A/N: Sorry for the late update. I've been working on multiple stories at once. Enjoy :-)

Chapter 2

Mikado was standing in music#3 during his first day as an official host. Looking down at the outfit he felt ridiculous wearing he had begun to reflect on what had led to him being in this position.

The next day, after being introduced to Ouran's host club, Mikado and Masaomi somehow found themselves enrolled at Ouran. They were in the same class as Haruhi and the Hitachiin twins. Mikado was a little relieved that he was in the same class as one of his new friends here at Ouran. It made him feel a little more comfortable. The other host club members would often make him feel uncomfortable. They had such big and outgoing personalities. He was used to Masaomi being like that though.

Mikado and Masaomi would normally sit behind them in class. Masaomi seemed to get along with the twins pretty well.

Since Ouran was a bit of a bus ride to take every day, it was decided they should live closer to Ouran Prep. Mikado and Masaomi had decided to share an apartment that was close to the school. Haruhi had offered for Mikado to stay with them, Mikado didn't want to impose on them. Also, he was very hesitant to accept the same invitation to stay that Tamaki had offered to Masaomi and himself. They found that the Host Club paid for this apartment as well.

Masaomi's parents had no problem with him staying in a shared apartment with a friend. After all, it got him out of the currently still dangerous city. Plus, they were happy that Masaomi was taking an interest in his school studies for once (or at least that is how they wanted to see it).

Mikado and Masaomi were expected to show up at music room#3 early after school that day to begin their host training. Mikado's consisted of talking to the guests while Masaomi's consisted of manners and etiquette, since he already knew how to flirt, such as how to serve his guests correctly. Evidently it seemed that Masaomi struggled with this. He dropped his tray holding desserts and cups of commoners' tea several time. Each time Kyoya wrote down how much money he'd be owing the club from breaking the china teacups. Mikado couldn't help but feel amused by his friend's clumsiness.

His training however went very differently. Tamaki was teaching him how to talk charmingly to guests. For some reason he had Mikado practice on Haruhi, which just made him blush. The twins seemed very protective of Haruhi, hugging Haruhi from behind the whole time he was attempting to practice. He just couldn't do it! He got too nervous. Plus, Masaomi pointed out to Tamaki (after dropping another tray with expensive china on it) that Mikado had a fine enough time speaking kindly to girls when he as being himself and when he wasn't putting so much pressure on himself.

Finally after some intervening from Renge (who rose from the floor again) it was decided that it was best for Mikado to be himself when talking to guests. They would figure out how he should act differently with his crush later. Also, since Masaomi was unable to carry a tray correctly, Mikado would carry Masaomi's tray to Masaomi's guests for him (which just couldn't make Mikado stop laughing at).

Their stations would be right next to each other anyways. The girls seemed to swoon more when the best friends were with each other anyways. They seemed to love how close the best friends were. A least, that's how it seemed on the day they had a 'practice round' as hosts.

However, the first day the duo came to the host club, they were not aware that someone was already suspicious of the secret past they wished to hide. The moment the two Raira boys entered the music room, Kyoya noticed the yellow scarf around the boy's neck. He had remembered seeing some rumors about a group wearing yellow scarves around their necks on the internet.

His suspicions seemed even more supported when the two boys acted nervous when one girl asked them if they had been involved in anything gang related. He decided for now that he would have to keep an eye on these two. This was to ensure that no trouble were to come to the host club.

It was part of the reason he had set up for them to go to Ouran and paid for their new apartment. Since they were already being seen as host club material, he figured keeping them close was a good way to keep an eye on them.

He didn't share his suspicions with the others because he was curious to see what would happen. That, and some of their members had a tendency to overreact to unexpected information. He wouldn't get the chance to explain that he had a plan before some of their morons were to react drastically (like they normally do).

After watching Haruhi's conversation with the new guy Mikado, the twins had exchanged a look. As Mikado left to join Masaomi, the twins came up behind Haruhi and each wrapped an arm around her shoulders like they often did.

"Hey Haruhi."

"Yes? What do you want?"

They pouted at her lack of reaction from their 'sneak attack'.

"We couldn't help but notice your conversation there with that Mikado guy."

"What was that about?"

Haruhi sighed."Figures you two were watching. What do you mean by what was that about?"

"Oh, well you know. Just the fact that he seemed to have-"

"-Thought it was okay to just hug you-"

"-even though you two just met."

"Does he suspect you of what you are?" They asked that in unison. All three of them knew what the twins were talking about.

"-Because you know-"

"It's really not very common to just-"

"-hug another guy like that."

"That is unless they're close."

"I mean, we've already established that he's not gay."

"So it seems like he would have suspected something."

Haruhi just shrugged at that."I don't know. I mean, he didn't ask me if that's what you're wondering. And you both know that I wouldn't have told him. I think though that if he does suspect that I'm a girl, he probably wouldn't spread that though. He seems like a nice enough guy. Plus, he's way to shy to say something like that out loud."

The twins seemed to pause in contemplation at that.

"Hmm, alright."

"But just so you know-"

"We'll still be watching him-"

"-for your own sake of course."

Haruhi rolled her eyes at their paranoia. Honestly, she appreciated that they cared, but sometimes they took their overprotectiveness a little too far. She just hoped they wouldn't do anything to that poor guy.

So again, here Mikado was at the host club. His first day happened to be one of the dress up days. They were dressed up as their 'types' as Renge put it. The Hitachiin twins were both wearing 'sexy' (emphasis on the air quotes) devil costumes. One of them wore a pink devil costume while the other one wore a blue devil costume. The girls seemed to love it though. Mikado had to admit that the whole 'forbidden brotherly love' act still creeped him out at times. Even though he had figured out that it was fake.

The small host they called Honey wore what appeared to be a light baby blue onesie with what appeared to be little kitten faces at the footie end. The girls cooed and swooned over how adorable he looked. Behind him stood Mori in what appeared to be a secret service type of security guard outfit.

Tamaki was in what appeared to be a Prince Charming outfit, which seemed to match his over-the-topness perfectly.

Kyoya, even though not entertaining guests, wore what appeared to be a nice cool black suit.

Haruhi wore simple commoner boy's clothes. They wore a blue t-shirt that seemed a little big on them and yellow baggy shorts. It seemed to match their simple natural style.

Masaomi wore what Mikado thought was supposed to be like a 'gangster'. Except, it looked to Mikado more like what he would normally wear when dressed casually. The main difference being that he wore a Raira-blue baseball cap with the brim facing the side. Also, he wore sunglasses with the lenses being yellow. Mikado supposed that Renge was trying to go for the 'mysterious' part of his type?

Masaomi was trying to act cool with his guests. Yet, just like the first day, these Ouran girls actually seemed to go for it. Mikado would have laughed at Masaomi's getup if it weren't for his current situation.

If they were supposed to be dressed as their types, that why was he forced to wear a pink bunny suit? It was so embarrassing, and he was pretty sure that his blush matched the color of the suit. The girls swooning over it didn't help at all. Haruhi had told him that the twins had tried to get them to wear it once. That almost helped knowing he wasn't the only one considered for the ridiculously cute costume. Almost.

"Mikado, you have your first guest for today."

Mikado sighed as he picked up his tray. As he turned around his eyes grew to be the size of plates when he saw who had requested him.

"A-Anri!" He stumbled and nearly dropped his tray from shaking hands. Seeing his balance difficulty, Anri immediately bent over and helped him catch the tray. Their fingers somehow managed to be on top of each other on the underside of the tray. They locked eyes for a moment, but then both immediately looked away. They quickly set the tray down on the table and took a step away from each other avoiding eye contact.

For some reason, Anri was wearing one of the yellow dresses that the Ouran girls usually wore. Mikado couldn't help but think that she looked absolutely beautiful in that dress. This didn't help with the heat already coming to his cheeks. He hadn't really seen her in yellow before, but he decided that it suited her rather well.

Both of them were blushing rather brightly. Partially from what happened while catching the tray and partially from the fact that he was wearing a pink bunny suit.

Mikado was sweating profusely wondering what he should do. He was completely mortified.

They were unaware that the whole interaction was being watched. A little farther back in the room Tamaki, Masaomi, and the twins were watching them. The twins had thought it would be funny to get him to wear the bunny suit. However, none of the four expected the girl he was crushing on to show up here since she was from Ikebukuro. After seeing his reaction to his crush being here, the twins instantly felt bad for making him wear that.

Almost as though all four of them shared the twins' telepathy, they all locked eyes with each other and nodded, as though a plan had already been made. The twins rushed over there, grabbed Mikado, and took off with him. Anri looked in the direction Mikado was taken completely confused. Then she looked over and saw Masaomi kneeling and handed her a white rose. She blushed and took it from him.

"Mikado will be back soon." Masaomi said as he stood up. "In the meantime, let's catch up a bit. It's been a while.

The twins dragged Mikado into one of the changing rooms.

"Hey! W-what are you doing!?" Mikado cried out.

"We're sorry about the whole bunny thing."

"We didn't realize your crush would be here."

"I mean, we're not that cruel after all."

Tamaki rushed into the changing room and looked through the many outfits that the host members had hung up. Tamaki picked one up and showed it to the twins for their opinion. The both raised their thumbs. Then, before he knew it, the twins were ripping the bunny suit off and helping him change despite many protests from the shy boy. It happened so fast before Mikado could even really think about it.

Masaomi and Anri were catching up with things that had been occurring in their lives when Tamaki swung by and dragged Masaomi away. Before Anri could even react the twins flew past and dropped Mikado exactly where Masaomi had been seconds before.

Off to the side Masaomi could be heard exclaiming, "A little warning would have been nice! You could have just told me he was back! You didn't have to drag me away like that!"

Anri couldn't help but gape at the Mikado before her. He was wearing a really nice tuxedo. He looked like he was still trying to get his bearings. He looked down to see that he was no longer wearing a bunny suit and instead looked rather nice. He scratched the back of his head and blushed, giving Anri a shy smile.

Anri looked down and blushed lightly, because he did indeed look very handsome like that.

Then, remembering where he was, Mikado cleared his throat causing Anri to look back up at him. He held up his tray and motioned towards the chairs by the table.

"Shall we catch with things then, A-Anri?"

She smiled and nodded. They both sat at the table.

Back where they had been watching the whole thing, the four high fived each other and cheered each other on for how well their plan had gone.

They both sat and started talking just to catch up with each other. Mikado offered her snacks from the tray, but she opted just to have some tea.

"So, um, what are you doing here anyways Anri? I mean, um, not that I don't want you here! In fact, I'm very happy that you're here! Um…" Mikado blushed again and laughed nervously.

Anri blushed also and giggled lightly at his cuteness.

"Um, well, I had been wondering why I hadn't seen you two around Ikebukuro in a while. Then Celty told me that you two had gone to join a host club in Ouran. Since I don't really have many other friends back home, I decided to come to Ouran as well so I could come see you. After all, Raira isn't open right now anyways. Mr. Akabayashi didn't mind signing me up to go to Ouran. He has an apartment near Ouran anyways so he said I could stay there with him while I'm going to Ouran Prep."

Mikado smiled at Anri. He felt kind of bad for leaving Anri, but that wasn't entirely his fault. The important thing was that she was here now and that made him very happy. Especially since she had come here specifically for them.

"Well, like I said. I'm very happy you're here."

"Yeah..."

"So, um, how is being a host?"

"Um, I'm not really sure yet to be honest. This is my actually first official day."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah, um, we had to go through a type of host training before we could officially be considered hosts."

"Training? What sort of training?"

"Well, um, we had to learn how to do things like how to serve guests properly. Masaomi was pretty clumsy at that part." Mikado said the last part quietly. Anri giggled quietly to herself at the thought of their silly friend dropping an elegant looking serving tray.

Masaomi had heard Mikado anyways, and had to restrain himself from retorting.

"Also, um, apparently I had to learn how to talk to our females guests properly, being polite enough, and um um f-flirting." Mikado trailed off as he said that last part, blushing and looking away from Anri. Unbeknownst to him, Anri was blushing as well.

"Yeah…Although, Masaomi fits in perfectly as a host though."

Anri snuck a glance at Masaomi who was back to entertaining some girls and then she laughed at her friend's antics. Mikado laughed too.

"I get the feeling it might end up being fun though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, at least that's what my friend Haruhi says."

"So, you've already made some new friends here?"

Mikado shrugged. "Just the one so far. I'll definitely enjoy being a host if I'm hosting you though."

Masaomi made a fist pump, feeling proud of what his friend had just said to the sexy Anri. (He was eavesdropping on their conversation while still hosting his own guests.)

As though realizing what he had said to Anri, Mikado blushed yet again and laughed shyly. Anri gave him a shy smile again, except this time she didn't look away from him. They both glanced down to see how close their hands were to each other on the table. They weren't even sure if they were thinking about it as their hands inched closer to each other. The closest they got to each other though was their fingertips just barely brushing against each other, but they were okay with that. It was a start. They looked at each other again and shared a warm smile.

"You know, Mikado, I think I will definitely come back to this club."

"I would very much so enjoy that if you do, Anri."

A/N: If you're wondering why Mikado refers to Haruhi has them instead of he/she, it's because he's unsure of whether she is a guy. That, and I find it weird to write he since I already know that she's a girl.