A/N: Positive reviews on my inner mind theatre… I got a kick out of telling you about it and am happy you got a good laugh too. Mtnkolle… I think if anyone could create something and get it attached, it would be Kyoya. In fact I can see Tamaki hitting one million and the Shadow King himself keeping track of it all. LOL. I am glad that everyone liked the Satoshi/Haruhi scene. It made sense to me that families would be trying to arrange marriages with Hunny and Mori, and that might make Haruhi question if the parents would not try to make a better deal. I felt like if anyone could reason with her, it would be Satoshi because he is close enough to it all and yet removed enough that he could be the voice of reason, without the shinai. LOL. Here is the new chapter, happy reading and let me know what you think.
Chapter 29 – Permission to Be a Girl
That same day during club time, Tamaki kept shooting glances at Haruhi and unnerving her. When she had a small break from her customers, she got up and walked over to his section, "Excuse me ladies, but I need to speak with Tamaki for a second."
Gushes and sighs were heard throughout the crowd as Tamaki stood up and went with Haruhi a few feet away, "What do you need? You know daddy will do anything for his little girl!"
"Stop looking at me like I killed your best friend. You are going to make our patrons wonder if you are even paying attention to them," Haruhi glared at him before attempting to walk away.
"What do you mean?" Tamaki asked as clueless as ever.
Face palming, Haruhi whispered harshly, "You keep staring at me like I wronged you in some way. My customers keep noticing and I am sure yours have too! You need to stop now!" After she said what she felt needed to be said, she stomped off towards the kitchen to get some more tea for her next set of guests.
Tamaki walked dejectedly back to his designates and proceeded to entertain them to the best of his ability forcing himself to not look in the general direction of the only female host in the club. He had not been completely aware that he had been starting to stare at her until she said something and found that his eyes wanted to keep wandering over to that part of the room.
Mori, ever the observer, watched as Haruhi pulled Tamaki to the side and exchanged some heated words with him. He wasn't completely sure what was said or why, but he was sure he would find out about it later. Arriving late to Host Club today did not allow him time to talk to her prior to the doors opening, and he could tell that something had already irritated her; he could only guess that it had something to do with the self-proclaimed Host Club King.
When the girls were finally escorted out of the music room, Mori made his way over to Haruhi, "Are you alright?"
Looking up, Haruhi was in her own little world and did not realize that someone, let alone her boyfriend, had walked up to her. "Yah, Tamaki just irritated me today more than usual," she grumbled.
"What happened while I was gone?" Mori inquired.
Haruhi was about to answer and tell him about what happened earlier in the day, but Kyoya interrupted and called everyone into a meeting, "I will tell you on the way home."
Nodding, Mori linked his hands with her and walked over to the others; however upon arriving, they found that there was no place to sit together. The twins took up one of the couches, Hunny and Kyoya were sitting in two of the chairs, and Tamaki had taken up a large residence on the other couch. This did not faze them though as Mori sat down next to Tamaki forcing the younger man to sit up and move over so that Haruhi could sit on Mori's other side.
"Haruhi, don't you want to sit next to daddy?" Tamaki asked sullenly. He had purposely tried to force Mori's hand and make him sit next to Kyoya or Hunny, but it didn't work.
"No," Haruhi replied blandly.
"Haruhi, you are supposed to sit next to daddy and spend some time with him!" Tamaki demanded.
"I don't know what you are talking about senpai, but that isn't going to happen. I am sitting next to Takashi. Now, can we get on with this meeting?" Haruhi bluntly stated.
"But, daughter…" Tamaki started to wail, but was cut off by Kyoya.
Pushing up his glasses, Kyoya had called this meeting to discuss what happened earlier since it was more than apparent Tamaki still had a problem with everything, "That is enough Tamaki and if you run to your corner, you will regret it."
"MOMMY!" The blonde cried out.
"No, daddy. That is enough. Now the reason I have called this meeting is for a couple of reasons. First, I wanted everyone to know that you will be dismissed from your classes early the day of our last hosting event. Your instructors are already aware and you will be allowed to leave 30 minutes early from classes; and no Haruhi, you don't have a choice in the matter."
"I wasn't going to protest," Haruhi stated.
"That is good. Now secondly, based on the discussion earlier today, some of you have an issue with Haruhi attending the graduation party as a girl. I will remind you that this is her decision. In fact, after tomorrow she will have completely paid off her debt. It is her decision if she chooses to stay in the host club or leave it. As previously discussed though, she would like to stay in the Host Club and there are several ways for her to accomplish this. If she wants to attend the graduation party as a girl, no one here should shave a problem with it. Just like it is her decision on when she would like to reveal herself as a girl. As her friends, I would think that you would want to support her and her decisions," Kyoya smirked and pushed up his glasses causing an ominous glare, "Or do you want her to keep her secret for the rest of her life and prevent her from moving forward with her relationship and her career. I guarantee you that she will not be able to play the role of a man when she is a lawyer."
The twins and Tamaki shrank away from Kyoya as they looked abashed. Tamaki may have been more flagrant about his stance on the matter, but the twins were not far behind him.
Mori raised his eyebrow and gazed down at Haruhi sitting next to him, "What happened?"
"I just told everyone earlier today that I was going to go to the party as a girl and they didn't like it even though I said I would wear my wig and everything. Well, Kyoya-senpai was ok with it as was Hunny-senpai, but the other three didn't seem to think it was a good idea," Haruhi explained quickly.
Releasing the hand he was holding, Mori wrapped an arm around her shoulders and pulled her close before he leaned down and kissed the top of her head, "I think it is a good idea. Is that why you pulled Tamaki to the side earlier?"
"Yes, he kept giving this look like I kicked a puppy," Haruhi mumbled sinking into his side.
"I noticed that and it was one of the reasons I asked everyone to gather," Kyoya said.
"We just think that it will be too easy for her to be recognized," Hikaru and Kaoru announced.
Tamaki latched onto their comment, "Exactly! Haruhi you are supposed to be our secret princess!"
"No offense senpai, but Kyoya-senpai is right. I can't pretend to be a boy forever and it is my secret to tell. I wasn't going to reveal it at the party. I am going to be in disguise, but excuse me if I want to be with my boyfriend on his arm instead of watching from the back of the crowd. I would also rather not be witness to all of the girls throwing themselves at him all day and unable to say or do anything," Haruhi shot back.
Kyoya knew that with the closure of Haruhi's debt, she could leave if she wanted to. She was not longer held captive by a large sum of money and it would now be her friendship that would keep her here or force her to leave. Preferring her to stay, Kyoya was doing what he could to help the situation, but Tamaki, Hikaru, and Kaoru were proving to be difficult and would rather that she not reveal anything to anyone. They had to learn that this was either they support her or they lose her, just like when it was revealed that she and Mori were dating. He knew that the relationship was leading to a marriage proposal, how was she supposed to stay "male" if she was engaged to Takashi Morinozuka? "We can tackle the reveal at a later time if you would like to Haruhi. Maybe before the start of the new school year would be an ideal time to tell the world that you are a girl, but we have time for that later."
"MOMMY! HOW CAN YOU ENCOURAGE THIS RECKLESS BEHAVIOUR FROM OUR DAUGHTER?" Tamaki shouted.
"Excuse me, but I do believe that is her decision to make," Kyoya leered.
"NO IT ISN'T! I FORBID HER FROM GOING TO THE PARTY AS A GIRL! In fact, she is not allowed to go to the party at all!" Tamaki ordered standing up and stomping his foot for good measure.
A dark aura was starting to surround the small group. Haruhi was pissed, "You cannot forbid me from doing anything. You are not my father and have no say in my life what so ever!" Standing up, she looked at Mori and said, "I am leaving now." Without waiting to see if he would follow, Haruhi grabbed her bag and walked out of the door.
Mori got up to follow her, but before he walked out of the room with his cousin right behind him, he spoke up, "She is not a bird to be kept in a golden cage. You need to listen to her and accept her decisions are hers to make. Right now she can either stay in the club because she wants to be with her friends, or she can choose to leave because her friends don't care enough about her and what she wants. Is it so wrong that she wants to go to the party dressed as a girl? She will be in disguise." Opening the door, he walked out of the room and the door closed with a soft click behind Hunny and him.
"All of you should listen to Mori-senpai. He is correct. You can either support her, or risk the chance she will leave the club behind. I personally do not blame her because if it was me, I would want the person I loved right beside me all night. She cannot do that as a boy. Furthermore, if you have not figured it out, she and Mori will probably get engaged sometime after he graduates. Thus the need to reveal her secret at some point in time," Kyoya enlightened the three still sitting there staring at the closed doors. "Now if you will excuse me, I have to get home for a meeting with my father," he said as he stood up and grabbed his things to leave. He really hoped they made the right decision.
Once Kyoya was gone, the three remaining hosts turned and looked accusingly at each other. Tamaki opened his mouth to attack the twins, but Hikaru beat him to the punch, "You know she wouldn't have left like that if it hadn't been for you, boss. You were once again over the top!"
"ME? You were the same way! You didn't support her!" Tamaki screeched.
"You didn't either! You were the one that tried to forbid her from even going to the party!" Hikaru stood up with fists at his side.
Kaoru knew he had to be the grown up in the room, which was laughable since the two others in the room were actually older than him, "Both of you need to stop it." He grabbed Hikaru and pulled him back down to the couch, "Now, all three of us were wrong, and none of us supported her or her wants and needs. Kyoya-senpai and Mori-senpai were right. This is about Haruhi and not about us. We have no say in the matter. The only say we have is if we support her or we don't support her. If we don't, then she may want to leave us behind. Tono, you shouldn't have tried to tell her she couldn't do something. Both of you need to take your feelings out of the equation and let her be happy."
In the car on the way home, Haruhi was fuming and the two other occupants in the car were hearing all about it, "I can't believe that they tried to tell me I can't go to the party as a girl. I AM A GIRL!"
"Don't worry Haru-Chan, I'm sure Kyo-Chan will talk some sense into them," Hunny smiled a little tensely at the girl really praying that he was right.
Taking in a deep breath, she murmured, "You are probably right. If anyone can reach them, he probably can through threats of unspeakable torture." A sudden malicious grin appeared on her face sending shivers racing up Hunny's spine.
"I have a feeling it will be fine and they won't say anything else about you going to the party as a girl. I would rather have you there on my arm than not by my side, but I would have been happy knowing you were there," Mori spoke up.
Haruhi smiled, "I would rather be on your arm too, and that is where I will be with or without their ok. It isn't like I am five and need their permission to go over to a friend's house or to cross the street."
Giving her a small smile, Mori was laughing on the inside. Haruhi at that moment looked like a force to be reckoned with and was a bit scarier than Renge when she went into Medusa mode. He would never say that to his girlfriend's face though. That would just be stupid.
"So it is settled. I will be going to the party as a girl in disguise, and we are not listening to those bakas," Haruhi declared hitting a fist in the open palm of her other hand.
Giggling at the tenacious expression on her face, Hunny agreed, "Right Haru-Chan!"
Groaning, Haruhi plopped against the back of the seat behind her, "Oh no!"
"What's wrong?" Mori asked suddenly worried.
Burying her face in her hands, she grumbled, "If the twins don't get on board and help me out, my dad is going to have to help me do my make-up!"
A small snicker could be heard and it grew. Haruhi peaked through the spaces between her fingers to see both Mori and Hunny trying to hold in their laughter, but they were unable to suppress it for long. Soon she joined them knowing that what she said was not exactly the end of the world, and she had to admit it was funny.
