**Author's Note at end
"I swear, I wonder if she'll ever be able to take anything I say as a friend over as an employer." Rin sighed softly, pushing back some errant strands of hair that fell from her side swept bangs. She frowned to herself as she crossed her arms, looking at the classroom door she had pushed Zaina out of when two equal weights suddenly pressed on her shoulders. She knew instantly it was the twins.
"Somethings are just are the way they are...you can't expect something to change so easily." Kaoru spoke up first, looking at the door as well.
"She's stubborn, don't get yourself too caught up in it. Help is help after all, you can't force something that just won't be." Hikaru added, the two of them surprised that they felt hurt for Rin. It was rare for them to feel anything for anyone so soon, but they had quickly come to terms with her sudden fit in their world. She was a refreshing breeze that was always there, they simply never took note of it.
"I guess...that is the case." Rin frowned a little more, resigning to the fate that loomed ahead.
"You're wrong," a voice spoke up and they three turned to look at Haruhi who stepped out in front of them. "Zaina does think of you as her employer no doubt...but she's taking everything you say as both friend and employer. She just has to adapt it to aptly fit the roles you both have. She's always thinking about you, and that's not because they pay her to. I doubt it says there's a bonus for constantly thinking about you or caring about your brothers. She goes above and beyond what a bodyguard does too." She pointed out to the three who had lost sight of the actions. "She even played along with you two in your usual shenanigans and I'm sure that's not in her agreement at all."
The twins opened their mouths to protest at first, but stopped and carefully thought over what usually happens between them all when together. Haruhi was not wrong. Zaina had no need to do a lot of things. In fact, she could easily have made her life blunt and to the point of no friends and used more force to mark the lines that should not be crossed at any time. They glanced to one another before looking at Rin who was staring at Haruhi. She had not said anything since their friend spoke and the pause only extended. "She's thinking of you as a friend, all of us, just in her way that she knows how."
"You're right," she giggled softly, breaking the silence. "You're absolutely right!" Rin smiled broadly as she grabbed ahold of Haruhi's hands. "Thank you," she earnestly spoke. "Thank you for reminding me of that, I wasn't thinking about that."
"I didn't do much, you don't have to thank me. I'm just glad you're remembering. Misunderstandings happen, especially among friends who spend a lot of time together. You're fine," Haruhi shook her head lightly and gave her hands a squeeze back.
"You really see things a lot differently than us." Kaoru teased, though this was the only way the twins really knew how to show their gratitude. Haruhi knew that and sighed, giving a small smile to the both of them.
"Well, now that that's settled. Let's head to the lunchroom. I'm starved!" Hikaru threw his hands in the air as she stretched. "Sitting in class all day is draining!"
"It really is...how can they expect us to take all that information in?" Kaoru agreed, tilting his head side to side with a few cracks heard from his stretching.
"Alright, let's go." Rin chuckled at the two. As polished as any of the Host Club, the boys were still boys and that only made them even more endearing. Haruhi grabbed her lunch quickly from her desk, the four reaching the cafeteria just as Kyoya and Tamaki were.
"Well if this isn't a surprise." The twins spoke up, saluting their leader.
"Good afternoon, I hope your classes have been at least somewhat entertaining so far." Rin smiled at the two.
"Ah, it is now that I see you and my lovely daughter together! You're certain to be a shining influence on her instead of these two devils!" He grabbed on of Rin's hands, sparkles in his eyes.
"I'm NOT your daughter!" Haruhi glared at the blonde who seemed to just not understand how strange it was for him to keep saying and insisting otherwise.
"But, but, but daddy only wants to see his princess happy!" He pouted at the reprimand from Haruhi only to shrink away at the death glare she sent his way all the while ignore him as she walked into the cafeteria ahead of them. She mumbled something about getting a table for five, the twins enjoying how easy it was for her to send their king into a spiraling depression.
"Maybe you should lighten up a little...on the whole calling her a daughter perhaps? Maybe she simply wants her identity safe to avoid any trouble it could cause the club?" Rin whispered as she crouched down beside Tamaki, carefully tucking her skirt to keep it clean and herself well covered. Tamaki turned to her teary eyed, silently asking her if this was true. "I think so," she patted him lightly on the shoulder and laughed as he threw his arms around her with suddenly sunnier appearance from the gloom that hung from the rejection moments ago.
Kyoya watched the two silently, pushing up his glasses as he cleared his throat to grab their attention. He noticed Rin was losing her balance at the sudden added weight thrown at her by his cheery best friend who once again was not thinking through his actions.
"As heartwarming as this all is, the two of you are in the middle of the way for getting into the cafeteria. Also, if you keep that up you'll find yourselves in a very awkward situation that wouldn't be looked kindly upon by anyone regardless of you two being well received or not." He reprimanded the two in his usual tone, or so he thought. His smile was far colder than usual and his tone vacant of anything, which had the twins at attention and stepping back as he stepped forward and pulled Tamaki away with one hand and hoisted Rin up onto her feet with the other. "Now, shall we follow Haruhi?" He knew propriety was not the reason why he intervened though at one point that would have been the only reason. No, there was something more brewing and he was not sure what or why.
I must be tired from all the work I've been doing, there's no other reason why I'd be so irked by this. He realized how tense his shoulders were as he walked towards the window to order his meal. I'm just on edge...those days happen. He tried to convince himself, though it had been a long time since Tamaki got under his skin like this. In fact, since then the blonde had done infinitely more and much worse than this. The fact this was getting him so frazzled was troubling him more. I'm just overthinking things...that's all it is. He silenced his thoughts and stepped up to the window to order, unbeknown to him that Rin was staring at him from behind.
She was very much surprised by his sudden touch, her heart not ready to take it as it fluttered and kicked about. The tone of voice threw her off though. She knew in an instant something was off about him. She considered herself a little pro when it came to reading other's emotions, especially the more silent ones due to her experience with Zaina. However, she knew she was far from perfect with earlier being a prime example of the simple mistake she made.
No, he's definitely upset about something! I was just overthinking the whole Zaina thing because I wanted to meet her friend. His tone is usually...well it holds his emotions more than anything even if only a slight. His eyes were pretty distant as he spoke, there is a coldness to him that I've never experienced with him before. She walked in after him to try and catch up to him. She opened her mouth to speak buts he found she had no idea what to say. What do I say? I can't just assume anything...but there's nothing wrong with asking right? I don't think I have a need to apologize, nor does Tamaki. She was about to speak again but stopped as he gave in his order and stepped to the side. She quickly gives in her own before following after him to the pick-up counter.
"Kyoya," grabbed his elbow lightly in case he was too lost in thought to hear her. He turned to look at her, surprised by her sudden appearance from the looks of his expression though to most the slight change was hardly noticeable at all. Spending time with him gave her a chance to understand him and learn more about him. "Are you ok?"
Am I ok? What makes you think I'm not? How do you even know I'm not ok? He turned to face her properly, sighing softly as he tried to compose himself. "I'm fine, you both just need to be a bit more careful and it seems my fatigue had me on a bit of an edge." He calmly explained, sounding much more like his usual self. She stared at him for a moment, not releasing his elbow just yet as she tried to gauge if he was lying or not. This was something she probably would never know, but she wanted to find some tell if possible.
"Should I have my sister change the article then? Maybe she can just leave out the Host Club?" She offered. If it really is fatigue, the only new addition to his load is the article and he doesn't have to humor it.
"No, there's no need and we've already got everything pretty much set for it. It's not the article, I just have been busy is all." He assures her, though a small smile tugs at the corners of his lips at her concern. The attention and care from her soothed the odd feelings that had bubbled up inside him from before.
"Alright," she finally gave in and smiled a little. "Let me know if it's too much though. My sister will be more than happy to accommodate." She assured him, releasing his elbow much to his odd reluctance. She noticed he looked like he wanted to say something, so she waited and watched him but his order had come up and hers not too long after so the both of them grabbed their food and joined Haruhi who had found Mitsukuni. They were soon followed by the twins and Tamaki, making it almost everyone.
"Looks like everyone is here, mostly anyway...do you want to share what you were telling me before?" Tamaki turned to Kyoya.
"Tell us what?" Hikaru raised a brow at this.
"A new idea for the club Rin has been assisting me with. Zaina, as you may have noticed, was busy helping us the past few weeks." Kyoya explained, Haruhi giving a small 'oh'.
"She was saying something about that this morning since she was finally in class before homeroom." She nodded her head lightly as she ate her simple homemade lunch. "She said you would be telling us about it."
"That's right, we've been collecting data. I'm sure Mori won't mind and Zaina's done her part so far." Rin turned to Kyoya at this. "Or would he mind?" She quickly turned to Mitsukuni.
"You don't have to worry too much about that, you were right about him not minding. So long as he gets the idea he's fine. He doesn't usually care for too much about the detail." He assured her, grinning brightly at her. She sighed with relief at this verification, smiling at him.
"Oh good, I haven't spoken to him much but I think I'm starting to slowly understand him a bit more. I never know if I'm bothering him or not!" She meekly admitted.
"What? No way! You're not bothering him ever! You're perfectly fine, he's just really quiet! You're actually really nice and he notices! He's paid attention to you and Zaina which is pretty surprising but it's a good thing! Don't worry, he thinks of you as someone nice!" Mitsukuni quickly assured in his usually bubbly manner, putting Rin at ease.
"You have to do something pretty bad to get on his nerves I think." Haruhi thought over the handful of times she has seen the tall host upset in any form.
"Well then, with that said and all in favor, Kyoya please inform them." Tamaki clapped his hands lightly together as if to signal the start of business.
"As you all know, an article is being written about us and as much as we would prefer the idea partnering us with the singers, the schedules are not lining up to fit the timeline. Rin came up with the idea of giving a bit of information that is more akin to our day to day and develop interest for a possible second article that would be more based on us." Kyoya began, pulling out his trusty black book out of thin air much to everyone's surprise. They certainly had not seen it on him and yet here it was.
"So what did Zaina do for you?" Kaoru asked, curious to know what she was doing. "She was running around a lot."
"Yes, she was collecting data for the idea Rin had proposed. We came to a conclusion to have our clients vote who deserves what title most. An example of some are 'most rebellious' or 'the athlete". These are things women in general love to know about a guy and it is easy to plug into the article. But polling the girls she gets information from the school instead of us praising ourselves."
"Really?! That sounds like a lot of fun! Is there a title about being the sweetest? I don't think I'd fit any if they're all about being so big and tough." Mitsukuni frowned, nibbling on his food.
"We have a variety of categories, some we came up with ourselves, some from popular magazines, and some that were written in by the female students." Rin chimed in. "Zaina was polling the girls, getting them to anonymously answer the survey and she placing the data in a file for us that we combed through and gathered what we needed."
"We had told her to just get at least one hundred answers, but she somehow managed to get the entire female populace's vote sans herself and those with us here." Kyoya added, it clear that he was praising her by stating this fact. "I'll have a copy of the list printed out for each of you at the meeting today after class and we can work to further fine tune it there if you can come up with some changes. If not and you all agree, we can finalize and move towards the next phase."
"Next phase?" Haruhi frowned at this, not sure if she liked the sound of that. No, I actually never like the sound of it coming from him especially...but Rin is with him on this so it can't be that bad...right?
"Yes, at the Host Club the girls will be anonymously and we may see an influx of visitors since Zaina managed to get votes even from those who have never visited the club." Rin nodded her head. "You won't have to do anything aside from being your usual self. Zaina will be attending to everyone as per usual while gathering the ballots. We've narrowed it down to fourteen topics and they can only vote for someone twice so they will be forced to pick the best fit instead of just filling the same name for everyone or saying all for all of them."
"You've really thought about this," Kaoru leaned on his hand. "But how do you plan on keeping people from double voting?"
"We came up with an interesting idea of gifting the ladies something to mark they voted.A simple bracelet or a pin to mark that they have voted." Kyoya answered.
"It still seems a bit tricky with multiple sessions." Haruhi admitted. "They can easily come again the next day and we can't expect Zaina to memorize the face of everyone that comes in the door." She frowned, the others thinking this over and nodding their heads.
"Why not host a dinner then? Maybe even a ball for all to come and the ladies can vote before they enter." Tamaki spoke up, having thought over this all since he had been told. "That way, Zaina is not forced to police and make sure no one is double voting. They can be escorted to the room to vote, the token is given, and they are then lead to the hall. We can have them come in groups to speed up the process as well."
"Why not send a digital invite with the survey on it?" Haruhi offered. "That way you don't have to spend so much money on everything. I mean a gift for everyone and then hosting the party? That is a bit much on the club no?"
"We do have money to host a little ball," the twins spoke up together. "We made a lot on our recent auction."
"Plus, Kyoya said our sales have increased a bit in the last month right?" Mitsukuni added.
"We have funds to do it," Kyoya nodded his head. I can easily get the amount spent back through sales and then more for sales of the magazine as well. Of course we will have to pay the magazine for the copies and I can adjust the price to make a profit for us accordingly.
I shouldn't be surprised by them wanting to party...and to even give gifts. Well a small gift shouldn't be so bad. You can bulk buy those sort of things. Haruhi mulled over it a little.
"I do like the online survey idea though. They can take the survey to receive a ticket. On the day of the party they can show their tickets to Zaina and she can hand them the gift." Rin turned to Kyoya. "That cuts out a lot of the hassle of making sure no one is skipped and everyone can answer in the comfort of their home." Everyone turned to look at Kyoya who sat silently and thought over the suggestion.
"It certainly is more efficient, we can do it that way. However, we'll need to figure out a gift to give." Kyoya finally spoke up.
"Leave that to me, being a girl I'll know what would be a better gift." Rin volunteered.
"We can help with that as well." Hikaru added, raising his hand with Kaoru nodding along.
"You guys would be a great help, thank you." She smiled.
"Alright, I'll leave the three of you to that. Please try and figure something out by Wednesday next week." Kyoya quickly finished up his notes for the impromptu meeting.
"This is going to be so much fun, I can't wait to tell Takashi!" Mitsukuni grinned, happily moving on to his cake.
"Well then, with all that settled we can finally enjoy lunch and at the meeting after school today we can inform the other two." Tamaki adjourned the meeting, everyone happy with it and quickly moving on to the next topic as the regular excited energy is back and the shenanigans ensue once more as if the serious meeting and the issue at the door never was.
**Happy New Year's to everyone. Thank you for you time and support. I hope you have a wonderful new year and continue to enjoy my stories. Please do comment if possible, I'd love to hear what you think so far and you would like to see in a story.