A/N: Hello again. Sorry for the wait. Currently watching a 'Trigun' amv with the song 'Ain't no rest for the wicked' by Cage the Elephant. Over and over and over again.
And now for something completely different-
-Replies!
To my most loyal reviewers, though I often take far too long between posts you've yet to abandon me and for that I thank you and hope that this latest chapter meets your expectations.
1)DarkRavie: thank you, and I hope I don't disappoint.
2)Arashi-Yuuna Fukushima-: Thank you, and I assure you it will indeed be an incredible future.
3)Sergeant LemoOoN: Yep, and a lot more to come.
4)Scherherazade: You'll just have to wait and see. And you're right, even though I'm writing this it's still hard to grasp the kind of life style she's been forced into. Poor Haruhi. (weeps)
5)SamXwazXhere: Yay awesome points! Although, I certainly hope I haven't lost them for making everybody wait so long (sweat-drops) NANA FOREVER!!!
6)carpie noctum: Of course, anything for one of MY Junkies (LOL) just ask and you shall receive… usually… maybe… if fate permits.
(Note- I've replied only to those who reviewed since the last time I posted, simply because I don't know if anyone who reviewed before had finally gotten fed up with me and was no longer reading MB anymore. Sorry to all you out there, and remember, if you want a reply next time, gimme' a review. I need them desperately. Suggestions are welcome along with songs.)
And now onto something more important-
Disclaimer- characters and terminology ain't mine, but the story is.
Haruhi strolled down the street at a leisure pace as she made her way through Bunkyo-Ku, her eyes sweeping over store fronts as she searched for a convenience store. The Host club had been somewhat low on some of the refreshments that they usually offered their guests so Kyoya had sent her out to fetch them. Even though it meant she'd be paying out of her own pocket to purchase the goods Haruhi had gladly taken up the task. Despite the fact that she'd only been granted an hour to complete the chore, she certainly wasn't in a hurry to hasten her short reprieve away from those lunatics.
Before the club was set to open she had spent the past half hour saddled with Tamaki as he attempted the arduous task of educating her into the proper comportment expected of a host by teaching her how to be elegant. It had proven a grueling effort for the both of them. And painful, though that only applied to her, as Tamaki had taken to using a paper fan to 'discipline' her every time she made a mistake. Someone must have been watching out for her (a guardian deity perhaps?) for if Hunny-sempai hadn't interrupted Tamaki's training session, if he had hit her just one more time, she would have snatched the fan away and then proceeded to beat the crap out of him with it.
Thus, another lawsuit narrowly avoided.
As the memory of the past half hour came back to her, Haruhi found herself reaching into her pocket and pulling out the medicine bottle. Popping another pill into her mouth, she grimaced at both the taste as it went down and the uncomfortable thought that if this kept up she was going to run out of curare before the week was over with. She really didn't like the idea of having to ask Takuma for more, but she also didn't favor the thought of losing it the next time Tamaki acted like an idiot- or if more of her classmates chose to attack her.
Sighing as she stuffed the bottle back into her pocket, already starting to feel lethargic as the curare immediately began to take effect, Haruhi let her thoughts drift back to this morning following the incident from the day before. When she'd walked into class the two boys that had ganged up on her had kept their distance, watching her cautiously. A few of the other students had looked at her with colder eyes but no one approached her. All in all, the day had been pretty uneventful.
And she believed without a doubt that it was all thanks to him. Her brows drew together as her mind centered on the anonymity surrounding the tallest member in the Host club.
Morinozuka, or rather, Mori-sempai. The man's very existence excited and frustrated her to no end. She was positive that his interference yesterday had meant something; otherwise she was sure her day wouldn't have gone nearly as smoothly as it had. But the question was, why? Who was this male that he could make even yakuza children defer to his will? She wasn't nearly close enough to any of her classmates to feel comfortable asking them a question like that, and going to one of the other Hosts didn't feel appropriate since the only times she saw them was at the club and he was usually already there himself. And as for just asking the man himself… as the vision of those dark eyes came back to her, Haruhi felt another shudder run up her spine. No, that wasn't quite an option yet.
But still, just what exactly was Mori-sempai?
Was it possible that he was of the Blood Tribe?
The very thought was a provocative torment.
The underlying fact was, as things currently stood, she couldn't be positive in knowing one way or the other if he was or he wasn't. Even if she had the full use of her senses that didn't guarantee an immediate answer since even if he was a beast he could also be under the effect of curare. She'd thought about going to Takuma, but somehow it didn't feel right asking after someone else since she herself was withholding the truth of her own identity. She was unwilling to admit to herself that the real reason she didn't ask was because she was afraid to know what Takuma would say if she did. And in regards to the power she'd felt contained behind those eyes… well, frankly, that didn't tell her much either.
In all honesty, she couldn't even begin to identify what exactly the imposing strength reflected in those eyes was. Could it merely have been an overwhelming sense of Self-assurance? Self- confidence? Or was it more than that? Whatever it was, just because he had it didn't necessarily make him a Beast. Though her kin had cast her out and exiled her from the village, that hadn't meant that contact with others of the Blood Tribe had ceased. Her little family had met with a fair number of others in the passing years, even forming a few loose friendships with some of them, but none of them had possessed the same breed of power she'd felt resided within Mori-sempai.
This didn't mean however that she was a stranger to it.
The echo of familiarity was there. The first time she'd felt that kind of energy, or something very similar to it, it had been emanating from her father.
At that time, he'd been set to kill.
She turned a corner and looked up to see the sign to a small market store only a couple buildings away. Haruhi shook her head, banishing that thread of thought and wherever it might have lead, and made her way towards the front entrance. The sign in front of the store read 'Apple Tree Mart" and painted on the inside of both window panes was a faded mural of an apple orchard with a farmer resting underneath one of the trees. Walking in she quickly located everything written on the short list she'd been given, paid for it and was out again in a matter of minutes. She was readjusting the bag in her arms for a better grip when somebody suddenly grabbed her arm and jerked her around. She now found herself face to face with Longhair and Spiky.
"You-!" Haruhi gasped as she tried unsuccessfully to shake him off her.
"Yeah. Me." Longhair grinned darkly at her as he grabbed hold of her other arm. "Think it's about time we finished up the 'chat' we we're having, right?"
"Wrong!", she spat, trying once more to jerk out of his grasp, and becoming thoroughly baffled when the only thing she managed to accomplish was to lose her grip on the groceries.
Then with a sickening jolt she remembered that she'd only just taken a pill not long ago. Within a split second she realized that the curare circulating in her system was still at the height of its effectiveness, that for the time being she was unable to summon up the strength to get this bastard off her. That's when she started to panic.
'Please! Somebody!-'she thought frantically as the bag slipped out of her hand and fell to the ground, spilling the majority of its contents out into the road, '-help me!' When she realized that nobody was there to step in her panic grew and she started to thrash about wildly, struggling desperately to break free. Spiky moved up quickly behind her and she nearly choked as he laid his hands firmly on top of her shoulders.
'Help me-'she thought, continuing to fight them as they tried to herd her towards a narrow alley between the store and another building '-Mori-sempai!'
"Yo, cool it man!" Spiky hissed into her ear. "Don't make a scene. We're just trying to keep-", He was cut off as one of the cans from her sack suddenly crashed into his face. With a howl of pain he stumbled back, landing on his ass, hands clenched tightly against his now bleeding nose as Haruhi and Longhair stared down dumbly at him.
"What the hell-", someone spoke up behind Longhair. "-is going on here!?"
'It couldn't be." Haruhi thought, the image of a dark haired savior rising into her mind as she and Longhair turned towards the speaker. "Mori-se-"
The rest of the word froze in her mouth as both she and Longhair went stiff as they saw who it was standing before them. With an ominous aura surrounding him and flashing eyes promising instant doom staring out past the red locks that hung down into his face stood none other than Ritsu Kasanoda, the 'Human Blizzard.' His eyes flickered momentarily on her, on the grip that Longhair still maintained on her arms before he turned his angry glare back onto Longhair, who visibly flinched, every last drop of color draining out of his face until it was paper white as he stared fearfully back into those hateful eyes. As Haruhi looked at the expression on that face she finally understood with shocking clarity the fear that everyone held for this man.
He was a man that bore the face of a devil.
"Well?" Kasanoda growled menacingly. He took a single step and Longhair bolted like a mad hare, shoving Haruhi aside who in turn tumbled to the ground as he made his escape while Spiky scrambled to his feet and tried to catch up as his friend left him behind.
"We tried warn'n ya!" Longhair screamed back before he and Spiky cut around a corner and disappeared.
'What?' Haruhi thought as Kasanoda came up from behind.
"Hey", he said gruffly and Haruhi turned back to face him. When she looked up she was expecting to see his anger centered onto her but, as her eyes fell upon his face, she was taken aback. The glare was still there but- how could she explain it… something about him had changed. It was like all the heat and fury that should have been there had simply vanished. And there was something else too. As he reached his hand out to help her up she was astonished to realize that the sharp eyes gazing back at her were filled with genuine worry.
"Are you ok Fujioka?" he asked.
"Y-yes" she said, marveling at what was happening as she took the proffered hand. Not only was the one guy that everyone had believed was going to rough her up instead helping her, this was now the second time in about as many days she'd had somebody from that damn school actually show their concern for her. "Thank you" she whispered.
"Uh?!" he suddenly grunted, startling her. "Oh, um, sorry… you're welcome."
When she was off the ground he let go of her hand before he stepping over to the side of the road and picking up her fallen bag. He looked at the bag in his hand for a second, then he let his eyes roam over the road that most of the groceries had rolled into, pulverized already after being run over by several cars, before he turned his head again and sent a withering glare in the direction that the other two had fled.
"Those bastards" He growled handing the bag and the few items that still remained inside it to her. "I mean jeez, what the hell was that all about?"
That surprised her. "You mean- you don't know?" seeing him shake his head in confusion Haruhi quickly filled him in, about how she'd gotten top grade, the 'rumors' that had sprung up about the both of them because of it, the way everybody seemed to hate and avoid her even more than they did before and how some of them had decided to take it into their own hands to 'inform' her against doing it again, for the sake of everyone else's 'safety.' By the time she was finished he was staring at her with his jaw dropped.
"Uh?! Are you serious?!" She nodded and he turned his head away. He was silent for a moment then he looked back down at her bag.
"What are you missing?' he asked.
Pulling the list out of her pocket Haruhi peeked inside the bag and groaned.
"It looks like-only a couple pears and a can of instant coffee survived. Man, what do I do now? I just spent all the money I had on me to buy this stuff and the guys are expecting me back at the club." As she was figuring out how she was going to explain to the Hosts why she hadn't been able to bring everything back with her Kasanoda, without any warning, plucked the list out of her hand.
"Wait! What are you-"
"Just follow me." He said quickly, cutting her off as he walked right into the store. She followed him in amazement as he took up a basket and they went back through the store and started gathering everything that had been lost. As they went up and down the aisles she tried several times to tell him to stop and each time he willfully pretended not to hear her. When he started to make his way towards the checkout stand however Haruhi quickly grabbed his arm.
"Hold on, don't tell me you're going to pay for all that?"
"Oh course I am," he said handing the basket over to the terrified clerk. "You didn't think I was just going to walk out without paying, did you?"
"But why?" She asked, utterly mystified as he paid for the groceries and then handed the new bag over to her.
"Think of it as an apology for… you know-"
He looked away uncomfortably as she stared up at him in disbelief. "You see, the thing is… you wouldn't be having this kind of trouble if it those guys weren't acting stupid because of what they thought I was going to do, so, this is my way of asking for forgiveness for all the difficulties I've put you through."
"But- none of it's your fault-"She almost ran into him as he came to an abrupt halt just outside the door. When he turned his head around the scowl on his face had slipped away as he looked down at her in surprise and then, for a moment, the corners of his mouth twitched upwards into the briefest hint of a smile before his scowl set back in place.
"That's the sad part about my life, Fujioka- it usually always is."
With that he turned away, stuffing his hands into his pocket while hunching his shoulders, and ambled down the sidewalk in the opposite direction of the school without a single backward glance. Haruhi stood there for a time, feeling her heart ache with mounting sympathy as she watched the distance between them stretch longer and longer with every step he took, before finally turning around and making her way back to the school.
The music room was filled with roses.
Haruhi stood rooted at the door as she wondered what flowery hell she'd wandered into this time. It took her a moment before she remembered that what she was seeing wasn't real. Squinting her eyes, she peered past the flood of CGI roses until she finally centered in on the most probable cause of this latest eyesore as he sat deeply engaged in conversation with a redhead who certainly appeared amused by whatever it was that he was telling her. They both looked up when she closed the door behind her.
"Ah, the kittens back from shopping."
'Kitten?' Haruhi thought as she made straight for the closest empty table, sending a questioning glance towards Tamaki as he excused himself and rose up from the coach to follow her. Before she'd even set the bag down he started reaching into the bag and pulling things out.
"Eh? What's this?" he asked, holding up the coffee container.
"Coffee. It was on your list." She replied, wondering what he was getting at or if he was just trying to be cute. The damn thing was labeled after all.
"But… ground coffee? And such a strange brand…"
Ok, apparently he didn't know how to read. "Not ground… instant."
"Instant…" he said slowly, as if tasting the word. Then suddenly he let out a gasp and stared bug-eyed at the instant coffee as if it was the most astounding thing he'd ever laid eyes on. "You mean the one you just pour hot water in? How Proletarian!!" And just like that all the other club members materialized out of nowhere and clustered tightly around him, trying to get a look at what he held in his hands.
"Hmm. I've heard of it but never seen it…"
"So it's true! Poor people have no time to grind their beans!"
"It's how the common folk cope!"
"I've always wanted to try it! Let's brew some up! Common folk's coffee!"
"Okay, I get the point! Next time I'll go get the expensive stuff!" Haruhi snapped angrily as she backed out of the circle. 'Rich kids! Phooey!!' she thought turning away as the boys continued to babble like a flock of geese over the stuff. A chuckle caught her attention and she turned her head to see the redhead Tamaki had been entertaining still seated on the couch.
"They're just messing around, you know." She said, not taking her eyes off the group. "That crap won't suit their tastes at all."
"Huh?"
"Oh sorry…," she said, looking over at Haruhi as if just noticing that she'd been standing there. She smiled at her but there wasn't a single trace of warmth in the gesture. "…I was merely talking to myself."
"Right…" Haruhi said slowly. '…as if I could actually be stupid enough to believe that…'
"Haruhi!"
Tamaki was calling her name and both girls turned to see him, the other hosts and a small group of girls all standing together and looking at her expectantly. "Make us some of this commoner folk's coffee!" Tamaki said excitedly, sweeping a hand over the group behind him. "Everyone's keen to try it."
"Master Tamaki…?" The girl beside her said aloud, staring at Tamaki incredulously. Haruhi felt momentarily smug at seeing the girl proven wrong about her idol's interest before she realized what it was that he'd told her to do. Holding in a groan she went over and quickly 'demonstrated' how to make instant coffee before passing out cups to everyone there.
"I won't be responsible if they don't like it." She said sidelong to Tamaki, looking pointedly at the group as several of the girls already started showing signs of having second thoughts.
"If they don't like it?" He replied mockingly before strolling over to one of the doubting girls. In a fluid motion he reached down and cupped her cheeks in his hands, tilting her head up to stare invitingly into her eyes, as he asked, in a hushed tone that nonetheless carried over the entire group, "Would you rather drink it from my mouth…?"
The girl's eyes flew wide open in shock and her face burned crimson red before she weakly replied that a cup was fine.
"And now a toast- with instant coffee!" Tamaki cried out, raising his cup before downing it with aggressive enthusiasm.
As the crowd let out a cheer and one by one, encouraged by the fact that the King hadn't dropped dead on the spot, tasted their drinks, one of the few girls who'd refrained from partaking in the toast sidled up beside the redhead sitting on the couch, leaning over to whisper quietly in her ear.
"Doesn't it seem wrong for Master Tamaki to drink such swill? Doesn't it, Miss Ayanokoji?"
Ayanokoji chuckled at the girls concern. "Well… it's all part of a new project of his- though he may be overdoing it a bit."
The other girl seemed reassured by the answer yet Ayanokoji's eyes, straying back to Tamaki as he ordered the little common bred twit to prepare another cup of that unrefined mud water, chilled ever so slightly.
She sat atop the roof of the apartment complex, watching as the sun finally sank behind the skyline and more lights from the windows of the buildings around her winked to life. As the sun's light bled out of the clouds that hung suspended above the city, their heavy bodies darkening until a black sea floated in the sky overhead, Haruhi breathed out a contented sigh. The day was truly over. The cup of tea she held cradled in her hands was pleasantly warm, the air refreshingly fragrant now that the curare had run its course and all her senses were her own again, and for the time being nothing was wrong.
She might have believed that if not for the growls in her head. The low throaty sounds echoed in the space between what she was and what she was becoming, and on that side stood the primal side of her nature, waiting, growing ever more impatient, ever more excited.
There were two of her now, and both were vying for control.
She shivered as her mind brushed against the all-consuming desire stirring behind her other half, feeling the steadily rising agitation intermixed with equal parts blissful, fluttering pleasure and fluctuating spasms of rage. A consciousness derived of need- the need to run wild, to do as she pleased without any thought of consequence, to assert herself from the shadows into a world that denied her existence. The Inner Beast of her soul, the primal yen that skirted the boundaries of her humanity, occasionally overlapping, was an ever present awareness that prowled within the deeper depths of her mind. At any other time she would have had no difficulty suppressing that side of herself, ignoring the pull those emotions had on her, but now…
She cast a glance upward towards the clouds above. Their massive forms blocked all view of the sky in a veil of rolling shadows yet Haruhi could still feel beyond them the glory of the moon as it rode towards fullness. Though Its' silver light failed to pierce the thick cloud cover its power still reached her, seeking her out and filling her with an energy that shimmered through her veins- a liquid heat that would only get steadily worse in the coming nights.
And which would undoubtedly draw the Beast from the depths to the forefront… which was exactly why she dreaded the coming weekend. Not only for what the waxing moon would do to her or her body, of course, but for what she feared she was now obligated to do to herself.
Exercise restraint. An abominable concept that sent her primal half flying into an ugly fit of screaming and snarling. The saner part of her was half-tempted to join in and wail her own lament towards the injustice.
And yet it had to be done. This wasn't home. Nor was it like the time during the flight from the north she and uncle had made. Under the cover of night they'd had the freedom to take one final chance and run through the forests on their way here, exhilarating in the glorious feeling being in their second forms and running beneath the basking glow of the moon brought them. It had been an escape from the reality that pursued them. Here, in the core of Tokyo, that escape didn't exist. The release she craved wasn't optional.
Which, given the exceptional drama she found herself trapped in, made it all the more a pity. Fate must have had it in for her. It was the only way to explain all the curve balls she'd been throwing her way lately.
Haruhi stared down into her cup as she pondered the latest tangle in the threads of her life. The first snag down the line stemmed from her classmates behavior ever since the grading results had been posted. They hadn't really liked her before but now some of them were taking action against her. The next to come after that belonged to the host club, a loopy thing that had come out of nowhere and had quickly twisted itself in and around her life, almost instantly becoming inextricable. From there on everything went haywire as it all broke apart and reformed into a knot of loose threads which had recently become her greatest concerns: The need for curare, the effects of the rising moon, the speculation surrounding Mori-sempai and now the circumstance involving Kasanoda.
The moons path wouldn't alter itself for her and Mori-sempai was a moot point unless some key evidence presented itself. At the moment the last was the one that haunted her the most.
Kasanoda. The poor guy blamed himself for something that shouldn't have had anything to do with him. Behind that glare Haruhi had caught a glimpse of the gentle kind person he really was and it angered her to think about how they'd both been dragged down by their fellow classmates. She'd heard all the things said about him along with her and it fueled her rage to know that he'd been marred just as badly because of a false presumption.
Something would have to be done. She wouldn't just stand by and let this injustice continue. The eighty thousand dollar question now was how?
Well, the answer to that question could be put off until the right moment presented itself. Her need for curare could not.
She frowned as she reached into her pocket and fingered the bottle, but didn't take it out. The bottle had only enough for a couple more days but after that, unless she asked Takuma for more, she'd be totally out. That was, of course, if she decided on going to school for the rest of the week. When she'd told Takuma she had no intention of walking away from the host club she'd forgotten just how close the full moon was. Now however, with the way her life had been going, she wasn't sure she wanted to take the risk.
She wasn't even sure she could.
Looking back up Haruhi gazed at the impenetrable cloud barrier as it moved slowly across the sky. On a sudden whim she decided to try to pinpoint the exact location of the moon behind it by guessing from which direction its energy was infusing her. Closing her eyes, she started to reach out with her senses- before she was suddenly sent reeling back in shock.
It was like a hard slap to the face that left her gasping for air. She'd been sitting here on the roof for god knows how long and until that very moment she'd been wholly ignorant to what had been happening to her the entire time.
It was with an abrupt awareness to the situation that Haruhi suddenly realized just how hot her whole body felt, how impossibly tight, her pulse racing with her breath as it came out short and shallow. All of her nerves teetered on a knife's edge. She scrambled off the roof when a breeze barely stronger than a breath threatened to blow them over after it caressed an area of exposed skin practically burning with heightened sensitivity.
Even after she was inside though she could still feel the moon's energy, seeping sweetly into her veins, and realized that just having a roof over her head wasn't going to cut it. Swearing a colorful variety of oaths, she tore off her clothes and leapt into the shower. She gasped as the blast of cold water that came shooting out hit her body like a spray of ice, which immediately turned into a groan as she slumped against the shower wall, taking an almost explicit pleasure as she became enveloped in the sensation of water washing over her body as it carried the heat away.
Regardless of whether she chose to attend school or not tomorrow, she was going to get more pills. She had a sickening feeling in the pit of her stomach that if she was going to survive the coming weekend, to prevent the Beast from breaking loose, she'd need them.
Haruhi marched down the hallway with sluggish grace. After a restless night involving two additional showers and another pill that still resulted in very little shut eye in the ongoing battle with her restive hormones Haruhi had finally given up on the prospect of a decent sleep and decided to idle her remaining hours away going through one of her textbooks before the time came to head off to school.
Rolling her shoulders she tried warding off another yawn, annoyed with the fact that she was getting tired now that she had to stay awake. She thought momentarily about turning back around and blowing off the whole day to crawl back into bed but shook it off after a couple seconds of not-so-serious consideration. Her priorities came first.
And first on the list was getting her damn awful medicine from good old doctor Takuma. After that she would have a little chat with Kasanoda and she would let him know that his apology was not accepted. There was no way in hell she was going to let him continue believing that he'd had any part in this fiasco, and that went for the rest of this school too. And if that required getting a little physical to state her point, well, so be it. After that, she'd see where things led her.
Another yawn worked its way up but this time she gave in and let it have its way with her. Screw it- she needed to think properly and for that her brain needed some more air. No need to tread the war path this early in the morning.
After a few more minutes of walking she finally reached the classroom. As her fingers went for the grip she sincerely hoped that Takuma was there, but not just for the medicine. She'd need somebody she could trust to pull her off should she get hostile. The door opened and as Haruhi stepped in she suddenly found herself surrounded by Yakuza children.
'What the Hell?! A Lynching?!' was her immediate thought process as she stumbled back, throwing her arms up in defense. Her Inner Beast snarled within her mind and surged forth at the sudden prospect of a fight.
"Fujioka, please forgive us!" one of those nearest to her suddenly cried out.
Her brain nearly crashed as the words failed to process. Her Inner Beast was stunned into silence. She'd started to believe she'd misheard until she looked at them more closely and was alarmed when she saw that all of them looked positively scared. Some of them even had tears in their eyes. Just as she was about to ask what the hell was going on one of them shifted to the side and she was able to see the rest of the room beyond them. What she saw rendered her speechless.
The room was completely demolished. All the desks and chairs had been thrown against the walls, while books and other personal belongings lay scattered all over the floor.
"What…" she'd barely gotten the word out before everybody seemed to jump in at once.
"I'm sorry for the way I acted." The little brunette from the other day sniveled.
"Fujioka… I'm so sorry, I was spreading weird rumors." Another piped in.
"Sorry, I won't say anything bad about you anymore."
"Me too… I'm sorry, so…"
This went on for a while and all Haruhi could do was gape. It was like she'd fallen into a surreal dream.
"What-"she finally managed to interject, cutting off the flow of apologies"-What the heck is going on here? Yesterday, none of you would have given a damn if I died in the gutter and now… this? And just what the heck happened here?!" she said, waving a hand wildly towards the room. When she didn't get an immediate answer Haruhi snarled. "Spit it out!"
Everyone around her flinched and as one their eyes all turned everywhere but towards her. For the longest moment nobody spoke until one of them, a boy with short black hair and ears that looked too big for his head, suddenly cleared his throat and shuffled forward nervously.
"O-oh the room?" he said weakly. "N-nothing happened. I m-mean yeah, it's kind of trashed but- but that's only cause' we were all fooling around. The room needed redecorating anyways, right guys?" He laughed nervously and everyone around him started nodding their heads vigorously. He quickly shut up though when he saw her pointed glare and knew that she wasn't buying it. "Alright, alright, the truth is… it was Kasanoda."
"Kasanoda?" she repeated in a cross tone, her eyes boring into the boy in a way that told him to continue. Seeing her attention focused solely on him the others started to drift away. As the group broke up and started to wander cautiously around the room, putting the desks back in their proper place and picking up the strewn papers, Haruhi caught a flash of red and turned her head to see Kasanoda at his seat. He just sat there and watched the others as they moved around him with seemingly detached interest.
"Yeah, the thing is…" He glanced over at Kasanoda, too, before looking down guiltily and lowering his voice. "…a few of us were talking about the two of you, and the Human Blizzard- he- he kinda overheard us. The next thing we knew the guy was in our faces, screaming that there was nothing going on between you two, that he didn't have the time to waste it on someone like you, and then, well…" he nodded towards the messy room. "It was terrifying."
"I see."Haruhi replied crisply, passing the boy without a second look as she stepped further into the room, her eyes trained onto Kasanoda.
As she moved towards Kasanoda a sudden hush fell over the rest of the room, the others pausing in its cleanup as Haruhi came to a stop in front of him. The room stood still, nary a single person daring to breathe, as Kasanoda's head swung up to look at her, his sharp, glaring eyes locking on to hers. And then, in a moment that shocked everyone, causing several of the observers to gasp and Kasanoda's eyes to widen in shock, Haruhi did something truly startling.
She smiled at him.
"Thank you." She whispered softly enough for only him to hear, before turning back into the room and quickly set to locating her desk. Kasanoda stared after her, unbeknownst to him the fact that he was being watched by the majority of the class who were waiting to see how he'd react.
'Just now, what was that?' Kasanoda thought, as he watched Haruhi put her desk back in place. 'When he smiled at me, and looked at me with those big eyes of his… for a moment he almost sort of looked like a girl. But no, that isn't important. That guy isn't afraid of me…?'
As Haruhi moved in front of the window and the light shining though silhouetted her figure, highlighting her hair and making her light skin glow, Kasanoda was thrown off his line of thought as he was suddenly struck by a startling realization: Haruhi was truly beautiful-
-Beautiful, and elegant and utterly to be possessed.
'Wait, WHAT?!'
Kasanoda, a sudden hot blush blooming across his face, abruptly leapt up from his seat, sending it crashing back, as he dashed towards the door… straight towards the group of people who'd been watching him which caused them to shriek and sent all of them scattering away in fear.
'W-w-what the heck am I thinking?!' he screeched silently within his mind as he tore off down the hall, trails blazing, like a madman.
Reaching the top of the stairs Haruhi tread quietly down the last stretch of hall towards the Host Club, deeply absorbed within her thoughts. In the course of one morning two of the concerns that had plagued her mind had been resolved only to have a new one take their place.
Following Kasanoda's sudden departure Takuma had walked into the room and Haruhi had learned, along with the rest of the class, that after today he would be gone for the rest of the week. When lunch had come around Haruhi, in the midst of receiving another bottle of pills, discovered he would be gone over the weekend as well and why.
Considering what he told her, Haruhi thought she would've been better off not knowing.
In the week preceding every full moon the population within the Blood Tribes got downright rowdy as the white goddess soared across the sky, filling her children with a gratifying rush of hot energy. During this time, everywhere the world around secret celebrations were held beneath her luminous glow, sometimes entire communities devolving into riotous behavior in order to burn off most of that energy. It was a time, outside the familiarity of humanities realm, in which a society lost to myth gathered together to run, to dance, but more simply than that to revel in the purity of life itself. It was a joyous occasion where members of the Beast tribes often found not only each other but themselves as well.
But sometimes people went missing.
And that was exactly why Takuma had to go.
Somewhere in the past two nights a minor family belonging to one of the tribes residing within Okayama over in Western Honshu had gone missing. It had been a family of four- the youngest being about the same age as her. Though it wasn't an uncommon occurrence for small families like that to just up and leave the fact that none of the other members in their tribe had been notified of their departure, coupled with the disturbing lack of any follow-able trace of them, had left all the tribes in the area unsettled. What was worse was a rumor had now sprung up in the wake of their absence that had left everyone all the more ill at ease.
There was talk that the family hadn't merely disappeared- they'd been hunted.
An investigation was already underway but now, because of this sudden disappearance, Takuma was being called over to help analyze the security systems in that region until the full moon had passed. It was a move to reassure the community that everything that could be done to maintain their safety was being done. The problem with that, however, was that left her with nobody to turn to if the shit hit the proverbial fan.
But what could they do about it? Takuma wasn't exactly in a position to decline.
Haruhi sighed. Worrying about things outside her control did her little good and she already had enough on her plate without adding more. As she reached the third music room and walked through the door Haruhi shook her head and resolved that she'd try not to let anything else bother her. If anything peculiar came her way, she'd just go with the flow. Big words considering fate seemed to be giving her the stink eye lately. But all the same, her life couldn't get any weirder than it already was, right?
"Listen up!" came Tamaki's authoritative voice. "Today we investigate the ramen of the common folk!"
Well so much for that theory.
A/N: oh, sudden interesting developments. Poor, poor Cassanova-kun. Until next time! (Turns and hops back down the rabbit hole)