Claraowl: Greetings, readers! I have returned with a oneshot sequel to "Pocky Can Lead to the Unexpected." (You may cheer now… what, no cheers? *sighs* Never mind.) I believe that it can be read separately, but it'll probably make more sense if you've read the other one. You all can thank oreobabez, who was the first one to answer my question to some reviewers! ^^ I'm also sending a shout-out to Hita-chan, who was the second to answer correctly. ^^ (By the way, the correct answer was Azumanga Daioh by Kiyohiko Azuma.) I'm very sorry for the ramble… anyway, on with the story (of which I own nothing but the poor attempt at a plot).
"Oh, by the way, Mei," Haruhi said between bites of rice omelet one fine Saturday evening, "I was told to find out if you take orders for clothing."
Mei, after nearly doing what would have been a rather amusing spit-take for everyone except Haruhi (mainly due to the fact that she was sitting across from Mei), choked out, "What?"
"Some of the host club's customers want to know if you take orders for your designs," Haruhi replied calmly, getting a glass of water for Mei.
Mei, after taking the water with a word of thanks, asked, "Some of those giggly, fancied-up girls want to buy my clothes?"
"Yup," Haruhi replied, taking another bite of her rice omelet. "Do you take orders?"
"Yes!" Mei screeched ecstatically, nearly upsetting her plate and causing Haruhi to jump. "Yes, I take orders! Finally, my first job! Do they want to see more of my designs?"
"Yup," Haruhi replied again. "I can get you the orders by Monday, if you give me some pictures of the designs tomorrow."
Mei stood up suddenly. "Pictures, nothing! I'm going to go get the actual designs!"
"Mei, wait!" Haruhi called.
Mei slowly turned back around, as she was halfway out the door. "What?"
"Your omelet is going to get cold. Finish eating it first," Haruhi ordered, chewing another bite of her own.
"Oh," Mei blinked, coming back and sitting down, "right."
Haruhi rolled her eyes at her friend. "I even got yours pristine this time. You should be happy."
"I am, trust me," Mei assured her, "I was just excited about orders from such high-class customers."
"Well, you have at least six orders for your pajama set," Haruhi informed her, pointing to a sheet of paper a poking out of her backpack.
Mei promptly pounced upon the paper, read it seven times, and tucked it into her bag. When she settled back down and began eating again, something occurred to her. "How did your club's customers find out about me and my pajama set?" she asked, eating another bite of her omelet.
"You can thank the two damn rich bastards who drooled when they saw me wearing it," Haruhi replied, blushing lightly. "They somehow managed to take some pictures, and said pictures found their way into the clubroom."
Mei, gaping and trying to figure out which bit of information to react to first, merely gasped, "What?"
"Yeah," Haruhi huffed, "they had some with them, and were showing them to Tamaki-sempai; a few of the ladies saw them and asked about the pajamas. After learning that I was doing a test-drive of the design for a friend of mine, they insisted upon my finding out if you took orders. You'd think that they'd at least wonder for a few seconds why someone they think is a guy was test-driving girls' pajamas, but no…."
Mei, skipping over this fact, quickly finished her omelet and stood up. "I'll be right back with the clothes, so don't leave," she ordered, and left.
Haruhi sighed and finished her omelet; she then stood up and went to wash the plates, having already finished her homework. Just as she was about to sit down and read for a little while, there was a knocking at her door. Haruhi stood up resignedly and walked over to it; opening it, she said, "Mei, you have terrible ti - what are you two doing here?"
"Hello, Haruhi," Hikaru and Kaoru grinned, "may we come in?"
Haruhi, giving them her famous half-oval stare, asked, "Is there any point in refusing?"
"Well, yes, actually," Hikaru smiled.
"We were actually planning to go away if you wouldn't let us in," Kaoru beamed.
"But now that you've accepted our entrance -" Hikaru began.
"- we may just as well come in," Kaoru completed.
"Fine, but I'm expecting Mei to be back any minute," Haruhi informed them, walking back into the apartment and allowing them to follow her.
"Great, we can convince her that we didn't do anything to you the other day," Hikaru smirked.
"That hickey still hasn't healed, you know," Kaoru beamed, handing her a bag. "Here, a visiting present. Chocolate," he winked at her, "cake with strawberries."
"Will you let it drop, already? I was asleep," Haruhi protested, before adding, "and thanks for the cake."
"Funnily enough, we have five pieces in there," Hikaru shrugged. "Enough for the three of us, your dad, and Mei. Everyone's happy!"
"We won't be able to bite it into a heart shape like you did, though," Hikaru teased gently, smiling.
Haruhi blushed violently. "I don't know what you're talking about."
"Don't hide it, Haruhi," Hikaru beamed.
"We know that you planned that," Kaoru whispered into her ear, sending shivers up her spine. "Plus, you returned our cheek kisses in the hallway. Milord did a rather fabulous flip-out when he saw your chocolate lip prints."
At this point, fortunately for Haruhi, a rather persistent knocking sounded upon the apartment door. Still vermilion-cheeked, she slipped between the little devil types and answered the door. "Hi again, Mei."
"Why are you blushing?" Mei asked by way of a greeting, waking into the apartment; upon seeing Hikaru and Kaoru, realization flickered into her eyes. "Don't tell me… you…don't you?"
Haruhi, now blushing crimson, nodded slightly before saying, "Kaoru and Hikaru brought cake - do you want to join us?"
"Sure," Mei shrugged, internally shrieking at the new information Haruhi had given her. "What type is it?"
"Dark chocolate," Kaoru smirked, "with strawberries."
"Dark?" Mei asked, glancing sideways at Haruhi. "Interesting."
"Yup, it's our toy's favorite," Kaoru beamed.
"I'm not a toy!" Haruhi protested, just for old times' sake.
"Nope, you're our toy," the twins grinned, "as well we've proven."
"You've done no such thing," Haruhi huffed.
"Oh, yeah? What about at our sleepover? You were our dress-up doll," Hikaru smirked.
"What?" asked a relatively shocked Mei, who had been watching this exchange with slight amusement and befuddlement.
"Yeah, she wore two outfits from our mom's collection," Kaoru elaborated. "Here, we have pictures." He dug them out of his coat pocket and displayed them, Haruhi growing more irritated with his every move.
"And you're carrying these around with you…why?" Mei asked, secretly noting all the fashion points of the two costumes.
"Um…" Kaoru blushed lightly. "No real reason, actually…"
Haruhi slapped her forehead as she sat down to eat cake with her friends. "Will you three stop looking at embarrassing pictures and sit down?"
"Of course, Haruhi," Hikaru smirked.
"If you'll feed it to us," Kaoru added.
"No cake for you, then," Haruhi shrugged, handing Mei a slice and getting one for herself.
Hikaru and Kaoru quickly gave up this condition and sat down to eat with Haruhi and Mei. There was some laughter and much chatter during their snack, punctuated by periodical bursts mainly consisting of Hikaru and Kaoru attempting to feed Haruhi. Mei laughed heartily at Haruhi's expressions as she was nearly force-fed a strawberry by Hikaru; when Haruhi stuck her tongue out at her female friend, Kaoru placed a bit of chocolate on her tongue with his teeth; Haruhi blushed violently. All in all, it was a rather ordinary cake-eating session with Mei, Haruhi, and her puppet masters.
After the four pieces of cake had been eaten and Ranka's piece had been stored in the fridge, Mei handed Haruhi the designs and information about said designs to show the ladies. She then departed, winking at Haruhi and telling her to have fun. Haruhi glared at her female friend's retreating back before closing her apartment door and turning around - to find her favorite twins grinning eagerly at her.
"Why did you come here, anyway?" she asked warily, her eyes flickering back and forth between the two of them.
"We just wanted to spend some time with you, that's all," Hikaru beamed.
"Besides," Kaoru added, "we heard that it was supposed to thunderstorm, and didn't want you to be alone."
Haruhi smiled lightly. "That's actually rather thoughtful of you two, for once."
"Thank you -" Hikaru smiled.
"Hey, wait!" Kaoru interjected. "What do you mean, 'for once'?"
Haruhi giggled, much to the surprise of her visitors. "Calm down - I was just teasing you. Get used to it, won't you?" Winking at the two of them, she walked over to her apartment's small television and popped a tape into the VCR. "Are you two up for a movie?"
"Is it a Disney movie?" the twins asked eagerly.
"Yup," she grinned. "Want to guess which one?"
"Is it Aladdin?" Hikaru asked eagerly.
"Nope," Haruhi answered. "Guess again!"
"Beauty and the Beast?" Kaoru guessed.
"Yup," Haruhi replied, hitting the play button and going over to sit between the two of them, grabbing a blanket as she went. Hikaru and Kaoru looped their arms around Haruhi; smiling, she leaned against them and snuggled beneath the blanket.
A few hours later, Ranka came home to find the three of them asleep on the floor, Haruhi's fingers tangled with Hikaru's and Kaoru's. Steam flew from his ears as general chaos was unleashed in the small apartment.
It was to be some time before Haruhi could look the twins in the eye again without blushing or laughing; it was to be an even longer time before Ranka would let the twins anywhere near the apartment again... Indeed, during the time that elapsed before either of these things could happen, Mei made quite a nice profit off of her designs.
Claraowl: Well, I hope that that was up to scruff. I realize that it may be a bit of a let-down, after PCLttU… but I hope that you enjoyed it anyway! ^^ Would you be so kind as to leave a review for me, please? I look forward to hearing from all of you!
Oh, and my apologies to all of you who have no idea who Mei is - she's a manga-only character (if you haven't read the manga, you should - it's excellent).
Until next time, farewell~! :D