I'm a terrible writer, so I fell behind on my self-given schedule and ended up having to merge the 9th chapter and the Valentines chapter together. Sorry if it's not what you wanted/was expecting but I tried.

Also, YAAAAAY! This is the longest chapter I've written so far ^_^


Chapter 9: Attack of The Lady Manager/Happy Valentines Day!

As the tweeds appeared in front of her, she stepped back in slight alarm, but didn't leave.

"Come on in, what are you waiting for~" (Kaoru)

"Watching from afar is no fun~" (Hikaru)

They said, one hand holding out their roses while the other rested over their hearts as they both hunched over slightly in a small bow.

Haruhi nudged me gently as indication that I should stand on my toes so she can whisper in my ear. I wouldn't have to normally, but I'd misplaced my regular school shoes. They were specially made (a welcome gift from Yuzuha on around my third day of living with the Hitachiins) with subtle platforms to make me appear taller. Now I wore the normal Mary Janes I had worn on my first day at Ouran, so now I was back to my original short self. And it sucked. If I had a 5 yen coin for every time someone has told me I'm short (as if I didn't already know) then I could probably pay off Haruhi's debt in less than three days. Plus interest.

"Aren't they scaring her?" Haruhi whispered as Tamaki lectured the twins about being gentlemanly before whipping out his own pale green rose and holding it out to the girl.

"Probably. But there's not much we can do." I replied.

"Please, you don't have to be afraid. I welcome you to the Ouran Host club; what's your name, princess?" He said in his 'special host voice' which I think should count as a host ability.

The girl opened her mouth slightly to reply, but she still seemed hesitant. Don't do it! Run away while you still can!

Tamaki then went to stroke her hand, as if to coax a name out of her. "Yes?" He said, encouragingly (is that a word?).

"No! Don't touch me! You're a PHONY!" She suddenly yelled, slapping his hand away.

Tamaki leapt back to where we had all walked forward a few steps to the doorway. "What do you mean I'm phony?" Tamaki stammered, clearly shocked and offended.

"Just what I said, you're PHONY! I find it hard to believe that someone like you is the prince character of this host club!" She yelled again.

"Talk about double personalities." I whispered to Haruhi (I was standing on my toes again). She giggled quietly before nudging me so that I lost my balance on my toes and stumbled forward.

Mori-Senpai caught me by the collar of my blazer and pulled me back to my feet before parting my head and lifting Honey-Sendai onto his shoulders.

"You shouldn't go spreading your love so easily, you STUPID!" She continued her yelling while pointing a finger at Tamaki who looked absolutely horrified.

"You must be a dim-witted NARCISSIST!" (What's a narcissist?)

"You're incompetent! A commoner! You're disgusting!" She concluded as multiple arrows stabbed Tamaki in multiple places on his torso, each arrow complete with an insult the girl had used.

Haruhi bent down to my level as we both sweat dropped. "Did she use 'commoner' as an insult?" She asked. I nodded.

"And he took it as an insult." I replied, sighing.

These damn rich people.

"Wow! He's created a new technique!" Hikaru suddenly exclaimed in awe.

"One man slow motion." Kaoru nodded in agreement, matching his brothers amazement as Tamaki floated slowly to the floor in a poof of dust*.

Kyoya spoke up from my left. "I don't suppose you are..." he trailed off as the girls expression changed from extremely pissed off to utterly smitten, complete with small tears forming in the corners of her eyes.

"It's you! Kyoya!" She exclaimed in delight as she ran forward. "Oh, how I lined to meet you; my one and only Prince Charming!" She used Tamaki's seemingly deflated corpse as a springboard to launch herself at the Host club's stunned vice-president.

Haruhi, the tweeds, Mori, Honey and I just stared in bewilderment. "What?"

A few minutes after all the other guests had left, we had the girl sitting on a sofa with some tea. On the sofa opposite was (from her POV) Kaoru on the very right, Hikaru next to him, Kyoya in the middle, then Haruhi, and then me on the arm of the sofa. I had my arm around her shoulder to keep me balanced and I could see the girl opposite eyeing us up curiously. "I bet she's wondering if we're dating." Haruhi whispered.

"To be honest, I don't care anymore. Sitting here is the one time I'll be taller than you." I teased. She smiled and surpressed a laugh as we started paying attention to the conversation the others were having.

Hopefully we didn't miss anything too important. "Your fiancée?" Hikaru asked, tilting his head to the side in confusion. Nope. Definitely missed something important.

"Kyoya-senpai?" Kaoru asked, mirroring his brothers actions.

The girl smiled and pointed at herself. "Of course! My name is Renge Hoshakuji* and I'm transferring into Ouran's first year class A tomorrow."

Tamaki let out a 'hmph' as he continued to sulk in his emo-corner. "Why is he sulking?" Hikaru asked in a 'for-god's-sake-what-now' tone.

Kaoru answered him in a smug, teasing tone. "Because Mummy** was keeping a secret from Daddy."

"Oh whatever. Why does everyone insist on referring to us as if we're husband and wife?" Kyoya asked no one in particular as Renge continued to babble on about him.

"Oh, this is a story of love at first sight! I couldn't resist the way you were adoring those flowers in the garden when you thought no one was looking! And how sweet it was when you reached out to that poor little injured kitten!"

"Is she for real?" I asked, sceptically as the girl continued to hold her cheeks as she gushed about her wonderful fiancée.

By the end of the day, I felt completely drained. I bid goodbye to the tweeds, since Haruhi had asked if I'd like to come over since her dad was out. We walked out of the gates together and both sighed; happy to be out of the room.

"Having Tamaki as the club's president is hard enough, but I have a feeling that having that Renge girl as the 'manager' is gonna kill me." I whined.

"Well at least we have our first cooking lesson tomorrow. The other classes have already started there's apparently, and they say it's pretty fun." Haruhi reassured.

"I didn't know rich kids still had cooking lessons." I mused as we stopped at a crossing where the light was green.

"Well yeah, why would it be different for them just because they're ri-" Haruhi began. I interrupted her by making a 'nu-nu-nu-nu-NO!' sound and wagging a finger in her face.

"Don't finish that sentence! Last time someone said that there were fifty doctors and nurses with silk curtains and red carpets." I told her, remembering the physical exams from my first few days at the school. The light went red and we crossed the road holding up our hands in thanks to the grumpy dude in the red ford-fiesta with the matching face for not running us over despite it being obvious that he wanted to.


Third person POV (next day)

And there goes the alarm, ringing in my head.

Like somebody said "don't you trust him, no"

Text in from his ex, what did you expect?

Now you're lying here, knowing where he goes.

Now he gotta getcha', karma is a bi-

"Ugh…" Haruhi lifted her hand and swatted at the nightstand, searching for the device that had dared disturb her slumber. However, it wasn't until the chorus had looped twice that she was able to scoop up the clock and smack the top button, effectively cutting off the alarm.

Seven A.M. Time to get up.

Wriggling herself out from under her sheets, Haruhi stood up and padded over to her wardrobe after gently throwing the small black digital clock back down on the nightstand. It wasn't until she was standing at her bedroom door that she realized that she could smell something...good?

Realising what this meant, she clumsily dashed back to the wardrobe and yanked her uniform off of its hanger and eagerly (too eagerly) put it on.

She opened her bedroom door and stumbled out into the kitchen, one of her feet stuck just before the opening at the bottom of the part of her trouser leg. Since she didn't have either her contacts in or her glasses on, everything was a big blur, but she could at least see someone moving around the kitchen with a big stack of pancakes piled high on the small dinner table. She could hear her father's light snores from his bedroom down the hall. Seriously, that man slept as if he hadn't for years.

"I know you're there, Haruhi. Go finish getting ready for school before you stuff your chubby hamster cheeks." Marcie called from the stove where she still made more pancakes.

Haruhi attempted to answer, but a huge yawn escaped instead, so she wandered back to the bathroom to take in her (probably terrible) appearance.

After panicking for a moment about her reflection being a messy blob, she remembered that she had yet to put her contact lenses in. After doing so, she internally laughed at herself. One leg caught in the trouser leg, shirt half untucked, blazer inside out, collar up, tie wonky and unbrushed hair sticking up on one side in a cow lick.

Wow.

"What's taking you so long in there?" Marcie called. And after a short pause "Are you laughing about your cow lick? Cuz...I was so close to exploding but I didn't wanna wake your dad up." She continued with a small chuckle.

"Oh ha ha." The brunette replied sarcastically, though both girls knew she was smiling.

After fixing her hair and uniform, Haruhi emerged from the bathroom and happily sat down at the kitchen table. Her blonde friend, who had temporarily abandoned her own blazer for a violet 'kiss kiss fall in love with the cook' apron (which belonged to Haruhi's father, of course) set down a massive plate of approximately 12 pancakes down in the middle of the table before giving Haruhi and herself a plate and sitting down with the chocolate sauce, sugar and maple syrup.

The two girls ate the pancakes between them and paused at the door, both realising the same thing. They were late, so it was already decided that they would ride their bikes to school. But there was only one bike.

"We could always share?" Haruhi suggested, smiling mischievously.

"What, like in middle school?" Marcie asked, mirroring her friend's smile and raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah!"


Tamaki had arrived on time for once, and decided to wait at the school's main entrance by the bike racks for his beloved Haruhi.

He wasn't sure why the school even had bike racks; it's not like any of the wealthy students of Ouran academy would ever consider cycling there when they could simply take a limo.

All of the students still waiting outside on the school grounds suddenly turned to watch as two people on bikes pedalled through the school gates at top speed.

The chairman's son allowed his mouth to fall open as he recognised the cyclers to be none other than the host club's female members.

Tamaki straightened up as the two girls moved closer. But it wasn't until they were halfway between the gates and the bike racks that he noticed something even stranger. There was only one bike. Marcie was on the seat, smoothly pedaling her and her childhood friend down the stone pathway, but Haruhi was standing up behind her with her arms wrapped around Marcie's shoulders.

There was no second seat. There were just two bars sticking out from the bike frame near the center of the back tire where Haruhi's feet were planted. The sight of it almost gave Tamaki a heart attack if it wasn't for Haruhi grinning from ear to ear with both girls laughing psychotically as the wind blew at their hair.

The girls zipped along the path. As they drew closer to the bike rack, Marcelline stopped pedaling; but she didn't brake.

"Ready, Haruhi?"

"Hell yeah!"

"3, 2, 1!"

When they reached '1', the blonde sharply jerked the handlebars to the left, riding alongside the bike racks as Haruhi let go of the Marcie's shoulders, jumping off of the bike. She stumbled an inch or two when her feet hit the ground, but other than that it was a smooth landing. Haruhi removed her helmet and ran her fingers through her short brown hair.

"Hey, Senpai." She said, casually. Ya know, as if she hadn't just jumped off anime that had been going probably around at least 30 mph.

"J-j-j...j-j-j… juST WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!" Tamaki yelled, grabbing the paper bag supplied by Kyoya (who had appeared sometime during that whole charade) and hyperventilating into it for a couple minutes before screwing it up into his hand and throwing it behind him over his shoulder.

Haruhi patted her school bag which had been fastened securely to her side, "I'm not sure why you're shouting, Senpai. I just let my friend ride my bike to school. It's no big deal-"

"YES IT'S A BIG DEAL! HOW COULD YOU BE SO IRRESPONSIBLE! THAT WAS INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS, WHY DIDN'T MARCELLINE STAND ON THE BACK?"

"She can't stand on the back because she's too short. She still can't find her special shoes. And besides, we did that that all the time in middle school. No need to shout about it, senpai."

Tamaki's head jerked back, "All…the time..?"

The poor blonde boy was trembling from head to toe as Marcelline pedalled back. She climbed off the bike and wheeled it onto the rack with one hand while she unhooked her own helmet with the other. Haruhi fastened her helmet onto the right handlebar while her friend chained up the bike. It was painted blue with a white basket on the front.

"Maybe we should've practiced the dismount a couple times before we headed here, Marcie. I stumbled a tiny bit."

Marcie chucked her own helmet into the basket, "Yeah, I was thinking that too. The bike shook like hell when you jumped off. Oh well, I suppose that counts as practice."

The girls grinned at each other and threw an arm around eachother's shoulders, "Let's go kick everyone's asses at cooking."

They walked up the steps, but Kyoya and Tamaki lagged behind. Tamaki was about fifteen seconds away from hyperventilating again while Kyoya simply stared off after them. A few seconds later the twins ran up.

"Tono! Did you see that?" (Hikaru)

"That was so cool! I didn't know they had it in them!" (Kaoru)

And with that, Tamaki retreated to a make-shift emo corner where he hugged his knees and rocked back and forth on the cement. "My precious daughter… how could they…?"

Kyoya looked down at the blonde in disappointment." Quit being so overly dramatic, Tamaki."

Hikaru replied instead, saying that asking Tamaki to not be dramatic was like asking a dancer to remove their legs***.

"Tama-chan! Why are you crying?" Honey and Mori appeared at the side of the group, having just missed the girls random stunt.

"Good morning, Mori-senpai, Honey-senpai." Kaoru said, politely; living up to his nickname of the 'nicer twin'.

"You're not going to believe what Marcie and Haruhi just did!" Hikaru said excitedly before reciting the event to the third years as the six hosts walked inside the building.


Haruhi POV

Who would have guessed that rich kids need to learn how to cook? But, this was the first cooking class of the term so I'm expecting them all to be pretty terrible.

It was four to a station, so of course Hikaru, Kaoru, Marcie and I all went for the same one at the back by the window.

On the station next to ours were two of Marcie's male guests, one of my guests and one of the twin's guests. I only knew the names of the girls; my guest was Azumi (a regular) and the twins' guest was Ijime Kurishe, I think.

Then on the station in front of us was a combination of girls that I recognised from the host club, one of which being Renge.

We were then given the recipe and left to get on with it.

Marcie POV

"We're making cakes?" I asked excitedly, eyeing up the sheet that had our recipe.

"No. Clearly these are instructions on how to perform heart surgery." Hikaru replied sarcastically.

"Check it out though, there's a ton of different designs..." Haruhi said, pointing to a small list in the top left corner of the sheet.

"I'm gonna do..." I began, dragging out the 'do' as I used my finger to scroll down each design. There were about six designs in total, and none of them really appealed to me until I got to "HOLY CHEESECAKE, I CAN MAKE FANCY CHEESECAKE?!" The whole room went silent and stared at me.

I was tempted to do that trick where you're all like 'I forgot something downstairs' and then walk back and forth behind a surface while you slowly bend your legs to make it look like you're going down a set of stairs.

But I didn't, because that would probably make things worse, so I turned to the rest of my group and said "I'm uh...I'm gonna make the cheese cake. What are you guys making?" I mumbled.

"Hmm..." Haruhi made a little humming noise as she scrolled down the list using her finger like I had. "Maybe if I split up the cake mixture I can make a small one of everything?" She though out loud to herself as everyone continued their work.

The tweeds chose one with a fancy name that I can't pronounce, but the picture looked pretty good.

The group of girls in front of us started giggling and fangirling more than usual.

"What's going on? I feel like the fangirls are more insane and giggly that usual." I voiced my thoughts.

"Oh, didn't you hear? I think some people are planning to give their cakes to the person they have a crush on." Haruhi informed

"Some people seem nervous; like it's Valentine's Day or something." Hikaru added.

"Wait, I didn't know that." Kaoru said, raising an eyebrow. Hikaru laughed at him which started up the brotherly love act; that (of course) got the attention of the fangirls in the room.

The teacher stood at the front of the room and told everyone to put on their aprons, and the girls with long hair had to tie it up.

It takes me forever to do my hair on my own, so Haruhi did it for me. We got our fair share of squeals, envious glares and glances for that.

She put my hair into two high bunches, much to my fanboys delight. Not to brag, but I guess I did look pretty cute with my hair like that and in a white apron with vertical red stripes.

Kaoru POV

My mind was still lingering on what Haruhi and Hikaru had said about giving cakes to people's crushes...I found myself staring at Marcie. I'm not sure why, but I did feel a pang of something like jealousy when two guys from the station next to ours strolled over blushing and asking if she wanted to trade cakes with them.

That started an argument between the two on who would get her cake; but they were stopped by the blonde herself who told them that she was sorry, but had already planned on halving it with someone.

This calmed them down and they finally left.

'Planned on halving it with someone.' Who? Do I even have the right to know? Why should I know? Why do I want to know?

I think Hikaru sensed how I felt, because he was staring at me in what seemed like confusion, alarm maybe.

"Okay! Let's get started then." Haruhi said, getting out all the bowls and ingredients.

Hikaru blushed at her excitement. Honestly, he's such a dork. I think Marcie has realised his feelings too, and has been subtly hinting to him about what he could do about it.

Like when we took her to a theme park once and she found a box of pocky in a gift shop. "Awe, I haven't had this in forever! Haruhi loves this stuff." She had said, finishing her statement with a glance in Hikaru's direction.

When he blushed, looked away and did nothing, she just stared at him as if trying to repeat the message to him telepathically. 'HARUHI LOVES THIS STUFF' I laughed at her expression causing it to falter slightly; letting out a small, proud grin.

When Hikaru still did nothing, she huffed, pouted and picked up a box of the weird chocolate + biscuit stick things before saying "I'll buy it for her as a souvenir." She told me, slowly walking to the counter.

I laughed at her again while Hikaru sighed irritably; though there was still a blush on his cheeks.

He stormed over to Marcie and snatched the pocky from her grasp, stomping up to the counter and slamming the box with appropriate money on the surface.

"Alright, already. I'll buy your damn souvenir." He huffed, causing her to smile widely with her hands in fists on her hips in triumph.

It was a bad idea going to a theme park in a group of three, since it meant that (not all the time, but most of it) Marcie had to sit either on her own or next to a stranger. A stranger which, coincidentally enough, almost always turned out to be guy who almost always tried to flirt with her. Honestly, these commoners are so desperate. It's annoying. Though it was amusing to see the many ways in which she could reject them with a witty remark.

"Kaoru?" Said blonde was currently waving a hand in my face, saying my name as if she'd been doing so for a long period of time.

"Uh s-sorry," I replied sheepishly as she raised an eye brow. "He was thinking about when we went to a theme park and I bought Haruhi that pocky stuff." Hikaru informed, causing both girls to smile as they worked on our cakes. They had already put theirs in the oven, so (after seeing how terribly we were doing) they decided to help us with ours. Haruhi was doing Hikaru's because Marcie and I told her to, which left Marcie to do mine.

"I remember that! That was fun." Said blonde remarked, seemingly to no-one in particular.

"Yeah, thanks for that by the way." Haruhi said as she turned to smile at Hikaru who immediately blushed and looked out the window in order to pretend that he hadn't been staring at her for the past five minutes when she wasn't looking. Totally not obvious bro, nobody notices at all.

Like I said, such a dork.

"N-no problem." He managed to say. The moment was short-lived, due to Renge's group screaming in terror at the tiny flame that had erupted from their oven. They managed to save a few of the cookies they'd made, but most of them were burned to ashes or too burnt to eat without breaking a tooth.

Needless to say, class A's first cooking class of the term was dismissed early.

The rest of the day went by quickly, and soon we were all seated in the third music room with the other hosts while Tamaki talked about how having Renge as a manager might not be that bad.

This was, according to him, because Hikaru, Marcie and I were 'shady' and therefore shouldn't be the only friends Haruhi has in class.

"Woah-woah-woah, hold on. I understand the tweeds being shady, but what did I do?"

"Obviously, after your display with the bike this morning, you're a bad influence on Haruhi." Tamaki declared, pointing a finger at Marcie who shrank back in offense with her arms crossed firmly over her chest with a pout.

Then the door creaked open, and we all turned in our seats to see Renge walk in with a small lilac pull string bag. "Hi everyone! You'll be happy to know that you're new manager Renge had baked all of you some cookies!" She chirped as Tamaki practically leapt out of his chair to greet her at the door, saying how she was wonderful and ladylike.

"Aren't those the same cookies she set on fire this morning?" I whispered, so that only the ones on the same sofa as me (Hikaru, Haruhi, Marcie and me) could hear.

Hikaru laughed, Marcie giggled with a smile and Haruhi sweat dropped as they all nodded in agreement that, yes, those are the cookies that had been aflame that same morning.

Next thing I knew, Renge was in front of Kyoya and holding out the cookies to him, which he took with an expression of distaste before passing on to Honey-senpai. "Sorry I burnt them a little bit, I did the best I could; and I already know what you're going to say!" She cried, not paying attention.

Honey opened the bag and eagerly munched on a cookie while Renge daydreamed.

"Burnt them 'a little bit'?" Hikaru mused quietly. I smirked.

"She does know cookies aren't supposed to look like that, right?" I added.

"Maybe we just assumed she was making cookies and she was actually making scones?" Marcie joked.

"I highly doubt that's the case." Haruhi deadpanned, seemingly unamused with our childish teasing.

The four of us continued to whisper among ourselves until Honey suddenly spoke up from where he stood by the window. "Wow! She wasn't kidding, these really are burnt!" He called to Mori-senpai who took the bag from him, placing it down on the coffee table in front of us.

"Don't eat that, it's bad for you." He said in his usual flat tone. Renge didn't seem too happy that the two third years had insulted her cooking skills, whether intentionally or not. So, she began chasing them around the room; her brown hair turning into red-eyed snakes.

Haruhi stood and walked around the table to pick up the small bag and take out a cookie. She nibbled some off the corner hesitantly. "They're not that bad, actually. They've got a good flavour to them."

"Really? Lemme try!" Marcie said, leaning over the table to take the cookie that Haruhi held out. Marcie thanked her happily, reminding me of why she's constantly told that she and Honey-senpai are like siblings. Despite being no where near as short as he is, she's still a good couple inches shorter than Haruhi (because apart from Marcie and Honey, she is the shortest), about as much as the width of Mori-senpai's hand if he stretched out his fingers. Not to mention how she got excited at the mention of sweets. And how they had...the same...last...name...?

Tons of people have the same last name, though...like how there were two Suzushima's in my Japanese History class that had to constantly tell people that they weren't related, they just happened to have the same last name.

"Woah!" Marcie managed to voice her thoughts of awe around a mouthful of cookie. "You're right, this is better than the lump of coal I expected."

Hikaru and I exchanged mischievous glances before he walked slyly around the table to Haruhi while I stood closer to Marcie than what was probably necessary.

"May we try?" Hikaru leaned over and bit the other end of Haruhi's cookie slowly. I tried doing the same to Marcie, but I got embarrassed at the last second and hesitated, allowing her enough time to duck and take a new cookie from the bag, shoving it into my mouth quickly and going to stand by Haruhi with a furious blush on her cheeks. I would have teased her about said blush, had it not been for the one that I was certain rested upon my own features as well.

But why? I do stuff like that with other people all the time, so why did I suddenly get so embarrassed...?

Hikaru stared over at me curiously, as if to say 'what happened there?'. I shrugged and waved a hand dismissively; 'no big deal'.

I was saved from further interrogation as Tamaki popped up and ran to Kyoya, pointing at us and yelling furiously. "DID YOU SEE THAT?! They ate the girl's cookiiiiiiiieeeessss!" He whined at the end while Kyoya mumbled something about the four of us 'suddenly being closer than ever before'. That's one way to put it...I thought to myself, risking a glance at Marcie past Haruhi and Hikaru who were standing between us. She was still blushing and avoiding eye contact... What's wrong with us?

I've done stuff like that before with her, but neither of us have reacted like this before...well, I know I haven't. I'm not sure about her anymore...

But what does it mean?

"If you wanted some, Hikaru there's plenty more in the bag." Haruhi told him. But:

How did she know it was Hikaru...?

WHY AM I SO CONFUSED AT EVERY THING TODAY?!

I sighed in irritation. I'm even getting confused as to why I'm confused! What's wrong with me today...

I caught the concern in Hikaru's eyes as he glanced at me when I sighed. He can probably sense my stress. He opened his mouth to question me, it fortunately, Tamaki wasn't done fussing over Haruhi so I was saved again when he popped up in front of her and grabbed her face.

"THAT'S NOT THE WAY YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO REACT, HARUHI! YOU HAVE TO STAY STRONG AND REJECT THEM, THEN CASUALLY BRUSH THEM TO THE SIDE!" He screeched.

"Please stop shouting, senpai. This is sexual Harassment." Haruhi deadpanned in annoyance.

Tamaki let go, but, didn't stop yelling. "SEXUAL HARASSMENT?! If THIS is sexual harassment then what THEY were doing must be 10 TIMES WORSE!" He continued, pointing at Hikaru and I.

"Calm down, Tono. We're sorry!" We called over to him, though we allowed ourselves to smirk slightly.

"EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU!" Renge suddenly yelled after a moments silence. She was with Honey senpai by the door, and the small 3rd year looked up at her in shock, nearly spilling the pink mug of milk that he was holding.

The rest of us turned to look at her in confusion and alarm. "W-what?"

"Except for Kyoya, all of your characters are lukewarm!" She yelled. "Each of you needs to have some sort of dark side; you understand? Girls are vulnerable to young men who are troubled. If you keep carrying on like this then it's only a matter of time before the girls get tired of you and stop coming altogether! Are you trying to run my precious Kyoya's business!?" She yelled, her eye twitching in anger as she glared at all of us in turn, excluding Kyoya of course.

We stayed silent; unsure of what to say. As it turns out, she wasn't expecting us to say anything, as she continued as soon as she had caught her breath.

"As your manager, it's my job to change your backgrounds." She paused for breath again, allowing the hosts just enough time to exchange looks of curiosity, alarm, horror and confusion.

She pointed a finger at Honey-senpai and continued. "Let's start with you! If all you are is cute inside and out than your no different than a baby! Therefore, from now on...you'll be the baby-faced thug!" She yelled, causing Honey to shriek out in horror as if the title was a death sentence.

"And Mori-senpai, you'll be his childhood friend: the flunky!" She continued. Mori just nodded his head quietly. I saw Marcelline nudge Haruhi, pulling on her sleeve to get her to a lower level so she could whisper in her ear. I still caught her asking "what's a 'flunky'?" Haruhi shook her head and whispered back "tell you later. It's not exactly the time to pull out a dictionary, you might miss something important."

Marcie then smiled, "yeah, this is hilarious!"

I was pulled back to reality from earwigging when Renge directed her finger to me and Hikaru. "The twins will be basket-ball players enslaved in their own world!" This caused Marcie to burst out laughing, clutching her stomach as small tears formed in the corners of her eyes. Haruhi was trying to calm her down, but was giggling in spite of herself.

She looked up in alarm though when Renge pointed to her, an indication that it was her turn to be given a new character. "Haruhi will be an honour student who is constantly being bullied!"

Marcie fell off the sofa and started to flail about on the floor, laughing hysterically. I suppose Haruhi's horrified expression wasn't helping, either.

"And as for you, Tamaki, you're the school idol who's admired for your good looks but you actually have an inferiority complex you're hiding from the world: The lonely Prince!"She declared triumphantly.

"As for you, Kyoya you're fine just the way you are; so I want you to stay just as kind and affectionate as ever, kay?" She finished by looking innocently over to Kyoya who did something resembling a smile in response.

"Thank you, I'm honoured." He replied. Suck-up.

Almost everyone in the club had expressions that were mixtures of extreme depression, horror and confusion.

Haruhi POV

Marcie however, seemed to be enjoying this too much.

"Renge-chan, Renge-chan! What's my new character?" She asked excitedly.

Renge looked over her shoulder at the blonde and raised an eyebrow as if the answer was obvious.

"But Marcelline-chan, you're character is fine as it is! With its own tragic back story and everything!" The girl explained enthusiastically.

Uh oh. I took a quick glance around the room at the other hosts. Everyone looked confused, mostly. But Honey-senpai and Kyoya-senpai looked different. Kyoya seemed to know what was coming, which made me think he knew all along. After all, I do remember him saying that he read the files and did searches on all the host club's guests; which probably means he read hers.

I don't know how I didn't realise that he knew this whole time.

"What do you mean, 'tragic back story'?" Marcie asked, her sweet, happy tone wavering in places to reveal the anger and sadness that lurked underneath.

Renge smiled excitedly as she started to explain it as if she was giving important information in some kind of anime or manga.

"Well, after meeting you yesterday I thought there was something off about you -ya know, cuz of your uniform- so I decided to do some research! I was really surprised when I saw that your father was actually a wealthy businessman since I heard you were just a commoner. Then on a different file I read about which middle school you went to and that's when it all clicked into place! You met Haruhi in middle school with your -get this!- twin sister and the three of you didn't talk much at first until your mother died. There were tons of news paper articles on how she might have been murdered by your own step fa-" Renge was abruptly cut off by a china tea cup whizzing past her face (barely missing her) and smashing into the wall behind her. Everybody directed their attention to Marcie, who had another tea-cup in hand, ready to throw.

"Shut. Up." She spoke calmly, yet with no traces of her usual, kind happy self. Renge closed her mouth which was still open from when she had been cut off mid-sentence. The girl then nodded her head slightly before looking down at the ground in shame, finally realising that reciting such sad events in such a happy tone to people who had nothing to do with it probably wasn't the smartest choice.

"My past is none of your concern, Renge; whether you mean well or not."

The blonde then turned on her heel to face the door way to the host club. "I'll clean that up later." She said coldly to Kyoya (without making eye contact) before leaving the third music room.

What surprised me most was that Kaoru was the first one to make a move after her, beckoning for Renge, Hikaru and I to follow.

After about five minutes of the whole host club (and a few guests) searching for their hostess, they learned that she was no longer on school grounds.

Hikaru turned to me after a long staring contest with Kaoru. They must have been having one of those internal telepathic twin conversations.

"Any ideas where she might go at a time like this?" He asked me.

I thought about it for a minute.

"Yeah. I don't think that Renge should come with us, though; since she's probably the last person Marcie wants to see right now." I replied, feeling slightly guilty for my choice of words as Renge again lowered her head in shame.

"Well you can't go on your own." Hikaru told me, just before a small lightbulb appeared over Kaoru's head from behind his older brother.

"Why don't you go with her then, Hikaru? I'll stay here with the others in case she comes back here. I wanna help pick up this china, too." Kaoru added. Hikaru looked taken aback, and about to retort, but I quickly intersected.

"I'd really appreciate that, actually. Do y'mind?" I asked, directing my gaze to the older Hitachiin boy.

"But, um. Could I ask a favour of you, Kaoru? There's another place I think she could be and if you don't mind, I'd like you to check there?" I knew she was more likely to go to the place I was sending him, but that's kinda why I sent him there. What? She has her OTP's, I have mine.


Trees of the town reveal the time has come

Once again to shift our shade and colours


*Yes I had to look that up, otherwise we would have had a repeat of the *tea-cup fetish* incident with *miss annoying-voice-otaku-girl*. Original, I know.

**I know the twins aren't British, but (I am, so) I'd feel weird writing 'Mommy'. I already wanna change the spelling of that. My British fingers be itching over the 'u' right now so I'm gonna go be a Brit and make some tea.

***I'm sorry if that was offensive, it's my fault for asking my girlfriend (Jenny-apocalypse on this site, go check her account out plz ^_^) for similies. Also she read through this a week earlier than you guys did while it was still in progress so you can thank her for the lack of spelling that I would normally have.