XXx Honey xXX
Chika and I sit awkwardly across the table from each other, a heavy silence hanging in the air like always. I sigh into my slice of cake, my cheeks puffing out in annoyance. And like always, Chika ignores me and goes on eating, not even looking over the rim of his tea cup. I rest my elbow on the table and drag my fork through my cake, feeling my appetite die down.
How long is this going to go on? Can he really go on acting like we hate each other forever?
He finally breaks his apathetic expression at the sound of heavily stomping feet on the stairs. He grows a bit pale as it's followed by muffled cursing and a loud bang. Another louder round of swears comes after it and is followed by the sound of someone kicking the wooden staircase.
We both flinch at the strangled cry that comes from the owner of that foot.
As she slinks into the dining room, I can feel the waves of anger and irritation rolling off of Aya. She looks like she hasn't slept well and is running on no caffeine. She throws her backpack onto the floor next to her chair and pulls a cup of coffee towards herself and gulps it down in in one sitting. When she's done she slams the cup back down and pours herself another, as if her body runs on caffeine instead of oxygen.
Her hair sticks up at all angles and her eyes glinting malevolently, she looks like an angry chiwawa. I smile slightly at the comparison, but it looks like she wouldn't appreciate it if I said it out loud.
Chika takes the opportunity to flee the room, trying not to look like he's not terrified. He does pretty well too. If it weren't for the excessive sweat pouring down the back of his neck I'd never have noticed.
As soon as he's out of sight I turn back to Aya. She's pulled a slice of chocolate cake towards herself and in in the process of violently stabbing it with her fork.
"Have a rough morning?" I ask as she slumps back in her seat.
"Mama kept me up all last night fussing over wedding preparations," she grumbles twirling her fork in a large glob of frosting. "With the urgency she talks with, you'd think we were getting married this morning."
"Is that such a bad thing?" I ask, trying to calm her down without laughing myself. "It does take a long time to plan weddings."
"Yeah, but she has this huge white wedding vision," she sighs as she looks over at me. "But she hasn't stopped to ask about what either of us want.
All she talks about is how she wants me to fly to France to meet with all these fancy dress designers and wedding planning teams. That's not really how I pictured my winter vacation. All I hear in Chanel this, Dior that, Louis Vuitton does this and Yves Saint Laurent makes the best that."
She sighs heavily and sinks back into her seat, wiping frosting off the corner of her lips with the back of her hand.
"I'd actually thought about asking Hikaru and Kaoru to make my dress, and asking Kyoya to do all the set-up design. But that would mean telling them…" she trails off.
"I just wish she'd just lay off a bit," she says as she tosses her fork down next to her empty plate. "I mean, it's our wedding. Shouldn't we get some say in what's going on?"
For a moment, I forget she's mad and a laugh escapes my lips. She cocks an eyebrow, glaring at me ferociously. My laughter stops cold.
"What's so funny?" she spits.
"Nothing," I assure her as I take her hands in mine. "It's just, I like the way it sounds. You know…our wedding."
I smile as all the previous anger inside her seems to evaporate from her system and a vibrant blush spreads across her face and down her neck. She averts her eyes and tries to hide her glowing face, much to my amusement.
Her reactions to these kind of things never cease being cute.
"Y-yeah…" she stammers as she lowers her gaze. "I do too. I still can't really believe this is happening sometimes. I'm scared one day I'll wake up to find this was just all a really good dream…"
I put on my warmest grin as I pull the both of us to our feet. She still has her head lowered so I grab her chin gently, guiding it up so that she has to look at me.
"Sometimes I feel like that too," I admit. "I've wondered for a while what kind of girl could possibly see me as something other than a kid who likes sweets and stuffed animals."
"The kind with the same addiction," she mutters with a smile that breaks across her flushed face.
My hands move to cup her face and I kiss her lightly. I feel her stiffen for a second and the temperature of the skin under my fingers rises. Then she relaxes and she kisses back.
Her lips are rough, like she's been biting them. I smile into the kiss. Silly girl…all this worrying for nothing. One of her hands rises from her side and covers mine. Our fingers entwine and she holds onto my hand tightly.
I pull away and a happy sigh leaves her lips, our hands dropping to our sides again.
"That better last me until the club's over," I say with a smile.
Her embarrassment is shoved aside for a moment and she sticks her tongue out at me.
"Or what?" she challenges playfully. "You'll be forced to make a public spectacle that might end with a riot from your customers that could possibly get me killed?"
I just roll my eyes and kiss her nose in response. A happy giggle escapes her before she wraps her arms around my neck, burying her face in my uniform jacket.
"I may be strong but I doubt I could fend off a hoard of fangirls who want me dead," she mumbles into my shoulder.
"Well it's a good thing you're fast," I say innocently.
She pulls away quickly and smacks my arm. I feign hurt as she sticks her tongue out at me again before bursting out into giggles. Our moment is wrecked by a limo's horn going in the street.
"Come on," I say as I pick up her bag. "That's got to be Takashi."
She takes it from me and slips her hand into mine, lacing our fingers together. And with that we head out to the limo.
Satoshi looks at our hands with a smug grin that can only mean that he's found out by now. I get a really bad feeling as we sit down and Aya tucks her feet underneath her and leans back into her seat.
"So you're really going to be my cousin-in-law?" he asks her excitedly.
She's caught off guard, and only gapes in response. But he doesn't even let her respond before he starts talking again.
"Can I call you Aya-nee then? Huh? Can I?"
She can't seem to form a coherent sentence and only just nods before offering him a sheepish smile. Satoshi then turns to me and I can tell it's my turn to be bombarded with questions.
"Is Taka-nii going to be the best man? Can I help plan the party? Do you already have a dress picked out for Aya-nee? Where are you guys going to honeymoon?"
"Well a lot of that stuff is still up in the air…" Aya manages to answer for me. "But no, I don't have a dress yet, and sure you can help…so long as you don't get as crazy as Mama."
Satoshi looks ecstatic, and spends the rest of the ride taking in a stream of endless babble, but a glace down at Aya shows that she's listening happily, as if she likes his ideas better than the ones her mother was pitching.
XXx Aya xXX
I sigh to myself as the teacher leaves the room.
This is supposed to be a study period, but it's not very surprising that only a handful of students are actually still seated.
I had planned on going to sit with Honey and Mori, but there was a wall of taller-than-me bodies that surrounded them before I could even get out of my seat.
Those girls move fast.
My shoulders slump in defeat as the girls shove the cakes they made in Home Ec. in Honey's face, begging him to give it a try. I feel bad for him. Even if he loves cake, it must be uncomfortable to have people shove it in his face like that. Especially since some of these girls are no Rachel Ray or Sandra Lee.
I give up and drop back into my chair, beginning to doodle on a scrap piece of paper in front of me. Whenever I look up I can see Honey through the small gaps in the wall of girls, smiling politely, put looking like he'd rather be somewhere else.
I smile at him, admiring his patience with these girls as they fight to be the first one to give him cake. When he senses my gaze and turns to me. He winks at me and I smile and stick my tongue out at him.
It's hard to keep myself from laughing, so I go back to drawing quickly.
I sigh as I run my left thumb over my ring and begin sketching what I imagine my wedding dress to be like. Lace, satin, or silk? Empire waist line? A full puffy skirt or a mermaid tail? Corset top? Strapless or a three quarter sleeve? Should I keep it traditional and white? Or do I infuse some of my personality into it?
I give up after a few minutes.
This really is more of Hikaru and Kaoru's area of expertise. Maybe I should consider asking them. I'll ask Honey about it later when I can keep my thoughts straight. I keep getting distracted with the constant squeals of the wall of girls.
So I eventually shove the drawing in my folder and pop in my ear buds, closing my eyes and humming along with the first song to come on.
"Excuse me, Aya-chan?"
My eyes fly open to see Shiori Asukai standing in front of me, clutching a purple notebook.
"Hmm?" I ask tiredly, pulling my right bud out.
"Well, you're fluent in French right?" she asks somewhat nervously, her cheeks flushing slightly.
I nod and motion for her to continue.
"Well, I was wondering if you could maybe tutor me," she says quietly. "I'm falling behind in my class and there's not really anyone at home I can ask for help."
"Sure," I say cautiously, motioning for her to take a seat in the desk next to me.
She gives me a genuinely grateful smile and walks around my desk. With some effort, she moves the desk so it's side by side with mine.
"So what's giving you the most trouble?" I ask as she plops down next to me, her copper hair puffing out in a cloud around her.
She just smiles sheepishly and spreads four worksheets in front of me.
I give them each a glance and pick up one on the end.
"We'll start with food."
XXX
"Ok, last one," I say as I set the page back down on the desk.
I look up at Shiori, who nervously bites her lips. She nods to let me know she's ready, and I glace down at the worksheet for a question to use.
"Où est-que tu vas déjeuner?" I ask after a minute.
"Je vais déjeuner…à la cantine de l'école," she responds carefully.
"Très bien," I say with a small smile.
Either she's a really quick learner or she really wasn't having as much trouble with the language as she claims. But hey, if this gives me an excuse to talk to someone I'm not going to complain.
"Demain, nous allons travailler sur les trois autres. Bien?" I ask.
"Thanks!" Shiori says happily, bowing her head. "Oh! I mean, merci beaucoup!"
"Pas de problem," I reply with a wave of my hand.
Well that pretty much confirmed my hunch. But I think it's kind of sweet she did this for me. After all, all I've done is gotten her sucked into the host club.
Then I notice that the room is suddenly really quiet. I turn my head to see a majority of the class watching us. What did I do?
"Ce qui se passe?" I whisper.
"OH! Wait I know this one!" Shiori says excitedly.
She struggles and her face screws up in concentration, then I realize that I asked my question in French.
"Uhhhhh….uh….wait, no I don't," she says somewhat sadly and she visibly droops.
"Oh sorry," I mutter, slightly embarrassed. "We can go back to Japanese now."
She nods and looks down at her worksheet, trying to decipher my last comment.
"Hey do you think we could finish this at lunch Aya-chan?"
"Uh, sure…" I trail off, surprised that I suddenly have lunch plans. "Here or?"
"Can we do the third library?" she asks as she begins to gather her stuff up in her bag.
"Fine with me," I reply as gets to her feet. "Jusque-là?"
"I didn't know you could speak French Sempai," a random girl on my right says, completely cutting Shiori off.
I have to mentally restrain myself from smacking my forehead. I'm done here.
"Say something else!" another girl squeals.
I'm about to retort with a less than friendly comment, but just as I open my mouth the bell rings and cuts me off.
So I decide to be polite this once and give her a brief response as I sling my bag over my shoulder and Shiori proceeds to drag me from the room.
"Excusez-moi, je dois y aller maintenant."
And with that I book it out of there while attempting not to twist an ankle in my platform boots. Shiori helps, and gives me a smile as we try to fight our way through the crowd of students going the opposite way.
"Hey is it ok if I bring Aiko, Akina, and Setsuko to our next tutoring session?" she asks innocently. "We're all in the same class."
I can't help but roll my eyes as I smile at the back of her head and clutch my bag close to my body.
"Sure."
XXX
As I take a seat in on the third floor of library three, like Shiori told me to. The cake cart came by a little while ago, and I'm sipping pomegranate oolong and munching on Oreo cheesecake. Drumming my nails on the surface of the table, I shove the empty plate away from me, and it joins the other three empty plates I cleaned away earlier.
Glancing at the clock on the wall across from me, I roll my neck and shoulders before turning to the side and putting my feet up on the chair next to me. The white material of my boots is almost luminescent in the dim light of the library. Reaching across the table, I turn on the lamp.
"Well, well ,well," a voice drawls, nearly scaring the shit out of me. "What do we have here?"
I turn to see Kisa standing behind me with her hands planted firmly on her hips with Sumi and Meirika standing like skinny underweight bodyguards behind her. They look happy to have caught me alone.
"You honestly couldn't be more original than that?" I ask as I force myself to relax into my chair. "Has high school already sucked all the creativity out of you?"
Kisa's lip curls in a feral smirk. She looks like she's trying to intimidate me, but doesn't quite know how to go about it. I will admit that the gleam she has in her eyes is unnerving, but I cross my arms over my chest, feigning maximum boredom.
"As much fun as this is," she sighs. "I didn't come here for playful banter."
"Naturally," I respond. "You made it clear the last time we spoke how much you enjoy my company. So let's not have this drag on longer than necessary. "
"I heard through the grapevine about your date with Honey over the break," she says, her voice quivering slightly, as if she's trying to keep her anger in check. "It seems that the definition of 'strangers' changed over the summer."
My face pales for a minute. Does she mean my date from Karuizawa…or…? Shit.
"But what I want to know is how you managed to get the Host Club to take you on their little summer excursion to Karuizawa while the rest of us had to stay home."
Relief washes over me like a bucket of warm water, and my lips curl into a smile on their own. At least I don't really have to lie to her.
"It was a fake date," I reply calmly. "If you want to blame someone then blame Kaoru and Mori. And who even says 'I heard it through the grapevine' anymore? That's like, a 60s song."
Her face goes blank for a minute. Her friends share a bewildered look between the two of them. Looks like the tables have finally turned in my favor.
"You expect me to believe that Mori of all people sent you on a date with my boyfriend?!" Kisa hisses at me.
"I don't, but anyone in the club can vouch for me," I say with a smile. "I didn't do anything wrong. Honey and I just followed orders."
Kisa's face contorts into a furious scowl. Shit, out of the frying pan and into the fire.
"What was that?" she growls. "Did you just call my boyfriend Honey?"
"Hey, going on a fake date changes at lot about people," I say with what I hope looks like an indifferent shrug. "It's only natural we'd become friendly towards each other after being forced to stalk another couple on their date."
She seems to completely gloss over the last part of the sentence and leans in towards me, her voice filled with rage.
"I find out you've been trying to seduce my boyfriend, I swear I'm going to make your life a living hell. I know him better than you could ever hope to, so don't even think of taking what's mine you bitch."
"Have you ever noticed that small dogs feel the need to bark real loud?" a voice drawls from behind a bookshelf.
To my surprise, Setsuko steps out from behind the rows of books, Aiko, Shiori, and Akina right behind her. Setsuko drops her bag on the table before turning to face the three girls in front of me.
"I believe that's called Chiwawa Syndrome," Aiko says calmly, as if she's reciting textbook information, which she probably is, now that I think about it. "A weaker, smaller person has delusions of being big and strong and thus tries to intimidate others by barking constant threats, which usually serve little more purpose than just to annoy all those around them. This behavior is often frustratingly tolerated because a violent reaction against such an obviously weaker, smaller person would seem immoral and inhumane."
"Any objections to Aya-senpai kicking the little shit into next Tuesday?" Setsuko asks. "I bet she can do that without breaking a sweat. I mean you are part of the Atsumi clan senpai."
I nod, still somewhat surprised that they're here. And sticking up for me even though we're still technically strangers.
But it's true though, I could kick the crap out of Kisa if I really wanted to. Or if I thought it would solve anything, which it obviously won't. Especially since I am shorter than her and wouldn't be breaking the code of being violent towards someone with Chiwawa Syndrome.
Glancing back to Kisa and her friends, I see they've paled considerably.
"What's this about anyway?" Aiko asks me curiously as she sets her stuff down next to me. I put my feet back down on the floor, letting her take the chair.
"Nothing important," I sigh as the other three take their seats around me. "So anyways let's get started. Ils ont déjà perdu assez de notre temps."
"Oh no," Setsuko says with a smirk. "Learning during lunch? What's the world coming to?"
"Oh s'il te plait," I say with a wave of my hand. "Ç'est pas si mal."
Aiko turns to our unwanted guests, ever politely smiling in a way I never would be able to.
"If you'd please excuse us, we're in the middle of something here," she says calmly. "Maybe we can continue this at a more convenient time."
Kisa stares blankly at her for a while. Aiko just turns away and we begin our lesson, finding the parts that everyone is struggling with as well as reinforcing some basics. The next time I look up the three of them are gone, and a smile finds its way to my face.
XXX
I exhale heavily as I flop down on the plush sofa in my suite. My legs are trembling and I'm covered in layers of sticky dried sweat.
Not pleasant.
My door opens and soon enough Honey collapses on the floor near my head, cradling my hand gently in his. He presses the back of my hand to the side of his face.
"Noooo," I whine as I as I halfheartedly try to squirm out of it. "I'm all sticky and gross!"
"That makes two of us," he replies tiredly. "I just came in from the dojo."
"Oh," I sigh in halfhearted sarcasm. "Well that makes everything ok."
He just laughs and kisses my hand, and I puff up my cheeks in annoyance. But it doesn't last long, and I find myself giggling softly along with him.
We sit in silence for a minute, letting our heart rates lower to normal. His thumb glides over my knuckles, which is quickly becoming one of my favorite romantic gestures from him. I exhale deeply, feeling a calm wash over me.
"You seem to be making friends with Shiori Asukai quickly," he says after a while.
I sigh, rolling onto my side so that I can look him in the eye.
"I guess," I reply. "Wouldn't it be in my best interests to make friends with the new club members? I'll be spending a lot of time with them until the show is over."
"They seem nice," he says nonchalantly. "And it'll be good for you to have friends you can talk to at school."
"What do you mean by that?" I ask.
He looks up at me with a sad smile on his face, and I almost regret asking.
"Well, as we saw today, I won't always be able to guarantee I'll get to spend time with you," he says sadly. "I just want to make sure you have someone to look out for you when I can't."
"Alright," I mutter as I swing myself up into a sitting position. "Well I better rinse off get started on my homework."
He nods and pulls me to my feet before kissing me quickly.
"Call me if you need help," he says before he walks out.
I sigh heavily as I pull my hair down from its messy topknot. Maybe I do need to put some effort into making friends. But I'll start small.
Shiori first. Then Aiko, Akina, and Setsuko.
And if I'm lucky, they might even be the kind of friends I've been waiting for.
XXx Author's Notes xXX
hey there guys! here, i present the fluff i have been holding back for like...ever...
so just a quick apology to my french speaking readers if anything was wrong in the conversation. i just picked a random handout from last year's french class, cuz i don't trust google translate. yeah, tons of people in my class got Fs on their like...what do you call them?...i guess just the paragraphs we had to write based on the vocab we just learned. they seriously just had their phones on under their desk and put it through google while our teacher was doing who knows what at her computer =_= so...my point being, you can PM me if i made a mistake and i'll fix it ^^
lotsa love, krystal