A/N: I promised my readers that I would update again tonight, so here we are. I hate disappointing anyone who takes the time to read my stories, so thank you to everyone who's reading this!
Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran High School Host Club, or make a profit from this, but I do own Calyn Iokia. Please ask if you want to use her, ok?
The next few days, Kaoru and eventually Hikaru became a constant fixture at Calyn's side. When they couldn't be with her during host club hours, they let her hide out and do her homework in Kyoya's office.
As host club ended, Calyn was finishing up her math homework, and she heard the door open. "Hey, Kaoru, Hey Hikaru, how did-" She glanced up and realized that she had made an obvious mistake, since Takashi stood before her. "Takashi." She greeted as he shut the door behind him.
At first, Takashi didn't say anything. He sat beside her on the floor and glanced at her homework, which was organized and color-coded with sticky notes. Calyn hadn't told anyone else, as far as he knew, but she was deathly scared of not getting good grades. Her parents weren't around a lot, but she was always scared that if she slipped up, everything would go completely sour.
Takashi took a sticky note from the pad and gently stuck it to her cheek. It had always been a simple, wordless way of trying to get her to lighten up.
"You haven't changed... I'm glad." Calyn murmured, touching the note on her cheek. She looked away briefly, and then began sliding her homework into different folders, no longer interested in conversation.
Takashi sat with her still; happy to see she didn't seem angry. He had never had Calyn get angry with him before, but he had seen her get angry. Then it had been him keeping her out of fights, and she was a spitfire when she was mad.
"Let me see." Takashi gently turned her face towards him, studying her ever-lightening black eye.
"It doesn't hurt." Calyn shrugged, but she didn't pull back from his touch.
Takashi leaned in and kissed her forehead lightly, and then stood. As he headed for the door, Calyn's creepy-calm voice froze him in his tracks.
"And what the hell is that supposed to mean?" Calyn asked, her voice soft and unruffled. She wasn't even looking at him; she was just staring at her homework.
"That... I don't know what will happen yet." Takashi slipped out the door, and the twins rushed in.
"Calyn!" Hikaru and Kaoru said in unison, staring at her.
Calyn rubbed her eyes and looked up at her friends, mustering up a smile. "I'm ok. Just confused."
Both twins glommed onto her, being careful of her homework.
"I'm ok, really... don't worry... I... Hikaru, get your hand off of my ass." Calyn slapped at the elder twin's hand lightly.
"Aww, Calyn you're no fun." Hikaru teased, but he moved his hand at her request. "We'll take care of everything, don't worry about trying to get Mori back."
"Takashi." Calyn corrected, but the twins just laughed.
Calyn couldn't help but smile just a little.
"Hello?" Calyn snapped as she picked up her cell phone. Her day after she had gotten home had been a downward spiral.
First, two of the maids had caught a cold that came with fevers and hallucinations. The third maid, Lira, had sworn up and down that she could do everything, which had led to dinner making the smoke alarm go off. Then, Calyn had found her chemistry homework mysteriously missing, and while she had redone that, the dryer had conked out.
Which led to her being in a very bad mood.
"You have 20 seconds before I either hang up on you or call the cops." Calyn growled, though she felt like bawling. According to the calendar, her Dad wouldn't be home until next week, and she had no clue where the hell her Mother was.
"Sorry." Takashi murmured.
"I don't mean to snap, Takashi, but today is not the time to talk to me." Calyn rubbed her eyes and tried to control the shaking of her voice. "I'm likely to kill anyone I come into contact with anyone who crosses me in even the slightest."
"What happened?" Takashi asked, though it was clear by his tone he felt bad for calling at such a time.
Calyn took a few minutes to list the problems, and then sighed. "I'll take care of this, ok? Just leave me alone right now. I don't need the stress." She hung up on him, though it killed her inside to do it, and went looking for the phonebook.
No sooner had she pulled out the proper phonebook than the doorbell rang, and she rushed over to answer it.
"Mr. Asuzuka." The man bowed to her.
"Do I know you?" Calyn asked, and though she felt bad for being so rude, she just didn't have the time. "I don't have a minute for a salesman."
The man chuckled good-naturedly and shuffled his feet a bit. "I'm the Morinozuka's family doctor. They sent me to look after someone living here?"
Calyn gritted her teeth. She was angry with Takashi for getting involved in her problems, but then again, she needed the help. "Upstairs, there's two girls, both sick. Their rooms are the first two to the left, on the left. Thank you for helping..."
As he took the stairs, Calyn shut the door and took a deep breath. She still needed to find someone to fix that damn dryer, ASAP.
The doorbell rang again and she opened it. There stood a handyman, his tools in his hands. "Can I come in? I was sent by the Morinozuka family to fix your dryer. All expenses paid."
Calyn let him in, and then pulled out her cell; Takashi was still on speed dial. "Hey, Takashi?" She asked when he picked up.
"Yes?" Takashi didn't sound like he was expecting anything from her, but did he ever?
"Thanks." Calyn sank down against the wall, hugging her knees. "Thank you so much."
"You're welcome." Takashi was silent for a moment after that, and then he asked, "Do you want me to come over?"
"That would be nice." Calyn smiled a quivering smile. "That would be really nice."
"I'm on my way." Takashi hung up and Calyn took a quivering breath. Was everything being pieced back together, or only falling apart again?
A/N: A longer chapter for all my readers. And I don't know when I'll be updating on this again, because my day just went from a two to an eleven on a "how bad?" scale. Anyway, what did you think?