Shiro Ootori
Shiro Yoki was an average Japanese teenager, going to high school, getting good grades, working at a high class restaurant. Until a sudden accident lands her with her rich Uncle she never knew she had. She strikes a deal with her Uncle.
Tokyo, Japan
In a buzzing law firm a 15 year-old girl sat alone in one of the chairs in the lobby. Her black hair tied back in a bun; her eyes looked around her as her pale hands fidgeted in her lap. Her black, long sleeved, button up blouse a black skirt that fell to her ankles showed off a 1 inch sandal on her delicate looking feet.
"Yoki, Shiro."
The girl turned around quickly at the sound of her name, expecting to see her uncle, only to see a middle aged man, who was obviously a chauffeur bow at the waist to her.
"Ah? Who are you? Where's my Uncle?" Shiro asked unsurely, slight panic in her voice as she stood her the chair.
"My name is Toyuama and I am here to take you to the Ootori estate." The man said as he straitened as Shiro looked at him confused.
"Estate?" She asked, frowning as she lowered her head in despair, but gave a short nod.
"Please follow me to the Limo, Your bags have already been sent to your Room in the Ootori Estate."
The man said, Shiro following him to the spotless, black limo that sat outside.
Ootori Estate, Mr. Ootori's Office.
The head of the Ootori family, Yoshio Ootori, had called his third son, Kyoya Ootori, to his office. As expected of the third son, Kyoya came at his father's call quickly.
Much like the rest of the house, Mr. Ootori's office was modern with black white and gray being the dominate colors.
Mr. Ootori, dressed in the finest suit, sitting behind his desk, looking over some files that were in a manila folder. As his son Kyoya, stood before his father still dressed in his Ouran high school uniform.
"Kyoya I have something important for you to do." Mr. Ootori addressed his son, the light causing a glare on the older Ootori's glasses, hiding his eyes. Kyoya listened to his father intensively, a glare on his own glasses hiding his eyes. Ready for any challenge his father asked of him.
"I want you to keep an eye on Miss Yoki."
Kyoya raised an eye at his father's words. He had never heard the name Yoki before as he searched thu his memory for the name, he was sure that no one at Ouran had that surname.
"Father, if I may ask, who is this Miss Yoki?" He asked, feeling as if he was being set up for something, but his father just set down the manila folder, showing a few documents and a photo of 3 smiling people.
"She is the only daughter of Malcolm Ootori and Jewel Yoki." Mr. Ootori said, but Kyoya thought he could hear a bit of venom spit of at the names. He raised both his eyebrows, shocked as his father's words registered.
"Malcolm Ootori?" Kyoya asked, shocked and surprised. He had always thought his father was an only child. A deep frown was set on Mr. Ootori face as he laced his fingers together on the desk, but what surprised Kyoya most was the slight shaking of his father's hands.
"Yes, Malcolm Ootori, my younger brother."
Kyoya went into shock for a few seconds before he went back to his calm frame of mind as he asked his next question. "Why? He cut ties with our family many years ago." Mr. Ootori frowned.
"True. However, he and his family were in a car crash and suffered severe 3rd degree burns and smoke inhalation. Malcolm and Mrs. Yoki didn't make it..." He closed the manila folder. "Leaving their daughter with us" Mr. Ootori said distastefully, as a knock came from the door.
"Come in." Mr. Ootori called as the door opened and in stepped the subject of the matter.
"Miss Shiro Yoki." He said her name plainly, the girl just bowed shortly to him before speaking.
"Yes, I am Shiro Yoki. It's nice to meet you Mr. Ootori." The girl said formally, as if she wasn't family.
Kyoya took in her appearance.
She was rather tall for the average Japanese girl, she had black hair that was in a neat bun with two chopsticks made of cherry wood engraved in gold on one end in her hair. She wore a black button up blouse that had the sleeves folded back above her elbows, a small glance of white from the bandages peaking out. A long black skirt ruffled at the bottom hugged her hips and thighs, stopping at her ankles as a pair of black 1 inch high heels adorned her pale feet.
She the perfect example of traditional Japanese beauty so this made Kyoya wonder as a glare hid his eyes once more.
'What is father planning?'
Mr. Ootori nodded to her, trying not to look at her as Kyoya and Shiro noticed.
Kyoya looked down at one of the few pictures his father always had on his desk. Since it was tilted towards Mr. Ootori, there was a slight tint on the glass in front of the picture, but it was still visible.
It was a picture of his father and another young man. That must've been taken right after the younger looking one had graduated high school, or around that time. His father looked much... happier back then, but Kyoya's eyes were fixed on the other young man.
He was clearly younger, but he and his father looked about the same height. The younger male had his arm casually around his shoulders, and they were both smiling jovially. They looked like two goofy siblings who'd been told by their parents to smile for a picture. Kyoya had never seen his father look so happy, let alone smile so genuinely. The younger male had the same jet black hair that was an Ootori family trait.
Kyoya looked up to confirm a visual resemblance with Shiro and the younger male in the picture and there was definitely a match. Except for the fact that she as serious as his father always was, she could pass for being another of Kyoya's siblings.
That resemblance meant that the younger man in the picture with his father must have been Malcolm Ootori and Shiro's father. The fact had barely registered to Kyoya when his gave him a stern look, telling him that he was dismissed.
"Kyoya." Just that one word made Kyoya snap out of his thoughts. He quickly regained his composure and gave a slight, barely visible nod. He knew that his father didn't want him there for the conversation that was about to take place.
Shiro stepped a little farther into the room and out of the way of the door as Kyoya made his exit. Once he had left, she turned her gaze back to who she assumed was his father, and her Uncle. He looked lost in thought for a moment, but he snapped out of it before Shiro could say anything. He gestured for her to sit down in a chair across from him and she did so, placing the manila folder into his desk.
He looked at her intently for a moment before saying, "Miss. Yoki, you are expected to start at Ouran Academy in class 1-A starting Monday. A maid will show you to your room; a butler has already brought your suitcase upstairs, so you may go." He looked down at some other papers and went back to his work.
Shiro rose and left the room, but she was still a little shocked and confused. She went to look around for someone who worked in mansion or really and anyone she came across in this huge place. She scowled slightly as she undid her hair as carefully as possible and thought over his words.
'A maid. Abutler.' It had implied that there was more than one maid and butler.
She'd heard stories about what happened to people's minds when they suddenly got a chance at the life of the rich.
'No way am I going to be like one of those snobby, spoiled, rich girls.' She thought as she ran a hand through her hair in relief, one of her mother's friends had done the bun for her and it was giving her a headache.
Now that it was free to fall down over her shoulders and past her bottom. People would be able to see the natural streaks of red in her hair. She loved being able to tell them it wasn't dyed either. That was always a question that came to everyone's mind when they saw them. She looked mostly, just like her dad, but she had gotten the random red streaks from her mom. Her dad's hair had been jet black and her mom's was a bright crimson.
Also like her mother, her eyes were also crimson, Shiro's favorite color, and the only thing she had inherited purely from her mother.
She spotted a middle-aged woman, dressed in a black and white maid uniform, quickly making her way over to her before she stopped a few steps away from her and bowed.
"Ootori-san. All your things have been put away upstairs; would you like me to show you to your room?" The maid asked as she straitened, but never looked Shiro in the eye. Which slightly irritated Shiro along with being called Ootori-san.
'I wish I could find my room on my own, but...'
She thought as she looked around her, but the massive size of the place intimidated her usually good sense of direction.
'I would probably just get lost in this giant maze.'
"Can you show me to my room please?" She asked the maid, who bowed before taking her to her room. So she let the maid lead her upstairs and threw several hallways till they got to her bedroom.
'This place is huge! There was no possible way they could use every room in this building.'
She thought as she looked around her room. It was defiantly much larger than her old room, even bigger then her old home used to be, and Shiro didn't like having all the unnecessary space that would never was and never would be used.
Looking around, the floor was a cold gray color, just like the rest of the floors. She noticed a gray couch and arm chair around a glass coffee table, and a big plasma screen TV that she had only seen in big electronic stores, a gray metal desk with a black office chair pushed under it, and some nearly empty book shelves, which had only what she assumed were her school books. The high windows letting in the sun light made Shiro felt like she had gone color blind.
The she spotted a small clear star case going up to some sort of loft. She made her way up the stairs to see a massive bed that was probably bigger then a king, draped in a black confuter and white sheets, with fluffy looking pillows at the head, then two gray doors. One was a white tiled bathroom and the other was a closet with only some hangers and compartments at the bottom.
She sat on the edge of her new oversized bed, and at the corner of her eye and saw her big crimson red suitcase, it looked smaller and out of place in her new room but it was the only splash of color in the whole room, possibly even the whole house.
"'Sigh' Well. I better unpack."
She said as she went to put all her clothes and belongings she had away, it didn't even come close to filling up even half the space in her closet and shelves in her new room. Shiro frowned at the massive room, at the maid who wasn't there anymore, at her Uncle, at the whole stupid mansion.
"Why couldn't I just stay with Nina, or Roger?" Shiro asked a photo of her parents when they were young. Her parents had plenty of friends, and they would have loved her as if she'd been their own. It was only in her parents will that she would live with her uncle, Yoshio Ootori, if anything were to happen to them.
"Why here, with them? I don't belong here." She said as the she came to the full impact of what was happening.
She was still healing form the physical pain of the burn marks she had gotten in the car crash, and the emotional pain from both her parents deaths. Now she had to realize that this was where she was supposed to consider home from now on.
"Dad. I can see why you ran away from this place. It feels like a prison."
She said before getting ready for bed, crawling into her new bed unsurely before she curled up under the sheets and started to cry herself to sleep silently.
Morning
"Agh. Where am I?" Shiro asked as she looked around the unfamiliar room, blinking tiredly. Her eyes were slightly puffy and pink from crying.
"This doesn't look like Europe, it looks like..."
'Japan!'
That was when it all came back to her. She grasped her heart with both her hands in a panic, and started to breathe in short harsh breaths for several minutes before she could calm herself, and a frown found its way to her face.
Glancing at a digital clock, she quickly untangled herself from the blankets and went to get ready for her first day as an Ootori.
Later, Shiro's POV
"Agh. Finaly."
I said to myself as I had found the kitchen without asking a maid for directions, sometimes asking people for help made me feel like such an invalid, but it's not like there weren't any maids to ask. This place was crawling with them so it made sense that the kitchen would be to.
There was a small crowd in here along with some chiefs in white. One of them noticed me turned to me. "The dining room is just through that door. Breakfast will be done in a few minutes."
She told me, giving a polite smile that was purely professional, I grimaced at that.
'I can take care of myself. I don't need any one serve me breakfast. Give me simple cold cereal any day.'
I thought, an idea coming to my mind that probably wouldn't work, but I can give it a shot.
"Excuse me," I call to the maid that had who'd spoken to me before. "The Ootoris don't happen to have any cereal lying around here, would they?"
I asked, I highly doubted it, seeing as they never show rich people eating something as quick and easy as cereal. Not when they have personal chiefs at their beck and call, why would they chose something so simple and common over something grand and exotic.
Much to my surprise the maid gave a nod.
"Yes, for when Master Yoshio is in a great hurry. One of us will bring it up to his room." She pointed towards one of the cabinets. "But we always make sure something else is brought up to him as well."
I went over to the cabinets, getting strange and shocked looks from the staff that was in the kitchen as I retrieved a bowl, a spoon, the milk then the box of blueberry frosted mini wheats, which was luckily, my favorite cereal. Then I sat at a small table off to the side were a few maids sat and started serving myself.
The maid that had shown me where the cereal was had turned pail. She looked like she had just witness a horrible murder.
"Young Sir! What are you doing! We really will not be that long! Please, it won't be much of a wait!."
'Sir?'
I thought confused as I chewed some of the blueberry frosted wheats. My hair is pretty long for a girl but I have to admit that I am pretty much flat chested, dressed in some baggy pants and a red t-shirt, but Sir? Really?
"It's fine. I like doing these things for myself. I know how." Maybe it was rude to put down my cousins and uncle by adding that last part, but it felt like they were looking down on me, like a lesser being.
End Shiro's POV
Unknowingly, Shiro gripped the spoon tighter in her hand. She had liked to do things herself ever since she could grasp things without dropping them.
"But that's the maid's table! It's so small and the dining room table is meant for Ootori family members! You should be out there. Your uncle and cousins will be looking for you." The maid looked unnecessarily worried. Shiro rolled her eyes a she ate her cereal. She highly doubted her uncle would really care, and she didn't know anything about her cousins, so she was sure they didn't know about her.
"It's more comfortable here." Shiro simply stated, trying not to seem like a spoiled brat. She wasn't going to let them kick her out and the maid was in no position to do so. These seemed to be the maid's thoughts as she turned back to her work, throwing worried glances at Shiro as she ate.
Once she was finished Shiro made a point of washing out her dish and spoon before replacing them where she had found them. Even if the maid would take it out and redo them as soon as she left, Shiro had already done a thorough job of it but it felt good just to have done it herself.
Retracing her steps, Shiro had no trouble finding her room this time but as she walked in, she couldn't help but notice that something was different about her room. The spotless carpet seemed even cleaner now, if at all possible. When she looked at her shelves, everything looked a bit straighter and... organized?
Her eyes narrowed to a glare. Someone had messed with her stuff and thrown off the vibe that Shiro tried to give her room a more, lived in feel. After all, she had no valuables in her room, not that they would come close in price to what was in the rest of the mansion.
A sound from up stairs alerted her to the intruders position. Quickl, Shiro turned towards the closet and saw to her horror that someone was in there, organizing her clothes. Before she could fully realize that it was a maid and that she shouldn't overreact over a person doing what they were paid to do. It was to be expected of anyone who liked to keep people out of their domain, so... she let out a loud yelled.
The maid whirled around, looking like a deer that had just been cornered by a pack of wolves, was quavering under Shiro's glare.
"WHAT DO YOU THING YOU'ER DOING?" She shouted at the maid, her temper boiling.
"Young Master, I was just-" the terrified maid couldn't finish her explanation before Shiro interrupted.
"I didn't give you permission to be in here. As of now, this happens to be MY ROOM!" Shiro yelled, terrifying the maid to near tears.
"Please Young-" The maid tried to plead before Shiro slammed her fist into the nearby wall.
"GET OUT!"
The maid quickly sprinted out of her room and as Shiro slammed the door right after her. She took this moment to calm down and take slow, deep, breaths. So she went back to disorganizing some her books in what she felt was their right place, alone with her clothes, affectively calming her down.
She soon opened her door and headed towards to where her uncle's office was hopefully located. As she went her mind was going a million miles an hour, a plan was forming inside her mind.
Rich was a way of life, and she wanted nothing to do with it.
Without knocking, she flung Mr. Ootroi's office door open, swiftly entering before slamming it shut again.
Mr.s Ootori's head snapped up at the noise, as he looked up at her in surprise, before he schooled his featured to look calm again, with slight irritation.
"Mr. Ootori, how would you like to make a deal?" She asked him, giving him a fake smile that further provide that she was indeed an Ootori.
A re-write of my old story, with help from duckiy lover 151.
Happily Holidays!