Black Birds
-
Shikamaru didn't know how it happened but it did anyway.
Somehow Ranka managed to get him to eat dinner with himself and Haruhi almost every evening and get all the juicy gossip out of him - Shika discovered a small talent for gathering information and dissecting and understanding it during the war thus meaning he now had a bad habit of hording gossip, picking it apart, rearranging it and grasping the true concept of what was going on.
Ranka loved it.
Haruhi was somewhat surprised a boy had that ability – let alone such a recluse as him.
Shikamaru was just ashamed.
As such the small threesome found themselves yet again laughing over the Host Club's latest mission to prevent the knowledge of Haruhi's gender being leaked to the rest of the world, i.e. the rest of the student body, and the huge mess that they caused during the Physical Examination day for the First years. Particularly how they bribed her into going along with it with the promise of Ootoro.
That one got a good giggle out of the two men folk at the table.
Haruhi merely blushed and sulked slightly as she chewed slowly on the Sheppard's Pie Shika made for their dinner that night – in return for inviting him over he would occasionally cook dishes from his home country and various other countries, Ranka was of the opinion his sweets were better than the store bought stuff and occasionally asked him to bake a birthday cake for one of his co-workers when the occasion cropped up.
As of now, Haruhi was complaining about the twins treating her like some kind of toy and wanting to come over, Ranka seemed to think it was a fantastic idea, Shikamaru however.... had more than enough experience with mischievous twins.
"Ranka-chan, if the Hitachiin twins are anything like a certain set of red headed twins I knew back home, you won't have an apartment to come home to when they're done." He explained a look of wry amusement on his face.
It was strange to him. He was beginning to relax, to open up a little to those around him, to Haruhi and Ranka-chan when previously it was only the others, only his friends and his 'Team'. He only hoped it was a sign of recovery. That he found himself able to open up to others again was good; he didn't particularly want to go through life alone again.
"It doesn't matter anyway. They've apparently 'Severed all ties'." Haruhi explained fiddling with her fork – transfigured from a chopstick before Shikamaru came over.
A single dark eyebrow arched sceptically, if those twins were anything like Fred and George...
They were probably faking it.
-
The next day Shikamaru couldn't say he wasn't surprised to walk into the cafeteria and find a bemused Haruhi watching a pair of twins – one pinked haired the other blue haired – demanding food in perfect synchrony before growling at each other and fighting.
"How long have they been like this?" He asked flatly appearing at Haruhi's elbow.
The girl rubbed her face, "All day. They've been dragging other people into it as well." She complained.
"Hnn." Shika grunted, "Let's grab a seat, they'll be finished soon enough." He stated marching away and grabbing a table, glancing over and spotting the twins practically smoosh a strawberry topped cake into Hani-senpai's hair before shouting yet again. The long haired teenager rolled his eyes and sat down, ignoring the sudden clamour from the other students, specifically the girls, as the rest of the Host Club came in and Tamaki practically pawed over Haruhi again before spacing out and allowing her to escape.
The younger girl hurriedly took a seat beside Shikamaru with whom he assumed was Hiitachin Hikaru on her otherside who then proceeded to try and exchange his lunch with her own. She refused which was probably a good idea if the chills crawling down his spine was any indication. The dark haired teenager calmly went about eating his lunch, his sketchbook on his otherside as he started another drawing, this time a Tarot Card featuring the Weasley Twins. All the talking of mischievous mischief making red heads last night put a pang of homesickness through him concerning his old friends and family. Thus spawning their likeness onto paper.
During his moment of inattentiveness, Hikaru somehow ended up with her lunchbox and Haruhi finally managed to taste some of the higher-class foods that really didn't do much for Shika. They just weren't filling enough for him.
Fairly soon a food fight broke out and he had to stop drawing and move his sketchbook under his shirt protectively or risk getting it soaked with Soup – like the Vice Principle's face when a poorly thrown fork from one of the twins narrowly missed Tamaki.
Despite not being involved, he somehow got roped into helping the Host Club members clean up after the impromptu food fight. Out of all the students, he was probably the only one not tired when they were finished. Cleaning up after the Dursleys and then again after the majority of the boys in his Dorm-room – it took a while for his Inner!Neat-Freak to win out over his sense of dignity and he ended up cleaning up after his dorm mates simply out of reflex, and because he kept tripping over Seamus's shoes and books and then landing face first in smelly socks and used underwear, Not pleasant – had been good practice.
Then he somehow ended up listening to what amounted to the Hitachiin Twins' life story from Hani-senpai and Tamaki-san. Interesting though it was – not – why tell him? He didn't give a rat's.
The dark haired teenager grumbled and leaned back in his seat as Tamaki raced off to punish the twins after an unpleasant prank involving what seemed to be spears aimed at one another. Haruhi wasn't far behind, no doubt to try and broker a truce between the two, leaving Shikamaru with Kyouya-san and the two Seniors.
"What cha Drawing Shika-chan?" Hani-senpai bubbled hopping into the seat beside him, the teenager tensing ever so slightly at the invasion of his personal space before forcing himself to calm down.
"Some friends from back home." He said cagily, not really comfortable with having others looking through his drawings. Not when he didn't know them.
Hani seemed to understand and smiled before bouncing off to 'Takashi'.
Leaving Shika to leaf absently through his drawings.
One of his mother, the Hungarian Horntail, of the twins on their Tarot Card, of Hermione reading in Gryffindor Tower, of Ron sprawled out on the couch in front of the fire, head tilted back, mouth open and snoring loudly with Hermione using him as a pillow, her hair in a disarray as a book dangled from her limp fingers. Viktor Krum, Fleur Delacour, Cedric Diggory and an unfinished drawing of himself from the Triwizard Tournament. Fleur in her wedding dress beside a heavily scarred Bill Weasley who looked like the happiest man on earth. Remus and Tonks, the Metamorphagus with her heavily pouting belly and Remus stood behind her with his arms wrapped around the petite witch, a broad hand resting against the bump to feel his son kicking against his hand. His aunt and Uncle and Cousin, Dudley in front of the TV surrounded by food, his Aunt wearing that wrinkled expression of cold scorn, his Uncle larger than life and lined in purple, piggy eyes furiously glaring out of the page. Luna and Ginny arm in arm leering out of the page, their expressions both teasing and mischievous. Sirius and Kayleigh's last stand in the Ministry Atrium, lights flashing around them, Kayleigh armed with a spiked mace, Sirius with a rapier from his father's room – he had been very good at fencing apparently – wands clutched tightly in their other hands as they went head on against the Death Eater's Inner Circle during the Final Battle.
Lastly was a picture of them. Of Dean, Professor Sprout, Cedric Diggory, his parents and of Natalie. All of them pale and insubstantial – ghostly.
Shikamaru ignored the sharp wrenching of his heart and closed the book.
-
He refrained from saying 'I Told You So'.
But it was oh-so very tempting.
Haruhi merely glared at him and told him to move his ass and help her with the shopping.
-
While Haruhi was kidnapped to test out the Ootori Secret members Health-spar pool thingy – Shikamaru wasn't listening as Kyouya attempted to explain it and drag him along as well – a certain Boy-Who-Lived-To-Have-His-Name-Hypohonated-Far-Too-Many-Times-With-Too-Many-Inane-Titles found himself having to go into the ATOC Division to look over several files and train some more operatives in various spells and receive training in return.
The Japanese equivalent of the Aurors – which were known as Shinobi, which in his opinion was just pushing the envelope of clichés, but at least they weren't called Samurai or anything like that – were very skilled, but they tended to focus more on using Magic to boost their physical abilities, super speed, strength, levitation charms coupled with wind manipulation birthing the legends that Japanese heroes and ninja could actually fly. They practiced traditional forms of magic, exorcism and rituals mainly, the spirit population of Japan and the far East was unusually large and unlike the Ghosts and Poltergeists of Europe, much nastier. But their Elemental Manipulation was by far the best anywhere in the world, their skill at forming fireballs, lightning bolts, even ice pillars and spikes of earth were fantastic, all within the flicker of an eye.
As such, they didn't have much in the way of defensive and offensive spell work; Shikamaru was coaching them through some of the nastier aspects of it, because eventually they would be going up against Death Eaters and other individuals of a similar kidney. Professional Duellers who knew whole armouries of unpleasant spells with nasty affects. The one advantage the Japanese had over that was that most Traditional Magical fighters had insanely poor physical abilities.
Harry and the rest of 'Dumbledore's Army' were the exception as Hermione discovered a link between physical health improving magical health and instantly everyone in the DA started working out.
One of the people he was working with Ayanaga Kenichi, a former street-rat who also happened to be a Parselmouth with a fetish for blowing things up, suggested that he learned Martial Arts, something which he had been considering for a while but never got around to learning. Already the heterochromatic eyed Shinobi was teaching him a few moves, usually very nasty below the belt Wolf Tactics – get in, cause as much damage as possible, get out – but he was no traditional Martial Artist, everything he knew he picked up on the streets and through experience. Shikamaru was better off learning from a professional.
Which was how he ended up joining a Martial Arts dojo owned and run by the Haninozuka family.
Which was where he met Hani-senpai's younger brother Haninozuka Yasuchika and Morinozuka Satoshi, Mori-senpai's younger brother.
Funny how he ended up befriending the two of them before their older brothers.
Not quite as amusing was how Haruhi managed to convince the Hosts to take Shikamaru with them on a Summer Vacation trip to the Ocean on the grounds that her father would be out of town and someone needed to make sure he didn't work himself to death.
Which prompted Shika having to explain to Ootori and Suou just why he was employed while he was a school student, all of which basically boiled down to: "I can't access my money until I'm of age. I need to put food on the table somehow."
Which was how he ended up sitting on the beach wearing a baggy T-shirt over his dark green swim shorts and sketching beside a rather exasperated Haruhi who was eyeing the antics of the Hosts around her with two parts annoyance, one part amusement and one part exasperation.
Of course they turned the vacation into a business opportunity, did she really expect anything less of Ootori?
Haruhi sighed and glanced over to him, "Thanks for coming with me."
He shrugged a shoulder, "I needed to speak with Nekozawa-san anyway. He has some property in the Caribbean my boss would like to borrow for a little while. They've used it before in the past with permission, she's hoping that Nekozawa-san will be as accommodating again." He explained drawing out one of the Merfolk he remembered from the Triwizard Tournament, only substituting some of their features with characteristics of various tropical fish he'd seen in pet-shops. The affect was strikingly exotic and he considered framing it and putting it up on the wall of his room briefly before deciding against it.
"Still. I needed someone sane to talk to. Kyouya-senpai doesn't count. He's evil." She declared absently waving a hand, Shikamaru smirked and cast her a sideways glance, green eyes glinting with amusement – free from his glasses for the day as he'd put in contacts – his pencil pausing on the paper.
"I think we've been hanging around too much Haruhi. You're starting to sound like me." He teased her seriously; the girl blinked at him and chuckled slightly before one of the customers splashed water at her to get some attention, Shika moving slightly to protect his precious sketchbook before chuckling and getting to his feet, leaving Haruhi with her customers.
Settling further back on the hot sand the dark haired teenager found a few of the quieter girls clustering around him, he shifted uncomfortably but spoke to them politely enough, recognising a few from his class. One of them even asked if she could borrow a piece of paper and pencil so she could do some drawing of her own, something he was only to happy to provide, if she was drawing, she would be quiet.
Shikamaru could only chuckle when he heard Tamaki screeching in horror as Nekozawa played his tricks again, Hitsugaya-sama had told him about Nekozawa Umehito's unique sense of humour. He had to admit he liked it; the skeletons littered across the beach were an amusing touch.
A few of the girls around him giggled slightly as the Hosts yet again pawed Haruhi, this time with seafood and oddly enough a watermelon. He merely shook his head and started a new drawing, ignoring how the girls who had clustered around Tamaki ran screaming over a centipede that was promptly tossed into the bushes by a certain female Host.
Looking back, he probably should have paid more attention to his surroundings.
The twins' idea of fun had been proven time and again as: Bad road. Yet they still managed to drag everyone into the insanity they created.
It only proved to irritate him further when he somehow found himself dragged into the chaos as well.
He wasn't even a Host!
Why did he have to suffer as well?!
Really, all the Hosts managed to figure out was that both he and Haruhi were exceptionally difficult to scare through normal means. Really? Heights, small spaces, the dark, though Mori-senpai with the harpoon was cause for more amusement than fear. Luckily the twins had the good sense not to play on his Aphephobia, if they did, Shikamaru would have had to have broken them for it.
The dark haired teenager sighed as he packed away his sketchbook and supplies into his backpack, it was nearing sunset and he supposed they would soon be joining Nekozawa-san at his mansion, he would approach him about the ATOC using his Caribbean property for surveillance and flooing in and out of the country – Portkey wards around the island redirected everyone to the Magical Transportation office where the criminals in question had several members of Staff Imperio'd.
A scream had his attention snapping up to see Haruhi in a fight with several local boys.
Green eyes went wide and the dark haired teenager bolted several hairs behind Tamaki as the French-man was closer and used his longer legs to eat up the distance. Shika watched as the blonde flung himself off the edge after Haruhi and decided they would be alright.
The bastards however, were not as he descended upon them, knife-edged smirk of malicious glee etching across his lips.
And people wondered how badly the Death Eaters had damaged him.
-
After having Mori and Hani manage to stop him from causing any permanent harm to the individuals in question, the twins giving him looks of hero-worship, Kyouya eyeing him as one would a dog who had been kicked a few too many times and decided to start biting back, and the two Seniors keep close at hand to make sure he didn't go back and finish what he started.
He had no intention of doing so.
He already had their faces and with a swift Legilimency probe, he knew their intentions, their names and other crimes they had committed. He would sketch them out tonight and visit the local police station in the morning to have them arrested. As of right now, he was eyeing a sodden Haruhi being held bridal style by Tamaki.
He sighed and glowered at her, "Next time you go and do something that kind of stupid Haruhi, I'm going to kick your ass to the moon and back. Got it?" Shikamaru told her flatly as he knocked the back of his hand against her head before smiling, "But I'm glad you're alright."
The next twenty minutes were a bit of a blur of Tamaki berating Haruhi, her completely misunderstanding the situation and pissing everyone off, Shikamaru gave up trying to talk some sense into her knowing that it would just make him a hypocrite after all the shit he pulled over the years. But still, Haruhi had a point, Tamaki was only getting upset because she was a girl, something which actually pissed Shikamaru off, he kept quiet though – he was just glad neither Hermione, Ginny, Luna, Fleur or Tonks were around to hear him say that, guaranteed they would be picking the blonde up in pieces when they were finished – as Haruhi needed someone to knock some sense into her. Merlin knew he needed it more than once over the years.
The night they spent with Nekozawa-san was... strained, to say the least.
They ate seafood – which was actually rather amusing when Haruhi used the knife trick he taught her against Tamaki trying to steal her crab – played boardgames, Haruhi got into another argument with Tamaki who then left, not long after everyone finally managed to talk some sense into Haruhi and explain why they got so upset with her, Shikamaru had to shake his head and then give her a noogie, she didn't even realised how much of a worry she caused, of course then she had to run off or risk throwing up over Nekozawa's carpets. Speaking of which.
The Senior had been more than happy to allow the ATOC to use his Caribbean Mansion and even went as far as winking at Shikamaru and telling him his secret was safe. Which only made him alternatively pale and then blush. Apparently even the magical community in Japan knew of him. Though considering how Nekozawa had not been wearing his protective apparel at the time it wasn't all too inconsiderable that he may have been from Beauxbatons or some such. Then he ended up spending the rest of the evening defending the blonde form the twins, Kyouya and Hani-senpai's constant probing questions and grabby hands.
When he finally got to his room he wrestled with the desire to bang his head against the wall or scream into his pillow.
The latter won out – luckily the thunderstorm outside drowned it out.
The dark haired teenager stepped out onto the balcony, absently hoping that Hedwig wasn't somewhere out in this, he'd left the apartment window open enough for her to get in and out but he wouldn't put it past her to follow him here even though he told her where he was going and when he'd be back. Honestly it was like having a mother or a girlfriend in feathered form.
The next day dawned and oddly enough, after he had returned from his little trip to the Police Station, Shika was treated to the twins – of all people – telling tales on Tamaki to him, about blindfolding Haruhi in some kind of S and M game.
All he could do was blink, shrug and say, "If its consenting, I don't give a damn what they do behind closed doors." Which sent the twins in to fits of spluttering, Hani into wide eyed staring, Mori... Mori just did whatever it was that Mori actually did while Kyouya just sighed and shook his head for some reason, looking sad of all things.
Once back at home in his apartment, the dark haired teen could only flop back onto his Futon with a heartfelt groan, Hedwig fluttering down beside him clamouring for attention.
All he could think was: 'Note to self, don't get involved with the Hosts. It's exhausting.'
-
Fin.