Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club
Trick of the Trade
By
L.A.S.
2. Améliorez que moi (Better than me)
Kyouya Ootori understood many things about the world, and how it worked. He knew that when people said one thing, they really meant another thing. This fact of life applied to pretty much every human being in existence. Even himself. What he couldn't understand, though, was how he couldn't decipher the meaning in one Haruhi Fujioka's words.
"My debt will be paid sooner than you know."
Of the statement, the obvious was clear. She was going to pay off her debt to the host club, sooner then he'd know apparently, but there was something else there. Underneath her words, there was something else being said, but for the life of him, he couldn't figure it out.
Kyouya pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and continued to flip through the files he had on the only female member of their club. It was late on a Thursday night, and despite the fact that he had school the next day, he continued his research. With the resources he had, and the use of his last name, he was able to find anything. He should be able to, anyways. The fact that he had to work so hard to find out what was going on, if anything at all, was a disturbing fact to him. It didn't add up, and he was getting frustrated.
Kyouya Ootori never got frustrated.
This, whatever this actually was, was a problem.
"Can I help you, hime?"
The Host Club was just beginning to set up for their Nineteen Fifties American theme, when a girl with shoulder length auburn hair and bright green eyes appeared. She didn't appear to be Japanese, but whatever race she was, it meant business for the Host club.
"I'm looking for Haru-chan." She said in a small voice. Tamaki only stared down at her.
"Haruhi? He isn't here yet."
"That's ok. I'll wait." She looked around for a place to sit, and walked off in the direction of a chair that was placed against a wall. Tamaki, not sure of what to think, simply walked over to where Kyouya was.
"Haruhi has a visitor." Tamaki said. "She doesn't go to this school, I don't think."
"I thought you explained to Haruhi of our business-only attitude when the Host Club is working." Kyouya said, not even looking up from his laptop. Tamaki shrugged.
"I figured she was smart enough to deduce that on her own."
"Well, in any case, you'll have to tell the girl to leave. We are about to start anyway."
The huge double doors opened, and in walked Haruhi and the Hitachin Twins. They were hanging on to her, as per usual.
"WE'RE HERE!" Hikaru shouted. Haruhi untwined herself from his arms, and walked over to the maroon couch in the middle of the room. She dropped her stuff. Before she could sit down, a surprised yelp caught her attention. Her eyes traveled to the twins, who were crowding a girl sitting alone in a chair. She sighed and made her way over to them.
"If you didn't come here for the Host Club, then what—"
Kaoru was cut off in mid-sentence as the girl stood up. With a cheerful face, she called out "Haru-chan!" just as Haruhi approached the trio. She blew past the twins to meet Haruhi half way.
Haruhi blinked. "How do you know my name?"
The smile left the girl's face slowly as she stared at Haruhi.
"Do you really not recognize me, Fujioka-san?" she asked in a voice barely above a whisper.
Haruhi focused her eyes on the girl with the familiar sounding voice. "Honda-kun?"
Yukari Honda smiled. "Yeah, it's me. I got a makeover today. Do you like it?" She spun, showing off her new outfit. Haruhi smiled at her friend.
"Yeah. I barely recognized you. You look great!"
"Thanks." Yukari's eyes got serious. "Can we talk?"
Haruhi looked around at the other Host members that were staring at the interaction between the two girls. She suddenly remembered where she was. Linking her arm with Yukari's, Haruhi lead the girl toward the double doors.
"Sure." She looked over her shoulder. "I'll be right back."
They disappeared from the room.
There was silence between the five male members of the club. They weren't sure as to what they just witnessed, but knew that it was rare to see Haruhi seem…human.
"You know, that girl could actually be a crazy person." Hikaru said.
"Yeah. She seemed to have an unpredictable personality. Who knows what could happen to our Haruhi if they were actually left alone." Kaoru justified.
"We should follow them." Hikaru responded.
"To make sure Haruhi isn't in any trouble." Kaoru nodded. They went to the door, and slipped out.
"Someone should, uh, go and make sure they don't do anything that is, uh, you know, stupid." Tamaki said, and then he too, exited the room. Honey stood up from the desert.
"Wai! Honey wants to protect Haru-Haru too!" he took a step away from the table, but was picked up by the back of his shirt by Mori. He gently placed Honey back in the chair. When the short blonde began to protest, Mori slid a piece of Strawberry cake with vanilla icing under his nose, and all thoughts of leaving the table dissipated.
Kyouya continued to type.
Tamaki, Hikaru, and Kaoru peeked their heads around a corner. Haruhi was leaning against a wall, arms folded over her chest, foot flat against the wall, making her legs look kind of like a four. The girl said something and Haruhi nodded and said something back. The girl laughed. She took something out of her pants pocket and showed it to Haruhi.
"What is it?" Hikaru whispered.
"I don't know! We're too far away." Tamaki whispered back.
"We should try to get closer." Kaoru offered.
Tamaki nodded. "Good idea."
Sneakily, the trio tiptoed closer. When Haruhi turned her head, they instantly ducked into the nearest open classroom. Geometry. The teacher looked at them, sprawled out on the floor.
"Uh, don't mind us, madam! We are on a mission!" Tamaki announced proudly. The girls in the class swooned.
They stuck their heads out of the classroom and spy on Haruhi one more. She was holding something in her hand. It was a paper.
"I wish we could get closer." Tamaki said.
"Any closer and she's bound to tear us apart." Kaoru said. The blonde pouted.
"Sh! We can hear them!" Hikaru said.
Haruhi stared at the outfit design Yukari had given her.
"I'm supposed to wear this?" she said, disbelieving. "I can't wear this! It's too exposing."
"Oh, come on Haru-chan! The last outfit you wore was worse than this."
"But I had shorts on underneath. If I wear this, I'll be in my underwear!"
"More like a bikini. It's not that bad. You've worn a bikini before."
"But not in front of a crowd!" Haruhi was aghast. Her boss actually expected her to wear this, this..!
"This monstrosity is not coming within five feet of my body." Haruhi declared. She handed the paper back to her friend. "I'm sorry, but if Hanagawa-san keeps putting me in these skimpy little outfits, I'm going to quit. I will not degrade myself anymore."
"Haruhi, don't be so dramatic. You know he's willing to negotiate. I mean, Aki-kun was willing to wear something like this And he's a guy."
"Which means he only has one thing risking exposure. I'm going to call Hanagawa tonight." Haruhi concluded. "I know that it's all for work, but this is getting ridiculous!"
Yukari shrugged. "Ok. Fine. You talk to him, but when you do, keep me out of it. I'm just the messenger."
"I know. See you tonight." Haruhi said. Yukari took off down the hall in the direction of the stairwell. "See you tonight", she called back.
"What the hell is going on?" Hikaru asked.
"I don't know but no way am I letting Haruhi going to dress like a brazen harlot!" Tamaki said.
"We should ask her what's going on." Kaoru said.
"If we ask her, then she'll know we spied on her." Hikaru said. Kaoru looked thoughtful.
"Well, we could ask her upfront and she could yell at us and then we could be forgiven, or we could continue to sneak around, digging into her very, very private life outside of school, eventually get caught, and have her hate us, with the possibility of never being forgiven. Well. At least for a month or so." He said. Hikaru and Tamaki looked at each other.
"I say we wing it." Hikaru said.
"Definitely." Tamaki agreed.
Kaoru shrugged. "I tried."