#4: Karma

Mamoru couldn't resist the befuddled look on the girl's face, the worrying of her bottom lip, the puzzled scratching of the blonde head as she bent over a textbook. It practically begged for his mocking. It was as if she were saying to him, "Please Mamoru, please mock me, I beg of you."

He was more than happy to comply.

Which was why he sidled, in his most fox-like manner, up to her stool.

"A is for apple, Odango," he quipped, dropping into the seat next to her. "And those funny scribbles next to the picture of the girl running arewords. They say 'See Jane Ru--'"

Without even looking up--as if it were reflex--she slapped his arm. "Shut up. I'm trying to read this."

He rubbed his arm, grin still on his face. "Betcha don't get to say that often."

She continued ignoring him, forehead still puckered. He mirrored her perturbed expression and craned his neck to see what textbook the odango-head could find so much more interesting than him.

Only to discover that it wasn't a textbook at all. At least, she had a textbook in front of her, but laying inside was...

"A poem, Odango?"

"Yup, and a love poem at that," she snapped back, raising her chin with some pride.

"Oh."

Ha! That shut him up, she thought.

"What was the guy on?"

Usagi screeched in outrage and tried to hit him again, but he grabbed her wrist. "Ah, ah, play nice, Odango." He glanced back at the sheet of paper. "What, is his vocabulary too refined for you?"

"What do you mean?" she asked with narrowed eyes.

Mamoru explained his meaning by aping her scrunching of her forehead, gnawing at the lip, and the scratching of her head.

A giggle slipped out of Usagi's mouth, unbidden, but then she gravely said: "It's just that there's this one word in this Indian guy, Anand's poem that's...Hindi, I think?"

Damn. He couldn't tease her about that, since hell if he could read a word of any South Asian language, let alone Hindi.

Usagi rushed to say: "And I'm pretty sure I do recognize the word, but it still doesn't make sense. He mentions 'Kama' so I was like oh, 'what comes around goes around,' but then I was like, did I insult him so now he's going to take it out on me with bad poetry--"

"Woah, woah, woah. Did you say 'Karma'?"

"No, stupid, it's Kama."

An ominous dread seized Mamoru. In a flash he had grabbed the poem from where it innocently lay, deaf to Usagi's protests, and read the words: "...sail on the River Brahmaputra...yada yada...let's you and me learn a few things from the Kama Sut--"

And on the spot, heedless of what Usagi's response might be, Mamoru ruthlessly crushed the poem in his hand and stalked out of the Arcade.

***

"Anand, could I see you out in the hall a moment?"

The foreign exchange student widened his bespectacled eyes. "Yes, of course, Haruna-san." He followed her out.

"Anand, I got a worrying call from Usagi's, well, from her father (I think? his voice sounded rather strange...) this morning about an inappropriate poem..."

***
"Karma" is actually Sanskrit I think, but what the heck, let's not get too nitpicky. Anyway, hope you enjoyed it and if you find the time (and the kindness) please review!