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Chapter 11-

All for Nothing

…

Ding Dooong!

"Niki…?" Haruhi opens up the door to find the beaming girl.

"Haru-chan!" Niki grins toothily.

…

Hikaru and Kaoru stood before their parents, determined to fight for what they really want.

"I have something to say…" Kaoru began.

"Me too," their mother replied, sitting cross-legged on an elegant chair. "Let us talk first."

…

"What?! Is this a fluke?"

"Are you kidding me?"

"Are you telling me that I've been worrying over nothing!?" the twins shouted one after the other at their parents.

"We only found out recently that Ishihara was arrested for unethical conduct…something about bribing witnesses…anyway, the judge revoked his license. Ishihara's lost of legal authority caused a breach in our contract. The wedding between Sachiko and Kaoru is over." Their father explained briefly.

Relief swept through Kaoru entirely. He couldn't help break out a smile.

"What about the…commitment with the Matsumotos?" Hikaru brought up. His mother heaves out a sigh.

"It's over…Niki-chan called it off." Their mother informs despairingly.

"She was a good kid…" their father comments.

"What? When did this happen?" Hikaru voiced out his confusion.

"Last night… although I was really hoping to find a match for our boys," their mother adds to their father.

"Your mother is constantly worrying about the two of you. She wants you two to practice spending time separately…with a girl," their father explained. "Arranging a marriage to connect with our business partners is absolutely redundant, but we felt that it would be a good idea for you boys to find your separate paths in life."

"You don't have to worry about Kaoru," Hikaru nudges him playfully. Kaoru snickers to hide his embarrassment.

…

After some convincing from Kaoru, Hikaru decided to thank Niki personally. He bought a box of chocolate (with almonds so that Leo cannot freeload off her chocolate box.)

He rang her doorbell. A woman with rollers in her hair and a mud mask on her face answered door.

"Wait, Niki doesn't have a mother…" Hikaru reminded himself. "Sorry, wrong house," Hikaru turned to continue on looking for Niki.

"Hey….you do know that I'm Leo right?" 'Leo' revealed.

Now that he thinks about it, that is Leo's voice.

"Leo, what the heck are you wearing?" Hikaru turns around to give him a look of perplexity.

"What? Stop looking at me queerly! Every man has his metro-sexual needs, alright? Besides, why is it that only girls can wear a big t-shirt without pants? Everyone's talking about equality, but everyone judges when one does or wear something that contradicts the unwritten code of 'ideal gender dos and don'ts'. I can have facials when I want to, and you're not going to criticize me for having awesome skin!" Leo rants emotionally.

"Leo, calm down. Nobody's calling you a queer…" Hikaru waves his hands as if fanning off the steam emitted from Leo. "I just want to know where Niki is."

"Holy crap, I forgot I'm not supposed to get emotional when I'm wearing a mud mask….aw maaaan… now I'm going to get wrinkles," Leo complains.

"Leo, can you just tell me where Niki is?" Hikaru asks his patience hanging by a thread.

"Can you wait? Gosh…no need to give an attitude," Leo frowns in distaste. "Oh shit, I frowned…Ooohh are those for me?"

Hikaru turns to walk away.

"Okay, okay!" Leo surrenders, stopping Hikaru in his tracks. "She's at the airport…going back to America. She's taking the 2:00 flight. You have exactly an hour and a half. Bye." Leo informed, slamming the door close with a cocky smirk on his face. "Crap, I smirked…."

"Leo, you ass!"

Leo cracks open the door and sticks out his head, "The clock is ticking…By the way, I like my ass, thank you very much."

Wasting no time, Hikaru instructs his driver to drive him to the airport—fast. He didn't even know why it mattered to him. Perhaps a feeling of deep respect for this girl that set him free is the driving point of his determination. He had to thank her; it was the least he could do…and the chocolates.

He got to the airport fast (unlike the expected cliché traffic jam and 'search for someone who walked right past you', kind of dramatic formula.) Surprisingly (or maybe not so surprising, since it's Niki we're talking about…), she stood right at the main entrance of the Narita Airport. She waved vigorously to get Hikaru's attention. He walked over to her, not without caution for he has no idea what she has in store for him.

"Hey Mr. Sunshine, how're you feeling?" she punched him playfully on the shoulder.

"Hey…thanks," he returned the favor.

"Don't thank me, I'm the villain. MUHAHAHAHA…"

Hikaru bonks her on the forehead.

"Ah—ow! Owwwwwwww…." she rubs her forehead exaggerating the nonexistent pain. "What the hell man!"

"Don't go back to America. We can still be… buddies…" It was as if his mouth was running on its own. He didn't even know why he was saying such things. He thought he would be overjoyed to hear that she's leaving. But for some strange reasons, he didn't want her to go. This girl that he found annoying—he didn't want her to go.

"You know, they say you don't know what's good until it's gone. Maybe one day you'll realize how awesome I am and fly me back to Japan from New York." She laughs. He laughs in reply. "See, you don't take me seriously."

Hikaru stares at her and blinks. Wasn't she joking?

"Just kidding dude," she pokes him on the forehead as revenge. "But, seriously, I still feel the same about you."

"Okay, that's it, stop joking."

"What makes you think I'm joking? Do you know why I called off the marriage? It's not just because you refuse to reciprocate my feelings. It's because it hurts to know that your heart belongs to someone else. I'm a typical human being. I'm selfish, and I'm afraid of pain. I knew from the moment you flipped on me, how much pain I would experience if I blindly decided to go on with the marriage. I know exactly why you were so mad that day…it's because of Haruhi. And I was foolish enough to think that I could cheer you up. I told myself to stop being selfish and stop being so stupid. Now that the wedding's over, you're free."

"Niki…" he felt bad. He realized how much he underestimated her emotions. He realized how much neglect he has brought upon her. He still didn't like her as she does, but at least he sees her as a great friend.

"You know what, you should thank me, actually. I helped pave your way into Haruhi's heart!" she declared cheerily.

"Oh no…What did you do…?"

"Not much really…I just went and had a little talk with her. The rest is up to you," she places a hand on his shoulder firmly. Looking over at her outreached wrist, she reads the time on her watch. "Ooh…I should get going now. I got a lot of metal on me; it'll take a while to take them off in the inspection area…" She picks up her bags.

"Wait, you're still going back to America?"

"My sweet, sweet little pea, I've got a secret to share," she leans towards his ears. "My ticket is round-trip. I'm coming back in two weeks."

…

"Eri!" Kaoru waves, as he spots her while walking into a café.

"Shh!" she places a finger over her lips, and places a pair of shades upon the bridge of her nose.

"What's the problem? Since when did you have that mole?" He pokes at the mole on her cheek. "Is it cancerous?"

She covers his mouth with her hands. "I told you, shhh!" she whispered.

"Why are you being so sneaky?" He places an arm around her shoulders teasingly.

"No! Sit over there!" she shakes off his arm and points to the seat opposite.

"But why? Not even a kiss?" he gives her a look of disappointment and hurt. It made an immediate effect on her as she held his hands regretfully.

"It's for your own good," she gives his hands a squeeze. "We have to keep our relationship secret remember?"

Should he tell her now? Nah, he'll wait.

"Since I'm technically a 'good for nothing mistress', we're supposed to sneak secret meetings," Eri explains thoughtfully.

"I think you've been watching too much drama," Kaoru takes off her shades and places them on the table.

"Kaoru, I've thought about it. We should wear disguises whenever we see each other." She rips off the stick-on mole, and places it on his forehead. "There. If you don't like it, you can disguise yourself as a female and I can disguise myself as a male; that way people won't be suspicious…"

"Actually, I think people would be more suspicious…" he peels off the mole.

"OR, you don't have to do anything, and I'll pretend to be male, so that Sachiko would think you're gay, and would stop trying to seduce you or something…"

"I really think you're watching too much soap operas…"

"That way, she'd think that the vixen's a man, and she would soon realize the shame of losing a guy to another guy, who is actually a girl, but she doesn't know that. Then she would automatically give in!"

"Slow down, you'll confuse yourself."

"Kaoru, you have said a lot of things, but none of them are suggestions. Can you participate here?"

"Okay. How about this: you dress as yourself, and I'll dress as myself. We go out whenever we want; do whatever we want; wherever we want."

"But…"

"…and stop calling yourself the vixen. You're the only one I'm going to marry."

She smiles and her cheeks grew hot.

"The marriage between me and Sachiko is cancelled."

"WHAT?! Are you serious? You tell me now, after I made a fool out of myself with the mole and the shades and everything?"

"That's what makes you so cute, silly goose," he flicks her nose.

"Then you're a platypus!" she counters cheekily.

"But I'm your platypus." He wraps his arms around her waist. She places her arms around his neck.

"But really, how did that happen?" she asks honestly.

"Well if Sachiko's going to blame someone; it'd be her dad. He bribed some witnesses, and got caught, so the judge took away his license and that caused the contract between my parents and him to be invalidated."

"I'm really happy, you know? Now we don't have to hide." She smiles, and pecks him on the lip. As he was about to go back for more, the waiter came and bitterly places a cup of tea on the table.

"Public displays of affection…psht…Show-offs, just because you can get a date doesn't mean you have to go around showing it to the world," the angsty teenager mutters and walks away. /this is coming from a teen who hears "Let's just be friends," too often. /

…

A/N-

Everything happened so fast this chapter. I hope this tornado of a chapter didn't knock you out in confusion. I'm going to wrap this story up with one LAST chapter—no epilogues, because I really want to wrap this story up. I apologize for such a poorly written chapter…I lost drive. Hopefully I can bring a spark of life back into this story in the last chapter where the Host Club gets involved again!

Thanks to readers and reviewers!

Stay tuned for the big finale—chapter 12- "Battle of Vigor"