I felt brain dead. Not just "I can't think of the answer right now let me sleep" brain dead, but actual drooling, stupid, full-on brain dead. I don't know if it was because of the hand that kept wandering around my ass or the fact that I had no idea what my tutor was saying, but either way, I felt like a complete and utter moron just sitting there trying to comprehend my teacher's words.

Well, that was understandable, seeing that he kept groping me no matter how many times I hit him or told him that I'd bite his hand off the next time he tried. I actually did at one point—bite his hand that is. I would've bitten the whole thing off too if his hand hadn't tasted horrible. Where has that thing been? It tasted horrible.

Wait. Never mind. I really don't want to know.

"Okay," he was saying, this time both hands on the table as he tried to show me how to do the math problem, "so 5m+n=8 and 3m-4n=14. We've already established that n=-5m+8. So next we substitute n with what we have. Show me."

I frowned at him blankly but took the offered pencil and wrote it down, since it was a pretty easy step. It was just the general aspect that stumped me.

"Good," he beamed at me a little too eagerly. "So 3m-4(-5m+8)=14. How would we solve this?"

I gave him a blank look.

"Think about it," he urged, tapping the pencil against the problem. I followed the pencil's movements before letting my gaze settle on the actual home work. After a long silence I heaved a sigh and furrowed my brow, really thinking about it.

"We multiply," he finally said when I gave him nothing. "When something is in parenthesis, it means that it's the first thing you have to solve. So solve it."

I rolled my eyes at him, just to annoy him, and grabbed the pencil before doing just that. Even though he was basically telling me what to do, I was pretty satisfied when I got the resulting equation, even if all I did was multiply it.

"Great. So we have 3m+20m-32=4. Now we—"

We were interrupted when my uncle came into the study room. I looked up, stifling my relief, and offered him a smile, which he returned.

"Sorry to interrupt, but Kasumi, you have a visitor."

I blinked at him.

"From school," he added. "He's waiting for you in the entrance room."

Him? Oh you have got to be kidding me. I grabbed my binder and slammed it shut, hurriedly returning the pencils and easers and calculator to the drawer and pencil cases, shoving my binder back in my book bag and ignoring my tutor's soft protests at my big movements as I rushed to put everything away.

"Sorry but you need to leave," I said. "Go out the back."

He gave me an annoyed look. "Why—"

"Go," I snapped at him. He finally obeyed, leaving me as I put my heavy bag on the desk and rushed from the room. I had changed out of my public school uniform and into more comfortable clothes, that being my pajamas. Yeah, so, I was clad in blue cloud-patterned cotton shorts and a baby blue tank top. My hair was in a ponytail and fell slightly in my face since I wasn't wearing the headband I usually wore to keep my long bangs out of my face.

Well, I really didn't mind if one of them saw me this way. Maybe they wouldn't care anymore and let me off, or something. Thankfully they didn't tell uncle—I knew that much since he wasn't angry when he came to get me.

Props for that, ass holes, I thought sarcastically as I headed to the entrance hall. I paused when I did, suspiciously walking closer to glasses dude and the cross-dresser as they stood in front of the door awkwardly, looking around.

"Well, it seems you can afford to pay off the debt," glasses said when he saw me. I stopped in front of him, crossing my arms and glowering.

"No, I can't. I don't want to make my uncle pay you losers."

"Then you'll be the Host's temporary waitress?" glasses asked.

"No."

"Then you'll pay."

"No."

"Then I'll have to take this to court," he shrugged.

I groaned. "Wait, wait—for the love of—fine, okay? I'll be your stupid little server or whatever, but only until I pay off that two million."

"Good," he seemed satisfied and the girl looked annoyed. "By the way, my name is Kyouya. This is Haruhi."

"I meant to ask…how did you know my name? And where I live?" I glowered wearily. His glasses shone in a creepy kind of way and a smug look crossed his usually blank face.

"I know many things."

"Uh, okay," I eyed him. "That's not creepy at all."

"You get used to it," Haruhi said in boredom.

"Why are you even here?" I asked her.

"It was either this or be dragged around by Tamaki all day."

"Ah," I said in understanding. "Well, you guys should leave now," I said slowly, furrowing my brows at them. "I'm doing home work."

"Well—" Kyoya began, only to be cut off when my uncle walked up behind us. He saw my visitors and smiled brightly. He wasn't used to me bringing friends home—though they really weren't my friends, but whatever. I guess he got over-excited.

"I'm so glad you've finally brought friends home!" he said. "Are you hungry? We were getting ready for an early dinner since I have to leave on a business trip soon. You're free to stay."

"I don't think—" I began.

"I'd be honored," Kyoya interrupted me, giving me a cold smile that made my spine shiver. He was one creepy guy. Haruhi looked passive, not really seeming to mind. My uncle brightened and nodded, hurrying off to tell the chef to make more food. I spun to Kyoya once he left, a glower set on my face.

"What's the big idea? I agreed to be your stupid waitress, what more do you want?"

"Your food, apparently," Kyoya said.

"Apparently? You pretty much invited yourself!"

"Actually, your uncle did."

I gawked at him. I decided to turn to Haruhi, since she seemed much more—well, normal—than Kyoya was.

"Is he serious?"

"Sadly," she said.

"You're unbelievable," I whispered at him, narrowing my eyes again. "I didn't think it was possible to hate you any more than I already did."

He raised his eyebrow at me.

"Stand here until dinner," I said as rudely as I could. "Haruhi, you can come with me."

She blinked dully as I grabbed her arm and tugged her along with me. I wasn't sure where I wanted to go first. Usually I spent my free time teaching myself piano (by the way, I still suck at it) or read. I hesitated for a mere moment before I decided to take her to my room. I slammed the door open and walked in, releasing Haruhi once I did.

My room was pretty boring, so I wasn't surprised when she only took one look around before looking at me expectantly.

My walls were pale blue. I had a big frilly white bed near a large sliding glass door that led to a terrace outside (my room was on the fourth floor, which was actually really annoying, but the other floors were for uncle's work or something). I had a desk near the door and my closet took up a lot of the room, though my clothes barely filled it.

A boring room for a boring girl.

Fitting, isn't it?

"We could go outside," I suggested, walking to the slide glass door. I pushed it open and stepped out, relieved that there was only small warm wind. Haruhi joined me and I flopped down on the small garden chair that sat behind the tiny table. Haruhi hesitated but joined me on the other side of the table.

"I'd laugh if he's still standing there by the time dinners ready," I suddenly said. Haruhi looked at me. "So what's your story?"

"I broke a vase."

"Oh. And…you happened to look like a boy, so they asked you to cross-dress?"

Haruhi blinked at me. I couldn't help but noticed she had really big, pretty brown eyes. Again, I had to wonder how they could mistake her for a guy. She was actually really pretty.

"They mistook me for a boy. I had on my glasses and my hair was pretty messy. I couldn't afford the uniform so I wore pants and sweater," she said blankly.

"Oh," I said again. "That makes more sense."

"Yeah," she replied.

"I don't get how you can handle all that stupidity every day," I sighed dramatically. "I mean, I know I can't."

"You'll get used to it. I had to," she said.

"I doubt I can. Not to that."

"That?"

"Like, those annoying homosexual twins," I grimaced. "Don't they know incest is illegal? I mean, it's revolting. How do girls see any appeal in twincest at all? I find it gross. Oh and that Tamaki guy. How can you spend more than two minutes with him before strangling his stupid tiny neck? I applaud you for your patience."

"You're an unusually angry person Yoshinda-san," Haruhi said. I blinked at her, snapping out of my mini rant.

"I'm not angry. I'm just…I don't like them," I finished.

"I see."

"What?"

"Hm? I didn't say anything," Haruhi said coolly.

"You said 'I see' all high and mighty…like you want to say something else," I said.

"No."

"Yes."

"I don't understand."

"You're smart, you understand," I said, staring her down. She held my stare and I gave up, looking out at the back yard of the mansion. Thankfully uncle's ex-wife had been an enthusiastic gardener so the large yard in the back was full of flowers and plants. It was fun to look at sometimes.

"Do you like him?" I suddenly asked.

"Who?"

"Tamaki. He likes you."

"What…?" she had a mix of disinterest and repulsion on her face.

"I don't know," I sighed. "I'm good at reading people, I guess. Just a hunch."

"Well, you're wrong."

"Yeah, right," I rolled my eyes. If I was wrong, maybe it wasn't 'like' - just obsession. Heh.

We sat in silence, staring at the garden. After a moment I stood, dusting my shorts off.

"Dinner should be ready," I said. Haruhi stood and followed me through the room and down the halls. Eventually we reached the first floor and I stifled laughter when I saw Kyoya standing where we had left him. I hated to admit it, but it was sort of cute. He reminded me of a giant, ugly, stupid, obedient trained dog.

In glasses.

"I was just about to come get you," uncle said as he walked in. "Dinners ready."

"Come boy," I cooed at Kyoya, waving my hand. He stared at me blankly but followed us down the hall and into the dining room. We sat down near the end of the table while uncle sat with us, which wasn't that unusual since he liked sitting with me.

"Thank you for having us," Haruhi said, bowing politely. Uncle laughed.

"No formalities, please! Any friend of my niece's is a friend of mine."

"They're not my—"

"That's good to know sir," Kyoya interrupted me with that arrogant smile again.

The chef came out and put plates in front of us. My eyes brightened and I swore I drooled a bit when I saw it was steak. Which, if you didn't know, was my favorite.

"I love you uncle," I said in awe before stabbing the hunk of meat with my fork. Uncle laughed again.

"You're welcome. I remember your mother used to tell me all about how you adored steak."

I chewed noisily, ignoring Kyoya's weird stare. It was probably my inappropriate table manners. Well, too bad, I wasn't raised like this. Jerk. Haruhi ate just as noisily, though she was a bit daintier about it, as strange as that was. We didn't talk, which I was grateful for, and after dinner Uncle hugged me goodbye and left for his flight. Once gone I waited until they were done eating before I pushed them toward the door.

"Well, as great as this visit was," I said sarcastically, "you should get home."

"Thank you for having us," Kyoya smirked.

"Shut up."

"Thank you Yoshinda-san," Haruhi bowed again.

"You, Haruhi, are welcome any time," I said sweetly. "You, Kyoya, are not."

I pushed him out and nodded as Haruhi stepped out after him. Then I slammed the door shut as dramatically as possible. I spun on my heel and hurried to my room, on the fourth fucking floor, and crawled into bed weakly even though no one was there to see my theatrics. I was tired. I don't know why, but it suddenly hit me. With one last sigh I let myself fall asleep peacefully. For the first time in a long time, I had a peaceful night of sleep.

And it had nothing to do with the Host Club.