A/N: Eeeewwww... School started again... It's horrible guys! School is such a joke! Anyways, here we are, I finally finished this damn chapter. Slight warning, I think Mori is OOC in the beginning, even with the way he acts when he's tired. But whatever, I can't bring myself to care right now. Special thanks go to thebananakeeper, HeapOfAshes, basketball4444, Sara and Kisa, Enecs, jjr797, AssassinaAquila, Dragon of Selene, piplup13, kat-duchannes, bloodydarkangel, and rants and oblivious for following and faving! You guys are awesome!
NightHunterDeath: Thanks for telling me, I think I figured out the problem. And it's obviously been over a week, sorry!
thebananakeeper: Thank you so much! You made me very happy! You made me smile!
Transformers' Baby: Thank you! More fluff to come!
Gottaloveastory: G-Gone? *sniffles* It's okay... You can do what you want... *muffled violent sobbing*
15samcre: Thank you thank you thank you! P.S. Thank you loads for the advice and encouragement, I'll try my best! Just for you! You beautiful soul! Woah... Talk about channeling your inner Tamaki... I kinda scared myself... *shrugs and continues munching on carrots*
Zstar1: Sorry for the wait! Thank you for putting up with me!
YuYuHakushoObsessor: Here it is!
Disclaimer: If I owned Ouran, it would have a second AND third season!
The next morning, Lorena woke up engulfed in warmth. She cracked her eyes open tiredly, only to see some sort of cotton shirt. But look, there was someone in the shirt. She tilted her head up, still half asleep and very confused. She was greeted with the sight of Takashi's sleeping face. She snapped out of her sleepy state so fast it was like someone had poured ice water on her. She inhaled sharply as her cheeks heated up to about 500 degrees Fahrenheit.
Her thoughts were sent into a whirlwind as she tried to figure a way out of this situation. 'Okay,' she thought, 'calm down. Now I need to get up without waking him up. How hard could that be?' Without moving her head too much, she looked down to see Takashi's arm draped across her waist, easy enough to move. Next she focused on her legs. Her left leg was between his and her right one was hooked over his left one. 'Dang, not so easy.' Slowly and carefully, she unhooked her leg and began sliding it back to her own space. Seeming to sense the warmth leaving him, Takashi stirred-Lorena stopped breathing and froze when he did-but didn't wake. Sending a grateful prayer to whatever god was listening, she successfully moved her leg back to her own space.
Now for the real challenge. Hoping that he wasn't a light sleeper, she decided to test how much she could move her leg without him stirring. She flexed the muscles in her leg quickly, no reaction. She twitched her foot, no reaction again. She began lifting her leg when he shifted his whole body. He rolled onto his back, taking her with him. Cursing her luck and just wishing she would die right then, she reassessed her situation and odds of getting out of this unscathed. Luckily, her other leg had been freed when he moved. Unfortunately, she was now half-on top of him, her head laying on his chest.
While his muscles did feel nice and the sound of his steady heartbeat soothing, she was in deep shit. He would definitely feel her absence more now than before if she were to leave. She briefly considered just staying and dealing with him when he got up. 'No, if I stay, someone is sure to come in looking for one or both of us and misunderstand the situation.' She was about to try moving again-which would surely end in ruin-when she heard the door open.
'OHSHITOHSHITOHSHIT!' Deciding it was best to just feign sleep, Lorena closed her eyes and slowed her breathing a bit to give the illusion of sleep. She heard the distinct clicks of a camera on a phone and a childish giggle. Honey-sempai. Were the blankets covering her? Yes, good.
She felt someone poking her cheek, she snapped her eyes open. Sure enough, there stood Honey, a mischievous and slightly victorious smile on his face and a phone in his hand. 'Help me!' Lorena mouthed to him, hoping he would perhaps distract the sleeping giant as she slipped out. He shook his head, smile still stretched across his face. He left, but not before closing the door behind him loudly.
Life decided to keep up her streak as a cruel bitch. The slamming door woke up Takashi. Lorena was going to close her eyes again and pretend to be sleeping, but he had already seen her eyes were open.
They stared in each other's eyes for a second before he hummed. "I can't think of a better way to wake up." Her eyebrows twitched in confusion. He continued, "Beautiful girl curled up next to me, I must've done something right." She blushed and looked away, not really sure what to say to that.
He chuckled, "You're so cute when you blush." He stroked her cheek with his thumb.
'Why is he so talkative all of a sudden? And is he...flirting with me?' She thought.
He flipped her over, "I could just eat you up." His eyes burned into hers, her breath caught in her throat. If it was possible, she blushed even more. Who wouldn't? "But I don't want you to avoid me again."
Lorena was about to ask what he meant when there was a loud banging on the door. Immediately, Lorena pushed Takashi off of her and onto the ground on the other side of the bed so whoever was at the door wouldn't be able to see him. Thud!
"Umm, Lorena? Are you okay?" Michael's voice could be heard from the other side, the doorknob already turning.
"Yes! Don't come in, I'm changing!" She rushed, jumping out of the bed and putting on the pull-over hoodie from yesterday. It easily went past the edge of her shorts.
The door slammed closed again, "Oh sorry. Breakfast is in ten minutes. Want me to wait for you?" He called.
"No no! You go ahead! I'll be right there!" She called out again, hurriedly trying to pick up the pieces of the broken lamp.
"Okay..." Michael reluctantly left, his footsteps echoing down the hallway. Takashi didn't stand up until they could no longer hear him.
Now fully awake, Takashi had a faint tint of pink across his cheeks as he remembered what he almost did and what he had said. Their eyes made awkward contact for .352 seconds before they looked away. "Sorry..." Takashi mumbled as he walked out of the room.
Once he was gone, Lorena sighed in relief. She didn't know what just happened, but she was glad she got out of it fairly unharmed. But now she was faced with two problems:
1.) Takashi knew about her scars and would most definitely not want to have anything to do with her again
2.) Honey-sempai had incriminating pictures.
If someone else were to see those pictures, they would surely misunderstand the situation. They would jump to conclusions, and then the whole thing would be a big ole mess. She was getting a headache just thinking about it.
She quickly changed into (A/N: Just type in polyvore . com and add this bit at the end of it) /cgi/set?id=132510219. She brushed out her hair and rushed out of the room, looking for Honey-sempai so she could destroy his phone.
However, before she could reach him, she was ambushed by a certain pair of identical twins.
"Rena-chan," Kaoru started, tugging on her right arm.
"Where are you going?" Hikaru finished, tugging on her left one. They began leading her somewhere, their combined strength overpowering her own.
"Chibi hunting." She deadpanned.
"Whatever, come have breakfast with us~!" They chorused.
"We've missed you spending time with us~..." Hikaru whined. He was honestly just like a spoiled child.
"Yeah~! The bed's soooo cold without you Rena-chan~!" Make that two.
"Yeah, I'm sure it's absolutely freezing." She sassed back, now realizing they were dragging her towards the kitchen.
"Don't be like that Rena-chan!" They said simultaneously. "Did you wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?"
"Something like that..." She mumbled.
"What was that?"
"Nothing..."
~Time Skip~
"You'd better watch your back, Haruhi!" Kaoru called out from beside the limo.
"I never would've pegged the Boss as an S&M pervert." Hikaru continued as they got into the limo.
Everyone else was going into one limo and Lorena and Michael went into another. It wasn't that they couldn't all fit, after all, you could fit at least twenty people in those things, it was just that the hosts apparently didn't want to ride with them. Lorena wasn't bothered by it. Not one bit. Nope. Nothin' botherin' Lorena. (Hopefully you note sarcasm). Not that she would ever tell anyone, it hurt. They claimed to be her friends, and then want nothing to do with her. What's up with that?!Whatever, just another reason to add to the list of "Why Not to Care about Anything."She wasn't bothered much by not celebrating her birthday. She didn't want to in the first place. She forced herself to ignore the pang in her chest at the thought of that. She did not care. She didn't. Not one bit.
"Lorena, come on, what's wrong?" Michael prodded.
"Nothing's wrong with me, why do you think something's wrong with me?" She answered just a little too quickly.
Michael sighed, "You know you can't lie to me, I know all of your tricks and tells. Now that I think about it, you were acting pretty weird when I went to retrieve you for breakfast. And I passed Honey in the hallway on my way there, he had this funny look on his face..." He trailed off in thought for a second before smirking at her. "Now I have to know, what happened?"
Lorena rolled her eyes and sighed, "Nothing of import."
"Okay, Castiel." He teased, letting the subject drop...for now...
~Another Time Skip~
Lorena was beyond grateful when they finally arrived at her apartment. She had spent the whole ride back with Michael non-stop pestering and questioning her about what happened. She-being the stubborn bull she is-did not give in to his whining. He would never let her live it down. He had tried every method he could think of trying to get her to spill, but she was having none of it. He tried bribery, blackmail, pleading, the sympathy card, everything. But no matter what he did, it just did. Not. Work.
"Come on~!" He whined, desperate to know.
She growled in frustration, "You're giving me a migraine, Michael! You know what, that's what I'm gonna call you from now on. Migraine Michael. Yeah, that sounds good." She unlocked her door with her key-one of many on the key ring.
When she opened the door, she did not expect what was on the other side. Not one bit. "Happy Late Birthday Lorena~!"
She stood there frozen, shocked at what lie before her. There, in the middle of her apartment, was the Host Club and a giant cake that read in cursive black letters, "Happy Birthday Rena-chan~!" A couple large wrapped presents sat off to the side.
Michael pushed her the rest of the way into the apartment, a large smile on his face, and closed the door. "What do you think?" He asked her.
"You... You guys did this...for me?" She breathed out. She breifly thought this was a dream, but a harsh pinch to the arm quickly shot down that theory. Drugs? Nope, she hadn't eaten anything that everyone else hadn't eaten. Dead? Possibly, let's see.
"We meant to do this yesterday, but the storm prevented the delivery of the cake and presents, so we had them sent here." The twins explained swiftly, dragging Lorena over to the large white cake. They shoved a large cake cutter in her hands, "You get to cut the first piece for yourself, Birthday Girl."
Lorena wasn't completely sure that this wasn't some sort of joke. When she cut into it, she half-expected it to be plastic or someone to pop out of it. But it wasn't, she took the plate from Honey-sempai as she sloppily placed the large piece onto it. Half of the piece didn't come off with her first try. She got it all onto her plate, the pile of cake looking very tempting. It was a rich chocolate with a fudge filling and cream cheese icing.
Everyone was staring at her awaiting her opinion. She lifted a forkful into her mouth and savored the flavor. It was by far the best cake she'd ever had. She hummed, "It's delicious!" They were all happy to hear that.
Haruhi began serving pieces of cake, Honey-sempai getting by far the largest one, and Lorena went to sit at the corner of her table in the living space. She hadn't taken another bite of her cake, and tried her best to hide the few tears running down her cheeks. She couldn't help it, she was feeling a little happy, and a lot sad. Honey came over with his massive plate of cake and sat next to her. "Why are you crying Rena-chan?"
"I'm just happy." She ruffled his hair. He smiled in return and began digging into his cake once again as everyone else started seating themselves around the table. She managed to not let another tear slip past her eyes the rest of the night.
The rest of the night was full of laughter, cake, teasing, and funny stories. At one point, Michael and Lorena decided to "feed" each other, which they both ended up smashing it into their faces. Michael even got some in her hair. This meant that Lorena had to go to the bathroom and wash it out in the sink. She was then thankful for this, as she caught the two shady twins about to enter her bedroom. She dragged them back by their ears and had Haruhi scold and lecture them about invading people's privacy. That was way too close. Lorena thought as she went back to join the others.
When it was time to open her presents, she really shouldn't have been as surprised as she was.
The twins gave her total access to their mom's designer clothes.
She had already recieved her gift from Kyoya.
Honey-sempai gave her a membership to a fancy bakery, and he made her promise she would go with him.
Tamaki gave her a couple frilly pink dresses that he wanted her to wear, which she immediately shot down.
Haruhi gave her a movie they had watched at her apartment many times because it was Lorena's favorite. She assured her that it was the perfect gift and hugged her.
Takashi gave her a silver bracelet with an angel wing on it, to match the angel wings necklace she always wore. He never saw it until the night before when it wasn't tucked under her shirt.
She thanked them all for their generous gifts.
~Time Skip~
"Bye!" Michael waved the Host Club off, closing the door and letting out a sigh. He looked around the kitchen, they had dishes to clean, but that could wait until later. He put the leftover cake into the fridge and trudged over to the spare bedroom that he'd been staying in.
Lorena had retreated into her room as soon as they had left, he decided to leave her alone. Space was what she really needed right now.
He began packing their bags again. They had a long flight back to America tonight.
A/N: Eeeeehhhh... Shitty ending is shitty. Oh well. Hope you guys aren't too terribly disappointed, I tried. Ummmmm what else... Oh yeah! I think I figured out the link problem! Please tell me if it still didn't work! And I'm sorry it's so troublesome, I'm not sure why, but FFN won't let me just copy and paste it on here. If anyone knows how to make it easier or put the actual link in the story, I would be eternally grateful! Thanks guys! Until next time~~!