Author's Note: I know, I know. This was supposed to be up a week or so ago. But I got inspired and started rewriting the initial few chapters, and then I sort of spiraled into a writing frenzy, writing and rewriting until I had something just right. It's got fluff, it's got heartbreak, it's got some slightly humorous moments, and it's got two Hitachiins for the price of one! Set during their first year of university. It is HaruhixHitachiin centric, but it's also got MorixHaruhixHunny friendship!

I don't own Ouran High School Host Club, but I own this story and I've got a chapter and a half of a far more dramatic HaruhixHitachiin story, but I'll save that for another time.

So, now you can read, review, and enjoy!

A Hitachiin Original Story

Chapter 1

Haruhi was groggy when she woke up.

She was also pinned down to the bed by two sets of arms.

Swiveling her head back and forth, Haruhi tried to get her bearings. Kaoru was on her left, face down, his left arm draped across her waist and his right arm cradling his head. Hikaru was on his side on her right, his right and left arms encircling her. She briefly considered falling back to sleep, but she decided against it. There was work to be done.

Carefully, Haruhi untangled herself from the twins, her best friends, and slid off the edge of the bed, standing up slowly so as not to make the bed springs creak. She picked up her sweatshirt and threw it on over her old t shirt, thinking once again that it was good she had chosen to wear her most comfortable jeans yesterday. Haruhi picked up her sneakers and carried them with her to the twins' apartment door as she tiptoed across the carpeted floor. Before she had even opened the door, though, she heard a voice behind her.

"Haruhi?" Keoru called out sleepily from behind her. "Where are you going? It's Saturday morning."

"I have to study, Kaoru," Haruhi replied without turning around. But her hand didn't move to turn the doorknob.

Arms encircled her, and Haruhi tried not to melt into the familiar embrace. She breathed in, loving the smell of Kaoru's faded cologne; not too strong, but still there and still wonderful.

"Come on Haruhi," Kaoru coaxed in his most enticing voice. "I know Hikaru would really appreciate it if you stayed."

Haruhi hoped Kaoru couldn't hear her heart cracking ever so slightly as the words left his mouth.

Kaoru had been dropping more and more not-so-subtle hints ever since they had gotten into university together that Hikaru and Haruhi would make the perfect couple. Ever since Haruhi had turned down Tamaki after her and the twins' graduation a year ago, kindly but bluntly, of course, Kaoru had been trying to finagle his brother's way into Haruhi's heart.

Haruhi knew people thought she was oblivious, but if she was oblivious, then what the hell was Kaoru?

Haruhi didn't resist as Kaoru pulled her back through the apartment and into the kitchen. She smiled as he pulled out a chair for her at the table with a flourish. And she pretended, in a very Tamaki-like fashion, that everything was the way she wanted it to be as Kaoru made breakfast for her and him and Hikaru.

And she pretended her heart wasn't breaking the entire time.

"So how have your classes been going?" Kaoru asked Haruhi. He was perched on the counter top next to the stove while he fed himself cereal (he had burned the pancakes). Haruhi, who had taken over at the stove and was now making three omelets, turned to face Kaoru before answering.

"Same old, same old, I guess. I still really like my history of law class, but I think I might need Mori-sempai's help with my final essay for my ethics class. How about you? How do you like your new art class?"

Kaoru reached out and brushed a stray hair out of Haruhi's face. She tried not to lean into his touch too much. Her hair was longer now, but the shorter pieces would still fall out when she tried to pull it back.

"They're going great, actually," Kaoru finally, finally, replied after taking his hand away. "I mean, Mom's still not thrilled that I chose to branch away from the Hitachiin line, but Hikaru's the oldest, so he's technically the one who's going to inherit Hitachiin Designs anyway."

Haurhi smiled at him. "I think it's good that you're doing something on your own, separate from your brother. Besides, it's not like you've actually given up being part of Hitachiin Designs. You're just . . . expanding the company."

It was Kaoru's turn to smile. "That's one way to look at it. Oh, hey, sleepyhead!"

Haruhi and Kaoru both directed their attention towards the entryway to the kitchen. Hikaru was there, shirtless and with ruffled hair.

While it was hard to ignore the way Hikaru had filled out over the years (and he had filled out very nicely), he still wasn't what Haruhi was looking for in a . . . boyfriend type person. Neither was Mako, but . . .

"I have to go," Haruhi blurted out abruptly.

"What?"

"Why?"

"Hikaru just woke up," Kaoru pointed out.

Haruhi slid the omelets onto the waiting plates, dividing the one that was meant for her in half and splitting it between the twins.

"I know," Haruhi said. "But . . . I have plans tonight." She tried not to squirm. While she had originally thought it was a good idea, now she wasn't so sure. Dating another boy just to see if Kaoru would be jealous because she was spending time alone with someone who wasn't Hikaru was conniving, and she was fairly certain it would blow up in her face.

"Plans?" Kaoru asked, confused.

"With who?" Hikaru demanded.

"The hosts are all going to that up-and-coming members of society function tonight," Kaoru voiced, trying to figure out an answer to Hikaru's question. "So it's not one of us."

"And I thought you would be studying tonight since we've all got the thing to go to," Hikaru added, narrowing his eyes at her in suspicion.

Haruhi sighed. "Hikaru, my life does not revolve around you two and the other hosts. I have other friends," Haurhi said defensively, albeit somewhat evasively.

"So you're hanging out with your other friends?" Hikaru questioned, his voice growing louder.

"Hika, that's not—Argh!" Haruhi threw her hands up. This wasn't supposed to be happening. This would be the whole, her-plan-blowing-up-in-her-face-thing she had been worried about. "I thought it'd be nice to do something with a friend of mine from class since all of you are going to be busy tonight at the gala or whatever, which I can't go to because I'm not, you know, a rich bastard or a famous bastard or something."

Hikaru gave her one last suspicious glare. "So what's her name, then?"

Haruhi answered as quietly as she could, hoping Hikaru wouldn't hear her. Hoping Kaoru wouldn't hear her. He'd been so quiet since Hikaru had started in on her.

"His name is Mako."

"HIS?!" two nearly identical voices shouted simultaneously.

Haruhi backed up, her lower back banging into the counter top behind her as the twins advanced.

"Start explaining," Kaoru said, trying to reign in his shock.

"Now," Hikaru growled, not quite managing to keep a lid on his temper.

Holding her hands up in a show of surrender, Haruhi began to ease her way over to the kitchen table. "I'll start talking when both of you are sitting calmly across from me at the table."

The twins slowly move to do as she asked, and Haruhi sat down with them. She folded her hands on the table, and she positioned herself opportunely to watch Kaoru's face.

"Mako's in my forensic science and law lecture. We got partnered together for lab. Earlier this week, he mentioned that there's a festival on campus that he thought I might enjoy, and he invited me to go with him. I said yes, since he said it was Saturday, today, a day I knew all of you guys would be busy. That's it."

"That's it," Kaoru repeated. "Then why didn't you tell us?"

He sounded hurt. Haruhi could understand that. She told Kaoru everything, he was her closest confidant, besides Hikaru. His eyes . . . he looked so sad.

"It's not anything major," Haruhi said, trying to convince them. It was a mistake, obviously. She never should have agreed. She knew spending time with Mako would hurt the twins. Would hurt Kaoru. "Look, if you really want, I can cancel my plans with Mako and just study tonight—"

"No," Hikaru said, cutting her off. "Go." His voice sounded dead, uncaring. "You should spend time with your other friends."

"Hika," Haruhi whispered, hurt by how upset Hikaru was. "I just thought—"

"Did you?" Hikaru demanded in a hard voice. "Did you think at all? Did you think about how Kaoru would feel? How I would feel?"

"I did think about it, Hikaru," Haruhi replied, raising her voice just a little. "I just thought it might be nice to spend time with someone besides the hosts. To do something that I used to do before . . ." she trailed off, not wanting to finish her sentence. She glanced surreptitiously at Kaoru from underneath her bangs. He was looking at her as if she was something foreign to him.

She didn't know how to finish her sentence. Before her mom died. Before she met the hosts. Before she had fallen in love with Kaoru.

"I'm sorry," Haruhi murmured, meeting Hiakru and Kaoru's gazes. "I didn't mean to hurt you guys. I only wanted to go out. I thought it would be okay since you all had plans." Plans without me.

"Well, what should we have done Haruhi?" Hikaru asked, the slightest bit of an angry sneer seeping into his voice. "Did you want one of us to, what, take you as our date to a society event?"

Haruhi recoiled as if she had been slapped. She had secretly been hoping someone would ask her.

"Hikaru—" Kaoru began in an admonishing tone, but Haruhi held up a hand.

"Hikaru, do I need to remind you that I spent three years being trained by six of the highest ranking members in society on how to act at an event like the gala tonight?" Her voice was quiet, angry, and deadly. "And I shouldn't have to remind you that I don't need your permission to hang out with a friend or go on a date. I was worried about how you would react, so I didn't tell you guys. But as my best friends, I had hoped you guys would be supportive since I'm nervous enough about this as it is!" she hissed.

There was silence. Kaoru was the first to break it.

"You really like this guy, don't you?" he wondered out loud.

No, I really like you, but I can't have you, so I'm improvising, Haruhi thought to herself.

"I might," was what she said instead.

Hikaru looked ready to scream and cry and throw a tantrum to get what he wanted. But before he could say anything, Kaoru spoke for them both.

"Okay, then," he replied. "We'll give this Mako guy a chance."

"On one condition," Hikaru added. "We want to meet him before we head out to the gala and before you guys leave for the university's festival."

Haruhi smiled at them, trying not to show that she felt like her rib cage had suddenly become unbearably tight. "Okay."

Meanwhile, another person in that kitchen was trying to keep his own heart from shattering.

He wasn't succeeding.

Kaoru felt disturbingly uneasy as he stood in Haruhi's small apartment in his tuxedo. Hikaru might have been at ease on Haruhi's sofa, flipping through television stations, but Kaoru couldn't seem to stand still as he shifted from one foot to the other, picking up the photos that lined the table in the entryway and examining them without really seeing them.

"Haruhi, are you sure you don't need help picking out an outfit?" Hikaru called out.

"No!" Haruhi shouted back, adamant. "I'm doing this on my own!"

Oh, the ever independent Haruhi.

"Fine, but if Mario dumps you on the first date because you look like a chimpanzee dressed you, then you can't put the blame on us." Hikaru, Kaoru knew, was still bitter. But at least he was trying.

"It's Mako, and don't worry," Haruhi yelled back, a teasing hint to her voice. "I always find some way to blame you guys!"

Kaoru would have smiled at that if he hadn't been so uneasy. He tried to tell himself that it wasn't because he was jealous. He trusted his friendship with Haruhi, knowing it would withstand everything and anything. So what was in danger? Kaoru refused to believe that it was anything romantic, except maybe that he was concerned for what might have been Hikaru and Haruhi's potential relationship. Kaoru wasn't worried about losing Haruhi.

You had to have someone to lose them.

And Haruhi wasn't his.

With a start, Kaoru was pulled from his thoughts by a knocking on the door. Before he could register what was happening, Hikaru had bolted across the room and flung the door open wide, revealing a boy slightly taller than him and Kaoru with dark eyes and darker hair set against fair skin.

"Oh, hello," he said, clearly taken aback by his greeters. "I'm sorry, I think I might have the wrong apartment. Is Haruhi Fujioka here?"

Kaoru wanted nothing more than to say no and slam the door in his face.

Hikaru was the one to actually speak. "She's still getting ready. Hm," he muttered as he tapped his chin, pretending to think something over. Kaoru knew that look. His brother was planning something. "Your jeans aren't a bad fit, but that sweatshirt with that shirt? Really?"

Mako looked at the two of them. "I'm sorry, but who are you?"

"We're Haruhi's best friends," Kaoru answered. "We're also the heirs to Hitachiin Designs and the Hitachiin fortune. We're friends with the Suoh, Ootori, Haninozuka, and Morinozuka families. Haruhi's friends with them, too," he added not-so-casually.

"And we're here to make sure you know that five of the most powerful families in Japan will make sure you never amount to anything if you ever hurt Haruhi," Hikaru continued for Kaoru.

The plain-dressed boy before them only glanced between the two twins as if trying to figure out whether or not they were serious.

"Oh, stop scaring him!" Haruhi called out ahead of herself as she walked into the front hall. If Kaoru's ears weren't deceiving him, Haruhi was wearing heels. She must have put in a lot of effort if she was willing to wear heels. As Haruhi turned the corner between her bedroom and the front hall, Kaoru felt his heart drop.

She was beautiful.

Her hair was swept back in two careful braids, and she was wearing a dark blue dress over black leggings with a pair of strappy, secure, small-heeled sandals.

"Hi," Haruhi greeted Mako, slightly out of breath. "Sorry about these two."

No one said anything.

"What?" Haruhi asked. "Am I not dressed right? Did I forget something?"

Mako was the first to recover. He smiled. "No, Haruhi, you look perfect. Do you have your student ID?"

"It's in my wallet. Just let me grab it."

As Haruhi click-clacked away, Kaoru and Hikaru turned to face Mako.

"Remember, don't hurt her—"

"Don't try anything—"

"Treat her with respect—"

"Don't let her pay for anything—"

"Even when she insists—"

"Give her your jacket if she gets cold—"

"And don't hurt her!" the twins finished in unison.

Shifting his gaze back and forth, a scared looking Mako made to open his mouth when Haruhi came back from retrieving her wallet.

"I'm ready," she said, sweeping some of her stray fringe out of her eyes. She stepped forward and grabbed Mako's hand. "Have fun at the gala!" she called out over her shoulder.

The twins were left alone in her apartment, waiting for their limo to pick them up for the party.

Hikaru broke the silence. "I don't like him."

"Neither do I," Kaoru agreed.

Kaoru was lying on the couch in his half-undone tuxedo, the distant sounds of Hikaru snoring in the bedroom drowned out by his thoughts.

His thoughts of Haruhi in that blue dress, walking away from him and towards Mako. Thoughts of jealousy—No! Kaoru was not jealous. If he was jealous, that would ruin everything.

He had spent the past year trying to set Haruhi up with Hikaru. Kaoru had given up on any chance he might have with Haurhi back in their first year of high school. Back when he realized that the pumpkin would break, and the fairytale would end. Haruhi would eventually wake up, too, and realize that more than one host was in love with her. Maybe, Kaoru had thought, she would realize the she was in love with one of them. And if it wasn't Tamaki . . .

. . . Then maybe it can be you, Kaoru thought.

He shut his eyes hard, trying to un-think it. He was so confused. He knew Haruhi would be good for Hikaru, and he knew that Haurhi was the only girl his brother had really let into their lives.

But Haruhi was also the only girl Kaoru had let into his life, and she was the only person besides Hikaru he could really talk to. She had known before anyone else that he wanted to start his own fashion line and study more classic arts. She was beautiful, funny, brilliant, honest, compassionate, and so wonderfully, painfully oblivious.

How did she not know he was in love with her?

Because you keep hiding it, Kaoru answered himself. Maybe if you said something to her . . .

But how much would that hurt Hikaru?

Kaoru felt like screaming he was so torn. He was torn between Haruhi and Hikaru. The two people he loved the most in the entire world. He couldn't risk losing either of them, but he felt as if he was slowly going crazy standing in this halfway place between the two of them, trying to get them together when Haruhi said she wasn't interested in Hikaru, and all the while he, Kaoru, was more than interested in Haruhi.

Besides, who the hell was she interested in? Mako? Kaoru had a hard time believing that sweet, grounded, goal-driven Haruhi was really interested in some guy she had one random class with.

Still, that didn't stop him from feeling furious at the thought of him taking Haruhi out, touching her, running his hands—

"Argh!" Kaoru shouted, throwing the gaming device on the table across the room and into the wall. "We're best friends," he whispered to himself. "So why doesn't she see me? Why won't she choose me?"

The pillows that were once positioned at the head of her bed were now strewn across the floor, and Haruhi was sprawled out across her bed, grumbling to herself.

She knew she had been standoffish the entire time she had been with Mako. She had been friendly, but not really all there the entire time. It hadn't helped that Mako had seemed slightly terrified the entire time, probably because of what the twins had said to him. Haruhi was having trouble remembering why she had even done out with Mako in the first place. If anything she had only endangered her friendship with Hikaru and Kaoru.

Haruhi felt miserable. An awful night had come and gone, Hikaru was probably still mad at her, and she had no idea where she stood with Kaoru.

Kaoru.

He was so sweet. The way he put his brother before everything else. How focused he would get when he was trying to get a sketch just right. Those moments when he would look across the room at her, and for that one second when she felt like she couldn't breathe because he was looking right at her, just at her and only her, everything froze except for them. It was something else.

He was something else.

The truth of the matter was, Kaoru was the kind of boy Haruhi could fall in love with and stay in love with. When she was little, she used to think about being in a happy relationship, just like her parents. And the more she had gotten to know Kaoru, the more he had grown up and explored the world away from his brother, the more she had come to care for him. Now, she was fairly certain she was in love with him. And she didn't know what to do about it.

She was Haruhi. She wasn't good at relationships and love and all that crap. There was no way she could ask her dad about it. Tamaki was out of the question for obvious reasons. She didn't think Mori would be much help. Kyoya was . . . a non-option; too scary. So, that left Honey.

Tomorrow, Haruhi decided, she would visit Honey. Maybe he would be able to help. The problem was, what should she tell him?

Just tell him the truth. Tell him you're hopelessly in love with a boy who doesn't love you back.

Author's Note: So, what did you think?

This isn't going to be a super long fanfic (I'm thinking five chapters or so), but I like what I've got so far. I'll update by the end of the weekend, if I can. I've been scrapping this story together like crazy, trying to piece together what I had with my new thoughts while also jotting down random chunks for a different HaruhixHitachiin story, so bear with me.

In the next chapter, Mori and Honey will appear to advise Haruhi (because you can't have Honey without Mori!), and then the other hosts will appear to create trouble! It should be good. Lots of rough cuts and editing to go, but I've got some free time this week. Anyways, in case you couldn't tell, this is a HaruhixKaoru story, and that's because Kaoru's my favorite twin. Give me enough shout outs, and I'll make a HikaruxHaurhi story out of my scraps (twin undecided, but story started).

Thanks for your support!