Act 2

It had been a few days since the visit to the Academy and while the students at Juuban were at lunch Joshua decided to give his report to Haruna as promised.

"So you only really spent time with Haruhi?" Haruna asked and Joshua nodded before taking a bite of his sandwhich before speaking. "I'm thinking of going back with mom and sis for that reason. I never got to really meet with any of the other hosts although..." Joshua trailed off as he checked his phone for the text message that Hikaru sent him "one of the twins sent me this message apologizing for the incident that happened with Tamaki. To make up for it according to the text they may want to come for a visit to our school someday. I have since replied and told them that they just need to give it some time but I'll be sure to try and get them permission from our Vice Principal in time. I also mentioned that I didn't see a problem with that though." Joshua commented and Haruna nodded.

"Outside of the incident what is the place like? Is it as big as rumored or is that all talk?" Haruna asked and Josh told her that he didn't get to see much of the school outside of the music room. He did tell her though that if he went back to see Haruhi that he might try and get a tour of the place from her and that satisfied his inquisitive mentor.

Meanwhile at the Academy...

"So Joshua said that he might allow you two to go to his place of work for a day? That's generous of him after what happened." Kyoya said as he addressed the twins. "Hikaru just sent him a message back thanking him for at least considering it. We wanted him to know that there were no hard feelings and that the next time he comes there won't be a repeat." Kaoru said and Kyoya nodded before walking over towards Haruhi whom was entertaining a guest and that made him smile.

"Having fun?" He asked and Haruhi turned to see whom asked the question and smiled and nodded before answering. "Very much so Kyoya-sempai." She said before thinking about the incident and then asking the question that was kind of nagging her. "Did anyone hear from Joshua? I was hoping to hear from him but I wonder if what happened when he left turned him off." Haruhi said worriedly but the VP calmly shook his head before replying.

"He's been in communication with Hikaru and Kaoru about arranging for them to come visit the school. I'm hoping that if he does return with his mother and sister that he'll actually ask you to go first...as an 'ice breaker' of sorts between the schools." He told Haruhi and she smiled as at that moment her phone went off and she politely excused herself from the conversation and her guest before answering the phone.

"Hello Curtis-sensei" Haruhi said as she answered the phone "what can I do for you today?" she asked secretly hoping that he was going to schedule an appointment with her again. "I'm doing well Haru-chan! I was wondering...do you know if/when Saeko and Ami are coming again to your Host Club? I'm thinking this time I'm going to come with them but I don't know yet." Joshua explained to his host before Haruhi took the phone away and turned to Kyoya to ask him.

"I know for a fact that they want to come on Fridays in the afternoon...but in Joshua's case I'd like to see him come alone to be honest. This way maybe we can start to smooth things over with Tamaki before anything escalates between the two." Kyoya explained and Haruhi didn't have to ask Joshua if he heard because...he had!

"Tell Kyoya I actually have no problem with that. I wanted to come with mom and sis more because I wanted to make up for no-showing when they came. That being said I also want to talk this over with my girlfriend first since neither of us knew I was going to be visiting the place at all at first and I want to make sure I don't burn any bridges with her cos trust me...you don't want to get her mad!" Joshua exclaimed and Haruhi understood the situation and told him that she would await his call back for when he was free. After that the two ended their call and Haruhi seemed slightly deflated but Kyoya understood it seemed.

"That wasn't in the Intel...but it shows the respect he has for his girlfriend to tell her that he came here and that he met you. I hope it doesn't cause any problems between the two and their relationship." The VP remarked and that got Haruhi's attention. It wasn't normal for him to be concerned about something like this but then again he knew that Haruhi exhibited all the virtues of being a host and wondered if that's part of the reason that they(Haruhi and Joshua) got along so well!

After School

Joshua went to the Hikawa Shrine straight away after school let out followed in tow by a girl with long pigtails and he knew that this could get bad but he also knew he had to chance it to come clean. Good news was...the girl that worked at the temple(and subsequently his girlfriend) understood.

"I'm happy for you Curtis-chan! Its always good to make friends and expand your horizons. One question though: Why is she working as a host?" The girl asked and Joshua had to explain about the vase incident. The girl(who's name is Rei) nodded before speaking again "So the members of this club at the Academy are making her pay back a debt by becoming a host...but no one knows the truth save you and the other members right?" Rei asked and Joshua nodded.

"Correct and I had a falling out with one of the members already. The dude's name is Tamaki and he is the "King" of the club. What happened was Haruhi wanted to come to one of the schools that I teach at and observe for a day. Tamaki made a snarky comment and anyone that knows me knows damn well that if you piss me off its a bad idea!" Joshua exclaimed and Rei nodded in agreement.

"Your 'big sister' has a temper just like that and we know that she can be extremely violent! What are you going to do about going back though? Do you think you can ignore this 'Tamaki' and just focus on the person you're seeing or do you think there is going to be a bigger issue with him coming in the future?" Rei asked and Joshua told her that he already scheduled to go back to the school the next week. He also told her that he had a feeling that she might be sent to one of the schools to try and smooth things over but which...THAT was another story!

"The interesting thing about Haruhi is that even though I know her secret it didn't send her ,or any other member of the club, into a panic. I think they know that I won't go shooting my mouth off to the school there but then again most of them are those rich ,entitled ,snooty bitches that I can't stand! The fact that I didn't pop one of the male hosts there was a shock but then again they treated Ami and mom right. That accounted for something." Joshua explained as he offered to help Rei with the chores in the temple and she politely accepted the offer along with the other girl named Usagi.

When evening came and Joshua was back at home he noted that he had a visitor in his room...well more like two and they were two of his favorite people(outside of family and his girlfriend of course) in Zoisite and a little girl/catperson thing named Luna! Joshua bowed politely to his friends before addressing them and why he was out so late!

"Helped Rei-chan out tonight Joshua?" Luna asked with a smile and Joshua nodded as he put his briefcase on his desk and took a seat on his bed. "Yes ma'am and that's partly why I'm late. I also had to have a discussion with her about me going to visit a very exclusive type of school here in Japan. What's interesting is...she was okay with it!" Joshua exclaimed and Zoisite found that news interesting for some reason indeed.

"I think what happened is she knows what that club is about and that's why she doesn't feel threatened by it. I also think she knows that you'll stop going if it gets too out of hand and you go off on someone." Zoi explained and Joshua nodded. "People think I have a short temper but the truth is if someone that I genuinely care about is getting picked on or bullied then I'm going to say something. It should be noted that Haruhi got to go to the school because of a scholarship. What a lot of people don't know is that before they made her over she looked a lot more like a boy than girl...THAT was the most amazing thing to me!" Joshua explained and Luna thought about what Joshua said and then whispered something to Zoisite whom then conveyed it to Joshua.

"So she reminds you of one of the 'Outer Guardians'* then before they made her over. What's amazing about that is we also know of your issues with Haruka so the fact that you have seemingly started befriending Haruhi and not HaruKA is a bit of a puzzle." Zoisite pointed out and Joshua hadn't thought about it like that. What he DID think about was the fact that Haruhi was almost the "perfect lady" to him despite her tomboyish appearance. Joshua also told them about how Tamaki wanted to try and keep an eye on her during their time but fortunately a few of the other club members put a stop to that!

As the night wore on Joshua bid his friends farewell and wrote down his notes from this "social experiment" as he called it to some away from the Guardians. He knew that for this experiment to be a true "success" the Host Club would have to visit at least Juuban and be able to go some time there. He also knew that the twins were the first ones willing to go but for some reason Kyoya wanted to send Haruhi first. Joshua didn't mind it but he was going to have to figure out how to situate it if she came. He had an IDEA but would that person be willing to go through with it? That was indeed the question!

Next day...

Back at the grind in Juuban it was and before class got started when Joshua saw the girl that Rei called his "Big Sister" in Kino Makoto he asked her if she could do him a favor and when she asked what it was he explained it to her. Makoto nodded and Joshua thanked her kindly as the bell rang for class to begin. Later that day Joshua fired off a text to Haruhi to give her the good news and she smiled when she got it! She didn't show her customer that she had but she did show Kyoya later on. She did tell her client about the fact that she might not be available for a day in a few weeks though and her client understood surprisingly. Apparently news of the "Tamaki Incident" spread through the school and the girl apologized to her for the comment that he made. Haruhi told her it was no big deal and everything was fine after that.

That night the Guardians had to fight a big nasty Daimon and to say the least it was kicking everyone's ass! Even Ami or Usagi powered up couldn't take the thing down and Cloud tried but got thrown against a wall for his trouble! The fact that it didn't kill him was a shock! Unfortunately for him this meant that the two self-righteous jerks(whom in Joshua's mind make the Host Club look like romper room) showed up and took care of business. When Cloud came to and saw them standing up on a building in the shadows showed them what he thought of them and then staggered home before collapsing on the bed not long after!

A few days later and Joshua was glad to have off but sadly it wasn't his day to go to see Haruhi which was a bit of a downer. He went on his computer and logged into his Yahoo Messenger and was surprised to see that he had a contact invite from "Ouran_HC" which he later found out was Haruhi on one of the school's computers when she could get time away from the club. He had a good conversation with her about what was going on in the club for the day and also how she was doing personally. She told him that everything was fine and that she was looking forward to his next visit to the Academy and gave him a heads up on the next "Theme Event" that they had planned at the Academy. Mercifully he was going to miss it but to put it plainly he was happy that he wasn't going to have to see Tamaki in a speedo!

[Shudders]

ANYWAYS...moving on here!

After their conversation Joshua shut his computer off and was getting some breakfast when he got a call from Rei-chan!

Joshua – Good morning dear! How's it going today?

Rei – Just fine Joshua. I hope I wasn't disturbing you or anything like that

Joshua – You're never a bother Rei. I'm just grabbing some breakfast before I head out for the day

Rei – Ah...going to that Academy today?

Joshua – Nope! I don't go there for another day or so...want me to bring you something back from there if I'm able?

Rei – You don't have to do that Joshua although...

Joshua – Uh oh! What's on your mind Rei-chan?

Rei – Oh its nothing "bad" per se...I was just wondering what you would look like in one of those outfits the hosts wear.

Joshua – You're joking?

Rei – Oh no I've seen at least one of the boys before out and about and I wondered what its like to wear one of those but I figured since you go there to see one of them you might be able to get one of the outfits sometime and model it for us.

Joshua – [sigh]

Rei – Pretty please!

Joshua – I can't make any promises but we'll see...alright!

Rei – Thanks Josh...well I'll let you enjoy the rest of your morning and day and if you want to stop by later you're more than welcome.

Joshua – Will do sweetie!

The two ended their convo and Josh wondered what he had just semi-promised as he finished his breakfast and got ready to go out for the day. His sister was going to the CROWN and he had no real plans so he COULD have gone today to the Academy but he opted not to. He DID take measurements of himself in case ,God for Bid, he actually buckled and decided to ask about one of the uniforms. A better question is how would any of them take it if he asked for one?

As Joshua walked out the door a part of him was starting to wonder aloud about him going back to the club at all. He already had a girlfriend and it wasn't like he really fit in there but there was one saving grace(outside of the fact that his mom and sister liked it there enough to want to go back) and that was Haruhi! He couldn't explain it but being around the host was one of the coolest things he got to experience despite the fact that she was unlike all the others. The one thing he knew was she was the only reason for going there despite the fact that virtually everyone of the hosts actually LIKED Joshua. Could it just have been his stubbornness or was there something else holding him back from actually enjoying it there? This was going to require some investigation and fortunately he didn't have much longer to wait!

Next Day

It was a bit miserable out on the day of Joshua's appointment with Haruhi but he didn't let that get to him as he took the long walk off the bus(Saeko had the car for the day) towards the door to that lead into the building that housed the music room where the Host Club had their fun...and no I won't repeat that again!

When Joshua made his way into the double doors of the music room Kyoya and Haruhi were the first to greet the young man and that was a partial surprise! See he knew that he had an appointment with Haruhi so her waiting for him wasn't a big deal but Kyoya...what was his angle?

"Greetings Curtis-san and how are you doing today?" The VP asked and Joshua just replied with a slightly startled "F-fine" before turning his attention to Haruhi and giving her a pleasant smile. She returned it and the two took a walk through the room as she introduced him to Mori and Honey as well as the Hitachiin twins. Joshua politely bowed to all of them but of course when he saw Tamaki...he had nothing to say to him nor did he even WANT to!

So I know you're thinking that the day was a lot of Joshua looking over his shoulder to see if Tamaki interefered. In actuality that couldn't be any further from the truth but it was more of the lady patrons asking what life was like in the "Commoner World"? While Joshua detested that term(and made no bones about it to Haruhi during their talk) he explained how things were and about how his girlfriend approved of him coming to the Academy as a visitor. This caught the girls off guard but they quickly recovered and the conversation went without a hitch.

Day turned into night and as Joshua bid the club members and the few remaining patrons farewell Haruhi asked if she could accompany him out to where he caught the bus. He smiled and told her that she could and the two walked out together much to the fury of Tamaki but the delight of some of the other members!

"How...how could that..." The club King stammered before Kyoya finished off his statement and saved him from his embarrassment. "How could Joshua walk out with Haruhi right then? Its simple really. Joshua has a quality that truthfully we still need to learn from Haruhi if we wish to catch up to him." Kyoya explained and when Tamaki was still stuck for words Honey and Mori explained it further.

"Joshua has a quality called 'humility' that we still need to learn. The problem is our pride gets in the way sometimes and we don't know how to show that quality properly. Hopefully Joshua can teach us sometime or at the least Haruhi." Honey explained and Mori just nodded. Tamaki only got angrier and vowed that one day he was going to get even with Joshua if it was the last thing he did!

End of Act 2

NEXT TIME

Kyoya: Kaoru what would you think about us having a new member even its just in "honorary" status?

Kaoru: Are you thinking...

Kyoya: Mmmm...

Haruna: Curtis-san you have a package

Joshua: Really?

[Haruna hands Joshua the package]

Joshua: WHAT THE...