Alright. Well, lately I have been reading a lot of fanfiction and rewatching anime—I think that I am back, dear readers. Unfortunately, to a lot of your disappointment, I'm sure, I will be writing a brief Ouran High School Host Club piece. My skills are probably rusty, but I am sure I could elicit a few "AWW!" 's from some people. So, shall we have it? : )
It was club activities time and the host club was up and running. Beautiful ladies each took their turns with their commissioned hosts, all squealing or blushing so deeply that they could make a tomato run for its money. Haruhi was walking past each host's area to check if anybody needed refreshments, since she had no customers, and was taking a short time on each host to fume over their ridiculously expensive cosplays.
Today, the theme was "Alice in Wonderland". However, the characters each of the hosts were to play today were slightly different from the dream Haruhi had had—but nobody knew of that, anyway. As a change, Haruhi was the rabbit this time. She had on bunny ears, a silky top with a black vest, and black slacks. An expensive looking silver pocket watch dangled on her waist and white gloves adorned her small hands. Who could forget the rather humiliating bunny tail? Certainly not Haruhi.
When she had arrived in the club room this afternoon and was presented with her cosplay, she downright refused. "I wouldn't even wear that normal bunny suit when you idiots spilled tea all over..!" She shouted until the twins quickly covered her lips, casting anxious glances over at Hani, her eyebrow twitching in irritation all the while. Tamaki cried out loud, tackling the trio to the floor in a delayed attempt to silence her.
"SHHH! HARUHI! DO NOT TELL ON DADDY, PLEASE! AND IT WAS THOSE SHADY TWINS WHO SPILLED TEA ALL OVER USA-CHAN!" he cried exasperatedly, as the twins stared in horror at their idiot prince. Realizing what he just did, Tamaki's mouth clamped shut and he chanced a slow glance over at the small seventeen year old—but, the boy was much too occupied with picking out what cakes he wanted to eat for the day. The three of them breathed a sigh of relief, and Haruhi smacked away the twin's hands from her mouth.
"I'm still not wearing that thing," she replied calmly. "But Haruhi~! You'd look so good in it. We designed it ourselves!" The twins chorused, throwing their arms over her shoulders. She sighed deeply and shook her head furiously. "I am not doing it! I AM NOT DOING IT." She shouted, irritation lacing into her voice.
Suddenly, she felt a chill over the nape of her neck and shivered, cautiously turning around to see if she could find the source of her discomfort. Seated across the way at his usual table, Kyoya had his fingers poised over the keys of his laptop—but his eyes were not on the screen. His mouth was pressed in a straight line and his glasses caught a glare from the lights above him, making his eyes invisible to their own. She gulped audibly and felt the chill run up her spine once again. "You are too loud." He replied coolly. Turning back to his screen once again, he started to type—just as she was turning away to continue her tirade at the Twins and Tamaki. When she opened her mouth, though, another voice sounded.
"And you will wear that cosplay..unless of course, you would like me to raise your quota?" He said off-handedly, going back to his work. Haruhi's eyes narrowed at the Shadow King.
"Fine." She seethed, snatching the bag with her cosplay from the table. "Oh Haruhi! Let Daddy come and help his little girl!" Tamaki called, only to be yanked back by the twins. "You pervert! What kind of father goes to watch his daughter change?" They teased, taunting their idiot friend further.
Every time she walked past the customers, they covered their lips and squealed, commenting on how feminine "he" looked in this cosplay, that the tail and bunny ears were just soooo cute. She bit back her biting remarks and smiled sweetly, replying with things such as: "Oh, ha! I am sure they would look much cuter on you." Or, "..Really? I've never really been a bunny before."
"AWWW! Look at my cute little Haruhi in his cute little bunny ears!" Tamaki gushed, tilting his head slightly and putting a hand to his cheek. Unlike her dream, he was not the "Mad Hatter". Somehow, he dubbed himself the "King of Hearts", claiming that he just obviously was born for the role. Everybody knew however, that he just liked the sound of it because it had the "king" part to it.
He wore a crown of red velvet and gold, a long trailing fur-cape attached to his shoulders. His attire was, of course, covered in heart patterns, and reminded Haruhi of a card deck. Tamaki turned back to his customer, a girl with long black hair and blush dusted cheeks, and flashed a gentle smile at her. "Now my princess—you must smile for me, or it shall be away with your heart." He replied in a whisper, inching a bit closer to her face. The girl swooned, the blush deepening on her cheeks. Haruhi couldn't help but roll her eyes and she turned away from the two, continuing on her way with the snack cart. Next stop—Hani and Mori.
Hani and Mori were tea party guests to the "Mad Hatter"; to which Hani gleefully accepted his role of eating cake. Upon seeing her, he tumbled away from his guests and into Haruhi's arms, who was quick to move the cart out of his way. "HAAAARU-CHANNNNNNN!" He sailed over to her. She looked down at the small boy in her arms and blinked. "Yes, Hani-senpai?" she replied. The boy pulled out Usa-chan from apparently no-where and shoved it up to Haruhi's face. "Look Haru-chan! You and Usa-chan are one and the same today! It's so cute." He hugged his bunny tightly as Haruhi carefully set him on his feet.
"Would you like some refreshments?" She asked, already knowing the answer. The sweet boy nodded earnestly and took the liberty of dragging the cart over to his table and piling plate upon plate of desserts on the table. Mori watched his charge quietly for a moment, before lightly tapping the boy's wrist as he was about to set another plate down. "Mitsukuni. Enough." "But Takashiiiii~!" The little boy whined. Mori shook his head, carefully taking the cake from him and placing it back on the cart. He nodded at Haruhi in apology, as their clients squealed at the "protective-close-cousin-relationship" scene before them. She heaved a slight sigh as she rolled away, on to the twins next.
True to her dream, the twins were the Cheshire cat. They wore matching outfits of purple neko ears, red collars, purple striped sweaters, and black slacks. Black and purple striped tails were attached from behind and whiskers were drawn over their cheeks. "Let's play…" they chorused, twirling in a few circles. "The Which One Is Hikaru Game!" they finished, swishing their identical tails. The two girls seated before them shifted nervously, one played with her curls while the other pursed her lips. Finally, one pointed her finger at Kaoru. "You're Hikaru!" She declared bravely. The twins made buzzing noises, "Wrong! Let's play again!" As they started to spin back and forth, disappearing and reappearing from behind a pillar.
"Refreshments, ladies?" Haruhi asked, rolling past. The girls nodded, slightly bummed. "It's so hard to tell them apart!" Mused one of them, as the other huffed in agreement. "No, it really isn't," Haruhi thought. But she merely smiled and served them their Darjeeling tea and strawberry cake.
When she finished, she glanced around. Kyoya had no guests to entertain and sat at the table in the secluded corner, his fingers clacking away at his laptop. She sighed slightly, not really wanting to go over to him—but she would, since it was only polite to ask him, since she made an effort to check on everybody. Without taking the cart, she walked over to him and stood off to the side silently. After a while, Haruhi walked back to the cart and poured him a cup of tea and set it down before walking away, not really wanting to know whether the Shadow King found it to his liking or not. "He'd better not add that one cup of tea to my debt, if he doesn't want it." She thought, still somewhat miffed about his earlier threat.
Although he managed and kept track of all expenses and money matters of the Host Club as suspected, he often was doing other things besides the expected. Most of the time, he found himself always restlessly looking for some task to do, whether it was fixing presentations for his brothers or writing, proofreading, and rewriting his essays. He often checked and managed his business chains, as well as checking into the matters of the Ootori family's businesses.
But lately—no, not quite lately. For a while now, he really felt no need to rush to do those things during this club time—he could do most of those tasks at home, in less than a couple of hours. No, now, he felt himself having to watch the new host's every move. Her movements, attitudes, facial expressions, thoughts, and all other things fascinated him to no end. He even felt as though he must keep note—and started to write down notes at any given moment in a new black book he kept at his side at all times, should he find another interesting aspect about her. Today, he was incredibly amused by her outfit. To be honest, it was he who suggested that Haruhi be the Rabbit, instead of Alice, as was originally planned. The twins and Tamaki swooned at the idea, already rushing to the stores for the perfect cosplay.
He had been watching her—he always watched her—and noticed the dispute about her cosplay. When she seemed so adamant about not wearing it, he felt slightly irked and a tiny bit disappointed at not seeing his vision come to life—but then he thought, "I am an Ootori. I can make this happen," and proceeded to hold the debt threat over her head. And so the debacle was corrected. He had turned back to his screen, only to be looking at Haruhi's lovely picture—and as he heard her huffing and puffing, he felt like smiling.
He loved the way she pursed her lips at the ridiculous antics of the club's members, and the way she always rolled her eyes at the swooning ladies never failed to amuse him. He watched as she made her rounds to the other hosts with the refreshment cart and thought, "At least she's useful and works," before he turned back to something not-so-Haruhi related.
About thirty minutes later, as he was correcting an Italian essay, he felt her presence. "What will she do?" he thought curiously, opting to ignore her. She remained standing there, until a few moments passed. Then, she walked away. Slightly disappointed, Kyoya inwardly frowned. He closed his eyes and stretched his arms behind him, until he heard a satisfying crack, and reopened his eyes to find a steaming cup of tea sitting next to his laptop. "Quiet as a mouse," he mused, allowing himself a slight smirk. His eyes slid slowly to the other side of the room to Haruhi, who was turned away from him, apparently cleaning up the aftermath of dishes from Hani's table. His eyes slid back to the cup of tea she poured for him, he picked it up and held it to his lips. The aroma wafted up to his nose and he sighed softly, "I hate Darjeeling,"
He twisted his wrist slightly, having the tea swish and swirl in the teacup. He took a sip of it. Despite the displeasing taste of the tea, he found himself smiling like an idiot—just in time for Mori to glance over at him and see. The smile immediately fell from his face and he raised an eyebrow at his fellow host, daring him to do something. Mori merely smirked, looking back to clean some bits of icing from Hani's chin.