Fan-Fiction Contest!

[KimCare]

Entry # 9

Genre:Mystery/romance
Rating:G-PG, if later descriptions of crushes and infatuation are considered for older people
Characters Involved:Haruhi, Tamaki, Koyoya, Hikaru/Kaoru, "Hunny" and Takashi (even though he dosn't speak he is brought up in later chapters)
The mysterious, knowledgable stranger
Author's Note: Mardi Gras madness has hit the Host Club, who has designed them? will the party be more than just an overuse of purple green and gold? who is the designer of these masks?!
Wait and see wink


(requesting the next post for my entry)  

[KimCare]

KimCare

(requesting the next post for my entry)

Unmasked
Haruhi picked up the soft tissue carefully folded around the strange object in her hands. It reminded her of what her cousin had used when she was sleeping to keep out any excess light.
Only that one didn’t have any eyes cut out and wasn’t as…colorful.
“So you say these arrived last week and each of them is different?”
The mask was a warm sugar-pink in color, very much like an ivory rose, with its tips catching the first rays of the rising sun. It was nearly see-through but cool to the touch and smooth like polished sea glass.
With a purple-colored stone where it’s head should be.
“They don‘t know me at all…” She grumbled sourly.
“Actually the butterfly has multiple meanings from rebirth to a sprit from within finally freed… ” Kyoya’s voice began with a monotone he used as if just *waiting* to reveal and thus recite this trivia from whatever source from whence it came.
I‘d be free if you‘d ever let me pay down my debt, Haruhi thought to herself.
Haruhi wondered if his teachers had him cite his sources for such reports or if they had a time limit set for oral examinations. The idea of an educator being held captive by such a mind and having to resort to such methods amused her.
It almost made her smile.
Suddenly - Haruhi was interrupted from her self pity when she was GLOMPED by an enthusiastic Hunny. She nearly dropped the package she was holding to help him upright
“We match!”
Looking at the mask in Mitsukuni’s hand …the color was indeed the same.
But there the similarity ended.
Bunny’s mask was trimmed in tiny depictions of commoner candies and pastries she had once seen in a travel magazine depicting what was called a high tea. The detail was fascinating to look at and if not for the distinctive light-blue rabbit silhouette…
Light blue?
Oh that’s right Hunny was born sometime in March; his birthstone was the aquamarine.
Doesn’t it bother anyone that whoever this person is they not only know when we were born they seem to also know I’m a girl?
Hikaru and Kaoru pretended to duel in a cardboard sword duel - as their mask were of contrasting diamond harlequin style. Only that contrasting the black, were the pink and other shade which had been their unique, respective dye colors when they had one of their usual -staged-fights-to-get-what-they-really wanted.
In that instance, an invitation from Haruhi to visit her home.
But who had been at school long enough to remember that?!
“The word harlequin is derived from the forgotten, obsolete French from Hellequin , legendary leader of night-raiding demon horsemen…” Koyoya began again.
Suffice to say- the masks fit their intended models on the mark.
But was it intentional or just really obvious?
“Commonly made otherwise it would have been crystals instead of this flaky stuff…”
“Glitter.”
Though she was annoyed at the implication involved with the materials…whoever had made the masks had some talent. The attention to details was a little unsettling but the very idea that one of them had been made for her was a small comfort.
Haruhi picked up her mask from among the tissues again.
She hoped that the designer had somehow been reimbursed for the creativity involved. If the snobbish approach was in anyway shared by the remaining members of the Host Club, she hoped they’d be disposed of and forgotten than less than tactfully stealing of the designs and claiming them as their own.
Short of space as she was in her home, the piece would somehow be placed in an area to be remembered for the stranger’s consideration.
“I‘ve got it!”
Tamaki had been engrossed in a now dog-eared copy of a guide to Festivals and Celebrations from Around the World. Practically blinding her with the up close and the literal in-your-face-presentation-of-the-glossies, suggested that on page 127 was an idea worthy of the next presentation.
“We‘ll have a Mardi Gras masquerade.”
Haruhi looked puzzled.
Masquerades were masked parties, that much she knew for sure.
Mardi Gras?
“Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday - a holiday celebrated in preparation for Lent. Involves costuming, parades and people from all walks of life. There are foods special to each region but the main colors are purple green and gold.” Koyoa must be having a field day to be able to divulge so much random information in one day.
“Gold?!” Tamaki’s eyes glittered and Haruhi had nearly tuned out the explanation of how those particular colors had been chosen by the first king of Mardi Gras, called Rex but was only faintly aware of that was why all kings of that holiday were since then called Rex.
It all sounded so confusing - to celebrate it all in a day.
While she was sure she’d wear her own, Haruhi had a new mission, one not shared with the others - she’d discover who this skilled masker was and at the very least, thank them.
If nothing else, to figure out how to dress for this event correctly.

Chapter Two: Library Lost and Found
Over the next few days, music room three took on an ambiance Haruhi didn’t think was possible. True to form were the prominent colors of purple green and gold. Though research had suggested yellow was acceptable, Tamaki-now-Rex-for-the-proceedings would hear of nothing else.
“We can show that commoners and royalty can co-exist, even in the Host Club.”
Forgot about me already, didn’t you? Haruhi thought to herself. You royal pain in the --*GLOMP*
Bunny enthusiastically embraced her as before wearing a medieval jester-style costume. While the outfit itself looked terribly overpriced and starched, she was glad to see he was wearing the stranger’s mask design.
If the trio of colors represented the spirit of indulgence before fasting, it also proved something else.
That milord had done little to no reading on the rest of the holiday.
Prying him off - Hunny continued to skip around the preparations leaving Haruhi to disappear into a nearby computer lab to look up food for the event.
Surely we can do better than punch and cookies, she thought.
Typing in the search engine

Marty Gra food

The computer blipped and responded.

Not found.
Did you mean Mardi Gras?

Haruhi sighed and remembered that the words were French. Now corrected, she tried to ignore the flush on her cheeks, reminding herself that no one was around to see her mistake. Even if they had - would they even know what she was talking about?

The first result started with….

First you start with a roux -

“A roo?!” Haruhi said aloud not realizing how loud her voice was in the stillness of the room. Fortunately, at first no one seemed to notice. Then she was joined by another first year - a girl who seemed amused by her outburst.
“What‘s so funny?” Haruhi forgot her manners for a minute, she hadn’t seen the other in the Host Club before.
“Sorry - it‘s just…” she gestured to the graphics loading on the screen. “I‘m trying to find foods for a celebration that my club is having and I‘m in way over my head.”
The girl had a dark brown ponytail down her back. This was unusual for most guests that visited music room three but the detail stood out she was listening to what Haruhi had to say and wasn’t speaking in a condescending tone.
Actually she hadn’t said anything yet.
“A roux is just a gravy to start cooking things, usually in southern United States cooking.”
Haruhi checked the sites glossary.
“Hey - that‘s right!”
The girl pointed to the other images on the screen.
“Red beans and rice, fried green tomatoes, king cake…”
King cake?!
Tamaki/Rex would like to know about that. Plus it would already match the decorations.
“What is a King Cake?”
She measured with her hands, something the size of a large pizza pan. “Depending on the size of your party … it‘s about this big and is a baked, oval-shaped pastry usually coiled like a rope of bread. When it is cooled, the outside is drizzled with either icing or colored sugar in the three colors. Then there‘s the matter of the baby…”
The what?!
“A plastic baby or coin is inserted somewhere in the underside so that whoever discovers it can be king or queen. Some parties used them to determine royalty for the bigger parties later in the Carnival season - like the king cake would choose the queen from the princesses.”
Wow, this girl sure knew a lot about Carnival…Kyoya might have to be on guard if she where to ever visit the Host Club. When she turned to thank her she had vanished but the screen with the images remained. Haruhi pressed print.
She’d have to read the recipes to see what was possible in the time before the party.
Maybe if she could find out where Carnival was…related to this Mardi Gras?

Define 'Carnival'

The computer beeped and responded

car·ni·val car·ni·val [krnəvəl] (plural car·ni·vals)

Carnival before Lent: the period just before Lent begins, celebrated with a carnival in some Roman Catholic areas, for example, Mardi Gras in New Orleans

[Mid-16th century. Via Italian carnevale from medieval Latin carnelevamen “Shrovetide” (literally “cessation of meat eating”), from Latin carn- (see carnal).]
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Wow.
That girl knew.
And just who *is* she?
Haruhi sighed. In a school the size of Ouran the chance of running into her again was like…like…she looked at the pictures of the Louisiana feast in her hands.
Like the chances of a crawfish survival in a preparation of gumbo.
But she had a brown ponytail, was nice and had an unusual abundance of Louisiana food and customs.
At least now she had more to work with.
Haruhi sighed.
The plot - like the flour based gravy simmering on the stove - thickened.



TO BE CONTINUED….