The lights in the control room of the Tropical Aqua Garden flickered with various greens, reds, and blues as Kyoya and Hanako reviewed the specs before their guests arrived. They checked everything from temperature and humidity to water purity and basicity. Predictably, the Aqua Garden was as regulated and well-equipped as any other Ootori family endeavor. Hana snapped the clipboard shut after finishing their final check and handed it to her employer, "Everything's looking good."
Kyoya hummed with satisfaction, "You know, it's technically our day off. You're welcome to relax today, too."
The others had been dropping hints all week that she should relax, but it wasn't necessary. Tachibana and the rest of the staff had tried to convince her to enjoy the staycation with the hosts and allow them to take some of her workload. At school, the hosts were pestering her to play with them when they visited. This was the first time that Kyoya mentioned anything to her about relaxing, but even as her employer suggested it, she declined. Hana shook her head, "This is still a trial run and if anyone here deserves a break, it's you. I'll track the data throughout the day, and you try to loosen up." The phone on the tabletop rang, and Hanako picked it up, "Yes?" It was the front gate reporting that their guests had arrived. "Thank you, we'll be there in a moment." She hung up the phone and turned to Kyoya, saying, "It looks like everyone's here."
The third son of the Ootori family and his body guard closed up the control room and took their leave of the administrative wing. The hallway that connected the administrative wing and the actual garden was a long, utilitarian walk way. Hanako could feel the tropical climate of the gardens mingling with the cool airconditioning behind them, creating a transitional sensation that was not unpleasant. When they entered the garden and locked the inconspicuous white door behind them, Hanako felt as if they were genuinely on a beach in the tropics.
Almost immediately after she adjusted to the new environment, she caught a dash of periwinkle as the twins swept Haruhi away to the changing rooms. Not wanting to get involved with her godbrothers' antics, she followed Kyoya towards Tamaki, but before she could join them, she heard Honey calling for her.
"Hana-chan!" she saw him racing out of the dressing room in his swim trunks and bounding towards her. "Are you going to go swimming?" he took her hands hopefully, tugging her with him towards the artificial beach.
"I'm sorry, Honey-sama," she apologized as she resisted his efforts to uproot her from the sand. "I'm helping Kyoya take notes, but you should enjoy the theme park." The older boy's entire body drooped with disappointment, and Hana felt her usual guilt bite at her more brutally than usual. "Do you want to check out the cabana with me?" she invited, "I can show you all the refreshments we have to offer on the menu."
Honey brightened, the cheerfulness lighting up his eyes again and warming Hana's heart as he grinned at her. "Okay! Hey, Takashi, we're going to the cabana! Come on, slowpoke!" Hana's stomach flipped as she looked behind Honey and saw his cousin watching them with the same stoic expression that he usually wore these days. He had also changed into swim trunks, and she couldn't help it if her eyes traveled over his defined abdomen and up his chest before meeting his eyes. He had been looking at her, too, and she felt a brief moment of embarrassment for eyeing him so openly. He tore his gaze from hers sharply as he joined them, and she felt the hollowness in her ache again. Fixing her smile back into place before Honey could notice, she started leading them to the cabana with her hand still clasped in Mitsukuni's.
The cabana was not unlike the one they had set up for Bali day at the club. It was no more than a hut equipped with a full counter, sink, and freezers with a counter and appropriate seating around its perimeter for guests. Hana lifted the gate and stepped behind the counter while Takashi helped Mitsukuni onto one of the counter height stools. "We have a watermelon smoothie, a tropical paradise smoothie, a very berry smoothie, and a selection of fresh fruit juices," Hana listed from memory. "We've also prepared an assortment of tropical fruit cakes. Might I recommend the mango cake roll?" She retrieved a menu and pased it to Honey, whose eyes widened with awe at his options. He looked like a child waking up on their birthday, excited and impressed with the gifts. "Is there anything you would like?" she asked.
"Everything looks so good! I can't decide," the options tormented him and he pouted. Turning to Mori, he asked, "Do you want anything, Takashi?" Hanako couldn't help but also look at Mori, and she found that he was already looking directly at her. He had been watching her interact with Mitsukuni, observing the small smile that she wore when she talked to the short boy. He didn't look away from her, and she felt as if his dark gray irises were searching for something in her gaze.
She looked away, faltering momentarily before repositioning her hospitable smile and saying, "It's still early. You should enjoy the facility before eating, anyway. If you need anything, let me know, and I'll fix it for you." She could still feel Mori's intense gaze on her, and her gut screamed at her to get out of there. She had to get away. "Excuse me, I'm going to see if the others need anything." She ducked under the gate, again, and made a beeline for the Hitachiins and Haruhi, not waiting to see if the cousins were following her or not.
Mitsukuni glowered at the menu, knowing that Takashi was still watching her as she walked away. "You need to talk to her," the boy lolita said darkly, his cute personality giving way to that of the observant child prodigy.
{OR}
When she joined her godbrothers, they were sharing a look of confusion. "A plastic pool? What's that?" they asked in unison.
Haruhi turned around to answer them, "Let's see. I guess they're about this big, round, and to use it, you have to pump it full of air." The brunette gestured vaguely in the air to create an outline. Hana smiled in amusement. The boys were never going to know what Haruhi meant unless they actually saw one in front of them. As far as Hana knew, they had never seen something like that before in their lives.
"You dunce," Hikaru said.
"That's an inflatable boat, dummy," Kaoru added.
"There's no way something that small could be used as a pool."
"Yeah"
"Guys, it's a small pool," Haruhi insisted. "Haven't you ever seen little kids playing in one?" Hanako snickered as Tamaki suddenly dropped in on the twins and dragged them away from the two girls.
"I'm familiar with what you're referencing. I saw one at a birthday party for a coworker's daughter, once. Please, excuse them, Haruhi," Hana said apologetically on the behalf of her godbrothers. "Their experience has been particularly sheltered."
Haruhi took notice of Hana for the first time that day, surprised she didn't realize sooner that the older girl was dressed in a simple black one piece with a dark, purple sarong hanging on her hips. "Wow, Hana-senpai, I've never seen you out of uniform before," Haruhi commented, recognizing for the first time the qualities in Hana that translated to her modeling career.
"It's technically my day off," Hana admitted, feeling somewhat sheepish to admit to Haruhi that she was working during a break. "I'm just helping Kyoya with some responsibilities."
"She can't help that she's an ignorant commoner," the girls heard Tamaki hiss at the twins. Hanako sighed in exasperation when she saw Haruhi's agitation clear on the girl's face.
"So are we supposed to lie to her?" the brothers asked.
"I can't help but feel I should be offended by that comment," Haruhi deadpanned beside Hana. The two girls watched Tamaki lecture the twins in response to their goading, and Haruhi's annoyance easily spread to Hanako as Tamaki declared that it's inappropriate for a girl to be half dressed in front of boys.
"Haru-chan!" Honey sang, closing in on them and sending a spike of panic shooting up Hanako. The body guard made an effort to sneak away when the little blonde teen latched on to Haruhi's arm, but she felt two arms wrap around her shoulders, one from each of the twins flanking her.
"Where are you rushing off to?" they asked. She relented and relaxed in the nook between them, but she maintained a watchful eye for the young man she knew wouldn't be far behind Honey.
"Let's play, you want to go swimming in the current pool with me?" He had put on his bunny float and gazed up at Haruhi eagerly.
"Nah, I'm not gonna swim today," she decided before pausing thoughtfully and looking down at the older boy, "Hold on. You know how to swim. Do you still need that float?"
"Mm-mm," Honey shook his head and spun around with his float, "Just looks cuter this way, you know? Prancing, prancing…!" He took off with a cheerful song and a skip in his step. Hana smiled at the back of her former karate captain, pleased with the rosiness in his cheeks and the tune in his head.
"You're right," Haruhi said, "Those bunnies are pretty cute."
"He's so innocent," Hikaru and Kaoru said together.
"No way!" A chill crept up Hana's spine at the sound of the other girl's voice. "You've got it all wrong!"
"Is that Renge?" Haruhi asked as Hanako groaned in displeasure. The ground shook, and the cabana split as Renge's platform emerged from the ground. Hana thought to herself that she'd have to remind Kyoya about uninstalling the rig before the official opening. "How does she do that? It's like the rig follows us?"
"I believe Kyoya allowed the installation when he approved the installation in the club room," Hanako stated.
"Listen up, boys," Renge's laughter abruptly ended and her typical harsh tone replaced it. "You obviously need help understanding Haninozuka's hidden motives! Look!" She pointed to the current pool, and their gazes all followed to where the little blonde martial artist canon balled into the water.
"Takashi!" he yelled with glee, legs up in the air before creating a splash. Hana watched the droplets of water from the splash cling to Mori's dark, wild locks and give an added radiance to his dark gray eyes. Her stomach flipped and flopped as his expression softened.
"What are you talking about?" Tamaki asked for elaboration.
"Think about what he said to you earlier," Renge instructed. "He's not being as sweet and innocent as you think." Renge's devilishly knowing expression shoved in their faces reminded her of the pest at hand.
"I agree," Kyoya said from behind Hanako. "Try putting the word 'I' at the beginning of that sentence." Hanako stepped back to stand beside him as the others turned to face them with matching thoughtful expressions and their chins in hand.
Hana felt a tick of annoyance on her forehead as the others realized what Renge and Kyoya were getting at. She scoffed and crossed her arms under her breasts, "Why does it matter if he's drawing attention to the fact that he's cute? It's just true that Mitsukuni's a cute person."
"That's Haninozuka for you," Renge declared. "In the ommitted chapter, he felt threatened by another loli-boy type, so he's taken steps to keep his rank. I should give him more credit." Her installation disappeared back underground, taking her with it.
"Renge's really getting on my nerves," Hanako grit out to Kyoya as the others recovered from their realization.
"She's stil new," Kyoya pointed out. "She'll grow on you with time."
Hana was about to refute him when Honey called out to them from the pool, "Hey! Look at this, everybody!" They all turned towards the current pool to find Mitsukuni sitting on top of Takashi's back as the taller host swam against the current. The blonde waved at them, his eyes closed from how wide his smile stretched over his face. "Check it out! Look! Even though we're swimming really fast, we never go any further than we are now!" he punctuated his exclamation with playful giggles.
As the other hosts struggled to decipher the truth of Honey's character, Hanako just smiled and indulged him. "That's very good!" she called back when nobody else responded to him.
"Look, Hana-chan! Isn't Takashi strong?" he, once again, took advantage of his innocent mask to defer to his cousin. Hana's smile faltered, and she looked over Takashi. The muscles in his arms flexed and stretched as he paddled against the current, and she caught glimpses of his chiseled torso when the water slipped away from his body. Flustered, she tried to find some kind of appropriate response.
"He must be if he's matching the current," Kyoya stepped in smoothly, saving her from the impossibly awkward situation that Honey forced her into. Eager to avoid another trap set by the sweet-loving goblin, she quickly turned her attention to the other hosts.
. "Got you!" Hikaru sang as Tamaki got drenched by Hikaru's water gun.
"Come on, boss, let's go! Let's have a water gun fight," Kaoru said enthusiastically.
"It'll be me and Kaoru against you and Hana," Hikaru said. "If you get it in the face, you lose. What do you say?"
"Sorry, guys, not today," Hanako said apologetically.
Hikaru rolled his eyes and shrugged, "Lame. What's the point of wearing a swimsuit if you're not going to swim? Well, boss, what about you?"
"Forget it," Tamaki refused, wiping his face on a towel. "Why would I want to subject myself to a childish game like that with those odds?"
The twins quickly rushed to Haruhi's sides and pulled her into their arms in retaliation. "Haruhi, I think it's time that we got married!"
"Then we'll honeymoon in Atami!"
Their teasing was all the motivation that Tamaki needed, and a pump gun found its way into his hands. "Do you really think I'd ever let Haruhi marry you guys?!" their furious president turned on quickly, Hana tugged Haruhi out of the way of a stream of water sent towards the first years by Tamaki's pump gun
"Thanks," Haruhi said to Hanako, glad that she wouldn't have to take off the pull over. The boys took off in a flurry of streams of water and long limbs.
"No problem. Why don't you sit down in the shade and relax?" Hana suggested, leading Haruhi to a poolside table sheltered by a large umbrella. "If there's anything you need, feel free to go ahead and get it from the cabana."
"Thanks, senpai," Haruhi decided to head over to the refreshments station, and Hanako joined Kyoya at one of the pool chairs where he was laying down, lounging under an umbrella.
"Everything's going well," she stated, observing the lively atmosphere around them. "Everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. Are you feeling relaxed?"
He craned his neck up to get a better look at the girl speaking to him. "As relaxed as I can be," he said meaningfully. It was noisier than what he would have wanted, but he took solace when he could.
"We need a real vacation," Hana commented, half-joking as she watched Tamaki chase her godbrothers.
"I agree," Kyoya said easily. Hana blinked in surprise. She hadn't expected Kyoya to welcome the idea of a vacation. In fact, she wondered if he was able to genuinely put work away for long enough to relax. "Perhaps the two of us should take a trip without the others. What do you think of hot springs?"
Just then, Tamaki crashed into the totem pole control station after slipping on a discarded banana peel. Kyoya sighed heavily and said regretfully, "I was just starting to enjoy myself." Every set of eyes on the totem pole glew an ominous red as the systems recalibrated. Hanako's sharp memory alerted her to the most immediate threat, and she tore towards the current pool.
"Mitsukuni!" She cried just before the wave crested. Takashi and Haruhi noticed it just a second later, but it was too late. Hanako had already dove in after him, all sound drowned out as she grasped at empty water. She bobbed back up to the surface and gasped for breath desperately. "Mitsukuni?" she screamed again before getting dragged back down by the current. She let it pull her down the indoor river, and when she got her next opportunity, she broke to the surface again. "Mitsukuni?" she called out, treading water and turning until she saw darkened blond hair bobbing a ways ahead of her.
"Hana-chan!" he gurgled, sounding close to tears.
Swimming desperately towards him, she kicked as hard as she could and pushed the water out of her way before she reached out and grabbed his arm. With her free arm and legs, she rode the current, trying to direct them as close to shore as possible without wasting more energy fighting the river. They washed up on the shore, and Hanako gasped for breath and wiped the water from her burning eyes before turning to Mitsukuni. He was laying on his side and coughing. She reached out and helped him to sit up, smacking his back squarely,and he coughed up some water that he had swallowed.
"Are you okay?" she asked him, worried carmel eyes passing over him as she searched for injury.
He shook water out of his hear and looked around at the unfamiliar surroundings, "What happened?"
"You got swept up in a wave. Are you hurt?" she asked. Honey got to his feet slowly and checked his arms and twisted his waist experimentally.
He put his cheerful smile back into place and declared, "I'm fine."
Hana sagged with relief, saying, "That's good." Suddenly, her fist collided with his arm and he squealed in protest as her concern gave way to anger. "What the hell was that for? It doesn't matter how it would have looked, you should have gotten out of the pool because that was extremely dangerous! What if you had gotten a concussion? Or worse?" she raged at the wide eyed boy who had become so used to Hanako's tender, maternal side that he had almost forgotten how fierce she could be when she wanted.
"I wasn't worried, Hana-chan," Mitsukuni confided in her serenly. "I knew Takashi or you would have saved me."
She was taken aback by his complete confidence in her, and she let go of her frustration with a long sigh. She pulled herself to her feet and said, "We should go back upstream and find the others." She extended her hand to the shorter boy, and he lit up again at her invitation to join her, taking her hand in his and following her back up the river.
As they walked together, Hana tried to figure out how far down the river they had been swept by the wave. She didn't have the map memorized yet and there weren't any notable landmarks to help her navigate. They didn't have any way of contacting their friends, and all that they could do was follow the river until they ran into them.
"Hey, Hana," Honey's voice drew her out of her thoughts, "do you think Takashi's going to be okay?" Admittedly, the question surprised her. She knew that Honey's relationship with Mori ran deep. He cared about his cousin just as much as Mori cared about him, but she wasn't expecting Mori to be the topic of their conversation in this scenario. "He must be worried since both of us got separated from the others," he continued when she didn't answer.
"I'm going to get you back, and then everything's going to be okay," Hana assured him coolly. She didn't know what else to say. It was her jobs to keep them safe, and she took her job very seriously even if she knew that the boy beside her didn't need anyone to protect him.
"Everything's not going to be okay," he argued in a low voice. "Everything hasn't been okay for a long time." He mumbled that last part, but she could still make it out. Waves and waves of guilt crashed over her as she stared down at his downtrodden expression.
"Things aren't as bad as they used to be, Honey-sama," she tried to comfort him.
"Why don't you call me 'Mitsukuni' anymore?" he asked suddenly, casting his large baby eyes at her and giving her a window to the sadness she had inflicted on him in these past few years.
"Things are just different now," she tried to explain for what felt like the thousandth time.
"You still call Hikaru and Kaoru by their first names!" he protested, "It's the same thing." She knew that what she had said wasn't adequate, but after everything that happened, she had wanted to keep her distance from all of them. She had seen how her fake friends treated her once they knew that she had fallen from grace, and she hadn't wanted her true friends to suffer from that, too. She knew what people said about her, and she couldn't bear for the rumors to reach the boys. Then, with Takashi and Mitsukuni, she didn't want Mitsukuni to have to choose between her and his best friend.
If she was being honest, Mitsukuni reminded her of those times before everything crumbled down around her, and it hurt her to have to face that reminder every day. She couldn't be around Takashi, and she couldn't be around Mitsukuni. "I'm sorry," she apologized genuinely. "It's still hard for me." Mitsukuni frowned, knowing exactly what she meant and wishing that there was something he could do to make her understand that nothing needed to change back then. He wished, with all his heart, that she had known that nothing needed to have changed.
The first droplets fell from the ceiling and landed on the tops of their heads, and Hanako held her palm up, catching the artificial rain that started to collect more quickly in her palm. She put on a smile for Mitsukuni and mused, "I wonder how the others are doing."
{OR}
The sudden downpour forced the hosts to take shelter in a hut while they waited out the rain. Mori leaned over the short walls and watched the rain falling, his guarded expression seeming more stern than usual somehow. "Hey, Mori-senpai," Haruhi called questioningly from the bench. "You seem to be really close with Honey-senpai. Are the two of you, like, childhood friends?"
"You mean you don't know," Hikaru started in disbelief, forgetting that Haruhi had only just joined them within the past few months.
"That they're cousins?" Kaoru finished for his brother, watching their senior's back.
"You're kidding me! They're related?" Haruhi exclaimed. She found it hard to believe that someone who was the polar opposite of Honey could be related to him. Mori was tall and kept to himself while short Honey seemed to have boundless energy and extroversion.
"The Morinozukas have been serving the Haninozuka family for generations," Kyoya informed her.
"However, two generations ago, the families became relatives by marriage and the master-servant relationship soon became a thing of the past," Tamaki elaborated.
"But even so," Kaoru continued, "Mori-senpai has always made a point to accompany Honey-senpai."
"It must really get his blood going," Tamaki mused. "The blood of a loyal servant flows like a mighty river through Mori-senpai's veins." The twins reacted dramatically, sniffling into tissues.
"I don't know if I'd call it a beautiful story," Haruhi said dryly. As she thought about Mori and Honey she felt compelled to comfort the host somehow, and she stepped forward, putting her hand on his arm and saying, "Hey, Mori-senpai, it's gonna be all right. I'm sure that Honey-senpai is safe. After all, Hana-senpai went in after him. He's a lot tougher than you might think he is, and if he gets hungry, the tres are full of bananas. I'm sure they'll take care of each other."
"Bananas?" the twins echoed skeptically as Tamaki questioned how Mori would respond. They were so ensnared in the exchange that they didn't notice Kyoya observing with his mouth set in a tight line. His pen hovered over the page of his pocket notebook, and he wasn't quite sure what he should write or if he should document this development at all.
Takashi turned and put his hand on the top of Haruhi's head, feeling the softness of her hair on his palm and smiled at her, grateful for her reassurance, "You're right."
Hikaru and Kaoru frowned at the action with disapproval. Haruhi was the only new female friend that Hanako had made in the past three years. They all knew that Hana had trouble trusting other women, especially people when they spent so much time around the hosts. It was one of the things they loved about Haruhi, and seeing Mori smiling down at Haruhi with his hand on her head could just be enough to ruin the relationship between Hana and Haruhi. "Don't tell me Mori-senpai's out for my spot as Haruhi's daddy?" Tamaki wailed.
Haruhi reflected on the story of the servant-master relationship, and she was reminded of the other servant in the host club. "So, is Hanako related to Honey-senpai, too?" she asked, thinking about how Hana had dove into the water after him and the way she always indulged his appetite for sweets during their usual club meetings.
Tamaki's boisterous behavior died down, and the uneasy tension that sometimes filled the air when she asked questions about Hana settled over them. Haruhi saw something flicker on Mori's face before it settled back into its unemotive expression. The twins looked at each other and then at Tamaki, as if they were wondering who was going to be the one to say it. The three of them looked at Mori next, asking if he was going to be the one to tell her or if they had his permission to speak about it.
"Hanako and Mori-senpai were engaged a few years ago," Kyoya said in a cutting yet cool tone. "Unfortunately, the engagement fell through." Takashi glared at Kyoya for the emphasis he placed on the word and the way it slid off his tongue. Hikaru mumbled something under his breath that nobody but Kaoru heard clearly, and Kaoru elbowed his brother in the side. Haruhi watched Mori's face, waiting to see if his expression would change, but it didn't. Clearly, he didn't want to talk about it, and it didn't seem as if anyone else wanted to talk about it, either. Then, Kyoya's phone rang.
{OR}
When the rain stopped, Hana and Mitsukuni stepped out of the hut they had found inland and were about to go back to the river when Mitsukuni's stomach grumbled. The boy whimpered pitifully, and Hanako smiled at him with amusement, crouching down for him with her back turned to him, "Come on, let's go get something to eat." Pleased, Mitsukuni smiled and hopped onto her back. Hana straightened easily and approached a banana tree. The girl climbed up the trunk, and by the time they were in the branches, she realized how much energy she had spent swimming, walking, and climbing. She harvested some bananas and handed one to Mitsukuni silently.
"Thanks, Hana!" Mitsukuni chirped happily, chomping down on the fruit. She unpeeled one for herself and nibbled on it while reflecting on the report she would have to make to Kyoya later. Obviously, they needed to do something about the controls in that totem pole first. Then, there was the need for more maps throughout the garden. There was a lot of work that had to be done before the garden could open to the public.
"You should talk to Takashi," Mitsukuni's sudden statement broke through her thoughts like a wrecking ball.
Once her surprise at his direct approach faded, she thought about all the times that she had tried. At first, she waited outside of the kendo club's practice room. She was dismissed from the Morinozuka estate when she showed and asked to speak with Takashi. He didn't answer her calls, and when she made the effort to speak to him in person he would give her that infuriating, careless look and walk away. Every time he looked at her, she felt like he had no idea who she was. "I've tried," she said flatly. "Why are you so keen on getting the two of us to talk? I know you've been trying to use club responsibilities as an excuse to trap the two of us together."
He deflated slightly but didn't show any guilt at being caught for his manipulations. "I know Takashi doesn't talk much," Mitsukuni said sadly, "but you two still have a lot of things left to say. I don't want you or Takashi to miss your chance to say them. I just want you guys to be happy."
The three of them had been friends since preschool. Hana used to eat lunch with them in the rose gardens, and when she and Takashi were together, Mitsukuni had been relieved to see Hana smiling again after the death of her mother. The twins knew it, too. They had all been happier when Takashi and Hana were together.
Ignorant to his thoughts, Hana ruffled his hair and smiled half-heartedly, "We should get back to the others, Mitsukuni." This time, Hana climbed down first, and Mitsukuni was about to follow her down when they felt the rumbling of collective footsteps marching on the earth. Immediately, she recognized that tempo and knew that Kyoya had dispatched her police force. At the same moment, Mitsukuni reached the same realization and they shared a look before taking off separately. Honey grabbed a vine nearby and launched himself from the branches, and Hanako let go of the trunk. She landed gracefully on the soft dirt and took off after Mitsukuni at a leisurely pace, hoping that she still had some of her officers left by the time he was done with them.
Hana finally emerged from the foliage and found the clearing where Mitsukuni stood triumphantly over the fallen bodies of her delta squad. "You guys should be more careful who you mess with!" she heard him say. Looking at the men scattered on the ground, she wondered what they did to receive such a reckoning. Glancing up, she noticed that the other second years and her godbrothers had also joined them in the clearing.
"Idiots," she grumbled as Honey told off the officers for bullying his friends.
"Haruhi!" Tamaki called as they ran to join their friends.
"You okay, senpai?" Kaoru asked Mitsukuni as he and his brother took in the fallen soldiers strewn about. "Hana, what happened?"
"Oh, nothing too terrible," she lightly, waving her hand dismissively as she came to stand next to Kyoya. The boy pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose before passing a critical eye over her form, looking for any harm that may have come to his companion. "And why were my men dispatched in full special ops gear?" Her delta squad was reserved for immediate, mid to high level threats concerning the Ootori family's safety. They only took their orders from her or from the main branch of the Ootori family directly.
"I might have forgotten to mention that we had other guests," Kyoya admitted with a small, innocent smile. She sighed heavily before stepping up and gave a sharp whistle that called her officers into file. The men crawled into line on their knees.
"What the hell did you all think you were doing?" she demanded of them, hands on her hips as she looked down on them. "Every single one of you were trained by the Haninozukas and this error reflects poorly on you, your squad, and your commander." The already beaten officers shrank back, and she turned to Mitsukuni, Takashi, and Haruhi. "On behalf of my squad," she said, interrupting the conversation her friends were having, "we apologize for the oversight." When they turned to look at her, she was in a deep, formal bow with her arms stiff at her sides and bent at the waist. Fanning out behind her, the officers bowed so low to Honey that their foreheads touched the ground.
"We humbly apologize," the captain of the squad added. "I am a second-generation student of the Ishizuka Dojo!"
"I'm a student of the Todoroki Dojo!"
"And I'm from the Otakeh Dojo! We are in your debt!"
Honey looked from the officers to Hanako, who had risen to her full height and looked over her officers with disapproval. "Why?" he asked innocently, "Is something wrong?"
"Yes, sir!" Itou continued, "We're so sorry, sir! We were unaware that we were searching for Mitsukuni Haninozuka! We've committed a terrible offense here! Please, don't blame Lady Negida for our mistake! I apologize for this confrontation, but my dojo will be so excited to hear that I've come face to face with the great Haninozuka! I cherish this moment!"
Hana sighed and motioned for her captain to cut it out, "Okay, I think that's enough. Just be more careful next time, guys. Go make sure you're all alright. You can go now."
"Ma'am," they barked in unison before hobbling away on each others' shoulders. As her officers left them, she returned to Kyoya's side, peeking into his pocket sized notebook and reading the notes he had taken. "Did you miss me?" she asked playfully.
Glancing down at her, he saw that her caramel colored eyes glittered with mirth, and he said in a jokingly tired voice, "You have no idea."
She smiled at him before looking at Mitsukuni and Takashi's reunion. The tall boy was comically bent at the waist, offering his head to his cousin while the blonde patted his head with one hand and pulled Takashi to his level with the other. "Takashi, you did an amazing job of protecting Haru-chan," Mitsukuni praised his cousin. Hana didn't think back on what Mitsukuni had just said, and she found herself caught in Takashi's dark gray irises again as his eyes darted to her over his cousin's narrow shoulders.
She offered him a small nod, a gesture between two people who fulfilled the serving role. She wasn't going to let anything bad happen to Mitsukuni if and when he was ever absent. His eyes widened for a moment before his face settled back into his usual straight expression, and he nodded back to her. Pleased that it had all gone well, Hana turned to Kyoya, "I should review the security footage before we go home tonight."
"I'll meet you in the administrative office," he said, handing her his small notebook so that she could add to the notes he had taken throughout the afternoon.
"I'm going to head out, then," she declared to the others. "Good bye, everyone." They bid her farewell in return, and she walked back to the current pool and made her way to the white door leading to the administrative wing. She went straight for the employee locker rooms and rinsed off under the shower before changing into her usual crisp white button down and suit. Leaving her hair loose to dry, she found the security office and fell into the rolling chair in front of the screens receiving camera feeds. One by one, Hana reviewed the content of each camera from the entire time that she and Mitsukuni were separated from the others. She watched the rest of the club get surrounded by alligators, take shelter in another hut, and she watched with some good-natured amusement as Haruhi faced snakes, bugs, and pits.
Her friendly laughter disappeared when she saw the next scene. Hana watched as Takashi swept Haruhi off her feet and cradled her in one arm against his chest. Haruhi was so small compared to Takashi, that he didn't even need his other arm to carry all of her. A pang of sadness resonated through Hana as she paused the video and scrutinized their expressions. Haruhi's cheeks were colored with a rosy blush as she gazed at the other host. Against her better judgment, Hana replayed the scene. She watched him pick up Haruhi over and over again, and she tried to tell herself that it was no different than when she gave Mitsukuni piggy back rides. Except, Mitsukuni had never made that expression when she carried him, and she was almost certain that she had never looked at Mitsukuni with such intensity. She watched it again, and she thought to herself that she shouldn't be surprised while trying to ignore the pricking of tears in her eyes. He was bound to move on sooner or later.
Then, the door opened and closed with a gentle click as Kyoya joined her. Quickly, she let the tape play and display a different scene. She wiped at her eyes and tried to pretend that she hadn't been obsessing over that moment between Takashi and Haruhi. Whether or not she knew it, he had seen her. He felt a familiar sympathy for her as he sat down in the chair beside her, saying nothing about what he had seen. He knew that she needed his patience, then, and she would address it if she wanted to.
"I thought I was over this," she said with a smile despite the pained strain to her voice as she tried to keep it light and playful.
She had always been bad at being deceptive, and he decided not to tell her about the moment Takashi and Haruhi had in the hut. "It's different outside of club activities," he pointed out to her, instead, "because you're prepared to see the clientele."
"It's no use dwelling on it," she said simply, and he allowed her to avoid the topic again. She handed him his pocket notebook, and he flipped through it to skim the additions that she had made to his notes.
"You're doing good work," he assured her meaningfully. "By the way, the others decided to have a beach day. You can take the day off and relax." He raised an eyebrow at her, challenging her to say no to this vacation.
As he expected, she just shook her head and combed her hand through her damp, tangled hair, saying, "The beach is a security nightmare. I'd feel better working."
{OR}
A/N... Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Thank you all so much for your feedback. Things will be picking up from here, so fasten your seatbelts it's gonna be a wild ride. By the way, I've noticed some errors from when I'm writing and some words don't get deleted when I rewrite parts. Please don't think I'm being lazy or don't know my grammar, I just can't go through my spelling/grammar check because it'll tell me that anything not in English is wrong, and it's such a hassle. I promise I know what I'm doing.
What do you guys think of Hana's relationships with Haruhi and Mitsukuni? Was anyone surprised to find out about Hana and Takashi's relationship?
Next time: A sinking feeling. The beach is, indeed, a security nightmare.