When I had finished changing, my brother and I walked out from the changing room. I thought that I could just pretend nothing happened and hope that no one noticed me screaming at the twins to not barge in on me when I was changing. But, of course that was just wishful thinking...When I came out, I saw the entire Host Club had been waiting for me to come out. Smiling nervously, I tried walking out. Of course, Tamaki blocked the door and the interviewing began.
"Not so fast, why didn't you tell us you were a girl in the first place?" Tamaki asked. He didn't say it in a snarky way, he was genuinely curious.
"Well, I never said I was a guy. Everyone in the entire school just happened to mistaken me as one. It's normal though, I got mistaken as boy even when I had long hair." I smiled at him sheepishly, with one hand rubbing the back of my neck. Then, I turned to the rest of the host club.
"You...you guys aren't going to kick me out or anything right?" I glanced at their faces nervously.
"Of course not! We think you make a great host Akari-chan!" Honey senpai was smiling sweetly at us. At hearing his words, I let out a sigh of relief, and gave him a sincere smile. Mori senpai just grunted.
"I don't see a problem in keeping you as a Host. In fact, I think you and your brother's presence will help the club more than hurt it." That sounded like a compliment. I think.
"And, you can be our new toy!" The twins said in unison. However, they didn't come over and try to touch me or anything since Arashi was standing right next to me.
"Who was the old one?" I asked, cocking my head to the side. At the same time, they slung their arms around Haruhi.
"Haruhi of course! You both can be our toys." The wore matching, mischievous grins.
"Now both you and Haruhi can be sisters! I being the father of course!" Tamaki was about to pull me into another one of his suffocating hugs but Arashi placed his hand on Tamaki's shoulder. Although Arashi was slightly shorter than Tamaki, being 5'9, he still scared the life out of Tamaki. The king immediately retreated behind Kyoya.
"Since when did you start acting so guyish?" The twins asked.
Thinking, I replied with a grin.
"My entire life of course! Didn't I tell you I have three older brothers?" As I answered their question, I had slung my arm around Arashi's neck.
"In fact, I'm pretty sure I'm wayyyyy stronger and more good-looking than a lot of the male students who go here." I smirked at them.
"Ohh! Poor little Akari! Having been surrounded by men your entire life has made you into an absolute tomboy!" Tamaki dramatically teared up. Again.
"Boys!" He pointed at the host club.
"We must help Akari get back in touch with her more feminine side! None of us here knew she was a girl until the little ordeal from earlier because of how unlady-like she talks, acts, and dresses!" Kyoya from the back adjusted his glasses.
"Actually, I knew ever since yesterday after looking through her files." Wait, my files? I whipped my head in his direction.
"What do you mean my files?" I eyed him up and down.
"Your profile, your school registration papers, your birth certificate, and other things." He gave us that fake polite smile.
"And how did you get them, exactly?" I was starting to wonder if he was a spy.
"I have my sources," he answered vaguely.
"You must be a professional stalker!" My eyes widened when I realized I had said my thoughts out loud. The Hitachiins bursted out laughing, but their snickers only seemed to fuel the annoyance or...dark rage that was looming over the Shadow King. The pen in his hand had snapped in two, and I swear I heard him growl. I gulped, then I turned back to the Hosts.
"Well, it's been fun today so I'll see you tomorrow!" I dragged Arashi out, I was pretty sure my thoughtless comment wasn't going to be forgotten. Based on what I've heard about that Ootori guy, whatever was in store wasn't going to be pretty.
"We'll probably get deported and sent to the North Pole." Arashi said as we walked towards the courtyard.
"S-shut up! N-nothing bad will happen!" I said this mostly to myself, trying not to freak out. I silently cursed my carelessness.
Later...
"So that's why you're so worried?" Osamu stared at me with one eyebrow arched across the dinner table.
"Haha, yeah..." I smiled at him sheepishly.
"Dummy," he muttered under his breath, then he continued eating his dinner while skimming the pages of a medical textbook. I rarely see him not studying when he's conscious.
"Don't worry little sis, you can always count on your big brothers!" Haku smiled at me cheerfully as he ate.
"I know I can. And besides, Arashi is always with me so you both don't need to worry." The last thing I needed was my two older brothers being too overprotective. Just having Arashi always following me was fine, but all three of them!? No.
"Are you really okay with having to act like a guy for the whole school year? Don't you have physical education next semester? You can't change in the men's locker room." Osamu didn't look up from his textbook as he questioned me. I blinked, I honestly hadn't thought about that.
"She could just join a sport over the summer! And change her schedule. Right?" Haku to the rescue.
"Yeah!" I then started devouring my noodles as if I was some ravenous wolf. I slurped loudly, but none of my brothers really minded.
After dinner, Osamu when to the study room to, well, study, and Haku and Arashi did their homework at the living room. I snuck back into the bedroom to read my favorite(but secret) shoujo manga. It was called "The Prince of Roses." I know. It's super cheesy and it's really stereotypical, but hey! The pretty boy characters and all the sparkles make up for it. I mean come on, bishonen. I read surprisingly romantic stuff that even the girliest of girly girls were ashamed to read! I never really liked a guy in real life before, maybe it was because I'm always surrounded by attractive men(my brothers) I've become immune. I glanced around, made sure that the room door was locked, and I sat on my favorite beanie chair and lost myself in the story.
"Oh senpai, I only seem to hurt everyone, especially you. It's best for everyone that I just stay away, I'm just too unloveable." Her long, magenta hair flowed in the wind, and the cherry blossoms showered down. A tall boy looked at her with shock on his ridiculously handsome face, and he roughly grabbed her hands.
"You don't understand Sakura-chan, you are the only girl who I love!" He pulled her into his arms, and sparkles shimmered in the background like stars.
"Oh senpai!" She blushed and the cherry blossoms continued falling down, and the wind continued to blow the couple's school uniforms and hair in one direction.
"Hey, she's mine!" Just then, another handsome boy grabbed the arm of the girl to pull her away from the other boy.
The first boy glared in anger, and grabbed the girl's other arm.
"No, she's mine!" The two ridiculously handsome students glared at each other, the girl blushing and confused on who she liked.
I heard a knock on the door. Jerking up I immediately hid the manga under the beanie chair and quickly unlocked and opened the door.
"Hey Osamu," I gave him my usual grin, pretending that everything was normal. Of course Osamu wasn't looking at me, he was sipping coffee while reading the textbook from earlier.
"Start on homework," he said as he entered the room and sat on his bunk.
"Yeah yeah," I waved my hand dismissively.
"Without looking up, he continued talking to me.
"I mean it young lady, if your grades drop, then-"
"I said okay! Geesh bro, you don't have lecture me about doing my homework every night." I started walking out of the room.
"Actually I do, or else you'd be too busy reading that manga of yours," he sipped his coffee, and briefly glanced at me while smirking. My jaw dropped.
"No I don't! I don't even like shoujo manga and-"
"I never said you were reading shoujo manga." He stifled his laughter and resumed reading the textbook. Face flushing, I bit my lower lip and sheepishly rubbed the back of my neck.
"Don't...tell Haku or Arashi for me...please?" I couldn't look at him in the eye. He didn't look up, but he smiled.
"We will see."
I left the room in a huff, I decided to finish all of my homework for the entire week. I've always done homework in this way. I always managed to convince the teachers to give me my homework early. It was a good thing my smile was so charming. If I got homework out of the way, I didn't have to worry about it! I smiled, and with determination I started.
The next day...
I blinked slowly. I had pulled an all-nighter doing homework, and I had almost finished everything. Almost. If I pulled another one, then I would be able to finish everything. Osamu occasionally pulled all-nighters as well, but of course it didn't please Haku or Arashi. Osamu let me steal some sips of his coffee on the way to school, I was pretty quiet during the car ride. Or would it be limo ride?
The day went by in a blur, and I was too tired to notice Kyoya sending me death glares throughout the day. That boy held grudges. And when Tamaki rambled on to me, I would just weakly smile and nod my head slowly. I would smile at the girls in an absent-minded, sleepy way, and my drowsiness started multiple fangirling sessions. Especially when I yawned.
School ended, it was time to go to the host club. I walked calmly to the host club this time, with Arashi walking next to me in a calm, civilized fashion. When we entered, the other hosts were getting set up. The theme this time was Ancient Rome.
"Oh hello Akari, you and your brother's costumes are in the dressing room." Kyoya was the first to greet us in his cool voice.
"Hey there professional stalker," I said sleepily as I rubbed one of my eyes. I thought I saw a vein appear on his forehead, like in anime.
"Kyoya is just fine," I think it took every ounce of self-control for him to say that without snarling at me.
"Sorry Kyoya, I'm just-" yawning, I didn't complete my sentence.
"How un-gentleman like! Akari, please refrain from being sleepy when in the Host club!" Tamaki scolded me.
"Haruhi, could you give Akari some commoner's coffee so she could wake up?" Haruhi walked away to retrieve the requested item. I looked at him funny.
"Commoners coffee?" Haruhi arrived just then(wow that was fast).
I smelled it, it smelled like normal, instant coffee. I sipped it, and it didn't taste much different.
"It's just normal instant coffee," I turned to Tamaki, who had been anxiously waiting for my reaction.
"What!? You already knew about it!? But how! You belong to a very high class family! You are one of the offspring of the most successful electronics business owner in the world!" Tamaki was real worked up, I kept drinking the coffee, it was waking me up.
"She and her brothers may come from a very prestigious family, but after the death of their mother they were all sent away to live in America where they were homeschooled. They lived amongst and like commoners since Elementary school, and of course they speak perfect English. Around three months ago, their father approved of them attending a private school, so they returned to Japan and are currently living in a single bedroom apartment complex." Kyoya smiled as if he was saying "I know all about you so don't you try anything," and I could feel my brother tensing up a bit.
"Yeah yeah, you didn't need to share our life story with everyone. And next time, if you want to know something just ask me! There isn't a single question that I find too embarrassing or too personal to answer," I gave him a polite smile so he wouldn't think I was challenging him.
"Any question?" The twins snaked their arms around my shoulders. Arashi almost instantly walked over, grabbed each twin's ears and yanked them away from me.
"Ow!" Said Hikaru(I think).
"That hurt!" Said Kaoru.
I grinned at them smugly.
"Yeah, if you successfully don't get pummeled by Arashi."
"Oh Arashi! It's so nice to see you are so loving and protective of your sister!" Tamaki slid his arm around Arashi's shoulders, who didn't look amused.
"Could you perhaps also be a big brother to Haruhi? The twins are quite a handful and I politely ask as her father that you keep her safe." Tamaki smiled at Arashi, who thought about it for a moment.
"If Haruhi is okay with it," he said.
"Wonderful! HAaaaRruuuuuHHhiiii!"
"What senpai," Haruhi came back dressed in a Roman toga.
"Meet your new older brother! He will keep those shady twins away from you!" Tamaki lightly pushed Arashi towards Haruhi.
"Sorry about Tamaki, Arashi-senpai," Haruhi smiled apologetically at him. He slightly smiled.
"You can call me Arashi." He then looked back at me, then started heading towards the changing area, and I followed.
I had way more customers than last time, and of course I cranked up my act just a notch. Arashi did too, his bad boy moments were more dramatic, and his tsundere moments were more adorable. He earned a lot of squealing from the ladies. I didn't receive much squealing, but that was because I didn't want to make the Host club any louder than it already was. All of my customers talked and chattered away with me. We talked on, and on, and on. The girls cranked up their charm and cuteness level, and I did too. As I pushed the hair away from the face of one of my customers, I said,
"You have really pretty hair! And it's so soft and long..." I gently played with her hair while gazing at it dreamily. She turned bright red and hid her face behind her hands.
"Ah! Er..." she was at lost for words. I cheerfully beamed at her.
"Lucky!" The two other girls blushed while looking and pouting at me.
"Stop acting so cute! I don't think I can take it much longer!" The customers giggled away and tried to get noticed by me. Behind all their sweet smiles, I could feel the jealousy and competition going on between all of them. They were seriously like an army of the "mean popular girls" from any shoujo manga, or the overly-obsessed fangirl club. My other customers were the sweet fangirls, but these girls were the meanest from the bunch. I always had to crack a funny joke that would ease the tension once every ten minutes. This was one of those moments, so I decided to tell them my favorite joke as a kid.
"Ladies, would you like to hear a childish joke? I'm not sure if you'll find it funny though." I definitely had all of their attention now. I started.
"A teacher asked a student, 'Do you know the alphabet?"
The kid said no, so the teacher said, 'Well, tomorrow you gonna have to say the alphabet to me.'
The kid went home and asked his mom, 'Mom, what's the 1st letter of the alphabet?' His mom responded, 'Sshhh, I'm on the phone.'
The kid asked his dad, 'Dad, what is the 2nd letter of the alphabet?' His dad was watching his football, and he said, 'Yes!'
He then asked his sister, "What's the 3rd letter of the alphabet?" She said, "Michael Jackson. Michael Jackson."
He then asked his little brother, "Bro, what's the 4th letter of the alphabet?" The little brother said, 'Driving in my vroom vroom car. Driving in my vroom vroom car.'
The next day, the kid met the teacher, she asked, 'What's the 1st letter of the alphabet?'
The kid answered, 'Sshhh, I'm on the phone.'
The teacher got angry and said, ' do you want to go to the principal's office?'
The kid responded, 'Yes!'
The teacher said, 'Who do you think you are?'
The kid said, 'Michael Jackson.'
The teacher said, 'How do you think you are going to get away with this?'
The kid said, 'Driving in my vroom vroom car! Driving in my vroom vroom car."
All three of the girls were smiling and giggling uncontrollably. They had more sense of humor then I thought, and I laughed with them. I really enjoyed my time at the club, I didn't remember smiling or having as much fun as I did now.
After many customers came and went, the club was over too soon.
"Thank you ladies, please come back! I will miss you all!" I smiled and waved as the last of my customers left.
"Bye Akari senpai! We will miss you too!" They left giggling. How adorable, I wish I could giggle like that...
I glanced over to where Arashi was, and one particularly clingy customer was holding onto his arm and refusing to leave. Tamaki and the twins tried gently pulling her away, but her grip on his arm tightened! Even though his face seemed fine, no one but me was able to see his eyes shift uncomfortably. He still kept up the tsundere bad boy act.
"D-don't touch me like that...It..it makes my chest feel weird..." He used his free hand to cover his "blushing" face, when really he was hiding a grimace. He wanted her off of him now. I dove in to rescue him.
Slinging my toned arm over my brother, I smiled while looking at her.
"Aww, look you made him blush! Maybe you can try to make me blush like that," I gently did the classic chin-tilting(that I had observed and learned from the other Hosts).
"Cutie," that one word sent her swooning and she flat out fainted. The King caught her of course, and her friends carried her away. All the lady customers had left the room now.
"Thanks," Arashi resumed to his normal self, and he sounded very relieved that the club was done with.
"You did a fantastic job again today!" Tamaki was beaming happily.
"All thanks to your lessons, king!" I shot a similar smile back at him.
He glomped on me and nuzzled his face on the top of my head, I smiled at him and patted his blond hair.
"You remind me of a golden retriever," I said.
"I do?"
"Yup. Blonde, kinda over-bearing, cute, lovable, friendly, and happy." He smiled then patted my head.
"If I didn't know any better, you like Tamaki don't you!" The twins said.
"Yeah, I do. I like all of you!" I gave them a boyish smile. Hitachiin's mischievous grins vanished and they started fanboying.
"She's so innocent and cute!" They immediately hugged me from both sides while doing the same nuzzling motion on the top of my head Tamaki had done earlier. Only, they were the same height as me so it didn't have the same effect. I was surprised, I was cute? I saw Arashi frowning from the corner of my eye, but I smiled at him to let him know I was fine. His facial expression relaxed, and he went to the dressing rooms to change back into his uniform.
"I'm...cute?" I looked at them questionably, then I pinched their faces so they would get off of me.
"Ow!" They said at the same time.
"Hah! I'm manlier than the two of you combined," I said jokingly.
"Nuh-huh," said Hikaru.
"You're not-" said Kaoru.
"Even a guy," Hikaru finished.
"So?" I stuck my tongue out at them. Then I playfully skipped away towards the changing room while humming. The twins and the rest of the Host club were probably staring at me. Prancing into the curtain area, I patted Arashi on the head knowing he changed first so he could guard me again. I closed the curtain behind me, and started to change out from my Roman toga. After changing back, I walked out into the club room again and I asked Tamaki:
"What's our theme for tomorrow?" I asked curiously.
"We won't be dressing up tomorrow, we will just be our charming selves," he was doing some princely poses again.
"Can...can I help with the themes and stuff? If that's alright with you boys," I asked, hopeful.
"If you're able to come up with good suggestions, then yes," Kyoya was scribbling something down in his notebook, what was he writing down anyways?
"Alright cool! Because I was thinking maybe next time it would be a sleepover theme!"
The rest of the Host members looked at me curiously.
"The host club would be turned into a huge blanket/pillow fort, and the costumes would be pajamas of course and the room would be dim and some lights would hang from the ceiling! And maybe there would be pillow fight competitions between us so the girls could get entertained and all." I grinned at them, I wasn't sure if my idea was the best but I thought it was pretty cool.
"That's actually not that bad! We're always dressed up, so maybe the guests would love to see us dressed down for a change! And some Hosts could reveal a little more skin than others, since that's what the ladies like." Tamaki seemed to approve of my idea, so I smiled.
"I think it would be successful enough," I could practically hear Kyoya's head calculating the amount of money that would be lost and gained from the theme.
"Glad my idea wasn't too stupid," I grinned at the group.
"Oh and Haruhi, could I um...get your number perhaps? I was thinking since we will be seeing each other a lot we could be friends..." I smiled nervously, I really hoped an actual girl wanted to be my friend. To my joy, she smiled and said yes. We exchanged numbers, but Tamaki asked when she got a cell phone. She revealed to us that the twins had got it for her, saying that it was part of a family plan. Tamaki sank into his emo corner. But he snapped out of it when Haruhi offered him her number. The twins asked for mine too, so I ended up getting or giving everyone my number.
"You can call me whenever you want to eat cake with us!" Honey senpai was just so adorable, and his cakes very delicious.
"You bet I will!" I gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder, and poked Mori's arm.
"You don't mind, do you Mori-senpai?" I gave him my boyish grin.
"Hn," it meant no. Good thing I was fluent in Arashi, his language and Mori's were similar. But, Arashi was easier to understand.
Arashi and I both waved goodbye after we all got or gave phone numbers, and when we headed to the limo . When we arrrived, we found that Osamu and Haku were waiting for us.
"What took you so long?" Haku asked in a whiny voice. Of course Arashi wouldn't answer.
I rolled my eyes then gave him the man-slap on the back.
"We were making new friends, now let's go home."
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