Black Birds

Christmas Special – Part two

-

Shikamaru flipped another page, doing his best to ignore the high-pitched giggling floating from behind the shelves of the Psychology bookcase and the sensation of multiple eyes boring into him.

He hated Valentines day, not only did it conjure memories of a blushing Ginny in Second Year, Lockhart's stupid Dwarves, Natalie moodily thrusting a handmade card at him mere days before their capture and her death but also nightmares of things he would receive in the fan mail. Naked photographs may have interested the other guys but Shikamaru didn't want a hopeful slut at his side, someone he didn't trust, who hoped for a hero to save them who wasn't able to watch their own backs – let alone his! – he didn't want some weak willed little wall flower who would bend to his every demand.

He would rather have someone who wasn't afraid to tell him he was being a douche again, wasn't afraid to say no or even if need-be smack some sense into him.

The dark haired teenager sighed in irritation, snapping his book shut. Obviously studying in here was going to be out of the question with that pack of hormonal half-banshees lurking behind the bookshelves and eyeing him like so much raw meat.

Absently, he wondered if he should drop in on the Hosts, ask Haruhi what she wanted for dinner as it was his turn to cook, maybe double check with Kyouya about that homework assignment in Biology.

He didn't expect a brown haired girl to plough into him as he left the library, or for said girl to be in floods of tears.

"Are you alright Miss?" He asked in concern, tilting his head so he could look her in the face – she was a little shorter than him he was pleased to note, he must have finally hit a growth spurt – as she hid under her hair. "You're not hurt are you?" He asked carefully, the girl peeked up at him with watery eyes before making a strange kind of choked off whimper and throwing her arms around him, burying her face against his chest, sobbing her heart out.

Shikamaru tensed immediately but forced himself to relax and shove away the stirrings of panic that having the strange girl hugging him caused, she needed his help right now and he couldn't break down. The fact that with her thick wavy brown hair and pale skin she looked a little like Hermione also helped to sooth the instinctive desire to shove her away and bolt.

The former Potter gently placed his hands on the girl's shoulders as she cried against him, unable to do anything else as she finally explained the whole story, about how Hani had a cavity so the whole Host Club were refraining from Valentines' Day chocolate and about Morinozuka flat out turning her away not five minutes earlier. It took a monumental effort of self-control for Shikamaru not to push her away and march his way straight up to the Host Club and give them a piece of his mind, as it stood he waited until she had calmed down enough and one of her friends came to find her.

Once the young lady had been taken care of, the small sympathetic smile that he had been holding on his face dissolved into an expression that had once made Draco Malfoy piss on himself in the middle of a battle field.

Turning on heel the green eyed teenager stalked up to the Third Floor Music room, Magic subconsciously flaring through his body as he did so, he didn't think he had been this angry with the Hosts before – save maybe when he found out about Kyouya investigating him.

The poor door never stood a chance.

-

Everyone in the Third Floor Room looked up in shock as the door to the Club room was abruptly slammed open and splintered; an extremely displeased Akegata Shikamaru from Class 2A stood behind it, his foot still outstretched from where he'd kicked it open.

Dark green eyes scanned the room before landing on a certain tall senior and narrowing.

No one had much of a chance to move before the long haired teenager actually punched the 6'2" Senior down to his hands and knees.

"Are you all morons or did you just miss the train for COMMON SENSE!!!?" The green eyed Second Year roared at the collection of Hosts, ignoring the wide eyed stunned clientele littered around the room as he folded his arms and glared down his nose at the stunned 18-year-old. "I just had a young lady crying against my chest for the last twenty minutes because of you lot and your bone idle stupidity!" He braced a foot against Mori's shoulder and pushed him back harshly, causing the dark haired teenager to topple back onto his ass, his face still possessing that look of stunned shock – not that anyone but Hani and Shikamaru could tell.

"Shika –

"Did it never occur to you to just take your cousin to the Dentist to have his Cavity Sealed up like any other sane person would? Really Morinozuka-san, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to shell out 7000 yen for a fifteen minute trip to the Dentist!!" He seethed with narrowed eyes, before shaking his head in disgust. "Next time I find out you've been such a douche, I won't just hit you around the head." He warned before turning on heel and leaving the Club Room in complete and utter silence.

"... A-are you alright Mori-senpai?" Haruhi ventured hesitantly, Christ, she knew Shika had a right nasty temper on him but...

For a moment, Takashi was silent, mainly trying to allow his brain to start working again, while the 17-year-old's advice was useful and he most definitely would be taking Mitsukuni to the dentist later... he was kind of distracted by how attractive the shorter teenager was when he was angry.

"Aa." He finally answered, rubbing at his head absently.

He hit hard too.

Hmm..... was this what they called Masochism?(1)

-

Later that evening, Shikamaru got a royal chewing out from Haruhi but he firmly stood by his earlier actions and refused to apologise.

That resulted in about a week of Haruhi ignoring him and Shikamaru ignoring her, no one really noticed because even though they ignored each other, Shika still waited for her to be finished with her club duties before walking her home. His over-protective reflex ensuring he kept an eye on the diminutive girl, she never said anything about it but she figured out why he waited and didn't bother to tell him to get lost.

It came to an end by the time the School Paper started sticking their beaks in, he'd had to listen to Tamaki waxing poetic during class about trying to help the poor students who had a less fortunate club... Shikamaru wanted to smack him around the head with an Oxford English Dictionary. Couldn't he see that the School Paper just wanted some dirt to blacken his name? Pfft, of course not, he was too naïve.

So Shika passed a few words along to Kyouya who gave him a look of surprise that morphed into a small smirk that told the green eyed teenager he had already figured it out but was thankful he took the time to tell him just in case.

Things worked out well enough and then came Midterms.

His grades weren't perfect, but they were right up there with Tamaki, Kyouya and Ayame-chan's, so he wasn't all that fussed, especially considering how many years of compulsory education he had missed before hand. It was times like this he truly thanked every god and deity he could think of for giving him an unusually fast mind – how else would he be able to pick up complex and difficult spells as fast as he did when it took those with years more experience and knowledge three times as long.

It came as a surprise that Haruhi's results weren't all that perfect; Kyouya ended up asking Ayame-chan to tutor her in preparation for her resits. Considering how Haruhi only lost that top-place mark because she forgot to fill in a question wasn't the issue, the issue was Ayame-chan's unresolved issues with Tamaki on account of a careless comment, no matter how sincerely given, was spread around to others. Thus toying with the usually repressed young lady's heart and emotions.

Just one more reason that Shikamaru wasn't entirely fond of the whole Host Club concept.

That too ended up working out well, Ayame-chan seemed to have appointed herself as a helper to Tamaki and Kyouya, while thoughtful, was entirely unnecessary. Thus it came as a complete surprise when his two classmates asked him to take it as an official Role within the club, their reasons stating that he wasn't afraid to keep them in line regardless of their family ties, that, and they thought he would make a fantastic 'Dark' Host.

Shika turned them down flat as Ginny's attempts to sing.

He was still avoiding Morinozuka-senpai to be honest.

-

When the holidays started Shikamaru had every intention of just bumming at home and doing bugger all – it was a holiday after all – but somehow he ended up joining Haruhi in Karuizawa on Ranka's orders. He was still a little confused about just how the older man managed to not only convince him to listen to orders and allow himself to be taken care of or just why Ranka seemed to think he needed taking care of.

Ah well, Fae owned a stables not too far from the Pensione that Misuzu-san owned where Haruhi was working. Shikamaru had ended up staying with the half-veela anyway in exchange for helping her with the riding stables; when she wasn't working at the Ministry she helped her mother run their riding school. Shika already knew how to ride from Quidditch, Buckbeak and the Thestrals and one cannot forget that incident with Norbert which shall never be mentioned again under pain of death.

He'd only been working there for three days and already the majority of the horses and magical based equines adored him, Fae's girlfriend just laughed herself sick at the sight of the green eyed teenager pinned to the floor by a rather broody Griffin who insisted on grooming his hair.

The Kinkaze family had two different stables, one public one that muggles could tour through to look at the various horses they happened to have, like a few of their wingless magical equines – it sadly happened, much like a Squib to a magical family, and the mother would reject her wingless offspring – and various breeds of other muggle horses. In the other stables they had Hippogriffs, griffins, Winged horses, thestrals, a pair of wyverns, a Cerberus, an Acromantula – of all things – a hornless old Erumpet rescued from a muggle circus who had no idea what they were dealing with, a single Graphorn that was not to be ridden under any circumstances, an injured Mooncalf, a litter of kneazles and Crups, a sphinx who was kept happy with numerous cross-cord and sudoku puzzles and a pair of kirins they were using in a breeding program to try and up the kirin numbers in Japan.

Saddling up the Friesian Black stallion who had taken an instant liking to him the first time he stepped into the paddock, Shikamaru showered the tall animal with attention, stroking at his velvety muzzle and scratching behind his ears and the base of his stiff mane as nimble fingers worked the mouth bit in, double checked the buckles and bridle tack before checking the girthing was tight enough but not to the point of harm. He adjusted the stirrups before finally gathering up his reigns and swinging himself up onto the stallion.

Fae had been surprised at first with how well all the animals received him but just shrugged it off, figuring that since he had a first generation Parseltongue gift(2) then it would lend itself over to other forms of Beast Speaking. She recommended he got in touch with the Kasanoda Magical family, which only made him curious about his friend Ritsu who had no magic but a special touch with animals, was he a squib maybe?

Casting those thoughts aside Shika steered Blackjack the horse out of the stable grounds and down the drive-way, moving at a slow walk that eventually moved to a lazy rising trot to warm themselves up.

The journey to Misuzu's Pensione was a fair distance so by the time the two turned down the street and saw the three-story house they were both quite hungry and sped up their lazy trot into a canter. Still, he had not been expecting to see the Hosts of all people generally running amok, Tamaki looked to be attempting to fix the fence that Shika had offered to repair later today anyway – and failing at that, the twins were pushing rubbish around and calling it cleaning... the only one of the lot who seemed to be doing anything of any use was Morinozuka-senpai who was sanding down one of the table legs because it was wobbly.

"What... are you guys doing here?" He finally asked, pulling Blackjack to a stop not too far from Tamaki who had somehow managed to botch his repairing of the fence.

The French teenager looked up and blinked in flat incomprehension at the strange teenager speaking to him, he didn't think he'd seen her before... her – him?

S/he was sat astride a beautiful pure black stallion with a long meticulously combed out mane and tail, good quality brown leather bridle and saddle – not that Tamaki could tell the difference between good or bad but it seemed well cared for – s/he wore a pair of tight white riding pants, jodhpurs, on her/his long legs with a pair of dark red calf guards strapped over a pair of ankle high riding boots, a short sleeved green top revealed pale stick thin arms with a few curious scars, dark black hair pulled into a low ponytail under her/his hard black riding helmet, a pair of fingerless black riding gloves on her/his hands and curious green-green eyes eyeing him from under a messy fringe creeping out from said helmet.

It clicked then.

"S-Shikamaru-san?" He asked in surprise, blinking violet eyes up at the teenager he thought was female for a moment.

"Yes Tamaki-san. What are you doing here?" He repeated tilting his head and pulling a little on the Horse's reigns as he pulled against the bit in his mouth, tossing his head.

"Ah, Haruhi and then the with the," He explained disjointedly, making Shikamaru nod, having been classmates with the Host Club President he'd come to understand Tamakese.

"You heard Haruhi went to Karuizawa because Ranka-chan went on a business trip and didn't want to leave her home alone, only you completely lost it and thought she'd been sold into slavery – something which I would like to add that Ranka would never do so don't suggest it again – and called everyone up in a panic and came straight here. Now you're in some kind of contest to try and gain her affections and the rights to stay in the free room... am I close?" He asked flatly, giving the blonde a disapproving look.

"Bull's eye." Kyouya announced, having wondered over from where he was sipping tea on the veranda to find out who the stranger on the horse was, only to find it was their classmate. "I was not aware you would be here Akegata-san." He added by means of greeting.

Shika sighed, "Since Ranka was going off on his business trip he refused to let me remain at home alone, Misuzu-san offered to let me have the room you guys are fighting over but this is a business so I didn't want to mooch off his hospitality. I have a co-worker who owns a riding stables not too far from here and they always need extra help so I'm staying with her and helping Haruhi and Misuzu-san with the lunch rush during the day." He explained leaning forwards to scratch the stallion's ear, mostly to quell his fidgety behaviour. "I really don't know why he's so worried about me, I'm not even related to him and I'm more than capable of taking care of myself." He muttered sulkily.

"Shika-chan! Shika-chan!!" Haninozuka-senpai practically squealed bouncing over to him, "Look! Look!" He shouted pulling back his lip to reveal the slightly off white seal over one of his teeth, "Takashi took your advice and took me to the dentist! They had these really cool chairs and it was a little scary when they pulled out the drill but the nurse was nice and held my hand all the way through and gave me a sticker and a balloon when we left!" He practically gushed beaming up at the green eyed teenager who laughed.

"Well I'm glad you enjoyed it. Just remember that regardless of how much you may brush your teeth, things like that happen, which is why you should go to the dentist rather than kicking up so much drama. Honestly, I don't know where you all get the energy." He complained, somewhat playfully, Hani laughed and squealed about cakes, Tamaki blathered about the beauty of a woman's smile and Kyouya simply said coffee.

With a laugh, Shikamaru swung off Blackjack and let him loose to graze on the small closed in paddock beside Misuzu's property before grabbing hold of the hammer Tamaki had been using and tearing down the botched fencing – much to his horror until Shikamaru then showed him how to repair it properly.

He greeted Haruhi warmly and teased her about the apron – like always – and got jabbed with a fork by the brunette – like always – before practically being assaulted by a similar apron by Misuzu, which Haruhi teased him about and got poked with a fork as well. Shikamaru pointedly did not look at Morinozuka-san as he chopped wood shirtless no matter how nice the view was... OK, he looked a little and only the once but mainly because he was a bit confused about why the lady he was serving had her mouth open and a thin ribbon of drool streaking down her chin.

Then Tamaki somehow managed to get his dog to show up, whatever 'Refreshing' points he may have got were instantly detracted when she started to molest him in true Tamaki fashion. He couldn't help but laugh, wow, pets really do take after their owners huh.

He shook his head and whistled the dog over, messing her up behind the ears but smacking her nose before she had a chance to leap on him. He figured it would be better if he took Antoinette out to burn off some energy in the paddock, if anything she'd be easier to handle around the guests if she was too tired to leap all over them. The green eyed teenager resolutely ignored the eyes that followed him as he ushered the canine to where Blackjack was cropping on the grass next-door, mainly because every time he looked over his shoulder to try and see who had been watching him all he could see was Morinozuka-san gathering up firewood with his back facing him.

Obviously not him then. Maybe it was one of the guests from the windows, or Tamaki making sure his dog was safe.

Then the piano music started and Shika laughed softly.

Trust Tamaki to play the piano, and a tune he knew the lyrics for as well. No matter, it was none of his business he decided grabbing a stick up from the floor and tossing it for the hyperactive canine to chase. And damn did she chase it.

Just like her master he thought not unkindly but with a certain amount of amusement as he hummed along to the piano music drifting from the Pensione. Idly stroking Blackjack's nose when he butted at him from behind for treats, which he got in the form of some apple-wheat treats he usually kept in a bag in his pocket just in case.

He did hear the sound of breaking glass but just assumed someone had knocked a vase over, really, apart from Kyouya and the seniors, the rest of the Host Club were rather klutzy. He continued to play with Antoinette and dote on Blackjack who adored all the attention – he was rather an unruly horse at the stables, so it came as a shock when he quieted down and immediately latched onto Shikamaru as one of his favourite people.

The twins apparently won the rights to the room at the Pensione through some creative use of Brotherly Love... but Shika knew that they hadn't actually planned that episode, he saw the tense way Hikaru was trembling and how his knuckles had bleached white from the strength he clutched onto his younger brother's hand. It reminded him of that time when George was hit with that Dark Arts curse, they'd almost lost him and Fred had never left his side, clinging so tightly so him it was a wonder that George hadn't woken up just to tell him to stop bruising his hands.

So the green eyed teenager visited them in their room and gave Kaoru a quick check-up, he was a good Healer considering how he had very little training with it, most of what he knew came from personal experience on both sides of the spectrum, taking, causing and healing.

Then he swung back onto Blackjack, bid the Hosts goodbye as they climbed into Hani-senpai's car to head to his vacation home and urged the Friesian into the fastest gallop he was capable of. The two of them streaking through the streets up towards the Kinkaze estate in the darkness, it felt like flying and Shikamaru loved it.

The next day he heard about the Arai incident, he understood why Hikaru blew up a bit but still, Arai was a good kid; there was no reason to take out his frustration on him. Then he heard about the 'Date' Kaoru set up, if Shika knew his twins, this was a plot to cheer Hikaru up by getting him out on a date with the girl he had a crush on – even if it was an unacknowledged/unnoticed one.

Then there was the thunderstorm that started when he was right in the middle of teaching the Intermediate Jumping classes, there were only two students and both girls knew what they were doing for the most part. As it stood, he didn't hear his mobile ringing all the way in the dry school with the thunder and the girls laughing and complaining light heartedly over how they were going to need nice hot baths when they got home.

So he didn't find out about the rain incident until later, needless to say Hikaru managed to avoid him for the most part when Shika found out mainly because the other Hosts were quick to hide him away whenever the irate green eyed teenager was around.

Mori-senpai was especially helpful in this endeavour.

-

(1) HE IS NOT MASOCHISTIC!! He just finds Shika attractive when he's angry so he's a little confused about why he's somewhat turned on when he just got smacked over the head

(2) First Generation Parseltongue Well we all know that it's inheritable and it has to start somewhere.

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END OF THE CHRISTMAS/HOLIDAY/HANUKAH/CRIMBO SPECIAL

Yup. You'll not be getting anymore updates until New Year. I need to type up a bunch of new chapters for you guys to enjoy and so I don't get snowed under and stressed out because I start my new job in January! (HAPPY FACE) Money sweet sweet money!

Oh to those of you who may be confused about why Mori didn't defend himself, you know he has that stupid little guilt trip during that episode, I doubt he would defend himself from Shika while in that state of mind, he probably thinks he deserves it. Shika definitely thinks he deserves it. XDD