"What we anticipate seldom occurs; what we least expect generally happens."
– Benjamin Disraeli
Chapter 2: Magnetic Distraction
Kyoya Ōtori pushed his glasses up his nose, the light gleaming off the lenses for a split second before he cast another irritated glance over at his friend.
'Again I have to ask myself, how does he rope me into these things?'
There was a logical explanation to it all, of course. For once, Kyoya could understand Tamaki Suoh's actions since the previous day. The last time King of Ouran Host Club had been asked to "take care" of a young woman had ended in near-disaster, said incident being the near absolution of the Host Club and Tamaki almost being whisked off to France.
Kyoya shared some of his friend's apprehension. He'd been visiting the Suoh mansion the morning was attempting to drown out Tamaki's ranting about the new school year so he could focus on his estimations for club costs when Yuzuru Suoh requested that Tamaki "take care" of a scholarship student he'd decided to admit into Ouran Academy. After the chairman of the Academy left, Kyoya had had to shove aside his work in order to reassure the then half-panicking Tamaki that he would be there with him to greet the girl.
To emphasize his point, he automatically launched into his standard research routine, Tamaki leaning over his shoulder the entire time. Said information now resided in one of his omnipresent black notebooks, which he decided to peer at once again.
Rin Tamashizaki – a fairly uncommon name. Ouran Academy didn't have any young ladies with name "Rin" currently in attendance. The girl herself also came across as uncommon; for starters, she was a newly accepted scholarship student entering her second year of high school. That little tidbit of information had caused Kyoya to raise an eyebrow. Since when did Chairman Suoh feel the need to pull strings for a commoner? In particular one who was registered as lower class and without any ties to speak of? What sort of benefit was there to this exercise?
After discovering that the Tamashizaki girl was not part of a company looking to buy anyone out, Tamaki had calmed down considerably but Kyoya only became more absorbed in what he was finding. The more he read of the minimal information in her developing school profile the more intrigued he became.
Unfortunately his hunger for continued fact-finding went temporarily unsatisfied as the new school year called for more pressing issues. Like the club's finances, for instance…
That morning, he'd printed out his minimal information and inserted into its own little notebook, placed alongside the countless others he'd accumulated over the years. He'd looked at it while riding in his personal limo, and now he was looking down at it again while awaiting the arrival of Ouran's new, currently second scholarship student.
"Kyoyaaaaa," Tamaki whined, leaning heavily against the third son of the Ōtori family's shoulder. "May I see her picture again, pleeeaaaase?"
"Haven't you seen her picture enough times already?" Kyoya snapped the notebook shut in irritation. "It hasn't been altered, I assure you."
"But what if I've already forgotten what she looks like?" the blond third-year wailed. "Oh, how horrible would it be if she had already passed by and I hadn't greeted her? How could I possibly call myself a Host?"
Kyoya groaned inwardly. He was glad to still have Tamaki here, no doubt about it, but it didn't dull those frequent sudden urges to throttle the idiot.
With a quick movement, Rin Tamashizaki's folder was opened once more. Tamaki pored over the printed photograph, every inch of his face fixated in comic concentration. Kyoya looked down at the familiar photograph as well, though not quite as intently. He'd already memorized her appearance; the photograph depicted the girl from the year prior, her dark auburn, almost brown, hair reaching just past her shoulders in slight waves, shining a dull copper color in the flash. Her eyes were a dark blue-green, teal he supposed, large and intelligent. Her skin was quite possibly paler than that of even Umehito Nekozawa or the Hitachiin twins, a perfect contrast to the black and white sailor uniform of her previous high school.
Not bad, but nothing to go insane over. The only thing interesting to Kyoya was the amount of information he hadn't uncovered yet. Until then, he was stuck waiting for this new girl alongside his best, albeit warped friend, who was still poring over Rin Tamashizaki's file.
…
The limousine pulled up to the gate of Ouran Academy's elaborate gates, and the two redheaded teens stepped into the morning sunlight.
"Well, here we are," Hikaru said cheerfully.
"Yup," Kaoru agreed, not bothering to look over his shoulder as the limo pulled away. "New year, new students, new guests…"
"… new toys."
Kaoru raised his eyebrow at that last remark. Toys. So, he'd gone back to that train of thought again. Typical. It seemed to be Hikaru's way of dealing with his emotions: become possessive, and manipulate things to his liking, not all that differently from Tamaki.
And, like Tamaki, when things didn't go as he wanted, Hikaru's emotions often got the better of him.
Correction: always got the better of him.
Kaoru sighed mentally. Come to think of it, even he liked the idea of a new "toy". Maybe it wasn't the nicest thought in the world, but it would be nice to find someone new to "play" with.
'And keep them…' he added to himself.
There was a light touch on his forehead which snapped him out of his musings. Hikaru's eyes were glinting with their usual mischief.
"Tag! You're 'It'!" he said with a laugh, and darted across the courtyard.
Kaoru blinked but began to laugh and took off like a shot after his brother. It may have been childish, but it was great way to start the school year. Maybe they'd run into Haruhi before having to report to class.
…
"Whoa…" Rin couldn't help but gasp as she took in her surroundings. 'This place is really a school?'
The view she'd received before walking through the double-doors hadn't been deceiving: the main hall was enormous, easily holding the swarming students, their chatter echoing and reaching the high ceiling where overhead she saw the glittering chandeliers. Along the walls were excellent paintings, though whether they were rendered by students or professionals she had absolutely no idea. Exquisite was a word that could definitely be applied here.
She stood stock-still to take it all in. She'd seen Ouran Academy from the front gates but never on the inside. She realized suddenly that perhaps she ought to have taken up the chairman's offer for a personal escort around the campus before the new term. Maybe she wouldn't have been in such a state of culture shock.
'Can you see all this, Mom? It's even ritzier than we'd imagined! I wonder if everything in the bathrooms is automatic.' She snickered to herself. 'I sounded like Mi-chan right there. If she were here, that'd be the first place she looked into, hehe!'
The thought of her sister brought down a slight wave of sadness.
"Nee-chan!"
She shook herself mentally. Her sister wasn't here. Nobody was here. They didn't care, and the only one who had was no longer around.
That was the whole damn problem, now wasn't it?
"Kyoyaaaaa!" She was startled out of her thoughts by someone's loud wailing. She cast a curious glance in the direction of the commotion and stared as a tall young blond clung and harped to another equally tall student with glasses and jet-black hair and looking rather vexed at his companion's actions.
'Talk about overacting,' she thought with a sweat drop, but felt herself crack a little smile. 'I guess all these rich people can afford to act weird. I wonder if they're all as loony as that guy.'
…
"Hey, Hikaru, wait up!"
"Catch me if you can, Kaoru!" the elder Hitachiin twin taunted, turning around to stick his tongue out at his younger brother as he ran.
It was at that moment, in one of those inexplicable twists of anime fate, a banana peel was casually tossed aside and in the direct path of the backwards-running Hikaru Hitachiin. He never saw it, he never expected it. One moment, he was taunting his brother. The next? He was waving his arms wildly, yelling and turning around, totally unable to stop.
She heard the yell and turned only a split second before she was sent flying backwards onto the cold marble floor with a yelp, the impact causing the pain of her cracked ribs to shoot through her body.
In the middle of his scrutinizing over the new girl's picture, Tamaki was interrupted by the sound of hollering and someone letting out a yelp before he and Kyoya caught sight of a familiar lanky redhead doppelganger falling onto another person with a crash.
'Right in the ribs!' Rin squeezed her eyes shut and breathed inwardly with a loud hiss. The weight on top her let out a slight moan. Opening her eyes again, she found a pair of golden catlike eyes set in a pale face looking back at her a little perplexedly.
"Are you all right?" their owner asked. Perplexity was promptly overridden by slight concern, intermingled with evident embarrassment.
She narrowed her eyes at the boy atop her. Ordinarily a person might be flattered to have someone asking if they were okay, but Rin wasn't much one given to normalcy. A quick glance determined he was rather attractive, but that didn't change the fact that his weight wasn't doing favors to her currently throbbing ribs. "Fine, thanks, but would you mind getting off me?"
"Huh?" Perplexity overtook his face again and he looked down, a slight blush rapidly spreading across his pale face. She could understand his reaction – put literally, he had her pinned. If it wasn't for the fact she was incognito, this might have been chalked up as being highly suggestive.
He sat back on his heels, crimson still staining his cheeks as she sat up a little, wincing as she did so. 'Yeah, I knew I should have wrapped this.'
The boy could have sworn he caught the scent of cherry blossoms just then.
"Hikaru!" she looked over the boy's shoulder and found an identical copy of him dashing through the doors, looking very much concerned. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, Kaoru," said the one called Hikaru, looking over his shoulder to give him a slightly embarrassed grin.
The one apparently named Kaoru raised his eyebrow at his doppelganger's current position.
"Don't worry, he had a soft landing," Rin quipped, giving him her own lopsided grin. "I can't say the same for myself, however." At her last statement, she gave Hikaru a meaningful look, which prompted him to jump up and lend her a hand.
"Sorry about that," he apologized, the blush still plastered on his face.
She leaned over and grabbed her bag from the floor, ignoring the sudden realization that her own face felt quite warm. Straightening out a bit, she looked up at him (he was certainly taller than she was, she now realized) with a slight smile and said, "It's okay, but next time you might want to watch where you're going."
"That's my brother for you," the one called Kaoru said, throwing an arm around the one called Hikaru. "He never pays attention to his surroundings."
She just barely caught the mischievous glint in Hikaru's eye before he raised a hand to touch his twin brother's face. "That's because I'm usually too busy paying attention to you, Kaoru."
Catching on, Kaoru put his other arm around Hikaru. "Oh, Hikaru, I was sorry worried something had happened to you! Was I really that distracting?"
She clutched the strap of her bag in bewilderment as the two continued; wild shrieks and swoons erupted from the disturbingly large crowd of mostly girls that had suddenly gathered round. Somewhere in the midst of all the ruckus,she could have sworn she heard a girl yelling ecstatically, "Now this is the way to start the new school year! I'm so happy I could eat three bowls of rice!"
She backed away slowly before dashing towards the red-carpeted stairs.
'Okay, just what the heck have I gotten myself into, Mom? Rich people really are wackos! Again, I ask, is this really a school‽'
…
"Well, it's nice to see that you two never change," Tamaki said pleasantly as he and Kyoya made their way up to the twins, much to the ecstasy of the Host Club fan girls.
"How could we possibly have changed?" Hikaru asked with sarcasm, his arms linked around his brother's neck.
"Yeah, Boss; it's only been two days since you last saw us," Kaoru added, his arms around Hikaru's waist.
"Never mind that," said Kyoya, pushing his glasses up his nose once more. "While it's nice to see the both of you again, did either of you happen to see where that young man Hikaru knocked over ran off to?"
Confusion etched its way onto the twins' faces. Then the image of a person with messy ash blond hair dressed in slacks and an oversized navy sweater and carrying a black messenger bag came to mind. Upon looking around and not finding the boy, they shrugged their shoulders.
"Nope," they said in unison.
"Hmm… odd," remarked Kyoya, making a note in a completely different black notebook. "I've never seen him before."
"Maybe he's a new student," the twins suggested, now unlatched from each other, to the dismay of the crowd.
"Well, we don't have time for a new male student," Tamaki said, brushing his bangs from his now sparkling violet eyes. "We're looking for a new female student."
"Oh?" The twins looked at one another suspiciously before they allowed their gaze to slide back onto the Host Club King.
"Rin Tamashizaki." Kyoya placed his file under their noses to show them the girl's picture. "She's a new scholarship student. A second-year transfer, apparently."
"That's pretty unusual," Kaoru remarked. "Aren't scholarships usually accepted for first-year students only?"
"Yeah, since when did they let that sort of thing happen?" Hikaru asked, raising an eyebrow.
"I'm not certain yet," Kyoya admitted. "However, Tamaki's been instructed to greet her and show her around. As a result, he's turned this into a bit of a new activity."
"Oh, so that's why you're here."
"Yes, we're here to welcome our own new princess!" Tamaki gushed. "And as soon as we find Miss Rin Tamashizaki, she'll be given an open invitation to visit the Ouran Host Club!"
"Tamaki-sempai, will the Host Club be open this afternoon?" one of the girls called out.
In response, the sparkles and rose petals somehow appeared as Tamaki turned up the charm full volume as he announced for all to hear, "Yes, of course! The Ouran Host Club activities begin at the end of the day as usual!"
…
Rin froze mid-step on the stairs. For a moment, she thought she'd heard someone mention her name.
A loud and raucous cheer shook her eardrums violently. No, she couldn't possibly have heard her name. With her school files having been altered, no one looking for her would be able to make the comparison. She had to give Chairman Suoh credit: it was a pretty good little compromise they'd come up with.
She still a bit suspicious as to why he'd agreed to help her, though.
She was so consumed in her thoughts that, in searching for the restroom, she'd almost entered the one designated for ladies out of habit. Retracting her hand from the door, she stepped back and looked around to find the gentleman's restroom door across the hall.
When she walked in she gave a heavy sigh of relief before entering one of the stalls, feeling somewhat winded from climbing all the stairs. She made a mental note that everything in this school must have consisted of gold, marble, and who knew what other expensive materials.
Amusingly enough, everything really was automatic.
A moment later, while washing her hands (the sink and soup dispenser also being automatic, she discovered), she looked up into the flawless mirror surrounded by ivy made of gold and examined her reflection with grim satisfaction.
It was almost too easy, this little stunt. Her hair color from last year's school photo had been a temporary dye job that faded a little over a month afterward. The messy ash blonde in the mirror was just another bottled color; it had been well over a year or so since she'd last seen her real hair color. Her hair was a lot shorter and no longer styled up nicely.
Her eyes weren't the same, either. They were that same dark blue-green, though probably no longer quite so friendly or naïve. No, she could see the edge in them…
She shook her head and put her hands under the automatic blow-drier, giving a bit of a start as the warm air hit them. She could still feel her ribs throbbing. Between falling onto the marble floor and dashing up those ridiculous stairs, she was wholeheartedly regretting not wrapping them up before she left home.
Grabbing her bag, she exited the restroom, having to mutter a hasty apology as she nearly ran into a black-cloaked figure with a bizarre catlike puppet on one hand.
Umehito Nekozawa gave Belzenef an inquiring look before gazing at the retreating backside of the person who'd just emerged from the restroom.
Had it been his imagination, or had he smelled cherry blossoms as the boy walked by?
…
Several minutes later, after hearing the bell and having to ask several teachers for directions, Rin found herself standing outside of Class 2-A.
'This is it. Wish me luck, Mom. I'm gonna need it.'
She opened the door and walked inside, the door closing gently behind her. All around students were chatting, catching up with each other from the sound of it. Behind her desk in the corner opposite from where the sore student stood was the teacher, who was looking up intermittently in-between jotting down notes.
'Must be taking attendance or doing a headcount or something,' she thought as the teacher finally noticed her presence.
"Rin Tamashizaki?" The teacher looked to her inquiringly. She nodded in assertion, much to the teacher's evident relief. "I'm very glad to meet you. I'm Chinatsu Ito. May I see your papers?"
Relieved at having found the right class, Rin reached into her messenger bag and promptly handed over the papers she and the chairman had "gone over" last week.
Mrs. Ito looked from Rin's papers to her own, nodding in satisfaction. "Excellent, excellent." She looked up and gave Rin a pleased smile. "It's so nice to have you here with us, Rin-chan. Please, take a seat. Class will begin shortly."
Rin scanned over the classroom, making certain not to make any eye contact with the stares she was currently receiving. She had to suppress her surprise upon finding the set of twins that had barreled over her in the very back row, now staring at her quite intently
And the only empty seat just happened to be in front of the boy sitting in-between them.
'Those two again? Wonderful! And they just have to be sitting on either side of that boy – wait, boy?' Rin raised a mental eyebrow as she considered the person she'd soon be sitting in front of. 'She isn't a boy…'
…
At the name "Rin Tamashizaki", Hikaru and Kaoru looked up abruptly and found the "boy" Hikaru had accidentally knocked over earlier now standing at the teacher's desk, head hanging low under the stares "he" was currently receiving, courtesy of the other students.
Hikaru and Kaoru exchanged glances as the "boy" walked towards them.
"Excuse me?"
They looked up to find their subject now speaking to Haruhi, who'd looked up from her book in surprise to being addressed.
"Could you tell me if anyone's taken this seat yet?" Rin asked.
"Oh, no," Haruhi replied pleasantly. "Go ahead."
Rin gave her a timid smile as "he" sat. "Thanks."
"I've never seen you here before," Haruhi said, attempting to strike up a conversation. "I'm Haruhi Fujioka. I'm a scholarship student here."
"Rin Tamashizaki," the newcomer returned pleasantly. "I'm also here on a scholarship."
"Wow, that must've been really hard, considered you're a second-year," Haruhi remarked, clearly impressed. "I didn't think Ouran was accepting transfer students."
"Well, technically they're not," Rin admitted, surprised at how easy it was talking to the other girl. 'Maybe it's because I can see right through her. I wonder if she can see through me…' She grinned weakly. "I guess you could say I got really lucky when the chairman let me take the entrance exams."
"I'll say," said Haruhi. "By the way, how were the entrance exams for you? I thought they were pretty tough."
"Yeah, they were," Rin agreed. "Especially this one section about –"
"All right, everyone, please settle down," Mrs. Ito interrupted. "It's time to begin class. Please, turn to page…"
Class droned on as it normally would have, the instructor welcoming everyone back for a new term before giving a lecture, and the students jotting down notes. Ordinarily Hikaru and Kaoru would have pestered Haruhi incessantly just to cause a distraction, but today they had their minds occupied.
Kyoya-sempai had said Rin Tamashizaki was a girl, and had even shown them the picture to prove her existence. But the Rin Tamashizaki sitting before them…
Baggy sweater, ill-fitting black slacks, brown shoes, short messy hair, a totally androgynous appearance, and a voice that wasn't quite masculine… It reminded them of a similar experience exactly one year ago.
"Is it just me –" Kaoru began, giving his twin a sidelong glance behind Haruhi's back as Mrs. Ito wrote on the marker board.
"– or do you get the feeling of déjà vu?" Hikaru whispered back.
Two sets of golden eyes slid over to the seat in front of Haruhi, locking onto the subject who was currently jotting down notes in a slim notebook, only looking up occasionally. Rin Tamashizaki. That was an androgynous name, which didn't help them out any.
Hikaru's mind went back to earlier. He could have sworn he smelled cherry blossoms when Rin had sat up after being knocked down. Boys didn't smell like cherry blossoms. Not real boys, anyway.
Was this the same Rin Tamashizaki that Tamaki and Kyoya had been searching for?
…
In his office, Chairman Yuzuru Suoh scratched his head while looking at his expensive Pineapple desktop computer.
"I know I'm forgetting something…" he muttered to himself. "But what?"
He looked at the papers on his desk, and then a name caught his eye.
"Oh, that's right!" he exclaimed, remembering. "I meant to switch that girl's files out this morning. Silly me."
With a few keystrokes and the correct passwords, he accomplished his task and leaned back in his leather computer chair, grinning smugly.
"There, now. All finished. Hopefully things will play out for the better." He looked out his window and the grin grew even wider. "After what those kids did during the festival, I think they should be able to handle something like this."
A/N: Despite it being cold and drizzly all day long, the night with all the bright lights was actually quite pretty. Amazing where we draw our inspiration from. ^_^
Thank you to SnOandZnT for answering my question about Nekozawa. That helps a lot. ^_^
