Hi again! Yet another chapter is here. Sorry it took so long but voila~
OH and I think its time I told everyone who reads this fic that if it weren't for all you guys that read my fanfic, I would have given up on this fanfic long, long ago. So I thank you all from the bottom of my heart and Akahana is very grateful too. Its thanks to you all that this fic is still going and I will give my readers what they wish by the end of this fic. I love you all :) I will assure all my adoring readers though that this fic WILL END HAPPILY. I had planned that from the start. So bare with me guys. Only a few more chapters to go and this fic will be as good as done *crying happy tears*.
*EDIT* I had posted this chapter once before but since no one liked it, I deleted it and made it happier.
Next chapter at 185 reviews.
Disclaimer: Ouran and its characters arn't mine. They belong to Bisco Hatori . Akahana is mine.
Chapter 20:Reunited once more
"Wow...so this is America,huh?" Hunny looked up at the clear blue sky that cast itself over the new country he and his fellow peers had just came to.
Today was the day after the Ouran students had come to the new country but they hadn't explored anything due to the fact they were all tired. Today was technically day one of their field trip. The students would be visiting two states in America. Their first stop: New York. Bustling with city folk and tall sky scrapers surrounding all of them, this state was almost too much for the students to take in. Well, the ones who were easily amused anyways.
"Alright everyone, here's the plan. You all have one hour to explore the streets but don't go too far. The classes will meet up on the Big Apple afterwards and we'll go from there. Limit your spending to a minimum. Also, if any problems come up, contact your friends or me via cell phone. That's all." After listening to the teachers lecture, the students scattered about the streets of New York city.
The people that were usually together stayed with each other and explored the stores. Some went off on their own. And then there was Mori and Hunny. The two hosts walked down a long street alone, in complete silence. They had not spoken much to one another since the day before. After Mori had gotten sick, he had followed Hunny into their hotel room and mumbled a 'Goodnight' before going to bed. The next day, Hunny felt too awkward to say anything. Since the boy-lolita didn't know what was eating at his cousin, he couldn't cheer him up. Obviously the thing that bothered Mori was his nightmare he had had but Hunny wasn't sure how to ask about it...or if he SHOULD ask about it even. For now, the Haninozuka kept quiet, walking aside his mute cousin.
"Takashi...HOW COULD YOU?"
...First Hunny.
"...We thought you loved her, Mori-senpai!"
Then the twins...
"This is most unexpected...I can't believe you did such a thing, Mori-senpai."
Next Kyouya,
"I can't believe it either...I thought you were our friend, Mori-senpai...Poor Akahana...What did she do to deserve any of this?"
Tamaki...
"...Senpai...you murderer. Akahana trusted you...she...she LOVED you. And you killed her!"
And finally Haruhi.
The nightmare Mori-senpai had had the day before still haunted his mind. From when he had gotten sick on the plane to when he got up that morning. Over and over, all's Mori heard were the false accusations from his friends that had been made, and despite knowing his friends would never say those horrible things to him, his friends turning on him seemed more like realty than a dream. It was obvious to Mori that the dream was a sign of some sort. Perhaps a warning. This thought zombified the man, so to speak. Well, at least to Hunny and the other classmates, Mori seemed to be a zombie ever since the previous day.
Seeing Akahana's dead body lying on the ground in front of him. Her father appearing in his nightmare and telling him things like "She's going to die no matter what you do," and "You'll be the one to kill her". His friends turning against him...even Mitsukuni. Maybe it was better Mori never reunited with her. If he did, what would happen? Would his dream become a realty somehow? Could he really end up...
'...No.' Mori shook the bad thought away from his head, shutting his eyes tight. He wouldn't let himself be consumed by such nonsense any longer.
...There was no way he would end up killing her. And there was no way she would die anyways. Her father couldn't hurt her anymore. And now that she was in a new country all by herself, perhaps she could finally live a happy, peaceful life like she always wanted. The stoic man had to shake the horrible thoughts from his mind...Maybe if Mori just forgot about her, the bad thoughts would go away. Yes...all's he had to do was just stop thinking about her. No, not just stop thinking about her. Mori knew what he had to really do,
'...I'll forget about her all together.'
A picture of Akahana smiling flashed in Takashi's mind,
"...I'll forget ever meeting her...then everything will go back to normal."
"Huh? What'd you say Takashi?" Hunny looked over to Mori in question. Mori mentally kicked himself when he realized he had just thought aloud,
"Never mind, Mitsukuni. C'mon, lets go." Mori mumbled, trotting ahead of his cousin at full speed. Hunny faked a smile and responded "ok" but his smile quickly fell to a frown,
"...you'll...'forget' about her...?" The boy whispered quietly so only he could hear but sadly followed after Mori down the street.
-Timeskip: A few hours later, with the entire third year class-
After a long day of exploring the streets of New york, the third year class of Ouran academy decided to spend their afternoon and evening in one of the most historical parts of New York city: Alphabet City. This city was full of wonderful things that the students could learn about; and almost every student seemed to be totally absorbed in it's culture. Well, ALMOST everybody...
Standing a few feet away, behind their classmates were Hunny and Mori. They weren't really interested in the city and they weren't as ecstatic as their fellow peers anyways. However, it was certainly unusual for Hunny to not partake in something everyone else was doing. This worried some of the girls that were regular guests to the host club. When they had asked the two hosts what was wrong, Hunny faked a smile and spoke for both himself and Takashi, simply saying that they were tired and would check out the city "another time". Feeling they shouldn't pry any longer, the girls simply nodded and made their way away from the two men, leaving them by themselves, standing there in front of a sky scraper.
It was four o'clock now and time wasn't flying by fast enough. Honestly, Hunny just wanted this field trip to be over. He couldn't even talk to his cousin now after he had overheard him saying how he'd forget about Akahana. And things had only seemed to grow more awkward between the Morinozuka and Haninozuka as time wore on,
"Um...T-Takashi?"
"...What?"
Hunny bit his lip at feeling the tenseness of the air again, "Um...well...it's boring just standing here so...maybe we should..."
Mori didn't look down at Hunny once. Not even when he went to respond to him, "...should...?"
Hunny grasped his bunny tightly, "Um..." The seventeen-year old eyes suddenly wondered over to what seemed to be a stand of some kind.
There was a sign that read "Fortune-teller. Only $5.00"
'Fortune-teller...?' Hunny thought for a moment, and then looked up at Takashi. His face was drained of all its color, bags hung under his eyes, and all the life that had once been in his eyes was gone now. Perhaps it was because he was trying to forget about the woman he loved...and then, it hit Hunny.
"T...Takashi! Lets go over there and get our fortunes read!" Hunny shouted excitedly, grabbing the taller man's arm as hard as he could. Before Mori even had a chance to reply, he was dragged over to the stand by his cousin at full speed, "Hi! We'd like our fortunes read, please!"
The lady sitting across from the hosts at the stand flashed a sweet smile, "Alright. That will be $5 each. I'll read the tall one's first," The woman replied, pointing to Mori.
Takashi said nor did anything but look half-dead at the woman.
"Take a seat." She said, pushing over a chair. Mori sat while Hunny handed the woman the money. The woman's blue eyes locked onto Mori's grey ones.
Her eyes...they reminded Mori of Akahana's. They were the exact shape...the exact color. However, even though the fortune-tellers eyes were the same as Akahana's, to Mori, they were still not as beautiful as Aka's were.
"Alright young man, give me your hand and I will read your fortune."
Mori said nothing and gave the woman his hand. A few minutes of complete silence past before the woman gave Mori his hand back and looked at him, sadly,
"...You are feeling a great deal of pain right now. It seems you are trying to forget someone that is precious to you. But..." The woman reached down under the table and pulled out a crystal ball, "I think there is something you should be aware of before you decide to forget about that precious someone completely..."
Mori blinked and did nothing but stare blankly at the woman.
The fortune-teller looked into her crystal ball for a moment or two and then looked back up, "You will soon have an encounter with the very person you are trying so very hard to forget,"
"...!" Takashi's eyes immediately went wide with shock and his blank expression dropped off his face. The woman went on,
"And when you do encounter her...if you brush her off and let her go, as you had planned, you will never see this person again. That is what the crystal ball is telling me..."
"..." Before anything else could be said, Takashi stood up quickly, tears flying out of his eyes. The man turned away, and began to walk off. Now there was just Hunny and the fortune teller, sitting in complete and awkward silence.
"...Tama-chan, how did you get here?" Hunny asked, suspiciously looking at who was said to be the fortune-teller.
"GYAAA!" The 'woman' stood up as fast as she could but tripped on the leg of the chair and fell forward causing a wig to go flying through the air. And just as Hunny thought...that fortune-teller woman was none other then Tamaki.
"...The rest of you...come on out." Hunny mumbled, not turning his head at all.
Behind the sky scrapers surrounding him, the other members of the host club stepped out of the shadows in their cosplay. The twins were dressed as construction workers, Haruhi and Kyouya were suppose to be a married couple, and Tamaki had posed as a fortune-teller. Hunny smiled sadly and turned to his friends,
"You guys followed us here using Kyo-chan's family plane, right? Because you were concerned about Taka and I?"
Since they had already been found out, there was no point in hiding it any longer. The twins stepped forward, simply saying, "Yeah. We were." The Hitachiin's looked over to where Mori was now standing by a water fountain alone, his back facing them,
"But it was more Mori-senpai we were the most worried about...We could tell he was probably the one hurting the most out of all of us..."Hikaru sighed and rubbed the back of his neck,
"However, it was the boss's own idea to pose as a dumb fortune-teller. If Mori-senpai really believed what Boss said was true, he must really be depressed." Kaoru crossed his arms, and looked to the ground.
After he had picked himself up from the ground and dusted himself off, Tamaki bopped both the twins over the head and got into his usual dramatic pose, "What I said IS true! I could just tell by Mori-senpai's expression (and by stalking after the two hosts for most of the trip) that he had planned to try and forget his feelings for Akahana! He thinks that will make him feel better- HOWEVER!"
The volume rise in Tamaki's voice caused the other hosts to jump in fear. The blonde paused for a moment before continuing on, "That is not what Mori-senpai should be doing. By 'trying to forget her', he is doing nothing but running away! I mean, does he really think by doing such a thing, all the pain will just go away? Is that not what Akahana had been doing her entire life when it came to her father?"
"...!" The hosts looked to their king in surprise. Tamaki only went on with his lecture as he continued to pose dramatically while doing so,
"Mori-senpai is acting unusually coward-like. I thought that if I posed as a fortune-teller and told him the fact of the matter, then perhaps he would come to his senses. After all, there is a chance Mori will encounter Aka on this trip, gentlemen."
Hunny could feel his eyes widen a fraction at the host kings words, "...What are you talking about, Tama-chan?"
A ways away, Mori walked down a street that was bustling with people all over. The host hung his head down, not really paying any attention to where he was going,
"You will soon have an encounter with the very person you are trying so very hard to forget,"
Takashi could feel his feet come to a clean stop at hearing those words play over in his head,
"...And when you do encounter her, if you brush her off and let her go, as you had planned, you will never see this person again."
Mori lifted his head up. It wasn't long before tears were threatening to spill from his eyes again, "Aka..."
-BUMP!-
Mori looked down to the figure that had suddenly bumped into him, "...?"
The person standing before Mori looked up in a panic, "I'm so sorry; I wasn't really paying any attention and I-" Said person took a step backwards from the Ouran host, "Wait...you..."
Takashi stared at the person for a moment before the tears spilled from his eyes down his cheeks, "...You're..."
-Back with Hunny and the others-
"Wait...you mean to tell us that you and Kyouya-senpai found out the very place Akahana had moved to is HERE? In New York?" screamed Kaoru at the top of his lungs, angerly at Tamaki who wore a calm exterior despite what he had just said,
"When did you find this out, boss? Better yet, why didn't you tell us this before we came here and disguised ourselves in that ridiculous cosplay?" Hikaru could feel his blood pressure rising faster and faster as he continued to think about what their king had just told them.
Before the hosts had followed after their two friends to New York, Kyouya had researched the possibilities of Akahana's whereabouts. By some miracle, the demon lord was able to discover where Akahana had been since her flight into America and was now under the impression that the girl was living in New york. Tamaki, who had apparently known about all this, hadn't breathed a word of what Kyouya had told him. At least, not until now.
"...Aka-chan...is here...?" Hunny asked with a shaky voice as he looked up to Tamaki with a tear-stained face. The king smiled and patted the boy-lolita's head,
"Oui, mon ami. She is. Although, we aren't exactly sure WHERE in New York she is. But we do know she's here."
The twins, Haruhi, and Hunny all stared blankly at their melodramatic moron of a friend,
"Wait...so you tell Mori-senpai he has a chance of encountering her because Kyouya found out Akahana is living somewhere in New York..." Hikaru started,
"But you didn't even know WHERE in New York she's living at?" Kaoru finished, exchanged a look of annoyance with his brother.
Tamaki smiled idiotically, tilting his head, "Well-"
And before the king could finish, he was bopped over the head by the twins and Haruhi.
"You idiot! How could you get Mori-senpai's hopes up like that? Tamaki-senpai, do you even KNOW how Mori-senpai feels right now? You claim to but I don't think you do!' Haruhi clenched a fist as hard as she could, suppressing the urge to hit the blonde yet again.
"We agree with Haruhi! Do you really think this is some storybook fairy tail where the prince is going to find his princess like magic? Wake up and face realty, boss!"
Before Tamaki could defend himself, the twins and Haruhi continued to shout and pound him as hard as they could. Meanwhile, Hunny and Kyouya stood on the sidelines, watching.
"Kyo-chan, what do you think...?"
Kyouya looked down to Hunny with raised brows, "Hm?"
"...Do you think Takashi will be able to reunite with Aka-chan...?" Hunny looked straight ahead at nothing, "What do you believe, Kyo-chan...?"
It was silent for a moment before Kyouya felt right to answer. The megane simply faked a smile and looked straight ahead as well, "I don't know, Hunny-senpai...I don't know."
Mori and the person before him stared at each for what seemed like hours. And then, the girl finally spoke,
"Takashi-kun..." Tears began to stream down the girl's cheeks. Then a bit of wind blew across the town, blowing the girl's hat off so that Mori could get a good glimpse of her face now.
That voice. Those eyes and hair. And that face. Mori was positive about it now. Standing before him was indeed who had thought it was: Akahana.
Akahana still looked the same. Same long, red hair. Same gorgeous crystal blue eyes. She wore a golden dress with a sun hat and formal shoes. Just looking at her took Mori's breath away.
Mori-senpai slowly began to reach a hand up to stroke his love's cheek,"Akahana..." An overwhelming feeling of happiness was taking over him now. He was so thrilled to see her, "I missed you..."was all he could say before he reached out to pull her into a hug.
Just like in his dream, they were reunited. And just like in his dream, Mori felt the happiest he had ever felt in his lifetime. Yes...everything was going perfectly.
"T-Takashi-kun..." Akahana mumbled in an embarrassed tone as Mori held onto her as hard as he could.
'Just like my dream...and just like that fortune-teller said...Akahana.' A warm smile was painted across Mori's face now. He wanted to hold her forever and ever so she could never escape from him again,
"Akahana," Mori broke the embrace so he could look into her eyes again, "Are you o-" but before the man could finish, Akahana slapped his hands away from her and took a few steps backwards. Taken by surprise by the girl's actions, Mori unthinkingly reached out to hug her again.
...Akahana didn't hesitate. The red haired beauty shoved Mori as hard as she could, then turned, and rushed off down the street, soon disappearing into the millions of people walking around New York. Mori simply stood there frozen with shock. She was out of his reach once again. When he thought of that fact, his heart ached with agony.
Takashi lowered his head, shoved both hands back into his pockets, and turned to walk down the street opposite Akahana had ran. As Mori walked, he heard the high-pitched voice of Hunny approaching,
"Takashi! Hey Takashi;Guess what?" Hunny cried excitedly as he ran up to his cousin, "Kyo-chan and the others are here in New york! They found out that Aka-chan is living in this part of N.Y.! Isn't that wonderful?" Hunny continued to jump up and down happily as the others came up from behind him to greet Mori with a smile.
...Mori didn't lift his head up once. Not to even return the greeting from each of his friends. Hunny stopped jumping up and down,
"Takashi...?" Hunny's smile dropped into a frown as he noticed the lifelessness in his cousin's eyes, "Takashi...? What happened? Are you-"
"I saw Akahana..."
"!" The others looked at their friend in shock.
"What? When, Mori-senpai?" Haruhi asked with a worried tone in her voice,
"...A few minutes ago...I saw her but...
The twins exchanged looks before looking back to their friend, "...but...?"
"But she didn't want to see me." Mori said nothing more and stormed off down the street as fast as he could.
Authors comments: Sorry this chapter took so long to post. I started a new semester at school and have more projects to do then before. So after this chapter, they're about 7 more chapters and then this fic will be over. Thank you all for reading up to this point. It makes me really happy ^^