Oreki awoke from his slumber. At 6 am in the morning. With a girl in his bed looking straight at him.
"Good morning Houtarou. Its time to wake up!"
"Aneki...five minutes more..."
"In ten minutes he was down for breakfast. Mindlessly eating his bread, sipping his coffee. He could have stayed this way if not for...
"So whats you're answer to Eru chan?"
Spitting out his food, he furiously checks his pocket. As he thought she took it.
"Looking for this? Its not nice to steal someones diary you knooow!"
"I didn't steal it...she..."
"Dropped it outside the clubroom where you walked by on your way home alone and saw it, prompting you to pick it up and read through only to find that it belonged to Eru chan and that it was a diary in which she wrote down her pure, girly feelings for you, after which..."
"Okay okay okay yes...Sometimes I wonder if you actually were spying on me. You are correct, down to the last detail."
"Elementary my dear little brother. If it were dropped in the clubroom, you would have figured it belonged to one of the girls in the clubroom. Yesterday was Friday and you said before that one of the girls, Ibara chan was it, was on library duty. That leaves only the other girl which would be easy for you to figure out. The very fact that you had the guts to read through the diary meant you didn't know who it belonged to, implying that it was found outside the clubroom." she explained.
"Go on." Oreki says.
"Well then the fact that Satoshi didn't call. He is like, your only guy friend right?"
"I suppose..."
"If he was with you he would have called last night...plus you came home slightly flustered last night and skipped dinner, prompting me to go sneaky ninja style in your room while you slept to find the cause of my poor little brothers suffering." she says matter of factly, puffing her chest out like she was proud that she could find something to play around with. Too bad her definition of play was synonymous to teasing on the verge of bullying.
He wishes he could argue but it was too tiring. Such is the life of an advocate of energy conservation on the weekends. Of course his 'grown up' sis had to ruin that too. After lunch, he was going to 'take a nap' he said. Next second he was on the floor, cringing in pain from her arm lock.
"What kind of man are you?" she yelled "Take responsibility and return that diary to her now you hear me? Especially now that you have read it!" literally throwing him out and slamming the door. With no choice left, he makes his way to her house. Oreki Houtarou, he thought, was never meant to fall in love, but he could never forget the feeling he had when he read that one line in her diary...
Oreki walks into the clubroom and sits in his usual seat. Satoshi was already there, discussing random facts of life stored in his database to the ever angelic and curious Chitanda Eru.
"Ah..Here Oreki san, have some snacks." she says as he sits down.
"Thanks."
Opening his book, he hopes the peace would continue all day. Write book report, eat nice food, auto set to low energy expenditure mode, go home. The ideal day. Now if only Ms. Chitanda...
Oreki san, I'm curious!"
"...Eru weren't curious about something.
"Sighing, he looks up. She was literally bouncing in excitement.
"What is it?"
"Um Oreki san, did you hear that...?
"Not really."
"I haven't finished yet!" she says leaning in close "Oreki san, I'm curious. Did you hear that there was a ghost spotted yesterday at the main staircase? They said that they saw a girl walking near the main staircase and that she suddenly disappeared! They searched for her but she was nowhere to be found! How did she disappear? Where did she go to? Is there such things as ghost and if not how did she do what she did?"
Her eyes are glowing and he swore, there was a halo on her head just then, a force pushing him forwards...
She blushes. Hard. He realises that they are only centimetres apart. They realise the situation they are in.
""I..I don't think I can help you if you don't give me information you know..."
"But Oreki san...you solved that mystery of the fake money with nothing but a newspaper clipping and an announcement..." she pouts.
He gives up. Satoshi smirks, no he is smiling and trying his hardest not to laugh. He sighs in defeat and gives a small nod of approval to the angel sitting beside him, but first he must find a way to kill an annoying witness somehow without her noticing...
"...and that is how she disappeared. End of deduction..." he sighs, somehow he feels like he was enjoying this too much...even if he did have to walk over to the music room, then to the staff room and back again just to prove his theory. Chitanda must really be messing with his head. Looking down, he sees her wide iridescent eyes of purple wonder of his yet again 'amazing deductive skills' as she calls it, he disagrees with her thoroughly, attributing it all to luck instead. Still, he thought she looked a little cute...what?
Noticing his blush, Satoshi smirks yet again. "Houtarou, enjoying the enticing the look she is giving you?" and he is dead. Needless to say both Chitanda and Oreki were as red as tomatoes...especially Chitanda, though she tried to hide it.
Half an hour goes by and Chitanda has left for home. Family obligations she calls it.
"Houtarou, you liiiike her don't you..."
"Shut up. I don't."
"Don't even bother lying Houtarou. Geez your love life will never move on if your always in denial you know!"
"Like you're one to talk."
"Hey I'm dating Mayaka now Houtarou. Geez keep up to date won't you?"
"And Oreki Houtarou keeps quiet. Satoshi does have point.
"Satoshi was off to the library to 'play with his darling' he said after he was done harassing him on his 'love life'. Now he was alone. 'A teenage boy alone in the clubroom, his head fills with fantasies...' he reads, slowly his mind drifts off from the book, off into Chitanda land it would seem. Soon his fantasies were getting more intense, what with bunny outfits and cheerleader costumes...
"I'M GOING HOME!" he shouts to literally no one as he tries to puts his book and pen down. Grabbing his bag, he runs down the stairs and out the front door. He would have continued if not for a small and rather girly pink book lying on the floor.
"Did someone lose this?" he thinks out loud. Shrugging, he opens it up, and reads as he walks home.
Dear diary, over these past few weeks I have been getting this feeling...this fluffy like feeling when I'm around him. Sometimes I get nervous that I stumble on my words. Just thinking about him sends mind my, I mean my mind out in disarry. Ohhhh what is happening?'
'Someones diary huh' he thinks 'and a girl in love too, interesting.' flipping the page, he reads the next entry as he walks.
'Dear diary, today I was with him again for a shrine visit. And imagine this, I got locked up with him in a shack. I was so nervous. We needed to get out and he soon had a solution as always but, he asked for some string and I...Ohhh we had none so I offered the obi string to him. I was almost this close to showing off myself, I wonder if I had become a bad girl. Anyway he remembered...'
Houtarou could not help but grow a little suspicious at that point. In retrospect, he was glad he read that diary, but at the moment, he could not help but freak out at what he read next.
'...I think I like him. I think I am in love with Oreki san...'
'Okay now something is definitely wrong here.' Checking the front page of the book, it was written with that familiar dainty handwriting that he has come to recognise.
'Property of Chitanda Eru'
'Oh shit' was all he could think of.
Houtarou walked in the house, just wishing that his sister would not have her...
""Oh Houtarou! You seem a little red, you sick?"
...impeccable timing as always.
"N...No I'm fine." He says, stuffing the book in his pocket before running up to his room.
Tomoe felt like she struck gold, her dear brother hid something and actually strongemran/em/strong up the stairs. MUST FIND OUT HIS SECRET! NINJA TOMOE ACTIVATED!
Elsewhere, a certain raven-haired girl worries over a lost book. She looks to the sky, hoping that everything will work out. Little does she know, the gods have heard her wish.
Oreki thinks on the way to her house. Thinking harder than ever, harder than the fake money mystery, the Sekitani Jun mystery. He thinks harder tha- oh look, he was at her house already. And here he was, Alone and Palely Loitering. Keats sure had a wonderful way of poetically describing his current predicament. He knocks on the door, expecting someone else to answer, perhaps her father, anyone so he won't have to face her alo- "Hello Oreki san, what brings you here?" -ne. Well...so much for that.
"Erm sorry for suddenly intruding but..."
"But...?" she says tilting her head. Cutely. Daintily. Beautifull-STOP IT!
"Uh...co...could I come in?" he stammers ungracefully "I have some things I want to talk with you about..."
"Of course..." she lets him in.
The house was as big as always, though a little quiet. Chitanda had other problems to deal with, one being her diary. She really hopes she didn't lose it, she would prefer the secrets she wrote in there remain secret after all.
"Where are your parents?"
"Oh they are out visiting a family friend today, they won't be back for a while."
"I see..."
She brews a pot of tea and takes out some snacks, calming her beating heart, she makes her way towards him. "You look a little distressed," he says "are you alright?"
"Oh..yes..well I seemed to have replaced my d...something important you see...What did you want to talk about?"
"Well you see...yesterday, I..I found...a..." he starts, trailing off at the end. "A?" I prompt.
"A diary..." he finishes. I felt a little nervous but I simply look at him.
"Y...Your diary..." he whispers. 'Oh dear."
"A...and?"
"...A...and I read through it."
'Oh dear'
"..."
"...Chitanda?"
She was on the floor...unconscious. And here he was, a teenage boy with a very pretty and very unconscious girl all alone with nobody around...nobody...no-OH SHUT THE HELL UP!
I awoke to the sound of birds. The golden glow of the late afternoon sky decorated the living room wall. She must have slept for quite some time she muses.
"You okay?" I sat up in shock, looking for the source of the voice.
"You okay Chitanda?" Oreki san says to my right.
"Yeah..." nodding, I look around. "What happened?" famous last words...I saw my diary. I remember everything. Oh dear.
"Oh...How much... of it...did you read?"
"Enough..." he blushes.
I couldn't look at him. I can't not when I'm so embarrassed. I feel myself burning.
"I'm curious..." Those were not spoken by me, but surprisingly by him "do you really like me?"
"Y..Yes" I say, causing him to nervously fidget about. "I like you Oreki san, please...g..go out..." before I could finish, he leaned forward.
'Your love life will never move on if your always in denial you know!' /emhe recalls those words his friend says. Fine then, you win Satoshi. He leans forward, his left hand holding her head, his right cupping her face. He kisses her, softly. And her soft lips kisses back. Her hands mirror his and they hold each other in an intimate and tender embrace. She didn't need a verbal answer from him, not anymore.
"Does this mean...that we are...official?" She asks rather shyly.
"I guess so..."
"Now what?" we said almost simultaneously, and we laughed.
"I guess now we go on a date...Houtarou kun," She shyly looks at him with iridescent eyes "I'm curious where you will take me." I sigh.
"...Anything for you...Eru." and we kissed again.
""..."
"..."
"Eru..."
"Eru chan..."
"Who is this scruffy looking boy!?"
"Who is this fine handsome young man?"
"Now this was a big problem. Houtarou sends a quick message to Tomoe.
'Aneki. Might be late. Start dinner without me.'
Mayaka and Satoshi are not surprised. Neither are Houtarou and Eru.
"Chi chan what are you doing here?"
"Mayaka, well you see...me and Houtarou kun are..."
"Houtarou kun?" grins Satoshi "That must mean you guys are going out right?"
A blush was the only answer. An angry glare was the reply, from the brown haired girl to the tall dark haired boy, a glare that would haunt him for the rest of his miserable sluggish life. He could almost see the telepathic message she was sending him, in fact he could almost see her writing it now.
To : garden_slug at enconserv . com (Oreki Houtarou)
cc: chitanda_L at angelic . com (Chi chan), fake_human at saturn . com (Fuku chan)
Subject: Murder
From: cosplaying_shorty at washboard . com (Ibara Mayaka)
you will regret this garden slug
"It seems like everyone got the message. Laughing nervously on her right while trying to calm her down was the Fukube Satoshi, and on her left was the giggling Chitanda Eru.
Elsewhere, Tomoe was on the phone with a very angry father on the other side of the line.
"He was in my damn house with my daughter k...k...ki..." the phone was then filled with gurgling noises along with 'Calm down dear!'
"Well its alright no?" she replies with a Cheshire grin on her face "They're perfect for each other!"
"Bu...Bu Bu Bu But she is my daughter! I won't let any filthy guy touch her! She will live in my house forever! Take care of me forever and die with me! I won't le..." he couldn't finish that sentence. A loud thunk followed by a slump accompanied his words.
"Sorry about that Tomoe chan...Send my regards to Houtarou kun for me okay?"
"Sure thing!" She hung up. Oh will she tease him for life when he comes back. First off, one must set the stage. Sending a message, it read.
'Alright Houtarou. Don't stay out too late. Also, Eru's parents says she can stay over tonight. I won't take no for an answer! Bye'
Now I need the props master...'Hey Dad! Houtarou's bringing his girlfriend for dinner. Don't be late!'
Now let the director of this romance finish her job. Oh she is going to have so much fun she thinks as her mischievous grin grows ever so wider.