confused. "Take me for a walk," she barely mouthed. She couldn't even hear it herself.

Keitaro nodded. "It's not like I'm gonna be able to talk to those two married gals about anything besides, well, nothing. So, let's walk," he said.

- -

As the two walked down the grounds of the dorm, Motoko clung to him like a security blanket. He felt her quiver at each step. Her breath was short and he felt it on his shoulder. They walked higher up the hill in the early morning.

Motoko sat down on the ground, unable to move further. Keitaro sat next to her, holding her. She tried to speak, but the words came between quick sobs, "You must have class or something."

"Not until the afternoon. Let's talk," he said, rubbing her shoulder.

She calmed herself before trying to talk. "You know, I always thought love would be much easier than this. I guess it's not even news that Kitsune and I are all weird now."

"I've heard a few things," Keitaro said.

Motoko didn't say anything. She stared blankly at the ground, her mouth agape. Snapping herself out of it with a shake of her head and sniff of her nose, she tried to talk again. "We had a fight today."

"It happens to everyone, Motoko," Keitaro comforted her.

Motoko scoffed, "What about you and Naru? Haruka? Tsuruko? All of your lives are perfect. You people have wonderful lives without the pain."

"Well, people fight. I mean, Naru and I got into a fight last night," Keitaro admitted.

"You two?" Motoko asked, her expression becoming more hurt.

"What? Oh, it was just a fight. We've gotten into them before. It's not a big deal," he lied, trying to give the despairing girl a smile.

Motoko looked back at the ground, "You guys are perfect. Even your fights don't tear you apart." Motoko sniffed again.

"No one's perfect, Motoko. Things, uh, happen. Things are bound to get in the way sometimes and you have to just work through it."

Motoko shook her head.

"What'd you guys fight about?" Keitaro asked.

Motoko looked up at Keitaro. "I honestly can't even remember. I remember saying that I hated the ultimatum she gave me. I mean, why? How could she? I can't – I can't do this. I can't do this at all."

"You can. And you can't keep running away from your problems like you are now," Keitaro said in a soft voice.

"I don't know what do, though. W-What do I say? 'Sorry for yelling at you, but I still don't know if I love you'?" she responded.

"That's something you could say. But, you could also say, you know, that you guys need to talk. And that you need more time. I'm sure she'd understand," Keitaro said.

"How would I even ask her?" she asked.

Keitaro looked at her again. "Well, what would you be doing tonight?"

"Well, I think Yumi's taking Shinobu on a date."

"Wait, what?" Keitaro asked.

- -

Kitsune cried into her pillow in her room. She felt her tears soak into the feathers of her favorite pillow. The door to her room was closed, but she knew that anyone could hear her bawling in her room.

"I'm horrible. She hates me. I'm the worst person in her life. I screwed up everything. Everything's my fault. Everything's my fault. Everything's my fault," she thought to herself.

Standing up in her tears, she grabbed a bottle of something to drink from her upper shelves. She took a quick swig of whatever she grabbed and, then, threw it at the wall opposite form her.

The glass bottle shattered, leaving a wet explosion on the wooden panels of her room. Broken glass littered the floor. She stepped back, away from the broken glass. As her back hit the wall, she crumbled to the floor. She felt her face scrunching up, her mouth wide open. She let out a loud cry. Huddling at the wall, she tried moving toward the corner.

Pulling her legs up to her chest, she rocked back and forth trying to call attention to herself with her crying. She wished someone would come and save her. She wished that Motoko could hear her. She whispered her name over and over.

In her mind, though, she knew no one would come. No one was home. She knew that she was alone, crying in her room. For all her screaming, she knew no one would come.

"Make it all go away," she wished. She simply stayed in her corner, sniffing and sobbing quietly.

But she wanted someone. She needed someone. Looking at the clock, she realized she had been in her room for an hour and a half. Weakly she picked herself up off the floor. She moved outside of her room and looked into the room next to hers. "He's not here," she thought.

"She's probably at class," she thought, looking at the hole in Keitaro's floor.

She turned back to her room. She looked around through her blurred vision and rapidly picked up some clothes, a towel, and a bottle of whatever she could reach and headed toward the baths.

- -

Keitaro picked up Motoko from the ground. After being too tired to keep talking about her Yumihiko and her plan and finally having the crying stop, she seemed to just pass out. Motoko's eyes were closed, her breathing slow. It seemed she was in an incredibly deep sleep. "I guess she'd be all tired out from everything," he thought. He picked her up from her legs and head and carried began carrying her back.

As he neared Hinata House, he heard his cell phone ringing in his pocket. Gently, he laid Motoko's legs on the ground so he could dig into his pocket. Flipping his phone open, he switched on his speakerphone, "Hello?"

"I left a book at the house. Can you bring it to me?" Naru's voice asked quietly on the phone.

"Um, I guess so. What book is it?" he asked.

"It's for my child psych course. I just – I need it. I can't come home and get to class fast at all. So, can you please bring it?" she pleaded.

"I guess," he responded hesitantly.

She sighed on the other end, "I'll – I'll be waiting in the union. Come here soon." And Keitaro heard her phone close.

"I guess she's still mad at me," he sighed, picking Motoko back up. "At least she doesn't punch me so much."

He carried her inside the house and up the flights of stairs. "She's really light," he thought. "Even Naru isn't this light," he laughed at himself. But he even felt he was laughing to himself nervously, afraid Naru would hit out of nowhere as usual.

When he reached Motoko's room, he laid feet on the ground and slid the door open. Motoko, though, flinched a little; her eyes opened. She looked up at Keitaro. "What am I doing here?"

"You kinda fell asleep. I'm thinking you're just a bit tired from all the stuff that happened," he said. "You should just take a little bit of a rest," he suggested.

"I'll be fine," she said, standing up. "Really. I'll be okay."

After a pause, Keitaro nodded. "Oh, uh, I have to go the university. I have to bring something to Naru. You sure you gonna be okay?"

Motoko's eyes narrowed, "I'm not ten years old. I'm a big girl and I can stay alone in the house."

Keitaro shrugged and went off to Naru's room. "I'll be back in a little while," he said as he walked away.

She stood in the hallway, waiting for him. After a few seconds, he reappeared running toward the stairs. He stopped and looked to Motoko, "You sure you're gonna be okay?"

She nodded. And Keitaro walked at normal speed down to leave the dorm. She waited at the railing to watch him go. And as he did, he didn't look back at her. "I guess they can make up," she thought.

"It's easier when love isn't unclear," she continued. She closed her eyes solemnly before resigning to her room. As she entered, though, she stopped as if she realized something. Swallowing hard, she trudged down the stairs to the second floor. She felt her heart race, and her breath quiver. As she approached the doorway, she straightened up and tried to relax her breathing. Feeling ready, she took one last deep breath and peeked into Kitsune's room.

When she looked in, she sighed. Her shoulders shrugged and her back loosened up. "I wonder where she could be," she thought. As she turned away from the room, she caught a glimpse of something on the floor. She walked over to inspect it.

Kneeling down, she found a puddle of one of Kitsune's drinks and shattered glass. She sighed, looking around at the pieces. Taking the trash can from the corner of the room, she began picking up the pieces that she could.

"Why?" she asked herself after every piece she picked up. "Why does it all have to be like this?"

After taking cleaning up the pieces, she sat down on Kitsune's futon and looked around her. It was still messy as usual. Several photos in frames littered the sparse tables in the room. Pictures of friends, a family photo, and some of the random things she's done. She stopped, though, at one photo in particular.

Motoko picked up the frame next to the futon. "This is old," she said to herself. It was a photo of a few years ago at some party they threw at the house. "I think this is the only photo of just the two of us we ever took," she thought. Motoko was in a pink tank top; Kitsune was dressed likewise.

"We look like we're together," she said softly. She held the frame as she picked up Kitsune's pillow. She clutched to her body, smelling it.

"And her hair smells so wonderful," she thought to herself. As she sat there, pillow to her chest, picture frame in the hand, she felt a weak, worried, and withered smile come across her face. She felt sadness as she smiled. She tried pushing that aside, but she knew that Kitsune could make her smile.

- -

After soaking in the baths for nearly an hour, Kitsune dressed herself in the small room adjacent to them. She stared at the bottle that remained unopened that she left on the floor. "I'm too tired to even drink," she thought.

After putting on a black cami, she collected up her towel and bottle and walked toward her room.

"I don't even care anymore. I don't care if she loves me anymore," she thought to herself sadly. "She can just do whatever she wants. I can't stand waiting for her."

She waited at the bottom of the stairs thinking to herself. She sighed, "Why do I love someone that doesn't love me anyway?"

She shook the thought from her head, trying to convince herself she didn't love Motoko. But what she thought and what she felt competed in her mind. But as she turned into her room, her mind stopped. She looked at the back of her room, and found the woman she loved sitting there.

"What're you doing here?" she asked weakly.

Motoko looked up surprised, "What? Oh, I-I-I just, uh, wanted to – you know. I wanted to see what you were doing." She put the picture frame back on the table closest to her and the pillow back on the futon.

"Okay. Well, I was taking a bath," Kitsune responded embarrassed, hiding the bottle behind her.

"I actually," she started, drawing out her last syllable, "wanted – well. I wanted to ask you something."

Kitsune nodded while trying to subtly put the bottle on a bookshelf.

"Apparently my idea to cheer Shinobu up was working and Yumi and she are going on a blind date," Motoko said.

"Okay. So you wanted to ask me something?"

Motoko hesitated before continuing, "Well, I was thinking we could, like, as friends, go to the same place. Not, you know, double date or something. Just end up at the same place."

"Where?" Kitsune said, slightly discouraged.

"I think he's taking her to Kanagawa's Neverland," she said. "I know it's nothing original. Keitaro's taken us there a couple times, but, you know. It might be fun. Us two – friends – having fun. Trying to just, you know, talk," she stuttered on.

Kitsune shrugged. "I don't mind. I guess I'll go."

Motoko flailed her hands slightly embarrassed, "I mean, i-i-if you don't want to go. Then don't go. I-I'm not pressuring you or anything." Motoko tried to calm down, "I just thought we could try and sort this all out, you know?"

Kitsune nodded with a weak smile.

Motoko smiled in turn and headed for the door. She stopped before she fully left and turned to Kitsune. "If it means anything," she started. Kitsune looked back at Motoko. But, Motoko shook her head, "Never mind. I'm sorry I was intruding in your room." And Motoko left for hers.

Kitsune, still holding the bottle in her hand, stared at it for a few a seconds. Snapping herself back into reality, she placed it back on her upper shelf and plopped down on her futon and closed her eyes.

- - -

Still a short chapter, but not the shortest at least. I enjoyed writing this particular chapter a lot, especially the Kitsune in her room section and Motoko's interaction with Kitsune's stuff. And, of course, I wanted Motoko to seem a little mousy with the whole thing. I have a weird way of portraying Motoko, I think. But, at most, I think it's kinda cute.

Also, this is a slightly edited version of the chapter. I originally wrote this to show the two girls having fought and making this little outing without any explanation of time. From a reader's perspective, it seems like most of all this took place in about an hour. But, really, I guess I had to really say that there's a lot of time of cooling off.

I originally thought it was clear enough by simply implying that Kitsune was in the baths so long that she cooled off and switched from depressive mode to slight acceptance mode (stages of grieving and such). Of course, that can happen quickly in some people, so it didn't make sense. The walking up the hill, the conversation itself, the time between last chapter and this (which was about 15 minutes), weren't at all accounted for. So I added a few things to give a better concept of time.

From the end of last chapter to the end of this one, it's been about 3 – 3.5 hours in the story.

SS