A/N: Yay! New adorableness! I wanna know what you think, so please read!
Title: Snow Days
Author: liketolaugh
Rating: T
Pairings: None
Genre: Friendship
Warnings: Unlikely circumstances
Summary: The Host Club's first meeting - before it was the Host Club.
Disclaimer: Sadly, OHSHC is not mine.
Haruhi pocketed some money and grabbed her box of snacks, walking out the door of her family's apartment. She hadn't been sent out today, and by now, she really needed to go grocery shopping. Normally, she would have gone two days before, but with first Ryoji, then Tamaki calling her out to play, there had really been no time. Honestly, it had been careless of her father to forget, but that was Ryoji for you.
Regardless, she was going out for groceries, or at least, with the intent of getting groceries.
It didn't actually happen that way.
This was because she hadn't turned two street corners before she stumbled upon Tamaki, who spotted her instantly, holding the hand of a pretty blond woman.
"Haruhi!" he cried, surprised.
She sighed and instantly resigned herself to waiting another day for groceries, changing direction to meet with Tamaki instead. "Hi, Tamaki."
Tamaki waved furiously at her. "Haruhi, Haruhi! This is Maman! She isn't sick anymore, so we decided to take a walk."
Haruhi looked up at her with wide, curious brown eyes. Tamaki's mother smiled warmly down at her. "Hello. So you're the Haruhi that Réne's told me so much about these past two days? I'm glad to meet you. Thank you for taking care of my son while I was ill."
Both of them ignored Tamaki's indignant sputtering.
Haruhi tilted her head. "We just made a snowman," she puzzled.
"A really big snowman!" Tamaki enthused.
"That was your fault," Haruhi told him bluntly.
He flew into a corner and moped miserably. His mother hid a fond giggle behind her hand. "Réne, why don't you have fun with your friend? I'll be fine on my own."
Like magic, Tamaki was up again, looking at his mother with worried amethyst eyes. "Are you sure, Maman?"
She smiled. "I'm sure. Go have fun, Réne."
Tamaki smiled back hesitantly. "Okay, Maman." He turned away and then darted toward Haruhi, already his enthusiastic self again. "Haruhi! Let's go to the park! We can do more commoner things, like snow angels and snowballs!"
Haruhi sighed and turned toward the park, letting him chatter away at her, pausing only to wave goodbye to his mom, who smiled fondly after them.
Haruhi got a (short) break from the endless chatter when Tamaki started and yanked out his cell phone, calling the others one by one. By the sound of it, all of them agreed.
Strangely, though, there seemed to be a few who only agreed after he had mentioned that she would be coming… Haruhi shrugged. Rich people.
Finally, Tamaki hung up with the last person – Kyoya – and grinned at Haruhi. "They're all coming!" he announced proudly, as if she hadn't been listening the entire time. "They'll meet us there."
He stuck his phone back in his pocket and bounded happily after Haruhi, back to chattering.
They soon reached the park, but didn't head for a clearing this time. This was because the entire group, plus two people Haruhi didn't recognize, had somehow gathered on a single bench. The park's benches, Haruhi knew, could comfortably hold up to four people.
This one currently held seven.
Mori sat on one end of the bench normally, with Honey perched happily on his shoulders. On the other sat Kyoya, scribbling in his notebook, and between them were the two people Haruhi didn't recognize, one who looked like Honey, and another who resembled Mori. Finally, on the back of the bench, Hikaru and Kaoru lounged comfortably, grinning at each other as if sharing a secret.
Haruhi waved once. "Hi."
Heads snapped up to look at her, one after another, with the two strangers looking up last.
"Haruhi!" the twins cried together, waving fervently. "Over here, Haruhi!"
Haruhi considered, shrugged, and then walked toward them, stopping at the back of the bench. "Yes?"
Each twin grabbed one of her arms and hauled her onto the back of the bench. She looked blankly from one to the other, legs dangling freely over the back. Finally, she told them,
"You could have just asked."
They both grinned at her and she looked over her shoulder at the new kids, curious. "Who are you?"
Honey beamed at her proudly and pointed at the boy who looked like him. "That's my little brother, Chika! And then right next to him is Mori's little brother Satoshi!"
Haruhi gave them a puzzled look; they hadn't brought their younger brothers before.
"They wanted to meet our friends," Honey added, well used to interpreting silences and expressions. "So they followed us!"
Haruhi paused to process this for a moment, and then gave both of them a smile. "Hello, Chika. Hello, Satoshi. It's very nice to meet you."
Both of them waved at her.
"It's nice to meet you as well, Haruhi," said Chika. "Mitskuni's told me a lot about you."
Satoshi grinned at her. "And Taka-bro's talked about you, too!"
She was confused for a moment, but then remembered that Mitskuni was Honey's real name, and Takashi was Mori's, hence Taka-bro. She looked away, kicking her legs slightly. It was starting to be uncomfortable to look over her shoulder. "They never mentioned you," she said absently.
Both of them flinched. Honey giggled softly and Mori gave a small, amused smile. Well, that was Haruhi for you. As blunt as a hammer and almost as unforgiving.
"I'm bored," complained Hikaru, breaking the moment.
"Yeah, when are we going to do something interesting?" agreed Kaoru.
"Later," Tamaki dismissed, grinning. He leaned back and peered at Haruhi. "Hey, Haruhi, what's that?"
He was referring to the box she had in her lap, which she had somehow managed to keep intact thus far. She looked down at it, almost surprised. She'd forgotten about them. "Just snacks," she replied. She opened the box. "There's enough for everybody." She'd packed a lot, since she wasn't sure if she would meet up with anyone. And a good thing too.
Most of the original group, remembering the soup from the day before, dove for the box instantly, grabbing up the random snacks she had in there, which consisted of little cookies and rice balls. Even Mori and Kyoya reached for the box, though with less enthusiasm than their friends. Honey also pushed a few cookies into his brother's hand.
"Try them!" he encouraged.
Mori also picked one up and dropped it into Satoshi's open hand. "Try it," he rumbled, knowing that Satoshi would definitely like it. Not that there was a lot he didn't like – he had no taste buds.
Both of them bit the cookies – Chika with no small amount of skepticism, seeing as he didn't like sweet things – and smiled, Satoshi a bit brighter than Chika.
"It's great!" enthused Satoshi. Chika nodded in agreement, but mumbled,
"A bit sweet. I don't really like sweet things."
Satoshi hit Chika on the head. "Don't complain!" he snapped at the smaller boy. "Your big brother's friend was kind enough to give you a cookie and you shouldn't complain about it!"
Chika flinched away. "Stop it! Stupid Satoshi!"
Haruhi tilted her head and looked at Chika, who flinched again. "You don't like sweet things?" she questioned.
He shook his head warily.
Haruhi rummaged in her box for a moment, then pulled out a rice ball and offered it to him. "Here, try this."
With a bit more interest he took it from her and tried it. "Not bad," he decided. Honey beamed at him. Satoshi smiled approvingly, seemingly satisfied.
Tamaki yelped. When they looked over, they found the blonde boy looking a bit shocked, with a snowball plopped on his head.
An evil snicker made them look to Hikaru, who grinned innocently.
No one was fooled.
"Evil twins!" Tamaki raged, unable to tell which one was which and therefore which one had hit him. "I'll get you!" He hunched over and scooped together a little snowball, chucking it at Hikaru in the next moment. It missed and hit Haruhi. "Ah!" Tamaki yelped.
Haruhi blinked, frowned, and then jumped off of the bench, beginning to walk away, and causing Tamaki to panic.
"Haru-chan!" Honey called, worry in his voice. "Where are you going?"
Haruhi didn't answer, but she stopped walking and bent over. She reached into the little snowdrift at her feet and started scooping some snow together. Those still at the bench watched her with a strange sort of fascination.
Then she turned around and threw the ball at Tamaki.
For a moment, he blinked, gaping at her. "Haruhi?" he managed finally, looking shocked. She just looked at him.
Then Hikaru cheered, "Snowball fight!"
"I'm on Haruhi's side!" Tamaki said instantly.
"So are we!" the twins said together, jumping off the bench and hugging Haruhi between them.
"Yay! Takashi and I are with Haru-chan too!" cheered Honey, looking excited. He hopped off Mori's shoulders and scurried over to them, grinning.
"Mm," Mori agreed, going after him.
Kyoya let out an exasperated sigh, but closed his notebook. "I suppose that I am as well."
"Hey!" Chika objected. "If you're all on Haruhi's side, then that just leaves me with Satoshi!"
They all frowned.
"But I wanna be with Haruhi," Tamaki protested.
"Me too!" Honey pouted. Mori nodded. The twins both clung tighter to Haruhi, glaring at Chika. Kyoya looked at the pair of them with a hint of challenge and pushed his glasses up his nose.
"Well, then, I suppose you will simply have to… up your game, as it were."
Both of them paled.
"Hey! Hey!"
A few of the kids who had been playing on the other side of the playground jogged over to them. One of them, with dark hair and light brown eyes, grinned. "Is it too late to join in?"
Satoshi grinned, a little relieved. "Not at all!" he assured them hastily. "Come over here, we're a little low in number." He shot the other side a dirty look. Kyoya smirked at him.
Four different people joined the other side and that was all it took.
"Let's begin," Kyoya said coolly, a smirk on his face and a snowball in his hand.
And so began the snowball fight. Snowballs flew every which way, no one was spared. Some hit the ground, some the trees, but most of them hit people.
Most of them hit Tamaki. Not all of them came from the opposite team. In fact, Haruhi was pretty sure that the twins spent more snowballs aiming for Tamaki than aiming for the other team.
At one point, Chika hit Honey with an especially large snowball, prompting Satoshi to hit him over the head.
"Don't hit your big brother!" he commanded.
"Ow! Ow!" Chika protested angrily. "Stupid Satoshi!"
Most of them, though, did reach 'proper' targets, meaning unrelated people on the opposite team. Haruhi smiled slightly, flinging another snowball and being snowballed in return. This was fun. She'd nearly forgotten.
But, finally, all of them collapsed tiredly into the snow. Or what was left of it.
"Fun," grinned a girl on the opposite team, smiling at Haruhi. Haruhi blinked back, but returned with a tiny smile of her own.
"Fun," Haruhi agreed.
"Let's do it again!" cheered the other girl on the other team, flailing around.
Chika stood and shook his head. "No," he muttered. "Satoshi and I have gotta go home now."
Satoshi got up, too, grinning. "But let's do it again sometime!" he agreed, looking at Mori. Mori looked back and then nodded once.
"Maybe," the older boy allowed.
Satoshi beamed at him. "Great! Yasuchika and I'll be going now." He grabbed Chika by the wrist and dragged him along, protesting, behind him down the street.
In the moment of silence after they left, Kaoru grinned.
"Let's go to our house!" he suggested, gesturing to himself and Hikaru. "We can warm up and have hot chocolate."
"And sleep over!" added Hikaru, grinning madly. "Let's do it!"
Kyoya pushed his glasses up his nose, sitting up. "I have no objections."
"Sounds like fun!" beamed Honey, hopping up. Mori followed, a little slower, and nodded.
"Yeah!" agreed Tamaki enthusiastically.
They looked at Haruhi. She shrugged and then nodded. "OK."
Both twins grabbed Haruhi and led the way there, bouncing excitedly. The rest followed, save for the strangers, who had resumed the snowball fight by themselves.
After a long time and many wrong turns, they finally ended up in front of a large manor house.
"This is our main mansion!" Kaoru told them proudly, grinning. "Come on!"
They went inside, and were almost immediately greeted by servants, who were in turn sent away to get lunch, hot chocolate, and towels.
"This way!" grinned Hikaru, gesturing down a hall and then proceeding to lead the way. They wound up in a living room, with a few armchairs and one very large couch.
Haruhi suspected that this was not an accident.
Soon, they were all settled on the couch, and each of them had their hands curled around a mug of hot chocolate. The servant who had brought them to them bowed. "Your hot chocolate, Kaoru-sama, Hikaru-sama."
Both of them looked at her, slightly dismissively. "Thank you, Yanu-san," they chorused boredly.
Haruhi tilted her head and smiled at her, though. "Thank you, Yanu-san," she echoed.
Yanu smiled back and then exited again, promising that lunch would be ready soon.
As soon as she was gone, Hikaru asked aloud, "What should we do?"
Haruhi shrugged and took a sip of her hot chocolate. She smiled a little, deciding that she liked it. And that it was really, really fancy. Rich people…
"I don't know," pondered Kaoru. "Maybe we should…"
"Play with our toy," they finished together, grinning evilly.
"Your toy?" puzzled Tamaki, looking at them.
Both of them sprang on Haruhi, who focused hard on not spilling her hot chocolate. "Haruhi, of course," they said in unison, rubbing their cheeks against hers. She sighed.
"I am not a toy," she informed them.
"We could play a board game," Honey suggested, swinging down from his vantage point on Mori's shoulders.
"What board game?" Tamaki asked, excited now.
A pause as they all thought.
"Monopoly," Mori finally rumbled. They all looked at him. Then most of them grinned. Even Kyoya got a glint in his eyes.
"Monopoly!" Honey cheered. The twins grinned at each other and rushed off.
They started to play, with Kyoya, naturally, as the banker. It was a while before they realized that lunch had, at some point, been brought in, and they started to eat it. Haruhi, while enjoying the food, grimaced.
She did not like Monopoly. She was also far worse at it than anyone else here.
It was hours later, or it seemed like it, when it finally was done, with Kyoya as the winner. Who was surprised?
Not Haruhi. Who was the first out.
"Hikaru, Kaoru."
The unexpected voice made both of them jump, along with just about everyone else in the room.
"Dad?" Kaoru questioned. "What are you doing here?"
The man, apparently their father, chuckled. "Well, you hardly ever bring friends over. I had to meet them."
Hikaru jumped up and instantly pointed out each person, introducing them.
"That's Kyoya, Tamaki, Honey, Mori, and…" Both he and Kaoru sandwiched Haruhi between them again. "Our beloved toy commoner Haruhi!"
"I am not a toy!" Haruhi complained. Rich people…
He chuckled again. "Well, it's very nice to meet all of you."
"It is nice to meet you as well, Hitachiin-san," Kyoya replied formally, making no indication that he intended to move.
Mr. Hitachiin's eyes ran over the group. "I'll make the call to their parents and make sure that they know where their children are," he chuckled, turning to walk away.
He wondered if Haruhi-chan's parents would approve of this.
Somehow, he doubted it.
Once he left, there was a brief, awkward moment of silence.
"We could play in the showroom," Kaoru finally suggested. Hikaru brightened.
"Yeah! And Mother will be pleased to have a lot of people to try on her children's line on."
Together, they finished, "Let's go!"
And that was how the group ended up in the showroom. Unsurprisingly, Haruhi had a lot more to try on than the rest of the group, being the only girl and so the only one who could wear the girls' outfits.
She wondered who wore them when she wasn't here.
"-and get that new shipment here faster, really, Nina-" The woman talking on the phone cut herself off to look at them. "Ah! Hikaru! Kaoru! You're here!" She frowned, looking a little surprised. "With friends? You never bring friends."
"You always say we should," they both reminded her.
She chuckled and, regardless of whoever may be on the other side, shut her phone. "So I did." She looked at one of the twins. "Well, Kaoru, why don't you introduce me?"
"I'm Hikaru, Mother," complained the twin she'd looked at.
"I'm Kaoru," added the other, exasperated.
Haruhi tilted her head and regarded Mrs. Hitachiin with a slight frown. It was obvious, wasn't it? It was obvious which twin was which. So why couldn't Mrs. Hitachiin tell?
Mrs. Hitachiin chuckled sheepishly. "I'm sorry, dears, you just look so very alike."
Both of them glowered at her. She jumped suddenly and then, with an energy previously almost hidden, whirled on the girls who had been having the small group of children trying things on. "You three! Have all the items been tried on?"
One of them nodded frantically. "Yes, ma'am, they're all good! Very good!"
She nodded sharply. "Good! Then you…" She paused to look over her shoulder and count the small group. "Seven. You seven go… do something." She flapped a hand at them dismissively. "Go on."
The group looked at each other, shrugged, and went back the way they came, retracing their steps back to the living room that they had first settled in.
"What now?" complained Hikaru.
"Maybe…" Tamaki mused. Then he snapped his fingers and grinned. "We could watch a movie!"
"Sounds like fun!" Honey beamed. Mori looked up at Honey and then nodded.
"Yeah."
"It could be interesting," Kyoya conceded.
"What do you think, Haru-chan?" Honey asked her, grinning and clinging to Mori's head.
Haruhi looked up at him, tilted her head, and then replied, "I'd like that."
The twins grinned together. "We'll go choose one!" they chorused. They grinned at each other and rushed from the room, while almost everyone else exchanged confused looks.
Long minutes passed and then they returned, Kaoru clutching a little DVD box. "Monsters Inc.," he said with satisfaction.
Tamaki's eyes widened. "Monsters? But what about Haruhi?" he protested, clutching at Haruhi fearfully.
Haruhi gave him a blank look. "I like Monsters Inc.," she informed him.
He deflated. "Oh."
Hikaru stole the DVD from Kaoru and popped it in, and they settled down – quiet for once – to watch it. Before long, dinner was brought in – and it didn't take long for people to forget whose belonged to who, since everyone (everyone) was stealing from each others' plates – and eaten, with very little attention paid to it beyond mentioned stealing, all eyes focused on the movie.
Haruhi was the first to leave the couch. She slid off of her seat between Hikaru and Tamaki onto the floor, laying on her stomach and resting her chin on her arms.
Only minutes later, the twins followed, Kaoru pressing close and leaning his head against her left arm while resting his chin against his own, while Hikaru did the same on her right. Not a word was spoken, but both of them grinned at her. She didn't notice, eyes intent on the screen.
Tamaki, predictably, was next, laying himself across Kaoru's legs so that his head and arms landed on the small of Haruhi's back. Kaoru twisted to glower at him briefly, but opted to ignore it, instead settling back into his previous position.
The next one came as a surprise, or it would have if they were paying attention. Kyoya slipped off of the couch and joined them, half-curling up close to Kaoru and angling himself just enough to continue to watch the movie as it played across the screen.
Somehow, it didn't seem to take up quite as much attention as before.
Haruhi's eyes started to flicker shut, her head lowering further onto her arms, and she let out a soft sigh. Both twins looked at her, but their faces split with yawns and soon they, too, were relaxing slightly, heads lolling. Kyoya's head drifted down against Tamaki's side and Tamaki yawned. His eyes, too, drifted closed.
Mori and Honey looked at each other. Honey smiled, and so did Mori.
Softly, quietly, they slid down beside Hikaru and soon they joined their friends in sleep.
Half an hour later, several servants came in, fully prepared to escort the group to bed. But the first one in jumped slightly, eyes widening, and then whipped around to turn to the others, pressing a finger to her lips. She gestured to the group in front of the television.
All of them had moved around a bit, and they were a mess of limbs and heads and a few torsos just barely visible. Sleeping faces rested against limp arms and boneless legs, and in the middle of the whole pile was Haruhi, breathing softly and evenly in sleep.
They smiled and turned around, a different task in mind now. They soon returned, armed with blankets and pillows, and the mess of limbs and heads became a mangled pile of blankets, pillows, and people, all carefully maneuvered so that not one of them so much as stirred.
One of the maids snapped a picture just before she left.
Because that's what it was; a picture-perfect moment.
Now this was just plain fun. Well, I don't have a lot of time - and am publishing late AGAIN - so please, please review!