Hi there.

Yes, I am alive.

Surprise?

Elena shot up in bed. Something had grabbed her arm.

"S-sorry Lena!" someone said softly.

Elena blinked, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness before she could make out a small figure next to her bed. "Jacob? What's wrong?"

He leaned against her bed and shrugged, looking down at his hands. "I had a nightmare. That you didn't come back. I wanted to make sure you were still here."

Elena smiled sadly. She lifted up her blankets and patted the bed next to her. "Come on. You can sleep with me."

Jacob smiled and crawled in. Elena covered them both up and they were soon both fast asleep.

Yuuri didn't find Jacob in his bed the next morning. He didn't panic (he did), and checked Elena's room. He smiled when he saw them both curled under the covers. He didn't want to wake them up.

But they did have school.

Elena was picking Jacob up again, but this time Nagisa was joining them. She was going to meet her dads and the Hosts at the ice rink, but she was picking them up first.

Jacob walked out of the school, holding a girl's hand. He waved when he saw his sister and dragged the girl over.

"Lena! Nagisa brought her skates! Papa and Dad said she could skate with us!" Jacob said.

Elena paused before recognizing Nagisa, who was wearing the girl's uniform.

"Oh. Cool. But you'll have to be careful." She replied.

Jacob nodded. "Oh, yeah. I forgot to tell you. Nagisa is a girl today, so use she and her, okay." Nagisa nodded in agreement.

"Got it. Let's start walking."

Jacob and Nagisa talked as they walked, still holding hands. Elena smiled, happy for her younger brother.

They got to the rink, and Nagisa went to change out of her uniform. Jacob was smiling, and bouncing on his heels.

Elena left the two with her fathers and met the hosts in the rink where they were already warming up.

Ritsu skated over to meet her at the edge. "Hey, Elena."

She smiled. "Hey. How are the warm-ups going?"

"Same as usual. Tamaki seems like he wants to move forward already. The others are trying to convince him to slow down."

Elena bit her lip and let out a small sigh. "That's the thing. Next comes the jumps, and I'm worried that... well, maybe I can't teach those well enough. Or something happens and someone gets hurt because I didn't explain things right." She began to pick at her nails anxiously.

Ritsu had gotten used to this and gently moved one hand away from the other. "Hey, it's okay. You've done great so far, and none of us have gotten anything worse than a bruise or sore muscles. It's going to turn out fine."

Elena smiled. "Thanks, Ritsu."

"Hey, Elena!" Hikaru called out from across the ice. "Can we learn jumps already?"

Elena rubbed her face before answering. "Show me you can do what we learned last time, and we'll see!"

That got them going, and soon they started practice. They seemed to convince her near the end that they were ready for the jumps. She promised to start teaching them the next day.

Relationships were hard.

Elena knew she could make jumps with bladed shoes, almost lift her little brother up in the air with one hand, and recreate a difficult routine, all with minimal injuries.

And a relationship is what's going to be the end of her.

She still hasn't figured out what she and Ritsu are yet. They've mutually agreed that they've been on a date (set up by their friends), but other than that, that's as far as they've gotten.

Her face was well acquainted with the seats of one of the couches in the Music room at this point. She was lying face down on it again today. She thinks that they're past acquaintances now. Maybe she could say her face and the cushion were friends.

Was it sad that she could say that with more certainty about a couch cushion rather than an actual person?

Haruhi was gently patting her back as she tried to get some homework done before the club started.

"Is everything alright, Elena?" Kyoya asked as if he had no idea what was wrong (he knew exactly what was wrong).

Elena just groaned into the cushion. "The couch and I are getting to know each other better. I think we've crossed into friend territory."

Hikaru snorted. "Can you introduce us, then?" He asked sarcastically.

Elena turned her head to glare at him. "Hikaru, meet Sofia the sofa. Sofia, meet Hikaru, a thorn in my side."

Kaoru began to laugh, as his brother tried his best not to. "Was... was that some sort of pun?"

Elena shrugged and buried her face into the cushion again.

Kaoru composed himself quickly and leaned against the back of the couch. "Does your sulking have anything to do with a certain redhead?" He teased.

There was a long pause before she answered. "No?"

The two brothers turned to look at each other. "She's in too deep."

Elena quickly sat up at that. "What? What are you talking about?"

"You obviously have a crush on Kasanoda," Kaoru replied.

"The only ones that don't seem to realize it yet, are you two," Hikaru added.

Elena paused before answering again. "I... I don't know what you're talking about."

Everyone else in the room seemed to collectively sigh.

"Elena," Tamaki started. "We all see it. Even Jacob sees it. You really like him, so at this point, you just need to talk to him."

Elena had grabbed a pillow as she sat up, hugging it to her chest and partially burying her face into it as she blushed. "...Is it that obvious?"

"Oh, yeah." The twins both said simultaneously.

She groaned. "I didn't even realize it until recently! How was I supposed to know it was obvious!"

"Don't you worry, Elena! You have the Host Club to help you!" Tamaki exclaimed.

Elena's head shot up. "Wait a minute! When you told me in a Club meeting, and we went to that fancy restaurant, you were trying to set us up on a date!"

"Duh." Hikaru and Kaoru both said.

"No. No more fancy dates. Their cake was good, but the little restaurant was better."

"So are you going to ask him?" Haruhi asked.

"Ask who what?" Another voice asked from the door. All of them turned and saw Ritsu coming in.

Elena blushed and buried her face in the pillow. The twins grinned mischievously. "You."

"Me?" Ritsu blinked, blushing slightly.

Elena blushed harder and said something that was muffled by the pillow.

"Oh, I almost forgot! We have to go get something, don't we?" Tamaki asked the twins and Honey both nodded, the twins dragging Haruhi with them as Kyoya and Mori followed the group outside the music room.

There were a few girls who asked what was going on, and Tamaki was quick to explain. The two giggled.

Elena still had her face buried in the pillow. Why had they left her alone? she was not equipped to deal with this. She just wants to go home, because what if she messes this up, like she messes up everything else, and-

She froze, feeling a hand gently rest on her shoulder. Ritsu sat down next to her, speaking softly. "Hey, it's okay, don't freak out."

Elena subconsciously leaned closer to him, moving the pillow away from her face, but still hugging it tightly.

"Better?" He asked. She nodded, and took a deep breath, deciding to just say it before she started to overthink it again. What could go wrong?

"Ritsu, I found out recently that I really like you, but not just as a friend, especially after that date thing we had and I'd really like to do it again, but I'm not sure what you'd think, or if this would ruin our friendship, because it's really important to me, so... yeah." She managed to get it out in one breath. Her face was turning red again, the color creeping up her neck.

Beside her, Ritsu froze, red also coming to his face. "O-oh. W-well, uh..."

"Gosh, I knew it." She muttered, going to stand up. Maybe she could fake being sick for a few days. Her dads wouldn't mind, would they?

She froze when he grabbed her hand. "No, uh, I didn't mean anything negative, it's just, I've been trying to figure out how to tell you. So you telling me, kind of shocked me, is all."

She slowly sat back down. This was happening.

"So... what now?" She asked.

"I don't know. I've... never really been through this before. You know, since my face scares most people away."

Elena hummed. She didn't let go of his hand, and he didn't let go of hers. There was a comfortable silence between them for a minute.

"If... if you want, well, maybe we could... make it official, I guess?" Ritsu said tentatively.

"I'd like that." Elena grinned. She turned her head, quickly kissing his cheek. "I'm glad we figured things out."

Ritsu turned as red as his hair. "Y-yeah. So, uh, could I take you out? When you aren't too busy, that is."

"I'd like that."

It was at that moment that the Hosts came back in, acting as if they weren't standing outside the entire time.

Elena patted her cheeks and let out a breath. Time to do it.

"Everything okay?" Ritsu asked from beside her.

Elena took a breath and nodded. "Y-yeah. It's now or never."

The two had decided that Ritsu should be officially introduced to her dads, but this time as her boyfriend. The word felt foreign in her mouth, but it felt so right. She's been giddy with excitement ever since they decided to make it official in the club room the day before. Her dad asked if anything good happened, and she told him something did happen, but refused to tell them anything else.

She probably has quite a bit of explaining to do.

She gripped Ritsu's hand and opened the door to her home. Jacob was working on some homework at the table. Yuuri was helping him as Victor looked over some paperwork.

"Elena!" Victor cheered as he heard the door open. "Save me from the paperwork!"

Elena giggled, the two of them taking their shoes off. "Well, there is someone I want to introduce you to. Or reintroduce, I guess."

"Oh?" Yuuri looked up from where he was checking his son's math problem. "And who are we being reintroduced to?"

Ritsu gave her hand an encouraging squeeze, and they walked into the kitchen where they could see the two of them.

"Dad, Papa, Jacob. Meet Kasanoda Ritsu. My now boyfriend." Red began to creep up back to her face.

The three at the table paused, and the two teens shifted nervously.

"FINALLY!" Jacob cried. "It took you long enough!"

Elena giggled and turned to her two dads.

Victor smiled widely. "I'm so happy! My little girl is all grown up!"

Yuuri grinned as Victor grabbed him into a half hug as he got closer to the two teens. They were quickly engulfed into an impromptu group hug. It took a minute before they were released.

"So what did it? Was it the date Tamaki-senpai set you guys up on?"

"Date? When?" Victor asked.

Elena blushed harder. "When we had that club meeting. Turns out they were trying to set us up."

"Then he must be the one you were daydreaming about over your science textbook." Yuuri teased.

Elena closed her eyes, covering her face with one hand. "Please, no. No no no!"

"You daydreamed about me over a science textbook?" Ritsu grinned, his face also red.

"Nope! Not today! Not ever! Let's go!" Elena grabbed his hand and the bag by the door. Both of them putting their shoes back on before she started to pull him out the door.

"Uh, it's a pleasure to see you again!" Ritsu called into the house.

"Come again anytime!" Yuuri called back before Elena closed the door.

"Oh my gosh, that was worse than I expected," Elena muttered.

"I didn't think it was that bad." Ritsu grinned.

"That's because you weren't the one being teased!"

The two laughed, walking down the sidewalk. They were headed to the rink for a small 'date' before the Hosts came for their lesson.

When the Hosts got there, they saw the two sitting on the bench, Elena leaning into Ritsu's side as he had his arm around her shoulders. Tamaki didn't want to go in yet, but Renge didn't seem to get it as she barged in with a camera crew. The couple jumped and separated a little, but Renge saw enough, saying she would have to include this in the movie.

To say Elena was red would be an understatement.

"And why do we have to include our relationship into the movie?" Elena asked Renge as she directed some of the crew around the rink.

"Because this movie needs more romance, Elena! Girls love romance, so of course, we're going to include this! It's a wonderful turn of events! Of course, I had to rewrite some of the script, but that was no problem. This made it even better."

"I don't know, Renge..." Haruhi started. She was ignored.

Elena looked behind the girl to the Host club and her boyfriend as they laced up their skates. She looked directly at them jerking her head slightly at Renge, and mouthing 'Help me'. There wasn't much they could do.

In the end, their romance would be in a movie.

Elena just wanted a nap.

Thanks for reading. I don't know how many people came back after that long unexpected hiatus. High school has been tough, along with preparing for college. Not including the small (ish) identity crisis I am still going through.

But things are better now! (ish) (maybe) (I'm not sure) (yet!)

So yeah.

I'm working on editing this story, but that's taking some time, and I wanted to update. So I may do that once I'm done with this, but I'm not sure.

I saw a couple of people on AO3 making Discord servers, so I thought, why not?

I haven't figured it all out yet, but if you want to join, feel free to send me a message, or something. I can give you a link (because I don't know how to put a more permantant link, or yet). That way you can come bug me about updating, or talk about anime, or whatever. Same for my Tumblr. keep-calm-and-yarn-over

Adios amigos!

~Izzy