Chapter One

The Host Club Welcomes Reika Niigata!

It was early when the tall brunette girl wandered through the courtyard of Ouran Academy. She was the first student to arrive that morning. She roamed the hallways memorizing every twist and turn, every classroom and every room. When she made it to the office, she smiled brightly at the secretary.

"Hello, I'm Reika Niigata. I'm new to Ouran Academy." she said bowing slightly to the woman behind the desk. "Where would I be able to find my class schedule?"

The woman smiled in return. Though it wasn't her job, she replied, "Wait just a moment, I will grab it for you."

Reika watched as the large hallways of Ouran Academy slowly fill with students. Friends laughed with one another, and she felt a bit of jealousy of how people could be so comfortable with one another.

"Here it is." the woman returned, smile still on her face as she handed Reika her schedule on the nicely printed paper.

"Thank you." Reika replied, bowing slightly once again. She scanned her paper and looked around the school with a deliberate look of astray. "This is quite a big school." she said, trying to make her point more direct.

"Yes." the woman said. "I hope you don't mind, but in your file I saw that you have been privately tutored all your life."

"That's right." Reika responded. "I thought I should give school a try, maybe make some friends…"

In that moment, three laughing girls passed in front of the office and the secretary called for their attention. "Girls, would you come here a minute?" the woman asked.

"What can we help you with Sasaki-san?" the three girls answered in union. Which Reika found slightly weird.

As they approached, Reika got a better look at them. Two of the girls were shorter than her, one had black hair and the other was a brunette. The girl in the middle, the tallest and the same height as Reika had brown hair, and looked as if she was the leader.

"Girls, this is Reika Niigata. She is new to Ouran Academy, would you please show her around?" the secretary, Miss Sasaki, asked politely.

The girls faces suddenly transformed into delight and excitement, again, in union. Reika raised as slight eyebrow at that, but quickly changed it to an imitation of relief and happiness. That was soon replaced with shock as the three girls pulled her into their group while throwing suggestions as to what they could do.

"This is going to be so much fun, we can be best friends now." the short brunette said.

"We can hang out all the time." said the tall one.

"Oh, we can take her to the Host Club with us. They love having new guest!" gushed the third one.

"Oh, yes. This is going to be so much fun!" the short brunette said as thy carried her away.

It wasn't until they had made halfway to their class they realized they had forgotten a very important thing.

"Oh my gosh, girls! We forgot to introduce ourselves." the tall one said with gasp. The others followed suit in their reactions.

"How could we have forgotten?" the one with black hair said. They uncrowded Reika and stood in a line in front of her.

"I'm Princess Minori Shiga." the tall one said.

"I'm Nanami Ito." said the one with black hair.

"And my name is Izumi Maede." said the short brunette.

"It's a pleasure to met you." they said in union.

Reika put on a smile, despite her still weirded-out feeling over their shared emotions and actions, she replied with sincerity. "It's a pleasure to met you all."

They smiled back at her. "Let me see your schedule." Princess Shiga said reaching for the paper the secretary had given Reika, which she gladly gave.

The other two looked at the piece of paper from behind the Princess' back. The three girls sighed mournfully in union.

"What's wrong?" Reika asked.

"You're not in the same class as us." Ito said.

Reika looked down with a sad look, though secretly she was actually relieved. "That's too bad." she said.

"Not to worry!" Meade said, with a look of triumph. "We will all hang out after classes, at the Host Club."

"Oh Rei-chan, you are going to love it." Ito said sighing hanker. "Just love it!"

Reika was only slightly surprised that she had meet these girls not five minutes ago and they already called her as if they had known each other for ages.

"What is the Host Club?" Reika asked as they walked down the hallway towards her class.

"It's just the most amazing thing ever!" Princess Shiga said. "But I won't give it away, we want it to be a surprise."

"Oh, a surprise!" Ito said. "That's a wonderful idea."

They stopped walking in front of a classroom door, which Reika assumed was her class. "Here we are." Maede said opening the door for Reika.

"Thank you." Reika said going in, not expecting the rest of the girls to follow.

There were a few students in the room already, even though the bell had yet to ring. Though Reika couldn't see it, her new friends were paralyzed in shock with their mouths opened at the sight of two particular students in the room.

Reika turned around to check the clock and found the frozen state of her friends. "Are you guys okay?" she asked.

They simultaneously pointed at the blond boy and the dark haired one with glasses at in the middle row.

"What about them?" Reika asked. Yes, they are attractive. But this seems to be about something else. Reika thought to herself.

"They are in the Host Club." Ito said, blushing. At her words, the two boys looked towards them. The blonde one smiled while the other kept an indifferent face as they stood up and went to greet the four girls.

"Princess Monori. Nanami. Izumi." the blond one greeted each girl with a kiss on the back of their hands. "And who might you be? I don't think I could ever forget a girl as lovely as you." he flirted with Reika as he took her hand and followed suit to his previous activities with the other girls.

"Um, hi. I'm Reika Niigata…" Reika said, unsure what to do. She wasn't usually around boys. "I'm new to Ouran."

"That must be it." the blond boy said. "Well, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Tamaki Suoh." he said.

"Nice to meet you." Reika said.

"The pleasure is all mine, beautiful flower." he said smoothly. The girls behind Reika blushed and sighed, while Reika simply blushed slightly and looked down.

She wasn't entirely used to boys paying attention to her in flirtatious manner. She needed a distraction from her pink cheeks, she looked to the boy behind Tamaki. He was scribbling notes on a clipboard.

"And you are?" she asked, looking at him.

The boy raised his eyes from his work and smiled. "I'm Kyoya Ootori, a pleasure to meet you Reika Niigata." he said, testing her name. It was familiar to him, but he couldn't quite remember where from. He decided to jot it down on his clipboard and look it up later. "I hope you came join in the Host Club after school."

"Oh, we will!" Ito blurted before Reika could respond.

"We look forward to seeing you then." Tamaki said just as the bell rang. "You girls better go, I would hate to make you late for class."

The three girls sighed smiling and blushing as they complied to his request. "He's so dreamy!" one of them said outside the classroom.

"Bye, Rei-chan." they called as they passed through the door. "See you at lunch."

"Bye." she said. Reika stood still while trying to decide on a good seat. She lost herself in thought until Kyoya look up from his clipboard again and noticed her.

"Aren't you going to class, Niigata?" he asked her.

It took a second a second for his words to reach her. "Hum? Oh, I'm already in class." she said absent minded, deciding on the desk on the third row.

Kyoya looked at her as she sat down. Interesting. He said to himself as he got back to seat and continued to write on his clipboard.

The end of school couldn't come fast enough for Princess Minori, Nanami, and Izumi. After the last bell rang they hurried to Reika's class and waited for her.

"Are you ready?" they said together with excited smiles.

"Yes." Reika replied, also smiling.

They walked together until they came upon Music Room #3. "You're going to love this!" Princess Shiga said as Ito and Maede opened the double doors. The doors opened to a large room set up with tables, chairs, and couches. The room was decorated with roses, and the tables set up with tea and pastries.

"Welcome." said the seven boys in the center of the room.

It took a minute for Reika to take them all in. She recognized Tamaki and Kyoya, of course. The other five members were all different, yet they seemed to fit together well. There were two red haired boys that looked alike. The tall, dark, and bruiting guy with a small and adorable little blond boy on his side. And there was a short boy with brown hair, that had very feminine features and seemed very familiar to her. She would have to take a closer look at that later.

"Isn't it wonderful?" Maede said with a sigh as she was lead away, following Ito to a table with the tall and dark boy that was sitting with the adorable little blond boy.

"Yes…" Reika said, though she was very confused. Princess Shiga noticed, and gave her a reassuring look.

"I'm sure that Kyoya can explain things to you." she said before she was whisked away by Tamaki.

Reika took the opportunity of the absence of her friends to look around the room again. The room was filled with girls wearing the yellow Ouran Academy uniforms. They were wooing and awing the seven boys. Well, six. She noticed Kyoya was writing things down on his clipboard in a corner of the crowded room.

What was he always writing anyway? Reika wondered. Before she realized, she was was walking towards him. He looked up as she approached. "Hello, Ootori." she said to him.

"Hello, Niigata. And welcome to the Host Club." he said smiling.

She smiled back. "What is the Host Club?" she asked.

Kyoya was slightly taken aback, internally, of course. Most girls explained to each other what the Host Club was, or they just went along with it until they understood.

"I'm glad you asked." he said, his smiled widened as he jumped into Tamaki's explanation of the Host Club. "The Ouran Host Club is where the school's handsomest boys with too much time in their hands entertain young ladies who also have way too much time in their hands, just think of it as the Ouran Academy's elegant playground for the super-rich and beautiful."

"Okay…" Reika said, looking a bit weirded-out. She had not known Kyoya for long, but those did not sound like his words as he spoke.

"And please, call me Kyoya." he said.

"Alright, Kyoya." Reika said smiling. "You can call me Reika." she said then paused. "How does the Host Club work?" she asked, genuinely curious.

"It's simple," he said. "First we need to find out what your type is."

"My type?" she asked.

"Yes, every girl has a type of boy she likes." he said. "And the Ouran Host Club has many options to choose from."

"What do you have?" she asked, trying to guess what type each the boys were.

Kyoya pointed at Tamaki. "We have the-"

"Let me guess," Reika interrupted. "The prince charming type?"

"As a matter of fact, yes. Tamaki is the princely kind." he said, fixing his glasses. She nodded for him to continue. He pointed at the twins who were gazing into each other's eyes as the girls swooned.

"Overbearing-near-twincest-brotherly-love type?" she wondered, not entirely sure what to make of it.

"Hikaru and Kaoru are brotherly love, yes. But also devilish." he said.

He pointed at the blond little boy.

"The cute, and innocent type?" she asked.

"Boy lolita, is Honey's prefered title." he said.

"Okay, and the tall guy-"

"Mori."

"Mori," she corrected. "Is the silent and bruiting type."

"Basically, yes." he shrugged. He pointed to the familiar brunette.

"Him, I'm not sure." she admitted, not wanting to offend anyone with her assumptions.

"That's Haruhi, he is the normal type." he said.

She gave him a puzzled look, but nodded. "And what type are you." she asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I take care of the club." he said.

"So you're the president?"

"The vice president," he corrected her. "Tamaki is the president."

"What are you, then? Besides the vice president, I mean." she asked.

"The Cool type." he said, he fixed his glasses in an elegant manner so his glasses reflected the light, trying to prove his point.

"Okay, 'cool' guy," Reika teased. "Where do you suggest I start, since I have no idea what my type is."

He looked down at the girl next to him, she was quite tall compared to most girls, he noted. He also wondered how a girl didn't know what type of guy she was attracted to, though it wasn't his place to question it.

"Start with Tamaki, he is our biggest pleaser." he suggested.

"Alright, I will." she said walking away, not quite leaving until she looked back. "Thank you, Kyoya."

Kyoya watched her walk way and into the sitting area where Tamaki was entertaining his guests. There is something about her. He said to himself. It was unsettling to him. He decided it was good time to go check her files.

Reika had spent about ten minutes with Tamaki, before deciding he wasn't really her type. He was very charming, but not much else, at least nothing that he was showing. She drank some tea with Honey and Mori, though she had to admit that Honey was adorable and Mori was very sweet, she just couldn't hang around that much sweetness before it gave her emotional cavities. The twins were a little too much...some girl seemed to love their love though, and she couldn't see what Kyoya meant by the twins being devilish.

Now she was sitting with Haruhi, sipping tea and listening to the story of how he lost and overcame the loss of his mother. It was entirely touching. It was getting to the end of the Host Club and the boys were ushering the girls out. It was then when Reika's curiosity took the wheel on her actions.

She had spent rather a lot of time with Haruhi and she couldn't help but notice how feminine 'he' was and that brought back the familiar feeling and she knew just where she had seen Haruhi before. She just had to ask.

"Haruhi," she said to him. "I don't want this to sound like I'm judging you, but how did a cross-dresser end up in the Host Club?"

Reika, being the last girl there, was heard by all the Host Club members. "Cross-dresser, cross-dresser, cross-dresser" the words echoed in the room and in the members heads as they all went pale.

Something, indeed. Kyoya said to himself, intrigued.

"What? Haruhi, a girl? No." Tamaki came in trying to save the situation, and failing miserably. "What makes you say that?"

"Yeah, there's no one more manly than Haruhi." one of the twins said and the other agreed.

"Of course Haru-chan isn't a girl." Honey said. "He's wearing boy's clothing."

"That doesn't mean anything, lots of people cross-dress." Reika said shrugging. "I don't mean to cause you any trouble. I personally don't care if you're a boy or a girl, Haruhi. You seem like a really good person."

"Then why did you ask?" Haruhi asked.

"I was merely curious, and well, you're face is very feminine for a boy." Reika said. "The way you act is very girl-like."

"That doesn't mean anything!" Tamaki interjected.

"Not to mention, you're school file says you're a girl." Reika continued, the boys looked at her in shock with wide eyes and gaping mouths. "I barely recognized you with short hair, but in the files it said you're a girl."

"Are you like Kyoya?!" Tamaki asked with a scared tone, the idea of a female Kyoya on his mind. "Do you have a file on everyone in this school?!"

"What?! No." Reika said taken aback, and looking at Kyoya for a minute. "This is the first school I've gone to, I was nervous. So I thought that looking at pictures of people in this school was a good idea. You know, try to find some friendly faces. You just happened to one of the few I looked at." she said looking down, embarrassed.

"You've never been to a school before?" one of the twins asked while the other asked, "How is that possible?"

"No," Reika said, still looking down. "I've been homeschooled all of my life."

"Well," Haruhi said. "I am girl."

"Haruhi!" Tamaki screamed. "Why would you tell her that? We were fooling her!"

"No, you weren't." Reika and Haruhi said at the same time. They looked at each other and laughed in amazement.

"You said you need friends?" Haruhi asked Reika, who nodded. "I'll be your friend."

"Really?" Reika asked.

"Yeah." Haruhi said. "It's not everyday a girl realizes that I'm not a boy."

"Girls see what they want to see." Reika said.

"That's true." Haruhi said laughing. The girls went off talking while the boys looked at each other.

"What do we do now?" Honey asked the others. "She knows Haru-chan's secret."

"She looks like she can keep a secret." Kaoru said thoughfully.

"She's pretty too." Hikaru agreed with brother.

"And if she can't?" Mori asked.

"Don't worry, she will." Kyoya said amused as he watched her.

"How do you know?" Kaoru asked curiously.

Kyoya smiled slyly. "Reika," he called her attention. "How would you like to join the Host Club?"

"What?" was the word that was echoed by each Host Club member, and Mori, who just said "Hm?"

"What are you thinking, Mommy?" Tamaki, who was previously watching Reika and Haruhi intently, asked frantically while shaking his friend.

"Mommy?" Reika asked Haruhi with a confused look as she overheard, Haruhi just shrugged.

"Why are you asking her to join?" Tamaki asked Kyoya. "We already have one girl dressed as a boy."

"I'm not asking her to join the Host Club as a member, more like a manager-"

From the floor of Music Room #3 a girl emerged. "Did someone say manager?" the girl said. "I'm your manager!" she said angrily.

"Who's that?" Reika asked, frankly, a little scared.

"That's our 'manager', Renge." Hikaru said with an annoyed look.

"Calm down, Renge." Kyoya said with a calm tone. "I wasn't thinking of replacing you."

"Then what did you mean by manager?" she asked him.

"Reika would do what I do. She has already shown us she has a good memory, not to mention, she's resourceful. And, frankly, I could use the help. She would be my assistant." Kyoya said.

"Oh, okay." Renge said, but she was still gave Reika a dirty look when she saw Reika with Haruhi. "And don't you dare steal Haruhi from me!" she yelled as she disappeared from the same way she came.

"Doesn't she know you're a girl?" Reika asked Haruhi.

"Nope." Haruhi answered. "Actually, I think she has a crush on me." she said laughing.

In the other side of the room, the boys were having a very different conversation.

"What's the real reason you want Reika to stay?" Kaoru asked Kyoya.

"Could it be that Kyoya-senpai has a crush on a girl?" his brother teased.

"Don't be absurd." Kyoya said with his indifferent look, and fixing his glasses. "I'm simply curious."

"About what, Kyo-chan?" Honey asked.

"She doesn't have a file." he said simply, looking at the girl beside Haruhi.

"You put our club in danger because she doesn't have a file, so you can snoop on her?!" Tamaki asked his friend, while shaking him again.

"That's a little stalker-ish." Hikaru said to his brother who agreed.

"I thought you might be happy." Kyoya said in his always calm tone trying to persuade his impressionistic friend. "Didn't you want Haruhi to have a girl to bound with, one that won't want to date her?"

Tamaki let go of Kyoya, as he slowly agreed. "Nicely played, mommy. Nicely played." he said backing away slowly. He walked away to the side where the girls were talking.

"...and that's why I joined the Host Club." Haruhi finished her story, she and Reika were laughing.

"I guess, as the president, I should officially welcome you to the Ouran Host Club." Tamaki said to Reika, smiling.

"Wait, she hasn't said yes yet." Hikaru said.

"That's right." his brother agreed.

They all turned to look at her. "So what do you say, Reika? Do you want to join the Ouran Host Club?" Tamaki said holding out his hand to her, the members all lining up behind him.

"I would love to." she said, taking his hand.

While the boys and Haruhi cheered, Kyoya looked at Reika. There is definitely something about her. He thought, his eyes narrowing towards her.