Jellicle Host Club!

Yumi

We fell into a kind of routine after that, Kyoya-senpai and I; I'd write, and then bring him the current draft to read, and he'd mark it up like my teachers with points that I'd either forgotten to mention or circling simple, trying-to-write-while-sleepy errors.

And, somewhere in the middle of that, I'd started occasionally requesting him as well as Haruhi.

I also started periodically bringing my Cats piano book to school, so I could practice properly. I'd learned to play the piano back when I was ten, but my parents couldn't afford to buy a piano for me, so I always had to practice at school. My favorite song to play was, of course, "Magical Mister Mistoffelees."

Finally, my book was finished to both my standards and Kyoya-senpai's. Just today, he handed back the binder I'd given him with the book. "It's got no problems that I can find."

"Yeah…" I took the binder back and sighed. "Too bad it'll never get published. I'm just too shy to do anything with it." Then I started walking away.

But before I got out of earshot, I heard Kyoya-senpai say, almost to himself, "An interesting opinion, in its own way."

FIVE DAYS LATER

I all but skipped up the stairs. I'd woken up feeling ridiculously good, and nothing about the school had changed that. I'd told myself a million times that I was going to request Kyoya-senpai today, even though we weren't working together anymore. My heart was pounding extraordinarily loudly, but I was telling myself that it was excitement, not nervousness.

I'm not sure I believed myself.

Then I opened the door.

"Welcome!"

I stopped dead in my tracks.

The Host Club was indeed sitting there…but the new décor was, um…if a junkyard could be fashionable, this was probably what it would look like: chairs, tables, wheels and even part of a car (probably a stage prop) piled haphazardly around the room, but all of it was still in pretty good condition and fancy.

And that was just the room! Every single member of the Host Club was wearing cat-suit leotards, makeup and wigs, and not just any cats:

Tamaki-senpai was boldest, with a large gold mane, white leotard-suit and fancy belt and collar – the Rum Tum Tugger.

Mori-senpai's makeup almost made him look evil, but his color scheme had more white than red – Plato.

Honey-senpai was, to put it bluntly, adorable with his big eyes emphasized, and the spiky collar and mostly-black leotard did nothing to change that – Jemima.

Hikaru and Kaoru were now nearly impossible to tell apart with matching tabby leotards, though one had slightly more white than the other – Mungojerrie and Rumpleteaser.

Haruhi was most definitely Quaxo as defined by the movie, with a tuxedo-styled leotard, white legwarmers, one white armwarmer and one black, and a black wig.

Kyoya-senpai was a ginger cat with a vest, brown tail, and bell collar – Skimbleshanks.

They'd been paying attention to my comparisons? I still remembered a lot of what I said:

"If Honey-senpai was a girl, he'd be a perfect Jemima with the size of his eyes."

"The easiest cat I can compare Mori-senpai to would be Plato: big, strong, doesn't really say much."

"Tugger is a total ladies' tom, and completely over-the-top…kind of like Tamaki-senpai."

"Mungo and Teaser are so mischievous, just like Hikaru and Kaoru. I…think that when it comes right down to it, Rumpleteaser is a bit more playful than Mungojerrie." I still couldn't tell them apart, but I knew one of them was more assertive than the other.

"Haruhi, right now, makes me think of Quaxo. I mean, Quaxo is Mister Mistoffelees' alter ego, and Haruhi is pretending to be a boy."

"The only cat I can readily compare Kyoya-senpai to is Skimbleshanks…but I'm still having a bit of trouble seeing it. Sure, he's serious, dignified and focused, but he also…I'm hard put, right now anyway, to say that Kyoya-senpai has a sense of humor. Skimble has one."

Kyoya-senpai was the one who shocked me the most right now. He'd actually dropped his dignity level low enough to wear an orange leotard-suit, bell collar and face paint?

I just stood there for a long minute with my mouth hanging open. My bag had already hit the floor. Everything just went quiet for that minute. Haruhi was starting to look worried.

The next reaction came when I finally closed my mouth. I could feel something bubbling up in my throat, trying to escape. Then it burst out.

I started laughing.

Kyoya

I think this was the first time I had actually heard Yumi laugh. She had a nice laugh. I wonder why she doesn't laugh more often.

Hikaru, Kaoru, and Honey-senpai then proceeded to chase Yumi around the room, just as they had with Haruhi that day when we'd all dressed as women. One of the twins managed to grab her hair ribbon, and the other started pretending to try to catch her braid as it fell loose.

"Well," I made a note in my book, "it appears your plan to help Yumi relax more while at the club was a success, Tamaki."

"Of course it was!" Tamaki smoothed his wig. "She is so obviously a fan of this musical, there was no way it wouldn't be a success!"

Haruhi rolled her eyes, which with her current makeup job just looked amusing.

Then Yumi ran over to us again, hiding behind Mori-senpai in a still-laughing attempt to hide from her pursuers. Honey-senpai went along with that and jumped happily into Mori-senpai's arms. The twins dodged around either side of him and she all but fell into Tamaki's lap in her next attempt to avoid them.

"Steady, there, Yumi!" Tamaki gave a tug to her braid, yanking it loose – she'd fallen on top of it in such a way that it was pulled tight, making her bend her head back. "Hikaru, Kaoru, I think you've got some other guests to entertain."

They both saluted him. "Yes, boss!" Then they both turned one cartwheel each and ran over to their chairs.

Yumi started gasping, trying to get her breath back and drying her eyes with her hair. "I can't believe you people had been paying attention to what I was rambling about that day!"

Tamaki pushed her upright again so that she was sitting in his lap instead of sprawled across it. "It seemed like a good idea. You're having fun today, aren't you?"

"Yeah!" Then she slid off his lap and looked across at Hikaru and Kaoru. "Which one's Jerrie and which one's Teaser?"

I answered her. "Hikaru decided that with your description of those two, he'd be better off as Rumpleteaser."

"Hikaru's Rumpleteaser, got it." The look on her face made me think that there was going to be someone else who can readily tell the twins apart in another couple of days.

"So, um, Kyoya-senpai…"

I looked over at her. Her expression was somewhere between confused and something else I couldn't identify.

"…You went with Skimbleshanks?"

I shrugged. "It was Tamaki's idea that we all dress as cats from the musical, and that was the only cat you could compare to me."

She cocked her head, looking a bit…I suppose sheepish would be the right word. "Yeah, but you're…honestly, what gave me trouble is that technically none of the cats from the musical truly fit you. Well…except for Mistoffelees with some of his personality traits: sometimes you're vague in spoken answers, and you've struck me as being aloof, a little stand-offish, dark and mysterious..." She seemed to notice where she was going with her words and tried to backpedal. "But I'd effectively already said that Haruhi was Misto, so I couldn't mention that, I don't know…" Then she looked down at her shoes. "Here I am sounding like some kind of…I don't know, but I'm analyzing your personality to your face. I don't normally do stuff like that."

Did she just compare me to her Cats Musical love interest? I just looked at her for a minute. She'd lifted her foot and started tapping one toe on the floor, which explained why the very end of that shoe was scuffed more than the rest of the surface area combined. That, evidently, was something she did when she was nervous or uncomfortable.

"I don't mind. Becoming practiced in describing someone's character as you see it is a decent step towards developing complex characters in books."

Yumi looked up again. "Thanks. That makes me feel better." Then she looked around with a mock-glare. "Now, did you catch which twin had grabbed my hair ribbon?"

I laughed softly and shook my head as she stormed off in the twins' direction in a manner so over-the-top that it had to be a put-on. "She has definitely warmed up to the Host Club. And it only took one afternoon." I turned several pages in my book to look at the back cover, or rather, what was between the pages and the back cover. "I wonder when I should show this to her…"