Hosts…and Hostess?!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
AN: After a long wait, I'm finally finished with chapter 11. I am so sorry it took forever, but I am so thankful that you readers were patiently waiting.
Ch11
The day was still warm as the end of October came approaching. Usagi was walking briskly across the courtyard with several books in her arms. "Today is Halloween," she said to herself. She nodded to several classmates who greeted her. "I wonder if Shingo and Hotaru want to go trick or treating later tonight…"
She glanced up to look at the sky with a small smile on her face when something in the corner of her eye saw something move. Usagi turned her head to the side and noticed a figure standing on the top floor of the Central Hall building. She couldn't see the person's face, but noticed that it was most likely a girl because of the long flowing hair and the dark long robe. Usagi narrowed her eyes as she stared at the figure, who appeared to be waving slowly at her, because she knew that there were no classes held at the Central Hall, so what was that person doing there.
Usagi was about to walk over to the building, when the bells began to ring, signaling class was going to start. Her head turned to glance at building where her class was located. Giving one last glance to the figure in the window, Usagi turned around and quickly walked away to get to class.
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(Homeroom of Class 1-A)
When Usagi entered the classroom, she noticed that the teacher was not present and instead of being seated in their chairs, her classmates were scattered around the large room, chatting with their friends. Minako came over to Usagi with a huge smile on her face. "Usagi-chan, did you know that there are no classes today?" she asked.
"I didn't hear anything about that?" Usagi responded.
Aokano and Sakurazuka, two frequent clients at the Host Club and Usagi's biggest fans, explained that on October 31, the teachers grades the mock exams so the students are given a holiday. Not only were the students allowed a day off from school work, but also that there is a costume party for all the school divisions.
"Sounds like fun," Minako said with a huge smile on her face.
Usagi tapped her cheek as she thought to herself, "So that must be why yesterday…" She then began to reach into her bag as Hikaru and Kaoru jumped out in front of her.
The two twins were dressed in what appears to be a devil's costume if the two horns on their heads were indicating anything. The twins wore a black long sleeve satin shirt with a dark red vest with black lines swirling around in designs over the shirt with black khakis ending at their ankles to reveal the toes of their black boots. Tied around their necks was a long flowing red cape that seemed to move and flow with the wind.
Hikaru and Kaoru opened up their arms and, with mischievous smiles, shouted, "TRICK OR TREAT!"
Usagi stopped rummaging through her bag and pulled out two wrapped up candies and placed them in the twins' outstretched hands.
Minako started giggling when she saw the blank looks on the twins' face as they stared at the candy in their hands. Then as fast as they could, they immediately unwrapped the candy and ate it! Opening their arms out again, they shouted with smiles, "TA-DA! All gone! Trick or Treat!"
Just as fast as their hands reached out to her, Usagi gave a candy to the twins again, causing Minako to burst out laughing.
A deep low chuckle was heard coming from the doorway. Everyone turned to see Tamaki dressed up as a vampire. "Time for your just desserts, devil brothers," Tamaki said, sauntering into 1-A classroom. "You'd have to wake up pretty early if you want to get Usagi the same way you got me last year." The thoughts of the twins pulling pranks and tricks on him made Tamaki's eyes glisten with determination. "Anticipating that you devils might try to pull the same prank as last year, last night I had snuck plenty of candies into Usagi's surroundings."
Hikaru and Kaoru quickly turned their heads to Usagi, who annoyingly poured the candy out of her bag and onto the floor.
Minako shook her head as she saw several of their female classmates dressed as princesses coming into the room and immediately flocking to the easily distracted Tamaki. Annoyed that their fun was interrupted, Kaoru decided to head off to the bathroom. Hikaru wrapped his arms around Usagi's shoulders and watched as Usagi packed up the books that fell out of her bag.
"Hey, Usagi," Hikaru said, still draped over the packing girl, "What are you doing?"
"If there's no class, I was thinking about heading to the library to do a bit of studying," Usagi said, fastening her bag closed. "Then I was thinking about heading over to the primary school section to see Shingo and Hotaru."
Hikaru groaned and held on tight when Usagi tried to get out of his arms. "Can't you at least put on a costume that Kaoru and I got for you? We got you a cute angel costume to go with our devil ones. We would've gotten you a witch costume but we wanted to have the whole ying and yang between us."
"Witch?" Usagi repeated, looking at Hikaru. Usagi gave Hikaru a sharp pinch, causing him to immediately let go and shake the burning sensation out of his hand. After breaking free from his grasp, Usagi headed over to the window and stared at the central wing adjacent to the building. "Then the person in the central wing must be somebody in a witch's costume," she said. Her blue eyes caught sight of the long haired figure in the windows. "She's still there."
The classroom quickly became silent when they heard Usagi say that.
Hikaru pushed himself to the window, blocking Usagi's view of the central wing. "REALLY! WHERE? LEMME SEE!" Hikaru shouted. He made sure that he was in front of Usagi and pressed his hands against the window. His eyes narrowed as he said, "I don't see anything. Hey, class president, can you see a thing?"
Minako started giggling when she saw Usagi's cheeks slightly puffed with air as she glared angrily at Hikaru, like when she was a child and she got upset when a few boys began teasing her. It's been a while since she and the rest of their friends had seen Usagi lose her composure and slowly start acting like her age again.
Usagi tried to look out the window on the other side, but Kazukiyo, the class president of 1-A, blocked her view.
Kazukiyo lifted his glasses up to the bridge of his nose. "No, I regret to say that I don't see anyone," he said.
"What are you two talking about?" Usagi asked, moving their hands out of the way. The two boys looked at her as she stared out the window. Still seeing the long haired figure, Usagi turned to them and asked, "How can you not see that…"
A breaking sound could be heard. Everyone turned their attention to the windows and saw the glass cracking with small chips of glass falling onto the floor. Hikaru grabbed Usagi's arm and pulled her away from the window.
"It's the witch's curse," the girls fearfully screamed.
"Witch's curse?" Usagi asked, looking up at Hikaru.
"It's a legend here at Ouran, The Witch of the Central Hall," Kazukiyo said, "A long time ago, one day on Halloween, a female student dressed up as a witch fell from the Central Hall."
Hikaru rolled his eyes. "And whoever sees her on Halloween will receive a curse and along with everyone surrounding them. Don't tell me that you believe in that story?" he said.
A disgruntle voice by the doorway was heard saying, "I'm back."
Everyone turned their heads and gasped. Koaru entered the classroom with his right elbow bleeding.
"KAORU!" Hikaru shouted. He ran to his brother and began hovering over him, "What happened?"
"I was coming out of the bathroom and tripped," Karou replied.
A loud deep ring came from the grandfather clock that was located in each classroom. Everyone stared at the clock and saw that it wasn't the set time for the clock to ring. After the grandfather clock let out several low sounding rings, the whole classroom was buzzing with news of Usagi being cursed by the witch's spirit.
Hikaru and Koaru handed some of the girls a bag and whispered something into their ears. Before Usagi could say anything, the girls began squealing and began to drag her out of the classroom to the bathroom.
Minako looked at the twins with an eyebrow arched. "And what was in that bag?" she asked the twins, who just smiled and told her to wait and see.
The girls' squealing louder than before could be heard in the hallway, signaling the possibility that Usagi was finished dressing. The doors opened and Usagi was dragged back into the classroom. She wore an angel's costume which consisted of a white spaghetti strap dress. While the main dress came down to her mid thighs, there was an outer lace layer that extended past her knees. Attached around her arms but separate from the dress were lacy sleeves that draped down several inches. Fastened onto her back were two wings made from pure white feathers that were size of her back so they wouldn't bother her when she's moving. The halo was different where it wasn't a fluffy circular object suspended a few inches above her head but instead was thin silver wires intertwined into a circle and fastened to her hair. (1)
The female classmates squealed loudly and enthusiastically that everyone thought they saw hearts flying into the air. Some of the male classmates, on the other hand, were more hesitant to show their interest in fear of the twins turning their pranks onto them rather than Tamaki.
Usagi looked down at the costume the twins pushed onto her and sighed deeply. "Why am I wearing this?" she asked.
"Ying and yang," Hikaru and Koaru said in unison, "You'll be able to counter the witch's curse."
"It's pretty cute," Minako said, admiring the costume.
Usagi looked out of the window to see that the mysterious figure is gone. "Something doesn't seem right," she thought to herself. Her blue eyes glanced back and forth at the twins, who were crowding around their class president, but couldn't find them acting differently than they usually do. She then turned to Minako, who was talking/flirting with some of their male classmates.
Just as Usagi was about to call out Minako's name, Renge ran into the room and threw herself at Usagi, wrapping their arms around her. "Usagi-chan! I heard the terrible news!" With her arms still wrapped around her shoulders, she pulled away slightly and asked, "Are you okay?"
"Renge-chan, I can't breath," Usagi let out.
The brunette gasped and quickly released Usagi from her grasp.
Minako watched as Renge crowded over Usagi, who was taking deep breaths, and walked over. "Cute uniform, Renge-chan," she said, causing Renge to turn to her and sparkle. "Is if from Uki Doki?"
Renge quickly turned to Minako. "You're so observant, Minako-chan," she said. Twirling around to show off the school uniform she wore, Renge began explaining the uniform she wore and how she got information on what it looks like.
Usagi and Minako's blue eyes connected as they thought to themselves, "…she really loves that game."
Clasping her hands together and pressing it against her cheek, Renge turned to Usagi. "By the way, Usagi-chan, the girls in our class are making Jack-o-Lanterns and cookies," she said, "Can you come and help us?"
As if on cue, all the girls, who were going to participate in the cooking activity, looked at Usagi with large puppy dog eyes. Seeing this caused Minako to turn around and start to laugh, knowing full well that Usagi has a slight weakness when it comes to people asking her for help.
Usagi stared back at the girls and dropped her head down and sighed deeply. The next thing she knew was that she was in the home economics classroom and instructing the girls on the step by step of how to bake cookies with Minako disappearing into the dressing rooms of the Drama Club to find a costume. Usagi always admired how these rich girls would try to follow her lead when it comes to things like cooking, instead of calling for their servants to come to the school and do it for them.
Amusement aside, Usagi couldn't help but worry about what she had heard about the witch's curse. While she was skeptical about there really being a witch and a curse, after seeing the window cracking and the grandfather clock malfunctioning, Usagi was worried that something might happen to the people around her. Sighing deeply, Usagi began searching for the vegetable oil in the cabinet underneath a sink. Her hands were rummaging through the contents when she caught a glimpse of someone with flowing long hair standing behind her. Startled, Usagi quickly turned around and ended up bumping into Hikaru who was standing behind her.
"What's wrong, Usagi?" Hikaru asked her with a playful smirk on his face. "Don't tell me this whole curse thing scared you?" He quickly threw his arms around Usagi, who let out a soft squeak of surprise, and rubbed his cheek against her. "How cute," he cooed.
Usagi just sighed, used to the treatment from the males of the Host Club, and muttered, "Hikaru, what are you doing here and where's Kaoru?"
"Kaoru went to the nurse," Hikaru replied, releasing Usagi from his grasp. He followed after her as she headed over to the counter where the dough was already rolled out flat. "I offered to go with him, but he just brushed me aside, saying that I'll only be in the way," he said in complete disbelief.
Usagi glanced at him for a second before looking away, adding, "You probably would."
Hikaru gave a fake sob and wiped away an imaginary tear. "You can be so cruel, Usagi-chan," he said.
Usagi ignored him as she placed the star shaped dough on the cookie tray.
Not liking the idea of being ignored, Hikaru grabbed onto the cookie dough and began to stretch the star shape into more of a snake like figure. "Ohhh…stretchy!" he said, pulling the dough.
Usagi turned her head when she heard him and groaned in annoyance. "Don't stretch them out as I'm putting them down," she muttered to herself. She stomped over to Hikaru, who was having fun, and began to push and pull him away from the tray. "Hikaru, go bother someone else" she said.
Hikaru scowled as he refused to budge from his spot. "I am NOT bothering you, I'm helping you change those cookies from being boring to being artistic," he declared, "And besides, how do you know that I'm Hikaru? Kaoru does the same thing!"
After achieving moving him a few feet away from the tray, Usagi set out to fix the ruined cookie dough. "Kaoru is completely different from you when he's by himself," Usagi said, causing Hikaru to look at her with curious eyes. After managing to separate Hikaru from the tray, Usagi continued her explanation, "When Kaoru's by himself, he's calm and acts normal, and you become loud and crazy when you're on your own."
At first, Hikaru had a shock look on his face when he heard this. After a few minutes of watching her cut out more star shaped cookies, a soft look came to his eyes. Around this time Kaoru arrived at the Home Economic room with his injured arm being heavily bandaged, causing the older twin to fuss over him.
Usagi glanced over at the pumpkin that remained for the jack-o-lantern and sighed. "Hikaru, do you mind helping me carve this pumpkin while I take these cookies and pies out of the oven?" she asked.
"Hmm?" Hikaru looked at Usagi and saw her motion to the pumpkin next to her. "Oh, sure" he replied, grabbing the carving tool from her hand.
Usagi watched him carefully as he began to draw out a design on the pumpkin before glancing at Kaoru who was playing around with a pumpkin covering his head. After being sure that the twins were being preoccupied and won't bother her, she began to take out the pies that were done baking.
"Usagi-chan, isn't it wonderful how Hikaru-kun and Kaoru-kun are having fun," Sakurazuka said with a bright smile on her face.
"Don't they always?" Usagi asked, removing another pie from the oven.
"Yes, but it's only been this recent," Aokano replied, "Most of us have been in the same classes since elementary school, but those two never seemed to enjoy school very much."
Sakurazuka nodded her head as she added, "I think it's only until the Host Club was created and Usagi-chan entered our school that they began to open up and talk to us."
The two friends quickly held hands and grinned happily at Usagi as they said in unison, "We're very happy! Holidays should be enjoyed by everyone, right?"
Hearing that, Usagi thought back to the time when her mother was alive and how the house would be lit up with happiness around the holidays. Even after her mother's passing away, there were times when all her friends and family had gathered and celebrated together. A small smile grew on her face as she whispered, agreeing with the two girls, "Yeah."
It was then the rest of the members of the Host Club arrived into the Home Economics room, causing more squealing from the girls in the hallway and kitchen. Kyoya was dressed as a priest, which was ironic to Usagi since he was practically known as the shadow king. Hunny was dressed as a kitten and was sitting on Mori's shoulder, who was dressed as a huge dog.
As Kyoya began to brief Usagi on the events that was going on later that day, ranging from parties to photo shoots and a charity ball, Hunny was running in circles around Usagi, cheering, "Trick or Treat!", over and over again.
Giggling, Usagi grabbed a cookie that had cooled down and popped one into Hunny's open anticipating mouth. The minute Usagi placed the cookie in Hunny's mouth, the small boy's eyes began to water as he quickly spat it out and cried, "It's salty!" to Mori.
Usagi was shocked to hear that, but before she could ask Hunny what was the matter, a sharp cry of pain came from Hikaru, who had apparently cut himself with the knife when he was carving the pumpkin.
"Hikaru, what happened?!" Usagi shouted, running to him as he held up the hand with blood running down his fingers. "Let's go the nurse quickly!"
"No, it's all right," Hikaru muttered.
Usagi bit back the urge to smack him on the back of the head as she scolded him, "What do you mean 'it's all right'?" She turned towards Koaru, whose head is still in the pumpkin, and shouted, "Kaoru, let's quickly take Hikaru to the nurse!"
"Ne…Usagi," Hikaru muttered. The blonde looked at him as he continues to ask softly, "Will you dance with us at the party? I'll go to the nurse if you promise to dance."
When she heard that, Usagi's blue eyes narrowed as she began to assess everything that had occurred that day. Pretty much everything that had happened seemed like they were planned by the twins. She quickly grabbed onto the bleeding hand and pulled Hikaru to the sink.
"Hey, Usagi! Don't pull on me!" he shouted in pain, "Can't you see that I'm injure…"
Usagi ran the cold running water on Hikaru's hand, causing the red color to be washed off. He chuckled sheepishly as Usagi said annoyed, "You're not injured, Hikaru." She then pointed at the person everyone assumed was Kaoru, and shouted, "Who's in that pumpkin?" The pumpkin was lifted up and revealed the class president as the imposter.
Usagi turned at her heels and quickly ran over to the central wing. "I can't believe I didn't suspect that this was their trick," she muttered to herself.
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(Central Wing)
Kaoru was staring out the window of the central wing. He wore the long dark witch's robes with a long haired wig. He and his brother made this plan in hopes of having Usagi join in the Halloween celebrations with them. He heard footsteps running over to his direction. "Sup, Hikaru?" he asked, turning his head. When Kaoru saw a pair of angry blue eyes glaring at him, he gasped in fear and jumped backwards.
"Kaoru…" she said, stretching out the name of the now terrified boy. She quickly raced up the steps as she pulled out a ball of yarn she had grabbed from Hunny before and threw it like a baseball at the frozen Kaoru. "YOU TROUBLE MAKERS" she shouted, watching the yarn hit Kaoru with a hint of satisfaction.
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(Home Economics)
The twins were forced to kneel in front of the rest of the Host Club as they confessed to everything they had done.
Tamaki stared at the twins with a bored look on his face as he tried to make sense of what was going on. "So, you mean to tell me that you two took advantage of the legend of the witch's curse, organized a witch sighting, and took turns playing the witch?" he asked.
The twins each turned their heads to opposite directions as they mumbled, "We only did that because…"
"BECAUSE WHAT?" Tamaki interrupted loudly. He stood up and began waving his arms wildly in the air, screaming, "HOW DARE YOU TROUBLE USAGI? BOW DOWN AND BEG FOR FORGIVENESS!"
Hikaru and Kaoru shielded their heads from Tamaki's flailing arms. "We only did that because we knew that dono would be giving candy to Usagi and first chance she'll get, Usagi would end up spending the whole day with Hotaru and Shingo! We wanted the chance to spend more holidays with her too!" they argued.
After hearing that, any annoyance Usagi had felt earlier was gone. As she continued to listen to Tamaki yelling at the twins that their excuse wasn't good enough, Usagi walked over to them. "You know you could've just asked instead of going through all this mess," she told them. She held out her hands to the twins and said with a smile, "Let's go to the dance together."
Tamaki was shocked to hear the princess of the Host Club forgive the devil twins so easily. "Usagi," he whined, following the trio of first years to the hall where the Halloween dance was commencing.
Hunny looked at Mori and asked, "Usagi forgives other people very easily, huh, Takeshi?" To which the quiet giant nodded his head.
Kyoya pushed up the rim of his glasses. "Given that you give her a story that would tug at her heart strings, there's no doubt she could forgive someone who actually committed a crime."
(1) Majority of Usagi's angel costume: (erase the spaces) www. amazon dp/ B003Y8YTF2/?tag= 30daydietplan-20