//Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club.//

CHAPTER THREE
THE CONVERSATION

The charity event definitely did not go as Shizue had planned. Asami was supposed to be introduced to everyone, suitors were going to be evaluated, and the family was going to look good for the paparazzi. Asami can feel the heat from her gaze on her while police surround her to question her about the text message and if she recognized anyone in the room that looked similar to Emica. She breathes out a slight sigh of relief as Tamaki soothingly rubs her arms while standing in between their grandmother and her. "No, no one here looks like her."

"Could she have dyed her hair?" One of them asks, writing quickly on a notepad in his hand. Asami feels her emotions hitting a boiling point with the useless questioning.

"What a great question. What would a woman on the run do to hide her identity? Obviously, she could have dyed her hair." She snaps. The policeman blinks and narrows his eyes at her.

"We are trying to keep you safe, young lady. There is no need for your attitude." He states in a strict tone of voice which only further makes Asami mad.

"If you're trying to keep me safe, why are you asking me pointless questions instead of looking at the camera footage and seeing if anyone had similar features to Emica?" She questions. Almost immediately, the policemen around her fall silent at that suggestion.

"Rei, get on that." One policeman awkwardly coughs and nudges the person next to him. The man nods his head quickly, walking briskly towards the owner of the building. "Thank you for your cooperation, we'll leave you alone now."

"Great," she mumbles with a roll of her eyes. Tamaki gently squeezes her hand.

"They're just trying to help," he says, "you shouldn't be so mean to them." She gazes at her brother in surprise at the disapproval on his face. She tries to fight off the smile on her face, but Tamaki notices it. "Why are you happy?"

"Because that felt like something an older brother would totally say to their rude little sister." She grins happily. "It's nice having you around." He smiles back at her.

"It's nice to have you around too." He replies. The two glance up to see Shizue stalking toward them with their father in tow. "I'll pray for you." He whispers.

"Asami," Shizue practically spits venom while saying her name, "are you in contact with your kidnapper?" Asami blinks in surprise at the accusations and narrows her eyes at her grandmother.

"I haven't spoken to Emica since the day the police found me," Asami answers truthfully. Secretly at night, her fingers hover over the phone number she had memorized as a child just to see if Emica would pick up yet she stops herself every time. Shizue hums with a look on her face that informs Asami that her grandmother does not believe her. Asami expected as much from her, but when she looks at her father, she blinks in surprise to see the same look on his face. A small frown etches itself on her face, and she finds herself sinking further into Tamaki's comforting arms. She cannot bring herself to look at her brother. What if he wore the same expression? Could she handle seeing the untrustful look in his eyes that she sees in adults? The group looks up and watches as the Ootori family makes their way over toward them. Kyoya locks eyes with her and she can feel him examining her facial expressions as if something would give her away.

"I am terribly sorry about how inadequate we have acted since you requested for us to take this case on. Miss Asami, this may be an odd request, but can you call that number for me quickly?" Yoshiro asks while pulling out a weird machine in his hand. Asami goes to pull her phone out when her father's voice interrupts her.

"Why would she do that? Would that not make Emica more bold thinking Asami wants to go back with her or something?" Asami observes the look in Yuzuru's eyes and frowns a bit. He looks extremely concerned.

"If Emica picks up, this machine," the policemen bring over a complicated computer-looking thing, "allows us to track her general location. You do have to keep her on for about a minute. Do you think you can do that?" Yoshiro asks, staring at Asami with gentle eyes. Asami stares at the phone in her hand, imagining what she would say to her mo—kidnapper.

"Is that not a bit traumatizing?" Asami directs her gaze onto Tamaki as he stares at her in worry. "She is still processing that the woman she thought was her mother is actually her kidnapper. They still have that mother-and-daughter bond despite that everyone wants to believe that it is gone now. Could this not cause emotional distress?" Everyone turns to look at Asami after his words.

"Asami, it is your choice what role you take in this investigation. You can help us out or you do not." Yoshiro states. She sees the venomous gleam in her grandmother's eyes and the saddened one in her father's. If she did not do this, she solidifies the thought that she does not view Yuzuru and Tamaki as her real family—that she still views Emica as family. Asami picks at the hangnail on her left ring finger, trying to distract herself from everyone's judgemental and awaiting expressions at each second that passes without an answer from her. Could she truly do this? Is she able to help put the woman who raised her in jail? Her heartbeat starts pacing a bit too fast and she can feel herself becoming lightheaded. She remembers the warm soups Emica would cook whenever she was sick, the late-night movie nights full of laughter and scared screams, the last-minute adventures around town, and the warmth that encompassed her as Emica would hug and kiss her forehead. She thought she worked through her feelings about the situation. She thought her brain and heart were finally on the same page on Emica and how she is merely a crazy woman who kidnapped her; however, as her eyes trace over the text message, she wants to believe that there was a real familial relationship between them. She realizes she has taken too long to answer when Tamaki very subtly shakes her should while making it look more like he was just putting his hand on it.

"I can do it," she determines with a sharp nod. "Emica needs to face justice for what she has done and I will help." Yoshiro carefully observes her—so does Kyoya without anyone noticing—and they both note the small glint of shame on her face as she says this. Asami is feeling shame because she never wanted Emica to rot in jail, but she has to if Asami wants to put her real family's minds at ease. It also feels wrong to turn on Emica like this. She briefly wonders if karma will get her sooner or later for her actions. Emica always did warn her that karma had a funny way of getting back at people.

"Okay, let's get set up." Asami watches them do a few things with the machine and her phone but she does not fully understand what they are doing. She never was one to watch true crime videos or law enforcement shows. She leaned more toward fantasy and anime shows and cooking videos. Finally, they hand the phone back to her. "Whenever you are ready," Yoshiro says to her while standing next to the machine. Asami reaches out and grabs Tamaki's hand with her left one as her right-hand clicks on the call button of the number. The phone rings for a couple of seconds and Asami assumes that Emica used a burner phone and got rid of it when suddenly, someone picks up. Asami finds herself unable to speak for a moment while listening to the breathing of the other hand. She recognizes the breathing immediately—it is Emica.

"Mom?" Asami chokes out, feeling the tears swell up in her eyes. Yuzuru flinches at the term mom and she feels a bit of guilt in her stomach at his reaction. She had to make this call look believable to Emica thought and Emica would know something is wrong if Asami called her by her first name. Also, Asami wants to pretend that this is just a normal phone call between the two as if the last two weeks never happened.

"My little butterfly," Emica's voice comes through the phone and confirms her identity to the police. "These last few weeks have been absolute hell for me. Oh, I missed hearing your voice and seeing your face. It feels like a piece of me has been ripped away."

"I miss you too. I wish I never went on that field trip, none of this would have happened. I could really go for some of your chirashi right now." Asami tearfully grins at the sad laugh Emica emits.

"If I had known that was our last dinner together, I would have made it in a heartbeat for you." Emica's laughter dies down and the overall atmosphere within the phone call becomes quite sad. "Whatever they told you about me is not true."

"So you didn't kidnap me from the front yard of my childhood home?" Asami cannot help but snort at this. "There is way too much evidence against you to dispute that claim."

"I did kidnap you, my little butterfly, but it was not with malicious intent. I did what I had to do." Emica defends herself. Yoshiro gains Asami's attention and mouths, 'ten more seconds.' Asami gives him a slight nod that she understands.

"What do you mean by that? I need the truth. I deserve the truth." Asami stresses, her grip on Tamaki's hand becoming tighter and tighter with each word.

"And you will receive the truth when you are not working with the police." Everyone in the room freezes and stares at the phone in shock. A few policemen immediately leave to survey the area. "I know you don't want to help them, Asami, I can see it clear as day on your face. You miss me just as much as I miss you. You know I am your true family. I cared for you, I changed your dirty diapers, I potty trained you, I saw you off to school for your first day, I took care of you when you were sick, I was there when you experienced your first heartbreak–" Emica is interrupted by Yuzuru.

"Because you took her from me! I was supposed to do all of that. She was meant to experience all of those situations with me, her father! Not some crazy woman!" Yuzuru angrily shouts, yanking the phone out of Asami's hand. "I will not rest until you are rotting in jail."

"Oh Yuzzy," Asami and Tamaki both make grossed-out faces at the nickname, "We both know I was more than your assistant but you can never admit that, can you?" Emica hauntingly laughs. "The truth will come out one day and everyone will know–" Yoshiro takes the phone and hangs up. Silence fills the room as everyone processes everything that was just said. Shizue is looking at Yuzuru in disgust while a million different ideas run through her mind on the relationship between him and Emica. Asami and Tamaki are experiencing similar thoughts. What could have possibly happened between the two?

"Were you able to track her location?" Yuzuru softly asks.

"It pinned in a town located in Miyazaki." Yoshiro grimly replies.

"How? She said she could see me?" Asami quietly questions.

"I believe she hacked into the cameras, that specific camera," Yoshiro points at one in the corner to the side, "moved during the call and seemed to focus more on you. She was never here and is too far away for us to reach in time. She'll be long gone by the time we contact local authorities." Asami imagines a map of Japan in front of her and recalls her geography class lessons. Miyazaki is more than 1,000 km from Tokyo. Emica must have gotten a plane to a place as far away as she could when she realized what was happening. For some odd reason, Asami feels a bit abandoned. Emica did not even stay close enough to keep an eye on her. She did not even know that Emica is skilled enough in coding and with computers to hack into security surveillance cameras. She imagines the sweet woman that raises her and tries to see the evil woman everyone wants her to see. With each new fact, the evil version is becoming slightly more clearer to see which hurts Asami's heart. She never thought that she would view Emica as an evil person. Asami is snapped out of her thoughts by Tamaki once again. She truly needs to thank him for not letting her get trapped in her mind. Her mind is such an ugly place right now, full of guilt and sadness.

"Are you okay?" Tamaki whispers, gently squeezing her hand.

"No," She whispers back, "and I don't think I ever will be." He smiles sadly down at her. He cannot understand the position his sister is in, no one in this room can. They all assumed that any love Asami had for Emica disappeared the moment she learned the truth, but that does not just happen overnight—which is one thing Tamaki can understand. He stills loves his mother dearly despite allowing their father take him away from her and the lack of contact from her since. "Thank you for standing up for me," a tear escapes her eye and trails down her cheek, "you have made me feel like family from the moment I entered your life. I truly appreciate it." A moment of silence passes between them before Tamaki closes his eyes and sighs.

"I still remember the day you were taken," he admits, "I heard your wails and I didn't get help as quickly as I should've. I watched as that woman took you away. You were fighting her. I got the attention of our mother too late."

"Tamaki, none of this is your fault," she reassures him as she takes both of his hands into hers, "you were four, you reacted like any child would in that situation."

"I still blame myself a bit. If only I screamed or ran after you, maybe she would've dropped you. I thought I would never see you again and I had to live with the fact that I did nothing to save my baby sister." Tamaki pulls her up from the seat and hugs her. "I feel like this is my do-over." Asami smiles contently, snuggling her face into his neck.

From a few feet away, Yuzuru is watching his children with a soft smile on his face. He is grateful that the duo formed a quick sibling bond in the last few weeks. He thought it would take months for them to warm to each other, especially Asami. He believed that Asami would take years before she accepted them as her family considering how Emica was her family for her formative years. The smile falls from his face as Shizue and Yoshiro approach him with serious expressions on their faces. "What did she mean?" Yoshiro asks. "What's the truth?"

"I do not know what you mean. That was the ramblings of a crazy woman trying to justify her actions." Yuzuru defends himself with a shrug.

"Yuzuru, do not lie." Shizue sneers, jabbing a finger into his chest. "It is bad enough you had two children with a dirty woman. Now I learn that you had possible relations with another dirty woman while you were already in a relationship. It is making me question if you deserve to be head of this family when I pass. Your morals seem to be a bit skewed." Yuzuru stands up straighter at these words and his face hardens.

"I do not care for the accusations you are implying, mother. I never had a relationship with Emica while I was with Anne. Anne was—is still the love of my life and the mother of my children. You will believe a kidnapper over your own son?" He hisses through clenched teeth. Yoshiro carefully eyes his friend.

"Yuzuru, are you telling us the truth? Was it just the ramblings of a crazy woman? Because if you are withholding information from me that is vital to this case, it will be on your head if we never bring Emica to justice." He comments, turning his gaze onto the siblings hugging. "I would hate for Emica to find out a way to get Asami back and hide from us." Yoshiro gets the reaction he wanted when Yuzuru winces at those words. He sees the hesitation in Yuzuru's eyes as he glances at his mother before looking back at him in somewhat of a pleading manner. "Okay, I believe you. I'll see you later to go over some details in the case I need clarified." Yoshiro picks up on the nonverbal cue of his friend. There is something else that he needs to know but Yuzuru cannot say it in front of Shizue without risking his position in the family. Yoshiro walks away from the family and towards his own. He wonders how the truth would affect the Souh family if it ever came to light?

"Are we leaving?" Kyoya asks, adjusting his glasses.

"Yes, we are. There is nothing else to be done here." Yoshiro replies.

•••

A week has passed since the incident at the event. Asami has been putting most of her time and effort into studying for the entrance exams for Ouran Academy. She told Yuzuru that she wants to get in because she deserves it and not because her father is the chairman. Tamaki found it a bit insulting that she believed he got in simply because of their father. He is smart when it is needed. The two siblings have grown closer throughout the week. They started having a movie night every night after Tamaki would get back from the club. The servants would bring their dinner to their rooms and they would eat while they watched whatever movie they wanted. Asami forced Tamaki to watch the Twilight series with her while Tamaki forced her to watch The Notebook, Romeo and Juliet, and Pride and Prejudice. She finds his love for romance a bit funny. She wonders why he has yet to score a girlfriend. Any girl would be lucky to have him as a boyfriend. He shower them with cuddles, hugs, kisses, gifts and flowers every day. There is one thing that Asami has been dreading—finishing school.

As Shizue promised, a teacher from the Nishio Gaku finishing school is arriving today. Asami wrings her hands while she tries to focus on her math work for the day. Luckily for her, finishing school will not interfere with her normal school; however, it does interfere with her movie nights with Tamaki which is quite upsetting. She stands in the entrance hall of the mansion in a brilliant blue, knee-length dress. She has white tights and black strappy wedges on along with a pretty blue bow in her hair that is holding up her ponytail. Tamaki stands next to her, not wanting to leave her alone in her anxiety as the clock ticks closer and closer to meeting the new teacher. "You'll do wonderfully," Tamaki mumbles to her while the servants begin to line up by the door along with Yuzuru which alerts the siblings that the teacher is close. "You already act lady enough." She snorts at his words.

"We both know I do not." He cheekily smiles at her. "He reports back to Shizue every day about my progress. If I don't meet her expectations, she'll disown me and kick me out." Worry fills Asami's whole being at the brought. She has nowhere to go if that occurred. She is alone in Tokyo if the Souh family rejects her.

"That is not happening, not on my watch." He straightens his back and taps her back so she does the same. "When he comes, you curtesy and say hello sir. You do approach him or shake his hand until he does so first." She nods her head, planting his advice in her mind. The servants open the door and young looking male with brown hair and blue eyes,with tinted glasses covering them a bit, walks through the door.

"Hello, I am Souh Yuzuru. Welcome to my home." Yuzuru approaches the man and they shake hands.

"Nice to meet you, Mr. Souh. I am Kojima Akira." He introduces himself. They release hands and he approaches the siblings. "You must be Tamaki," the two shake hands and then he turns his attention onto Asami.

"Hello, Mr. Kojima." Asami performs a curtesy and keeps her head bowed. "My name is Souh Asami. It is a pleasure to welcome you into our home." She raises from the cursory and raises her head. She sees the amused smile on Akita's face before he holds out his hand. She goes to shake his hand when he laughs.

"Oh, you were doing so well. You do not shake my hand, you offer your hand and I kiss it in greeting." Akira corrects her. She shots a quick glare at Tamaki who smiles apologetically at her for the mistake. "That look is also not ladylike." She immediately replaces the glare with a soft smile. "It seems you are a quicker learner, Mrs. Souh should have nothing to worry about."

"The servants will show you to your room." Yuzuru informs their guests as multiple servants grab some of Akira's luggage to take up to his room.

"A lady always escorts her guests to their room," Akira holds out his arm and gestures for Asami to take it. She slips her arm through his so their elbows are linked. "I assume you do not know which room is mine so we shall follow the servants this time." Asami sends a pleading look of help over to Tamaki and Yuzuru. "Those looks are not very ladylike. You should learn to be more subtle with them if you do not want other people to see besides the person intended for those looks."

Asami is going to end up killing this man.

The urge to take a knife and stick it into Akira's chest and twist it around to add more agony has grown with each slap of his stick on her hand whenever she messed up. They are currently working on her posture and he is forcing her to keep her posture straight while she reads a few books about manners. The moment her shoulders slightly slouch or she goes to cross her legs (because it is very uncomfortable having her ankles crossed instead to be more ladylike), he is hitting her with that horrid stick. She glares daggers at the stick and hopes that her glare melts it into pieces.

"The more times you give up, the longer we do this." Another punishment is that Akira adds a minute into their lessons for each failure. So far, their thirty minutes class has gone up to an fifty-three minutes. "If you can read this next section aloud without a single stutter or mistake, I'll end this lesson." She stares at him in confusion. "Don't get use to this nice behavior from me. This is your first lesson and it is understandable that you will not be perfect at these actions. Please, read." She clears her throat and starts to read.

"Most people are taught manners as children. They are taught to say thank you when someone gives them an item or helps them with a problem. Manners are essential in social settings. Without good manners, you can offend an important person without even knowing it. Say excuse me when trying to move through a crowd of people and never purposely bump into anyone. When someone is being rude, pull them aside and tell them how their actions are coming across. Say thank you and you're welcome in the right situations. Keep good eye contact with a person as they speak. Show that you are actively engaged in the conversation. Offer guests food and drinks when they arrive to your home. Bring the items to your guests, your guests should never have to get things for themselves. Never embarrass a person. These are all simple steps in helping you develop good manners." Asami finishes without a single stutter or mistake. She glances up from the book to look at Akira.

"You're dismissed." Akira nods his head. She eagerly gets up and goes to leave, "before leaving a lesson, you should curtesy and say thank you for your time." She grits her teeth and smoothed her facial expression as she turns to face him once more. She smiles and performs a curtesy.

"Thank you for your time, sir. Have a wonderful night." She says. Akira nods in approval and she does not waste another second, quickly bolting out of there and heading towards Tanaki's room. She opens the door and sees Tamaki watching some soap opera while crying.

"Asami," he says through sobs, "the wife just found out that her husband has been sleeping with her sister and mother and now her sister is pregnant with his baby." Asami blinks in slight confusion at that story line as she crawls into his bed next to him. She hands him a box of tissues from his nightstand. "The betrayal!" He blows his nose, continuing to sob. She starts to laugh at him. "This is not funny! Her heart has been broken! True love doesn't exist!" She pats his back and leans over to grab some popcorn to eat.

"Tamaki, it's a soap opera. They'll be back together by next episode." She says through her chuckles.

Asami is grateful for these moments of normalcy with Tamaki.

•••

Asami stares at the phone in her hand while laying in her bad. She glances at the time to see the clock ticking closer to 2 a.m. and a sigh emits from her mouth. Every night for the past week, she just lays in her bed and stares at her phone for some reason. Maybe she is trying to gather the courage to call Emica. Maybe she is waiting to receive a message from Emica about the truth. There was clearly something more going on all those years ago between Yuzuru and Emica. The sudden appearance of Yoshiro immediately after Shizue left for another business meeting told Asami and Tamaki that. Whatever happened, Yuzuru does not want his mother to know about it. Asami groans, throwing herself backward into her pillows and her phone into the bed as she lifts her hands up to rub her face. She tries to think back to any pictures in the house that she might have seen in passing that could have contained Yuzuru. She tries to remember if her mother ever slipped up and mentioned Yuzuru in conversation.

A sudden memory flashes in her mind and she sits straight back up. Her eyes flicker around her room at fast pace as she focuses on the memory, trying to make it more clear in her mind.

"Mommy, is this my father?" A six year old Asami points to a picture of a man with light brown hair and brown eyes standing next to Emica. Emica comes out of the kitchen and freezes at the sight of the photo album in Asami's lap.

"Where did you get that?" Emica asks, rushing over to yank it out of Asami's hands. "Mommy told you to not touch her stuff."

"I'm sorry," Asami drops her head and slowly kicks her feet in shame. Emica sighs, sitting down next to her and reopens the album to that exact picture again. Asami lifts her head and curiously looks at her mother.

"Your father's name was Charron Beau. He was a cellist in France." Emica sadly smiles and gently touches the picture. "This is when he took me to my first concerto which he was performing. I wish he lived long enough for you to hear him play."

"Did you guys love each other very much?" Asami questions.

"I loved him very much and I like to think that he loved me very much too." She shuts the album, setting it aside and kisses Asami's head. "Time to rest those wings, little butterfly." Asami giggles madly as Emica picks her up to put her to bed.

Asami finds herself getting out of bed and walking towards the window of her room that faces the main house. She crosses her arms, leaning against the frame while observing the home. Emica and Yuzuru clearly knew each other and Emica believed he loved her. Maybe that's why this all happened. Yuzuru told Emica the truth, that he doesn't love her and she mistook their relationship so she decided to hurt him by kidnapping his daughter. A quiet ding goes off but it causes Asami to practically jump ten feet in the air. She rushes towards the phone and looks at the message.

From: Unknown
Done working with the police yet? I just want to tell you the truth

Asami stares intensely at the message and bites her lip, hesitating for a mere moment before she finds her fingers flying across the phone screen.

From: Asami
How about you tell me the truth and then I decide whether or not I'll still help the police?

Asami watches the three little dots as Emica's message is typed out.

From: Unknown
If that's how you want to play this, then fine. Meet me at our spot in Shirakawa. 10 a.m. on Saturday.

Asami turns her gaze to stare at the stars outside, trying to find a natural sign that she should not do this. Another ding catches her attention.

From: Unknown
Will I see you there, my little butterfly?

From: Asami
See you then.