Kobanwa Mina-san! For those who want the translation, Good Evening Everyone! This is Chapter 10 of Light as a Snow's Shadow and the Gala Chapters are finally here! Before we start I would like to thank everyone for supporting this tale so far! Now for the disclaimer!

I do NOT own Ouran High School Host Club. I DO own Royal, my other OCs, and this particular fanfiction plot.

On with the Story!

Souh Mansion…(3rd POV)

"Welcome everyone!"

Tamaki shouted to the other host members as they walked through his front door. Tamaki had the bright idea of having everyone from the host club meet at his house before the gala. This was to make sure that everyone that needed to arrive together would.

All the hosts were dressed formally with black dress pants and suit jackets. Their individuality stood out in the choice of ties, color of the shirt, type of suit jacket, and if they wore a vest or not. Tamaki wore a pale silver shirt with a black vest not to mention a maroon tie. Kyoya wore a dark green shirt with a black tie and his coat jacket was slightly longer in the back. Kaoru and Hikaru wore orange and blue vests and shirts respectively with no tie at all. Mori wore white with a red vest and his little cousin wore dark pink with a black bowtie.

As for Haruhi…she was instructed to dress like a girl for this occasion. The twins brought a pink and white dress that was simple and strait. The umpire waist on the gown accentuated the curves she had and she put on a long brown wig to make herself look even more feminine and hide her identity from the other people that might be from Ouran.

Kyoya took a quick head count and wrote something in a small notebook,

"Well, everyone is here besides Royal-san."

With that being said everyone piled into their limousines and left for the gala.

Takashi's Limousine… (3rd POV)

Honey sat happily in the back seat of the vehicle with his taller cousin. Although Honey acted younger than Takashi he could tell when his cousin was not himself and that happened to be what was happening now.

"Takashi…Are you worried about the gala?"

Mori simply yet reluctantly nodded a slow yes. Honey smiled at Mori before continuing, "I know that it is not getting a girl but more like what would happen if you don't find one you like? Right Takashi?"

Honey knew that was exactly what the tall stoic senior was thinking so deeply about. Sure finding women at the gala would be easy for any of the Ouran boys but, the idea that the young woman would be suitable was another story. Sure, a picture in a book is worth a thousand words but a lot can get lost between the two. Meeting the person in real life might actually be different from the photo. Moreover, Mori had to bring up at least one girl that he might want to marry from this event for his father instructed him too.

"Hai."

Honey pondered about what might happen to Takashi if he did not find someone. However, that was too depressing for the young at heart eighteen year old so he moved his attention to if Mori had looked at the guide before the gala.

"Takashi, do you have anyone that you would like to meet?"

Mori opened the book to the pages that he folded over and handed them to Honey. He smiled as he saw the two choices that he made. "I am sure that they are just as lovely in person Takashi, so do not worry so much!"

At the Princess Guide Gala

"Arriving…Ootori Kyoya and his college Tamaki Souh with his lady friend."

Called out the doorman as the trio stepped into the room he did this with everyone who walked in the door. When the group looked around the room, the only girl in sight was Haruhi. The twins commented on this,

"I thought that this was for meeting the girls in the book."

Kaoru agreed with his brother,

"I know this is a total sausage fest right now minus Haru-chan."

A boy of about five feet six turned to speak with the group,

"They do not introduce the girls until later. They introduce them in groups of twenty in the bronze, ten in the silver and one by one in the gold."

The twins thanked him and introduced themselves.

"I'm Kaoru and this is Hikaru. What is your name?"

The tall stranger with long blonde hair laughed and stuck his hand out,

"Just call me Makira."

Everyone froze momentarily and Makira just kept on laughing. "You all must be from Ouran right? You've probably met Royal already but I am Royal's cousin, Keichiro Makira."

Tamaki pointed at Keichiro like he saw a ghost.

"You're Royal's cousin?"

"In the flesh, so what are you all here for?"

Honey piped up,

"We're here to support Takashi."

"Isn't that funny. I am here to support another cousin of mine since I could tell that he did not want to be here anyway."

"He? You mean you're not here for yourself?"

Keichiro laughed again and ruffled Honey's hair.

"Nah…I already have a fiancée of my own. It's just that—"

The conversation abruptly ended since the lights went out and the girls were being introduced. So far, everyone looked like the photos with the exception of different outfits. Within an hour and a half, the man had introduced roughly five hundred girls that made up the bronze and silver class.

"Now the moment that you have all been waiting for! I understand that all of you have been waiting for the top ten girls in the world but I have something to tell first. Miss One and Two have been expelled out of the guide because of personal problems that the two had…anyway after long deliberation with the selection committee we have altered the guide to allow for the missing girls. So let us begin!"

All of the top nine were simply looking like they were princesses. Though, they all seemed to look the same and were built the same.

"Now, I would like to introduce the Grand Princess of the Year…Yukira-dono!"

The number one girl, now known as Yuki glided to a smooth stop at the top of the stairs. She was indeed the same girl from the photo, although, she seemed to be different from the others. As she strided down the stairs, her dark purple gown shimmered in the light and her long curled hair bounced. Once at the bottom, she gave a polite curtsy and the announcer continued, "I must tell you all is Yukira-dono shall reserve the last dance for the winner of the raffle at the end of the night. So all of you book holders have a chance at winning! Good luck and best wishes! Let the gala begin!"

The hosts waved goodbye to Keichiro and wandered around the floor. Multiple girls were huddled around Honey fussing over him and Mori stood around a small crowd of girls that wished to talk to him. The twins were popular and like Mori had a group of girls around them.

For Tamaki, he was able to quickly act like he was in the host club again and mindlessly flirt with every girl in the room. Kyoya just stood by his friend and spoke to anyone who attempted to talk to him.

Haruhi, ended up standing to the side and watching everyone enjoy themselves.

"Well look what we have here it's a common girl. You here with your brother or are you just too ugly to make the cut?"

Haruhi heard from behind her, she ignored it. It was when one of the girls tapped Haruhi on the shoulder and dragged her into the conversation that Haruhi gave her full attention. The other five girls surrounded Haruhi and one of the girls said,

"Look at this she's built like an ironing board."

A girl with black hair and brown eyes wearing a yellow dress came behind her and walked around her in a critiquing manner. "Your hair is a wig and I cannot believe that you did not put any make-up on! I suppose that lipstick on a pig is useless."

The group of girls laughed at her and before she said anything she felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned to see a pair of dark blue eyes smiling at her. Haruhi looked at the other girls, who were frozen like statues and wondered who this stranger was,

"Grace-san of level Bronze, you must learn not to pick on people that are strangers to you. You and I know that it is not lady-like and a disgrace for what oath you took."

Now, Haruhi could get a look at the stranger. She had a dark purple ball gown and a tiara in her fair hair, the girl crossed her arms and the other girls stood at attention.

"I am sorry, Yukira-dono."

She scoffed and retorted,

"If you were truly sorry for your actions you would apologize to her first."

"But Yukira-dono—"

"Your interruptions are unwelcome. Now, go."

The girl named Grace walked over to Haruhi and bowed,

"I apologize for my prior actions."

As soon as she said that she left with her group of friends. The girl in the dark purple ball gown sighed as she turned back to Haruhi. She tossed her curls and stuck her hand out to Haruhi.

"Where are my manners, my name is Yukira and you are?"

Haruhi smiled and shook Yukira's hand.

"Haruhi Fujioka, Yukira-dono."

"Please call me Yuki, everyone at this event calls me that."

Haruhi laughed slightly and looked over her shoulder to see the host boys. Yukira decided to look where Haruhi was blankly staring and got her attention again. "You like one of them, do you?"

Haruhi was caught off guard,

"What? Oh, no no no."

Yukira giggled slightly and wrapped her one arm around Haruhi's shoulder.

"Come with me Haruhi-chan and forget about your male friends for a minute."

With that, Haruhi walked beside Yukira to a different area. Unlike the large ball room, this room was small and was filled with beautiful exotic flowers ranging from every color of rose imaginable, to the giant purple orchids and orange hibiscus. There was a large vanity made of red maple and a small ottoman covered in red silk in the middle of the room and across from it, was a small lounge chair also made of red maple and covered with red silk. Yukira took the seat by the vanity and invited Haruhi to sit.

"Yukira-dono…Where are we?"

"We're in my powder room that was provided to me for this event."

Haruhi was in shock, the people from the guide provided a power room for their girls. These people had more money than sense in Haruhi's opinion but that did not matter.

"Umm…Why did you stand up for me back there? I mean, you do not even know me."

"Those girls need to learn to get off of their high horses once in a while. Believe you me; I would have done the same thing for anyone in any situation. Just because your picture is plastered in a book and nice things are written about you does not mean a thing really."

Yukira reached into the drawer of the vanity and pulled out a small perfume bottle. She sighed before creating a cloud of perfume around her body.

"I would think that you would be the salesperson for this whole book. If you do not like it, then why do you do it?"

Yukira fell silent and stood by the door with her hand on the handle.

"Let us not speak of such sad things for they will clog the mind and infiltrate the soul. Come now, dear. I am afraid that your guy friends will be looking for you and I am afraid that I must return to the gala."

Haruhi thought that it was odd that Yukira was avoiding the question. Wouldn't the girl that was rated so highly love the entire concept of the whole ordeal? However, Yukira was not like the other girls that she met here so why would she love everything? Haruhi stopped thinking about it and returned to the party. It was only fifteen minutes before a familiar idiot came running,

"Haruhi! There you are! Where did you go without telling your father?"

Tamaki had put Haruhi in one of his deadly hugs again. She looked over to the rest of the host boys to find that they were behind Tamaki. He reluctantly let Haruhi go because she could not breathe.

"I had to…" She looked over to see Yukira surrounded by a dozen men. She pondered telling the host boys about her visit with Yukira but ultimately decided not to. "I had to use the powder room that's all."

Tamaki was content with that answer and turned to the other host club members.

"Now that we have acquired Haruhi, we can continue to enjoy ourselves! And Haruhi will remain by me!"

"Milord, why do you get to spend all the time with Haruhi?"

A small argument ensued between the twins and Tamaki about who should spend their time with Haruhi. However, the rest of the hosts paid no attention to that. Honey pulled on Mori's sleeve and whispered something in his ear. After he was done, he ran over to a large group of people. He squeezed through the people and found what he was looking for…

"Royal-chan you came!"

Well, now that school is beginning I am sad to say that the posts may not be as frequent as they were this summer. However that cannot be helped, sadly.

Finally I have gotten to the gala...I still am amazed that this story has gotten this far. Well time for my thanks for my reveiwer last chapter, Flourescent-chan! I hope that this chapter is not as confusing as the last!

I'd like to thank everyone for reading and please, please, please reveiw! Strawberries for all that read and review!

Later

Luna L. Firefall