Love Hina belongs to Ken Akumatsu. This Fic belongs to me

"You want to change majors?"

Keitaro nodded sternly as he met the counselor's eyes, "I know it's a lot to ask for, given that the term is ending soon and all, and it understandably won't be done right away – However, I am certain I shouldn't be in the archeology department anymore. I need a new path, so to speak."

"Well," The counselor said, hands crossed over his mouth as he leaned over his desk "As you said, it's a bit of an unorthodox time to make such a request. Can you at least tell me what brought this on?"

"I…" he took a deep breath "I've come to realize that the major I chose wasn't for me, nor was it picked out of interest in the field. I've also realized that if I continued on this way, I'd be ruining my life, and others too."

He then bowed deeply in his seat, eyes screwed shut in desperation "I'm ready to do whatever's required to make up for that mistake, no matter how long it takes! Even graduating late is acceptable!"

The counselor didn't move from his position, but his mustache did droop a bit "...You do realize this means that not only are you going to graduate late, but you'll also have to take the prerequisites needed for your new major and get no credit for the classes you'll be dropping – and let's not start on having to find a new faculty mentor to take you on when most of the departments are full up already." and crossed his hands over together "You do plan to take a new job with another department I assume?"

Keitaro simply nodded "If the option's available."

The counselor nodded as well "Of course, you also have the option of postponing this until next school year and taking the courses needed during the summer to help catch up." he explains, fiddling with one of the pens on his desk "I won't force your hand or anything though; it's your choice after all, I'm simply giving you suggestions. But, I do highly recommend that you make this decision with what I say next in mind – do you really want this? Is this the choice that you'll be the most comfortable with, the future you're most certain of?"

Keitaro finally tore his eyes from the counselor and looked down at his clenched palms for a bit, eyes cast over. There was no answer for a while and the counselor looked ready to repeat his question until the brunette finally spoke.

"Yes." He said quietly "For too long...I've let other people make my decisions for me or made them half-heartedly. My entire life has been dictated on letting fate and others take care of things for me…" He looked up, eyes filled with determination behind the chipped lenses "But not anymore! I know now that that isn't a way to live! I'm making my own path now, and this will help me do it."

Silence took over once more as both men stared at each other, dark brown meeting steely black. The entire atmosphere of the room turned extremely tense, yet oh so fragile, like anything could break it and the quiet at any moment.

And when it finally broke, the counselor laughed, "Well in that case," and then reached a hand out to Keitaro with a broad smile "I kindly welcome you to Tokyo U's Fine Arts department Mr. Urashima! We're glad to have you aboard!"

Keitaro blinked a few times, and smiled as her took the hand and shook it vigorously "Thank you sir, you won't regret this!"

"Hey Maeda!"

Shinobu's head shot up from her notebook as she met the gaze of her classmate, slowly relaxing a bit "O-oh, hello Kataguri! Can I help you?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to join me and the others for lunch." the ponytailed girl smiled, gesturing over to the group at the doorway patiently waiting for her "We were going to head to Himeka's classroom, and we've got room for one more."

"Oh." Her eyes shifted over to her notebook cautiously as she tried to discretely hide the contents "Um, that's very thoughtful of you, but…"

Kataguri followed her gaze to the hidden page "You studying?"

"Huh?" She blinked, then looked down "O-oh, no, it's nothing like that! I just..." She near whimpered, trying to hide the page more "It's…k-kind of a personal thing…"

"Hey, it's cool," Kataguri says as she held up her hand placatingly "If it's personal, I won't go sticking my nose in it. So, is that a yeah or nah on our lunch date?"

"That's-" Shinobu took a pause she realized was going on too long when Kataguri gave her a concerned look. "That's very thoughtful of you," She replied hesitantly, fiddling with her pencil "Bu-but I already made lunch plans with someone so…"

"Ah."

"Yeah, sorry."

There was another rather long uncomfortable pause before Kataguri smiled again, waving a dismissive hand "Nah, its cool – maybe next time?"

Shinobu nodded, and Kataguri promptly waved her goodbye before maneuvering between the desks to return to her lunch group, who immediately headed out the door. Once she was certain they were gone, she moved her arm from her notebook, staring at the heading

"Reasons for Senpai to let us return to the Hinata Dorms"

It had been almost an entire two weeks since they had been evicted. When Seta arrived to pick up Sarah (who had fought tooth and nail about leaving until her father managed to get her to settle down), the first thing Haruka did was ask him if he could take Shinobu and the other girls with him. It had shocked her a bit seeing as how she had earlier stated she couldn't take any of them in, but it seemed like a good deal – the girls would have somewhere to stay, and Seta would have someone to watch Sarah for him. It was win win all around.

But even Seta had his limits. He had only enough room for two people with Sarah coming back to live with him, which meant four of them would be on their own

Haruka said no immediately before he could even ask.

Naru had also refused, certain that Keitaro would "stop his stupid game eventually" and wanted to be nearby when he did, but thanked him anyway. It went unspoken between them the other reason she may have turned him down…

Motoko declined on the basis that as a warrior, she could not let Senpai get away with evicting them nor could she rely on Seta's kindly offered hospitality. She insisted her Shinmeiryuu school training would be more than sufficient to help see her through until she could come up with a plan for a counterattack. She attempted to get Su to take the spot, but the young Molmolian refused to be separated from neither Motoko nor senpai, repeating over and over again that she didn't want to leave her home. It took a bit of convincing before she finally relented, with Motoko promising that she would visit on occasion they would be back to living together in the dorms soon.

Mutsumi stated she knew someone in town she used to stay with before moving into the Hinata, so she was fine and even asked Naru if she wanted to come over too.

All that left was Shinobu and Mitsune, the latter still skunk-drunk from her earlier binge drinking but still cognitive enough to recognize a free meal when she saw it.

It took all her willpower not to break down crying when both she and Mitsune practically leapt up and asked to take the spot – and he chose her. Apparntly, even though their school schedules left them little free time, he felt more comfortable having Sarah watched over by the two than an alcoholic Mitsune, though she did offer to keep watch over Sara during the weekends if able.

Each girl left determined to meet up again lately and eventually return to their rooms with hope of undoing whatever damage was done that had suddenly twisted their dorm manager's kind persona. They had five weeks to work with after all, and while she didn't say it aloud, Shinobu had been pretty sure of her chances. Yes, her beloved Senpai had kicked her out of the dorms without a single thought, and had firmly announced he really didn't care what happened to her (and the thought still caused her heart to wince) – But she was always kind to him without fail, even with the hurdles that came with the various mishaps and misunderstandings between them, and they had enough good history to at least earn a talk with him to try and change his mind.

Then the whole incident with Naru and Keitaro on the Tokyo U campus occurred, and those plans shattered like glass.

So the day before yesterday she decided to try and create a pros and cons list of her chances of being allowed to move back into her dorm and why. The idea was that once she had enough good points written down, she could approach him with the list and hopefully convince him to unevict them.

So far Shinobu had only managed to get down three pros – that he knew they cared deeply for him, that he loved Naru (though things considered she might just scratch that out), and that she was the best damn cook the dorm ever had (she briefly wondered what Keitaro was doing for food now that she wasn't there anymore. Was he eating properly?).

The cons however, stretched to nearly two and a half pages, starting with Naru's temper, diving into Mitsune's drinking and gambling, and then lightly finished off with the fact that the cost of roofing went down now that Su's robots and Motoko were out of the picture.

Suddenly the room shifted as she felt herself being tackled

"Shinobu! Su's here!" Su cheered, mouth in a wide open smile as she released the brunette. This was actually good timing on her part – She had been debating with herself over whether or not to share her plans with someone to gain a outside input, but fear that in doing so would lead to it getting to Naru and the others before she had a chance to set up her explanation on it had prevented her from doing so until now.

And just to make it clear – It wasn't to say she didn't want to tell Naru and the rest about her list. It wasn't like she was doing something bad behind their backs or anything, or at least, she was certain she wasn't. The list was just as much for their benefit as it was for hers after all. They all wanted to go back home and this was just a way of doing it – one she was doing discretely.

But...with everything that happened, the other girls (specifically Naru and Motoko) had all but formed a united front against Keitaro and expected everyone to stand with them in their refusal of the new lease. While she highly doubted it may come to it, with Naru's current mood, her list could very easily be taken as a betrayal of trust.

So obviously, the best way to avoid that was to test to waters and get a controlled snippet how they'd likely respond to the idea...

"Su," she asked carefully, twirling her pencil "If you could think of five reasons for Senpai to letting us live with him again, what would they be?"

Su blinked before jumping up excitedly "Oh, that's easy!" She beamed, pointing up a finger as she listed them off "If Big Brother lets us come back, Su can give him special greetings, continue her experiments, buy lots of bananas, make a robot to help him stop being cranky, and we can all live together again!"

The blonde girl smiled proudly at herself as Shinobu scratched her cheek nervously and explained "Um, Su, those sound more like things you want – We need reasons for Senpai to want us to come back."

Su tilted her head and pouted. "But big brother was always happy when Su did all those things!" she says before her eyes suddenly turned downcast, bringing her knees up to her chin while looked down "Or at least he used to be…"

Shinobu couldn't help but strain a sympathetic smile her way. Su had seemed to recover from the eviction quite well, but the moment anyone brought up Senpai, the poor thing deflated faster than a Mylar balloon. No matter how cheerful she acted when they all came together, the brunette could at least tell her friend had been hurt just as deeply as the rest of them by their (former) landlord's words.

"I know Su, that's why we need to figure out how to convince him to let us back in." she says, gently touching her shoulder "We can't forget this is all happening because Senpai's mad at us for some reason."

She's not sure if that perk the Molmolian girl up again, bu the way her face stilled again act least indicated the gears in her brain were seeming to turn at something she said.

"That's it!" Su suddenly yelled, slamming a fist into her open palm as she leapt up and startled the living daylights out of her "If Shinobu could get Su her parts back and find a way into her lab, she could make a machine to make Big brother forget why he's mad at her!"

A foreboding prickling traveled up Shinobu's neck as she watched her smile grow wider "H-how would that help?"

Su spins on her heel to face Shinobu, practically twirling "If he forgets why he was angry and made Su sad, he'd let her back in and stop being mean!" she explains cheerfully, and her eyes sparkle with bright excitement "And if he got mad about something else and started wanting to make her sad again – Su could make him forget that too!"

Shinobu barely stops herself from dropping her pencil.

"And if the others get mad at him for something and want to make him sad and him make them sad back, Su could make them all forget as well! Then everyone can be happy and live together and Su could build her robots again and..."

Shinobu drowns out whatever else she's saying and looks around the room. No one else is paying them any mind (a dreadful lesson learned over a long time after they both arrived), to her brief relief, but that doesn't solve the issue here. She'd like to think Su isn't completely serious, that she's just being imaginative and wishful over their very dire straits at the moment.

But then again, they thought that way about a lot of her inventions, and while she doesn't like to think this will end with them having to fight off the JSDF (again) or being trapped on a deserted island with no memory of who they are, she doesn't really want to test those odds if she leaves things be.

Besides, no matter how they feel about what he's done, messing with Senpai's head seemed...too far. She should stop this now before it gets out of hand!

(A small selfish part of her wants Su to keep going though, wants to see where she goes, wants to see if she can actually find her those parts...)

"T-that might not be a good idea Su." she starts to argues, and Su pauses from her fevered tirade to stare at Shinobu blankly with that still open smile that she felt was no longer reaching her eyes.

"Why?"

"We-well, um..." she mumbled, lacing her hands together as her brain nervously scrambled for a good excuse "If...if you keep erasing his memories, he might forget important things – like your birthday, or graduation, or his class schedule!"

"Su wouldn't erase that." Su countered bluntly, but Shinobu had no plans of backing down – especially since some people were now starting to look over

"But you never know! What if you and me were to have a fight and as I'm thinking of buying bananas for you to apologize before going out shopping, you use the device – I'll forget and Su-chan won't ever get any bananas and we won't have food." she says, feeling a faint hope when the excited sparkle faded slightly "O-or what if Senpai's upset while reordering new tools for you and you make him forget to finish filling it out! That'd be bad right?"

Su's expression turns flat, despite the smile still going, and Shinobu can do nothing but focus on her thundering heartbeat as the dark-skinned blonde hums thoughtfully and sits back in her chair, rocking back and forth. While she's obviously not convinced, she's at least considering Shinobu's arguments thankfully.

"I...I understand how you feel," she continues, stiffening when Su looked her way with that still flatish look "Having a way to make everyone forget their bad feelings would be nice." (and so easy, would take such a burden off...) "But it's better that we think of something easier that will make both Su and Senpai happy, not just one or the other. It might not fix things like you think, so maybe we can just, um, save that machine for another time, for when it can actually help us..."

Su continued to stare at her, and Shinobu heart thumps louder, regretting the question, regretting the list, regretting not signing the contract the minute it was there and slipping it under the Hinata dorm like she dreamed of the first night at Seta's house.

The blonde at least turned away and finally starts smiling all the way again "….Okay, Su won't make the device right now!"

Shinobu decidedly ignores the "right now" part as she internally sighs and thanks her, and decides maybe talking about her list isn't the best option right now as she puts the notebook away…

Motoko blinked as she rubbed her eyes again, flinching as her stiff shoulder twinged in pain. Even after stretching and rubbing it during break, the slight numb throbbing that appeared the previous two mornings still persisted. She managed to hide it from most of the class and her teammates so far, but her kendo instructor was starting to notice her altering her stances to compensate, and she knew couldn't rebuff her questions on it forever.

Damn it, that park really was a poor choice of campsite – I should probably move soon.

"Motoko-Senpai!" she hears, and turns to see Matsumoto, Onoue, and Ichikawa make their way over

"Oh, what are you three doing here?" she asks, putting on her most polite smile (if only to hide her discomfort.) as she shifted slightly.

Matsumoto stepped forward, holding up her lunch box shyly in front of her as a light pink blush dusted her cheeks "W-we came to ask if you wanted to each lunch with us again." she says, the two behind her nodding enthusiastically. "It was really fun last time, so..."

"Oh, I–" she began, preparing to turn them down because she had to rush this morning thanks to her tent getting torn when she was packing it away and lost any time to stop and get herself food from the convenience store by the time she fixed it, only for her gurgling stomach to make the decision for her.

She uses the Shinmeiryuu school's special breathing technique to keep her face from reddening and forced her expression into something more neutral as she stood, ignoring the demanding throb of her shoulder (and the looks of concern and confusion from her classmates) "Of course – after you three."

The three excitably squeal, making the slight headache from her poor time sleeping bubble up, though it helped distract from her shoulder. The exit into the hall, and the first year trio huddled up and begin talking excitably over their lunch plans, allowing Motoko's thoughts to wander after considering how she could cover up having no lunch on her.

It'd been nearly two weeks since that dastard Urashima had cruelly kicked them out of the dorm, and although she had persevered and managed to survive despite her struggles, it was clear she was starting to reach a slowing point. While she had been more concerned with Su's lodgings more than her own, Motoko knew she needed to find out a way to keep warm and available should he try anything in the five weeks he had "given" them. Even if he said he was giving them a chance, it very well could have been another trick on his part, and she had no willingness to be made a fool of twice, nor lower herself to sign that shady new lease! She was a practitioner of the Shinmeiryuu school of swordsmanship after all, and one of their most important tenements was that a swordswoman never allow herself to surrender to threats (especially chickenhearted ones made by weasels who pretends to be your friend and then happily kick you to the curb without even having the decency to do so to your face!)

Therefore, she had decided the best way to wait out his cowardly lockdown of the Hinata was to fall on the most traditional way of living treasured since the time of her ancestors – camping! She imagined it wouldn't be too hard, as there were likely plenty of parks she could settle in that were close to the area the dorm was in, and she still retained enough memory of her wilderness training back when she had started out to reproduce the skills needed. All she had to do was wait out those dreaded five weeks, and once he saw she and the rest wouldn't back down, he'd come to his senses and let them back in with a blubbered apology on his lips, begging to be forgiven for his foolishness – and if, and only if, it was a good enough one and she had calmed enough by then, she'd simply let him get away with just twenty-five hours of seiza instead of the standard twenty-six used for these kinds of offenses.

(And if any thought it as her being cruel, then they obviously didn't understand how Shinmeiryuu punishments worked! Less kinder in her clan would have had him flogged for the treatment he had shown them that day – her offering of a simple seiza was practically a mercy on her part, one rarely given in these types of circumstances mind you)

Her stomach made another protest, and she breathed loudly to suppress it before nodding to the curious Onoue to continue her story. She really should come up with a plan to deal with meals soon – the money left over from her allowance was starting to wane, and it was becoming harder to grab the marked down bentos in time (and while true she could easily just go to the student store from now on to fix this, their options were less filling than she liked, even if they were cheaper).

At least she wasn't the only one probably going hungry – That boor was likely a skeleton as this point, now that he had no one to cook and clean for him. Ironbody or no, there was no way Urashima was managing well without Shinobu's meals, and if he was, he wouldn't last for long. Tama (hesitant as she was to worry, given her still present phobia) was probably starving too, the poor thing...

Who is though… echoes from her heart, and she shook her head free of it. Maybe if he was lucky, Shinobu would deign it proper enough to help teach him some cooking methods so something like that won't happen again – and maybe, just maybe, Motoko...would join them, if only to help expand her knowledge in the field. It never hurt to learn new things, and who knows, maybe she would discover and come up with a new technique for the Shinmeiryuu school through her lessons! It certainly wouldn't be bad, standing side by side, cutting vegetables, learning what spices to use, their hands accidentally brushing over each other as they stares into each other's eyes, and then he'd suddenly pin her to the counter, demanding her in that new harsh way of his while looking down on her with hungry eyes as she-

She shook her head again, and the headache throbs alongside it as she desperately suppressed her blush. Ugh, it happened again! Such...thoughts were starting to become more frequent lately, and they were unbecoming of her as both a woman and a Shinmeiryuu school student. It was obvious her loss of a proper training spot was causing both her heart and mind to wander into unsavory territory, and she needed to right this immediately before it got worse! When she got her room back, she would definitely put some time aside for deep meditation...

In fact, I'll take a trip to the temple with Urashima and have him do some meditation to reflect! It would do him good to think over his behavior – and maybe afterwards-

"But it's totally not true, right Motoko-senpai!"

Motoko stopped, realizing she had missed most of the conversation that was now being aimed at her "Oh, I'm sorry, could you repeat yourself? I didn't quite hear..."

The one who asked – Ichikawa, turned to face her, hairbuns bobbing "That rumor about you living in the park," she explains, and the brunette's pokerface fell as the air in her lungs vanished.

Motoko felt no fear in having to live it rough for a bit, and it wasn't like she was struggling with it. Sure, her tent had snagged on a tree branch once too many and needed to be repaired, the picks of the convenience store bargain bin had been often scarce, and her last change in location forced her to abandon her heater – but they were all minor inconveniences compared to what they would suffer if they gave in to Urashima's ludicrous demands! Poor Su, Sarah, and Shinobu would be helpless against him with that new agreement acting as a terrible leash, Mitsune would be forced into all sorts of awful and depraved acts to maintain her room, Mutsumi sickly self would be left for the wolves, and Naru – the one suffering the worse after having her (now former, she guesses) lover betray her so cruelly, would be brought into even more misery! In order to avoid that, she had to persevere and find a opportunity to face him in battle properly! He only got away with what he did because he took advantage of them having their guard down. Against a properly prepared Motoko and co, there would be no openings for him to exploit this time!

Which is why she could not afford for it to get around school that she was out on the streets with only metal and cloth to call a roof over her head – her pri-noble spirit could not allow for her classmates to think she was pitiful! Especially because there was nothing to pity about Motoko Aoyama right now. She had everything under control!

(She was fine, would be once Urashima submitted)

"W-who told you that?" she ask, doing her best to not sound at all ashamed, because why would she – there's nothing to be ashamed about! She was just doing camping, something everyone did once or twice in their life. She did it plenty of times back home in the mountains, and how she was doing it now was no different from that time!

...All except the avoiding of park patrols, vagrants, and the occasional familiar face (that last one not being done as well as she apparently thought.), but that was just par the course on her mission (that no one should hear about, let alone be gossiping over)!

"Some other senpai. I heard her talking about it near the shoe lockers." the honey brunette explained, frowning slightly "She said she saw you yesterday, eating convenience store onigiri in front of a tent like a hobo – Crazy right?"

She goes quiet, stuck between relief of her secret not being uncovered and worry over who else overheard (or what else was seen), but the girl barely takes note of it as she pumped her fists in a juvenile manner "But don't worry, I totally told her off for you and said she shouldn't say things like that so casually! It's bad manners to go make up stuff about people!"

"Totally!" Her friends nod in agreement, and Onoue made a disgusted expression "I bet she just said that stuff because she's, like, jealous of how cool you are! Some people just, like, have no shame in the things they say about others!"

Ichikawa nods back, clutching her chest with her free hand "Honestly, if we hadn't stopped her, people would have a poor impression of Motoko-senpai! It makes me sick thinking about it - imagine what would have happened if she had heard any of that?"

"Besides, you live in that super awesome dorm right?" said Matsumoto, smiling wide "Why would you need to be living in a crummy tent when you have that?"

Because I don't right now

She stopped the grinding of her teeth quick to give another neutral smile "I'm sure she didn't mean any harm by it. It was likely just a mistake on her part."

The three hum in approval and coo over how humble and forgiving she was, making her headache known again.

This was fine. Whoever saw her wasn't believed (and even chastised for trying to dirty her reputation), and if they were, it's not like it would have hurt her standing. In fact, if anything, people would probably try copying her. After all, she'd putting herself through so much just to get her and her friends's home back – forcing herself up earlier than usual, removing bugs that had got inside her tent during the night, staying after school near closing to use the locker-room showers! Her situation was not pitiable or rumor-worthy in the least bit! It was all simply...a trial – yes, exactly! It was simply a trial she had to overcome for the sake of building up her spirit and bringing herself one step closer to victory!

"Still, I can't believe someone to make up such awful rumors about our wonderful Motoko-senpai like that for no reason! It's horrible!" Matsumoto weeps, wiping the corners of her eyes with her sleeve

"Yeah! Though honestly, she'd, like, be better off being somewhere without that...person around to distract her." Onoue says, nose crinkled in distaste, the other two humming in agreement "I don't know how she, like, puts up with him with how much he..."

Motoko says nothing, barely stops to registers the insults as her heart pangs with some foreign, unknown feeling and a pit forming in her stomach that had nothing to do with the hunger gnawing at her, growing deeper and deeper in as she explains to the trio how she's doing some light fasting for practice today, hence why she had no food with her.

Mitsune twisted the payphone cord around her finger, teeth chattering from both the cold and nerves. Even with the huge winter coat she was wearing, the chilly pre-spring air still managed to bite at her.

"C-come on Kosuke!" she begs, "Can't you be nice and help a girl out!"

["I've been nice to you plenty!"] the angry voice on the otherside hissed, causing her to flinch away from the receiver ["And every time I am, you give me the run around! I'm not letting you screw me again, and I'm definitely not letting you spend the night!"]

"Please, I just need-"

A barking laugh cuts her off ["And there it is – the 'I just need'."] he huffs, and then his shrill voice turns nasally as he mocked ["'I just need some extra cash' 'I just need another day' 'I just need the room for an hour' 'I just need to remember the name of the guy who took Mitty's ashes as collateral'!"]

"I-I still got them back!" (Or at least, the urn they were in) "Please, I promise I'll make it all up to you, I just ne-I mean, I only need a week, a day even, and then I'm out of your hair pronto!"

There's no answer, and for a moment, Mitsune's hopeful, believing Kosuke thinking her offer over and that she's finally found a place to settle down and get her bar-

Then the receiver clicks, and she puts it back and cusses loudly in despair, falling to her feet as she curls up into herself.

The past two weeks since Keitaro kicked them out of the Hinata have been hell and a half, and not in the fun way things are usually hell for her. After they had split off from Haruka's cafe, she'd been forced to turn to couch surfing from acquaintances to keep herself warm – and now it seemed she was already starting to run out of couches. The ones who she managed to get to say yes would usually only allow her to stay for a bit, and things worked out well enough that she even managed to weasel out an extension – but then she took one too many of the beers from the fridge, or stayed out late once too often at the bars, or called up one too many bookies to the house, or missed the toilet one too many times after a bad hangover, and suddenly she was out the door and on her ass again.

Deciding she'd taken enough time moping and getting awkwardly stared at by passersby, Mitsune stood and exited the phone booth, pulling up her jacket as she made her way through the streets of Tokyo. Friends chattered, lovers cuddles, fellow lushes laughed and swigged their bottles, and the ashen-haired woman weaved through them all as the sun sank down and the nightlight grew bright. She checked her watch and saw she still had some time before some of the bars closed down for the night

I could try calling Haruka and ask if we could hang for a bit she considers, only to shake her head. The tea shop was still open right now, meaning she was working, and if Keitaro saw he coming by...

With a shiver, she continued walking. Eventually, she found herself on a familiar street corner, and stopped to examine it for a bit. If she kept going straight on and took a few turns, she'd end up at that show Keitaro tried to part time at during his first year at the Hinata. The memory of him desperately trying to explain away her fib to the owner with that cute panicked face brought a slight smile to her lips

The chilling wind blew it straight off though, and she bundled herself up more.

Mitsune was many things, but she certainly was not prideful. Sure, she took pride in a lot of things, like her ability to squeeze into anything size 6 or how fast she could talk her way out of a tab, but she could let it go just as quick and easily as if it were a hot coal when the time called for it. Pride didn't fill your stomach, it didn't give you free beer or promise to pay off your loans (it didn't stick by your side when the chips were down, and everyone's turn their back on you), it didn't do anything because it a stupid emotion that made you act in stupid ways because it made you be stupid enough to believe you had a leg to stand on and that was enough for poor stupid you. Pride is only for when you could afford it, and her account was practically overdrawn at this point. The only thing that was stopping her from going up to the door, getting on her knees, and begging for forgiveness and her new lease is that doing that would hurt Naru worse that it would her abandoned pride, and while she could afford to give up a lot of things to have her room back, the ginger haired girl's friendship was not one of them.

If this was any other situation (any other person), she'd honestly believe they had a chance at waiting things out. Make no mistake, Mitsune was just as mad as she was about the whole thing – Keitaro had bushwhacked them all pretty badly with the sudden eviction, and she honestly felt like giving him a bit of the business for how badly he spoke to all of them with all that yelling and talk of not caring about what happens to them (she expects that kind of thing from marks and other guys, but not her goofy sweet Kei-chan...). But still, even she knew better than to get in a pissing contest with the guy who literally owned the roof over your head, especially when he had both the means and will to keep it from being over said head. She didn't know how much of Keitaro's...talk yesterday was truth and how much was a bluff he made up to get them all shook up, but she did know that he was clearly ticked off about...well, everything, and they could not afford to wait to see who would let who off the couch first. It had only been two (now bordering on three) weeks, and already she and the rest were starting to reach the end of their individual ropes (now cut even shorter thanks to Naru's stunt last week) – Motoko looked terrible their last meeting with those bags under her eyes, and the stress was obviously starting to get to Shinobu with how often she was flinching and muttering. Su barely talked the entire time while Mutsumi passed out more once during their talks, while meanwhile Naru had practically chewed her nails to nibs, and Sarah voice was practically shot from the screaming she'd done – and don't even get her started on herself! Even Haruka, who still had her shop, was looking on the weary side, makeup barely concealing her puffy eyes. If this is what being outside of the Hinata had done to all of them, then the five after the new tenants arrival would likely spell their end.

(Standing your ground is all well and good on paper, but it only works when you have actual ground to stand on – and theirs was crumbling fast.)

Suddenly, someone bumps her shoulder, and she turns to see a familiar mop of dark hair as their glasses glint in the light of the fading sun.

She understands that she rubs people the wrong way. She understand patience is a virtue. She understands everyone has their limits

She understood that no matter how many "just kiddings" and "I was drunk" and flirty apologies she gave out, sooner or latter, Keitaro wouldn't just laugh it off, or make that cute desperate face, or just accept them patiently with that soft, kind smile

She grabs his arm without even thinking about it.

(But she also understood this was the first time anyone's ever been an exception for her, so maybe, he'll understand again too)

"Kei-".

The man looked up and adjusted his glasses, fish-like eyes blinking at her "Hmm?"

Her smile drops, and she takes a step back "I..."

The man blinks again and Mitsune sighs "Sorry, I thought you were...someone else."

He accepts her apology and gives one for bumping into her before continuing on his way, and Mitsune leaves too, trying to remember the name of that 24-hour bar she crashed a reunion at once – if she was lucky and the owner didn't recognize her, she could spend the night in one of the booths without them being the wiser...

[3 weeks left until the end of Winter term of Tokyo U]

*Laughs nervously* Alright, let me explain exactly what happened that made this fic go in a coma for *Checks calendar* Um, so long.

First high school happened, then graduation happened, then the computer I usually used for writing this fic kind of...died happened (I had everything on usb thankfully, but no way to really write it.) then college happened, then I finally had my own laptop but by then I had not working on the fic for so long I kind of hit an unfortunate patch of writers block so I just left in chilling in the backburner until I could get motivation to write it back happened, then college graduation happened, then job happened, then quarantine happened, then me looking at my old stuff happened and - boom, inspiration back happened.

So yeah...Whoops ;-_-

Anyways, now that my excuses are out of the way, lets talk about the fic now!

Honestly, I mostly wrote out the scene because I just...really wanted to explore Shinobu taping into her selfish side a bit but also have her be both aware and unaware of the situation she and the rest are in. I never really see fics doing that in the "Keitaro says screw it" genre, because they usually have her automatically take Keitarou's side. I feel like in this situation, she would stick with the others, not because she thinks they haven't done anything wrong or that Keitaro's grievances aren't geniune, but because she thinks that since she's the one who's the "nicest" to him, she has an inside track and therefore has the highest chance of actually working a deal out. Her heart's in the right place yes, but she doesn't seem to realize that sometimes having been nice to someone isn't enough in situations like this.

Motoko was surprisingly hard to do, but that's mostly because her character is hard to maneuver for me and I still wanted to avoid going to bashing territory. That being said, I feel like she would just...go deep into denial mode in this case. Nothing's wrong and neither is she, It's just a small hurdle she, future heir of the Shinmeiryuu style, must overcome! Motoko is all about honor, so Keitaro's actions last chapter don't register to her as an act of a person who's on their last straw and just thinks he's being a big coward who acted behind their backs, so whatever he's said isn't something worth considering. (Also, that talk of Seiza was me considering the fact that Motoko's family is shown in canon as being super harsh and old-school, so I imagine she doesn't consider the "punishments" she's thinking up to be that extreme because hey, that's how they did it at home, so it must be a reasonable response!)

And last but not least, dear Mitsune. I feel like out of the group, she's the only one who would have a crystal clear view of the situation they're in, but unfortunately not have the presence of mind (y'know, with the whole diving full ham into her drinking as a coping mechanism) to address it. She knows they've all done stuff to make Keitaro mad, and she knows they're being stupid by trying to play chicken with their actually housing situation, but hasn't realized that its not something she can just drink and forget about the next day. The little things do add up and it isn't just a problem of a singular past incident nor something an simple apology can fix.

Well that's everything. Part two coming soon. Peace!