What? Of course I'm not in love with some photophobic anime character. It's all lies, I tell you, lies.
SO ANYWAYS.
I always thought the relationship between Nekozawa and his servants - specifically Kuretake - was more loving than 'HEY YOU GO GET ME SOMETHING, KTHNX.' Kuretake seems to be too doting to have no real relationship with the Nekozawa siblings. Plus, I wanted to invent a half-assed reason why Nekozawa would have Beelzenef in the first place.
/all written while on Tylonel and a fever.
Disclaimer: Ouran High School Host Club is property of Bones and Bisco Hattori, definitely not me.
He was different from the other children.
Nekozawa had noticed this soon after he started attending elementary school. He'd always suspected that there was something peculiar about him - his precious little baby sister went outside and frolicked with other little babies and had a good time. He stayed inside and watched cartoons about arm slaves and played with cats. This hadn't really been a problem until Nekozawa understood that was more to the world than his home.
Ouran Elementary School was a part of that world, and he didn't know if he liked it. He couldn't go outside and play with the other children during lunch, and he had to do excursive inside while his classmates played soccer in the field. He felt more confined in this big, wide school than he did in his home. He just sat there and watched the other students giggle in the courtyard while he waited in his classroom for Kuretake to pick him up.
But - but why didn't it hurt the other schoolchildren to go into the sun? This baffled him.
"Kuretake-san," he asked one such day, absolutely refusing to vacate his seat while she stared at him stiffly with the usual 'what-the-hell-are-you-doing-NOW' face she got when he did various unreasonable things (such as when he refused to leave his bedroom for three days straight because he swore that the family dog was out to get him; they had to give the dog away to convince him to come out), "Why can everybody else go outside but I can't?"
"Because you're different, Nekozawa-san," Kuretake said in her 'well-that-wasn't-a-very-interesting-question' tone of voice. Her young charge was totally unfazed.
"Why? I wanna play with the other kids. They don't wanna be friends with a guy who can't even go outside."
Kuretake frowned.
"How about... we make a deal? If you'll come home with me, I'll make you something that'll help you make friends."
Haruhi stared blankly across the table at the upperclassman who apparently was trying to feed Beelzenef. After a few unsuccessful attempts (though he looked bizarrely proud of himself; she didn't even want to know what the strange boy was thinking), he resumed eating his meal. Tamaki was hiding behind his lunch tray, torn between asking Haruhi why on Earth she had invited Nekozawa to eat lunch with the Host Club and peeing in his pants.
"Nekozawa-senpai, why do you always carry that puppet around? Aren't you worried it will get broken at school, or that someone might hurt it?"
He looked up and gave her a look suggesting that she had asked if the world was flat.
"Of course not. Beelzenef helps me make friends."