lost again! (OPEN)

[ele]

"Oh, crap." were the first words out of Emi's mouth as she walked into another dead end. Originally she'd just planned on skipping out on class and taking a walk in the maze where no one could find her, but she hadn't learned from her previous encounters, because here she was again, completely, utterly, hopelessly lost.

It was terrible, really. Emi was ashamed for being so lost, especially when it had happened several times before. By now she should know her way around better, but the main problem was, she would get distracted and then forget where she'd left off.

Sure, she could probably just make her way over the hedges, but being lost gave Emiko a sense of excitement, in a way. It was rather interesting, to have the heart-pounding experience of being completely lost in a large area with no hope of escape.

Though "no hope" wasn't really true, as she could technically get out quite easily if she were to climb or jump ("spring" might be a better word, as she and her cousin Mitsukuni were both good at such things) onto one of the many tall rosebushes that made up the maze and find her way out that way, by jumping from hedge to hedge.

Yes, searching desperately for a way out would be much more fun. Though she could do without the scratches, noted Emiko as she ran headlong into a rosebush and recieved a cut on her cheek as a product.

[Kyouya Ootori]

Today Kyouya was looking into the maze for an idea for the Host club. It was a part of the school and he did not think at the moment he had actually ever planned an event that would make the customers search for the hosts inside the maze. There were always led to the host of their choice, but a thought crossed his mind to make them search for them and to see which customer found which host the most. Admittedly he would give the girls a few different tries to see if they could find different ones or remember which way to a certain host.

It was a plan mainly to bypass actually doing a big event due to the movie that was going to be produced here by some girl. He still had to meet with her, but that could way for now. Today, since he gotten a period free he would be planning this maze event for the club and get Tamaki and the others on board with it. He did not really need all their approvals to plan considering he did pretty much all the work himself. Plus, all he really needed was to drop the idea off in some form to their president and that was easy.

”I wonder if Tamaki truly knows who runs the club? He is just the face of the club,” the boy said to himself has he pushed up his glasses and continued on his way. He had walked this maze for years now mainly to clear his head and get away from Tamaki and the others when he needed to so working his way out of here would be the easy part. What he did not expect was to hear someone running inside of it.

Kyouya looked up just in time to see someone run headlong into the rose brush. He looked up and saw the ten foot high wall and glanced back down to her. He had a notion of just turning and walking away from the silly girl, but if Tamaki had heard that he had treated a lady of the school like that he would never hear the end of it. It was a headache that he did not need or want right now. Sometimes he wished he had kept to himself and not let the dramatic boy get to him so much.

He pushed up his glasses and walked closer to the girl and closed his small binder in his hands and stopped a few feet shy of her. ”Climbing up these ten feet high rose walls might not be a good idea, though if you are adamant about doing so I will let you have it your way.” He would need her to turn around and state her name to recall any information about her. He knew everyone, but he could not always rely on knowing them right off the bad from just an encounter in the maze.

”So what is it going to be? Going to continue trying to climb the wall, or I could escort you out of here myself.” Kyouya kept his voice calm and collective for the most part and brought down his arms to his side and waited. He was in no rush due to having this period free for once.

[ele]

It really was a difficult thing, climbing those bushes. As easy as it seemed, especially to one of Emiko's martial arts status, all the thorns made it much harder. Then there was the fact that she'd shed her shoes somewhere else in the maze that she couldn't find (as she really did prefer being barefoot), so the thorns weren't just sticking into her hands, arms, and legs, but into her feet as well. With a sigh, Emi momentarily gave up. She'd just have to continue wandering...

"Climbing up these ten feet high rose walls might not be a good idea, though if you are adamant about doing so I will let you have it your way."

Emi turned around with a jolt. She hadn't been expecting any others in the maze... she cursed herself for not having better reflexes. Expect the unexpected. she'd always told herself. Well now look what she'd gone and done- exactly the opposite!

Upon closer inspection Emiko realized that her visitor was none other than that creepy kid from the host club. What was his name again? Ootori, wasn't it? Yeah, that's right. Kyouya Ootori. Emi had always thought that a guy like him was not one that you were supposed to find in a host club. But, at the same time, she found him rather charming, and would get flustered on occasion while around him.

Ah, but this was not one of those times. Emi was flustered all right, but more so by the maze than anything else, and wasn't about to turn down an offer for help, which is exactly what Kyouya did next.

Emi's brown eyes blinked a bit before she answered, "Uh... yeah, an escort might not be a bad idea." she wiped the blood from the cut on her cheek, and smiled sheepishly at the "shadow king". But there was one problem... "But... you see... I've also lost my shoes somewhere in the maze. We don't have to look for them, but my mum'll be pretty mad if she knows I've been walking around without shoes."

Sure, a lot of kids probably did bring extra shoes and clothes with them wherever they went, or at least the kids at Ouran. Emiko only brought one extra outfit every day, and that was her karate uniform. Of course, she didn't wear shoes when practicing karate or kendo, so she didn't have any extras she could get once inside. In addition to all that, she had a sinking feeling that there was a cut on her foot to match the ones on her arms and legs. Obviously, having shed her shoes, she wasn't wearing any tights like the girls did at Ouran, being a customary part of the uniform. Emi never wore the tights, as she found them constricting, and really quite hated the fact that she had to wear a dress in the first place.

Taking an elastic from her wrist, Emiko tied her brown hair up into a ponytail so that she could get around better. This helped from any distractions, in her personal opinion. Her cut was still bleeding, and there was a bit of blood on her hair, which she wiped out hastily. With a determined expression, Emi looked up at Kyouya and said,

"So then. You gonna show me the way out, or what?"

It wasn't like she wasn't polite at all- she could be if she wanted to be. She just chose not to be most of the time, unless around her mother. That was just Emi's personality- it wasn't like she could help it. She flowed the way she wanted, just like a river- which incidentally as her nickname, as the first part of her surname, "kawa", translated to it.

[Kyouya Ootori]

Kyouya watched the girl turn around and face him and it took him a moment to realize who he was dealing with. He knew that she had been at Ouran pretty much all her school years like him. If he was not mistaken she was also the second cousin to two of their hosts in the club as well. His family had a small dealing with her family, but not enough that troubled him to much of actually knowing who the girl was. She was not one of his lists that he actually needed to know on a personal base.

He listen carefully tell him that not only was she lost in the maze, but her shoes were as well. He knew they could just be about anywhere in the maze since it was a large one and retracing her steps would probably get them both lost in a matter of seconds. Now he had to choose he was going to ‘help’ her find her shoes.

”She could be simply lying to me to spend time with me or something, but she would have no reason to do that since we don’t know each other and I doubt Mori and Hunny would actually speak about me to her if they talk. Especially not Mori, he barely talks to anyone besides Hunny.” Kyouya pushed the thoughts out of his head and focused on her before glancing doing at his watch to see the time on it.

”Of course, we can search for your shoes as well,” Kyouya said with a smile on his face. It was fake, but not many had actually seen him really smile. That was reserve for when he was truly happy or shocked by something.

He raised his eyebrow some when she asked if he was going to stand there all day or escort her out of the maze. The first thought that came to his mind was that she needed to learn some manners, but held his tongue to prevent from actually saying something about it. He reached up and pushed his glasses up his nose and walked closer to her.

He would be the gentlemen that he was raised to be around the ladies. He also knew if word got out to Tamaki that he had not helped Emiko find her shoes he would never hear the head of it for a month. ”You are Emiko Kawanozuka, second cousins to Hunny and Mori correct?” He asked with a smile on his face.

Since he saw no one coming the way he was coming he thought the better choice would be to travel ahead of him to search for her shoes, he could easily get out of here once they found her shoes, well that was at least what he was hoping. He held his arm out to her to take and once she took his arm he started to walk ahead and counting the turns that he had remembered along this path.

”Did you come along this path by turning right or left?” He asked gently and waited for her to respond to him. This would help him determined if they needed to go left or right and narrow down the choices of the possible outcome of finding her shoes. ”And will you be so kind to describe your shoes, Miss Emiko?”

[ele]

Emi looked at Kyouya for a few seconds, studying his features. He seemed nice at first, but she could tell by many signs that perhaps that wasn't his real personality. He seemed not as if he was hiding something, per se, but rather like he was closed-off, or at least presenting emotions that were proper for the time and place, and not what he really felt.

Was this really how he was, because if so, this was quite sad. She'd only heard a bit about each host from Mitsukuni, and even then it wasn't enough to base any opinions. Even so, as she listened to him speak and watched him give her a smile, she sensed a bit of lie or fake around it, as if he did not mean the smile or even anything that he was saying. Perhaps it was merely in his best interest to be polite? Either way, he was willing to help her, and for that she was grateful.

Emi found his personality a bit perplexing, to be honest, but she decided to let it go for the time being. She'd look into it after they'd found their way out of the maze.

"You are Emiko Kawanozuka, second cousin to Hunny and Mori correct?"

So he did know she was related to them. "Yes!" she said and nodded. "And, thank you for helping me." she was beginning to be extremely relieved. Even though she couldn't make heads or tails out of Kyouya, at least he was willing to help her.

"Gosh, you don't have to be so formal!" she said, grinning at him. "I don't mind, I get enough of it at home. But... my shoes are black, they're the dress shoes that go with the stupid uniform. And, I'm pretty sure I went left. ...wait.... No, it might have been right. Nope, I'm pretty sure it was left, actually..." Emiko frowned for a moment, and then said hesitantly, "Left. It was left."

Emiko sighed at her cluelessness, and wished she'd paid better attention as to where she was going. She almost changed her mind again, but figured that if they got lost going left, they could just turn around and go right again. "Uh," she started, recalling something, "I know I left them in the middle, I think... right by the little white mini-gazebo thing, wherever that is. I had sat down there and that's where I took off my shoes, and I left them there. Does that help?" she asked hopefully, biting her lip and wishing that Kyouya knew where to go to get to that part of the maze, because she sure didn't.

[Kyouya Ootori]

Kyouya was not sure how to take view the girl standing in front of him. He knew her only by her school record and that she had family members at the school which was the case with many of the students here at the school. He himself had been the forth of four children to attend Ouran so it was not surprising to see cousins or siblings within the complex of the school. As for Emiko now he would simply do his duty and listen to her and get her out of the rose maze since that would be the easiest route to take for him.

His smile faulted a bit when she told him that he shouldn’t be so formal around her and that she got enough of it at home with her mother. To him she seemed to have a rather difficult relationship with her parents that he did not want to really get into details with her about. He quickly regained his smile and push up his glasses slightly. ”Sorry to be so formal, I shall try and respect your request then.”

Kyouya found himself a little bit irritated at her lack of paying where she was going in the maze and wondering why she would even dare to leave a pair of shoes in the maze at all. Though, he knew she was not the only person that got lost in the maze, but the first he had ever heard of losing their shoes somewhere on purpose. He was slightly curious to know if she had gotten up on the hedge if she would have went back to looked for her shoes. He held back his frustration with her behind his smile as she tried to remember which way she came from.

After a moment of listening to her talk about the place she might have left them. He nodded slightly knowing where it was and which possible route would take them there the quickest. ”Ah, the white gazebo, yes I know where that is and where it is at. Don’t worry, we will get your shoes back. Though, I might advice not to leave them alone unless you know where each path leads.” He was seriously only trying to give a friendly advice to her about the maze. He had walked it many times and knew which path to take and where it ended. He knew it was a part of his OCD he knew he had, but it helped in cases like this. He didn’t mind helping someone out especially if it meant it would please the club and possible get another client to the club. He was not above getting money out of two of his friend’s cousin.

He looked around just slightly to get his baring and held out his arm allowing her to go ahead of him. ”Right this way, Emiko.” His force was calm and he held the smile on his face. He decided to walk beside her has they started to turn left and his mind was already mapping out the area they were in. He doubted that they would meet anyone else in here.

”You have been coming to Ouran since you were younger correct?” He figured he could offer her a mindless conversation to draw the attention away from walking around in silence. Though, he would prefer that over talking he knew most girls would rather talk instead of think. His sister was one of those types that had to try and get into his business when she felt it was right and it annoyed him to no end. Hopefully this would steer their chat off of him.

[ele]

Emiko was happy to know that Kyouya was willing to help her. Even if he didn't exactly seem excited about the prospect, at least he made the effort to put on a smile. Emi loved smiles. They were always so pleasant; you could tell, for example, that someone was happy if they were smiling. Though, strangely enough, this didn't seem to be the case with Kyouya. He was smiling, sure enough, but it was more of an evil, creepy smile, and he didn't seem very happy. He sure was the opposite of his friend- who was it, Tamaki? That was it. Tamaki was always friendly, although personally Emi thought he was a bit of a player. She wondered if the things he said were truthful or not- it didn't seem like it sometimes. Either he was a player, like she thought, or he was just insanely nice. He was rather adorable, though, and she was rather fond of him, just like Honey seemed to be.

He'd told her quite a bit about the club, which had made her rather want to visit. She heard that Kyouya was quite the miser when it came to money, though, and so she wasn't sure she wanted to go if it meant that she would have to pay. She was stubborn like that, and though she liked helping people and making them happy she thought that making Kyouya happy might just be disturbing, and that anything that would make him happy might be a bit sadistic, like his smile. To say the least he scared her a bit, but she tried to brush those feelings away as she followed him through the maze. After all, it wasn't fair to judge people before she even knew them. She wouldn't like it if someone were that way to her, after all.

And then, Kyouya changed the subject rather abruptly and began asking her about herself. She decided to humour him and talk. After all, it was fun to talk but she also wanted to know a bit about him. He was so mysterious... it was only the more intriguing. She sighed, but obliged to his question first, as he didn't seem like the open conversation type.

"Yep!" she said, thinking about her many years at Ouran. "I've been here pretty much forever. It's cool and all. I mean, it's a good place to hide from the maids! Lots of space. They already know all my hiding places at my house, but they don't know 'em here. Plus, I can hide at Takashi and Mitsukuni's houses as well! That's fun, because my maids don't know their way around their houses as well, either. There's tons of fun places to hide! 'cept sometimes I get lost...."

It seemed now, probably, that she got lost easily. This was true, as she didn't have the best memory in the world, but she didn't want him to think that she was a ditz or anything. She did know her way around her own house, after all, as well as the school and (most of the time) her cousins' houses. This maze, however, must have been created with the sole purpouse of getting people lost. Good thing she, Emiko Kawanozuka, NEVER got scared. Ever. She nodded happily to herself on this note. She refused to be scared of anything.

...well, perhaps water. She couldn't swim, so that was always a terrifying prospect. But it wasn't like she needed to go anywhere with water, or like she needed to say anything about that to Kyouya, or anyone else for that matter. No one knew, and no one needed to know. It would make her seem weak, and that was one thing she couldn't stand. That, and vegetables, but that was another story for another day.

"What about you, Mr Kyouya? Sir?" to say the least she was beginning to feel quite intimidated by Kyouya, and even though she'd asked for no formalities, there she was using them herself. How awful of her. She sighed, but waited for his answer, hoping he wouldn't mind her asking.

[Kyouya Ootori]

Kyouya turned his head slightly to seem that he was interested in her tale about hiding at her house and that her maids knew all the hiding places in the house, but the school and her cousins’ houses. He had to make a point to make sure that Mori and Honey knew that she was welcome to the club if she so wished it to spend more time with them or one of the other hosts. They never charged their customers or family members money if they were just visiting the club during the activities. No, money came from selling calendars to the girls or other things they tend to find of value. It was not that hard to please them he had been finding out.

”I have had the rare chances to visit their houses a few times myself. You are correct they are many hiding places that one could find there to hide if the maids had never been there for too long.” He was one that actually did not understand the need to hide from something, but did not even ask why she would hide from her maids or mother.

He pushed up his glasses and blinked when she asked about him and used the term mr. He decided that correcting her on her own desires not to use formalities would probably upset the girl for now and pushed it off to the back of his mind for now. There was no need to harp on something so trivial like that. He thought back for a moment to when he was a child and shrugged just barely.

”Yes, I have been here since I was a young age. My older sister and two brothers graduated from here themselves.” Kyouya said with a grin this time. Thinking of his brothers always made him think of his father and the heir of the company, but he had secrets of his own and kept up to day with the news and stocks from time to time. He would make his father rethink everything in dear time and he just needed to get out of high school to make everything happen.

He turned another corner of the maze without much of thinking about it and they slowly started to walk up towards a white gazebo. He looked around slightly and spotted a pair of shoes never to the steps. He looked to Emiko for a moment and smiled slightly and pulled her towards the steps. ”Now, your mother will not be that displeased now that you have your shoes back. Perhaps it would be wise if you placed them on here so they don’t drop somewhere or get caught on a branch or vine as we make our way out of here?”

It was only a suggestion for now that he wished she would take. At least with what she had given him before he was able to recall a gazebo and find the pair of shoes for her. Just walking and having idle conversation and having to retrace his tracks was something he was not looking forward to at all if her shoes got lost again.

[ele]

It seemed that Kyouya was very intent on his studies. He was always proper, as well. It was interesting, to say the least, how one person could be so uptight. Emiko wondered if he'd always been like this. Perhaps it was the way he was brought up? After all, people responded differently to overprotective parents. Emi responded by rebellion; maybe Kyouya responded by submission. Or maybe he was in his own quiet rebellion right now? Perhaps his parents weren't even overprotective. They could just be strict, or maybe he was overshadowed.

That's right, he did say he had two older brothers and an older sister. Maybe, being the youngest in the family made him feel like he wasn't important, so he did his best in school so that he could outshine the others. That was a possibility. Emiko thought that if she was the youngest, and not an only child, she'd probably do the same thing. After all, it would probably stink to have all kinds of older siblings that were good at everything and totally overshadowed you.

Then again, he never said that they overshadowed him at all, so why was she jumping to random conclusions? Perhaps it was the confident bitterness in his tone when he'd said it. It wasn't easily detectable, past his smiling and pleasant demeanor, but yet it was there, hidden among the shadows caused by none other than the Shadow King. He must be thinking something... perhaps that he would indeed win against them someday. Maybe he wanted control of the family business or something. Emi really didn't know. Why anyone would want that much responsibility was beyond her, but maybe it was just a guy thing.

"Oh, I see." she said calmly, caught up in her own thoughts. It was strange that she was this calm. "My shoes?" she added thoughtfully, looking at her grassy feet. It was better that the shoes were dirty than completely missing, after all, so with that resolve she sighed and plopped down on the ground, slipping them on. "You're probably right. I'm sorry I put you through all this trouble."

Why was Emiko so nervous and obliging? It must have something to do with the fact that Kyouya almost sounded annoyed when speaking of them going through the maze. Well, that was understandable. He'd probably come in for a relaxing walk, and here Emiko was ruining it for him by having him help her find her way out. Though, admittedly, he had technically offered to do so, so it was really his own choice. If he was annoyed by a choice he'd made, that was his problem and not hers, right?

Emiko sighed and stood back up. She hated overthinking things. It was really such a bother. All it ended up doing was making her brain hurt, which she really didn't appreciate very much. It was funny how often lately she seemed to contemplate things more and more each time. It wasn't even really that funny- more so strange. But then again, here she was overthinking overthinking things! Wasn't that a paradox or something?

Nothing ever made any sense. It was really quite frustrating.

[Kyouya Ootori]

Kyouya watched slightly as Emiko had slipped on her shoes and tied up one of them up. He was glad she was taking his warning nicely without any real problems. He turned away from her and looked to where they had entered the area and closed his eyes running the map he had inside is head to the nearest exit to the maze. At the moment it seemed by walking they would still be in here for a good five or ten minutes together. He did not really mind that at all. Though, he knew his expression might seem like he was more annoyed with her than he was telling.

In truth, he did welcome breaks from time to time. Usually his breaks was made by his sister demanding him take time off from his school work or by Tamaki being a pain. He had come in here trying to think and make plans in his head and he had run into someone quite unexpected.

He knew he should say something to make sure she did not think she was troubling him as all. After all she had just said she was sorry placing him through all this. Perhaps he was acting to cold and that was something he did not want to do at the moment around her. He pushed up his glasses and turned around to face her once more once he was sure her shoes where on since he had given her enough time.

”As troubling as my facial and tone can be, I can assure you that this is no trouble at all,” said Kyouya. This time he placed a kinder smile on his face and looked around the area for a moment or so. ”Ah, I use to come to this gazebo when I was younger to get some homework down away from my siblings when they were here and I was in grade school. They seemed to always want to help me or another.”

He offered this information without a care in the world at the moment. He had always found peace within the maze simply because his brothers lacked the skills to map this area inside their own heads. It amused him when he came out and had been told by other students that one of them had gone in there looking for him and he had to travel back through to find them again.

Kyouya shook the memory from his mind and looked back to Emiko. He held out his arm slightly to her with the same kinder smile on his face as before. It was not much, but he was trying to seem not too cold to her at the moment. There was no need to get her upset to where she would not see him as a friend to talk to if need to. That was of course one of the goals of the club for the members.

”Should we make our way out of this mess for now? Perhaps another day, I could show you the tricks on getting out of here without the need of climbing up on the hedges. What would your mother say if you rip your dress?”

[ele]

Well, at least this smile seemed more sincere. Emiko couldn't help but grin herself when she saw it, looking up happily at Kyouya. It'd be so much easier to smile at him if she were taller... she was always angry about being so short, for many reasons. One, because everyone was always taller than her and in general it kinda got old after a while; two, because everyone treated her like a child who couldn't take care of themself because she slightly looks like one; three, because no one would ever take her seriously because she is so much smaller than them, and they think she's weak or something. She hated that.

Even around Kyouya, Emiko felt an air of 'childishness'. She felt as if he just saw her as another student, as a child, as someone who didn't even belong in high school yet. She really, truly hated that. It made her a little irritable but she hid it well, because she could. Because she didn't want him to think her a child, and all children get irritable when people call them that. Right? Well yeah, it was true that Emiko was very childish at times, and acted more like a child than like her age and someone that was her age should act. But honestly it wasn't her fault! Being treated like a child gets old and rubs off on you after a while. At least, that's what she thought.

Either way, there she was smiling and probably looking and seeming like a child. Why was it always that way? And there he was, offering his arm to her, as if he thought she couldn't find her way without staying close to him, as if she couldn't just follow him. Well, she didn't blame him. It was probably true. She did get rather easily distracted, after all, so if she wasn't paying close attention it wouldn't surprise her if she began walking in the opposite direction or something. It'd happened more than once when she was with others. It wasn't her fault, it really wasn't. She just had to work on it, that was all.

Emiko sighed and reached out toward his arm, but slipped her small, porcelain child's hand into Kyouya's bigger, masculine, and age-appropriate hand instead. Maybe she was a child after all, finding comfort in such a silly thing. But when she was upset, that's what she tended to do. Either that, or just run. Him mentioning her mother made a bit of annoyance momentarily run through her brain. Why did that woman have to be so protective? Emiko wrinkled her nose for a few seconds while thinking of this, but quickly covered it with a little laugh. "She'd probably be mad. She always is when I get my dress dirty or somethin' like that. I wish she weren't so overprotective! It's so annoying."

So maybe I am a child after all. But you know what? I don't care. I'll be a child, and at least there maybe I can be free.