hikaruorkaoru | Fourth Pattern ; voice, drawing

Fourth Pattern ; voice, drawing

This place is so stupid.

[As he talks to the journal, he's sketching.

This place is great for his creativity, he's realized... but that's because there's nothing else to do. He hasn't left his apartment in a few days except to steal food from the communal kitchen.

Being forcably dragged back into the mindset of having Kaoru and only Kaoru to rely on... didn't go away easily. He'd missed his brother before, but it's only gotten worse since then.]

The people in charge are idiots. Why would you only kidnap one? It still doesn't make any sense.

[He might not realize that he can be heard right now. He hasn't been exactly careful about where his hand's brushed in the journal.]

We're not supposed to be apart.

(Original picture for the dress designs found here.)

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[Hikaru raises an eyebrow. It's easy to default into sarcasm, to barbing his words when he's uncertain in a situation. He just usually has Kaoru to back him up.]

Yeah. Y'know. The Japanese tend to know a thing or two about tea, too.

Oh, I'm aware.

[She comes back with the bread and butter dish, setting them down.]

But I wouldn't want to serve you sub-par Japanese tea when I have no experience with it. I'm afraid all my missions were spent in Europe, not the Orient.

What sort of missions? You posed as a German maid. What else?

[Because... well... that's kind of cool. And it's something not-Kaoru to think about, too, so.]

I'm afraid most of what I did is still highly classified.

[She motions to the seat.]

But I was sent to work with the American military during the war, be their liaison with British Intelligence.

Yeah, but we don't remember anything about this place, right? So what's the problem with telling a kid from... like... sixty years in the future?

[Hey, he can't help fishing.]

[She smiled as she sat down, amused at his attempts.]

First time interrogating a spy, is it?

It's not an interrogation.

[Hikaru manages a smile. Something close to his "little devil" look for the Host Club.]

Those involve baseball bats.

More like electrocution and meat hooks, but baseball bats can sometimes be involved. I once tied a man to a pole and put a live grenade between someone's legs to make him talk.

He was most helpful after that.

[Is she being truthful? Maybe, maybe not.]

Yeah, well, it's kind of hard to get those things in high schools, right?

[He's still smiling. Would he really use those sorts of tactics? Well. Hard to say with that look, really.]

So, you use what you have.

[She eyes him for a moment.]

You best not be doing such things in your school or I might have to travel to the future just to slap you in the back of the head.

Hey, not my fault someone sometimes needs to be interrogated. There are questions that need to be answered.

[She points her fork at him with a frown.]

No baseball bats.

[Then she starts eating.]

There are more effective tools that don't require such violence.

I'll do what I have to do.

[And now he's picked up his fork and started to eat as well.]

[She sighs and shakes her head. Wonderful. She's found a little teasing psychopath.]

What a dangerous school life you must lead if baseball bats are required for getting answers.

And inducing amnesia.

But that's only in cases of emergencies.

It's actually quite terrible at inducing amnesia. It's more likely to kill the person.

[Hikaru, no. This is stuff she takes seriously.]

You sound like Kyouya-senpai.

[A few more bites, though his expression has gotten more serious.]

A friend of yours? [Someone more sensible, perhaps?]

He's... yeah. He's a friend.

And yet you hesitate. Is he not a close one then?

We're... [It's hard to explain how the host club works. He's realising that. What they actually are.] We're all friends in the club. Because we don't have any other friends.

It was... Before the club, it was me and Kaoru. Now it's... the club. We're friends. Just... it's not like it's anything special.

[She listens to him, watching him closely. He misses them and puts up the front that he doesn't. It must be driving him insane to be alone.]

It sounds rather special - having a club of friends when before you had none. I almost envy you, having such a thing.

I guess the boss chose really well when he picked us.

[He and Kaoru had accused Tamaki of wanting to pull them into the club because he didn't have any friends and didn't want to be alone.

But they'd joined because they didn't have any friends and were finally ready to work on letting someone else in.]

The club's really stupid sometimes [and yet he had gone to great lengths to protect it] but it's something to do.

Sometimes it's the stupider things that are most important and you fight the hardest for.

[She smiled faintly, looking down at her plate as she ate. She still remembers Steve's team with fondness. A few of them are still even around in her time, some of them, at least. Most survived the war, but few stayed once Captain America was gone. With their leader missing in action, the Commandos just weren't the same.

But she still remembers how hard they fought, how stupid everyone said they were being for choosing such a ragtag team. It was perfect.]

What do you do in your club?

[A reckless carriage ride, a hard fall, and still trying to get up because he couldn't let their one happiness fall apart. Because he couldn't let it just end like that, just crumble.

The club was totally dumb. The members were friends because they didn't have anyone else.

But it was their club, and they were friends.]

We're a host club at Ouran High School.