"Haruhi!" Tamaki called out to the girl down the hall, running after her.
She sighed. The new school year had begun, and even though Eclair had paid off her debt, she still couldn't escape the host club.
"What do you want, senpai?" She turned her head to see Tamaki skid to a stop behind her. He cleared his throat and straightened his coat, but the smile on his face was brighter than he was. With a dramatic bow, he extended a crisp pink envelope.
"The Ouran host club would like to formally invite their former member, Haruhi Fujita, to an upcoming celebration to introduce our newest hosts."
She took the letter with a roll of the eyes. Her name written on the front in big, swirling letters. She opened it, and inside were all the details were inside.
"This is pretty short notice, even for you." It said that the party was set for that night.
"Well you know how we are, the club has always been rather spontaneous."
"That's one way to say it." Haruhi muttered.
He ignored her comment.
"You are going to come, aren't you? " His calm, collected demeanor slowly dropped into his usual hyperactive tone. His eyes glittered with hope as he leaned closer to her face, his grin getting bigger as he waited for her reply. Haruh took a step back before replying.
"If I said no, you guys would just keep bugging me."
"So you will?"
"I might as well. "
"Wonderful!" Tamaki shouted as he jumped into the air, "I'll go tell everyone you're coming! And don't worry about finding an outfit, we already have everything planned!"
Before she could say anything, he had already bounded away.
With another sigh, she went back to walking down the hall. She had quit the host club after her debt was paid off so that she could focus on her studies, but she missed hanging out with them everyday. She made time for to special events, but the host club quickly figured this out, and began planning big events for anything they could think of.
Someone sick and stay home from school? They'd have a Hawaiian luau to celebrate when they got better.
The teachers announce a test? A carnival to take people's mind off the stress.
A girl mention feeling embarrassed about blemish on her forehead? An impromptu masquerade ball to help them feel less insecure.
Then again, that wasn't all about her. After Mori and Honey graduated, they stuck around a while and continued to act as hosts. But soon they moved away for collage. They came back sometimes for special events too, and with how much the girls (and the hosts) missed them, Tamaki and Kyoya tried to create lots of opportunities for them to visit.
The afternoon passed by uneventfully, and before she knew it, the day was over. She barely walked out the door of her last class before she was flanked by the twins, then dragged to the club room. She was promptly thrown into a changing room with a neatly hung, pristine white suit. She closed the curtain and took everything off it's hanger, buttoning up the black shirt they gave her before sliding of the rest of the jacket and pants. She walked out as she finished tying the bright red tie around her neck and asked "So who are these new hosts?"
The twins were already dressed in outfit that matched her's, with the exception of their orange and light blue ties.
They shrugged.
"Just some first years that the boss talk into joining." Said Hikaru, "There's this "stylish" guy and some really shy kid that can hardly talk to girls."
Kaoru chimed in. "Then there's the guy Tamaki calls the robust type that's always shouting."
" I don't know what he was thinking, asking that guy to join." Hikaru muttered, " We only met him a few days ago and he already ticks me off, he's no smarter than Tamaki and even louder."
Kaoru turned to face Haruhi. "Anyway, the boss is waiting for us in the ballroom. We better hurry up."
She didn't fuss as she followed them down to the dance hall that had seen almost weekly use lately. Tamaki was at the top of the stairs on the other end of the room, talking with Kyoya. As soon as he saw her and the twins, he waved like mad and called out.
"Haruhi! I ordered fancy tuna for you!" She rolled her eyes. Tamaki jumped down the stairs as she walked towards him, waving a piece of paper at her. "Look at all the yummy food Kyoya and I planned for the party! Fancy tuna, instant coffee, and all kinds of cake!" Haruhi held back a sigh as she took the paper from him. That was the entire menu, most of the list was just different kinds of cake.
"Oh! I forgot to ask! What do you think of my outfit? It' makes me look quite dashing, doesn't it? " He struck a pose as the twins walked around behind him, making faces. He was wearing a white suit and black shirt like the others, but his tie was the same white as his jacket.
"Well it... looks just like mine."
"What?! How can you say that?!" Tamaki looked horror stricken. "Our outfits may be similar, but they are not the same! I carefully selected each and every outfit too-" As he launched into a long winded rant, making vast hand gestures and spinning around the room, Haruhi tuned him out. She instead went to greet the guests that were beginning to arrive.
The party was well underway now, and all the hosts were out on the floor flirting. Haruhi hung off to the side, watching the others as they socialized and eating some of the fancy tuna sushi they had put out. She had eaten it before, thanks to the persistence of the host club. She had realized from her first taste that all the excitement had been well deserved. It was delicious, and one of her new favorite foods. She made a habit of snagging extra to save for later, but made sure that the hosts never saw her.
She made the mistake of not being discrete once, and she ended up getting sent home with tons of extra of extra. She had to share with everyone in her building to get through it before it went bad.
As she stood there, Honey and Mori walked up to her.
Honey said, "Hey there, Haru-chan! Long time no see!" Haruhi looked up to see him waving at her from up on Mori's shoulders. She smiled as he climbed down and ran at her, giving her a hug.
"Good to see you too, how have the two of you been doing at collage?"
"It's been great! We've made lots of new friends there! Haven't we Takashi?"
"Mhm"
"And how have you been Haru-Chan? What are things like here? "
"Hectic, as usual. I can't even escape by quitting." Honey giggled, smiling at her.
"Well, that's no surprise. The host club just wouldn't be the same without you." Haruhi smiled back at him and patted him on the head.
"It's not the same without the two of you either."
As they finished talking, a group of girls came to join them. Some went to talk to Honey and Mori, while some hung around her.
After talking to the girls for a while, Haruhi excused herself to get coffee for them to get a break. She had already poured the cups and was carrying the tray back to them, when there was the loud, metallic sound of a microphone.
"Good evening ladies! It's the moment you've all been waiting for! The introduction of our new hosts! So if you would all make your way to the foot of the staircase, we will begin!" Before the announcement was even finished, an avalanche of girls rushed to the far side of the room. Haruhi dodged as best she could without spilling the tray on any of the girls. When she made it to the edge of the room without dropping it on anyone, she let loose a sigh of relief. But just as she turned towards a nearby table to set it down, she bumped into by a throng of girls that had lagged behind the others. She tried to balance herself out, but one of the cups fell over and spilled down her pants. The heat scorched her leg and made her stumble. The coffee went flying, and splashed on two girl's dresses. They shrieked and called out for someone to get napkins to blot their dresses.
"I'm so sorry ladies!" Haruhi said, "I'll go get you something to clean up with." She ducked towards the table of food and grabbed a couple cloth napkins. She turned to go back, and ran right into the twins. "Oh, excuse me guys." She tried to side step around them, but they each grabbed one of her arms and dragged her towards one of the side rooms.
"You aren't going anywhere near those girls until you're cleaned up." The twins said. She grumbled and let them take her to the changing room, where they shoved a pile of fabric into her arms. "We didn't plan an extra outfit for you, so you'll just have to wear this." She took it without complaining and walked behind the curtain to change.
She took off the stained clothes and slid on her new outfit. Looking at herself in the mirror, she quirked an eyebrow at what she saw. The "spare" outfit they'd provided her with was a white dress with black accents, with a pair of red heels to go with it. She walked out to the twins and said,
"Are you sure this is a good idea? The girls still think I'm a guy."
"It's fine, you've worn dresses before and they didn't suspect anything at all." Said Kaoru.
"Now, for the finishing touch." Hikaru said, before making a quick headband-looking braid in her hair. "There you go. Now, time to get back out there!" They pointed dramatically to the door, making Haruhi roll her eyes before walking out. The ballroom was dark now, and the girls all whispered among themselves as a spotlight shone at the top of the stairs on Tamaki. The new hosts lined up next to him, and Kyoya was whispering something in his ear. Tamaki noted before holding up his microphone again.
"And now that we've finished introducing out new hosts, it's time for a special announcement!" He said. "The host club has always been a group of men brought together to make girls feel like the princesses that they are. But, recently I have come to realize that sometimes, ladies need a comrade more than a prince." The muttering girls grew louder as he continued. "A girl needs someone she can relate to, a friend to confide in, a fellow woman that they can share their feminine secrets with!" There was a round of gasps as a handful of girls put the pieces together.
"Therefore, the host club is proud to announce their first female member!"
Her stomach dropped before the spotlight even had a chance to hit her. There was more gasps from the girls and the chatter rose to audible level as Haruhi lumbered over to the foot of the stairs. As she she cracked her knuckles and walked up the steps, she could hear what some of the girls were saying.
"Haruhi? How can Haruhi be a girl? Wasn't he a host last year?"
"You're right, he was! Maybe this is some kind of joke?"
"Then again, remember those times He wore dresses? He looked just like a girl."
"Do you think that maybe Haruhi really is a girl?"
Haruhi was face to face with a grinning Tamaki now.
"Senpai, what are you thinking?" Haruhi said through gritted teeth. Tamaki put a finger to his mouth and shushed her, whispering, "Don't worry, we'll explain everything. But not in front of the ladies, alright?" With a quick wink, he turned back to the group of girls.
"Now, I know you all must be wondering about this. So let me put you're mind at ease. Haruhi, is in fact, just as much a girl as every one of you lovely ladies." His words did nothing to calm the dull roar of the girls chatter.
"But Tamaki, if Haruhi is a girl, why was she a host before?" One girl said in a loud voice.
"I promise, there is a perfectly logical explanation. You see-" And with that, Tamaki launched into a long, theatrical retelling of the events that led to her joining the host club. He changed details to make sure the host club wasn't seen in a bad light. Like saying that the vase was school property and they had payed for it in her place, but she insisted on finding a way to repay her debt. By the end, the girls had settled down.
"So you see, we never wished to deceive you ladies. But if Haruhi was to uphold her family honor and repay our kindness, then she had no choice but to act as a host!" A few of the girls were blotting their eyes already, when Tamaki put the final nail in the coffin. With a tear falling down his cheek, he said, "I'm so sorry that we had to lie to you, my princesses. It was simply something we had to do. But given the cruelty of what we did, I expect none of you will ever want set foot in the host club again." His voice was low and melancholic, and his face was buried in one of his hands. "I understand. And I promise that I won't hold it against you if you do leave. I will simply take it as a sort of punishment for hiding this from you all." His voice barely above a whisper, he added, "I am truly sorry."
Almost every girl was crying now, a few were outright on their knees blubbering. The girls were shouting now.
"Don't be sad Tamaki!"
"Yeah! I promise I won't abandon the host club!"
"Me neither!"
"In fact I'll start coming even more often!"
"We love you Tamaki!"
He looked up from his hand and out over the crowd of girls with a smile, his cheeks still wet.
"Thank you for being so understanding, my dears." Haruhi stood behind him, her eyes rolling back in her head as the girls showered Tamaki in complement and reassurance.
After a few more words from Tamaki, he dismissed her and the new hosts to go interact with the crowd before disappearing into one of the side rooms. Haruhi followed behind him, ignoring the waves and hellos from the girls. She found him inside carefully blotting the leftover tears from his face. She walked closer and took a deep breath before saying,
"I quit the host club for a reason, you can't just drag me back in without even asking me." Tamaki turned to her, surprised she had followed him, before laughing and waving her off.
"Stop acting so hostile, Haruhi! I know you miss the host club just as much as we miss you!" He poked her cheeks, turning her scowl into more of an angry fish face. "It didn't seem right to make you a host and have you flirting with all those girls again, however. So Kyoya and I came up with this clever little idea instead!"
She swatted away his hands, her voice rising as she said, "You can't just make me just join the host club again! Even if I do miss you guys, you have no right to drag me back into the club without even asking me!"
"Actually Haruhi, you owe us. So joining the host club is the most logical way to have you pay us back." Haruhi stopped and turned around to see Kyoya standing in the doorway, writing something down in his notebook. She crossed her arms as her eyebrows dipped lower on her face.
"What are you talking about? Eclair payed my debt for me, I don't owe you guys anything."
Kyoya straightened his glasses as he said,
"She paid off the debt for the vase you broke, yes. But what about that white suit and the dresses you stained?" Haruhi's jaw dropped as he continued. "Not only were those dresses imported and extremely expensive, but the suit we arranged for you was by no means cheap. And unless you've come into some large inheritance that we haven't heard about, you are in no position to pay us for them." Her mouth opened and shut silently as she tried to find an argument to make.
She heard Tamaki chuckle as his arm wrap around her shoulder.
"Looks like you don't have much of a choice, Haruhi." She turned to see his face only a few inches from her own. Her scowl stayed firmly in place as she glared into his sparkling eyes and said,
"You two planned this, didn't you." He laughed.
"Well we didn't plan on you getting coffee on the girl's dresses, but it would be a lie to say that our choices in colors were not picked with susceptibility to staining in mind"
"Why you..." Haruhi balled her hand into a tight fist, ready to knock a few teeth out of his obnoxious head, when he leaned forward and gave he a soft peck on the cheek before whispering.
"Welcome back, my princess."
I wrote this for a challenge on the Ouran amino app, and decided to post it here for you guys. The theme for the challenge was "Host club season 2 episode 1" and we were supposed to write how we would want the second season to go after Eclair paid off Haruhi's debt and Honey and Mori graduated (ignoring the cannon of the manga)
Anyway, hope you enjoy enjoy!