Share Your Plans For The Future
"Hey, Haruhi, what's this?" Hikaru questioned in wonder, shoving a box at her.
Haruhi blinked at it before, sighing, she shrugged dismissively in response.
"That doesn't mean running around supermarkets again, does it?"
"Err, no. We'll find something fun to do!"
So, what did they end up doing?
A theme park? Dinner?
No.
Hikaru and Haruhi spent the whole of their date running around a supermarket.
Or, to be more precise, a shopping mall.
"Look Haruhi! They have a special market on! We have to go!"
"There's nothing there that would interest you, Hikaru."
"But it's special for commoners! Don't you want to go?"
"I went yesterday."
"Cool! You can show me around!"
"..."
"Commoner market, commoner market!"
And then he started singing about looking at all the 'mass production' and Haruhi knew there was no stopping him.
After Haruhi had been dragged around every floor ("Quit pulling, Hikaru!"), Hikaru had put several clothes he deemed Haruhi would look cute in on order ("Kawai!!") and they had re-fuelled at a fast food restaurant ("Wow, it's all so greasy! Cool!"), they had finally got the market itself.
It was much like the last market Haruhi had been to, with lanes of stores that filled the whole of the main hall. Bright colours and giddy shouts flowed from every stand and Haruhi found she couldn't help being sucked in as she looked at all the unusual merchandise.
Hikaru however, despite the singing, the pleading and the hyper-ness, soon found himself growing bored.
Where're all the weird commoner foods and mass production clothes?! He whined to himself. This is all boring stuff.
Being insanely rich and used to it, he found himself totally uninterested in the make-your-life-easier things around him unless they were weird enough to catch his eye. Which none of them were.
Why would I want to buy that? He repeatedly thought stubbornly, as store owners shoved items under their noses. I have a maid. In fact, I have a lot of maids.
He did however, have a good stab at being a gentleman, and when Haruhi lingered to look at some half-price rice cookers he only whined once and simply hovered around her until she let him hunt out something more interesting.
In fact, the only thing that really caught his eye was something Haruhi wished didn't.
"Omigod!" He suddenly yelled loudly (Haruhi winced), a beam breaking over his face. "Haruhi, look, look!"
She turned round to tell him to... well... shut up, but when she looked, Hikaru had already disappeared, simply a spot of red making (pushing) his way through the crowd. She sighed dramatically before finally dragging her feet after him.
Not really to her surprise, she finally spotted him standing in front of a stand covered in strikingly dyed clothes like he owned the place, giving the whole store a critical look.
"What are you doing, Hikaru?"
He looked down at her indignantly, thrusting a point towards an elegantly draped manikin before him. "That!" He fumed, his earlier smile having fallen away to a pout. "It's one of mom's designs!"
Haruhi blinked in surprise and finally looked up at it.
It's a dress.
Being as indifferent to fashion as she was, that was the only amount of observation she would have spared it, if it wasn't for the oldest Hitachiin staring pointedly at it next her.
Haruhi tried again.
It's a nice colour. Very... exotic. And the design... is.... casual. But not too casual.
...
It looks expensive.
"It's nice." She stated politely.
"No, it's not!"
"... Huh?" She turned and gave the oldest twin a completely blank stare, confusion written all over her face. "You don't like your mother's design?"
"No!" he paused, frowning. "I mean, I do but... no!"
"... If you're not going to make sense..."
"No, I am making sense!" He protested with dramatic pout, brow knitted in frustration. "I like the design, but I don't like that."
Oh, yeah. Because that's perfect sense.
"Any reason? Or do you just feel like being difficult?" Haruhi deadpanned back, her mind beginning to wonder onto more important matters (like food).
Sparing her an irritated glance, he suddenly wildly threw an arm in its direction (almost hitting the rather worried looking store-keeper while he was at it), feeling very passionate about it after a whole ten minutes of rice cooker induced boredom.
"It's fake!" He announced in his loudest and most obnoxious voice. "Can't commoners make their own designs?" he added in an abhorrent drawl, making Haruhi blink and (ignoring that last ignorant comment) look back the design in question.
"It is?" She stated, blankly. "How can you tell?"
"Because." He sighed spectacularly as he gave it a critical look, apparently oblivious to the crowd of curious ears scattered around them. "The colour is way off; they've obviously just got some cheap substitute. And you can actually see the stitching around the hem; like mom would let that through."
He seemed quite pleased with his analysis and was now going on about the fact it was a fake again in an obviously loud voice, as if he was trying to see if something interesting would happen if he could get the whole market to know about his discovery.
So.... stitching and colour? That makes it a fake? She glanced over it again. But... It's still wearable. What's the big deal?
She would have pointed this out, but one look at Hikaru's indignant face put her off.
Rich people really don't like forgeries. Haruhi mused to herself, glancing around. Or maybe it was just her friends, showing off all the things they knew. Kyouya did much the same thing, to stop that woman buying a fake, and now Hikaru was loudly pointing out the fact the dress was a mere copy of his mother's design.
As when Kyouya had decided to show off his immense knowledge, Hikaru had drawn a crowd, all of whom were whispering excitedly to each other and glaring at the flustered store owner.
"Is it really a fake?"
"What a con-artist! I was looking at it as well."
"However can that young man tell though?"
"We should have this stand closed down!"
"Did he say Mrs. Hitachiin was his mother? My word…"
"It's obviously a fake if you look at it. Piece of cheap trash."
"Do you think he's telling the truth? He's handsome too…"
"I wonder if he's single…"
"But who's that girl? I hope she's not with him…"
Haruhi winced at the crowds wound-up hissing, weirdly annoyed at that last comment; honestly, didn't they have anything better to do? Still, Hikaru seemed to have succeeded in thrashing the stand's reputation and was getting a lot of admiring and appreciating looks while he was at it. It could have been a very Kyouya-like situation if it wasn't for one tiny little detail.
It wasn't Kyouya.
It was Hikaru.
So naturally, he ruined it in a single sentence.
"I mean, seriously," he went on rudely, picking suspiciously at what might have been a loose thread (oh, the horror). "You commoners are so stupid; you'll fall for anything."
Suddenly, the Hitachiin seemed to be getting a lot of glares.
"Oh God…" Haruhi sighed exasperatedly and grabbed his wrist, pulling him away from the crowd who looked suspiciously vulture-like. When they had escaped and rounded a corner into another lane of stands (a group of annoyingly dolled-up, giggling girls seemed to have followed but there wasn't really anything she could do about that) Haruhi finally turned on him. "Why did you have to say that?"
Hikaru however, was just blankly staring at her hand, looking amazed; she sighed and removed it, causing him to jump back to life, lost.
"E-eh? What?"
"You could have just left it; did you have to insult everyone around you?"
"Oh, that." A shrug. "I just said what I was thinking."
"You could think about what you're saying a bit more next time."
Unfortunately, Hikaru didn't seem to think that insulting the whole convention was that big of a deal and responded with an exaggerated eye-roll. "Whatever you say, Miss Blunt-and-oblivious." He sneered.
Haruhi was about to retort back when Hikaru's attention span failed again and he started looking over at the commoner 'wonders' around him.
"Whoa, look, look!" He chirped excitedly, finally finding a store 'interesting' enough. "There're some commoner sweets from England! For English commoners!" He added, as though living across the sea made you a different species (Haruhi sighed). "Let's go look, Haruhi!"
She made a mumbled half-protest as she slowly followed the oldest twin to the stall, musing that it had been way easier controlling Kyouya; at least he didn't run around with the mental age of a five-year-old and the dirty mouth of a stereotypical teenager (minus swear words; Hikaru had vowed not to swear at all but he 'luckily' had other ways of insulting people).
As Hikaru laughed about how weird the merchandise looked and how he bet they would taste mega-cheap (with the store-owner only a few feet away), Haruhi cast a bored look over the 'Freddy's and old fashioned sugar mice. Huh. Huni would probably love one of those.
"Haruhi, look at this!"
She glanced over (wondering whether they would have time to go grocery shopping) to see Hikaru staring in puzzlement at a skinny brown can.
"'Cold-hot chocolate'." He read, a frown coming over his face. "What does that even mean? How can a hot chocolate be cold? Then it's a cold chocolate! Haruhiiii, it doesn't make sense!" He whined childishly, thrusting the can in her direction, a ghost of a smirk behind his face.
"It's just a marketing gimmick, Hikaru."
"Make it make sense!" He added, almost laughing at the dead-pan look on Haruhi's face.
She rolled her eyes. "You're so childish." She sighed, as though this fact hadn't been apparent since the twins spent the whole of their first lesson with her as 'co-workers' drawing smiley faces all over her work. "You tire me out."
He stuck his tongue out, as if to illustrate her point.
"The alternative is boring." He stated in a drawl, as though Haruhi was an idiot for not realising this, before going back to glaring at the can. "I have a whole life to act serious."
As he went off on another rant about the mystery of the cold-hot chocolate, Haruhi considered his words, cocking her head slightly. She really couldn't imagine the oldest twin in a serious business meeting. But he and Kaoru were taking over a whole company.
That was a lot of pressure, when you thought about it.
Haruhi paused, thinking back to the only-a-copy-of-a-Hitachiin-design incident. "You and Kaoru are taking up your mother's fashion company, aren't you?" She asked softly. "Are you happy about that?"
Hikaru glanced over, looking sincerely surprised.
"Course I am." he said, as though it was the simplest thing in the world. A grin suddenly lit up his face and he laughed, ruffling her hair teasingly with one hand. "Don't think like that, Haru. I'm not being forced into it, like, say… what they tried to do to Huni. I love spending time Kaoru designing clothes. We have a whole room with clothes that we made, just us two." His smile turned fond and happy. "You'll have to come and model for us some time." He added, smirking.
At the pure genuineness of Hikaru's smile, and the fact he looked past the boring meetings for the enjoyment of being with his twin, doing something they loved, Haruhi couldn't help but smile back, feeling mildly surprised; she didn't think the twins were already making their own designs.
Not that there a chance in hell that she was willingly going to model for them.
"Are you any good?"
He scoffed. "Duh. We're awesome. Kaoru's the best though." He sounded almost proud as he thought about his twin. "He's really good at the little details and stuff. I guess I'm better at the number side of it though."
He paused thoughtfully, still getting annoyed looks from the store-owner as he messed with the can of cold-hot chocolate distractedly. Haruhi felt like laughing; he may have some serious flaws, he there was no denying how much he cared for his brother.
It was almost sweet.
"Sounds like you two make a good team."
Hikaru blinked and looked over at her with wide-eyes, looking child-like. Then a happy, far-away beam broke over his face. "Yeah…"
"I hate to break this up," The chubby store-keeper suddenly snapped, looking red-faced; he pointed irritably the drink. "But, are you going to buy that?"
Hikaru jumped and quickly glared at the man, obviously not accustomed to workers who would actually shout at him.
"Yeah, whatever." He muttered, digging in his pocket to find some money and flicking a note over to him, still looking annoyed. "And don't forget the change." He added with an innocent smile as the man looked in pure horror at the crisp $50 note; the can only cost 90p.
He finally shuffled off, muttering darkly to himself.
"And you, Haruhi." Hikaru went on dismissively, as though they hadn't been interrupted (Haruhi felt sorry for the clerk, who was painstakingly counting out the exact change).
"And I what…?" she mumbled in reply, sighing as the man dropped some coins and cursed.
"You'll make an amazing lawyer. I can tell."
Haruhi blinked. "Oh really…?" She drawled, slightly sceptical.
"Yup." He grinned. "In fact, you can be our lawyer! The official Hitachiin lawyer."
"I don't think I'll be able to do that…"
"Well… We'll get a lawyer from whatever company you're working for. That'll be like we're paying you, won't it?"
"Not really."
"Uh." He paused to frown for a second, mulling it over. "Then… I'll give you a hug before every case, for good luck!" he announced, brightening up as though this was the genius, perfect solution.
Haruhi eye-rolled exasperatedly, a small smile tugging at her lips.
"Whatever you say." She replied, surprised at the stubbornness of her small smile; it stayed fixed on her face as she looked at him and it took about 3 seconds for Hikaru to notice how cute it was and blush madly.
"Heh…" he mumbled, grinning and glancing over at the store clerk as he stomped back over.
Without a word, the red-faced man dropped the money irritability into Hikaru's outstretched hand and slammed the can down in front of them.
"Enjoy." He growled through a rather scary-looking forced smile.
"Will do." Hikaru smirked, thoroughly amused as he quickly pocketed his change.
Then, in one swift movement, he grabbed the can, flicked it open and took a swing.
"How's it taste?" Haruhi asked, not really interested but feeling it was compulsory of her to ask as he paused to consider the flavour.
"Eh… weird. Like commoner coffee and chocolate milkshake gone wrong." Hikaru paused and looked at it almost thoughtfully before randomly taking another drink.
Haruhi rolled her eyes again. "If it tastes weird, why are you still drinking it? I doubt it's just to not waste it."
He smirked impishly, swirling it so the brown liquid sloshed about. "It's also weirdly addicting. Here." he added, holding it out firmly. "You try it too."
Raising a hesitant eyebrow, she slowly took the can from him and considered it for a second before taking a shallow drink. Ugh. It tasted of watered-down cream and sugar, with an almost over-powering tang of cheap malt chocolate.
It was pretty nasty.
She was about to say so and wonder aloud why both of the twins liked to buy things just because they looked weird, when a sudden thought occurred to her as she remembered something from one Mei's magazines that she had been forced to read.
"Huh." She stated nonchalantly, looking back at the rim of the can. "Indirect kiss."
Totally casual, Haruhi then pressed the can back into Hikaru's hand and proceeded to walk off to the next stall, where there was some weirdly shaped jewellery.
She seemed totally oblivious to the fact Hikaru had turned an interesting shade of burgundy and was trying (and failing) not to choke.
I don't like this chapter. At all. It sucks, in my opinion. -.- I'm sorry D: I promise the next will be better .
And thankyou so much again to everyone for reviewed! :D The amount of support you guys give for my neh story is amazing :D You guys officially rock. :P Happy new year everyone! :D
Reveiws are love :P