Wings of Light (Ouran High School Host Club fan-fic)

Passing Time

Sorry for never updating. I have no excuse. I am very sorry. Thanks to everyone who comments and votes for this story. You are pretty much the only reason this chapter was written. As usual, not proofread.

@deviepixie you pretty much made this happen :)

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If there was one thing Tsubasa detested, then it was horse riding. There were two possibilities: either she just had no talent for the sport or the creatures involved just hated the sight of her. Unbeknownst to Tsubasa, her daily adventures of trying to tame a horse had become a spectacle for most of the people in the manor. At exactly one o'clock in the afternoon, Alexander, and in the rare occasion Alderic were with him, would position themselves by the rectangular windows and glance down at the stables. Maids and butlers would half-heartedly continue their duties while keeping an eye on their new young lady of house Windcast. There she would stand in front of the stables, body tense and eyes flaring, ready to run. The stable boy would then proceed to bring out the creature, and as the reigns shifted from one hand to another, every spectator would stop to watch for a moment. The reigns were transferred successfully. Then, as Tsubasa proceeded to lead the horse away, nothing happen. Well, something did happen, the horse of the day would just proceed to lie on the ground. After a couple of supposed riding sessions and experiencing the various horses unexpected uncooperative nature, the stable boy had learned not to walk off but to stay. He did not really understand why the normally sweet natured horses in the stables detested Tsubasa so much. They had even tried to find a suitable horse amongst the many! Somehow, the stable boy would get the horse of the day to move, and Tsubasa on its back, but at the end of the lesson, which was also the one scene the people of the manor would be looking forward to, Tsubasa would be seen running behind the horse, trying to grab the reigns as her horse would move away just in time for her hands to miss the reigns. How it happened every time was a question everyone asked themselves, because Tsubasa was not a dumb enough to leave the reigns unmannered. However, when she was asked this question at one point,  she would just mutter, "those hellish creatures are a nightmare..." and no one would probe further into the case.

Even though Tsubasa was naturally gifted in some areas, Alexander found her lacking severely in others, a discovery, which only made her more endearing in his eyes, though wary and anxious too. He realised, she was not only bad at horse riding, but also driving. Somehow, she had passed the theoretical and practical test with no problem, but sitting in a car with her behind the steering wheel  was something  neither Alexander nor Alderic wanted to experience again. The first thing Alexander did when the car had stopped was to fling open the door and just get as far away from the car as possible. He did not even have to think about it, his body just automatically moved himself away from harm. Alderic reacted quite differently. Normally, a very stoic person with a calm expression. However, his expression tense, lips pressed together tightly, eyes wide while his hands had an iron grip around the door handle for his life. He stayed in the car for five minutes after it had stopped, unable to move. No one dared to mention this episode in front of Alderic nor Alexander, it would only pass by the servants' lips in secrecy. At that point, Alexander was just relieved that they were prosperous enough to appoint Tsubasa a personal chauffeur for the rest of her life. Said person had never really thought about driving, the past her would not even be able to afford getting a driver's licence, much less a car.

Although knowing Tsubasa had no interest in learning to be a good lady, which their grandmother required and forced on her, Tsubasa still attended several lessons in etiquette and other arts for reasons Alexander could not understand. Their relationship was still strained, and he had a hard time getting her to warm up to himself and their father. That one time Tsubasa had met their grandmother, she had just continued on her way, not even sparing said lady a minute. Alexander was left to deal with the awkward situation, both women were equally stubborn. As for the relationship between Atticus and Tsubasa, it was practically non-existent. A typical interaction between them would be Atticus trying to strike up a conversation and Tsubasa walking right past him. Still, Atticus never gave up and kept trying, though all attempts were shot down immediately. Albeit late in regards to Tsubasa, he was still a parent at heart. At the moment his only comfort was the moments after her cooking lessons. When her lessons in cooking began, the manor discovered yet another talent she definitely did not possess. She had absolutely no culinary skills. Tsubasa did not care about the taste of the food nor how it was presented. So the results of hours in the kitchen were quite disastrous. The food she cooked and sweets she baked were mostly bland and looked unappetising, but to her it was good enough. Cooking was never something she had spent a lot of time doing, mostly because of her situation. As long as it was edible, she would be satisfied so she never understood all the fuss the other people in the manor made. However, as her culinary class was advanced, many of her attempts proved to be failures. At those times, Tsubasa would leave to take a bath, rinse all the ingredients off her hair, arms and body, while two men would not so subtly sneak into the kitchen. Although being failures, Atticus and Alexander did not have the heart to throw out something made by Tsubasa. Alexander would eat a few bites before stopping, his tongue protesting all the time, that the substance it came into contact with was definitely not edible, while Atticus would consume it all without leaving one bite left. Something made by his daughter, no matter how badly, did not belong in the trash can. In just 30 minutes, the time it took for Tsubasa to take a bath and get dressed again, the food would be gone. At first she had asked her instructor of the food's disappearance. However, she had just looked the other way, stuttering out incoherent sentences. As it happened a couple of times, Tsubasa had stayed back to see what had happed to the food she made, when she discovered what was going on. She was not especially touched by Atticus' determination to be a good father, but not disgusted either, just indifferent. The ingredients were his, the kitchen his, the staff his, so if he wanted, he could eat it, she would not stop him, but that did not mean she would forgive him in any way.

Even though every day was filled with so much to learn, Tsubasa still found her mind wandering to the Host Club at Ouran. She missed them. She really did. The feeling of longing was at its worst when night time came around. When it was quiet. If she closed her eyes, she could still picture their smiling faces, Tamaki's pearl like laughter, the kindness in Kyouya's eyes, the little smile on Mori's lips, Haruhi's soothing demeanour, Kaoru and Hikaru's closeness and Honey's reassuring presence. At those times, she would sit on the window sill, looking out of the window, only with the moon to accompany her.