"Are you fine being home alone?"

Flora watched him out of the corner of her eye, as she placed her hand on the door handle. Did he think she was a weak, little flower?

"I've lived alone longer than this. Besides, I have a scary guard dog. You can come in, and meet her if you want. I promise she won't mess up you're pretty face too much."

Mori huffed a little under his breath, and if Flora wasn't used to people who spoke low and quietly, she might not have heard him. "Sure."

"Oh, okay then. She won't really hurt you, I was just joking." She jumped out of the car, and leaned through the frame.

"I understood that." He assured her.

"Okay, let's go." Grinning, she lightly shut the door, and jogged toward the garage. He smiled slightly in spite of himself and shut off the car, stepped out, and followed her. The house wasn't extraordinary, nor had he imagined it to be so, but it was reasonably sized and larger than Haruhi's apartment by far. The fields around the house spread out with miles of swaying grass. The garage was a separate building, and larger than was necessary for the two small cars and motorcycle they owned.

Mori grimaced as she closed the sliding door. The garage was overcrowded with tools, and smelled sharply of gasoline and oil.

"Sorry," she muttered mostly to herself, carefully stepping over a stack of buckets. "My dad never cleans up this place, and I never spend any time in here. Neither does he for that matter, but my dog lives in here when no one is home, so I'm kind of forced." A deep growl from the corner where Flora was, and then a low barking started.

The kennel clattered as the dog shifted inside of it, and Flora opened the door. A cream/grey dog rushed out of the cage, and stood on its hind legs to put its arms on her shoulders. Mori was shocked. The dog was much, much bigger than her. It was probably six feet tall, only a few inches shorter than Mori. She looked so puny, but cute, next to it. He began to wonder if she looked that small next to him.

Then, the beast took sight of him. With a low bark, it fell from her shoulders, and rushed over to greet him. He stumbled back at the force of the hug, but smiled. Its raggedy fur brushed against his cheek as she mercilessly licked him.

"I'm sorry, she really likes people. I hope you're okay with animals, or big ones for that matter. She's an Irish Wolfhound, so her hugs are pretty brutal."

"It's not that bad." He grinned, as the dog gently fell down.

"That's easy for you to say. At least you're taller than her." He shrugged, almost embarrassed. "How tall are you?"

At first he stuttered at the question, racking his brain for the answer. "I-I'm six four."

She turned her attention away from petting the giant to look at him. She really looked at him, and her gaze actually intimidated him. She was barely taller than Haruhi, and she managed to frighten the frightening Takashi Morinozuka. He could feel something wrong, or something strange in the situation.

"Heh, I probably seem pathetic then, huh? I'm barely five three." She laughed lightly, and kneeled down to rub the beast's ears.

"No."

She stopped, abruptly, and glanced at him. The dim lights began to flicker, and she came back to her senses. She nodded up at the lights, and pranced over to the door, pulling it up with one arm. The dog ran out into the yard, rolling around on its back, making its fur more unruly than ever.

"The lights probably need to be changed. My father is too lazy, and I'm afraid I'm too short. That, and I don't care enough." She said staring out at the dog. "Stay away from the road, you klutz!" She yelled out.

"I could change it."

"No, don't. Not doing everything perfect is something I generally aim for. Unless it's in school, I suppose. I just generally like to set the bar a little low for them." She plopped onto the grass with her bag, but quickly stood up again. "I need to go put this away, and wash my school dress really fast. You can stay out here with her if you want, but you don't have to. She'll probably just want to come in when I go in anyway."

"I'll stay."

She watched him for a few extra seconds as he kept his steady gaze on the dog. She jogged through the house, throwing her bag into her room, and rushing to the bathroom to hand wash the dress. She lost focus on the dress, and began to think of the dangers at hand, albeit small ones. Her buzzing phone made her jump.

TEXT FROM MOM: probably be home early in the morning don't be scared if you hear us pull into the driveway

"Of course, why not delay a little longer?" She mocked to her reflection.

Oh my gosh, if Eiichi fails at his date like he usually does he'll come home, and Takashi will be here and he'll panic and come to the worst possible conclusion. Then when Mom and Dad come home he'll tell them, and I'll have to have that whole stern talking to about stuff. And when he's gone they'll go and tell me to pursue a relationship with him, even if it probably won't last just to get connections, and—

Someone, or rather, something was scratching at the door. The turned down off the faucet, and hung the dress up before opening the door to an overly excited dog. "Get down, Bukiyona!" Flora flicked water at the dog.

"You're dogs name is Clumsy?" He asked so seriously, it made her want to laugh. The corner of his mouth was just barely twitching up, he was amused.

"Yeah, well, I named her that when I lived in America, and barely spoke Japanese. Besides, she was a klutz when she was puppy, and the name seemed to fit well enough anyhow." He smirked as she shut the door, and flicked on the hallway lights. "Be quiet, I was only fourteen when I got her." She briskly walked down the hall, flicking on lights, and skipping into the kitchen to pour some dog food into a metal dish.

"Where's your brother?"

She snatched one of the dishes, washing it out in the faucet before filling it with water. It was strange to see her doing this work. Mori had to remind himself that she wasn't rich, something that wasn't too difficult in the house. Setting the dish down on the ground, and wiping her hands on her pants, she skeptically looked up at him. He was afraid she hadn't heard, and he would have to repeat himself.

"Oh, he's on a date tonight." She laughed to herself, and rubbed her temples. "He thinks he won't be home tonight, but I doubt that. He always manages to scare away every single girl he's remotely interested in by saying something that makes them uncomfortable, and then comes crying to me. Sorry," she muttered rolling her eyes, "I'm rambling. Anyway, you can go if you want. I'm a pretty boring person anyway."

He nodded slowly as she led him to the door. Bukiyona sniffed after them, ungracefully hopping along. A sound came from the driveway, and Flora stopped mid-stride. As Mori bumped into her, she jumped.

"Sorry, I just heard someone pull in. I guess Eiichi's date went worse than usual." The pair shrugged as she reached out to open the door. Mori stepped back to thank her for allowing him into her house, and to make a hasty exit out, but was stopped. She slammed the door shut, and stumbled back into him. "S-sorry! We can go out the back door…hopefully."

"Why?" Any other time he might have simply gone along, but she seemed so frightened and horrified, he was almost worried.

"My brother is home." She still looked shocked, staring at the floor.

"And?"

"He's not alone. Him and his date are making out in the car. That's disgusting." Flora grimaced.

"Oh." His eyes widened as a soft blush grew on his cheeks.

"Oh, God, I have no idea how you'll get out of the driveway." She ran a hand through her hair. "Well, maybe they'll come into the house eventually, or they'll just leave. You can pull out then." She walked as fast as she could to the back of the house. A door, that looked older than life was at the end of the hall. Flora confidently strode up to the door, and pulled on it once. She laughed, the nervousness rising in her throat. "Umm, it's stuck. It-It's an old door, it'll be fine, I can get it open." She sounded more like she was reassuring herself.

After three more unsuccessful pulls, Mori stepped closer to her. Not bothering to say anything, he wrapped his hand around the knob, nearly overlapping hers. She looked up at him for a moment, and pulled away quickly. He silently sighed, swiftly pulling his arm back to pull. Nothing happened. He tried again. And then again.

"Stop it!" Flora tugged on his arm, "You're strong enough you'll probably break the door. Besides, they aren't even in here." He looked down at her, then back at the door before letting go of the handle. "Let's just sit in the kitchen until they leave."

"Alright."

The only sound in the kitchen was Flora's pencil scraping the paper. Mori chastised himself for not bringing his homework into the house, but then, how was he to know what stepping inside of this odd girl's house was to bring. His eyes flicked to her as she sighed.

"Well, maybe they've gone." She said at last, sweeping the book closed, and walking to the white sliding doors. Taking a small breath she slid it open. "Wait, where did Bukiyona go?" Mori shrugged even though she wasn't facing him to see. "Whatever she's probably just on the couch."

"Don't you think this is a bit childish?" He asked after a moment.

The reaction he had foresaw, and regretted happened. She bristled, and turned on her heel to face him. "I don't care about seeing them kiss. I care about his date seeing me, and about him seeing you. If his date sees me, and then for some reason decides to forget about him the next day he'll blame me. If he sees you he'll just jump to the worst possible conclusion, and then tell my parents to moment they walk through the door. I'm not sitting through that lecture." With a huff she walked through the door. "Aren't you coming?" She muttered, almost too far away for him to hear.

Yeah, he thought, standing.

When they walked out to the yard, Eiichi and his date were merely talking. Flora nodded to Mori from the door, watching him stride across the yard to his car. Her brother didn't even notice, and neither did the girl in his car.

Mori could feel her eyes burning into him. They weren't full of contempt or hate or obsession like some girls, they were just sort of there. He glanced over at the people in the car before starting his. They jumped, and spun around to watch him. Eiichi shook his head around until he saw Flora waiting in the yard. She winked and waved at her stunned brother. His mouth gaped open, and a silence rested over the four. Mori didn't know whether to pull the car out or not. Eiichi didn't know whether he should get out of his car or not. Flora was almost laughing hysterically from the show. The poor girl on the date just looked around like a dazed or lost little puppy.

Finally, Eiichi signaled Mori with his hand to go. The black car carefully pulled away as the two in the other car got out.

"Flora?"

"Yes?" She mocked the rise in his voice, and rocked up onto her toes.

"When did…why did you…You couldn't have anyone else drive you?" He sounded exasperated. His date looked between the two.

"Be quiet, he was the only one who could drive me. Besides weren't you the one who brought up me marrying hi-"

"Yeah, yeah well…" he looked ruffled, "Well, that doesn't mean you go and-"

"Calm down, Eiichi, aren't you going to introduce me to your date?" She asked slyly.

"I-well-I mean…Flora," he grumbled, "This is Miyabi. Miyabi this is my little sister, Flora-Celine."

"Well, hello then, Flora-Celine." She said sweetly.

"Hi."

Then a silence, not completely awkward, but not empty either hung over them. Flora rocked back and forth on her heels, trying to decide what she thought of this girl. She was a little shorter than Eiichi, with long light brown hair, and chocolate brown eyes. She was wearing nice jeans, and a slightly dressy blouse. Overall she looked alright.

"Anyway, I guess I should get home. My cat is probably panicking without her food."

Eiichi stepped away from his spot, frozen halfway between the yard and the pavement of the driveway.

"Oh, yes, of course. I'm sorry, I didn't even think. I'll be with you in a second, I just have to talk to my little sister for moment."

"Okay." She looked shyly down at the ground, and then skipped over to the car, easily hopping in.

Once the door was closed, Flora unfroze. "Really? Kissing on the first date? Isn't that, like, frowned upon in the Japanese relationship thing?"

"Oh, be quiet, not everyone has to comply to that sort of thing, and don't make such generalizations about a place that you came from."

"Come on, Eiichi, I'm just joking. I don't care what you, and your date do."

"Don't try to stall this, or change the subject, Flora. You can't just bring boys home at your age, and not expect me to get a little upset. Especially when…you know." He made a few unimpressive gesture with his hands, and Flora rolled her eyes.

"He just gave me a ride down here, I let him meet Bukiyona, and then we stayed in the house for a few minutes so that we wouldn't disturb you and your girlfriend. And no, I don't know what you mean."

It was Eiichi's turn to roll his eyes. "Fine, it's not like I didn't believe you. But, you know, with the whole weird, marriage thing. And the fact that he's, you know, and I'm not trying to sound like a creepy older guy here going after-"

"Just get to the point, you idiot."

"He's…attractive, and I know you can see that at least. And he's tall, and mysterious. It just seems like most people could fall for that pretty easily."

Flora huffed, "I know, but I'm not like that. Besides, the other day I saw him turn down this girl in the coldest way possible, and I've heard that's not even been the first girl he's turned down like that this year."

"Well, were they costumers of the Host Club?"

"Well, yeah, but I don't see what differ-"

"It makes a world of a difference. You're not one of the costumers. You're not going to start liking just any boy that's friendly, and maybe slightly romantic to you. He notices that, that's why he's always so kind to you, even if he doesn't do it completely on purpose."

Flora opened and closed her mouth. The crossed her arms, and stepped forward and back again. "Just go, her cat is probably starving by now."

"Listen, I won't tell Mom and Dad, I don't think you did anything with him. I just want you to know."

"I don't even know what you want me to know."

"You're smart Flora, you'll figure it out." He turned to reach out for the car door handle.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Eiichi sighed and began to pull out of the drive, "It's just my little sister."

"Oh, was that her boyfriend?"

He almost choked. Though there had been that pesky little word of marriage, he couldn't even imagine Flora having a boyfriend.

"No, no, I guess they're just friends. They work at club together, he flew her to New York one time."

"He flew her to New York?!"

"Oh, well, she goes to this really expensive private school. That kid is one of the richest in Japan."

"Oh…"

"Yeah, I don't know, he just seems to like her a lot. And his dad wants them…he just wants them to be in a relationship. But Flora doesn't even know whether she likes this guy or not."

"You should tell your mother then, and maybe she could talk to Flora-Celine. Or does she have any close friends who have a level head?"

"Our mother would panic if she heard anything about this, or tease Flora until she decided that she shouldn't even start to like this guy."

"Well, what do you think about him?"

"I don't know," he shrugged uncomfortably, "He's nice. He invited us over for dinner once because he accidentally hurt her. Some little ceramic thing fell out of a window in one of the courtyards at school, and he went to hit it away from himself while she tried to catch it. Her hands are all scratched up now." He sighed.

"Either way, I'm sure this will all work out."


Whelp sorry this has been such a long time coming, but you know Holidays get hectic, and blehg. By the way, there's been like apocalypse weather here in Pennsylvania. One day it's super warm, and like forty degrees, and then the next day there's a blizzard and it's negative 15. Okay, well not in Southern PA, but I don't live there so doesn't really apply. Arrrghhhh, and I slipped on ice while taking my dog out last night, and currently have a giant bruise/scrape on my knee. I am a delicate flower :P I hope you enjoyed as always, and don't forget to review, follow, favorite or whatever you please!