Taka watched as Haruhi went stiff in his seat after hearing that proclamation from the Zuka Club girls. Out of one corner of her eye only, since she had designates of her own to keep up the supply of cakes and tea to, as well as Mitsukuni of course. She watched as he excused himself to his guests and stood up to confront the Zuka Club girls.
"I see, I understand your intention," Kyouya said, the only Host still giving the invading club his full attention, "but could we continue this at another time?" he requested politely.
"You mean you will not face us?" asked tallest girl.
"Not at all," Kyouya said, "but our president is still in bed from the culture shock."
"Then get him up!" hissed the girl. "Ugh, it's not even worth a talk. Now that we know the state of things, we cannot leave a fair maiden in a club like this!"
Taka, privately, was amused. She was the only girl in the club, but they didn't notice her hidden gender, even though they believed Haruhi was a girl on no solid evidence at all. It was also a little bit depressing – really, if anybody should spot her ruse, it should be the girls of the Zuka Club, but they hadn't. They hadn't even looked at her twice, and yet they were obsessing over Haruhi.
"We shall process her admission papers to Lobelia immediately, and bring her into the Zuka Club!" the tall girl declared.
At that point, Haruhi reached them, and looked up into the tall girl's face.
Taka felt her heart stop in her chest. No. Haruhi wouldn't... wouldn't leave them. He'd said! He'd said that he wouldn't do well in Lobelia because of this very club! That he could convince the whole school he was a girl if he wanted to, Taka didn't doubt, but...
"Fair maiden, will you come with us?" the girl asked, her grey eyes soft.
The whole room suddenly became tensely silent as every student – guest and Host alike – waited for Haruhi's answer.
"Kyouya-sempai, will you explain to me about the profits of this club?" he asked coolly.
"Essentially it is a point system," the shadow king answered. "On our home page's net auction, for example, customers can redeem their points for credit towards their items. It isn't a volunteer service. Once you deduct the funds required for event planning, clothing, food and drinks, our profit margins are really quite minimal, though that has improved since we have been able to supply better merchandise."
"And the rest?"
"All true. Tamaki is half Japanese and half French, and the club has only been going since Tamaki and I entered high school."
"I see," Haruhi said, and frost could have issued from between his lips.
"Poor girl, you're in shock because of all of the lies, right?" the middle girl, Maihara-san, said.
"Ne, you should leave these people and come join us," the shortest said with a sort of fierce expression as she attempted to offer some strange version of comfort.
"Not so hasty, Hinagiku," the tallest, Amakusa-san, reproved gently. "The fair maiden is disturbed right now. We shall come ask her again tomorrow," she decided. "We look forward to a good response from you," she added, and tapped Haruhi on the shoulder as she moved passed him. "Well then, adieu!"
All three of them laughed as their twirled out of the room.
Haruhi turned abruptly from watching the Zuka girls leave, his large brown eyes scanning the room until they met hers. "Takashi-sempai? Would your customers be offended if I borrowed you for a moment?" he asked.
Taka looked down at the girls that were gathered in the booth she was sharing with Mitsukuni. Not one of them was without hearts or stars in their eyes as they observed the by-play. She stood, and went to Haruhi. Not a word was said against it.
Haruhi crooked a finger, beckoning her down. Taka bent, and received a kiss to her lips as a reward – and all around them, the girls squealed happily, the cameras in their phones flashing all around them.
Taka drew in a shaky, shuddering breath when Haruhi's lips finally released her own – and left a smear of lipstick over her mouth, not that she knew or cared at that moment. "Haruhi?" she asked softly.
"I apologise, Takashi-sempai, but I needed to do something, and I felt that hitting Tamaki-sempai wouldn't be a good idea," Haruhi answered in a whisper. "Besides, that was very nice," he added with a smile.
Taka nodded happily, a slight smile on her face and a hint of a blush warming her cheeks from the shared activity. It was very nice.
"Aah! Mori-sempai and Haruhi-kun! Yaoi romance!" cried the girls around them happily.
"Oops," Haruhi said softly, blushing a little as he smiled up at her. "Guess our secret is out."
Taka shrugged, not in the least bit upset. "Kyouya will be selling pictures soon enough," she pointed out.
It wasn't their first kiss after all – almost the entire Host Club and its patronage had been witness to that kiss, but it was a game penalty, and could be excused. This... this kiss couldn't be excused the way the first one could, and they'd swapped more at the beach after their guests had left. Jun-chan and Misa-chan had even taken pictures – pictures which would be for sale soon enough.
Though, the two okama were already working on compiling all photos of the two of them into an album for her and Haruhi that would not be for sale.
Haruhi spent most of the rest of club time assuring everybody that he had no intention of leaving, just in case him having kissed her in front of all of them hadn't made it clear enough that he had more reason to stay than to go.
~oOo~
Haruhi was accosted on his way to club the next day by all three of the Zuka girls.
"Yo, fair maiden!" the tallest greeted.
"We have come, as we promised," the shortest said.
"We will convince the Host Club today," stated the third.
"Convince them of what?" Haruhi asked, more for clarification than out of confusion.
"That a fair maiden such as yourself should be in a place more suited to you," the tall girl said, and twirled Haruhi around before presenting him with the door, her two cohorts on the other side of him, on one knee as they presented the door to him.
The door that, frankly, Haruhi knew better than he knew any of them. Not that he reached for the handle.
"You three have a lot of nerve," he informed them lowly.
"Fair maiden?" Amakusa-san asked, confused.
"You said you would destroy the Host Club," Haruhi started, counting off the point on one finger – implying very clearly that he had more than one point to make. "You have no authority in this school to do any such thing."
This seemed to floor all three girls, as their jaws dropped open in surprise and they blinked dumbly.
"You claim that the Host Club preys upon defenceless women," he continued, counting off not only a second but also a third point. "Ignoring first of all that the customers of the Host Club choose to walk through those doors, and second of all using the same terminology that you yourselves claim to despise."
"I-it's easier to make our point understood..." Tsuwabuki-san, the shortest, stuttered out in protest.
"Furthermore," Haruhi latched his left pointer over his right pinky, counting off the fourth point he intended to make, "the Zuka Club also sells merchandise for profit, just like the Host Club, and just like many other more legitimate businesses."
"It's not the same thing," Maihara-san objected, a scandalised expression on her face. "Such items are produced from the love of our fellow students for the Zuka Club members..."
"Fair maiden -" Amakusa-san started.
"My name is not 'fair maiden'!" Haruhi snapped at them sharply.
In front of them all, the door opened, revealing the Hosts standing there, serious expressions on their faces.
Haruhi stepped through the doors and slowly walked towards the Host Club, his back to the Zuka girls.
"Haruhi believes in equality between the sexes, that whether a person is a man or a woman doesn't matter," Takashi-sempai added with a sort of razor-sharp edge to his pleasantly bland tone. "And not the superiority that the Zuka Club is so zealous for."
"And Haruhi doesn't use any 'host club tricks' or 'acts' like the rest of us," the twins added. "Just talks with the customers."
"Haru-kun applied for the Ouran scholarship, and not the Lobelia scholarship," Hani-sempai pointed out to the girls.
"Un!" Tamaki-sempai said, joining in. "Haruhi-kun has dreams to fulfil. Dreams that Ouran is more suited to aiding in the fulfilment of than Lobelia," he added a little smugly. His father was the school's superintendent after all. He was entitled to a little pride in the school he attended.
"Fujioka-kun, you have customers arriving soon," Kyouya-sempai stated.
Haruhi nodded, but didn't move otherwise.
"You can have nothing further to say, and are clearly not interested in being entertained by any of the Hosts. Your presence here after your show for our school's cultural festival is also disruptive," Haruhi informed the Zuka girls without turning. His back was straight as he stood between Tamaki-sempai and Kyouya-sempai, the other Hosts fanned out around them. He ticked his head around ever-so-slightly and said "Please leave."
"Benio..." said Maihara-san softly.
"Yes, I understand," Amakusa-san answered. "I won't give up," she called after Haruhi. "Fair maiden. We swear," she continued solemnly, "that we will rescue you from this place some day, and destroy this Host Club!"
Haruhi looked over his shoulder at her, and privately wondered if the girl had been dropped on her head as a child, or was related to Tamaki-sempai. Both were obnoxious in very much the same way.
"Jai Jien!" she called, a Chinese bidding of "see you again" that Haruhi hoped was never fulfilled, however futile he knew that hope to be. Obnoxious rich people who didn't listen to what they were told frequently got their own way through sheer bull-headed-ness.
The girls spun away and the doors shut.
"And thus, a new rival, in the form of the Zuka Club, has appeared," Renge announced as she rose on her motorised platform. "And the story reaches an even more interesting part. What shall be waiting for them ahead?" she asked in raptures. Clearly, she had not been cured of her role-play-gaming otaku habits yet. "Good luck, Host Club! Do not lose, Host Club!"
"Oi! Don't be cooking things up by yourself!" Tamaki-sempai scolded the girl, his arms waving about in a display of his agitation.
~oOo~
Thankfully, Kyouya was very good about arranging Host Club 'days out' around the various important assignments, tests, and personal appointments that the members of said club had – provided that said details were communicated to him. This meant that the photo-shoot for the European armour idea happened on the weekend after they'd all suffered from a battery of tests and sizable essays, rather than the weekend before. Haruhi was even given enough notice to pack an over-night bag so that they could go straight from school after their club activities to the estate where they'd be having the shoot.
There would be horse-riding in the fancy armour, so they needed to get the hang of actual horse-riding before there could be any photos of knights in shining armour. The lessons were all photographed as well of course, for a more casual 'Hosts having fun' sort of thing.
Haruhi was also given a dress and a half-done bit of needlepoint to sit by a window and stitch at, or to set aside while he talked with one of the 'knights' out the window.
"Haruhi-kun," Jun-chan called as he lowered his camera at the end of the shoot on Sunday.
"Hai?" Haruhi answered warily. He knew that tone from the okama.
"When are you going to introduce Mori-kun to your father?" Jun-chan asked.
"Soon, I suppose," Haruhi answered vaguely, and shrugged. "We haven't actually had a proper date yet, the trip to the beach not counted."
"Bah!" Jun-chan said, waving that comment off. "Of course it's counted. You didn't spend all of it with customers or in front of the camera, did you? And Haruhi-kun, just so you know, Misa-chan is having this same conversation with your Mori-kun."
For this shoot, Misa-chan had set up outside the window while Jun-chan was inside with Haruhi, so they'd have pictures from both angles of Haruhi and the 'knights' he interacted with through the open window.
"It might be an idea for you to invite that handsome man of yours over before you get intimidated by his home, ne?" Jun-chan prodded with a smile.
Haruhi sighed. "How long will it take you to get these photos developed?" he asked, changing the subject. "I think Kyouya-sempai wants to sell the pictures the same day as we do the theme at school."
"I'll let you get away with it for now Haruhi-kun," Jun-chan said, wagging a finger, "but don't think to leave it too long! A romance is something your papa would want to know about. Don't make it be me or Misa-chan who tells him about it!"
"Jun-chan," Haruhi said flatly.
Jun-chan sighed. "The photos will be ready for Kyouya-kun by Tuesday morning, and knowing him, they'll be compiled into photo collections for sale no later than Wednesday."
"Then, by Wednesday, could you make a formal-looking invitation for me to give to Takashi-sempai that I can give when we do this theme in Club?" Haruhi asked. "If I just asked, the whole club would want to visit as well."
"Yes!" Jun-chan cheered happily.
True to his word, Haruhi presented Takashi-sempai with an invitation the following Wednesday, asking the senior to share lunch and meet his father on the Sunday. Takashi-sempai didn't open the note right away, but rather waited until the guests had left.
At which point, Takashi-sempai marched into the room that Haruhi had only just ducked into to remove the dress he'd been wearing for theme (Haruhi had so far only removed his hair extensions), and bent to kiss him tenderly.
"So, you'll come?" Haruhi asked softly when Takashi-sempai pulled away.
Takashi-sempai nodded silently, with a warm smile that reached all the way to the senior's dark eyes.
~oOo~
Taka knew where Haruhi lived already from having dropped him there the day the other Hosts had gone to the Ootori health resort, and of course her driver was excellent enough to remember the way. That wasn't the issue she was faced with when she woke up on Sunday morning. Rather, for the first time in her life, Taka was agonising about what to wear. She was going to meet the father of the boy she had been exchanging kisses with after all – it was a big deal.
There was also the matter of her having decided that this was probably the best opportunity she was going to get to tell Haruhi the truth. To leave such an important detail much longer... would not be good, even if Haruhi was so very unconcerned with the "superficial" matter of a person's gender.
"Something is troubling you," Morinozuka Shizune announced from the door of her daughter's bedroom.
Taka nearly jumped, and turned quickly. "Kaa-san," she greeted.
"You are going out to spend time with this Fujioka-kun we have talked about?" Shizune persisted as she stepped into the room and closed the door. It was a strange delight for the woman to be spending more time with her daughter, and especially talking about a boy who she was interested in romantically. She was looking forward to meeting the boy.
"Hai," Taka answered. "And meet his father. I... I have decided that I must tell him today," she admitted.
Shizune nodded. "A wise decision," she said. "To build a relationship with falsehood between you is never to be advised. This is not what troubles you though," she noted.
Taka shrugged and gestured to where her clothes were strewn all over her bed.
Shizune chuckled. "My dear child," she said fondly, and stretched up on her toes to kiss her tall daughter's cheek before she moved to the bed and grabbed up a few items. "Wear what is comfortable for you," she instructed as she passed her choices over. "If Fujioka-kun is as you have described him to me, then he will not care what you wear, so long as he has your company."
Taka looked down at the clothes her mother had chose, and smiled. "Arigato, Kaa-san," she said softly. Really though, it wasn't as if she owned any clothes that would make her look bad. Now that she had chosen clothes in her hands, Taka was able to see that it was just nerves making her a little unreasonable.
The clothes her mother picked were simple, and showed off her arms. Not necessarily the clothes of a young woman who needs to tell her boyfriend that she's, well, a girl. Still, she did look good in the blue singlet top and the black vest, and it was the sort of clothing that she was comfortable in as well, simply through being used to wearing this sort of thing rather than the more girlish clothes she had so far not been permitted.
"What are you taking as your visiting gift?" Shizune asked her daughter.
"I'm taking some strawberries," Taka answered. "He doesn't generally like sweet things, but fruit is alright."
"Very well," Shizune agreed with a nod. "Will you be keeping the car, or send it back and call when you are ready to be collected?" she asked.
"Aa, the latter," Taka answered.
Shizune nodded again in satisfaction. "Good," she declared, then cocked her head to the side slightly as she considered her eldest child. "You are ready," she decided. "Go on, meet your future father-in-law, and remember please to invite at least your Fujioka-kun to meet your family some time soon," she requested. "His father also, if possible."
"Hai, Kaa-san."
~oOo~
Haruhi heard a car pull up outside his apartment complex, and when he peered out the window, he smiled when he saw the familiar Rolls Royce limousine, and more than that, the familiar figure of Takashi-sempai climbing out of it. The car drove off again, and Haruhi hurried to open the door and welcome his guest.
"Takashi-sempai!" he called in greeting from the walkway.
The tall senior smiled and climbed the stairs up to the apartment.
"Taka," the senior said softly, rather than returning the greeting as they stood together in the doorway. "It's actually Taka. I would like it if you would call me that."
Haruhi cocked his head to the side. "Taka?" he asked.
The senior nodded.
Haruhi smiled gently. "Please come in, Taka," he said.
"I brought strawberries," Taka stated, and offered the box to Haruhi.
"Ah! Arigato!" Haruhi answered happily. "If you would like to sit, I'll make tea? My dad will be home soon..."
Taka nodded, moved to the indicated table, and sat.
"This is the second time you've asked me to call you something else," Haruhi observed when he joined his sempai with the teacups.
Taka took a deep breath. "I'm a girl," she said. "My family decided, to prevent another marriage between the Haninozuka and the Morinozuka families, that I would pretend to be a boy until Mitsukuni and I would no longer be... Well, next year we will be attending different universities, and... I'm not sure Mitsukuni ever knew that I wasn't a boy," she admitted. "When I graduate at the end of this year, my family will host a ball for my coming of age, and announce there that I am actually a girl. My charade will be passed off as a training method," she explained.
Haruhi blinked once, twice, three times. "Okay," he said. "Thank you for telling me."
"Does this change anything?" Taka asked, truly concerned.
Haruhi chuckled, a smile lighting up his face. "Only that I can introduce you to my dad as my girlfriend, instead of as my boyfriend," he answered easily, and lay a comforting hand over one of Taka's. "I suppose we are a truly 'okama' couple, ne?" he added, amused.
Taka blinked, smiled, and nodded happily. They were a strange pair, perhaps, but Haruhi cared for her, and she cared for Haruhi. That was what mattered. That the Lobelia girls thought Haruhi was a girl, or that all of Ouran thought that Taka was a boy – these things didn't matter.
"You really don't mind?" Taka asked.
Haruhi shook his head. "Not at all," he said. "Actually, I had suspected," he admitted with a conspiratorial smile. "From the first time I saw you, I wondered, and then, as I spent more time with you, I became more and more sure of my suspicions."
Taka blushed. "How..." she started.
"How did I figure it out?" Haruhi guessed.
Taka nodded.
"There were a few things," Haruhi recalled thoughtfully. "You were too smooth in places where you shouldn't have been," he said, and gently stroked Taka's cheek, then trailed it down to stroke over her neck where a boy would have an Adam's Apple.
Taka nodded in understanding of this.
"And you were too... not smooth in one place where you should have been," Haruhi continued, giving a vague gesture to Taka's torso. "The first photo-shoot, when I rested my head on your chest, I could feel the bandages underneath the shirt you were wearing to make it look like you had tattoos. I asked around the next day to see if you'd been hurt in any way, but you hadn't, so..."
Taka nodded, and her blush deepened a little.
Haruhi smiled. "I won't tell," he promised. "It's your secret after all."
"Aa, arigato Haruhi," Taka answered with a small, but bright, grateful smile on her face.
Then Taka's phone rang in her pocket, and she winced. "That is Kyouya's ring-tone," she said.
Haruhi nodded in understanding. "You'd better answer him," he agreed. "I need to get started on our lunch anyway," he said, and pushed himself up from the table so that Taka could have some privacy for her phone call.
Five minutes later, Taka hung up the phone and moved from the table to the small kitchen.
"What did Kyouya-sempai want?" Haruhi asked curiously, a smile on his face as he looked up at her.
"They're coming over," Taka answered solemnly. "The whole Host Club. Tamaki wants to see your house and needs moral support."
"If we weren't waiting for my dad, I'd suggest that we not be here when they come," Haruhi said with a shake of his head. "I guess I'd better warn the landlady," he added with a sigh, then looked up at Taka. "I suppose I shouldn't call you 'Taka' around the other Hosts?" he guessed.
Taka shook her head. "Takashi," she agreed. "Mitsukuni will bring cake to share, and then be made hungry for a more solid meal."
"Well, if the whole Host Club is coming, I'm going to need to get more ingredients for lunch," Haruhi said with a firm nod and smiled up at Taka. "We can at least be out of the apartment when they arrive. My dad won't be here for at least another half hour yet anyway, and it will take the others a little less time than that to get here."
Taka chuckled, and nodded. "Shopping for groceries isn't much of a date," she pointed out. "But I like it."
Haruhi smiled back, grabbed his keys, and they both pulled their shoes on to leave the apartment.
~oOo~
They had excellent timing. The limousines of the other Hosts stopped in front of the apartment complex just as Haruhi and Taka turned onto the street, their arms a little weighed down with shopping bags – Taka had been quietly impressed with a lot of the things she saw for sale at the supermarket, and Haruhi's eye for quality in his food purchases.
"Ahh! So this is Haruhi's house!" admired Kaoru as the Hosts exited their cars and gathered together on the pavement.
"It's pretty big," Hikaru said, his tone just as impressed as his twin's. "I didn't expect this."
"There's so many rooms!" Mitsukuni cheered happily.
"No, actually, this is what they call a commoners' condominium building," Kyouya corrected, and he, as the others, ignored the way Tamaki was pacing in a depressed fashion just beside him. "His home is most likely just one of these units."
"Kyouya!" Tamaki spoke up at last, grabbing onto his classmate. "What's with this crowd?" he demanded.
"I see," Kyouya said thoughtfully, and raised a hand to his chin. "I was of the impression that you had no courage to come alone, so I got more people to come." Then he turned from the blonde to the twins and started to urge them back to the car. "But I guess that was unnecessary!" he said happily. "Well, let's go home now," he suggested with a smirk.
"We don't wanna," the twins answered with matching pouts on their faces.
"My bad! I'm sorry," Tamaki said, grabbing hold of Kyouya's shoulders. "Please don't leave me alone," he begged, and then gathered the other Hosts around him. "Listen, my subjects," he said firmly. "This is nothing more than a 'we were in the area and just stopped by to say hello' type of casual visit," he instructed, "and not at all research about the quality of the life of the Fujioka family!"
"Why would he be interested in that?" Haruhi asked Taka quietly.
Taka shrugged. "It's Tamaki," she answered softly. "Who knows how his mind works?"
"Kyouya-sempai," Haruhi answered promptly.
Taka chuckled. "He's probably the only one," Taka agreed with a smile.
"Words like 'pathetic', 'tight' and 'ragged' are all forbidden!" Tamaki instructed.
"Yes sir!" the twins – and Mitsukuni – agreed, and saluted the fool they followed.
"Most importantly," Tamaki continued, "you must not make Haruhi and his father feel like you want to go home -"
"Oh no," Haruhi cut in sharply. "I'd be thrilled if you all left."
"Ha-Haruhi!" Tamaki quailed, shocked.
"Takashi, Takashi!" Mitsukuni called, and bounced up to Taka. "What's that you've got?"
"Groceries," Taka answered.
"Taka-shi was invited to visit today, and meet my father," Haruhi said. "Thanks to this, I had enough warning to go out and buy groceries to make today's lunch stretch to feed all of you as well as those I had already planned to cook for today."
Tamaki and the twins both flinched at Haruhi's cold glare. They were generally the ones that suffered when Haruhi's plans were disrupted after all. Mitsukuni almost always asked first, and Kyouya had started to co-ordinate planning with Haruhi since the attempt at kidnapping the boy away to his family's unfinished resort had failed. Spectacularly.
"Haru-kun, Haru-kun! We brought cake to share!" Mitsukuni cheered, and presented Haruhi with a green-wrapped box.
"You may come in," Haruhi allowed as he accepted the box and headed up the stairs, "but please leave your shoes by the door," he added. He unlocked the door when he reached it to let them all in, and took the grocery bags that Taka had been carrying and set them on the kitchen bench.
As the Hosts filed in, Haruhi almost couldn't help the growing irritation he felt. He'd only wanted to introduce two people to each other today. Instead, the whole Host Club invaded the apartment he shared with his dad – and the twins and Tamaki were insensitively (likely unconsciously) insulting, making comments about the small space and low ceiling.
"I'll make tea then," Haruhi said, and turned away before he slapped one of them up-side of the head.
"Ah, Haruhi," Hikaru called. "If you're going to make tea, here's some red tea our dad brought back from Africa," he offered, and held up a small bag. "Here."
"A-arigato," Haruhi said as he accepted the bag and gave it a discreet sniff.
"It's a good milk tea," Kaoru offered. "Do you have milk?"
"I do," Haruhi agreed, and turned to boil the water. The only full set of teacups they had was a set of four though, so there was a little fishing around for extras before the tea could be served.