Ouran High School Host Club Fan Fiction ❯ Curse of the 'Flu ❯ Storm in a Teacup ( Chapter 16 )

CHAPTER XVI: “Storm in a Teacup”

 

At about three o'clock on a bright and sunny afternoon, a teenage boy walked down the private road leading to the Ootari mansion. Automatically, security cameras turned and perimeter guards stiffened, but he remained unchallenged until he reached the solemn walls that surrounded the property, where he was asked his business by the resident guard and searched for potentially lethal weapons and substances - the worst of which was a recently sharpened pencil and a mouldy piece of chewing gum.

Cleared by security, Kaoru passed through the gates.

At the entrance to the mansion he was interrogated and searched again before a butler finally opened the door and showed him in. He was taken to the main lounge, a room that embraced the bleakness of modernity, not its revolutionary style, and saw its host seated by a kotatsu, silently reading textbooks. Undeterred, Kaoru strode over and tried to slam something against the kotatsu, only to have it swerve aside and land on the floor. Kaoru stared. He picked it up. Then he knelt and sat down.

Kyouya poured tea.

Kaoru seemed touched.

Kyouya drank tea.

Kaoru seethed. `Am I invisible to you?' he asked.

`Most invisible friends are,' replied Kyouya.

An envelope was slid across the kotatsu by Kaoru and promptly used as a coaster. Kaoru's brow twitched. Inside the envelope was not (thank god) a romantic confession of his undying love but the money he owed Kyouya for coffee - coffee at twenty times the original sum.

The miser!

Kaoru studied the tablecloth and tried to calm down. Today was not a good day for him. He knew this because, from the moment he awoke and banged heads with his brother, there was something not quite right with the world. To begin with, there were tears in Hikaru's eyes, which had little in common with their painful collision and more with the fact that Kaoru now had a (`What!') without telling him. And no, Hikaru would not be consoled! Every step of the way Hikaru had told Kaoru of his feelings and asked for advice, but when it came to Kaoru and his love-life, where was the trust? Where was the intimacy?

Hikaru went to breakfast alone, leaving Kaoru distinctly upset for the vaguest of reasons. He had no idea what he was supposed to have done. As far as Kaoru knew, he had shared with Hikaru every aspect of his life, including its love, and to be suddenly accused of not having done that… Fine! He wouldn't speak to Hikaru either! None of this was Kaoru's fault!

Except there were other signs to indicate otherwise: following the weird argument with Hikaru there came the feeling that the servants were in on it too, whispering the second his back was turned about- They shut up. Kaoru turned his back; they started whispering.

Annoyed, Kaoru left the mansion before something creepier happened… like Mori getting well and indulging in a sentence:

`Nice day, isn't it?'

`Yes…' uttered Kaoru as he gazed up and up, and up and up, and-

Mori helped Kaoru stand. `I was just passing by,' he explained. `Are you upset?'

Kaoru paused, slightly amazed. `I'm not upset,' he answered, `just confused.'

`What about?'

`Nothing…'

Tamaki popped out of a tree upside-down, holding a huge megaphone. `YOU SECRET-KEEPER!!!' he yelled, though he was actually whispering.

`…Him, then,' said Kaoru.

`YOU KEPT A SECRET FROM US!!!' yelled Tamaki, again, only whispering. Simultaneously Kaoru covered his ears and tried to snatch the megaphone - an impossible feat. `I CANNOT BELIEVE YOU KEPT THIS A SECRET FROM US!! WE LOVE YOU AND LOVE YOU AND YET THIS IS HOW WE'RE REPAID!!!'

`What are you on about, milord? Love is meant to be free, you know!'

`FREE!!!' yelled Tamaki, this time without the megaphone, which was now possessed by Mori, and a minute later, by a blackbird nesting some miles away. `I THOUGHT YOU WERE IN LOVE!!! I THOUGHT YOU LIKED KYOUYA!!!'

Kaoru glowered at the name. He remembered leaving then and going off into town, a town populated by commoners who would not know him or go about yelling his business. Of course I like Kyouya, thought Kaoru, concentrating on the pavement as he strolled. He is an interesting guy. He feels special to me. But those were the lamest of reasons; you could say those things about anyone. So what did Kyouya exactly mean to Kaoru?

Since childhood the Hitachiin brothers had considered girls with nothing short of contempt. Girls failed constantly at the “Which is Hikaru and which is Kaoru?” game, and frustrated with female ignorance, decided that no girl could ever guess correctly and therefore no girl could ever interest them. As a result, one Hitachiin started falling in love in a different way… and he stopped absent-mindedly to look at a shop window. It had jewellery on display: necklaces, bracelets, earrings, rings, rings… loads of rings…

He moved swiftly on.

Nobody else seemed to feel this way. Not even Hikaru. Not in the slightest. So what else could Kaoru think to do…?

He could have ducked, for starters.

`You bastard!'

Kaoru touched his cheek.

`You did it just to - just to -'

Everyone stared.

`Just to tease me!' she blurted.

`Renge…'

`DON'T!' she screamed. `Don't ever think to comfort me! If you wanted more, you should have just said! Instead of - instead of just -'

 

 

Kaoru jumped as a cup slid quietly towards him. His hand shook; he gripped the cup firmly. One sip. His face grimaced.

`What,' said Kyouya, `you thought it was tea?'

Kaoru shook his head. He started crying. Sensibly, Kyouya consulted his textbook and read a passage on genetic disorders and how gene therapy strove to eradicate disease. By the time he poured another “tea” and finished drinking it, Kaoru had grown silent, tracing patterns on the tablecloth.

`You thought I kissed her,' said Kaoru, speaking to the kotatsu.

`I admit that I did, yes,' said Kyouya.

Kaoru drank his second “tea” and hinted for a third. `I didn't kiss her, you know.'

`I know that now,' said Kyouya, denying a fourth.

Kaoru shielded his eyes, smiling. `You're ruining my life,' he said. `First you try to turn me against my brother and then my brother against me… Then you kiss me and refuse to explain, giving me all these ideas… Now you've spread these awful rumours about me and Renge, turning my brother against me again and humiliating me in public… What more do you want from me, Kyouya? Can't you see that I'm suffering now? Do you think that you're happy now?'

Are you happy now, Kyouya?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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