bored411: When the chapter about birthday shenanigans is probably the most romantic one yet lol
Nina9802: You mean like maybe Airi made it for her? Lol that'd really be something. I've never imagined Kosuke on a motorcycle before and now I can't get it out of my head.
Nana-san14: You know, I considered having the gift be something of Emiko's! I feel like Airi and Sugimoto would understand if Kosuke just wanted to kinda-sorta have them as keepsakes already, without being gifted them.
Ale250496: Minami keeping those six feet of social distance lol XD
Gilmore: Me too! When I was writing the cake's description I was like "well now I'm hungry"
Mili San Luis: Ngl I'm with Kosuke in that I hate it when things are expensive just to be expensive, but I would loooooove to have a high-end quality knife. I'm so tired of cutting tomatoes that don't slice all the way T-T
Well, that was a bit of a wait. My apologies! Finals hit me like a freight train. Thankfully I'll now be able to pump out the next chapters pretty quick. I hope to have the next one out either on the 19th or the 26th. Also, my New Year's Resolution is to be more productive lol. Thanks to everyone for the reviews!
When Kosuke had been told about Ouran's Halloween Festival, she'd been ecstatic. She hadn't gone to any Halloween parties back in high school—the promise of free candy was enticing, but not enough to pull her out of bed. Only after graduation did she regret not making the memories with Okina or Kohta or…Well, Okina and Kohta.
As a bonus to this second chance, it's something that she and the children can both enjoy. Kosuke is eager to do some kind of tradition that doesn't make them feel like a huge, gaping hole is missing in their family. Before, Halloween for the Nakaharas meant maybe painting pictures of Jack-O-Lanterns and decorating cookies. The children's classrooms would probably have fun decorations and such, but Halloween is really for young adults to dress up and party. Or neither, in Kosuke's case. Ouran, however, is making their celebration completely family-friendly, all across campus.
Kosuke remembers her elementary school's Halloween décor as pretty simple. Some fake spiderwebs, paper bats, Jack-O-Lanterns. Enough decorations to be fun without putting too much stress on the teachers.
This is…not that.
The clock tower is being scaled by a black spider half its size. Tentacles stretch out of random windows, some with air pumps that make them thrash and writhe. Every courtyard has some world wonder: a giant undead hand reaching up from the ground, a sculpted Jack-o-Lantern big enough to stand in, clouds of mist filled with projected ghouls and specters. The cherubs have been replaced by gargoyles, everything is black, purple, green, and orange, and Kosuke remembers that she's not supposed to be surprised by this anymore.
"Kosuke, look," Minami says, tugging on the skirt of her dress.
She does, and pulls both children back—the Queen of Hearts passes by, her hoop skirt stretching out six feet in every direction. It's only the fourth most elaborate costume they've seen yet.
Alright, alright. Kosuke can be impressed. All the wigs, the fabrics, the details, they all seem incredibly authentic. There, Kosuke can't cast judgement, because she did splurge a little on costumes. If she wants this to be an ongoing tradition, then she wants to give it a strong start.
They had many family meetings to throw ideas at the wall. Hitsuji really wanted them to do one big dragon with him as the head, and only backed down when Kosuke pointed out that her height would give it a humpback (or a really tall butt). Minami wanted to go as a peanut butter and jelly sandwich until she realized someone was going to have to be the bread, "which didn't seem fair."
They settled on Little Red Riding Hood—Kosuke the grandmother, Hitsuji Little Red, and Minami the Big Bad Wolf. And Kosuke absolutely did not take a million photos before they left, nope.
A few people see Minami in her furry onesie and Hitsuji with his basket and coo and aww at them. Kosuke gets some laughs for her sleeping gown and cap.
"Look at you guys," says a nearby witch. Her ghost and skeleton friends sing their agreement. "So cuuuute!" Minami barks at them, and they gasp in terror.
Kosuke's laughter dies when she realizes how tight Hitsuji is squeezing her hand. She follows his eyesight to the giant Jack-O-Lantern that people are taking photos with. It's cute, with the bucktooth smile and everything.
But it's also about twelve feet tall, and now Kosuke is cursing herself.
When Hitsuji was little(r), he was terrified of Jack-O-Lanterns. No one in the family could figure out why; just an irrational childhood fear, apparently. Minami was once terrified of porcelain dolls, and Marti was apparently terrified of snakes even as pictures and stuffed animals. Hitsuji seemed to have gotten over it, though. Two Halloweens ago, Emiko had carved a Jack-O-Lantern to put outside the door and he'd even given it a name, 'Jackie.'
What better to bring back an old fear than a twelve-foot-tall form of it, though? Kosuke tells Minami to wait a second, then bends down to Hitsuji's ear. He can't take his eyes off of it.
"Are you okay?" she asks. "Do you want to leave?"
He thinks about it a second, and shakes his head. "No. I'm okay."
"Are you sure?"
"Mm-hm."
"Alright. You tell me if something's wrong, okay?" He nods, but for good measure, she says, "It looks like Jackie, doesn't it?"
Fear gives way to surprise. "Yeah, it does!"
Oh thank goodness.
As Kosuke stands back up, a jellyfish emerges from the crowd, waving her arms, calling out to them. She isn't familiar. Or maybe she is. The iridescent freckles make it hard to tell.
"Yoohoo!" Her stingers wisp up around her when she stops in front of them. Hitsuji grabs one in his hand, and she doesn't even blink. "Hey there! Are the three of you together?"
Minami holds up her paws. "I'm the Big Bad Wolf. Bark!"
Hitsuji holds up his basket. "I'm Red Riding Hood. Bark!"
"And I'm Grandma," Kosuke says in her best little-old-lady voice.
Hitsuji takes it upon himself to explain, "She's not really our grandma, she's our sister. Our real grandma—"
"—looks nothing like this!" Kosuke ruffles Hitsuji's curls through the hood of his cape. Off button, off button...
"How adorable!" The jellyfish pulls out a clipboard that was hidden away in her big, bubbly dress. "You know, we're doing a costume contest later tonight! You three could sign up for the trio division!"
Minami is the first to start asking "Can we? Can we?" Hitsuji follows, probably just to follow. Kosuke takes the offered pen and quickly signs Kosuke, Minami, and Hitsuji.
Once the paper is signed, Kosuke asks, "What do you guys want to do first?"
Minami pulls on one of her arms and points at a pumpkin-carving station, which makes Hitsuji grind his heels into the ground. Some costumed carvers already at work are making ghoulish faces, snarling, sneering. Not like Jackie.
She's about to offer a different idea when she sees a familiar face—not immediately, but once the giant hat gets out of the way. Tamaki waves to them with a hand holding a fake rapier. Or at least Kosuke hopes it's fake. Because it looks sharp. And shiny. And heavy. And not very fake. With knee-high boots and a long blue tunic, she knows what he's supposed to be, but the word won't go further past the tip of her tongue.
"Hey there!" He calls, and somehow his voice cuts through the music like a knife through warm butter. One of his many talents. "We found you three!"
Suddenly Hitsuji ducks behind Kosuke's legs. She at first thinks it's just his usual indifference to Tamaki, but then she sees the two figures following just behind him. The costumes are nearly identical, all fur and rope and beads. Their masks, one red and the other blue, depict garish faces with long, sharp tusks and furious yellow eyes.
Then the blue mask is lifted up, and Kaoru gives Hitsuji a welcoming grin. "It's just us, buddy."
Hikaru lifts his red mask as well. "Remember the story of the Red Oni Who Cried? That's our costume!"
"Oh." Hitsuji steps back out. "I'm Red Riding Hood."
"So I see. You look great! But you know, if you're Red Riding Hood, that means there must be a Big Bad Wolf around here somewhere…"
Minami's eyes light up with mischief. She pounces out from behind Kosuke's skirt, giving a great "Rawr!" that leaves Tamaki, Hikaru, and Kaoru quailing. They beg her not to eat them, or to at least cook them up as something good, like stew or sandwiches. Minami's growls dissolve into giggles, and it's music to Kosuke's ears.
Hitsuji chimes in with, "Kosuke is the grandma!"
Hikaru and Kaoru look her over, then shrug.
"Didn't notice."
"You already are a grandma, as far as I'm concerned."
Kosuke just rolls her eyes. It's not exactly an insult. Or incorrect. "Ha, ha. Very funny."
"Oh, wait a second." Tamaki sheathes his rapier and turns around, calling out, "Hey! Kosuke and the kids are over here!"
Reiko, Mori, Hani, and Kyoya wind their way through the crowd to join them. The former three look to be zombies—Gothic zombies, at that. Green skin, black stitches, and fake blood, but also cravats and lace and brooches. Kyoya's costume is identical to Tamaki's, and he wears it just as well.
"So what are you two dressed as?" Kosuke asks.
"The Three Musketeers!"
Kosuke counts again. One, two…Two. One and two. Tamaki deflates a little. "Haruhi would be our third, if only she were here. But she is here in spirit!"
This makes Hitsuji squawk, "Haruhi died?!"
After a few long minutes of panicked reassurances and numerous apologies, Reiko says (as she takes out a small vial of fake blood and slathers some more on her dress skirt in the same way a girl might reapply her lipstick), "You three should sign up for the costume contest."
"We have! First thing we did when we got—Oh, dear. I didn't even ask when it was."
Mori supplies, "The trios division begins at eight-thirty."
"Which means there's still time to kill!" Tamaki flourishes his arms out at all the ghosts and ghouls. "So what are you thinking of doing first?"
Minami takes her sister's arm and resumes her pulling, but Hitsuji looks no surer. Kosuke sighs, and says, "Minami, why don't we do something else? I don't think Hitsuji—"
"We can go," Hitsuji mutters. It's sweet, and Kosuke is so proud of him for growing out of his everybody-has-to-do-what-I-say phase, but he's still not smiling.
"Are you sure?" Kosuke asks, but then Minami gives her arm a particularly hard tug. There's laughter until Kosuke very nearly topples over; then Tamaki swoops in to catch her.
"Okay," he says as he rebalances her, "Looks like we're carving pumpkins. Let's go!"
Hitsuji starts walking before Kosuke does, so she guesses that is that. When they get to the station, and the assistants hand out the pumpkins, Kosuke remembers that carving a Jack-O-Lantern requires a knife. A knife that neither of the children can use. However, Hani happily tells Minami he'll help with hers, and Tamaki declares, "And I'll help the little king with his!"
Hitsuji replies with a very neutral "Okay" that causes Tamaki's soul to leave his body. Still, he gives his full attention when Kosuke leans to his ear to whisper, "Hitsuji is scared of Jack-O-Lanterns. Do the least-scary face that you can."
"Understood!"
Everyone gets to it, and another assistant thrusts a pumpkin into Kosuke's hands as well. She doesn't start right away; she takes a second to take in the scene and give thanks. Minami, Reiko, and Hani are in deep contemplation of what to do, and Hitsuji's wariness wanes as Tamaki draws a big, goofy smile on their pumpkin. The twins seem to be doing portraits of one another, and Mori looks like he's struggling but doesn't want anyone to know it. Her siblings and her friends are having a good time and Kosuke could not be more relieved.
Kyoya is watching with her, arms crossed, doing and saying nothing. Kosuke wasn't expecting much else, but she offers, "Don't you want to try?"
"No thanks." He just watches as Kosuke starts to carve with no design in mind. "Tamaki wouldn't forgive me if I got something on this costume."
"Forget stains. I'm worried that feather is going to topple you over."
Though he scoffs, Kyoya flings it back. It's as big as the whole hat, less a feather and more a whole bird. "I suppose that's the kindest ribbing I've gotten so far."
"I'm not going to make fun of you for having fun. I think it's sweet that you agreed to do a group costume with Tamaki."
She takes his hum as a thanks. Then she rewinds what she'd just said, and there's a slow-down, a hesitation. You. Sweet. Tamaki.
That idea that had sparked in the library reignites. But just like last time, Kosuke snuffs it out just as quick. Nope. It's out of the question.
Desperate to change her own line of thinking, she tries to come back to Kyoya's costume somehow. A memory hits her, delightful enough to melt away the last of that idea and to make a smile creep up to her face.
"Besides…that's not the most ridiculous thing I've seen you in."
It takes him a moment. He's not smiling at the end of it. "I told you to delete that."
"Did you? I was in such a rush to get to class, I must not have heard you."
"Ha. Ha. I'm starting to see why you and the twins have gotten along so well."
He says it in (bitter) jest, but Kosuke realizes that she might really be cruel here. That play was nothing but torture, a humiliation to Kyoya and an insult to his family. Saving a picture of it just because it makes her laugh doesn't sound very admirable, does it?
"Alright, alright." Kosuke wipes her hand clean on a towel and fishes her phone out from one of her sleeping gown's deep pockets. She brings up her photos, finds the one three she's looking for, and hits DELETE. "All gone."
Kyoya just hums another thanks. Kosuke keeps carving and listens to the zany organ music blasting from some corner or another. It saddens her again to think she could have made so many more memories just like this.
"Are they doing well?"
Kosuke looks between Kyoya and the others. Hani has just had a lightbulb go off over his head, and announces that the pumpkin's left eye is just so slightly larger than the right. Hitsuji is now giving so many ideas that Tamaki is struggling to keep up.
"Sure? I'm not a connoisseur of carving pumpkins, so I don't know—"
"I meant the children. I don't ask after them as much as I should."
He's not the first to ask. Haruhi has, Tamaki has. The Zukas, the twins. Kosuke tells him the same thing she tells all of them: "They're getting along. The homesickness can't be helped, but they're making friends. I think they've dealt with the culture shock better than me."
"That would make sense. Rules and expectations are usually more lenient for children."
Kosuke almost nods, but now that he's mentioned it, she remembers something that she's been meaning to ask for a while. Not as much of a while as it should be, but…
Oh, she hates this. Hates that she has to ask, hates that they're in this situation.
"Kyoya?" She keeps her eyes on her knife, too afraid to see if he'll sneer or blanch or something. "Um. There's something I've been wanting to ask? About the children."
He doesn't say anything, which doesn't help.
"I was wondering…When we're married, are they going to…live with us?"
Her knife is immobile now. She can't even pretend to carry on. If she tilts the blade just so, she can see her reflection—scared, anxious.
Of course, Kyoya takes an eternity to answer, long enough for one zany organ song to end another to begin. A clown walks by, and Kosuke starts wondering why she thought now would be a good time.
But she had to ask eventually, right? The bridge has to be crossed eventually…
"I had assumed," Kyoya finally says, emphasizing it, unsure, "that they would be staying with your father?"
Kosuke keeps her eyes on her reflection, searching for any sign of outrage. She can't even hint to the truth. This whole arrangement hinges on her making Shigeo look good and vice-versa.
Even so—she can't agree. So what does she say?
Then Kyoya strikes a straight bullseye, kicking while she's already down, asking, "Is there a reason why they wouldn't?"
Think, think, think. There has to be something that makes se—Oh!
"Well." Her voice cracks, and she coughs to hide it. "Shi—Dad isn't home that often. He travels a lot for long periods, and they can't just be left all alone, so I just thought…"
Not that silence can be heard, but Kosuke thinks the one that follows is one of agreement. Perhaps Kyoya had not given this much thought, either.
Why would he, though? He may have signed up for this marriage, but he didn't sign up to be a parent in all but name. He and the children are just now acquainted, bitterly in Minami's case; he cannot be blamed for not imagining eating breakfast with them every morning.
Plus…It's nothing against him, but it's still Kyoya. Kyoya who spends almost every waking hour working or studying, whose de facto emotion is "done with this." He may be getting along with Hitsuji fine, but what he'll do if the children need comfort after a bad dream, or want him to play Hide-and-Seek with them…It's just images and ideas that refuse to form in Kosuke's mind. On top of that, Kosuke would live and die for her brother and sister, but they are children. They can be loud, and annoying, and even downright mean. Gross, sometimes. Not something she imagines Kyoya ever wants to deal with.
The knife suddenly slips across the pumpkin's surface. It's a thorough jolt back to reality, back to costumes and ghouls and candy. This is too big an issue to deal with right now. She might as well try to read The Eight Dog Chronicles in one sitting.
"You know what?" she laughs, horribly. "D-Don't worry about it, we don't have to figure it out here and now. Let's just get back to…having fun…"
Kyoya looks as though he's about to say something, but then he looks down at her pumpkin and pauses. Kosuke looks down, too, and...She really had been doing it absentmindedly, but now it's covered in so many leaves and flowers and birds it's like she froze time to do it all.
"Sheesh," she exclaims aloud, "I thought I was okay at carving. What the heck?"
All together, everyone else finishes up their work, setting down knives and shuffling in her direction. Not wanting to show up the children's efforts, Kosuke just grabs the nearest costumed person, shoves it into their hands, and wishes them a happy Halloween.
"Look!" Minami heaves her, Hani, and Reiko's creation up. It's a snarling face, fangs and slitted eyes. Impressive and creative, but seeing the way Hitsuji eyes it, Kosuke turns it in Minami's hands just so.
"That's great! I love the fangs. So sharp. Seriously. Wow."
"I did that," says Reiko. Kosuke reaches out to touch a fang with her finger, but Reiko grabs her hand short. "Don't."
"Kosuke, look at ours!" Hitsuji refuses Tamaki's help in holding their creation up—though the prince does hover a hand on his back when he almost topples over. It's incredibly cutesy, with a bucktooth smile, blushing cheeks, and a spattering of freckles.
"I love it! Got a name for it?"
"Jackie the Second!"
"Fantastic."
Suddenly, beyond all the music and howls and chatter, a grrrrrrooooowwwl rips through the air. It startles all of them, the twins so badly they nearly drop their portraits of one another. They all spin left and right but find nothing.
Kosuke goes with the only idea she has, which she already knows is wrong. "Minami, was that you?"
"No. My growl sounds more like this: grrrrrawrrrr…"
"It was me," Hani confesses sheepishly. He tries to hide his blush behind the pumpkin. "I'm sorry. Oh! Do you guys want to get a snack? There's a lot here! There's candied apples and chocolate bananas and cookies…"
"Now hold on just a second!" They all turn to one of the station attendants, beaming as she clears an orange-stained tablecloth from a table. "You guys can't leave until the Pumpkin Judge sees what you've done!"
'Pumpkin Judge' incites universal confusion, until they see the man himself. Whoever he is, his lanky frame works wonderfully for his costume, a neat suit with a green cravat and black tailcoat. His head is a great Jack-O-Lantern mask, like someone just planted one on a human frame, a headless-horseman sort of look. It's a cute sort of creepy that has Minami oohing as he approaches.
He does not speak, and of course his smile is unmoving, but the Pumpkin Judge mimes a critical look of the pumpkin in her hands. He just as quietly reaches a hand into his pocket and pulls out a blue ribbon, pressing it to the top.
The others give her congratulations and applause, and the Pumpkin Judge turns to Hitsuji and his and Tamaki's pumpkin next. He once again pretends to criticize and contemplate, and Hitsuji…
Is terrified. Not presenting the pumpkin, but holding it in front of him like a shield. Everyone else is none the wiser, but Kosuke is. A six-foot-tall walking Jack-O-Lantern right in his face, of course he's petrified.
Stupidly, so stupidly, Kosuke thinks he can wait it out. She moves to put a hand on his shoulder, but thinks that once the Pumpkin Judge gets it over with, he'll be fine.
Curse her stupid optimism.
The Pumpkin Judge pulls out another ribbon and reaches for the pumpkin—for Hitsuji—and that's it.
The pumpkin hits the ground, smashing the cutesy smiling face into orange pulp. The Pumpkin Judge finally breaks character, exclaiming a whoa that choruses perfectly with the others'.
And Hitsuji is gone. Kosuke can't see him anymore. She runs after nothing.
Like a candle's flame, Hitsuji has so instantly vanished, and every frantic step Kosuke takes forward feels like a mile backwards. She can't even tell how far she's going, but the others are gone now. It's just scales and feathers and wings and tails and masks but no Hitsuji.
It honestly feels like the crowd gets thicker just to spite her. Suddenly Kosuke can't even walk, she has to start-stop, start-stop just to keep from crashing into a princess or a doctor, and it takes all the willpower inside her not to snap at them to get out of the way!
Now everything is just a blur of color, but none of it red. He could be just a few feet away and she wouldn't be able to tell. The others come, but they, too, become blurs as Kosuke's head spins around and around.
She sputters out a broken explanation of "Hitsuji" and "I lost him," and finally she's spun too much and almost trips over her own feet. A pair of hands squeezes her shoulders, and someone starts fanning her with something.
"Okay, okay, okay!" Hikaru keeps his hands on her shoulders until she stops shaking. Mostly. "Everything is going to be okay! We'll find him!"
"He's can't have gone far." Kaoru is using some kind of pumpkin cutout to fan her. It's a little hard to relax when their masks have dropped back down, and two garish Oni with giant tusks are inches from her face. "I'm sure of it. TAMAKI!"
Tamaki keeps taking off in one direction and zooming in from the other, running through the crowd like a pachinko ball. Hani stops a passing mermaid to ask if they've seen a small child dressed like Red Riding Hood, and Reiko does the same to a mime.
Minami is being carried by Mori. The poor thing looks so confused watching the adults panic, and Kosuke hates herself, hates herself, for just forgetting her like she did. "Where'd Hitsuji go?"
And Mori, sweet Mori, readjusts her at his side and says, "Everything is fine. Don't worry."
Kaoru is still fanning Kosuke, but it's of no help anymore. Her nightgown feels a hundred layers thick, suffocating her, cooking her like a Dutch oven. She can feel her hair sticking to the back of her neck.
"Kosuke. Kosuke." Kosuke's eyes won't come up from the ground, so she can only feel when Hikaru's hands slide off her shoulders to be replaced by one on the middle of her back, and can only hear Kyoya speaking low and steady. "It's going to be okay. Just breathe."
Right. Breathing would help. She sucks in a deep breath, and hangs onto that promise. It's going to be okay. It's got to be okay.
"Alright, everyone listen." Kyoya's voice is so authoritative that a few strangers stop in their tracks like instinct. The others stand to attention like army troops—including Tamaki, though he does have to skid to a stop. "Someone needs to go tell security to look out for Hitsuji. The rest of us need to search for him."
"I'll go to security," Hani offers at once. "I'm the fastest!"
"Alright, good." A breeze ruffles Kosuke's skirt. Was that Hani? "We should spread out to cover more ground."
"Of course we should," Tamaki declares, with the energy of a soldier charging into war. "I'll search north! Reiko can go south and the twins will take east and west! We need to find Hitsuji before the costume contest!"
Kyoya seems to have the same thought as Kosuke, but only he speaks. "Right. Get to it."
Kosuke can't even speak to thank them. The others disperse, blinking out of sight, leaving just her, Kyoya, Mori, and Minami. She knows she needs to be taking care of Minami right now, to comfort and reassure her—but she only gets a step forward when Mori speaks to her little sister again.
"I think all the adults have this covered." She's started to wring her tail in her hands, but she looks up at Mori when spoken to. "Why don't we go do something else?"
He says it to Minami, but his eyes are on Kosuke's. She nods, still unable to thank him. She can at least distract Minami, the other half of her world. "Here, I'll—"
"Come with me," Kyoya interjects. "We're going to look for Hitsuji, too. You and Minami have fun."
Kyoya starts to lead her away, but she pauses long enough to wave to Minami, calmly, easily, everything-is-going-to-be-fine-ly. It's humiliating, that even Kyoya knows she can't take care of Minami right now, not when she can't even take care of herself.
As soon as they submerge into the crowd, it's too much. Everyone is walking normally, no one's crashing into her, yet Kosuke still feels like she's playing bumper carts. Why do they have to pump so much smoke out of the machines? Why do the lights have to be so bright, and the music so loud? Her one anchor is Kyoya's hand, which stays on her back through it all.
It's hard to say how long they walk—twice Kosuke thinks she spots Hitsuji, and twice she's wrong. A fairy almost bumps into her, and Kosuke comes scarily close to snapping at her for no reason. Oh, she's losing it. She's going crazy.
Eventually she's lead right to the foot of a staircase, and she steers away, but Kyoya steers her right back. "No, no. This way."
Had she been in this courtyard before? Must not; Kosuke doesn't remember one with an imperial staircase, but here it is. As they walk up, it's like resurfacing. There's no one else on the staircase, and those below become more abstract the higher they climb, until there is a crowd but no people.
"Oh!" The higher they walk, the more they can see, which probably isn't a realization so much as a memory of how heights work, but whatever. Kosuke speeds up. Her skirt catches under her foot, and she almost faceplants right onto the stairs, but catches herself and keeps going—not responding to Kyoya's exclamation. "Good. Good idea."
Dammit, now she can't see anything but red. And none of it looks like Hitsuji. She tries to look left to right, up and down, but of course the crowd is mingling and writhing, always changing. She can see people walking in and out the doors, and—No, no. Hitsuji wouldn't leave. He wouldn't go that far.
There are people straight below the top of the staircase, and Kosuke leans forward way much to look at them. The result is her half-moon glasses slipping right off her face, out of her fumbling hand. Thankfully they don't hit anyone as they fall, but seeing them far below makes her want to crawl under a rock and die.
"Kosuke, you need to calm down."
"Stop—" Kosuke squeezes the banister until her knuckles turn white. "I'm allowed to panic right now! You don't know what all can happen to a child when they get lost—"
"This isn't a shopping mall or a crowded city. It's a school event. The odds of something bad happening to him are slim to none."
That's true.
Oh, god. She's blown this way out of proportion.
Is everyone really just as worried as she is, or did they just respond to her panic? Sometimes she's lost one of the children at the store or the park, but she'd always find them in the next aisle over, or going down the slide. Is this like that?
Well. Now I'm embarrassed.
"Right. Right." Deep breaths. Look at the crowd. It's still big, but not the sea it was before. Just school students and family members, not monsters hunting for prey. "I'm—sorry. I don't know why I'm freaking out so bad. It's just—they're supposed to be my responsibility, and I—"
"Did nothing wrong. He took off all by himself."
"Then I should've been holding his hand! I should've stopped him. I'm the adult. I have to keep him safe."
He almost leans on the banister with her, but then the hilt of the rapier clinks against it. He shoves it aside with a huff. "Sometimes parents—or siblings—can be as careful as possible and misfortune still happens. You were right there, and had no idea that he was going to run away like that. This could've happened to anyone."
"Yeah, well, it's not supposed to happen to me."
Kosuke just tries to focus on her lookout. She can't expect Kyoya to understand—hardly anyone does—but she doesn't know how to explain it.
At this point, she expects Kyoya to just give up and let her ride this out, so it comes as a surprise when he speaks again without any impatience. "Do you think anything bad is going to happen to him here?"
"It's not his safety I'm worried about," she sighs. "I'm worried about him being scared. I'm worried about him hurting."
She worries when their favorite toys break, or their pictures get ruined. When Hitsuji comes to her room in the dead of night after a bad dream, she doesn't fall back asleep until he does. When Minami forgets her favorite coloring book on the bus, Kosuke holds her until she stops sniffling. They aren't hurting, but Kosuke is.
"When the kids are scared, or sad, or anything, it's my job to fix it. It doesn't matter if I couldn't have predicted it. It's still my fault."
She's not looking at him, but she can feel the long look her gives her out of the corner of his eye.
"That sounds very difficult."
"It is." Just two words, a tiny admission, but she regrets them at once. This is her job and she doesn't get to complain about it. "But I love them. So it's worth it. And it works the other way, too." He looks at her again, uncomprehending. "When they're happy, I'm happy."
He doesn't answer right away. "If it's any consolation, from what I remember of being a child, I forgot most things as soon as they happened. I used to be as scared of thunderstorms as Haruhi is, but once they were over I always forgot until the next one came."
"Yeah, I know." She huffs a laugh, readjusting her sleeping cap. "I used to be afraid of balloons."
"Balloons?"
"I was terrified of them popping. There was nothing I hated more as a kid than getting startled like that. There was one time where I was invited to a girl's birthday party, but it was filled with balloons. We got three steps through the door until I started crying and begging my mom to take me back home. You're right, though. That didn't scar me for life."
"Also, for additional consolation…I think that what you've done—what you're doing—for your siblings is very admirable." He deliberates stopping there for a second. "I'm not sure I would have done half as well in your shoes."
She smiles. "Thanks."
"You're welcome. However, back to your fear of balloons—"
"I shouldn't have told you that."
"—You seemed very relaxed at your birthday dinner, considering it was filled with nothing but."
"Yeah, I got over it, obviously."
"Did you actually leave a party just because there were balloons there? Did it not occur to you that parties usually have balloons?"
"I was six years old, you soulless jerk! What did you do during thunderstorms, huh?"
A smile was just starting to come to his mouth, but as she says this, it vanishes. A lightbulb appears over his head, and Kosuke would love to know why, but now Kyoya is looking out at the crowd with an almost laser focus.
"I may have an idea of where Hitsuji is," he says.
Kosuke almost asks what it is, but that would take precious time, so she just pushes him back towards the stairs. "Go on, then!"
They descend again, and now the crowd is thicker than ever. People must be coming for the costume contest. In the course of just five minutes, Kosuke and Kyoya are separated three times—once by a five-person dragon costume, once by a zombie bride with a dragging train, and once by an angel with four-foot-tall wings like walls. By the last time, Kosuke grabs onto the back of his shirt and says, "Just walk!"
They bob and weave and stumble until finally they've made it, but Kosuke doesn't know how this is "it." It's a stand for ring-toss, and Hitsuji is still nowhere to be found.
"I don't see him," she has to cry over the music and the clinks of the rings on the bottles. "Did he move?"
Kyoya holds up a finger for her to wait, then shuffles around to the other side. The station has a U-shaped barrier covered in a silky black cloth trimmed in orange, and Kyoya leads her almost to the very end of it until finally he stops, bends down, and lifts up the cloth.
She can't see from here, but she knows Hitsuji is in there by the way Kyoya sighs in relief.
"It's only me, don't worry," Kyoya tells him, shifting on his heels. "There's nothing to be scared of. You don't have to hide."
Kosuke can't even hope to hear what Hitsuji says in response. She waits for Kyoya to shuffle aside to let her take over, but he stays put, lips pursed.
"They're not going to hurt you. Kosuke would never let them." Another whimpered answer. "You know, the costume contest is going to be in just a minute. Don't you want to do it with your sisters?"
This time Kosuke can't even hear a peep.
"What would make you feel better?"
This time, it's almost definitely I don't know. Kyoya taps a finger on top of the table, thinking.
Then he stops, and unbuckles the belt holding his rapier in place. It still looks very real—enough for Kosuke to startle until she sees how light it looks in Kyoya's grasp. He holds it by the sheath and extends the hilt up under the table.
"If I gave you this, would you feel safer?" Kyoya lets go, but the hilt stays where it is, shaking a bit in Hitsuji's small hands. "If I was a Jack-O-Lantern, I wouldn't want to mess with you if you had that."
Kyoya shuffles to the side, and Hitsuji's feet slowly peek out, pulling himself forward. Kosuke finally comes to him, slow and steady like he's just going to shoot off and hide again. He only gives her a brief look before he resumes inspecting the sheathed rapier.
"Do you want to carry that and stay for a little while longer?" she asks him once she's down in front of him. They're getting a few passing looks, a musketeer and a grandmother crouching under a table with Red Riding Hood, but it's nothing to ignore them. "Or do you want to go home? It's up to you."
Hitsuji thinks it over, and they wait patiently. Kosuke can tell that the fear has waned, replaced by embarrassment. Going back out doesn't just mean seeing more Jack-O-Lanterns; it means having to go back to everyone after running off like he did.
Finally, he answers, "We can stay."
He finally crawls out from hiding. The rapier is almost as long as he is, and the tip bounces along the ground as he moves. The ties of the red hood are coming loose, so Kosuke reties them, and as she does so tells him, "I know you were scared, and I'm sorry. But you can't run off like that ever again, okay? I was really worried."
"Okay," he says without looking at her, which she expects. She gives his curls a ruffle. He's okay. That's all she wanted.
"Alright. Let's go." She takes his free hand, and remembers where the others went. "Oh, we should probably go to security now and say we've found him."
The music suddenly stops cold, replaced by a fuzzy tap-tap of a finger on a microphone. Up on the stage, as small as Kosuke's thumb from where they are, the same jellyfish from before waves to the crowd.
"Hey, everybody," she calls. "Just ten more minutes until the trios division of the costume contest! All trios should be making their way to the stage now."
Hitsuji bounces on his feet (the rapier ting-ting-tinging) and Kosuke realizes that now she has another kid to find. Realizing the same, Kyoya says, "I'll go take care of security. Go find Minami."
She's dragged away before any thanks can be given. It doesn't take long to find Minami with Mori playing darts (Mori fixing her grip with each throw), and once the others find them, it takes longer to convince them all that Hitsuji is alright now. Tamaki collapses with such great relief that Hitsuji jabs him with the rapier to make sure he's still living. When he starts to flush under the attention, everyone expertly drops it in favor of ushering him, Kosuke, and Minami to the stage.
The contest also doesn't take very long—the bigger the group competing, the fewer the contestants, it seems. The children stay put even with all the eyes on them, though Hitsuji does blush when the crowd collectively awwwww's at him. No one says a word about Red Riding Hood having a sword.
In the end, they make second place, losing only to three young girls as the sun, moon, and stars. They each get a silver medal (that look to be actual silver, which—ugh…) and another round of applause, and they all give a kiss and cry as they leave. When they reenter the crowd, people warn Kosuke and Hitsuji that the Big Bad Wolf is right behind them. Another girl, also dressed as Red Riding Hood, asks if she can take a picture with Hitsuji. It's so fun that Kosuke is already thinking of what they should dress as for next year.
Somehow the others manage to get their hands on some confetti to toss at them when they return, showering them all in black and orange shimmers. Hani presents the children with wrapped candy apples, Reiko gives Minami their carved pumpkin (turned to hide its scary face from Hitsuji), and Tamaki does the same.
"I tried to get it as close as the last one was," he explains. "I think it's a decent successor. Jackie the Third?"
Hitsuji grins. "Thank you!" Tamaki is so delighted that he doesn't notice the rapier digging into his foot. Or he does but says nothing.
"That was the last event of the evening." Kyoya brushes some confetti off his shoulders. No one tells him that his hat is holding loads more, like a giant feathered bowl. "What would we like to do next?"
"We can do ring-toss," Hikaru offers at once. "I want to beat Kaoru at a game already."
"There's a yo-yo fishing station around here somewhere," says Tamaki. "And senbonbiki, I think!"
Hani chimes in with, naturally, "We can get more snacks if we're hungry!"
Minami tugs on Kosuke's arm, and blinks up at her with sleepy eyes. The Big Bad Wolf looks like she's going to curl up for a nap at any second. "Kosuke, I'm tired."
Kosuke looks to the giant, spider-infested clock tower. It is well past the children's usual bedtime by now, and Minami probably got to do quite a bit while everyone was searching. "Do you want to go home?"
She nods, wiping at her eye, but Hitsuji jostles Kosuke's other arm and protests, "But I didn't get to do anything!"
That's true…Kosuke looks between one sibling teetering on her feet and another one bouncing with unspent energy. It's past Hitsuji's bedtime, too, but she doesn't want to punish him for getting scared the way he did. At the same time, there isn't exactly a bed anywhere for Minami to crawl into. Oh, this is not going to end well no matter what, is it?
"If you want…"
Kyoya, too, is looking between the two children. Hitsuji blinks up at him with much respect—the awesome musketeer who gave him his sword to fight off the evil Jack-O-Lanterns—while Minami doesn't even raise her eyes at him. Though in her defense, just keeping her head up is probably a challenge right now.
"You could take Minami home and Hitsuji could stay. Then we can bring him home when he's ready."
The others give enthusiastic agreement, but Kosuke has to hesitate. These are her children, not theirs—they came to the festival to have fun, too. True, they'd never be as blunt as Jet, "We're seriously going to babysit? This isn't what I came here for." Still…
"We'll take care of him, we promise," the twins tell her. Apparently they think Kosuke's hesitation stems from a fear of losing her baby brother again.
"Also…" Tamaki twiddles his fingers. "We didn't really go to festivals when we were growing up, so…"
"We could use some help with the games," Hani finishes for him.
Hitsuji gives her arm another tug. "Can I?"
Kosuke chews on the inside of her cheek. Everyone sounds genuine. "I guess if everyone's okay with it—"
"Yay!" Hitsuji releases her and dashes—again —but this time Kaoru catches him by the back of his shirt before they can have another round of Hide and Seek. "Let's go, let's go!"
Tamaki hands Jackie the Third over to Kosuke, giving her a comforting smile. "We've got this. We won't keep him out here too long."
This time, Kosuke refuses to go unheard, and calls out a loud, "Thank you!" to everyone's retreating backs. Their responses are short and happy, and when Kosuke adds, "Hitsuji, be good, alright?" he doesn't respond. That's fine.
Mori and Kyoya linger behind for the second time that night. Kosuke's hands are full of two pumpkins, but Minami is leaning against her to keep from falling over. When she starts to slip, Mori holds her in place and says, "I can take her back to your car."
"Ah, thank you, Mori."
Minami just barely has the energy to lift her arms for him, and deflates on his shoulder once he does. It's a sight so adorable that a few nearby people look moved to tears, but Kosuke focuses on Kyoya instead, still remaining.
"What is it?"
He responds, with emphasis, "We're going to take care of him."
Kosuke laughs, flushing a bit. After tonight, she's going to have to convince him that she's not going to lose it with (grand)motherly worry every time the children leave her sight. Which, in his defense… "I know. Thank you. But if you need to, just call me."
"We will."
"Also…" Kosuke looks behind her at Mori, close but out of earshot. He gives her a patient nod. "Thanks for helping earlier. That was really sweet of you."
Kyoya is still for a moment, then pushes his glasses up. Kosuke tries not to laugh in his face, but it's just so hilarious to her how he absolutely refuses to shrug. "I was only saying what I thought would comvince him to come out. I don't need a medal."
"No, but you did really well. Not everyone knows how to deal with children, is all I'm saying." This time Kyoya doesn't respond, so Kosuke just adjusts her hold on the pumpkins, turns away, and says, "Thanks again. Goodnight."
"Goodnight," he says. He walks back into the throng and Kosuke finally joins Mori and Minami, the latter completely knocked out.
Seeing her, Kosuke remembers that she is still very much against Kyoya—and all attempts to talk about it thus far have ended with brick walls, cold shoulders, and mumbled I-don't-knows. It's disheartening, and Kosuke knows that eventually she's just going to have to put her foot down for an answer.
Still…Remembering how Hitsuji looked up at Kyoya brings her some comfort.