Emi POV
I rushed into the kitchen, about to pull out ingredients, before remembering that I hadn't actually asked Mori and Honey what they thought I should make. Time flies when you're having fun I guess.
I turned to see that they had followed me into the kitchen. "So, there are a couple of options for supper. We could have peanut noodles or homemade pizza. What do you think would be best? If you don't think either would work, I could probably scrounge up something else."
"Pizza," Mori responded surprisingly quickly and decisively.
"Takashi's a big pizza fan!" Honey explained.
"Alright, pizza it is!" I clapped. I proceeded to pull out the dough I had made ahead of time and the rest of the toppings, laying them out on the island counter. Once that was done, I got on a stool to reach the pizza stones that were stored in one of the top cupboards.
To my surprise, as soon as everything was set out Mori began kneading the dough and then flinging it in the air like a professional.
I gaped, "Damn Mori, you have major pizzeria skills! You're doing that way better than I would have." To this, Mori simply grinned and continued to spin discs of dough through the air.
"Okay, well, while he's doing that we could prepare the toppings?" I asked more than stated.
"Yeah!" Honey cheered, setting Usa-chan on a barstool. "What are the toppings?" he asked tilting his head to the side curiously, and nearly killing me with cuteness overload in the process.
I looked at the ingredients, hoping I wasn't blushing or melting or something. "Well there's sauce and cheese for all the pizzas, then there's pepperoni, tomato, mushroom, bell pepper, eggplant, pesto, and olives. I'm vegetarian, so we need at least one pizza without meat but otherwise we could have all sorts of combinations. I think Mori has enough dough for seven large pizzas…," I mused, taking a sip of my drink.
"Okay!" Honey declared. And the next thing I knew there was a whirlwind of flashing knives and piles of vegetables were forming on the counter. I watched in amazement as a task that would have taken me anywhere from ten to twenty minutes was completed in five.
"Wow…," I muttered as I looked at the now completely prepared doughs and vegetables, "Can you two come cook for me every night?" I joked weakly.
"We really like eating, so we like to cook too," Mori explained modestly.
"Plus, our mothers aren't that traditional and they wanted us to be good husbands some day!" Honey shrugged, eyes sparkling and little pink flowers dancing around his head.
"Well, I'm sure your mothers must be proud then! You're certainly set in the cooking department!" I praised. "Do your families have other expectations around marriage?"
"Hmm… Well, my parents expect me to get married eventually, to someone who will bring honour to the family name, but they trust me to choose the right person," Honey said thoughtfully.
Wow, 'honour the family name'? His future spouse has quite the high standards to uphold.
"Same," Mori added, starting to place the toppings on the pizzas.
"So… what are your definitions of honoring your families? Or, I guess, what sort of thing would dishonor your families?" I asked curiously. Sometimes our different classes and cultures make it feel like we're from entirely different worlds.
Just as Honey opened his mouth to answer, a series of vigorous knocks was heard from the front door.
"Oh, that must be the rest of the club!" Honey exclaimed, rushing to open the door.
"Hello my sweet daugh-," Tamaki's exclamation was cut off as he realized it wasn't actually me at the door, "oh, hello Honey."
I walked over to greet the rest of the host club, "Hey everyone! Come on in!"
"Hmm looking a little flushed Emi-senpai~," the twins said, pushing past Tamaki and entering my apartment, "What have you and Honey-senpai been up to?"
"Oh, Mori's here too-," I started, pointing toward the kitchen.
"Ah, so a threesome~," they chorused deviously, amber eyes glinting. Before I could so much as blush a fist came and punched the twins over their heads, in a move that told me that Haruhi had entered my apartment. "Owwww," they whined.
"You haven't even been here two minutes and you're already messing around," Haruhi scolded crossly, folding her arms over her blue sweater.
"Honey-senpai, is this true?! Have you shady neighbours been corrupting my sweet daughter?!" Tamaki cut-in, bending over to shake his finger in Honey's face.
I was quick to intervene, "Uh Tamaki, Honey and Mori have just been helping me prepare supper. And my cheeks are flushed because we started drinking."
Besides, from what I've seen so far they're both pretty innocent and perfect gentlemen…
"Good job men!" Tamaki praised, acting as if he hadn't just accused them of stealing my innocence a moment ago. He then wandered into the kitchen and began exclaiming over the pizzas that were waiting to go into the oven.
I turned as Kyoya stepped into my apartment calmly, "Hello Miss Shima, thank you for inviting us into your lovely home."
"My pleasure! And, by the way you can just call me Emi, if you're comfortable with that," I responded, hoping Kyoya wouldn't feel a need to be so formal with me.
"Very well, Emi," he smiled slightly before going to sit on the sofa primly.
Having welcomed all the hosts into my apartment, I turned to survey the likely chaos as I walked towards the kitchen to put the pizzas in the oven. Tamaki was now perusing the piano music stacked near my keyboard, the twins seemed to be testing all the different seating options in the living room, Haruhi was peering at the pizzas, Mori was refrigerating everyone's drinks, and Honey… Honey was sneakily lifting the lid that was covering the cake!
That sneaky little punk!
I quickly walked over and grabbed Honey's hand just as he was about to swipe some icing. He jumped and looked at me guiltily. I just smiled, amused, and pulled him over to the fridge for another piece of cookie dough, winking at him conspiratorially.
Good thing he's rich, otherwise I don't know how he'd support his dessert habit.
He grinned and happily took a bite of cookie dough. Before he could finish the cookie dough and make another move for the cake I decided to take action.
"Alright, I'm going to put the pizzas in the oven now. Do we want to play a game? Or we could watch something until the pizzas are ready?" I said to the apartment at large, hoping everyone would hear me.
"Daddy wants to watch little Emi dance!" Tamaki proclaimed, waving around what looked to be one of the DVD recordings of my dance recitals.
If he hadn't had that in his hand, his statement would have sounded a whole lot more disturbing, I thought chuckling nervously.
"Uhh, well that's not really that interesting, it's just one of my dance recitals from when I was a kid…," I trailed off. Surely they'd rather do something fun.
"…But Daddy doesn't have any memories of Emi as a child," Tamaki pouted.
Everyone sweat-dropped, Maybe because you aren't actually my dad and therefore weren't actually present for my childhood.
Just then, the music on my laptop stopped and the videocall ringtone came through the speakers instead. Saved by the bell.
"Oh, sorry, let me just check who's calling," I said, pulling away from Honey (and only then realizing I had still been holding his hand). I kneeled by my laptop and saw that it was Avery calling, "Oh, it's one of my best friends, Avery! Do you mind if I just check in with her quickly?"
"A best friend?! We wanna meet her! We wanna meet her!" the twins and Tamaki chanted.
Oh boy, two worlds are about to collide.
Honey POV
I bounced in place, my hand feeling empty and cold without Emi-chan holding it, and quickly grabbed a hold of Usa-chan.
The twins and Tama-chan were chanting for the right to meet Emi-chan's best friend from Canada, and Emi was looking at them slightly apprehensively.
I skipped over to sit beside Emi-chan and nudged her gently with my elbow. "I'd like to meet Emi-chan's best friend too!" I smiled, pulling out the puppy-dog eyes I'd been told were nearly impossible to resist.
"… Alright, alright," she caved, and quickly answered the call before she missed it. The rest of the hosts hurried to squeeze together beside us or behind us on the sofa, eager to see this 'Avery'. The young woman who answered the call had big blue eyes, soft-looking brown hair, and pale smooth skin with rounded cheeks.
"Hey Avery! Um, so as you can see I have some guests over right now, and they all really wanted to meet you, if you're up for that!" Emi greeted, clearly trying to explain the presence of the seven of us.
"Emi! Hi! Oh, and hello again Kyoya," she greeted, to shocked silence as everyone turned to stare at Kyoya.
The shadow king has struck again, I shook my head fondly.
Kyoya smiled charmingly, "Hello Avery, it's nice to speak to you again."
Emi turned back to face her friend, "Avery… you… you know Kyoya?" Poor Emi-chan looked just as shocked as the rest of us, as well as a bit disturbed.
Her face is always so easy to read, I thought amusedly.
"Yep! He reached out to me not long after we last spoke," Avery answered, not at all explaining why Kyoya had contacted her.
"Uh, okay… anyway," Emi said, apparently choosing not to question the shadow king for now, "this is the host club, as you apparently already know."
"Wait! I wanna try to guess who you all are!" Avery exclaimed, squinting at all of us through the screen. "Well there's only one set of twins, so you two gingers are obviously Hikaru and Kaoru. The tall blonde wagging his tail (by the way how the fuck do you have a tail?!) is obviously golden-retriever- I mean Tamaki." Tamaki yapped in excitement that Avery recognized him, not seeming at all concerned by being compared to a golden retriever.
"Oooo, you're good! Who's next? Who's next?" Hikaru asked, literally on the edge of his seat.
Avery continued, "Hmm…well the only other chick is obviously Haruhi. And the hot tall guy with spiky black hair over there must be Mori," she winked exaggeratedly. I giggled, seeing my cousin's nearly invisible blush and the way he averted his eyes.
"And you!" Avery pointed, cutting me off mid-giggle, "You must be Honey!"
I beamed, "Yeah! You're right!"
"Hmm, you're totally right Emi, he does look like Shawn from Fanxy Red!" Avery proclaimed, placing her finger on her chin thoughtfully.
"Avery!" Emi hissed, her cheeks reddening. She slumped over, her hands covering her face in apparent exasperation.
"Huh? Who's Shawn?" I asked curiously. And why is Emi-chan so embarrassed?
"I believe Shawn is a member of a Chinese girl-group whose members all dress extremely androgynously. They are often mistaken for a Korean boy group," Kyoya intoned, showing the group a picture on his tablet.
Hmm, I guess I can see the resemblance… She does have blonde hair and a similar style…
"And Emi totally thinks she's hot~!" sang Avery, looking almost as devilish as the twins.
I looked at Emi, who was now practically under the coffee table as if she was trying to physically escape her mortification. I laughed, eyes twinkling. She really is cute when she's flustered~
"Avery! I swear to God-," Emi whined.
"What? Am I wrong?" Avery asked matter-of-factly, one eyebrow raised in challenge. Emi rolled her eyes and stuck out her tongue. It was the first time I had seen her anything other than polite and I definitely liked this playful side to her.
The twins cackled in absolute glee, "We like this one! Tell us more embarrassing things about Emi!"
Emi groaned as Avery rubbed her hands together gleefully, "Okay I'm going to go check on the pizzas! You guys better be done with the embarrassing stories when I get back," Emi said warningly, practically fleeing the scene.
I turned back to the screen as Avery's expression calmed into a gentle smile, "I was just teasing her, you know. I'll let her tell you the embarrassing stories," she said, the twins pouting disappointedly. "But seriously, Emi is my best friend. She's really special to me and she deserves the best, so you all better treat her right!" her speech started out sweet and quickly turned threatening.
We all gulped (except probably Kyoya) and I hurried to reassure Emi-chan's friend, "We will, I promise! We really like Emi-chan!"
"Yes, I would never let anyone hurt my sweet daughter!" Tamaki declared passionately, fist held over his heart.
"Good, that's all I needed to hear!" Avery said, smiling once again.
The group sweat-dropped collectively and then Kaoru asked the question most of us were probably thinking, "So, Avery, how did you and Emi become friends? You both seem super different!"
"Hmm I can see how you'd think that, but we're actually not that different… I mean obviously she's shy at first but once she feels totally comfortable with you you'll see that she has a pretty similar humor and energy to me," she shrugged. "We met in elementary school though, to answer your question."
It's so hard to imagine Emi-chan being as bold and open as Avery-chan…I mused, I wonder what keeps her from sharing that part of herself.
"Anyway, I have to go but tell Emi I'll call her later this weekend! It was nice to meet you all!" Avery exclaimed.
"Bye~!" we all chorused, waving until the screen went black.
"I'm gonna go tell Emi-chan that Avery-chan said goodbye!" I exclaimed, loping over to the kitchen, Takashi trailing behind me. He went to the fridge and grabbed everyone's drinks before returning to the living room to distribute them.
"Emi-chan~!" I called out, causing her to turn to face me, "Your friend had to go, but she said she'd call you later!"
"Oh, thanks for letting me know Honey," she said, not quite making eye contact.
Huh? Why is she shy again? Was she really that embarrassed by Avery telling us she thinks that Shawn girl is cute? I cocked my head to the side, studying her as she blushed and busily pulled the pizzas out of the oven.
Awww, I was getting used to her being comfortable around us, I pouted. Ah! Well, I guess that means I just need to desensitize her again!
I strolled over to her after she was done with the pizzas and away from the oven and pulled her to sit on a barstool. She looked at me briefly and then started fiddling with the rest of her drink.
"Emi-chan?" I prompted, trying to make eye contact as I stood in front of her.
"Hmm?" she responded, looking at me and then quickly taking a sip of her drink.
Determined now to fix things before she ended up not looking at anyone for the rest of the night, I reached out and gently tilted her chin up to look at me. I grinned as her dark-chocolate eyes finally made contact with my lighter ones, her cheeks dusted with pink.
My stomach fluttered oddly again. Now's not the time to go through cake withdrawal, I silently berated my stomach.
"Emi-chan, you're not hiding away from us are you?" I asked, only half joking.
"No, no I just…needed a minute is all," she denied. She was still looking at me but her fidgeting hands gave away her nervousness. I moved my hand from her chin and handed her Usa-chan to hold.
"Mmm, okay then! Can Usa-chan and I stay with you for the rest of your minute?" I inquired innocently, widening my eyes and purposefully overlooking the fact that her minute was supposed to serve as a break from everyone.
"Uh, yeah of course, could you help me cut up the pizzas?" She hopped up from her seat and carefully placed Usa-chan where she had been sitting.
"Yeah!" I cheered, glad that she seemed to be less nervous. I searched for something to say that might put her even more at ease as we began cutting the pizzas, "Your friend was funny! She even made Takashi blush!" I giggled, recalling my stoic cousin turning pink.
Emi-chan laughed, "Yeah, she's very open and not shy at all! I hope she didn't make Mori uncomfortable… but it was pretty funny." She giggled just a bit at first, but soon, to my surprise, she was laughing uncontrollably, eyes scrunched up and hands over her mouth and stomach. She stopped, took a deep breath and seemed to just barely pull herself together.
"Sorry," she gasped, "it's just, the look on Mori's-," and she burst out in laughs again, composure gone. Her laughter was contagious and I found myself laughing hysterically along with her, as she wiped away tears of mirth.
Her body shook with the laughter that had moved on to the silent stage, her ringlets dancing frenetically as she occasionally gasped for air. Seeing her like this, out of control and entirely relaxed, I thought I could see the Emi-chan that Avery-chan had described. This carefree version of Emi-chan was addictive, and as her laughter started to calm I was already missing it.
"It was pretty funny, huh?" I said, catching my own breath and beaming at her goofily.
She shook her head, blowing air through her pursed lips, "Oh my gosh," a small giggle slipped out, "Come on Honey, we should probably tell everyone the pizza is ready before it gets cold!"
I bounced behind her as we walked to the living room, my stomach aching from all the laughing.
