Even though thunder cracked loudly for most of the night, Riley had never slept so soundly. By the time she woke up, both her and Mori had made their way onto their sides on the hard, wooden floor of the dusky cellar. She also realized that she was covered by Mori's large jacket and discovered her fellow companion's arm wrapped tightly around her waist and felt his nose brushing the back of her head. Slowly, she looked behind her and stared at Mori's peaceful expression. "He is very... pretty." The involuntary thought echoed through her mind.

Almost as if she said it out loud, the silent host began to stir from his restful sleep. The moment he realized the position he was in, he immediately withdrew his arm and sat up quickly. A few awkward moments passed before he muttered, "You were shivering last night."

"Well thank you Mori." She said before handing him back his jacket, "Seems like you've been looking out for me more than I've realized..." As she was handing him back his jacket, a sudden warmth began creeping up her body and a knot developed in her stomach. "What the hell..." she thought before standing. "Hey, let's go. The others are probably worried."

Just as predicted, the hosts were rampant in searching for their missing member by the time Mori and Riley found their way back at the beach house. Though the hosts themselves weren't searching but multiple guards and maids were frantically looking. When the short baker and tall host were spotted, they were immediately brought to the main living room of the house where the rest of the host club was snoring loudly on the couch. At the sight of his master, Ghost bounded up to Riley and jumped up to try and lick her face. "Hey Ghost," she laughed, "miss me?"

Slowly, the others began to wake from their slumber but with dark bags under their eyes. Honey sleepily rubbed his eyes before muttering, "Ghost wouldn't stop howling once the storm started," he yawned, "he kept us up all night."

Haruhi, who fell asleep with her head on Tamaki's shoulder, slowly sat up and complained, "Why is it always a thunder storm...?"

Riley was completely oblivious to the others around her as she sat cross legged on the floor and let Ghost coddle her. "That's strange," she said as she tried to calm the whining dog, "I've never seen him act like this before."

After, once everyone was finally somewhat awoken and shoved into a waiting limo, they departed from the beach house. Back at Ouran, everything went back to normal. Riley continued to bake and only crossed paths with Mori when Honey was somewhere near and, even then, they didn't say much to each other. A couple weeks passed before anything of real interest happened within the host club.

Every day, the Haninozuka's had a few workers deliver raw ingredients to the high school for Riley to use but one day, they were late. For a bit, she didn't panic and waited patiently in the kitchen. When students started flooding out into the hallways from their last class, she finally started to panic. Her job was to have at least three cakes made before the host club opened then continue the flow of baked pastries until all the clients were gone and she was dismissed by Honey. So, in an attempt to remedy the situation, she called a few supermarkets before one finally agreed to deliver the large order to the high school. Unfortunately, the company only delivered the food, they didn't bring it into the kitchen for her.

That's where Riley found herself. Outside on the back road leading to the kitchen with multiple bags and cases of flour, sugar, chocolate, icing sugar, among other needed necessities for baking. She shook her head in disdain and looked down at Ghost who was by her feet, "What're we gonna do Ghost? I'm pretty strong but not this strong. I mean, look at all this flour!"

Ghost sniffed delicately at a bag of sugar before walking back into the kitchen without even glancing back at his master. She frowned at his retreating figure and shook her head, "Useless... you're useless Ghost." After staring at the bags and crates for a few more moments, she nodded and muttered, "Okie dokie then." At first, she got the essentials in that she needed before starting her first batch of cakes. While they were in the oven, Riley began carting the ingredients into her work area at a very slow pace.

It wasn't long before Mori and Honey made their way into the kitchen and looked about the abandoned room which was occupied by one white husky sleeping quietly under a chair. Honey looked about the kitchen before looking up at his tall cousin, "Where's Rye-chan? She always has something for me to eat by this time..." he said then looked down at the floor in disappointment.

Mori walked over to the oven and peered within where the previously mentioned cakes were beginning to burn. In an attempt to save them, he hastily grabbed the oven mitts placed neatly beside the stovetop and pulled out the three pastries. Honey watched eagerly before muttering, "Well... if Ghost is here then Rye-chan must be somewhere near. He never leaves her side."

At that moment, Mori saw a trail of flour leaking from a bag closest to the door leading outside and, just as he was about to follow it, a shriek sounded from outside. Both the boy lolita and the silent host ran outside to see a giant cloud of white settling onto the ground, where the remnants of a flour bag lied. Once the cloud settled, a white figure stood amongst the damage with her hands in the air and white flour covering her from head to toe. When her eyes opened, the sight scared Honey so much that he ran from the scene, screaming as he went. Quietly, Mori could hear the figure mutter, "Honey wait..." and then he recognized Riley's clear dark blue eyes. He found himself unable to stop from smirking at her before holding out a hand to her, which she happily took before stepping over the broken flour bag. "Mori, you would not believe how this all happened."

And with that, she continued on with her story, starting with when the delivery team didn't arrive. As she talked, Mori noticed how her eyes appeared to stand out amidst all the flour that rested on her skin, clothes and hair. He continued to stare as she continued her story until she ended with, "-and then I dropped that bag of flour and I know I'm pretty strong like you've seen these muscles when I wore that bathing suit at the beach like you know but I don't know what happened. One minute, the bag was in my arms the next, on the ground and broken and now I look more like a ghost than Ghost does!" She let out an exasperated sigh before glancing up at the host. When she noticed his smirking expression, she began to chuckle, "I guess this is all pretty ridiculous, isn't it?"

He gave her a small shrug then handed her a dish rag that was sitting on the counter of the kitchen. The baker nodded and began wiping flour off her face, "Well you better go get Honey. I'll get at least most of this horrible stuff off before you two come back."

Listening to her advice, Mori left the kitchen to find his terrified cousin while Riley took her ponytail out and was trying to ruffle the flour out of her hair. By the time the two hosts went back, enough of the flour had been removed from the baker for her to at least be recognized by Honey. The moment the small blonde laid eyes on Riley he jumped into her arms and she hugged him tightly as he began to cry out, "You looked so scary Rye-chan!"

She nodded as he continued to cry and ran her fingers through his hair, "Yeah I know sweetie I'm sorry. I didn't wanna scare you." Once he quieted down some, she suggested, "Well, to avoid potentially scary moments in the future, I think Mori should carry in the rest of the stuff I mean, he looks pretty strong. I'm pretty sure he could handle it." As she was saying this, she stared at Mori with a big smile on her face and lightly bit her lip to stop from laughing.

Honey escaped from her embrace and nodded enthusiastically, "Yeah Takashi can do it for you! That way, we can finish these cakes and go to the host club to share with everyone!"

Mori said nothing to this but went out and began to carry the ingredients in. While he was doing this, Honey and Riley were decorating a cake and, every so often, Riley would look over her shoulder to the doorway to catch a glimpse of Mori's physical labour. She began to note little qualities that she found particularily attractive to her about him without even realizing it.

After the cakes were done and the ingredients were stacked neatly in a heap but before the three left the kitchen, the rest of the hosts walked in unexpectedly. "There you are!" Hikaru and Kaoru said in unison.

"We were wondering where you were," Tamaki said as he brushed back one of his blonde locks, "so we decided to come investigate the disappearance of Takashi Morinozuka and Mitsukuni Haninozuka."

Hikaru and Kaoru looked at each other before Kaoru said, "Investigate?" and Hikaru asked, "Disappearance?"

"It was a little obvious they were here boss." Hikaru muttered.

Kaoru nodded, "Yeah, where else would they be?"

Tamaki, ignoring the twins, thrusted his index finger into the air and exclaimed triumphantly, "And the kidnapper appears to be the cute baker, Riley Darko."

Riley, confused by Tamaki's sudden need for a dramatic story twist, frowned slightly, "Kidnapper?"

The so called "king" of the host club nodded and held himself dramatically as he began to narrate the story between the poor baker, the cute boy lolita who was in need of her services, and the tall silent cousin who found himself enraptured with the "help".

For at least a bit, the other hosts and Riley humoured him and let him continue his narration of his unrealistic story until he got to the part about how the baker and the tall cousin admit their feelings to each other while on a ski trip. Riley found herself shaking her head and saying, "Tamaki this story is ridiculous for a number of reasons."

Completely unphased by the fact that she interrupted him, Tamaki looked at her from over his shoulder, "Hm? And why is that my darling princess?"

Instead of answering him, she grabbed a handful of flour and threw it at him. At first, he seemed too stunned to do anything before he also grabbed a handful of flour to throw back at the already floured up baker. She laughed as the twins joined in and threw double fistfuls at Tamaki. Soon, Honey joined in and the five were all laughing loudly as flour, raisins, sugar and other baking ingredients flew across the room. Haruhi, Kyouya and Mori watched from a safe distance as all the hosts and the baker felt a satisfying sense of contentment.