For all of my readers, if the site does end up shutting down, this story and all my others are on Archive of our Own.

"Boys and Girls of every age! Wouldn't you like to see something strange?"

Haruhi blinked her eyes open, half of her face still smushed into her pillow. She had been on the cusp of waking up for a few seconds, with the hope of slipping back to sleep until her alarm went off, but it seemed that the day had other plans for her. On the other side of the door, someone walked barefoot down the short hallway towards the kitchen, accompanied by more singing.

"Come with us and you will see, this our town of Halloween!"

Haruhi groaned and pushed herself up into a sitting position. On the other side of her futon, she could just barely make out the form of her alarm clock. She squinted and leaned over. Two minutes before her alarm went off. She sighed and collapsed backwards, her cheek pressing against the cool side of her futon. Two minutes… she could allow herself two minutes of lying about.

Before she knew it, Haruhi's eyes flew open to the sound of her alarm's gentle beeping. She shut it off with a sharp poke of her finger and begrudgingly pried herself out of bed for real. By the time she used the bathroom, got dressed and stepped into the kitchen, Jin had already finished preparing breakfast. Haruhi sat down, biting back a yawn, and picked up her chopsticks. Without so much as glancing at her plate, she popped a bite of fish and rice into her mouth.

Her chewing slowed down and she finally looked down at her plate. "Since when did we buy salmon?"

"Since this morning." Jin sat down and dug into her own breakfast. "Dad must've bought some yesterday because there was a whole pound in the fridge! He left a note to make sure I knew to use some of it for breakfast."

Haruhi smiled and took another bite. The rich fatty fish was delicious. Tuna might be her favorite, but salmon came in at a close second. They ate in silence for a few minutes, soaking in the early morning peace. As their meal drew to a close, Jin nudged Haruhi under the table with her foot. "So, what's our timetable for tonight?"

"The neighborhood party doesn't start until 6pm, which should give us plenty of time to change into our costumes after we get home. The local parade starts at 8pm and it usually takes an hour before it reaches our street, but I know you want to watch some American Halloween movies together. Maybe we'll watch one movie before the parade and the rest after?"

"Sounds like a plan!" Jin wiggled happily in her chair before bouncing up to her feet, taking their empty plates to the sink. "I'm so excited! We have so much on our plate tonight! It's a good thing we decorated the apartment last week."

"You said it." Haruhi smiled at the silly pumpkin and bat decorations that dotted the walls and counters. Her favorite, a ceramic black cat curled around an orange cup full of an arrangement of fake flowers, rested in the middle of their dining room table. "What are you dressing up as, Nēchan?"

Jin glanced over her shoulder and winked. "You'll just have to wait and see like everyone else, Haru. What about you? Are you dressing up this year?"

"Nah." Haruhi waved a hand. "Didn't feel up to it this year. I couldn't think of a good costume and I didn't want to be something I've already been, so I decided not to bother."

"Fair enough," Jin said. "You could wear your school uniform and say you're going as a spoiled-rich brat."

Haruhi laughed so hard, water almost came out of her nose.

*At School*

Jin and Haruhi parted ways at their usual corner, Jin taking a left towards the 2nd year classrooms while Haruhi continued going straight. As the crowd thinned into just 1st years, more students Haruhi recognized from class started wishing her good morning. She returned the greetings as politely as she could, though more than a few times she had to fervently wrack her brain to remember the person's name. She hadn't been nearly as popular at her last school. How did the Host Club do it? More to the point, how did Kyoya do it? He seemed to know everyone on campus, and off.

Haruhi, on the other hand, quickly found herself drifting to the edge of the hallway, subconsciously trying to slip into the fringes of the crowds. It didn't work. Another girl eagerly pranced up behind Haruhi and waved cheerfully. Haruhi, grateful that she at least recognized Sakurazuka from the Host Club, was about to greet her as well when something bright flashed in the edge of her peripherals. Squinting, she looked out the large arch windows that lined Ouran's hallways. There wasn't much to see, most of the view being blocked by the Central Wing and all. Haruhi was about to brush it off as a stray beam of sunlight when she spotted an odd glare coming from the highest window. She could just barely make out a tall, slender figure standing in the middle of the bright light, but they vanished between one blink and the next.

Haruhi didn't know what to make of it, so she decided to file away any questions she had until later. Besides, class was about to start.

Or, so she thought.

"What? There's no class today?" Haruhi looked down at her desk with a frown. Couldn't someone have said something before she'd completely unpacked her bag? Biting back a heavy sigh, she started repacking all her things while her classmates explained that the school never had classes on the last day of October because the teachers were too busy grading exams. And while Haruhi was still a little put out that nobody had bothered to tell her or Jin about this before today, she supposed it was nice that the teachers got a full work day to grade tests without having to worry about teaching classes on top of them. After all, it wasn't like Ouran was going to make their teachers take their work home with them.

"If you didn't know about the classes, then you probably didn't hear about the school-wide costume party, either!"

"Ooh! We should go change now! See you later, Haruhi!"

Haruhi waved as the girls ran off. Jin was going to be so mad that she left her costume at home today. Considering the last school they'd gone to very much did not have a costume party on Halloween, Jin had elected to wait until they'd gone home for the day before changing. Haruhi chuckled to herself, imagining the look of devastation on Jin's face when she heard the news. And, now that she was thinking about it, this Halloween celebration was probably why yesterday Tamaki had-

"Trick-or-treat, Haruhi!"

The twins jumped up in front of Haruhi's desk. She yelped, slamming her left knee against the underside of her desk. The boys had evidently army-crawled on the floor until they reached her desk, though considering the huge white, feathery wings strapped to their backs, it was still a miracle that Haruhi hadn't spotted them all the same.

"Check it out, Haruhi!"

"We're the angel brothers!"

"Now, if you don't give us treats…"

"We've got tricks!"

Haruhi didn't hesitate. In one smooth move, she pulled two matching candies out of her pocket and offered them to the twins. "Here ya go!"

Never before had Haruhi seen a smiling face look both angry and disappointed. Let alone two faces at once. With more malice than probably appropriate, the twins pulled the wrappers off the fruit-flavored taffy and chewed them harshly. With a synchronized gulp, they spun back to face Haruhi.

"Uh-oh! All gone!"

"Once again, trick-or-treat!"

"All yours," Haruhi said, dropping another set of candies into their awaiting palms. The twins stared at her in shock. Before they could eat the new candies, the classroom door slid open. Another student strode in from the hallway, his shock-blond hair popping against his black vampire costume.

"Well, well, well, looks like I made it just in time to see you get your "just desserts". You devil brothers are no angels. You'd have to wake up pretty early to get Haruhi the same way you got me last year." Tamaki smirked and tossed his hair as the twins spun around. Haruhi had a sudden realization that Tamaki had expected the twins to threaten her with tricks. The twins had probably pranked Tamaki from sunrise to sundown last year. He did seem to be their favorite target.

Tamaki laughed in the twin's stunned faces. "Last night I took the liberty of sneaking candy into Haruhi's possessions and surroundings! She's immune to your trickery today!" Haruhi pouted. Her and Tamaki's definitions of 'sneaking' were very different. Tamaki had all but shoved the candies in her face, ignoring her protests and questions as he threw them into her hands and school bag. Tamaki didn't seem to notice Haruhi's expression, too busy laughing at the twins and how annoyed they looked.

"Tamaki-senpai?" One of Haruhi's classmates had returned, now dressed up like a fairytale princess. She shyly approached Tamaki, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. "You're a vampire this year?"

Tamaki immediately slipped into his hosting persona, adopting a rather sly expression as he admired the girl walking up to him. "My, my, the princess is so graceful. Will you grant me the treat of your blood? Or perhaps…"

He trailed off, but the girl was already completely taken by his words, bringing her hands up to her cheeks and quietly insisting, "I'll take the trick, please."

More students flooded into the classroom, mostly students from Class 1-A but a couple girls from other classes were also drawn in by Tamaki's presence. The blond was soon surrounded by his fans, charming each girl with ease. Haruhi huffed and shoved the last of her books into her bag. If Tamaki was allowed to be in their classroom, she was going to find her sister. Assuming, of course, she could get out of the room with Tamaki's admirers blocking the exit.

"Haruhi? Where are you going?" Hikaru leaned against her desk, eyebrows still furrowed from Tamaki's intrusion. Kaoru had left for the bathroom, so Haruhi assumed his brother was now looking for anything to entertain himself.

Seeing no reason to lie, Haruhi lifted her bag onto her shoulder. "I'm off to find Nēchan, then I'll probably hit the library to study."

"What? Aren't you at least going to change?"

"Nah. I'm not feeling it this year. Besides, it's not like I knew we were allowed to wear costumes this year, so even if I had wanted to dress up I wouldn't have brought anything."

Hikaru side-stepped to block Haruhi from leaving, a frown still marring his face. "Don't be like that! We have a cute witch costume set aside for you!"

Haruhi was about to tell him off for forcing her to dress up against her will again, but the twin's choice of costume caught her attention. "A witch? Oh… I get it now. What I saw at the top floor of the Central Wing must've been someone in costume. I was starting to think it was Nekozawa-senpai, but it might've just been some random student."

She glanced out the classroom window up at the Central Wing.

"Hey… they're still up there."

"Huh? Who's up where?" Hikaru sidled up next to Haruhi. "What are you looking at?"

"The person in the window!"

"I can't see anyone up there! Chairman!" Hikaru threw his right arm out and grabbed their class's chairman by the arm, pulling him over to the window. Of course, Hikaru almost smacked Haruhi in the face with said arm, forcing her to step back if she didn't want a bloody nose. "Chairman, can you see anything in the window?"

"Um… no? I'm not seeing anything."

At that point, Haruhi was beyond confused. She pushed Hikaru's arm out of the way and stepped back up to the window. Sure enough, the costumed person was still standing at the window, one of their hands pressed against the glass. It was almost like they were staring right back at Haruhi. She spun around to the boys behind her. "How can you not see-"

KRAAAK!

Haruhi gasped and stepped away from the window, a crack very reminiscent of a lightning bolt now spiderwebbed across the glass panes. For a second the classroom was silent. Then, a thin, terrified voice piped up in the back, "It's the curse! Haruhi's got the witch's curse!"

Now the whole class was in an uproar. Most of the girls were panicking amongst themselves and the boys, while not as loud, were also giving Haruhi worried glances and whispering to each other. All in all, Haruhi was more than a little confused. The chairman of 1-A was more than willing to explain what got the whole class up in a tizzy. If anything, he looked a bit too excited to be retelling the story, but Haruhi wasn't one to fault someone for their odd interests.

"'The Witch of the Central Wing' is an old campus legend," he said. "Long ago, on Halloween, a student dressed as a witch was standing by the highest window in the Central Wing. Many people think she was lured there by a fake confession letter. Somehow, she fell from the window and died. The legal story is that the window was newly installed and wasn't sealed properly, so when she leaned against it the glass gave way, but many of the students at the time swore they saw someone else's shadow in the window pane after she fell."

"Yeah, yeah," Hikaru suddenly butted in, rolling his eyes at the serious tone the chairman was using. "The legend says that her ghost appears in that window every Halloween, and anyone who sees her is cursed along with whoever they're in close contact with. But it's pretty stupid as legends go. I wouldn't believe it if I were you, Haruhi."

Haruhi wasn't going to believe it anyways. She had long outgrown the tales of ghouls and goblins of her childhood and most horror movies she watched with Jin didn't scare her in the slightest. She opened her mouth to say just that when she caught sight of Kaoru finally returning to the classroom. Noticing her attention now elsewhere, Hikaru turned around and gasped at the sight of his twin. Kaoru winced as he came closer, gingerly cradling his right elbow which was slowly oozing blood.

"Kaoru!" Hikaru rushed over but hesitated to put his hands anywhere. "What happened?"

"Tripped and fell outside the bathroom."

BONG! BONG! BONG!

All the students of class 1-A flinched as the bell tower started to ring. One of the girls shakily raised her hand to point at the clock face, which read as six minutes before 8am. "I-it's not time for the bell to ring-"

The girl cut herself off with a scream as another loud krak sliced through the air. Haruhi looked at the window and saw the glass splintering even more. Her breath stuttered in her chest despite herself. Something was very, very wrong here. Grabbing the twins by their elbows (the good elbow in Kaoru's case), Haruhi pulled them out of the classroom and into the hallway. The rest of their class followed. As soon as they were all out, the noises stopped. Everyone was a bit out of breath, save for Hikaru who chose to yell out, "It's the curse on Haruhi!"

"What?"

"The curse?" Kaoru asked.

"The curse…" The chairman whispered.

"Curse? What curse?"

Haruhi spun around in relief. Seeing her big sister walking down the hallway towards her was like drinking a warm cup of tea and Haruhi felt peaceful. Jin was here, so everything would be okay.

No sooner had that thought crossed her mind did Haruhi suddenly find her view blocked by a tall boy in a huge black cloak. His smile stretched across his face beneath his dark hood and even his cat hand puppet looked like it was delighted. Haruhi stumbled back into Hikaru and almost fell over.

"Yes…" Nekozawa purred sinisterly. "A curse."

*Fifteen minutes later*

"Okay, someone please explain the logic to me," Haruhi said. "Why do I have to dress up like a witch again?" She used the star-tipped wand to push up the brim of her witch's hat and gave the twins her best stink-eye. They ignored her irritation, laughing and clapping their hands along with the few remaining girls in the classroom.

Kaoru reached forward and poked at Haruhi's nose. "You know the old saying! An eye for an eye… a witch for a witch!"

"And," Hikaru tacked on, "by dressing up as a witch, the spirit will think you're honoring its memory and won't be so harsh with its curse!"

Haruhi looked down at her new outfit. The whole thing was too big for her, making her look like a little kid wearing a bright purple nightgown. Her socks were sliding down her legs towards her bright green, curled-toed shoes, and her hat kept engulfing her head. If there was a witch at Ouran, it probably thought Haruhi was insulting rather than honoring. She roughly pushed her hat up yet again, trying to curl the lip so it stayed out of her eyes, and looked at her sister. Jin was standing on Haruhi's right side, giving her costume a slightly critical once-over. Haruhi desperately tried to catch her eye, begging for a little help.

"I mean… it looks cute on you. And you've never dressed up like a witch before."

Haruhi blew a raspberry at her sister and went back to wrestling with her hat. "What about you, Nēchan? I thought you said you left your costume at home today," she said, looked up and down Jin's new outfit. Jin had been wearing her school uniform when she first showed up at the 1st year's classroom, but must've changed at the same time as Haruhi because she was now wearing something entirely different. She wore a tan button down shirt with an unbuttoned dark brown leather jacket over top. Her cargo pants were held up with a brown belt and were hemmed just above a pair of brown boots. An empty hip holster was slung around her hips beneath her belt and she had swapped out her school back for a pale green satchel. Her look was completed with a brown fedora and a tightly coiled whip on her left shoulder.

"I did leave it behind. But as soon as I told Tamaki and Kyoya, Kyoya sent one of his bodyguards to our apartment to pick it up. I was coming over to tell you when I heard about this supposed curse." She held out her arms and spun around, her jacket billowing a bit behind her in the breeze. "The guard handed it to me right as you left to go get changed. How do I look?"

Haruhi opened her mouth when the twins jumped in between the girls, ooh-ing and ahh-ing over Jin's costume.

"You look good, Jin-senpai!"

"Nice archeologist costume!"

Haruhi looked over the boy's shoulders, waiting for Jin to correct them. But she didn't. Instead, she smiled and thanked them, giving them another spin. Then Jin met Haruhi's eyes again. Giving her sister a shrug, she raised an eyebrow. What do you want me to say, she asked silently. It's not like they'd know who I was talking about even if I told them. Haruhi supposed that was a fair judgment. The character Jin was dressed up as wasn't exactly popular in Japan. Which made sense considering she discovered the movies while in America.

The twin's excitement pulled everyone's attention to Jin, but Haruhi found herself once again peering out the classroom window. The sun was slowly drifting higher into the sky, casting harsh glares across the windows of the Central Wing, but Haruhi could very clearly see that the shadow in the large circle window at the very top of the building was gone.

Perfect! Haruhi thought. She set her wand down on the nearest desk and started heading for the door. Just her luck that one of the girls happened to spot Haruhi's attempted escape.

"Haruhi! Where are you going?"

Everyone else in the room looked over and Haruhi groaned internally at being caught. Deciding there was no reason to lie, she said, "I'm going to the Central Wing to investigate. I don't want to be stuck dressed up like a witch forever."

"Isn't that how most people die in horror movies?"

Haruhi gave her sister a frown. Not. Helping. Jin gave her a cheeky wink in return.

"You're so annoying, Nēchan."

"I know."

"Your sister is right. Exploring would be unwise." The whispered voice blew past Haruhi's left ear, accompanied by ghostly white fingertips scuttling across her shoulder. She shrieked and jumped away from Nekozawa, who looked more in his element than Haruhi had ever seen before.

"Engaging with a curse on a frontal attack can only bring death. According to my premonition, the witch's curse only lasts through Halloween, so there's no need to rush or fret. However…" Nekozawa ducked down and brought their faces closer. Haruhi wasn't surprised to find the strange third year student's eyes alight with wonder and excitement. He would find a witch's curse amazing. "I must admit I envy you greatly, Mr. Fujioka. You are so fortunate to be cursed. It is so heartbreakingly rare and while I'm delighted to witness it first hand, if I could I would offer to take your place-"

A gust of wind blew across the room from the open space the cracked window used to be. The maintenance crew had been quick to remove the broken glass and were supposed to be on their way back with a replacement. Which meant they had left the 1-A classroom, and Nekozawa's wig, without protection from the late October breeze.

The 3rd year student screamed and threw his arms over his head as his bright blond hair was suddenly exposed, tears welling up in the corners of his eyes. "The curse!" he screamed. "The light! Curse, return to Haruhi!"

The words 'I thought you wanted my curse' died in Haruhi's throat as she watched Jin frantically snatch Nekozawa's wig off the floor and shove it haphazardly onto his head. She then grabbed the boy by his shoulders and steered him out of the room, presumably to find a darker room for Nekozawa to collect himself.

"Uwahh… Jin-senpai is so nice to everyone," one of the girls cooed to her friends. "But she left Haruhi in his time of need!"

"What do you mean Haruhi's been abandoned," someone screamed in shock. Haruhi spun around as the second classroom door, the one the window repairmen had been using, slammed open. Instead of returning workers, however, this time a very out-of-breath Renge ran into the room, making a beeline for Haruhi. "Oh, Haruhi! I just heard what happened! Are you alright? Who abandoned you?"

"No one. Um… that's a cute costume you're wearing. Where's that uniform from, exactly?"

At once, Renge's concern vanished. She performed a tight pirouette in front of Haruhi before pressing two peace signs against her cheeks. "Oh, this little thing? I guess I can't hide it… this is the uniform for the female students in the next installment of "Uki Doki Memorial," due out next spring. I got wind of some spoilers and had it tailored for today's festivities."

"Uh huh…" Haruhi squinted her eyes at Renge. She was pretty sure "got wind of some spoilers" was rich people code for something slightly nefarious, but it probably wasn't her place to say so.

"Anyway, Haruhi, I was about to go join some other girls in making cookies and carving Jack-o-lanterns! I was wondering if you'd like to join us, since you helped me make cookies back when I first arrived! Jin-senpai can come too, if we find her."

Before Renge had even finished her offer, Haruhi was already taking a few steps back, creating space between her and the rest of the class. She raised her hands up and laughed awkwardly. "Um, that's probably not a good idea. I seem to be cursed, so you should probably steer clear of me today. Nēchan would be thrilled to join in, but I'm probably going to go hang out at the library by myself. I'll feel better that way."

She opened her eyes and was surprised to find all the girls staring at her and openly weeping. Her mouth dropped open as they started whimpering about how they just wanted to help take Haruhi's mind off the curse and how sorry they were for "dragging her down". Me and my big mouth, Haruhi thought.

Still, it could not be said that Haruhi was strong in the face of guilt-tripping and its affiliations, which is how not five minutes later Haruhi found herself not only participating in the pie and cookie baking, but leading the group. Honestly, they might as well have named it 'Haruhi's Cooking Seminar'. Shoving her witch's hat out of her face, she looked out over the sea of girls rolling out their chilled cookie dough. From the looks of it, this particular task was going to take a while. They weren't complaining per say. The students of Ouran Academy were too posh to complain. But the girls were clearly a little put out by how hard it was to spread the dough thin enough to start using the cookie cutters.

Haruhi shut her eyes and let out a long breath. She really wished they had been able to find Jin on their way to the Home-Ec room, but it seemed her sister had vanished into the ether with Nekozawa. Lucky. Trying her hardest not to show her annoyance on her face, Haruhi started arranging her own work station for the next step in cookie baking.

It's not that I believe in curses, she told herself, but there are a lot of weird things happening around me today and I don't want anyone getting hurt on my account. I don't want to be responsible for whatever happens today. I'm already "the poor kid" which makes people look down on me. If people also start blaming me for the bad things happening to them, how long will it take for them to forget they're supposed to be blaming a curse instead?

With that cheerful thought in mind, Haruhi crouched down in search of some vegetable oil. She reached below the sink, about to grab the bottle, when something in the stainless steel reflection caught her eye. She glanced up and saw a familiar watery image right behind her, with long white robes and silvery hair.

THE WITCH!

To say Haruhi's heart jumped would be an understatement. She spun around and launched herself to her feet, fight or flight instincts kicking in and even she had no clue which one she would've followed. She never got to find out, either, because before she could take another step she crashed into Hikaru's arms, nearly knocking them both over.

"Wha- Haruhi? What's wrong?"

Haruhi grabbed Hikaru's arms, her legs twisting around as her stupid green shoes slid out from under her. Her heart was pounding as she frantically tried to find her balance, Hikaru barely more of a help than a hindrance. Some of the girls were whispering among themselves but Haruhi ignored them. She finally steadied herself and, after finding her vision once again obscured by her stupid witch hat, threw her left hand up over her head to knock the hat off entirely.

"Hikaru! Wasn't someone just…" She pushed him to the side, despite the boy's complaining, and ran up to the window to stare at the Central Wing. Her breath caught at the familiar shadow still standing on the other side of the stained glass. A strangled 'eep' escaped her throat before she could stop it.

She spun around, already pointing up at the shadow, but Hikaru merely chuckled. He stepped in between her and the window and grabbed her cheeks, squishing her face. "Aww… is something scaring you? How cute! I never thought a dumb little curse would get you so worked up. You probably shouldn't be alone today."

"No, that's not it!" Haruhi swatted at the boy's hands. Her eyes darted out the window one last time, but the shadow was gone. Repressing a shudder, she tried to think of something to talk about that wasn't the witch or the stupid curse. "Um, where'd Kaoru go? Wasn't he just here?"

"Eh? Oh, well, even though he wasn't badly injured he still decided to go visit the nurse. I offered to go with him but he said I'd be in the way. Can you believe that?" Hikaru blew air out of his mouth before giving Haruhi the stink-eye. "You aren't rubbing off on him, are you? Because now that I think about it, that was a pretty Haruhi-like thing for him to say."

"I don't think you give your brother enough credit," was Haruhi's response. "Besides, I can totally see you getting in the way."

"See! Don't think that because you don't say these things to be mean doesn't mean I'll forgive you for saying them."

Haruhi cracked a smile and walked around Hikaru, going for the sink to wash her hands. "You're right, I didn't say it to be mean. But you can be kind of a handful."

"Hmph. Whatever. So… when do you think the cookies and pie will be done? There's supposed to be a tea ceremony taking place right before the charity dance this evening. I think Kyoya has a photo session planned during the dance for the Host Club's contribution. I guess it's for the guests to take pictures with us in costume."

Haruhi was almost awestruck. Was there really that much planned in today's schedule? It was like these rich kids couldn't stand to spend two minutes sitting still without doing something fancy. And, while she would rather not go to another party, considering how the last one went…

"I guess if it's for charity I'll go."

"Great! You have to save me and Kaoru a dance. Ooh, this dough is so stretchy! It's like mochi, haha!"

"Hey! Quit messing with it! You'll overwork the dough!"

Hikaru stuck out his tongue and dropped the lumpy ball back onto the baking sheet where there had once been three nicely cut out star shapes. "I'm just trying to help!"

"No you are not! You are in the way!"

"I was turning your boring cookies into more artistic shapes! You should be thanking me!"

"Ugh, you're such a brat, Hikaru!" Haruhi rolled up her sleeves and shoved the boy away from her work station. Where was Nēchan and her impressive strength when Haruhi needed it?

"A brat? And how are you so certain I'm even Hikaru! We switch places all the time! I bet you'd never call Kaoru a brat even though he's the same as Hikaru!"

"He's completely different from you." Haruhi gave the boy another shove and deemed him an acceptable distance from her cookie dough. With a sigh, she walked back to the mess Hikaru had left and started to roll out the lump of dough again. "When he's on his own, Kaoru is calm and relatively normal, with heavy emphasis on relatively. You, on the other hand, are loud and crazy no matter if your brother is with you or not. And you have a filthy mouth, whereas Kaoru is a bit more reserved with his curse words."

"...Is that so?" Hikaru beamed at her. "You're great."

"I wasn't complimenting you."

"It sounded like a compliment."

"I was actually speaking with a bit of malice this time."

Hikaru opened his mouth, probably to argue some more, but just then a familiar face shuffled back into the room. Hikaru, spotting his brother's injured elbow completely encased in bandages, ran over to assess the damage for himself. Kaoru assured him the nurse simply overdid her bandaging. Haruhi couldn't shake the feeling that the nurse had probably bound up his joint in the hopes that limiting the twin's movement in any form might reduce their chaos for the rest of the day. It's what she would've done in the nurse's place.

"Haruhi! You're the last one to decorate your jack-o-lantern! Come on, it's already been scooped out!" One of the girls pressed a black sharpie into Haruhi's palm before the other girls steered her to another table. Haruhi tilted her head at the pumpkin before her. To be honest, pumpkin carving wasn't really something her family took part in. Her father preferred to buy the tiny pumpkins and arrange them on the windowsills. And since no one in their family liked the taste of pumpkin very much, it seemed wasteful to buy a big vegetable and throw away most of it before letting the rest rot away in front of their door.

Also, Haruhi's artistic skills were sub-par to say the least.

She still hadn't even raised her marker up to the pumpkin when Kaoru suddenly sidled up to her side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders and gesturing vaguely at the vegetable. He seemed to be giving her pointers on where to start, but again, this was one Halloween tradition Haruhi didn't really care about to begin with. She turned to her left, ready for Hikaru to turn her into another Haruhi sandwich with his twin, but he was nowhere to be found.

"Uh, Kaoru? Where'd Hikaru go?"

"What do you mean? He's over there showing off his jack-o-lantern." Kaoru pointed across the room where the girls were giggling at a boy wearing a pumpkin on his head, clashing rather hilariously with his pure white angel costume. Even Haruhi cracked a smile at the scene before Kaoru shook her by the shoulders and encouraged her to draw a scary face.

Still having no clue on what she was doing, Haruhi decided to try designing an Oni face like the ones she saw at the Setsubun festivals in early February. The festival was pretty far off in the future, with them still in October and all, but Oni were scary regardless of month, right? She just needed to remember the thick eyebrows… the big eyes… the wide nose… and the tusks…

"There."

Kaoru's arm dropped from Haruhi's shoulder.

"BWAHAHAHAHA!"

Haruhi groaned and capped the marker, leaning her elbows on the empty counter space and dropping her face into her hands. Even without seeing his reaction, she heard Kaoru dropping to his knees, sounding vaguely like he was dry heaving.

"Nice artwork! Check out those eyebrows! And the teeth! Is that an extra fang hanging down in the middle of its mouth? Dynamic!"

"Shut up! I'm not good at stuff like this! Art is my worst subject!"

"I'll say! Oh, that nose! The curse strikes again!"

Haruhi groaned again and dropped one hand to give her artwork another glance. She wanted to find something to use in a case to defend herself, but there really was nothing. Even with the excuse of it being a first attempt, it was bad. She rolled her eyes and pushed the vegetable away. Maybe if she pushed hard enough, it would roll off the counter and break into a million pieces to be thrown away. Given her track record, it wasn't entirely out of the realm of possibilities.

Before she could test that theory, Kaoru dutifully snatched up the pumpkin and a sheathed carving knife. Still laughing, he told her he'd "faithfully carve her masterpiece" at another countertop. Haruhi, not able to imagine him somehow making her design any worse, let him leave without another comment.

"Haruhi! You've got a visitor!"

"Hmm?" Haruhi turned around and couldn't help but grin at the sight of Jin walking into the home-ec room, sans Nekozawa. The guests called out their hellos to the older girl, who graciously waved back but never wavered in her path towards Haruhi.

Jin pulled Haruhi into a side hug as soon as she was within reach. "Hey, you."

"Hey, you," Haruhi replied, happily leaning her head against Jin's side. All around them, the girls cooed at their cuteness.

"So," Jin said, "because I know you're wondering, Nekozawa-san is fine. He was a little shaken up by the whole ordeal, but that's to be expected. I tried to come looking for you guys sooner but I kept being distracted. There are so many events going on today! Anyway, what have you been up to?"

Haruhi shrugged. "Nothing too crazy. Mostly baking-"

"And pumpkin carving!" Hikaru shouted.

"Jin-senpai! Come check out what Haruhi drew!" Kaoru tacked on.

Jin raised an eyebrow, but Haruhi didn't give her sister a chance to answer the twin's request. Wrapping her arms around Jin's elbow she dragged her in the opposite direction. "C'mon, Nēchan. The pie is probably done cooking by now."

"I don't like pie."

"Too bad."

"You don't like pie."

"Did I stutter?"

Haruhi managed to trap Jin within the wall of girls now surrounding the oven before grabbing the oven mitts and pulling the pie out. The outer crust was a slightly darker brown than she had hoped for, but in its entirety the pie looked pretty decent. The girls applauded, leaning in to take a whiff of the cinnamon spices. Renge popped up at Haruhi's side with a pie server, eyeing the pie eagerly. "It looks so good! Haruhi, do you want the first slice?"

"Uh…"

"How about we wait until the pie cools down, Renge? We don't want to burn our tongues," Jin said. Renge pouted a little, but set down the utensil with a sigh and an 'I guess'. Haruhi glanced at her sister out of the corner of her eye, sending her a silent thank you. She was not in the mood to politely choke down what was probably going to be a big helping from these girls.

With all the baking now complete, everyone dispersed into two groups, either deciding what events to join next or drifting to the other side of the room where the pumpkin carving was still taking place. Not that Haruhi and Jin were so quickly forgotten by the girls. Kazuko, the girl who sat directly behind Haruhi in class, was one of them.

"Haruhi! Jin-senpai! Hikaru and Kaoru both seem to be having fun today! It's so nice to see."

Haruhi peered over at the pumpkin-carving station. The twins and the girls crowded around behind them were laughing as the boys carved out Haruhi's design. Haruhi smiled despite the earlier razzing from Kaoru. "It does seem like today was made for them. A full day of shenanigans."

"Right?" Kazuko laughed. "Last year they were so busy chasing Tamaki around with their pranks they didn't really participate in anything else. They also weren't as friendly with the class as they are now. Most of us have known each other since elementary school, but they never seemed to like school all that much growing up."

Another girl from Haruhi's class, Chihiro, chimed in, "I think it wasn't until after the Host Club was established that they slowly started talking to us. After you joined they started taking an interest in doing things as a class."

"All of this to say… we're really happy they're having fun with us today! Holidays are meant to be enjoyed by everyone, right?" Kazuko beamed at the two sisters before walking off to talk to someone else. Haruhi stared at her back until she felt a gentle shake of her shoulders. She glanced up at Jin.

"What's up, Nēchan?"

Jin raised her left eyebrow. "I feel like I should be asking you that. You've got your thinking face on. What's going on in your head?"

Haruhi hesitated for a moment before saying, "I'm not sure. Just… something Kazuko said struck a chord with me. It sounded important, but I don't know why."

Jin frowned, similarly confused. "What part?"

"The part about holidays being enjoyed by everyone."

"Well, it's true. Do you remember how Uncle once told us we were too old to dress up for Halloween?"

Haruhi frowned. "Yeah. Weren't you nine years old?"

"I smell trauma~"

The sisters jumped in tandem. They whipped around and saw Renge hopping up and down with delight. "This is all so wonderful! And here I thought we'd only be teased by the dark history in the twin's past! But to also have mysteries in the Fujioka sibling's childhood? Ah! My heart beats wildly at the thought!"

She's excited… by trauma? Haruhi couldn't think of any reasonable way to respond. Even Jin looked a little concerned.

"Renge…" Jin said slowly, "remember how we explained the difference between fictional characters and real people?"

"Yeah! Why do you ask?"

The sound of the room's doors opening distracted Jin from whatever she was going to say next, the three of them turning to see who had come to join them.

"Ah, Jin. Haruhi. There you two are. We've been looking for you two for over an hour."

Kyoya swung the door open, leading himself and Honey and Mori inside. All three boys were also dressed up in costumes, which surprised Haruhi just a little. Not Mori and Honey, of course, who were wearing matching dog and kitten costumes, respectively. No, she was more intrigued by the fact that Kyoya had decided to dress up. Though, considering he was dressed as a Catholic priest which, she supposed, sort of fit alongside Tamaki's vampire costume, Haruhi couldn't rule out the possibility that Tamaki had arranged both of their costumes in advance.

Jin released Haruhi's shoulder and walked over to the boys, offering an apologetic smile. "Sorry, Glasses. I got distracted with some things. What did you need?"

"Need isn't the exact phrase I'd use. I figured since you two weren't aware of today's schedule you also wouldn't know about the Halloween dance this afternoon. The Host Club is attending as a group, so we're all going to gather in the club room in an hour."

"Cool! Sounds fun!" Jin said.

Haruhi approached the two, questions about being allowed to skip the dance already on her tongue. Before she could ask, however, Honey was already gleefully hugging Jin around the waist before bouncing towards Haruhi. She noticed that Mori had been left behind to entertain a group of girls who seemed fascinated by his costume's long floppy ears. Jin giggled at the sight of her friend kneeling down so the girls could "pet" his head.

Kyoya seemed to be the only person in the vicinity who wasn't distracted by Mori's appearance, as he kept looking Jin's costume up and down. Haruhi waited for her sister to notice. As expected, it didn't take long.

"What?" Jin asked. "Do you not like my costume, Kyoya?"

Kyoya straightened his shoulders, pretending like he was unbothered at being caught. "No, it's not that. I overheard someone mentioning you were dressed as an architect, but I don't think they're right. Most architects don't have whips."

Jin laughed. "You got me there. And you're right, I'm actually dressed up like one of my favorite American movie characters, Indiana Jones. I'm a big fan of Harrison Ford and I got to buy my own clothes to put this together instead of buying from a costume store, except for the whip of course. Also, I can wear these clothes in different outfits instead of just one day a year."

"That's a smart idea." Kyoya eyed her costume again, this time with clear appreciation in his eyes. "It probably wasn't incredibly expensive either. Believe it or not, I do recognize the name of your character."

"Really? I haven't met anyone in Japan who's heard of Indiana Jones before!"

"I haven't seen the movies, but I remember during one family vacation to The States I saw more than a few billboards promoting the newest movie."

"But you haven't seen them? That's such a shame! We should watch them together sometime, I bet you'll love them!"

Kyoya blinked and he opened his mouth to say something, but appeared to cut himself off. He regarded Jin for a few moments longer, lips quirked up into his signature side smile. "You know what? That sounds-"

"Ugh! These cookies are gross! They're so salty!"

Haruhi had been so focused on listening to Jin and Kyoya's conversation that she hadn't noticed Honey slipping away to sample some of the cookies she and the girls had baked. She had noticed his loud complaints and the way he jumped into Mori's arms, crying about how terrible the cookies tasted. How could the cookies taste salty? Haruhi had triple checked all the ingredients…

"Ow!"

"Hikaru!"

"Haruhi, come quick! Hikaru cut himself!"

"What?" Haruhi ran over to where Hikaru was bent over on the floor, clutching at his bloody finger. "What happened?"

The girls who had been watching the carvings were, mostly, in hysterics. One of them was crying, "It's the curse! It's the witch's curse!"

Haruhi felt like her stomach was sinking into her toes. She had almost completely forgotten about the whole 'curse' situation entirely. But to go from cracked glass and salty cookies to making her friend slice his finger? That just seemed too evil for a little curse.

Decision made, Haruhi grabbed Hikaru by the arm and pulled him along. "Hikaru, we have to get you to the nurse."

"Ow… no. I'll be okay."

"Nonsense!" Haruhi spun around and pointed at Kaoru, who was now wearing a jack-o-lantern on his head like Hikaru had been earlier. "Kaoru, help me get him to his feet!"

"Haruhi, will you dance with us at the party?"

"What are you talking about? At a time like this! C'mon, get up-"

"I'll go to the nurse if you promise to dance with us."

…Wait a second.

Jin lingered on the edge of the commotion. She was torn between wanting to help if Hikaru was hurt and not getting in the way. Haruhi did seem like she was in control of the situation. She was already dragging Hikaru over to the sink… a very loudly protesting Hikaru… A tap on her shoulder pulled Jin's attention away for a split second. She wasn't surprised to see Kyoya leaning over her shoulder with a curious look on his face.

"What's this about a witch's curse?"

"Oh, right. About that-"

"It's fake," Haruhi said, suddenly standing in front of them. Without any further explanation, she swung Hikaru around into Jin's arms with a quick order of, "Don't let him go."

Jin raised her left arm around the front of Hikaru's throat, lining his chin with the inside of her elbow. Haruhi gave the headlock a nod of approval before directing her glare across the room.

"Who's in the jack-o-lantern?"

The other boy wearing an angel costume, whom Jin had assumed was Kaoru until just now, lifted the carved pumpkin head off his shoulders. Kazuko gasped, covering her mouth in shock. "Chairman," she squeaked. "I thought you were Kaoru!"

"Ha ha… well, I can never resist a request from those two."

Haruhi's scowl deepened and she ran out of the room, fists clenched by her sides. Hikaru wriggled in Jin's hold, begging Haruhi to wait and let him explain.

"She's already gone, Hikaru," Jin said. "And you're stuck here until she comes back."

Hikaru let out a frustrated groan and looked up at Jin as best as he could. He pushed his bottom lip out in a pout. "Are you seriously going to keep me in a headlock until she comes back?"

"Yup."

"...I have to pee."

"I promise I won't look," Jin replied immediately. Hikaru, bluff called, crossed his arms and appeared to accept his fate. Around the club members, the rest of class 1-A filtered out of the room. Whether they were leaving to enjoy the other activities around the school or just escaping before Haruhi returned with the other twin, there was no telling.

Thankfully for Hikaru's neck and Jin's arms, Haruhi dragged Kaoru in from the hallway less than ten minutes later. She had the boy's elbow in her right hand and a long silver wig in her left. As an added bonus, Tamaki trailed in behind the pair and shut the door. Everyone watched Haruhi pull Kaoru over to a couch and sit the boy down. She then pointed the wig at Jin and Hikaru before pointing it at the couch as well. Jin lowered her arms and placed her hands on Hikaru's shoulders instead, gently steering him to sit beside his brother.

With that job done, Jin said, "Okay, Haru, will you please explain what's going on?"

"Actually, I think Hikaru and Kaoru should explain."

The twins exchanged a glance before staring down at the floor. Kaoru was the first to break, explaining how he and Hikaru managed to jump back and forth between being the "witch" and pretending like there was a curse following Haruhi around. Whenever it was his turn to dress up in the witch costume, Hikaru took over the story. In the end, it took the twins fifteen minutes to recount everything they'd gotten into that day.

"So…" Tamaki's voice was too even and calm to mean anything good. "Just to summarize today's events: You two took advantage of that old campus legend, organized a "witch sighting" for Haruhi, then took turns playing the witch and making little "curses" happen around Haruhi?"

Kaoru nodded. Hikaru looked in the other direction and muttered, "Well, when you say it like that it sounds bad."

"You cracked the windows, screwed with the clocks, faked multiple injuries, swapped out the cookies with ones loaded with salt, blew off Nekozawa's wig-"

"Nekozawa was just a coincidence! And we did it because…"

The twins hesitated for a second too long and Tamaki's leash snapped. He jumped out of his chair and stormed over to the couch, waving his arms around in every direction. "Because why?! It doesn't even matter, apologize to Haruhi! Bow down before the darling witch!"

Hikaru glared up at Tamaki and said, "It's also your fault, y'know! We saw Milord sneaking candy into Haruhi's pockets yesterday so we had to come up with some way to force her to celebrate with us!"

"Yeah," Kaoru jumped in. "Haruhi doesn't care about Halloween so we had no choice! We just wanted everyone to enjoy Halloween together!"

"If that's so wrong, then we're sorry!" They exclaimed in unison, both faces burning cherry red. And just like that, their reasoning came into focus. They hadn't been pranking Haruhi for the sake of pranking. They just wanted to come up with reasons for her to participate in the holiday. It was actually… really sweet of them, if not completely covered with tsudere-vibes.

And yet…

Jin tilted her head to the side. "Um, not to pick apart your whole plan, boys… but who said anything about Haru not liking Halloween? It's one of our favorite holidays."

The twins looked up at her, faces hilariously and purposefully blank. "Say what now?"

Jin fought down a smile and explained, "Maybe we didn't know what was going on at school today, but we do have plans to go to the festival downtown tonight. And we're going to watch some scary movies at home before bedtime."

"B-but," Hikaru sputtered, finally showing his bewilderment on his face. "She doesn't have a costume!"

Haruhi shrugged, but she was also smiling at the twins. "Yeah, I wasn't feeling it this year. I had no idea what to dress up as, so I decided to skip the costume part this year. That doesn't mean I don't like Halloween!"

Hikaru and Kaoru faced each other, mouths slightly agape. Without missing a beat, they each smacked their own foreheads and fell backwards against the armrests of the couch. Jin clamped a hand over her mouth to stifle her giggling. Haruhi merely rolled her eyes and settled her witches' hat back over her head.

"You two really are dumb," she said. "Well, come on then."

"What now?" Hikaru groaned.

"Don't we have a dance to attend? Hikaru, Kaoru, you two said you wanted to dance with me. Did you two change your minds?"

The twins jumped up from the couch and followed Haruhi out of the room without a single faltering step, all smiles and gossip as the trio led the rest of the Host Club to the club room to get ready for the party. Tamaki was fuming and pouting that Haruhi forgave the twins so quickly after they'd tricked her and that the three of them were going to dance together. Haruhi hadn't promised him any dances. Behind him, Honey and Mori were munching on the sugar cookies the twins had hidden for their prank. Honey was holding a huge pile in his hands while Mori occasionally plucked one from the top of the stack to nibble at.

Jin and Kyoya brought up the rear of the pack. Jin, while never sure what was going through Kyoya's mind, imagined he too was trying to reconcile with the fact that their whole club seemingly consisted of dummies.

"I thought that was an illegal wrestling move?"

"What?" Jin looked over and watched as Kyoya attempted to demonstrate a headlock on himself. The corner of his mouth twitched upwards as she started to laugh. "No, you're thinking of a full or half-nelson. What I did was just a headlock."

"There's a difference?"

"Do you want me to demonstrate?"

Kyoya raised his hands and took an exaggerated step away. "I'm fine without it."

"Chicken. And here I was going to offer to dance with you at the party if you agreed to be my practice dummy."

To Jin's delight, her friend moved back to his original spot beside her, teasing smile still in place as he said, "We both know we're going to dance together anyways."

"Is that so?"

"Of course. We can't stand anyone else at this school."

"Mean, Kyoya!"

Yes, I'm alive. I don't know what to say here. Am I back? Who's to say. All I know is that I want to write, I expect to continue writing this story, and I have a lot of stuff I want to put into it.