Disclaimer: I own OHSHC and/or Fruits Basket?! haha. You make me laugh.

Chapter 9: The Cookies

It seemed like an ordinary Wednesday-- the bare tree branches crisscrossed against the pale blue of the early morning sky, like delicate lace. Yuki had been enrolled in Ouran for exactly ten days now, and he had (indirectly) caused the thing that the Host Club said would never happen: for once, Kyoya Ootori, the evil low blood-pressure demon lord, was early. That's right-- EARLY. TO SCHOOL. We should now check if the rivers are filled with blood, or if hell froze over. Maybe the pigs are flying to Kagura's house right now!

After the chauffeur opened the door for him, he trudged out, bookbag tucked under one arm, a strong cup of (non-instant) black coffee in the other. To the ordinary observer, Kyoya seemed like his regular composed self, but to someone like Haruhi, they might notice that his hair was a little bit more mussed and he was still incredibly sleepy. Last night, he had revised his list by cutting out the part about the strange signs of abuse from Yuki's childhood and omitting the other Sohmas completely.

He planned to give this information to Tamaki, with Yuki's address placed conveniently on top; however, in order to be subtle, he had to slip it nonchalantly into his English textbook before school started. Kyoya knew that Tamaki didn't have English class today, but he would always take his textbook home with him. Stopping his train of thought to take a sip of coffee, Kyoya made a disgusted face as it scalded his tongue. The wind was blowing even harder now, and he quickly broke into a brisk stride.

"Where are we going?" asked Yuki as class 1-A walked down the wide hallways of Ouran.

Haruhi shrugged. "I think it's a new class they're trying."

Kaoru pouted, "Mo...why didn? t they make the lower blocks like class 1-D be the guinea pigs?"

Hikaru laughed and swung an arm around his twin's shoulders. "You're just sulking because they canceled Modern Literature to make time."

Yuki smiled. "Kaoru-san, you like Modern Literature?"

Kaoru nodded. "Yup. My favorite book we discussed in class is Heart Pounding."

Yuki wondered, Heart Pounding? Now where have I heard that book before?

Seeing Yuki's confusion, Kaoru asked, "Have you ever heard of it? Yoku Kuyi wrote it! He's really great!"

Yuki jaw almost dropped. Now he remembered! Heart Pounding was one of the books Shigure wrote under that stupid pen name! Curse the day when Shigure had the "brilliant" idea to scramble the letters of Yuki and Kyo's first names, resulting in Yoku (Kyou) Kuyi (Yuki). He had paid dearly for that little practical joke.

"Great is not the adjective I would use to describe him," mumbled Yuki angrily. More like perverted, idiotic, and brainless.

"Yuki-kun, we're here," said Haruhi, tapping him lightly.

"Ah. Okay." The entire class walked through a large doorway into one of Yuki's scariest nightmares: the room was filled with state-of-the-art cooking appliances.

"Eeh? A cooking class? Boooring," said the twins dryly.

"But cooking is a very useful skill, right?" asked Haruhi, looking interested by the rows of sleek, stainless steel ovens.

"Not if you have servants to do it for you," replied the twins.

Sighing, Haruhi shook her head slightly. Rich bastards.

The voice of their teacher broke their conversation.

"Welcome to Home Economics!" the teacher said happily. "I'm Rena-sensei! Pleased to meet you! Now, even though everyone is going to grow up and become rich CEOs, politicians, lawyers, or owners of large cooperations, and will have servants to cook for them, it's always best to have this useful skill!"

Haruhi flashed a small smirk at the twins, who retaliated by sticking their tongues out at her.

Rena-sensei continued to babble on, unaware of the little "conflict" going on. "Now, everyone needs partners! You may pick your own." Suddenly, the air was filled with an unbearable tension, so thick it was almost tangible. Yuki felt the all-too-familiar prickling at the back of his neck, signaling that around a dozen girls were eyeing him hungrily. Beside him, Haruhi shifted uncomfortably, still somewhat unused to being stared at. On the other hand, the twins were cool as cucumbers, looking bored with all the attention. A lone girl broke away from the yellow-clad crowd and timidly approached Yuki.

"Um..." Yuki recognized her as one of his regular designators, but the name slipped his mind. "C-can you please be my partner?" The red-faced girl spat out in a rush, breathing heavily. Startled, he glanced at the twins for help, only to find out they were already partnered together and were grinning at his dilemma.

Cursing them in his mind, he noticed Haruhi was also having the same problem as him. Suddenly, another girl bounded over and clutched Yuki's arm possessively. "No way! Yuki-sama is going to partner up with me, ne?" Staring down at the girl, he recognized her as his most troublesome customer... "Hirota-san?"

Said girl giggled cutely, flipping back her long black hair. "Yuki-sama, I already told you to call me by my first name, Kaede!" Turning to her "opponent," she smirked, "Yuki-sama wants to bake cookies with me, not with the frizzy-haired freak." While the "frizzy-haired freak" was sputtering with outrage, she had already moved on to harass Haruhi's girl.

"Hey! Tanaka! You've got to be kidding me! You'd actually choose that commoner over Yuki-sama? Your parents would be appalled!" laughed Kaede.

Bristling angrily, Tanaka snapped, "There's nothing wrong with Fujioka-san!"

Kaede shrugged, "Sure...of course there's nothing wrong with the poorest scholarship student in Ouran. Less competition for me!" she squealed, squeezing Yuki's arm so tightly he felt that his circulation was being cut off. Besides, Kaede was getting too close for comfort, so he tried to detach her clinging arms from him discreetly. By now, a group of angry Haruhi fangirls had gathered around Kaede, demanding what she meant by that. While they were fighting, Haruhi and Yuki quietly paired up together.

Just as the fight seemed like it was leading to punches, the spaced-out teacher bounced back to earth and quickly sorted it out. When the fangirls realized that all the Host Club members were already partnered together, they grudgingly paired up among themselves, quite disgruntled. Relieved that the class had settled down, Rena-sensei beamed brightly and told everyone to put on an apron and flip to page 12 of their gourmet cookbook. "Now, for our first dish, we'll be making cookies! Please follow the recipe and ask if you need help!"

Scanning the relatively simple instructions, Haruhi smiled. She had a feeling she would fit quite well in this class, until Yuki tapped her gently.

"Haruhi-san, I have somewhat of a confession to make."

"Yes?"

"I can't cook."

Oh. Well, he couldn't be that bad. She knew for a fact that he was one of the top students in their class. As long as he could read and follow the recipe exactly, what could go wrong? They would totally ace this course. Besides, as she tuned in to the general buzz of conversation around her, she could hear her confused, pampered classmates slowly dampen their teacher's bubbly personality with their questions.

"Rena-sensei, what's a tsp?"

"Rena-sensei, how do you 'fold an egg?' "

"Sensei, I'm allergic to peanuts, so can I go to the nurse?"

Shaking her head slightly, she said, "You can't possibly be worst that these rich bastards...or are you one too?"

Yuki shook his head. "Before Honda-san came to live with us, Shigure and I lived alone, so we would do all the cooking, but it...wasn't the greatest. The only edible food Shigure could make was pickled radish and curry, while everything I touched turned to ashes. Shigure never did figure out how I burnt the miso soup," Yuki concluded thoughtfully.

Sweatdropping, Haruhi wondered, How do you burn soup? Then, she realized this was the most she? d ever heard about Yuki's private life from his own lips. All the information she knew about him before was via Kyoya? s research, but for him to really open up like this was quite refreshing.

"It's all right! I'll help, okay?"

Relieved, Yuki nodded and picked up their cookbook. As he softly read out the ingredients they needed, Haruhi looked for them in the cabinets located under their cooking counter. They steadily picked their way through the recipe, Haruhi doing the actual mixing while Yuki read out the recipe and handed the ingredients to her. With the two of them working together, they managed to finish quickly. While Yuki was spooning even lumps of cookie batter onto the tray, Haruhi started putting away the rest of the materials. After Haruhi finished wiping the counter, she noticed that Yuki was also done with the cookie dough: there were perfect little balls in orderly rows. Lastly, they slid the tray into the pre-heated oven, and set it to bake for twenty minutes.

Haruhi sat down tiredly and exclaimed, "We're finished!"

Yuki lowered himself onto the chair next to her, nodding slightly. "Thank you."

Haruhi turned to look at his small smile. "No problem! I enjoy cooking."

Yuki shook his head, understanding her confusion. "I mean for showing me it was possible to be in a kitchen without anything exploding."

Haruhi laughed, blissfully unaware of the evil glares of the Yuki Fangirls. Their classmates were still driving their poor teacher crazy with their inane questions.

Suddenly, a loud explosion demolished their peaceful companionship, immediately stopping the insistent hum of questions. A nanosecond later, everyone started screaming as globs of sticky brown batter flew everywhere, landing with a sickening splat on the pristine uniforms and clean countertops. Everyone turned to glare at the source of the explosion: Hikaru and Kaoru. Specks of thick brown batter clung to their clothes and faces, slack-jawed. The twins were standing completely still, shocked by the loud explosion. Hikaru kept on pouring baking soda into the bowl while Kaoru was gripping tightly onto the four-speed mixer, which was still spinning frantically and spattering more of the concoction. The entire scene was a tableaux, frozen in time, until Rena-sensei jumped up, a furious expression possessing her usually cheerful demeanor. Storming over to the twins, she snatched the box of baking soda of Hikaru's limp hands, and pulled the plug of the mixer, causing it to sputter and stop.

"What in the world were you doing?" she seethed, glaring angrily at them. The whole class was deathly silent, waiting to hear the twins' response.

They replied, "Making cookies."

"B-but, none of these ingredients were in the recipe!" stammered Rena-sensei, pointing accusingly at the bottles of maple syrup, vinegar, peanut butter, pepper, and a whole lot of other condiments.

The twins shrugged. "We know."

Hikaru continued, "It's just that your cookie recipe was so bland..."

"...we needed to make some modifications," finished Kaoru.

The teacher looked like she didn't know whether to punish them for not following directions, or to congratulate them for trying new things. Then, she snapped out of it and told everyone to "clean themselves up and go change." When Kaede snidely pointed out there were no extra uniforms, Rena-sensei glared at her. "Change into your PE uniforms. For those who don't have PE, go ask the office if they have any spare uniforms." When the students started grumbling about walking around in their gym shorts all day, she snarled, "NOW."

As the class was filing out of the classroom, Hikaru and Kaoru sidled next to Yuki and Haruhi, crouching down and trying to blend in. Reaching into the crowd, Rena-sensei located them easily, due to their unique hair color. "As for you two, start cleaning up!" she snapped, pushing cleaning supplies into their hands. "Instead of the janitors, you will be cleaning this room." Ignoring their protests, she strode out, saying, "I'll be back after I change!" Glumly, Kaoru started picking up discarded aprons and stuffing them into a laundry bag while Hikaru filled a bucket with soapy water and started to mop the floor. After a few minutes, a small "ahem" made them glance up.

"Haruhi! What are you doing here?" asked Kaoru. "Shouldn't you be at your next class?"

Strolling into the dirty classroom, she said nonchalantly, "Rena-sensei let me come back and skip my next class." The twins noticed she had gotten rid of the batter stuck to her hair and clothes.

Hikaru grinned, "Say, while you're here, help us clean up, will you?"

Haruhi smirked, "I'm just here for my cookies."

Seeing the twins pout, she sighed as if she was saying, What am I going to do with you?

"Of course I'm going to help," she said, exasperated. "But I have no idea why. It is your own fault." Seeing their sticky faces beam brightly, she laughed and said, "Come on in, sempais!" Amazed, the twins gaped as the rest of the Host Club walked in, armed with an array of cleaning supplies. Tamaki, Hani, Mori, and Kyoya all stared at the disaster zone they were in.

"You villainous twins, what did you do?" groaned Tamaki.

Kyoya tilted his head so his glasses reflected the light, saying, "If Rena-sensei decides to sue the Host Club...well. We should make sure that doesn't happen, hmm?" he smiled thinly, staring at the quivering twins.

Hani was busy poking at a large glob of batter. "Look Takashi! It's squishy!"

"Ah." Which, in Mori-speak, could mean a number of things.

Picking up a rag and a bottle of window cleaner, Yuki reminded them, "This job's not going to get down by itself." With that, the Host Club went to work.

Mori started to help Yuki wipe the smeared windows, his height being an advantage. At first, Tamaki had been reluctant to offer assistance to clean up after the "devils' dirty work," but after Kyoya mentioned this was the genuine commoner's clean-up experience Tamaki wanted, he had energetically started mopping with Hikaru, occasionally moaning something about evil stepmothers.

Even Kyoya had pitched in by drying the dishes Kaoru washed. With his sleeves rolled up and he was up to his elbows in soapy water washing plates, Kaoru was quite a sight. Glancing at Kyoya, who was currently rubbing a large platter dry, he asked timidly, "Kyoya-sempai, how did the Host Club get permission to skip class and help clean up?"

"Hmm? It was easy. You forgot who Tamaki's father is, didn't you?"

"Oh." Staring at the superintendent's son, who was chasing his twin around and splashing soapy water everywhere, he smiled.

Across the room, Haruhi yelled, "Tamaki-sempai! Stop running around! You're dripping water everywhere!" Clutching a dirty rag, she looked quite annoyed. Suddenly, she felt an insistent tug at her jacket sleeve. Looking down, she saw Hani smiling at her. "Haru-chan, they're just having some fun, ne?"

Haruhi protested weakly, "But, Hani-sempai, they'll..."

With a knowing grin, Hani shook his head. "Ne, Haru-chan! Help me finish wiping the countertops! Hika-chan and Kao-chan made a big mess!"

Giving up, Haruhi continued to scrub at the granite countertops, while Hani energetically sprayed the hardening lumps of cookie batter with a cleaning solution.

Pretty soon, the room was sparkling-clean; however, the Hosts weren't. Tired and short-tempered, they were also soggy to boot due to Tamaki slipping and splashing dirty water all over them. Wiping off his glasses, Kyoya glared at Tamaki and muttered something that sounded like "idiot." Kyoya's glasses usually filtered most of the evil out of his glare, but once they were off, the true intensity shot through Tamaki like a dozen daggers, making him cringe. Looking at Haruhi, he realized she was also scowling at him, annoyed. Yuki sighed, brushing his wet bangs back, knowing the Host Club wasn't in the best of moods right now. Suddenly he brightened as he remembered something important. Sliding off his chair, he pulled out a pair of oven mitts from a drawer and slipped them on. Curious, The Host Club watched as he strode over to an oven and opened it, letting out a rush of hot air and a warm aroma.

Haruhi blinked. "Ah. The cookies! I forgot." Turning off the oven and pulling out the tray of cookies, Yuki peeled the soft pastries off the tray and onto a platter. Dropping the tray into the sink and the oven mitts back into the drawer, Yuki brought the plate over and placed it on the table.

"Yay! It's Haru-chan and Yu-chan's homemade cookies!" squealed Hani, picking one up. All the Hosts followed his example and bit into a warm cookie.

Kyoya said, "Yuki-kun, I didn't know you cooked."

Yuki shook his head. "I only read the recipe. Haruhi-san did all of the work."

Haruhi denied it, saying, "Yuki-kun helped a lot also."

Startled, Yuki realized Haruhi had become less formal with him; instead of "san," she was now calling him "kun." That had to be a sign of progress, right?

As Yuki took another nibble at his cookie, he felt a happy, warm feeling bubble up inside him. Tamaki, who was apparently forgiven, was talking animatedly with the others, about what, Yuki did not know. Time seemed to stop in this one perfect moment, blocking out sound, letting him revel in the comfortable feeling of friendship over a plate of cookies.

A/N: Yay! I'm done with this chapter! happy happy. This chappie was a little bit more light-hearted than the last one, since I realized that all of my previous chapters had Yuki only interacting with the Host Club instead of also writing about his Ouran classes experience! :D Once I had that enlightening thought, I produced this chapter!

About Shigure's "penname"-- He did write the book Heart Pounding (the dark green one in the anime? The one he showed Uo and Hana right after the smut book he wrote "just for fun"?), but the penname part I just made up. I had to use Kyou to write Yoku, since how I spell Kyo can only make Yok. :P

The twins "modifying" the recipe seemed like something they would do, and the rest of the chapter suddenly just...appeared! All in all, very fun chappie.

Woot! More than 100 reviews! This is my most popular story yet! Thank you all so much!

Please drop a review on the way out! :)

ja ne!

mimi-chan
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