Aki glanced at the paper in her hand, then looked up at the house in front of her. Then back at the paper. Then at the house. Then back at the paper again because she just didn't want to look at the house. If she did then she wouldn't stop staring.
The place was huge! Massive! It could hold like a hundred of her houses in it, and then about a hundred more could probably be scattered around the yard!
"Aki-chaaaan!"
She looked up, staring at the house for a moment until she decided to look down, just to see Tamaki's face before he pulled her into a bear hug, pretty much knocking the wind out of her for a moment. He started blathering on about something, but she couldn't quite make it out, she just knew he was happy.
"Tamaki-senpai," she mumbled. "Let go. I can't breathe!"
"Oh, sorry!" He immediately let go and started fussing over her, asking if she was okay, if she was hurting anywhere, could she breath all right, etc. She just nodded to every question while readjusting her backpack on her back and her duffel bag around her shoulder. Eventually he stopped talking and stood there, apparently waiting for her to say something.
"So, uh...this is your house?" Aki said, looking up at the house – well, more like mansion – again. She didn't know why she was so in awe. She'd lived in a house as big as this when she was little! Her parents' houses combined were probably two of these! But still...Maybe it was because she hadn't seen a big mansion around this area before.
Tamaki nodded, still smiling. It was probably permanently stuck on his face. "Yep! House number two!"
"What? Two? What do you mean two? There are more?" He nodded.
"This and the main house." Aki looked around, expecting to see the second house around there somewhere. Tamaki chuckled and gabbed her hand. "Come on, let's get inside!" he said, pulling her up to the house. She struggled to keep up with him and make sure she didn't drop her bag.
Tamaki pulled her up the steps and straight into the house. The inside was more magnificent than the outside. Everything seemed to shine like it had just been freshly polished. The floor was almost like a mirror and she was afraid to walk on it in case she screwed anything up. A large staircase was directly in front of them, leading to the second floor. Chandelier hung from the high ceiling and she was pretty sure it was made entirely out of diamonds.
Aki could hear something running towards her and Tamaki. She heard a bark and her head whipped to the side. A Golden Retriever bounded up to them...well, it bounded up to Aki. The dog stopped in front of her and started to sniff her legs, its tail waving like crazy.
"Aki, this is my dog Antoinette," Tamaki said proudly, patting Antoniette's head. "Antoinette, this is Aki."
Antoinette barked and her tail seemed to wag faster. Aki grinned and rubbed the dog's head. "Antoinette," she said slowly, trying to pronounce it right It was a French name, wasn't it? Antoinette barked again and licked Aki's hand.
"Ahem." An old woman walked up to them, coming from some other room. Aki noticed a maid or two peeking at them from behind an archway.
Aki assumed the woman was his grandmother. She looked old enough. She had on a pale blue kimono with a green obi wrapped around her waist. Her face sagged slightly and her eyebrows arched high, giving her that "I dare you" look Aki knew too well. She also looked incredibly serious an intimidating.
"I see you have company," the woman said when she had stopped in front of them. Her tone was flat.
Tamaki nodded and wrapped his arm around Aki's shoulder. "Yep! Miss Shima, this is Aki Fukuda," he said.
"Oh, your 'daughter'," Shima said. Aki glanced at Tamaki out of the corner of her eye. Did he tell everyone she was his "daughter"?
Tamaki smiled as if it weren't weird at all. "Yep!" Then he turned to Aki. "Aki-chan, this is Shima Maezono, the chief of staff here."
"It's nice to meet you, Miss Maezono," Aki said, bowing low. So, she wasn't his grandmother?
"Likewise." Miss Maezono glanced at the duffel bag in Aki's hands. "Are you planning to sleep over?" she asked. Aki straightened up and rubbed the back of her neck.
"I wasn't originally going to, but my auntie kinda made me take the bag. She thought it would be nice if I did, so..."
"That would be wonderful!" Tamaki said, hugging Aki. "She can stay, can't she?" he asked Miss Maezono. She paused to think, although for a moment Aki couldn't tell. Her face never changed, but her eyes moved up and down Aki, as if analyzing her.
"I suppose so," she finally said. "But I would feel better if you had Kyoya stay over as well."
"I call him right away!" he said while whipping out his phone. Aki bit her tongue before she let out a disappointed noise. She didn't want to spend the day with Kyoya too.
"Miki!" Miss Maezono called. A maid hurried into the room and stood next to the old woman, waiting for her orders. "Please show Miss Fukuda to one of the guest rooms."
"Yes ma'am." Miki the Maid turned to Aki and smiled, motioning for her to follow before turning and heading to the stairs. Aki placed her bag under her arm and followed.
Miki and Aki walked up the stairs and down the hall on the next floor. It looked like the thing continued on forever, doors on every side. Some paintings were hung up on the wall here and there, some of people and the rest were scenery of countrysides and smalls towns and villages. She recognized a few as places in Japan, but she wasn't sure about the others. Some looked like they were probably in Europe.
Eventually Miki stopped and opened one of the doors. Aki followed her inside and found herself in a large bedroom. It was like her hotel room all over again. A large white bed was in the middle of the room and looked like a cloud. A dresser was pushed to the side and on the other side of the room was a vanity. Large windows were in the room letting sunlight pour in, and red drapes were on either side of the windows. A door lead off somewhere else and she guessed it was a bathroom.
"You can just leave your things here," Miki said. Aki nodded and dropped her bags. "Now if you aren't going to stay here, I can take you to the main room."
"Yeah, sure."
They walked back to the entrance and through the archway Miki had been peeking from before. Tamaki was sitting on a fancy brown couch, waiting. He grinned when she came back and motioned for her to sit next to him, and she did so.
The room had polished wooden floors instead of tiles and large windows that were almost floor-to-ceiling. Tan drapes were pulled back from the windows, letting light pour in. Three brown couches were placed around a long coffee table that sat on a large rug. A large television was set up on the wall across from one of the couches and had built in shelves on either side stacked with movies, shows, a few books, and some pictures and random artifacts. At the bottom of the shelves and under the TV were four drawers. Vases full of large flowering plants were in the corners of the rooms, most of the plants being roses.
"You house is huge, Senpai," Aki said, looking around the living room. Or, was it the main room? It just looked like a living room.
"I'm glad you think so! But, Aki-chan, you don't have to call me Senpai. We're good enough friends, aren't we? You can just call me Tamaki!"
Were they close friends? She didn't think so. "Right."
"Ah! I'm so glad my precious daughter is here!" Tamaki squealed, attacking her with a hug and nuzzling her cheek. Aki pushed him back.
It felt weird already, being there and hanging out with Tamaki outside of the club. Seeing him in casual clothing instead of the uniform or some costume, being in his house, and not even having any of the others around! So weird.
"So..." Aki glanced around for something to do. She was just here to watch Oshin, but she didn't want or need to watch it the whole time she was there. Maybe they could save it for later, like after dinner.
Her eyes landed on a grand piano near the corner of the room, raised up on a two-foot platform. Tamaki followed her eyes until he saw the piano. Then he smiled and grabbed her hand.
"Come on, I'll play for you!" he said, pulling her up. He hurried to the piano and sat down, pulling her onto the seat with him. "Any requests?"
She shrugged. "Surprise me."
He thought for a moment before turning to the piano and starting to play. It took her a second to recognize it as Fur Elise. Her eyes followed his hands as he played, awed by how smooth the movement was. Well, she was always in awe of people who played any instrument and how smooth their motions were. And how concentrated they could be. She glanced at Tamaki's face. Oh yeah, he was concentrated all right. And it looked weird. She'd never seen him so concentrated and serious before. Sure, he could be concentrated and serious when he was flirting at the Host Club, but that was different.
She didn't notice she had been staring or that the song had ended. His chuckle brought her back to Earth.
"You're staring at me like you're impressed! Have you fallen for me, Aki-chan?" he asked, grinning and wiggling his eyebrows. Aki laughed and rolled her eyes.
"Nah, Tamaki. It'd take a little more than piano playing to make me fall for you," she said, playfully pushing him. "I'm just impressed is all. Play something else for me. Something fast."
He grinned and nodded, then started playing a rapid tune. She had no idea what it was, but she loved it. She watched Tamaki's hands dash around the piano to press each key. She couldn't imagine her own hands going as fast as his. Her fingers would just trip over each other and screw up the song.
He eventually finished. Slow clapping was heard as soon as the song was over. Tamaki looked at Aki, but she shrugged, holding up her hands to say that it wasn't her. They looked back and saw Kyoya clapping, a small smile on his face.
"Very nice," he said. Tamaki beamed and ran to Kyoya to try and hug him, but Kyoya stepped out of the way. Aki stood up when the stool started to tilt back from Tamaki knocking it on his way to Kyoya, but it didn't end up tipping over.
"You're here!" Tamaki exclaimed.
"Of course. You asked me to come, so I did." He glanced at Aki. She gave him a small wave.
"Come sit with us." Tamaki grabbed Kyoya and pulled him to the bench. They all sat down, although it was a bit of a tight squeeze. Thankfully a maid appeared with an extra chair for Kyoya to sit in, so he moved to that chair.
Kyoya made a request, some song Aki had never heard of, and Tamaki started to play. After that he did another, one of his own choosing. When that one was done her turned to Aki.
"Can you play?" he asked.
"Huh? Oh, no, not at all. I'm not good with instruments."
Kyoya nodded. "She used to play the flute, you know," he said. "Up until a couple years ago."
Aki gave him an irritated look. "I can tell him my own information, thanks."
"You used to play the flute?" Tamaki asked, sounding very interested.
"Eh, yeah. My grandma played it so she thought I should play it and she taught me...but since I moved to the area I've stopped. Doesn't really benefit me right now other than impressing my friends, but it got old quickly." Anyway, she was more into instruments that didn't required her to blow into them. She always got lightheaded and tired after playing the flute for too long. She'd really rather learn to play the guitars or violin or something, but even when she tried to learn she got bored pretty quickly. Not like she was good at any of that stuff, anyway. Drums, though...she wouldn't mind playing drums. Maybe she could learn to play a taiko drum and join the Tao group.
"I can teach you to play the piano!" Tamaki suddenly said, pulling Aki out of a brief daydream of beating a taiko drum onstage with fellow drummers.
"What? No, Tamaki, that's alright. I'd rather just hear you play. And, anyway, Kyoya-senpai's here. Don't you think it would be boring for him?"
"Oh, don't worry about me," Kyoya said. Seeing that as a go-ahead sign, Tamaki pulled Aki closer to him and started instructing her on how to play the first bit of Fur Elise. He showed her the keys to press, moving her hands and fingers so the correct finger pressed the correct key, all while babbling on about chords or something. She wasn't paying much attention to what he was saying.
"Okay, now you try," he said, letting her hands go. Aki hesitated for a long moment, then pressed one key. No one said anything, so she pressed another. Then another. Then another. At that one Tamaki stopped her and moved her hand over to the correct key. This went on for a while. Kyoya looked slightly amused, and she was pretty sure he was just having fun watching her struggle.
She'd done it successful one time. Extremely slow, but successful. That was enough for her. "Tamaki, I'm done," she said, sitting back. He pouted.
"But you were doing so well!" he said.
"My fingers hurt."
"Really? Hé, Dominique!" Aki almost didn't register that he'd switched languages. She had to go over what he said again.
"Was that–?"
"French," Kyoya said. Tamaki had gotten up to talk to a man standing with two maids and another butler at the doorway.
"He speaks French?" She didn't know that.
"Yes. It's his first language, in fact. You should also probably know that he is half French half Japanese."
Her jaw nearly dropped. She didn't know that, either! She never though about it, but...what else didn't she know about Tamaki? Up until now she was pretty sure she knew all she needed to about him.
"Hey, you aren't a halfer, too, are you?" she asked Kyoya. He shook his head.
"No. I'm fully Japanese."
Aki looked back at Tamaki. "So, which one's French? Out of his parents, I mean."
"His mother."
"Oh yeah? And his dad's Japanese, then?" Kyoya nodded. "So where are they? I haven't seen them here."
"Tamaki's father doesn't live here. He lives in the main mansion. As for his mother, no one knows."
She looked at him as if waiting for him to say, Ha, just kidding. He didn't.
Tamaki came back with the young man he'd been talking to. "Aki, hold out your hands!" he ordered. She did so.
The man – Dominique? – grabbed her hands and started massaging them, and wow did it feel good. She noticed Tamaki was getting Miki to massage his hands.
After Dominique was done Aki stretched out her fingers. Her hands felt a lot better now. He'd even cracked her fingers for her!
"Thanks," she said, still stretching out her fingers.
Dominique smiled and said, "Je vous en prie."
Aki stared at him and he stared back. Then he seemed to realize that she didn't know what he had said. "You are welcome," he said slowly, looking at the others to make sure he'd said it right. They all nodded.
"He's not that good at Japanese," Tamaki explained, although it was pretty obvious. "He's new to staff."
Staff. She'd only seen five people so far, but he must have more people than that. Everything suddenly felt weird again. She couldn't imagine having staff living with her, waiting on her hand and foot. How could anyone put up with waiting on people? Sometimes she could hardly put up with waiting on the Host Club.
"Aki-chan," Tamaki said, grabbing her attention. "Do you want to watch Oshin now?"
"No, can we save that for later? Like, after dinner or something?" He nodded. "Okay..." She trailed off. If not Oshin, then what now?
Then the doorbell rang. Miki jumped up but the maid still standing by the doorway said, "I'll get it!" and hurried off.
"Expecting anyone else?" Aki asked. Tamaki shook his head. Kyoya cleared his throat.
"I may know who it is –" he said, but he was cut off by loud chatter coming from the entrance and then a yell of, "Boss! Where are ya?"
Tamaki's mood darkened. "What are those two devils doing here?" he grumbled.
It wasn't just them. Hikaru, Kaoru, Honey, and Mori appeared in the room. Honey climbed down from Mori's shoulders and ran up to Aki and Tamaki.
"Hiya, Aki-chan! Hi, Tama-chan!" he said.
"Hi," Tamaki said a bit glumly.
"Hi," Aki said.
"You really came to Tamaki's house, huh?" Hikaru and Kaoru appeared at the bench. Hikaru pulled Tamaki off so he could sit down while Kaoru scooted Aki to the middle so he could sit down as well.
"We didn't think you would," Kaoru said.
"Hey! That's my seat!" Tamaki yelled, pulling on Hikaru's arm. Hikaru just shooed him away.
"How come you're here?" he said, wrapping an arm around Aki's waist.
"You should have come to our house," Kaoru said, also wrapping his arm around her waist.
"We could have a lot more fun at our house," they said, smirking at Tamaki. He started yelling at them, telling them to let go of Aki and stop being perverts. Aki huffed and pushed the twins off of the bench.
"Come on, you guys, cut it out," she said. "I'm here because I want to be. Plus he asked me first, and we'd made plans long before you two ever thought of inviting me over. And I like him better." So, maybe that wasn't the truth, but she didn't even know who she liked better out of the hosts, anyway.
"Ha!" Tamaki had on a smug smile directed at the twins. "See? Aki-chan like me better."
"No she doesn't," Hikaru said.
"She just said that to get a reaction," Kaoru said.
"Not true!" Tamaki cried. "Right, Aki?"
"Yeah."
"But how can she like you more when we spend more time with her?" the twins asked.
"Haruhi, too," Hikaru added.
"Yeah. Haruhi probably like us a lot more than she likes you," Kaoru said. They both had mischievous smiles on their faces.
Tamaki was fuming.
"Why would Haruhi like either of you two devils?" he yelled. "Perverts like you!"
"Sorry, who's the real pervert here?" Hikaru asked.
"We weren't the ones who attacked her in the changing room," Kaoru pointed out.
"I didn't –"
Suddenly Hikaru and Kaoru had grabbed Aki and pulled her off of the bench. "Let's go, Aki, before he attacks you, too," they said, walking back toward the entrance.
"No, stop! Aki, don't listen to them!" Tamaki grabbed her shoulders and pulled her away.
"Look at that, he's making a pass at her," Hikaru said.
"Am not!"
Aki shrugged off his hands, and he apparently took that as her thinking she was siding with the twins. "Aki, wait! I'm not a pervert! I swear!"
"Calm down, Tamaki," she said. "I'm going to go to the kitchen." As she left the room she could still hear Tamaki scolding the twins.
"Look at that! You scared her off!"
"No we didn't. You did, pervert!"
She sighed. She'd expected a calm day (or as calm as it could be) with just Tamaki and Kyoya, but with Hikaru and Kaoru here it seemed like what she would get would be far from calm.
"Excusez-moi!"
Aki turned back around. Miki and Dominique stood behind her, giving her strange looks.
"Mistress Fukuda, the kitchen is this way," Miki said, gesturing through the archway. Aki's nose wrinkled up at being called 'Mistress'. That was weird for her.
"It is?" Miki nodded.
"Come with us."
Miki and Dominique turned and walked back into the room with Aki trailing behind them. They went through a doorway on the side and into a large dining room with a big table in the middle and another chandelier hanging overhead (as well as a china cabinet along the wall and more pictures), then they went through another side-door and into a large kitchen.
The kitchen had white tiles all over the floor that looked as if they'd never been touched. Counters, cabinets, stoves, ovens, and more were all around the left side of the room while the right side had two small tables and was pretty much empty. The tables didn't even looked like they belonged there. Doors that probably lead to the food were on the right side of the kitchen
Honey and Mori were already in the kitchen, standing at an island in the room. One of the butlers had laid out an array of sweets, ranging from cakes to cookies, pies, and more. They looked real, but then Aki noticed that the light reflected off them in a weird way. They were fake, like the food in the windows of restaurants.
"Er, thanks," she said to Miki and Dominique.
"You're welcome," they both said, Dominique's voice trailing behind Miki's. They bowed and stepped out of the room.
Aki walked up to Honey and Mori. Honey was staring at the plastic food with a smile on his face. She wondered how big it would be if the food were real.
"What'cha doing?" Aki asked, though it was pretty obvious.
"Picking out dessert!" Honey said, looking over at her. "Tama-chan always lets me pick out dessert when we come over." Mori nodded in agreement.
"Oh." So only Honey could pick? She wanted to pick, too. Some of the pies looked like they'd be pretty good...
Honey poked Aki's shoulder. She hadn't noticed, but he was standing on a step-stool so he was a little taller. That felt weird.
"Hey, A-chan, do you want something in particular?" he asked. She was about to say No, go ahead, I'm fine, but then she thought back on it. She really wanted some pies, and maybe the chocolate cake towards the back. If she just told him to go ahead then she might not get what she wanted!
"Some pies would be nice," she said. "But what I'd really like is that cake over there," she added, pointing to the chocolate cake. It was covered in white icing with chocolate shavings all over the top and thirteen cherries arranged around the brim of the cake with a fourteenth in the center, all of them sitting on top of swirls of icing. The one slice cut off showed that it had two thick layers.
"Black forest cake," Mori muttered. Aki's mouth started to water.
Mori picked up a plate with a plastic brownie on it with cream on the top and two strawberries on the sides. "That looks yummy!" Honey exclaimed, looking closer at it.
"Yeah." Mori looked at Aki as if waiting for her opinion.
"Oh, yeah, it looks really good," she said, nodding. "Probably looks even better as actual food instead of plastic."
Mori nodded slightly and set the plate to the side.
"Aki-chan, stay and help us choose," Honey said. "You don't want to leave, right? You came to get away from Tama-chan, Hika-chan, and Kao-chan, right? Because they're arguing."
Aki hesitated for a second and glanced at him. "Yeah." How did he know?
Honey smiled and grabbed a lemon tart. "How's this?"