Little by little the host club members were growing onto her, however, Kagome Higurashi would never be able to fully understand them. Just what was she looking at?
Across the street was Tamaki, who was softly sobbing while gripping onto the back of Haruhi's coat in order to follow behind the girl with his tear stained eyes.
More importantly, what-
"What in the world are we doing?" Kyoya voiced her thoughts exactly. The spectacle host crossed his arms, visibly vexed at their predicament.
"We're trailing after them! Don't you also think it would be interesting, watching those two?" Ranka answered.
"Sure, but…" Hikaru's eyes traveled to Ranka's quick wardrobe change before they left.
"What, is it so wrong for me to want to walk around with good looking people while being dolled up?!" Ranka increased her walking space. Irritation was shown on her face with knitted eyebrows and a frown. With the speed she was going it would be easy for the two ahead of them to notice them.
Kagome looped her arm around Ranka's. "But Ran-chan, you're already lovely. You don't need an entourage for people to notice you."
Would it work?
The furrow of Ranka's eyebrows smoothed out. A big smile replaced the grimace the older female had. "Oh, Kagome, you~!" Ranka playfully slapped her. "I'm glad that Haruhi has a nice girl friend like you at Ouran."
"I..." She paused as if to think deeply of her answer. "I, I am too." Her eyes crinkled from the small smile she wore.
It was a soft expression that none of the host members had ever seen on the girl before, that left them baffled.
Ranka and Kagome trailed a little ahead of the other 5 hosts, after Tamaki and Haruhi.
"She's cu-"
"Changed." Hikaru hastily finished for his brother. "Right Kaoru?"
"Ah, yeah!" Kaoru nervously laughed causing the blush on his face to further deepened.
"Her disposition has certainly changed. The clients have commented that chatting with Taisho-san has been more enjoyable after she became more talkative by giving longer replies." Kyoya added.
"Kagome-chan, also has been displaying more emotions on her face lately."
From what everyone was saying, Mori concluded, "She's opening up to us."
"You're right, Takashi!" Honey smiled, overjoyed by the revelation.
'This was good, right?' Mori thought.
He remembered the reaction on Kaoru's face from seeing Kagome smile. Slowly as she opened up to others, people were beginning to see llikeable aspects of her that made her more charming. So why did he not think of it as a good thing?
"Mo-"
"Morinozuka-san." He felt a tug.
"Takashi-san."
When did they enter the grocery store?
"Takashi-san." Kagome tugged on his jacket.
"!" Wait, when did she start calling him by his first name?
"Ah good, you can hear me right? Haruhi said we have to wait for her outside since everyone is making a disturbance by running around the store."
He took this chance to take a good look at his surroundings: The twins were running around the store pushing Honey in a shopping cart while Kyoya and Ranka were stopped by Kyoya's bodyguards from eating the free samples the grocery store employees were giving out. Several of the merchandise were in disarray from the host club's wandering around the store.
"..." Just looking at them even made him want to sigh.
Haruhi, Kagome and Mori managed to hurdle the host club outside while Ranka offered to lead them back to the Fukuoka residence. This left Haruhi and Kagome to continue shopping without them.
(Mori's Point of View)
Haruhi placed the nabe on a low table where they all sat around.
"It's Haru-chan and Kagome-chan's cooking!" His cousin cheered by his side.
The two girls sat across them. Kagome had opted to sit next to Haruhi in order to chat with her.
"Are you upset with me, for calling you with your first name instead of your surname?" He didn't think Kagome would have asked him that question.
He feverishly shook his head in reply.
"Then, is it uncomfortable?" She didn't look convinced.
He wouldn't call it uncomfortable. Rather, it was very much the opposite but, how could he express it without upsetting Honey?
Mori took a deep breath to calm his nerves before he answered. "Kagome….san." It was soft, but was audible by everyone around the table.
He stated her name more easily than he thought. The way it rolled off his tongue just, sounded right. The last part, however, sounded more like a question. Usually, he would address her without any suffix, but he could never do that with her first name. His cousin wasn't even allowed to do it yet.
"..." She had an unreadable expression on her face as if she was deep in thought. Did he answer correctly?
She didn't say anything until-
"Yes" She smiled cutely at him with a slight blush dusting the girl's cheeks.
"!"
Ah, this was the reaction he wanted from her when he gave her some of his strawberries (reference to last chapter)!
"Ka-" His mouth formed the syllable but he had yet to say it with the interruption of his cousin.
"Kagome-chan, what's your favorite part of nabe?"
Honey had asked the question out of nowhere that it brought Kagome's attention to his cousin instead of him. "Potatoes."
"Ah, that's right." Haruhi quickly got up from her seat and left in search of something.
"Huh, Potatoes?!"
"That's so boring!"
"Hikaru, Kaoru, you both are being rude!" Tamaki tried to chasten them, but it was of no use they were already laughing.
The two's laughter ceased only when Haruhi returned with a jar and placed a sauce plate in front of Kagome.
"Karashi?" The twins read the label on the jar.
Haruhi answered the twins' unasked question. "Kagome's favorite food is oden and her favorite part is dipping the potatoes into karashi. However, I don't know how it will taste since the stock is miso rather than dashi. Tamaki-senpai wanted nabe with miso."
Kagome picked up the potato and blew on it before she dipped it in the sauce.
"Kagome-san, we can have oden at the club. We can even borrow Kyoya's kotatsu!" Tamaki interjected, he clearly didn't want to upset her.
Kyoya's eyebrows were raised by the mention of his family's kotatsu being used as if to say, When did I ever give you permission?"
The potato melted into her mouth. "Delicious~" A wide smile appeared across her face. It was the biggest smile he had ever seen from her that he didn't have enough time to react.
"Kagome-chan, have mine!" His cousin placed a couple of potatoes in her bowl.
With that Honey started a catalyst.
"Me too" Tamaki and the twins also piled some potatoes into her bowl.
"Stop it!" Haruhi yelled.
"Wouldn't this be considered bullying?" Ranka pointed to Kagome's bowl that was stacked with potatoes. The only thing that could be seen in the bowl was the soup and potatoes.
"I'll get you a new bowl Kagome." Haruhi left to get one but, not before she distributed the potatoes back to the hosts.
"Even though Kagome loves potatoes. I think she would want to eat with variety." Ranka stated before heaping a bunch of cabbage into Tamaki's bowl for some unknown reason.
By opening up to them she was slowly showing different sides of herself, that they didn't know about. There was now more variety to the expressions on her faces that she showed.
All of these changes pleased the other members of the host club but why did he feel a bit unsettled about it?
Hadn't he already pledge to get over his feelings for her?
(Kagome's POV)
"Kagome….san."
How he stated her name just sounded….right. It was as if she had heard multiple times before.
"...Kagome…" A voice resounded in her head.
It sounded similar to just now to how Mori stated her name.
"...Kagome…"
Ah, it was the voice of the person who carried her when she was unconscious after saving Haruhi (Ch. 24).
Morinozuka, no Takashi-san was always there to help her.
She peered to look at him. He stared back at her with an unrelenting gaze.
Just how long did she make him wait for her reply?
"Yes." She tried to give a small smile to not make it awkward. Yet she knew she could hide it when she could feel her cheeks heat up a little.
(After a while)
Honey, Tamaki and the twins had piled a bunch of potatoes into her bowl resulting in Haruhi getting mad at them.
"You guys really are too much." She teased Tamaki, Honey and the twins.
They looked saddened.
"But, thanks. I'll accept your guys' sentiments."
"Kagome-chan!
"Kagome!"
"Kagome-san!"
The 4 of them voiced their overjoy. Tamaki, specifically looked the happiest with tears in his eyes.
They really were all too nice to her, but she shouldn't delve everything about herself to them. If she had to, she would in a heartbeat sever all ties with them if it guaranteed their safety.
This chapter I wanted to showcase that Kagome has been changing while interacting with them, however, there is still a wall she puts up against them.
Haruhi and the twins refer to Kagome by her first name with no suffix in order to establish that they are all close friends since they are in the same grade. Tamaki,
Kyoya and Mori address her with san while Honey uses his favorite, chan.
Please read and review my story :)
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Frog, xXxOtAkU-444xXx, DarknekoKurai, Foxluna, wolfgirl232323, slvrphoenx
