Finally an update! I was able to finish this last night after finishing the revising of chapter 5! I feel this chapter now is truly my style of writing. I hope you guys enjoy the little drama that will start now :)
Please be patient and wait for more revising and updates!
L.
Characters: Luna Hitachiin (main, POV) Hikaru Hitachiin, Kaoru Hitachiin, Haruhi Fujioka, Tamaki Suoh, Yuzuha Hitachiin (Mom), Hiroshi Hitachiin (Dad, or Daddy, used mostly by Luna), Kyoya Ootori, Mitsukuni "Honey" Haninosuka, Takashi "Mori" Morinosuka, Renge Houshakuji, Amelie Bagot (Luna's best friend from Paris), Kyo Itami (Likes Luna, from prestigious family in Ouran Academy).
The story takes place a few weeks before the Ouran Fair from the anime. I would add some manga themes too, but that will come further up.
Chapter 9: Decisions, Decisions...
When I returned home, I found both my brothers and parents sitting in the main living room discussing something about my father's business. Hikaru looked annoyed, for what I could tell, and Kaoru just listened to what my father was saying. I hated to interrupt, but my brothers needed some saving.
"I'm home!" I yelled as I walked closer to them, bowing slightly towards my parents.
"Oh dear, where have you been? We have been calling you for hours!" my mother said standing up to give me a hug. I returned the hug and peeked at my brothers. Hikaru gave me a 'rescue us' look, and like the good sister I was, I decided to create a diversion.
"I was with Haruhi doing a project for our French class, which actually Hika-chan and Kao-chan have to finish too. Why don't we go upstairs to work on it? Please excuse us!" I let go of my mother and bowed at my parents again while Hikaru and Kaoru quickly stood up to do the same. Then, we heard our father speak.
"Whatever distraction you are trying to create won't work. Sit down with your brothers, Luna." I looked up at my father, and he had a very serious look on his face. This couldn't be good. I immediately went to sit with my brothers, giving them an apologetic smile. My plan failed. "There is a reason I have your brothers here, so please do not try to plan their escape. It will actually be good for you to listen as well, Luna."
"Let me catch you up, sweety. Your father was just telling your brothers how they had to start looking into careers that would benefit his business. We know you are going to end up with my fashion line, but we have to make sure your father has a successor," my mother explained in a soft voice as I just nodded to what she said.
What she was saying made sense, every company needs a successor, but let's be honest here… you wouldn't want to trust a computer software company to the 'let me photoshop Haruhi's face in a male's body' twins. Because of age, or minutes rather, Hikaru would be the first in line, and I am excluding myself (I am older than the two) because apparently my mom's business was already mine. Actually, I wouldn't trust myself running Dad's company either, I am not very technologically inclined to say the least. I looked back at my father and he was still lecturing my brothers. If they weren't gonna speak up for themselves, someone had to.
"Dad." His eyes went to me, and so did everyone else's in the room. "Umm, well… I was just thinking… What if…" I paused for a few seconds, I had to gather up courage before continuing. I felt Kaoru grab my hand, so I took a breath and went on. "What if they don't want to run your company when they're older?" Kaoru squished my hand, and Hikaru's fell on my lap. "What if I don't want Mom's business?" My parents both looked puzzled, which was understandable considering I was basically rejecting both family businesses.
"What do you mean, dear? It's been a dream of yours to run my fashion line! And it's only fair that your brothers end up working for your dad before they can take over the business," Mom said with such reassurance, trying to make everything make sense as if I hadn't understood what Dad has said.
"But we are just teenagers, we don't know what we want for our future just yet. Just because I've modeled for some of your shows, and Hika-chan and Kao-chan are experts in Photoshop doesn't mean we are meant to be owners of those businesses." Hikaru turned to look at me, then back at our parents. He couldn't believe what I just said.
"Luna, sweety, if want you want is to run your father's business just tell us! You are the oldest so it does make sense…" I stared at Mom. She didn't get it. At all. "What do you think, honey? Would you mind Luna running your business?"
"Mom, you didn't seem to understand…" I tried again, but was interrupted by her as she grabbed my father's hand.
"Oh, nonsense! I am sure your father won't mind. Thank goodness your brothers are fashionable, if not I would be in a dilemma," she laughed and smiled while my brothers and I sat in silence.
"Mom, we are not ready to make this kind of decision! We need time to think, and decide what we want for our future! That's what Luna is trying to say! You never listen to us, and you never understand us! What kind of parents are you!" Hikaru exploded, which I was counting for. The few times our parents sit us down to talk about our 'life goals', as they like to call them, Hikaru usually ends up bursting after either one of our parents completely ignores what we say or misunderstands us. I grabbed his hand and sat him back down (he likes yelling while standing). "You guys are never home. Do you even care about us? You can't even tell us apart, Mom." He stood up again, gave one last look to our shocked parents and left.
"Hika-chan that's not.." I started to say, but my mother looked at me signaling me to stop. You see, Mom likes to pretend that she doesn't know which one of my brothers is which. To mess with them mostly, but she's always been able to tell, and how can she not? She gave birth to us, and she can even tell them apart from behind. I am the only one aware of this, besides my father, but Mom wants to keep it a secret for whatever reason. She didn't count on Hikaru taking it to heart though. I sighed. "Let's go, Kao-chan… Mom, Dad, I think it would be best to talk about this some other day, when we have our lives a little more settled." I stood up, Kaoru did the same, and we both bowed slightly. As we started to walk up the stairs, I heard my mom exhale a lot of air. She was holding back so she wouldn't cry.
"Is Mom okay?" Kaoru asked never letting go of my hand. I simply nodded back. This wasn't the first time Hikaru makes her cry, so I knew she would be okay. We walked into my room expecting to find Hikaru there, but he wasn't.
"That's odd… He usually comes to my room after he yells at someone other than me."
"Luna…" Kaoru squished my hand and shook his head.
"You know it's true. Whatever, let's go see if he is in his room." We walked out of my room with Hoshi following behind. "Hey, little guy! Did they feed you already? I'm sorry I was gone for so long." Hoshi simply replied with a bark, and I carried him to Hikaru's room (we all have individual rooms, we just like sleeping together).
"Hikaru," Kaoru called as he opened the door. Nothing. He wasn't there either.
"Actually, I don't remember seeing him go up the stairs… I just saw him leave," I suddenly remembered putting Hoshi down. "Where could he be?" I walked towards the enormous windows in his room and looked outside to the garden. I could spot something moving in the darkness, walking around the gazebo that was on the center of our garden. "Found him. I guess he has a new thinking spot."
Kaoru immediately ran out of the room, and I could hear him rushing down the stairs. The only explanation was that he knew why Hikaru went to the gazebo instead of my room. I looked out the window again and saw that Hikaru was now sitting down with his knees to his chest. It hit me. I ran out of the room, I could hear Hoshi hurrying behind me as I started down the stairs. My parents were gone, probably in their room, so I knew I couldn't make a lot of noise. I hurried out the door leading to the garden and went straight to the gazebo where I could see both of my brothers.
They were both sitting on the stairs of the gazebo, Kaoru hugging Hikaru from the side. When they heard me running towards them, Kaoru looked up and smiled at me. I smiled back as I stood in front of them. I tried to control my breath, and sat down next to Hikaru, resting my head on his shoulder.
"Are you okay, Hikaru?" I asked grabbing his hand and playing with his fingers. I looked up to see any reaction, and he just nodded. "You know, it's not good to hold it back. Sometimes it's better to just let all your emotions out."
"Is that so…" he replied, voice shaky. As alike as we are, it was impossible to know what we were each going through in our heads. We were all completely different from one another, on the inside of course (and well physically for me too), so trying to figure out what Hikaru was thinking was gonna be no use. From the three of us, the one with the most conflicting emotions was him, and we all knew it. Because I am a girl, I tend to be more emotional than my brothers, but that is only because I show it. I am sure if we all had the same amount of hormones Hikaru would be the emotional one.
"Hikaru, cry," I simply commanded, still playing with his hand.
"You never call me Hikaru, unless something is wrong or you're mad at me…"
"I'm not mad, I just need you to cry for me. I promise that after you will feel better. At least, it works for me." I could feel him trying to control his breathing, he was trying so hard not to show any emotion. "Hikaru."
"I'm fine, Luna." He held my hand a little tighter. He wasn't fine. He brought our hands to his legs, which made me get closer to him. Then, I felt something cold land on my hand. I sat up straight, taking my head off his shoulder and saw Hikaru looking down at our hands. With my free hand, I wiped the tears off his cheek and left my hand there. That was a start, I thought to myself. "I'm fine," he said again, turning to look at me.
I smiled at him, holding back my own tears (one crying person was enough for Kaoru), and pulled him into a hug. "I love you, you big dummy," I said giving him a kiss on his cheek. I reached for Kaoru, who was still hugging Hikaru, and grabbed the top of his head. "And I love you, too." I let go of them both, and stood up in front of them to get a good look of Hikaru. I had to remember this moment for the rest of my life. I grabbed Hikaru's face with both my hands, and gave him a peck on his forehead.
"I hate when you do that, you know that," he whined as he wiped any evidence of tears I might have left behind. I grabbed his face again, and gave him another kiss. "Luna, stop."
"But I love you so much, Hika-chan~" I sang letting go of his face. I looked at Kaoru, who was still very attached to Hikaru, and noticed a small smile forming at the corners of his mouth. "What are you smiling about?"
"Just… Haha. It's good to see you two like this," he said lifting his head flashing me a smile.
"Like what? Luna annoying me like always?" Hikaru said crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"It's my job as your sister to annoy you, don't you know?" I patted the top of his head and felt Hoshi trying to climb my leg. "Hoshi, I forgot you were following behind. Come here," I said carrying the little puppy in my arms.
"I can't believe you haven't killed him yet."
"Hikaru! How rude! He's my child, why would I kill him?" I hugged Hoshi and he licked my face.
"Remember the pet hamster you had in Paris?" he said standing up and petting Hoshi who was still in my arms.
"I was eight, and a hamster is a lot of responsibility for an eight year old. Mom should have known that." I put Hoshi back down and started walking back to the house. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't want to get eaten by mosquitos."
Kaoru jumped from where he was sitting and quickly joined my side. "Luna, you know mosquitos like the taste of my blood!"
"Aw, is it because you're so sweet?" I asked jokingly linking my arm to his. I could feel him glaring at me, and I just smiled. "Hika-chan, are you coming? Mosquitos like you too, even if you aren't as sweet."
"Ha, ha… I'm right behind you." I could hear his footsteps behind Kaoru and I. I turned my head so I could see him and found him looking down at the ground with his hands in his pockets.
"Fine, you are sweet, too," I teased giving him a smile. He looked up at me, and laughed. These are the little moments one learns to cherish, as cliche as it may sound, but sometimes (on rare occasions) life is like they show it in books and movies. Hikaru and I did fight a lot, and as we grew older it became more noticeable that I wasn't as alike as my two brothers were (starting biologically, but also mentally). I knew that moving back to Japan and leaving my life in Paris behind was a big change for me as well as them two. Only time would tell if I made the right choice, but so far I can tell… My brothers needed me back, and as long as I am needed I will stay.
The next morning on our way to school, my brothers kept on discussing some boring video game amongst themselves while I simply looked at online stores on my phone. It was a pretty calm start of the day until we actually arrived at Ouran. When we started to walk to our homeroom we noticed people staring and whispering as we walked by. We all gave each other a questioning look and decided that the best way to know what was going on was to go to the Host Club.
"People haven't done that since we joined the Host Club, it feels weird now…" Hikaru said looking behind us as people turned away from him and went on their way.
"You mean since you became friendly?" I teased pulling his arm and locking my arm with his.
"Basically," Kaoru said smiling as we made our way to the abandoned music room.
Once we got there, we noticed that there was no one in the room, so we decided to look around just in case someone was playing a prank on us (which is unlikely since the pranksters are Hikaru and Kaoru). While we looked around, I noticed that one of the walls in the room was a little off. It seemed as it was some sort of door. I tried to open it, but there was no handle and it seemed impossible to just pull by a piece of wallpaper. I decided to push it and watched as the not-so-secret door opened. It was dark in there, some candles lighting the room at some corners, but it was pretty much very hard to see past my nose. I turned to tell my brothers about my finding, but they were too busy playing their video games to care. My adventurous side took over, and I started to walk into the room.
"Who knew this place had some sort of torture chamber. Interesting…" I said as I turned my phone on to light my way through the mysterious secret room. Suddenly, I heard steps around me. I tried to turn my phone's brightness higher and pointed it everywhere. Nothing. I kept on walking and found random objects laying on the ground. A couple of melted candles, old books, lots of spiderwebs, and... "A voodoo doll? What in the world is this place?"
"Oh, but this is the Black Magic Club… Welcome, Hitachiin Luna…" An eerie voice said from behind me. I quickly turned around and flashed my light to him, to which the person squealed. "No light! No light! Ohhhhh!" He covered his face with his hands trying to evade my flashlight.
"Does light bother you? Well, sorry buddy, but I can't see without this thing." I kept pointing it at him, and it got a little funnier when he kept on moving if it even slightly touched him.
"You're a monster! You are definitely a Hitachiin!" I sighed, and decided to stop torturing the poor guy.
"Fine, fine… but at least turn on a candle or something. I don't want to trip…" I put my phone away and waited for him to turn something on. Once he did, I could now see his - creepily illuminated - face. "What's your name? I would tell you mine first, but its seems like you already know it," I asked as I followed him through the hallway.
"Nekozawa Umehito… I am the president of the Black Magic Club…"
"Ahh… Are you the only member too? It seems kinda quiet in here, not to mention it's a very hidden room." I noticed how at the end of this neverending dark hallway, there seemed to be some light. He suddenly stopped walking, and turned around to face me.
"There is another member, but she's not here today… Would you like to join, Hitachiin Luna?" he asked with a creepy smile on his face, and I just shook my head.
"Sorry, I have enough activities with the Host Club. And not to mention babysitting my brothers, but maybe when I have some free time I can come learn some spells. It does sound a little interesting." His smile grew bigger with my comment. This guy didn't seem bad at all. He just wanted some friends/members, I guess.
"Your brothers will be wondering where you are… You should go…" He handed me the candle and pointed my way to go.
"Alright, thanks for the creepy tour, Nekozawa-san!" I bowed, and made my way back to the Host Club. What an interesting building this was… not to mention the weird clubs this school hosts.
"Are you okay?!"
"Did he curse you?!"
"Weren't you scared?!"
I rolled my eyes and continued walking to class with my preoccupied brothers following behind me. As we moved along the hallway, I noticed that the whispering hadn't stopped. I slowed down and waited for my brothers to be at my sides.
"So, have you figured out what is going on with everyone?" I asked lowering my voice. They shook their heads no, and I sighed. "It's weird… We haven't seen anyone from the Host Club today, and everyone keeps talking about us in the most obvious way."
"Look, there's Haruhi! Maybe she knows what's happening!" Kaoru said running towards her. Hikaru and I followed behind. "Hey, Haruhi! Do you know why everyone is acting weird around us?" he asked while Haruhi gave him a questioning look.
"Uh, no? People are acting strange? I hadn't noticed…" she answered looking around at the people in the hallway. They were still whispering as they passed us, giving us looks.
"Have you seen the rest of the Host Club? We checked at the room since Tamaki and Kyoya are usually there in the morning before class, but no one was there," I mentioned as we started to walk to class. Haruhi shook her head, and my brothers and I let out a sigh.
"I guess we have to wait until lunch to look for them, maybe Honey-senpai knows what's going on," Haruhi suggested giving me a small smile. Today was gonna be a long day.
Lunch was worse than I pictured. The whispering and staring did not stop or calm down at all. I began to look around nervously, but everywhere I turned people completely avoided my gaze. Hard to believe these were the same people that wouldn't stop asking me what shampoo I used when I arrived here.
"Don't you guys mind this? It's getting quite ridiculous..." I admitted sitting down at a table, this time Haruhi decided to join us for lunch, since she was curious as to what was going on too.
"I'm sure they'll get tired at some point," Kaoru said taking a bite of his food.
"Do you guys think it has something to do with what happened yesterday?" I asked getting strange looks from my brothers.
"What happened yesterday?" Haruhi looked up from her bento wondering what could have happened. "You were with me almost all day, right?"
"Yeah, but when I got home our parents decided it was the right time to talk about Dad's business and all that… We basically turned them down," I explained resting my head in my hand. "Could that be it? How could these people even know that?"
"Things in the business world travel fast, Sis…" Hikaru shrugged not caring if that was what was going on.
"Do you guys not care? This could hurt Dad's business." I looked around and people suddenly stopped talking. "Ugh… If this doesn't stop by the time we are in the Host Club, I am asking someone. Maybe one of those girls who are dumbly in love with you."
"Those girls usually avoid any rumors about us… To them, there can be nothing wrong with us, so they don't listen to rumors." Kaoru told me ask he looked around to find them. "I don't even think they are in our lunch."
"I'm still gonna ask them. Even if they aren't the ones spreading whatever is going on, they should at least know what is going on." I could hear the whispering getting louder, and it became more obvious as the population in the cafeteria grew. I sighed in defeat and laid my head down on the table. "I hate this…" Haruhi patted my back, reassuring me it was gonna be okay.
"I'm sure whatever is going on will pass fast. They'll obsess over something else soon… They always do." I looked at her from where I was and gave her a small smile. The day couldn't go any slower, and now I was even dreading going to art class. Will Kyo be part of all the crazy whispering too? Three days in Ouran, and I was already starting to question if I had made the right decision. Maybe moving to Japan wasn't a good idea after all...
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