Typical Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club, nor Ariel/"Part of Your World".
Chapter Ten: The Performance Part II
"Part of your world" was echoing through the room as Michelle looked longingly up at the ceiling, signaling the end of the performance.
"I'll be there someday" she said to the audience still fully in her character as Ariel while Tamaki finished playing the last measures of the song. Upon hitting the final chord in Tamaki's typical dramatic style, Mori cut the lights so Michelle could quickly be rolled backstage so she could change into her outfit for the curtain call.
'This is the seventh costume change! Man, those twins completely went overboard'
Michelle thought as she rushed with the speed of light to get into a white and lavender full skirted ball gown. The taffeta dress had an elegant portrait collar that was lined with lavender brocade, an accent that trimmed the bottom of the dress and made an upside down v in the back of her dress from her waist down to the hem of the slightly poufy skirt. Complimenting the pale purple trim was a pair of long lavender gloves that the blue eyed girl was currently rolling up her arm as fast as she could without tearing the material.
"Seriously, I only sang ten songs…" she exasperatedly muttered to herself.
"Are you ready for the lights yet?" Tamaki whispered anxiously on the other side of the dressing room door as he slightly trembled with excitement. He couldn't wait to get back to the uproarious crowd that was clapping and shouting for an encore. Since this was the type of attention that the blonde boy lived for, he made his costume change quicker than Michelle, even though his final outfit was also complicated to put on. Tamaki was current wearing a five-piece lavender and white tux that complimented his performance partner's outfit, just as the first costume did. His accents of the elegant brocaded lavender were in the lapels of the tux, the vest, a stripe on the outside of his pants legs, and on the spats that he wore over his shoes; everything else was a dazzling pure white.
"One second, the zipper's stuck" Michelle quietly said with a little bit of agitation in her voice. Luckily, before she had to turn down Tamaki's offer to help her –zip-, she pulled the zipper shut.
"Ok, ready" she said as she immerged from the dressing room for what seemed like the billionth time that night. She took the arm that Tamaki had offered to her as he got ready to cue Hunny to pull back the red velvet curtain that separated the two blondes from their fans.
"Wait!" the twins whisper-shouted as they rushed over to the two performers, causing them to halt in their tracks and spin around to face the hazel-eyed twins.
"You can't go out-" Hikaru started.
"Without your tiara" Kaoru finished as he ceremoniously held out a simple, but sparkling diamond tiara for the blue eyed host to don. The tiara was a truly gorgeous piece of jewelry that simply glittered, despite the fact that they were in a dimly lit backstage area at the time. Getting somewhat used to all of the expensive items that they were giving her to wear and being used to wearing crowns from before, without any words, Michelle lowered her head as she took her arm away from Tamaki's, so that Kaoru could place the tiara onto her head himself.
Kaoru's heart stopped beating for a moment and he felt a rush of blood flow to his cheeks as he saw the girl in front of him bow her head so he could put the item in his hands upon her soft strawberry blonde tresses. Completely confused as to why he was getting so flustered at the thought of crowning the girl in front of him, Kaoru hesitated a moment before he slowly reached out with the tiara.
"NO NO NO!"
Tamaki loudly whispered, causing the strangely timid Kaoru to stop in his tracks.
"It's the job of the prince to crown the princess!" The host club's prince said as he carefully yanked the tiara from the other boy's grasp
"The tiara's from our mom's collection, therefore we get to do it" Hikaru argued back, completely oblivious to the fact that his brother seemed to be too confused with his current feelings to really care about the small argument that his twin and his boss were having over the glittering piece of jewelry.
Tired of the constant bickering between the three of them and wanting to get back outside to eliminate the current dead space on the stage, Michelle just grabbed the crown, which was currently in both Hikaru's and Tamaki's hands as if they were playing tug-of-war with the item, and she simply placed it upon her head herself.
Shocked that she basically yanked it from them as she hurriedly whispered "I'm sorry, but I'll just put it on myself", the boys stood there for several seconds before the twins quietly slunk back to their seats out front.
Michelle placed her arm inside Tamaki's again and said "Now are you ready?" noticing that he was slightly pouting at the fact that he wasn't allowed to place the tiara on her head. Snapping out of it instantaneously, Tamaki nodded with a large smile on his face as he grandly signaled for Hunny to open the curtains and Mori to turn on the lights.
Moments before the curtain opened, the MC for the evening was sitting in his chair, agitated that the two performers were taking so long getting ready for their curtain call. In his displeasure, Kyouya decided that he would put them on the spot when they emerged.
'Since they made their audience wait so long, they should do an encore as a gesture that they are sorry for the delay' he thought with a smirk as he tried to figure out how to word it so Michelle wouldn't be able to say no. He was only concerned about getting Michelle to agree, since he knew his flamboyant best friend never turned down an opportunity to entertain others.
Jolting the grey eyed boy from his scheming thoughts, he noticed that the audience suddenly all leapt to their feet, while still applauding, when the lights turned on, the curtain pulled back, and the two musicians emerged.
'Wow, this is actually a really nice feeling. I can't believe that people actually enjoyed the show.' Michelle thought as she beamed a genuine smile at the attention that Tamaki and she received from their audience as they took their place in center stage.
'No', the blue eyed girl thought as her smile instantly switched to a fake one, a switch which no one noticed 'they just have to just be being polite or clapping at Tamaki. A person like me isn't good enough to receive this amount of praise'. Unfortunately, once again Michelle's problem with perfection prevented her from thinking that she was worthy of any of the applause that was ringing through the entire music room.
Not having the same problem as his companion, Tamaki exclaimed joyously "Thank you, thank you" as he began to dramatically take a bow. Getting so caught up in the applause, he forgot for a moment that Michelle's arm was under his and he pulled her down with him as he bowed. This sudden jolt of movement caught her off balance and before she even had time to react, Michelle found herself being yanked to the ground. In a blur, the two blondes tumbled face first onto the hard marble floor and a hush fell over the room.
The sudden motion of her being hurled forward to the ground also flung the tiara off of Michelle's head, since she hadn't secured it properly backstage. Acting quickly, and being the only one to react immediately, Hunny lunged forward in an attempt to catch the glittering accessory as it flew in the air. Luckily he managed to catch it, saving it from shattering all across the room, but in the process the little host bumped into an expensive vase.
'Hmm, this works better than putting her on the spot with an encore' the grey eyed boy thought as he pushed his glasses up with a smirk. He uncrossed his arms and pulled out his always present notebook to check on the price of the vase which broke the silence in the room by loudly shattering into a million pieces.
Flushed as red as humanly possible, Michelle blushed from embarrassment as she stared at the ground, pinned to the cold marble by the slim and tall frame of Tamaki.
'Oh God, I know that everyone here saw that. How embarrassing! You were supposed to leave all your imperfections in America. Graceful people don't lose their balance, regardless of the reason they were thrown off balance' Michelle grimaced to herself as she prayed that the uncomfortable silence would be broken by something. Being in such a state of mortification, the girl host actually didn't hear the vase crash to the floor mere moments before her current prayer.
Taking a second to wrap his head around what happened, the clumsy king of the host club soon jumped up and off of the girl as he reached out to help Michelle to her feet. Gushing apologies as he helped her stand, Tamaki gazed into the blue eyes of Michelle, looking just like a sad and worried puppy that just chewed his master's favorite slipper and was begging for forgiveness. The twins also rushed to help her up as did several of the boys who were in attendance at the show that night, much to Michelle's chagrin.
Mori quietly left his post at the lights to go and check on Hunny, the little boy who apparently no one else noticed saved the tiara.
"I'm fine, no need to worry"
Michelle said as politely as she could without showing the mortification that she was feeling at the moment, a feeling that was definitely increased by all of the commotion that she was now receiving.
"I'm perfectly alright" she said again and then turned to Tamaki to ask "are you alright?"
The girl did this as an attempt to transfer the attention that was currently on her onto her fellow musician. Before he could say that he was fine, Kyouya stepped forward and said with his silky smooth voice and gracious false smile,
"Everyone, thank you for your concern but our two talented hosts are just fine. At this time, if you would like to congratulate them on their performance, I invite you to do so" he finished, extending an inviting arm to the two still slightly shaken blondes. Suddenly there were two lines of people wanting to talk to each entertainer to tell them how much they loved the performance.
Glad that he was able to end that awkward situation, Kyouya stalked over to where the two seniors were.
"Are you alright Hunny-sempai?" he asked with false concern, for he knew that Hunny was just fine.
"I'm ok Kyo-Chan, but I'm afraid that I knocked over and broke the Rune vase you just re-ordered" the Hunny blonde said with sadness in his voice. Before the little host could start crying at his clumsiness, Kyouya stated coolly
"It wasn't your fault Hunny-sempai. Hikaru and Kaoru didn't properly secure the tiara to Michelle's head. You were simply saving the item from being damaged".
At the mention of their names, the twins rushed over to Hunny, Mori, and Kyouya in order to defend themselves.
"It wasn't our fault" they exclaimed in unison.
"Before we had a chance to put it on for her-" Kaoru started.
"Michelle took it from us and placed it upon her head" Hikaru finished, both of them truly annoyed that the shadow king thought they were too incompetent to secure a tiara to a girl's head.
Smirking evilly because he figured that was what happened, Kyouya, looking at the floor, fixed his glasses and said, "Then this mess was caused by Michelle".
Feeling evil radiating from the hypertensive demon in front of them and realizing that they had just signed their friend's doom, the twins tried to cover up the fact that it really was the blue eyed girl's fault that the vase ended up being destroyed. Dismissing their efforts to cover up their slip up with a wave of his hand, Kyouya pulled out his notebook again and started to plan a way to use this new debt against the unsuspecting girl.
Unable to take back what they had just said, the twins simply left their seniors and joined Tamaki and Michelle at the piano so they could receive orders for any of the dresses that Michelle wore during the show. They reasoned that by using the girl host as a model would be a convenient gimmick for them to showcase their mother's latest spring line, on top of supplying the show with a little extra glitz. Being completely right about this act of marketing, the hazel eyed twins received dozens of orders that night, much to their delight.
In the meanwhile and left with the shattered remains of the vase, Mori started to brush it up while Hunny shuffled backstage in order to put the tiara safely away.
Kyouya just went backstage to calculate his next move, truly satisfied that he finally had something to hold over his current annoyance's head.
Hey everyone! Here's another chapter for you to enjoy over Spring Break. As for making Michelle indebted to the Host Club, I just couldn't resist ;) It'll make for some really interesting twists I have coming up and it makes sense for her to be forced to tag along with the guys on "off" days, otherwise she'd be too wrapped up in her church work. As always, thank you so much for all those who have signed up for story alerts and so on, you guys really make me feel happy :) I'd love to hear some more comments since I truly love hearing from you guys! See Ya Again Soon!