Comes up Roses

Chapter 17: Masae Heads Up the Tamaki Suoh Defense Force

The Host Club's traditional summer tribute was supposed to be cute and relaxing. The girls did find it extremely relaxing, soaking up the heat while they fawned over the Hosts. It was all very quaint; Kyoya's idea, naturally, to project a simple image of life in the Host Club.

In a tale as old as time, Masae was very stressed out.

"Hikaru! You came this close to snuffing out the light of Haruhi's life!" Tamaki cried from across the garden. Masae hadn't seen him tackle Haruhi to the ground, but she heard it, and came rushing over to deescalate the situation. Or, at least, move them away from the customers.

"Hey, it's your fault for not catching the ball in the first place, Boss," said Hikaru with a lofty shrug. He noticed Masae's approach first, and shot her an evil smile.

Masae sighed to herself. Sometimes befriending Hikaru felt like twice as much work as having him hate her.

"Who on Earth let you two have a Kemari ball?" Masae demanded, storming over to them. She had to stand on her toes to pinch their earlobes, but it had the desired effect, both Twins wincing through their mischievous grin. "I thought I banned all projectiles after last time."

"Hey, don't blame us!" Hikaru insisted, shrugging out of her grip. "Tamaki was the one who couldn't catch it."

Kaoru jumped in to echo his brother. "Yeah, who knew he'd be so bad. So much for him being the Genji of Ouran."

This was exactly the sort of thing that had lost them projectile privileges. Goading Tamaki never ended well; adding sports into the mix was a sure way to ruin an afternoon.

And, of course, Prince Tamaki took the bait seamlessly. "What!" He cried, never one to rise above criticism. "You think so? Well check this out!"

He dropped the Kemari ball and reared back to kick just as Masae began to urge him to stop. But she was too late.

"Starlight Kick!" Tamaki shouted as he took the shot. He was all power, no finesse; there was no use for it. They could only watch as the Kemari ball disappeared in the direction of the school. A painful moment later, they heard the shattering of glass and a yelp.

Tamaki made a pained noise. It sounded a lot like how Masae felt, calculating numbers already for how much the broken window would cost, not to mention the medical bills for whoever they'd injured. Certainly not to mention their pride.

"Come on," she ground out. "We have to go and apologize."

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Unfortunately, the Host Club was responsible for breaking a school window and knocking out a student. Fortunately, it was only the newspaper club leader.

Akira Komatsuzawa was the weakest human being Masae had ever met. He was a leech; the sort of person who clung on to people he deemed powerful while insisting that he was the one with the power. Of course, due to her father's work in the insurance industry, as well as her own standing with the most popular club on campus, Komatsuzawa liked Masae very much. As did his cronies, Ukyo and Sakyo. She'd also heard that Komatsuzawa had a crush on her, but that was only hearsay.

"Really, we are all terribly sorry about what happened," Tamaki said, bowing deeply. The rest of the club had accompanied him to apologize, though Tamaki, Masae, and Ootori were the only ones doing any actual apologizing.

Komatsuzawa waved a dismissive hand. "Don't worry, it's no big deal. Could've happened to anyone." As he said this, he looked long and hard at Masae. He would never complain about something she did, which repulsed her in a very specific way. "Just a ball flying through a window and hitting me upside the head"