"Let's all play the 'Which one of us is Hikaru Game'!"
The yellow clad girls who were usually in attendance to the Ouran Host Club giggled and applauded the twins, appreciating the dark green hats that both twins were wearing that day.
"Soooooo….can you tell which one of us is Hikaru?"
"Well…it's hard to say!" one girl admitted with a blush.
"You're identical!" another girl chimed in.
"Many ladies have tried to tell us apart, but so far none have succeeded." The pair hummed, completely in sync.
Before anyone could really reply to that, Haruhi strolled by, a handful of books in her arms.
"That's the dumbest game I've ever heard of." She muttered to herself. Of course, Hikaru and Kaoru overheard, given that it was them that she was talking about, and they turned in unison.
"What, have you got a problem with it, Haruhi?" they challenged.
"Not really. I just don't understand why the two of you are so popular." The brown haired girl replied nonchalantly.
"That's not very nice."
"I'm disappointed."
"Apparently you don't understand the merits of having a pair of twins as members of the Host Club."
"Listen up. Having a couple of good looking guys with homosexual tendencies earns the club high points. It also helps with the two struggle with the attraction in their friendship."
"And in our case, because we're twins, our relationship is taboo. Therefore more intriguing."
"And besides, who hasn't fantasized over twins. Having two loves is better than one, don't you think?"
"It's a young woman's romantic fantasy."
Haruhi's eyes flickered back and forth between the pair of twins.
Behind his pair of binoculars, Ryoka's face was twisted into an amused smirk as the events of the Host Club reached his ears, providing him with quite the amusing visual to go along with what exactly he was seeing.
"YOU BRIBED HER, DIDN'T YOU!" Tamaki wailed dramatically.
The twins shrugged and said something, to which the blond second year fumed, yelling, "YOU IDIOTS! THAT'S A WASTE OF YOUR SKILLS! HAVE YOU NO SHAME!?"
"You know, don't you think we should be doing something more productive with our time? Like, say, going to class?" Ryuuji asked as he blinked one eye open, pulling his large headphones away from one ear as he looked at his brother.
"Now, now. We all know that that 'class' isn't a class. It's a club. And to be honest, no. Just because we have to be in a club doesn't mean we have to attend." Ryoka pointed out. "Besides, you have a strange habit of falling asleep in trees for no reason. Don't even start this conversation with me."
"Suit yourself." The other blond shrugged, closing his eyes and going back to listening to his music.
-;-
"There's something not quite right about today…" Ryuuji muttered as the trio took their seats in World History. "Look. Suoh's even twitchier than usual today."
Renji and Ryoka followed their triplet's gaze, over to where Tamaki appeared to be giving himself a miniature pep talk and looking around warily every couple of seconds, like he was expecting something to jump out at him.
"Nekozawa?"
"Nah, that ends up worse than this. Probably something else this time."
"What do you think it is?"
"No idea. Should I throw Elizabeth at him again?"
"Probably not, Renji." Ryoka and Ryuuji deadpanned, eying up the python around their triplet's neck warily. "Maybe next time."
"He provides such a wonderful target. Who am I to ignore all the signs of the universe?" the tallest Kizuko asked far too innocently.
"Uh huh. We'll go with that one." Ryuuji rolled his eyes, straightening ever so slightly as the teacher called for attention.
-;-
At lunch, Renji took the lead and managed to get three seats that made it so the three of them could at least see each other. He and Ryoka took one side of the table, while Ryuuji took the other, headphones hanging around his neck loosely.
However, before any of them could begin eating, a rather loud argument broke out over at the counter. Turning around in their seats, Ryoka blinked at the neon hair colors of none other than the Hitachiin twins.
"Oh dear." Ryuuji commented. "It would appear that someone managed to screw up at the hairdressers."
"Something tells me this wasn't a screw up." Renji shook his head.
"And neither is that." Ryoka sighed, jutting his chin out in the direction of the open door, where the rest of the Host Club was standing.
"I'm turning on my music. Let me know when Suoh's done talking." Ryuuji rolled his eyes, pulling on his headphones and almost immediately relaxing. Apparently music had been playing the entire time, but no one could hear it.
"-You're a disgrace to the Host Club." Tamaki was saying.
"Think I can launch Elizabeth and get him in the face?" Renji asked conversationally.
"Uhh…probably." Ryoka replied. "But probably not a good idea today. Might not end well, judging by the looks on the walking piñatas faces."
"Darn. Next time, I guess." Renji shrugged, allowing the python to curl up on the table, small hearts popping up around her head every once in a while as Renji affectionately rubbed the top of her smooth head.
The good news about that, fortunately, was that their small group of fangirls gave them a wide berth, not willing to risk going near the snake and the trio of rather attractive males. As to why they would avoid them simply because of a harmless snake, Renji couldn't fathom, but he wasn't about to look the gift horse in the mouth.
The unfortunate part of having Elizabeth on the table…
Honey-senpai was immediately attracted to her. As in, a homing beacon sort of reaction. Somehow, from all the way across the hall, the tiny third year managed to catch sight of her and mysteriously end up at their side three seconds later, amber eyes huge and shining as he looked at the snake.
"Lizzie-chan!" he cheered, grinning as he hopped into the chair next to Ryoka. "Hi Ren-chan! Can I hold Lizzie-chan?"
Renji blinked. Had he managed to jinx himself or something by thinking it was a blessing none of the girls were approaching them?
Probably, looking back on his luck.
Oh well. At least he knew he'd probably be able to put up with the small blond.
Hopefully.
"Uh…sure?" he shrugged, going back to eating his stir fry. "Just be gentle."
"Okay~!" Honey cheered, stars lighting up in his eyes. Moving down to table level, he looked Elizabeth straight in the eye, a bright smile on his face.
"Hi Lizzie-chan. May I hold you? Ren-chan said it was alright with him." He stated in all seriousness that he could, what with his grin on his face.
Elizabeth seemed to be startled for a moment. All of the hearts around her head disappeared, and she tilted her head to one side curiously. Someone other than her master wanted to hold her?
She raised her head, looking at her master, who gave her a look that clearly stated she could do what she wanted. Then, she turned back to the small boy in front of her and smoothly moved up the proffered arm that was held out for her, quickly winding herself around the boy's neck like a strange scarf.
"Wow…" Honey-senpai oohed. "She's so pretty!"
With those words, Elizabeth settled in happily on Honey's shoulders, tiny hearts popping up around her head again. She liked this boy! He called her pretty! And he asked if he could hold her first, unlike some of the other people that she'd come into contact with in the past.
"Look Takashi! Isn't Lizzie-chan pretty~?" Honey asked as his ever faithful companion seemingly appeared out of nowhere, almost causing Ryoka to screech in surprise. How many damn people were going to mysteriously appear out of thin air today?
Another disturbance from the twins drew everyone's attention back over to the pair, and before anyone could do anything, food was flying through the air. In fact, as the crowd watched, it wasn't just food, but various miscellaneous objects as well. And- was that a teddy bear?
"Alright, lunch is adjourned. I'll see you guys in the garden if you need me. I've had enough crazy for today." Ryoka muttered, shielding his books as he stood and easily disappeared through the sparsely scattered students, managing to avoid all but one small portion of what appeared to be pork.
"Does this happen often?" Renji asked Mori, continuing to pick at his food. The dark haired male grunted before shrugging one shoulder and nodding.
"Let me guess. They're after attention?"
Mori blinked, then nodded again.
"Thought so. Want a piece of cauliflower?"
Another grunt, and a shake of the head.
"Alright then, looks like we're done here. Haninozuka, may I please have Elizabeth back?"
"Sure thing, Ren-chan!" the blond immediately replied, although he did look a little upset to see the python go. However, he brightened as he watched her rewind herself around Renji's shoulders, so everything turned out fine in that regard.
"Come on, Ryuuji, you can nap outside." Renji huffed.
With that, the tallest of the Kizuko siblings grabbed the long haired brother by the back of his sweater and starting hauling him off towards the door, ignoring the startled yelps and squawks of displeasure as he did so from Ryuuji.
"I like them." Honey nodded, looking up at Mori as they were finally out of sight. "Do you really think we'll be able to convince them to join the club?"
"Maybe." Mori replied, watching the door where the trio had exited.
"I hope so. I like Lizzie-chan."
"Hn."
They weren't all that bad, when they were in short doses. All Mori had to worry about now was Honey wanting him to buy him a python of his own.
After all, he'd try to feed the poor thing cake- and only cake.
He wouldn't wish that fate on any living creature.
-;-
"Really? Again? Why do you keep dragging me up here to keep you company, Ryo?" Ryuuji whined. "Not that I'm complaining, the Art Club totally sucks considering everyone's considered amazing, but really? You could bring Renji up here every once in a while."
"Is this your way of saying you want a pair of binoculars?" Ryoka deadpanned.
Ryuuji pouted for several moments before crossing his arms and nodding. Ryoka rolled his eyes, reaching into his ever present book bag and grabbing another pair of binoculars before going back to watching the events in the Host Club room.
"Thank you." Ryuuji grinned cheerily, putting the pair to his face and watching the twins as they continued to fight.
"BEELZENEF THE CURSE DOLL!" one of the twins cried out angrily.
"Oooh, this should make things interesting. You should have seen Suoh's face when he saw Nekozawa in the hallway yesterday. I don't think I've seen anyone climb a wall that fast in my life. Well, other than that one time with Renji and the spider, but that doesn't really count, right?" Ryoka commented.
"Beats me. Wish I'd been there to see it, though." Ryuuji replied, a little mournfully.
As promised, the horrified scream from Tamaki echoed out from the Music Room moments later, causing Ryoka to smirk in victory.
"Hey look, Fujioka just opened a can of whoop-ass on them!" Ryuuji cackled a moment later as the brown haired host slammed fists into both of the twins heads, causing them to cringe and grasp at their wounds.
"And look, they were playing games the entire time." Ryoka sniggered as the pair of them smirked widely several moments later. "Must have been a ploy to get something from Fujioka."
"Probably. Maybe cause she's a 'commoner'?" Ryuuji suggested, lowering his binoculars and adjusting his glasses. "Who cares. Looks like the club's done for the day anyway. Might as well go check in on Renji and make sure he hasn't gone completely insane yet."
"You're forgetting that we live in the same house. Of course he's insane."
"Well, it was just a thought."
"Do us all a favor, and stop having thoughts. You might hurt yourself."
"Coming from the one who listens to music so loudly he completely blew out his eardrums."
"IT WAS ONE TIME!"