A LITTLE TASTE
Ouran High School Host Club
One-Shot
Description:
[All we both had wanted was a little taste of a sweet, forbidden romance that could never happen.]
A take on a girl's feelings, who is trapped in an arranged marriage to someone, who isn't her lover. A show on what is going through her mind as she realises all she can have is a little taste. [Kyouya X OX X Mori]
watch?v=VKknGk2OSfI/p
It was inspired by listening to this song while writing for Ticking Sand Hour, I started it off as no idea who I wanted this One-Shot to be for and it ended up like how it does...
Chapter 1:
The paintbrush flung across the paper laid in front of me, the headphones blasted the music I loved to listen while painting on a canvas. There was no real image for what I planned on creating when I'd started. I still didn't, but it was slowly taking shape.
It was that of a man's back, no, a boy. I couldn't remember the name, to be more precise I couldn't put a name to the back. The image didn't contain any personal items, it was simply that of a phantom mirage. Almost like the kind of face that appears in our dreams and makes us wish for more.
Yes.
That was exactly what I was drawing, I realized with a frown.
A phantom mirage of a dream I can never have.
I can fool myself into believing I could have a little taste of him, but not have him for as I was already promised to another.
At the realization, I added a bit more of a force to the brushes, black-greyish color on the shadow areas. Beautifully fading out his face, giving us a blank, faceless and eyeless boy with a hint of a ghost smile. I could barely hear the Art teacher walking around the classroom, inspecting each and every single Art Club participant's work. It would be our grand piece for the end of the Semester, sensei had said. It'd also count as our Art lesson grade if we managed to finish before the Semester ended. It was one of those works with what we could take our time, leisurely enjoy it.
Fortunately for all of us, the topic had been free, entirely up for us to imagine and paint whatever it was that we wanted. And I'd gone for this.
An abstract phantom mirage of a dream.
"Whoa!"
Someone's silhouettes appeared in my eyesight, almost blocking out the view and nearly causing my hand to make an obvious error in my work. I scowled, instantly recognizing the backs of the red-hair from anywhere. I'd caught the brush on time, hastily pointing it in a threatening way towards the culprits, who had dared to disturb me. One of the headphones fell out, hanging on my chest. The song was in the middle of it's the best part, my feet had been tapping along as I'd softly hummed without being overly loud. I'd hope so, my voice wasn't the best for singing in public. My auburn red hair was pulled up in a messy half-pony-tail, preventing the locks getting into paint or strands of hair falling on the canvas. Here and there you could spot paint on my uniform, I'd forgotten to change out of the puffy, yellow-greenish dress (no matter how many years I've worn it, it's still disgusting).
"This looks-"
"-Really good,"
"Maya." The Hitachiin twins chorused, turning to look at me with a certain gleam in their auburn brown eyes, identical to each other. That alone was nearly enough to make me scowl at the devil duo, reluctantly putting the paintbrush down. Out of my reach, in case I felt like tossing it at the twins (I cannot count correctly just how many times I've been reprimanded by sensei for causing an art war in the club room due to the twins pissing me off).
I was an unfortunate acquaintance with the two, having known each other our entire lives. Rather than being a simple acquaintance, we were a family - cousins through our fathers. If we stood next to each other, people would often ask if we were siblings due to our eerily close resemblance, the only thing that I could use to prove we were just cousins was my eyes - grey-blue eyes. My mom was a foreigner, an outsider, who had fallen in love with my dad during one of his business trips abroad. She'd been more than willing to leave her former life behind and join dad in Japan. Although, it was only until a certain Fujioka Haruhi entered their lives that the two started to acknowledge me a little more and I certainly didn't fully enjoy this sudden new attention from the two.
If it was just the twins alone, who had decided to invade my personal time (I no longer had the luxury of having full control what I did during my weekends, whenever I happened to have them free, my club activities took up most of my time, and there were times when I'd wake up to find the Host club members having made themselves at home in my house), I wouldn't have been so sour about the topic. But it was their entire club, minus the Fujioka girl. It was a pure accident on my part when I'd walked in on Haruhi changing, the twins having spilled tea on my uniform (something which I later suspected them of having done it on purpose). Suoh Tamaki had freaked out when the club realized I knew their dirty little secret. The two seniors had simply testified on my behalf that I wouldn't sell them out, despite not knowing me all that well.
All we had going was our brief meetings during family business meals. And occasional run-ins with Morinozuka Takashi and Haninozuka Mitsukuni, whenever I did request their permission to draw the Dojo members for Art Club. I was known for popping by each club to make some sort of drawing of the members, the only one of whom I refused to do it was the Host Club. Simply because I never did get any work done, whenever I stopped by. Or attempted. Too much noise, too much chaos.
I had a full stack of personal drawings of Mori stashed away in my secret hiding spot in my room, and some of Kyouya.
And trust Ootori to know your nearly full background information even before an hour ends, he'd memorized stuff he found important and disregarded anything else. But we both knew that he couldn't upset me much, due to our family connection. Neither had been overly happy about it, but it was impossible to escape from the clutches of duty.
That was the day where I paid the twins back by destroying their room by throwing paint all over the place. No one had been happy, I was grounded for a month and the twins had taken this as their lesson not to piss me off. And it was soooo worth it that I'd snapped several pictures of my work, posting it on our school's newspaper and making a statement not to anger me (the twins had gotten me back by using their own creative ways, something that I'd wish to forget).
"Back off," I snapped, pushing the two idiots away from my masterpiece.
I'd murder them if they dared to harm it or do something evil to it. And I wouldn't even deny the accusations.
"Whoa," they said again, stumbling backward as they attempted to regain balance. It almost looked comical, the way they flung their arms around. A small smile graced my lips, unwillingly.
"You two never come here, so spill," I narrowed my eyes at my unfortunate cousins. It wasn't before high school when people even made a connection that we were related. Of course, they knew our last names but due to the way the twins behaved, no one expected me to be their first cousin. Our personalities were way too different and the way how I acted? It wasn't that of a Hitachiin material. Although, my love towards Art was clear what with me being in all kind of art related clubs, most of my free time went to them. Limiting my time with my cousins and their annoying, slightly so, club members. It was only after Haruhi joined the club that people started to realize just how wrong they were, that we were related and it should've been an obvious guess.
Even without knowing us personally.
"Can't we simply visit our cousin?" Kaoru questioned, tilting his head as he attempted to decipher my painting. The way his eyes had focused on the Ouran male uniform scared me a bit. Deep inside of me, I knew who the faceless, eyeless boy was. I'd drawn him so many times before to not know it.
I crossed my arms, scowling. "You've literally never visited me without a reason before!"
"...Now that you say it," Hikaru scratched the back of his head, almost looking guilty but it was gone before I could think much of it. He took notice of how his twin's attention wasn't on us, but on the painting. "What's wrong, Kaoru?"
"Say, Hikaru, doesn't this picture remind you of a certain someone?"
My fingers clutched tightly onto my arms, almost causing me to wince. I was suddenly very, very afraid of what they might say or do, should they know who it is on the painting. It was a simple fantasy, I knew there's no way that I could actually have him. Hikaru's face twisted into a conspiracy-mode, and I took an involuntary step back. He'd read the title I'd written on the bottom of the canvas. The two exchanged looks, before turning to look at me at the same time as I considered my escape plans.
"Does our dearest cousin have a crush on Mori-senpai?"
"I thought you were scared of him, to be honest," Kaoru stated in thought, clearly trying to remember all the times he's seen us interacting. But he doesn't know that I've spent time in the Dojo to sketch Mori-senpai.
He doesn't know the stolen moments behind the closed curtains.
Even though I can't act on my feelings, it doesn't mean I haven't.
"Scared?" My face was blank, blinking in a surprise. But I could see why he thought so, Mori had the ability to look intimidating.
"Yeah, you're never alone with him."
"What are you talking about, Kaoru? I've seen them talking alone," Hikaru interjected, looking properly confused at what Kaoru was getting at. And totally unaware of what he might be unleashing.
My face went pink, muttering something under my breath as I did my best in schooling my facial expression. The secret meetings that only Mitsukuni, probably, knew about. The things that took place behind the closed doors, the feel of his arms. I couldn't let anyone discover our dirty little secret. It would tarnish my family's reputation, and Kyouya's. And Mori's.
"Just spill! What the hell are you two even doing here?!" During our chat, I'd ignored the looks from my club-members, knowing that they were just as confused as I was of why the two were here. My forgotten headphones were blasting a song on repeat, just loud enough for me to hear but not for the two to hear.
I forgot which twin it was, but only one of them would've understood English. The other, not so much.
"Kyouya-senpai sent us for you," Hikaru answered after another stare down between the twins and a nod that I didn't want to know what it was meant for. "He says he's got a favor to ask from you, Maya."
I winced, knowing full well what Kyouya's favor might be, glancing around the clubroom to assess for any new paintings. He often wanted to help us promote our works or to use them for his own merit, and in the process, we got promoted. There was also the matter of the two of us have been on dinner as a favor for him, but we both knew that I didn't quite like him that way. However, it was not something we could pretend not to know. Or to stop from happening, we both knew what was happening during the business dinner meetings between our parents. It's been something we'd been groomed to be prepared for.
And I hated myself for failing to act like a proper lady.
Just how much damage could a high school forbidden romance cause once it becomes known?
Everything.
"Alright," I nodded, remembering the twins were there. That they had no idea what the future was waiting for Kyouya, I and Mori.
Our eyes danced around the club room, it was almost like a waltz.
The twins were entertaining their customers, shamelessly selling their incest act (and occasionally bringing me into the act, adding the forbidden cousins' love, driving the girls to the point of fainting). My cousins were perhaps the only reason I kept coming back to the Host Club, despite what Tamaki thinks. He's constantly screaming about how he's finally found that one good Lady role-model for his dearest daughter, Haruhi. Hikaru and Kaoru always burst out laughing at his words, knowing me all too well to know that I was no Lady.
A good, proper Lady wouldn't cheat on her fiance.
A proper Lady wouldn't allow herself to be swept away by another man.
But I did.
Kyouya had asked me to paint the Host Club, as predicted, for the next event. I'd agreed after negotiating a good reward for the work, it would be a headache to paint it in their natural setting. The hours it would take me, and what I'd be losing in order to do it for him. Kyouya probably knows our dirty little secret, why wouldn't he? But he's staying silent, even covering for me.
"We can't keep doing this, anymore," I whispered in an empty clubroom to Mori, taking in the shirtless sight of my lover.
Mori's dark eyes appeared to be looking right into my soul, "Has he noticed?"
Oh, God. I think, his voice.
I run a hand through his short dark brown hair, inwardly wondering how I'd obtained his permission to be so close with someone like Morinozuka Takashi.
"It's Kyouya," I responded, briefly closing my eyes as Mori's - Takashi's - lips peck mine. "Of course he has."
A part of me thinks if Takashi feels bad for doing this to one of his best friends before remembering that he'd gotten me first. That it was Kyouya who was taking me away from Takashi. Mine, mine, mine! His hands move around my lower body part, and I can't help but moan at the feeling he gives me. Electricity. He pushes me against the wall, planting a passionate kiss on my lips. His hands explore my body, the fingers play with my hair and leave behind traces that make me shiver.
"Then we wait until he says something," Takashi speaks, his eyes glinting with an emotion I'm scared of deciphering.
He hadn't been happy when I'd delivered him news of the possible engagement between me and Kyouya. Neither had been Kyouya, he had known what was going on between me and Takashi. I'd witnessed the youngest Ootori trashing his room in anger, having sat on the armchair with my arms numbly seated on my lap. He'd promised me he'd find a way out of it.
"Can't your family interfere?" I asked, leaning my head back as he kissed my throat. My uniform had been flung somewhere in the middle of the changing room in the Kendo club room, his favorite place to hide us in. "Kyouya said if there are any other offers-"
"It'd be my family against Ootoris," he said with a small hint of bitterness.
"My mom said that they'd listen to my request if there was another offer," I cut him in, looking at his eyes in desperation.
But was what we had really something we both wanted to keep forever? I knew that if I married with Ootori Kyouya I couldn't easily escape the marriage, I'd be trapped for a long time. However, with Takashi, it was possible that we could walk on our separate ways if things didn't work out. There were too many what ifs and why not for either of us to know what we wanted to do.
"I'll see what I can do," it wasn't exactly a promise, but it was close to. I nodded, allowing him to push me down and take me with the same passion he always did.
The same passion we've had for the last three years, it started at the start of our high school years (a couple of days after we became freshmen).
My long nails drew blood on his back as we lay on the floor of a Kendo club's changing room, locked in a passion that no one could discover.
We had come to an end sooner than either expected.
My family and Ootori had announced to the world about Kyouya's and my engagement, preventing any possible changes. It wasn't a deal that could be broken, after all. This time it had been me destroying Kyouya's room, angry at both our families and Takashi for not acting sooner. For not letting his parents know that we were together, perhaps then things could've remained the same.
Although, to be fair - it was an unspoken agreement that no feelings could come from our arrangement.
That it wasn't meant to last.
Our meetings stopped, we didn't talk to each other in private but we remained friends in the eyes of the public. The twins had attempted to confront me about Kaoru's speculation of me having a crush on Takashi, stating how the painting on the canvas looked like him. Even though there were no defining features. I'd changed it as soon as they'd pointed it out. Now, people thought it was Kyouya I had drawn. Only Mitsukuni knew the truth, he'd looked at me with those sad blue eyes of his.
The marriage was scheduled to take place once we graduated from high school, before the entrance to the college.
Tamaki had wailed about the betrayal from his best friend, for not telling him something so crucial. Only cowering in fear, once the Shadow King glared at him with so much of hate that I thought he'd petrify from fear. I'd slept with Kyouya on the day the news was out, unable to escape from the hollow feeling Takashi had left me.
All we both had wanted was a little taste of a sweet, forbidden romance that could never happen.