Let me just say: Thank God for Jewish holidays. I have had literally no time to breathe with effing school, and this has become my stress reliever. Thanks to everyone who's reviewed/favorited/followed. I LOVE YOU GUYS.
Also, this chapter includes tramautic flashbacks/panic attacks. So, if that's a trigger in any way/shape/form, please be aware.
Chapter 4 - Elina's POV
As soon as I'm done with swim practice and toweling my hair, this guy comes out of nowhere with questions enough to piss off the biggest pacifist. I'm ready to rip his head off.
"Would you like to comment on your late arrival to the semester? Something happen? Any reason why you're one of the two girls on the Swim Team? Did you have to work your way in? How about that friend of yours, Karunya? How did she become captain of the Math Olympiad in less than a month? Oh, are you guys special friends or something?"
Oh, he has the nerve... "Look. I don't really know who you are-"
"Oh, forgive me. I'm Komatsuzawa Akira of class 3-D and president of the Newspaper Club."
OH. The school's resident gossip trash. "Um, I-"
"Please. Call me Akira." He gives me a sleazy wink. I think an angel somewhere just had his wings torn off. Ugh, it's horrific.
"I have to be going somewhere and-"
"All of that is private information we wouldn't care to share." PRAISE GOD, SUMA'S HERE. Took her long enough.
He starts to stutter, the idiot. "Erm, j-j-just asking friendly questions...to g-g-get to know the new students better, ri-right?" Pft, yea right.
Suma glares at him until he scurries off with a weak, muttered excuse. It definitely pays to have a tall, imposing friend.
"Elina, who the hell was that?"
"Oh, that's the Newspaper Club president."
"He's in charge of the bullshit they call news?"
"Apparently. Anyway, shouldn't Haruhi be done with Host Club by now? It's already pretty late."
Suma's still frowning at the retreating asshole, while I drag her towards the Third Music Room. I hesitate in opening the door when I hear a ruckus inside, but Suma pushes the door open anyway.
I groan at the sight. Tamaki's enthusiastically explaining some plan in front of a whiteboard. Operation Conceal Haruhi's Gender. This does not bode well.
Suma scrunches up her face, "Is this because of the physical examinations tomorrow?"
"Hmmm, forgot about those... Probably. You think you can get a private examination because of your scarring and stuff¾"
"HARUHI, we'll give you a month's supply of ootoro if you go with the plan~" The frigging idiot. That's not going to work with someone like Haruhi.
"Fine." WELL THEN. You can't take anyone at face value these days.
Suma walks towards Kyouya, probably to ask about getting a private examination, you know, since his family is in charge of the biggest medical company on this side of the world... and well, he's a manipulative bastard who can help.
Anyway, I've got to take care of something a bit more important. "HARUHI, YOU FRIGGIN' IDIOT, YOU CAN'T FALL FOR STUPID FOOD-BASED PLOYS SO EASILY!"
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How are these guys so ripped? I mean, only Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai take part in martial arts, but the REST? Honestly, life is so unfair. I feel like a creeper for appreciating the twins and Tamaki half-naked, and speaking of the other Host Club members...
And then Kyouya notices me staring at his chest (it wasn't intentional, jeez), while I was zoning out on the possibilities. DAMN IT.
"Elina...Are you all right?" The bastard's smirking at my immediate blush. WHYWHYWHY?
I huff and turn to see Tamaki's plan fall apart when the girls recognize him. And this kid is second in our class. Seriously, what did he expect with the difference in height and eye color. A FOR ABYSMAL PLANNING.
Well, Suma's laughing her ass off as she drags Haruhi with her to the private examination that Kyouya just decided to inform them about. Figures.
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Suma's POV
The doctor leaves my room to get something, with directions to undress. Just as I finish unbuttoning my shirt, I catch a glimpse of myself in a tall mirror across the room. I drag my fingertips across the raised edges of my healing stab wounds. It's been months, but I still have to put ointment every other day over the overlapping Xs to make sure they won't scar as much. Keket had a thing for knives and symmetry and irony-
She grins maliciously over me with a bloody serrated butcher knife, and I zone in on the blue frosting on the tip of the blade. Oh, the irony. While some get birthday bumps, I got stabs. Sixteen of them, of course. STAB. Stab. stab.
I flinch at a muffled thump and gasp from the room next door. I'm gasping for breath and struggle to remain calm. Wait, something's wrong.
Haruhi.
Without thinking any further, I rush out to the sectioned area next to mine and slam the door open to find an older man in a dirty lab coat with his hands over her mouth. What the fu-
And then I find those hands over my mouth. SHITSHITSHIT. His panicked face comes extremely close to whisper frantically about being lost and a daughter-
And his face is replaced by a fist.
My eyes travel the length of the arm- "Mori-senpai?" His blazing eyes simmer when he looks at me. Thank god. He's awfully scary when he's pissed.
"Suma, are you okay?"
"Heh, yea. Just a bit startled, nothing to worry about Mori-senpai!" Well, he doesn't look too convinced. Ugh, damn his intuition. Haruhi still looks shocked even as the twins and Tamaki fuss over her. This entire situation just hit too close to home. I just...I can't...not again, never again.
Time to run damage control.
"Anyway, where did the old guy go?" Mori glances at the other end of the room, and I whip my head around to see a unconscious man slumping on the floor. Really, I'm impressed, but seriously?
"From what I can tell, he was looking for his daughter. I'm sure you guys can help him out when he comes to." I wait for Kyouya's nod before I make my way towards the door.
My eyes swing in a pendulum motion, following the movement of the knife. Stab, stab, stab.
I feel a sharp tug on my sleeve to see Hunny looking at my stomach. "I thought it was one stab wound." It wasn't.
I rush to button up my shirt and sigh at Hunny's questioning look. I grimace at my attempt to laugh. "What can I say? Keket liked her knives and well, she got creative." I shake off the hand on my shoulder and rudely brush past Kyouya. There are wounds that I'll willingly let fester.
I ignore the calls from the rest of the Host Club.
Stab. You think you're so great. Stab.
Emotions are such a bother.
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Mori's POV
Where could she be? How couldn't I have noticed her fragile state? I've everywhere-the gardens. I'm running through the maze when I finally find her, on the floor and leaning against a tree.
I step closer to her to see tears sliding her face, and her eyes open when I stop to stand in front of her.
"Suma." She nervously shifts her red, swollen eyes. I slowly drop to my knees to catch her gaze properly.
"Are you okay?" She begins to nod but changes it to a reluctant shake.
"It's okay not to be okay." She curls into herself and shakes. Everyone deals with their inner demons differently, and I can only be there to support her silently. That is what I do best.
And that's what she'll get from me.
I gently bring her towards me and wrap my arms around her shaking body. I whisper a nursery rhyme my mother used to sing to me after bad nightmares.
Shabon-dama tonda, yanemade tonda,
Yanemade tonde, kowarete kieta
Shabon-dama kieta, tobazuni kieta
Umarete suguni, kowarete kieta
Kaze kaze fukuna, shabon-dama tobaso*
Her tremors fade away as I rub circles into her back, and we stay like that until Elina bursts through the bushes and catches sight of us. I look down to see that Suma fell asleep on my chest, and Elina sighs and grins in relief at the sight of Suma's smushed face and crooked glasses.
"Hey Mori-senpai?" I turn to face her. "Thanks for being there for her when I couldn't be." I give her a faint smile and nod.
"Always."
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Elina's POV
To do or not to do.
To risk my life or not.
...
Fuck it. I'm going to do it.
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"ELINA, WHAT THE FUCKING HELL? I UNDERSTAND IT IF YOU PLAY YOUR MUSIC, BUT SERIOUSLY? 'ANACONDA' WAS ON FUCKING REPEAT FOR THE PAST TWO HOURS!"
She doesn't understand...I HAD to. Otherwise, she would do what I want to ask of her. I can only listen to Nicki Minaj for so long. It was a sacrifice on my part, too...
"So what, Su-su?"
"DAMN IT, TURN IT OFF ALREADY!"
"For what?"
Utter silence. Then, my door slams open.
"What do you want, Elina?"
HEHEHE, works every time. Best to get it all out at once.
"CanyoupleasemakesomethingforthehostclublikecupcakesOHhowaboutthoseredvelvetoneswiththecreamcheesefrostingthey'llLOVEthem!"**
She looks like someone slapped her with a smelly fish. And then she finally processes all of it.
"...why cupcakes?" Oh jeez, she just had to ask.
"Well...IkindawantedtohelpmakesomethingforthemforbeingsoniceespeciallyMori-senpaibecausehehelpedyouwhenyouhadyourbreakdownwouldn'tthatbenice?"***
"You know I already thanked Mori-senpai like a week ago? Really, why?"
"WAIT, how did that go? Was there any dramatic confessions or GASP a kiss?"
She just stares at me with that Who-the-fuck-do-you-think-you're-kidding-with-that-horrible-diversion look.
"FINEit'sbecauseKyouyawastalkingshitabouthowthere'snomeritinhomemadegoodsandthey'dtastehorribleiftheyweren'tmadebyexperts. Iwannaprovehimwrong. Okay?"****
"Well, you could've just said so. I'm always in to make Kyouya eat shit. He has no idea who he's dealing with."
I launch myself at Suma, "Thankyouthankyouthankyou!"
"BUT, we have practically no time now. We'll just do it at the end of the week, and it'll be a Friday anyway."
I can almost taste the glory-it smells of red-velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting.
*This is a kid's song in Japan, 'Shabondama, Soap Bubbles.'
Translation:
Up flew the soap bubbles
And over roofs they flew.
They flew up, high above
And they all burst.
The soap bubbles vanished,
Vanished without flying.
As soon as they were made
They burst and soon vanished.
Wind, wind do not blow,
Let the bubbles fly up and away.
**Can you please make something for the host club like cupcakes OH how about those red velvet ones with the cream cheese frosting they'll LOVE them!
***Well...I kinda wanted to help make something for them for being so nice especially Mori-senpai because he helped you when you had your breakdown wouldn't that be nice?
****FINE it's because Kyouya was talking shit about how there's no merit in homemade goods and they'd taste horrible if they weren't made by experts. I wanna prove him wrong. Okay?
And btw guys, I really want to know which parts of the Ouran (anime) I should write out with Elina and Suma. Like, should I skip some of the episodes, or go through them all? Cuz, eventually, our beloved Suma's and Elina's own plotline will have to make its way into the fic. Really, I'm okay with anything, so I need feedback, really!
THROW YOUR WISDOM AT ME! And tell me if you want certain story arcs to be written out.
Thanks everyone!