Page 6

Ouran Fanfiction

Little Surprises

Chapter 3

Author’s notes:

Okey dokey, chapter three is up! –cheers and dances-

Another long chapter, and I’m not sure how many will be after this... There’s probably not much action left, but there’ll be a lot of talking, I think... :S

Right, the story definitely starts to shift towards what me and Eiji discussed... I hope you like it, Eiji, and I want to say thank you again for the beautiful birthday card... x3

Also, the roses bit was really hard, but I’m hoping that it could become a feature of the next chapter...

DISCLAIMER: I’m not Ouran’s owner... Gosh that sucks...

--

Over the next few weeks, Kaoru slowly began to think of Hikaru as his brother above all else. No more would he call him his other half, reflection (although they still looked the same), or anything which counted them as more than brothers, more than twins. They were still best friends, still did everything together, still performed their act for the young ladies in the host club, but now Kaoru was learning to distance himself from it, to not get sucked in by it and to know when the time to stop was. He learned that Hikaru was merely acting when he held him so close and tenderly. When Hikaru held him near enough that their breaths mingled and the fangirls squealed in delight, Kaoru had to blush- because it was wrong and taboo, just as people had told them in the past, even if it did entertain their customers and make profit for the club. Kaoru knew now that he couldn’t remain with Hikaru forever, and it had to end sometime.

Outside the third music room, the twins remained close as ever, but now Kaoru had accepted the distance they had to give each other, he was able to give Hikaru a little more space and so Hikaru began to see Haruhi more often. On a few occasions, he insisted on Kaoru coming with them, but on these occasions it was fairly obvious to all that Kaoru was pretty uncomfortable in this situation, and even Hikaru could notice this. So the arrangement came to be that Hikaru and Haruhi would meet up every other weekend or so, and Kaoru would call Tamaki, or talk to him over instant messenger.

Hikaru was perhaps not aware of just how much ‘Tono’ was helping his brother, but it was a lot. Tamaki and Kaoru would discuss everything, whether it be in person, over the phone, or via the computer.

It was one such time that Kaoru was lying across the twins’ bed in his front with thr laptop before him, talking to the blonde over IM, that he suddenly typed, out of the blue,

7!+13 d3v!1 0ru says:

Tamaki, you know how Hikaru and Haruhi might... You know... become an ‘item’?

A pause, then...

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

Yeah?

7!+13 d3v!1 0ru says:

Does that bother you?

...

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

Why would it? /

7!+13 d3v!1 0ru says:

Don’t you like Haruhi?

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

Yes, of course. :)

Kaoru’s expression became quizzical.

7!+13 d3v!1 0ru says:

Uhh... what?

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

Oh you mean /like/ her. O

7!+13 d3v!1 0ru says:

Yeah.

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

Nope.

7!+13 d3v!1 0ru says:

...?

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

Haruhi is my beloved daughter. It would be wrong of me to think of her like that. :P

7!+13 d3v!1 0ru says:

Oh...

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

Anyway, I already like someone else, and... Haruhi’s not it. ;)

Kaoru’s eyebrows rose and he stared at the words on the screen.

After all he had done for Kaoru, that... that... idiot had gone and fallen in love! And Kaoru knew what that meant: the older boy would no longer want to see him, because he’d be too busy trying to get her attention- whoever the lucky girl was- to continue spending time with Kaoru. Well of course, who in their right mind would actually prefer to be with a friend rather than a love interest?

It hurt. Kaoru could feel a heaviness in his chest, almost like a physical pain. His shoulders tensed, and he blinked rapidly.

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

Kaoru, are you OK? You’ve gone all quiet... /

Kaoru scowled at the screen. Why should he have been OK? The foundation of his world had just crumbled again, and now he had no idea of what to do about anything anymore.

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

Kaoru? o.o

The younger Hitachiin shook himself and typed,

7!+13 d3v!1 0ru says:

I have to go.

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

Kaoru are you OK? o.o;

7!+13 d3v!1 0ru says:

No. Bye.

The one and only Tamaki ;) says:

What? O.O

7!+13 d3v!1 0ru appears to be offline.

Kaoru closed the laptop with a loud click and sat up cross-legged and with his head in his hands.

A beeping sound came from his pocket, and he pulled out his phone to see the display lit up with Tamaki’s name.

With a furrowing of his eyebrows, he turned it off.

Idiot.

--

The following Monday at school, Tamaki gazed around at the rest of the host club, who were all staring back at him with varying expressions on their faces, even Kaoru, who had been avoiding Tamaki all day.

That had puzzled the tall blonde. His friend had been fine until Saturday, and after Kaoru had gone offline without much notice Tamaki had left him what must have been about fifty voice and text messages on his phone. None had been answered.

At first, Tamaki had wondered if it was something to do with Hikaru, but one look at the twins this morning told him that that was not it. That also ruled out any family problems, and so he was back at square one.

“A sleepover?”

Tamaki, interrupted from his reverie, looked to see Kyouya standing beside him with an “oh-no-not-another-stupid-idea” look on his face.

“Ah... yes!” he exclaimed, brightening immediately at the reminder of his planned birthday celebration. “It’s a commoner custom. Doesn’t it sound like fun?”

Kyouya was looking doubtful, but Hunny, ever the hyper, happy, child-like optimist, bounced into Tamaki’s field of vision.

“I think it does, Tama-chan!” he cheered, dancing around with a happy grin on his face while Mori stood behind, stoic as always. “When is it?”

“Friday,” answered the tall blonde, catching the enthusiasm of the smaller and grinning back at him.

“Sounds good to us,” piped up Hikaru, bringing Tamaki’s attention to him and Kaoru lounging on the sofa. The latter promptly turned away, looking blankly hurt, and Tamaki felt an odd clenching in his chest that he’d felt only a few times before in his life, all in the past few weeks.

“Haruhi?” Tamaki distracted himself by turning to the disguised female sitting beside Kyouya on the sofa, who shrugged.

“Sounds like it’ll be fun.”

--

After school on Friday, the host club was open to the host club as usual, with many of the customers appearing with presents, cakes, and sweets for Tamaki (one girl even gave him a picture of him she’d drawn and was rewarded with one of his famous smouldering looks), and afterwards the hosts all headed home to collect their things before going to Tamaki’s mansion.

Haruhi was the first to arrive carrying a small backpack and rolled-up sleeping bag. The others soon followed, bringing with them a wide range of beds, bedding, pillows, entire wardrobes, and a lot more besides. Evidently, none of them seemed to understand what a ‘commoner’s sleepover’ was, or what it entailed. When Tamaki tried to reprimand them for ‘spoiling the principle of the thing’, Kyouya shot him an icy glare.

“You never stipulated this to us,” he pointed out. “And furthermore, I’d rather not sleep on the floor.”

The blonde grumbled a little, but soon calmed down and the whole group was settled in, their various beds having been set up in the enormous drawing room on the second floor.

It was already quite late in the afternoon when the ‘commoner games’ began- Monopoly, which no one really saw the point of because they couldn’t understand why they had so little money in the game; consequences, in which no one understood what was supposed to be written on the paper; and Jenga, which was simply frowned at, poked a little, then left to fall over.

The sky grew darker, and finally Tamaki exasperatedly suggested hide-and-seek, which all of them at least understood the concept of.

Several rounds later, it was Hunny’s turn to count, and so he sat in the middle of the drawing room and began to count to fifty.

Kaoru and his twin had been hiding together for the most part so far, but now the former evaded Hikaru, running off down a random corridor. He wanted some time to think, time to himself for a while. He did not see a tall, thin shadow appear from behind a cabinet and begin to follow him silently and stealthily.

Going out of a door at the side of the house, Kaoru found himself in Tamaki’s immense gardens. The night was out properly now, covering the sky with an enormous cloak of indigo-coloured darkness, and all that was in the grounds was tinged with shadow. The night air was cool and refreshing, and as Kaoru breathed in, the scent of various flowers and herbs met his nostrils, calming him somewhat.

He stepped away from the house, and let go of the door, not noticing that a hand stopped its progress before it could click shut. He wandered about for a while, thinking that Hunny must have finished counting by now. Was anyone looking for him? Did it really matter?

He sighed and paused thoughtfully before ducking under a pergola and entering a smaller enclosed area of garden, surrounded by bushes that were flowering many different roses, in all the colours imaginable to the younger Hitachiin.

Here was a bush of yellow roses, the bright, sunny colour still sunny in the shadow cast by the night. There, blue ones, reminding Kaoru of his brother, then, right beside it, orange- his own. A few feet onward, Kaoru stopped to admire a cluster of pink flowers, petals curled so perfectly they could have been fake. There were burgundy, green and black roses, and so many others besides.

The red-head turned, looking at them all in the gentle darkness. It was absolutely beautiful, and the soft scent of the roses made it even more so.

He stopped suddenly, his gaze having fallen on a low, white marble bench beside a bush of red roses. But what was remarkable about it was the single, long-stemmed white rose that rested upon it.

Tamaki’s rose...

He approached it slowly, head tilting to one side as he studied it, the softly curled white petals against the flat, shiny white of the marble. He reached out a hand and picked the flower up, bringing it closer to his face to look at it and breathe in the sweet smell.

“Kaoru...”