Je N'ai Pas De Mots 05

They must have been a sight to see, Jandra thought as she led the group to where she was staying. Two sets of supposed twins walking hand in hand like couples…. Well, she thought they looked like couples. So many culture differences made it difficult for her to know what was considered romantic and what was friendly. Neither of the boys had objected, so it must be seen as platonic here.

She was kind of glad that Jasmine had stepped in and taken charge of acquiring help with their prank. Jandra would never have had the idea to ask these boys for help with anything.

One street over from Jasmine's house was Jandra's.

Well… it wasn't much of a house. More like an abandoned auto detail shop. Jandra let go of Hikaru's hand to search for her keys. Jasmine didn't really take much notice, but Kaoru looked at their still-joined hands. Was this simply a sign of friendship in America? It seemed rather intimate and familiar to him. He only ever held Hikaru's hand. And yet, Jasmine didn't seem like she was going to let go any time soon. He turned his eyes to the garage door when Jandra hoisted it up with a loud clatter.

The first thing Jasmine noticed was color. Upon further inspection, she saw that there were paintings propped up against the walls all around and easels in the middle of the room where some were still drying or incomplete. There wasn't even plastic or paper on the floor, paint staining the concrete.

Jasmine subconsciously led Kaoru around the room, looking at the paintings. He followed without protest.

"I like that one," he said, pointing to one of a girl holding a kitten and petting the sleeping feline as it rested in her arms. The expression on the girl's face was almost motherly; protective and loving. And the girl in the painting resembled—

Jasmine jumped a little when Kaoru took his hand out of hers. She saw him stoop to pick something up.

A cat.

"He's the cat in the painting," Jasmine mused, scratching its ears and listening to it purr. Kaoru held it close as they went to join Hikaru and Jandra on the other side of the room. Hikaru had gone the other direction inspecting paintings.

"These are really good," Hikaru told Jandra. She grunted.

"This is just the studio," she said and walked towards a door. "Let's go inside." The cat leapt from Kaoru's arms. Jandra led them into a small sitting area. All the kitchen appliances looked like they came with the place: shabby and rundown. The television, however, was new, as well as the furniture in the sitting room, even though it was cluttered with pencil sketches and magazines. Kaoru noticed a few novels lying in the corner with some sketches.

"Well, it's smaller than Jasmine's place," Hikaru noted. "But it's bigger than Haruhi's."

Kaoru nodded as they all sat down. Jandra kicked off her shoes and let them unceremoniously fall to the floor. The twins stared at her shoes, which had almost fallen underneath the coffee table. She just left them there? And she didn't wear slippers around the house?

"Must be a western thing," they both murmured at the same time. Other cultures were so strange.

"So, you've seen what I do," Jandra said, grabbing the remote for the television and turning it on. "You can leave now."

"Jandra, that's impolite," Jasmine said, frowning.

"So? I have a show I want to finish," Jandra said, opening the doors under the television and skimming the DVDs. She turned to look at her "guests" and found them all looking rather hurt. She sighed and turned off the television. "Fine. What do you want to do?"

"Hmm…" said Jasmine and went searching for something in the house. "Oh, look! We can play Twister!" She rushed back into the room holding a box with several colored dots on it. The twins raised an eyebrow.

"What's Twister?" they asked. Jasmine's jaw dropped.

"It's so much fun!" she squealed. "Oh, we have to play now. Can we, Jandra?" Jandra chuckled.

"Sure," she said. "I'll whip y'all's butts though."

"Doubt it," Jasmine said. "Oh, we'd better get out of our dresses first. Do you think I could borrow an outfit for this?"

"Sure," Jandra said. "Bedroom's through there. Help yourself." Jasmine locked herself in the bedroom while Jandra turned on a laptop. "Here, when this loads, just click the Internet, okay? I should change too."

"Okay," Hikaru said, turning the laptop towards him as she slipped into the bedroom as well. He'd never seen this brand of computer before. It looked really neat, but there were no Japanese characters on the keyboard. Once the desktop popped up, Hikaru stared at it blankly. "You're going to have to do this, Kaoru. You're better at English than I am." He scooted the laptop over to his twin.

"What did she say to bring up again?" Kaoru asked. "Oh. Internet…." He slowly but surely skimmed the icons on the desktop until he found "Internet Explorer" and double clicked it. He set the computer on the table again and they waited for the page to load.

Jandra and Jasmine came out of the bedroom together. They'd changed into sweat pants and T-shirts. They'd taken off their socks and shoes. Jasmine set up the game while Jandra took care of the internet.

"I absolutely love this site," she said. "Plays music that you like based on a song or artist you enter and plays new and interesting songs. And you can skip songs you don't like, and it takes that into consideration when choosing new songs. It's awesome." She turned up the volume and pop/rock music filled the room, but wasn't loud.

"You guys will want to take off your shoes and socks," Jasmine said as she held up a small board with a spinner on it. They stared at her for a moment before giving in and playing along with these silly foreigners. It felt very weird, yet the only ones uncomfortable with it were the boys. They were good at hiding discomfort. Honestly, they were slightly weirded out by what they did in the host club with each other. But since they both knew it was a charade, they didn't have too hard of a time hiding it.

"So how do we play?" the boys asked.

"Well, one person will be in charge of the spinner," Jasmine said. "Basically, you have to put your left or right hand or foot on whichever color the spinner lands on. It's all specified on the board. But the point is to try not to fall over and you get all twisted, it's fun!"

"I'll take the spinner the first round," Jandra said.

"Okay!" Jasmine said and went to stand by this big mat the boys hadn't even noticed. There were rows of different colored dots. "Oh! Let's go one at a time so not all three of us are doing the same thing. Okay?"

"Sure," Jandra said and spun the arrow. "Jasmine, right hand green." Jasmine planted her right hand on a green dot. "Hikaru, left foot blue." Hikaru hesitantly placed the ball of his foot on a blue dot. "Kaoru, right foot yellow…."

And so the game continued, each of them taking turns spinning the spinner. Jandra did happen to beat everyone, but Hikaru wasn't far behind. Funnily enough, Jasmine was last and she wasn't happy about it. She sat on the couch hugging her knees to her chest and rubbing her big toes together, fitting her nose right between her knees. The boys were on the other couch, slumped over, leaning against each other for support. They were tired out by the new game.

"That was really fun," Kaoru said. "I'd like to see the host club play that all together." Hikaru laughed.

"Yeah, I bet Honey would win," he said.

"Nah, I'm betting Haruhi, though she probably wouldn't want to play," Kaoru said, then the two went rigid, looking at the girls in anticipation. "Oops."

"Haruhi's a girl?" Jandra asked, hands suspended over the lid to the Twister box in the process of putting it away.

"Well, that explains a lot of things," Jasmine said, moving to lean against the arm rest and stick her feet between her cushion and the next.

"So I was right," Jandra said, sliding the box across the floor and into the next room. "Tamaki isn't gay." Jasmine giggled.

"Oh that makes it so cute!" Jasmine said. "Are they dating?"

"Well, not really," Hikaru said. "The boss thinks of himself as her dad."

"And he's too dense to realize he's in love with her," Kaoru said. "But Haruhi isn't really looking for a boyfriend either."

"Yeah…" Hikaru trailed off. "Any move someone makes on her is just rebuffed and she doesn't even seem to notice."

"But don't tell anyone that Haruhi isn't a boy, okay?" Kaoru warned. "She owes the Host Club money and the easiest way for her to pay it back is to bring in customers, and she can only do that if she pretends to be a boy."

"I see," Jasmine said as Jandra settled in next to her on the couch, sitting in much the same way Jasmine was, but mirrored on the other arm rest. "It's the least we can do, since you're keeping our secret as well."

The boys relaxed a little. Kaoru was sure he'd messed up big time, but he was beginning to trust these girls a little.

"I think we should tell the club about your prank," Hikaru said. "They'd be able to help squash any doubt in the school in the higher classes. And Tamaki's been known to have some interesting strategies."

"Interesting isn't the word I would use," Kaoru said. "But it works." They chuckled. "Good idea, though. They will be helpful in keeping the secret a secret. What do you say?" Jasmine and Jandra looked at each other.

"You trust all of them?" Jandra asked the boys.

"Oh, yeah," they said in unison.

"All right then," Jasmine said. "We're in. We'll stop by the club tomorrow after school."

--

"So, Tamaki-senpai?" Hikaru asked. Jasmine and Jandra stood in anticipation as the blonde made a show of thinking.

"Very well!" he said. The girls smiled.

"Well, that's a relief," Kaoru said. "We were kind of worried we'd be owing you something since we let Haruhi's secret slip to them." Tamaki went rigid and he eye twitched.

"YOU DID WHAT?!"