Hunny and Mori

It was late in the day when the rain came this time.

Per the usual when she as home on the weekends, Haruhi found herself alone in the house. She knew it wasn't her dad's fault that his profession forced him to be gone all of the time, but she wished he was around more, especially on the days when the thunder came.

She went about her routine, pulling the drapes closed and the likes. She found her blanket and wrapped it around herself snugly; however, this time she didn't shrink back as far as she could into the couch the way she normally would have.

Instead, she settled in front of the table in her living room and pulled out the sketch pad and markers that Kaoru had left with her so many weeks ago. He had stayed with her and urged her to draw out how she felt when she heard the thunder, and despite her initial hesitation, Haruhi had found it very soothing.

The thunder still terrified her to the point of being a trembling mess, but the coloring helped.

Absently mindedly, Haruhi picked up a periwinkle colored marker and began tapping it against the side of the the table. It reminded her of the color of her Ouran uniform and it had slowly grown to be her favorite color (God forbid any of of the Host Club found out that detail.)

The rain hadn't started yet, but Haruhi wanted to run the brisk marker along the paper anyway. The color was too pretty to not use. She skimmed through a couple of her old drawings, coming to a stop at a folded piece of paper that she had tucked inside. It was the first drawing that Kaoru had commented that it looked like sharks and dinosaurs were fighting.

Haruhi continued to skim through her sketch-pad until she came to the last page that was decorated with what resembled a puddle of flowers. Except, that was the problem. She was the end of the book. Frantically, Haruhi flipped back to the start, only this time looking in depthly for any blank pages.

When she reached the end a second time with no luck, she started to panic. How could she have used up so many pages? How many thunderstorms had she been through Kaoru gave her the sketch pad? She counted twenty-six, but there were many more filled up pages in the sketch pad than a measly twenty-six.

Sure, she had taken a habit to drawing more often as a stress coping mechanism, but how in the last three months was she able to fill up a seventy page book? (Then a mental image of the Host Club popped into her head and decided that her stress levels were completely plausible.)

Except now she didn't have anything to draw on…Haruhi peaked up at the clock on the wall. It read 2:34pm. The rain would be here soon and she didn't want to risk going to the store to pick up a new sketch pad only to get stranded.

With the revelation that she wasn't going to get to vent her feelings on paper, the room suddenly seemed to shrink, almost to the point where Haruhi was pretty sure that she was suffocating. Drawing had become such an important part of her thunderstorm routine, it was horrifying that she wasn't able to do it now.

The rain still hadn't come yet, but the first clap of thunder did and the fierce crash made Haruhi jump three feet before she dove head first into the couch with her heart rate beating the fastest she'd ever felt it. Not only was she riled about the thunder, now she was riled about the thunder and not being able to cope with it which made things about ten times worse.

The thunder crashed again. Then again, except the third time was more hollow sounding, more like a door. She sat up so that her eyes were hesitantly peaking up over the armrest of the couch.

The pounding came again, except now that she focused in on the sound it didn't sound as violent of a knock as before. That immediately ruled out the twins and Tamaki. Then who—

"Haru-chaaaaaan~" Hunny's cheerful voice sang on the other side of the door. "It's me and Takeshi! Are you home? If you are, I hope you're okay! We heard the thunder on our way back from Takeshi's Kendo practice and we wanted to make sure you were okay!"

"Yeah," Mori's deep voice agreed.

"One second!" Haruhi breathed deeply, then stepped onto the carpet. Her heart rate was still off the charts but knowing that she was no longer alone seemed to be doing great things for her pulsing chest.

She flung the door open, greeted by the perky smile of Hunny-senpai and well as the stoic neutral expression that Mori-senpai normally wore. Both of them held bags in their arms which was slightly unnerving.

Hunny's smile widened. "Haru-chan! You are home!"

Haruhi looked past him, up at the dark sky. The wind was picking up just as fast as her heart beat was. Maybe company wasn't helping as much as she thought it would. "What's in the bags?"

She thought it would be wishful thinking to hope that they had brought her a new sketch pad, but that didn't stop her from getting her hopes up.

Mori held up one of the bags where Haruhi could make out a red box product and what looked like what could be frosting. "Cake," was his one worded answer.

"Hunny-senpai, Mori-senpai...why did you bring cake supplies to my house?"

Her question was left unanswered because another round of thunder erupted. On her first instinct, Haruhi dove into Mori for some kind of comfort. She seemed to have this problem a lot, seeing as how she had now hugged onto Mori as well as Tamaki and Kaoru in the past.

Mori grunted, picking Haruhi up so that she was nestled on his arm. Blushing, Haruhi looked down at Hunny who was grinning up at her with bright eyes. "I guess it is a good thing we came right, Haru-chan?"

Haruhi didn't have time to answer as Hunny let himself into her apartment and it wasn't like she was going to stop Mori from carrying her inside. The rains were-ah-comin' and she didn't want to be stuck outside so the faster they were under the roof, the safer she would feel.

Ha, safe. Really funny, she thought. Haruhi just wanted her sketch pad back.

Gently, Mori set Haruhi back on her feet in the kitchen. She stared up at him in wonder for a second before she redirected her attention to the short third-year who was organizing a bunch of ingredients on her counter.

"Hunny, what is all of this?" She asked, picking up a small tub of icing. It was periwinkled colored. Quickly, she set it back down before they would notice her staring.

Holding his hands to his chin in his cutesy-way, Hunny smiled widely. "Kao-chan said that he came over once to help you get through a thunderstorm! We wanted to help too!"

Mori grunted off to the side in agreement, catching Haruhi's attention. "Baking will take your mind off of the storm," he stated, picking up one of the cake mixes they had brought.

Haruhi tried to fight back a smile, but their genuine concern was too sweet. "Thanks, guys, but I'm a terrible baker."

"That's okay, Haru," Hunny put his fists on his hips in a determined fashion, "Me and Takeshi aren't either! It will be fun doing it together!" He dipped down into one of the bags he hadn't emptied yet and pulled out a fluttery pink cloth. "Look what we got for you, Haru-chan! I picked it out for you!"

Once they were all dressed in their appointed aprons, Haruhi's being pink and covered in frosting covered hearts while Mori and Hunny's being white with a weird saying on it, it was time to bake.

Haruhi couldn't remember the last time she baked so it became an adventure in itself trying to reacquaint herself with the oven, how it worked, and where all of the baking equipment was. Hunny and Mori were almost just as useless as she was in this department considering this was their first time baking anything.

Once she found a bowl, Haruhi took the liberty of performing the measurements and letting Hunny mix everything. Mori seemed content with Googling different frosting decorations they could do once everything was baked, so she decided to let him be.

It was once the cake was in the oven did Hunny run up to her and hug her tightly around the waist. "Gah! Hunny? What's wrong?" she asked, looking around for a bug or something.

Hunny shook his head, smiling at her with his head tilted slightly. "You didn't notice the thunder the entire time we were baking, did you?"

Haruhi blinked, trying to focus on Hunny's face but her eyes drifted up to where the rain was pouring violently. Sure, now that she saw the rain she admitted that she could hear the pitter-patter of the droplets hitting the roof, but surely it hadn't thundered. How could it thunder and she'd miss it? She was too hyper-aware of it!

Still, the petite brunette found herself looking up to Mori who nodded at her with a faint smile. Mori never lied. So it must have thundered. It thundered. It thundered and she had missed it.

A look of thoughtfulness took over her features as she tried to figure out why this would happen. "I guess," she finally decided, "I was too worried about you, Hunny-senpai. I didn't want you making a mess of my kitchen." She laughed and Hunny giggled along with her.

In retrospect, it should have occurred to her that the moment that the moment she started putting energy into the thought of thunder, it would just come back. The only reason she hadn't spazzed out while they were baking was because she was too absorbed to even notice it. It wasn't like she was immune to the fear because she was still honest to God horrified by it. So when the horrible crash sounded again, Haruhi found herself cowering under the living room table.

Then Mori was crouched in front of her, extending his hand silently. It almost reminded her of the time in the café with Kyoya when she had flipped out.

Haruhi accepted his hand and he pulled her out from under the table. He smiled down at her gently, giving her hand a reassuring squeeze before letting it go. "We have baking to finish," he murmured simply.

Haruhi nodded stiffly and followed him back to the kitchen where Hunny looked depressed, his stuffed bunny hanging from his hand at his side. "I'm sorry, Haru. I didn't mean to upset you. Did you want to hold Usa-chan?" He held the bunny out.

Haruhi smiled tenderly, accepting the bunny plush mostly to not make him feel bad. "Thanks, Hunny-senpai."

Then the timer on the cupcakes went off and that was the end of that conversation.

Together, the three of them worked together on decorating the cupcakes. Every once in awhile, thunder would crack and Haruhi would flinch, but she didn't hide again. It wasn't until her fourth cupcake did Hunny peer over her shoulder at her work.

"Your favorite color is periwinkle, isn't it, Haru-chan?" Haruhi stiffened at his voice hovering beside her ear. He giggled to himself. "Just like the color of our Ouran uniforms!"

Haruhi set her cupcake down. "It's not my favorite color," she mumbled, "why would you think that?"

The pouty-thoughtful look that Hunny got when he was being insightful appeared on his face and his voice became even more understanding. "It's okay for it to be your favorite color, Haru-chan. It's okay for the Host Club to give you a good feeling."

"I know."

Hunny smiled again, pointing at the cupcakes she had done. "I think it's sweet that you're writing our names on the cupcakes."

Haruhi looked down at where Kyoya, Tamaki, and Kaoru were written in cursive on her completed cupcakes. She had just started Hikaru when she had been interrupted. "I kind of did it without thinking."

"If it helps you," Mori said, leaning forward, "then it's okay. It would please the others to know that you look to us for comfort."

Haruhi blushed slightly, looking down at her friends' names written in periwinkle colored frosting. "They don't need to know. It would only cause trouble."

The rain stopped all together after that. It was around seven thirty when Hunny and Mori bid their good-byes and went home. Her dad would be home soon—his vacation days started tonight. Haruhi was sure that he would be ecstatic to find her new frilly apron and cupcakes made up.

Grabbing two cupcakes at random, Haruhi lumbered to her room with the full intent of watching reruns of The Office while eating her freshly baked snack. She was barely two steps into the room when her phone started vibrating on her nightstand.

She was tempted to just ignore it, but found herself setting down one cupcake to answer the call. "Hello?"

"Oh HARUHI!"

Per the usual, Haruhi had to pull the phone back from her head to keep internal bleeding from happening in her ear. "What is it, Tamaki?"

"I've been calling you for hours! Were you okay through the thunderstorm?" His voice was frantic which was somewhat endearing but mostly annoying, especially at this time of night.

"Yeah, I'm alright. My dad will be home soon."

Tamaki gasped on the other end of the line. "You mean you've been alone this entire time?"

Haruhi glanced down at her cupcakes where Hunny and Mori were intricately written in periwinkle cursive. "Nah," she smiled, twirling one of the cupcakes in her hand, "Mori and Hunny were with me."

9/11/16