Chapter 5

Masquerade

It wasn't supposed to be this hard to walk outside and into the limo, but Akane could barely move her legs that morning. She stared at herself in the mirror, seeing something she most definitely did not recognize. Her hair was the same golden luster she had been born with, but it was straightened as flat as a dictionary page and her natural curly wave had vanished all together. Her eyes remained the same blue-green hue, but were shrouded in a mirage of professional makeup products. Her skin was covered in an expensive foundation, and every other part had been drowned in exotic lotion. She smelt of an expensive perfume, probably a special order from an exclusive company in France. She thought it smelled worse than dirt. But Sensei had specifically told her to let the makeup artists do their job and not fight or there would be consequences. And Akane knew exactly what the consequences would be.

A quiet knock rapped on the door, disturbing her thoughts.

"Come in," she replied, politely and lady-like. Another request Sensei wanted. The door creaked open, revealing a warmly smiling Tamaki.

"Ohayo, Akane-chan!" He greeted, being extremely charming without even trying to be. He strolled in, examining his sister's different appearance. "My, my, don't you look…." For some reason, unknown to even himself, he couldn't find the word to describe. She was too different, and Akane smiled sympathetically at his face, having the exact same feeling herself.

"I know," she sighed, releasing too much breath at once. Her mostly healed ribs suddenly struck her inside and she winced in pain, clutching her side tightly.

"Akane!" He said worriedly, quickly kneeling and reaching out to her.

"I'm fine," she snapped, her harsh tone unknown to her brother. Realizing what she had just said, she quickly sat up felt the guilt wash over her. "I'm so sorry. I'm just really moody this morning. Thank you, Oniisan." She turned around in her chair, snatching up a brush and covering her face with her hair while a few tears slid down her cheeks.

"Akane-chan…" Tamaki started. He knew how to read his sister, and this was completely out of character. Before he could investigate her, Shima crept into the room and grabbed Tamaki's shoulder.

"Tamaki-sama, I told you five minutes ago the limo was ready. Now get out here before I have to do something embarrassing to you in front of your sister," Shima scolded, causing Akane to let out a tiny giggle.

"That won't be necessary, Shima. We were just leaving. Catch ya later!" Tamaki replied, grabbing Akane and swooshing like magic out the door.

"Someone knock some sense into that child…" Shima smiled, toying with a fresh ruby rose on Akane's desk.

"Are you ready?"

"Not really, I think I'm just going to hide over here," Akane replied, scrunching herself into a dark corner of the limo. Tamaki smiled, seeing his sister act more like the young girl he spent his childhood days with. The car came to a halt and the chauffer swiftly opened the door, sun light spilling into the dark limo. Tamaki gallantly stepped out of the door, his designer sunglasses slipping glamorously onto the bridge of his nose.

Immediately students stared at him, a few girls squealing at his golden hair gleaming in the sun's rays. Dashingly, he turned around and stuck his hand into the limo, causing a few students to stop and gaze in curiosity.

"C'mon out, Akane-chan," He beckoned, holding his hand out closer to her. Akane gazed at it momentarily, hesitation clearly holding onto her with a vice like grip. After taking a careful breath in, confidently took the outstretched hand. Her long legs graced the pavement and she emerged, fluttering her shimmering turquoise eyes for all to see

Get noticed, be confident, and accomplish what Sensei told you to…

Students stopped and starred at the siblings, as Tamaki led her, graceful hand in hand, through the crowd. Peers flew in from all directions and a swell of discomfort flew furiously into Akane's chest. She forced out a smile, one she had practiced for a week straight to look believable enough.

This is your punishment…

Every room looked exactly the same, as did every face that stepped up to greet Akane and Tamaki as they waded through the hallway, if you could call it a highway. Akane greeted everyone, attempted to answer every question as graceful and happily as possible. Her heart beat fast with anxiety, hating every moment of this fake sincerity.

"Classroom 1-A," Tamaki announced, stopping in front of the classroom. "Here's you schedule; you'll probably be super excited about 4th period, but we'll let that stay a secret."

A gentle chime echoed through the marble tiled hallways and Tamaki grinned excitedly at his sister. "That's your cue," He urged, opening the classroom door wide open, exposing even more eager and curious faces staring into her. A small boy, only coming up to Akane's neck walked up to her, his friendly visage and brown glasses beaming at her. A girl trailed behind him, of average height and long brown hair.

"Have fun," Tamaki said, wrapping an arm around his sister's shoulder for a light hug, then striding off into the empty hallway. His right hand gave her a backwards wave and Akane was forced to slowly turn her head around to meet the classroom leaders.

"Everyone! Your attention please!" The boy, who apparently was the president of the class, called out. The class eagerly turned to the front of the room, their ears listening intently as the class president rarely made announcements that sounded this important.

"What do you think they'll be talking about this time?" Kaoru asked his twin, whispering lightly into Hikaru's ear. Hikaru's amber eyes burned with anticipation, turning back to his brother.

"I don't know, but I know there's a chance the president might squeal like a girl in the next minute..." he replied mischievously, causing the pretty brunette student next to him to turn and stare oddly at them.

"Oh, and why is that?" Kaoru asked snidely, a devious grin of his own slipping into his expression. Reaching stealthily under the table, the red head produced a long stick with a string tied on the end, from which a gruesome plastic spider dangled menacingly in the air. Haruhi sighed, knowing well enough the twins usual antics.

"Hey guys, don't so anything stupid. It's probably important," Haruhi nagged, throwing them a somewhat dirty look. Honestly, she was remotely tired, having stayed up a little too late last night studying for a test today. She let out a little yawn, stretching her arms to the ceiling.

"Fine, fine… we won't be mean to him," Hikaru reassured her, a "whatever" type look giving Haruhi enough trust in them to put her head to the desk and close her eyes.

"….we'll just give him a well-needed scare," Kaoru finished, the two sinking under the table like slippery snakes. With ninja like skill, they silently slipped to the empty teacher's desk, eagerly awaiting the perfect opportunity.

"Everyone, I'd like to introduce our new student," The class president began, blissfully unaware of the plastic beast that was swinging behind his head. "Some of you may know her brother, since he is quite well known at Ouran. Please welcome Akane Suou," He announced, motioning towards the classroom door.

Behind him, the pole dropped to the ground with a loud clatter, though no one bothered to even gaze in its direction. Two open-mouthed twins who seemed frozen in time and space stared in surprise, their minds not on the same page as their ears. Haruhi's head jerked up in surprise, not believing her ears as well.

"Akane…" the twins stuttered, slowly rising from their hiding place.

"Suou?" Haruhi blurted, unable to wrap her mind around anything that had just been said.

Just then, the door gently swung open and a lithe figure gracefully sauntered into the room. Straight golden hair cascaded like a wedding train behind her and her yellow uniform dress complemented the hair's sunshine luster to the point of near heavenly brightness. She turned to face the class, flawless creamy pale skin and natural looking rosy cheeks presenting themselves to everyone's eyes. Her eyes gently fluttered open, the professional eyeliner and eye shadow bringing forth the depths of her sea-green irises to gleam against her beautiful and delicate features.

"Hello everyone," She spoke politely, her words flowing out like a mellifluous song. "I'm looking forward very much to getting to know everyone at this school. I hope we all can be very good friends." Her whole face beamed in a graceful and endearing expression, not a perfect white tooth out of line.

Haruhi stared, finally able to take in the girl that stood before her. Though it seemed strange, since all the host could do was gaze into the deep pool of Akane's blue-green eyes. It was like Haruhi was searching for the joy that usually burst out that expression; the same look Tamaki tended to don from time to time. But there wasn't a trace to be found, no one ounce anywhere. All Haruhi could manage to find was a sort of pain, faded into the back of her eyes, as if it was a bird locked in a cage she suppressed under her flawless exterior.

Akane quietly took her seat after making sure to personally greet everyone in the class and take mental note of everyone's name and/or family name. She was situated in the back row, next to a boy about the same size as the class president, although no where near as nervous and nerd-like. The new member of class 1-A quickly absorbed the features; short, cute chocolate brown hair, deep brown eyes to match, and an almost … pretty air about him. Undeniably, there was something off about it, but Akane quickly shook it off, not having time to care about if she was uneasy about any of her peers. She had to be friends with everyone anyway.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Akane Suou. You may call me Akane-chan if you'd like," She greeted, putting just the right amount of cheer into her voice to make it sound natural. The "chan" thing usually got a giggle or smile out of the students.

"Uh… hello, Akane-chan," Haruhi replied, her voice somewhat unsure and surprised. As soon as she looked to Akane's eyes, she couldn't bear but delve into them again, only to achieve the same result as before.

"What's your name? If we're going to get to sit together, it'll be nice to know you well," She suggested slyly, making sure to add in "get" to make it sound more like she was looking forward to the whole ordeal.

"Fujioka Haruhi," Haruhi answered, still at somewhat of a loss for words.

"Haruhi… Ah! Are you one of the hosts? Oniisan mentioned you frequently when he talked about his club. It's very nice to finally meet you in person," Akane beamed. Good, one more name I don't have to memorize. From behind Haruhi, two identical looking red heads popped up, mouths still wide open from the earlier shock. They stared wide-eyed at Akane, examining her up and down, noticing the subtle similarities between her and her brother.

"Ah, you must be Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin. I've heard a good deal about you two as well. It's a pleasure to meet you," she said, another cheerful smile presenting itself. She outstretched her long arm and offered a hand to the still motionless twins. They remained still, not moving one inch at Akane's welcome.

"Hikaru! Kaoru! Wake up!" Haruhi whispered roughly, snapping her fingers in front of them several times, to no avail. Finally, she firmly smacked them both on the head, giving them a real rude awakening. They fell face first to the ground with a thud, chairs crashing around them. Haruhi and Akane peered over the collapsed desk, concerned for the strange duo. At an alarming speed, both heads shot up, causing the young Suou to stagger back in surprise. Two pairs of devious amber eyes gleamed at her and before she could react, two lean arms slid around her neck and hooked happily onto her slender shoulders.

"We apologize for before, Akane-san…" Kaoru started, though Akane could not tell one from the other. Her head swung back and forth between the two, each leaning casually on her as if she was a fence post.

"…We were just in shock of how much more beautiful you are than our lord," Hikaru continued, plastering a sly yet dashing grin on his face identical to Kaoru's. Akane fought the blush that attempted to surface on her cheeks, and allowed herself to let out a fake little giggle. On the inside, her stomach screamed in discomfort, wanting to slap both the twins of her shoulders.

She refrained though, and replied, "Why thank you, though I hope that doesn't spread to Tamaki. He thinks he's the pretty one." Yeah, that was generic enough. Actually, if she didn't have all this suffocating makeup on, she was sure Tamaki would look like a god compared to her.

The twins swiftly pulled away from her shoulder, as if they had rehearsed it a million times to be that perfectly in synchronization. They let out there own laugh, loving how they had discovered someone else who shared their delight of teasing Tamaki. They moved in quickly again, only inches away from her face, definitely close enough to get a whiff of her wonderfully stank-y perfume.

"So..." Hikaru started, making sure to breath lightly on her.

"…what are you doing during club activities?" Kaoru finished, his playful and sinister voice causing Akane's gut to yell out in protest and order her to punch him right there so he would get the heck away from her. She took a deep inhale, fighting off both blush and twisting discomfort, and reached around calmly to retrieve her schedule.

"Here, Tamaki signed me up for orchestra during the first half, but for the second half he wrote to come to this music room in the corner of the building," Akane explained, showing them Tamaki's hand written notes, all the kanji surrounded with tiny, scribbled cartoon characters that resembled that of a kindergartener's work.

"Ah…" They said in unison, turning towards each other for a group sneer.

"Make sure to be on time for the second-half," One of them spoke, Akane still completely unsure of which one was which.

"We know you'll enjoy it…" The other one mimicked in the exact same tone, both of them creeping a bit too close to Akane's face.

"Stop that you two! Go easy on her, it's only her first day!" Haruhi butted in, pushing the two to the ground. "Sorry about them. They're like kids with a new toy, if you know what I mean." Haruhi explained, offering a genuine smile.

"It's true!" The twins agreed behind her, as they jumped up as if nothing had happened.

"I'm looking forward to club activities then!" Akane beamed, faking a highly refined sense of interest. She was a tad bit intrigued, but more looking forward to something else that day.