Chapter 11: It's love Tamaki-kun
Mori smirked to himself as he watched Haruhi and Tamaki sit down near one another and thought to himself, And now the fun begins.
"Mori-kun, did you help pick out the cosplay toady?" one of their customers asked
"Yeah this seems like something you would want to cosplay." another admitted
Mori's attention snapped back to his customers and he said, "No mi lasses, this was all Captain Tamaki's idea." Mori knew he was going to have trouble concentrating on his customers today; he was just too anxious to see what would happen between Tamaki and Haruhi.
Following Tamaki, Haruhi made her way to her table as well. She sat herself down with a slight sigh. "Sorry I'm late, ladies," Haruhi looked at her three regulars and grinned. "I hope I haven't kept you three waiting too long."
"Oh, not at all, Haruhi! Please, don't worry about it!" one of the customers asked.
"Yes, don't worry! But...do you mind if I ask why were you and Tamaki-kun late, Haruhi-kun?" another customer asked.
Haruhi's smile faded little by little as she thought about it. "Oh, there was no big reason. Tamaki-senpai and I just got ready a little later than everyone else, I suppose."
"Really? But Tamaki-kun always seems to be ready before everyone. What would cause him to be late about getting ready, Haruhi-kun?" the same girl asked.
She sure has a lot of questions today... She has a point though. Tamaki-senpai usually does get ready before everyone Haruhi thought to herself before answering. "We were talking about," Haruhi paused to think for a moment, It would be rude of me not to say, but there wasn't a lot to what we said, "--we were talking about nothing special. Plus, we were just a little tired is all. The...uh...thunder storm kept us up some..."
Haruhi stared at the girls across the table from her, but she wasn't really looking at them. Slight realization hit her like a speeding bullet. Is that what's been bugging me... What happened last night? No...no--nothing happened! Tamaki-senpai was just comforting me... Keeping me safe, making sure that I wasn't afraid. And ... I wasn't, with him there. Haruhi shut her eyes and rubbed her forehead. Why did that thought please me so much?
Hunny turned and watched Haruhi and Tamaki sit themselves down at their tables, back-to-back. Neither of them looked pleased about it. Hunny carefully listened in when Haruhi started speaking. Odd that she would mention the thunder storm. Well, with Tama-chan involved in the sentence that is. He continued to watch Haruhi, and was a little confused when she started rubbing her forehead. I wonder if she feels okay...
"Hunny-kun, you're not eating any cake! Wou--would you like some?" one of the customers asked, a plate with cake on it in hand.
Hunny turned to his customer with a bright smile. "Oh, yes please!" He gratefully took the cake from the girl's hands and said, "Arigato!" As Hunny took a bit out of his cake, he thought, I wonder though...what were Haru-chan and Tama-chan talking about?
Kyoya smirked when Haruhi and Tamaki took the seats. He, quite frankly, was happy that they made it here on their own accord instead of Kyoya's.
"What are the plans for the club when we get back to school?" one of his customers asked
"It's not decided quite yet. I need to wait for Tamaki to make any plans official."
"Do you know anything about the club magazine's yet?" another asked excitedly, "I can't wait for the next edition!"
"Those will be up for sale the day after we get back." Kyoya, though talking to his host, wasn't really paying any attention to them. He kept a keen eye on Haruhi and Tamaki.
The twins grinned slightly, with the knowledge that things were probably about to get pretty interesting.
"So Hikaru, Kaoru, did the storm keep you guys up last night?" a customer asked
Kaoru put on his uke face. "Yes... I was a little scared... but Hikaru was with me..."
Hikaru played along, putting his arm around his twin. "You know I'd never let anything happen to you, Kaoru." Hikaru said as their fangirls squealed.
"I've never seen brotherly love quite like that..." One of the princesses said, repeating herself from episode one. The twins inwardly smirked, eying each other knowingly.
As their hosting continued, Tamaki had a small problem concentrating on his hosts because of the fact that he was sitting back to back to Haruhi. Not only was it now impossible to glance at her to see how she was doing but just having her that close to him was making him feel nervous. Calm down Tamaki, he thought to himself as he was hosting, just try to ignore the fact that the girl you may be in love with is sitting right behind you....yeah like that's gonna work....
About an hour of hosting passed, and the entire time Haruhi could not focus on her customers. She tried, but just couldn't. A new group...I'll probably end up boring them too... Haruhi attempted to put on her best welcoming smile and said, "Good afternoon, ladies. How are you three doing today?"
The three girls blushed as a bright smile formed across their faces. Finally one came up and answered Haruhi's question: "Oh, we're feeling great today, Haruhi-kun! But you don't seem to agree, Haruhi-kun. You look...troubled." The three girls sat down at the table, and the one spoke again: "Are you okay?"
Haruhi sweat-dropped and began to wave her hands in front of her. "No, no, no! I'm quite alright. Really, I am. I just didn't get a lot of sleep last night is all...loud thunder will cause that," she said with a nervous smile.
When the hosts switched their customers, Tamaki had recognized his next customers from yesterday. Oh, I hope they don't bring up the brotherly love thing again, Tamaki thought to himself nervously; the last thing he would want to happen is have them talk about that with Haruhi right behind him. "A-ahoy my dears." Tamaki said to the bunch with slight nervousness, "How have you been since yesterday?"
"Oh we're quite alright Tamaki-kun." one of the customers replied with a smile.
The one who had conjured up the brotherly love idea was about to take her seat when she noticed that Tamaki and Haruhi were sitting back to back and were wearing the same outfit. She gasped and then said, "Oh, you two look so kawaii in the matching outfits Tamaki-kun, Haruhi-kun. I'm almost sure now you've grown a brotherly bond."
Haruhi's smile turned into a frown once she heard the conversation that was taking place behind her. Without really realizing it, Haruhi turned around in her seat and watched Tamaki and his customers.
Oh Crap! he thought to himself as he tensed up in fear. The customer had said that at an indoor voice but Tamaki was almost positive Haruhi had heard her. "C-c-c-c-come now my dear," Tamaki said nervously as he stood up next to blocking her view of Haruhi, trying to mend what crack she had caused, "don't be so absurd with comments as such."
She looked over Tamaki's shoulder and at Haruhi again and then said, "But Tamaki-kun, you two look so adorable as a matching set. The only other hosts that do that are the twins. So, you must have some sort of bond with each other..."
Haruhi turned back around in her seat and stood. "Will you three ladies excuse me for a moment, please?" Without waiting for a response, Haruhi walked over and stood next to Tamaki, staring at the very outspoken customer. Her face was completely red. Tamaki was slightly embarrassed to have Haruhi join in on this conniption but he felt a little more at ease now that he had backup.
"Miss, Tamaki-kun and I do not have a brotherly love bond like Hikaru & Kaoru! Tamaki-kun and I are..." Haruhi paused, and her eyes widened. Did...did I just called him what I think I called him...? She was now blushing more than ever. "I--I mean Tamaki-senpai! We're good friends, with no 'brotherly bond' included..." Haruhi addressed Tamaki without looking at him, "I--isn't that right, Tamaki-kun...er...senpai?!"
Tamaki nodded at everything Haruhi said, knowing that what she was saying was true (at least the part about no brotherly bond). As soon as she finished, Tamaki, seriously, added his two cents while holding an index finger in the air, "Yes, that's correct, we don't have..." However, it was in the middle of his sentence that Haruhi's words truly sank in. D-did she just call me... Tamaki-kun... he thought to himself as his eyes opened wide. He slowly turned his head to the side to look at Haruhi and brought his finger down. "Haruhi..." he said in a tone of total disbelief, "what did you just call me?"
What did she just call him?!? Mori thought to himself as he had been listening in on the whole conniption; it was obvious something was going down as soon as Tamaki stood up.
In total confusion herself, she quickly pointed back and forth between Haruhi and Tamaki. "He just called you...Tamaki...kun." the customer said as she began to blush herself, not believing her new fantasies of Tamaki were coming true.
The other two were completely red and were doing their best to hold in their fan girl squeals, not wanting to interupt the perfect moment.
Mori looked in a daze from the sight, to Hunny, back to the sight and back to Hunny once again. "Jackpot." Mori said under his breath to Hunny, "Phase 2 complete."
Hunny nodded to Mori's words, for he too was listening in on Haruhi and Tamaki's conversation. He wanted to jump up and down, shouting to the world how happy he was that both Tamaki AND Haruhi have realized their feelings for each other, but he resisted. I'll have to go celebrate later!
Hunny looked up at his cousin and closed in to his ear as he whispered, "Takashi, now we're onto Phase 3: Get Tamaki and Haruhi to admit it." Yes! Important events such as these can't have cute nicknames in them!
Haruhi slowly lifted her head, hoping that her face still wasn't red (even though she knew it still was), and stared at Tamaki. Her eyes moved away from his glance as she said, "I--I called you 'Tamaki-kun'... Gomen...Senpai. With all these customers here referring to you as 'Tamaki-kun', it just slipped out...." Haruhi spoke slowly, and then began to think, Right? No...that can't be it. I've hosted before while customers referred to him as that, so why now would I slip up...?
True realization hit Haruhi like a speeding bullet--no, a speeding arrow, right into the heart; her eyes grew wider by the second. This can't be the truth...can it? No! I--it can't! Or maybe it is... But...I think I might have fallen for Tamaki Suou...
"D-don't apologize Haruhi." Tamaki said to her trying to get Haruhi to feel better about herself, "W-what's a slip in formalities amongst close friends?" Ignoring his customers, Tamaki placed a hand on her shoulder, lowered his head so he was eye level with Haruhi and said, "Don't worry about it, okay?"
All three of his customers couldn't take it any more. All three of them started to squeal at the beautiful sight, weather if they had a brotherly bond or not.
The sound of their squeals snapped Tamaki back to reality and looked down nervously. "Excuse me ladies." he said to his customers (and indirectly Haruhi), "I'm feeling slightly sea sick." Tamaki held his head with one hand and walked out of the ballroom.
Haruhi desperately wanted to follow after Tamaki, but knew she shouldn't, let alone could. So she turned around and sat back down in her seat. Without looking up, she said to her customers, "I'm sorry about that, ladies. I hope I didn't have my attention away from you three for too long." Haruhi finally looked up and sweat-dropped; the three customers were bright red and huddled together. I'm guessing they, too, were going crazy...
"Oh, don't be ridiculous, Haruhi-kun! It seemed like you barely left." One princess said
"Oh, yes! Never left, indeed!" another customer added
Haruhi attempted to smile, but failed. "Oh, well as long as you three ladies weren't bored, I'm happy." That was a lie. Haruhi was anything but happy, but mixed up in her mind and confused about everything. He told me not to worry about it...But how can I not? There's a chance that I might have finally fallen for you...Tamaki-senpai. But...how do I find out for sure...?
The twins stared off in disbelief as they watched Tamaki walk out of the room. They looked at each other, before grinning immensely. It looked like this game would end sooner than they could have hoped for. They looked around at Mori and Hunny, seeing that they both looked slightly stunned as well.
"What's wrong with Tamaki-sempai?" One of the princesses asked, looking to the direction he had disappeared.
"He's fine, princess." The twins replied, knowing that Tamaki probably needed to be alone at the moment. "Knowing him he'll be back to normal in no time."
Though they knew this wasn't true. And it probably wouldn't be until they could get him to confess to Haruhi... or vice versa.
He found the nearest bathroom, went into the stall and just sat down to get things strait in his head. She called me Tamaki-kun... he thought to himself Is that a good thing or a bad thing? I mean...I called her Haru-chan but that seemed to upset her...now she called me Tamaki-kun...should I be upset as well?...but I'm not...I'm glad...almost ecstatic...that she would finally see me not as a senpai but as a friend..................or more...
All of this seemed to hit Tamaki all too suddenly and was left in a daze. E-even if this is love....she would never fall for me, he thought skeptically, I mean she always pushes me away, never agrees with me...Tamaki looked down at his feet and thought, She would never feel the same...
After about ten minutes of thinking, Tamaki felt like he was ready to host again. Although he had dropped his previous, rather depressing, thoughts, he was still unsure if either he was, in fact, in love with Haruhi and not "being concerned for his daughter" or, assuming he was in love, that Haruhi would accept him. Once he came back, from the view of the customers, hosting continued on as normal as anything. However, the host's minds, unaware to Tamaki, were either on Tamaki, Haruhi or the two of them.
Once hosting was over and the customers filed out, Tamaki thought about that almighty schedule of Kyoya to figure out who had to clean up today. I think I have to clean up today, Tamaki thought to himself as he stood up ready to work; before he did though, he propped open all of the doors to make sure that he wouldn't be locked in again. He started pushing the tables the hosts were using back to their original places, really not expecting anyone to help. He figured he could take the time to calm the storm in his head.
Mori stood up and tugged at his collar to let some of the heat out of his heavy cosplay. "Well, that was eventful he said to his cousin as he watched the other hosts begin to move about. He noticed Tamaki already starting to push the tables back to their original places with a rather solemn look on his face. "Should we even suggest having Haruhi help him?" he asked his cousin, unsure what might happen after what happened yesterday and today during hosting.
Haruhi sighed, full of relief once all the customers had left. Finally...hosting for the day is now over. I need time to clear my head... Those hot springs sound really good right now, too.
Just as Haruhi was about to leave, she noticed Tamaki cleaning up and setting all the tables and chairs back into their original spots. She felt a rather large urge to help him out. Well...he did help me when I was on cleaning duty... It would only be fair if I helped him too, I suppose. Haruhi calmly walked on over and started putting tables and chairs into their original spots as well. I hope he doesn't look far into this kind gesture... That would only cause me to have more thoughts about this whole possible...love thing. Haruhi shuddered at the word "love".
Hunny was about to reply to his cousin 'Yes', but slightly grinned as he watched Haruhi begin to clean up--on her own free will. "I guess we didn't have to, Takashi. Let's leave them alone." Hunny lowered his voice for that last part.
As the two of them left the room, they closed the door behind them, and Hunny right away rested his ear against the door, trying to listen in. Mori followed his cousin's example and put his ear up against the door as well to see if he could listen in on them. In only a whisper, Hunny said, "I think it would be best if we don't trap them inside this time. I noticed Tama-chan prop all the doors open, so he might suspect us if he can't get out...again."
"Agreed," Mori said bluntly, "Besides I don't think we would have needed to lock them in anyways. I think they already realize that there's something between them."
As the other hosts left, Tamaki worked at a snails pace not only because he was tired but he was too busy thinking things over in his mind. I really wish that i knew for sure if this is love or not, he thought as he was setting chairs up around another table, then i could possibly put this to rest...but then again... if it is love...what would I do then? It was then that he heard the squeal of one of the other tables being moved that he wasn't moving. He wheeled around and saw Haruhi attempting to push a table back into place. Oh, she didn't have to do that, he thought guiltily for he really didn't want to make her do his work.
Tamaki stopped placing the chairs around the table and went over to help Haruhi push the table back in place. Once it was, he said to her, "Haruhi, You didn't have to help. I could have done this myself...but thank you anyways."
Haruhi was a bit relaxed. Nothing was strange about what was going on, nothing at all. "I know I don't. But I figured I would help you since you helped me yesterday..." she said as she moved more chairs to their tables. Of course Tamaki had to ruin the semi-non-awkwardness.
Tamaki went over to where Mori pushed all the extra tables aside and started pushing one of them back into place. In between his grunts of work, Tamaki said to Haruhi, "again...about the...Tamaki-kun thing...like you told me about...the Haru-chan thing...don't worry about it..."
Haruhi stopped what she was doing and turned to face him, in slight amazement. Tamaki stopped to catch his breath when the table was in place and then tagged on, "You apologized and that's what counts."
She looked away from Tamaki and hid her face. "You--you're right. It was just a slip of tongue. It didn't mean anything... So why worry?"
Minutes passed and the ballroom was in its original state. Tamaki wiped sweat from his forehead and tugged at his collar to try and cool himself off as they finished. Haruhi pushed the last chair into place and looked at Tamaki. "Well, ballroom's clean. We should probably go get 'Rukia' and head down to the hot springs, huh?" That's exactly what Haruhi needed to clear her head, hopefully that is: the hot springs.
Tamaki nodded and said as he walked over to Haruhi, "Yeah, that might be a good idea, before they lock us in again." When Tamaki came to Haruhi, he placed a hand on her shoulder and said, "Thanks again for helping me, I appreciate it." I hope that wasn't too bold he thought to himself as he venture for the door and gestured with his hand for Haruhi to follow, But I didn't want to feel like that she wasted her time here.
Mori peaked his head around the corner on last time and saw that the two of them had finished rearranging the room. Disappointed that nothing really happened like last time, Mori said to the other hosts, "Let's go back up to the rooms before they see us spying on them." Without waiting for Kyoya, Hikaru and Kaoru, Mori picked Hunny up onto his shoulders and started carting him back up to the rooms.
Hikaru and Kaoru heeded Mori's advice, following him and Hunny back up to the rooms. Once they're, they pulled out their DS, not wanting to go to the springs at the moment. They were just about to beat level 13.
"Go over there, Hikaru." Kaoru instructed, pointing to a spot on the screen. Ah, the wonder of electronics.
Mori undressed from his cosplay and into a pair of jean shorts and a short sleeved dress shirt; he slung a towel over his shoulder as well so he'd be ready to go down to the springs. He went over and looked over Hikaru's other shoulder and watched him play Super Mario Brothers on his DS. "Ge-Get the Mushroom." Mori said in a monotone voice as he tried to help Hikaru. Without Tamaki or Haruhi around to bother with this game of theirs, Mori didn't feel like doing much else.
Tamaki and Haruhi walked up to the rooms rather silently. Tamaki didn't say much because of the fact that his mind was preoccupied with how he would ask those unscrupulous twins how love felt like without them picking at him. Should I say...no no no, he thought to himself as ideas flowed in and out of his head, God this is probably the worst thing I'm going to do all week.
Haruhi watched Tamaki carefully from the side; he seemed to be struggling with something. She wasn't bound to ask, for she had to much on her own mind. What Tamaki-senpai said before we left the ballroom wasn't much, but it meant so much to me. I wonder why... The knowledge of doing a good deed...? No! That's not it...
Once the two of them reached their rooms, Haruhi turned to her door and swiped her card key. She looked over her shoulder at Tamaki (and down the hall, making sure no one else was around) and said, "I'll be out in a bit." With that Haruhi calmly walked into her room and closed the door behind her.
"Okay then, I'll make sure Mori and Hunny come out soon." Tamaki said to Haruhi over his shoulder as he reached for the door handle of his room.
Haruhi sighed and walked over to 'Rukia's' rather large closet. Wow there's a lot of clothes for me to choose from... She shrugged and began going through all the clothes. It didn't take her too long this time to settle with a nice set of clothes. Haruhi chose a short-sleeved tee with horizontal brown and maroon stripes, a mid-length dark pink skirt (between a mini-skirt and knee length really), and plain, but elegant looking, sandy-tan cowboy boots with a heel. For accessories, Haruhi wore a sandy-tan belt over her skirt & shirt and a golden colored ring with three diamond-like stones in the middle--center stone larger than the others.
Haruhi quickly grabbed her wig from the past two days and ran off to the bathroom. She placed it on her head perfectly and combed it out. When she was done, the hair was wavy and left down.
She sighed as she glanced at herself completely in the mirror. Looks good, wonder if it's too commoner like though. The boots might do the trick. Before leaving the bathroom, Haruhi remembered to grab a towel (for once), and headed back to the main room. She grabbed her wallet and card key like always and left the room.
Still no Tamaki-senpai... Haruhi thought with a shrug. She sighed and sat herself down on the bench, waiting patiently.
Once Tamaki was in the guy's room, he saw Mori and the twins hovering over videogames and Kyoya reading to himself. Tamaki sighed and then asked of them all, "Is anyone gonna get ready for the springs? Haruhi's waiting to go down..."
Not really expecting an answer from any of them, Tamaki just walked to his quadrant of the room and changed out of his cosplay and into jean shorts, a green T-shirt with a black stripe across the chest and a dress shirt worn open and with the sleeves rolled up past the elbows. Tamaki gazed at his necklace for a moment and stroked once before throwing it back on and tucking it into his shirt. He threw his towel over his neck and he left the room, hoping that at least Mori and Hunny would get ready to take down Haruhi.
When Tamaki opened the door, he saw Haruhi already dressed as Rukia with her hair worn down. Tamaki blushed and looked down a little as he pulled on his towel. C'mon Tamaki you can talk to her, he thought to himself for motivation, even if she looks that cute. Tamaki looked back up and said, "You look good Haruhi." he looked back at the door and then added, "They hopefully will be coming out soon." he looked back at Haruhi and continued, "However, I'm going to go head on down now. I'll see you after you're done." he started to walk down the hall and waved slightly to her as he told her, "Have fun."
Haruhi looked up at Tamaki and stuttered to say, "Tha--thank you, Senpai." She nodded twice as he began to walk down the hallway. She slightly waved goodbye to Tamaki--just as he did. Have fun, huh? It's hard when you're not with any friends...
Kyoya hadn't even thought about going into the hot springs until Tamaki mentioned it. So much had to be done, and now that he was playing this little 'game', there was even more to do.
"Tamaki's right. Hunny, Mori, why don't you escort Rukia to the hot springs?" He turned around and walked to his room to grab a towel quickly. Kyoya then walked out of his room, into the main living area and straight out of the door and into the hallway. He didn't check to see if the twins had moved, but he knew that Hunny and Mori probably did what they were told.
He walked past Haruhi and to the hot springs area. He found a locker and quickly made his way to an open area of the springs.
Hunny nodded and got ready rather quickly. Hunny threw on a brown t-shirt with two dark brown horizontal lines going through the center and tan cargo shorts. He wrapped a towel around his neck, slipped on some flip-flops, and ran out the door, with Mori close behind.
In the hall, he saw Haruhi sitting in the usual bench and Tamaki walking down the hall. Darn...seems like nothing happened between them. Hunny sighed softly and put on a huge grin as he ran up to Haruhi. "You look so cute, Rukia-chan!"
Haruhi slightly jumped and looked at the smiling Hunny in front of her; she didn't even notice him. "Thanks, Hunny-senpai." Haruhi stood up from the bench and grinned at Hunny and Mori. "Well, let's go."
The three of them made their way to the springs; Haruhi of course went into the girls' entrance. She undressed and placed her things inside one of the non-occupied lockers. She wrapped her towel around her, and gasped when she noticed that she was still wearing her pendant. "I better take this off...don't wanna lose it." Haruhi carefully took it off and placed it in the locker as well. She sighed and made her way to an open area in the pools.
Hunny quickly took his clothes off and shoved them inside of one of the many open lockers. He waited patiently for Mori to get ready, and then dashed out to the springs. Right away he found Kyoya and led Mori to him. "Kyo-chan! You sure got down here fast... Is Tama-chan here yet?"
Mori followed Haruhi and Hunny down to the springs silently. They knew that Haruhi already realized her feelings so there was no need to pry into her even more. Mori followed his cousin into the locker rooms and took his time to get undressed. Once he was done he went out into the springs with Kyoya and sunk into the springs next to Kyoya. "So how much longer do you predict this will take?" Mori asked Kyoya quietly just to stir up some conversation since Tamaki had not shown up yet.
Tamaki took an alternative rout to get down to the springs because he didn't want to be disrupted as he thought of how he would word his question for the twins. Alright I think i got it, he thought to himself as he entered the locker room and undressed himself. he threw all of his clothes into a locker and carefully placed his pendant on top of his clothes. Tamaki wrapped a towel around himself and looked for his friends.
He saw Mori and Kyoya talking quietly about something so he decided not to interrupt. he sank into the pools a few seats away from the others to make room for the twins and also that when the twins finally came, they would already be away from the group a little. Now I guess I wait for Kaoru and Hikaru to show up, Tamaki thought as he tried to soak away every distressful thing that had happened that day.
"Ne, Kaoru." Hikaru spoke, nodding towards his twin. "Everyone's left for the springs."
Kaoru nodded, sighing and standing up as Hikaru turned off the game. They changed into normal clothes while grabbing towels, before heading back down to the springs. Once there they undressed, grumbling slightly about how long the process took before heading towards the spring itself. They spotted two open seats next to Tamaki and took them, leaning against each other as the water ran over them.
"Hikaru." Kaoru whispered. "How much longer do you think it'll take?"
Hikaru shrugged, closing his eyes. "Most likely before the day is over." He said equally as quiet.
Kyoya almost answered Mori when he noticed that the twins were coming into the springs. From what he knew, Tamaki had talked to just about each male host individually. The twins were not included in that group. Kyoya also noticed how Tamaki had left a few seats open between them, obviously for the twins.
Tamaki had his eyes closed when he felt the twins enter the water next to him but also whispering something as well. Why is it all the guys are hush-hush today? he thought to himself as he opened his eyes and sat up in his seat. " Hey Hikaru, Kaoru..." Tamaki said as he scooted over a few seats and then beckoned the twins to join him away from the other guys. Once they finally complied, Tamaki asked in a low voice, "Do you two mind if I ask you two kinda a personal question?"
After hearing Tamaki's question they glanced at each other curiously, before turning back to Tamaki. "Go ahead milord." They said in unison, curious as to what he would ask. Tamaki was hardly ever all serious like this, though he had been doing it more often of late, probably because of his confusion over Haruhi. That much was certain but what could he possibly want to ask them?
Tamaki sighed as he prepared himself for the question as well and then he asked them, "When...you two are doing your brotherly love acts...I know you don't do it heartlessly but I'm curious...what kind of feelings to you try to draw up to make it believable to your customers?" Tamaki looked at the reaction from the twins and sweat-dropped. Oh, I hope I don't get dogged with questions for this, he thought to himself as he waited for them to answer.
The twins blinked. They certainly hadn't been expecting a question like that. "Feelings?" They repeated, tilting their heads slightly as they thought.
"I guess I just draw up on the feelings I already have for Kaoru, and turn them into something more." Hikaru said absentmindedly.
"Hmm, I imagine that Hikaru and I actually do have those feelings, and play submissive for the princesses." Was Kaoru's reply afterwards.
They shrugged and said in unison, "It's quite easy, especially because we're already close." After their words they thought for a minute, before raising an eyebrow slowly. "So..." they asked, "why did you say you wanted to know again boss?"
"I was just curious why you two were so good at it." Tamaki added quickly and defensively. He chuckled a little and then said, "With all the crazy ideas some of my customers are getting, I might have to start something like your two acts with Haruhi..." But would they really be acts? he thought to himself as he started to ponder what the twins told him. Feelings of closeness huh? he thought first, well Haruhi admitted that we were good friends so I guess you could call us close...but is it the same thing love? and what does a close relationship make you feel like anyways?
Tamaki turned back to the twins who looked beyond baffled, and then added an awkward tone, "I-I-If you don't mind me asking one more personal question...I'm not going to ask what those feelings are...but can you give me a little insight on what they.... make... you... feel like?" Tamaki sweat-dropped again feeling so embarrassed asking these types of personal questions.
They looked at Tamaki curiously. He was being even weirder than normal. And they were beginning to suspect (like they didn't know already) that this had everything to do with Haruhi.
"Well . . . I'm not sure how to describe it." Hikaru began. "It makes me feel . . . good, I guess."
"Happy, sort of giddy, really. It's almost like . . . you feel like you don't want to be anywhere else but with that person." Kaoru continued.
"It's . . . well, sort of like," Hikaru said,
"The best feeling in the world." They finished together.
"Eh, that sounds a little weird though . . ." Kaoru started, putting a finger to his chin.
"Whatever." Hikaru said, waving off the statement.
Tamaki's eyes widened as they continued one with their answers as he realized he was having some of the same feelings being around Haruhi
"Does that answer your question?" They asked together, sinking a little deeper into the water.
"Y-yes thank you very much." Tamaki said quickly as he sank himself into the water, "I completely understand why you two are so good at your acts." Tamaki said not only to avoid the true point of his questioning but also to flatter them as a distraction from his behavior. He sunk his head into the water completely as he thought in almost disbelief, I-I-I'm in love...I'm almost positive now...
Tamaki was so shocked by this fact that he didn't know what to do about it. He brought his head above the water for air and then said to the twins, "I just remembered I had to go do something, I'll see you guys before dinner. Thanks again." Tamaki scrabbled out of the water and slid his way to the locker room.
Interested in what was going on, Kyoya tried as much as he could to eavesdrop on their little conversation. He didn't get to much out of it, but some. He also noticed the look on Tamaki's face before he left. It was a look of realization, as Kyoya knew by now.
"Hm." He turned to Mori, a smirk on his face. "It'll probably be sooner then we had hoped. He should say something by tonight or tomorrow morning." Kyoya sighed and turned away from Mori. "We just need to make sure Haruhi is ready without letting her know..."
Mori watched Tamaki run out of the springs and he shook his head Kyoya's assumption, "I'm not sure if it'll be that soon. I mean this is Tamaki we're talking about here. It took him almost a year just a year to realize this much. I think this might take a few more shoves on our part." Mori reached for a wash cloth and wiped down his neck and said, "However, I agree we need to prepare Haruhi. The question is how though."
Kyoya hated to admit it, but Mori was right. In his evaluation of the situation, he forgot to take Tamaki's personality into the equation. How... stupid... of me.
"We could use some similar tactics that we used on Tamaki," Kyoya said answering Mori's question. "Of course, we'd have to take a much different approach. What do you think, Hunny-senpai?"
Hunny leaned back along the side of the pool and yawned. He looked up at the sky and thought a moment to himself. Kyo-chan's right about using the tactics... But what could be do...?
Hunny fixed his head and looked back at everyone; he had a slight idea, but he would need help with details. "Lesse, I'm sure we all noticed that Tama-chan was all asking us questions that most likely related to his feelings towards, Haru-chan, right? Well, maybe we can kind of do the same thing with Haru-chan, but make the questions relate to Tama-chan without her knowing--or we can do soemthing along those lines..."
Hunny himself wasn't too sure about his possible approach, but it was worth a shot to ask the others.
Mori looked at Kyoya as he thought about his cousin's proposal. "Yeah that might work." Mori said as he looked back at Hunny, "We'll just do the same thing as Tamaki and just pull her aside one at a time." Hunny and I can Just talk to her when we take her back to the room or tomorrow when we take her down to the springs, Mori thought to himself, The real question is how will Kyoya and the twins pull her aside. Mori looked passed Hunny and Kyoya at the twins and he said to them, "Oye, Kaoru, Hikaru, we're gonna ask Haruhi questions to prepare her for Tamaki's confession. You in?"
The twins smirked when they heard Mori's question. "Well of course." They replied, smirking. This trip was turning out to be a lot more fun that they thought it would
Haruhi wrapped her arms around her knees and lowered her head into the water--so her mouth was covered. Again...the springs are nice. But it's just no fun when you're not with anyone... She lifted her head to sigh, and then lowered it back into the warm water. Even so...I'll try to relax, even though all these thoughts and possible feelings are rushing through my head.
Minutes passed, and Haruhi still wasn't quite able to relax; her thoughts were taking over. Okay..there has to be a way to see whether I really have feelings for Tamaki-senpai... But how?
Haruhi looked around at all the girls in the pools. A thought came to mind. Maybe I could ask one of his regular's a question or two. They won't suspect me being, well, me... But what would I ask...?
Haruhi didn't have a clue. She lifted her head once more to breathe and lowered it once again; this was a rather comfortable position while pondering.
After Tamaki changed, he walked back up to the guy's room to give himself time to think by himself. Tamaki went to his nightstand and took out his planner, went back to the couch and began drawing again. As he began to finish the details on Haruhi's dress, the voices of his fellow hosts began to echo in his head...
"It makes me feel...good"
"Happy, sort of giddy, really. It's almost like...you feel like you don't want to be anywhere else but with that person."
"It's... well, sort of like,"
"The best feeling in the world."
My heart hasn't stop feeling like that when I'm around Haruhi, Tamaki thought to himself in response to the twin's words, especially during this week...
"I guess you know you're in love when you desire the company of that person more then usual, you're always happy when you're with that person, you desire little things, like small talk and some time to yourselves, you over think some things that are said and done, and you always tend to blush when they're around."
I always want to see Haruhi, he thought at Kyoya's explination as continued on with his drawing, I always want to be with her, talk with her...'cause it does makes me happy
"Cake make me so happy! When I see it, I get excited and I wanna eat it all up. Then when it's all gone...I get sad, because I love cake so much! But it's always okay, because I know I'll get to have it again."
Haruhi makes me so happy. When I see her, I get excited and I wanna eat the moment all up. Then when she's gone...I get sad, because I love her so much. But it's always okay, because I know I'll get to see her again, Tamaki reworded Hunny's explination in his head as he finished his drawing and he looked over his work, That much is true...and it's now become obvious to me... Tamaki stroked the face of Haruhi in the drawing as he said to himself under his breath, "I'm in love with Haruhi..."