Sorry to everyone who waited so long for me to continue! I had to take a break for exams and then I had writer's block -_-
I don't think that this new chapter is very well written but I can't really be sure. Reviews and criticism are extremely welcome. (:
I have a break coming up soon so I'm pretty sure that I'll be able to put up more chapters within a shorter time span if all goes to plan.
Hope you enjoy the read!
Disclaimer :: Read – Prologue chapter.
The blank stares and bewildered "Huh?"s she got from everyone in the room told her just how much of her last sentence they understood. She couldn't help the smile that threatened to develop into laughter. She sobered up pretty quick though. She had an appointment in an hour and she couldn't afford to waste much time.
She sighed and said, "Get some chairs, guys. This is going to take a while."
Without wasting any time asking questions, they moved over to the set of couches and pulled up enough chairs for all of them. Then they turned to her expectantly.
She played with her fingers for some time, trying to find appropriate words. She pulled in a deep breath and exhaled slowly. "Tell me what you know about me."
The six boys looked at each other in surprise. They weren't expecting this. She looked from her hands when no one spoke. "Well?"
"Do you mean 'you' as in Haruhi or Tamora Brooks?" Honey voiced the question on all their minds.
"Tamora Brooks."
This brought a lot of whispering, nods, shaking of heads, and signing on the twins' part. Frustrated, she was just about to tell them that she had to be somewhere in an hour when Kaoru spoke up.
"Your name doesn't have 'Haruhi' in it." She grinned. These people were so predictable.
"What else?"
"Your family is richer than mine." Kyoya wouldn't be able to get a good night's sleep without saying something so impersonal, Haruhi thought wryly.
"You're the best when it comes to electronics, right Takashi?"
"Ah."
"You've hardly ever appeared to the public."
"And when you do, it's just to make a statement or refute one then you disappear again."
When they stopped listing things they knew about her, she knew that that was all they knew. She sighed internally. She'd have to tell them all about her now. Even Kyoya.
"I suppose I have to tell you the truth then."
Their eager nods made her smile slightly. The prospect of having to repeat her life story took the smile away.
"I was born Tamora Brooks. Haruhi was just a nickname my mom gave me because she found that saying 'Tammy' or 'Tamora' wasn't so easy if you said it often. My dad is Darren Brooks, whom all of you obviously know. My grandfather was the person who made our family rich and my dad took the family business further."
She looked at them again. "Got all of that?" The boys nodded earnestly.
"When I was old enough to walk the first thing I did was head for the workshop we had at home. Well, not really head there, more like I walked towards the door, pushed it open and tumbled down the three steps into the workshop. At that time it was empty, everyone was on lunch break. I walked over to one of the tables, pulled down a few shiny things and started playing. When everyone came back, I had just finished building my very first robot. It hardly did anything, but it could move around and carry stuff.
"Obviously, everyone was stunned. I didn't know that it wasn't normal to build stuff at my age. I just knew that it was something that was easy. Since then, I got my very own work shop and spent most of my time building machines. When I was four, I met nii-san for the first time," she turned a quick smile in his way.
"His father and mine were working on a deal and he came along to see how negotiations went on. He was bored pretty soon though and wandered off. He ended up in my work shop and came over to see what I was doing. I was pretty freaked out to see a random boy in my sanctuary, someone whom I have never seen in my life. We got on well, though, and I showed him my plans and even some of my inventions. We kept on talking, the topic kept changing and we were lost in our own little bubble until our fathers so rudely came in and broke up our conversation. They left, and I irritated my father into inviting them over again soon after that.
"We became extremely close. He was growing up immersed in numbers, stocks, and money. I grew up absorbed in designs, ideas, and life. Neither of us knew why, but we became all the more closer because of our differences." Kyoya caught the smug smile on Tamaki's face when he heard that. Maybe the blonde wasn't so ignorant after all.
"When I was five, my mother passed away. Three years later, my grandfather insisted that I go back to Canada for an indefinite time." Her voice got sadder as she got towards the end of the summary of her story.
"I had to go. He had almost all the power in the family and anyway, my grandmother was dying. She had been in critical condition since the death of my mother. So I left."
"And never came back." All eyes turned to the vice president. He almost regretted saying that but he needed answers. And he didn't want to know her life story if there weren't any answers in there for him.
"Yes. I didn't come back." Her voice was full of remorse. If only she could take it back. She knew what she was going to say would hurt him and she didn't know just how much he could take in one day.
"We exchanged letters for a few years. Then my grandfather ordered me to stop the letters." She looked down to avoid the look she wouldn't see on his face but his eyes would tell a whole story.
"I didn't have any choice in this matter either. He was dying himself, and I would receive all his shares upon his death. On the condition that I do as he told me to while he was still alive. I didn't want to stop; the letters were my only tie to my childhood. My only tie to happiness." She looked her adopted brother in the eyes before continuing.
"If I hadn't stopped the letters, he would have cut me from his will and given all his power to my uncle; my father's cousin. I was his only heir and I wasn't a guy. These don't make a good combination, as you all would know. So I had to play it safe to be able to inherit."
"Why?" She looked at him again wondering if she should lie and wait for him to find out instead of telling him straight out.
"He was…worried. I was getting nostalgic and I kept asking when I could come back to Japan to be with dad. He knew the real reason I wanted to come back and he got worried about it."
"Because I was the third son," his voice was barely audible, he was trying to hold on to his emotions; he didn't want to get angry at her after being away from her for so long. Besides, it wasn't her choice.
She nodded, not able to say anything. Eager to get this over with, she continued.
"I stayed there, hoping he'd change his mind. After another two years I was allowed to come back because my father insisted I did. There was a condition though. I wasn't allowed to reveal who I really was. Since I had the physique of a boy, he thought that playing a cross-dressing girl would definitely keep me out of suspicion. I hadn't known nii-san was in the Host Club when I came here. In fact, I didn't even know that there was a Host Club at that time." She smiled wryly.
"No one knew about the arrangements we had made. Just my father, Ranka, my grandfather and me. I changed my personal information, created a new history for myself and moved in with Ranka. Then, I enrolled as a normal student and from then on, I'm sure all of you know what happened." She let out a relieved breath. That was longer than she had thought it would take. She looked at her watch, the story had taken up forty-five minutes. Now she would have to hurry and she knew she still had a lot of questions to answer.
Before the six boys could start their bombardment, she stood up and pulled out the black phone from the week before. Punching in familiar numbers, she tapped her foot impatiently against the polished floor while she waited for the other line to pick up.
"Yeah?"
"I'm done for now, can the two of you come up here now?"
"Sure, give us a few minutes. We got lost looking around this school."
She grinned. Now they knew why she kept complaining about the size of the place for the first week of school. "Fine. Make it fast though, remember I have less than a quarter of an hour."
"Yes miss," his voice was dripping with sarcasm. She grinned again and cut the connection before he could say anything more.
"I have to go for an appointment now. I know you want your questions answered so you have two choices. One is to follow me to the appointment then back to my house. Since it's a Friday, you're all welcome to stay over if you choose to follow me. The second option is obviously the opposite of the first," she said with a small smile on her face.
"I'm free this weekend." Tamaki was the first to pipe up. She'd almost forgotten he existed, he'd been so quiet during her story.
"Me too! You're free too, right Takashi?"
"Ah."
"We were planning to fly off the the US for the weekend," Kaoru began. "But this is much more important." Hikaru finished with a wink at his brother.
Haruhi turned to Kyoya. "Nii-san?"
He pushed up his spectacles so that it caught the light and hid his eyes. Probably not intentional, but it seemed to do that everytime. "I don't have any important meetings this weekend."
Her face split into a huge grin. "Great! Ah, there they are." She said when the door opened. Haruhi turned to the two people standing just inside the door.
"I'm sure all of you remember Adrian," the smug look on her face wasn't lost on the said man.
"The guy with him is Yuri. He's technically my bodyguard but we're actually related in some weird way. So I treat him more like my little brother."
The Hosts looked up at her 'little' brother. He was at least two inches taller than Mori and had striking blue eyes that seemed to tear you apart cell by cell if you looked into them for too long. His dirty blonde hair ended just above his shoulder and was tossed wildly which gave him a naturally sexy look. Yuri's body was extremely well sculpted too. He hardly looked lanky despite his height. He had a gorgeous smile that sent a spark of mischief to his eyes. If he had been a student in Ouran, there would be no doubt that he would be recruited to join the Host Club.
He smiled at the six boys in front of him, "Hi."
Tamaki swore that if he were gay, he'd have turned into an ice cube that was put out in the sun for too long. Heck, even his voice was sexy. Before he could turn his thoughts into proper words, he picked up on the twins' not-so-quiet whispers besides him.
"Ne, Kaoru, do you think that one of them is Haruhi's boyfriend?"
"Hmm…I don't know, Hikaru. Maybe. I'd say the taller one is. He seems much more her type."
"But that Adrian guy isn't that bad. I mean, his dressing leaves much to be desired but other than that he seems a pretty decent guy."
Adrian burst out laughing. Yuri and Haruhi just grinned at each other, not bothering to refute the twins' speculation.
"The possibility of her being our girlfriend or even liking either of us is very little," Adrian said drily.
He looked at the six teenagers in front of him, scrutinizing each of them. To the surprise of the Hosts, he then sniffed with enough disdain to put any of the Queens of England to shame.
"I have no idea why, and neither does Yuri," he glared at Haruhi before continuing his sentence, "but she's interested in one of you." He sniffed again. All six pairs of eyes shot to Haruhi. She grinned and shrugged.
"Don't listen to him, he's a cooky old fellow. Thinks he knows everything, he does," she said in a suddenly very Americanized accent. The six let out their breaths disappointedly.
"But sometimes, he's right on the dot." Their eyes flew to her face again. She winked at them and turned to the door.
"We've spent too much time talking nonsense. I've only ten minutes and none of you have gotten your things yet. Hurry up, please. I really don't want to miss this." With that, everyone started scrambling around, grabbing their stuff.
If they were afraid that Kyoya was going to ruin their families, there was no way they weren't going to be afraid of someone who had more power in one hand than Kyoya had in his whole body.