Ah ha! I know you all thought I wouldn't be here this weekend, that I would break your hearts like so many other inconsistent writers with thier late updates. But I'm here on time! YAY! Enjoy!


Shonali looked over to see the blacked haired boy with glasses from before, leaning against the open door way. Otori...yes that was his name. Kyoya Otori. The third son of very powerful Japanese family that dealt predominantly in medicine She already knew his father and his brother Akito. Or rather, her sister knew the latter. A little too well in her opinion.

Shonali smirked at him, "Ah, but one man's insanity is another's genius."

"True, but that other person is probably insane too."

"All the best people are."

He chuckled " So Miss Johari, might I inquire as to why you've decided to come out here to yell at the sky?"

"And I might as well ask the same thing of you Otori-san. Although, clearly you're not hear to unburden your feelings on the sky, being as you are, oh so painfully sane."

"Actually," another voice spoke up, "We were here to look for you." The blond haired boy emerged followed by the cute little brown haired girl, two red headed twins and the tall silent black haired boy on whose shoulders Hunny was riding. Tamaki Suoh, Haruhi Fujioka, Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin and Tasashi Morinozuka. I mentally ran down everything mother had drilled into my head about them, as she did with all rich kids that she thought it would benefit our family to know. A lady must always know the right people.

"Let me guess Jackson is looking for me." I sighed, and stamped out my cigarette before tossing it aside. Hunny came and sat down beside me, "He said something about you needing to be up stage in an hour, Shona-chan."

"I know. I just needed a few minutes to myself first."

Shonali looked away slightly as she said this and her body tensed a little. Hunny sensed something was bothering her but she didn't want to talk about it in front of everyone. He felt his heart sink a little as he looked at the beautiful black haired girl sitting beside him. Shona was so different now, she'd changed a lot in the years since they had been friends. Hunny had seen her smile a lot tonight, but it was never the same as it was when they were children. No where near as happy, or as bright. It was dulled and almost seemed a little forced. Hunny looked up at Haruhi who was staring at him curiously, her head cocked to the side.

She turned to Tamaki, "Look, at all the pretty flowers over there!" pointing across the balcony as she spoke, "lets go look at them!"

Tamaki looked down at her in confusion "Wha-" Haruhi cut off his protest as she grabbed his arm and proceeded to drag him along towards the flowers. "Come on you two" she said to the twins as she passed them. Kyoya followed and Mori looked down at Hunny once before going after Kyoya.

Hunny moved closer to Shonali and gently put a hand on her shoulder and spoke in Japanese "Shona-chan, what's wrong?" She glanced up at him in half alarm, "What are you talking about Hunny? There's nothing wrong."

"Don't lie, Not to me."

She looked down again "Hunny..."

"Remember when we were kids? We used to play together everyday. You were always so cheerful. You sang and danced around all the time. When you smiled, the whole room brightened just a little. That was the Shona, I remember. That was the Shona who was my friend. But this person that I see now isn't her. You've been keeping this fake smile plastered to your face and you seem irritable and I can tell something's bothering you. Now you won't even tell me what's wrong. I thought our friendship meant more to you than that."

As he had been speaking, her hands had clenched into small fists and she had trembled a little. Now Shonali turned to face Hunny, a glint of anger in her hazel eyes. "Hunny, I haven't heard from you in years. You never answered the phone whenever I called, you never even tried to call me, you never replied whenever I sent you sweets from all of the places I was living in, like I promised I would."

Now it was Hunny's turned to look confused. "What are you talking about? I-"

Shonali cut him off, "You never visited me like you said you would. You didn't even come for my dad's funeral. Don't you dare, lecture me on friendship Mitsukuni! " She started to get up from the bench to leave, but Hunny pulled her back with surprising strength.

"Shonali! What are you talking about? I called you at least once a month, but your mom would always tell me you were out with friends. I tried to visit you twice, but you were away on a trip with your father..." Suddenly he stopped speaking and froze. "When?"

Her eyebrows knitted together and spoke in a faltering voice, "I don't understand. You're lying. You have to be. How could-"

He took her hands his his, and asked again, "When?"

Shonali looked at the little blond haired boy sitting next to her and looked into his sweet, wide brown eyes, "I was ten. He had lung cancer."

Kyoya leaned back against the railing and listened to Haruhi scolding Tamaki for his complete stupidity, "Honestly. couldn't you tell he wanted to talk to her alone? Even the twins understood that!"

"Yeah that's right- HEY!"

Kyoya laughed inwardly, "Idiot." He turned his attention to Hunny and Shonali who sat with their heads bowed together, gold and obsidian,. Shonali was talking and every once in a while, Hunny would give her hands a reassuring squeeze or say a few short words. The lolita boy was hardly ever serious, but now he sat by her solemnly, holding her hands with both his own.

"What do you think they're talking about?" Kyoya looked over and saw Kaoru sitting on the edge of the railing beside him.

"Family trouble I think, she's said "mother" and "father" several times. Although, her father died when she was ten."

Kaoru looked at Kyoya in exasperated amazement, "How do you know that?"

"I remember Father went to his funeral when I was ten. Apparently Johari-san was a good friend of my mother's."

Kaoru's golden filled with something like pity as he gazed at his friend. "Today's the anniversary of her death isn't it? He put a comforting hand on Kyoya's shoulder, but Kyoya stopped him before he could speak, "Stop I know what you're going to say. Tamaki got there before you did. I'm fine. I was only six when she died. I barely remember her."

"Stop lying to yourself." Kaoru hopped off the railing, sensing it was unwise to press the issue. He looked back over at Shonali and Hunny, who were still deep in conversation. "So, family troubles huh, must be pretty bad."

Kyoya said nothing.

Kaoru sighed, "Fine, be that way."

He walked back to join the others who were huddled together in a group. Kyoya remained alone, leaning against the balcony, lost in his thoughts about times when the sun shone a little brighter, when the birds sang a little sweeter and when her voice had still trilled among them.

"I'm sorry Shona-chan. I feel terrible. I wasn't there for you when you needed me." Hunny hung his head.

"Oh, no don't say that! It wasn't your fault. I guess my mother just didn't want me to see you anymore. She probably thought you were a bad influence." Normally, Shonali would've found this hilarious. Honey was so cute and innocent, it was hard to imagine anybody thinking he would be a bad influence.

Honey wrinkled his nose and looked up at her, "What?"

She shrugged, "Remember when we were younger, and how you would always do whatever you wanted and didn't care about the consequences? Like how you love cute things and sweets even though being a Haninozuka meant practicing self-restraint. Now that I look back on it, I realize she probably thought that being friends with someone like you would bring out certain...ah... undesirable characteristics in me."

"I still don't understand."

Shonali sighed and leaned back against the cool marble of the building. Both she and Hunny seemed completely unaware of the six people who were currently hiding behind a rose bush a few feet away from them.

"Ow! Kaoru, stop poking me!"

"Well then move over a little Hikaru, I can't see anything."

"Shut up both of you!" Tamaki said in a strangled voice. He was pushed up against the white marble wall of the building and was trying extra hard to not let his blond hair be seen over the top of the rose bush.

"You guys, why are we doing this? I thought I made it clear we should give them some privacy." came Haruhi's voice amidst the tangle of bodies.

"They've been talking for fifteen minutes and we're bored!" said Hikaru.

"And besides, we want to find out about her."

"Well, you're going to miss everything if you keep talking." said Kyoya as the twins began to bicker again.

Shonali had started speaking.

"She doesn't want me to sing. Or dance. Actually, she would prefer it if I did nothing at all. After all, that's what a real lady does."

"She doesn't let you sing? But your father was a great singer and he preformed all over the world...why would she-?" He let the question hang in the air between them.

Shonali let out a small puff of air, "Ah, but there's a huge difference between my father and I, he's a man and I am a woman. Men are allowed to do whatever they want, but women must always conform to other's expectations of them. Be quiet, sit still, sit straight, smile... Singing anything other than lullabys to children is out of the question. And dancing? Forget it."

"That's not fair."

"Of course it's not fair, but it's life. More specifically it's my life. My brother will inherit everything my mother has, meanwhile my sister and I will be expected to make nice, respectable marriages and then give male heirs to our husbands. It's pathetic and I hate it, but it's not like I can do anything about it."

"When you put it that way, I'm surprised your mother let you join the Performing Arts club. From what I've heard so far, none of the things they do seem very lady like."

Shonali actually laughed at that. "Hey, just because you're never going to win a fight doesn't mean you still shouldn't try. Besides," her face softened and relaxed, "they're like a family to me, I would do anything to stay with them. Sometimes I feel like they're the only things keeping me from snapping and turning cold and distant like my sister did."

"This Rachel person that you spoke about earlier sounds nice. What do her parents thinks about all of this?"

"Honestly, they're the nicest people you will ever meet and they're okay with everything Rachel does but even if they weren't, they would have a heard time saying no to Rachel. Everyone has a hard time saying no to Rachel. Especially Jackson. He's as queer as a three dollar bill but for some reason, Rachel has always been his one weakness. He's such a moron, they've known each other for five years and he still doesn't have the guts to tell her he loves her." Shonali stood up and smoothed out the front of her purple dress, "Have you ever heard of someone so stupid?"

Hunny stood up with her, "Actually, yes I have. The idiots hiding behind the bush for example."

Shonali blinked and turned around, "What are you talking about? Which idiots?"

"Come on guys, I know you're there."

Haruhi was the first to stand up, followed by Kyoya, Mori, Tamaki and the twins.

"You see? I told you this was a dumb idea!" Haruhi said crossing her arms and looking away.

"Hunny-senpai, how did you know?"

Hunny's eyes narrowed before he said in a sweet little voice that completely didn't match the expression on his face, "How dumb do you think I am?" The entire Host Club, except for Kyoya and Mori, turned white, "That's the AB blood type in him coming out. How terrifying!"

"What's wrong with AB?" said Kyoya looked annoyed.

"Hmph, so says the dreaded Shadow King." Hikaru mumbled.

"Haruhiii, are you angry with me? I'm sorry I had to drag you into this!"

"Shut up senpai."

"MAMA! Haruhi's upset with me!"

"Quit calling me that."

They were interrupted by the sound of gentle laughter coming from in front of them. They looked and were left speechless when they saw Shonali laughing. It wasn't the same as before, Shonali's laughter was different now; it was now sweet, soft and melodious. It was beautiful, like the voice of one of those mystical creatures that lured sailors into the rocks and made them kill themselves. "I-I'm sorry," she said struggling a little for breath, "you guys are all s-so f-funny." She took a second to compose herself, before looking up and smiling at all of them. "You're all a lot like my friends. Would you like to meet them before they go on stage?"

"YES!" said the twins and Tamaki in unison and then they began talking all at once.

"Wow! The Preforming Arts Club!"

"That's so cool!"

"Too bad we don't have that at Ouran, I could play the piano!"

"Yeah, but Boss you're a terrible singer."

"Am not!"

"Yes you are Senpai."

"Haruhi! How could you say that!"

They began walking back inside.

"Takashi, come on let's hurry up, I want to meet Rachel!"

"Mm."

Music poured through the open doors:

Some things look hard and then they're not
Like getting on a tightrope and falling off
But there's never been anything harder than loving her
She's so demanding, so intense
Her expectation of the ordinary is so immense
Better take her at her word

Kyoya sighed as he started after them, "Morons." He fell in step with Shonali, who smiled at him, "Yes, but they're your morons. Now my morons on the other hand, are an entirely different story."

It would be easier to give up than live up to her
Such ludicrous perfection isn't found on earth
And for anyone who said that love was easy
I said, for anyone who said that love was easy
She's a piece of work

As he held the door open for her, He looked down at her and he smiled, a half smile nonetheless, but it made Shonali smile back. Suddenly, he leaned in close, and she felt her heart skip a beat in shock as she felt Kyoya's lips move against the soft part of her ear, "You should smile like that more often. It suits you."

She's up and down, she's round the wheel
She's governed absolutely by the way she feels
That's a lethal combination in a small house when it rains
We sit around, then it pours
Me, I'm so addicted to the great indoors
And she wants to shine again

She leaned back and looked up at him. She noticed he had beautiful grey eyes, like thunder clouds. "And I'd say the same, for you, but unfortunately I haven't had the pleasure of seeing you smile. At least not one that counts." She brushed lightly past him to go inside, smiling coquettishly as she did. "Maybe I should teach you sometime."

She's the only person I have ever met
Who makes me feel I haven't tried hard yet
And for anyone who said that love was easy
I said, for anyone who said that love was easy
She's a piece of work

Kyoya stood there for a moment, almost amazed she hadn't turned into a blushing, stuttering mess as most girls would have. Then he smirked as he followed her into the dancing crowd, the music getting louder and louder as they moved towards the source of it.

And for anyone who said that love was easy
For anyone who said that love was easy
She's a piece of work

"Indeed she is."


Yay! I'm done chapter three! But honestly this wasn't that hard to write compared with how hard Chapter 4 is. I still haven't found the prefect songs to use! Although thanks to one of the reviewers who suggest the Ouran ipods thing, it gave me some ideas of what I wanted. Plus I'm still working on a character outline for some of the Preforming Arts Club Members, they're kind of hard to write about. Except for our mysterious Rachel figure of course. I can't WAIT to introduce her to you! Plus, we're also going to meet Shonali's sister and find out exactly what her relationship with Akito was.

Ooooo the suspense is terrible! *sighs dramtically and falls to the floor.*

See you in two days!

As always please review!

Song: She's a Piece of Work by John Wesley Harding