" I'm so tired... " A soft yawn escaped the young female as she raised a fist to rub the sleep from her eyes. Gwendolyn had just been gently shaken awake by a flight attendant who informed her that the plane had just landed. Not that she was excited at the moment, which was evident by the death glare she was currently sending in the poor flight attendant's direction. Suffice it to say that Gwen didn't much like being woken up; it was one of the many quirks that she had, one she didn't plan on trying to change any time soon.
With a soft sigh of deep irritation, Gwendolyn raised her hands above her head, interlocking her fingers so that she could fully stretch before finally standing to her feet. Not many people would be able to pull off such maneuvering in such a limited space. But the girl in question was beyond short, only about five foot two inches tall and her arms matched her short stature. It wasn't exactly something that she went around bragging about, as you could probably imagine. Quite the contrary, this was something that annoyed her to no end. And with good reason! How exactly was she supposed to talk down to people when they towered over her by such a large amount? The thought was maddening! And it was even embarrassing to a certain extent when it was put into practice. Not that that stopped her from cursing out someone who she saw as being an idiot.
All of her luggage had been delivered to her Host family's home in advance, so she simply had to grab the backpack that was between her legs; it contained nothing more than a few snacks and drinks to get her though the flight, along with a number of books, her tablet, laptop, and phone. Things that she used for her entertainment, along with things that she didn't want to risk shipping for obvious reasons. Expensive things had a bad habit of going missing in airports when they were left unattended. Especially when those things belonged to foreigners such as herself. It was better to be safe than sorry and lug the thing around on her back as she joined the sea of people filing off of the plane than to risk having it shipped and end up never seeing any of it again. It wasn't as if she came from money and could afford to replace all of these items! If she did, then she wouldn't be here on a scholarship, now would she?
In all honesty, she felt out of place at the moment; despite the fact that she was of both Japanese and African American descent, her appearance blatantly favored the latter. Her inky black locks had been in dreadlocks since before she could remember, and were styled in pigtails being held up on either side of her head by deep plus ribbons. Gwendolyn's eyes were a rarity for someone of her racial background, a rather unnerving shade of piercing ocean blue framed by thick ebony lashes covered by the rectangular lenses of her black rimmed glasses. She had a rather curvaceous figure— which she mostly owed to the fact that she was an early bloomer, not to mention somewhat overweight for her age. Not to an obese extent, but by no means would anyone be calling her skinny any time soon. She had a large chest, and a plump rear, which got her unwanted attention from the opposite gender, and even the same gender at times. Not that she bothered with relationships [or at least she didn't for any lengthy period of time]. It only took away from her study time.
Compared to everyone else around her, the only thing about her that came close to hinting at the Japanese DNA and heritage she had received from her father's side of the family, was the fact that her eyes were slightly tilted upward giving them something similar to the beautiful almond shaped eyes those around her had. Not nearly as pronounced mind you, but noticeable to a certain extent. In a nutshell, she looked astronomically different from your average Japanese individual. However, she knew that it wouldn't be hard to locate her host family for the exact same reason. She was told go look for a natural blonde holding a sign that read "Suoh Host Family." Now in a California airport, she might have a bit of an issue. But here in Japan, it shouldn't be all that hard to pick them out from a crowd, right? It should be rather easy, if anything!
In fact, she didn't have to look more than a few feet after heading off of the plane and into the terminal before she saw two people who fit that description down to the letter. As she readjusted her bag so that it was firmly placed on her shoulder, she held up a hand and waved to catch their attention. It wasn't like she should be all that hard to notice anyway, she stood out like a sore thumb. Gwendolyn had no idea how much she would regret that action in about ten seconds. She could swear, she could almost see sparkles appear on the shorter of the pair's eyes when he noticed her. And before she could even react she was being pulled into a near suffocating hug. Did I mention she wasn't exactly a fan of physical contact, at least jot when it came to strangers? The poor girl stood as stiff as a board as she was coddled and cooed over by the odd boy, who seemed to be no more than a few years older than herself.
"My darling little sister!" Chirped the overzealous blonde as he looked her over with teary eyes filled with an almost child-like innocence. As much as she would have loved to push the male and scold him for hugging her when she didn't even know his damn name, she was currently suffering from lack of oxygen; For such a wiry looking guy, he sure had one hell of a grip! It seemed as if she was stuck until he decided that he was done squeezing her to death.
"I can't believe you're finally here!"
"C-can't breathe –" Gwendolyn finally managed to stutter out as she attempted wiggle out of his grasp. She wasn't used to affection of this sort in any way! Sure, her mother was just as over affectionate as this guy seemed to be...but over years of living with the woman she had learned to dodge any unnecessary acts of affection that were sent her way. There were times when she had to shut up and take her lumps, like she had before she got on the plane and took the long flight from Italy to Japan. However, with some stranger acting like he was s kid who'd just been given a new toy, she didn't feel like she should have to sit though it! But she didn't have much of a choice at the moment.
"Tamaki, calm down! You can't break my new daughter before I've even had a chance to say hello."
As if whoever the higher power was in this pitiful world had heard her desperate pleas for oxygen, the blond male finally relinquish his hold on Gwendolyn, which allowed her to fill her lungs with air for the first time since she was pulled into the hug. Though Tamaki was quickly replaced by a man who looked just like an older, more mature version of him! Thinking she was in store for yet another bone crushing hug, she was happy to find that she was instead held in a firm, reasonably tight for embrace. Her breathing wasn't even restricted this time around! Not that she returned the hug. She still didn't know these people well enough to even think of doing so, whether they were her host family or not. It wasn't like that changed the fact that they were basically strangers to her.
"I'm but..." The man paused before a broad grin tugged at the corners of his lips, and his eyes brightened just as his son's had a minute or two before. "You can call me Dad!"
Gwendolyn was truly amazed by the fact that the two of then could really be this damn weird; she has never met someone quite like either of them in all her years of living. Her mother would sugar coat it— say that the two of them were unique. But her blunt nature didn't allow for her to do the same thing and lead to her wanting to shoot down the two Suohs wish to make her into some part of their family. The hopeful looks in their eyes did make her rethink that though...in her mind it would be something similar to kicking a puppy to dash their hopes. Not to mention that the guilt of upsetting them would only add to her jet lag and irritation. Just for today she supposed she could entertain their delusions. Only for today! Tomorrow she would straighten everything out.
"Okay... Dad, Big brother. Can we head home now?" She ventured, even going so far as to –very briefly – let her arms wrap around and hug him in return.
"Whatever you want!" Both chimed in unison. Clearly the two of them were all to eager to please who they deemed to be a new addition to her family... Though she supposed that she should be grateful that was the case! She had heard many horror stories about students who had been paired with a Host family that they ended up hating or vise versa, and just as many about host families who treated the exchange student as if they were one of their own children. Gwendolyn was happy to have ended up with the latter rather than the former, despite the fact that this family was far more affectionate and open than she was used to at her own home.
"The limo should be waiting for us outside!" Tamaki announced as he lightly grabbed Gwendolyn's arm and tugged her out of his father's embrace so that he could drag her towards the nearest exit in the airport.
At the word 'limo' her left eyebrow raise just a tad, but in the interest of not slowing down the process of them getting to her new home she decided not to bring it up. She had assumed that any family that was willing to take her in and take care of most of her expenses with minimal help from the school, had to have a little extra money to be able to take on such a burden. Apparently, they had more than a little money on the side...but she probably shouldn't have expected anything less. She had heard that her host brother was attending Ouran High School as well— which meant that unless he was a scholarship student like she was, which she doubted, he had to come from a good amount of money. Though she wasn't quite sure as to what the entent of their wealth actually was until the actually got into the vehicle and took the , surprisingly uneventful, ride from the airport to their extravagant home.
The poor girl was completely flabbergasted at the sight of a full blown staff of maids and butlers lined up on either side of the path that lead up the staircase to the entrance of the house —well, mansion would be more accurate. They were curtsying and bowing respectively, their heads held down as they did so in what could only be described as an amazingly synchronized manner. It was something that she had never seen before in her life; not many people who have lived in an apartment complex for the vast majority of their life had.
"Is it like this all the time?" Gwendolyn questioned in a slightly awed tone. Both blond males grinned at the starstruck female as shook his head in response.
"Of course not! We just wanted to impress you." His reply was blunt and straightforward, not even attempting to hide the fact that their goal had been to butter her up to some extent.
"That way you'd like it here before you even walked in the door!"
At this, Gwendolyn couldn't help but giggle softly at his overenthusiastic confession; only someone who had grown up completely loaded would think that showing off their staff would do anything to make someone comfortable! Even if that wasn't the case, it surely did amuse the female to a certain extent. Tamaki didn't seem to realize that and frowned softly at her reaction. He had obviously been expecting more of an expression of happiness at knowing that she would be living in the lap of luxury until she graduated — and even afterward if she chose, though she didn't know about that quite yet.
"Do you not like it? Is it too much?" Tamaki seemed to let out a breath that he didn't even realize he'd been holding when the girl shook her head.
"Nah, I'd say it's just enough. Different than what I'm used to." As she consoled him with a small smile teasing at the corners of her lips, a soft yawn managed to escape her, which got a concerned look to be sent in her direction by the older of the two Suohs present.
"My apologies!" The man was visibly distraught about having forgetten about the long flight his new charge had just been subjected to. "You must be tired from your flight. I'll have Rei show you to your room."
While Gwendolyn thought it would be rather rude to go straight to bed without even attempting to socialize with her Host family...she was rather glad that it was offered before she passed out from exhaustion. At this moment she was quite nearly dead on her feet! Despite the fact that the flight went through the night she didn't get any sleep the entire ride; there was something unsettling about riding in first class when she was so used to riding in coach whenever she had to go somewhere on a plane. What could she say? She was always prone to weird paranoia when she was placed in strange situations. It wasn't something that consumed her daily life or anything like that, there was just always that thought in the back of her mind. Therefore, instead of sleeping she simply decid decided to stay awake and mess around on her her electronics throughout the flight from Italy to Japan.
"She does need her rest~," Tamaki mused in a sing song voice as he pushed both Gwendolyn and one of the maid's, a pretty petite brunette with these lovely dainty features, into the mansion and towards a grandiose staircase that took up most of the entrance hall. "After all, tomorrow will be her first day at Ouran! I can't wait to show off my darling little sister.'
A scoff escaped the Italian at his words. Why did she get the feeling that such outspoken comments and actions with a blatant disregard for how the object of his words felt about being addressed in such a manner wasn't a rarity when it came to him? Once more she had the strong urge to protest at being referred to as if she were some new accessory got him to brag about... But she figured she would be ignored. And she was too tired to force her thoughts down her host brother's throat, so for now she would just have to cope. A world weary sigh escaped her as Tamaki finally took his leave, only to be silenced by laughter that sounded similar to the light sweet ringing of a bell.
"Once the young master sets his mind to something, it's easiest to just go along with it." The maid, who she remembered referred to as Rei, informed her as she motioned for the new resident of the lavish home to follow as she led the way up the staircase. Gwendolyn had thought that might be the case when it came to the boisterous blond. She would certainly be taking note of Rei's advice and following it down to the last letter. At least for today, since she was far too tired to do anything else.
"Simply remember that your room is the third door on the right and you won't ever get lost." As Rei offered the advice she opened the door to the room on question. "Master Tamaki designed it himself. With a little help from a Haruhi-san, of course."
Immediately upon walking into the room, it was clear to Gwendolyn which part of the bedroom the happy-go-lucky male had designed. The vast majority of the room was decorated tastefully, three walls of it painted a tame royal blue color —which happened to be her favorite color. In stark contrast, the wall that the bed was up against was a striking hot pink color, with the bed itself being a pale pink with a matching canopy hanging from above the king sized mattress. There was a fluffy pink comforter [which was no doubt covering identical pink sheets ] on top of the bed, along with a sea of pillows that were all sizes and a various stuffed animals. Yet, out of the wild pink catastrophe there was one stuffed animal in particular that caught her eye.
There was a big brown bear with a note attached to it's neck by a white ribbon smack in the middle of all the chaos going on on the bed. Curious, Gwendolyn walked over to the bed and took a seat beside the animal before untying the ribbon so that she could read the note.
"To My Dear Little Sister,
This is my favorite bear, I've had since childhood. Even though I picked out all [ Haruhi: Nope.] Some of the things in here, Haruhi suggested that I add something special if I really wanted you to feel comfortable. I hope that you love him as much as I did!
Your loving elder brother,
Tamaki"
Gwendolyn smiled softly as she set the note down on her bedside table, before holding the bear to her chest as she fell backwards onto the bed. Maybe her rambunctious 'brother' really wasn't so bad after all! That comforting thought wandered through her mind while her eyes drifted closed slowly, her breaths evening out as she fell into a much needed, dreamless sleep.
I refuse to waste time putting this at the bottom of every chapter, so I'll toss this out there right now. In no way, do I own anything that has to do with Ouran Highschool Host Club! The only things I own in this story are: Gwendolyn, Any Other OCS I Might Add, and THE PLOT!
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