A/N: Here's the second chapter. Written by Mpathy.

Disclaimer: We don't own Ouran Highschool, because if we did, it would be a tad different. And no, we're not making any money off of this...blah blah blah. You know the deal. Just some fanwork.

Mpathy

Honey:

"Waaaah!" I cried loudly, knowing no one would hear me because I was in a room that no one ever

used. "Aaaahaaaa!"

"Honey-senpai?" I heard a familiar voice and immediately stopped crying, hastily trying to wipe away my tears as I turned to the door. There was Haruhi, with her books in her arms and a concerned look on her face. "Why were you crying?"

"Haru-chan!" I cried, running over to her and throwing my arms around her shoulders, knocking her to the ground in the process. "D-do you know…what today is?"

"Today? The date?" she asked in confusion, sitting up and trying to pry me off of her. "It's the 27th of April, isn't it?"

"Yes! Do you know what that means?" I asked, pleading up at her with big eyes. She tried to scoot away, but I held fast to her arm.

"Um, no… What does it mean?"

"It means there are only…" I let go of her and counted on my fingers. "…6…7…8 days till Takashi's birthday!"

"Mori-senpai's…birthday?" she muttered thoughtfully, and I nodded. "Well why is that a bad thing? Won't you celebrate it with him?" At this point, I burst into tears again.

"I would…but…I don't have a present for him!" Haruhi just looked at me for a minute, then she started laughing. Laughing! She laughed at me because I was crying! Because of that, I started crying even harder. When her giggles finally stopped, she put a hand on my shoulder and smiled at me.

"I don't think Mori-senpai is the type of person to be upset about not getting a present for his birthday," she explained. "You two are best friends, aren't you? So he'll be glad just to spend his birthday with you. Right?" I thought about it, and it did make sense.

"I guess," I sniffed, wiping my eyes. "But…but he's gonna be 18! That's special, isn't it? I have to get him something!"

"Well, why haven't you gotten him anything yet? Just buy something big and expensive and he'll love it…well, Tamaki would, anyway," she said, rolling her eyes. "What would he like?"

"I don't know," I replied. "That's the problem! I don't know what to get him… Can you help me, Haru-chan?"

"Me? You know him better than I do," she said. When I started to tear up again, she quickly changed her mind and stammered, "W-well, I guess I could, uh… Honey-senpai, have you thought about making something for him?" I cocked my head to one side and gave her a puzzled look.

"Making…something? Like what?"

"You mean you've never made a birthday present?" I shook my head, and she sighed. "Well I'll help you, then. Do you have any old pictures of you and Mori-senpai?"

"Uh-huh, but how can we—"

"Just bring them by my house later today," she interrupted, holding up a hand to quiet me. "I'll help you, and I'm sure he'll like this much better than any present you could buy. Now I have to go to class; see you later, senpai!" I sat there for a few minutes after she'd left, trying to figure out what I could make with a bunch of old pictures. I trusted Haru-chan though, so I gathered up all my stuff and headed to the third music room for the rest of the school day.

After school, just as I had been told, I went home and gathered up every picture I had of Takashi and me together, put them in a box and had my driver take me to Haruhi's house.

"Haru-chan!" I called from outside the door, unable to knock because my hands were full. "Haru-

chaaaaan!"

"Who's yelling at—oh," Haruhi's papa said when he opened the door, looking surprised to see me.

"It's you, Mitsukuni-kun. But…where are the others?"

"They aren't coming," I giggled. "Haruhi and I are working on a secret project, Ranka-san!"

"Ooh! Well then, by all means, come inside," he laughed, opening the door further to let me in.

"Haruhi, Mitsukuni-kun is here!"

"Hi, senpai," Haruhi said with a smile, peeking her head out from behind a wall. "Come in here; I have everything ready." I did as she said and found that Haruhi had set up a corner of the room with a bunch of different colors of paper, lots of glitter, glue, scissors, just about everything you could want for an arts and crafts project.

"What's all this stuff for, Haru-chan?" I asked, setting my box down on the floor.

"You're going to make a collage," she explained. "Of you and Mori-senpai. He'll like that, won't he?"

"I guess," I muttered, wondering what was so great about a bunch of pictures glued to a piece of paper.

"Trust me, he will. Now, let's look at your pictures." She opened my box and her eyes widened. "Uh…this could take longer than I thought. Look, senpai, there are a lot of a pictures here; could you maybe just pick your favorites?"

"But they're all important!" I argued.

"Even this one?" she asked, pulling out a crayon drawing that I'd made several years ago.

"Especially that one!" I cried, snatching it out of her hand and hugging it close to my chest. She sighed.

"All right, but you're going to have to work hard on this," she warned. "And it's going to take a lot of time."

"But Takashi's going to like it, right?"

"I think so," she said, smiling again, and I grinned back.

"Okay!"

So, every night for the next week, I met Haruhi at her house and we worked on my special present for Takashi. In the end, I had a big poster filled with pictures. I had wanted to put more, but Haruhi said there was no room. At the top, in big, colorful letters it said "Happy Birthday, Takashi!" I was very happy with it. On May 5th, I was nervous and excited all day, just waiting for the time when I could finally give it to him. Finally, we both wound up in the third music room, and I managed to get him away from everyone else into a back room (where I'd hidden my present). I made Haruhi come too, because, I said, she'd helped me so much.

When I finally presented my present (with some difficulty; it was almost as big as I was) and told Takashi to open to eyes, he looked surprised at first, and I was worried he didn't like it. Just as my eyes were starting to fill with tears, he smiled. It was subtle, and probably no one else would've noticed, but I saw it, and I smiled back tentatively.

"Thank you…Mitsukuni," he said, glancing over at me, and I giggled in reply.

"I had lots of help from Haru-chan, so you should thank her too!" He looked at Haruhi, who blushed, and nodded.

"It was most Honey-senpai, though; I just—"

"Haruhi!" I heard Tama-chan's voice ring out from the main room. "You have customers out here

waiting for you!"

"Hai!" she called back, turning to run back inside quickly. "Happy Birthday, senpai!" Takashi was now looking over his present more carefully. There were photos of every year we'd known each other; so many I could hardly remember when some of them were taken.

"I remember this," he said softly, pointing to the drawing I'd made so long ago. "It was the first day

we met. Do you remember?"

"Mm-hmm," I said, sitting down on the floor next to him. "Hee, you were so young, but so serious. I remember you pledged your loyalty to me that day."

"And you laughed," he continued, his smile growing a little.

"I think you've gotten a little less serious since then," I said.

"And you've never been serious," he laughed, shaking his head and pulling me up into a hug. "Thank you again, Mitsukuni."

"You're welcome," I laughed, kissing his cheek. "Happy Birthday, Takashi…"