It was supposed to be the best day of her life back then. When he had asked her to be his girlfriend, right? All the foreign drama had been over with.
"Hey Misa-chan, did you hear?" Satsuki huddled her over.
"Nani?" Misaki tilted her head in a cute manner but nevertheless joined the thirty year old otaku in her daily musings over a gossip magazine.
"Igarashi-san had called off his engagement to a very pretty woman," Satsuki pointed to a picture of a frail yet beautiful lady in a kimono.
"Yeah, if I think about it I might have seen her face somewhere else," Misaki tapped her chin, "Her name was…"
"Oh please tell me you know her name," Satsuki pouted at the raven haired girl's obliviousness.
Misaki stayed quiet and the manager sighed and slapped her forehead in exasperation.
"Chiyo," Satsuki sighed, "That was her name."
"Pretty name," Misaki smiled, "She seems nice. I don't know why that brat doesn't like her."
"Don't call him a brat or else our lives might be in danger!" Satsuki looked around for a hidden camera that might have been placed. She was still scarred from the visit by Maki and Igarashi.
"Satsuki san I highly doubt they are going to buy this place. They said so, all right?" Misaki laughed as she helped calm down the manager's nerves.
"Well," Satsuki drawled off her word as the room was filled with the noise of a paper flipping every now and then, "It says the reason he dissolved the engagement was because he felt she was clingy. Like she didn't understand him enough."
Misaki gnashed her teeth and put the broom she had in her hand down.
"That guy makes me sick every time I see him," Misaki growled, "Thinking he could just mess around with women's feelings."
Satsuki weakly smiled but changed the subject. She noticed that one less person was there that day. Looking around, she noticed Usui wasn't in the kitchen like always.
"Hey, Misa-chan," Satsuki asked.
"Nani?" Misaki asked.
"Where's your boyfriend? Lately he has not been showing up, like he is losing interest," Satsuki sighed.
Misaki was at a loss of words. Lately she and Takumi had been drifting apart. She was becoming boring to him. Her edgy flare that never ceased to interest him had diminished whenever she was with him. In some ways, he saw her gentleness and kindness towards him as a lovey dovey attitude other girls had towards him in Seika High.
He never had once thought that Misaki had truly loved him, that's why she was acting so different.
"Misaki-chan?" Satsuki tilted her head in confusion at Misaki's lack of attention.
Misaki snapped out of her thoughts. She laughed nervously. She shouldn't know.
"I don't know, Satsuki-san! Mou, asking me all these questions!" Misaki tried her best to shoot a teasing grin, but it came out slightly strained, a small detail that didn't go unnoticed by Satsuki.
"Misaki…"
A bell was heard from the front and Misaki put 110% of her attention on it in order to wash off the awkwardness of the question.
"Look! A customer!"
However, Misaki's enthusiasm was short lived when she saw exactly who was here.
"Look at who's happy at my arrival."
Satsuki fainted, Subaru, Erika, Honoka turned into stone sculptures, Aoi froze and Misaki glared.
"What do you want?" Misaki spat.
"Why to see my favorite maid, of course," Tora twirled a lock of Misaki's raven hair in between two fingers, much to her disgust.
There were a thousand things Misaki wanted to hurl at his pathetic face, but she had to hold it in. He could tear down Maid Latte with one phone call if he wished to do so.
"Welcome Master, which table would you like?" Misaki forced a sparkly smile on her face.
"A window seat of course," Tora smirked.
"Follow me this way, master."
Satsuki watched with a contented sigh as she watched the two force kindness in the air. Misaki never had this much fun with Takumi, even before he asked her out.
"I wonder if he will be the one for her?" Satsuki whispered before whisking off into her moe moe rantings.
-x-
"Thank you so much for your work!" Satsuki shouted as she held Aoi in her arms as Misaki in her boyish attire walked out of the café back entrance, making Aoi want to grab her in here and do a feminine makeover.
Misaki sighed as the happiness of the café left her surroundings. Misaki took her phone out of her bag and flipped it open.
"No new messages," Misaki sighed, "No missed calls and no voicemail."
"What are you talking about?" A too familiar voice popped out from nowhere in Misaki's view.
"Igarashi kaichou, don't you have something better to do than scaring me out of nowhere?" Misaki glared at the smirking president coming out of one of the bushes.
"But you are too interesting," Tora grinned, "And yeah I have nothing better to do."
"Then why don't you go home?" An irritated twitch mark appeared on Misaki's head.
"Why would I? It's boring," Tora pouted so out of character, exposing his tiger fangs, "You are so fun to be with."
"I am going to have one hell of a walk to and from Maid Latte," Misaki sobbed in self-pity as she tried to out walk Tora, to no luck.
"So where's your boyfriend? Didn't see him lately," Tora said, knowing he struck a nerve.
And why wouldn't he be jealous? Hell the woman he's madly in love with got easily scooped away by another guy who didn't have to try so hard. He wishes he got all of her attention and kindness and generosity instead. But no, it had to be HIM who got it, and he threw all of her love away!
"I-I… I don't know…" Misaki stopped in her fast walk, suddenly losing all confidence she had.
Tora wanted to push the truth in her face that he was just neglecting her. But Tora didn't want to severe the fragile friendship between them. If he did, then there would be no chance on winning her.
"It's getting late," Tora stated the obvious, grabbing her hand, "C'mon. I'll walk you home."
-x-
As she sat at her president's desk, she silently wished her boyfriend would come and annoy her. Pinch her cheeks and whisper her last name in her ear.
Misaki stapled two papers together with her flamboyant signature on each of them and put them on the 'done' pile.
Even when the paper stacks stood in the done pile, and she had nothing else to do, Misaki wished she could just drown in her misery and beg for more work until she had to go to Maid Latte.
Flipping open her phone, she sighed when she was met with her blank screensaver. No notification boxes.
"I really need to stop being so clingy…" Misaki whispered before snapping it closed and trotting over to Maid Latte.
-x-
When changing out of her uniform, Misaki's phone rung once, indicating a notification.
Call her happy, Misaki was beyond thrilled that she got a notification. Maybe it could be a simple text from Takumi saying, "I love you."
Flipping her phone open she saw there was an envelope icon flashing at the top of her screen indicating one new message. And it was from her boyfriend!
Squealing in happiness, Misaki opened it.
From: Usui Takumi
To: Ayuzawa Misaki
Subject: Please read.
Message: Meet me at the park when you're done with your Maid Latte shift.
Misaki heard the thunder clap and knew that it was going to rain heavily. Sighing, she dressed into her normal clothes and ran out before it rained.
Huffing and puffing, she went to the park she had dragged Usui to when he found out her secret.
"You wanted to meet me?" Misaki smiled bright when she came to the swing set.
"Let's break up," Takumi said quickly. In a heartbeat, it started to pour hard.
"W-Why?"
"Ever since we started dating, you just became all soft like all of those girls. I thought you were different, but you only acted tough just to get my attention," Usui nonchalantly looked at her.
Misaki's heart dropped into her stomach.
"I knew we wouldn't work out from the moment I asked you out," Takumi sighed, "And I have been seeing another girl for some time now, so I thought I should tell you."
"If you knew we wouldn't work out…" Misaki trembled in fury, "Then why did you pretend this whole time?!"
"I thought you would become that demon prez I first met," Takumi snickered, "But it was too good to be true."
And he left, just like that. He didn't know that he just walked on her heart when he said those harsh words.
Misaki's knees wobbled and she collapsed. The heartbreak was too much for her to handle.
After ten minutes of sobbing in the rain, she heard footsteps crunch through the wood chips of the playground.
Maybe it was a criminal to kill her or maybe it was Takumi coming back to apologize, who knew?
"Ayuzawa kaichou? What are you doing here? You could get sick!" A familiar voice scolded her. Misaki's watery eyes looked up to a pair of liquid gold eyes.
"T-Tora? W-What are y-you d-doing here?" Misaki blubbered, partly to the cold and partly due to her state of feeling pathetic and vulnerable.
"What are YOU doing here?" Tora asked her.
"Making a fool of myself, what else?" Misaki snapped.
Tora sighed and sat down next to her on the ground and asked, "Misaki, what happened?"
Misaki's eyes watered and she broke down. Tora kind of hated himself for asking such a question at such a moment.
"I'm sorry," Tora murmured as he caught her in his arms and shielded her from the rain even though she was wet.
"He… H-He b-broke up with m-me…" Misaki cried and repeated the sentence over and over again, feeling her heart shatter every single time she said the sentence.
Tora hated Takumi even more than ever. That lucky bastard captured Misaki's heart and then threw it away in the bin when she opened up.
"Come on," Tora said.
"W-Where are w-we going?" Misaki hiccupped.
Tora glanced at her and softly smiled.
"You're going to stay at my house for a couple of weeks."
-x-
It was hard, she would admit. Even though she was a guest to a world of luxuries, she refused to indulge in any of it, something Tora loved about her.
But even he would force her to accept some lavish services and gifts. He can't invite her to his house and expect her to be happy in a corner.
Misaki still felt like her heart was made of lead even though Tora would constantly bother her when she did her paperwork as Seika's president and he would do his stack for Miyabigaoka.
Tora even hated welcoming Takumi to his school, because the moment Takumi stepped in his school wearing a Miyabigaoka uniform slightly altered, Tora wanted to kick him in the gut for hurting Misaki.
"So he's at Miyabigaoka, huh?" Misaki shuffled through her paperwork as they worked side by side.
Tora glanced at her one time before regretfully diving back in his work.
"I'm sorry. I wish I didn't have to greet him."
"No it's okay," Misaki said, making Tora snap his head up, "I like it how honest you are becoming. I like boys who are like that."
With a smile, she had glanced right back at the last of her paperwork, not registering the blush on Tora's cheeks.
-x-
A week later, Misaki was cheering with the others for their one week break for Thanksgiving. Misaki suddenly felt good she finished her homework for the break so she had nothing to do other than work her part time job and come home and enjoy herself.
She got a text from Satsuki-san telling her she was to enjoy her day off, and come the next day at work. Satsuki-san was like her mother at Maid Latte.
Laughing lightly, Misaki was about to go home when she remembered she was going to Igarashi Mansion, where she was staying temporarily. Her stay got extended when her mother and sister decided to take some scenic trip in the country. Misaki was happy that her mother and sister were enjoying themselves instead of worrying about their day to day life for once.
Ringing the doorbell, a butler opened the door and bowed deep when he saw Misaki.
"Thank you so much, sir!" Misaki beamed politely and walked up the stairs to her guest bedroom. Throwing her bag on her bed, she saw a beautiful royal blue dress with matching shoes on the bed.
Picking up the placard next to it, Misaki read it.
Put these on and come down as soon as possible.
Misaki felt gross so she took a shower, and did her hair up in a ponytail before putting on some minimal amount of makeup and putting on the dress and shoes. She didn't bother with jewelry as it was too troublesome.
When she came down to the main room, she saw another note where she thought she was supposed to meet him.
Come to the ballroom.
Misaki went to the ballroom. For once she knew exactly the whole blueprint of the house, which is a big feat if she should say.
Opening the huge ornate doors, she stepped in. In the empty golden ballroom, alight with beautiful electric lighting, stood Tora in his black and white tuxedo.
Soft music played in the background.
"How nice," Misaki grinned and Tora turned around in surprise, which turned into a grin when he realized it was her.
"You look amazing," Tora smiled genuinely as he took her hand.
"Thank you," Misaki smiled as he lead them to the middle of the ballroom.
"May I have this dance?" Tora asked like a gentleman, and Misaki giggled.
"Of course."
-x-
The both of them exited the ballroom after an hour of dancing, laughing and giggling over their performance.
"You did manage to not squash my toes," Tora laughed.
"Those lessons did pay off, what can I say," Misaki smirked.
After a few more minutes of intense teasing, they got comfy on the couches of the lobby and silence reigned over them.
"Hey Misaki?" Tora asked.
"Hmm?" Misaki smiled.
"Will you go out with me?" Tora blurted and then suddenly wanted to hit himself.
When Misaki's blank face searched his face for any signs of joking, he continued to ramble on and on.
"I know you are going through a hard time after that incident and I understand if you-"
Misaki had yanked his tie which caused him to stoop his head lower until it crashed on his lips. To stunned to even reply he responded to the kiss but let her have the dominance in it.
Letting go of his tie, they broke apart from the kiss to get enough oxygen.
Tora looked at Misaki's smiling amber eyes, starting to feel alive as well.
Her lips curved up into another breathtaking smile.
"I would love to try."
-Fin-
Author's Note:
A huge sincere thanks to TastySweetsXD for her sweetness and kind request for a one shot. She is awesome that is why you should check her profile.