A/N: So I'm re-editing ALL chapters so that everything makes more sense and stuff. If you haven't re read on from 7/15/18, there's quite a few changes in the chapters that I've made. Sorry, I was in middle school when I wrote this, and I've come back to it in highschool, so I hope that I can improve this quite a bit.
Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran High School Host Club. I only own my own OC's (three own's... heh...).
The Shadow Queen
Chapter 10:
Beach
Third Person
Lately, the Host Club, though being comprised of mostly oblivious idiots, have noticed Kaede's poor attendance to club activities. Oddly enough, the number of clubs she attended was drastically reduced to three: the Host Club, Band, and the Light Music Club, yet her Host Club attendance was as sparse as ever.
"What's wrong with Kae-chan?" Honey asked the boys (and Haruhi), who noticed Kaede's weird, spaced-out state.
Everybody's eyes turned to Kaede's male version. Kyoya fixed his glasses.
"...why would I know?"
They were right (for once); for the past 3 weeks, she looked kind of empty and depressed. Throughout the twins' fight (referring to episode 5), the only comment she made before avoiding the twins' mass destruction of the music room was, "You guys are horrible actors."
Kaede also partly missed the trouble-making elementary school boy, whose ear reached the words, "Moronic brat."
There was also the jungle pool where Kaede passed the invitation.
All in all, they realized [after three weeks] that Kaede was kind of distant.
After missing a large amount of Host Club days, the said "boy" walked into the Music Room, her eyes glued to her ShiraiPad. As she came in, she overheard the boys (and Haruhi) talking. "The beach?"
"Yes, the beach!"
"You said so before, didn't you? You wouldn't mind going to a real beach," said the twins, going on and off with the sentences.
Kaede's head snapped up to the next part of the conversation.
"...we've prepared some swimsuits for you."
Kaede looked, and, startlingly, found many swimsuits behind her. The twins and Haruhi didn't yet notice the girl.
"Isn't this cute?" said the twins, showing her a frilly bikini.
"I think...," Honey interrupted, showing a swimsuit with a collar and was blue, "...that this would look good on Haru-chan." Kaede raked a hand through her hair, noting that it was quite pretty.
"You don't get it, huh, Honey-senpai?" said the twins. They grabbed Haruhi, much to Kaede's dislike, and said grandly, "Just wearing this uniform helps to gloss over the fact that she's as flat as a cutting board. A one-piece type suit like that would only invite tears, by making it obvious how utterly poor her figure is."
"On that point, we carefully selected this separate-type suit," continued the twins. "The frills do a fine job of covering the absence of any bust!"
Tamaki appeared, angry faced, but Kaede stepped in, sighing. "Soo... this is what you guys have been doing when I was gone?" she said, vexed.
"Kaede/Kae-chan!" they all cried in surprise. Honey rushed to Kaede, hugging her.
"It's Kae-chan!" he said joyfully. He looked up at Kaede with big eyes. "Where have you been?"
Kaede shrugged. "I just went to Mount Fuji... and bought a dog there... then played with the Philharmonic in Korea...," she said.
"Really?!"
"No." She said bluntly. "Sooo... are you guys going to the beach?"
"Tono says he doesn't want to come!"
"I didn't say that!"
"Can Usa-chan go with us?"
"I have no objections." The last voice startled Kaede, as it came from behind.
"Ootori?" Kaede said, just now noticing his presence. She walked up to him, a letter in her hand. "There's this thing my parents want me to give you." She nodded her head in her weird way of respect. The Host Club didn't really notice the scene, for they were busy arguing about what Haruhi will wear.
"My daughter will not show that much skin until she's married!"
"Oooohhh... Tono just wants to have her for himself..."
"What do you guys think you're doing to sweet little Haruhi?" Kaede said softly into the twins' ears, her hot breath making them shiver.
"N-nothing!" they stammered, closing their eyes in horror, but, in opening them, saw Kaede checking out the blue swimsuit Honey had taken out.
"...This is really pretty," she muttered under her breath. She put it back on the rack, but not before Kyoya could write something down in his notebook.
The shady man fixed his glasses.
And so... they went to Okinawa (with Sachiko, who's practically part of the club now) for the beach.
"So, why Okinawa?" asked the twins.
"Kyoya's folks have a private beach here," said Tamaki.
"Ootori sure is rich."
"Says the granddaughter of the founder of the sole leader in electronics today."
"Touche."
"It's a beautiful place, huh?"
"Yeah."
"Kaede... this is too much!"
"Stop grabbing onto my sleeve, Chiya!"
"Why didn't we go to the Caribbean or Fiji?" asked the twins.
"Do you think Haruhi has a passport?" said the K-pair (name for Kaede and Kyoya).
"Ahhh..."
"Thank you so much for your thoughtfulness," replied Haruhi, her voice dripping with sarcasm. She was the only one without a passport, though there was another commoner there.
"At any rate, your swimsuits are cute," Kaede commented to Sachiko (who's nickname 'Chiya' had stuck) and Haruhi.
"Thanks," Haruhi smiled. Chiya, however, frowned.
"Sorry I'm not Mori-senpai, Chiya," Kaede smirked. Chiya pouted.
"Why the heck are we hosting at the beach?!" asked Kaede to no one in particular. "I'm not even Katana today!"
She sat down at a log, watching Tamaki flirting with yet another girl, and the twins doing a volleyball match. She sweatdropped when the match suddenly turned into two brothers chasing each other in the sand.
"Because, Shirai, this is a great way for money," said Kyoya, appearing out of nowhere, leading the girls in line to Tamaki's loving rock.
Kaede sighed, sitting down with Haruhi and Chiya under the umbrella. "This sucks...I'm spending the weekend on Host Club business..."
"I mean, we're still at the beach," Chiya said optimistically.
"Still at the beach, but doing Host Club business..."
"Why aren't you wearing a swim suit?" Haruhi asked, alluding to her shorts and shirt.
"I don't have one."
"REALLY?" Chiya didn't hide her surprise. Kaede shrugged.
"I don't really go swimming that often."
"By the way, Shirai.." Kyoya started. Kaede turned to him.
"Hm?"
"...nothing." He sighed, pat her head, and walked away.
Kaede touched her head.
"...for some reason, he keeps patting my head lately..." She shook her head. Whatever.
She stood up, seeing the twins finally pick up their beach ball. They were talking with each other about how Kyoya fooled them. "Oi, you two... you doin' beach volleyball?" she asked pointedly to the twins.
"Yeah."
"Hey, can I play?"
So... one of the girls dropped out reluctantly for Kaede to play against the twins with a random girl. Long story short: Kaede left them on the ground, totally out of it.
"I thought you guys were using a beach ball...," Chiya said, sweatdropping. She walked up to Kaede.
Kaede smirked. "It's the power of greatness."
"Amazing! What a haul!" cried Honey loudly. Kaede strolled up to Chiya, Haruhi, and Honey surrounded by many sea shells.
"What the heck is this?" asked Kaede.
"We're going to have a fancy side dish tonight, huh?" said Haruhi.
"Well, you all look like you're enjoying yourselves, so I guess it's all right," commented Tamaki from the side lines.
"Why are there so many sea shells...?" asked Kaede.
"It's repayment from the Ootori Group's police force after an incident with Honey," informed Sachiko.
"Senpai!" Haruhi called. "We caught a big haul for tonight's supper!"
Then, blah blah blah... Tamaki started doing his weird daddy stuff.
"What do you think, Haruhi?" asked Tamaki, holding out a crab, "crab-tivating?" Haruhi looked at him.
Kaede fought back a snicker. "That's gotta be the worst pun ever..."
Haruhi blushed a little bit and said, "Yes."
"How cute!" Tamaki cried, leaving Kaede to snicker some more.
How can she act like a boy like that? thought Kaede. No wonder everyone thought she was gay...
Kaede's thoughts were interrupted by sudden screams. "CENTIPEDE!" She looked to the crab Tamaki was holding, and saw a black and yellow centipede crawling out.
"Oh, just saying, there's a centipede crawling out of the crab," Kaede said monotonically, standing up and brushing off sand. "And there's a 90% chance it's poisonous."
"WE KNOW THAT, KAEDE!"
"Wow, simultaneous."
She saw Haruhi pick it up and throw it. "Haruhi-kun is so manly," said the girls. "And yet so nice, huh?"
"Fantastic!" they all exclaimed.
Kaede snickered goodnaturedly. "Yeah, manly for sure."
"Shirai, I wouldn't like for you to reveal Haruhi's secret with such comments," Kyoya said, appearing behind Kaede as always.
"Don't worry, the level of moe is too high," Kaede said. She smirked.
She turned around to face Kyoya.
"By the way..."
Kaede went on her tip toes.
To Kyoya's surprise, she ruffled his hair. "...What are you doing?"
"You've been doing it lately, so I wanted to try," she frowned, tilting her head. "Your hair's softer than I thought." She ruffled faster. Kyoya sighed. Before she could pet him some more, he grabbed her wrist and pulled her close. "Ootori?"
"...What am I supposed to do when you touch me like this?" He asked, his face dangerously close to Kaede's. For a second, she was taken aback, but, being Kaede, she didn't move away. She kept her face close to his as she thought of an answer.
"I don't know, stay quiet or something."
The two walked to the twins and Tamaki, arriving early enough to hear: "Isn't there anything she's afraid of?"
Sachiko joined in, about to open her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it after seeing the twins look as if they had an idea. Kaede read her thoughts, which were, This is not good...
"Tono! Tono! We just thought up a fun game. Want to play?" asked the twins to Tamaki. "We call it," they said, "the 'Who can find Haruhi's weakness?' game!"
"That is the most creative name I have heard," Kaede commented sardonically, appearing behind Tamaki. "So... where do we place our bets?"
"What an awful-sounding game," said Tamaki, inching back to Kaede.
"Yeah, you're probably right. She'd only show her weakness to someone she was close to, and all."
Kaede snickered again. "Yeah, right..." Kyoya jabbed her to the side to keep her quiet. It was met with a jab of her own.
"WHAT ARE THE RULES?!" shouted Tamaki, suddenly interested.
"Oh, hey, Chiya, Tamaki's as gullible as you," Kaede commented, catching the attention of Sachiko.
"Yeah, even I know someone can't be as gullible as that baka."
"I will give whoever wins a prize," Kyoya suddenly interrupted. He held out three pictures... of Haruhi.
"We're in on this, too!" added the third years.
"You perverted bunch...," Sachiko said, miserably.
"Hey, dude, are those from my collection or yours?!" Kaede said, grabbing the pictures. "Oh wait, no, these are yours."
"KAEDE!"
"Hey, hey... Haruhi knows and doesn't care as long as it's me..."
"How does Kae-chan and Kyo-chan have pictures of Haruhi?" asked Honey, innocently.
"I have my sources. Why don't we just leave it at that?"
"...They're like twins..."
"Shut up or die."
And so, the twins tried putting Haruhi in a scary cave.
"If you guys are planning to scare Haruhi, I'm afraid a cave won't do," Kaede said, whispering to the twins.
"Katana-kun, we're afraid!" the girls ran to Kaede, currently being Katana.
"It's okay, this is all just a plan fail for the twins, isn't it?" comforted Kaede, glaring at the twins, whose plan didn't work.
Plan Fail.
Then, came Honey with a dark truck.
"It's dark, and confined, and scary!"
That wasn't Haruhi... so: Plan Fail.
Then, came Mori with a mori (harpoon).
"Hahahaha... I lost it at mori!" said Kaede, in the sidelines again watching over Haruhi through out the game. She started laughing like crazy after the unintentional play on words.
Plan Fail.
"This game is useless, huh?" groaned Hikaru to his younger twin. All of the plans so far had failed, and so they sat on the fence of one of the shacks on the beach.
"Ah... I'm getting bored."
"Pessimistic, aren't we?" Kaede jumped over the fence, taking the two by surprise.
"KAEDE?!"
"You guys are just like Chiya. Anyways, why are you giving up?"
"She's not cut out to be a heroine, with all those things she's not afraid of."
"Hey, I'm a heroine, and I'm scared of plenty of stuff."
"WAAAAAAA...?!"
"For example, I'm afraid of dogs."
"WHOA, REALLY?!"
"Actually, recently, I found out they're afraid of me."
"Haruhi-kun, Katana-kun, Hey there! This breeze feels great!" called three girls from up above the rock that Haruhi was collecting "side dishes" from.
"Oi, is that safe?!" called out Kaede.
"It's dangerous up there," added Haruhi.
The three disregarded the warnings and talked amongst themselves. "This feels great, huh?"
"Mm-hmm."
They were interrupted by a sudden shout. "Oho, there are girls up here!"
Kaede, who was helping Haruhi, perked up at the sound. The sound was distant, and Haruhi didn't hear it at first, but was alert after Kaede tugged her sleeve.
"Stop it! This is a private beach!" cried one of the girls. They were being harassed by two unruly men.
Haruhi, being the brave "boy" she was, threw her precious side dishes onto one of them. "Would you go away now? They don't want you," she said firmly. "They say you're bothering them."
"Haruhi-kun," they swooned. Kaede, in the sidelines again, sweatdropped.
Not the time to be fangirling, you three, she thought.
"Why you-"
The man pulled the neck of Haruhi's shirt and pulled her dangerously to the edge. "What's with these spindly little arms?"
"Haruhi-kun!" the girls cried.
Kaede came from the shadows, finally going to do something. She yawned and stretched her arms.
"Don't go trying to act tough when you're such a sissy boy!" yelled the other one.
"Kid, you should just go swimming in the ocean..."
Kaede inched out more to be seen.
"...like a good boy!" And so Haruhi was pushed off.
"HARUHI!" shouted Tamaki, running to the place. He dived after.
Kaede sighed, and grabbed the hand of the guy who pushed off Haruhi. She twisted it dangerously. "I'll let you experience a pain 10x worse than drowning."
Kaede dropped him dangerously close to the ground, his arm twisting more and more.
"Ow, ow, ow..."
"Haruhi's not a sissy boy," said Kaede, turning to the other guy. She pulled up the guy whose arm she was twisting up, and pushed him in the direction of his accomplice. She pulled the girls from the accomplice's grasp, and did a perfect kick underneath them, making them fall to the ground.
They whimpered, Kaede kneeling close to them. She whispered in their ears, "You're lucky she's okay, you worthless scum."
Kaede ran back down to the others, and got there in time to see Haruhi climbing off of Tamaki's arms. "Are you one of those?" asked Tamaki dramatically to Haruhi, wet and just escaped from drowning. "Actually a martial arts master, like Honey-senpai or Kaede? How could you think that you, a girl, by yourself, could do anything against those boys?!"
Kaede resisted to interrupt, since she was sure that they forgot that the person who made the guys run away right into the arms of Kyoya's police, was, in fact, a girl. "It had nothing to do with being a boy or a girl. I was just there, and didn't have time to think about anything like-" Haruhi started.
"Well think about it, you idiot! You are a girl!"
"I will apologize for making you come after me, but I can't understand any other reason why you'd be mad at me. I haven't done anything wrong."
"You haven't, huh? Then you go right ahead. I'm not speaking to you again until you admit you were wrong!"
"It's not because she's a girl, it's because she's Haruhi," I muttered under my breath, smirking. A hand landed on my shoulder.
"It goes for you too, Shirai."
