Author's note: Welcome to chapter 7! Wow, you're really devouring my story, dear Reader! Yay!
Trigger warning: No triggers this time! It's a happy, fluffy chapter! There is one scene with vague adult content. Sky likes to cause trouble. And she has a potty mouth.
I don't own the Hosts, sigh. Reviews/PMs are welcome!
-Friday, two weeks later-
The last two weeks had passed joyfully for Sky. Her classes were easier than she had anticipated, and they were rather enjoyable. She still took her lunch alone in her classroom, but she had taken to staying after school each day. She waited for the Hosts to finish their Club activities, choosing to do her homework in what she now called the Breakdown Room. It was empty and quiet, and she enjoyed the peace each day between the stress of school and the boisterousness of her visits with the lads.
It was becoming easier to be surrounded by boys each day. Sky no longer shrieked in fear at the slightest touch, and she actually enjoyed the hugs and random pats from her friends. She still wasn't ready to deal with the squealing crowds of vapid girls, but she was perfectly content to wait her turn. Besides, she suspected that she was one of very few people who got to see the lads for who they really were, and not just the Host characters they employed for their guests.
Friday afternoon, she was curled up in her usual chair in her Breakdown Room, waiting for the boys to finish their Club business. She had taken the silly brown wig off and tucked it into her bag, glad that she didn't need to hide from them anymore. She slipped off the shiny black uniform shoes and tucked her legs under her, content to re-read one of her favorite books as she waited.
She fished a strawberry lollipop from her bag and stuck it in her mouth, shoving the wrapper in her pocket before returning to her book. She leaned her elbow on the arm of the chair and rested her chin on her fist as she read. Though she could recite whole passages by heart, she was soon lost in the story, travelling with the heroes and living the battles in her head. She was so consumed by the fantasy that she lost all track of time, and didn't even hear the door open.
Takashi and Honey stood in the open doorway, watching the silent girl. Honey was about to bound toward her, but Takashi laid a hand on his head and made a shushing gesture. Honey grinned at his tall cousin, but stayed quiet. He thought Pixie-chan looked so cute, her pretty blue eyes gleaming as she read. He wondered what her book was about, what made it so captivating that she couldn't hear the door open.
After a long moment, Takashi cleared his throat quietly. Sky twitched and dropped her book, startled. She looked over and grinned sheepishly before picking her book up. She stuck her bookmark in the front cover, not caring that she had lost her place. After tucking the well-worn book into her bag, she stood and stretched.
"Hi guys. Sorry, guess I got a little too distracted."
She slipped her feet into her shoes as Honey ran over to give her a hug. She gave the sunny blonde a squeeze and tousled his hair. She fished a second lollipop out of her bag and offered it, giggling at the little squeal of glee. He hugged her extra tight before bouncing around joyfully.
Sky hitched the strap of her bag over her shoulder and walked over to the door, where Takashi waited with a small smile tugging the corner of his mouth. She lightly bumped his elbow with hers and flashed a playful grin. His lips curved a little more in reply, and he reached up to pat her shoulder. The three of them set off for Music Room #3 together, Honey humming and giggling happily around his lollipop.
"Anything exciting happen during Club time today?"
"Nah."
"Just the usual, incessant giggling and cooing?"
"Yup."
Sky snickered and shook her head slightly. She wondered what the serious, quiet lad could possibly see in a gaggle of shrieking, vapid girls like that. Personally, she would have probably wanted to slap the lot of them. Not that Takashi would raise a hand to a lady, even if she totally deserved it. They walked into the room, and Sky's ears were instantly assaulted.
"Pixie darling! There you are! We were so worried, ma cherie!"
She smiled at Tamaki and patted his head reassuringly. His pout vanished immediately, replaced by his usual cheeky grin.
"I'm sorry, chardonneret, I got caught up in my book again."
"You're such a nerd, Pixie."
Sky flipped her hair and struck a mock-offended air. She spoke in as haughty a voice as possible in the twins' direction.
"Just because you two monkeys can barely manage a pop-up book doesn't mean those of us who actually enjoy books are nerds."
The twins adopted equally shocked looks, jaws hanging open comically. Tamaki and Honey both burst into laughter, and Sky struggled to keep a straight face. It only lasted a few seconds before she broke into giggles, and the twins stuck their tongues out at her. She grinned at the redheads, shaking her head at their silliness.
She walked over and sat across from Kyoya at a small table, watching him write in the ever-present notebook. He spoke without looking up.
"Hello Pixie, how are you today?"
"I'm alright, and how is my favorite little owl?"
The nickname made Kyoya blush, which Sky found adorable. She wasn't sure why his cheeks went the slightest bit pink, but she enjoyed it. He cleared his throat and nudged his glasses up before answering.
"I'm fine. Thank you for asking."
"So, what are you writing this time? World domination plans, secret recipes? Erotic My Little Pony fanfiction?"
That last idea was so completely absurd that Kyoya burst into shocked laughter. The rest of the lads all stared, surprised into silence. Sky flashed him a cheeky grin. After a moment the laughter tapered off, and Kyoya took his glasses off to rub his eye. Sky took advantage of the situation and snatched the notebook, then jumped up and shot across the room before he could catch her. She looked down at the pages and let out a squeal.
"Oh my God, Kyoya! I knew you were twisted, but this is beyond filthy!"
Kyoya jumped up and rushed at her, his face going bright red. She yelped and dashed in a different direction.
"Holy hell, man, this is kinky! And this one! This isn't even anatomically possible!"
The others watched in extreme shock and no little amusement as Kyoya chased the girl around the room in a silent rage. He was nearly apoplectic as Sky leapt over tables, cackling. Finally, after an agonizingly long moment, Sky collapsed onto a sofa, giggling maniacally in between wheezing gasps. Kyoya ripped the notebook out of her hands and glared at her, silent and trembling.
The whole group was silent, waiting anxiously to see how this played out. Sky stood and smoothed down her jacket as her giggles finally subsided, then tried for a remorseful look as she straightened to look Kyoya in the eyes. His color was returning to normal, but his lips were pursed together in a tight line. Sky swallowed thickly and blinked twice, then shocked everyone even more with her next words.
"You know, you're totally hot when you're pissed off. Very sexy."
All was still for a single second, then Sky grinned cheekily and kissed Kyoya on the tip of his nose. His jaw dropped, and he looked so comically stunned that she burst into laughter before dashing away to hide behind Takashi.
"Ok, ok, ok! I'm a total asshole, I admit it! I made it all up, Kyoya's notebook just has accounting stuff and other boring Club details in it. There's no smut in it at all, and Kyoya's totally vanilla as far as I know. Ok? Don't kill me!"
There was complete and total silence for a moment. Then Hikaru and Kaoru fell over each other cackling, Tamaki collapsed onto the nearest sofa, trying in vain to muffle high-pitched giggles, even Takashi was chuckling quietly. Sky risked a quick peek around his shoulder at Kyoya, who still hadn't turned around. He was still standing near the sofa with his back to them, one hand raised to his face and his shoulders shaking almost violently. Oh shit. Oh shit oh shit oh shit…
Sky approached cautiously, instantly remorseful. No one else seemed to notice just yet. Swallowing thickly against the sudden lump in her throat, she moved to stand in front of him. She reached out one trembling hand to touch his arm as she whispered.
"Kyoya…?"
He lifted his head to look at Sky, and the expression on his face made her half-tempted to punch him. He was laughing! Sky's jaw dropped, and her brain malfunctioned. She blinked in shock for a moment before she could think of anything to say.
"Um, guys? I think I broke him…"
She poked Kyoya in the shoulder a couple of times, eyes wide. After a moment, he let out a rather undignified snort and wiped away tears of mirth. He shook his head, then cleared his throat roughly, twice.
"Pixie, you are, without a doubt, absolutely the weirdest girl I have ever met in my life."
Filled with immense relief, Sky grinned radiantly at him.
"Well, yeah. But that's why you love me, right?"
"It is, indeed. I find normal girls desperately boring."
With that, he slung an arm around the relieved girl's shoulder and gave her an affectionate squeeze. She laughed softly and lightly bumped her head against his, curling her arm around his waist. After a quick hug, she let go and wandered over to where Tamaki sat, still giggling uncontrollably. She slipped the offensive shoes off once again and curled up next to the blonde, tucking her legs under her.
Tamaki's giggles started to taper off, but then he glanced over at Kyoya, and burst into another round. He collapsed, laying his head on Sky's lap as the high-pitched, hysterical sounds ripped from his throat. Sky shook her head with a little grin. Tamaki closed his eyes and covered his mouth with both hands, trying in vain to smother the giggles.
Sky drummed her fingertips on his forehead, tapping out an upbeat rhythm. When that didn't work, she took to using her fingernails instead, poking him progressively harder until he finally fell silent. He cracked one eye open to look at her, his face scrunching into something that was almost a pout. He reached up and swatted her hand away, then rubbed his forehead.
"Owwie, what was that for?"
"I thought that was the reset function."
She stuck her tongue out at him, then ruffled his hair. He sat up with a grin and ran his fingers through his hair. She grinned back, and yawning slightly, leaned back into the corner of the sofa.
"Man, I'm tired now. Honey-chan, little bunny, how can you possibly bounce around like that all day? Are you just literally full of sugar and Red Bull?"
Honey giggled and jumped up onto the sofa between Sky and Tamaki, leaning his head against the girl's shoulder.
"Yup! Well, the sugar, anyway. Red Bull tastes yucky."
He wrinkled his nose in distaste. Sky chuckled and nodded in agreement, then patted the little blonde head.
"Very true. It's gross."
She turned her head as the other lads gathered around and sat. She glanced around at her friends and thought again that she was sincerely happy that she had finally opened her heart. The last few weeks had been truly wonderful. She wondered how she had managed so many years without anyone to lean on. Her lips curved up in a tender smile as she reflected on just how much she had come to care for these lads.
"What a lovely smile, ma cherie! Tell us, what are you thinking about to smile so prettily?"
Sky looked over at Tamaki and blushed slightly at the compliment. She gave a little shrug. Might as well be honest.
"I was just thinking how glad I am that I have all of you in my life. The last few weeks have been… Well, to be perfectly honest, I haven't been this happy since before Mommy and Daddy died."
"Aww! We're glad that you're in our lives too, Pixie-chan!"
With that pronouncement, Honey threw his arms around Sky's neck and hugged her tightly. She laughed quietly and embraced him gently, patting his back. She had to give him a little nudge after a moment, because she was having trouble drawing a full breath. He gave her a sunny little grin and a swift peck on the cheek before settling back into his seat.
"It's true, Pixie. I don't think any of us realized just how boring our lives were before you got here."
Sky looked over at the redhead with shock, then felt another blush creep up her cheeks. She cleared her throat and tried not to sound as flustered as she felt by all the compliments.
"I don't know, I'm pretty damn boring, Kaoru. Well, unless you count the panic attacks as exciting. I guess they could be pretty entertaining to watch."
She yawned, missing the shocked look that passed between the twins. She said Kaoru's name with no hesitation, there was no guessing or uncertainty in her voice. How did she know? They hitched their shoulders in identical shrugs, totally lost. Sky rubbed her eye and glanced around, swiftly changing the subject.
"So, what do you all have planned for the weekend? Anything fun and exciting?"
"Actually, I think this is one weekend where none of us have any plans."
Sky glanced at Kyoya, shocked. The lads were always busy with one thing or another, so the information didn't make sense for a moment. When it finally sank in, she made a contemplative face. Hmm… Before she could make up her mind, the words were already coming out of her mouth.
"Well, since nobody's going to be busy, you guys could always come over to my place. The little theater that Mother wanted is finally done, so we could have a movie marathon or something."
There were murmurs of agreement, and Tamaki's eyes lit up in excitement.
"Could we, Pixie? You could show us your cosplay stuff!"
Sky laughed quietly and ran a hand through her hair with a rueful grin. Walked right into that one. She shrugged a little.
"Yeah, I could do that, I suppose. I've got a couple new things in progress in the studio that I could show you."
"The studio?"
"Oh yeah. Heh. Since the production of my cosplay stuff is such a big deal, Mother and Father insisted on building me an art studio, so I would have plenty of space. It's kind of embarrassing in a way, but it's totally awesome. The space makes it so much easier to do some of the fabrication. Especially with some of the over-sized weapons and stuff."
She grinned a little sheepishly, vaguely embarrassed as always by her parents' wealth. She still had trouble accepting their enormous gifts, such as the art studio.
"That sounds awesome, Pixie. Will you really let us see your unfinished stuff?"
"Sure, Hikaru, why wouldn't I?"
She had done it again! The twins shared another shocked glance. How did she know?
"How do you do that?"
Sky raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"Do what? What did I do?"
"You said Hikaru just now. How did you know it was me? And how did you know Kaoru said things were boring earlier? How did you know?"
Oh, that. Sky shrugged a little as everyone turned to look at her. There was mild shock on each face, but the twins looked as if she'd found the Holy Grail. Or possibly sprouted another head.
"It's not that hard. Despite your looks, you're two very different, unique people. Well, except when you're doing that mirror thing for Club stuff, then it's a little difficult. But I can tell my little monkeys apart."
Despite being different, unique individuals, twin blushes crept up their cheeks. Sky flashed them a little grin. Before she could say anything else, however, Honey voiced his excited opinion.
"We should definitely go to Pixie-chan's house this weekend! It'll be so much fun! We should, we should, we should!"
"Well, I think that settles that, then."
With a wry smile, Kyoya closed his notebook and nudged his glasses up. Sky grinned as Tamaki let out a cheerful whoop and Honey clapped happily. She laughed quietly at their excitement, then reluctantly unfolded her long legs and stood to stretch.
"Alright, on that note, it's about time for me to get going. I've got to stop by the market on the way home. You guys come over whenever you want, as long as it's after 10 AM. This whole early morning shit just doesn't happen on weekends."
Their laughter followed her out the door. She left the school with a light heart and a bounce in her step.
