Title: Flower Garden (A Hana Yori Dango AU)
Author: Yih
Author Note: Thank you so much for your support! Please keep reviewing! There's a more important note at the end of the chapter. Please read it!
9: Vast Confrontations (December 13, 2002 to December 24, 2002)
At the club, Tsukasa's cellphone rang and he didn't answer, pushing the ignore button to silence the phone. However, a few minutes later, his phone rang again and everyone gave Tsukasa the look to answer his phone, please! So he answered it. "Hello! Who is it?" he asked in an irritated voice.
"DOUMYOUJI TSUKASA!" exclaimed a distinctively commanding voice, causing Tsukasa to pull the phone away from his ear. "Why didn't you answer the first time I called you? I've been looking for you everywhere!"
"Why?" he inquired.
"Because I'm in Japan right now!" she exclaimed. "Why aren't you at school right now? I swear you at least have to be at school even if you aren't going to go to class!"
"Yeah, yeah," he responded in an arrogant tone. "Why are you back in Japan?"
There was a slight pause before she spoke, as if she were thinking about whether to tell him or not, "I'll tell you when you get home tonight. Right now, I need to go to sleep and catch up on the time difference. Bye."
After that, she hanged the pone up on him, Tsukasa stared at his cell phone still stunned that Tsubaki was back. "So who was it?" Tsukushi asked.
"Tsubaki," he answered, "she's back in Japan."
"Wow, she is?" Tsukushi said excitedly. "Everyone's coming back. First, Shizuka; then, Sara; now, Tsubaki. You've got to tell her that she has to have dinner with us tonight, then the whole group will be back together again."
"If Rui comes," Shizuka added softly.
There was an awkward moment of silence before Tsukushi finally said in response, "How about someone call Rui and tell him about everything?"
Tsukushi was wondering what everyone was looking at because even though they were looking in her direction, their eyes weren't focused on her. She soon found out why when she heard someone say, "There's no need to call me. I'm here," he stated. When she turned around and saw him, her eyes widened, he didn't give her anytime to think because he took her hand and pulled her with him declaring, "I need to talk to you!"
She jerked her hand away from him. "I don't think we have anything to say to each other. You said enough last night!"
He grabbed her hand again and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly against him even though she was struggling to get away from him. "Please," he begged, getting the desired response when she stopped fighting him, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said. I was just jealous and I had no right to say that about you."
She glanced at him in surprise. "Why were you jealous?" she whispered her question softly.
"Isn't it obvious?" When she shook her head, he remarked in a husky voice, "Because I really like you," he paused, his statement stunned himself as much as it stunned her. "And," he continued in a more controlled voice, "I'm sorry about what I said about you last night. Even though, I was jealous, I had no reason to take it out on you. I should have realized it wasn't you, that it was Tsukasa."
Everyone looked at Tsukasa, wondering what his response would be to Rui's accusation. Surprisingly though, he didn't do or say anything, all he did was lean back in his chair, his gaze directed at Tsukushi. This caused everyone to redirect their gaze toward her. "It's no one's fault," she responded. "I think we do need to talk though." She tugged at his hand and they walked together to another private room.
When they had left, Shizuka was the first one to say something, "I hope those two patch things up between the two of them. I've never seen Tsukushi mad at him and I've never seen Rui so outspoken before. I hope everything works out. I really do."
Everyone echoed the same sentiments as Shizuka did except for Tsukasa, which wasn't a surprise, since everyone knew that Tsukasa wanted to be with Tsukushi. What surprised them was that he didn't protest Rui taking Tsukushi away, since normally he got extremely jealous. Tsukasa didn't even notice that they were all looking at him. He was lost in his own thoughts.
~
"Ouch, that really hurt Tsukasa!" Tsukushi exclaimed, rubbing her head where he'd hit her with the ball.
For a moment, he'd felt sheepish and bad until he'd seen her turn away from him and focus her attention on Ruia gain. He wiggled his nose in disgust, what was so interesting about Hanazawa Rui, anyways? All he did was sit there and stare at something in the sky. Sometimes, she'd talk. But he never did. He thought Rui was really boring and that he was so much more interesting, so why didn't she play with him?
He hadn't really wanted to hit her in the head with the ball, but that was the only way to get her attention. She was getting to be just as bad as Rui. The more he watched them, the more he didn't understand why she always chose Rui over him. He was Doumyouji Tsukasa, the very best! What more could she possibly want than him?
"Hey Tsukasa!" called Soujirou, where he was dribbling the basketball. "let's play ball."
"It's no fun with only three people," Tsukasa grumbled.
"Of course not," Soujirou agreed, "Akira's asking Rui to play with us. Actuallly, he's probably going to ask Tsukushi to ask him, but whatever." He got a teasing smile on his face. "Besides, if Rui plays, Tsukushi will watch."
Soujirou got the desired response when Tsukasa blushed and grabbed the basketball. "We'd better warm up! We can't lost to those two!" Actually, Tsukasa couldn't stand losing to Rui or anyone, but especially Rui.
And as Soujirou predicted Rui came because Tsukushi had asked him to and because he'd come, she'd come to watch him play ball. "First to ten?" Akira suggested, pulling off his shirt, which caused the nearby girls to stop and ogle him.
"That's fine by us," Tsukasa retorted, also pulling off his shirt. "Heads or tails, Rui?"
"Tails," Rui said softly. He watched Tsukasa flip the coin and saw it land on tails, which caused Tsukasa to throw the ball quite hard at Rui.
Rui tossed the ball to Akira, who quickly dodged both Soujirou and Tsukasa before making a fake throw, which caught Soujirou off guard, allowing him to dunk. The nearby girls clapped appreciatively and he winked at them before passing the ball over to Soujirou. The game continued on with Tsukasa shoving hard past Akira and Rui to score, causing Rui to lose his balance and fall hard onto his hand.
Tsukasa smirked but that only lasted briefly when Tsukushi rushed over to Rui to kneel down next to him. "Are you okay?" she inquired softly. He nodded and lifted his hand up to her. She smiled and kissed the spot on his hand that was bleeding.
"COME ON!" Tsukasa shouted. "Let's play!"
Grabbing onto the hand that Akira offered him, Rui got up. The game was close the entire way until Rui stole the ball from Tsukasa and threw the ball from downtown. Tsukushi then ran up and hugged both Akira and Rui. Tsukasa threw the ball hard to the ground and left the court, pushing several girls away that offered him water and towels. "Get away you ugly cows!" he yelled at them. Soujirou smiled apologetically at the girls and ran after Tsukasa.
"Sore loser," Akira commented. "Are you really okay, Rui?"
"Yeah," Rui responded, "Tsukushi made it better."
His comment caused her to blush. "Are you guys going to class?"
They shook their heads. "I'm heading over to Rui's place," Akira responded. "Shizuka's back from her trip to Korea, right, Rui?"
"She is," he answered, "but she's not staying with me this time."
"Then where is she staying then?" Akira questioned. "You are her only relative here."
"Her parents are back form France now," Rui replied. "They've bought a house near mine, though."
"Wow, her parents came back? That's great! I know, she's missed them," Tsukushi remarked. "Why don't we go then? I haven't seen my godparents in forever."
From where he was standing, Tsukasa saw and heard everything. A part of him wished he could join them, but he resisted. Even though their group seemed very cohesive, there were actually two main division in F4: Akira and Rui, Soujirou and himself.
~
He closed the door behind them. "What I said earlier is true. I really do like you," he whispered softly to her, looking at her with a quiet intensity in his eyes. "I really want this engagement to work." He took her hand and held it.
"I broke the engagement Rui," she stated, pulling her hand away from his. "I don't think we're ready to be engaged yet. At least, I'm not," she explained. "I'm sorry."
He nodded stiffly. "Is it because of him?"
She knew who he meant. "It's not because of him. It's not because I don't like you, it's because I'm scared."
With his hand, he tilted her chin up so their eyes met. "So my brave little Tsukushi is finally afraid?" He smiled softly and lowered his hand. "Do you think I'm not afraid?" he queried. "Why do you think I was so solemn about the whole thing in the beginning? Because if it didn't work out, we'd lose what we have."
"Yes," she agreed in a choked voice. "At first," she began, "I thought this was a good thing, but now, I'm not so sure that it is. I think I want things to stay the same Rui. I don't want things to change. I can't bear to lose you."
If she had been saying these words meaning something else, he would have been so happy. But she meant it in the way she meant and he was disappointed. If she had said it a few days ago, maybe he wouldn't have been so disappointed, but it was now--- and he was. Something had changed in that short amount of time. "I'm going to go back," she declared abruptly, turning around and walking away from him.
He wanted to shout to her what he was thinking, but that wasn't his nature. He was only able to whisper once she was too far to hear, "Things have changed Tsukushi; things have already changed." He sighed and followed her back to where the others were sitting. He felt down and out of it, but he didn't let it show. Instead, he put the blank expression that was customary for him on his face and sat down besides Tsukushi, who smiled at him like nothing had happened.
"So did you guys work your problem out?" Soujirou asked immediately.
Tsukushi made like she didn't hear him and suggested, "Why don't we go see Tsubaki?" She got up and grabbed Rui's hand and led him out. The rest thought that was a silent answer, but Shizuka knew better as she watched the rest file after the broken pair. "Why are you going to do now, Rui?" she asked herself silently.
~
As usual, Tsukasa was being his annoying self, earnestly trying to do everything within his willpower to make Tsukushi miserable. "I don't see why you're so fond of this ugly teddy bear. It's all ragged," Tsukasa remarked in disdain, holding the teddy bear high enough so that she couldn't reach it. But he held it low enough to keep her jumping to try to get it. Soujirou and Akira watched with amusement, but didn't bother to try to help Tsukushi.
It wasn't that they didn't sympathize with her, but they had realized early on that if there was one thing Tsukasa really dislike was when someone interrupted his play with Tsukushi. If Rui had been there, he probably would have snatched the stuffed animal and walked off with Tsukushi following faithfully behind. However, Rui wasn't there, probably getting in his typical 15 hours of sleep. After all, it was only 11.
"Give me that back, Tsukasa, you pig!" she shouted, jumping up once again. He shook his head and continued to taunt her when someone whacked him hard on the head and snatched the bear away from him. Tsukushi's eyes widened and she gasped.
The older girl smiled at her and whacked Tsukasa on the head again when he yelped, "Whoever that was is going to die!" He turned around all prepared to hit the person when the girl kicked him in the face and put her foot firmly in the middle of his chest when he'd hit the ground because he was off balance. "Tsubaki, what are you doing here?!"
Tsukushi ran up to Tsubaki and with childish adoring eyes, she exclaimed, "Wow, where did you learn to do that? Can you teach me?"
Tsubaki smiled at Tsukushi and handed her the stuffed animal. "Of course," she responded and offered the little girl her hand, "I'm Tsubaki, this idiot's older sister, and who might you be? Tsukushi?"
"How did you know?"
Tsubaki smiled and was about to say something positively embarrassing when Tsukasa leapt up and closed her mouth with his hand. "I've told her what an annoying brat you are, such a stupid girl as well. OOWWWW!" he screamed as he held the finger Tsubaki had bitten.
"HMMPH," she responded, "I don't remember him saying no such thing. If I remember correctly, he was trying to tell me about this really cute girl that he likes to bother because she's so cute when she gets angry at him!"
~
Actually, the whole group hadn't gone to Tsukasa's house because Soujirou had to run off to do an emergency tea ceremony at the last minute and Sara, of course, had gone with him to give him her support. And it seemed there was an important family business meeting that Rui and Shizuka had to attend, thus they were unable to go. Lastly, Akira decided that he might as well go home and spend some time with his younger twin sisters, since the group wasn't really doing anything special, which left Tsukasa and Tsukushi to go meet Tsubaki.
When they arrived at Tsukasa's immense mansion, the butler told Tsukasa that his sister was having a full body massage and that she'd be out in a little bit. So Tsukasa and Tsukushi sat down together in an awkward silence because things had changed between them since his confession to her. Besides that, they had never really had a conversation without arguing heatedly with each other. Tsukasa had finally gathered his thoughts together to speak when Tsubaki exclaimed from across the room, "Perfect timing! I'm feelings much better after that massage!"
It was as she was stretching that she caught sight of Tsukushi. "Hi, Tsubaki!" she greeted warmly, walking over and giving her a hug. "How are you?"
"I'm fine," she answered and looking extremely apologetic, she remarked, "I need to speak to Tsukasa about something that's private."
Tsukushi nodded, completely understanding. She smiled and reassured Tsukasa because he had an irritated expression on his face. "I'll wait for you guys in the formal room until you're ready, okay? Take your time and talk. I know that it's been a while."
Once she left, Tsukasa let his annoyance show fully. "What do you want to talk about?"
"What? No hug?" Tsubaki retorted. "I guess you're not glad I'm here. What an ungrateful brat!"
"Of course, I'm glad you're back!" he shouted. "But what do you have to say? Why are you here?"
"Mother sent me," Tsubaki answered calmly, grabbing his full attention.
He stared at his older sister, wondering for what reason his mother had for sending his sister to him. "Then again, if it had been really important, his mother would have come herself, right?! "What does the hag want?" he asked in a biting voice.
Tsubaki raised her eyebrow and even though she agreed with her younger brother, he still shouldn't be voicing his low opinion of their mother so verbally. "She's still our mother," she reminded him lightly. "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"
"Bad news."
"She sent me here to tell you of your arranged marriage to Ookawahara Shigeru." When she saw the stunned look on her brother's face, she quickly continued, "Do you want to hear the good news?" He shrugged and she took that as a yes. "She says you don't have to come to New York, anymore."
"Wow," he remarked derisively. "All she wants instead is for me to get married to a girl I don't know and dislike. And I can't believe that you're helping her! Have you ever told her how miserable your marriage has made you?"
"That's not the point," she interrupted firmly. "And because of what happened to me, I won't let that happen to you. I made mother let me choose through eligible candidates, that I though were suited for you. My first choice happened to be hers as well. Shigeru's a charming and intelligent young woman with a temperament to match your own, which might not be a good thing. But things will never be boring."
At the dubious expression on his face, she placed her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "At least, give her a chance, if you flat out reject her, that gives mother a free hand in choosing your bride. That was the only way I could negotiate."
He was stunned his sister had gone so far to ensure that he didn't end up like she had. And he had to grudgingly admit that his older sister had good judgment. After all, it was she that realized what a great girl Tsukushi was. It'd taken him way too long to realize that. He knew he could trust Tsubaki; he just didn't trust his mother, Doumyouji Kaede.
Author's Note: Well, what relationships would you like me to explore further than the obvious? Rui/Tsukushi, Tsukasa/Shigeru being the obvious. Of the not obvious are Akira/Shizuka, Soujirou/Sara, and Kazuya/Yuki. The only possible switch is that I may switch Sara/Yuki, but I doubt it since I'm going for alternate, alternate pairings. Reviews are much appreciated!
Check out my original novel: Secret, A Tale of Love
Author: Yih
Author Note: Thank you so much for your support! Please keep reviewing! There's a more important note at the end of the chapter. Please read it!
9: Vast Confrontations (December 13, 2002 to December 24, 2002)
At the club, Tsukasa's cellphone rang and he didn't answer, pushing the ignore button to silence the phone. However, a few minutes later, his phone rang again and everyone gave Tsukasa the look to answer his phone, please! So he answered it. "Hello! Who is it?" he asked in an irritated voice.
"DOUMYOUJI TSUKASA!" exclaimed a distinctively commanding voice, causing Tsukasa to pull the phone away from his ear. "Why didn't you answer the first time I called you? I've been looking for you everywhere!"
"Why?" he inquired.
"Because I'm in Japan right now!" she exclaimed. "Why aren't you at school right now? I swear you at least have to be at school even if you aren't going to go to class!"
"Yeah, yeah," he responded in an arrogant tone. "Why are you back in Japan?"
There was a slight pause before she spoke, as if she were thinking about whether to tell him or not, "I'll tell you when you get home tonight. Right now, I need to go to sleep and catch up on the time difference. Bye."
After that, she hanged the pone up on him, Tsukasa stared at his cell phone still stunned that Tsubaki was back. "So who was it?" Tsukushi asked.
"Tsubaki," he answered, "she's back in Japan."
"Wow, she is?" Tsukushi said excitedly. "Everyone's coming back. First, Shizuka; then, Sara; now, Tsubaki. You've got to tell her that she has to have dinner with us tonight, then the whole group will be back together again."
"If Rui comes," Shizuka added softly.
There was an awkward moment of silence before Tsukushi finally said in response, "How about someone call Rui and tell him about everything?"
Tsukushi was wondering what everyone was looking at because even though they were looking in her direction, their eyes weren't focused on her. She soon found out why when she heard someone say, "There's no need to call me. I'm here," he stated. When she turned around and saw him, her eyes widened, he didn't give her anytime to think because he took her hand and pulled her with him declaring, "I need to talk to you!"
She jerked her hand away from him. "I don't think we have anything to say to each other. You said enough last night!"
He grabbed her hand again and pulled her into his arms, holding her tightly against him even though she was struggling to get away from him. "Please," he begged, getting the desired response when she stopped fighting him, "I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said. I was just jealous and I had no right to say that about you."
She glanced at him in surprise. "Why were you jealous?" she whispered her question softly.
"Isn't it obvious?" When she shook her head, he remarked in a husky voice, "Because I really like you," he paused, his statement stunned himself as much as it stunned her. "And," he continued in a more controlled voice, "I'm sorry about what I said about you last night. Even though, I was jealous, I had no reason to take it out on you. I should have realized it wasn't you, that it was Tsukasa."
Everyone looked at Tsukasa, wondering what his response would be to Rui's accusation. Surprisingly though, he didn't do or say anything, all he did was lean back in his chair, his gaze directed at Tsukushi. This caused everyone to redirect their gaze toward her. "It's no one's fault," she responded. "I think we do need to talk though." She tugged at his hand and they walked together to another private room.
When they had left, Shizuka was the first one to say something, "I hope those two patch things up between the two of them. I've never seen Tsukushi mad at him and I've never seen Rui so outspoken before. I hope everything works out. I really do."
Everyone echoed the same sentiments as Shizuka did except for Tsukasa, which wasn't a surprise, since everyone knew that Tsukasa wanted to be with Tsukushi. What surprised them was that he didn't protest Rui taking Tsukushi away, since normally he got extremely jealous. Tsukasa didn't even notice that they were all looking at him. He was lost in his own thoughts.
~
"Ouch, that really hurt Tsukasa!" Tsukushi exclaimed, rubbing her head where he'd hit her with the ball.
For a moment, he'd felt sheepish and bad until he'd seen her turn away from him and focus her attention on Ruia gain. He wiggled his nose in disgust, what was so interesting about Hanazawa Rui, anyways? All he did was sit there and stare at something in the sky. Sometimes, she'd talk. But he never did. He thought Rui was really boring and that he was so much more interesting, so why didn't she play with him?
He hadn't really wanted to hit her in the head with the ball, but that was the only way to get her attention. She was getting to be just as bad as Rui. The more he watched them, the more he didn't understand why she always chose Rui over him. He was Doumyouji Tsukasa, the very best! What more could she possibly want than him?
"Hey Tsukasa!" called Soujirou, where he was dribbling the basketball. "let's play ball."
"It's no fun with only three people," Tsukasa grumbled.
"Of course not," Soujirou agreed, "Akira's asking Rui to play with us. Actuallly, he's probably going to ask Tsukushi to ask him, but whatever." He got a teasing smile on his face. "Besides, if Rui plays, Tsukushi will watch."
Soujirou got the desired response when Tsukasa blushed and grabbed the basketball. "We'd better warm up! We can't lost to those two!" Actually, Tsukasa couldn't stand losing to Rui or anyone, but especially Rui.
And as Soujirou predicted Rui came because Tsukushi had asked him to and because he'd come, she'd come to watch him play ball. "First to ten?" Akira suggested, pulling off his shirt, which caused the nearby girls to stop and ogle him.
"That's fine by us," Tsukasa retorted, also pulling off his shirt. "Heads or tails, Rui?"
"Tails," Rui said softly. He watched Tsukasa flip the coin and saw it land on tails, which caused Tsukasa to throw the ball quite hard at Rui.
Rui tossed the ball to Akira, who quickly dodged both Soujirou and Tsukasa before making a fake throw, which caught Soujirou off guard, allowing him to dunk. The nearby girls clapped appreciatively and he winked at them before passing the ball over to Soujirou. The game continued on with Tsukasa shoving hard past Akira and Rui to score, causing Rui to lose his balance and fall hard onto his hand.
Tsukasa smirked but that only lasted briefly when Tsukushi rushed over to Rui to kneel down next to him. "Are you okay?" she inquired softly. He nodded and lifted his hand up to her. She smiled and kissed the spot on his hand that was bleeding.
"COME ON!" Tsukasa shouted. "Let's play!"
Grabbing onto the hand that Akira offered him, Rui got up. The game was close the entire way until Rui stole the ball from Tsukasa and threw the ball from downtown. Tsukushi then ran up and hugged both Akira and Rui. Tsukasa threw the ball hard to the ground and left the court, pushing several girls away that offered him water and towels. "Get away you ugly cows!" he yelled at them. Soujirou smiled apologetically at the girls and ran after Tsukasa.
"Sore loser," Akira commented. "Are you really okay, Rui?"
"Yeah," Rui responded, "Tsukushi made it better."
His comment caused her to blush. "Are you guys going to class?"
They shook their heads. "I'm heading over to Rui's place," Akira responded. "Shizuka's back from her trip to Korea, right, Rui?"
"She is," he answered, "but she's not staying with me this time."
"Then where is she staying then?" Akira questioned. "You are her only relative here."
"Her parents are back form France now," Rui replied. "They've bought a house near mine, though."
"Wow, her parents came back? That's great! I know, she's missed them," Tsukushi remarked. "Why don't we go then? I haven't seen my godparents in forever."
From where he was standing, Tsukasa saw and heard everything. A part of him wished he could join them, but he resisted. Even though their group seemed very cohesive, there were actually two main division in F4: Akira and Rui, Soujirou and himself.
~
He closed the door behind them. "What I said earlier is true. I really do like you," he whispered softly to her, looking at her with a quiet intensity in his eyes. "I really want this engagement to work." He took her hand and held it.
"I broke the engagement Rui," she stated, pulling her hand away from his. "I don't think we're ready to be engaged yet. At least, I'm not," she explained. "I'm sorry."
He nodded stiffly. "Is it because of him?"
She knew who he meant. "It's not because of him. It's not because I don't like you, it's because I'm scared."
With his hand, he tilted her chin up so their eyes met. "So my brave little Tsukushi is finally afraid?" He smiled softly and lowered his hand. "Do you think I'm not afraid?" he queried. "Why do you think I was so solemn about the whole thing in the beginning? Because if it didn't work out, we'd lose what we have."
"Yes," she agreed in a choked voice. "At first," she began, "I thought this was a good thing, but now, I'm not so sure that it is. I think I want things to stay the same Rui. I don't want things to change. I can't bear to lose you."
If she had been saying these words meaning something else, he would have been so happy. But she meant it in the way she meant and he was disappointed. If she had said it a few days ago, maybe he wouldn't have been so disappointed, but it was now--- and he was. Something had changed in that short amount of time. "I'm going to go back," she declared abruptly, turning around and walking away from him.
He wanted to shout to her what he was thinking, but that wasn't his nature. He was only able to whisper once she was too far to hear, "Things have changed Tsukushi; things have already changed." He sighed and followed her back to where the others were sitting. He felt down and out of it, but he didn't let it show. Instead, he put the blank expression that was customary for him on his face and sat down besides Tsukushi, who smiled at him like nothing had happened.
"So did you guys work your problem out?" Soujirou asked immediately.
Tsukushi made like she didn't hear him and suggested, "Why don't we go see Tsubaki?" She got up and grabbed Rui's hand and led him out. The rest thought that was a silent answer, but Shizuka knew better as she watched the rest file after the broken pair. "Why are you going to do now, Rui?" she asked herself silently.
~
As usual, Tsukasa was being his annoying self, earnestly trying to do everything within his willpower to make Tsukushi miserable. "I don't see why you're so fond of this ugly teddy bear. It's all ragged," Tsukasa remarked in disdain, holding the teddy bear high enough so that she couldn't reach it. But he held it low enough to keep her jumping to try to get it. Soujirou and Akira watched with amusement, but didn't bother to try to help Tsukushi.
It wasn't that they didn't sympathize with her, but they had realized early on that if there was one thing Tsukasa really dislike was when someone interrupted his play with Tsukushi. If Rui had been there, he probably would have snatched the stuffed animal and walked off with Tsukushi following faithfully behind. However, Rui wasn't there, probably getting in his typical 15 hours of sleep. After all, it was only 11.
"Give me that back, Tsukasa, you pig!" she shouted, jumping up once again. He shook his head and continued to taunt her when someone whacked him hard on the head and snatched the bear away from him. Tsukushi's eyes widened and she gasped.
The older girl smiled at her and whacked Tsukasa on the head again when he yelped, "Whoever that was is going to die!" He turned around all prepared to hit the person when the girl kicked him in the face and put her foot firmly in the middle of his chest when he'd hit the ground because he was off balance. "Tsubaki, what are you doing here?!"
Tsukushi ran up to Tsubaki and with childish adoring eyes, she exclaimed, "Wow, where did you learn to do that? Can you teach me?"
Tsubaki smiled at Tsukushi and handed her the stuffed animal. "Of course," she responded and offered the little girl her hand, "I'm Tsubaki, this idiot's older sister, and who might you be? Tsukushi?"
"How did you know?"
Tsubaki smiled and was about to say something positively embarrassing when Tsukasa leapt up and closed her mouth with his hand. "I've told her what an annoying brat you are, such a stupid girl as well. OOWWWW!" he screamed as he held the finger Tsubaki had bitten.
"HMMPH," she responded, "I don't remember him saying no such thing. If I remember correctly, he was trying to tell me about this really cute girl that he likes to bother because she's so cute when she gets angry at him!"
~
Actually, the whole group hadn't gone to Tsukasa's house because Soujirou had to run off to do an emergency tea ceremony at the last minute and Sara, of course, had gone with him to give him her support. And it seemed there was an important family business meeting that Rui and Shizuka had to attend, thus they were unable to go. Lastly, Akira decided that he might as well go home and spend some time with his younger twin sisters, since the group wasn't really doing anything special, which left Tsukasa and Tsukushi to go meet Tsubaki.
When they arrived at Tsukasa's immense mansion, the butler told Tsukasa that his sister was having a full body massage and that she'd be out in a little bit. So Tsukasa and Tsukushi sat down together in an awkward silence because things had changed between them since his confession to her. Besides that, they had never really had a conversation without arguing heatedly with each other. Tsukasa had finally gathered his thoughts together to speak when Tsubaki exclaimed from across the room, "Perfect timing! I'm feelings much better after that massage!"
It was as she was stretching that she caught sight of Tsukushi. "Hi, Tsubaki!" she greeted warmly, walking over and giving her a hug. "How are you?"
"I'm fine," she answered and looking extremely apologetic, she remarked, "I need to speak to Tsukasa about something that's private."
Tsukushi nodded, completely understanding. She smiled and reassured Tsukasa because he had an irritated expression on his face. "I'll wait for you guys in the formal room until you're ready, okay? Take your time and talk. I know that it's been a while."
Once she left, Tsukasa let his annoyance show fully. "What do you want to talk about?"
"What? No hug?" Tsubaki retorted. "I guess you're not glad I'm here. What an ungrateful brat!"
"Of course, I'm glad you're back!" he shouted. "But what do you have to say? Why are you here?"
"Mother sent me," Tsubaki answered calmly, grabbing his full attention.
He stared at his older sister, wondering for what reason his mother had for sending his sister to him. "Then again, if it had been really important, his mother would have come herself, right?! "What does the hag want?" he asked in a biting voice.
Tsubaki raised her eyebrow and even though she agreed with her younger brother, he still shouldn't be voicing his low opinion of their mother so verbally. "She's still our mother," she reminded him lightly. "Do you want the good news or the bad news first?"
"Bad news."
"She sent me here to tell you of your arranged marriage to Ookawahara Shigeru." When she saw the stunned look on her brother's face, she quickly continued, "Do you want to hear the good news?" He shrugged and she took that as a yes. "She says you don't have to come to New York, anymore."
"Wow," he remarked derisively. "All she wants instead is for me to get married to a girl I don't know and dislike. And I can't believe that you're helping her! Have you ever told her how miserable your marriage has made you?"
"That's not the point," she interrupted firmly. "And because of what happened to me, I won't let that happen to you. I made mother let me choose through eligible candidates, that I though were suited for you. My first choice happened to be hers as well. Shigeru's a charming and intelligent young woman with a temperament to match your own, which might not be a good thing. But things will never be boring."
At the dubious expression on his face, she placed her hand on his shoulder comfortingly. "At least, give her a chance, if you flat out reject her, that gives mother a free hand in choosing your bride. That was the only way I could negotiate."
He was stunned his sister had gone so far to ensure that he didn't end up like she had. And he had to grudgingly admit that his older sister had good judgment. After all, it was she that realized what a great girl Tsukushi was. It'd taken him way too long to realize that. He knew he could trust Tsubaki; he just didn't trust his mother, Doumyouji Kaede.
Author's Note: Well, what relationships would you like me to explore further than the obvious? Rui/Tsukushi, Tsukasa/Shigeru being the obvious. Of the not obvious are Akira/Shizuka, Soujirou/Sara, and Kazuya/Yuki. The only possible switch is that I may switch Sara/Yuki, but I doubt it since I'm going for alternate, alternate pairings. Reviews are much appreciated!
Check out my original novel: Secret, A Tale of Love