Ouran High School Host Club Fan Fiction ❯ Host Club Love ❯ The plot boils over ( Chapter 5 )

“All this… for me?”

 

“Yep, yep!” Tamaki nodded happily. “All of it's for you!”

 

Honey-chan stared at the spread. “We can't have even a little bit?” Feeling Haruhi's stare, Tamaki fidgeted.

 

“Of course you can have some! But make sure Haruhi gets to pick first.”

 

“Yay! Pick Haru-chan! Pick!”

 

“There's so much. I don't know what to try first!”

 

“Try some of everything! No, better still, have dessert first! The strawberry cake looks yummy! Take some of that!” Honey grabbed the cake and cut a generous slice for her. “Takashi, what do you think she should try?”

 

Quietly, Haruhi admired Honey-chan's attempts to include Takashi in all his conversations. Next to a personality like Honey-chan's it would be easy for someone like Takashi to get lost in the shadows.

 

Silently Takashi picked up a plate Haruhi hadn't noticed and handed it to her. “YAY Takashi! Fatty tuna!” Honey-chan jumped up and down. “That's perfect! Try that first!”

 

“Thanks Mori-sempai.” He patted her head. Haruhi took a bite of the tuna and her eyes lit up in glee. “This is amazing!”

 

“Really!? You really like it!? I made it myself!” Five pairs of eyes focused on him.

 

“Really now, Tamaki?” Kyouya adjusted his glasses.

 

“Yep! It took me three tries and we have to replace four of the tiles in the kitchen and after that the cook ran me out and said he'd do the rest, but I made the tuna.” Tamaki poked at the band-aids on most of his fingers.

 

“That sounds more realistic tono.” He glared at his `rivals'.

 

“Haru-chan?” Honey-sempai tugged at her jacket. “Is it hard to make tuna?”

 

“Um… not exactly.”

 

“Then how come Tama-kun broke his kitchen?”

 

“I'm not quite sure.”

 

“Just smile and don't ask. You probably don't want to know.” Everyone nodded at Kyouya's advice.

 

Haruhi poked her food with her chopsticks for a few seconds before quietly talking. “Tamaki-sempai… thank you, I mean, not just for the food, but for remembering the anniversary of my mom's death. I didn't think anybody knew but when I saw all the food and you trying to cheer me up… it makes me really happy to know that you care. So thanks.”

 

Everything faded into dead silence. Kaoru and Hikaru wanted to slam their heads on the table. How did that guy get to be so lucky! Everybody, well everybody but Haruhi, knew that he had no idea what today was. She hadn't told them the exact day her mother died.

 

“Haruhi… I think your mom wouldn't have wanted you to spend the day mourning.” Tamaki regained his composure before Haruhi could wonder about the pause.

 

“Yeah! Haru-chan's mommy would want Haru-chan to be happy!”

 

“Right!” The twins grabbed their chopstick. “So let's eat!”

 

Haruhi smiled. “Right!”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx

 

“Dumb luck! Pure, dumb, blind luck!”

 

“He's probably won the game with that!”

 

The twins paced the length of the music room. “How? How did he get so lucky?”

 

“Kyouya!” Hikaru rounded on the shadow king. “Did you tell tono the anniversary of Fujioka-san's death?”

 

“I am not in this little game of yours. Didn't you see his face Hikaru? He was clueless as the rest of you.”

 

“Oh, so you weren't clueless?” Kaoru eyed him suspiciously.

 

“I am never clueless. I already had a portrait of Fujioka-san and a card expressing the appropriate condolences delivered to the Fujioka residence.”

 

“No fair Kyo-kun! You could have told us!”

 

“Yes.”

 

“It must have slipped my schedule.”

 

“What are we going to do Hikaru? We can't fight that!”

 

“Tamaki simply used two standard tactics in a romantic battle.”

 

“Oh, and what are those?” The members of the host club, minus Tamaki and Haruhi, gave their full attention to the vice-president.

 

“Emotion and personalization.”

 

“What are you talking about?” Kyouya resisted the urge to roll his eyes at the Hitachiin choir.

 

“The first thing is to appeal to the girl's emotions in some way. Sympathizing with her or making it so she feels she can sympathize with or understand you is almost guaranteed to earn you points in your competition. And secondly, personalizing the attempt to connect with her, doing something that is uniquely yours, makes the gesture more realistic. In Tamaki's case it was his bumbling in the kitchen. If he had just ordered the food it wouldn't have meant as much, but he took the time to make the food himself. And he's probably going to play something on the piano for her. What you need is something uniquely yours.”

 

The twins walked away and Honey-chan shot a shrewd glance at the younger boy. “Kyo-kun is up to something.”

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx

 

“How are going to come up with something like that?”

 

“I'm not sure. Give me some time, I'll think of something.”

 

“I just wish Kyouya-sempai would be a little more specific when he's trying to help us, huh Kaoru? Kaoru? Hey Kaoru! Look out!”

 

“Hmm?” Kaoru was lost in his thoughts and misjudged a step. His arms flayed outwards as he tumbled forwards. Hikaru lunged forward to grab him, but their hands barely missed each other.

 

“KAORU!” A look of fear crossed both their faces as Kaoru's ankle twisted and he hurtled downwards.

 

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxx

 

Haruhi's head shot up when she heard Hikaru's scream. She and Tamaki burst around the corner to see Kaoru's head collide with the steps and his body roll down.

 

“KAORU!” Hikaru flung himself down the steps after his brother.

 

“No! Hikaru don't!” Tamaki raced and grabbed the younger boy before he could grab his brother's unmoving form.”

 

“NO! Let me go damn you! Kaoru!”

 

“Haruhi!” But she was already gone for a doctor. “Hikaru listen to me! You can't touch him! If you move him you might make things worse.”

 

Hikaru snarled. Blood had begun to trickle from the younger twin's head and he hadn't moved.

 

“Get off me! What the hell would a bastard like you know about anything?!” Tamaki stiffened, and Hikaru knew he had hit a sore point, but he was too terrified to care.

 

“Fine. I'll let you go. You run over there and pick him up and hold him like you do when you comfort him. If his neck is broken he gets bone shards stuck in his trachea and he drowns in his own blood. In this case protecting him will only hurt him more. You can't always hold on to him. If I let you go, you'll go kill him!”

 

Hikaru's chest heaved and tears streamed down his face, but his struggling slowed. “Kaoru… Kaoru…”

 

“Move aside!” A doctor and two nurses pulling a stretcher raced around the corner. Hikaru allowed Tamaki to pull him out of the way and watched with dull eyes while the medical staff worked.

 

“Hikaru…” Tamaki shook his head and Haruhi stood back nervously. The other host members had come running when they heard the shouts, but they hung back, feeling useless. It seemed like forever before they loaded the still unmoving twin onto a stretcher. They raced off, but the doctor paused a moment.

 

“Quick thinking Suoh-san.” He gestured at Tamaki's death-grip on Hikaru's arms. “Moving the boy would have been dangerous.” He raced off to catch up with the stretcher.

 

Once they were out of sight, Tamaki loosened his grip. Hikaru jerked free, and faster than anyone could move, he whirled on the blonde. “Damn you! I hate you!” His fist slammed into the other boy's face.

 

Tamaki couldn't really tell if it hurt or not. Everything seemed numb and disconnected. He knew Hikaru was screaming at him but he couldn't make out any words. He knew he was falling, but he couldn't figure out why he didn't feel anything when he landed. Kyouya was talking to him, asking him something, but he couldn't answer. All he could do was just look up and wonder why everything seemed so far away.

 

“Hikaru! Hikaru please, get a hold of yourself!” He shook Haruhi off easily, but he couldn't do the same to Takashi.

 

“I'm going to kill him! Let me go! Let me go! I hate him!”

 

“Let him go.” Kyouya glared at his friend.

 

“Tamaki now is not the time for…” Tamaki pushed himself up and shoved Kyouya away.

 

“I said something I shouldn't have. And he needs to get this out. Mori-sempai let him go.”

 

Takashi shot a curious glance at Honey and Kyouya, who both shrugged. He dropped his arms and Hikaru flew forward.

 

A second punch flattened Tamaki. Takashi, Honey and Haruhi all started forward, only to be stopped by Kyouya.

 

“Tamaki knows what he's doing.”

 

“I hate you. I hate you. I hate you.” Hikaru knelt over Tamaki, hands shaking. He squeezed his eyes closed, but the tears streamed out anyway. “I hate you I hate you I hate you I HATE YOU!” This time his fist landed next to Tamaki's head. He wanted it. He wanted to see pain in the blonde's eyes. He wanted to see fear. He wanted to see it. He needed to see it. But all that was there was sadness. And he couldn't stop the sobs from tearing trough him. He didn't struggle when a hand pulled his head down to rest on a heaving chest.

 

“Hikaru, I'm sorry.”

 

Hikaru couldn't answer.

 

“Kyouya? Can I …” Kyouya nodded. Haruhi moved over to the two boys and pulled the sobbing twin off Tamaki and into her own hug. Tamaki sat up again, rubbing the side of his face where Hikaru's punches had landed.

 

“They took Kyo-kun's advice without even knowing it. Emotion, and the thing they have that no one else has was each other. You know Takashi, it's really sad.” Honey watched Haruhi hold Hikaru and whisper comforts into his ear, occasionally pressing her lips to his hair. “Hikaru-kun won, and he doesn't even realize.”

 

“Ah.”