Chapter Two: Adapting!
Kiiro arrived in the Third Music Room slightly before some of the boys. The first-years were there, Haruhi and the Twins.
"Good afternoon, Kiiro-senpai." Haruhi greeted her.
"Afternoon, Haruhi." Kiiro smiled at the brunette who was about the same height as her. "You don't have to be so formal, you know, just Kiiro will suffice." she assured him.
"Ah, the Boss has already tried that multiple times with her." one of the twins explained, shrugging.
The other looked at his twin with alarm, "You meant "him", Hikaru! You called Haruhi a "she"." he laughed almost exaggeratedly.
"Ah!" Hikaru laughed too. "Sorry about that, man." he patted Haruhi's shoulder. "Yeah, that's just "his" way!"
Haruhi gave them a strange look.
"Right." Kiiro shrugged it off, the twins were strange, after all. She set her bag down on one of the tables, a pencil rolled out of it.
She reached down to grab it, at the same time Haruhi did, his wrist peeking out of his bluish-lavender jacket. Their fingers brushed.
"I got it, Kiiro-senpai."
"Thank you, Haruhi." she accepted her pencil back, looking over the natural type as he began speaking to the twins.
'Haruhi has such girlish wrists, and his fingernails are so well kept. Not at all like a guy's fingers.' she smiled. 'I wonder if commoners can afford to get manicures?'
Tamaki and Kyouya entered, pulling Kiiro out of her thoughts.
"Kiiro?" Kyouya got her attention.
"Oh, yeah?" she turned to him.
"Tamaki wants to do a Springtime showcase, we'd need traditional Japanese dress."
"And waiter uniforms! So we can serve our guests beneath the cherry blossoms!" Tamaki swooned, striking an enthusiastic pose.
"Serving our guests?" the twins asked in unison. "But we're rich, right? Why don't we just hire someone to do that?"
"You two doppelgangers just don't understand!" Tamaki pointed accusedly at them. Getting lost in an argument.
"And waiter uniforms." Kyouya continued, deadpan. "And it needs to be held under cherry trees."
Kiiro knitted her eyebrows, "But it's late summer, why are we having a Springtime thing?"
Kyouya half-smiled, "You'd be surprised how often spring rolls around in this series."
She ignored the comment, "Anywho..."
Kiiro began observing odd things about Haruhi. His eyes were rather feminine, his manner of speaking. Tamaki wanted him to wear "feminine attire", his skin was soft. His figure was slight, his voice was rather high for a boy.
She wasn't going to bring it up, some people were just born with traits of the other gender. Plus, androgyny was always the "in" thing.
He was a quaint type of person, he spoke of going to supermarket sales and cooking.
'What if it's because his mom isn't around? He took on a lot of her roles after she passed. Causing him to acquire slightly girlish tendencies. Like how he speaks and walks. Besides, I was pretty sure Kyouya said something about how his Dad's a transvestite.' Kiiro was lost in thought. 'Yeah, that would probably blur your gender identity.'
She was in the second floor bathroom. Having wandered out of the library on lunch time. As she washed her hands and turned to leave, she ran right into the object of her thoughts.
She bumped right into Haruhi Fujioka.
"H-Haruhi, th-this is the girl's restroom." she stuttered.
"Y-yeah, uh, the..." Haruhi stuttered back. "I thought this one would be unoccupied."
"Oh my gosh! That was incredibly rude of me, wasn't it?" Kiiro apologized quickly, waving her hands before her. "I get it. It makes sense. Sorry, I didn't realize! I didn't mean to be rude."
"N-no, it's fine." Haruhi stammered. "I'm kind of surprised Kyouya-senpai didn't tell you, actually."
And Kiiro fled from the awkwardness red-faced, 'Yeah, it totally makes sense now!' she held her palm to her forehead. 'He's transsexual! So of course he'd use the ladies restroom. That's why the hosts slip when they talk to him because he wants to be called a "she" and they want to dress him up sometimes to make him feel more comfortable!' she explained to herself.
She texted Kyouya, "Why didn't you tell me about Haruhi? I would have understood."
To which he replied, "I knew you would figure it out on your own."
Later that week they were getting measurements for their "traditional Japanese costumes and waiter uniforms", the boys had gotten theirs done at a tailor's, but Haruhi had to have his done privately. Kyouya asked if Kiiro would mind doing this, so now they were in the changing room of Music Room Three.
"Now try not to feel uncomfortable, Haruhi." Kiiro was assuring him. "I completely understand your situation. And it's nothing to be ashamed of."
Haruhi smiled, "I'm not ashamed of anything, Kiiro-senpai, I really just have to dress this way to pay off my debt." he held out his arms as Kiiro fiddled with a tape measure.
"That's kind of sad." she replied. "Repressed because of your lack of riches."
"You're starting to sound a little like Tamaki-senpai on me." he chuckled. "And I wouldn't say I'm repressed. I was never really girly to begin with."
"Right! How rude of me." Kiiro apologized. "Gender identity is a wide spectrum, not even a line really..." she trailed off, confusing the younger student. "Now I don't mean to be invasive, but would you mind removing your shirt for chest measurements, please?"
"Alright." Haruhi undid his button up as Kiiro logged his other measurements.
When she looked back up, she nearly face-palmed at her own idiocy.
Haruhi was in her bra.
He was a she.
Haruhi was a girl, biologically.
"Y-you're a girl."
Haruhi tilted her head, "I thought we went over this, senpai?"
"I-I thought you were transsexual."
She started laughing with gusto.
Kyouya had the same reaction when she relayed the incident to him later that day.
"So, Tamaki, the twins, and yourself will be in waiter uniforms?" Kiiro asked.
"Correct." Kyouya affirmed.
The twins chased Haruhi to the left side of the room, trying to make her dress in a cutesy rabbit suit. Tamaki chased the twins who were chasing Haruhi, trying to make her dress in a cutesy rabbit suit.
Hani was asleep.
"And, Haruhi, Mori-senpai and Hani-senpai will be dressed in traditional yukata for the afternoon?" Kiiro inquired.
"Right." Kyouya answered.
The twins chased Haruhi to the right side of the room, trying to make her dress in a pretty bunny suit. Tamaki chased the twins who were chasing Haruhi, trying to make her dress in a pretty bunny suit.
Hani was asleep.
"You'll be showcasing the British antique tea sets, yes?" Kiiro tapped her pencil to her lips.
"Yes." Kyouya pushed a list of the sets in question before her.
"And for the group dressed traditionally?"
Kyouya raised an eyebrow.
"By any chance, would anyone of that group know how to preform the tea ceremony?" she asked. "Since this will be a split presentation, wouldn't it make sense for both groups to showcase their separate tea trends, rather than just the British one?"
"Hm, that's not a bad idea." he typed something on his laptop. "I'll need to look into what sort of sets we can get our hands on."
The twins bumped into a table while chasing Haruhi, who refused to wear the cutesy/pretty rabbit/bunny suit. Tamaki gasped upon realizing that the twins had bumped into a table while chasing Haruhi, who refused to wear the cutesy/pretty rabbit/bunny suit.
Thankfully, Hani was still asleep.
At the sound of tea cups clinking and a soft splashing, Kiiro looked over to where the King and the Twins stood freaking out, which was also where Haruhi stood without freaking out.
On the table Hani's plush bunny, Usa-chan lay, covered in spilt tea.
"Now, we've done it!" Tamaki cried, hands in his hair.
The Twins launched into their defense, blaming Tamaki for the spill. The trio began to argue, loudly, only interrupted when Kyouya interjected, "We don't have any guests right now, so you can be as noisy as you want." he crossed one leg over the over, turning to look at them. "But is it okay? Hani-senpai might wake up.'
The room was eerily quiet for a moment.
Haruhi walked over to where Hani slept peacefully on one of the sofas, "Well, it can't be helped, let's just wake him up and apologize to him."
Tamaki and the Twins jumped behind an adjacent sofa whispering harshly, "Wait don't get too close to him, Haruhi!"
Kiiro mirrored Haruhi's look of confusion.
"Okay, this is just legend, but, Hani-senpai is said to have a very bad temper when he wakes up!"
Kiiro found that hard to believe. In all the short time she had known Hani-senpai, he had proven to be sweeter than most children.
"I've never seen him like that before." Haruhi gave them a disbelieving look.
"Even if his mood was good up until now that doesn't mean it will always be the same!" Tamaki continued, holding his hand beside his face in a check shape. "On top of that, I heard that Senpai's Usa-chan was hand-made by his favorite late-grandma! It must be very important to him, because he carries it with him wherever he goes! What if he sees that Usa-chan is a whole different creature when he just wakes up?"
"We'll be the ones who will turn into completely different creatures!" The trio screamed.
"I firmly believe in my theory, don't you remember his act during the 'Renge Incident.'?"
"That was real..."
"...nobody can make an expression as good as that..."
"...unless they already have a foundation."
"And the most important part is that...Hani-senpai's blood type is AB!" Tamaki finished.
'So is mine...'
"Meaning..." the twins started in unison.
"Same as Kyouya."
"Don't you think that will hurt my feelings?" Kyouya injected.
Kirro was still confused, "I believe I've hit a cultural barrier on blood types."
Kyouya turned to her, "In Japan blood types attribute to personality types. AB types are considered to have dual personalities." he explained simply.
"Ah."
Hani turned in his sleep and all of their blood ran cold.
"Not good, we should do something before he wakes up. Hikaru, Kaoru!"
"Yes, sir!" The pair snapped to attention.
"Go get your family's private sesuna! Fly to Mt. Osore and ask Itako to come. We'll ask Hani-senpai's grandmother to come out and make a new Usa-chan!"
The Twins expression went flat, "Seriously?" they said in unison. "We don't have that much time. It's ok to get confused, but next time please say something more constructive."
Tamaki panicked, "Fine. We'll do this instead! We'll have Usa-chan dry cleaned and in the meantime, Haruhi..." he turned to her. "Wear this bunny suit!" he produced the bunny suit from earlier.
"Great idea!" the Twins concurred.
"It's too obvious!" Haruhi said darkly.
"It's all right! He'll be too sleepy headed to notice the size difference!" Tamaki began chasing her around.
"Then you wear it, senpai!"
"But I won't be cute in it!"
With all the noise, Hani began to stir, he sat up and rubbed his eyes.
"Fine! substitute strategy number two!" Tamaki screeched in terror. He produced a stuffed bear from nothing, laying it on Hani's lap.
Caught up, Kiiro looked on, not quite sure Hani would fall for it.
Hani angrily threw the bear on the floor.
"MY KUMA-CHAN!" Tamaki screamed.
"So he is in a bad mood..." Kiiro went wide-eyed.
"We're next!"
Hani stood, walking grumpily and sleepily over to where he last left Usa-chan, "My Usa-chan..." he growled, turning to the group with an expression Kiiro had never seen before. "Who dirtied it?" his voice warped into something demonic.
"Mori-senpai help us!" the trio shrieked.
Mori made himself apparent from where he stood observing the chaos, he simply stated, "Usa-chan really wanted to drink some tea."
Everything went quiet.
"I see!" Hani giggled, "That's how his face got dirty!"
'A complete one-eighty.'
"I'm so bored..." Hikaru stated.
"...I can barely stay awake..." Kaoru finished.
"What should we do?" They said in unison.
"We should play a trick on somebody..."
"...but who?"
"Who haven't we played a trick on?"
"I know."
"Ne, Kyouya," Kiiro walked out of the storage room, carrying different tea ceremony items. "Which bowl is for water and which is for tea?"
"Oh, Kirro's so polite and nice all the time..."
"...I wonder if she ever gets mad?"
"She is Blood Type AB."
And so operation Awaken the Sleeping Demon came into being.
"But what should we do?"
"Normally annoying things wouldn't work."
"We have to do something..."
"...extravagant."
"I know."
The next day during her first art class, she found the canvases she had finished previously messed with. Atop the depictions of springtime and landscapes were too bright flowers, wrong shades, no shadows, flat paint. She knitted her brow.
"That's odd, Kiiro-senpai..." Hikaru began.
"...you're paintings look different from before." Kaoru finished.
"Y-yeah, who could have messed with them?" she could feel her nerves twitching. 'It was obviously them! Why bully me like this?'
The day after that all of her pencils had gone missing.
The day after that all of her paints had the wrong labels.
The day after that all of her camera film in her photography class went missing as well.
In all of this time she knew it was the Twins just trying to annoy her. She hadn't said anything to them, yet.
Then, on the last day of that week, at club, she had reached down into her bag, "Kyouya, I sketched out a plan of how next week's set up might look..." she flipped open her sketch book and it was filled with childish and annoying doodles of the Twins.
She went quiet.
Kyouya looked up from his laptop, "Kiiro?"
A dark aura crowded her, she looked over to where the Twins sat, snickering, she stood making her way over to them.
There were no guests so she grabbed each of them by an ear, "Brothers Hitachiin." she growled. "I know it was the two of you who have been continuously harassing me throughout this week, though I have no idea why! To have offended me like so, you will have to pay for your misconduct. I expect all of my missing things back by Monday, all things in their right order, new, properly mixed paints and you will assist me in correcting the paintings you tweaked!' she let go of them, turning to the surprised rest of the Host Club. "I'm sorry, everyone. Please excuse my mood." she faced the Twins. "I need an answer, boys..."
"Y-yes, m'am!" they said, shocked.
"Thank you." she smiled, sweetly.
"She even scared Hika-chan and Kao-chan..." Hani whispered in a group huddle.
"She's like a Demon Queen." Tamaki declared.
"So that's the personality she hides." Kyouya said, impressed.
"Wow, I really didn't expect that." Haruhi added.
"..." Mori said nothing, but this time out of shock.
The Twins handed over her sketch book thinking, 'She really must be Kyouya-senpai's friend!'
"Amazing, Kiiro-senpai, I didn't realize anyone could make them behave." Haruhi smiled at her. "Or scare them.'
"Am I really that scary?" she fretted.