(Seina's POV)
The next morning, Kyoya and I headed to the pension for breakfast, something he was none too happy about having being unceremoniously dragged from his bed. Though after our night together he seemed far more inclined than usual to indulge me.
As we walked in, we spotted Kaoru and Hikaru seating themselves at a small table and bickering about something. Haruhi appeared to take their breakfast order and they proceeded to list an elaborate arrangement of things definitely not on the menu.
'None of that is on the menu.' Haruhi informed them shortly. Before they could debate the matter further Tamaki-senpai appeared and hit them both around the back of the head with a rolled up newspaper. Although you had to admire his unusually apt and decisive measures his words rendered them pointless.
'Who do you guys think you are behaving like some affluent members of the aristocracy.'
They looked around at him with raised eyebrows. 'Well we are and so are you.'
He adopted an unnecessarily high and mighty voice. 'When in Rome, do as the Romans do. That is my general rule. So, when in Karuizawa, enjoy Karuizawa!' He then produced a covered dish and presented it with no shortage of dramatics. 'Cold pasteurised jersey steaks with fresh juice from Shinano, highland vegetables and the finest smoked salmon, cooked slowly over cherrywood chips which are the pride of the local community. Freshly baked campagne breads with homemade jam so you can taste the natural flavour. Help yourselves.'
We all stared at him in surprise and Kyoya glanced down at me. 'It's not too late to go back to bed you know.' I gave him a thoroughly unimpressed look even as his arm snaked around my waist and left me sorely tempted to oblige him.
'When did you become such a big fan of Nagano?' The twins demanded.
Haruhi sighed. 'He turned up here too early this morning so Misuzu-san showed him everything.'
'While you were all sleeping, I even made a guidebook for our training camp, so dedicated a president am I.'
'You really don't have anything better to do, do you?' Haruhi asked from her place between the twins.
'See Haruhi,' He said gesturing to the first page as he leaned over her shoulder. 'the first rule is that you cannot treat me as your senpai while we're here.'
Hikaru flicked through the book. 'It says here that we have to get up at 6:00 am, are Kyoya-senpai and Honey-senpai following that rule?' Tamaki-senpai staggered back from them realising the potential consequences and still unaware of our presence.
'Well, I most certainly won't be.' Kyoya declared, announcing our arrival and drawing me to the nearest table. He smirked at me. 'I have much better things to be doing.' I blushed fiercely and gave him a halfhearted kick beneath the table. He just laughed and smiled at me softly. Thankfully no one else picked up on what he was implying.
Sparing me from any further embarrassment the bell on the front door announced the arrival of a young man delivering for 'Arai Produce'. Misuzu-san cheerfully chatted to him about his high school and his summer job while Haruhi stared at him. Misuzu-san called her over to put the fruit away and he dropped his cap in surprise as he identified her. 'Haruhi? Haruhi Fujioka?' His cheeks were pink giving away his opinion of her but her gaze was equally intense.
'Arai-kun.'
The twins and Tamaki-senpai were temporarily united against the boy. He looked down at the three boys seated on the floor, clearly uncomfortable.
'Uh...friends of yours?'
'Yes. This is Hikaru and Kaoru they're classmates of mine. And this is my senpai...an acquaintance of mine.' Tamaki-senpai reacted as if she had struck him while Misuzu-san made things worse by playing a minor chord at the piano. He turned to her slightly dazed.
'Misuzu-san please don't add to my personal despair.'
It turned out that the green grocer boy was actually a friend of Haruhi's from middle school. Since they'd run into each other so unexpectedly, he was invited to stay for a drink. The entire time he was flushed pink like a school girl with a crush. He asked her how Ouran was going and if she was still in touch with any of their old classmates.
By this stage Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai had joined me and Kyoya at our table while the twins sulked at the bar. Hikaru in particular was being more troublesome than usual, commenting on the duo's clear lack of a friendship and demanding Haruhi refill his drink. Tamaki-senpai was making a hamster nest in the corner which looked suspiciously to everyone else concerned like a mess. Bizarrely Arai-kun seemed more amused than concerned.
Hikaru continued to be hyper critical of Arai-kun's 'innocent' and 'refreshing' behaviour before finally declaring loudly that he had a thing for Haruhi. Arai-kun clearly having heard looked really embarrassed. I bent down and slipped off one of my pumps and when Hikaru opened his mouth again. 'Really it's sickening.' I lobbed the shoe at the back of his head.
'Hey! Seina!' He jumped off his stool and turned to face me. 'What was that for!? That was uncalled for!' By this stage Haruhi was annoyed and stood up too.
'No Hikaru! You are the one who is being unpleasant!'
Before she could say anything more Arai-kun interrupted her. 'No it's fine really. He is right after all. I did used to have a thing for you, Fujioka.' That stunned poor, oblivious Haruhi into silence. 'Then again I've already been turned down by you.' Everyone turned shocked eyes on Haruhi who was staring wide eyed at Arai-kun.
Kyoya raised an eyebrow at her. 'Why do you look so shocked?'
Arai-kun then proceeded to explain how he rather too subtly attempted to confess his feelings to Haruhi and how she cluelessly broke his heart. In fairness to her he had clearly done a shoddy job of confessing by anyone's standards. She turned back to him and bowed a little too low.
'I'm really sorry.'
He just laughed her off. 'No it's ok, you don't need to reject me again. I'm over it. Plus if you didn't understand it shows you weren't interested.'
His good natured manner won me over and although he lost points from me for gushing about how wonderful he thinks Haruhi is, that won Tamaki-senpai over and we all ended up sitting together. Well everyone except the twins. While Kaoru seemed casually interested, Hikaru was in a foul mood.
Tamaki-senpai tried to invite them over to hear old stories about Haruhi but Hikaru rudely rejected the invitation. 'I don't especially want to hear about them.'
I went to chuck my other shoe at him, earning a bemused chuckle from our unexpected guest but Kyoya stopped me. 'Seina please put your shoe back on your foot.' I stuck my tongue out at him but did as he asked. I would bide my time.
'Or should I say, how stupid are you!? Getting so excited about stories from the past! And doesn't he get that Haruhi doesn't want anything to do with him? Haruhi has no room in her life for you!'
I was about to get up and deal with him but Haruhi beat me to it. Literally. Before he could say another word, she slapped him straight across the face.
'That's not for you to decide Hikaru! If you do one more rude thing to my friend, you'll answer to me!' He didn't look at her, seemingly unable to process what had just happened.
'What is this? Why do other people matter!?' He jumped to his feet. 'We're your friends aren't we!?' I could hear the tears in his voice and it hurt me to know my friend was in pain but one way or another he had to learn to deal with his emotions and not lash out. So I stayed where I was as he ran upstairs, Kaoru giving chase.
Kyoya put his hand on my thigh, a subtle reassurance that I was doing the right thing. Still it didn't feel that way and I knew it was a 50/50 split as to whether Hikaru would see my choice as a betrayal.
When Arai-kun left Haruhi apologised profusely for Hikaru's behaviour but he brushed her off. 'It's ok. I don't know what I did but I seemed to somehow set him off.'
Kaoru then appeared in Hikaru's clothes looking convincingly chastised and I narrowed my eyes at him. Honey-senpai was quick to misidentify him.
'Hika-chan!'
He walked slowly down the path till he was standing in front of Arai-kun. 'I was out of line. I'm sorry.'
'Oh, it's ok.' Arai-kun smiled at him, all forgiven. 'Bye Fujioka. Bye everyone.' Then he was gone, off on his bike as we waved goodbye.
For a second I thought Kaoru had gotten away with his deception till Haruhi spoke again. 'Kaoru, why are you pretending to be Hikaru.' He jumped guiltily, clearly having presumed the same.
'Well...Hikaru doesn't seem like he's going to cheer up anytime soon. So, Haruhi I have a favour to ask you. Will you go on a date with me all day tomorrow?' My eyes widened in surprise, both at his bold request and the fact he didn't intend to spend the day sulking with his brother. Weird. And suspicious.
Once Haruhi had agreed I grabbed the back of his hoodie and yanked him back as the others went inside. I narrowed my eyes at him. 'What are you up to?'
'Nothing!' He replied incredulously as if I'd made an unfair accusation. Still suspicious but not interested in forcing the truth from him, I let him go.
Kyoya gave me a sideways glance as I returned to his side. 'What was that about?'
'Nothing much.' I answered honestly.
'Getting bored of me already?'
I scoffed at him. 'You weren't actually jealous?' He narrowed his eyes slightly so I huffed a sigh a leaned into his side. 'Don't be ridiculous. It's come to my attention that there are certain benefits to keeping you around.' He smirked at that and I tugged him a little closer to me by the collar.
'Do you want to call it a day and go back to bed?'
'Mmm. Let's go.'
He wrapped an arm around my waist and led me out the door to our waiting car.
Somehow the next morning I found myself once again sitting at a table with Kyoya, Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai. We were drinking tea in a small cafe near the pension. By the window Tamaki-senpai and Kaoru were squabbling loudly. Apparently the blond wasn't happy about Haruhi being tricked into going on a date with Hikaru. I was slightly disappointed that Kaoru hadn't been up to something more interesting. Still, the tea was good.
'What's with that outfit!? She looks hyper-cute! Hyper-cute!' Haruhi was in fact dressed as a girl and wearing hair extensions but I had to disagree. She suited her short hair and had looked far cuter the day before.
It was not long before we were trailing behind the two, Tamaki-senpai having to be periodically restrained. Kaoru paused thoughtfully. 'I think it might be good for Hikaru to have more people who are dear to him. For the longest time it was just us and I guess we became kind of selfish. We had Seina.' He beamed at me. 'But her intelligence and determination just made her isolated in a different sort of way and nothing really changed. Hikaru is especially childish, he charges straight in with only his emotions. He doesn't seem to realise but he's quite fond of Haruhi. He doesn't know how to act so he's forcing his emotions on everyone else. He wants to monopolise her like a child. But if you want someone around as a friend not a toy then you have to learn to respect them. I think Hikaru needs to learn to get along with other people in this way.'
Tamaki-senpai stared at him for a moment. 'You're amazing Kaoru.'
Kyoya glanced at me as if to see what I thought of the situation. 'So this is a trial to get him to develop feelings of consideration for someone else?'
Kaoru pointedly ignored the question, probably because Kyoya was spot on. 'Don't interfere ok?'
Tamaki-senpai frowned at him. 'We don't need to watch them then.'
'Of course we do.' Before anyone could argue with him Kaoru had dashed off in the direction we'd last seen them go.
At first, things looked awkward between them and Hikaru seemed unreasonably irritable. Then Honey-senpai nearly blew our cover pretending to be an ice cream vendor. God knows where he got the cart and costume from. Luckily Mori-senpai stopped him before he was caught and he actually inspired Haruhi to get some ice cream. Before she could share hers with Hikaru and cause an 'indirect kiss' scenario, Tamaki-senpai intervened by bursting into the stall and dispensing ice cream. Again Haruhi and Hikaru failed to notice the change in vendor or him being violently shaken by the 'ill' twin.
I watched them enjoying their ice cream and their date improving and tried not to feel jealous. Kyoya pushed his glasses up his nose. 'You know, we've technically never had a real date.' I turned my head slowly towards him. Why did it feel like he was reading my mind?
'I know.' I replied carefully.
'Well, once they're on their way again, how about I buy you an ice cream. We can even buy souvenirs if you like.'
I eyed him suspiciously but eventually agreed. 'Ok.'
He smiled and entwined our fingers, kissing the back of my hand. 'Let's go then.'
The ice cream was deliciously cool in the summer heat. I picked a dark chocolate flavour and coaxed Kyoya into having a taste. Theorising that it shouldn't be too sweet he reluctantly agreed. I grinned at him as he licked his lips and he blushed ever so slightly. He shook his head. 'Come on let's go buy some cheap nonsense for your siblings.' Somehow, I couldn't quite keep the smile off my face as we wandered from shop to shop.
I was just trying to decide between two little bracelets for Ayumi when thunder rolled overhead. I frowned at the sky from the doorway of the shop. 'Is a storm forecast for today?'
Kyoya smirked at me. 'I'm afraid I was rather distracted last night and the weather forecast slipped my mind completely.' I blushed and jabbed my elbow into his ribs.
'Not funny.'
'Why are you so concerned Seina? We can call for the car if it starts to rain. Hikaru and Haruhi can do the same.'
When I continued to frown at the sky he drew me back to the stand I'd been looking at. 'Stop worrying.' Letting go of my unease I returned my attention to the bracelets.
That evening the sky was dark with cloud cover and it was pouring with rain. Kyoya and I had just arrived back at the cottage to drop off our bags when the heavens had opened up. Then, despite other tempting suggestions from Kyoya, we returned to the pension to wait with the others for the return of Hikaru and Haruhi.
By then it was a full scale thunderstorm outside. I knelt beside Honey-senpai at the window and watched the lightning cleave the sky. 'I hope they've found somewhere under cover.' I nodded wordlessly and glanced back at the others. Kyoya was impassive and Kaoru was beginning to look concerned, biting his lip and glancing towards the door. Tamaki-senpai was pacing frantically back and forth, clearly on the edge of a full scale meltdown.
The tension was cut by the shrill ringing of Misuzu-san's landline. She then explained that it was Arai-kun on the phone ringing to check that Haruhi and Hikaru had made it back safely. Hikaru having stormed off, leaving Haruhi outside the Greengrocers. Naturally she'd given chase. We all exchanged a worried look and Kaoru looked guiltily at his feet. This was after all his brilliant idea.
Tamaki-senpai wasted no time in dialling Hikaru's number and laying into him. 'You stupid idiot! You turn around right now and find Haruhi! What kind of person leaves a girl out in the rain like this by herself!? Listen to me, Haruhi is deadly afraid of thunder! When she hears thunder, she becomes so terrified that she can't even move! Before you start indulging in your childish jealousy, think about what the other person is going through!' He then hung up, slamming his phone down on the table.
Hikaru didn't ring to say he'd found Haruhi till the worst of the storm had passed. A car was sent out immediately to retrieve the sodden and bedraggled pair from a church of all places. When they finally stumbled through the door, a length of white cloth and Hikaru's arm wrapped around Haruhi, his headphones around her neck we all breathed a sigh of relief. I rushed forward and hugged Haruhi tightly against me, probably suffocating her slightly but not caring. 'Seina...can't...breathe...' I released the other girl and surrendered her to a tearful Tamaki-senpai. Then I turned on the redhead trying to fade into the background. I shot Kaoru a look that told him not to interfere and punched Hikaru's left arm. 'That is the being a childish, self-centred, jealous prat!' Then I punched his right arm while he was still rubbing the other. 'And that is for abandoning my friend in a strange place in a thunderstorm! Phobia or not!' Then I threw my arms around his neck. 'And this is because I was so goddamn worried about the two of you and I am so glad you found her.' He tentatively returned my embrace before pulling away.
'So you forgive me now you've claimed your pound of flesh?'
'Of course.'
'Good. Though I think you may have just added me to your fiancé's hit list.'
I glanced over my shoulder at an irritated Kyoya. 'Don't worry about him. Where did you get the cloth you've wrapped around Haruhi?'
'Err...well...it was just lying there...on the altar...so...'
'You stole from a church!?'
He winced. 'Sort of.'
The next day, Arai-kun turned up bright and early with an impressive watermelon. An obvious excuse to see Haruhi but a tasty excuse. He offered the watermelon to Hikaru and the two actually smiled at each other. Perhaps Hikaru had actually learned something.
I stood with Kaoru peering over the railing from the upstairs landing when Kyoya appeared. 'By the way, about your strategy for yesterday's date, did you ever consider that things might go too well and foster feelings of love?'
I scowled at him. 'Is that a genuine question or are you just being mean?' Kaoru didn't seem bothered though and shrugged it off.
'It is still too soon for that. Hikaru is a dummy and all.'
Tamaki-senpai spotted us and waved enthusiastically. 'Hey! Melon-cutting!'
Kyoya pushed his glasses up his nose. 'We have a lot of dummies in our club.'