Hope you guys like this, it's been cooking in head for some time now, but I only got the free time to write it out lately.
It's an AU of HYD: What would have happened had Tsukushi never gone to Eitoku? Tsukushi's parents never sent her there, so she had a normal high school life and is now 22 years old and in her senior year at university. The F4 never met her and Tsukasa has never fallen in love (try to figure out what else that means!). They're about 25 and working for their families respective companies. So what happens when Tsukasa and Tsukushi meet, this time as (supposedly) adults……..
Disclaimer: I so do not own Hana Yori Dango, but oh if I did……(evil thoughts! Evil thoughts! Stop!)
Tsukushi walked through the door held open for her….it was beautiful inside.
The ballroom had been decorated in a winter fairyland scheme with the predominant colors of silver and lavender. The many tabletops covering the room were covered with lavender and clear mesh tablecloths that had been embroidered in exquisite detail while the chairs where covered in white with a big lavender sash tied around. There were silver and crystal studded ornaments hanging from the ceiling almost touching the extravagant dark purple orchid and white lily centerpieces soaring from the tables.
Tsukushi looked around with huge eyes and then turned to her companion with a wordless "O" of her mouth.
Hiro laughed as he looked at her, "Extravagant isn't it?" He glanced around the room himself and then turned back towards her, "but it will sure impress the clients that are coming tonight and these days, it's all about impressions."
Tsukushi managed to regain her ability to speak, "This is amazing," she said with all sincerity gesturing in front of her. She turned warm eyes to Hiro and grabbed his hand, "Thank you so much for asking me," she said as she gave his hand an affectionate squeeze.
Hiro ducked his head in embarrassment, "No, thank you Tsukushi for coming with me. And you look just as amazing."
Tsukushi looked down at herself. She was wearing a sky blue satin pants outfit that she had found in a consignment store specifically for this occasion. The blouse was a tube top with dark blue sequins in swirling patterns at the top curving her breasts and at the bottom where it just met the top of the matching pants. She had long dangling white crystal earrings that she had borrowed going down to barely touch her shoulder.
Tsukushi looked up and raised an eyebrow, "Say that again after seeing the rest of the women here," she said with a naughty smirk.
Hiro laughed and taking her arm under his, he walked over to the table with their names on it. The table arrangements had been organized with each section of D. C. sitting together or near each other, so Hiro and Tsukushi were greeted warmly as they approached their seats.
"Hiro, this is your friend? You dawg, she's too pretty for you!" "Does she have any sisters?"
Tsukushi blushed as Hiro pulled out a chair for her. "Tsukushi these are the, and I use this term dubiously, men I work with,"
Hiro said gesturing around beginning with his right. "This is Matsura and her boyfriend" as the couple bowed their heads, "Higashi and his lovely though clearly blind wife" the table laughed as the wife in question colored prettily. "And that's Naoki and Tatsumi a couple who both work with us," Hiro ended with the two gentlemen directly next to Tsukushi responsible for the earlier catcalls.
"Hey, we're not a couple," said the man identified as Naoki.
"Oh yes," Hiro rolled his eyes, "they're not a couple yet, but give them time to be rejected by all the women in Japan and left by themselves."
The entire table laughed. Naoki waved away Hiro's remarks and turned to Tsukushi. "Makino-san correct? Hiro talks about you at work. You two met in University?"
Tsukushi nodded her head as Naoki placed a champagne flute in her hands. "Thank you," she said taking a sip. "Yes, when I was freshman, Hiro was a senior. I worked in the student library and Hiro finally found it as a senior after three years of searching for it."
Naoki laughed, "He never knew where it was before?"
Tsukushi giggled, "No and it was the funniest sight, he looked like he had just wandered into the land of the cream puffs. I had to show him where everything was, how to use the catalog system, everything." By this time, the whole table was cracking up at the story and Hiro himself looked on in reminiscence.
"Do you still work there?" Naoki asked Tsukushi. She shook her head, "No, I became an accounting major so I transferred to the school's billing office to get more experience."
Hiro this time, replaced her empty glass of champagne with a new one. "Actually, next month I leave from there for a 6 month internship right before graduation."
"Oh cool, do you know where?"
Tsukushi shook her head, "I know it will be here in Tokyo, that's about it."
Their conversation was interrupted by the waiters bringing dinner. The rest of the evening passed by for Tsukushi with hazy speed: the food was sumptuous, everyone at the table was great just enjoying a deserved night off and between them, Hiro and Naoki managed to keep her glass filled every time she went to look for it.
After the five course meal, with a magnificent decadent chocolate cake desert that had Tsukushi practically gibbering in bliss, dancing started under the glass-domed ceiling.
Several hours later….
Tsukushi waved her hand in her face in an attempt to cool down; she was basically dancing the night away with frequent stops for drinks. Tsukushi looked around for Hiro and saw him back at the table speaking with Matsuri's boyfriend and another man.
She had just finished a dance with Tatsumi and left him for an urgent bathroom break.
She giggled to herself, "What is it about alcohol that makes you want to go to the bathroom so much," she thought weaving slightly.
Wandering out through the side doors, she meandered down the hallway searching for the restroom and found a closed door to her left. "Maybe this is it," she thought and opened the door quietly.
Peeping her head around the door, she saw another bar, much smaller with lavishly appointed mahogany wood and significant array of top shelf bottles. It seemed to be completely empty with one lone man sitting two thirds of the way down the bar, but no on else, not even a bar tender insight; Tsukushi was set to leave when she heard a choked voice. Turning once more, she saw a woman standing before the man at the bar with what appeared to be a gift in her hands.
"Sir, I just….I just wanted to give you this," said the girl holding out the gift with both arms outstretched and a huge smile on her face. Tsukushi's heart twitched a bit at the sight, "Aww, how cute," she thought and was about to leave when the man's remark stopped her dead in her tracks.
"Get away from me. I don't accept shit like this."
Tsukushi almost choked on her own tongue, "Did he just say what I think he said?!"
Huge tears pooled in the other girl's eyes, "But Sir, it's just that I love you so much and-"
"I said get out of here! I don't want to be stalked by some dog in heat!" he roared loud enough to rattle glasses in front of him.
The girl jerked back in surprise and quickly ran off, present still in her hands. The man snorted and turned back towards his drink.
Tsukushi was completely astonished at what she had just witnessed; "How can this asshole get away with acting so miserably?" she thought in righteous anger marching into the room, "well he can't upset girls like that with me around."
Tsukushi, filled with 80 proof courage sauntered directly up to the oh-so arrogant jerk and thrust her finger in his face which had been about to finish his drink.
"How disgusting can you be?" she shouted at him as looked up and glared at her. She waved her hand in the direction the weeping girl had taken.
"She tried to give that to you from the sincerity in her heart. Why, I don't know," she said and proceeded to view him up and down with one eye squinted trying to determine what the unfortunate girl had exactly seen in him. "You have hair like an octopus, mean little eyes and an attitude straight from high school."
While she had been speaking, the man's face kept getting redder and redder until by the end of her speech he rivaled a boiled lobster. Tsukushi paused from her tirade so that the poor man could apologize. He didn't.
"Who the hell do you think you are?" he shouted back loud enough that Tsukushi's hair swayed with the force of it. "Do you know who I am?" he asked thrusting his chest out. Tsukushi placed her hands on her hips and stared back at him. "I'm the-" "No and I don't care," Tsukushi interrupted, "Because basically you suck."
She turned to leave, wondering why she was wasting her time with this loser and going off to find Hiro. "Wait you little-" the curly-haired man grabbed her arm in a vice-like grip. Tsukushi's eyes flashed dangerously; if there was one thing she hated it was a bully. "Don't touch me you, you…octopus-head," she shouted and kicked him in the shin. Hard.
The big man came down, releasing his hold on her arm. Tsukushi turned and practically lit out of that room.
Once the doors were safely closed behind her, and the man's howls of rage were muffled, Tsukushi ran her hands down her hair and clothing trying to quell her agitation, "Hmmph, what a nasty guy! I can't believe he gets away with that type of behavior."
Having calmed herself sufficiently, Tsukushi went off towards the general direction of the music.
Walking towards the ballroom, she passed a couple necking in a darkened corner under some potted palms.
"Oh Mimisaka-san," cried a woman's voice.
"Shh, Mrs. Higurashi," replied a deep voice.
"Mrs. Higurashi?" thought Tsukushi, "The 40 year-old married receptionist Mrs. Higurashi?!" Just as Tsukushi was debating to turn around for a better peek, she felt a hand on her shoulder. Tsukushi whirled around, her heart in her throat, eyes wide "How could he have recovered from that kick so fast?!"
"Hey, where did you go off to?" asked Hiro.
Tsukushi felt her heart slid back into position; she sighed deeply and grabbed Hiro's arm. "Sorry, I went to find the bathroom and went off from there."
Hiro placed his hand around her smaller one on his arm, "Be careful. Some of these guys are wolves out here," he said with a leer. She gave a small laugh, "You have no idea," she said under her breath as they walked down the carefully lit hallway to the entrance to the ballroom.
Copper gilt mirrors were lined up on alternating columns of cream stone with scones of light beside them throwing most of the walkway into shadow except for the light and noise spilling out from the entrance to the ballroom some feet ahead.
"Oh but I wanted to introduce you to my superior. I saw him come in sometime ago but I don't know where he went to," Hiro stated. Tsukushi wrinkled her nose at him, "Is this the guy you told me before who's really scary." Hiro nodded, "Yup. That's him. He can't stand inefficiency and loses his temper really quickly." Hiro gave a chuckle, "He's been through more secretaries than Kazuya through tissues."
Tsukushi gave a chuckle at the thought of Kazuya. "Which reminds me, I have to call him…" she stopped as a sudden thought hit her.
"Wait, this guy, your boss, he's really scary?" she asked urgently stopping Hiro and turning towards him in a froth of anxiety.
Hiro nodded again slightly confused as to her sudden interest, "Yeah, he's the head of our department currently but he's the big boss's son. He's working his way up to CEO soon. But nasty temper; there's no one close to him at work though I think all the girls are trying to hook up with him."
"Hiro, Hiro, no wait, what does he look like," Tsukushi gasped her mind still screaming at her.
As if on cue Tsukushi was to think later, Hiro looked up over his side and then looked back down to her. "Well, he's here so you can see for yourself." Hiro turned fully to the man approaching them, his steps muffled by the thick carpet.
It seemed to Tsukushi that the shadows in the hallway managed to coalesce behind the man as he stopped to where they stood a few feet in front of the ballroom.
"Doumyouji-san," Hiro bowed then turned to place his hand on Tsukushi's back and bring her forward.
"Tsukushi, I'd like you to meet my senior, Doumyouji Tsukasa. Doumyouji-san my very close friend Makino Tsukushi."
Tsukushi closed her eyes in despair. It would have to be that pig of a man, it would just have to be she thought. She opened one eye to face disaster. It was grinning right back at her with a face of pure evil and more than a touch of malice.
"Tsukushi hunh? Like the weed?" drawled the curly-haired pig, Tsukasa Doumyouji.
Hiro, apparently another pig, laughed. Tsukushi eyed him with disfavor.
"Yeah that is her name but she's nothing like it."She smiled at him thinking what an OK guy he was, trying to avoid thinking what a horrible fool she had made of herself. "Wait," thought Tsukushi, "it's not my fault he's a jerk! Why should I feel bad because he's got the manners of a brat!" This thought foremost in her mind, she turned to face him fully as if preparing for battle.
He was looking down at her as if from a great height; he was impeccably dressed in a black pinstriped 3 piece suit with his gray vest matching the gray squares on his maroon tie. There were evil lights dancing in his eyes.
"Cold mean eyes," Tsukushi thought girding herself up for battle. She then received the shock of her life when all of sudden a head of curly hair came straight into her field of vision.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," he said and lifted his head up from his abrupt bow. Tsukushi and Tsukasa were on eye level with Tsukasa smirking straight into her face, "It's good to finally meet Hiro's girlfriend." Tsukushi stared directly into his eyes, her own widening as alarm bells rang in her head.
Hiro started, "Oh, Tsukushi's-"
A blast of loud music came from the direction of the ballroom; an older man with glasses peeped out and after catching sight of them, barreled towards them "Doumyouji-san, Doumyouji-san," he said breathlessly, "I've been looking for you. Its time for a few words," he stated while bowing so deeply Tsukushi wondered how any sound came out from him at all.
Tsukasa, who had straightened up, adjusted his tie and motioned for them to precede him into the ballroom.
"Thank you for the excellent party, Doumyouji-san. We've really enjoyed it," Hiro said earnestly. Tsukushi shook her head slightly, "until now," she thought.
"Oh did you? Amazingly enough, so did I. I had an interesting encounter just now. Makes me all warm inside just thinking of it," he said holding the door for the others.
The old man scampered off inside with Hiro walking behind him. Tsukushi tried to meld into Hiro's back. Unsuccessfully.
"In fact," he stated in a much lower voice, one pitched so that only Tsukushi could hear him, "we should do something like this again."
Tsukushi turned to look at him.
He was looking right at her.
"Soon."
The door closed with a thump after him.
Whoa. I kinda feel bad for Tsukushi. Let me know what you think and thanks for reading!