A/N: Hey guys! The entire story's being reconstructed so it won't be too draggy for you to read. Thanks so much to those who've read, reviewed, and supported this fic so many times! Many thanks especially, to those who voted (at the beginning) for the pairings. :D

I don't own Ouran, Bisco Hatori does. I only own my stories and the OC's in them.

'word' - thoughts

"word"- words spoken

"word"- twins talking in unison.


Chapter One: And So It Begins


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"Nnnhhh..."

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A hand reached out.

vrrrrt. . .

vrr -click-

The hand withdrew back underneath the covers of a futon, and its owner yawned sleepily.

-sigh-

A figure lazily sat up and glanced over to the cellphone on his side. Big, black numbers and a picture of a bell flashed at him, reading:

7: 20 am

"This can't be right." he mumbled, rubbing the sleep from his eyes. He then picked the phone up and read the time once more, making sure that he wasn't misreading the numbers.

He wasn't.

And reality sunk in.

'Shimatta.'

Cursing, he then jumped onto his feet and ran out of the room.

xoxoxoxoxo

xoxoxoxoxo

-Ouran Academy, 7:22 am-

A blonde, second year student worriedly paced back and forth in front of the third music room.

"Where are they!?" he wondered impatiently, looking down at his watch. "The bell's going to ring in a few minutes!"

He was pretty sure that he had announced an emergency meeting at that particular time of the day, but no one had showed up. Yet.

The sounds of footsteps walking over the plush, red, carpeted, marble floor caught his attention, and he swiveled around gracefully to meet the newcomer.

"I had a feeling you would be here." the newcomer said impassively, pushing his glasses upwards. "Honestly, Tamaki, why are you even expecting the others to come here so early in the morning for an emergency meeting, when you just texted them an hour ago?"

"An hour's a long time to get here." the blonde defended. "Besides, you came, Kyouya."

The dark-haired boy gave him a look, and Tamaki grinned.

"Let's go, baka. No one's going to come at this time." Kyouya sighed, turning around to walk away. "The bell's going to ring soon and I'm not going to make either of us be late."

"Hai, hai." Tamaki smiled, running alongside his friend. "I guess the meeting can wait until after school. But, let's pass by Haruhi's classroom first, please?"

Kyouya's brow raised. "What for?"

"I got another snack prize from the Micca's house series. I figured that she might want to have it." he smiled. [1]

"Very well." the shadow king sighed one more. 'Though I don't think she will.'

~.~.~

And so. . .

"Haruhi!" Tamaki cried out happily, waltzing into the class of 1-A and over to the brown-haired girl.

Haruhi looked up from the book she was reading and cringed inwardly at the sight of the two second years making their way towards her. Kyouya greeted some of her classmates with his 'with merits' smile, while the blonde just grinned at her before placing something tiny on her desk. She looked down at it.

"Anou, sempai, what is this?" she asked, picking the small figure up. It was a tiny kettle.

"It's another one from the Micca's house series. I thought you might want it, so I'm giving it to you!" he grinned.

"A-ah." she sweatdropped. 'There were four of these in the collection he gave me. . '

"Also," he continued, "When club hours are over later, I'll be announcing something important so you'll have to stay here for a few more minute, alright?"

"Okay, you gave it. Let's go." Kyouya said, walking out of the room.

"Yep." the blonde replied, looking up at him. "See you later, Haruhi!"

He waved at her before leaving the room, and she glanced back down at the kettle on her palm.

"Ne, ne, Haruhi-kun. What did Tamaki-sempai give you?" some of her classmates asked, flames of moe burning in their eyes.

"It was a ring, wasn't it? Something that small should've been a ring!" one of them squeeled.

The host sighed as they all screamed, and she tucked the tiny kettle into her pocket. 'I wonder if the meeting'll take long. There's a sale on seafood today at the supermarket and I really don't want to miss that...'

xoxoxoxoxo

xoxoxoxoxo

Outside the school grounds. . .

A long, black limousine sped up the road, trying to make it to the school gates on time.

"Damnit Hikaru!" a voice cried out with a hint of annoyance. "I told you to set your alarm ten minutes earlier!"

"Kaoru, I've told you twice and I'll tell you again, I did! I must've just snoozed it when it rang." a similar voice cried out in reply. "And anyway, it's not like we've got anything to worry about; Takamichi-sensei's always late for first period."

"That's not my point." Kaoru muttered, crossing his arms with a pout on his face. "I had to give Hunny-sempai something important."

"Something important?" Hikaru asked, curious. "What is it?"

The younger boy reached into his bag and pulled out a small, white collar with a thin, red ribbon tied onto it's center; something meant for dolls' wear. "He called last night and told me that he just realized how naked Usa-chan was, and he asked me to make something for the poor bunny."

Hikaru stared at it for a few seconds before bursting out into fits of laughter. Kaoru chuckled at the sudden reaction and placed the collar back into his bag.

"Hunny-sempai is too cute." the former said, calming down.

They grinned at each other for a second when the limo suddenly screeched out loud and swerved to the side. A few bumps were heard going across the roof and their car swerved once more, hurling the twins off their seats. Their driver stopped the car.

"Oy! What the HELL just happened!?" Hikaru questioned, hugging Kaoru close protectively. Both their eyes were wide in shock at the sudden event.

"Gomenasai, Hitachiin-sama!" their driver apologized before quickly getting out of the car and running to its back. They soon realized what he was doing and quickly rushed out of their limo as well, hoping that the bumps they heard weren't what they thought they were. However, laying on the ground a few feet away from their limo was a boy groaning in pain. A black and silver bicycle lay tangled at his feet, and the strap of his black messenger bag had scraped his cheek.

Kaoru quickly rushed to the his side to help him up, followed by Hikaru, who picked up the bicycle.

"We are so sorry!" the younger Hitachiin apologized, bowing to the boy. "Our driver didn't see you. Are you alright?" he asked.

"Y-yeah, I think so." came the reply. "Thanks."

"Oy! What the hell were you doing? He could've been killed!" Hikaru yelled angrily at the driver, who was bowing down profusely. "You should've payed attention to where you were going!"

"A-ah! No, wait! It's not his fault!" the boy said, standing up. "It was my mistake to suddenly make a turn without checking for cars passing by. I was rushing, you see, so your driver was naturally taken by surprise when I turned. . so. . sorry." he trailed off, wincing at the stinging pain from the scrape on his cheek.

The twins eyed him in confusion, and Hikaru backed away from the bowing man. "Are you a student of Ouran Academy?" he asked, eyeing the school tie the boy was wearing. Kaoru saw the familiar blue blazer's sleeve hanging out from the boy's messenger bag, and brought it out. "A high school student? Are you in our batch?" "We've never seen you before."

"I-Im a new student." he replied, sweatdropping. "The letter said that I start school this semester and I was rushing late so. . "

"Letter?" Kaoru interrupted, handing him the blazer. "You're here on scholarship?"

"Well, I suppose it's obvious without asking too." Hikaru whispered to him, looking at the bicycle.

"Good point. Ouran students usually don't go to school on those things, do they?" he whispered back.

The boy blinked at them innocently, confirming his status.

"Ah. Well, since you're this semester's scholar, then you don't have to rush."

"E-eh?"

"Judging from your looks, you're probably in your first year of high school as well, right?" Hikaru asked, scanning the boy's frame up and down. The boy blushed lightly at the older Hitachiin's intrusive gaze (but it went by unnoticed) and nodded.

"Then you're most probably going to be in our class." Kaoru said, also scanning him. "Our teacher's always late so you don't have to waste your breath trying to get to school on time."

"Look who's talking." Hikaru muttered, earning a light poke on the ribs by the younger twin.

"O-oh. Really?" The boy asked, looking down embarrassedly. "T-that's good, I guess."

The twins exchanged glances and nodded before reaching out to grab the boy's arms. He yelped and began to struggle when they pulled him towards their limousine where their driver was securing his bike onto. "What the- What are you two doing?!" he questioned, wincing when they pushed him into the vehicle.

"We're giving you a ride, what else?" Kaoru shrugged, moving to sit on the empty spot next to him.

"Think of it as an apology for crashing onto your bicycle." Hikaru said non-chalantly, sitting next to his brother and closing the door.

"But it was my fault. . and I don't want to trouble you-"

"Who's troubling who here? The school's just around the corner anyway so don't worry about it."

The boy back up against the window and gulped before bowing his head. "T-thank you very much then." he bowed nervously.

They grinned deviously and leaned against each other, still looking at the poor boy with some interest.

"So, what's your name, commoner?" Hikaru asked, with no ill-intentions at all.

The boy was slightly taken aback at the bluntness of the older Hitachiin, but shrugged it off and smiled politely. "My name's Shukatchi Kai. It's nice to meet you two." he bowed again.

"Kai-kun it is then."

"O-okay." he sweatdropped.

"Well, since we're going to be classmates, we might as well introduce ourselves too." Kaoru smiled. "I'm Hitachiin Kaoru."

"And I'm Hitachiin Hikaru." Hikaru finished. "Nice to meet you, Kai-kun."

"Hitachiin?" the boy asked, raising a brow. "As in Hitachiin Yuzuha's family name 'Hitachiin'?"

"Oh? Kai-kun knows okaasan." -Hikaru

"Okaasan's famous over commoners like Kai-kun." -Kaoru

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, nothing."

"So anyway," Kaoru grinned, leaning back against his brother affectionately.

"How would you like to play a game?" Hikaru asked, wrapping an arm loosely on his twin's waist.

The boy ignored their intimate actions towards each other and raised a brow. "What game?"

They smirked at each other and leaned forward until their faces were only mere inches away from his. "The 'Which on is Hikaru-kun game'."

A question mark appeared over his head and he sent them a confused look.

"The rules are simple, really." Hikaru grinned, pulling a green cap out from nowhere.

"All you have to do is to guess which one of us is Hikaru." Kaoru explained, also putting on a similar cap. "If you guess wrong, you'll have to be our slave for the week."

"W-what?!" Kai exclaimed, backing away from their devilish grins.

"We're starting now!" They smiled cheerfully.

How they managed to switch positions in the cramped up limousine, Kai would never know. One thing for sure was that the twins had managed to confuse him with their movements to the extent that his head became slightly dizzy.

"So~ Kai-kun!" One of the twins grinned, lowering his cap. "Which on of us is Hikaru,"

"And which one of us is Kaoru?" the other asked, also lowering his cap.

The boy stared at them for a few seconds, and another question mark appeared over his head.

"That's it?" he asked, pointing at the twin on the left. "This one's Kaoru-san, and this one's Hikaru-san."

They blinked back at him, surprised. "Wrong!" they exclaimed, laughing. "Looks like you're going to be our slave for your first week at Ouran, Kai-kun!"

"Eh? But I guess correctly, didn'I?" he asked, tilting his head in a confused manner. "You can't possibly be Hikaru-san. You're voice is different."

They both paused and stared at him. "We have the same voices."

"Okay, fine." he huffed, trying to think of a good way of explaining himself. "I don't know,. . your vibes are just different. But, I'm pretty sure that Hikaru-san's the one on my right."

"Vibes, eh?" They removed their caps in silence and sat back down, still keeping their gazes at him.

"S-sorry. Am I wrong?"

"Hitachiin-samas, Shukatchi-san, we have arrived." the driver suddenly announced, interrupting them.

"A-ah. Alright." Hikaru smiled, turning around to open the door. "Well then, we'll see you upstairs, Kai-kun!" he waved, getting out of the limo.

-warning bell rings; classes are officially starting and the twins are still outside!-

"Shimatta. Okay, we'll have to go on ahead. Just go straight into that building and make a left." Kaoru instructed, also getting out. "The first room that you'll see is the admissions office, they'll give you everything you need."

"O-okay. Thanks, Kaoru-san." Kai bowed, watching the two of them go. 'So. . am I still their slave for the week?' he wondered.

"I'm impressed that you guessed correctly, Kai-kun." The driver said, interruptng his thoughts and setting the bicycle in front of him. "It's just your first time meeting them and you've managed to figure them out already." he smiled. Kai's eyes widened when the man began to remove his cap, and the thick beard around his face, and the fake mustache above his lips.

"Y-you're-" he gasped.

The man's smile broadened.

"B-but- you're the husband of Hitachiin Yuzuha, right? I've seen your picture with her on television before!" he gasped once more. "Y-you're the father of Hikaru-san and Kaoru-san!"

"My name's Hitachiin Hiro, just call me Hiro-san; and yes, I'm those two's father.[2]" he said, with an amused expression on his face. Kai then began to bow down multiple times, apologizing for the earlier events of that morning and he chuckled.

"Err. . I may not be in the position to ask, but, why were you disguised as their driver?" the boy suddenly asked, looking up at him.

"Well," Hiro smiled. "Isn't it my job to take my children to their school on their first days of classes?"

"I suppose it is. . " Kai smiled. "But still, you can just send them to school without the disguise, right?"

The man chuckled again and ruffled the boy's short hair playfully. "You should get going now. You're late enough as it is." he grinned, not answering the question. "I'll park your bicycle under that tree over there for you."

Kai 'oh!'-ed and bowed down gratefully before running off towards the building while Hiro watched her run off.

He smiled. "That girl. . what in the world is she doing?"

xoxoxoxoxo

xoxoxoxoxo

-Classroom 1-A-

Haruhi impassively stared at the two panting twins sitting beside her.

"We. . we made it" Kaoru gasped tiredly. Hikaru was panting too hard that he couldn't reply, so he just nodded.

"Anou. . are you two alright?" she asked, raising a brow. "You guys arrived later that usual today. You should be thankful that Takamichi-sensei isn't here yet."

"We're fine- " the younger Hitachiin breathed in deeply. "We just had a very interesting morning, that's all."

Her brow raised higher.

"When we were still on our way here a while ago," Hikaru started, recollecting himself. "Our driver accidentally crashed onto this guy riding on a bicycle."

"So we went out of our car to help him out only to find out that he was also a student here at Ouran." Kaoru continued.

"Your driver crashed into one of the students?" Haruhi questioned, shocked. Their classmates fell into silence as they turned to stare at her and she waved it off saying it was a dare. Hikaru snickered, but stopped when she glared at him.

"Well, he wasn't injured." the younger twin shrugged. "The only thing he recieved from the collision was a scrape on his cheek. Anyway, we gave him a ride to school after finding out that he was a student here, and to entertain him, we played the 'which one is Hikaru-kun game?'"

". . . "

"It was a surprise though." Hikaru said softly, raising his head and leaning against Kaoru's table. "He got it right on the first try."

"H-he did?!" she exclaimed, eyes widening.

"Yeah." they nodded.

"And even though we told him he was wrong, he said that he was pretty sure he got the answer right." Kaoru said, leaning his head on his brother's arm. "Something about us having different vibes or auras or something along those lines. . "

"It took us by surprise, either way."

"I wonder what he meant though."

"But for a complete stranger to have guessed correctly. . " she trailed off and smiled. "I want to meet him."

Hikaru's ears perked up and he stood up, frowning slightly. "S-seriously?"

"Nope." she giggled, causing him to blush in embarrassment. "Anyway, how did he look like?"

"He's short." they stated, no hesitation whatsoever.

"Short for a guy anyway. He's probably a few inches taller than you, but still, he's short." the older shrugged.

Haruhi, slightly annoyed at being implied to be short, sat back down at her seat but kept her gaze at them. "What else?"

"Nothing too striking, I guess." Kaoru sighed, sitting sideways to face her. "Short, black hair, kind of neat and messy at the same time; long lashes; brown eyes; pale complexion. . the usual, commoner guy look."

"He sort of reminded me of a girl though." Hikaru muttered, scratching his head. "Oh, and he's also like you, Haru-chan. He's here on sholarship."

"Really?" she asked. "So he's going to be in our class then, right?"

"Most likely."

The doors of the classroom suddenly slammed open and a tall, blonde, quirky-looking, middle-aged man entered the room. The students then grinned and returned to their seats, looking at the man with knowing smiles.

"Oy, oy, don't give me that look." he grinned back, setting his things down on the table. "I'm only five minutes late, after all."

"It's a new record! Hooray for Takamichi-sensei!" someone cheered out loud, causing everyone in the room to laugh.

"Thank you." the man chuckled, waving his hands to quiet them down. "Let's get on now, shall we? Iincho?"

The class rep stood up straight and began to lead the class with the morning greetings. Takamichi smiled when they finished and let them take their seats before raising a hand to signal silence. "Alright, so, how was your summer?" he asked cheerfully, receiving multiple, eager answers in return. They laughed once more when he accidentally pushed his books off the table, and the students in the front row of the classroom stood to help him pick them up.

"Thank you, again." he grinned, scratching the tip of his nose. He then raised his hand up once more to quiet the class down, and leaned back against the chalkboard. "So, I assume that you all had a good summer?"

"Yes!" came the chorused reply.

"I see, I see. That's great to hear." he laughed. "But as you all can see, we're back in school for a new semester. Aww." They all joined him playfully.

"But, calm down, calm down," he laughed again. "Today, the school has a surprise for you."

The class quieted down, looking at him curiously. "Because of special reasons, which I myself do not know, the superintendent of the school has accepted another student from the middle class for a scholarship here at Ouran. He will be joining your class for the next two and a half years, and I do hope that all of you with get along nicely with him, just as you did with Haruhi-kun. Can you do that?"

"Yes!"

He chuckled and faced the open doors of the room. "You can come in now, Kai-kun." he called out.

Hikaru and Kaoru glanced at each other knowingly when Kai entered the room with a white path over the scrape he had received earlier. Their brows raised when they noticed that the patch had accentuated a rather feminine jawline, yet at the same time, gave the boy a somewhat 'bad boy' look. Pink hearts appeared discreetly, spinning over the girls' heads.

"Class, please welcome. ." Takamichi paused giving the new guy his cue.

"Shukatchi Kai. It's very nice to meet you all" he bowed politely.

A series of greetings and smiles welcomed the boy, and their teacher chuckled at their enthusiasm. "Alright, that's enough. You can get to know more about your new classmate during your break later, but for now, let's start with today's lesson." he said after a minute, looking around the room for an empty seat. "Ah, there. You can sit on that seat behind Haruhi, Kai-kun. Fujioka, raise your hand please."

Haruhi slowly raised her hand and Kai nodded, heading towards his seat. He then spotted Hikaru and Kaoru sitting next to her and they gave him a friendly wave.

"Okay, everyone, get your English textbooks. Class is now beginning." Takamichi announced, turning around to write some things down on the board.

xoxoxoxoxo

xoxoxoxoxo

Later that day. . . (Kai's POV)

I tapped my pencil against my math notebook boredly as Hasegawa-sensei, my new boring math teacher, babbled on about General Trinomials. She had given us a fifty-item seatwork to work on for the last twenty minutes of the day, and -not to brag, but- I had finished it in ten.

My mind boredly wondered over to the boy sitting in front of me, Fujioka Haruhi-kun. He's a nice guy. He talked to me throughout this day and I found out that he's also here at Ouran on a scholarship, but, the way Hikaru-san and Kaoru-san toy around with him makes me feel a little uneasy. I dunno, it might just be my imagination, but somehow, something feels a little bit off about Fujioka-san.

He looks like a girl, his voice sounds like a girl's, and the way he acts is the same with that of a girl.

But he's a boy.

I think.

But really now, he looks too much like a girl to be a boy! His aura's just screaming 'I'm a girl, not a boy!' at me, so, he can't possibly be a boy. .

Can he?

I sighed and glanced down at my watch.

It's 3: 27 pm, so I have around three minutes to go before classes end for the day. Ueda-san gave me a day off today too, so I guess I can take a tour around the campus once we're dismissed. Hmm. Maybe I can ask Fujioka-san to give me a tour? No, wait, He's probably going to be busy with that 'host club' thing my female classmates were talking about a while ago.

-sigh-

Maybe I'll just explore the campus by myself later.

I looked back up so that sensei would think that I'm still busy. Did she just nod at me? okay. . I guess that's a good thing.

3:29 pm

Great. Just one more minute and I- whoops, dropped my pencil.

I sighed once more and was about to bend over to pick it up, when the girl sitting next to me quickly grabbed it from the floor and handed it to me with a. . is that a blush I see on her cheeks? Thanking her, I retrieved my pencil and looked away awkwardly.

~.~.~

Okay, since you're practically omniscient about everything I'm doing and thinking right now, I might as well just tell you a little bit about myself so RandomMinded-san won't have to stress over how to explain my situation. I don't have anything else to do for the next few seconds anyway.

Hi, reader, my name's Shukatchi Kai, but you can just call me Kai. You might've already guessed it already, but I'm not as well off as my classmates here, beside Fujioka-san -we're buddies in that aspect. Anyway, I work part-time in a small cafe in the more peaceful areas of the city everyday after school and on weekends. My boss, who kind of acts like my guardian, is a really nice guy. He helped me out a lot with the applications and paperwork needed for this scholarship, and because the men's uniform here is a lot cheaper than the ladies' uniform, he suggested that I buy the men's uniform instead. Which I did.

Just the other day, while I was trying on this uniform for the first time, my boss got me this really cool wig which -according to him- made me look more like a guy. And since I was going to dress up as one anyway, I thought that I might as well pretend to be one to save the trouble. I'm a girl though.

Really, I am.

~.~.~

-final bell finally rings-

'Yesss!' I silently cheer to myself as I quickly stood up to pass my seatwork in.

Me and some of my classmates bid Hasegawa-sensei goodbye on our way out of the classroom, and I then noticed the twins dragging Fujioka-san forcefully down the hallway at a fast pace. He was 'eh~?'-ing all the way 'till they were out of sight.

Strange friendship they have.

Ah well, whatever. I'm just glad that my first day of classes are finally over. Stretching my arms, I turned around and walked down the staircase, smiling and waving back at some of my new classmates along the way. To be honest, I was surprised at the friendliness and the hospitality that they showed me today. They're nothing like the typical, snobby n' snooty rich kids you'd see on tv; they're really, genuinely, nice. Especially the girls. A lot from the other classes already knew me for some reason, and they turned red whenever I would walk by. I had to greet them (awkwardly; to be polite of course), though I had absolutely no idea who they were.

A sudden thought flashed through my mind.

Now that I do think about it. . I haven't really seen myself with this wig on. I just took my boss' word for my appearance without looking at a mirror.

Curiosity suddenly took over and I decided to do the exploring later; I really did want to know how I looked like.

I turned around to look for a mirror in the hallway I was in, but the only things that decorated the marble walls were potted plants, paintings and chandeliers. The glass windows were polished so well that they didn't reflect a single thing, so they were pretty much useless. Running up the staircase once more, I saw my not-so-empty classroom and ran down the not-so-empty hallways, trying to look for a private room for me to stay in. It's obviously not practical for me to use the restrooms right now because for one, people would wonder why a "guy" was entering a girl's bathroom; and for another, I could never bring myself to use a boy's bathroom for the sake of both genders' pride and dignity.

The entire floor was filled with people, so I ran down a couple more hallways until I reached this large area with a grand, carpeted staircase going up. There were a few girls walking around the place and they looked somewhat excited, talking about some guy named 'Tamaki-sama'. Two of my classmates were there -their names escape me at the moment- and they waved when they saw me.

Deciding that upstairs would probably have less people than the previous floor, I ran up and found myself in an empty hallway wherein I could see the school clock tower outside the windows. Walking slowly, I looked around for a room I could stay in for a few seconds, but the voices of the girls from downstairs were getting louder and louder. I assumed that they were coming up here and quickened my pace until I saw these doors at the end of the hallway with a sign that said 'The Third Music Room' above it. It sounded promising, so I pushed down the door handles and stepped forward, with the sole intention of hoping to find a mirror inside.

Boy, was I wrong.

Just as I had opened the doors, I heard a crash, and I suddenly found these. . these rose petals flying out, coming from an unknown source of origin. A bright light then engulfed me as I stupidly entered the room; and before I could say a word, a chorus of male voices welcomed me inside.

-flash-

I re-opened my eyes once more and I saw seven guys staring back at me; three of them including my classmates: the twins from this morning, and Fujioka-san.

There was also a tall, stoic-looking guy whom people would usually refer to as the 'tall, dark, and handsome' type of person; and on his shoulders was a short, blonde kid hugging a pink rabbit doll cutely. Standing to the far left was an (eerily) calm-looking guy with glasses, holding a black notebook. The three of them, plus the twins and Fujioka san, were standing around what looked like a throne where a blond guy with blue-violet eyes was sitting down on, legs crossed out in front of him.

All of them had roses in their backgrounds, and the kid had an extra of having pink flower prints appearing around his head.

Blue lines appeared around mine.

"Hmm?" Hikaru-san started, leaning against the chair blondie was sitting on.

"That's Kai-kun, isn't it?" Kaoru-san asked.

Fujioka-san looked at me with a surprised expression on his face. "Shukatchi-kun? What are you doing here?"

I was a bit too weirded out to reply so I just waved at them awkwardly.

"Shukatchi-kun, eh?" The guy with glasses then looked at me with a raised eyebrow. "You're the new student here on scholarship, right?"

I nodded dumbly and stepped back.

-a lightbulb blinks on-

"He is?" The kid asked, smiling at me cutely. "Woah, so, he's like Haru-chan the second!"

I sweatdropped and took another step back. 'Haru-chan?"

The blue-eyed blondie then stood up abnormally gracefully and walked over to where I was standing before he grabbed both my hands and started twirling me around in a weird dance. He was welcoming me to the 'their blessed world' outside the grasp of poverty and something about Fujioka-san going through the same thing so we'd probably get along well. I tuned out his words; focusing more on the fact that his uniform was rubbing my patch off painfully. My cheek stung and I was brought back to reality, catching onto what he was saying just as he was about to finish.

"But I never expected the new student to be gay" he said, looking at me with an intrigued look in his eyes.

My jaw dropped.

G-G-G-G-GAY!?

"Excuse me?" I found myself yelling, causing the others to flinch backwards. "I'm not ga-"

"Ahh! He speaks!" Blondie interrupted happily.

I muttered a curse and he let go off me, but I only had a millisecond to breath because the blonde kid suddenly latched himself onto my back while saying my name cheerfully. I yelped and fell down at the sudden weight on my back, making my injured area collide with the polished, marble floor. "Ahh. . Gomene. . Shuka-chan, daijobu?" he asked. I groaned inwardly and watched as the tall guy calmly walked over and picked the boy off my back as if he were a doll.

"A-are you alright Kai-kun?" Fujioka-san asked, sweatdropping at my state.

Of course not.

"Of course I am." I replied, sitting up, wincing slightly at the pain stinging off my cheeks.

They were all glancing between me and something behind me, but before I could turn around to look at what, blue-eyed blondie snapped his fingers and said: "Mori."; And the next thing I knew, the tall guy had me over his shoulder in the blink of an eye. I was then carried to a different room and tossed rather rudely onto a sofa while the twins shut the doors behind them.

"Anou. . " Fujioka-san said, blue eyes appearing next to his eyes. "You didn't have to do that to Kai-kun, sempai."

"W-what's going on?" I asked nervously, sitting up and fixing the patch on my cheek.

The twins shrugged and notebook guy loomed over me. "My apologies about your cheek and for holding you here," he said darkly, pushing his glasses upwards. "But in case you haven't noticed, the ten million worth of teacups which just came in this morning from Europe are now broken."

"What's that got to do with me?" I asked, confused.

"You broke them." he smiled.

-Shock-

"W-w-w-w-w-w-what?!" I exclaimed, standing up. "What teacups?! I didn't break any damn teacups!" The twins pulled me back down on the sofa.

"Anou, Kai-kun did break them. When he entered this room." the blonde kid chirped, more pink flowers appearing in his background.

I did?

I don't think I- oh wait. Was that the crash I heard when I opened the doors? I turned my head around and sure enough, there were bits of broken glass scattered all over the floor next to a toppled cart, which was right next to the doors.

(Normal View)

Kai paled and the words "TEN MILLION YEN" suddenly dropped down heavily on his head.

"Who would be stupid enough to place a cart with ten million worth of teacups on it next to a doorway!?" he questioned, throwing the heavy words away. Tamaki gasped and an arrow with the word "stupid" on it stabbed him through his chest. Kai sighed. "Never mind."

"Fine, I'll pay you guys back when I get the money, can I go now?"

Kyouya looked at him. "Are you sure you can do that?" he asked the poor scholar, who was still being held down by the twins.

"Of course I can, I've got a permit to work." he replied, pausing to make a mental calculation in his head. "It'll take me about. . two years though,. . and I'm sure you're still going to be here by that time" he said.

"But Mori-sempai and Honey-sempai won't. They graduate this year." the twins said slyly, looking at the two seniors standing next to the sofa across them. "Even though you can afford the school uniform, can you afford to pay us back for those teacups within the next few months?"

"They were specially ordered to be used for the autumn season." -Hikaru

"So your deadline's shortened to around two to three months." -Kaoru

"Wait! What?!" the boy's eyes widened to the point that they were as big as plates. "You mean that kid's a senior!?" he asked in disbelief, pointing at the happy-go-lucky Hunny.

Kyouya pulled the 'stupid' arrow out and Tamaki regained his composure. "Yes, he may not look his age but I assure you that Hunny-sempai is the oldest among all of us." he smiled, making a moonwalk over to the said senior. "His love for sweets and cute things, plus his cuteness alone, makes him our Loli-shota type of host. I just introduced everyone to you a while ago, weren't you listening?" he asked.

Kai sweatdropped. "Ehm. . no. . ?"

"Very well then!" Tamaki exclaimed, standing up and pulling the boy away from the twins' grasps. "I shall re-introduce everyone of us to you once more!"

-background music plays-

"Ouran Private Academy is defined by one, prestigious families and two, wealth. And prosperous people have much time on their hands. Therefore, this Ouran Host Club is about these handsome guys that have time, giving hospilitality to these lovely ladies who also have time, and profit off of them. It's an elegant game unique to this super-rich school. The beautiful looks that attract attention, the fearless rich men, the gentlemanship that will not overlook the evil in this world; it is our wonderful jobs as hosts to provide the ladies their happiness and good fortune!

All the princesses -and princes such as yourself, Kai-kun (Kai: E-excuse me?)- who come here, have the privilege to choose which type of host they will be designating. We have the prince type who is obviously me (Suoh Tamaki, class 2-A), the cool type (Ootori Kyouya, class 2-A), the wild type (Morinozuka Takashi, class 3-A), the little devil type who are these two unscrupulous twins here (Hitachiin Hikaru and Hitachiin Kaoru, class 1-A), the loli-shota type (Haninozuka Mitsukuni, class 3-A), and last but not least, our most recent member who is also known as the natural type, my dear daughter (Fujioka Haruhi, class 1-A)!"

"Dear daughter?" he sweatdropped, glancing at Haruhi. The twins pulled him back down and sandwiched him between them.

"Anyway," they smiled tauntingly. "How are you going to pay us back for those teacups? The princesses were looking forward to using them for the autumn season."

"Ah." Tamaki said, sitting down on the sofa across them. "And we even advertised them to every class in the high school department."

Haruhi and Kai sweatdropped.

"E-err. . can't you just order another set for now?" the latter asked meekly. "I promise I'll find away to pay you back within the year."

"I think tono has something else in mind." Kaoru whispered to him.

"I hope you don't think badly of us for doing this to you, Kai-kun." the king said, looking at the new boy in the eyes. "But in Rome, you have to do what the Romans do! You will come here everyday after school to work for u-"

"Tamaki." Kyouya quickly cut him off. "Kai-kun already has a job to do after school."

"He can go there after club activities."

"Absolutely not." Kai stated impassively. "Every working hour counts, and I can't afford to lose two of them everyday."

"Fine." the blonde sighed. "Then what do you suggest we do?"

"We can talk about how you're going to repay your debt the next time you decide to come." Kyouya smiled at the boy, earning a confused look from the other hosts.

"I take it you know about my situation."

"More or less."

Kai sighed, and suddenly somesaulted off the sofa to avoid being pulled down by the twins. "I'll drop by tomorrow then." he smiled, landing next to the doorway. He then bowed at them and pushed the doors open, walking out of the room just as the designators entered.

"How did you know that our guests were just about to arrive?" Tamaki asked, impressed at the timing of the shadow king. They could hear some of the ladies whispering and giggling to each other as the boy walked pass them, exiting the third music room.

"Isn't that Kai-kun?" one said.

"I wonder what he was doing in the host club. . " another whispered.

"Maybe he was interviewed!" another exclaimed.

The hosts glanced at each other and smiled.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[1] read chapter 40 of the Manga at for more details :D
[2] Not the most creative name, is it? It just popped into my head when I was revising this chapter. Come to think of it, I never actually did manage to find out what the twins' dad's name was. Does anyone know? o.o

R&R please~!