Lonely Souls

I was fast asleep well into the morning. I was glad that I had no school today. I was in that wonderful state of unconsciousness, you know that feeling of euphoria right before have to wake up. Yeah well, I was there. And I was woken up none too kindly. I could feel a shadow looming over me. I opened me eyes and screamed in surprise, backing up towards the wall.
Ranka and Haruhi were looming over me as I slept. Now they were simply staring at me, expecting me to spill the beans on my night. “Really?! You couldn’t wait for me to actually wake up on my own?”
Ranka smiled. “Nope. Now tell me all the juicy details!”
He sat down on the edge of my futon and Haruhi was on the other side. “You guys really couldn’t wait for me to wake up! Ugh! Fine. Last night was great.”
“So... what did you and Kyoya do?”
“We talked, ate, danced. Nothing more.”
I thought back to when he pushed me up against the wall. Was it wrong that thinking back on it, it made my stomach to do flips? Was it wrong that I kinda liked him being upset like that. There was no way in hell that I was going to tell these two about that. “Hisoka? Why are you blushing? Did Kyoya do something to you,” asked Haruhi angrily.
“What?! No! Nothing happened between us! I just--“
I looked down, not wanting to mention Sadao. The memories of him suddenly came rushing back. “Hisoka?”
“I saw Sadao.”
Ranka immediately pulled me into a hug. “Oh, sweetie! Are you ok? Did he hurt you?”
“No. I didn’t give him the chance to touch me. But I was so scared when I saw him. I felt like I was 13 again.”
Ranka began petting my hair and Haruhi hugged me from behind. “Shhh. Shh. It’s ok. You’re fine and that’s all that really matters.”
I didn’t cry. I just let them hold me. At least they held me until there came a knock from the door. Haruhi stood up and answered it. From my room I heard, “Is this the residence of Hisoka Akiyama?”
“Yes, my cousin is here.”
“These are for her. Ma’am.”
A few seconds later the door closed and Haruhi reentered the room. I looked up at her and saw her carrying a bouquet of purple roses, hydrangea, and lilies. Haruhi handed the bouquet to me and I smelled them. I smiled when I spotted a letter tucked away between the flowers. I pulled it out and opened the envelope. I looked up at my family. “Could I read this alone?”
“Of course.” Haruhi and Ranka left me to my letter. It read:
‘Thank you for last night, Hisoka-chan. Your company was enjoyable. And you quite a wonderful dancer. I hope to escort you sometime again in the future.’
Once again there was just an outline of a purple rose at the end of the letter. No name. I smiled to myself as I figured out my mysterious notebook finder.
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Ugh. Back to school. Don’t get me wrong. I like school. But getting there and have everyone staring at you was just something that I simply did not enjoy. I headed straight for the classroom, knowing that is where I would find Kyoya.
I entered the classroom and I knew I was right on the money. He was sitting at his usual desk. But something was off. He had papers spread across the desk and his hair was rumpled. Currently he was rubbing his temples in frustration. I approached him like I would towards a terrified wild animal. “Kyoya-kun?”
He looked up startled. “Oh, it’s you.”
“Something wrong?”
“You could say that.”
I looked at the papers on his desk and realized that they were the Host Club’s financials. “Without Mori and Honey there at every meeting, our profits have dwindled drastically. We’re barely remaining a float, even with all the cut backs I’ve made.”
I sat down next to him. I pushed him away from the papers and grabbed a few to look over. He gave me THE glare. Most people would back away and run screaming. I just glared right back. “Don’t give me that look. Let me help. I used to do all this on my own, remember?”
“Alright, ‘Miss Financial’ give me you opinion!”
He must be really tired because he was never this sarcastic, border lining insulting. I gave him one last glare before gathering up all the papers and organizing them and putting them in my backpack. “I’ll look over them when ever we have breaks. And while I look things over, you’ll be taking a nap.”
Kyoya was about to open his mouth to retort but stopped when Tamaki and the rest of the class entered the room. Today was going to be a long busy day.
---------------
It was now lunch time and I was sitting next to Kyoya. He ate his lunch and he reluctantly took a nap. I had to threaten him. He was so stubborn it was annoying. He took off his glasses and placed his head on the table. I smiled and started working through the financials. I was a little more than half way through when the twins decided to join us. They looked questionably at him. I glanced up in time to see them smirk evilly.
“Don’t you two even think about it.”
I gave them my glare and they wisely backed down. I nodded to them when they made the right choice. Haruhi soon joined us with her own bento box. “What’s with Kyoya?”
“I think he’s been up for the last two nights trying to figure out some financials problems the club is having. I took it upon myself to do it for him. I’ve been making him take naps whenever we have the chance for him to.”
I looked up in time to see the twin getting ready to poke him with a fork while he slept. “What did I tell you two?”
They looked up at me with guilt written all across their faces. Just then Tamaki sat down. “Wow, my lady. You must be powerful to get him to nap.”
“Leave him alone, Tamaki-kun. I didn’t really do anything besides offer to do the financials. And I now know why he’s upset.”
“Why,” asked Haruhi.
“The club is at a 30% loss financially without Honey and Mori consistently around. Even with all the budget cuts Kyoya’s been making, the club is cutting it way to close. And it was already cutting it close without any cut backs. So I have to figure out a way for us to make more.”
Everyone was silent, trying to come up with a way to make more money. Suddenly the bell began to ring. Everyone stood except Kyoya. No one bothered to try to wake him up. I was about to touch him on the shoulder when Kaoru grabbed my hand. “What are you doing, Hisoka-senpai?!?”
“Wake him up.”
Hikaru appeared on the other side of me. “Waking him up is a bad idea.”
“Why? You two were going to try to.”
“Because Kyoya doesn’t have nightmares.---“
“--- Nightmares have Kyoya’s.”
I sighed. “How about we make a bet. If I can wake him up without him being terrifying, you two have to stop calling me ‘Hissy’. If I lose you guys can call me that from now on.”
In unison they side, “Deal.”
“Now, give me some space. You don’t want to get hurt in the process if he does become killer.”
The twins retreated to the opposite side of the room and watched me. I leaned over and whispered, “How much of that did you get?”
“All of it.”
Kyoya sat up and rubbed his eyes. I held his glasses out and he took them. I smiled at and we headed back to class. As we passed the twins, their jaws were on the floor in disbelief. “I win.”
-----------------
Once class was over Kyoya and I headed back to the Host Room. We sat at his customary desk. He worked on registering the guests while I finished up the club financials. I couldn’t think of anything new to cut corners to save money. I was kinda zoned out.
Then I heard it. On one side of the room, I heard a girl say ‘new’ and on the other side I heard ‘hosts’. That was it!
“Kyoya-kun! I know how we can bring in more money!”
“Oh?”
He pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, making them glare. “Yes. We bring in a couple of new hosts. Preferably first years!”
“Hmm. An intriguing idea.”
“Oh, come on! It’s more than intriguing! It’s perfect! I mean club is supposed to continue after you and Tamaki graduate, right?”
“Yes.”
“Alright. It’s agreed upon. I’ll make an application sheet and you’ll do preliminaries.”
“You do realize that Tamaki will have to approve of the idea.”
“Okay.”
I got up and headed over to Tamaki. I could have sworn I heard Kyoya face palm from behind me. I got over to Tamaki’s area as he was flirting with one of the girls, making her blush. I stood there silently for several minutes until he noticed me. “Hisoka-chan! What brings you to my humble table?”
“I have an idea on how to fix our financial problem.”
“Oh? It is as wonderful as you?”
I rolled my eyes and ignored his comment. “We bring in two new first year hosts.”
Tamaki looked at me with a huge smile on his face. Then he jumped me and tackled me to the ground. “OH HISO-CHAN!!!! THAT’S PERFECT. YOU’RE SO SMART!!!”
“LET GO OF ME! GET OFF!”
Tamaki was forcefully removed from me by the twins. I got back on feet. “You know how much I don’t like it when you touch me! Ugh!”
I turned around and headed back to Kyoya’s table. I sat down with a groan. Kyoya was writing something in his notebook. “I see you have his approval.”
“Just keep writing, Ootori-san.”
“But of course.”
We sat there in silence until the end of club. As I packed my stuff I said, “Thank you.”
“Your Welcome. I thought you’d like them.”
I smiled to myself, not looking at him. “Yes, very much so. I’ll have the application ready tomorrow for you to make copies of.”
And I headed home.