Love Hina Fan Fiction ❯ Winter Rose ❯ Seventh Petal: Recollections and Confessions ( Chapter 6 )

Winter Rose

Seventh Petal: Recollections and Confessions

Love Hina is owned by Ken Akamatsu. All copyrights and legal papers are belonging to him ^_^.

I just recently got to know Love Hina. I read the first manga volume, watched a few episodes, and gathered as much info as I can from the net. If I make tons of mistakes about the girls and Keitaro, please forgive them and please tell me the problems in a very constructive way…

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Chapter 5 Summary: Two months later, Vincent gets accustomed to life at the Hinata. He was dreaming of a girl from his past when he and Motoko were put in a very awkward situation. Luckily no one was there to see it. Surprisingly, Motoko seems to have feelings for the man she seemed to hate and Vincent seems to feel that way, too…

Seventh Petal: Recollections and Confessions

November 5th, Friday

It was about 5:00 PM and Vincent was climbing up the stone steps of Hinata Apartments when he paused for a moment to hear a very familiar roar of an engine, and the familiar crash of something heavy and metallic.

Sure enough, Seta Noriyasu's van came into view, tumbling on its side, and stopping in front of the stone steps, a few inches from where he was standing. The door opened, and Seta Noriyasu stepped out, bleeding heavily as always.

If this had happened a good three months ago, any person in any normal condition would have either freaked out, or maybe fainted at the sight of a guy bleeding that heavy. But, to Vincent, this `scenario' happens at least once every week, so it was like a `normal' slice of life to him. "Hey there, Seta." He greeted the injured professor. "What brings you here?"

Seta wiped off some of the blood from his face to get a better view of the young man talking to him. "Ah! Vincent, is it? Well, it's nice to see you too! Anyway, have you seen Keitaro around? I'm kind just going to show him something… "

As if to answer his question, Keitaro landed from midair literally in the middle of their conversation. He then got up with a few bandages and bruises all over his body.

"You okay, Keitaro?"

"Never felt better…" Keitaro said, smiling dumbly. He spotted Seta and said "Oh, Seta-san! What brings you here?"

"Well, I'm going on a new excavation," Seta beamed. "So then, I thought about taking Sarah with me this time. By the way, where is she?" He then took Keitaro by the arm and practically dragged him all the way to the house.

"I-I-I… Alright" Keitaro sighed in defeat. He and Seta went inside, leaving Vincent standing on the flight of stairs.

Typical Keitaro, he thought. Always being ordered around like that…

Needs a bit of confidence, I think...

He spent too much time being too attached to others...

He was about to continue walking up when he heard Naru Narusegawa calling him from behind.

"Hey, Vincent, wait up! I need to ask something!"

Vincent wheeled around and saw the auburn-haired girl climbing up to meet him. "What is it?" he asked.

"I was wondering, if you could help me put with my World History. We're tackling American History this time. I was thinking, since you're from the US, you know this one like the back of your hand."

Vincent smiled. "Alright, I'll help you out. Please come by my room later. I'll hand you over some review materials from my senior days."

"Gee, thanks a lot, Vincent." Naru said. "I wish your perverted cousin was more like you."

After Naru dashed up the stairs, Vincent paused for a while to think about what Naru just said. If you only knew, Miss Narusegawa, I was wishing I was him for some time now…

He was climbing up to his room on the third floor when he and Motoko bumped into each other on the hallway. After apologizing, Vincent stole a glance at her and looked the other way, blushing as he passed her. He felt Motoko was also did the same thing.

Ever since that little incident about three weeks ago, Vincent and Motoko found it hard to look each other in the eye without blushing hotly. Vincent blamed primarily on his dream regarding Anne.

But, at least she's not after my throat now... he thought.

When he arrived in his room, he literally collapsed on his bed, exhausted by the long day that went by. He was going to take a short nap when suddenly, there was a knock on his door.

"Vincent, are you there? It's me, Naru. May I come in?"

Vincent sat up. Great...

"The door is open. Please come inside."

Naru peeked into a slightly opened door before getting inside. She was carrying some books. "Wow, I like what you've done to your room..."

"Thank you..." Vincent then got up, opened a small cabinet somewhere at the bottom of the shelf where the pictures were, and pulled out a black binder.. He then gave it to Naru. "Here's most of my history files. Just put them to good use, okay?"

"Thank you... this will help me and Kei-san a lot..."

"Yes... well... is that all you need?"

"Yes, but... can we talk?"

What now? "Alright... please take a seat." Vincent motioned her towards one of the chairs near the window along with the coffee table.

"Thank you..." Naru took a seat, hands in her lap.

Vincent took the seat at the other side of the table. "Alright, Miss Narusegawa, what do you want to talk about?"

"Well, first of all, if you can please stop calling me like that... if you can just call me Naru..."

"Agreed. But Keitaro told me to treat you with respect, so..."

"No, it's okay, Vincent..." Naru replied with a smile. "I came here because I want to listen to you."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, you're awfully quiet... and we've never had a chance to actually know who you are because you're always in your room..." Naru paused for a while, and then continued. "Please, just tell me about yourself, your family, your friends, your emotions... anything. I just want you to voice out something..."

Vincent was very surprised indeed at this request. Do you really want to know? I... well... "No one has asked me such a question before, Miss Naru. But then ,alright, I will tell you..."

Vincent didn't know how to start.

What now?

I... I was never any good at telling stories...

Anyway, I'll just tell her about my family and then maybe she'll leave...

"You've heard why I came here, I guess... so it's pointless to tell you that. Other than that, I don't know what to say..."

"What about your mother? You never told us about your mother..."

"I never knew my mother." Vincent said. "She died shortly after she gave birth to me... The only thing I know about her is that she looked a lot like that picture." Vincent pointed to one of th pictures above the low shelf. It was a picture of a very beautiful woman in her late twenties. She had long, flowing white-blonde hair, and Vincent's deep blue eyes, conveying a sense of calmness and tranquility. She looked very much like a princess from an old fairy tale.

"I... I didn't know... I'm sorry..."

"It's alright. Come to think of it, I didn't think of her that much, since I wasn't really able to meet her in person." Vincent explained.

"So, were you an only child?" Naru asked.

"Well... I had an elder sister before my dad even married Beatrice. Her name was..."

"Is there something wrong?"

"N... Nothing... I'm... It's just not a good memory..."

"Then... It's alright... I understand..."

"No... It's been too long in my system... I should have anticipated it to come out sooner or later." Vincent said. "My elder sister's name is Saemi, but I always remembered her as `Sis'. She was like, my mother of some sort, though she was only three older than me then. She made me feel... safe..."

"I see... so, where is she now?"

"She... she's no longer among us." Vincent said, trying to find the words to describe the term. "I was five years old then. We were once playing, when I accidentally threw the ball towards the middle of the street. As it was my favorite ball, I loved it very much then.

"Sis comforted me and told me she'd get the ball. However, as she was crossing to get it, a speeding car with went by. The car had lost its breaks... and the next thing I know..."

Vincent buried his head in his hands. He tried to continue the story, but Naru understood what happened next. "I... I'm sorry... I... I was tactless when I asked you to..."

"It's alright, Miss Naru. Now," Vincent smiled a bit. "Is there anything else you want to know?"

"No, it's alright." Naru said. "I'll be going now. I'll just be putting these in my room before going to dinner."

"Um... Miss Naru, can you tell Miss Maehara that I'll have to skip dinner tonight?"

"Why?"

"N-Nothing...It's just,"Vincent tried to reason out. "... It's just that I'm not hungry... I just need some sleep."

"Oh, alright then..."Naru opened the door and was getting out when she collided with Keitaro, scattering her things and knocking her down.

"Oops! I'm so sorry, Naru-chan! I was just going to ask Vincent..."

He was just getting up when he tripped on his own feet and fell face-down on Naru's chest.

"GRRR!!! YOU'RE DEAD YOU PERVERT!!!"

And with yet another punch, Naru sent Keitaro past the roof and into the night sky.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHH!!!"

Vincent just looked on and viewed the damage done to the roof.

Well, at least now I have an acceptable reason for not coming down to dinner later, he thought bitterly.

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"Did you notice anything different with Motoko lately?" Naru asked the others who were at the table. Seta took Sarah a while ago, and Motoko had finished her dinner earlier than they did so she could head up and do her homework. Motoko kept on blushing as she listened to Naru telling everybody about what she heard from Vincent that same evening. And, from the looks f it, she was also thinking about what Naru had shared with them.

"Yeah. She's always kinda like that whenever she sees or hears anything about Urashima-san" Shinobu said.

"Well, I don't know about you guys, but I'm happy that they're not at each other's necks now" Keitaro said, nursing a nasty bump he got earlier. He landed, fortunately, at the front of the stone steps of the Hinata this time, so he had come back in no time at all.

"Man, you guys are so clueless!" Kitsune smiled. "There's only one way a person would act like that, ya know. And that's when he or she has been bitten by the bug."

Everyone gasped.

"You think so?"Naru asked

"Yup. Seen it lotsa times...ever wondered why Vincent didn't come down to dinner tonight?"

"So you mean that Motoko and Vincent..."

"Mm-hmm..." Kitsune affirmed.

"Wow..." Shinobu said in a very awed tone.

"What bug? Is it the tasty one?" Su questioned excitedly.

"No, no that's not it, Su-chan. She meant that Motoko-chan and Vincent are starting to like each other a lot." Keitaro tried to put it in a very simple way.

"So, what do we do?" Naru asked.

"What do we do?" Kitsune repeated. "Nothing. We just wait and see. Let's not jump to conclusions, okay? What if it's something else? I mean, it's a long shot, right?"

"Yeah... wait a minute. You're the one who gave us that crazy idea in the first place!" Naru interjected.

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Vincent had just finished mending the hole in the room Keitaro made as he was launched by Naru a while ago.

Whatever he was eating when he was a child, Vincent thought, it's working right now. I haven't seen a person go through so much physical pain without spending the remainder of his years in the ICU area of the hospital.

His stomach was rumbling, telling him to grab some food.

Wonder if they're all still eating?

He went down the stairs to see only Kitsune watching the TV, drinking and laughing merrily as she did. Upon spotting Vincent. She got up and wobbled towards him.

"There you are, sweetie." Kitsune said, unable to stand straight. "I was wondering if you have some cash that I can borrow.." She then fell on her face and became unconscious.

She's always like this, Vincent thought. If she's not asking me to have a drink with her, she'll probably be asking for a ridiculous amount of money...

Vincent then heaved Kitsune up to the couch and turned of the TV.

In vino veritas*. Those philosophers sure do know how to say them right...

He was about to look for something edible on the fridge when he noticed a small, covered plate on one side of the table. It had a small note stuck to it, which Vincent noticed was Shinobu's handwriting.

Urashima-san... She remembered me...?

Vincent removed the cover to find a bowlful of rice and some of the stir-fried chicken Shinobu had prepared earlier.

"Let's eat..." Vincent said. The food Shinobu cooks tastes wonderful, but, today, it was heaven for an empty stomach. After finishing off the last particles, Vincent washed the plate, and proceeded to retire to his quarters.

But, as he was about to enter his room, he heard the familiar whoosh of a blade coming from the deck.

She's still up this late? Vincent thought, glancing at his clock. It was about ten-thirty in the evening.

There must be something wrong... Better go check it out...

And with that, Vincent made his way to the deck.

There, he found nothing but Motoko, who was hard at work with her kata swings.

Well, she's okay...

I guess.. I'll be heading back now...

He was about to leave when Motoko called him.

"Urashima? Is that you?"

"Uh... yeah... don't worry... I was about to leave..."

"No, please stay... If it is alright... I would like to speak with you..."

Vincent sighed. What's with these girls today? "Well, I guess it won't hurt to stay for a bit..."

"Thank you..." Motoko said. She sheathed her sword and sat down. Vincent approached her and sat next to her. As he did, he couldn't help looking at her face. It was quite pale, but beautiful. The moonlight seemed to even illuminate her gracious form.

"I've heard from Naru-sempai earlier today about your sister... I'm... sorry.."

"Relax, it's okay..."

"Listen... Urashi... Vincent... I was meaning to talk to you..."

"Is there a problem, Miss Aoyama?" Vincent began, unsure of what to say at that time.

"No, nothing at all... I just wanted to ask... you ... if..."

"If...?"

"If you... you've felt... sort of... warm... when... when you see... a person..."

"What do you mean?"

"It's when... I see... this person... I feel... I feel..."

"A sudden surge of emotions?"

Motoko looked at him, unable to keep herself from blushing. "Well... yes..."

Vincent thought for a while. "People tend to feel certain emotions for certain people. For example, if you hate somebody, your body seems to force you into fighting him or her... If you respect someone... you tend to feel an urge to show him or her your reverence. If you love someone..."

Vincent turned away, feeling that he himself had turned red.

"Is there any problem... Vincent?"

"No... none at all." Vincent gathered his courage and looked at Motoko, whose once pale cheeks were now a rosy shade. "It's when... when you love someone... you tend to feel a lot of emotions... happiness... comfort... and warmth... but.. You'll tend to feel sad and empty too... when a person you love leaves you... or doesn't love you in return..."

After Vincent had said this, they were looking at each other for the longest period of time. Vincent felt warm inside, gazing at her eyes...

Vincent couldn't help but notice her face's features. Her fine complexion, her soft lips, her rosy cheeks, her innocent eyes...

"Motoko...I... "Vincent absentmindedly said.

"I... I..." Motoko stammered. She then pushed Vincent away and stood up, blushing hotter than before.

"I'm sorry!" Motoko left the area quickly, leaving Vincent sitting there, dumbfolded.

Now . . . I understand...

I feel...

I think... I've fallen... for her...

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Author's Notes:

In vino veritas means "In wine there is truth."

There, I guess I'm kinda like in a writer's block mode this time of the season, that's why it's taking me some time to write it down...

So, what do you guys think?

OK or not OK? Please write me some opinion on this one.

Till next chapter, peace out.

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Love Hina © Ken Akamatsu