Well, crap.
Pardon my language but I never thought I'd have to worry about me turning diabetic at the age of twenty. My father had always been my main concern with his sneaky way of always bringing ice cream sandwiches and Butterfingers in the house during the stressful patches of the company.
But there I was, politely accepting a piece of Tamaki's "I'm sorry I hit you with a volleyball so hard you fell on your face and was very nearly blinded"-cake. Or lump of cooked sugar, whatever you choose to call it.
The next day was somewhat reasonable. Or at least it was supposed to be. With work as an excuse and Kyoya (all better from his cold) backing me up, I spent most of my time working in my room, with Noel as an occasional company (the furry little traitor kept sleeping in Kyoya's bed every night).
However, none of his friends saw that as a decent excuse and Haruhi was often sent to fetch me for some reason or other, which made it very hard for me to follow up on the promise I made to myself which was to ignore Kyoya. God knew I couldn't look at him without remembering my dream and getting all red and flustered.
To top it all off my project wasn't working as speedily as I hoped.
Why couldn't I be all cool and aloof about flirting like Chika was?
Anyway, I wasn't going to get involved with these people and that was final.
Hm… maybe it's about time I should tell you why I have these trust issue problems. You see, like I said before, I used to be always eager to please people, and though shy at making new friends, once I was in the group I loved being the shoulder to cry on and the Advice Giver and all, and in high school I had a whole bunch of friends, but then on my senior year, just two weeks after my Gramps died, this girl-
"Hi-YAAH!" Tamaki exclaimed after a huge crack, "Here, Risa, I cut you a big piece!"
Oh, well, I'll tell it later.
"Thank you, Tamaki, you didn't have to." I said, sucking on the smallest piece I'd managed to divide from the rest. God, did we run out of milk and flour?
"Don't eat that, Mitsukuni, it's bad for you." Mori said gravely.
"*But the frosting's still good, isn't it?*" Honey asked me, gazing at the cake, willing it to become edible.
"Mm-hm." I said, cracking the piece in my mouth -which reminded me of the time I got hit in the face by a baseball and had been sure I'd lost all my front teeth- and washing it down with water.
"Tamaki, you put more sugar when I turned around, didn't you?" Haruhi complained, while the twins started a food fight with the clumps of cake.
"Be careful, you two." Kyoya said, not taking his eyes from his computer, "You might break one of the windows like that."
At some point she and the twins set off to distract Tamaki while Mori, Honey and I took the cake back to the kitchen to get rid of it.
"We can't just throw it in the garbage, he'll see." I told them.
"*How about the food dispenser?*" Honey suggested.
I threw in the first clump and turned it on. The piercing screams not unlike that of a Monster truck fighting for its life against a pack of sawing machines sounded all over the kitchen, then died away when Mori turned it off and a small line of smoke ascended.
We stood in a short guilty silence.
"The garbage it is." I said.
Afterwards, Honey stayed with me in the kitchen, sitting on the counter hugging his Usa-chan, while I made a new cake.
"Why are you so mean to Kyo-chan, Risa-chan?" he asked me suddenly, almost making me drop an egg.
What the hell? I'm the mean one?-Oh, right, it's not like they saw…
"Um," I cracked the egg, playing for time, "He's not exactly the sweetest guy in the world with me either." I said defensively, then deciding to tell the truth: "We just don't like each other."
"*Oh, that can't be right, Risa-chan.*" he protested, "*I think Kyo-chan likes you very much, he got very angry at us for distracting you yesterday, and was really worried that you were seriously hurt." I held back a snort, of course he would be, I thought, how else would I be able to hold up my end of the deal? "*Kyo-chan sometimes hides his feelings even from himself.*"
Feeling uncomfortable with the way the conversation was headed, I changed the subject, "What about you, Honey? I think you're very closed up, I bet you've got a girlfriend somewhere you're hiding from everybody."
His sky blue eyes looked down and he hugged his bunny harder.
"*Reiko-chan is not my girlfriend.*" he said sadly.
I gulped. Way to go, Risa! Count on me to depress the most cheerful person in the house.
"*We were together until she finished high school and decided to go to a fancy college in London. I told her I could try talking to her father to let her stay, but she said she wanted to go, too.*" he said bitterly. "*We don't talk anymore.*"
I bit my lip, I felt like I was dangling on that thin line between A Stranger's Recommendation and A Friend's Advice. And I don't really ever talk to complete strangers, "Um, that sounds stupid." Were the sensitive words that left my lips, apparently I preferred to come out An Insensitive Meany.
He looked up at me with hurt and surprise. I quickly excused myself, "It's just that, you obviously care about her a lot. And I don't think she left because she didn't care about you.—But anyway," I added, blushing, "it's none of my business."
And even though it wasn't my business, I couldn't help worrying about it, so as soon as I could I cornered Mori and asked for Reiko-whatever's e-mail and Facebook, I knew what I was doing was wrong, nothing A Stranger would do, but I told myself it wouldn't matter, since pretty soon I'd never see Honey or any of Kyoya's acquaintances again. Holding on to that thread-bare excuse, I wrote to Reiko explaining that I was Kyoya's fiancée and wanted to meet her, since she clearly was unbiased and could tell me more about his character and what he was like in high school.
Lame-ass excuse, I know, but if she still cared about Honey it would be more than enough for us to meet.
I also took the opportunity of having Mori with me to tell him that if he hurt Riko's feelings I'd have to do something drastic, like, say, kick his butt (I know, pathetic, what would a yellow-belt have against a Morinozuka?). He only stared blankly and said, "It's Yuriko who is hurting me. She told me to choose between her and my friends. Do you think that's fair?"
Gosh, Riko could be insensitive! Sneaky girl, she conveniently left that out.
I sighed and shook my head, "No, it's not." Again I felt like a meddler, but this time I was more justified, Riko was my friend, I had a right to advise her boyfriend, I quickly thought up a solution: "Why don't you arrange for her to officially meet them? I'm sure she'll love that." In fact she was probably jealous that my two week and a half engagement was official with Kyoya's friends, while her three month boyfriend/girlfriend status went unnoticed. I couldn't tell if Mori liked my advise or not with his poker face, but I'd done what I could.
Sooner rather than later the information leaked that I could cook. So, again, I was taken from my work, this time to make them all dinner, Haruhi also helped me in the kitchen and since the others wouldn't stop pestering us, I gave them things to do too. By the time we sat down for dinner it was ten o'clock. My mantra that they weren't my friends was had found my Denial Wrap and snuggled in, especially now that I remembered how much I enjoyed having a large group of friends.
They all complimented each other on their good work in the kitchen and made fun of Kyoya who hadn't helped with anything.
My subconscious didn't know what it was doing when I had that dream, I'm sure of it. He's so arrogant and annoying, there was no way I'd ever want to kiss him.
You know, again anyway.
Afterwards Tamaki insisted on playing the piano with me. And I dutifully played "Mary had a Little Lamb" to make my point, but then someone found Beethoven's "Moonlight" and with the help of the page in front of me I was sort of able to play it with him, even though it's not a duet.
Then we all sat down (Kyoya and I on separate corners, thank goodness) with our mint ice cream and watched a scary movie about a whole bunch of teenagers that were being hunt down and killed by a crazy guy with a spear. Only Honey almost broke all of my fingers before the crazy man even had the chance to make his appearance, so they switched it to a romantic comedy about a couple who woke up one morning to find out they were married in Vegas.
I found myself feeling more afraid than I'd been watching the scary movie. And when the young couple jumped out of bed screaming and pointing at each other in horror I almost screamed with them. It was at that time that I pretended not to feel well and excused myself to bed.
One thing that wouldn't quit nagging at me from the back of my mind was how cool Kyoya was with my ignoring him, even though I caught him staring at me more than once, especially when I was playing the piano. As far as I could tell Kyoya couldn't care less if I befriended his friends or not, because he knew as well as I did, that it was temporary. And as for our own relationship, well, it had always been professional anyway.
So why did I care?
O0o0o0o0o0o0o0oo
The next day started a little different.
"Wake up, Risa!"
"SURPRISE!"
"Wake up you lazy idiot!"
I manage to pop an eye open to ascertain my greatest fear.
Yes, Riko, Chika and Izumi were jumping on my bed trying to get me to wake up. I clenched my fingers and saw that I had my cell phone in my hand, I checked the time. Eight fifteen.
I groaned and turned away.
"Risa! !" Chika complained and jumped on top of me. Her pretty blue high lights tickling my cheek. "How can you sleep in a house full of hot guys?"
"Why are you here?" I grumbled.
"Riko's boyfriend invited us." Chika said, "He wanted her to meet his friends and since they're all here already, it was very practical. Izumi and I tagged along, of course."
Of course, I thought sarcastically, Ugh! Why did Mori listen to me!
"Takashi said that we can have our double date today, or tomorrow, or whenever you like. It's so practical since we're all in the same house!" Riko said gleefully, bouncing up and down. "Can you imagine how fun it'll be just you, me, Takashi and Kyoya?"
"Pfft! Why stop at Ootori? Haven't you heard? Their relationship is not exclusive, she can have whoever she likes. Although," Chika poked my forehead, "Dibs on the Hitachiin brothers."
"Risa, I still don't understand how you can be so cool about Kyoya blackmailing you. Why won't you tell your father about this?" Izumi (the voice of reason) said.
"Go. Away." I growled and dug my head under the pillow.
"Oh, come on, Risa." Chika laughed, and started to poke me, "I want to borrow your dark blue bikini to show off to Hitachiin! Get up, get up, get up!"
"I swear, Chika, if you don't get off me right now I will punch you so hard-"
She and Riko burst out laughing, "Oh, please. I was in the Karate Club with you pea-brain, you felt bad about hurting the punching bag, you could never punch anybody."
Ha. Ha. Ha. Sad but true, I could never bring myself to hurt whoever I was fighting, which is why I remained a white belt for three years and only given a yellow out of pity.
I sighed and dragged myself up. "You are cruel, cruel beings." I said, feeling my tense back hurt all over. There had been little progress with my project.
"Risa-chan." Riko said in a serious tone as soon as I had managed to open both eyes. "There's something that Izumi and I need to tell you."
"Let me guess," I said, washing my face, "it can't wait."
"Oh, you'll love it." Chika said.
I looked at them, all huddled on my bed, Chika had her usual mischievous grin, Riko looked serious and Izumi, for some reason, looked embarrassed.
"All, right. Fire away."
"Well, we thought about telling you this before—but since we thought you liked Kyoya even a little we thought it best not to tell you." Riko started.
"I wanted to tell you." Chika chipped in.
"Shut up. Anyway, you should know that, Kyoya-and my Takashi- were part of the Ouran High School Host Club."
I blinked and waited.
"So?" I finally asked.
"So? So?" Riko mimicked, "They were hosts and their guests were all girls!"
I rolled my eyes, "I looked into it guys, I know the whole deal, there was only flirting, no sex or paid service." I yawned and opened my closet.
Riko stuffed up her chest, "No. But there's more. Tell her- tell her, Izumi."
Izumi, not meeting my eye, reached into a bag of hers and pulled out a few albums and handed them to me. I looked at them curiously at first, then I realized what they were: pictures of the Host Club and its members.
A lot of pictures. Of them in cosplay.
"Oh. My God." I giggled.
Half and hour later I was sitting on the breakfast table filling a very large mug with coffee. I hadn't even brushed my hair. I couldn't get my eyes away from the pictures, them in Kimonos posing against blossoming cherry trees, them dressed as Greek gods looking flirtatiously at the camera. There was even one of them all dressed like princes.
"Why is Kyoya tied up?" asked Riko. As we made our way downstairs I was still looking avidly at the pictures, finding Kyoya on them looking all young and cute, damn him—while Riko kept saying "See? See? They were like male prostitutes!" and Izumi whispering "Don't you think you've seen enough, Risa? I don't want them to see I still have those."
We found the breakfast table crowded with all the former hosts sitting down and Kyoya at the head of the table, tied to his chair, snoozing away. I had been ready to get angry at him just by looking at him, but seeing his sweet serene face, half covered in milk and Fruit Loops, I just felt like laughing.
"Oh, we tried to wake him up when you got here." Said Hikaru.
"But he suffers from low blood pressure, so if we didn't tie him to his chair, he'd drown in his cereal" finished Kaoru, who was staring intently at his croissant and avoiding Chika's predatory ogling.
"Oh, I bet Risa could wake him up if she wanted to." Chika said suggestively.
I glared at her over my coffee. Then imagined various ways I could, in fact, wake The Low Blood Pressure Evil Lord (as I found out he was also known as), in one of them I sprayed pepper spray on his hands then tickled his eyes with a feather.
I turned a page in the album then nearly spit out my coffee, "What is Haruhi doing here?" I said, very surprised indeed.
On the glossy page, Haruhi had her arms up, hands caressing her hair, looking at the camera with innocent surprise. And she was shirtless. With the body of a guy.
"Oh, pretty clever, right?" Hikaru said next to me.
"I don't like that picture!" shouted Tamaki from his seat next to Kyoya.
"We photoshopped Tamaki's body with Haruhi's head." Explained Kaoru.
I blinked and analyzed the photo, "Wow, it's really well done, I can barely tell."
They smiled modestly.
"Why did you do it for, anyway? Was it a prank on her?" I asked innocently.
They all stared back with wide eyes.
"*Not exactly…*"
"I broke an eight million yen vase of theirs and I pretended to be a boy so I could be a host and pay it back." Haruhi explained calmly. They all turned to look at her in disbelief.
"Haruhi!" Tamaki shouted (though I was starting to suspect that when it came to Tamaki, nothing was simply 'said'), "We weren't supposed to tell her that!"
"Why not?" Haruhi countered, "Her friend Izumi is here, she knows the whole story."
I almost spit out my coffee again, I looked at Izumi sitting next to me looking as if she wanted to disappear. Then it finally clicked in my head, "Izumi…" I felt the strain in my throat to hold back the laughter, "…were you one of the guests?"
"Oh, Izumi was more than a guest…" Hikaru began standing up with his brother and each of them leaned on one side of Izumi. She looked like a trembling little rabbit trapped in the headlights.
"…she was with us since the beginning of the Club. Even before Haruhi joined us." Kaoru said.
She gave a little yelp and covered her red face with both hands. I looked at her in amazement. Izumi had always been beautiful, and I when I say beautiful, I mean, people stop her in the streets and ask which movie had they seen her in, with her shoulder-length light-brown hair and eyes, it was no wonder she was discovered by a beauty agent at the young age of thirteen, less wonder that she had retained her status of the world's most beautiful petit model to this day.
Problem was, when it came to boys, she was as good as a possum playing dead when it spots an eagle. She turned red and couldn't speak in audible tones.
So you can imagine my surprise to see that during her high school days she had deliberately flirted with a group of very handsome young men.
"Aaaaah!"
The shout came from the top of the table, where Kyoya had jumped in his chair, looking confusedly at his tied up body, the table in front of him and the people surrounding him, then his eyes stopped on Tamaki.
"I'm going to kill—Aaah! Get it off me!" He shouted, wriggling against the ropes.
I cocked my head, trying to figure out what he meant, then checked under the table. Sure enough, there was Noel, wrestling and biting Kyoya's defenseless feet. Tamaki bent down and was about to close his fingers around the little fur-ball when he darted away.
Kyoya sighed, "Tamaki, you've done it this time, when I said this morning that you could have breakfast-" he suddenly did a double take and seemed to notice Chika sitting next to him, then Riko next to Mori, and (probably because the twins were standing over her) Izumi next to me. "Who…?"
Chika distracted him by picking a Fruit Loop from his face and putting it in her mouth. You see? You see what I mean by her being cool and aloof about flirting? She does it so naturally even with guys she's not interested in. At least, I hope she's not interested—Whoa, there, now where is that coming from? I'm just attracted to that bastard, I can't help the hormones.
"We're Risa-chan's friends, silly. You didn't think you could just snatch her away without our approval, did you?" she waved a disapproving finger at him.
"Weeeell, we're going to the beach now, Kyoya!" the brothers next to me said suddenly, smiling widely, "As soon as you have breakfast, come and join us!"
Then everybody started scuffling out.
"Get back here!"
Suddenly my heart began to feel heavier, why were Riko, Chika and Izumi leaving too? I couldn't help but feel a small, sharp stab of betrayal on their part. They were my friends, after all.
Too late I realized it was just me and Kyoya on the table. I started but didn't know what to do, I had my pride, this guy wasn't going to shoo my out of my own breakfast.
"Kotoku, untie me." He ordered.
Screw my pride, his voice just made me shiver.
I sipped my coffee to regain my composure. Now that he was awake my anger toward him was bubbling up again, I remembered the touch of his fingers under my chin, his breath on my lips, his arrogant "theory-testing", "You're in no position to be so impolite, doke." I managed to blurt out, not looking at him, it was a golden opportunity for revenge, and I hadn't even been looking for it.
I could feel my skin crawling and I knew he was glaring at me. I took a croissant and stood up.
"Untie me… please." He said through his teeth.
"Hmmm…" I stopped next to him, "Not good enough." He opened his mouth to protest and I stuffed the croissant in it. I gave him a sweet smile. "But you don't deserve to starve, doke, not at all." I said sarcastically, "Oh!" I feigned shock, covering my mouth with the tips of my fingers, "But I shouldn't call you that! You are my fiancé, after all. How about…sweetums." I grinned at him.
"Gleh Mm gum!" Let me GO! like I said, because of my father's compulsive eating I was pretty good at understanding Mouth Full of Food Speak.
We glared at each other. He blinked and looked away.
"Hleathe." Please, he growled. Now that's more like it.
"Sorry, sweetums!" I said, giving a pout, "But I'm just swamped with work. I'll catch up with you later."
I twirled my fingers at him and walked away while he shouted things through his croissant that he really shouldn't say to a lady.
That should teach him never to try to play with my feelings.
Not that I had any, of course.
I am a cold, impenetrable fortress.
A/N: So, so sorry. Am going through a writer's block, but thankfully it's receding. *shivers* I HATE writer's block. Well, this chapter was tricky, because it was very long at first, so I had major editing to do (very likely the main reason the WB hit me), but on the bright side, it means half of chapter 20 is basically done. =)
Anyway, please keep reading and enjoy while you're at it.
Response to reviews:
Extended Experience:Oh, yeah, but remember he's just as stubborn as Risa, he might have to learn to give his daughter credit the hard way. And thanks, just so you know, I edited this chapter after your review and I'm much happier with it now.
princess26966: Lol thank you so much! I hope you're enjoying how Risa's life is becoming this big snowball and she's losing control of everything.
etzelg: Oh, that is tempting. Seriously, I almost altered the course of the next chapter because of that, however, and you must agree with me, Kyoya shirtless requires a lot of paragraphs and is very distracting to the main plot, so... as much as it breaks my heart, it'll be a while before we see him like that again. *sniff*
GIR3c: Yeah, that last part almost went down the Editing Shoot, but who knows why he did what he did, right? One of the things I want to keep true to the original creator of Kyoya, is that Kyoya is "pure of heart".
Kamili: Then, thank you very much. But, really? Well, don't worry, plenty of kisses in the future to make up for it. (Who's kissing who, I really shouldnt say.)
girgagir: I apologize, again, directly to you, because you specifically said that you hoped the chapter would come out soon and I took specifically 17 days to update. Shame on me. In my defense it was so I wouldn't post a chapter that was complete crap. Oh, and your compliment that Risa and Kyoya fit together, means a LOT! I hate stories where the characters get together just because they have the hots for each other, so thank you.