Chapter 36: Host Clubs & Hobbit Holes

Elise and Marie rose from their seats on the Intercity Coach Bus with aching stiffness. They'd just spent the last twenty hours in transit. First was a flight from Seoul to Tokyo where their layover lasted for an hour. However even with only sixty minutes to work with, Marie and Elise still managed to find the Host Club and get into trouble.

While Elise had been chatting with Haruhi Fujioka and admiring Kyoya Ootori out of the corner of her eye, Marie had been slowly getting riled up by Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin and Tamaki Suoh. Just as Elise glanced over to see where her friend was, she caught the look in Marie's eye and suddenly everything seemed to slow down. Elise could see what was going to happen, but couldn't prevent it. Marie's fist clenched and swung up in an uppercut punch that knocked Tamaki on his back. The next second their entire section of the airport fell silent as Marie shouted, "I'M NOT A PRINCESS! I'M A PERSON!"

Elise rushed over to get her friend away from the antagonists while Haruhi and the twins started laughing, almost doubling over with their giggles. Even Kyoya smirked a little as Mori and Honey helped Tamaki back up to his feet. After that, the two groups split up and went to separate sections of the gate. Marie was still fuming, but calmed once Elise had gotten her some bubble tea. Tamaki sat with his friends on the other side of the gate with an ice pack pressed against the left side of his jaw.

Eventually, their plane boarded and the girls spent the next eleven hours watching movies, listening to music, reading, playing In-Flight Trivia, and napping as they flew above the South Pacific. They had another layover in Queensland, Australia, but it didn't last long before they were on the final leg of their journey. When they finally got to Auckland, New Zealand, they only had a short time before they were loading the Intercity Coachline Bus en route to the filmset of Hobbiton near Matamata, New Zealand. "Whose bright idea was it to go straight to Hobbiton?" Marie groaned, stretching out her muscles.

"That would be me. I'm just full of bright ideas," Elise snipped back.

The two girls had a hotel booked in Hamilton a half hour away, but they wouldn't be going there for at least another four to five hours. Their tour didn't start till 3pm, and luckily there was a café available for tourists where Elise and Marie purchased some over-priced tea and muffins. It would be enough to get them by until they could crash at the hotel.

Despite their exhaustion, Marie and Elise quite enjoyed the hobbit holes and verdant rolling hills. The tour led them through the village giving information about the construction, all of the famous actors who had been there, and fun behind the scenes trivia. The best part though was when they all gathered in the Green Dragon Inn where they got to meet Dominic Monaghan and Billy Boyd who just happened to be in the area that day. The two former hobbits performed a rousing re-enactment of their song from the Green Dragon before signing autographs for everyone.

It was while Marie and Elise were headed toward the bus stop where they would board and head to Hamilton when Elise caught a flash of something small moving out of the corner of her eye. "What was that?" she asked whipping around and stopping abruptly causing Marie to run into her.

"Ow! What was what?" Marie stepped back rubbing her nose.

"I thought…" Elise trailed off. But a moment later, she saw it again. A small almost child-sized shape dashing over the hill and towards a tree. "THERE!" she shouted.

Marie turned to see what her friend was yelling about, but there was nothing there. "Okay, Elise. I think the sleep deprivation has caught up with you. Time to get on the bus." The younger girl steered her friend towards the loading area.

"But! Marie! I swear I saw a hobbit!"

"I'm sure you did, but we need sleep, food, and showers. Not necessarily in that order. So get on the bus."

"But…" Elise protested, but fell silent as she acquiesced to Marie's grumpy stare and turned to get on the bus. As she sat down in the seat by the window, she glanced out once more to see the same small shape disappear behind one of the hobbit holes. However instead of drawing attention again, Elise just leaned her head against the window, her eyes half closed, and whispered, "Goodnight, hobbit." As she was falling asleep, her phone vibrated slightly with an incoming message from the ladies who had interviewed her for the travel journalism job. But it would wait till the morning.