Haruhi smiled and held up the grocery bag with big yellow smiley face on it. "That was some sale."
"Yeah!" I agreed. "There's no better time to hit the supermarket than a Friday afternoon. Now all I've gotta do when I get home is clean and do some laundry." Just then I noticed a large group of people huddled around a fancy car. The car was a silver convertible with leather seats and chrome wheels. The license plates said 'Lucy 16'. "What's going on?"
I heard a man say, "Check out that car. Super rich."
A man who was barley familiar called out. "Lucy! Lucy-chan!" He was tall with dark hair and grey eyes. He waved his hand high in the air with the air of an embarrassing family member.
Crap! This guy's gonna blow my cover! Then I realized who it was. "Uncle-san! Why are you here?"
"This guy is your uncle?" Haruhi exclaimed. "He doesn't even know your name!"
"He doesn't know much about me." I whispered to Haruhi. Then I spoke up and said, "Please, Uncle, come with me." I bowed low, unsure how he had even recognized me. Man this can't be good! Why is he here? He should be back on the coast or something! Why did he come see me? I walked up to my apartment as fast as I could and unlocked the door.
Mrs. Landlady stopped me outside my room in the hall. "Excuse me, Mr. Light, but is everything all right?" she whispered. "He was driving such a fancy foreign car. He's not Yakuza, is he?"
"No, he's not." I shook my head. Yes he is and it's written all over him.
Mrs. Landlady grabbed my hand, flustered. "Do you want me to call the police for you?"
"No! He's not Yakuza! He's my uncle!" I shook her off and followed my Uncle inside. Haruhi followed us. "Haruhi Fujuoka, meet Nagasumi Michishio. My uncle... in a way." I turned to my uncle. "Okay, I covered for you. Why are you here? Mrs. Landlady was about to call the police!"
"Well that wouldn't have ended well." He rubbed the back of his neck and looked around. "I couldn't skip seeing the heir to my fortune on her birthday! Our family is rich. Why are you living in such a hovel?"
"Hey! I pay my own rent you know!" I put my milk in the fridge and gallon of ice cream in the freezer. "And my birthday is in three days. I'm sorry that running your 'organization' keeps you so busy but even you must have to have heard of what happened by now! Everyone in the sector knows! Even my friends know!"
"Yes about that. I need to know who your friends are." He said nonchalantly.
"As if! I don't care if you disown me! I won't tell you who my friends are. They don't need to get involved with you or the rest of your people! Now I must ask you and your fancy car to leave." I got down on my knees and leaned forward. I put my hands flat on the floor and my forehead on my wrist. "You are ruining my plans, Uncle-san." I stood and looked at Haruhi.
She gave the reaction I expected; slack jawed awe and fear. "Y-y-y... Yakuza!" she whispered.
"Haruhi, this needs to stay between us. I'm in hiding for good reason." I said calmingly. "Now get out, Uncle-san."
"Alright, alright. I'll leave, Lucy. But you need to come see me on your next break. I have important things to tell you." He walked towards the door. "And you're welcome to bring your boyfriend." He opened the door. "The fancy car is yours." He threw the keys on my little coffee table.
"She is not my boyfriend!" I yelled at him as he walked down the stairs to the street. I ran out to the top of the stairs. "And my name is not Lucy! It's Lucian!"
****time skip****
Haruhi stood by her stove. "I guess I'll make us some tea."
"Great." I sat down on her couch.
"Okay, the tea is ready. I'm sorry that the cups don't match."
"Trust me. It's fine. And I don't want you to treat me any differently from before. The Yakuza is my past, not my present or my future."
Haruhi took a pink cup and nodded. "I'll just forget it even happened." She took a sip of her tea. "Wanna go to the store with me? We're short a few things."
I smiled. "Sure." I got up and moved over to a small shrine. I got on my knees in front of it for respect. It was a shrine for Haruhi's mother. "I just want to pay my respects to your mother before we leave."
"Thank you." She joined me, on her knees as well. "You don't have to do that."
"You look like your mom."
"I guess so." She shrugged. "That's what my dad always tells me."
"She was a beautiful woman." I smiled. "And I bet she was a smart one as well."
"I'm not really a good judge of beauty, but she was smart. She was a lawyer."
"Oh yeah?" I smiled at Haruhi. "No doubt she was a great lawyer. I can tell. Trust me. You can't fool these eyes, Haruhi."
"She was a great lawyer." Haruhi's eyes began to tear up.
"We should probably get going." I stood and turned to leave. Suddenly the rug under my feet moved and I slipped. I fell right on top of Haruhi. "That hurts. Are you okay, Haruhi?" I lifted myself up off of Haruhi so that I was hovering over her.
"I'm fine, but you're kind of heavy."
Suddenly, Haruhi's dad, Ranka, walked in the door in a dress. "I'm home, Haruhi." He froze in place, his jaw open and eye twitching.
Haruhi turned her head towards the door. "Welcome home, dad."
I could hear the narration in my head telling me what was happening. Trying to make sense of it all. At that moment, her father came home from his shift at the tranny bar. He saw his daughter pinned down. Being forcefully held to the floor by some strange boy. I scrambled off of Haruhi. Dad? You gotta be kidding. This is Haruhi's father?
Haruhi sat up. "So dad, how was work?"
Just stay calm. I got down on my knees and leaned forward. I put my hands flat on the floor and my forehead on my wrist. "It was an accident, sir." I'm sure he'll understand if I explain what happened. I realized the way I was apologizing was completely Yakuza style.
But Ranka didn't even notice. "I'm sorry. I hated having to leave you alone last night." Ranka hit me and I was thrown against a wall. "You must have been lonely."
"That sound. She hit really hard." Haruhi reached out her hand towards me.
Ranka smiled at his daughter. "Oh, dear, my left arm has been bothering me lately. It's so sore! Like I went hand to hand with some ferocious beast."
I pealed myself off the wall. "Please, sir..."
Ranka looked at me. "Oh, my, would you look at that?" He stood and stepped on my head. He moved his foot from side to side like squashing a particularly nasty bug. "I seem to come across a little pest. Would you like to tell me why you're addressing my daughter with such informality, young man?"
"Please, sir! I am not a boy. My name is Lucian Light. I'm a good friend of your daughter's. Please, sir, get off my head."
Ranka took his foot off my head. "Oh my." He helped me stand up and looked me over. "So, then, you're a transvestite, aren't you? How long have you been cross dressing?" He looked impressed.
"Um... a few years. I'm no pro but I'm not so amateur that I can't tell you're really a man." I shrugged. "You are the first real professional I've ever seen."
Ranka smiled. "Now I get it. You must be a part of the host club. You certainly make a fine looking young man. You can understand why I was so unhappy when I saw you on top of my daughter. Why don't you go ahead and call me Ranka? That's the professional name I use at the transvestite bar I work at."
"Sure! You can just call me Lucian." I don't know what it is about him, but Haruhi's dad reminds me of someone. That's right! Tamaki is a bit like this too! This explains why she is so good at handling him.
Ranka looked at Haruhi as she opened the door. "Wait, Haruhi. Where are you going?"
Haruhi turned back to us. "The supermarket, all right? I have to go shopping and I wanna do it by myself. So just stay here and try to behave yourselves."
I stood up and walked toward her to slip on my shoes. "Wait. I promised I'd go with you."
She slammed the door.
Ranka sat back against the couch. "I wouldn't push it. Once she's made her mind up, she'll never change it. When she decided she wanted to go to Ouran academy, she did all the enrollment paper work by herself. While I respect her independent spirit, I wish she'd be a little more dependent on me sometimes." Ranka sighed. "I hope you know how grateful I am to the Host Club. Since she found it, she seems to be happier. She is enjoying herself. Wouldn't you agree, Lucy Light?"
"Wait how do you know who I am?"
Ranka shrugged. "A man came into the bar the other day with a picture of you. I recognized you from seeing you in the hall. You were a very pretty girl you know. Did that man ever find you? He was tall with black hair and he looked very important."
"Yes. He did. He's my uncle, well sorta. And he bought me a car."
"Wow! He must be rich! Which industry is he in? Make-up? Hair care? Health care? Surely I've heard of him."
"No. No you've probably never heard of him. He does a little bit of everything but he's more rich for what he doesn't tell people." I looked at my shoes. "I hate his job and hope he lives forever so I won't inherit it."
Suddenly Ranka was beside me. "How about we have some fun?" He patted my back. "We're going to follow her to supermarket!"
We walked out together. My uncle had moved the car to the parking building full of mini vans and pickup trucks that sat across the street. We decided to walk. "This is what you meant by fun."
Ranka smiled. "Yes, I call it the stalking game."
I could see some girls starting to follow me and recognized them as some girls who used to flirt with me on the way home after school. I could hear them talking to each other, each afraid to come say anything to me.
Ranka giggled. "In all honesty, I have a completely selfish reason for bringing you out with me. I want to be seen with a cute boy. It'll boost my cred at the bar!"
Sure enough. Those two are definitely cut from the same cloth. "Do you really think it's necessary to follow her around like this? Are you that worried about her?"
We entered the store together.
"As you know, Haruhi lost her mother at a rather young age and afterwards she took on all the household chores and shopping by herself. I decided to start following her whenever she would leave the house. Maybe, I'm just being over-protective but I worry about her all the time. I'm the only one who can protect her, you know?" Ranka paused as though remembering something. "Either she doesn't know how to depend on others or she refuses to, she's always been so independent and so strong. And she has this uncanny ability to affect others without even realizing it."
"That's true. I've seen it. I understand. She's a lot like me." I watched as Haruhi picked out the freshest fruits she could find.
Ranka seemed to forget I wasn't out to marry Haruhi. "What do you mean you understand? Don't think you're gonna win me over just because you're handsome. I'm warning you, I'm not ready to let go yet."
"I understand what you're saying! Please stop freaking out on me sir." I smiled. "I may not know Haruhi very well but after only a few weeks she managed to get my entire life story out of me. Don't worry, Ranka." I walked out of the hiding pace and right up to Haruhi. I put my hand on her back.
"What the? Hey, what are you doing here, Lucian?"
"Well, I promised to help you with your shopping didn't I? After all, you helped me with mine." I smiled. "I'll go get the milk for you."
"Great! With the two of us doing it we'll get this done in no time!"
I walked up to Ranka, who walked with me to get the milk.
"I know it's going to happen eventually," Ranka said. "One day, my precious little girl will be all grown up and she'll want to have that special someone by her side... but just thinking about it gets my blood boiling."
"You don't have to worry about that too much. She's a good girl with big dreams and not likely to go looking for that boy for at least a few years." Or at least recognize his love for her. I get the feeling Ranka has probably met Tamaki by now. "I'll help you protect her. She is my best friend, after all."