This time, I actually have an excuse for such a prolonged delay.
A LOT has happened in my family. The biggest thing is that I moved halfway across the country. If you're in Texas right now, please be my best friend. The other stuff, I'm not going to talk about.
Upside to this move? Going to effing start ASL 1 this year. So pumped. Can't wait to learn a new language. Downside to the upside? Going to effing start ASL 1 this year. Freakishly nervous. It's a freaking new language.
Well, enough about me! It's time you found out what happens to the lovely Fox and Feline duo~!
THE SON HE KEPT A SECRET; LOVE CHILD OF TAKAO NEKOZAWA
Below the headline and a picture of Mr. Nekozawa, was the article.
"The very nerve of those rich bastards! And how dare they put you in the paper without your consent!" Ranka shouted, sending the newspaper flying across the room.
"Otou-san, my name isn't even in the paper. It just says, "
"It's absurd! I was the one that was there when you were born! I was the one who was there every first day of school! Not this rich guy! Honey, I'm so sorry this happened.. I can't imagine who would get the idea for this in the first place."
"Well.. actually... Otou-san..."
"Oh, dear.. Haruhi, please don't tell me that you told the newspaper this-"
"No! It's not that... I just.. I made a stupid mistake.. it really shouldn't have gone this far though.."
"Oh?"
"It's...it's..."
"Honey, if the press has gone into it, it's serious. I need to know, Haruhi."
"I called one of my sempai's "Onii-san". Things got really, really out of hand after that because he dragged me into his club room after this big scene started. People think that I'm his long-lost younger brother now. It's funny, I really like the new nicknames they've given me." Haruhi said the last part sarcasticly. "The Brunnette Outcast, the Brown-Eyed Beast."
"I'm so sorry baby. I'm so dissappointed in the children there, starting drama over something so trivial. You mean to tell me... that a simple greeting between two friends such as "Onii-chan" can't even be used? This is an insult to my culture." Ranka sighed. He pulled Haruhi in for a hug, letting her rest her head on his chest. "Honey, you didn't do anything wrong."
I'm not so sure about that. Haruhi thought.
"Sweetheart, I swear I never-!" Takao tried to calm his wife down, as she threw every object that she could grab at him. Their son flinched at the sound of every crash that his mother made. "Dominika, I have always been faithful to you!"
"LIAR! SCUM OF THE EARTH! BETRAYER OF LOVE!" His wife screeched. "HOW COULD YOU? HOW DARE YOU! WHAT WILL KIRIMI THINK OF YOU? WHAT WILL UMEHITO THINK OF YOU?"
I'm sorry Otou-san... I'm sorry Mama... Umehito thought, crying on the inside. He knocked on the door to his father's study, "May I please come in before someone gets killed?"
His mother sighed and lit a few candles, then dimmed the lights. "You may come in, Umehito." He opened the door slowly.
"I made a mistake. Please don't be mad at Otou-san."
Takao nearly passed out from relief, but Umehito's mother stared her son down. "Umehito, what did you do?"
"I...I can't tell you..but none of this is Otou-san's fault. He would never... ever have an affair. Haruhi is my dear friend.. He's not my or Kirimi's half-brother, and not your step-child."
"Is it really so serious that you can't even tell your own mother?"
"I'll take care of it, Mama. Everything will be fine."
"Ume-"
"I will take care of it. I'll take care of everything." Nekozawa turned around and walked out of the room, rather irritated.
"Well then, only one thing left to do. Takao." She said, turning towards her husband. "I'm sorry."
"Oka-san." Haruhi said, lighting the incence in front of her mother's shrine. "Are you feeling well today?" She asked. "Today was another stressful day at school." She sighed. "This is all my fault though..." She laid down on her back, her head facing the shrine. "The high-class and rich are a close-knit and community, they say. Pfft. Then people would have known if something like this happened already." She looked at the little bumps on the ceiling, and the places on the legs of the table where the polish had wore off and were scratched.
"I was a toddler. Twice." She said. She never really thought about how absurd it all was. She never just sat down, and though, how incredibly ridiculous it sounded. Magic was real. Or at least, Nekozawa-sempai was extremely talented in the art of trickery and mischief. At the begining, Haruhi had settled with believing with the latter. After spending a lot of time with Nekozawa, however, she had seen what he could do. She had seen things that were unimaginable. She had experienced things that were unimaginable.
Haruhi stayed on her back, but scooted herself so she was under the table. She stared at the picture that she had taped under there. A woman with ebony-black hair and delicate features, a man with reddish hair and slightly angular features, and a small child with long ebony-black hair. The child was holding a very fat cat, the family was standing in what appeared to be a living room.
She began to think about what little of her old life she could remember. She didn't understand why her father didn't move them back to Hokkaido after her mother died. Witness Protection wasn't her best sub-category of the criminal justice system. Maybe he didn't really have a choice.
"Kaa-san, I wanna go back home."
"Honey, we are home." Kotoko said, kissing her daughter on the cheek.
"No we're not." Haruhi said, pouting.
"You're going to hurt your face if you pout so hard." Ryouji said, throwing his baby girl up in the air. "Smile for daddy, please?"
"Where's Ichira."
"Haruhi-chan." Ryouji said, setting her down on the table. "We're talked about this before. Ichira-chan was very sick and-" he saw Haruhi tearing up "-and.. isn't with us anymore."
Haruhi began to have a temper tantrum. "I want my Ichira and I want my house back and I want my face back too!"
Ryouji scooped up the wailing Haruhi and bounced her up and down, singing to her until she fell asleep.
"Poor Haruhi.. abandoned by his father.."
"Kanako, you shouldn't trust that printing company! They're the Fox News of the printed world!"
"Yeah, but what if it is real? Think about it, how did Haruhi get into this school?"
"Oh my god, you're right!"
Haruhi's walk began to rise in speed, and her steps showed just how frustrated she was. They didn't even bother whispering anymore. She felt like something on display, for the amusement of the people watching. She clutched her bag close to her body, her walk turning into a run.
"Sempai!" She said, once inside of the Black Magic Clubroom "Sempai, are you here yet?" She put the curtain that was used in place of the door on the hook. Nekozawa was very particular about his club, and only a door worthy of his practice would suffice, so hadn't yet picked on out yet. Tamaki had to pay for it, since he broke it, so he had to make sure that it was a fine, fine door indeed.
"I-I'm here."
"Oh..?" She asked, stepping hesitantly into the room where he was. He turned around and smiled anxiously at her.
"You don't have to be so formal. How could things get any worse out there?" By "out there" Haruhi assumed that he meant with the students. She smiled at him and ran to give him a hug.
"Seriously though, how was your day?"
"The same."
Haruhi stroked the side of Beelzenef's face "And how are you today, cutie?"
{Oh stop it, you}
"He's shy." Nekozawa said. "Are you ready?"
"Really? Today?" Haruhi asked excitedly "Wait.. what happened? Why did you change your mind?"
"Really, can't I just be nice?" Nekozawa asked.
"Before you said that you weren't going to fix Dara-chan, and now-"
"Well, things have changed now."
{Yeah, you want her to have as much fun with you as she can before you -pfft- with her and your memories.}
"Shut it, you!" Nekozawa told Beelzenef. Haruhi stared at the two of them confusedly. "Ehehe. Do you have him?"
Haruhi handed Dara to Nekozawa. She watched in amazement as he brought her dear friend back to life. It was exactly the same as before. Nekozawa chuckled. She even had on that cute expression that she did when she was three- wait, did he think it was cute? He blushed, and handed her Dara-chan. Slowly, she put him on her hand, but she was shaking.
"D...Dara-chan?"
{Took you long enough, squirt. Where the hell have you been? I've been waiting for you.}
"Oh my god this is so weird but it's so awesome!" She said. It was weird, she was basically hugging her own hand. "Dara-chan, I missed you so much!"
Nekozawa smiled at the scene, it was too adorable not to.
After Haruhi and Dara's little reunion, Haruhi had to rush to Host Club. But, as soon as she opened the curtain to the hall, she noticed that the entire entry way was plastered with the newspaper clippings.
"Isn't this vandalism?" she asked, trying to peel off the clippings. She looked at her watch and ran back to the 3rd Music Room.
"Haruhi~!" Tamaki cried, glomping Haruhi. "Really, why are you always late?"
"Stop being do dumb, Tono, she was obviously spending time with Nekozawa." Hikaru spat. His words were unusually poisonous.
"It just so happens that we actually had to talk about something." Haruhi said, ignoring the rudeness in his tone and focusing more on what he said.
"I'm glad that you two can be such good friends considering all of the heat coming from that article!" Honey said cheerfully.
"I think that now we all know where Akira Komatsuzawa gets his idea of "popularity by gossip" from. His family runs that paper." Kyouya said, looking through pages in his folder.
"Well, it doesn't matter to me. Students can say what they want, they're only making fools of themselves."
"Haruhi!" Tamaki whined "Why don't you get it! Daddy doesn't like all of these mean kids saying nasty things about his little girl! Why can't you just stop seeing that villainous Nekozawa?"
"Villainous? Sempai, you barely even know him!" Haruhi said, starting the tea for the guests.
"Haruhi, he's a Black Magic Practicioneer!" Kaoru exclaimed "That's just a bit shady, don't you think?"
"Buuut," Honey interupted "you guys wouldn't be saying anything if he was just a regular magician, right? And, and, adding "black" to anything doesn't make it bad! It's just a different form is all! Sometimes, maybe a different style, like in this case, "black" , it makes it better!"
"Wow, that was pretty thoughtful, Honey-sempai." Hikaru said
"Take cake for example!"
"And, we lost him."
"See, broccoli is commonly described as a "tree" right, and a bunch of trees is a forest. But nobody likes a bunch of broccoli, so who the heck would like a Forest Cake? That just sounds nasty. But, when you add "Black" to it, "Black Forest Cake", you get something so sweet and nice that you would never think that it was-"
Mori stopped him from talking by putting a spoonful of the Coconut Creme Cake into his mouth. Honey went back to devouring his deliciousness enriched prey. Mori looked at Haruhi and the rest of the club members.
"They day that you become Haruhi, you will have a say." Is all he said, before going back to attending to his cousin.
Haruhi blushed. "Er, thanks, sempai."
Hikaru frowned at the sudden change of color in Haruhi's face, his eyes changing focus points back and forth from Mori and Haruhi.
Did I make a good comeback from a 4-month vacation from this story?
