Chapter 7 – Explanations

Izumi woke the next morning to find herself alone. She got up, wearing a robe and house slippers she found at the foot of the bed. She took her time wandering around the room and through the halls and started to look for the kitchen.

"Oh Mistress, what would you like for breakfast?"

"Umm… what do you have or specialize in?"

"Anything. We were picked for our variety," the attendant explained. We? Where are the others? How many more are there?

"Can I have eggs over easy, rice, and crispy bacon?"

"Drink?"

"Black coffee."

"Colombian, correct?"

"Yes."

"We'll bring the food out when done, young mistress."

"Umm, Izumi."

"Yes, Mistress Izumi."

Izumi left and went wandering around the house a bit more, trying to remember the tour that she was given. She heard noises and followed the sound to find Mitskuni and Takashi practicing together. She watched silently, but they both knew she was there. Once they got to a good stopping point, they stopped to welcome her.

"Izu-chan! Did you sleep well? Did the medicine work?"

"Yes, Hani."

"Call me Mitskuni now." She laughed as Takashi approached her. She flushed as his fingertips traced the side of her face, down her arm, into her hand – and brought the fingers to his lips for a kiss.

"We're almost done. Let's have breakfast together," he whispered.

-.-.-

They ate breakfast and Mistkuni went home.

"So Takashi…" he smiled at her.

"You have a question?"

"Ha, yeah. I do. What's with the house?"

"It's where we're staying right now."

"Are you going to tell me anymore?"

"No." he smiled gently and she let it go. The rich have their own way of doing things right? He'll tell me if there's anything else. He always does, he never hides from me or lies to me, so I never have anything to worry about. "So, what is on the agenda for you?"

"Ummm, I have to figure out what program I was accepted into, so I need to go visit Haruhi since I had mail forwarded to her house. After that, it's just preparation for the program and finding a job if necessary."

"You know, you don't-"

"I know, I don't have to work, but I would at least like to try. What about you?"

"I have some books to pick up, homework to finish, and then to accompany Mitskuni."

-.-.-

Izumi went to Haruhi's house, where Ranka was just waking up. They exchanged pleasantries and Ranka was asking tons of questions about her leaving the dance competition. "So they let you out of your contract?"

"Yeah, I mean, I had a serious injury, otherwise it would have just been considered a work injury."

"Are you okay leaving it all behind?"

"Hmmm…"

"Dad!"

"No, it's okay, Haruhi. And yes, I'm fine leaving it. I enjoyed it, it was great, but after the injury, I realized that it's not the path that I want to take."

"And what's the path you choose," Ranka asked, fishing for news.

"Dad!" Haruhi was mortified!

Izumi just laughed, "It's okay. I chose Takashi."

"Wow," Ranka said, "you say that so plainly."

Izumi shrugged, "I don't think there was any other choice."

"Really?" Haruhi asked this time.

"I love him. Almost too much I worry and I'm Takashi's first girlfriend, which is really uncommon in America to marry your first love." She placed her elbows on the table and folded her hands, resting her chin on them, "he is an old soul though. Sometimes I do worry that he's moving too fast in this, he's so deathly loyal, ya know? I don't know if he knows how to handle switch in focus from Mitskuni to myself, or even how to balance it… it was different in school where we were almost always together. Now, they're taking different programs."

"That's very insightful,"Haruhi noted.

"Yes, that is all well and good, but what about you, what are you doing?"

"Oh, well… I applied to one of the two programs. Once is a job to teach English. That one is a bit more complicated because there are different areas to be placed in… public, private, home tutor…"

"And what's the other one?"

"Oh it's a medical management internship. I know I'm old, comparatively speaking, but I don't think I'm ready for that yet."

"What's that involve?"

"Oh basically I'm an intern in a medical management firm. I'll learn everything at first – so it'll start off as office administration, then I get to specialize in different areas like human resources, marketing, information technology, hospital management, etc. Then I'll get evaluated and asked to join an area. I'm a bit burned by the foreign exchange program though, so I think I'll do the English program."

"So now you're just waiting to see which English program you'll be accepted in?"

"Yeah that's right."

Ranka immediately went flipping through Izumi's mail until she found the envelope. "Can we open it now?"

"Dad!"

"Oh right, maybe Takashi will want to be the first to know. Excuse me," and Ranka got up from the table. When she returned, they came back and talked more. Ranka asked about the house because Haruhi lacked in detail.

Knocking

"Haruhi, will you get the door please?"

"Sure…" Haruhi opened the door and her face fell.

"HARUHI!" the twins and Takashi exclaimed as the hugged her.

Kyoya slid around them, "Ranka, thank you so much for inviting us over. You're as gracious as you are gentle."

"Oh Kyoya, flatter me." Ranka teased.

"We brought cake!" Mitskuni chimed in, Takashi following last.

They all packed into the Fujioka's living room and sat around the table, where, Ranka had Izumi's acceptance letter in the center.

"Oh Ranka, you didn't!"

"I did! So hurry up!"

"Don't push her," Haruhi said, placing plates and cups down.

"I'm not doing anything of the sort," Ranka returned with forks and the tea pot.

"So…" the twins said, "open it!"

Izumi looked at everyone crowded around the Fujioka's table. She looked down at her envelop. I really was hoping to open it alone with Takashi. But this group was quickly becoming her new family and she felt special that everyone wanted to share this moment with her. An arm slid around her and she looked up at Takashi, who smiled softly at her. It was like he understood what she wanted, because he pulled her into his lap and kissed the back of her head.

"Haruhi, wanna sit on daddy's lap?"

Smack

"Who you calling daddy?" Ranka asked full of aggression.

Izumi opened the letter, "?" Ranka asked full of aggression.

Izumi opened the letter, "You've got to be kidding me." Takashi only smiled.

"What" the others asked.

"What, you didn't know Tamaki?" Izumi asked, questioningly, placing the letter back in its envelope.

"I doubt Tamaki would know," Kyoya adjusted his glasses, "You should just tell him." Everyone turned to look at Izumi.

"I'm teaching English, at Ouran Elementary."

"What?" Tamaki said genuinely surprised.

"I'll be paid a teacher's stipend and I'll be able to take a class or two at the university in exchange for the smaller salary."

"What?" the others (except for Kyoya and Takashi) added.

"When do you start?"

"This coming school year, so I have a few months to settle in, make a curriculum, see what the teaching expectations are. I have a schedule already in order to prepare for the coming school year. It'll also give me time to get a work visa."

The group continued to ask her questions as well as chat among themselves about school. "We better get going if we don't want to be late," Haruhi said while cleaning up the dishes.

"Where are you going?" Tamaki asked.

"They're going the movies and to dinner," Takashi answered for them.

They all said goodbye to the girls, and the boys were getting ready to leave as well when Ranka asked, "Takashi, I'm going to be frank. Why aren't you two engaged yet? You'll be 20 and starting your 2nd year of university soon. I mean, with that house and everything…"

"Oh, she doesn't know about the house yet!" Mistkuni explained.

"What?"

Takashi sat back down with the rest of the group. "I wanted to wait until we were done with university, when I was able to be head of the Morinozukas and support Izumi on my own."

"But why? I mean, Haruhi and I got engaged in Boston and I wanted to start planning now…"

"Tamaki," Kyoya noted with as much softness as possible, "you do have tendency to rush into things."Ranka breathed a sigh of relief.

"You think so? I guess I never really slowed down enough to ask Haruhi when. I just assumed that we would jump into it." Tamaki felt a little guilty, like a child being placated by a very patient mother.

"Takashi," Kaoru called.

"Do you really want to wait?" Hikaru asked.

"Actually, Mitskuni said softly, "do you really want to wait that long, I think is the better question."

-.-.-

"So, how's the engagement going? I feel bad because I really haven't had time to ask you about it."

"Oh it's okay. Everyone's making a big deal out of everything, it's troublesome," Haruhi sighed.

"Haruhi, dear, I think you're the only soon to be bride that's not looking forward to wedding planning."

"Well, Tamaki is doing most of it, and it just seems more effort to tell him to stop than to just let him keep going. There's not much for me to do anyway. The twins' mom is doing almost everything clothing wise and decorating."

"Did you want it to slow down?"

Haruhi hesitated, "a little bit. I mean, I want to be done with school before I get sucked up in this whirlwind ya know?"

"Yeah I understand that," Izumi said thoughtfully.

"What about you?" Haruhi asked breaking Izumi out of her reverie.

"Huh?"

"How do you feel about being engaged?"

"I'm not!" Izumi laughed.

"Well, you practically are. I feel like we should be discussing your wedding instead of mine."

"Do you mind me asking, why you guys are waiting?"

"Umm…well Takashi and I really don't discuss it. I think we're just taking things one step at a time."

"But, if he were to propose to you, you wouldn't say "no" right?"

"Hahaha. Haruhi!"

"I'm just asking."

"Well, of course I'd say yes."

"Why don't you guys talk about it? Tamaki and I always do."

"Um…I don't know. You know Takashi isn't one to talk a lot. Everything he does is done with intention though."

"We have two very different guys don't we?"

"Hahaha, I was actually surprised that you were dating Tamaki, but after meeting your father, not so much. You guys may be opposite, but you complement each other well."

"Yeah same with you and Takashi. He's become so much more open since being with you, believe it or not. We all thought that Huni would be his number one priority to the point where he wouldn't want anything for himself and would even have to end up in an arranged marriage."

"Hmmm. Well, all I know is that I love him. Anytime I ever needed him, he was always there for me. Especially after the accident, waking up to see him there with me was really more comforting than anything."

"He was really worried about you. We all were. Hikaru, Tamaki, and Kaoru thought that he'd propose to you after that."

"I could have told you that wouldn't be the case. I don't think he'd want a proposal to look like I needed to be taken care of."

The girls opted to skip the movie because they were enjoying talking so much. They had gone to look at some bridal magazines, and just for kicks, went to try on wedding gowns and had dinner.