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Sunset	By : thewriterwhocameinfromthecold Category: +G to L > Love Hina Views: 6179 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Love Hina or its characters. I am receiving no monetary compensation for this work.

Chapter List
- 8
- 9
- 10
"Is the new manager not coming down to dinner?" Shinobu asked, pouring curry from a sauce pan into a serving dish.
Naru paused in the midst of laying chopsticks on the dining table, and turned towards the kitchen.
"Yeah," Kitsune said as she leaned in the dinning room doorway. "He said he wasn't feeling well and wanted to lie down for a while."
"Oh." Shinobu laid the serving dish down, removed a plate and chopsticks from the pile, and returned it to the kitchen with a downcast expression. Naru took in Kitsune's own sagging shoulders, and realized that Shinobu wasn't the only one who was disappointed. Naru wasn't surprised. Years of close living had trained Naru to notice the gleam in Kitsune's eye the moment Haruka had mentioned that her nephew was a Tokyo U student. Kitsune had been the one to invite Naru to live at Hinata House. She had been what kept Naru going when her parents were getting their divorce. She was Naru's best friend, and she loved her with all her heart; but the fact remained, Kitsune was a gold digger.
'She's going to be even more disappointed,' Naru thought.
Once the chase had ended, and Naru had gotten a good look at her unwelcome house guest, she'd been unable to shake the feeling that she'd seen him before. The feeling had haunted her all the way up to her room. It wasn't until she sat down at her desk and saw her textbooks lying on top of it that she realized why. She'd bumped into Keitaro Urashima that very afternoon at her cram school. He was the lunatic that had been shaking hands with everyone after he'd finished his mock exam twenty-seventh from the bottom. Naru laughed. Twenty-seventh from the bottom, he'd be lucky to get into a community college with scores like that. Never mind the most prestigious school in the Pacific Rim.
But how should she deal with it? Naru knew she had to confront Keitaro Urashima for the good of the house. They couldn't have someone staying here under false pretences, even if he was Hina's grandson and Haruka's nephew. But that didn't mean she had to humiliate him. Naru Narusegawa was not heartless, nor did she despise men. If he could just leave quietly, that would be better for everyone.
The conversation at the dinner table flew above her head as she ate in silence, considering her options. Maybe she could use Haruka's teahouse. That would be safer than trying to talk to him on the grounds.
"Are you all right, Naru?" Shinobu asked.
"Huh?" Naru started.
"You haven't said a thing all night."
Naru shook her head. "I'm just thinking about cram school, that's all. She pushed away her empty plate. "I think I'll go for a walk before I go back to studying."
"Don't study too hard," Kitsune said.
Motoko set down her rice bowl. "I agree. It is possible to over exert."
"Don't worry," Naru replied, "I promise you studying will be the furthest thing from my mind."
She gave everyone a wave and headed towards the foyer. Once she arrived at Haruka's teahouse, she realized that it wasn't empty. Through the window, Naru could see Keitaro and his aunt in the front room. Keitaro sat at a table stared down his hands with a slack, sad expression. Haruka puffed on a cigarette as she carried tea for the pair of them.
Haruka handed her nephew a steaming mug, and crushed the cigarette in an ashtray. "I see. I didn't realize that you were still taking entrance exams. I'd never have brought Tokyo U up with the girls if I'd known."
Keitaro took a sip of his tea. "Yeah, and then Mom and Dad made me move out to teach me a lesson. They said I could come back after I became realistic."
"Tough break," said Naru, leaning against the doorframe, startling Keitaro and Haruka. Naru navigated the mass of chairs and tables to where the pair was sitting.
Keitaro stiffened at the sight of her. "Naru! I was…Uh…"
"Don't act so surprised," Naru said. "I knew it, the moment I realized who you were."
Keitaro looked lost. "What?"
Naru grabbed two bunches of her long mane and held them out to the side like pigtails. "Recognise me now? You crashed into me at Kazami Prep." She dropped her hair. Her first instinct was to be angry, to run him off the property; but Haruka was sitting right there, so she contained herself, saying, "As a resident, I think I'm entitled to an explanation."
Haruka glanced at her nephew. "Keitaro?"
Keitaro held up his hand. "It's okay." He stared down at his tea. "I've failed to get into Tokyo University twice. This year isn't looking good either. So my parents gave me a choice." He took a deep drink as if the tea could give him courage. "I came here because this is where I can remember being happiest."
He got up from the table.
"Let me stay the night and I'll be out by morning."
"Where will you go?" Haruka asked.
Keitaro gave his aunt a sad smile and a shrug. "Maybe I'll go home. Maybe it is time to grow up."
As he walked past Naru, she grabbed his shoulder.
"Wait," she said.
"What?"
Naru had grabbed on reflex. There was something so sad in his eyes and his stooped, defeated posture that she couldn't just let him leave that way. It was like his world was ending, and she'd pulled the switch. If she didn't do something about it, she thought she'd cry. But now that she had him, she realized that she had nothing to say.
"If…" She searched for something. "If you got in, then it wouldn't be a lie, right?"
"What do you mean?"
"We need a manager," Naru made up her reasoning as she went along. "You need a home. I'm trying to get in. You're trying to get in. It all evens out." She smiled, feeling proud of her improvisation. "So stay and I'll help you keep the secret."
Keitaro looked like he had a bad taste in his mouth.
Naru grew impatient. "It's a choice between a little lie, and the street," she told him.
Keitaro looked to Haruka who shook her head. "It's up to you," she told him.
Keitaro turned back to Naru. "Why are you being so kind?" he asked.
Naru forgave him his suspicion as she considered their first meeting. When Keitaro said nothing else, she realized that he expected an answer.
'Because you were willing to tell the truth. Because your face reminds me of me when Dad left. Because you look like a puppy with big ears and feet that go everywhere but where they're supposed to go.'
"Because," she told him, "I don't want the responsibility of throwing Granny Hina's son on the street."
A week later, Keitaro was – as much to his surprise as anyone else's – still a fact of life at Hinata House. For the first couple of days he had walked around on egg shells, terrified that his clumsiness would reach a fever pitch and have him fall through a rotten patch of floor into the girls' change room; or, even worse, that he would screw up his story or Naru would betray him, and he would be run out of the house as a liar.
Yet the sword of Damocles did not fall. Naru might have acted like she was only just tolerating him, but she remained loyal to her pledge; coming to the rescue whenever someone – usually Kitsune – got too inquisitive about Tokyo U. She still walloped him if she thought he was being stupid or if he tripped on top of someone – usually her or Shinobu – but they have managed some form of détente through studying together. As Naru had observed, both of them were trying to get into university, so it was only logical that they work together. If the last several nights that they had worked from seven o'clock to nearly midnight were any indication of Naru's workload before Keitaro arrived, then it was enough to make him suspect that Naru might have been motivated by loneliness as much as academics. This was, he surmised, the first time that she had had anyone close at hand to share her struggle.
Motoko, on the other hand, had not warmed to him in the slightest. To her, Keitaro existed on a sliding scale of inferiority and perversity. Inferiority earned contempt at his mistakes, and perversion punishment whenever he tripped or let the dirty part of his mind wander too visibly. He had, however, discovered a loophole. So long as he kept to his egg shells whenever Motoko was around, he remained rooted on the inferior side of the scale, rendering him beneath her notice for anything other than cursory interaction. Keitaro would have preferred that they get along; but if it was between being ignored and being beaten, it was an easy choice.
In his favour was the fact that if there were a hundred opportunities to run into people and look like a pervert, there were – by virtue of everyone's busy lives – just as many ways to avoid it. While the younger girls were at school, he couldn't cause them any trouble; and so long as he kept busy with chores and cram school, he managed to create a block of time where the girls were safe from his clumsiness and he was safe from them.
It was warm for an autumn morning. From his seat at the breakfast table, Keitaro listened with a smile through the kitchen window to the sounds of birds chirping as they bathed in puddles and chased each other around trees before their migration to warmer climbs. The day's breakfast had been even better than usual. Keitaro turned his smile to Shinobu as she made her way around the table, collecting plates and humming a tune Keitaro didn't recognise.
Keitaro patted his belly. "You know, Shinobu, you make the best miso soup I've ever had."
Shinobu flushed with pride as she took up the last of breakfast plates and carried them to the counter. "It was nothing, really."
"No, I mean it," said Keitaro with a wave of his hand. "You'll make a fine wife."
There was a crash as Shinobu dropped the plates into the sink. She covered her face and turned away.
Motoko tapped the hilt of her sword with her index finger. "Careful, Urashima."
Su cackled, "Shinobu loves Keitaro, Shinobu loves Keitaro!"
Keitaro looked back and forth between Su and Shinobu. "Well, I didn't mean mine."
Shinobu let out a squeak and ran from the room. Su gave chase, chanting, "Shinobu and Keitaro, sitting in a tree…"
Keitaro sighed and turned back to the table. Naru and Motoko were glaring at him. Even Kitsune, nursing a hangover, gave him a baleful look.
"What?" he asked.
"You mean you don't know?" Naru asked, incredulous.
Keitaro shook his head.
Naru scoffed, got up from the table and bopped him on the head. "I'm going to school."
Motoko shook her head. "You are an idiot, Urashima," she said as she left, apparently deeming him beneath further punishment.
Keitaro stared after the girls without a clue in the world. Was this one of those 'If you don't know I'm not going to tell you' things his father had warned him about? He looked at his watch. He'd agreed to meet Shirai and Haitani for the morning session at their cram school. It would be a long day of studying before he returned home. The good news was that the movers were supposed to arrive today with his things.
When Keitaro had called home and told his father that he'd moved into Hinata House, his father had laughed.
"You never do anything the easy way, do you son?"
"I'm paying my own way," Keitaro had replied. "It's what you and Mom wanted."
"We wanted you to consider your future." Keitaro could hear the suspicion in his father's voice when he had asked, "Did Haru put you up to this?"
"Aunt Haruka had no idea. It's my dream, Dad," Keitaro had replied. "I'll never know if I don't try." His father was always like this.
"You have tried, twice."
"You know that's not what I meant."
"Oh, I know what you meant. We both know that this is about the girl."
"It's not just-"
"You know that this world is full of women. You could find one, settle down, and run the bakery with us. It'd be a good life; and all you'd have to do is give up on Tokyo U."
"Would you respect me as much if I did give up?"
There had been a pause on the other end of the line.
"No," his father had said at last. "No, I guess not. Okay, we can have your stuff sent over in a couple days. I'll smooth things over with She Who Must Be Obeyed…Oh hi, Honey."
"What did you call me?" Keitaro had heard his mother shriek so loudly that he was forced to jerk the phone from his ear. The other end of the line had begun to echo with a tongue lashing that would have made a sailor blush.
"Bye Dad," Keitaro had laughed. "Say hi to Kana for me."
.
Off to classes?" Kitsune asked. Her voice was scratchy with her indulgences from the night before. Kitsune was often gone at night. Keitaro had no idea where, but the hangovers she returned with suggested that he should be glad of that. "They sure work you hard at that university."
Keitaro stopped short of opening the front door. "Uh, yeah. Studying for university is hard work." That much, at least, was true. He was studying for university.
Kitsune sauntered over and straightened his collar. "Listen, if I manage to beat this headache, I thought I might stop by the campus when you've finished for the day. Maybe we could get a bite to eat?"
Keitaro backed away and opened the door, if only to put some distance between her and him. "That nice of you, but, uh, I'll probably be studying late."
Kitsune's smile faltered. "Another time, maybe."
Keitaro agreed and headed of down the road. Ever since that incident in her room a week ago, neither he nor Kitsune had spoken of it. As far as he was concerned, they had both been drunk and that was the end of it. Since then, Kitsune had been nothing but friendly. She had been almost as instrumental as Naru in getting him settled into the routine. Along with Naru, she had shown him the grounds, and where all the supplies and important documents were. She'd always engaged him in discussion at dinner. She seemed quite nice, but she was far too interested in his university schedule, which made him more nervous with each lie he was forced to tell.
There was also the fear that she might try something like the incident again. It hadn't been the kiss itself that he had minded. Even now, Keitaro got sweaty palms thinking about the feel of Kitsune's lips and the smell of her perfume. But what happened after…It was too much for a guy who had never received any affection from any woman outside his own family. It was too raw, too animal for him. There had to be more to romance than that, didn't there? Weren't they supposed to become friends, date, or at least know more about each other than their names before they did…that?
The train pulled into the station and Keitaro put it from his mind as he disembarked and made his way to the street a few blocks from his cram school.
.
It was three o'clock, and Naru was already cramming her books into her bag when the bell rang. If she hurried, she'd make the first train and be at Kazami Prep with time to spare. She hurried through the class bow, and bolted from the classroom to the shoe cupboard as fast as propriety would let her.
"Hey, Naru."
Naru slipped on her street shoes and stood upright. "Oh, hi Shiori."
Shiori Hanai smiled at her friend. "A couple of us were going to do some karaoke. Want to come?"
Naru shook her head. "Cram school. Sorry."
"Oh." Shiori shuffled from one foot to the other. "You're there a lot," she said, just as Naru was about to leave.
Naru gave a long-suffering shrug. "Got to work hard to pass Tokyo U's entrance exam." She took a step backwards, itching to reach the train station.
"It's just…" Shiori contemplated her shoes. "We don't see you, anymore, Naru. At all."
Something in Shiori's voice brought Naru away from the train and back into the room. "What?"
"Never mind." Shiori stepped past her. "See you later."
Then she was gone; but her words followed Naru all the way to the train station. It couldn't be true. Next to Kitsune, Shiori was Naru's best friend. They'd known each other ever since they had sat next to each other at their middle school inauguration ceremony. They'd been the star players on their school ping-pong team. They went everywhere together. Why just the other…Naru blinked. She couldn't remember the last time she and Shiori had met outside of school. As she searched the last two years of her memory, she realized that there were none of the karaoke, trips to manga cafes, or weekends spent in the woods that had been the highest delight of her middle school years. What had happened to all that fun? Naru felt her book bag dig into her shoulder as she walked from the station to cram school.
She pulled her usual Salem sweater over her head, and slipped on her glasses. She hated looking so dowdy in public, but if it meant no boys would distract her then it was worth the blow to her sense of fashion.
"Hey Naru!"
She jumped. No one knew her here.
Keitaro came running up to her from the school entrance. "I thought that was you."
"Oh, uh, hi." Naru almost laughed at herself for forgetting that her landlord went to the same cram school. They'd yet to run into each other due to their schedules. She searched for something else to say, but came up with nothing. She made to reach for the door, but Keitaro opened and held it for her.
Naru nodded her thanks, pleased to note as she entered that there was more to her landlord's character than ineptitude and perversion.
"Keitaro!" Naru turned with Keitaro to see a pair of guys wearing glasses – one tall and skinny, the other short and chubby – waving from down the hallway to their left.
"Friends of mine," Keitaro explained. "Ronins like me. We met here, and misery loves company I guess."
Recognition flickered. "So you're the Flop Out Three that we keep hearing about: the ronins who keep trying for the hardest universities and keep failing."
Keitaro gave a miserable chuckle. "I didn't know we had a nickname."
"Missed you at lunch break," the skinny guy said to Keitaro as the pair neared.
"Wanted to stop by the library," Keitaro replied.
Naru felt like a third wheel. So she said, "I'll see you later, then."
The two newcomer's heads snapped in her direction, staring at her as if she were a gazelle escaped from the zoo.
"Keitaro," asked the tall one, "who is this?"
"Oh." Keitaro pointed at Naru. "Shirai, Haitani, meet Naru Narusegawa. We live together, ow!"
Naru dug her elbow into his gut. Could the idiot have picked a worse way to put it?
"Live together?" Shirai and Haitani shrieked.
Keitaro flinched in realization as his friends pounced on him. "No, no. Not like that. We live in the same building."
Haitani was having none of it. "Yeah right. What was that, then? A Freudian slip?" He zeroed in on Keitaro seeming to forget that Naru and Shirai were there. "Seriously, how far have you gone? And why didn't you tell us?"
That sleazy little...Naru cracked her knuckles. "Keitaro?"
Keitaro jumped. "Yes?"
Naru clenched her first. "Set them straight or I will."
Keitaro let out a squeak and turned to Haitani. "It's true. We just live in the same building. I hardly know her. She's a complete stranger to me."
Naru rolled her eyes. "You don't have to be that emphatic about it."
Keitaro pushed past his friends. "Let's get to class."
Realizing the time, Haitani and Shirai followed. Naru groaned and prepared to head down the opposite hallway to her own classroom.
She made it two steps before her sensitive ears heard Haitani say, "Should have given Kitaro more credit. Even he'd have to be desperate to chase after a nerdy girl like that. Total dog."
A red haze descended over Naru's vision. "What was that?" she shouted as she spun around.
The trio turned with slack jawed quivering looks. Keitaro ducked for cover out of instinct, leaving his friends to fend for themselves. Naru charged with a roar, cocking back her arm.
"I'll show you who's a dog!"
She let fly, clipping Haitani on the chin, and sending him flying into a row of lockers. Heedless of the gathering crowd, Naru stalked past Shirai cowering on his knees, and over to Haitani's felled body. She pulled the elastics out of her hair and took off her glasses. She jerked Haitani up by the collar to look at her as she gave her hair a flourish.
"Just who do you think you are?" she demanded as Haitani cringed before her. "A self-absorbed asshole like you would be lucky to be noticed by a girl half as pretty as me." She pulled him up until they were nose to nose. "Now, I think you have something to say to me."
Haitani shivered as he stared into her burning eyes. "I'm sorry."
"Louder."
Haitani's legs went slack. "I'm sorry!"
Naru dropped Haitani against the locker. She turned to Shirai. "Treat girls with respect or you'll end up like your friend here." She waved a warning finger at all the guys in the crowd. "And that goes for all of you too." She cast a disgusted look at Keitaro's cowering form and pushed through the crowd. Fighting was bad enough, never mind being late for class.
"That was a bit much," Keitaro said when they were walking home.
"Insulting a girl's looks is a low blow," Naru replied without remorse. "As if we don't have the right to dress down when we want to."
Keitaro said nothing for a while, and then, "Well, I think that you look good, glasses or no glasses."
Prickles of embarrassment ran across Naru's skin. "Idiot," she muttered.
Keitaro caught sight of her expression and started to back pedal. "No, no. I just meant-"
Naru raised a weary hand. "Forget it."
They walked in quiet together, watching the merchants of Hinata close up for the night. They rounded a corner and came upon a café with a crowd in front of it.
"Hey!" Keitaro pointed. "One night Rakugo show. Let's check it out."
Naru didn't even slow down. "We should go home and study."
Keitaro stared at her. "After all the studying we did today? Don' you ever do anything else?"
We don't see you anymore, Naru.
"What?"
"Come on," Keitaro wheedled. "You have to have some fun, some time."
Naru felt her book bad dig a little deeper into her shoulder. She looked down the dim street towards Hinata House, then at the warm lights of the café, and the coaxing face of her companion. She hoisted her bag further up her shoulder.
"Sure," she said. "Why not?"
- 8
- 9
- 10
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