07.21.11

THE START OF AN EVENTFUL WEEK

I took an extra day to post this for two reasons.

1. My friend Mei came to visit and stayed the whole day. She doesn't exactly know about this blog yet.

Or at least I hope she doesn't…

2. I needed a little more time to consider how exactly I'm going to go about telling this part of the story. It really shouldn't be this difficult. Crazy as this is going to get, it's a pretty straightforward story.

I guess I should just start from the beginning.

It was two days after the whole 'Roof Fixing' incident. I'd gotten Mori to clean up the messes Tamaki and the twins made, so I was in a considerably better mood (not exactly Miss Sunshine or anything, just better).

The twins never spoke of what happened, and Tamaki apologized for any offense he may have made against me roughly 1,000 times.

An hour.

It seemed no matter how many times I told him it was fine and I'd forgiven him, he just kept on believing I was deeply offended and now hated him. By the second day, I really that was a feature I could turn off.

Really, the only ones more annoying than him were the twins (okay, maybe Kyoya), especially since, unlike Tamaki, they never once apologized for the chaos they'd started. Made a bit worse by the fact that they'd become addicted to my TV and wouldn't stop watching for anything. They're taste in programming was… odd, to say the least. One minute they'd be engrossed in some kind of violent Serial Mystery and the next they'd be watching reruns of Pokemon. I had to wonder if they were even paying attention to the shows themselves and weren't just fascinated by the pretty lights and sounds.

Whether or not this was the case wound up becoming invalid anyway. Two days later, they just stood up with no warning and stalked towards me with dual expressions of seriousness and determination. It was as odd looking on them as it sounds.

"We want to go to the movies," They said. Not asked, mind you.

At the time, I'd been sitting at the kitchen table eating a late breakfast. Their request jarred me from my eating and I spent a few seconds just staring at them with my mouth wide open and a pair of rice filled chopsticks hovering over it.

"W-what?" was all I could say in response.

"We just saw a movie commercial," they answered. "It said it was a 'must-see' movie event, so we have to go and see it."

Okay, let me just stop here for a second and explain something. Now, I know looking at that statement, you'd think the robots had some weird inability to understand expressions and figurative language. You'd be partially right, there were genuine times when this was the case. Not this time. Definitely not this time.

I knew this immediately for two reasons. One, they were smiling, cat-like smiles that clearly showed a hidden agenda. Two, less than an hour ago they'd been heavily engrossed in some sitcom where a couple was at the movies and not watching it, if you catch my drift.

Did I mention these were learning robots? Because they were. Whether or not that's a good thing is entirely up for debate.

So, with every reason to believe the twins didn't care one bit about this 'must-see' movie of theirs, I prepared to give them a negative answer. Unfortunately, they caught on and quickly changed tactics.

The next thing I knew, they had me in one of their double hugs and were nuzzling their cheeks into mine on either side.

"Come on, Haruhiiii," they whined. "We only want some time out of the house with you. Just the three of us. Can't you picture us all alone together in a dark room…"

Three.

Two.

One.

"HOLD IT!"

Right on time.

Tamaki jumped in front of us, a hand held out to further emphasize his point.

"Just what do you creepy clones think you're doing?" The blonde demanded. "How many times do I have to tell you, Haruhi doesn't want to be alone with you too. She knows you'll just defile her purity with your filthy thoughts and actions!"

Oh what, he's a mind reader now?

The twins were unable to respond, thank to the (in)conveniently timed comment by Hunny, who I was starting to realize was very good at that.

"Why don't we all go together?"

The twins and Tamaki stopped their glaring to look at the smiling Hunny. Mori was nodding in agreement, silent as ever, and Kyoya wasn't even paying attention (what else was new?).

"We can have a group date," The small robot continued. "It'll be fun!"

From the corner of my eye, I could see the twins weren't pleased about this. Tamaki immediately declaring this to be an excellent idea probably didn't help much. Even so, their smiles weren't gone for long, and I had a feeling they weren't going to let this go so easily.

In fact, now everyone wanted to go to the movies, even Kyoya had begun looking up showtimes on the laptop; and loathes as I was to admit it, I kind of wanted to go too.

I hadn't actually left the apartment in the last three days. Normally I'd go out for an hour or so even if I had nothing to buy and just take a nice walk. My lack of trust in my 'guests' had put an end to that. I didn't even like leaving them alone to use the bathroom, let alone to take an hour- long walk. To be honest, I was beginning to feel a tiny bit of cabin fever.

I tried to fight it, but their pleading faces were slowly wearing me down. I had to wonder if 'coercive cuteness' was some other hidden ability of theirs that Kyoya wasn't telling me about. I kept switching from determined to say no to contemplating the cost of such a venture. They didn't eat or drink and I'd only need a water bottle, the spare money should cover the ticket price. It would work… but no! They'd definitely try something, or run off, or do something stupid to get up kicked out.

"Pleeeeease, Haru-chan!" Hunny gently pulled at they arm and stared up at me with big, close to tearfilled eyes.

Oh, he was good.

I gave a sigh and went to grab my wallet while the four of them cheered and Kyoya bought the tickets online.

'I really hope I don't regret this,' I thought to myself.

Oh, if only I had known…

Thirty minutes later, we all sat in a row near the center. Tamaki was on my right, and Kyoya on my left. The twins had tried to seat me between them, but I had to refuse after seeing Tamaki about to start shouting. That was the last thing I needed to happen in a crowded movie theatre, so this one time I just did as he wanted. The twins didn't like it, but unlike Tamaki, they simply sat on down and kept eerily quiet.

The trailers started up first, but nothing really interesting was coming out. It was around this time I realized I had no idea what kind of movie we were seeing. All Kyoya had said was that it was imported from America.

It turned out to be a movie about some guy who could shoot green light out of his hand or something. I think it was supposed to be a superhero movie, but I've never been interested in that sort of thing. Anyway, I started to tune the movie out around twenty minutes in, unlike Tamaki, the twins and Hunny, who were so deeply engrossed in the story, a bomb could've gone off next to them and they probably wouldn't even flinch. I couldn't really tell if Mori was enjoying it, he was as stoic as ever. Kyoya, on the other hand, clearly shared my sentiments if his growing restlessness meant anything.

"Stop that," I whispered to him when he moved to adjust his glasses for the twelfth time. "It gets on my nerves."

Kyoya gave me a look. It wasn't quite a glare, but pretty close.

"This is impossibly boring," he droned. "I still don't see why I couldn't bring your laptop."

"Well, you're the one who bought the tickets," my voice was dripping with annoyance.

"Yes, but you're the one who agreed to this in the first place," Kyoya smirked at me. "You should start accepting responsibilities for your actions."

That teared it.

"Just who do you think you are?" I sprang out of my seat.

All around, people shushed me, but the other robots were still too into the movie to realize what was happening.

I came to my senses enough to sit back down and lower my voice, but I still had a few more things to say.

"You are unbelievable," I hissed at his stoic face. "It's like your sole purpose is to make things more difficult for me. Why can't you just…"

I stopped. The words were jumbled in my head and I couldn't continue. Kyoya raised an eyebrow, likely filling in the blanks.

"Why don't I act like the others?" He asked. "How so?"

I shook my head a few times to clear it.

"Well for starters, you don't even try to make this easy for me. I never counted on having a bunch of robots living in my house. You rarely ever help, and when you do, you're so rude and sarcastic about it. The others may act idiotic, but at least they treat me with respect and don't act all condescendi-ow!"

I stopped when someone two rows above threw a bottle cap that hit me square on the forehead.

"Would you shut up, bitch?" The guy who threw it shouted.

I could hear murmurs of agreement from the group he was sitting with, which ended when Kyoya suddenly stood up and faced them.

"I must say," He said to them in a cheerful tone. "It's rather amusing that you felt the need to shout so loud, considering you're goal seems to be making my friend here be quiet. A bit counterproductive, no?"

The group stared at him (at least I think they did, dark movie theatre and everything) and there was a brief pause before one of them spoke.

"Are you trying to start something?" He demanded threateningly.

"Not at all," Kyoya was predictably unfazed by the man's comment. "I'm simply pointing out the irony of your statement. I'd also appreciate it if you didn't make your point through violence. Throwing that bottle cap wasn't called for, and I may just have to throw something back at you if you do it again."

"Excuse me."

I didn't turn around to see where the unfamiliar voice was coming from, mostly because whoever it was was shinning a flashlight straight at us.

"What is going on here?" The employee hissed at us. "Who's making all this noise."

"Forgive me, sir," Kyoya spoke quickly but calmly. "This gentlemen here felt the need to throw a bottle cap at my friend for no reason and is now trying to make it sound like she's in the wrong."

My eyes widened, and I'm guessing the man and his friends' did too. Here I thought Tamaki was the proficient liar.

"The Hell are you talking about?" The man who'd thrown the bottle cap raged as he stood up. "That bitch was talking up a storm!"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Kyoya easily lied. "She wasn't making a sound, isn't that right, gentlemen?"

At first I thought he was talking to the thugs, but then I heard some shuffling behind he and realized the other had stood up and were now looking at the employee.

"She's been perfectly silent," Tamaki confirmed with a nod and a smile. "My dear Haruhi is a model citizen. She'd never do anything as horrendous and vile as talk through a movie, and she'd certainly never throw anything at people who do."

"Got that right," the twins agreed, holding up the offending bottle cap they'd picked up off the floor.

Faced with evidence of the throwing and several testimonies, it was clear who was going to win this battle.

"Alright," the employee said to the group of men. "I want all of you out of here, now."

They tried to argue, becoming increasingly louder in their outbursts and bothering more and more people every second until the employee had to force them out of the theatre. They sent several looks in our direction on their way out. I couldn't see them all that clearly in the darkness, but I had a good feeling those looks weren't exactly polite.

The second they were gone, everyone was back to the movie. Except for me and Kyoya, obviously.

"Why did you do that?" I whispered to him.

"Isn't it obvious," he answered in a shockingly warm tone. "You are my only love, Haruhi. I want you to be respected, always."

His words were pleasant enough, but the fact that he said them with that same old smirk of his left seeds of doubt for his validity.

Even so, a good part of me couldn't help but feel grateful, and I began to wonder if maybe he wasn't as much of a pain as I'd thought.

When the movie ended (and by ended, I mean the credits had finished rolling ten minutes ago, but Tamaki and the twins refused to leave), we exited the theatre and I disposed of my empty water bottle in a nearby trashcan.

"That was fun!" Hunny was exclaiming. "I wanna see it again, right Takashi?"

"Yeah."

"Not today," I told him in a gentle but firm tone. "One time is enough for now, and anyway, we should get back before dark."

Immediately after saying this, I felt someone grab my arm and roughly pull me away from the robots. I gave a yelp, which was cut short when the person holding me shoved a knife against my throat.

"Haruhi!" I heard Tamaki shout.

"Back off," the man holding me yelled at them.

I felt something drop into my stomach. I recognized that voice, it was the guy who'd thrown the bottle cap. Footsteps alerted me to the presence of his friends. They all stood in a line on either side of me, facing down the enraged robots.

"What are you doing?" I gasped when the man holding me pressed the knife into my neck a bit more.

"Shut up, would you?" The guy next to him snapped at me. "Do you ever stop talking? You wouldn't be in this mess if you'd just keep you mouth shut."

"That's right," The man holding me said, leaning down close to whisper in my ear. "I may have to shut it permanently."

And I think that's a good place to stop.

Don't look at me like that, this is a long story and it's going to get extremely convoluted. I'll be back tomorrow and get to the next part. Oh, and since I'm sure it's bothering some people, I promise after this, there won't be anymore cliffhangers for a while.

Probably.

Posted by Haruhi at 11:57 pm 0 comments