I couldn't believe it. I had to leave my friends and family in America to go to some school in Japan. Ouran High School. What a waste!
I should probably fill you in on some stuff so you're not too confused. My name's Hayze Cross.
Anyways, I have to move to Japan because apparently my parents got me some damn music scholarship there. I knew I was going for a music scholarship, I just didn't know that I'd be going all the way to Japan!
So here I am, on a plane to Japan. I'm going to live with my cousin who, incidentally, goes to the same school.
***
When I finally arrived I was greeted by my cousin, Fujioka Haruhi.
"Hayze!" she said, running up to me.
"Haruhi!" I yelled, mauling her with one of my famous tackle-hugs. (Whenever I'm excited to see someone I maul them with something that's a cross between a hug and a vicious tackle)
That was when I noticed them. The six boys standing behind her. This must be the infamous Host Club.
I could pick them out immediately just from the little Haruhi told me.
The twins, Hikaru and Kaoru. Hikaru was the one who was more up front and rough, while Kaoru was the rational mind of the two.
Tamaki, the blond idiot, a.k.a. King/dad.
Kyouya, the Shadow King/mom, real brains behind the club and evil lord.
Mori, the tall, silent character.
And of course...
My eyes fell upon the most wonderful person I'd ever met.
From the moment I looked into his big brown eyes I knew who he was and that I had to get to know him.
This was Honey, the boy who was so sweet, and evil when he woke up, and good at martial arts...
But that didn't even scratch the surface of this innocent little character.
Innocent my ass...
"Ah, the American Princess," Tamaki spoke, bowing, taking my hand, and holding out a rose. "What a pleasant surprise, my dear."
I couldn't take that. I burst out laughing, rather loudly, gaining looks from everyone in the airport.
Haruhi just rolled her eyes. She was used to this kind of thing from me, even though she only saw me every so often.
Tamaki just blinked. "What's so funny?"
"Tono, I think you broke her," Hikaru spoke, making Kaoru giggle.
"Sh-sh-shut up, Hi-Hikaru!" I said in between my laughter.
"How'd she...?"
"Wow, she really is Haruhi's cousin!"
These idiots were making me laugh so hard...
I took a few deep breaths and calmed myself down enough to say, inbetween my giggle fits, "I just find it easy enough to read people. All Haruhi told me was, well, not a lot, to be honest, and I don't even remember half of it."
Honey, though he tried to hide it, was staring at me reverently. I smiled at him.
"I can tell that you're... Honey-senpai?"
"Y--you can call me... Mit-Mitsukuni." he stuttered, earning stares of disbelief shot in his direction. As far as anyone knew, only Mori called him Mitsukuni. And nobody had ever seen him anything less than articulate, save the times he rambled cutely.
"And you can call me Hayze," I said, smiling at him. He smiled back and I said, "Would you mind showing me some cool places? I've only been to Japan like, twice to visit my dear cousin."
"Sure," Honey-I mean, Mitsukuni," said, gaining a little confidence.
Tamaki was about to say something, probably to suggest a place that we could all go to, when Haruhi subtly stepped on his foot, as if telling him that I meant just the three of us. Because I knew that Mori would more than likely come with us.
"Where would you like to go, Hayze?" he asked, smiling a little at the way it felt to say my name. I smiled too.
"Well, how about some stores? I got some cash from my parents and I wanted to spend it somewhere." I was never good with money.
"Okay," he said, regaining his bubbliness. "What kind of places do you like, or things do you like to buy?"
"Well," I said, "first we gotta stop at a bakery or candy store..." I gasped dramatically and jumped up and down squealing, "Or BOTH!"
"Do you like sweets?" he asked me excitedly.
"I love them! And Haruhi said you do too, which is perfect! But my parents never buy me any... something about being too hyper already after my minimum of seven morning coffees... which reminds me! Can we go get coffee?" I begged, putting on a puppy dog face.
"Okay!" he said. By now we had walked a safe distance away from the other hosts, besides Mori.
"Oh, you probably already know this, but this is Takashi," Honey said, gesturing to his big cousin.
I grinned and tackle-hugged Mori -er, Takashi. "Very pleased to meet you, Takashi." I said, grinning. Mitsukuni gave a little pout, and I said, "But of course! Why didn't I tackle my favorite host yet?" and tackle-hugged Mitsukuni.
We fell to the ground giggling and Takashi picked up Mitsukuni's bunny and handed it to him.
"This is Usa-chan!" Mitsukuni said, holding out his bunny towards me.
I looked at it for a brief second and then grinned widely and started giggling.
"What's so funny?" he asked, looking a bit downtrodden.
"Check it," I said, digging through the one bag I brought with me. I pulled out my stuffed puppy and held it out to him. "This is Kitten!"
"But it's a puppy..."
"Exactly!" I said, winking. "So, which way to the coffee, cake, and candy? My favorite three C's! (which I hope won't show up on my report card again)"
He cocked his head to the side a bit. "But didn't you get into Ouran on a scholarship?" he asked inquisitively.
"Music scholarship," I corrected. "Which is kind of pointless if I've left my band behind back in America..." I looked down at the ground and slowed, soon stopping altogether. I slumped against a lamp post and slid to the ground, thankful that there were no puddles where I was sitting.
Mitsukuni stopped and looked back at me. He whispered something to Takashi who said something back. Mitsukuni said something, it looked like he was explaining something and apologizing, and then Takashi nodded, said something else, and walked away.
I don't know how I noticed this, but I did. After that I just sort of let the tears fall. I could only let the false euphoria take hold of me for so long, because in reality I was hurting inside. Haruhi noticed this, because I usually only act that hyper when I'm depressed and trying to hide it from myself or genuinely excited. And she knew that it wasn't the latter of the two.
I felt small arms wrap around me comfortingly and I heard the question, "What's wrong?"
I looked up at him and smiled through my tears, something I'd become an expert at. But he wasn't falling for it.
I sighed. "It's just... I miss my friends. A lot." I looked up at him and decided to let it all spill out to someone who would - no doubt - listen. "Has Haruhi ever talked about me?"
"Well, she told us about how you were coming on a scholarship and that you were coming all the way from America and that you were different... really different. And I knew that I wanted to meet you, but I didn't know why."
"Did she ever tell you how unstable I really am?"
He shook his head.
I sighed. "Well, do you care?"
His eyes widened. "Of course! Why wouldn't I?"
I smiled. "Well then, maybe we should go sit somewhere comfortable. The street isn't really the best place for a long story."
He nodded and I got up. We went to a conveniently located coffee and cake shop and ordered.
"Well, I suppose I should start when it started. But I'm not really sure when that was. It all stemmed, I think, from feeling like I had to fit in. Like I had to make everyone happy. Of course, that's impossible, but I tried. Everyone knew that I was trying, though. If you didn't like the color green, neither did I when I was around you. I was a different person around everyone, losing myself in the process. I was about four years old when this started, I think. After a while I gave up because all this wasn't getting the acceptance I longed for. So I tried being myself. But by then it was too late. The damage had already been done, and there was no 'myself' to go back to being. So I became a parody of myself. And to make matters worse I was still the kid everyone hates for no reason. The calls of 'go kill yourself' became more abundant over the years, and the bullying got worse. After being pushed down the stairs and off the bus and swings several times and getting in trouble for self-defense so many times, I virtually snapped. Nobody cared about me, why should I care about them? so I became cold, indifferent, sadistic. And I became the person who sticks up for other people. I was the bully bully. That is to say, if I see someone being picked on the person doing the picking is gonna be in some deep shit. And I stopped caring about consequences and did all the wrong things for all the right reasons. I finally regained my sensitivity and self-control and even some sanity with the help of my friends, but the good of it didn't last long. After so many cries of 'go kill yourself and do us all a favor' from so many different people who didn't even know me, I snapped again, but in a different way than before. I mean, all my life people have been calling me names and spreading rumors about me and just plain giving me shit only from what they heard. And it all stemmed from one, two, or three people, and I know exactly who it was. They didn't like me so nobody else could. And after a while, I didn't care anymore. That's why I've tried so many times to kill myself. I've had a ton of suicide attempts, but my friends have saved me from that too. And sometimes the depression that I can't ever get rid of, the depression that's built up over the years, it gets to me. Sometimes I break down and cry, sometimes I try to ignore it, sometimes I talk to someone, sometimes I even consider trying again. And that's what happened back there. I'm sorry." I looked at him and smiled. "But it's funny. If I could go back in time and stop what happened, I wouldn't. Somehow, I think it's made me a better person. It's actually helped me find myself, the self I went without for all those years. People say I'm not myself anymore, but they're wrong. I am myself, just not who they thought I was. In a way I suppose you could say that I'm actually glad they did those things to me. Plus it taught me some lessons."
"What kind of lessons? Mitsukuni asked.
"First of all, it taught me a little self-defense. It also taught me that people can change and it's not necessarily a bad thing. But I think that the most important lesson I learned from all this was that if you're gonna do something don't get caught. Not to mention I learned exactly how not to get caught."
"Really?" he asked. I nodded. "How do you not get caught?"
"Well, if I look back on some of the things I've done in the heat of the moment without thought or things I've done when I was inexperienced or desperate I notice a lot of mistakes. One of my biggest mistakes was using the wrong 'R'." He looked at me questioningly and I said, "Retaliation, not revenge. Retaliation always gets you in trouble because everyone knows it's you. With revenge you can wait, not to mention the fact that unless you're open about being the one who did it, revenge can be completely anonymous. Plus, if you're someone like me, people know that you're gonna get them and you can make them squirm. I once gave someone my 'I'll get you for this' look and for the next five years they were on edge, never even sitting down or eating or sleeping or anything without checking for a full five minutes to be sure it's safe. They never went anywhere and the fear ate away at them. I saw this person five years later, having completely forgotten about my vendetta, and when I saw how edgy I made this person I finally ended it by throwing a water balloon in their locker. See, that kind of thing is what makes revenge so sweet. It doesn't always have to be physical, and the best kind is, in fact, psychological. Sometimes I hate how much of an expert I've become on this. But detention gets annoying after a while, as do the death threats, and I refuse to change to make others happy again."
When I finished the waitress came over with our cakes and coffees. I smiled and thanked her.
"So that's why you're so good at acting and figuring people out? You've got so much experience in that area?" he asked.
I nodded. "It's twisted. But that's life, I suppose. Now, come on. We can talk about this later if need be, but this is supposed to be a happy outing! Do you wanna go shopping? I'm not one of those girly-girls that makes shopping unbearable."
He looked at me for a little longer, then, realizing that that was the only response he would be getting at the moment, he smiled and nodded.
"Where to?"
"Let's finish all this first," I replied, gesturing to the shitload of cakes and coffee we ordered. Mitsukuni nodded and we devoured our snack (though it may be too big of a meal to be classified as such).
"So, where to?" he asked again.
"Let's go to the MALL!" I yelled. I jumped up and grabbed Kitten. "And just so you know, I'm not one of those girls who makes shopping absolutely unbearable. But I might make you try something on every now and then."
He frowned and I giggled. "What?" I asked innocently. "You're used to cosplay, aren't you?" This made him laugh and nod. He picked Usa-chan up and grinned at me. We then made our way over to the mall.