Typical Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club or Disney

Chapter Forty-Five: Pirates!

"All hands on deck! Weigh anchor!" Shouted the blonde host king as he immersed himself in the role play for the day. Because of their recent discovery of 'Michelle's' love of all things pirates, today the host club was all decked out in pirate regalia. How the boys always managed to fully transform the club room into whatever location they desired was still beyond Lexi's comprehension, but today she didn't seem to mind one bit that the room truly reminded her of 'The Black Pearl'.

"We set sail for the ends of the earth! We seek the legendary treasure more beautiful than any jewel, so irresistible you'll be loath to part from it…" Tamaki continued to ramble on in his pirate costume, which was complete with a fur-lined coat (despite how Lexi argued that no self-respecting pirate would wear fur in the heat of the Caribbean), a striped hat with an elegant feather on top, and a pistol sticking out of his belt.

Kyouya responded with a simple "aye" as he held up the double monocle they forced him to use due to the inauthenticity of using his normal pair of glasses.

'Why he didn't use contacts today is beyond me. It seems as if his glasses are as much a part of him as his snarky attitude', Alexi thought as she rolled her eyes at Tamaki's statement to the girl nearest to him. The female host was dressed almost exactly as Angelica was in the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie and she was entertaining her customers by dazzling them with her sword play. 'I still don't get why that jerk wouldn't let me have a pistol for my outfit as well' she glared as she jabbed her sword into the wooden barrel that stood in front of her, internally projecting the image of her antagonist onto the lifeless object.

Nearby, the twins lounged around on the two wooden barrels that sat at the bottom of the mainsail's mast as they entertained their small group of customers. "You two look even more identical than usual. Hikaru you look like you're having fun", Kaizoku, a regular customer of the twins, said as she blushed at the image that lay before her. The two twins were wearing stereotypical crew hand outfits and the only difference between the two lay in the color of their vests, not in the style of their hair as it usually was.

"Well, yeah… It's kinda cool to be a pirate!" Hikaru proclaimed.

Meekly calling his brother's name to get the older brother to notice him, Kaoru said, "Hikaru", but to no avail.

The older twin merely continued to brag about how awesome he thought being a pirate was, until he turned around and snapped at the younger twin who was pestering him for his attention. "What's your problem, Kaoru?" He snapped, "cowards should just back off! If there's treasure you want, I'll get it for you, okay?"

Pretending to be hurt at the rehearsed lines of his older brother, Kaoru merely pleaded with Hikaru saying, "I'm just worried you'll hurt yourself 'cuz of your recklessness…" Beginning to cry, Kaoru turned and began to run away as he cried "Dammit, you're so insensitive! Why do I even care!" At his line, Hikaru dashed after him, turned his younger twin to face him, and gazed lovingly into his eyes as Kaoru said, "I just… don't want you to ever be in danger… I couldn't bear it if you…" he managed to say before he was drowned out by the delighted squeals of the fangirls.

'Now don't get me started on those twins' skit today. I mean c'mon; as if Kaoru was that weak in reality,' the female host thought as she offered a wooden sword to one of her customers. Part of her skit today not only included her showing off her sword fighting skills, skills she gained because of her mother's insistence that she enroll in fencing classes when she was younger, Alexi was also teaching anyone who wished to learn how to sword fight how to do so.

"Land ahoy!" little Hunny bellowed, well as much as he can with his high-pitched voice, "Shiver me timbers! Be that not the island of the devil himself, that land of ill-repute… Bunny Island!" he exclaimed from his perch in the crow's nest as he pointed in the direction that his telescope was aimed. After ordering Mori to "prepare the row boats," Hunny instructed the fangirls they were hosting to, "be on your guard! This place be fraught with danger!" As he led them all along to a curtained off section of the room that was decorated like a real tropical island, ending up in front of a treasure chest, no doubt.

The day's activities continued according to the duel plan of Tamaki and Kyouya, complete with a quick round of sing-a-long sea shanties, led by Alexi, and a staged sword fight between Tamaki and the twins, that Tamaki was supposed to win. However, he lost, adding to Alexi's frustration that the blonde king was, as she put it, "thoroughly inept at using a sword".

When club hours were over, it seemed as if none of the hosts, minus the shadow king, wanted to change out of their pirate uniforms and as a result, they continued playing around with the props and the sets. "Hey ho, we'll go anywhere the wind is blowing!" Alexi sang from her current spot on top of the crow's nest, "And there he blows!" she shouted as she pointed in the direction of the host club's king.

At her cue, the twins ambushed the confused boy from both sides and emptied their non-traditional water pistols on their tono. However, in their excitement to bombard Tamaki, they accidentally got Usa-Chan wet. Luckily, since he was in a cheerful mood, Hunny saw this as an excuse to join the water gun fight as he and Mori produced their own water guns from a nearby treasure chest and tossed Tamaki one of their reserves. Seeing that her copatriots were now outnumbered, Alexi drew her sword, cut a piece of rope that was hanging near her, and swung dramatically down from her perch as she grabbed an extra water gun from Hunny's treasure chest on her way down. Landing perfectly next to the twins, the three of them attacked their seniors and Tamaki with all they had.

Unfortunately, at that moment, Kyouya emerged from the dressing room. Seeing that the costumes were in the process of being ruined by water, that someone had sliced a piece of the set, and that the props were being used as a mock battle ground, the shadow king immediately radiated his dark aura. "What the hell is going on here?!" He half shouted as he struggled to contain his anger at the damage that would cost the club thousands of yen to fix it all.

Stopping for a moment to recognize the damage they had done in the mere twenty minutes that Kyouya had been gone, all the hosts hung their heads and hid their water guns behind their backs.

"Sorry Kyouya," Hunny said as he stared at the ground. Mori merely grunted his agreement at his little cousin's statement.

Tamaki, being the flamboyant one, threw himself at his best friend's feet and said, "I'm so sorry mommy, the evil twins are the one who started this! I was minding my own business when…"

"Hey!" the twins and Alexi interjected, "You joined the game as soon as you got a water gun yourself, so don't put this on us only," they all for some odd reason said in unison. At the fact that they all said the exact same thing, the trio turned and looked at each other with confusion before Alexi and Kaoru yelled 'jinx' at each other. After a few seconds of that, Alexi won the jinxing battle by a millisecond. Giggling at the fact that Kaoru now had to be quiet until someone said his name three times, Alexi was unaware of just how angry Kyouya was getting.

"Michelle and Kaoru will stay after hours until this entire place is cleaned up" the bespeckled boy proclaimed as he turned to walk out of the door before anyone could complain about his mandate.

Because they were off the hook and did not want to do any form of cleaning themselves, Tamaki, Hikaru, Mori, and Hunny quickly exited the room, leaving the two best friends in silence.

"Man, I HATE it when he does that!" Alexi fumed as she shot lasers from her eyes in the direction that Kyouya had left just a few moments ago.

"Hmm ermhh mrrm," Kaoru said with his arms crossed and with an obvious look of playful anger as he tried to sound out the phrase, "Yeah, me to" without speaking.

Smiling widely at the fact that her companion was still following the rules of her jinxing him, the female host joyfully said, "Oh Kaoru, silly Kaoru". He started to pantomime wildly that she needed to say his name once more before he could be able to speak again, but she said with a giggle as removed her bulky hat and coat before she started the task that her antagonist left them with, "Don't forget, the annoying one said your name when he condemned us to clean up duty".

"Oh yeah," Kaoru said as he also took off his vest.

At that, the two friends turned their chore of cleaning up into a game of truth or dare, to make the most of their private time. The dares usually consisted of something silly like putting the coat on backwards and trying to clean up that way for a little while, or singing "Blow the Man Down" in pig latin, or jumping around on one foot for five minutes, but the truths slowly turned into almost therapy long sessions of innermost confessions.

Kaoru told Alexi about the worldview he created with his brother (not mentioning why he started to question it), about his parents always traveling and never seeming to know which son was which, about the cruel pranks he and his brother used to pull on girls who had crushes on them, and other stories he thought he would never tell another soul besides his brother. Alexi told her best friend all about her dreams of longing to be with her friends again, the frequent condemnation of her goals from her parents and their constant push for her perfection, and even a couple stories about her roguish adventures with her embassy friends, that should've ended in police involvement, but never did, because of her friend's diplomatic immunities.

When the work was finally over for the day, neither host wanted to leave each other's presence. Through a single afternoon, they had grown to be such close friends that it felt comfortable, almost natural, when they were together. Alexi knew she was completely happy with where she was in her relationship with Kaoru and being the overly religious, overly sheltered lady that she was, the last thing on her mind was the concept of a romantic relationship with her newest best friend. However, Kaoru was ready for more in his relationship with Alexi. From that afternoon, he solidified his wish to be able to call her 'girlfriend' one day.

Truly embracing the level of comfort between the two of them as they left the host club for the evening (and locking the door behind them with the key Kyouya left for them on the table), the young redhead worked up the courage to ask Alexi out on a date. All while purposefully avoiding the embarrassing word itself, of course. "Le..Lexi," the boy said as they walked outside of the school together, "My mom is having a fashion show this weekend and… I'd really like it if… what I mean is… what I'm trying to say is" the poor boy stuttered.

Confused why the previously eloquent twin was having such difficulty talking to her all of a sudden, the female host stopped in her tracks and turned to face Kaoru.

Seeing the moon glowing around her as he turned to face her blue eyes with his own hazel ones, his voice hitched in his throat for a moment. Before Alexi could ask what was wrong, since she noticed the odd look in his eyes when he turned to face her, the younger twin barked out, "Would you like to go?"

"To the fashion show?" Alexi asked, "To an actual, honest to goodness fashion show?" Her eyes were twinkling as brightly as the stars above the two teens as she responded with glee, "I'd love to! What time? Where is it? Omigosh, what do I wear?" the questions flew out of the normally extremist tomboy.

Smiling at the fact that he got past his own inner awkwardness and that his crush actually did want to go with him, Kaoru spent the rest of their ride to the Ootori manor answering each and every question. 'This could be the start of something wonderful' he thought to himself as the limo pulled away from the Ootori manner after dropping Alexi off. 'I can't wait'

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In the background, music starts to play "Start of Something New" XD Sorry, I couldn't resist.

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