And here is chapter five. Wow, I'm already nearly half way through this fic… I just need to remember to keep on updating it…
Anyway, here it is. Chapter five. I hope that you guys enjoy it.
The next morning progressed almost entirely as normal for Neku. He was presented with his choices for subjects, and he ignored the other students in the school. Renge didn't complain from her seat, so he didn't really care. He pushed the twins away whenever they grew to close, which was often, and generally passed the day as normal.
At lunch, he sat on his own, and was surprised when another tray slid in beside him, along with a somewhat familiar smell of jasmine. "Why are you here?" Neku asked, cutting into a piece of the delicate chicken breast on the plate in front of him, spearing it onto his fork and taking a bite.
"I see you didn't go for one of the ramen dishes." Joshua spoke, picking up the pair of chopsticks next to his bowl, quickly positioning them and picking up some of the noodles in the bowl in front of him.
"That wasn't my question." Neku replied, taking another bite of his chicken, idly noting that there were quite a few people looking at the two of them, mostly at Joshua.
"Simple. I'm here to blend in." Joshua replied, turning slightly and poking his chopsticks towards Neku.
"You're not doing a very good job of it." Neku commented, gesturing to the crowd of people who were staring at him.
"I'm a prospective student." Joshua replied with a slight smirk. "I'm planning on transferring here soon, and am just looking around to ensure that I like his school." He explained. "I'll probably be attending school here at the start of the new week."
"You work fast." Neku replied, not showing his surprise. He shouldn't have been – Joshua was the most cunning of the group, after all – but he was.
"Besides, if I'm here I have my bodyguard." Joshua smirked, Neku looking down with a surprising amount of interest at the half-eaten chicken on his plate.
"Why didn't you ask the others for help?" Neku groaned in annoyance.
"You're the strongest of you guys." Joshua replied. "And Natsuki made sure to get the others watched, just in case I made contact with them. I don't think she'll attack them, but I can't speak to them."
"That sucks." Neku growled, annoyed at the new Conductor already.
"But it's such a wonderful opportunity to be able to do things like this." Before Neku could react, Joshua was holding onto his chin, opening his mouth in order to place the spoonful of ice cream into Neku's mouth.
Cue the screams of the fangirls around the room, startling pretty much everyone else.
On another table, Hikaru turned away from his view of Neku and Joshua. "Neku neglected to mention that." Kaoru spoke.
Haruhi sighed, trying to ignore the screaming girls around her. "I don't think I'll get much of my debt cleared today…" She spoke, prodding at the rice in her bento and wondering if she could use it to block her ears.
"Neku's looking pretty angry…" Hikaru spoke.
"NEKU'S TSUNDERE!" The trio winced as the booming voice filled the room, Renge having appeared standing on the table without the three noticing. "Oh, how didn't I see it before? Such a dark exterior, pushing away at anyone who comes close, but really a…"
"Are you really going to listen to that?" Kaoru asked.
"Who were you talking to?" Hikaru replied.
"Them." Kaoru pointed behind Hikaru, who turned.
"Who?" Nobody behind Hikaru was paying any attention to the younger twin.
"Never mind." Kaoru sighed. Hikaru looked behind him one more time, then returned to his meal.
"… And for that reason most of all, I wish to make him an official member of the Host Club!" Renge finished, pointing directly at Joshua, who smiled.
"Sure." Joshua leaned forwards, smirking. "So long as no one else gets to play with my Neku."
Years later, it is said that one sentence created a stampede of screaming fangirls who destroyed everything in their path, dooming many souls to lose their meals and be trampled. It is said that while nobody was seriously injured, one girl fainted when her toe was trodden on. It was one of the biggest student-related incidents to occur in the mythology of Ouran Academy.
Here I tell you, it was true.
It was only after lunch that Renge received her formal introduction to Joshua, and she was delighted to hear his statement that he would refuse any other club. Neku, meanwhile, was less than pleased. He had taken the seat that he normally took, a window sill that over looked one of the many school courtyards. Students were milling about, including a small group of girls staring up into the window. Neku looked away, turning his attention to the sky.
"So, how does Jo-chan know Neku-chan?" Hunny asked, looking between the two. Neku tilted his head slightly, wondering how Joshua would explain that the first time they met, he'd died.
"Hmm…I guess it was when I found him staring at a mural in Shibuya." Joshua answered, looking up at Neku. Neku gained an idea, and hid his growing smirk.
"You got it the wrong way round." Neku replied. "You were at the mural, and were busy trying to get away from that guy."
"What guy?" Haruhi asked.
"Oh, right." Joshua sighed, as if he'd been found out. "Neku saved my life." Joshua looked directly at Neku, smirking. "He distracted the man long enough for me to knock him out with a fallen brick." Neku glared at Joshua, realizing where this was going and suddenly regretting his decision. "Neku called the police, and we made sure he stayed unconscious. Thankfully there was more than enough proof that the man was guilty, and the trial was over quickly. It barely even made the news. After it all happened, I thanked Neku by taking him out on a date." Neku smacked his own forehead, noticing Joshua smirking at him.
Renge's fan girl mode was triggered. "I FOUND PERFECTION!" Renge screamed, the Hosts covering their ears. "Oh, the gallant Neku so honorably saves his prince from the ruthless attacker, and the two fall in love after the fateful meeting!" Renge's voice turned to dramatic tone. "Oh, what might have happened if Neku was ill on that day, or if Joshua had been hit? What tragedy could have befallen these fateful lovers if only one little detail had been different? These two are a match made by Destiny!" Renge shouted, rose petals raining around her.
Neku groaned. This is going to be a long, painful day…
Neku was right, but not in the way he thought. The Club had started, and Joshua was there. The girls were delighted by the shows of affection Joshua gave Neku, and how 'tsundere' Neku's responses were, either ignoring Joshua or pushing him away, sometimes blushing. There came the times when Joshua took it too far, and the two were swamped by the guests until Kyouya saved them, reminding the girls that what they were doing was not behaviour fit for a 'princess' such as them.
It took a fair while for Neku to get used to his new place in the Club, he'd gone from having the least stressful role to the most stressful over a single weekend.
"Stupid Natsuki…" Neku grumbled as Joshua waved goodbye to their last group of guests. The other Hosts didn't seem to have many, and so their guests could have a longer time with their Hosts, with Haruhi's refined company or Tamaki's mushy nonsense.
"I agree. She's not sent any Noise after me since the shopping center." Joshua responded. When he turned back to Neku, he had a smirk on his face. "Fancy a break from the girls, which they will not be able to complain about?"
"Isn't this our last group?" Neku asked, placing a fist in front of his eyes.
"Exactly why it'll work." Joshua pulled something out of his pocket and passed it to Neku, a piece of A4 paper with something written on it. Neku quickly read it, then smirked.
"Why not?" He replied with a sigh, standing up and folding the paper in half, standing it on it's side and leaving it standing on the windowsill the two used as their 'area'. "But let's not go too far. Just in case." Neku replied, Joshua nodding in agreement. The two headed for the door, making sure that nobody could see them go.
When the girls arrived, they were mystified to find the windowsill empty. After looking around for a minute or so, one of them found the paper and read it, her eyes widening before she screamed with delight, passing it on to the other girl, each joining in the screaming as they read it.
Taken Neku off for some 'fun'. Hope you don't mind!
Renge read it, and began to speak. "That's it! Ladies, I am happy to announce that the first Joshua and Neku doujinshi will be on sale in tomorrow's club!" She called, and the girls screamed all the louder, every guest in the club joining in.
In one of the side rooms, Joshua smirked at Neku. "I told you they couldn't complain."
"And you had to highlight 'fun'…" Neku grumbled. "I don't want to know how Tamaki will react…"
"Well, at least we have time to work on our own things." Joshua replied with a shrug, beginning to explore the room, the center dominated by a grand piano covered by a white sheet. "So what do you do when you aren't playing kitty?"
"I told you that was once!" Neku yelled, Joshua smirking as he realized that the room was soundproof.
"Do you still play Tin Pin?" Joshua asked, throwing Neku with the change of subject.
"Why, fancy losing a game?" Neku asked, smirking as he pulled his pins out of his pocket.
"No, more like winning one." Joshua smirked, holding out his hand, in which a group of six pins materialized. "Fancy a bet?" He asked.
"Sure." Neku responded as Joshua made a board appear as well. "When I win, you give me the Excalibur pin in your pocket." Neku held out his hand to shake.
"But if I win…" Joshua let it hang slightly as he reached forwards to shake Neku's hand. "I get to tell Renge about the 'Kitty Incident'." Joshua was shaking Neku's hand before it could be withdrawn, and Neku sighed.
"You know I'm not going to take it easy on you now, right?"
"I know." Joshua smirked, lining up five of his pins and placing his sixth ready. "Why don't we start?"
Before Neku could place his pins, the doors to the room burst open, and the two turned to see what had come in.
"You were complaining about it." Neku commented.
"Shut up." Joshua replied, picking up one of his pins and sending a Force Round into the Frog Noise, erasing it.
"You can use them too?" Neku asked surprised.
"I made them all. Of course I can use them." Joshua replied with a smirk. He was distracted from his teasing by a scream. "Let's go Neku."
"I'm on it."
The two left the side room through the open doors, noticing the Hosts shepherding the last of the guests out through the main doors in a screaming stampede, Hunny and Mori both attacking the Noise that were walking randomly through the room. "Jo-chan! Neku-chan! Run away!" Hunny called as he delivered a punch to a Wolf Noise, erasing it and causing it to dissolve into static. "What...?"
"We're not leaving either." Joshua called as Neku ran into the side-room, quickly running out with some weaponry; a naginata and a katana. Mori had fallen back to a bag hidden in a corner of the room and had pulled out a kendo stick, hitting the Noise with the wooden pole.
"Which do you want?" Neku asked, gesturing to the two weapons.
"I'll go for the Naginata." Joshua replied calmly. "I hate fighting up close."
"There's a bow and arrows in there as well, if you want." Neku suggested as he grasped the sword, holding it out in front of him ready and trying to remember what he knew of armed fighting.
"You've never done this before, have you?" Joshua asked as he slipped into a fighting stance, ready.
"Not without pins." Neku commented as the Noise began to orient onto the two of them.
"Well then, good luck. I hope you picked up a couple." Joshua answered. "We may have to let Hunny and Mori know about them."
"Let's try not to." Neku replied as Joshua stared forwards, slashing at the closest Noise and quickly erasing it.
Neku attempted to mirror Joshua, trying the same technique against a similar Noise, but forgot about his weapon's shorter reach. He tried again a couple more times, and erased the Noise he'd been fighting. Joshua, meanwhile, had cut a path into the middle of the swarm, and Neku could see some of them flying about, obviously a result of Psychokinesis.
After a while of fighting, the Noise didn't seem to be thinning out. "There's too many of them!" Neku called to Joshua.
"What are they?" Hunny called from the head of a Bear Noise, surprising Neku.
"We'll have to use that trick Neku." Joshua called. Neku nodded in agreement, even though Joshua couldn't see him, then prepared his Psychokinesis pin. "Ready Joshua?"
"After you Neku." Came the reply. Without any warning, both Hunny and Mori were sent flying into the side room Neku and Joshua had been in, the door slamming shut and a sofa shifting in front of it. Neku pulled another pin out of his pocket, noticing the change in it's design, and activating their Fusion.
Furniture flew around the room, all of the tables and chairs and lamps that had filled the room before were now flying everywhere, slamming into Noise and erasing them, avoiding Neku and Joshua. The katana and naginata joined the furniture, giving some Noise a more painful end than others.
The Fusion went on for a handful of seconds, and in the end the only a couple of weakened Noise remained. Those were quickly erased through Joshua's Force Rounds, and the room was clear. Just in time too, as the doors to, as two sets of doors opened and the Hosts looked in, seeing Neku and Joshua in the middle of what used to be a Club Room.
"We'll clean up." Neku spoke, before anyone else could ask just what happened, and before they could the two had already begun to tidy up.
"When the others leave, we can get through this quickly." Joshua spoke under his breath as Neku recovered the two weapons.
"I know. The problem is getting them to leave." Neku sighed, heading over to the store room to put the two weapons away - and recover his pins. Cure Drink was calling to him, he'd been hit several times in that fight, and he wasn't going to let anything stop him.
"Could you please give us some time to do this?" Joshua asked the Hosts. "This room isn't exactly the safest at the moment, and we'd like to make sure it's better before anyone else comes in here." Joshua told the Hosts.
"Jo-chan's always looking out for people…" Hunny smiled.
"Well, then we will leave the two of you alone." Tamaki spoke, grabbing both Hikaru and Kaoru's collars and pulling the Twins back through the door. Haruhi, Hunny and Mori all followed, but Kyouya hesitated, looking back in to where Joshua was collecting shards of pottery, and began to question what had happened.
"They're gone?" Neku asked, walking back in.
"Yep." Joshua replied. "Do you want to take on tables or chairs?"
"With that pin you gave me, the reversing time one? I'll take the chairs."
"You know, you're the only Player to have ever earned that Pin." Joshua told Neku as the two pulled out the pin. "Then again, no other Player has played one of my personal games before."
"Let's just work, shall we?" Neku responded, activating the pin's Psyche and beginning to work on putting the chairs back together. Joshua smirked, and followed suit.
By the time the cleaners began their rounds, the Club Room looked exactly as it has just hours before, peaceful and intact.
"GAH! That stupid Angel!"
Natsuki yelled at the now blank sheet of paper that she had created the Noise off of. "I put so much energy into these Noise, why are Non-Players defeating them so easily?"
She took a deep breath, and calmed down. "But it's all right. After all, I control the UG. All I have to do is erase that stupid Angel, and I get his powers. Then I can take over the RG." She paused. "Maybe I'm a little insane…" She mused. "Nah! If I was insane I'd be talking to myself!"
The Reaper looked around the empty room, and laughed.
Yeah, I felt like giving Natsuki a little appearance. After all, she is the main villain.
Anyway, this was a nice chapter to write. This will not be a romance, for the record, Neku and Joshua aren't really together. It's just Joshua's teasing and some misinterpretation. Although the cat thing, I'm looking forwards to revealing.
Anyway, I hope that you enjoyed this. And I hope that the fight scene was all right. Especially the Fusion. That was an interesting part to write…
And just as a note, that Pin I mentioned at the end. I feel Neku deserved something for Joshua's game. So I gave him that. Not a useful Pin for fighting, but a very interesting Psyche.
See you guys next time!