Just so it's clear, it's a yaoi/BL story...The rating might change later. And cause I hate when the main characters have that moment where they struggle with their sexuality (I get it but I was fortunate enough to grow up thinking that it doesn't matter what gender the person is, if you love them, that's all there is to it.) so the main characters are very open about their homosexuality. Writing this cause Kasanoda needs some love. He's adorable. Anyway, enjoy.
Word spreads really fast at schools like Ouran so it was no surprise that everyone knew about the new third year student by lunchtime. And even if it weren't for how fast rumors and info got around, they's still probably know. After all, the guy had a sort of...presence about him that made him near impossible to ignore. And even if it weren't for that, he was pretty...pretty.
He had looks that got him attention no matter what, even from the guys. Not that he minded though, seeing how he relied on being attractive at his job.
Sighing, Akiyama Itsuki listened to his new classmates go on and on, asking him every question they could think of. "Yeah, my mom is American but I was pretty much raised in a traditional Japanese home until I was twelve." He replied to a question with a tiny smile. "She's a dance instructor so it's more of a studio now."
"Did you really transfer in from an all-boys school?" One of the girls asked shyly, a bit afraid to approach him due to his natural beauty. She was surprised by the smile on his lips when he nodded and the boys laughed, not noticing that the smile wasn't a fake one, made as a friendly gesture, but a more devious real one. Like he was planing something...
"I feel sorry for you! I mean, I know a guy with a dad as big a deal as yours probably has a fiance but still, not a single chance to date or anything..." One of the guys patted Itsuki on the shoulder, though the new third year didn't welcome the gesture or the contact involved. "I mean, how are you supposed to find someone you like when you're surrounded by boys everyday?
The laugh was what made heads turn. "I didn't have a problem with that, you know. I got asked out almost every day." The guys froze for a moment and tried to laugh it off as a joke. "See, there were quite a few there who had...similar preferences at my school. And of course I turned most of them down. But I ended up as the school idol anyhow..."
"Huh...?" One of the guys was clearly uncomfortable but tried not to be rude. "You turned down most of them...?" Itsuki flashed him a mischievous grin and shrugged.
"Some of them were really sweet, shy...Sorta my type. Though I prefer them to be the opposite of how they look. It's surprisingly hard to find a guy like that!" Itsuki winked at the girl whose face was bright red and her eyes sparkling with interest. "I was actually hoping to get kicked out of there though. Too many chances to run into ex-boyfriends, you know?"
The already uncomfortable boy backed up just a tad bit but the dark haired new student noticed it. "Hey, Akiyama...Are you, I mean...You say you've dated boys. Does that mean you're..."
"Yup. I'm gay as hell."
With Itsuki's blunt confession, his reputation of the new gay third year was secured. While he didn't really care what anybody thought of him or if they knew he was gay or not, it did irk him a little how many people in the school were going to treat him differently that usual because he wasn't 'normal'.
"Really, their idea of normal is a bit odd anyhow...I don't see how me being a homo is gonna screw that up." He ran his long fingers through the mess of black hair that he could never seem to tame."Oh, it might be time to get it trimmed..." He commented to nobody in particular as he tugged on the ends of his short bangs. "I'll ask Kazue-nee later." He wandered aimlessly after classes before it hit him-The host club.
He'd heard them talking about it, how hot the guys were, how charming they acted, and just how beautiful their setups were in general. Maybe its worth a shot, he thought. Even if I don't find the type of guy I like, it'd be nice to have a boyfriend, I guess. 'Sides, in manga it's always when the normal kid goes to the fancy club that she meets her destined love or whatever.
"To the host club it is, then." He decided with little enthusiasm. He already doubted he'd meet a guy who he'd really be interested in there. After all, my type's a bit weird, I guess.
Akiyama Izuki's first impression of the host club: What the actual hell?
He recognized two other students from his classes: Morinozuka Takashi and the silent giant's constant companion, Haninozuka Mitsukuni but the others were just strangers to him.
There were a pair of identical twins, obviously surprised about his gender, that he mentally filed under "pretty damn cute" but didn't have a serious interest in. Then there was the small, pretty, girlish guy with chocolate brown hair and eyes who he mentally labeled "Tsubasa's type."The guy in the glasses was hot but looked to cool and collected for his tastes and as for the taller blond...Itsuki didn't like having a random guy all up in his space like that, no matter how beautiful they were.
"Dude, back up." He said sharply to the fascinated blonde who was saying too many weird things for him to keep up with. "From the rumors, I'm guessing you're Tamaki Suoh. And the one making notes is Kyouya. Girly-boy there is Haruhi and twins are Hikaru and Kaoru, right? Process of elimination."
He'd heard about the twins. Tricksters who had their own small world and were sorta but not really in love with each other. It was obviously an act and even their fans knew it but why spoil a dream with reality, right? Or that's what he heard from their fans at least...
All that was left after that was assigning names to the remaining three. From the way he acted, the tall blonde's name was obvious. Since was the most popular in the club, information about Tamaki was easy to find.
Gentlemanly, beautiful, flirty, and gets easily carried away. I dunno about the gentlemanly or flirty but he's everything they said he'd be.Itsuki though, a bit irritated. He's like that guy in the American show my sister likes...The one in the brown trench coat! The one who has no idea what personal space is!
That left the girly boy and the cool looking guy with the notebook. Let's see...Kyouya was supposed to be cool and smart so...Not the guy Tsubasa'd like. Though, honestly, Tsubasa'd go for almost anyone so long as they had a nice face, the shallow jerk. "Whoa, I'm a bit of a hypocrite..." He muttered under his breath.
"Hello, Aki-chan~!" Hani smiled and called cheerily. His constant companion nodded. Though the adorable creature brought a smile to his face he still felt the need to correct him.
"Actually, Aki's my sister's name." He said politely. "My fourth sister, in fact. She's in middle school so you'll probably never meet her. But still, just in case, it can get confusing. Since we're classmates, you two can call me Itsuki. Anyway, this is the host club right? And we're still in an otherwise unused music room...So what's up with the, er...decorating?"
Ignoring the question, Tamaki started talking again, waving his arms around dramatically. "Beauty attracts beauty! It seems like only fate that the new student, whose beauty is the talk of rumors all around the school should come to see us! The tragic beauty of a large family!" Itsuki resisted the urge to punch him and put him out of commission for a few days and instead asked him calmly.
"What do you mean, tragic?" Itsuki raised an eyebrow. When Tamaki just gave him a "you know" look, the third year snapped a little inside. "Hey, dumbass blonde. What do you mean, tragic? There isn't anything tragic about my family aside from the fact that my mom's decided to have even more children after I turned out the way I did."
"You mean being gay?" The twins piped up. Itsuki tried to ignore them but the smug look on their faces when they realized it was actually bothering him ticked him off a little too much.
"What's wrong with me being gay? It's never bothered my mom or my father. my sisters don't mind. The guys I date certainly don't mind and neither does my best friend. So what's wrong with being gay?" Though irritated, he spoke calmly. "It's not really a big deal. So I don't see why all of you care so much."
"Rather than your sexual orientation," The glasses guy finally spoke up, "I think what Tamaki is talking about is your father's recent business trouble."
"Oh, the inn..." Itsuki sighed. "Everybody keeps calling it a failure cause he sold it for much less than it was worth but he only gave it back to the people it belonged to before him." Girls had already swarmed up to the club entrance but stopped to whisper and talk about how the new guy went straight to the Host Club after classes. He quickly stepped aside with a smile, happy to do anything to get away from further conversations with the chairman's son.
He decided to watch instead as the club started their activities having drinks in the indoor tropical garden. The whole time, a lot of girls kept their eyes on him, hoping for some sort of BL development.
(Itsuki's POV)
Watching turned out to be really boring.
The girls seemed to take delight from my presence at the club, hoping for something straight out of a BL manga to happen. I observed them closely...and realized that none of them were doing this all that seriously. They were just having fun.
Mori does pretty much nothing besides sit there looking attractive while Hani looks (and is) adorable, the twins flirt, Tamaki says a bunch of weird nonsense to people who eat it right up, Kyouya sells stuff and acts like a con man, while the small first year just chats with the girls and make them swoon without doing anything.
I was about to leave, just call Tsubasa or my driver or whoever to pick me up when someone walked into me. He tried to apologize almost shyly and I noticed he was holding bag of vegetables. "No it's my ba-" I froze when I saw his flushed face. He was obviously excited or he was meeting the person he liked cause he barely seemed to notice me.
"F-Fujioka!" He stuttered slightly and rushed up to the pretty boy. He was covered with dirt but his shoes were clean so he didn't cause a mess. His red hair was pulled away from his face except for his bangs, a long lock falling right across his face. Though he looked like he was the type who naturally glares without trying, he didn't seem all that bad.
The girls seemed excited to see him talking to the Fujioka guy and I knew right away that he really did like him. He was sorta obvious...But that didn't stop me from becoming extremely interested in him. "Who the heck...?" I wondered, not taking my eyes off him.
"Thank you Kasanoda-kun!" I heard the first year say. Kasanoda, Kasanoda, Kasanoda...I repeated it over and over in my head so I wouldn't forget the name. "I guess your club is going well!" He also said. Gardening club? Agricultural club? I wondered.
"Y-yeah. I just rushed over to give you these cause they turned out really well." Kasanoda said bashfully. He's shy too, huh? I smiled. Sometimes guys in love could be so cute!
"It's really nice to have great friends, huh?" I felt my phone slip through my fingers but I luckily caught it before it fell and broke. I looked back up to see how that Kasanoda guy took being friend-zoned. To my surprise neither he nor the ones around him looked shocked. They gave him sympathetic smiles and Kasanoda himself almost smiled. I felt my heart ache at the sight, knowing a bit of how that felt.
Still, does that Fujioka boy even have the slightest idea that the guy loves him or not? It didn't seem intentional.The red head was about to leave so I quickly blocked his way and put on an innocent look. This guy seems kinda cute...I want to see more of him.
"Excuse me...I'm sorry for getting in your way. I'm new you see so I'm sorta lost. Since you're on your way out, I was wondering if you could help me?" I gave him a sweet, innocent smile he seemed to think was real.
"I-I'm on my way back to my club but okay!" He stuttered nervously, his cheeks turning a bit pink, probably because he was talking to a stranger. "I'm first year, Kasanoda Ritsu."
"Akiyama. I'm a third year. Do you mind if I call my friend real quick? I want to make sure he meets me out at the gates." He shook his head, looking a bit confused. I dialed Tsubasa's number and while I waited for him to pick up, I wandered slightly from my "guide's" side so he wouldn't hear me if I talked soft enough. "Hey beautiful." I laughed when he answered, groaning sleepily.
"Shut up. I'm trying to sleep! My head's killing me! Why aren't you hung over?" I laughed again. Getting Tsubasa drunk was worth dealing with him being ticked off at me the next day. Nothing in the world is quite as funny as him trying to perform any of Shakespeare's monologues while struggling to stand up straight. "Are you completely sure you're human?!"
"I left the aspirin on your nightstand before I left last night. Next to your sketchbook. Plus, coffee's set up. Just hit start and wait a minute or two and you'll have fresh coffee. I used the expensive stuff cause I knew you'd be feeling like crap." I told him with a smile.
"You're not human. You're an angel." His adorable yawn only made me smile wider."What do you want anyway?"
"Pick me up?" I asked sweetly. "Remember you love coffee. I made you coffee so you should love me too. So pick me up? Cause you love me."
"Bridal style or piggyback?" I could almost hear his grin over the phone. "Give me fifteen minutes and I'll be there. No complaining about my clothes or I'll throw you out while the car's moving."
"As long as you're wearing clothes, I don't care which sweatpants you wear. Just wear a shirt with it, please. And don't worry. There's not exactly a rush."
"Good first day?" I bit my lip to keep myself from smirking.
"Maybe it's about to be." I hung up on him before he could ask for details and turned back to Kasanoda. "Sorry 'bout that. He's not feeling that great but he'll be waiting for me by the time I find my way back to the front gate." I laughed and gave him my cutest smile.
He mumbled something as we started to walk together. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye, wishing I knew a bit more about him.
"Do you go to the host club often?" I decided to ask just to start a conversation. He nodded. "Cause of Fujioka?"
"We're friends so I sometimes go to just talk and stuff." His face was already starting to turn slightly pink at the mention of the one he liked.
"Even though you're in love with him?" I smiled sweetly. "And don't ask me how I know or if I have a problem with it. You're obvious, from the way your cheeks turn pink when you look at him to the way you rushed up here to give him veggies you grew. You could've waited til tomorrow, right? But you just raced to the club with dirt all over you! It's kinda cute really."
His face was almost as red as his hair. "And just so you know, I'm not going to give you the whole 'gay is sin' crap cause I don't feel the need to save you from yourself to make myself feel better about myself. 'Sides, I'm not that much of a hypocrite."
He froze halfway down the last staircase when my words finally sunk in. "Huh?! I'm not gay!" He sounded a little angry and his 'huh' was weirdly intimidating but I kept smiling.
"I am." I laughed first at the fact that he thought he was straight then at the look on his face. It must have been quite a scene to the onlookers. After all, the new gay kid walks to the front gate with a random first year, makes the younger guy turn bright red, then falls over himself with laughter, actually clutching his stomach as he laughed...Can't wait to hear what they have to say about me tomorrow.
"But it doesn't really matter, huh? You just love who you love." I said seriously after wiping my tears of laughter away and regaining the ability to breathe properly. "Even if they're not good for you and even if it doesn't make much sense. Love sure is a pain, don't you think?"
"I-I don't think Fujioka's bad for me..." He muttered quietly. He seemed really uncomfortable with the subject. I watched the window as he talked, seeing Tsubasa's sleek black car pull up to the front as he made faces at me through the driver seat window. "And it makes sense! Sh-He was one of my first friends! One of the first people who could talk normally with me." I saw his reflection in the glass and quickly turned, just fast enough to get to see his real smile.
"You really do love him..." I muttered. "And you got turned down? Friend-zoned? Did you even confess?" Ah, his eyes darted away on the last two. Ouch...Poor guy."Oh...Sorry. Must really suck...But you know, after talking to you and all, I don't think Fujioka's all that smart, honor student or not."
Before he could get ticked off at me for insulting the person he loved, I leaned forward and kissed him softly on the cheek. I stayed close to him as I spoke.
"First of all, your feelings are an open book to even a stranger. Second of all..." I smiled and finally pulled away, leaning back slightly on the heels of my feet. "I wouldn't friend-zone someone with such a cute smile." My smile changed a bit into a grin. "Bye-bye, Kasanoda Ritsu."
His face flushed and I winked before turning around and waving my hand lazily both as a hello to Tsubasa and a goodbye to Kasanoda. Not only did it look cool, that way the boy I had a mild interest in couldn't see me making stupid and possibly inappropriate faces right back to my best friend.
But hey, what's the point of having a bestie if you can't be a kid with them once and a while? (Well, in our cases, it was being an adult once in a while but there's no way I could act this way with anyone else.)
I got into the seat next to him and closed the door. Still sticking out his tongue, he turned to me and I rolled my eyes while grinning. "Good first day?" He asked when he put his tongue back in his mouth and stopped making faces.
"Maybe. It depends on how tomorrow plays out." I bit back laughter when he raised his eyebrows with a look that I'd come to learn over the years. That's how he looked at me when there was any sort of romantic development in my life, no matter how small or meaningless, and he wanted ALL the details. "First year."
"Redhead." Tsubasa commented. "Is it natural or dyed?" I felt like he was about to start talking about how unnatural and strange Kasanoda's hair looked which I found a bit funny since nobody does half as many weird things with their hair as my best friend.
Actually, about a month ago, he dyed his hair back to its natural black before turning almost all of it, except his bangs, white as snow. It actually looks sorta good with his light blue eyes which are pretty much the only thing he seemed to have inherited from his mother who was half American.
"It attracts attention and he's sorta shy so I'd say natural. He looks tough but his smile is pretty cute."
"So he's your target?" Tsubasa handed me his phone which he used to take several photos of me talking to the boy.
"Target spotted." I replied with a smile and a nod, slightly happy I transferred after all.