A Rose Hidden by Shadows

Chapter Twelve~ Turbulent Waters

I wonder when he will realize I'm not worth it, when he will leave me for someone worth his time. I can't help these thoughts, I hope he won't and I want to think that he won't but I also think that I'm not worth him. I've caused trouble, I can't do much to help him even if I want to. How can I continue like this, trying to convince myself that I am worthy of him. I'm a far cry from anything that he should be with and it just breaks my heart to think that I'll have to let him go. I also know that I shouldn't hold on to him, that he should be able to do what he pleases and do what will make him happy.

Ugh, I had to get that out, now on to everything else that is on my poor thought abused mind. Finals are in a week, we'll be going on summer break after them and I'm looking forward to it. Everyone is supposed to be going to the beach for a week to just relax. I can wait to go except I can't really swim so that begs the question why am I going? I like to be on the beach is the answer to that one, I like feeling the hot sand on my feet and the cool water against my legs. Ah, this should be a good break, oh I need to close this. I need to study and get ready to head to bed, well I guess I'll talk to you later weird nonexistent person.

Chouko clicked out of the program she was typing away in and opened the note book sitting next to her keyboard to start studying. She sighed slightly, tucking a strand of her brown hair behind her ear and out of her face. She continued to study for a while, growling slightly out of frustration every now and then.

"Why do I have to keep thinking about the trip that is supposed to take place in a bit over a week." Chouko sighed, a light blush creeping across her pale cheeks. She stood up, noticing that it was late, and started to get ready for bed. She changed into her light pajamas and crawled into bed, quickly falling into a deep sleep.

Chouko stood next to Haruhi just outside the limo and looked over the large beach. Chouko smiled before taking off her flip flops and running off, yelping at the heat of the pavement. Haruhi laughed a bit before following her friend and heading to find the others who had taken off and let Haruhi with the job of waking Chouko.

"Chouko, don't you think it would've been better to take off your flip flops after reaching the beach?" A cool voice asked from behind Chouko, who was resting her feet in the cool ocean water to cool them off. Chouko looked behind her and laughed, knowing that what Kyouya spoke was the truth.

"You try thinking clearly when you were just woken from a great sleep. Also try that and add something you like into the equation, your mind doesn't think too clearly." She laughed again before tossing her flip flops onto the beach towel she had laid out a little ways away. "So Kyouya what are you going to do on this nice afternoon on the beach?"

"Well if you would be so minded, I would like to walk with you." Kyouya responded with a slight smile tugging at his lips. Chouko smiled and nodded before standing next to him, walking between him and the ocean. "So you've finally gotten things under control with your business?"

"Yeah, took a bit longer considering a lot of the employees don't really want to take orders from a teenager, a girl much less." Chouko said, a hint of sadness creeping into her normally cheery voice. She shook her head before continuing in her normal tone. "I'm so glad I can take a break from school and everything and hang out here on the beach with everyone. It should be a fun week, don't you think?"

"Yes, it should be interesting to say the least." Kyouya nodded before walking a bit further with Chouko, just chatting about nothing in particular.

The two had been walking until the sun hung low along the horizon, then decided to head back and get everyone settled into their rooms. Everyone was settled in their rooms by the time dinner was ready. Everyone then made their way to the dinning room and were chatting happily. Chouko talked to Hikaru and Kaoru about random things, mostly about pranks the two had pulled in the past. Chouko sat between Kyouya and Kaoru, Haruhi in front of her. Hikaru was sitting in front of his twin and Tamaki was sitting in front of Kyouya, beside them were Hunny and Mori. Chouko chatted a bit with Kaoru, laughing as he told her of some of the prank Hikaru and he had pulled. She was about to tell him of something she and one of her friends had pulled their last year in middle school but the maids brought in the food before she could say anything. As one of the maids placed her plate in front of her she nodded and said a small thank you to her before turning to eat.

The dinner was mostly made of sea food, crabs, fish, and shrimp being a few things. Chouko ate a bit of the crab but didn't really eat anything else, hardly really touching her fish and shrimp.

"What's wrong Chouko?" Kyouya asked, noticing that she wasn't eating much at all.

"Oh, nothing. I just don't care much for fish or shrimp." Chouko told him, smiling a little. She didn't mention that her family used to eat fish all the time, that it brought back memories from when she was little.

"Oh, I'll see to it that the cooks prepare something different for you." Kyouya said, turning back to his food.

"No Kyouya, you don't need to do that. I don't want to cause them any more trouble by having to prepare something different for me. I can deal with it." Chouko reassured him, smiling to him. He just nodded, eating the shrimp that was left on his plate before standing.

"I'm going to be heading to my room now." He said, turning to walk off towards the rooms. Chouko stood up and followed him.

"I'll be heading off to everyone, good night." She told everyoone before following Kyouya down the hallway. "So are you going to work on teh club finances before heading to bed?"

"Yes, I would like to have them all worked out before we return to school, and maybe have a few themes down as well. Why were you asking?" He glanced over at her before continuing down the hall.

"I was wondering if maybe I could hang out with you for a while. I wasn't planning on going to sleep for a couple hours still." Chouko answered him, smiling slightly. Kyouya gave a slight nod before opening the door to his room and letting Chouko in then closed it after he was in the room. He walked over to the table that was sitting in his room and opened hi laptop, hitting a key to bring it out of sleep, and started to work on the finances.

Chouko sat down on the bed and watched him, noticing that he could type pretty quickly. She shook her head and looked out the window to the clear starry sky outside. She smiled slightly, knowing that somewhere behind those stars were her mother and father watching her, but the thought brought a frown to her lips. She didn't really want to think about her parents being gone but it was the harsh reality that she was stuck in. It was going to be her burden to bear until she finally got over the grieving process.

"Chouko, are you alright?" She heard Kyouya ask from his seat not that far from her.

"Yeah, why?" She asked him, wondering what would lead him to believe that she wasn't okay, even if it was the truth.

"I looked over and you were crying while looking out the window. Are you sure you're okay?" He asked again, watching her closely.

Chouko wiped her cheeks and found that she had indeed been crying. She shook her head, trying not to cry anymore, and said,"I didn't know you could cry without noticing it." She wanted to change the topic, and hoped that Kyouya would go along with it.

Kyouya just watched her for a bit more before going back to his work. Chouko stood up and stretched, looking around the plain room. The only thing that was different about it was a suitcase sitting in the corner closest to the door. She walked around the room, looking in drawers and cabinets. She was looking in a large wardrobe before a voice called her back from her thoughts of Narnia.

"Why are you going through my dressers and such?" Kyouya asked from behind her, effectively scaring her and causing her to fall into the large wardrobe.

"Well besides being scared into Narnia, I got curious to see if anything was here. Really the only thing that seems to be new to the room is your suitcase and ourselves." Chouko stated, climbing out of the wardrobe and standing next to Kyouya.

"I thought Narnia only existed in a movie." Kyouya stated, missing the humor, if there was any, in Chouko's statement.

"Anywhere can be Narnia if you have the imagination. Hell anywhere can be anything if you have a good enough imagination. I bet Tamaki could." Chouko laughed slightly, visualizing the tall blonde walking into a wardrobe because he believed it would whisk him away to a new land.

Kyouya chuckled slightly before saying,"It is getting late. You should probably head on to bed." Chouko just nodded her head before bidding Kyouya a good-night and heading to her room next door.

Chouko chased after Hikaru and Kaoru who were running a good distance in front of her. Each of them were holding up something different. Kaoru was holding up Chouko's tattered blanket while Hikaru was holding her stuffed animal baby sea turtle. Chouko was yelling at them, also cursing a bit. Then, when she had almost caught them, she tripped on a piece of washed up driftwood and fell face first into the sand. After pulling herself up she just stared into the sand in front of her, not making any motions to move.

Hikaru and Kaoru slowed down when they noticed she wasn't behind them any more, and looked back. They saw Chouko was sitting in the sand, staring off into. They inched closer and noticed she was biting her lip. By now the entire host club had noticed something was up and were gathering around. Haruhi noticed what was going on and started to talk to Chouko.

"Chouko, you need to calm down. I'm sure they wouldn't do anything to harm either Blankie or your turtle." Haruhi told the older teen sitting in the sand. Chouko just shook her head before glaring at the twins.

"You know where those came from? Huh? That turtle is the last thing my parents gave me before they left on the trip that killed them. That blanket? It was what my grandparents gave me, that and some pictures are all I have left of them. Now, do you think I enjoy finding that both were taken by a couple of pranksters that managed to do nothing more then cause trouble and get on people's nerves! Do you think I like having the last things I had taken away! It isn't fun!" Chouko shouted at the two, by the end tears were streaming down her cheeks from anger and sadness.

"The people who gave me those I'll never see again. I would like to keep the things they trusted me to take care of is as good of shape as I can but it seems like that won't work. So go ahead, play with them, do what you want. I don't care anymore." Chouko got up from the beach, wiping her cheeks and eyes with her arms, and started to walk back to the beach house. She didn't want to deal with anyone, not after that explosion.

Haruhi glared at the twins before saying,"You know she bottles everything. She never lets anything out until she can't handle it. Most of the time she breaks down and cries but sometimes she goes off on people, which makes her feel horrible for doing later. You two should think carefully before you act next time." She then walked after Chouko, knowing she was going to lock herself in her room. She always did the same thing, quite predictable really, but when things got bad at least she was easy to find.

Haruhi stood outside Chouko's locked door, trying to talk her out of the room. Chouko had been locked in there for a while now and refused to come out, it seeming a bit childish actually.

Chouko sat in the floor of her room, leaning against the foot of her bed. She felt bad about going off on the twins but they shouldn't have gone through her things. Still she knew she shouldn't have handled it like she did and was embarrassed by what she did. Chouko sighed slightly before walking over to her laptop and finding one of the stations that streamed out of the U.S, she always liked variety in her music.

"Can we pretend that airplanes in the night sky are like shooting stars? I could really use a wish right now, wish right, wish right now." She sang along with the song playing through her speakers. She looked outside towards the beach and the ocean, remembering a trip she had once taken with her family. She had made a friend at the beach and he took her last root beer and ran, both of them laughing. It was a fun experience for her.

Chouko barely heard a knock on her door over the music she was playing loudly. She walked over and paused it, asking who it was on the other side of the door.

"It's Kaoru," "And Hikaru." "We would lie to apologize. We didn't realize how much those meant to you." The two said from the other side of the wooden door.

Chouko walked over to the door, opening it a bit, and stepped out. She didn't meet anyone's eyes as she said,"I'm the one who should be apologizing, I shouldn't have reacted the way I did. For that I am sorry." Suddenly she was pulled into an embrace from both sides, noticing it was the twins.

"Aw, you're so cute~!" The two said, creating a stereo effect in Chouko's ears.

"I guess all is forgiven?" Haruhi asked, barely suppressing a laugh.

Chouko nodded before saying,"But if they do that again I'm going to punch the both of them really hard." The three laughed a bit before heading back to the beach where the others had remained.

"This is going to be an interesting week" Chouko said to herself, knowing that more was in store for them just by the first couple days.

A/N

Sorry about the previous chapter, it sucked really badly. . Anyway I hope this one is up to par, and makes up a bit for the dissappointment of the last chapter. Anyway I'm finally out of my rut and writing more then ever XD Anyways reviews are always loved.

The song was Airplanes by B.O.B feat Haylee Williams, a great song by the way.