Recipe 9: Roast Beef of Bonding
The Sun, the pool, and the host club. A wonderful combination of carefree youth and handsome boys. Of course, what kind of girl didn't dream of spending their summers with this bounty of good-looking boys that seemed meant as a way to bring eye candy to the world? If only those outside the circle of close knit, friends knew of the two ladies that had the chance to spend every day together. One was a member of the club and the other was a guest of one-half of the famed Hitachiin twins.
"Come on Ro-chan!" Honey laughed brightly as he pulled the taller girl towards the pool. "Let's go swimming!"
"I'm sorry Honey-dear but I much rather assure that all of the food for our picnic is properly set up for everyone to get what they want." Romey blushed softly though she did feel bad for not bringing a swimsuit with her. She looked over her shoulder and saw Kaoru was trying to blow up a beach ball. She sat down the bowl of salad on the table and walked to where he was. "Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I got it." Kaoru took two more deep breaths before he started blowing the ball up again.
"You're going to suffocate yourself," Romey took the ball gently from him, blew it up herself before closing the air stopper, and tossed it to him. "There you are."
"Thanks," Kaoru sat the ball to the side and watched Romey walk over to the table where Haruhi was sitting. He had to admit she was rather cute wearing a simple white summer dress with her hair tied in a ponytail with a ribbon resting on her shoulder.
"Hey Kaoru let's play now!" Hikaru called. "I got us an inner tube to use on the waterslide and then we can ride down the lazy river."
"Sure in a second," Kaoru saw Romey was having trouble lifting the bowl of cut fruit. He ran over in an almost flash of lightening to her side.
"Damn it Kaoru!" Hikaru shouted in fury and kicked Usa-chan that was on the ground by the pool out of anger. "Why do you always run off with her?"
"You're a little jealous."
Hikaru whirled around and saw Haruhi was watching him in interest. He turned away to hide the way his face was twisted in anger. "I wanted to spend the day with my brother but that girl is making it hard."
"Hikaru, you shouldn't be so mad at Kaoru for wanting to spend time with Romey," Haruhi said. "She's a nice girl and she makes Kaoru happy."
"I'm supposed to make Kaoru happy," Hikaru, argued. "I'm his brother and family is way more important than some girl."
"I think you should try to get along with her," Haruhi said. "After all Romey may one day marry Kaoru and you two will be family."
"I wouldn't let Kaoru marry that girl!" Hikaru shouted. "She's not good enough for him and I don't like her dumb hair."
"You're being a child."
"I am not!"
"Yes you are." Haruhi flicked Hikaru in the forehead. "Don't do anything to ruin Kaoru's happiness today."
"I wouldn't dream of it." Hikaru promised and looked to his right noticing an empty bucket. "I am going to play now."
"Okay?" Haruhi shrugged and went to go get a bottle of juice. She hoped that Hikaru was not planning something that would cause chaos.
"Thank you Kaoru-dear,"
Romey finished arranging everything on the table and made sure that the special meal they made for Haruhi was in a safe place. "Looking at everything now I notice that we may have made a little too much."
"I don't think we have," Kaoru chuckled. "The others may not look like it but they eat more than they let on. Especially the boss."
"Oh?" Romey laughed. "Then we did well."
"Hey everyone come and grab what you want!" Kaoru shouted. "Soup's on!"
Romey giggled and headed off to go to the cooler to make sure the ice cream had not melted yet. She had helped Kaoru make at least seven different flavored ice cream but the strangest one was something made specifically for Mori.
"Hey Kaoru come on and join me!" Hikaru shouted running past holding a large bucket of water. He saw Romey was kneeling by the cooler and pretended not to see her as he "tripped" over her dropping the bucket.
Romey let out a loud shriek when the cold water made contact with her body. She looked up at Hikaru in surprise. "Hikaru-dear how could you!"
"Sorry about that." Hikaru said innocently. "I didn't see you there."
Kaoru took notice of what happened, quickly grabbed his bag, and ran over putting a towel around Romey's body. "Are you okay?"
"Yes but I have to go change now," Romey sighed. "I'll put on my uniform again."
"No you don't have to, stay right here I'll be right back." Kaoru ran to where he left the small gift bag and picked it up. He looked inside of it making sure that Hikaru had not done anything to it before he walked back to Romey. "Here, you can put this on."
"Thank you Kaoru-dear." Romey took the bag and went to the women's changing room to change.
"Take your time." Kaoru called and then turned to glare at Hikaru. He immediately grabbed his wok from his bag. "HIKARU!"
Hikaru saw the look in Kaoru's eye and then saw the wok. He immediately took off running and began jumping over the tables to get away. He ran past Haruhi who was happily about to take a bite of the fatty tuna only to knock it from her hands.
"Damn it Hikaru!" Shouted Haruhi in anger. She opened her bag and picked up the large dictionary she carried with her and joined in the chase. "Why do you keep ruining my meals?"
Hikaru jumped over a sleeping Kyouya and scrambled on top of the large tiki statue. He looked down at Kaoru and Haruhi trying to reach him. "Ha! You can't get me!" He yelped out and dodged the flying dictionary. "Haruhi you throw like a girl!"
"I won't miss!" Kaoru threw his wok and it made contact with Hikaru's head and the top of the tiki statue.
"Oww…he didn't miss…" Hikaru fell off the statue to the ground as the artificial sky began darkening and the sound of thunder rolled in.
The wind began picking up as it started causing the waves in the pool to become restless. Luckily the hosts were not in the pool but the wind seemed to make it a little bit hard for them to avoid being knocked over.
"Hikaru what did you do?" Tamaki hissed and quickly grabbed onto the table as Haruhi joined him. "Why is the weather windy?"
"Blame stupid Kaoru this time." Hikaru shouted over the wind. "He and Haruhi chased me up there!"
"Don't blame me!" Haruhi shouted. "You ruined my food!"
Kaoru rolled his eyes though he looked up and saw rain clouds gather above them. He dove under the other table and looked out from it. "I am guessing that it's going to be something of a pain until the rain lets up?"
"We could fix it?" Honey suggested.
"How?"
"Maybe we can fix whatever Kaoru activated?" Haruhi suggested.
"Simple." Tamaki slipped from under the table and walked over to where he left a long bag he had with him. He pulled out his silver drum major's mace. "This can do the job."
"Senpai I don't think that will." Haruhi's words were ignored as Tamaki attacked the Tiki statue. She heard the metal clanging of the attack.
"You hit it this way boss," Hikaru slide from the statue, ran to his bag, grabbed his guitar, and began hitting the statue.
"I wanna help!" Honey ran over and began kicking the statue.
Mori rolled his eyes and joined them. He attacked the statue with his sword as Haruhi, and Kaoru watched them.
"They're going to get struck by lightning." Kaoru noted shaking his head.
"Or they'll break something." Haruhi looked over at the lounge chair under the umbrella and noticed Kyouya hadn't woken up once. "And if they do Kyouya-senpai will be pissed."
"I'm out." Hikaru held up his now broken guitar.
"Me too." Honey began hopping around holding his sore foot. "It hurts so much! I need ice!"
"We can do this!" Tamaki swung the mace as it snapped in half upon impact. "I'm out now too."
Mori's sword had cracked and was now in two pieces. The tall kendo club's captain looked at it in sadness.
"Then how do we stop this storm?" Kaoru asked. "It's going to make us either drown in rain water or we'll get hit with lightening."
"We'll take refuge." Tamaki said as he picked up the sleeping Kyouya and put him on his back. "Until it passes."
"Right." the hosts all made their way to the changing rooms. Of course, Hikaru at the last second pushed Haruhi into the one where Romey had gone into.
"Hikaru what the hell?!" Haruhi shouted as the door was now locked.
"Sorry Haruhi!" Hikaru shouted as he walked past not bothering to move the chair he used to keep the door closed.
"Jerk…"
"Fujioka-san?"
Haruhi paled and turned around coming face to face with Romey. "Romey it's not what it looks like."
"You were trapped in here?" Romey asked.
"Yeah…it's a storm outside because we broke something and we're waiting for it to pass." Haruhi explained. "I hope you don't mind me staying here."
"Not at all," Romey smiled gently. "I know that you wouldn't want to be with the boys since you know how men can be."
"Of course but…wait what do you mean by that?" Haruhi asked.
"Fujioka-san, I am not dumb," Romey, giggled. "You're not a boy."
"How did you?"
Romey blushed. "Well Kaoru-dear told me….he told me not to tell anyone and I've been playing along ever since."
"Damn that Kaoru."
"Don't be mad at him," Romey pleaded. "He was telling me about all of you but he didn't mention that Hikaru was so mean."
"Hikaru's…well he's a special case." Haruhi rolled her eyes. "He's rather…he doesn't play well with others."
"I figured as much." Romey sat on a nearby stool. "I just hate how he's treating me…I didn't do anything to him."
Haruhi shook her head. "I think I may have something to do with that," She sighed. "He's not able to trust too many girls now and he well…he doesn't want Kaoru to be heartbroken."
"But, I wouldn't hurt Kaoru-dear." Romey whispered. "He's my first genuine friend here and I really care a lot about him."
"So you don't like Kaoru?" Haruhi asked.
"No, he's my friend." Romey said. "I actually like Honey-dear."
"You have a crush on Honey-senpai?" Haruhi cried.
"Yes," Romey blushed. "He's so cute and really nice too. I could always help him when he needs it and I like someone that appreciates my baking."
Haruhi noticed that Romey was not blushing as much as she would around Kaoru. What made it weird was that her words did not sound so sincere. She knew that maybe Romey was only saying she had a crush on Honey because she was afraid that Kaoru would not like her back or that Hikaru would try to cause chaos.
"Please don't tell Kaoru-dear." Romey begged. "I don't want to hurt his feelings."
"I won't tell anyone." Haruhi promised. "But Romey…are you sure that you like Honey-senpai? I don't think you feel love for him…well romantic love."
"I do."
"Your feelings may be that of an older sister." Haruhi said carefully. "I mean you baby him yes, but at the same time whenever you speak of Kaoru…you're passionate."
Romey fell silent though she was trying her best to push the idea of being in love with Kaoru out of her head in favor of being in love with Honey. "I…"
"Romey please," Haruhi smiled gently. "If you like Kaoru then I am happy. He seems to really like you a lot."
"He does?"
"Yeah, are you kidding?" Haruhi giggled. "He came to your rescue and then punished Hikaru for making you upset."
"But he…"
"And I think he may be too shy to tell you." Haruhi added. "Like how I am too shy to tell the person I like the truth."
"The person you like?" Romey tilted her head to the side. "You like someone in the host club too Fujioka?"
"Actually no…" Haruhi blushed and reached into the pocket of her pullover and pulled out a picture of a girl with long brown hair and brown eyes. "I like her…her name's Ayame."
"I know her, she's in my homeroom." Romey said. "She's really quiet and keeps to herself a lot but she's really nice."
"She doesn't even know I exist." Haruhi mumbled.
"We can change that." Romey smiled. "How about we spend the storm doing something that's a lot of fun?"
"What?"
Romey did not say a word and pulled out a hairbrush as she began to brush Haruhi's hair.
"I can't believe the kill switch was in here all along." Tamaki shook his head. Though he held an ice pack to the side of his head after Kyouya hit him. He had woken the Shadow King up to get him to turn off the weather.
"Well next time look for it." Kyouya hissed. "Attacking something that belongs to my family wasn't wise."
"It's still standing." Hikaru shrugged. "Come on let's go back out and goof around again."
"Hey where's Haru-chan?" Honey asked curiously.
The others looked around the room noticing that Haruhi was not anywhere to be found. They all shared the same thought…
She had been locked out in the storm.
"Haruhi!" Tamaki shouted throwing open the door. "Don't worry daddy will save you?" He took note of Haruhi and Romey both sitting at a table casually chatting. Haruhi was dressed in a pink swimsuit with a swim cap on her head.
"There she is…but…she's wearing the swimsuit we designed for her." Kaoru noted though he took notice that Romey was wearing the one he picked for her.
"Haru-chan blew her own cover." Honey pouted. "What if Romey-chan tells someone that she's not a boy?"
"Romey wont' do that." Kaoru assured him. "I told her about Haruhi a few days after the casserole incident."
"You did what?!"
"Sorry, I couldn't keep that secret from her." Kaoru shrugged. "Besides look how happy they are together."
"They are cute together." Tamaki's face shined with glee. "Oh girls! can daddy join your little tea party?!"
The others shook their heads and went to join them. Hikaru and Kaoru stayed behind as they stayed silent.
"Hikaru, I know what you tried to do." Kaoru looked at him. "Please do me a favor and stop trying to make Romey leave."
"She's not good enough for you!" Hikaru shouted. "She's unstable, and she's a faker."
Kaoru shook his head. "Please Hikaru." he hugged his brother. "It's time for us to both spread our wings and grow up. I am happy with Romey and I want to try to make things work for us."
Hikaru frowned. "Fine…" he mumbled. "But where does that leave me?"
"You'll find someone that likes you and you'll fall for them." Kaoru pat his brother on the shoulder. "It may be sooner than you think."
At those words, Kaoru went to join the others. Hikaru watched his brother leave and felt tears roll down his cheeks. Once again, he was left alone but this time it seemed that maybe Kaoru was right…maybe there was someone out there for him.
Or he would need to try harder to get rid of Romey.
End Chapter
Author Notes: There ya go! The water park episode that featured Romey bonding with Haruhi. I did not want to copy the anime or manga episodes. In the next chapter, it will take place during the events of 100 Percent Soul Queen where Tamaki's girl will make an appearance. Kaoru's romance with Romey has only begun and will the two confess? Will Kaoru be right about someone being out there for Hikaru or is our dear Hika-chan destined for a life of loneliness? Who could Hikaru's girl be? Will Hikaru come up with another plan to scare Romey away?
We will find out in the next chapters! I will be going on a break for a week so I can focus a little bit on an original project I am planning. Drop a review or speculation on what will happen next. Until next time I shall see you in the next chapter! Thanks for reading!
