Redrover65912: Well if you review for the rest of the chappies I think I can overlook that ;) Really? Because I think they kinda waver XD
NXT4eva: Yep. That was chapter 2 :D Hmmm...I guess it takes place somewhere after Sonic X and sometime in the middle of Ouran? That's just a guess
Forsaken Avenger: I would probally think that too XD
Tenten628: You got a problem with the other characters? 'Cause I sure do XD Yes. It shall remain Team Sonic FOREVER
Shadowonground: That's only cause Sonic co was in it ) Really? Maybe you should read on to see if that's true ;)
TG101: Thanks for reading. And if Amy were to appear in this story I have a feeling I'd die. So she's OUT :D
kassehface: You must be bored :P Hey. I just put what was written. BEAVERS!
xXAna-Christ-342Xx: As to your request, here is some more ;)
Everyone's gaze was fixed on the closet door. Everyone was completely still, except for Tamaki who was fretting unbearably next to one of his clients.
"What was that?" Someone asked quietly. No one moved, but the room instantly filled with chatter. "Oh my goodness, what if it's the monster from last night?" One of Haruhi's guest exclaimed loudly, grabbing her arm tightly.
Suddenly, Kyoya appeared seemingly out of nowhere, in front of the closet. "Please, ladies, there's nothing to worry about." The room instantly quieted as he reached for the closet's doorknob and jiggled it. "Nothing to be alarmed of," he announced, opening it slightly. Haruhi held her breath as he walked in and came back holding a large shoebox. "It seems this fell off its self. That's all." He smiled and threw it back in the closet. It landed with a large crash that made everyone jump, except him.
Oh, hell, Haruhi thought. He can break stuff, but I can't?
"Kyoya, what was in the box?" A girl asked excitedly. Haruhi couldn't understand why anyone would care. It was pretty much destroyed now, from the sound of it.
"That's a surprise for the next club meeting, so be sure to come back to find out what it is." He smiled again, and with that went back to his guest in his little grass skirt that matched the tropical feel of the room. As he walked, he opened up his notebook and began scribbling in it again.
Haruhi gave another glance towards the door before turning her attention to her guests, reluctantly.
"Oh, Haruhi," one of the girls pressed, "couldn't you tell us what you guys are up to?" She beamed at Haruhi as she poured tea.
"I honestly don't really know, ladies. Sorry." She smiled, and the girls around her sighed.
"You're always so sweet, Haruhi," another girl exhaled. "I wish you'd wear what all the other hosts are wearing. I bet you'd look amazing." She motioned towards Tamaki who was wearing a leafy crown to show his "kingness". Haruhi laughed nervously as the twins busted in the room.
"Sorry we're late, boss," they explained to Tamaki as they walked past him through the sand.
"Other business," Hikaru stated.
"You understand," Kaoru finished.
"Don't give me excuses!" Tamaki shouted. "Your guests deserve an apology, however. Why beautiful ladies put up with the likes of you two, I'll never know, really..." He continued as the twins walked to the closet.
"Our outfits are in here, right?" They chimed, and before anyone could stop them, they opened the door. They stood there for a couple seconds before something seemed to have sucked them in. None of the girls seemed to pay any mind, but Haruhi knew she heard some unnecessary shuffling.
"Would you ladies please excuse me?" She got up quickly without waiting for a response and hurried to the closet. When she opened the door, a hand reached out and grabbed her wrist and pulled her in. She had to blink a few times to get used to the lack of light, but she heard the twins struggling with something.
"What's going on?" Haruhi whispered fiercely.
"Your damn four-eyed friend attacked us!" Knuckles erupted. "That box he threw in here knocked Sonic right upside the head!" He pointed his gloved hand towards a lump on the floor. The shoe box Kyoya threw lay next to his head, four 9-pound dumbbells spilling out. Haruhi twitched slightly when she remembered how easy it seemed for Kyoya to toss the box.
"It was weird, though..." Tails explained. "He had Sonic stand right there..."
"He planned it, dammit! If he pulls that funny business with me I swear, I'll-"
"He won't Knuckles," Haruhi defended. "Now, shh."
They all froze until they heard the cheerful banter from the guests again. Haruhi sighed, then froze when she noticed the twins tied up and gagged. She couldn't tell from their faces whether they were furious or terrified.
"This is going to be a long day..." Haruhi sighed, ignoring the twins' best attempts at a protest and the sudden smirk that cracked on Knuckles' face at the sight.
The rest of the day, for the most part, went with little chaos considering the situation in the closet. Haruhi, after shooting a warning for their little guests to stay put an quiet in return for the twins' momentary hostage situation to stick until all the customers left, returned to work and didn't even so much as think of the closet until the last customer left with a teary, overdramatic farewell.
"That took forever..." Haruhi groaned as Kyoya closed the door. "We have got to find place to hide those guys...The closet just isn't working"
"Really? Knuckles' voice dripped sarcasm as Honey unlocked the door and resumed his glomping of Tails, "I couldn't tell."
"Now, now." Tamaki leveled. "No need to be hostile. Let's just calm down and think of something, okay?"
There was a silence.
"Well...?" Tamaki said at the end of it. "Ideas?"
Everyone in the host club looked at each other, lost.
"Well..." Honey's face turned thoughtful as he let go as Tails, much to the fox's relief. "I know they can't stay with me 'cause of all the people at my house, all the time..." His expression twisted to a frown and he looked at Tamaki hopefully.
"I have too many nosey servants," Tamaki shrugged, dashing Honey's hope with that simple motion. "They would be discovered in minutes."
"Haru-chan?" Honey's wide-eyed gaze make the female squirm a little.
"Well, I...I don't know how my father would react..." Haruhi didn't either, plus her dad wasn't the best at holding water. "What about the twins?"
"I don't think-wait, where are they?" Tamaki cut off, noticing their absence for the first time.
"They're a little tied up at the moment," Knuckles said, in tones serious enough to confuse the club members unaware of the situation in the closet.
Not that it really mattered because the twins choose that second to emerge, unbound, from the closet of doom soon followed by Sonic.
"Sonic!" Tails namesakes fluttered, his voice obviously relieved at the hedgehog's return to consciousness.
"Why do you insist on ruining my fun?" Knuckles questioned as the hedgehog plopped down on the floor next to him.
"Oh, like you never do that to me." Sonic retorted. "Do me a favor and tell the room to stop spinning, wouldja?"
Knuckles, Tails and Haruhi looked at Kyoya, more focused on his notes than the conversation at hand or the fact he was to blame for the "spinning room".
"Not to be rude or anything..." Kaoru began earnestly.
"But do you mind telling us what the hell's going on here?" His brother finished in less-calm tones. "You can start by explaining the talking cats."
"Hedgehog!" Sonic corrected, the exact same time Knuckles and Tails did with their own species. "I look nothing like a feline! I sure as hell don't bathe like one either!"
"Considering you bathe at all..." Knuckles remarked, apparently to the ceiling.
"C'mon guys, cool it." Haruhi cut across before Sonic offered a rebuttal, which was sure to come.
"Don't tell me what to do." Knuckles turned on Haruhi but pointed to Kyoya, now semi-interested in the almost-argument in the works. "I still have a bone to pick with you, four-eyes."
"Is that so?" Kyoya didn't even look up.
"Yes, it is! Just what were you getting at throwing that box at us?" Knuckles demanded.
"What'da you mean us?" Sonic said acerbically.
"And I suppose you tying us up was supposed to be an act of peace?" The twins asked, folding their arms.
"You tied them up?" Tamaki echoed in shock, looking at Knuckles. "And here I thought we were all starting to become pals!"
"Fat chance!" The twins and Knuckles grated.
"You didn't even give it a chance!" Tamaki looked from Knuckles to the twins, neither side budging.
"Well, this is going well..." Haruhi rolled her eyes.
"Maybe we should just play some trust game or something, ya know?" Sonic shrugged. "Could help the whole bonding thing."
"That's it!" Tamaki exclaimed, so loud in fact it took a few minutes for the echoes to fade. "We'll go on a vacation! All of us! Together!"
"That sounds great, Tama-chan!" Honey beamed. "Doesn't that sound great, Takashi?"
A nod. Can't expect too much from Mori.
"How about it, Haruhi?" Tamaki nudged their female member playfully. "It'd be perfect! We could spend the entire upcoming break at Kyoya's family's private beach just like before! Wouldn't that be fantastic?"
Haruhi thought for a moment. Last time they had gone to that beach memories certainly had been made, though whether they were good or bad was still up for debate. Still, she had enjoyed herself for the most part.
"Sure," she said eventually. "I think time down there will do us good."
"Yay!" Tamaki cheered triumphantly then shifted his ever-so-clever gaze to the twins, who were trying their best not to look him in the eye.
The next couple of week until their break went by in a blur. Sonic, Tails and Knuckles hung around campus (i.e. in the rose maze), saying they were used to being outside anyways. As long as they stayed out of sight, everyone promised to give them treats when they brought food. Knuckles never accepted these, saying he wasn't "anyone's damn pet." He ever had to worry about that, however, whenever the twins brought them food. They were still bitter about being tied up in the closet, but Knuckles never showed any sign or even a sliver of remorse. The twins hit it off with Sonic right away though. When the moment deemed the chance worthy, the trio would play "pranks" on the echidna. He never took them gracefully.
Every time Haruhi heard them all arguing, she felt the time at the beach seemed years away. She also felt that it was all for nothing; no amount of "bonding" could ever bring those guys together. But the day did come, and the ride to Okinawa was tense and uncomfortable. Tamaki insisted they all take the same limo. The air was practically electric as they all sat, rather comfortably, in one of Kyoya's limos, but Tails kept pressing every button he could reach. Haruhi thought Knuckles would explode when a button made something shoot out from the ceiling and hit him in the nose. Tails apologized profusely but Knuckles was in a foul mood until he jumped out the car. He was gone before their luggage was unpacked, but no one seemed to notice.
"Alright, everyone!" Tamaki erupted joyfully. "Quality time with friends is what this is all about! After this week, we'll all be the best of friends, I know it!" No one was really listening to him. Tails and Honey were flying around near the ground, and Kyoya was sitting in the shade of a large umbrella, taking notes with intense dedication.
"Uh, sempai...Everyone's gone," Haruhi muttered, sitting herself down in the shade. She was in her regular shorts and t-shirt again. She felt she'd rather avoid a scene with Tamaki again. For some reason, he never wanted her to be in a bathing suit, not that she really cared either way.
At Haruhi's words, Tamaki looked around in shock. He could never imagine why no one ever listened to his wonderful and very insightful words. He ran towards the twins and the hedgehog as they inched even further from the water, chattering constantly. Haruhi was a tad worried about how much the trio had in common. She figured nothing good could come from the "devil type" making friends that were just as bad as they were.
By sunset, to prove her point true, the devilish trio had played half a dozen pranks on the host club members, Haruhi included (though she'd admit she had walked right into it). They only ceased when the last rays of sun waned and gave way to a thousand tinier balls of gas as everyone went inside. Well, everyone except Sonic who claimed he'd be spending the night outside (not that it surprised anyone).
Halfway through the night, however, he came in anyway, laying himself on the armchair in the living room.
"I thought you were sleepin' outside," Hikaru was the only one in the room and sitting on the couch, though the hedgehog heard someone shuffle in the kitchen.
"I was, but..." Rather than explain Sonic just pointed to the window that took up half the opposite wall.
Hikaru looked. Seeing the sky completely black with rain clouds made him think sleeping out wouldn't be all too bright. Not only that but it reminded him of the last time it had stormed while they were staying here and what they had discovered about Haruhi.
Was it going to storm?
"Probably." Sonic's response made the twin aware he had spoken aloud without realizing.
The hedgehog looked at him.
"Why? Are you afraid of them or something?"
"Not me." Hikaru shook his head. "It's Haruhi. Last time we were here we all found out she gets so scared during storms she can barely move."
"Weird. She never struck me as the type of person who'd be scared of something like that," Sonic said, more to himself than the twin.
"She is a girl you know..." Hikaru muttered, looking back at the window as a short silence ensued. By the end of it a grin had cracked on the hedgehog's face.
"You like her, don't you?" Sonic's question made the twin blink, a slight flush coming over his face.
"Don't be stupid." Hikaru gave a short laugh before finding himself face-to-face with the hedgehog, only a slight breeze to announce his abrupt movement, as he stood on the arm of the couch.
"Funny," Sonic said thoughtfully. "Knuckles tells me that all the time. Though it's usually to cover up some lie he just said."
Before the twin could reply an abrupt flash of lighting filled the room, causing the two to jump. From the kitchen there was the sound of breaking glass followed by a small scream.
"Haruhi..." Hikaru glanced in the kitchen's direction to Sonic and back again before jumping up and going to the kitchen, leaving the hedgehog alone.
For the briefest of seconds he thought of following the twin but something told him he'd only be interrupting, plus, another thunderous boom reminded him that someone else, in the shape of a young fox, would probably be needing him more than those two.
Sonic hurried through the large vacation home, opening every door he got to. He walked in on Tamaki mumbling in his sleep, Kyoya, who was still awake, typing on his laptop, Kaoru sleeping restlessly, hugging a pillow and Honey sleeping peacefully with Mori sitting in the second bed reading a book. None of them took any notice to him, but when he made it to a bathroom, he found the door to be locked. He knocked lightly and muttered, "Tails? Little bro, you in there?"
It was almost eerily quiet until there was a flash and a roaring boom simultaneously. He heard a little squeak from the room and the door was unlocked and open in less than a second. Tails squeezed Sonic tightly as they toppled over from the fox's tackle. He was shaking, and his namesakes wrapped around Sonic too.
Sonic smiled slightly and patted the young cub's head. "It's all right, little bud," he said as another boom nearly shook the house and the fox buried his face in the hedgehog's torso.
Back in the kitchen, Hikaru found Haruhi jammed in one of the bottom cabinets squeezed in a ball as tightly as she could manage, the pots that used to be in there originally strewn all over the floor. As he opened the cabinet, lighting and thunder erupted from the sky and Haruhi cried, her hands shielding her ears from the violence.
"Haruhi," Hikaru whispered, "c'mon." He stretched his hands toward her, but she didn't budge. He sighed and kneeled down in front of her. He heard the rain patter on the far window, and remembered their "vacation" in Karuizawa when he found her just like this under a table in a tiny chapel. He took her hands gently and she opened her eyes, a couple tears escaping as she looked around the large kitchen.
"It's all right, Haruhi." He smiled and tried to pull her up, but she refused.
"No. No, really, it's okay," she muttered quickly, shutting her eyes. "I'm fine."
Hikaru eyed her, not letting go of her hands. She had her head bowed into her knees, her shoulders shaking slightly. He looked towards the door and thought about how Kaoru wouldn't be sleeping very well without him and smiled as he thought of him clinging to a pillow. But when he looked back at Haruhi, and realized no one else would be coming down here anytime soon, he knew who really needed him the most right now.
He shook his head, thinking himself to be crazy, and crawled into the cabinet next to Haruhi, and he hugged her shoulders as tightly as he dared as she buried her face in his chest as the storm rolled on, reassuring her that everything would be fine all the while.
And hoping like hell no one saw this.
Meanwhile, Kyoya paused with his eyes focused on his laptop.
"Does he do that often?" Kyoya's question was directed to the corner, devoid of light seeing as how his laptop's light was none too bright.
A scoff.
"He's just looking for his 'adopted little brother,'" Knuckles replied with no real interest or concern from where he was leaning against the wall, arms crossed.
"Is that so?" Kyoya turned his gaze to the echidna, his eyes invisible behind the glare of his glasses. "That's just a tad unusual, isn't it? A hedgehog and a fox...Then again I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised considering you and your friends are an alien race."
Knuckles narrowed his eyes.
"They're not my friends." He corrected bluntly. "I can hardly call someone like Sonic a person let alone one I enjoy being around."
A grin appeared on Kyoya's face as he resumed typing. Confused, and feeling utterly ignored, the echidna walked over and quirked an eye ridge.
"Mind explaining to me what exactly you're doing?" Knuckles asked, looking at the screen with no small amount of confusion.
"Curious?" Kyoya didn't even look at him, yet there was something smug in his voice the echidna didn't like.
"Considering this is all you've been doing since we got here, you could say that." Knuckles stated, trying not to sound too interested. "Plus you strike me as the dark, loner type despite the endless haze of ecstasy your friends seem to be in."
Kyoya smirked ever so slightly.
"One could say the same about you," he looked from the screen to fix the echidna with a furtive look.
"Let me guess," Knuckles rolled his eyes. "This 'one' is you, right?"
"It's a possibility," was Kyoya's response as his gaze shifted back. "Excuse my own curiosity, if you may, but how exactly did you three become...acquaintances?" He asked carefully, seeing a warning flash behind the echidna's purple eyes.
Knuckles paused for a moment, then saw no harm in passing along this particular tale.
"Basically those two crashed into my home one unfortunate afternoon, and I had been tricked into thinking they were there to steal something of immense value to me. Then we fought, I realized the truth, we fought together and have been on some slim truce ever since then." Knuckles shook his head, recounting all the times since then he had been dragged on some crackpot adventure of Sonic's. "Even that doesn't stop me from getting roped into psychotic journeys with those two and, I'll tell you this, Sonic has got to be the biggest moron I know. He's reckless, hyperactive, suicidal, you name it."
"And yet you still follow him when he asks for your assistance?" Kyoya questioned and Knuckles didn't answer. He didn't need to, his point had been made and he didn't feel like engaging in needless gossip anymore.
As the echidna moved back to the corner of the room, Kyoya grinned in the darkness. Perhaps, it would seem, there was a sort of bond to be had here.
Pshaw! Hope y'all enjoyed that cause it just gets better from here on...well sorta ;) Please do review. What's a minute gonna kill? ;)