In One Word
Host hours were nearing an end.
Haruhi was sitting alone at her table, attempting to get some homework done. Her designators had left early, so out came her troublesome paper.
One by one, the other hosts noticed that she would stare at them appraisingly, realize she was staring, and glare at the paper in front of her. Honey was the first to gather his courage and approach. The smallest host bounded over, Usa-Chan in his hands, shedding flowers the whole way.
"What's that, Haru-Chan?" he asked sweetly. Haruhi sighed, "The assignment for my creative writing class. We're supposed to be thinking of essential attributes. I'm supposed to take a group of people and describe each one, in one word, and then explain why I chose that word." Honey tilted his head in thought, "Sounds like something Mori would be good at." He stood and waved his tall cousin over, then explained the problem.
"Hmm." Said Mori, looking over the other hosts. Haruhi began thinking aloud "First, and probably easiest is Tamaki. He would be Love." "Because you love him, Haru-Chan?" asked Honey, somehow managing to keep the sadness out of his voice. Haruhi laughed a bit at that and shook her head "Not how you think, Honey. Look at him," she gestured to where he was escorting the last of the girls from the room with smiles and sweet words. "He is Love, flighty, yet sincere. He loves everyone, and would do anything for those he cares about, but he's not yet capable of just having one person. He needs the stimulation of different people, still." Mori nodded in agreement, and possibly relief.
"The Twins are more difficult. If it were one word for the two of them, it would either be Loneliness, or Contradiction." The two in question were hard at work, gleefully harassing Tamaki. "Loneliness, because they shut everyone out of their world, other people aren't quite real to them yet. Contradiction, because they are Two-but-One and they both want to be with other people and don't. If individually, hmm." She tapped her pencil against her lips, "Hikaru would be Envy, and Kaoru would be Generosity. Hikaru wants to always be first in Kaoru's attention, and Kaoru steps back, giving whatever he's asked. They complement each other." She sighed. "I'm not entirely pleased with the words for them as individuals, but I feel right about the ones for the pair.
She sighed again and looked at Kyoya. He was still typing diligently at his laptop, eyes hidden behind his glasses. "Kyoya is more trouble, but I think he's okay with that. He seems like he would be Greed, but that's just his surface, and his family's reputation. He goes along with what Tamaki wants, for the sake of their friendship, and has managed to avoid having him shipped to Siberia for all the trouble he brings." Haruhi smiled mischieviously, "If he were a girl, he could be Psyche to Tamaki's Eros, the soul that makes love deeper."
At his desk, Kyoya began coughing, and Tamaki ran to him, yelling "Mon Ami! Are you sick?! Call your ambulances, call the helicopter!" Kyoya pushed him harshly away, "Get off me, I'm fine!"
Haruhi wondered if he had heard them, as Honey and Mori hid their grins. "I think Kyoya would be Intellect, he wants to know everything, and how it fits together. He seems to value knowledge above money." Honey nodded slowly, thinking about it.
"So that leaves us, and you." Said Honey, smiling at her. She smiled back "You two weren't as difficult, Strength and Kindness." Mori looked resigned, people always saw his strength first. Honey piped up "I get why Mori's Strength, why am I Kindness?" Haruhi shook her head. "You have it reversed, you're Strength, and Mori is Kindness." "Oh, because of Karate and my family's martial arts?" Honey was slightly disappointed, but at least he wasn't saddled with Cute, or worse, Childlike.
She smiled gently, shaking her head again. "No, you're Strength because you always fight for what really matters to you. You're strong enough to fully be yourself, even when everyone underestimates or dismisses you completely." She looked to Mori, who was still trying to figure out why she chose that for him. "Mori, you're Kindness. I did consider Loyalty for you, but that's pretty much a given. You've always been kind to me, any time I needed help, there you were. You seem to always rescue anything that's lost or hurt." She smiled as she thought of him and the baby bird.
"And that leaves me. I'm having a lot of trouble thinking of one word that defines me. Plain might work, most of the school still thinks I'm a boy, after all. Determined, maybe, I will do whatever I can to reach my dreams without compromising my ideals. Hmm." Haruhi closed her eyes. When she opened them, she saw the rest of the Host Club gathered around her, they had approached as she finished talking about Honey and Mori.
"Beautiful!" exclaimed Tamaki, and Haruhi rolled her eyes. "Hmm, Valuable." Smirked Kyoya, and she shook her head. "Ours." The twins said in unison, wrapping her in their arms. "No!" she said, slipping their grasp and glaring at them. Honey looked intently at her. "Genuine. You don't put on airs or try to be anything you're not, and you really do care about people, and they can tell." Haruhi considered this, "Maybe, that sounds almost right." Mori tapped her shoulder so she looked up at him and said "Balance."
Haruhi looked at him incredulously. "Balance, really? Have you seen how clumsy I am? Hey, that's how I got here to begin with, I lost my balance and broke that stupid vase!" Mori shook his head and rumbled "You are our Balance." The others looked at each and slowly nodded. "He's right, Haru-Chan! You balance each of us. You give me someone who sees through the cute, you see Mori as more than just my guardian, you see through Tamaki's romantic act, and you don't see Kyoya as a soulless calculator." "You're the first person to be able to tell us apart." Said the twins, in unison.
Mori really was good at this.