Author's Notes: I realise it has literally been years since I've updated this story. So indeed I am very sorry about that! I'm currently on summer break from college at the moment so I have lots of time. To answer my most review: yes I know I made my brother a bit mad, but he is cheeky in real life too. Anyway, I hope this chapter is enjoyable, especially now I've sorted my honourifics out, I can finally address the characters properly. Anyway, it's time I introduced another new character from the manga. I also realised how non-chronological I made this now, however, I don't mind since it's more original that way.


The following days passed reasonably quietly. Jack had agreed to keep his distance, which he kept his end of the bargain dutifully. The one occasion he stopped to talk to me was asking me about whether I was picking up groceries on my way home, or if that was his duty. Ridiculous question. You couldn't rely on him to remember to get everything we needed, and our older brother –who I have avoided thus far to my pleasure- was no better.

My classes had also remained monotonous, only drama was of much interest, but that was inevitable. It was all in the name. Our rehearsals had begun to progress and we had read through our scripts all the way through without disruption and we had begun to take to the stage, starting from the beginning and performing to what was natural to us. I think oddly enough, this class put a test on everyone else but myself. Hikaru was my Romeo and I was his Juliet, and when it came to the kissing scenes –and other intimate scenes-, our teacher persisted that it should wait until our final performance to the rest of the school, and apparently other schools (heaven forbid I was dreading this), and let the romance be more 'natural'. This relieved the girls to no end, and I think, although the female hostess plan had fallen on its face, some of the guys also seemed relieved. I think for both Hikaru and Kaoru, it was a relief as well, though I couldn't understand why.

In the most recent days, in between building the set, many of the main cast –including myself, obviously- had been brought to the side as the design side of the production took their turn to work with us. Kaoru seemed very much happy to assist with preparing my costumes, styling my hair and such. I was surprised he wasn't envious of the girls attending his older twin brother, but something told me he was happy to see his brother around other people. It was something I had begun to notice slightly. Though, in my company, Kaoru persisted to get to know me better. I couldn't complain, Kaoru wasn't that bad a person and less devil-like than his brother when he was on his own. In fact, he seemed to be enjoying himself at times, often teasing me when I felt the nerves on the back of my neck tingle and provoke a shiver when he tried out different hairstyles. At times, he would grin to me in the mirror he would sit me in front of and tease me on purpose.

It was now the start of December, and everyone was feeling the cold. However, when I opened the doors to the clubroom, the rest of the host club were dressed in traditional kimonos of varying colours. Haruhi as well, dressed as femininely as Tamaki was probably going to get away with, wore a beautiful pink kimono with ribbon tied on the right side of her hair, with small loose tufts teasing the top of her ear. Many guests had already arrived, and I was quickly moved to the side to change by Hikaru and Kaoru who explained that they were designs their grandmother had made.

Undressing behind a curtain, I somehow managed to pull the silk torso of the kimono over each of my arms. Kaoru soon assisted in preparing the obi. When I asked him why he had decided he was the one helping me, he merely answered with a chuckle that it wasn't a bad thing to help me with my costume, both in drama and in the clubroom as well. I couldn't think of a reasonable argument, and as he tied the layers of the obi around my waist, I felt the natural desire to suck my breath in as I moved the long sleeves out of Kaoru's way. Kaoru in the meantime just laughed, reminding me I wasn't wearing a corset, and slyly mentioned I wasn't that big in size to need to anyway. I wasn't sure why, but the comment made my cheeks heat up slightly. I wasn't sure if maybe it was the weight and insulation of the silk.

"I'm going to give you a chance to put on your sandals. Don't take too long," Kaoru said as I took my time figuring out the most efficient way to move around. I nodded over my shoulder and he quickly departed to go back to his brother, and to please his guests.

After I took a moment to wriggle my feet so the sandals fit properly, I turned around carefully and after unsheathing my hand from beneath the purple floral-patterned sleeve, I pulled the curtain aside and stepped out, where each of the hosts, -starting with Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai- took notice of my appearance. Honey-senpai quickly pulled a wide grin and the rest of his quests quickly followed suit in noticing me. I could feel my face burn up violently, but I swallowed back and focused on stepping into the room without tripping over my own feet.

Kaoru looked at me from a distance, stood with Hikaru and gave me an encouraging smile. I could feel myself going cross-eyed when I refocused on the tiles ahead of my feet. For a brief moment, I thought I could see from the corner of my eye the twins exchange grins with each other, but I was pretty sure I was going mad. Around the room, I could hear a variety of voices giving praise to the kimono, and occasionally to me. One voice described me as being a foreign princess, which was confirmed true as the twins appeared by my side. With a seductive grin, they leaned in close on either side of me.

"It's a shame isn't, Kaoru," Hikaru began, moving his head even closer. "Our host club princess is being given such praise. It's a shame, I would give her to you happily to see you smile."

"But she's your princess, Hikaru. After all, you are lovers in our drama play," Kaoru returned, moving in equally close. At this point they each had a finger caressing a cheek softly. I could only hold my breath and wait to see how this played out. After teasing my cheeks, Kaoru pulled away with a rejected expression on his face holding himself tight. "But it's not fair. Seeing you so close to Hollie, yet understanding why you couldn't resist a rare sight."

Hikaru held a shocked and thoughtful expression before releasing my cheek and retreating to his brother's side and holding Kaoru tightly in his arms, whispering reassuring words that were deafened by the screams of customers who shouted for more. Assuming freedom, I turned my attention back to the centre of room, where Tamaki was piling very fancy looking Japanese sweets in her open palms, mumbling something about being more generous than the two 'unscrupulous' twins. I rolled my eyes and joined Kyouya-senpai who was knelt on a mat writing in Japanese calligraphy. He quickly acknowledged me by looking over his right shoulder before putting the calligraphy set on the wooden table in front of him and standing, towering next to me. Haruhi quickly took notice, along with the rest of us, a girl who looked like she was in my year, peering nervously from behind one of the supporting pillars. Squeaking at the entire club seeing her, Hikaru and Kaoru quickly took their opportunity again to shine. They appeared by her side, forcing her away from the pillar and revealed a red rose from their sleeves trying to welcome the 'lost kitten'. Frightened further, the girl retreated hiding her face under her light brown fringe and pulling her arms closer to her chest. Tamaki-senpai, being the king after all, took his turn, using a number of compliments trying to lure the princess out of her shell. I felt the urge to step forward and reason with him that he was being too pushy on her as well, but I stopped mid-step as the girl pushed senpai away forcefully by his cheek, screeching that he was a "phony prince".

I fought back a giggle, while the other hosts around me, besides Kyouya-senpai and Mori-senpai, watched in shock. Tamaki-senpai, flinching with his hand holding the slightly reddened handprint on his face, stuttered sounds as the girl pointed accusations at him.

I was pretty sure Tamaki-senpai was over reacting, but with every insult she spouted: dumb, narcissist, incompetent, commoner, and finally the worst. As she spoke each word, he somehow convulsed his body in some sort of injured fashion and when she finally called him "the worst" it dealt the final blow and the twins watched with amazement as he somehow defied the laws of gravity in a slow motion fall in front of us. For a second I just sighed, crossing my arms as I tried to make sure what I just saw wasn't a figment of my imagination.

I was surprised when after Tamaki had hit the floor, that Kyouya-senpai was the one to break the silence. From his previously uninterested expression, his expression changed to one of surprise, before questioning if it was someone. He barely finished his sentence when the girl, with unusually teary eyes, bouncing on the already bruised Tamaki-senpai leaped into his arms saying "Kyouya-sama" thoughtfully. Kyouya-senpai seemed almost unfazed and didn't respond to embrace her, but didn't fight her off either.

In this moment, the rest of us took a moment to adjust to this strange turn of events. In the meantime, I aided Tamaki-senpai in returning to his feet, before pulling away from me and running into one of the changing rooms. We all quickly changed back into our school uniforms after the other customers had left.

Haruhi served our unusual guest tea, as the rest of us took a place on a sofa opposite where she sat. Tamaki, however, sat in his own corner of woe, refusing to make eye contact with anyone.

"I'm Houshakuji Renge. I moved here from France to study," she said, holding the teacup in her hands.

"It seems she's also the daughter of a work partner of my father's," Kyouya-senpai quickly added.

"And she's also your arranged fiancé?" the twins asked in sync, looking between Renge-san and Kyouya-senpai, to which point Renge nodded with a small squeak and a smile. The twins then looked over their left shoulder at Tamaki who was huddled over childishly. "So Daddy is angry and Mummy for keeping a secret."

Haruhi and I glanced at each other with a confused expression for a moment, before Kyouya explained that in terms of position, Tamaki assumed the father position, and Kyouya was the mother and vice-president of the club. Sighing, I picked myself off the sofa and back on my feet, and made my way round to Tamaki-senpai who ignored me for a few seconds when I stopped to bend down to meet him in his crouched position.

"Senpai, you can't stay like this forever. I'm sure Kyouya-senpai didn't mean to hide anything from you," I said quietly as he flinched at my voice. For a moment he stared at me with pitiful eyes before looking away and standing up, I also did so.

"Hollie… You're probably right," he finally said once he straightened himself up. He then snapped his fingers with a determined grin, catching everyone else' attention. "I have an idea! Renge-kun, could you do us a wonderful favour and take Haruhi and Hollie under your wing? It would be wonderful to improve their attitudes in a more feminine way."

I stared at him in disbelief, before exchanging a 'you've got to be kidding me' expression from Haruhi. But before either of us could say anything, Renge was up on her feet saying she would be the perfect mascot girl and would love to bake "Kyouya-sama" cookies. Upon hearing this, Tamaki whisked Haruhi and I away and we had no choice but to lead Renge-chan to the cooking rooms in a different building of the school.

Haruhi, Renge and I spent the next two hours baking in the highly designed cooking rooms, where Haruhi proved once again to me just how skilful she was domestically. Renge however, we discovered, wasn't so skilful at these sorts of things. At times, Haruhi or myself would have to rescue her from near-disaster situations. However, the cookies weren't going to be so lucky.

We returned with Renge's batch of cookies, my own stashed to share with my family, where Tamaki claimed the first to taste them as the king of the host club. The number of times I felt like groaning and fought back in the one second after he said it… Ahhh, dear me. Was all I could muster in my head.

Honey-senpai quickly took his turn eying the sweets with a hungry grin. As he nibbled on a single cookie, the expression on his face fell to one of less than pleasure. He was quickly joined by Mori-senpai who tried to convince him to stop eating the cookie since it would be bad for his body. At this time, Haruhi and I had taken a chance to taste a cookie each and make a judgement of our own. Nibbling on the treat, the taste wasn't that bad, and as Haruhi followed to comment, it didn't smell entirely repulsive either. As Renge chased our senpais in a fit of rage, Hikaru and Kaoru each decided it was their turn to try the cookies for themselves, however, Haruhi and I didn't expect to be victims along side them. Hikaru, taking the cookie still perched in Haruhi's mouth with his own, snapped the cookie with teeth with his eyes locked on Haruhi's. Kaoru in turn stood at my side with a seductive look in his eyes, commenting that I somehow had crumbs all over my right cheek, and licking them off with the end of his tongue. I didn't feel bothered by this overly intimate gesture, but I wasn't going to deny it was odd. I'm used to their odd behaviour. But I realised why they behaved that way as Tamaki snorted in disgust and scolded Haruhi and I for lacking the appropriate response to their 'sexual' harassment.

"Senpai, please don't sexually harass me yourself," Haruhi bluntly answered as her eyes shifted between Tamaki's hands which cupped her face.

The twins stood pleased as Tamaki-senpai shouted that he wasn't harassing her, and if he was, what were the twins' behaviour like in comparison. Shaking my head, Kyouya-senpai took a moment to slyly comment on the nature of our classmate bond.