Ouran High School Host Club Fan Fiction ❯ Rubbing The Lamp ❯ Ch 8b Your Father Will Know ( Chapter 13 )

Disclaimer: Ouran Host Club belongs to Bisco Hatori, not me. I make no profit off this story. If Bisco Hatori-san wishes, I will remove this from the web upon her personal request.

 

 

 

 

Chapter 8b

 

It was a puzzle.

 

Okay, all of the past week was much like a puzzle, really. Or rather, each day, there were new puzzles on top of the old, but this latest one was truly confounding.

 

And when she combined her own confusion - when had she ever had such internal arguments? (They're not arguments, it's just you being stubborn on deciding what you really want.) - with this latest puzzle, she had to admit that it was beyond her.

 

Perhaps it was time for advice.

 

And so, when she got home from school, she made sure to get dinner ready right away. That way, she would be free to talk to him and get his advice.

 

Her usual calm demeanor was second nature, and therefore not hard to apply even when it was not truly how she felt. So with a placid face, and dinner mostly eaten, she turned to her father for help.

 

“Dad? Can I ask you something?”

 

Setting down his chopsticks and his bowl, he turned to her, giving her his full attention. “My beautiful daughter! You know you can ask me anything - anything! - and I will do anything in my power to give you what you want. You are the most precious-”

 

Holding up her hand, she cut him off before he could truly get his rant rolling. Sheesh, he and Tamaki were so much alike. “Well, I know this girl, and she was telling me about something that happened to her-”

 

“Is this one of the lovely ladies who visits your club?” he interrupted.

 

She cocked her head to one side as she considered. The lovely was questionable, but technically, she supposed that it was true. And it was the perfect cover. She could imagine that if this had happened to one of the girls in the club they wouldn't be as confused as she, but if they were, she WAS a safe person to talk to about it.

 

“Well… yes,” she answered, before continuing. “Anyway, she was helping out a boy that she is friends with. He'd injured himself playing sports, and his back was aching. So she agreed to give him a massage.”

 

Her father raised an eyebrow suspiciously, “A massage, eh?”

 

“Yes. And…” she paused for a moment to get her thoughts in order. “She thought she'd been helping him. She told me that she'd worked a couple of knots and her friend sounded like he was benefiting… Kind of like you did when you had those professional massages when you'd pulled out your back at work.

 

“Anyway, she was working on the last area that he'd said had hurt when all of a sudden, instead of loosening up… well, she said that she thought she must have hurt him accidentally because he'd gotten all tense for a second and called out her name very loudly.”

 

She stopped in the middle of her story as a funny, snorting sound emanated from her father and he covered his mouth with one hand and waved for her to continue with the other. Scowling, she shook her head before she went on.

 

“So, then the boy thanked her for the massage and smiled at her, so she left the room so that he could put his shirt back on. When he came out of the room, he seemed happy and relaxed, but a little tense and worried, too. But when he walked her home afterward, he didn't walk like he was hurting.”

 

Her father made another little snort, but she ignored it. “Anyway, that's what she told me, and she's just worried that maybe she hurt him somehow and he didn't want to say anything. But I think if she'd hurt him, she would have seen it in the way he walked. And he held her hand the whole way home, stroking her hand with his thumb, and when they got to her door, he kissed her cheek, but she said that it was a really slow kiss.”

 

She scowled at her father as he continued to make a strangled sound. But then she realized she hadn't actually asked her question. “So, did she hurt him? I didn't know what to tell her. If she didn't hurt him, why did he call out her name? It just doesn't make sense.”

 

Finally, he took his hands from his mouth, which she could see was twisted up in an amused smirk. “Ah,” he said. “Well… I would venture that the boy must care about the girl. And when she was touching him, he probably… got a bit excited. That's when he called out her name.

 

“But he probably thinks the girl doesn't like him that way, so he was probably embarrassed by the whole thing. Personally, I think it's sweet that he walked her home afterward and gave her such a chaste kiss on the cheek. It warms my heart that romance is not completely dead in the youth of today.

 

“Even if they do get swept up in their own imaginings and occasionally have a flight of fancy that leads to embarrassing utterances, to keep control of oneself and honor the girl with such a sweet gesture afterward - almost as an apology…”

 

She tuned him out as soon as she noticed he was starting to gush. In reality, she stopped listening after he said the word, “romance.”

 

`Romance?' she thought. `So…'

 

(So you need to figure out what you want. Isn't that what the dreams have been telling you for days?)

 

Her mind conjured up an image of Mitsukuni flipping up from the chaise lounge, his muscles rolling as he moved, grabbing her and pushing her against it as he…

 

Her brain stopped there and wouldn't let her go further. Not while she was awake anyway. As that realization occurred to her, she stood.

 

“Dad. Thanks for your help. I guess what you said makes sense. I'm… I'm going to go to bed.” She picked up the dishes, brought them into the kitchen and placed them into the dishwasher before heading toward the bathroom to get ready for bed.

 

As she was about to shut the door to the bathroom, he called out to her, “Oh, Haruhi?”

 

“Yeah, Dad?”

 

“I don't want you giving any boys any massages, okay?”

 

X

 

 

Secondary Disclaimer: All characters in this story are at least 18 years of age. While that might seem unlikely - as three of the characters are only sophomores in high school, I figure it this way: if Bisco Hatori-san can ignore the students graduating for two years in a row and keep everyone in the same grade, I can then apply that logic to their ages. Therefore, Haruhi, Kaoru and Hikaru are just 18. Kyoya and Tamaki are about to turn 19. Mori is about to turn 20, and Huni already is 20. (Therefore, according to Japanese figuring, Huni is the only adult. :P )