I groggily opened my sleepy eyes. Ugh, what time is it even? I fumbled around and found my cellphone, I squinted next to me to see Haruhi sleeping peacefully. I'd been sleeping over at house for a total of two days, and I had to stay for three days more. Haruhi and her dad were cool with it, but I still felt like a freeloader. I probably had to do something special for them...I flipped open my sky-blue phone, the cute panda keychain that matched Haruhi's still dangling. 256 missed calls and messages. Some from my brothers, some from Erai. I scrolled through some of them.
I know you're mad, but please pick up the phone and answer. Haku is especially worried about you. And I think it's really rude of you to keep ignoring all of us like this. -Osamu
Akkkkkaaaaarrrriiiiii! I'm sooooooorrrryyyyyyyyy! Please don't be mad at me! Big Brother is soooorrryyyyy!-Haku
Are you done with your childish games yet?-Osamu.
I wonder how adorable your pathetic, little, angry face is right now. -Erai.
We need to talk, meet me later?-Arashi.
Scrolling through some of the messages, Arashi had only sent me three. Most of them were from Haku and Erai. I composed a message, and I added my brothers as the recipients.
Please stop spamming me with all of your messages; I'm doing just fine thank you very much. And I'm not coming home until Erai gets his ugly face out of Japan.
I didn't expect a response of course, it was two in the morning. Sighing, I set my phone down and collapsed back down on the futon I was sleeping on next to Haruhi. It's been a long, strange day. There were a lot of good parts when I spent time with the Host club, but a lot of annoying parts too. Like the constant calls and messages I was getting, and that jerkface employee from the Frozen Yogurt place. Well, Kyoya was especially nice. I smiled when I remembered how I had smacked him in the face with the manga. It was terrifying but funny at the same time.
Now that I think about it, Kyoya has a really nice face...gray eyes? How in the world does he have gray eyes when he's Japanese? Well...Tamaki has purple eyes...now that I think about it, the Hitachiins have impossible eye colors too! Hm...at least they all have normal hair color...Huh, I wonder what Kyoya's hair feels like...It looks so silky and fluffy, I just want to touch-what the?! Why am I thinking about his hair?! What is wrong with me?!
I abruptly sat up in panic, and I pinched my cheeks a couple of times. Get a hold of yourself Akari, what is going on with you?
I touched Kyoya's face today didn't I? It was so nice and soft...and smooth...He's gorgeous!
STOP IT!
Oh come on, he's very attractive and you know it Akari. C'mon, admit it, he looks perfect.
Heat was rising to my face; was I blushing? Oh no. No way. I can't be, can I? I placed my hand on where my heart would be. It was beating a lot faster than usual. I can't like Kyoya! It's just hormones, yeah! Hormones...I'm a hormonal teenager so having weird feelings was normal. I've never liked anyone before, so it wouldn't make sense if I did now...
I lied back down, and tried to get some sleep. After a few difficult minutes, I slipped into unconsciousness.
"It's all your fault your mother died," my father was staring at me with such a hollow expression. He looked nothing more then an empty mannikin, devoid of life. His glassy, vacant eyes stared back at me like a China doll's.
"Daddy?" my eight-year old self only came up to his waist. The present me was trapped behind a glass wall.
"No it wasn't my fault! It was an accident!" I screamed at the wall and pounded on it, and kicked it. No luck. The two figures didn't hear me. My father leaned down to my past me, and said in a cold voice:
"Don't call me that anymore. You are to refer to me as 'Sir' from now on. Do you understand?" The child me whimpered before looking down.
"Yes Sir," her voice was barely a whisper.
"NO! I don't understand!" My entire body was trembling. They still didn't know I was there.
"I'm sending you to America. You will live in an Orphanage until I call you four back. I've already talked to your older brothers about it. You be a good girl, alright?" He had stood up, and was ready to leave the room. His expression hadn't changed at all.
"I don't want to go Sir," whispered the child.
"What did you say?" His voice grew harsh.
"Yes Sir," the girl said softly, her lower lip quivered. Without another word or glance, the tall man walked out of the room. It would be the last time I would see him for another nine years. The child whimpered before collapsing onto the floor and started to cry. I swallowed and gritted my teeth. All of my anger and frustration surged through my body at once, and I punched the wall with all the strength I had. The glass cracked, I punched the same place again. This time, my fist broke through. The clattering sound of breaking glass echoed across the room. The shattered shards skidded across the floor as it rained down. The little girl looked up in surprise, face tear-streaked and eyes red.
"Who are you?" She asked timidly, my expression softened. I bent down onto my knees, eye-level with her.
"I'm you." I said calmly.
"You're me?" She tilted her head in confusion.
"Yes, from the future." Her eyes widened.
"How were you able to come here?" She asked.
"Because we're in a dream right now." She said nothing.
"Listen, don't wait for him. He's not coming back, he's dumping you and your brothers in an Orphanage so that he won't have to look at you." She winced.
"I know..." she said softly.
"I know you know. That's why I'm going to tell you this," she waited to see what I had to say.
"You do whatever makes you happy. You don't need someone like him to be happy, your older brothers will always take care of you and love you. If you have any problems in life, only consider what you want. Not what your father wants, what you want. Be strong and smile. You'll make it because you're not alone. Okay?" Silence. I stared back at the past me, and the past me grew older, and older, and older. The "past me" was now just my reflection. I blinked in surprise. I silently stared back at my own reflection.
"Okay," I whispered to myself. Everything dispersed, and a bright light appeared. It grew bigger and brighter, bigger and brighter until all I could see was blinding white. I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I was standing in a middle of a field covered in snow, and yet I wasn't cold.
"Hello?" I looked down, I was barefoot and was wearing nothing but a thin nightgown. I heard something in the distance, so I jerked my head towards it.
I heard lovely notes of a piano playing, the melody had a hypnotizing effect. The lovely notes pulled my feet towards it, and I yearned to hear more of the fading music. Walking turned into jogging, and jogging turned into sprinting. Each footstep kicked up the powdery, pure snow and left deep footprints. I felt bad for trudging across such an untainted, untouched field blanketed with white, but I just had to hear more of the intoxicating harmony. Like a siren's spell, the piano's song pulled me towards it, and I ran like a mad man. I ran as if I was going insane if I couldn't hear more of the enchanting music. The notes stopped fading, and instead they grew louder and more powerful. I stopped running when I saw a white piano in front of me, and a gentleman perched on the seat and fingers gliding across the keys. A black mask shrouded his face, his features were indistinguishable.
"So you've come," said a familiar voice. The gentlemen's hair was black as midnight.
"Who are you?" I rasped through breaths. He only smiled, and everything around me started to disintegrate into white butterflies.
"Wait!" I lurched forward trying to reach him, but he dissipated into hundreds of butterflies as well. I fell through nothingness, I fell down, and down, and down into an endless black pit. The butterflies fluttered away, up and up and up. Gone forever from my reach, unattainable. Even so, as I kept falling and as the shadows engulfed me, I still reached out in desperation, thinking that if I reached far enough, I could catch even just one of the snow-winged creatures. The shadows shrouded me, and my vision gradually faded until all I could see was black.
"Akari!" A hand roughly shook me. I opened my eyes, breathless and sweaty.
"Akari! Are you alright? I think you were having a nightmare!" I looked to my right to see Haruhi looking down at me, concern in her round eyes. I opened my lips to speak, but only air rasped out. I looked at my arm, to see that it was reaching upwards. I put it down, and tried sitting up. Haruhi helped me.
"What happened?" I rasped out, still out of breath.
"You were reaching out, and it sounded like you were a hard time breathing, do you need water?" Haruhi had already stood up, prepared to fetch me a glass. I nodded. When she left, I wiped some sweat off of my forehead with my arm. Haruhi came back and handed me the glass.
"Thanks," my voice sounded hoarse. I drank the cool water. My throat felt much better, a lot less dry than before.
"I'm okay, it was just a dream," I smiled reassuringly at Haruhi, who nodded her head. That dream I had...It was...I pondered about it for a few moments, unsure of what to think of it. Haruhi broke the silence of the room.
"Let's eat some breakfast, I'll prepare it." Haruhi smiled at me, before exiting the room to get ready to start another day.
Later...
"Tamaki, shut it I'm trying to watch the movie!" I whispered harshly to the blonde king. He slightly whimpered, but quieted down. The rest of the Hosts were watching quietly.
Hikaru, Kaoru, Haruhi, and Tamaki were to my left, and Kyoya, Mori senpai, and Honey senpai were to my right. We were taking up almost the entire row of the movie theater. How did we all end up watching a movie you ask? Well...
Flashback...
Haruhi and I spent a relaxing day at home; we studied, did homework, talked, did some chores, cooked, read some books, and talked some more at her home. Later in a conversation, we mentioned movies. There's a new time travel movie that came out that I had been meaning to see for a long time, and Haruhi said there was a nearby cinema where we would be able to see it. Haruhi then revealed that she had never gone to the movies before, so I insisted that we went right away! When we arrived, the guy said all tickets were sold out. And it was the last day that "Unraveled" was ever going to be aired! I was so angry! Haruhi said that it was alright but I refused to give up so easily. So I did the smart thing, calmed down, and called Kyoya. He said to wait where I was at, and in ten minutes a limo pulled up. Of course, the entire Host club had followed along. Kyoya negotiated with the worker, and we ended up having an entire room for ourselves.
"Rich people..." Haruhi was grumbling to herself. I think she was talking about me that time too. Haha, the club and it's "rich people" attitude must me rubbing off on me...
"Oh by the way, thanks for renting out the entire movie room," I whispered to Kyoya as I put more popcorn into my mouth. He just grunted and continued watching the movie in boredom. It was a new American movie about a boy who received a ball of yarn. Every time he pulled on it, he would go forward in time but he couldn't put it back in. It was based off of an old fairy tale from a long time ago. Anyway, something does wrong and the yarn unravels by itself, and he keeps just getting older and older until the yarn eventually unravels. Hence the title, "Unraveled." We were only in the middle of the movie.
"What kind of movie is this?" Kyoya grumbled to himself. I shoved some popcorn in his mouth so he'd shut up. Man, it was getting intense! Epic battle between time monsters? I didn't know that was part of the film! I felt a pair of cold eyes glaring at me. I ignored them, too immersed into the story.
We watched the movie for another hour. In the end, the young man meets the mysterious man who gave him the yarn in the first place. The mysterious man was actually his future self!
"Good work, this time things ended happily," the future man smiled before he faded away as the sun rose. The screen faded to black, and read "The end."
"Whaa?"Tamaki stared at the screen, utterly lost.
"What kind of ending is that?" Asked the twins.
"I don't understand," said Haruhi.
"Oh my gosh!" I squealed while I jumped up.
"That makes so much sense!" The Hosts and Haruhi all gave me confused looks, obviously wanting me to explain.
"Okay, so as you all know that time travel can be very confusing business," I started. A couple of heads nodded.
"That man was the future version of the main character! Now, a future self and the past self cannot be in the same universe, otherwise it would rip the time continuum. So, that means that the future self was from another dimension where he had an unhappy ending where his entire life unraveled away. But, he was somehow able to time travel backwards once more right before he died so he still had some time left to fix his mistake. So, he jumped into another dimension or universe where his other self existed and made sure that he was able to get himself a better ending. Once that happened, the future self disappeared because he merged with the main character or his "past self," so he didn't "exist" at the time anymore. But, in the future the main character will become the "future self " or that man that disappeared!" My rant seemed to have only confused poor Tamaki even more.
"Well now it makes sense," Kyoya said coolly as he stood.
"I'm still kinda confused Akari-chan!" pouted Honey senpai. Mori grunted to agree with him.
"That was a weird movie," said Kaoru.
"We didn't like it," finished Hikaru.
"Well now I know what my new favorite movie is!" I said passionately.
"Unraveled is by far the best movie I've seeeeennnn!" I had perched one of my legs on the chair in front of me and struck a dramatic pose.
"You're acting a lot like Tamaki you know," Haruhi said with a monotone voice. I smiled sheepishly before calming down.
"Sorry, I get hyper!" I rubbed the back of my neck with my hand.
The Host club was nice enough to take us home, but they decided to hang out for a little bit more. Haruhi said she liked the movie even though it was a little confusing.
"Hey, we should play truth or dare again," said Hikaru.
"If that's what y'all want," I stuffed more chips into my mouth.
"Um Akari? That's your fifth bag of chips today..." Haruhi shot me a concerned look. I shrugged.
"Meh." I offered her some. She politely declined, and we all sat down in a circle to start playing.
"I want to go first!" Honey senpai giggled.
"Takashi! Truth or dare?" Honey senpai plopped himself next to me, Usa-chan in his lap.
"Truth," Mori said stoically. He was sitting completely still, like a statue.
"If you had to date either Akari of Haruhi, who would you pick and why?" A mischievous, almost evil glint had appeared in Honey senpai's eyes. His question shocked almost everyone, and Tamaki was already visibly distressed. Even Mori senpai seemed surprised by Honey senpai's question.
"I pick dare," Mori said.
"Nuh-uh! You can't change your choice, it's the game's rule," said Honey senpai. Everyone waited for Mori's response, and Haruhi and I gave each other nervous glances. Silence for a few moments.
"A-Akari..." His face looked embarrassed. Everyone gasped. The Hitachiins bursted out laughing, and they did the mature thing of course.
"Mori and Akari sitting in a tree, K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" His facial expression was blank, but I could tell he was annoyed.
"I'm flattered!" I gave him a boyish grin, and he gave me a slight smile.
"And why would you pick Akari?" Honey glanced between me and Mori, I shot him a confused look. What was he trying to do anyway?
"Because Tamaki would die if I dated Haruhi," Mori said in a monotone voice.
"No! You can't date Akari or Haruhi! As their father I forbid you to!" Tamaki was in the hysterics, and he had wrapped his arms around our necks protectively.
"Chill Tamaki, it's just a stupid question he's not dating me for reals." I arched one eyebrow at him.
"How are you not disturbed by the fact that he's calling himself our father?" Haruhi was struggling to get out of Tamaki's grasp, her face slightly pink. I pretended I didn't notice, but in my head I came up with a new plan I was going to share with everyone else. Operation Tamaki and Haruhi go on a date.
After Tamaki calmed down, we continued our game. Mori dared Hikaru to pick his nose, and it was gross but hilarious. Hikaru chased Kaoru around with his boogie finger. But they calmed down and Hikaru went to the bathroom to wash his hands. They really were like kids, I miss the boys and girls back in the Orphanage...
"Akari, truth or dare?" Hikaru returned from the bathroom to wash his hands.
"Truth, I'm too lazy to move right now."I yawned as Hikaru made his way back to his spot and sat down.
"Have you ever dated anyone before?" This question sparked the interest of almost everyone. They all leaned in to hear my answer. I scrunched up my eyebrows a bit and thought about it.
"Hm...No. I don't even think I've liked a boy before honestly..." I shrugged, then I adjusted my seating position so that I was sitting cross-legged.
"So innocent! So pure!" Tamaki dramatically stood and teared up. I rolled my eyes and grinned.
"Tamaki, truth or dare?" He sat back down again immediately.
"Truth!" He said enthusiastically. A Cheshire grin formed on my lips. Tamaki saw and eyed me uneasily.
"If you and Haruhi have been dating for a long time, and you finally wanted to propose to her, how would you do it?" He gaped at me like a fish out of water, and his entire face was tomato-red.
"W-what k-k-kind of q-question is th-that?! I'm her father! I-I-erm...Uh!" He stuttered like an idiot for good five minutes, and I just laughed at him and his embarrassment. I noticed Haruhi turned a bit red too. I nudged her.
"You'd say yes right?" Her eyes widened with alarm, and she seemed to have a loss for words. Tamaki was looking away now as he was burying his face into his hands. I slid over to him and slung an arm over his shoulder, and gestured towards his face.
"Just look at his wittle fwace! Isn't it adorable!" Haruhi and Tamaki then both stuttered and looked away from each other. Honey senpai giggled, Kyoya and Kaoru looked amused, and Mori looked stoic as always.
"I have to make dinner," Haruhi stood and briskly left the room, her face red. I smacked Tamaki on the back as soon as she was gone, hard.
"OW! What was that for?" Tamaki jerked his pretty face up and looked at me with an angry/annoyed expression on his face. He still looked flustered.
"I thought you were the king of the Host club. How can you be so pathetic when it comes to your feelings with Haruhi?" I hissed in a low whisper. He slightly whimpered.
"I...I'm her father...right? That means I care about her! The feelings I have for Haruhi are fatherly! So of course I couldn't uh...you know." I face-palmed.
"Poor, hopeless Tamaki." I sighed, then I went back to my original spot.
"I am not hopeless!" Tamaki ranted on about some nonsense but I ignored him.
"Hey Tamaki, you should help Haruhi out in the kitchen. As her father, are you really going to let her do all that work by herself?" His eyes widened.
"You're right! I was being inconsiderate! Haruhi! Daddy's coming!" Tamaki raced off into the kitchen, and we heard a couple of crashes and Haruhi yelling at Tamaki. I quickly turned back to the group.
"Guys, I have a plan to get Haruhi and Tamaki together tomorrow. Help me?" I was grinning mischievously at the rest of the Hosts. Hikaru frowned and just slumped into the chair.
"Of course we'll help Akari-chan!" said Honey senpai. Mori grunted to say yes.
"I'll see what I can do," Kyoya adjusted his glasses.
"Yeah, we'll help too," Kaoru smiled as he elbowed Hikaru, who was sulking.
"Whatever," said Hikaru. I slightly frowned, but I whispered my plan to the Host club while the unsuspecting Haruhi and Tamaki prepared dinner in the kitchen.