Happy Holidays readers!
Our present to you is Ch 7
Enjoy!
Chapter 7: Mind Games
Tamaki walked into his quadrant of the room, took off his accessories and left on his shirt, shorts and sandals. He grabbed his white towel with gold embroidering and walked for the door. As he did, he said, "Hikaru, Kaoru, Kyoya, why don't you join me down in the springs? After what has all happened today, I could use a relaxing soak with some friends." While he was in the door way, he turned around and said, "Mori-senpai, Hunny-senpai, Haruhi is changing right now. Keep an ear out for her when she's done ok?" With that Tamaki left and slowly began to walk back down to the springs, waiting for the twins and Kyoya to catch up with him.
Kyoya was very eager to go into the springs, but he refused to let everyone know he felt that way. So, with a straight face, he said "Fine." They had finished cleaning early and there wasn't much to do, so as long as Hunny and Mori kept up their end by not revealing to the world that Haruhi was a girl, things would be fine.
He walked a bit faster then normal to his room and grabbed his towel, which was just as fancy as Tamaki's. Kyoya walked out of his room and sat by Hunny and Mori, reluctantly waiting for the twins. In all reality, they should've been faster then him, but they were the twins, so who knows what they were doing. But Kyoya, in all honesty, didn't care what the twins were doing. He was fairly interested in this game, causing him to lose all current thoughts of revenge on both the twins and Tamaki.
There had to be a way to get Tamaki to say "I love you" to Haruhi Kyoya thought. It was really anyone's game, simply because of Tamaki's personality. But it seemed to Kyoya that he had the advantage, since he was in the same class, knew him the longest, was the Vice President (aka, he did almost all of the work), was 'Mother', Demon Lord, and was his best friend…after all… The best part, he could say and do a bunch of things that everyone else couldn't. He just had to say the perfect thing at the perfect moment and he had this game won.
The twins nodded. "Right behind you, milord." They looked at each other, grinning. It was perfect. Once they had the perfect opportunity... they would strike! And win the game, and get the fabulous prize of... well, they couldn't really remember what the prize had been, but all that mattered was that they won. Grabbing their towels they walked towards Kyoya, knowing that he had been waiting for them. Once they caught up they all began following Tamaki to the springs.
Hunny waved as his friends left the room, and walked around the room aimlessly, with Bun-bun of course. Mori waited patiently for Haruhi to either knock on her door or theirs. He occupied himself with a magazine that the hotel provided as he kept an eye on his cousin as he jumped around the room.
Tamaki noticed the three of them following them and stopped and waited for them to catch up and said to them, "I'm glad that you're eager as I am to get a soak in." It was a bit curious that they would follow him so quickly like that. The twins usually moved at their own pace and Kyoya was always reluctant to do anything fun...but Tamaki didn't care!
Once they were in the locker room, Tamaki changed out of his clothes, put them in a basket and set them in a locker. He wrapped his towel around him until he found a big enough spot for the four of them. Even though it was the second day, it wasn't as crowded as it was the day before. Tamaki slipped into the pools and he let the warm water sooth his muscles. Man... he thought After all of the club activities and walking through that garden, my muscles are sore...But it was very pleasurable to spend that time with Haruhi, even if it was forced to an extent. Tamaki hummed an up-beat tune to himself as he waited for his friends to join him.
Kyoya and the twins caught up with Tamaki in the pools; Tamaki stopped humming once they came in. This was where Kyoya would get his chance to start playing this 'game' Mori thought up. "Tamaki," He started. A mischievous smile abruptly appeared on his face. "You missed it. Haruhi--Rukia-- looked wonderful in the clothing she picked out." That could've been a lie, for all Kyoya knew. He hadn't seen what she was wearing. But all is fair in love and war.
"It's too bad you rushed out too fast to see her. She might change back into male's clothing before we get back to the room." Kyoya started to feel like the twins, both at once. Soon enough, if he continued to talk to Tamaki about this, he may realize that he likes Haruhi, leading to his winning the game. It was a little strange. Usually, Kyoya sat and watched when the club thought of a silly new game, because of the entertainment. But he had the strangest feeling that this game would be even more entertaining while he was in the action.
Tamaki was felt himself blush violently and he slunk his head into his water to where his mouth was submerged and started blowing bubbles again as Kyoya tormented him. Crap he thought Kyoya thinks I helped to wake him up and this is how he's getting back me. Tamaki now couldn't help but think about Haruhi in a beautiful outfit like she was the day before. He entered one of his mind theaters...
Haruhi and he were back out in the gardens but it was at night when, he imagined that lights illuminated the flowers from below which gave them all a beautiful glow. They were at the center of the garden where a fountain was running and was illuminated from below the water. "Tamaki-kun" Haruhi said to him while she was wearing something similar to shat she was wearing yesterday, "I think we're lost." Tamaki then brought her into his arms and he said to her, "Don't worry Haruhi, even if we are lost, at least we're with each other." His face drew closer as did hers and she said back bashfully, "Tamaki..."
Tamaki snapped out of it right then and there, not wanting to go crazy right next to Kyoya. Tamaki brought his mouth just above the water and said to Kyoya, "I bet she does look beautiful..." then he mumbled to himself right before he plunged his mouth below the water again and said "she always does..."
The twins grinned. At the rate this was going, and with all five of them working on this, Tamaki would probably crack before the day was over. They noticed Tamaki had gone back into 'Oh-woe-is-me-in-the-hot-springs' mode. He would probably start blowing bubbles again soon. "Milord?" The twins asked, looking at Tamaki, barely able to force their smirks back and look concerned. "What's wrong? Thinking about Haruhi again?" If this was going to work, first they had to make Tamaki realize that he liked Haruhi. The whole thing would be ruined if he was still stuck on that father/daughter thing.
A vein popped out of his head Tamaki was so mad at the moment. Oh great he thought to himself The twins convinced Kyoya that I woke him up and now all three of them are working against me. Tamaki sat up and leaned back with a face of constrained anger and said to them, "Alright, you three win. Yes, I was thinking of her. Happy? I swear Kyoya that those unscrupulous twins woke you up but if you still believe that I woke you up then I'm sorry." Tamaki submersed himself back into the water up to his neck and then said almost sadly, "Can you three stop toying with my feelings for one freaking day?" he then dipped his mouth in the water and, none the less, started to blow more bubbles.
"We're not toying with you, milord!" Kaoru said, putting on his 'I'm-just-an-innocent-uke' face. "We were just worried about you." Hikaru added, nodding his head. Since Tamaki knew the twins so well, they doubted that this would work, but it was still good to try.
"It's not like it's a bad thing that you were thinking of her." They said together, acting nonchalant.
Tamaki had a feeling that the twins were lying about actually caring about him. "Why would you care about me when you still have to worry about yourselves first because you two woke up Kyoya?" Tamaki said harshly after he brought his mouth out of the water, "It's not like you two at all to worry about someone else before yourselves." Tamaki looked down at his reflection in the water and said, "Besides, the way you guys make it sound like and how it irritates Haruhi, you'd think it'd be a crime to think of that lovely girl..." His voice trailed off before he said anything else that oddly felt embarrassing for Tamaki to talk about in front of the other guys.
He dipped his whole head into the water and thought, Why am I so embarrassed about all of this? Is it wrong to think of a daughter like this? He then thought of a father kissing a young daughter passionately, like he had almost imagined kissing Haruhi and then shook his head at the disgusting idea. No, no, no that's wrong! he thought. Now Tamaki was confused. He leapt out of the water, holding his head in frustration and yelled, "Why am I thinking like this!"
He noticed that not only that his three friends were staring at him, but also half of the pool was as well. He looked around and then slowly submerged himself back into the pool. Stealthily he swam underwater to the end of the pool nearest to the exit and ran for the locker room out of sheer embarrassment.
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Haruhi watched as Tamaki walked into the guy's room, and then walked into her own. She yawned as she walked over to the overly large amount of girls clothing. It didn't take to long for Haruhi to find something she liked.
Haruhi simply picked out a purple plaid skirt with skinny blue and white horizontal and red vertical lines. The shirt she picked out was a sleeveless dark purple shirt, with a white design in the left bottom corner in the front. The straps criss-crossed and then wrapped around her neck. The boots were gray with black and white criss-crossing lines all around. Her belt was black with two gray hearts--one bigger than the other--on the right side. Haruhi grabbed the wig she wore yesterday and walked into the bathroom. She carefully put it on, and then tied it up in the back into a high pony-tail. She did nothing with her bangs except had two purple hair clips on one side. Haruhi took off her half of her necklace and placed it on the bathroom sink's counter. She truly didn't want to lose it. That would upset Tamaki very much. Haruhi walked over to the stacks of jewelry, and then settled with two matching silver bracelets on each wrist.
After about 10 minutes, Haruhi was ready. She walked out of her room, card key & wallet in hand, and knocked on the boys' room three times.
His face brightened as he heard three knocks on the door. He ran over, jumped up to look through the peak hole, and then opened the door wide once he saw that it was Haruhi. "Haru---Rukia-chan! You look great!"
When a knock came at their door, he let Hunny open it. Mori was surprised that she dressed almost punk-like and wilder type like. Well she is my cousin supposedly he thought to himself. He stood up and said, "Yes, very nice, Rukia." He grabbed Hunny's and his own towels and then began to walk down to the springs with his "cousins."
As the three walked quietly, Mori thought to himself, Even if we can get Tamaki to say 'I love you' to Haruhi, the point will be malamute if Haruhi doesn't accept him. He knew she was a little easier to pry into since she wasn't ADD like their "king". So, Mori struck up a bit of seemingly harmless conversation. "So..." he started, "I know it's been almost a whole school year that you've known us. I'm just curious as what you think of each of us. I won't say anything to the other guys if you say something that you don't want them to know."
Haruhi looked up at Mori, a bit surprised. She looked back in front of her and thought about the question. It truly was a difficult question for her to answer.
"Well...it's hard to say. Hikaru & Kaoru certainly make things interesting, especially when it comes to Tamaki-senpai. They may be devilish brothers, always looking for fun, but they usually know their limits, and can be pretty fun guys to be around. They certainly keep me entertained during class. Not only that, I can easily tell the difference between the two of them. Hikaru is more out-going, when Kaoru seems to be more of a follower. But the two of them combined is another story."
Haruhi thought long and hard about Kyoya. Now he was someone to think about. "Now Kyoya-senpai is difficult to describe. He usually only does things that would benefit him in some way, but not always. So even though he may always threaten people in indescribable ways, he's really a good guy deep down. I've seen it with my own eyes."
Next in her mind were Mori and Hunny. How to describe them? "At first, you and Hunny-senpai were honestly kind of a funny pair to look at. But it didn't take too long for me to look and see the bond the two of you share. Hunny-senpai is fun loving, and doesn't usually get angry with others, unless his bunny was harmed in some sort of way. But in most cases, he likes to see that others are enjoying his company. As for you, Mori-senpai, you're protective of Hunny-senpai and your close friends. You may not talk too much, but you often show others that you care, and they admire you for that."
Hunny smiled at Haruhi when he came up. He rather liked how she described his and Mori's relationship, even if they did look odd together. Mori smiled as he heard about how she described the other hosts and himself; it's always funny to hear another's opinion about friends from another person he thought to himself.
Of course, Tamaki then came to mind. "As for Tamaki-senpai, there are so many things about him that I would never be able to describe in words. But you can always tell that he truly cares for his customers while he's hosting. And while he may be a weirdo on the outside, he always has good intentions, and hates to see anyone upset. And in most cases, he'll do whatever it takes to see them smile again."
Haruhi stopped in her tracks, and looked down at the ground in front of her. Wh--why is my heart racing, and pounding so loud...?
Hunny noticed something different about her tone of voice when she brought up Tamaki. He turned around to look at her, only to notice that she had completely stopped moving forward. She looked almost confused... Does Haru-chan have feelings towards Tama-chan...? Hunny thought as he looked up at his cousin with curious eyes.
Mori stopped a few steps after Haruhi did and he looked at her curiously. Oh...my...god... he thought as he stared at her I think she already likes Tamaki. He looked down at his cousin staring at him and he smiled slightly and thought, This game just got a whole lot easier.
Mori then cleared his throat and said hesitantly, "Ummm...Haruhi...I hope it's not too bold of me asking you...and I promise I won't say a word to another living soul but...do...you like...Tamaki?"
Haruhi lifted her head quickly, staring at Mori, eyes wide and face red. "N--no! Of course not!" She denied, "Wh--why would you even think that, Mori-senpai? I--it's such a weird thing to imagine. Tamaki-senpai and me? Ha!" Haruhi lowered her head and walked ahead of Mori and Hunny, not allowing her face to be shown. In a quiet tone, she said, "C--c'mon, we shouldn't waste anymore time. In fact, I'll go ahead of you two." Without saying another word, Haruhi raced down to the girls' locker room; her face completely red, and her heart was racing. She sat down on one of the benches inside in locker room, and looked down at her feet, panting heavily. There's no way I can possibly have feelings towards Tamaki-senpai. I'm a daughter figure to him, and he reminds me of Dad far too much...But still...what is this feeling?
Haruhi sighed in disappointment. This day is going to haunt me for life, Haruhi thought to herself. She slowly stood and undressed. After shoving her stuff inside one of the many lockers, she wrapped a random towel around her body and dragged her feet out to the springs. She slowly sat down in the spring, away from everyone else, and sighed once more. Haruhi wrapped her arms around her legs and rested her chin on her knees. So many thoughts were flowing through her head, but none of them had an answer. Only one stood out: Do I like Tamaki-senpai?
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Hunny stared at Haruhi in amazement. Haru-chan was blushing...a lot...This game just got a whole lot easier... Just after Haruhi raced ahead of them, Hunny looked up at Mori and said, "Takashi...should we tell the others? Because from what I can tell, Haru-chan likes Tama-chan, but doesn't really know it, just like him!"
Mori shook his head and said, "No, Haruhi isn't dense like Tamaki. She knows she has feelings; she's just in denial." Mori hung his head when he realized that they had lost their "cousin". Mori picked Hunny up and put him on his shoulders and walked down to the springs casually. "I think she doesn't want to believe in her feelings because Tamaki used to see her as a daughter and also the fact that he could have any girl he wanted. So, she doubts that Tamaki likes her; most girls think like that." Mori looked up at Hunny and said, "Now why would we want to tell the others about this when this is our advantage to winning this game?"
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Tamaki dried himself off as he thought, Why is this bugging me so much now? I've thought about Haruhi 100s of times before... an epiphany hit him and he thought ...Maybe...it was because I thought that sharing the same fruit was like kissing her...and now I'm thinking differently of her... Tamaki opened his locker and pulled his clothes out but heard a light clang sound from the ground after he did so. He looked down to see his half of the pendant on the ground. He bent over and picked it up and examined it further. "Did you do this to me?" he asked the inanimate object. When he got no reply from it, he simply got dressed, slipped his necklace on and walked out of the hot springs 5 seconds after Haruhi ran into the girl's side.
Tamaki didn't know what to do with himself, so he went back to the internet cafe, logged on and went back on that video sight and started looking up music videos. He slipped the head phones on and he stared at the screen depressively and watched the first video that he thought was interesting; it was a J-pop love song video.
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The twins looked at each other, and then Kyoya. Well... that was... strange. They sighed, getting out of the water and heading towards the locker room. "We'll go look for Tamaki." They told him, eager to get a step ahead in the game. "You just stay here." Though... they had to say, they were a bit worried. Tamaki had never reacted like that to all their teasing before. This game was either about to get a whole lot easier, or a whole lot harder.
Mori finally made it down to the hot springs when he saw the twins immerge from the boy's locker room. "Hey guys" Mori greeted them curiously, "Why are you guys out of the pool so early?" Mori would have sworn that they would be in the pool trying to get Tamaki to like Haruhi. This either meant to Mori that either they basically won the game, they were furious that they couldn't break his outer shell or they lost Tamaki...again...
The twins looked at each other, before turning back to Mori and looking innocent. "No reason." Hikaru said.
"Just got a little to -ah- hot." Kaoru finished. Mori didn't need to know that Tamaki wasn't in the springs anymore. They were going to win this game. After that they darted around Mori before he could ask them anymore questions, searching for their lord.
Mori eyed the Twins curiously as they ran away from them. Ok.... he thought to himself. He entered the locker room and set Hunny down so that they could change. Once Mori stripped down, and threw his towel around him and he went out into the springs to find Kyoya. Once he found him sitting by himself, He came into the pool and asked, "So...why did Tamaki leave?" Mori was slightly curious as to why Tamaki left early, again.
"He needs time to himself. He's either about to crack or finally figure it out." Kyoya replied. "So, summing it up, we did well in getting into Tamaki's mind. I'm assuming that you were trying to get Haruhi to confess too, right?"
Mori cleared his throat after Kyoya found him out, He saw through me like glass. "I tried to," he admitted, "She didn't actually say it but her body language gave it away." Mori relaxed more into his seat and used the edge of the pools as arm rests to get into a more comfortable position. He then told Kyoya, "You know, I don't think Tamaki would have ever figured out that he actually loved Haruhi by himself..." he looked up at the sky and then said, "come to think of it, I don't think Haruhi would have realized her feelings either if we didn't give Tamaki a slight nudge."
Hunny stripped down just as Mori did, wrapped his towel around his waste, and shoved their clothes into a random locker. It didn't take long at all for Hunny to catch up with Mori. He sat down next to Mori and sighed. "I think you're right, Takashi. But...I'm still not so sure about your theory about Haru-chan." Hunny leaned back and looked up at the sky. "In my opinion, Haru-chan is confused and doesn't quite know if she likes Tama-chan or not. But after seeing how red she turned, I think she does; but she doesn't completely know it yet. Either that, or she's just in denial." Hunny was going to mention the fact that him and Mori lost Haruhi, as well. But that was best to stay their little secret.
Mori couldn't help but smile at Hunny's deductive reasoning. He knew he was smart but with his cuteness, it didn't seem like he should be as smart as he actually is. "Well" Mori said as he looked Hunny "either way, we got Haruhi to think about Tamaki in that manner. So when he finally admits his feelings to her, she won't just blow him off like she usually does with guys."
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Tamaki made it to his 3rd romance music video when he finally decided in his head, This is just making me sad. He took the head phones off and he strolled out of the cafe to find something else that might make him happy. The only that came to mind though was Haruhi. He held his head in frustration and thought, It seems like only a few days ago that the moment had to be just right for me to think about Haruhi. Now I just can't get her out of my mind... He walked by the front counter and remembered that he had ordered their clothing this morning and it could have possibly came in. Tamaki strolled up to the counter and said in a relaxed tone, "Excuse me miss, but was there another package that came in for Tamaki Suou?"
The girl behind the desk looked around and brought up three brown boxes, shaped like the clothing boxes you get at Christmas time. She set them in a stack on the counter and said, "Yes, here you are sir."
Tamaki took them from her and said, "Thank you." and walked off with them. He looked at the boxes again and he thought to himself, This is kind of a not-so-elegant wrapping...Haruhi might not like to receive a gift in such a poor looking condition. He then traveled over to the gift shop where they actually had a gift wrapping station. Tamaki gave the two boxes that contained Haruhi's tux and dress to the wrapper and asked, "Could you wrap these both in a blue wrapping paper and then tie them together?" The man took the boxes and quickly wrapped them both in a blue, foil-like paper and tied both together with some dark blue ribbon; the tux was on top while the dress was below. Tamaki paid the man and thanked him. He was about to leave the gift shop when he saw a rack of fake, realistic-looking flowers. He grabbed a white rose and then purchased that one at the main cash register.
Tamaki then made his way back up to the rooms and went to his quadrant of the room. He slid the presents and his tux underneath the bed so none of the guys would ask him about it. He then took out his journal and wrote a small note for Haruhi to attach to the presents.
Think of these as early birthday and late Christmas gifts
I hope you like them
-sincerely
Tamaki
He ripped the page out, folded it in half and then wrote 'Haruhi' on one of the folded sides and slipped the note under the ribbon. Tamaki then flipped to the page he was drawing on and continued to draw, deciding that he would keep doing so until any of the guys (or Haruhi) found him.
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Mori leaned back and looked into the sky as he enjoyed the hot springs. However, his face grew into one of disappointment when he saw that there were dark clouds accumulating in the sky. "Oh man~" he said disappointedly, "looks like it's gonna rain. I hope it won't keep us from staying in the pools either today or tomorrow."
Hunny looked over at Mori and then up at the sky once more. Mori was right. The sky was getting darker, and it seemed like the clouds were moving in pretty quickly. "I hope so too, Takashi. That would be upsetting for all of us." A sudden cool breeze blew past them. Hunny quickly lowered himself into the pool and crossed his arms. "This is very upsetting."
Minutes passed and it was getting colder by the minute. Hunny began to shiver more and more each time. Eventually, he got sick of this. He looked at Mori and Kyoya and said, "Maybe we should get out...I'm cold, and I'm sure everyone's hungry for dinner. I know I am!"
Haruhi wasn't very relaxed; not relaxed at all, in fact. It was mainly because her head was still full of thoughts. Haruhi sighed and stood up; this is hopeless,she thought. She wrapped her towel around her body tighter and walked back into the girls' locker room.
In a short amount of time, Haruhi was fully dressed. She was about to head up to her room, but decided that she would wait for the others to be done. So instead, she walked into the internet cafe and sat down at one of the computers. Haruhi placed the computer's headphones on and opened up the internet. Haruhi decided that she would search random news around the world; while listening to American pop songs -- all relating to relationships.
Mori wasn't really getting cold since he knew how to tough it out. However, he wanted to keep his cousin happy so he said, "Alright, Kyoya, Mitsukuni and I are going to go wait for Haruhi. Stay in here if you like." The two cousins then got out of the pool, died themselves off in the locker room and then got changed. The emerged from the hot springs and a thought came to him. "I think we should look around the area for Haruhi. Just incase she already got out of the springs." he suggested to Hunny.
Mori walked around the area to see if she was sitting on any of the couches, benches or chairs that were around the immediate area; she wasn't to be found. He then glanced into the internet cafe and saw her staring at a computer screen with headphones on. He walked silently up to Haruhi without her noticing and he peered over her shoulder at what she was doing that needed headphones. She was just reading the news, Why does she need headphones for that? Mori then noticed a music tab that was closed at the bottom of the computer. Curious as to what kind of music she was in to, he stealthily unplugged the headphones and a song came through the speakers softly
I'm in Love, I'm in Love,
I'm in Love, I'm in Love,
Accidentally
Come on, come on
Spin a little tigh--
Mori plugged the headphones back in, looked at Haruhi and said, "Rukia... I didn't know you were into this type of music..."
Haruhi perked up when she heard Mori. She quickly closed the internet, took off the headphones and turned around and looked up at him. "I--I'm not. I was just listening to some random play list that I found. I didn't even notice that song come on." Haruhi stood up in front of Mori and Hunny and asked, "So...what are you two doing out of the pools so early?"
Hunny looked up at Haruhi curiously. I think she's in semi-denial, now, Hunny thought to himself as he watched Haruhi nervously deny Mori's simple inquiry. Hunny then wrapped his arms around himself and answered, "I was getting cold, and we're hungry!" At that moment, Hunny decided that he would play with Haruhi's mind a little bit. Maybe it would help him and Mori win their game. "I bet you and Tama-chan are hungry, too! ...Say, have you seen Tama-chan? He ran out of the pools in a hurry. I'm kind of worried about him..."
Haruhi rubbed the back of her neck and said, "Well...a little. Tamaki-senpai and I had a peach that we found out in the hotel's garden area. But if you're worried about him, we could go find him and then get ourselves some food."
Mori looked around and then said, "Well, the twins already went off to look for Tamaki so there's no point in us looking for him as well. Also if the three of us really wanted to look for him, it be better if we got Haruhi to help." Mori turned to leave the cafe and gestured for the two to follow him. Although Mori wanted to end this game, he figured that it still wouldn't be won today. So his plan was to work a little more on Haruhi as the others worked to pry into the twisted mind of Tamaki.
Hunny grabbed Haruhi by the hand and said, "Takashi's right, Rukia-chan! We best go get Haru-chan!" Without asking, Hunny just pulled Haruhi away, in front of Mori.
Haruhi almost fell over as Hunny tugged on her to follow. "Ye--yeah, let's go get Haruhi."