Author's Note: Well, if you know anything about me, (which would be weird) then you know I'm mushy at heart and basically very empathetic person.
I've studied mental disabilities in order to better understand the disabilities some of my friends deal with. Autism is quite complex, and while researching, I discovered a manga called "With The Light: Raising An Autistic Child" which made me research Autism more. Unfortunately, the author Keiko Tobe died before the manga was finished. Which is why the main character's name is Hikaru. I want to dedicate this to disabled people, and all who strive to understand them. Keiko Tobe, you have inspired me. Thank you. And to all my readers, thanks for the support you've shown me.
I'm not sure when this should take place. Maybe a little after Haruhi's first day as a host.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran.
Chapter One: In Which My Brother and I Meet The Host Club
I opened my eyes to the dreary image of morning.
I heard the rain hit the roof, the room smelled of old books and licorice.
Hikaru shook me out of my early morning trance. I wiped the remains of drowsiness from my eyes.
I pulled a card marked with hands on a person and handed it to Hikaru. He placed it in his morning card slot.
Allow me to explain, Hikaru is autistic, really. He has a brilliant mind, though he has trouble in speech and phonetic communication.
He has very good fine motor skills, he can put a puzzle together quickly. He can solve a Rubik's Cube in less than an hour.
However, Hikaru still has trouble with some things. He has certain things that bother him and that can trigger a panic attack, like being touched from behind, or thunderstorms, and dogs. He also has things that can calm him down, including his song, a cat plush, and cake. Some people treat autistic people like children, but that doesn't really help at all. Hikaru is seventeen years old, and he's in high school. I'm so proud of him.
I was adopted by the Azumaya family when I was nine. They also adopted my little sister Reina.
I helped out as much as I could, and now, six years later, I'm fifteen and most of my adopted siblings have moved out.
My mother died of AIDS when I was younger, so I swore to take care of my family, which kinda sounds like the premise of a bad anime, only I'm not an elf.
I'm Kaori. My older brother (other older brother) Tatsuo is getting married in a few months. My older sister Suzume is married with a son, and now pregnant with triplets.
But this story isn't about that, this is about how I learned to have fun, how we made some of the best people I could ever meet, and how I fell in love with the least likely person I expected to.
Back to that morning.
We went through the morning routine. My adopted mother would wake up my younger siblings later, we woke up around five, and we usually were completely ready by six, it took us a while to walk to school, but hey, we were always a little early. It wasn't the worst thing in the world. I couldn't be tardy.
We ate breakfast, brushed our teeth, washed our faces, combed our hair, and got dressed. I put on a pair of black slacks and a long sleeved blue t-shirt with a brown sweater vest over it. I pulled an orange hat over my choppy short hair. (I wanted to show Hikaru that haircuts at the barbershop weren't scary, and long story short, we have the same haircut now) Hikaru wore a pair of jeans and a button down grey shirt. He always had trouble with buttons.
I helped Hikaru line the buttons. He chose to watch TV while I finished getting ready. An ad blared about a new potato chip flavor. I sighed, Hikaru would want potato chips for his snack now. I finished his schedule with a slide of the last picture. I added a new picture in the snack category. He has to have an exact schedule, or he might meet something unexpected. I try to make sure he doesn't have to deal with too many unexpected things. But he needs to get used to them soon, otherwise life will be torture. I picked up the umbrellas. Hikaru grabbed his, one with a large car on it. I unlocked the front door, he placed his hand on my head. Over the years I realized that was his way of thanking me.
"Kaori." He said. I blushed and grinned.
"Thank you Hikaru, let's go to school." I said, he opened the door.
"Let's go to school." He repeated. My smile grew wider.
We walked down the street, other kids jumped in the puddles, dressed in yellow rain coats and boots. I watched Hikaru carefully, waiting to see if he would imitate them. He didn't, though he used to. He held his umbrella with a firm grip with a determined look on his face. We lived a few blocks away from Ouran Academy. That's an interesting story, I worked hard so we could get in. Hikaru was placed in the Special Education class, I wanted the best for him. So I studied hard, and worked out a deal, I would keep the scholarship rules for the both of us. Director Suoh agreed to my terms, which I felt excited for. Hikaru got the education he deserved.
So we walked to school, he would hum a theme song from an anime every so often, or sometimes he'd spin his umbrella.
He smiled when we reached the gates.
"Let's go to school." He said. I smiled. I walked him to the Special Education room, and talked to the teacher.
"It's raining today. If it turns to a thunderstorm Hikaru might get scared and throw a tantrum, just calm him down with his favorite toy if that happens." I told Dana-sensei. She's the Special Ed teacher, she's been a blessing for us, she's studied and trained for this most of her life, Hikaru loves her. She nodded at my statement.
"I'll handle it if it comes to that." She said. I thanked her and went to class. I sat in the back left seat, next to the window. It was grey outside, casting a gloomy lighting to the room. I pulled my backpack out and started to write. Two annoying twins sat in front of me, just generally being jerks. I ignored them and continued my work. School is always the same for me, it's as if the teachers let the students do whatever they want! It's insane. Any how, school passed by quickly, our assignments were given, I was supposed to write an analysis of a few books.
Music is one of the hardest things for me to do. I'm good with the book side of things, where you write reports about famous classical musicians, but when it comes to the instruments, I suck. The teacher gave me the piano to try, and I do my best, but I'm not good with it. I do my best, and I end up ruining my favorite instrument. Wonderful. Well, I don't want to be a musician anyway.
"Miss Azumaya. Pay attention to the notes!" Mr. Danami said. I tried the song again, it turned out sounding odd, but not awful. Poor Mr. Danami looks like he wants to pull his hair out. I tried to play it again, and for once I actually got it right. I tried again and played it perfectly... Okay, fine, I messed up twice and Mr. Danami told me to just stop for the day. Afterwards thankfully was History. I could relax there. I immersed myself in the Edo period. A spit ball hit the back of my head. I didn't pay attention at first, but then another hit the back of my head. I heard giggling. I whirled around and saw the annoying twins with straws in their hands. I gave them the stink eye and turned back to my work. Two more hit the back of my hair. I heard the same giggling. Then a snap. I turned. A student sat between the two of them held the straws. The twins had a bemused expression on their faces.
"Stop that, we're studying!" She whisper shouted, aka when you're trying to yell without really yelling.
I sent her a "thanks" look and she nodded. I had lunch alone in the classroom, as usual. Afterwards was Gym and Math, along with a few other subjects.
Afterwards, I walked down to the Special Ed room, a few steps ahead I found Dana-sensei looking around frantically. She ran up to me.
"Kaori-san, I was helping another student get to the bus stop. Hikaru ran out of the room and I couldn't catch up with him! He's gone!" She said in a panicky voice. I pulled out my phone and looked on the tracking setting. I felt sick to my stomach.
The tracking app may sound creepy, but it's a way I can find my brother if he gets lost.
"I'll find him, you can go home." I said, waving my phone while the app loaded.
He was still in the school building, only in the other wing. I rushed to find him.
Third Person Point of View.
Hallway outside of Music Room #3.
Hikaru wandered down the halls, trying to find Kaori. He couldn't find her, she wasn't in any of the rooms.
He opened one last room. Now one was in it, but it seemed quiet, so he decided to sit at one of the tables. He hummed a song, and organized one of the silverware wrapped in small cloths on the trays. He put them in three stacks. Forks, spoons, knifes. They were turned onto their right side with the crest on each pointed upwards. Kaori had him organize silverware at home, so he thought he'd help out the people in this room.
Tamaki walked into the club's room, followed by the others. They noticed the boy instantly. He was tall, and his shaggy black hair sprouted from behind the chair like a small bush. Tamaki made a few long strides towards him, before tapping him on the shoulder, making the mistake if touching his ear accidentally. Hikaru felt as if someone had placed a gun to his head. He screeched loudly and covered his ears, he thrashed his limbs, trying to rid himself of what had invaded his personal space. He felt scared out of his mind. His chest felt tight, and hot tears spilled from his eyes.
Kaori's Point of View
I had almost reached the tracking point when I heard a scream. I instantly knew it was Hikaru. I ran down the hallway and threw open the door, where Hikaru was obviously having a panic attack, while a group of boys stood with their jaws on the ground. I ran to Hikaru and held his hand. His breathing was shallow, I pulled his lion plush out of my bag. He picked it up and calmed down a bit. His eyes were red from crying. I softly sang to him.
"Neko-Koneko Kaori,
Let's bake a cake with strawberries.
Mix it with an egg and pour it the pan,
put it in the oven so it will get tanned.
Chop! Chop! Chop! The knife goes down,
we frost on a face, a strawberry crown!
Frost it chocolate if you please,
I would like a slice, don't be a tease!" I made movements with my hands, expressing each step. Hikaru seemed much calmer. Mom sang that to us when we made cake together. It calms him down. He patted my head a smiled slightly, though he still looked shaken. He crawled under the table. I handed him his headphones and mp3 player. I got off the floor and dusted off my trousers. I picked up some of the silverware that was on the floor and placed it on the table. I got up yet again, though I tripped over Hikaru's leg and fell against a podium with a tea set on it. In that moment, everything went in slow motion. I reached for it as seven tea cups fell to the floor, along with a teapot and several other pieces of priceless china.
"NO!" I screamed as they broke into several pieces. I swallowed air in short gasps.
The boys in the corner had gone from awestruck (except one with a black book) to staring at me. I noticed the demon twins were among them. Brilliant. I fell to my knees and bowed my head.
"Please don't hurt me." I muttered.
"Aw! Commoner we were going to sell that!" Said one.
"Yeah, the auctioning for that was over 10 trillion yen!" The other added. I felt sick to my stomach.
"Why do you guys always leave the stuff you're planning on selling out on podiums like that? It almost always ends up broken." A brown-haired person said. I recognized her as the girl from History class. Well it was refreshing to know someone was on my side. At least I hoped she was.
"That doesn't matter Haruhi! He broke a classic Victorian hand painted tea set!" Said the left twin. He? Um, I'm a girl!Darth Notebook looked up. I started sweating, his glasses seemed to glow with evil.
"So what do we do now Tamaki?" Darth Notebook said. I awaited his response.
Blondie stood up.
"You broke several things, so obviously you'll get the same treatment as Haruhi!" Blondie/ Tamaki said. I frowned. What the heck did that mean?!
"You'll be a host!" He declared. What the frick is a host?! I stood up calmly.
"I honestly have no idea what you're talking about. Please, sirs. I don't have time for whatever ''hosting'' is. I care for my brother, and that takes up a lot of time. Surely you can understand what it's like to love your brother." I pleaded. Blondie *ahem* Tamaki was teary-eyed after I completed my mini speech. He randomly shot up like a rocket and pointed his finger to the ceiling.
"I have an idea! He can be a host too!" He said.
"What's a host?" I asked. Though I regret that decision. Tamaki spent the next ten minutes explaining. I knew way more than I needed to know.
"Is this the only way to pay for the tea set?" I asked. Tamaki nodded. I sighed.
"I'll have to explain it to Hikaru, but yes. Fine." I said. This might be interesting. Extracurricular Activities were important too. I just hope Hikaru would be okay with it.
Five Seconds Later...
Mori and Hunny walked through the front doors.
"Hey guys, did we miss anything interesting?" Hunny said.