Chapter 3 of Crescendo
Sep. 28th, 2007 09:53 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kitsunerei88Title: Crescendo
Chapter: 3
Pairing(s): None
Rating: T for safety
Genre: Humour/Crossover
Warning(s): AU; Crosses over with Kiniro no Corda; Flagrant OOC-ness on everyone’s part. . . extreme suckiness. . . I’M SORRY I’LL WORK HARDER ON THE NEXT ONE >Summary: [AU, Ouran High School x Kiniro No Corda Ouran Academy was always known as a good music school, so what happens when they face off against Seiso Academy and St. Lobelia’s Institute for first place in the tri-annual music competition?
Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club, Kiniro no Corda, or any other anime that may or may not be mentioned.
Thank Yous: To Sailor Melina, who was the ONLY one out of FOUR people I sent a copy to TWO WEEKS AGO to be beta’ed! Thank yous!
Crescendo
Chapter 3: Chaos Before The First Selection
Kyouya stared absentmindedly at his blinking laptop monitor, plotting. In the background, a piano tinkered out the notes of Chopin’s “Grande Valse Brillante” as Tamaki practiced his piece for the competition. The fool had already told everyone what he was playing, rather than (as was the norm) keep it a secret. He brought his attention back to his monitor and pondered the latest problem; they were booked full. With all the excitement for the competition, there had been something akin to a stampede as girls booked days to come and wish them luck. However, with the need to practice more and more, they could only open the Host Club to customers half the time they normally could, at most. And yet this was an excellent opportunity for a profit . . .
He turned around as the doors creaked open and Kaoru’s voice floated in. “Honestly, Hikaru, I think we’re going to have to go with it. The first selection is a week away and there’s nothing else that she can play.”
The twins and Haruhi, sandwiched in between them, walked into the room. Hikaru looked decidedly frustrated, while Kaoru simply looked resigned. Haruhi, standing in the middle, looked apathetic.
“What’s the problem?” Kyouya inquired, as the twins wandered over, plunking themselves in chairs at his table. Haruhi went to get tea and cakes, which was her usual job.
“We figured out what Haruhi is playing for the competition,” Hikaru said grimly.
“It’s a little worse than we thought,” Kaoru admitted.
“Because she’s going to be playing Hot Cross Buns,” they chimed in together.
Kyouya raised an eyebrow, and returned to looking at his monitor. Not that he was reading it; he’d simply found that no one would question him if he at least looked occupied. This provided a whole new set of problems, as Haruhi would inevitably be last in the competition. Thus, to win, the other Host Club members would all need to score in the top half or so.
“Kyouya, what are all these boxes doing in the back room?” Haruhi called from said location. “They’re sort of in the way of the cabinets.”
“Oh,” Kyouya responded, absentmindedly looking away from his blinking LCD. “We’re selling them today, just bring them out with you before you take out the tea and cakes. It doesn’t matter if they’re still in the boxes.”
“Okay,” Haruhi replied. “What’s in them anyways? They’re really heavy.” She came out carrying a box, dropping it by the table.
The “Grande Valse Brillante” stopped in a flourish as Tamaki stood up. “How could your subject our daughter to mean labour?!” he cried out dramatically. Kyouya didn’t even blink.
“You were the one who set her up with the chores,” he said, “and if you’re so upset about it, why don’t you go and help her with the boxes?”
“Fine, I will!” Tamaki sniffed, and went to the back room.
“Go get the tea, Haruhi.” Haruhi sighed, rolled her eyes, and went to fetch the tea.
Hikaru and Kaoru were eagerly opening the boxes. “Books,” Hikaru said, pulling a glossy book out.
“The Twenty-Third Interschool Competition,” Kaoru read off the cover.
“What’s this?” Honey-senpai skipped into the room, closely followed by his taller cousin. Hikaru passed him the book.
“Ooooh, they turned out well,” Honey-senpai replied, impressed. “Don’t you think, Takashi?” He held up the book for his cousin to see.
“You knew about these?” Kaoru asked, surprised.
“Yeah, Kyo asked we could give him some pictures.” Honey grinned. “Though I wonder how he got the pictures of the competitors from the other schools? Look, there’s a really good picture of Hino from Seiso, and the profile is pretty detailed.”
However, an answer was not forthcoming as simultaneously, Haruhi brought out tea and cakes, Tamaki brought out the last of the boxes, and the doors to the Third Music Room crashed open.
“Hello, hello,” Tamaki said to approximately ten very excited girls, running his fingers through his blond hair, automatically the gentleman. “A little early today?”
“Tamaki-senpai,” one of the first-years Haruhi recognized from class 1B. “We bought it.”
The girls squealed all at once, each pulling out a copy of a book. The Host Club looked askance at each other, clearly confused – The books hadn’t even been released yet. In fact, most of the club hadn’t even known they were being printed, so how could the girls have gotten a copy of it?
Their confusion was answered as one of the second-years in the party held her book out for the Club to see.
“Violin Romance – A Kyouya Ohtori/Len Tsukimori doujinshi,” Hikaru read aloud, before collapsing into fits of laughter. Kaoru leaned beside him, similarly reduced to hilarity.
“Oh,that.” Honey-senpai said, beaming. “Takashi and I saw a couple girls in the hall with those. But we didn’t know what they were, then.” Even Mori showed a trace of amusement. Tamaki looked as if he’d gone into shock, and Kyouya appeared to be utterly speechless.
“May I see that?” Haruhi asked, reaching with an unrestrained grin for a copy held by the nearest girl. She glanced at the cover, which featured a good drawing of Kyouya, back to back with Tsukimori, both holding violins. “By Renge Hoshakuji,” she read the line of print on the side. She flipped through the book with curiosity.
It was a wonder that the Host Club session went without serious problems after that. Kyouya, while at times appearing as if he wanted nothing better than to become rather violent with the book and occasionally with the girls who held them, also appeared to have the self-control to hold himself from actually doing so. It was even more of a wonder, Haruhi thought, that they actually did manage to sell a good number of the profile books that Kyouya had compiled for the competition.
When the doors eventually shut, the last guests having left for the day, Kyouya pulled out his cell phone and made a call.
“Yes, there is a doujinshi by Renge Hoshakuji called “Violin Romance,”” he said in a tone of supreme disgust. “Find all copies of it, and destroy them.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Haruhi told him. Over the session, she’d successfully managed to skim the book. “There weren’t any really,” she paused, choosing her words carefully, “explicit scenes, and overall the plot and plot development wasn’t too bad.”
Kyouya gave her a glare that would peel paint from the walls, before leaving the room and slamming the door as he left.
Meanwhile, at Seiso Academy, Kahoko Hino held a hair elastic between her teeth as she tried to brush her layered red hair into a ponytail. It was at times like this that she really hated how she had layered her hair – despite the best efforts, stray hairs still fell around her face. She sighed, frustrated, and gave up, typing her hair up as best as she could.
“Amou-san, can I borrow some bobby pins?” she called over to her friend, an aspiring journalist and one of the main reporters on the school newspaper.
“Sure thing,” the long-haired brunette said, tossing over some black pins. “So what’s your impression of the competition?” she asked.
“Thanks,” Kaho replied, smiling. She threaded the bobby pins through her loose strands hair. Amou never missed an opportunity to needle someone for information. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. She was much more open about her opinions than the others. “I didn’t expect to have to participate in two competitions, but once you’re in one, I guess you’re in for the other too. The Ouran bunch are really handsome; they have a blond half-European pianist, he’s absolutely hilarious. The Lobelia girls are kind of stuck-up, though; they only talk to each other, or they don’t talk at all. Done.” She turned to Amou, already in her gym clothes and her hair already braided out of the way. “Let’s go. Soccer today, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Amou said. “But first, one of the girls here with a friend in Ouran was passing these around today; I thought you might be interested.” She passed her friend a glossy book, her eyes wrinkled in amusement. Kaho glanced at the cover, and her eyes widened. Amou continued, ignoring her friend’s reaction. “I heard we’re playing a game against class 2-5 today. Tsuchiura’s in that class, right?”
“Yes, he is,” Kaho replied. She packed the book away in her backpack, thinking to look at it later. She wasn’t surprised that Amou knew – she would bet that Amou knew the classes, phone numbers, addresses, grades and extracurricular schedule of each and every one of the competitors in the concours. After all, they were hot stuff right now, and thus very, very newsworthy.
“Do you think he’d answer some questions for me after class?” Amou asked eagerly as they lined up. “I think I’m going to try to compile profiles of all the competitors in this concours.”
“I’m not sure; maybe,” Kaho said reluctantly, as they headed onto the soccer field. Class 2-5 was already there; she could see Ryoutarou’s shock of dark green hair. She knew it’d be much harder to pull information from Ryoutatou than it was from her.
“All right, everyone,” the teacher called out. “Gather around. We’re having a game today; Class 2-2 versus class 2-5” he said, and announced the positions each student would be taking. Ryoutarou was announced to be a forward; so too was Kaho, to her surprise. To her even greater surprise, she didn’t trip over her own feet; to her great relief, she also kicked the ball the right way.
Class 2-5 won, though it was close; the winning goal was fired by Ryoutarou in the last two minutes of the game. Kaho breathed a sigh of relief as the final whistle was blown; she was tired and she wanted to shower and go hole up in one of the music practice rooms. She still had to memorize her piece for the first contest. She slipped off to the change rooms as Amou mobbed Ryoutarou. She knew that her classmate would be memorizing every word that came out of his mouth.
When she stepped out of the change rooms into the hallway of Seiso Academy five minutes later, Ryoutarou was standing outside the door. “What are you doing here?” Kaho asked, surprised. “You didn’t agree to give Amou an interview, did you?”
“Of course not,” he replied dryly. He’d clearly taken a quick shower, as his hair was still damp and falling in his eyes. “I hope you haven’t given her one. Going to the practice rooms?”
“Yeah. Oh, and speaking of Amou, she passed something to me in the change room before class,” she said, suddenly remembering the book. She stopped, fishing it out of her bag, and taking a close look at the cover. “Violin Romance? Sounds like one of the books that Mio would read.” She flipped through it, eyes widening. “Isn’t that one of Ouran’s guys?” She passed the book to Ryoutarou.
His eyes widened. “Yeah; Kyouya Ohtori. He’s widely believed to be the best violinist of our age in the country. We better not show this to Tsukimori,” he said. He closed the book, glancing at the cover. “I dread to think how he’d react.”
“Kaho, Ryou!” A jaunty, cheerful voice cut through their conversation as Kazuki dashed up behind them, slinging his non-instrument-carrying arm around Kaho. He paused, looking at the book. “What’s that?” He reached over a plucked the book out of Ryoutarou’s hands.
“A doujinshi, by one of the Ouran girls, I think. Art’s not bad.” He raised an eyebrow at his senior, crossing his arms over his chest. “What’s with ‘Ryou?’”
“Ryou is just so much easier to say than Ryoutarou,” Kazuki explained. “Besides, Ryoutarou is boring! I mean, who wants ‘firstborn son’ in their name?” He took at look at his stolen prize. “Violin Romance? A Kyouya Ohtori/Len Tsukimori doujinshi?” His expressive voice became more incredulous by syllable.
“I like my name,” Ryoutarou said, frowning at the shorter boy. “As we were saying before you interrupted, we better not show that to Tsukimori.”
“Really?” Kazuki asked, flipping through the book. “I don’t know – Tsukimori might not react much. You know him; cool and distant. Something like this might freak out one of us, but he might take it calmly.”
“You willing to take that chance?” Ryoutarou raised an eyebrow.
“Well, I’m not saying we should show it to him,” Kazuki retorted. “I’m just saying we shouldn’t make any efforts to hide it from him either. I mean, if we have a copy–“
“Amou gave it to me,” Kaho interrupted, explaining. “So I don’t know how widespread it is yet. Amou has a way of getting gossip and stuff before everyone else, so. . .”
“Even so,” Kazuki continued, gesturing expansively with the book. “If it’s not widespread now, it will be within the next week. We don’t have the time to try to track down every one, so we shouldn’t bother trying to hide it from him in the first place.”
“Hide what?” As they were speaking, the three students had reached the door to the music hallways. A cultured voice broke in from behind as Kaho opened the door. Kazuki passed the book to Azuma before Kaho or Ryoutarou could say anything.
“Oh,”Azuma said, paging through the book. “Well, it appears either Kyouya or Tsukimori have a fan. So why hide it?” He shut it and passed it into a waiting hand.
“Well, there’s the rather obvious implication that both of them are gay,” Ryoutarou said coolly. “Gay together, to be exact.”
“It’s a fangirl thing,” Azuma said, mildly condescending. He brushed his long hair out of his face with his free hand. “You get it if you’re popular with girls. I’ve had a few about myself and various others, usually seniors. They’ve decided I’m a bottom.”
“I haven’t seen any!” Kazuki broke in, surprised.
“Well, of course you haven’t,” Azuma replied. “I don’t go around giving them out or anything, and girls only give them to other girls. I don’t even know what they’re about, because I’ve only seen the covers of them.”
“Pretty good,” a sleepy voice said from behind. “You’re blocking the doorway.” He closed the book, having read it already. “It was pretty good though,” he said, trailing off as he entered a thoughtful daze. He passed it back to Kaho. Shoko was standing behind him, having walked with him to the music hallway. Her eyes were huge over Keiichi’s shoulder.
“I don’t think,” she said softly, “that we should let Tsukimori-senpai see that.”
“See what?” A cold voice sliced through the group. Tsukimori had arrived, and he wasn’t particularly pleased to see his fellow competitors clogging up the music hallway. Silence fell among the group as Kaho, Ryoutarou, and Kazuki conspicuously looked away from him.
“See what?” he repeated, his tone slightly more demanding.
“Oh,” Keiichi had seemingly heard him for the first time. Apparently Tsukimori could recall even Keiichi from one of his daydream states. “Someone made a doujinshi about you and Kyouya Ohtori from Ouran. It was pretty good. . .”
“. . . What?” Tsukimori’s voice was a combination of cold surprise and sharp disapproval.
“No, we didn’t make it!” Kazuki exclaimed, explaining rapidly. “We think someone in Ouran did it.”
“A fangirl, from the looks of it,” Azuma added serenely. “And the artist, Renge Hoshakuji, doesn’t go to this school; she’s the daughter of a major businessman currently living in France. They have extensive business ties to the Ohtori Group. I don’t personally know her, though.”
“May I see it?” Tsukimori asked. It wasn’t so much a question as it was a demand. Wordlessly, Kaho handed him the book.
“I should, er, go and practice,” Kaho stuttered. She was often unnerved by the blue-haired boy’s demeanor. She fled into the nearest room.
“I ought to be practicing too,” Kazuki said, his eyes wide. “I completely forgot!” He, too, entered one of the practice rooms.
Ryoutarou gave Azuma, Keiichi and Shoko a meaningful glance before making his own excuse. Shoko took the hint and fled to another room, steering the daydreaming Keiichi along.
“You know, it’s not that bad,” Azuma added before he left. “I’ve had some really explicit ones about me. It means you’ve got your first fan.”
Tsukimori stood alone in the hallway, flipping through the book, his disgust increasing with every page turned. “If this is an attempt to sabotage me, Ohtori,” he murmured under his breath, “You might as well have not bothered.” He tossed the book to the side of the hall and entered a practice room.
Fin
Notes:
1) Sorry about the OOC-ness, but I think a certain amount of it is necessary to keep the plot going. I’m doing my best to keep everyone more or less in character while still making sure there’s progress.
2) As for the LCD characters, I’ve placed this competition to be AFTER the anime series, so I’m working from the assumption that in the few months that have passed since the end of the anime, they’ve gotten closer to each other (thus, first names are used). Hino and Tsuchiura are closer to each other than they are to everyone else simply because they’re both General Ed students, and Hihara is closest to them after Yunoki, due to his personality. Fuyuumi and Shimizu are closer too, just because they’re both first years and have had more interaction with each other.
3) Please suggest improvements T___T I’m trying to make this story fun, like both of the series that inspired it; if you have any suggestions to improve it, please say so!
4) Expect the next chapter around November. I’m going to aim to have it done by the end of October (I’m a slow writer, and it’s university midterms that month *sigh*), but even if it’s finished then, likely it won’t be posted until November.
5) I <3 you all! ^^ Thank you to everyone reading this and commenting or replying! You inspire me to write more!
Chapter: 3
Pairing(s): None
Rating: T for safety
Genre: Humour/Crossover
Warning(s): AU; Crosses over with Kiniro no Corda; Flagrant OOC-ness on everyone’s part. . . extreme suckiness. . . I’M SORRY I’LL WORK HARDER ON THE NEXT ONE >Summary: [AU, Ouran High School x Kiniro No Corda Ouran Academy was always known as a good music school, so what happens when they face off against Seiso Academy and St. Lobelia’s Institute for first place in the tri-annual music competition?
Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club, Kiniro no Corda, or any other anime that may or may not be mentioned.
Thank Yous: To Sailor Melina, who was the ONLY one out of FOUR people I sent a copy to TWO WEEKS AGO to be beta’ed! Thank yous!
Crescendo
Chapter 3: Chaos Before The First Selection
Kyouya stared absentmindedly at his blinking laptop monitor, plotting. In the background, a piano tinkered out the notes of Chopin’s “Grande Valse Brillante” as Tamaki practiced his piece for the competition. The fool had already told everyone what he was playing, rather than (as was the norm) keep it a secret. He brought his attention back to his monitor and pondered the latest problem; they were booked full. With all the excitement for the competition, there had been something akin to a stampede as girls booked days to come and wish them luck. However, with the need to practice more and more, they could only open the Host Club to customers half the time they normally could, at most. And yet this was an excellent opportunity for a profit . . .
He turned around as the doors creaked open and Kaoru’s voice floated in. “Honestly, Hikaru, I think we’re going to have to go with it. The first selection is a week away and there’s nothing else that she can play.”
The twins and Haruhi, sandwiched in between them, walked into the room. Hikaru looked decidedly frustrated, while Kaoru simply looked resigned. Haruhi, standing in the middle, looked apathetic.
“What’s the problem?” Kyouya inquired, as the twins wandered over, plunking themselves in chairs at his table. Haruhi went to get tea and cakes, which was her usual job.
“We figured out what Haruhi is playing for the competition,” Hikaru said grimly.
“It’s a little worse than we thought,” Kaoru admitted.
“Because she’s going to be playing Hot Cross Buns,” they chimed in together.
Kyouya raised an eyebrow, and returned to looking at his monitor. Not that he was reading it; he’d simply found that no one would question him if he at least looked occupied. This provided a whole new set of problems, as Haruhi would inevitably be last in the competition. Thus, to win, the other Host Club members would all need to score in the top half or so.
“Kyouya, what are all these boxes doing in the back room?” Haruhi called from said location. “They’re sort of in the way of the cabinets.”
“Oh,” Kyouya responded, absentmindedly looking away from his blinking LCD. “We’re selling them today, just bring them out with you before you take out the tea and cakes. It doesn’t matter if they’re still in the boxes.”
“Okay,” Haruhi replied. “What’s in them anyways? They’re really heavy.” She came out carrying a box, dropping it by the table.
The “Grande Valse Brillante” stopped in a flourish as Tamaki stood up. “How could your subject our daughter to mean labour?!” he cried out dramatically. Kyouya didn’t even blink.
“You were the one who set her up with the chores,” he said, “and if you’re so upset about it, why don’t you go and help her with the boxes?”
“Fine, I will!” Tamaki sniffed, and went to the back room.
“Go get the tea, Haruhi.” Haruhi sighed, rolled her eyes, and went to fetch the tea.
Hikaru and Kaoru were eagerly opening the boxes. “Books,” Hikaru said, pulling a glossy book out.
“The Twenty-Third Interschool Competition,” Kaoru read off the cover.
“What’s this?” Honey-senpai skipped into the room, closely followed by his taller cousin. Hikaru passed him the book.
“Ooooh, they turned out well,” Honey-senpai replied, impressed. “Don’t you think, Takashi?” He held up the book for his cousin to see.
“You knew about these?” Kaoru asked, surprised.
“Yeah, Kyo asked we could give him some pictures.” Honey grinned. “Though I wonder how he got the pictures of the competitors from the other schools? Look, there’s a really good picture of Hino from Seiso, and the profile is pretty detailed.”
However, an answer was not forthcoming as simultaneously, Haruhi brought out tea and cakes, Tamaki brought out the last of the boxes, and the doors to the Third Music Room crashed open.
“Hello, hello,” Tamaki said to approximately ten very excited girls, running his fingers through his blond hair, automatically the gentleman. “A little early today?”
“Tamaki-senpai,” one of the first-years Haruhi recognized from class 1B. “We bought it.”
The girls squealed all at once, each pulling out a copy of a book. The Host Club looked askance at each other, clearly confused – The books hadn’t even been released yet. In fact, most of the club hadn’t even known they were being printed, so how could the girls have gotten a copy of it?
Their confusion was answered as one of the second-years in the party held her book out for the Club to see.
“Violin Romance – A Kyouya Ohtori/Len Tsukimori doujinshi,” Hikaru read aloud, before collapsing into fits of laughter. Kaoru leaned beside him, similarly reduced to hilarity.
“Oh,that.” Honey-senpai said, beaming. “Takashi and I saw a couple girls in the hall with those. But we didn’t know what they were, then.” Even Mori showed a trace of amusement. Tamaki looked as if he’d gone into shock, and Kyouya appeared to be utterly speechless.
“May I see that?” Haruhi asked, reaching with an unrestrained grin for a copy held by the nearest girl. She glanced at the cover, which featured a good drawing of Kyouya, back to back with Tsukimori, both holding violins. “By Renge Hoshakuji,” she read the line of print on the side. She flipped through the book with curiosity.
It was a wonder that the Host Club session went without serious problems after that. Kyouya, while at times appearing as if he wanted nothing better than to become rather violent with the book and occasionally with the girls who held them, also appeared to have the self-control to hold himself from actually doing so. It was even more of a wonder, Haruhi thought, that they actually did manage to sell a good number of the profile books that Kyouya had compiled for the competition.
When the doors eventually shut, the last guests having left for the day, Kyouya pulled out his cell phone and made a call.
“Yes, there is a doujinshi by Renge Hoshakuji called “Violin Romance,”” he said in a tone of supreme disgust. “Find all copies of it, and destroy them.”
“It wasn’t that bad,” Haruhi told him. Over the session, she’d successfully managed to skim the book. “There weren’t any really,” she paused, choosing her words carefully, “explicit scenes, and overall the plot and plot development wasn’t too bad.”
Kyouya gave her a glare that would peel paint from the walls, before leaving the room and slamming the door as he left.
Meanwhile, at Seiso Academy, Kahoko Hino held a hair elastic between her teeth as she tried to brush her layered red hair into a ponytail. It was at times like this that she really hated how she had layered her hair – despite the best efforts, stray hairs still fell around her face. She sighed, frustrated, and gave up, typing her hair up as best as she could.
“Amou-san, can I borrow some bobby pins?” she called over to her friend, an aspiring journalist and one of the main reporters on the school newspaper.
“Sure thing,” the long-haired brunette said, tossing over some black pins. “So what’s your impression of the competition?” she asked.
“Thanks,” Kaho replied, smiling. She threaded the bobby pins through her loose strands hair. Amou never missed an opportunity to needle someone for information. “I’m not sure,” she admitted. She was much more open about her opinions than the others. “I didn’t expect to have to participate in two competitions, but once you’re in one, I guess you’re in for the other too. The Ouran bunch are really handsome; they have a blond half-European pianist, he’s absolutely hilarious. The Lobelia girls are kind of stuck-up, though; they only talk to each other, or they don’t talk at all. Done.” She turned to Amou, already in her gym clothes and her hair already braided out of the way. “Let’s go. Soccer today, isn’t it?”
“Yeah,” Amou said. “But first, one of the girls here with a friend in Ouran was passing these around today; I thought you might be interested.” She passed her friend a glossy book, her eyes wrinkled in amusement. Kaho glanced at the cover, and her eyes widened. Amou continued, ignoring her friend’s reaction. “I heard we’re playing a game against class 2-5 today. Tsuchiura’s in that class, right?”
“Yes, he is,” Kaho replied. She packed the book away in her backpack, thinking to look at it later. She wasn’t surprised that Amou knew – she would bet that Amou knew the classes, phone numbers, addresses, grades and extracurricular schedule of each and every one of the competitors in the concours. After all, they were hot stuff right now, and thus very, very newsworthy.
“Do you think he’d answer some questions for me after class?” Amou asked eagerly as they lined up. “I think I’m going to try to compile profiles of all the competitors in this concours.”
“I’m not sure; maybe,” Kaho said reluctantly, as they headed onto the soccer field. Class 2-5 was already there; she could see Ryoutarou’s shock of dark green hair. She knew it’d be much harder to pull information from Ryoutatou than it was from her.
“All right, everyone,” the teacher called out. “Gather around. We’re having a game today; Class 2-2 versus class 2-5” he said, and announced the positions each student would be taking. Ryoutarou was announced to be a forward; so too was Kaho, to her surprise. To her even greater surprise, she didn’t trip over her own feet; to her great relief, she also kicked the ball the right way.
Class 2-5 won, though it was close; the winning goal was fired by Ryoutarou in the last two minutes of the game. Kaho breathed a sigh of relief as the final whistle was blown; she was tired and she wanted to shower and go hole up in one of the music practice rooms. She still had to memorize her piece for the first contest. She slipped off to the change rooms as Amou mobbed Ryoutarou. She knew that her classmate would be memorizing every word that came out of his mouth.
When she stepped out of the change rooms into the hallway of Seiso Academy five minutes later, Ryoutarou was standing outside the door. “What are you doing here?” Kaho asked, surprised. “You didn’t agree to give Amou an interview, did you?”
“Of course not,” he replied dryly. He’d clearly taken a quick shower, as his hair was still damp and falling in his eyes. “I hope you haven’t given her one. Going to the practice rooms?”
“Yeah. Oh, and speaking of Amou, she passed something to me in the change room before class,” she said, suddenly remembering the book. She stopped, fishing it out of her bag, and taking a close look at the cover. “Violin Romance? Sounds like one of the books that Mio would read.” She flipped through it, eyes widening. “Isn’t that one of Ouran’s guys?” She passed the book to Ryoutarou.
His eyes widened. “Yeah; Kyouya Ohtori. He’s widely believed to be the best violinist of our age in the country. We better not show this to Tsukimori,” he said. He closed the book, glancing at the cover. “I dread to think how he’d react.”
“Kaho, Ryou!” A jaunty, cheerful voice cut through their conversation as Kazuki dashed up behind them, slinging his non-instrument-carrying arm around Kaho. He paused, looking at the book. “What’s that?” He reached over a plucked the book out of Ryoutarou’s hands.
“A doujinshi, by one of the Ouran girls, I think. Art’s not bad.” He raised an eyebrow at his senior, crossing his arms over his chest. “What’s with ‘Ryou?’”
“Ryou is just so much easier to say than Ryoutarou,” Kazuki explained. “Besides, Ryoutarou is boring! I mean, who wants ‘firstborn son’ in their name?” He took at look at his stolen prize. “Violin Romance? A Kyouya Ohtori/Len Tsukimori doujinshi?” His expressive voice became more incredulous by syllable.
“I like my name,” Ryoutarou said, frowning at the shorter boy. “As we were saying before you interrupted, we better not show that to Tsukimori.”
“Really?” Kazuki asked, flipping through the book. “I don’t know – Tsukimori might not react much. You know him; cool and distant. Something like this might freak out one of us, but he might take it calmly.”
“You willing to take that chance?” Ryoutarou raised an eyebrow.
“Well, I’m not saying we should show it to him,” Kazuki retorted. “I’m just saying we shouldn’t make any efforts to hide it from him either. I mean, if we have a copy–“
“Amou gave it to me,” Kaho interrupted, explaining. “So I don’t know how widespread it is yet. Amou has a way of getting gossip and stuff before everyone else, so. . .”
“Even so,” Kazuki continued, gesturing expansively with the book. “If it’s not widespread now, it will be within the next week. We don’t have the time to try to track down every one, so we shouldn’t bother trying to hide it from him in the first place.”
“Hide what?” As they were speaking, the three students had reached the door to the music hallways. A cultured voice broke in from behind as Kaho opened the door. Kazuki passed the book to Azuma before Kaho or Ryoutarou could say anything.
“Oh,”Azuma said, paging through the book. “Well, it appears either Kyouya or Tsukimori have a fan. So why hide it?” He shut it and passed it into a waiting hand.
“Well, there’s the rather obvious implication that both of them are gay,” Ryoutarou said coolly. “Gay together, to be exact.”
“It’s a fangirl thing,” Azuma said, mildly condescending. He brushed his long hair out of his face with his free hand. “You get it if you’re popular with girls. I’ve had a few about myself and various others, usually seniors. They’ve decided I’m a bottom.”
“I haven’t seen any!” Kazuki broke in, surprised.
“Well, of course you haven’t,” Azuma replied. “I don’t go around giving them out or anything, and girls only give them to other girls. I don’t even know what they’re about, because I’ve only seen the covers of them.”
“Pretty good,” a sleepy voice said from behind. “You’re blocking the doorway.” He closed the book, having read it already. “It was pretty good though,” he said, trailing off as he entered a thoughtful daze. He passed it back to Kaho. Shoko was standing behind him, having walked with him to the music hallway. Her eyes were huge over Keiichi’s shoulder.
“I don’t think,” she said softly, “that we should let Tsukimori-senpai see that.”
“See what?” A cold voice sliced through the group. Tsukimori had arrived, and he wasn’t particularly pleased to see his fellow competitors clogging up the music hallway. Silence fell among the group as Kaho, Ryoutarou, and Kazuki conspicuously looked away from him.
“See what?” he repeated, his tone slightly more demanding.
“Oh,” Keiichi had seemingly heard him for the first time. Apparently Tsukimori could recall even Keiichi from one of his daydream states. “Someone made a doujinshi about you and Kyouya Ohtori from Ouran. It was pretty good. . .”
“. . . What?” Tsukimori’s voice was a combination of cold surprise and sharp disapproval.
“No, we didn’t make it!” Kazuki exclaimed, explaining rapidly. “We think someone in Ouran did it.”
“A fangirl, from the looks of it,” Azuma added serenely. “And the artist, Renge Hoshakuji, doesn’t go to this school; she’s the daughter of a major businessman currently living in France. They have extensive business ties to the Ohtori Group. I don’t personally know her, though.”
“May I see it?” Tsukimori asked. It wasn’t so much a question as it was a demand. Wordlessly, Kaho handed him the book.
“I should, er, go and practice,” Kaho stuttered. She was often unnerved by the blue-haired boy’s demeanor. She fled into the nearest room.
“I ought to be practicing too,” Kazuki said, his eyes wide. “I completely forgot!” He, too, entered one of the practice rooms.
Ryoutarou gave Azuma, Keiichi and Shoko a meaningful glance before making his own excuse. Shoko took the hint and fled to another room, steering the daydreaming Keiichi along.
“You know, it’s not that bad,” Azuma added before he left. “I’ve had some really explicit ones about me. It means you’ve got your first fan.”
Tsukimori stood alone in the hallway, flipping through the book, his disgust increasing with every page turned. “If this is an attempt to sabotage me, Ohtori,” he murmured under his breath, “You might as well have not bothered.” He tossed the book to the side of the hall and entered a practice room.
Fin
Notes:
1) Sorry about the OOC-ness, but I think a certain amount of it is necessary to keep the plot going. I’m doing my best to keep everyone more or less in character while still making sure there’s progress.
2) As for the LCD characters, I’ve placed this competition to be AFTER the anime series, so I’m working from the assumption that in the few months that have passed since the end of the anime, they’ve gotten closer to each other (thus, first names are used). Hino and Tsuchiura are closer to each other than they are to everyone else simply because they’re both General Ed students, and Hihara is closest to them after Yunoki, due to his personality. Fuyuumi and Shimizu are closer too, just because they’re both first years and have had more interaction with each other.
3) Please suggest improvements T___T I’m trying to make this story fun, like both of the series that inspired it; if you have any suggestions to improve it, please say so!
4) Expect the next chapter around November. I’m going to aim to have it done by the end of October (I’m a slow writer, and it’s university midterms that month *sigh*), but even if it’s finished then, likely it won’t be posted until November.
5) I <3 you all! ^^ Thank you to everyone reading this and commenting or replying! You inspire me to write more!
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Date: 2007-09-28 08:29 pm (UTC)Excellent writing. It's very interesting how you incorporate the Ouran and La Corda sections of the story. Though I love Ouran, I actually haven't read much fanfiction in that series, so it's all kinda new to me. But it's all great. :D Keep up the good work!
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Date: 2007-09-29 02:08 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-10 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-09-29 12:31 pm (UTC)I'd like to see some interaction with Kaho and Haruhi though as well as Hino and the Corda characters (are you still sticking with the plot of Hihara, Tsuchiura, Tsukimori, Yunoki etc. liking her?)
Maybe you've already got it planned ;P Good luck updating~
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Date: 2007-09-29 02:13 pm (UTC)Of course there will me more interaction with Hino and the Corda characters, but I'm not sure to what extent I will incorporate their liking her into it. There'll be lots of quality time spent together (especially in what I have planned for Chapter 6. . .bwahaha) but I basically SUCK at writing romance, so . . . Hino and Haruhi will probably converse at least at some point (next chapter looks like a good bet for that).
Thanks for the comment ^^ I feel special!
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Date: 2007-09-30 12:45 am (UTC)And no problem, good luck with writing this ^___^ <3
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Date: 2007-11-10 10:02 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-10-02 05:22 pm (UTC)Hah! I KNEW Haruhi would choose a food based song~~~ >.> Thanks for the heads up... ^^ The Len/Kyaouya thing fits perfectly fine into the fic... especially with Renge a.k.a. otaku girl involved.
You've managed to retain each character's original persona. Good for you! Looking forward to your next chapter.
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Date: 2007-10-03 02:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-10 10:02 pm (UTC)