Love's Redemption: Relationships
Brimming with a wellspring of energy from an unknown source, Jake awoke earlier than normal and helped Shinobu with breakfast preparations, albeit quietly as Kitsune was still sawing logs in the adjacent room. As he was about to lay the last place setting on the dining room table, Su drifted through the door, still clothed in yesterday's school uniform. Emitting a wide-mouthed yawn that would have impressed a hippopotamus, she sat down in her normal seat. "Good morning," she sleepily muttered, her voice barely louder than a whisper.
"Good morning, Su-chan," Jake responded. "Long night?" he asked after giving the ragged-looking Molmolian a onceover.
"Yeah. I pulled another all-nighter."
"Well, that's good. Wait, what do you mean another one?" Jake asked after digesting Su's words.
"You really shouldn't overwork yourself, Kaolla," Shinobu admonished her elder as she placed two steaming rice bowls on the table.
Su waved her hand weakly in a dismissive gesture. "Don't worry, I'm not skimping on my studies."
"What are you working on that's keeping you up nights, anyhow?" Jake wondered.
"That, my dear landlord, is a secret," Su brightly said with a mysterious wink of her jade-colored eye.
Jake smirked, leaning onto the table in a feeble attempt to adopt a dominant posture in front of the young woman. "It better not be another doomsday device. I've heard the horror stories about your inventions, Su-chan."
Su shook her head and smiled mischievously. "Not even close! As a matter of fact, the one I'm working on at the moment is specifically designed for you, Jake!"
Jake blinked. "For me? What is it?"
Su leaned back in her chair and folded her arms. "I told you, it is a secret. I should have it ready by tomorrow, so I suppose I could show you then."
"Thanks, I guess?" Jake couldn't help but worry. He envisioned some horrible contraption designed to suck his brain out, or a device that tracked him down and detonated on contact. Such thoughts began to make him feel a little bit green.
Jake's worrisome mood lifted with Mutsumi's arrival. She positively glowed; her beautiful visage unfazed by her tousled hair and baggy eyes. "Good morning, everyone," she sweetly greeted the trio. That woman could sooth the soul of a battleraging berserker, Jake thought.
"Good morning, turtle-lady," Su replied cheerfully.
"Good morning, Mutsumi-san. Did you have trouble sleeping last night?"
"Ara, Jake-kun," Mutsumi replied, tilting her head to the side and placing her hands on her hips, "Are you trying to say that I don't look well? I didn't take you for that kind of man."
"Oh no, that's not what I meant at all, it's just…" Jake began to reply defensively but stopped when the dark-haired beauty began to giggle. "You're sassing me, aren't you?"
"You're just too much fun to play with!" Unable to contain herself, Mutsumi began to laugh merrily at Jake's expense. Unsurprisingly, he could not find it in his heart to be angry with the woman. She was simply too adorable, and her playful attitude only made her seem more attractive to him.
"But on a more serious note, yes, I did have problems sleeping. I kept hearing strange noises coming from Kei-kun's room last night. Do you know something about that, Mr. Manager?"
Only two words came to Jake's mind: plausible deniability. "No, Mutsumi-san. I was out like a light," he lied. He turned to Su and, knowing full well she was far out of earshot of hearing anything lewd coming from the couple, asked, "Did you hear anything weird, Su-chan?"
Su shook her head in the negative. "I can check my cameras later to see if there was anything weird happening. If it was Keitaro's room, I can hazard a few guesses as to what was going on."
Jake blinked several times as Mutsumi giggled at the dark skinned girl's jest. "Cameras? You have cameras hidden in the tenants' rooms?"
"Yeah…so?" Su asked, seemingly without a care in the entire world.
Jake was nonplussed by the young woman's carefree attitude. "So? You must be breaking some sort of privacy law with something such as that, Su-chan! Do you have one set up in my room, too?"
Su winked at the American. "I see all," she intoned in her best baritone.
"You are so great, Su-chan," Mutsumi praised the mad scientist.
Jake sighed loudly. He falsely believed at least the beatific Mutsumi would recognize the folly of Su's actions. More importantly, Su was sure to have ample amounts of blackmail material on the entire household with those cameras. She could likely even pull Kitsune's strings with the substance she had in her possession.
The most prudent course of action at that point was simple: retreat. Shinobu stood at the stovetop, working her magic on another of her various fragrant dishes as Jake approached. "Smells great, Shinobu-chan!"
Shinobu did a double take in Jake's direction and replied, "Oh, thanks. This is actually something new I decided to try."
"You seem to have the Midas touch when it comes to cooking. When are you going to teach me to make a few of these tasty dishes?" he asked jokingly.
"I'll teach you as soon as you can read this," Shinobu teased, tossing the cookbook she was using in Jake's direction. The blue-haired teen winked and stuck her tongue out at her landlord.
After thumbing through a few pages of the complex symbols jammed between pictures of some traditional Japanese dishes, Jake closed the book and set it back on the counter. "Fine, then. I guess I'll have to teach you a few things about American cuisine. Maybe I'll have to grill up some burgers and dogs sometime to break the monotony."
Shinobu turned off the burners and moved the finished products from their respective cookware into bowls, loading them onto a serving tray. "That's perfect! I have a date tonight, so you can take care of dinner this evening. Pour the drinks for me, will you, please?"
Shinobu glided out of the room, foodstuffs in tow, leaving Jake in shock. "Hold on, back up a tick," he said, and moved to follow Shinobu, but remembered the task assigned to him, and thought better about confronting the girl in front of the other tenants.
Just as Jake finished setting out the beverages, Keitaro glided into the room, humming a random tune. His hair was disheveled, but a toothy grin was pasted to his face. Spreading his arms out as wide as they would reach, Keitaro belted out, "Good morning, everyone!"
The table's occupants muttered their responses, sans the bubbly cheerfulness. Motoko, who had entered whilst Jake and Shinobu were discussing cooking and kanji, lifted her eyes from her notebook, eyeballing Keitaro suspiciously. Shinobu smirked, a hint of color touching her cheeks, while Mutsumi played her usual naïve self, playfully chatting away with Keitaro. Su was oblivious, waiting with bated breath for Shinobu to declare breakfast officially ready.
A moment later, Naru made her appearance, looking much the same as Keitaro. She wrapped her arms around his neck, kissing him on the cheek before greeting the others at the table.
Jake bit his tongue, trying mightily not to make a crude comment as he sat down in his seat. However, Naru's post-coital leisurely stroll was not lost on his trained eye. With a smirk, and in an attempt to raise his mind out of its current residence in the gutter, he glanced at the seat to his right, noticing it was still empty. "We're still short one," he noted verbally.
Naru, bubbly as she has ever been, chirped, "She's up. She just needed to wash her face. She has a pretty vicious hangover, I suppose. It's strange though."
"How so?" Jake asked, noting the thoughtful look on Naru's face.
Naru retained her pensive look for a moment before shrugging. "I just didn't think she had quite that much to drink last night. My memory is pretty hazy about that though. I don't remember too much."
"Aw, don't say that," Jake replied toothily. "Someone might be disappointed."
There was enough blushing to go around after that comment. Even Motoko had to raise her notebook to her face to hide the heat flushing into her face. "Well, no sense waiting around while the food gets cold for one more. Dig in!" Shinobu exclaimed.
While everyone finished loading his or her plate, Kitsune finally slithered in, looking awfully green. Her voice like a sputtering engine, she said, "Good morning," without an ounce of enthusiasm as she dragged her feet across the hardwood floor. When she sat, she saw her plate was already full of food. She wearily glanced up at Jake, who smiled in response. "Thank you," she said in English, a weary smile cracking through her façade. "Itadakimasu."
The table was mostly quiet for the next several minutes, before Kitsune, who was beginning to brighten up with food in her system, noticed Keitaro and Naru stealing glances and winks at each other. Without any hesitation, she asked Keitaro, "So, did you get some last night?"
Motoko spat out the water she had been drinking all over Jake's face. He lurched back instinctively, causing his chair to tip backwards, dumping him unceremoniously to the floor. Shinobu covered her mouth with her hands, not believing what she had just heard. Su stood on her chair, leaning over the table to stare at Keitaro. Even Mutsumi's mouth gaped at the question. "Get some what?" Su asked. "Is 'some' tasty?"
Time stood still for a moment after the smoke cleared. All eyes fell on Naru and Keitaro, except Jake of course, as he was seeing stars at the moment, bathed in the former contents of Motoko's mouth. "I'm alright, I'm okay, everyone. No one cares, do they?"
Naru pounded her fists on the table, jumping out of her seat. "Kitsune!" she exclaimed, her face as red as the setting sun. Her eyes might have bored holes into a normal person, but Kitsune had a natural immunity to tsundere.
Keitaro's face was equally red, but he was not as adamant as his lover at denying it. He was playing with his hands, a silly grin on his face, looking up as if the answer was hidden somewhere on the ceiling.
Kitsune laughed mightily. "Oh, the look on your faces right now is simply classic! And the way you fell out of your chair was just like it was scripted, Jake!"
"Gee, thanks for your concern," Jake retorted. He stood up and wiped the fluid from his face.
"Sorry about that," Motoko said, embarrassed by her outburst.
"Anyway, congratulations, you two. You're officially now in a serious relationship," Kitsune added, giving the star-crossed couple a round of applause.
"Pardon me for interrupting, Kitsune-san," Motoko interjected, "but I fail to see how a couple's…sexual endeavors…somehow qualifies their relationship."
"A couple's first time is very important, Motoko-san," Mutsumi replied. "You finally get to share all the feelings you've had pent up since the beginning and it feels really good, too!"
"You talk as if speaking from experience, Mutsumi-san," Jake said with a laugh.
"Only what my mother has told me."
"You mean you've never?"
"Nope."
"Wow, that's pretty hard to believe, considering OUCH!" Jake recoiled and rubbed at his stinging ear, which had been flicked by Kitsune. "What was that for?"
"It's not polite for you to try to get a woman to talk about her chastity," Kitsune replied, turning her chin up haughtily.
"You're the one who started it with that little quip! Or are you still too drunk to remember what you just said two minutes ago?"
Shinobu yanked on the pair's reigns by clearing her throat loudly. "Not to be rude, but could we possibly not talk about such things at breakfast?"
"You're right, Shinobu, sorry about that," Jake said.
"Thank you."
"In the interest of raising the level of conversation, just so you all know, I will be handing dinner preparations this evening since the resident chef will be indisposed due to the date she has this evening."
This time it was Shinobu's turn to spray a fine mist of water from her mouth. Naru beamed at Shinobu and asked, "Is it that one cute guy in that class next to you that you always talk about?"
"Yeah, he's such a hottie."
"I know!"
Keitaro rolled his eyes and turned away to avoid getting sucked into the girlish conversation.
Kaolla, with a large tendril on drool hanging from the side of her mouth despite having just eaten, stared at Jake with starry eyes and asked, "So what's for dinner?"
Jake flashed thumbs up and responded, "Burgers and dogs!"
"Are dogs yummy?"
"Well, I wouldn't know about the animal, but my hot dogs are yummy."
"Yay!" Su exclaimed, looking more excited then Jake could recall in recent memory.
"That's an awful lot of fatty meat," Motoko noted aloud. "I'm not sure that I can agree with such an unhealthy meal."
"Ah, don't worry about it. One fatty meal won't kill you. Protein is good for building muscle anyway," Jake offered, dismissing Motoko's protestations.
"Lean protein you mean," Motoko corrected the American.
"I'll make you deal, then. If you don't like it, I'll make you something else to make up for it," Jake offered.
Motoko grinned widely. "Are you sure about that? I've never had a western dish that I didn't think was garbage."
Jake smirked. "That's because they've all lacked the American touch. Trust me, you're gonna love it."
Keitaro nodded in agreement. "It's true. There's a huge difference between having a western meal here and in the States. We'll have to get the grill out of storage though. Who knows how long it's been sitting there unused. It'll probably need some touching up."
"No worries. I'll take care of it." Jake asked if anyone knew where in town to get ground beef and hot dogs. Shinobu knew of one such place, and offered to take Jake there. Kitsune threw her hat into the ring and offered to bring the alcohol for those of age and other refreshments for the underage girls.
Having all the plans in order for the evening, everyone enjoyed the rest of breakfast, merrily conversing with each other. Jake caught himself wearing a smile, albeit bittersweet. This was like a slice of home for him, but his family wasn't there to share the coming evening with him. He made a mental note to call his sisters and check up on them later, and then went back to enjoying his meal.
Jake and Shinobu left the dorm soon after breakfast and the two enjoyed a silent leisurely stroll into town. Neither said much, other than commenting on the nice weather they were enjoying recently. The perennial fog blanketing the town grew thicker as they approached the market, much like the crowd.
As crowd crushed around the two, Jake put his hand on Shinobu's shoulder. She turned and looked at him with a puzzled expression. "So I don't lose you," Jake explained. Shinobu nodded and smiled, the blood rushing to her face quickly cooling. As much as she would like to wear the veil of an adult, she was still unused to a male's touch, Jake thought.
After several bumps and bruises, they finally reached their destination: a corner beef market. Jake explained what he was looking for and the cheery middle-aged owner quickly gestured Jake towards his small selection of ground beef and franks of questionable origin and composition.
Jake murmured over the din to Shinobu quietly enough so as to not bring insult upon the owner, "Are you sure this stuff is okay?"
"I come here for beef all the time. It's good, I promise."
Not fully trusting what the shop keep was telling him, but taking Shinobu's word for it, Jake grudgingly forked over the cash for several pounds of ground beef and franks along with some cheap-looking hamburger and hotdog buns. As he received his change from the vendor, he began to wonder if he was going to lose his bet with Motoko after all.
Getting out of the market with several heaping bags worth of groceries was even more difficult than entering. It was simply impossible to move at times, and squeezing through the market was surely flattening the bread buns. Just when Jake was about to lose his temper and start shoving people out of his way, the crowd thinned.
"It might have been worth it to just take a train into the city," Jake grunted.
Shinobu chuckled and replied, "The beef is much better here than in town, Jake. Trust me on this."
"If you say so."
Shinobu looked at her watch nonchalantly, gasping at what she saw. Whirling around, she exclaimed, "Sorry, Jake, but I have to run. You know your way back?"
Jake nodded. "I know my way from here."
"See you later then. Bye!" Shinobu turned and dashed towards the thickening miasma.
"Thanks again!" Jake called out to the girl, who waved back in response without breaking stride. "Alone again, naturally," he sang to himself as he trudged along.
This was nothing new for him. He routinely handled much of the "womanly" day-to-day chores while his mother worked every day to support three children. Determined to give his sisters the best life possible, he never delegated any chores to them. He tried to make life without a father as transparent as possible. It wasn't always easy, especially on his social life, but he had his priorities, and if his friends could not accept that, then they would not be considered his friends.
As soon as his youngest sister turned sixteen, Jake began to think about what he had missed out on. He never did anything much other than play baseball and study in college. With his family stable, he decided to play his hand at making a major league team. It would be the first selfish thing he would ever do.
After failing, Jake went back to being a father figure. When Keitaro called him out of the blue, the hope of his dream came back, but he never voiced it to his family. His mother fell ill to the cancer she thought she had beaten several years before, and his sisters were just finishing high school. However, the ladies could see in Jake's eyes that something was missing in his life. He had his own turmoil to overcome. When he finally mustered up the courage to tell his family about his new possibility, they were the ones who actually had to coax him into leaving for Japan to try to make his own life.
Jake pushed on through the fog, nodding and smiling to the several passersby. As he approached the stairs leading to the dorms, Jake heard a strange bell-like ringing coming from somewhere behind him. He turned and discovered its source: a stubby old man, decked out much like the old man he had met when he arrived the first time, who stood partially veiled in the ivory white and gray fog.
Seemingly apparitional, the stooped elderly man said cryptically, "The past binds, the present clouds, the future frees." Jake squinted at the strange man, unable to make any sense of what he was saying. He looked around, wondering if the old man was speaking to someone other than him. Unfortunately, he was the only one around the area. The man continued, "You cannot find your happiness here."
Jake frowned at the man's comment. It was as if he knew about Jake's failure and was pouring salt into his wound. "What are you saying? That I should just go home, then?"
The old man looked puzzled and scratched the back of his head, where he still had some strings of silver on his withering mane. "Did I say that?"
Jake smirked contemptuously and turned away from the elderly man. "What the hell do you know about anything anyway?" he asked in English, his question more rhetorical than anything. Jake stomped off in a huff, without waiting for a response.
The old man he left behind wore a surprisingly toothy grin. Out of Jake's earshot, the old bat stated, "Happiness will find you first." With that, he vanished back into the thickening cloud of mist.
Jake grumbled to himself as he climbed the never-ending stairs leading to Hinata Sou. What the old man had said really rubbed him the wrong way. "What's wrong with me being here? Am I just wasting my time? And why the hell am I letting some old man's ramblings bother me so much?"
Before he even realized it, he was stepping through the front entrance to the dorms. Several voices welcomed him home, including one he did not recognize immediately. He glanced up, seeing Kentaro sitting on the sofa, his arm wrapped around Kitsune's waist. A small flicker of jealousy and anger flashed across Jake's, to his own surprise.
"I'm home," Jake said flatly. His mind flashed back to what the old man had said. "Are the old men here prophets or something?" He continued to wrack his brain as he walked across the common room into the kitchen area, leaving everyone else dumbfounded.
"What's his problem?" Naru asked.
"I'll go see," Keitaro replied, standing up and following Jake into the kitchen.
Jake was pulling the various purchases from the bags when Keitaro stepped into the room. Jake didn't even notice him. He was still locked in battle with his own mind. Keitaro approached his foreign friend and asked, "What's up, Jake?"
Jake jumped with a start. "Keitaro! You scared the living piss out of me!"
Keitaro chuckled openly. "You are out of it, Jake. What's the matter? Something bothering you?"
Jake started to reply and stopped. He finally began, "Have you ever dealt with those old fogeys running around town?"
Keitaro nodded. "Something they said bothering you?"
"N-not really," Jake lied. "One just said I 'wouldn't be happy' or something like that."
"I wouldn't worry too much about those geezers. They don't have much else better to do than play pranks on kids with their cryptic messages."
"I don't know. It was like he was familiar with my circumstances. Like he knew things about me. It was just for a moment, but I felt like he knew about what happened with…I must sound crazy saying stuff like this."
"Just a little bit," Keitaro admitted.
Jake chuckled, "Well, enough with sounding like I'm losing my mind. Would you mind helping me with this?"
"Sure."
The two men carried everything needed for the barbeque from the kitchen through the foyer to the grill now sitting outside of the front door. To Jake's chagrin, Kentaro did not even offer any assistance. He entertained ideas of scorching Kentaro's meat or spicing it to oblivion. While the image of Kentaro running around breathing fire for two hours gave Jake a good chuckle, he ultimately decided to be the better man.
Jake was left outside to his own devices while the others stayed indoors chatting away with each other. "I'm gonna find that old man and beat the tar out of him," Jake sneered, gnashing his teeth. While grilling was something he enjoyed, normally he had at least someone to keep him company back home while he cooked. That was what made gatherings back home such an enjoyable experience for him. He felt pathetic standing there all alone.
Meanwhile, the others were laughing at a joke Su told everything that she heard from a classmate, when Kitsune glanced out at Jake, who was staring stoically at the increasing plume of smoke billowing from the grill. She stared out at him, wondering why he appeared so miserable.
Kentaro glanced at his girlfriend, and then turned to see what she was staring at. He smirked at Jake's image with some contempt and nudged Kitsune with his shoulder. "Something interesting out there?"
Kitsune flinched at the sudden contact, suddenly aware of her situation. She shook her head and said, "No, Jake is just out there by himself." The others turned to look at Jake in tandem.
At that very moment, Jake happened to look up from the grill, seeing everyone staring at him. He played his part, putting on a cheerful face and waving at everyone.
"He looks lonely," Kitsune noted aloud.
Kentaro shifted his body in his seat, obviously, irritated, but maintained his casual smirk and shrugged his shoulders as if without a care in the world. "So what? He is the manager is he not? Since when does the manager consort with the tenants?"
Keitaro raised his hand, but Kentaro paid no mind to the spectacled former ronin. Kitsune waved Keitaro off, her body language telling him that she did not need any assistance in defusing the situation. "Jealous, Kentaro?" Kitsune playfully asked, her voice hinting at a touch of sincerity.
The onlookers to the budding of the lover's quarrel cast nervous glances at each other.
"Jealous of what, him? Don't make me laugh, Mitsune. Is there something about a gaijin such as he that I should be jealous about? Didn't he come here to try out for some baseball team and fail? Are you telling me I should be jealous of someone that can't accept failure and go home?" As he spoke words of contempt for Jake, Kentaro removed his arm from around Kitsune's waist.
Shinobu winced at the force of Kentaro's words and quickly turned to see if Jake had heard any portion of what Kentaro just said. The smoke wafting from the grill hid him well enough and the sound of sizzling and snapping fat must have masked a lot of the noise coming from inside, as he whistled to himself while turning the meats over with an old pair of tongs.
Su just blinked. Keitaro and Naru just looked at each other. Mutsumi's perennial contented look vanished. Motoko, however, had heard enough. She leapt to her feet. "What the hell would you know about it, Kentaro?"
Kitsune smiled softly and motioned Motoko to relax and sit down, never removing her eyes from Kentaro. "You say these terrible things about him, Kentaro, but the truth is you don't know anything about him other than a few trite details. No offense, Keitaro, but I think it's been accepted that he is the best manager we've ever had here."
After a collective nod from her fellow tenants and friends, Kitsune continued, "And look, he's outside right now grilling YOUR dinner that he graciously decided to pay for himself. He's certainly good enough to pay for your meal, unless you want to leave a few hundred yen for his services. I don't think he would take too kindly to that, though. He might be insulted if you did something so crass as to tip him as if he were a servant."
Kentaro was outmatched, but not willing to give up the fight. He played his trump card. "Why are you defending such a man? Are you in love with him or something?"
A collective gasp from the crowd fell on two pairs of deaf ears. Su felt as if she were in some drama theater and wished she had some popcorn to eat. Shinobu continued to glance back and forth between the drama unfolding before her and Jake outside, who seemed to remain oblivious to the goings-on.
Motoko was utterly furious before, but was pensive after hearing Kentaro's accusation. Mutsumi wanted to scream out how cute the two were when they fought, but thought it better to save it for when the two made up. Naru and Keitaro shook their heads, disgusted with how a look outside could turn into a fight over another man.
Kitsune's expression did not change, however. She expected this gambit. She even had a retort ready for this very situation. She stood up, turned to Kentaro, spoke one word to him, and walked away, joining Jake outside.
The others were left trying to gather whatever was left of their jaws, Kentaro hardly the least of them. The silence was louder than a bombing siren until the front door slid open and shut. Kentaro blinked from his daze and finally noticed the other girls and Keitaro similarly slack-jawed at the situation. His senses finally returned sufficiently to blurt out, "What are you all staring at?"
Nervous laughs came from the audience, before they all bolted out at once after Kitsune. Kentaro, left alone with his thoughts, leaned back in the sofa, asking himself if what his girlfriend had said was true. "Maybe?" Puzzled, he looked in the direction of the door leading outside. "What the hell is that supposed to mean?
Jake was whistling away his worries when the door slid open and a ray of sunshine emerged from the portal. "Hey, Jake. Need a hand with anything?" Kitsune asked, wearing her customary carefree smile.
Jake caught himself staring at her; he missed that smile. "Y-yeah, actually. I need a hand getting everything set out. You mind?"
Kitsune shook her head. "I would be more than happy to help you," she said silkily. As she passed around him, Jake could have sworn he felt her hand slide across his lower back. The tingle from her touch spread through the rest of his body, the jolt to his nervous system causing him to shiver slightly. Kitsune noticed this and leaned toward him, placing her hand on his arm. "Is something wrong, Jake?"
Jake quickly assessed the situation. "She's never been like this with me before. Is she flirting with me?" Unable to reach a conclusion with his imagination wandering at the warmth of her touch, Jake replied perhaps too quickly, "No, nothing at all, thanks. I appreciate your help."
The front door swung open no more within that instant, and the others, sans Kentaro, filed through the portal, Keitaro pulling the door shut behind him after he stepped out. Jake was at a complete loss as to why they were all suddenly standing there, but he became aware that Kitsune had removed her hand from his arm when the door opened.
"What's going on everyone?" Jake asked. "You all sure came outside really fast.
Mutsumi was the first to reply. "Ara, ara," she giggled nervously.
"Something funny?" Jake asked the turtle-lady.
Motoko opened her mouth to speak, but Naru cut her off. "Oh, nothing, just a little joke."
"Is Kentaro still in there?"
Su caught a whiff of the nearly finished meat and jumped on Jake's back, nearly knocking him into the grill. "HOT!" Jake shrieked.
Su laughed at Jake without a care in the world. "It smells SO good, Jake! Is it almost ready?" Su began to drool all over her manager's shoulder.
"Yes it is, Su. Mind letting go before I hip toss you into the grill?"
Su climbed down from Jake while he stood as still as possible. Forgetting about the strangely sensual situation with Kitsune, he noticed the meat was about finished. "Okay, everyone, grab a plate, line up and tell me what you want."
"I'm going to pass, since my date was planning on taking me out somewhere," Shinobu declined. She pulled her cell phone from her pocket, flipped the top open and gasped at what she saw. "Oh, no, I'm going to be late. See you later, everyone!"
There was barely time for farewells and good lucks for the shorthaired high school student before she vanished from sight down the stairs in a full sprint.
Everyone grabbed plates and lined up before Jake and the table holding all of the buns, condiments and other assorted food items. Kentaro finally emerged while Jake was serving Kitsune, and he immediately felt Kitsune's attitude change. She practically clung to him, pressing her chest into him while gushing thanks over him.
Jake saw that Kentaro was getting red in the face and he pried Kitsune off of himself, carefully trying to not touch her inappropriately. "What are you doing?" he asked, fully aware that his face was likely as red as molten rock.
"What's the matter?" Kitsune asked, coyly tracing across Jake's chest with her finger. "I'm just trying to properly thank you for all your hard work." She lightly smacked his cheek with her hand and walked away.
"What the hell is going on here?" Jake wondered. He noticed Kitsune glaring at Kentaro as she passed right by him without uttering a single word to him. Suddenly, it all made sense.
Naru was next in line, and she saw it as well. She just glanced downward, shaking her head to herself. "They're fighting." Jake stated as he loaded her plate absentmindedly.
"You could say that," Naru answered
Jake harrumphed to himself and smiled at Naru when she thanked him. "You women sure are dangerous."
"And don't you forget it," Naru replied with a wink.
Kentaro never got in line. He just stood near the door with his arms folded over his chest. Jake motioned him over to him, and Kentaro approached him with a sneer on his face. They stared each other down for a moment before Jake broke the psychological struggle. He held up a plate with what was left of the cooked meat and asked, "Like a plate?"
Kentaro hardly expected Jake to be courteous to him, much less compassionate. His expression softened as he replied, "Please."
While Jake transferred some food to another clean plate, he muttered, "What are you two fighting about, anyway?"
Kentaro raised an eyebrow at Jake. "Who?"
Jake blinked at the man standing before him trying to play the fool. "You two, obviously."
"That's none of your business, thank you very much," Kentaro simpered.
Jake ignored his plea. "Just apologize to her. She's the type that will never forgive you if you don't."
"What do you know about her that I don't?"
"I know what I saw, and she looked pissed off."
"Why should I apologize? She's the one being absurd." Kentaro mentally slapped himself. He knew in his heart that he was in the wrong, but his pride was simply too great. "Why am I talking to you about this anyway?"
Jake sighed, looked Kentaro in the eye, and said, "Because you don't want to go to sleep tonight being angry with each other. One of you may not wake up in the morning. Is that what you want?"
Kentaro shook his head. "No."
Jake shoved Kentaro's plate into his hands. "Then get over there and say you're sorry."
Kentaro flatly thanked Jake and turned without another word. He was completely humbled by the very person he just accused of being an ignorant foreigner no more than fifteen minutes ago; by the very same person that just showed more insight to women than he ever read in any book.
Jake smiled inwardly as Kentaro disappeared back into the common room at a job well done. "There's my good deed for the day," he said to himself. He quickly cleaned up the vicinity before reentering the building. He noticed Kitsune and Kentaro in the corner, silently conversing with each other and they quickly slipped out of the room to the dining area trying to appear unnoticed.
As Jake sat down with the others, Keitaro asked between bites, "What did you say to him, Jake?"
"Huh? Oh, nothing much. Why?"
Mutsumi swallowed and responded, "He just came back in with this depressed look on his face and asked Kitsune to talk to him privately. That's not like him at all."
Jake nodded sagely. "Yeah, I figured he screwed up. What happened anyway?"
Naru quickly tried to change the subject. "Wow! This is really good, Jake! You should do this more often! Right, everyone?"
They all nodded and muttered their approvals through full mouths. The ruse worked. "Yeah, that sounds like it could be fun. My family used to do this kind of thing every month: get together, have a barbeque, reconnect."
Keitaro chimed in, "Yeah, one time Jake invited Seta and I to meet his family. They were really nice people."
"Though my aunt didn't take to kindly to Seta trying to dig up her garden looking for some Native American ruins, as I recall," Jake added with a laugh.
Jake nodded as Kitsune and Kentaro returned to the room, hand in hand.
Mutsumi noticed the pair, glanced down at their interlaced fingers and asked, "Ara, you two make up already?"
Kitsune released Kentaro's hand and pointed a finger in Jake's direction. Kentaro complied with a somber nod of his head, and everyone stared at him in silence as he sullenly approached the American. He stood in front of him, his body shaking as if caught in some internal struggle. At last, he fell to his knees, burying his head into the ground. "I'M SO SORRY, JAKE-SAMA!" Kentaro belted out, prostrated.
Jake nearly jumped out of his chair and glanced around the table, seeing everyone on the edge of bursting out laughing, including Kitsune, who was holding a hand over her mouth to keep from screaming out loud with a hoarse laugh. He had obviously missed something, but had no idea what. Sparing Kentaro further embarrassment, Jake tapped him on the shoulder with a fair amount of consternation and said, "It's okay," without even asking why the man weeping at his feet was apologizing in the first place.
Kentaro sprang to his feet and bowed furiously and repeatedly, screaming, "THANK YOU VERY MUCH, JAKE-SAMA! THANK YOU VERY MUCH!"
As Jake tried to calm Kentaro down, Kitsune sat next to Motoko, who leaned over to and whispered to her, "That was certainly better than my idea."
Kitsune snickered softly and grinned fiendishly. "Don't think I didn't entertain the idea for a little while."
Jake finally settled Kentaro down and the party finally started. As stories were told and more than a fair amount of alcohol was consumed, Jake could not help but reminisce about home, his friends and family, especially his mother. She would have loved to meet his newfound friends, even if she could not understand a single word they said. He smiled inwardly as he imagined her saying, "They are a strange sort, but they certainly are nice people. I'm glad for you, son."
Later in the evening, Shinobu returned home to hoots, hollers and catcalls from the drunken crew just in time for Su to begin singing her favorite song on the karaoke machine. Kentaro even let down his guard, albeit not without a healthy amount of alcohol in his system; enough to embarrass himself by singing Bette Midler's "The Rose" in falsetto, much to everyone's delight.
One by one, like a stack of dominoes, everyone began to fall asleep, or to be more accurate, pass out, either from exhaustion or alcohol consumption. Jake was the last one standing at the end after Keitaro finally slumped over, falling asleep with his head resting on Naru's belly. She was one of the first to drop, and she was out light a light. Nothing short of slapping her across the face would rouse her.
"Victory is mine," Jake slurred, raising his hand in his meaningless victory. He wearily glanced around at the carnage around the room. Empty beverage and snack containers were strewn about, as still as the people lying with them. His work was cut out for him tomorrow.
He yawned and stretched, sitting on the one open seat left in the common room, rubbing his eyes with the palms of his hands. His eyes wandered over to Kentaro and Kitsune. Kentaro was on his back and Kitsune was curled up on him, her head resting against his chest, moving up and down rhythmically with his evenly paced breathing.
Jake stared blankly at the couple for a moment as a sudden feeling of déjà vu came over him. It was a rather eerie feeling, and yet he could not take his eyes off of them. Shinobu's sleeping form rolled over next to Jake on the sofa, taking his mind off Kitsune and Kentaro for a moment. He had to quickly move off the sofa as Shinobu stretched her legs out on the sofa, taking up the space he had just occupied.
Jake considered just going to his room, but the staircase leading to the second floor loomed taller than a Himalayan peak. He quietly murmured a curse under his breath, concluding the floor was as good a place as any to lie. He brushed away the debris in front of him and slowly lowered himself stomach first onto the area rug, using his arms as a pillow to support his head.
He looked to either side of himself to make sure no one would kick him in the head while he slept. Su was to his right, roughly feet away, so he scooted over the other direction to avoid any thrashings her sleeping patterns might incur. When he was confident he was out of her radius, he glanced the other way, and saw he was only several feet away from Kitsune and Kentaro. Her back was to him, and he found it unlikely that she would roll over onto him, so he remained in place. However, he did not mind relishing the thought of her using him as a pillow as opposed to Kentaro.
His eyes remained peeled open, unable to shake the overwhelming familiarity of the sight of the couple. It even felt familiar, as if he was experiencing all the sensations himself. The warmth of her breath on his naked skin, the sweet perfume of her hair, her fingers tracing three simple words onto his chest. The taste of her lips.
After a single moment of clarity, a powerful wave of emotion swept over him. Tears fell from his eyes unabated. It was not déjà vu. He was recalling the deepest wound in his heart. His last moment with the one he loved most in the world. The one that was snatched away in the blink of an eye.
Feeling as vulnerable as he did on that fateful day, the man wept silent, bitter tears from a reservoir he had thought long been dried.
A/N: You know, it really sucks when you have the ambition to get something done and the universe works its evil magic to bend you to its will. I had originally meant to have this particular chapter finished and released several weeks ago, but with a bout of personal and professional crises striking in unison, my best laid plans were all for naught. Oh, well, all's well that end's well, I suppose. Hope you enjoyed the latest chapter. With any luck, the next will drop sooner than this one did.
Again, thanks to Mike aka Lunar Knite for proofreading.