Review Responses:
Curlyfr13s: I'mma be honest. It took me way too long to figure out what your name meant. And thanks! Mitsukuni has always been my favorite Host (probably because my older sister complex makes me love cute things). I love writing in his p.o.v, although yeah, it's hard. I'm glad you like my attempt at it though!
blackcat711: Ha! I should put that on the summary 'may induce vomit' - wait a second...
SyConstance: Haha, glad you liked it!
Guest: I'm glad, you've liked both my stories!
AnUnreasonableDreamer: Haha, just a bit! Wow, damn, now I'm starting to get ideas for a Naruto AU. Maybe I'll throw out an omake up at some point.
Imaginativequeen101: Thanks! Here's your update!
Mamabug: Slowly but surely these nerds will get more interaction time.
PetiteEmperor4: Done~
INSANITY-BRILLIANCE: I'm glad you liked the chapter! And yeah, I'll just stare at my inbox obsessively. It's really a problem xD
: Haha, I'm glad you like poor awkward Tiên!
Arc One: Red Riding Hood
Chapter Three: Sheep in Wolf's Clothing
The chandeliers glittered over Yushin and Tiên's head. The ballroom was huge, and it felt bigger with how easily the Ouran staff could fill the room without brushing elbows. Their mission was simple: transfer this ballroom into a clinic. Yushin kept Tiên away from the heavy lifting, which was probably a good thing. Tiên wasn't sure if she could handle any heavy lifting. Most of the heavy lifting was done anyway, right now Tiên was just filling jars with Q-tips.
"Tiên-chan?" Yushin asked, glancing from where he was pushing a cot exactly into place (rich people apparently had OCD about symmetry).
"Aa?"
"Do you think these rich people think this is what physical exams are actually like?" He asked.
Tiên let out a very unladylike snort, "I hope so." She deadpanned.
Yushin laughed, "By Buddha, these kids really live in La La Land."
"Aa." Tiên agreed, her mind drifting back to a pair of big brown eyes. He certainly did live in La La Land, but it must be nice to have that luxury. Tiên isn't so sure she would wish a wakeup call on him anymore.
As Fujioka Haruhi walked through the transformed ballroom, she had similar thoughts to Tiên and Yushin. Damn rich people. She groused within the safety of her own head.
That was about the time she noticed Loi Tiên. Haruhi was vaguely familiar with what the girl looked like, the twins had played the video of Mitsukuni slamming his car (door) into the poor girl enough times for Haruhi to know that slick, black ponytail on sight. The black stitches also made it easy to identify her.
Tiên was dressed in the same uniform all the staff worn, but she wore it a bit different. Most of the staff wore it a lot like Haruhi wore her own uniform, uncomfortably, like it didn't quiet fit against their skin. Tiên, on the other hand, seemed to own her uniform. The suit fit her well, though it didn't do much to show off Tiên's femininity. She looked a bit fierce, in a reliable sort of way. Like you could ask her for help and know that whatever you wanted would be accomplished. She carried herself a bit like a panther did, stalking rather than walking. It was a far cry different from the blushing, anxious mess that Haruhi had seen in the twins' video.
There was also something familiar about her slick black hair and light brown eyes that almost seemed yellow in the light. Haruhi couldn't help but picture Tiên with much softer features, and braids instead of a ponytail - a fuzzy picture from Haruhi's childhood. Haruhi's curiosity got the better of her and she caught Tiên's attention as she passed by. "Sorry to bother you, but you wouldn't have happened to attend Shinanodai Elementary School?"
Tiên seemed to shrink into herself the moment Haruhi addressed her, which made Haruhi feel bad for addressing the girl. The anxious mess from the video wasn't quite back, but it was something akin to it.
"Ah um, yes I did?" Tiên answered, though she inflected it like a question.
"I think we might have been classmates. You were the girl with the braided hair loops, weren't you?"
Tiên didn't quite smile but her lips quirked up and she fumbled with a few loose strands of hair, shoving them behind her ears, "Probably. I wore my hair like that most days back then. I have vague memories of a Haruhi. I can't picture it." She apologized.
Haruhi smiled with embarrassment. It really wasn't Tiên's fault, as she was trying to picture a boy when she should be trying to picture a girl. "Wait, you know my name?"
Tiên's lips quirked, "You're in the Host Club. All of the staff know you."
Haruhi raised an eyebrow then thought about it, and then nodded. Yeah, the Host Club was probably the problem child of all of the clubs. The staff was always having to sweep up their mistakes.
"Your friends," Tiên nodded in the direction of the twins who were walking over with shit-eating grins. Haruhi sighed through her nose and with a quick farewell to Tiên, ran off to join her friends. She felt a little bad leaving Tiên alone like that, as far as Haruhi knew the girl still had a concussion and the boy who was usually never far from Tiên's elbow was nowhere in sight, but this Ouran Academy, it wasn't like anything serious would happen to the girl, right?
Mitsukuni, Kyoya, and Takashi were walking through the makeshift clinic when a commotion caught their attention. Within a sea of huddled yellow, was a black slip of a girl, sitting on her knees clutching her head. Beside her was a nurse, and one particular female student, both had their arms wrapped around the girl's shoulders.
"Is that Loi-san?" Kyoya asked.
Mitsukuni's eyes widened and his head snapped in the direction of the commotion. How was it that Tiên always manages to get herself in trouble? At least this time it wasn't his fault. Although, given that Tiên was still in pain, it didn't really make Mitsukuni feel better. He and Takashi rushed over through the crowd to get to the crowd with Kyoya walking more relaxed behind them. He fell to his knees gripping the dazed girls shoulders.
Tiên looked just as confused as she had when Mitsukuni hit her with his car door. As if she wasn't exactly sure how she came to be sitting on the ground, or why her head was hurting. While that was never a good thing, for a girl nursing a concussion it was a really bad thing. Mitsukuni bit his lip in worry. He felt strangely responsible for the girl (even though their situations really ought to be reversed since she was staff), but seeing how Takashi seemed to feel the same way (probably from being unable to help her last time), Mitsukuni didn't think it was too weird.
"What happened?" Kyoya asked, his voice cutting through the fluttering panic everyone was in.
"One of the doctors grabbed her and threw her into the wall!" The girl who was sitting next to Tiên answered. "I'm sure he was trying to pull something on her!"
Kyoya and Takashi's eyes narrowed sharply. Mitsukuni felt a cold fury take hold of him. He absolutely wasn't going to let someone get away with hurting her like that, especially if they meant to do more harm. And Mitsukuni had the skills to make that desire a reality.
"Which way did he go?" Mitsukuni asked, his voice serious. That seemed to make Tiên's eyes refocus.
"I'm fine." She tried to reassure, but it was a flat lie that nobody believed.
"He went that way," the student replied, "Towards the special boy's clinic."
Kyoya who had been mostly disinterested, sharpened at that, and the twins and Tamaki also started to panic.
"Ti-chan, you stay here alright!" Mitsukuni instructed giving the girl's shoulder a squeeze before jumping up to his feet. The Host Club took off, leaving a very confused Tiên in their wake.
"I knew it." Kyoya said as they ran.
"Knew it?" Mitsukuni echoed. He had the feeling he was about to hear something he didn't like.
"I saw that man earlier. He was dressed in a white coat but he clearly wasn't one of our doctors. I thought that was a little strange." Kyoya explained.
"Then you should have said something sooner!" The twins snapped as they ran. They didn't have any particular interest in Tiên, but no girl deserved something like that to happen to them, and it could have been a lot worse.
Mitsukuni felt anger stirring towards Kyoya, which was strange because it wasn't Kyoya's fault. Noticing something strange didn't necessarily mean a pervert doctor had broken into the school. Maybe he wouldn't have gotten so upset if Tiên hadn't gotten hurt, but she had gotten hurt. Mitsukuni had the awareness of mind not to take out his anger on Kyoya. He would save it all for the pervert doctor.
So when Tamaki delivered a flying kick to the doctor, Mitsukuni's was right there with him. Their double kicks nearly knocking the doctor out as he crashed into the wall. Of course, Mitsukuni would regret his actions later.
Karma, Tiên decided was at play here. She had skipped school and gone to work when she wasn't supposed to and now she was sitting on a doctor's cot being examined for head trauma for the second time this week. Yushin, who had noticed that she was missing eventually, had tracked her down and was now standing worriedly at his side.
"Go work." Tiên instructed sourly.
"Yeah, I'm not leaving you cutie," Yushin said with a wink, though his firm voice didn't leave much room for arguing.
Tiên frowned and shrugged as if to say 'you do you'. She didn't handle concern well and preferred to be alone through her weak moments, Yushin, however, didn't seem to care about what Tiên preferred.
The doctor finished up. Tiên was fine, well, she wasn't fine but there hadn't been any complications. The only instructions the doctor gave her was to avoid taking pain medications that would interfere with her blood flow and might cause bleeding to her brain (which she had already been told) and to have family members make sure she was able to wake up properly. Tiên sighed at that news, she was in for another sleepless night.
"This is your fault." Tiên informed Yushin as soon as the doctor left.
Yushin's jaw drop, "How? I didn't assault you!"
Tiên made a face. She still wasn't sure what happened. She couldn't remember even hitting her head. Everyone was saying some doctor made a pass at her, but Tiên just remembered being grabbed and how panicked the doctor had looked. But, it wasn't something she was going to argue about.
"I wanted to go to school." Tiên pointed out. She didn't really blame Yushin, but she was feeling petty because her head hurt so she was getting something out of this ordeal.
Yushin's head dropped. He knew what Tiên was doing but still couldn't tell her no. Not when she was sitting so pitifully on a doctor's cot. "What do you want?"
"Dinner."
Yushin sighed, "I'm going to have to take you and your grandpa out for ramen again aren't I?"
"Explosive ramen." Tiên specified.
Yushin sighed, "Fine, fine. You've already been clocked out for work. So I'm going to go clock out and then we'll pick up my roommates then your grandpops, and we'll go out for dinner."
"Aa." Tiên said with a slight smirk. All things considered, today wasn't an awful day. At least, it wasn't if she was getting spicy ramen out of it.
Yushin stepped out of the room, not realizing that instead of making things easy on Tiên, he was actually leaving her at the mercy of the mischievous kami of Ouran Academy.
Yushin hadn't even been gone 10 minutes before the Host Club was bursting into the room. "Ti-chan!" "Loi-san!"
Tiên winced at the noise level and nearly had a heart attack from surprise. Haruhi noticed the wince and quickly scolded the Host Club down into manageable levels.
Mitsukuni flew away from the pack of teens, and ran right into Tiên throwing his arms around her shoulders. Sitting on the cot they were about the same height, without it Tiên was a good half-head taller then Mitsukuni. His arms tightened around her, "Are you alright, Ti-chan! We were all really worried!"
"Too dramatic." Tiên sighed, looking away. She was flustered by their concern. They didn't have to show up and she didn't even really know them. Tiên wasn't used to anyone at this school really noticing her, never mind the heart throbs of the school. To be honest, she wasn't used to anyone outside of her immediate circle of friends and acquaintances taking much note of her.
Mitsukuni pouted at Tiên's dismissive reply, filling his cheeks with hot air. Cute. Tiên thought, though she made light of his pouting by poking one of Mitsukuni's air swollen cheeks, causing the trapped air to escape and blow against her face.
"An introduction is in order!" Tamaki exclaimed. The next thing Mitsukuni knew he was being pushed aside while Tamaki took Tiên's hand about to begin in a long speech.
"That's not necessary." Tiên broke in. She didn't know what theatrics he had in mind, but if they got too flirty or rowdy Tiên was sure she would end up embarrassing herself, and besides she did know all of their names.
"Ehhh?" Tamaki made a noise of distressed confusion. He probably thought the introduction was the best part.
"I work for the school. I know who you are." Tiên deadpanned.
"Ooooh?" The twins purred. It was Tamaki's turn to be pushed out of the way, but Mitsukuni found himself increasingly frustrated with being shoved further and further away from Tiên. "Can you name us then?" They challenged.
"Kaoru and Hikaru." Tiên replied without indicating who was who. She was fairly certain that's not what they wanted, but she wasn't going to just let them have their way. At least not when "their way" was embarrassing her.
The twins tsked, "That's cheating, Tiên~"
Tiên wanted to turn invisible or melt. It was hard enough being in the spotlight without them teasing. Talking to Mitsukuni was one thing. Once someone hit you with their car (door) you could probably call them an acquaintance, but the rest of the Host Club (excluding, maybe, Haruhi) were pretty much strangers to her.
"Oi! Who said you could be so familiar with her?" Haruhi's voice came from the back of the crowd coming to Tiên's rescue. Unfortunately, she was ignored by the twins.
"We should play the 'Who's Hikaru' game!"
Their challenge was unfair, and they knew it, and the unfairness helped Tiên to find her voice (and her backbone). "You're identical twins." Tiên pointed out with an eye roll, "I'd need to know you better, first."
The twins exchanged a look. Nobody had ever answered their call to play the game like that. They either just agreed or said it was impossible. Tiên didn't know but she had broken the mold, just a bit, but enough.
"Well, my beautiful princess," Tamaki was once again on his feet and pushing his way through the twins to grasp Tiên's calloused hand, "We would love to cordially invite you to the Host Club!"
"Your stay will be on the house," Kyoya put in from his place in the back of the room.
Absolutely not. Tiên didn't do crowds in general. Going to market was hard enough and she knew everyone. They expected her to sit and talk to them with strangers, strangers who would be sitting there judging her? Yeah, maybe when pigs flied. "Sorry. Yushin-senpai promised me spicy ramen."
"But Ti-chan! You have to come!" Mitsukuni had managed to wiggle his way past the twins and Tamaki and was so bold as to sit on the bed next to her, tugging on her hand insistingly.
Tiên shrugged and made sure that she focused on how childish he was and not the fact that a teenage boy was sitting next to her on what was basically a bed, holding her hand, "Some other time." She insisted in her same placid, bland tone.
"Wow, Tiên-chan. I leave for five minutes and I come back and you have a harem."
Tiên's eyes snapped up. Yushin had made his grand re-entrance. I'm going to kill him. Tiên decided, her face slowly turning pink. I don't care if he's cute and my only work friend and buys me spicy food when he wants something. I'm really going to kill him.
"A h-harem?!" Tamaki choked about falling over as his noble Host Club was delegated to the status of reverse harem. The twins cackled at their boss's distress.
Tiên gave Yushin a sour look.
"Oh, did I read the situation wrong? Does Red need a rescue from a pack of wolves?" Yushin asked casually, though with a rather large smirk.
Wolves? Red? The Host Club wondered at whatever inside joke the two close friends' had.
Tiên reached up and smacked Yushin on the back of the head.
"Oi! That's no way to treat a guy who's dating you and your grandpa out for dinner."
"You owe me."
"That's beside the point!"
A/N: Has anyone else noticed that when it comes to sexual assault, the anime goes from 0 to 60 real quick? Not even once, like three times at least. Always find that very jarring, but hey, angst!
Before anyone says that this is too convenient, I would like to say that to my knowledge Haruhi had never moved in her life and neither has Tiên. They both live close enough Ouran to work/go to school so it stands to reason that they might have gone to the same school. However, a school is a big place, so that doesn't mean that they really knew each other.
Explosive Ramen is served at the Misoichi chain of ramen eateries in Tokyo. They're called "explosive ramen" because they're made with an entire Chinese soup spoon of ground chili pade. As we've established, Tiên likes her food spicy.
I've noticed that while 52 Pick Up rarely breaks from Yumi's p.o.v, My Pet Prince Charming is rarely in Tiên's p.o.v. Not sure why, it just seems to work.
Annnd, damn I made a joke about symmetry which made me think of Death the Kid and now I'm getting ideas for a Soul Eater AU (I am literally trash)