Wow, I didn't expect to get so many alerts for the first chapter! And 2 reviews too! Thank you to everyone, your reward is the next chapter! And it's longer too!
Thank you my reviewers!:
Masque de Naif Beaute: thank you for the first review and letting me know that my chapter made somebody laugh
Chocolate . Covered . Life: thank you for the extremely helpful constructive criticism, I've tried to improve my chapters a bit and hope you like them
~A good snapshot stops a moment from running away.~
"Uh, Minako, are you a crossdresser?" asked Kaoru.
"Yeah, last time I checked that was a boy's uniform," piped in Hikaru.
"The school was ok with it when I asked," She paused at that, then grinned guiltily. "Of course, that could have something to do with the hefty donation my dad gave them when I first arrived."
Minako stood at the door of the third music room in a boy's school uniform. Though unlike Haruhi she wasn't pretending to be a guy. It was quite obvious that Minako was a girl, even in the uniform. Her long chestnut hair had been styled into three long braids that reached her waist and came from a bun in the back of her head. She had only three earrings on her right ear today and none of the left, a bit of lipstick, and had her camera bag slung on her shoulder. She looked quite different without her shy girl disguise.
Of course, Minako had taken a picture when the Host Club did their greeting upon her walking in. They hadn't been too surprised though, thanks to a previous warning from the twins. But the twins hadn't told them about her wardrobe choice, not knowing about it themselves, and therefore Tamaki was not prepared for it.
"But why would a young lady wear men's clothing? It's just not ladylike!" exclaimed Tamaki a bit over dramatically. Catching his puppydog eyes Haruhi could feel that this was partly being directed towards her. Geez. He's never gonna let this go is he? She moaned to herself.
"Well back in New York it's pretty rare to find a girl wearing such a poofy dress, even at my old private school. In my opinion, they're better for special occasions only. Also, to take a picture you need to be able to find the best perspective of something, and those dresses severely disable you to do that."
The club found it a bit hard to argue to this. She took this chance to look around the room, then walked up to each of the Host Club members and examined them, getting only inches away from each of their faces. Tamaki was surprised and and gave her a confused look, Kyouya showed no expression behind his glasses as she stared, Hunny smiled innocently, Takashi also showed no expression, and the twins stared right on back. Minako spent some extra time standing before Haruhi though, before finally returning to her spot standing before the lot of them.
"So let me get this straight, you guys are a Host Club. You court girls who choose you as their favorite, each acting to a certain character, right?" she asked.
"You make it sound so simple! Our club is much more than that. We aim to make each of our customers with all that extra time on their hands happy. It's for their pleasure!" corrected Tamaki, facing the sky and grandly holding a hand high up in the air as if offering something to it. Minako burst out laughing.
"Ok, then why were you guys bugging me about being a crossdresser(which I'm not) when you've got one right here in your club?" Minako pointed over to where Haruhi was standing, only to find Takashi holding Hunny holding a pink bunny in Haruhi's place.
"What are you talking about?"asked Hikaru innocently.
"Yeah, Hunny-senpai's not a crossdresser," Kaoru finished.
"Not him! Her!" Minako walked over to Haruhi and poke-pointed at her. "Look at the structure of her face. I've taken hundreds of pictures aand studied the anatomy of boys and girls for years, this is a girls face! And the hands, these are petite dainty girl's hands! No guys have hands like this."
"Silly girl!" said Tamaki as he patted her head. "All those camera flashes must have done something to your head!"
Haruhi pulled her hands back and examined them. "Petite and dainty?"
"Yeaaa—no. Haruhi's a girl and I'm sure of it. I've seen plenty of girls back in NYC that looked way more like a boy than she does. Some were bald."
Tamaki recoiled in disgust at the mere thought of such an atrocity, then went tattling to Kyouya.
"Mommy! Don't let daddy have his baby taken away!" he begged, falling to his knees and tugging at Kyouya's pant leg.
Kyouya sighed. Why am I stuck as "mommy"? He thought as he stepped up to her.
"Minako we cannot stop you from letting out Haruhi's secret. And we will not try to do so. But please keep in mind that just by making enemies out of the Ootori family: the Ootori Private Police, the secret service of the Japanese financial, and political world, will take action. We wouldn't want something like that to happen right?"
Minako didn't miss a beat. "Not so fast. I know who you are Kyo- ya. My dad is a big corporate partner of your dad. And what would your dad say if he found such a big business upset with him because his son had upset the man's precious daughter?"
There was a short pause.
"Play nice guys," Kyouya smiled as he walked away.
"Kyouya! You traitor!" cried Tamaki as he ran to huddle in his corner.
Minako stiffled a laugh. "Relax, I'm not going to tell anyone! I was just kidding. Though I don't see why it's so important that it's kept secret," She shrugged and snapped a picture of Tamaki huddled in his corner.
Kyouya stopped in his tracks as a lightbulb lit up over his head, the gears in his mind spun and he popped up before Minako again.
"I have a proposition for you Hasashi. How would you like to become this club's photographer? We sell magazines and catalogs of our member's pictures, but we're short of a good photographer to take them."
The twins popped up beside him.
"Then what about those magazines we've been selling boss?"
"Yeah, who took those?"
"Those were some very low quality shots taken by hidden cameras I had placed," Kyouya held up a few blurry photos of the club where barely the whole body could be seen. "and I'm afraid these might not continue selling as well unless we fix our photo quality. And Minako here, daughter of one of the world's most famous photographers, would definitely help our sales."
"Everything's a business tactic to you isn't it?" said Haruhi sarcastically. Kyouya only grinned as he pocketed the photos.
"So what do you say Hasashi? You'll be considered a full member of the Ouran Host Club."
"Sure!"
"But I must warn you, in no way can the pictures show anything that might give us bad publicity, or our parent's connections won't matter."
"Yeah sure, no bad publicity photos," Minako held up a peace sign.
"You start now," ordered Kyouya, the first customers starting to trickle in as he walked off to his computer.
A couple hours later the last of the customers walked off reluctantly, Tamaki waving dramatically to each of them, telling them he could not wait to see them tomorrow and that their time apart would only bring them closer. Haruhi rolled her eyes in the background.
"So Minako, how was your first day at the Ouran Host Club?" asked Kyouya courteously, holding his hand out expectantly.
Minako click open her camera and fished out the memory card. She held it and gently deposited it in the center of Kyouya's palm as if it were a delicate treasure.
"Interesting. You guys are more of a comedy show if you ask me, but if that's how the Japanese are," she shrugged before continuing. "But this club seems like the most interesting in the school, and definitely the most amusing. I think I'll stick around."
"Glad you enjoyed yourself," Kyouya shook Minako's hand as if she were a business partner, then returned to the laptop to upload the day's photos and evaluate her work.
Out the window the sky was still a bright blue with a few clouds placed here and there. Minako glanced around the large music room, suddenly feeling a bit third wheelish as she felt at loss for what to do next. The twins were looking over Kyouya's shoulder, bugging him about wanting to see the 'beautiful' photos of themselves. Tamaki seemed to be in deep thought over at his table while Haruhi did some homework at another table.
"Minako! Want some cake? It's really good!" called Hunny-senpai from his table. He had his pink bunny sitting in his own chair next to him. An untouched slice of cake sat in front of the stuffed animal. Takashi was sitting across from Hunny.
"Yes. Join us," he said in his monotone voice.
"Do you have any chocolate cake?" Minako asked as she gladly took a seat at the table.
"Of course!" said Hunny-senpai, as if the very idea of not having it was unthinkable.
Takashi snapped his fingers and an eldery man dressed as a waiter popped up out of nowhere. He bent to let Hunny whisper into his ear. With a slight nod the waiter disappeared again, then reappeared less than a minute later with a cart full of different chocolate cake delicacies. Minako was practically drooling.
"I take it you like chocolate cake?" assumed Hunny-senpai as he picked out a slice of dark chocolate cheesecake.
Minako didn't answer right away. She just sat there staring in wonder at the cart of paradise. She was a sucker for sweet food. Paris was one of her favorite vacationing spots, since the plethora of pastries there were so irresistable. Minako finally settled on the miniature molten chocolate magma cake. Takashi silently took a large slice of five layer Godiva cake for himself.
"You have no idea," she answered.
The cake was still warm, and the melted chocolate in the middle excellently complimented the chocolate cake on the outside.
"How does a music room have a kitchen anyway?" Minako wondered to herself as she took another bite of the cake. Her tongue squealed in satisfaction. "Oh who cares, it's just the cake that matters anyway."
Hunny-senpai proceeded to tell her about all the different types of cakes that he enjoyed eating, then moved on to cookies and candies. All the while Minako listened intently to Hunny's description of a whole new genre of desserts she had never heard of before, nodding enthusiastically every now and again to make sure he continued. This being her first time in Japan Minako knew very little about the country's food or culture. What little she knew came from her dad, who had insisted on speaking Japanese to her since she was a child. So any information she could get about the country's desserts was extremely important.
Takashi silently ate small bites of his cake, looking on in approval at Minako's treatment of Hunny.
"I've got it!" shouted Tamaki suddenly. He jumped up in excitement, knocking down his chair and shoving his table a foot in the opposite direction.
"Got what?" asked the twins as everyone quickly gathered around Tamaki.
Minako and Hunny reluctantly ceased eating their cakes, Takashi blankly telling them "come on" once.
Smiling confidently, Tamaki held himself in a grand and kingly air, as if he had just come up with the greatest idea in history.
"Female bonding!" he shouted, waiting for the praise he was sure he would get after this statement.
Everyone just stared. Kyouya wondered if Tamaki had finally gone insane.
"What are you talking about?" asked Haruhi in an unenthusiastic tone, feeling that somehow this would end in her doing something she would not want to do.
"Haruhi needs to act more like a girl! She needs to embrace her feminity!" Tamaki claimed.
"I do?"
Tamaki pointed at Minako.
"And what better way to do it than by hanging out with another girl! Haruhi is not going to learn to be a girl if she just keeps hanging out these two perverts." he turned and glared at the twins.
"What did we do?" they asked innocently.
"Wait so what exactly do you want me to do?"questioned Minako.
"Why are you agreeing with him?" shouted Haruhi.
"Take her shopping. Get her into dresses and skirts and frilly clothing!" he ordered. "And make sure you take lots of pictures!"
Haruhi took her Calculus book and proceeded to bonk Tamaki on the head. The twins grinned in amusement from the sidelines, ready to offer her another textbook.
"Sorry Minako. Sometimes Tamaki gets these crazy ideas. You don't actually have to—"
"I'd love to! I haven't been shopping in Japan yet so I need to go anyway. And then you can see my house and try all the clothes on!" exclaimed Minako excitedly.
"No, really Minako, you don't have t—"
"Just wait until my parents hear that I made so many friends on my first day!" Minako jumped up and down in anticipation.
Haruhi looked at the new host club member, seeing how happy the idea of shopping with her made Minako. She sighed. She would go.
I just hope I'm not going to regret this, she thought.
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