Disclaimer: I do not own any characters from OHSHC!
A/N: I apologize for getting this one out so late! With that said on with the story!
Recap:
Suddenly Mori had placed a hand on her left shoulder that took her off guard as she suddenly came to a stop and turned around.
"What?" she asked to next lose her balance and fall back.
Next Mori quickly reached out his other hand to catch her from hitting the ground. His arms were wrapped around her back suspending her in mid air. Slowly Mori helped her up to her feet and Kairi had realized that the cane that she once had a grasp on must've fallen without her knowing so.
"You were about to walk past the study room," said Mori, having to notice Hunny standing next to the door they were standing in front.
Kairi slowly looked to her left to see everyone who was inside the room was now staring at her and Mori in shock.
'Ahh, crap that must've looked bad,' Kairi thought feeling embarrassed, 'Why me of all days that I end up losing my balance at that moment, why!?' she screamed in her mind.
"O-ok guys, just to make sure that there are no huge complication I am not a homo!" Kairi declared. "And you all better not give me any lip...," she told them with what her mind could come up with this situation.
"Kai-kun, are you ok?" asked Hunny sounding hesitant.
"Y-yes," Kairi answered feeling flustered.
"Takashi?" asked the little blonde boy turning to his taller cousin beside Kairi. He earned a nod from his cousin as an answer.
Kairi gingerly rubbed her temple feeling as though a painful headache was on its way.
'I just have to get through this and everything will be fine. So many complicated situations I have to deal with these days,' Kairi thought to herself as she slowly limped into the room.
"So, where do you want to start?" she asked as she sat down onto an arm chair looking up to the remaining boys who was still looking stunned.
"Oh, ...how about we make a schedule for the week?" Tamaki suggested when he snapped out of his shock. "From there we can decide what to teach Kai exactly."
"That sounds ok," Haruhi said nodding as Kyouya pulled out a large sheet of paper.
Each giving Kairi a weird glance occasionally, wanting to ask her something but none dared to ask.
"Takashi?" called out a certain blonde boy sitting across from his cousin for the fourth time in the evening.
"Hmm?"
The both of them were sitting in their limousine on their way home. There was a pause of silence until Hunny felt as though he needed an answer, he wanted to be certain.
"Do you like Kai-kun?" he finally asked.
Mori looked at him with his eyes widening slightly, it was barely noticeable if his cousin wasn't paying attention. "Kai is a boy," he said defensively.
"Just think about it, what if Kai- was a girl? Would you like him - I mean - her?"
Both of them sat in silence once again, Mori was contemplating of Hunny's question. He had to admit it was a fairly queer question asked from his cousin.
"Why do you want to think that way Mitsukuni?" Mori asked.
Hunny looked thoughtful for a moment saying, "hmm…." or "umm…." until he had finally come to an answer he thought was certain. "I really don't know Takashi.," he stared at Mori directly in the eye with seriousness. "There's something about Kai that I can't seem to get a grasp on..."
"What do you mean Mitsukuni?"
"With Kai around he seems to be... different from the rest of us yet he is the same as us, it's hard to explain," said Hunny feeling as though it wasn't a good enough explanation. "I got the feeling about Kai from the Hot Spring trip. He --"
"It's as though he's hiding something," Mori cut in and Hunny nodded vigorously, having his cousin answer what he was trying to get at.
"Let's not tell the others just yet, I want to see how this develops," Hunny told him.
'What is it that Kai might be hiding?' Both Mori and Hunny thought at the same time.
Within a week, when the boys had devised a plan of how to teach Kairi to read and write Kanji, their goal was a success. Kairi felt as though she had learned a lot more than she ever had in her life, but that wasn't the case. Not only that her ankle and shoulder had gotten better, Kairi felt grateful that she could walk around without having to use a cane or limp anymore. And so Kairi casually strolled down a hall in the school, finally going back to classes that she had missed in the past week.
During one lunch afternoon Yui had showed up unexpectedly once again to find Kairi by herself near the rose maze. Eventually Kairi had grown use to the fact that Yui would appear whenever she wanted, whether Kairi liked it or not. The both of them walked side by side together in the rose maze, it was something that they both thought it would keep them occupied to kill some time.
"I was wondering…," Yui spoke quietly, "How long are you going to keep this up?" she asked curiously.
"Keep what up?" Kairi asked turning to her as they continue to stroll through the wide maze path.
"You know, …everyone is going to find out sooner or later..."
"…and your point is?"
"Don't tell me you haven't thought of the result of this whole thing! How will they all react when they find out? Will they shun you because of what you did? Now don't give that carefree smile Kai-kun. You know for a fact that you're here for the year and if they find out before the year is up - you can't simply just move away because you mess up. Like every time when your secret gets out you instantly get transferred to another school?"
"I was the one who decided to move, not my parents they had nothing to do with that," Kairi told her firmly.
"Then why is that you always do this? Don't you get sick of it?" asked Yui coming to a stop. "Having to lie almost all your life?"
"Heh, you're not my conscience Yui. I know what I'm doing so don't worry. Anyways I have to get going," Kairi said simply when she looked down to her wristwatch.
"How long do you think you can stay the way you are?!" Yui shouted to watch Kairi walk a way without looking back.
'Why do you have to be so independent Kairi?' Yui thought to herself. 'Leon and I will always be there when you need help, but why is it that you don't turn to us? Why do you always run away?'
In the middle of class, the last one for the day, Kairi decided to use her laptop considering it was a work period and the teacher wouldn't care what she did when her other classmates were using their laptops as well. On her laptop the first thing she went to was the Host Club's homepage. There was something different about it than usual. Kairi couldn't place her finger on it but she began to search around. Soon she couldn't help but hacked into Kyouya's computer to find out that there was someone else who is taking care of the profit business. Someone was filling in his spot for the time being and Kairi couldn't help but think that she should've thought he'd do something like this. She had to find out who it was and she had a feeling that it wouldn't take her too long to figure it out.
She was gazing down at her laptop in a thoughtful manner and thought back to what Yui was talking about. Kairi couldn't help but allow a small sad smile appear on her somewhat parted lips.
'She just doesn't get it,' Kairi finally gave it a thought at last. 'If she didn't come into the picture back then, I bet I'd be nothing like this. Sadly there are things in life that I can't change in the past but to move on, but it still won't change my feelings the way I feel now. Although in a weird sense I can't help but feel grateful that she did come into the picture, strange.'
"Kai. Kai are you ok?" asked Haruhi from behind.
"Hmm?" Kairi asked coming back to her senses and turned around.
"You were spacing out while mumbling some stuff quietly," Haruhi told her.
"Oh, ah…, I had something that was on my mind but all is fine," she said as soon as the bell rang, signalling that school was over. "Want to walk to the Third Music room together?"
"Sure," Haruhi said while gathering her stuff together as Kairi did the same.
The both of them made their way together to their destination while the twins had something else to do in the mean time.
"So do you understand what you were taught over the week?" Haruhi asked, making a nice conversation between the both of them.
"A lot of it, I'll get the hang of it in no time," Kairi said with confidence in her learning abilities.
"There's so much to remember and so many characters that can be used. I think that you guys should stop coming over to help me. I'll just be more of a bothersome than I need to be."
"The guys are actually very annoying all the time and it does take some time to get use to," said Haruhi admitting it. "But if you need any extra help I'll be willing to tutor you. That is if you let me know ahead of time."
"Thanks but I don't thing there is a need for that anymore."
Suddenly Haruhi pulled out a clipboard out of nowhere, making Kairi suspiciously stare at her.
"What are you doing?" she asked.
"Checking how much I need to earn by the end of the day," Haruhi answered casually.
'So Kyouya appointed you to do it then,' Kairi thought maliciously. 'Makes sense considering your marks and such in school. So, if he wants to play it that way… then we shall play...'
"Why do you need to do that? Isn't that's Kyouya's thing?" Kairi asked innocently without a hint of suspicion.
"Yes, but he asked me to do this for the next month and a week. He said that he had something else to do in the mean time."
"And you gladly accepted the position"?
"Not exactly, it gave me an advantage to pay off my debt."
"Debt?"
Haruhi began to explain to Kairi about the eighty million yen vase that she had broken the first time she had came across the Host Club. Not only that she also explained about the offer that Kyouya had asked her to do and the small, yet important note he added right after she had accepted to take the position. During the explanation the both of them had made it to the doors of the Third Music room.
"I see, so that's why you're in the Host Club," said Kairi after Haruhi's explanation. "Say, how about you put away that clipboard of yours for good and in return I'll pay off your debt, it'll all be erased from Kyouya's record."
Haruhi looked over to her with widened eyes, she was speechless, and her mind was racing with many thoughts of consequences of her actions and choices. A smile appeared on her face while continues to stare at Kairi.
"…no, that's alright. I can take care of this but thanks for the offer," she answered as she grasped the door knob and opened it.
'WHAT!? Is she crazy? I'm practically willing to pay off that entire debt for her if she stop handling the profit for Kyouya. This is the only best opportunity that she should take!' Kairi thought with utter amazement.
"Are you coming in Kai? We're about to open," Haruhi said before she walked into the music room.
"Uh…, yeah I'm coming," Kairi said as she followed behind Haruhi.
'There has to be something else that I can think of. Something that I can easily take that position off of Haruhi for her, but I can't make it obvious of course. But why didn't she accept my offer earlier? It just doesn't make sense.'
"Kai-kun?" asked one of her designators.
"Uh, …huh?" Kairi said snapping out of her thoughts.
"Is there something the matter? You have been spacing out," said the blonde girl to her right.
"No, it's not important," Kairi said shaking her head, "I was just thinking of someone."
"You mean the girl you've mentioned before?" asked a red head to her left.
"Ehh?" Kairi said, suddenly Yui appeared in her thoughts for no apparent reason.
'Why am I thinking of her all of a sudden!?' Kairi thought.
'How long do you think you can stay the way you are?' Yui's voice echoed in Kairi's mind.
"No, not at all," she said shaking her head. "I'm sorry everyone I just remembered that I had something to do at this moment," she said quickly getting up and running out of the room.
'How long do you think you can stay the way you are?' Yui's voice echoed in her head again.
Kairi fled down the many sets of stairs by foot, the words kept repeating and soon it was overlapping.
'Stop it, stop it!' she thought as she continued to run without a specific destination. She ran as fast as she could and soon she was running out through the school's main door entrance. 'Why am I the way I am?' she finally came up with the question that had been bothering her ever since she was ten. The question that was asked so many times yet there was no answer for it.
Everyone in the Third Music Room stared at the open door where Kai had hastily rushed out. The girls who were with Kai began to worry and neither of the two could hold back their tears at bay. They rushed over to Kyouya asking if they had done something wrong or said something that must've affected Kai.
"I am certain that there is nothing wrong with Kai," Kyouya told the two, even though he had no idea why Kai had run out suddenly like that. "If he says that there was something he needs to do then it's probably something personal and none of our business."
The girls instantly looked relieved. Then the girls went off ranting on about their fantasy stories about their lives to the point Kyouya had to turn around to look out the window and see Kai run out of the school's gate. He stared out the window for a while and wondered why Kai had run out like that, what were his reasons? He didn't bother worrying too much since he had a feeling that he'd see Kai again when he got home. And so the Host Club continued on with or without Kai.
At the end of the week when the Host Club closed for the day, Haruhi and the others gathered around Tamaki, who had suddenly declared for a 'family' meeting.
"Something weird is going on with Kai, I just know it," Tamaki declared when he had everyone's full attention. "Kyouya! Do you have any idea why Kai would suddenly disappear and we don't know where his whereabouts are?" he asked.
"I've tried calling his cell a few times but there was no answer," Kyouya answered. "I've been told that there were a few people who mentioned of seeing him around the city."
"This is strange, very strange indeed," Tamaki said in a thoughtful manner with his hand under his chin.
"Maybe we shouldn't worry too much about Kai. Whatever happened he'll tell one of us when he's ready," Haruhi suggested.
"But what if he never tells anyone? He's a part of the family too Haruhi. I, Tamaki Suoh, the father of this family will always be worried for everyone; you're all my responsibility."
Everyone stared at Tamaki with a blank look.
"How else am I to react when Kai has been missing for the last whole week!?" Tamaki stated defensively.
"Kai-kun hasn't been home at all this week?!" Hunny asked with surprise.
"No, he hasn't," answered the stoic voice.
"We have to look for Kai, we'll split into twos or threes to look for him," Tamaki told them.
"Now why does this situation seem familiar?" asked Hikaru thoughtfully.
"Right, there was that time when Kai had gotten himself lost at the Hot Springs and we had to go look for him," Kaoru answered his brother's question.
They all glance to one another with the same words floating above their heads, as if a light bulb had suddenly been turned on.
'He must've gotten himself lost...'
"Enough talk, this meeting is now over and we have to go look for Kai!" Tamaki declared as he shook his head vigorously to erase the thought in his mind.
"Milord expects us to go find Kai but we don't even know where to look in the first place!" said Hikaru peeved.
"Just keep an open mind and eyes Hikaru otherwise we'll completely miss Kai without knowing it."
"I know Kaoru but Kai has been nothing but trouble. And that is our role, we're the 'little devils'! He's stealing our reputation!"
"Oh Hikaru, your so immature. Let's continue on looking out for Kai. Besides we can reclaim our reputation soon after we find him of course," said Kaoru stifling a snicker.
They both were strolling along side by side down the busy main street. The twin's golden orbs were scanning the area, searching for a familiar face.
"Hey Hikaru," Kaoru said elbowing his brother's arm. "Isn't that Kai over there?"
Hikaru looked in the direction his brother was pointing to, and there was Kai walking out of a small outlet store. It seem as though Kai had not notice them when he was walking away.
"Why did he just walk out of a girly clothing store?" the twins asked in unison.
"Maybe he has a girlfriend?" Kaoru suggested. "Or maybe…," Kaoru took a bit of more time to make sure he was thinking of what Kai might really be doing. "He's a part of the Mafia doing whatever he wants?"
"I doubt it. If you're in the Mafia that means you're just buying bling-bling for your girl. And I didn't see a single girl walk out with Kai and her clinging close to him. Also he's Kyouya's cousin, he doesn't have any ties to that kind of stuff," Hikaru told his explanation of what he thought.
Then suddenly another idea reached their mind as they turn to look at one another. Both speaking in unison, "He's a cross-dresser...?"
With the realization they notice that Kai was getting further away and soon they were speed walking through the thick crowd following aft him. At this point they were pushing and shoving people aside disregarding the manners they were taught to use, it didn't matter when there was going to be a lot of people on the street at this time of evening rush hour.
"Kai!" Kaoru shouted when he and Hikaru was in an ear range.
The messy brunette haired boy stopped and turned around, his eyes widened when he saw the twins.
"What have you been doing for the last whole week?" Hikaru told Kai the moment they were within his arm's length.
"I…, it's just that…," the twins could barely register it all when Kai was speaking to them in English. "Never mind," Kai said switching back to Japanese.
"What do you mean by never mind, everyone has been worried about you," Kaoru told him.
Kai dug into his pocket searching for something and soon pulled out what he was looking for. He took Kaoru's hand and held it palm up, which made him become puzzled when Kai placed his cell onto Kaoru's palm.
"I need some more time alone so take this with you, I don't need to be distracted," Kai answered Kaoru's unasked question with an empty smile.
"What do you mean by that?" Hikaru asked. "Haven't you had enough time alone for the last week?"
Kai's empty smile didn't go away as the twins had noticed that there was something different about
Kai's appearance. He looked very pale and seemed as though he hadn't eaten anything decent or slept. He wasn't wearing his blue blazer from school, instead he was wearing a vest over top of a white t-shirt and denim jeans. The next thing any of them knew Kai turned around and walked away, blending in with the crowd and the twins couldn't find him again.
"He got away! Quick we have to bring him back with us," said Hikaru running after Kai.
Kaoru followed after his older twin, he was still holding Kai's cell in his hand.
"Takashi look!" Hunny said pointing to the dark clouds slowly covering the sky. "It looks like there's going to be rain tonight."
"Un," Mori grunted as he nodded.
Hunny's cell began to ring and he answered, "Did you find Kai-kun? …which direction? Yes, we're close by…." Hunny turned to his cousin and smiled. "Hikaru and Kaoru found Kai but lost him in the crowd. They say that Kai is heading in our direction."
Mori nodded once again as he and Hunny stood where they were, waiting expectantly for Kai to come into view.
Haruhi was the first to notice the dark clouds in the sky and grew nervous. The weatherman had said it'd be a light shower tonight, but sometimes the weatherman can even be wrong. She wanted Kai to be found as soon as possible and avoid the rain.
Tamaki pulled out his cell and pressed the speed dial for Hunny's cell, hoping that Hunny and Mori had found some lead about Kai.
"Hello you three, why are you out here so late?" asked Yui approaching them from behind.
"Yui, what are you doing here?" Kyouya asked as soon as he looked over his shoulder.
"You answer my question first," Yui answered playfully.
"We're looking for Kai, " Haruhi answered.
"Oh, so he got himself lost again? Well I normally take a stroll around this time."
"At eight?" asked Haruhi and Yui nodded. "Does Kai have a knack of getting lost?"
"From time to time," Yui answered, showing no signs of worry.
"Hunny?" Tamaki's voice broke their short conversation, "Where are you? Ok, we're on our way," Tamaki said closing his cell and turned to everyone. "Hunny just said that Kai should be heading to the Butterfly Park at any minute."
"It won't take us long to get there, it's just across the street," Haruhi told him.
"I'll phone Kai-kun to make sure he's ok," Yui said pulling out her cell and waited for an answer.
"Hikaru - ? Oh, sorry about that Kaoru but why do you have Kai-kun's cell?" There was a pause of silence. "Kai-kun gave you his cell!?" Yui was taken by surprise, her eyes darting about while she tried to think any reason for Kai's action.
"Hurry, we have to get there before Kai does," Tamaki said leading the way.
In the Butterfly Park Tamaki's group entered from the south entrance while Hunny and Mori was searching around the center of the Park. They all moved about hoping to find Kai before the rain began. Eventually Hikaru and Kaoru met up with Hunny and Mori, they both joined forces and looked together.
"We're positive that Kai is somewhere in this park, he was heading in this direction," said Hikaru out of breath as he slowed down to a speed walk following after the other three.
Light drizzle of rain began to spill from the dark grey clouds, filling the air with a cold breeze drifting about in the park.
"We can use that for shelter," Mori said pointing to a small circular booth close by.
They all nodded and head for cover, time slowly passed while they all sat on the dry bench in silence.
"Hey!" a voice from the distance was heard as they all looked to the source.
Tamaki and his group ran into the booth to take cover from the rain. Sadly his group were already soaked by the rain when they were trying to look for shelter too.
"Did you find Kai-kun?" Hunny asked while he held Bun-bun tightly in his arms.
"We did but we lost sight of him when we tried following after him," Tamaki answered taking a deep breath to next slowly exhale.
"He shouted at us that we shouldn't be following him and quit looking for him," Haruhi told them of what happened before they were chasing him. The rain began to grow heavier by the minute as they all were gathered around the small shelter, waiting for the rain to end.
Yui then began to walk away from the booth and stopped shortly when she heard Tamaki call out her name.
"I have to look for Kai-kun, I'm not going to stand around and wait for the rain to stop," she told them.
"You'll catch a cold if you don't get out of the rain," Haruhi told her.
Yui winked, "Don't worry, I have the best doctor in the city!" with that said she took of running continuing her search for Kai.
"The both of them are going to catch a cold by the end of the day," the twins said with certainty.
"But it's not like Kai to be avoiding us, why would he?" Haruhi asked thoughtfully. "I don't understand this. Remember the time when Kai-kun mentioned about him being in character, being the Bad Punk type at the theatre? Pulling out his pocket knife and not really intending of hurting the twins but threatened them. He even said so himself that he'd go after a better looking canned fruits than the fleshly, and flabby twins!"
"Must you really say word for word of what Kai had told you all?" asked Kaoru.
"We're humans, so that's why we're all fleshy and flabby!" Hikaru said defensively.
Haruhi blinked for a few moments trying to understand what the twins were trying to get at.
Nonetheless she continued on with what she was trying to say, "And there was the time at the Hot Spring when Kai got lost. I really think that he has no sense of direction but that's how he is. He tries to act tough through the entire time after he had hurt himself, isn't that right everyone"
"I think that he tries to do a lot of things on his own, …like Haruhi!" Hunny stated.
"Huh?" was the only thing heard from Haruhi.
"He does seem to be very independent and so is Haruhi," Tamaki agreed.
"Remember the time when we all went to the beach and Milord got mad at Haruhi for defending a few girls all by herself against guys who were stronger then her?" asked Kaoru.
"Who could forget that? We were worried about her when that happened," Hunny said nodding.
"It's all in the past guys," Haruhi told them as she looked out to see the drizzle rain had stopped.
"We should go help Yui look for Kai." she said looking back to the boys.
"There's something that Kaoru and I saw earlier, Kai was walking out of a girly looking shop," Hikaru told her. "Have any idea why?"
"Kai was walking out of a girly looking shop?" Tamaki repeated Hikaru's statement. "Why would he be looking a women's clothing unless he has a girl in mind -"
"We didn't see him with any girl," Kaoru added.
"Could Kai be cross-dressing?" Haruhi asked.
"Is that why Kai-kun has been avoiding us?!" Hunny said as he took off running with Mori behind.
"Hunny wait up!" Tamaki shouted as he ran after the two older boys. The twins and Haruhi followed after leaving Kyouya behind in the booth.
Kyouya watched everyone else grow smaller in the distance as they all ran off searching for Kai once again. He then pulled out his cell and dialled a long phone number and held it close to his ear.
"Leon, this is Kyouya. I'd like to update you more about the situation and about your twin…."