Behind Closed Doors

Chapter 1: Welcome to the Host Club!

"These outfits seemed a lot more flattering when I was younger." I said, examining the pale yellow Ouran Academy uniform I was expected to wear.

"Well, I don't think Ouran has a strict dress code. I heard that they were actually letting a commoner honor student attend this year." One of my maids, Akita, said with a smirk. "A commoner at Ouran...can you believe that?" I frowned at her comment. Akita definitely wasn't one of my favorite maids. And I have never had anything against commoners, and it bothers me when people makes fun of them.

"Akita, can you go get Mio for me? You can take your break now," I said with edge to my voice. Her eyes widened and she opened her mouth for a minute, but then closed it. I could tell that she hated it when someone asked for her older sister Mio instead of her, but I was tired of listening to her insult others.

"Very well, Miss Tamura." She bowed and left the room. I faced mannequin that had the uniform on it and turned it towards the mirror beside me.

Ugh...yellow is definitely not my color...

I pushed my light blonde wavy hair out of my bright blue eyes and smiled at myself in the mirror. My smile faded after a few minutes and I shook the bad memories out of my head and focused my attention back onto the mannequin.

There was a light knock on the door and my favorite maid, Mio, walked in carrying a tray of hot chocolate.

"Good evening Miss Tamura! Are you ready for school tomorrow?" She said in her soft but cheerful voice.

"Not exactly...I need help making a uniform." Her eyes lit up instantly. Sewing was Mio's favorite thing to do.

"Oh! Of course! What were you thinking?" She asked, setting the tray down and getting her sewing supplies out of her desk drawer.

"I was thinking something along the lines of the male's uniform, but more feminine." I replied, taking the Ouran girls uniform off the mannequin. Mio smiled.

"I think I've got an idea..." And with that, we got to work. The mini skirt was the easiest part; plain black with some ruffle at the bottom. Next was the shirt, which was a dressy button up styled shirt with a collar, and the periwinkle color like the boy's uniform. Mio sewed the Ouran crest onto the left side and made a periwinkle and black tie to match the outfit.

We put the final product onto the mannequin and smiled approvingly. I thanked Mio for her help and fell asleep quickly afterwards, excited for my first day back at Ouran.

The heels on my shoes clicked as I walked down one of the long Ouran hallways looking for my Homeroom class.

I should have visited earlier so I actually knew where I was going...

I looked back down at my schedule and map and found that my Homeroom class was right ahead. I got to the door, opened it slowly and walked in. Everyone's eyes suddenly shifted to me, and I awkwardly walked over to the teacher's desk, but she was too busy working on something that she didn't notice me walk in.

I put my hand down on her desk. No answer. I cleared my throat. No answer.

Finally, I said a quick "excuse me?" And she looked up, startled.

"Oh! I'm sorry!" She said quickly, then she stopped and squinted her eyes at me. "Is that Emi Tamura?" I shifted uncomfortably, but offered a small smile.

"I haven't seen you in ages! You're all grown up!" She said, smiling really big.

"Yeah, I was gone for a while, but now I'm back!" I said.

"That's good to hear! There's an empty seat back over there by Mr. Fujioka, over there by the window." She said, pointing to a boy with untidy brown hair, glasses, and a shabby, oversized sweater. Then she focused her attention back on her work.

I readjusted my skirt and started walking down the isle to get to my seat, ignoring all the eyes following me. Fujioka picked up his bag and moved it over to make room for mine.

"Hi. I'm Haruhi Fujioka." He said with a small smile. But something about his voice sounded out of place to me. I looked up quickly to look Fujioka in the face.

Mister Fujioka? What was the teacher talking about?

I gave "him" a small smile.

"Emi Tamura." I said with a nod. "He" seemed to sense my confusion.

"Is there something wrong?" "He" asked.

"Why did the teacher call you mister Fujioka? I mean...it's pretty obvious your a girl." I grinned. Her eyes lit up.

"Finally somebody sees," Haruhi said with a small laugh, "I've been called mister ever since I got here."

It probably had to do with the way she's dressed...

"Can I ask you something?" Haruhi asked quietly.

"Yeah, sure!" I smiled.

"Why are you being so nice to me? I'm a commoner...everyone else pretty much ignores me." She said, looking a little upset.

"Well, I guess I'm just not everyone else." I said with a wink. She smiled.

"Thank you."

Haruhi and I became friends really quickly, and we found out that we had a lot of the same classes together too. But Haruhi changed a lot in the last few weeks, not in the way she acted, but they way she looked.

Her hair was nice and straight, she got contacts, and a Ouran uniform replaced her old sweater. A boys uniform.

We were sitting in our last class of the day when the bell rang. I was going to ask Haruhi if she wanted to come over later but when I turned around she was already gone, and completely forgot her notebook on her desk. I picked it up and rushed into the hall, hoping I would be able to catch her, but there was no sign of her anywhere.

I walked over to a group of giggling girls that were standing nearby.

"Hey, have any of you seen Haruhi?" I asked.

"He's probably with the rest of the Host Club in Music Room three." One of them replied, and they all started giggling again.

"Thanks." I said quickly and walked away, searching for Music Room Three.

I finally reached a long hallway, she I saw someone standing at the end of if wearing a long black cloak with a hood covering their face.

"Um...hello?" I said. To be honest, I was a little freaked out.

"Hello..." Replied a female voice.

"Um," I started, shifting awkwardly, "can you tell me where the Host Club is?"

"Ahh...the Host Club," she replied in a creepy voice. "I'll tell you where it is, if you tell me your name..."

Who was this freak? Was she going to curse me or something?!

"Emi Tamura." I said quickly. The girl grabbed one side of the hood on her cloak and pulled it off revealing her short dark brown hair and brown eyes. She looked a lot like Haruhi. The girl smirked.

"I'm Ichigo Hayashi, and this is Belzeneff." She said, pulling out a cat puppet from underneath her cloak.

What the crap?!

"Well it's nice to meet you both, but I really need to get to the Host Club." I said, with some edge to my voice, but not a lot because I didn't want to upset her. I didn't want to get cursed or something. She smiled creepily.

"The Host Club is right behind you. I'm from the Black Magic Club, so if you ever want to join, it's right here." She said pointing at the doors behind her. "Well, have a nice day!" She said in a bright, cheery voice and skipped back into the dark room and closed the door.

Well that was odd...

I shook my head and grabbed both of the door handles on the door behind me and pulled them open. A bright light coming from the room flooded into the hallway and rose petals fluttered to the floor.

Great. More weird people.

I was still waiting for my eyes to adjust to the light when I heard a small familiar voice.

"Emi? Is that you?" The voice said. I was finally able to see the little blonde boy holding a stuffed pink bunny. He suddenly got a huge grin on his face. "It is! Look Takashi! Emi's back!"

I looked up to see Mori, Hunny's cousin.

"That's Emi Tamura?" I heard a taller blonde boy, who I recognized as Tamaki Suoh, ask a boy with black hair and glasses. I also saw twins with auburn hair, who looked awfully familiar too. And then I saw Haruhi, standing in the middle of all of them.

"Yes, I believe it is." Replied the boy with the glasses, who had to be the youngest Ootori son.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. Back up! How do you all know Emi?" Haruhi asked, confused. I was about to explain, but the Ootori boy stepped forward.

"The Tamura family is one of the richest French-Japanese families in the area, along-side Tamaki's family. I believe that's how they know each other. And then there's Hunny-Sempi, who is Emi's cousin."

"Yeah! And since all of our families are so close, Takashi is pretty much Emi's cousin too!" Hunny said, dancing around my legs.

I smiled but then noticed the two twin boys staring at me. They stepped forward, their eyes locked on mine. It was bugging me, not remembering where I knew these boys from.

"Do you want to play the 'Which One's Hikaru' game?" They asked in unison. Then I remembered.

It was back in elementary school when I first met them. They were sitting on a bench all by themselves as the snow fell.

"Who are they?" I asked another girl.

"That's Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin. But they don't like to play with anyone else." She replied, then went back to making snow angels.

I walked over to the two and introduced myself. They didn't even say hello.

"Do you want to play the 'Which One's Hikaru' game?" They asked in unison, "Don't feel bad if you get it wrong. No one has yet."

I was kind of surprised at first. I had never met these boys in my life, but I accepted the challenge anyway. I studied their faces for a little while then smiled.

"You're Hikaru," I said, pointing to the twin with his bangs parted on the left, "and you're Kaoru." I said, pointing to the one with his bangs parted to the right. They looked at me with shock. I smirked at them. "I'm right, aren't I?"

Since that day we were inseparable, until one day at the beginning of my second year in middle school.

I came home one day and my father was actually home waiting for me. He told me that my mother had been in a plane accident on her way back from France when she was visiting my grandma, and she didn't make it. He told me his job required him to go to France for a little while and I had to go with him.

I remember going to school to get my things out of my locker and Hikaru and Kaoru waiting with me until my ride came to pick me up.

"I'm coming back. I promise...I promise!" I told them, trying to hold back the tears.

It was a miracle that I was allowed to come back to Japan this year. My father and I had gotten into a lot of arguments about me coming back. I would ask every single holiday, and the answer was always no. Afterwards he would always tell me to go up and see my grandmother.

"Why? So she can just scream at me and tell me to get out?! She hates me." I would yell.

"She doesn't hate you...it's just-" my dad would start.

"It's because I look too much like Mom!" I would reply and burst into tears. "She can't stand to look at me without seeing her!"

And then it would all be over.

My father must have realized how much it was bothering me to stay here, so for my fourteenth birthday he let me move back into the Tamura Estate in Japan. Where I belonged. And now I'm back at Ouran, with the people I am meant to be with.

I snapped out of my daydream and studied the twins faces. They had changed a lot since the last time I saw them. But I had to make a decision.

"You're Hikaru," I said, pointing to the twin with his hair parted to the left, "and you're Kaoru." I said, pointing to the one with his hair parted on the right. A grin broke out on both of their faces. "I'm right, aren't I?" I smiled, reciting the exact same thing I said on the day I met them.

My focus then turned to the notebook I was holding in my hands.

"Oh! Haruhi! You left this on your desk." I said, handing it to her.

"Thanks! I completely forgot about it!" I smiled and gave her a nod.

"So, what is a Host Club anyway?" I asked curiously. Tamaki stepped forward and began to wave his arms everywhere.

"A playground for the incredibly rich and beautiful. A special place for us to entertain ladies who have way too much time on their hands." He replied with a wink.

Suddenly there was a loud moan that came from underneath a black lump that was on one of the couches.

"It looks like we have a visitor from the Black Magic Club." The Ootori boy said, pushing his glasses up with his index and middle finger.

"Nooo! Kyoya, Hikaru, Kaoru, get those freaks out of here!" Tamaki yelled jumping behind a table.

"No way," Hikaru began.

"We're not getting cursed." Kaoru finished.

I approached the black lump, and poked it.

"Ichigo? Is that you?" I asked, still poking it. The lump quivered and started laughing.

"Hahaha! Stop it! That tickles!" Ichigo said, sitting up.

"What are you doing in here?" Tamaki shouted, still behind the table.

"I don't know." She replied, while taking out a plate with a piece of cake on it and a fork from underneath her cloak.

She keeps cake and a fork in there?

"Oooh! Can I have some?" Hunny squealed. Ichigo nodded, her mouth full of cake and Hunny took some and put it in his mouth.

"How is it?" Tamaki asked warily, finally joining the rest of us.

"Really good! Who made this?" Hunny asked, cake crumbs falling out of his mouth.

"I did!" Ichigo exclaimed proudly.

"Tamaki, are you thinking what I'm thinking?" The Ootori boy, also known as Kyoya asked.

"That, that weird cat puppet is going to get stepped on?" He replied, pointing at the cat puppet, introduced to me as Belzeneff, who was lying on the floor by everyone's feet. Ichigo gasped, quickly swiping up the puppet and carefully placing him onto the couch next to her.

"Um no...I meant that instead of spending a lot of money to purchase sweets for the guests, we could just hire someone to make them for us." Kyoya said with a smirk. "Would you be up for that, Ichigo?"

"Yeah, as long as I get to eat some too." She replied, putting another fork-full of cake into her mouth.

"And we need someone to serve the food...Emi?" Kyoya said, turning his attention to me.

"Yeah, I don't know about that..."

"Come on, Emi! It will be fun!" Hunny said, swinging on my arms.

"Um...ok then." I agreed.

"Alright! From this day forward, you two are officially a part of the Host Club!" Tamaki exclaimed happily.

What did I just get myself into?

~Author's Note~

DreamingOfOceans (Kara): Thanks for reading this chapter! Please let us know what you thought about it! Also, Emi belongs to me and Ichigo belongs to XxIllogicalRazzlexX.

XxIllogicalRazzlexX (Haru): Thanks for reading!