Chapter 17 | Africa!

~Arabella's POV~

I yawned as I looked out one of the plane's windows. It was night. We had been flying for the entire day now, most of the people in first class were asleep already, including my mother, little brother, and Kenji.

I, however, wasn't.

And neither was the rest of the Host Club.

The twins seemed especially wide awake.

"Okay," Hikaru whispered. "Who wants to play Truth or Dare?"

Kaoru raised his hand. "I'll play. I'm bored anyway."

"I will play as well!" Tamaki said, a little too loud.

The old man that sat behind him shushed him.

"Sorry...!" Tamaki apologized quietly.

"I'll play too, Hika-chan!" Honey whispered. Mori nodded.

"How about you, Kyoya, Haruhi, Arabella?" Hikaru asked.

Kyoya shook his head. "No."

"I'm not either." I said.

"I've been trying to go to sleep for the past hour, but you all won't shut up...!" Haruhi snapped.

Hikaru ignored her. "Alright," He turned to Tamaki. "Tono! Truth or dare?"

Tamaki thought for a second before he said, "Truth."

"Okay. Tono, tell us, how do you really feel towards Haruhi? We all know you think of her as more than a friend, fellow host, or even a 'daughter'. What do you have to say for yourself?" Hikaru said with a smirk.

Even in the dark I could see how red Tamaki's face went. "Uh... I... Uh... I'm switching! I choose dare instead...!" he studdered.

Hikaru smiled. "Alright. Then, Tono, I dare you to tell the truth about your real feelings towards Haruhi."

Tamaki stumbled over his words before he just simply huffed and said, "I'm suddenly tired, I'm going to sleep. Good night, everyone!" Then he turned over in his seat and pretended to snore.

Hikaru sighed. "Whatever. Who's next?" He looked at Kaoru. "Kaoru, my dear brother! Truth or dare?"

~Kaoru's POV~

It's obvious I can't pick truth; if I do, I know EXACTLY what Hikaru will ask: "Hey, Kaoru, what are your TRUE FEELINGS towards Arabella?"

And I was definitely NOT gonna answer that! If I told him I didn't have feelings for her, Hikaru will just say I'm in denial and laugh at me, embarrassing both Arabella and I.

And, if I joked and said I did have feelings for her (which I completely DON'T), he'll assume I'm not joking, and he'll laugh, embarrassing both Arabella and I.

So, there was only one option.

"Dare. I'm all for the dares!" I said boldly.

I saw a flash of disappointment on Hikaru's face for a split second before it was instantly replaced with a sly grin. "Okay. Kaoru, I dare you to kiss one of the people in our row." he said.

I easily found a loophole in that one.

I leaned over, grabbed Hikaru by his head, and kissed his forehead. "Done. That was too easy." I said.

Hikaru sighed. "Let me rephrase that; I dare you to kiss the person sitting in the middle of our row."

Arabella was sitting in the middle of our row.

I blushed profusely. So did she.

"Th-That's not happening...!" I said.

"Y-Yeah!" Arabella said.

"It's a dare. You gotta do it." Hikaru said.

I huffed. "This game is for little kids anyway...! Why are we even playing it???"

"Oh really? Well, you were just fine with it up to the point when I told you to kiss the person who was in the middle of our row." Hikaru said.

"I'm going to sleep." Arabella said before she turned over and closed her eyes.

"Me too." I said before I did what she did.

Hikaru groaned. "You both are so boring! It's not like I was asking you two to french kiss or sleep with each other or anything like that!" he protested a bit too loudly.

I immediately shushed him.

"And this is why you DON'T bring teenagers on a vacation with you...!" the old man who was sitting behind Tono said to the woman sitting next to him. She nodded in agreement.

I would've rolled my eyes, but I was too busy pretending to be asleep and tuning out Hikaru.

Eventually, I actually ended up falling asleep, and I was able to drown out Hikaru the entire rest of the night.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Several hours later, I had just finished listening to all the songs I had on my iPod.

Suddenly, an announcement came over the intercom.

"Attention all passengers, we will be descending momentarily. Thank you for flying with us!" the pilot said.

It's about time we got here... Several hours on one plane with the same people can really get on a person's nerves.

Soon, as said, the plane landed and we exited. We then grabbed our luggage off the exchange. Since it rarely snows in Africa (it wasn't today either), it was incredibly warm when we exited the airport.

We left the airport in one of the Suoh family limos. Apparently, Tono had been to Africa more than once and he had a vacation home here.

However, the Suoh vacation home was too far north and currently being remodeled, so we had to stay in a hotel instead.

But, Tono made sure it was a five-star hotel.

The second we walked into the hotel, Haruhi, Arabella, and Arabella's younger brother's eyes all widened. "Woah..." they all said together.

"Welcome to Africa. You must be the Suoh party." a guy at the front doors said.

"Thank you. Yes, that's us." Kenji said.

"This place is pretty BIG...!" Arabella's younger brother, whose name is Daniel, exclaimed as he looked around.

"Uh, yeah it's big...!" Arabella said.

"This place is amazing...!" Mrs. Hashimoto said. Then she turned to Kenji. "Kenji, this is too nice of you... You don't have to do this..."

"No, I want to! I think it's great for my nephew to be with his friends... His father doesn't exactly keep him on a very lose leash..." Kenji said.

Mrs. Hashimoto nodded. "I got you. My family was in a... similar situation..."

Hm... I wonder what that means...

When Mrs. Hashimoto said similar situation, I saw Arabella look down at her feet and Daniel just shuffle around.

What kind of situation were they in?

Maybe it has something to do with Arabella's "messed up childhood", what she mentioned to me when we were at Okinawa...

"Man, I hope there's a spa here... I really need to relax." Haruhi spoke up.

"Most definitely!" Arabella agreed.

"We heard there's a nice sauna." Hikaru and I said.

"Maybe we could..."

"... join you ladies?"

Haruhi made a face. "Um, ew..."

"You wish." Arabella told us firmly.

After Kenji and Mrs. Hashimoto checked us in at the front desk, they got all our room keys and we all went to find our hotel rooms.

Hikaru and I would be sharing a room of course. Mrs. Hashimoto, Arabella, Haruhi, and Daniel would be sharing a room. Honey and Mori would share a room. Kenji, Tono, and Kyoya would share a room.

Once we checked out our rooms (and Arabella, Haruhi, and Daniel marveled over them), Kenji and Mrs. Hashimoto let us explore the hotel.

Since we were apparently honored guests, we got access to just about everything this five-star hotel had to offer.

And, Arabella and Haruhi were extremely pleased to find out a spa was in included in that.

"I'm going to the spa," Arabella said immediately. Then she turned to Haruhi. "I could really use a good massage. You?"

Haruhi nodded. "Definitely." Then they took off.

Honey and Mori decided they were going to check out the workout room, Tono followed the girls to the spa (probably to spy on Haruhi), the adults were back in their hotel rooms, and Kyoya went to check out the sauna. So it was just Hikaru, Daniel, and I.

The three of us stood there awkwardly, not quite knowing what to do.

Hikaru's gaze wondered over to a vending machine. "Oooh! Is that a chocolate bar?" he said. "I'll leave you to talk with our future brother-in-law."

I snorted. "Uh huh. Sure."

Then he wandered over to the vending machine.

So, it left just Daniel and me.

Daniel coughed awkwardly. "So... I hear you're into my sister."

My eyes widened. "Oh no...! You've got the wrong i--"

"Well, too bad; you can't date her." Daniel said, cutting me off.

"Uh... why...?" I asked.

"Because, she's been through enough shit already. Too many people have damaged her ability to trust anyone outside her family; and that's just Mom and me. My sister and I's childhood was pretty fucked up, okay? I'm not sure of she told you that, but if she did, I'm sparing any further details. The point is she can't take much more damage and it's a miracle she's standing on her own. She doesn't need some rich boy parading in and ruining her ability to trust even more. And, even though we might not get along at times, I love her and she sacrificed a lot just for me. You seem like a nice guy and all, but I can't let you date my sister. You'll just hurt her." Daniel said seriously.

I just blinked.

So it's true... Arabella and Daniel had a screwed up childhood... But what made their childhood so bad???

"First off, I don't have ANY feelings for Arabella...! Second off, I would never hurt her. She's my friend and friends don't hurt each other." I said.

Daniel shrugged. "Whatever. Just keep your distance, rich boy." Then he walked away towards the workout room.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

~Arabella's POV~

"Oh my God... That masseuse did wonders on my back...! I swear, if I was any more relaxed back there, I would've been dead." I said.

Haruhi nodded. "I know! My back feels amazing! It feels like I could do a hundred back flips in a row without stopping!" she said.

"I'm glad you enjoyed the spa, my daughters! I very much enjoyed the facial I got!" Tamaki said.

"Tamaki, you just followed us to the spa and stared at Haruhi the entire time she was getting massaged. Talk about a pervert...!" I said.

Tamaki blushed. "I did nothing of the sort...!!! I was just... just making sure that masseuse kept his hands to himself!"

Haruhi rolled her eyes. "First off, the masseuse was a she, Tamaki! Second off, she's masseuse! She's supposed to run her hands on our bodies! How else do you massage? It's kind of her job...!"

Tamaki's eyes widened. "Wait, that was a woman???" he exclaimed.

Seriously?

"Yes, Senpai, she was a woman!" I said.

A pause. "Really?"

"Yes!"

"Whatever! It doesn't matter what gender the masseuse was! I was just making sure their hands didn't go beyond any of the boundaries! After all, a father must protect his little girls at all times! Especially when they're at the hands of a pervy masseuse!" Tamaki said.

Haruhi rubbed her temples. "Tamaki... You're real special, ya' know that...?" she sighed.

Tamaki smiled. "Why, of course! I'm told that often!" he said proudly.

Oh, Tamaki, you beautiful idiot...

"I bet you are... Good for you, Senpai." I said.

Tamaki beamed. "Why, thank you!"

Soon, we all met up in the game room.

Haruhi and I decided to play ping-pong. Hikaru, Kaoru, and Tamaki decided to play pool. And Honey, Mori, and Kyoya decided to just watch us.

"I still can't believe we're actually here! This is so exciting!" I said before I hit the ping-pong ball with my paddle.

"I know! I can't wait to find out what this trip has in store for us!" Haruhi said. She hit the ping-pong ball with her paddle back at me. I hit it back again.

"Oh, my beautiful little girls...! You won't believe what we're going to do tomarrow! Uncle Kenji has sighed us all up for the African Safari Adventure! We're going to get to go on a safari and explore part of Africa! How exciting does that sound??? We also get to swim in a waterfall!" Tamaki said.

"That's awesome, Senpai!" I said.

"Thanks, Senpai!" Haruhi said.

"Yeah, nice move, milord." Hikaru and Kaoru said as they kept playing pool.

"Thank you! I'm known for my brilliant ideas!" Tamaki said.

~~~~~~~~~~~

After we ate our dinner (which was delicious) we all headed to our hotel rooms.

And, after spending several hours relaxing and watching TV, we all decided it was time for bed.

Well, actually, Mom and Kenji decided for us.

While Haruhi and I got ready for bed and Daniel brushed his teeth, I sighed happily. "Look at the size of this room! And these pillows are so comfy! Man, having rich friends sure has benefits...!" I said. Haruhi chuckled.

"Yeah, it sure does." she said.

After Mom and Daniel came into the room and Mom turned out the lights, Haruhi and I just laid there.

Then, Haruhi whispered, "Kaoru likes you, ya' know."

My eyes widened as I blushed. "Uh, no, he doesn't...!" I protested.

"Yes, he does. It's the way he looks at you... He doesn't look at anyone else that way... When he looks at you, he thinks he's looking at the most beautiful girl in the world. Every guy that's in love thinks that. I can tell, he's madly crushing on you. It's sort of obvious when you think about it. And, I think you might like him back." Haruhi whispered.

"He doesn't like me! And I definitely don't like him...! Besides, it's been proven before; if I get too close to someone who isn't Daniel or Mom, they'll either hurt me or leave me. Or both. I've learned you can't trust anyone outside your family. And even then, some times you can't trust your own family." I whispered back.

Haruhi sighed in the darkness. "Whatever you say, Arabella. My point is, whether you like him back or not, he's completely smitten with you, even though he might not realize it yet. And you're gonna have to deal with it sooner or later."

"Good night, Haruhi." I said before I rolled over and closed my eyes.

"... Good night, Arabella."