Chapter Two

The Hosts With The Most

Most of my free time became Avoiding-Fukui-Tsubame time. It seemed there was no end to her list of humiliating chores she wanted me to do for her and she was getting bolder and bolder. My scalp was on fire from her vicious yanking on my hair and I had a variety of scratch marks and bruises under the long yellow sleeves. Yori had stopped speaking to me; he thought I was getting myself into this on purpose. He thought I was wasting my time at his precious fantasy school be getting into fights. I rubbed my arm bitterly. I wished I was getting into fights. At least I'd have some dignity left.

I was hiding at the edge of the elementary section of Ouran, slumped against the wall. This was what I had been reduced to – running and hiding like a coward. My logic was, if she couldn't catch me, she couldn't force me to disobey her. And I knew she wanted me to. She was testing my limits every damn time, trying to make me break so she could exercise her power with wicked glee. I stared at the ground and imaged the rest of my school life under her thumb. It was depressing really.

I punched the wall next to me, scaring the shit out of two younger students who promptly ran away. I hated this.

A teacher appeared out of the corner of my eye. I got up and casually strolled away, kind of pissed that I'd been forced out my safe spot. I made my way up a grand staircase, lost in thought. Perhaps if I kept moving, she would never find me. But then you'll fall behind, my mind decided to remind me, your free time is supposed to be for study. I groaned and turned another corner. It wasn't like I didn't want to study. It was just that all the places I was supposed to study were the places she would check first. I rubbed my hand across my face. This was just exhausting. I needed a distraction.

Music attracted my attention and I looked behind me.

Perhaps it was an open music club, I hoped. I let a small smile wander across my face. Music made everything better, or at least it did to me. I looked up at the sign – the third music room – and pushed open the doors.

My first impression was a lot of light, a lot of sound and a lot of laughter.

My second was that it so was not a music club.

"Welcome, my lady. A new customer, I believe? I have not had the pleasure of gazing upon your beauty before." The blond student bowed. I slowly extracted my hand from his and backed up a step, confused and taken by surprised. This guy, this incredibly smooth and handsome guy, I'll admit, had appeared out of nowhere to compliment me? This was… what the hell was this?

"Uhh…"

"Nervous?" He struck a pose, eyes sprakling. "You need not be afraid. The sole purpose of this host clubs is to make beautiful women such as yourself smile." It dawned on me.

"Host club?" I'd heard of them, vaguely. "I thought that was kind of like…" I didn't know the Japanese for brothel. I shrugged. "I'm in the wrong room. Sorry."

"Are you leaving?" I looked down on the cutest boy I think I had ever seen. In high school. I blinked.

"Uhh…" I repeated. His eyes expanded in the classic puppy dog look. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed the blond watching me closely, as if gauging my reaction. I imitated Yori and ruffled the kid/high school student's hair.

"Sorry, little guy," I said. I was whirled away from the door before my hand even reached the handle.

"Not a loli-shota fan? That's okay, we have plenty here to suit your taste." The blond flung out his arm to gesture at other students that had appeared behind him. "Are you into the strong silent type? The forbidden love? The natural? The prince?" He gave a twinkling smile. "Tell me, sweet lady. What kind of man do your dreams revolve around?"

"Ones that leave me alone," I muttered in English before raising my eyes to his. "And that is so none of your business."

"Come now –"

"Really not interested." There was a pause and before I could blink, he had slunk away to sulk. I felt two arms come down on my shoulders and tensed.

"Oi, oi," the guys at my side said with a grin, "You really knocked him there."

"He's been on such a roll today too," the right one said.

"There's always one," the left added and they both looked away meaningfully. I stared at the guy in the corner. He was pulling off the incredible sulk with aplomb. The twins – as they can't have been anything else, identical as they were – span me round.

"I'm Hikaru."

"I'm Kaoru. We're the Hitachiin bothers of the host club." Ah. The forbidden love that was mentioned. I grimaced inside. I so was not into that but, looking around at what I realised was a multitude of customers, lots of girls were.

"Nice to meet you," I said awkwardly. Hikaru pointed over my shoulder.

"The one you just traumatised is our lord, Suou Tamaki."

"Don't take it personally, though. Haruhi does it to him all the time." I glanced in the direction he indicated. The host chatting with a very pretty girl was exceedingly feminine but flashed them a warning glance that they ignored.

"Neesan!" I span just in time to catch the bundle of energy that crashed into me. The cute one smiled up at me. "I'm Honey-chan! And he's Mori-chan!" I looked from the cheerful thing in my arms to the looming guy standing above me. I managed to force out a hello. I wasn't quite sure what to make of it. Why were they all…

"There are guests to attend to." Everyone looked up and the last member pushed his glasses up calmly. He glanced at me.

"New guests are always greeted by each host separately. It seems your dismissal of Tamaki intrigued them enough to pull them away from their work." The disapproval was obvious.

"Hai, hai, we're going," the twins sighed. Honey leapt from my arms into… Mori's. The last member gave me a short bow.

"I am Ootori Kyoya." He cocked his head. "Do you wish to become a customer?" I looked around. The girls doted on the guys, eyes shining, entranced by every word that came out of their mouth. I watched the twins embrace each other at a table close by, sending their customers into squeals of delight, and Honey being fed chocolates across the room, next to a blank-faced Mori. The one they called Lord, Tamaki, had been lured from his corner by some sweet-tongued girls and was busy sending shivers of delight down their spines.

"I don't think…" I said hesitantly. Sure they were bizarre and the whole concept of this club seemed… akin to inappropriate activities but they were nice. Carefree, I decided was the word. It almost seemed fun, except for the unashamed amount of flirting. I then realised it probably cost money. I glanced down at myself. I'd gotten pretty good at invisible stitching over the last few weeks but it would have to be replaced eventually. I didn't have the cash to spare.

"Sorry." I turned towards the door. There may have been an answer but an exclamation drowned him out.

"I can't take it!" Heads turned and I looked ahead. The girl was obviously irate and her friends hovered around her.

"It's okay, Yoshiko," one said uncertainly. The girl pushed her away.

"No, it's not. He should be mine!" The twins straightened.

"Haruhi's got another one," one said darkly. Behind me, Kyoya glanced down at his files.

"She's a regular. It'd be a shame to ban her." He snapped it shut. "But we will have to stop her." The girl, Yoshiko, took a few angry steps towards Haruhi's table and the rest of the host club visibly tensed as she sped up. Tamaki set off at a run, shouting Haruhi's name. The host's head turned, eyes widening at the figure of fury heading in his direction.

She jerked to a stop.

"You're embarrassing yourself," I said quietly. She looked down at my hand on her wrist, obviously shocked.

"What-?"

"You should leave before you make it worse." I began to walk towards the door, dragging her along behind me. She protested, but weakly; my intervention seemed to have taken all the fire out of her but I knew from her mutterings that she knew who I was. I didn't look at her. I'd had my fair share of humiliation without witnessing someone else's. At the door, I let go of her hand and she all but ran from the club, from me, her flurry of friends hurrying after her. I sighed. If this didn't stir Tsubame up to 'punish' me for 'interfering or taking part in activities created for a higher class of people', then I was the queen of spain.

As a note, I was so not the queen of spain.


Kyoya frowned at door I had left earlier and drummed his fingers on the table. Tamaki cast him a glance from where he was still fussing over Haruhi, who had long given up insisting she was fine.

"Is something wrong, Kyoya?" He asked worriedly.

"Do you not have her in your files?" Hikaru asked, peering over his shoulder.

"I thought everyone was in your files," Kaoru added, mimicking his brother. Kyouya shrugged them off, opening the mentioned folders.

"She is, in fact, in my files. She is just," he paused. "Different." Haruhi looked up at him.

"How so?" She asked, pulling her blazer straight and gently pushing Tamaki's hovering hands away. Kyoua glanced down.

"She's in a bit of trouble. However, she seems perfectly capable of getting out of it." Kaoru frowned.

"What do you mean by trouble?" The shadow king gave a small smile and closed his files with the familiar snap. The twins crossed their arms and glared at him but no amount of prodding could make him talk. Eventually giving up, they sat back down, leaning against each other.

"Well, whoever she is, she just saved up a whole lot of trouble," Hikaru said, eyes narrowing, "I don't think they'd have been happy at us gleefully throwing that one out, eh, Kaoru?"

"Hm," his twin agreed vaguely.