I guess we had to stay at each host member's table to see how they handled their guests. That would explain why, the next hosting session, Haruhi and I were seated at the twin's table.
""Which one of us is Hikaru?" game!" they declared with an identical pose and their hair styled up so you couldn't see the part. By the expression on Haruhi's face I could tell she didn't think highly of this game. I had played a similar game, but it was much harder with five identical children. I had to guess the names of all five girls who sounded incredibly scary when they synchronized their words like Kaoru and Hikaru did. It took a while, but I found their differences, just like I can see Kaoru and Hikaru's differences now.
"Haruhi, which one do you think they are?" a customer asked Haruhi, who paused for a moment before answering correctly.
"To my right is Kaoru and left is Hikaru." their sunny reply was immediate.
"You got it wrong!" I rolled my eyes.
"Not your right, Haruhi's right." I defended.
"No, I'm right. You guys look alike, but you're slightly different." Haruhi said honestly. The twins looked like they were bowled over as the customers proceeded to compliment Haruhi with stars in their eyes. I was so proud of my little one!
"Wait, Mao-Kun, your finger…" one of the customers said worriedly.
"Ah, don't worry about it, Imoto! I was just cutting up a rabbit apple for Haruhi and slipped a little! That rabbit was quite sly!" I teased while Haruhi got a slightly dark look on her face. Oh yes, in my vigilance I managed to keep Haruhi from cutting herself with a blade someone stuck between the pages of her textbook. I wasn't quite able to prevent all of the bullying tactics, such as her book getting soaked, but I caught a great many of them. Haruhi is aware, though I tried to keep her from knowing, and she wasn't pleased with my attempts to protect her by getting myself harmed like that. If it wasn't for the fact that a certain someone was far too pleased lately, I wouldn't have been able to pin down my suspicions. Without a doubt, Tamaki's customer, Ayanokouji was responsible. She's quite lucky that I haven't caught her interacting badly with or bullying Haruhi. Not many people risk being told off by me twice. My patience was thin as far as she was concerned, and if only I knew it was about to snap.
"Mao, I can't find my bag, I'm going to go look for it!" Haruhi said before dashing down the halls before I could even sputter a reply. Haruhi couldn't actually run, but she sure knew how to get places before you even realized it! I tore after her with my bag in tow, just managing to catch the tail end of her conversation with none other than Ayanokouji, who looked as haughty as ever. I can't believe we share any similarities, regardless of how small general eye color is! It disgusts me! Her eyes were different from mine, but on a drivers license, it would read the same. Gray/silver. Some people have differing opinions on precisely what to call it, though silver matched mine better than gray, like hers did.
"Thanks to Tamaki, you look a lot nicer now. Why don't you fix the faults in your upbringing too?" she giggled as Haruhi ran out to get her bag out of the pond. SNAP. I put out my arm, blocking her way before I even realized I had moved. That… that bitch had the audacity to giggle after saying such a thing! Though, it should worry me that my temper was so frayed where Haruhi was concerned that such a small thing would set me off. She stopped in surprise, having bumped into my arm. "Ah, Isano. Why don't you go help your fellow pheasant get-" she stopped as soon as she made eye contact with me. My blood was no longer boiling, it was frozen solid, and that ice had spread to my eyes. They were no longer a sharp silver, they were the color of a smoking gun barrel. Unbearably hot yet cold to the core. An oxymoron if I'd ever heard one, but that was how it felt. And judging by the look in her eyes, that was what she thought. No one pisses off the Silver Wolf and gets away with it, and bullying someone under my protection so pathetically was a one way ticket to utterly and completely pissed me off.
""Faults" in upbringing?" I growled out, "Why don't you fix the faults in your personality before you go mouthing off to Haruhi, someone a thousand times better than you, bitch." I was feral by then, I doubt I could calm myself down if I didn't leave fast. If I couldn't reign in my temper… well, with the way things are looking, I don't think this school would approve of murder. The source of my anger had paled considerably but managed to put on her haughty smile anyway. Was she asking to be beaten to death?
"Oh Isano, your parents must have done a poor job of raising you if you can't even recognize your position in life, I am at the top and you, a poor little orphan, are at the bottom. But then again, they did die, probably the best moment of their life, leaving trash like you behind." she was trying to tear me down, and if that truly was her intention, then she shouldn't have tried such a pathetic approach. Not very classy or subtle at all.
"I expected better bullying tactics from a spoiled princess who lives in an ivory tower, sucking on a silver spoon her parents gave her. Something at least a little more graceful, perhaps." I grabbed her shoulder opposite of me with my still outstretched hand and pulled her closer so I could hiss into her ear, "Your tower leaves you an awful long way to fall, princess. I wouldn't mind dragging you down to the dredges of the poor to scatter what's left of your remains where no one would care. And trust me, they wouldn't care about your pathetically small remains. Maybe some decent soul down here will bury you in a shallow, unmarked grave, just to feel a little humane, but I doubt it." by now I had lost it and she was shaking with the violence of the images she herself imagined, "But then I'd have to taint myself with your dirty blood, but don't think that leaves you in the clear. Haruhi is under my protection, if you stray the path again, I don't mind getting a few boxes of cleaner to mop up the mess I'll make. So be a good little girl and stay away from my little one. I don't care about your petty jealousies that belong on the set of a high school drama show or Pre-K. Just leave Haruhi alone." I flipped open my phone and snapped a photo of her face that was still in shock and deathly pale. I guess no one has ever actually stood up to her like that, though I may have taken it a little too far. Rich brats like her are often a bit more fragile than they appear.
"Y-Y-You wouldn't dare touch me! My parents are wealthy and influential!" she cried out as I started to walk past her. I closed my phone and put it away.
"My, your parents never did teach you the truth, did they? Fact of the matter is, sweetie, that if you piss off the wrong people, things like that don't matter anymore. You're just as vulnerable as the next mortal, your funeral will just be a bit fancier in the end, that's all. Don't think too hard on that picture I just took, by the way. I don't tend to align myself with gutter trash who would do bad things with such a simple picture. But it is enough to identify you, should you decide to do something rash, I know people who are familiar with gutter trash, just waiting for another challenging target. As long as you're a good girl and mind what I said, you should be alright." I mocked with a sadistic smirk over my shoulder as her knees collapsed under her weight. Jeez, I wonder what would happen if people learned just what kind of reputation I have earned over the years. When will the true meaning behind the "Silver Wolf" be revealed? I looked out the window, barely noticing the frantic, stumbling footsteps of the scared girl as she ran away, and smiled at what I saw. Haruhi held her wallet up high in celebration with Tamaki right beside her. The smile dropped and my eyes narrowed. What the hell was that pervert doing without a shirt on?!
I was not pleased when Ayanokouji requested a session with Haruhi, specifically mentioning not to include me. If it wasn't for the slightly devious look in Kyoya's eyes, I wouldn't have allowed it, come hell or high water. He knew about the bullying, I could tell. So I watched silently, though it was more along the lines of glaring, as she tried to make one last move at Haruhi to get her far away from Tamaki. I was distracted for only a moment by a customer offering me tea, and suddenly I heard a loud clatter. The table had been pushed over and Haruhi was on the floor.
"Help! Haruhi suddenly became violent!" Ayanokouji cried tearfully, "I knew he was barbarous. Somebody, hurry, this peasant-" she was suddenly drenched in water and I felt pride in the host club for the first time. The twins, in sync as always, had dumped water on her head and looked incredibly bored with her antics.
"I'm sorry." Kaoru said.
"Our hands slipped." Hikaru finished. Ayanokouji looked shocked and more than a little pissed. Kyoya was suddenly there, pictures in his hands, cutting off any objections she may have had.
"Did you think we didn't know about it? Please don't look down on our information network. Of course, we have evidence on the other issue as well." Kyoya was quite a scary entity on his own. Hunny suddenly appeared beside her, tears in his eyes.
"This person is scary!"
"Looks so ugly." Mori, the ever silent host said shockingly. Naturally, it was Tamaki's turn to make an impression.
"You look beautiful outside…" he said really close to the jealous girl's blushing face.
"Tamaki! This guy-" he suddenly pulled away, a very displeased and pissed look on his face as he brushed away his bangs.
"It's no good if you only look good. I'm sorry to say this, but can you please never come back?" his eyes fell into a very hard glare that almost had me flinching, "You cannot be a customer if you behave badly toward my fellow club member." Ayanokouji looked around desperately, her eyes connecting with mine only briefly before all the blood left her face. Maybe I shouldn't have been giving her such a feral smile? She dashed out of the room with tears in her eyes.
"We have that kind of customer every so often." one of the hosts said with irritation. Haruhi looked up at Tamaki, probably thinking the same thing I was. That he had, for once, looked really cool defending her.
"A punishment for causing trouble. Add another 100 customers to your work quota." and the pride just… shrivels up and dies as far as Tamaki is concerned.
"HUH?!" Haruhi sputters.
"If you weren't here, I wouldn't lose my best customer… and I wouldn't have to look for wallets with this beautiful body~"
"Senpai!" Haruhi said in irritation. I could definitely sympathize.
"I have high expectations for you, Natural Rookie." while Haruhi was in her own version of an emo corner, with me there to comfort her, Tamaki picked up a student ID from the floor, "What's this?"
"It's probably mine." Haruhi said simply. Uh-oh. I looked around but the customers were all gone, I guess they cleared out with all the commotion.
"…Haruhi."
"Yes?"
"Are you a girl?" I didn't expect him to be so forward about it, that's for sure.
"Yes. Biologically at least." Haruhi didn't notice Tamaki's world crumbling beneath him as he soundlessly sputtered in shock. The host club commented from afar.
"He has finally noticed."
"But he probably knew by instinct. Nobody would do that much for a guy."
"I knew it from the beginning~!"
"It's a pretty interesting development." Tamaki was still speechless but his face was incredibly red.
"If senpais thought of me as a guy, I figured that was okay with me. Probably my consciousness of being a guy or a girl is lower than other people. And I'm not that interested in appearances, either. Oh but…" Haruhi turned around to Tamaki and smiled, "But you were cool earlier, senpai." Tamaki blushed like crazy and I started laughing in the background.
"Is this the beginning of another love story?" Kyoya mused, turning to look behind him slightly.
"Oi, no breaking the fourth wall!" Kyoya gave me a confused look, "If you don't know, never mind then."
"And actually, I realized it's not that bad to be popular among the girls. I'm probably a little into that~" Haruhi mused to herself while Tamaki tried to scramble his wits together.
"Hey! I can't allow that! I can't have my precious daughter…" he scrambled for something to object to as his eyes looked over at me, "I can't have my precious daughter living with a man! I won't allow it." the hosts all looked over at me in realization and I smiled.
"Actually, I'm a girl too."
"WHAT!?" Tamaki screeched. I pulled out my own school ID to prove it.
"Yeah, I would have corrected you sooner but it as just too much fun. Surprised it took you so long, in fact. But something concerns me…" Haruhi looked over at me in question, silently asking me to continue while Tamaki recovered from shock, "Was Ayanokouji aware Haruhi was a girl? Was that why she felt so threatened? Or… did she honestly believe that Tamaki was gay and into Haruhi? To be honest, I wouldn't put such an attraction past that pervert." I said bluntly, sending the previously recovered Tamaki into shock and his emo corner yet again.
"I-I have two daughters?" Tamaki mumbled to himself, "And they both hate me!"
"Hate's such a strong word… personally, I'd rather not be related to you in any way, nor would I want my little one to be, either." and with that I single handedly K. the host club leader while the others had recovered from their shock.
"We thought something was weird about you." Kaoru said, putting a hand around my shoulder at the same time as Hikaru.
"But we didn't actually think you were a girl. We just thought you and Haruhi were an item or something." Hikaru finished. They what? Damn, I'm surrounded by weirdos! And it's my own fault!
"I guess that settles it. Haruhi is the Natural and you will be the Sibling Type." I looked back at Kyoya and smirked.
"Whatever floats your boats, captain!" and there went any hope of Tamaki recovering any time soon, though Kyoya looked rather pleased at the high title. I took a moment to reflect on my actions prior to now. My attitude with that… that girl, left much to be desired. I can't be so quick to threaten in the future if I want to quietly protect Haruhi. I also cursed aloud, something I prefer not to do, but I couldn't help but feel I was perfectly justified. Someone needed to give her a reality check. She can't just push people down for being better than her at something, or for having the attention of a schoolgirl crush she was obsessing over. Her attempts to hurt me through assuming opinions of my parents didn't hurt me either. She didn't know them and she didn't resemble them in any way. She had no right to say such things, regardless of how justified she felt in her petty source of revenge, but I did wonder if my parents would be proud of my actions. The last thing I wanted to do was shame them.
"Come on, Mao! There's a sale on fish at the market today!" Haruhi said, her back over her shoulder and a smile on her face. Something told me they would be more than proud of me for defending Haruhi, in fact, anything less would probably shame them. I let out an amused sigh, they did always say they just wanted me to be happy. And if protecting Haruhi, partially out of a sense of justice, made me happy, more power to me.
"Sure, but can we avoid that vendor who throws fish at his competitors? That's just unsanitary." Haruhi laughed as the host club looked at our interaction in silence.
"Sure! His fish usually go bad by sale time anyway."
"Probably because they get up close and personal with all those old guys' faces and beards." the hosts didn't really seem to know what to make of that one.
Okay, There's still a tiny little window of improper formatting doom for the copy and paste section. I really hope that's fixed soon. I didn't mean to make Mao so… violent, but it seems to fit her character. She's a very protective person and there is no way she stayed completely sweet after dealing with those gangsters for all those years. Writing Ayanokouji's name so many times was annoying, I'd think I'm done but then I have to write it out again, so annoying. And as for AwarenaTenshi, that's probably correct in the actual manga or the anime, which I can't go by because I don't have it on demand, though I do remember some parts as seen in this chapter, but I'm going by an online version. Perfect, no, I can't tell if everything's capitalized or if it's just the font, but it gets the job done. In the online version Haruhi says "It's annoying.", but thank you for telling me that. I thought it was just my imagination that some of the words were different. When I actually get money I can spend freely, I'm totally stocking up on manga and anime. Got my eye on a anime movie called something along the lines of "Children Who Follow Lost Voices" after getting "Wolf Children"… I cried when watching that one. I just knew that would happen too, the minute I saw it! I turned to my best friend and was like "I know this is going to be a good movie, one that will make me laugh and then cry hysterically, but I WANT TO WATCH IT!" … where was I? Oh, and thank you people who review something other than "please update soon", though it does let me know you liked it. I seem to favor constructive criticism as of late, though my ego just adores you guys for demanding more CX …anyway, next up is the lady manager! Oh boy, can't wait to see how that goes! It may take me a while, I say that every time but end up finishing the next day T-T. Just for fun, can anyone recommend some good anime? I've already seen FMA(Brotherhood and original), and more, vying to see the second episode of Blue Exorcist(?), but I guess I'm really asking for anime movie or manga references. What do you guys like? Romance? Shoujo? Action? Comedy(I should hope so if you read my stuff)? Thinking of adding a bit of romance with another OC in this. Been at the back of my mind, I don't feel comfortable tackling a hostXoc romance dynamic. How do you feel about that? Lol, I'm just asking so many things of you guys today! Okay, I'll leave you guys alone! If you think a character is getting too OOC, just tell me, maybe give pointers! This will deviate slightly from the manga as time goes on, just saying, how could it not with Mao in the mix?
Keep Calm and OC' On!
