I know it's a short chapter, and I'm sorry this is all I have for you after such a long wait. Really, I'm sorry. But over the past two weeks I've been on vacation and then I got a cold which started kicking my butt and I've been working all of last week. I feel like I have some valid excuses. I promise, the next one will be longer.
Thank you to Drkm2000, Yoitsyourstruly, Candybrown, Swimmer1102, Queenglitch, and Bizzylizzy for reviewing my last chapter. I'm so happy that you liked the glitter I had in the last chapter! I've had lots of experience with the stuff and thought it would be a nice touch. (And I'm sorry Bizzylizzy about changing the chapters! I won't do it again, Scout's Honor!)
Disclaimer: If I didn't fear some stupid lawsuit, I wouldn't bother with this. Am I the only one who thinks these are pointless? Anyways, yeah, don't own the boys. You know… in case that was unclear to anyone...
"Good afternoon, Passengers! We are beginning our descent over Detroit, Michigan. It's currently 14 degrees Fahrenheit with partly cloudy skies..."
Jacklyn frowned as her brain struggled with the switch from Japanese back to English. After four months of not using her native language except for maybe 10 minutes a day, it was a bit of a difficult transfer. And hearing it in the garbled airplane speaker dialect was not doing her any favors.
As the flight attendant continued on with her announcement, the brunette lifted her window shade, which she had put down after the stop in Chicago to catch up on some extra sleep. Hey, when you're in the air for more than half a day, there's not much else to do.
Peering out of the small window, Jacklyn smiled as she realized they were now below the clouds. Beneath her she could see the city of Detroit sprawling out beneath them a long way down. Despite the many wonderful qualities of Japan, she always felt a sense of home when she was back in her state.
Jacklyn was smiling the whole way down to the ground, ideas for the remainder of her vacation buzzing around in her head. Snowball fights, New Year's Eve, playing with her dog, and pizza night! She couldn't wait. Not even her jetlagged, elbow rest-stealing, Japanese businessman seat neighbor could bother her. Much.
Once she was back on solid ground, Jacklyn made her way through customs with the rest of her flight. The experience was no more pleasant than it had been back in August when she'd gone the other way, but at least this time she had some experience. No, she doesn't have anything to declare. No, she hadn't brought back anything that was banned in the U.S. And no she wasn't bringing in alcohol. And of course she'd gotten stuck with the security officer who took her job waaay too seriously. Jacklyn was mocking her 'Are you giving me attitude, young lady' question all the way down the moving sidewalk.
Finally, she got into the main part of the airport and started looking around for a map. Mom's waiting outside of baggage claim… so where is that?
She eventually found one hanging between a pair of bathrooms. There was a small family of five to her left trying to organize which of them would use the restroom first, and she gave the little girl staring at her a small smile before focusing on the map. Baggage claim… down the escalators. Then look for the passenger pick up and drop off. Easy.
She made perhaps a quarter turn away from the map when a solid mass collided with the brunette's side, bowling her over onto the tile floor. Her carry-on smacked the ground somewhere by her feet, but no one was paying much attention to the inanimate object, being more curious about the squirming bodies on the floor. Even the crying child that had been passing by quieted down.
By the time Jacklyn was breathing normally again, she had been able to prop herself up off the ground by her elbows. Her mouth popped open into an almost perfect 'o' shape when she registered exactly who had knocked her down.
"Jac-chan! I found you!"
"Honey-senpai?!"
The small blond giggled, "You're so cute when you're surprised!"
"What? H-how?"
"We followed you, Silly!"
"W-we?"
Honey jumped off of the girl and pointed in the direction he'd come from. Slowly but surely through the thick crowds, Jacklyn could see five familiar heads of hair bobbing their way closer to the two of them. Her eyes fell on her carry-on lying on the floor, to the escalators a few feet away, and she considered making a break for it.
Before she could do more than scramble to her feet and grab her bag, the others reached them.
"Hi, Jacklyn-senpai!"
"Thought you'd seen the last of us, huh?"
"Well…" Tamaki interrupted her response, falling into a grand theatrical explanation as to why the host club had followed her out of the country like a group of handsome stalkers. She didn't bother listening, knowing he wouldn't be making much sense anyways, and glared at the other boys. "I thought you all said you had plans for break. You two," Jacklyn pointed at the twins, "You said your parents were in Hawaii waiting for you. What happened to that, eh?"
"Well, as it turns out, none of our other plans were very enticing, to be honest. As you somehow made Christmas much more fun than any of us had previous experience with, we assumed that the rest of the break might be more enjoyable if you were with us as well."
Jacklyn rolled her eyes, but a minuscule smile flickered across her face at Kyoya's explanation. The four others who had been listening to the conversation (Tamaki was now spinning around the middle of the building, attracting a lot of weird looks) were also sporting little smiles. Ever since they had all gotten into that messy but wonderful glitter-war, it was like the whole group had let out a breath of relief. There was sufficiently less tension around the group now that Kyoya and Jacklyn were on good terms, and no one was complaining. It was clear the two in question were much happier now as well since they no longer needed to tiptoe around the other.
"So… now what? I hate to break it to you guys, but there aren't any hotels in Shepherd."
"We could stay at your house, Jac-chan!"
"No! There's no way we'd have the room for you all! And my parents would kill me, because no doubt you'd make it sound like I invited you!"
"Not to worry, my family has a small cottage up in Alma that we'll be staying at. It'll be a tight fit, but we should all be comfortable enough. And there should be a car waiting for us just outside the airport."
"See, Jacklyn? It's perfect!" Tamaki had finished his speech and was back with his friends, "We'll drop off our luggage and then you can lead us to your family's home! We'll get to see where your childhood unfolded and we'll become closer as a-"
"There's no way you're coming home with me."
The group's pleasant buzz grinded to a halt. The six boys stared at the female, in various stages of shock. Tamaki in particular looked like a marble statue.
"Oh..."
"I guess we could've asked you if you wanted us around."
"Sorry for... assuming, Jac-chan."
"Apologies if we overstepped our boundaries. If our presence is unprecedented, we could leave. If you wish."
Groaning, Jacklyn let her head fall back, "Noooooo, don't say it like that now I feel guilty. Ugh, fine! You guys can stick around. It's not like I can tell you where to spend your vacations, anyways. Just... let me have my first day back with just my family, okay? I'll text you guys directions to my house tomorrow... you can spend New Year's Eve with us. We'll figure the rest of the days out as we go along, fair?"
The others nodded, not wanting to place themselves in their friends bad graces, particularly one boy who just recently became her friend. Tamaki, as per usual, was the first to go back to his happy-go-lucky sort of mood.
"That's a perfectly acceptable plan, Jacklyn! We'll just see you tomorrow, then! And we all get to celebrate New Year's together, too! Oh, I can't wait! And don't worry about us getting lost tomorrow, our driver is sure to have an excellent sense of direction! You don't need to worry about us at all!"
The brunette sighed, "I always worry about you boys. Com'on, passenger pick-up is downstairs near baggage claim."
Eh. It's alright. Originally, I had them going to her house immediately after this scene, but then I realized that if I were in Jacklyn's shoes and I brought friends home to my family who hadn't seen me in months my mother would both kill me and embarrass me in front of them. So, I separated it. And now I have the perfect story line for next chapter: New Years! This should be fun.
Anyways, sorry again for the short chapter and the long wait. This is normally where I'd tell you that the next one won't take as long, but since I'm heading back to school soon, that might not be true. I'll try, promise... but no really promises...
Anyways, if you liked it, please favorite, follow, and review! Love me those reviews.
See you next chapter!
