"Where is she?"
"I can't believe you men lost my granddaughter!"
"It's not our fault boss! She was here a one second then she was gone!"
"I don't want your excuses! Find her!"
Kasanoda watched as the men of the Corinthos syndicate rushed around the large estate. He was there with his father to discuss the idea of an arranged marriage between the Corinthos family and the Kasanoda family. Kasanoda had to admit, he wasn't entirely sure what to think of an arranged marriage, especially since he had recently been rejected by Haruhi. In one sense he didn't want to marry a girl he had never met before, but in other sense he knew how much the merging of the two families would benefit everyone.
"I'm sorry about my granddaughter." Leon Corinthos said with a sigh, "I swear that girl is just like her mother."
Leon was a tall, elderly man with slicked back white hair and a large scar across his right eye. He was the head of the Corinthos family and without a male successor to the family he felt it was a good idea to join one of the families he trusted. That's why he had invited Kasanoda and his father to come to his estate.
"It's alright," Kasanoda's father said as he chuckled, "If she's as much like Yuko as you say she is I'm not too surprised."
"Why don't we talk in the garden while my men try to find her?" Leon suggested.
The three men began to walk back to the garden when Kasanoda noticed something out of the corner of his eye. He looked up to the roof of a nearby building and saw something move. While the heads of the families continued walking without him, Kasanoda made his way to the building. Above the doorway read a large sign that said "storage."
'Could she really be up there?' He thought to himself as he tripped on something.
He looked down and saw a latter was lying in the grass. After thinking about it for a moment, he put the later against the side of the building and climbed to the roof. Sure enough, there was a girl with jaw length light brown hair wearing a lavender hooded dress with long white sleeves over dark blue jeans that were tucked into her black boots.
"H-hey," Kasanoda said and he climbed on to the roof with her.
Her dark green eyes met his brown eyes as she looked up at him.
"Let me guess, you're supposed to be my fiancée right?" She said coldly as she looked away.
"Uh, yea, I guess." Kasanoda said as he awkwardly rubbed the back of his head.
There was an uncomfortable silence between the two as he sat down next to her. Kasanoda didn't really know what to expect when he met her, but he wasn't expecting her to be so cold towards him. With a loud sigh the girl looked at him as she pulled her knees to her chest.
"Sorry, I don't mean to sound bitchy or anything." She said, "I just wish someone would hear me out for once."
"I'll hear you out." Kasanoda replied.
The girl gave him a surprised look, "Really?"
He nodded,
"I just…" She bit her bottom lip and looked away for a moment before turning her attention back to him, "Don't take this the wrong way, but I don't want to marry you. I don't even know you."
Kasanoda blinked as he stared at her, "Is that it?"
"What do you mean 'is that it'?" She snapped as she jumped to her feet, "We're talking about marriage here! That isn't something you just decide on like it's a pair of shoes!"
Kasanoda jumped at her reaction, "It's not like we'd get married today or anything."
"That's not the point." She sighed as she slumped down, "It's like just cause I don't have a dick it means I don't have a voice."
Kasanoda was shocked at her bluntness. He hadn't talked much with the girls from school, but he knew for a fact that none of them would be that blunt or say something like that.
"What?" She stared at him for a minute before she realized what she had said and turned bright red, "S-sorry, I guess with growing up around these guys I picked up how they talk."
"It's okay," Kasanoda said as he looked away, "I've just never heard a girl say that before."
"Yea…" The girl blushed as she looked away too.
There was an awkward moment of silence before Kasanoda turned to her again.
"My name's Ritsu Kasanoda by the way."
"I'm Lexi Corinthos." She said with a small smile, "Technically it's Alexandra, but I always go by Lexi."
Kasanoda returned the smile. "Is it really that bad? I mean, with the guys here listening to you."
"Yea, it is." Lexi said with a frown, "Like this whole arranged marriage thing. I didn't even find out about it till this morning. Grandpa just tells me over breakfast 'by the way, your possible fiancée will be here this afternoon.' I just about choked on my coffee. When I asked him why I didn't get a say he just told me to 'stop acting childish.'"
"For real?" Kasanoda said as he raised an eye brown, "My dad told me about it last week. He said it'd be good for both families and he thought it was a good idea."
"You're a boy though." Lexi said, "Grandpa always told me that women shouldn't worry about the business. 'Let the men take care of business and work, women should take care of the house and children.' That's what he always told me."
"That really bothers you huh?"
"Hell yea it bothers me!" Lexi exclaimed, "Just cause I'm a girl doesn't mean I should be excluded from things, especially if it's something that can affect my family! I mean…"
Kasanoda blinked as he listened to her rant. She wasn't like the girls at Ouran, when it came to dealing with anything involving yukaza the other girls would freak out or ask to change the topic, but Lexi was upset she wasn't involved.
'Maybe that's the difference between being told to stay away from it and actually growing up in it.' Kasanoda thought.
"I'm sorry I just unloaded all that on you." Lexi said as she blushed, "I just met you and then I bombard you with nothing but complaining."
"Oh! I didn't mind," Kasanoda said, "You said no one listens to you, so I just thought I'd listen to you."
Lexi blinked as she stared at him, "Y-you were really okay with listening to me? You weren't just pretending to listen?"
"No no, I heard every word you said." He replied, "I just figured since it was bugging you that no one here listened to you, why not me?"
Lexi stared at Kasanoda for a minute, making him blush.
"W-what?" He asked.
"Thank you Ritsu." She said with a smile, "That really means a lot to me."
"N-no problem." Kasanoda said, turning as his blush deepened, "I-I mean if we have to get married at least we could get along right?"
"Yea, I guess that's true." She said as she smiled and laughed a bit.
'She's pretty cute when she smiles.' Kasanoda thought to himself as he looked back at her.
"I found them!" A voice bellowed from below them, making both the teens jump.
"Oh yea, I forgot they were looking for you." Kasanoda said.
"We should probably get down there." Lexi said as she watched the men begin to swarm the storage building.
Kasanoda was the first one down the latter. The voices of Leon's men rang all around them in a garbled noise the teens couldn't understand.
"Alright, alright," Lexi said as she stepped on the latter, "I can't understand any of you-"
Lexi yelped as she slipped and fell from the latter.
"Lexi!" Kasanoda exclaimed, reaching out to catch her without thinking of it.
Kasanoda fell backwards when the girl landed in his arms. Both teens groaned in pain before looking at each other and blushing brightly. Lexi quickly got off him, muttering a thank you as she looked away.
"Are you two alright?" Kasanoda's father asked as he helped his son up.
"Yea," They muttered, glancing at each other then looking away.
"I'm glad to see you two are getting along," Leon said, "You'll be living together in the Kasanoda syndicate for the next year."
"Huh?" Both Kasanoda and Lexi exclaimed as they stared at the man in shock.
"That's right," Kasanoda's father said, "We've decided to see how you two feel about each other a year from now to decide whether or not you two will get married. In the meantime, Lexi will stay with us and we'll enroll her at Ouran Academy once she finished moving in."