Mute Or Just Scared? (Mitsukuni 'Honey' Haninozuka Love Story)

Girls Night

 Our "girls night" didn't happen until two weeks later. Over those two weeks, not much happened. Taiga continued to help me as she'd promised; I met with Chika every day, this became my normal.

Kiseki was running around me and Taiga as we sat on her bedroom floor. "I still can't believe you managed to catch him so easily. He's so quick for such a little guy."

I'm just naturally fast. Even with as close as the two of us had gotten over the last two weeks, I still didn't talk to her. I was content with writing everything I wanted to say. Of course, I knew that sooner or later, there would be someone that I would want to talk to.

"Hey," asked Taiga as Kiseki ran up and over my leg. "Is there someone that you're interested in? You know, like a certain guy you've got your eye on."

It was an odd question to me. Until I started going to Ouran, I'd barely known any guys other than my father and anyone who worked with my family. Though for her, it probably seemed like a normal question.

But even if it was weird to me, it had an answer. Yes.

It may have been better to lie and say there wasn't anyone, but I've never been much of a liar. Of course, admitting that there was someone only gave Taiga an excuse to ask more questions. "Who's the lucky guy?"

I didn't really want to tell her, but I had a feeling that she wouldn't give up until I told her. As I reached for my notebook, she pushed it just out of my reach. So instead of writing it out, I mouthed the name she wanted me to say.

"What was that?" Taiga gave me a playful smile as I picked up Kiseki and gave him a small scratch behind his ear. "Couldn't hear you."

Slightly irritated, I set my little pet down so I could reach for my notebook. But Taiga kept it out of reach. "Nope! You've gotta say it out loud." In an attempt to force me to say it, she scooped up the little white mouse and held him close to her chest. "You can't have Kiseki back until you say it."

When I just silently stared at her, she just frowned. "Come on, we're pals, right?" I nodded, making Taiga give me a mischievous grin. "Then you can at least say just one little word for me. After that, you can go back to playing mute."

Still staying silent, I just looked at her for a few minutes. I know she meant well by forcing me to actually speak, but that didn't make it any easier. With a sigh, I decided to just get it over with. But I wasn't going to give her his full name, not when it was who it was. "Haninozuka."

After saying it, I immediately reached for Kiseki. But Taiga just frown and moved him away from my outstretched hand. "Not fair," she told me. "Full name."

When I said nothing, she just kept pushing it. "There are hundreds of Haninozukas out there." Hundreds? Sure, there may be a lot, but I doubted there were really that many. "Give me the first name."

Guess there's no way out of this one... I thought to myself before sighing and giving in. "Mitsukuni Haninozuka."

"The boy lolita, huh?" Her reaction was a lot calmer than I'd expected."I didn't think you'd go for that type, but I can kinda see it. You're both really sweet and innocent."

When I didn't say anything, she began talking again. "You probably would never guess, but I've had my eye on Kasanoda." Taiga laid back and rested her head on her arms. "Hard to believe that the fierce Taiga would actually have romantic feelings, but I'm human too. You know what I mean?"

"I know exactly what you mean..."

The moment the words left my lips, Taiga bolted right up and stared at me with wide eyes. "You just said more than two words!"

"Yeah."

"You spoke again!" Her excitement over just a few little words was actually quite funny.

"I know."

Setting Kiseki back down and letting him run over to where I sat, Taiga asked a question that no one ever bothered to ask me. "How come you don't talk normally?"

"It hurts if I talk too much," I said softly, mainly to avoid straining my voice. This was the most I'd spoken in a long time, so my voice wasn't anywhere near used to being used this much. Even when I sang to myself, I usually stayed quiet. "And it's hard to talk to most people."

"But once you get used to them, then it's okay?"

I hadn't actually thought about it like that before, but she was completely right. "A little bit, yes."

"Since you're talking to me, I assume that means you've gotten used to me." I nodded, signaling for Taiga to continue talking. "So what about Chika? Do you think you've gotten used to him enough to talk to him?"

That was a good question. The two of us didn't exactly talk as much as Taiga and I did, but I did feel closer to him than any of Ouran's other students. "I guess so."

From there, talking went on for a while. Well, Taiga did most of the talking. With my voice not being that strong for now, I had to limit myself. Regardless, I'd finally made some real progress in changing myself.

"How about this?" Taiga said, suddenly changing the subject from its previous topic of what guys in our year were complete jerks and which ones were actually decent. So far the most decent was some cowardly guy in class 1-A. The worst was the guy in our class who tried to step on Kiseki. "I help you get your guy; you help me with mine. Sound like a deal?"

"Deal."