Author's Note: Thank you to all the new favs and followers. Thank you to all the reviewers - 60 Reviews! Yea! Enjoy.

Disclaimer: Still don't own Ouran. Bummer.

"Tamaki, can you use your charm and get it for me?"

"Oh, Princess, I would only do that for my darling daughter"

"Be nice or I'll marry her to Hikaru"

"Not that evil twin! Never!"

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xXx

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Chapter 10 – Conversations

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"OK, Kyoya. What's the plan? Is it a rescue? Are we going to get her now so those doppelgangers don't mess it up? I need my daughter!"

Idiot. I need to keep him occupied for the evening so that he doesn't go off the deep end. Who am I kidding, he's been off the deep end since the first time he called Haruhi his daughter. My plan to wake him up and get him back to reality better work. Here we go…

I stood up so fast I knocked my chair over - need some dramatics – might be the only way to get through to him. "That's it! Tamaki, you need to do some serious thinking about Haruhi before we meet tomorrow. Come with me," I demanded as I grabbed his wrist and pulled him out the door. Time for an object lesson.

"Ouch! That hurts. Stop pulling!"

Stopping dead in the hallway, I spun around and gave Tamaki my best glare. "That's not the first time I've heard that plea today. If you had stopped pulling when she asked, we wouldn't be in this mess! Now, come with me," I said in and deep, threating voice and continued to drag him down the hall and into a guest room I had had prepared.

"Sit!" I commanded, pointing to the sofa. Tamaki sat down with a look of wariness. "Give me your phone!" He reached in his pocket and hesitantly handed it over.

"You need to think about Haruhi and the type of relationship you want with her. And, you need to figure it out before they all get here tomorrow. You need to drop this father/daughter shit and honestly think about her as a person, as a friend, and as a girl. You will never be able to have true interactions with her as long as you are in a fantasy world."

He's looking at me with those puppy eyes. I must be strong and do everything I can to snap him out of this and back to reality. We might get her back, but she'll never stay unless he changes.

Time to switch approaches. I sit down next to him on the couch, face him, and try to impress upon him that all I want to do is help. "Tamaki, she walked out on us today because of the way the Club treats her, specifically you and the twins."

"Those evil twins are at fault. You saw what they did!" he wailed. I cringed; sometimes his voice is hard to take.

"Tamaki," I again start with a concerned, calm tone, "we need to clear up your part in this tonight so we can deal with the twins tomorrow. We're going to need everyone to fix them." If I make them sound worse (which in certain ways, they are), he will pay attention.

"We need to talk about the way you treat her, the way you interact with her. You do realize that you were holding one of her arms today when she was hurt, right? How could you not hold any responsibility for her injury if you were one of the people pulling on her arm?" Tamaki started to respond and I quickly cut him off, "Don't answer, just think.

"Think about why you see her as your daughter. You are only one year older than her, so you cannot actually be her father. She has a father; you've met him. He's doing a good job raising her, why do you feel the need to replace him? What are you afraid of if you see her as a girl and not your daughter?" I held up my hand before he could speak, "Don't answer, just think about it.

"Think about how every time you approach her yelling that you're her father, she shuts you down and you end up in your corner. Has she ever called you daddy? Has she ever encouraged you in any way? Has she ever not told you that you aren't her father? Don't you think that her reactions to you indicate that she's sick and tired of your father/daughter shit?

"Think about how you want to interact with her. How you want her to feel about you. How she needs to be treated so she'll come back and stay. Think, Tamaki. Think.

"Make no mistake, Tamaki. If your behavior doesn't change she will NOT be coming back. If your behavior doesn't stay changed, she will NOT be staying."

I got up and walked to the door. Here's where things are going to get crazy. "I'm locking you in here until tomorrow. You will do some soul-searching, you will think about the questions I've asked you. You will not be coming out of here until you have come to some conclusions. Do you Understand!"

"You can't lock me in here! I need to go get my daughter! I can't be stuck here! Kyoya! Hey!" I shut the door in his face as he ran for it. It was locked before he made it to the door.

"Shit! Kyoya, let me out!"

"No. Really think, Tamaki. This is essential to getting her back. She will NOT come back and stay if you do not change the way you treat her." I said through the door, nodded to the guard I had posted, and then walked back to my room. I had told the staff to leave him alone and not let him out no matter what he says. They're used to Tamaki being overly dramatic.

Once at my laptop, I sent two emails out to the Club (minus Haruhi). First, I told them to come tomorrow prepared to stay the night. Ostensibly, the meeting with Haruhi might run long. Actually, it's the next part of the master plan to get her back, but they don't need to know it exists.

Next, I need to compile the records of her debt and email that out. I stand behind each debit and credit, so there won't be a problem.

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xXx

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"Takashi, isn't this chocolate cake the best?"

Honey and Mori were at the Haninozuka main house eating cake in the kitchen. The house was quiet, everyone else having already gone to bed.

"What are we going to do, Mitsukuni? We need a plan before we meet tomorrow. You know how crazy they all can be."

"I think we first need to clearly define the reasons she left. Her shoulder getting dislocated was the final straw, and basically a symptom of the underlying reasons that drove her out," Honey said as he munched cake.

Mori gave him an appraising glance. "You're right. This has been brewing a long time and we need to address the core reason she left – RESPECT!"

Honey looked at him in complete agreement. "The Club doesn't respect Haru-chan as an individual. Everything is a symptom of that."

"We need to gather examples of disrespect from everyone, including us. These need to range from the everyday to the most egregious. If we can present the group with clear facts, we might get somewhere." Mori didn't sound too hopeful. He sighed, "Do you think everyone will be willing to change their behavior towards Haruhi? That's what it will take, and not a token change, but a real one."

"I'm not sure, Takashi. I don't think they all realize how serious this is. An apology won't fix this. A promise to change won't fix this. New and continuing actions will start to heal the problem, but it must be permanent and consistent. It won't work any other way."

Just then, they got a notification of a second email from Kyoya. The details about the debt had come in. Honey opened his email and started to read.

"Takashi, look at this. I didn't realize it was this bad."

"No wonder she's worried about her debt. I had no idea. This can't go on." Mori looked at Honey in restrained astonishment. They needed to carefully construct their plan of attack. Tomorrow was going to be ugly.

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xXx

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"Hikaru, will you sit down and stop yelling? How is this helping?" I yelled at my brother. It's like he didn't even hear me.

He's ranting. Ranting and raving. I'll never get him to the point where he can be productive. If he can't face this issue and adjust what he must to bring her back, we are going to lose her.

I know what I'll do.

Kaoru went into their bathroom and came back with the trashcan. He walked right up to Hikaru and dumped the entire thing of cold water on him.

"What the FUCK!" Hikaru screamed and spun around to look at me. At least that got his attention. His fists were clenching and his knuckles turning white. I think he's going to try to hit me.

"Sit down and shut up!" I yelled and pushed him onto the bed before he had a chance to swing. "If that's the only way I can get you to stop going crazy and start dealing with the problem, be prepared to get really wet tonight!" I roared and then tossed the trashcan back towards the bathroom.

"Now that I have your attention, we need to talk about how to get her back and keep her in the Host Club."

"Screw the Host Club, I want our toy back." Hikaru was still out in his own fantasy. He can be as bad as the boss sometimes. "We need to just go over there and get her. Once she sees us, she'll want to come back. We're her best friends."

"Hika, we dislocated her shoulder today. How friendly is that?"

"The Boss did that. He wouldn't hand her over. That wasn't our fault!" Hika's face was red and he was practically panting, he was so angry. Am I going to have to drug him?

"We were holding her arm too. We can't be completely blameless. We were there. We participated. It's not like we were across the room and Tamaki was pulling her out the door while she was trying to get to us. We pulled her arm too." Hika just stared at me.

"If I was in the middle and you and Tamaki were pulling on me, what would have happened? If I had asked you to stop, told you that it hurts, both of you would have stopped instantly. Right!?" I looked at him and threw up my hands, "RIGHT?!"

"Oh, Kaoru, I would have never hurt you. I can't stand it when you're hurt, it's like I'm hurt too." He jumped up and hugged me. His voice was apologetic, like he'd already hurt me. Perfect.

I pulled out of his arms, stepped back and asked, "So, it's OK to hurt our best friend, but not me? How is she any different? How are her feelings any different from mine? Why does she get treated so much worse than I would in the same situation? Well? Why, Hikaru?"

He looked at me, tears gleaming in his eyes. "I don't know."

Now we're getting somewhere.

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Author's Note: Well, at least there are some guys that understand the seriousness of this (and, I might even be getting better at writing them).

Thanks for the positive reviews regarding the Haruhi/Ritsu paring. They seem kinda cute when I write those scenes. For those of you that like it, you'll like the next chapter. For those of you that don't, this is a fanfic, they are young, and anything can happen, even in future chapters.

Please give me a review about the direction I'm taking. I want to know if the adjustments I'm making are working. Thanks.