A small change of pace from the Ancient Destroyer grind.
Title : The News Today-Oh Boy
Author : ‘Goji’ Rob Morris
Series : Love Hina
Type : Post-Series slice of life (Spoilers for manga ending)
Part : 1/1
Characters : Main LH cast
Rating : PG
Summary : Some things, even the passage of time cannot change. Same goes for some people.
The News Today – Oh Boy.
By Rob Morris
MAY, 2009
Assistant Professor Urashima had almost gotten used to the taste of carrot juice, in the months since it was recommended for improving his night vision. He drank it slowly while he ticked off his tasks : arranging flowers and chocolates for the eleventh anniversary of a certain awkward first meeting (since they were children) was paramount among them. He smiled at the sore shoulder that told him Naru had indeed been fooled into thinking he’d forgotten. Haruka had been right. Her buttons on certain subjects were still easy to push, and she would always jump to certain conclusions.
On the Haruka front, he decided to wait two more phone calls before agreeing to take Sarah for the summer. He knew full well the instant he relented, Auntie would have her packed and on the bus. She also e-mailed the humorous video of Seta’s annual ritual of promising to never ever again ‘pull a Molmol’ on the Urashimas.
Kitsune’s budget request was approved, minus the funds for rebuilding on the spot of the forbidden annex. Grandma said that she had met ‘some Catholic priest with a big hat in Rome’ who agreed to further exorcise the spot. Keitaro never bothered asking his name. With Grandma, certain assumptions were safe ones.
Next came his equivalent of a correspondence chess game.
*My sword slices at the air around you, and you cannot know my location*
He scratched his head at this one, till he struck upon a realization.
*Nice try, Motoko. But you need to keep that sword moving to obscure your footfalls. You break to attack, and I will have you, both by sound and by the air’s new direction.*
Her IM response was to compliment his realization, and to vow to break him well before their next true meeting.
A postcard had arrived from Mustumi, saying how raising turtles for the new series of Gamera films was keeping her so busy, she didn’t even have time to faint.
Another IM exchange came up.
**Sempai, she’s just being impossible. I’ve told her gently that I’m not into other girls, and I’ve told her forcefully. I’ve told her I will always be her Sempai, but she’s taking it as badly as…**
*As you took it, Frying-Pan Girl?*
**That’s not fair. Kitsune kept changing the reasons why we were doing all that in Molmol, and I couldn’t tell up from down anymore. How can I keep from breaking Ema’s heart?**
*You can’t. Anymore than I could with yours. Shinobu, once you make a choice or a decision, that’s it. In the Latin, which is in turn the basis for most European languages, choice and decide mean to chop—to cut off. Once you made a choice—any choice—that wasn’t Ema, she was going to be hurt. You did the right thing by telling her, and her heart will heal in time.*
**I still can’t believe she just rode off in my car like that, after we argued this winter. Was Sempai Naru upset that you had to ride out to get me, so late and in the snow?**
*My wife and I have a rule : If for Shinobu, it is not a burden, and no questions need be asked.*
**You old sweetie. You know, back when we first met, and I said something I saw was small—well, I was lying to keep the others calm. It seemed like they wanted your head. It was—it was okay—I mean, I had never seen one, so I had no way to judge..**
*Don’t go all ecchi on me, Maehara-San. The server may shut us down—or with my luck, Naru will come home right as you do.*
With a brief mock-threat and a briefer statement of ‘always’, Keitaro turned off the computer and turned on the TV to watch the news before starting to grade papers. His wife kept telling him to just use the computer’s video capabilities, but he liked doing it this way. He tried the international channels first.
*And this just in to CNN. The President’s daughters have been found, safe and sound in Disneyland. Their abductor, the sovereign ruler of a small as yet unidentified island nation in the South Pacific, was with them on the ‘Buzz Lightyear’ ride. The girls are reportedly delighted with their abductor, who was taken aside briefly while the US Ambassador explained that the ruler’s bear-hugging of the First Couple, combined with the abduction to fulfill a promise their father could not keep, was, shall we say, problematic. At first believed to be from India…*
As Keitaro watched and shook his head, his beloved wife at last returned home.
“Hey! Anything interesting on the news?”
Her smile was warm and declarative, and almost made what he had to say seem unimportant.
“Yeah. Su just met the Obamas.”
Title : The News Today-Oh Boy
Author : ‘Goji’ Rob Morris
Series : Love Hina
Type : Post-Series slice of life (Spoilers for manga ending)
Part : 1/1
Characters : Main LH cast
Rating : PG
Summary : Some things, even the passage of time cannot change. Same goes for some people.
The News Today – Oh Boy.
By Rob Morris
MAY, 2009
Assistant Professor Urashima had almost gotten used to the taste of carrot juice, in the months since it was recommended for improving his night vision. He drank it slowly while he ticked off his tasks : arranging flowers and chocolates for the eleventh anniversary of a certain awkward first meeting (since they were children) was paramount among them. He smiled at the sore shoulder that told him Naru had indeed been fooled into thinking he’d forgotten. Haruka had been right. Her buttons on certain subjects were still easy to push, and she would always jump to certain conclusions.
On the Haruka front, he decided to wait two more phone calls before agreeing to take Sarah for the summer. He knew full well the instant he relented, Auntie would have her packed and on the bus. She also e-mailed the humorous video of Seta’s annual ritual of promising to never ever again ‘pull a Molmol’ on the Urashimas.
Kitsune’s budget request was approved, minus the funds for rebuilding on the spot of the forbidden annex. Grandma said that she had met ‘some Catholic priest with a big hat in Rome’ who agreed to further exorcise the spot. Keitaro never bothered asking his name. With Grandma, certain assumptions were safe ones.
Next came his equivalent of a correspondence chess game.
*My sword slices at the air around you, and you cannot know my location*
He scratched his head at this one, till he struck upon a realization.
*Nice try, Motoko. But you need to keep that sword moving to obscure your footfalls. You break to attack, and I will have you, both by sound and by the air’s new direction.*
Her IM response was to compliment his realization, and to vow to break him well before their next true meeting.
A postcard had arrived from Mustumi, saying how raising turtles for the new series of Gamera films was keeping her so busy, she didn’t even have time to faint.
Another IM exchange came up.
**Sempai, she’s just being impossible. I’ve told her gently that I’m not into other girls, and I’ve told her forcefully. I’ve told her I will always be her Sempai, but she’s taking it as badly as…**
*As you took it, Frying-Pan Girl?*
**That’s not fair. Kitsune kept changing the reasons why we were doing all that in Molmol, and I couldn’t tell up from down anymore. How can I keep from breaking Ema’s heart?**
*You can’t. Anymore than I could with yours. Shinobu, once you make a choice or a decision, that’s it. In the Latin, which is in turn the basis for most European languages, choice and decide mean to chop—to cut off. Once you made a choice—any choice—that wasn’t Ema, she was going to be hurt. You did the right thing by telling her, and her heart will heal in time.*
**I still can’t believe she just rode off in my car like that, after we argued this winter. Was Sempai Naru upset that you had to ride out to get me, so late and in the snow?**
*My wife and I have a rule : If for Shinobu, it is not a burden, and no questions need be asked.*
**You old sweetie. You know, back when we first met, and I said something I saw was small—well, I was lying to keep the others calm. It seemed like they wanted your head. It was—it was okay—I mean, I had never seen one, so I had no way to judge..**
*Don’t go all ecchi on me, Maehara-San. The server may shut us down—or with my luck, Naru will come home right as you do.*
With a brief mock-threat and a briefer statement of ‘always’, Keitaro turned off the computer and turned on the TV to watch the news before starting to grade papers. His wife kept telling him to just use the computer’s video capabilities, but he liked doing it this way. He tried the international channels first.
*And this just in to CNN. The President’s daughters have been found, safe and sound in Disneyland. Their abductor, the sovereign ruler of a small as yet unidentified island nation in the South Pacific, was with them on the ‘Buzz Lightyear’ ride. The girls are reportedly delighted with their abductor, who was taken aside briefly while the US Ambassador explained that the ruler’s bear-hugging of the First Couple, combined with the abduction to fulfill a promise their father could not keep, was, shall we say, problematic. At first believed to be from India…*
As Keitaro watched and shook his head, his beloved wife at last returned home.
“Hey! Anything interesting on the news?”
Her smile was warm and declarative, and almost made what he had to say seem unimportant.
“Yeah. Su just met the Obamas.”
