The halls of Ouran Academy were quiet. Outside the large windows, the beginnings of Spring could be seen in the blooming cherry blossom trees and the songs of the birds as they flitted by.
The long corridor was very abandoned, any and all students either in class or in one of the many study halls scattered around the campus.
All but three students, that is.
"Ne, where do you think's a good spot to sleep, Ka-chan?" one of the three asked, green eyes half-lidded as he took in the unfamiliar surroundings.
"Don't call me that!" another, nearly identical male screeched, mismatched blue and green eyes flashing.
"Will the both of you be quiet? There are classes going on, you know." A third, definitely similar male chimed in, his green eyes reproachful. "And Ryuuji, stop provoking Ryoka. Even though it is pitifully easy."
"Coming from you, Renji!" Ryuuji and Ryoka retorted in sync before whirling on one another again, verbal warfare spewing from their lips. Ryuuji's green eyes were vicious behind his black rimmed glasses, and his low ponytail swung as he jabbed a finger at Ryoka.
Ryoka's light brown fringe covered most of his face, but there was still enough to see of his mismatched eyes as he spat back insults at his brother. His hair was getting long, too, almost brushing his shoulders, but he never showed any signs of discomfort at its length.
Sighing, Renji continued on down the hall, knowing quite well that both of his brothers could go on for hours if left to do so, and continued looking for a suitable room that they could nap in. Sure, they probably should be attending class, considering it was their first week of being at Ouran and all they had done so far was go to one class each day before hunting down a good place to have a nap until the end of the day.
"Hmm…" he paused, spiked hair shifting as he noted the music room down a hallway. There were no sounds coming from that direction, and considering that it was well into class time, he decided that it wouldn't hurt to check out the space.
"Renji, wait up!"
There would be no point in stopping; after all, the tell-tale sounds of feet running towards him told the light brown haired male everything he needed to know.
"Music Room #3?" Ryoka queried, breathing lightly as he stopped beside Renji. "Sounds promising."
With that, the male opened the door and poked his head in.
It was a pretty nice room, even if it smelled a little too much like roses, and there were couches scattered around the space. There were high ceilings, too. The only thing that could be considered odd about the room had to be the large number of plants that were pushed against the far wall of the room, but those didn't appear to be of any importance or threat to anyone at the moment.
"Looks good." Ryuuji hummed, walking in like he owned the place and headed over towards the window area, where the majority of the couches were located. "If you need me, I'll be sleeping over here. Let me know when school's over."
"Only if you let us know." Ryoka and Renji rolled their eyes, making their way over to the other side of the room.
Within moments, all three of the males were sound asleep on the red couches available in the room.
-;-
"Waaahhh! INTRUDERS!"
"DON'T TOUCH ME!"
"AAGGGHHHHH! HE BIT ME! MAMAAAAAAAAA!"
These were the sorts of things that could be heard echoing down the halls near the end of the day. In the same music room that the three males had decided to take a nap, there was now all hell breaking loose.
The infamous Tamaki Suoh was facing off against an irritable Ryoka, who had been rudely awoken from his sleep by someone who had the gall to attempt to take his schoolbag. Said blond was currently cradling a bruised hand, and Ryoka's teeth were bared. In fact, if he were to have fur, he would most likely appear to be an angry wildcat.
Renji, on the other hand, was watching the events play out next to Mori, the dark haired male and the light haired both raising their brows at their separate counterparts.
Ryuuji had had the misfortune of being woken up by Honey, and now the two of them were staring one another in the eye, neither moving an inch. Ryuuji, was, however, also half asleep, which was probably the reason that he and Honey were having a staring contest in the first place.
"WHO ARE YOU SCOUNDRELS!? I'LL HAVE YOU ALL HANGED!" Tamaki yowled, dancing around and gesturing wildly with his uninjured hand.
"Easy boss. This isn't the middle ages." Hikaru and Kaoru attempted to sooth, but Tamaki was having none of it. He was working himself up into a right old rant, and soon enough, the three males who were unfortunate enough to pick the wrong room to sleep in were going to be on the receiving end of it.
"Ryoka- back in the cage. You. Blondie. Put down the bag." Renji sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose. "Ryuuji, stop staring. You aren't dreaming."
Tamaki whirled, as if only then remembering that he was also facing two other 'opponents'.
"Why should I?" the blond puffed out his chest, Ryoka's bag still in his hand. Renji raised a brow at the male. He was definitely a bit off his rocker if he thought he was the boss of this room, and besides, it wasn't as if it were a bad thing he was doing, getting him to put down Ryoka's bag.
Renji jutted his jaw out in explanation at said brother, who had changed from sitting on the couch to crouching on the edge.
"Because Ryoka happens to be very territorial about his belongings." He shrugged.
Before Tamaki could put down the bag, Ryoka lunged. Almost instantly, there was the ungodly sound of someone shrieking as if they were being murdered, and both Renji and Mori moved to disentangle their respective counterparts.
"What, may I ask, are you doing in the Host Club's room?" a calm Kyoya asked, pushing his glasses up his nose as he stood a bit farther off, just out of reach of the nearest brother, but close enough that he still looked a part of the group. "You three are obviously newcomers, considering that you decided to occupy this room. And by the looks of things, you're the Kizuko triplets."
"Very astute of you." Renji drawled, pulling Ryoka up off the ground and heading over to haul Ryuuji off the couch as well. "I would never have guessed that you could tell we're triplets."
"Thank you. However, the original question still stands. What are you doing in the Host Club's room?" Kyoya inclined his head. "Unless, of course, you are breaking and entering."
"Correct me if I am mistaken, but it's only breaking and entering if the door is locked. Am I not correct? And what do you know, we didn't even take anything." Renji retorted quickly, Ryuuji and Ryoka sharing looks behind their taller brothers back. As if on a signal, the two of them began backing away, just as lightning began flashing between Renji and Kyoya.
"You are correct. However, considering that you were not given permission-"
"Oh dear. It's suddenly a crime to walk into an empty classroom and have a nap." Renji rolled his eyes again. "Forgive me. I'll have to remember to look up the laws of this Academy if I want to survive, apparently."
"Indeed." Kyoya quirked a brow challengingly.
"Well, nice meeting you and all, but me and Ryoka value our lives, so we'll be going now." Ryuuji laughed nervously, back pressed against the door and hand slowly moving to the handle. "We'll make sure to come and get Renji after he's done tearing you a verbal 'new one'."
Before anyone could make a move to stop them, two of the three triplets darted out of the door and into the hallway, running as though their lives depended on it.
"On that note, I should also be going." Renji hummed, any and all maliciousness around him evaporating. Bending down to pick up Ryoka's schoolbag, he hefted it over his shoulder and began walking out, avoiding Tamaki's excited yelling behind him.
"Oh, and I'll make sure to keep my brothers from coming back." He said dryly at the door, raising the schoolbag in a toast before closing the large door behind him.
"That was odd." Hikaru commented to his twin.
"Couldn't agree with you more, dear brother." Kaoru replied.
"I like them! Can they come back soon?" Honey cheered from his place on Mori's shoulders.
-;-
By the time Haruhi arrived at the music room, all of the various plants and trees had been moved into position and the Host Clubs costumes donned.
"Welcome!" the group of males chimed at her as she opened up the room doors and looked around in slight confusion. A moment later, a toucan landed on top of the poor girl-turned-cross dressing-male-pretender's head and began making a nest out of her hair.
"You finally made it Haruhi. You're so late." Hikaru and Kaoru mocked from their positions in the group.
"My calendar may be wrong, but it says it's still early spring." She muttered to herself, toucan in tow, checking the month for herself.
"Do you have a problem with the way we run our club, Haruhi?" Kyoya asked as Tamaki went off about winter and heating systems. In fact, the dark haired male barely even looked at her as he checked his notebook about something. "Be careful what you say; you owe us eight million yen, remember."
Oh yes, she did remember. In fact, Haruhi was sure that the memory of that vase shattering into hundreds of tiny little bits was going to forever be imprinted on the inside of her eyelids.
"Gentlemen don't bundle up in bulky clothing." Tamaki was saying, gesturing with an ornate fan to emphasize his point. Behind him, roses of some kind floated in a background of sorts, making it difficult to tell if there was actually a screen behind the blond or not. "It may be chilly early spring out there in the real world, but here in the club we want to surprise our chilly little kittens with a warm tropical paradise."
Haruhi could see where this was going already, and she had a feeling she was not going to like the results of whatever it was.
-;-
"-Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention to you ladies. Next week the Ouran Host Club is sponsoring a party."
"We're throwing a party?" Haruhi asked, half to herself as she looked back at Tamaki. However, another voice from the direction of Hikaru and Kaoru's table had the dark haired girl turning to see what the answer was going to be to that particular question.
"What kind of party is it going to be? Is it going to be formal?" one of Hikaru's customers was saying, her partner nodding along with her words.
"Yes. In fact, we've rented the school's largest hall." Hikaru replied, amber eyes half lidded.
"It's the perfect place for dancing." Kaoru added, chin resting on his clasped hands.
"But I really wanted to spend some alone time with you, Kaoru." Hikaru crooned, pulling his twin's face close, roses fluttering around in the background. Haruhi had to wonder how they managed to pull that kind of stuff off before continuing on her way.
"Don't be upset Hikaru. I know exactly how you feel." Kaoru murmured back, his eyes softening. The two girls seated across from them squealed, hearts bouncing around them in bright pink as they went off into unintelligible squeals of joy.
"Wow. I guess they're more worked up than they usually are." Haruhi found herself thinking aloud as she watched the ridiculous scene.
"Showing some skin proves popular with the ladies." Kyoya replied from next to her as he scribbled something down in his notebook.
"So are you the one that came up with this tropical paradise idea?"
"I have no decision making authority. All of the club's policies have been laid out by the club's King, Tamaki. But, I guess there's no harm in admitting to casually slipping a Bali photobook onto his desk."
So he's the real brains behind the operation. Haruhi thought darkly to herself.
-;-
After suffering through an entire afternoon of Tamaki's whining and the various customers that seemed to flock to her table no matter what she did, Haruhi found herself exhausted by the end of the Club session. It didn't help that she had apparently picked up a 'Host Hopper' by the name of Princess Kanako and made Tamaki depressed on top of it all. The end result was Tamaki bringing out a chest and pulling out a gigantic picture of herself when she had long hair and actually looked more like the female gender.
That had resulted in Tamaki running off to Kyoya, spouting off, "MAMA! Haruhi's using those dirty boy words again!"
And that had somehow led to dancing, and that was what Haruhi found herself doing the next day in Music Room #3.
-;-
"So, Renji, you and that Ootori…you two don't like each other much, do you?" Ryuuji hummed as he peered through a pair of binoculars into a nearby tree, keeping an eye on the birds nest that he knew rested there.
"Very nice deduction, Sherlock." Renji huffed, crossing his arms and looking in the other direction at Ryoka, who once again had his nose buried in a book. As if feeling his brother's eyes on him, his mismatched blue and green eyes flickered up for a brief second before flicking back down to his book, leaving Renji at the mercy of Ryuuji.
"I certainly thought so." The long haired triplet sniffed. "Just like I deduced that the party next week is mandatory for all students to attend, male or female. Even though the Host Club is sponsoring it."
"WHAT!?"
"Geez, no reason to blow my ears out, Ryoka." Ryuuji calmly stuck a finger in his ear. "I thought you'd have figured it out by now. I know you don't like parties, but I don't see how we can get out of this one easily."
"That just means we'll have to attend." Renji sighed, seating himself on a chair in the large study the three were occupying. "I hope nothing too extravagant is mandatory for us to wear, because otherwise there will be problems."
Ryuuji shook his head.
"No, just formal. Nothing costume themed at all." He assured his brother.
"Good." Renji nodded with finality. "In that case, I'll see the both of you in the morning."
"Good night, Renji!" Ryuuji and Ryoka called behind him as he left the room to head up to bed.
"Good night." He returned before closing the study door behind himself.