Hello! Today (May 5th) is Children's Day, Cinco de Mayo, and (more relevantly) Mori's birthday! :D This chapter is dedicated to Mori. Lol.
Haruhi sat and waited patiently as Mori went to change into his street clothes. She had just witnessed over an hour of Mori annihilating one opponent after another, showing an interesting side of him that Haruhi had never quite seen. Holding his scarf and Honey's hat in her lap, she watched the other members of the kendo club file out of the dojo, some of them still looking defeated and worn out. She observed their expressions and mannerisms, getting lost in the shuffle of their feet, their inaudible sighs, the white knuckles of their clenched fists…
"Haruhi?" a startling voice from beside her asked.
"Ah, Mori-senpai!" she said, snapping out of her trance and standing up. "You were very impressive. It is amazing that you could keep your stamina up for so long and defeat so many skilled competitors. It must have taken a lot of training and discipline to get to this point."
Mori gave a nod and then looked about himself once. Not finding what he was looking for, he asked, "Where is Mitsukuni?"
"Oh, he called a car and went home about half an hour ago," Haruhi answered.
Concern flashed in Mori's eyes, and he gave her a questioning look.
"He said he felt sick," Haruhi added, "and he said it may have been from eating too much cake."
At hearing this, the concern on Mori's face was replaced by some unidentifiable emotion.
"Are you going to go visit Honey-senpai now to check and see if he's okay?" Haruhi asked.
"Maybe later," Mori answered as he looked off into the distance, surprising Haruhi a bit. She had the fleeting thought that his tone conveyed a lack of concern for Honey, but she knew that that couldn't be accurate. Seeing the confused looked on her face, he added, "I'm sure he'll be fine."
"Oh… okay then," Haruhi said, figuring that Mori was probably correct because of familial instinct or something. "Well, I suppose it's time to go home now."
Not sure if she wanted to stick to their earlier plans now that Honey was absent, Mori asked, "Would you like me to call a car?"
"To pick me up? No, that won't be necessary. You don't have to do that," she assured him. "Thank you, though. I can just walk the rest of the way home."
"I'll walk with you, then."
"Oh, no, you don't have to do that," she repeated, not wanting to trouble him any further.
He gave her a look that told her that he wasn't going to take no for an answer, and then he looked pointedly at the hat and scarf in her hands, which she immediately put on in response.
"You're right, it's better that I don't walk alone. It will probably be dark soon," she replied even though he had not specifically articulated these sentiments. "Thank you, Mori-senpai. You really are very kind."
Instead of responding, he silently walked ahead, leading her out of the dojo.
When he pushed the door open, Haruhi exclaimed from behind him, "Oh, look, Mori-senpai! It cleared up!"
The atmosphere outside was a stark contrast to the one they had encountered earlier. The sun was just beginning to set in a sky that was completely free of the afternoon's gray clouds. Deceptively warm-looking orange hues painted the expanse above, casting a soft golden light upon the earth.
"It's so pretty," Haruhi said appreciatively as Mori shut the door behind her. "It's a perfect time to walk home, don't you think?"
"Mhm."
They began to walk, this time with Haruhi doing most of the talking. When Haruhi ran out of things to say about the host club and the kendo matches and her homework for the weekend, they walked on in silence. Haruhi was pleased, however, to find that the silence was not at all uncomfortable but rather very pleasant.
Quietly, as not to disturb the newfound tranquility too much, she said, "You know, Mori-senpai, usually when I'm around members of the host club, it's all noise and chaos, but... this is different. It's nice."
He gave a small smile down at her, but it was lost on her as she gazed contentedly at the now half-set sun. As the sun continued to sink in the sky, the temperature dropped significantly.
When she began to wrap her hands absentmindedly in Mori's scarf, he asked, "Cold again?"
Snapping out of another trance, she looked down at her hands and gave a short laugh.
"Yes, I suppose so. It's fine, though-"
Without missing a beat, Mori quickly but gently took her right hand in his and continued forward as if nothing had changed. Momentarily surprised, Haruhi nearly tripped over her own feet, but she immediately got her feet back on the same page as her brain and fell back in step with Mori. She easily convinced herself that he was simply repeating the earlier gesture and nothing more, and she was once again thankful for the warmth he supplied.
At one point, he halted and let go of her hand, only to move to her left side and take hold of her other now ice-cold hand. She chuckled at the tall, ever-observant host, and this time when he smiled, she noticed and was at first lost for words. A look of wide-eyed wonder came over her face, but then she returned a smile up at him gratefully as two tiny wisps of oblivion floated on the night air and then were whisked away by the chilling breeze.
I hope Mori-senpai likes his present. XD
This is a three-shot, so the next and final chapter will be posted next week.
Please review! :) Thanks to all who have reviewed so far: Kyoton (first! XD), paigeydoll, kiera-sama, Red Amnesia, Mata7Ashita, and At the Heart of the Storm.
-Skye
