Chapter 2: Shadowing the Hosts Part 1 - Lovisa

Makoto felt exhausted by the time he got to the Host Clubs room. He was the newest member of the Host Club and as a result everyone wanted to know more about him. They either wanted to be his friend, wanted the inside scoop on the clubs activities, or figure out how to get into the club as a member. Avoiding them had been a pain and he could hardly explain how he got in, he had a feeling Takahiro wouldn't like that.

"Ah, you're here, perfect!" Takahiro said as he rushed up to Makoto. He grabbed the new members arm and started dragging him to the back of the Host Clubs room and through a door to a side room. "Since you're new, we don't expect you to be nearly as good as us when it comes to being a great host, especially since you're a commoner. To help with that, I've decided your first task will be to learn how to be a good host by helping your senpai's"

Looking over the room, Makoto realized Takahiro had dragged him into a small office, where Lovisa was looking over a stack of papers while dressed in a black three piece suit. "Here is the main office for the Host Club, where we-"

"I."

"-make sure the various expenses and bills for Host Club events and supplies are within an acceptable standard!" Takahiro said, ignoring the momentary interruption from Lovisa, who had turned to look at them. "See, we have to buy our own supplies, and while we don't charge for our time and act like a school service, we're a student ran club and as such the school doesn't pay us a budget."

"So, we have to manage our own finances with a mix of personal contributions, which you probably can't afford, and donations during events!"

Makoto felt a small piece of himself die inside when Lovisa stood up, tidying a stack of papers before putting them into a filing cabinet. "That said, we'll be starting a fundraising event for that exact purpose soon, and the sudden appearance of a new host may attract new customers." Lovisa said as she walked up to the two boys. "Therefore, you'll be able to make up for it by bringing in a large number of donations… if you're good enough."

"Which is why today you'll be shadowing with Lovisa! Each host knows exactly how much money they're spending which each group they host, an important quality!" Takahiro said as he walked back to the main room. "So make sure to memorize everything!"

The door slammed shut behind him and everything was quiet as Lovisa stared at Makoto, who stared back with a nervous look in his eyes. "First things first… Sorry about Takahiro. He can be a bit enthusiastic." Lovisa said as she came over to Makoto. "Second, while we're working together, call me Elvira, it's the name I prefer and the name my customers remember."

"As for the prices… that will be important I suppose, but it would same Takahiro has forgotten I have customers today. You'll be helping me out with that… which means you'll need a different outfit." Lovisa said as she turned around and walked further into the office. "Come with me, we'll need to get you ready for today."

Makoto waited for a moment, then realized she was being serious and followed behind her.

"Is this really what I'm wearing for the day?"

"You're right, emerald would make your brown eyes much warmer and easier for the customers in the group to get lost in." Lovisa said as she brushed emerald eye shadow around Makoto's eyes. He wasn't sure what he was wearing, there wasn't a mirror to see himself and moving to look had ended with a wooden rod jamming into his chin and repositioning his head to looking straight forward. "Which means navy for the clothes, that'll go with both your eyes and the emerald."

All he knew is that it was more expensive than his uniform, and that his uniform had put him and his mother on a diet. "So, you like costumes Elvira?"

Lovisa looked at the boy and smiled. "Like is a word for it, I suppose. I love them, people say that a costume hides the person wearing them, masks who they are, I disagree." Lovisa said as she measured Makoto's waistline with the pants and top on. She grinned and spun around, going through the various sashes. "I think costumes tell people a story about the person who wears them, lets you see who they are in a way that normal clothes don't."

A cobalt blue sash went around him and was quickly tied around his waist. "Hold still." She commanded as she made sure it was tied properly. "Tell me, what does a pair of jeans and a t-shirt tell you about someone? It says they have clothes. But a man with a vest instead of a suit jacket, chain of a pocket watch showing, wearing a bowler and a moustache, all dressed up in old fashioned clothes… That says so much more about them."

"And what do my clothes say?"

Lovisa stood back and pulled a cloth from the wall, revealing a mirror. Makoto blinked at his own visage before paling underneath the make-up on his face. Emerald green shadow around his eyes, pale foundation making sure his black hair, dark brown eyes, and bright green eyeshadow contrasted with his skin. Clothing him was a navy blue poet shirt tucked into black pants with a cobalt blue sash wrapped around his waist. Lovisa held up a pair of boots and grinned at him. "Now, if you'd put these on, and tuck the legs into them, you're in skinny jeans."

"I'm wearing what?" Makoto said as the boots were put into their hands. Lovisa went into a side room and Makoto could hear her changing. "Uh… Elvira?"

"You're in skinny jeans, don't worry I took your sizes first."

"Why am I-"

"So they fit in the boots, which you should put on."

Makoto gulped at the tone of her voice and kneeled down, putting the boots on and making sure his jeans were tucked as he did. Once they were on and laced up, Lovisa came out of the side room wearing copper eyeshadow to bring out her blue eyes, an orange poets blouse under a copper colored bodice, and an orange long skirt. "Now, what do you see with our costumes?"

"... You're in orange?"

"We're wearing colors that bring out our eyes, yet contrast with each other to show that we have different tastes. You wear calming blues against my energetic orange, but our clothes are similar, showing that as different as we are there's still things we agree on." Lovisa said as she put on a pair of heeled boots. "Now, are you ready?"

"... No?"

"Good answer, lets go."

Makoto sat with Lovisa as she poured three cups of tea along with a trio of girls, two of which were trying to console the third girl. Lovisa took the tea she'd poured and held it out to the saddened girl, who nodded and took it gratefully. "I just don't get it…" The girl said before she took a sip of the tea, Lovisa pouring another cup for herself. From what Makoto could understand the girl had been dating one of the other boys in the school, only for him to dump her after the second date. "Why would he do this?"

Lovisa reached out and place a hand over hers. "He was obviously intimidated, your family, your name, it must have clicked and he ran." She said, Makoto wasn't sure how that was supposed to make the girl feel better and was a bit scared of talking, instead busying himself by watching how Lovisa acted. He supposed he should probably recognize the girl as well, if Lovisa's comment was anything to go by… but he didn't.

"Oh Elvira, what am I going to do, he was supposed to be the one!"

She was also apparently lovestruck…

"For now, we're going to have some tea, and then we're going to have a little fun!" Lovisa said as she turned to Makoto. "Makoto, be a dear and get some more tea would you?"

'If it gets me away from this chick, that's fine.' Makoto thought to himself as he nodded and headed to the kitchen. His skin went a bit pale as Siegfried walked past him, giving him a side glare as he did. Once he was in the kitchen he sighed, opened the pantry, and started looking through the various containers for the right tea. "Man… is every day like this?"

"Usually no-one asks for Lovisa."

"Gah!"

Makoto jumped as he looked down, seeing Haruki in the bottom of the pantry. The boy rolled out of the pantry and stood up, popping his joints as he did. "Sorry about that, was just using this as a place to hide, one of our regulars has it in her head she's going to make me more active or something… not sure why." He said as he looked over Makoto, and then the teas on the shelf. "Generally, if she's involved, it's to be someone's friend and help them feel better about themselves, and there's only one girl who's experienced a bad break-up recently."

"Really?"

The boy shrugged. "Break-ups here are always the talk of the town, especially since if someone takes them the wrong way it can lead to corporate battles outside of school. Yoko's mother is a vicious real estate mogul, and it makes her one of Elvira's regulars since boys keep getting scared when they realize who they're dating." He said as he plucked a kind of tea from the shelf and gave the box to Makoto. "This is probably what Elvira's giving her, I hope you enjoy peticures."

Makoto looked at the box of tea before frowning and looking at the door back to the main room. "Actually… Could you tell me a bit more about her mother's practices?"

Haruki shrugged. "I guess, she does end up having to hire my dad about four to five times a year, and it'll keep me from having to head out there."

'Time to see if I'm cut out for this stuff.' Makoto thought to himself as Haruki started talking.

Lovisa smiled at Yoko as she began to brush a primer over the girls fingernails. 'Where is that boy, he didn't run off did he?' She thought to herself as she put the brush to the side. "Now, you've got a lovely shade of blue in your eyes… what do you think of giving these girls a nice red shade to go with your eyes and dress?"

"That sounds lovely…"

'It was just the second date, how are you so broken up about this!?' Lovisa thought to herself as she began to paint the girls nails. "You have rather soft hands, I'm almost jealous, a few early mishaps with needles when I began my first costumes have given me a few tough spots on my fingers."

Makoto came back into the room, platter with premade cups of tea in hand. 'Damn, the tea is going to get cold, she can't drink it while the manicure is drying!' Lovisa though before Makoto put the platter down and brought one of the cups of tea over. 'Idiot… don't you dare-'

"Oh, you've already started on the nails." Makoto said as he sat down next to Yoko. He seemed rather… unafraid of the girl, chummy even. He tilted his head as he looked at the girls nails. "Red huh, that'll look wonderful on you."

"Yeah…"

Makoto took a sip of the tea in his hand and looked at Lovisa. "Kind of feel bad for the idiot, with just a few primary colors you're going to look amazing and he'll never get to see it."

'... I'm sorry what?'

Yoko seemed to be thinking the same thing as she stared at Makoto, who was drinking from the cup of tea again. "... He won't, will he?"

Makoto brought the tea away from his lips. "Instead when everyone asks he'll just have to explain how he ran with his tail between his legs when he realized the girl in front of him was going to be more successful than he'll ever be." Makoto said. Lovisa blinked before her mouth opened in realization, then straightened into a smirk before she went back to Yoko's nails. "Honestly, he could have had the easy life, taken a ride on your heels and never had to do anything but instead he bolted, since when are successful women intimidating?"

"Right?" Yoko said, straightening up as she spoke a bit more clearly. "So what if my mother's worth twice as much as his family alone, so what if I'm heiress to her real estate empire, how is that so intimidating, what's intimidating about living the easy life!?"

"Nothing, unless you're some idiot without a cent of business sense!" One of Yoko's friends said from the other couch.

"Who says no to success!?" The other friend said as Lovisa finished applying the red nail polish to Yoko's finger nails.

"You know what you need to do, you need to celebrate!" Makoto said, standing up suddenly. "Celebrate being free of someone who runs away from success, someone who doesn't know the chance of a lifetime when it shares a meal with them, a chance to celebrate just how amazing you are!"

"Yes, exactly!" Yoko said, standing up with Makoto, and then frowning. "But how…"

Lovisa grinned as she stood up. "Oh, I might have a few ideas in my closet…"

'Clever boy…'

Takahiro hummed softly as he looked over a few papers, people had taken Makoto's entrance into the Host Club as a sign they were looking for more hosts. Given the event coming soon, he wasn't exactly against the idea of expanding the number of Hosts keeping the party alive. Lovisa came into the room with a wide smile on her face. "Oh, how did everything go!?" He said as he scrambled up from the papers, practically bouncing over to her. "Were they good, did they figure everything out?"

Lovisa laughed. "They didn't learn anything about our supplies, we were busy consoling Yoko after her break-up, you did remember I was scheduled for that today, right?"

Takahiro tripped and fell onto his face, then pushed himself up. "You were busy!?"

Lovisa nodded and waved him of a bit. "Obviously, Yoko was rather torn up about the break-up, though I'm not sure why, it was only the second date. Still, I could hardly tell her to grow up.. but that boy figured out exactly what she needed to hear and before you know it, she's trying on a good… tenth of my closet, posing in the mirror, grinning and strutting around."

That was even better. Takahiro grinned and straightened himself out. "I knew they would… by the way, did they seem particularly… close to the other girls?"

Lovisa gave the boy a look before shaking her head. "Not really, he seemed rather scared of them at first, but then he came back from getting tea and was as brave as he needed to be to straighten her out… she might become a regular for him though, once he's official."

Takahiro frowned and took a thoughtful pose. "I see… I guess I'll have them work with Tsubaki next…"

Lovisa gave the Host Club King a look before shrugging and back out to the main room. 'Weird…'