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Chapter Two: Tamaki Suoh

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"Haruhi, Haruhi! I'm so proud of you! Daddy's so proud!"

"T-Thank you…"

The surviving female Fujioka was far from thrilled at the moment, sitting down at the dinning room table with her hands resting on her knees and her eyes locked on the golden ticket resting on the table. It looked like no one had caught them finding the ticket so she was grateful not to have reporters crowding into their apartment, but if her dad had the right opportunity…he would probably tell anyone he knew.

She didn't want to go. Mainly because those she would be accompanying would be rich snobs who had bought or calculated their way to finding their golden tickets while hers was purely by chance. If she thought about it, she didn't even know anything about Tamaki Suoh or his chocolate factory that she would be visiting.

It was obvious that her father hated Suoh for some reason, and she didn't think that his chocolate was that bad, but she didn't recall ever seeing him make an appearance on television or appear in a magazine in spite of how popular his candy was. She had no idea how old he was or what he looked like, if he was trustworthy…nothing.

"You're leaving tomorrow morning, Haruhi! Daddy needs to find you something to wear!"

"I'm not going." She said shortly.

Ryoji froze, his mouth hanging open as he stared at his daughter in shock.

"Y-You're not going?" he asked, slumping his shoulders, "But…Haruhi…"

"I could probably sell this ticket." She said, picking it up, "Maybe then you'll be able to rest and not have to work so hard once we have the money."

The cross-dresser stared down at her.

"Haruhi…"

Kneeling down beside her, the father wrapped his arms around his daughter, pulling her against him in a tight hug. The teenager went rigid for a moment before relaxing, wrapping one arm around him and gently patting his back as he embraced her.

"There's plenty of money out there, Haruhi…" he said, his fatherly voice returning, "There is more made every day. But…these tickets, there are only five of them in the entire world."

He released her, holding onto her shoulders at arm's length.

"My brilliant daughter…only a foolish person would give this up for something so common such as money. Are you foolish?"

Haruhi sighed, glancing off to the side.

"No." But sometimes I think I am for letting you talk me into some of these things…

"Then let's pick out an outfit for you!" Ranka beamed, feminism returning, "We have a factory to go to!"

Great…

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It felt awkward standing in line with some of the richest people in the world; Haruhi almost wished that her dad could go in with her as she stared up at the gates leading into the Suoh factory. She could see how they were casting challenging glances at one another…well the twins seemed to be challenging but the others seemed to just have their eyes on the prize.

What shocked her most was that none of them were children as the original advertisement proclaimed they would be. All of them were in their teens, even though Mitskuni looked like a child, he even held a pink rabbit in the crook of his arm, standing beside Takashi and staring up at the gates with a childish innocence.

The twins stood side by side, giving up on their challenging once they saw that they weren't getting any reactions from the other contestants but they did seem to show interest in Haruhi, even though she didn't catch it right away. Their mischievous glances in her direction made one wonder just what it was that they were planning in their simultaneous heads.

"Is it ten o'clock yet, Takashi?" the smallest winner asked, tugging at his cousin's coat-sleeve.

"Only a minute left." Mori said, still looking up at the gates.

"Aw…I want time to go faster…" he whined.

Haruhi glanced up at Kyouya Ohtori, watching him scribble something down in a notebook; pausing and shifting his gaze down to her for a moment.

"Yes?"

She shook her head, looking forward, "I was just curious about why you came here if you hated sweets."

Snapping the notebook closed, he peered up at the factory looming ahead beyond the gates. "It's been a requirement that the Ohtori family would try and create a few ties with the Suoh family. Becoming acquainted with the current Suoh would prove useful." He said, adjusting his glasses casually.

Sorry I asked…she thought; It's all business to this guy…

The gates suddenly shuddered to life, swinging open before the visitors.

"Ah, you're all accounted for!" a surprisingly cheerful voice cried out from an intercom. "Welcome! Please enter!"

Haruhi arched an eyebrow as the other winners moved forward to enter the gates.

"Why would someone go through the trouble of an intercom system when they could simply come greet them at the entrance?" she asked aloud, not really directing the question to anyone but soon found her father at her side.

"Ha-ru-hi!"

She stiffened, "I-I'm going!" she said, not wanting to see the flaming eyes boring into her.

Forcing one foot in front of the other, the poor girl rigidly crossed the threshold of the gates and caught up with the others, her father's returning excitement evident behind her as he called out to her. He was probably waving too…

"Close the gates!" the energetic voice exclaimed; his voice echoing across the grounds as the winners moved forward.

"Haruhi, have fun!"

Fujioka groaned, stopping beside Ohtori once again as they paused in front of a great pair of doors. She just wanted to return home and finish up on her history project that was due that upcoming Friday afternoon. Sit at the table in their heated apartment, contently scribbling away on her notebook paper.

But no…she had to be standing outside in the middle of winter, her feet numbing in the snow while she didn't even want to waste the brain-power to consider how frozen her legs were beneath her forced on skirt. She would have been fine going in pants…but once again, Daddy prevails.

"Welcome my dear winners to my humble factory!" the voice cried out, "I will be escorting you through the entire building. And who am I, may you ask? I am your personal host—"

The doors swung inwards and Haruhi arched an eyebrow as the winners were suddenly met by a flurry of rose petals, they spiraled out of the entrance and fluttered down to their feet, earning puzzled expressions all around, rather un-altered faces belonging to Mori and Ohtori.

"Tamaki Suoh, Welcome!"

He already said "welcome"…twice…the only girl thought, averting her eyes from the silhouette standing in the wake of the doors due to the rather extreme amount of light that shone from behind it.

She peered down the row of contestants and noticed that they were squinting up at the figure, trying to see who was standing in the bright light, only Ohtori seemed to have come prepared; his eyeglasses darkening against the bright light.

Light-sensitive glasses? Haruhi inwardly groaned, Just how much would those things cost?

The sudden absence of blinding illumination drew her attention back to the figure and her curiosity of whomever this Tamaki Suoh was had dropped dramatically as a teen came forward; wielding a cane and throwing out his arms. His garb was not something one usually saw in the streets…

Tamaki Suoh was tall, this was a trait she didn't mind about him, but the blond hair that was visible beneath a deep violet top hat was something one rarely saw in Japan. He wore a fitted coat that reached his knees, covering a waistcoat and black slacks that slightly puddle over his shoes. The cane he held in his hand reminded the girl of a peppermint stick but it was black and white, sleekly narrowing to a tip and at the top was a small glass globe with a rather fancy golden "K" (standing for "King" mind you, Host Club addicts) held within.

"At last you've arrived!"

"You were the one who made us wait until ten o'clock in the morning." The twins pointed out together, bluntly.

The candy maker frowned a bit at this but touched his forehead, tilting his head up and to the side a bit as a smile curved his lips. Haruhi could almost see exaggerated "sparkles" all about this strange teenager.

"It had to be at the perfect time, the perfect moment for me to open the gates of my factory to the public after they had been closed for so many years.

"Actually they were open at precisely 6:45 a.m. when the last procession of delivery trucks left." Kyouya said, looking in a small notebook, his finger pointing at the place where he was checking his data.

Tamaki was next to Kyouya in a heartbeat trying to peer into the book but the whiz simply closed it, putting out the teen's flame of curiosity very abruptly.

"Shall we begin?" he asked recovering from his denial rather quickly.

"Eh?" Mitsukuni spoke up at last, "But, don't you want to know our names?" he asked, his large eyes staring up innocently at the candy maker.

"Oh!" he clutched his heart, his face twisted into complete shock. "That's right! I have forgotten the formalities of introductions! I selfishly introduced myself to you and yet I did not have a chance to match the names with the faces!"

Leaping down the steps that formed the gap between he and he guests, he stooped down and rest his hands upon Mitsukuni's shoulders.

"Forgive my rudeness!"

"It's ok!" Mitsukuni beamed as the irregular teen lowered his hands, straightening back up. "I'm Mitsukuni Haninozuka, and this is my cousin—"

"Takashi Morinozuka." The tallest of the six said, nodding his head to Tamaki.

"A pleasure, would you mind if I call you Hunny-kun and Mori-kun?"

"They sound cute! Right, Takashi?" the boyish teen asked, peering up at his relative.

"Yeah."

Suoh side-stepped over to the twins and looked from one to the other, puzzled for a moment as they peered up at him with mirrored arched eyebrows.

"Um…" he counted up and down the line, "I thought I sent out only five…"

"You did. But we opened the ticket together." They said together.

The one on the left held up an index finger, "If you can guess which one is which, one of us will go home."

"Guess which one is which?" Takami asked, his eyes widening, "That's too hard!"

"Then we stay!" They grinned deviously, wrapping an arm about their shoulders.

Touching his chin, the chocolatier smiled somewhat thoughtfully. He seemed to be considering in keeping them both from the start, judging by the look in his eyes.

Haruhi watched him with a flicker of curiosity resurfacing. Perhaps he wasn't such an idiot after all…maybe Suoh had a few tricks up his awkward sleeve that none of them known about. No, he couldn't have been plotting anything. Not this guy.

"Ah, Kyouya Ohtori." Tamaki stood before the system-cracker with an all-too-friendly smile on his face. "I have heard of your family's ties. It's a pleasure to finally meet you."

He sounded almost mature. Shaking her head slowly, Fujioka sighed, rubbing her hands together to try and stimulate some warmth in her fingers as she waited for Ohtori to launch into his business propositions with the candy maker…but they never came. In fact, all she heard out of Kyouya were a few pleasantries.

And then the torch was passed to her.

"Haruhi Fujioka…the special student that won my contest by pure—" Stepping over to her, he froze. And at that exact moment when he looked down at her, the girl had the strongest feeling that she was in store for one hectic afternoon.

"…chance…" he said in a tiny voice.

"What?" she asked, staring up at him; puzzled by the utterly vacant expression on his face. She continued to rub her hands together, the friction helping mildly.

"S-So…CUTE!" he gasped, dropping his cane and grasping her hands in his; leaning close, "You win the grand prize!"

"Um…that's a little unfair, don't you think?" she asked, leaning away from him a little.

That seemed to snap him out of it, Tamaki stooped and retrieved his cane, straightening with his back to Haruhi and fingers brushing his bangs out of his eyes briefly, though the hat restricted much relocation of the hair.

"You're right…I must give the tour and bestow the final prize upon the lucky individual with uttermost fairness. But I have a feeling that you, my dear, will be the one who will shine above the rest!"

"I want to go home." She grumbled, averting her eyes.

"Introductions have been met, my dear children!" he exclaimed, throwing out his arms and turning back to the six before him, "Come! Let us being the tour!"

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A/N:

So...how was this chapter? I hope that it wasn't a disappointment.

The next chapter is where we get to mee the Oompa-Loompas! Or ARE we?

PLEASE REVIEW FOR THE NEXT CHAPTER!