A/N: So, I don’t really know schools in Japan, so I simply found some school names and plugged them. I have no clue if they’re actually in the prefecture for this competition and would be able to compete with the ones I mention here.

Secondly, I'm putting this here so that people who don't read author's notes see it anyone. The 2014OHSHCwattyawards voting has started, and Yours to Hold is entered in the Mori category! If those who enjoy this story would vote I would really appriciate it! Just put the title in the search bar and click on the user with that name!

“Nao-chan!”

When I joined up with the others Honey was the first to notice.  He’d set up on one of the cafeteria tables and waved me over with a fork in his hand. In front of him was a nice sized box that I could easily guess the contents of.

“I told you I brought cake!” he told me when I was close enough. “Strawberry and chocolate! I really like the strawberry, but both of them are good.”

I nodded, taking careful notice of where each of the other members of our little group were at. Mori was of course sitting next to Honey at the round table. For once he seemed to be indifferent to what Honey was doing - his attention focused on a paper in his hands. The twins must have pulled Fujii into some sort of scheme, seeing as Tamaki was off to the side of the group pouting, the twins were high-fiving each other, and Fujii was standing nearby looking amused. Ayumu and Chie were sitting nearby at a different table with Kaede. All of them seemed to be interested in something that Chie had brought up on her phone.

“Can I have a chocolate piece?” I asked Honey.

A brilliant smile crossed his face as he started to dish up the piece for me on a paper plate.

“Of course!”

While I waited for my cake, I took the chance to peek over Mori’s shoulders. It seemed the piece of paper that held so much of his interest was the tournament bracket.

“Hey Mori?” I asked as a thought occurred to me.

Perhaps Mori and the others new that boy, he’d seemed to have something against our team after all. I couldn’t get his expression after I’d won my round out of my mind- or his words.

“Hm?”

Encouraged by his response, I drew up the right words and asked my question.

“Have you heard of Kimura Ren? I think he’s a third-year captain of another school.”

Mori tensed and turned his eyes to me. At the same time one of the others joined us, apparently having heard my question.

“That bastard?” Fujii demanded. “Why’re you asking about him?”

Without a word Mori nodded his agreement to Fujii’s question. I doubted he would have used that language if he’d asked himself, but it was funny to imagine it. I hesitated for a moment, running over what I could tell them and what I couldn’t.

“I ran into him on my way here,” I said slowly. “He introduced himself to me, but already knew who I was. He watched our matches earlier and didn’t seem to be too happy about how they were going.”

Fujii cursed again and crossed his arms. I was surprised to find that even Mori seemed upset by this news. While his expression didn’t really show anything, his hands clenched around the edges of the paper. Honey actually looked bothered as well, seeing as he put his fork down and paid more attention to the conversation than the cake.

“Kimura Ren is the captain of the Fukuoka Daiichi Private High School. He has a bit of a problem with our club because of a little incident when we were first-years-” Fujii began, then cut off and looked away.

Curious, I looked to the other two who seemed to know about this incident. Neither one of them looked like they were going to share, so I turned my attention to Fujii once again. He had a surprisingly embarrassed look on his face.

“It may have been partially my fault. It probably wouldn’t have been such a big deal if I hadn’t butted in.”

Here Mori nodded, sending even more color into Fujii’s face.

“The guy’s an ass, though, so it’s his own fault. See, Mori made it into nationals in the singles that year and Honey, a few of our senpais, and I went with him to cheer him on. Kimura, a little shrimp of a guy at the time, got pissed when Mori beat him within a very short time of their round starting. It probably didn’t help that it was the first round of the tournament as well.”

That didn’t seem to be enough of a reason for the face Ren had been making.

“Afterwards, he was badmouthing Mori and the rest of us to his team. I just might have gotten a little ticked upon hearing it and decided to respond with a few comments of my own. After that the kid might have challenged me and we just might have gathered a large crowd. I also might have embarrassed the hell out of him by playing with him after I figured out my skill was much higher than his.  His girlfriend of the time might have been in the crowd and just may have ended up laughing pretty hard when I tripped him with my sword.”

By this time I imagine the look I must have been giving Fujii was something around contempt and disbelief. Whichever it was, it cause him to raise his hands in a defensive gesture.

“Hey, like I said, he was an ass and deserved it!”

“Sounds like you were one, too…” I muttered under my breath.

“Not as bad as him!” Fujii protested. “Anyways, that’s not the point. The point is that since then the little bastard’s been playing as close to dirty as he can get without tipping off the referees in an attempt to beat us, whether it be during a team competition or a single. He’s got a pretty good family background and way of speaking, so he’s managed to rope in most of his team to his style. I heard that most of the ones that didn’t go with it were pressured into dropping out and the ones that stayed aren’t ever allowed to compete.”

I ran through all of this information in my mind. It was pretty obvious by that point that I was right when I got the feeling that it was the worst thing possible that Ren had found out about my wrist. His parting words now held a new meaning behind them.

“Don’t worry, though, I’ll warn my kohai to go easy on you. We wouldn’t want something happening to make that little injury worse, would we?”

I forced the thought from my mind the moment I even considered it. Kendo was all about respecting your opponent, no one would intentionally hurt someone else if they truly respected the sport.

“Hey, Mori,” Fujii said suddenly, interrupting the silence that had descended after his words. “If both teams keep winning, when will we encounter Kimura-aho?”

Could you really use ‘aho’ as an honorific? Dumbass isn’t exactly very honorific-y.

Seeming to ignore Fujii’s choice of words, Mori simply handed over the bracket. Fujii scanned it with his eyes then scowled.

“So that’s why you were looking at this damn thing.”

I took careful note of the fact that Fujii seemed to get a very foul mouth when worked up.

“How’d we end up facing them as our third opponents? I thought we’d at least have the luck to not hit them till finals,” he muttered.

Most of the others had tuned into our conversation by this point. I could see Ayumu’s hesitation, then his honest curiosity as he asked his question.

“How do you know we’ll face them? They could lose, couldn’t they?”

Mori shook his head.

“They’ll win.”

“Yeah, there’s no chance they’ll lose,” Fujii agreed. “Not when they know that not only is our team here, but Mori and I are part of it. Plus, I hate to admit it, but their team is actually pretty good even when they aren’t playing dirty.”  

“Don’t worry, Nao-chan!” Honey told me suddenly, drawing my attention away from the others. They continued to discuss Ren while Honey just gave me a bright, encouraging smile. “It will all work out. Here, I got your cake for you. Eat it before you have go to the next round!”

I gave him a small smile and walked around to the opposite side of the table so I could sit down. Honey’s grin grew even wider as he slid the plate across the table and grabbed a fork from his box to hand to me as well.

“You have plenty of time to eat,” he said happily. “Doesn’t she, Takashi?”

Mori looked at the time on his phone, then nodded.

Lightly tuning into the conversation around me, I broke off a piece of my cake and placed it in my mouth. I tried to make it look as casual as I could as I did all of this with my left hand. As always, I savored that first bite. The sensation of that sweet flavor suddenly hitting your tongue is like nothing else. When I felt eyes on me, however, I quickly swallowed the bite, feeling heat rise into my cheeks.

“It’s fun to watch Nao-chan eat cake,” Honey commented.

I glanced at him with a slightly curious look.

“You’ve said something like that before, haven’t you?” I asked, pulling up the memory in my mind. It wasn’t exactly the same words, but he’d said something about me liking cake after watching me take a bite.

“Mhm,” he replied, taking a bite of his own. “Cause it is!”

Much to my surprise, Mori nodded his agreement. I wasn’t sure whether to be amused or embarrassed, so I settled for breaking off another bite.

Haruhi joined up with our group again only a short time later. Not long after that Fujii pointed out that it was nearing time for the round to start and we all made our way towards the room. On our way there I made sure to stop and change back into my uniform, as did the others. It was annoying to have to change during the round, although I’d seen several teams that did just that. I would personally rather focus on the matches than on my clothing.

When things started up this time around I wasn’t surprised when Ayumu easily won his match. The score ended up 3-0 with a lot of time left on the clock. He came back smiling like he’d just won finals. How could such an easy going guy come off as so dangerous once you put a sword in his hand and an opponent in front of him?

Kaede did better than in her first round. It seemed she’d learned from her mistake of being too hasty. She played a game of waiting, forcing her opponent to attack her if they wanted the point. Luckily it seemed her opponent had a temper and the round finished with a few seconds to spare on the clock. Kaede’s win, 2-1.

“The third match will begin now. This will be Morioka Nao of Ouran Private Academydemy vs. Sakamura Sakura of Tehou High School.”

“Come on, Nao-chan!”

“You can do it, Nao-chan!”

“Good-luck, Morioka-senpai.”

The last voice caught my attention and I couldn’t help but look up at her as I walked towards my position. Haruhi was watching me with concern that she wasn’t even trying to hide. Gritting my teeth, I gave a small flex of my wrist. Thankfully the mask kept anyone from seeing my expression that followed.

I could move it. It hurt, extremely so, but I could move it. My only concern was that it seemed I wasn’t able to grip my sword as tightly as I would have liked. For a moment I was extremely grateful that kendo is a two handed style.  If I couldn’t grip tightly with one hand, I’d just make sure that I held on extra tight with the other.

“Onegai shimasu,” Sakamura and I chorused before moving into our starting positions.

The referee signaled the beginning of our match. Pulling Kaede’s style to the front of my mind, I patiently waited for my opponents attack. Unsurprisingly, Sakura became wary as she saw me stand still just as Kaede had done.  After a moment had passed, however, she became impatient and lunged forward.  Gritting my teeth, I met the strike, ignoring the pain that shot down my arm.

Sakura immediately changed her aim and swung downwards, making me shift my stance in a hope of catching her sword before she hit. Thankfully it seemed to work. Our swords were deadlocked for a moment before I saw the referees signal from the corner of my eyes and heard them call out.

Both flags were waved beneath the waist- no valid points were scored.

As we moved back to our starting positions Haruhi’s warning flashed through my mind. If I seemed to be struggling she would tell. Not attacking could be mistaken for struggling. I would have to move myself this time.

When the signal was given I moved forward, as did Sakura. This movement simply caused us to switch sides, our swords locked mid-air. At the same time, I could feel my sword being pushed back by hers. It didn’t surprise me, after all, without being able to use all my strength how could I completely match someone?

Pulling away before she could completely force me back, I struck towards her legs, predicting she would counter. As expected, her sword was in place before mine and I instantly moved the aim of my attack towards her chest instead. Her block this time was too late and my sword met its mark.

The referees waved the red flags- my point.

The pain was almost unreal. It was all I could do to just continue holding the sword.

Perhaps I was an idiot to be standing here in a state like this, fighting as hard as I could.

We went back to our starting positions and waited for the next signal. I only needed one more point. I wouldn’t try to be like Ayumu who could score consecutive points and get three. I would be just fine with the bare minimum. My eyes flickered to the clock as all of this went through my mind. We had one minute left on the clock out of our five.

I could do this.

We were signaled to begin. Sakura lunged forward, her sword instantly swung towards my side. I blocked and met consecutive attacks following the first. As I kept her from striking I was carefully searching for an opening. The pain was making my mind spin, the search for an opening becoming just that much more difficult.  

In the end, it came down to luck. Her footwork wasn't as strong as my last opponent's and she misstepped, giving me the chance I needed. One swift attack to her shoulder and Sakura was done.

If I hadn't known that all eyes were focused on the exchange that just happened, I would have dropped my sword. Who could have known that it was possible for something to be both extremely painful and numb at the same time? Even as the referees signaled my point, my vision blurred for a moment.  

Could I go through two more rounds like this?

It didnt matter. I'd already committed myself to continuing. As my uncle would say, 'A little pain is no reason for a Morioka to back out.'

I would not disappoint him.

My teammates reactions didn’t really surprise me as I returned to our bench. Ayumu was talking ecstatically about how I did really well. I’m not quite sure where he got that impression, but I breathed a sigh of relief with it. If I fooled him then I must have fooled the others. Kaede gave me a shy smile and congratulations. Fujii congratulated me while complaining that he didn’t have much to do now that we’d already won. Above me I could hear the host club cheering.

Mori, however, simply watched me. I couldn’t completely read his expression, but it seemed to hold something between confusion and realization. A strange mixture for certain. Giving him a nod, I took my seat and immediately put down my sword. My hand showed it’s relief by sending another spike of pain down my arm for the movement.

Now that the adrenaline of the fight was gone, the feelings I’d been ignoring came back in full force. In order to hide this, I left my mask on and laid my head against the wall as Fujii left to meet his opponent for his match. Knowing that he would win, I began to tune out all the noise and just focused on keeping my eyes from tearing up. Perhaps if I stayed absolutely still the feelings would go away.

I’d come this far. There were only two matches left. As long as I could get through those I’d be in the clear.

Some part of my mind reminded me that the next one was the one against Ren’s team. A shiver shot down my spine at the thought. What exactly did that boy have planned?

“You’re injured.”

At first the words didn’t sink in. When they did, however, I froze. My eyes slowly opened and focused on Mori. His expression had returned to his usual, unreadable, deadpan one. Whatever he’d been thinking about he had appearing come to a conclusion on. A conclusion I could have done without.

“What did you say?” I asked, pretending not to have heard.

Mori’s expression didn’t waver.

“You’re injured.”

I hesitated, then shook my head, glad that he couldn’t see my expressions at the moment.

“You’re imagining things,” I informed him. “I’m fine.”

The smallest of frowns seemed to appear on his lips for a moment. He then looked down to my injured wrist before raising his eyes to my mask.

“Then remove your mask and kote,” he said.

I tensed, my eyes falling to the part of my uniform that he mentioned. The gloves that completely covered the wrapped part of my wrist, which were called kote in Kendo, would prove him right. And even if I made some excuse, without my mask I wouldn’t be able to hide the pain that would probably show the moment I was asked to move my wrist.

With all of this running through my mind, I didn’t move a muscle.

“Morioka.”

Another moment passed before I pulled my mask from my face with my good hand. I had my face stubbornly composed into an emotionless mask.

“I won’t quit the competition,” I informed him.

“Are you agreeing that you’re injured?” he asked and my expression almost broke into a scowl. I barely managed to continue the expression I’d put in place.

“It’s not so bad that I can’t continue. I won just now, so you should know that as well.”

He was silent for a heartbeat, his face not betraying a single thought.

“Your kote.”

I wouldn’t remove that, it didn’t matter if he was the captain or even that he was the Morinozuka I was supposed to be making friends with. There was no doubt in my mind that whatever it looked like wasn’t a pretty sight. Seeming to realize this, Mori did something that shocked me. He suddenly reached forward with one hand and grabbed my arm, and with the other began to pull the kote off of me. I began to pull my arm back, but froze as pain radiated from my injured wrist with just that slight movement. The mixture of pain and numbness coming from it was enough to keep me from fighting for that single moment that Mori needed.

When his eyes hit the bandage, he paused, then removed the item the rest of the way.

“You wrapped it?” he questioned.

“... Haruhi did,” I answered honestly. “Since she’s okay with me continuing, can’t you just take her opinion on the matter? If she didn’t think I was alright then she would have told you, right?”

Mori paused once again and glanced away from my wrist to my face. Despite my efforts, he must have seen some emotion there, because he released my arm and seemed to be considering something.

“You want to continue competing?” he asked.

I almost laughed. Wasn’t that obvious?

“Of course,” I answered. “Without me you guys can’t continue, right? I can’t just quit.”

He was silent again, still studying my face.

“You will probably make it worse,” he commented finally.

“I don’t care.”

“There are two more rounds.”

“Which means only two more fights.”

“The winner is Fujii from Ouran Private Academy!”

Sensing we were out of time, I mentally urged Mori to just say whatever he’d decided and quit with the questioning. As if he could read my mind, Mori resumed his normal deadpan expression and looked away.

“Don’t overdo it.”

It seemed that somehow I’d won Mori’s approval to continue.

Now all I had to do was win.

A/N: So, first off, sorry this took so long to get done! I was stuck on what to do after I got to the end of her fight! I kinda wanted to end this little competition side story with this chapter, but it looks like there will be one more, so hang in there! I hope you're enjoying the story. Next week Ren will appear again!

Anyways, vote, comment, follow, you know the drill! See you next week!