Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club or any of the materials I may make reference to. I do however, own my OC's.
Grace's POV:
It was just before Club activities started when Grace walked into the Host Club. After classes ended, she approached her professor with questions concerning the curriculum. With the new school, and new country, the materials they learned in class was vastly different than before. And with the new studies, Grace had to devote more time to her studies, but conflicting with that was the Host Club's time schedule. Now, instead of pouring over the books at home, she now squeezed it in during the Club's activities and during her breaks.
After the tragic vase incident a few days earlier, Grace and her siblings worked at the Host Club after school ended each day. They would bring snacks and tea to the Hosts and guests, and clean up after a day's activity. Kyoya assigned each girl a specific Host's table to serve: Rose had Kyoya's -the spectacled boy in her class- while Mia and Izzy had Hikaru and Kaoru's table -the red-haired twins. Grace had Mori and Honey's table and Haruhi, another member of the Club, waited on Tamaki's table.
Haruhi worked at the Host Club as a reluctant employee, also. Stuck in the same indebted situation as the girls, Grace found that she liked Haruhi. She was blunt and surprisingly honest. At the moment, she was at the store, shopping for things the Club had run out of during the busy week. Apparently, by adding new members, the amount of business they got increased as the students came in to see who was lucky enough to work with the other Hosts.
It was the third day that Grace had cut it so close, but when she walked in, Mori and Honey still hadn't shown up either, striking her as odd. Rose flashed her a smile and waved her over to the snack table, where she was piling an assortment of pastries onto a platter, ready to be served to the day's guests.
"Alright, men!" Tamaki suddenly jumped up, addressing everyone in the room, "Let's get ready to welcome our guests."
"Sure thing, Boss!" Hikaru and Kaoru replied in unison. Grace, Rose, and the twins stood off to the side, trying to avoid the stampede of bright yellow and high pitched squeals that immediately followed.
Rose looked pointedly towards Kyoya, who was sitting at his table, immersed in his laptop. "Do you think he'd ever let us join another club? I was thinking that I could join an art club and you could find one for writing."
"I don't know. Maybe you should ask and find out, Rose. You'll never know unless you try."
"Ugh. You sound all logical again. I was hoping the writing club would be enough to..." As Rose trailed off, Grace rolled her eyes, with more than a little amusement bubbling through her veins.
"Let me guess. You were hoping that I would say 'Great idea! Let me go talk to Kyoya about this while you stand over here- a very, very long and safe distance away'. Rose, you need to get over your fear of Kyoya. He won't bite."
"Maybe not physically, but sure as hell verbally," she muttered. Straightening her spine, she said, "Fine, I'll ask, but if I need you to save me, I'll give you a signal."
"What's the signal?"
I'll imitate the scream of a terrified little girl and cry dramatically." She walked away, adding, "And I'm not scared of him!"
Because Mori and Honey still hadn't arrived yet, Grace took it upon herself to entertain their guest temporarily. She grabbed a couple of pastries and drinks and walked over to the table where they waited.
As she passed by the doors to the Club, they swung open, almost knocking Grace over. She danced out of the way, frantically making sure no pastries fell to the floor. Haruhi stepped in, clutching a bag of groceries with hands hidden inside the sleeves of an oversized sweater. Her short, shaggy brown hair fell in front of the large glasses sitting on her face, askew.
"Thanks for doing the shopping, little piglet," Tamaki called from his table as Haruhi walked through the door, "Did you get everything on our list?"
"Piglet?" Haruhi muttered, confusion and exasperation sparking in her eyes, "What is he talking about?"
"Don't ask me, " said Grace, "I've got no idea."
"Wait a minute," Tamaki paused, "What is this?" Grace glanced over at him, from where Mori and Honey's table. He was holding a plastic box of brown powder.
"Exactly what it looks like," Haruhi replied. "It's coffee."
"Is it the already ground kind?"
"What are you talking about? It's instant coffee."
Tamaki exclaimed in awe. "Oh! I've heard of this before, it's commoner's coffee. You just add hot water!"
Flocks of guests and Hosts alike started to drift from their own table and towards Tamaki. Grace smiled, amused. The commotion Tamaki was creating had captured the attention of the whole room, it seemed.
One girl pronounced, "So its true then. Poor people don't even have enough free time to grind their own coffee beans."
Poor people? Are you kidding?
She saw the same thought mirrored on her siblings faces. Grace didn't think the students at Ouran would ever have had instant coffee, but to barely have heard of it was downright strange. She concluded that these kids must've been in their little bubble of wealth, ignorant to the world around them.
Kyoya and the twins appeared in the crowd, gazing over Tamaki's shoulder.
"Commoners are pretty smart." Kyoya admitted.
"One hundred grams for 300 yen?" The twins said, leaning on the couch. "That's a lot less than we normally pay."
Haruhi apologized, irritation practically radiating off of her face at the ignorance of the rich people surrounding her. "I'll go back and get something else. Excuse me for not buying you guys expensive coffee."
"No, I'll keep it. I'm going to give it a try." Tamaki held up his hand, "I will drink this coffee!"
As the surrounding people clapped, Rose walked over to Grace, followed by Mia and Izzy. "I really hope that they're not always like this," Rose muttered.
Grace gave her a sideways glance, "At least they are trying it and not dismissing the coffee. They're just trying to experience something that's new for them."
"I think it's funny," said Mia, glancing at the big crowd. "The poor, naïve rich kids, lowering themselves to drinking inexpensive coffee for the sake of learning how hard it is to be a commoner," Mia swooned mockingly, "How noble!"
Izzy and Rose cracked up, laughing at Mia's exaggerated impression. Looking back at the table, Grace saw that Haruhi was thinking the same thing they were.
When Haruhi finished preparing the cups of 'commoner's coffee, the voluntary taste testers looked skeptically into the brown liquid.
"I'm afraid if I drink this," one said, "my father will yell at me."
Tamaki hearing this, and not one to let a damsel-in-distress worry, asked, "But what if I let you drink it from my mouth." All of the surrounding girls screamed in delight, blushing furiously. Rose scoffed. "Oh, please. This is ridiculous. These girls actually pay to be here?"
After the whole coffee debacle, Grace observed the different hosting activities in the Club room. It was very, very sad, watching the Host's performances. Tamaki in particular, with his grand flourishes and shallow compliments. She thought it was pitiful to watch all of the poor girls that fell for it.
The twins were somewhat disturbing with their act of 'brotherly love'. Grace was a little scared to go near them during their acting, but she spotted Izzy and Mia standing near their table, snickering loudly. Kaoru and Hikaru seemed to be trying their best to ignore them though it was plain they weren't doing a very good job of it. Rose was standing over near Kyoya, watching the various Hosts amusedly. He was typing on his laptop and to his obvious annoyance, answering her continuous stream of questions as she pointed to various things. Grace chuckled, softly. Classic Rose.
The doors swung open one more time that day to show Mori carrying Honey sempai, who seemed half asleep. The girls at their table brightened, greeting them as they walked up.
"Sorry, we're running late," he said, rubbing his eyes. "I was waiting for Takashi to finish his Kendo meeting. I fell asleep and am still not completely awake."
The girls all wailed in delight.
Grace vacated her spot on the couch to the Hosts. Mori nodded his thanks to her as she left, his expressionless face almost appearing to soften. She offered him a smile in return and left to replenish the snacks. With Honey now there, they were going to need much more cake. At the food table, she glanced up as Haruhi and Rose also started filling up trays with sandwiches and tea. Rose, jerking her head in the direction of Honey, asked, "Is that boy really a third year student? He looks like he should be in middle school or something."
"Yeah, he and Mori are in my class. Although, it does seem strange that he acts so young."
"Acts young?" asked Haruhi.
"Mmm. His demeanor is child-like and he really likes sweet things. He carries around a stuffed bunny, too."
" Aww, really? That is completely adorable."
"Honey-sempai is a prodigy, despite looking young and childish," Kyoya said, appearing behind them out of the blue, making all three of the jump. "And Mori-sempai's draw, is his strong and silent disposition." As Honey ran over and jumped on Haruhi, swinging her around, Grace glanced at Mori, wondering if his quietness was a result of his role at the club. To her, it seemed too ingrained in him to just be an act. Mori's gaze followed Honey as he talked to Haruhi and for a split second, flicked up to her. Grace felt her face flush in embarrassment at being caught studying him, and she quickly slid her eyes back to Honey and Haruhi.
Honey was asking Haruhi to eat with him. When she refused, Honey instead, inquired if she wanted to hold Usa-chan. Haruhi stared at the stuffed, pink bunny he held so intently that it seemed to blush.
"I guess he is kinda cute, huh?" Spinning around, he said, "Take care of him, ok?" He jumped back to his guests, giggling and radiating energy.
Kyoya continued informing us both about the Club members. "You'll notice that our club utilizes each member's unique characteristics to cater to the desires of our guests. Tamaki is number one here: The Host Club's king. His request rate is 70%. And until you graduate Ouran Academy, you will be the Ouran Host Club's dogs." He smiled at them, though Grace saw a smirk lying behind it. "Oh, excuse me, I meant to say errand boys. You can try to run away if you'd like, but just so you know, my family employs a private police task force. By the way, do you all have passports?" Grace saw that both Haruhi and Rose picked up on the implied threat there.
"What do you mean errand boys? Except for Haruhi, we're all girls here," Rose said.
"Rose," Grace admonished, that's not-"
Kyoya cut her off. "Yes, I apologize. Errand girls and boy, then."
Tamaki appeared out of thin air next to Haruhi. "You're going to have to work hard to pay off that debt, my little nerd." He blew onto her neck and Haruhi jumped away, startled. Rubbing the back of her neck, she said, "Please don't do that again.
"You need a makeover or no girls going to look twice at you," Tamaki stated. Grace choked, beginning to gather that everyone here, was under the impression Haruhi was a boy. She glanced sideways at Haruhi. Did she know what they thought? Did she even care? Haruhi struck her as the type of girl who didn't care about how she looked. "Yeah. Well, I'm not trying to get girls to look at me."
"Are you kidding? You have to learn to be a gentleman and please the ladies. Like me," he added.
"I just don't think it's all that important. Why should I care about appearances and labels anyway. I mean, all that really matters is what's on the inside, right? I don't even understand why you have a Host Club like this."
Grace smiled as Haruhi confirmed her earlier suspicions. Haruhi's words gave her something to respect. At least not everyone in Ouran academy was crazy and vain.
Snapping back to reality, Grace joined in Rose and Haruhi's debate. Tamaki had started a tirade or lecture on something, but it seemed everyone had tuned him out.
"There's a word to describe people like him," Haruhi muttered.
Rose nodded, "Yeah. What was it?"
"I don't know. Damn, I wish I could remember that word, " Haruhi said, thinking hard.
"Flamboyant, dramatic, annoying?" Grace supplied.
Rose shook her head. "Wow, Grace! You're finally embracing your mean side. I knew it was in there somewhere if we dug deep enough."
As Grace rolled her eyes, Haruhi exclaimed quite loudly, "Huh, I got it! Obnoxious."
Tamaki froze, physically deflating.
"That's it," agreed Rose, Izzy and Mia cracking up from one of the tables. The twins walked over, draping themselves over Haruhi with mischievous glances towards Tamaki.
"Sorry senpai," Haruhi apologized, "But, your lessons did strike a small chord with me."
He stood back up, all of his previous exuberance returned.
"Really, It did? Then let me teach you more, my friend."
"Boss-" Tamaki interrupted the twins , "Call me king!"
They both ignored his interruption with matching expressions that said 'No way in hell'.
"You can teach him the basics of hosting-"
"But he's not going to get very far with the ladies if he doesn't look the part you know."
"He's not exactly Host club material but maybe if we took off his glasses it would help."
Grace heard Rose whisper to Kyoya, who was still standing next to them, "Do they usually speak in turns?"
He nodded yes, glancing down at her as Tamaki snapped his fingers.
"Hikaru. Kaoru."
"Right," they said in unison, and dragged Haruhi out of the main room.
"Kyoya, my hair stylist. Mori-sempai, go to the eye doctor and get him some contact lenses." Grace thought that without her glasses, Haruhi looked even more like a girl than before, but obviously the Hosts didn't agree.
"Honey-senpai," Tamaki said to the ecstatic boy, "Go eat some cake."
Each one of the hosts went to carry out their respective tasks, though Honey was heartbreakingly disappointed. "Guess it's just you and me, Usa-chan," he said, addressing the bunny. "Everyone else says they're too busy." Grace and Rose glanced at each other. "Honey," they called, "Can we join you?"
He looked up at them, realizing that he wasn't the only one left behind. "You ladies want to eat with me?"
"Free cake? Heck yes!" Izzy and Mia replied. The four of them sat at Honey's table as he chattered on incessantly. Rose and the twins catapulted forkfuls of cake at each other while Grace just enjoyed her slice in content, trying not to think of how much cleaning she would have to do after her siblings' cake war.
The Hosts returned from their tasks and Mori walked over to stand behind Honey, glancing over the stack of empty cake platters in the middle of the table. The twins followed Haruhi to the changing room with a spare boy's uniform.
"That won't end well," Grace said. Her tablemates stared at her in confusion with the exception of Honey. "Yep! Kaoru and Hikaru are in for a surprise, aren't they?"
Within moments, the twins stumbled out of the room as if someone had shoved them. "Both of you, get out!" Haruhi shouted. Grace chuckled, shaking her head.
Haruhi came out of the room dressed in the uniform. Tamaki gushed, "Cute! You're as pretty as a girl. Adorable!" So close and yet so far.
Honey jumped up from the table. "Haru -chan, you look so cute!
"If we knew you looked like this before-"
"-We would have helped you out sooner."
"Who knows, maybe he will draw in some customers," Kyoya suggested.
"You know," Tamaki said, "that's just what I was thinking. Starting today, you're an official member of the Host Club! I will personally train you to be a first-rate host. If you, Haruhi, can get 100 customers to request you, we will consider your debt repaid."
Haruhi's jaw dropped. "A host?"
Hey guys! We're finally following the episode order now, kind of. Yay! Sorry I haven't posted in a while. School's been in the way, but hopefully now we're back on track for a chapter per week. Any questions about the story, you guys can just PM me or comment. Make sure to check out the poll that's up. And like always, please comment and review!
Lots of Love,
~ Inyostalk ~
