Chapter Six: Kaoru's Dilemma

"Hikaru!" Kaoru's strangled cry followed him as he rushed through the night streets. Hikaru wanted to stop, he wanted to tell Kaoru everything and how he felt so confused. He had only seen Kyouya and Haruhi in that shop. He wanted to ask why he was like this, why he felt angry and annoyed. But he couldn't. This strange twisting feeling inside his heart caused him to keep running blindly.

"Hikaru…" Kaoru whispered. "Why can't you realize your feelings?" He turned in their massive bed to face Hikaru and examined his brother's sleeping face. The sunlight streamed through the open window and patterns of light danced on the bed covers. In the early morning light, Kaoru stared at Hikaru's clenched eyelids. Even now, in the morning, he could still see the traces of tears from last night.

Hikaru finally stopped running. It was like last time, he discovered. He felt so pissed off, he wanted to curl up in bed and whip out his game boy. But this time, there was no Arai to be jealous of, this time he was out on the cold night streets. What's wrong with me? I only wanted to see some Prom fashion. I saw Haruhi and-

"You love Haruhi…" Kaoru whispered. The words pained him. Because he could almost imagine what Hikaru was going through. And he loved his brother. He always did. They were always together. His words met silence. Hikaru was still asleep, curled up in painful dreams. "I can't tell you my feelings," Kaoru slowly got up and stepped down from their bed. "I want to get rid of feelings. I threw my sketch book away because I want you to be happy. "

"Hikaru!" Kaoru had finally caught up.

"Kaoru," Hikaru cried, "This," he gestured at himself; tears were leaking out of his eyes. "I feel so angry and annoyed. Kaoru, am I jealous? Is it like last time?"

His brother stared at him. His voice broke, "Hikaru, you wanted…you wanted to buy Haruhi's dress for her. Isn't that why?" Kaoru wiped his tears away. "Hikaru, you were jealous of Kyouya because he was buying Haruhi's dress for her."

"I'm jealous of Kyouya…" Hikaru echoed faintly.

"Even though I want you to be happy, I'm a coward," Kaoru said bitterly to himself. He faced the window and drew the curtains wider. "I can't bear all this. I wanted to keep the pumpkin from smashing."

Kaoru smiled at his brother. "It doesn't have to be the dress…"

"The shoes of any fashion look, the handbag, the jewels, the hair, the make up…"Hikaru said with wide eyes. The gleam was back in his eyes.

"Yes…" Kaoru murmured hopelessly.

"I hate myself for doing this," Kaoru clenched his fists together. The alarm clock by the bed rang. It was 7:30pm; time to get ready for school. The bed creaked. Hikaru got himself out of their bed. "Kaoru?" He questioned. He looked so lost and forlorn. "Are we initiating plan C?"

Kaoru couldn't look at his brother. "Yes," he said simply. His brother stumbled out to the bathroom and started brushing his teeth and washing his face. "I'm not avoiding what needs to happen…" he tried to assure himself, "I just needed some more time before Hikaru realizes that he loves Haruhi."

"Kaoru!" Hikaru emerged from the bathroom looking refreshed.

"Anyway, plan C will help Hikaru…"

"What?" Hikaru looked at his brother puzzled.

Kaoru smiled. "Nothing. Let's go!"

Chapter Seven: True Hitachiin Style? What are they planning?!

"All the commotion, what is going on?" Haruhi had arrived at school the following morning. And it was even more chaotic than usual. She passed a group of people who were shrieking about something written on a poster stuck on the wall. Just out of curiosity, Haruhi frowned and peeked through the crowd. In large letters were the words;

PROM KING AND QUEEN NOMINATIONS

-and right under the PROM QUEEN section was her own name. Her name scrawled in a very familiar handwriting.

"HARUHI!" The girls were squealing and looking at her in half absolute horror and half absolute delight. "Are you really going to go as a girl to the Prom?"

The cross dresser sighed. Of course, something like this was going to happen. She just didn't really realize it, because she was still half worried about Hikaru and Kaoru from last night. "Yes," she finally answered.

"Ah," someone said softly from behind her. "Looks like you're getting popular for the position." Haruhi glanced around and saw Kyouya.

"Did you put my name on that poster?" she narrowed her eyes.

"No. I merely spread the news that you are going as a girl. Well, in female attire. I did tell you didn't I?"

"Then why," Haruhi was annoyed, "does this look like your handwriting?"

Kyouya leaned in close to examine the writing carefully. "Ah, very good forgery…I know only two people who might do something like this…"he muttered.

"Haha," Haruhi could almost guess. "What is Prom King and Queen anyway?"

"Haruhi!" A jubilant cry welcomed her. Tamaki threw himself around the corner and grabbed her. "I think you need some educating! Come along." And he proceeded to drag her off alone to the special secret hideout.

"Oh no!" Hikaru had just arrived and he had a malicious grin on his face.

"Hikaru!" Haruhi stepped towards him in concern, "Are you ok from last night?" Kyouya and Tamaki gazed at him too. Hikaru glanced at Haruhi for the tiniest moment then looked away. "Tamaki dear," he continued in a mocking voice, ignoring Haruhi, "I don't think you're allowed to talk to Haruhi alone."

"Fancy kidnapping her at school…" drawled Kaoru, who appeared from the other side. "We're here to…"

"MAKE SURE you don't disobey Haruhi's father!" Hikaru smirked. In his hands, he held Ranka's newly written letter of instructions. Of course he had just stolen it from Tamaki's bag.

"WAA NO! I CAN'T BELIEVE RANKA DIDN'T RECEIVE MY APOLOGY!!!" Tamaki screamed, clutching his heart at the memory.

"Look here," Kaoru said in delight, "It says here that under any circumstances…you can not be alone with Haruhi until you finish these tasks!"

"Ah some ordinary commoner labour," Hikaru read from the letter, "Clean the car, wash the dishes, vacuum all rooms, dust the shelves, iron the clothes…" he paused, "Can you even do all that?"

"GAH, HE THINKS I'M A SLAVE!!!" Tamaki screamed.

"Um, excuse me but I actually do most of that at home, are you suggesting I'm a slave?" Haruhi muttered.

"RTCFTFTVGT&!!!" Tamaki was hit twice with imaginary lighting. "Then I will save you from all the work!" he said majestically.

"That's the spirit," Hikaru chuckled, "It says here it is testing your consideration towards the girl. But there are more…climb Mount Everest, swim across the Atlantic Ocean, run an Olympic marathon, starve for 14 days…"

Tamaki fell to the floor in shock. "…"

"It says here that it will test your manliness and strength," the twins couldn't stop laughing.

"Then I will prove my manliness!" Tamaki rose from the ground looking extremely determined.

"I can't believe you're taking it so seriously…" Haruhi muttered.

"Ah Haruhi dear! I'm doing all this for you!" Tamaki grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the Third Music Room. "But first I'm going to teach you more about Prom customs."

Kaoru and Hikaru zoomed in front of them. "Tut tut," they shook their heads and looked seriously at Tamaki. "You're not allowed. You can't be alone with Haruhi, not even to teach her more about the Prom."

"Unlike us," Hikaru emphasized, "We get to be with Haruhi all the time."

"Ha…" Haruhi was exasperated. The twins and Tamaki were still going on about it. "And I thought Hikaru and Kaoru were upset, and Tamaki knew about that."

"That's what I thought too…" Kyouya took out his notebook and started scribbling secret notes in it. "But if they're going to go about it this way, that's fine by me. True Hitachiin style I suppose…"

"Huh?" Haruhi raised one eyebrow but couldn't puzzle it out.

"By the way," his eyes flicked towards her, "You're coming this weekend to finish your dress shopping with me, right?"

"Yeah…" Haruhi nodded but she was still gazing at Hikaru and Kaoru, still deep in thought.

Afternoon lessons:

"So what are Prom Queen and King?" Haruhi wondered out loud. It was one of the rare free lessons both Haruhi and the Hitachiins had together, and she was idly hitting her pen across the desk because she had finished all her work.

"Well, we'd better tell you haven't we?" Hikaru winked at her. He sat on her right.

"Prom Queen and King," began Kaoru, who was sitting on her left, "Is a tradition of any Prom. People nominate any girl and boy as the queen and king."

"And basically what happens is that they have to dance together at the Prom in the final dance, where everyone watches them," Hikaru finished.

"It's a popular thing. People like to match make others."

"And I," said Haruhi twitching her eyebrow, "get nominated for Prom Queen? Last time I looked, I've got the most number of points!"

"Well, the girls at this school are particularly amused that you're going as a girl. It seems fun to them to put you on the list."

"Force you to dance with a guy. Of course they don't know you're a girl." Kaoru winked at her.

"How wonderful…" Haruhi said sarcastically. "Though I suppose it isn't too bad. I stopped getting letters. Girls don't want to go to the Prom with me if I end up wearing a dress."

"ARGHHHH!!!!" All three of them heard a strangled cry. And out the window of the classroom, they saw Tamaki being chased by a giant robot. It was the same one he was battling before.

"Hehehe…" the twins chuckled.

"Wow…" Haruhi couldn't believe the robot had emerged again.

"You You You !!!!" they could hear the angry cries of the gay guy from last time. He was following Tamaki with his robot. "You had to get Haruhi to dress as girl didn't you? I wanted him to wear a suit!"

"Ah well…" Kaoru patted Haruhi's head. "Yes good news for you, but not for others."

"Ah ha ha…" Haruhi really couldn't care less. "He'll live," she said with the faintest indication towards Tamaki. She was quite used to the things that Tamaki got involved in. "Hmmm….who's going to be Prom King then?" Haruhi pondered. Hikaru and Kaoru glanced at each other. "We don't know," they shrugged. "All of our names are on the list. All the Host Club members have quite an equal chance of getting it. It will depend on our advertising skills."

"Advertising?" Haruhi said faintly.

"Yeah, by any means. We've already done ours. It's a video we're distributing."

Good grief…thought Haruhi, this must only happen in Ouran, nowhere else… Hikaru and Kaoru were smirking at her silent response. She snapped out of her thoughts and looked at her friends carefully, because she could still sense a tension in their bodies even though they were acting like trouble makers. It had been there for the whole day. "Can I ask you guys," she asked gently, changing the topic, "Are you ok from last night?"

Their eyelids lowered a fraction as they stared at her. "We're fine," they answered in unison. They both stood up and marched out of the classroom. "We're going to the library to do some work. Seeya!"

"What is going on?" Haruhi puzzled. They had already left. And usually they would have dragged her along too.

Night at Tamaki's Mansion:

Tamaki was extremely depressed. "I can't talk to Haruhi," he muttered over and over again in some sort of mantra. He was crouching under his bed, in total darkness, and had just discovered he really couldn't do all the tasks Ranka had set him. "I can't talk to Haruhi in private because I can't get her alone…unless I do the tasks…unless I-"

"AH!!!" Tamaki was suddenly hit by a brilliant idea. "I'm such a genius!" he hugged himself. "If I can't get Haruhi alone, that doesn't mean I can't talk to her alone!"

He grabbed his mobile phone and looked at it admirably. "This," he proclaimed, "Is the world's best invention. I can talk to Haruhi alone by ringing her!!! And," he went on gleefully, "I have her number. I obtained it from Kyouya a long time ago. This is brilliant!"

Bring Bring

Tamaki waited in anticipation. Just another couple of seconds Haruhi will pick it up. Just another couple of seconds I will hear Haruhi's voice. And then I can tell her-

"I'm sorry. You have reached the number 0-4-0-3-4-5-2-6-7-4-3-4-1-8-9-5. "

Tamaki was absolutely bewildered. "Hey, that number isn't what I dialed. Mobile phone numbers aren't even that long."

"-Haruhi isn't available-"

"WHAT?!" The recorded voice sounded suspiciously like two familiar voices, and they had just confirmed Tamaki's worst fear. But wait, there was more:

"BEEP. If you are Tamaki Souh, press 2…"

Tamaki thought he had heard it wrong but he grabbed onto that chance and pressed 2.

"We are very sorry to advise milord that he can't ring Haruhi's mobile because he isn't allowed to by Ranka's command."

"GAH!" Tamaki threw his mobile phone across the room and it landed in his fish bowl. "YOU HITACHIINS!!!!!"

A/N: Just to make things clear, the Hitachiins' plan C has not been revealed yet. Next chapter will be the surprise!

Btw, would you like to participate in voting for Prom King and Queen? I'm not sure whether people would want to or not, so tell me please! You will be able to pick any existing character from Ouran.

Thanks for so many wonderful reviews! I really do appreciate all the support. It motivates me to write more.

lu.e3