Chapter 6

Aimi adjusted the crutches underneath her arms as she stood up from the backseat of the black Mercedes sedan that had brought her to school. Standing next to the rear passenger side door, Katsu held her new book bag for her. She sighed as she looked down at the yellow dress that she wore along with the white tights and black Mary Janes. Not the best-looking school uniform, but it could be worse. Yet the large black knee brace did stand out.

"Are you sure that you are going to be all right today?" he asked, his voice laden with concern.

She nodded as she turned to look at Haruhi, who had just walked around the car and was now standing in front of her. "Just make sure to be here on time with grandfather this afternoon." Aimi said. "You know how he looses track of time."

Katsu nodded before handing her book bag to Haruhi. He then stepped aside and watched as the cousins made their way through the Ouran High School gates.

Once they were out of earshot of Aimi's bodyguards and through the gates of Ouran, Haruhi turned and looked at her cousin. "Why is grandfather coming to pick you up this afternoon?"

"He is insisting on being present when I meet with the orthopedic surgeon this afternoon."

"Oh."

For the next few minutes, nothing was said between the cousins as they made their way across campus. They had purposely arrived that morning for several reasons: A) To avoid unwanted attention of those who wanted to gawk at the newest Ouran student; B) To make sure Aimi would know where all her classes were before the crowds arrived and it would be harder for her to navigate the hallways; C) To avoid any unwanted attention from certain members of the Host Club – mainly a certain blonde haired president. It wasn't that Haruhi didn't like Tamaki; no it was more like she tolerated him to a certain extent. Besides today was about making sure that her cousin was able to adjust to life at Ouran – plain and simple.

Yet another unspoken reason for leaving so early was the fact that Aimi had wanted to avoid any confrontation with her grandfather. After what happened when Haruhi was leaving the night before, Aimi did not want to discuss anything with her grandfather that morning. Sadly, that had not been in the cards. Osamu Daishiro had been up bring and early the next morning. Aimi chalked it up to jetlag from his flight home from Los Angeles the previous day, but when he had mentioned that he had cancelled his afternoon meetings so he could attend her appointment with her that afternoon, Aimi knew better. She just wasn't sure what it was at the moment.

But she wasn't going to mention any of this to Haruhi. Not until she could figure out what was going on in their grandfather's head. Then again she should send an email to Akeno Cho, the proxy who was running her father's part of Daishiro Global until Aimi came of age. He had been her father's good friend from the time that they were in college and even more so when he had decided to study law and become the top law advisor for Daishiro Global. Yet to Aimi, he was like a second father. She knew that she could trust him and that he only had her best interests in mind when it came to making decisions about the company. Plus he also knew the stipulations that Ichiro and Kaiya Daishiro had put in place regarding their only daughter incase something should ever happen to them. And one of those stipulations – the treatment of Ryoji and Haruhi Fujioka. When Osamu had learned of these stipulations that his son had bound him to once the last will and testament had been released, he had been furious, yet he did acquiesce – at least publicly - to his late son's final wishes for his daughter. He might not like it, but that didn't mean he was going to make it easy. And Aimi had known that. That was why she felt that Akeno should know what was going on.

Yet at the moment, a flash of red crossed her line of sight in going in both directions, causing her to come to a halt. Turning to look at her cousin, Aimi was greeted with an amusing sight. The Hitachiin twins had their arms wrapped tightly around Haruhi.

"We," one of the twins said.

"Missed," the other twin said.

"Our toy!" they said together.

Haruhi struggled against the twins for a moment, eventually pulling out of their hug. "You saw me yesterday!" she said stepping back towards Aimi.

"But that was yesterday," one of the twins said.

Aimi couldn't help but watch the movements of the twins. She knew that her cousin could tell the difference between the two brothers – but how could she? This was going to take some time. Perhaps with enough time, she would be able to tell the difference between the two brothers. Until then, she would rely on Haruhi to tell her who was who.

"You know that if we don't hurry up then we won't be able to make it to class on time," Haruhi said, getting a bit frustrated with the twins. "It does take Aimi a bit longer to get around right now."

"I guess you are right."

"That just means more time with our toy in class!"

Aimi raised an eyebrow in disbelief. How could Haruhi stand this day in and day out? Perhaps things would get better as the day progressed she thought to herself as the small group made their way towards the 1-A classroom.

Standing against a pillar in the shadows of the building, Kyoya watched as Aimi made her way across the Ouran campus with Haruhi and the twins along side her, helping her along the way where they needed. More so Haruhi then the twins, but still. They were the ones helping her. They were the ones spending time with her. In all reality, the twins were only with Aimi and Haruhi because Haruhi was helping her cousin. And the twins being the twins simply wanted to either annoy or glomp Haruhi – no matter what she was doing at the time.

Perhaps he should have offered to help Aimi himself. Then there wouldn't be all the distractions – such as the twins – and Aimi wouldn't be drawing even more attention to herself as she made her way into the halls of Ouran Academy for the first time as a student. Even though they had come to an agreement to keep their friendship under wraps for bit, Kyoya was having second thoughts about that. It wasn't like Aimi wasn't already well known throughout Japan not only for her prowess in gymnastics but also because of her family. She was the one who would be carrying Daishiro Global into the future. There were very few women in the business world that would be able to match her – either in the past or even in the near future.

And yet that worried him. He knew Aimi could be merciless when she needed to be; he had seen her gymnastic competitions and knew that she was a fierce competitor. Yet, would she be able to carry that into the business world? But all of this was several years off. Nothing was set to take place for at least another 3 years – not until she finished high school.

Even then, Kyoya was still left with an issue at hand – what were his true feelings when it came to Aimi?

Before he could think about his issue, he was knocked out of his train for thought when an arm suddenly landed around his shoulders.

"Mon Ami!" Tamaki said. "You seem distracted. Are you ok? Do we need to call your father?"

Pushing his glasses further up on the bridge of his nose, Kyoya simply smiled as he took a step away from his self appointed best friend. "I'm fine, Tamaki. But if we don't get a move on, we both will be late to class."

"Ep! Good point!" Tamaki said, turning and beginning to walk down the breezeway towards another entrance into Ouran Academy. As Kyoya quickly fell in step with him, his thoughts turned back to Aimi. Hopefully her first day would not be too overwhelming. Yet a gut feeling was telling him otherwise.

Haruhi dashed into the 3rd music room, a bit out of breath. "I'm sorry I am late," she stammered. "I had to help Aimi…"

But before she could finish her statement, Tamaki already had Haruhi in a tight embrace and was squeezing that oxygen out of her. "It's ok my adorable Haruhi! You are such a sweet daughter making sure that your cousin was taken care of all day long! You are just so cuteeeeeee!" he squealed.

After a few more seconds in the bone crushing embrace, Haruhi managed to pull herself free from Tamaki's iron grip and finally catch her breath.

"So is Aimi coming today?" Hikaru asked as he plopped an arm around one of Haruhi's shoulders as she stood up once she had finally got ahold of herself.

Haruhi shook her head no. "She had to meet with the surgeon today. Besides she had a rough day. Nobody left her alone."

"That's true." Kaoru said, putting his arm around Haruhi as well. "Perhaps we should make her our toy as well! What do you think Hikaru?"

Known for his ability to tone out the antics of the other Host Club members, Kyoya's fingers faltered in their typing when the twins began to talk about Aimi with Haruhi. Had her day been that bad? He did admit that he had not been able to go and check on her during breaks and during lunch, she was surrounded by a rather large group of people. But had it really gone that badly?

And her doctor's appointment. How could he have forgotten about that! She was meeting with the orthopedic surgeon that his father was bringing in about the options for her knee. He had been tempted to ask her if she wanted him to go with her, but he was a bit hesitant. He felt that it might be crossing a few boundaries that didn't need to be crossed just yet or ever for that matter. He would just call her that afternoon after Host Club and find out how everything went. Perhaps then he would see how her first day went as well. Yes. That was what he would do.

"No, I don't think Aimi needs to be bothered by either of you," Haruhi finally said once the twins were through discussing whether or not Aimi should become one of their toys like Haruhi was.

"And why is that?" Hikaru asked. "Are we not good enough?"

"It's not that," she said with a smile. "It's just that Aimi has too much going on right now. That's all. Give her time. Her injury is a big deal."

'And that is the perfect answer,' Kyoya thought.

The soft music filled the cold room as tears rolled down the pianist's cheeks. The day had started off pretty good, yet had only gone down hill from there. Aimi was thankful that Haruhi was in her class with her. She was also thankful that she had met the Hitachiin twins and already knew them. Sure they might be a little crazy and possessive of her cousin, but she found them intriguing nonetheless. She had also been introduced to Renge Houshakuji in their homeroom along with Kazukiyo Soga, the class president and Momoka Kurakano, the class vice president. There had been others that she had met as well – but those were the ones that had stuck out to her. Everyone else had seemed like a blur because of all the nonstop questioning about anything and everything – from her life to gymnastics to her injury. She knew that she was popular, but she had no idea that she was that popular!

After escaping the madness of school and barely managing to avoid grandfather seeing Haruhi dressed as a male, Aimi managed to calm her nerves down on the way to her doctor's appointment. Thankfully grandfather had not been in a very talkative mood. That was perfect. She had managed to send Cho an email about her suspicions about her grandfather and he had responded by saying that he would watch him, but that was all. So Aimi took it for what it was worth. There wasn't much she could do until she was 18 anyways.

Then came the doctor's appointment. During the appointment, she learned that she was going to have to undergoing four weeks of physical therapy prior to even having surgery to help bring down the swelling in her knee. Then she would have surgery followed by months of physical therapy. And maybe in nine months to a year, she could be back in a gym full time.

It wasn't until she back home and in the solitude of the library that she let the tears fall as she played the piano. Music was one of her releases. And after the day she had, she needed this release. A year and a half ago, this was not where she would have imagined she'd be.

No. Fate had dealt her a nasty blow.

The vibrating of her phone, signaling a text message brought the music to a stop. She picked up her phone that was sitting on the bench and read the text message.

'Lunch tomorrow?' ~K

Aimi smiled. Perhaps fate hadn't been so cruel to her.

'Away from crowds?'

'Of course.'

'Sounds good.'

'I'll meet you in the courtyard.'

Wiping her eyes, Aimi set her phone back down on the piano bench and began to play once again. Still the same soft tune, just with a few extra notes added to it to give it life.

AN: Sorry that these chapters are taking a bit longer to get out then I wanted – real life sucks sometimes! But its better late then never! Remember that only Aimi is mine.

I love to hear what you think!