The Red-Haired League, Act One

"Oreki-san!"

Houtarou looked up from his book, Satoshi from his manga. A distressed Chitanda had stumbled into the Geology Prep room, panting heavily as she held on to the door post. A sparkle could be seen in her eyes, a familiar sparkle that both boys knew far too well. The young heiress of the Chitanda family was curious about something.

"Something... has happened!" she exclaimed, gasping for air.

"Alright, I'll look into it." Houtarou answered. He could see from the corner of his eye that Satoshi was now glaring at him with wide eyes from across the table.

"Ah... but I have to run... some errands first," she managed, still not having caught her breath. "Please... excuse me... I'll be back later!" And with a slam of the door, she was gone, returning peace and quiet to the room.

"...What in the world was that?" Satoshi asked, breaking the silence.

"Who knows. You tell me." Houtarou muttered, concentrating on his book again.

"No, I don't mean that. I mean you." he spoke, causing Houtarou to look up and cock an eyebrow at him.

"Normally you at least try to get out of helping her, but not this time. You agreed right away. What's going on?" he inquired.

Images of falling cherry blossom petals and the scent of jasmine crossed Houtarou's mind.

"Nothing." he smiled, ignoring any further comments or questions from his best friend.

"Sorry for taking so long!" Chitanda chirped as she slid open the door and entered the club room, followed shortly by Mayaka. Satoshi's eyes narrowed slightly at the sight of her.

"It's okay, Chitanda-san. So, tell us. What seems to be the problem?" he asked merrily, plastering his trademark smile on his face.

"Well..." Chitanda started, looking at her dearest and most precious friend, silently encouraging her.

"Yeah... I, um-" Mayaka tried, but stopped and stared at her Fuku-chan. Or actually, he wasn't quite hers, not officially at least. Maybe that's exactly the problem, Houtarou wondered. An uncomfortable silence settled over the four members of the Classics Club.

"Uhm, Mayaka-san... If you don't tell him, he won't be able to help you..." Chitanda said worriedly, softly reaching for her friend's shoulder. Mayaka jumped at the sudden contact, waking up from her thoughts.

"Ah! Yeah, you're right." Her gaze lingered with Satoshi for a few more moments before she switched her attention to Houtarou.

"Something has been stolen from me." she stated clearly.

Houtarou stared back at her, almost indifferently.

"...A manga book." she explained hesitantly, glancing at Satoshi once more. "I promised the president of the Manga Society I'd show it to her. I went to the bathroom, and when I came back, it was gone."

"Hum, that really is a problem. Did you look for it?" Satoshi asked innocently, choosing to ignore the obvious tension.

"Of course I looked for it, you dummy!" she snapped at him, clearing her throat shortly after and regaining her composure. "I looked everywhere- it was one of my favourite books. But I just couldn't find it! I went back home, thinking I'd probably remember where I put it later, but when I searched again the next day, I still couldn't find it. I asked the other members if they'd seen it anywhere. As soon as the president heard about this she offered to help me look, and we all ended up searching for it together. Even so, we found nothing."

"That certainly is very strange..." Satoshi remarked.

"I agree, Fukube-san, but it's not nearly the strangest part!" Chitanda almost screamed with excitement.

Great.

"Chii-chan is right," Mayaka continued, "It gets weirder. The next day, I got a very strange text from a number I've never seen before... It says," She paused shortly to fish her phone out of her bag. She flipped it open and pressed a few keys.

"It says, 'I have what you seek. Today, you may retrieve it where young love first sprouts its wings, as the sun bids this world farewell in his chariot of gold.'" she read from her screen.

A short silenced ensued. Houtarou could practically hear everyone's brains cracking, their hearts racing, trying to decipher the meaning of this message.

Too easy.

"And?" he sighed. He might as well get this over with as soon as possible.

"Ah. I was hoping you could tell me... about the first part. I think I know what the last part means. This person wants to meet me at sunset." Mayaka said.

"I think so too," Chitanda joined in eagerly, "'the sun bids this world farewell in a chariot of gold'... This definitely means a sunset. There is a Japanese poet who is well-known for this odd way of describing the skies. We recently discussed his works in class!" She clasped her hands together in pure joy. Her excellent memory never failed to surprise.

"That sounds about right." Satoshi nodded.

"Good, then we all agree." Houtarou added. He didn't really remember discussing anything of the sort, but he figured a sunset could be the only possible meaning of these strange words. "But you say that text was sent to you the second day after you lost your book. Was that today?"

"Uhm, no," she replied, scowling. "But we don't have to worry about that. I've been getting this text every three or four days, really creepy. That's actually the reason why I talked to Chii-chan about it in the first place. I think we can still meet him, we just have to wait until the next day I get the text. I got the last one yesterday, so we still have some time until the next one."

"Right. So about the first part..."

Everyone held their breaths like some sort of revelation was coming, a moment suprême. They all looked at him expectantly, Chitanda more so than anyone else. He took a moment to appreciate her beautiful, hypnotizing eyes, gazing intently at him, her small hands clenched into fists, the way she stood on her toes, as if straining to hear what he had to say, her long, dark hair cascading down her shoulders, the soft curve of her rosy lips...

Not good.

"Satoshi." He said suddenly, shifting his gaze outside, keeping his eyes fixed on the setting sun.

"Yeah?" his best friend replied with a smile. He knew the green-eyed boy was onto something.

"Purely hypothetically speaking," Houtarou started, still not making eye contact. He tried his very best to sound nonchalant. He hated to admit it. He hated it so much that he wanted to plant his face into the desk in front of him, scream at the top of his lungs out of pure frustration, but he wanted to impress Chitanda. He'd put up a little show. "Suppose you were a girl, and you wanted to confess your love."

"What?!" Mayaka blurted out. "What does thathave to do with anything? Oreki, this really means a lot to me. Please just try-"

"Hold on, Mayaka." Satoshi smirked. "Yes, Houtarou. Suppose I was a girl."

"I'd really like to know as well, Oreki-san." Chitanda interrupted him. "I don't see what being a girl has to do with this at all. Do you have reason to believe the culprit is a girl?" Houtarou noticed she avoided the confessing part. She spoke very seriously, trying to get to the bottom of this case. If Chitanda valued anything more than her family duties or good manners, it was Mayaka.

Or me.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but the last time you saw this manga, you were at the Manga Society, right?" Houtarou asked, shaking off that last thought and turning to look straight at the victim.

"Yeah." she nodded.

"Then it's more than likely that someone from the Manga Society took it, don't you think?"

"...Yeah, I guess. I hadn't really thought about that..." she replied after a short silence, a slight frown forming on her face.

"And the Manga Society. All the members are girls, aren't they?"

"Hold on! When I told them I lost it, they all helped me look for it!" she suddenly burst out. "Are you saying it's one of them?!"

"Wouldn't you help out if you were the culprit? Not helping would be more suspicious. Besides, she has your phone number." Houtarou answered, slightly raising his voice.

"Alright, alright! Calm down, you two!" Satoshi intervened when he noticed the dread on Chitanda's face. "Mayaka, I know you're worked up about this, but you have to trust Houtarou. He only wants to help." He smiled widely at her, earning a crimson red blush in return. Houtarou couldn't believe it. Satoshi was actually taking advantage of Mayaka's feelings. He'd never do that to Chitanda...

"I- I- I know that." she stuttered.

"Well then, Houtarou," Satoshi said with satisfaction, "I am a young girl in love."

"Right," the green-eyed boy answered, clearing his throat. "And you want to confess. Where would you do it?"

"Well, I guess if I were a girl, I'd slip a letter into my beloved's locker."

"That you would. But what would the letter say?"

"Hm..." the walking database pondered, letting his imagination run wild. "Well, I don't think I'd confess my undying love on a piece of paper. I'd want to do it in person." he thought out loud, looking down and putting his hand to his chin. "...Are we talking clichés here?" He looked up at his best friend.

"Exactly."

"So 'where young love first sprouts it wings'..." Mayaka started.

"Ah! I know now!" Chitanda putting her hands together as if she could trap her thoughts between them. It was a small gesture, it meant very little. But it meant the world to him, and more. She always did that. He loved it when she did that. It meant he did well, it meant he had satisfied her.

"She wants to meet you behind the school building!"

A/N

First and foremost, I want to express my deepest gratitude to everyone who REVIEWED the first chapter! You have encouraged me to start writing this chapter, and you kept me going every time I wanted to just give up and leave. THANK YOU SO MUCH, Gregg Kygrykhon, Maro, momoxtoshiro, AliPieRainbows, Anonymous Alice, PrincessChii and lovelysickness! This chapter wouldn't be here without you! Speaking of this chapter...

WHAT HAVE I DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOOOONE. Ohmygawsh it's not like the first chapter AT ALL! There's no fluff! I tried to squeeze a few moments in there but it didn't really work out, huh... Writing is harder than I thought it'd be lol. Now I know why there's so little high-quality fics out there. I'm so sorry, but I want to get this plot right (I added 'Mystery' to the genres). It's based on Arthur Donan Coyle's "The Red-Haired League", for those of you who know it. If you don't know it, DON'T READ IT RIGHT NOW it will only spoil things haha.

I promise you, I swear it will get better. Fluff will come. It is never far away. I can't say for sure if it will be in the next chapter, though.

Now that we're talking about fluff, you might've noticed this, but there's none for Mayaka and Satoshi. Unlike in the series, Mayaka is hurt pretty bad by Satoshi's rejection, and it might be a bit OOC but I've chosen to do this for a reason. I'd rather have them be uncomfortable together, because even though it's bad chemistry, it is chemistry, and I need something to work with and mold into rainbows and sunsets so they can sprout wings and fly to a magical castle in the sky where they eat clouds with spoons and use stars as ice for their moonlight punch forever and ever and ever.

Thank you so much for reading! Peace~

PS If there's something, anything, that you didn't like about this chapter, please let me know. I'm trying real hard to get the characters right, so if you think anyone is OOC, I'd be more than happy to hear from you.

PPS Chapter three is now under construction! I'm a nice person so I'll give you a small preview!

"Ah, I completely forgot!" Chitanda gasped suddenly, putting down the book she was reading. "There's something I've been meaning to tell you, Oreki-san. It's about the Doll Festival..." Her porcelain skin flushed with a light shade of pink.

Hahaha.