A/N

Hiya! Bet that all of ya missed me! Thanks so much to everyone that reviewed! I'm so glad that you all like the story :D Chinese tacos to all of ya! :3 On with the story!

Disclaimer: Still am not in ownership of OHSHC...but still own the Ocs... :D

~The Thorn of a Rose~

Chapter 6

"So, what exactly happened yesterday?" Raiden inquired as we passed out algebra worksheets to everyone. It was math class, and Raiden, the twins, and Haruhi were in my class. The twins were being their usual selves and were trying to annoy Haruhi. I smiled at the three of them before turning to Raiden.

"It's just my friends wanting to take me to a water park, and they went a little overboard," I told him, rolling my eyes.

He laughed. "Wow, you have some weird friends."

"You're telling me?" I muttered, but smiled nonetheless.

Someone put their arms around my neck, and someone else put them around my waist, pulling me to them. "Aww, Emiko," Hikaru purred in my ear.

"Was that a compliment or an insult?" Kaoru purred in my other ear.

I rolled my eyes. "Figure it out for yourselves," I said bluntly and passed the last paper out. I looked up at them. "You know, I can't really walk with you guys hanging onto me like that."

"It's okay! We'll help!" the twins chorused, and the next second I was picked up and held in the air as I raced back to my seat.

"Put me down!" I yelled, laughing. Those crazy fangirls started swooning, and I rolled my eyes.

"Hitachiins! Please settle down!" the math teacher scolded. She was a no-nonsense, old-school teacher with pinched lips and a sour complexion.

The twins saluted her, still holding onto me. "Sir yes sir!" they yelled.

The fangirls sighed. "Oh, I love it when they use English honorifics," one of the them said dreamily, and the other girls nodded in agreement.

Hikaru and Kaoru put me down in my seat. "Your fans are crazy," I muttered to them.

"We know. It's part of the job description to deal with them," they said back, and looked back at the fangirls, winking at them. They all started shrieking and swooning.

"SETTLE DOWN!" the teacher yelled. Haruhi and I sweatdropped.

~..*..~

I was wandering aimlessly through the halls, heading towards the cafeteria. The twins had grabbed Haruhi and gone on ahead, something about 'commoner food' or whatever. I didn't really care, because I treasured the few moments of peace and quiet before I had to delve into the craziness of the host club again.

I felt a coldness, and I looked over to see Nekozawa being a creeper behind the pillars, muttering to himself. There was no one else in the hallway. I hesitated, before walking over to him. "Nekozawa-senpai? I want to apologize for the way my friends treated you the other day."

He looked up, the bright blue of his eyes coming out again. He smiled that creepy little smile at me. "I accept your apology~ I apologize for trying to push you into joining the Black Magic Club~ Perhaps I was too forward..."

I laughed. "No, it's fine. I just have three clubs that I'm already in, the Classical Music Club, the Orchestra, and now the Host Club. It's just that I'm too busy. I'm sorry."

"It's quite alright~" His blue eyes pierced me. "Has your ex been giving you any trouble?"

I hesitated. "He was threatening me via text...But Kyouya saw and took care of it. I haven't heard from him since." I grinned. "Thanks for asking. It means a lot to me."

Nekozawa smiled. "It's our pleasure," he said, sticking Belzeneff into my face. "Belzeneff and I are glad to hear that you're alright."

"There you are, imoto-chan! Kyouya sent me to go- EEEEP!" Tamaki screamed when he saw Nekozawa. He immediately tried to grab me and tugged me away from Nekozawa. "NO EMIKO DON'T GO TO THE DARKNESS!" he screamed.

"TAMAKI!" I yelled. "Calm down! I'm not going to the darkness, and there's nothing wrong with Nekozawa, okay? He's a pretty cool guy." Belzeneff did the blush and the rubbing his hand on the back of his head thingy.

I look at Nekozawa. "Sorry about that. I better get this baka back to the others. See ya later, Nekozawa-senpai!" I walked away, with Tamaki hanging off of me, scolding me for talking to Nekozawa.

"Mommy! Imoto-chan was talking to Nekozawa-senpai again! Punish her!" Tamaki wailed as we arrived at the table, tears streaming down his cheeks.

"Who's Mommy?" I asked, puzzled.

"Oh, that's Kyo-chan," Hunni said, eating some cake.

I stared at Hunni for a moment, then burst out laughing. "Seriously?"

Kyouya pushed his glasses up and glared at me. I tried to hold in my laughter. "Sorry...Mommy!" Aaaaand I was off again.

"Breathe, Emi-chan! We believe in you!" Hunni cried.

I hiccuped, finally getting my laughter under control. "Sorry everyone," I said, wiping away tears of mirth. I looked at Kyouya. "Sorry...Mommy." I began to laugh again, until there was a thwack!

"Heyyy!" I cried indignantly, giving Kyouya a glare, rubbing my head. "No need to get violent with that notebook of yours! What do you write in there, anyway?"

He smirked. "Oh, this and that." I sweatdropped, and we all sat down to eat.

"What were you and Nekozawa-senpai talking about?" Kaoru asked in interest.

I shrugged. "We were just chatting. I apologized to him about how you guys treated him the other day." I gave everyone a meaningful look.

Hikaru and Kaoru chuckled in embarrasment. "Eheheh, yeah..."

I rolled my eyes and smiled as we continued eating.

~..*..~

"Emi-chaaan!" Hunni cried as I entered the host club. "Guess what!"

"What?"

"We're going to the beach!"

I grinned. "Seriously?"

"Yep!" Hunni cried. Mori nodded.

"Yayyy!" I said, excited.

"Time to pick a swimsuit!" the twins yelled and grabbed me, dragging me over to where they had over a hundred mannequins, all dressed up in different swimsuits.

Hunni tried to get me to dress in a pink frilly one, which I immediately shot down. I wasn't too fond of pink, frilly stuff. The twins went through swimsuit after swimsuit, before we finally decided on a two piece. It looked like a one piece, but it was really two pieces. It was over all white, but it had blue and light green and gold splashes on it. It tied around my neck. The bottoms were an aqua-blue shorts with a skirt part over it. I loved it at first sight. The twins found a polka-dot towel that went with the splashes of color.

"Awww you'll look so cute, Emi-chan!" Hunni squealed.

I laughed. "Aww, thanks Hunni-senpai! I can't wait!" I noticed out of the corner of my eye, Kyouya started to smirk. What was he up to now?

~..*..~

"So, why'd we come to Okinawa?" the twins asked, sweatdropping.

"Because Kyouya's family owns a private beach here," Tamaki explained.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Hunni exclaimed.

"But why couldn't we have gone..." the twins began.

"To the Caribbean?" Hikaru asked.

"Or even Fiji," Kaoru added.

"Do you think a commoner like Haruhi has a passport?" Kyouya asked in disinterest.

I sweatdropped. "That's not very nice, you know..."

"You do realize I can hear what you're saying, right?" Haruhi asked crossly.

I looked around. It was really pretty here. It felt so good to be at the ocean again. I didn't realize how much I had missed it. Some of my best memories had happened at the beach. I smiled fondly as I remembered the time our marching band had spent the day at the beach to celebrate getting a gold medal at finals. There was also the time that I went with Mark. That was the day that he asked me out. I had been so unbelievably happy that day... That was the day that I also had my first kiss. It had been after he confessed to me and I accepted him. I believe that one of my friends had taken a picture of us. I smiled fondly, and felt a pang. Wait...a...second. Was I...missing Mark? But, after everything that he had done to me! After all the punches, bruises, black eyes, even a broken arm! After everything...I still loved him. All he ever did was mess with my feelings...making me fall for him, hard. A part of me was still in love with him, and I began to hate myself for it. How could I still have feelings for a monster like that?

I shook myself out of it and looked around. Tamaki was entertaining the ladies out on a rock overlooking the sea. Hikaru and Kaoru were playing a volleyball game, while Hunni and Mori were doing some sort of stretches with the girls. Kyouya was monitoring the girls' alone time with Tamaki. Money-grubbing, no good, evil miser.

"Uhh...whyyy?" Haruhi muttered from next to me on the towel. We were sitting on a beach on a towel with an unbrella over us. She was wearing guys shorts and a t-shirt. "This sucks. I thought that going to the beach meant a day off," she said crossly.

"I feel for ya, Haruhi," I said sympathetically, glad that I didn't owe the Host Club anything...yet. I just hoped that Kyouya didn't make me do karaoke or anything later...I hadn't sang in front of the ladies yet, just played background music.

"Um, Haruhi?" a timid girl's voice asked from behind us. We turned around to see three girls in swimsuits.

"Aren't you going to go swimming with us?" one girl asked.

"Oh, uh, I like looking at the sea from a safe distance," Haruhi said.

"If you're not going to swim do you mind if we sat here and talked with you?" another girl asked.

Haruhi immediately went into cute-host mode. "But why? You girls should go swim. You have cute swimsuits on. Why not show them off?"

The girls almost fainted. I swear minature hearts appeared above their heads. "You're on your own," I muttered to Haruhi and left to where Tamaki and the others were sitting in chairs.

"I can't believe he fooled us," Hikaru said while picking up the beach ball.

"Who would have thought he'd bring the ladies with us?" Kaoru added.

"We certainly didn't expect it," Hikaru agreed.

I suddenly remembered that smirk that he had on his face when we were planning it all out. So that's what he was planning...Shadow King.

In a cool voice, Kyouya said, "You were invited on an all-expenses paid vacation for a reason, and that reason is to keep our clients entertained."

"We know," Hikaru muttered. "But with the ladies here-"

"Haruhi can't change into her swimsuit!" Kaoru finished.

"Don't worry, I've got it all under control," Tamaki said confidently from a lounge chair on Kyouya's left. "My little angel shouldn't be prancing around in a swimsuit, at least not in front of two perverts like you." He started to get this dreamy look in his eye.

I sweatdropped. "I don't want to know what he's thinking..."

"Yeah..." the twins agreed, also sweatdropping.

Suddenly, Tamaki's face got all red. "It'll happen just like that the greatest day of my life! I don't know if I can handle it!" Tamaki squealed.

I noticed Kyouya start to walk away and I followed him, wanting to get away from that pervert. "What's the matter with Tamaki? Is he having a seizure?" I heard one of the fangirls ask in alarm.

"I wouldn't worry about it," Hikaru said.

"He gets like this occasionally," Kaoru explained.

Kyouya paused when he realized I was following him, and waited until I caught up to keep walking again. "I really don't want to know what goes on in Tamaki's mind," I muttered.

"I have a pretty good idea," Kyouya replied in that disinterested tone of voice.

"You know, it's not a crime to show some emotion," I told him.

"You could also argue that showing no emotion is an emotion upon itself," he pointed out.

I went quiet, mentally wrestling with that theory. I heard him chuckle, and I looked up to see a smirk on his face. I glared at him. "Burro."

"Your extensive vocabulary often amazes me, my dear."

"I will take that as a compliment."

"It wasn't meant as one."

"I really don't care."

"You've slipped back into English."

"What?"

"You're speaking in English."

I blushed because, as usual, he was right, of course. "Gomen nasai. It happens sometimes," I said in Japanese.

"I couldn't tell," he teased, also switching back to Japanese.

"Blehh. Just leave me alone," I groaned.

"You're the one that followed me."

"Yeah. Fine. Bye." I turned to leave. He snagged my arm.

"Where are you going?"

"Back to hang out with someone sane."

"I don't think you'll find anyone 'sane' here."

"What about Haruhi?" He went quiet. I grinned. "Win."

There was a rumbling sound, and I looked up, alarmed. Kyouya chuckled. "What's that?" I asked.

"Come and find out," he replied, sending me a smirk. I rolled my eyes but followed him around a cropping of rocks, my curiosity getting the better of me.

A truck with a picture of Kyouya on the back was there, and the Ootori's private police force was there. They bowed towards Kyouya. "Ootori-sama. We wanted to make it up to Mitsukuni Hanninozuka-sama for attacking him at the water park. We wanted to express our deepest apologies, so we brought shellfish."

Kyouya gave him one of his famous fake-smiles. "Of course. I'm sure that Hunni-senpai will deeply appreciate that." The private police force all bowed again and started unloading pink buckets full of shellfish out of the truck. I sweatdropped.

"Yeah. I'm going to find someone sane," I muttered, turning away. Kyouya glanced at me with amused smirk and I once again stuck my tongue out at him. He chuckled but didn't say anything else as I wandered off.

~..*..~

I joined the host club later as they were discussing something, minus Haruhi. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"We've decided to play a game! It's called Who Can Guess Haruhi's Weakness Game!" Tamaki explained happily.

I sweatdropped. "Why would you want to play a game like that...?" No one bothered to answer me.

"And, to make the game more interesting, I have something for the winner," Kyouya said, pulling out pictures of Haruhi in middle school.

While Tamaki started to flip out at him, Hunni asked, "Wait, Kyo-chan, where did you get those pictures?"

"I have more sources," he replied smirking. The group decided to disperse after that comment. I looked at Kyouya.

"Aaaaaand you just happened to have those pictures on you? Sometimes, my friend, I think you're as perverted as Tamaki or the twins." I said the last part under my breath in Spanish, hoping that he couldn't speak Spanish.

He gave me a smirk that was definitely classified as insidiously evil. "If I was that perverted, my dear, I believe you'd know."

I gaped at him. "I thought you didn't speak Spanish!"

His smirk grew wider. "I don't."

That's when I decided to make my exit. Mind reader...

~..*..~

That day consisted of everyone trying to figure out Haruhi's weakness. Tamaki and the twins tried ghosts, Hunni with claustraphobia, Mori with fear of sharp objects. Bugs didn't work because she didn't mind a centipede, which is actually what started this whole thing. She wasn't scared of any of it. I rolled my eyes to myself as I watched those idiots. Why would they want to play a game like this?

Later, I was wandering with Haruhi on beach. She was ecstatically collecting shellfish, calling them 'side dishes' and all that.

"Hey Haruhi!" we heard some girls call. "Look at us!"

We looked up to see some of the girls on top of a cliff-rock-thingy. [A/N Anyone know the name for something like that...?] "Be careful, it could be dangerous up there," Haruhi called sounding worried.

"I'll go with them," I told her and started hurrying towards the cliff. I don't know if Haruhi was following me or not. I heard someone walking behind me as I hurried so I assumed it was Haruhi. I got to the top to hear one of the girls say, "Wow this is an amazing view!"

I smile and come up behind them. "Yea, it is."

They all turned and smiled at me. "This weekend has been so fantastic so far~!"

I grinned and was about to say something, when a rough voice from behind us said, "Hey, man, there are chicks up here!" I froze and turned my head sharply. Behind us, walking up the pathway, were two heavily drunken guys. I stiffened and stood in front of the girls. "This is a private beach. You two need to leave. Now."

He reached forward and grabbed my arm and tugged me towards him. "Oh yea? And who's going to stop us? You?"

The other guy grabbed the other girls grinning. Using my free hand, I punched him awkwardly with my left hand on the side of the head. "Leave us alone! Leave now!"

He glared at me and with hate and grabbed my other arm tugging me towards him. I heard the other girls whimpering with fear and the background, and I struggled against my captor, trying to get free. Suddenly, with a yelp, he let me go, and I fell to the ground. I saw Haruhi in the background, carrying a pail. She had hurled shellfish onto the guy. "Why don't you just let them go and leave them alone?" she yelled.

"Haruhi!" one of the girls said, her eyes lighting up at the thought that Haruhi was going to save her. I quickly got up, ignoring some painful spots. I was going to have bruises there in the morning. I ran towards the other guy and hit him hard in the face. He let go of the girls, gasping with pain.

"Go! Go get the host club!" I yelled at them, and they nodded and ran off. The guy glared at me and grabbed me, twisting my arms behind my back. I gritted my teeth, and started to fight back. I didn't have any experience in self-protection. I was going to take classes but Mark shot that down. He said that there was no need, that he could protect me.

Mark...

This whole thing was bringing back a sense of deja vu, much more than I cared to admit. I made a mental note that if I ever survived this, I would take up martial arts classes.

The other guy had Haruhi by the shirt, taunting him. Then he did something, a sight that would stick with me for the rest of my life.

He tossed Haruhi off the cliff.

I froze, and yelled. "HARUHI!" I kicked my guy in the shin, and he gasped with pain. The first guy grabbed me out of that guys grip and said, "You can join him!"

I heard familiar voices from behind me yell, "EMIKO!", but I was gone. I was sailing through the air, getting closer and closer to the ocean. I hit it, causing a large splash that made my vision go black as I was steadily pulled under by the waves.

A/N

I'm so sorry, don't hate me for ending it like this! It was already so long, and there was something else that's going to happen before this is over, so please don't hate me for ending it on a cliffhanger D:

And I promise you, the next couple of chapters will actually have her doing her Musical Performer stuff *slaps hand to head when realizing I've been neglecting this important aspect in the story*

Review, and you get a chinese taco :)

until next time...

BY THE BY: What do yall think of a friendship between her and Nekozawa? Like it? Hate it? Want a Belzeneff doll? Good. So do I. Mata ashita!