Open RP - Budding Friendships

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki knew how important it was for people to get complimented. When people were having a bad day, they could usually be cheered up by just one friendly thing said to them. Tamaki started the Host Club so that he could make girls feel happy for themselves all the time, and he was able to do it because he had a lot of free time (most of the kids at Ouran had a lot of time on their hands).

Here, he had even more time on his hands. For one, there was no official Host Club to take up his time after school and on lunches (not that he saw it as 'taking up his time.' He loved doing it). For another, he didn't need to do his homework and study (it might not seem like he was the type, but he did have the second highest grades in his year - second only to Kyouya).

So, he had spent quite a bit of time playing the piano, and entertaining anyone who would come by and see it.

He had woken up this morning with a brilliant idea, and decided that piano playing would probably be out for the day.

That morning, as the sun was just beginning to raise, he went around the park picking flowers and finding pretty ribbons. He tied together about three dozen bouquets of flowers (all with about a dozen flowers in each), and with each bouquet, he tied on a complimentary note (written in very nice, flowing letters), some saying 'You're beautiful' or 'You're looking especially cute today, and others saying things like, 'You're very intelligent,' 'You're good at what you do,' and 'You're great fun to talk to.'

Each of the 36 bouquets had a different message tied to it, and each was left in a strategic place in the park. Then, exhausted, he sat himself near the lake and watched the ducks.

((Feel free to catch him leaving the roses, to see him at the lake, or to just come across a bouquet.))

Comments

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia had gone out to feed the ducks that morning (she had started to make semi-regular habit of duck-feeding lately -- it was at least something to do) and hadn't been expecting to run into anyone. When she saw Tamaki, she blinked and hesitated, unsure of how to address him at first.

Finally, she just settled for, "Hello."

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki turned when he heard a voice, and smiled widely when he saw Rukia. "Rukia-chan!" he called, standing to greet her. "How are you this lovely day?"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"I'm fine," Rukia said evenly, approaching him with steps that were just as even as her tone. "What are you doing up so early, Tamaki?"

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

"That's great!" he said, smiling. "I'm always up early. I love waking up early; it gives you so much more time to do everything in a day. But I had a surprise that I prepared for the rest of the park." He gave her a wink.

"Are you an early riser, too?"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"A surprise?" Rukia echoed, blinking. She hadn't seen any of the bouquets and as of yet wasn't entirely sure what he was getting at. But it was Tamaki. She could guess.

"Sometimes, I guess I am." He oddly reminded her a bit of Orihime right then ...

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki smiled widely and nodded. "Yep!" he said. "It was a lot of work, but hopefully it'll be worth it!" He wasn't about to give the secret away. If she found a bouquet, he wanted her to be surprised. Even if she knew right away who had done it.

"That's good!" said Tamaki. "Kyouya sleeps in all the time. And he's grumpy when he wakes up." He dropped his voice as if he was sharing a secret. "He has low blood pressure."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia hadn't found any of the bouquets yet, but she probably would have known immediately who did it even if they hadn't been having this talk right now. For now, though, she could only wonder about Tamaki's 'surprise'. "Okay..." was all she had to say to that, blinking.

"Really?" Rukia dropped her voice too, just because Tamaki had dropped his. "That's strange. I would have figured he had high blood pressure." Of course, Rukia's interaction with Kyouya thus far was rather limited, and she had only the vaguest concept of human physical problems anyway.

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki shook his head. "Very low blood pressure," he said. "He can be downright scary in the mornings."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"I see," Rukia murmured, rubbing her chin thoughtfully. "He's not prone to fainting, is he? I read that sometimes people with low blood pressure will get dizzy and faint."

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki thought about that for a moment. "No," he said after a moment. "I've never seen him faint."

He paused. "But maybe he's been trying really hard to not faint so we don't worry about him! What if he's really dizzy a lot of the time and is just hiding it from me."

Suddenly worried, he vowed to go make sure Kyouya was okay the next time that he saw him.

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"I don't think you hide fainting from someone," said Rukia quickly, beginning to wish she hadn't said anything at all. "If you've never seen him faint, then he's probably fine." How to change the subject to something less likely to freak him out...

"Do you visit the ducks often?"

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki nodded, not unlike a little boy who had just stopped bawling his eyes out. "Sometimes," he said. "They're cute little creatures, aren't they? And they really like bread. Did you know you could feed them bread and they'll eat it?"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"I did," Rukia told him, smiling a little. Well, so far, so good. And if there was anything Rukia liked to talk about, it was adorable animals. "I like to feed them sometimes. It's funny when they squabble over it."

She added, "They do make being here slightly more bearable. I just wish there were bunnies around, too."

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

((Oh, rename token?))

Tamaki smiled. "You like bunnies?" he asked. "I wish there were bunnies here too. Actually, one of our hosts, Hunny, really likes bunnies as well. I think you'd get along well with him."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

((Hush.))

"That's a strange name," Rukia commented, trying to imagine a jar of honey running around after bunnies. "But if he likes bunnies, I imagine we would get along quite well."

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

((My lips are sealed))

"His real name is Haninozuka Mitsukuni, but we all call him Hunny for short because it's cuter. Of course, Hunny gets along well with most people." He smiled at Rukia. "So, what other kinds of things do you like?"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Tamaki was actually quite pleasant to talk to, Rukia decided, when he was actually making normal conversation and not just throwing seemingly random compliments out there. "That is cuter," she agreed. "What's he like? How old is he?"

When he asked her what she liked, she told him: "Drawing. Eggs. Cucumbers. Flowers. High places. Horror manga." There was other stuff, of course, but some of it wasn't Tamaki-appropriate.

"What about you? What do you like, besides ducks and the Host Club?"

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki wasn't a big fan of horror manga, and gave a small shiver when she mentioned it. Truth be told, he was quite easily frightened.

"Oh, I like quite a lot of things," he said. "I like making friends and making people happy, commoner snacks and commoners in general, tv dramas, Japan, history..." He smiled cheerfully. "I'm willing to give nearly anything a chance, and I like most of what I try."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"That's a good attitude to have," Rukia said approvingly. "Some people get very grumpy when you try to make them try new things."

His 'commoners' comment reminded her of something she'd been curious about since he first mentioned princes, and now seemed as good a time as any to bring it up. "There's something that I've been wondering about," she admitted, looking him over. It wasn't a friendly expression, but neither was it harsh or unkind -- merely curious and thoughtful. "Just what are you prince of, anyway?" It had never really occurred to her that he wasn't a literal prince of actual royal blood.

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki didn't have to think very hard on Rukia's question. "Well, I'm more of the King, really. I'm the king of the Ouran Host Club, and, more or less, the king of the entire school."

He knew he was definitely the most popular/well liked person in school. He wasn't quite modest enough to keep it to himself.

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

It was only then that Rukia realized Tamaki may have been speaking metaphorically, after all. "...You're King of a school?" she repeated skeptically. "Not a country? Or a principality? Or a realm?"

She supposed it was possible that the human world just had really different conceptions of what 'king' and 'prince' meant than Soul Society did.

But she kind of doubted it.

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki shook his head. "Unfortunately not," he said. "Though, I would be a great king if I was one of a country, don't you think? All the people would love me, and I'd make sure they were always happy and doing what they wanted!"

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

"...Oh. Ah. Of course you'd make a good king," Rukia agreed, knowing there wasn't any way to contradict that without making him cry. Besides, was starting to find Tamaki more amusing than anything else. "I'm sure you could do anything you put your mind to." That was actually largely true. Tamaki had, if nothing else, a lot of energy and doggedness he could probably put to good use. It was probably a good thing that he'd decided to dedicate it to relatively harmless pursuits like leaving flowers for people to find.

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

If Tamaki ever turned his powers to evil, the results would be terrifying.

He nodded at that. "I know I can," he said. "I've got such a lot that I want to put my mind to, though, that I don't know where to start. I can change the world and make it a much better place, but there's so much that needs fixing that I don't know where to start."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia looked thoughtful. "Well, you've got a lot of money, don't you?" she said. "You could probably start by donating it to charities that help those in need. Or even starting a charity of your own. You could use your riches to help fight poverty." Rukia was looking thoughtful.

"Or, you could gear your charity towards preventing animal abuse! I saw a show once with animals who were horribly abused. It was very sad. Their owners didn't take care of them properly." She sounded angry and slightly depressed.

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki nodded. "I want to start an animal kingdom in the north!" said Tamaki. "And then I'd protect all sorts of animals! It would be great. When I return home though, I'll ask my dad about donating to charity though."

[kuchiki.livejournal.com]

Rukia smiled and nodded, glancing again at the ducks. "That sounds like a very worthwhile project," she told him. She watched them swim for a little bit, adding, "So have you and Kyouya been, anyway? Low blood pressure aside."

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

"I've been quite good!" said Tamaki. "And Kyouya has been too! He's got himself a new place, which works out for both of us because we get to use a shower!"

Tamaki didn't believe in the finer arts of keeping good things secret.

Earlier in the day...

[markoftherani]

One of the bouquets was left by the foot of the Astro Orbiter, where it caused the Rani considerable confusion when she found it. Especially since the attached message said You're one of the nicest people I've ever met.

She strongly suspected a joke on the part of Those Two, but even eight hundred years ago, they'd have thought twice before pulling something like that. Then again, both of them appeared to be growing senile and/or deranged in their old age.

She was about to take the bouquet inside her TARDIS, do something awful to it, and send it to one of Them back through the post when she caught sight of a blond boy with three or four more similar bouquets in his arm, passing on his way out of Tomorrowland.

The culprit, perhaps? "You there! Boy!"

Re: Earlier in the day...

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

((... XDD Ahahah. I was actually going to put 'you're the nicest person I ever met' in the post. **Is greatly amused**))

Tamaki turned to the sound of the voice, and smiled when he saw the bouquet in her arms.

He walked up to her. "Hello," he said. "I don't believe we've met. I'm Tamaki Suoh. May I ask the name of the beautiful goddess standing before me?"

[markoftherani]

–Pythia's knickers, this one's even worse than he was, back then–

"I am called the Rani, and I have very little use for idle flattery, so you might as well stop now," she said. "You're responsible for this, I gather." She held the bouquet as if it were a particularly disgusting invertebrate (although if it had been, she'd have probably liked it quite a bit more, or at least been interested in it).

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

There were so many women here who didn't like to be complimented! It was really quite strange to Tamaki.

"It isn't idle flattery," said Tamaki. "It's the truth. You're really quite beautiful." He smiled when she asked if he was responsible for the flowers. "Of course," he said. "Did you like it?"

[markoftherani]

The Rani had never been beautiful, not in any of her incarnations, and she damn well knew it. Striking, perhaps –especially in this body, all sharp edges and hard surfaces and leather–. Beautiful, no; emphatically not. And she liked it that way. She snorted.

"I've never so much as spoken to you before, boy, so I cannot understand why you'd leave this for me." She held the note a few inches from his nose. "Therefore, I can only assume that you are leaving these things indiscriminately about the park. Why?"

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

To Tamaki, ever woman was beautiful. All were beautiful in different ways, but in their own way, every woman was beautiful.

"Because sometimes, when people are having bad days or just aren't feeling their greatest, a compliment makes the rest of their day better." He glanced at her bouquet. "I may not have spoken to you before, but I'm sure you're the nicest person someone has met."

[markoftherani]

A sardonic retort (to the effect that compliments are meaningless if they're coming from someone one has never met) was lost: first in gobsmacked silence, and then in disbelieving, mocking laughter. Because the Rani was self-aware enough to know that describing her as nice was even more inappropriate and inaccurate than beautiful.

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki wasn't entirely sure how to react to the laughter. He chuckled a couple of times, then scratched his cheek. "Did I say something funny?" he asked.

[markoftherani]

The Rani recovered herself with an effort. "Funny. Yes, boy, you did. Possibly the funniest thing I have heard since I arrived in this pit." She held out the bouquet. "Here. Bestow this upon someone more fitting."

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki took the bouquet hesitantly. "Would you at least like the flowers?" he asked.

[markoftherani]

"Cut, they're useless to me," she said. "Much like many of the people here."

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

Tamaki gave her a little bow, and then smiled at her. "Well, if I can ever be of any use to you, feel free to write and ask me to help." He wasn't about to let a comment like that detour him.

[markoftherani]

A hard, amused little smirk twisted her lips. "Believe me, boy, if I can find a use for you, you shall certainly know right away." She folded her arms and waited for him to be on his way.

[imyourking.livejournal.com]

"Have a wonderful day, Rani," he said, before turning and leaving. Hopefully, he had made her day at least a little better.

[markoftherani]

The funny thing was, he had. Although perhaps not in the way he'd originally intended.