Mrs. Harumi clasped her hands, and looked at the sky.
It was three years since she had seen Haruhi. And it was all Ranka's fault. All his fault for pushing her out, and yelling at her for to get out and never show her face.
Sighing at frustration she went into the jail center. Going to the counter she went to the lady at the desk and said, "I would like to visit Ranka Fujioka, please."
The lady nodded, typed a couple of words in the computer, and then printed a card, with Ranka's name on it. Nodding she said, "Go ahead, miss."
Mrs. Harumi thanked the lady and went to the room where a glass wall separated the prisoners from the visitors. She looked at her ticket. She had to sit at stall #2.
Sitting on the seat at stall 2, she waited for Ranka to come. As if on cue, a staff person was restraining Ranka back the moment he saw his 'visitor' was the same woman who put him in jail.
Mrs. Harumi smirked, practically smelling victory when Ranka slammed himself into the chair and the guard stood close behind, not allowing Ranka to leave.
Both corners of her smirk tugged upwards into a devilish grin. Picking up the phone she didn't have to spend her energy to say the first line. Ranka beat her to it.
"I hate you so much," he growled into the phone.
"Payback's a bitch," she said, nodding, "And I will keep visiting once a week to keep Haruhi fresh in your mind."
"You son of a bitch," he growled.
"Sorry, but I'm not a boy," she grinned, spiking Ranka's anger, "I am a woman. And I may be such an annoying lady, but hey, at least I am not a transvestite who has love affairs with guys at the bar and parties the whole stupid night long."
Ranka gritted his teeth. The real reason he cross-dressed was to keep himself locked from being with any other woman. Kotoko was the only woman he loved and her affections were for him ONLY. But ever since Haruhi was born, Kotoko would hug and smile and giggle Haruhi only. Where was he? A mere ghost who was not seen by his own wife. So because of that, he hated his own daughter. And when Kotoko died, he could finally tell his daughter how much he hated her to the core.
"She stole my wife away from me. Taking all of her affections and love and caring. She cared about Haruhi this, Haruhi that! What she should get, what she should do! She almost never looked at me for any reason, only for an opinion in her little 'Haruhi' decisions. And when she died, it gave me all the reasons to hate her," Ranka spat, his eyes turning dark.
Mrs. Harumi wasn't giving into Ranka's sparkle attack and lovesick story. Instead she scoffed and said, "You sound like a lovesick puppy."
Ranka almost broke the glass. Exploding with anger, he roared, "WHAT?!"
"If you only wanted attention from your wife, you could've asked her. Do something with her that requires only you two and no children," she said.
Ranka sat silent.
"And judging your daughter, she isn't clingy or whiney. She is blunt, honest, practical, and understanding. Her whole personality screams kindness. If you wanted to spend time with your wife, then you could just politely ask her and she would've understood and give you plenty of time to have cozy one-on-one time with Mrs. Fujioka," Mrs. Harumi spat into the phone.
Ranka was pin drop silent. He knew his pain, but never let it surface.
He isn't like Kotoko or Haruhi who are blunt, cold, unfeeling, kind, and honest. He never had the nerves to tell his wife that he wanted some attention, too. He just never asked for it.
"Oh yeah, I should try that…" he rubbed his chin, oblivious to the fact that his wife is dead, his daughter was rudely pushed out of his house, he is in jail, and he has an annoyed woman in front of him.
"Yeah, well, it's too late. Your wife is dead," Mrs. Harumi laughed with heavy sarcasm filling her voice.
Ranka shivered and didn't have enough energy to glare back.
"Your wife is dead, your daughter is out of your sight, and you are in jail. You have no home. I have it under my name, and sold all of your possessions, as part of legal issues. As for Haruhi's legal documents, and possessions, I have it stored away. The money that came out of the sale is put in Haruhi's inheritance. If she never shows up, I will call that an abusive attempt to murder her and this jail time will be for lifelong sentence," Mrs. Harumi smirked.
Ranka's jaw dropped and he tried to stutter and bang on the glass, and the guard caught him. Ranka was so strong that two other guards had to hold him off. Holding the phone to her ear she smiled, "Hope you have fun rotting in hell, sir."
Ranka tried even more to struggle against the guards. Smirking once more, she said, "This conversation, for now, is over."
She put the phone down in the cradle, and she waved a hand dismissively to the guards who were giving her a questioning look to either drag him back or let him stay and talk.
"Drag him back, I'm done with him, for now…" she smirked at that.
The guards, now annoyed, consented to her request and dragged Ranka back in his cell, despite how much he protested.
Mrs. Harumi smirked. This is what he got for abusing Haruhi. He didn't know that she had become a second mother to Haruhi.
Turning swiftly on her heels she left the jail building, and to lighten up the mood, she decided to go and watch a movie.
Now, you have nowhere to hide.
Now, you have nowhere to stay.
[Haruhi' POV]
I looked all over for Azu-nee.
I do not want to have those dreadful lessons. I am still weary and tired from Suoh-san trying to ruin my relations with the Hitachiin family. And I have to learn how to become a lady? Not one of my desires.
I tip-toed around a music room and tried to hide myself behind a piano, even though I am not the sneakiest person on the planet, it was worth the shot.
"And just what are you doing?" an annoying voice came from whoever is playing the piano.
I come out from my hiding spot from the piano.
"Eh-heh," I laugh nervously and scratch the back of my head. My day is just brighter. It wasn't Azu-nee, but Hikaru. And he is so going to turn me into his wife.
"You are not going to tell," I glared at him.
He held his hands up in pure innocence, "Don't worry, I won't spill a word."
I huffed and crossed my arms, "Oh really? Because last week when Azumi dragged me to art lessons and I hid behind a potted plant, I heard you telling Azu-nee where I was."
"You have photographic memory," Hikaru sweat dropped.
"No, duh, it was a week ago," I rolled my eyes.
"Found you!" a hand clamped down on my shoulder, "Just when we come to the fun part of wearing high heels! You are eighteen, and I am not surprised if one of these days Hikaru's dense brother proposes to you and you have no ladylike traits at all!"
Hikaru looked mockingly offended and I felt spent.
"Aww, we all know high heels causes early death," I pouted.
"And as a punishment for saying that you are going to wear a pink gown!" Azumi was trying in her every way to make me girly.
"Shoot," I grumble. I like blue, and she is making me wear pink. Oh the joys…
Hikaru grinned from the other side of the piano and pulled Azumi into a quick kiss. I blanched slightly, and made sure she didn't see my slightly disgusted face at her PDA.
"Good luck making our little tomboy girly," Hikaru grinned. Azumi blushed and I rolled my eyes.
"You two, I am not your daughter," I groaned.
"Of course you are. And when you are getting married, I will be the one in the first corner, with a hankie, and blowing my nose out from crying," Azumi dramatically whipped out a sample handkerchief.
I sweat dropped. I thought she was just kidding.
"No I wasn't. Now let's get back to etiquette lessons, which you seem to be doing terribly in," she took me by my light blue dress collar and dragged me back to the room. I glared at Hikaru when all he did was sit at the piano and grin at me and wave.
"Have fun!"
I grumbled. This is far from fun; more like torture.
[4 hours later…]
My heels were throbbing from wearing four inch high heels. And it was even more prolonged when Azu-nee put books on my head with a strict warning along the signs of: If I drop the book, I have to go back and start again.
On my eighth attempt, I managed to, with a lot of wobbling, to get across the room with the books on my head. Azumi sighed and tapped her chin in disappointment.
"Hmm, not enough ladylike grace, but I guess it can do. Off to corsets!" she cheerfully clasped her hands together and added, "Take off your heels, though."
I tried not to exclaim in excitement of taking off my heels, though, of the fear of her getting offended and making me do the whole course, again.
I sighed and then squeezed myself into that ridiculous fuchsia ball gown which happened to be strapless, showing off more skin than my dignity could allow. I nearly face palmed in my mere desperate state at the moment. I hope Kaoru doesn't walk in.
My hair was pulled into a painful bun. And I felt I was being pulled to being as thin as a pencil with a corset tied so tight by Azu-nee.
"Somehow I wish I can stay a little child forever," I wheezed over the tightness of the corset.
"Nonsense! The pink dress is torture for trying to get out of etiquette lessons, and for insulting high heels. Now we are going to wear heels and will walk all over the mansion, in a perfect ladylike manner," Azu-nee held up a pair of dark pink high heels for me to wear.
I gulped and then had to put them on, or else who knows what Azu-nee might do?
"Woah, woah, woah! You didn't say we had to climb stairs!" I gasped.
Azu-nee shrugged, "Well you can get across a room, so how bad is the stairs?"
I almost fell to the ground. So dense. I nearly hit my head on the wall but held myself back. Walking across the room was one thing, but walking down stairs and long hallways was a different story.
I gulped and followed Azu-nee, who already was out the door.
Time for hell.
[Normal POV]
To Haruhi's luck, she managed to get all the way through the walk in high heels, perfectly.
"Look at that, my little duckling said she couldn't climb stairs with high heels!" Azumi hit Haruhi's shoulder with her dark green fan.
Haruhi wearily looked at her sister, and said, "Unless you want me to fall face-flat on the floor, keep that fan one million miles away from me."
Azumi laughed ladylike behind her fan.
Reaching the two twins, Hikaru burst out laughing while Kaoru went completely red in the face.
Azumi glared at him and Hikaru apologized, "I am so sorry. I am just thinking that pink looks ridiculous on Haru-chan."
Haruhi threw her hands up in the air saying, "Finally! Someone gets the message!"
"Oh and her hair looks weird. Buns don't fit her. Just let her have her hair down or in a braid," Hikaru observed, poking at Haruhi's tight bun.
"I know that. But she complained about high heels and I had to do this to make her quiet," Azumi chuckled behind her fan.
"Don't you have your own fan?" Hikaru raised an eyebrow.
Haruhi let a sigh of frustration, "It is pink and lined with feathers."
Hikaru gulped, with a huge comical tear drop behind his head. Kaoru did the same thing too.
"Man she went on a pink rampage," Hikaru shook his head.
"Tell me about it," Haruhi shook her head.
"Well, well, enough torture," Azumi dramatically sighed, shutting her fan and casting a look at Haruhi, "Go get changed out of the hideous dress and corset and high heels and wear any gown and shoes of your choice."
Haruhi beamed, "Can I wear converse?"
Azumi scowled, "No."
"Well you said shoes…" Haruhi mumbled and Hikaru chuckled.
"When I said shoes, I didn't mean casual wear. I meant dress shoes. Doesn't have to be a pair of high heels, although wearing a pair of dark blue heels might make me happy," Azumi made a hopeful face.
"Not in a million years," Haruhi deadpanned.
Silence followed.
"All right, flats it is," Haruhi turned and went up the stairs.
"Wait! Don't you need help with the corset?!" Azumi panicked.
"You made her wear a corset? You can't even survive those!" Hikaru burst.
"No, it's okay! I will tear it off with a knife!" Haruhi called from her room.
"Or better yet, I will help you!" Mizumi's panicked yells came from above.
"Aww…" Haruhi whined.
Azumi chuckled, and felt partly relieved that she wouldn't see a corset in the trash bin, ripped in half by a knife.
Turning around she came face-in-face with her husband. Hikaru smirked, and Azumi sweat dropped.
"So you made her wear a corset, huh?"
[One hour later]
Haruhi carefully padded down the steps in an off shoulder midnight blue dress with silver butterflies decorating the edges of the gown. Her hair was pulled back into a Dutch braid, with butterfly clips decorating her braid.
She had on, thankfully, black flats. She now upmost hates etiquette lessons, because she doesn't need to be as socially reformed as the seventeenth ladies.
When she came to Azumi's side, Hikaru sighed a huge deep breath, saying "Oh much better. The pink was hurting my eyes."
Azumi glared Hikaru down and said, "Why, do you wish to wear a pink suit?"
Hikaru gulped, "No."
"Then I suppose you shut up right about now," Azumi glared at him behind her green fan.
"Yes, dear," Hikaru nervously laughed.
Haruhi smiled and watched Hikaru's unsuccessful attempts into making Azumi melt. She sighed, Azumi is a hard nut to crack.
Sitting down, pain poked her bottom before Haruhi got up from the Victorian couch and looked at the crumpled card. Written in elegant handwriting that she knew was Kaoru's, she read:
Meet me in the garden. I have something to tell you.
[Haruhi's POV]
Well that was weird. A card, just for me?
I went out of the living room where Azu-nee and Hikaru argued like an old couple, even though they look like newlyweds.
They are vampires. God knows, they could have been married for centuries, I thought, shrugging my shoulders.
They didn't notice, and I didn't want them to notice me leaving.
I walked out of the front doors and let the cold, crisp air, nip at my skin. It was, incidentally, another snowy day, and thank god my gown didn't touch the ground. As I navigated my way to the meeting place where Kaoru told me to come to, I didn't have to pick up my dress.
What did he want to tell me? He is very shy and never tells me things face-to-face. Heck, he hasn't even said one word to me, so I do not know what his voice looks like.
Making my way to the stone table, I look and Kaoru is nowhere in sight. Sighing in defeat, I sit on one of the stone seats surrounding the table.
I didn't see him, but my eyes rested on a black velvet box and a note card, bent in half to form a tent to stay up, like a place card.
My heart beat sped up. Velvet boxes mean one thing…
Reaching for the card, I read, which was personally written by Kaoru:
Will you marry me?
Heart racing so hard that I thought I could burst, I was at a loss of words. When I didn't say anything, two warm hands encircled my waist and I straightened out. What if this was Suoh-san trying to woo me again in his filthy marriage?
Or a perverted kidnapper?
Or, or, or…?
My thoughts were interrupted when a soft and silky voice cut right through mine, "Won't you marry me, my little butterfly?"
Butterfly? Well come to think of it, my dress which was mysteriously picked out for me, along with shoes and hairstyle and hair accessories and make up, was embellished in butterflies.
I turned around to see Kaoru, who was looking at me with sad, soft eyes. Tears trailed down my cheek as I reached a hand forward and stroked his cheek. He leaned into my touch and I muttered, "So that is what your voice sounds like…"
His eyes widened, but knew what I meant by. The whole time we met, we mutely fell in love.
I never heard his voice once. Never.
He nodded, and sadly smiled at me to give me an indirect apology.
"You didn't answer my question."
My mind cut back to the elegant writing on the card, the card he set on the stone table with the ring in the velvet box, though I didn't open it yet, because I am not one of those ladies who get fascinated by jewelry. I am fascinated by how much someone loves me for who I am.
Will you marry me?
The probing question burns in my mind, making one, two, three, and more marks inside my mind. I knew from what Azumi had stated for me. Do I love him…?
When those warm hands on my waist starts to leave me, I realized I was unintentionally looking at the ground, making it look like I didn't know how to tell him no.
"I understand you don't love me," his voice became detached, and he tugged his hands away from me.
But before he could even leave, I wrapped my skinny arms around Kaoru, and buried my head into his chest, mumbling, "Of course I will."
"What?" he asked, because my little muttering was very quiet.
"Yes."
"Yes what?"
"How many times do I need to say yes?"
"Just twice."
I giggled, and he warmly smiled, pulling me into a tight embrace.
When we broke the hug, he opened the box and slipped on my ring finger, a white gold ring with a simple diamond and a few garnets, my birthstone.
I smiled. The ring was simple and beautiful. It burned my desire to be simple and neat.
I leaned into a hug, and he mumbled into my ear and said, "You do know this is no ordinary human wedding."
I shivered, and nodded.
"You have to be converted into a pureblood," he looked remorseful at me, and I knew why. When I become a vampire with long fangs and immortality, there is no going back. No going back to my safe place, not that I have any.
I hugged him tighter and whispered, "Silly. I will do anything to be with you. I love you whether you are a vampire or not."
Kaoru smiled at this, and I knew he had every reason to smile.
We were complete now.