~ Chapter Three ~
~ Reasons NOT to pack a Bento ~
The next morning rolled about quicker than I anticipated, when Hunny came to greet me in all his floral glory I sensed a feeling of déjà vu.
"Morning Tusyu-chan!" Okay, I'll admit it, he's really adorable.
"Same to you Hunny-sempai," I gazed up at the dark-haired boy I knew, now, tailed the small blonde wherever he went. "Morning to you too, Mori-sempai."
He nodded in return, I absently wondered what his voice sounded like, he hasn't spoken since I met him a couple of days ago.
"So, Hunny-sempai, Ootori-sempai told me you had a … proposition for me?" I asked, Hunny let go of me before applying a puppy-dog eyed expression to his face.
"Tsuyu-chaaan, you were supposed to text me about it!" I wasn't exactly certain if he was reprimanding me about the concept or not, I shrugged.
"Texting is a bit of a pain for me, I prefer talking in person." I replied, Hunny frowned, I sighed.
"I'm sorry, I'll text you next time 'kay?" Hunny smiled, Usa-chan's ears bobbed lightly as its owner began to jump up and down.
"Don't worry Tsuyu-chan! You don't have to text if you don't want to!" Hunny cried, but I couldn't help the feeling he was only saying that since he probably still felt bad about the accident he had – somewhat – caused.
"Anyway, Tsuyu-chan! Since you mentioned needing another job, I went ahead and found one for you~!" Hunny exclaimed with a big grin on his childish face, I raised an eyebrow.
"What kind of job?" I had a feeling I would have to be cautious from now on, even though in the back of my head there was a voice telling me there wasn't much to worry about since being a janitor is as close as one could get to the worst occupation ever.
"How would you like to be my guest at my cake parties?" Hunny asked, I frowned.
"Why would you pay me to be your guest?" I inquired, Hunny gave me a thoughtful look that almost seemed sad.
"Because if I asked you after you got a real second job you wouldn't have time to come and visit and have cake with me! Plus Takashi is usually at kendo conditioning, I thought this way we could eat two cakes at once!" explained Hunny.
Doesn't he mean kill two birds with one stone? I faintly wondered as pink and violet flowers appeared out of nowhere and hovered around the small blonde's head.
"Are you…serious?" As I said before, I figured I should be extremely cautious. Hunny was cute, insanely cute, but Kyouya was good-looking in his own right and he was downright manipulative. Hunny doesn't seem like the type to pull something horrible, but he could pull something nonetheless. Hunny peered up at me, the flowers remained where they were.
"Of course I'm serious silly!" he cried, somewhat in disbelief I wouldn't believe him. I blinked at him, weighing the possibilities of this being some sort of joke. Peering up at Mori, I found his eyes meeting mine and the idea suddenly didn't seem so unappealing and outrageous. Still, I had to be careful not to get mixed up in some wicked game.
"I'll think about it," was my reply, Hunny nodded.
"Okay, you can tell me your answer later." The blonde claimed, "oh, by the way Tsuyu-chan,"
"Yes?"
"Your salary would be twelve thousand per party," he claimed, my brain shot out to Pluto.
"…"
"……"
"Tsuyu-chan?"
"……….."
"Tsuyu-chan….?"
"Holy…" my eyes narrowed, "that's not funny Hunny-sempai!"
Hunny instantly appeared hurt.
"W-what?" I crossed my arms over my chest.
"I was expecting like six hundred yen, but twelve thousand?" my voice was growing louder and the warning bell rang through the air.
"I'm not trying to buy your friendship if that's what you're worried about Tsuyu-chan…" Hunny muttered, as if afraid if he spoke any louder he would trigger a violent reaction out of me. I had to refrain from slapping my palm into my forehead, my pride was chomping at me now, ordering me not to take this. Reason claimed this could be a prank as appearances could be very misleading, but my emotions were like huge waves. Crashing and swirling, telling me to do one thing or another.
Hunny is extremely wealthy and apparently trustworthy, my thoughts scrambled together, what would HE gain from this?
Images of the Hitachiins instantly soared into my mind, this would be something they would pull, but not Hunny…
I sighed.
"I'm sorry Hunny-sempai," I apologized, "that was just a little…overwhelming." The blonde grinned broadly.
"Yay~! Then how about-"
"I can't let you pay me though Sempai," I cut in quickly, waving a hand mildly. The warning bell rang again. Mori blinked and Hunny suddenly appeared sad.
"Let me think about this Hunny, you two have to get to class." I claimed before heading toward my homeroom. "Later,"
The two seniors stood there, it wasn't until half a moment later did Mori nudge Hunny into the direction of their homeroom did they move. The blonde clutched at his stuffed rabbit tighter than usual, his eyes brighter than they were a moment ago.
"Honiwa…Honiwa Tsuyu, Takashi?" Hunny peered up at his cousin, Mori nodded.
"Yeah," the stoic one of the two said, Hunny grinned into Usa-chan's ears.
"I thought so," Mori smiled an almost sad smile while he and his bouncy cousin entered their homeroom.
The glossy pages of my Physics textbook glared up at me in all it's befuddling glory. I was close to ripping out my hair at this point, rereading paragraph after paragraph. This wouldn't be so difficult if my mind wouldn't head out to sea with my concentration every other sentence into the text. Across from me was Kyouya, lazily smirking as the light from his laptop's monitor reflected off of his glasses. His fingers were hovering steadily over the keyboard, typing rapidly in between irregular intervals.
At this point in our project, the subject matter still made little sense to me, but damnit, I was trying! Sometimes I wondered if the headmaster and the administration made things perpetually harder for me, everyone else seemed to be doing better, although no one was nearly as confident and smug as the Ootori genius.
There goes the concentration again…why couldn't these alchemists come up with something beneficial – like gluing people's minds in place so they wouldn't wander off!
I wonder what Tamaki ran out of the room for yesterday…damnit!
I hunkered down with my elbows on the surface of the table, eyes focused on the one paragraph my brain has been trying to absorb for the last twenty minutes. Kyouya wasn't one to not comment on my sudden movement.
"Lost and confused are we?" he questioned without looking up from his laptop, I had this peculiar feeling he had already finished the assignment and was simply toying with me until I caught up with him – if I ever did.
"Would you find me if I said yes?" I replied, not fully realizing what I had just said was incredibly cheesy and cliché. When the words repeated themselves in my head I felt my cheeks burn and tried to hide my face by putting the textbook on an angle in front of me. Kyouya chuckled.
"I wouldn't even bother sending a search party," he said, but instead of feeling offended (be it his intention or not,) I thought I heard a challenge in his tone.
"Fine, I'll use a compass," was my retort, I knew how to make one from scratch. Sort of.
"What if it breaks or doesn't point north?"
"It'll lead me to what I desire the most," I replied, inwardly laughing at my trite comebacks, knowing the possibility of my appeal to Kyouya could decline into the negatives.
"Ah, what is it that you want most?" I blinked, the question was innocent, but I heard a dark underlay in his words. Peering over the top of the book and its pages, I found Kyouya's eyes meeting mine.
Hm? He must be referring to 'that,' not like it was a real mystery, but it wasn't a popular conversation topic by any means. I shrugged.
"At the moment, a moment of realization. This…er, book doesn't make any sense. In fact, I don't feel like I'm learning anything at all from this project." It was clear this wasn't what Kyouya was expecting, he adjusted his glasses before returning his hand to his keyboard.
"It takes more than rereading to make something click, perhaps we should do some experimentation on our own. For your sake of course," Kyouya claimed, I raised an eyebrow. Is Kyouya volunteering to spend more time with me?
"We'll start when the Host Club reopens, then you can request me for further guidance. How does that sound?" he added, a smirk playing on his lips.
That sounds terrible!
Around lunch time I began gathering my thoughts, normally I sat by myself or between different groups of friends. During these times I felt like a borderline, like I was the one person that separated others from communicating with each other. Not that it wasn't awkward, it could be tiring.
Students at Ouran were incredibly kind people, despite what some parts of biased society might say. That could be because they're surrounded by happy folk, basically my kind of folk. Those of us who were hired were so because of our nature and precision. Employees at Ouran had to be optimistic, polite, intelligent, and quick onto problems and armed with solutions. Then again, wealthy students were brought up in lavish home styles and with straitlaced grandparents.
That sounded a little hypocritical….
Sipping out from a juice box I packed that morning, I noticed out of the corner of my eye a girl turning her gaze on to me from the next table. She saw the juice box and was immediately on my case.
Reasons for NOT packing a lunch of ANY KIND at Ouran:
One ~ the rich kids with longer attention spans than that of the average kid.
"Ah! Is that a bento?" she asked, her eyes were glazed over in wonder as she stared at it, some of her friends caught up to her in emotion.
"Oh wow! So you don't buy entrees from the school buffet?" another girl asked, I blinked.
"No, this way is cheaper." I replied evenly, I had more than enough patience, without it I wouldn't be able to work here. I picked up the unopened bag of chopsticks, the girls watched with fascination as the plastic crinkled and snapped. When I went to pull out the chopsticks and pull them apart, the girls squealed.
Two ~ Chopsticks are already opened and snapped apart by the school's food company. Apparently this makes it logical to stare at disposable ones packaged in plastic.
"Haruhi-kun packs his own bento lunches too!" the girl who talked to me first exclaimed, the surrounding girls instantly went googly-eyed.
"Really? Fujiouka?" I questioned, the girls nodded.
"They normally sit with Hikaru and Kaoru, Tamaki if he gets the chance, but as of late…" the girls trailed off to look off to the far side of the room, I peered up in unison and followed their gaze. My eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets, the entire west side of the cafeteria was jammed with buttercup yellow dresses. I saw a handful of blue blazers too.
Three ~ The people here are crazy.
When I spotted Haruhi I didn't feel nearly as sympathetic as I figured I would. While Tamaki was soaking in all the praise and adoration of the girls, Haruhi was sitting off to the side calmly, eating his bento lunch. Hikaru and Kaoru seemed to be urging her to trade her food with one of them, Kyouya was on his laptop and eating at the same time, Hunny was being offered so many cakes and pastries I began to wonder if he had a dentist on speed dial. Mori was near Hunny per usual, taking in all the feminine chatter below him (he is pretty tall.)
All in all, Haruhi was taking everything into stride, smiling when necessary when a pretty girl said something to him.
But was it just me, or were all the girls crazier than usual?
"Why's it so hectic over there?" I questioned, some of the girls next to me sighed.
"The Host Club is closed this week due to repairs, can you believe it?" one of the girls said with a despaired sigh.
"Can you believe that a bear got loose in the school and wrecked it? I mean, honestly, why would it look for honey in here?" one of the girls said, the idea was so outrageous I swallowed some rice wrong.
A bear? In the school? What idiot host came up with THAT idea?! My eyes instantly roamed over to Tamaki, out of instinct I came realize his airy brainwaves would've came up with it. Only he could have thought of it and convince the students that's what happened.
"Are you all right, um…?"
"Tsuyu, and yes, I'm fine," I replied, the girls' faces brightened.
"It is shocking we know, but since the club is closed all the usual customers want to be around them during lunch. "
"Why aren't you over there? You sounded pretty fond of Fujiouka-san earlier," I remarked, a couple of girls pulled up their uniform sleeves and pushed away some strands of hair to reveal bandages.
"Already tried," they said in unison, I sweat-dropped.
"Did you all...well, fight for their attention or something?" I asked, they shook their heads.
"Ladies do not fight, we simply kept knocking into one another." A girl claimed, folding her arms in distaste of the very idea of fighting. "Fighting is for those who got in here because of their gangster parents."
Was it just me, or does the word 'gangster' sound like a foreign word coming out of these prestigious girls' mouths?
"Oh," I blinked before turning my gaze back to my lunch.
Advanced Statistics was, somehow, more tiring than Physics. Personally I thought I did fairly well in this class, algebra and calculus were a whole other story, but stats wasn't an unbearable challenge.
Tamaki Suoh, however, nearly is.
Why is he passing me NOTES in class!
I looked down at a piece of folded, lined paper he had me tear out of one my notebooks. Apparently he adored the design on it – colorful designs of chibi hearts and flowers printed in low opacity occupied the lower, right-hand corner of one of my stationeries. Although I wouldn't consider my type as a girly-girl, I did like a good design when I saw one – regardless of color.
Unfolding it quietly, all the while scratching down more equations in my math notebook, I read it.
You want to be a Graphic Designer?
Oh shoot! I wrote that?! Considering this must have been the one hundredth note I had gotten back from Tamaki, somewhere in the middle I didn't bother paying attention to what I had written down in response. Apparently I wrote down more than he needed to know.
Ouran was a place for wealthy children to grow into their parents shoes as business people, doctors, lawyers, surgeons, vice versa. Not for those who wish to pursue art, of any kind.
And I just blurted out my deepest desire to a bumbling, blonde, drama king!
No! That's crazy, I came here to get good enough grades to enter a medical school. I quickly wrote down, folded the paper and nearly flung it back to Tamaki at my left. My face had flushed in the process, the very idea of my becoming a Graphic Designer had been shot down and left to burn in the wreckage. Scorned and laughed at, my dream was just that, something that will never happen.
I would have to settle for becoming a doctor or an undertaker, taking things apart had to be more interesting than defending bad people or dealing with the citizens of Japan who wouldn't answer their phones because of Caller ID…
I glanced up at Tamaki through my eyelashes, he held a hand to his chin while his eyes skimmed over and over my answer. He looked so deep in thought, in this serious pose I wasn't sure of what to make of him – times like these I could see why girls loved him. He wasn't the kind of guy who would manipulate them for his own gains, he aimed to please.
He was also a very good listener, or in this case reader, when notes were over and we were given practice sheets, he would partner up with me and we would listen to one another ramble. Of course, I value what I have to say, whatever came out of Tamaki's was normally something outlandish – like sitting at a kotatsu.
What was so great about a kotatsu anyway?
I tried to catch on to what our teacher was explaining amidst my daydreaming when Tamaki wrote something down under my sentence. At the same time Tamaki was folding the note up again I caught Yuemori-sensei's glasses flash (in a way that was eerily similar to Kyouya's manner.) She had spotted Tamaki doing something strictly forbidden in her class – prepare to pass a note.
I shot a desperate look at Tamaki who was smiling brightly and stretching his hand out to drop the note on my desk's surface, all the while I was shaking my head rapidly, but subtly.
Yuemori-sensei was on me like a hawk on a field mouse, she snatched up the note and gave Tamaki and I a suspicious look.
"I will see you both after class," she said before high-stepping up back to the front of the room, leaving the note on her desk before returning to her lecture.
Fifty minutes later Tamaki and I were standing straight-backed, side by side, in front of Yuemori-sensei, who was quietly reading the note we had been passing back and forth at her desk. It was a good four pages long (I winced when she unraveled it, I hadn't realized Tamaki had been taping them together) and she was reading every single word.
Oh Kami, what had I written down?
Shifting uncertainly from foot to foot, Tamaki would nudge me gently with his hand. I couldn't help but be nervous, I was never a troublemaker, heck, I was the furthest thing from a daredevil. Being on anyone's bad side, especially a sensei's, was new and alien to me. Tamaki, for one, was taking this all in stride, as if he felt he had written the Bible and was awaiting praise and I, some sinful, erotic fairy-tale I would no doubt get in trouble for.
"You have broken a rule in my class, you know this." Yuemori-sensei's voice was older, firmly set in the 1940s. Her skin wrinkled at the edges of her gray eyes and her fingers were knobby and sharp. If she had a ruler I'm sure she would have given us a swat or ten, but her tone was much warmer than I thought it would be.
"I don't give warnings, therefore the both of you will be cleaning my room at the end of the day today, alone." She claimed, I nodded in instant submission, Tamaki absolutely beamed.
"Great! I can use the tools of the commoners that Tsuyu-chan so proudly uses! I will do my best!" Tamaki announced, I sweat-dropped and wished I could evaporate or melt into the floor. Yuemori-sensei was not amused.
"I expect you in a couple of hours, you're dismissed." Yuemori-sensei claimed.
"Oh, hold on one more moment Honiwa," Yuemori-sensei's voice called out as Tamaki and I got to her door, where her next period's students were waiting for entrance. When Tamaki turned around Yuemori-sensei shooed him out the door, leaving me to return to the spot in front of her desk.
"You wrote you wanted to be a Graphic Designer? That's very impractical for an Ouran student, Honiwa. But I feel you know this, am I correct?" Yuemori asked, I nodded solemnly.
"I did, I don't want to be one anymore Sensei," I tried my best to sound convincing, but she didn't seemed assured.
"And you're sure about that?" Yuemori-sensei inquired further, I nodded again.
"I don't see what's the matter with pursuing this goal, if you have any talent and passion for it." Yuemori-sensei claimed, my eyes widened as I gave her a strange look.
"That's crazy!" I burst out, but instantly withdrew, "Sorry,"
"Sane people seldom go the distance, Honiwa." Yuemori-sensei stated with a knowing look, "Besides, an Ouran education is a brilliant back-up plan if all doesn't go well. Become a doctor or a lawyer if you choose, in this age, it's up to you."
Outside Tamaki was waiting for me.
"What did she say?" he asked curiously.
"Just a few words of encouragement," I said as he walked alongside me as we scurried down the hall. Thankfully our last classes were opposite to one another.
"Something about sane people don't always go the distance and so on," I explained, Tamaki's eyebrows vanished into his hairline.
"What? That's what I wrote down!" he yelped, I blinked then smiled.
"I'm sure," was my reply, Tamaki pouted.
"What? You don't believe me?"
After Tamaki and I managed to clean the room (the Hitachiins DID pay a visit, but I refused to let them in past the door) the blonde left for a Host Club meeting in one of Ouran's libraries. After changing into my janitor jumpsuit and grabbing a self-filtering mop ringer and bucket, I made my way down one of my hallways scheduled to be cleaned today.
As fate would have it, Hunny rammed headfirst into my gut in a steel-iron embrace.
"Tsuyu-chan!" he cried happily, I sighed.
"I made my decision Hunny-sempai," I claimed, Hunny released me before gazing up into my face, his hazel eyes huge and wondering.
"I'll attend once every other week and you will not pay me, is that clear? No under the table or anything sneaky like that," I added on with a smile, Hunny frowned.
"But-" I waved him off.
"Don't worry, I already have another job in mind, when do you want me to come over…oh, and I need your address," Hunny shook his head with a big grin on his face, although the smile didn't reach his eyes all the way.
"Tsuyu-chan can take my limo! We can go straight to a café after school ne?" I blinked as Hunny snuggled into Usa-chan, I gave an exasperated sigh.
"All right Hunny-sempai, what day?"
"How about this Saturday after school and work?" Hunny cried, I nodded, that was fine.
Work hard and everything will be fine in the end.
"Don't forget, the Host Club reopens this Friday," Kyouya's voice came out of nowhere, I jumped before I spun around to confront him.
"I never got around to asking, but how will I clean if I'm in the Music Room?" I questioned, Kyouya's glasses flashed.
"I've already had it arranged that you clean after club activities," he answered, a dark cloud hovered over my thoughts. "Hunny's proposal also clears a small portion of your debt, your assistance will greatly help Mori-sempai as he conditions as he is away from his cousin."
I gave a Hunny a strange look, Mori, who had only just appeared behind the small blonde, looked as nonchalant as ever. Was I attending Hunny's 'tea parties' or babysitting him?
"You look better without glasses, Yu-chan," Koaru and Hikaru purred into my ears as they made themselves comfortable on my shoulders. I could see their identical smirks out of the corners of my eyes.
"It's Tsuyu,"
"All right, Yu-chan," I growled as they laughed.
"You should request us Friday, Yu-chan," one of the twins continued, Hikaru or Koaru, who knew? "You could teach us properly about how to use these things," he pointed down at the mop ringer and bucket.
"That's not possible, she's requesting myself I believe," Kyouya claimed, Hikaru, Koaru, and Hunny all gave Kyouya sad moans.
"Why would she request for you?" the twins teased half-heartedly.
"But I was hoping to give her some strawberry cheesecake!" Hunny cried.
"She needs advanced guidance for Physics, else wise she will fail, and Hunny, she is already going to a café with you Saturday instead of going to the Host Club." Kyouya explained, the twins gave me sinister looks that promised worldwide doom and Hunny nodded solemnly. I frowned.
"You mean – if I go with Hunny-sempai every week instead of every other week I can have at least one day free? Money wise?" I asked, sounding hopeful. Kyouya adjusted his glasses.
"I thought you were under the impression you were paying for Hunny's tea parties?" Kyouya admitted in mock shame, in a cartoon, I'm certain my jaw would have hit the ground.
"What? But why-"
"I did say your debt would diminish with this upcoming responsibility, what money you pay will end up in a company that owes me fifteen percent of their daily profit,"
"You are evil," I growled out without thinking, the twins barked out with laughter before patting me non-too-gently on the back, nearly knocking me off my feet.
"That's the Shadow King for you," one of the twins shouted, I glared at them, Kyouya never bothered to deny the title.
"Don't you all have a meeting somewhere?" I asked, as if on cue, I heard Tamaki and Haruhi's voices pop out from behind a corner and drawing closer. They were arguing about something concerning commoners and visiting Haruhi, I felt so bad for him. Haruhi anyway.
"It has already been adjourned," Kyouya answered, I resisted rolling my eyes.
Of course, so they come to torment me.
"We thought we could be of assistance," one of the twins said, I raised a brow at him.
"I think not-"
"Aw! Come on Yu-chan!" the other cried, I glanced at him, my eyebrows furrowing in thought.
In some way I had to differentiate the two!
"No, and it's Tsuyu,"
"If we call you Tsu-chan will you let us help?"
"No,"
"Yu-kun?"
"No,"
"Yu-dono?"
"Could you just let me work in peace?!"
A/N: Poor, poor Tsuyu. Anyway, thank you for all the reviews, faves, and alerts! Please keep up the feedback - I mostly want to make sure I'm keeping everyone in character, I feel especially proud of how I'm keeping Kyouya manipulative, i hate it when OCs get to know the character they're paired up with too fast when in reality, that rarely happens. Of course, I love fluff as much as the next person, but considering it's hard to come up with fluff and keep Kyouya in person I'm feeling a little discouraged. If anyone has any ideal scenes, feel free to share them. I always read my inbox and reviews!
