"Pumpkin-senpai?" Haruhi wandered up to the entrance of the hedge maze, glancing around for her club-mate. What did she want that was so secretive she couldn't say in front of the others? Advice maybe, on her and Mori's relationship? Although Pumpkin had acted like she'd broken it off with him, they acted like they were a couple. Sighing to herself, she sat down on the marble bench and watched the waters of the pond, losing herself to her mind.
"H-Haruhi-san?" Kasanoda approached slowly, peering down at her.
"Huh?" Looking up quickly, she blinked a few times to clear her head. "Oh, Casanova-kun. What are you doing out here?"
"I wanted to see you." He responded quickly before sitting next to her, then jumping back up, face red. "Is it okay to sit here?"
Laughing softly, she nodded. "Yea, it's fine. I'm just waiting for Pumpkin-senpai, she said to meet her out here."
"Oh, I see." She didn't notice the slightly defeated look on his face. "Is it alright for me to sit with you then? While you wait, that is?"
"Of course. After all, you're a friend, so it's alright." She smiled up at him, not seeing the slight twitch under his eye as his heart skipped a beat.
He did so, trying not to take up too much space there. "Uh-huh. H-hey, Haruhi, what- sort of things do you like to do?"
"Research. I like learning the things that my mother knew about. I also like to make up new recipes using leftover foods."
"You must have.. been close, huh?"
"Kind of-"
"Hey!" Someone's voice caught them off guard. "Found you." It was a group of kids about Kasanoda's age, maybe a couple a little older, with the one in front bouncing a bat off his shoulders. "About time we found you, you little brat."
"M-me?" Haruhi pointed to herself as Kasanoda stood up quickly, standing between the group and her, arms outstretched.
"Run-" Kasanoda turned his head to tell her that when the bat swung across his head before he could react. He slumped to the ground in a heap.
Eyes wide, Haruhi stood and took a step backward. Was there a way to barter with these guys at all? Gulping hard, she opened her mouth to talk when the guy in front spoke up first.
"Well, well. Looks like he had a little pet. Maybe we should take you back with us, hm?" He reached out and grabbed her arm.
"Hey- let me go!"
"Come on now, don't be like that. After all, you're just a guy, it's not like we're gunna rap-" Pulling her toward him and wrapping his other hand around her, he got a good grope on her chest. "Well I'll be damned."
"You will be damned!" Tamaki appeared, as well as the others. Pointing, he shouted again. "Let that first year go!"
"Oh? And what's it to you?" He pulled Haruhi a little closer.
Hani stepped forward, hands in his pockets as he glared at the group. "I don't think we'll have any issue taking these thugs out, do you, Bun-bun?" He pulled his stuffed rabbit a little closer to his side with his arm.
"Hey, boss, isn't that-"
"Yea, I think so-"
"I don't think holding back is an option at this point, Hani-senpai." Kyouya pushed up his glasses.
"Hikaru, Kaoru! Obtain object Daddy's Girl! Hani! Beat the shit out of 'em!" Tamaki shouted.
"Aye, aye!"
-x-
Needless to say, it wasn't a hard fight. The thugs were out quickly, warned to never return as they didn't even go to their school and they retreated with their tails between their legs without another word. Kasanoda was sent to the infirmary. The host club sat in their room, Tamaki lecturing Haruhi, while she and the others seemed to be in a bit of a grump.
"You can't just let yourself be taken advantage of like that, Haruhi! You've got to learn self defense or something! Even Pumpkin knows self defense, it's not bad for a girl to learn-"
"Don't compare me to her! I'm my own person, senpai!"
"And what were you doing out there, anyway?"
"Pumpkin asked to see me after class, she never showed up. Casanova-senpai was there and wanted to sit with me. I didn't see the harm in it!"
"Oh!" Hikaru and Koaru looked at each other before looking at Tamaki. "Could it have been a setup by Pumpkin?"
"She wouldn't do that, it's not like her!" Tamaki refused.
"Although she did say it was a secret." Haruhi's brow creased.
"Now, why would Pumpkin set up something like that to attack Haruhi?" Kyouya scratched his chin.
"Jealousy!" The twins chimed.
"That doesn't make sense. What's Pu-chan jealous of?" Hani nibbled at a slice of cake.
Tamaki slumped into a chair as he placed a thumb and forefinger at the bridge of his nose. "Oh!" He looked up quickly. "She's jealous that she doesn't have the type of father-daughter relationship that Haruhi and I have!" He leaned next to Haruhi and wrapped his arm around her.
"Senpai, don't be stupid." She pinched the hand that was on her shoulder.
"Hmm." Kyouya opened his laptop and began typing.
"What is it?" Hikaru and Kaoru leaned in.
"Perhaps Tamaki isn't too far off. She did say she wanted to overtake her father's company, and as it is right now, he's lost just about everything he has. But instead of a jealousy of a father-daughter relationship, perhaps she is testing her powers of persuasion?"
"But to do that so openly! It's a terrible thing!" Kaoru called out.
"We should go and confront her right away!" Hikaru yelled.
"She should be kicked out of the Host Club for acting like this!" They said together. "No one can get between us!"
"Her actions are definitely unacceptable!" Tamaki made a fist. "My Haruhi comes first, and if that means removing Pumpkin, so be it!"
Hani looked to the side, muttering. "And she took Takeshi away from me."
"And my debt is doubled because of her." Haruhi's head dropped as dread lines grew behind her.
"Hm. Interesting." Kyouya couldn't deny a smirk as he stood up. "Then I suppose a visit to the Sagano household is in order."
-x-
"Pumpkin!" Tamaki yelled, standing at her gate. "We need to talk!" Her door had opened before he spoke, and she seemed a little surprised to see them. But her father had called out for her at the same time, and he seemed upset, too. It was a long pause before Pumpkin slammed the door shut and yells were heard inside the house.
The one thing Kyouya noticed, was that she was still in her uniform, and she was flustered. These were a couple of signs of stress and dealing with something serious. Not to mention the yelling coming from within. After a few moments the garage door opened and out came a car that he expected was being paid for with money they didn't have. After it was gone, the front door opened again, and Pumpkin stood there in normal clothes. Normal for her, in any case. She obviously had a black and purple fetish combo.
"Sorry to keep you waiting, guys. Please come in." She invited, running up to unlock the gate. Her hands shook and she avoided looking at any of them. Was she guilty after all? Was she taking her at-home issues out on them? "My dad's out for the night, so we'll have the house to ourselves." She led them inside and sat them at the dining table.
He could feel Tamaki was uncomfortable, as well as Hikaru and Kaoru. Those three sat gritting their teeth, hands gripped in their laps. Hani just looked slightly peeved and depressed, while Haruhi seemed as though she wanted nothing to do with the situation. He almost felt sorry for her. But she was involved in this nonetheless.
Pumpkin offered tea and noodles and sat across from them. "So, what did you guys want to talk to me about? Is everything okay?" If she had set up that incident, her acting in this moment was superb.
"Pumpkin, did you set up an attack on Haruhi?" Tamaki was completely straightforward, and Kyouya feared she'd clam up if she had actually done it.
"What?" Her eyes darted to Haruhi. "Were you attacked? Are you okay?" She looked genuinely concerned. Perhaps she was a pawn in someone else's larger plan?
"Y-yea, I'm fine." Haruhi's hands went up. "These guys showed up and helped me."
"But that doesn't explain why you asked to see her and then didn't show up!" Hikaru accused.
"What are you talking about?"
"You don't remember?" Haruhi sounded almost perturbed. "You said it was a secret."
Pumpkin sat, deep in thought. "Oh. Oh! Oh, Haruhi, I'm so sorry! It wasn't that I forgot. Bossanova-chi, he asked me to ask you meet you out there. It sounded like a set up for a confession thing, I didn't want to get that involved by being there!" She bowed over the table in apology. "If he attacked you, it's my fault."
"No, no! It wasn't Bossa-chan." Hani chimed in. "It was a group of lackeys, Bossa-chan was on the ground, unconsious."
"Then I'm responsible for that, too." Pumpkin sighed heavily, keeping her head down.
"You can't be, though!" Tamaki said. "If you really didn't set this up, then it's not your fault."
"But." Kaoru began. "What do you mean by confession thing? Was Bossanova-chi planning on confessing to Haruhi?"
"NO! UNFORGIVABLE!" Tamaki yelled.
"Quiet down, senpai, this is someone's house!" Haruhi tried to silence him.
"If anyone's going to fall in love with my little girl, it's going to be me!" He retorted, and his words echoed in the room as he said it.
"Uh.. s-senpai?" Haruhi's hand fell from his arm.
Kyouya could only sit and watch with the rest of them as the idiot's face went quite red. He thought he heard Hikaru grumble something as his arms crossed over his chest.
"What was that?" Kyouya asked, looking directly at the red-head.
"Eh-! N-nothing." Hikaru looked away.
"Could it be, you're upset because Pumpkin learned to differentiate between the two of you?"
"What!?" The twins yelped as their shoulders shivered.
"What?" Pumpkin slowly looked up at them.
"Nothing." Kyouya replied. "Just a thought." So they did each have their own reasons to not like her, but now that the issue was cleared up with the Kasanoda incident, Tamaki seemed on normal terms. Hikaru and Kaoru didn't like her because she told them apart. Hani didn't like her because of Mori spending too much time with her. Mori seemed to be infatuated with her. Which left Kyouya's own standing with her. What did he feel about her? Her father's companies were failing, which meant she may move back to Germany soon because of it. However, if she was true to her word and striven to take over her father's companies, it was likely she could become a valuable asset to him. Although the food industry wasn't really up his alley. Which had him wondering about melon-flavored noodles. Was that an option?
"Hey. Heeey." A hand waved in front of his face.
"Melons..?" Kyouya blinked to see Pumpkin leaning in. It caught him off guard and he had to fight not to slap her for getting so close.
"Everyone left. They wanted to see how long it would take before you came back to reality. But, that was like twenty minutes ago. What was that about melons?"
Coughing politely, he moved to stand but found his legs had fallen asleep from the waist down. "Nothing."
"You really fell asleep there, huh?" She leaned back a moment before standing with a tray of dirty dishes she'd gathered off the table. "Hey, thank you."
"For?" He looked at her quizzically.
"Not assuming I was a terrible person by setting up a bad thing for Haruhi." She took the tray to the kitchen.
True, he didn't believe it for a moment, but in the heat of the moment it was easy to point fingers. However, who was responsible? The only way to figure that out would be to talk to Kasanoda. He'd have to deal with that tomorrow. Pulling his cell from his pocket, he flipped it open and called his driver.
"Hey, you planning on leaving so soon?" Pumpkin returned with a rag and a cleaning solution for the table.
"I don't wish to overextend my welcome."
"Don't be silly." The way she was leaning over the table to clean it, he could see into her shirt. "You're a friend, you could stay as long as you want- as long as dad's not around, that is." She laughed, and her breasts moved as she did so, though it was probably her arm moving against them.
Averting his eyes quickly, he shook his head. "I do have responsibilities to return to." He tried to stand again, but his legs were dead weight. He collapsed to the side, reaching his arm to brace against the floor when Pumpkin reached out and grabbed him, sitting him back at his place.
"Hey, watch it. Are you okay?"
"My legs are asleep." Her body was quite warm. Was it true what they said about Germans? She was hot-headed.
"Oh, here." Sitting next to him, she straightened out his legs under the table and gently rubbed them. They tingled badly and he had to grit his teeth as the blood slowly began to flood back through. "My mom used to have me do this when she was up on all-nighters. As I got older, she'd have me rub her shoulders too, and said I could one day be a masseuse as I had the strength of one. She'd worry about me too, sometimes, and insist to rub my shoulders back. But, I have my own ways of letting off stress. Here, let me." She stopped rubbing his legs, and sat behind him.
"Please, don't bother, there's no use-" His mouth fell open as he struggled not to make a noise of relief as her hands gripped his shoulders tightly. He could feel the release of his muscles as she worked her hands, gripping and slowly releasing his muscles there. He felt his breathing change as her thumbs pressed into his spine and he couldn't hold himself up any longer, collapsing back against her. He was still awake, but so groggy he could barely comprehend what was going on. Eyes closing, he felt her hands rubbing against his upper arms before he slipped into a deep sleep.
Something brought him back to reality, though he couldn't be sure as to what. A bang? It was much too quiet. Sitting up slowly from his spot on the floor, Kyouya glanced around to see his feet were still under the table, a small blanket wrapped around his shoulders. On the table was a small note.
You've been asleep for a bit. I'm going out to get some food, you're welcome to anything you might need before you leave. Good night! -Pumpkin
He did need to urinate. Standing slowly, he felt that his legs were operating normally, and the pains that he hadn't even noticed in his shoulders were gone. Rotating his shoulder, he felt it was loose in his socket and he felt.. energized. It was a good feeling. "Thank you." He muttered to the air before folding up the blanket and setting it on the table, then making his way to the bathroom.
If this were a standard bathroom in most Japanese houses, as this seemed to be, there would have been two doors after opening the first, one that led to the toilet and the other that led to the bath.
If this were a standard westernized bathroom, there would be a lock on the door, for whoever used it would lock and if anyone tried to open the door would find it locked and would walk away.
However, it seemed neither was the case here. The door opened without any complaint, and there on the edge of the bath sat Pumpkin, naked, one hand grabbing at her breast while the other moved between her legs. Her head was leaned back, hair falling around her, eyes closed, and making the softest noises he could barely comprehend. Logic said run. Common courtesy said close the damn door. But his brain couldn't operate. Her hips rotated back and forth, her breathing becoming shallower, faster. He needed to leave, now. But he couldn't move. His eyes were drawn to her, like a car wreck or a severe, bleeding wound. Only this wasn't anything like that, it was- it was- sensual.
"Mmh.." Her teeth sank into her lip, and he fought to move. Her voice was succumbing to her finish.
Heart beat racing in his ears, Kyouya tried again to move. Was this her way of releasing stress? He'd read that pleasing oneself was a great way of feeling relaxed and a natural stress reliever.
"K-Kyouya!" Her eyes were open, staring directly at him, face quite red. But her tone of voice sounded more erotic than upset. "Leave!" Her knees had moved up to cover herself.
He didn't need to be told twice. Turning on his heel, he closed the door behind him and walked in a straight line to the front door. He thought her heard her run after him, but couldn't be sure. Out the front door, his legs carried him to the gate where his driver started up the engine of the limo.
"Wait!" He heard her call again, but he was already in the car, and by the time she was to the gate, the limo was turning the corner.
As he sat there, all he could think of was that look on her face when she'd looked at him. Like lust mixed with need. It was the first time she'd ever called him by his first name, and he was sure it was right in the middle of her- her- face turning red, Kyouya covered his face with his hand. He needed to remove the image from his head.
"A. First letter of the English alphabet. Noun. A. One, some, many, any. One-like. One single. Per. Adjective. A. About. Acre. Alto Ampere. Answer. Abbreviation." Kyouya! This wasn't helping! Listing off words and their meaning in English usually occupied most his thought process, as English was so different than Japanese, but this didn't do anything at all! Rubbing his head, he clenched his eyes shut, seeing her back arched forward, head leaned back and purple hair draped over her shoulders, hands pressing against herself in that sensual way, her mouth open and making sounds that only made him react in a certain way. "Damn it." He muttered as he stared out the window, hard. Watching the light posts pass only made him dizzy, their lights brightening and fading in their quick succession as they passed. Kyouya! He just couldn't get away from it! Leg bouncing, he closed his eyes again in an attempt to push the images away with a mental broom. Again, it didn't help. His mind was insistent on seeing her in that way, toes curled under, legs outstretched and hand moving between where her legs connected. Was this punishment for something? What had he done to deserve this?
His door opening brought him back to a sort of reality. Exiting the limo quickly, he jogged into the house and tiptoed to his room, grateful to have passed by his sister's room without any interruptions. Closing the door quietly, he exhaled then changed into his pajamas in a robotic way. Kyouya! Her voice still echoed in his ears as he collapsed on to his bed. There was no way she going to let this go. He wasn't even sure he'd be able to face her tomorrow. But the image returned of her back arched, all that purple around her, hand gripping at her breast and moaning softly; and his hand found it's way between his own legs. Clenching his eyes tight, he tried not to think of it, but his seventeen year old hormones had a mind of their own. Pressing his lips together, he felt his breath become shallow through his nose as his brain repeated the image over and over. Kyouya. Kyouya.. Kyouya!
"Damn it-" He gritted out as his body finally shivered in response to his mind's insistent image show. Opening his eyes slowly, he exhaled hard as he attempted to calm his breathing. How was he going to deal with this? Sitting up, he stared at the wall for a long moment before his bladder reminded him why he went into that bathroom in the first place. Exhaling hard with a bit of a growl, Kyouya made his way into his bathroom and cleaned himself up.
Wiping his face, he caught his reflection in the mirror. He looked tired. Tilting his head a little, he suddenly became quite curious. What about her did he not know? And what about her mother back in Germany? Leaving the bathroom, he walked over to his laptop and opened it, before tapping away at it. A few moments later his typing stopped and his brows raised, smirking a little. "Interesting."