"Although no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start now and make a brand new ending." -Carl Bard.
I stood in silence as my father spoke to me in a grave manner.
"You're going to stay at your cousin's mansion while I'm away in my year-long business trip. You are also to attend the same school as him. When you return, I expect you to be the capable, proper, adequate young woman your mother was. Have I made myself clear?" My gaze was fixated on my shoes, but even without looking at my father I could tell that he was glaring at me coldly.
"Yes sir," I said in a monotone voice. Without another word, he left my room so that I could start packing. When I heard his footsteps fade away, I glanced around the walls of my room. There wasn't a single, empty space on them; on every available spot, I had hung up a poster from an anime. Some were new, some were old, but nonetheless faces of characters with colorful hair and unusual eyes were staring at me from all angles. Numerous figurines rested on my shelves, and my bookcases were filled with manga books.
Sighing, I dragged out my suitcases to fill them with my belongings. Charcoal meowed. I walked over to my cat and snuggled the black, ball of fluff in my arms; I sat down on my bed holding him close to me.
My name is Leah Fay, and tomorrow I will be flying to Japan where I will stay at my cousin's house for a whole year, attending the same school as him. Why am I going? Because my father is going away again. He's always gone from home anyway, so I'm always taking care of myself. But even so, he decided that I can't be left alone for an entire year. He contacted his brother in law, my uncle, a week ago and everything was arranged for me to live in Japan for an entire year. My cousin's name is Tamaki Suoh; he is my mother's sister's son. I have never met my auntie before, but I do know that she was my mother's identical twin. Charcoal jumped out of my arms, and left the room. Walking over to my clothes drawer, I started to fill the bags with everything I needed.
After packing for hours, I filled up about four, huge, suitcases with clothes and other necessities(cough manga cough). I pushed up my red glasses since they had slid down a bit, and I looked into the mirror, finding my boring reflection staring back. Long blonde hair, brown eyes, blah blah blah. My father always complained about me being too small and skinny; I had a very child-like physique and face, making me look like I was just starting Middle School when really I was a second year in High School. I sighed, and wondered what my life would be like in a different country. Sure, I've always wanted to go to Japan being the weeaboo and Otaku I was...but...I wasn't excited strangely enough. On other days, I would've been jumping up and down, squealing with joy after knowing that I finally get to visit the country all anime fans wanted to visit. I even learned how to speak fluent Japanese three years ago just in case I got the chance to go. But instead of feeling overjoyed, I felt so...empty. Crashing onto my bed, I looked up at my ceiling. Soon enough, I started drifting away into a deep sleep.
The Next Day...
I scanned the sea of faces that bustled around me. Voices merged into one buzz, and the noise intensified the headache that I was having. Feeling as if the ground wobbled beneath me, I almost fell forward. The entire world seemed to be just one, colorful blur. Nauseous, I had to take a couple of breaths to prevent myself from puking. The airplane ride was a nightmare. A fat,(I have nothing against obese people)bald guy slept on my shoulder for the whole plane ride. He snored and drooled, and no matter how hard I pushed him away, he wouldn't budge. When he woke up, he apologized of course but that didn't change the fact that my right shoulder was dripping with drool and devoid of any sensation. I spent around thirty minutes in the bathroom of the airport getting cleaned up. Luckily, I had a small backpack with me full of emergency items and other necessities(manga). I threw the drool-drenched shirt away.
Shuddering at the horrible memory, I cautiously walked to the luggage area, trying my best to avoid any physical contact with the other people. Some people would glance at me curiously for a few, brief moments, but then they would dismiss me and carry on with their business. I was dressed normally. I was wearing a pink hoodie with bunny ears, matching comfy sweatpants, sneakers, and a white, bunny-shaped backpack. I also wore my hair normally: in pigtails. My appearance wasn't any different from any other day.
I believe my cousin, Tamaki, was informed the other day which luggage area I was supposed to be at. While I stared at the moving pile of luggage, searching for mine, I heard several male voices. They sounded pretty young, maybe one of the voices belonged to my cousin? Just as I was about to walk to the other side of the airport's baggage claim, I saw a head appear.
I saw one, no two! Three! Four?! Boys sitting where luggage would normally be, moving along idly amongst other bags and suitcases. My mouth dropped open, and I watched the ridiculously handsome teens come closer to me as the luggage carrier continued moving.
"Are you my cousin?" A blonde boy looked at another blonde girl who was a little far from me. She shook her head shyly, and blushed. He turned his head in my direction. He was inching closer towards me, a trail of boys sitting behind him.
"Are you my cousin?" He asked. I gaped at him a little bit, but answered when he was right in front of me.
"Tamaki?" I asked in Japanese. My cousin's violet eyes lit up, and he immediately lurched up: he had jumped towards me. Eyes widening, I tried to back away but I wasn't fast enough.
"LEEAAAHHHHH!" His arms wrapped themselves around me into a suffocating hug, and his lean body was pressing against me, pushing me backwards. My face buried into his chest and my feet losing balance, I felt myself falling backwards, and down, down, down. When I crashed into the hard floor, a sharp pain shot up my head, and I saw bright stars, then nothing but blackness.
"I'm such a horrible cousin! What have I done?! What if Leah never wakes up?!" I can't move, ugh. Whose voice was that? It's so loud and annoying. I was resting on something soft.
"Boss, you could've been more gentle," another boy's voice said.
Wait...where am I? Am I still at the airport? Forcing one eye to open, a bright light blinded me. As my one eye adjusted to the light, I opened my other eye. A face stared down at me, and it was etched with worry and relief.
"You're awake!" I was immediately picked up and dragged into another tight hug. My head was pounding. I winced and took a sharp intake of a breath, and the boy released me.
"I'm so sorry! I got so excited and-"
I placed my hand over his mouth so he'd stop talking. Hey, they were soft. Wait what?! I jerked my hand away suddenly, and looked around me. Seven, handsome faces were staring back at me. My eyes widened.
I jumped off of Tamaki, only to almost lose my balance again. Someone caught me, but he felt like a rock. Looking up, I saw a stoic-faced, spikey-haired boy towering over me.
I stumbled away from him, and my eyes frantically darted around, looking for a safe place for me to hide.
"I'm your cousin, Tamaki!" The blonde boy stood up.
"I'm so sorry I accidentally crushed you earlier! I didn't realize what I had done until I got off of you only to find that you had fainted..." he smiled sheepishly.
"B-but w-who are these p-people?" I sputtered nervously.
"These are my friends! We all are part of a Host club!" I suddenly remembered the headache I was having, but it had worsened. Shutting my eyes and groaning, I felt my legs give away. Before I could slump down onto the ground, a pair of strong arms held me up.
"Are you alright?" A deep voice said. I shook my head for no.
"We should stop by at the hospital to make sure Ms. Fay didn't receive a concussion from the impact from earlier," another boy's voice said.
"I'm so sorry dear cousin! I'll do whatever it takes to make it up to you! Just don't hate me!" Tamaki's strident voice exclaimed dramatically.
"Just buy me cake and I'll be happy..." I grumbled. With my eyes still sealed shut, I was clutching my head, trying to block out the pain.
"You like cake too Leah-chan?" A, child's? voice said to me. Opening my eyes, I couldn't see anything but blurry faces, so I shut my eyes again to avoid increasing the migraine I was having. The stoic boy who had been holding me then picked me up, carrying me bridal style. Tearing my eyes open, I stared at him in panic.
"Ah! I c-can walk!" I tried kicked my legs a bit, but he didn't put me down.
"Gentlemen! To the limo! We must get Leah to the hospital as soon as possible!" Tamaki started running out of the airport, screaming "Charge!" and his friends running after him. This drew the attention of almost anyone. I was too confused to be embarrassed, and my cries of complaint were drowned out.
I closed my eyes for most of the limo ride, I couldn't focus on anything because of the sharp, pounding agony my head was feeling. The people didn't really talk much, one particularly calm voice told everyone to keep the noise level down. I think the person's name was...Haruhi? Anyways, I leaned on what I think was the window for the entire car/limo ride to the hospital. I thought I heard a couple whispers from Tamaki and the others about my appearance. Most of the whispers sounded something like: "She looks so cute! She dresses like a commoner!" or "She looks kinda nerdy!"
At the hospital, I laid down for a little bit on one of the beds after being examined by a doctor, and I was given some pain medication. My head had developed a small bump that would last a week or two, but otherwise everything was fine. I was holding an ice pack to my head while sitting on a hospital bed. A knock erupted on the door.
"It's occupied-I MEAN OPEN!" My face turned red. Darn it. The door opened, and a pretty boy with head full of blonde hair and purple eyes peeked out.
"Can we come in?" Asked my cousin.
"Er...yeah," I shifted, growing uncomfortable. Seven teenagers, including Tamaki walked in and surrounded me. I was red-faced and looking at the ground. I was not used to all this attention, especially if it came from a bunch of attractive looking guys. Actually, I hated attention in general. It was already super awkward for me to talk to the doctor.
"I'm so glad you're not seriously hurt! I promise I will make it up to you!" said Tamaki. He was about to glomp on me again but a boy in glasses stopped him.
"You shouldn't bother Leah or rough-handle her until the bump on her head is all gone. You're lucky she didn't get a concussion you know," Tamaki looked dejected by the boy's words, but he backed off.
"I believe we haven't properly introduced ourselves, I am Kyoya Ootori." The raven-haired boy that had stopped Tamaki gave me a cool smile, and the light reflected off of his glasses, giving them the "anime" effect. Hey, he looked like that one character from an otome game I've played before...Uki Doki Memorial's Doppleganger? Yeah! That was the one...
"We are the Hitachiins," two identical boys with Phoenix colored hair and golden eyes appeared to my right.
"I'm Hikaru," the twin with the lower voice said.
"And I'm Kaoru," said the second twin.
"I'm Haninozuka, but you can call me Honey. And this is Takashi! But a lot of people call him Mori. Do you want some cake Leah-chan?" I turned to my left, and saw a little boy who was smiling up at me sweetly.
"I'm Haruhi Fujioka, nice to meet you. And I'm sorry about Tamaki, he can get a little too overbearing." A brunette who seemed about two inches shorter than me said. Haruhi? Isn't that a girl's name? Wait a second! Where's my luggage?!
"AH!" I lurched off of the hospital bed, and frantically tried to exit the room. Tamaki blocked me of course.
"Where are you going?" He asked, confused and a little hurt.
"My luggage! It's still at the airport!" A look of panic washed over Tamaki's face, matching my own expression.
"Ah! What do we do!? What do we do?!" He started jumping up and down in panic, and I mirrored his behavior.
"All of my clothes are in there! And other valuable belongings!"
"Kyoya!" Tamaki looked at the glasses-wearing boy frantically.
"Don't worry about it, I'll contact the airport and have them retrieve Leah's belongings," Kyoya adjusted his glasses as he made a phone call in a blink of the eye. I looked at him in anticipation as he made the phone call. After a brief moments, he hung up.
"I've arranged for some workers to drop them off at Tamaki's mansion," I let out a sigh of relief and relaxed, almost at the exact same time Tamaki did.
"That's such a relief! I knew we could depend on you Kyoya!" Tamaki said as he patted Kyoya's back.
"Yup, she's boss's cousin alright," Hikaru(I think) said. Honey senpai giggled.
"She's really cute though!" I turned red at his comment. Quickly glancing down, I felt even more uncomfortable than before.
"Ah! D-don't call me cute!" Honey senpai giggled, then snuggled a bunny doll close to him.
"We should start going back to my place, I'm sure you've had a long day," my cousin said.
"Uh huh..." I could still feel the stares of everyone on me; I shifted uncomfortably.
"Could you guys not look at me..." I fiddled with my thumbs, still averting eye-contact with everyone else.
"Aww, she's shy." One twin snaked his arm around my waist.
"Isn't that just so adorable?" Another twin wrapped his arm around me. Alarmed, and before they could started playing with my pigtails, I freaked out.
"Ah! W-what?" I jerked away from them like a cat who got splashed with water, and retreated behind Tamaki.
"D-don't just harass me like that!" I pointed a shaky finger at the two boys. They grinned mischievously.
"But you like it when we bother you, right?" They said in perfect sync. Face cherry-red, I yelled:
"NO!" And hid behind Tamaki all the way.
"See Haruhi! This is how you're supposed to react whenever the twins harass you!" Tamaki then started rambling nonsense to Haruhi. Wait...she's a girl. Then it clicked: Tamaki likes Haruhi. I observed in interest, and was able to come to the conclusion that Tamaki was the dere-dere, and Haruhi was the dandere. Now that I think about it, Tamaki and his friends could all belong in a shoujo anime, or a reverse harem...Was Haruhi the main character? I watched amused, this was even better than some animes I've seen!
"What's so amusing?" Kyoya asked. He was standing right next to me, and he remained calm and collected. Darn it, he caught me smiling like a fool. I wiped the silly grin off of my face and adjusted my glasses.
"U-uh...n-nothing..." I'm a horrible liar. Kyoya caught on, but didn't say anything else.
After we all said farewell, I went with Tamaki in his limo to his house. He talked nonstop for most of the ride, explaining everything I needed to know about his friends and the Host club. At first, I was fascinated so I clung on to every word, but then he rambled on about nonsense that I didn't really care about so I zoned out. I nodded my head blankly every once in a while, and agreed to everything he said(but I wasn't listening).
When I arrived at Tamaki's mansion, I was blown away at how huge it was. I'm sure I stood there gaping like a fish for a good five minutes. He showed me around, and I was really awkward around all the servants. After touring the entire mansion, he led me to my room. Surprisingly, I found my luggage there.
"If you need anything, you can always call me or ask the servants for help!" Tamaki grinned at me happily, and like a child. I couldn't help but smile back.
"Thanks," he then skipped away humming to himself.
My room was large, had a bathroom, and it was pink. Yay! The bare walls were soon occupied with some posters from home, and the empty, ornate drawers soon filled with all my comfy sweats, jeans, t-shirts, and sweaters. Living like a rich person might take a while to get used to; adjusting to being around people might take a while as well. I've been home-schooled my entire life, and so I don't know how to interact with kids my own age. The closest thing to a friend I had was my cat Charcoal. My heart sunk a bit, I'm gonna miss him. Father had sent him to grandma, who has three other cats. I'm sure Charcoal will have a happier life with other cats...
After unpacking, and showering, I had dinner with Tamaki and his dad downstairs. Uncle Suoh was like Tamaki, only more reserved. Still, he was very kind and friendly. It was really alien eating dinner with them, they actually talked and had normal conversations. All of the meals I had back at home was alone or in silence. My father was always very cold, and I didn't even call him "father." A pang of jealousy lingered as I watched Tamaki and his dad interact with each other.
After dinner, I excused myself to my bedroom. Even though I had planned finish a chapter of a shoujo manga called "Bunnies and Keychains," exhaustion seeped over me as soon as I crashed onto the bed. Sleepiness forced my eyelids shut, and in what seemed like seconds I lost consciousness.