Their uniforms swished in tandem as Haruhi walked slowly beside Rose as she manoeuvred her crutches. Wednesday being upon them, they gradually approached the short haired girl's home, coming to the stairs and the two of them sighing in unison.
"How do you do stairs at home?" Curiously, Haruhi asked, and Rose grimaced.
"With difficulty." As if to prove a point, she moved both of her crutches to the same hand, gripped the side bars, and began to hoist herself up the communal stairwell. Haruhi took her crutches from her, walking behind her in case she toppled backwards. Eventually as they reached the top balcony, the two made their way across to the door, which Haruhi unlocked quickly, and the two shuffled in, leaving the off white door to click behind them in a final sort of way. Haruhi sighed, jutting her lower jaw forward with a slight tired click of her tongue, before moving into the kitchen area of the small, modest apartment.
"Would you like some tea?" Politely, the racoon symbol gave a small, sleepy smile, and Rose nodded gratefully.
"Yes, thank you. That would be lovely." The English girl returned the exhausted pull of lips, kneeling daintily on the cushioning.
"Alright..." Haruhi replied, though more to herself as she began to busy herself with her mother's old rust coloured teapot, filling it with hot water and allowing the tea leaves to stain the clear liquid.
Eventually the two girls knelt opposite each other, emerald and oak eyes boring into the other as they tried to figure the others emotions at the time.
Haruhi deducted that Rose was down- understandably, she reasoned –and her fighting with both the twins and Lilly wasn't helping. The arguments with her sister had escalated into silence between them, and the twins were a little snippy with her for the way she took out anger on them. And it didn't help that Rose was close to reaching three months pregnant, and signs of preparing the development were beginning to show. Her breasts had slightly swollen, and her face, while tired and distressed, was beginning to gain a bright, healthy glow.
Rose decided that Haruhi was a little lonely- time that was usually spent being harassed by Tamaki was suddenly free, and for some bizarre reason, Haruhi didn't like the time off she had. She couldn't quite relax, there was something in her head that told her that she needed to do somethingbut she couldn't quite place her finger on what exactly. Frowning in empathy, Rose realized her break up with Tamaki had been overlooked in a large aspect because of the more overwhelming matter of her pregnancy. It wasn't all that fair- the noise that came with the end of a relationship is a part of moving past it.
"Has the school been told about the little one?" Haruhi asked, delicately. Raising a hinting eyebrow, the singer leant forward cautiously.
"Tamaki dealt with it." Rose smoothly replied. "How are things with him- are you still friends?" Haruhi looked down, a light pink scaling her face, but her profile bobbed up and down in affirmation. "Did church help? At all?"
"Honestly..." The short haired girl couldn't suppress a chuckle, to which Rose laughed a little. "Sorry- but the thought was appreciated."
"Eh, it's not for everyone, but it gets me through a lot." The green eyed girl smiled distantly, sipping the amber liquid in her slightly chipped mug. "You know this is chipped, right?"
"Mm, but it still holds tea." The ever practical Haruhi replied. "I'd give you a perfect one, but they all chip eventually."
"Would you like me to buy you new ones?" Rose asked smoothly, ignoring the voice in her head that sounded suspiciously like Tamaki yelling not to offend the commoner way of life.
"Er, no thanks." Haruhi laughed instinctively, an edge of humour to her voice as she continued. "You're most certainly a rich one, aren't you?"
"Really?" Rose mirrored her laughter. "How so?"
"Well, you're... just..." The hardworking girl snorted slightly into her tea. "Don't worry about it. It's how you've lived, and I've lived differently. I forget that sometimes."
"... Would you have preferred it?" The English girl blurted, before tilting her head sideways in curiosity. "Living in wealth?"
"... I don't know." Haruhi answered after a short pause. "I think having to work so hard has made me who I am. But... if we were better off, we could have afforded better treatment for my Mom."
"Haru..." Rose reached across, linking their hands hesitantly. "I'm prying, I apologise..."
"No, no, it's fine." Falsely smiling, the once cross-dressing girl laughed it off. "Curiosity is natural."
"I guess..." She withdrew her hand. "Do you mind if I change somewhere? I'd rather not see the pastor in my school clothes."
"Sure thing- you can change in my room, it's the door over to the left." Haruhi pointed towards a small wooden door on the far side of the room, and Rose stood shakily, bowed a little, thanking her for the tea, before scooping her crutches and school bag up, and hobbling towards the room. Pausing at the door, she lolled her head back, staring at Haruhi for a second, almost as if she was wanting to say something, but thought better of it, pushing the door open and slipping inside.
Haruhi sighed, letting her head rest on the table, breathing slowly and regularly to calm herself. She didn't know how much time passed when Rose returned, but she did quite quickly, smiling slightly at her friend as a sleeve from her school blouse hung incriminatingly from her school bag, her crutches propping her up carefully as the causually dressed girl swung herself forward.
"What time is it?"
"Around five."
"I should get going- thank you for letting me come here."
"I'll walk you across, and it's no problem."
The two girls walked in what would have been unison if it wasn't for Rose's crutches, and the day continued.
"... Rose went to the Pastor's today, didn't she?" Hikaru checked, silently addressing the twin who was sprawled out on their bed while he himself stared out the window meekly.
"Yeah. It'll be good for her, I think." Kaoru dismissively replied, glancing at her abnormally sombre twin. "Do you see it as a bad thing?"
"I don't know, do I?"
Silence engulfed the two, in which their eyes were locked, a silence interrogation burning between them. Eventually, Kaoru nodded in understanding, lay back more comfortably, and Hikaru moved across to lie with him, their hands entwined.
"Yeah, I know." The younger murmured, flicking his thumb over his brothers knuckles. "It's hard."
"Good evening, Cooper-san."
Rose bowed politely to the wife of the reverend- a plump, smiley woman with tightly curled dark hair- as she was shown in. Haruhi had long departed. Led through to the reverend's study, she was offered various teas and cakes, all of which she quietly declined, and she was then deposited into the spare room. No one else was there yet, and it was a fairly quiet room, a quiet hum of the reverend's computer in the corner the only thing she could hear. Delicately painted walls glowed an orange hue where it could be seen between the many, full bookshelves that seemed to line an entire wall at least, matching the crimson sky out of the windows, and the cream carpet could not be seen for the butter coloured seating and the maroon rug that protected it. It was a warm, comfortable room. Quietly, she sat down on the yellow sofa cautiously.
The silence was hauntingly beautiful, something she'd not heard in a long, long time. No voices, no hovering people wanting her attention, just... silence...
"... Tamaki." Kyoya didn't even look up when his friend entered his bedroom without any sort of permission. He was stretched out on his bed, reading one of the note books through – Tamaki's, to be ironic – and was not in the mood to be disturbed. However, when he did look up, he carefully folded the corner of the page, and slipped it into the box underneath his bed swiftly. Tamaki was crying. Not noisily like he does when he is denied a hug, but silently, the hot, fat tears dropped heavily from his eyes in the shape of bullets, staining his cheeks and causing his face to look pale and withdrawn, he seemed almost ghostly with his blonde hair washing his now white face out. Kyoya stood. "Tamaki" he repeated firmly, before the king gave his closest friend a watery smile of greeting, almost as though talking would cause him to crumble. "What happened? This isn't about Haruhi, is it?" Almost as if to calm himself, Tamaki swallowed.
"No, no it's not" he replied softly, glad his voice didn't quiver. This, instead of relaxing Kyoya, haunted him, the abnormally smooth and gentle voice not matching the distraught figure. "I... I am afraid my mother just died."
Lilly stood at the easel again, painting. She wasn't quite sure what yet- but she was putting paint on a brush and then putting it on the canvas, so it counted as painting. It was a swirling mess of different shades of green and silver, twirling and interspersing, and she figured maybe- maybe if she added pink and a very pale blue she could kid herself she was painting the 'meaning of spring'.
She did a lot of 'meaning' paintings when she was emotional.
Usually, she preferred the preciseness of still life, but when she was particularly overcome with a painful amount of emotion she just wanted to see colour explode before her, like she did now. The colours soon flooded the canvas, the streaks intertwining and resolving in a faded sweep. Each colour blended together to a glowing colour in the centre, indefinable but shimmering with the silver and looking naturist from the blues and greens. Almost turquoise with the fainted hint of pink, catching the light in a metallic shine from the silver, she decided at last. Everything spiralled out from that centre, different colours twirling in tight loops and others wavering gently. The white of the canvas allowed every colour to stand out well, she was glad she hadn't covered every inch of the pristine paper.
Spring colours... why were they on her mind? Quietly, she contemplated (she anger now dissipated enough for her to think clearly) about what on earth would spring have to do with anything.
In a moment of quiet realization, she began to count months.
July
August
September
November
December
January
February
March
April
May
The baby would be born as spring was at its most beautiful, when the pink petals drifted down in the pale blue sky, landing on the green grass with the silver dew. That is the world the baby would see when it was born.
This painting represented the world the baby would see when it was born.
Suddenly, everything came a little too real for Lilly.
"That's an interesting predicament." The pastor mumbled, and Rose nodded through gritted teeth. Interesting? It was insane. It wasn't supposed to happen to a model. It was supposed to happen to those people you see on the news, not to her. And if she was pregnant, it would be Hikaru's from some contraception failure- that she could handle, but... "You're keeping the baby?"
"Yes." She replied softly, and the Pastor nodded.
"I can't say much to make it easier, I'm afraid. I can't click my fingers and make it go away, though if I could, I would." He said, in a low, soft voice that Rose found it hard to interrupt to tell him she didn't want it to go away, she just needed to know she had support. "However, I will keep you in the prayers of all the parishioners, I will keep you in the prayers of my family, and I will keep you in my prayers at all times." A heavy silence resumed between them, in which Rose was silently contemplating the idea of all those people, praying for her health, praying for her to find support, praying for her to keep going. "... Are you still praying?"
"I try to." Rose mumbled. "I used to pray every night before I slept, but recently, I just... Whenever I begin to pray, I'm overcome by fury." Her voice slowly escalated, and she stood, not meeting the pastor's eyes, or daring to look from even the little spot on the floor she'd trained her gaze onto. "Why did this happen to me? Why didn't God protect me? Why didn't he hear me when I was screaming in my head, begging for him to stop that man? Why did he let me become so afraid of the people who I love? Why did he turn me into this?"
Quietly, the pastor stood, but knelt down at her feet so she was looking at him, and not the carpet. Her fists were tightened into balls and shivering slightly, but he took them and even though they were alone, and he was a man who took hold of her hands, she did not feel remotely fearful. She felt comforted.
"He will have been there, holding you, and protecting you as well as he could. It seems horrible, and harsh, and it's destroying you now, I know, but..." uneasily, as if expecting her to scream at his next words, he tightened his grip on her hands. "God will have a plan. A plan where you have this child, and for reasons you're not sure of you already decided to keep it, and that comes into God's plan, and He wants you to be a family, and He wants you to be a mother."
"He wanted me to be raped?" Rose spat, pulling her hands away, but the pastor grabbed them again.
"No. He wanted you to be pregnant" he informed, rubbing her knuckles soothingly with his thick, warm thumbs. "The means of which are difficult, and as they say 'One wishes circumstance were kinder', but... when this baby is born you will be overcome with joy and happiness." He smiled an elderly, withered smile, and Rose nodded tearfully, her hands relaxing in his. "God hasn't deserted you. Pray. Talk to Him. Let Him know of your fury. Let Him console you."
Silence consumed the two for a while, until an abrupt knocking on the door made them jump. Sending her an apologetic glance, the pastor stood, and called 'come in'. A girl Rose didn't recognise stormed through unhappily, she looked about the same age as her, but her eyes were a bright, shining blue, and her hair was long and black, shimmering as it glittered down her back.
"Daddy, the concert my school are helping with at Ouran has been ruined!" She whined, crossing her arms in a sulk. "Each school is doing three acts, and our school is doing two choir songs and a band piece, but Ouran has a choir piece, a band piece and a soloist!"
"What's wrong with that?" The pastor sighed, giving Rose another apologetic glance, and wearily smiling at the pretty girl.
"I'm supposed to be the best singer in the area, but if this girl does a solo and I don't, then it looks like I'm not as good as her because she's the only one in the whole district with one!" She continued, looking completely adamant that that would be the worst thing to come of the situation.
"... Rose, you go to Ouran, don't you?" The Pastor turned to face the brunette, who nodded. The girl's expression changed immediately.
"Oh my god, Rose Cooper is in my house." She stated, her eyes wide. "The model for Hitachiin design, oh my god. Oh my actual g-"
"If you blaspheme one more time, you're grounded." The pastor cut through, frowning.
"But Daddy- it's Rose Cooper! Oh my g-" her father gave her a stern look "-osh, you're with one of the Hitachiin twins, aren't you?"
"Er, yes, I am..." shifting uncomfortably, Rose smiled unsurely. She was well known for her modelling- but more well known for the scandal surrounding January, and that was something she'd rather not go into.
"Can you introduce me to the other one? How are you? I mean, after last January?" the excited girl was giddy, and Rose felt her stomach plummet. Could she read thoughts or something?
"Kurisu, please, give the girl a break, she's here for a serious reason." Giving 'Kurisu' a very fierce look, the pastor patted Rose's shoulder quite firmly.
"I- I apologise, Rose-san!" Kurisu bowed quickly and repeatedly.
"It's okay... erm, about the concert, we always do loads of soloists in every concert, it's an Ouran tradition... but because we've only got three slots, we figured if we get the band a choir involved, everyone could get to perform..." Rose explained quickly, not wanting to mention that she herself was the soloist.
"Well, fine, but are they a singer or an instrumentalist? In fact, what's their name?"
"Well, er, she's the president of the Music department... and, um, she plays piano, guitar and she sings, and er..."
"What's her name?"
"She's, well, me."
A new, frosty silence took over the room, before Kurisu stormed away, slamming the door behind her. Suddenly Rose was really not looking forward to this concert.
"I should get going, I didn't mean to interrupt your reading." Tamaki's voice still came out in a hollow choke, no matter how much water Kyoya offered him to drink. They had been talking for what felt like hours, but was really around half an hour, about what Tamaki really felt about it. He was heartbroken, naturally, but... there was a sizable amount of resentment at himself, that Kyoya knew was unjustified, but Tamaki claimed if he had left with Lady Eclaire, maybe he could of held her hand as she died, maybe she would have been better with him there, maybe she'd be alive. But no, his love for Haruhi withheld him, and now even that was something he had to ignore, suppress, for her sake.
Always for her sake.
"You don't have to go." Kyoya said, blandly. "I'd prefer it if you did, but I could tolerate you for another half an hour if you needed."
Knowing that was the closest Kyoya would come to saying 'I'm worried about you, please stay and talk it out with me more', Tamaki smiled and embraced his friend tightly.
"I should get back to my Dad. He's taken it really badly."
"I suppose he would have." Kyoya conceded, and allowed Tamaki's leave. He reached for the notebook, but instead of flipping to the folded page, he started another, blank page, scribbling almost desperately fast. Ink flowed onto the page as it left only the scratching of his pen and the ticking of a clock the only sound in his room.
Only hearing a door open and shut, Lilly remained quiet and contemplative. She knew that it was Rose's return, she knew that Rose didn't want to talk to her, and she knew that all in all, that she herself didn't want to talk.
Another night passed where Lilly stayed awake all night, listening to the thrashings of her sister stuck in a horrific nightmare in which she was all alone.
"Morning Rose!" Haruhi greeted, as Rose hobbled her way into home room on her crutches, wincing as she put more pressure on her arms again – it was beginning to hurt, but she would be off them come weekend.
"Morning Haruhi." Rose replied, still focusing on getting across the room to her. She collapsed in the seat in front of her, sat sideways so she could speak to her friend. "No twins yet?"
"Nope, not yet. They're usually late though, so I wouldn't worry." The scholarship student dryly commented, and Rose nodded quietly in response, which was picked up well by Haruhi. "They're still upset with you for yelling at them about the whole protective thing?"
"They barely talk to me." The injured girl mumbled in reply, not wanting to extend on her answer. "But I'll corner them later." It had been a couple of weeks since she had seen the pastor, and a couple of weeks since she had fought with Lilly, and then turned and taken her anger out on the twins. She'd apologised many times but they still didn't talk to her much.
"Alright..." Haruhi tilted her head to the side in her want to continue, but thought it best not to. "How... er, long?" The two had devised a strategy in which instead of saying 'How far along are you' they'd say 'how long' to avoid people overhearing and realizing.
"Ten." She knowingly replied, and Haruhi smiled quietly in response, taking the girls hand. Two months and two weeks had passed. Rose's body had really developed now, her hips were more prominent and her chest had swollen, and if it weren't for the fact she was on crutches she would probably received a lot more male attention recently.
"You're doing really well, you know that?" The short haired girl whispered, and Rose looked away, a little tearfully. "Ah, there are the twins!" Rose turned to look, and caught their eye, giving a faint smile. Frowning, Kaoru stopped Hikaru and made him look at her more closely. Both of them just stared for a moment before materializing beside them.
"Why do you look like you're about to cry!" Kaoru demanded, while Hikaru inspected her leg for more damage.
"No, the cast hasn't been knocked from what I can tell..." Hikaru confirmed. Dutifully, Rose scrubbed at her face with her coat sleeve.
"It's not what you think, it was a different kind of crying." Rose quietly dissuaded them, and they both stepped back again, looking a little relieved.
"Oh." Kaoru voiced. "Well... that's okay then."
"Yeah." Hikaru awkwardly added, and the two brothers glanced at each other, as if communicating with their eyes. They reached some form of conclusion while Haruhi rolled her eyes at the sudden retreat.
"Eh, I'm tiring of being mad at you for yelling at us." Kaoru announced, sitting on Rose's desk while Hikaru dragged a chair over and sat next to them.
"Yeah, I suppose we were being a little childish." Hikaru added.
"Considering you did apologise and everything..." the younger twin finished, patting Rose's head. She smiled a little.
"Are you still fighting with Lilly?" the dark haired twin asked curiously, playing with her hair a little, plaiting one side of it neatly. Rose sighed.
"Well, we're not talking, but we're not fighting." She mumbled, and Haruhi hummed.
"Why not talk to her? Corner her, or something." She quipped, and Rose gave a small smile at the reference to the earlier conversation.
"But she doesn't want to talk yet." Rose grumbled. "I can tell, she just locks herself in the art studio all day. She's doing lots of spring paintings, which is really weird considering it's just turned to October."
"Is it just me or are you curvier?" Kaoru cut in. Rose flushed red, and Hikaru looked away, snickering. "What? Aw, come on, I'm not the one who would perv on it, but seriously you look a lot... um..."
"Yes, Kaoru, it happens around this time." Haruhi snorted with laughter, and when Rose gave a side glance to the still plaiting and giggling Hikaru, he gave a look of innocence.
"I said nothing. Don't look at me like that." He pouted a little, tugging her hair a little in response, before continuing to pattern the long dark hair. "Does anyone have any hair elastics?"
"I do." Kaoru cheerfully responded, and each of the two girls gave him a look before deciding not to comment. Hikaru continued to plait her hair until she had two thick ropes of hair on each side of her head. "Naww, how cute."
"I thought that would suit her..." Hikaru agreed, nodding with his twin. Smirking a little, inwardly thinking about how much she had missed this over the past few days, she shooed them into their own seats – the teacher would be in soon.
"Lilly? You home?" Rose called the moment she got inside. "Lilly? Please say you're around, we need to talk!" Hobbling upstairs, she knocked on the art studio door, but there was no reply. Looking inside, Rose found it was empty. "Lilly? Answer me!" She continued her search, checking bedrooms, bathrooms, and everywhere she could think of. Finally hobbling over to Paddy's old room, she peered inside, and her heart raced.
Lilly was in dungerees- not a good look on her- with her hair scraped back, having painted the walls all different colours (one, a pale green, another powder blue, another a soft baby pink and the final wall a soft grey shade), the carpets covered in newspaper (but you could see it was beige underneath). She was hammering her many spring paintings onto the walls she had painted over the last two weeks, and was nearly finished with them. In the middle of the room, white curtains lay in plastic wrappers, ready to be hung to the windows overlooking the garden.
"Lilly? What is this?" Rose finally asked, hobbling closer to the blonde. Awkwardly, Lilly shrugged, smiling a little.
"A nursery I've been working on. The baby will be born in spring, so I figured it would be nice to have a spring theme going on here. You don't mind, do you?"
"No- no, I think it's amazing!" The brunette hobbled around the room, gently running her fingers across one of the paintings – this one a dogwood tree with silvery white petals fluttering down from it. "I think it's perfect..."
"I've got furniture arriving tomorrow so I need to get the basics done today." Lilly stood back from the latest painting she hung, a very large daisy flower, in admiration, while a still shocked Rose looked around in awe. "Could you get the twins over tomorrow to help move the stuff? Only, I don't want you moving furniture while on crutches, and I can't do it alone."
"S-Sure..." Continuing to stare with water filling her eyes, she took in every part of the inprogress room. "Oh Lil, it's wonderful..."
"I'm glad you like it." Lilly chirped happily, unwrapping the curtains from their plastic. The silky fabric fluttered out as she straightened it, before standing on a wooden stool to hook it into the loops on the window railing. "I hope little one does too."
"I know she will..." Rose beamed, looking up at Lilly with wide, happy eyes. "Thank you, you so much." Hopping down from the stool, Lilly carefully moved towards her emotional sibling and embraced her.
"Let's draw a line under the fight, okay? Forget it happened." The elder mumbled.
"Deal." Rose agreed, nodding into her sister's shoulder.
"Argh, why the hell is this thing so heavy?" Hikaru moaned with disaffection. Rose waved a manicured wave at him from the hall as she inspected the progress from the comfort of a plushy chair and her nail kit, as she fixed her recently neglected hand.
"Because it's a cradle." She called after him nonchalantly. Hikaru swore at her loudly, and she gave him a reprimanding look that didn't really show any sort of care. After he had placed it (dropped it) caringly (dropped it) in it's position (in the doorway for Lilly to ask Kaoru to sort), he sat next to her, watching her curiously. "What is it?" Rose asked, looking towards him cautiously, and he shook his head dismissively.
"I was just thinking- don't you have to sing in that concert next week?" He asked, leaning on her intrusively. She snorted.
"Don't remind me. I really can't be bothered with the whole thing." Smirking, Hikaru's head lolled on her shoulder floppily.
"What are you singing?" His hair tickled her neck, and she fidgeted, running her fingers between the ashen hair and her skin to stop the irritation.
"I was going to do a guitar acoustic thing, and sing 'Kiss Me' – you probably won't know the song, but it's quite cute..." His head rolled back further if possible and his lips brushed her jawline.
"You could have at least told me the name of the song, instead of just saying I won't know it..." he said quietly, teasingly, and she jarred her shoulder upwards in revenge, chuckling at his far worse than usual joke.
"Oh grow up."
