Chapter 2
His day was most definitely not going as planned.
It had started yesterday when he'd spotted a blip in one of his stocks. At first he had thought it an aberration and ignored it. That had proved to be a mistake one that had taken him till the wee hours to correct. The small mess had turned into a mini disaster. Thankfully it was mostly fixed and he had gotten a few hours of sleep. But, for the Demon Lord a few hours is never enough.
Then he had overslept and the poor maid his father had sent in to wake him up had probably quit after the verbal avalanche he had released on her. Bleary eyed he had gotten ready and practically crawled into his limo. He was able to snatch a few more moments of sleep, but, not nearly enough.
When he had finally reached the school grounds he'd had to maneuver his way through a huge crowd that had gathered at the front gate (which never happened, people made way for him). Then all his classmates had continuously gossiped about the transfer student (who transferred during the last semester of a school year).
Apparently Tamaki had met this girl and persisted in explaining how lovely and ladylike she was and how he and Honey had invited her to the club. A new client meant extra work for Kyoya as now he had to develop a profile for the girl in order to make her first experience with the club memorable. And, if that hadn't been hair pulling worthy enough Tamaki had decided the Host Club should hold a Old West themed day to welcome her. Just the thought of Tamaki anywhere near guns, fake or otherwise, had sent a cold shiver up his spine.
After talking Tamaki off that particular precipice he decided he deserved a lunch by himself and after hurriedly consuming his meal, toke off for the closest school library. There he began to dig into the new student's background. Nothing astounding at first, her family owned several companies in the arts and entertainment industry of which they were household names.
The girl herself was apparently a master painter, her works going for several hundred thousand each piece. Then as he began to dig through old newspaper articles he realized there were far too many for him to read off his computer. Printing off any that were connected to her families name, he placed them in his ever present black notebook to be read later.
During his next class which was German he decided to check on his stocks and see if there was anything that needed tending to. As he skimmed across the pertinent details he overheard whispers from girls behind him.
"Yeah, lucky girl. The Headmaster assigned Haruhi to escort her today!"a deep sigh.
"Oh, I wish I was a new girl I would just love Haruhi to be with me all day." another sigh.
Inwardly snickering he bent back to his task till the class was released only making a slight notation of who the girls were in his notebook.
As soon as his final class let out for the day, Tamaki was dragging him across the courtyard toward the Arts building that housed their club. When he finally got the French idiot to release him they were only a few feet away from the music room door. He was allowed to make the last few steps on his own and as he opened the door Tamaki spoke up in a voice he had only heard when a disaster was about to strike.
"Kyoya, I will need to speak with everyone before the club opens today. If you could see to it everyone is seated at one of the larger tables when they arrive I would be grateful." The tone and language had the bespectacled young man's attention.
It was not often that Tamaki saw it necessary to call a meeting and when he did it was not usually about something other than some useless frivolity. To hear him speak so seriously had the hairs on the back of Kyoya's neck raised.
What has him so serious all of a sudden. I wonder if it can be bottled.
When most of the Host club (minus Haruhi) was seated Tamaki toke a seat.
"Where is Haruhi?" Tamaki asked glancing around.
"She's escorting the new girl here." Hikaru stated.
"Yeah, she's been showing her the school all day." said Kaoru.
"Well one of you will have to fill her in when you see her alone." and so Tamaki began the meeting "My father called me into his office this afternoon. The child of a friend of his has join the student body. Myself, Mori, and Honey have already met her this morning. Her name is Alexis Overtun..."
"She was in our classes today!" piped up the twins.
"That is good so you have already met her. He has explained that she has a delicate constitution but for her privacy he did not go into any detail." His violet eyes looked into each of theirs in turn. "He has asked that we watch out for her and make sure she does not overexert herself. She will only be here for the rest of the school year and will not be returning next year."
"Oh, so we need to watch over Alexis-chan? That's great! She's so sweet and pretty I can't wait to tell her. We'll be best friends!" Honey exclaimed, bouncing in his seat.
"No, she isn't supposed to know, isn't that right, Tamaki?" Kyoya cut in.
"Yes, apparently she wants to live by herself for a while, be independent and all. If she were to find our we were monitoring her..." his voice drifted off.
"She would avoid us like the plague." finished Mori.
"More than likely. From what my father understands she is very stubborn."
"Still, I would feel better if I knew what we are on the lookout for, perhaps I will finish reading my printouts, if you'll excuse me." With the meeting done he made his way to one of the white couch's dotting the room. The twin's had affectionately (or obnoxiously) dubbed this one his "office".
After setting up his laptop and retrieving a cup of tea from the snack area, he seated himself on the edge of the couch and pulled out the sheaf of printouts from his black notebook and began to read. After 10 minutes he found what he was looking for.
A newspaper article dated 6 months prior that detailed a horrific car accident involving a Mr. Howard Overtun and his teenage daughter Alexis. The article stated that they had been on their way home from a trip when another car had veered in front of them to avoid a animal in the road. Mr. Overtun had been able to avoid the head on collision but the car had flipped, trapping him and his daughter inside.
The next article detailed the funeral of Mr. Howard Rupert Overtun and listed his daughter in critical condition at a nearby hospital. That ended any other information via newspaper articles he could retrieve about her health. It explained a lot however.
Well obviously she made it, she is probably recuperating now. Just when I thought my day couldn't get anymore difficult, Tamaki dumps this on my lap, the flaming idiot. There is nothing that can be done about it though, now it is a matter of gentlemanly honor to follow through.
He decided to do more digging on her medical history but, try as he might there was nothing except her birth certificate. The only reason her health records would be buried so deeply was if the hospital had been paid off.
Just as he was about to get up and inform his co-conspirators of his findings, the doorknob to the music room twisted, setting off the fans in the ceiling, which gently drifted a preset amount of rose petals in the direction of the visitor on the other side of the now open door.
As he watched a tall, pale, brunette stepped into the room than paused, and gently plucked a rose petal off the tip of her nose. She glanced at Haruhi, who was standing beside her and they both let out small chuckles as they continued to proceed in.
"Hey guys, I'd like you meet my new friend Alexis, she just transferred in from the states. Alexis, this is Tamaki, Honey, Mori, Hikaru and Kaoru, whom you have already met and that guy over there is Kyoya our vice president whom you haven't." She said pointing at each as she said their name.
A chorus of "nice to see your again" sounded from around the room. As the girl made her way to greet each of the hosts he toke in her appearance. She was attractive, if slightly thin and tall standing at about 5'7". Thick, light brown hair flowed to the middle of her back where it gently curled at the ends. Her eyes were light green in color and her face was finely drawn, encouraging the air of fragility that her thinness implied.
When she finally made her way to him, he noticed that her eyes sparkled for just a second. However, it did not last long as it was soon replaced with what looked like a second of sadness and than changed again to a friendly, open, expression.
"Hello, it seems you are the only stranger. It is a pleasure to meet you, Kyoya." Spoke the girl, raising her hand to shake his.
"Yes, it is nice meeting you as well,Alexis. I hope you have a wonderful time at our club." That sounded overly formal but he didn't want to spend anymore time than necessary with the girl. He still had things to attend to.
Just as he was about to excuse himself, Honey popped up and grabbed her hand.
"Alexis, Alexis, you came to play with us! Usa-chan has been waiting all day to share our treats with you!" Honey was practically bouncing through his blazer to get her attention.
"Oh, of course and what are today's specialties Honey? I thought you mentioned something about caramels" she teased.
Honey started to drag her by the hand to his sitting area, but, a hand motion from Mori stopped him. "Remember Honey we must be gentle with ladies," hoping Honey remembered.
Honey realizing what he had almost done, turned sharply to Alexis, bowed and said "I'm sorry, Tamaki told us that we had to watch over... all the ladies, because... they are not like boys we can't rough house with you." His voice stumbling over the secret he almost gave away.
"Don't worry Honey, Mori I'm not made of glass!" She watched as they caught each others eye but thought nothing of it as the three of them continued to the table.
After the encounter with Alexis, Kyoya decided to continue on his research and had made his way to his couch. Scanning the Internet he was jolted out of his thoughts (though not physically) by Haruhi's sudden appearance to his right.
"Kyoya, would you like to join us? Since we have a little time before the club officially opens, we are all chatting with Alexis, you know to make her feel welcome."
"Unfortunately there is still some research I need to finish before we open, don't let me keep you though." he replied as he turned away.
Haruhi shrugged and walked back to the rest of the group which had switched topics from treats to the old west (dear god). And Kyoya resumed his prior attempt at a background check. So engrossed was he that when the host club was about to open Kaoru had to remind him to take his position in their beginning pose.
After greeting and mixing with what seemed like every girl in the school, Kyoya decided he wouldn't be taking customers for the day. Just as he was sitting back down however, a shadow toke up airspace in his line of sight. He looked up knowing it was Alexis. He had a prearranged selection of polite noes resting on his lips.
"Hello again, the other hosts told me that when you guys opened I should pick a host. Seeing as we really haven't had a chance to talk and you very politely turned away my offer to join us earlier, I'm going to give you a second chance not to look like an ass." All this was said in a sweet voiced threaded with steel. "So what do you think? Am I wasting my time or are you going to feed me a line of bull believable enough that I forgive you and move on?"
He really hadn't been expecting that, not form a girl who had seem so demure not 30 minutes ago. A change in strategy was in order. Mentally he cursed.
Really who did I do to deserve today, who exactly did I piss off?
He decided to take her abrupt advice. " I am so sorry it was not my intent to be so ungracious. Allow me to make it up to you. Please take a seat and I will go retrieve some refreshments." He stood up and bowed.
"Oh, don't worry about me," she said putting down her drawing pad "Honey filled me up; he's so sweet. "But if you need something I will wait" the last words said only slightly more firmly than the rest.
Seeing as he already had a full cup of tea set on the table in front of her he sat back down. Reverting to his host mode he began to entertain her.
"How are you finding this country so far Alexis? I understand that you have only been here for a little under a week?" So began his script.
Alexis mentally sighed. They had been politely talking for a good 15 minutes about absolutely nothing!
This is not going well. First he refuses to join the rest of us for a little get to know you gathering. Not that I needed everyones attention. Now he is putting on some inane act of politeness.
Shaking her head she stood up. "It seems you have misunderstood me. I am interested in you. Not some facsimile of what attracts females. You'll have to pardon me, today has been long and I still have somethings that need to be cared for at home. Have a nice day Mr. Ootori." What a waste! Good looks, obvious intelligence but no personality to speak of. Well none that he showed me.
Kyoya watched startled as she walked away. He wasn't entirely sure what he had done wrong. He had been his best, polite, host self, but, apparently that wasn't what she wanted. He picked up his laptop to continue his work when he noticed her drawing pad sitting on the table. Kyoya reached for it and began to flip through the pages.
It seemed she not only drew what she saw but also toke short notes, humorous thoughts, and criticisms regarding her work. The sketch's themselves were not always accurate portrayals, it seems she would draw 2 or 3 accurate representations than would use them to create a impressionistic compilation. The first few pages were a little dark, literally. She had used deep shadows and dark colors. Each piece screaming depression and self pity. Laced with these pictures was eraser marks and a few shaky lines as if the hand had shook while drawing them.
They eventually toke a turn for the better until he was startled to be face to face with Tamaki. The French man's golden hair and vibrant violet eyes stood out of the page. He was posed as if to be reaching for the viewers hand. At the bottom was his name and the date, followed by a note.
Goofy, overeager, charming, sweet. His heart is what gives you the patience to deal with his eccentricities.
Kyoya snickered. That is definitely Tamaki.
He turned the page curious as to who was next, and, saw Honey. Brown eyes sparkling, mouth wide open as if he were telling you he had an unlimited supply of cake. Again his name, the date and a small note were at the bottom of the page.
Cheerful, childish, he knows the world isn't perfect but he wants anyone he encounters to forget about it even if only when their with him.
Another turn of the page and there was Mori appearing as if to absorb his surroundings, letting nothing escape his watchful eye.
Stoic, and respectful. Would have been a wonderful warrior. He seems to keep his thoughts and emotions to himself but his eyes are his giveaway.
Haruhi, looking at the artist with a half question, half worried look.
Mother-hen (if that makes sense), intelligent, caring, effeminate (?). Endearingly honest he is able to see through difficult things but not what is in front of his nose. There is something unique about him, that I can't put my finger on.
Than the twins on the same page but with their own notes.
Physically I can't tell them apart. Sure there are slight differences but the only way to do tell at first is for me to stare and I 'm not going to stare at them every time they show up. When they open their mouths however it is a different story. Hikaru is the instigator, mischievous, brash, but loyal to a fault. Kaoru, the calmer, more reasonable twin though no less tricker than his brother. Both are jealous of any time that is spent alone with others because they both understand that eventually they will have to grow apart.
Kyoya hesitated in turning the page. He was pretty sure who was next in the book. Did he really want to see it though. After their little confrontation this afternoon he was pretty sure he knew what she thought of him.
These had to have been drawn when the club was welcoming guests.
So he flipped the page...
I don't own Ouran High School Host Club. But a girl can dream...