Ouran High School Host Club Fan Fiction ❯ A Dance with the Devil ❯ An Invitation to the Suou Plantation ( Chapter 1 )

A Dance with the Devil

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Chapter 1

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An Invitation to the Suou Plantation

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A girl of rather short stature with shoulder length, light brown hair and eyes slowly opened a large wooden door with beautiful carvings on it and poked her head into the room on the other side of the door. There was a large wooden armoire next to a huge white curtain covering the window. On the opposite wall was a large bed with huge wooden bedposts and a white cloth canopy with a small wooden bed side table. The rest of the huge room was completely empty. There was a small lump under the covers of the large bed; the small girl noted when she slowly crept into the room towards the large curtains covering the window. “Houshakuji-sama, it's well into the morning. You need to get out of bed,” the short girl told the lump in the bed and threw open the curtains. The lump made an angry noise when light flooded into the room.

“Close the curtains,” a girl's voice mumbled from under the covers.

“It's almost noon, Houshakuji-sama. Your father is not pleased that you missed breakfast, either,” the short girl said, ripping the covers off of the girl in the bed. She shivered from sudden lack of warmth, slightly opened one of her eyes and glared at the girl responsible for waking her.

“Haruhi, can I please have my blanket back?” she whined, not even making an effort to get the item she wanted back.

“No,” Haruhi told her flatly and threw the blanket to the opposite side of the room.

“Please?” she whined some more while Haruhi attempted to pull her out of the bed. “I wanna sleep more.”

“Stand,” Haruhi ordered. The girl reluctantly put both of her hovering feet on the floor. “Let's see. What shall you wear today, Houshakuji-sama?” she asked herself, wandering over to the large armoire while the still tired girl toppled back onto the bed.

“Please stop calling me that,” the girl mumbled into her bed while the girl attending to her searched through the armoire.

“Calling you what?” she asked still moving dresses around.

“'Houshakuji-sama.' My name is Renge, you know,” she said.

“Yes, I'm aware,” Haruhi said, walking back over to the girl lying on the bed. She dropped a corset on the bed. “Up,” she ordered.

“I can dress myself, you know,” Renge whined.

“Maybe, but it's my job, and you're not getting out of wearing a corset,” Haruhi scolded. Renge made a face, but stood up nonetheless, knowing it would be pointless to argue. She took the corset from the bed and placed it over her chemise, around her waist and breasts and let Haruhi secure it tightly in the back. She winced in pain from the gradual tightening only once or twice, as she had gotten used to having to wear a corset every day. Once Haruhi had finished lacing and tying the corset, she proceeded with draping a green garment over Renge and lace that up as well. After the dress was on properly, Haruhi proceeded with tying a large pink bow in the back of Renge's hair. “Your father is waiting for you down in the dining hall. He's worried about you since you missed breakfast, and he wishes to eat dinner with you. Just make sure he doesn't feed you too much,” she added jokingly and headed for the door.

“Wait, where are you going?” she asked suddenly.

“Me? I'm going to get some ingredients for Emi so she can make your supper,” the shorter girl replied and walked out of the room.

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I think that's everything the cook asked me to get for her, Haruhi thought, heading back to the Houshakuji Plantation, when something at the corner of the street caught her eye.

It was a woman standing on a wooden stand. The woman was beautiful with black hair, but what had caught Haruhi's eye was the fact that this woman was naked. There was a man who was standing next to her, yelling something at the crowd he had gathered. Haruhi immediately knew the man was trying to sell the woman as a slave with her body as a plus. The naked woman had nothing but pure horror printed all over her face, which caused Haruhi's stomach to twist into knots. She couldn't help but remember when she was sold to the Houshakuji's. It was the worst experience of her life. She was just lucky enough to end up with such a kind and caring family, unlike some of the other people who were sold as slaves who were treated like they were below vermin.

Haruhi now noticed a new man, a blonde man, walk up to the man who was selling the woman and hand him what Haruhi could only assume to be money, since the man handed the rope, which was binding the woman's hands together in front of her, and some clothes which, most likely, belonged to the woman. The blonde man untied the rope around the woman's wrists, and allowed her to put her clothes on.

Before Haruhi could think or stop herself, she had run up to the woman, flung her arms around her neck, and told her, “I hope everything works out for you,” just after the woman had managed to clothe herself. She then smiled encouragingly at the woman, who nearly forced a smile back, but smiled nonetheless, closed her eyes.

“Thank you,” she whispered, her lower lip trembled, but a sincere smile crept across her lips. She took a deep breath and followed after the blonde man who had bought her. Haruhi hurried along in the way she had been going before she could be told off by someone in the crowd that was yet to disperse. Her heart felt so much lighter after seeing the woman smile, that she could have skipped all the way back to the Houshakuji Plantation.

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“Ugh, I can't eat anymore,” Haruhi heard Renge complain, most likely to her father.

“You missed breakfast. You need to eat,” Renge's father's voice, sure enough, found its way to Haruhi's ear. She laughed, slightly amused at their rather useless argument, and headed for the dining hall.

“You know, it's not healthy for a girl Renge-sama's age to over eat, Houshakuji-sama,” Haruhi pointed out to Renge's father as she strolled through the dining hall to the kitchen.

“But she missed breakfast,” Renge's father stressed.

“Even so; that doesn't mean that she should overindulge in dinner,” she told him as she walked into the kitchen. “Here's everything you asked for, Emi,” Haruhi told the black, middle aged woman with graying hair who was standing in the middle of the kitchen and giving the appearance that she was making something.

“Oh, thank you so much, Haruhi-chan,” the woman named Emi delightedly said and rushed to grab the few things Haruhi was holding.

“Don't mention it. I don't mind,” Haruhi told her. Sounds of Renge whining and complaining that she was full and of her father trying to force her to eat drifted into the kitchen. “I think I'd better break up their little squabble,” Haruhi told Emi who gave a slight chuckle, but went to work with the things Haruhi had just brought her. “Hey, you two! Cut it out,” Haruhi told the father and daughter in a somewhat scolding voice. “Renge-sama already has enough trouble getting into her corsets as it is. Don't go making it harder for her by causing her to become overweight. We'd have to have another corset specially made for her,” Haruhi warned Renge's father and teased Renge. Renge only pouted childishly as her father laughed.

“No, we really wouldn't want that,” he said, still somewhat amused. “Alright, Renge, you're off the hook for now,” he told her. She squealed in delight and ran off before her father could change his mind. She grabbed a small black box and practically skipped out the front door. Her father sighed. “She really loves that thing, doesn't she?” he asked, mostly himself, but he was still aware of his maid's presence.

“I think it's good for her to have something that she enjoys doing,” Haruhi voiced her opinion. He nodded in agreement.

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Haruhi was busy running around the house, cleaning, rearranging things that had somehow fallen out of place, and helping out others who happened to be in a pickle. As of the moment she was preoccupied with sweeping up dirt and a broken vase that Renge's father had managed to knock off of his desk. A knock suddenly echoed through the entire house. Haruhi was almost positive that it was their post carrier. He was always there at the same time each day even if there was no post to deliver that day. He always claimed that it was because everyone at the house was just so nice that he couldn't help but stop by, but Haruhi secretly thought he and Renge were seeing each other, seeing as how Renge would normally rush to the door before the butler could get there, and after he left she would always look as if she didn't have a care in the world. But today, Renge was outside playing her beloved oboe, so she had no chance to see him unless the poor boy was directed to her… or unless they had secret meetings in the middle of the night… it was just one of Haruhi's many theories.

“Umm… is Renge-san in?” the boy delivering the post asked the butler after handing him the small pile of papers.

“If you're looking for Renge-sama, she should be on her swing in the yard playing her oboe,” Haruhi told the boy as she walked past the front door. He ran off in the direction of Renge, and Haruhi smirked, something she rarely did. He shouldn't have known where Renge's swing was. It was hidden quite well to anyone looking in the yard, but it could be seen from only one window inside the house, and she was sure the boy had never been in their house. She quickly walked to the other side of the house to the only window that Renge's swing could be seen from, and saw the two of them peck each other on the lips lightly, and sit down to talk for a while. Haruhi smiled this time, and then proceeded to throw away the dirt and broken glass she had collected in her dust pan. She loved being right.

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“Oh, Renge,” Renge's father suddenly spoke up during their supper that night. “We received an invitation to the Suou's. It seems they're holding a welcome party for a family that is moving from the north,” he told her.

“I'm not going,” Renge said flatly. Everyone knew of Renge's extreme dislike of the Suou's flirtatious son.

“Please, Renge. These people moving here own some of the largest companies in the north. It would be nice to make a good first impression,” her father pleaded with her.

“Hmph,” Renge said and turned her head sideways so she wouldn't have to look at her father.

“Please, Renge. You know the business we own is faltering. It would be good to make friends with money and power like them,” he continued pleading.

“Fine,” she said reluctantly. He father let out a sigh of relief. “On one condition: Haruhi comes with me,” she added flatly.

“WHAT?!” both Renge's father and Haruhi yelled at the same time.

“I can't go!” Haruhi protested. “I'm just a maid here!”

“Nobody else would know that,” she countered.

“But if somebody did find out…” Renge's father trailed off.

“If Haruhi doesn't go, I don't go,” Renge said flatly. “I'm not just going to sit there like a bump on a log. I'd rather have someone to talk to.”

Her father sighed. “Fine,” he agreed, defeated.

“No. I can't go,” Haruhi objected, not at all keen about the idea of spending God knows how long with them and their stuck up ways. That's what she liked so much about the Houshakuji's: they weren't like your stereotypical pro-whites. They didn't see their servants or even black people in general as lower than the white man. “I'd only end up embarrassing you,” she blurted out the most valid sounding excuse she could think of.

“If it's the only way to get Renge to go, then you're going,” Renge's father said slowly to Haruhi.

“…Alright,” Haruhi reluctantly agreed. She really didn't want to go, but if her owner told her she had to, she would.

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“I have my own corset, you know. I don't have to use one of yours,” Haruhi told Renge on the day of the party, who was searching through the small drawers underneath the doors of her large armoire which held her lingerie.

“I know, but unless you wear one of my corsets, the dress I'm letting you borrow won't hang right on your body type, and it will look awkward since the dress was tailored to personally fit my body type, and I'm sorry, but my bust is so much bigger than yours,” Renge told her, not even bothering to look up from her search.

Haruhi instinctively looked down at her own chest. Her bust was unusually smaller than most other girls' her age.

“Found it,” Renge said, holding it out and walking towards Haruhi.

“And how do you propose I fit into that without it looking unnatural?” Haruhi asked looking pointedly at the bust of the corset.

“You'll have to stuff, obviously,” Renge said, like it was the obvious choice in the world.

“Not on my life,” Haruhi responded through almost gritted teeth.

 

“I wonder how the girls are coming along?” Mr. Houshakuji wondered out loud as Emi was pouring him some tea while he was waiting for Renge to get Haruhi ready.

“NO! No, no, no, no! That is just disgusting and unnatural!” Haruhi's yelling voice suddenly drifted down to the first floor.

“Come on! It's the only way the dress will fit you!” Renge's voice followed.

“Sounds like its goin' pretty well,” Emi told Mr. Houshakuji, and returned to the kitchen with the teapot. The man sitting in the chair just sighed.

A few minutes passed before the Renge nearly ran down the stairs and shouted “she's ready, daddy!”

Haruhi followed her, not looking at all enthusiastic about her get-up, and was attempting to adjust the bust of the corset.

“Haruhi, you can't do that, it's not lady-like,” Renge said, and grabbed one of her wrists and pulled her out the front door after her father, who was already getting into the stagecoach which was right in front of the house. Once the Renge and Haruhi had climbed into the stagecoach, the chauffer signaled the horses that it was time to go, and with that, they were, in Haruhi's opinion, on their way to the lion's den.

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A/N: How was that? Good? Bad? For the record, this was a spur of the moment thing, but I really like the idea and hope to keep writing this story, and your feedback/constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated, especially if you saw something that wasn't supposed to be around in the time period I'm writing about et cetera. I researched every other thing in this chapter, not to mention a bunch of extra junk that you don't see in the chapter, but plays a big part in the story as a whole. I tried to make everything as realistic and believable as possible, so if you see a mistake (other than grammar) please, please, please point it out to me!

As of now, I have the basic story line thought up, but I would love to hear something you would love to see happen in this story, and I just might use it, because, again, the story is really bare with just the basic plot right now. And if I use or tamper with your ideas, I'll be sure to credit you at the beginning of the chapter.

I also want to apologize for the many breaks in this story, and I ask you to just bear with me. Like I said, the story is really bare right now, and I would have loved for this chapter to be longer, but hey.

And, by the way, I really didn't mean to make the title of this chapter rhyme… It just kinda happened…