okay, my first time to do this - be gentle, now
title: Love, Mother
fandom: Ouran Koukou Host Club
characters: Haruhi, the Host Club
genre: fluff
rating: gen
relationships: none really, though if you squint you might find a hint of Hunny/Mori and Haruhi/Tamaki
spoilers: through to episode 26, 'This is Our Host Club'
The sudden hush in the first-year classroom was lost on Fujioka Haruhi, but not the Hitachiin twins' equally sudden exclamation: 'My Lord!'
The hush became a babble as the girls in her class swooned and tried to remember how to flirt, and as Haruhi closed her textbook Suou Tamaki swept up to her desk and declared, 'The Host Club shall now have a special meeting in the third music room, and all members are hereby summoned!'
Haruhi's eyebrow began to twitch, and with no small amount of apprehensive resignation she picked up her bag and followed Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru out.
The twins' voices came back to her as they navigated the corridors, the differences in tone and timbre that allowed her to distinguish between them disappearing in the rush of words: 'Why are we picking the others up? What's going on? What weird plans has My Lord got now? Are you feeling ill? Are you, in fact, going insane for the thousandth time?'
Pause, and Hikaru amended his question: 'No, I've lost count. Is this the thousandth, or the ten-thousandth time?'
Kaoru considered it for a moment. 'The number's so high now, we could use it to measure astronomical distances,' he reminded his twin.
'Too true by far.' And both twins resumed the badgering: 'How big is the trouble you're planning to get us into? When will you ever return from taking leave of your senses?'
Tamaki stopped in the door of the seniors' room and asked for Morinozuka Takashi and Haninozuka Mitsukuni, and the small one's high-pitched voice joined the cacophony now pursuing the Host Club's 'king': 'Is it time for tea and cake? Bun-bun and I are so hungry and we wanna eat lots and lots of sweets!'
In a very low aside, Mori, who was walking near Haruhi and watching Hunny's back, muttered, 'This was unscheduled.'
'Yes, and I wish I knew what was going on,' Haruhi whispered back. 'When even Kaoru and Hikaru have no idea - I think we're headed for trouble, and I hope Kyouya knows where the emergency exit is....'
'I know where all the emergency exits are, perforce,' Ootori Kyouya said as they walked up the corridor toward the third music room. He had apparently been standing at one of the floor-to-ceiling windows waiting on them, and he fell in smoothly with Haruhi and Mori, eyes fixed on both where he was going and on the ever-present ledger in which he recorded the Club's expenses. 'When one's family staffs the school security force, one is inevitably drawn into the training exercises, and one becomes aware of the entire school's layout...just in case.'
'I think you've memorized the school layout anyway,' Haruhi muttered, eyes narrowed at the 'Shadow King'. 'And you'd find a use for it in some distant future, and make money off of it....'
Kyouya gave her his inscrutable smile and moved forward, almost as if knowing Haruhi would make an annoyed face at him the moment he gave her his back.
Finally, they arrived at 'their' music room, and Haruhi was taken aback at the threshold. The room was empty, even at a quarter to three - school had let out early and they would soon need to 'open' - but only the two facing couches were in place in the center of the room, and only one tea service was in evidence.
Next to the thin porcelain cups and the silver flatware was a large, flat, white box. The only identifying mark was a crest of some kind, and while she could make out that there were romaji beneath, embossed into the box, she had no idea what the words actually said.
The moment he spotted the box and its markings, Kyouya smiled, a far cry from his customary smirk. The twins noticed it and promptly fell silent, eyes locked appreciatively on the box; Hunny began to generate a much more subdued version of his usual sparkles, and even Mori was smiling openly, if in his habitual reserved manner.
For his part, Tamaki's face was wreathed in wistful smiles. It was an expression Haruhi had never seen on him beore. The room began to fill with an air of gentle comfort, and the tall blonde murmured, 'This is a gift from across the seas - I am grateful and touched,' before showing the label on the box to the others. 'This is from Lady Eclair,' he said quietly, mostly for Haruhi's benefit. 'I think...I think this is her way of making amends.'
Hunny was practically glowing as he scrambled onto the unoccupied couch, next to Kyouya, who had put his ledger aside, and Mori, who was pouring the tea. Kaoru and Hikaru draped themselves over the back of the couch that Tamaki was sitting on, while Tamaki himself patted the space next to him. 'Please sit here, Haruhi,' he said.
*Lady Eclair.* Haruhi thought back to the Ouran Festival and the fall off the bridge, and wondered what sort of amends there could be for the pain they had all suffered then.
*But then again,* she thought, *they're all smiling, and there's no anger in his voice. No one is upset. I know he forgives easily. What is in that package to make him smile so?*
As if in answer to her thoughts Tamaki broke the seal on the box and pulled off the lid.
A sweet scent floated up from the cotton-lined interior of the package, light and smelling of wildflowers. Most of the space was taken up by a photograph in an ornate silver-and-gold frame, showing a beautiful middle-aged woman in a white summer frock, flecked at random with tiny black leaves.
For Haruhi, the dress and the background of a window overlooking a river faded next to the woman's clouds of blonde hair and gentle, if lined around the edges, deep purple eyes, the same hair and eyes as the person at her own side.
'This is my mother, Haruhi,' Tamaki murmured reverently. 'Margarethe Suou, as the Western way has it.'
Haruhi was speechless. There was an air of care and troubled thoughts around Margarethe, evident in the lines in her face, but her eyes shone with patient good cheer, and that made her not only beautiful but also compelling to look at. *I think,* Haruhi told herself distractedly, *that I'm beginning to understand where the 'prince' thing comes from - Tamaki's mother is...is just like a queen!*
'Lady Eclair has also done me the great favor of forwarding a letter from my mother,' Tamaki said, and reached for the envelope that had been under the framed photo. He broke the seal, pulled forth a dove-gray sheet of thick parchment, and began to read aloud:
/To my dear Tamaki,
Lady Eclair has just finished telling me about her visit to Japan. I am more than glad that you and your father are doing well, and that you are flourishing in your activities at school.
I am doing well, even as I continue to miss both of my wonderful Japanese men. I know that it will be a while yet, perhaps, before we may be permitted to see each other once again, but still, I long for you both.
Give my love to your father and tell him that I think of him every day.
With this letter, kindly sent along by the Tonnerre family, I send you my fondest love and many, many kisses.
I love you, my son.
Mother/
There was a postscript on a smaller square of thin paper, in bold handwriting that had to be Eclair's:
/If you wish to reply - send it in my name, and I will see that she receives it./
Hunny was sobbing openly now, and as Mori dug in his pockets for a handkerchief he, too, made swiping motions at his eyes.
Hikaru and Kaoru stood in each other's arms and smiled wistfully.
Kyouya's eyes were hidden behind his glasses, and the smile on his face mirrored that of the twins'.
Haruhi did the only thing she could do under the circumstances: she tapped the now-silent Tamaki on the shoulder, and when he turned to her, opened her arms to him.
They embraced gently, and as the tears began to fall onto her shoulder Haruhi whispered, 'Be happy, Tamaki.'
'I am, Haruhi. I am.'
author's notes and disclaimers:
- no, i didn't want to use any Japanese honorifics in this - while it might make the text seem awkward, i think that it works in the context of this story. [this is also why Hunny-sempai's doll is named 'Bun-bun' in this fic.]
- i have, of course, made up Tamaki's mom's first name. i don't even know why i used 'Margarethe' - all i know is that it sounds damn good, and might just suit the lady with the shadowed face.
- i am writing this to be some time after episode 26 - i have to stay within the anime timeline for now, as i have no way of reading the manga at present.
hope you liked that; please comment!
fandom: Ouran Koukou Host Club
characters: Haruhi, the Host Club
genre: fluff
rating: gen
relationships: none really, though if you squint you might find a hint of Hunny/Mori and Haruhi/Tamaki
spoilers: through to episode 26, 'This is Our Host Club'
The sudden hush in the first-year classroom was lost on Fujioka Haruhi, but not the Hitachiin twins' equally sudden exclamation: 'My Lord!'
The hush became a babble as the girls in her class swooned and tried to remember how to flirt, and as Haruhi closed her textbook Suou Tamaki swept up to her desk and declared, 'The Host Club shall now have a special meeting in the third music room, and all members are hereby summoned!'
Haruhi's eyebrow began to twitch, and with no small amount of apprehensive resignation she picked up her bag and followed Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru out.
The twins' voices came back to her as they navigated the corridors, the differences in tone and timbre that allowed her to distinguish between them disappearing in the rush of words: 'Why are we picking the others up? What's going on? What weird plans has My Lord got now? Are you feeling ill? Are you, in fact, going insane for the thousandth time?'
Pause, and Hikaru amended his question: 'No, I've lost count. Is this the thousandth, or the ten-thousandth time?'
Kaoru considered it for a moment. 'The number's so high now, we could use it to measure astronomical distances,' he reminded his twin.
'Too true by far.' And both twins resumed the badgering: 'How big is the trouble you're planning to get us into? When will you ever return from taking leave of your senses?'
Tamaki stopped in the door of the seniors' room and asked for Morinozuka Takashi and Haninozuka Mitsukuni, and the small one's high-pitched voice joined the cacophony now pursuing the Host Club's 'king': 'Is it time for tea and cake? Bun-bun and I are so hungry and we wanna eat lots and lots of sweets!'
In a very low aside, Mori, who was walking near Haruhi and watching Hunny's back, muttered, 'This was unscheduled.'
'Yes, and I wish I knew what was going on,' Haruhi whispered back. 'When even Kaoru and Hikaru have no idea - I think we're headed for trouble, and I hope Kyouya knows where the emergency exit is....'
'I know where all the emergency exits are, perforce,' Ootori Kyouya said as they walked up the corridor toward the third music room. He had apparently been standing at one of the floor-to-ceiling windows waiting on them, and he fell in smoothly with Haruhi and Mori, eyes fixed on both where he was going and on the ever-present ledger in which he recorded the Club's expenses. 'When one's family staffs the school security force, one is inevitably drawn into the training exercises, and one becomes aware of the entire school's layout...just in case.'
'I think you've memorized the school layout anyway,' Haruhi muttered, eyes narrowed at the 'Shadow King'. 'And you'd find a use for it in some distant future, and make money off of it....'
Kyouya gave her his inscrutable smile and moved forward, almost as if knowing Haruhi would make an annoyed face at him the moment he gave her his back.
Finally, they arrived at 'their' music room, and Haruhi was taken aback at the threshold. The room was empty, even at a quarter to three - school had let out early and they would soon need to 'open' - but only the two facing couches were in place in the center of the room, and only one tea service was in evidence.
Next to the thin porcelain cups and the silver flatware was a large, flat, white box. The only identifying mark was a crest of some kind, and while she could make out that there were romaji beneath, embossed into the box, she had no idea what the words actually said.
The moment he spotted the box and its markings, Kyouya smiled, a far cry from his customary smirk. The twins noticed it and promptly fell silent, eyes locked appreciatively on the box; Hunny began to generate a much more subdued version of his usual sparkles, and even Mori was smiling openly, if in his habitual reserved manner.
For his part, Tamaki's face was wreathed in wistful smiles. It was an expression Haruhi had never seen on him beore. The room began to fill with an air of gentle comfort, and the tall blonde murmured, 'This is a gift from across the seas - I am grateful and touched,' before showing the label on the box to the others. 'This is from Lady Eclair,' he said quietly, mostly for Haruhi's benefit. 'I think...I think this is her way of making amends.'
Hunny was practically glowing as he scrambled onto the unoccupied couch, next to Kyouya, who had put his ledger aside, and Mori, who was pouring the tea. Kaoru and Hikaru draped themselves over the back of the couch that Tamaki was sitting on, while Tamaki himself patted the space next to him. 'Please sit here, Haruhi,' he said.
*Lady Eclair.* Haruhi thought back to the Ouran Festival and the fall off the bridge, and wondered what sort of amends there could be for the pain they had all suffered then.
*But then again,* she thought, *they're all smiling, and there's no anger in his voice. No one is upset. I know he forgives easily. What is in that package to make him smile so?*
As if in answer to her thoughts Tamaki broke the seal on the box and pulled off the lid.
A sweet scent floated up from the cotton-lined interior of the package, light and smelling of wildflowers. Most of the space was taken up by a photograph in an ornate silver-and-gold frame, showing a beautiful middle-aged woman in a white summer frock, flecked at random with tiny black leaves.
For Haruhi, the dress and the background of a window overlooking a river faded next to the woman's clouds of blonde hair and gentle, if lined around the edges, deep purple eyes, the same hair and eyes as the person at her own side.
'This is my mother, Haruhi,' Tamaki murmured reverently. 'Margarethe Suou, as the Western way has it.'
Haruhi was speechless. There was an air of care and troubled thoughts around Margarethe, evident in the lines in her face, but her eyes shone with patient good cheer, and that made her not only beautiful but also compelling to look at. *I think,* Haruhi told herself distractedly, *that I'm beginning to understand where the 'prince' thing comes from - Tamaki's mother is...is just like a queen!*
'Lady Eclair has also done me the great favor of forwarding a letter from my mother,' Tamaki said, and reached for the envelope that had been under the framed photo. He broke the seal, pulled forth a dove-gray sheet of thick parchment, and began to read aloud:
/To my dear Tamaki,
Lady Eclair has just finished telling me about her visit to Japan. I am more than glad that you and your father are doing well, and that you are flourishing in your activities at school.
I am doing well, even as I continue to miss both of my wonderful Japanese men. I know that it will be a while yet, perhaps, before we may be permitted to see each other once again, but still, I long for you both.
Give my love to your father and tell him that I think of him every day.
With this letter, kindly sent along by the Tonnerre family, I send you my fondest love and many, many kisses.
I love you, my son.
Mother/
There was a postscript on a smaller square of thin paper, in bold handwriting that had to be Eclair's:
/If you wish to reply - send it in my name, and I will see that she receives it./
Hunny was sobbing openly now, and as Mori dug in his pockets for a handkerchief he, too, made swiping motions at his eyes.
Hikaru and Kaoru stood in each other's arms and smiled wistfully.
Kyouya's eyes were hidden behind his glasses, and the smile on his face mirrored that of the twins'.
Haruhi did the only thing she could do under the circumstances: she tapped the now-silent Tamaki on the shoulder, and when he turned to her, opened her arms to him.
They embraced gently, and as the tears began to fall onto her shoulder Haruhi whispered, 'Be happy, Tamaki.'
'I am, Haruhi. I am.'
author's notes and disclaimers:
- no, i didn't want to use any Japanese honorifics in this - while it might make the text seem awkward, i think that it works in the context of this story. [this is also why Hunny-sempai's doll is named 'Bun-bun' in this fic.]
- i have, of course, made up Tamaki's mom's first name. i don't even know why i used 'Margarethe' - all i know is that it sounds damn good, and might just suit the lady with the shadowed face.
- i am writing this to be some time after episode 26 - i have to stay within the anime timeline for now, as i have no way of reading the manga at present.
hope you liked that; please comment!