bored411: Thank you for your panic, hon, it really means a lot. lol
Akari. Wolf. Princess: Okay it's not going to be right away but I promise we'll find out what happened to Kyoya's mother soon. Thank you so much for the review!
Guest: Thank you!
Ergelina: And we shall see the consequences soon, haha!
lillyannp: Ahhhh, thank you so much! Kyoya is kind of tricky to write tbh. Like you said, he's logical and calculating but he's also a human. I think Kyoya is (would be?) the type of person who would try to apply logic to feelings tbh. Thank you!
MeganeAlpaca: Thank you :)
Kosuke has had to swallow hard pills before. They have been coming one after another for months now. Since the moment Shigeo walked through the doorway, she's had a whole handful of pills to swallow all at once. One is that she's engaged, another is that she'll be the heir to a gargantuan technology company, another is that her whole life will be uprooted, and on and on.
The latest pill to swallow was that her future lifelong partner dislikes her. There's no other conclusion to come to, and though she might not have a game plan thus far, she's already decided that she's going to remedy that. Whether she's offended or upset or angry, she doesn't know, and it doesn't matter.
She has managed to choke them down—not prettily, with a lot of coughing, but she has managed. Though she has lately spent most nights staring up at the ceiling of her bedroom instead of actually sleeping, she hasn't spiraled out of control yet. If nothing else, she has control over her own mind.
She cannot control the children's, however. She can choke down pills; they can't.
With already so much to give them, it's just an extra hurtle that despite there only being so few years between Hitsuji and Minami, they function on entirely different levels. Without Kosuke, Hitsuji is at the mercy of the world. He has no idea what is going on until it is spelled out to him in short words. Minami, however, is at that "scientist" age. She observes things and she asks questions, and she can no longer be brushed off so easily.
Kosuke fears for them in different ways. Hitsuji has already been struck with the blow of losing both his parents at such a tiny age. He needs stability, and moving from their lifelong home and introducing strangers into his life might ruin him. It's not that Minami doesn't need stability, but she has a much greater sense of self than her brother. Hitsuji has a world and Minami has her world. She has her home and her friends and her life.
This was never going to be as easy as a sit-down talk. Kosuke realizes pretty quickly that she isn't going to be able to tell them together, they are each going to be their own hurtle.
So, while focusing on this one problem in the mountain of all her other problems, Kosuke decides that she's going to talk to her sister first. Hitsuji, she thinks, will take longer to explain things to. With Minami, however, she is expecting kickback.
It doesn't fully go as she expects, but it does begin as she does, with questions.
"We're moving in with your dad?"
Kosuke nods, tucking back the hair blowing into her face. They're sitting out in their little backyard, with Hitsuji blissfully unaware and unawake upstairs. It is the first moment Kosuke found of getting her sister by herself and uninterrupted.
With the absolute tidal wave of information Kosuke just hit her with, it was only a turn of the wheel as to which question would come first. She fears she's already given her far too much, but she just doesn't know what else to do.
"Yeah. He lives in Tokyo. So he's not that far away, but…We're still going to need to move."
She's waiting for Minami to lose it at any second now, scream that no, she doesn't want to go, this is her home, what about all her friends? She hasn't even said any of those things yet, and already Kosuke's insides feel like they're made of stone.
"I thought your dad was dead?"
Kosuke blinks. "Wh—No. Why'd you think that?"
"Because he wasn't here," exclaims Minami, like it is a very obvious answer. "Because he wasn't married to Mommy anymore!"
She'd normally accept this, but now she asks, "Minami, do you know what a divorce is?"
"It's when two people don't want to be married anymore so they stop."
"Right. That's what happened with my dad and Mom. They got divorced."
"Why?"
Kosuke brushes another strand of hair from her face. Nothing is more troubling to a child than an adult that doesn't know something.
"I don't know," she finally answers. Minami's brow furrows tighter still. "I guess they just stopped loving each other. Sometimes that happens."
Minami goes quiet once again. Please don't let this turn into a multilayer conversation, Kosuke begs in her mind. I don't have the strength to discuss the many causes of divorce on top of everything else.
"But why wasn't he around?" she asks. "Hana's mommy and daddy are divorced and they see her all the time!"
"He, uh—" Kosuke makes a mental note to make a comprehensive checklist of all the things she and her parents may or may not have explained to the children. 'Parents who aren't dead but aren't in their children's lives' hadn't been broached yet. "He didn't know about me. He didn't know Mommy had me."
Minami's face scrunches into a knot. "Huh?"
Yeah, nice going there, Einstein. The "birds and the bees" talk wasn't just on the checklist. It was far, far on the horizon, the dreadful storm that Kosuke knew she was going to have to face one day but was too scared to stop running from.
"I mean—uh. It—it has to do with how babies are made, hon. You know how babies grow in their mommies' bellies—" Kosuke has cupped her hands around her midsection before she stops herself. "He just didn't know."
Finally Minami accepts this, but only to keep thinking about literally everything else. The concept of her sister's father was one thing, now there were ten other things to worry about. First and foremost, the fact that she was about to lose her home to go live with a stranger.
"Do we…" Her voice drops to a mumble. "Do we have to go live with him?"
Kosuke's already-fractured heart breaks just a little bit more. She does not feel like a hero here. She feels like a parent about to do an Unforgettable Thing—the type of thing that maybe doesn't ruin their relationship, but the thing that keeps with a kid forever, the thing that makes a kid think, "I love you a lot, but I can never forget how you did X to me."
"I need to be close to him so we can work together, and I can't let you guys live here by yourselves."
"We could get a babysitter…"
"Not for that long," Kosuke gets exactly one-half of a laugh out before stopping herself cold. It came from hysteria, but from the way Minami's eyes go down to the grass, she's just scoffed in her little sister's face. "I—I know it sounds really scary, but it won't be that bad."
Her little sister looks up at her again, her eyes just a little more watery than they were before. She isn't heartbroken just yet; she's scared. "Are we going to come back?"
"Of course we are!" Kosuke runs a hand through Minami's curls, carefully dodging the knots. "We won't be able to every day, but maybe on the weekends. And we can come back on vacations. We can do stuff so you can still talk to your friends, and I'm sure you can still come to parties and all that."
There is a little relief in that, apparently, but Minami still sniffles. "Where does he live?"
"Tokyo," Kosuke repeats.
A little more relief. Kosuke was stupid not to downplay it more. Children think in extremes, she knows, so she can't blame Minami for instantly deciding they were about to move halfway across the world and never come home again.
"Is it…Is it a good house?"
Kosuke nods. She's careful not to sigh in relief just yet. "I haven't seen it, but I'm sure it is. I bet it's super big and it has a lot of rooms. Maybe you can even get your own! And Haruhi lives in Tokyo, so we can see her all the time, too."
What follows is a stretch of silence only disrupted by the light breeze. Minami doesn't say anything, and Kosuke doesn't push any words, comfort or otherwise. At the very least, she can remember how her mind worked at that age. Comfort was good, yes, but too much of it was stifling. Too much of it made her want to run away.
There was no way to win this and I already feel like I lost.
Sometimes Kosuke gives herself little slivers of…not credit, but leeway. That sometimes—it was extremely rare, but sometimes—it wasn't solely her fault when things went wrong. There was no way to tell Minami any of this and have her come out of the conversation with a beaming smile.
Still, she isn't expecting her sister to say, "Okay."
Kosuke is left blinking again. "'Okay'?"
"I'm okay with it," Minami chirps with no smile. She stands up to her feet and brushes off her skirt. "We can go. When are we leaving?"
"Um—" Kosuke coughs. "We kind of need to get going tomorrow. So we're going to start packing today, but just the stuff we need…I'm going to come back and get more stuff later…"
Her voice trails off into a mumble by the end, because she's done so much bracing and fretting for nothing more than "Okay." The worry is still pent-up inside of her. But Minami is just blinking down at her and listening.
"Should I start packing now?" she asks.
"…Sure."
"Okay."
"Okay."
Minami leaves. She walks back into the house and shuts the door politely behind her.
Kosuke is left to just dumbly blink into space by herself. She's lagging like an old computer again.
"Okay." Then she finally catches back up with reality. "Not okay!"
She runs back into the house, up the stairs, and into Minami's room in probably her new record. Minami is keeping to her word, at least. She has her polka-dot travel bag open on her bed and her drawers open. She gives Kosuke a blinking look as she zips into the room, but then she just goes about her business.
"Minami, aren't you upset?" asks Kosuke. "I mean—you're not mad, or anything?"
"No," Minami answers as she packs an armful of shirts into her bag.
Literally packs, and Kosuke steps forward to fold them before her little sister continues stuffing her luggage like a Thanksgiving turkey. Minami decides to just transfer things from the drawers to the bed.
"You know," Kosuke goes on while she burrito-rolls as much as she can. They're going to need every bag they have. "It's okay to tell me if you're upset. I mean, I know moving into a new house can be kind of scary."
"I'm not upset. And I'm not scared."
"Yeah, but—"
"Do you want me to be?"
"Wh—No."
Minami shrugs. They're walking in circles. "Okay."
So…that's the end of a conversation about the permanent change to their way of life. Minami keeps giving her clothes to pack into her bags. For when they move. Into their new house.
Kosuke rubs the back of her neck and sighs. "Okay…"
One child down (?), another child to go.
Minami's acceptance doesn't change, and she's right: Kosuke doesn't want her to be upset, so she accepts the acceptance. She supposes she isn't as knowledgeable on the mental workings of children after all.
They keep packing their clothes and belongings until the bottom floor of the house is getting crammed with their luggage. A few times Kosuke is again hit with the reminder that they're about to move out of her home of more than ten years and onto what might as well be another planet, but she stifles down any shockwaves. She really needs to get over it.
Hitsuji can't help with the move that much, but he certainly notices all the hubbub. He asks right as Kosuke approaches him to explain.
"A new house?"
"Mm-hm. With my dad."
Hitsuji stops with the superhero toy he has in his hands. Confusion is etched into every feature on his little face. "Daddy?"
A bullet shoots through Kosuke's chest, but she holds back from showing any pain. "No, my dad."
Hitsuji goes quiet and fiddles with his superhero toy some more. He was told a few times that Marti was technically only his father and Kosuke's stepfather, but…come on. You don't even say technically to a child. Minami knows absolutely nothing about where babies come from, and she still somehow knows more than Hitsuji. She was there when Emiko told him that he "came out of her belly", and she's never seen anyone of any age look so gobsmacked.
Kosuke can't explain all this to him right now, however. She hasn't even discussed with Shigeo how he's going to—deal with the children, which is another item on the Okay Kosuke This Is Getting Ridiculous You Need to Talk About These Things list.
"We won't be around here much anymore." Kosuke watches him carefully. His eyes are still on his hands. "But we're still going to visit."
"Is it big?"
"I bet so."
"How big?"
"Big."
Hitsuji points to the everything around them. "Bigger than our house?"
"I think so!"
He drops the toy entirely, blinking up at her with his wide brown eyes. "We're gonna live there?!"
She isn't sure whether to be relieved or concerned with his excitement. Maybe she doesn't want the children to be upset, but she doesn't want their "okay"-ness to come from a misconception. She doesn't want Hitsuji to be happy now only for the sadness to hit him like a freight train later. "Uh-huh. As soon as we get everything packed."
"I'll help, I'll help!"
Kosuke gives up on trying to plan kids. They are unplannable. Such a drastic change in their lives, and all she gets is "okay" and running around the house trying to find a way to help it go faster. Though she worries for a bit if they are upset after all, she stuffs the thought away. The children are brutally honest, and they don't hold back tears. If this was devastating them, she'd know it.
Now, there is the next problem to deal with: the fact that Kosuke is getting married. Soon. To someone the children have never met.
It's not a bridge she's ready to cross yet, because on top of being the straw to break the camel's back, she can't think of a single way to explain it without destroying the way the children understand the world. Blue is the color of the sky, the cow goes "moo", marriage is when two people love each other and want to be together forever! So she can't say she's getting married to someone she doesn't love. The idea of explaining what an arranged marriage and how it's okay, actually, is stuffed far, far, far back into the abyss of her mind in a hazardous material container labeled Don't.
She'll figure something out. She just wishes she knew how much time she had to do so, though. She doesn't even know when the children are going to meet Kyoya. She can just cross her fingers and wish upon a star that it isn't as cardboard-stiff as the first meeting.
It takes an entire day and well into the night of full-speed packing to get everything together for the move. Kosuke has tried to strike a balance between the things they'll need and as much as they can manage in the first trip. In the end, the bottom floor of the house is packed to the gills with boxes and bags.
In the very little time she'd had in-between, Kosuke had made all the necessary steps to get them relocated. She'll have to make a whole lot of address changes on papers and documents in the future still. She'll have to explain to the children's schools that they will not be in attendance this year after all despite classes starting next week.
Now, as for what school they will be attending…
This whole thing is a disaster.
Kosuke is starting to feel the way her parents probably felt every time they were about to leave the house for a trip. Double-checking every nook and cranny, checking the clock every few minutes. And on top of that, she's still keeping one eye on the kids at all times. Hitsuji is still bouncing off the walls in excitement. Minami seems so normal, even back to cracking smiles and laughing, that Kosuke's concern only triples.
She doesn't feel like she's diving headfirst into anything; she feels like she was shoved in and is floundering to break the surface again. The to-do list in her brain is miles long, she's barely keeping track of all three of them, and she still hasn't come to terms with the—everything that's happening.
But it's fine. It's good. It's alright. It's fine. Cool. Totally alright. Fine. Good. Fine, fine, fine.
At a quarter past ten, her phone rings as she's lugging duffel bags packed with Hitsuji's clothes across the floor.
"The movers should be there very soon," Shigeo tells her without so much as a hello. "Do you have everything ready to go?"
"Yeah. Just—hang on." She's wrapped the straps of the bags across her chest in a brace tight enough to make a boa constrictor envious. She can't breathe anymore. "Just—I have some concerns."
"Now?"
"Yes, now. I'm thinking we rushed into this too fast."
The sigh makes the speaker ruffle. "I don't have the time or patience to give another pep-talk to you about the benefits of this—"
"No," Kosuke snaps. It would've had more fire to it if she wasn't trying to untangle herself from her self-made web. "I mean logistics-wise. We haven't talked about what we're doing with the kids, or Ouran, or anything—"
"I'm taking care of all that. Just worry about getting over here."
He hangs up.
Kosuke has some concerns.
Before she can worry too long—or, longer, anyway—there's a knock at the door at long last. Kosuke takes a breath and steels herself. All they have to do now is ride over to Tokyo, and then they can move on from there. This is a process.
In the end, the truck that comes is far, far bigger than what was ever necessary for what they have. The bags and boxes just barely take up the front end of it, but better safe than sorry, Kosuke guesses. She's just glad they're doing this early in the morning, when most people have already left for their jobs and the streets are close to empty. The last thing she needs is to come up with a cover story for her neighbors.
If the children have any more reason to worry, it all vanishes out the window when they see the limousine. Yes, they are real, after all! And they get to ride in one! The two of them are bouncing off the walls as soon as the door closes, mystified by the (empty) wine coolers and long leather seats. Kosuke lets them run around a few times before they get in motion.
The spectacle itself entertains them for a good half-hour before they get bored, but that's fine. They can smear their coloring books with crayons and play with their dolls. If they're distracted, they can't have second thoughts, right?
It takes leaving Karuizawa proper for the nervousness to swell again. Kosuke wishes she had someone to talk to, but…no dice. She's left to stare down at her phone screen in quiet consideration.
She's probably just busy, Kosuke tells herself. Honestly, if she texted YOU first, you probably wouldn't have time now, either…
She last sent Haruhi a message two days ago, and she has yet to get a response. It's another thing that Kosuke more or less forces herself not to worry about. Forty-eight hours with no text message does not mean they are over and done with. She's being a worrywart, and an unfair one at that.
You're just worried because of what happened with Okina. She turns her phone screen off, takes a breath. Stop projecting. That was your fault, anyway.
It's not a defense, but Kosuke has to admit that it's times like this when she misses high school days, where everyone was just kinda-sorta friends with each other and she could say she knew too many people to count. Now it's just Haruhi, Tamaki, and Ranka, and those are three faces she only sees so often.
For now. Her life is about to get chock-full of unfamiliar faces.
It takes a few hours to get to Tokyo. The children get restless. Their legs start to cramp. Kosuke spends most of the ride staring up at the ceiling of the limousine and processing.
Hitsuji is officially insatiable.
"Is there a pool?"
"Maybe."
"How many rooms are there?"
"I'm not sure; probably a couple."
"Is the yard really big?"
"I haven't seen it."
"Are there—?"
"Hitsuji. Buddy." Kosuke boops him on the nose, smiles. "I've never been here. I don't know."
"Okay." Hitsuji settles back into his seat, picks up his dinosaur toy again, flicks the arm up and down. He lasts a good…five seconds? "How tall is it?"
Luckily Kosuke doesn't have to bite back a beleaguered sigh. The privacy screen separating them from the driver rolls down just enough for him to call back, "We're here."
It's not just the kids that press their faces against the glass to get a look outside. They don't see the actual house just yet. The first thing they see is a stone wall stretching out on either side, stopped only by a wrought iron fence that the limo is currently halted in front of. A very large, very tall iron fence that has the letter A in the bars.
I don't know whether to be impressed or scared, thinks Kosuke.
The limousine starts rolling forward again, and Kosuke realizes she should probably start cleaning up before they get out. The children are too bouncy to help. She grabs handfuls of crayons and dropped doll dresses in a scurry, all while reminding herself to take deep breaths.
"Kosuke," Minami rushes her. "Kosuke, Kosuke, you'll miss it!"
"It's not going anywhere," she replies, but as soon as the limousine stops and someone pulls open the door, Minami literally climbs over her to follow Hitsuji out. Kosuke can only barely bite back a yelp as her sister's heel stabs into her back. "OOF."
Minami doesn't care about any spinal damage she's caused. She's too busy screaming her name over and over. "Kosuke, Kosuke, Kosuke, Kosuke, Kosuke, Kosuke, get out, look-look-look!"
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" Kosuke slings the still-open backpack of toys across her shoulder and scrambles out just to get some calm again. Her foot catches and she nearly faceplants onto asphalt. "I'm looking, I'm looooooooooking…"
Oh, she's looking. She can't stop looking. There's nowhere to turn her eyes where she isn't looking, it's consuming her peripherals.
House, her near-comatose brain tells her. Mansion. Big mansion.
Big, big, big, big, big mansion. Just—
Holy hell.
The spectacle that's dwarfing Kosuke and literally blocking out the sun is nothing short of a castle. Two stories, three stories, it doesn't matter, it looks like a skyscraper. Kosuke sees pristine sand-colored brick detailed in white stonework, the very front bearing a carved flower looking to be crafted by Michelangelo himself.
Kosuke sees windows taller than double herself, topped by a shingled black roof with those…spiky metal things that go on castles. It's literally a castle. On either end—they're both far away from them—the corners are made of towers with cone-shaped tops and marble balconies. They look like fairytale princesses live in them.
There are rose bushes without so much as a leaf out of place, and behind them is a fountain huge enough to swim in, the centerpiece a cluster of cherubs pouring sparkling water from vases. And it…keeps going.
The place is a different planet in and of itself. Kosuke doesn't even think she's in Japan anymore. Sometimes, when she was a child…Actually, no, maybe last week, she would see a house a third this size and just fantasize for two seconds what a dream it would be to live in there.
Except this isn't a dream, it's real. She's going from looking at the moon to landing on the moon. She's about to walk through the doors and live in this house.
And she's terrified.
Minami and Hitsuji have started their full-blown, jumping-on-their-feet jubilation while their older sister has unease building up in her belly. There is way too much all at once, she needs everything to just slow down for two seconds.
There are people in this world who are dying, she chides herself. Boo-hoo, she gets to live in a big house now.
The truck door shutters open and the movers start dragging out their luggage. The children are tugging on invisible leashes at this point, only holding themselves back as the door opens and a woman steps out. She's middle-aged, a little gray-looking, with the sort of face that you can tell doesn't smile often.
"Miss Amida," she says, but that's all the greeting she gives before she's handing over a stack of papers to Kosuke. She fumbles to catch them in time. The top sheet is a layout of the mansion, written out in all its intimidating detail. "This is everything Mr. Amida has instructed me to give you. On top you'll find the layout of the estate. The rooms that are filled in are off-limits."
"Okay…Um, why—?"
"Follow me, please."
The woman turns on her heel and heads back inside. Kosuke follows, and the children follow her, vibrating with excitement.
The…foyer? This is a foyer, isn't it? Is a palace in and of itself. A chandelier worth more than every yen they have in the bank shimmers high above their heads. Two staircases sweep up to balconies offering only glimpses of what else is to come. There are so many details to take in, from the marble of the pillars to the intricate golden handrails of the stairs. Their footsteps ring off the snowy tiles.
"The cleaning staff will be here every weekday starting at six in the morning and leaving at three in the evening. The lower east section is cleaned on Monday, the upper east Tuesday, the lower west Wednesday, the upper west Thursday, and other areas Friday."
The woman's hands flit left to right and left again, Kosuke and the children's heads turning to watch like spectators of a tennis match. Kosuke finally manages to stop her just long enough to ask, "What do you mean by 'other areas'?"
"The grand ballroom, the wine cellar, and the pool. The kitchen and dining room are tended to on a daily basis. Speaking of…"
The woman turns and beckons them once again, down the east section. The children flit after her. Kosuke stumbles.
The dining room feels to be a mile long. The sleek table is the size of a pool in and of itself. There are so many chairs it feels more like a meeting room than anything else. Not to mention every seat already has a setting of plates and silverware that could pay someone's entire college tuition…
"The cooks will arrive at six every morning and will serve breakfast at eight sharp, lunch at twelve sharp, and dinner at six sharp. If there are days you will not be requiring their present, a twenty-four hour notice is requested. If there are any allergies or foods you otherwise do not want to be served, please let us know immediately. Every Sunday morning you will be given the week's menu to approve. Any questions? No? Follow me."
While they walk, Kosuke's brain is going into overdrive just to listen to the woman and glimpse through all the sheets and comprehend the everything that's happening. She just barely manages to keep Hitsuji from faceplanting on the stairs as they trek their way up.
The upper hallway is much the same as the lower one, with pristine carpets and pristine wallpaper and oh Kosuke is never going to get used to this in a million years. The hallway alone has more square footage than their entire restaurant.
The woman stops in front of the first door they come to. "This will be the children's room."
Minami and Hitsuji scream. Kosuke flinches. The woman doesn't.
Snowy carpet, chandelier, huge windows draped in gold curtains, two beds with their own mountains of pillows and spreads softer than clouds, enough floor space to run and toss and tumble. True, there aren't any vibrant colors or fun toys or stuffed animals, but that doesn't matter. The place is big and the beds are big enough to be trampolines. That's all the kids care about and are currently doing.
"This is our room?!" screams Minami, breathless as she bounces up and down on the comforter while her sister has a panic attack about her shoes touching the fabric. "This is our room?! Our room?!"
"Our room, our room, our room," Hitsuji parrots. He sounds possessed with joy.
"There are several bedrooms in the mansion, so if they'd rather have their own, that can be arranged." Kosuke doesn't get to tell her that no, it's probably fine. The woman plows right on. "Each bedroom is wired to the mansion's telephone system, so if you need to call from another room, just use that. Each room also has their own thermostat—"
Minami grows bored of all the long words and stops bouncing to look around at the walls and ask, "Do we get a TV?"
Kosuke sighs, "Minami," but she's not sure whether she's chiding her sister for interrupting or for somehow wanting more.
Either way, she doesn't get to continue. The woman raises a brow and pulls out her phone. "Would you like a TV for them?"
"Oh, no, no, that isn't necessary."
("Awwww…" the children whine.)
"I'll get them one."
("Yaaaaay!" the children cheer.)
"Would you like one, too?"
"I—I don't really watch TV much at all."
"So yes, then."
Kosuke blinks. Narrows her eyes.
"As I was saying, each room also has its own bathroom."
Minami gasps hard enough to surely hurt her lungs and exclaims, "Hitsuji, the bathroom!" The two scramble over to the door at the other side of the room. Kosuke doesn't see it, but judging by the ear-shattering screams that erupt from within, the bathtub is basically a swimming pool.
The woman is unfazed. "The bedsheets will be changed every day when the room is vacant. Would you prefer cotton, silk, or satin?"
"Cotton, silk, or satin what?"
"Cotton, silk, or satin bedsheets."
"Satin bedsheets?!"
"Satin it is, then."
"No, that's not what I—"
"Ma'am, I have a schedule to stick to, and I'm afraid I won't be able to stick to it with further interruption." The woman sighs and levels her with a look. Kosuke cannot decide whether this is a mean person or not. "I'm just going to tell you everything you need to know now. Is that alright?"
Kosuke mentally slaps herself. The kids are allowed to ooh and ahh over everything, she isn't. She also has to stop her eyes from bugging out of her skull at every tiny thing, or they'll pop right out of her skull. Be calm for two seconds. "That's alright."
"Good."
The woman takes a deep breath and continues:
"The only area of the house off-limits to anyone but Mr. Shigeo is his own personal office and a bedroom on the west side that is marked on the layout. The kitchen and the pool area are open to both you and the children, but the children are not to be there without your or someone else's supervision for safety purposes. The children are not to be in the wine cellar for any reason at any time. The pantry and freezer will be stocked with the food the kitchen staff will prepare for mealtimes, but you are also allowed to store your own food items in there as well. The kitchen is open to you at all hours, but it's suggested you remain out of the way of the staff while they are preparing meals, which will be between six and eight, ten and twelve, and four and six. If there are food and beverages you would like to be in supply of, whether for meals or snacks, simply tell one of the kitchen staff and it will be taken care of. The pool area is downstairs; you'll find the staircases there on either side of the lower halls or outside from the back patio. It is open to you at all hours, but again, the children are not allowed there by themselves. The pool's temperature can be adjusted to your suiting, though there is a hot tub, as well. The children are not allowed within the hot tub, supervised or otherwise. The same goes for the sauna, also to be found downstairs. When using the hot tub and sauna, please be mindful of the time and temperature so as to avoid dizziness, burns, and other health issues. There will be no lifeguard, so please use the pool area with caution and refrain from dangerous activities like running around the perimeter. The pool area, as well as other rooms in the mansion, is equipped with a phone to contact other areas or emergency services. The wine cellar is also downstairs and can be accessed through the pool area. It is to my understanding that you are currently nineteen years old and thus under Japan's legal drinking age, so until your next birthday, you will not be allowed to take or drink any wines, champagnes, or other alcoholic beverages within the cellar. You are, however, allowed to use the patio outside the cellar to your liking. The grand ballroom is in the middle of the mansion on the lower story, and the floor is waxed every Friday. Each Thursday groundskeepers will be on site to tend to the hedges, bushes, flowers, and lawns. During the first week of each month the floors of the mansion will be waxed and cleaned in the same pattern as the weekly schedule. You will be notified if any other staff will be present outside of their normal hours. At seven o'clock the kitchen staff will have cleaned the kitchen and the mansion will be vacant for the rest of the evening. You have been provided a list of phone numbers for all staff and their occupations if you require them during a time they are not in attendance. Included in that list is the number for a chauffeur, who will require an hour's notice before arrival. There are two chauffeurs who work on rotation throughout the week. As for rules of conduct: it is expected that during your stay here you will behave properly and civilly with respect to the property. There are to be no major changes to any of the furniture or decorations of the mansion, layout or otherwise, unless they have been approved by Mr. Shigeo beforehand. No aspect of the property will be damaged or defaced in any way. You are of course allowed to decorate your bedroom as you please, with the exemption of painting the walls, changing the carpet, or other any extreme alterations that could be potentially irreversible. If you desire any furniture to be moved into your bedroom that you need assistance with, you will find the number of the same movers who have helped you arrive today. Mr. Amida would like to note that he understands that human error can occur, but if extraneous damage is done to any area of the house, you may have further access to said area restricted if not prohibited. You are, of course, strictly forbidden from any unlawful activities inside the mansion, such as possession of illegal substances or, again, alcoholic beverages while you are still underage. Doing so will result in swift eviction from the premises. You are allowed company over any day of the week, though parties of more than five people will require admission by Mr. Amida. Within your documents you will find information of the mansion, including its address, for use of delivery or other purposes. At the end of the road leading into the premises is a gate that is opened and closed via a security code, also to be found within the documents provided. You are under no circumstances allowed to give this security code to any other parties. For security purposes, there is a surveillance system that extends from the gate to the exterior of the mansion. Only Mr. Amida and—should such an event present itself—legal authorities have access to said surveillance system. For your privacy, there is no surveillance within the walls of the mansion proper. You should understand that in the event that that any emergency services are called to the premises, Mr. Amida will be notified immediately. You will also be notified if you are absent. Should you have any personal belongings that you require storage for, the attic of the eastern wing is at your disposal. The staircase to said attic can be found at the end of the hall. The mansion does not have any medical personnel in its staff, but simple medical supplies such as over-the-counter medicines, syrups, and tools can be found within a medicine cabinet within the kitchen. You are allowed to keep your own personal medical supplies in your bedroom, but again, illegal substances will result in swift eviction. Do you understand?"
She—
Um.
"Ms. Amida?"
Kosuke's mouth opens on autopilot. "Present."
The woman only sighs and pushes her glasses further up the bridge of her nose. Kosuke hasn't intended to aggrieve the woman, but…but…
"All of this information can be found in your documents." Then why did you even—? "Mr. Amida is in his office in the western wing. He would like to see you as soon as possible."
Kosuke's eyes at once flit over to the children, as if expecting them to be in danger. They have returned to the beds to tear off the blankets and marvel and the cloudlike softness of the mattresses. She doesn't know why she's so unnerved at the realization that her estranged father and her siblings are under the same room.
Delayed reaction, much? Better get used to it. Kosuke nods a bit shakily. "Of course."
The woman turns to lead her away, and Kosuke turns back to call, "I'm going to be back soon. Stay here and behave!"
"We will," the children chorus back.
Shigeo's office is dead at the end of the hallway. Kosuke has no idea—she knows it is so stupid—but she swears she'd have felt less nervous if it was to the side. It's just some dumb, human response. It makes it look more forboding.
Oh my—
It is a DOOR, you dumb child.
Again, Kosuke mentally slaps herself so hard her cheeks almost hurt from it. Even Alice wasn't so dumbstruck-emphasis-on-the-dumb when she came to Wonderland.
The woman stops in front of the door to nod at her one last time before pushing the door open. "Ms. Amida, sir."
The office is exactly what she should've expected. Huge windows with thick velvet curtains let the sunlight spill into the room, rendering the chandelier all but useless. Two mammoth bookshelves fill the far wall and she's pretty confident the gold-trimmed books are just for decoration. The cherry on top is, of course, the giant oak desk in the middle.
On the other side, Shigeo is leaning over a cluster of papers, a pair of reading glasses at the edge of his nose. It makes his face look even older, though Kosuke doesn't know how old he is in the first place. She actually finds herself a little relieved that he's sitting down working; if he'd been standing in front of the window with his hands behind his back it would've just solidified him being a Saturday morning cartoon villain.
Shigeo only briefly looks up before saying, "That'll be all."
The woman leaves and shuts the door behind Kosuke. Finally leaving her and Shigeo alone for the first time since that poor excuse of a first meeting with the Ootoris.
Shigeo pushes a small couplet of papers to the other side of the desk. "Sign these."
To her credit, she only blinks once this time before picking up the papers. She certainly doesn't have time to read each one through one-by-one, but the amount of blank lines upon which to write her signature gives her pause. "What are these, exactly?"
"Every last paper needed to make this official. Most are for Ouran."
Still, Kosuke flips through a few. It doesn't look like he's lying, nor can she think of why he would. She's eager to tie up the last loose ends, too, so she picks up the pen pushed toward her and starts flitting Kosuke Nakahara across the lines.
"That sheet on the bottom is for you to take."
Curious, she flips over to it. Introduction to Accounting, Economic Statistics I, Human Resource Management. "Right…Bachelor's in Human Resource Management?"
"I thought it'd be easier for you to chew than Health Care Management," drolls Shigeo. "You start tomorrow morning, so if you still need supplies, do so immediately."
Kosuke flips to the page after. It doesn't look like a schedule, but it's filled with class names. Like…a lot of class names. Not just Art Appreciation, but French Art Appreciation, Italian Art Appreciation, German Art Appreciation. Archery, Woodworking, Fashion Design, Interior Design, Cosmetics, Hairstyling, Embroidery, on and on it goes. Can a single college even have this many courses to offer? "What are these?"
Shigeo gives another brief glance. "Electives. Choose one, I don't care which."
Perhaps Kosuke should've had some more mature patience to look over all her options. As it is, her eyes only glance over the list for a few sparse seconds before zeroing in on the Culinary Arts header. There are still so many to choose from, principle classes, foodservice business classes, cuisine classes, some just about bread. She'd be so happy to do each and every one of them, but with only one to choose, she decides on Application of Culinary Skills I.
In some make-believe fantasy world, she'd be able to have a whole education in culinary arts, a bachelor, a master's. Wasn't it the dream of everyone to have a career in something you have love and passion for? But this is the real world where she has responsibilities, and going to the most prestigious college in the country for the best education money can buy is something very few people are lucky to have. It's childish to be upset that it'll be for something boooring.
Kosuke goes back to signing papers and once again questions the speed of all of this. If she wrote down everything that has happened since Shigeo walked into the Lily Bowl that first day, she'd think that she was missing paragraphs upon paragraphs.
"I have some questions."
Shigeo's brief quietness feels like it's missing a sigh. "About what?"
"Everything and anything, but the kids especially."
Shigeo finally reaches up and takes off his glasses, leveling her with a tired look. Kosuke would rather get all such looks out of the way now instead of suffering them and more later when she makes a fool of herself with the lack of her knowledge. "What about them?"
"Where are they going to school? And when?"
He looks at the sheets scattered over the desk, scanning for a moment before finally pulling a couplet out and passing it to her. "Ouran Kindergarten."
On the one hand, she's both relieved and confused that he has taken it upon himself to ensure their enrollment. Not only that, but at what can only be Japan's most prestigious school. And yet…"Minami should be going into third grade. She's—eight."
"Whatever year they need to be in, they'll be in it. I have people getting them transferred over now."
How he's managing to do that, she doesn't know, but she doesn't protest. He isn't exactly encouraging conversation about the children, but neither is he ignoring their existence.
Maybe I'd rather they go ignored than hated, Kosuke thinks to herself. They are the children of his divorced and deceased wife, after all. She still doesn't know the cause for said divorce, either, so that might multiply…whatever he feels about the kids.
"Is there anything you need to know about the kids?"
He doesn't spare her a look this time. "For what reason?"
"I mean, if we're going to keep up this story, you're going to have to acknowledge them to a degree. The Ootoris didn't even know I had siblings until I told them."
"I don't see any reason to get better acquainted. People will accept that you are the only connection between me and those two without thinking me heartless."
"Except I'm not the only connection between you and them."
"Do you have a point, or are you stalling until you find one?"
Touché. She does have a point, though. It's just taking her a second to actually put it into words. Taking another breath, she sets the pen down. "Do Minami and Hitsuji have a role in any of this, too?"
He raises a brow at her. "Such as what?"
"Well—I don't know. Are they going to have to learn business practices and company names and all that?" She knows before he silently blinks at her how stupid that sounds, and tries again. "Okay, okay. Are they going to have to go to all the parties and galas and stuff? Do they have to watch how they act in public?"
"They should always watch how they act in public, rich or poor. And if they go to any parties, it'll be birthday celebrations for their classmates." He slides on his glasses again. "I'm going to reiterate that you are the only connection between us. Yes, they need to mind their behavior, but Ouran is going to be their only access to the upper class, understand? They're not going to inherit anything, business or otherwise, and they'll never be important to anyone you or I know. They just exist."
Kosuke processes that for a minute before deciding that she's actually rather okay with that. Kosuke is going to have to sweat and bleed just to get used to having eyes on her all the time, if she ever does. Putting the children under the same scrutiny of strangers they'll never meet wouldn't be possible.
This also makes her a barrier between them and Shigeo, which puts her a little more at ease. All the money he'd promised to keep them afloat was just going to funnel through her, not be directly passed to them. He couldn't pull their strings.
"So…Just for the record, you're not planning on interacting with them…at all."
"Not if I can help it." Shigeo twirled the end of his pen up towards the ceiling for a moment. "I'll hardly be here regardless; I have another estate closer to work an hour's drive from here. When I am here, I don't want to see them or hear them, let alone speak to them. Or about them."
Kosuke will give credit where credit's due; the man knows how to end a topic without saying it outright. If he'd stop doing it to topics that need to keep going, that'd be great. "Anything else I'm not allowed to talk about?"
He clicks his pen. Taps the end on the papers. Clicks the pen again, goes back to writing. "We're not discussing your mother."
Well, it wasn't like she had her fingers crossed. "Do I have any other family I should know about?" This time, the brow he raises at her looks more curious than condescending. "Aunts? Uncles? Stuff like that."
Shigeo shakes his head and sighs. "I don't have any siblings, my mother has passed, and my father is somewhere in the Alps spending his retirement in a tiny little cottage with his wife. I have cousins of my own, but I sincerely doubt you'll ever meet them."
She thinks about her next question and decides to risk it. "What about on the other side?"
This time she can't even decide what the look she gets is. He really does seem so prideful that he can ever run like a finely-tuned machine: things like confusion and surprise are beneath him. "She never mentioned anything?"
"No. Well…" Kosuke tries not to roll her eyes at her own bumbling. It's not like she's out to seek his favor, but she doesn't want to encourage him treating her like an idiot more than he already does. "She'd say things like 'my mother taught me how to do this' and I'd get some stories every now and then, but that's it."
The teeny-tiny little bubble of hope that starts to swell is popped in seconds flat. "It's not important."
Not even a "they're alive"? Gee. Thanks.
Her grandparents had been just as much a mystery as her father through her life, but Kosuke had never felt the burning demand to know more about them. She asked curious questions, especially when she got those one-sentence mentions, but nothing more than that. Maybe it was just because she thought them Emiko's and Emiko's alone. Even if her father had been dead, Kosuke still felt entitled to know, but if her grandparents had been…well, she wasn't going to push it for fear of causing her mother grief.
Still, she'd figured she might get a semblance of an answer out of someone who knew her mother when she was about two decades younger. Guess not.
"I'm assuming," Shigeo goes on, "that your siblings are the only family you have with you now."
"Yeah?" Surely he doesn't think I'm hiding a third sibling anywhere… "Marti didn't have any siblings and his parents died a long time ago, so."
The fingers around Shigeo's pen stiffen. The muscle in his jaw clenches. The blues of his eyes have gone icy, and Kosuke wonders: do hers do the same thing when she's pissed off?
"For as long as you're with me, we're never going to discuss your mother's husband. For any reason."
Against her will, she can feel the hairs on the back of her neck start to bristle. He hasn't even insulted him, but she knows in his words and his voice and his eyes that he hates Marti—her real father, the man who loved her and raised her and made her the person she is today. The greatest father a girl could ask for, damned because he married Shigeo's ex-wife and fathered two more children with her.
If she was a less mature person—which is to say, if she listened to that little feral part in her brain—she'd double down and snap at him to not even mention Marti with that tone of voice. Maybe slide in a paragraph or two of how he was a million times the father Shigeo could've ever tried to be.
Kosuke is already on thin ice with Shigeo, however, and a visceral response to just "we're never going to talk about him" will make her look as temperamental as a bomb.
There is a plus to this, however: all those memories of what her life used to be like can be kept between Kosuke and her siblings. Shigeo can childishly hate a dead man, but Kosuke will always be the fortunate one for not only knowing him when he was alive but being his daughter and loving him.
"I understand." Whatever.
Shigeo's eyes stay on her for a few more moments before going back down to the papers. He didn't miss the edge in her voice, nor did he miss her acceptance. Looks like cold civility is going to be par for the course for them here on out.
Without looking, he grabs a folder near the edge of the desk and hands it to her. "That is some basic stuff to know about Amida Health. Not everything, but you won't look like a bumbling idiot if you have to talk about it with someone."
Basic stuff? Kosuke flips through sheets and sheets that are printed front-and-back in tiny font. This looks longer than Les Mis! And more depressing.
"Good," she sighs. But she means it; if it'll spare her that nightmarish humiliation again, she'll study it front to back. "I'll get to it."
"And this—" He hands her another folder. "—is everything you need to know about Ootori Medical."
Aaaaand Atlas Shrugged. Cool.
She flips through the first couple of pages, but what gibberish she can make out is about the company's history and hospital locations and whatnot. There's hardly more than a few passing mentions of Yoshio Ootori, let alone Kyoya.
Man…I thought I'd be able to figure out something.
"What are you looking for?"
"Hm? Oh—um…" Kosuke flips the folder clothes and needlessly taps the papers within on the desk. "Just seeing if there was anything about Kyoya in this. I don't think I got to know him that well the other night."
Shigeo doesn't look surprised. Or sympathetic. "You'll have the rest of your lives to get acquainted."
He's not wrong.
There was something Marti used to say to her when she was having a bad day. Obviously you can't force yourself to be happy, but maybe you can try to be optimistic. Try to focus more on the good things than the bad things. I'm not saying it'll fix all your problems, but it might make things just a little bit easier.
So despite her father being cold as stone, having to act like someone she isn't, and a lifetime to spend with a husband who doesn't care for her, Kosuke just tries to be a little more optimistic. She and her siblings are financially secure. They get to live in a splendid mansion, living like royalty. She'll never have material needs again.
She's getting exactly what she was praying for and more. And in fact, if she just ignores the cons entirely, she does feel better.
"Are you done signing?"
Kosuke hurriedly flips to the last few pages and only finds one more place to sign, but before her pen leaves the paper, Shigeo suddenly snatches up the papers and shuffles through them.
A sigh gusts out of his nose and he gives her his first true glare of the day. Cold civility, except when he needs to vent a touch and let it be known that she's incompetent at best.
"I'll have Ayumu get use more copies." Then he just…chucks them in the trash bin at the end of the desk. Kosuke doesn't even get time to blink like an idiot; he all but tosses more papers over to her. "Sign those."
Properly flabbergasted now, Kosuke does take the time to actually read what this is.
And what it is makes her stop. For a long minute, and it's almost like she's willing to make the world stop with her. As if the grandfather clock on the other side of the room will stop ticking if she wills it hard enough.
Of all changes to go through, isn't this the least surprising? Not to mention the least troublesome. Come on…
Try as she does, though, her fingers only twitch on the pen. Her whole hand has gone stiff like a corpse's.
She's aware that Shigeo's watching her, and she's aware of his patience running thinner and thinner, but that's fine if he just stays quiet. Then she can pretend like he's frozen and she did get more time to process. But, of course, Shigeo eventually drolls, "Is there a problem."
Kosuke swallows—her mouth has gone dry. "What if this doesn't work out?"
"Then we'll just change it back." He says it as though it is the most obvious answer in the world…which it is.
Now the only thing she knows to do is brace herself like she's about to jump from a high place. She's going to let the clock tick five more times. Then she'll do it. She just has to make the five seconds feel longer.
With three seconds left, she wonders: of everything she's done, what would have caused her parents the most pain? Emiko might've been raging from the first word Kosuke ever spoke to him. Marti, who cried when she gave him that childish little fairytale book, might've bristled just at her calling the stranger her father. Surely neither would be on the same planet as "comfortable" with her bringing in her siblings for every part of it.
This, though, this she feels like she has to apologize for. Sorry, Mom. Sorry, Dad.
It takes less than five ticks of the clock to legally change her name from Kosuke Nakahara to Kosuke Amida.