Home *OHSHC* (Complete)

Perfect

                    A knock on the door brings Nozomi out of her thoughts and she instinctively turns toward it. Kaoru's voice floats through the door asking if she's okay. She ignores him and turns away from the door. She wonders if she ignores him long enough if he'd go away. The handle jiggles and she hears him sigh from the other side. He gently pleads for her to unlock the door, promising that it's okay and that he just wants to talk with her. Her icy eyes drop to her arms as tears threaten to spill over.
'He'll leave eventually.'
"Nozomi, please? Just say something, I'm worried."
The sound of a door crashing open makes her jump and it's followed by the sound of several voices, including one belonging to a certain psychotic blond.
"Where's my daughter you demon dopplegangers!?"
She imagined that the twins pointed to the bathroom door because Tamaki is immediately in front of the door, asking if they'd assaulted her while he was gone and wanted her to come out.
"Nozomi-chan won't come out? Is she hurt? I'll save her!" A childish voices calls out.
A loud crack echoes through the room as the door flies open, the voice's owner landing perfectly on his feet from kicking the door. To her surprise, it is a short blond haired boy with bright brown eyes and a bunny tucked under his arm. He turns to Nozomi with a smile.
"Are you okay Nozomi-chan? I was worried about you, 'cause Kaoru-chan said you wouldn't come out or say anything. I'm Honey and this is Usa-chan!"
She arches an eyebrow at the boy but doesn't respond.
"Kaoru-chan, why won't she talk to anyone?" The boy asks with a pout.
"I'm not sure... Just, everyone wait in the sitting room please." The boy nods and skips out, shutting the door after Kaoru enters the room.
                       Kaoru looks down at the frail girl in the bathtub before coming to sit on the edge beside her. He sighs quietly before asking why she'd locked herself in the bathroom. She shrugs her shoulders, keeping her eyes on her kneecaps.
"If you don't open up, no one will be able to help you." He whispers.
"I never asked for anyone to help me..." She answers, sounding choked up. "I don't belong here Kaoru, I'm a burden. And now..." Her eyes trail down to her shirt sleeves and she fidgets slightly. "I'm pathetic, aren't I?"
"You're not pathetic, Nozomi. It was shocking to see, but it's not pathetic. Everyone has weaknesses. I don't see you any differently for it either. And you may not feel like you belong yet, but you literally got here two hours ago, it takes time. You're not a burden either. Hikaru, Tamaki, and I wanted to help you."
"But how can you say those things after knowing me for two hours? You know nothing of me but my name and that I'm a street urchin with self-harm issues..."
"You're right, I don't, but I want to get to know you, to save you from that life, to make things better. I don't expect you to be an open book, but if you'll let me, I'll do my best to make everything better, you just have to let me in."
She lets his words sink in and debates everything in an overwhelming silence. She takes a deep breath before looking up at the boy and nodding. He grins and ruffles her hair lightly. She scowls and runs her fingers through it in an attempt to fix it.
"Now, all bad things aside, your secret is safe with Tamaki and me. I have some people I'd like you to meet even though you've already met one. Would you like to get out of the tub now?"
He helps Nozomi stand and get out of the tub. Once she's standing on the marble floor, she wraps her arms around his waist. He hugs her back and she giggles when she feels him laugh quietly.
"For someone who barely knows me, you sure seem to hug me a lot."
A blush colors her cheeks as she releases him but sticks out her tongue at him, making him laugh again. He leads her out of the room toward his waiting friends.
                         There are six boys and a girl scattered around the sitting room when Kaoru and Nozomi enter, and all eyes turn to them. Nozomi squeaks in surprise and hides behind Kaoru as Tamaki launches himself at her, screaming about how he was worried about his 'daughter' and how much he'd missed her. The 'little boy' that had broken her door down earlier cheers at her, telling her that she looked adorable when she was scared. Nozomi looks away from the boy and searches for Tamaki only to find him sobbing in the corner because she'd hidden from him.
"You've met Tamaki and Hikaru already. That's Haninozuka Mitsukuni, also known as Honey, he is older than he looks, he's seventeen." She stares at the boy skeptically but nods as he waves at her.
"Behind him is Morinozuka Takashi, known as Mori." The dark haired boy nods a greeting. "The one with the glasses is Ootori Kyoya and the brunette is Fujioka Haruhi. Together we all run the Host Cub at Ouran Academy." Kaoru explains to the girl gripping his shirt.
"So, it's a club for men and women?" She asks quietly.
"Uh- no. We're all men, so that wouldn't really make sense."
"Haruhi is clearly a female though, so unless you pose her as a man, I figured that it was a gender neutral thing."
"Haruhi is a boy." Kaoru insists.
Haruhi and Nozomi both deadpan their expressions as Nozomi points out the one detail the others seemed to have missed.
"Haruhi is wearing a dress though."
All of the men freeze and turn to Haruhi and seem to notice for the first time that she was in fact, wearing a dress.
"She acts as a boy at school because she's working with us to pay off a debt owed to us."
"Avoid any pottery while you're around them..." Haruhi mutters, glaring at the floor.
"I-It's nice to meet everyone." Nozomi mutters, her shyness overwhelming her again.
She steps out from behind Kaoru long enough to bow in respect, then hides again.
                   Kaoru pulls her out from behind him and sits her down on a couch between Hikaru and himself. Everyone's eyes are focused intently on her besides Haruhi and the twins. She quietly asks the twins why they're staring at her, and Kaoru explains it's because she's new and probably has questions.
"Your friends are scary." The twins laugh and turn to the others.
"So, we know you probably want to ask questions, but she holds the right to not answer them, got it?"
Everyone nods and Honey raises his hand immediately while bouncing up and down. Nozomi giggles at him and nods.
"Nozomi-chan, why were you homeless?"
"It's a very long story, but the short version is something happened and I had nowhere else to go." He looks sad but accepts her answer.
He sits still for a moment then jumps again, waving his hand.
"If you get tired of living with Hika-chan and Kao-chan, you can come live with me! We can eat cake all day and I'll let you hold Usa-chan!" A smile crosses her face as she nods at him.
"How did you survive on the streets?" Haruhi asks.
Nozomi stares at her for a moment feeling as if she'd seen her before but can't place it.
"Well, I'd started out with the clothing on my back and a tiny bit of money and food I was given. Those ran out and fell apart rather quickly. Everything else was given to me by those who wanted to help. I slept in a different spot every night so I was harder to find by police and thugs."
"How did you eat?"
"I usually didn't. Every so often I'd end up with enough loose change to buy something small to eat, but that was rare. Some gave me leftovers or would buy me something but that happened maybe once a month. No one that actually had money to spare would ever look at me in any way other than disgust. To the wealthy I was just a speck of dirt. Those that tried to help were the ones that struggled to feed their own families."
She looks up from her hands and notices Haruhi, Tamaki, Honey, and the twins sniffling. Kyoya and Mori look blank in their expressions, but something tells her that they were usually like that. Tamaki rushes over and pulls her into a tight swinging hug.
"I'm so sorry daughter! I will buy you so much food you'll get fat! You'll never starve again my poor baby!" He wails.
The poor girl in his grasp is trying desperately to escape him but she's too weak, so she's flopped around like a ragdoll until Mori rescues her.
"Okay guys, I imagine Nozomi is hungry and tired. You can come back tomorrow to see her."
She waves goodbye to the Host Club and accepts a hug from Honey before they all file out of the house. Kaoru was right, her stomach growls as soon as the main door closes. 

A/N: "Haruhi is undoubtedly a man. There's no way to think otherwise!" *Haruhi looks down at her dress, then up at the Host Club with a deadpan expression* "See? Totally a man." "Uhm, dude looks like a lady? She's wearing a dress." xD