Waves rolled gently onto the white shores, coloring the sand dark as it playfully inched towards Hana's black leather shoes. The girl stepped back and gathered her dark hair into a high pony tail, annoyed with the way it kept getting in her face with the salty ocean breeze. She had been at Okinawa since school got out, preparing the beach for club activities. It was a relatively last minute decision, and she hadn't been able to plan accordingly. Fortunately, she had a squad of officers behind her who were more than willing to get the job done.
"Make sure those shellfish are in plain sight, men," she barked the orders to the delta squad as they strategically decorated the beach with crabs, mollusks, and seashells. "Haninozuka better have buckets full by dinner time."
"Yes, ma'am," they called back. She watched them unloading the truck with buckets of their own, ensuring that the entire cove would be perfect for the young master of the Haninozuka family.
Satisfied wih the delta squad, she called her alpha squad. "Has the villa been cleaned thoroughly?" she asked once the line connected.
"Rooms for all of the young master's friends have been prepared," Honda reported. "Tachibana estimates that the guests will be arriving soon, and Aijima has prepared the kitchen for use."
"Perfect, thank you Honda-san. I'll be in touch," she said to him before hanging up. It was the perfect day to host club activities on the beach. The crystal clear waves waxed and waned gently onto the clean private beach under a cloudless blue sky. The black silk of Hana's jacket soaked up powerful rays of sunlight, and she had to shrug it off before she started to sweat. She couldn't look tired for their guests. It would reflect poorly on the host club if their greeter looked less than perfect, so she rolled up her sleeves until they stylishly fell stopped just below her elbows and left her jacket on the back of a beach chair.
Walking up to the fence around the Ootori's private beach, she smiled at the hosts and their guests who had just arrived and gathered at the gates, "Welcome to the Ouran Host Club's private beach day event, courtesy of the Ootori family. Please follow me." She led them down the path to the area that had been prepared to accommodate the guests. This shore was particularly rocky, and the Ootoris owned the best plot of land on the beach. The staff had only been able to make the most of the stretch of sand between the rocky cliffs and the slippery caves, but they had done their best and set up umbrellas and a volleyball net. All in all, Hanako was quite pleased with herself.
As usual, she adopted the role of a server and carried trays of refreshments to their guests as they waited in line for their one on one time with Tamaki or admired the game of beach volleyball with the twins. She maintained a watchful eye throughout her duties, ensuring that none of Tamaki's guests slipped on the rocks and keeping track of the twins as Hikaru chased his brother near the sea. Tactfully evading the third year cousins also meant that she knew exactly where they were at any given time.
Ever since the incident at the Aqua Garden, Hana couldn't stop thinking about it. She set a glass on the table for Kyoya and sat down beside him under the umbrella as he reviewed her inventory and set up report from earlier that afternoon. She could hear the twins talking nearby, but her thoughts were on the stoic host who was stretching with his cousin and their guests further away. Maybe she was reading too much into what she had seen on the camera. After all, Takashi was a naturally intense person, it would make sense for a camera to pick up on that, and she certainly couldn't blame Haruhi for anything the girl may have felt or may feel. That just wouldn't be fair. She wondered if Haruhi was enjoying the beach trip more than their little adventure at the pool. This time, everything would go smoothly, and nobody would get hurt. Mitsukuni must have gotten to Hanako. Maybe all of his pushing was finally wearing her down. She probably wouldn't have been so affected by what she saw if she hadn't listened to Mitsukuni.
"Hana," Kaoru called loudly. His voice drew her away from the jumbled thoughts running through her mind, and she looked at her best friend blankly.
"Jeez, sis, what's up with you lately?" Hikaru asked, "Didn't you hear us the first time?"
"Sorry, I must not have been paying attention," she apologized, and a silent question passed between the brothers before they decided to let it go and say what they had been meaning to ask.
"Why aren't you wearing a swimsuit this time?" Kaoru asked her, tugging on the folded collar of her work shirt.
"Yeah, you know the beach isn't the right condition for these garments, right?" Hikaru pointed out. He picked up her blazer and hung it over the back of her seat carefully so that it wouldn't wrinkle.
"I'm working today," she told them. "Besides, it would be such a hassle if I got sunburned."
"It'll be more of a hassle if you tan unevenly," they scolded her in unison.
Kyoya finished his drink and rose to his feet. "Hanako, let's go check on the cove, I can't take much more of this," he motioned to their club president whose face was starting to redden as he continued rambling about his fantasy of an evening stroll along the beach. Hana followed him dutifully. She lagged behind him just a little bit and smiled at the familiar annoyance on his face that only Tamaki could elicit from the collected third son of the Ootori family.
Before the guests arrived, Hanako had instructed the delta squad to feed the live crabs onto the beach from a secluded area, and they succeeded in hiding the cargo truck behind rocks. "Captain Itou's team seems to be doing well," Kyoya commented, reading the order report that she had filled out with the number of shellfish delivered.
"Young master," the squad captain stepped up to the boy, still dressed in his special ops uniform. "When Negida-sama told us about this opportunity to right our offense, we accepted immediately."
"You guys could've worn the standard uniforms," Hana pointed out for the third time since they had arrived. They were all standing out on the sand, passing down buckets like a conveyor belt until the last men dumped the crabs onto the beach.
"Mori-senpai," Kyoya's acknowledgment of the host startled her, and she was suddenly very interested in what the rate of buckets moving from the truck was. "My family's private police force has stopped by. They wanted to make it up to Honey-senpai for attacking him at the water park. So they've brought shellfish."
Takashi didn't say anything, but Hana could feel him watching her. She wanted to look up at him and meet his infinitely piercing gaze with her own, but she willed herself to stay still and pretend that he wasn't there because if she didn't see him, if she didn't engage, maybe he would just go away. Then, she wouldn't have to deal with him or the wild thundering in her ribcage.
"Mori-senpai," Kyoya said again, "maybe you should make sure that Honey-senpai doesn't accidentally step on one of the shellfish." The suggestion sounded more like a polite command, but the searing sensation of being watched by him disappeared when Takashi returned to the beach on the other side of the rocky cover.
"Thank you," she said to Kyoya once her ex-fiance departed.
"You can't keep avoiding your club responsibilities forever," Kyoya pointed out with a stern look at his body guard. She had barely been at the club in person since their day at the pool. All of her behind the scenes work had become increasingly unseen. She worked longer nights to ensure the host club was prepared from afar, and she had tasked Haruhi with overseeing the set up and service on the floor. Cakes were delivered pre-cut. Laundry was completed after hours. It was worse than the time she tried avoiding Tamaki.
"I won't," she acknowledged. She looked over her shoulder at the pile of rocks separating the cove from the rest of the beach and she sighed. "I just really don't want to see him right now."
Kyoya was many things, and a sympathetic employer was surprisingly one of them. He understood her position maybe even better than the twins did. After all, he had been the only one there when it happened.
On the other side of the rocks, Haruhi had announced their major haul, and the two students decided to rejoin the others. Haruhi's elation at the shellfish dinner was enough to brighten Hanako's mood after the brief encounter with Takashi. She smiled and felt a bit of pride knowing that she had been able to make up for her squad's poor behavior.
"Tell me, Haruhi," Tamaki picked up a crab and approaching the girl, "isn't this crab… crab-tivating?"
Kyoya turned his back to Tamaki and started scribbling in his notes. Surprised, Hana peered over his shoulder. Her breath tickled his ear when she giggled and asked, "Are you really going to use that line?"
"No, the joke was genuinely awful." He tilted padfolio so she could read his notes better, "I'm keeping track of all the times Tamaki says something stupid to Haruhi."
Hana took the clipboard from him and started reading through the list, surprised that she hadn't known of its existence until that moment. "I don't think you have enough paper," she told him frankly. The two of them looked up again only because of the screaming crowd of girls, and Hanako's reflexes acted up immediately, moving her body to shield Kyoya's from whatever threat presented itself.
When she saw Haruhi throwing a bug towards the rocks, she relaxed and resumed a casual stance. "Would you like me to ensure that all bugs are removed from the property, Kyoya-sama?" she asked her young employer. He observed the girls return to the hosts, swooning over Haruhi's bravery and creating a love filled atmosphere around them.
"Leave them be, Hana," he said as he took the notes from her and wrote a new observation down. "It seems they're benefitting Haruhi's popularity with the ladies."
"We just thought up a new game to play that could be a lot of fun," the twins were saying to Tamaki, but Hana could tell that Kyoya heard them, too. She saw the way the light bounced off his glasses and knew that her godbrothers captured his interest. "What do you say? It's called the Who Can Find Out Haruhi's Weakness game. So, think you're up for it?"
"You shouldn't try to intentionally scare someone," Hana scolded them with her arms crossed across her chest, barricading them from walking away as they goaded Tamaki.
"Lighten up, Hana," Hikaru pouted.
"We're not gonna hurt her or anything," Kaoru agreed.
"What are the rules?" Tamaki gave in to the twins and they happily turned back to him.
"The deadline is sunset tomorrow. Whoever finds out her weakness first wins."
"And I have the perfect prize for the game's lucky winner," Kyoya spoke up. Hana reached into the pocket of her trousers and opened the small, metal picture case that she carried. Removing three photos, she held up the images of Haruhi from middle school. The twins and Tamaki gasped, peering at the photos as Hana kept them just out of reach.
"We wanna play too!" Mitsukuni declared with cheerful laughter. Hana finally looked at Takashi, grateful for the reflective dark lenses of her shades over her eyes, but still feeling as if he could somehow see through them. Maybe she hadn't been reading too much into what she had seen. If he was participating now, was it because of Mitsukuni or did he really want those photographs?
"I guess that means we're all competing," Kyoya declared, and Hanako felt her stomach sink.
{OR}
Hana follwed the boys into one of the caves for the Hitachiins' attempt to scare Haruhi. "This doesn't seem like something you'd usually approve of, Hana," Kaoru commented as they hiked over the rocks to get to the cave they set up for their plan.
"I'm just here to make sure nobody gets hurt." He frowned at her impassive expression, the angles of her face somehow made more harsh by the onyx lenses covering her eyes. Something was clearly upsetting her, but they didn't have time to ask about it if they wanted to beat the others. They entered the cool, dark cave together, and the twins started to tell their ghost story. Hana, for her part, remained a pillar of security and consistency for them. She was a shadow lurking near them without actively participating in their games. After the brothers failed, she oversaw the cargo truck that Mitsukuni wanted to use for his attempt to scare Haruhi and ensured that the door was lifted as soon as the small host wanted to be let out. She had wordlessly taken the harpoon from Takashi after he pointed it at Haruhi and promptly disappeared into the crowd of officers to have it put in storage safely.
When she returned from the storage house, the sun had started to set and morale for the game had dissippated. Hana decided to patrol the beach property and ensure the safety of the rest of their guests. Walking along the shore, she enjoyed having a day go by without a hitch. The low hanging sun bathed them in a golden hue and painted the darkening sky pink and purple. As she approached the end of the beach, she heard chatter and looked up to see the figures of some girls who had climbed up to get a better look of the sunset.
"Be careful up there, ladies," she called to them, climbing up onto the platform easily and joining them.
"Oh, Negida," they greeted her with small, welcoming smiles. "We just wanted to watch the sunset. We'll be down in a moment."
"Hey, look, it's Haruhi!" one of the girls in a blue bikini exclaimed, and all of the girls waved down from the cliff, calling to the host. Hana crossed her arms over her chest and resigned herself to watching the girls from there to make sure they didn't slip and hurt themselves.
"This feels so good," their guest said of the gentle breeze.
"Hey! There are chicks up there, man!" an unfamiliar man's voice shattered the serenity around them. The girls turned around, and Hanako stepped forward protectively. The trespassers swayed as they approached, and her eyes zeroed in on the bottles in their hands. They were locals, dressed in typical beach clothes and looking the girls over wolfishly. "Aren't we lucky! You ladies wanna hang out with a couple of locals?"
"Get back to the others, now," Hanako instructed the girls keeping her eyes on the two men who had approached them. They listened to her and started inching around Hanako's form, trying to keep their distance as they attempted to leave.
"No, thanks. Please, just leave us alone," the leader of the three girls said kindly.
She gasped in fright when the bolder of the two men reached out to grab her. "Aw, come on," he said. Before he could touch her, Hanako batted his hand away and stepped between the students and the trespassers. She shielded them with her body entirely and tried to hide the state of their undress with her presence as much as possible. These men weren't going to make it easy for the girls to get away. They were blocking the safest path down the small cliff.
"This is private property," she informed them. Her disdain for the disrespect they had shown seeped from her words as she continued. "Leave now."
"We just wanna show you girls how to have a good time," the man who had reached out said as he ran his lecherous gaze over Hana's form openly. Disgust melded with her anger in response to his gall. "Hey, you look familiar."
"Yeah, we've seen you somewhere before," the other man agreed.
"This is a private beach, you guys are not allowed to be here," one of the girls behind her, said.
"Private? Does that mean we're alone?" the second man approached the girls with open arms, and Hanako pushed him back with one hand on his shoulder. The girls cried out at the building violence.
Hana ignored the coiling of her muscles and the adrenaline pumping through her veins as he stumbled away from them. "Leave this property now," she repeated through clenched teeth. His angry eyes narrowed at her.
"Now I know! You're a model! I can't believe there's a model here," the hunger in his eyes worsened with the realization.
"I almost didn't recognize you with that stupid getup," the other sneered. "Hey, why don't you make like your friends and take it off?"
The bold one grabbed her by the collar and spoke directly into her face. Her mouth contorted into a grimace at the reek of alcohol on his breath, "We could help you."
"Leave now, while you still can," she voiced what was going to be her final warning. He just smirked back at her. She was about to punish him brutally for his suggestion when he suddenly let go and wailed in pain. Over his shoulder, Hanako saw Haruhi holding an empty bucket.
"Why don't you quit bothering them?" the host demanded. "Weren't you jerks listening? You better just leave 'em alone."
"Haruhi!" the girls behind her acknowledged the host with relief.
"Go!" Hana shouted at the girls behind her before stepping between the trespassers and Haruhi. The three girls ran past Hana and Haruhi, but only one of them was able to make it to the trail. The second trespasser blocked off the other two, and Hanako was forced to gently pull them back into her embrace. She gathered the girls behind her, and tried to shield the two and Haruhi, but they were too far apart on the rock, and she couldn't protect all of them at once.
"You little runt," the bold trespasser bit out, lunging forward for Haruhi. Hana blocked him again, hitting his arm out of the way and standing between him and Haruhi. She heard glass breaking, but she couldn't dwell on it because, then, she saw a flash of metal and knew that it was a knife.
"You're really getting on my nerves," the second hissed. Her body reacted out of memory as he rushed at her. She used her palm to push him off course and gripped his wrist tightly once he lost his momentum. The trespasser yelped in pain and released the knife. She ducked and picked it up, turning her attention to the bold trespasser who had forced Haruhi to the ledge.
"Don't hurt him!" one of the girls behind her cried out, and Hana realized that the other intruder got to Haruhi.
"How'd you like to take a dip?" Hana heard the trespasser say to Haruhi, and she fluidly brought herself up and rushed to the ledge.
"Haruhi!" Tamaki's voice sounded, and she hesitated. In the moment that it took for her to register where Tamaki was, the bold trespasser threw Haruhi over the ledge, and Hanako heard Haruhi yell.
"No!" Hana shouted. Her body lurched forward towards the trespasser who threw her friend into the water as Tamaki raced past them and dove in after her. She charged the man, and he swung at her with the broken bottle in his hand. She hissed sharply as it dragged along the meat of her cheek.
"Not so tough…" he wouldn't be able to finish that sentence. Hanako punched him in the face and grabbed him by the shoulders before sinking her knee into his stomach. When she let go, his hand slackened around the bottleneck and he fell to the ground at her feet.
"Hanako!" she heard Hikaru and Kaoru call her name, and her head shot up in their direction. The brothers took one look at their godsister's face and their eyes landed on the jagged red line marring the milky skin on her cheek. Two identical storms clouded their handsome features. Their fists trembled at their sides, and they each grabbed one of the intruders.
"What the hell did you do to her?" Hikaru yelled into the bold one's face.
"How dare you touch her?" Kaoru roared at the other. The twins shook the whimpering men viciously.
"Okay, okay, that's enough," Hanako placated the twins, and they stopped shaking the assailants. She turned to the two girls who were huddling together and asked, "Are you okay?"
Wordlessly, they nodded, and Hanako could see that they were more frightened from the encounter than they wanted to let on. "Take care of them," she said to her godbrothers. The twins cast looks back at the two girls and realized that they had forgotten all about their guests when they saw what had happened to their sister. They let go of the trespassers and went to comfort the girls. The two men sank back to the ground, and Hanako approached them as the brothers consoled the two girls.
"You bitch," the bold one cried, cradling his face, "I think you broke my nose."
"Give me your identification cards and leave the property unless you want me to break a bone," the coldness in her voice sent a chill down his spine. The two cowards forfeited their ID cards and ran back down the trail into town. Not long after they ran off, Kyoya and the third years arrived on the rock. Kyoya's typically mild expression hardened when he saw the state she was in, and she looked away as shame filled every fiber of her being. She should have done better.
"Hana-chan!" Mitsukuni threw himself at her and wrapped his short arms around her waist as he cried.
"I'm fine," she assured him, smoothing his hair down against his head. "Where's Haruhi?" she asked the others. Her eyes were still wide, and she realized that they hadn't said anything about the other girl yet.
"We should get down to the beach and meet Tamaki," Kyoya said to them steadily. Nothing about him suggested that he was shaken by the picture of Hanako's bleeding face. He put an unwavering hand on Mitsukuni's shoulder, and the shorter host reluctantly let go of Hanako. Kyoya's arm carefully wrapped around her waist, and he pulled her against him as they walked down the trail after the others. She rested her head on his collarbone, feeling how tightly he was gripping the fabric of her shirt in his hand.
Tamaki emerged from the blood red sea with Haruhi cradled in his arms, and Hanako was there with the others to greet them somberly. Kyoya let go of Hanako only to shed his shirt as their two water soaked friends approached them.
"Haru-chan!"
"Boss!"
"Where'd they go?" Tamaki asked in a dangerously low tone, his amethyst eyes dark with hate.
Kyoya handed his shirt to his best friend, "We took their ID cards and respectfully asked them to leave. The girls all went back to the hotel, and I've called a doctor. He should be arriving here any minute now.
"Thank you," Tamaki answered. He sounded so tired that a shot of guilt pierced through Hana. She reached out to help Haruhi back onto her feet, but Kyoya's bare arm found its way around her waist again, and she was stuck in place at his side.
"I'm fine, you guys," Haruhi assured them, climbing down from Tamaki's grasp. "I don't need a doctor."
"Regardless, we need him to take a look at Hana's face," Kaoru said.
"So, you should just get checked out, too," Hikaru added. Haruhi looked at Hana and saw what Kaoru was talking about. The older girl was pressing Kaoru's towel to her cheek to stop the bleeding, but Haruhi could see the red staining the terry.
"What were you thinking?" Tamaki asked, gaining back Haruhi's attention. "You know, you're not like Honey-senpai. You're not a martial arts master. Why did you confront them?" Their president bent down to look the girl in the eyes and put his hands on her shoulders. "What made you think you would stand a chance? You against two boys?"
"But it doesn't matter that they're boys and I'm a girl," Haruhi argued. "Hanako's a girl. I was there. I had to do something. There wasn't any time to think…"
Tamaki cut her off angrily, "That's no excuse, you idiot! You're not a body guard. Don't forget, you're just a girl!"
"Look, I'm sorry you had to come and save me, senpai. But I don't understand why you're so mad at me right now. I don't think I did anything wrong!" Haruhi's voice rose into a shout, and Tamaki's hands fell from her shoulders.
"You don't think so? Fine. Whatever you say. But I'm not speaking to you until you can admit that you were wrong!" His voice rose as he spoke, and suddenly he turned to Hanako. The purple fire in his eyes burned through her. "Why didn't you force the trespassers off the property sooner? You waited too long to do something. You're supposed to be a body guard! Haruhi's your friend, how could you let this happen?"
She took his barrage of questions with her head bowed, knowing deep in her soul that he was right. It was her fault that Haruhi had been thrown from the ledge. She should have been faster. She shouldn't have waited for them to pull the knife or break the bottle before acting. Tamaki was right.
"Hana did her job," Kyoya said evenly. He held his best friend's gaze and continued, "The outcome may have been much worse without her intervention. Tamaki, don't forget that her only responsibility to this club is my personal safety."
The truth of his words resonated with Tamaki, and the blonde stormed off to the villa. They all followed him in silence. Hanako let Kyoya steer her up the path to the villa, and she felt the steady rise and fall of his chest as he fought against his emotions to keep his breathing even.
{OR}
The doctor cleaned Hana's wound in her bedroom under Kyoya's supervision. She sat stiffly on the edge of her bed as he finished taping the gauze to her face. "Thank you, doctor," Kyoya said after the doctor told them that they just needed to clean the wound and replace the bandage until it healed to prevent an infection. The gash had looked worse than it actually was, and they were assured that it wouldn't leave a scar.
"Take the rest of the night off," Kyoya ordered her once they were alone in her bedroom. The hardness in his eyes and voice told her that there would be no room for argument. She looked up at him sharply, ready to insist that she could still work, but his steady stone cold eyes silenced her. "Humor me, Hana. Let the rest of the alpha squad handle security for now." He watched the resistence fall away from her face, and he felt some relief knowing that she was going to let him have the comfort of knowing she would go easy for one night. The door opened slowly, and Hana and Kyoya found the twins peering in questioningly. Kyoya sighed and picked up the clipboard from the desk. "Rest up. I'm going to go check on dinner." They opened the door wider for him and stood aside as he passed them, warning them, "Don't exhaust her."
"I'm fine," she assured her godbrothers as they closed the door behind Kyoya and joined her on the bed. Their concern for her was plain on their faces as they sat with Kaoru on her right and Hikaru on her left. "Don't worry about me."
"We'll worry about you anyway," Kaoru said.
Hikaru tilted her face slightly to look at the bandages better, "If that scars, Mom's gonna kill all three of us."
"It's just a scratch." She said it as if it was nothing, like she hadn't just taken down two guys in their twenties and gotten cut on her face by a broken bottle. The brothers shared a sense of concern at her flippant dismissal, and they expressed it silently through short glances between them.
Hikaru got up and patted Hana's hair comfortingly, "I'm gonna go check on Haruhi. I'll see you guys at dinner." He planted a kiss on the top of her head, "Love you, sis." He left the room and let Kaoru work out what was wrong with Hana.
"You know that you can talk to us about anything," the younger twin said to her.
"I do," she promised him. Of course, she knew that she could talk to them, but that wasn't their job. She was the oldest, and even if they weren't blood, she was the one who had to take care of them. They were her brothers in everything but name, and she didn't want to burden them.
Kaoru saw her holding out on him. He flopped back onto the bed and stared up at the eggshell colored ceiling, "You haven't been acting like yourself lately, you know. Avoiding the club and getting scratched up by some drunken idiot? What's wrong?"
She wondered how to tell him what was bothering her. There was very little that she actively kept from Kaoru. They had talked about her parents' death, the bullying that she encountered after she joined the Ootori household, her broken engagement to Takashi, and the host club. They talked about Hikaru, Ageha, and Kyoya. She knew that Kaoru would always see her as his big sister, and she wasn't sure if that was the image he needed to have of her. For a long time, she had tried to force him and Hikaru to see that she couldn't be that for them anymore because the heirs to the Hitachiin fortune could not have a sister of any kind who was a disgraced socialite and servant to another family.
Regardless, Kaoru had always respected her. He trusted in what she knew was best for them, and he never pushed her to talk when it wasn't the right time for her. He knew her as well as he knew Hikaru, and when he said she wasn't acting like himself, he was right.
"I haven't been able to focus," she admitted and reclined onto the mattress so that they were laying side by side. "Ever since the physical exams, I've just wanted to do better. I keep thinking that if I get another chance, I can get it right and keep you all safe. Things just keep happening, and it's like I can't keep up anymore. Everything's changing, Kaoru. What's going to happen to me if you guys don't need me? I feel like I'm no good to you guys." She curled up on her side and faced her best friend. Her insecurities lay out in front of them, and Kaoru rolled over to grip her hand in his.
"How could you say that, Hana?" he asked gently, hurt that his beloved, vulnerable godsister would ever think that they wouldn't need her anymore. "That's just not true. Tamaki-senpai's just angry and lashing out right now, but nobody thinks that you're messing up. What happened during the physical exams wasn't your fault, and you were the one who dove in after Honey-senpai the other day. You're not going to get left behind." His eyes were so warm and sincere that Hana felt as though they were pools of honey enveloping her with the familial love she had been lacking since she started working for the Ootoris.
"It's not just security. It's the club, and Takashi, and…" she started to unload all of her feelings at once before realizing that she had no idea where she was going to go with this. She pulled herself into a sitting position and pulled her knees close to her body. "It's like I'm getting phased out of the club."
"That's preposterous," Kaoru protested immediately, shooting up to re-establish eye contact with her. Hanako was a third of the founding members. Her position in the club was as set in stone as Tamaki's or Kyoya's, and he couldn't think of a single way that the club could function without her.
"Kaoru," she spoke into her kneecaps and her voice came out muffled but the request for him to pause and listen to her still reached him. She lifted her head and continued, "Haruhi has been so much help, and I appreciate her. I mean, I really like having her in the club, but she and Renge can pretty much cover my entire workload if I let them. I love the influence Haruhi has had on you and Hikaru, but I just don't know where I stand with the others..." she trailed off, and even as she said it, she could only think of one person.
"Well, Hikaru and I only have one godsister, and nobody gets along with Kyoya like you do. He might be mad right now, but you're the only girl Tamaki sees clearly and as an actual friend. Honey-senpai kind of sees you as family, too, right?" Kaoru listed their various relationships with Hanako thoughtfully, "And Mori-senpai, well, nobody knows Mori-senpai the way you do. Everything is changing, sis. We're still figuring out where we all stand with Haruhi and Renge, but we've all known you for years. We tried not having you in our lives, and it didn't work. Nobody can replace you Hana. Besides, I don't know if you've noticed it, but you're changing, too."
"What do you mean?" she asked. She didn't feel any different than she did when she first started. Maybe she was more confident than she used to be, but that was just settling into her new role over time.
"Three years ago, you never would have let your officers fill a beach with shellfish just for Honey-senpai," he answered with a small smile. He was right. She had put an end to anything that didn't fit the mold of a perfect, disciplined bodyguard. She stepped up to be the commander that the Black Onion needed, but she had distanced herself from the friends she wanted to have.
"Three years ago, he wouldn't have done something like shellfish hunting," she pointed out. Kaoru smiled a little bit at the recognition, but it faded as she shook her head. "I'm still so angry, Kao. I feel like I can't do anything right. I just keep letting all of you down, and now I can't even keep you guys safe." She couldn't allow them to get hurt. When she saw Haruhi falling off the cliff, she had been so caught up in fending off the intruders that she hadn't been able to process what she had seen, and in the aftermath of her failure to protect Haruhi, Tamaki had thrown everything she was asking herself back into her face.
Kaoru's heart broke for his godsister. He loved her as much as he loved Hikaru and Ageha, and he knew that there was a trauma rooted deep in Hanako that might never be weeded out. The pain of losing Akina had shattered each of them, and he remembered how his untouchable, powerful mother hadn't been able to eat after the loss of her best friend, but the pressure that she felt after Yuudai's death had been two-fold. She was a teenager at the time, barely a teenager, really, who had suffered the tragic loss of her parents, and she could not bear to lose another member of her family. On top of that, she had inherited a tarnished legacy, and any mistake that she made would only worsen the already fragile image that her father had worked so hard to restore before his death.
"Hana, we are so proud of you," Kaoru told her fervently. "We, all of us, we're better than we've been in a long time." She still didn't know the promise that Tamaki had made each of them that convinced them to join the host club. Sure, there had been the opportunity he presented them of reaching their full potential, but there was a reason why he chose them and not some other handsome, ruined boys. "It wouldn't be that way without you."
She had seen with her own eyes that her clubmates had only improved since joining the club, and if she really thought about it, maybe she was faring better, too. Her appreciation for her best friend opened her to believing what he said. Still, there was something else on her mind that had been bothering her more often than not lately, and she had successfully talked about everything except this one thing. "I saw something on the security footage from the pool that I haven't been able to stop thinking about," Hana finally opened up. "It was just this moment between Takashi and Haruhi after they split off from you guys, and I know that it shouldn't matter because it has been years since we broke up. I just couldn't stop looking at it, and it's so awful because I really like Haruhi. I genuinely like her, but I had this voice in the back of my head. I couldn't stop wondering how, if he could have feelings for a commoner, why couldn't he still have feelings for someone like me?"
The more she told him what she was thinking and feeling, the more he wondered how she did what she did every day. He had already known that she wasn't over Mori. Anyone with two eyes could see that, but she was so wrapped up in all of her other responsibilities and doubts that she couldn't see what was happening around her. Their club was full of idiots, but Hana wasn't an idiot. She was one of the ones who was always seeing what was happening, but the problem was that she was so busy looking for the things she needed to see that she was missing the things that the rest of them saw.
"I think you need to talk to Mori-senpai," Kaoru admitted. He knew she had tried in the past, but things were different now. It wasn't as fresh of a wound, and they were all on a steady course to big change.
"I don't want to just be a jealous ex-girlfriend," she protested dimly.
"We both know that's not what you have to talk to him about," Kaoru countered gently. "I mean, if that's something you feel you have to bring up to him, then you should, but I don't think that's all you need to say." The way he looked at her told her that he knew there was something much more important than high school jealousy that was making this such an issue for her. She contemplated what he said and knew that she wouldn't have all the answers that easily.
"Thank you," she said, resting her head on his shoulder. "Could I just be alone for a little while?" Kaoru wrapped his arm around her, and he wondered at how she could feel so small when she was sitting next to him like this and be so big when she was standing in front of a crowd of grown officers.
"Yeah, of course, sis," he kissed the top of her head like Hikaru had before getting up and leaving the room in search of his brother.
{OR}
After Kaoru left, Hana showered, changed, and picked out a book from the bookshelf to enjoy. Her talk with Kaoru had helped her calm the storm of thoughts in her head, and it left her feeling emotionally drained. For a while, she just enjoyed being alone. It was so rare for her to really have time to herself that whenever she found a few moments alone, she savored the peace. Unfortunately, in a villa full of teenagers and after what had transpired earlier in the evening, that peace wouldn't last long. "I know you're out there, Haruhi," Hanako said with a sigh after listening to the other girl touching and letting go of the door handle every few seconds for the past minute. "You can come in."
The door opened and closed again, and this time, Haruhi entered. Hana greeted her from the office chair at the desk and swiveled to face the other girl as she stepped into the room, "Hey, senpai. How are you feeling? Are you alright?" Haruhi's sincere chocolate gaze found the gauze taped to Hana's face. The older girl just smiled reassuringly and closed the book that she was reading.
"I should be asking you that. After all, you're the one who fell into the sea," the reproach in Hana's comment wasn't lost on Haruhi, but somehow, when Hana was the one scolding her, Haruhi didn't feel the indignance bubbling up in her that she experienced earlier.
"I'm fine, senpai," Haruhi insisted.
"As am I," Hanako returned in a smooth, silky intonation that reminded Haruhi of her genteel upbringing.
"Can I ask your opinion on this whole thing?" Haruhi asked without a trace of embarrassment at seeking out her senior's input. Admittedly, it was one of the things Hanako appreciated about Haruhi. The honor student was self-assured and confident, and that day she had proven that she could be too much so. "I just don't understand Tamaki-senpai's point of view. You're a girl, and he expects you to do the same thing that he's mad at me for doing."
Hana realized in that moment just how oblivious Haruhi really was to Tamaki's feelings. She had known that Haruhi took Tamaki's attention and over-enthusiastic affection as his personality or a running joke between them, but Hana could see how the other girl was missing the sincerity behind Tamaki's treatment of her. The other thing Hana recognized was how rash Haruhi could be. Her taking action without a second thought had been incredibly dangerous, and the last thing Hana wanted was for Haruhi to get herself hurt.
Hana sighed heavily and crossed her legs, propping her unmarred cheek in her hand as she regarded Haruhi, "To be honest, I agree with Tamaki to an extent." She could see that Haruhi wasn't expecting that from her, and Hana continued to explain, "I've been training with Mitsukuni and Takashi since I was a little girl, and I grew up in the security business. These situations are what I'm here for. It's my job to handle, diffuse, and prevent any threats that might arise around Kyoya-sama. Anyone else's involvement, including yours, only makes it more difficult for me to do my job. On the other hand, you do have a point. You had to stand up and do the right thing, and I do admire that about you. Your being a girl only makes it braver of you to come help those girls out. I have the deepest respect for you, Haruhi."
Haruhi wasn't sure if she had ever felt a gaze as intense as Hana's before. At just seventeen, Hanako carried herself with a grace and poise that made Haruhi feel like a girl compared to the young woman, but it wasn't in Haruhi's nature to feel inferior because of that. She held Hanako in equally high regard, and her senior's praise triggered a glow of satisfaction and pride in Haruhi. In the few months that she had gotten to know Hanako and despite how little she knew her, Haruhi had started to consider Hanako a friend and role model. "Thanks, Hana-senpai," Haruhi smiled at the body guard. "I'm sorry for getting you in trouble with Tamaki."
Hana smiled back and sat up in the office chair, "It's not a big deal. The important thing is that you're all safe and unharmed."
Then, there was a knock at the door, and, thinking that it was one of the alpha squad, Hana called back, "It's unlocked."
Instead of her staff members, it was Takashi who half entered her room and half stood in the doorway, saying, "Dinner's ready." The kendo champion spoke before his eyes found the girls, and he realized what they were wearing. It was the first time he saw Haruhi in a pink dress with frills that drew attention to the fact that she was a girl. Across from her, Hanako sat back in a rolling office chair with a loose fitting, deep blue blouse that clung to her form and a burnt orange skirt that brushed the floor with a long slit exposing the skin of one long leg crossed over the other. When he saw them, a faint pink blush colored his high cheekbones.
Hana saw his eyes dart to Haruhi quickly and his blush darken, and she got up from her chair, feeling the unguarded mood from her conversation with Kaoru leave her as she closed up a little bit in Takashi's presence. Her mind replayed the memory of the Aqua Garden, and she walked ahead of them stiffly, her hair swaying behind hair with each step. The three of them walked to the dining hall in silence, and Hanako opened the doors to the room for Haruhi and Takashi to enter.
"Whoa," Honey gasped when he saw Haruhi.
"Haruhi, where'd you get that dress?" the twins asked.
"From my dad," Haruhi replied, unbothered by the admiration. "He must have repacked my bags when I wasn't looking. He's always trying to get me to wear this frilly stuff."
"That's awesome," the twins voiced in unison with their thumbs up. "Way to go, dad!"
"You look so cute, Haru-chan!" Honey praised.
"Thanks," Haruhi said with genuine appreciation for his compliment. Even if it wasn't her style, she couldn't be rude. Then, she remembered something and looked over the boys' shoulders to the table. Hanako had started to distribute the plates and utensils along the table, preparing a full setting at each place for every one of them. "Hana-senpai, you're not wearing your suit," Haruhi realized with surprise. It was the first time that she had ever seen Hana in casual clothes outside of a swimsuit.
Hana blinked twice as she paused in putting down the last set of utensils. She had almost forgotten that Haruhi only ever saw her on her work days. "Kyoya gave me the rest of the night off," she explained before picking up the pitcher of water.
The host club moved to take their seats, and Haruhi noticed that they weren't as fazed as she was at seeing Hanako's less professional outfit. "Hana has a good sense of style, you know," Kaoru teased Haruhi for noticing the change in Hana's appearance.
"Did you really think she wore that stuffy thing all the time?" Hikaru snickered. The boys pulled out their chairs at the table and sat down, but she was still watching Hana move around the table with that water pitcher, filling each glass up and moving to the next one. Despite the change in her wardrobe and the difference in setting, Hana still acted like a hostess, and nobody seemed to mind it.
"Hey, Hana, let me help you," Haruhi said, starting to look for another pitcher.
"Don't worry about it," Hana told her with a hospitable smile. "You're a guest of the Ootori household, Haruhi. Go ahead and sit down. I'm almost done, anyway."
At her request, Haruhi pulled out a chair at the table. When Hana finished serving water to all of their guests, she sat at her usual chair beside Kyoya, which put her directly across from Takashi. In an effort to avoid making eye contact with the stoic host, she stared blankly up at the high ceiling. The entire table sat in silence. A stuffy awkwardness surrounded them like a fog, and nobody seemed to want to be the one to cut into it. They were so quiet that the ticking of the ornamental wall clock seemed to echo in the hall, and Hana could hear Kyoya's pen scratching along the paper of the padfolio.
"Well, this is uncomfortable," Hikaru muttered on the other end of their side of the table.
"Yeah, kind of awkward," Kaoru agreed.
"Let's dig in, Haru-chan," Mitsukuni tried to say cheerfully and alleviate the awkwardness, but the discomfort of the stiff aura radiating from Haruhi and Tamaki was getting to him, too.
Hana leaned over Kyoya while they were talking, trying to see what was so important that he had to write at the table. Her hair cascaded over her shoulders like a waterfall of black ink, falling over his arm. She was so close to him that he could smell the floral notes of her shampoo. "It's rude to take notes on your friends over dinner," she told him in a low tone.
Shorter pieces of her hair brushed against his arm, tickling the skin in contrast to the cool, softness of the longer locks. Casually, he put the pen down on the table and reached across to her temple, tucking her hair behind her ear so that the short front strands stopped brushing his arm. "I thought I was mother," he commented impassively with just a hint of a smirk on his face. "It beats the stuffiness in the room." Nonetheless, he closed the book.
The crab in Takashi's hands snapped and its shell shattered under the pressure of his powerful grip. Mitsukuni and the twins regarded him cautiously, but his eyes were glued on the girl sitting across from him who had started to delicately break into the crab legs. Hikaru and Kaoru shared a look, but they didn't dwell on it as Haruhi started to eat, too.
"These crabs," she said between mouthfuls of crab meat, "taste in-crab-ible! Get it?" Hana's quiet laughter was the only suggestion in the room that a joke had been made. Haruhi plowed through the plate of crab, tossing the forgotten shells onto a plate between her and Tamaki.
"Give it a rest," Tamaki criticized Haruhi. His elite sensibilities aghast at the rate she was going through the shellfish.
"Excuse me? I thought you weren't speaking to me," Haruhi snapped another leg.
Suddenly, Tamaki shot to his feet and put his napkin on the table. The other hosts paused what they were doing along the table to look at him. "Okay fine, I get it. It seems you refuse to admit that you were wrong," Tamaki peered down at Haruhi with clear annoyance. "See if I care, then. I'm going to bed. Kyoya, would you show me to my room, please?"
Hana's employer dabbed at his mouth politely, "No problem. Well, excuse me, everyone." The boy beside her stood up and followed Tamaki out of the dining hall. Hana's watchfulness turned on Haruhi once the boys were gone, and she watched Haruhi give up on snapping the next leg.
"Maybe he's right," the brunette relented. "Maybe I do need to learn a way to protect myself."
Next to Hana, the twins propped her faces up on their palms with their elbows on the table, "So that's it. He got to you, huh?"
"Well, it wouldn't hurt you to learn martial arts or something," Hikaru commented.
"But it's not like we're going to force you to learn it," Kaoru said.
"If it's something you really want to do, I can teach you some time," Hana offered, her own unharmed cheek resting in her palm.
"Besides, that's not the real issue here," the trio said in unison for the first time that Haruhi had known them. Haruhi sat up a little bit in surprise, realizing how similar the twins and Hana really were despite how differently they looked and wondering what they saw the main issue as.
"To be honest," Hikaru started in a surprisingly serious tone, "we were all a little worried about how recklessly you acted."
"What do you mean?" Haruhi asked him, not knowing what he was getting at. "I didn't cause you guys any trouble or anything."
Kaoru's gaze slid to his god sister who was just a seat away from him, and Haruhi followed his gaze. Hana didn't flinch or squirm with Haruhi's chocolate hued gaze on her, but she didn't like the look of guilt that was coming into Haruhi's face as she took in the sight of the gauze on Hana's other cheek.
"That's not true, Haru-chan," Mitsukuni said following a shared shrug and groan from the brothers. "I think you should apologize, okay? You made us all worry. Especially Tama-chan. I think you need to apologize to him the most."
"So you… were worried about me? Buy why?" Mitsukuni sighed at her cluelessness. Haruhi searched each of them for an answer, and when her gaze landed on Hana, she saw that the older girl was the only one with a small smile.
"You're as dense as you are sweet," Hanako told her affectionately. "You're part of the host club now, and we all care about you. The worst part of my job is that I can't protect everyone at once. You need to stop and think about everyone else around you before you do something stupidly brave like that." The small lesson was as stern as it was blameless, and Haruhi realized how much trouble she had really caused not just Hanako, but all of them.
"You're hopeless," the twins commented, and Haruhi bowed her head a little bit as she humbly realized how much they cared about her.
"You think?" her expression saddened, and she finally apologized to them, "Guys, I'm really sorry." As soon as she said it, they were all standing around her, taking her into a group hug. The brothers wrapped their arms around her shoulders on both sides, and Mitsukuni hugged her around her waist.
"Aw," Mitsukuni crooned.
"Apology accepted you little mutt," Hikaru said.
"You're so cute. We forgive you!" Kaoru added.
Hana watched warmly as they shared in their forgiveness, and she tried to leave them to have their moment, but Kaoru grabbed her arm and pulled her into the hug from behind Haruhi. She fell into Takashi with the force Kaoru had used to yank her, having expected her to resist, and he caught her with one arm around her shoulders and his other hand taking hold of hers to balance the rest of her body. She looked up, and their eyes met. The golden caramel of her eyes met the almost onyx depths of his, and she realized that they were so close that their breath mingled.
Quickly she pulled away from him, removing herself from his embrace and putting space between them. "I… It's been a long day," she said, the words fell from her mouth in a jumble. "Excuse me."
She turned and rushed out of the dining hall, not noticing how Haruhi's face took on a strange pallor and the twins asking, "Is something wrong?"
"I'm not feeling so good," Haruhi groaned.
"You must have eaten too much crab," Hikaru suggested as they gave her some room to breathe.
"Be strong, Haru-chan!" Mitsukuni encouraged.
"Let's get her to the nearest restroom! Hurry!" Kaoru said, and the twins flanked her, supporting her on both sides as they all started to walk. They led her out of the dining hall through the same door Hana had disappeared through. Through her discomfort, Haruhi thought about how strange Hana had been acting that evening. It wasn't like her to stumble over her words like that.
"Hey," Haruhi rasped, "is everything okay with Hanako-senpai?"
"She'll be fine," Hikaru said with a surprisingly gentle voice. Haruhi looked to Kaoru, who she thought was generally the more conscientious twin, and she saw that his expression was just as soft as his brother's.
"It's been a long few days for her," he explained.
"Don't worry, Haru-chan," Mitsukuni added. "Hana-chan's one of the strongest people I know. She'll be okay." Haruhi felt another pang in her stomach and groaned, and they told her to take it easy as they led her down the hall. The tallest of the group lagged behind as they continued moving. He could see through the assurances they gave Haruhi and recognize the concern each of them felt for the other girl that was shrouded with the hope of what they were saying.
"Excuse me," he said simply, and it was only Mitsukuni who acknowledged him with a small nod before he turned around and started walking back up the hall.
{OR}
Hanako found shelter in the library. It was a good sized room with a long stretch of bookshelves along two walls and a set of creamy, plush living room furniture. Dinner hadn't done her much good after the conversations she had with Kaoru and Haruhi, and all she wanted to do was find a book, curl up on the arm chair, and forget, for half an hour, what was happening around her. Of course, like everything else, it didn't last, and the door opened and closed with a gentle click. She looked up to see who was bothering her this time, and her eyes trailed up Takashi's long legs and purple shirt before landing on his face.
It wasn't his usual blank resting face. His deep, dark gray eyes held her as if he was gazing upon some priceless work of art that could never be repaired if he were to damage her. His concern for her softened every harsh angle on his face, and he looked at her as if everything outside of the two of them fell away from the earth with every second. "Hanako," his deep voice rumbled in his chest, but it was still soft as anything he was going to say after that disappeared.
She didn't know how it was possible for so many emotions to be carried in just her name, and she looked back at him unwaveringly. She waited for him to say something else, to follow up his quiet call for her with anything other than the familiarity of his gaze. She felt the first ripples of emotion span her entire being under his gaze. He was always looking at her, but that was it. There was never anything more than glances stolen when he thought she wasn't looking, or Mitsukuni's ploys to get them to spend time together. He hadn't said anything when he started catering to clients while she watched from the shadows and caught his eyes on her from afar. Even, now, all that ever happened between them were glances while he shared those warm looks with Haruhi.
Her frustration crested and the words that had been playing in her mind on repeat finally fell from her lips, "I'm tired of this, Takashi." She looked tired. He had caught glimpses of how tired she was, but she looked utterly exhausted in that moment. Her eyes were sad and there was a look of gut-wrenching defeat in them that stabbed into his very soul as every word from her mouth landed a blow to his heart. "I'm tired of knowing that you're always watching me, and the way Mitsukuni's always trying to get us to spend time together, and I have to watch you with the clients every day, and now, Haruhi…" she trailed off, and the exhaustion on her face morphed into guilt and an anger so old that she had almost forgotten that it was still there. "Ever since I heard, I've been wondering, and I keep asking myself if you really broke our engagement because I didn't have anything left to offer the Morinozukas or if there was something else," she searched his gaze, his entire face, as if she would find the answer on his impassive features.
"You broke my heart." The silent host physically recoiled as she unloaded all of the emotions that she had been bottling up for three years, but other than that, she couldn't tell what he was feeling behind his hooded gaze. "That should have just been the end of it, but the worst part is that I really thought you would come back to me one day," she laughed once. A small, sardonic laugh escaped her as if she was recognizing that notion as something so absurd it detracted from her intelligence. "I love you, Takashi."
A hundred emotions flashed across his face in an instant, and she felt that she was finally going to get an answer out of him after all this time. The words she spoke weren't gentle. They were hurt and confused and desperate for his recognition, and she looked like a wild, beautiful spirit sitting before him, imploring this simple, unworthy mortal man to give her a reason to stay on this earth with him. The longer his silence drew on, the more her passion drained from her face until her expression was as cold as Kyoya's.
"If you have something to say, say it now, because I can't afford to be distracted anymore," she said to him coolly, as if she hadn't been close to tears just a moment ago. What happened at the physical exams, the pool, and the beach could never happen again. She had to be at her very best in the future, or everything that was just out of reach to her now would be lost to her forever.
She stood up and closed what felt like a grand canyon between them, "You don't owe me anything, and if you want to be done with me, you can be." She stopped just a foot away from him, within arms' reach, and if he wanted to, he knew that he could pull her into his chest and never let her go again. She meant every word she said, and she felt like she was carving out a hollow into her chest as she said what needed to be said, emptying herself of all the feelings she had kept to herself since before they had formed the host club. She wanted, so badly, for him to say something, and she waited until she couldn't take it any longer. "Say something," she entreated him, some of that need bled back into her expression.
He took half a step forward and raised his hand slowly, as if he wasn't sure if what he was doing was okay. She felt the heat from his calloused hand as he traced the curve of her face, gently touching her skin around the bandage on her cheek. For a moment, he looked like he was going to say something, and her heart soared with hope that quickly plummetted back to the ground as the tenderness in his eyes was replaced with something hard and regretful. His hand dropped limply to his side, and he averted his gaze.
She took a ragged breath. "I thought so," she said, turning her back to him and walking back to the armchair. Calmly, she picked up the clipboard that she had placed on the side table and flipped through its pages. She heard the door open and close, and she took another shaking breath as all of her emotions seemed to fight for dominance as she failed to restrain herself. She gasped for air between sobs, gripping the clipboard tightly in both hands as salty tears streamed down her face.
{OR}
Kyoya left his room contemplating what Haruhi had said to him. Nothing to be gained from it, huh? An interesting thought, in its own way. Haruhi didn't see herself as a beautiful person, not because she felt unattractive, but because she placed more value on being a good person. Aside from that, he found it surprising that she didn't consider the simple fact of the pleasure he could gain from sex, as if there wasn't a part of him that was just a young man with his own impulses and desires. Haruhi certainly was an interesting person.
As he neared the library, his thoughts were disrupted by unmistakable sobs escaping from the french doors. His memory conjured a familiar image of a younger Hanako, one who he had never seen express any vulnerability, with her face buried in his sister's neck as his only sister gazed at him, imploring Kyoya to help her. The young master of the villa let himself in to the library and shut the door behind him. She was seated in the arm chair, bent with her torso against her knees as her back shuddered with every sob she choked back.
He crossed the floor and knelt in front of her, gently tugging the clipboard out of her trembling hands. "You're going to ruin the notes from today if you keep that up," he warned her in a soft voice so she knew that he wasn't serious. She looked up to acknowledge him, and she tried to pull herself together for him.
"I'm s-sor.." she rasped, her voice gravelly from the heart-wrenching cries she had faiiled to swallow silently. She couldn't feel the embarrassment of judgment from his attentive slate, almost faintly purple gaze. It wasn't the first time he had seen her in this state, and they had both learned that the agreement between them would not work without complete trust. "I-I'm..." she tried again, but trying to fight the tears only forced her to take faster, sharper breaths.
"Stop talking," he advised her before pulling her forward by the nape of her neck into his shoulder and wrapping his arms around her tightly. Despite his slim frame, he felt sturdy, and she gripped the front of his shirt as she cried into his vest. He held her to him by her waist and ran his hand through her inky tresses, trying his best to soothe her heartache with his presence. He inhaled the chrysanthymum fragrance still on her hair and thought about how it suited her as well as the scent of strawberries on Haruhi's skin suited her while she was pinned to his bed on the expanse of his white bedding.
He let her cry until the sobs subsided, and he was just holding her to hold her, and she accepted all the comfort he could offer her. He hadn't wanted to let go of her from the moment he had seen the ugly red line on her cheek, and his anger filled him anew at the memory, fueled by his knowledge that there was only one person in the villa who could make her cry like this. Whatever interest he reserved for the drama unfolding in his club got swallowed up by his mounting frustration and anger. Her grip tightened on his forearms, as if she could sense the emotions building within him, and she lifted her head to look at him.
The beautiful caramel eyes that she was so famous for were puffy and tinged pink from the dryness that followed so many fallen tears. Her heart shaped lips were red and swollen from how hard she had bit on them to stop the sobs from escaping her throat. She saw the angry glint in his eyes and instinctively started to run her hands up his bare arms like she did for Hikaru when he got so mad that he would tremble, but the tremor that ran through him at her touch and the flex of his muscles under her palm were entirely unexpected, something that never happened when she did that for Hikaru. Surprised, her mouth dropped into a small 'o', and the expression reminded him, again, of the vulnerable look on Haruhi's face when he had thrown her onto his bed.
Confused, his hand shot to her wrists and stopped her from continuing the motion. "Kyoya?" she asked, her voice clear and unburdened by anything other than her own concern for him. Their, already locked, eyes widened with surprise at the feelings bombarding them with such little space between their bodies. With the memory of his name still on her tongue, free of that impossible, restrictive honorific attached, he closed the space between them and pressed his lips to hers. He relished the softness of her lips, and his hands fell to the arms of her chair, gripping the fabric as he kissed her for the first time. Her fingers found the front of his vest, and she held to him, kissing him back with equal curiosity and need.
A clap of lightning startled them, and they drew apart, breathing heavily and asking the other for an answer that neither of them had, yet. Neither of them knew what to say, and they each had the ghosts of what occurred before Kyoya found her plaguing them. There wasn't any time for them to sort through the kiss they shared because a series of raps fell on the door, alerting them to their forgotten guests. Kyoya cleared his throat and collected himself quickly, and Hana did the same, steeling herself against her confusion and the hungry need burning through her. "Come in," Kyoya called out, putting a respectable amount of space between them.
The door opened and the Hitachiins walked in, looking at opposite sides of the room before viewing the room in its entirety. Their eyes narrowed on Kyoya, like twin lions finding a threat on their territory. "We heard crying," they said simply, regarding him with suspicion before approaching their godsister and sitting on the arms of her chair protectively.
"I'm okay, boys," she said, forcing a little bit more energy into her tone to be more convincing. Kyoya sighed when, as he expected, her effort failed and the twins only fixed their laser precise glares on him again.
"She's fine, you two helicopters," Kyoya droned. "Never mind, you fools do know that Tamaki and Haruhi are alone in my bedroom right now, right?"
"What?!" the brothers roared and shot off towards the door before Hana reached out and grabbed them both by the backs of their collars.
"Settle down," she chastised them with a sigh before casting a look back to Kyoya. The body guard found that he had picked up the clipboard off the floor, thumbing through its pages. "Give them a minute," she advised her godbrothers.
They exchanged a skeptical look. The last time they had seen Tamaki and Haruhi together wasn't exactly pleasant. "Are you sure it's a good idea," Hikaru started.
"To leave the two of them alone?" Kaoru finished.
"She's with our prince, Tamaki," Kyoya answered easily. "What could possibly go wrong?" He smiled at them with his usual polite smile, and Hana's gaze slid to him without her godbrothers noticing. In a whirlwind of auburn hair, Hana and Kyoya were spirited into the halls in search of the third year students with the intention of interrupting Tamaki's moment with Haruhi, and the charged atmosphere between the heir and his body guard was completely left behind as they moved on to the next thing ahead of them.
{OR}
A/N... I'm so bad at having a regular update schedule. Ooop. This chapter ended up being much longer than usual but it didn't make sense to split into two chapters. Anyway, drama! Thanks for reading!
What do you think is going on with Takashi? What about Kyoya?
Next time: A day of trials. Hana's a workaholic.