Mori doesn't know why but the host club has suddenly changed.
Why is Honey-sempai so panicky and worried?
Why is everyone else avoiding him?
Why won't anyone let him speak to the fan girls of the host club alone?
And why does everyone else seem to know something he doesn't?
Mori was worried.
It wasn't often that he felt worry.
When he had felt it before, it had mainly been for the safety and happiness of his best friend and cousin, the cute and small 'innocent smile' of the host club.
But this worry was different, a heavier feeling.
Whenever he'd felt worry before he'd known he could counter-act it, it had been a steady sort of feeling and it dissipated quickly, flitting away usually within hours of him feeling it.
But this was different; the worry had slowly crept up on him, nothing at first, but then slowly gnawing at the back of his mind, then grabbing more and more at his attention, like flames from a lighter licking only at the edges of paper when it is lit before working their way inwards to set it fully ablaze.
He hadn't noticed anything at first, other than the fact that Mitsukuni had been more focused on sweet things than ever before.
Mitsukuni loved sweets in general so Mori hadn't felt any suspicion, but on that day, the day when things started and the gnawing sensation began, Mitsukuni talked of nothing but sweets.
Every time one of the girls who had requested the pair of them moved to talk of a different subject Mitsukuni's face washed with panic and he immediately changed the subject back to parfait or ice cream.
The others were different too, Mori slowly realised, the more he searched for a reason as to Mitsukuni's unease, the more he noticed the unusual behaviour of the other members who resided in the host club.
Kyoya was the first one he talked to, in the morning, the day after Mitsukuni's unusual behaviour began, he didn't say anything to him straight away, but when Mitsukuni's attention was grabbed away by two of his fans, Mori left him for a moment upon noticing Kyoya stepping out of a limousine at the entrance and just walked over to him and met his gaze.
Kyoya looked at him, keeping the usual impassive mask in place 'Mori-sempai?' he asked pushing his gleaming glasses further up his face.
'Mitsukuni is. . . acting . . .strange' Kyoya kept his emotions in check but Mori saw it, the flash of stormy worry in Kyoya's eyes.
'In what way?'
'….…' If Mori told Kyoya that Mitsukuni talked about sweets every time anyone spoke to him, Kyoya would just pass over the issue. Never mind, Mitsukuni seemed happy enough talking about sweets and if there was anything worrying him he would've already said it. . . It was best to wait and see.
'Never mind' He left Kyoya standing there, list of costs and gains for the day in hand.
The twins were strange too, usually they hung about being noisy no matter what he and Mitsukuni did but today they were avoiding the pair.
Later in the day, in the music room, getting ready for host club activities he caught Hikaru staring at him, he looked away quickly back at the table he and Kaoru were getting ready.
There were other things too, things he couldn't find any explanations for, things that made no sense to him, whenever a shy girl called him over to speak to him alone, one of the others would immediately leap in, charming her into excusing Mori or in the twin's case just grabbing him and talking animatedly about nothing as they hauled him away.
Whenever a regular of the host club engaged him in mainly-one sided conversation, a panicked Mitsukuni, a loud twin or an emotionless smiling Kyoya would quickly interrupt before the conversation could evolve.
Mori didn't really mind it much -other than the shy girls being left stranded alone part-, it didn't happen too often…however, he felt unnerved by the unusual behaviour, the rock that was Morishita Takashi was beginning to feel uneasy, it was all…so… suspicious…
Mori decided to ignore it and nothing changed till the next day, friday.
When Mori realized that he hadn't spoken a word to Haruhi since Monday afternoon, Mori wasn't generally the type to chat anyway but he usually nodded a hello or helped her out when the twins and Tamaki ambushed her. That day there was an unusual air in the host club, Mitsukuni seemed to slowly be reverting back, to being able to engage in topics that didn't have to do with sweet things.
The twins were becoming noisy again and things seemed to be calming down, slowly, but there was still an odd tension in the air.
Today was a themed event day in the host club, 'Circus', Mitsukuni was dressed in festive red ring masters clothes with his own black baton and gold ribbons, the girls were coo-ing at him to no end, Kyoya was dressed in a polka dotted shirt and green trousers with a black face paint 'vine' design coming down the side of his right cheek, the twins had teased him for refusing the red squeaky nose and curly wig they'd prepared for them, the twins themselves were dressed in loose fitting 'acrobats' clothes: two identical small blue jackets rimmed with gold sequins on the cuffs and collar and blue trousers.
-With no shirt on under either of the jackets their fans were going crazy with nose bleeds anyway but their whole 'I'll never let you go Kaoru' 'There's no one I trust more, let's fly together Hikaru' act seemed to tip them over the edge-
Tamaki was a fortune teller in heavy purple robes predicting the love fate of all his fans and Haruhi was the animal trainer, wearing glittery trousers and a black shirt with a small toy whip, Mori himself was the strong man in animal skins.
Mori was walking past Haruhi with Mitsukuni when he brushed his arm off hers by mistake, she went red and all of a sudden Tamaki was yelling at him, his word muffled by the hasty hand of Kaoru.
An awkward silence followed beside Tamaki's muffled 'mrhhhmrrmr' s
Haruhi broke the silence 'Sorry Mori-sempai, Honey-sempai' she excused herself leaving the room quickly, he could see her ears turning red, huh?
He looked down at Mitsukuni's guilty face.
'Taka I'll tell you after but the girls are waiting now' he whispered and the confused Mori nodded slowly.
Kyoya began to make excuses for Haruhi and change bookings to suit an understaffed host club's new arrangement.
Yes, Mori was worried, but he had a sinking feeling he wasn't going to like it when he found out why.
Bit of a slow pace but it's Mori so I wanted to portray the right 'vibe' to it or whatever,
my first Ouran High fan fic.