So, hi there?
It's been a while. Apologies about that.
Firstly, I want to say sorry for leaving you on a cliffhanger like that the way I did. Unfortunately, I lost my way with Dancing in the Rain over the six or seven (Seven!) years I spent writing it.
Secondly, I want to announce that after six or seven years, I have finally finished it! Dancing in the Rain has been rewritten and renamed 'Before You Go'. In honour of what I originally wrote, I had planned to leave the original copy of Dancing in the Rain here, and repost the revised and completed version as a new story, however, FF guidelines prevent me from doing so, and consequently, I have decided to just update it here.
If you loved Nali and Kyoya's story as much I loved writing it then I hope you will continue the journey with me regardless. If not, dear reader, then thank you for loving Dancing in the Rain as I much loved it. It was my first publication on this site, and returning to it now has reminded me how much I originally loved it. I can only hope you love 'Before You Go', half as much.
I'll be posting the original chapters in one, and then the rewritten chapters one at a time.
Stay safe and happy reading. Much love, Maimacph. x
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I do not own the Ouran High School Host Club manga or anima, nor any of the content quoted. WARNING for minor swearing and sexual references.
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'The Wallflower'
A deep orange sun sets on Ouran Academy as students flood out of pink gates to their freedom. The fountain Nali was sitting on dribbled to a stop. The marble structure held a great view over the grounds and was just able to keep her hidden from the droves of students as they made their escape. She watched as they walked by, oblivious to her gaze; girls in puffball yellow dresses giggled and whispered, while guys roughhoused and laughed with each other. Designer shoes scuffled over pristine paths; expensive bags jostled as they were thrown into car boots.
The Academy was, to say the least, incredibly prestigious. To succeed here, one only really needed one thing: the right name.
Too bad Nali didn't have any of that. Not the right name and certainly not any prestige.
Nor did she have any grace, or poise. No charm, no extensive wealth or extreme beauty. In fact, one might say the only remarkable thing about Nali Tanaka was her skill in being a wallflower. A strange thing to note, being above average at being average, but the art of being anonymous was not totally lost on Nali. She had often argued that it was an underappreciated art.
She sighed as the grounds slowly emptied. She was exhausted, and as she thought that, her eyes drooped tiredly. The low sun warmed her skin and a soft wind pulled at her hair, the scent of freshly cut grass lingering in the breeze.
He would have loved a day like this.
It had been a year since things changed. They say that with time things become easier, when in fact the opposite is true. Time heals the wound that is honest enough, but the wound becomes a scar and that scar stays with you forever. Easy to ignore but impossible to forget.
Nali exhaled, running restless fingers through wild hair. She didn't have time to dwell on the past, not now.
"Nali-chan!"
"Shit!" Nali squealed, toppling backwards into the cold water of the fountain. Spluttering, she surfaced to see her shocked friend staring at her agape. A chill ran up her spine as she stood, dripping.
"Oh my god Nali, are you ok?" Mei rushed forward.
Nali took one look at Mei's horrified face and began to laugh. The sound spluttered forth, surprising Mei. Then she was laughing too, a deep chuckle that quickly gave way to a snorting laugh from Nali. A few stragglers glanced over at the pair, before quickly averting their gaze from the strange sight. Stupidity was to be averted at Ouran Academy. What a shame, Nali thought as Mei attempted to haul her back onto dry land, that so many of the students failed to realise the stupidity in averting the stupidity.
"Are you ok?" Mei spluttered as Nali shook the water from her hair. Water droplets flew towards Mei, who squealed and battered them away. Nali grinned.
"I am so, so sorry, Nali! I thought you saw me coming, I really didn't mean, I mean…"
Nali flicked some more water at Mei, "It's ok, I might forgive you."
The girl squealed again, before taking off towards the gate. Nali gave chase, shouting after her. They dashed past their classmates, ignoring their whispers, the looks of disdain.
They stopped just beyond the gate, giggling as they leaned on each other to regain their breath.
"I am sorry. I really didn't mean to startle you like that," Mei huffed.
"I'm fine, a little water won't kill me."
Mei stifled her giggles, tossing Nali a spare jumper from her bag. The girl tugged the grey jumper over her soaked dress, rolling the too long sleeves up to her elbows.
"So, what did Hanabusa-sensei say?" Nali asked. "You were in there for quite a while."
Whatever colour Mei had vanished at the mention of the formidable teacher. She wrung her hands, averting her gaze as she mumbled a reply.
"Sorry, what was that?" Nali asked cupping her ear towards Mei.
The girl huffed, crossing her arms.
"She told me I had the artistic talent of a blind dog with no limbs."
Nali spluttered, quickly covering her mouth with her hand. Mei scowled, before turning and flouncing away. Nali ran after her, shoes squelching as she tried to suppress the laughter that was escaping.
"It really wasn't that bad," She said between giggles.
"Yeah, yeah, I know I can't draw, but the class is mandatory. Anyway, its fine for you because Hanabusa worships the ground you walk on."
Nali wiped away her tears with a shrug.
"What can I say? I'm a genius," She placed her clutched hands to her face and fluttered her eyelashes.
Mei rolled her eyes with a small smile as the pair settled into a companionable silence. Their shoes hit the gravel in sync. The town was quiet; only a few cars chugged past, the more regal buildings beginning to give way to smaller houses, and the occasional grey-suited straggler who trudged past them, head low. In the corner of her eye, Nali spotted Mei tugging at the collar of her dress with a sigh. She turned to face her.
"What's up?"
"I was wondering -"
"No," Nali cut her off quickly.
"But…you didn't even know what I was going to ask?" She wailed, crossing her arms over her chest.
"I refuse to get involved in any of your hare-brained schemes, and quite frankly I have a mountain of homework awaiting me," Nali gestured to her over-flowing, slightly damp, satchel.
Mei sighed, blowing her brown fringe out of her eyes with an exasperated look.
"Can you just hear me out?" She pouted.
Nali averted her gaze from Mei. The older girl knew how to push her buttons in order to get her way and Nali was usually a master of not giving in. As long as she didn't look into her eyes.
Stay strong, don't give in to that look, don't give in, don't give in, don't-
"What is it?" Nali asked with a sigh.
Mei lit up, her grey eyes sparkling.
"You know that club run by Suoh Tamaki?"
Nali's brow furrowed in thought. What club did Tamaki Suoh run? Hold up, who the hell was Tamaki?
"You know the Host Club? That club with all the guys that the girls swoon over that the blonde boy in our class is head of," Mei continued. Nali's brow furrowed.
Host Club? What kind of club is a Host Club?
"There's a lot of blonde boys in our class, you're going to have to elaborate some more."
Mei sighed deeply. Nali rolled her eyes at the girl's response, sorry for not having the same IQ level as Einstein.
"I swear your mind is like a sieve-" Nali shot her a glare.
"He's the idiot, with the violet eyes, who flirts with anything with a skirt," Mei threw her hands up exasperatedly at Nali's blank look. "He hangs out with the really creepy guy with the glasses who knows everything."
An image of their homeroom teacher calling on the creepy dude flashed through Nali's head. She distinctly remembered some other blonde dude glomping him and some other girls fainting before she was distracted by the chocolate bar she found at the bottom of my bag.
"I think I know what you're on about, what does it have to do with anything?"
"Well, my dad is taking me to a really important business meeting tomorrow after school, but the Ootori guy asked me to deliver some of our new plants from the Gardening Club, and I'm not going to make it so I was wondering…if you would go instead?"
"But they're bringing in the new Dionaea muscipula tomorrow, I wanted to feed one some flies!"
"Please!" Mei begged, "I'll totally owe you one."
Nali paused, "Owe me, huh?"
"Massively, like three sticks of Dango owe you."
"Make it four and it's a deal."
Mei fist-pumped victoriously, before reaching for Nali's hand to shake.
"It's a deal." The pair shake then grin at each other.
Suddenly, a pair of hands clamped down on Nali's shoulders. She shrieked and Mei jumped.
"Ah, so this is where you have been hiding, young maiden."
Nali's eye twitched in annoyance and she scowled.
What a mood killer.
"Benio-san, shouldn't you be with your club?" Nali asked through gritted teeth as she turned to face the girl.
Benio laughed before flashing Nali a sensual smile.
"My dear maiden, I came to bask myself in your presence. Every moment away from you is like a tear in my heart," She grabbed Nali's hand kneeling down in front of her.
"Every breath and I feel as if I am dying, another sigh and my life would be gone from me."
Nali tried tugging her hand away, but Benio kept an ironclad grasp on it still ranting about love and death and the mistreatment of maidens. She shot Mei a panicked look, but her friend averted her gaze with a mischievous smirk. Nali's scowl deepened, she was going to kill Mei before Hanabusa even got her hands on her.
"See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!" Benio spun Nali into her arms, dipping her low towards the ground.
Shakespeare, how original…
"Benio-san, if you've come about your set pieces-"
"You are wasting your talents at Ouran, hiding away your beauty. Please, dear maiden, join me?" She released Nali but kept a firm grip on her hand.
"We've spoken about this before, Benio-san." Nali snatched her hand away.
"And yet, here we are again," Benio smiled.
"My answer is still the same, Benio-san. I'm happy here, I have friends and I have a life."
"But dear maiden, your special touch on our sets, they whisk our maidens away to foreign lands on adventures – your talent is lost here."
Benio swooned slightly, "And the boys here have overbearing egos and are as dull as they can possibly come, and the maidens are as equally as bad, with their whispering gossiping ways. I can protect you from their harsh words more than any idiotic boy can promise to."
"I can assure you, my talent is far from wasted here," Nali stated. "Your sets will be finished this weekend. I'll drop by with them on Monday after class…that is if you still have the money for them?"
Benio pulled a shocked expression, "What do you take me for? Of course, your payment is ready upon delivery of your fantastic, beautiful sets."
The girl stepped closer to Nali again, a sensual look spread across her face.
"I think it's time for you scat. We have homework to be doing and you're being a pain. She's given you a delivery date, get going," Mei butted in with a sweet grin.
Benio scowled before striking a heroic pose.
"This is not over. I shall not give up!" and with those final words, she spun away in a flurry of complicated twists and turns.
Once she was gone, Mei released her laughter. Her face turned bright red and tears were streaming down her face.
"Oh jeez, that was...gosh."
Nali groaned, hiding her face in her hands, "Please don't laugh."
"See, how she leans her cheek upon her hand! O, that I were a glove upon that hand, that I might touch that cheek!"
"Mei, you're not helping." Nali groaned, "Remind me why I got involved with them in the first place?"
"Because I introduced you and they pay a pretty penny for your work and you have school tuition to pay for," Mei stated sweetly.
Nali groaned, "I hate you."
"I love you too, Nali-chan," Mei grinned ruffling her hair playfully.
Nali sometimes wondered what life would be like without Mei to lean on. The girls had been friends for longer than either of them could remember. Mei knew that Nali hid things from her, she knew there was a bigger picture that she couldn't see, but she still stayed. Without her – well Nali didn't like to dwell on what-ifs.
"I better go, Dad promised to go over business strategies tonight," Mei pulled a face and Nali couldn't help but giggle.
"So basically, he's gonna teach you how to use your assets and womanly wiles."
Mei sweatdropped, while Nali grinned maniacally, thinking about Mr Sarutobi's last attempt at making his daughter more womanly.
"I'll see you later." She waved at Nali over her shoulder as she moved off.
"I'll keep my phone on in case you need rescuing from the clutches of your evil father."
"Hilarious," she shouted over her shoulder.
Nali paused, watching as Mei's slim figure disappeared around a corner. The smell of spices lingered on the breeze which sent loose sakura blossoms swirling across the city square. Branches swayed while the sun cast a warm glow on my still slightly damp clothing. The fountain in the middle of the square splashed quietly, the sun's rays lighting the water like sparkling diamonds. The winter was fading away and Nali was looking forward to the summer.
She slipped earphones on, muffling the sound of those passing by. The public library would be pretty quiet at this hour, allowing her to try to deal with the growing pile of homework.
As she walked, her mind wandered back to Benio's offer. She had deliberated moving to Lobelia before, their arts courses were more highly rated than Ouran's, their drama club had long been a customer for her work and, well, there was no family legacy to live up to at Lobelia. No tragedy hanging over her, no reputation to be held to, no one to be compared to and be found lacking.
But if there was anything Nali had learned over the years, it was that there was no escaping your past. Not really. Especially not in this city, not in any of their academies, nor the families who held them up.
The eldest son was considered the heir. He was the foundation on which the family was built on. If on the rare occasion that no male heir was conceived, it is their belief that the eldest daughter should be married to a suitable blue blood of the parent's choice.
There should be no exceptions.
But there was no longer a Tanaka male heir.
Nali paused beside the fountain, pulling out an old crumpled photo from her pocket. Five smiling faces looked up as she smoothed out the ancient paper.
I miss you more than I could possibly say.