"Orie-Chan, do you have a bathing suit?" Honey asked as we walked lethargically to lunch. I raised an eyebrow at his seemingly innocent question, and crossed my fingers that the Host Club wasn't planning on something like that. Not with what had been going on in the past couple of days.
A young boy from the elementary school had come into the club, requesting that Tamaki train him in how to make girls happy. After about an hour of him watching, Haruhi connected that he may want to only make one particular girl happy. After a vicious stake-out involving the still horrid, yet five million times better, middle and elementary school uniforms, we found out that the girl was due to be moving away soon. Tamaki quickly taught the young boy how to play a piece on the piano so that the two could play it together one last time. Apparently things had been going well after the girl moved a couple of days ago, too, because the young boy hung around the club, often smearing it in Tamaki's face. Yesterday, Kyoya made it clear that he wasn't to come back to the club until he was in high school himself.
On top of that, I had risen over my "Mori Funk", as I began to so affectionately call it. I realized that I'd never get anywhere just being another one of those Mori fangirls, and also came to realize that I was being disturbingly obnoxious to the club members. I had been so wrapped up in my fantasy land where I could be with Mori all the time, that I had been ignoring the club for about a week now. I felt horrible, and immediately apologized the next chance I got, not bothering to tell them why it was I had been ignoring them in the first place.
Anyway, as I glanced down to Honey, I became nervous. "No, I don't think so." Okay, so it was a lie.
Honey just smiled warmly, closing his eyes and shrugging. "Well, that's okay! I know the twin's got Haruhi a swimsuit, so maybe they can get you one, too!"
"What are you-?"
I was cut off by an unseen force, but I could still make out Honey's incessant giggling as I was whisked away from the front of the south building on campus and shuffled into a limousine. Gasping finally in a delayed reaction, Honey slid in next to me, Mori following him quietly. I glared daggers at the two, hardly amused.
"And just what was that?!" I shouted as Mori shut the door behind him, signaling for the driver to pull away from Ouran.
Honey squeezed my hand with his. "We're gonna go have some fun, right, Takashi?" Honey replied, glancing up at his silent companion. My eyes trailed over to Mori's, who was absently staring out the window, watching the scenery roll by at twenty-five miles an hour pace. In only about ten minutes of a silent car ride, we were apparently where we needed to be, and I was captured once again by the two martial artists, and being forcefully dragged into whatever facility it was.
Once inside, the air felt thicker and smelled like the ocean. It was much warmer than outside, and the sunlight was warm and plentiful. The boys let go of my arms, hurrying to greet the rest of the host club that were already in their bathing suits, Haruhi not included, for she wore ugly plaid shorts and a yellow pull over. I wrinkled my nose at her attire, and she seemed to have noticed.
"Problem, Senpai?"
"What is that ghastly thing?" I asked as I stalked near her, lying low from the twins for as long as possible.
"Oh, don't worry; you got it coming to you." She muttered, walking away and leaving me in plain sight for the boys to come and harass me. Sure enough, they did, with a bag in their hands. They pushed me off to the bathroom and handed me the bag, instructing me to change quickly.
It was a simple two piece bikini, dark green in color and plain. I was rather surprised as I threw my other clothes into the bag and brought them out with me to place on a chair. I thanked the twin's for their simple choice, and laughed as Haruhi complained that I got a "normal looking suit."
If I was being honest, I was rather self-conscious showing so much skin around the boys, especially Mori. I blinked, trying not to make eye contact with anyone as Honey rushed up to me, tugging on my hand and trying to pull me to the pool. Tamaki and the twins caught my eye as Tamaki went on about how it was "Indecent of young girls to walk around half naked in the presence of boys", which made me blush harder than anything ever.
Honey jumped into the wave pool suddenly, floating along the current and giggling madly. Mori stood near me as the pools edge, both of us smiling fondly at Honey's antics. As we laughed together, I allowed myself to sneak a quick glance at his body, eventually trailing up to his eyes, where his gaze met mine. My cheeks flamed up; I was caught checking him out of all things. Oh my god.
His smile still held true though, and suddenly his hand was on my arm; my skin prickled at the touch. With one gentle, forceful movement, however, Mori pushed me into the pool. I quickly swam up, breaking the surface and gasping for air.
"Takashi Morinozuka!" I yelled furiously, "I am going to kick your ass at Kendo tomorrow so bad; you'll wish you never pushed me into this dumb pool!" I swore to him, watching as he dunked himself into the pool as well, chuckling slightly at my anger. "It's not funny!" I shouted as he swam closer to me. He patted my head and I crossed my arms, staring blankly at him. He splashed me ever so slightly before moving on to Honey, just barely brushing against me.
I clicked my tongue, shaking my head. Will be the death of me, I swear it.
Honey grabbed everyone's attention as him and Mori swan against the current, not moving anywhere. I laughed loudly, clutching my stomach at the sight of the two together. Eventually, Mori got out of the pool to get something to drink, leaving Honey and I to swim against the current by ourselves. I put Honey on my back and we laughed and chatted aimlessly as we battled the water together.
Honey decided he wanted to try it by himself, so I stood back and let him, allowing the current to swallow me and gently tug me around. My eyes drifted to where Mori stood, emptying his ears of water, next to Haruhi. I watched as Haruhi offered him a sip of her drink, and when he accepted, I scowled harshly. Crossing my arms and huffing, I tried to keep my thoughts away from the J-word.
So what, so what, so what? Don't be jealous of Haruhi, Orie. Don't you dare. Don't you-ugh. You idiot.
Honey swam up next to me, and noticed my sour expression. "Orie-Chan, what's wrong?"
I didn't have time to answer, because suddenly a huge wave was about to collapse over both of us. In a matter of teeny, tiny, split seconds, I grabbed Honey, mashing him to my chest and clasping my arms around him tightly, and made eye contact with Mori as the wave crashed over us.
I shut my eyes tightly and held my breath for as long as I could, all the while making sure I still had my grip on Honey. I let out a scream under the water as Honey and I were sucked down in a whirlpool, and spat out at the mouth of a river. The whole process only took about two minutes, but I was gasping for breath and hanging on to the river bank for dear life along with Honey, who was coughing violently next to me. I hoisted myself out of the water and helped Honey out, then proceeded to hug him closely to me.
"Are you okay?" I asked urgently, checking his small body for any injuries. He nodded tiredly, curling up into my side. "Well, come on, we're at the end of the current pool, so if we just follow this back, we should find them eventually.
We walked for about a half an hour when it began pouring. Just absolutely pouring. What the actual hell, Kyoya, I thought as Honey and I took refuge under a large palm tree. I sighed, leaning up against the trunk and yawned.
"Hey, Orie-Chan, you never told me what was wrong." Honey whispered to me suddenly, looking up at me with his big, brown eyes.
"Oh." I shifted uncomfortably. "Well, it's just…that…I…uh…"
Honey smiled kindly. "It's okay, Orie-Chan, I know. You really like Takashi. But, didn't you see it today? I think Takashi made more of an effort to show you that he likes you back. Did you notice it?"
I thought about it for a moment. He pushed me into the pool, he ruffled my hair, and casually brushed against me, splashed me with water…well, I suppose those would count as tell-tale signs of flirting. Not to mention the way he grabbed my hand while walking me home the other day during the "Mori Funk."
"Yes, I guess I did notice it." I replied almost reluctantly. Honey patted my arm.
"You're both just big scaredy cats, that's all." He said, as if it was the most consoling thing ever. After about another hour of the rain, it finally let up, and Honey and I began moving along to find our friends so this day could just be over with already. As we marched along, I stopped Honey for a moment by placing a hand on his shoulder.
"Honey, do you hear that?"
He nodded, his overall mood becoming serious in a matter of seconds. "Sounds like people talking."
I shook my head. "Sounds like people yelling…" I murmured. "C'mon, let's get higher up; we'll be able to see from up there." I said, pointing at a sturdy looking vine we could climb up to see from. Once we did, it was quite easy to see the mass of black uniforms and guns pointed at…Mori and Haruhi?!
More like Mori carrying Haruhi…
Now's not the time, Orie.
"Orie-Chan, c'mon!" Honey yelled hurriedly as he swung out from the vine, effectively hitting one of the officers in the face with his feet and landing perfectly. I followed suit, taking out another guard and stumbling a bit on my landing. I smiled proudly at myself as I aided Honey in his short battle with the uniformed men, though. It felt exhilarating to be fighting alongside a Haninozuka. Once we finished the job, I glanced back at Haruhi, my heart dropping into my stomach to see her curled into Mori's chest.
Biting back a fierce growl, I turned back to see all the guards bowing at Honey's and my feet, going on about how it was an honor to meet him and all that. Honey shrugged and skipped over to Takashi, pulling him down to pat him on the head.
"Takashi, you did an amazing job of protecting Haru-Chan! I bet you were pretty lonely without me around, huh? Don't worry! Orie-Chan kept me great company!"
Mori glanced at me before answering Honey, "I don't know if I'd say that."
Anger, frustration, confusion, and humiliation boiled within me as we walked back to the center of the park. The sun was setting, casting a gorgeous orange hue over the water, setting it off like diamonds. I sighed as I looked into the pool. It'd be a while before I went into water again.
"Ya know, we should go to the beach." The twins commented as we headed out, but Tamaki stopped them.
"You fools; Haruhi doesn't like things like that." He reasoned with them. Oh, cause it's all about Haruhi! I mentally slapped myself. You're acting like a child.
"Actually, I think it'd be nice to go to the beach." Haruhi replied to them, her eyes dancing across the water.
"So we're all gonna go to the beach, Tama-Chan? That'll be fun, don't you think?" Honey asked from atop of Mori's broad shoulders. He smiled happily and folded his hands over Mori's black, wiry hair, and leaned down, resting his chin on them.
I figured Mori would be ogling Haruhi at this point, so I turned away from him, facing the water with my arms crossed over my stomach. But, as Honey clued me in much later in life, Mori's eyes travelled to me. "Yeah," He replied.
Upholding his promise, the Host Club was whisked away to the beach within the next week. Of course, we weren't allowed to go without our loyal customers, but thankfully, I had none this week. In fact, I hadn't been having very many lately. But, I wasn't asking about to meddle with things and get myself any followers for this trip.
I packed away the green bathing suit the twins gave me along with some other clothes and necessities, and waited for Mori and Honey to pick me up, per Honey's suggestion. I had practically glared daggers at him when he spat the idea out over cake last week, but simply smiled sweetly and agreed to it. It was becoming a well-known thing that Honey was more than what met the eye. A lot more. Like…borderline evil twins and Kyoya more.
The boys eventually rolled up, and I said goodbye to my father as I headed out the door and to the car. This time, I was given the window seat, and I took it to my advantage, blocking out Honey's ridiculous chatter with soft music and daydreams. I leaned my head against the window and paused my music, so sure that Honey had just been talking not even one minute ago.
I sat up and turned to them, seeing Honey bunched up and sleeping soundly against the other window. I giggled at his cuteness, and pulled the headphones away from my ears, bracing myself for an awkward conversation with Mori.
"Hi." I whispered, offering a small smile as I focused on wrapping my headphone cord around my finger.
"Hi." He replied coolly, staring at the white wire that was now twisted tightly around my pointer finger. He cleared his throat, "I never got to…thank you…for protecting Mitsukuni when I…couldn't." He stammered out, his black eyes hollow. I immediately felt bad for him, knowing that he thought everything was his entire fault. I shook my head viciously fast and grasped his rather muscular bicep tightly.
"It wasn't your fault, Takashi."
He smiled. Like, an actual smile. And then he nodded.
We didn't talk the rest of the way to the beach, but when we got there, the twins were quick to start complaining. "But why couldn't we have gone," They started together, only for Kaoru to finish, "To the Caribbean?"
"Or even Fiji?" Hikaru offered.
Kyoya lifted his eyebrow in exasperation. "Do you think a commoner like Haruhi has a passport? Or Orie-Senpai?"
"Excuse me, but how the hell would I have gotten to Japan, you rich idiots." I grumbled, as Haruhi mumbled under me, "You do realize we can hear you, right?"
Anyway, the guests came out soon enough, and girls were soaking up Tamaki's attention as much as they could while looking out into the sea. Haruhi and I sat under an umbrella, passing comments back and forth, but I still had no idea how to talk to her. Especially with what happened between her and Mori at the pool just a week ago.
I rolled my eyes at Hikaru and Kaoru's act. Host working on location…this is really weird. Beside me, Haruhi groaned and wiggled the sand out from between her toes. "This sucks; I thought a day at the beach meant a day off."
I shrugged limply, watching Mori and Honey doing yoga with some of the guests. I suppressed a laugh as some girls came up behind us. "Um, Haruhi? Aren't you going to go swimming with us?"
"No, I like looking at the sea from a safe distance." Haruhi replied as I decided to get up and join Honey and Mori as they began walking down the beach. Mori smiled at me in recognition as Honey called out for Haruhi to come over with us. Great, I thought, now she has another chance to see Mori.
"Wanna go hellfish shunting?" Honey called out to Haruhi as he began sifting through the sand. I couldn't help but laugh.
"I think you meant shellfish hunting, Honey." I corrected him, patting his blonde hair down lovingly.
"I don't think you're gonna find that many shellfish," Haruhi started to say as she glanced down, seeing that she was standing right in what seemed like a field of…well, shellfish. "What the hell!" She shouted.
Mori and I glanced at each other, and peered over a rock that was behind us. There, Kyoya was with his private police force, who was productively shuffling buckets of shellfish out of a truck. "They felt bad about attacking Honey-Senpai, and wanted to repay him. Hence the shellfish." Kyoya explained briefly before turning back to one of the officers he was talking to. I shrugged and slid off the rock, watching Haruhi and Honey as they collected their shellfish.
Somehow (I was too busy staring at Mori, creepily enough, for me to even comprehend how this had gotten started), the topic of fears spread around the Hosts like wildfire, and they were suddenly very interested to know what Haruhi and I feared the most. Of course, I couldn't think of anything I feared very much, and I could already smell a competition coming on. So, I decided to play along, see how far they could go.
The twins started by getting a couple guests, Haruhi, and me to go with them to a cavern they had found. Insisting that it was haunted, I readily went with them, interested in how this was going to be executed. "This is the place, the most haunted spot in all of Okinawa."
"Yeah, the locals don't even come out here."
"They say that the only time you can even find this cave is at low tide. Evidently," Hikaru narrated, his pointer finger and thumb pinching his chin thoughtfully, "many people have died down here, and their souls still linger." He told us. The girls clung together, and I smirked at Haruhi, who looked bored as hell. "They take revenge on anyone who dares come inside!"
"Look!" Kaoru shouted, pointing to a black figure with shining purple eyes. A large reached out and grasped Haruhi's shoulder, and I peeled it off for her, laughing rather hard.
"What's going on?" Haruhi asked, looking bored with the whole ordeal. "Are you trying to freak me out?" She directed at Tamaki, who held the hand on a stick contraption over her. This is priceless.
Next, Honey beckoned Haruhi and I over to him, forcing us to get into the back of the truck from the police force with him. He had them close the back of it up, leaving us in the dark space. Honey almost immediately began to freak out.
"It's too dark, too small! Get me out, get me out!" He wailed, pounding on the door, which was opened right away. I sighed, hoping that the next few attempts weren't as bad as the first two.
Unfortunately, I was proven wrong. Next came Mori's poor attempt, in which he faced us with a sharp harpoon. Haruhi made some terrible pun, and I just lightly pushed it out of my face and shook my head at him.
The sun was beginning to set and the hosts were slowly giving up on trying to figure out what scared Haruhi and I. As she began collecting even more shellfish, I was invited by some of the other girls to look out at the sea from the high cliff. I cleared my throat nervously, but didn't want to have to face losing to a game I wasn't supposed to know about. I pushed the anxiety down and nodded, smiling at the girls as we trekked up the cliff together.
"Oh, it's so lovely!" One of them said, and although I was getting more nervous by the second, I couldn't help but agree.
"Hey! There's chicks up here!" A crude voice shouted. I whipped around to see two drunk guys stumbling up the cliff, throwing their beer cans to the side. "You ladies wanna hang with some of the locals?" One asked suggestively. Feeling as though it was my duty as a Hostess to protect our guests, I pushed them behind me and scowled.
"This is a private beach. Get out of here, scumbag." I growled, royally pissing them off. Pushing the other girls to the side, both men caught one of my arms and began pushing me towards the edge of the cliff. Tears sprung to my eyes as I began thrashing around, panicking. "No, no, no!" I shouted, desperate for help. "Please, let me go!"
"Oh, afraid of heights?" Cooed one of them and they both laughed at me, mocking me.
"Get away from her!" Haruhi shouted as she ran up, trying to unlatch the guys from my arms. They threw her off rather easily, and began pushing me over the cliff. They let go as soon as some shouted my name.
I let out a piercing scream as I began to fall, and I shut my eyes tightly, not wanting to see the water below me. I braced myself for impact, and when it came, if knocked the wind out of me. My irrational, or so it seemed, fear of heights had finally become not so irrational as I felt myself sinking below the surface of the water more and more.
I was being pulled up not even a minute later; someone had picked me up and cradled me to their chest protectively. I coughed, desperate to get all salty water out of my lungs as I was set down, my feet touching the sand.
A million things swarmed my head, but exhaustion clouded me as everyone jumped up to hug me and ask if I was alright. "Leave her alone." A deep voice mumbled as I felt around for something- or someone- to clutch on to in case I were to, I dunno, pass out. I felt someone close in my proximity, invading my personal space, but I couldn't register who it was until the deep voice rumbled in my ear, "I'm going to pick you up and carry you back to the house, okay?" I nodded, and once I was safe and warm in someone's arms, I fell asleep quickly and soundly.