Disclaimer : I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. (Because, you know, you'd so have me writing fanfiction if I did. -.-)
The redhead shivered. Music swirled around him, dancing in the air, little notes begging to be thrust into the light, shone in all their beauty to the world.
Okay, that was definitely over-romanticizing things. Even so, he couldn't help but picture it. Still, though, who would imagine him listening to this kind of music? It could be so depressing, so violent at times.
Currently, though, he would readily admit that he just didn't care. An arm circled his shoulders. He jumped.
"Jesus, Kaoru, you're just completely oblivious listening to this, aren't you?" the mirror image of the redhead said, laughing, removing one of his earphones. He was tempted to growl at him, but what kind of point would that make?
After placing the earphone in his own ear, he frowned. Kaoru grabbed at the iPod to change the song. "Dir en Grey?" came the voice.
Too late.
I looked to my brother, turning a slight shade of scarlet. I nodded, mute for once, changing the song quickly. I couldn't make eye contact with my twin right now.
He was… laughing? Why was he laughing? I turned slightly, staring at him, mouth hanging open ever-so-slightly.
"Since when do you listen to them? Especially their old stuff? You'd think that I knew my twin better than that."
The scarlet deepened. It was now crimson.
He raised an eyebrow. I forced a laugh, before realizing just how funny this could really seem, if I let it. My shoulders shook, and my mirror shook his head, looking to where one blonde second-year was waiting for us. I stood, Hikaru following almost immediately.
I could feel his fingers intertwining with mine as the first(there are different ones) chorus of Love Scream Party played in both of our ears.
'daikirai dakedo
suki kokoro no mama majiwaritai
ochiru kara motto yoku shite?
horerta hou no make'
['I hate you but I
love you; I want to change the way of my heart
Since you failed do
you want to do it better? It's the defeat of a person who fell in
love]
My heart throbbed painfully at the lines. Yeah, what a wonderful time for that line to play, right as we're walking towards Tono. My face must have contorted or something in my moment of agony, as he stared at me, apparently concerned. No one spoke for a minute, before he decided that it was really nothing, smiling once more. I liked to see Tono smile. It just brought up the spirits of the whole club. "Alrighty then," he said eagerly, "go change!"
I stared at him blankly for a moment. You had to be kidding me. Tono? Tono said 'alrighty'? Oh God, what was the world coming to?
Hikaru must have been thinking the same, as he stared at me for a moment, before pulling me by my hand towards the changing area, where our costumes for the day would be set up. Truthfully, I couldn't think of anything more awkward than what Tono had come up with this time.
It wasn't exactly more unusual than the normal things that he would have us dress up in, but really. I mean, come on, why the hell did he have to pick a –kei theme?
Why the hell had Kyouya ok'ed it?
So, that meant that Hikaru and I got to dress up in these lovely, elaborate costumes with heavy make-up. Oh, come on? Did he want us to scare away the customers?
At least he hadn't picked us to be from Buck-tick or something equally as dark. No, he had left that for Mori-sempai, and his 'lovely item' was certain to balance him out, the only one of us allowed to dress in an oshare fashion.
Alright, perhaps I should explain this a bit better. Visual/oshare kei is a division of Jrock. Basically, you get a bunch of guys that enjoy wearing thick make-up and overdone costumes, in the ideology that it gets people hooked. I'll be honest, it rather does for many girls, but many like myself just find it odd. Come on, who wants to see a dude in short-shorts with a cut-off kimono as a top?
Who that's male?
Alright, maybe I had no room to speak here. After all, I was lusting over my twin brother. I honestly wouldn't mind him in something like that. Even so, that wasn't going to happen. We were to have almost identical costumes, with pants. Kyouya had been sure to make it very clear to Tono that he was not to have 'those idiots' as cross-dressers. Why, you may ask? Because we really don't need to pay any medical bills for some girl dying of a heart attack on the spot. At least, that's what I had convinced myself.
Even so, I couldn't believe the audacity he had. Having us change out of our school uniforms only to switch into ones that were so much lower in class? Evil.
Well, at least we weren't done up like we could have been. We hadn't been told of our costumes, told that they were a surprise. To be honest, this really was a surprise. You would think that Tono would have us in something much more flashy and daring. Apparently he just wanted us to match. How… thoughtful. I turned around momentarily, fixing my tie in the mirror. Suddenly, I felt a pair of hands at my neck. I froze, only to feel the weight of a necklace drop on my neck.
Well, that was a relief. At the moment of the thought, however, the hands moved to my lower back. I stiffened. I didn't care if it was just Hikaru tucking my shirt in.
I glanced over my shoulder to look at him. "Hikaru, I can get that."
He smiled, straightening up and looking me in the eye. "Too late."
Again? Really. I needed to speed up my reaction time with my twin here.
As we walked from the changing room, I stopped dead. If I felt lucky that Hikaru and I didn't have to deal with overdone make-up, Tono was on the complete other end of the scale. His eyes, or, at least the one you could see, were covered in heavy black eyeliner, with a drawn-on teardrop coming from the middle of that eye down to almost the lower half of his cheek. His lips were a soft carnation color, and, God, what was he wearing?
There was nothing wrong with it, technically, but it was all black. Black hat. Black shirt. Black pants. Black shoes. What the hell, Tono?
He gave us the once-over, as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "Un-tuck the shirts, and loosen the ties. Also, Hikaru's wearing the necklace, right? The guitars over in the corner are for you two."
I didn't even comment, pulling the bottom of the button-down shirt out of my pants.
Before I could so much as touch my tie, though, he was speaking again, offering more corrections. "Oh, and roll up your sleeves to your elbows."
What the hell? How did he know any of this?
"Tono—" I started, though I was cut off before I could finish my question.
"What the hell? How do you know any of this? On top of that, we don't know how to play guitars!"
I turned to look at my twin as he spoke, so angrily. It was strange for him to get so worked up over something stupid like a cosplay day.
Tamaki looked as surprised as I felt, but responded easily. Of course he did. That bitch.
"Well, one of my princesses recommended the idea," that figured, "and it doesn't matter if you can't play them. They're just to complete the outfits."
I shook my head. "Tono, let it be known that this theme is officially hated."
As if on cue, Haruhi walked out of where she had been changing, looking positively adorable. Okay, maybe Honey-sempai wasn't the only one that had been allowed to dress in an Oshare Kei fashion. Of course, though, how else could you get something that Haruhi's customers would love her in?
I could nearly feel the physical heat from Tamaki and Hikaru turning red behind me. Oh, come on. It was pink. It didn't make her look all that more girly.
I grabbed my brother's hand, dragging him back towards our corner. I couldn't so much as take off the necklace before Hikaru had one hand gently at my throat. I paused, wondering what he was doing. Immediately, though, out of the corner of my eye, I saw what was egging him on into his actions. Already? What? But… Mori-sempai and Honey-sempai hadn't even come out yet. Why were they all here so early?
Despite all of this, I knew what to do. I leaned forward a bit, allowing my twin to reach around my neck, undoing the clasp that held the necklace in place. I smiled, and our foreheads pressed together as he pulled the necklace away from my neck. A squeal erupted from one of the girls that had just walked in, and my eyes darted sideways to her, my cheeks colouring scarlet.
"Hikaru, why didn't you tell me girls had walked in?" I asked quietly, feigning hurt.
In all honesty, the fucking principle could walk in to that sight and I wouldn't care. Albeit, though, that scene seemed as though it would never exist except for the girls.
"I'm sorry," he said, one hand caressing my cheek, "I just didn't want to wait for an opportunity to spring up again."
"Hikaru…" I murmured softly, looking up at him.
All too quickly, though, if you ask me, it was over, Hikaru pulling back as he fastened the necklace around his neck. Fingers entwined once more, as I wished they could be all the time, we walked to retrieve the guitars perched carefully against the wall. No, though, that was a sick thought of me, to wish that our hands were together all the time. Why did I want that? No. Just plain no.
I was spacing again, wasn't I? I picked up one of the guitars carefully, walking with it back to the couch, where I set it down. It was a dark navy blue, almost black, like the one Hikaru carried. I leaned in to him slightly, smiling at our guests. There were two girls seated in front of us, just across the table. One of them was positively gushing. "Oh, you're supposed to be Tora and Hiroto, aren't you?"
I paused, feeling Hikaru do the same beside me. "Tora?" I asked, only to hear Hikaru repeat the other name at the same time I did.
The guest giggled, shaking her head. "No, because you're wearing Tora's necklace," she said, looking at Hikaru.
'Tora?' I thought to myself blankly. Who was Tora?
"That also means you have your guitars mixed up," she pointed out, looking so completely innocent, that I couldn't help but be just a bit taken aback. "Oh, I've always wanted to see you two as part of Alice Nine! You just look so beautiful in those uniforms! It's like you actually got to be a part of Shunkashuutou!"
I was speechless. Hikaru, apparently, was not. "Well, of course," he said, smiling the whole time, "we just wanted to have a little bit of each other during this forbidden time."
He looked away then, one hand trailing down the neck of the guitar. I was actually blushing. I hardly had to act to do that any more.
'The four seasons? Alice Nine? What on Earth is this girl going on about?' I though to myself, reaching to my twin and laying my lips against his cheek as I spoke. "You know that it's only a matter of time before giving in, the girls here or not."
I heard squeals at those words, and knew that they had accomplished that goal. It wasn't hard to accomplish the goal of keeping the girls wanting more, though. Actually, that was my easiest goal to accomplish right now. 'Hikaru, you can be dense at the worst of times, can't you?'
"They're just too gushy for Hiroto and Tora," one girl's voice came.
My head turned, only to hear another of the female's defending us. "Too gushy? Quite the contrary, they're playing their roles perfectly!"
What was with these girls, I ask you?
Author : Gah! I'm so sorry for all of the obscure references in this chapter. I didn't mean for it to end up that way.
Uhm, I'll go through notes as I have them.
I tried to explain Visual Kei and Oshare Kei as best I could without it really standing out, but still, for those who don't know, Visual/Oshare kei is a form of Japanese performance for rock bands that is based around bright colours and eye-catching costumes and make-up.
Oshare kei, basically, is about more happy things, and reflects this in its style with lots of pink, yellow, and white.
Mostly pink.
Buck-tick is a very dark-toned Visual Kei band.
Dir en Grey, is, completely by coincidence, also visual kei but also [in]famous for their excessively dark/depressing/violent songs. It's like Japanese screamo, as my gf puts it.
Alice Nine is another visual kei band, but not nearly as dark as Buck-tick or Dir en Grey, but not light enough to be considered Oshare Kei. They're like your one true compromise band when it comes to Visual Kei. Them and The Gazette.
Tora and Hiroto are the guitarists for Alice Nine (a-duuhh.) and wear –nearly- matching outfits in the PV for 'Shunkashuutou' which translates to 'The Four Seasons' or 'Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter.'
Basically, Kaoru doesn't like Visual Kei enough to dress up like it. –teehee- so that's why he's griping.
-ahem- also, the 'short-shorts and cut-off kimono top' reference refers to what Shou (from Alice Nine) wears in the PV for Gradation.
Sorry again. I didn't mean to cause any confusion.
Song(s) of the chapter (A.K.A. What I was listening to while I wrote) – the artist SuG
