My two brothers and sister piled out of Kyoya's limo. My lovely elder cousin ordered me ever-so-kindly to stay in the car. Haruki gave me a look of satisfaction at the fact that I was getting called out on something. But he also looked disappointed because he wasn't going to get to know what that something was. Ha, I win.
Once the door was closed and Kyoya and I were alone, he began to speak, "Chiyo, what is it that you and Mori-senpai were conversing about?" He forced his voice to be slightly conversational, but it sounded like he was interrogating me; which of course he was, not that he'd admit it.
"I do not believe that that matter is any business of yours, Kyoya," I answered slowly as if not to screw up, just to keep him guessing a bit.
"I do believe it is, Chiyo. Mori-senpai is a club member and hence forth, his business is mine as well as the rest of the club's," his "Mr. Boss-man voice" was making me a bit angry, but I continued on.
"I'm quite sure that what Takashi and I…"
"What did you call him?" Kyoya asked interrupting me with eyebrows raised.
"I called him his name. Is that a problem?" I asked, glaring. I had just realized that I hadn't added senpai to the end… In America, we don't use such formalities, so I often forget to add them on if I'm not concentrating on it. Kyoya didn't see it that way.
He eyed me with suspicion. "Chiyo, I advise that you not get too terribly attached to the club members. They are there to make every girl happy, not just one."
Kyoya is so stupid sometimes. What did he think Takashi and I were talking about anyway? It's not like were making out on the couch or planning our wedding or anything like that. It was just a friendly chat between new friends. Or at least I'm pretty sure it was. I told Kyoya that and he just replied, "Mori-senpai doesn't just have 'friendly chats' with just anyone who comes over to him, Chiyo. I do expect that you will react to this and any other situations similar to this one with a level head." I glared for a moment, but nodded. I understood. They were hosts. Hosts can't be involved with people; easily. But it was ridiculous for Kyoya to even bring up the subject. I talked to Takashi for maybe forty-five minutes at most. I don't think that that's anything to be concerned about…
The rest of my evening was Hell on earth. Once Kyoya's car drove away and I walked inside our mansion, Haruki bombarded me with questions about the discussion that Kyoya and I had. That lasted for about an hour as I was trying to write down the translations for my Conversational French class. It was pretty easy, considering that I lived in France for four years sporadically and was forced to speak and remember the language. But nevertheless, when an annoying fourteen year old is constantly asking you questions in English, which are none of his damn business, it's hard to translate French into Japanese!
Finally, we were called to supper. We were having extra-cheesy pizza with Canadian bacon, and mushrooms upon my and Kenji's request. My grandfather, a tall, athletic, old man with grey hair tried to figure out how one would eat pizza without looking undignified. His weapons of choice: the fork and the knife. He tried chopsticks at first, but soon gave up on that concept. I watched him try to eat and held back laughter. "Did anything interesting happen at school today?" he asked, smiling kindly.
"Chiyo has a boyfriend!!!" Haruki practically yelled. I turned to him; Hellfire was burning in my eyes. He could feel it too; he shrank back in his chair after grabbing another piece of pizza.
"Ah, so who's the lucky boy, Chiyo?" my grandfather looked rather pleased that I supposedly already had a boyfriend after being at Ouran for only two days. I tried to cut in, but failed.
"Takashi Morinozuka, class 3-A, captain of the Kendo Club and also the national champion. He has a younger brother Haruki's age and is related to the Haninozuka family. They are cousins, I believe. In addition, he is in the Host Club; he's either the strong and silent or wild type. Whichever you prefer to use is appropriate," Kenji responded immediately, never looking away from his plate. He's Kyoya's Mini Me and I don't like it.
"Wild type?" my grandfather mulled over the idea for a second. "You're dating someone who is labeled as a 'wild type'?" He looked slightly concerned at this.
"I'm not dating anyone!" I exploded. Everyone looked at me with surprised faces. I continued, "Look, we're just friends. Jeez, you talk to someone for like forty-five minutes and all of a sudden you're dating him!" I mumbled angrily.
"It was more than forty-five minutes, Chiyo," Kenji said, giving me an odd look. "You talked with Mori-senpai for about an hour and a half."
I looked at my little brother, astonished at how the time passed so quickly. "Oh," was all I could manage to say.
"What I want to know is how you even got him to talk," Haruki stated after a long silence, grabbing yet another piece of pizza. "Satoshi says that he almost never talks, not even around his family really." I swear I'm going to beat that kid's face in one of these days. It's none of his business. I glared and he shut his trap in record time.
Everyone left me alone for the rest of the evening. That was a relief. Well, almost everyone. My little puppy, Aram, got scared by the thunderstorm that was raging outside and started clawing at my door. I picked him up in one hand and plopped him down on my bed. I played with his short, tan and black fur as I went over my whole day in my mind. I went over my and Takashi's conversation, and the one that Kyoya and I had. Is there something that I'm doing wrong by befriending Takashi? I dwelled on that thought for a long time, but I couldn't think of anything wrong with it. Then I reviewed our discussion at supper. What Haruki said settled in my mind and refused to go away. "What I want to know is how you even got him to talk. …he almost never talks, not even around his family really." What was that supposed to mean? And why am I still thinking about this? It's utterly meaningless.
I soon fell asleep, my mind still reeling, although I don't know why. I woke once again to Haruki yelling in my ear. He also woke up Aram who started growling and chasing after my younger brother. Haruki left before Aram could catch him. My little German Shepard somehow made it back up to my bed and curled up on my stomach, asleep. I stroked his little body and said quietly, "I knew there was a reason why I picked you from the shelter. You must have AB negative blood type too." I smiled before picking him up gently and sitting him on my pillow. I got dressed quickly in my banana dress and Chucks. I looked at my bed and saw that Aram must have went down to eat or something. I grabbed my bag and ran out to the limo, still in a zombie-like state from lack of sleep.
"What happened to you?" I asked Kyoya as I clambered into the car. His hair was a wreck, he had huge bags under his eyes, and for once in his life, and his tie was completely wonky.
"I could ask you the same thing," he replied grumpily. I looked in a mirror and saw that my hair looked a bit like a fohawk… I took the comb that Kyoya produced from his pocket, after he was done with it of course, and tried to fix my hair. By the time I was done, my hair looked the way it usually does; short and black with layers that poked out at random angles. Kyoya, when he first saw it, called me a quote "gothic American pixie". He secretly loves it; he just doesn't realize it quite yet. I fixed Kyoya's tie for him, seeing how he was in ruins this morning, I decided to be nice. I had to tie it on myself first though, before handing it to him to put around his neck. He seemed to find this quite amusing. I thought it was funny that I could tie a better Rich Man's Knot than he could.
The first couple hours went along rather smoothly. The twins weren't too terribly bothersome, although Kaoru had to continue his daily ritual of making fun of my shoes. It wasn't until right before my geography class that I noticed something furry and moving in my bag. Aram looked up at me and wagged his tail happily. I groaned. How the hell did he get in there and how was I supposed to keep him hidden? When I got to Geography class, I asked the teacher if I could go to the infirmary to get some aspirin. He nodded and started the lesson. I went off to find somewhere that I could put my little Aram without him being found. I rounded a corner without looking and ran straight into a hard, muscular chest. I heard a small yelp as my bag, my books, and I all fell to the floor from such a blow. We both muttered our apologies and Takashi helped me pick up my books. I looked around desperately for my puppy that seemed to have escaped from my school bag.
Takashi had already stood up. He cleared his throat and got my attention, "Looking for something?" I then saw little Aram cradled in Takashi-senpai's arm. I was in a state of shock. Aram hated everyone except me. I was the only one besides a few of our maids that could get anywhere near him. But nevertheless, I smiled my thanks. "Do you need a place to hide him for a while?" He asked me quietly.
"Yeah, I guess I do," I replied. He helped me up with his free hand and we started walking. Once we got into the warm sunshine, I said, "Thank you for helping me, Mori-senpai. I really appreciate it." He slowed down his pace and looked at me. His face was stoic as ever, but his eyes showed disappointment. I understood how he felt. I had been given many nicknames over the years, Yoshi being the most popular. He's the dragon/camel-like horse-thing in the Mario games. Some of the guys at the American schools I went to decided that my last name was close to Yoshi, and hence, my nickname was born. But the point is that it still feels good when people care enough to call you by your real name. I tried to pull it off as a slip-up, "Oh, I'm sorry, Takashi-senpai, I had a mental lapse there." He smiled faintly and kept walking. It wasn't until we reached the kendo dojo that he spoke.
"You don't have to lie to me, I know Kyoya doesn't approve of our friendship," he said softly, opening the door for me.
"Thanks. Sorry about Kyoya. He's very protective of the club and his friends. Despite what he says or does to you guys, he just wants the best. I haven't quite determined if it's the best for you or him yet, but still," Takashi chuckled a bit at my last remark. He knew it was true. He then led me back to what looked like a storage room. There were shinai and parts of the uniform sprawled out across the floor. We found an old helmet in the back corner and made a bed-like structure of it for Aram. He curled up and soon fell asleep.
"I really want to thank you for this," I said as we went out the door. He nodded and we walked. He carried my books under his right arm. "You know, I can carry that myself," I said. He looked down at me, smiled slightly, and kept walking. We walked in silence until we got outside my classroom door.
Takashi handed me my books slowly and said coolly, "I'll bring your puppy with me to the Host Club, if that's okay, Hoshi-san."
"That would be great, Takashi," I whispered so I wouldn't disrupt the class. Takashi looked at me in surprise. "Takashi-senpai, I mean." I then mumbled, "Damn Japanese formalities…" I cleared my throat, "Thank you so much." Takashi smiled and nodded before walking away. I watched him until he rounded the corner. I then slipped into my geography class as if nothing had ever happened. As far as they knew, my puppy wasn't sleeping in the kendo club storage room, I didn't just mess up on my Japanese formalities, and Mori-senpai didn't just help me immensely. As far as they knew, all was right in the world.
Until, that is, Hikaru yelled across the classroom, "Hey, Chiyo, what were you and Mori-senpai talking about outside the door for about five minutes?" Damn it. I forgot that the door had a window and I had my back to them the whole time.
"Whatever are you talking about, Hikaru?" I played dumb. It was just about all I could do at that point. I couldn't tell them about Aram with the teacher right there. If there's anything I learned from nursery rhymes is that when Mary brought her lamb to school, all hell broke loose. Just imagine what would happen if someone brought in their aggressive little puppy. Play dumb and hope they believe it. Here's hoping that it works for once.
