Damn it, the twins are late again. This is the second time, too. I swear, I'm getting tired of writing apologies for these two. They're really going to owe me. Kyoya Ootori cast the Ouran clock tower another nervous glance. Host Club had been in session for nearly twenty minutes, with still no sign of the Hitachiin brothers. Their customers were starting to get anxious.

Music Room #3's doors swung open at that moment, spilling two disheveled gingers into the Host Club. Kyoya shot them a pointed stare. Hikaru and Kaoru both flinched under the Shadow King's accusatory gaze, and scurried quickly to greet their customers.

"Good afternoon girls," Kaoru said, sitting down beside his brother at one of the room's tables. They had only two guests to start; unfamiliar guests, at that.

"I don't believe we've seen you here before, could you tell us your names?" Hikaru asked. Haruhi walked up, bringing with her a platter of small cookies. She set it on the table, smiled at the twins in greeting, and returned to sitting with her own customers. It's been so long since she first hosted… And look how far she's come.

One of the girls, who had long, straight, raven black hair, spoke up. "I'm Hanae, and this is Kuri." The other girl had long, reddish brown hair that was braided over her left shoulder.

"This is your first time at the Host Club, right?" Hikaru smiled. Kaoru reached out and picked up a frilly heart-shaped cookie.

"Yes, it is," Kuri replied. Both she and Hanae were eyeing the twins with a poorly-suppressed air of curiosity, as if they were waiting for something to happen. If they were, neither twin knew what the girls wanted them to be doing. That was to be expected, though, seeing as a certain pair of brothers were particularly distracted by a certain event that took place earlier on the day…

"What made you decide to visit us?" Kaoru nibbled on his cookie in a somewhat mouse-like fashion. He didn't notice his brother's gaze darken several shades; however, the girls did.

Hanae shifted nervously. "Well, um, a friend recommended you to us."

"Did they now? And what did they say?" Hikaru asked in a tone like sharpened steel. Their customers looked taken aback, and Kaoru opened his mouth to protest. Deciding to skip to the punch line, Hikaru cut his brother off before he could speak.

"I'm very… possessive of my baby brother. It can be very hard to share him, even with nice girls like you," the elder Hitachiin admitted. As he spoke, Hikaru stood up, walked behind Kaoru's chair, and slid his arms protectively over his brother's shoulders, locking his grip in front of Kaoru's chest.

For a moment, Hanae and Kuri were stunned into silence. Hanae recovered first, saying, "Oh, I… We…"

"No, it's okay, don't worry. Hikaru didn't mean to offend you," Kaoru said, hyperconscious of every place where he and his brother came into contact.

The elder twin grinned like the devil, and, putting his mouth right beside his brother's ear and keeping his voice low enough that only their customers could hear, uttered, "You brush it off so easily, Kaoru. Surely you haven't forgotten why we were late?"

Hikaru had a strange desire to nip at his brother's ear. It was so close and convenient, but what confused him was why he wanted to do that. If we weren't in Host Club and there weren't so many people around, would I?

Hanae and Kuri both looked thoroughly delighted by their first visit to the Host Club when they departed moments later. Hikaru, who was watching the girls leave, suddenly realized Kaoru was staring at him, and met his brother's gaze.

"Was that too much?" Hikaru asked, sounding worried as he slumped back into his chair.

"No, no, they looked happy," Kaoru trailed off thoughtfully. I'm very possessive of my baby brother… It can be very hard to share him… The younger Hitachiin couldn't keep himself from thinking about his twin's words.

I think that, to Hikaru, those were just part of the act. But really, might those be the truth? We both might think we're just acting when we're here, but especially after kissing him, it's harder to see where to draw the line.

The twins visited with a few more customers before Host Club closed for the afternoon. Unfortunately, the poor Hitachiins had no idea what they were in for, and the moment the doors to Music Room #3 closed behind their customers, the little devils were assaulted with questions.

"Where did you two run off to at lunch? Why was Kyoya so secretive about it? Are you two hiding something? Did you start a nuclear war?" Tamaki fired questions like a machine gun. The twins snapped to attention, startled.

Mori gathered three chairs, where he, Hunny, and Haruhi sat down to watch what would likely be a lively and entertaining face-off. Kyoya stood behind them, writing in his notebook with a smirk.

Hikaru finally answered, "We were just going to talk to another student. Kyoya's secretive about everything, why is this such a surprise?"

Kaoru finished his brother's train of thought, saying, "Of course we're hiding something. You're lucky it's not a nuclear war. But if it was, what makes you think we'd tell you?"

Tamaki steamed like a pot of boiling water. "Momma! Our sons are conspiring against humanity!"

"They're just lying to cover their tracks, as children do," Kyoya looked up with a sigh, pushed his glasses up to the bridge of his nose, and added sarcastically, "Daddy."

"Oooh you boys are in so much trouble! Daddy demands you to stop your war preparations this instant!" Tamaki shouted, waving a finger at the Hitachiins sternly.

The twin gingers shared a look. We're lucky he's so excitable. If he were sensible like Kyoya, we wouldn't have gotten off the hook so easily. Now it's simply a matter of how far we can push his limits; so in other words, the same way we always interact with him.

Kaoru heaved a sigh. "Sorry Boss, we've already got missiles headed for all major cities."

"And your house," Hikaru added, matching his brother's deadpan tone.

"Yeah," Kaoru agreed, "It'll probably have exploded in a few minutes."

Sitting off to the side, Hunny mumbled despondently, "So my cake's going to blow up too?"

The Hitachiins tensed. Messing with Tamaki was one thing, but interfering with Hunny-senpai and his cake was another. They might as well have actually started a nuclear war. "Uh, no Hunny, we'll call everything off right now."

It was now that Tamaki seemed to realize that the twins had, once again, pulled a fast one on him. "You devils! Haruhi, I can't take this anymore! We're going home!"

With that, Tamaki picked Haruhi up bridal style and ran for the door. Haruhi, startled, flailed about, nearly whacking her boyfriend.

As the couple departed Music Room #3, Haruhi, who had just managed to collect herself enough to speak, yelled, "Put me down Tamaki, I'm not a princess!"

Tamaki's counter of "But you're my princess!" slipped through the door moments before it closed. Hikaru and Kaoru breathed matching sighs of relief. Hunny and Mori followed them at a slower pace, clearly disinterested now that the show was over for today.

However, that left the Hitachiins alone to deal with Kyoya, who was undeniably interested in exactly what had conspired over lunch today. They gulped as the Shadow King turned toward them with a look like Satan.

"So, would you boys kindly inform me of exactly why I was convinced to turn off the cameras in the most private area of the school during lunch today?" Kyoya asked with a cheerful smile. The twins blanched.

"Well, can't we just…" Kaoru started to say.

"Pay you back, as promised?" Hikaru finished. "It's really not that important. Perhaps we could, ah, tell you about it after our trip this weekend?"

Kyoya paused to consider this proposition. There's really nothing to lose from allowing them to wait. Besides, they have more valuable things to offer me than their secrets.

"Fair enough, perhaps I will have you recount your story another time," Kyoya declared, raising a hand in farewell before leaving the club room. The Hitachiins breathed another sigh of relief. Renge had left school early today (some kind of Uki Doki Memorial promotional event she simply couldn't miss), so there was to be no worrying about being confronted by her.

Hikaru turned to his little brother with a bright grin. "Now if I'm not mistaken, we have a trip to take this weekend… Shall we get packing?"

Kaoru grinned too. "Hai!"

A/N: First of all, thank you guys for the lovely reviews! As I'm sure many of you know, the review system was down for a few days, and I couldn't see them until just recently. But thank you for the lovely reviews, you guys are the best! *hugs* And secondly, I've started a Free! Iwatobi Swim Club fanfiction, and I could use a bit of input from you guys, specifically whether or not you would like to see any smut in it. So please, if you can spare 5 seconds, please go vote in the poll on my profile page! I'd really appreciate it! Anyway, that's all the important stuff for this chapter. This chapter was supposed to be more awkward and less silly, but for goodness sake this is Ouran we're talking about so I tried to make things at least a little awkward to make up for the random shenanigans. Ok, I'm done rambling now. Thanks for reading!

P.S. I'm actually not done rambling, the next two chapters will be a two-part feature about their weekend trip. I hope you're all looking forward to it as much as I am!