A/N: I am SO sorry this took so long! I do have my reasons (read: excuses) but I'm sure you're not interested. So... go ahead!
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.
Tamaki was the first to wake up, yawning. For a moment, he blinked, looking around in confusion. Then, slowly, a wide smile spread across his face.
Of course, it vanished when he realized that he was all tangled up in other people.
He looked up, or rather, bent his head back, and then beamed, seeing Haruhi's sleeping face nestled between the twins'.
"Haruhi!" he whispered. "Haruhi!"
Haruhi stirred slightly, accidentally waking the two boys beside her, and blinked her eyes open sleepily. "T'm'ki?" she mumbled, frowning at him. Her frown deepened when she realized their situation. Her brow furrowed. "Hm…"
In unison, each twin raised a fist and rubbed at one of their eyes tiredly. "Tamaki," Kaoru complained. "It's too early…"
"Yeah, go away, Tamaki," Hikaru agreed grumpily. "Go back to sleep."
Tamaki had just woken Kyoya, though, and was no longer paying attention to the twins. This, they realized quickly, was because a just-woken Kyoya was very scary.
"Tamaki," Kyoya growled dangerously, intimidating gray eyes looking at Tamaki with a glare of death.
Tamaki whimpered. Then he launched himself at Haruhi and wailed, "Haruhi!"
Haruhi yelped as Tamaki collided with her and clung there, crying. She shook him off and treaded over to a very grumpy Kyoya, and tentatively placed her hand on his arm.
"Good morning, Kyoya," she greeted quietly.
Kyoya glared at her, but she didn't move. After a moment, he dropped back down and let out a groan.
"Too early," he mumbled pathetically.
"Mm," the just-woken Mori agreed. Then he turned and shook Honey lightly. "Mitskuni. It is time to wake."
Honey let out a pathetic whine and cracked his eyes open to peer at Mori. "Takashi…" he growled halfheartedly.
"It's breakfast time!" the twins, who had woken up completely, chorused, grinning. Each of them grabbed one of Haruhi's arms and dragged her out the door, laughing. She sighed. Rich people…
In no time, they had reached the apparent dining room. Briefly, it occurred to Haruhi that, though they had now eaten two meals here, this was their first time eating in the dining room. Then she was sat down between the twins (much to the apparent chagrin of just about everyone else) and she forgot the notion as she stared blankly at the food-laden table in front of her.
Each boy, plus Haruhi, had been given a huge plate of food, each with a different assortment. Even the twins had different foods on their plates. Instantly, the boys began eating, and Haruhi just shrugged before following suit.
Tamaki was the one to start it, they would all later claim. He grinned at Kyoya and gestured at him maniacally with a piece of toast. "Kyoya, Kyoya, try it, it's good!"
Kyoya gave him a skeptical look before taking the toast and biting into it. He nodded thoughtfully. "I suppose it is," he conceded.
He didn't give the toast back. Tamaki didn't ask for it.
Shortly after that, foods were suddenly being handed back and forth so that no one was keeping their original breakfast.
"Takashi! Eat this, eat this!"
"Hey, Haruhi-"
"-Try this one!"
"Try this, Tamaki, I think you'll like it."
"Mitskuni. It's sweet."
"Hikaru, I think you'll like this. And Kaoru, try this one."
To anyone looking in on them (such as the maids currently staring at them) it was pure chaos. But to them, it all felt somehow right, natural.
It was also kind of fun to alarm the maids.
But finally, all of the food was in a stomach, and the plates were empty, if not necessarily clean. For a moment, all of them just sat there, mildly confused as to why it had stopped. Then Honey broke the abrupt silence.
"So, what are we gonna do today?"
All of their minds easily switched to that track, and they thought about that.
"Commoners' stores?" Tamaki suggested finally.
That got a positive response from pretty much everyone but Haruhi, who sighed but agreed, if reluctantly. Once she did, they looked at her expectantly. Apparently, she was expected, as the commoner, to think of somewhere more specific for them to go. She sighed again. "Department store?" she suggested.
They agreed. Enthusiastically. And a plate or two may or may not have been broken when they did so. And then another when they stormed away in a cloud of chaos.
Haruhi led the way towards the one nearest, but tripped on something hidden in the snow, and she fell down into the drift. She frowned and looked down for a moment. Then an idea sparked in her mind and she turned over, starting to move her arms and legs back and forth. An awkward silence descended on the boys, which Kyoya eventually broke.
"Haruhi? What precisely are you doing?"
Carefully, Haruhi sat up, and then climbed out of the mark she'd made in the snow. She pointed. "Snow angel."
They looked at it.
"It really does look like an angel!" Tamaki exclaimed enthusiastically. "The ingenuity of commoners!"
He flopped down into the snow himself and started flailing. When he stood, his did not look like an angel. He wilted.
Kyoya, though, set his notebook aside and laid down, much more carefully than Tamaki had, and was soon rewarded with a much better snow angel. He smirked at Tamaki, who flew into his corner of woe.
After that, all the people wandering the streets in that area found themselves unable to cross that particular section of sidewalk, littered as it was with flailing children.
When Kyoya finally pointed out that they had intended to go to the department store, only then did the boys reluctantly stop their snow angel-ing and continue on their way, chattering happily.
When they reached it? That was when the real chaos started. Because as soon as they arrived, the boys scattered.
Haruhi groaned and covered her face. Then she shook her head and started to go after them.
"Whee! Faster, Takashi, faster!"
She looked over to find poor, helpless customers scattering in the face of a vaguely amused-looking Mori pushing an ecstatic Honey along in a cart.
"Haruhi!"
She looked over to find the twins grinning at her from the end of a long trail of tomato sauce. Hikaru was holding the jar, while tomato sauce covered Kaoru's fingers. Haruhi would guess that it had been Hikaru's idea, but Kaoru was the one dabbing it artfully on the ground.
She looked down at the tomato sauce again. "It looks like blood."
Hikaru grinned. "Exactly!"
"It looks like someone bled all over the floor," she reiterated, wondering if they had actually understood.
Kaoru grinned. "Exactly!"
Ah. So that had been the intention. She looked at them, sighed, and elected to move past them without further comment.
"Come, en garde, good citizen! Let us do battle for the fair maiden!"
Tamaki was waving a long tube of wrapping paper at a confused-looking customer, who was looking at him warily. He was alone, no fair maiden in sight.
From this, Haruhi surmised that Tamaki was referring to her, and she went to remedy that immediately, stealing his roll of wrapping paper and returning it to its place. Then she returned to a dejected Tamaki and gave him a flat look. He wilted.
"Sorry, sir," she said apologetically to the man, who nodded warily and left in a hurry.
Haruhi dragged a dejected Tamaki behind her, then paused as she noted a Caution: Wet Floor sign. She let go, considered, looked at Tamaki, considered, picked up the sign, and moved it to a carpeted area.
Tamaki beamed at her.
She walked off, Tamaki scurrying after her, and they soon stumbled upon Kyoya.
Who was standing in a large cardboard box full of candy.
"Commoner's candy?" he offered them, holding out a Snickers bar, flanked by Honey (who was pouring in more candy) and Mori, and acting as casually as though it hadn't been his idea in the first place. "Honey bought it," he added at Haruhi's annoyed look. It didn't fade. He shrugged and made a note in his notebook.
They moved on.
At some point, Haruhi lost Tamaki, but spotted him later, darting about like a movie spy and humming 'Mission Impossible' loudly. She sighed.
Then she was abducted.
"Are you going to make a habit of this?" she inquired, looking at the two twins, who had hauled her on top of a shelf in the Fishing aisle. For some reason, Kyoya was with them too, now, looking at her expectantly.
Both of the twins grinned at her and nodded in unison, then Kaoru dutifully handed her a fishing pole. She looked at him blankly.
"Take it," he urged.
She sighed and took it.
Both twins produced fishing poles of their own, flinging the lines over and peering over, directing it as necessary to catch something. She followed suit, shrugging to herself.
When she reeled it in, she found it attached to a shirt. She stared at it blankly, then threw it back.
"Too small?" Hikaru quipped, grinning.
"Gotta throw it back," Kaoru agreed.
She didn't reply, but noted that the shirt had landed on someone's head, and that someone was looking around, very confused. She ducked back, blushing lightly.
"We caught Tamaki earlier," Hikaru whispered to her with a grin.
"By his shirt," Kaoru agreed, almost as wickedly amused as his twin.
Haruhi covered her face.
Kyoya, bearing a fishing pole of his own, complete with hundred dollar bill on the end, glanced at her and pushed his glasses up, hiding his expression. Both twins, though, grinned.
At that moment, Kyoya let out a quiet chuckle, peering over, and reeled in his line. A shocked cry and then an embarrassed groan beneath them signaled that he'd 'caught' someone.
Haruhi rolled her eyes and slipped off the shelf, landing neatly on her feet, and then strode to the middle of the floor, where she promptly laid down in the middle of the floor.
The twins and Kyoya stared at her in confusion. So did Tamaki, when he came around, stopping in the middle of another round of 'Mission Impossible' and Mori and Honey, pausing in their pelting people with jelly snacks.
They soon understood, though, when within minutes, people began to cluster around the 'sleeping' Haruhi, murmuring anxiously, staring at her.
"Brilliant," Kyoya murmured to himself, smirking.
"Didn't know she had it in her," Hikaru said in wonder.
Abruptly, Haruhi sat up, and gave all the gathered people her best puzzled look. In unison, they all jumped guiltily and backed away hastily. She smiled to herself, then up at the open-mouthed boys.
It was who-knew-how-long later, and the small group was in the camping aisle, setting up a tent. The store was in mass chaos, but they hadn't been confronted – yet. The employees seemed afraid to approach them. Very, very afraid.
But. About to attempt to set up the tent.
Tamaki was actually bouncing in place, beaming down at the jumbled mess of canvas and poles in front of him. "Haruhi, Haruhi! How do we set this up?"
She looked at him for a moment, then down to the mess, then back to him. She tilted her head. "I don't know."
He fled into a corner to mope.
The twins, on the other hand, darted to press on either side of Haruhi, grinning. "Let's find out!" they chorused.
Kyoya pushed his glasses up, made a note, and shrugged. "I would not be adverse to that."
"Let's do it!" Honey cheered.
"Mm," Mori agreed vaguely.
And they set upon the poor, crumpled little tent with all the enthusiasm of a pack of hyenas on their prey. Their cackling, the reason for this comparison, ensured that they were not disturbed.
It was Haruhi who untangled the poles from the canvas.
It was Honey and Mori, mostly under the direction of Kyoya, who correctly laid out the rumpled fabric.
But it was Tamaki who, upon his return from the Corner of Woe, worked out how to put the poles in their tubes.
And so they stood before the fully erected tent, very proud of their achievement.
It was at that moment that the twins, who had abruptly disappeared during the preparation, returned, bearing a variety of pillows and blankets, most likely from the Bedding department. Hikaru also carried two loaded water guns, resting innocently atop the mass of white sheets.
"Hey, you got it up!" Kaoru said brightly, drawing her attention from the colorful water weapon.
"Here," Hikaru added, shoving a pillow and a blanket at Haruhi. "They're yours. Keep them."
Haruhi received the bedding with a warm smile. "Thanks, Hikaru."
Hikaru grinned at her, ignoring the slight blush dusting across his cheeks.
Kaoru, meanwhile, carried some of the rest into the tent and dumped them unceremoniously on the ground, and Hikaru followed, doing the same. In the next moment, Haruhi ducked in after them, bearing her own prizes.
The rest of the little group was already inside, squabbling over the bedding, so she shrugged to herself and zipped the tent shut behind her.
When all the blankets and pillows were divided up, each person settled comfortably on top of their stack. And they began to talk – about anything, about everything. Every question someone could possibly think of, and some they couldn't, was asked and answered. Everyone was enjoying themselves more than they could have thought possible in a little tent set up in a store, but inside, it felt like they were locked away in their own little world.
Then someone unzipped the tent and poked his head in.
Hikaru's response was immediate, violent, and very, very like him.
He shot the man in the face with the water gun.
Well, now they knew what it was for.
When the man didn't leave fast enough, Kaoru followed up Hikaru's shot with his own, and the man hurried away, pursued by the angry boos of the boys and even Haruhi.
When, finally, he was gone, Honey huffed. "Intruder," he mumbled mutinously.
"Ah," Mori agreed, looking even more stone-faced than normal.
The twins glared at the closed door, Kyoya made a note in his notebook, and even Tamaki mumbled incoherently, shooting glances in the direction the man had gone.
But soon, the little commotion died off, and they went back to talking as though nothing had happened.
But, what seemed like a long time later, they started as a large man poked his head in the tent, prompting Hikaru to shoot him in the face. Which Hikaru did. With much glee, and a fair bit of prejudice (he was interfering, after all). The twins cackled together as he gasped and sputtered, face gradually growing redder and redder, and finally he roared,
"I've had enough of you crazy kids! Wrecking my store, terrorizing my customers, causing chaos! Out!" Catching sight of Haruhi's blushing face, he added, "I expected better of you, Haruhi!"
"Sorry, Manager-san," Haruhi mumbled, looking mortified.
And that was how they got kicked out of the department store.
Laughter rang out into the street as all seven of them tumbled out the double doors, pursued by various enraged employees.
Kyoya was the first to speak, pushing his glasses up, as composed as though he hadn't just been kicked out of a store for being chaotic. "So. What shall we do now?" He smiled, and honestly, it looked kind of scary.
"We're hungry!" the twins complained together.
Honey nodded vigorously.
Tamaki tilted his head and placed a finger on his chin in thought. Then he grinned. "Let's go to a commoner's restaurant!" he declared triumphantly, treating it like some grand idea.
Honey beamed. "Yeah!" Mori nodded once in agreement.
"Where do you recommend, Haruhi?" Kyoya inquired unconcernedly.
Haruhi tilted her head in thought for a moment, copying Tamaki's previous pose almost exactly. What place would be cheap enough for them to consider it a commoner's restaurant, but nice enough for them to actually eat? Then her eyes sparked slightly as she got an idea and she began to lead the way for the second time that day. The boys scrambled after her, chattering.
Finally, she located the place she was looking for, and pushed open one of the double doors. She let the others pass by her, and then reclaimed the lead, looking up at the hostess with a slightly tilted head. "Table for seven, please," she requested quietly.
The woman leaned over, concern gleaming in her eyes. "Sweetie, I don't think-"
Mori looked up and pinned her with a stony gaze. Kyoya looked up, too, grey eyes flashing behind the lenses of his glasses. He glanced at her nametag, and jotted something down in his notebook.
Once he had done that, he said, voice chilly, "I believe she requested a table for seven."
She looked startled, but honestly, even Haruhi had to admit that in that moment, Kyoya looked intimidating. "U-under what name?" she asked tentatively.
Kyoya hesitated for just a moment, considering. Well, considering her appearance, she was most likely to recognize… He glanced at Hikaru, who grinned wickedly.
"Hitachiin," Hikaru told her.
For a second, she froze, gaze darting to Hikaru, and then to Kaoru. Her eyes widened. "O-oh! Of course. Right away."
And they were rushed to a table.
There, a waiter was rushed over just as hurriedly, which none of the boys looked confused by. Haruhi rolled her eyes. Rich people.
"M-may I take your order?" he stuttered, gaze shifting from person to person.
In unison, the boys leaned over their menus curiously.
"I want that!" Hikaru said almost instantly, pointing at one of the large dishes meant to be shared. Kaoru nodded quickly in agreement.
"That looks alright," Kyoya added, indicating another from the same section.
"Ooh, ooh, I wanna try this!" exclaimed Tamaki, brandishing the menu while pointing at another from that section.
"Hey, Takashi, let's get this!" Honey put in, pointing at another from a section Haruhi couldn't possibly guess. Mori nodded.
"Mm."
Haruhi looked from friend to friend, and then smiled wanly at the waiter. "I guess we'll be sharing a few things," she told him. He gave her an uncertain smile.
"Get something, Haruhi, get something!" Tamaki insisted, shaking her arm.
She sighed, looked again, considered, and then pointed to something.
From the share section.
She smiled.
"And to drink?" the waiter asked, seeming to gain confidence a bit.
As each boy, and finally her, placed their drink order (no sharing this time), Haruhi considered. And reconsidered. It was probably mean of her to take the boys here… eh. The staff would get over it. She looked at them again, and smiled warmly. They beamed back.
"Hey, Haruhi," whispered Hikaru, grinning. He pointed. "Look at that guy!"
She looked over, head tilted, looked, and then giggled.
The man had pink hair, was wearing a rainbow kitty shirt, and, most importantly, kissing a tablet.
Kyoya eyed him distastefully. "Stay away from him, Haruhi," he told her, before jotting something down in his notebook.
And so they started pointing out funny people – a woman holding her yipping dog like a baby, a man with a chicken, a child hanging upside down, anyone who looked the slightest bit amusing.
When the food came, they didn't bother tracking who'd ordered what, and eventually the guy gave up and set all of them in a circle in the middle, which suited them just fine. They started portioning it out, not necessarily for themselves, without even really thinking about it, and they just kept on talking.
They didn't even notice as people who'd been there when they came in filtered out, and new people were seated around them. Stories were told, complete with emphatic gesturing (mostly from Tamaki), jokes told, and even a few secrets admitted in whispers.
No one told them to leave. Well, not that Haruhi had noticed, anyway, though at one point (or two, or three) Kyoya had shot a sharp warning look at somewhere out of her sight, glasses flashing. She wasn't sure anyone else had noticed.
But the sun sailed through the sky, people came and left, and not a one of them acknowledged it. Not the passage of time, not the stares, not the whispers of confusion, they just laughed and smiled and, in the case of Hikaru and Kaoru, teased Tamaki.
Then, finally, it was dark, and the poor, brave manager of the restaurant had to approach.
"I apologize," he said formally, handling the small group better than anyone else had so far that day. "But the restaurant is closing; I'm afraid that I'll have to ask you to leave."
Kyoya was the one who finally, after a long moment, looked up from the current discussion of summer activities, and nodded once, grey eyes flashing in displeasure. "Fine." He turned, took a deep breath, and then said loudly, "Tamaki, Hikaru, Kaoru." Get them, and the rest will follow. "It is time to leave. Now."
His tone brooked no argument, and after a lot of groaning, they got up, complaining, and started to shuffle away. One or two yawns were stifled, and Kyoya glanced up at the manager again, slipped the necessary payment (and then some) onto the table, and followed after, smiling to himself, just a little.
"Just because pools are generally used in the summer doesn't mean that they cannot be used at other times," he called after them, following as they slowed for him to catch up.
The manager groaned, covered his face, and dropped into a chair.
"I have to go," Haruhi said finally, looking up to the clock.
Tamaki instantly threw himself at her, crying, "Haruhi! No!"
She pried herself free and stated, "Dad's probably worried. I should go."
Honey looked up at her with wide, tearful eyes and whined, "No!" He pouted for a moment, and then brightened. "Hey, Haru-chan! You'll come again tomorrow, right? We can go explore the commoner's mall!" Then, hopefully, "I'll bring cake!"
She looked at him, puzzled, and then nodded. "Of course," she said matter-of-factly.
They beamed.
When Haruhi arrived home, it was to a father who was slumped on the couch, moaning to himself.
"Dad," she called dispassionately. "I'm home."
He was up and on her in a moment. "Haruhi! Oh, Daddy was so worried, Haruhi, why did you go off like that, staying all alone with those nasty boys-"
Haruhi sighed.
Whee! More fun! Less pure sugar, I think, but a lot more humor, and then some friendship. Or, you know, a lot of friendship, and huge, massive quantities of bonding. Hope you liked it! Please review!