Summary: When someone dies, they stay dead, but Alex apparently is an exception to that rule. When a specific person dies, they're taken and swapped with their "Other Half". Alex happened to be switched with a girl named Akari after getting hit by a vehicle. Forced to join the Host Club by Kyoya, she is made to work as a Hostess while attending the prestigious Academy.
However life is not all it seems when it's revealed that she's in a place completely familiar to her, yet completely different at the same time. Living with a pair of twins is a hassle enough, especially since it's a world far different from her own despite the constant similarities.
Befriending the Hosts and the Shadow King himself, she finds herself fearing death and the fact that it always comes so soon. She deals with the fear of being forgotten, but as time grows on, she wants to be forgotten...
Remembering only brings more pain. Attachments makes things worse. Truth is a harsh reality everyone deals with, but no one ever wants to stare it straight in the face, do they?
Alex Conners: 5'0, Virgo. Positive traits of Virgos: brave, sincere, dynamic, freedom loving, spontaneous, adventurous, takes initiatives, inspiring, and child-like enthusiasm. Negative traits of Virgos: rushing into things, ego, demanding everything immediately, and reacting.
Carrying a stack of books in her arms, a girl about fifteen placed them on the counter, checking them out. The Librarian looked down at the girl and smiled, saying,
"Finished already?"
"Yup," Was the girl's replied, a casual smirk slipping onto her pale face. "Almost didn't want to finish them, 'cause then I'd be done with 'em." The librarian lady laughed at the younger girl's response, shaking her head.
"You-I really don't know what to say," She replied, placing a book on another stack. "You are probably the only child-teenager," She corrected, but the girl took no offense, merely grinning, "who even likes to read."
"I don't like it," The girl replied with a frown, only to break out in a huge grin, "I love it." Her dark brown eyes, covered by a thick pair of dark glasses, caught sight of a certain book and the librarian noticed. A knowing smile grew on her aged face as she held it out,
"It's your birthday, right? Here, you can have it."
"Wh-What?" The girl was surprised as the librarian forced the manga book into her hands, "I-I can't-don't, I mean, don't-don't you, well, is-is this even-I-Are you ever allowed to give books away?" A smirk grew on the librarian's face, the glasses threatening to fall off of her nose,
"Didn't I just give one away?" The girl opened her mouth to reply, only to close it, and thought for a moment, before saying,
"...Touche." She laughed and held the manga to her chest, "Thanks, Mrs. Hopper."
"No problem, Alex, dear." Mrs. Hopper, the librarian replied. Her blue eyes shimmered with knowledge and her gray hair was tied up into a neat bun, her bangs framing her forehead. "Anything for a old friend."
"Ah, you're not that old!" Alex, the girl, replied with a small wave as she walked towards the doors, grinning widely. "You're still young, I mean, that man that came here yesterday? He was staring at you for hours!" Mrs. Hopper laughed as Alex walked out, the young girl's giggles echoing through the library.
"Happy fifteenth birthday, Alex!"
"Thanks!" Was the final response before Alex walked out, closing the door softly behind her.
...
Alex was humming "Lost One's Weeping" as she walked down the sidewalk, fully intent on getting home and reading her newly given manga, Ouran High School Host Club. Isolating herself in her room, music blaring, cats scratching at her door and just not talking to anyone-yeah, that was the life. She quickly switched songs to "Happy Birthday" and began to sing softly,
"Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday to me! Happy birthday, dear Alex, happy birthday to me!" She laughed slightly and squealed slightly looking at her manga book as she did a little twirl, ecstatic. "Best, birthday...ever!" She declared, knowing that she was exaggerating-"Okay, not really, but you get the point," She mumbled, talking to herself with a grin. She gasped when she was suddenly roughly shoved aside, stumbling into the driveway. She narrowed her eyes, pushed up her glasses, and stood up straight, whirling around to glare at a man wearing a beanie and a dark green jacket, running. "What the hell was that for!?" She demanded, angered.
The man seemed to ignore as he turned a corner. She huffed and headed in the same direction, her house unfortunately being on that lane, only to hear an elderly woman cry out.
Alex's grip tightened on the book as she tensed, anger and hesitation hitting her. Alex, believe it or not, was a rather cautious person, and rather hesitant-even if she appeared confident. She took a step forwards, than backwards, before deciding, Oh, what the hell, and ran forwards, turning the corner and catching sight of the man who pushed her, struggling to yank a purse out of an old woman's hands. The old woman was surprisingly strong. Alex charged, raising her book manga book high, and slamming it down onto his head, causing him to growl and let go. The old woman backed up as the man turned to sock Alex in the face, who shrieked and quickly ducked, shouting,
"Sorry!" And made a weak attempt to kick at him, getting him in the shin, but not doing that much damage.
"You're gonna pay for that punk!" The man growled, reaching into his jacket, just as Alex shouted,
"Run, random person!" Okay, not the best of lines, but whatever-Oh, shit. Alex instantly knew that she was done for when he pulled out the gun. Alex, being the spontaneous person she was-threw her new book at him, being great at aim, hit him in the face and causing him to misdirect and shoot , just barely grazing her face. Alex's breathe hitched and she froze still with shock, realizing just how close she had come to death.
Realizing she had to make a move before she actually did die, she stumbled over her feet and walked backwards into the street, eyes wide as the man threw the book onto the ground and stomping on it, before kicking it away. Alex, paused in her walking, and cried out offended, "My book! I just got that for my freaking birthday, you know!"
The man look up, positioning his gun at her head, said with a sick grin, "Happy birthday, then, punk." And cocked the gun, ready to pull the trigger, when the sounds of a horn blaring rang in their ears and Alex barely had time to turn her head before she heard the sickening crunch and pain flaring through her body. She felt something warm splatter against her before all went black and she knew no more.
...
"Stop!" A boy with red hair and amber eyes cried out as they neared the girl standing in the middle of the road, the limo not slowing down in time and the girl's body slamming harshly into the side, crashing into the windshield before rolling over the roof of the car and crashing onto the hard, blacktop cement of the ground, cuts and injuries in multiple places.
"What the hell-!?" A boy, who was just as identical to the first, only with bangs parted to the right, cried out in alarm. Did they just hit someone? The chauffeur finally managed to halt the limo and the first boy slammed the door open and ran out, alarmed as he ran to see if the person was still alive.
He and his brother were cursing profusely at they ran towards the girl. "Shit, is she dead?"
"Is that even a she?" The second questioned, earning a glare from the first. The first boy grabbed the girl's limp arm and lifted it up, and placed two fingers on her-non-bloody- wrist to check her pulse. The horror and fear on his face quickly went to relief, only to fear again. "Is she dead or not?"
"We need to get her to the hospital!" The first exclaimed, moving to pick up the girl, who groaned in pain as she entered consciousness.
"...Am I-" The girl coughed and slight blood came out of her mouth, "Am I dead?" Her voice was hoarse and her eyes were red, both with blood from when her glasses broke and cut around her eyes, and from the tears that were forming from the intense pain she was feeling.
"Nope, no, no, not at all-you're fine. You're perfectly fine," The first was panicking, while the second just stood there, unsure of what to do. "We're going to get you to a hospital and-"
"Shit, okay, well-uh, Kaoru, I'll the chauffeur."
"Hikaru, we need to hurry!"
The girl's face went into one of confusion, her bottom lip sticking out slightly as her eyebrows furrowed eyes squinting-not that she wasn't already, "Hika-Hikaru? Kao...ru?" The names rang a bell, she just couldn't place it. Not to mention, everything was looking strange, though that could be because she might have a concussion. Definitely wasn't a dream though-she was in way too much pain. The girl tried to sit up and cringed, letting out a small shout of pain as she wrapped her arms around her stomach-she whimpered, tears streaming down her scraped cheeks, "I-I-I..." She bit her lip, trying to hold back the sob and squeezed her eyes shut. It hurt. It hurt so much.
"Birthday girl's got a friend, huh?" Her breathing was labored, her hearing and vision was fading in and out, but she recognized it. How could she not? The man almost killed her for god's sake! There was the cocking of a gun, "And he's rich, too. Better than some old lady."
Kaoru almost cursed at himself-he and his brother finally managed to leave the house in a limo, without a bodyguard, and on the same day they run over a girl who couldn't be more than twelve and now he has a gun pointed in his face? What luck.
The girl brushed Kaoru's hands off of her and struggled to stand, pain flaring throughout her entire body in protest. Her legs felt like jello, her sides were killing her-her ribs were probably broken, and it felt like something was trying to stab her chest from the inside-again, ribs are probably broken. Her glasses were shattered and some of the glass stuck in her skin and cut around her face, causing some blood to dribble into her eyes, so she had to squint and close her left eye, and there was a nice cut along the side of her right cheek, going from her ear to the top of her chin.
The girl knew she was going to get herself killed, she knew she was being completely idiotic as she stood up. But the sound of gun fire rang in her ears and made her temporarily deaf.
There were two screams that she could barely register as she flung herself forward idiotically. But only one was ear-splitting.
And that scream belonged to her.
Blood seeped from her right shoulder as her legs finally gave out on her, sending her tumbling forwards. Kaoru quickly reached out and caught her, horror written all over his face. Her blood soaked his clothes and he knew that she was going to die soon if she didn't get medical attention. But they had to deal with the thug, abut Kaoru's hands were full, they didn't have a bodyguard, and-
PANG
The Chauffeur stood over the collapsed thug, a frying pan held in his left hand. Hikaru was clapping,
"Bravo, bravo! One question though, why a frying pan?" The Chauffeur merely blinked, turning to Hikaru and replied curiously,
"Haven't you ever seen Tangled?"
Why was Kaoru the only one concerned about the fact that there was a girl dying in his arms? Hikaru seemed to finally noticed and cursed loudly,
"Renji! Help Kaoru get the girl into the limo! She'll bleed to death by the time we get to hospital!"
"Yes, Young Master-"
"Hurry!"
Kaoru was still in shock. The first bullet had missed, but the second had hit. And she took it. For the very same person who had ran her over.
"-oru. -aoru! Kaoru!" The ginger snapped out of it and looked wide-eyed up at his brother, whose face now resembled that of fear and worry, "We need to get her to the hospital! The Ootori one isn't that far." Kaoru nodded and lifted the girl, the Chauffeur taking her out of his arms, and putting her in the backseat.
White light blurred her vision and caused the girl to cry out, a small groan escaping her lips as she tried to raise her right hand over her eyes-but finding pain pricking a few spots on her arm as she did so. She let out another cry and grunted, forcing her eyes to open the rest of the way so she could see what was happening-where she was.
She heard voices, but barely registered them. The words rang in and out of her head, but she finally managed to make out, "She's awake! Alert the Doctors!"
"Awake? She's waking up!"
"Get the phone, Mr. Hitachiin needs to know!"
Hitachiin? ...What? What is..."What's-" Her voice was hoarse and sounded funny, and she came to realize there was something covering her mouth and nose.
Oxygen mask.
She finally blurted out, her throat hurting, "What's going on!? Where am I!?"" The girl started to grow frantic as she attempted to sit up, pain flaring in her arms again and when she tried to move her left arm... She cried out in pain, especially when hands placed themselves on her hands and shoulders, forcing her to lie back down. The girl fought back, freaking out and unsure of what was happening-she was scared. "My arm! M-My arm, why won't it-why won't-!" Tears started to prick her eyes as she started to cry and she barely registered a needle pricking her arm before everything went black.
...
The girl groaned, reaching consciousness once more, and opened her eyes.
"Hikaru, she's awake!"
"Well, that's good."
"...My head..." She mumbled and her eyes finally gained focused, so she looked around the room, quickly observing like her father taught her to do- Tan walls, wooden brown floor, was that a dresser? A TV on the wall in front of the bed she was on, and on top of the "Dresser" was a plant. She blinked and turned her head slightly, catching sight of a huge window that pretty much displayed the entire city below her. "What-What the crap?" Granted, her thoughts were much more...violent. But just in case there were adults around, she cut down on her use of language. It's funny of her mind can still work in a strange situation like this. Then again, I DID use to have to stay in a hospital for three days straight for the EEG thing...
"Hey," A kind, but oddly familiar, voice cut in, interrupting her thoughts. "how are you feeling?" She blinked her eyes slowly and turned her head, staring at the man who was looking worriedly at her. He sounded...a bit like Heisuke from Hakuoki. And he looked really familiar,
"Do I know you?" The boy and his double looked surprised for a few moments, "'Cause, no offense, but you look really familiar. Oh, love the hair by the way-I always wanted to be a ginger, but unfortunately, I'd look terrible as one."
"Great, we picked up a loony."
"Hikaru, calm down, in case you've forgotten, the doctor said she had a concussion." The girl grinned stupidly, her thoughts switching rapidly,
"Really? That's nice...Never had one before, awesome." She yawned and closed her eyes, "I'm tired...Which why I'm probably seeing two of you." The corner of his lips turned up slightly in a grin. "Either that, or your twins. I seem to bump into a lot of twins..." Her eyes opened again and she started to explain slowly, rather differently from her usual fast-pace talking, "There was Lacey and Carly, they were fraternal-Lacey was a blonde with little freckles, Carly was a ginger with lots of freckles. Both had blue eyes though...And then there was Erin and Drake...but Drake had a mole on his right cheek that Erin didn't, so..."
"Congrats, what's your name?" The girl blinked, still confused why everything seemed to look different, and replied,
"My name? Uh...A-Alex, I think..Yeah, Alex. Alex Conners." The brothers looked at each other with raised eyebrows and back at the girl and questioned,
"American?" The girl was confused and nodded,
"Aren't you?"
"We're Japanese..." The first began, the kind one, while the ruder one was next,
"We're in Japan-either you hit your head really hard or that bullet did more than render your arm useless, or you have no idea where you are."
The girl could only go wide-eyed and breathe in sharply, "Wh-What? You're-You're joking, right? Yeah, you're joking-no, no, I'm dreaming. Yeah, I'm dreaming. Totally. I'm hallucinating-the sedatives! Yeah, I blame them! It was all them!"
"-render your arm useless, or you have no idea where you are." Wait, useless? The girl blinked and looked down at her left arm, which had a bandage wrapping around the shoulder, along with some stitches. Slight panic hit her and without even realizing it, her right hand began to tap rapidly against the bed as her eyes stung slightly, tears forming. She tried to move her right arm, but only got pain flaring up her arm and a twitch. She tried again, and got to raise it at least a little less of a centimeter off the bed, before it collapsed back down onto the sheets.
She was used to tripping and falling, she was used to bike-crashes, she was used to ramming her arms into doors and stubbing her toes, she was used to face-planting into the ground and getting called "Clumsy" for her klutziness. She was used to walking into dressers and walls and getting scratched angrily by her pet cats when she tried to open her door-she banged her knee against the sliding door for the shower and got bruise! But this, oh not, she was not used to this by any means.
The two boys' started to notice her panic and the first tried to calm her down, "Hey, relax, it'll be fine! You had surgery in time, so you'll be able to move arm after a bit of therapy and work-but it'll just..not work as well as it did."
A door opened and a doctor walked in, a clip-board in hand. He announced, dark hair parted to the left with glasses and cold eyes, "We've tried to contact her family, but Mr. and Mrs. Conners are saying that they never had a daughter. They only have a son, whose name is Alexander. But the blood tests are proving otherwise, so we are still trying to gather more data."
Alex felt her blood run cold as she laid there. That was impossible. Alex never had a brother, she was an only child. Sure, her parents wanted her to be a boy, so they called her Alex, rather than her full name, Alexandria, and always dressed her up in boys' clothes. Not that Alex minded, she loved to wear guys' clothes, but she also liked to be a bit girly every once in a while. Not that she had many female friends to be girly with anyway-most girls hated her. Found her annoying and loud and childish and immature-and completely un-lady like.
"Oh, great, nice to know I'm loved." The words were out of Alex's mouth before she could stop them-her sarcastic and ADHD personality kicking in, "What, so there are no record of me or whatever? Oh, joyce, best birthday ever-I should write this on the calendar!" Her voice faked cheerfulness and she ignored the looks she was given, "Seriously? Dude, they probably want to get rid of me and actually have a boy. Maybe adopt one if they keep having girls."
"There is a thing called manners, miss." The Doctor told her, fixing his cold gaze onto her. She quickly grew embarrassed and ducked her head, muttering a small,
"Sorry...Habit." The man scoffed and turned his attention to the ginger twins, who she swore she recognized, but just couldn't place.
"There are no records of an Alexandria Elizabeth Conners."
"What, so you're saying someone deleted them?" The rude twin questioned, raising a disbelieving eyebrow.
The first twin listened intently as the doctor continued, "I said nothing of the sort. If the files were deleted, we would have our best hackers hack into the system and get them back. What I'm saying, is that she never existed. We have excluded access to both Japanese and American citizens and she is not in the files. Despite what the blood testing is saying, she does not exist."
"So, she was never born?" Was what Kaoru inquired, confused by all this.
"Precisely." Was the man's reply, and wrote something down on the clipboard, "While her ID card says her name is Alex Conners, daughter of Natalie Conners and Jason Conners, the DNA testing, as I mentioned previously, stated that she is actually the missing daughter of Suzuki Ayuzawa and Akatsuki Ayuzawa, who both died ten years ago. The same day their daughter, Akari Ayuzawa, went missing."
Alex blinked at the Doctor, before bluntly declaring, "You're nuts. And so is this hospital-I thought hospital rooms were plain and bland, why does this room look so expensive?"
"Commoner?" Twin One questioned looking at his brother, who nodded in confirmation,
"Commoner." Before they both grinned and stated in unison,
"We've got ourselves a new toy." She still couldn't place it-but in the back of her mind, she knew them. She knew she knew them. But why was everything looking like it came right out of an anime? Pain echoed in her head, feeling as though rocks were pounding.
"Toy? Last time I checked, I wasn't a doll. I appreciate the offer though, maybe next time." She grinned cheekily at them. She barely noticed the Doctor leave the room.
"But you're a commoner," Rude twin said, smirking evilly. The kind twin was making the same face,
"and if what Yuuichi said was true..."
"Then you don't have anywhere to live." The girl paled, intensely. "You have no choice but to be our toy once you get out of here...in what? A week? Maybe two?"
"You're gonna live with us,"
"We have plenty of empty rooms,"
"We'll even let you choose,"
"but you're also going to have to,"
"enroll in the same school as us."
"I never thought I'd see the day when twins' actually finished each other's sentences," The girl blinked, stating bluntly before breaking out into a huge smile, unable to keep a straight face. "But-wait, that's-I can't!"
"Why not?"
"I-I-I-I'd be-" She tried to remember the word. Trespassing? No, what was it? She quickly changed, still stuttering, "I-I-That would be rude, wouldn't it!?"
The brothers' looked at her with confuse faces, "How is it rude?"
"Yeah, we're inviting you."
"But-But it-well," She couldn't think of a valid excuse and sighed, closing her eyes, giving up, "Fine...Don't blame me when you end up regretting it, though."
The brothers' were curious as grins grew out onto their faces, "Really? How so?"
"Most people hate me. I'm obnoxious and annoying, 'nuff said." She said as she began to lull herself back into sleep. Pain barely grew in her ribs, not sitting up, so she never noticed.
She had a small concussion, it wore off rather quickly though, a useless left arm with stitches going all around her shoulder, and broken ribs. And she had a few bandages tracing the cut that went across her forehead and curved down to the arch in her right eyebrow.
All she knew, was that she was going to be stuck in this hospital for a long time.
"Where am I?" Alex wondered as she looked around the completely white room. The only thing in the room that wasn't white, were the pictures that decorated the walls and ceiling. It was odd; It reminded her of the room that Truth always sat in from the manga Fullmetal Alchemist. That was when it hit her-The manga! She thought and quickly looked down at her hands, realizing why everything looked so strange. Everything was drawn like it would be in a manga, and colored like it would be in an anime. That was when she wondered what she looked like-but saw that there were no mirrors in the room.
"Thank you," A voice-that sounded freakishly like her high-pitch one, spoke from behind her. Alex whirled around with wide eyes, only to see a girl who stood at about 5', with wide, childish dark brown eyes. Her head was round and she had small lips, hair skin was fair, if not slightly pale, and had messy light brown hair that was wavy in some parts from where it was cut. Her bangs feel into her eyes and some of her hair spiked up slightly. It looked unkept, but soft. She wore a green hospital dress and there was a small scar leading from her right ear to her chin, faded. "Thank you so much!" Tears welled up in the grateful girl's eyes and Alex could only blink.
Then scream in slight shock, "What the hell!? Why the crap do you look like me!? And sound like me!? What the hell is going on and-why are you thanking me?" Alex's screaming dumbed down to confusion and a softer tone. The girl, the Alex look-alike, smiled at her (Is that what I really look like?) and said,
"You gave me life." Alex blinked and took that in the wrong way,
"Look, I didn't give birth to you if that's what your implying nor-nor-nor did I become Frankenstein and, like, uh-" She tried to find a good word. "I...I didn't say, no, um...I didn't shout "IT'S ALIVE!" and, like, pulled a lever and made lightning go boom."
The girl laughed loudly at that and Alex could only think, Dear god, I sound like Japanese Vexen when laughing stupidly! and frowned. He laughed died down to a much better sounding laugh before just outright giggled,
"Your much funnier in person."
"Um, what?"
"I've been wanting to meet you a long time, you know." She told Alex, only confusing the poor girl more. The girl explained, "My name is Akari Ayuzawa, and we swapped bodies-er, minds. Yeah, minds, minds is right."
"...That isn't physically possible...What is this? Some crappy fanfiction?"
"Um, maybe?" The girl said, slightly nervous as she tried to explain better, "Like, when I supposedly "Vanished" ten years ago, I was actually murdered along with my family. But, there was this...figure, who told me "It was not my time" and that "If you wait here for ten years, no contact with people, then when your "Other half" dies, I will give you both life, but you shall be in her place, while she shall be in yours."
"...I thought the whole, "Other half" thing was the soul mate concept..."
"I did too, honestly, so I was a bit hesitant at first. But then he explained that my "Other half" was a person, a girl to be exact, who looked exactly like me-only in a different dimension."
"Okay, so, stupid question, how many dimensions are there?"
"Ten. You come from the eight dimension, while I come from the third. As you would put it, um...In a scale from one to ten, the dimension closer to ten are the more "Realistic" and the ones closer to one are the "Anime". Does that make sense?"
"Sure." Not at all, but I'll go with it. "Anyway, I just wanted to meet you. So, just...don't freak out once you find out you'll never see any of your old friends or family again. From your dimension. And that why everything is similar to anime isn't because of a concussion."
"Sure, should be easy-Whoa, what!?" She smiled sheepishly at her and that was when her "DREAM PHASE" ended.
Her eyes shot open and she found herself in complete darkness, if not for the small lamp beside me on the dresser that was on. Alex closed her eyes and breathed in deeply, trying to calm her panicking breathe. It was just a dream, after all...right? However, when Alex looked around, she saw a mirror-a cartoon looking mirror. She made to lift her left to grab it-only to find it completely useless, and used her right instead. She grabbed the mirror with her working arm, pulled it to her face, and looked at it.
The mirror slid out of her hands and onto her lap, onto the sheets and off the bed, crashing onto the floor and shattering into bits.
Alex felt like screaming, but resisted. It's a-a joke, right? It's all a joke...It's not a joke, this is real, this is so very, very real and oh, my god I'm never going to see my family again. Or my friends. Or Liam. Oh, my god, I'm never going to see Liam again. Liam was a boy Alex really liked and despite the fact that she would never tell him, she missed him. Alex's chest tightened in pain as it felt like something was crushing her heart. Alex felt her bottom lip tremble as the sob started to build up in her throat and felt the tears sting her eyes, causing her to close them.
She was not in her dimension anymore, she was not in her safe zone...She was in Akari Ayuzawa, and according to that doctor, Yuuichi, she was Akari Ayuzawa. She was speaking Japanese, even though everything seemed English. She could probably read Japanese too...
And those boys...what were their names again? Hikaru and Kaoru...Ginger, twins, amber eyes...spoke in unison-Hitachiin. Hitachiin brothers and Yuuichi Ootori. Kyoya's older brother.
And that was when the tears hit, because, despite how excited she thought she would be if she ever came to such a place, the realization of her never seeing her loved ones again hurt. No, it didn't hurt, it killed. The tears steamed down her cheeks and before she knew it, pounding hit her head as her eyes closed, going unconscious as five years of Akari's childhood memories entered her mind. Those were the only memories the man needed to put in her mind, the only ones necessary. She would still be Alex Conners, but with her memories, as well as the memories of the Akari Ayuzawa, who had spent five years with her family before they were all murdered.
