Chapter Fourteen: Hot Springs
Anxiety, Kiiro had plenty of anxiety problems. Whenever she over thought something she could feel the tension building in her chest, her heart pounded and her stomach flipped. Her words came out all wrong, jumbled when she spoke or too quiet, stammers and stutters. She was quite familiar with the symptoms.
She had them now, as she waited for the Host Club to empty of guests, so she could speak with a certain someone.
The anxiety settled in her skin.
"Remember to come see us again after the break, ladies." Kyouya smiled, host-voice latent.
"The Ouran Host Club will be waiting for you." Tamaki winked at the collection of squealing girls, his flawless grin glinted.
"We'll see you then." the group said in unison, as all of the girls took their leave.
After a moment, the boys (and Haruhi) broke out of their practiced poses.
"And now Golden Week can begin!" the Twins relaxed.
"Even men as beautiful as I need time to rest." Tamaki stretched, still in King-mode.
"Are we going to take a vacation again, Tama-chan~?" Hani asked of the younger boy, recalling the time they all headed out to the Ootori Resort.
"If we do, let's avoid places with crocodile pits." Hikaru snarked, hands behind his head.
"And somewhere less experimental." Kaoru added, as no one was looking forward to being Kyouya's guinea pigs anytime soon.
"Well, I hadn't thought about it." Tamaki pondered, suddenly deep in thought. "But, if a certain someone wanted to go somewhere this week, Daddy would happily take them anywhere!" he hinted, with a side glance at Haruhi.
Haruhi caught the hint and harshly replied, "It's not like I'm doing anything this week, but I'm looking forward to a break from this club, senpai." she said pointedly.
Tamaki curled up in his corner.
"You know it's you're fault that she doesn't want to hang out with us, Tono." the Twins crossed their arms.
The trio began to bicker, and amidst their clamor, Kiiro approached the object of her thoughts.
"U-um, well, i-if you're not doing anything, maybe wouldn't mind maybe going to an onsen with me?" she blurted out. "For a few days? Just the two of us? I mean, if you're not too busy."
A body of silence filled up the room. Everyone looked to Kiiro in shock.
"Kiiro-senpai?" Haruhi gave her an odd look. "S-sure, if it's just the two of us, I wouldn't mind."
Kiiro's eyes lit up, "Really?!" the anxiety lifted from her shoulders. "I'll pay, of course!" she beamed. "Is it going to be a problem with your Father?"
"No, he's always pushing me to hang out with girls more, anyway." she shrugged.
As the two girls chatted, the rest of the club watched, still in shocked silence, "H-Haruhi... K-Kiiro's taking Haruhi to an onsen...?" Tamaki muttered. "Why...why didn't I think of that?" he slumped.
"Even if you had, Haruhi would have declined." Kyouya said nonchalantly, perhaps the only one not in a state of sheer surprise.
"Hey! Kiiro-senpai!" the Twins huffed, sliding to either side of her, "Where do you get off asking Haruhi out like that?!" they accused.
"Asking her out?" she knitted her brow. "It's not a date."
"Then why just the two of you?" they bent to meet her eyes-to-eye.
"Well, it's because we're both girls..." she put a finger to her chin. "And it's not like I could ask a boy to go to an onsen with me!" she defended herself.
The Twins acted like they had been struck by lightning, they joined Tamaki in his corner and the three of them cried, "It's not fair... They're both girls... So they get to hang out...?"
"But, Tama-chan, didn't you want Haru-chan to have girl friends~?" Hani tried to cheer him up.
"Hm." Mori agreed.
"That's right, you said so yourself when Renge joined Ouran Academy." Kyouya reminded him.
King and the Twins shared in an inner mind theater, where they imagined Kiiro tutoring Haruhi in the ways of a woman, they giggled and shopped together, dressed up in skirts while Kiiro taught Haruhi how to wear make up. They walked arm-in-arm through a field, smiling.
Tamaki stood, "That's correct!" he cheered, immediately brought out of his depression. With a grin he abruptly crowded Kiiro, "What an ingenious plan, Aunty!" he took her hands in his, tears still streaming down his face. "We're all counting on you!"
"Plan...?" she recoiled, eyebrows raised, "W-what?"
The day after next, Kiiro and Haruhi had arrived in Kyoto, where Kiiro checked them in to a rather traditional onsen for a two-day stay.
Seeing as how it was a few hours past lunch time, and a ryokan traditionally served dinner and breakfast only, Kiiro begged Haruhi to explore a bit of Kyoto with her.
"Really? You've never been to Kyoto, Kiiro-senpai?" Haruhi tilted her head in confusion. "I thought you were as obsessed with Japan as Tamaki-senpai was?" she questioned. "No offense."
"None taken!" her senior grinned. "I was scheduled to visit here the summer after my sophomore year. But I ended up being so mystified by Tokyo that I spent almost the whole summer there." she fawned, hands to her rosy cheeks.
Haruhi chuckled at this unseen side of her senpai, "I never knew you came to Tokyo last summer."
Kiiro nodded as they walked through the busy streets, window shopping, "Mhm!" she chirped. "I've been there a number of times, when I was little, my Grandmother would take me often, she was half-Japanese and she grew up in Tokyo."
"So you're an eighth Japanese?"
"Yep! Maybe that's why I like this country so much?" she couldn't help but giggle. "Ne? Haruhi, look! A cat cafe? What a wonderful sort of place!" she cheered. "Can we stop for lunch?" she began to get carried away, fascinated by the prospect of dining while surrounded by cute, communal cats.
After a while of exploring and a little bit of early shopping for souvenirs, Kiiro and Haruhi headed back to the onsen, as the sun was about to set.
They returned to a large, traditional meal, which Kiiro had to take pictures of. "I'm sorry there's no otoro, Haruhi." she said as they finished.
"It's fine. " she chuckled. "It was still an amazing meal, though."
"And we'll get three more over our stay!" Kiiro grinned. "I'll probably have to start dieting again to lose all the weight I'm about to gain." she mused.
"I didn't know you were the type of girl to diet, senpai." Haruhi smiled.
"Well, I may not be all that interested in boys," she winked at her. "But I love swimming, so I need to stay in 'bikini shape'." she replied, relaxing on the tatami mat floor.
"I'm too much of a glutton to worry over dieting." Haruhi shrugged.
"So you admit it!" Kiiro pointed to the doe-eyed girl. "You are a glutton."
"There's nothing wrong with being a glutton." she smirked. "Especially when you do all the cooking at home."
"You're right!" she rested her head in her hands. "If I could it Haruhi's home cooked meals every day, I'd be a glutton, too!" she admitted.
Haruhi chuckled, "You're starting to sound like Tamaki-senpai on me, Kiiro-senpai."
"I'm not that bad am I?" she raised an eyebrow. "If I was I'd be sulking now." she poked fun at the loveable idiot.
The two laughed, thinking of the boys in their club.
"I think it's working, Tono!" Hikaru commented, ear pressed to the wall.
"Their laughing and chatting!" Kaoru informed the group.
The Hosts, unable to miss witnessing Haruhi bonding with a girl, and hopefully beginning to act more like one, had decided to "accompany-them-but-not-inform-them-about-accompanying-them" to the onsen. In other words, they were stalking them.
"Really?!" Tamaki beamed, "What about?!" he put his ear to the wall, straining.
"You know I think that's the perfect word to describe King!" he heard Kiiro say. "Obnoxious."
Tamaki recoiled from the wall, retreating to his corner.
"That's what you get for following them..." Kyouya sighed. "And why you should have stayed home..."
"If Kyou-chan wanted to stay home, why was he planning to come here without us~?" Hani wondered aloud in his sugar sweet voice.
Kyouya pushed up his glasses, they shined in the light, "I have my reasons, Hani-senpai." he said simply.
"I bet it's to see what Kiiro-senpai says about him." Kaoru muttered to his brother, quietly, who nodded.
After showering off, Kiiro wrapped herself in a towel, and walked outside to join Haruhi in the girl's hot spring bath.
The hot spring was just like she imagined, a quiet pool nestled between the rocks, swathed in steam, a tall screen separated the men's bath from the women's. She clapped her hands, "It's so beautiful!" she gasped, testing the hot water with one of her feet, before deeming it heavenly and submerging herself.
"Ahhh." she let out a sigh of content. "It's even better than I imagined." she settled down into the water, towel still on as was customary, and to keep some modicum of modesty around her junior.
"Yeah..." Haruhi agreed, feeling just as satisfied in that moment.
"Thanks for coming here with me, Haruhi." Kiiro glanced to her, finding her relaxed expression exceedingly cute. "I'll do anything you like to return the favor."
"You're welcome, Kiiro-senpai." she said calmly. "And it's not like you have to pay me back, you know, seeing as how you're paying for the trip."
"I know but still..." she began. "I really wanted to come here and I couldn't have asked one of the boys to accompany me..."
"Speaking of, Kiiro-senpai..." Haruhi perked up. "It seems there's a lot about you that I don't know...and I'm a little curious about something..."
"Yes, Haruhi?"
"Well, I was wondering about you and Kyouya-senpai." she stated. "I can tell the two of you are close, like you spend a lot of time together. Did you meet him when you visited last summer?" she asked.
"Kyouya..." she thought back to when they met. "No, we met long before that. I've known him for near a decade now."
"Really? So how did you meet?"
"Mhmm." she nodded. "When I was seven, my parents took me to a Gala in the spring, it was just outside of Tokyo and the family was an important associate of our business. I was really awkward back then..."
Haruhi wondered if she was aware that she was still awkward.
"...and I was surrounded by all of these kids who I didn't know. I was so nervous that I hid away in the garden, watching all of the adults dancing inside. And that's when Kyouya approached me, and asked me to dance." she concluded. "I think a few years after that we started talking to each other over the internet..."
"Wow, that's not really what I'd expect from Kyouya-senpai."
"Yeah, now that you mention it, it doesn't really sound very characteristic of him." she chuckled. "But we were seven."
She heard a splashing from the men's bath beyond the screen, "What a touching story! You never told me about it!" someone blubbered.
"Stay quiet!" two someones hissed.
"Get off of me." another someone growled.
"Th-those voices..." Haruhi paled, staggering in her realization.
"I-I think we better retreat to a safe distance, Haruhi." Kiiro said as the screen bowed against the weight of the boys pressed against the other side.
They angrily left the bath just as the screen gave way and Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru fell through to the other side in a pile, Kiiro slammed the sliding door to the spring shut, feeling dark and betrayed.
The boys bowed before the girls in apology, after having apologized to the manager of the ryokan for wrecking the screen. Excluding Kyouya, who bowed for no one.
"We're not stalking, I promise!" Tamaki flailed, trying to explain himself to Haruhi, who just looked at the group with a murderous glare.
"You were stalking and snooping on our conversations." she pointed out coldly. "This is why I was looking forward to a break..." she grumbled.
"We just wanted to see Haruhi transform into a girl!" the Twins wailed, squirming beneath her glare.
"Transform...?" Haruhi raised an eyebrow, unamused. "I'm already a girl, you know."
"I'm surprised, Twins," Kiiro shook her head at them. "That sounds like something only King would be dumb enough to say..."
"Aunty is so mean!" Tamaki cried, clinging to Kyouya's yukata.
"Hey! That's an insult! There's no way we're as thick as Tono!" they declared.
"And to spy on the women's bath," she tsked, reveling in their wriggling beneath the combined aura of the girls. "I thought you lot were a decent bunch, when really you're just perverts..."
"It's not like that at all!" Tamaki and the Twins cried as Haruhi's glare darkened.
"Come now, Kiiro, I'm beginning to think you're enjoying their cries." Kyouya smirked at her.
She smiled, aura vanishing for a moment, "I think you're rubbing off on me." she shrugged.
"No fair!" the gingers threw their hands up. "How come Kyouya-senpai doesn't get the 'evil treatment'?!"
"Because I wasn't trying to sneak a peek at the girls." he said with a smile, causing Haruhi to become even angrier.
After everything had calmed down, the group, upon mostly Tamaki and Kiiro's insisting, had visited one of the ryokan's common rooms. It was equipped with ping pong tables and commoner's vending machines and it had a beautiful view of a small, secluded garden. There was a little patch of woods outside and beyond that was the city lights, illuminating the night.
As the Twins versed Hani and Mori in an intense bout of table tennis, and repeatedly lost to the two martial artists, Tamaki (who was now in crybaby son mode) and Haruhi (who was in annoyed mother mode) watched them and Kiiro examined the odd vending machines before choosing a melon-flavored soft drink. She settled in a spot by the open door leading outside, admiring the night time view.
"You know they're having fireworks tomorrow night, in celebration of Golden Week." Kyouya sat beside her, appearing quite polished in his dark blue yukata.
"Really?" her eyes lit up. "That's perfect!" she took a sip of her surprisingly good melon drink. "I'm loving this trip. Kyouya, they have a cat cafe here!" she informed him.
"Do they?" he chuckled, he humored her, having known about them for a while now.
"Isn't that a wonderful idea? Commoners are geniuses, the waitress told me that they have cats because many commoners live in apartments that don't allow pets." she rambled happily.
"You seem surprisingly energetic." he commented with a smirk.
"Well, I've been wanting to come to Kyoto for a while now, and a ryokan." she confessed like it was a secret. "The water here is magic."
He smiled at her, and looked over her slim yukata, decorated in neon bubbles against a black background, her hair tied back with pink ribbon.
She caught the look he gave her, "K-Kyouya?" she questioned.
And she wasn't able to avert his gaze, he held her with his eyes, unable to escape or break away. It made her stomach flutter.
A ping pong ball flew into Kyouya's shoulder, he turned to the Twins angrily, spell broken.
"We challenge you two to a game!" the Hitachiins shouted.
Apparently Hani and Mori had retired to their rooms a short time ago, and now the Twins had no one to go against, because Haruhi had refused to play with any of them, being still mad.
Kiiro saw the glare Kyouya gave them, "Boys, I don't think that's such a good idea..."
"No, we'll play." Kyouya accepted to Kiiro's surprise, "I can be unexpected sometimes, Kiiro." he smirked, helping her up.
"So you were snooping." she stated flatly.
"Well, you were talking about me." he replied.
"Pay attention, you two!" Hikaru ordered, holding up his paddle.
"We won't go easy on you!" Kaoru warned them, like they were a threat.
Hikaru served the ball like he was playing a tournament, and Kyouya batted it back calmly. Every time the brothers hit the ball, they acted so seriously. And each time Kyouya smacked it back nonchalantly, Kiiro wasn't even able to hit it once, even when it was thrown to her, Kyouya would hit it before it came too close.
"H-hey!" she protested. "I'm playing too!" she felt like a toddler, upset because Kyouya wouldn't share.
"I know." he said simply, returning the ball to the Hitachiins without a sweat. "But you have no hand-eye coordination."
"But I can do it!" she whined.
"Suit yourself." Kyouya withdrew his paddle.
Kiiro aimed for the ball, and glanced it, sending it sideways, she proceeded to borrow Tamaki's corner of woe.
After another half hour of playing the club decided to retire. Kiiro, however wasn't very tired, "I wish they didn't have to repair the screen for the baths, I'd love to have another soak." she sighed.
"You know, the mixed bath is still open." Kyouya told her.
She perked up, "Oh! Good idea! I bet no one's there this time of night!" she cheered, heading for the baths again.
She relaxed in the water, towel wrapped around her again, her hair splayed out on the water's surface. The heat and the steam made her feel cleansed, and all of her aches, pains and worries just slipped away.
She heard a disturbance in the water, and opened her eyes to make out a figure in the steam. She frantically pulled her towel tighter, planning her retreat.
"It's okay, it's just me." the figure spoke.
"Kyouya?" she could see him now, blurred without her lenses. She relaxed, "Wait, how is that any better?" she snarked.
He chuckled, making his way over to her, "I promise not to try anything perverted." he offered his pinky.
"I know you wouldn't." she hid her blush, locking pinkies with him.
"You're quite trusting." he smirked.
"Well, I just know you wouldn't do something like that." she smiled, settling back.
"No, you're right." he replied. "Unless you wanted me to." he chuckled darkly.
Her cheeks lit up, "Kyouya!" she splashed him.
He splashed back, "It's always amusing to toy with you, Kiiro."
"Is it? Glad to be of service." she laughed.
After a moment of silence, which Kiiro spent desperately trying to ignore the fact that she and Kyouya wore nothing more than towels, Kyouya spoke up, "You know, you could have asked me to come here with you. I would have accepted. And we wouldn't have towed the rest of those idiots here with us."
"No way! That's too embarrassing!" she defied. "You're a boy!" again she reminded herself of a toddler.
"That doesn't seem to be bothering you right now." he pointed out, meeting her eyes.
It suddenly felt even hotter in the bath, there was something about his look that terrified her and intrigued her all at the same time. He looked so different without his glasses, more intense, perhaps. His eyes caught her again, like earlier, trapping her in his gaze. She felt like she would melt, and she felt electric.
He touched her hand beneath the water, making her jump, "I'd like to, but it's too early for that." he stated.
"What?" she puzzled. "Too early for what?"
He smiled, so genuine, "Just be quiet for a few minutes, Kiiro." he hushed her, hand wrapping around hers.
She opened her mouth to protest him further, but decided to just enjoy the moment. 'If I troubled myself over every cryptic thing he said...' she thought. '...I'd never get anything done.'
The next day, after breakfast, they headed out to explore Kyoto again. This time as a group. And Kiiro had to admit, it wasn't as bad as it could have been. There was minimal bickering, and everyone seemed much calmer than normal. A quality that could maybe be attributed to the soothing hot springs. They explored stands and shops aplenty, Haruhi had her try a variety of pickled things over the course of the day, which she found mostly too strange to pass up, she talked Haruhi into letting her buy her some souvenirs, they went to an arcade and became and she and Hani became a little obsessed with the highly-addictive DDR game there, and they revisited the cat cafe upon Kiiro, Hani and surprisingly Mori's urging. And in the meanwhile the other boys sat back and perhaps noticed that the two girls had bonded just a little bit. Which was a good thing, even if Haruhi stayed the same.
When they returned to the ryokan it the sun was setting, they ate, bathed (in their respective bath this time as the screen had been repaired), and headed outside to watch the fireworks.
"You know I had quite a bit of fun these past two days." Kiiro smiled as the sky lit up with purples, blues and reds. "Even if you all invited yourselves." she stuck her tongue out at Kyouya.
"It wouldn't have been as fun without us." he retorted, glasses reflecting the exploding colors above them.
"We ought to do this again sometime." she giggled, lying back in the grass.
"And try the mixed bath again." he smirked.
She reddened, "Well...maybe." she turned her head away from him and his chuckle.
Kiiro fell back on her bed, sighing, "I should have stayed longer..."
"Mistress Kiiro," one of her maids stood in her doorway. "Master Kyouya is here to see you."
"Really?" she slumped, sitting up. "I only just say him yesterday... Thank you, would you let him in, please?"
The maid bowed, receding down the hallway.
Kiiro waited for him to come to her room, to depressed from her vacation ending to move. When he did get there...
"Kyouya, is that a cat carrier?" she perked up, confused and excited.
"Interesting story, Kiiro." he invited himself in, closing the door behind him, "Before I left Kyoto, I ran into the owner of that cat cafe, and she was telling me that they had picked up a stray kitten not too long ago that they just didn't have room for. They were going to send him to a shelter, but I told her that I knew someone who would love him." he set the carrier down on the ground, opening it.
A little, black kitten stuck his head out, examining his surroundings.
"His name is Noel."
Kiiro could barely contain herself, she slowly went over to the adorable kitten. But, he was very affectionate and met her halfway. After spending several minutes admiring Noel, she rushed to Kyouya, hugging him tightly, "He's so cute!" she squealed. "Thank you so much, Kyouya!"
He chuckled, "You're welcome, Kiiro." patting her head as Noel looped between his legs.