Chapter 1
Opening the door, I found… Disney Princes.
Okay, this took the cake. Out of all the silly cosplays they had done, this was definitely the strangest and most unexpected (Who requested this?). Tamaki was dressed as Prince Charming, Kyouya as Prince Eric, Mori as Prince Ali and holding Hani who had never looked cuter in a monkey suit as Abu, and the twins were both dressed as Peter Pan.
In all honesty, Haruhi would have been less surprised had they all been dressed as princesses.
"Cutting it close again," drawled Hikaru and Kaoru from across the room. They slithered closer and silently inspected her.
"And how are your meetings with Nekozawa going?" Kyouya asked with mild curiosity. At that, all the hosts' gazes locked onto her. Only the twins were intentionally trying to buffet her with uncomfortably probing stares, but Haruhi did not notice them.
"Fine," she answered simply. Before they could question her further— like she knew they would— the girl turned and headed for the changing room. Her mind was on what her costume could possibly be rather than her persistent clubmates. However, Tamaki's whining was strong enough to recapture her attention.
"Nekozawa doesn't make you do anything… questionable, does he?"
Haruhi stopped and spun to face him. "Questionable? You mean like showing up at my house unannounced or dressing me up in silly costumes or trying to control my life?" At the last mention, Kyouya noticed she was pointing at him.
"What do you mean 'trying'?" the vice president quipped. Tamaki blubbered as Haruhi retreated into the changing room. She returned not too long after in a rich blue French dress coat and dark pants, and a ponytail wig.
After the hosts gushed about how cute she loked, Haruhi asked, "Who am I supposed to be?"
"The prince from Beauty and the Beast, of course!" Hani chirped.
"We'd be your Belle," chorused the twins with sly grins.
"Who?" Haruhi questioned. Without another word, they carted her off to a random couch to giver her the entire back-story of her character— which they assured her her clients would already know.
By the time their designators flocked in, Haruhi felt like she had seen the movie, but had not been able to dissuade the twins from bringing the actual movie in for her to watch.
She was not fond of musicals.
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The day proceeded routinely with Haruhi's designators until the last group, which included Sorimachi Kaho, one of Haruhi's longest clients.
"Haruhi-kun, the labyrinth was so much fun!" Kaho giggled with her face cupped in her hands. "After the Black Magic Club's show, I was kind of afraid of going in it, but you looked so handsome as a satyr!"
"You were a great guide!" another girl in the group added fervently.
All Haruhi could do was modestly laugh off the compliments before Kaho asked, "What will your next project be?"
The only thought running through Haruhi's mind then (since she clearly had no answer) was that she was experiencing an extreme case of déjà vu. But instead of Kyouya descending like a bird of prey, Tamaki appeared at the table in all his Charming-ness (sparkle vision included).
"Princesses," he royally purred, taking the hand of the swooning girl closest to him, "we are finally putting on the masquerade ball, for which we have received an outpouring of requests, and it shall be this academy's first ever school-wide dance!"
As Haruhi's designators squealed with delight, the host was trying to recall this "outpouring." All she could remember was two requests for a masquerade ball— one from Tamaki himself.
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"I really wish that you'd actually consult me before running off with your fool ideas," sighed a perturbed Kyouya as he flipped through previous notes in his ledger. The rest of the hosts were scattered on random nearby couches and back in their school uniforms.
"But Kyouya! We haven't had a dance in so long!" Tamaki pouted in his polished way.
"And what do you mean 'first school-wide'? At the last festival there was a dance for the whole student body."
"Yes, but it was in one place," the King replied, beaming. "For our ball, all of Ouran would be the dance floor!" Kyouya stared at him seriously and the other hosts could feel the building anger radiating from the vice president.
"You're a lunatic. Do you know the bills we'd have to pay for keeping the entire school running after hours?"
Tamaki planted the back of his hand on his forehead and gave a hopeless sigh. "Oh, Kyouya! You pain me! Any romantic would know that a well-lit ballroom is… well, unromantic. What we need are dim lights; candle lights!"
"That many candles covering this school would be a fire hazard," the Shadow King responded quickly.
The two continued to argue while the rest of the club continued to pay them no attention. Haruhi was sitting on her own couch trying her hardest to remember if the coupons for soba at the local grocery store had expired yet or not. If they hadn't, she was already planning what dinner she would make, and if they had, she had a couple of possible back-ups.
She was so engrossed in these important thoughts that she did not even notice a pair of redheads sneak up behind her and peer at her just over the couch back. By the time she finally spotted them, she nearly jumped.
"What are you guys doing?" Haruhi asked slowly as they just gazed at her with unreadable expressions.
"Inspecting," they mumbled in unison. The girl arched a brow.
"This has to do with Nekozawa, doesn't it?"
And then, to Haruhi's surprise, Hani came over (carried by Mori) and whined (in his most adorable way), "When are you going to stop seeing that scary person, Haru-chan?"
"Guys, you're making way too big a deal of this. Our arrangement's almost over, anyway."
"When?!" they all (excluding Mori, though he probably thought it) shouted. Haruhi looked at each of them strangely before replying.
"Sempai's next big test is at the end of next week, and if he scores high, I stop tutoring him."
"What if he purposely fails just to spend more time with you?" Hikaru nearly gasped at the sudden thought.
"No, that's something you guys would do," sighed the girl. The three vocal hosts fell silent at that because they could not argue with something completely true. In the stretch of silence that followed, Tamaki and Kyouya's continuing argument could once again be heard.
"But Kyoouyaa! Think of the customers! Your adoring designators! You wouldn't want to disappoint them, would you? Besides, I've already promised them…"
"We've been through this before. From now on, please consult me before coming up with these insane plans!"
"So… you're okay with the ball?" squeaked a most hopeful president, eyes large and expectant and gleaming. Kyouya pushed his glasses back in place.
"Considering how fast news travels in this school, no doubt everyone has already heard of your reckless promise, so we can't retract it now." Tamaki gave a delighted squeak and pounced on his friend, snuggling against his cheek. He did not even stop when Kyouya warned him to and ended up earning himself a hard whack upside the head from the ledger.
As Tamaki hunched over to sulk, the other hosts' attentions returned to Haruhi. They all (simultaneously) started, however, when they noticed her couch was empty.
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Nekozawa leisurely strolled down the halls of Ouran on his way to his waiting limo. He was in an unusually pleasant mood this evening because earlier he had sold two Bereznoff voodoo dolls to a student (a non-Black Magic Club member) who had an almost unhealthy amount of rage pent up. But still, money's money. And Bereznoff himself seemed to have an unbothered conscience, so Nekozawa soon let it slip his mind, as well.
As he started descending the stairs, he noticed someone on the landing below turning to walk down the last flight to the first floor. Someone Nekozawa recognized.
"Haruhi!" he immediately called and began racing down the stairs. She stopped and looked at the president flailing toward her.
"Oh, hello, sempai," the girl greeted cheerfully. "Is there something you need?" Haruhi talked like she was on duty in her own club, making Nekozawa shuffle almost uneasily at her politeness.
"I w-was… well…" he stuttered, and Bereznoff exasperatedly shook his head, clearly judging him.
"I just wanted to… ah… say thanks again for helping me with math and…" (he searched desperately for a reason to be talking to her) "…was wondering if… I could interest you in any special edition Bereznoff voodoo dolls. These new ones have curses lasting up to seven years!"
Haruhi smiled appeasingly. "That's thoughtful, sempai, but I'd have no use for them. And really, it's no trouble tutoring you. I just hope you do your best on that exam next week."
"Yes," a pair of voices drawled, "do your best and get back to doing your own work." The Hitachiin brothers glided down the stairs then, linked arms with Nekozawa, and bolted the rest of the way down, shouting their good-byes to Haruhi and wishing her a good weekend.
They put the indignant president down next to a sleek stretch limo, ignoring his threats of torture by demons and curses through four generations. After a quick tap to the back door, the window rolled halfway down to expose the top half of Hani's face. Even though the sun was low in the sky, he wore particularly dark sunglasses (and was sitting on a booster seat to be so high… something the twins hadn't figured out).
"Nekozawa, so good of you to visit," the little senior said crisply with no air of politeness.
"I'm not visiting… I've been kidnapped!" he cried, pointing to the redheaded, innocent-looking brothers.
"Then what a coincidence you've been kidnapped in our direction. It gives us a chance to… chat," continued Hani in a tone that would make even a yakuza cringe. "Here's how it works: I'm gonna talk and you're gonna listen. Is that easy enough to understand?"
Mori, sitting in the car too, turned his cousin's head to look at Nekozawa, for it was previously facing the closest light pole. And poor Hani, with his dark sunglasses, could see as much as he could with his eyes closed. Nekozawa, however, nodded as if the senior had been facing him the entire time.
"We're a little… concerned with how much time you're spending with our Haruhi and we just want to make sure your intentions aren't in any way dishonest or untrustworthy."
The twins leaned closer to the president and Kaoru added in a low voice, "We have our suspicions that you know our Haruhi's secret."
"S-secret?" repeated Nekozawa. That earned a scoff from Hani.
"Just own up to it, coward! You're as easy to read as that Suoh."
At Bereznoff's indignant cries for Nekozawa not to let them intimidate him, the president suddenly stood up straight, making the twins back off a step. He puffed himself up and announced, "She told me when I drove her home awhile ago."
Hikaru and Kaoru jumped, then looked as if they wanted to strangle Nekozawa, but instead pounded the sidewalk like toddlers throwing a tantrum. (Only Bereznoff noticed their antics and decided against showing anyone else.)
Hani, who remained composed, breathed a pitiless sigh. "That's… unfortunate. You see, only we hosts know of this, and now that you know, we're not so sure if we can trust you with such an important secret."
"I wouldn't tell," protested Nekozawa immediately. "Not even under the torture of demons!" One of Hani's eyebrows shot up at that.
"Would you be willing to put that to the test?"
The president jumped at that, all his fearful suspicions about the senior returning in full force, deflating Nekozawa's puffiness.
"Anyway, the point is this:" Hani continued monotonely, "we're watching you, and we're watching you carefully. Just one slip up and BAM!" He smacked his fist into the door at that and Nekozawa jumped again. "You'll be sorry. The Host Club will make sure of it." The window started rolling up but stopped before it had gotten far.
"Oh, and by the way, you had better pass that exam coming up and end this sorry excuse to be around Haruhi daily… or else!" With that, the window shot up, the twins hopped in and the car took off. Really, it only went a few hundred feet before slipping into a parking space between two other limos.
All four hosts stuck their heads out various curbside windows to watch Nekozawa's reaction. Hani, with big eyes, bashfully put a finger to his mouth.
"I hope he knows we're still friends," he sighed.
They watched as Nekozawa looked from the puppet to the front doors of Ouran and back again. …Was he consulting that poorly-made mitten? The twins rolled their eyes. But to everyone's slight disappointment, the president just finished his little conversation and found his own waiting vehicle. The four hosts silently, simultaneously ducked when Nekozawa drove by, but soon poked their heads up again.
"Uh… what are you guys doing?" asked a familiar voice.
There, not even two feet away from the car stood Haruhi, backpack on, embarking on the trek home. Her expression was unreadable; she in no way found their behavior strange. The girl just felt she should ask before they got themselves in any real trouble.
Kaoru and Hikaru wordlessly sank out of view and rolled up their shared window, leaving only the seniors visible, the smaller of which was grinning broadly.
"Haru-chan, Haru-chan! Are you excited for the ball? Who are you going to be dressed as?" Haruhi just arched a brow.
"Okay then. See you all Monday."
As she walked on, Hani leaned out the window to call, "Aren't you coming to the dance?"
"I was hoping to avoid it if I could," was her reply. The twins did not waste a second in jumping out of the car and catching up with her.
"You know, it wouldn't be as fun without you," Hikaru said.
"How could you tell I was there? We'd all be wearing masks," she said, shrugging, and walked on, leaving the two behind.
"She's going," Kaoru smiled almost darkly, his brother's expression identical.
"She's definitely going."
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Yep, the sequel! No clue where I'm going with this, but I'm going! LoL, no I have an idea. I'll have fun with this story, too.
