A Rose by Any Other Name...

Jedi Goat

Disclaimer: I don't own OHSHC.

Author's Note: I'm aliiiive! Anyway, here's something for Valentine's Day for you all. :)

"Here you go, ladies," I smiled overtop a bright bouquet of orange roses. "Happy Valentine's Day."

On cue as always, my current customers dissolved into giggles and murmurs of thanks. While I handed each blushing girl a flower, my gaze wandered the third music room over their shoulders. This afternoon the Host Club's usual abode was awash with early spring sunlight, and great bunches of vibrant blooms crowded every available surface in honour of the occasion. Somewhere in the middle of the crowd Tamaki was, of course, in his element, basking in the excited energy of his "Commoners' Valentine's Day Special" in its second year of success.

"What are you doing for Valentine's, Kaoru?" one of the regulars asked breathlessly as she accepted her rose. I blinked and focused back on her face.

"Hm...nothing much." I returned her small smile while I handed off the last of my roses and reached for more in the vase behind me. "Maybe a nice dinner or something. But what about you ladies? You must have plans, right?"

I quickly turned the conversation back to the group, expecting the usual immediate tangent as they giggled and admitted to admirers' notes or fancy dinners organized with fiancés; when the gaggle of girls remained silent I registered dimly that I must have said something wrong. I fumbled to recognize my mistake when the same girl spoke up, wide-eyed and troubled.

"But – surely – Hikaru must have something planned?"

What?

My mind went blank at that suggestion and I opened and closed my mouth a few times as my customers looked on expectantly. Why would he? To be perfectly honest, the thought hadn't even occurred to me, but by the way the girls were round-eyed in suspense, such a brusque response would be akin to brushing off our birthday.

"Er – well, I guess –"

I stuttered, my mind racing to a suitable recourse. Stalling for time, I plunged full force into our Act; I lowered my gaze and fidgeted with my sleeve cuffs, a perfect image of the bashful younger brother. My eyes went unconsciously to the next table over and I heard the clear barking laugh as Hikaru reclined in his chair, bantering with his guests.

"The thing is – I –"

It shouldn't have been so hard, but I was suddenly tongue-tied. Why couldn't I think of something as simple as what Hikaru could've gotten me as a present? Well, no – I corrected myself – not me, the Act-Kaoru. The lines between us – between Act and reality – were too blurred now.

It was, strangely enough, another of the girls who came to my rescue. "Oh," she gasped, and a hand flew to her lips in realization. "It's a surprise, isn't it?"

I seized the opportunity with almost frantic enthusiasm. "Yes – yes, it's a surprise, so I don't know what it is yet." I offered them another sheepish, shy smile. "And Hikaru made me promise to keep it a secret."

"Do you have any idea what it might be?" a blonde asked over the renewed outbreak of giggles. At the suggestion, the girls suddenly hushed and looked at me again.

I was determined to make up for my earlier miss and absently smoothed the rose petals between my fingers as I spoke. "Well, all right, yes, a little. But only because Hikaru's not nearly as subtle as he thinks he is."

Giggles again. The girls leaned in closer as I chanced a look over at the opposite table and met Hikaru's oblivious wink. He made a circular gesture behind the back of his chair and mouthed, Switch, before turning back with a smile to his present company.

"Well, I suppose I'll have to tell you about it next time," I evaded with a bright smile. Some of the girls let out small "aww"s of disappointment, but they still smiled and wished me a happy Valentine's before trooping over to Hikaru's table.

In the brief reprieve between shifts I rearranged the roses in the vase in front of me, summoning up an unwavering cheery countenance for the next group and mentally walking myself through my newly decided performance.

A squeal pulled me out of my thoughts.

"What are you and Kaoru doing tonight?"

I stopped myself from turning around and looking at the redoubled cluster around Hikaru's table. With my back to them I counted out the flowers I had left, pretending I couldn't hear the clamour of their eager questions.

After a moment's pause I heard Hikaru's drawl from within the huddle. He spoke unconcernedly, as always readied with a flippant reply in a split second whereas I would have stumbled and fallen into my usual shy act. "Well, first off, we've got reservations at this one Italian place our family likes. Then we've got tickets for the Phantom of the Opera. That's Kaoru's favourite, you know."

I almost sensed by the beat of pause that he was looking at me through the crowd. I didn't turn around, though; I wouldn't give him the pleasure of thinking he'd won this round of our publicized banter. I bit down on my lip and carefully pulled out one of the more wilted roses from the bouquet.

"And I'd gladly tell you what we'll be up to later tonight, but my dear innocent brother is already blushing."

I froze and heard the wave of giggles cresting in the wake of his commentary. As the girls moved off to the next table – Haruhi's – some shot secretive, covetous glances in my direction that indicated they'd taken Hikaru far more seriously than was healthy. In response I ducked my head and fidgeted consciously with the wilted rose until they had gone.

In the girls' absence Hikaru wandered over to rejoin me, leaning up against the edge of the table. His breath shivered hotly against my skin when he sighed.

"Trust Tono to come up with the zaniest things, hey?"

I didn't answer. Hikaru frowned slightly and came to stand in front of me, seizing my hands to stop me worrying with the rose. "Hey...Kaoru? What's wrong?"

"Nothing." I turned from his imploring gaze. "Just...thinking."

A slow smirk crossed his face and he squeezed my hands. "You didn't actually want me to get you that stuff, did you?"

I glanced up and then hurriedly away again, ashamed by how quickly heat rushed to my face. "N-no, of course not," I detracted as firmly as possible. "It's just... I don't know...they take us too seriously sometimes."

"Us?"

"The Act. You know what I mean."

"I think you're taking us too seriously. It's just a little game." Hikaru idly reached past me, nicking an orange rose from my collection. He eyed it for a moment before decisively weaving it into my hair. "So what do you want to do tonight, Kao-chan?"

"Nothing."

"You're no fun." He wrinkled his nose at me, and in his distraction the rose slipped out from behind my ear. I caught it thoughtlessly and raised an eyebrow at him.

"Aniki, get back to work. It won't be much fun for either of us if Kyouya-senpai decides to kill you."

Hikaru was still disgruntled, but neither could he argue against the threat of the Dark Prince. "You think about it," he warned before striding back to his table. I shrugged innocently.

When he'd left I stared at the forgotten rose still in my hand, sighed, and tucked it back behind my left ear, resurfacing with a strained smile for my next round of approaching guests.

The manor house lay silent when I ventured into the darkened living room and flopped, facedown, on the couch. For several moments I sprawled there, uncaring to my graceless posture, revelling in the renewed quiet. This remained one of the few evenings a year father reserved the time to take mother out for dinner, and that left us in control of the house with the unseen maids.

Momentarily Hikaru padded into the room after me, knocking aside my feet in order to sit. "Can't find anyone," he offered in explanation. "Looks like we're on our own for supper. I think we still have some of that ramen from when we went to the market with Haruhi. You want that?"

I groaned faintly in answer, head buried between my arms.

"Sounds good," said Hikaru, brushing off my vague reply. "You wanna watch a movie or something?"

I ceded a nod, and soon Hikaru got up and left again. After a moment listening to the distant banging coming from the kitchen cupboards I sighed and shuffled up to a cross-legged position. I glanced around blearily and went to retrieve the TV remote.

Settling back on the couch again, I started to flip through the channels with unblinking indifference. My eyes started to blur over and I blinked just as Hikaru shuffled back into the room with two bowls of steaming noodles, which he set on the table in front of us before hopping down on the couch next to me.

"So, what're we watching?"

I glanced back at the screen in time to register the middle of a passionate kissing sequence. "Um," I said, "not this."

I hit the channel button as Hikaru smirked and stretched. "Good, 'cause that would be gross to watch while we're eating."

"Nn..."

"Hey, I still got those old horror flicks from Haruhi, wanna watch those?"

"Yeah..."

Hikaru leaped off the couch and uncovered the DVDs in question. I watched unblinkingly as he stuck one in the player and retreated to the couch again. He had hardly settled before he thoughtlessly reached down and tugged my feet into his lap.

I glanced sharply sideways, eyebrows raised. Hikaru didn't seem perturbed as he rubbed absent-mindedly at the pads of my feet.

"Long day?"

"Was it ever." I considered dissuading him, but it felt much too nice to have him massaging feeling back to my toes. I settled for watching him suspiciously as I lay back against the cushions.

"Why do you hate Valentine's so much, Kao-chan?" Hikaru prodded lightly, his fingers jamming up into the arch of my right foot.

I sighed in contentment and absently corrected him. "I don't hate it."

"So, you just neutrally think it's stupid then."

I tilted my head and then, ceding, closed my eyes. "Yeah, I suppose so. Don't you?"

"Oh, certainly," he reassured me, "but I've also gotten the impression that it's not a bad way to butter you up. How about it?"

"So that's how it is." I grimaced, reopening my eyes, and made a futile attempt to pull my feet away. "Aniki, let go."

"I don't think so." He dug in his fingernails and I stifled a snort.

"Aniki, that tickles. Let go."

Hikaru shrugged, but he obeyed. I sat up and warily pulled my feet under me, out of his reach, and resolved to watch the movie that had started unnoticed. A moment later my brother sighed and flopped down across the couch: his legs hooked over the opposite arm and his head fell into my lap.

I stared down at him ruefully. "Hikaru."

"It's a waste of time to try to understand the rest of the world." He grinned crookedly up at me. "So what if it's Valentine's? We can do what we want."

"I want you to watch the movie," I countered.

"I am watching the movie."

I chewed on my lip to stop from surrendering a grin and reiterated, "I want you to watch the movie without trying to flirt with me."

"But this part's really boring," he protested, petulantly curling his lip.

"Hikaru, they're introducing the characters."

"So? They'll be zombie fodder in ten minutes." He yawned. "Fine...fine, I'll watch the movie. If our fans ever find out this is how you forced us to spend Valentine's..."

"They wouldn't believe you if you tried to tell them," I said at once, shaking my head as I stared down at him. "Phantom of the Opera, really?"

Hikaru flashed a grin. "Hey, you must have liked it if you didn't fall asleep."

"Unlike some of us, right, aniki?"

"If I weren't so nice, I'd hit you right now."

I bit back a laugh and gently lifted his head as I dropped my feet back to the floor and shuffled into a more comfortable position. When I sat back again, my hands in his hair, Hikaru spoke.

"Oh...and Kaoru? I should warn you, there's some really cheesy kissing scenes later, but they're really boring. So just a suggestion, we should make out instead."

"Nice try, aniki."

"See? Absolutely no fun. And I thought younger brothers were supposed to be obedient. That's it, you must be defective. I want a refund." Hikaru crossed his arms and pretended to brood.

"And you're cute when you're frustrated," I said innocently, winding my hands in his hair. "It's no fun if I let you win."

At that Hikaru started to shift up on his elbows, growling low in his throat. "Now I see how it is –"

I only smiled indulgently and pushed him gently back down onto my lap.

"Watch the movie, aniki."

End.

Review please. :3