Oh jeebus. It has been a long time…..a loooooong time. Let's hope I've done a decent job of touching these up. Because, honestly, the way I used to write was awful. Just…awful. Haha. Wish me luck! Also, for everyone who is wondering, the reason for Valentine being attached to Kori's hip is explained a little later.
Disclaimer: I own nothing associated with Ouran High School Host Club, including its characters, or anything to do with its publishers. I do own Kori, Valentine, and any other characters that may arise and be of my own design.
Chapter One: Interesting Introductions
"Third music room…third music room…hmm," she mused, looking at the signs above the doors as she casually strolled down the long, expensively decorated hallway of Ouran High School, her tattered knapsack slung over her shoulder. She cringed at the excessive use of pink and yellow and the decorations lining the hallways that look so expensive and delicate that she was afraid to breathe on them, lest they disintegrate and she, being miss cheap-as-hell, would have to pay for it.
She chuckled silently at the atrocious overly-expensive items as she came to a stop at Music Room 3. The large, white German Shepard that was trotting next to her came to a halt as well, sitting and staring up at the girl with his piercing blue eyes. She looked down and smiled at him, reaching down to scratch lovingly behind his ear.
"What do you think, Valentine my love?"
He woofed an answer under his breath, leaning into her hand and making very contented grumbles. With that she nodded and pushed the door open. Immediately she was assaulted by a strong perfumed scent and rose petals caught in some sort of breeze-from-nowhere, blasting her in the face.
"Welcome!"
For a moment, she could do nothing but stand there and stare in shock. Before her stood what appeared to be seven teenage boys, all of them wearing what looked like Kabuki theater garb, including several of them dressed like overly painted, and frankly scary looking, women.
"Um…Ok…Well then… I'll just… This is obviously not the right room… I'll just go…" She pauses a moment, staring intently at one of the costumed teenagers. "Haruhi?! Oh….my….dear….god." It isn't long until the girl broke down into an intense laughing fit, leaning against the wall and holding her ribs as her body is racked with laughter.
"Holy crap! Kori?! Oh jeez… Did you pick a day to visit or what..." Haruhi rolls her eyes at her friend's reaction, wiping off the make-up as she staggers out the door, still laughing hysterically.
~~~about ten minutes later~~~
They were sitting down at a table and sipping tea, a grin is still plastered to Kori's face and a cheeky glint is in her eyes. The dog was stretched out beside Kori's chair, chewing on a stuffed zebra that seemed to be missing an ear and both of its button eyes. Tamaki was dancing about saying things about 'his lovely daughter having a lovely lady friend that was going to make her more feminine' and the usual silly nonsense. The others were gathered around at the table where Haruhi and Kori sat and were chatting. Kyoya was writing away in his black notebook, Hunny was inhaling cake, Mori was listening to whoever was speaking at the time, and the twins were scheming away in their minds in silence.
"So how've you been Haruhi, my darling? Not getting into lots of trouble, eh?"
"Yeah well…you see the people I'm with."
"Yes. I do," she shrugs. "But it could be worse. They could be child molesters or serial killers, so I'd say you lucked out pretty well." Kori's grin widens as Haruhi cracks a smile of her own, having been reminded of her friend's dry and sometimes messed up sense of humour.
"So who exactly are you?" the twins ask rather curtly, interrupting whatever response Haruhi was planning. Kori just grins wider, looking even more like the Cheshire cat.
"Oh! I have yet to introduce myself. How rude. I apologize," she replied, sarcasm pouring off of her words and accompanied by a very disdainful look. She stands and makes a dramatic, overly deep bow. "I am Korisca Yabunhane, at your service. Most people just call me Kori, though. This mutt," she nudges said mutt with her foot and he just grumbles in response, "is Valentine. And you all must be," as she spoke pointed to each club member that matched the name, "Tamaki Suoh, Kyoya Ootori, Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin, Honey, and Mori. Am I right?"
They were all shocked into silence. How the hell could she know their names?! They hadn't mentioned them had they? She even got the twins right! She simply stood there with that Cheshire grin.
It was in this moment that Kyoya, ever observant as he was, took the time to measure her up completely. Average height, maybe even a tad short, and fairly pale with dirty blonde hair reaching her mid back. As she turned and the light from the windows struck her hair, sparks of red could be seen in the highlights. They all appeared to be natural, except for the ostentatious streaks of bright blue and green, made even more noticeable by the fact that those dyed strips were made into thick braids. Baggy black cargo shorts and a dark blue t-shirt featuring the name of some American band were her choice of attire, as well as a pair of black, open-toed sandals. Overall, she seemed fairly normal. But there was something about her, the way she held herself, the intrigued him. That, and her eyes.
A bright smoldering silver, warm when laughing, shining and glinting when being mischievous and hard and cold, like steel, when angered or crossed. Odd eyes, not something one saw every day.
"Hello? Hey! What are you people staring at!? HELLO! TRANSMISSION FROM MOTHER SHIP!" Kori yelled, snapping her fingers in their faces as they stared off into space, all except for Kyoya, who was busy making notes in that black notebook of his. "Jeez, you guys are more oblivious than Haruhi when she's focused on a discount at the supermarket."
"How do you know so much about us, Kori-chan?" Hunny chirped, cake fork in his mouth and eyes wide in question.
"Well now, that would be thanks to Haruhi. She is good at creating detailed e-mails. But I can't really blame her, since I was the one who demanded all of it." She shrugs and winks at Haruhi, plopping back down into her chair and pulling a diet soda from her bag.
"So. Why exactly are you here…" asked Hikaru, the usual malice for any of Haruhi's old friends simmering in his words. Valentine senses the Hitachiin's hostility and growls a deep warning, a guttural and brutal promise, his ears laying flat on his head and giving him an even more vicious appearance. Hikaru's attention immediately falls on the dog, who is eyeing him like a starving wolf eyes an injured deer, and his eyes widen slightly in fear. Kori just casually sips her drink, taking one of her feet out of the sandal and rubbing up Valentine's spine with the bare foot.
"Valentine." Her volume is barely above a whisper, but it is without doubt a command. Both Valentine and Hikaru look at her. Kori just gives Valentine a look until he huffs in irritation, and continues his assault on the poor, decrepit stuffed animal.
It isn't a few seconds before Hikaru begins to kind of flip out, running around a resembling a large, irritating chicken with its head cut off. Kori very simply and calmly, sets down her soda, pops off the tab and, in one swift flick, lands the tab right in the middle of Hikaru's head. He stops
She takes another gulp and chuckles, "You should see your face. It really is priceless." And with that, the tension that had built was broken. Haruhi burst into laughter, followed by Kori and Kaoru, who earned a dirty look for laughing at his brother.
After they finally calmed down, Haruhi brings the subject back to attention. "So really, what are you doing here, Kori?"
"Getting my schedule, I start Monday ya'know." She says with raised eyebrow. "Don't you check your e-mail anymore? I sent you a message weeks ago telling you I was coming back. And why."
"You didn't run away again did you?" Haruhi asked as an eyebrow rose in disapproval.
Kori just rolled her eyes, "Me? Do that? Never." She grins. "But seriously, no. I haven't run away. I'm living with Alan. And I've brought the…" At that precise moment, a small human projectile comes flying in and lovingly tackles the unsuspecting Korisica. Valentine jumps up to save her, then recognizes the little person and dramatically collapses onto the ground to take a nap, the zebra in his jaws.
"KOKO-CHAN!" A little boy with dark brown hair has planted himself on Korisca lap and is grinning up at her. She makes a face at him and kisses his forehead.
"Hey Uto. What are you up to?"
"Big brother sent me to find you. And I did! Can I have a cookie?" He whipped out the puppy dog eyes and just stared at her.
"Mmm… Fine! Just stop drilling holes into my skull with your overly ridiculous eyes…" She drags that ratty bag onto her lap and starts rummaging through it, mumbling things about the little boy.
Uto just smiles and pats her head, then proceeds to examine the people around him. His bright eyes, one a leafy green and the other an icy blue, narrows as he slowly makes his way around the table, looking at each of the host club members and thoroughly freaking most of them out except for Kyoya, who just goes to writing something in that notebook, Mori, who just looks back with a confused expression, and Hunny, who just smiles and munches on his cake.
"Found it! God I have too much crap in this bag…here. Do not eat them all. Save some for Alan." She says as she whips out a Tupperware container filled to the brim with chocolate chip cookies. Uto takes off the lid with the look of a child at Christmas and hands a few to Hunny.
"Try some. My sister makes the best chocolate chip cookies." He says and begins to stuff his face. Hunny follows and they both end up in a land of sugary bliss.
"Wait. That is your brother?" Haruhi is now thoroughly confused. The little boy looks nothing like Korisca. How could he be her brother?
"Yep. The son of Iantro and Liana Yuzuka. My baby brother, Haruto."
"Oh. I'm guessing that's why you left…"
"Yep. I'd had it. That woman gets on my nerves too much."
"May I interject?" All eyes them turned to Kyoya, who had finished writing whatever it was he was writing and was now looking at Kori with a fake smile plastered on.
"Well you already have. So it's a bit late there. Go ahead." Kori's eyes began to glint with laughter at his obvious annoyance with her facetious attitude.
Kyoya pushes his glass back up his nose and just continues to smile at her. "It seems your escort has arrived."
"Huh?" She turns around to see her eldest brother, a tall, well built young man with hair to match hers, minus the braids, and soft gray-blue eyes. She sees him and her face instantly brightens, "Hiya Al. what's up?"
He sends a small smile to Haruhi and nods at the others. "We need to go. We need to beat the movers. Everything is ready. Come on." He nods once again to Haruhi and starts walking back down the hallway. Kori hands Hunny one more cookie, much to his delight, and shoves everything back in her bag, standing and bowing to everyone.
"Bye people. I'll call you later Haru. Give Ranka my love! See you all Monday." She winks at them and waves as she walks out, Haruto riding piggy-back and Valentine trotting in front, the poor zebra still in his jaws. After she is well out of earshot, Haruhi sighs and starts to clean up.
"She sure is a nice lady! Look how many cookies she gave me Takashi!" Hunny exclaimed, hugging Usa-chan and smiling up at his taller friend.
"Ah."
"Well she sure is an interesting one. She should draw in some good business if she continues to spend time here." Kyoya added, writing more notes in that notebook.
"We didn't think so. Her fashion sense was really quirky. Does she even look…"
"WELL I THINK IT'S FABULOUS THAT MY CUTE DAUGHTER HAS SUCH A UNIQUE FRIEND THAT MAY FURTHER CUTIFY HER!" Tamaki couldn't help himself after awhile. He tries to attack Haruhi with a hug but she easily avoids and holds her head, sighing with frustration.
"You guys give me a headache. I'm going home… I'll see you Monday. Bye." Grabbing her bag, she strolls out just as Kori did a few minutes before.
Half way home, she sighs again. "I'm glad to see Korisca again but why do I get the feeling something bad is going to happen," she shrugs, "Oh well. Guess I'll find out Monday."