A/N: I feel like such a terrible writer ... I haven't updated in ages ...
I'm really sorry guys, I hit the worlds weirdest writers' block. Plus school is starting and I'm pretty involved in clubs and stuff, so you'll have to forgive me if there are ... uh ... huge gaps between updates.
*hangs head in shame*
I promise I'll try my best!
Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran, if I did it wouldn't be as awesome ... Lol. All credits go to their rightful owners.
Kyoya and her worked out the tips later. She needed no salary, but 50% of tips to her went to the host club and the other half was hers to keep, and that was a pretty good deal for the host club, considering they got the 50% and got the added bonus of more customers coming in to listen to her play.
Basically, she was an audio billboard.
A sound rather than a visual to draw in curious onlooks, or, in this case, listeners.
A live-performance music box.
It didn't take long for the male students of Ouran to hear about the mysterious new student playing background music for the famous (or infamous, depending on how you looked at it) Ouran Host Club.
She drew more attention than she'd bargained for, and thus had to work out more practice time after club hours or at home just to have a good enough amount of varying music to play for everyone. Plus she'd already gotten requests for several more Contemporary pieces that she never even heard of before, having focused mostly on her Romantic and Classical era music. It was an era that agreed with her style of playing surprisingly well, and gave her lots of room for messing with improvisation as she went, which was fun.
Thus, she was swamped. Between club music and competition music, all of her free time went to practice or research about more pieces in general.
"Tsukiko-chan?"
It was Kaoru. He'd caught her at the piano after club hours. Everyone else must have gone home already, not even Kyoya was present, but she'd been so consumed by the piece she'd hardly noticed.
"Kaoru?"
He was walking towards her, copper hair slightly messy, green-gold eyes piercing, tap tap tap, footsteps on empty marble floor.
"Tsuki-chan, are you okay?"
Her mouth almost fell open in shock. He hadn't used the nickname for her in years, and it sent something flipping in her heart, a warmth she hadn't known she'd missed. Her heartbeats fluttered to the ceiling in bursting butterflies and she smiled.
"I'm fine. I'm good. Are you okay?"
He grinned back.
"If you're okay I am too."
He was next to her now, sitting beside her on the piano bench, wrapping his fingers around hers, playing with her fingertips, caressing the back of her hand with his thumb. He leaned into her, resting his head on her shoulder, moving on to play with her hair.
Her heart did that fluttery butterfly thing again. But her playful side would not let him get away with his teasing without some revenge.
"If you're trying to flirt with me like you do for the other customers it's not going to work. I know all the tricks, Kaoru. Gentle touches," she carded her fingers through his mussed copper hair, dragging her thumb for just a little too long over his cheek and jawline, "are the easiest flirtation. If you want to go for a heart throb," she leaned towards his face, stopping just a couple inches away, and stared into his green-gold orbs, "eye contact breaks down a person's barriers in an instant," she whispered, proceeding to pinch his cheek to break away from the stare-down.
His expression was priceless; one of surprise and bewilderment, coupled with a good dose of speechlessness, which she gathered from his odd choking sounds. His face was a beautiful shade of roseate, and hers probably matched due to the sheer amount of laughter his reaction had brought her.
"You … who are you and what have you done with Tsukiko?" he managed to get out once she'd calmed down a bit, wiping tears from her eyes as the last of her laughter died away. She turned to face him with eyes that had never looked so bright, and he almost flinched.
This wasn't her. This wasn't the sweet, shy girl that had avoided Germany and competitions and piano in her own, quiet, defiance. This was new and foreign and frightening. The fact that this new Tsukiko could so easily break down all of his walls without very much effort at all was unnerving.
"I'm just teasing. This is my revenge for your constant flirting, I mean, you've been messing with me since I got here," she giggled, twirling a lock of raven hair in her fingers. Kaoru simply stared at the girl, more than slightly perplexed.
She was like a walking, breathing contradiction. The eyes that held such a heavy dullness also had an indescribable light to them, like luminescent pools of pearl and opal. Even her smile itself was a contradiction. As if to say "no, don't come near me" and "yes, please, I'll welcome you with open arms" at the same time. Never had anyone managed to throw him off this badly, not even Tamaki. And yet-
"Beautiful," he breathed, staring at the giggling girl with wide eyes and a mouth slightly agape. It took a moment for both Tsukiko to realize what he'd said and for Kaoru to realize that his thoughts had slip.
"Wha-" she started, and then promptly clamped her mouth shut, icy eyes growing round.
That had certainly thrown her off. The indirect method of flirting hadn't seemed like Kaoru's style, and yet here he was, slipping up and calling her beautiful. Unless he actually meant it … no. That was even less his style. Kaoru was smart, he wouldn't have let something like that slip if he'd really meant it. It made him too vulnerable.
Kaoru could not believe he'd slipped up. The comment had slipped out of his mouth before he could stop it, and he immediately bit his tongue, internally flinching. Well, at least it had broken down a bit of Tsukiko's unnerving composure from earlier. That had just been downright intimidating.
"I … um … I think I need to head home now … I have a piano lesson today …" Tsukiko lied, hastily gathering her music and nearly tripping over the piano bench before grabbing her book bag and dashing out the door, calling a quick goodbye over her shoulder.
The pianist sprinted out of the school, not really paying attention to where she was going and letting her feet guide her in the general direction of home. She decided against calling for a taxi, since the walk (or run at the pace that she was going) would probably help to clear her head. Her stomach was still doing flips, and she could feel a rush of heat flooding her cheeks that was only partly because of the fact that she was sprinting.
Since when had he been able to do this to her? Since when had Kaoru, mischievous, playful, adorable, smiling Kaoru been able to make her feel so ...
"Beautiful," she breathed, and promptly cursed.
Tsukiko jogged up to the front of her house, stopping in front of her door to catch her breath, before stepping inside with windswept hair and a flushed face.
Her house, considering the size of their company, was actually not that big. The main house was actually stationed in Germany, where they could easily keep up with the western side of their company's production, but she was staying in the house in Japan for her competitions and whatnot. Her parents had left a little over two weeks after she'd arrived in Japan, which was why she was rather startled to find her mom standing in the main parlor by the coffee sofa sets, seemingly entertaining a guest who's back was turned to her.
"Ah, Tsukiko, perfect timing. I'm sorry to spring a visit on you so suddenly, but we have a special guest who insisted on seeing you as soon as he was in Japan, and naturally, as I was close friends with his father growing up, I just had to be here to greet him. I'm sure you're familiar with-" her mother began, but as soon as the older woman had called Tsukiko's name the unnamed guest had turned to see Tsukiko and she was immediately too distracted by the person in question to register a single word her mother was saying. He was tall and lanky, with blue eyes and a curly, wavy mop of caramel hair on top of his head. The crooked grin and square jawline were unmistakeable.
"Aaron!" Tsukiko gasped, cutting her mother off and dashing towards the boy. His classically sky-blue eyes widened in surprise as she smothered him in a hug.
"Wow, I figured you'd be happy to see me, but did you really miss me that much? It's only been a month!" the taller boy laughed in his first language, English, patting her on the head teasingly. Tsukiko gave him an exasperated look, pulling away from the embrace and hitting him lightly over the shoulder.
"Well, you should have warned me that you were coming! I'd thought that the only times I'd see you was while visiting Germany or during international competitions. Why are you in Japan? I thought the student competition in Hamburg started two days ago," she asked, also switching over to English, which she'd learned at the age of twelve during an exchange study in England. She'd actually developed a rather convincing British accent, which always threw her German friends off. A Japanese girl studying in Germany who could speak English like a Brit.
"Actually, Aaron-kun here is transferring over to Ouran tomorrow. Apparently his parents saw the same benefits in moving his studies here that your father and I did. He'll also be entering in the Mikaguro Winter Competition, so you'll have some friendly competition this coming December," her mom piped up, switching back to Japanese and winking in a way that meant she expected Tsukiko not to go easy on him. Which she wouldn't. She probably couldn't afford to, his skill had improved at a rate that was almost inhuman, despite being on a much lower level than Tsukiko when they'd first met. When she'd left to go back to Japan he was neck and neck with her, and who knew what he could have accomplished in the past three or four weeks alone?
"Naw, I've been slacking off this past month. Mostly playing around with jazz and Contemporary era music. I haven't had a good enough period to practice, since I was visiting my extended family back home in London before coming here," he replied sheepishly, also switching back to Japanese. As he spoke you could hear a vague British accent in the way he emphasized his syllables and the way he drew out his vowels. Tsukiko found it endearing, to be honest, and had to smile at how hard he was trying to keep his pronunciation smooth.
The pair of student pianists talked for a while longer until Tsukiko's mom insisted that they all have dinner together while continuing their conversation about music studies. This somehow led to them reminiscing about the beginning of their friendship; he had been the awkward, stubborn British kid who could barely speak any German and she had been the awkward, shy Japanese girl who also couldn't speak very much German at all. Then, two years later, they'd been transferred over to a music academy for a year in London, and then were moved back to the German branch of the academy until Tsukiko's parents decided to move her to Japan again.
When they'd finished eating, Tsukiko's mom tried to convince Aaron to stay the night, but he insisted that he shouldn't intrude on them any longer and left with a tired smile and a hug.
Tsukiko watch the taxi drive off through her bedroom window, perhaps a little too excited about school the next day, with all thoughts of Kaoru temporarily escaping her mind.
A/N: Please leave a review! Especially if you have an idea as to what will happen next with this character, Aaron! *wink wink*
Oh, and I almost forgot. Here are some replies to the lovely people who left reviews on my past chapters!
lillyannp (all comments): Thank you so much! I will definitely add in a lot of character development as I go, but in my stories characters tend to find different aspects of themselves as they go along, so it'll be interesting to mess around with how I want to other characters to shape her. If you ever have an interesting idea as to how you think a relationship with a character might develop Tsukiko to be different from what I might see, feel free to let me know in a review. And that goes for everyone too, I love hearing ideas from readers. :)
dkfan24: Thank you! Actually, the whole color/aura thing with Tsukiko is based off a real thing that I experience, it's called synesthesia. (spelled synesthaesia in some other countries). Thank you so much for the nice comments, and YAY PIANO. I'm a musician myself so the musical aspects of this story have been a lot of fun to write. :)
Ash: I will include a long list of my favorite Kpop songs on my profile ... eventually. Lol, but thanks so much for reading my story and reviewing!