Disclaimer I do NOT own Ouran High School Host Club or its characters/places/etc., Bisco Hatori does. Chapter 2:
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An annoying alarm sounded from the phone on the modern synthetic table, vibrating against the hard surface with a clicking rattle to alert it's owner of the necessity to wake. Blonde hair sticking to the white leather of the couch he occupied the night before, Tamaki opened his sleep-stuck eyes, wiping at his sweat dampened face as he stretched his body. Rising slowly above the horizon, the morning sun painted the land outside of the wall of windows in vibrant pinks, blues, and oranges against the dazzling green of the trees, grass and bushes of the brush on the Ohtori property.
He was glad to have woke when he did; the nightmare image of a heavy basement door with both screams for help and mercy blaring from the cracks and a sickening laughter alone made his stomach twist in a bout of illness.
Rubbing at his eyes, he closed them tight, repeating words that had kept him positive in the previous hours while watching his friend diligently cover the bases regarding the situation, closing his eyes tight he allowed his lungs to only constrict once with the left-over sobs of his subconscious. She's alive. Be thankful, she's alive. Nothing else matters, she's alive.Lowering his hands to either side of the body-warmed sofa, he gripped the tough fabric with fingers he willed not to shake, looking to his freshly pressed uniform next to the loud device with a tight smile. Shutting off the alarm, he grabbed the clothes, making his way to Kyoya's private shower to wash the offending images away and focus on a bright new day.
Haruhi was alive today, and that is the only thing he would think about. Well, that and exams... And waking up Kyoya. Clutching the folded pieces of cloth to his chest, he shuddered at the thought. Staying the night with the shadow king certainly had it's disadvantages, tricky housekeepers. Narrowing his eyes, he grit his jaw. It's like they're out to get me...
~O~O~
"Kao... You awake yet?" Face buried in his pillow, his groggy question was muffled as the soft morning light trickled through the window, lapping at his skin with its warm caress.
"I couldn't sleep." The younger twin turned his face to the exhausted form of his brother, his eyes, puffed underneath with a tinge of blue, focused hazily and half-lidded when a face appeared from the midst of sheets and down.
"Yeah." Hikaru croaked, "Me either."
Looking a bit more rough for wear, his skin nearly blended with the white-blue of the sheets surrounding them and his golden-honey eyes were shadowed as well.
"I... I want to see her but I don't... I almost hope she doesn't come to school today." Hikaru grimaced at his own words as they pierced his heart with sharp prickles. Kaoru only nodded, his own face contorted in an odd mix of confused understanding.
"... Almost like-" The younger twin began to speak, trailing before his own verbal thought was finished by his mirror image.
"I don't know what to do."
~O~O~
"BIG BROTHERRRRR!" Her tinkling little squeal came around the thick doorframe in a dizzying blur of blonde, blue and white as she bounded into and across the woodlain room with giggles and the limitless energy of a refreshed toddler on a sugar high from an early breakfast of distasteful cereal.
Within seconds she was on his bed, scuttling up to the groaning boy with his face buried in the depths of his returned cloak, tapping the top of his flaxen draped head with a tiny chubby palm.
"Good morning!" She sang inches away from his covered face. Umehito lowered the black cloth noticing the lights had been flipped on and his single azure orb squinted against the offensive brightness, not out of pain, but annoyance. "Papa told me you're all better now!" Giggles came in waves as she relayed her delight. Stopping short and tilting her head when her brother took to hiding back in the fabric.
"Well, I have to leave early for school today, my friends and I are going to play..." One small stubby finger poked blindly into the downy cloth trying to get the attention of her dear elder sibling until she landed on something squishy.
"Aghhh!" Bolting upright, he knocked the little girl back against the mattress with his body, wriggling and giggling in the crumpled mass of deep crimson velour, he squeezed closed an eye as the robe pooled into his lap. "Alright, I'm up." His croaky surrender turned into a small chuckle as he opened his arms for the girl, laughing and launching into his embrace immediately.
"Good morning, little one." The greeting came flatly with a tight half-smile, as he held the squirming wee child to his chest, enjoying a small piece of joy in his otherwise dreary world, sighing against her tightly pulled pigtails. "Have a good day, okay?"
Pulling back, she flashed a beautiful full-faced smile that seemed to take over her eyes, before running in the direction of the door, calling over her shoulder in her rush.
"I will, you too big brother!~" In a flash her tiny feet had taken her from his room in a similar blur as her arrival, and he smiled bitterly to himself, grabbing the cloth that he had slept with the preivous night, running his fingers over the folds as his lids fluttered down, nodding absently at the innocent sentiment.
"... I..." Blowing out a breath of resignation, he mumbled. "...I don't think that's possible any more."
~O~O~
"Takashi!" Honey-brown irises roved over the empty bedroom, confused with the distinct lack of one tall, inky-haired stoic teen among the sleek minimalist traditional Japanese furnishings and plain white linens. He furrowed his ashen brows, walking swiftly down the halls, looking for his missing cousin in every room, including the kitchens and dining area.
Cutting across the push damp grass, the boards and mats of the dojo proved empty as well as the straw circle while his patience began to wane as his nerves started to send ice spikes down his petite spine. Only one place remained, a dainty shack that they took to sometimes before and after a spar for relaxation and winding down. Rolling his pinkened, bloodshot eyes, he realized that he probably could have searched there first, as his cousin probably had as much sleep as he.
He pulled open the door to the small, sturdy edifice, surprised at the amount of steam that poured from the entry, scalding his skin in brief passing. Seeing the scene before him as the humid fog had cleared, his heart caught in his throat spurring him to rush in to the wet room.
Sprawled on the moisture darkened boards, his cousin laid in an alarming state. Naked, his normal flawless tawny skin was marred with a deep pink, wrinkled with prolonged exposure and swollen with blister. His face was turned so that his cheek was submerged in a shallow puddle of what could be perspiration or condensated water, and though swollen with the excess vulnerability the steam provided, his eyes were sunken with dehydration.
With panicked rush, the elfin blonde threw the large feverish teen over his shoulder, running from the hut in a steady gait across the lawn and into the mansion, with only the safety of the wild-type in mind; getting Takashi cooled and hydrated, they could wait and re-take exams another day.
~O~O~
"Hey!" Rasped a cringing violet-eyed blonde as he cowered, holding out a plastic hanger as he poked the limp arm of sleeping Kyoya. "It's... it's" He gulped past the terrified lump in his throat, voice dissapating into a squeak. "... Time to wake up."
Not a grunt, or movement from the raven-haired teen, entangled in the soft cream colored cotton sheets. Tamaki pursed his lips and took a deep breath, strengthening his resolve he lifted the hanger and whacked the sheet-covered shoulder of the motionless teen timidly. Nothing. Rearing back again for another strike, he steadied his voice.
"HEY IT'S-" Suddenly a hand gripped the end of the blue plastic utensil as eyes as black as night burned into his very soul in bone-shattering slits against sleep-puffed eyes, reptillian and horrifying. Behind bared, clenched teeth, growled the low blood-pressure demon lord as the frightened host king's every nerve jolted with ice and quaked with terror.
"Strike me once more and I will be sure to dismember you, eat your heart and urinate on your rising spirit as I ready myself for the day." The fist released the hanger with a push and Tamaki stumbled back a few steps, head cocked to the side with furrowed brows and a frown curving his features.
"Eh... Eww." Amethyst orbs squinted at the shadow king as he pushed himself to sit upon the mattress, rubbing at his slumber-weary eyes. "That's quite a bit of multi-tasking, even for you, mon ami." A chill ran down his spine as even his stomach quivered with the glare he was shot, jumping back and readying his weapon in cowardly defense at the demon before him. "Eek!"
"No matter." His onyx gaze burned at the face of the petrified Frenchman, with a sarcastically flippant flick of his wrist. "All that can be accomplished, will."
Straightening along the cool smooth wall, the tall blonde gained his composure but his small voice still wavered.
"W-we s-s-still need to pick up Haruhi!" Kyoya grunted at the scene, sitting motionless face contorted in evil lines as he tried to grasp at the concept of being awake. His frantic companion snuck backwards, down the steps and on to the first level of the youngest Ohtori's private quarters, a safe distance away from the wrath of the monstrous waking teen.
~O~O~
"Get Nekozawa Shinsetsuna on the phone." Roared the Ohtori patriarch to his personal assistant as the suited man dialed the phone, talking into the receiver while Yoshio stared out at the streets below.
"Ohtori-sama, Nekozawa-sama is holding on line 1." Stepping away from the bright light of the morning rays, the somber man trailed his thin hand along the polished surface of the office desk, running a finger and thumb along the prickling wires of his mustache.
"That will be all for now. Please, excuse yourself." With a bow from his waist, the assistant left the sparse, sanitary office soundlessy, closing the door with just a mere swish. Yoshio, blew out a small sigh as he wrapped his fingers around the phone's handle, pressing the flashing button.
"Nekozawa-san, this is Ohtori Yoshio. I'm afraid I have come across some rather unsettling information regarding my own son." A raspy breath on the end of the line did nothing to still his otherwise steely nerves. "It has come to my attentions that my son has been wrongfully researching your family and poking his nose in places he doesn't belong. I have called to extend my apologies and to assure you that none such of the like will be happening again. He will be punished severely for his lack of discipline and tact."
Breathy laughter filled the confused aged ear as Yoshio pulled the phone to look at the black device with a bewildered scrutinizing glare, before returning it to listen to the man's reply, as absurd as it was.
"Ah! Ohtori-san! I was just about to phone you to praise the diligence of the boy. Punishment won't be necessary." The joy behind the voice seem a bit too boisterous to be real, but Yoshio was in no position to question it. As relieved as he was to not have to meet the financial wrath of a world-wide company power-house, more so was he not to cut off the only truly capable of his sons.
"... Is that so? Well then, I'm not sure what he was seeking, but, if it doesn't displease you, I at least would like to let my apology stand for any inconvenience it may have caused you." Covering the receiver with a lightly wrinkled hand, he gave a sigh, smiling tightly while he stared at the shining wood below him as the man on the other end spoke.
"Yes, well. Do not worry yourself with his actions. Such application can mean the prosperity of his future endeavors... Ones that I would gladly invest, having met the young man. I was rather impressed." Yosio's obsidian orbs widened at the older man's words, his hair-rimmed lips curving into an easy grin as the pride pulsed through him of the praise for his youngest son resounding in his ears.
"I'll keep that in mind, Nekozawa-san."
~O~O~
Golden and pink luminated red further in glowing orbs of skyward rain, cottony sentiments sent sentuous cool warm gusts in every direction. Exhilirating, loving, all-consuming. "...You've become irreplaceable to me..." (That's m-me...) "I can assure you, Haruhi, that I will not go away if you do not wish it." (So tender, so real... Intimate yet alien... I know you, but I don't... Why?) "...I don't mind what you prefer to wear, you are handsome either way... You don't always have to walk the shadows alone... I can't see how anyone could call you a monster..." (...Clothes, handsome... Shadows?... Could it be...?) "...I don't deserve someone as beautiful and bright as you..." (It can't be...) Small gusts became turbulent, the skyward rain beamed a bright black, splattering above and slinking down in thick, bubbling droves, coating everything and nothing. Empty. Desolate. Lost with the sound of knocking, pounding with each popping festered blister of the odd paint as the stench of decay blew in icy winds. Oozing through the small craters of the bubbling black in orange fog, drifting through the vast nothing, smooth protective determination, engulfing all. Reassuring. Passionately defensive against the offensive odor and boiling slime until it became no more. Relieving, though dissipating, as winding paths crossed, intertwining in confusing lines. Exalted. Ashamed. Fury. Love. Roads crumbled into grey dust, lifting into the air whirling around, settling the environment in peaceful silver. Serene. Low hums like lullabies though not, swarmed the small groggy creaks swishing about in distant reverberation. "Don't...leave me... I...I love you..." (It seems so foreign... but right... Why is that?) Silver, the world billowed, twisting in folds of shining silk wrapping in buzzing downy warmth, captivating. Heart stopping. Requited. A single glittering speck sending circular waves to spread among the fabric, growing in size white golden rays shooting through, spearing the lustrous cloth like needle and thread, beginning at lazy rotation to twist remarkable speed until nothing but the blinding golden-white shimmered in the still silence. Dimming in streaking swipes, eclipsing the surroundings in gloomy calignosity, growling, screams, cutting through, a shaky whine. "I don't want this darkness! I don't want these souls!" (...I don't understand...) A solo flame flickered to life, building, instantaneously snuffed cold with a resounding boom, shaking the twilight with deafening rushes. Fear. Stark horror. Wide welling brown eyes approaching from afar, irises boiling to sickly yellow, retreating back into endless black that splattered in chunked crimson. Spiralling in streaks, the red and inky black fading into brown green waves shimmering in deep blue outline. Nauseating regret. Sorrow. Melting away like the wax from a candle making way for a kaleidoscope of blurred pastels. Relief. Comfort. Darkening, solidifying as dazzling crystal sprouted, glinting refracted rainbow beams, rumbling roared in mute as a low hiss worked to muffle words like song. "I love you, Haruhi...I don't want to leave your side...I won't leave you to the bitter cold forsaken. I wish this... Will you grant me this wish, Haruhi?" (Why do I want to scream yes? ) Crystal inflated, growing in size until popping with the fragility of a bubble and the sound of shattering glass, revealing a maze of mirrors. Confusion upon reflection. Lost. Unsure of the path. A clearing. A decision. Ribbons of flames blew through the murky whirl, in spectacular glory as energy for the transfer, readying as it dipped lower, igniting the murky fog swishing around the ring of cloth. Engulfing, absorbing. Cleared. A bitter smile of a love lost, but not. (What... is... this...?)
