~Chapter Twenty-Eight~

Past, Present, and Future – Part IV

Good Morning, Day.
Sorry I'm Not There,
But All My Favorite Friends
Vanished in the Air.

It's Hard to Fly When You Can't Even Run.
Once, I Had the World,
But Now, I've Got No One.

~Drown, by Three Days Grace

Disclaimer: Me No Own; You No Sue.

But, I could not answer the small brunette female, because my mouth – and my heart – had suddenly stopped working. An unearthly scream was whistling through the air, thusly shattering the relative peace and quiet in the Tropical Aqua Garden. Sammy…? That shriek was immediately followed by an exclamation of surprise, which was a strong indication that my cousin was in danger, as well. Oh, Kami. Mitsukuni…! Their voices echoed loudly in the silence and repeated a few more times, bouncing against the ceiling of the glass dome as the two of them were torn away from me. All that was remained of my two best friends was black silence.

Takashi's P.O.V.

I blamed the banana. That stupid, ugly, yellow fruit was capable of great evil – it could bring a trained warrior to his feet in a split second. Yeah, that last bit was awful, wasn't it? Well, that corny pun was courtesy of the older Hitachiin, Hikaru; however, Kaoru also found the irony of the situation to be rather amusing and made another joke at my expense. He dryly claimed that we needed to keep our eyes peeled for the two missing members of our little club. After all, the Host Club was not complete without the rest of the bunch. The fangirls might suddenly realize that we were all ripe for the picking!

And I'd cringed at every single one of those rotten jokes, too. We were tense, and this stupidity was only making the tension in the air even more palpable. No one found their comments to be too terribly punny – er, funny – so it didn't come as much of a surprise that someone had finally lost their temper. Enough was enough, it seemed, and a decisive course of action had been taken to prevent the crazy redheads from polluting our worried minds with a seemingly endless stream of useless banana jokes. Their heads had suffered an unexpected collision with two angry fists. Thus, Hikaru and Kaoru were now resting their throbbing heads in the palms of their hands, clearly nursing the excruciating migraines that were brewing behind their golden eyes.

Apparently, Haruhi didn't appreciate their humor, or lack thereof…

I'd fiercely supported the brunette female on the matter, though. While I knew that the humor was merely an attempt on their part to ease the obvious worry coursing through all of our veins, the overall stupidity of their insensitive words was beginning to bother me. Hikaru and Kaoru were acting as though their big sister was not in mortal danger, and yet, the two of them claimed time and time again that the older female was more precious than to them than anyone else in the world! Even Fujioka Haruhi, their interesting new toy, had not managed to usurp that position as of yet.

So, I would be the first to admit that their nonsense had done absolutely nothing for my already rotten mood. The guilt pulsing through my veins at the speed of light continued to weigh heavily on my mind. I'd just allowed my two best friends – one, my manipulative cousin, and the other, my naïve girlfriend – to be swept halfway across an environment that seemed to be teeming with unfamiliar scenery, poisonous plants, and incredibly dangerous creatures. The hungry crocodiles lurking at the edge of the empty wading pool and the unoccupied changing rooms were as good an indicator as any other, at the very least.

I loved animals, but these were really pissing me off...

"Why are there crocodiles…" Haruhi panted, leaned forward to rest her hands on the base of her bare knees, and wearily mumbled, "…in a resort that was built to ensure that its guests are calm, safe, and relaxed?"

Tamaki came to a sudden screeching halt at her side and grumbled, "Impossible…" He slowly turned his blonde head to the side and stared at his friend, Kyoya. "It would be impossible for a person to be calm, safe, or relaxed in this setting, mon ami!" His frustration was audible, in spite of the French.

The sound of a ballpoint pen repeatedly scratching against paper reached our ears, and the five remaining people within our small group hesitantly turned to face the omnipotent and fearsome Shadow King. Blissfully, Kyoya ignored our curiosity and continued to record the important bit of information that he had apparently gathered – and at our expense, too. The Ootori heir twirled the pen between two of his slender fingers and hummed thoughtfully to himself for a moment, before resuming his previous task. He finished inputting the remaining data under a carefully labeled section, near the back of the notebook. The black kanji clearly read: "Guinea Pigs."

"That pool over there is currently being used for the tropical animals residing within the water park," Kyoya politely explained, and in a tone of voice that signified boredom. He paused for a moment and then sheepishly added, "Although it appears to have become a breeding ground for the crocodiles in particular…"

"You are such a goddamn idiot, Ootori!" The Canadian snarled under her breath and jabbed an accusing finger into his sternum. "Breeding crocodiles is really freakin' dangerous!" She threw her calloused hands into the air, exasperated, and angrily exclaimed, "They're not innocent little Pokémon, you know!"

I flinched in surprise. Those words were a painful reminder that everything was not well in our world at the moment, in spite of our best efforts to act as though this excursion was just a normal occurrence for the members of the Host Club. My heart ached faintly, pounding against the base of my ribcage in protest. That old cartoon was one of the silly references that my girlfriend – and not her younger friend – would happily mention in this instance, and it was one of her favorites, too. Yet Kiki had mentioned the imaginary creatures with faint nostalgia. She wasn't born or raised in the United States of America, but some of the pop culture had trickled through the border and into her homeland, Canada.

Tanaka Kiki and Samantha Steel seemed to share the same strange taste in music, books, sports, and now, cartoons. Sammy also had a habit of spitting curses at people that she deemed stupid, inept, or cruel. However, Kiki wasn't prone to cursing in a foreign language, whereas Sammy enjoyed cursing fluently in English, German, and Japanese. My girlfriend's cursing always resulted in a great deal of confusion, especially for poor ol' Tamaki.

My cousin in particular enjoyed taunting the younger girl solely for the joy of witnessing, and causing, those inevitable explosion of outrage. He always found a massive amount of amusement in those tirades. Admittedly, I enjoyed them, as well – as did we all.

Still, I found it very strange that we were all interacting with one another in such an informal manner. Sammy had, after all, been determined to avoid interacting with our crazy group at first, before she'd eventually succumbed to the blunt demands of the Hosts. It had taken a great deal of effort on our parts, but now, the blonde foreigner was an important member of our club and one of our friends, too. The Shadow King would never admit to it, but that girl had unwittingly influenced a great number of our actions. Even Mitsukuni admitted to changing some aspects of his plans after the two of them became friends. My cousin wasn't as manipulative, now, and he was finally interested in pursuing a courtship with a girl of his own.

That last thought effectively shattered my calm façade. The blank mask veiling all of my dark emotions crumbled under the realization that this was my fault. I tilted the base of my long chin upwards and exhaled slowly, allowing a pathetic sigh to crawl over my parted lips. No one else noticed, though, for which I would be eternally grateful. Mister Strong and Silent Type was known for his taciturnity, not his girly sensitivity.

Kami, I miss the two of them so much that it physically hurts…

My thoughts were interrupted by the sound of a fierce growl, one that indicated the frustration of the young woman that it had come from just a second ago. Normally, I'd begin searching for a quieter place to think and keep my resulting thoughts about the situation – and the angry people involved – to me, myself, and I. This time, however, it was within my best interests to keep an eye on the remaining members of our smaller group. Not a single one of them would survive in this jungle for more than a couple of hours at a time. Only Mitsukuni had the necessary skills to survive in that bleak situation, and he was currently missing. Vanished into thin air.

Then again, I wasn't in the best state of mind to risk leading a group of high maintenance nobles through a dangerous forest, either. This wasn't a chapter in The Jungle Book. And I wasn't Mowgli.

"You should've had the sense to build a separate cage for those freaky lizards, anyway!" Kiki growled. The young woman crossed both of her arms over her chest, ultimately resorting to expressing her irritation in the form of a dark glare – the Eyes of the Dragon.

Even so, Kyoya continued to ignore these angry accusations, choosing instead to stare down at the information written on the previously blank pages. He lazily drawled, "Well, I suppose that the location of that one switch is a more pressing issue at the moment."

Kiki glowered darkly at him. "Well, I'm curious about something, then – what are you going to do about it, Ootori?" She demanded, slamming both of her large hands against the thick tree that the older male was currently leaning on; it shook with the force of her anger and creaked loudly in protest.

I sweatdropped, silently backing away from the angry foreigner and thinking – Well, Kiki-san obviously isn't a tree hugger…

"There are a number of possible solutions, but none are available to us at the moment." Kyoya shrugged carelessly at this question – or rather, this demand – and calmly said, "So, I'll have to wait until later this afternoon to tell our design team about the situation."

The Canadian girl snarled in anger, curled a few of her fingers into a fist, and shook the resulting limb in his direction. "That's not good enough, you jackass!" Kiki furiously shrieked, hitting the tree with her fist. "Those damn lizards chewed up my favorite pair of neon purple Crocs! Fix…it...Ootori...!"

There was quite a bit of irony in that statement, considering that the shoes were named after the (apparently cannibalistic) animals that had eaten them, but it appeared that she'd missed it during the ensuing rant about the cost of buying a pair of shoes manufactured in the States. Her furious words were promptly ignored by the guilty party, per usual. Kyoya merely smiled at the mental images provided by her vivid threats, even though most of these involved the brutal, and more than likely painful, act of castration. Finally, Kyoya grew tired of her empty threats, and he quickly closed the covers of his black notebook. The folder was shut with an audible snap!

Oh, great… I thought, shaking my head at the sound and uttering a very soft sigh. He's angry with one of us again!

"Nonetheless, I give you all my utmost thanks," Kyoya quipped, allowing his thin lips to twist upwards in a (please insert: sarcastic) smile.

Everyone was admittedly quite shocked, but only the redheaded siblings had the guts to warily inquire after this sudden generosity. Hikaru and Kaoru shared a quick glance with one another, blinked at the upperclassman, and hesitantly asked, "Why are you thanking us, then?"

His silver glasses glinted in the sunlight, temporarily blinding those of us that were staring at him. "I've been able to acquire a bit of useful data, thanks to your continued presence at the Tropical Aqua Garden," Kyoya explained with a small, predatory smirk.

That creepy smile was never a good sign, but it was generally better for onlookers than the evil smirk that the young man preferred to wear; the former meant that he was now incredibly happy with himself, whereas the latter served as a very good indication that we'd become pawns in his newest game of chess. Kyoya really enjoyed playing that game, almost as much as he enjoyed manipulating others. Based upon that scary expression, Kiki and the rest of our group had just been used to further his goals in some nefarious scheme for world domination, too. The Hosts were merely guinea pigs in this little experiment of his own design.

It shouldn't come as much of a surprise, then, that we all began to panic…

Tamaki was the first to officially edge away from the dark young man that he would normally refer to as his first friend. The Host King released a small squeal of indignation at these words, before nervously plucking at the sides of his swim trunks, quite obviously fearing for his very life. For once, Tamaki was as silent as a mouse, and nothing more was said about the hungry crocodiles. It didn't seem too terribly important at the moment.

Hikaru and Kaoru were the next to respond, and not very well, at that. The redheaded imps launched themselves at one another, frightened by the reappearance of the dark sneer, and began sourly muttering about creepy snakes that reported to Dark Lord, Voldemort. Then, Hikaru and Kaoru commenced into their normal routine, which wasn't actually considered to be normal by anyone outside of our club. Come to think of it, I was still surprised me that the two of them were really gay. And for each other, too…

Admittedly, I'd resorted to desperate measures, as well. I was standing in the shade of a large tree, silent, and praying to the gods that no one would pay any special attention to me. Playing opossum was the best course of action to take whilst standing in front of a vicious (and hungry) hunter; it was a well known fact amongst predators and prey alike. Even Haruhi, the normally blunt and oblivious brunette, remained steadfastly quiet, wary, and alert. She was apparently having second thoughts about the true nature of the mysterious Shadow King.

The Canadian, on the other hand, was staring suspiciously at the older male, clearly not believing a word of it. Kiki was a commoner, so it hadn't occurred to her that this young man could really hold that much sway over his friends – or rather, his business partners.

She raised an eyebrow and curiously asked, "What exactly are you going to do with all of that data, eh?" Her violet eyes glittered with interest, not only in the subject matter, but the other conversationalist, as well.

"Nothing in particular," Kyoya drawled, with a small smile that betrayed his obvious amusement at the situation. He really enjoyed taunting her, it seemed. "But, I sincerely thank you for your help regarding the dietary issues of our crocodiles, Tanaka-san."

"Yeah…" Kiki flushed at these seemingly sincere words, glancing coyly to the right, away from the steely gray gaze of the Shadow King. "Not a problem." She kicked the toes of her bare feet against the wet grass and quietly grumbled, "You must not feed 'em enough, or somethin'…"

Kyoya blinked down at her with wide eyes, genuinely shocked that this tomboy was capable of adopting such a shy and feminine demeanor. He deadpanned, "Obviously."

"I suggest that you feed 'em some really big fish next time, eh?" The Canadian stared pointedly up at him for a moment, before plastering an evil grin across the lower portion of her face. And Kiki was back to, er…normal. "They especially like the taste of snake, you know."

Then, Kyoya proceeded to join the game of wits and purred, "Yes, I am aware of that fact, but the crocodiles appear to be more interested in your shoes." Cue condescending smirk here. "It's a shame that you won't be able to replace them anytime soon, due to your financial situation."

Wow, I thought in amazement. Kyoya really enjoys picking on this one girl, doesn't he? The old light bulb inside my brain slowly flickered to life. As a child, the boy constantly teases the girl that he likes, so… I twitched in disbelief. The Shadow King actually has a heart – and a crush on Tanaka-san, too!

"Asshole…!" Kiki bellowed at him and attempted to tackle the smiling young man, much like a bull would senselessly charge at a matador. The red flowers on his shirt appeared to have pissed her off.

Haruhi sighed quietly to herself – the cursing obviously still annoyed her – and ordered, "Calm down, Kiki-chan!" She gently placed a hand on the shoulder of her older friend, urging the irate girl to ignore the cruel words of her classmate. "He's just trying to get under your skin, okay?"

Snarling, Kiki wrenched the small hand away from her tense shoulder and admitted, "Well, it's really working, Haruhi-chan…!" She huffed in irritation and turned away from everyone else, glowering down at her bare feet. No Crocs.

Things weren't going very well for us, it seemed, and the tension was slowly driving us to lunge at one another. Naturally, Kyoya was a sneaky snake, one with fangs – poisonous fangs – that aimed for the weakest part of his victim's anatomy. Kiki liked going for the jugular vein, too. The search for our friends had not even truly begun, which could only mean that this wasn't going to be a very easy cover for us to maintain. Subtly was not a trait synonymous with the Host Club.

Thankfully, Tamaki amiably stepped up and into the position of leader. He smiled kindly at the two young women, gestured towards the map near the changing rooms, and suggested, "How about we resume our search for the missing portion of our club, yes?"

There was something in that observation that didn't sit very well with me, either. He smiled kindly at the two young women. I closed both of my stormy gray eyes in thought, attempting to concentrate on the words that had just slithered through my tired brain. He smiled kindly…at the…two...young women. I blanched in realization. There should be three girls with us right now!

"Speaking of which," Haruhi interjected, with a thoughtful expression darting over her once blank face, "I've been wondering about something for a while, now…"

Tamaki had begun to wag his imaginary blonde tail at his crush, but her tone of voice served as a reminder that this situation was, indeed, serious. "What is bothering you, mon cher?" The Host King quieted and gently placed an arm around the girl's thin shoulders.

As expected, Haruhi didn't even bat an eyelash at the affectionate endearment, because she more than likely did not understand its meaning. The petite brunette simply pinched the skin on his dominant hand and worriedly asked, "Where's Kotoko-senpai?"

There was a tense moment of silence, which immediately became increasingly awkward as we all realized that stupidity was contagious. We'd been so concerned with locating our missing friends – both of whom were a regular part of the Host Club, and consequentially, our regular lives – that none of us had thought to question the whereabouts of the quiet senior, Nakamura Kotoko. I hadn't even noticed that the older girl was missing, and she was in all eight of my classes! The rich heiress was also a regular customer at the Host Club. Yes, Kotoko came to speak with my cousin, Mitsukuni, but the two of us were still friendly towards one another. It was expected of us.

I sighed in resignation and rubbed two fingers against the bridge of my nose. Two very rich and high maintenance girls were lost in a (manmade, but incredibly realistic) tropical forest. Sammy and Kotoko were surrounded by danger, possibly wounded, and with my manipulative cousin as their sole source of protection. Mitsukuni would be more inclined to search for the nearest snack bar, rather than chasing after either of the pampered girls, even if one of them was the apple of his eye.

Could this situation get any worse?

***Author's Note***

Shadowsammy: Here's the next chapter in the "Past, Present, and Future" Arc!

The Twins: *Sweatdropping* How many of those are you gonna write, anyway?

Shadowsammy: Um, I've published four already, and there's one more to post!

Hikaru: Are you...

Kaoru: ...kidding us?

Shadowsammy: Nope! =^_^=

The Twins: v_v;

*Important!* I want everyone to read and review, so post an answer to this question! Would you guys like Takashi and Sammy to go on a date in the next section, as in...the chapters between this arc and the one concerning their trip to the beach? If so, please give an example!

I'm expecting some good reviews - around 246! And I want to thank everyone for the recent reviews, alerts, and favorites! My inbox is probably going to go on strike soon! ;D