"Tales of the Stars"

Book 1: Homecoming

Chapter 11

"Oh my god, you have no idea how nice it is to be somewhere normal." Staria sighed taking in the atmosphere of the arcade. Mamoru had picked her up after school so they could spend some time together. The guys were taking care of some last minute arrangements for Saturday's dance, so the timing was perfect.

"You sound like you haven't gotten away much since you came to Japan." Mamoru observed.

"I haven't. Other than the fashion show it's just been school and the house I'm staying at."

Mamoru smiled, "Well today just relax and do whatever you want. You don't have anyone judging you." Staria smiled looked around to see if she wanted to play anything. A guy about Mamoru's height, with blond hair, walked up to them.

"Hey Mamoru, who's your friend?" the blond asked. Staria made note of the apron and guessed the guy worked there.

"Motoki this is Staria. Staria this is Motoki, his family runs this arcade and the fruit parlor next door." Mamoru introduced them.

"Nice to meet you." Staria grinned. "Is this the friend you were in a hurry to help the other day?"

"That would be him. Motoki here is one of my best friends."

"You mean only friends." Motoki teased. "This guy is such a loner, and cold as stone. Most girls just get the cold shoulder, how'd you get him to warm up to you?"

Staria just smiled, "Oh we have our connections. He doesn't seem that cold to me though. Maybe just hard to get."

"Alright, enough you too." Mamoru put and end to the game. "Motoki she's my little sister."

"What? You never said anything about your family before." Motoki was interested now. There was an opening the mystery that was Mamoru Chiba. He wasn't about to let this rare opportunity escape.

"We just found out ourselves." Staria explained. "I've been living with an adopted family in the Untied States since I was four." She left it to Mamoru to fill his friend in further and excused herself to the UFO catcher machine. She couldn't help but think there was a high abundance of cute guys coming into her world lately. Shoujo manga plot much?

"That's crazy." Motoki was amazed, Mamoru had always been very quiet about his past but he finally put everything into perspective for him. "It's so weird to think of you having a sister. Welcome to my world buddy. Unazuki has started getting boy crazy lately and it is a nightmare trying to keep her out of trouble."

"Staria seems pretty level headed to me…" Mamoru trailed off as the two of them watched the girl in question getting mad at the machine as it dropped a stuffed penguin just short of the winners bin. "Well….maybe…"

Motoki laughed, "Seriously though, she's cute. You're going to have fun keeping an eye on her."

"I'll have a little help. She's living with a friend of the family, and his son is keeping an eye on her."

The blond gave his friend a skeptical look. "You sure about that?"

"Not really, but if she trusts him I don't see why I shouldn't."

"I hope you're right. Well I'll let you two catch up some more. Give me a yell if you guys need anything." with that Motoki went back to work, checking on other customers. Mamoru walked over to Staria who was still failing at the crane game.

"Still no luck?"

"I think it's rigged." Staria pouted.

"No you're just bad at it. I am too other wise I'd offer to get you something."

"At least your honest." Staria laughed.

"Let's go next door and get something to eat. My treat."

"This is boring boss." Hikaru complained.

"Yeah everything's already in order." Kaoru agreed.

"That's fine but we need to make sure. We don't want something to go wrong at the last second." Tamaki brushed off their belly aching. Their first event was going to go off without fail. He just needed to make sure of it.

"You could have at least brought Star along for us to pick on." The two quipped together.

"I will not have you two causing my cute little sister grief." The host king chided them.

"Sister?" the too look confused.

"Staria told Tamaki that he could be her brother if he wanted." Kyoya explained as he went down their check list. "And for your information she does know about her heritage now. If I'm not mistaken she's out bonding with Mr. Chiba as we speak."

The club's vice president was glad she wasn't present. After the previous night's activities he'd had a very long night. His dreams had been sprinkled with alternate events to their little study session, and not all of them where rated PG. He was grumpy and keeping busy was the best way to ignore his new feelings. Though if he could make Tamaki suffer a little too he might enjoy it.

He blamed Tamaki completely. If the blond idiot hadn't constantly been pushing then he wouldn't have noticed. He could have stayed in his calculating world view. Now there were actually some thoughts of things that had nothing to do with taking his place as the successor of the Ohtori family. Though Staria herself could be blamed a bit too. She'd been very guarded and defensive at first, but now she was almost naively relaxed around him, even her embarrassed blushes seemed to have diminished yesterday. She was almost becoming an open invitation, and something about that annoyed him.

"Alright. I guess everything's is as good as it'll bee. You guys can go, Kyoya and I will finish up." Tamaki gave in. He watched his friends leave and turned to Kyoya once the door was shut. "Ok what has been bothering you? You've been grouchy all day."

Kyoya stared at his friend. "I assure you that I have not been grouchy."

"Don't give me that crap. I know you. What happened? Something at home?" the blond's eyes suddenly went wide. "No. Something happened with Star after I left. Didn't it?"

"Don't get full of yourself." Kyoya said putting away their paper work. "Nothing happened."

"And that's why you're crabby." he grinned. "Come on tell me." Kyoya was getting very short tempered. Tamaki needed to drop it, but he knew the Frenchmen wouldn't have anything of the sort. Not until he had his way.

"You are impossible, you do realize this?" Kyoya glared at him, giving his friend a true glimpse at that shadow king wrath. "You want to know why I'm 'grouchy' and 'crabby' and just plain pissed off? It's because some idiot keeps poking and prodding and maybe, just finally, my psyche has decided 'oh this guy's right let's look at this another way.' The thing is the intelligent part of my brain isn't having anything to do with it. So we have a nice little internal conflict going on. Add to this mix a pretty girl, showing a lot of skin, practically crawling into my lap to read a news article. Mind you, from what I could tell, in a completely naive manner. I kept my hands off, despite every nerve in my body screaming at me to do other wise. What little sleep I've had since then has been at the mercy of my, shall we say, neglected imagination."

Tamaki watched the anger and frustration wash over his friend's face. "You know Kyoya, you don't have to fight it. You could just admit that you like Staria and you'd feel better."

"No, it won't! It won't make it all better, because I already have admitted it to myself. It made things worse Tamaki! Not better! Before I could ignore it. No harm in that. But not now. No not now!" Kyoya was yelling at him openly. The shadow king started stalking towards his friend. "Are you happy now? I like Staria. I like her a lot. Just what are you going to do about it?"

Tamaki let his friend get in his face, but stayed calm. "Nothing Kyoya. You have to do something about it. You're the one who has to tell her."

"I know that…" Kyoya started to calm down and leaned his forehead on Tamaki's shoulder. "I'm sorry, I know it's stupid that I blame you for this."

"Hey, it's ok." Tamaki hugged his friend, knowing he might just get shoved away. Kyoya let the taller boy hug him, but only briefly.

"So help me Suoh if you say a word to her I'll see you dead."

"My lips are sealed." Tamaki grinned while running his thumb over his lips in a mock zipper motion. "So…you wanna tag along to go pick the princess up?"

"No." Kyoya walked away. "I'm going home. See you tomorrow." Tamaki smiled as he left. Things were developing nicely. Too bad he wasn't allowed to say anything to Staria.

"Mamoru, do you ever have weird dreams?" Staria asked while stirring what was left of her strawberry smoothie.

"Yeah everyone does. It's normal you know. Usually caused by stress or certain foods."

"No not….normal weird dreams." Staria searched for the right words. "I mean, like you're in another world or time. You're yourself but things aren't the way you know them. Despite that, though, you recognize other people there even if you can't place a name. The kind of dreams that feel more like a memory when you wake up." She searched his eyes for some sign of understanding.

"Not really. I take it you do though." He paused to drink his coffee. "I do have dreams that are odd though. I've been having the same one a lot lately. I'm lost in a fog and a princess is calling out to me. She needs me to find something important for her. A crystal of some sort, that will help her. I use to have it every couple of months. It's been happening about once a week now."

"That's kinda cool. Maybe you're psychic?" Staria paused and then smacked her own forehead. "Sorry…I feel really dumb now. Tamamki said that exact thing to me when I told him about my dreams."

"I shared mine. What have yours' been?" Mamoru was truly curious.

"They're all a little different. Like pieces of one big story. I think that's why they feel like memories. They started after you and I bumped into each other at the show. They stood out at first cause I recognized you in the first one." She told him about the gala dream, a few others she'd had since then.

"Did you ever see the princess that my prince version was involved with?" He asked.

"No. The moon princess would be talked about only, same with the senshi. I just seem to get the people involved in the Earth kingdom in my dreams." She looked at the table top. "Do you think I'm crazy?"

"No cause if you are I am too. Just don't worry about it for now. Though if you have any more feel free to talk to me about it. Also if you get to see what that princess looks like be sure to let me know. All I get is a shadow. It'd be interesting if it's connected together."

Staria paused for a moment. "Are you thinking these dreams I'm having really are some past life experience?"

"It happens. I'm not saying that they are, but the fact that we're siblings and are both having dreams of a similar nature it just makes me curious."

"Yeah, me too…"Staria trailed off and focused on her smoothie again. It was a lot to think about indeed.

Tamaki walked into the commoner's arcade in a state of awe. He'd never been to one before, but it's where Staria had told him that she and her brother would be. He took his time looking around, not in a real hurry to end their time alone. He was a bit surprised at the number of female customers there were. He'd always heard that these types places were dens for socially awkward teen age males and little kids.

The Crown Arcade however had a very bright welcoming atmosphere. Then he spotted the clerk of the establishment. He knew instantly why there were so many girls. A good looking staff will always bring in customers. The young man in question was tall with sandy blond hair and chatting up a storm with a vibrant young blond, who was sporting a large red hair bow. He hated to interrupt but he didn't see Staria any where. So he made his way over to the desk.

Like any good worker, Motoki looked up as he saw movement coming his way and smiled. "Welcome to the Crown Arcade. Can I help you with anything?" He'd never seen the boy's uniform before but it looked expensive.

"Yes, have you by chance noticed a brother and sister come in this afternoon. The sisters about this tall," he raised his hand up to just below his shoulder, "with long golden brown hair. The brother's a couple years older than her."

"You must be Staria's friend." Motoki guessed from the description he gave.

"Yes! So they have been in today." The rich boy got excited.

"I'm Motoki, Mamoru's friend. They're next door in the fruit parlor." He offered his hand to shake.

"Tamaki Suoh, my family's hosting Staria while she's in Japan." He shook Motoki's hand and smiled. "Thank you very much." he turned to the young lady with the hair ribbon and gave her a small bow, looking up as his was bent over to say. "Sorry to interrupt your conversation princess, do forgive my rudeness."

"Don't worry about it." the girl blushed a bit and gave Motoki a look. Tamaki smiled and left for the neighboring shop.

"Like what you see, Minako?" Motoki teased one of his regular customers.

"Oh my god…Motoki what school uniform was that? How can you make more students from there come here?"

Motoki laughed, "I don't know, but I think the patch on his jacket said Ouarn Academy. It's rich kid's school."

"I don't see the problem…"

Staria waved at Tamaki as he came into the parlor. "Mamoru this is Tamaki. Tamaki, my brother Mamoru."

"It's nice to finally meet you." Tamaki shook his hand before sitting down next to Staria.

"Like wise. I should be thanking you for helping keep and eye on my sister."

"No you don't, he's just a trouble maker." Staria argued.

"Oh right…something about a crush. I hear we're supposed to start double teaming her when it comes to picking on her about her love life." Mamoru teased.

"Is that so. Well I know I've been told not to say a word to the person she's crushing on but she never said anything about telling you." Tamaki smiled

"Stop! Just stop!" Staria pleaded. "It's not funny!" both boys shared a laugh. Staria was blushing horribly and very flustered. The whole thing was adorable.

"I'm sorry princess. You brought it on yourself this time." Tamaki gave her a wink. "I think Kyoya missed you today though."

"I doubt it. You guys were finishing up details for this weekend. I would have just been in the way." she started to calm down and finished her drink.

"What are you all planning?" Mamoru asked out of curiosity.

"Our club is throwing a gala ball for our clients. It'll be great. Yuzuha Hitachiin actually made a dress for Staria just for the occasion."

"Yeah?" Mamoru looked at Staria to see her reaction.

"Yep, it's really pretty….and freaky…" Staria added. She hadn't told Tamaki about it being the same dress from her dream. "See… the dreams I've been telling you about….well before I even saw the dress yesterday, I'd been wearing the same one in one of my dreams. I didn't say a word to Hitachiin-san and yet, it's a dead ringer. It's creepy."

"You seriously dreamed that you'd worn that same gown?" Tamaki asked. Staria nodded. "Maybe your dream was of the future then, not a past life."

"They why weren't you or any of the guys in it? Why were none of our classmates in it? Mamoru was the only person I could place, and this is a club only event." Staria questioned his logic.

"Um…I don't know." Tamaki faltered and changed the subject. "Soooo…..do you think you're ready for the dance, or do you want another lesson session?"

Staria took a second to think. "I should be good. It might not hurt to try a little more with a long skirt on though…and heals….I haven't tried in heals yet. Yeah I should practice more."

"Great! I'll call Kyoya." before she could argue he had his cell phone out and was dialing.

Kyoya was going to kill Tamaki. Despite their little heart to heart he was still at it. He'd barely been home an hour when Tamaki called him insisting he come over that night. His excuse being that Staria wanted a bit more practice dancing before the gala. He wouldn't let Staria on the phone to tell him herself so he had to assume that Tamaki wasn't just pulling a stunt.

If he got there and Staria was clueless on the matter he was going right back home. After beating the snot out of his friend, that is. The host king was getting too good at playing the cards dealt to him. Kyoya had been very firm at first in saying no, but the blond reminding him that dancing involved touching, the very act he was feeling oh so frustrated over.

"Damn you Tamamki." he muttered under his breath as he walked up to the main door of the Suoh family's second estate. To his surprise Staria met him at the door with a bright smile.

"Kyoya, that was fast. Come on in." she greeted. He placed his hands on either side of the door way and leaned in closer to her, a not so pleasant expression plastered on his face.

"Tell me this first. Are you truly wanting more help or is Tamaki playing games again?" his question brought a blush across her cheeks. It was at least a reaction.

"If you have stuff you need to do, you don't have to help. I didn't want to bug you, but Tamaki insists that you're a better teacher at this than him."

Kyoya knew Tamaki was full of shit. He could have just as easily helped her but he was playing matchmaker instead. Kyoya sighed and leaned back. "I'm sorry Staria, I've just been a bad mood. If you're still wanting a bit more help, that's what I'm here for."

"Thank you." She smiled brightly. "I'll try not to take up too much of your night again."

He followed her inside and down the hall to a small banquette room where Tamaki was playing around on the piano already. Staria seemed a little taller as she walked in front of him. It took him a moment to realize the clacking he kept hearing were the heals she was wearing. He smiled a bit. She'd wanted practice in different shoes. He'd have to be prepared for getting his toes trampled a bit.

Staria didn't want to risk ruining the dress for the gala, so even though it wasn't as full of a skirt, she chose a long sundress to practice in. It was a pale blue color with a halter top that cinched in at the waist with a matching belt. The skirt was a basic circle skirt that went to her ankles but would flare out if she were to spin. Very simple, but elegant in it's own way.

She was still iffy about the heals. She liked that they made her taller, but she also knew her feet would be killing her before the gala was over. The never ending choices of being female. Do you go with comfort or fashion? Normally she would have gone with comfort, but this event just screamed that she needed to do the whole formal ten yards. If that meant aching toes for a night then she'd just have to deal.

"Are you sure you want to wear high heals to the gala?" Kyoya asked as if reading her mind. "They might make for a long night."

"Well I still want to see. We'll call this a test run. Beside worst case, I just go barefoot for half the night." she grinned. "The skirts long enough no would know any way."

"Until you stub a toe or get trampled by someone else, but that's your business isn't it." He held a hand out to her. "Shall we begin?"

"Right." She faced him and took the hand he offered. Tamaki started to focus and play a piece they could dance to properly. Staria let out a small squeak, surprised when Kyoya placed his hand on her waist and pulled her close to him. He had left more space between them before, now they were close enough that a good deep breath would have pressed their bodies together. She had to work hard to keep eye contact, knowing that her cheeks were flushed pink, if not full out red.

Kyoya wasn't about to let this opportunity pass him by. He'd still be a gentleman but that didn't mean he couldn't enjoy himself a bit and be just a tad more hands on. He could feel her tense when he pulled her close to him. So as they began to move to the music he let her have a little more space, but still kept her closer than he had in the past. For being in heals she was still pretty steady on her feet, but she kept looking away from him. She'd glance back up for short periods of time and then look off again.

"How's your feet?" He finally asked in an attempt to get her looking at him again.

"They're ok." She answered.

"So it's alright if we pick up the pace a bit?"

"I guess…" She trailed off. Tamaki's playing got a bit more energetic and Kyoya sped up their pace with the next turn.

Staria was doing her best to focus on dancing and not on the look in Kyoya's eyes. There was more force behind them than before and she couldn't help but blush looking at them. So she kept looking away in an attempt to not be permanently red faced. Before he'd been all business but now there was a spark in him, as if he was actually letting himself have fun, rather than just teaching. She liked it, and it embarrassed her.

They had fallen into a good pace when he suddenly spun her away from him, and pulled her back effortlessly. She wasn't ready for it though and got her feet tangled at the end. He caught her free hand, guiding her back to him as she faltered, so that her back pressed up against his body. Holding her hands out and just above her head, he leaned down so his mouth was close to her ear.

"Careful." Kyoya said smoothly. He could feel her heart racing. He lowered her arms, keeping a gentle grip on her wrists as he wrapped them around her body. He'd made her hug herself as he steadied her, holding her in his own loose embrace. He felt her take a deep breath and let it out slowly.

"Maybe the heals are a bad idea…" She said finally, and pushed away from him. He let her go, but would have liked to stay put a bit longer. She was so soft and had the tiniest wrists. He could have held them both in one hand easily. His mind was wondering again when Tamaki stopped playing.

"Should we take a break?" The blond boy asked.

"Yes." Staria responded. "I'll be right back." She ran off quickly. Both boys watched her go.

"That was a bold move." Tamaki finally said once he was sure Staria was out of ear shot. "But are you being a little too forward?"

"I don't want to hear it from you. What I did there is nothing worse than you do with your guests at the club. No harm no foul." Kyoya took a seat next to his friend on the piano bench.

"True….and I have to say I like seeing you be proactive. So when do you tell her you like her?"

"That is none of your business. Besides it's more fun to watch her reactions right now."

"Kyoya, it's not nice to toy with people." Tamaki scolded him.

"I could say the same to you. I'll say something when the times right, until then I'll do as I please and if you interfere I won't tell her at all."

"Tell me what?" Straia asked, walking back into the room with an arm full of shoes. The boys exchanged a look.

"Are you going to try all of those shoes and decide which is the most comfortable to dance in?" Kyoya asked first, ignoring her original question.

"Bingo!" Staria smiled. "This way I'll know for sure."

Both boys shook their heads, the earlier moments obviously lost on the girl. Staria was simply choosing to ignore it. She wasn't going to give into love again. Not yet. Not until she knew what she was going to do come spring. If she really was going to transfer to another school what was the point of getting involved?