It's been nearly a year since I've published a second chapter to this. Honestly, I forgot about it all! Life likes to get in the way, and I do apologize. I promise I will try my best to post often. After all, I'm always a sucker for Ouran. :) Thank you all for your encouragement. Reviews definitely put a smile on my face.

That same day he met Hana, the academy was so clear and still—it was as if Ouran was trapped in a jar. His dark eyes traveled down to the heavy tome that sunk into her lap. It had no etching of an author, no cover, and no title. A gray-covered book with yellowing pages. He noticed that she had neatly folded the corner of a flimsy page to mark where she had left off once he came into view. He felt a little bad, really, that he disturbed her peace. She seemed so invested in her book, but the way she looked at him with those verdant eyes made that feeling disappear in thin air.

Silence hung over them. Her voice, lumpy from lack of use, coughed out some words. "The book?"

"Hm?" He gave her a quizzical look, and her lips stretched into a smile.

"It's Macbeth. Shakespeare. Have you read it?"

Mori shook his head.

"Is Shakespeare included in the Japanese cur...curriculum?" The girl flushed at her fumble of words. Hana practiced diligently every night to articulate her speech. She feared her words would slur. She was relieved when Mori made no clear expression on his face, though she was starting to realize that maybe that's how he simply is. The taller man shook his head no. "Have you read any yourself?"

Another no. Hana wrinkled her nose.

"Macbeth is... interesting. It's taken in Scotland. Witchcraft... prophecies, violence, assassination... and murder. A lot of Shakespeare's works tend to... include that theme." There was something otherworldly in her manners and appearance, Mori noticed. Her dark lashes and the curve of her mouth. She was most certainly not plastic, unlike many other girls in the school. She wasn't loud, but she wasn't shy. She blushed, but he was sure that it wasn't from his presence. She was deaf, yes, but he could tell that she loved to talk. He loved to listen. It was her intelligence that captured him.

She was small in frame, and could easily pass as a first year. Yet once she opened her mouth she was composed and wise, as if she moved through the world with knowledge beyond anything he had encountered. She didn't fawn over him like most, and it was new. Fresh, actually. He wasn't quite accustomed to that yet.

"If you'd like," he watched her tiny hand run over the front of the book. "when I'm finished, maybe you'd like to read it? It's, uh, it's in English. I'm sure my obasan has a Japanese copy somewhere..."

She lives with her aunt? Mori thought. A foreigner transferred from England to Japan. Either her mother or her father is Japanese, he concluded.

"I'd like that." He said in response, and her expression lit up from reading his lips. The sun hit at just the right spot between crevices of the trees and warmed her hair. It was so vibrant and lovely that it didn't even look like a color anymore. He knew that she couldn't hear it, but birds chirped and fluttered their wings over the gazebo. A cardinal perched on the railings behind her and tilted its crimson head, wings shifting and pulsating at its sides.

When the wind hit, her hair flew and she squeaked again. A mouse. That thought hit him once more like a sack of bricks, and he hid his embarrassment at that comparison. He got a good view of her hearing aids as she moved her head, gazing at the beauty Ouran had to offer.

He was curious. His intense stare was glued onto the girl as she soon patted down her once-neatly-kept locks, emanating a rare and stifled giggle that was childlike.

"Hana." Mori whispered. He knew she couldn't hear. Not to mention that she was busy laughing at the sharp wind that ravaged her hair. But her name easily rolled off his tongue, and Mori liked the way it felt in his mouth, and the way it whispered in his ears.

"Ah," she sighed, standing up from her seat. "I should probably head home. Um," Hana looked at him, clutching her book close to her chest. "I'll be here tomorrow again... same time. Would you... like to join me again? I... don't know many people here, and I'd like the company."

Hana. Flower. Those words were now woven in his brain. The cherry blossom trees stood gracefully over the courtyard, around the gazebos and crowning the girl in front of him. They were delicate, just like her.

His nod was enough to satisfy the girl, and gleefully she grinned and bowed slightly, grabbing a fistful of her skirt and lifting it so it wouldn't drag along the grass as she walked towards the path. He would have offered to walk her to her ride home, but she was too quick. He watched her from afar, making sure she arrived at the front of the building safely.

It was a goal of his to be at that very same spot again. He hoped, for the sake of his budding feelings, that she would be there too.

Hana's cheeks glowed with life when she saw him the very next day. The sun circled around her, creating an aura of fervor and passion. Her dark brown, almost red hair was up in a ponytail today, with a few loose strands framing the sides of her freckled face. Macbeth was heavy on her lap, and she was clearly much further into the book than she was the day before. There was that same cardinal behind her, trilling and flapping its beautiful wings. It flew away swiftly as Mori approached her, sitting a good arm's length adjacent to Hana.

"I was looking forward for you to come," she joyfully hummed, reaching in her bag and pulling out another book. Macbeth. "I found a Japanese copy in my obasan's library. I... I don't think she'll notice it's gone. I never see her there."

He hoped that it was no trouble. The last thing he'd wish would be for her to get in trouble, but he was grateful that she went out of her way. He took the book and nodded his head as a thank you. Hana smiled again. She had dimples, he noticed. And she seemed much, much happier.

Mori didn't want to admit it, but he was staring at the clock as the host club was in session. The ticks and tocks were embroidered in his head, waiting for the hours to be over. He wasn't a cynical person. He never liked to think of himself that way, anyways. But the squeals of the girls at the club room was... unbecoming. Annoying, if that's the correct word. But he never realized it until he was sitting down, serving the girls some tea and watching Mitsukuni share his sweets with the ladies. His cousin's childish charm swooned them all, and Mori's short, curt responses made them shift in their seats.

Hana was so different. He knew her for two days, and he found himself looking forward to seeing her. He glanced over his shoulder during lunchtime to see if he'd catch her standing in the lines or sitting alone. When the final bell rang, he strolled through the halls with his cousin roosting on his shoulders, dark eyes darting from student to student to see if he caught those familiar curls.

Nobody knew of his blossoming friendship with this girl. Nobody was aware of the feelings he tried to shove down to the pit of his stomach.

It's too soon. Too quick.

"It's not an... easy read," she interrupted his thoughts, which he was very grateful for. "especially if you've never read his stuff before. Let me know if you need some help."

The sky was a clear blue and the air was calm. It was a better day to read without much of nature's distractions. He flipped open the book and began to scan over the kanji. Hana was not wrong—Shakespeare was difficult. It was colorful, elaborate, and poetic. He wondered if there was a copy somewhere with a smoother translation rather than the exact. He looked up and licked his lips, parting them open to ask her a question once he was invested, but he saw that she was so immersed and devoted to the play. He would hate to distract her.

Mori was still in the first act, and he caught himself going back and forth from reading and glancing at the foreigner next to him. She'd do this thing where her nose would wrinkle and twitch when deep in thought. She played with the back of her post earrings—it was pearl, but it looked fake. He never knew a girl at Ouran who had fake jewelry, apart from Haruhi if she even had any. She probably cared less for materialistic things. Hana bit her nails, too. It wasn't the best habit, but it could be worse. It made her... real.

He arrived to the fifth scene. Had he gotten this far already? He continued to read diligently until he came across a line that stopped him in his tracks.

Hana looked up when Mori tapped on her shoulder, and she offered him a wide smile. Her bottom front teeth were slightly crooked. It gave her character.

"Are you stuck?" she asked with nothing but curiosity. He pointed at the line, and she leaned over to read it. It took her a second to register the kanji, for Japanese was not her first language.

"Look like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under it."

"Ah," she started. "She is advising Macbeth onto killing Duncan. She's en...encouraging him to look innocent, to act innocent. Welcome him with open arms without letting him know his true intention—to kill him." Hana observed his fixed gaze on the pages, and she grinned again. "In the play it has one meaning, but outside of it... the quote can have many different ones. Someone can look the opposite of what they're feeling or thinking. Serpents are... they uh, symbolize rebirth, or wisdom, or death. Maybe all of the above. We all have serpents inside us shedding its skin. We just have to determine and decide what it rep... represents.

"Is it a different version of us that we are hiding? A good one, or a bad one? Is it someone that we want to be? Is it someone else in our life?"

He was silent for a long time. The quiet came in patches, in between the birds and the slight rustling of the cherry blossom trees. Hana was blushing.

"I-I'm sorry. I got a bit... carried away. You can tell I read a lot. Maybe... a bit too much."

There was a shy, almost shameful laugh, and Mori was quick to shake his head.

"No. It's okay," he said. "Thank you."

It made him think, really. Did they all have serpents inside them? He wondered what kind the girls at the host club carried. Some with good intentions, some with terrible ones. He would have never thought of the quote that way, and he was thankful that he had Hana next to him. She was intuitive.

She played with her earring again and looked away bashfully, her eyes trailing back to the words in her book.

Mori's mind was clockwork now.

What kind of serpent did Hana carry inside her?