Haruhi's POV:

Clink, clink, clink!

I sighed and turned over in my sleep.

Clink, clink, clink!

I was too exhausted to wonder what the sound was, but I was exhausted enough to be annoyed by it. "Dad?" I groaned, rubbing my eyes. No answer. "Dad, knock it off!" Still no answer.

Clank, clink, clink!

With an angry sigh, I yanked off my covers and swung my legs over the side of the bed. I would put a stop to this irritable sound so I could go back to sleep. My vision was blurry as I shakily stood from my bed and pulled a hoodie over my rough ensemble of a T-shirt and sweat pants. I had decided a long time ago that I shouldn't waste money on proper pajamas when I could just use something so simple.

I stumbled to the wall and felt around with my hand, looking for the light switch. When there was a bright, unwelcome shine in my eyes, I looked around myself groggily. I didn't see anything that could be making the noise. Yet it was still there.

Clank! Clink! Clank!

I remembered that my dad was at work, so he wouldn't be the one making that sound. Looking out the window, I saw that the sky was just brightening. I sighed again. As I stared at the window, I suddenly thought I saw something.

Clink, clink, clink!

Yes, I certainly saw something hitting the glass as I stared at it. I walked slowly over to the windowsill and peered outside curiously. My jaw dropped at what I saw. Standing in the grass behind my apartment building was a pair of red-headed twins, grinning up at me and waving. I hurriedly opened the window and stuck my head out.

"What are you guys doing here?" I hissed, looking around.

"We thought we'd come for a visit!" Kaoru called up, not bothering to keep his voice down.

"Would you shut up!?"

"You asked!"

I sighed. "Why didn't you just knock on the door instead of…what were you guys throwing at my window?"

They continued to grin and held up little gray stones. "Rocks!" I gaped at them for several moments before my eyes shifted to the glass of the window. It was covered in scratches and scrapes that had been made from the pebbles as they hit and slid down the glass.

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU!?" I yelled down at them angrily—nobody else's window was open, which was a good thing. I hopelessly tried to rub the scratches away with my sleeve, but to no avail. "You idiots! Why couldn't you just knock on the door like a normal person? Agh, the landlady is gonna kill me!"

"Well, there's no need to get so worked up about it!" Hikaru said, crossing his arms.

"Yeah! We brought you something!" Kaoru added with a smile, holding up several shopping bags. I wondered idly where they had gone shopping at this hour. My anger flared—they hadn't even apologized.

"Get lost!" I slid my window shut with a snap and crawled stiffly back into my bed, forgetting to turn out the light. I just lay there, my eyes wide open as I fumed about their stupidity. Some part of my mind seemed to rebuke me for being so rude to my classmates, especially without thanking them for going to the trouble of buying me something.

I exhaled, calming down some. Maybe I should go and apologize to them…they can't have gotten too far away yet if they walked like they seemingly have. My thoughts were interrupted as I heard a creak and then footsteps.

"Wow, I always forget how small Haruhi's house is!" I stiffened as I heard the voice of an amazed Hikaru.

"Isn't it called an apartment?" Kaoru responded. I shot upwards and out of my bed.

I almost broke my fusuma (1) as I slammed it open and stepped into the hallway. There were the twins, standing in my kitchen, looking around themselves with interest. I went in and grabbed each of their cheeks in my fingertips, distorting their faces.

"Ow! Haruhi, knock that off!" Hikaru said, gently trying to pull his cheek out of my grasp so as not to hurt himself.

"Yeah Haruhi, it hurts!" I ignored Kaoru's whimper of pain and yanked on each of their cheeks.

"OWW!"

"You're not supposed to go snooping around other peoples' apartments without permission! It's against the law to go into someone's house uninvited! And the door was locked—how did you two get in here, anyway—" I paused as I saw the small handbook that Kaoru was clutching in his fingertips. The title was printed in big red letters on the front.

"DIFFERENT KINDS OF LOCKS AND HOW THEY WORK"

I just stared at it, and then my eyes shifted back to the twins, narrowing. They waited painfully for my reaction. "YOU PICKED MY LOCK!?" Obviously they had thought of everything I might do and brought all they might need when they decided to break into my home. I yanked harder and tears formed in their eyes.

"Haruhiiiiiii, it huuuuurts!"

"Good!" Suddenly a thought struck me and I let go of their cheeks. They each pressed their hands to the side of their faces and opened and closed their mouths several times to soothe the pain as I stared at them in horror.

"You didn't bring any of the others, did you?" My voice was hoarse and raspy. "You didn't bring Tamaki-Sempai, did you?" They frowned at me, but shook their heads.

"No, it's just us."

I exhaled in relief and swiped my hand across my forehead. "Oh, good." They went back to their obnoxious selves as they wandered around my kitchen.

"I've never had canned peaches before…" Hikaru muttered, staring wide-eyed at the container in his hand.

"So why did you two decide to brake into my apartment at—" I checked the clock on the wall. "four o'clock in the morning?"

"Oh yeah! We brought you something!" Hikaru said, yanking the bag from his brother's hands and shoving it at me. I looked into the depths of wrapping paper curiously.

"What is it?" I asked, not entirely certain that I wanted to know.

"It's a few designs that our mother made recently." He said flippantly, turning back to my pantry.

"We figured you'd want something nice to wear later tonight when we go out." Kaoru added on with a grin. "The boss is planning on taking all of us to a good restaurant, and we figured that you wouldn't have anything with fashionable value to wear there."

I frowned in irritation, somewhat offended by that thought as I pulled out a long dress, dark green silken fabric, with…were those…? "HOLY CRAP! Are those real diamonds!?" The two boys looked alarmed at me.

"Er…yeah…"

I could only stare from them to the sparkling dress and back.

"I can't accept this!"

"Why not? We came all this way just to give them to you."

"I'll buy my own dress!"

"With what money?"

"I'm not completely broke, you know!"

"You're obviously confused about that."

I glared at the two as they turned away again. "Hey Haruhi, what is this?" Hikaru asked, holding up an object that he had found in one of my containers.

"It's a teabag—you've never seen any of them before either?"

"No…" Kaoru responded as he came up at his twin's side and stared at the small bag in awe. "So is this the stuff that you use to substitute for tea strainers?"

"Oh, well yeah, I guess…"

"Ah, cool…" I stared at them for a long time as they examined it, knowing exactly why they were gazing so longingly at the teabag. I sighed.

"Fine, give me the teabags and I'll make you guys some tea." Their faces lit up with glee.

"Wow, really?" They turned to each other as I grudgingly pulled out a teapot.

"I wonder how tea tastes when you use a teabag for it." Hikaru said in wonder.

"It tastes just like any other tea…" I murmured irritably, but they didn't hear me.

"Well whatever it tastes like, Hikaru," Kaoru whispered, apparently thinking that I couldn't hear him. "be sure not to be rude."

The first words to appear in my mind were, TOO LATE, but rather than voice this thought, I set the kettle on the stove—muttering to myself—and the flames ignited. Turning back to them, I crossed my arms. Hikaru spoke immediately.

"Hey Haruhi, you should probably try on all those dresses to make sure the sizes fit."

"How many did you bring?" I asked uncertainly.

"Five, I think. And we'd like to see them on you too, Haruhi, so you should go put one on now!" The both of them shuffled me towards my bathroom, the bags in my hands. "So just come on out when the first one is on!" They said with big grins, sliding the door shut behind me. I sighed and pulled off my clothes. Being friends with the twins was a lot more trouble than it was worth. Looking into one of the bags, I pulled out a dress and stared.

It was beautiful. Almost too beautiful. A dress that went down to the knees, it was white and had a black sash that tied around the side. The top had poufy short sleeves and the front was done up in a corset style with black laces. Hesitantly, I slid my arms into the sleeves and pushed my head through. Settling the dress on my hips, I smoothed the silk down and turned to the door, taking a deep breath.

I slid it open and stepped out. The twins turned when they heard my footsteps and paused as they stared at me. I started to worry when their jaws dropped in a gawk.

"Does…does it look…bad?" I asked. They didn't answer straight away, seemingly still recovering.

"Well, uh," Hikaru muttered, blushing and trying to look anywhere but me. "The colors are a little dark for you…"

"Yeah, definitely," Kaoru agreed with a nod, also looking in a different direction. Frowning, I was staring down at the dress when the kettle started to whistle.

"Oh, I need to go get that—I'll be right back." Hurrying into the kitchen, I turned the stove off and dumped some water into the teapot. I plopped a teabag in before replacing the lid and pulling out two teacups.

As I poured the tea, I heard Hikaru and Kaoru move to the kitchen doorway.

"Wouldn't the boss just love to see this?" Hikaru said with a mischievous grin. I frowned.

"What?"

"Well Haruhi," Kaoru said, a sneaky smile of his own spreading across his face, "with that dress on, you actually look like a girl."

"And to the boss, mixing you as a non-cross-dresser with anything relating to house-work equals a housewife, which equals a day-dreaming Tamaki."

I almost shuddered, but laughed instead. That sounded just like my Sempai.

"Here's your tea," I said, pushing past them to the living room and setting the cups on the low table. They sat down and then clapped their hands simultaneously.

"Okay, now you have to try on your other dresses!"

I frowned—usually this wasn't the kind of enthusiasm you got from teenage boys about dresses.

. . . .

With a heavy sigh, I finally pulled open the door of my apartment. The light was blinding and I rubbed my eyes. "Okay, go on."

"Aw, do we have to Haruhi?" The red-headed boys whined together.

"Yes, you do. I've tried on all your dresses, so now you have to leave. It's your guys' faults that I'm gonna have these annoying circles under my eyes tonight, and I wanna go to sleep." It looked like they were about to say something when I interrupted, "And no, I don't want any of your servants to come and do my makeup for me. I'm not totally stupid when it comes to that kind of thing, you know. And I'm probably not wearing any tonight anyway—I don't really like it."

With simultaneous sighs, Hikaru and Kaoru shuffled out the door. I waited for them to reach the street, and I was just about to close the door when they turned around and called with a wave, "See you tonight, Haruhi!"

I waved grudgingly and shut the door. Sleep would be involuntary now. I was so exhausted and tired and I didn't think the last two hours of dress-modeling was worth it—even though we seemed to have found the one that the Hitachiin twins liked for me to wear.

I would sleep now, and hopefully I'd be able to cover up the dark rings later on.

. . . .

Another sigh. Another rub of my eyes. Another yawn as I crawled out of my bed and into my bathroom. My clock read five o'clock. For one crazy moment, I wondered if it was A.M. instead of P.M.. Looking into my bathroom mirror, I groaned. I did not groan thinking of how exhausted I would look this evening—I didn't really care about that—but I groaned because I would never hear the end of it from the twins when I showed up looking so drab.

I took hold of my brush and did what I could smoothing my brunette hair down and pushing my bangs out of my eyes. Getting through this night was my only goal.

I stepped over to my bed and picked up the dress. As I looked at it, I couldn't imagine how it could look attractive on someone with my figure. This dress was meant for a girl with more curves to her frame, which I did not have. It was a dark, silk purple dress. Another one that was down to the knees, and with short sleeves that were forced into small poufs with elastic bands on the insides, but that was where the likenesses ended.

The dress was buttoned down the front, and there was a dark brown leather belt that was wrapped around. Very elegant. Very simple. Yet it was brought to my attention by the twins that I didn't wear it right. I slid the dress over my head and let the silk fabric mold to the lines of my body as I looked into the mirror. I sighed thinking of how it was "meant to be worn."

Apparently, it was meant to be worn with the top few buttons undone, meaning to show off cleavage that I didn't possess. I was, as the twins had so ungraciously pointed out throughout my time at Ouran, as flat as a cutting board. And the belt was meant to be worn just under the breasts to bring shape to the curves that I, once again, didn't have.

So, as I patted the silk down, I buttoned the dress all the way up to the collar—leaving one undone, hoping it would give the twins some satisfaction in their corrections—and I wore the belt farther down on my lower stomach where it felt, and looked, more appropriate. With a sigh, I slid on the black heels that had been literally forced to the shape of my foot by Hikaru (Kaoru pinning my arms back from stopping him), even though I had told them endlessly that they were a size to small and would never fit.

The soles of my feet were still red from the abuse.

I looked at the clock and, with a feeling of smugness, saw that they were five minutes late. For once, I would be ready. I stumbled towards the kitchen, glowering briefly at the monster shoes that were making my ankles wobble.

Reaching down to rub the sides of my feet, though it removed no pain, I felt that I would never let anyone go to such lengths to make me look good ever again. It involved too much energy, and too much agony. A loud knock was heard against the wood of my door, and—with one steadying deep breath—I pulled on the doorknob. My expectations for the evening were instantly depleted as I came face to face with a grinning Tamaki, looking somewhat out of breath, but exceedingly joyful.

Hesitantly, I glanced over his shoulder and one of my eyebrows rose at the rest of the hosts that were standing on the street before a long black limousine. Kyoya leaning against the limo, adjusting his glasses with one hand, the other in his pocket. An image of ease. Then there was Mitsukuni who was waving to me excitedly, a wide grin on his happy face. Mori, looking impassive as usual, his arms crossed in patience. Then the twins, their arms around each other's waists, waving with their free hands.

"Tamaki-Sempai…" I groaned, rubbing my temples. "Why do we have to use a limo? Couldn't we have just used a normal car…?" He didn't seem to have heard me, as he was staring at me with an intense blush crawling over his cheeks, his lips parted with speechlessness.

"Hey, Boss!" Hikaru called. "What do ya think?"

"Pretty impressive, right?" Kaoru added with a grin. Deciding not to focus on what they were saying, I pushed past the stunned Tamaki and carefully made my way down the steps. These heels were becoming increasingly inconvenient.

"Wow, you look pretty, Haru-chan!" Honey laughed, grabbing my hand and yanking me towards the limo.

"Ahh! Honey-Sempai, I'm still not used to these shoes yet! I'm gonna fall!"

Honey let go of me and pranced towards Mori, while the twins put their arms over my shoulders with wide grins.

"Obviously we succeeded in our quest to make you more appealing, Haruhi." Hikaru smiled, and Kaoru finished for him.

"Yeah, otherwise the boss wouldn't be tripping over his feet, too stunned to escort you like a proper gentleman."

"What a jerk, huh?" The twins linked their arms with mine on either side and shuffled me towards the limousine.

"HEY! KNOCK THAT OFF!" I turned as Tamaki pointed a finger towards us and started on the twins. "TWO SHADY TWINS LIKE YOU ESCORTING MY LITTLE GIRL? DADDY WON'T STAND FOR IT! IT'S ALREADY BAD ENOUGH THAT YOU WERE CREEPING AROUND HER HOUSE AND FORCING HER INTO YOUR PERVERTED DRESSES, BUT I WON'T LET YOU PICK ON MY HARUHI ANYMORE!"

"Tamaki-Sempai, you need to calm down!" I snapped, looking around at the neighbors who were opening their doors to see the cause of the commotion.

"Your Haruhi?" The twins said simultaneously, not helping my situation. The two went back and forth with their comments. "That's a pretty possessive thing to say."

"And obviously you haven't gotten over your perverted tendency to call her your daughter."

"How sick."

"WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? I'M NOT PERVERTED AT ALL!" Tamaki's face only seemed to turn a deeper shade of red as the twins stuck out their tongues at him.

"Ya know Boss," Hikaru said. "We took pictures on our cellphones of Haruhi in all those dresses." I glared at the back of their heads.

"When did you guys take pictures of me?" They didn't hear.

"What, really…?" Tamaki muttered ashamedly, chewing on his fingernails.

"Yeah," They said, toying with the buttons of a small mobile phone. "But we're not showing them to a pervert like you." Tamaki could only gawk at the Hitachiin brothers as they helped me into the limo, Mori and Honey following closely behind.

"Waaaah, Mommmmmmy!" Tamaki fell against the ever-patient Kyoya, using his arm for support as the raven-haired boy dragged him towards the limousine. "Why are you allowing those twins to seduce my little girl?"

"Well Tamaki, 'seduce' is not exactly the word that I would apply to their actions, but, in answer to your question, isn't it routinely the father's duty to remove unwanted suitors?" Kyoya, said, pushing his glasses up his nose. Tamaki merely whimpered in recognition as he was pushed roughly into the vehicle and the door was closed behind the seven of us.

The limo started driving, and Honey instantly turned to me, exuberantly wishing me a happy birthday and chatting excitedly about where we were going. I turned to Tamaki, who was toying with the buttons on the side of the door, opening and closing the window dejectedly.

"Hey, I'm kind of surprised, Tamaki-Sempai." I smiled, hoping to pull him out of his depressed state. "I was sure that you'd want to go to a French restaurant or something."

"Oh no," Kyoya said from Tamaki's side. "Eating traditional Japanese food will probably be the highlight of this evening for our beloved host king." Though he smiled, I detected a trace of bitterness in his tone.

That was when I remembered all the stories of Tamaki dragging Kyoya all over Japan, and I smiled to myself. I couldn't imagine the Shadow King putting up with such nonsense. The whining, the questions, the general obnoxious atmosphere that circled my blonde Sempai—I almost shuddered thinking how murderous and terrifying Kyoya must have looked. Of course Tamaki would never be able to notice the evil lord's dislike of the situation while he tugged on his arm, begging to see Mt. Fuji.

Honey spoke up suddenly. "Tama-chan wanted to go to Yorokobi no Shokuhin Minato(2) because they're one of the only Japanese restaurants that actually uses hashi(3) instead of silverware!" I frowned.

"Really? All of the restaurants I've been to have hashi…"

"Is that true? How unusual!"

"Perhaps it's a simple barrier between classes." The twins offered neutrally, and I glared, though they didn't see.

"We're here." Mori said suddenly, his tone bleak, and the limousine came to a stop.

1."Fusuma" is the Japanese word for the screen sliding doors.

2.I apologize for the obnoxiously long name. I would have picked something shorter, but the English translation (which I can't exactly call back to me ~sweat drop~) is a really cool name. I feel like one of the words in there may have been…harvest? Maybe not. But yeah, sorry for that.

3. Hashi=chopsticks

Hey guys! So I realize that it's taken me forever to update on this, and I also realize that this chapter isn't nearly as long as the first—I think this one is nine pages while the first was twelve pages on size eleven Microsoft.—but the thing is that I just want to post this right now rather than keeping you waiting for a long time again to add another nine pages because it's already been a long time. Sorry, and please review!