Aha! So I finally came up with a decent ending. Don't worry, it's not quite through yet, but this story is wrapping up. Thanks!
Thank you to TheDreemurrGirl and the excited guest for reviewing! You two are wonderful people. Stay groovy.
To all of you who read but don't review, you wound me.
Anyway, enjoy!
Two things cross my mind in almost the exact same second. The first of these is along the lines of, oh, I was worried for nothing. The second, and the one that surprises me the most is, Leiko Rin lied to me. But I push these thoughts away for a moment, and- and-
"Takumi?"
"You came back, Mizuki!" His intelligent icy cobalt eyes light up, crinkling around the corners with a smile. His arms are wrapped around me, his nineteen year old body, growing into its wide, strong limbs, crushing me into his chest. I can hear his heartbeat through his oversized hoodie. He smells like fabric softener and lemons. "Why were you gone so long?"
"I thought you were dead," I choke. I feel the rumble of his noiseless laugh, which I'd imagine would be high and tense if he wasn't so blinded by euphoria. Still clutching me to his chest, he says,
"Why would I be dead?"
"No-," I cut myself off, swallow past the lump in my throat- he's alive! -and gently push my way into my own personal space, never breaking eye contact with my brother. "No reason. This girl, Leiko Rin, she told me you had shot yourself." I laugh nervously, unable to meet his eyes. "It's stupid, I don't know why I believed her. But I was so scared to come back…"
"Hold on," his mahogany eyebrows furrow together. "How do you know Leiko Rin?"
"She goes to my school," I answer tensely. "How do you?"
"She just started last week," he gazes down at me, his eyes glassy with worry, "as the manor's security advisor."
X-***-X
Takumi invited Hikaru and Kaoru to stay for lunch, which they accepted with wide eyes. The four of us sit in the library afterwards, the twins seeming much more awkward than their usually haughty, entitled selves. Takumi- he's alive! -refuses to take his gaze from me for more than five minutes.
We'd long since "caught up", Takumi telling me how he'd called the police but didn't think it would do any good, knowing me. I told him how I'd been staying with the Hitachiins, brushed over my activities with Leiko Rin, told him about Kagami (he knew).
"Who's this Leiko Rin character?" Takumi ponders, disrupting the brief, carefree nature of our previous conversation.
"We met her in the cafeteria at Ouran, remember?" I nudge him in the arm with my toe, my feet kicked over the arm of the wine red leather armchairs scattered about the library.
"Mm hmm," he agrees. "Do you know her, Hitachiin-san?"
"Well, yeah," Hikaru shrugs carelessly.
"She's a regular at the club," Kaoru says.
"She frequents Kyoya-"
"-We just met her a few weeks ago."
"I hired her as chief security advisor," Takumi says distantly, taking his ever-present cell phone out of his pocket. Takumi has a knack for anything electronic: hacking, gaming, research, digital design, he can even draw if it's on a computer. "She's really good, actually, convinced me to make a completely new position I'd never even known I'd needed."
"That's the Soul Queen for you," I scoff under my breath. Out loud, I continue, "She told me a while back that you had-," my voice cracks, "-died, Takumi."
"I told you not to get into trouble," Takumi says with affection in his deep electric blue eyes. "You shouldn't go making friends with people like that, Mizu."
"I know," I pout, crossing my arms under my head, running my fingers through the shorter strands.
"So, what did you do?" Takumi crosses his arms. "You're so rash, I know you did something
we have to go fix now."
"I am not!" I protest, glaring daggers at him, but clamp my mouth shut at his amused look and his know-it-all, gentle smirk. Pouting, I say crossly, "I kinda stole Kyoya-senpai's bank account records and gave them to Leiko."
"WHAT!" The twins shout together, snapping to attention. "Why would you do that!"
"Sorry, sorry," I tense, startled, holding my palms out in a conciliatory gesture. "I'm not sure what she's doing with them, but Kyoya's in the hospital-" Takumi grunts disapprovingly, "-and I haven't seen Leiko Rin since."
"We can find out easily," Takumi says calmly, marching out the door and gesturing to be followed. The twins tromp curiously on my heels, muttering to themselves. I try my best to ignore them. Meanwhile, Takumi is leading us to his own bedroom, opens the door, and starts immediately to his beech writing desk, where a desktop sits on standby. He boots the computer up, and with practiced motions, goes about the not at all understandable hacking process.
The four of us sit in near silence, the only sound being Takumi's mad typing, broken only by the occasional click or dissatisfied hum. After a few moments, just when the twins and I are getting restless and bored, Takumi swivels in his luxury office chair, his arms spread wide, a grin splitting his face in two.
"Good news or bad news?" Takumi asks at once in his cheery voice.
"Good," I say quickly.
"The good news is that Leiko Rin hasn't done anything yet. If I had to guess, she's waiting for you, Mizuki." he swivels around again, presses a few keys, and turns back around with a scowl. "The bad news is that she has direct control of Kyoya's personal bank account, and has eight million yen on standby. She's also in two more accounts, one titled, 'Host Club' and one under the name," he swivels around again, and reads, "Fujioka."
"Haruhi!" Hikaru exclaims with ernest, his face stained red from sudden anger. Next to him, his brother mimics his expression.
"What could she want with Haruhi?" Kaoru demands.
"Who is Haruhi?" Takumi asks, brow furrowed. "The name sounds kind of familiar."
"You met her," I say blandly. "Remember, the crossdresser, the reason this whole mess started…" I trail off distantly, putting it all together in my head, mixing up the pieces and trying to make them fit. I begin murmuring quietly to myself.
"Eight million yen… and it's the reason this whole mess started…" My lip, clenched in my teeth, is screaming in protest to my absent-minded abuse, so I release it, only to bite down once more. "Leiko Rin wanted… She wanted to help me… But that's not like her…"
"Mizuki!" Takumi gasps, his hand banging dully on the plastic arm of the office chair. "Death always gets her price, remember?" Without waiting for me to answer, he says, "And it always wins, right? She wins, Mizuki! It was a set-up from the beginning!" Eyes gleaming with a strange kind of excitement, Takumi proceeds to explain exactly what it is Leiko Rin is doing.
He tells us how it was all planned. Leiko Rin lied about Takumi's death because she knew I'd go home eventually and find out, but she needed me, desperate with grief, to get Kyoya's papers for her. She wanted his bank account so she could pay back Haruhi's debt.
That was the last piece I needed, the one that didn't fit. I knew Haruhi had to stay, but I didn't know why until the eight million yen bit. Leiko Rin wanted it, wanted Kyoya's money, to pay back his debt to her. It's such a poetic, ironic kind of justice that I almost laugh.
When Takumi finishes his explanation, his eyes fall briefly and he looks almost dismayed. He mutters half to us and half to himself, "But why? Why the trouble?"
"Duh," I groan, flicking him in the arm. "She's getting something out of it."
"What?" The Hitachiins asks in unison.
I respond ominously, "Her price."
X-***-X
I've never really actively sought out Leiko Rin before, so I'm not too sure where to start. I check the host club room first, but she's not there. I go to the roof, wander around the hallways, peek in doors and around corners. Just as I'm about to give up and wait for her to contact me, I find her in the bathroom across the hall from music room three.
"Thought you'd be looking for me," she mentions in her casually leering voice, tinged with American accent. "What is it, then? Nothing too good, I'd expect."
"I want out," I say crossly, jumping to the point. "I want the documents back and I want you out of any bank account that's not yours."
"You're betraying me, you mean to say?" Her seafoam eyes narrow behind her glasses. She flicks her thick red curls over her shoulder haughtily. "I think you've got it wrong, Illusionist. You don't call the shots any more."
"You don't understand, Leiko," I say coldly, masking my obvious begging (how indecent) behind my tone and body language. "What you're doing, it could ruin the host club."
"If she decided to leave," Leiko Rin says pointedly, raising a single red-orange eyebrow. "When did you care so much about the Host Club?"
When did I? It never really occurred to me, and I never really saw the signs, but somewhere after I met Leiko Rin, this all turned into a game, and illusion, and I started caring. Maybe I've been fighting for the club all along without knowing it… somehow. Maybe that's the reason I didn't throw myself from the roof all those weeks ago.
I realize almost as soon as my last thought completes that it doesn't matter. I'm doing what's right now and when Kyoya gets out of the hospital, he's going to thank me. This is my payback, a different kind, sure, but payback nonetheless.
"It doesn't matter," I sniff, tilting my chin to peer down my nose at her. "So how do you know that Haruhi will leave the host club? As far as I know, you don't do things on whims and hunches."
"At least you know that much," she retorts hotly. "In fact, I've secured a different means of education for Haruhi, something that will definitely bring out her more…" she glares at me and smirks cruelly, "...feminine side."
As Leiko brushes past me to leave, I turn this thought over in my head. As the door bangs shut, it comes to me. How glaringly obvious it is makes me sigh at myself. Leiko's devious, fallacious silver tongue, it could lead even Haruhi astray.
The first thought that comes to my mind: Lobelia.
