[personal profile] fromastudio posting in [community profile] almondinflower
the nature of affection
disclaimer: Ouran High School Host Club is the creation of Bisco Hatori.
characters: Mori, Honey
wordcount: 750+
Notes: Second in the pointless character study series. Long, plotless, rambling. Very definitely a Read At Your Own Risk fic.





Takashi first met Mitsukuni on an island in Okinawa. It was an island of white beaches, a wedding day of sun and blue sky. The daylight shone across bride and cameraman, and every mother present reached for her parasol, applied sunscreen to wriggling little bodies.

Takashi, who tanned easily, saw a boy standing at the edge of the water. Mitsukuni was the smallest person at the beach, other than the babies cradled in their parents’ arms. His skin was fair and a little burnt, his feet buried in dark, wet sand. As Takashi approached, he looked up and smiled.

They built sand-rabbits on the shore, and had just finished the fifth one when the photographer decided that little children were indispensable to the aesthetic of the photo shoot. Before their mothers pulled them apart, Takashi lifted his fingers and brushed the sand out of Mitsukuni’s hair.

They were three years old.

#


They were Takashi and Mitsukuni from the beginning, surnames hardly being practical with all the Morinozuka aunts and Haninozuka cousins around, and even when Mitsukuni showed a marked predilection for using the diminutive, it was never Taka-chan.

(It was not something they talked about; indeed, it was not something he thought about until years later when he took comfort in the fact that it was still Tama-chan, always Tama-chan.)

Mitsukuni was short and Takashi was tall; this also was true from their first day at kindergarten, where they learnt that most people in the world were neither tall nor short but a nondescript in-between. They spent the next twelve years of education at opposite ends of the classroom. Takashi practiced five-yard dashes everyday for six years, worried that he might not reach the front row in time if an emergency were to arise. After the incident in junior high when Mitsukuni fell asleep during English class, Takashi conceded that he was more likely to be the danger than to be in danger.

Ouran was not a school that discriminated against the unusual, even the violently unusual. Mitsukuni grew up well-loved, and loved everybody in return, although it was a shallow, superficial kind of love: the love of someone who’d never had to sacrifice for the things he cared about.

(Takashi could hold these opinions with confidence because he knew everything about Mitsukuni, because fifteen years of training and watchfulness and picking up sandals leaves you with an indelible knowledge of a person’s soul. Mitsukuni was kind, essentially good-hearted; he was also selfish, and no degree of love or loyalty could blind Takashi to the fact.)

#


Takashi liked facts. Take, for instance: La Paz is the capital city of Bolivia. There are ten kata in kendo. Mitsukuni likes cake and rabbits. They were all facts, and Takashi loved them, and held an increasingly complicated and uncertain relationship with them.

Most of the complexity came from the awareness that facts were useful and important and beautiful, but they were not the most important thing in life. They were not even the most important thing in Morinozuka Takashi’s life. Things like Mitsukuni’s smile, the grip of a shinai in one’s palm, the flavour of freshly caught sashimi - these things were not facts; they just were.

Morinozuka and Haninozuka was one of those things that was, and if anyone had ever asked Takashi why he loved Mitsukuni, he would not have answered, but simply thought to himself that he was Morinozuka, and that possessed its own logic and its own kind of sense. It was a logic different from the one that belonged to facts, and Takashi had learnt early on that facts were not necessary to logic.

Mitsukuni was the most logical person he knew, and Mitsukuni had a great propensity for ignoring the facts.

#


Suoh Tamaki did not live by any logical system, or at least not one that was known to Takashi. Even Mitsukuni, who was an expert at solving equations, did not quite understand him.

Tamaki-logic worked like this: Haninozuka Mitsukuni was less selfish and more loving when flaunting stuffed toys and consuming cake five times a day, than he was when being a leader of men, practising self-denial on a tatami mat.

Takashi noted these things but considered them secondary. What was important was that Mitsukuni was smiling. Perhaps it was the Morinozuka in him speaking. Takashi had always belonged completely to Haninozuka; love rendered him paralytic, caused Mitsukuni’s approval to be more important than Mitsukuni’s well-being.

He was reminded that just as there were different kinds of logic, there were also different kinds of love. Tamaki’s love spoke where Takashi’s was silent.


#


Mitsukuni was not Takashi’s special person; rather, he was the only person. So far.

Date: 2006-09-01 03:09 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] half-sleeping.livejournal.com
...This would be pre-host club Hani, I think? As before, it's stunning, so did you mean it that way?

Mori's POV is just so. so everything Mori. *Melts*

(Also, not being on the other side of the world rocks, because otherwise I would have missed this until tommorrow. Horror.)

Date: 2006-09-01 03:52 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] half-sleeping.livejournal.com
I can see that. When you've never had to be responsible for someone else, ever, priorities change. While Mori just moved on from being responsible for Hani to responsible for the host club people, as well, Hani was suddenly the oldest among others. (I'm oldest of three, the last of which is currently half my age. I like to think I get the whole bratty spoiled younger sibling thing, which is why I like people like Sanada and Mori so much)

Sanada was always supposed to come from a traditional family, so I always thought that he also had that certain amount of social training (from his manner, punishments, bearing, etc.) - the Japanese have really rigid social structures as compared to the west or even other asians, and Sanada+Dojo+sword and all (samurai class) - things like that firmly entrenched in my mind a Sanada who's wealthy, has classy, traditional parents and a bloodline Hyoutei students would kill for. Mori's background (actually Hani's, but the implications are clear) in the brothers storyline just clinched the comparison for me.

(Also, welcome to the Dark side of fandom, where canons cross and mingle in a flurry of crack-fics...) XD

Date: 2006-09-01 04:13 pm (UTC)
love: (Default)
From: [personal profile] love
I don't know what you were complaining about, dear. This was VERY GOOD.

Date: 2006-09-01 04:19 pm (UTC)
annotated_em: close shot of a purple crocus (Default)
From: [personal profile] annotated_em
...I really, really like the utter pragmatism of this view of Mori.

I really want him and Sanada to sit down together and drink tea.

If necessary, they can talk to each other.

Date: 2006-09-01 04:34 pm (UTC)
love: (Default)
From: [personal profile] love
*snuggles* Mmm, I'm sure all will be equal once you get my request-fics out. *winks and pets* When the guilt overwhelms you, keep that in mind, ne?

*grins and snuggles*

Date: 2006-09-01 04:44 pm (UTC)
annotated_em: close shot of a purple crocus (Default)
From: [personal profile] annotated_em
With the two of them, I don't think it would be necessary. *grins* They can sit, and be calm with each other, while the rest of their clubs are run riot around them.

*insofar as Yukimura will permit Rikkai to run riot; I suspect it depends on his humor on any given day*

Date: 2006-09-01 06:23 pm (UTC)
branchandroot: oak against sky (Default)
From: [personal profile] branchandroot
I don't know why you worry about your character studies, I love them. There's such subtlety in this.

it was not something he thought about until years later when he took comfort in the fact that it was still Tama-chan, always Tama-chan.

That is so delightfully true. And that Mori notices it in those circumstances says so much about how he relates to Hani.

Date: 2006-09-01 09:06 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] easilydistra.livejournal.com
oh i love it! a mori-honey without being mori/honey...
yaaaaaay.

Date: 2006-09-02 12:13 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] half-sleeping.livejournal.com
Hani's style seems like anything-goes to me, a sort of brawling. I think it means something like that n centuries ago a Haninozuka saved a Morinozuka from a dishonourable death and the Morinozuuka swore that the bloodline would serve forever...

Something like that. Seems to suit the Host club's style.

(Embrace it! It calls to the true darkness in side you...)

Date: 2006-09-02 04:24 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ran-mouri82.livejournal.com
Wow. It's delightful to have an introspective Mori fic, especially since he speaks so rarely. And thank you for not falling into the common blunder of having Mori speak in 1st person; the effect always falls flat when used with quiet/restrained characters. The way this was written came off as observant and almost serene--much like Mori himself. Nice job!

Date: 2006-09-02 04:30 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ran-mouri82.livejournal.com
There's something to that. Remember Peter Pan? The whole idea behind that was that children were meant to grow up and, in their maturity, grow out of their selfish desires and whims. in my opinion, Hunny still has the heart of a child, so he tends to be a bit selfish. But we still love that sweet-cheeked teen, ne?

Date: 2006-09-02 04:03 pm (UTC)
branchandroot: oak against sky (Default)
From: [personal profile] branchandroot
I don't think we've heard him refer to them so far. Hmm.

And it's a perfectly reasonable obsession. The forms of address say a very great deal about how two people relate to each other.

Date: 2006-09-04 06:12 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] ran-mouri82.livejournal.com
You're right, it's simply a matter of it taking special skill to stay in the character's voice in 1st person, especially with a character like Mori who speaks so rarely. Unfortunately, my experience as a reader has jaded me somewhat. ^^*

Again, smart decision! Can't wait to read more from you.

Date: 2006-09-07 07:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] lunnera.livejournal.com
Love it.

Date: 2006-09-08 04:59 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] nakatani-yuushi.livejournal.com
I love character studies. <3 Stop making me like Honey, you. =9

Also, your prose/style makes me want to imitate it. =E

Date: 2006-09-09 05:02 pm (UTC)
branchandroot: oak against sky (Default)
From: [personal profile] branchandroot
*grins* In this case, the manual might not be a whole lot of help, because the answer is "it depends". If you are referring to 'Morinozuki' and 'Haninozuka' then it should be were. If you're referring to 'Morinozuka and Haninozuka', the relationship as a singular thing rather than the two families as two things, then it should be was.

The more you learn about language, the less you find out you know for sure. *wry* I think that's just life.

Date: 2006-10-22 09:26 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] star-flare.livejournal.com
Finally got around reading this.<3

Even Mitsukuni, who was an expert at solving equations, did not quite understand him.
That statement makes me happy. I like smart-Honey. 8D

Date: 2008-11-26 05:05 am (UTC)
From: [identity profile] treeflamingo.livejournal.com
Um, two years later? [livejournal.com profile] tomomichi recced this fic, so I obediently followed the link. This is exquisitely sharp. Which is a touch ironic, if you ask me, considering it's really just a character sketch. Ironic, but fantastically impressive: you wrote, two years ago, a sharp character sketch. Two years ago. How good your writing must be now. *shakes head* Thank you for writing this, two years ago, so that I can read it today, two years later.

Date: 2008-11-29 11:03 pm (UTC)
From: [identity profile] anoyo.livejournal.com
Very nice! I liked it a lot!

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