~Chapter Eleven~

Forgiven

On My Knees, I'll Ask…
Last Chance for One Last Dance.
'Cause with You, I'd Withstand
All of Hell to Hold Your Hand.

'Cause I'm Not Leaving You Anymore.

~Far Away, by Nickelback

Disclaimer: Me No Own; You No Sue.

Blue eyes connected with mine once more, and I couldn't help but mouth the words…

"I'm sorry."

Takashi's P.O.V.

"It will be a cold day in Hell when I agree to come out of here while dressed in this frilly piece of shit."

My eyebrow twitched at her cursing, but I said nothing. It was none of my business that she cursed like an injured sailor; just as it was none of my business that she had been hiding behind that curtain for at least thirty minutes. I glanced down at my Credor watch – make that thirty one…

Mitsukuni sighed, apparently fed up with her refusal to leave. The other Hosts had gone ahead to their respective spots about five minutes ago in accordance to our plan and only Mitsukuni, Sammy, and I were left in the dressing room. And, after five minutes of trying to convince her that she would be beautiful in anything she wore (which always seemed to work on our guests), Mitsukuni had given up and slumped against the wall. I was seated to his right; had been for about ten minutes.

In other words: we were bored.

"Fine, Sammy-chan – be that way," Mitsukuni grumbled, pouting at the yellow curtain that hid our classmate.

An indignant huff sounded from the curtain. It fluttered briefly and then set itself back in place.

"What part of 'Pay no attention to the girl behind the curtain' could the two of you possibly not understand?" she demanded, before grumbling to herself that we had obviously never read The Wizard the Oz.

"The part about 'pay no attention,' obviously," I muttered as I tried to ignore her ranting.

Stunned silence, and then an incredulous voice asked, "Did Morinozuka-san actually say something just now?"

I rolled my eyes and, oddly enough, found myself mimicking Haruhi-chan's strange habit of praying to the ceiling. Please, Kami-sama… If you are listening to me now, please put me out of my misery.

Two bright eyes were suddenly staring directly into mine, meaning that their owner was only a mere inch or so from my face. I jerked back in surprise. No one ever managed to get that close without my knowledge; I was always aware of my surroundings, after all. Every martial artist should be. And yet, Sammy had bypassed this protection, too. Well, at least she was consistent in catching me off guard.

The small blonde girl was still staring at me, blue eyes wide with awe, like I was a superhero or something of the sort…

"Well, say something else!" Sammy encouraged, rocking back and forth on the balls of her feet. An eager expression on her face as she added, "…please."

It wasn't often that I stumbled across an opportunity like this one – Mitsukuni never let anyone get the best of him – so I smirked at the younger girl and parroted, "'Something else.'"

Her mouth dropped open in shock – be it at the fact that I had spoken at her request or that I'd had the nerve to mock her, I wasn't entirely certain. Judging from the way that she twitched and muttered angrily to herself, however, I'd have to say that the latter was more probable.

Mitsukuni giggled at her dumbfounded expression. "Takashi talks all the time, you know."

"…he does?"

Why does she have to sound so surprised? I thought to myself, annoyed. I'm not a mute. And I am capable of speaking.

"When he has something worthwhile to say," Mitsukuni admitted, shrugging as if it were unimportant. To him, it probably was: I spoke to him quite often; not like he hadn't heard my voice before.

Sammy sweatdropped because Mitsukuni had just contradicted himself – and more than likely on purpose, too. The truth of the matter was that it would support my theory. That plan that he was so intent on hiding from me had to involve our female classmate. If it did, I was now certain that it revolved around creating a romantic relationship between the two of us. Not that I would mind too terribly much. The only thing that bothered me about courting her was that Sammy might not be accepted into my family; not without a great deal of blood, sweat, and tears. And that was unacceptable to me.

I hope Mitsukuni knows what he's doing… I thought to myself, uneasy as I caught sight of the mischievous glint in my cousin's darkened eyes. He appeared older, and that was never a good sign. For anyone.

"Are you guys coming, or not?" Sammy asked indignantly, scowling at the two of us from her position by the door.

Mitsukuni and I just stared at her, shocked into silence. We had been after her to leave the room for over half an hour…and she was getting impatient with us?

That little minx!

I was amazed at how she could turn a situation around to fit her every whim, but I wasn't going to take it for granted. Women and their clothing… I groaned to myself. No longer did I want to stay in this room; I was ready to leave. In fact, I think I might be developing claustrophobia. My cousin, however…

Brown eyes were wide with feigned innocence as he sweetly asked, "Are you sure that you're ready to leave, Sammy-chan?"

Sammy gave him an odd look, but nodded nonetheless. "Yeah… The two of you have already seen my dress anyway. Not that letting you see me in it was intentional on my part," she sheepishly admitted.

You don't have to tell me twice! Eagerly, I exited the room, but not without glancing down at the small blonde first.

She was wearing a strapless blue dress that sparkled as she moved. The top resembled that of a corset and the dress flared at the waist, flowing gracefully to the floor. Because of this, it was impossible for me to see what type of shoes she was wearing; it was feasible that she wasn't even wearing any. Come to think about it – that wouldn't surprise me a damn bit. Crazy girl.

Her hair was pulled back into a delicate bun, with two locks of hair falling into her face. Intentional or not – it was very cute. She also wore a pair of silver cross earrings (perhaps a sign of her faith?) and what appeared to be a silver chain that vanished beneath the neckline of her dress. Very little makeup was visible on her face, only a touch of blush and some lip gloss.

The Twins had truly outdone themselves this time.

I smiled appreciatively and she blushed at the unspoken compliment. After the red had vanished from her cheeks and across the bridge of her nose, she grinned and took my offered arm. I led her down the stairs and away from the dressing room, through countless hallways and back into the Central Building. Vaguely, I was aware of Mitsukuni trailing after us, humming a silly song to himself (something about a mountain, and frogs and lizards saying "Hello" or such) as we entered through the double doors.

The large room was buzzing with silly chatter and periodic squeals, but I was actually thankful for the loud noise this time around. Had I just arrived with Sammy and no one else…? Well, that wouldn't have looked very good for either one of us. Gossip galore at such a thing. However, the other Hosts had arrived before we had, so we were safe – for the time being anyway.

"Sammy-chan~!" Two identical voices sang out in unison. "Come and dance with us~!"

Over a hundred female faces turned in our direction. Sammy blushed at the sudden attention and hid her face in my side, clutching the sleeve of my suit jacket in one small hand. Her small form was easily overshadowed by my much larger one and she used that to her advantage, practically melting into my side to get away from the glares of the fangirls. I found it absolutely adorable, but I wasn't about to tell her that; she might hit me.

"Do you mind?" Sammy whispered up at me.

It was an innocent question, and one that I should have been able to answer easily, but I couldn't bring myself to tell her either yes or no. On one hand, I didn't want to monopolize her time; on the other, I didn't want her to leave. And like hell I wanted her to dance with those two devils.

It dawned on me suddenly that I had just sounded like Tamaki when he obsessed over Haruhi, his 'darling daughter.'

Sammy apparently took my grimace as a bad sign, as well as the answer to her question. With a sigh and a sad smile, she walked over to the Twins, looking entirely dejected. After a minute or two of comfort from the younger boys – and crude jokes, I'm sure – the small blonde cheered up and began to dance with her two friends. Three might be considered an odd number for such a thing, but it worked for this trio.

"You are the biggest idiot sometimes, Takashi."

I glanced down to find my older cousin shaking his head at me in exasperation. Blonde hair was out of place, as if he'd been tugging on it in his frustration. Mitsukuni turned serious brown eyes in my direction, clearly trying to understand why I had let her go and not finding a suitable answer – in other words, not one he liked.

Finally, he sighed and said, "You really should go ask her to dance." As if knowing what my response was going to be, Mitsukuni continued, "But, since you are so hopeless when it comes to anything relating to Sammy-chan, I will go and get her for you."

My lips twitched and I suppressed a smile; he was truly something else. First, the small senior planned himself silly, fretting over every tiny detail, and now… Now, he was actually chasing after the girl for me. What a strange guy.

"Thank you," I said simply.

He waved away my words with a small hand, which quickly latched onto his stuffed rabbit as he flitted through the throng of girls and towards our classmate. She was dancing in between the Twins, one hand gripped tightly by each boy. The one that I believed to be Kaoru laughed and twirled her into his brother; Hikaru retaliated by quickly spinning her back at Kaoru. Sammy was giggling the entire time, so all in all, it appeared that they were having quite a bit of fun.

So why is it that I want for her to dance with me instead? I mused as I watched the other Hosts dance. Tamaki and Haruhi had still not returned, but I wasn't worried. Even so, I found myself looking around the room, gauging the progression of our plan. Phase Three, perhaps.

"Hey, Morinozuka-san!"

For what felt like the millionth time that night, I found myself glancing down at a female; however, this one was the small blonde that I had been after all along. I grinned sheepishly when she asked me why I hadn't just told her that I wanted to dance. With a shrug, she grabbed my hand, tugging me to the dance floor. And together, we followed the steps of a waltz.

"Quick, quick, slow…" Sammy murmured to herself as she concentrated on her feet. After a moment, she'd managed to find her rhythm and was able to focus her attention on me. She smiled widely and chirped, "Thanks for dancing with me!"

I returned her smile with one of my own. "My pleasure, Sammy-chan." Not even realizing that I had finally said her name – nickname, really – aloud and in her range of hearing.

Her blue eyes widened briefly, but she shook it off. Cocking her head to the side, Sammy scanned my face, seemingly memorizing its features. I found myself doing the same, tracing my eyes over her blonde hair, dark blue eyes, and strongly Germanic features. I felt like an idiot for not having noticed it before: she was clearly a member of a very long Aryan bloodline. It certainly explained her coloring and build, as well as the occasional slip into the foreign language of said people.

"I forgive you, by the way," she said quietly, almost offhandedly. The expression on her face clearly said that it was, but she spoke as if it didn't matter. Typical female.

My brow furrowed in confusion and I stared at her, at a loss as to why I should be forgiven. And then I remembered my earlier thought – Maybe I should apologize. Oh. I had almost forgotten that I'd pushed her away; almost forgotten that I'd done something to upset her. It was pointless now, but…

"I'm sorry," I whispered sincerely. Mitsukuni was right: I rarely spoke to those outside of our family, but when I spoke, it was important. And I always meant what I said.

Again her head cocked to the side. She studied my face for a minute, as if trying to judge whether I was actually sincere, or just pulling her leg. This one seems to have some trust issues, I thought with mild amusement. To ease her fears, I leaned forward and placed a gentle kiss on her cheek. Sammy's face immediately burst into a flame of red, but at least she knew that I was serious about my apology.

She mumbled something under her breath, words that sounded suspiciously like – "Haninozuka-san better appreciate this…"

I had a bad feeling about this, especially since it involved my cousin's meddling. "'Better appreciate' what exactly…?"

My gray eyes must have widened to the size of saucers at that particular moment in time because Sammy kissed me. On the lips. It had been brief and was a completely chaste kiss (or so I thought), but it was a kiss nonetheless. And it had occurred in front of an entire roomful of students – female students – that were yelling loudly in protest at the fact that such an act had been committed 'against' one of their Hosts.

This wasn't going to end very well.

Sammy hid her flushed face in the front of my suit, grumbling to herself about the horrors of puppy dog eyes. Poor girl had probably fallen victim to Mitsukuni after he'd eaten sweets; it was never safe to cross him during a sugar high, especially when it had been induced by cake. I almost felt sorry for her, but I was too busy trying to hide my smug grin from the Hitachiin Twins to dwell on the feeling for long.

My girl.

***Author's Note***

Fun Fact: I typed the word 'something' this many times: nine!

Fun Question: Does anyone know where I got the song that Mitsukuni sang from? (Hint - it's from an anime! ;P)

And if anyone is curious about the prom dress, I posted the link on my profile under Pictures.

It's the blue one. ...'cuz blue is totally awesome. Take that, pink! :o)