Charlockle: I'm back with my second chapter of 'Misinformed', and, I think we're up for a bit of a confusing chapter here! I'm slowly introducing Charlton to the Hosts in my own little way, as well as causing some voids and keeping you guessing about some things... :)
(Also, sorry for the absence of this chapter! I truly thought I'd uploaded it earlier, so for that I'm sorry! New one should be up sooner!)
Enjoy!
When making these decisions to change, you need to be completely sure of what you're doing. Otherwise, you won't be prepared for the consequences. You need to decide whether you're going to tell people. You need to decide whether these changes will be permanent. Don't screw this up now. Don't cause all this trouble for yourself.
The water was ice cold and refreshing as it hit my face. My wrists, cooling in the sink full of fresh tap water were sending the icy vibrations through my circulation, making my whole body tingle. It was too cold out there. All the people, all the girls; it was just breathtaking. I had tried to keep calm in the close proximity of the two twins, Kaoru and Hikaru. I had to practice more.
A small smile crept across my lips as a bead of water hung from my nose. It lingered there for three seconds, before dropping into the pool of water with a soft 'ploop' sound. I had been surprised, by the acceptance I got from this 'Host Club'. The people there were annoying, and they looked about my age, but they were nice-hearted, I could tell.
Looking up into the shiny mirror, I noticed how clean it was. The cubicles behind me were shining, despite being those of the toilets, and the room smelled strongly of lemongrass.
I however, stood out like a sore thumb; my reflection hardly doing myself justice. My thick hair had been permanently dyed in a rich purple, so that it covered my left eye, which in the mirror, appeared on my right, because that's how mirrors work. They're always the opposite of what's there in reality.
My dark grey eyes looked back at me, half closed and tired. I had slight bags under my eyes from lack of sleep, but it just looked like makeup from where I was standing. It was hardly visible.
But was I suitable for the Host Club?
The Host Club.
What was the 'Host Club'?
In a school filled with rich, suave people like Kyoya and Shinzu, I wouldn't have been surprised if the Host Club had been a place where the commoners of the school were gathered and forced to wait upon the rich hand and foot. But that wouldn't explain why there were no 'commoners' there. Everyone in the facility seemed to be fairly rich, and the majority of these were girls.
Girls?
I remembered with a start, how the girls had looked upon Haruhi as she approached me upon entrance. They had looked at her as if she were theirs and theirs only. In fact, I would go so far as to say that they were falling head over heels in love with her. And Haruhi had wanted me to keep her sex a secret, so that would explain how the girls treated her. They thought she was a boy.
All the boys, surrounded by girls. All the boys, working to serve the girls.
Was this what being a Host was all about? Entertaining the rich, wild fantasies of the girls of Ouran Academy may have seemed pretty far-fetched, but then again, these were rich people I was dealing with.
"My God. What have I gotten myself into?"
After ten minutes of pacing and huffing in the bathrooms, I eventually realised where I was and left the toilets as casually as I could. I looked around the huge yellow room twice before noticing that for once, there was nobody there. Nobody at all.
The place was completely empty, so I walked through the centre and approached a huge, red bay window. I could see the entire courtyard from that window. The fountain in the centre of the patio spouted water all through the day: continuing an endless cycle that somehow managed to keep the pools crisp and clear. The grass on the fields around the yard was soft and very, very green. I watched, chuckling silently to myself as a short man attempted to mow the huge mass of slightly overgrown lawn. He was smiling. He looked so pitiful and yet, I was sure he was gaining something from it.
"I wonder what it is."
"Apparently it gives them a sense of accomplishment." A voice sounded from behind me, and I turned around with a start to see Kyoya stood behind me, his hands folded over his chest. He looked down at the man on the grass coldly, his face completely barren of emotion. I watched as he looked literally down his nose at both me and the man. It frightened me, to see a man like this. Was he the typical rich snob, or was it an act? Was he even perhaps, worse than the typical arrogant idiot?
"What makes you say that?" I replied blandly, still watching the man. Something about the way he was trying so hard and smiling in the sunlight made me want to give it a go.
Kyoya obviously disagreed. "Commoners live meaningless little lives. They suffer having to work for the good things in life, so much so that the pitiful creatures become so disillusioned to actually enjoy working." He almost spat, never meeting my eyes, "He was born in a world so bland, and now we watch him as he tries to get into our world."
The man with the lawnmower tripped slightly as the machine appeared to break. I took the moment to wonder why he wasn't using a larger machine, or a vehicle for this job. 'He probably can't afford it.' I thought, just as the man fell forwards and landed on his knees. The lawnmower lost control and sped a few metres ahead, leaving the man to pry himself from the ground. I jumped forwards, a hand involuntarily moving towards the glass to reach out a helping hand that he would never receive. Something took hold of it. Kyoya glared at me, and moved my arm to my side.
"But, as you can see, it doesn't matter how much effort one puts into the job. He simply will never become like us. He will always be a simple commoner."
"What?" I snapped, my head spinning round suddenly. My eyes I could feel, were angry and sharp. I growled through my teeth, taking a step backwards and facing the man angrily. "A simple commoner? Is that how you really see them?"
Kyoya appeared startled. His eyes widened slightly behind his glasses, but he did not move. He simply calmed himself and nodded to me, smirking slyly. "Yes. Do you have a problem with that, Holmes-kun?"
My teeth ground together as I bit back an insult. How could he- how could this man be so insolent?! He was worse than the typical, fat, rich man who sat on his backside all day. He was the manipulative, arrogant bastard who ran the world, who ran the government! In that moment, I knew that I hated Kyoya. He was scum to me.
"Of course I have a problem." I growled. It took me all of my emotional strength to walk past him, shoving him sideways as I went. I did not fear Kyoya, but I did not want to start a fight with another rich man. I didn't know of his power, and I didn't want to know, but something told me that this man should not be messed with.
I settled with a simple, "I have a problem, with scum like you who think they're above everyone else. Remember that Kyoya."
"If you are issuing me with a threat, I can assure you that my family owns-"
"I don't care what megabuck company your family owns, and I don't give a damn about your personal life! But I you talk about another human being like that in front of me again, then you're going to get a punch to that big-ass ego of yours."
I guess, I got the last word for that one. Kyoya never replied, but even if he had, I wouldn't have been able to hear either. My ears were suddenly filled with loud, angry music. It was a melody, coming from a piano. At first, I wasn't quite sure whether it was in my head, or whether it was actually being played. But then I realised, that the tune was coming form the back of the music room. I turned my head slightly, still fuming, to see if Kyoya was responsible for this, but he just stood there with his back to me, looking out over the world like some omnipotent God. He didn't seem at all bothered, by either my insult or the music.
I however, had had just about enough of being angry. The piano was growing softer, and as the notes grew into a more beautiful melody, my emotions began to cool.
The piano had always had that affect on me. Since I was the age of six, my brother had paid for daily piano lessons for me. I had been brought up around the music, and for the majority of my life I had built up a skill set of musical abilities that allowed me to not just hear the music, but to feel the music. It brought back nostalgia of living in London with my family, and drove me to play it.
I looked around, completely forgetting about my little argument with Kyoya, in search of the hidden music. My gaze eventually fell upon a large red door at the back of the room, hidden by a curtain of the same colour.
"That's strange. I could have sworn that wasn't there before." I murmured to myself, pulling the curtain away. The music grew louder as I reached for the brass doorknob. My hand struggled nervously to turn the knob, but I worked up the courage and turned it. The door squeaked slightly, but when it opened I was bombarded by a blast of bold music.
The room was a lot larger than I expected. A huge hall, very darkly lit awaited me on the other side of the door. It was unusually cold in the hall, despite the fact that almost the entire female population of the school was hiding away in here, their eyes fixed on a lit stage at the front. At the back of the crowd, I saw the members of the Host Club from earlier. Haruhi turned and smiled at me as she took notice of my entrance, and I smiled back sheepishly.
"Where's Kyoya?" She mouthed.
"I dunno." I shrugged in reply, mouthing back before moving into the darkest corner of the room and settling myself in.
Haruhi seemed confused to say the least, but went back to watching the stage. It was then that I noticed what was going on.
A man sat on a pedestal, right at the front of the hall. A huge black Yamaha piano stood below him, it's shiny black case glimmering under the spotlight. The man looked about the same height as me, but from this distance I couldn't tell. He had removed his blue blazer, and was wearing his white undershirt loose and free. His hair stuck up on his head; bright blonde and shining. He was, to say the least, extremely handsome. There was no doubting it. His hands moved lightly up and down the piano, embedded in the flow of the music. He looked so pleased, so graceful.
A sharp pain hit my chest as I took in the scene. It reminded me of the nights when I used to play in front of my brother. I would never play in front of anyone else but my brother, and it was our special thing. I wanted to play. I just, wanted to be up there, but with only my brother watching me.
But he was at home, and there was someone else in the limelight.
"Beelzenef thinks you are lonely"
"What?" I turned around sharply to face the shadow I stood in. Did it...just...talk to me?
"Beelzenef can sense these things. He thinks you are lonely."
The shadow cleared slightly and a shape moved out of the corner, thought it was still just as black as the darkness itself. It was a mound, or rather, a man underneath a huge coal cloak. I could barely see his face, but his smile was wide and mysterious. He raised a hand in front of my face, on the edge of it hung a small yellow puppet in the shape of a rather strange cat with the largest diamond eyes. It looked at me funny. I laughed.
"Is this Beelzenef?" I chuckled, patting the puppet on the head with a grin.
Of course, I was completely unaware of the reaction this would provide.
In the blink of an eye the man was on the floor, curled up in a ball and shaking feverishly. Panicking, I glanced around the crowded room to see if anyone was watching, but no-one seemed to notice the peculiar-looking man. As I looked down at him, I noticed that the puppet had fallen off his hand. Slowly and carefully, I bent over and scooped the cat into my hands and inspected it carefully. It was a very unusual type of puppet; possibly a device used for voodoo, or going by the man's attire, the dark arts.
Making sure that no-one else was watching, I gently slipped the puppet onto my right hand. It smelled like lemons, which would have been unusual, had I not been holding a bright yellow cat puppet on my hand.
I looked down at the man on the floor. The shaking seemed to have subsided now and he was looking up at me from underneath his hood. His mouth was in a small 'o' shape, curious as I crouched down onto my toes and moved the puppet towards his face. Once I was sure he was fine with me being this close, I pulled the goofiest looking evil-grin I could manage and said, "Beelzenef is worried."
The man froze momentarily. He smiled. Then he laughed.
It was loud; a strange, cackling laugh that seemed to be drawing an awful lot of attention to our dark little corner. I looked behind me to see about fifty pairs of eyes staring in our direction, puzzled expressions of horror swept across all of their faces. One of the girls burst out into tears.
I glanced at Hikaru and Kaoru for reassurance, but they were looking at me with the same blank expressions too. In fact, the only one who was showing any sort of human reaction, was the man dressed in black, and he was cackling away like a mad serial killer of some sorts.
"Uhm...Beelzenef is confused?" I mumbled to the man, who's laughing was slowing down to a halt, tears streaming down his cheeks and rolling off his pale chin. It was only when he had completely stopped, that I noticed something.
The music was gone.
With a room of people staring at you as if you had just risen from the dead, you never really know how to act, or what to do. In my case, I simply sat there on my toes, looking blankly and smiling stupidly at a man who I had only just met. I didn't know why he had collapsed in a fit of shaking, or why he had just burst into hysterics, but I assumed he wasn't a people person.
Which made me feel good, because I instantly knew I wasn't the only one.
"Beelzenef seems to have made a new friend." The man snickered, rising from the floor and smiling at me sincerely from underneath his hood. I watched as he moved into a position exactly like mine and licked his lips. Being very, very still I let him remove the puppet from my hand. He was very careful, very tender with 'Beelzenef', so I assumed that this was not just a puppet to him. "Perhaps if the new friend was not part of the Host Club, he would join the Dark Arts club."
I blinked. So I was right. This guy was a fan of the dark arts. But, how did he know about- "I'm not a Host...yet." I smiled slightly, out of confusion and kindness of heart, "But, how did you know that?"
The man frowned, and I could have sworn that had his hood not been covering his face at that moment, it would have been full of remorse. "Beelzenef has been following you. We first saw you this morning. We were going to approach you but...Beelzenef frightened one of the girls."
I frowned slightly. Was he answering my question, or was he just rambling?
"The girl jumped. She knocked Beelzenef's friend and...We saw everything that happened. We have been following you to apologise for what we caused, Mister...Holmes. That is how we know."
I was about to speak, to say something like 'it was you?' or 'it's fine', but I was cut off instantly as the man leapt from his toes and onto my person. His arms wrapped around me, holding me in a hug for a split second before he leapt to his feet and pointed Beelzenef into the air.
"Justice has been served!" He shouted, causing all the girls to jump backwards in a strange sort of unison. I flinched as his voice echoed through the huge room and he spun around, running off in the opposite direction. And in a flash, he was gone, and so was Beelzenef.
As the man disappeared into the darkness of the room, a single bead of sweat trickled down my forehead.
Everyone was staring at me.
Charlockle: So...yeah. ^_^" Sorry about the tardiness, and I apologise if my writing skills are diminishing as the story goes on. That happens to me a lot. :P Oh, and I do actually like Kyouya. I just thought I'd give him a different introduction. :)
Wooo, got Ouran full box-set this week! Watched it all in the space of two days! :D
No preview this time, but I'll have the next chapter up this week!