Hey everyone! I'm back and it didn't take me several months to update this! :D Probably because I haven't been sleeping . . .
Anyway, enjoy this chapter!
*Reviews addressed at the end of the chapter; all characters excluding Kashi belong to Bisco Hatori*
Ouran 11
"Shockingly, I don't have a problem with this."
That line kept repeating over and over in my head as I showered off all the salt and sand that evening in the shower. I'd apologized early on to Hunny-senpai; as much as I wanted to eat the crabs he'd caught that afternoon, I was cursed with a shellfish allergy, and a violent one at that. Any bite of shellfish and my face got blotchy and my throat started to swell up.
Let me just say that it's not pretty; we'd discovered my allergy when I was eight and one of the stuffed shirts at a party offered me some shrimp, only to later find me collapsed in the middle of the room, not breathing.
I stepped out of the shower and changed into a pair of shorts and polo shirt, rubbing a towel over my hair. I felt bad for yelling at Kaoru; he'd been worried about me (I still wasn't sure why), and I'd basically told him to shove it.
"That was stupid, Miyazaki." I muttered to my reflection. "This is gonna make it very awkward between you two during school."
"Do you make it a habit to talk to yourself?" said a voice from the hallway. I'd left my door ajar to let out the steam from the shower, and now Kyoya was leaning against the doorframe, one eyebrow raised. I frowned and stuck the tip of my tongue out in his direction.
"It is a habit; sometimes it's better to talk to myself than the company I'm surrounded by." I draped the towel around my shoulders and gave Kyoya a dry smile.
"Was that snark I detected just now?"
"Your Majesty, you've known me for a while now and no doubt you've snooped into my private life. You really should expect me to be snarky." I replied, sweeping into a small bow.
"'Your Majesty', eh?"
"Well you are the infamous 'Shadow King'; the address only seemed appropriate."
Kyoya mused over this like he enjoyed the idea; I snapped my fingers to get his attention.
"Don't go getting any ideas; your head is already big enough as it is. And shouldn't you be downstairs with the rest of the Hosts?"
"I was just on my way back to my room when it occurred to me that someone wasn't at dinner this evening." Kyoya raised an eyebrow at me, which made me roll my eyes. "The reason why wouldn't have anything to do with a certain redhead, would it?"
I folded my arms and refused to look Kyoya in the eyes; his gray ones were just unnerving to meet directly. I felt my face flush a little bit and tried to fight it down.
"N-no; I'm allergic to crab and I wasn't going to sit and just watch the rest of you eat. That would just be rude." I stammered.
"Uh-huh; very considerate of you." There was a tone in that phrase that let me know Kyoya wasn't buying my excuse, but he was humoring me.
He gave me a short good night and padded down the hallway, leaving me alone with my thoughts once more. Unfortunately, those thoughts turned to Kaoru and the fact that yes, I was avoiding him because he wasn't speaking to me . . .
I also wanted to avoid an awkward confrontation when he did start speaking to me again, whenever that may be. I dropped onto the edge of the bed and put my head in my hands.
"Please don't tell me you're throwing a pity party." A new voice almost made me jerk my head up, but instead I just groaned and kept my head in its current position with the heels of my hands pressed into my eyes.
"I thought you weren't talking to me." I raised my head and stood up, subtly twisting my towel around in my hands. "I haven't apologized or said I was wrong – though I still don't know what it is I did wrong – so why are you even in here?"
"I talked with Hikaru and after a lot of deliberation, I decided I'd come up and apologize for yelling at you." Kaoru said, rubbing the back of his neck. My eyes go big; a Hitachiin was apologizing to me? And Kaoru Hitachiin of all people!
Wait . . . oh, you sneaky b***d.
I chuckled and put my hands on my hips, the towel still clutched in my hand.
"Well, well, well; swallowing your pride and apologizing first? I'll give you points for being the bigger person in this situation." I dropped my gaze and rubbed my arm. "I guess I should apologize too; I'm sorry for yelling at you earlier. I should have tried to understand why you were so angry."
"Swallowing your pride, too? Kind of a bitter taste, isn't it?" Kaoru wiggled his eyebrows. I snapped my towel at him, even though I was smiling at the same time.
"I've been thinking, and the reason you were so upset earlier: was it because I went up against two guys and essentially got myself outnumbered?" I asked.
"There is that, and what if something worse had happened? What if one of them had a knife, or what if they even -?" He trailed off, as if trying to process his thoughts. The realization came to me and I let out an "Oh!" of understanding.
"What if one of them had been into that and taken my innocence by brute force, you mean?" I summarized, snapping my fingers. Kaoru just nodded, looking almost relieved that I'd said it and he hadn't.
"Hey, I may not be a champion martial artist like our resident boy Lolita, but I still know how to protect myself in that kind of situation." I reassured him, coming over and poking Kaoru lightly in the stomach.
"I see that now; it just freaked me out that your skinny frame was taking on two fully grown guys."
"Two fully grown drunk of their a**es guys; there was a little bit of cheating there, I have to admit." I joked. "And don't judge by my skinny frame; I'm not as fragile as I look; Feel this." I held out my bicep for inspection, and Kaoru gave it a squeeze as I flexed.
"Holy crap; what kind of workouts do you do, girl?!" Kaoru slapped a hand over his mouth as he realized what he'd just said.
"Oh snap . . . you just screwed yourself over, boy." I let my hand drop to my side. "I had a feeling you were gonna figure it out eventually, or someone was gonna let slip. So, was it Kyoya, Haruhi . . . or was it possibly your brother . . . Hikaru?"
"How did you know it was me?" He asked after a few moments of stunned silence.
"Your voice for one thing, and for another, the fact that you came to my room to apologize to me, when I've seen enough of Kaoru to know that he never says 'I'm sorry' unless you're fake threatening to smack him with a riding crop."
" . . . Unfortunately, you have a point." Hikaru crossed his arms and made himself comfortable on my mattress. "I thought you'd be more upset about this."
"I am a little upset; because that's one more person that could potentially let it slip that I'm a girl. But I figured that if you didn't find out, someone was gonna tell you, that someone being Kyoya." I said bitterly, thinking of the Shadow Man's gray eyes staring into my soul.
"So . . . who doesn't know?" Hikaru asked me.
"I think Tamaki is the only one who doesn't know at this point. And I don't wanna be the one to break it to him."
"Funny, he was the last one to guess that Haruhi was a girl."
"Unless he already knows and is trying to get me to spill the beans so he can say 'I knew it!' to my face." I made my eyes big and exchanged glances with Hikaru. We both came to the same conclusion and said, almost in unison: "Nah!"
"But if you can tell Kaoru that I'm sorry, and whenever he feels like apologizing to me himself, I'd be willing to accept it." Hikaru gave me a half smile, right as the lights flickered in response to the clap of thunder outside.
Thunder had been cracking outside for about a half hour already, but it wasn't until Hikaru had meandered into Kashi's room that it got close enough to make the lights flicker. Hikaru noticed the small gasp that Kashi had let out when the lights blinked on and off.
"Oh, yeah; it's been doing that for a while. It's only a matter of time before—" Hikaru was cut off by the loudest thunder crash to be heard that night, and the lights went out.
"Yep, there it is. We should probably go see if . . ." Hikaru trailed off as he heard something hit the floor right where Kashi had been standing. Pulling his phone out to see by, Hikaru scanned the floor to see Kashi lying in the fetal position on the floor, breath hitching and shaking horribly.
"Hey, talk to me! Talk to me Kashi; what's happening?" Hikaru demanded, not caring that Kashi was beginning to sweat.
"I – I feel sick . . . can't feel my fingers . . ." Kashi choked out as Hikaru lifted her off the floor and into a sitting position. His fingers closed around the pulse point in Kashi's wrist, and her heartbeat was going wild.
Think, Hikaru, think! Sweating . . . nausea . . . some kind of panic attack, but what do I do now? Hikaru pulled up a web search on his phone and read through what to do, and calmly told Kashi to extend her legs.
"What?"
"Stretch your legs, and keep doing it until I say you can stop." Hikaru repeated, easing Kashi's legs out and in. She got into the motion, inhaling and exhaling with each stretch.
"Okay, what do you need now?" Hikaru asked, trying not to panic himself. He kept calm by breathing in and out with Kashi.
"Light. Somewhere with light." Kashi whispered.
"Somewhere with light . . ."
"Hikaru! There you are; I was wondering where you were!" Kaoru dashed to his brother's side, but not before stopping to wonder why Kashi was doing leg stretches with a vacant stare.
"How bad is the light situation?" Hikaru wondered, breaking through Kaoru's brain.
"Kyoya-senpai is checking the fuse box, but right now every light is out in the manor. Is Kashi okay?"
"I'll . . . be okay. Just . . . keep your phones on . . . please?" Kashi said her breathing back to normal.
"Sure thing. Wait . . . Kashi Miyazaki is afraid of the dark?" Hikaru exclaimed. Kashi bopped him in the nose.
"Don't . . . laugh. It's not . . . something that . . . I'm proud of . . . okay? I know . . . it's childish and . . . irrational . . . but I can't . . . I just haven't . . . been able . . . to get over it." She panted, still a little shaky from her attack.
"Do you need an inhaler or anything?"
"No, I'm okay. I just hate that I had to put you through that; must've been scary."
The lights came back on a few moments later, and Hikaru could see that Kashi's face was still a little pale, but otherwise she was okay. She was also gripping Hikaru's shirt tightly enough that he was afraid she was gonna rip it.
"There you are; is everything all right?" Kyoya showed up in the doorway and spotted the three first years: Kashi in Hikaru's lap while Kaoru looked on from his brother's side. Kyoya raised an eyebrow.
"Guess who had a panic attack!" Kashi threw her limbs into the air, careful to avoid hitting Hikaru in the face.
"Are you okay now?" Kyoya asked, still confused at the sight before him. Somehow Kaoru and Kashi had made up.
"Better than I was ten minutes ago, anyway." Kashi stood up, albeit shakily. "Anyone seen Haruhi and Tamaki?"
"That is an excellent question." Hikaru said, supporting Kashi with her arm around his shoulders.
"Tamaki went into my room a while ago and that was the last I saw of him." Kyoya said as we traipsed down the hallway. There was something in his voice that told me something else had happened, but he wasn't about to tell us what.
"Are you sure it's okay—"
"To leave the two of them alone?" The twins asked.
"She's with our prince, Tamaki. What's the worst that could happen?"
"Never say things like that; you're gonna jinx it." I muttered. I was walking on my own now, though I had appreciated the help so I wasn't stumbling into walls while I got my legs working again. I certainly didn't distrust Tamaki, but as far as I knew, he and Haruhi had never been alone in the same room together.
That being said, what I saw upon opening the door was NOT expected.
Haruhi was on her hands and knees on the floor with a blindfold on, Tamaki holding onto her shoulders.
"With the blindfold on you can't see anything, and then the earplugs help muffle any sound." Tamaki was saying, and Haruhi just smiled at him.
"Oh my gods, senpai; I never knew you were into that." I said, forcing Tamaki to jump and whirl around and face the shocked expressions of the rest of the Hosts.
"What kind of foreplay is that, you nasty pervert?" The twins were sending daggers at Tamaki, and I couldn't blame them. Even after Tamaki (failed to) explain the situation, we still held him in a weird position.
I sat next to Haruhi in the limo that would be our transport home, trying to piece together everything that had happened this weekend so I could tell my parents about it without the possibility of them going all meshugena on me.
"I guess your nails taste pretty good?" Haruhi asked me. I paused to see that I was indeed chewing on my thumbnail; an unfortunate nervous habit that I'd been trying to kick for years. I sat on my hands to keep my nails away from my teeth; if my sister didn't freak out on me for it, then my mom would.
"Bad habit. But enough about me; what really happened with Tamaki-senpai last night?" I wanted to know.
"If I tell you what happened with senpai will you tell me what happened with Kaoru?" Haruhi countered, folding her arms. At my confused look she said: "He said he wasn't going to speak to you last night and this morning you're all talkative with him."
I looked away, my face heating up as I remembered my moment of weakness in front of Hikaru and Kaoru. I wasn't beating myself up over it; I just hated when I had panic attacks, because most of the time people around me had no idea what to do, which forced them to panic and by extension, made my attack worse.
I was upset that I'd forced the twins to go through that.
"Nothing much; we made up and everything's good." I said, not meeting Haruhi's big brown eyes. I could feel them watching my every move for the rest of the way home; I just wasn't ready to admit that I wasn't this super strong, motorcycle riding, bad girl that everyone thought I was.
I was beginning to think that not admitting that I had weaknesses was going to be my downfall.
And now onto reviews:
sally1821: I was thinking about what you said, and I think we haven't had many moments where Kashi is vulnerable; all we've seen is this strong and sarcastic character which is kinda Mary Sue-ish, so i think my story was missing moments of Kashi's vulnerability.
NightmareTheFoxWitch: I'm glad I could appeal to your tastes! *bows*
Shadow Fox 2013: Yeah, I'm back! I'm gonna keep on keeping on!
Thank you all again for reading!
