Average Life [OHSHC}

Chapter Nine

"Well, this is awkward." Kaoru said at dinner. Maiko was sitting uncomfortably at the large wooden table inside Kyouya's beach house. Somehow after the 'incident' as Maiko is now thinking of it, all of her things had been taken from the hotel in placed inside one of the many guest rooms at the beach house.

"Honestly, tell me about it." Hikaru complained. The two were sitting across from Maiko, Kyouya was at the head of the table, then it came Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai, then Maiko, Haruhi, and finally Tamaki at the end. Maiko shot the twins a look, trying to tell them to be quiet with just her eyes.

"Well," Honey-senpai said, taking the twins que to end the silence, "it's time we ate all that good food we caught Haru-chan!" He ended his statement with a closed eye smile. Instantly all of the hosts began to dig in, Haruhi grabbing practically a mound of crab legs. Maiko sat there politely, not reaching for any of the food.

"Maiko, I assure you you're welcome to any of the food. Of course, afterwards we need to have a talk about what you heard." Kyouya said with a smile, but Maiko was smart enough to see just how insincere it truly was.

Maiko sat in her chair glumly, wishing that Hana had never dragged her to the stupid Host Club. "I don't like seafood." Maiko muttered quietly, looking away from the table and towards the ceiling. Honestly she was over the shock at Haruhi being a she instead of a he, but it didn't help the sting of hurt that was coursing through her bones. She never got close to people, the only person before hand had been Hana, and that had been cultivated since middle school, here, here she was opening herself up to a whole group of people and now all she got back was lies and distrust.

"Oh, I wasn't aware of that." Kyouya reached for his black notebook on the table and began to write.

"It's not worth writing down." Maiko muttered, looking away from her classmate.

Kaoru frowned, watching Maiko physically begin to distance herself. She had barely made eye contact or even talk to anyone since dinner had begun, and now she was even snarking back to Kyouya. All the more important she seemed dead set on avoiding looking at Haruhi, who was wearing a pink nightgown courtesy of one Mr.Fujioka.

"We can go get you something to eat later, if you want?" Kaoru said to her, trying to get the girl to even just look at him.

Maiko slowly lowered her eyes from the ceiling and towards Kaoru. She smiled but anyone could see the pain behind it. "It's fine Kaoru, I'm not hungry anyways."

Haruhi had been silent since walking into the room and seeing Maiko sitting at the table. She could see the hurt in the other girls eyes the second she discovered that she was actually well, a girl. She didn't think it was right of Kyouya-senpai to force Maiko to stay at the house when it was obvious she wanted to go home, but she was also kind of thankful for him. She didn't want to lose a friend because of this, though there were still other matters of dignity and pride she had to deal with.

Maiko sighed, leaning back in her chair and listening to Haruhi and Tamaki go at it. She closed her eyes, trying to gather her thoughts when someone slammed their hands on the table, jolting her.

"If you don't want to admit that you were wrong then fine. Kyouya, can you see me to my room please? I'm afraid I'm done here."Tamaki said, rising from his chair and walking towards Kyouya's. Kyouya nodded his head and began to stand, excusing himself. Once again, it was dead silence.

Or at least there was, until Haruhi spoke up. "Maybe he was right." She said quietly, dropping a crab leg and looking up at the remaining guests.

"So that's it? He got to you huh." The twins said, leaning against their hands.