A/N: Hello, all! Melancolie here. Recently, I found this excellent new manga called "Ouran High School Host Club." And it has changed my life.
Alright, so maybe not REALLY. But whatever. :)

Anyways, this is just a sort of crack-fic sort of thing, just something I'm doing for my own enjoyment, and maybe to try my hand at characterizing. I'm not really good at it, so I'm gonna practice, and the guys (and girl) of Ouran Host Club just scream personality. :)

If you're a reader of my other series, "Total Duncan Island," don't fret. I'm not giving up on the series. I've just been distracted a lot lately. There's been a lot of homework, and I've been reading/watching Ouran and whatnot. Don't worry. I'll have the next chapter of TDI done soon. I'm on vacation now, after all.

That being said, I only have one more thing to say before I let you go. It's been at least two years since I've sat in any Japanese learning class, so I'm sorry if, for the rare few times I DO use them, the honorifics are wrong. :)

Now that that's done, I hope you will enjoy my first Ouran fan fic. :D

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Mitsukuni Haninozuka (more commonly known as 'Hunny') was sitting in his limousine outside the Morinozuka estate, waiting patiently for his cousin to finish getting ready for school. Checking his watch, the small boy frowned, feeling uneasy. It wasn't like Takashi (as Hunny alone was allowed to call him; everybody else simply called him 'Mori,' or 'Mori-senpai') to be this late.

Hunny glanced around nervously (and rather unnecessarily) before pulling a small cell phone out of his pocket. It had been a gift from Takashi; he'd given it to Hunny simply as a precaution (the Haninozukas frowned at the idea of cell phones. They weren't natural, and they went against all the laws the Haninozuka clan had passed down for generations, and that was that instinct would tell when a comrade was in danger). While Mori knew that Hunny was more than capable of taking care of himself, he'd made Hunny promise that, should he ever be needed, not to hesitate to call him.

And Hunny was sure that if he even let the phone just ring once, Takashi would come. So he took a minute to admire the bunny background, then hit the button for the Contacts window. He carefully scrolled down to "Takashi," and hit the tiny green phone button.

But his efforts proved to be unnecessary; just as he heard the first ring, he looked out the window to find Mori already halfway between the car and his front door. A nervous, frail looking woman was bowing towards Mori, who looked flustered as he stomped, flat-footed towards the car. In one fluid motion, he opened the car door, sat down, and shut the door behind him, completely ignoring both the lady and Hunny's confused glances.

"Drive." He said coldly to the driver, who stiffened up, and immediately followed his order. If he'd seen Mori's scowl, he might have just had a heart attack.

Then, Hunny smiled. "Hiya, Takashi!" He asked curiously, smiling a wide smile. He was always glad to see his cousin.

"Ah." Mori responded, but he didn't say anything else, or ask the question in return, as he usually did when addressing Hunny.

Hunny looked at his cousin with a quizzical expression. "Is everything alright, Takashi?" He asked. He couldn't help but be concerned. 'Poor Takashi,'he thought sadly, as Mori continued to ignore his question. 'Whatever happened must really be eating away at him, he's never this unhappy.' Thinking about his generally stoic, content cousin, Hunny turned away, sighing.

---~0~---

They arrived at Ouran Academy shortly afterward, and Hunny happily jumped out of the car. Even without doing anything extravagant, he attracted the attention of several girls, who shouted, "Hiya, Hunny-senpai!" or "Aw, he's so enthusiastic! It's so cute!"

He smiled a large smile. "Hi, girls! How are you all this morning?" Hunny didn't have to try to appeal to anybody. He was naturally charming; his boyish looks and small stature only helped add to his appeal. He'd simply been born lucky.

"We're well." At this point, Mori had caught up to Hunny and, without waiting for the consent of the smaller boy, scooped him up and put him on his shoulders. Hunny gasped as Mori continued to walk away, now with Hunny in tow, completely ignoring the girls.

Hunny wasn't sure how Mori was feeling (he hadn't said a word during the entire car ride there), but he sure felt bad about just ditching the girls like that, so, on top of Mori's shoulders, Hunny carefully turned around, and waved. "Sorry, ladies!" He smiled apologetically. "We'll just talk later, 'kay?"

The girls waved goodbye, and one of them said, "You know, I've never seen Mori senpai act like that."

The others looked after them, putting their hands to their mouths in concern, and the same one said, "I hope he's alright."

---~0~---

Mori and Hunny shortly after arrived in their classroom, after Mori had set Hunny down none-too-gently. Hunny was now getting very concerned; there was definitely something wrong with his bigger cousin, and he really, really wanted to find out what it was.

Hunny wanted to find out just to know what was wrong, but it was more than that, too. Mori had always acted as a caretaker to Hunny, and had never even let Hunny forget to brush his teeth. In return, what did Mori get? A small headache of a boy who was too fond of sweets and cute things to offer much in terms of conversation or common interests, not to mention another person he had to keep an eye on and worry about. Hunny's heart sank when this thought crossed his mind.

'What have I ever done for Takashi?' He wondered idly as the teacher came in and began roll call. Mori sat in a seat two to the right and one ahead of Hunny, so Hunny resolved to observe him and his behavior during class.

What Hunny observed was less than appealing. Mori was generally a very good student. He always took a surplus of notes and paid the utmost attention during his lessons. But today, he simply sat in his desk, staring at the chalkboard. He didn't take a note. He didn't even respond when the teacher called on him. He just sat there, like a log, and waited until the teacher gave up and called on someone else.

By the end of lessons, Hunny's eyes were full of tears that he quickly rubbed away before Mori could see.

However, it was unnecessary; Mori didn't wait for Hunny after class, as was their custom. He got up, haphazardly threw his books into his bag, and walked out. Hunny gasped, fresh tears filling the corners of his eyes, and he quickly put his books in his bag and ran after Mori.

By the time he'd caught up, Mori was almost already at Kendo club. Hunny was running to keep up with Mori's long stride, and he said, "Takashi! Why didn't you wait for me after class?"

Mori ignored him completely, and entered the dojo, leaving Hunny outside looking for all the world like an abandoned puppy.

---~0~---

Hunny didn't know what to do. He wanted to wait for Takashi before going to the Host Club, but if Takashi saw him crying as hard as he was, he didn't know what he would do. He didn't want Takashi to be angry at him, or to worry about him unnecessarily. So instead, he wiped the tears with his already damp sleeves, and headed up to Host Club early.

As he opened the door (had it always been that heavy? Hunny couldn't remember the last time he'd had to open the door by himself), he saw chaos. Haruhi was fruitlessly trying to run away from Kaoru and Hikaru, both in similar dresses, who were brandishing a third dress at her, saying, "Come on, Haruhi, we're all wearing dresses today!" Behind Kaoru and Hikaru, Tamaki (with his dress just barely on, and twisted all over the place) was running rampant, telling them to leave his little girl alone, and that if they even thought about making her do something she didn't want to do, he'd make sure they were miserable. Kyouya was sitting at a table, quietly sipping tea and typing in his laptop, smiling coolly and watching the scene unfold as always.

What was going on?!

Hunny walked over to Kyouya, who looked at Hunny for a second, then looked behind him, obviously noticing the lack of Hunny's shadow. "Hunny senpai, where's Mori senpai?"

Despite how quiet these words were in comparison to the raucous that was Haruhi, Hikaru, Kaoru and Tamaki, everybody stopped fighting to hear what Hunny had to say. Hunny frowned sadly, and looked at his feet.

"Takashi's at Kendo. I decided not to wait for him today." He said, shuffling his feet. Everybody came in closer.

"Why didn't you wait? Is something the matter?" Tamaki asked. Try as he might, Hunny couldn't prevent fresh tears pooling in the corners of his eyes.

"N-No..." But he couldn't prevent a sob from escaping, and at this point, lying would have been a foolish waste of his time. "Yea! Something's wrong with Takashi! He wouldn't talk all morning, and he was rude to the girls outside, and he set me down heavy, and he wouldn't take notes in class, and he didn't answer when the teacher called on him, and... and..." Hunny took a fresh breath and said, "And he didn't wait for me after school. Something's wrong with him! I think he's mad at me! Wahhh!" At that point, Hunny couldn't prevent wave after wave of sobs and tears from pouring out in droves.

The rest of the club looked on in concern. While that wasn't Mori's normal behavior, what could Hunny have possibly done to have upset Mori that much? From what they could tell, Mori was almost obsessed with Hunny; it was hard to imagine that Hunny could have possibly done anything to irritate Mori, let alone make Mori that mad at him.

"I-is there anything that you could have done that might have upset Mori senpai?" Haruhi asked, flustered. She couldn't wrap her mind around a mean Mori. It just didn't fit.

Hunny sniffled and wiped some of the tears away with a tissue that Kyouya had given him to replace (and hopefully save) his limp sleeves. "I don't know. I don't think so." Hunny scanned his memory for anything that might have irked Mori, but absolutely nothing came to mind except what he'd been thinking earlier. "I was... sort of thinking earlier that..." He stopped, and looked at the ground, melancholy etched into every cell that made up his face. "That maybe Takashi hangs around me so much because he feels obligated to..." He said, then looked up at the rest of his fellow hosts' faces.

Each one of them looked doubtful, even Tamaki, who had the capability of being as intelligent as Hunny's stuffed bunny sometimes. "No. That's not it." Tamaki said quietly. When Tamaki was being quiet was when you knew he was being perfectly serious. "There has to be some other reason...." He said, frowning.

Haruhi put her mind to work. 'So, Mori was irritable even this morning, when they'd picked him up...' Well, that was fishy. "You don't think something happened at home, do you?" She asked Hunny. Everybody else looked up.

"What do you mean, Haru-chan?" Hunny asked inquisitively.

"Well, look at it this way. He was irritated this morning, when you picked him up, right?" She asked. Hunny nodded, hugging his stuffed bunny. "Well, then, what if it wasn't YOU that irritated him... but someone at home?"

Hunny gasped, his eyes widened. Then he smiled. "That has to be it!" Then he froze, and his face fell. "It couldn't have been his parents." Hunny said quietly. "They're out of town. And Takashi would never get angry at Satoshi-chan." He sighed. "So then, it must be me after all."

"D-don't say that, Hunny senpai!" Hikaru said quickly, waving his hands, foreseeing tears.

"Yea! He's not mad at you." Kaoru added, equally as anxious.

"It's just not physically possible." They said together, twin-sync.

Then, Hikaru got a gleam in his eye, and looked to Kaoru, who'd realized what his twin was thinking the second he caught the look on Hikaru's face. They both grinned devious grins.

"You know, this is the perfect set up for a game." Hikaru drawled offhandedly.

Kaoru shrugged. "I dunno. It hardly seems the time for it. What with Hunny senpai so upset, and Mori senpai nowhere to be found."

Haruhi mumbled, "Nowhere to be found? He's at Kendo practice." However, like always, the twins ignored her, and, with a flat stare, she stalked off to put on her costume for the day.

"Besides," Tamaki added. "Nobody wants to play your stupid games."

"Stupid?!" Kaoru stood up, smirking. "Our games are not stupid!"

"Yea," Hikaru added. "Just look at the prizes. And this time, I've got the ideal prize in mind." Hikaru, through about two years of practice, had learned just how to push Tamaki's buttons. By offering him a tantalizing carrot like that, Tamaki had no choice but to bite.

"Oh, yea? What kind of prize do you have in mind? Hypothetically speaking, of course." Hypothetical my foot.

Hikaru shrugged. "Oh, nothing. Just that whoever loses has to back off of Haruhi, unless she chooses said loser." Hikaru smirked, looking straight at Tamaki. "Giving the winner a clear playing field."

This definitely sparked the Host Club King's interest. "Hmm..." He said, pretending to consider. But everybody knew he'd bite; the stakes were just too perfect. Ever since they'd both realized their love for Haruhi, Tamaki and Hikaru and been at each others throats over her. They were perfectly civil, even friendly, when it came to anything other than her (neither of them wanted to lose the other's friendship, after all), but the second Haruhi entered the fray, or even came up in conversation, neither guy could behave at all gentlemanly.

The winner of this game would have a clear shot at Haruhi. The loser wouldn't be able to see her without the winner's jurisdiction, or even talk to her without the winner knowing exactly what he was going to say. The stakes were just too perfect.

And so it was that Hikaru and Tamaki, along with Kaoru (who would have won in order to support Hikaru) and Kyouya (who'd entered the contest, knowing that if he won, everybody would relax and leave Haruhi alone), set out to figure out exactly what was wrong with their strong, silent type.