Title:
It Takes One to Know One
Summary:
What if the reason why Haruhi could tell the Hitachiin twins apart was because she was one? AU – Sort-of-Angst!Haruhi What if!Fujioka twins. An OC character involved. Haruhi and OC X the Hitachiin twins.
Disclaimer:
I don't own anything, except the plot and my character.
"Haru-chan; Haru-chan!"
Haruhi internally sighed in dismay. It's not that she disliked the nickname – well, it is because she disliked the nickname.
'I never was called that since...' Haruhi abandoned the thought. Thinking about it always gets her depressed. And being depressed means lesser customers. And lesser customers means that she would need a longer time to pay off her debt.
And the other reason why she had internally sighed in dismay was probably because the customers she was serving in the Host Club were squealing with delight as Honey- senpai bounced his way over to Haruhi with his pink soft toy – 'Usa-chan' was its name, if her memory served her right.
Don't get Haruhi wrong, she just found it a tad bit annoying that they overreact with every small thing the Hosts did.
Not that the Hosts did small things, for that matter. Extravagant sofas should really explain the reason. 'I mean,' Haruhi mentally complained. 'Who even uses fancy sofas? As long as you're comfortable with it, I don't see the problem.'
'Then again, maybe fancy sofas are comfortable.'
Haruhi let the nickname slide, like she always did, and allowed herself a soft smile.
"What is it, Honey-senpai?"
He responded with a cheerful expression engraved into his facial features. "Would you like to eat to eat cake with me?"
She forced upon herself a sad smirk – really, she did not want to eat anything right now, much less talk to Honey-senpai, or, heck, everyone.
'That's because today is...' Haruhi mentally scolded herself for another sad thought.
"No thank you, Honey-senpai. If I were to, however, it would distract me from chatting with these women. Why don't you get some cakes for them instead?"
Haruhi's comment earned her a shower of praises, going along the lines "Oh, how thoughtful!", "I wish I were that selfless!" and "This is why I chose you!"
Before Haruhi knew it, the club's activities were over.
She stretched her arms above her head, stifling a yawn. 'What should I buy later? Oh yeah, I have homework today too. Well, I'll settle with three hours of sleep then.' Haruhi thought, distracting her from what's nagging her mind for the past day.
Tamaki would have gone on claiming how cute Haruhi looked like when she was stretching, and she would have ignored him. Kyouya-senpai would have, as usual, complimented her host skills, saying that at this rate, her debt will be paid off earlier than expected. Haruhi would always have respond with "Thank you" while the twins would have whined on how casual she was with Kyouya-senpai than with them.
Except, today, fate decided to screw with her.
The Club's doors opened with a creak, and what she saw surprised her, leaving her frozen in her tracks.
"Welcome–" Even Tamaki stopped mid-speech, for goodness sake!
She had long, straight hair that reached just past her shoulders, her eyes a piece of hazel beauty, her delicate face was focusing on Haruhi, morphing from an expression of surprise to a shocked appearance. She was wearing the school's typical yellow frilly dress, although she looked magnificent in them.
What surprised them was that she looks exactly like...
Although, what really caught Haruhi's attention was that there was a pink bracelet around her wrist, one that Haruhi gave her all those years ago.
Haruhi strode towards her, lifting her head to look at her. She wanted to take in her features despite what she was going to do. She then bowed her head slightly, making her fringe cover her eyes while her shaking hand rose above their heads as she proceeded to slap her across her face, a resounding 'whack' echoing across the room.
"...Haruhi?! What are you–?"
"Is this some sort of sick joke? Huh?" Haruhi yelled, finally looking up to her face, noticing a red mark across her cheek, darkening as she mentioned each word.
The club members were rather taken aback by this; Haruhi never got this mad before.
Tears escaped her eyes as she continued to rant. "All this time," Haruhi began. "All this time, you were alive, God damn it! All this time, you never once at least called! All this time, I thought you were dead!"
Haruhi took her by her shoulders, shaking her after each statement.
She never tried to retaliate.
Haruhi slowly loosened her grip on her shoulders, setting them onto her sides.
"But," Haruhi hesitated. "Even after all this time... I still love you, Fujioka Haru."
Her crying was then pretty obvious, while Haru went on to hug her. Her sobs were muffled by Haru embracing her, lightly stroking her hair like all those years ago, while Haruhi immediately tightened their embrace, inhaling Haru's soft scent.
"I missed you, idiot! Why did you leave? Why – Why –?" Haruhi hiccupped then, while Haru began to speak.
"I missed you too, Haru-chi." She replied, as she softly kissed her forehead. Her tone had always been a notch higher than Haruhi's, but no one really had spot the difference between them, confusing their names with each other.
"W-Who are you?" Tamaki and the Hitachiin twins yelled in unison. Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai stood there, with Honey-senpai clutching onto Mori-senpai, disbelief written across his facial features. Even Kyouya-senpai looked a little distressed that he doesn't know anything about the new student.
"Oh, I haven't properly introduced myself! Haru-chi, let's do that."
The Fujioka sisters stood next to each other, hugging each other's waist.
"I'm Fujioka Haruhi–" Haruhi started.
"And I'm Fujioka Haru." Haru completed the statement.
"And we are," the Fujioka sisters tilted their heads in the opposite direction at the same time and smiled gracefully.
"The Fujioka twins!"
"EH?!" The members – except Kyouya-senpai – exclaimed.
Tamaki's eye twitched.
"I'm sorry Haru, I hope I didn't hit you too hard." Haruhi worriedly looked at her twin.
Tamaki's eyes twitched, yet again.
"It's okay, Haru-chi. I'm sorry too." Haru responded.
Tamaki cleared his throat – somehow, in the span of five minutes, Mori-senpai offered her an ice pack for her cheek, while they sat in a circle, using the fancy sofas, of course – and said "So what you're telling me," Tamaki dramatically pointed at Haruhi.
"Is that you have a twin," he then shifted the position of his hand to point at Haru.
"That we didn't know about." Tamaki finished, placing his hand down.
"It's not like you asked anything about it, Tamaki-senpai." Haruhi responded.
"Yeah, I'm a bit hurt that you didn't mention anything about having a twin," Hikaru uttered.
"You see, exactly ten years ago, Mother..." Haruhi's voice hung in the air, reliving the horrid, yet nostalgic, memory on her own.
Haru was worried that Haruhi was doing this often, especially on this day, making her feel terrible.
Haru hugged her waist and rested her head on Haruhi's shoulder. "I'll continue the story, then." Haru was amused to see two pairs of red-orange headed boys lean in closer simultaneously, interested on the next few words she was going to say. 'Maybe they're twins too!' Haru thought.
"Exactly ten years ago, I died."
That statement alone raised a few alarms amongst the members, especially the blond one, Tamaki-senpai was what Haruhi called him, flailed his arms hysterically. "Are you a ghost then? Did Nekozawa get you possessed to live on–"
"Nobody's possessed, nor will there be! Geez, the media thought I was dead, but I'm clearly alive, right here." I frowned at Tamaki.
"Anyway, ten years ago, Mother had already planned to go to our despicable aunt on that specific day, because she hadn't seen us in a long time, Mother's children. On that day, however, it was storming, that was why Mother decided to bring me instead, as Haruhi was scared–"
Haruhi tapped on my palm twice, a signal we both shared to indicate to switch the direction of the speech, because there was something we didn't want to share with the rest, although I saw Tamaki's eyes soften slightly. Maybe he knows.
"...As Haruhi had come down with a fever, and the last conversation we had went along like–"
"'Make sure Auntie Ugly doesn't know which one of us was sent, okay?'" Haruhi said her line, repeating what she had told Haru that day.
Haru bit the inside of her cheek as she went along with it. "'Don't worry! The day someone guesses correctly will be the day I die!'"
The orange-haired twins discussed rather loudly between them. "Huh. Nobody could guess between us either." A soft voiced male on the left spoke.
"That is, until Haruhi came, Kaoru." A rougher and sharper voiced male on the right spoke.
"Maybe that's because it takes a twin to know a twin, Hikaru." Responded Haruhi.
'Huh. The one on the right is Hikaru, and the one on the left is Kaoru, I guess.' Thought Haru.
A small blond tapped his chin lightly. "Well, that explains why Haruhi could tell Kao-chan and Hika-chan apart."
A tall raven-haired man spoke beside him. "Ah."
"But, to be honest, I find it hard that Haruhi here would insult her relatives, or anyone in general." remarked Kaoru.
"Ho ho, you should've seen how rude to everyone she was back then. There used to be no one in our 'world', it's always been us, and us only."
Hikaru and Kaoru looked at each other, with both of their mouths agape.
"Anyway, I was on the road with Mother riding a taxi we miraculously found, and... and the next thing you know..."
A tall, sleek and black-haired bespectacled male finished doing his research-thing and looked up, saying "Huh. A hit and run car accident. I guess my intuition was correct."
After a few moments of disbelief and story-telling, the club dispersed, as the day was almost over, the sun low on the horizon.
"Well, I guess we should introduce ourselves. After all, it's rude not to." The raven bespectacled man voiced out, as he adjusted his glasses.
"I'm Ootori Kyouya." He introduced.
The short blond cheerfully declared "I'm Honey! And this is Mori." He gestured towards a tall dark-haired fellow beside him.
The dramatic blond 'gracefully' introduced himself. "I'm Souh Tamaki, but I could be addressed as your prince–"
"Don't even think about it." The Fujioka twins affirmed.
The orange twins smirked between themselves and proclaimed confidently. "Let's play Guess-Who's-Hikaru game! Can you guess correctly, Haru?"
"The one on the left is Kaoru, and the one on the right is Hikaru." She blankly responded.
"You're wrong–" They began.
"Nope, I'm right," was said at the same time as "Nope, she's right."
The Fujioka twins walked away in content as they exited the club.
"Hikaru..." Kaoru started, looking at him with curious eyes.
"She guessed correctly. On the first try." Hikaru voiced out both their thoughts.
Kaoru stayed silent.