The delicate ruffled skirt

by Kay ti

12 years later, what goes on in the Suou's villa? Who is the real Mrs Suou? A prose, aka one-shot.

The delicate ruffled skirt.

Tamaki's age- 31 years old.

Eclair's age- 34 years old.

Tamaki's granny- 82 years old.

So she was alone in the room, surrounded by the November gloom. The evenings here are usually long. She squinted in the dim light and peered at the four maroon-colored walls surrounding her. Several cushy couches made of the finest velvet, four lumpy overstuffed chairs and endless racks of bookshelves lined the wall. The beads on the rickety antique table clattered as she pushed them back to give her enough space to do her housework. No words could express the feeling of wretchedness. Clutching on to the handle of her vacuum cleaner tightly, she simply stood and watched the world in sullen silence, feeling like a piece of drifting wood caught in a deep blue sea. Outside, the kids were playing color tag under the watchful eyes of the mistress of the house. The sky was tinted blue with grey hues streaking across, a precaution that it might rain much later. Once again, she focused her attention to the elegant lady with ginger hair cascading down her back and the foxy face of a Greek goddess, who was sipping tea demurely and smiling at the children.

It could have been me, she thought bitterly, feeling as if daggers had been jammed into her heart.

Loneliness enveloped her. Outside, the howling of the gardener's dog far away blended with the gloominess of her evening. She ran a finger up and down the frosted panes of the window. The squeaky sound made was satisfying; it filled up the empty hollows of her heart. Following this, she absentmindedly traced "Mrs Suoh" and haphazardly drew a smiley face with a crooked smile. She envisioned herself dressing up her daughter in pretty lacy frocks by the fireplace while the father looked on beaming with pride. "Daddy, look! Am I pretty?" her daughter would squeal in utmost delight, tottering with uncertain steps towards her beloved daddy's outstretched arms. Her father would sweep her up in his strong lean arms, his violet eyes twinkling cheekily and plant a loving kiss into his daughter's forehead. "Absolutely, darling. Just like your mummy." He winks.
The heartwarming scene would be enough to recharge the heaters of every single household in Gion for a week.

But, something like this would never happen in her case. Not even in a million years.

"Haruhi! Stop skiving! No one paid you to idle precious time away! Get back to work." Barked a full-breasted lady who bore an uncanny resemble to a red-crested sparrow, her eyes gleaming with authority and seemed to beam a demand for respect. And she was the dreaded head maid.

Haruhi bowed her head in apology. The abusive screams from the head maid rang in her ears. It was always "Haruhi, you scrawny twerp. You missed out on a spot over here. For your sloppy work, your pay will be docked." Or "You were brought up by a pack of dumb wolves, I must say!"

Red splotched her cheeks as she continued to clean up the vast library. She would be lucky to be able to sleep at twelve tonight.

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Second ticked by, as a figure in dressed in a black dress decorated with white ruffles stood hesitantly outside the doors of the study room. At last, she gulped a mouthful of oxygen, turned the shiny brass knob and pushed open the heavy doors, with crossed fingers for extra luck.

"Do it for Hitomi" she told herself firmly.

"You didn't knock, eh?" said Tamaki in a crisp business-like voice. His tousled blond hair was messier than usual as he bent down his work.

"S-S-Sir, I wonder if you will be free to spend some time with Hitomi on her birthday. One or two hours would suffice." Haruhi wrung her hands in nervous anticipation.

Tamaki looked up from his over pilling documents for a brief momement. "No, I won't be."

Haruhi's presence was strangely disturbing. The study was filled with smokes of despair and angst, which curled up in swirly intricate patterns heavenwards choking Tamaki. He heaved a sign of annoyance, took out his eye glass and placed it on a square of cloth. Following so, he pulled out a worn out checkbook decked in leather, exclusive only to major shareholders of the bank and scribbled an extravagant amount in it. The chair creaked forlornly as its owner got up. Tamaki slapped the cheque into the quivering maid's clenched fists. "Take this. It should be enough to buy her presents for a lifetime."

Tension hovered over them like an overcast cloud threatening to erupt in rain anytime.

Tears welled up in Haruhi's eyes. "Sorry Sir, but we are not a charity case. I only wish that Hitomi can experience a bit of father's love."

But actually, she wanted to throw a hissy fit in his face. "What's the meaning of this?!" She would like to scream into his haughty face.

Tamaki could see anger mixed with a surge of humiliation register in Haruhi's eyes. He slipped a hand into his pocket and wriggled his fingers in a highly-strung way.

Haruhi swallowed hard. Without even looking at the piece of paper in her hands, she tore it slowly splitting it into equal halves, feeling the satisfaction of the ripping effect beneath her tired fingers. The tore yellow paper floated down awkwardly, rocking from side to side in fifty degree angles. The monetary wealth in her hands lasted for only a mere three seconds.

Jerking her head back, she turned sharply and ran till she was out of breath. Sickness washed over her like ice water. Shattering screams racked inside her head. It was tormenting, compelling and aching. Like her need for him. It has never changed for eleven years.

In the maids' dormitory, Haruhi squeezed her eyes shut as her tears cascaded all over her cheeks. Like pages of a diary, this has brought her back to certain memories she knew she could never forget. Everything she did was a mistake. Her applying to Ouran High, which had been the turning point of her life, her falling in love with the skirt-chasing president of the club, her sacrificing her life for him; the madly swerving car had caused her minimum brain damage and a lawyer's certificate and the biggest hoo-ha of all; sleeping with him in a crazy passionate way when he told her he loved her. The only rational reason why she applied to be a maid here was so that she would be able to see him, but not part of an evil scheme brewing. However, she felt that she was now in lower status then her previous peasant status. He has been grateful to her for all of that, but offering large sums of money was not the consolation she wanted from him. Or he had. Nowadays, he didn't even look at her or bothered about her well-being.

"Tamaki has changed." The words slipped from Haruhi's mouth. She couldn't believe that she said his name so effortlessly. She was so used to calling him "sir".

It was true; in her opinion, he was presently a power-hungry workaholic despite being a carefree and lay-back senior who was once overly concerned about her, back in high school.

In a fertile attempt to compose herself, Haruhi reached into a cubby-hole and pulled out a stout teddy with creepy eyes. It was worn-out; cotton spilling out, of a dirty brown shade, the scarlet bow-tie hanging loosely from its neck. She grasped it tightly to her chest and inhaled its intoxicatingly dusty scent. It smelt of relief. Haruhi was convinced that the bear had magic powers. It seemed to calm her down easily whenever she had a bad day, by absorbing the negativeness * from the inner depths of her heart. In the dim light, she could see several puffs of cotton float up. The bear's bleeding, she thought with a shock.

"It's bleeding in love, like me." She realized in a desperate groan.

"Mummy!" a chirpy voice jotted her back to reality.

Haruhi hid the bear behind her. She couldn't help but feel a tad piqued. The private and magical moment between her and Mr Teddy had been abruptly ruined by her daughter. She felt as if someone had stripped her clothes, leaving her feeling naked and unprotected as the invisible walls surrounding her disappeared swiftly.

Nevertheless, she forced a smile. "How's school?"

Hitomi grinned and pulled a drawing out of her bagpack. "Awesome! Today we drew our family during art lesson. See, Mummy."

Haruhi studied the portrait for a moment, panic jotted through her nerves. "Such a pretty picture of you and mummy. Well done Hitomi!"

Her daughter threw her arms around her neck and hugged her tightly. "I wish Daddy was still alive."

"He's happy in heaven." Haruhi kissed her daughter's button nose dotingly as tears filled her eyes once again. She blinked them back furiously. She didn't mean to lie to Hitomi the other time.

"Mummy, I'm going to play with Jayne now. She has a new collection of Barbies." Hitomi ran off, her light brown ponytail bouncing energetically behind her.

Haruhi watched her cheerful daughter disappear in the dark hallway. It was such irony that the daughter of a maid was best friends with the daughter of an affluent socialite. Furthermore, the two girls had not the least bit of idea that they were actually half-sisters. Haruhi felt like she had drunk a lifetime concoction of austere and rebuff.

She sighed. At least, she hadn't aborted Hitomi while Tamaki had been so insistent on it, years back.

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The light tapping of rain had grown to a melancholy rumble. Occasionally, there was a flash of thunder, which rattled the panes of glass in the tall-arched window. The snow white cat speckled with gray streaks arched its back and purred under her touch. Lady Suou, was reclining on a spider-like chair with her dear kitty perched on her lap. It played with the creases on her satin blouse, intrigued by the smoothness of the material. She skimmed the room tentatively, her fingers tapping her lower crimson lip in a thoughtful manner. She snapped her well-buffed fingers twice and decided that she would have the clashing wallpaper changed the following day. It didn't matter if the feng-shui was ruined or whatsoever. After all, she had married into one of the most influential family in Japan, had an amorously attractive husband who was a chairman of a lucrative business and two beautiful cheery children, she should be considered the luckiest woman alive.

I should be so lucky, lucky lucky lucky.

By now the cat with a short attention-span, was bored stiff with its old playmate: her blouse. It gave a startled 'mew' as the lightning filled the sky once more, depicting a picture in negative mode before hopping off her lap and landing on the carpet in perfect posture. Ring-filled fingers reached out for a pocket-sized planner with a suede cover. Lady Suou got up gracefully from her seat and makes her way to the luxurious four poster-bed. Finest cloth of purple and dull green draped over the frames, making the furniture look like a cross between Arabian Nights and Hamlet. She curled up, legs tucked neatly underneath her bottom. A finger with a moderately-sized emerald stone with a hideous design of a griffin flipped the pages till it came to the section where she jotted down the plans for her daughter's 10th birthday party. Tamaki's grandmother had given her the ring, claiming that it was a family heirloom of 78 years and she only wore it out of respect. It also matches her jade almond-shaped eyes.

Lady Suou continued planning for about twenty minutes before she lifted her head and coincidentally, a Mercedes pulled up outside the First Residence. The chauffeur got up and opened an enormous black umbrella. At the same time, the butler rushed out with an equally big umbrella, in a hurry to make sure not a single unclean raindrop touched their angelic young master.

"Tamaki's home!" Lady Suou's heart skipped with joy. She abandoned her planner and went down to greet him like a dutiful wife.

She was half-way down the ivory grand sweeping stairs when she spotted one of their maids gaping at her husband.

"How preposterous!" She huffed, pausing in her step with her hands on her slender waist. It was that maid whom her husband was once so in love with, light years back, that maid whose daughter was a regular playmate of her daughter, Jayne.

However, she knew that she had nothing to worry about. Her husband would never fall for his high-school sweetheart again. Having faith was one of Lady Suou's forte and secret to their loving marriage.

I'll show her, she thought cockily.

A network of smile lines fanned out from the corners of his violet eyes, framed by dark lashes. "Claire."

It was cute that he called by "Claire" instead of her name "Eclair". It also showed that they had this sense of intimacy that they shared with no one but themselves. She lip-kissed briefly, as if to mark her husband from the prying eyes of their maids. To her surprise, Tamaki leaned forward and deepened the kiss.

"Uh-hum" The loud clearing of throat came from the old mistress of the house; Granny Suou.

They sprang apart like a guilty adulteress couple who was caught red-handed in the act.

"Tonight," he rasped in her ear and gave her a cheeky pet on her bottom.

The smell of his cologne lingered in her nose as he traipsed off in the direction of his study.

Mission accomplished.

The smirk plastered on Lady Suou's face could not be wiped off when she saw the distressed expression on that ogling maid's face. It was priceless.

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The sun, amber like a glowing ember was half-buried in the silken violet rim of the cloud. Another Saturday morning came. The day was effortlessly beautiful. Dappled with buttery sunshine, the green landscape had no patience for sorrow. The high-pitched titter of birds grew louder as they flew from the direction of the golf-course. Insects, birds and even the warm breeze bristled with more important business. Hitomi held her mother's hand tightly as they made their way to the huge villa. She was practically trembling with excitement since she received the glossy invitation card to Jayne's birthday party. She was going to attend the party as Jayne's best friend! Consciously, she touched her pigtails and ran a hand down the sleekness of each separate strand. She had had her mother spray a ton of hair treatment water the night before, so that it remained shiny and pretty. On her clung a sweet indigo dress adorned with sooty ribbons and real lace which finished an inch below her milky knees. It was her best Sunday dress.

Outside, the villa looked as per normal, the white-washed walls with clingy vines creeping up to reach out for solar food, all in a flower studded field. Inside, was the budding contrast. The interior was a brilliant shade of red, gold and orange. Balloons are all shapes and sizes hung from the celling. The centre chandelier looked at its best. They was so impressive that they took Hitomi's breath away. Before she could make any comment, she was whisked away by Lady Suou.

"My, what a beautiful sight!" Lady Suou clasped her gloved hands in delight.

"Thank you, Mdm"

Choosing her words carefully, Lady Suou purred in a sugary sweet word. "The party will be starting in approximately half an hour. Now, would you help with the decorations while waiting for Jayne?"

Hitomi nodded. She would be more than glad to make sure the day was perfect for Jayne. She looked out to bide her mother goodbye, but she was already gone.

And so, Hitomi arranged the mannequins, filled up the already brimming candy dish and made sure the curtains were in place. The caterers busied themselves the food and chefs took their positions behind the little stalls they set up in the patio. Pots of tulip, air-flown from Holland, of various colors- turquoise, cyan, scarlet, green and so on brightened up the place and added colors to the slightly downcast sky. There were four heaters, each at a right angle at the corners. The rolled up canopy was a standing plan, lest the light drizzle or torrent rain make an unexpected visit.

The grandfather clock next to the mantel struck eleven and out popped a ballerina twirling gracefully to a poignant melody. Soon the ballerina retreated and in place of it was a fine young soldier doing a salute, to no one in particular, frozen in a resolute pose. It reminded Hitomi of the nutcracker ballet she attended during Christmas, a year ago. She had always liked the fancy ornaments and furniture that came with a hint of mystery in the Suou's household.

Hitomi stood by the door, shivering as the light chilly breeze blew in. She was anxiously peering out for guests. First came in a girl about her age, decked in a fox fur overcoat, accompanied by her nanny. It was so pretty, Hitomi almost reached out to touch it and savor the feeling of its wonderful silkiness beneath her wandering fingers.

"Welcome!" said Hitomi with a large smile, showing ample dimples.

The girl returned the smile and followed one of the Suou's butlers to the living room.

Soon, all the guests arrived promptly. Hitomi counted thirdly-six guests, including her.

The first activity was a modern play on "Snow White" done by a well-known theater troupe. Hitomi enjoyed it very much and was pleasantly surprised when the main actor presented her with a blue rose after the play. She was pleased that among the other girls, she was chosen. The puppet show captivated the audience as well.

Soon, it was teatime. They were quickly ushered to the patio. The air was filled with whiffs of mouth-watering fragrances and stream that was generated from all that frying, welcomed Hitomi and the other guests as they stepped into the patio. A large plump cake in the shape of a fairy decorated with grape jelly, macaroons of different flavors and hand-whipped egg white fresh cream surrounding the frame.

The party sang the traditional "Happy Birthday song" enthusiastically in English, with a violist playing a euphonious tune in the background. Later, the cake was cut with the first cut made by Jayne.

"Hitomi, help me hand out this cake!" called out Lady Suou. A hand attached to a delicate slender wrist waved impatiently in her direction.

Hitomi felt important, like some sort of figurehead with a liaison role as she distributed the china plates to each of the seated children. After that, she squeezed into an empty seat next to the birthday girl.

"Aren't you the daughter of Jayne's maid?" One of them asked rudely, licking the spoon clean.

She's probably jealous that I have prettier pigtails and I'm Jayne's best friend, thought Hitomi.

"Nope, I'm Jayne's best friend. We play together." Hitomi replied smugly, taking a long sip of her mocktail. "All the time" She added for effect.

Another boy ruffled his hair thoughtfully. "She has never mentioned you before. Are you from Ouran too?"

Hitomi's eyes clouded momentarily, she pretended to be interested in the view. The faraway cottage of the gardener was engulfed in shadows- shadows that had the profound effect of casting a forbidding and sinister gloom. She hoped that the rain cloud would target Jayne's obnoxious friends who were born with a silver spoon in their upturned mouths. "I'm not in Ouran. Well, maybe you don't know her that well?"

She looked at Jayne for some backup, but her friend was busy talking to the girl on her right. She secretly admired her friend's puffy bubble dress in a deep shade of violet, with pink hues and the glitter on her shoulder; she wished she had persuaded her mother to buy some golden glitter for her to wear.

For the rest of the three hours, the circus troupe, balloon men and event manager entertained them. The zealous gloomy weather would not defer the high spirits of the kids. The clowns were so hilarious that a boy joy-peed into his pants. Remembering Mrs. Suou's words, Hitomi tried to do her best and ended up directing kids to the lavatory. She even accompanied them and made polite chat on the way.

Everything went on smoothly, the giant horse piñata was badly spanked within minutes and children scrambled forth to grab Royce chocolates and Turkish Delights. Old-school games like 'Pin the donkey's tail', 'Pass the Parcel' and 'Musical Chairs' ignited excited sparks among the children.

The grand finale of the party arrived. Guest were leaving one by one. Before they left, they were given a bulging goody bag filled to the brim with all sorts of imported candy, a bracelet and a toy. Blue for the boys and pink for the girls. This time Lady Suou stood by the door with Jayne, handing out the goody bags and thanking them graciously for coming.

Hitomi wondered if she would get the blue goody bag or the pink one. As Lady Suou came over with the nearly empty bags, Hitomi mentally weighed out the pros and cons of each bag. She would like a new yo-yo as much as she would adore Kelly in a birthday frock. A greedy thought came into her mind. Maybe, she will receive both in return for her help at the party.

"You must be proud to have such a daughter like Hitomi", beamed Lady Suou grandly. Her glossy ginger hair swaying back and forth when a gust of wind blew.

A warm flush of happiness swept over both mother and child. Hitomi swelled with pride upon hearing this.

Lady Suou rumbled in her designer handbag and pulled out a thick stack of Yens. "Here Hitomi, you've earned it."

'… ….' The words came out in a dismayed squeak from Hitomi. She hadn't expected that.

A chill ran swiftly up Haruhi's back, causing the nape of his neck to tingle. She placed a firm hand on her daughter's shoulder and stared coldly at the lady.

A mayfly buzzed around Lady Suou's ear. She was desperately tempted to swipe it away. The incessant buzzing was making her insane. Still, she stood there rooted to the ground, arms outstretched holding out the wad of cash. She had held it out so long that her arm trembled slightly.

Silence engulfed the place. It was so still you could hear a pin drop. Cold sweat tickled down the small of her neck, yet she dare not retreat.

It was like a scene frozen in time. None of them made a single move in this game.

Author's note:

Yen- Japanese currency. ( It is ah-nnoying strong these days.)

Lyrics used- 'I should be so lucky' by Kylie Minogue.

This story is made possible by a certain writer, but I'm forgotten her name and story title. When I remember it, I shall put it down.

****Oh yes, when I was typing this on the computer the word I used "negativeness" was underlined in RED. Is there not a word like that?

I actually wanted to include things like the cottages with honeysuckles and pink blooming rose vines snaking down, you know those Enid Byton sort, like enchanted woods. But it seemed irrelevant for a 21th century situation. If you guessed that I'm a Cinderella fanatic, you are probably right.

I didn't put Haruhi's age down because I felt that it might spoil the effect in the first 2 paragraphs. That's why I kept using "she". She is 30. 

By the way, 'kelly' refers to the Kelly doll, Barbie's sister.

I'm not sure what kind of stories readers fancy! I've read those with plentiful reviews and few reviews. But I can't seem to differentiate between them. I mean, both are equally good. Yes, I am that daft.

I would appreciate it if you reviewed this: anonymously or as a user.