CHAPTER FIVE : Water Stains
"Hey, Kyo-kun?"
Kyoya's fingers tapped systematically on his keyboard, though he inclined his head slightly to show that he was listening. He wasn't particularly interested in anything that Hunny might have to say to him. If he felt anything towards it, Kyoya would probably have to say it was annoyance. Usually when Hunny talked to him it was to ask if they could order more cake the next time; he was close to making Hunny buy more than fifty percent of it.
"Do you know where Hisoka-chan is?"
Kyoya missed the key he was supposed to hit, instead putting an 'M' where the 'H' was supposed to be. He backspaced and pushed his glasses up his nose before resuming.
"Why would I know where Miss Mara is?" He asked hypothetically. Out of the corner of his eye he noticed as Hunny tilted his head.
"Because she said you were friends."
This time, Kyoya's finger froze, hovering above the keyboard. He had stopped typing all together.
Hisoka stood in her room. It was dark, even though her maid, Rin, had come in and opened the curtains. The clouds blocked out the sun, and the rain pelted against the large window. Today she had actually slept in late because Rin had been busy preparing the pool very early that morning and had lost track of time.
She had gotten sleep for once, but she was still exhausted.
Now she stood still in her room, knowing that she should hurry because she was going to be late for school, but she couldn't force herself to move. She lingered in the door of her open closet, holding a bundle in her arms. If someone were to walk in, they might think the scene looked strange, with rain pelting down outside and tapping without rythm against the window pane, and Hisoka standing in her closet door, looking to be nothing more than a cardboard cutout of a small, sickly girl holding a lump.
It was the Ouran High School male uniform. She rested her open palm on the fabric, running her fingers over the creases. She wore no expression on her face, instead staring almost blankly at the uniform. Hisoka wondered if she put it on, would she become a new person?
She found herself weirdly obsessed with the idea of becoming someone else. She could almost taste it, as though she might turn around and decide that she could only ever be this new person. She could drown in this new life, roll herself into it, feel it wrap around her and hold her tightly. Then swallow her whole.
Hisoka blinked back to reality, jerking out of this idea as if she was coming out of deep water, and shoved the uniform back into the closet. She was late for school.
Mori leaned on his elbow, his chin cupped in his hand as he listened to the teacher go on, pointing periodically at the board where he had written some notes. Clearly, the tall, dark haired boy was far from engaged with the lecture, and it didn't take long for his eyes to slowly drift out the window. He watched the rain slide down the glass swiftly, each drop racing the other. He waggled his pencil, his eyes catching the reflection sweeping back and forth over the pane.
He was surprised to find another reflection suddenly drifting past, but before he could glance behind him to see what it was, he realized that it was a figure running towards the school in the rain. He squinted, feeling recognition slithering up his spine. Whoever it was wasn't wearing a uniform, but it was definitely a girl, and most certainly wasn't a teacher.
Hisoka.
Mori frowned, wondering what she could possibly be doing coming to school so late. She ran through the rain, covering her head with her hands, though it was clearly doing very little for her. She was getting completely soaked. For a moment he was worried that she might catch a cold, and then she disappeared out of his view.
His mind went back suddenly the image of her underwater, her hair floating around her head and her dress blooming around her, and the look in her half lidded eyes. The drowning look. Not because she was underwater, but because of something else, something much heavier.
Then her standing, dripping, wearing one shoe and half blind because she didn't have the glasses that she had now, her hair plastered around her head and her dress clinging to her skin. She had looked so... lost.
She always managed to look lost, somehow.
He wondered how she got into the pool, in the first place. Somehow he doubted she jumped in fully clothed, but she didn't seem to have just fallen in. She had been just drifting, and he wondered if maybe she had hit her head, and hoped that she hadn't. She hadn't been unconscious. But she hadn't looked confused, either.
He resolved to ask her as his attention went back to the front of the room, where the teacher was still giving their lecture.
Hisoka snapped out of her daydreaming as the bell rang, jerking awake while her teacher called for the homework to be completed on time, and to not forget about the project—she wasn't really listening. She sighed, standing slowly, straightening herself out, and gathering her things purposefully slower than the rest of the class.
Out of the corner of her eye she watched as Natsumi and Miki walked out of the room, and sighed in relief when they were finally gone. She was alone.
"Should I...?" She mumbled to herself. She had promised Hunny that she would go visit him in the Host Club, and now that Miki and Natsumi weren't there, waiting for her like some sort of pack of wild dogs, she felt somewhat safe. She could move on her own, she didn't have to worry about being hunted down. Besides, the very least she could do was apologize.
Her mind went back to just yesterday, and she could feel her fingers tightening around the handle of her book bag. She knew better than to believe them, but at the time it had been just too much. Hunny wasn't the type of person to play that sort of joke on someone, and even if he was Kyoya would never allow it. Not at the expense of the Host Club.
She couldn't help the small smile that tilted her lips at the thought of Kyoya. He loved his business too much, more than anything, really. He would never let anything happen to the love of his life.
Before she realized where she was, Hisoka found her hand brushing over the handle of Music Room Three. She paused, before biting her lip and pushing it open.
There were no roses, no bright lights. Hisoka's life was never glamorous. Instead she looked at the rather normal scene of the Host Club sitting with their customers, talking smoothly and drinking tea calmly. It seemed so normal and casual, as though it were some large club that just so happened to have more girl's involved than boys.
The more she thought about it, the stranger the idea of a Host Club seemed to become.
Hisoka slid inside and gently closed the doors behind her, being as quiet as possible. She lingered by the door, looking around the room until she spotted where Hunny and Mori sat, Hunny talking animatedly to his customers, and with a bit of anxiety she noticed that two of those customers consisted of Miki and Natsumi. It seemed almost no one had noticed her yet.
Almost no one.
Hisoka found herself still searching the sea of elegant faces and poised postures, and then she was looking straight into a set of cold, calculating eyes hidden behind a wall of glass. Kyoya. Of course he had noticed her enter the room. Sometimes she wondered if he was too observant. She smiled minutely and waved, but her attention was quickly drawn away from him.
"Hiso-chan!"
For only a moment her eyes passed the window. She realized with disdain that it was still raining.
Hunny bounded up to her, grinning from ear to ear as he flung himself at her mid section. She let out a surprised squeak as he wrapped his arms around her stomach, that of which bulged oddly beneath her baggy sweater. She wondered if she should feel any sort of pain, but it never came.
The little blond looked up at her, and she noticed suddenly that he had tears in his eyes.
"Hiso-chan, you never came the other day. Did you forget about me?" He wailed, and she blushed, shaking her head.
"N-no, that's why I'm here. Something came up, and I'm very sorry—"
"It's ok, Hiso-chan, you can just visit me today, instead!" Hunny grinned cutely, his small fingers wrapping around her own, and he began to pull her in the direction of his table. Nervously Hisoka glanced up to find two pairs of eyes glaring at her, clearly annoyed, and she tried to tell Hunny that she wasn't sure it was such a good idea but he wasn't listening.
Before she knew it, he had pushed her towards a chair and had climbed on to the one next to it, swinging his legs childishly. He looked up at her with wide, innocent and eyes, and even though she could feel the two other girls at the table trying to turn her inside out with their stares, she took a seat beside him and offered him a small smile.
"Yay, Hiso-chan is joining us!" Hunny crowed. Hisoka set her bag down beside her chair, and pulled out a library book for comfort. This way she didn't even have to look in Miki and Natsumi's direction.
"Oh, hi there, Hisoka," Natsumi said smoothly, offering a polite smile, but Hisoka could see the warning behind it. "Still no uniform?"
It was a taunt. She wasn't going to fall for it.
Beside them, Mori glanced at Natsumi, a strange look on his face, before he looked over at Hisoka. She had quickly buried her blushing face in her book. Clearly she was uncomfortable, but if Natsumi noticed she didn't seem to mind.
"How was your day, Hiso-chan?" Hunny asked cutely, placing his hands on his cheeks. Hisoka glanced warily at Miki and Natsumi, but they were busy with eagerly attempting to keep Mori's attention.
"It was normal, I suppose." At this, Mori looked away from Miki, who was trying to explain her fathers business in the most animated way possible, and looked directly at Hisoka. She blushed and looked away, trying to keep from drawing any more attention to herself, but it seemed too late. She hid behind her library book, trying to keep the two girls from seeing how red her face had become. "How was your day, Hunny-sempei?"
"Normal," he replied cheekily. Hisoka couldn't help her small smile, despite the fact that he was being somewhat bratty. He pushed her book down, away from her face. "You have such a cute smile, Hiso-chan," he crowed, leaning in closer to her. Logically, she knew it was a part of his hosting act, but she couldn't help the feeling of butterflies in her stomach.
Natsumi glanced at her companion, an annoyed sneer on her face. Miki frowned, pursing her lips. They were both irritated.
"Th-thank you," Hisoka stuttered out, setting down her book. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Natsumi move her arm, but she reacted too slowly.
"Oops."
Natsumi didn't look sorry.
Hisoka jumped up, letting out a small yelp as tea splashed over her book and dripped over the table. Hunny lept up with a yell, and Mori stood, as well, if only to make sure he was as far away from the mess as possible, conscious of his clothing. Natsumi and Miki followed, hiding behind Mori. Almost as though they worried the table might retaliate.
"Hisoka...?"
She looked up, her eyes wide. She could feel the tears burning her skin, but she didn't want them to spill over her cheeks, not in front of everyone. Not in front of Miki and Natsumi. Not in front of Kyoya.
"I... I have to go."
She turned and fled.
It wasn't until she was out in the hallway that she could feel the tears running tracks down her cheeks, or the sobs ripping from her throat. She could barely see and stumbled over her own feet. Hisoka gasped as she tripped into the wall, catching herself with an open palm slapping against the pink wallpaper. She found herself slowly sinking to her knee's, clawing at the plaster, and then at her own stomach.
She hated this. She hated this feeling of being helpless.
Something heavy fell on her shoulder, and it took her a moment to realize that she hadn't imagined it. It was someone's hand, a boy's, judging the weight and size. She didn't want to look up because she could imagine the way they looked now. They would look at hr like she was too small to be able to take care of herself. It was exactly what she didn't need.
"Hisoka."
That deep voice... it was Mori.
Hisoka looked up slowly, and if he was surprised that she was crying he didn't show it. He towered over her, being as tall as he was. He realized the height difference quickly and kneeled down beside her. Hisoka sniffled, rubbing her nose on her sleeve. She had never really been much of a lady, anyway.
"Mori-sempei, I'm sorry," Hisoka sighed. She glanced down at the book clutched in her hand, still soaked. "It's so silly to be crying over something like this. This book isn't even mine. I got it from the library." She winced. That was obvious, she didn't need to say something like that.
Something about Mori made her nervous.
"But it's just so... so mean and stupid to do something like this. It's not like it's really hurting me, right? They just ruined a book. And sure she made it look like and accident, but I'm not an idiot, Mori," Hisoka gushed, standing suddenly and pacing back and forth across the hall. Her tears only seemed to get hotter the angrier she got. "And it's not like I can't pay for it. It's just a cheap, stupid book. But it's the principle of the thing," she emphasized, throwing out her hands. She almost hit Mori, but he backed up just in time. "Either way I'm going to be the one to get in trouble for ruining the book. You realize that, right? It's going to e me who gets yelled at. It's not even my fault! I'm not the one who stained it. I'm the one who has to pay for this stupid—ugh, this stupid stain, this—this aberration on it's body-!"
Hisoka gasped out, the tears coming harder now. She threw the book at the wall with a frustrated yell, sobbing as she wrapped her arms around her middle. She was breaking down, here, in the middle of the hallway in front of a complete stranger and he just watched her, his eyes growing darker with every word, and before Mori found himself breaking things with his hands he did the next thing he could think of.
And Hisoka stilled as he wrapped his arms around her, and then sobbed into his shoulder because it was all she could think to do.
"I'm sorry," she hiccoughed, but Mori only held her tighter. She found herself gripping his blazar, and eventually she stopped whimpering and shaking, and it was enough, for now. Mori held her until he was sure that she would be okay, and then she pulled away. Hisoka wiped at her eyes and her nose, clearly embarrassed. Mori didn't seem to mind the large stain on his shoulder, but she still felt bad that she had left one, regardless.
Hisoka took a step back, her face flushed and tear tracks still painted down her cheeks. Mori stood, and she breathed. He watched her as she gathered herself, picking up the broken pieces and putting them back into place. He hadn't realized he had stumbled into such an important moment, and perhaps he wouldn't realize it for a long time, but something clicked into place just then. Something important.
"Your bag." He held it out for her, and Hisoka looked up. She smiled as she took it from him, but it was a broken smile. She was at least grateful that she wouldn't have to go back into the third music room to get it. She hadn't even realized that she left it behind.
"Thank you." She paused. "What was your name again?"
"Takashi Morinozuka."
"Takashi." She smiled, and Mori felt everything coming to a stop. As though the world had been spinning around him, but he hadn't even noticed until it came to a stand still, and he hadn't even known that he had been missing something in the first place. It was a peculiar feeling, something new to him, and not wholly unpleasant. It was only unnerving because he had never encountered such a feeling before in his life. "That's a nice name. I'm Hisoka Mara. Call me Hisoka from now on, ok?"
And so he would.
Inside the third music room, a little blond haired girl sat beside the prince of the Host Club, but she wasn't enamored as the other girls seemed to be. Instead she watched the door with sharp green eyes, waiting. It was clear to her that not all was as it seemed.
A/U: Here ya go. Is kneeled a word?
God, someone, please just tell me what you think. This is killing me. Even if you're just being a sarcastic little jerk, say SOMETHING. Ugh. I'm just gunna whine until you do.
Not that it effects you, any. You can just opt to not read this portion. Anyway. Viola! Chapter five.
