Ohayo! This is WHPIAR here bringing you the second chapter of "Birthday Surprises!"
DISCLAIMERL: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club or any of it characters.
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The two walked in the door and a butler took Tamaki's jacket. Haruhi so small in the vast entryway. Before she had enough time to soak in all that there was, Tamaki was leading her off into a different room in the manor.
The five other members of the host club were seated around a tray of tea and presents. The twins were laughing about something to themselves but simultaneously stopped when they noticed Haruhi. Hunny was climbing on an expressionless Mori. Mori was the next to notice Haruhi and couldn't stop himself from staring with his mouth slightly agape. When Hunny noticed what Mori was staring at, the childish 18 year old bounded over to where she stood and gave the girl obvious complements. Kyoya had his back to the entryway, when he noticed everyone staring at something behind him he turned around quickly and was hit with Haruhi's presents (subconsciously, not her actually birthday presents).
No one knew what to say. It was the twins that jumped up and both grabbed an arm. They led Haruhi to the couch to sit between them. No one noticed host club king in the corner, sulking about how his Haruhi was taken away.
"Uh..." Kyoya wasn't sure of what to say, "you sure got dressed up."
Haruhi turned her face away, "My dad bought it for me. I don't like wearing dresses, but he really wanted me to wear it here. And I would have felt bad to refuse it since he worked so hard for the money."
Everyone in the room got stabbed by that last comment, considering that none of them had ever worked for money. The only time any of them had really worked for anything was in the summer, the all had to work at that hotel to see who got the last room so they could spend the week with Haruhi.
Before anyone could say anything else, a fancy butler walked into the parlor and announced to everyone that dinner was waiting. Haruhi followed everyone into a large dining hall. There was a table that could have seated about 50 people, but there were only plates at seven of the places. Expensive platters were laid with a first class dinner accompanied by heavenly aromas.
Haruhi, without making a big deal sat in the chair closest to the edge. Everyone else seemed to have their preferred spot to sit. Mori ended up sitting on Haruhi's right side, and at the end of the table which was on her left sat Tamaki.
Hikaru and Kaoru were having a privet conversation. Hunny (who sat next to Mori) asked, "What's your best birthday memory, Haruhi?"
Haruhi put down her fork and had to think for a minute, "One year, Dad bought me a pair of second hand ice skates. What about you, Hunny?"
"That's a though one!" he had to think about it for a minute, "I got it! Two years ago, Mori and I drove out to a quiet park and got to play there all day. And later on we had a picnic lunch and went for a hike."
Haruhi grinned, "That sounds nice."
Hunny violently shook his head, "It wasn't. Some lady thought I was a girl at the park. Our picnic lunch was spoiled because we forgot it in the car and it got all hot and gross. And we ended up getting lost on our hike and got bitten by all sorts of bugs."
She was puzzled, "How would that make it your favourite then? It sounds awful."
"Once we got back, it was actually really funny. Mori and I laughed for about twenty minutes about how silly the whole thing was!" Hunny beamed.
The thought of Mori laughing seemed silly to Haruhi. She looked to her right at the tall, toned figure eating his salad. He sensed her eyes on him and caught her eye.
She quickly looked away, but then looked back at him. "What is your favourite birthday memory, Mori?"
Mori finished chewing his salad and took a drink of water. He turned back to her, "I was living at my grandfathers house over the summer and," he smiled to himself at the recollection of the memory, "... heh... we actually played hide-and-go-seek all day."
"Hide-and-go-seek?" Haruni questioned.
"The main reason it was fun was because my grandfather owns a very large portion of land and the game wasn't restricted to the house. We got to play all over the entire lot." Mori explained.
"Wouldn't it take a long time to find the person?" she couldn't help but asking.
"It took hours. That's why it lasted all day." Mori said. Haruhi smiled, she couldn't help but laugh at the idea. Mori laughed along with her.
Mori being as sociable as he was towards Haruhi caught Tamaki's eye. Tamaki just couldn't stand for anyone but him getting more attention from Haruhi.
"How is the dinner!" Tamaki cried out desperately.
Mori and Haruhi were both drawn out of the conversation they were holding with each other. Tamaki glared at Mori a bit and Mori stared back into his eyes. Tamaki was the one to break eye contact. Haruhi caught that and gave him his answer, "It's fine Tamaki. Thank you."
Kyoya and the twins watched the whole affair play out. The twins smiled at the king and made mental notes to tease him of the incident when they were alone. Kyoya smiled and offered that everyone head to the parlor for presents.
Everyone got up from their seats. Haruhi grabbed her plate, thinking for a moment that she had to put it in the sink to get washed. It took her a second to remember where she was and hastily set her plate back down while blushing. No one seemed to notice but Kyoya who just gave her an odd grin.
Tamaki waited to walk with Haruhi into the parlor. When Haruhi was exposed to all of the presents in fancy wrapping she didn't know what to say. She had never been offered so many gifts at one birthday.
Instead of mentioning anything about the birthday presents she just asked, "Where should I sit?"
Everyone had different ideas about where the birthday girl should sit. She was sorry she even asked. Somehow she ended up sitting with Kyoya.
Hunny grabbed an large, top-heavy package and set it on Haruhi's lap, "Open mine first! Open mine first, Haru!"
Haruhi sighed and looked at the packages in front of her, "I don't want to be rude, but I don't feel conferral accepting all these gifts."
"What did you expect when you came here?" Kyoya asked.
She sighed once again and began un-wrapping the present given to her by Hunny. It turned out to be a cake in the shape of a bunny, along the side it said "Happy Birthday Haruhi!" and had strawberries along the sides, and some on top. Haruhi grinned and told Hunny how she loved it and that they should all have a piece later.
"Which one should I open next?" Haruhi was starting to get into the whole ordeal. Hunny looked puzzled, "You can open Mori's next!" And he handed her a rectangular gift.
Haruhi was stumped at what might be inside. She looked over at Mori and he gave her an encouraging little smirk. She carefully un-wrapped the gift. She smiled at the book that lay in her hands, still confused at what was inside the pages. The cover of the book was printed with Gustav Klimt's oil painting "The Kiss". She untied the ribbon that held the front and back cover together, the inside was blank.
"A journal?" Haruhi asked Mori.
"I don't know if your familiar with Gustav Klimt's work, but that's my favourite painting of his." Mori explained.
"Such a personal gift." Tamaki pointed out to Haruhi like it was some sort of crime to get someone something personal.
With that comment, Haruhi made sure to express how much she liked it, "My last journal is running out of pages too. How convenient. This one is much better quality than my last one. Thank you so much Mori. I love it." she gave Mori an encouraging smile. Mori grinned and looked away, "Your welcome, Haruhi."
Tamaki curled up and sniffled at the way the compliment had stabbed him.
She opened the twins presents next. They were two very nice picture frames, "Thank you. I know just the pictures to put in it." she said. The twins gave each other a high five.
Kyoya handed her his present. "I hope you like it." he added. Un-wrapping the paper showed that it was inside a box. She ripped the tape off the box and inside were a bunch of packing peanuts. Curiosity was gripping Haruhi, she started digging through the Styrofoam.
She brought the fragile gift out to show everyone, "Kyoya, it's beautiful. What is it?" It was a square box with a latch on the side to open it up. There were cherry blossoms carved into the side.
Kyoya laughed a bit and took it from her, "It's a music box. It was my grandmothers." He opened up the latch and took out one of the record looking disks and put it on to play. Out of the music box played Happy Birthday. Haruhi smiled and played around with the different songs for a while. She passed around the box so everyone could get a turn with it.
"Thank you Kyoya. I've never had a music box before." Haruhi complimented with a smile.
Kyoya smiled and took her hand, he lightly touched his lips to the back of her hand, "My pleasure."
Haruhi blushed and took her hand back, "Ok! Is this gift from Tamaki?"
Tamaki straightened up in his chair, "I hope you like it Haruhi!" he said desperately.
Inside the small rectangular gift was an elegant silver bracelet. Haruhi wasn't sure what to say, she just stared at the jewelry. Tamaki got up from where he sat and took the bracelet from the box. He kneeled down on one knee and clipped the bracelet onto Haruhi's wrist.
Tamaki kneeled there for a moment more, expecting some sort of thank you from her but never got one. "Thank you so much everyone for the gifts. I've never gotten so many nice things." she addressed with a smile. Tamaki got up and went back to his seat to pout about his lack of recognition.
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There's chapter 2 for you. Maybe I'm the only one that thinks this, but for thoes of you that are framiliar with "Pride and Prejudice" who all thinks that Mori and Mr.Darcy are very similar? Maybe that's just me, I'm reading the book right now so it's sorta on my mind. For any of you that think Mori was out of character, your probably right. Whenever I'm reading the manga I always have a hard time picturing Mori as a real person because he lacks so many human characteristics. So I gave Mori emotion is this chapter, tell me if you like it or not.
This is WHPIAR...signing off