Host club activities were cancelled for the first week back to school. All the ladies who would have been at the club during lunch settle for the dining hall; it is absolutely abuzz with chatter and, unsurprisingly, gossip. I hesitate at a seat before turning around and promptly walking away.
I take my lunch to the music room, where everything is quiet and still. I drop it on a dark wooden table next to one of the empty vases and pull a chair out.
My phone buzzes in my pocket.
"Hello?" I answer, flipping it open.
"Naoki Shun Mai?"
"Yes?"
"I'm producing a Summer performance of A Midsummer's Night Dream," I drop my fork and it clatters onto my plate. "Well, my friend's uncle directed Swan Lake last season and told me you were the guy to ask about."
"I- You want me?" I ask incredulously. My hand hurts from gripping the phone so hard.
"Yeah. All the theater communities are saying you disappeared without making your debut. I thought it was such a waste, so how about you come audition next Saturday?"
"I- I-" I take a deep breath and compose myself. "Ma'am, I only disappeared because I-"
"You won't do it?" The woman coos.
"I will!" I blurt.
"Great! One pm next Saturday at Hakata-za?."
"You're debuting at Hakata-za?" I breathe.
"Yeah!" The woman chirps. "I'll see you there!"
A monotonous beep echoes from the speaker. Numbly, I flip my phone shut and drop it next to my plate on the table. Hastily, I shoot up from my seat, leaving my school bag and my lunch on the table.
I really hope I get it right this time.
_.-X-._
Squeals of sympathy and disbelief fill the room to the ceiling, so densely that I am considering opening a window to let them out. It's so loud that I can't hear the china clattering on the tray.
It's the first week the host club has been in business since a rather eventful spring break. Kyoya seems particularly pleased for some reason, despite being resigned to a wheelchair.
Nevertheless, he has a tray balanced across the arms of the chair, splayed with a fan of "newly released, high-quality photo books of your favorite hosts".
Tamaki is rushing around urgently, cooing over Kyoya, who is sighing and shaking his head every time Tamaki gets within earshot. Hikaru and Kaoru are looking particularly put-out, robbed even, with arms crossed and a calculating gaze trained on Kyoya and his mob of brand new fans. Haruhi is pleased with herself, sitting alone in one corner and reading quietly. Mori and Honey are eating cake, like always. And I, I don't have a single thing to do.
I unbuckle the vest they'd taken to making me wear, replace it with my blazer, and quietly retreat into the doorway. Just as my hand is curling around the knob, I hear Haruhi say conversationally, "Nao-kun?"
"I just remembered I have an appointment, so I gotta go now," I stammer. She blinks at me, shrugs, and goes back to reading. I slip out.
_.-X-._
Thursday. It's two days and I still have nothing but the last half. This would be stressful even with all my limbs where they belong, but about twenty percent of my body is missing, and I only have two days.
I whip out my phone and scroll to my sister's number on speed dial. She answers on the first ring with a bubbly cry of my name.
"Hey, Kaori, I need some advice," I respond quickly.
"Yeah?"
"Well, someone asked me to audition for A Midsummer's Night Dream this Saturday and I need an audition routine but I have nothing."
After a loud, muffled squeal from what sounds like far away, Kaori cries, "Why can't you just use your Swan Lake piece?"
Oh. Right.
"Thanks, Kaori!" I sigh. "You're a lifesaver."
"Good luck, Nao!"
I cut her voice short and plug my headphones into the jack. The song I practiced the most, the one I felt most confident about, was Swan Lake Theme, the opening melody, slightly modified to be the closing as well.
The intro begins, a couple bars where only my female partner would be on the stage, and I loosen the screws in my knee.
I rise onto my toes in substitution for my shoes. Damn, I think vaguely, past the music. I forgot. I need new shoes.
_.-X-._
There's a children's studio in the tourist district with a shop to one side that sells a little bit of everything. It's a place Kaori worked when she was seventeen and I was twelve and the only boy in my Saturday classes.
The owner of the place is a short, skinny, young woman with thick glasses and sleek hair pulled up in a bun. Her sharp eyes pick me out as soon as I close the studio door, the little bell jangling.
"Naoki!" She calls, zooming up from where she was trying a little girl's sneakers and hugging me with phenomenal strength despite her bony arms. "It's been so long I thought you'd never come to visit again I heard you got the lead in Swan Lake congratulations-"
"Take a breath, Nagisa-sama," I laugh, prying her off my chest.
"Why didn't you ever visit?" She pouts.
"Circumstance," I shrug. Her tiny eyes dart around me, taking me in. She's nice, but she always makes me kind of nervous.
I shove my hands in my jeans pockets and say, "So, Nagaisa-sama, I actually came here because I need shoes."
"Don't you have some?" She clicks her tongue but holds open the glass door to a cramped, dim, musty little supply shop. One wall is tacked with display shoes of all kinds: tap, ballet, skating, everything. Metal racks of sweatpants and leotards clutter the rest of the space.
"I kind of… lost mine," I lie, scratching the back of my head. In reality, they were destroyed about six weeks ago in a car crash.
"Carelessness," she reprimands, pushing me onto a bench pressed against the shoe wall, "won't get you anywhere, Naoki-kun." She scuttles behind a rack. "You really were one of my best, Nao. Shame to let it go to waste!"
"Thanks. But it was all thanks to you, you know."
"Alright Naoki, take off your shoes!" Nagisa commands, clapping her tiny hands together. I obey, kicking off my sneakers and keeping my socks on. She disappears behind the checkout counter and comes back with a stack of teetering boxes piled high over her head.
Without looking, Nagisa drops them on the bench next to me, snatches a metal contraption from under the bench, and puts it against my foot. She turns a dial and reaches out to grab my metal ankle.
"Naoki," she stops. I can see her hand on my foot rather than feel it. "What's this?" Before I can even open my mouth, she rips off my sock and pushes up the hem of my pants.
"It was a car crash, Nagisa," I admit.
"Oh," she says quietly. After a beat, her face lights up and she smiles a lopsided, toothy grin at me. "All, I hope that's all you're not telling me because if there's anything else, I may just explode!"
_.-X-._
The rest of the club is lounging about, waiting for the doors to open. Kyoya is tapping away at his laptop, the twins are laughing together, their arms slung over a distressed Haruhi, Mori and Honey are talking lowly over a slice of cake. Tamaki is shouting at the twins.
I scratch out yet another bullet point on a long list of ideas. I had written down potential audition songs, and went through them again and again until I only had six. And my last song was just scratched out.
I'm sure I could use Spring Waltz again, but… Oh well.
I drop my head into my hands, skewing my glasses, and sigh. My pencil clatters onto the table.
Bored of their conversation, the twins whisk Haruhi away into a corner to, as I constantly overhear them put it in such a perverted manner that I have a hard time looking either of them in the eye, 'play with their toy'. Of course, I'm sure that's just an expression and it only gives more light to their little devil character type, but still.
Tamaki slinks into the seat across from me. I watch him from between my fingers as he slides my paper toward him.
"What are you doing?" He finally laughs.
"Well, I got an audition for "A Midsummer's Night Dream", but I need an audition song."
"Why not just use Spring Waltz? You danced it well at my house." He rests his cheek in his palm and gives me his patented host smile, guaranteed to make any young lady well up with potential shreikiness.
Fine, whatever. Two can play that game. Tamaki Suoh may be a host, but I'm an actor, even if only ballet.
I lace my fingers together and drop my chin onto them with a sigh. Suddenly, I'm sickeningly glad my mother took me to acting lessons with a private tutor until I was fourteen and still figuring out how I fit the Mai family name.
My lashes lower, and I can image the blatantly flirty look I'm giving him. My voice comes out differently, clearer in fact. "The role is different."
"How?"
"Well, the role I want now is less shy and understated and more… out there. Somehow I imagine him more graceful and confident." I chew my tongue between my teeth, contemplating if I should even say what comes to mind next, but with that amused look swimming in his amethyst eyes, it just comes out. "You know, less me and more you."
He drops his hand, opens his mouth, and Kyoya calls, "Time to open up!"
The rest of the day, I can't tell if he's angry with me or not.
So, I kind of wanted to tell you this. I know it doesn't matter, but oh well.
I originally meant for Naoki to be a girl. His (her?) original name was Hoshi Midori Mai and she was a dancer with lupus being treated at the Ootori Hospitals. Then I decided we needed more male OCs, so I changed her name to Naoki Shun Mai, replaced lupus with a prosthetic, and bam.
So, REVIEW.