"Now, we are going to take a little journey back to the past." Maria looked entirely serious as we sat across from each other on Haruhi's bedroom floor. Everyone else was out, with Ranka working, and Haru with Tamaki on an 'unofficial' date, which meant the rest of the hosts were stalking them on it.
"You sure this is a good idea?" The girl on the other side of the phone that was on the floor questioned Maria's idea. Maddy didn't seem entirely comfortable with this whole 'let's talk about why we can never see each other again and explain it to someone who wasn't there' thing, but as of yet she hadn't straight up said no to the plan. Maria wanted the details as to what had happened between our parents to cause this and why we had to be separated until we were eighteen so she could see if she could work around it to get Maddy back.
"Uh, Maddy you wanna explain? Or should i?" There was a heavy sigh from Maddy before she spoke.
"I'll explain. Well it started a like this…."
*.*.*.*.*.*
It was a bright, warm, sunny spring day. A little girl was standing on the porch of a cute little suburban house. She was watching the road with big shining eyes full of joy, and in her hands she clutched a notebook. We finished the song mommy. Come home and hear us sing it. What the little girl didn't know though, was that her mother wasn't ever going to get to hear the end of the song. Two other's ran out of the house calling her
"Nala! Nala!" She turned to them with a giant smile on her little face. One of the girls was a small brunette with with big doe eyes,
"Haruhi!" Nala's smile could have lit the sky in the sun's place with her joy at the sight of the girl. The other little girl had big stormy blue eyes, and dark auburn red hair. She looked so similar to Nala in all other aspects though, that the girls were often mistaken for sisters. Nala turned to the other girl and grinned at her.
"Is Auntie here yet?" the redhead asked, her blue eyes swimming with hope. "She said she'd come home early since it looked like we'd be finishing it today!" The three girls turned to watch the road in silence. They stood like that for hours, even as the sky grew dark and the hope in the eyes of the cousins dimmed with along with the darkening sky.
Suddenly, a distant noise had them jerking their heads up and watching eagerly. Like dogs, bodies poised and still, ears attuned to the sound drawing ever closer, eyes watching the flashing light in the distance grow nearer and nearer. Only one of the little girls knew what that light meant. Fear filled the child and she rushed to the other girls.
"Nala! Maddy!" She grabbed Nala's hand and tried tugging her inside but the other girl refused to budge. "We need to go inside. Bad things happen in cars with flashing lights." Indeed so. Bad things did happen in the car with the flashing lights, in that car zooming by, Nala and Haruhi's mothers lifeless bodies lay. At the time the ambulance zoomed by they didn't know, but later, when two fathers stumbled into the yard, one crying and sobbing, and the other cold and closed off, all three girls felt horror strike them. Nala's father looked to her cousin Maddy and in a voice so cold that fire could've been frozen he snarled, "This is your fault you little….they wouldn't have been coming home early if you didn't tell them the song would be done wouldn't have crashed!" The horror that struck the hearts of the little girls at his words cut deep.
"D-d-daddy m-m-momma's dead?" He spun on Nala, and getting in her face he screamed,
"YES! Yes she's dead! And it's all her fault!" He pointed at Maddy. "You stay away from my daughter! You two are done! Never let me catch you near her again!" Maddy stumbled back in fright and Nala leapt between her father and the other little girls.
"Don't talk to Maddy like that! We're friends, and friends don't leave or give up on each other! Ever!"
"I don't care. You guys are done. She's the reason my wife is dead." He pushed Nala aside and got up in Maddy's face. "IT'S YOUR FAULT! YOU AND YOUR DAMN MUSIC! First you pull my daughter into it by making her sing your stupid songs, and now my wife is dead because you wanted her to see a song you had finished? You're a little brat you shouldn't even be writing music! You're a failure at it and your songs are pathetic. You think you can do it? Well you can't and because of your stupid failed dream my wife is fucking dead! You little-" Ranka cut him off.
"That's enough! She's just a child stop talking to her like that!" He pushed Nala's father aside and bent down to pull Maddy into his embrace along with Haruhi. "It's not your fault children. It was an accident nothing more." He tipped Maddy's chin up, and with tears in his eyes smiled down at her. "Don't you stop writing your music Maddy. We all want to hear your dream come to life through Nala. You can do it."
"Through Nala?" The words were a growl from behind the group of tearful children and a heartbroken father and widower. "You won't ever use my daughter again you little bitch!" Whipping out his phone he dialed a number, and upon that person picking up he screamed into the phone. "Keep your fucking daughter away from mine or i'm suing for the death of my wife. It's your daughter's fault, and you know i have the contacts to do it to." A moment of silence before, "No. I will and i can. Keep your daughter as far away from mine as possible till she's eighteen or so help me i will drive you into the ground." So saying he snapped the phone shut and dragged his daughter into the house leaving a heartbroken and crushed little red haired child crying on the front porch as she waited for her parents to come pick her up…..
*End of flashback*
"That was the last time we spoke until you came along and got us back together." Maria turned sad eyes on me as i squirmed uncomfortably. I hated that memory, the raw pain in Maddy's vibrant ocean blue eyes as my father dragged me into the house had haunted me for months after. I couldn't even think about the beach without crying, and even up till recently going made me horribly sad.
"That would make sense...It's not like your parents are super well off Maddy...but still...I'm surprised they caved so easily. Obviously there was something he had to hang over their heads that they couldn't let get out. This is ridiculous….well I think as long as we get you here and they don't find out that you," she nodded to me, "Are in contact with me, we can do this." Maddy snorted.
"You think so? Meh. Maybe…Well…..I may be planning a trip out there in a few months for 'business'... I tricked my parents into thinking i'm going to the whatsitmacalled capital place….right! Tokyo! Not Ouran so i'll see you then guys!" I shook my head with a grin.
"You're sneaky Maddy i'll give you that. If you can pull this off though i'll send you home with entire bags of your favorite candy in celebration!"
"And if not?" Maria's question made Maddy and I groan.
"Well we'll have to wait and see if that happens Maria! Right Nala?."
"Mmmhhhmmm."
"Oh! Maria!"
"Yeah Maddy?"
"What's going on with Nala's dad? Anything new happening?" She expelled a deep breath slowly, and as she did so i could sense the tension growing in her. She sighed..Like i told Ootori, happiness escapes when you do that….
"Well Maddy, you brought up something i was actually going to talk to Nala about in a bit anyway, but...Wait." She turned to me, "Ok with you if i share?" At my nod, because i was just as eager as Maddy to know, she continued. "Well guys, he's out of the hospital for now and in prison till his hearing next month. After that, if the hearing is in our favor, he'll be in jail for a very long time."
"YEAH!" Maddy began to cheer loudly over the phone. "Take that you sucker! Karma is a bitch uncle! Hah! Sucks to be him! Hope he has fun in jail!"
"Maddy!" Maria's voice was stern. "I know you have things to be angry at him for, but he is still Nala's father so be respectful. Got it?" Maria's tone left no room for argument, so a thoroughly subdued Maddy uttered a quiet 'yes'.
"It's fine guys. I know you didn't mean it like that Maddy, and to be honest," I looked up at Maria from where i'd been toying with a hairband on my wrist, "I'm glad he'll be going to jail. I don't want anything to do with him ever again, he's dead to me." Maria's baby blue eyes were soft as she looked over at me.
"I know Nala, i know. That's why i'm doing everything to get him put away along with Officer Tokiya. Being a detective isn't totally about bringing someone down, it's mainly about protecting someone, that someone being you Nala." She stood up and began walking towards the door, ruffling my hair as she went by. "Don't worry you two we'll nail them both. I have to run though duty calls and all that. Bye kiddos!"
"Bye!"
"See ya!"
And that left Maddy and i alone over the phone. Not for long though, because a moment after Maria left, there was a loud thud as the front door swung open and the bickering of the host club followed it a moment later.
"I can't believe you guys would stalk us on our date!"
"Technically, it wasn't 'stalking' we were merely observing since we happened to end up in the same places as you two did."
"Complete coincidence!"
"Oh sure Kyoya. And i know it wasn't coincidence Kaoru and Hikaru! So don't even try that on me."
"We're sorry Haru-chan. Right Takashi?" I sighed heavily, mentally feeling myself deflating into a pancake version of me on the floor.
"I've gotta run Maddy. Haruhi and her man got interrupted on their date by the rest of the hosts so i should probably go out there and stop World War 3 before it starts."
"Oh gosh….yeah good luck Nala! Tell Haru hi for me!"
"Will do! Bye Maddy!"
"Bye Nala!
I hung up, and heading out of the room, managed to grab Tamaki and shove Kyoya out of the way before he dumped a pot of tea on the genius' head. This is gonna be a lloonngg night oh man.
**Across the world in America….**
"This is ridiculous!" I threw my phone onto the bed in annoyance before storming out of my bedroom. I can't even talk to my blasted cousin without getting her and me and everyone involved in trouble! What the hell could Nala's father have over my parent's heads!? They've never done anything wrong! They're middle class, upstanding citizens….Hell the worst, or most annoying thing i can think of them doing, is that they have moved all over the world since i was born before they finally settled down here in the US. Walking down the hall, i ran down the stairs and out the front door.
It doesn't matter, I dropped down onto the grass, and tipped my head back to look up at the bright blue, cloudless sky and pushed my hair out of my face as the wind went up a notch causing the long red locks to cascade around me in a brightly colored, cheerful dance. Cause i'll be seeing her in two months my parents be damned. A grin slid over my face, and i snorted.
"Besides," I spoke quietly to myself, "I can finally meet her man, and the rest of the host club to!" A grinned wickedly at that. You may not know it now Nala, but you're falling for him on the inside. Little itty bits at a time. I give it….oh a month or so before something drastic happens and they become a couple. I chuckled. And if not i'm setting you up!
***Author's note***
Sometimes I stare at the computer screen when the words don't want to come and I think, "Fuck, who am I kidding? This is terrible writing, and this story is shit, and no one cares, anyway." And I close the window and go do something else.
But every now and then I get an amazing, heartfelt, beautiful comment from someone who loved something I wrote, and it reminds me that, at least for that one person, I did write something worthwhile. And so I open the window again and I write one sentence, and then another, and then I start to find my way again.
So on behalf of all fanfic writers everywhere, I want to say thank you, thank you so much, to all of the readers who take the time to leave a comment and tell us that something we wrote mattered to you, that it brightened your day or made you laugh or cry or get horny or whatever.
Please don't think we're ever bothered by your comments, or that we don't want to hear it, or that what you have to say isn't important enough. It means so, so much. And on some days, it's what keeps me going.