"Taaaakaaaashhhhi!"
Mori blinked as he gingerly climbed out the stretch limousine. He peered anxiously over at his cousin who was even now racing toward him at full speed. "Mitsukuni?" Out of habit, Mori braced himself for Hunny to go airborne.
Hunny ran at his cousin, his eyes watering and his arms flailing out in agitation. "Yeah! You're okay!" The shorter of the two boys wrapped himself around the other and attempted to climb him in relief that his cousin wasn't the one currently "passed out".
Mori grunted in pain, but didn't say anything as he was just relieved that Hunny wasn't the one who was sick or injured.
"He WAS okay." Haruhi commented dryly up at Hunny, now perched on the taller boy's shoulders. "Mori-sempai is still recovering from his surgery, I don't think it a good idea for you to climb…"
Hunny's hands covered his mouth in horror as his lips quivered. "I'm SORRY!" He choked out, then leapt off his cousin's shoulders and landed neatly in front of Haruhi. His expression was filled with remorse and unshed tears. "Takashi! I'm so sorry!"
She sighed and shook her head at him, once more surprised by how graceful and athletic the young-looking Hunny could actually be even in the throes of emotional turmoil. Tearing her eyes away from Hunny's repentant pleas, she turned to the tall young man by her side. "Mori-sempai? Are you alright?" She asked as the Lolita-Shota turned wide eyes on his cousin, pleading with Mori not to be hurt.
"Uhn." Mori grunted, reassuring Hunny into a quick smile.
Haruhi's eyes narrowed dangerously on Mori, sure he wasn't telling the truth. Reading her expression, he spread his hands innocently and shrugged as if to say 'I'm fine' without actually opening his mouth. It was Haruhi's turn to grunt as she turned to watch the twins saunter up to them all. Her soft grunt told Mori she didn't believe him, but she'd let it pass for now.
"You two are alright?" Haruhi asked the twins as her father and Mori's mother joined them. "Who's sick?"
The twins grinned in unison, then shrugged in the same manner Mori had just done so. Haruhi crossed her arms and stared them down. The body language may be the same, but Mori was a bit more trustworthy than the twins. And they didn't carry off the 'innocent' act very well. "What's going on?"
"You're looking in the wrong direction." Ranka said coolly, then pointed over to where Kyouya and Tamaki were walking up to them. Well, Kyouya was walking anyway. Tamaki was sort of stumbling and looked nearly incoherent.
Chiyoko looked worried as she hurried over to the young man. "Oh dear! Are you ill?" She asked, looking a bit flustered and out of her element. "Tatsuo, call an ambulance!"
Mori's father nodded and turned to give a look to the chauffeur.
"I'm sure that won't be necessary." Kyouya interjected before Haruhi could protest, sliding his glasses farther up on the bridge of his nose. "I don't think Tamaki is ill really, but he was so excited about the trip I don't think he ate breakfast." The Ohtori third son lied smoothly.
"Maybe milord has a fever." Whispered Hikaru, his eyes wide an anxious. Kaoru nodded, his rapt gaze never leaving their Host Club King as he stood, barely holding on to his balance.
Hunny sucked in a shocked breath. "A …fever?"
Mori's brows knitted in concern, he looked over at Haruhi his face clearly showing he hoped she knew what to do in such a dire moment.
Ranka sighed. "Don't you know how to tell if someone has a fever?"
Haruhi shook her head. "Don't bother, Dad. They probably call their family physician to come out to the house and check to see if there's a fever."
Tatsuo, Hunny, Mori, Kyouya, and the twins all nodded. Chiyoko fanned herself, uncertain. "Of course I know how to check on a fever. But I don't have a thermometer on me. Perhaps there's one in the first aid kit?" The beautiful and stylish woman's eyes sparkled just a bit at the end of her comment, making Haruhi's gaze tighten. Was the woman being serious …or not? She couldn't tell.
"You're blocking my store!" An old woman hurried out of her shop shooing at them with her hands. "You have expensive cars, but if you don't buy anything then what good do looking at your shiny vehicles do me???"
"We have an EMERGENCY!" Hunny breathed, all horrified seriousness. "A fever!" He said, as if mentioning a natural disaster.
Ranka shook his head and marched up to Tamaki, slapping his hand over the young man's forehead. "No fever." He announced.
"No?" The twins asked, looking crestfallen and utterly disappointed. "Are you sure? Check again!"
"Move on or buy something!" The old lady shook her bony fist at them. "You may be pretty on the eyes, but I have bills to meet!"
Chiyoko looked over at her husband. "Go buy healthy things. For the boys." She said softly and without the slightest indication that it was an order, even though it was. "Haruhi? Would you be a darling and help him? Men are helpless at this sort of thing."
Wide brown eyes blinked. Men were helpless? From what Haruhi could see, her father was the only one with a functioning brain right now and while he dressed like a woman, he was still a man. Still, no telling what Mori's father would consider 'healthy'. But before she could agree, her father stepped up. "I'll go too." Ranka announced, marching off toward the store with Tatsuo at his side.
Haruhi stared after the departing men in a state of surrealistic bemusement. Her father's long hair gleamed under the light of the late afternoon sun as his high-heeled boots clipped along on the pavement. You know, her father really was pretty, she thought to herself as she watched him.
The old woman sniffed triumphantly. "They look like a nice couple." She said, and started off after the two without anyone bothering to explain that the two men weren't a couple, nor was one of them the woman he appeared to be.
The twins clung to each other as they laughed themselves silly. Kyouya smirked as Hunny giggled.
Chiyoko chuckled after the old woman. "Wait until I tell that to Tatsuo!"
"Maybe he should sit."
The husky voice startled them as they all looked at Mori. But Mori's attention was on the still dazed looking Tamaki.
"What happened to him?" Haruhi asked, watching the Host Club King, puzzled. She hadn't seen Tamaki this bad since last month when she refused to hold his hand while crossing the street. Personally, she was getting a bit weary of the whole 'father' image he kept trying to foist off on her. She already had a father, even if he didn't always look the part.
"Reality." Kyouya said succinctly, but without enlightening them to any specifics. "Reality is what happened to him."
His explanation didn't enlighten Haruhi one little bit. Still, it looked like the twins understood. Haruhi raised an eyebrow as the twins gave each other knowing looks and smug grins. Then they actually slapped Kyouya on the back, both at the same time, though it didn't look like the Ohtori appreciated receiving the gesture as much as the twins liked giving it.
Still, she didn't ask for any further explanation sure that she either wouldn't get it, or wouldn't understand it. So it was too bothersome to ask. Instead she turned to look to see if there was anyplace that Tamaki could sit down for a moment. But her eyes were caught by the clenched jaw of Mori. She looked up at his eyes, not liking the tightness she saw there.
Drawing in a sharp breath, worry shook her deeply. "You ARE hurting!" She accused the tall, silent member of their club. Mori started to shake his head, but she interrupted him. "Don't you deny it! It's written all over your face."
Hunny looked up, alarmed. "Oh Takashi! You're supposed to tell me when you're hurting! Remember? You promised me while I visited you in the hospital. If you'd only told me sooner when you were hurting at school, your appendix wouldn't have been so close to bursting." The young-looking senior student chided his cousin. "You PROMISED!"
Mori's eyes widened as he shook his head down at Hunny. The twins nearly giggled to see their tallest club member cowed into submission by their two smallest club members. "I'm fine."
"You only think you're fine. Hunny-sempai's right, you need to speak up when you're hurting!" Haruhi scolded, drawing surprised looks from everyone except Kyouya and Tamaki. The Shadow King didn't look surprised because he wasn't. While Tamaki was still in a daze and hadn't heard her uncharacteristic outburst.
The twins 'ooohed' at each other as Haruhi escorted Mori back to the stretch limousine. "The doctor sent you with pain medicine and I'll bet you've not taken your dose on time. If it were Hunny, you would have made sure HE took his medicine instead of trying to be all stoic."
A bemused Chiyoko followed Haruhi and her son back into the vehicle, followed by Hunny. The twins merely watched from the open door as the women and the Haninozuka bullied and pushed Mori down onto the long seat and made him take his medicine. Then they scolded and nagged until he accepted a pillow and laid down along the seat.
Kyouya watched with a smile that did not really reach his eyes. While he was happy that all his plans were coming to fruition, he still felt a pang of hurt. Of wishing it were he that Haruhi was actually fussing over. The first such fussing those in the Host Club had ever witnessed from their more blasé female member. He looked over at Tamaki and sighed.
"Be glad you're still dazed and not able to witness this. I think the shock alone would kill you." The Ohtori told his first friend.
"I'm not that out of it." Tamaki's eyes cut toward Kyouya, though his balance was still not the best. "And don't think I don't sense your hand behind all this nonsense."
"Ah." Kyouya nodded, having been pretty sure Tamaki was more with them than he'd looked.
"Why?" The Host Club President hissed, his face turning red as he watched the open door of the limousine as the twins hung over the door.
The third son of the Ohtori family pondered his answer a moment, wanting to phrase it just so. "Is Mori so bad a choice?"
Tamaki fumed. "That's beside the point. She's too young! As her father …"
"You are not her father."
"I am LIKE her father. She said so herself." Tamaki ground out between clenched teeth.
Kyouya didn't belabor the point, though he felt Haruhi's words and her intentions behind those words were not exactly as Tamaki saw them in his inner theatre. "All children grow and leave the nest. This isn't seedy or anything. A match between 'our' daughter and the heir of the Morinozuka clan is not to be sneezed at."
That shut Tamaki up, as Kyouya had intended.
"If you want to arrange a better, or higher, attachment for our child," Kyouya couldn't keep the sneer out of his voice or off his face. "You'd be looking at either royalty or nobility. Neither of which would easily accept a girl of her background, no matter how exceptional she may be."
Tamaki growled low. "Haruhi is a pearl beyond price!"
Kyouya nodded in all seriousness, which deflated some of his friend's anger.
"There are others, of high station that would accept her. Those with both money, prestige, and clear vision of her worth." Tamaki insisted. "And I don't mean the twins!"
"I can think of at least two such individuals off hand." Kyouya said dryly.
Tamaki just looked at him, suspicious.
"Me and you."
o.o.o.o.o
"Oh my!" Ranka rushed up to see Hunny fanning a wilted looking Tamaki. "Maybe he really is sick!"
Tatsuo reached for his cell phone.
"Love sick." Kyouya stated firmly, blatantly ignoring his fallen friend. Hey, he'd kept Tamaki's head from striking the ground, that was as far as he was willing to exert himself. Well, actually it had been his chauffeur who'd caught Tamaki's head, but Kyouya had shouted for the guy as the Host Club President had weaved and started to fall.
Tatsuo put away his cell phone, sighing as he nodded to Kyouya. "You sure?"
The Ohtori nodded sharply. "Only too sure." He said blandly, then nodded over to where Haruhi was climbing out of the limousine. "Coming to terms with losing someone can be a hard growing experience."
"Uhn." Tatsuo grunted, making Kyouya smile as the father and the son sounded remarkably alike.
"Oh well, I have just the thing to perk him up!" Ranka crowed, digging through the shopping bags that Tatsuo had carried out for them. "See! Cod liver oil! It's healthy and perfect."
Haruhi drew up sharply, her eyes narrowing on her father. "That's for people with arthritis, or young children." She said, unsure as Ranka found a plastic spoon.
"Arthritis?" Hunny whispered, appalled. "I just thought Tamaki had a fever."
"It's good for all that ails you!" Ranka stated firmly, with a definite gleam in his eye.
Kyouya pursed his lips. "Cod liver oil? Well. Cod is definitely healthy, and I know that the oil is rich in vitamin A and has a good effect on the heart. But I don't think Tamaki's 'heart' condition is curable with fish oil."
"Heart condition?" Hunny and Haruhi looked over at Kyouya. "What heart condition?"
"Broken." Kyouya told them bluntly.
Hunny firmed his lips and nodded, though Haruhi still looked puzzled.
"Dad, wait a moment. That stuff tastes nasty." Haruhi said as the chauffeur helped Tamaki sit up, the young man blinking owlishly at them all.
"No it doesn't." Kyouya said blithely. "High quality cod liver oil tastes mildly like sardines."
Ranka shoved the oil laden spoon into Tamaki's mouth and the boy's eyes widened in alarm as he started to choke. "Swallow!" Ranka spoke loudly and with authority.
Tamaki swallowed as his eyes started to water, he coughed and sputtered and jumped up in alarm as he shook his hands helplessly.
"See?" Ranka said proudly as Tamaki glared at them all, his gaze promising death and mayhem. "He's good as new."
Kyouya peered over at the bottle Ranka was holding. "That was an extreme response. Are you sure that was cod liver oil?"
Haruhi shook her head. "Yes. But do you really think we'd be able to find the 'high quality' oils you're used to at a roadside store?"
The Ohtori sighed as he eyed the store, then Tamaki as he tried to wash his mouth out with juice he'd grabbed from the shopping bags. "I guess you have a point."
Hunny's eyes were huge as he watched the alarming redness in Tamaki's face. "What does common folk cod liver oil taste like?"
"Rotten fish." Haruhi made a face as they all watched Tamaki shudder and shake in horror.
o.o.o.o.o
Sorry for the short chapter. I'm going to be busy all next week, after that you can expect an update. It's our tech and final dress rehearsals for INTO THE WOODS. My part is extremely small, but I love theatre! Thank you! As always, reviews are most welcome!