#hikarenge

[ouranbutworse]

Anime-Manga Comparisons, episode 12.

I don’t know what it is about the anime, but it refuses to mention any holidays or seasons outside of spring or summer, because this episode is specifically set around Valentine’s day in the manga, in the four days leading up to it, but for the anime, it’s just another wednesday (Or whatever days it’s set on, I guess.)

Also, the first scene with Bun-Bun getting dirty and us finding out Honey and Kyoya as AB blood types happens all the way back in volume 1 (we’re onto 4 now) as an extra episode, where we also don’t see Honey presumably kill a bunch of troops for waking him up from his nap. We get to see Haruhi in the bunny outfit in the manga, too. The original fursuit.

In the manga we get a scene with Tamaki wanting chocolate from Haru for the holiday, and she doesn't get the hint and mentions that she gets chocolate for her real dad every year. Harsh! The twins make fun of him, and Kyoya breaks the fourth wall to say Tamaki shouldn’t be surprised Haru wouldn’t give him chocolate because of how the story has developed so far, and that he should go back and reread the volumes.

Renge appears again in the anime to do a voiceover describing Honey’s tepid character. This girl hates him, seriously! And then Honey gets a cavity after Haru jinxes him with it. Renge doesn’t appear here in the manga, so the moe is only noticed by the already established guests. The twins brag about how they get too many gifts for Valentines anyway and upset some male classmates nearby, and Tamaki and Kaoru share a manga exclusive high five, and Kyoya teases him about how his act is only to justify the fact that Haruhi won’t give him any chocolate, and Tamaki mopes. The love letter trio are back to bully Tamaki again!

In the anime Honey asks Haruhi if he’s been bad, but in the manga he asks if he’s offended God. I don’t usually point out every difference in dialogue because it’d take too long, but this one made me laugh. Also, Hikaru catches Haru sneaking Honey a sweet, but doesn’t say anything else when it’s revealed to be a block of kelp. Because a kelp is not a sweet.

One of the twins (They’re both next to each other and the speech bubble is between them, so I’m not sure who) suggests inviting Renge along to witness Honey’s darkside. Again, this somehow means HikaRenge is canon to me. Also Kyoya straight up asks if Honey is a demon. Pot calling kettle, Kyoya.

Honey calls Mori baldy. Made me laugh. Also this is like, the only Mori angst we ever get, which is hilarious. Mori really is the only normal dude with no issues to fix.

Finally, since this was all leading up to Valentine’s day, we get to see it! They say it's too late for their usual celebration, but they still work together to get flowers for all their guests, and Haruhi even makes chocolate for Honey (and not Tamaki, lol.)

Episode 12… over, sweetly.

[falling-pages]

Fight for me: Hikaru x Renge

Renge tends to Hikaru's wounds after he gets in a fight to defend her.

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Renge Houshakuji x Hikaru Hitachiin

Genre: Fluff, hurt/comfort, first kiss

Warnings: None

-

Hikaru knew how to throw a punch, but holding his own against three men was above even his own skill level.

It was amazing he had lasted so long in the fight until Mori spotted him and grabbed him by the scruff of his neck like a kitten, tossing him from the circle and finishing the fight himself. Those three upperclassmen didn’t stand a chance--yet he felt his blood run hot at the thought that he had to be saved when he was trying to save someone else.

Toui Kendarishi and his dumb fucking mouth just had to get under his skin, again.

A sharp scrub against his cheekbone jerked him back to reality. He hissed, going to swat at it, before the girl grabbed his wrist and pushed it back down.

“Don’t get mad at me, I’m just trying to help you,” Renge grumbled.

Yeah, some help she was. With every dab of the cotton ball and slab of ointment he relived every moment of the fight, every right hook and gut punch and kick he had endured for her, and she had no idea. The only soothing thing about this therapy appointment was her nails scratching his scalp, but only to distract him from a bad bout of pain.

He only rolled his eyes, jerking away as she moved on to his mouth. “I know you didn’t just roll your eyes at me,” she said, tugging at his bottom lip. His top lip had taken the brunt of Kendarishi’s fists, and all he tasted was his own blood in the back of his throat. He was sure he was a monster to look at, blood staining his teeth and tongue. As it dried against his skin, Renge thumbed it away, smearing it against her hand before she took a washcloth to it.

“So observant,” he hissed, resisting the urge to spit at the taste clouding his senses. Sarcasm was his trusted defense mechanism, and he relied on it heavily now to distract himself from the feeling of her fingers playing with his lips.

A harsh scrub against the wound was her own way of backtalk. “Sass me again, and I’ll stop, and you can explain to Kaoru why you look like a fucking Picasso,” she said.

“Tch.”

But he listened. The blood and spit and pain rendered him essentially mute, much to her amusement, as she worked. His eyes wandered around her bathroom, impossibly pink and frilly for a college apartment. Like the rest of her place, it was like Paris had vomited itself inside, the chunk of the concoction muddled in the bathroom. A pink fuzzy rug was below him as he was perched on her gilded toilet, a gaudy shower curtain boasting images of the Eiffel Tower, and even her mirror was embossed with rhinestones. Everything, from the toilet paper pile to the cosmetics cases, were perfectly stacked and organized, with not a speck of dust or dirt to be found.

Geez. And he thought her shrill demands of perfection in high school were bad. Their host room was spotless thanks to her dictatorship, but this was on another level.

“Admiring the bathroom, I see,” she said, sucking in her cheek as she fiddled with opening a band-aid. Her nails, long and purple, couldn’t quite find the purchase to pinch the covering from the adhesive side.

His life and health were quite literally in her hands, but Hikaru couldn’t hold back the snicker from his bleeding lips. “It’s mental,” he said, reaching up to help her with the band-aid.

Renge ripped it away from him, glowering down her nose at him in the most egregious French expression she could muster. He hadn’t known her in France, but he imagined that was the look she gave every servant, every waiter, every busboy who didn’t fit her exact demands. “I’ve got it,” she spat, turning her back to him. Her shoulders shook, but because of the effort of unpeeling the band-aid or some unknown emotion, he didn’t know.

“Here,” she resumed, turning to face him, and Hikaru’s heart cracked at the tears welling up in her pretty brown eyes, the heaviness in her voice. It sounded so heavy, despite its usual nasal tone, and exhausted, defeated. What had she gone through when her back was turned?

He made her cry. He knew he could take the teasing too far sometimes, but bringing a girl to tears was childish, a middle school prank he had sworn to leave far behind him. But he had done it again, not even to a nobody, but to the girl who was fixing him up, his friend, whom he had grown up with and bruised two ribs defending.

As she leaned down to apply the bandage to his cheek, he tried to meet eyes, to apologize without aggravating his poor lips, but she evaded his glance, pursing her lips and focusing on her work. Her hands shook, lightly grazing his temple.

“Renge, hey, I’m--” he grabbed her wrist, and she jerked away, stepping back until she hit the wall. His voice forced more tears from her eyes, and she buried her face in her hands as she sobbed, massive pink bow bobbing with every movement.

“Just stop, Hikaru, stop!” she yelled, muffled by her closing throat. “I can’t take it anymore. I can’t keep stitching you back up when you snap, I can’t take how mean you are. We aren’t in school anymore, we’re adults, we’re in college, and you’re just puffing your chest like you’re invincible, picking fights and losing them.” She finally showed her face, anger and fear and… something he couldn’t place etched into the lines beneath her eyes. “You want to know what’s mental?” She gestured to him, waving her hand up and down his whole form. “This is mental. You getting into fight after fight and not learning a damn thing from them, that’s what. It’s amazing you didn’t break your nose.”

Blood and anger coiled in the back of his throat. He lunged forward and grabbed her arm again, firmer this time, and yelled out, “I did this for you! I got in this fight for you!”

Renge pressed further against the wall, but she stopped fighting. Her hands shook in his tight grasp. Eyes as big as a silver dollar gazed up at him, heart thrumming wildly in her chest. “What?”

“I got in a fight with Kendarishi, right?”

“Yes.”

“And who is he to you?”

Renge blushed, letting her eyes drift to his chest. She spotted a new bruise mottling on his collarbone. “My ex-boyfriend.”

“Exactly.”

Hikaru released her wrists and watched as they fell to her side, like all the resistance had been sucked out of her. “Every time I fight with him, it’s because he said something bad about you. And then he started saying stuff about me fighting for you, so I just can’t win. I just have a lot of motivation and a lot of anger.”

“Why do you care so much what he says about me?” she asked, still not meeting his eyes.

“Because it was some bad stuff, Ren,” he said. “And I know we haven’t always gotten along, but you’re my friend, and I’m not gonna stand there and while he calls you a ‘fucking French whore who screws every guy she meets.’”

She swung at him, but he blocked, whining, “Hey, he said it, not me!”

When he put his hands down, she was shaking, with rage and sadness and something that looked an awful lot like determination in her eyes. “Bold of him to call me a whore when he’s the one who cheated.” Her hands ball into fists, and her eyes scanned him again--with a less medical glare, this time, and more of a vengeance. “And he did this to you?”

“Yeah?”

“I’ll be back.”

“Wait!”

Hikaru grabbed her by the back of her shirt and suddenly realized exactly how Mori must have felt watching him fight it out on the academic lawn. Renge’s feet scrambled on the tile, but he held her in place, dragged her back in front of him to block her path. “What, so you’re going to go fight him now since he fought me?”

“That’s not a good enough reason?” she pouted.

“No, but…” Hikaru rubbed the back of his neck. “You were just lecturing me about fighting him. Seems a little hypocritical to me, Ren.”

“Don’t use words you don’t understand,” she huffed, leaning back against the wall. She didn’t fight him when he leaned in closer, securely caging in her body. “You were just defending my honor. Let me do the same.”

“Mori dragged me out of the fight, so I’d say he fucked them up good enough,” Hikaru said, and his heart thumped especially hard when she laughed. Oh God, it was like the tinkling of a bell, cool and clear and exactly what he imagined confectioner’s sugar to sound like. He felt himself dragged with a current, down the slope of a well, but he didn’t mind; he looked into her eyes and allowed the feeling to bouy him along. If he weren’t bleeding, he might have just kissed her, but he didn’t need her slap adding to his injuries.

Renge’s breath hitched when he leaned closer, resting his forearm parallel above her head. She was so busy in high school that she never noticed how soft his eyes were, almost golden, like the rising sun over a field of wheat. It reminded her of mornings on her family’s country estate, when she would meditate and do yoga and drink tea while the world quietly joined her in consciousness, when everything was soft and drowsy. Such beautiful eyes, bruised and marred and bloodied for her.

“Renge, I--”

“Don’t,” she whispered, lacking her usual venom. “Let’s enjoy what we have right now.”

Hikaru bit his lip, immediately regretting it as the pain surged back through him. When Renge laughed again, he couldn’t help it; he leaned down and pressed his forehead against hers, drinking in that sweet, drawled perfume that he so often used to make fun of her for wearing. She smelled like a doll, but she was anything but--smart, outspoken, a firecracker all wrapped up in that pretty pink bow.

“You’re so beautiful,” he whispered, lowering his hand to her hair without thinking. He caressed the silky locks, trailing his fingers down to touch her temple, tucking the stray hairs behind her ear. “And so soft.”

“You know I’m anything but soft,” she grumbled, but his touch was warm, and like a moth to a flame, she went to him, brushed her knuckles against the bruises on his collarbone. If it hurt him, he gave no indication; from the way he was looking at her, an asteroid could have hit earth and he probably wouldn’t have noticed.

“Sound pretty soft right now.”

Renge rolled her eyes. “Oh, shut up.”

“Gonna make me?”

Never one to turn down a challenge, Renge pushed up on her tiptoes and kissed him, as gently as she could manage. In an attempt to avoid his wound, her mouth only landed on half of his, but he could still taste the cinnamon on her breath, the stickiness of her lip gloss on his skin. Some hell of a first kiss, but at least it was a kiss, so he didn’t mind.

He ran his hands up her sides, tickling her ribs above her shirt. She broke the kiss with a giggle, bumping his nose with his as she threw her head back in laughter. What a beautiful sight he had there, all at the expense of a busted lip and a bruised eye.

“Remind me to get in a fight more often, if this is the payoff I get,” he whispered, grinning at her pointed glare.

“Don’t you dare,” she ordered. “You need to let this lip heal so I can give you a proper kiss.”

Hikaru raised an eyebrow. “That wasn’t a proper kiss?”

“No.” Renge lowered her eyes back to his mouth, wrapping her arms around his neck and pulling him back in. “Once you’re healed, I’ll show you how the French really kiss.”

-

Kofi & Commission

[clamontwilliams]

A tweet

The entire Dune cycle is based on a terrible pun. 1. The spice is called melange. 2. The spice confers power and longevity. 3. Melange is a French word for variety. In other words, variety is the spice of life. Why does no one ever talk about this?

— Hikarenger! (@HikerYote) May 26, 2018

[xera121]

Favorite tweets

The entire Dune cycle is based on a terrible pun. 1. The spice is called melange. 2. The spice confers power and longevity. 3. Melange is a French word for variety. In other words, variety is the spice of life. Why does no one ever talk about this?

— Hikarenger! (@HikerYote) May 26, 2018

from http://twitter.com/HikerYote via IFTTT

[ouranbutworse]

Anime-Manga Comparisons, episode 9.

Already I'm lying, because the last episode was actually a two parter in the manga, so this episode is actually episode 10 in the manga.

Manga starts off with Haru meeting the Zuka club, but the anime starts out with establishing a half day at school and the twins teasing Renge about how she has to drink instant coffee (this somehow makes HikaRenge canon to me, sorry), then they fuck with Haruhi for a bit and send her off to buy coffee. The other girls in their class praise her for being their friend and we get a flashback of horrible, double bowl haircuts and that Gameboy Advance with the Gameboy classic game on it. That monkey that apparently lives on school grounds unbothered trips her with a banana peel in the anime, but sadly doesn’t exist in the manga, instead she’s just running and trips.

In the manga club, Suzuran and Hinagiku are already there and in the Ouran uniform, being served by the hosts but also teasing them and are not impressed by their shiny armour. Benibara goes full butch and wears the boys uniform, which has me swooning. Even the other female club guests are blushing! The Lobelia (Roberia in the manga) girls also call Haruhi a girl during club hours, but the customers cease to exist at this point so nobody finds out anyway.

Sadly, Beni takes off her Ouran disguise and shows her Lobelia uniform, which isn’t butch, and that breaks my heart, but I still love them all dearly,

Tamaki has a homophobia moment, and Hinagiku purposefully spills hot coffee on him, instead of him tripping like in the anime, and it’s Mori and Honey who care for him.

For the drag scene, I’m torn on who does it better, because Tamaki’s outfit is a lot closer to Beni’s in the manga, but I also yearn for goth queen anime Kyoya, and we don’t get that in the manga. Brother Kyoya my ass, pal, you’re already a brother! Put some effort in!

Actually, in the manga, it’s less that they’re concerned Haruhi would prefer a more girly atmosphere, and more that she’d prefer a more showy atmosphere in general, which is why Tamaki, Kyoya and Mori aren’t in drag, it’s showing that they can do anything, basically, give her both brothers and sisters. Also Tamaki ends up knocking Haruhi over with his feathery outfit. Hikaru and Kaoru ask if they’re prettier than Haru’s dad, and I doubt it.

Haru’s still mad about her pencil in both versions, but also adds that she left because she needed to go shopping, which is peak Haruhi, and the Zuka club don’t slip on peels on the way out, but I’m sure they’ll be back! Oh no wait, they won’t be. Ah well. The manga ends there, but of course in the anime we see a little more of the guys, Renge drinking the instant coffee, and Tamaki slipping on a banana peel from that monkey again, who’s now dressed like her too! They’re in cahoots!

Episode 9… unfortunately over!

[falling-pages]

I'm sorry but the twins and Tamaki's faces when they see Renge in cosplay??? Hello?????

gonna be writing TamaRenge/HikaRenge fics for D A Y S