Chapter 6- Haruhi's Reluctant Day Out! (A/n: Long Chapter sorry!)

What Haruhi didn't take into account of when she said she'd tag along to the store, would be that Hatori, Momiji and Haru would also tag along. The second thing she didn't take into account is where they were going shopping.

As people passed her in the Azumi Shopping Center, she considers backing out but remembered that the products expo was going on today. Except she didn't really like crowds and this Saturday seems more busy than normal for late November.

Bounding up to her, Momiji tugged on her arm. "Let's go to the music shop!"

That's right, he plays the violin. After giving her consent with a nod, Momiji spent no time pulling her into the store. Rows of different musical instruments along with parts clustered the walls and shelves and any free space in the small room. Looking behind her, she sees Haru looking at a cello.

"I didn't know you were interested in instruments, Haru."

"I'm not."

Yet he keeps staring at the cello like a cat stalking its prey.

"Alright, just don't do anything rash." She doubts he'll listen but says it anyways.

Walking over to Momiji, she looks at the violin he's holding. A Knilling violin. She gawks at it in shock that it would be sold here. They are well known among violin teachers and students. In addition to its high-quality craftsmanship, the company's student violins have unique pegs for optimal tuning. Or so she heard from her guests at club.

"Wow."

"Yeah. Beautiful isn't it?" He brushes his hand over it, just lightly enough as if it would shatter at his touch. "What I would give to play it."

"Why don't you try it out?" The old bearded Chinese man behind the counter said.

Looking forlornly at the instrument, he slowly shakes his head. Backing up, but keeping his eyes on the piece for a couple seconds more, he flees the store.

"Wait!" Haruhi makes a move to run for him when a crash echoes through the store.

"What the hell are you looking at? You don't play me, I play you, you got me?"

Haruhi glances at the door before going over to Black Haru. "What's going on?"

Haru turns on her, broken cello pieces littering the ground, "This piece of shit thinks I'm no good for it, that I can't play it. It cut me, so I cut it!" He proceeds to stomp on the cello.

She clicks her tongue at him, "I told you not to do anything rash."

"Well what was I supposed to do? I tried to play it and the strings cut me!"

"You don't crush it. You mend your fingure and go on with your life."

"That's too weak, are you suggesting I'm weak?"

Shaking her head she decides this conversation isn't going anywhere and she needed to find Momiji. What the hell happened to him anyway?

Turning to the shocked and frustrated cashier she tosses down a credit card-Shigure's credit card- but he won't miss it until later, and yanks Black Haru out the door.

Looking around she can't find Momiji in this crowded place. "Haru," turning to see a still pissed off boy she calls out his name again to get his attention back on her. "Momiji is missing, do you see him anywhere?" This snaps him out of it and after glancing around a second, he shakes his head.

"Don't worry, he probably saw something and ran over to look. He's fine."

Haruhi wasn't that sure, "He seemed upset, he saw the violin he's always wanted and when the man behind the counter offered to let him play he ran away."

This caused a look of hesitation and worry cross zodiac cow's face.

"What? What is it?"

"Um, nothing. But maybe you're right. Ever since he quit playing he's never really been the same around other instruments."

That was news to her. Why did he quit? But now wasn't the time.

"Let's split up. You have my number if you find him."

Half an hour later and still no sign of any Sohmas, let alone a small blonde haired one, she decides to call it quits for now and take a break. Looking over her shoulder, she sees a man in jeans, a tan shirt, brown flip-flops and a golden necklace. He's staring at the map on the wall. He looks familiar. A laughing child who was running around him for a while now accidentally bumps into him, prompting a quick apology from the kid. The man turns toward him, glasses flickering in the light to glare at the child. The boy shouts to his mom as he runs away.

The glinting glasses gives away who the man is. "Kyoya-senpai?" Haruhi hears her own voice carry above the bustle of people as she walks closer. "I didn't expect to see you here today."

After a second of silence and a thoughtful look on his face, Kyoya says, "How much money do you have on you Haruhi?"

"What?" Why can't he pay? Considering she just left her card in a music store, she has only a bit of cash on her.

A little while later, Kyoya stares at the menu of McDonalds, Haruhi can't help but stare at him, not believing he would be willing to step inside here, let alone eat here.

"Kyoya-senpai, are you sure this is where you want to eat? There are much nicer restaurants to choose from upstairs."

"Well, you don't have much on you, so our choices are limited. Just be sure to get a receipt, Tamaki will reimburse you tenfold." He says with a scary face. "Though I am surprised your family didn't give you a black card yet."

"Um, I got my cousin's card for today, but I just left it in the music store and I am not willing to go back there and see the damage anytime soon." This answer obviously invokes a questioning glare towards the girl to which she just shakes her head.

"Well that's your own fault for leaving it at a store. Although since you are paying for me today, I will be gracious and go with you to get it after this."

How did this happen? She only stayed for a peek at the product expo, why did she have to run into Kyoya-senpai and why did he have to be in such a foul mood? On top of that, Momiji is still missing and she hasn't seen one Sohma in more than an hour now.

Well, that's actually a good thing with Kyoya-senpai here. But that's beside the point. And why is he here anyways? And without cash or a phone? If she had to bet the Host Club was involved. She didn't care if Kyoya saw her family, but the others are a different story. Well, on second thought, her family would flood her with questions, so it was probably safer to keep them separate for now.

"Haruhi, I think it's our turn. How do I order?"

"Oh, here, why don't I order for both of us? Do you know what you want?"

"You pick. Just get us a lot of it."

Grouchy pants. Fine then, she did as she was told and ordered a lot of food.

When the starry-eyed girl asked Kyoya in particular if he wanted deserts, he politely brushes her off with a kind refusal. Then the girl made the mistake of asking him again. With a glare at the young lady he says, "I have given you my answer." and walks away.

Making sure she got a receipt from the nearly in tears girl, Haruhi goes to sit next to him.

Hearing yelling she looks out the shop to the hallway to see the blonde girl, Uo-chan, and her brother fighting about something. They seemed to be alone. Hurrying to her seat she tries not to be noticed by them.

Bringing herself back to her senpai she says what's on her mind, "Kyoya-senpai, just because you're in a bad mood doesn't mean it gives you the right to talk to people like that. The poor girl was just doing her job."

"Her job is to serve us food, not irritate us with some weak sales pitch."

Haruhi stares at him while he eats his burger, this of course annoys him more.

"Now what?"

"I just don't think I've seen you eat before." She explains her actions to him. "somehow I thought the experience would be more refined. I'm surprised food like this even appeals to you."

"It doesn't appeal to me in the slightest. No doubt you say I'm callous for admitting it since you bought this tripe."

"Of course I won't." She will think it though, but that got her wondering why any other Sohma's weren't Chefs or something. She pictured Momiji cooking and thought it was cute. Then she pictured Haru in a smock and a frying pan in his hand. Then just the smock. Then only… Kyoya's next sentence brought her back.

"There's an understanding between makers of food like this and those that eat it. Quality takes a backseat to convenience. Refinement isn't part of the equation. It's meant to be eaten quickly, besides no one of consequences is here to see my momentary lapse of manners."

Thinking that he must be taking a break from the nice-guy act today, he shocks her by saying, "Hey, for the record, I'm saying it benefits me nothing to keep up appearances in a place like this and that includes any special treatments I may give you here."

At that moment, three love-struck girls come up and ask for a chair, which Kyoya replies dully that it's fine. Never seeing this side of him before, she starts to wonder how his indifferent attitude compliments Tamaki's.

Again, reading her mind, Kyoya immediately points out, "The answer is simple, I have something to gain. There is no bigger motive than self-interest. I have to look out for number one, you know."

"Tamaki-senpai would be heartbroken if he heard you say that."

"On the contrary, he's understood our arrangement from the very beginning. The same goes for all of them; Hikaru, Kaoru, Honey-senpai, Mori-senpai. The glue that holds the host club together is our egocentricity. It's the principle that drives the alliance between our families and ensures each of our futures. Though, let's just say there is quite a bit you still don't understand about that. Although Tamaki is a fool, and self-sacrifice does come naturally to him. So, I guess the point of this is, we are very different creatures."

Haruhi never thought about it like that. Even though he did get one thing wrong. She knew all too well what it's like to have to be the staple of the family.

"No, I understand. Since I was born, I was one of the two favorites of the family. That meant I had to learn from a young age how to please others. I had to be the one to stop family squabbles and I had to be the perfect daughter. The always happy and helpful daughter. They considered my brother to be a disgrace, so I was the one to hold up the family name."

She shakes her head. "Anyways I left that household when I was still pretty young, so I don't understand many of your rich-guy thinking, but something like this… I understand more than you think."

Tilting his head, Kyoya let out a little hum, "I guess you do. I still see you as a commoner since that's how I've known you for so long, so I forget you used to be like us."

Haruhi snorts, "Not really, it's kind of funny. It's true the Sohma's are one of the richest families in the world, but no one acts like it. We go to convenience stores to get our food. We go to public schools or small private schools. We do everything like any other person in the world. We just try to be as happy as we can for the short time we're here."

This fact surprises the Shadow King and he wants to ask more but sensing her reluctance to continue this topic and wanting it to end, he gets up to leave. She puts away the trash before asking, "Shall we continue then?"

They walk around for a good amount of time looking at vendor items, like a set of earrings that Kyoya was very curious to see at a place like this, and calling himself 'A product of excellent breeding," before Haruhi finally asks the question that's been on her mind since he called himself that, maybe ever since they were talking about her family back at McDonalds.

"So, Kyoya-senpai, why is it that after all this time, I still know next to nothing about your family?"

"Because there really isn't anything that you need to know about my family, at least nothing that should be of interest to you."

"Well that seems to be a little bit unfair, don't you think?"

He stops walking and faces her, "Just what do you mean unfair?"

"I mean that when it comes to my personal life, you even keep tabs on who my father's friends from work are, while I barely have a clue about yours, so I call that unfair."

"That's a very intriguing notion in its own way." He cocks his head to the side, "I do know everything about your Fujioka family but nothing about your Sohma family, is that still unfair?"

That stumps her for a moment. "Yes, I believe it is. I know my case is a little different because I have two families when most people have one. I was 'kidnapped' so I don't even know anything about my birth family to even tell you. My dad is the only family I know, and you know everything about him, so why can't I know something about yours? It doesn't have to be big just something small should do." She thinks for a second, "You've got two older brothers, right? For starters, you can tell me something about them. What kind of people are they?"

Turning back around, in a wispy voice Kyoya says, "They are rather exceptional. Enough so that my father puts a lot of stock in them. Though as the third son, things work out a little differently for me."

"I didn't know there was so much pressure on you to succeed."

Turning back around and giving a kind smile, he says gently, "Pressure? Oh, no Haruhi, I can't think of nothing more fun than this."

Giving up on learning more about him for now, and mulling over what he said, they share a momentary bond of silence.

"Dear me, pieces from the Komatsu showing collection? I never thought I would find them here!" The pair looks over passed red flags to see a woman in a kimono looking at ceramic bowls.

As the dealer tries to entice her to buy one, Kyoya walks up to her.

"With all due respect," His princely attitude returns, "These are fake."

As the seller cries out and tries to shoo him away, he continues, "The shade of blue is strongly reminiscent of Showings work. But looking closely around the base you'll notice that the color graduation isn't quite dark enough to be authentic. That and the lacquer is too clear."

Looking at the bottom of the bowl he sees something amiss, "Just as I thought, the brush strokes on this seal is uncharacteristically broad as well, for your sake I hope you have a certificate. That is if you still insist it's real."

"Of course it's real! I have the certificate at home…"

"Ah, then surely you don't mind if I call the Komatsu family right now to verify your claim. My own family has had dealings with them for generations. It will only be a matter of minutes."

With that the security took the vender away and the woman thanked him profusely.

"After everything you told me senpai, stepping in on a stranger's behalf seems a little out of character for you."

"Oh that? Well she's hardly a stranger. You mean you don't know? Her husband is a CEO of a major electronics company. This is my first time to meet her personally, but that ring on her left hand is unmistakable. My father has dealings with her husband's company."

After talking to the guards, the woman walks back up to Kyoya and praises him, he of course puts up his airs for her.

Watching this, Haruhi has a revelation. With the flag blocking their sight, he wouldn't have seen the women's ring. Shaking her head, she decides to keep this information to herself for now.

As they keep shopping, they come across some melon snacks made of corn, when Kyoya states it seems counterintuitive Haruhi laughs and says, "That's an intriguing notion in its own way. Earlier you were going on and on about how you and Tamaki-senpai are nothing alike, what you said about the candy, it sounds exactly like him!"

With that exclamation, Kyoya decides to buy them for the club, with Haruhi's money of course.

As they are taking a break Haruhi breaks the silence with a question, "Hey Senpai? Why do you think Tamaki-Senpai is so eager to help people when they're in need?"

"You mean when there isn't nothing to be gained by it? Who knows?"

"So, when you help someone, how exactly do you benefit from it? Money or reputation? Or is it more abstract? Because the way I see it, Tamaki-Senpai gets something from helping others that doesn't necessarily involve them paying him back. So maybe when you get right down to it, the two of you really aren't that different."

Before Kyoya could voice his opinion of the subject they hear a lady over the speakers, "Attention shoppers, this is an announcement for a lost child. A little boy named Kyoya Ootori is lost inside the store. His guardian Suoh is waiting for him on the second-floor information counter. Kyoya is five foot eleven inches tall with black hair and wearing prescription glasses."

People all over start to point and make comments, making another scary face, Kyoya yells, "That damn idiot, I'll kill him!"

Walking up to the information counter, the Hosts are overjoyed to see Kyoya and a little less so to see Haruhi from Tamaki since he wanted to go all stealthy and visit this 'commoners' market on their own. Honey and the twins bound up to Haruhi to try to get her to play with them around the shopping center for a while. Shaking her head, she admits she's exhausted and just wants to go home.

As they watch Tamaki play with his new dog, Kyoya asks Haruhi how he is like this moron, to which she replies, "I know you want me to believe your only reasons for helping that woman earlier was selfish ones, but that isn't actually the truth. Because from where we were standing there's no way you could of seen her ring, there was a flag blocking our view. It just doesn't make sense. You go to all that trouble acting like you're a big jerk when being a nice guy comes so naturally to you. It seems counterintuitive." She smiles at him before heading out.

He watches her leave as he says, "That's a very intriguing notion in its own way."

Before she walks too far though she remembers they are still missing Momiji. As Haruhi pulls out her phone to call Haru to see if they found him yet, she notices that her phone is dead. That's why no one called her to see where she was or if they found Momiji or not.

Sighing she turns back and walks into the information counter again. Looking around she doesn't find any of the Hosts there. Walking up to the counter she asked if the lady could report a missing child. When the announcement was over, she realized it would have been simpler to ask for a phone, oh well, this works too. After a few minutes the Sohmas and three girls come bounding in.

"There you are Anri-chan! We were looking all over for you!" Momiji bounces up and down on his heels. "Guess what I bought! These melon snacks sure do look delicious, don't you think?" Seeing the exact same snacks Kyoya just bought the club in his hand she burst out laughing.

"We also saw this play on the roof called Host Rangers! And we also went to the pet store!" Tohru happily said.

Haruhi looks at her brother, knowing he and the blonde wasn't with the group, "What did you do?" She said innocently.

"We uh, got a little lost for a bit, but we eventually found Momiji and the others." He said indicating Uo-chan. "It was her fault anyways, the yankee just couldn't shut her trap long enough to pay attention to the group." So that meant they were fighting about something and got separated. With a sigh she suggest they head home, which everyone agrees to.

As the Hosts walked away out of the building; with Tamaki playing with his new dog but also complaining that Kyoya ruined the mission because he let Haruhi join them, Kyoya heard the same lady make another lost child announcement. This time for a small blonde boy. But that wasn't what caught his attention. It was the child's name. Momiji Sohma. Hm so she wasn't alone today after all, he kind of felt a little tiniest bit sorry for taking her away from her family for the day. But after a moment he got over it.

"Hey," Hikaru asks the group, "Did the speaker lady just say Sohma?"

"Yeah," Kaoru agrees, "Isn't that that one important families name?"

"I wonder what they are doing here?" Honey says.

"Yep, they are pretty secretive, only a few show their faces, the rest hide out on their family's estate. We only know one that our Mother worked with, even then it was conference calls, no face to face contact, not even facetime." Hikaru put in.

Remembering what Haruhi said in McDonalds about her family doing ordinary stuff like shopping in regular stores, Kyoya wasn't all that shocked to hear that they were here. But what he is interested in is what Hikaru said about being in contact with one. Maybe if he can get their contact information and dig deeper into the name Momiji Sohma, he could help Haruhi out more. For some reason he really hoped he could.

A/N: 8/22/18

Hey Hey! So posting this a bit early than usual because my life will be hectic the next couple of weeks with school starting on the 28th. And it was easy to write once I got the episode written down. I did this chapter because I thought that episode told a lot about Kyoya and I wanted to do her perspective of that day, adding some Sohmas as well. The other episode I considered doing but didn't because that part was too short was where they went to the beach and Haruhi almost got attacked by guys. I thought that scene with Haruhi and Kyoya afterwards told a lot about him. Also, I just wanted to ask, in your opinion who do you want the ships in here to be? Do you want Haruhi to end up with Tamiki? Kyoya? Someone from Fruits Basket? I was originally thinking Haru, but to me it seems like Kyoya would be the best bet because I'm having a hard time writing Tamiki (I think he's perfect for the canon though), and it just seems like how the story is going to end up since I only am writing in three people's perceptions and the other is her brother and what other ships do you want to see? I'm already doing Tohru X Kyo. Anyways after over 3,600 words I will be off to write some other of my stories before Tuesday. Bye!

P.S. this is where I took that violin paragraph from, I don't know anything about violins.

/blog/violin-brands-beginner-students-z08

Edit: 7/5/19: I am sorry for any inconsistency in this fic. For example, even though this chapter is supposed to be in summer, for plot purpose I have this whole fic in November and December (so far). So pretend the weather is like Texas and is hot one morning and by evening its freezing lol. Also for plot purposes and I don't want to deal with them in school much, I mainly have these chapters by weekends. I am using a calendar for this years Nov/Dec and plotting based on that. If they're are inconsistencies that doesn't go at all please let me know, I am always open to criticism on my writing since I am not the best at it (grammar and plot holes alike). I also moved the Omake to after this chapter and added some details to each chapter but hopefully nothing too drastic that you'll notice. Thx again!