"So, we're doing this?" Petra asked. "We're really doing this?" She was beyond worried, and began to hyperventilate.
"Yes, we're doing this, numbskull." Aki joked, straightening her brunette wig, tugging at the hem of her navy blue dress, shaking her limbs to assure herself. "Okay. So, I guess we go in now."
3...
2...
1...
"Aki you haven't moved yet." Petra sighed, jotting some things down for her schedule. "I'll go in and tell them you're coming." She put a hand on Aki's shoulder. "You'll do great." And Petra left her jittery friend into the bright host club.
"Hello!" She heard, as the twins ran up to her, pushing Tamaki into the dust. "We heard Mikasa Klein was going to be here!" They said, sort of excited, yet sort of snotty.
"Yes. She is on her way in!" Petra laughed nervously.
"Petra, what a pleasure it is to see you!" She turned to Tamaki's voice and smiled as he bent down on his knee to kiss her hand, causing her to puff her cheeks out so she wouldn't squeal.
"U-Uh, thank- seeing, yes!" Petra stumbled with her wording, and he grinned back.
"What happened to Aki?" He asked, and Petra was frozen for a second.
"He... Aki Hayashi... is, uh... Throwing up... in the bathroom. He had bad calamari at lunch. Yep!" She said. "But he'll be here!"She nodded, walking towards the door.
"But, Petra!" He latched onto her wrist, and she turned around, frightened. "Would you care to sit by me, exclusivley as the violinist plays?"
Petra let in a deep breath, and egged herself on. "Sure. I would...love to." She nodded, opening the door as everyone sat in awe of the protegee before them. "Welcome everyone, I would like to announce that your entertainment for the next few minutes will be no one other then the famous Mikasa Klein herself! Enjoy!" She grinned, prancing over to her seat on the couch with Tamaki.
Aki, coughed and bowed to her audience, cracking her knuckles before grabbing the instrument, and nodding at everyone, beginning the song.
It was a slow, yet classical one, one that caught everyone's attention, and mesmerized many. The way the long bow fit like a puzzle piece against the strings, making an enchanting noise as notes grew longer, shorter, then fast paced, then slow. Petra was listening in, when two lips moved towards her ear, a faint whisper. "Don't you think Miss Klein looks remarkably like Aki?" He asked, causing her to jump, a small yelp escaping her throat, causing eyes to turn at her, including Aki's, but went back to her performance.
"Sorry." She whispered. "You scared me. But, no, I think they look nothing alike." She said, putting her elbows on her knees, resting her chin in her hands.
The song ended a little bit too soon for everyone, and Aki bowed once more, running out of the room to let Petra handle it. "Thank you so much everyone, for listening, but I'm afraid Misaka has a meeting downtown, so I'm sorry if she left abruptly." She smiled, giving her own bow to the audience before everyone scattered back to their host. But when she walked to Tamaki, he was already surrounded by girls. She blew her hair out of her face in disappointment, doodling on her clip board as she waited for Aki.
Petra leaned against the door, fumbling with her phone, changing wallpapers so she looked like she had a life outside of school and Aki. Which she didn't.
She felt someone's presence lean next to her and froze. "You know, from across the room, you looked like you were doing something important, like, scheduling meetings and such, but in such a close distance to you, Petra, you look almost... lonely." She jumped at the last word and dropped her clipboard, papers flying everywhere. She gasped and dropped to her knees, fishing to pick up her things.
"I-I'm sorry if it looked that way, Tamaki." She said, focusing on the papers. "But I'm okay. I'm just waiting for Aki. And... yeah. You can go back to her guests."
"But, you are my guest, right?"
"Yes... I guess so." She said as he kneeled down to grab a couple papers as well, a little unsure of herself. She remembered how in elementary school, even though they never said any words to each other, he'd let her use his toys during kindergarden, share a part of his lunch when she neglected to bring any during grade school, or lend her the occasional pencil in middle school when she forgot one, and since their first year in high school, Tamaki made it his duty to talk to her when she was alone, bringing up random things so he didn't seem weird, but no matter what he said, she still ended up smiling.
"Thanks..." She said, standing up after all the papers were in order. The door opened behind them, and out walked Aki, looking nonchalant as usual with her black and purple hair, and her boys uniform.
"Hey guys, sorry I'm late. Lunch didn't sit that well." She laughed, rubbing her stomach. Tamaki smiled at the presence of his new host, and led her to the middle of the room.
"Everyone! The host club would like to welcome their new host, Aki Hayashi!" He let Aki introduce herself, and she nodded.
"Well, I'm Aki Hayashi, but he already said that. I'm a second year, and I... um..." She didn't know what else she was supposed to say about herself. "But I like music, and things... so I guess I hope to be hosting you all sometime." And to top it off, she winked, causing the girls to gaze dreamily at 'him'.
"It seems they've taken a liking to you." Petra whispered in Aki's ear before she was escorted to a table. Aki shrugged, wondering why she had even agreed to do this, but smiled, remembering why, as she saw her best friend/assistant being swooned by her co-blond idiot.
"You'll be co-hosting with Honey-sempai and Mori-sempai for now, since you didn't have any previous clients booked," Kyoya said to her quietly, gesturing to the table occupied by the Lolita boy and his tall cousin, as well as their guests.
"Yeah, alright I'm cool with that," Aki nodded, glancing once more back at Petra, who looked like she was having the time of her life, and Tamaki, who was smiling and looking genuinely happy. Aki felt a little feeling of satisfaction run through her as she turned and took a seat at the table, easily sliding into the conversation going on.
"You know, I've made it a special day, so it's just the two of us for now," Tamaki smiled, sitting next to Petra on the scarlet, velvet couch, an array of cakes and tea in front of them. "I've missed talking to you alone like this, ever since I've opened up the Host Club, it's been very busy."
Petra smiled, but it was only a small one. Tamaki made if special, just for the two of them? He was acting awfully sweet. But she didn't have anything to be suspicious about, why would she anyways? It was perfect, just herself and Tamaki, chatting, just like it was before... It felt almost, nostalgic.
"Y-you made it so it was just the two of us?" Petra's cheeks turned slightly pink as Tamaki scooted just a bit closer to her. "Wow, that's- I just- Thank you!" She could barely keep her thoughts straight, her happiness was just overwhelming.
And so, the two just continued on chatting about whatever came to mind. There was a bunch of laughter, and it was pretty loud too. But they didn't care, not even when the Host Club was just about to close, they kept talking, not even noticing that it was almost sundown.
"Hey, lovebirds, time to go," Aki snickered, tapping the two of them on the shoulder, ruining the moment between the two blondes.
"L-lovebirds?" The both stuttered at the same time, turning scarlet. "What are you talking about Aki?"
Aki stuck her tongue out a bit, teasingly, and winked. "Oh you totally know what I mean." She laughed and took Petra's hand, pulling her up. "Now if you'll excuse us, we gotta go. Petra, you can see your boyfriend tomorrow." And with that, Aki dragged Petra off.
"What was that for Boss?" Petra whined, right after they got out of the Music Room. "He must think I think we're dating! ... Oh my gosh what if he does. WHAT IF HE DOES BOSS?!"
"Shush that mouth of yours," Aki lightly flicked her forehead, rolling her eyes playfully. "I was just joking you know, I'm sure he didn't take me seriously."
"But what if he did?!" Petra pointed out, inhaling and exhaling loudly.
"Petra, you overreact too much," Aki sighed, shaking her head and chuckling a bit.
"No I don't!" Petra pouted, composing herself. "But... How was your hosting experience? You're going to be doing it every day after school from now on..."
"Eh, it was alright." Aki shrugged, grinning a bit. "The cake was good though. Honey-sempai was quite hyper, compared to Mori-sempai. Though I might've accidentally spilled tea...?" She added meekly, scratching the back of her head.
"You did what?!" Petra almost shrieked, holding her head in her hands. "Tell me that you didn't spill it on anyone..."
"It might've spilled on Mori-sempai's fingers..?"
"Boss, did he get angry...?"
"Well, no actually. He seemed pretty okay with it. I did have to wrap his fingers up though, they were sort of burned..."
"They were WHAT?!"
"Chill, chill!" Aki laughed, holding her hands up in defense. "It's fine, he's a tough guy, I'm sure. But the girls did start squealing when he patted me on the head..."
Aki momentarily paused to recall the memory,
She cursed as her arm was accidentally jostled by one of the girls, causing the tea pot to tip over a bit too much. The tea that was previously filling the cup overflowed and spilled all over Mori's fingers. "Oh shoot, I'm so sorry!" Aki apologized, pulling out her spare handkerchief out of her back pocket, quickly handing it to the third year so he could wipe the scalding tea off his fingers. "I'll be right back.." She murmured, quickly spotting a storage room in the back and heading over to it. Hopefully there would be some sterile bandages or something.
By the time she had gotten the bandages, the table cloth was changed and the tea cleaned up. "Wow you guys are fast," Aki said, nodding to herself as she went over to Mori and quickly wrapped all his fingers up, leaving a little bunny ears loop on his index finger. "I'm not a Boy Scout or anything, but it's better than nothing huh?" She grinned, joking a bit.
"Yeah," Mori's face was still pretty blank, but he did reach up and pat Aki's head, messing up her hair a bit.
"Hey, hey, watch the hair!" Aki stuck her tongue out playfully, lightly swatting his hand away with a laugh as she fixed her mess that she called "hair." She did raise an eyebrow though, when the girls started squealing something about "MOE!"
"Yeah.. That's pretty much what happened," Aki shrugged, after ending her little explanation. "Then I went to get you and we left."
"Well as long as he or Kyoya don't sue us, we're okay right?" Petra laughed nervously, thinking of all the possibilities.
"I'm sure they wouldn't SUE us," Aki frowned slightly, thinking. "Right? I mean, it was just tea wasn't it?"
"Boss, I swear, if we get sued, you're going to pay for all of it!"
"H-hey! Your my assistant! You've gotta pay something too don't you?!"
"Well then... I uh- I'm just- BOSS!" Petra cried, running after Aki who was laughing maniacally as she dashed ahead. "D-don't you leave me! We've still got to talk about this! Boss! BOSS!"
What they didn't know was, a certain group of people were watching from behind a couple pillars.