The Cat and the Champion

by Whatsifsowhatsit

Crossover of Fruits Basket with Ouran High School Host Club. In spite of his usual apparent confidence, Souma Kyo is becoming worried about winning against Yuki in time, so he seeks more training. Rated T just in case, but I think it's really K plus.

2. The Cat's natural environment

2 – The cat's natural environment

"Souma… -kun?" Haninozuka said softly, looking down at the pile of clothes on top of me.

Quickly, I ducked so that my head was also covered with clothes.

"Eh?" Haninozuka said and slowly hunkered down before me. I could just see him through a small opening between my pants and my shirt. He appeared to be looking through the same opening.

Oh god – what do I do now? There was absolutely nowhere that I could go without being seen right away. All the same, at this rate, I was going to be discovered too. If he took the clothes off of me, I would run for sure, I decided in panic.

I saw a hand the size of my head slowly, carefully, move towards me. It grabbed the shirt gently by the collar and looked like it was going to pull the piece of clothing away. My heart pounding in my throat and I stood ready to sprint off.

Just then, there was a knock on the door and Haninozuka stopped moving. "Yes?" he yelled out.

The door opened. Since I couldn't see who entered, I wasn't sure whether to be happy about the disturbance or upset that there might be two people for me to evade now. Could it be Haninozuka Yasuchika entering maybe? Whoever it was, I had to get out of here fast, before I turned back human.

There was a long pause in which neither a sound nor a movement could be detected. It was broken by a very characteristic "Ehhh!!" Tohru?? A weird chill went through my body.

Haninozuka got up, finally letting go of my shirt. I breathed out slowly.

"Ah.. hah!" Tohru exclaimed. "A-ano… hi! I'm Honda Tohru!" She rushed over to Haninozuka. "Nice to meet you! Hmm, where's Kyo-kun? Ah, he must've left! Don't worry, I'll take his clothes with me then!"

I could finally see her now as she hurriedly bent over to pick up my clothes. Stupid girl! She never was too good at handling stressful situations such as these, but this seemed bad even for her. Why would I have left suddenly without my clothes? Also, I don't think she saw that I was underneath here, myself. If she wasn't careful, she would pick up the clothes and leave me here, exposed. I quickly peeked out from underneath my pants and waved my paw at her. "Well then, I'll be -" She stopped moving suddenly.

"Kyo-kun!" she let out.

No! Be quiet! I quickly looked at Haninozuka, who was looking at Tohru. He wasn't moving and was looking quite lost with the situation. I hid underneath the clothes again.

"Eh, I mean, ehehe, it's not like Kyo-kun to just walk off without saying something!"

"Ah… ehm…" Haninozuka pointed at the pile of clothes.

"Well then, it was nice to talk to you and, ehm, I'll see you later!" She picked up the pile of clothes, making sure to take me with her too.

"Ja…" Haninozuka said as Tohru rushed out, pushing the doors open with her knee. I was loosely hanging over her arm, feeling so unbalanced that I thought I was gonna fall, thinking of how although she acted very poorly just now, she did save me.

"Go that way…" I told her, pointing in the direction I had come from with Haninozuka. On the way, I had seen a toilet for boys, and I would be safe in one of the stalls there.

"Ehm," I said to her as we were standing there. "Could you help me? I can't go in by myself now."

"Eh? But it's a men's room!"

"I know… just… be quick about it okay?"

"Ah… hai!"

She handled the doorknob with her elbow and carefully peeked inside. There was no one to be seen. She stepped inside slowly, as if there was less chance of her being seen if she moved carefully.

"Hurry up! You'll be seen!"

"Hai!" she opened a stall quickly, put me and my clothes gently on the ground and wanted to say something to me before closing the door and leaving, when another stall opened and a person I couldn't see came out. There was a long, awkward silence and I saw Tohru's face look to the side, totally shocked.

"It's a boys' room," I heard Morinozuka-san's low voice say. A painful silence arose.

Then, Tohru said, "Ha-hai! I see it is, now, ehehe! Well then, bye!" and rushed out. I sat on the floor of the stall with the open door, hoping Morinozuka-san wouldn't look inside to see an orange cat sitting on a pile of clothes that he would probably recognize.

But he did look in and see me, and he stared at me for what seemed to be an eternity, never changing his emotionless expression. Caught, I stared back up at him, unable to move. Then, he turned away to wash his hands and then leave. Thank god he didn't stay to see me changing back to human a few seconds after he left. Quickly, once again in control of this much more useful body, I shut the door before me and got dressed, using the toilet while I was here.

After washing my hands as well and taking a moment longer to catch my breath, sighing at the situation, I went out to greet Tohru, who was waiting there.

"Kyo-kun!" she said, looking at me.

There was a silence between us both and I know she probably wanted me to explain what happened, but I wanted to think about it more myself, first. I wasn't even too sure what happened back in there with Haninozuka and, especially, why it had happened, myself.

"Let's go home," I said to her, avoiding eye-contact. I turned around and started to walk away already.

On the way home, I had been dreading to face Yuki and Shigure in my current (upset) state of mind. I kept asking myself questions along the lines of 'why the hell did I have to turn??' Something like this hadn't ever happened to me before, except when I first met Tohru, and that was very different.

We entered the house and Shigure and Yuki both looked up at us immediately. They were sitting at the table again, drinking tea. "Ah, Kyonkichi-kun!" Shigure said, immediately annoying. You're back huh? How was training?"

I would've gotten upset with him for calling me that, but instead I got distracted and looked at Tohru. "You told him?"

Before she could respond, Yuki said, sarcastically, "Have you gotten much stronger this time?"

Angry as that comment made me, I didn't feel like I had the spirit at that point to go against him. I looked away and said, "I'm up on the roof. Call me for dinner, okay?" and walked outside to climb up on the roof.

There, I pondered the situation. I had been seen by Morinozuka-san, and probably by Haninozuka too. If Yuki or Shigure would find out, they would surely have to get their memories deleted. I didn't want to tell them they saw me, but on the other hand, if Akito found out I had been hiding something like this, the consequences would be terrible. But if they had to get their memories deleted, then what about the rest of the guys I met in the Third Music Room? Tamaki, the twins, that girlboy? Would they have to get their memories deleted too? I wonder if Akito would want to risk not doing so, even if Morinozuka-san and Haninozuka would both say they didn't tell anybody else.

I decided not to tell anybody and talk to Tohru about that. I still wasn't sure whether to talk to Haninozuka about it, or pretend it never happened, or just never see him again. None of these options seemed like they were very good ideas, but at the moment, I couldn't think of anything else.

There was still the other question. Why had I turned into a cat? I hadn't been that nervous, had I? Well, I guess I had, but I was still confused about it. Usually, stress didn't make me turn as quickly as that, and it had come completely unexpected to me. Still, it seemed like the best option, since though Haninozuka had sort of hugged me, in a way, he was definitely not a girl. Although, his cuteness, voice and even his appearance a little did resemble a girl sometimes. Maybe on some unconscious level, because of that, when he hugged me, I was afraid I would turn. Then, that worry and the stress about being trained by the national champion together had to have been the cause of my turning into a cat.

Not entirely satisfied with my own explanation, but still glad that I had thought of something at least, I lay back on the roof, watching white clouds drift by in a blue sky.

After dinner, I left home again to visit shishou. I was happy to go see him today, because training with him would surely put my mind off of things for a bit. Also, shishou always made me feel good and besides Tohru, he was the one person I really trusted. Before going, though, I had made sure to ask Tohru if she didn't want to tell Yuki or Shigure about what had happened today before we had talked about it more. She agreed to this and waved me off when I left. She did offer to walk with me also, so we could talk on the way, but I told her I would rather walk alone. It wasn't that I wanted to think by myself so much, or that I didn't want to talk about it yet, but maybe that I wanted to be alone for a while. Or maybe not even that, but… there was a reason why I didn't want her to come.

"Another source of training, huh?" shishou asked after I told him.

We were outside of his dojo. The sun wasn't really set yet, but it was already becoming darker outside. The next few hours would be my favorite time of day to be outside. I was actively enjoying the sensation of the soft evening breeze that blew so gently in my face and the temperature that was just high enough to be able to just wear a shirt comfortably.

"Who?"

"His name is Haninozuka Mitsukuni. He's a student at Ouran High School."

"Haninozuka? The national champion, Haninozuka?"

"Yeah, that's him, you know him?"

"I know of him, I guess."

"He's kinda cool," I said, "He trains me for free while he hardly knows me. Also, he seems… nice…"

"Hmm…" shishou said. "Say, Kyo? We haven't talked about this for some time now, but I have been thinking about it. How is life in the Souma residence these days?"

I grew quiet for a bit. "It's okay, mostly, I guess… as long as that kuso nezumi isn't always as bad as he was the day before yesterday, at least."

"What happened the day before yesterday?"

"He was being very stupid all day, then… he beat me up."

Shishou nodded. "You know," he started. He paused for a while, thinking about something, before continuing. "Can you tell me more about Haninozuka? I have been wondering what he was like. I've heard some stories, but they hardly sound credible."

I grinned. "They're probably true – what have you heard?"

"They say he is participating in some kinda club, the Host Club I think it was. They said," he paused, and grinned as well, "they said he was the loli-shota character of the club."

"I guess that's possible," I laughed. "But, what kind of club is this Host Club?"

"I believe they existed to, as they put it, 'giving hospitality to lovely ladies and profit off of them'. They are a club devoted to entertaining the female students at that school, who can designate them for exclusive time with them."

"Really?" I asked, growing quiet again. I thought of Haninozuka 'entertaining' female students and frowned, unsure of what that would be like. "That's kind of… unexpected." I couldn't imagine it for Morinozuka-san, the girlboy or Kyouya either. I thought of something and looked up at shishou. "How do you know all that?"

"Let's just say… I have my sources."

That really surprised me, because it wasn't like shishou to not tell me something like that. I was also confused about why he would know something like this in the first place. Even if he interested himself in Haninozuka because he was the national champion of judo and karate – which I could understand – that doesn't mean he would know something like Haninozuka's participation in this Host Club.

"So, you still haven't told me more about Haninozuka. Is he friendly?"

"Yes," I said without thinking, looking at my hands, "He's very friendly. He's not the kind of person you meet every day, I suppose. He's energetic and looks and acts very young, though he's older than I am. He eats a lot of cake so fast it's almost scary. And he always carries a plush bunny with him that he calls 'Bun-bun'."

I heard shishou smile without actually seeing it.

"You know," I said, "If I told you something, could you promise not to tell Shigure?"

"What about Yuki?" I couldn't tell him if he was serious or joking.

"Don't tell him either of course!"

"Okay," shishou agreed.

"When Haninozuka was training me today… he was going to show me a throw by throwing me on this mat… and just as I was falling to the ground, I changed into a cat." I looked up at him to watch his reaction. He raised his eyebrows, but didn't speak yet. I looked back at my hands. I had suddenly realized how very weird the little lines on the bending points of my fingers looked and was comparing them on my different fingers. "I think it was probably… because I was so nervous about him being the national champion, and training me, and throwing me… don't you think?"

Shishou didn't answer, and we were both silent for a while. The mood suddenly felt a lot darker than I was used to with shishou.

Then, shishou said, "Well, shall we train then?" I looked up at him, smiling again in relief. "What had we been working on again?"

"Blocking and evading," I told him with a grin. "And I was just getting good at it, remember?"

We started training. He attacked me with his fists and his feet and I did what I could to block them with my hands or lower arms and evade them. It was true, I was beginning to get quite good at it, but still I was nothing against Yuki's rapid attacks. Shishou kept testing me and improving my skills by using more and more complex patterns that he still felt I should be able to read beforehand, and by quickening the pace more and more, slowly but steadily. We trained non-stop for over ninety minutes. With shishou, I was so comfortable with training and I trusted him so much, that things like this came totally naturally to me. I was actually stronger against him than I was against Yuki. That's why I knew that he was a good trainer, and at this point he was definitely more helpful than Haninozuka was. Still, I really wanted to keep training with him, too, because in some weird way, I guess I definitely liked to spend time with him. That's why I was so very worried about how he might respond to what had happened earlier today.

I remembered his look back then, when Tohru had first seen me and exclaimed my name and I had looked at him to see if he had seen me. He hadn't, or at least he wasn't looking at me, but there was a very strange expression on that face. His eyes had been halfway hidden behind his blonde locks of hair, and they weren't as large as usual, nor did they sparkle as brightly. In fact, they had seemed rather dull. Had he seen me? Was he now disappointed because I wasn't who he thought he was and was that why he had looked so sad? If that was true, he probably wouldn't even want to train me anymore. I hadn't even thought about that before, about what he felt of it all. It was at that moment where I remembered how very selfish I could be sometimes.

Shishou hit me in my face and froze immediately. The battle stopped for a second, and it almost seemed like the very passing of time had paused for a bit as well, because there was no movement at all. Shishou left his fighting stance and stood before me as I held my cheek in my right hand. It was glowing very hot against it and I was frustrated to realize that I was holding back tears of pain.

"Hey," shishou said gently. "Keep paying attention."

I nodded.

"Daijoubu? Let me see…" He stepped forward and took my hand, pulling it away from my face. "It's red," he said. "Come on inside, let's get you something cold to put on it."

"No, it's alright," I said. "It's not that bad."

"No really, come on inside, we should take a break anyway. You've been working very hard today. You must be tired."

That was true enough. I nodded softly and followed him inside. He brought me a wet washcloth and told me to hold it against my cheek, which I did.

"You weren't focusing, were you?" he said.

I shook my head in denial.

"You should really teach yourself to always pay complete attention in a fight, even if it's just for training."

"When I fight with Yuki, I'm always paying attention anyway," I told him.

"I know," he sighed, "But still."

The washcloth was really cold, and I would rather stop holding it against my cheek, but I told myself to get over it.

For some reason, I started thinking about Tohru and about how weird it had felt when she had been talking to Haninozuka. In a way, I guess it was almost as if they were from different worlds, and they weren't supposed to interact. Why was she there anyway? I hadn't even thought about asking her that, but it was something that had crossed my mind. Tired, I sighed, giving into the temptation to close my eyes for a few seconds.

"You have a lot on your mind today," shishou told me. "Perhaps we shouldn't train any more for today."

I looked shishou in the eyes. "No, I want to train more." Without thinking, I had started to protest – training with him was what I looked forward to all the time - but I thought that in the end, it might really be better for me to call it a day by now. It was true that I was very tired, and confused at my thoughts that kept going in so many different directions that I couldn't even keep track of them anymore. I breathed out, looking away from him again. "Yeah okay, I guess you're right."

"I think it's wise," he said. Then he looked at the washrag against my cheek. "How does that feel?"

He really was just like a father. Besides Tohru, he was the only one who would ever worry about me, even about something as simple as an injury. Maybe Shigure would worry a bit sometimes, but that was something very different. With this small injury, shishou knew it was nothing to me and that Yuki usually gave me much worse, but still he was happy to be able to help me like this. I appreciated him a lot for that.

It wasn't much later when I left again to go back home. Tohru went outside to meet me and walk the final steps home with me. "Hello Kyo-kun," she greeted. "How was training with Kazuma-san today?"

"Good," I said, smiling inwardly at her friendliness towards me.

"Do you want to have that talk with me now?" she asked.

"I'm sorry – no. I'm very tired and I want to go to bed. Is it okay if we talk later?"

"Of course, that's alright," she said.

"Thanks," I said and we walked a bit more. "Tomorrow at school, maybe." As we almost arrived at the door, I thought of something and I couldn't help but ask. "You didn't tell Yuki or Shigure about what happened, did you?"

"Of course not," she said. "You asked me not to, didn't you?"

"Yeah… I'm sorry."

I took the doorknob to go inside, but Tohru put her hand on mine to stop me from opening it and took it off, holding it in her own hand. My breath got caught in my throat for a second at the soft feeling of her hand, holding mine. "Kyo-kun," she said.

"W… what?"

She paused for a second. Then she said, "You're alright, right? You look so… troubled, today. And tired, too."

I let go of my breath again and told my heart to start beating again, smiling at her. "Yeah… I'll be fine." She let go of my hand and I put it on the doorknob again. "Ano… thanks for asking though," I said before opening the door and going inside, heading straight for the bathroom to take a quick shower before going to bed. It had been a long, sweaty day. Once in bed, I was able to temporarily dispose of my worried thoughts and slept in minutes.

Thursday came way too early and although I was usually energetic in the morning and ready to start a new day, today I didn't at all want to get out of bed yet. Oh, how I hated school.

Stretching myself out as tall as I could get, I kicked off the blanket and pushed away the pillow, in an attempt to make it as uncomfortable in bed as I could. Soon enough, it got cold enough for me not to want to keep lying anymore, so I slowly crawled up, rubbing my eyes. It was funny how I could bring myself to make it so uncomfortable that I had to leave, but I couldn't bring myself to just get out like that. Before going down, I met Yuki and Tohru on the hallway. "Ohayo," they both said to me, the one much more enthusiastic than the other.

"Ohayo," I answered.

"Ohayo!!" someone shouted from downstairs in a voice that I didn't at all want to hear in a morning like this.

"Momiji!" Tohru exclaimed and she ran down the stairs to greet him. I sighed, closing my eyes in preparation for what was to come.

"Good morning, Kyo!" Momiji said to me in his usual obnoxious manner. Looking at him, I noticed that he wasn't really all that much alike Haninozuka at all. In fact, he was very different in behavior.

"Don't spoil my morning any further, Momiji," I warned him. "It's bad enough that you're here in the first place!"

"Eh, Kyo-kun, don't be mean!" he whined.

"And don't speak in that annoying voice!"

"It's my only voice," he objected, but then he started talking to Yuki, Tohru and Shigure, who was just entering the room.

We had breakfast and went to school together, with Yuki, Tohru and Momiji in front and me sulking behind them.

Lunch hour at Kaibara. Uo asked me to play dai hin min with her, but as much as I wanted to, I told her I had to talk to Tohru (to which, of course, she said I chickened out and had to have finally accepted her as a superior player).

I took Tohru apart for a bit to talk to her about what happened the day before.

"Tohru," I said, "I was thinking…" I paused for a second.

"Hai?"

I thought about telling her what I thought, that I didn't want to tell Yuki and Shigure even though I did kind of think I was seen, especially by Morinozuka-san. However, I was worried that she might disagree with me and would want to tell Yuki and Shigure anyway. Also, I wouldn't feel good convincing her of something like this, because I was sure she would accept, even if she didn't agree, just to please me in the end, and I would feel bad about that. "I'm pretty sure Haninozuka didn't see me… so please don't talk to Yuki and Shigure about this, okay? They will just see problems when they aren't even there."

She agreed. Stupidly, I still felt bad about it because I hadn't been truthful, but at least this was better than convincing her against her will.

I decided not to go to Haninozuka after school that day and went straight home. I had only just gotten home, however, when I was in for a surprise as the doorbell rang. Shigure went to open the door. I was just on my way upstairs, so I stopped at the top where I couldn't be seen from the door entrance, to hear who it was before deciding if I wanted to stay downstairs to see them.

"Hello," I heard Shigure say.

"Hi! Is Souma-kun around? Kyo Souma?"

It was Haninozuka! What was he doing here? Had he expected me at Ouran and did he come to see where I was staying?

"Ehm, yes he is," Shigure said. "Who should I tell him is here?"

I ran down the stairs. "Haninozuka!"

"Ah! Souma-chan!" I slowed down. Had I moved from '-kun' to '-chan' now? Outside behind Haninozuka, who was still in the door entrance, Morinozuka-san was standing.

He turned to Shigure again. "I'm Haninozuka! I trained Souma-chan yesterday!"

Morinozuka-san stepped forward and extended his hand for Shigure to shake. "I'm Morinozuka Takashi."

"Can we come in?" Haninozuka asked.

"Yes, yes of course," Shigure said. "Please, come on in."

"Thank you! Ojamashimasu!" Haninozuka said, coming in and Morinozuka repeated it after him in his usual monotone, low voice.

Shigure closed the door behind them, following them with his eyes as I showed them the way to the living room, a bit rattled at the sight of two such different persons visiting his house together like that.

I realized that I was extremely glad to see Haninozuka come over right now, finally knowing for sure that he wasn't going to suddenly stop wanting to see me after what had happened. At the same time, I was worried that he might want to talk to me about it, and it might still end bad.

Yuki was already sitting in the living room, I noticed when I followed after Haninozuka and Morinozuka-san, with Shigure closely behind me. He stood up from behind the table to greet the guests, giving them both a polite, "Nice to meet you." Then, Shigure did the same. The both Ouran students repeated the line to them both too.

"Why are you visiting, Haninozuka?" I asked him as he sat himself down at the table next to Morinozuka-san, who was already sitting there too.

He smiled brilliantly and said, "To visit Souma-chan in his natural environment!"

My 'natural environment'? Was he implying something? Damn, this ongoing insecureness was driving me crazy!

The mouse started giggling his girlish giggle.

"What's funny?" Haninozuka asked.

"I'm sorry," Yuki said, "It's nothing. You just reminded me of someone."

"Sorry," Shigure said, "I have to finish something here quickly." He pointed at the computer he was standing in front of, next to the chair to show that he was really only going to take a moment and flying his hands over the keyboard quickly. Obviously, he had been working on one of his stories again and had to get a few ideas out of his head before stopping.

"Souma-chan, the house you live in is so cool! It's really nice!" Haninozuka had turned around while still sitting with his knees under the table, looking around the room, at the painting next to the calendar, the sunlit sliding door and some other things before finally returning his attention to the table in front of him.

"Ah, it's almost like a kotatsu! Tama-chan would have loved this, ne, Takashi?"

"Un," Morinozuka-san replied, looking at Haninozuka.

I distanced myself a bit by standing still behind Haninozuka and Morinozuka-san and looking away from the scene. When I did look once, I saw Haninozuka looking at Yuki intently but innocently.

Tohru came down, which relieved me. "Ah, Haninozuka-san!" she said and he waved at her happily, as if she was a good friend. Tohru walked over to Haninozuka.

"We didn't really meet each other yet… right? Ehehe…" she said.

"Right," he said and held out his hand for her to shake. "I'm Haninozuka Mitsukuni, but you can call me Hunny. And this is Morinozuka Takashi."

"Ah… nice to meet you, Hunny-san, my name is Honda Tohru – you can call me Tohru."

Haninozuka nodded, smiling still.

"Hey," Tohru said, now standing before Morinozuka-san and extending her hand. "I'm Honda Tohru!"

He shook her hand.

"Ah, Tohru -" Haninozuka said, "I brought keki with me, do you want some also?" He turned to Takashi. "Takashi, could you get the keki please?"

"Un." Morinozuka-san took a big box, wrapped up as a present, from underneath the table and placed it before Haninozuka, who opened it up and revealed the giant cake that was inside.

"Ah – hai, please!" Tohru said.

Morinozuka-san cut the cake into even pieces with a knife.

"Would you also like some, Yu-chan?" Haninozuka asked Yuki. When I thought of how long it had taken him to start calling me '-chan' (even though usually I didn't like that at all) and that he was already calling the mouse '-chan', I had to frown. Yuki just nodded politely.

Shigure sat at the table. "Do you also want some, Shi-chan?" So, he was '-chan' already also.

Shigure said, "Yes please."

Haninozuka finally looked around at me, but I pretended not to notice, looking away quickly. "Souma-chan!" he said, "Would you like some keki as well?"

I wasn't entirely sure why, but I could feel my face heat up. "No, thank you," I said simply.

"You don't like cake much, do you Kyo-kun?" Shigure chanted.

"Shut up," I said. I could hear in the tone of his voice that he was out to humiliate me somehow. Besides, I felt like I should be able to decide for myself whether or not I wanted Haninozuka to know that I didn't care for sweets much. Haninozuka looked at me again, wide-eyed.

"Kyo, why are you blushing?" Shigure asked, quasi-surprised.

"Shut up!" I said, louder now. I was really blushing then? I wasn't sure myself why, but Shigure was rarely more annoying than when he met people I knew when I was there as well. Besides, I really didn't want to have to tell him to shut up with Haninozuka in the room.

I saw Yuki looking at me as well and began to feel tempted to just leave the room then and there. I think the only reason I didn't was probably because Tohru was there.

"You'd almost say he was attracted to Hunny," Shigure even dared saying.

"I'm not attracted to chibi characters," I grumbled, holding myself back as much as I could but feeling like I was ready to blast any moment and run out or something. I quickly glanced at Haninozuka, hoping he wasn't hurt by what I had said, but didn't dare to look at him for too long.

"Hmmm? I dunno," Shigure continued. "Isn't Tohru kinda chibi-like too?"

"Eh?" Tohru asked.

"She's not!!" I asserted.

"It's okay if you don't eat keki Souma-chan," Haninozuka told me and he took the fork from Morinozuka-san to start eating. "That way, there's more for us."

After Haninozuka's comment, I started breathing a bit more easily again and even smiled a little. Yuki, Tohru, Shigure and Morinozuka-san all started eating as well and I kept standing there, feeling out of place but not as uncomfortable and annoyed as I had before. Haninozuka had a good effect on me, I realized. He either seemed to understand me, or he just happened to say the right things by chance. In that sense, he was a lot like Tohru, I suppose, but different still.

After Haninozuka, who started his second piece immediately, Yuki was the first to be done eating. He got up, saying, "Ja, I guess I'll go do some homework. It was nice to meet you Hunny-san, Mori-san."

"Un," said Morinozuka-san.

"Bye Yu-chan!" Haninozuka waved. Yu-chan went upstairs, passing me along the way.

With Yuki gone, I was immediately much more comfortable, and soon enough I sat down at the table where he had first sat.

While all were eating their cake, Shigure asked Haninozuka if it was true that Ouran High School was such an elite school as its reputation was. Haninozuka replied, "Well, most of the students' families are quite rich I guess," and looked at Morinozuka-san, then at me. "But not all. For example," he said and was now definitely partly addressing me, "Haru-chan isn't all that rich."

"Fujioka Haruhi?" I thought back at the girlboy that had talked to me about the family rivalry.

"Yes, Haru-chan."

Shigure looked at me inquiringly and I said, "He's just someone I also met at Ouran."

"He's also in the Host Club," Haninozuka added.

I had kind of hoped the Host Club wouldn't come up in the conversation.

"Host Club?" Tohru asked.

"It's a club Tama-chan founded and invited me and Takashi into," Haninozuka said, thankfully not going into too much detail. Like the last time, hearing about the Host Club made my stomach feel all weird.

"What kind of club?" Shigure asked, shattering my hope of not hearing anymore about it. "Is it a sports club?"

"No," Haninozuka said. "Just a club for socializing with the students of the school… or something…" I saw Morinozuka-san look aside at Haninozuka for half a second, and his look was met in the same half second.

Hmm, even when asked directly about it, Haninozuka still didn't explicitly explain just what they did in the Host Club. I still wasn't sure, so although I didn't want to hear about it, I was curious and kind of hoping to learn more about it at the same time.

I remembered shishou's words. 'Giving hospitality to lovely ladies and profit off of them.' '…A club devoted to entertaining the female students at that school, who can designate them for exclusive time with them.' I pictured Haninozuka with one of these girls that I had met when I first gone to Ouran, the girls in the yellow dresses. The image felt wrong somehow, as if these girls weren't fit for him, although I couldn't put my finger on it.

Some time later. Shigure, Tohru and Haninozuka were comfortable enough to be talking without feeling nervous. Morinozuka-san wasn't talking, but rather just sitting there, void of visible emotions as always, though definitely not nervous, that much was clear. He seemed to care too little to be nervous, or something.

Also not talking, I sat there mostly watching the both visitors. I tried really hard to detect any sign in Morinozuka-san's expression that would tell me something about how he felt about seeing that cat on my clothes the other day. Of course, there was nothing. The only time his face moved at all was when he blinked or when he looked down at Haninozuka every once in a while. He always seemed to check on Haninozuka from time to time, as if he was worried about him.

Haninozuka, however, didn't seem to be giving him any cause for worrying. In fact, he was the most active in the conversation, naturally outgoing in friendly situations. He looked like he was having a great time talking with Shigure and Tohru about school, teachers and classes, plans for the future and his friends at Ouran. Haninozuka was almost as enthusiastic as Tohru had been when he heard that Shigure was a writer. After a while, the conversation led to him teaching me.

"You trained him once already, haven't you?" Shigure asked, looking to his left at me for a bit. "How did it go?"

I saw Haninozuka look at me for a second and smile at me, softly, a very special smile. I was immediately confused about the meaning of it. Was it an admission that he knew what had been going on yesterday? Or was it merely a smile intended to let him know that though he hadn't been talking to me much, he hadn't forgotten that he had in fact come to see me? Or was it a smile because he and I both knew that we hadn't gotten to training much yesterday, regardless of whether he knew about me being a cat?

He looked back at Shigure immediately after that. "It was good," he said. "Souma-chan's very talented."

I felt blood rushing to my cheeks again, which was annoying because I knew Shigure would probably be the first to point it out if he would see it and now he would certainly not believe I wasn't attracted to Haninozuka anymore.

'Very talented'? I wouldn't quite say that… I barely got the chance to show him my talent anyway. But at least he didn't say anything painful or awkward.

"He is now, is he?" Shigure said and looked at me with a mischievous smile. I just glared a look at him that basically said 'don't you dare making fun of me again – not now' and thankfully, he left it alone.

"Ah," Shigure now said, thinking of something. "You call him Souma-chan?"

"Yeah, he said I could call him that."

Shigure now faced me. "You told him he could call you 'Souma-chan'?" He sounded surprised.

"I said 'Souma-kun'," I said bluntly.

"Ah – you would rather have me call you 'Souma-kun'?" Haninozuka asked me, worried, and Morinozuka-san looked at him for a second again.

"No… no, it's okay," I said, now feeling my cheeks hotly glowing again.

"Why not just Kyo…-chan?" Shigure asked.

"I know another Kyou-chan," Haninozuka said. "It's a little confusing."

"Ah! You know what we call him sometimes?" Shigure said.

I looked at him furiously. "Shut up!"

Shigure ignored me. "Kyonkichi-kun. That wouldn't be confusing, would it?"

"I said shut up!" Why did he have to bring this up and make me act like that? I knew he was just out to innocently make fun of me as always, which was bad enough, but why did he have to do that in front of these people who came to see me?

"Gee, sorry," he said, "Some people just can't take a joke."

I looked at Haninozuka. When I saw him look with his big eyes worriedly directed at me, I felt like I could cry. In fact, it definitely felt like I was going cry. "I'm going to the bathroom," I said, standing up abruptly. "I'll be… right back." I walked away, out of the room.

"Kyo-kun!" Tohru called after me.

"Ah – Kyo-kun!" Shigure also said. He sounded apologetic, but I didn't want to turn around now, I would look even stupider than I did now, especially if I started to cry right there in front of Haninozuka. He could apologize all he wanted later.

A tear actually managed to escape on my way to the bathroom. In there, I quickly wiped it off with my sleeve and sat on the bathtub to catch my breath. Why was I so easily upset with Haninozuka around? It wasn't as bad as with Yuki, and very different too, but something about his presence made me want to look good. That definitely wasn't possible if Shigure was around, making his stupid jokes about me like he always did. The last thing I wanted was for Haninozuka to start calling me something like 'Kyonkichi-kun'. I was content with the 'Souma-kun' or the 'Souma-chan', why did Shigure have to make such a point of it?

As I got up, not too long after I arrived, to go back, the doorknob was pressed. The door was locked, so it didn't open. There was a short silence before I heard footsteps walk away from the door. It was probably Yuki, because the footsteps didn't go down the stairs. I decided to wait for a bit longer, until I heard a door open and close again. I flushed the toilet for appearances and went back down.

"Kyo-kun," Shigure said as soon as I got back down. "I'm sorry, I didn't think you'd mind that much."

Well, that must've been the first time he said something like that in months. Even so, I appreciated it. "It's okay, that's not why I went to the bathroom anyway," I lied, in an attempt to save myself from looking like a fool.

Though Shigure surely knew it – I didn't sound very convincing – he said, "Oh, okay," and let it go.

"Hi, Souma-chan," Haninozuka said to me, as friendly and considerate as ever.

Morinozuka-san threw me another look, which had to be the fourth or something in total. As always when he looked at me, his expression seemed slightly changed but in an unexplainable way. Also, it was a bit different from how it was when he looked at me before, again.

The three others started talking again soon enough, and I even talked along a bit from time to time. Somehow, I felt more comfortable now and about a half hour later, I felt even content with the situation, though still a bit worried about Morinozuka-san's opinion about me. I was very glad to notice more and more that either Haninozuka didn't notice anything after all, or he just didn't care.

Not too long after that, Haninozuka said they had to leave again. "Aw, already?" Shigure said, voicing my thoughts. I felt so good talking to Haninozuka with my nephew and Tohru that I really didn't want it to end yet. In the end, this comfortable conversation was kind of driven by the presence of Haninozuka. I knew it would end as soon as he was gone.

"Yeah, we eat kind of early at home," he said. "Right Takashi?"

"Un," Morinozuka-san nodded.

"Well okay, I'll let you out then. It was very nice of you to drop by." Shigure got up and led the way to the door. It went pretty quickly suddenly. Tohru and I got up also and walked with them.

"Ah, Souma-chan," Haninozuka said when he and Morinozuka-san were standing in the open doorway. "Will you come over again tomorrow?"

Tomorrow was Friday. I usually had plenty of time on Fridays. "Sure… I guess…" I said.

He stepped forwards and hugged me, putting his arms around my neck, just like that. I felt my muscles tense up automatically, but told myself to stop doing that and just relaxed for a second, enjoying the feeling of his soft arms and shift around me. He could barely reach my neck and it wouldn't surprise me if he had been standing on his toes. "It was real nice to come over today," he said before letting go.

"I'll see you tomorrow then!"

"See you tomorrow," Morinozuka-san even said to me.

They walked off. Haninozuka waved over his shoulder, calling out to us, "Bye-byeeee!"

Shigure and Tohru kept standing in the doorway for a bit longer, waving. I sneaked out past them, mumbling something about going to the roof. I didn't want to be around as the house became so painfully unpleasant again, though with just Tohru and Shigure downstairs, it probably wouldn't be so bad.

Some time later, I sat up on the roof thinking about Haninozuka. He was so sweet, hugging me like that. Why was he the only person I would allow doing something like that to me? He was so thoughtful too, knowing exactly when I wanted to talk about something and when I didn't, and leading the conversation in that direction almost effortlessly, and still not obviously to the others.

Though it wasn't really late yet, I was very tired again, like I had been yesterday and probably still from the many activities yesterday, because I hadn't slept all that well last night. Because of that, and because I kept thinking the same things so much that it bored me, I fell asleep on the roof without even realizing it in time to do something about it.

"Kyo-chan!" Haninozuka said to me, with a giant smile on his face. I looked around at him in surprise.

I was at Ouran again, in the Third Music Room. In the far distance I could see Kyouya, Tamaki, the twins, the girlboy and Morinozuka-san, all of them looking at me. I wanted to make them stop looking, but they were too far away to tell them and Haninozuka was talking to me, so I couldn't just leave.

"Hey Haninozuka," I said vaguely.

"Please, call me Hunny, why don't you call me Hunny?" he said and I looked at him for real for the first time.

"Hunny?" I thought about it. "Why do you want me to call you Hunny."

"I call you Kyo-chan too, don't I? It's only fair that you call me Hunny-chan, or at least Hunny."

"Oh…"

He changed the subject suddenly. "Kyo-chan, will you join the Host Club? I think it would be great if you could join!"

I looked up at the people in the distance again, and this time, they looked down as I caught their gaze, for just a second, but I knew that if I stopped looking they would just start staring at me again.

Haninozuka pulled my sleeve to catch my attention and making me look at him again, instead. "So, will you?"

I thought about it, but I really didn't want to be around if Haninozuka started being all friendly with the girls of Ouran. "No, I'd rather not," I said.

"Why not?"

"I just don't want to."

He looked straight at me with these huge eyes of his for the longest time. I stared right back into his, for the first time not intimidated by them. After a while, he walked forward and hugged me, just like he had earlier when he left from Shigure's house. He whispered in my ear, "Please? I really want you to."

I quivered slightly. He was so soft, so gentle and so sweet. I could hardly even think about saying no to him again, all I wanted was to give in to him at that moment. When he pulled back, he left his hands on my shoulders and looked at me. His eyes were really close, and so was his mouth. Slowly, he moved forward with his mouth towards mine, on his way to… kiss me. I was frozen, totally unable to move an inch or breathe a single breath.

Then… just before our lips would touch…

"Kyo-kun!"

I opened my eyes quickly, startled and was blinded by the light from the rising sun shining in it. Immediately, I felt a sensation of disappointment seep over me, knowing that this was my real life and not the one that I had dreamt of just now. Once again, tears started forming in my eyes spontaneously.

"Kyo-kun," I heard again. It was the voice of Shigure. I turned my head to face him.

"What?" I asked a bit rudely.

"You didn't show up for dinner… and you didn't come inside to sleep either. Tohru and I were worried. Yuki was, too."

Yeah, right. Like I was going to believe Yuki was actually worried about me. I gave him a look.

"Well, maybe not too much, but he was a little. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine," I said. "You can leave now." I was rude, I knew it, but I really needed some space at the moment.

Shigure nodded quietly and left, descending the stairs to go back inside.

I could still feel the tears welling up behind my eyes and soon, they would unstoppably be coming out. The despair I felt at that very moment was stronger than any despair a dream had ever caused me, and I knew that I wouldn't forget it anymore even as the day would progress. And that wasn't even beginning to think about what was probably even more important at that moment… whatever did that dream mean?