It's Yuuna's turn again, hello minna-san~

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Ouran Private High School

Chapter Seven: Taking a Walk

Characters: Kaoru, Ayame

Words: 2,100+

Disclaimer: We do not own OHSHC, except for the story plot and the RP site

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Kaoru walked out of the doors of Ouran Private High School, ear buds in place, loud music blasting at top volume and walks down the steps to the Courtyard. It felt strange, to be away from Hikaru, but he needed space from his twin for the first time in God knows how long, so he set out in a random direction, just walking aimlessly.

Ayame sat under a tree, reading a book. It was a fictional book, of course, about a father and daughter. She had read this book so many times, but she loved it because it reminded her of her father and herself.

She sighed as she closed the book and hugged it against her chest. Her father had been gone on a business trip in America for more than ten years. What was he doing there? What could be taking him this long that he had to miss his daughter grow up? Was he working there so that she and her mother always had enough money, or was he there for selfish reasons? Either way, they did make sense when she tried to figure it out in her head.

Kaoru continued his walk, staring off into space, lost in thoughts as his music blasted into his ears. He could practically hear Haruhi nagging at him to turn it down so he wouldn't go deaf. He rolled his eyes and continued to walk past the trees, vaguely noticing a girl sitting there reading ahead of him, but not really registering who it was, or the fact that he knew her, as he was so preoccupied, until he tripped over her extended leg, landing face flat in the grass.

Ayame looked down at the boy that had just tripped over her leg. Well, that made two times that someone tripped over her, today. She rubbed her shin as she looked over at the boy.

"That hurt..." she mumbled to herself, "You should watch were you're going," she informed him.

Kaoru, after having pulled himself off of Ayame's leg, looked at her, cocking his head. She was talking at him. He could see her lips moving. All he heard was the loud guitar solo of his music.

When Ayame didn't get a respond, but a stare instead, she saw his headphones to his mp3 player. Silently, she took one of them off his ear and said, "You should watch where you're going." She could hear the music from the headphone. He had it on really loud.

Even loud music didn't excuse lack of eye sight. She let go of the ear phone and crossed her arms, waiting for an apology of some kind.

"Sorry Ayame." Kaoru muttered, oddly embarrassed. "I had a lot on my mind. I wasn't paying attention...obviously..." he confessed. "What were you reading?" he asked, once again noticing the book that she still had clutched to her chest, and offered her a smile. He stood and offered her a hand. "Would you like to take a walk with me?" he asked hopefully. He had been feeling lonely.

"Um, er...sure" Ayame said. She didn't have much else to do. "But...let's just not go into the maze" she said. Just before, she had gone into the maze, twice, and had the crap scared out of her, twice.

She got up and began to walk with Kaoru. She told him about the book she was read; about a father and daughter. The father figure in the book was always gone on long trips and one day he just stopped coming home. The girl sets out on a journey to find her father and when she does, they re-unite. Apparently, while the father was gone, he was working for the king and made lots of money. In the end, like most books, they lived happily ever after.

"I've read it one too many times" she admitted with a smile. Looking up into the sky, she saw that it was a bright, cloudless day.

Kaoru smiled at her. "You must like it a lot." They walked further in companionable silence and Kaoru led Ayame to one of Ouran's many man-made ponds. He sat down on the grass and motioned for her to join him and he stared at the water. It was perfect, Ouran would have no less, and there were small fish swimming in it.

"What's your father like?" he asked her after the long silence.

"Yeah, I do." Ayame said as she sat down next to Kaoru, her legs stretched out towards the water. The water was beautiful, but it was manmade. Though she had seen many natural ponds, springs and lakes, this was okay for being man made.

"Well, I haven't heard much from my father since, like the man in the book, he's gone away to make money. But when he was here, he was always working on his stuff, but once or twice -I can't remember- he'd play with me but...it was always my mother who tucked me into bed or took me out to do something fun." she said, pulling her legs put and wrapping her arms around them.

"I'm sorry." Kaoru said sincerely. He looked at Ayame. He could see that this affected her much more than she was willing to let on. He wished she was comfortable opening up, but he understood. They hadn't known each other long, though he did care about her very much. But he offered her a small smile, knowing that she probably did not want to talk about it much more, so he didn't press her for information. He hoped she knew she could always talk to him if she needed someone. Now that he thought about it, they both needed someone. He and Hikaru had started changing. He understood how she felt, though he knew he was lucky that Hikaru remained in his life. She wasn't that lucky.

"You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to, but I'm always here if you need someone, okay?" he said, trying his best to be comforting, an action he wasn't familiar with.

"Thank you Kaoru," Ayame said, leaning a bit forward to see the water better, though she could still not see her reflection, so she scooted herself even more to see her reflection in the pond. She took a strand of her black hair and began to rub it between her fingers. It was soft and silky, but she quickly pulled it behind her ear after.

"Kaoru" she began, turning away from the water and looking over at him "You're trying to comfort me...Why?" she asked. Sure, her friends always tried to comfort her, but not in the way he was.

Kaoru looked at her questioningly, but paused before speaking, trying to formulate a coherent answer. He hadn't really thought about it. She just seemed upset, and he didn't want to see her being unhappy.

"I guess because you seemed sad." he shrugged. "I felt like I should comfort you because...I wanted you to be happy." he said his voice trailing off as his sentence ended. He looked down embarrassed. "I'm sorry if I made you uncomfortable. I didn't mean to."

"Oh, no. You didn't make me feel uncomfortable, it's just..." Ayame said, trailing off, feeling her face redden. He wanted her to be happy? "Thank you" she said with a smile. No one had really said that they wanted to see her happy, like that. Her mother had, but with hugs and kisses...before she took on her father's work in Japan, and her friends just made her happy by just being her friends, but no one had said it before. She liked it.

She leaned forward towards the water again and poked it with her finger, seeing the ripples ruin the mirror in the water. She could see a few fish swim away from her spot in the water, except one that swam towards her.

"Your welcome." Kaoru said with a smile. He could feel his cheeks heating up, but chose to ignore it and join Ayame at the water's edge. He sat on the stones that lined the water and yanked off his shoes and socks, throwing them aside a few feet away from them. He then rolled up his pants past the knee, not caring whether or not the expensive uniform pants wrinkled and dunked his feet and shins into the water, laughing as several fish swarmed his feet curiously. "Look Ayame!" he said pointing to the fishes surrounding his toes.

Ayame giggled as she watched the fish. They had swum towards him when he put his feet into the water, but the small fishes swam away from her when she just put her finger in. I guess it's opposite day, today, she thought to herself with an inward laugh.

"Hey, I'm going to Okinawa this weekend...I was wondering if you wanted to come." she said. She had planned this trip for herself and her mother, but just this morning, her mother told her that she wouldn't be able to make the vacation. Ayame had been looking forward to time with her mother, but in the end, it's like she never even asked.

Kaoru laughed with her. "The fishes like me." He said, smiling at her.

He looked up at her when she began to speak to him again, about a trip she was taking to Okinawa. Did she just ask if he wanted to come? "Sure!" he said enthusiastically. "What day are we going?"

"Friday," Ayame said, informing him "But I'm staying until Sunday at noon, but you're free to go any time you want." she said, hoping he'd stay the time she was there, too. Even though her mother wasn't coming, she was planning on going anyways and her friends were too busy to come with her. She was glad Kaoru wanted to come with her.

"I'll stay!" He said, glad to have something to do over the weekend and glad that it was with Ayame. "Where are we staying?"

"We'll be staying at the hotel resort next to the beach. It was hard for me to get a room, it's a double bed room, but you can get another room if you want." Ayame said. The room was originally for her and her mother, but it would be awkward for her and Kaoru to share a room, but it was polite to offer, even though he would most likely take another room.

Kaoru blushed at the prospect of sharing a room with her. "Well, if you've already made the reservations, I can get a room too, but if you'd like, my family has an estate in Okinawa and we could stay there." He offered.

"Really?!" Ayame said in surprise. "That sounds great." she said. Kaoru had an estate in Okinawa? She had always tried to get her mother to get one, but she was always busy and she didn't have full access to the Nara funds. She had an allowance, but that was usually spent on the latest trends, accessories and fictional books.

"Well go to your estate instead, then" she decided happily, wondering what it looked like.

"Great!" He said. "I'll call ahead and have them prepare everything for us! Would you like to meet me there or have me pick you up?"

He was extremely excited for this weekend. He couldn't wait to tell Hikaru about it. He was grinning ear to ear.

"I'd enjoy it if you'd pick me up," Ayame said. This weekend was going to be great! A lot better than she had hoped for. She heard the bell ring. Her free period was over, unfortunately.

"Wait, before I go..." she took out a piece of paper, which she was using for her bookmark, but she had read this book many times. It didn't matter if she reread a few pages. And with that, she wrote her address and phone number on it.

"Here you go. Call me before you come." she said, handing Kaoru the paper. "See you later" she said, running off to her class.

"Sure thing!" Kaoru said.

The bell rang. He needed to go to class and apparently so did Ayame. He was about to say goodbye, but she caught his attention first and scribbled something on the back of her bookmark and handed it to him.

He examined the piece of paper and saw that she had written what he assumed was her address and phone number, which was confirmed when she told him to call her when he came to pick her up.

She said goodbye and he waved back at her. "Bye Ayame, I'll see you later!" He said, smiling as he watched her retreating form.