It became clear to Hana that chaos was the new normal for the Host Club, and she finally started to come to terms with this as the standard for a daily routine. Expect the unexpected became her new motto. So, when a clatter sounded as she brought out a fresh brew of tea for Kyoya and Takashi from the kitchen, the three less energetic members of the club looked up in search of what caused the noise, completely unsurprised by the disturbance.
They looked on as the Hitachiins yelped and latched on to Haruhi while Tamaki started to fret over Mitsukuni's empty section during his nap time. "What?!" Tamaki rounded on the twins, "You idiots! You're the ones who bumped into it, right?" Hanako crossed the club room's tiled floor and caught sight of the toppled tea cups, the contents spilling onto the wooden table and staining Mitsukuni's favorite stuffed toy.
"Only because Haruhi was running away," Hikaru displaced the blame with practiced ease.
"We were trying to catch her cause we wanted to have some fun and dress her up in cosplay," Kaoru elaborated.
"So what? We cosplay all the time!" Tamaki's annoyance didn't let up at their excuses.
"We weren't going with the usual Host Club costumes."
"We want to see Haruhi in bunny cosplay, disguised as a girl." Hanako sighed and tried to wrap her head around the ridiculous notion. She looked at the messy table and sighed at the commotion the noisy club members were causing before she decided to deal with it later.
"Excuse me," Kyoya interrupted their uproar smoothly as Hanako approached their table with the still steaming pot of tea. "We don't have any guests at the moment, so I don't mind if you make a racket, but please be careful. You don't want to wake Honey-senpai." The shadow king only looked up from his computer screen to warn the others, and they froze immediately. Hanako poured the tea out for the two dark haired hosts and set the pot on a coaster next to the vase of roses. With the shortest of the hosts napping on a sofa, Takashi enjoyed the opportunity to relax with a book.
"I can just put Usa-chan in the wash before Mitsukuni wakes up," she offered, knowing that it was rare for Takashi to get time to himself. Hana watched the twins and Tamaki cower behind another sofa as Haruhi approached the boy sleeping under a blue canpoy.
"Don't worry about it," Takashi answered, sounding unbothered by the additional chore. "I'll take care of it later.
The girl looked away from the strange behavior the others were demonstrating and shrugged, "Suit yourself."
"This may just be a rumor," she heard Tamaki saying in a poor imitation of a whisper that could be heard from the small table, "but the Haninozuka family once visited a U.S. military base to give combat training. Supposedly, Honey-senpai slept through most of it because of his jet lag. Then a soldier came in and carelessly tried to wake him up since he had been sleeping for so long." Tamaki imitated the sound of an explosion before he continued the story. "On that day, he wiped out two entire platoons of soldiers, and not just any soldiers, green berets! And I'ver heard we've had diplomatic issues with America ever since that day."
"He's exaggerating," Hana rolled her eyes and said to Kyoya. "The combat training had been part of an overseas recruitment initiative for the Black Onion that Papa and Haninozuka-sama brought us to America for. The cadet who woke Mitsukuni up had been particularly brusque. He ended knocking out the guy and the squad that responded to the yelling." The reality wasn't quite as horrific, but it was no less impressive.
"And we've got a bigger problem. Usa-chan was hand-made for Honey-senpai by his deceased grandmother," Tamaki continued in horror, beginning to fear for his life. "You've seen the way he carries it around. That little bunny is his most prized possession. I can't imagine how he's going to react when he wakes up and sees that his precious Usa-chan is ruined!"
"Usa-chan has been through the washer many times," Hana pointed out uselessly while the boys continued panicking.
Hana watched the growing fear build in Tamaki and the Hitachiins as they contemplated their impending annihilation at Mitsukuni's wrath. "He's gonna do to us what he did to those green berets!" they wailed together in absolute horror.
"You're exaggerating," Haruhi deadpanned devoid of sympathy. "It's impossible for that story to be true. I mean, come on."
"It is, and there's other evidence that Honey-senpai has an evil side to him. Listen to this. His blood type is AB, how do you like that?"
"Yeah, so what?"
"But Haruhi, that means he's the same blood type as Kyoya!" Tamaki whispered loudly, and Hana snickered behind her clipboard as Haruhi's eyes widened in shock. Her employer didn't look up from his computer screen, even when the first years and his best friend stiffly turned to gaze upon him.
"What's the matter? Do you guys have a problem with my blood type?" he asked with a touch of sharpness to the question.
"You are quite difficult to wake up," Hana acknowledged thoughtfully.
"You have the worst methods of waking me up." The twitch of his eyebrow was the only indication of his annoyance. "Perhaps you should try being more gentle." Across the small table, Takashi stuffed his nose in the novel he was supposed to read for his literature class. The words on the page seemed to become nonsensical smudges of ink on paper as his attention drifted back and forth between the book and the exchanges taking place around him.
"That is me being gentle," Hanako replied mildly to Kyoya's suggestion. The young woman had finally stopped avoiding her ex-fiancé. She stood next to their table with her shoulders relaxed and gaze easily passing between the two groups in the club room. Hanako meant what she said in the villa, and it showed in the effortless way she started to behave around them. If the hosts noticed, they didn't say anything.
"You're an impossible woman." The pages of Takashi's book crinkled under the pressure of his grasp at Kyoya's response. The shadow king caught sight of the tension in the older host's posture from over his screen and a small frown tugged on the Ootori boy's lips. His ash colored eyes slid to Hanako from behind his lenses, finding that her attention had gone back to the troublesome hosts peering at Mitsukuni's sleeping form where Tamaki was giving orders to the first year club officers.
"Go get your folks' Cessna. Fly to Osorezan and bring back a medium. We'll channel his grandmother and she can guide us through it. We can make a new Usa-chan for Honey-senpai!" The blonde developed another half-witted scheme to correct the mistake that surely would not work.
"But we don't have that much time," Hikaru reasoned.
"We're used to your crazy ideas, but you should come up with something more practical," Kaoru agreed.
"I've been saying that I can clean Usa-chan this whole time," Hanako said with a shake of her head as they planned an even more ridiculous plan involving Haruhi and a bunny costume. If they had listened to her, the toy would have been completely washed by that point.
"Just let them have their fun, Hanako," Kyoya advised. "I expect Honey-senpai will be waking up any minute now, anyway."
"He's awake!" Tamaki cawed, "We'll have to use a substitute! We've got no choice!" In a show of unexpected speed, Tamaki placed his own brown teddy bear on Mitsukuni's blankets like an offering before leaping over the empty sofa to hide. "No! Not my teddy bear!" Tamaki wailed when the third year student threw the bear on the floor. Slowly, Mitsukuni crawled out from his sofa and approached the table with Usa-chan's prone form, dragging his bunny blanket behind him. He picked up his toy, the sopping thing sounded when he did.
"Who's responsible for this?" Mitsukuni asked with a seriousness they rarely ever heard from him. "Who got Usa-chan dirty?"
The three hosts blanched in absolute fear at his expression. "Someone help!" they choked out. "Mori-senpai! Don't let him hurt us!" Takashi closed his book and rose from his chair, stepping away from the table now that his moment to himself was over.
"He wanted tea, so Usa-chan decided to have a drink," the practiced, easy answer left his mouth without hesitation. The reaction was instantaneous.
Mitsukuni's expression brightened, and he smiled sweetly back at his cousin, "I see. So that's why his face is all dirty, isn't it? Hey, do you think he wants some cake, too?" he held up the dripping bunny to his stoic-faced cousin. Hana stepped around the table to join them after making the decision that it was time to get this mess cleaned up before she had tea puddles all across the floor.
"How about I get Usa-chan all cleaned up?" she offered Mitsukuni, stepping around her godbrothers and Tamaki who were on their hands and knees in relief. "After that, I'll bring out some cake."
Mitsukuni turned his radiant smile at her with appreciation, "It'll be just like bath time!"
"Yeah," she agreed indulgently, her own affectionate smile coming into place.
With the destruction averted, Haruhi watched the three students in awe. Hanako and Mori were able to right the situation easily, and the brunette wondered if this was a common occurrence for the three of them. She hadn't thought about what her clubmates told her about Hana's relationship with the cousins since the pool, but now that she was looking at them, she could see how well matched Hanako and Takashi really were. Hanako was much taller than Haruhi, and despite her youth, she looked more like a woman than a lot of the girls at their school. She was mature and affectionate in the way that she picked out the tangles in Mitsukuni's hair from his nap while the shorter boy held to his pink bunny. Takashi watched them with a softness in his gaze that was appreciative and brimming with a quiet kind of contentment.
"They almost look like doting parents," Haruhi commented off-handedly. She could have sworn that she heard a scoff behind her, but when she turned around, she found Kyoya typing away at his computer, focused on his work with an impassive look on his face. Maybe she just imagined hearing it.
{OR}
Later that afternoon, Hanako circled around the club room while Mitsukuni entertained a new batch of guests. "I like 'em all!" she caught him saying to the girls. "I love anything chocolate, Usa-chan, and all of you ladies!" She smiled to herself when the girls squealed at his cuteness and continued on her loop across the floor.
"Mitsukuni Haninozuka, otherwise known as Honey-senpai, age 17. Ouran Academy third year, Class A, and a member of the Host Club. Favorite things include cake, chocolate, and bunnies. He's famous for his enchanting boy-Lolita characteristics." The announcement sounded from speakers in the reception room, and a tick of annoyance pulsed on the back of Hana's head as she made her way to the front of the music room.
"Honey-senpai's catch phrases include, 'I love candy' and 'I love cute things'," Renge spoke into a handheld microphone next to Tamaki, reading from Mitsukuni's file in the open clipboard that Hanako had left with Kyoya. "And while some find these charming, I'm not quite sold on his cutesy loli-boy image. It's not exciting enough! It feels like something's missing in his character arc!"
"Give me that!" Hana hissed and snatched her clipboard from Renge's hand. She tucked the folder under her arm and glared at Renge. She would have a talk with Kyoya about letting their so-called manager through those files. "Would you leave Mitsukuni alone? He's perfect the way he is."
Renge's unrelenting criticisms of his character in particular rubbed Hanako the wrong way. From the moment she had shown up at their door, Renge had been a thorn in Hana's side. While Kyoya insisted that the girl would grow on Hanako, their limited interactions had done very little for her opinion of Renge. She had been with them for such a short time and failed to make the effort to really get to know the boys, but somehow, she had the gall to believe she knew anything about them.
"More cake, please!" Mitsukuni called to her from his section. He hadn't even finished the plated sponge in front of him. The boy was absolutely insatiable, but they loved him.
"Uh, Honey-senpai, you can't keep eating nothing but sweets all of the time," Haruhi admonished him as she delivered a tray of tea to his table. "You know, you're gonna end up with a cavity."
"Oh, don't worry," Mitsukuni started to placate her with another forkful of cake. "I always brush my teeth." His muffled cry of pain suddenly, and a hush fell over the club.
"Honey-senpai, is it…" Haruhi worried over the boy whose palm cupped his cheek tenderly.
"Nah, it's nothing, 'kay?" His dismissive mumble didn't convince them, and the twins were on him immediately, trying to wrestle the older boy down in an effort to see what was causing him pain. "There's nothing wrong! Quit messing with me! Leave me alone!"
While Mitsukuni resisted their efforts, his cousin approached quietly, only to take Mitsukuni by surprise. Swiftly, Takashi caught him by the wrist and tossed him onto the sofa nearby, pinning him with his larger frame despite Mitsukuni's flailing. He pinched Mitsukuni's chin and drew his mouth open. High pitched squealing echoed around the club room, reminding Hanako that they still had an audience.
"Yes!" Renge said beside her with approval, "That's it! That's it! That's what was missing! It's moe!" The pulsing tick on Hana's head returned with a vengeance as Renge breathed heavily into the microphone.
"Alright, that's enough of that," the body guard said sternly, wrapping her arm around Renge's shoulders tightly and grabbing the microphone out of her hands. Annoyed with the disregard for Mitsukuni's well-being, she turned off the microphone and pocketed it. He was going to need a good dentist. The sooner he had his tooth looked at, the sooner he could recover. She flipped through the clipboard until she found the contact information she wanted.
While Tamaki prepared to enact the order to refrain from giving Mitsukuni sweets, Hanako approached the cousins, scribbling the information onto a piece of paper for them. "Here," she said, handing it over to the dark eyed host. "This doctor comes highly recommended."
Takashi eyed the paper thoughtfully before reaching out to take it from her. Their fingers brushed as he did, but she didn't shy away as he searched her gaze. A pang of disappointment resonated in his chest, and then, Mitsukuni gasped in horror. The two dark haired students turned to him, "No, no, don't, Takashi. Please don't take my snacks away. You can't. Don't do it. What'll I do without them?" Mitsukuni's teary eyes flickered between Takashi and Hana, but neither of them relented. "Hana-chan, don't let them do this!"
Takashi rose from the sofa, picked up the dish that Mitsukuni had been eating, and walked towards the kitchen silently. Mitsukuni leapt to his feet and chased after him, "I can handle it! Please don't take away my cake!"
"No more cake," Takashi's firm decision sent Mitsukuni into a fit of cries, and Hana stepped between Mitsukuni and his cousin's back as the tall host retreated into the kitchen.
"Hana-chan," he simpered as she patted his back comfortingly.
"It's for your own good, Mitsukuni." She assured him to no avail. When Takashi returned he regarded the two of them on the floor for a moment.
"Let's go." Takashi led Mitsukuni to the door, and they left for the dentist together.
The next time Hanako saw Mitsukuni was in the hallway after her third period class. A long strip of fabric wrapped around his jaw, and the excess tails bounced on the top of his head with every step that he took. Staring straight listlessly, he continued what Hana knew was going to be a miserable day for him.
"Poor Honey-senapi looks so miserable," she heard from two girls chatting in the hall. "It's a shame the Host Club banned snacks."
"It must be really difficult for him," the other girl in front of Hanako acknowledged. "I hope this doesn't seem insensitive. I know he's in pain, but…"
"Aw!" they squealed and followed him in the middle of the hall, "He's so cute!" Hana sighed in exasperation at Mitsukuni's fans. She knew that they meant well. The girls who tended to make reservations for Mitsukuni's time were generally maternal in nature, but she knew that their observations weren't going to help him feel any better. Nor were they going to help anyone get through the corridor once the other classes got out.
"Excuse me, ladies," she interrrupted them politely. "May I pass?"
"Oops, sorry!" the brunette colored in embarrassment for her thoughtlessness. "Is he going to be okay, Negida?" The wo girls stepped back towards the wall and watched Mitsukuni continue without the usual pep in his step.
"He'll be alright," she assured them with a smile. "If you'd excuse me." Hana nodded to them before following Mitsukuni down the hall. She maintained a leisurely pace behind him, unsurprised when Takashi stepped out from one of the classrooms.
"Mitsukuni, bag," he ordered of the gloomy host.
"I can carry it."
"Yes, you can. Hand it over." Mitsukuni did as Takashi said, and with one hand, Takashi turned over the bag in the middle of the hallway. An assortment of candies fell out onto the tiles. Soon, a hill of sweets towered between the two boys.
"I was just looking. I wasn't gonna eat them," Mitsukuni insisted.
"Really? If you're just looking, then try this." The unimpressed young man held up a pink flyer in front of Mitsukuni's face. Hana noticed the small pictures and illustration announcing a half off sale on the products. "I'll keep the real stuff."
Hanako sighed and stepped up from behind them, coming around Mitsukuni's shoulder to read the flyer with a disapproving click of her tongue. Mitsukuni cried out at the worsening circumstances, and Hana took the paper from her friend's hands. "What do you think this is going to help?" she asked Takashi. She couldn't believe that this was the best he could come up with. His stormcloud gray eyes held her questioning caramel gaze without remorse, and she sighed as Mitsukuni's forehead landed on her back. Takashi didn't speak. He just watched her turn around slightly to draw him out from behind her slim frame. "It's alright, Mitsukuni, Takashi's just going to hold onto the candy for safe keeping until the cavity's gone. You can have it back later. Is everything okay here?" she asked meaningfully. She looked from Mitsukuni's slightly crumpled form to Takashi's rod straight posture.
"Yeah," Mitsukuni grumbled. "It's fine. You can go, Hana-chan."
Her stern expression softened and she squeezed his shoulder supportively. "I'll see you guys at the club." Hanako continued down the hallway, and she didn't notice the way that Takashi's attention never left her until the moment she turned the corner to catch up with her godbrothers.
When the club opened later that afternoon, Hanako was tasked with screening all of the guests who entered to ensure that they upheld the no snacks policy. She was pleased to find that none of the girls tried to smuggle anything into the club room and a good number of them asked for updates on Mitsukuni's condition. As always, the long line eventually thinned out, and Hanako completed her first walk through around the club room. Tamaki continued to pull off his princely routine, Haruhi and Hanako brought out tea from the kitchen, and they were able to function quite well with the ban on sweets.
"You had better watch yourselves out there," Kyoya warned, writing notes on the current state of the club's finances. "Don't give any sweets to Honey-senpai no matter what tricks he resorts to. Oh, and incidentally, those instructions come from Mori-senpai." Hanako read over his shoulder and found that he had circled the new projected costs for the week, noticing that it was substantially less costly than what was expected earlier.
"You could stand to be a little bit more sensitive about the situation," she chastised him for smiling with such glee.
"This isn't my doing," he pointed out before turning around and walking across the floor with Hana on his heels. "Honey-senpai is one of the greatest sources of lost income for the club, you know. It's best for them to be aware of what to expect before he shows up."
Hana took note of his enjoyment with a small shake of her head, but she was reminded, then, that the third year students and Haruhi hadn't shown up to the club yet. She checked her watch and frowned, "Excuse me, Kyoya, I'm going to go see if Haruhi and the others are on their way. It's getting late."
"Go ahead," he allowed with a small wave of his hand. She removed herself from his side and went towards the kitchen with the intention of slipping out of the music room from the back door. She wandered around the nearby corridors, wondering what could be taking the others so long.
Not too far away from the unpretentious back door leading out of the Host Club's kitchenette, Haruhi was distracted by something taking place on the open air corridor of the school's top floor. Two figures stood alone against the clear blue sky. She recognized the tall boy as Mori with his hands shoved in his pockets and the mess of dark hair on his head, but she had never seen the girl during club activities. Her long brown hair fell down her back with thick twist of hair pulled away from her face like a crown. She didn't know what compelled her to stay, but overcome by her curiosity, she stopped behind one of the grecian columns separating the two long hallways.
"I just can't hide it any longer. I have to get this off my chest," Haruhi could hear the girl saying. "I need to know what your feelings are towards me, and if you'll accept my love." The girl couldn't have been much taller than Haruhi, and she couldn't look at Mori's face while she confessed unless she tilted her head back. It was the first confession Haruhi had ever witnessed from a host's admirer, and she was more surprised by the realization that there weren't more girls jumping to proclaim their love for the hosts.
Mori watched her impassively, his expression unchanging as the cute girl stood before him. "Will you, please?" Her voice wavered nervously. "Unless, of course, there's someone else. Please tell me. Is there someone else who's dear to you?"
For a moment, Haruhi thought that Mori would mention the raven haired beauty who guarded the Host Club, but he didn't make a single sound. The honor student watched with wide eyes as the girl shrank, "There is, isn't there? Huh? I should've known." A whimper escaped from her as the admirer turned and ran down the long hallway. Haruhi should have turned around to leave, then, but another set of footsteps joined the echoes of the girl's Mary Janes on the expensive tiles.
"There you are," Haruhi heard Hanako's refined voice sound, and the eavesdropper peered around the other side of the column. Hanako appeared behind Takashi, walking up with her arms crossed across her chest. Her long dark hair caught the light of the sun through the columns, and her caramel irises seemed to glow in the warm light. Takashi turned around to face her, hands still in his pockets and expression unchanged. "What are you doing here?"
"Nothing," Takashi's deep voice betrayed nothing of what Haruhi had witnessed before Hana's arrival.
"You're late for club. I'm looking for Mitsukuni, too, and I was hoping you two would be together," Hanako informed him. Haruhi hadn't thought about Honey's obvious absence from Mori's side, but she could see the quick flash of concern on Hana's features as she noticed the fact. There was something magnetic about Hanako and Mori alone together, and Haruhi felt as though she was trapped by the charged field around them. Haruhi didn't think that there was anything different in Mori's stony expression, but Hanako sighed as if he had spoken a response aloud. Her senior's stern, professional demeanor melted away, and for a moment, Haruhi thought she saw a softness in Hana's eyes as she regarded Mori. "Stop worrying, Takashi. It's just a cavity. With the right care, he'll feel better soon."
Hanako glided past him, and Takashi half-turned his body to gaze after her. Haruhi pressed herself against the stone pillar, her heart pounding in her ribcage with growing embarrassment. There hadn't been anything inappropriate about their exchange. Yet, with the way Mori kept his eyes on Hana's back and the memory of the familiarity in how Hana addressed him, Haruhi suddenly felt as if she had intruded on what should have been a very private moment.
{OR}
Unsuccessful in finding Mitsukuni, Hana returned to the club room to clear out any remaining sweets with Haruhi. The brunette host had already succeeded in cleaning out the obvious places by the time she slipped in through the plain door.
"Hey, senpai, can I ask you a question?" Haruhi tentatively spoke up. Her hesitation surprised Hana, and the older girl tossed a bag of hard candies in the garbage bin from behind the fridge where the twins liked to hide their favorites from Mitsukuni.
"Yes, you may."
For a second, Haruhi thought that maybe it was better not to ask, given the strange reactions the hosts always gave when she brought it up. Hana continued to reach behind the fridge in search of another bag that she knew Kaoru had stuck to the wall, but she sensed Haruhi's reluctance and spared a quick look in her direction. "What happened between you and Mori-senpai?" Haruhi asked in that uniquely guileless yet respectful way she always managed so naturally.
Hana's fingers found the second bag, and she pulled it out from behind the appliance, straightening to her full height and tossing it in the bin. That certainly wasn't the question she thought Haruhi would ask. She was surprised that Haruhi hadn't heard about it yet, but she supposed that it wasn't out of the ordinary for Haruhi to go straight to her instead of relying on gossips. "Why do you want to know?" Hana asked with a light-hearted smile. Weeks ago, she might have been suspicious of the question and unwilling to address her history with Takashi, but the time since the poolside incident had only allowed her to move forward. Nonetheless, her smile didn't quite reach her eyes as she regarded the first year host.
"It seems like you're close to Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai," Haruhi answered honestly, as if the thought was simply brought up by the circumstances, but in her mind, she kept seeing Hana and Takashi in the hallway on the top floor.
Hanako seemed to understand, and she leaned against the counter behind her casually. "Nothing really happened," she said with a shrug. "It wasn't personal, and the engagement was arranged, anyway. After my parents died, what was left of Spring Onion International lost most of its footing, and it was no longer beneficial for the Morinozukas to maintain any affiliation with me."
The words fell from her lips with ease, but they sounded empty when they reached Haruhi's ears. The younger student couldn't find the conviction in what Hana said that she needed to believe the story. The lightness with which she spoke gave her words a hollowness, but there wasn't anything unbelievable about what Hanako said. There was an objectivity that didn't sit right with Haruhi, and she thought that, maybe, that wasn't the full story.
Suddenly, Mitsukuni flew into the kitchen, wailing loudly. The two girls looked up at the unexpected intrusion, and Mitsukuni threw his arms around Hana's waist as he whimpered. Hana looked down at him with a muddled look of gentleness and exasperated knowledge. "My mouth hurts," his muffled complaint sounded from Hana's jacket.
Hana ruffled his hair gently and sighed, "You shouldn't provoke Takashi." The host had given them very clear instructions on how to manage Mitsukuni's attempts to break the candy ban, and he made his brutal strictness well-known. He was the only one in the club who could fearlessly take on Mitsukuni, and she knew immediately that he was responsible for the renewed pain in the blonde's mouth.
Seeing that he wasn't going to get any more sympathy out of her, Mitsukuni's crocodile tears stopped, and he pouted. "I'm going back out." The sullen boy withdrew from Hana's embrace and turned back out the door.
"Is that a good idea?" Haruhi asked as the door clipped shut.
Hana sighed heavily and stepped towards the door to the hosting floor, "I'll keep an eye on him."
She spent the rest of the club day with her attention on Mitsukuni. He cozied up to his guests, trying to convince them to give up any treats, but the more he tried, the more brooding he became. By the time they finished entertaining their last guests, Mitsukuni had made himself a morose corner while the others cleaned up.
Hana hadn't seen Takashi in the club room, and she suspected that he had left following whatever ill-conceived attempt Mitsukuni had made earlier that afternoon. As the club members moved the chairs and tables out of the way, Hanako decided to take the trash bag out to the dumpster herself, saying that it was more manageable without the excess food waste. Nobody questioned her, and she walked down the stairs and around the building to the dumpsters. After throwing the bag over the chainlink fence, she took off towards the gymansiums.
The athletic wing of the school wasn't attached to the main building. Rather, a short row of buildings stood off to the side behind the majestic campus. Hana made her way to the martial arts building with a sneaking suspicion that she knew where to find the missing host.
The Kendo Club didn't stay on campus as late as the Host Club tended to, but when Hanako opened the door to their practice space, she found a solitary figure beating at the air in front of him. He was built powerfully, and every strike broadcasted that. His musculature wasn't just for show, and Hana watched from the doorway as the setting sun colored the room a rose tinged gold with its light. She wondered vaguely how long he had been there, seeing that it had been long enough for him to work up a sweat.
"What are you doing here?" he asked, breaking his form and looking straight at her. Takashi squinted against the sun behind her, only able to make out her silhouette but recognizing her immediately. Nobody else knew that he still came to his old club room to practice.
"I know what you're doing," she said instead of answering his question. He turned away from her, feeling exposed and vulnerable with the knowledge that if he didn't turn away, she would read every thought written his face while he couldn't even see her features. "Why are you trying to upset Mitsukuni?" the soles of her shoes tapped on the gym floor with every step she took into the room. "Stop treating everything like it's your responsibility. You and your damned martyr complex." She snorted quietly. "He's not a child, you know, and he knows how to take responsibility for himself. Do something about this mess and stop going out of your way to make both of you feel worse. You're being selfish, and this isn't helping anyone. I have a job to do, too, and I can't focus on that if I have to comfort him when you've done something stuupid. You're preventing yourself from giving him what he needs, Takashi."
Despite his back turned to her, she knew that he was listening to her. He would never not listen when it came to Mitsukuni. She didn't have to see him to recognize his guilt. Hana knew how hard he pushed himself for Mitsukuni's sake, and she knew he took his cousin's well-being personally. She wanted him to know that he had to draw a line. It was a lesson that she herself had learned recently, but she understood how it applied to Takashi, too.
"Have a good evening," she said to his back, and he heard her footsteps receding behind him.
Alone in the gymnasium, Takashi heaved a heavy sigh and turned back to the still open door. She was right, and he knew that she had seen right through him. Does she know how ironic it is for her to lecture me about martyrdom? He wondered as a cold, helpless feeling squeezed his heart unpleasantly. All she had ever done was put herself on the sacrificial altar for her loved ones and their legacies. The last three years had been sacrifice after sacrifice, loss after loss, but she took it all in stride, emerging from the raging fires with her skin thicker, her head held high, and someone else at her side. He was reminded that he had made his fair share of sacrifices, too. Resentment, remorse, guilt, and self-loathing clawed at him from the inside. Takashi got a drink of water, splashing some on his face and went back to repeating his exercises until his muscles screamed and it was time to go home.
{OR}
Mitsukuni's mood worsened over the next two days. On the second day with his cavity, he attempted a new strategy to acquire sweets from the guests. Hanako had personally seen to it that all cakes and pastries were replaced with finger sandwiches and low sugar refreshments. On the floor, she watched him muster his cutest tools in his arsenal and approach their guests, asking what they were drinking.
"Um… Darjeeling tea, it's really good," one of the girls answered with a strained laugh.
"Yeah? What are you gonna have to eat?" Mitsukuni 's overly sweet voice questioned further.
"Well, I was going to have a sandwich." The girls laughed nervously, and felt a chill behind them contrasting with Mitsukuni's warm, bright aura. Looking over their shoulders, they saw the shadow watching from the closest wall.
"Know what you need? Some sweets!" Mitsukuni smiled at the two girls, and they gulped, feeling the attentive, cautionary presence behind them. "That tea would go well with something sweet! Like maybe some cake! C'mon! What d'ya say?"
"Well, it would be good with cake," one of the girls allowed.
"It sure would," the other agreed. Hanako could feel their resolve slipping, and she took a step away from the wall. The duo heard the single heel hit the tile, and a shudder ran down their backs as they sensed the threatening aura radiating from her. Immediately, they shot to their feet and ran out of the club room, calling back to the manipulative sweet-monger, "We're so sorry, Honey!"
"Wait!" Mitsukuni cried after them, reaching out with a hand as if he could catch them. Satisfied with the maintained no-sweets policy, Hanako settled back onto her place on the wall. The dejected Mitsukuni hung his head and skulked across the floor to Haruhi who was on her way to the kitchen.
"Haru-chan, am I a bad person?" he tugged on her sleeve, "I just don't understand why God hates me. What have I done?" Hana watched from over Mitsukuni's head as Haruhi's brown eyes softened with sympathy. The girl looked around them, searching for witnesses.
"Okay, fine, but only this once, got it?"
"Is it a snack?" Mitsukuni brightened.
"Yeah," Haruhi took out a small package from her pocket and handed it to him. "It's the same color as chocolate. Try it." Hanako chuckled from the wall as Mitsukuni stomped over to her with a pout. The shortest host petulantly leaned against the wall behind her and fixed a scathing glare on the wallflower.
"What's so funny?" he grumbled.
"You shouldn't have gone to Haruhi," she answered, laughter still evident in her voice.
"I know that now," he muttered. His grumpiness only escalated from there, and by the third day of the candy ban, Mitsukuni was an irritable ticking time bomb. The hosts and Hanako watched from a round table as the shortest host paced along a tight loop in front of the stock room doors.
"He's gonna crack," Tamaki anticipated.
"Would somebody please talk to him. He's scaring me," Kaoru implored.
"I don't think it's safe to try," Hanako admitted, standing between Kyoya and Tamaki at the table. Finally, Mitsukuni made a decision and threw open the door to their storage room, swaying as he shuffled in.
"He's heading for the candy!" Hikaru yelped.
"No need to worry," Kyoya placated his concenr. "We emptied out all the sweets."
Haruhi swiveled around in her seat to regard the smiling club member, "Kyoya-senpai, you seem really chipper today."
Hanako and the other hosts watched Mitsukuni slam Tamaki's teddy bear to the floor again, oblivious to the way Kaoru's suspicious gaze slid to Kyoya momentarily. "He keeps doing that to my teddy bear!" Tamaki screamed, mortified by the mistreatment of his favorite teddy. Mitsukuni staggered back to the main floor and promptly collapsed onto the dark pink tiles.
"Well, there he goes," Kaoru noted.
"Three days and he gives up," Hikaru added. Tamaki rose from his chair, the wooden legs sliding against the tile smoothly before he approached the fallen third year.
"Careful," Hanako warned, "don't get too close to him." Gingerly, the tall blond approached Mitsukuni and crouched beside him, not giving heed to Hana's warning.
"Uh, Honey-senpai?" Tamaki prodded his back worriedly. Mitsukuni chomped on Tamaki's left hand like a rabid animal, and Tamaki screeched, flailing his arm wildly in a vain attempt to shake the prodigious martial artist off his hand. "Somebody help me! He's eating my arm off! Hana! Get him off!"
The girl just watched and shrugged, knowing better than to put her life at risk, "I warned you to keep your distance." Tamaki cried out more loudly, and Takashi slowly rose from his chair at the table next to the younger students. Hanako's eyes followed the resolute young man as he approached the two blonds.
"Mitsukuni," Takashi's already low voice sounded austere with the admonishment, "don't take this out on other people." Mitsukuni released Tamaki's arm from between his jaws, and their club president sighed in relief. "It's disgraceful."
The particularly removed criticism set forth a series of actions that Hana made no move to prevent. "Takashi," Mitsukuni growled before swiftly grabbing the taller boy by the cuff, "You idiot!" The hosts froze in shock and horror at the viciousness of Mitsukuni's throw, and Takashi skidded on the tiles as Mitsukuni finally unleashed his fury. "A little bit isn't gonna hurt me! You're so mean! You're such a hardhead! That's it, I hate you! I hate you Takashi!"
Hana stepped froward from the table and approached the cousins. She put her hand on the short boy's shoulder, acknowledging that he had gone too far. "Alright, Mitsukuni," she said with gentle resolution, "that's enough, now." She looked between the two incredibly different boys, unable to see Mitsukuni's face but fully aware of the pain on Takashi's. Mitsukuni shook off her hand and ran out of the room in tears, wailing loudly.
"Honey-senpai!" Tamaki called out, racing after him as the twins stepped up to fill the empty space next to their godsister.
"Hey, Mori-senpai," Hikaru started tentatively, his sympathy for Takashi clear in his tone.
"That was harsh. Will you be alright?" Kaoru asked. They watched Takashi get to his feet unsteadily , stagger into a table, and fall onto his knees as another vase of roses shattered against the floor.
"Wow, senpai, it looks like he really got to you. I don't know what's going on, but it seems like you're self destructing."
"Maybe Honey-senpai wouldn't hate you if you hadn't been so hard on him in the first place," Kaoru suggested.
Hanako reached out to the brothers and pinched their cheeks tightly, causing the boys to yelp. "He knows that already, you idiots," she hissed at them. They squeaked as she pulled on their skin, but even they could see her concern for the cousins.
"It was on purpose." Hanako let go of the brothers' faces in surprise as Haruhi drew the conclusion. She hadn't expected Haruhi to figure him out so easily. "Mori-senpai, by any chance, have you been actiing like this because you're trying to get Honey-senpai to hate you?"
The twins looked at Hanako expectantly. They thought that she would be the one to tell Haruhi if she was right or wrong, but she didn't say anything. All they got from her was a slight pull on her already prominent frown. "Why would he do that?"
"It makes no sense. That would be like the end of the world for Mori-senpai." Kaoru's gaze slid back to Hanako, almost like an after-thought. Mori couldn't afford to lose his relationship with Honey, and they all knew it.
"Why would he do it on purpose?"
Haruhi took a few steps forward, her eyes glued to Mori's defeated figure still seated on the floor. "Well, maybe because he was trying to punish himself. I'm right, aren't I?" Haruhi's accusation left Takashi with the opportunity to explain himself, but Hanako didn't need to hear him confirm it. She had already warned him not to pursue his selfish self-inflicted punishment, and if this whole mess had taken place a few weeks earlier, maybe she would have felt something break inside her at the way Haruhi had figured it out so easily.
When Takashi answered her, they could all hear the guilt and self-loathing in his voice. "Yeah, you are. This was my fault." The depth of emotions in what he said didn't seem to match the simplicity of a cavity, and Kaoru's subtle gaze slid to Kyoya, again. The straight lipped expression of his collected features concealed a look of satisfaction that just barely shone through his gaze. Kaoru reflected on Kyoya's enjoyment of the past few days and wondered if Mori's feelings completely stemmed from his responsibility to Mitsukuni or if he was projecting a deeper, older guilt onto the present issue.
"Mitsukuni has a cavity because I'm careless. Twice before his naptime, I forgot to make him brush his teeth."
"But that's not really your responsibility," Hikaru pointed out.
"He should know better," Kaoru agreed.
Takashi pressed a hand to his forehead remorsefully, "But if Mitsukuni has to get false teeth, it'll be my fault."
"Don't worry. That's not gonna happen," the twins consoled him.
"Wow, what a pessimist," Haruhi commented beside her.
"I wouldn't be able to live with myself right now if he hadn't thrown me down," Takashi gripped his hair tightly. Hana stepped off to right the table he knocked over while he contemplated his failure. His overreaction didn't surprise her, and she knew better than to try to convince him that he was wrong. Despite his appearance, Takashi was an incredibly sensitive person. For all of her misgivings about him, she had no doubt that he felt his emotions powerfully and deeply. She paused as she picked up the strewn, dying roses from the floor, and her thoughts brought her back to a place buried in her memories with lush greenery and magnificent roses behind a loving, gentle smile. She threw the flowers in the garbage and the vagrant memory flew away with them.
"Because he felt at fault, Mori-senpai wanted some sort of punishment from Honey-senpai to make up for his failure," Kyoya's accurate analysis made Takashi's reasoning clear to the other hosts. Hanako left them to retrieve the broom and dustpan, listening in as Kaoru and Hikaru criticised the explanation.
"While that certainly makes for a nice story and everything…"
"It was just a little cavity, right?" Kaoru's voice carried a touch of a challenge as he regarded Kyoya. Their dignified vice president's unmoving mask provided no answer to Kaoru's true, underlying question. Hana returned to clean the mess just as Mitsukuni ran back into the room and fell to his knees in tears. The girl neither said nor did anything to convey her satisfaction at the conclusion of Mitsukuni's fit and Takashi's self-inflicted punishment. Still, as she swept up the pieces of the broken vase, she a twinge of relief hearing Mitsukuni's apology.
{OR}
"A few days later, Honey-senpai recovered from his painful cavity, so the Host Club decided to lift their ban on sweets, and Honey-senpai could greedily stuff his face once more," Renge narrated with the microphone days after Mitsukuni's cavity healed. Hanako watched the younger girl enjoy free reign on the audio system, frowning as she turned on a lamp next to Kyoya where he pored over the bills they racked up in the past week.
"Don't look so down about it."
"Why couldn't you have promised him something more cost efficient?" Kyoya grit out at her angrily, grabbing his head in frustration.
"Just take it out of my pay check," Hanako answered.
"Do you see what happens when you give in to him too easily?" Kyoya lifted his head to scold her. His lecture and Hana's stubborn insistence consumed the two of them, and they went back and forth on the topic, completely unaware that Haruhi had come up behind them with the intention to ask if they wanted anything to drink.
"What's with him?" Haruhi wondered aloud as she watched their heated exchange. "Kyoya-senpai looks depressed about something. Are he and Hana-senpai fighting?"
"Cause Honey-senpai's back to eating snacks again," Hikaru answered.
"All those sweets get expensive, and Hana always lets Honey-senpai over indulge," Kaoru added. As he watched Hanako and Kyoya, he thought about how much closer they had become in the past couple of years. He never imagined that there was someone on Earth who Kyoya would have that kind of banter with, but in hindsight, it wasn't surprising that he and Hana worked so well together. Hanako's influence on Kyoya was nowhere as obvious as the effect Tamaki had on his best friend. Where Tamaki melted their friend's cold exterior, Hanako embraced it as easily as she had once embraced Takashi's silent countenance. She wasn't like Haruhi in the way that her presence challenged the hosts to do better. Hana loved the hosts as they were, and she never pushed them to be more than what they were in the moment. Her love for them was all consuming, and Kaoru knew that there was nothing they could do and nobody they could become that could stop her from loving them.
"Excuse me," a feminine voice distracted him from his thoughts, and the hosts turned to look at the arrival.
"Oh my, looks like we have a new guest, gentlemen," Tamaki acknowledged. Haruhi recognized the brunette standing just where the receiving room connected with the main floor. The girl looked up, and they all noticed how she only had eyes for Mori. "Are you a fan of Mori-senpai?"
Haruhi and the twins watched the girl in daffodil cross the floor, her skirt bouncing lightly with each step she took, and they all glanced back at Hanako and Kyoya, still consumed by their conversation and work to notice. Yet, the twins surprised Haruhi by shuffling back with her to block the scene from Hana's view.
"Well, Mori, I understand now," the girl said with sad purple eyes. "I know who you feel so strongly about, and it's okay." Mori kept his gaze on her, but Haruhi saw her look over his shoulder, where Honey delightfully indulged in his cake. Then, she turned her purple eyes in the direction where Haruhi and the twins shielded Hanako and Kyoya from view, and a soft sound of recognition escaped Haruhi. Kaoru frowned and squeezed Hikaru's hand, and Haruhi found that she wasn't surprised by the anticipation in the twins' postures. Their rigidity disappeared as soon as the girl continued. "I must say I find it a little surprising that it's Honey. To think he's so special to you, I don't know. It's just so… I can't explain it. It's just so… yay!"
"Huh?" the unexpected exclamation caught Haruhi off guard, but when she looked at her classmates, she saw matching relieved smiles on their faces as they watched.
"Congratulations!" Renge's voice through the speakers finally broke the focus at Kyoya and Hanako's table, and the two looked up from their conversation for the first time, oblivious to what just took place. "You've just taken your first big step into a brand new world. That's right ladies, it's moe!" Renge led the cheers as the girls in the room fawned over the cousins and their relationship. "It's the greatest! I just can't get enough of it!"
"Okay, that's it!" Hanako's patience finally seemed to snap, and she marched over to the sea of girls. "Renge, give me that microphone!" Their club's rule enforcer pushed against the mass of adoring girls, and Haruhi watched with exasperation as Hana single-handedly herded the girls away from the cousins' table and discerned between official club members and non-member fans.
"Oh, good grief," Haruhi's exasperation slipped out watching Renge run around the floor, laughing into the microphone as Hanako chased after her furiously.
"Haruhi," Mori called her attention. Haruhi turned to the towering host in surprise. She hadn't seen him approach her, but there he was, standing before her with his hands in his pockets and his ash gray eyes trained on her. "Please don't tell Hanako about that girl's confession."
She froze with embarrassment and realized that he knew she was eavesdropping the other day. "Oh, a-about that. I…" Haruhi trailed off. The seriousness in his gaze alerted her to the fact that he didn't care that she had witnessed the girl confess to him, and he wasn't looking for an apology or an explanation. The honor student sobered and regarded him thoughtfully. She realized that this was important to him, and for whatever reason, he didn't want Hanako to know about his admirer. "I won't, senpai."
Mori offered her a small, grateful smile, "Thank you." Haruhi could see the relief swimming in his gaze, and she wondered what it was he feared about Hanako knowing that he received a confession. The twins must have been on the same page as him, but she didn't think that Hanako was the type who needed them to hide things for her benefit. Then, she saw thought, watching the way Mori walked back to Honey's table at the glutton's call, maybe it wasn't for Hana's benefit.
She watched Mori wipe cake off of Mitsukunis face and noticed, for the first time, the saddened faraway look in his eyes. Following his gaze, her own eyes landed on Hanako and Kyoya sitting together under a dark purple canopy. Haruhi's brow furrowed as she watched them. Was there something different about the way Hana and Kyoya worked together? Haruhi had always thought that Kyoya and Hana worked together naturally. There was a fluidity and ease to the way they interacted. That had been one of the first things she noticed about the employer and employee duo, but now she thought there was something powerful about the two of them together. The sense she got from them was different from the magnetism she experienced while spying on Hana and Mori. Hanako and Kyoya reminded her of tectonic plates below the surface of the earth. They fit together and moved together, but if they were to collide, they could create something beautiful and destructive.
A/N... Thanks for reading! I hope you liked this chapter. There's gonna be more Takashi/Hana moments to come! Please review and let me know what you think! Special thanks to Momochan77, frustratedfox, KuroBad, Sapphire12985, and Elisablackcat for your reviews and continued support, and thank you to everyone who has supported this story so far!
What kind of relationship do you think Hana has with the other Ootoris?
Next time: An abnormal day. Renge confronts Hana, and there's a fight in the 2-A classroom!