I LIVE!! –screams at top of lungs- Finally, I have access to a computer, and FINALLY I can update!! My laptop broke, sorry folks. Blame it on technology.
Okay, you're probably eager to see what my mind's been broiling up for all you lovely people…so enjoy this next chapter! –evil chuckle-….
By the way, it's slightly depressive. I'm not sure why, it just…came out that way. –shrugs- I'm not to blame I swear! –ducks rotten tomatoes-
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Chapter 12.
Recap:
Hikaru swallowed hard; not because of her words but because of her touch. Improper thoughts creeped into his head as he stared into her determined gaze, felt her hands on his shoulders. If only Tamaki wasn't existent…he would take her into his arms…stroke her hair and tell her how much he cared…
In the rush of his thoughts, he stretched a trembling hand towards her face. His fingers brushed against her cheek. "Haruhi…" he wavered.
She raised her eyebrows in surprise; her arms dropped to her sides. "Hikaru?"
"I…" He gulped. "I don't know…."
Haruhi laughed, shocking him. "You don't know?" she asked with a smile.
Stupidly, Hikaru shook his head.
"Oh, that's okay. I always forget what I'm going to say as well." She stepped back from him. His touch left her cheek. "Well, when you remember, let me know."
Hikaru blinked, not comprehending. In a small way, subtly, Haruhi had rejected him. Hard.
Story:
Translations: Anata wa kaetta ho gaii: It'd be best for you to leave.
Mite: look
Hidari ni magate: turn left
Baka: idiot, stupid
Nan desu ka: What is it?
Ikagen ni tammate kuremasen: Oh shut up
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.
Hikaru's room, 7:00 p.m.
"I don't understand. Haruhi REALIZED what you were trying to say?"
Hikaru nodded, burying his wet face into the pillow. The rough material scratched against his tears. "It was torment, Kaoru."
His brother frowned. "Well, Haruhi is certainly getting smarter."
"Does it matter?" Hikaru sat up suddenly, clutching the pillow in his lap with tense fists. "She rejected me, Kaoru, that's all there is to it. Can you at least pretend to be sympathetic?"
With a grin, Kaoru poked his twin's cheek. "Then again, it'd be of great interest to our classmates if I told them you were crying over a simple girl."
"Shut up, Kaoru. Even you know that she's not just a girl." Shooting him a glare, he twisted around and flopped back onto the bed, hiding his face from his brother.
Kaoru sighed, fingering his nails absently. "Hikaru…I didn't know…that Haruhi meant so much to you."
"Huh?" Hikaru grumbled from somewhere deep in the pillow.
"Well, a couple of years ago we were taunting girls and making their life miserable. Now you're crying over one of them. It's weird how things change, that's all."
"Anata wa kaetta ho gaii," Hikaru told his brother in a dead tone.
"Fine." Kaoru stood, his hands drawing into fists. "I'll leave you alone." Marching to the door, he yanked it open and disappeared through it, the swiveling board of wood slamming behind him. The light of the hall snapped off Hikaru's body, leaving him to sulk in the dark.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x………………………………………
The next morning; in the halls before First Period
"Ohayo, Haruhi."
Haruhi turned her head, smiling. "Ohayo gozaimasu, Tama—O-oh I mean Kunio-senpai," she ended awkwardly, taken aback by her mistake.
Kunio grinned. "I sound like him that much, eh?"
"Your Japanese is a bit more accented," she admitted. "But otherwise, yes." She turned, continuing her way down the hall, expecting Kunio to follow. He did. "Are you feeling better than you did yesterday?"
"Yester…? Ah. Yes, I am. You were there, were you?"
"You…can't remember?"
"No, people generally can't when they're hopelessly drunk like I was," Kunio laughed, his words coming easily on the scandalous subject. "I'm sorry you had to see it."
Haruhi frowned up at him, hugging her books to her chest. "Why were you like that in the first place, Kunio-senpai?"
"Good question," he told her, nodding. He weaved around a giggling group of girls, offering them a casual wave as he passed. He grinned down at Haruhi's questioning look. "If I knew why I snuck half a dozen beers to school yesterday and drank them to no end and got Tamaki embarrassed because of it, I'd tell you."
"Do you miss France?" Haruhi tilted her head to one side, keeping her eyes on his face. "Are you homesick?"
"Yeah. I miss France," lied Kunio.
"Hmm." After a moment, Haruhi continued, "I think that's pretty natural. Tamaki misses France from time to time, too."
Kunio stopped. Swivelled around in front of Haruhi, hands in his pockets, a grin playing at his lips. "The conversation always goes back to Tamaki, doesn't it?"
Haruhi blinked, seeing the hatred in his eyes. "Kunio-senpai…"
"What are you doing?" came the chilling voice behind Haruhi. She cringed, and slowly turned her head, expecting some kind of bizarre attack. A sweat-drop formed as she saw Tamaki, his face darkened by some unknown shadow (miming the special trait of Nekozawa). His tall figure towered over her.
"Hello, Tamaki," greeted Kunio with a small wave. "How nice of you to join our conversation. We were just talking about you."
Tamaki pushed Haruhi to the side, taking a large step in front of her. "Oh, really?" he growled. Haruhi, still stunned at being shoved aside so suddenly, raised an eyebrow at Tamaki's dark, intense voice.
Kunio smirked at his opponent. "Yup. Haruhi told me many interesting things about you."
"I did?" Haruhi asked.
Her input was ignored. "What she says about me can't be any worse than her comments about you," Tamaki parried, quite uselessly.
Haruhi stood stricken with confusion. What did she say?
"I didn't know you meowed, Tamaki," grinned Kunio.
"Meowed?" Tamaki repeated, his expression curious.
"Yeah. Haruhi passed on the information that you frequently meowed while—"
"OMIGOD! SO CUTE!" a girl screamed from across the hall. Stiffening, Haruhi, Tamaki, and Kunio turned their heads to see a very excited girl leaping in circles with a bear held high. "Look, everyone! Look what my boyfriend bought me for my birthday!"
Beside her, a very embarrassed boy shrunk into the wall and blushed deeply at the girl's outburst. But, thankfully, it had saved Haruhi and Tamaki's innocent ears from hearing Kunio's inappropriate lie.
Tamaki snapped his gaze back to Kunio, glaring. "Don't talk to my Haruhi again. I don't want her mind tainted by your fiendish ways!" Taking Haruhi by the arm, he walked away from Kunio, Haruhi in tow.
As they left, Kunio smirked to himself, arms crossed over his broad chest. His damage in that relationship had been done.
"Tamaki? Ow! Tamaki-senpai, let go of me!" The formal tag at the end of his name felt awkward and foreign passing through her lips, but it got him to stop. She snapped her arm from his fist, rubbing her sore wrist, glaring at her over-reactive boyfriend. "What in the world's the matter with you?"
Tamaki's shoulders slumped as he let out a heavy sigh, and he turned to face her. "Haruhi, I don't want to chain you any longer."
Her brown orbs flashed in a blink. "Eh?"
"Don't act like you don't know, Haruhi. I'm chaining you, aren't I? Ever since we became one, it's been restricting on who you can have feelings towards."
Haruhi stared. Failed to comprehend. "What?" she spat.
Tamaki didn't seem to realize how absurd he was beginning to sound. He continued in a low voice, his hair shadowing half his expressionless face, "You've liked everyone in the Host Club for some time now. It's evident. And now that Kunio's come…" He scowled at the ground, then met Haruhi's wide eyes. "Tell me, Haruhi: did you accept my feelings because you truly love me, or is it because I was the first one out of your admirers to ask?"
Haruhi was rendered speechless. Was it a joke? It couldn't be; looking into his eyes, she saw that he was being perfectly serious. What depressive, low self-esteemed, angst character had replaced her carefree, continuously happy Tamaki?
"Ah! Mite, mite!" a nearby girl gasped. "It's Tamaki-senpai and Haruhi-kun; talking together!"
This immediately attracted a swarm of Tamaki and Haruhi's fans combined, and within moments the two were drowning in devastated/ecstatic/screaming fans.
Shooting him a disapproving scowl, Haruhi grabbed Tamaki's arm and yanked him away from the crowd. They crawled, elbowed, and toppled their way through the sea of yellow and white uniform dresses, until they were sprinting down the hallway to a nearby janitor's closet.
"Follow!" a large second-year girl declared, stomping a size 11 foot and pointing dead in the retreating couple's direction.
"Hai!" they chorused, and charged.
"Haruhi! Hidari ni magate!" Tamaki called. Simultaneously they ducked through the closet door, slamming it behind them.
Of course, the fan girls charged mindlessly past, completely unaware of their disappearance.
In the dim light of the closet, it triggered in Haruhi's mind that she was pressed to Tamaki against the wall when she opened one eye. Looking up into his face, she asked, "Senpai? Can you stop crushing me? It's beginning to hurt."
"Gomen," Tamaki muttered, backing away.
Haruhi sighed, closing her eyes in frustration. "Now, what's this about? You're not acting normal at—"
"Do you like Kunio or don't you?" Tamaki cut her off, swiveling around to stare into her eyes. In his own kindled a fire of madness, of obsession. Haruhi pressed against the wall, afraid of it.
"Wh-What do you mean?"
"Kunio and you. Do you like him?"
"Why not? He's nice."
Tamaki nodded, giving out a bitter laugh. "Nice," he repeated.
"What's wrong with Kunio?" Haruhi challenged. "Why are you paranoid?"
Tamaki fell silent, looking away.
"I don't understand you. Yesterday you were happy and nothing was wrong; now, just because I talked to Kunio before class, you're shouting at me!" She took a step forward, pointing a finger erect into his face. "Yes, I feel chained, Tamaki. But that's because I can't talk to anyone without getting question after question from you."
His silence, and the fact that he wouldn't make any sort of eye contact with her, just made her all the angrier.
"Why ask me about our relationship? Yes, the Host Club is special to me, but if doesn't mean that I love them all romantically." Her fists clenched; angry tears prickled her eyes. "I love you, baka, and if you're too blind to see it, then…" She placed a hand on the door handle, opening it sharply, scowling at him over her shoulder. "…then maybe we should forget we were ever a couple, Tamaki Suoh."
He winced as the door slammed behind her. But he still said nothing.
"Haru-chan!" Hunny chimed, as Haruhi marched down the hall, her face contorted in anger. He stopped in the middle of his journey to her, face melting into a worried frown. "Haru-chan? What's wrong?"
"Nothing, Hunny-senpai," she murmured, making an awkward beeline around him. Her shoulder was caught by Mori's hand, and she met his concerned eyes.
"Nan desu ka?" he asked her.
She hid her eyes by averting them to the floor. "Nothing. I need to get to class."
Mori let her go, and she walked off, her head hung in a dejected position. Both cousins gave each other a glance.
"Where's Tamaki?" Mori asked.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x………………………………………..
During break, in the empty Science lab
Hikaru's frown deepened, and he shyed away from Tamaki's sneering cousin. "I-I don't want to," he said quietly, looking away.
"No? Oh, come on," Kunio chuckled. "You want that Haruhi girl. It's all too obvious. Why not win her back? It's evident she likes you too, you know."
Hikaru rolled his eyes, crossing his arms. "That's going a bit over the line with lies, isn't it?"
"Hmm, you're right. I was hoping you'd buy it anyway. But, getting to the point," Kunio continued, sitting at a rickety desk, "you can still have your chances with her. Tamaki and her relationship isn't very deep, and in my opinion, it's not going to last for much longer.
Hikaru raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"
Kunio nodded, his grin returning. "You'd have to help me, though. Tamaki will have to be…worked on."
"Huh?"
"Well, the only way for Haruhi to break up with him and come crying to you is to reveal some scandalous secret of his." Kunio leaned forward onto the desk, his chair creaking with his weight. "Tamaki exposed. All his shameful weaknesses revealed. Then Haruhi will get disgusted and drop him with a bang. Follow me?"
Hikaru nodded slowly. "And…what does that have to do with me?"
"Well, you're with him every day. You'd have to be even remotely close to him." A devilish glint entered his eye. "Tell me, Hikaru: have you heard anything about him and Kyoya's relationship?"
"Their what?" Hikaru yelped, springing to his feet.
"Relationship," Kunio repeated, mood calm. "They were involved with each other romantically at one point, weren't they?"
"N-No!"
"Hmm. We'll have to somehow pry it out of Kyoya, then."
Hikaru whacked a palm on Kunio's desk, leaning forward to scowl into Kunio's distasteful face. "Is that how you're going to 'ruin' Tamaki? By saying that he's GAY?"
"He acts it enough," shrugged Kunio.
"You're messed up," Hikaru announced. Straightening, he adjusted his blazer. "I can get over Haruhi. I won't assist in the defeat of someone that I respect."
"Respect?" snorted Kunio. "Who in their right mind can respect Tamaki? He's—"
"Ikagen ni tammate kuremasen," Hikaru sighed, turning on his heel. "You're boring me."
"Not living up to your reputation as the 'devil twin', are you?"
Hikaru glared at Kunio. "I'm not stooping that low. I don't accept your offer, and never will." Letting those words put an end to the conversation, Hikaru walked out of the classroom, the door slapping shut behind him.
Kaoru, Hunny, and Mori met him in the hall with eager eyes. "Well?" Kaoru persisted, placing a hand on Hikaru's shoulder.
Hikaru met his brother with eyes of steel. "Tamaki's cousin needs to go."
The 3 Host Club members nodded in vast agreement.
"As soon as possible," Mori said in a dangerous tone. The way Kunio treated Hunny still hung fresh in his mind.
"But…he won't go easily," Kaoru said in a soft voice, his eyes averting to the ground.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x………………………….
Lunchtime; outside of the lunchroom.
Kunio's eyes scanned across the lunchroom, through the small slit of window in the door. He saw Haruhi, sitting alone, distancing herself from the rest of the Host Club. Tamaki and Kyoya sat a few tables away from her, neither of them saying a word. There wasn't much to be said. Both Tamaki and Haruhi had eaten nothing on their plates; they simply stared at the tabletops, and drew imaginary lines with their index fingers.
"Both depressed as hell," Kunio muttered to himself. He had to admit, seeing Haruhi in pain wasn't as satisfying as it could be. She had something likeable about her; something he quickly dismissed. But Tamaki—the depressed expression on his face Kunio relished.
With a grin at this thought, Kunio turned on his heel, continuing down the empty hall, a spring in his step. Through his lips passed a jaunty whistle.
Finally, Tamaki isn't getting everything, he thought with a smirk.
In his mind blurred a memory, that sharply turned to great detail. He frowned, staring at the ground, letting the thoughts of the past consuming him….
"Mommy," says the five-year-old Kunio, his face barely visible over the rim of the tabletop, a crayon clenched in his hand. "Who do you like better?"
His mother, absorbed in her paper, coffee cup raised to her lips, asks in an absent tone, "What's that, hon?"
"Look." Kunio holds up a picture over his breakfast cereal; a picture of two blonde boys drawn in clumsy green and yellow crayon. "Who do you like better? Me or Tamaki?"
His mother looks up, giving him a curious look; something between confusion and pain. "What sort of question is that, Kunio baby? Of course I love you more. Tamaki is your aunt's son."
"I know, but you spend more time with him and his mommy than you do with me," Kunio sniffs, itching his scruffy blonde hair.
His mother's look softens. She leaves her chair and kneels down beside him, wrapping her arms around his small body. She buries her face into his small shoulder. "Baby, things will get better," she whispers into his ear. "I promise. One day, you'll have me all to yourself. I'm just…busy right now." Her grip tightens, and her voice catches. "I promise we'll be together every day soon, love."
Kunio nods, his wet eyes looking to the grey wall opposite of them. He knows that his Mom loves him better than Tamaki, than his aunt, than those men that she takes past his door and to her bedroom every night.
Like a fool, he hung onto that promise.
'We'll be together every day soon, love.'
"Fat load of bull," Kunio muttered, ducking into a nearby classroom. A sharp twist of his will, and his mind flashed back to the present time.
No use dwelling on memories, after all.
x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x.x
Hopefully that gave you some insight on Kunio…he's quite the Mommy's boy, isn't he? –evil grin- Not so tough anymore, is he?
But do not be fooled; there is more!
Press that lovely little button on the bottom of the screen and see great things…Oooh! –eerie whistle-
Again, sorry for the irritating delay!
-KuroHinote