I am on a roll! Thank you all who has been reviewing, adding the story to their alerts, favorites, and for adding me to your favorite authors. This all really does mean a lot to me. Since I don't have work tomorrow, thanks to Martin Luther King Jr. day, I'll be working on a new chapter. Who knows, I might even post it that same day too! Enjoy the new chapter!

Disclaimer: Ouran storyline and characters belong to Bisco Hatori. Any other character belongs to me.

Chapter 42: The Refreshing Battle and an Old Friend

Therefore

The games had finally begun. Misuzu-cchi wanted me as part of the judging process, but I told her straight out that my vote would be biased. I would automatically choose Takashi so that we could hang out together. Instead of watching them during their little competition, I decided to grab my book, two bottles of water, and went back outside to continue reading. The sun was high and it just felt amazing to be outside right now. Not caring that my clothes might get stained by the grass, I lied down near some of the windows and immediately opened up to the page I last left on.

The tale of Celia and Marco in the novel was beautiful, as well as the other characters involved. I was so engrossed with my book when I saw a shadow loom over. Placing my bookmark on the page I was on, I looked up to find Takashi looming over with a table.

"What are you doing?" I asked while sitting upright.

"Misuzu-san asked me to fix the table," He told me while setting himself up next to me.

"Are you really taking this competition seriously?"

"Yes," Takashi began to inspect what was wrong with the table.

"But why?"

He looked away from the table and looked at me, "I want to spend my summer vacation with you."

"Really?" I slightly teased.

He bent down and gave me a peck on the lips, "Really. If I do lose, there is always my family's summer house that is near."

"You have a summer house here?" I questioned. "I didn't know that."

"Ah. We all have one within the area," Takashi told me as he went back to working on the table. "But I still want to win for you."

A thought then suddenly came up, "You know, if you want to win, you can always just do something that requires you to remove your shirt."

He then suddenly stopped and looked at me, "You just want me shirtless, don't you."

I grinned, "Maybe."

Once he had finished fixing the table, Takashi had went to leave it back inside the pension. From my spot, I lied down again and actually took notice that there was a wood stump a few feet away from me. Not far from that there was an axe and a pile of wood.

"Dreams do come true," I sang to myself.

Takashi had finally came back outside and took notice of the items I had just seen. He turned to look at me and just gave me a smirk. It was just then that something came flying towards my face, blinding me for a mere second. I took it off and found myself looking at Takashi's shirt in my hand. I looked up and found a perfect sight.

'Thank you Kami-sama!'

Glory behold, a topless Takashi! He grabbed a couple of wooden logs and grabbed the axe. Placing one on the wood stump, he began hacking away. I turned to look into the window and found a couple of girls staring at him as he took a break and drank one of the waters I brought. As he drank his water, I quickly pulled out my cell phone and snapped a picture before I got caught.

"Plus twenty points!" Misuzu-cchi suddenly appeared and awarded the points.

"Yes!" I cheered.

As I continued watching Takashi hack away more of them logs, a thought had suddenly occurred in my head.

"Takashi..."

"Yes?" He dropped the axe to the ground as he took another break.

"What would happen if Hunny doesn't win and you do?" I asked. "I mean, since he is your cousin and you're always taking care of him, it's okay to me if you don't end up staying here."

The thought had suddenly went through his mind. I mean, since the two are always together or near each other, I don't want to separate them.

"I forgot about that," He replied.

I got up from the floor and walked over to him, wrapping my arms around him, "It's okay. Wanna know why?"

"Why?" He smiled, placing his arms around my waist.

I bit my lip before answering, "Well, maybe I can stay over at your family's summer house one night. If that's okay."

Takashi grinned at my answer and gave me a quick kiss, "I would very much enjoy that."

The sun was beginning to set when the two of us went inside. By now, Takashi had put his shirt back on which made me slightly disappointed. But it is summer, so it's bound to come off again eventually. Once we had barely stepped in, Misuzu-cchi had called Takashi over saying that he needed help fixing something. He smiled at me one last time before being dragged away.

I laughed to myself as I made my way towards the same table that I was at near the piano. I opened up my book again when I suddenly felt a presence.

"Hey, Tamaki," I greeted the teen.

"Ah, Setsuna-senpai, hello," He greeted before taking a seat.

"You're going for the goal, ne?" I'm guessing Kyoya told him about the piano.

Tamaki just laughed, "Something like that."

He then began playing the piano, catching everyone's attention inside of the pension. I just smiled and went back to reading my book. As the song continued playing, I began to notice that there were more people in the pension, just having some drinks and enjoying the live music that was now being provided by Tamaki. This boy is just gifted when it comes to playing the piano. For a moment, I swear I heard something breaking outside of the pension, but it was too hard to tell over the piano being played. I turned to look for Misuzu-cchi, but noticed that he was no longer in the room. I got up from my chair and made my way towards Takashi since he was finally done with the work he had to do.

"Do you know-" I was interrupted the sound of someone screaming out the word "bravo." Not only that, but the sudden announcement that Hikaru and Kaoru won.

Poor Tamaki. Once he heard the announcement, he just slammed his palms on top of the piano keys.

"I'm sorry, Tamaki," I tried consoling him.

The victors then came into the room and went straight up to the bedroom that they were staying. As I watched them go by, I noticed that there was blood on Kaoru's cheek.

'What happened?' I wondered, turning to look to see if the others noticed.

Haruhi walked towards us and explained how the two had won this competition. Apparently, Kaoru had pushed Haruhi away from a falling vase and as a result had his cheek cut. Hikaru had then came running to his brother, making sure that he was alright. That scene between the two just caused them to win. Now that we knew how they won, the others decided that it was time to head back to their summer homes. Tamaki had to practically be dragged out, but after being promised to see Haruhi, he instantly cheered up. Kyoya simply waved goodbye to us, while Hunny glomped us and told us he was seeing us tomorrow.

"Laters, Takashi," we hugged after he said his goodbye to Haruhi and turned his attention to me.

"I'll be seeing you tomorrow, okay," Takashi told me while moving some of my hair away from my face.

"Sounds good," I smiled before pecking his cheek.

Once he was gone, I headed back upstairs and found Haruhi already getting herself ready for bed. She mentioned something about this being such a tiresome day and wanting to sleep already. This day was rather eventful, so I followed her and began to get ready to sleep. I had first showered once Haruhi was out and then when I was out, I blow dried my hair. Since it was a bit early still, well to my sleeping pattern, I decided to continue reading my book. About an hour later, I decided to send Takashi a simple goodnight text.

"Goodnight and sweet dreams," I read to myself before sending it.

A minute later, my phone vibrated. Flipping it open, I found it to be a reply from Takashi.

"They will most definitely be sweet if you are in them. Goodnight, beautiful," I read as a blush appeared on my face. That night, I was most certain he was in my dreams.

The Next Morning

I woke up feeling super refreshed. I turned to look to see if Haruhi was still asleep, but she wasn't. Grabbing my cell phone to look at the time, I noticed I had a text from Takashi.

"Everyone and myself will be there in fifteen minutes. Can't wait to see you," I read aloud. When I looked at when this was sent, it said ten minutes ago.

"Ah! I only have five minutes to get ready!"

Good thing I had showered last night. I immediately went to the bathroom, did what I had to do in there, and ran back out to rummage through my clothes. I pulled out black shorts that rested above the middle of my thighs and grabbed a green tank top. As soon as that was on, I placed on my black chucks and ran out the door. Quickly running fingers through my hair, I began walking down the steps.

"Ohayō gozaimasu," I greeted to whoever was already downstairs.

It was rather odd that no one had responded to my greeting, but as soon as I was downstairs, I learned why. Haruhi was facing another boy, one whom I have no idea might be, and the Twins along with Tamaki were just staring at the two.

The boy who was in front of Haruhi was taller than her. He was a wearing a red shirt that had the sleeves rolled up and had a white V pattern near the neckline along with a white circle and in it a yellow star. He had on dark green jeans that were rolled up to his knees along with some brown shoes. Around his neck was a white towel and he had on white gloves.

" Ohayō, Haruhi!" I greeted her as I walked towards the group.

"Ah, ohayō, Suna-chan," Haruhi greeted me. "Arai-kun, this is my senpai, Setsuna."

I smiled at the teen, "Hello, nice to meet you."

"Same here," He smiled.

After greeting Arai-kun, once I got the okay to call him that, he went to put away what I assumed was fresh groceries, and got to sit down with Haruhi. Misuzu-cchi gave her a break during this time. Once the two teens sat together, I felt someone wrap their arms around me and began to move me to a nearby table. I looked up and smiled. Takashi smiled back down and once he stopped dragging me, he pulled out a seat, motioning me to sit down.

" Ohayō, Takashi," I greeted him as I took a seat.

" Ohayō, Setsuna," He smiled at me before sitting down.

At our table was Takashi, Hunny along with Usa-chan, Kyoya, and myself. Hikaru and Kaoru were sitting by us at the barstools. Tamaki...well, Tamaki was making himself a hamster home near Haruhi.

I was drinking an ice coffee when we began to overhear some of the conversation that the two teens, who were sitting nearby us, were having.

"We haven't seen each other since middle school graduation," Haruhi explained the situation between herself and Arai-kun.

"You cut your hair...That's such a waste," I heard Arai-kun tell her.

"You think so? After cutting it, I actually think this way's much more convenient."

Hunny was just enjoying his strawberry cake, while Takashi was drinking juice. Kyoya had coffee along with me.

"Haruhi's friend from middle school, eh?" Kyoya said as we were looking at the two.

"From what I hear, it is," I told him before taking a sip of my iced coffee.

"The guy hasn't contacted her since graduation," Hikaru just suddenly said out of nowhere. "You don't call that a friend; you just call that a former middle school classmate."

I turned to look at Hikaru and just gave him a look, 'What was going on with this kid? He sounds bitter?'

"You say these people are in the same club as you. What's the club?" Arai-kun turned to look at us.

"The host club..." Haruhi mumbled with a look on her face.

"Oh, wow, the softball club."

Oh my god, he got confused! He thinks we are a softball club!

"Haruhi recruited me to join," I just yelled towards the two.

The look that Haruhi gave me was priceless as I continued to laugh. I couldn't help it! How does one confuse Host Club with softball club?!

"Hey, Haruhi!" Hikaru called out while lifting his now empty glass. "You think you can just stop working like this? There's someone slacking off from their work here!"

"Misuzu-san gave me a break!" Haruhi called back.

"Hikaru! Stop being rude," I turned to look at him.

The sounds of paper being cut up was now heard. I looked towards the direction of the noise and that's when we saw Tamaki continuing his hamster work.

"Senpai, can you not increase the amount of trash here?" Haruhi asked with a sweatdrop.

"It's not trash...It's a home for a hamster..." He kept pulling scrapes of paper from what appeared to be some form of booklets.

"Senpai, you don't have a hamster," Haruhi straight out said.

"I'm not your senpai," he muttered. "I'm just something you know..."

Just then, Arai-kun laughed, "People from Ouran are so funny!"

"Depends on who it is," I muttered to myself.

"I heard it was a school for the elite," Arai-kun said as he looked at Tamaki. "And had an image that it'd be a different world."

"It's a different dimension, all right!" Haruhi and I both said. Her towards Arai-kun and me to myself.

"To tell you the truth, I thought you'd have a lot of hardships going to that kind of school. I've been worried all this time, but I'm glad you look so cheerful," Arai-kun told Haruhi, causing her to smile back at him. As a result, he blushed.

Say what?

"Ah, but, I wasn't the only one worried. Everyone was."

"What's he trying to do? Is he going for the 'refreshing and pure' path?" Hikaru said as he gave this face of annoyance. "The refreshing competition ended last time already."

"You guys seem to be quite critical," Kyoya pointed out.

I don't know about Kaoru, since he was being quiet and polite this whole time, but Hikaru has been acting up. What is it about this kid that is bothering him? I mean, he hasn't done anything to him. He barely met him today!

"Heck, this guy obviously has a crush on Haruhi. If feels kind of disgusting when it's so obvious."

What. The. Hell. Now that was just plain rude right there. Poor Arai-kun. I was just about to yell at Hikaru so that he can stop being rude to Arai-kun when Haruhi stood up from her chair and looked at him.

"Hold it right there, Hikaru! You're the one acting like a jerk right now!"

"Ah, it's okay, it's okay," Arai-kun said. "It's true that I had a crush on you, Fujioka. But yeah, I've already been dumped."

"Eh?!" Tamaki and Hunny said in shock. Even Haruhi joined in at the end.

I knew my suspicions were right. Never mess with the Maternal Type. Just by the way he mentioned that he was worried about her before realizing his mistake and mentioning that others did too just showed that he did have some form of feelings. The blushing also didn't help his case.

"Why are you acting surprised?" Kyoya turned to look at Haruhi.

She turned to face him, "Eh? Because..."

Arai-kun was just chuckling when Tamaki approached him, "Hey person called Arai-kun, when did this happen?"

Apparently, this had happened around a year ago. From what Arai-kun said, he had approached Haruhi during the summer when he wanted to ask her out. He first came up to Haruhi by asking her whether it was true if she was taking Ouran's scholarship exam. Arai-kun first thought that she was going to a neighborhood high school, but she confirmed that she was also taking that school's exam as well since she wasn't sure that she would be getting into Ouran. Apparently, he hoped that they would go to the same school, but of course Haruhi misinterpreted his comment into thinking that the scholarship opening was for more than one person. When he finally did ask her out, Haruhi, again, interpreted the comment wrong and thought he was asking to confirm the dates of the application deadline.

Oh Haruhi.

Once she heard the story from his side, she finally had realized what she had done.

"Haruhi..." Kyoya said as we all looked at her.

Suddenly, we were in our police uniforms from when Kirimi had visited the Host Club room. Haruhi was now sitting on a chair with a lamp facing her. Hunny, Takashi, and I just looked at her as Kyoya wrote some stuff on a random note pad.

"You destroyed this young man's purity with that kind of lame joke?" Kyoya wrote as he spoke.

"No, I just never realized that's what he meant," Haruhi said with a sweatdrop adorned on her head.

"This is a serious crime," Hunny said looking towards us.

"Yes it is," I nodded agreeing with him.

Just like that, we were back to our normal outfits and Haruhi quickly turned to face Arai-kun. She faced him and quickly bowed.

"I'm sorry."

Her Reply, One Year Late

"What, am I being dumped again?" Arai-kun pointed towards himself in question, but then laughed. "Don't worry, don't worry. It's past me already, and the fact that she didn't realize it meant that she wasn't interested in it either. But I...like Fujioka's gentle but farseeing eyes, and that when you talk with her, she just looks straight at you. I've always like those aspects of her."

Then, Tamaki came and ruined the moment as he grabbed Arai-kun and brought him out of his seat, "You think so much about my child! Don't worry. Your brave story will not be forgotten."

"Ahh."

Now that, that ordeal was over, we all were now sitting at the same table. It was Arai-kun, then Hunny, Takashi, me, Haruhi, Kyoya, and Tamaki. The Twins, well Hikaru, were still being Debbie Downers and remained where they were sitting.

"Wow, your middle school field trip was to Kyoto? It's so uncommon to have it inside the country," Hunny said after he learned about the two's middle school trip.

"No, it's quite normal for commoners," Arai-kun said.

"It's true," I told Hunny. "When I went to middle school in Hongō, we went to Kyoto as well."

"You're a commoner too?" Arai-kun asked.

"Uh huh! I receive special funding thanks to the Hitachiin family since my otou-san works for them," I explained to Arai-kun.

"Yeah, I love Kyoto, too," Tamaki brought back the topic.

"I was also forced to accompany him on account of his interest in touring temples," Kyoya told us.

As we continued talking about middle school life, I felt a hand grab my own. I looked and found it to be Takashi's. I smiled at him and gripped his hand. In return, he did as well.

"Hey, Hikaru, Kaoru," Tamaki called out to the two as he stood up. "You guys, come over here, too. It's a very rare chance to hear stories about Haruhi's middle school life."

"I'm not interested in hearing them," Hikaru just said. "Heck, isn't it just stupid? I have no clue why talking about past events is any fun. Does that guy not realize that Haruhi doesn't see him that way?"

As Hikaru just continued his rant, Haruhi stood up from his chair and began to walk over to the two; specifically Hikaru. Right when he said that there was no space inside of Haruhi for Arai-kun to enter, that's when Haruhi striked. Quite literally. She slapped him across the face.

Never have I seen Haruhi this angry at one person.

"That's not for you to decide, Hikaru! I'm not going to tolerate you insulting my friends anymore!"

We were too far away to hear what Hikaru was saying, but then he stood up and looked upset.

"Aren't we your friends?!" He shouted at her before running off, most likely to his room.

"Hikaru, wait up!" Kaoru chased after him just to hear the door slam a minute later.

I have never seen this side of him before. Before, I wasn't too sure whether Hikaru had a thing for Haruhi. But now with this, I am starting to get a feeling that he does, but he might not fully be aware of it.

"Their world is still so narrow," Tamaki rubbed his head after watching the two run off.

After being quiet for a minute, Arai-kun checked the time and realized that he had to leave soon. We all walked him outside and watched as he got his bike ready and placed on his hat backwards. I really hope he feels no ill will towards the Twins. Like Tamaki said, the Twins aren't used to having too many people in their world. They are only used to us, the Host Club.

"I'm sorry, Arai-kun," Haruhi apologized in honor of the Twins.

"It's okay," He smiled. "It seems like I did something that rubbed him the wrong way."

The sound of a door knob turning and opening the door alerted us that someone was coming outside.

"Ah, Hika-chan," Hunny greeted him as he made his way towards us.

'Wait a minute,' I stared as I saw "Hikaru" walk towards the group.

"My bad," 'Hikaru' apologized to Arai-kun. "Sorry."

'The voice doesn't match the body. Oh Kaoru, how nice of you to try and fix things,' I thought with a smile. Leave it to Kaoru to try to be reasonable.

"Don't worry about it," Arai-kun told him. "Bye then, Fujioka. See you guys around."

With that, he began to bike his way home. We waved our goodbyes as he left.

"Bye-bye!" Hunny waved energetically.

"Kaoru, why are you pretending to be Hikaru?" Haruhi questioned a few seconds later.

"I knew it!" I pointed at him.

Haruhi then suddenly pulled his right cheek, "Hey, what happened to the scratch on your cheek?"

"I took care of it with a stick concealer," Kaoru explained as he took out the tube. As he put it away, he explained Hikaru's situation, "Hikaru's temper doesn't seem like it'd be getting better anytime soon."

"Oh Hikaru," I mumbled.

"Therefore, Haruhi, I need to ask you a favor. Can you go out on a date with me all day tomorrow?" Kaoru suddenly asked.

What?! Things just keep changing quickly and it's only day four of summer vacation. Now that this ordeal was over, everyone decided to move on and find something to do. Haruhi had to go back to work, making Tamaki want to stay since he wanted to watch his "precious daughter"; Kyoya had nothing else to do, so he decided to stay and do some work; Hunny wanted cake, so he decided to hang out with Kyoya.

"Let's go on a date," Takashi announced.

"Right now?" I looked at him in shock. That just came out of nowhere.

"Un. Would you like to?"

I grabbed his hand, "Let's go."