A/N: Bossa Nova and Mei are my secret otp omg guh.
Disclaimer: OHSHC belongs to Bisco Hatori!
"NO NO NO NO DON'T TOUCH THAT!"
Kasanoda jumped back at the screech, his face automatically grimacing in that way it did when he was embarrassed and surprised. "UH?!" he yells back, whipping around to see that really tan girl staring down at him with huge, burning eyes.
Too much make-up! He thought suddenly, and then his eyes widened in recognition.
"You're that psycho girl from the festival…!" he muttered at her, trying (rather unsuccessfully) to wipe the scowl off of his face that terrified everyone. Then again, the expression on her face was just as terrifying (if not more) than his.
"Psycho? You bet your ass," she huffed, still pointing threateningly at him. "Now back the hell away from my sewing machine."
Kasanoda blinked and then looked down at what he had just been about to poke at with interest. "Oh, uh, sorry."
"Geez, I come by to sew some costumes for the host club and all I get is a bunch of freaks staring at me," she muttered darkly, attaching a spool of dark thread to the top of the machine. Kasanoda watched, interested.
"They've been watching you?"
"From a safe distance," Mei told him scathingly. "One look from me and they all jumped five feet in the air."
Kasanoda blinked. "They—uh—I—I know what you mean," he ended up mumbling, because the shock of talking to someone who had gone through the same thing as him was… wonderful. In an odd sort of way.
"Geez, you rich people are all bizarre," she sighed aloud before settling down in the chair at the long table that Kasanoda had seen several of the host club members set up several days ago.
"Do you just come here after school then?" he asked, sliding silently into one of the chairs that lined the table… for some reason. On the table itself were piles of cloth, patterned and silk and cotton, some plain, some so bright it hurt to look at. Rolls of measuring tape flopped between the islands of cloth, and bits of shirts were cut out all over. Buttons and needles and thread were lying helter-skelter on the table's surface, and something like a pattern lay at the far end.
"Yea." The quiet snipping of the sewing machine began, a rhythmic sort of hum that Kasanoda watched in an amused way. The needle was going lightning fast. "What're you doing here?" she asked suddenly. "The host club isn't around."
"Oh, I, uh, I know." He was blushing. He hadn't known. Kasanoda had been hoping to talk to Haruhi for a few minutes about her maybe visiting the gardening club one afternoon so she could see all of the plants he had nurtured into life… but he could save that for another day.
"They're on some ridiculous expedition, probably to a gas station or something." There was no mistaking the quiet sulking in her voice, and Kasanoda wondered briefly what had happened. But then it was gone, and he didn't remember even thinking it. Because honestly… Kasanoda was not really the perceptive type.
"Huh?" he asked. Kasanoda didn't really know about the host club and their weird adventures. Mei sighed heavily, the piece of cloth sliding steadily through the sewing machine. Her heavily outlined eyes flickered up to Kasanoda, who started back at her intense gaze. Her eyes went back to the sewing.
"Who're you, anyway?" she asked, not in the most polite manner.
"Er… Kasanoda Ritsu. I'm a—friend of Haruhi's." She didn't recognize him. Hm. It bothered him.
Mei's sewing slowed down for a brief second, but then sped up again. "Ah, is that so…"
"You're… Mei, right?" Kasanoda asked, trying to remember what they had told him during the festival. "Mei…"
The sewing abruptly stopped. "Who d'you think you are to call me just Mei?" she screeched at him. Kasanoda jumped.
"I just forgot your last name! Geez!" And the two glared at each other with the most terrifying expressions imaginable… good thing no one was there to see it.
"Fine." She sat back down. The sewing started up again.
"… So? What is it?" Kasanoda asked. "Your last name?"
She was silent. "Mei is fine," she muttered gruffly.
"Fine," Kasanoda snapped back, and the two stewed in a weird silence for several minutes. Kasanoda didn't know what the girl's problem was. Why did she have to match his angry expression? It unnerved him. He cast a nervous glance over at her, but her face was so intent on her sewing that he couldn't read her.
"What do you think of the school?" he asked randomly, because Mei came from Haruhi's world and it would be nice to get a view on it that wasn't totally apathetic (Haruhi was still cute, obviously, but sometimes…).
"It's too big. The hallways are carpeted in some places!" She shook her head in shock. "The girls are wearing massive dresses as a uniform, and there's like five thousand rooms and five buildings and a massive fountain… It's almost too fancy."
And Kasanoda completely understood. His first day at Ouran had been quite the shock. He was used to a certain level of society, but the sudden change had been so drastic and so… refined that he hadn't quite figured out what to do with himself.
Still hadn't, in fact.
"Are they paying you for this?"
Mei snorted. "As if. They're as miserly as they are filthy rich. I just offered to 'cause I love sewing." And it's really the only calm statement that had come out of her mouth so far: I love sewing.
"I love animals," Kasanoda blurted out, and his face was probably glowing it was so crimson. He wondered if she was going to make a comment on his horrible expression or something.
But instead he saw her smile. "That's cool," she told him, and then went back to sewing quietly.
He stared at her.
And never really stopped.