Disclaimer: (See chapters 1-3)
Chapter 4- "Amaya, La Vaca, and the Cake"
The Host Club stood in front of house. Yes, house. It was not a mansion like they all had with the exception of Haruhi, but it was a house—a big house. There were flowerbeds in the front yard and a nice little fountain stood in the midst of it. The Host Club minus Renge (who liked to make a grand entrance when everyone least expected) followed the smooth but stone studded path to the main entrance of the house. Tamaki rang the doorbell twice.
After about a minute, the group heard shuffling accompanied with the sound of a four-legged animal walking. The door swung open with a bang, revealing a figure whose hair covers two-thirds of its face, with some shorter layers sticking out oddly in different angles. The figure wore shorts with a snug fitting t-shirt, and a pair of slippers with a cartoon cow head. Accompanying the 'figure' was a small and somewhat chubby beagle dressed like a cow, complete with mini horns.
"Uh, we're here for Sakuragi Amaya, are we at the right place?" Tamaki asked politely.
"It's me, fool…," the figure, now revealed as Amaya grumbled. Everyone was slightly taken aback. They wondered how the usually cheerful Amaya could turn into something so savage. She stepped aside to allow them in, although they all feel a little reluctance. They went in anyway. She led them to the living room, and commanded, "Sit," like she would to her dog, and they quietly obeyed, along with her dog. She, herself walked to what they assumed was the bathroom. For a few minutes, they all just stared at the beagle in cow attire. The beagle just stared back, its tongue hanging out as dogs usually do. Then Tamaki walked over to the beagle and patted his head. The beagle in return licked him.
"He reminds me of Antoinette," he laughed between the wet kisses.
"He really is a dog person…" Haruhi commented, and the rest just nodded. Kyouya decided to give himself a little tour of the living room studying the decorations and pictures. He saw that the pictures in the frames were only of Amaya and a Japanese couple.
'Interesting…' Kyouya thought.
The twins were playing a game on their Nintendo DS. Mori-sempai just sat on the couch, watching Honey-sempai skipping around the room holding his bunny. After about ten minutes, Amaya finally came out of the bathroom, but this time she looked normal—her hair was combed and straight. She no longer looked grumpy and sleepy.
"Ah, sorry to keep you waiting, I'm not quite the morning person," she laughed embarrassed.
"It's 11:30, you can hardly consider that morning anymore…," Kaoru shut off the Nintendo DS.
"If you were going to wake up so late, don't tell us to come at 11," said the impatient Hikaru.
"It's still a.m.," Amaya shrugs.
"Aya-chan, what's his name?" Tamaki asked referring to the beagle that is still licking him.
"Oh, that silly thing, his name is Vaca, which is Spanish for cow. He's certainly living up to his name…," she replied, picking Vaca off Tamaki who is now dripping with dog saliva.
"Sempai, go wash up," Haruhi told him.
"Haruhi, you caaaaaare," Tamaki's mind floats to cloud 9.
"She's trying to say you stink," the devils in the place of the twins said, bringing him down all the way to the thirteenth level of hell.
"Sakuragi, are you of mixed heritage?" Kyouya suddenly asked.
"Yea, I'm half German, half Japanese," she replied, slightly confused as to why he suddenly asked.
"So I guess they aren't your real parents," he assumed, referring to the couple in the picture. The host club all looked at the picture; she looked nothing like the couple.
"Nope," she smiled. "The people in the picture are Reina-san and Taruki-san; I live with them and this is their house but they're out on a business trip right now. I don't know where my real parents are. Dead I guess," she smiled in a way that normal children would not when they talk about their parents not being there. Although she was smiling in a seemingly carefree way, everyone could feel the tension rising. Somehow, they could tell her smile was forced. They all knew there was something wrong with her attitude towards this matter, but they did not know what to expect of her answer.
"Aya-chan, do you have cake?" Honey-sempai asked in his child-like voice, easing the tension, as if he did not know what happened, but indeed, he did know.
"Yea, I'm glad you asked, I make cake last night. I made everything from scratch," she declared proudly letting the tension drop. Honey-sempai's eyes sparkled with delight, and relief that she was being more human. She took the cake out of the fridge. It looked appealing to the eyes, with the strawberries decorating the rims of the circular cake. There was chocolate frosting smothered over the cake and tips of the strawberries.
"Wah! It looks good, Aya-chan, what do you think, Takashi?" Honey-sempai complimented.
"It looks appetizing," Mori-sempai replies in his usual nonchalant way. (The author realizes she has not given him any lines)
"Aw, shucks, you're making me blush," Amaya replied in a dramatic way with her right hand on her cheeks, and left hand waving in a matter that spoke, 'it's nothing'. She cut up the cake, and passed a piece to everyone. "I hope you like it; I spent the whole night making it."
Each member used their forks to fork up a piece into their mouths with the exception of Honey-sempai who nearly took the whole thing in at once.
'What…is this?' they thought. 'Why does the frosting taste like salt? Why does the cake taste spicy? It's disgusting!' They were all thinking the same thing. The hosts looked at their lord, Tamaki, asking him what to do through eye contact. Tamaki himself was struggling to gulp down the piece of disaster.
'How can anyone make cake taste so bad?' Tamaki thought. He looked over at Amaya who was smiling at them, but not eating any herself. 'Is she trying to poison us…?' he suddenly thought. 'Is it because of what Kyouya said?' he remembered how she reacted to what he said, and looked over at Kyouya, who looked like he was ready to throw up anytime. 'Even if she did not poison it, the frosting itself is enough to give us kidney failure,' he continues to contemplate.
"Um, is everything alright? You guys stopped eating." She noticed. Everyone seemed to be sweating profusely. "Let me try some of that," she took a little bite out of Haruhi's piece, and froze. Then she got in the fetal position of despair in a secluded corner as Tamaki would.
"Eh, Aya…chan?" Tamaki almost felt bad for thinking she poisoned it. She gave him an empty look, as if her soul has just left.
"Aya-chan, it's not that bad," Honey-sempai tried to cheer her up.
"Are you kidding, it tastes like—" before Hikaru can make an insulting comment, Mori-sempai has swallowed his entire share. Sure, he was crying in the inside, but he was a considerate guy.
"Mori-sempai…" Tamaki said with a hint of admiration. Honey-sempai swallowed his share as well. "Honey-sempai…"
"Here it goes…," Haruhi ate it as well.
"Haruhi...," Tamaki was on the verge of a dramatic tearful scene, touched by his members' considerateness. "Yoshu! I shall take on this thing as well!" Tamaki declared with determination, and threw it down his throat, trying hard not to let his taste buds get in contact with the cake. "Your turn," he said referring to the twins.
"There's no way we're going to eat that—" before Hikaru and Kaoru can finish speaking, Tamaki has already shoved the cake in each of their mouths. He made sure he covered their mouths so they cannot throw it back out. The only way to get through it was to swallow it. When Tamaki was sure it was down their throats, he uncovered their mouths. "What the hell!" the twins yelled.
"Now...as for Kyouya…," Tamaki smirked.
"I'm not taking part in this—" Kyouya said, but it's too late, Tamaki has already done the same thing as he did to the twins.
"Aya-chan, everyone ate it, don't be sad," Honey-sempai comforted her.
"Wow you guys, I'm really touched. That was so sweet," she said impressed. "But, dang, I can't believe you actually ate that! You didn't have to. Even I thought it tasted nasty! Thanks for finishing it though. I didn't want to throw it out just like that, it'll be such a waste!" she laughed, springing right out of the fetal position of despair.
'We ate it for nothing…'
"I thought I would never get that thing out of the fridge," she laughed. "It's been there for a few days!"
'She knew it was bad all along…and she lied about making it last night…'
"So the entire time…you were 'improvising' again?" Haruhi asked for confirmation.
"Of course! An actress must always be on stand-by!" she replied cheerfully.
They all felt a little stupid for falling into her trap, but then in the end they thought, 'That's our Aya-chan,' and just laughed it off. Later on, she passed them their scripts, and they read over the script aloud. In the midst of practicing, Renge appeared just in time to say her line, jumping in through the window. Apparently, there was one of her leveling-circular floor patches outside in Amaya's front yard. They were good friends, after all.
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A/N: This chapter is a little longer than my other chapters, and I'm very happy about that. This chapter also came out EXTREMELY fast, and I take pride for that. I'll just wish that all the future chapters would come out just as fast.
Thanks again to the readers and Reviewers! I don't know how I could make it this far without you guys.
As for Maiden-chan's review, thank you very much for pointing out the awkwardness of Amaya finding out that Haruhi is a girl so fast. I thought about that too, but I did not want her to have to do a walk-in-on-Haruhi-changing scenario to find out she was a girl, and I really couldn't think of a better time. Also, thanks for confirming Amaya's non-sue-ness.
Thank you patback409 again for your review, and XXxbitchyhanyouxXX for being the first reviewer.
I wanted to share with everyone that I have finally reached my 100th hit. I know many of the better writers may have gotten theirs much earlier but hey, for me, it's a big deal.
Thank you my readers. Peace out!
The point of this chapter was mostly to build up friendship, and introduce a little bit about Amaya's background.
Stayed tuned for chapter 5, where they have their first on-stage rehearsal!
