Chapter 4: Preparation

This one went in an odd direction. I'm strangely satisfied with it, but I wish I could have thought of something better… sigh, oh, well.

To save your life…

What did that even mean? Haruhi thought back to Yagami, the more she spent on him the more she had the feeling it was a dream. After all, she reasoned, I did just recover from a flu or whatever. Like a huge business tycoon would be interested in me… She chuckled weakly, gaining the attention of Kyoya. He raised his eyebrow, but didn't comment. Haruhi shook her head and focused on Tamaki's plan.

"…and when it starts, we'll be here –" He pointed to a square-ish figure in the crudely drawn layout of the festival.

"What's that?" The twins squinted their eyes at it.

"Weren't you listening! It's the main stage!" Tamaki gabbed at it again, but the twin pointed to a bigger rectangle in the middle of the drawing.

"Wouldn't that be the main stage?"

"Why you…" Tamaki growled, "I'm King! I say what it is! And that –" He pointed to his square "– is the main stage!"

The twins continued to berate his drawing, but Haruhi had stopped listening. "Kyoya? When is this festival again?"

"The Saturday of next week – it's the annual Spring Break send off. The school asked us to host it this year. Last year I believe the gardening club planned it. If I remember correctly, it was very fragrant, but hardly any one showed; most are already on planes to vacation spots by Saturday. So, with our popularity, the school is hoping for a higher turnout."

He paused, "Today, Miss Sendo came again, didn't she? She sat by you, did she say anything?"

Haruhi shook her head, "She sat by me, but all she did was sip the tea and listen. She nodded a couple times though."

"At least she didn't fall asleep again." Kyoya stated, penciling in notes again.

~CHANGE~

The estate seemed peaceful as I was driven up, but I knew differently. With that woman, there was a guarantee of chaos. The car stopped and I stepped out, feeling peculiar as the wind stayed. I took a deep breath, already hearing the servants, the woman, her husband. Even the air smelt empty – forsaken. I tried not to think about it as I opened my front doors to the entry hall. Jaken and a maid was at the door, waiting. I took off my jacket and my ring; giving the former to the maid, and putting the latter in my vests' inner pocket. As soon as I passed them, Jaken clamored to my side and the maid ducked out. When we came into the sitting room, he started: beginning with my business – a small issue with one of my investments, an easy fix – and hesitantly eased into my 'guests.'

"Master! I never meant for them to stay – in fact I commanded them to leave the moment they knocked on your door! I was insistent but they ignored me. Lady Kagome, your Lordship, she is most aggressive…" I fought to keep the scoff to myself – aggressive was too mild for her.

"Ah, there you are, brother." Speak of the devil and she will come. The miko stood in the living room door, smelling of freshly baked cookies, her own natural gingery smell and the Halfling. She smiled at me, the fondness she connected with me confounded all of us. Not even Inuyasha, whom has spent many decades knowing and loving her, could understand her softness towards me.

Inuyasha followed, greedily scarfing down the chocolate smelling bakery. He glanced at me and scowled, "What are you doin' here." A clear growl in his tone, but his woman hit his stomach, making him choke on his cookie and turn a nice red hue. He turned back and beat his chest to get the crumbs out of his lungs. A faint call for water was heard as he lurched back to the kitchen.

"Serves him right," She winked at me; Jaken had already declared he was going and could not berate for her familiarity. She sat on the love seat and patted next to her. I took the chair opposite. She rolled her eyes, but held out a cookie to me. "Try it; I think you'll like this one. I made it with dark chocolate – got the brand you like, too – so it's not too sweet. I baked milk and white chocolate ones too, for me and Inuyasha." Seeing I wasn't taking it, she set it on a plate on the coffee table. "Any way, I made arrangements with Jaken, we're gonna meet with the guy next week, probably won't be out of here until Monday or Tuesday of the following. Shippo's going to be so surprised! We haven't told him yet. Him and Soten have had a little bit of a rough time lately, so I figured dropping by would cheer him up."

I couldn't care less about her little runt nor his tempestuous mate, but for whatever reason she always felt the need to share their current status – forever "off-and-on" (her words) as it was – as if the fox and thunder yokai were important. She continued, "Then, we're planning on coming back here, visiting Shiori. You know the bat hanyo; Inuyasha likes to check up on her every once in a while. She was pregnant last time we went there. She must have had the baby by now. I can't wait to see it! Then we'll come back for a couple weeks maybe." She looked at me to confirm or deny; I did neither. She sighed, and stood up, "When we come back, I'll call so you can be here. I don't like it that you're never at home. You're always off somewhere. Avoiding everyone, that what you're really doing." She huffed, putting her hand on her hips and looking at me much as I've seen her do to others – a mothering instinct, I suppose. Compensating for not being able to bear children – the price for her long life.

She left, and I was alone. I glanced at the cookie and broke a piece off. It was a bit sweet.

~CHANGE~

Left. One, two, three. More point. Relax fingers. Focus, focus…

Dancing had always relaxed her, gave a relief from school, family, so called friends. A figure darkened the door and in her pirouette, focus, spot… she turned her head to quickly, losing her balancing, stumbling. She quickly stepped to regain it, but the figure already 'caught' her. Arms gently reinforcing her catch, but they quickly released when he realized she had recuperated herself.

"My apologies." She looked up in surprise; it was the dark, bespectacled student from that ridiculous club.

"Ootori," Kokone tipped her head slightly in greeting.

"Yes, Ootori Kyoya." He introduced, "Miss Sendo, I did not expect you here. I'm looking for the instructor."

She turned around to hide a smirk, "Thinking of joining ballet?"

"Not by any means, but I am looking to hire some dancers."

"Ah. Well, there are many styles of dance here. But, the senior ballet instructor – she won't be available until seven."

He looked at the time, "And the others?"

"I'm one of the contemporary and Japanese traditional," She stood straighter, "But we have jazz, hip hop, street, tap –" Indicating that she could go on, he shook his head.

"Contemporary and traditional seems quite contrary." He looked amused and glanced her over, taking in her dark brown hair –tied in a loose bun and clipped with jade beads – brown eyes, fair skin making the red painted on her lips and eye lids harsh. She was not ugly, but she had an unappealing force to her. No, Kyoya decided, not unappealing but rough force. A look in her eyes, her body language made her almost unattractive – a tug of your body to flee.

On closer inspection though, he noticed the exhaustion around her eyes, as if she could not or would not sleep.

"Not, really. At one point even traditional dances seemed new." She smiled thinly, noticing the once over and not wholly happy about it.

"It seems that you are the most suitable after all. I am looking for entertainers to dance in the spring festival."

Kokone started to pack her belongings in a small duffel bag, "You probably would have to talk to the senior instructor or owners about that. And the girls would have to sign on individually. We usually don't accept clients. But if you need advice about choreography, I do most of the actual teaching."

"That would be most insightful. Perhaps, you may come to the club sometime and we could discuss more." Kyoya prompted, to which she gave a hesitant nod and responded with maybe.

"If I could also get the senior instructors phone number: that would be most helpful."

She agreed and wrote a few cell numbers on a piece of scrap paper, "If he agrees to be hired, call me. We'll get together to discuss styles."

"Thank you, Miss Sendo."

"It's Kokone."

"Then call me Kyoya."

"Okay then Kyoya. I just might be seeing you."

"Yes, quite soon."

~CHANGE~

"Kokone, it's been some time." She looked up at her older brother, Tetsuya. His dirt blond hair, grey eyes, and sweet feminine face were so in contrast to her own dark hair and eyes, her coarse aura, she often wondered if they were even related.

"Yes," She replied shortly. Eyes shot down to glare at the floor, the hideous yellow dress caught her attention and she took her hurt and betrayal out on a loose string. "Not long enough."

Behind him, the red head came up to him. "Who's this?" Curiosity loomed underneath an ice expression.

"Ritsu, this is my little sister." Despite the glare she shot at Tetsuya, he smiled warmly at her.

"Really," the disbelief clear on his face, "'Cause you guys don't look like you share a drop of blood."

"True, we are only half siblings. She takes after our fa–" Kokone pushed passed him, cutting him off and enticing a rash outburst from Kasanoda. She walked as fast as she could away.

Tetsuya sighed, "I don't understand her. She was the only one that really pushed me to get out of our family in the first place. I thought she'd be happy for me."

"Maybe she's lonely without you?"

"I doubt it. We weren't very close: she was never allowed in the main house, because she's an illegitimate child. We only really talked just before I ran away."

"That doesn't seem right." Kasanoda watched as the girl pushed open a school door, still looking at the ground. "Maybe she wished she could run away."

"Maybe… she always was hard to read." Tetsuya smiled at his boss and continued walking.

~CHANGE~

Kyoya hung up the phone and turned to Tamaki. "The dancers should be available. I'm setting up a meeting with the choreographer; I know you said you wanted to come."

"YIPEEE!" Tamaki lifted himself off the ground as he punch the air, "Did you hear that Haruhi! Did ya? Did ya?" He drifted off in her direction.

Kyoya tapped the number in for Kokone, it rang until her voice mail beeped: "Miss Kokone, I got your boss to say yes, come to the club on Monday and stay after to discuss with me and our President."

~CHANGE~

"Miss Kokone, I'm glad you could make it." Kyoya greeted, bowing slightly to her.

Kokone laughed, "Enough with the Miss already."

"As you wish." Kyoya nudged his glasses higher, "Would you like to sit with Haruhi today?"

"No, I'm a little bored of idle chatter. I'll sit and wait for this to be over; after all I'm just here for business." She took an empty seat, and Kyoya followed.

"Sometimes mixing business with pleasure isn't a bad thing," he suggested.

"Other times mixing business with pleasure is a very bad thing," she stared at him, not in a glare, but not soft either. It was a hard intense look, and if Kyoya wasn't so observant he wouldn't have noticed the bits of bright red peeking out of small cuts in the brown. He was getting sucked in and he knew it. Haruhi noticed and called out his name several times, but it took actually touching his elbow to shake him free. Kokone then turned and gazed out the window, watching the wind flow.

Haruhi gave him an odd look, and greeted Kokone. Kyoya explained she didn't want to be disturbed, so Haruhi went back to her 'princesses' and Kyoya went back to his managing, but kept an eye on the young woman as he did so.

After all the guests went home, Kyoya shook Kokone awake. "Kokone." She awoke abruptly to her name. Her eyes, again, were focusing on the winds gusts outside.

"It's time to discuss the dances."

"Yes," she replied vaguely, "I know. But first…"

She walked out, her gaze tracking the wind, like a trance. "Princess?" Tamaki called after. Haruhi followed her, curious at the woman's odd behavior. The others followed Haruhi, dragging her back to "a safe spying distance."

They followed her out to the court yards. She took an odd path, one that made sure there was a window to look out of and as the wind blew faster, Kokone seemed to go faster, walking, jogging, running. By the time they stopped, Haruhi was exhausted. Kokone though only ran faster into the gale, but as she was almost there it seemed to stop. Too suddenly for any nature.

A devastated look crossed her face, and then she noticed them, peering – not hidden in the slightest – from the entrance to the court yard. She looked around, a bewildered look on her face, her lips formed the start of a sentence but it never traveled far enough to hear.

Tamaki stepped out, "Princess?" and caught her as she fell, tears leaking out. She raised a hand to her eyes.

"I don't know why I'm crying." Haruhi heard her say, "I don't think I feel sad." But, then, contradictory to her statement, a sob burst out.