Ouran High School Host Club Fan Fiction ❯ The Illegitimate ❯ Family ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

By: kanega

My room was, rather...large. The size of my old house, to be exact, and I couldn't help but feel a little irritated at the sight of it's beauty.

Consisting of a king-sized bed with posts and red silk covers and curtains placed in the center of the room between two giant french doors that lead to a balcony, draped with white silk. A plasma screen TV was planted just in front of the bed on the opposite wall, with two racks--one on either side--each four feet tall filled with an enormous collection of anime series that I had been nuts about getting for years. A huge expensive looking desk took up much of the left wall with a brand new computer along with a camera and other gadgets beeping to signal they were through charging. On the right side of the room rows and rows of shelves were set up with everything from encyclopedias to manga books dominating them.

This was the perfect room, and all I could ever hope for, but now I didn't want any of it.

Ami frowned and ran into the room and twirled. "It's no fair! Onii-chan gave you such a cool room, when mine's little and has a month-old computer!" Letting out a sigh, she shook her head, "Onii-chan must really like Mina-chan...but that doesn't matter! I'll make him remodel mine!"

She giggled and danced in the middle, performing something that looked an awful lot like professional ballet, even to my tom-boy eyes.

"Ami-san?" I called, trying to control my voice.

Turning around, she shook her head in anger. "No! No! Nee-chan! Nee-chan!"

"Nee-chan," I corrected not to show my irritation.

The beautiful aura that surrounded Ami and made her presence so intoxicating had pretty much worn off on the 287th step on the stairs as she had tripped for the 132nd time, and my patience was wearing thin with her.

"Could you please leave me for a while?"

Ami stopped and watched me with her big gray eyes and was silent for a moment, before nodding. "Okay, Nee-chan will leave. Mina-chan wants to have time to herself, and Nee-chan understands that."

But apparently my "Nee-chan" did not since she just stood there and stared at me with eyes that were growing bigger by the second. This twenty-something-year-old woman was absolutely not silently begging to stay so she could play and break everything she came in contact with. Absolutely not.

I looked up and she let a whimper escape her crimson red lips.

She absolutely was.

"Please, Nee-chan?" I asked, now able to withstand her amazing gaze without swaying.

Ami nodded and began walking to the door but then turned to try a look but I jabbed my finger (no, not the bad one) in the direction of the door. "Now."

Hearing the door close, I felt satisfied to walk into the center of the dome-like room and look up at the stories and glare at all the amazing bull that surrounded me, whichever way I turned. I even spotted a bathroom that I swore had a jacuzzi in it, but I restrained myself from going in and finding out.

This was disgusting.

Was this guy trying to make me slit his throat in his sleep or what? (AN: I can't let go of that)

I shook my head and took a deep breath. No, that's not it. Narrowing my eyes over to the door I thought of what Ami had said. He made it so that she would say that about how much better my room was than hers, I mean, it was obvious that she was one of the most predictable people on earth already, so that wasn't exactly a difficult task.

Looking over to all the anime and then up to the electronics and manga, my eyebrow twitched. This dude had probably done a background check on some of those super-secret organizations that know everything about you. Everything. Like you breathed at this time, and you're first word was that, that sort of thing. He could look up the records on what my computer had been doing on the Internet and easily find out the kind of things I had been searching for and what I disliked.

Either this guy was trying to make me forgive him--maybe even kiss-up to him--or he was trying to get me to hate him.

One thing was for sure; this guy was planning something.

Wait a god-for-saken-minute! That was crazy, I was crazy, and this room was way perfect. Too perfect. No, that was ridiculous. And here I was calling my father "that guy" I should be grateful for so much...but...I'm not.

How long would it take for it to sink in that "that guy" was my father? Days? Weeks? Months? Years? What did he even look like? What kind of person was he? Did I scream "useless" to him? Did he even acknowledge me?

Slapping my cheeks I shook my head of all those pointless thoughts. He most likely didn't care and is just giving me all this crap to keep me out of his way.

I sighed, went over to my bed, and flopped myself on the many pillows that made up half of the bed itself. It felt so nice, but I could just picture the words "Scandal at the Kenji household" with a picture of me on the front paper some day in the near future as it would be announced to the world of the rich that one of the honorable Kenjis had had an affair and had an illegitimate daughter.

ThatI knew was so true and undoubtable.

What would mother say if she saw me now? Sitting up in the bed, I looked around before letting out a sigh. I couldn't help but still expect her to come bursting through the doors with her miniature self and demand why I was in Japan and take me back home where she would sit with her girlfriend and laugh.

I remember so well the day Mother had told me she was gay. How afraid she looked that I would hate her, and I bet the silence that followed when I was interpreting what she was saying must have been killing her. After that I had promised myself that I would never make Mother so sad ever again.

But, obviously, I had failed.

Just a year later I saw the paramedics wheeling out her body that her girlfriend had discovered hanging from the balcony of their apartment.

Had I been so terrible that she thought I had hated her? Detested her? I couldn't think of one single moment when I could have made her feel that way, but I must have done something for her to have hung herself and all the evidence was on the note that she left behind behind that read "I'm sorry, Mi-Mi" in her scrawly handwriting.

"Mi-Mi..." I repeated, the words stinging my heart. That's what she had called me.

This was my fault.

"This is all that girl's fault!" Shiro yelled as she threw a priceless mirror that dated back to ancient China against the wall and it shattered, it's gold frame chipping off the paint of the wall.

Rika and Ringo sat on their sister's bed as she continued with her tantrum she had been throwing ever since she returned from her father's study an hour ago.

"How will I ever get married when everyone will think that we will bring such shame and scandals into their families?" Shiro turned and looked down at the two perfectly still little girls who watched her every move in silence. "You should be angry, too! This concerns your future, as well!"

"We are angered, Shiro-nee-san," Rika began.

"But we preffer to show our anger in a much more approachable manner," Ringo finished.

Shiro snorted and rolled her eyes at her little sisters. "Approachable? You two are such weird kids! This girl is going to live in your home, eat your food, ride in your cars, attend your schools, use your money, and all you will do is sit there and say you'll be approachable?"

Rika and Ringo jumped off the bed and landed neatly, before uniting with each other on the other side.

"Shiro-nee-chan should stop trying to make the commoner leave. Love Child-san will go nowhere. As long as Father is her father, she will continue to stay. Everyone already knows she is here, so he can't send her back. If Shiro-nee-chan keeps on acting so crazy, there will be no chance of her getting married or being able to get clean.

Shiro watched as the twins gave her a respectful bow before disappearing out of the room.

"Weirdos..."

"Kyouya," Yioshi Ootori called his youngest son at the dinner table.

The tall, shadow king of the Host Club looked up at his father who sat a few seats away, and even put down his fork. His eye's flickered as he understood that it must be important. "Yes, Father?"

Yioshi was unfazed and watched his son's interest peak so easily. "I trust that you've already discovered the issue at the Kenji household?"

Kyouya lifted his eyebrows and nodded. "Of course, Father. The issue of the illegitimate daughter of the heir to the Kenji Empire, is extremely well discussed everywhere." Yioshi nodded at his son, and leaned back in his chair. "The heir is an old childhood friend of mine, and we had a little...conversation to discuss what will be done with her."

Straightening up, Kyouya devoted his entire attention to his father.

"I don't care how you do it, but make it so that she is in debt to your little club as that Fujioka is," Yioshi simply statted. "We need that girl to be under our watch as it is very likely that she will become a very important asset in the near future for us."

"Yes," Kyouya spoke with a small smile. "Of course, Father."

"Matsumoto-sama?" a soft voice called me. "Are you awake Matsumoto-sama?"

My eyes fluttered open only to close tighter as light streamed in through my window and stung my eyes so mercilessly. The soft voice continued to call me as I tried my best to ignore it and focus on getting back to my dream about banana peels that wreaked havoc across the land.

"Matsumoto-sama, you must wake up, school begins in half an hour."

Forget the pain! Opening my eyes, my body wrenched up from the bed and turned with dark circles around my eyes to stare at a new maid, who bowed.

"Good morning, Matsumoto-sama.

Feeling around the bed, I found my glasses a foot or so away and shoved them on my face. Searching around the room I found the giant and expensive clock hanging on the wall a few meters away that read 7:01.

"R-Really? Morning? But...how?"

The maid's face remained patient. "I suppose you must have been so exhausted from your trip that you fell asleep. School starts in half an hour, you must hurry if you are to be on time."

She turned and walked away from the bed, allowing me to stand and lead me to the bathroom which had--as I thought--a jacuzzi that stared at me from the corner of the room. A bathtub the size of a mini-swimming pool sat in the middle of the room, along with mirrors and sinks all aligned against the wall. There was already a sea of water running in the bathtub as the maid stopped next to it.

"I have drawn your bath," she said with another bow.

But the only thing I could think of was, "What a waste of water..."

"You look...nice?"

I stared at my reflection in the giant three-way mirror that easily conquered half of my empty closet. I was wearing my school uniform as Ami stood next to me with a sheepish smile. Not even she could hide the fact that this was the last thing on earth I should even consider wearing.

With my wet hair drying at an alarming rate into twirling, tangling, twisting, and spiraling knots that stuck out in every direction and large bags under my terrifying eyes that glared at everything behind my crooked pair of oval glasses, that was enough to say I wasn't a very jolly person.

...but with the uniform...

"I look like a zombie in a sailor suite."

Ami shuddered as she saw triple the amount of death glares and images of me due to the mirrors and was forced to look away from fear of passing out.

"So blunt..."

Groaning I shook my head and pulled off my glasses. "I don't have time for this, Nee-chan." Walking out of the enormous closet and I went over to my bed and stared at the warm and welcoming sheets that had just been folded while I had bathed.

I resisted that incredible urge to dive into the sea of blankets and pillows, and turned on my heel, heading straight for my closet.

Ripping a black shirt off a hanger, along with a long sleeved white shirt, a pare of jeans, and my faithful, yet worn, Nike shoes. Pulling off the skirt and shirt, I threw it to the side and threw on the white long sleeved on, and the short sleeved black shirt on under it so that the arms of the white shirt were visible.

Ami seemed to watch me with intent in her eyes that were the size of watermelons and still growing. "So this is how commoners dress..."

"Only the ones that neglect fashion," I replied, walking past her and grabbing the school bag that Ami had brought up with that ridiculous dress. "I'm leaving, have a nice day, Nee-chan."

I heard a sob and turned around just in time for Ami to tackle me.

"Nee-chan is so happy! Someone actually called her "Nee-chan"! Mina-chan is a wonderful little sister! Mina-chan even said bye to Nee-chan! --Squeal!-- Nee-chan is so happy! ..." On and on she went, but eventually I flew out of the room and slid down the banister of the stairs, unable to walk back down to level ground before it was lunch time.

"Have a good day, Matsumoto-sama," rows and rows of maids bowed to me as I touched the handle to the large double doors that would lead to my freedom.

"Oh, uh, thank you! You guys have a nice day too," I yelled back to them as I cut through the grass and headed straight for Seiji, who waited patiently by his car in his black suit.

"Good morning, Seiji-san," I gave him a quick bow and dove into the car before he could come up with those words of respect that annoyed me. "Let's go I don't want to be late!"

"What a loud of bull was coming out of my mouth today," I thought as I threw a glance behind my back to see Ami come flying out of the doors of the mansion.

"Wait! Mina-chan! Wait for Nee-san to give you a hug on your first day!"

"Drive!"

"Shameful," Misaki glared down at Mina from the dinning room, where Ken, Shiro, the twins, and herself were reclined in their chairs gathered around the long wooden table that was made from albino wood from the Brazilian rain forest. "Not even coming down for dinner last night, and now skipping breakfast, I should have expected such loss of etiquette from a commoner."

"Of course, Mother," Shiro rolled her eyes. "The girl is only going to humiliate me further at school. Why is she in high school if she's only 14, Father? I mean, honestly, you could put her in the middle school division."

"No, no, Shiro-nee-chan," Rika began shaking her head.

"Love Child-san is in middle school, but will take classes in high school," Ringo finished ignoring her sister's temper soar with irritation and watched their father with Rika. Noticing no reaction, Rika and Ringo narrowed their eyes to their father. "What are you going to do with her, Father?"

Still, he didn't look up. "I have no plans for the girl other than to keep her in line."

The twins closed their eyes and sipped their tea. "But how do you plan to do that, Father? Surely you have some kind of little idea in mind on how to do that with her and more. We're sure you do."

"Nothing that concerns any of you."

It took a while to lose Ami, but after a few miles, she gave up.

Now, I leaned back in the limo and looked outside at the amazing buildings that rose up on the land. Every few miles or so, there'd be a new mansion that was no less grander than the last.

School...

Smacking myself on the forehead in irritation that I had actually forgotten about another important aspect of my new life. How could I have never thought about that either? What more had I not thought about? Friends? Food? Family? Pretty much everything. But I couldn't help it, I had been too mortified that my old father was sending me to live with my real one.

Was I that much of a horrible child?

Probably.

Sighing, I watched outside as a sea of trees came into view. "And now I'm going to school in a foreign country, how is that ever going to work out?" I wondered. "What kind of school will it be? Will I actually fit in here unlike back home?"

I shook my head and scolded myself. "What a selfish girl I am."

And here I stood. His little bastard. The biggest mistake of his entire life.

So what now? Nothing to live for, nothing to care about, nothing to do. What was I supposed to do with my life? The only thing, I could do, I guess. Go to school and try to make it through today.

"Matsumoto-sama, we have arrived," Seiji called me from the front as the car came to a halt, pulling me back to earth.

Turning to look out the window, I stopped.

"What the hell?"

A girl wearing what appeared to be cheap commoner clothing to all the heirs and heiresses of Ouran Middle School made her way down the hall with a dark aura following her as she glared in the most sinister and frightening way.

Her lightly tanned skin glowed compared to her dark clothing, and knots and knots of curly chocolate brown hair were tied back into a careless low ponytail. Strange, giant, heart-stopping, copper brown eyes seemed to glow behind her large, oval glasses as they stared straight ahead.

All together it was a very disturbing sight and it was only natural for everyone to back up against the wall as the "thing" slowly trudged down the marvelous halls of the academy.

"Is it human?" a girl asked her friend nervoulsy only for the strange girl to turn around with her frightening eyes and send her screaming down the hall.

Mina's POV

I just turned around to ask for directions and the girl ran down the hall screaming bloody murder.

What a weird person.

Turning back to ask one of the many people next to her, there was nothing but an empty outline of them.

Correction, what weird people.

Shrugging, I continued down the now vacant hall, taking a left, a right, and then another left I saw the sign that made my heart jump and butterflies turn over in my stomach.

Stopping at the door, I took a moment to take a breath before sliding open the door.

The word "doom" seemed to be the only word that could describe my future in this classroom and school as I felt all of the eyes in the room turn to me and stare with a look of wonder on their faces.

A tall, rather handsome man in his mid or late twenties stood at the front of the room with a book in his hands, raven black hair, and looked up at me with black, uninterested eyes. I felt them scan me and then he nodded and returned to scribbling characters on the board.

Suddenly I remembered that I could barely read Japanese. Crap.

"Matsumoto Mina?" he asked, without his eyes leaving the book. I nodded and stepped into the room that began to buzz with loud whispers that seemed to have a confidence-killing feeling eating away at my soul as I closed the door behind me and it closed with a small thud.

Walking into the fairly large classroom with about twenty different pairs of eyes on me I could here my new classmates whisper to each other and many send me unpleasant looks or looks of pitty.

"Everyone this is your new classmate, Matsumoto Mina, make sure to show her she is welcome during her first few days here, so that she can get accustomed to Ouran Junior High," he spoke to the class in a bored tone that let me know immediately he wasn't crazy about my sudden enrolment to this elite school.

My confidence was now reduced to a non-existing amount as I felt the heavy and judgmental stares of my classmates. What was I even thinking? Since when had I even had the slightest amount of such a usefull thing as "confidence"? Not when Leo Allen had stolen my favorite purple pencil in the second grade, and certainly not now.

These kids meant business. The future of their family's business depended on their every word they spoke, every movement they made, everything. Making the wrong impression on another family could even cost them a partnership or a billion dollar contract, so I heard. Surely taking the risk to talk to someone like me was out of the question for most of them, not that they cared, and neither did I.

School would be a complete and utter waste of time, not to mention a horrible experience. I mean, it was simple a lot of crap was about to go down in this fancy resort, but not the good kind, if there even was.

Wishing for the millionth time that I could just go home and jump into my queen-sized bed with those old, faded, blue blankets and squeeze my old lamb, Sarah, that I had forgotten back home with her juice-stained blue dress with white polka dots and blue ribbons in her hair, but I knew that was out of the question. As I knew Father would have told me, I should be grateful to be taken in by my real father, but he had not been the man I thought of as a father whenever I thought of the strange word. I wanted Father instead of this unmanly coward who I still had not faced and wished dearly that I could leave this lavish place and never have to.

What if I just disappointed him, too? Ridiculous. I already was "that shameful girl" in the eyes of these young teenagers, so what made me think that adults would think any better of me? Nothing.

Nothing mattered anymore.

I shivered as I thought of how long the day would come for me to be freed of this much-too-perfect place. I didn't think I would live that long, but then the strangest thing happened.

I don't know how else to describe it but as "a strange event", but it seemed like an understatement.

No matter how stupid I had thought Japan was only a few moments before, no matter how ridiculous and over-reacting I thought Japanese people were a mere moment ago, no matter how much I thought my life would suck like hell a second ago, no matter how much crap I was preparing myself to take up at this new life I had thought would be a life of pure solitude for the next four long years only a blink ago just a thought before, I was shocked to hear a small giggle.

Turning, along with the rest of the class I saw a pretty girl with a lovely, welcoming smile upon her rosy lips and fair skinned face. Her short, raven, black hair brushed just above her shoulders in a short, well-trimmed state, with giant dark brown eyes that seemed so vast and endless looking content at the sight of me. Her small, miniature-self was dressed in the sailor suite these strange people called a "uniform", that moved as she cocked her head and studied me further.

"Welcome to Ouran, Matsumoto-san," she smiled warmly, and my heart flipped as hope bloomed at such a simple sentence, it was pathetic.

I couldn't help but to smile in return, flashing the perfect, straight, white teeth I had from the previous two years worth of painful braces that had been removed only a few weeks ago. "Thank you," I beamed in almost a whisper.

Kagurashi-sensei sighed, "You may either call me Kagurashi-sensei or Sensei, any other terms will be followed with any form of punishment, I see fit, do you understand? Good. Okay, Matsumoto, take a seat by Mitsubishi. Mitsubishi, don't even bother raising your hand, I think it's obvious where she's going to sit if there's only one open desk. Now, sit, and continuing..."

The young man droned on with the common boredom that was shared among teacher these days, making him sound more and more like an old, ancient man as was my old wood shop instructor I had always feared would fall asleep with an electric saw in his hand. But I was glad, someone didn't care. Or maybe I would have been glad if I had even noticed but I was trying so hard not to stare at the kind and beautiful girl that my spirits lifted when I saw the only empty seat in the entire classroom was right beside her in the center row by the window.

Perhaps this would not be so meaningless...

"Kenji-sama," a man servant spoke as he was on his knees giving a bow to his master. "I apologize for disturbing you, but your son is here."

Remaining on the ground, he waited until he heard his masters cane touch the floor to look up.

The elderly man dressed in a traditional kimono with a glossy ivory cane in his right hand with his snow white hair cropped short stood over him with his strange and mesmerizing copper brown eyes boring into the servant, who immediately dropped his head again.

"You are dismissed," he said in a rough tone.

The man servant gave another deep bow before turning to open the door of Hatake Kenji's study. After giving a bow to the second son of one of the most powerful men in the economic world, he excused himself quietly, shutting the door behind him.

Hatake Kenji glared directly into his youngest son's matching copper brown eyes, unblinking.

His son ignored his dangerous glare and gave him a respectful bow. "Good morning, Father," Ken Kenji greeted, unfazed by the obvious amount of problems he faced, now in his father's presence.

"After how much you've disgraced the family's name, you still come," Hatake spoke angrily. "I'm not sure whether to think of you as bold or foolish."

"Then think of me as both, Father," Ken said looking back up at his father.

"You are very disrespectful to Grandfather, Uncle," a girl's voice spoke through the room. Ken's eyes flickered over to his niece who leaned against the window behind the father and son.

Long, thick, shiny black hair just like a doll's fell down her back and hung just a few inches past her slim waist, her cold gray eyes watched her uncle closely from behind her long bangs. Calling her gorgeous didn't do her justice in her yellow school uniform, but then again she could have been wearing rags for all anyone knew and still pulled it off.

"Good morning to you too, Emin," Ken nodded to his niece as she stood up and began to walk over to him with a calm expression on her heavenly face. "Always a pleasure to see Nii-sama's daughter, but shouldn't you be in school?"

Hatake held up a hand to silence Emin just as she was about to speak. "That does not concern you, now does it Ken? Besides, you have more important things to worry about, like how you are going to manage to keep your living when you will no longer be the heir to the Kenji Empire, now don't you?" his tone was harsh, but his face appeared calm as he stared straight through his son.

"Of course, Father," Ken bowed his head.

"Disgraceful," Hatake continued taking back his hand from the smirking Emin and placing both hands on his cane. "To think that your brother had to be the one to die in that fire, instead of you and your insolent wife."

Emin watched her grandfather closely as he spoke of her parents' death, untouched and unmoved, but interested.

"Forgive me, Father," Ken kept his head down.

"Leave us, Emin," Hatake spoke to his favorite granddaughter. "We musn't bring anymore shame to the family, so hurry to school."

Emin nodded and bowed to the two of them. "Have a wonderful day, Grandfather...you too, Uncle, " and with that she left the room with a broad smirk coming over her face, already able to predict the words that would follow in her absence.

"Emin will become our new heiress, and what a fine heiress she will be, don't you agree, Ken?" Hatake questioned with a taunting voice. "Much better than you will ever be. She has trained so very hard to assist you when you would take over, but knowing at how fine her father would have been she is better suited for the position, don't you think, Ken?"

Ken lifted his head and studied his father's face for a moment. "Why Emin, Father? Simply because she is Nii-sama's daughter does not make her right."

Hatake lifted his eyebrows and let out a small humorless laugh. "You think I would actually consider those worthless daughters of yours? Shiro will take over her mother's company, while the twins will simply take over that small electronics firm you've started, it's simple."

Shaking his head, Ken smiled pleasantly at his father. "Let's make it more fun and fair in the eyes of the public, shall we, Father? A competition, perhaps? If my girls are as useless as you claim, then I will make it so that they will serve Emin, but if not, then it was a wise decision on your part to make sure Emin is really the best."

Turning away from his son, Hatake headed for his desk. Slowly sitting in the chair behind his desk, Hatake watched his son still standing before him. "In the eyes of the public, what do they have to do with anything?"

"Everything. What other powerful families see in us is of great importance, so if it seems that we are not as shameful as thought of, think of how much better it would be for business in the future, don't you agree, Father?"

Hatake smiled to him, "You wish for a chance to have the power go one of your daughters, is that so?"

"But of course, Father," Ken smirked boldly. "Who would not wish for their children to be the ones on top, if it is not possible for them?"

Leaning back in his chair, Hatake sighed. "Very well, this will make Emin more intent with competition, even thought this is a complete waste of time."

"Ah, one more thing Father," Ken said, sitting in the chair opposing his father. "When I said all of my daughters, I meant all of them."

...and that's when Mina Matsumoto sneezed...