AUTHOR'S NOTE: Yeah! Hi... So I know I left off at a weird place last time, but I had a feeling that Melody's story would be a lot longer than either of the other girls' and since I already had more than 5,000 words, I thought it'd be better to give Melody's story her own chapter. Hey look! I was right! Well here you go!
"I'm fine, okay? Someone else came over a lot and helped me out!"
"Who?!" Both Haruhi and Bea exclaimed.
"Ummm... Kyoya?" she answered nervously.
"What do you mean, 'Ummm... Kyoya?'" Bea asked in shock.
"He always left club right after the customers left, but are you saying that he was coming here?"
"Maybe? Kinda..." Melody was nervous to tell the girls about Kyoya's visits.
Seeing their friend's timid response, Haruhi and Bea glanced at each other before launching their full-frontal attack. Seeing the determination in their eyes, Melody knew that they wouldn't stop until they were satisfied with her response. Sighing in defeat, she motioned for her friends to calm down as she decided to start from the beginning.
"Well... It all started the day after the party..."
"Flashback"
The party was a vast success and Melody had somehow managed to flip that upside down when she twisted her ankle. After the party, Mitsukuni and Takashi had helped her into her room, while Bea had informed Haruhi that they'd have to postpone their sleepover. Not wanting to deal with the discomfort her ankle was giving her, Melody had quickly ripped the bobby pins out of her hair, brushed her teeth, and scrubbed her face before swallowing a few pain and sleep aids. She had conked out soon after.
The next morning, Melody was awoken by a very annoying buzzing. Still half-asleep, she blindly batted her hand in the direction of the noise, hoping to make it stop. She heard giggling and cracked one eye open to find Bea grinning over her while holding her buzzing phone out of reach.
"Wakey, wakey!" Bea smiled at her best friend. Melody grunted in response before rolling over, pulling her blankets over her head as she went. Bea clucked her tongue in annoyance. "Nope! Come on! It's time to get UP!" She went and opened up the blinds before ripping the blanket off of her snoozing friend. When Melody practically growled in response, Bea just giggled. "Okay, up! Takashi is going to be here to pick me up soon! I know you can't do much until Kyoya's doctor examines you, but you NEED to take a bath before they get here!"
"Don' wanna," Melody grumbled while trying to get comfortable again. "It's the weekend."
Bea understood that because Melody liked to work late into the evening, she wasn't always the most happy person to be around in the morning. In exchange, Bea had made it her personal mission to be able to be the "morning person" of the two of them and typically helped wake her best friend up in the morning if her alarm didn't do the trick. That was part of the reason Melody showered at night while she showered in the mornings. Typically, Bea didn't bother Melody until after 9 or 10 am on the weekends, but she knew her friend hadn't bathed the night before and would want time to do that and at least blow-dry her hair before company arrived. She had let her sleep in as long as possible, but it was already 8 and Takashi was supposed to arrive at 9 to have breakfast with them. Kyoya had texted Bea the evening before to let her know that he and the doctor would be over at 10:30. Normally, Bea was the more go-with-the-flow type of the two girls while Melody loved her schedules, but today Bea was not ready to deal with Mel.
"Do you want everyone to see you un-showered?" Bea asked her friend.
"Did it last nigh'," the half-asleep girl responded with her typical response.
"Did you?" Bea asked. Melody sorted through her groggy brain for a minute before she sat up, gasping.
"Nope! Help me!"
"That's what I thought," Bea sighed as she helped her friend get up and hop towards the bathroom, supporting most of her weight as they went. After helping her friend disrobe and sink into the bathtub, Bea left her friend to clean herself while she went to the kitchen to make breakfast. She had just put their breakfast casserole in the oven when she heard Melody call from the bathroom. She quickly set the timer before rushing to her friend's room. She quickly grabbed a loose pair of sweat pants, undergarments, and a tanktop for Melody before going into the bathroom. After helping her friend get dressed, they limp/hopped back into Melody's room where Bea set up the hair dryer for her to use as she sat on her bed. While Melody dried her hair, Bea re-wrapped her ankle. When Melody was reasonably presentable, Bea helped her hop to the living room and set her down at the kotatsu before she heard the doorbell and her timer ring at the same time. She froze for a moment, conflicted about which to get first, before deciding on door, then food.
Bea quickly swung the door open to reveal her boyfriend. She didn't even give him the chance to greet her before scurrying off to the kitchen to get the timer and the casserole out of the oven. Mori just stood in the doorway confused.
"You can just come in Takashi!" he heard Melody call. "Don't let all of the warm air out!"
Taking that as his invitation inside, he quickly closed the door and removed his shoes before entering the main room of the girls' apartment. Melody was lounging at the kotatsu, currently in the process of trying to get comfortable while pulling her hair back at the same time.
"Sorry, Takashi!" Bea called from the kitchen, where she was flitting around. "It's good to see you!"
"Hey," Mori called as he moved to help Melody. "Can I help you with—"
"Nope!" Melody interrupted. "I got this, but if you don't mind, could you grab the stack of—never mind... Could you help me grab the stack of papers and my laptop from my office?"
Mori just gave her a look that told her he thought she was crazy. Rolling her eyes, Melody explained. "There's no way I could explain which pile I need... Could you please just hel—Okay then!" Melody stopped when Mori lifted her up in one arm to carry her to her office. I really hope Kyoya thinks to bring crutches.
As they entered her office, Mori's eyes widened as Melody's scanned the room. "Oh! There they are! Take me over there... To the printer," Melody pointed toward the covered equipment. Mori decided to just place her in her desk chair instead. She immediately started rolling around the room, pushing with her good foot, gathering different files and folders as she went, occasionally handing a stack to Mori to take back to the living room. When she finally had all of the papers she wanted, she rolled her chair to the doorway, before allowing Mori to carry her back to the kotatsu.
When Bea exited the kitchen, carrying a large breakfast casserole, the first thing to greet her eyes was a large stack of paper and a laptop beside Melody. Groaning, she moved around the stack to place the dish on the table before grabbing the silverware and dishes to serve them. By this point, Melody was already well absorbed in her laptop and only noticed her best friend in the corners of her vision.
"Can I get you something to drink, Takashi?" Bea asked her boyfriend sweetly.
"Coffee," Melody interrupted. After a pause, "Please."
Bea rolled her eyes at her friends rudeness before turning her attention back to Takashi. "The same, if it's not too much trouble," he smiled.
"Of course not! You like it black right?" Bea smiled before dismissing her friend's immediate protests. "Yes, I know how you like yours Melody, I was asking our guest! Besides! You need to clean your papers off the table if you want to eat anything!"
As Bea went to get their drinks, Melody rolled her eyes and cleared her work off the table. When she returned, the three had a great time talking as they ate their breakfast.
"This is really good Bea," Melody complimented, mouth full of food. Beatrice only rolled her eyes as she scolded her friends' terrible eating habits before standing to take the dishes back to the kitchen. Mori was quick to intervene.
"Let me," he said as he took the dishes to the sink and started washing them.
Bea started to protest, when Melody interrupted. "Just let him get them! You still need to get ready, right?" At this, Bea scurried to finish getting ready for their date as Melody got back to work. By the time Bea and Mori were ready to go, it was only 10:00.
"Just go," Melody said. Bea was in the middle of chewing her lip, but paused at her friend's words. "Just please grab me my Bluetooth headphones first and leave the door unlocked for Kyoya? And then go enjoy your date! I'll be fine for a few minutes by myself!"
"Are you su—"
"Takashi, please drag her out of here and enjoy your guys' date, no matter how much she initially protests!" Melody interrupted her friend as she took the headphones Mori had grabbed from her office. Takashi smiled and nodded at Melody as he dragged Bea out of the apartment. Melody rolled her eyes and giggled at how she could still hear Bea calling instructions to her from down the hallway as if she thought Melody was still a child. After rolling her eyes, Melody got back to work.
And then you carry the 3 here... But what about the $4,000 there? What did I buy with that? Was it... No... Oh! That was for the—
Melody's concentration was interrupted when she heard a pounding on the front door. Narrowing her eyes in confusion, she called out, "Who is it? I've got pepper spray and a gun!"
Kyoya let out a laugh when he heard Melody finally respond to his knocking. He had been trying for the past 20 minutes, but this was the first time she responded. "Kyoya Ootori and guest!" he replied loudly, "Don't shoot."
"Oh... Come in!" Melody called back. "The door's unlocked and I can't walk!"
After letting himself in, Kyoya took in the view of the girls' living room. This was the first time he had ever visited the girls' apartment, but he had to admit that he hadn't expected such a mess.
"Don't judge," Melody grumbled. "Normally, all of these papers are littering my studio. Typically I file them as soon as I'm done with them, but since I can't exactly walk now..." she let herself trail off as she let her statement speak for itself.
Kyoya nodded in understanding before turning to introduce the man next to him. "This is Dr. Sohma. He has agreed to come and examine your ankle for you." Melody greeted the doctor before he got to work. After examining an x-ray, Dr. Sohma confirmed that Melody had only sprained her ankle, but insisted that she get a hard cast due to the fact that she was a dancer. Melody tried to argue that that meant she would heal faster since the muscles in her legs were strong, but he countered with the fact that she'd just try to get up and move it before it had completely healed. This was the best way to ensure she didn't hurt it more by being stupid. When she finally consented, he made quick work of applying the hard cast to her leg. After ensuring the cast had set properly, he left her with a prescription for pain meds and a pair of crutches.
Kyoya saw Dr. Sohma out. "Thank you for your help. I will make sure that my brother includes the payment for your services into your next check," Kyoya thanked him.
"Of course Master Ootori," Dr. Sohma bowed before heading down the stairs to the vehicle waiting to take him to the hospital. Kyoya saw the car off before going back into the apartment.
Melody smirked up at him when he entered. "Are you two done staring into each others' eyes?" she quipped. She let out a short bark of laughter when his eyes widened in surprise. He smiled when he realized she was joking.
"Ready to get to work?" he asked.
"What do you mean 'get to work'? I was working for a while before you got here... It should be me asking you if you're ready to work!" Melody childishly stuck her tongue out at him before reaching behind her for her papers. When she realized that they were just out of her reach, she pouted and started opening and closing her hand in a grabby motion as if she were a small child as she reached for her stuff.
Kyoya watched her for a few moments before letting out a chuckle at her childish antics. "Need some help over there?" he teased.
Melody reached hard in her last attempt before giving up and pouting. "Oh shut up and help me," she pouted. Kyoya smirked as he walked over to the pile of papers. When he glanced into her studio by accident, he couldn't help as his eyebrows shot up in surprise. Melody glanced over her shoulder when she heard him stop and go silent. Following his gaze, she saw he was looking into her office. "Oh, yeah... No excuse for that mess," she apologized, mistaking his shock.
"Oh, no... I was just surprised by the quality of your piano," he explained as he watched Melody get herself up with relative ease before using her crutches to join him at the entrance to her safe haven. "You look like you know what you're doing with those," he gestured to her crutches.
"Hmm? Oh, yeah... I got used to using them when I was younger," Melody explained. "What, with all of my old...dance...injuries." Melody bit the inside of her cheek as she blushed. She had almost revealed more than she ever intended to. It was just too easy talking to this guy. She had to make sure to watch herself. There was no way she was planning on telling him all of what happened in the past. Or ever mentioning what happened with her step-father ever.
Kyoya knew that she wasn't telling the truth as soon as her tone had changed. Her entire body told him that she was hiding something. He noticed that she immediately clammed up at the same time her entire body tensed when she caught herself at the word "dance." Part of him wanted to ask if she was okay, but he shut that part up as he thought over their conversation. She was fine until she mentioned her old injuries... And from what her step-father's file had said... Kyoya tensed as he came to a conclusion. He knew she may not want to reveal what happened, but this girl had somehow become like Tamaki to him. Originally a leech that he couldn't shake, she had somehow weaseled herself into his heart before he knew what was happening.
He hoped he was wrong, but he knew that there was no way he was leaving until he made sure. Before he could ask, the front door slammed open and a frantic girl flew across the house.
"Bea?!" Melody called out surprised as she glanced at her watch. She had only been gone for a little over two hours. "Did something happen? Where's Takashi?"
"Hi," Mori replied from the doorway as he took off his shoes.
"Takashi," Melody sighed in relief as the sounds of drawers violently slamming open and closed came from Bea's room. She could tell by his demeanor that nothing bad had happened between the couple. The fact he was here proved that Bea's frantic behavior wasn't caused by him. "What's going on?"
Mori gestured for Kyoya and Melody to sit down. "Nothing bad... I think," he started as the three of them sat down. "We were in the park when she got a phone call."
"She actually took a call while on a date?!" Melody interrupted, surprised.
"It was from Barbie," Mori said. Melody nodded in understanding.
Barbie was the head chef in a 4 star restaurant. Bea had known her since she was young, long before the two girls' paths had ever crossed. It was not uncommon for Barbie to call Beatrice at random since Barbie was Beatrice's primary contact and sponsor in her cooking program. Because of the time difference between Japan and America and the nature of their relationship, Bea made it a priority to try and answer her calls whenever she could. Melody was the same way whenever she got a call from her editor. Especially since her next series wouldn't be self published, but was in the works of being accepted by a popular children's book publishing company called, Olympian Books.
"So what did she say?" Melody asked. "Is something wrong?"
Mori shook his head. "From what I could tell, there was a last minute opening in a cooking st-sag-shaig...
Mori's lack of french didn't matter, because Melody shouted in surprise. "Bea got a spot in a stagiaire? Where?"
"Osaka. It starts tomorrow," Mori explained. Melody nodded as she opened her laptop.
"Mel?" Bea called from her room. "Could you get—"
"I'm booking you a plane now!" Melody called back. "If it's anything like the one in France, they should take care of housing you. If not, I know you can handle it!"
"Got it!" Bea panted as she rushed back into the main room on her way to the kitchen to pack her knives as Melody made her way to Bea's room on crutches to double-check her friend hadn't forgotten anything important. She had just finished throwing a few more items into her friend's bag when Bea reentered and packed her knives and other tools in her bag.
"Do you want me to see you to the airpo—?" Bea was shaking her head before her friend could finish.
"Takashi already offered to take me and sit with me until my plane boards," she smiled as she zipped up her heavy bag and lifted it off the bed. "It'll be a sort-of continuation of our date."
"Of course," Melody smiled. "I'm sure you guys want to be alone if you're going to be gone for a month."
"This is a shorter program," Bea explained as she lugged her heavy bag back into the main room. Setting it down, she absently brushed aside the few strands that had fallen into her eyes when she rushed around the apartment. "I'll be back before you know it!... OH! But what about you?" she spun back around to face Melody as she remembered her friend's injury.
"Don't worry!" Melody immediately consoled her friend. "I promise it's worse than it looks," she winked, laughing when she saw Bea—predictably—start fretting. "I'm kidding! Bea! Go focus on your program! You'll do great!" Melody pulled Bea into an awkward hug—crutches getting in the way—before turning to Mori. "Takashi, please take care of her... I know she won't, so—if you don't mind—could you please send me a text when she boards and the plane takes off?"
Mori nodded that he would as he moved to grab Bea's bags. "I'll see you downstairs," he told her as Melody went into full-blown overprotective mother mode. Bea indulged Melody's over-the-top worrying for about two minutes, before she really had to leave. The girls hugged again at the door before Bea left.
Melody sighed as she closed and locked the door, before moving back to the main room. She lifted her eyebrow in surprise at what she saw. As Melody had been focused on Bea, Kyoya had more than made himself at home. He was lounging casually at his spot at the table, innocently enough. It was what lied around him that surprised her. Not only had he made a pot of tea—MUCH to Melody's surprise—but he had moved all of the papers out of her studio and had organized them into piles. Each stack had a sticky note saying where in the room he had picked them up.
Internally she was very grateful at his thoughtfulness, knowing that her office had been an organized chaos that only she could navigate. Externally though, she rolled her eyes at how easily he had made himself comfortable in her home. "Make yourself comfortable, did you?" she asked, seating herself before serving herself a cup of tea. "Besides, I thought we agreed that you were banned from all of Bea's kitchens without supervision," she teased.
"I did though," he smirked back. "Technically, Bea was in the kitchen when I made the tea."
"Bet she wasn't paying attention," Melody smirked. Kyoya nodded.
"I have my own electric kettle in my room," he explained. "I prefer traditional tea, but my parents refuse to let me have a burner upstairs." Melody choked on her tea as she burst out in laughter.
After recovering from her sputtered coughs—which left some of her tea on the front of her shirt—Melody glared at him jokingly. "You trying to kill me Ootori?"
"No," he laughed back. "If I was, I would have waited until you took a larger sip." He couldn't help the uncharacteristic burst of laughter that escaped him as Melody snorted in amusement as she drank her tea, the air pressure being just enough to blow some of the liquid into her face and more to go down the wrong tube, causing another round of coughing.
She wiped her face as she recovered, glaring at the teacup as if it had betrayed her, she reached for her coffee before she saw the almost playful sparkle in Kyoya's eyes. Butterflies started dancing in her stomach as she felt as if her chest was expanding. She cautiously, slowly retracted her hand. "And I think I'm done with drinks now," she choked out. What on earth is he doing to me?! She shook her head to clear it as she reached for the nearest stack of host-club-related papers.
"So," she asked as she opened the folder. "Shall we get to work?"
The next few hours flew by as Kyoya and Melody worked side-by-side. Before they knew it, the clock was telling them it was almost 6 P.M.
Melody stretched, effectively cracking her back, as she sighed. "Did we really work through lunch?" she questioned Kyoya as he took off his glasses to rub the exhaustion from his eyes.
"It appears so," he replied. "Fortunately, we finished the final numbers for the party, but we still need to figure out where else we need to cut back expenses for this month's budget."
"Just reduce some of the predicted funding for the cosplay we have planned at the end of this month. I'm sure you all already have kimonos... Wear those instead of having new ones made," Melody suggested as she got up and hobbled to the kitchen to get some coffee, forgoing the use of her crutches. Kyoya nodded as he made the adjustments in the budget. "Do you want to order some takeout or just head home to eat?" she called over her shoulder. "I know it's late, and I'd offer to make something, but—"
"Don't work yourself too much," he scolded. "I intentionally didn't say anything about you walking without crutches just now, but you really should be careful."
"Worrywart," Melody muttered as she hobbled back with her coffee. "I needed my hands for my mug," she argued.
"And I'm sure you're full of many other similar excuses?" he questioned knowingly.
"Yup!" Melody smiled cheekily as she popped her lips to enunciate the 'P'. Kyoya smiled evilly as a new thought came to him.
"Then I guess I'll just have to come by everyday to make sure you take care of yourself," he smiled as if he were the cat that ate the canary.
"Wh-what?!" Melody replied, shocked.
"Doctor's orders," Kyoya smirked. She just glared at him, her eyes narrowed.
"...There's no way I'm getting out of this, is there?" she stated more than asked as she brought her coffee to her lips as he dialed a nearby restaurant to order.
"You sealed your own fate," he replied before talking to the person who picked up his call.
And seal her fate, she had. He had insisted Tachibana stay with her during the days and Kyoya came by everyday after club time ended to visit her and to bring her the schoolwork she was missing. On the weekends, he spent all day in her company. If it wasn't for the piles of work she was cranking out during the day, she would have gone stir-crazy. As conversational as Tachibana tried to be, she began to look forward to Kyoya's company every evening. He'd fill her in on the happenings at school as he brought her the work she was missing. They'd then eat and joke around for a while before tackling the host clubs numbers together. She would have had to be completely obtuse to not realize that he was only this relaxed in front of her. If anyone else saw the sweet, snarky guy he was around her, they'd question where the real Kyoya Ootori had gone. The truth was that he was the real Kyoya. Whether he was relaxing his guard and letting loose or threatening people lower than him as the notorious Shadow King, he never was fake.
Though she loathed to admit it, she really enjoyed his company. She would have been so lonely for those two weeks if he hadn't visited. By now, she couldn't avoid the truth any longer:
Melody had a crush on the one and only Kyoya Ootori.
Okay! That's it for this chapter!
I really hope you guys are enjoying the story. I can't tell you how thrilled we are at how many people are following Sweet Music! It's being favorited and followed by so many people, yet we still have no clue what you think. Please feel free to let me know in a review! We'd love to hear your responses! Now that I've updated everything I have posted, I hope to get at least one chapter out every two weeks!
