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For those of you that will be hit by Hurricane Irma, stay safe. I will be keeping you all in mind.
Stay safe and enjoy reading.
"How about it? We hang a few things here, a few things there, pull out a few games, and I know an amazing makeup artist I can call in and she can do your makeup!"
Elena sighed and leaned further into the couch. Her aunt was trying to convince her to have a birthday party and invite all her friends cause she's so popular, and she needs to have a birthday party!
Yeah, right.
George sighed from the table where he was trying to work and rubbed his head. "Dear..." He muttered.
She didn't hear him, waiting for Elena to reply.
The girl sighed. "I don't need a birthday party, my birthday isn't until December. It's October. I especially don't need a makeup party." She gave her aunt a pointed look.
Her aunt sighed and frowned. "But what if you aren't here then? We want to be able to celebrate with you!"
Elena sighed again, getting more agitated. "I don't want a birthday party! They're already treating me like someone I'm not, and most of them didn't want to even be associated with me until they found out who my friends were!"
"That can't be true! I'm sure they all loved you!"
Elena gave her a look that was easily interpreted as 'really?'. "If you actually listen somewhat, you would know that 98% of the school either ignored me or made fun of me because I had a funny accent. They don't actually like me."
Her aunt groaned, rather immaturely she might add. "George, please talk some sense into your niece! Tell her she should have a party!"
George sighed again and rubbed his face. "If she doesn't want one, I don't think we should force one on her."
Her aunt groaned. "You're no help." Turning back to her niece, she said, "Come on, we've left you alone all night before, we give you free reign, I let you buy any clothes you want, but you don't do anything a teenage girl your age does!"
Elena gave her a pointed look. "Wouldn't you prefer I don't do what girls my age are doing? I know there are at least two girls in my classes that are pregnant, and a whole bunch of them are doing drugs."
"Okay, maybe not that." Her aunt concluded.
Elena stood up. "I'm going to my room. I promised my friends I'd video chat them."
Ignoring the protests of her aunt, she left the room, going into hers and closing the door with a sigh.
Life was hard.
"So she practically tried to force you to have a birthday party?" Hikaru asked in the video chat.
"Yeah, pretty much." She replied.
"So how are things going?" Haruhi asked, changing the subject.
Elena sighed. "Could be better, honestly. I've still got girls begging to be my friends, and people asking me to recreate one of my dad's performances."
"But none of them know who your dads are." Honey stated, all of them already knowing the answer.
"Nope. And probably never will."
Tamaki grinned. "Good thing they don't have a Kyoya."
Elena laughed lightly. "Yeah, I am so glad they don't."
"I can hear you, you know," Kyoya said, not looking up from his book.
"We know." The twins chorused.
The Hosts kept talking, doing their best to keep Elena's mind on other things as they always were. Elena was grateful for that.
And she was glad she had friends like that.
She laid in bed that night, unable to sleep, rolling from one side to the other but to no avail. She sits up, rubbing her face, hating moments like these. Wanting to sleep but unable to.
Getting out of her bed, feet hitting the cold floor. Walking to her door and opening it, expecting to be greeted with darkness.
She wasn't.
At the end of the hallway in the kitchen, the light was on.
Curious, she made her way to the kitchen, stopping at the entrance.
At the table sat her uncle, reading a book and a pot of water boiling on the stove. He looked up and spotted her, a small and tired smile on his face.
"Couldn't sleep?" He asked her, getting a shake of the head from her in reply. "Me neither. Sit down, I know what will help."
She slowly moved to the table and sat down across from him as he stood, going to the cabinet where he pulled out two mugs, placing a tea bag in both and adding the water before moving the mugs to the table, placing one in front of her.
"Here. My mom made this for me every time I couldn't sleep." He said as he handed her the mug, sitting back down in his seat.
She took the mug, holding it in both hands as she neared it to her face, smelling a strong herbal tea.
"Might want to let it steep for a few minutes." He told her with a grin as she set the mug back down. He seemed to study her face for a few moments before sighing and running his hand through his hair. "You look a lot like your aunt, but you're so different." He chuckled.
"You could say that again." She muttered, playing with the tea bag.
He huffed. "She was a lot like you when she was your age, you know."
"No, that can't be true." Elena tried to hide the smile growing on her face, imagining her aunt wearing old jeans and t-shirt.
"It's true. It's because you're so alike that you but heads all the time." he sighed. "She's just really happy to have a child to care for."
"What do you mean?" Elena asked, taking out the tea bag and setting it on the small plate her uncle had pulled out.
He took a sip from his tea before speaking. "We've always wanted kids, but we can't have them. We've been thinking about adoption, but then we found out about you and she decided we'd take you in. I saw how happy you were there in Japan, and honestly, I thought we might as well leave you where you were happy. But your aunt insisted, and there wasn't much I could do to change her mind, so I kept quiet. It didn't work."
Elena took a sip from her own tea. "Then why doesn't she just let me be? Let me do my own thing?"
"She's just treating you how she would her own daughter, I guess. She wanted a daughter she could dress in nice clothes, spoil, and do all that stuff." He said into his mug.
Elena sighed this time. "I guess I understand..."
George smiled at her. "I'm talking to her, just don't get too frustrated with her, okay?"
Elena nodded as she finished her tea, setting it gently down on the table, but not looking up from it. "You won't be upset if I decide to go back to Japan right?" She asked softly.
"No, I promise I won't be mad, and Clara won't be either. But it would be nice to see you from time to time." George said with a smile.
Elena looked up, a smile growing on her own face.
George stood up with a small groan, taking the two empty mugs. "Alright, time for bed. You still have school tomorrow."
Elena sighed and grumbled. "I don't want to. Barely anyone actually likes me."
George gave her a sympathetic smile. "It's not much longer. You can do it. Goodnight."
"Goodnight." She left the kitchen and went back into her room, lying back on her bed and curling up under the covers.
Maybe things won't be so bad.
She was wrong.
School was terrible. She was continually swarmed by other students, bugging her about getting them in touch with the Hitachiins or where she learned to skate so well and 'Do you need an agent? I can get you some awesome skating gigs!'
Yeah.
Not much longer. Not much longer.
Jake seemed worse than usual too, trying to convince her to go out with him. She continually rejected his advances.
She sighed, finally getting to breathe.
She had found herself out in the courtyard during lunch, managing to get past all the students somehow. She sat down on a bench and took out her lunch when her phone rang.
She smiled at seeing the caller ID and answered.
"Hello, Princess!" Victor called into the phone.
She giggled. "Hello, Papa!" She could hear her dad and Jacob in the background but couldn't make out what they were saying.
"How is everything?" He asked. She could hear the worry in his voice.
"Okay." She muttered, looking down at her lunch.
"Honestly?" He knew her too well.
"Not okay." She replied with a sigh.
"Don't worry. We'll be there this weekend, okay? Hang in there, and soon you'll be back home with all your friends in Ouran. We'll invite everyone over!" He was trying to cheer her up. It was working.
Elena giggled. "Yeah, okay."
"Is that 'Lena? I wanna talk!" She could hear Jacob yell.
"ALright, it seems Jacob wants to talk, hold on." She could hear the phone being passed before she heard Jacob's voice.
"Lena! We're going to New York soon! We're going to go get you, Lena!" He yelled.
"Yeah, Papa told me." She chuckled. She spent the next five minutes listening to whatever he wanted to tell her at that time as she ate come of her lunch. Soon, the phone was put onto speaker so the three could talk to her.
Suddenly she felt the phone leave her hand and jerked around to see Jake there holding it.
"Who ya talking to?" He asked holding her phone. She could hear her dads' confused voices calling out for her.
She let out a low growl, getting tired of his antics. "My family. Please give that back."
Jake hummed. "Maybe. On one condition."
She glared at him. "What?" She spat.
He wiggled his eyebrows. "You know what."
She growled again and tried to grab her phone from him, but he held it above his head, out of her reach. "So? What's your answer?"
She growled again, remembering a trick Honey taught her one day and smirked. She swung her leg at his sweeping them out from under him and causing him to fall to the ground.
He groaned in pain as he sat up, seeing her take the phone back and pressing it between her ear and shoulder as she collected her things, apologizing to her dads as she did.
She left the field, but not without sending him a smug smirk his way, leaving the boy dumbfounded.
"So you tripped him?" Kaoru asked in their video chat that day.
"And Honey-senpai taught you how?" Hikaru continued.
"Yeah. That's, Honey-senpai. I'm glad you taught me." She told the senior.
Honey gave her a wide smile. "It's no problem! I'm glad it helped."
"You know, Kasanoda has been acting a little funny lately," Haruhi said, changing the subject.
Elena's eyebrows scrunched together. "Funny How?"
"Yeah, I've noticed that," Tamaki said, a thoughtful look on his face and two fingers on his chin.
"He's been more nervous lately, and less annoyed at Tamaki and the twins," Haruhi answered.
"Seems kind of sad, too," Kaoru added.
Elena frowned and looked down at her keyboard. She had talked to him last night, and he seemed fine. What could be the problem?
She sighed as she left the school building, relieved that it was over for the week and that her dads would be coming to pick her up this weekend.
To say that she was excited would be an understatement.
That day had been her last, she had been spending most of her time hanging out with the group of girls she had become friends with, teaching them how to figure skate, and just having fun.
Elena smiled, remembering some of the things they had all done together. Which reminded her of the Host Club. The thought of them made her heart ache.
"What going on there?" Sophie asked, breaking Elena from her thoughts.
Elena looked ahead to see a group of kids all chattering excitedly. One kid turned around and saw them, and began to wave excitedly as he ran over.
"Hey! Get over here! I'm pretty sure it's because they saw your video!" He said excitedly, grabbing her wrist and dragging her to the crowd.
She was confused. Wasn't the video her skating? Yeah, her dads saw it (how could they have not) and shared it with pretty much everyone they knew. But none of them would have come just because of that video. It's not the first time Victor showed off his daughter's skating to everyone in the skating world.
So what's going on?
The boy pushed her past the crowd, and she managed to catch herself before she fell over.
Only to nearly fall back as something collided with her legs.
Or rather, someone.
She looked down to see Jacob was tightly hugging her legs. "Elena! I missed you! I missed you so much!" He cried.
Elena was shocked as she pulled Jacob into a hug. "Hey, Jay, I missed you too."
"Elena!" Two voices cried and she found herself engulfed into two hugs by both her dads.
She laughed and hugged them back happily.
"Wait, you know them?" When kid cried out in shock.
Victor and Yuri pulled away from the hug and she turned to the stunned crowd sheepishly. "Uh, yeah. They're my dads."
Nora and Olivia had their mouths hanging open and their eyes wide. "Wait, wait," Olivia said, waving her hands back in forth in front of her, "You know the Hitachiins, and your dads are Victor and Yuri, WHAT?"
Elena rubbed the back of her head sheepishly. "Uh, yes?"
After many, MANY, questions, she got into a car with her dads.
"I thought you wouldn't be here until tomorrow, at least!" She exclaimed once the doors of the car closed and they pulled away from the curb.
Yuri smiled at her from the rearview mirror. "We wanted to surprise you."
"Yeah! Did we, did we 'Lena?" Jacob asked excitedly.
Elena turned to him and smiled. "You sure did."
The car ride was filled with Jacob's endless chatter, Elena just enjoying being back with her family.
But she didn't know what was coming next.
"Ah, hello again." Elena's aunt greeted as she led her dads through the door.
"Hello." Yuri greeted, shaking George's hand.
George, unlike his wife, was smiling and friendly. "It's good to see you again."
"Hello!" Jacob greeted with a big smile.
"Come in, we'll make some coffee, hot chocolate or something for the kids, and we can talk," George said, leading them to the kitchen.
"Oh, that sounds nice. Sure!" Victor followed happily, his husband and kids following.
After the coffee, hot chocolate for the two kids was served, George started a lively conversation with the two skaters, while his wife sat quietly fuming between her husband and niece, who sat next to her brother.
The small boy continued to ramble to his sister, occasionally stopping to sip his lukewarm hot chocolate, his older sister listening patiently.
The conversation topic soon changed to the one Elena had been dreading.
"Elena," said softly, "What do you want to do next?"
Elena slowly opened her mouth to answer but was quickly stopped.
"Of course she wants to stay here, isn't that obvious?" Her aunt stated.
Elena quietly sighed, expecting this.
"Dear, maybe we should hear what she has to say," George told his wife, he glared at the table.
Elena took a deep breath, nervous about what was going to happen next.
"Clara, you both have been very nice, and you're both amazing, but life here isn't for me." She looked directly at her aunt. "I know you wanted to have a child, but I'm happier where I've been, with this family/ You'll both always be family, but I honestly think I belong in Japan."
Her aunt was looking at her sadly and sighed before speaking. "I understand." George held his wife comfortingly.
Jacob, not knowing enough English to understand what was said, looked at his parents and sister in confusion. "Does this mean Elena is coming back home?"
Elena giggled and ruffled his hair. "Yes, I'm going home."
As the small boy cheered, Elena turned back to her aunt and uncle. "You can always come and visit. I can invite you to events, and stuff."
George smiled. "That would be wonderful. And be sure to call from time to time, okay?"
Elena smiled and nodded in agreement. "Deal."
The mood lightened, the adults finished their coffee in a better mood, Jacob somehow convincing Elena to play a game with him.
And they were happy.
Goodbyes are hard.
It was especially hard for Clara to say goodbye to her niece, but found it easier after Elena promised to call once they landed.
She waved goodbye one last time as they went through security, back to Japan.
Back to where she called home.
As soon as they left the gate, she could see them.
The Host Club was waiting for them near the entrance, a big sign saying 'Welcome Home!' In big colorful letters, being held up by Mori and, a probably unwilling, Kyoya.
Tamaki had managed to pull them all into one big group hug, one where Elena and Haruhi were squished in the middle of. They wouldn't let go until Elena told them they couldn't breathe.
She looked around, happy to see all her friends again when it hit her.
"Hey, Haruhi?" She asked the other girl as they all left together. "Where's Ritsu?"
"I don't know. Tamaki was the one that got us all together." And so Elena turned to the eccentric blond, who didn't seem very eccentric at the moment.
"I told him, but he just stammered out that he couldn't come since his dad had something to talk about or something. I honestly don't know." Tamaki replied.
Elena frowned, getting worried.
Did something happen?
She decided to call him after hanging up the call with her aunt.
It rang once, twice, three times.
It went to voice mail.
She frowned, leaving a text before she got into bed, hoping for a reply the next morning.
It took her a while to fall asleep, worried for her friend.
And in the morning, there wasn't a reply.
Yay! I uploaded!
Not much else to say, really.
Adios Amigos!
~Izzy