Chapter Four: Apprentices and Mini-Vacations
The entirety of the Music Room was an Arabian palace. They put up silks in rich, warm colors, hanging reds and purples and oranges. Kiiro loved this sort of atmosphere, in fact, she had modeled her bedroom with Morocco in mind. The Hosts welcomed their guests in full guise. Long, warm cloaks and robes, turbans, scarves and heavy golden jewelry. Tamaki was sprawled out like a spoiled sultan in the middle of the group of barely dressed men, and Haruhi.
They welcomed a newcomer as one, before realizing...
"What, it's just a kid...and a boy kid, too." The Twins huffed.
'They're so intolerant of other boys...'
An elementary student stood before the door, looking indignant.
"What's the matter? Are you lost?" the Spoiled King asked. "Or did you come to my palace looking for something." he smiled haughtily.
"Ah...are you...the king?" the brown-eyed child asked.
Tamaki leaned in closer, cupping his ear, "KING!" the boy repeated.
"King." the club parroted.
Tamaki spun, 'awing', fluttering with joy.
"He's over the moon." Kiiro sweat-dropped.
"I am elementary school grade five Class A's Takaouji Shirou!" the boy pointed dramatically, gleaming with determination. "I 'm here to apply as the Host Club King's apprentice!"
Tamaki nearly fainted from joy.
And so, the King took to teaching Shirou his tricks of the trade.
Shirou sat mere inches away from the Princely Type and his clients, observing as closely as possible.
"You are my mermaid princess, my light in this dark, stormy sea." Tamaki charmed one guest.
She was swooning until, "You don't look like a mermaid at all. You look more like the carp that swim in my pond at home."
"Carp?!" she cried.
"Princess! Don't take it to heart! You know kids can't help but be honest!"
'Words, Tamaki.'
"Honest?!"
Tamaki's tries to fix the situation only made the situation worse, until finally his guest left the room distraught.
This brutal honesty of the elementary schooler earned him the Twins admiration, which he lost when he shrank away from their brotherly love routine calling them homos. And then he called Haruhi a transvestite, just before he dropped the tea set she handed to him. He accused Hani of being a child and Mori of being a giant. All in quick succession. And, having effectively insulted near everyone in the room, they had no choice but to pen him up in a cage that lowered from the ceiling.
"Where did that come from?" Kiiro mumbled.
"This room is full of surprises." Haruhi agreed.
"Let me out!" the kid struggled. "I'm serious! I'm running out of time! Teach me how to make women happy! You're a GENIUS, right, king?!" Shirou brown-nosed.
Tamaki, who was supposed to be exerting tough love, peeked over at the boy, "So you are serious? Use what you know, judging by your actions, you must become the Mischievous Kid Type. That would fit the taste of certain girls."
"There are girls who like that sort of thing?" Kiiro was a little bit grossed out.
"You would be infinitely surprised..." Haruhi said flatly, obviously agreeing with her.
"Bear in mind those certain girls tend to get indescribably moved by males of a younger age or those with a baby face." Tamaki concluded. "According to our analysis, the types they like could be classified into "Lolita", "Mischievous" and "Weak" types. Hani-senpai is the perfect Lolita type. And, the basics for the Mischievous type is to wear short pants even in winter!"
"Well, he is wearing short pants." Kiiro shrugged.
"I guess." Haruhi frowned.
"Draw wound marks on your cheeks and knees!" King ordered, the Twins obeyed. "Run mischievously and now fall down right there with all your might!"
Shirou did just as instructed thudding to the ground.
"Are you okay, little boy?" one of the guests asked.
"It's nothing." he said quickly, "I'm fine."
The girl swooned at his tough-guy act.
He growled, standing he yelled, "I-I've had enough! Baka! If you don't teach me seriously...just forget it!" he stormed out of the room.
King was caught off guard, "I didn't expect him to dislike the Mischievous Type." he mused, completely serious.
"He said there's no time..." Haruhi reflected. "What could he have meant by that?"
The Host Club had decided to do something they found themselves doing rather often, snoop. To see Shirou's predicament for themselves, Hani and a reluctant Haruhi were in disguise. Hani was dressed as an elementary student, 'Which makes sense.' Haruhi, as a middle school girl, 'Which doesn't.'
"I believe Tamaki just wanted to see Haruhi in the mini skirt." Kyouya seemed to read Kiiro's mind.
"Ah, well, it is kind of cute." she chuckled.
"Makes me feel nostalgic." Hikaru said, they were following the two incognito students into Classroom 5A.
"I wonder if the graffiti is still on the desks." Kaoru smiled.
"Unlikely, as the academy changes the desks after every year." Kyouya said flatly.
"If you guys were just going to follow us around, why did we dress up anyway..." Haruhi sighed.
The sound of footsteps in the hall. Everyone got down, excluding Kyouya, and hid under desks.
"Someone is coming, zip it." Haruhi ran her thumb over her mouth.
Everyone followed her example, 'She looks so cute!'
After all the footsteps died away, they all got up and looked at the photos at the far end of the room, "Look it's Shirou-chan~!"
"He's in the music club, then?"
"It's required club time now, isn't it?"
They all hurried down the hallway, looking for the Elementary Music Room.
"Here it is, shhh!"
They watched through the windows as a little girl addressed Shirou, "Takaouji-kun, have you practiced the new piano exercise piece yet?" she asked him, sheet music in hand.
"N-no, not much." he admitted.
"Then I'll teach you, so let's play together, okay?" she smiled, gesturing toward the two pianos in the room. "Takaouji-kun, why don't you take the grand piano?"
"Eh... That's fine, you can use it, Kamishirou. I'll just listen from here."
The girl's expression fell with disappointment
'Oh, I think I see what's going on here.' Kiiro thought as all the pieces snapped into place.
"You see it too?" Kyouya whispered. Kiiro was still getting used to the fact that he could most likely read her mind.
"Yes."
Music wafted out of the room, Kamishirou was playing her piece.
"Ah, excuse me, young lady." Tamaki kneeled offering a rose to an elementary girl walking the corridor. "Can you tell me anything about the girl who's playing the piano there?"
"About Kamishirou Hina-san?" the girl accepted the rose. "Well, she will be moving away soon. I heard that, because of her father's job, they will be moving to Germany after next week."
"So he really doesn't have much time..." Kiiro frowned.
"What are you doing?!" Shirou burst out of the room and into the hallway. "What are you trying to pull by coming all the way here?!"
Tamaki picked him up.
"Ah! Put me down! Let me go, you stupid king!" Shirou pounded on his back.
"You're the one being stupid! How do you make a girl happy? Don't make me laugh." Tamaki huffed as Shirou flailed and kicked. "Even if you asked us so much, we wouldn't answer you. Because you don't want to make girls in general happy. You want to make her happy, right?" he sighed. "That method is one you can only look for in yourself."
Shirou stopped fighting, defeated, he said, "Forget it, there's no time. I wish to at least watch her play. That's why..."
Tamaki carried him all the way to the Third Music Room and set him down in front of a piano.
"I didn't know they had a piano in here." Kiiro and Haruhi mused.
"Of course, it's a music room after all." the Twins said in unison.
"That's because this is a music room." Kyouya echoed.
"It's been placed in that unseen corner for a long time~." Hani stated.
"What is the practice piece then?" Tamaki asked Shirou as he sat at the grand piano's bench. "Is it Schubert's? A sonata piece for a four-handed performance?" he said in an usually informed way. "Easy."
He began to play, and actually, he was very good.
"I never knew he could play..." Haruhi whispered.
"From what I saw, it looks like Hina-hime wanted to play piano with you." Tamaki stopped. "So I'm scheduling a week long extreme practice!"
"Welcome princess." the Hosts greeted Hina in unison as she walked through their doors. Shirou had been practicing to play Schubert's sonata with King all week and this was going to be his big performance for her. Kiiro watched from another unseen corner, taking in the scene.
"Let me introduce today's main show: Takaouji Shirou's piano," Tamaki bowed before Hina. "If you please, princess?" he offered her a seat at one of the two pianos, Shirou smiled at her and they began to play together. The notes prevaded the air beautifully. Kiiro closed her eyes.
She felt something on her hand and looked down to see that Kyouya had entwined his with hers.
"Satou's Gala is next week." he said simply.
Her face bloomed red, 'My hand...', "Ky-Kyouya?"
They smiled at each other.
Kiiro resurfaced from the deep water. The sound of the waves washed over Kiiro, warm and calm. The sun brightly shone down on her, wrapping her in its heat. The wind smelled familiarly of sea salt with a slight hint of tropical forest floor. She hadn't known she would need her favorite yellow string bikini so soon after leaving California. She laid back, keeping her feet in the water. "It's so much like the real beach." she said, thinking of her old home with its private beach. "Who would ever know this was fake?"
"Exactly, my family strives for authenticity." Kyouya stated from his shaded lounge chair.
She giggled, serenely happy.
Currently, she and the Hosts were on a slight mini-vacation. They were in the Ootori's Secret Membership Pool Resort, which was proving to be a hybrid between waterpark and tropical rainforest.
Haruhi seemed to be the only one not enjoying herself, while this was on everyone else's agenda, she had been taken by surprise, "What does Kyouya's family do for a living anyway? Hospital management? Pool management?" she asked while Tamaki was trying to show her all of the colorful birds in the trees.
"Well, it's management, anyway." Kyouya took a sip from his tropical drink. "Not including other things. But, if I had to think of something in common between them...wouldn't you say they're all recovery-related?"
"Recovery. Refreshing." Kiiro thought, playing in the water. Something occurred to her, "Kyouya?"
"Hm?"
"Are our families competitors?" she asked as she made her way over to the empty seat adjacent to him.
He smirked, "Of course. Did you only just realize that?"
"I guess I just never thought about it." she grinned.
"Ah, well, there's nothing wrong with a little friendly rivalry now and again, right?" his eyes had an odd emotion behind them.
She put on her best haughty air, "I couldn't agree more."
A little ways off on the tile beach Hikaru shouted, "Hey Haruhi, let's go play in the water!"
"But, what about your swimsuit?" Kaoru questioned.
"I don't feel like swimming or changing." Haruhi shrugged.
Hani tried his luck at getting Haruhi to swim, showing off his rabbit inner-tube.
"Hani-senpai can't swim?" she questioned.
"Huh~? No, this way is just a lot cuter~!" he laughed, returning to the current pool with Mori.
"How strange." Kiiro cocked her head.
"Try putting the subject in the sentence?" Kyouya prompted.
'This way is just a lot cuter~!' she thought of Hani saying. 'This way I'm a lot cuter~!' she laughed, "A true host, indeed."
Mori got out of the pool leaving Hani to swim against the current in the cutest way.
Tamaki and the Twins were warring with water guns. Tamaki slipped on a randomly placed banana peel, which sent him crashing into a lever.
The current in the current pool was set to a higher speed, sweeping Hani away with a yelp.
"Mitsukuni!"
"Hani-senpai!"
Mori rushed after him but was caught in a counter current which did no good.
"Mori-senpai and Hani-senpai are getting swept away at top speed!" the Twins cried.
"Kyouya! How do you stop this thing?!" King frantically asked.
"There isn't any way to stop it, the lever is broken."
"Fine then, let's go after Hani-senpai!" Tamaki took off in the direction the senior went.
But, as he tried to follow the pool, a crocodile appeared out of nowhere and almost bit him, then when he tried another way, there were piranha in the pool he almost entered. With a squeal he screamed, "Why the hell are these things here?"
"Run!"
The Hosts and Kiiro ran off in the opposite direction of the hungry crocodiles.
Once in a safe place in the muggy, overly hot forest, they stopped to catch their breath.
"The crocodile pasture is extremely dangerous...the piranha pond should be fixed again...and there is a problem with the positioning of the lever..." Kyouya scribbled all of thoughts in his handy-dandy notebook.
"W-wait, why would crocodiles n-not be extremely dangerous...and why is there an e-easy-to-reach piranha pond in the first place?" Kiiro questioned him, trying to catch her breath.
"Authenticity." he grinned. "Thanks to you all, I've collected useful data." he stated simply. "You see, the facilities were still at an expirimental stage."
"So we were all test subjects?" Kiiro sighed. "I should have expected as much."
"Kiiro, do you think so little of me as to expect this sort of thing?" he smirked.
"Well, the 'this sort of thing' is happening, so, yes..." she sweat-dropped.
Mori had rejoined them sometime during their fleeing. So at least they knew he was safe.
"Where are on Earth are we?" the Twins asked.
They were now deep into the psuedo-forest, shaded by massive, thick trees.
"It must be the North Gate's Subtropical Zone."
"I hear a suspicious sound." Haruhi pointed out.
"Ah, in that case..." Kyouya said. "It's time for the Squall Experience Service." He walked under the protection of a hut nearby just before it started heavily pouring rain.
"You know, I don't mind the rain," Kiiro began, "but how is a squall related to recovery?" she asked the raven-haired boy.
"Authenticity."
'Really?' she thought.
"Yes."
'Mindreader!'
"Well, men, is everyone all set and ready?" Tamaki asked, hopping into leader mode.
"Yes, sir!" the Twins stood to attention, saluting.
King fanned out a map of the resort. He explained how to get to the two most likely whereabouts of Hani. Though, there were a lot of places left blank on the map, leaving only there imaginations to figure out what was there. Apparently, those places weren't even open yet. "Get it? In every way it's survival!" Tamaki took his usual pose, his hand in a check formation. "We have to make our way safely through this untamed jungle to save Hani-senpai!" he went on. "To ensure efficiency, we should split into two teams, Team Mori-senpai and Team King! The ones who have the courage to follow me onward, please hold onto my finger!" he held his index finger out, waiting for a response.
However, the club had already ventured on leaving his speech forgotten. By this time Mori had fallen into a ditch.
"He must be worried sick." Kiiro stated sadly.
"After all, they are good friends." Haruhi agreed.
The Twins and Kyouya began to explain to them that they were not only good friends but also cousins. "The Morinozuka family has served the Haninozuka family for generations."
"Although the two families were married into each other two generations ago..." Hikaru laced his fingers with Kaoru's.
"...Mori-senpai still stays so close to Hani-senpai." Kaoru touched his cheek to Hikaru's.
"It's the blood that flows through his veins!" Tamaki concluded, getting fired up. "The same blood from past generations!" he proceeded to cry. "What a touching story!"
'And carried away.'
"Mori-senpai, don't worry," Haruhi comforted the frazzled man. "Hani-senpai will be safe. He is usually healthy and, if he gets hungry, there are wild fruits around."
Mori patted Haruhi on the head.
Kyouya's phone went off, "Ah, it's me... No, it's kind of a troublesome situation... Alright then, I am counting on your immediate cooperation." Click! "A search party will be dispatched shortly. It should be better than us trying to find him. We should head to the gate and wait... Huh?"
"What?"
"Mori-senpai and Haruhi are..."
"Gone!" everyone cried.
"How did they disappear so quickly?!" Kiiro looked at where they were only a minute ago.
"Hm..." Kyouya tapped a finger to his lips. "Speaking of which I haven't said a thing about other people." he mused.
Kiiro's eyes widened, "Distracted today?"
After a few minutes of searching, they heard a ruckus off in the distance. The club had a hard time getting to the scene of the racket, but, once they did get there, they found Hani standing over a bunch of unconscious soldiers. Mori and Hani were behind him.
"Ah! Haruhi are you alright?!" King shouted, running to her.
"Hey~!"
"Hani-senpai?"
"I don't know what happened but it seems like everything's fine." Hikaru said, poking a soldier in the neck.
"How did he...?" Haruhi trailed off.
"You mean you didn't know?" Kaoru asked, surprised.
"The Haninozuka family is renowned for martial arts." the Twins told her.
"During his secondary school days, Hani-senpai participated in the national championship with judo and barehanded fights."
Haruhi went white with shock.
"How can someone so small and cute, be a national martial arts contender?" Kiiro mirrored her shock.
"Takashi, I praise you for protecting Haruhi~," Hani patted his head. "Were you lonely without me~?"
"Not really."
As they made their way out of the resort, Kiiro commented, "Well, at least everything worked out."
"Hm." Kyouya agreed as he passed her, then he stopped, looking at her with that same strange expression as earlier on the chairs, "By the way Kiiro, that's a nice swimsuit you have on. It was certainly...distracting." he teased.
Kiiro's face was heating up again.