Wow, this chapter got pretty long. It was originally meant to be a short, sad interlude, but... oh well.
By the way, I try to follow canon as much as I can, so this is supposed to happen during Chapter 72 of the manga, when Mori and Hunny are having a duel. So I didn't get into many particulars there.
Oh, and I appreciate reviews above anything. Even more than faves and alerts.
Chapter Ten – Amethyst
It was one of the last days of the Ouran High School Host Club as we know it, and the group of five friends tried to enjoy most of it.
Kaname tried to act as if the hematite night never happened, hoping nobody would spread any gossip. So, she walked quietly towards the Third Music Room with her usual white paper box of fruitcake, when all her hopes were completely foiled.
"You!" Reiko Kanazuki, holding hell charm book in one hand, pointed a finger at her accusingly "you stole Haninozuka's innocence!"
Obviously, she shouted this loudly enough for the whole corridor to hear.
"I didn't!" Kaname blushed and began to tremble, but managed to keep the fruitcake intact.
"But his soul won't be yours and this spell…" Reiko pulled out a twig of weeping willow with a dark red ribbon wrapped around it.
"Leave me alone!" Kaname quickly shoved the box into Aki's hand, covered her face, and ran off.
"Leave her alone" Aki patted Reiko's shoulder "Hunny-senpai hasn't lost his innocence, at least not to her."
Reiko threw her one of the darkest stares she had in store, but the rich and confident girl didn't bat an eyelid, as she happily walked over to Tamaki, placing the cake on the coffee table and exchanging a knowing glance with Kyoya.
"Kaname, you won't fall in love simply because you decide it!" for the past two hours, the total time Aki passed lecturing her best friend, she kept on walking back and forth across the room.
"But…"
"No buts! And please, don't cry. It's not that tragic."
"It is!"
"Why? I have never really been in love either! So…"
"But at least there aren't those rumors about you! Nobody said that you… you…"
"Uh… well, in that case…"
That exact moment, Aki's cellphone rang.
"Sorry! Oh, hi, Kyoyaaaaa!" she walked out.
Kaname sighed and wiped away a tear. Aki was wrong, she was definitely madly in love with Kyoya Ohtori's credit card.
The days went along fast, by the end of that week, Kaname somehow had found enough strength to show up at the Host Club again, and decided not to cast her fears away or give more foundation for all the gossip: she proudly chose Hunny as her host, as usual.
Reiko mumbled curses non-stop, but at least she didn't speak of Hunny's "lost innocence" any more.
"I told her" Hunny whispered to Kaname, blushing slightly.
"Well" she rolled her eyes "at least I'm pretty sure she believed it, if she heard it from you."
"It's time to start over, what do you say?" she asked her shiny purple charoite sphere; being quite proud of having a nice piece of the rarest mineral in the world, it usually took the role of the "counselor" plush animal or figurine "what should I use, then? But… of course!"
She ran to the adjacent room and came back with a large, pale purple stone on a chain.
"Amethyst! New beginnings!"
…sheesh. New beginning, yeah. But beginning of WHAT? Oh, Hunny, Mitsukuni…
"What the hell? A duel?!" she asked, quite incredulous.
"Yes, yes, Kaname-senpai, I can assure you of that!" Renge was shaking for the total excitement "Mori-senpai challenged Hunny-senpai! Who do you place your bet on?"
"I… err… uh…"
"This spell will ensure Haninozuka's victory…" Reiko walked past them waving Bereznoff in the air.
"None of them" Kaname sighed.
"Will you watch?" asked Renge "but of course you will! Come, come, and stand right next to me!"
Thus she pulled the girl with her.
"Um… Renge-kun… I'm not sure if I want to see this…" Kaname couldn's stop awkwardly shifting her weight from one leg to the other, as she stood beside the Host Club manager on the windswept field where Mori and Hunny were facing each other.
"But you owe this to Hunny-senpai!" Renge, tears in her eyes, grasped both of Kaname's shoulders and stared right into her eyes "especially after…"
"No way! I didn't!"
"Everyone knows you did! It's so romantic!"
"No, it's not! We didn't!!! Just ask him and…"
"Begin!" Tamaki's voice was heard.
Renge immediately let Kaname go, so suddenly that the girl fell bakcwards on the grass.
Everyone knows? EVERYONE?!
"Oh, dear!" she simply passed out.
"Oooh, look, the tension of the duel was too much for her!" Renge began jumping in excitement.
"So, uh, what happened?" Kaname asked Aki. For when she awoke, despite it happening just a couple of minutes later, the duel was already over.
"Mori-senpai won and…"
"What?! Is Mitsukuni okay?!"
"Yes, yes… Mori-senpai requested that Hunny-senpai should brush his teeth and cut down on his sweets intake… oh, and that he should also stop bringing Bun-bun to University… he'll bring it once every three days…"
"Ouch… it was as if I was requested not to bring minerals with me any more… now, shall I seek him out? I still didn't say a proper goodbye. And I even brought some fruitcake, I just left it in my locker…"
"Of course. Oh, and isn't that stone a bit much?"
"What, this? Well… maybe…" Kaname touched her amethyst pendant. True, it was nearly of the size of her fist.
"Now go" smiled Aki "I gotta call Kyoya."
Have a nice chat with your beloved credit card, Aki…
Kaname arrived just in time to see the Host Club saying their goodbyes to Hunny and Mori, who were proudly showing everyone their graduation certificates.
"Kana-chan!" Hunny smiled brightly at her.
"Mitsukuni! Here, a goodbye cake!" she put the box on the table and hugged Hunny tightly. It didn't matter Reiko was nearby; she enjoyed this beautiful moment.
Let the hematite night be forgotten…
"I included the recipe!" she whispered in his ear.
"Yay! Thank you, thank you!"
"Takashi!" she let Hunny go and ran over to Mori, not caring about most of the others raising their eyebrows at her calling him by his first name "goodbye to you too!"
"Kana-chan!" Hunny pulled her arm "we'll be coming back here every now and then!"
"Really? Well then, just tell me when! So I can make more cake for you!"
All the happiness Kaname showed was gone about half an hour later, when she walked down the gravel path of the school yard. She wanted this to be a happy day for her beloved Mitsukuni, and it was, and everything seemed fine… but the utter confusion in her heart now turned to total chaos. She absolutely had no idea whether she should laugh or cry.
She nervously pulled at the huge amethyst, when, out of the blue, it detached itself from the chain and dropped to the ground.
"No!"
No new beginning then. All gone. Mitsukuni…
Tears now really began forming in her eyes, when that terrible voice was heard.
"Kaname-saaan! You dropped something!"
"Think I didn't notice, idiot?!" she picked the amethyst up and her eyes threw lightnings at Satoshi.
He didn't seem to notice, but apparently Chika, standing beside him, did, as he replied with a similar stare.
"Oh. But it's just some pebble. A big one, but why are you holding it?"
Just… a… pebble?!
Without further notice, she immediately threw it at Satoshi, hitting him right in the forehead. He shrieked and fell backwards.
"Yesss! SCORE!" Kaname laughed evilly.
Too bad Chika had about enough. He ran over to her and grasped her collar.
"How many times are you attempting to kill him?!"
"Let me go!" Kaname tried to get hold of Chika's hands, to get him to stop, but couldn't.
"Listen, are you completely stupid?! You're a public danger! And in addition, you… and my brother…"
"We didn't! Yasuchika! Let me go!"
"Oh come on, everyone knows you did! At the very least, I do for sure!"
"No, we didn't! Yasuchika! Was it you who told it around?!"
"So you admit it! And no, it wasn't me. Must have been a friend of yours."
"Liar! They would never!"
Chika had enough of the senseless argument and let Kaname go. By the way, he was actually telling the truth; Reiko got to know by overhearing Riyoka, Itsuko and Orimi discussing the night, then her accusing Kaname loudly quickly let everyone around take for granted something that never happened.
"Oh, and give me back that" Kaname picked the amethyst up from beside Satoshi as he was slowly regaining his senses "and don't worry, it'll heal by the time you move to the next grade."
"Yeah, we're moving to High School, actually!" Chika shouted after her, as she hurried away, hoping to get to the limousine before the two boys could do anything more; she was a little scared of Chika, and Satoshi annoyed her to no end.
As she finally sat on the backseat, she put the amethyst in her lap, a look of frozen horror on her face.
They're going to High School.
Which practically meant she was going to meet them every single day.
A new beginning. The beginning of a nightmare!