I Didn't Wish for This!

Chapter 28: The End of All Things

Alexae pressed her sleeve to her eyes, although that didn't stop the tears from flowing.

"God, would you knock it off? All your sniffling and sobbing is disgusting."

The girl looked up at the woman who had run the meeting—who she presumed was Nova's boss or supervisor. Her yellow eyes were narrowed in a glare and it was extremely unnerving to even hold her stare. Alexae looked away, not having the strength to speak.

"You know, you're one of the more tolerable wishers I've ever met," The supervisor squatted and grabbed hold of Alexae's face, squeezing her cheeks together painfully. The girl winced and tried to pull the hand away. "That sounds promising, does it not? Kind of a shame that I don't hold sympathy for you." She threw Alexae's face out of her grasp. "All of you are pathetic, really. Wishing for a new life… Your original one wasn't bad to begin with."

Alexae stood up weakly.

"Oh, boo hoo, your parents fight often. So, what? They don't abuse you. They don't take it out on you. You're too preoccupied with the idea that they don't pay enough attention to you so you want a new life with new parents who will dote on you and love you, isn't that right, girl?" The supervisor mocked.

The name plate on the desk indicated the woman's identity.

Seren.

"You got a doting father and a boyfriend who loves you oh so much." Seren leaned forwards with a smirk. "Was he your first?"

Alexae's tears had stopped.

"He was, wasn't he? That makes it even better." She laughed cruelly. "You'll return home with nothing. That's truly wonderful."

"Hey!"

The two in the room turned towards the door to see Nova.

"Nova!" Alexae dashed towards her goddess and surprisingly hugged her. "I thought you left me alone." She murmured.

The goddess half smiled and hugged her back. "I wouldn't let you leave. That would mean all my hard work was for nothing. Plus, you didn't get to say goodbye."

Nova pushed open the door and waved someone in. Alexae eyed the door, seeing a platinum blonde woman with milky skin hold out her arm to the entrance as a way of showing someone in, and then she saw it.

She saw them.

"Host Club, meet the real Nanako."

Eight pairs of eyes stared at her form and she suddenly felt embarrassed. The only person she had explained her situation to was Kaoru. She never got around to telling the others because everything had been so hectic…

She awkwardly waved. "Hey…"

The room filled with silence as they stared at one another.

Kaoru walked towards her and stopped a foot away.

"Alexae…" He said slowly, struggling to pronounce her name.

She half smiled. "Kaoru."

His arm wrapped around her body lovingly. They stood still for five seconds before their hug turned into a giant group hug.

"Guys, I can't breathe!" Came a squeaky voice from the middle of the small crowd of people. The Host Club members let go immediately and allowed their maid to breathe.

"This is all very touching, but I've already made my decision." Seren's icy voice came from the opposite end of the room. "You weren't here when I called for appeals, therefore—"

"Actually,"

The blonde from outside spoke up from the doorway.

"They were all in the building before you started, but security wouldn't let them through."

"Yeah! What Celine said!" Nova egged on.

Seren wasn't pleased.

"She brought them all the way here. You might as well listen to their appeals."

The room stared at the yellow-eyed woman. Suddenly, she sighed and walked to her seat. "Very well." She waved her hand towards the podium where Alexae was standing earlier. "If you all can give me reasons why I should let Alexae stay, then I shall consider it."

One by one, the host stepped up to the podium and gave their reasons.

"Nana-chan is amazing! She's always been nice and encouraged me… and she even gave Usa-chan a bath!"

"Nanako has always put up with whatever the Host Club throws at her. She's rarely complained about costumes, and while she can be fairly scary, she holds the spot of Mommy, and we all appreciate her for everything she does for us."

"She's helped with financial decisions on occasion, so I haven't an issue with her."

"She's considerate. And we're friends."

"I didn't like her that much when Kaoru started spending a lot of time with her… I really didn't like it when she'd hit me or yell at me… but she's not that bad. Plus, Kaoru wouldn't be the same without her."

"She worked with me to pay off the debt instead of paying her half and leaving me alone."

"Nanako means the world to me. This may all just be pretend but… I've never once not appreciated anything she did for me or the club. She's done so many little things that it's hard to keep track of, but she works very hard and we wouldn't be as functional without her presence."

Seren tapped her fingers on the table quickly. Her eyes shifted to the last member of the group and smiled.

She could be the girl's undoing.

"Why don't you step up and speak, girl?"

Arisa clenched her fist and did as she was told.

"It seems like everyone has changed for the better because of Nanako dearest… but what about you? Would your life be better had you not met Nanako? After all, if you never met her, you wouldn't have to deal with the pain of someone you like never being able to like you back."

Alexae stared at Arisa as she began to fidget nervously.

"What?"

Arisa sighed.

"When you love someone, you have to be able to let them go." After saying that, Arisa looked at Alexae and smiled. "I'm in love with you. Er… was." She laughed nervously. "I'm not going to ruin your chances with us at Ouran because I wanted to be selfish… That's stupid." Arisa looked Seren directly in the eyes. "You have to be willing to make sacrifices for the ones you love."

The room grew tense.

Then, after a nerve-wracking silence, Seren spoke.

"Fine. You may stay."

The room erupted in cheers.

"There's one condition, however."

/-\/-\/-\/-\

"Kaoru!"

He barely had time to turn around before her body collided with his own. "Hey, Nana."

Nanako's eyes beamed up at him. "How has everything been without me? You didn't burn down the house, did you?"

He laughed. "You would kill me if I did."

"That's absolutely correct."

Kaoru grabbed the handle of her suitcase and took her free hand in his. "How was your trip?"

"It went really well! I enjoyed it a lot. It was always sunny and I went to the beach… although the air quality was a little different. Did you know there's this haze over it? I think it's smog."

"Your hair looks great."

She giggled. "You think so?" She pulled at her bangs. "I wasn't really sure about the bangs, but they're kind of growing on me… and I got the color done as a kind of tribute to myself, you know?"

Her hair had been dyed dark brown and cut below her shoulders.

/-\/-\/-\/-\

The two found themselves seated on the terrace looking out over the city.

That fateful day had occurred around four years ago. Seren's words still hung over their heads, but the two decided it would be better to make every day count rather than live in fear that they'll wake up and everything they've created will be gone.

Kaoru's eyes slid over to Nanako's relaxed figure.

"I can feel you staring at me, you know…" She tilted her head so she was looking directly at him, rather than out of the corner of her eye.

She was smiling.

Kaoru smiled back at her. "I know."

"What are you thinking about this time?"

He knew what he was thinking. He had been thinking the same thing since their third year of high school. There was always something that stopped him, though.

The timing never seemed right until this moment.

He held out his right hand and waited until she rested her left in his. Casually, he slipped the ring onto her finger and waited.

Her dark eyes looked at the ring and then up at him.

"I know you would've hit me if I did it in public, so I figured I would wait until it felt right… It's like our first kiss, except you're not eating ice cream and we're not at your house"

"And you're not fighting with Hikaru."

"Not yet anyway. Although he might have a few things to say about getting another sister."

They laughed.

"I love you." Kaoru turned his body to face her directly, holding her fingers tightly in his own. "I love you as Nanako, as Alexae, as whoever—I love you. I want to make the best of whatever time we have left together, and I'm sorry for making you wait so long and—"

Nanako quickly silenced him with a kiss.

"I love you, too, Kaoru. It's okay that you waited because that gave us more time to get to know each other—to grow our garden of romance, I guess… and it's so lush with life that there's no way we're going to forget about each other." She rested her forehead on his shoulder. "I couldn't imagine living in a world without you."

Kaoru wrapped his arms around her.

They sat peacefully for several minutes.

Nanako stared into his eyes with a smile.

"Let's get married."

/-\/-\/-\/-\

Nanako's eyes suddenly opened.

Her stomach was churning violently. Slapping her hand over her mouth, she rushed towards the bathroom as quickly as she could so she wouldn't ruin the floor with vomit.

Her throat burned. She flushed the toilet and proceeded to brush her teeth to get the taste out of her mouth.

When she was finished, she gazed into the mirror. Her hair was messy and the dark circles under her eyes indicated how little sleep she'd gotten in the last few nights.

"Next time I won't go out for late night sushi with Mei and Izumi…" She turned off the light and staggered back to her room.

Morning came before she could fall back to sleep, so she threw the covers off her body and shuffled over to her closet a full thirty minutes before her alarm was scheduled to go off.

Donning the yellow dress that she was never very fond of, she ran a brush through her hair and pulled on her stockings. She ate a simple breakfast, read her novel, and was driven to school on time.

She entered the classroom ten minutes before homeroom would start. Sitting in her designated seat, she pulls out her book and begins to read again. When homeroom began, she watched uninterestedly at the back of one of the Hitachiin twin's heads. She could never tell which twin was which, and she never bothered to visit that frivolous club they were involved in—the Host Club, she recalled. Entertaining gossiping girls was the only thing it was good for—it kept even the nastiest ones away from pushing her over the edge.

The day went quickly. She put her mathematics in her bag—reminding herself to work through the homework she forgot to do the previous day. From the direction of the doorway, she heard laughter.

Her eyes glanced up to see the twins speaking to a few of her fellow classmates. Shockingly, one of the twins looked in her direction, and a strange feeling passed over their bodies.

They stared at each other for mere seconds, but it felt like minutes to them. It was a familiar feeling—like they had known each other before… but something felt like it was missing. Something important was screaming at the back of their heads, but they couldn't hear what it was saying.

They looked away.

He went to the Host Club.

She went home.

In his pocket, he fiddled with a necklace he discovered under his pillow when he woke up that morning. He felt oddly attached to it.

She dropped her bag on her bed and walked over to her vanity. In the center, pressed right up against the mirror was a small glossy white and pink music box. She opened it to see a small panda in a pink tutu begin to spin to a light, airy tune.

There was a ring inside.

If you stay in the verse, you're only allowed to live freely until the next person comes. When they do, the world gets reset and you become a background character. You won't remember anything.

I think most of my ends are tied up neatly, although there are a few things open, just in case I want to come back and start a new story with those characters... I make no guarantees, though. It's a nice thought, but inspiration is hard to come by.

Thank you for all of your support! It's been a long journey for me, as well as you guys, and I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I did. I hope to see you again soon, no matter what category I may write for.

Happy writing!