"Hey, Kyoya! Don't forget to add a Disclaimer, you of all people should know how much legal trouble you could get into!" Zay said sitting in Kyoya's lap effectively annoying the heck out of him.
"Yeah," Mori said.
Kyoya's mouth turned into a tight-lipped smile. "I was getting THERE!"
DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN THIS SERIES, AND I AM NOT CLAIMING THEM TO BE MY OWN. I OWN Zay, Ember, Ebony, Elias, and Ash.
"AWW! Kyo-Chan! You own me?!" Zay reached up and licked Kyoyas cheek cutely. Mori pulled out a laser pointer and got the attention of Zay, innocently stealing her away from Kyoya.
Chapter Three: Oops!
"Welcome ladies."
Today the host club was having a flower-viewing reception, I was sitting with the two third years and Haruhi. While Honey-senpai stirred away at matcha grinding it to oblivion, my eyes have drifted off to the other hosts. Tamaki was asking a curly haired girl which tea cup she wanted, the twins was doing their usual brotherly love act, and Kyoya was advertising picture books of each host club member. When did he take those pictures, and how does he enough pictures of me to make book? I contemplated on these questions for a moment in my head then thought better not to waste time on something I probably don't want know.
I turn my attention back on the two hosts in front of me. The small lotia boy was still stirring the matcha. I looked at Mori-senpai, whom showed no emotion on his face. I studied Mori carefully as he watched Honey. The senior was so intriguing to me. We haven't even spoken yet, but somehow I felt a calm I haven't felt in a long time. I looked over at the other host accompanying us, along with our guests. Haruhi, looking as doe-eyed as ever was just watching the scene. She seemed to just be enjoying the quietness of the moment, but slightly on edge. I was pulled from my reverie, when I realized that Honey was still grinding the matcha. I cocked my head to the side and thought, how long has he been stirring that, maybe I should tell him.
Naw, I bet Mori will do it. And he did just that.
"Mitsukuni, you over did it," Mori said, admonishing Honey.
Honey-senpai lifted up the whisk, and barely a sip was left in the bowl. Tears began to swell in his eyes. A brown haired girl, came to his rescue saying, "Honey I'll take it! It looks so yummy!" The other girl joined in with cheering the teary boy up in no time. Mori picked up a plate with snacks and held them out. Haruhi and I both sighed at how naively he took their praises.
"Haruhi, there is something that has been on my mind lately, and I've meant to ask you. Why did you join the host club? I mean you don't seem like the type of person who would enjoy being in a club like this one."
I watched her process what I had just said. Her mouth formed a small 'o' and then she said.
"Well, I didn't choose this myself. I kind of just got dragged into doing it."
"What?" She sighed and started to speak again.
"Well it all started when I accidentally broke a vase….."
I decided to walk around a bit after Haruhi told me her tale. I would have stayed a bit longer with Mori and Honey but I didn't think I could stand the company of the girls oogling over Honey anymore.
I stood turned away from everyone and took a breather.
I watched the millions of cherry blossoms fall to the ground from the arc of trees, as I breathed in the crisp air of the day. I raised my hand to catch one, and the sleeve of my blue kimono inched down to reveal one of the bruises I had received this morning.
I frowned in fond annoyance, remembering the little prank my 'dear' cousin Elias decided to pull on me this morning, by buttering up my shower. I clenched my teeth and my eyelids lowered a bit.
'Of course he had to pick morning, when I'm still groggy and ready to enjoy a nice shower to wake myself up, to cause me to fall ultimately, even after I tried to stop the fall with my arms.' I thought sarcastically. I made a mental note not to forget to come up with plan that would get him back tenfold, and laughed evilly in my mind.
I could still hear the faint buzzings of conversation from the host club, the most obvious one being Tamaki. I understood his character almost immediately upon meeting the blonde from his narcissism, to his kind nature in the way he spoke to people. But the host in stark contrast to him, I knew next to nothing about.
I had an urge to boldly go up the Mori and squeeze all of the questions I could out of him, but I had a feeling that he wouldn't ever respond if I used that approach. I procrastinated on what questions I should ask. I turned back around to find him. I finally spotted him standing near a table filled with snacks set on ornate trays. He was just standing there staring off into space. I looked around and I didn't see Honey with him. All the times I've been in Mori's presence the little senior has always been there, so it was kind of odd just seeing his looming form. He was quite tall for a normal persons standards but to me it was the average. I also noticed how muscled he was and I wondered if he played any sports.
I decided that my spying on him might have borderline on creepy so I boldly went over to the table to talk.
I caught eyes with him for a moment saying 'hey' causally, and picked up a onigiri that looked yummy.
Taking a bite I heard his deep voice reply back simply. "Hey."
It shocked me a bit for hearing him talk to me for the first time .
"Um...Mori-senpai do you play sports by any chance?" Maybe if I ask Mori a simple question hopefully he would open up to me more.
"Kendo." I half expected him to boast about his sport like many of the boys I've met before. I was getting more curious about this silent character. I do remember Tamaki telling me about all the host club types and I do recall him saying that Mori was the 'wild' type, but I just couldn't see it. I raised an eyebrow and smirked. "So what do you say to a fight with me?" His head turned and I noticed a slight intrigued look run across his features.
I nudged his shoulder with my arm and said. "I've been searching for a good match and you look pretty impressive."
"I'll be at the kendo practice hall after host club hours."
I nodded, smiling at the prospect of this new challenge.
"…physical exams are coming up soon and you know what that means for Haruhi don't you Tono?"
I froze, physical exams…?
I got a little flustered from my freak out and calmed down telling myself that Ash, being the meticulous and careful planner he usually is probably already researched it and took care of it for me. So I just put it out of my mind, and relied on him. I strolled over to the group of hooligans.
"You should have already thought this one through." I said to the twins who shot a devilish look back at me.
I narrowed my eyes. I pulled my eyelid down and stuck my tongue out.
"Haruhi." Tamaki sees Haruhi and says her name and giggles. "Been waiting long? What's the matter, you look a little down." Haruhi blushed. Sparkles suddenly appear around her face. "I can't help it. Everyone keeps staring at me for some reason." Major close up of blushing pouty face. "I'm so embarrassed." Tamaki cups her chin and pulls her close into a wonderful embrace. Sparkles and roses suddenly appear around them. "They are looking at you because you are lovely. Don't you worry.I promise that I will protect you no matter what." Haruhi grips Tamaki tighter. "Oh Senpai that make me feel better. Thank you. I mean it." Then Tamaki spins Haruhi around with a rose background and sparkles. Haruhi then yells passionately at Tamaki "I'm in love love with you, Tamaki senpai." and then the curtains close.
I stood staring at the blonde who seemed to be on another planet right now, wondering what it was he was imagining. I wonder what all the girls would think if they knew how much of weirdo Tamaki was, and how little he actually knew about love by just spouting out romantic crap he's read about.
I looked down at Honey wide eyed hoping for some explanation for the blondes behavior. "Tama-chan does this all the time now."
"Well he's creeping me out." one of the twins pointed out of nowhere catching eyes with me
"Me too." I said back. When I turned my attention back, there was Tamaki supposedly finished with, whatever it was he was doing and pointing at me.
"Envious Zane and Hikaru? This is all part of my plan, while you two were blinded by jealousy I have already foreseen the ending of this charade. Obviously this story is about a romantic school comedy. Haruhi and I are the main characters, which makes us love interests."
"But then what would that make us?..." I motioned to the rest of the club and me.
Tamaki must find pointing as a way to assert himself because he sure did a lot of it.
"You, boys, are the homosexual supporting characters." and the word homo and hearts appear behind in the background.
"WHAT?!" I shrieked. I watched angrily as Tamaki grabbed a stick out of nowhere and begins to make a line between us, scraping the nice tiled floor.
"So please don't step across this line." Tamaki smiling, still with the stick in his hand.
"Give me that stick and I will show you a homosexual supporting character!"I said growling.
I stepped over the 'line' earning a squeak from the boy and promptly began to chase him and hopefully scare him away for good.
I jerked the stick away from him ready to smack him with it, when he called out.
"Mommy dearest! Help! Our rebellious son is about to kill me!"
'Hehe what are you talking about you crazy fool? Yelling nonsense won't help you now!' I thought to myself.
I felt a strong hand grab the hand with the stick in it and pull me back.
"Zane. I suggest you stop now." I heard Kyoya say sternly.
I almost felt inclined to listen to him and respect him, but… I had a better idea.
I put on the most pitiful face I could and hugged Kyoya's waist. I pressed my face into his warm neck and cried.
"Why mommy! Did you have to marry such a mean man, calling his own children homosexual!" I opened one of my eyes and I saw him staring straight ahead frowning. He was stiff as a board and it felt awkward to be holding him like this.
I was suddenly pushed away roughly and I could have sworn I saw him blushing as he walked away.
"Alright now I've set you up a room in the Class 1A clinic, it was pretty tough but I found a way to do it without Ootori figuring it out, since most the doctors are from his family's staff." Ash started explaining his plan to Elias and I.
Ash put his hands on my shoulders and said.
"It will be in the Special boys clinic so you don't have to worry about anybody bothering you Zay." I nodded with serious face.
Elias ruffled my hair succeeding in messing it up. I growled a little and tried to fix it. I saw his perfectly spiked black hair and wanted to do the same but I decided to play a different card this time. So I just sighed.
"Whatcha' so serious for 'Feathers'? You're treating this like some secret mission!" My cousin taunted.
He laughed and I pushed him back playfully also calling him by his nickname.
"And what about you 'Ellie'?" His face scrunched up upon hearing his feminine nickname I had given him.
"You never take anything seriously, maybe you should once in a while instead of pulling pranks all the time." I said crossing my arms. "Maybe you should be a little more mature." I raised my chin and turned away from him.
"What are you still bitter about that prank this morning? Geez everyone in the house could hear it." He snickered and I turned back around my anger getting the best of me. "It was like an elephant fell!" I watched his eyes, they seemed like a dull grey-blue now because of his contact lenses but I knew underneath, his deep blue eyes would be sparkling with amusement, while mine twitched in annoyance.
My trying to be mature didn't last long and I went off on him, of course giving him the reaction he wanted all along.
"ARE YOU CALLING ME FAT?!" I gritted my teeth.
"Woah calm down!" I heard Ash whisper as he looked around.
I sighed. When I dared to look at Elias's face again he was sporting that smirk that has irked me for so many years. We headed to the clinic, and it was refreshing because nobody was in this hallway at the time, so I could talk with Ash and Elias pretty loudly. I suddenly felt a gush of air and smelled the familiar scent of Absinthe. I turned around but I didn't see anybody out of the ordinary and I shrugged it off since we were already at our destination. I said bye and then went inside and greeted the doctor.
"Well that went smoothly. " Ash raised his arms above his head to stretch. A moment of silence. "Yep. Nobody suspected a thing! I even did it without that big shot Ootori knowing."
"Yep we all know you did a good job Ash."
Ash's good mood disappeared suddenly. Somehow his cousin couldn't go a day without teasing him. He just wanted to boast a little. Well he did have a bad habit of doing it everytime he accomplished something.
The boys heard loud footsteps coming they're coming closer and panting. They both stood on guard ready for anything as usual. It seemed to be coming from another hallway so they investigated. They found that the sounds stopped after a while, and located the source. They saw an older man hunched over trying to catch his breath.
Ash didn't want to alert the man, but Elias on the other hand couldn't ever be patient.
"What are you running from old man?" Elias barked. The man jerked his head up and looked at the very tall third years like they were going to kill him. They looked so intimidating that he ran away again.
Elias breathed out . "Hey!- Geez what's wrong with old people." Elias ran after him and Ash had no choice but to come along also.
Kyoya escorted Haruhi to the special boys clinic. Kyoya pushed his glasses up on his nose again. He tried to push the ridiculous people he knew out of his mind but to no avail he was always troubled these days. First it was Tamaki giving him trouble, now there is another person that knows about Haruhi being a girl. It's especially bad because of how unpredictable and rebellious he is. Kyoya thought of a few days ago when Zane hugged him. Kyoya thought he was strangely warm and comforting on contact. He felt a little uncomfortable with himself when he realized that he felt comfortable in Zane's arms. He thought that this guy was pretty odd.
'He acted like he was angry being called gay by Tamaki but then he acts gay toward me?' He had no idea if or when Zane might let the secret out, which would lead him to losing the newest host who in turn was bringing in a plausible amount of money that he just couldn't lose. He thought of all the ways he could bend Zane's will to his own.
He was brought back to reality when he reached his destination with Haruhi.
Kyoya opened the door for her to take her exam, but the brunette noticed that her shoe was untied and leant down to tie its laces. Kyoya looked inside waiting for her to finish and saw another student standing inside the room by a changing room. He didn't think there was another special case like Haruhi's in the school he would have to research that later..
The person's back was bare. He could tell by the delicate curves and the defined waist that it was a girl. He saw parallel scars running in between her shoulder blades and he wondered just what they were from. The girl's black hair was cut short… like someone else he knew.
He almost gasped but was pulled out of his thoughts when Haruhi spoke.
"Are you okay senpai?"
"Yes, I'm fine," He said calmly trying to control his chaotic mind.
Heavy footsteps thundered down the hall and into the main clinic, startling all the ladies in the room and grabbing the attention of the host club.
The two cousins searched the room filled with yellow, white and blue for someone out of the ordinary.
The urgency of the two didn't go unnoticed by the six handsome devils waiting for their seventh member to finish "his" physicals.
"Hey that old man was fast! I just wanted to see if he was okay!" Elias said bending over and catching his breath.
"Well we're both giants! Don't you think that's kind of intimidating? Besides you weren't speaking in the most eloquent of tones man." Ash spat back sarcastically.
They spotted the bespeckled Kyoya looking surprised at the man they were chasing currently. They set off running to Kyoya, and were confronted by the curious host's, losing sight of the man.
"Who was that person you guys are after? He looked pretty haggard." Hikaru asked.
"Well I just asked him something before and he just started running." Elias started. "Yeah we figured he was suspicious, some girls stopped us earlier saying he was pervert." Ash said holding a finger up.
"Hey, looks like that man is headed to the special boys clinic!" A girl exclaimed.
All eight boys hearts stopped.
Haruhi sat patiently swinging her legs slightly. She didn't think that anybody else would be in this sector, at least according to Kyoya. She wondered who it was, but told herself not to butt into others lives, like someone else she knew.
'Maybe they just are embarrassed.' She thought. She didn't think any rich person in their right mind would have any reason to crossdress, and have such misfortune like she did.
Zay sighed happily walking into the waiting area. She was finished with her exam and everything went off without a hitch. She silently thanked her brother, sometimes she took the little nerd for granted just because she shared blood with him, but once again he didn't let her down, protecting her as fiercely as he ever did. She reached for her necklace to fiddle with it, a habit that she had whenever she was thinking, but found nothing but emptiness.
She couldn't go into the dressing room again because of the doctor's other patient so she would have to wait until the person is finished.
Haruhi ,after finishing her exam looked over the dressing room and saw a glint of light.
The small brunette examined the shiny silver chain. It had a detailed feather charm and a cat head attached to it. Her face took an inquisitive turn when she gazed at the cat head. It had blue opal eyes that she found quite mysterious. Not a single thought of stealing it came to her mind even though it intrigued her so, though she thought that most girls in this school would jump at the chance. She decided to go out and give it to the other patient, who she thought it belonged to. It would quench her slight curiosity to know who it was, and she would also be doing a good deed in the process. She didn't quite mind at all if the person found out she was a girl, because if the person was in the same situation also wouldn't matter.
She walked back into the waiting room. The doctor had already left so she hoped that the person was still there.
To her surprise she saw a head of black hair with neon blue streaks running through it. The person had their arms crossed and legs outstretched in the chair. She cocked her head to the side, she didn't know anybody else in this school that was bold enough to wear that kind of hairstyle except the "Bad Boy type."
"Zane?"
Sure enough blue green eyes blinked surprised at her.
"Haruhi! Hey!" Zay's mind raced but she supposed it was alright to let Haruhi in on her secret.
Haruhi sat down in a chair next to her and bluntly said, "You're so bold, I would have never figured out you were a girl for your extremely overbearing personality covering it up."
'Well the glamour does a pretty good job too.' Zay thought to herself.
"Well now that you know you can call me Zay, and try not to tell the boys alright? I can't have them treating me any differently, like I'm a fragile flower or something."
"Don't worry about it, I understand." Haruhi nodded and smiled.
The smell of Absthine hit Zays nose again so she looked for the source. "Whats that smell? Alcohol?" Haruhi's nose scrunched up slightly and looked at Zay.
They were both standing now, Zay surveilled the room and Haruhi grabbed onto her arm.
Suddenly they were grabbed from behind, Zay's sudden instinct was to kill whatever it was defiling her, but she couldn't show her true strength with Haruhi there. That would ruin everything Ash had done already. This was the origin of the alcoholic smell, she thrashed a bit just to test how strong the man was. She confident that they would be fine.
"HARUHI!" The Hosts ran as quickly as they could, with Ash and Elias trotting behind.
"Hey don't worry we'll save Haruhi! Don't you think that people will think something is wrong with Haruhi and figure out her gender if everyone of you act so concerned?" Ash said trying to convince the worried boys.
They all stopped in their tracks, Kyoya turning to him and staring threateningly to hide his anxiety. He was losing control of the situation so suddenly.
"And how exactly do you know that she's a girl? Who told you?" Kyoya interrogated.
"Haha! See it's fine we already know so you wouldn't have any problems letting us save her! I mean we're the one's that even knew that a pervert was here in the first place." Elias said weaving around Kyoya's questions, and started running again with Ash. They were in the front now, racing to the clinic.
"Hey! We won't let just anybody save our Haruhi!" Tamaki bellowed and surprisingly reached the door before anybody else. He held the doorknob and everybodys momentum was too great and crashed into the door. At the same time Tamaki's wrist turned the knob, causing everyone to fall into the room in a jumbled mess. They all gasped seeing two girls being restricted from the man dressed in doctors garb.
My eyes widened upon see my brother, cousin, and the entire host clubfall into the room. Mori was the first to get up, seeing as he was on top of everyone. Mori saw me looking concerned. Everyone got to their feet and I met eyes with Kyoya. My heartbeat raced, the look he was giving me told me that he already knew. His eyes showed cold knowing indifference. I tried to hide the weakness in my eyes by closing them tightly. I didn't want them to see me this way, apparently caught in the trap of a villain, when in actuality I was stronger than any of them. I didn't want to seem like a helpless little girl, always running from the shadows, always searching for love.
Hehe! Show me some love if you like the story!
Next up! Chapter 4: Headstrong
How will the Host club react to Zay being a girl? Are you interested in The flocks back story yet? Stick around for more!
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