"Hey Haruhi~" sang the twins.

"GAH!" I exclaimed, leaping nearly out of my skin.

Those two ginger siblings had a disturbing knack for appearing out of nowhere and scaring the living Hell out of me. The worst part was that they seemed to get a real kick out of it, so I couldn't get them to cut it out. They reminded me of a pair of twins that were in one of my favorite book series. Those two had been ginger troublemakers as well—their entire family was made up of gingers—and were also always causing mischief around their own fancy school. I didn't have anything against redheads in general—just the Hitachiin twins. Still, they were my best friends, along with the rest of the Host Club.

"Sorry," said Kaoru, not looking sorry at all.

"We didn't mean to scare you." Hikaru hardly sounded sincere.

I blinked and straightened up. The two of them were holding armfuls of what looked like ribbons and garland, along with various other decorations. They each had a bow stuck in their hair, too—matching, of course. They weren't wearing the normal black ties, either. Instead their ties were silver, striped with gold and red. Most of the guys had been wearing ties like that lately, though I wasn't sure why.

"What's all that for?" I wondered, peeking into one of the bags Kaoru was carrying.

"We've got to decorate the Music Room," said Hikaru, like I was simple in the head.

"Duh, Christmas is in only a week!" his brother added. "We're actually late getting set up."

"Oh yeah, I forgot…" I said thoughtfully. Between trying to pay off my debt to the Host Club and keeping up with my studies, I hadn't been keeping track of the holidays very well at all. They'd never been a big deal to me, in all honesty. But apparently, they were to some people. Damn rich kids.

"You forgot?!" exclaimed the twins in unison. "How could you forget about Christmas? It's, like, the best holiday there is!"

"I thought you guys preferred Halloween?" I reasoned, considering their aptitude for taking Trick-or-treat? to a whole new level.

"Yeah, Halloween's great and all, but you don't get a bunch of cool stuff on Halloween!"

"Yeah, and it's the only time my brother will talk to me, besides Thanksgiving," said Hunny, running up with Usa-chan clutched in his arms. It was hard to believe that the kid riding on stoic Mori's shoulders was my senpai by two years.

"Christmas is the time for giving presents and sitting around the table eating to your heart's content!" said Tamaki dramatically. He possessed the same teleporting ability that the twins did, though I'll be damned if I knew how they managed it.

"Businesses make quite a profit during the Christmas season," came a cool, apathetic voice from the doorway. I looked around; Kyoya stood there with his clipboard, looking as amused by the rest of us as ever. "The Host Club in particular does very well this time of year. All of the girls want a chance with someone under the mistletoe."

I shook my head.

"I don't know how that got to be a tradition," I sighed. "Mistletoe is a really poisonous plant. Who on earth would find that even the least bit romantic, besides Nekazawa-senpai?"

"I heard that…" came a dreary voice from through the double doors that were only present in the room half of the time.

"No offense intended!" I called. Of course, there was no response—only a fool would expect one—but I figured it wouldn't do any harm to apologize anyway. "Sorry!"

"I tend to agree," nodded Kyoya. "However, for whatever reason, our patrons find it quite romantic, and who are we to object?"

"I just hope I don't get stuck under any," I muttered. "Because of Tamaki-senpai I already gave my first kiss to a girl. I don't swing that way, so I don't want to repeat the experience any time soon."

I should have been more careful with what I said. It was too freaking easy to set Tamaki off, especially for me.

"My little Haruhi, are you still upset with Daddy over that?!" he wailed, clutching me in a vice-like grip and nuzzling his nose in my hair.

"Hey! Get off!" I shouted, trying to wrest free of him, but he wouldn't allow it.

"Daddy's sorry Haruhi!"

"You're not my father," I grumbled. "Mori-senpai, help!"

Thank God for people like Mori. Immediately he was right beside us, tugging me effortlessly out of Tamaki's grasp. For a moment I dangled in the air like a rag doll, and I remembered the first time something like that had happened. At that point in time, Kyoya, Hunny, and the Hitachiin brothers had all figured out that I wasn't really a guy, but Tamaki still thought so. He'd been going on about how "cute" I was, and he wouldn't let me go. I asked Mori to help me, and just like now, he'd lifted me up into the air away from Tamaki. That was when he'd figured it out.

I burst out laughing. The rest of them looked at me questioningly, but Mori just set me back on my feet, giving a very slight smile of his own. For him, that was like one of Tamaki's belly laughs.

"I just remembered the first time that happened," I giggled. "Tamaki-senpai still thought I was a guy that time, and Mori-senpai only figured it out when he saved me from him."

"Hey, I remember that," giggled Hunny. "I figured it out after Kyo-chan, when I had you hold Usa-chan for a while. You were too cute to be a guy!"

"Yeah, we figured it out next," said the twins. "When we tried to make you change into the uniform and you kicked us out of the changing room. If that wasn't perfectly obvious, then we'd be real idiots."

"Of course, I knew it from the start," shrugged Kyoya.

"Yeah, the rest of us figured it out pretty quick," nodded Hunny.

"But it took the Boss walking in on her while she was changing to figure it out," chuckled the redheads in their evil way.

"Shut up," Tamaki muttered. I blinked. Somehow he'd gotten over to the corner of the room in the space of a couple milliseconds, and was huddled with his knees pulled up to his chest.

"C'mon, Tamaki-senpai, that's in the past," I said quickly, hoping to pull him out of that state of depression. It only got creepier the more he did it. "No one thinks you're stupid or anything. Don't," I added, giving my death glare to the twins who had opened their mouths to argue. Obediently they pressed their lips together and didn't say a word, looking alarmed.

I sighed and relaxed. When Tamaki got like that, it was extremely hard to get him to snap out of it. Better to just let him do it on his own time.

"Shoot, what were we even talking about?" I wondered. "Oh yeah, Christmas. Well, should we start decorating?"

"Yeah, the trees will be here in a couple of hours," said Kaoru. "So we can start on the pillars and the walls. Hunny-senpai, you can decorate the tables."

"Just don't overdo it, Mitsukuni," said Mori quietly.

"Right!" said Hunny, raising his hand in a salute. "I'll do my best! Then afterwards we can eat cake!"

"Haruhi, you can help me with the pillars," said Kyoya, taking me by surprise.

"Uhm, sure, okay," I said.

"Boss?" Kaoru prompted.

The pathetic-looking "Prince-character" looked up from his corner, his eyes immediately locking in on me and Kyoya.

"Uh…" said Hikaru hesitantly.

"Never mind." In unison.

"Mori, you can help Hunny pick out the right tea sets for Christmas, can't you?" suggested Kyoya.

Mori nodded.

"Yeah."

"Well everybody," said Kyoya, pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose. The twins finished his thought like they so often did with each other.

"Let's get to work!"