Lost and Returned (Ouran High School Host Club love story)

Chapter 18

I ran down the beach looking around for her, but I couldn't see any sign of her anywhere so far, until I started to see a figure in the distance knee deep in water, but whoever it was, they were standing completely still.

"Hey!" I called out, but they either didn't hear me or were ignoring me, which is probably something she would do. She had been making it pretty obvious, that she would avoid us when given the option to, what had we done that pissed her off so bad? It wasn't like we weren't trying, but she didn't seem like she wanted to get to know anyone. Though could he really be the one to complain about that kind of thing, last year him and Hikaru weren't any better, if anything they were probably worse than her, they had gone out of there way to hurt people in order to be left alone. As I got closer, I could tell that the dress the figure was wearing was caked to their body, and so was their hair. I was starting to doubt it was her, she wasn't really the dress wearing type, but on closer inspection it was, she was just standing there with her head tilted up and eyes closed. Lost to the world. "Kokoro!" I shouted out again, and this time her head turned to me sharply as if she was taken by surprise, but she didn't say anything and just stared at me. For a moment I stared too, I hadn't ever seen her with her hair loose like now, and before I interrupted she had seemed so peaceful, as if it wasn't storming. She didn't look angry or irritable like she normally did, she looked relaxed and at ease, I was starting to regret saying something, but we had to get back, being out here would just make her sick if anything. "What are you doing just standing around out here?" I was close enough I didn't have to yell anymore thankfully, but she didn't answer me right away, she was staring at me like she was trying to figure out who I was for a moment. Her gaze wasn't harsh like it normally was though, it was soft and thoughtful. "Well?" This seemed to snap her out of whatever weird mood she was in.

"I like storms and the rain." Huh? It was such an innocent and genuine answer, that was the reason she was just standing around out here, she just liked the rain. She could have at least taken a phone or something with her, so that she could tell everyone she wasn't trapped under some landslide or something! However watching her relax again and close her eyes, I paused before I could scold her for being so irresponsible. "Besides I didn't think any of you would bother coming out here to get me, so I decided to enjoy it for a while." Where did that come from? Why wouldn't we come out here to get her? Normal people don't just stand in the rain, so of course the idea that something happened came to mind, or that she was just taking refuge somewhere. Since we couldn't call her, yeah we came out here for her.

"Of course we'd come looking for you. We're all friends aren't we. I know you don't like me or Hikaru, but at least Kyouya or Haruhi would send someone after you." Those two, she obviously favored them, we just recently found out that Haruhi admitted to being a girl to her and Kyouya always seemed to have fun messing with her or listening to her. They were a lot closer than I thought she would be with any of us, I'm surprised she stuck around this long, I figured she would ditch as soon as possible. She doesn't like us that much, that was easy to tell. However she watched me a bit surprised at first, before she looked borderline confused.

"I like you and Hikaru. I like all of you if I'm being honest." Now that was something I wasn't expecting to hear, it was my turn to be surprised. However I wanted to hear her explanation if she had one, she really didn't make it obvious that she thought anything of us. 

"Well you don't act like it." I was a bit angry, that much I would admit, I knew me and my brother weren't perfect, we weren't always the most tactful, but we hadn't done anything horrible to her to make her hate us or reject us as much as she's seemed to.

"I guess not... I don't really have an excuse. I've always been bad with people, I don't know what to say or how to act. It's easier to just be rude and be left to my own devices. Especially around you all, I'm not exactly a lively go-getter, I just figure I'd drag you all down, so I guess I've stuck to people that I relate to easier." While she has been talking, I think this is the first time, that she's ever really expressed anything about herself rather than just leaving us to do some guessing work, but I suppose I've never really asked either.

"You couldn't tell us?" I didn't mean to sound as harsh as I did, but if she was willing to talk now, then maybe we could start over here. I did want to be friends with her, and Hikaru did to. It's hard to do when you feel like everything you do just pisses someone off though. 

"You all never asked, I figured you didn't care." Again with that, she obviously didn't think much of us, or more so didn't think we thought anything of her. Like she was just a tag a long that we acknowledged from time to time rather than as a friend. Sure she wasn't as easy to talk to as some of others, but I think this might be a step in the right direction. I felt myself calm down.

"You know you can talk to us, we're all friends, you can tell us if something gets on your nerves. I don't know where you got the idea that none of us care about you." It's not like we've ever pushed her out or told her to get lost. We've always brought her along and she's even become a part of the club doing work for Kyouya here and there to keep herself entertained. She must have at least thought Haruhi cared about her and thought of her as a friend, those two were always talking together when they had the chance.

"..." This time she didn't say anything, I've never really thought about it, but from what I knew she didn't talk for a long time and was a lot harsher when she was acting as a mute. How did people treat her? Has she ever had any friends around? She seemed like she spoke normally at one point, so she had to have some friends, people didn't just become like this at the drop of a hat. What happened?

"Haven't you had friends before? You haven't been mute forever, what happened?" She just looked at me, the rain was letting up, and I hadn't heard a clap of thunder in a while, but she didn't answer before my phone started to go off. I forgot to call Hikaru! I got so wrapped up in trying to figure her out that I hadn't thought about it.

"Hey! I've gone down this side and haven't seen her, please tell me you've found her." He was grumbling, he was in a bad mood that much was obvious. It had only gotten worse since we separated. This wasn't his thing though, he didn't like being unsure about anything. 

"Yeah I just found her, we're on our way back." He would probably have a lot to fuss about once we met up with him, but we'd probably have to wait a little to see him, he's been down a lot more beach than I have more likely than not. When I hung up I looked back over at her, she was standing at my side now rather than in the water. She looked really small with her clothes and hair matted to her, her attitude always made her seem a bit bigger and more intimidating, but now it was hard to see her in that way. I think we just didn't know enough about her, something happened before we met her and it hit her hard it seemed, maybe if we could find that out we could be better friends for her. "Come on, he'll probably be mad when we meet him. Don't take anything he says too seriously."

"I'm not surprised, Hikaru was always more emotional. I'll probably hear about it for a while..." She sighed, but I was forced to pause. Not once since I've been here have I mentioned my name, I think this is the first time she's acknowledged that she even had an idea of which one I was, I paused and after a few steps she did to. "What's wrong?"

"How did you know I wasn't Hikaru?"