Chapter 4

Shion walked idly through his neighbourhood on the way home from school, the wind cool on his skin as the sun started to set. A food stall caught his eye and a strong wave of nostalgia came over him. It was a place he frequented regularly when they lived in Japan.

"Good evening Yoh-san." Shion smiled, "You look like you've been doing well."

The man at the counter looked at Shion in confusion for a moment before realization dawned upon him. "Ah! Shion?" Shion nodded in confirmation and the man's stoic resting face broke into a friendly grin, "My boy, you've gotten so big!"

Shion chuckled, "And you've aged like a fine wine."

"Oh shush." Yoh waved a hand, dismissing the compliment in a joking manner. "How tall are ya now? I remember when you were here on me," he gestured above his hip for a reference of height.

"Hm, last time I checked I was around… Five-foot ten?" When Yoh looked like he was calculating the mass of the sun, Shion did his own math, "I think that's about one-eighty centimetres."

"My Kami, you shot up like a sprout. Takin' after your father I see," he chuckled, but it faded when he saw Shion's face. Ah, sensitive topic. "How's your mother been doing? Taking the crazy cases still?"

The dark expression on Shion's face faded away as he broke into a fit of chuckles, "Of course. There's no other option—all or nothing she says."

The two chatted for a while until Shion excused himself. Yoh gave him some taiyaki on the house and he walked to the park near his apartment.

Shion munched on some of the taiyaki that he was gifted. He was thankful as didn't have any cookable food in his apartment yet, so he would just starve if he went back without eating anything. The only stuff he had in his cupboards were meal replacement shakes that he bought in bulk since they were on sale, cereal, and granola bars.

Shion looked up to the multicoloured sky from the swing he was on. He didn't care what other people would think of it. The wind blew and he didn't hear the little steps approaching him before there was a tug on his sleeve. "Hmm?" A little kid looked up at him with large brown eyes, "What's up, kid?"

The kid looked at him in awe or a good five seconds before talking, his eyes are pretty. "Hey mister, can you push me on this swing?"

The kid looked about six with short black hair and a pudgy face. He was a bit young to be alone. "Sure I can, but where are your parents?"

"Right over there!" They pointed to a bench across the playground. A lady was talking—more yelling than talking—on the phone. No wonder why he didn't want to ask her to push him. "She's a bit busy right now so I don't want to ask her, but you said you can swing me!" He hopped onto the swing and looked up to Shion with sparkling eyes.

"Yes, that I did." Shion grabbed the lower part of the chain under the boy's arms and pulled back and let him go. He pushed him for a few minutes until he noticed that the boy's mother got off of the phone. She looked over in his direction and Shion waved an arm to get her attention before pointing to the swing he was pushing her son on. The woman grabbed her purse and walked over, long silky black hair swaying with each step as her heels clicked on the ground.

"Mama!" The boy looked like he was about to jump off the swing so Shion grabbed the chains and stopped it slowly. He didn't want the liability of hurting this woman's child.

"Asahi, what did I say about staying close to me?" The woman scolded, kneeling down to fix her son's hair that got messed up from swinging.

"Sorry, Mama… But this guy looked lonely so I gave him some—um, some company!"

This kid's got quite the vocabulary… Shion thought, mildly impressed. The kid couldn't be older than six, or is that normal for his age, fuck if I know.

"I'm sorry about that."

"No, no. It's fine." Shion smiled and chuckled, "Your son was quite entertaining."

Hearing that, Asahi perked up, "I told him about show and tell at school today!"

"Did you? You'll have to tell me about it too when daddy picks us up."

"Yeah!"

"May I ask your name?" The lady asked, reaching out for a handshake.

Smiling politely, he returned the handshake with a firm grip, "Shion."

"Thank you for looking after Asahi, Shion."

"It was no problem." Shion bent down to Asahi's height, "It was nice meeting you Asahi."

"You too!"

Shion waved as they left the park before leaving the area himself. That woman reminds me of someone... Hmmm. He just could place who she reminded him of. It bothered him. He wandered in his thoughts as he walked to his apartment.

Shion walked up the metal stairs, the older metal creaking ominously. He greeted the landlord and other residents as he fished for his keys. Shutting the door behind himself, Shion kicked off his shoes and entered his apartment. He paid no mind to the mess and flopped onto his couch ungracefully.

"Ahhh man, I'm so tired and I still have to unpack..." He grumbled, making a face at all of the boxes piled near the entrance he just passed. It had been about three days since he moved, but he opted to venture around the neighbourhood rather than tend to the boxes unheard needy screams to unpack them. He liked to walk around to find where things were as he was good at remembering layouts rather than street names—and as such, he wasn't very good with giving directions.

Shion sighed, "I'll unpack them later. I need a nap. Sleep takes priority on my list." He took off his glasses, folded them and put them on the side table. Yawning, he stretched like a cat and curled into a comfy sleeping position. The procrastinator in him was surfacing.

There was a knock at the door about thirty minutes into his nap. "Excuse me, you left your door open..." The person poked their head in and after briefly looking around they saw a mess of black hair on the couch covered in a blanket. They tried not to poke around too much but couldn't help but notice all the boxes. The man slowly got up into a sitting position and looked over to the door with mismatched eyes.

Shion yawned and got up to weave around and step over various boxes, tripping, but not falling in the process. "Ah, thanks for telling me..." He said sleepily, voice deep and phlegmy, and yawned again, pushing his hair up and out of his eyes. His glasses usually kept his hair out of his eyes, but he liked having them off once in a while. It was refreshing until he got a headache.

"..."

Shion raised an eyebrow at the blurred person in front of him. The silence made him feel like he was being stared at. He gazed back and could only tell that the person was shorter than he was and had short brown hair. He narrowed his eyes to focus and get a clearer picture of the kind person and by doing that he looked skeptical of everything around him.

"... Haruhi...? Is that you? Hell, I'm blind as a bat... I can't tell," he grumbled to himself, rubbing the bridge of his nose.

He heard a chuckle, a feminine chuckle, then came a voice he recognized, "No, it's me Shion."

"Okay, so I'm not seeing things... Or not, not seeing things. Ah, fuck I'm too tired for this."

"You aren't, but I thought I was. I never thought you would be living in my apartment complex."

"...Eh?" He leaned against the open door, "You live here too?"

"Right beside you actually." She pointed a thumb to the left towards her side.

"After I unpack I'll have to say hello to Ryoji."

Haruhi laughed lightly, "I doubt that he would recognize you."

"I just hope he doesn't think I'm a predator to his previous gazelle." Then Shion sneezed abruptly. "... Burrr, it's getting chilly," he shivered. He was just in a t-shirt and jeans without any socks either. It was late evening too so it cooled down a lot.

"Would you like to come to my place and have some hot tea?" Haruhi offered.

"Yeah, that sounds great," he walked back into his apartment and grabbed his glasses that ended up falling on the ground.

"You should put socks on."

Shion glanced down to his sockless feet, "Nah, your right next door, I'll be okay. I didn't unpack all my clothes yet anyways," he mumbled the last part. Stepping out onto the stone balcony of the second floor, he flinched, "Cold!"

"See? I told you."

"Yes, yes, you were right. I was wrong." Shion chuckled. Haruhi opened her door and let Shion in. "You were always the logical one." He smiled, looking around her apartment. It was just like his, but it felt much more... homey. It was very warm, lived in. It gave a sense of family.

"And you were the emotional headstrong one."

"Haha, I guess I still am."

"And who are you?" Who appeared to be a woman spoke sternly, "Haruhi, you better not have another boyfriend."

Shion made a noise at the back of his throat and laughed, "Another boyfriend?" he glanced at Haruhi and saw her blanch in horror.

Ryoji gave Shion a look of confusion.

"Ryoji, you're still the same as always. You don't remember me?" Shion feigned hurt and brushed his hair out of the way.

Ryoji only new one person with two different eye colours. His facial expression brightened in pleasant surprise and he tackled Shion, glomping him. "Ooof!" Came the grunt, along with a rib-cracking death hug that could give a professional wrestler a run for their money.

"Shion! Well, why didn't you say so! My, my, have you changed. You've gotten so tall." Ryoji looked over Shion's new appearance, patting him down in the process.

Shion had a sense of deja vu as it was the second time in one day where the same thing happened.

"Dad, you're making him uncomfortable." Haruhi reprehend. After prying her father off her childhood friend they settled down at the table in their living room. Ryoji and Shion were chit-chatting while Haruhi prepared the hot beverages.

"Here," Haruhi came and set down three mugs of tea on three matching coasters.

"Thanks." He knew he shouldn't, but he couldn't resist and he took a sip of the fresh hot beverage. "Fuck!"

"Cat got your tongue?"

"Yeth!" Shion said, his tongue feeling numb from the pain and hindering his speech. He was blowing air to cool his scalding tongue.

Haruhi sighed and got a few ice cubes. She put a few in Shion's and gave him one to chew on. "You could never drink hot things." She gave him a look, "Then why did you drink it?"

"I couldn'th help it!" He chewed the ice cube, soothing his burnt tongue, "It wath too tempthing not'th to." His speech still came out somewhat impaired, similar to a lisp. He let his tongue recover from the harsh treatment he put it through with the ice cubes he was given. It was left with a filmy numbing feeling.

"So, what brings you back to Japan?" Ryoji asked.

"..." He took a sip of the now cooled down beverage and set it back onto the table. "I wanted to take a permanent residence instead of moving around with my mother. The longest time we were in a place was in America, and that was for a total of four years. Before that, we were in both Germany for three, Canada for a year, and France for roughly six months." He stared into his beverage, "Thankfully I was partially fluent in German before going there, but French was new to me."

Haruhi let out a breath, "That must have been stressful."

"Eh," Shion shrugged, "Well, I'm here now, and it's certainly better now knowing that we're going to the same school."

"Really?" Ryoji perked up, jumping in with intent, "Then you must protect Haruhi from those host club boys!"

"I don't think that'll happen," Haruhi piped in, glancing at Shion who's expression turned sour.

"Why not?"

"Shion had a... disagreement with a club member. I doubt he wants to talk to him."

Shion felt anger bubble up inside him, "Pff, no kidding. He tries to manipulate me into joining the club and then he placed restrictions on my own restrictions. I just don't have the time!" He began to rant angrily.

"What is it that you need time for?"

"I'm a composer, I make music for my YouTube channel and for each add viewed I get paid. But that is only enough to pay for the bare minimum I need to live here even with commissions. I need to get a part-time job for extra spending money or emergencies."

"Ouran doesn't allow jobs though," Haruhi informed.

Well, that threw a wrench into his plans. Fuck. Shion sighed, but smirked after an idea came to mind, "Aha, but what if it wasn't a job?"

"What are you thinking Shion?"

"You will soon see my brilliance, I just broke the system," he chuckled. "Thanks for tea. Though I still have to unpack. Night." Shion opened the door and stepped outside, "Cold!" He flinched once again. Turning to close the door he laughed. He just knew that Haruhi was giving him a look. He waved goodnight to the two and sighed as he padded over to his door. Now he just had to start unpacking, he's put it off enough already.

"Hmm, now where do these go...?" He mumbled to himself as he organized the boxes, putting them in each room accordingly; glassware in the kitchen, clothes and sheets along with posters and others in the bedroom, he left the others in the larger room, meant to be a bedroom, but was going to be used as an office. His bedroom was going to be the smaller room of the whole flat.

His apartment was the size of two, so it was twice as large as Haruhi's. The previous tenant bought the two on the end of the second level and knocked the wall down to make a bigger apartment with the approval of the landlord. It was more expensive, but he needed the space for a recording studio and all his musical instruments.

He listened to music while unpacking his clothes into his hulking dark brown dresser. He also had a tall wardrobe to store things that needed to be hung up. He had long hovering bookshelves that he needed to install onto the wall above his bed.

"Man, I need to paint." He murmured, looking at the wretched olive coloured wall. Who would want to have such a bland colour in the room they sleep in?

"I'm gonna paint it a dull cyan colour, yeah." He smiled to himself, "Now the living room."

The living room didn't take long at all, he just had to set the carpet down, put the coffee and side tables in and set up the television. The room that would take the most time was going to be the studio.

"This is going to take a looong time," he sighed at all the boxes holding music-related stuff.

He set his desk up first, putting it beside the window of the room, and then he put his keyboard under the window, squaring the corners of the desk so there was space to put a tall lamp in the corner. He put the two bookshelves beside each other and started unloading his sheets of music, compositions and other nicknacks.

"..." He looked at the clock, "..." He looked again. No, it was as late as he first saw. It was three in the morning.

"I give up!" He flopped onto the ground with a grunt. "I'll finish this tomorrow... Though I guess it's technically today..."

Changing into baggy plaid patterned pants and a t-shirt he unceremoniously fell onto his couch. His mattress hadn't arrived yet so he had to crash on the couch.

"Hmm", he started thinking. Haruhi's father Ryoji asked him to protect his precious daughter. I would have to join the host club to do that... But then I could act out different roles with improv... And the members seemed nice… other than the gingers. No. The devil in glasses would think I succumbed to his manipulation. I won't join. I won't follow his plans.

He idly wondered how Kyoya got that nickname as he drifted.