Comes up Roses

Epilogue 4/7: Hikaru [Platonic]

[The Tango]

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"Well aren't you looking like the perfect little martyr."

Hikaru didn't say a thing to Masae as she sidled up next to him, just raised his eyebrows challengingly. He didn't even compliment the baby blue gown she had changed into, complete with floral appliques. It was right up his alley, too!

Masae stopped at his uninjured side and nudged him hard with her elbow. "Oh, come on. You look very handsome and brooding hiding against the wall. I'm surprised you don't have a gaggle of Host Club patrons trying to wait on you hand and foot."

"They're on a break right now," Hikaru replied.

"Well, make sure you get them back soon," said Masae. "The injured damsel card can only be played for so long. It will be very good for business, though."

Hikaru's expression twisted playfully. "Nice to know you really care."

"You're not much to look at now that your physicality has been stripped away from you." Masae shrugged, trying to keep her face neutral and not break into devilish laughter. It was still so satisfying when Hikaru followed a bit with her, even after all this time. "So I have to take what I can get from you."

"Yeah, yeah. You know I can still rock your world."

Masae snorted. "Oh, please. You're not going to try to propose to me again, are you?"

"Shut up," said Hikaru. Though Masae wasn't oblivious to the way he went red. It was a little satisfying.

With more confidence than she had been expecting, Hikaru took Masae's hand in his good one. He pulled her into a Tango hold in one quick movement, his good arm holding hers aloft while the sling pressed against her stomach. He was much taller than her and was able to look down at her as she— shamefully— blushed.

"Not so cocky now," he said with a shit–eating grin.

Masae scowled up at him. "You got me in the hold. Now what are you gonna do about it?"

She talked a big game, but as he practically wrenched her through the steps of the Tango, Masae realized that she hadn't been so close to him in a while. Not since Karuizawa, when she'd ridden on his back. Strangely, the atmosphere was the same as it was back then: crackling with a challenge.

And, like back then, Hikaru had the upper hand on her through pure physicality. She had to resort to her wiles.

"We would have made a terrible married couple," Masae said abruptly. She didn't mean to hit him where it hurt, just to prod at his ego a little bit. "Always fighting— like my parents. Besides, you're like a brother to me."

Hikaru snorted derisively. "You're nothing like Kaoru."

"I didn't say I was." Masae rolled her eyes. "Just that I would have smothered you while you slept."

"Whatever. I'm sorry that I proposed to you. But if you'd said yes, I wouldn't have been sorry."

"Are you— oh." Masae's face went red and she very abruptly stopped moving. Hikaru stopped too, jarring against her in a way that couldn't have been completely painless to his injured arm.

He rolled his eyes. "No, I'm not confessing my love to you, Masae. Mean girls aren't really my type."

Oh. That was a relief. Not that she didn't love Hikaru in her own way— but as a husband? The notion summoned the same feelings that it did in the moment Hikaru proposed to her: dread and a little bit of amusement. No, it would never work between the two of them.

"I'm just saying that we would have survived it together somehow. And I would have never been sorry for helping my friend."

Masae found herself smiling up at Hikaru almost dopily. She had never expected such sentiment from him. He was rarely so selfless. "Isn't that good of you?" She mused. "You're going to make somebody very happy someday."

"Yeah, whatever." Hikaru averted his gaze, trying to play off his pinkening cheeks as irritation rather than flattery. It didn't work. "Like I care. But you like someone in the club, don't you?"

Ah, he had her there. That was a direction she really didn't want the conversation to go. Masae looked down at her shoes as she replied, "I do."

"Well, not that I care. It's really not any of my business who it is. But you can go off and hang out with them if you want. I won't be offended or whatever."

Masae was immensely, painfully grateful that he didn't pry for information. He had a stake in the game even if he wasn't directly involved, so his pretending not to care was a very considerate act. Masae had known him to get involved in much smaller endeavors than the love lives of the Hosts.

"Thank you." Masae smiled tightly— they weren't pleasant people, and as such pleasantries were a little strange to exchange with Hikaru. "But I'll stick with you for a little while longer if that's okay. At least until your nursemaids come back to keep you company."

"That's fine," said Hikaru. The sideways look he gave her said more than he ever would aloud— a depth of gratefulness and friendship that had been born that rainy day in Karuizawa.

She would stay with her friend for the moment. There was time for all the rest later.