Trust Me
Chapter 3: Obliviousness
Anything in BOLD will be in English
Melanie's Point of View
I woke up that morning completely unaware of what I did last night until I turned to my side to see Hikaru. Immediately everything rushed back to me, from the moans to the kisses, it was all right there, replaying in my head.
After the brief embarrassment I felt over it passed, I got up and put on some clothes, then go to the bathroom to freshen up a bit. I stare into the mirror after I brush my hair and my teeth, then notice something very familiar on my neck.
"Oh fuck."
It happened again.
I quickly search the drawers of the bathroom to try to find something to conceal the hickey, but of course with my bad luck, find absolutely nothing. I start pacing back and forth, only thinking about how the hell I'm going to hide the giant bruise that's so easy to spot.
"Mel, what are you doing?" I hear a voice from the door ask me. I turn around and immediately place a hand on my neck.
"Umm..." I mumble incoherently as I try to think of a good excuse of what I was doing. The last thing I wanted to do was admit to Hikaru that I had a hickey, the teasing would never end.
Hikaru walks up to me, looks at my hand, and then looks back at me.
"Are you hiding something?" He asks with a concerned look on his face.
"No, of course not, why would you ask?"
"Well, it's just that you're being suspicious, and you're a horrible liar..." Hikaru starts. I scoff.
"Am not!"
"Then move your hand."
"No! My hand wants to be here, my hand can stay there."
Hikaru sighs for a second, but then takes his own hand and tries to take mine off my neck, which he succeeds in doing, but I quickly cover up again with my other hand.
"If you have a hickey, you should just admit it." He starts, crossing his arms and putting a slight smirk on his face.
"Well I don't have one, so there is nothing to admit."
"Oh really?"
"Yep. I'm just really itchy on this part of my neck."
Then before I could even finish the last part of my sentence, Hikaru snatched my arm away and caught my other arm before I could cover the blemish again.
"Damn, that one is the biggest yet!" Hikaru exclaims, actually widening his eyes at the sight of it.
"Well no shit, of course it's huge! And it's purple too!" I respond, a bit pissed off now.
"Well of course it's purple, it's a bruise." Hikaru starts before finally releasing his laughter.
"This is serious! It's your fault it got there!" I yell at him. He stops his endless laughter to respond.
"And what do you expect me to do?"
"Hide it! You know how to use makeup! Go find some and hide this damn thing before I kill you!" I shout at him. He doesn't stop laughing, but nods his head.
"Yea sure, of course you're gonna kill me. Then when people ask why you did it, you'll have to tell them the truth!"
I stop, as much as I didn't want to admit it, he had a point.
"Just go get something," I reply, looking at the blemish one last time in the mirror before looking back at Hikaru, who starts to leave.
"I don't know, maybe you should leave it, it will be a reminder of how much you enjoyed last night."
"Get out Hikaru!" I yell at him, taking a brush and throwing it at him for making such a perverted joke, he missed it, but was still laughing as he ran out the door.
I manage to find a giant band aid that covered it up, but before I could come up with a convenient excuse as to why I was wearing one, Mizuki knocked on the door of the room.
"Mistress, Tamaki and Kyo-" She starts, but then looks at me. "Um... excuse me but, what happened to your neck?" She asks. I immediately try to think of a believable story, but Mizuki started to let a sly smile grow on her face.
"Nevermind, I already think I know what it is." She smiles. I sigh in frustration.
"How the hell do you know, Mizuki-san?" I ask her. She starts playing with a strand of hair.
"Well, it just so happens that some of the maids had a bet on how you and master Hikaru were going to make up." She explains. I let my eyes widen.
"Is that so? And so, I'm guessing that you won?" I ask.
"More like half of the staff won. Most of us have known master Hikaru for years, and we know that unlike his twin, master Kaoru, he is a lot more emotional, therefor it was actually an easy wager to make." She says, laughing a bit at the 'emotional' part. I let a smile form on my face.
"Wow, that actually amazes me a bit, but nevertheless, I have company. Who did you say it was again?" I ask, flattening out a part of my shirt.
"Oh yes, Tamaki-sama and Kyoya-sama are here to pay you a visit!" She exclaims before leaving. I stop, of all people, it had to be Tamaki and Kyoya. I start pacing again, of course knowing them, they are gonna be curious about what happened, so right here, right now, I have to make up a story about what happened. How about I was using a knife and it somehow slipped? That's physically impossible. What about-
"Melanie! Daddy's here for you!" Tamaki exclaims with glee before engulfing me in a hug. I didn't even see him come in.
"Tamaki, you're choking her, put her down." Kyoya states, giving Tamaki a semi-dark look. Tamaki and Kyoya recently found out that their height competition was an obvious win for Tamaki, as he grew another three inches since high school ended, while Kyoya stays his comfy six feet even.
Tamaki reluctantly obeys Kyoya's orders to release me, but still stands by.
"I haven't seen you in so long! I thought you would have missed me!" Tamaki pouts. I roll my eyes, but let a smile spread across my face.
"Of course I missed you guys, it's just that the past couple weeks have been rough, that's all." I start, walking out the room and to the nearest maid so I could request some coffee.
"Is Hikaru doing better?" Kyoya asks. I turn around and face him.
"Very much so." I answer, thinking about the fiasco at the restaurant last night.
"I can't imagine how hard that must be on him, we just saw Kaoru the other day and even he seemed to be in a slump still." Tamaki cuts in, walking down the stairs with us so we could sit at the table.
"Well losing your parents isn't something that you just miraculously get over in a couple of days." I raise my eyebrow in question. Tamaki shakes his head.
"Of course not." He replies, before thanking the maid for handing us the tea.
"Melanie, how have you been lately?" Kyoya questions. His eyes were cold and serious, and something tells me that he was about to ask a lot of questions that I didn't exactly want to answer.
"Tired, but otherwise fine, why do you ask?" I answer.
"Well, it seems that a very important customer of our families happened to be involved in a questionable stand off at a five star restaurant last night," Kyoya starts. I put my face in my hand, and groan as I think about Kurosaki.
"He was being an asshole." I answer.
"I bet he was, he's had many standoff's like this before, but whatever you do, don't test him," Kyoya growls. The tone of his voice was deadly, and I didn't dare ask why.
"Melanie? What happened? Daddy's confused!" Tamaki whines. I take a sip of my coffee before replying.
"I may have yelled at Tomoya Kurosaki while Hikaru and I went to dinner last night..."
Tamaki stands up in disbelief. "You what?!" He exclaims. Kyoya pulls him back into his chair and shakes his head.
"She yelled at Kurosaki-sama." He restates. Tamaki flicks his head from Kyoya back to me.
"Kurosaki? You don't make him mad! He can bring your company down with the flick of his finger!" Tamaki shouts at me. I let my head bow in shame.
"Well yea, I know that now, but in my defense, he was making fun of Hikaru's parents."
Tamaki rubs his blonde hair, and then retreats to his tea for a moment.
"I understand that you were standing up for him, but Mel, you really must be careful about that, it's highly possible that you are now on his list." Tamaki groans. I stare at him in confusion, his list?
"Kurosaki-sama is known for having disputes with people he does not deem worthy of a high class life style. These people are put on what is now commonly known as his 'list'. He goes down that list and picks off everyone of them from high society until they're all gone. I believe that ever since he first met you, he didn't like you, and now he is trying to get reasons to make you, Hikaru, and the company look bad. I suggest that you avoid him and try to stay out of the light of media until this entire thing calms down." Kyoya states in one breath. I just look at my two senpai's in disbelief, this is all too much for me to handle right now.
"So what you're saying is, that he's going to try to either make the company look bad, or make me look bad?" I ask. Kyoya nods.
"Most likely the latter. Of all the companies that he is affiliated with, his business is most critically dependent on the Hitachiin's empire, as are they dependent on his. My theory is that he will more likely try to break up your relationship with Hikaru rather than end trade with the company." Kyoya answers. My eyes widen, this guy is out to end my marriage?
"But don't worry Melanie! Daddy won't let that happen!" Tamaki buds in. I manage to weakly smile at him, this entire thing is a bit heavy to let it all sink in at once.
I just sit there quietly and drink my coffee, Kyoya and Tamaki exchange concerned looks, but then stare back at me.
"Melanie, what's that thing on your neck?" They ask. I put my hand up to meet it, thanking God when I realize the band aid is still there.
"Only a band aid."
"What did you do that could possibly require a band aid?" Kyoya asks, curiosity getting the best of him.
"Nothing major, only that one thing..." I start, remembering that I never made up a good enough lie.
"Mel, we've known you for a couple years, we know when you are lying. What happened?" Kyoya asks, slightly alarmed.
"Nothing happened!" I respond, even though I already knew that was contradicting with my original statement.
"Please don't make us come over there and rip that band aid off." Tamaki pleads. I start to panic, what would happen if those two found out? My eyes switch from Tamaki's concerned face, to Kyoya's smirking one, and then, without a single thought, I make a break for it. I run up the stairs, but then I, being the clumsy person I am, trip on the floor, causing Tamaki and Kyoya, who are hot on my heels to pin me down.
"Let go of me!" I yell at them, struggling to resist under their combined body strength.
"Mistress!" I hear a maid call when she sees the dilemma.
"It's not what it looks like!" Tamaki starts while letting go of my legs. I take that advantage and start squirming some more, but somehow Kyoya manages to hold onto me, making my resistance useless.
"I demand you get off of me!" I shout at him, but then Tamaki comes back from explaining what's happening to the maid, and starts to peel the band aid off. When he gets it all the way off, he stops cold, and both his and Kyoya's eyes get huge.
"What the hell did Hikaru do to you?!" They exclaim together.
"Nothing! Now let me go!" I scream. Kyoya and Tamaki look at each other, then smiles start to break out on their faces.
"Say Tamaki, something tells me Hikaru got emotional again." Kyoya starts.
"I think you're right Kyoya, I think that both of them got very emotional!" Tamaki continues.
"Whoa, Tama-chan, Kyo-chan, what are you doing to Mel-chan?" I hear a voice say from behind me. I snap my neck up and see Hunny and Mori looming over me, both having confused looks on their faces.
"Well, Mel did the horrible mistake of first lying to us, and then trying to hide something from us." Tamaki explains. Hunny nods his head.
"I thought that you would have known by now that you can't hide anything from us, Mel-chan!" Hunny scolds. I roll my eyes.
"Well excuse me for having a personal life," I mumble.
"You're excused, now, I thought you would have thought better than to let this happen considering the first time Hikaru did this." Tamaki laughs. I give him an unamused look.
"The first time it happened it was involuntarily." I scoff.
"So this time it was voluntarily? My little girl is growing up too fast!" Tamaki whines while retreating to his corner.
"I'm married, I can't help this." I start before Tamaki immediately rebounds.
"From now on, you are living with me! I won't let my daughter get hurt like this any longer!" Tamaki shouts in victory.
"You know Tamaki, if Haruhi was here, this would be around the time that she would call you a pervert." Kyoya states, getting off my legs and pushing up his glasses.
"There's no need for that, the people reading this chapter are already saying that." I mutter. I hear a couple murmurs of agreement, and then see Tamaki retreating to his emo corner once again.
"Melanie doesn't love me! Mommy! Do something about it!" Tamaki complains from my newly mushroom infested corner.
"It's not that I don't love you guys, it's just that you like getting in my business." I answer, finally sitting up from the floor, only to be pushed down again by Tamaki, his weight crushing me.
"What the hell!?" Hikaru exclaims from right in front of me. Tamaki gets off of me, much to my relief and runs up to Hikaru and hugs him.
"We're here for you, Hikaru! And don't worry, no matter how many times you're gonna bruise my daughter's neck, I will forgive you!" Tamaki yells. Hikaru wrestled out of Tamaki's grasp and helped me up off the floor.
"You guys are so stupid. Why the hell are you here anyway?" He asks, leading us all downstairs, back to the kitchen area where Tamaki, Kyoya, and I were having coffee.
"We came to talk about Kurosaki-sama!" Everyone announces.
"Eh? You too Mori-senpai, Hunny-senpai?" I ask, just realizing that they never told me the purpose of their visit. They both nod their heads, getting a groan out of Hikaru.
"What about that asshole?" Hikaru asks, pouring some sugar into his tea before drinking some.
"Well it seems that he is trying to break apart your marriage." Kyoya answers, causing Hikaru to almost do a spit take back into his cup.
"He's what?!" He exclaims, totally caught off guard by the statement. Tamaki nods his head, while Hunny and Mori just sit there, this was new to them too since they only came a few minutes ago.
"Let me dumb it down for you," Kyoya starts, folding his hands together before continuing. "Kurosaki is going to do everything in his power to make you stop wanting to be with Melanie."
Hikaru just stares at him like he was speaking a foreign language. I fully understood this already, and was wondering why it would come as a shock to him since we already knew that he didn't like me.
"Why the hell would he do that?"
"You already know why, Hikaru. He hates me because I'm not the 'correct nationality'." I mumble. Hikaru rubs his forehead, most likely thinking about the first meeting we had with him three weeks ago. All of a sudden he stands up and goes to the front door.
"I'm going out to think," Hikaru starts, then tossing me a bottle of something. "there's your makeup, just apply enough until you can't see it anymore, I'll fix it up later." He says before walking out the door. I get up and go to the door, watching as Hikaru just walks around the car door that was open for him and goes off into the distance. I can automatically feel my sense of relief disappear, and I almost well up in tears. Next thing I know, I feel a hand on my shoulder.
"It's ok, Mel-chan! Hika-chan just needs to clear his head, that's all." Hunny reassures me, I turn to him, the bright smile still intact after so many years of leaving the host club, then I feel another hand ruffle my hair, Mori was trying to be as comforting as Hunny, but I just felt a sense of protection rather than comfort.
"Thanks guys..." I trail before releasing a sigh.
"Melanie, are you and Hikaru doing alright?" Tamaki asks, coming up behind us with Kyoya in tow.
"Yea, we're doing fine, it's just that since his parents kicked the bucket, he's been a bit anti-social, I hadn't talked to him in about three weeks, yesterday was actually the first day we spent together in a long time, it was a real shame that it was ruined." I answer. Tamaki nods his head in understanding.
"So basically, you're saying that even though you have that thing on your neck, your night was really ruined?" Kyoya questions. My face goes red, unhappy that the host club was still sticking their noses in my personal life.
"Well, it was ruined for a short period of time." I respond, looking back out the window. I could hear Tamaki attempt to laugh to himself, and when I turned back around to give him an unhappy look, I could tell that all of them were being quite amused.
"Would you guys stop thinking about that?!" I exclaim. They all shake their heads, much to my frustration. Why the hell did they have to be so complicated?
"If you excuse me, I'm going to go do something productive..." I say, pushing my way past the men in front of me.
"Awww, Melanie! We were just kidding!" Tamaki complains, following me as I make my way up the stairs.
"Yea yea, sure you were, but there's a point when it's not funny anymore!" I respond.
"Okay! We're sorry! How bout this, you do whatever you're about to do, and then we all go out to see a movie or something?" Tamaki pleads. I release another sigh, but then nod my head before going back to my room.
When I come back, everybody is at the bottom of the steps, waiting for me to come back down.
"Okay, I'm ready."
"We can tell, so let's go Mel-chan!" Hunny exclaims, taking my arm and dragging me towards the door. I only get outside when I almost run into someone.
"I'm sorry, is this the Hitachiin residence?"
I stare at the man who asked that, he was obviously not Japanese, in fact, I'm certain he's American. He's about Kyoya's height and seems like he is just barely older than me. His blonde hair was radiant underneath the glowing sun, and his dark emerald eyes seemed easy to get lost in, all in all, he was a pretty good looking guy.
When Hunny finally let's go of my arm, and I stand up to my full height and give him my attention.
"Yes, and who are you?" I question, not even recognizing that Tamaki, Kyoya, and Mori moved out of the house and were now behind me. I had the feeling that they were doing that to intimidate the man, but I didn't ask them anything about it.
"I'm Ethan Willingham, Misa Suzuki's assistant." He says in perfect English, bowing at the end of his sentence. He didn't seem familiar, so I guess mom got a new personal aid since the last time I went to the U.S.
"Pleasure to meet you, I'm Melanie Hitachiin, her daughter." I greet him, shaking his hand. He stares at me questioningly.
"Her daughter? You don't look a thing like her, and then you don't even have the same last name." He points out. I roll my eyes, not exactly how I expected this conversation to pan out.
"Well, I take all my looks from my father's side, and since you don't believe me, the rest of my name is Melanie Suzuki-Hitachiin. Happy now?" I ask him, holding up my left hand and tapping on my wedding band. He nods his head and stares at me for a little while longer, making for an awkward moment.
"Anyway, is there something I can help you with?"
"Oh yes! Your mother sent me here to strike a bargain with you!"
"A bargain? If mom needed me to do something, she should have just asked."
"Well, this isn't exactly a favor of the sorts..." He starts while rubbing his hair. I tilt my head in confusion, what could she possibly need to ask of me that is so important?
"Okay, I'm about to go out with my friends so if you could spit it out, that would be great." I usher him, pointing to the impatient Tamaki and Hunny.
"Your mother needs you to be the heir to the company."
A:N: Heylo! Sorry if you felt this was a bit of a filler chapter, but I didn't know what to really put in this chapter, besides, I know that you guys probably missed Tamaki and Kyoya and all them, so I brought them back! Anywho, hope you liked this chapter, and stick around for the next! (Don't forget to review!) Love ya guys!