A/N: I decided to continue! Woo! This story is only going to be six chapters long but I hope you'll like it. =] It also (apart from the prologue, obviously) takes place in Haruhi and the twin's second year. Please review and tell me what you think and I hope you enjoy it :P Next chapter up soon!
Dedication: This story is dedicated to Mariel, who gave me the idea. She is a totally awesometastic friend. ^^ I love you~~! XD
"Happy Birthday to us~!"
"Happy Birthday to us~!"
"Happy Birthday dear you-and-me~~!"
"Happy Birthday to us~!"
Haruhi twitched at the amused sprinkle of applause from the rest of her soon-departing classmates at Hikaru and Kaoru's enthusiastic rehearsal of their self composed song. She glanced up from her test paper to find both twins perched on the edge of her desk, frowning down at her in disbelief.
"Haruhi, quit checking your test papers!" Hikaru whined chidingly, promptly grabbing her pen away from her (much to her annoyance).
"Yeah, didn't you hear our song?" Kaoru added, shaking his head dramatically at her as he took her pen off his twin and held it out of her reach.
"I tried not to." She drawled, thoroughly irritated as she glared at her pen, as though she hoped they would surrender under the power of her glare and give it back.
No such luck.
They both lazily draped themselves over her desk, each throwing out a hand dramatically as they began to happily sing 'Happy Birthday' to themselves again.
Haruhi sighed.
Though it was the last lesson of the day, she had decided to stay behind for a while to quickly go over her test paper, as she hadn't had the chance to yet. As she had hoped, most of the class had already happily left, wanting their free time to start as soon as possible. But, as she had feared, the Hitachiin twins had apparently decided that the best thing they could do to help her, would be to stay behind with her.
Sigh.
Even worse, they were in an even more hyper mood than usual today, as it was almost their birthday and they had consequently spent the whole day singing about the joys of being almost-seventeen.
"Are you going to buy us lots of commoner presents, Ha-ru-hi~~?"
"Ooh, I think you should give us both a birthday kiss, Ha-ru-hi~~!"
"Do you two share a brain?"
They both grinned and simply stuck a tongue out childishly at her comment (reinforcing it, in Haruhi's opinion).
Rolling her eyes and giving up on her test paper as a lost cause, she irritably stood up, promptly snatching her pen out of Kaoru's hand and walking primly over to the teacher's desk. Hearing the unmistakable sounds of two pairs of feet behind her, she quickly placed the paper in a drawer and hoped the teacher would let her look over it tomorrow instead.
Two arms suddenly slung themselves around her shoulders as the twins sandwiched her between them, looking unusually thoughtful. Hikaru, as always, began.
"Hey, listen Haruhi..."
"...we want to ask you something." Kaoru finished, giving her a sheepish grin.
Haruhi remained silent, simply cocking a sceptical eyebrow at their words.
"Well..." Kaoru continued, glancing over at his brother who was apparently going to let him say it. "We want you to come round for our birthday."
It's just that? Haruhi paused suspiciously as she glanced between them, before saying hesitantly; "I am anyway, aren't I? Tamaki's organising the whole club to come round for a party, remember?"
"Yeah well, we want you to come round before that. For a... uh..."
"A sleepover!" Hikaru finally spoke up bravely, cringing as he measured her reaction.
As expected, Haruhi's face instantly deadpanned, unimpressed.
"No."
"But--"
"No. Way."
"It's just that--"
"There is no way in hell that I am ever going to your house overnight. Forget it."
And with that, Haruhi ducked out of their arms, grabbed her bag and quickly walked out, sighing at the persistent idiocy of her classmates. She could only imagine what they'd be like if she actually slept over at their house.
Never mind the fit Tamaki would throw if he heard.
For a second, the twins just pouted as they watched her storm off, obviously sulking at her point-blank refusal. Eventually, Hikaru shifted over to Kaoru and lent an arm on his shoulder, lips twitching evilly as he muttered as casually as he could;
"No way in hell, huh...?"
Instantly catching onto his brother's tone, Kaoru smirked impishly back.
"Well, we are the devil brothers."
"And that's a challenge if I've ever heard one."
The next morning, Haruhi was standing in front of her rarely used locker, struggling with the small key as she balanced her books dangerously on the crook of her elbow. Though she hadn't actually opened her locker that much in her time at Ouran, she did put it to use on occasion when, like today, she was physically weighted down with the amount of books she needed.
Finally managing to jam the silver key into the small door, she, after flashing a quick smile at a few girls who annoyingly chose that moment to start waving at her, yanked it open.
And her locker exploded.
As in, literally.
"What the--?!" But her words were muffled by the huge thing that had suddenly blasted out of her locker, knocking her to the floor.
She let out a small yelp as she landed and her books and papers scattered over the floor.
"Oh my gosh!"
"Haruhi, are you okay?"
"What is that?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Haruhi managed to mumble, blinking in bewilderment at the huge thing she was trying to shove off her. It was long and heavy, made out of a thick, cushioned material and—
Oh.
What was something like that doing stuffed into her locker?
Perplexed, she hurriedly threw it off and scrambled up, smiling appreciatively at a few girls who had kindly collected her now rumpled-looking books for her, looking concerned.
"Thank you, ladies..."
"Oh, no problem, Haruhi." One of them simpered almost giddily, before she gave her locker a worried look. "Um... forgive me for asking but... is that... yours?"
"No." Haruhi said firmly, giving the padded fabric an annoyed look; what was she supposed to do with it? She couldn't just leave it there. "And it's called a sleeping bag. And a heavy duty one at that." She added with a frown. "But I've honestly never seen it before in my life."
Why on earth is there a--?
"Oh, we've heard of them." Two devilish voices suddenly sounded gleefully behind her, making her twitch in irritated realisation.
I'm going to kill them.
"Sleeping bags. Commoners use them for camping."
"Or for sleeping over at someone's house."
"..."
"Is it yours, Haruhi?"
"What are you using it for, Haruhi?"
"..."
"Are you possibly sleeping over..."
"At someone's house...?"
"I said no!"
The twins didn't give up.
Apart from asking her again every chance they got (and whenever Tamaki was out of earshot), they had been researching (making Tamaki research) what commoners did on sleepovers; they were prepared to simply annoy her death if that was what it took to get her to go.
And if the twins knew anything, it was how to annoy people to death.
"A... beer bottle?!"
Haruhi stared, dumfounded, at the cheap, empty bottle in the corner of the club room, where she had been tiding up after another day of hosting; everyone else had already left. The bottle seemed so out of place in the prim, expensive room, that for a second she simply blinked at it, until she suddenly noticed a piece of paper curled up inside.
Instantly getting a bad feeling, she hesitantly picked it up and hooked the note out, already half-knowing what she'd find on it.
And, of course, she was right.
Hey Haruhi, commoners use bottles in truth and dare, don't they? You can have this bottle, free of charge, to bring to our sleepover! ;D
Love, H and K x
Twitching, and suddenly getting the creeping feeling she wasn't as alone as she'd thought, Haruhi promptly grabbed a pen, flipped the paper over, and wrote the worst swear word she could think of on the back.
That done, she smugly slipped the note inside the bottle again and walked out of the room, leaving the bottle on a table and collecting her bag on the way. She hadn't managed to even get to the end of the corridor when she heard two simultaneous voices from the 'empty' music room shout in dismay;
"Haruhi wrote a bad word!"
For the next three days, Haruhi found seven separate sets of pyjamas somehow making their way into her bag without her knowing, each one a vibrant colour that flawlessly managed to catch everyone's attention each time she found a pair in her bag.
Irritated beyond belief, Haruhi never failed to then throw them viciously at the nearest Hitachiin's face before stalking off to the library, grumbling under her breath.
And, every time, both twins would then burst into complete hysterics, despite the resounding 'no' Haruhi left in her wake.
Haruhi once tried confronting them outright, demanding to know why they were being so impossibly childish and stubborn about the 'sleepover' when she was coming round for their party anyway. They had then, of course, indignantly claimed complete innocence, acting offended that she dared even think that they, of all people, was behind it all.
Like it would be anyone else.
"I'm not an idiot." She drawled, annoyed. "And you should seriously just stop. I've already told you I'm not coming."
Hikaru smirked devilishly, and, with a dramatic fake-sigh, threw an arm on Haruhi's head. "Ah, but you see, Haru," He grinned, poking her cheek as Kaoru happily mirrored his actions. "We hear what you're saying. But we just don't get what you mean."
"I'm not coming."
"Well, we hear you..."
"And I mean I'm not coming."
"Nope, I still don't get it. Do you, Kaoru?"
"Maybe 'I'm not coming' is commoner language for 'I am coming'." Kaoru suggested, fruitlessly trying to keep a straight face for long enough to frown in mockingly deep thought. Hikaru instantly beamed.
"An excellent idea, Kaoru!"
"Give me a break." Haruhi sighed irritably, resisting the urge to slap them both around the head. "I. Am. Not. Coming. That's it."
"Commoner language is so confusing..."
"Do you mean you are coming, Haruhi?"
"No."
"Yes?"
"No."
"Yes?"
"No!"
"Hm? You want to sleepover at ours for every single day of your life, you say?"
"...I hate you both."
"Aw, we love you too, Haruhi~!"
Haruhi stopped trying to confront them.
...Until the next day.
The twins were just relaxing and discussing Haruhi's stubbornness (like they could talk) in an empty classroom, Hikaru perched on the window sill and Kaoru sitting on his desk, when Haruhi burst furiously into the room, sporting a glare that could take down an army. Her hair was slightly ruffled and her face was pink in angry embarrassment as she pointed viciously at the vibrant, half destroyed, racoon-shaped piñata in her hand.
"What," She snapped, temper officially hit. "has a piñata even got to do with a damn sleepover?!"
"Uh..." Hikaru quickly glanced at his twin before giving her a sheepish look, flinching slightly under the sudden power of her glare and trying desperately not to laugh. "Milord said commoners like having--"
"Why would this even be needed at a sleepover?!"
"Milord must have... uh, fed us false information. So really, it's Milord's fault." Kaoru spoke up, his nervous laughter instantly dying when Haruhi turned her furious look to him. "We--"
"Timed a piñata to explode over my head in the middle of the library!"
In the twin's defence, it did look pretty funny.
For a second, there was an expectant pause, Haruhi wondering whether Kyouya could cover up a double murder, and the twins wondering what would happen if they started laughing. Finally, Hikaru, as usual, brought it upon himself to break the silence and muttered hesitantly; "So... uh, are you going to sleep over at ours, then?"
"Oh, for God's sake. No! No, I'm not!" She retorted, dropping the abused piñata on Kaoru's desk.
"Then," Hikaru snapped back irritably before Kaoru could stop him. "It's your fault too."
"How can you possibly make this my fault?"
"You're refusing to come to see us on our birthday!"
"I am coming to see you. Just not over night!"
"That doesn't count!"
"Of course it does!"
"We want you there in the morning!"
"Why?!"
They both finally lapsed into silence, Hikaru sulking, annoyed, and Haruhi frustrated, completely lost with his reasoning. After a long pause, Kaoru decided to step in and grinned at her sheepishly, hooking an arm around his irritated brother's shoulders.
"Because we were born in the morning Haruhi." He smiled wisely. "It's our tradition to stay up through the morning until we're born. No-one's ever spent it with us, but we want you to. Please?"
She raised a sceptical eyebrow, still slightly disgruntled. "And why did you feel the need to do all that to me before you told me?"
"We tried to." Hikaru sniffed. "But you wouldn't let us speak."
"Well, I didn't know you were actually going to say something worth listening to."
He scowled.
"And that's still a stupid reason." She added, mercilessly blunt, as she rolled her eyes at their identical pouts.
"So, you definitely don't want to come?" Kaoru mumbled sadly (apparently, he had only just got the hint), arms still slung round his brother.
After giving them a slow 'duh' look, she sighed tiredly, perplexed at the genuinely miserable look echoed on both of their faces. Was inviting her to spend the morning with them really that important...?
She groaned disbelievingly to herself, already regretting her next words.
"Fine."
They blinked at her.
"...What?"
"Fine. I'll go."
"You'll go...?
"To spend your stupid morning with you. I'll go."
"... S-seriously?!"
"Yes."
"You mean it?"
Haruhi rolled her eyes and gave the dumbfounded twins a firm look, steeling herself for the explosion she knew would follow her words. "I don't say what I don't mean." She said simply. "And, I'll go."
...
"YEY!!"
Grinning like maniacs, Hikaru and Kaoru both jumped up and enthusiastically launched themselves at her, cuddling her between them lovingly. They were squeezing her so eagerly, it was all she could do to keep breathing.
"Thank you!" They sang happily as they snuggled her neck, their intermingled voices overflowing with an amazing amount of sincerity for being so hyper. "Yey, yey! Thank you, Haruhi~! Thank you so, so much, Haruhi~!"
Haruhi sighed, allowing her lips a twitch of exasperated amusement before a sudden thought occurred to her and she frowned at them, raising an eyebrow.
"But," She said sternly to both beaming twins (Hikaru was blushing lightly though she didn't seem to notice). "I'm not playing truth or dare, strip poker, or anything else that's going through your perverted minds right now."
They pouted.
"Spoil sport."