Haruhi and Akari had gone to the skateboard park the next day after eating lunch. Akari made sure that Haruhi wore comfortable clothes and shoes in order to skateboard, and she had remembered to bring a helmet and a couple of elbow and knee pads.
I steadied Haruhi as she successfully wobbled forward on the skateboard. After about an hour of me having to catch her everytime she stepped foot onto the skateboard, she was finally able to go forward!
"I'm so proud of you Haruhi! Yeah!" I watched from behind as she inched her way across, and then she slowly sped up and came back.
"I didn't do so bad that time!" Haruhi gave me small smile before getting off the skateboard. I beamed at her proudly.
"All you have to do is keep practicing, and then you'll be great in no time!" Haruhi was about to respond with something along the lines of: 'thanks for teaching me but I don't really think I'll need to skateboard anytime soon,' but then a group of boys approached us.
"Hey! What are little boys like you doing at a skatepark? You two shouldn't even be allowed to come here." A pimply-boy with shaggy hair walked towards us with two other boys, who sniggered at his comment. I frowned, and straightened my posture so that I was eye-level with the leader.
"This is a public park, so technically even old ladies could come here if they felt like it. Now, since we're not getting in your way, how about you let us do our thing and you can do yours." I tried to be polite, but I made sure that I wasn't sending any mixed messages.
"Oh but this is a skateboarding park, so if you don't know how to skate you shouldn't be here," he glowered at us. Was this guy asking for a challenge?
"Well I was just teaching my friend how to skate, we weren't doing anything wrong. An I'm pretty sure I can skateboard better than you three." Haruhi tugged on the sleeve of my hoodie.
"Akari, I don't think-"
"Is that a challenge pretty boy?" He crossed his arms and smirked at me.
"It wouldn't be a challenge to win against you." I gave him a cold smile. I saw him clench his teeth tightly.
"Fine then. Meet us at the ramps ten minutes from now. If you lose to me, then you two can't come back to this park." He and his friends sneered at me.
"And if I win, you three will leave my friend and I alone until the day you die," I gave them the "Kyoya" smile.
Ten minutes later...
I stood at the top of the ramp with my helmet on and my skateboard under my arm. I glared at my opponent on the other side. There was a crowd of onlookers, mostly male. The challenge was to complete the most challenging skateboard moves in three minutes, without falling. There was a scorekeeper, who wasn't acquainted with either me or my opponent. All of our moves would be performed at the ramps.
"Skaters ready!"Called the timer, who stood next to the score-keeper. I set down my board and got ready to go. I was to keep to my right, and my opponent was to keep to his. If I bump into him, I'm out. If he bumps into me, he's out. If either of us falls off our board, out.
"Go!" The timer next to the scorekeeper started his stopwatch, my body immediately surged forward with the board underneath. It was exhilarating to feel the wind against me. I shot downwards, then the board zipped up the incline, leading me closer to the top. 3, 2, 1. Ollie backside 360 Big Air gap. Skateboarding was as easy as breathing, I've been doing it since I was a kid. I heard multiple cheers. I continued. I couldn't see what my opponent was doing, but I'd feel a gust of wind whenever he passed by.
Everything went by in a blur. I lost count of how many moves I did! Heelflip Body Varial Frontside 540, Dolphin flip, Foot Front Impossible, a 360, Illusion flip, and lots more.
"Thirty seconds!" I was almost at the top. I slightly smiled, this last trick would be one no one has ever done before. When I was a millisecond away from the top, I gently pushed my board back and slightly upwards, and stepped up onto the ramp. I threw my body backwards, flipping it. Time seemed to go slow motion, and I heard a number of gasps. While upside down and suspended in the air, I saw that my board was almost beneath me. I surged my legs forwards and made contact with it again. The timing was perfect. I was able to get back into the proper skate-boarding posture right before the board hit the ground. When I did, the crowd roared with excitement. I got off and kicked my board up and held it under my arm when I was around the center of the ramp, and smirked at my opponent who had been standing right in front of me. His mouth was open and his eyes stared at me widely.
"H-how? I've never-"
"Seen anything like it? Of course not. It's my own trick that I made up." I smirked at him.
"The winner is clearly Akari!" The scorekeeper as well as the rest of the crowd looked blown away. The crowd surged at me, and my opponent shrunk away. I was greeted with a lot of amazed, excited faces. I was a bit shorter than some, but overall they were all around my height. A brunette pushed through the crowd.
"Akari!" Haruhi looked at me with wide eyes.
"Haruhi!" I pulled her towards me and gave her a one-armed hug. The crowd backed away a bit but continued talking to me all at once.
"My precious daughter! That was so dangerous!" A familiar voice rang out from the crowd. I raised an eyebrow and looked down at Haruhi.
"Is that Tamaki?" She gave me a sheepish smile.
"Yeah...I was worried that you might get into another fist fight so I called him, and he brought the entire host club." I patted her head.
"Glad you care about me." As soon as I said that, six familiar faces pushed a couple of guys away and came towards us.
"Akari!" Tamaki hugged me, which squashed Haruhi right in the middle. The rest of the Host club shooed the crowd away. The boys and girls in the crowd reluctantly dispersed.
"Can't breathe!" Haruhi gasped.
"I'm so sorry!" He let go of us, and Haruhi took in a big breath of air.
"That was so cool Akari-chan! But what if you fell and hurt yourself?" I looked down to see that Honey senpai had made his way to me.
"Since when did you start skateboarding?" Kaoru and Hikaru said in unison.
"Guys relax, I've been skateboarding my entire life." I beamed at them.
"Did you get to see how awesome I was?" I asked proudly.
"We arrived when the challenge had two minutes left," Kyoya said coolly while jotting some notes down.
"Skate-boarding is such a dangerous sport! As your father I forbid you to skateboard ever again! You can get seriously hurt if you make a mistake! A proper young lady should not be engaging in such risky behavior!" Tamaki started ranting to me, and I just smiled sheepishly.
"Look Tamaki, I can do what I like and you don't really have the right to tell me what or what not to do. I appreciate that you're concerned about me though, so that makes you the best!" I patted his shoulders reassuringly. His shoulders slumped a bit and he pouted, but at least he didn't go to his emo corner.
"That was amazing Akari, I didn't know it was physically possible to do all those moves." Haruhi smiled, and I grinned back.
"Thanks!"
"Is it possible for you to do a couple of more? I'd like to capture some pictures to put in our upcoming photo album of the Host club members. Also, Tamaki wants to take the two of you to the mall." Kyoya adjusted his glasses.
"Okay! But I'm only going to the mall if you guys buy us ice cream." Haruhi glanced nervously at the twins, who were grinning mischievously.
"Um, Akari? I think they're up to something..." Haruhi glanced at me.
"Don't you-" started Kaoru.
"Trust us?" Finished Hikaru.
"We just wanted to explore the commoner's mall! To become more educated about the poor and-" Tamaki broke out into one of his long rants again, and I pretended to listen while Haruhi openly spaced out.
At the mall...
The mall was almost empty, Tamaki had reserved it for the day(of course).
"Thanks guys! This ice cream is the best!" Everyone(except Kyoya) had ordered and was currently eating their ice cream inside the shop, which was inside the mall. We were all squashed into one table. Haruhi sat in between Tamaki and Mori, and Honey sat next to Mori of course. I sat next to Kyoya and the twins. We were all squashed in like I said, so all of our shoulders were bumping into each other. Hikaru moved while I attempted to lick my cone, and I accidentally smeared it on my nose.
"Hey!" I glared at him. Then I tried licking the ice cream off of my nose, which was stupid and I probably looked funny.
"Sorry, let me get that for you," Hikaru leaned in to my confusion, and before anyone could stop him he had licked the ice cream off of my nose. I didn't really react, and my face stayed the same. How was I supposed to react anyway? Tamaki freaked out.
"Hikaru stop harassing my little girl!" He pounded a fist into the table and angrily stood. Hikaru just shrugged and continued eating his ice cream. Haruhi pulled Tamaki back down and tried to calm him.
"Uh Hikaru, that was kinda gross," I said with an eyebrow raised.
"I know you liked it though," Hikaru said jokingly.
"Not really, now I have your cooties." I grabbed the napkin Kyoya offered me and patted the tip of my nose with it. He scowled at Hikaru. Honey and I devoured our ice creams and the cones, finishing before the others.
"So what do you guys want to do after?" I said while wiping my cold lips with the back of my hand.
"Look around of course! We've never been to a commoner's mall before so we'll have loads of fun!" Tamaki said excitedly.
"Is it true commoner malls have candy shops?" Honey asked sweetly.
"Yeah, most of them do." I smiled back at him. Haruhi was slouching and grumbling to herself.
We had a lot of fun at the mall. The Hosts all kinda scattered around and looked at what they were interested in. Haruhi was dragged off by Tamaki to the petshop, Honey and Mori senpai went to the candy shop, and the twins had gone to some clothing departments. I didn't see where Kyoya went, but I had my own place to go to. I raced down to the bookshop and entered. An old woman was reading at the desk, and she didn't really look up when I entered.
I quietly roamed the store, and came across the manga section. Peering around me to make sure that I was alone, I picked up a manga I had heard about called "Candy Heart." It was a new shoujo series by an author I didn't know the name of, but I heard it was really good. It was about a lonely girl who accidentally gets teleported into an alternate universe called Candyland! She is then surrounded by the land's most handsomest boys, who all are intrigued by this outsider and work together to protect and help her. They all eventually fall in love with her, and she has to decide if she'll return to her dull world or stay in Candyland with her love interest. I picked up the cover; it had the main character on it wearing an adorable, lolita-styled dress adorned in various types of candy. The background was of Candyland and giant sweets.I opened to the first page and lost myself in the story.
Sighing, Hotaru Kimura adjusted her glasses and continued with her homework. She had a splitting headache. She looked at the bag of candy she found in her locker left by a "secret admirer."
"Who would like me?" She asked herself. Sighing, Hotaru assumed the bag of candy was just from a group of mean girls at school playing a practical joke on her. She flopped down onto her bed. Exhausted, she curled up into a little ball and felt miserable. She was lonely, had bad grades, and she wasn't very pretty. She closed her eyes and sleep captured her.
The bag of candy she had received started to glow. The light surrounded the entire room, and when it dimmed down she was lying down in the middle of a forest made of Cotton Candy Trees.
Fluttering her eyes open, she found herself in a pink forest smelling sugar-sweet.
"What in the world?" She bolted upright and looked around in awe.
"Where am I?" She stood up and wondered if she was dreaming. She pinched herself. Nope.
"What are you doing in my Cotton Candy Forest?" A boy's voice came from behind her. Turning around, she saw a slender, tall boy with white hair and magenta eyes glaring at her intensely. He had a beautiful face, and his outfit was strange. He looked as if a little girl had dressed him up! He was wearing a white, button up shirt with a pink bow tie, cream-colored overalls shorts, and striped knee-socks that resembled the pattern on a candy cane. He had colorful sprinkles in his hair, and boots that looked like they were made out of chocolate!
"I don't know! What is this place anyway?! I was in my room one minute and now I'm here and-"
"You're not from here?" He tilted his head curiously.
"N-no!" He eyed her Japanese school uniform.
"Wow! I've never seen clothes like this!" He instantly had made his way over to her and was touching the fabric of her shirt's sleeve in between his fingers. She looked at his face, it had looked so mean before and now he looked almost like a child. Their eyes met, the two stared at each other, and blushed after realizing their lips were almost touching.
"Typical," a cool voice said behind me.
I screamed and jumped. Without thinking, I slammed whoever that was behind me with the manga I was holding. Whipping myself around, my eyes widened realizing that is was Kyoya. Oh no, I just whacked him in the face with a book.
"What was that for?!" Kyoya barked at me, rubbing the side of his face. He gave me a cold glare that made me gulp.
"K-Kyoya you s-scared me! I'm s-sorry, are you alright?" I stammered as I looked at side of the face I had hit him.
"If I'm bruised I swear I'll-" he was clearly angry. It was the first time I've seen him show more emotion.
"I know, you'll tell everyone I like shoujo manga." I took his chin and gently tilted it to the side so that I could see if he was alright. His eyes widened a bit in surprise.
"What are you doing?" He asked. His left hand was still covering his cheek.
"Let me look at it, move your hand." He hesitated, then did as he was asked. I leaned in a bit and inspected it. The place I had hit him was slightly red, but since I hit him with the flat cover of the paperback it wouldn't have hurt that much. There were no signs of any bruises. I removed my hand from his chin and gently touched his cheek with my fingertips.
"Does it hurt when I touch it?"
"No," he grumbled, he didn't look at me. I cupped his face with my hand.
"Good," I gently "slapped" his face two times. He shot me an annoyed look, then reached down to pick up his notebook and pen he had dropped.
"I'll buy something special for you to make up for the face hitting," I smiled at him apologetically.
"No need, just keep bringing in more customers." He said, cool demeanor on once again.
"Geesh Kyoya, you don't have to act so cool around me. We're buds! So if you're mad at me, be mad at me!" I lightly punched him in the shoulder. Then, remembering that I was still holding the book, I placed it back where it was. Kyoya raised an eyebrow.
"Weren't you going to buy it?"
"Nah, I'll just read it online. It's cheaper!" I beamed at him, then grabbed his wrist.
"Let's look around more!" I dragged him out of the store, and ran straight ahead, heading towards the tea shop. When we were halfway there, he jerked his wrist away and glared at me.
"There's no need to run you know," he smoothed down his slightly wrinkled shirt, then walked ahead of me. I had to jog to be next to him again.
"Sorry, I get over-enthusiastic," I smiled sheepishly at him while rubbing the back of my neck. He ignored me and kept walking.
"Hey Kyoya, now that I think about it, you know a lot about me but I don't know much about you. Do you mind if I interview you?" I looked at him expectantly.
"I don't see why not," he said absent mindedly.
"So, what is your favorite color?" I asked him a safe question first.
"I don't really have a preference," he said nonchalantly.
"If you had to pick," we approached the tea shop.
"Dark shades of purple," we reached the entrance. The aroma of herbs and honey washed over us. I inhaled, then exhaled loudly.
"Welcome! Would you like to try a sample of our new tea?" A girl greeted us while smiling.
"Sure! What's the flavor called?" I gave her a charming smile. She was a head shorter than me, around Haruhi's height.
"Tropical Bliss," she said with the same smile. I glanced over to see that Kyoya had already made his way into the store, completely ignoring the worker. How rude.
"Sounds great! And sorry about him, he's antisocial," I whispered the last part. She giggled and poured me sample, then handed it to me. I took a sip, and my eyes widened. It tasted wonderful!
"My taste buds are having a party right now!" I beamed at her, and her face flushed a bit.
"I'll take a package! And another sample!" She happily fulfilled my requests. After I bought the package and had it in the bag, I went over to Kyoya so he could try some.
"Dude, this tea is amazing you should totally try it!" I held the tiny plastic cup to his face. He shot me an irritated look.
"The tea made here is unprofessional and low-quality," he grumbled.
"C'mon, it won't hurt just to try!" I gave him my puppy face. I made my eyes huge and watery, and I pouted just a smidgen. I've seen Tamaki do his puppy face before, and if Kyoya gives in to his puppy face he'll give in to mine. 3, 2, 1...
"Fine," he said with an exasperated sigh. He reluctantly took the sample and sipped it. He didn't say anything for a few moments.
"Well?"
"Not horrible," he said flatly. He walked out of the store once again ignoring the girl.
"Have a nice day!" She said with a fake smile plastered on her face. As I followed Kyoya, I gave her an apologetic smile.
"Sorry about him, keep being awesome! Love your shoes by the way," I waved to her and ran to catch up with Kyoya.
"I think you're the definition of 'handsome rich jerk," I smirked at Kyoya, who glared at me.
"Remember what I said about angering me?" He said coldly. I just shrugged my shoulders.
"Well I'm not angering you I'm just annoying you! Boop!" I poked the tip of his nose, and he furrowed his eyebrows. I laughed.
"Haha! You're so cute when you're annoyed! It's fun messing with you!" I ignored his cold glare and happily skipped over to the toy store. I found Mori and Honey senpai there.
"Hey guys!" I waved, and Honey senpai rushed over to me.
"Come over here and look at the cute little figurines with us!" Honey latched himself onto my arm and dragged me over to where Mori-senpai was. I looked into the display case, and I saw multiple figurines of superheroes and anime characters. My eye caught sight of Mikachi, the main girl character in my favorite manga The Prince of Roses. I had to restrain myself from pushing up on the glass and squealing. Instead, I made a non-human sound at the back of my throat. Mori senpai and Honey senpai shot me concerned, confused looks.
"I'm just clearing my throat!" I laughed nervously.
"Do you see a figurine you want to buy?" Honey senpai asked curiously.
"N-no I-I'm haha...uh..." I stuttered and my face turned really red. I could almost hear Kyoya smirking at me from behind.
"Oh look! It's Tamaki and Haruhi! I wonder what they are up to, bye!" I raced out of the store to Tamaki and Haruhi, startling them.
"Hey guys how's it going?" I was trying to calm down.
"Why are you all red Akari?" Haruhi looked at me, confused.
"I was uh...running," I smiled sheepishly.
The group all re-gathered, and walked around a little bit more. The twins complained about how tasteless all commoner clothes were, and then later 'harassed' Haruhi to get Tamaki all worked up. Kyoya was scribbling stuff down as usual, and Honey had gotten more ice cream to eat and was sitting on the shoulders of Mori senpai. My phone buzzed, I got a text from an unknown number. Confused, I opened and read the message.
Hey Akari, long time no see. Just to let you know, your brothers and I just arrived in Japan! I hope to see you real soon. -Erai.
I clenched my jaw and my fists. I stopped walking and glared angrily into my phone. The rest of the group didn't notice and kept on walking. That jerk! After what he did to me he had the audacity to act like we were friends?! I created a message.
Dearest jerk-face: I hate your guts and if you try to act all friendly around me I swear I will pummel your stupid face so hard no one will be able to recognize you. -Me.
"Aren't you coming?" I jerked my head up and saw Kyoya looking over his shoulder, the group was way ahead of me.
"Huh? Oh! Yeah." I shoved my phone into my pocket and jogged to catch up with the rest of the group, avoiding eye-contact with Kyoya. I'm pretty sure he knew by now that Erai was my fiance.
Thank you for all the following and favoriting! Feel free to review and check out my other story: Ouran's Lolitas.