Declaimer- Ouran Host Club is not Mine. The plot isn't even mine. –gasp-
Tangled in Skirts & Lies Chapter OneFrills, Lace, and a Dose of Testosterone
Kaoru nuzzled his head into his pillow and tossed the book in his hand lightly across room. It landed with a soft thud, but was subdued by the soft patter of the rain outside his window. He no longer wanted to study for English, and since he was already sprawled across his bed, he might as well take a nap…
And that's when a knock sounded on his door. At first he ignored it, and quietly muttered venomous suggestions of what the intruder might shove up their bottom half. But the knocking grew to pounding, and a shrill feminine voice accompanied it.
"Hikaru! Kaoru! Can I please come in? It's me, your mother!"
"Mmmfh," Kaoru muffled into his pillow, lifting his head an inch above it so that his groan could be heard.
At this the door swung open, revealing a tall blonde haired woman in a silk royal blue robe. As sophisticated as she might otherwise seem, the craze burned in her golden eyes, which were identical to that of her sons, stated otherwise.
"Hikaru! Where's your brother?" She came in, shutting the door behind her.
"I'm...never mind. What do you want?" Kaoru asked, pulling himself from the comfort of his haven to direct his attention towards this demented woman.
"Well…One of my models, she's gorgeous you know, I picked her out personally-"
"Just get on with it," Kaoru placed his tired head in his hands.
His mother's eyes narrowed, then she sighed. "Right. Well anyway, she came down with mononucleosis and is throwing up everywhere."
"Isn't that a good thing?" said Kaoru, more to himself then his mother.
But she went on as if he hadn't spoken. "Well there's a shoot today, and the agency just faxed me a picture of the model they're going to replace her with. She's all wrong!" She exclaimed, throwing a pouty look at her son as though he sentenced her to this cruel fate. "She'll ruin the face of my summer collection. So, I was thinking about it, and I decided that I could just use you guys! You've got the perfect fa-"
"No," Kaoru said firmly then laid back in his bed and waited for his mother to leave.
But as expected, she did not.
"Please Hikaru! You remember when you were little, you guys begged me to wear the dresses I designed!"
It was only that one time, thought Kaoru, suppressing a grin at the memory. And no begging was involved.
Yet Kaoru remembered it clearly.
"Okay you guys, pick out outfits from Mommy's collection!" Said the young mother enthusiastically as she motioned to her sons the room filled with articles of high fashion.
The twins stepped into the room and spent several minutes looking through racks, almost bored as they did so. But then one of them stopped.
"This one," said Hikaru, pointing at the mannequin before him.
Kaoru came to his side, and then pointed to the mannequin beside it. "And I want this one."
Their mother looked at the two of them, baffled. "Bu-But those are girl dresses…"She said, eyeing the pair of ruffled dresses, with large silk sashes around the waist.
They both turned to look at her expectantly. "So?" said one.
"You always wanted a girl," said the other.
And so they wore the dresses.
Kaoru flashed back to the present, the grin managing its way onto his aggravated face. But it quickly faded when he realized his mother was still talking. In fact, she was on her knees. Sobbing.
"I-I'm too young to have my career ruined like this! What will they say about Clarice Hitachiin now? That she is a failure? Not even forty and she can't hold her career down! Oh ho-"
"Fine I'll do it."
His mother looked up from the ground she'd been bawling to, baffled. "What?" She obviously hadn't expected it to be that easy.
"I said I'll do it. Just stop blubbering," Kaoru stood from his bed and walked towards his dresser to pick out clothes to change into. He didn't think these kinds of things would be fun alone, but maybe he could do it again sometime with Hikaru.
"Oh thank you, thank you! You know, you always were my favorite son! Kaoru never quite appreciated his mother the way you do!" She stood from the floor and went over to hug her son, the curls that had been trapped in a bun now messily tossed around her mascara running face.
Kaoru backed away, avoiding the hug. "Could I have a moment to dress? Alone?" He asked.
"Oh…how thoughtless of me, of course! Thank you again Hikaru, I'll see you downstairs," She walked towards the door, and was almost gone, when he responded.
"Kaoru."
"I'm Sorry what was that?" She took a final look back at her son from the open door.
"I'm Kaoru. Not Hikaru."
The shoot took place in his mother's studio on the first floor of the Hitachiin Estate. The entire affair was mildly amusing, but only because he imagined Hikaru's reaction to the entire thing. Once Hikaru got back from the date with Haruhi Kaoru had arranged, he would tell him everything.
The makeup artists and women in wardrobe dressed him from head to toe in complete drag. He thought he would have been use to this, given the numerous times he dressed as women in Host Club cosplay, but this was entirely different. No hint of his masculinity was allowed. The makeup was incredibly overdramatic, his eyeliner swept into "cat eyes" and his lips beaded with multicolored rhinestones. The wig was long and light brown with purple extensions, and the director of the shoot constantly talked about how the color of his eyes would be edited to match the tone of this and that…
When Kaoru looked in the mirror, he was shocked. Sure, he looked like a Hitachiin, but more like the fashion-obsessed daughter his mother had always wanted. When it came time for the photographers, Kaoru kept a bland expression, which the photographers loved and constantly called "sexy" and "feisty".
While he was changing and having his face cleaned by blushing twenty-somethings, his mother came over to him, bouncing elatedly.
"Kaoru! You're the new star!" she gushed. "Couldn't you do this again for us? Please?"
Kaoru turned to her, half his eye makeup blurred down his cheek from his sudden movement.
"Sure. If Hikaru can come."
"Oh that's even better! The director will love you two! Thank you so much Kaoru!" She went into to hug him, but Kaoru sent her a glare that stopped her in her tracks.
"Well, the shoot is at your school, next Sunday morning. I'll see you later at dinner, Ciao!" She blew a kiss in the air and was gone.
In front of Ouran huh? This could be fun. He thought.
Later that evening Hikaru came home. Kaoru had eaten dinner alone despite what his mother had said. She was already off in Rome for a last minute invitation she had received to her rival's fashion show.
"Oh man do I have news to tell you," Kaoru grinned. "But you first. How was your date?"
Hikaru looked at him solemnly as he peeled off his wet clothes. "Well, it was okay. And then it started pouring out, so we couldn't go to the festival in the park. It's been rescheduled for next Sunday."
Kaoru's hand paused (he was doing the English he avoided earlier), and he put down his pencil as the thought crossed his mind. "Next Sunday?"
"Yeah. So what was it you needed to tell me? Sounded interesting," Hikaru took up Kaoru's previous grin as he pulled a dry shirt over his head.
"Oh…I was just going to tell you about the outfit I picked out for Haruhi, it's very revealing…" Kaoru smiled convincingly back at his brother. He couldn't ruin this chance of his brother's for his own selfishness. He would just simply call off the shoot. It would be that easy. At least, that's what he thought.
And so the lies began.