A/N: I will have to say one thing about this piece. IT IS ABOUT TIME that I finished the piece. But, this isn't the end of it. Oh, no. I plan on having this only one or two more chapters in length, so it is going to be VERY short. (Unlike my other lengthy works) But, I hope that you are able to enjoy it!
Chapter One - The Pestering
It was a seemingly normal day in the third music room at the prestigious school known as Ouran Gakuen on a Monday afternoon. The room was quiet, save for the few whispers in the room. The clinking of the dishes being picked up. The tapping of the bespectacled raven haired boy on his laptop, typing up the figures for the club's day.
Wait a moment! The room was not suppose to be this quiet! Where was the idiotic blond prince or the two mischievous twins that were always harassing me? OH! Sorry about that. I seemed to have forgot to introduce myself. My name is Haruhi Fujioka. I am a commoner by birth, but I did manage to come to a school full of elite people. How, you may ask? I got in on a very special scholarship. You see, all I have ever wanted was to become a lawyer like my mother was. She was very good at what she did so that is why I have been inspired to become like her.
However, I do dress and look like a male in some ways, which gives me the appearance that I am able to take after my father as well since he is a cross dresser as well. Which is the whole reason I became a member of the Host Club. (Though, I was just coming up to the place to begin with to study. But, after breaking a vase, I am in debt to the club now.)
" - Ri?" Two voices interrupted my line of cleaning duties. The voices belonged to the Hitachiin twins, Hikaru and Kaoru. I mentally sighed as I did not know what they were up to this time. They each had orange hair. Hikaru's was parted to the right today while Kaoru's was to the left side. They had been pretending to be the other today. Sometimes it was horrible for me to know them so well since they rarely ever got called out on that.
"What do you two want now?" I asked sharply. I regretted the tone almost immediately. But, they had been fairly irritating today. Whining about the most obvious things. Such as not having their homework done, and if I could quickly whip something up. Of course, I should have said no, but I was not going to let my friends suffer. Not at all. So, I begrudgily whipped up the homework due for the class in under five minutes. It was the only time I had available to me anyways before we had to hand them in. I hoped they got a decent score though on it.
"What we want to know is if we can come over to your house this weekend?" The twins asked in unison. I sighed. Truthfully, I did not want them to come over.
"No way." I answered.
"Awe, why not, Haruhi?" Hikaru whined.
"Because, I do not want you guys over at my house." I replied.
"Kaoru, what will we do? Our toy does not love us anymore!" Hikaru whined to his brother.
"Haruhi, why do you really not want us to come over?" Kaoru asked.
"You all made a mess last time and it took me three days to get my house completely back in order." I said.
"If we promise not to make a mess, can we come over then?" Hikaru asked, lighting up a bit.
"The answer is still no." I replied.
"Why?" Hikaru asked.
"Because." I answered. I could not believe that I just went down to a one worded answer like Mori-senpai.
"Because why?" Hikaru echoed.
"Because." I said again.
"You said that already. Why?" Hikaru asked again.
"You are getting annoying with asking why though too." I pointed out.
"You two shady twins! Leave my precious daughter alone! She already told you no! Besides, she would rather spend time with Daddy, right Haruhi?" Oh. That's where the blond idiot was hiding. He was waiting for his chance at redemption and saving me it would seem.
"I wish I could spend time with my Dad, but he is at work all weekend. Which is rare." I mused out loud.
"But, Daddy is right here!" Tamaki said.
"You are not my father, Tamaki-senpai!" I stated harshly this time. That sent him off to his corner of woe quickly. I did not mind at all. At least he did not attack me into a hug and swing me around to be honest. If he would have broke something, I would have more added on to my debt.
"How about we play a game then!" Hikaru and Kaoru both said at the same time.
Sighing, I knew that this was going to happen. They got bored often enough, but they would end up with something anyways. "What type of game are we looking at playing?"
"Why, our sweet toy, we are going to play the Which One Is Hikaru Game?!" Kaoru said.
"You guys do realize that I know who is who, right?" I asked.
"You might get it wrong. Since, you are going to be blindfolded for this game." Hikaru said.
"I want to play too though!" Tamaki-senpai whined from somewhere behind me.
"Usually, it is a one person game though." Hikaru whined.
"How about we play either a card game or even a board game instead? Winner gets a prize of their choice." I suggested from the top of my head. I did not like playing card games, but it would help in the sense that Tamaki could play too.
"Hm. That is a very brilliant idea! What game would you propose we play?" Kaoru asked.
"What about Rummy? It's the only one that I know is very simple to play and can have multiple players. Best of five rounds though, since I need to get going home soon to make supper for dad." I stated.
"Sounds easy enough for us. Any other rules?" The twins asked.
"Twos are always wild. Also, it is up to you guys on how you want to play. Do you want to play that you can lay down a few cards at a time or you can play it that you can only go 'out' by laying all of your cards down at once?" I asked.
"Well, putting the cards down as you go would probably be more beneficial for Tamaki. The others probably could get away with putting them down all at once." The icy voice of the Shadow King and the Club's Vice President, Kyoya Ootori stated from where he was sitting.
"That would not really be fair to Tamaki-senpai then. How about, I will go home tonight to think of a different game to play with you two tomorrow. I will let you both know at the start of the day so that we can start at lunch time or after club time. That way, if we can manage a game that all of us can play where it has a definite ending, the winner will still get a prize?" I offered.
"I have some pictures of Haruhi here from her middle school days too, in case anyone else wishes to play." Kyoya stated with a grin.
"Senpai, where did you get those pictures?" I asked leerily.
"From a very trusted source." The bespectacled teen said with his trademark smile on his face.
His trusted source.. It could not be! How could my own father do that! I may have to hide my photos from now on though.
I finished up the cleaning for the night, then ran off. I had to get home though and soon! It looked as if it were going to rain out and I would rather not be caught out in this storm!
A few hours later, and after my homework was done, I knew that I had to start thinking of the next game we could play. I would have to factor in the fact that EVERYONE would possibly be playing. Ruffling through my closet, where I had long ago buried my board games, I came across the perfect game. Scrabble. It was a game of words. We would have to have a challenge. Instead of points, we could see about doing full words. Or, perhaps even the letter system would work as well. I quickly grabbed the game out of my closet and promptly put it in my school bag. I would have to take the game directly to the club room tomorrow morning so that I did not lose it to my two identical friends.
With that done, I sent off a quick message to the others. It was just to let them know that they should be expecting to play a game of Scrabble tomorrow. Though, just as soon as I finished sending the message, a loud BOOM could be heard. I yelped and dove under a table while somehow producing a blanket to cower under. I had no idea how I did it. As the storm went on for the next few hours, I shivered under the table. Though, there was a knock on the door not even half an hour later. I never answered it out of fear of the storm. I did hear the voices outside though.
"Haruhi! We know you are in there! Let us in!" That was the twins.
"Haruhi! Let your daddy in!" Ah, Tamaki-senpai was here too.
"Haru-chan! Please open up! I brought strawberry cake for us to share!" I heard Honey-senpai out there. I mean, who else would mention cake? Then, there was a moment of silence, which I assumed was for Mori-senpai. I understood him. He also wanted me to let him in.
"I am coming." I shakily said, but I had to pause before I went anywhere. I had to listen in case there was going to be more thunder. I am sure it took me at least five minutes to get to the door and to have it opened. There was no thunder at that time either, which I was hoping then that this storm was just part of my imagination.
"It took you five minutes to open the door, Haruhi. Which means that I will have to add 10,000 yen to your debt for making us wait. That was based on a normal person answering the door within three minutes." Kyoya-senpai answered.
I really was not in a mood for teasing from the Shadow King of Ouran. Just as soon as Kyoya-senpai had said that though, another streak of lightning lit up the sky. I had misjudged this storm apparently. With everyone inside two seconds before, I quickly shut the door and was in my room in no time flat.
"Haruhi?" Kyoya-senpai asked. I assumed that he was nearby, since his voice was not muffled. Mine would be though.
"Yes, Kyoya-senpai?" I asked.
"Why don't you come join the rest of us? It's the reason we actually all came over." Kyoya-senpai replied.
"He's right, Haru-chan! We knew you were afraid of the storm." Honey-senpai stated seriously, but a hint of his loli-shota personality came through.
"Besides that, we want to know why you chose Scrabble!" The twins chimed in from behind their two seniors.
"I told you that you would never be alone again, Haruhi. What I never mentioned was that it wouldn't just be myself here for you, but the entire club." Tamaki said, finally managing to push his way through the crowd of people. I felt my bed sag a bit. Tamaki wrapped his arms around me in an effort to soothe my nerves. Sure, I enjoyed it when Tamaki-senpai was actually serious but his antics drove me insane. Or gave me whiplash if you want to call it that.
I took in a few shaky breaths. It really did help. "Thank you everyone. This really does help." I gave them all a weak smile. But, before I could say anymore, the phone rang. It sort of startled everyone as we had not been expecting one. I decided to let the answering machine get it.
'Haruhi! It's daddy calling! I know that there is a storm going on and all. I'm terribly sorry that I can't rush home to help you through this one. I know that the Host Club should be there by now. Kyoya-kun called ahead. Just don't let that bloody worm touch you! But, as I am working a triple shift here at the bar tonight, I will leave you in their hands. I love you lots darling daughter! See you tomorrow night!" With that, her father had hung up. Haruhi sighed. Her eyes scanned her room before they conveniently spotted the alarm clock. It was almost 6:30 at night. A normal person would be eating right about now, but Haruhi wasn't hungry.
"Have any of you ate yet?" She asked her guests. They all shook their heads. "So, you all just came straight from the school then? Or have any of you actually been home at all?" She asked as she sat up in her bed. Making the motions to stand up, all the hosts looked at her.
"Where are you going, Haruhi?" Kaoru asked.
"None of you have ate. So, I'll make you guys something." I said.
"Are you up for that, Haruhi?" Tamaki asked seriously.
"I'm sure that it will prove to be a bit useful in distracting me from what is outside. After all, I normally don't eat when it has been storming out. And, as you all know, I do like doing things on my own. Yet, my father generally seems to be working on these kinds of nights." I stated. Things then seemed to click for the others. Except for Tamaki and Kyoya of course. They already knew that Haruhi was often left alone.
"We know that you have been left alone during a storm, but isn't there a way you can distract yourself otherwise?" Kaoru asked.
"If I know of the impending storm, I can turn on music. But, I didn't realize that tonight it would storm. But, there are times that I am still terrified enough that no amount of music will calm me down, and that is usually where I am under the blankets." I admitted before continuing, "But, tonight's just startled me. And, if my father's not going to be home, then that must mean that there's a big storm coming in." I sighed.
"Which is why we all brought sleeping bags and a change of clothes, Haru-chan! We're all going to have a sleepover tonight!" Honey-senpai said.
