Kauru Hitachiin's Love Story || an OHSHC fanfiction

Four || Party Preparations

It was early spring, and early spring meant the annual host club formal dance. The club rented out the same hall they had last year, or more accurately, Kyoya had booked it on behalf of the club so that they could secure a date and start to plan around it. All of the club members had at least one formal under their belt, but Maverick thought that the host club formal would be very different to the formal dances put on at his old school back in the States.
It was after club hours, and the first meeting to prepare for the party. Maverick listened for a little and came to the conclusion that this would be more like the balls his father used to force him to attend than the school formal he was used to. There would be an orchestra, not a DJ; finger food not candy and chips; ballroom dances not the Cha Cha Slide; among other things.
"Considering that most of the school is pastels, it depends on if you want the decorations to stand out or blend in." Maverick remarked as the conversation shifted from music to decorations. "If you want the decorations to seem more natural, stick with the colour scheme of the school and the room, which is probably pastels, especially pink and yellow with accents of light grey, but if you want the decorations to stand out more, go with bright colours, purples and blues especially to contrast with the pinks and yellows." The club looked at Maverick, shocked and just how much he really thought through something as seemingly minuscule as the decoration colours, not even getting into what kinds of decorations. "What?" Maverick asked, looking between the hosts. "I take visual arts, colours and colour theory is visual arts 101."
After the club had made the decision, the rest was up to Kyoya to order everything and make sure to stay within the budget.

After the meeting, as the club members were walking to their cars, Hikaru was chatting with Haruhi, Tamaki and Kyoya had sparked a conversation, so it was only natural for Kaoru and Maverick to talk too.
"I forgot to ask during the meeting, you have dance experience, right?" Kaoru asked casually, or attempting to be casual. His hands were in his pockets, and he was leaning back.
Maverick chuckled lightly. "Yeah, I have dance experience." Maverick replied, shaking his head slightly.
"Something funny?" Kaoru asked, feeling like he was missing out on something.
"No, I just used to take dance lessons, so I'm trained in lots of different styles, including ballroom." Maverick explained. Kaoru nodded. "It was one of the few things that I wanted to do that I could get away with. I have old videos from back when I did competitions, if you want to see them sometime."
"I'd like that." Kaoru replied, smiling.
The two parted ways outside the school, getting into their respective cars, going to their respective houses.

The days leading up to the formal were very popular with the host club, Maverick soon learned that it applied not only to the club and club hours, but outside of the club too.
After entering the classroom, Kaoru struck up a conversation with Maverick, which was starting to become a routine, one both Maverick and Kaoru liked a lot.
"Hey, Mav." Kaoru greeted with a nod, leaning casually on Maverick desk.
"Hey, Kao." Maverick replied, smiling, putting his phone in his pocket.
"I was thinking last night-" Kaoru started before Maverick cut him off with a joke.
"Uh-oh, that's dangerous." Maverick joked with a light chuckle. Kaoru couldn't help but smile before continuing.
"If you have to stay home with your brothers tomorrow night, we'd understand." Kaoru finished.
Maverick opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off when a girl who had been requesting Maverick at the club since his second day gently nudged Kaoru off of Maverick's desk and leaned towards the green-eyed host seductively, putting her elbows on his desk and leaning forward.
"Hey there, Maverick." She said seductively, though Maverick didn't seem to catch it.
"Hello, Miss Soma." Maverick greeted, as he did with all his customers. Maverick may not have seen it, but Kaoru sure did; she was flirting with him.
The girl continued to flirt with Maverick until the teacher came in the room and told everyone to go to their seats. Kaoru lost count of how many times he broke his pencil lead that morning as every time the teacher would turn around to write on the board, the girl would turn around and wink at Maverick who never seemed to notice, even if Kaoru did.

The formal started the same way it had the year before, a dark room and a single spotlight on Tamaki as he gave the opening address.
"It is so good to see you here tonight, my little lambs. The Ouran Host Club would like to bid you ... Welcome." Spotlights shone on each of the hosts before all of the lights came up, the hosts taking a bow as their light came on and Kyoya gave his opening remark.
"As always, ladies, the Host Club members are here for your entertainment. So, we invite you to dance to your heart's content. Based on her dancing skills, one lucky young lady will be chosen as tonight's queen. The queen's reward will be a passionate kiss on the cheek from our king." Kyoya informed.
"Good luck to you, my darlings." Tamaki added with a wink, and the dance commenced.

The hosts made their way down to the dance floor. As the dance went on, girls would ask the hosts to dance as the hosts were there to please the ladies and were expressly told to not show any favouritism.
After a while, Maverick made his way over to the food table; dancing for that long was tiring. There was quite a spread, Maverick noticed an abundance of deluxe sushi, but then he remembered Hikaru mentioned something about it being a year and Haruhi still hadn't had 'fancy tuna'. Maverick had a couple of bites to eat, chuckling to himself as he had a grape before getting himself a small glass of punch. The girl who had talked to him in class the day before made her way over to him. She stood in a way that she thought was enticing and asked Maverick for the next dance. He smiled and politely accepted, as was his job. Kaoru saw them as he was dancing with one of his customers and made a mental note to ask Kyoya about her later. He needed to know who she was. He didn't quite know why, but he just knew that he wanted to keep Maverick away from her.
Maverick wasn't all that dense, he knew that she was flirting with him, it may have taken him until now to really get it, but he really wasn't looking for it as he was developing a crush, but he honestly isn't sure if he was in a place to be in a relationship at that point. He was still getting used to Japan and taking care of both of his brothers, and there was still the constant worry of where Katherine ended up. She may not have been a nice person per say, but part of that, Maverick was convinced, was his father's doing. She was Martin's mother after all, and she didn't deserve the same fate as his father, but there was no way for Maverick to look for her, so he just let it simmer in the back of his mind.
Maverick didn't end up staying through to the end of the dance, there was an emergency of some kind, and he left rather abruptly, telling Kaoru that it was urgent and that he was sorry before he left. No one knew exactly the reason, but Kaoru had a feeling it had something to do with one of his brothers.