"Haruhi? What are you doing up so early?"
The said girl whirled around, a little surprised. When she saw who it was, she gave them an uncharacteristically cheerful little smile and made them take a seat by the kitchen counter.
"I got up absurdly earlier than usual and couldn't get back to sleep," Haruhi said, turning her attention back to the stove. "I'm surprised to see you two awake already. What are you doing here?"
"Breakfast. But I see you're already making something."
She nodded. "There didn't seem to be anyone around this morning, so I decided to make myself useful. Could you wait a bit? It's almost done."
A minute later, there was a scuffle of feet on the floor and she felt someone standing very close behind her. She could feel his breath on her neck.
"What are you making anyway?"
A chill went down her back, and she tried her best to ignore it. She moved away a little. "Really, Hikaru. There's no need to stand so close to me." Then she gestured to the pan. "Anyway, what does it look like to you? Haven't you ever seen pancakes before?"
There was a silence-filled gap that was broken only by the sound of Haruhi's spatula on the pan.
"How did you do that?"
"They're just pancakes, they aren't that tough to make. If you want, Kaoru, I could show you how sometime."
"No, that. What you said just now. How could you tell I was Kaoru? And a few seconds ago; how did you know it was Hikaru standing behind you and not me? You weren't even looking."
Haruhi put a hand on her hip as she glanced at them from over her shoulder.
"What's the deal? I've always been able to tell you guys apart, haven't I?"
"You've never done it like that before."
She chortled. "Do you always have to make a fuss whenever someone identifies you? Geez." She set about getting the boys' plates along with her own. "Oh, I was wondering. Where's everyone? I told you already; I walked in here and the chefs weren't around, and the maids…"
"Well… Uh… It's Saturday, right?" Hikaru explained in a rather distracted manner. Haruhi was wearing a little apron and kept her hair out of her eyes using a bandanna, and she was bustling around the place like their very own version of Snow White. The scene was too endearing. He could almost imagine everyday starting out like this once they were marri—
"So what if it's Saturday?"
Hikaru snapped out of it. What in the name of crap was I thinking just now?
"Oh, the chefs get a day off."
She raised an eyebrow as she loaded the plates with pancakes. "I wouldn't have thought that anyone could get a day off in this place."
"Hey," Kaoru said. "Just because we're rich doesn't mean we're waited on hand and foot all the time… Okay, I know it looks that way. But in this house, mom still wants us to learn how to do things ourselves."
"We're not any good at it, though," his twin added.
"Then what do you guys do when the chefs are out?"
They looked at each other like she had asked about the most obvious thing in the world.
"We call for takeout, what else?"
Haruhi faced them, spatula in hand. She had that exasperated motherly air about her again, just as she always did when she was about to scold somebody.
"How exactly is calling for takeout qualified as doing things yourself?"
They flashed an impish smile in her direction. "We dial the phone by ourselves."
"You know that doesn't count at all."
"Yes it does!" came the chorused reply.
She rolled her eyes at that and settled down at the counter with a jug of juice and some maple syrup. "Well, dig in." Then, noticing the boys' hesitant expressions, she added, "I haven't done anything repulsive to these, I promise. Pass the butter?"
It turned out that Haruhi's pancakes were perfectly normal today. The twins actually found them very delicious.
Hikaru was patting his stomach in contentment. "Now if I had breakfast like this to make up for it, I wouldn't mind if the chefs had a day off every day…" Especially if it means seeing Haruhi in such a cute getup like this. It's something I might just get used to… There he went again. He mentally smacked himself; he seriously needed to stop the Tamaki antics now.
Haruhi rolled her eyes and went around collecting their plates. The corner of her eye still caught him; he was busy licking the maple syrup from his fingers. When all that was left was the stickiness, he still wasn't satisfied. The older twin took Kaoru's hand and sucked on that.
"Yuck! Hikaru, do you have to do that right now?" Kaoru complained.
"What? You never cared before. I always used to do it."
"Yeah, when we were five! Just cut it out… Ugh, that's just nasty."
During that conversation, Haruhi was just gawking at the scene that had unfolded before her. Normally, she would have agreed wholeheartedly with Kaoru; and a part of her brain did keep screaming "That's disgusting!" But for some reason, her common sense was drowned out as another vision rose up and completely swept her away with it. For a moment, she set off on her imaginings. Her grip on the plates was loosening as her hands shook ever so slightly.
Kaoru noticed this and unassumingly cleared his throat. Hikaru stopped licking his fingers and Haruhi quickly looked away.
Hikaru hadn't taken note of anything anyway and simply resumed talking to his companions. "That was a great breakfast. It'd be a shame if even a drop of it were to go to waste. Right Kaoru?"
"Ditto," he said as he (forcefully) removed the plates from Haruhi's hands and headed to the sink to wash them himself. "Thanks for the meal, Haruhi."
"Ah, Haruhi, you cook so well. Come to think about it," the older said with a dreamy expression. "Whichever one of us ends up with Haruhi will be one lucky dude, huh?"
"You're right about that."
"You know," the girl said, a little of her old self coming back to her. "I'd really appreciate it if you two would stop referring to me as if I was some kind of trophy. And are you seriously still planning to go along with that plan of yours? It's bound to backfire. In more than a hundred ways."
Hikaru rolled his eyes. "I don't think anything's wrong with it."
Haruhi looked at him sternly. "Look, I'm really not sure about this. But if you two are really up for it…"
"Course we are! Ne, Kaoru?"
The latter—who was trying to figure out how to work the dishwasher—was silent for a second. He really acquiesced with Haruhi, but there would be time enough to talk some sense into his brother later. So he just grinned.
"If you say so."
--
"So what do you wanna do next, Haruhi?"
"W-What do you mean?"
She was seated by the farthest window of the boys' bedroom; they had dragged her there against her will (but then, when did her will even matter to these people?). The music from Hikaru's iPod was blaring from the sound system. Kaoru was absorbed in another book and Hikaru was idly fiddling with his PSP. Haruhi just sat there, feeling extra jumpy. She would do anything just to get out of there right now. That little daydream she had during breakfast time had quickly evolved into wilder imaginings, and she didn't like it one bit.
Mother, take me to heaven now.
"We have the whole day to ourselves. We can do anything we want." Hikaru's tone shifted into a playfully naughty one. "Everyone's on a day off, Mom had to go out and we're all alone in this huge mansion where not a single person will be able to hear you scream…"
He teasingly looped his arm around her waist, and was surprised when Haruhi vaulted away at the contact.
She shuddered. "Hikaru, stop it. Please."
"What's wrong?" the younger redhead lifted his eyes from his novel and stared curiously at the blush spreading on the girl's cheeks.
"Hey, sorry, Haruhi. I was only playing around."
Haruhi didn't answer. She averted her gaze from them. How in the world would she be able to live through today? If she had known that the three of them would be alone then she would have headed out for the day or something; anything, just as long as she was away from the boys. What was wrong with her? She had been having a lot of those weird squirming feelings in her stomach lately, and they were putting her on the edge. She thought that maybe she was getting sick or something. This was very out of character for her, and it was unnerving. Haruhi figured that the only solution was to avoid having physical contact with the twins, but…
Kaoru put a concerned hand on her shoulder, and it was like an electric shock. She sidestepped so fast that she fell over. The Hitachiin caught her in the nick of time and deftly whirled her into a waltz-like dip.
"You alright?"
Haruhi could perfectly picture the way they were posed. She was rested on his lap, and her right leg was conveniently positioned in between his legs, just so that the top of her knee brushed his… His... I can feel his--
Holy fudge cake.
By now, her heart was about ready to leap out of her chest, and she was almost sure that everyone could hear it beating. Thoughts began to creep into her mind; disturbing ones in particular… Thoughts that weren't customarily hers! She had felt this way only once before, and it was on that one night—
"Just get away from me, will you?"
The twins watched as she dashed out to the hall. They heard the echoing sound of her door as she slammed it and bolted it shut.
Hikaru scratched his head. "What's up with her?"
Kaoru was just as bewildered. "Another mood swing, maybe? She's been pretty off since this morning."
"She was?"
"I caught her staring glassy-eyed at you for a solid ten seconds. And she had this weird look. You know the kind Renge gets when she's off fantasizing about our brotherly love act?"
"You're kidding," Hikaru scoffed. "Haruhi would hang herself before painting that expression on her face. And why would she be looking at me like that? Are you sure you saw things right? I think you got a little too high on the maple syrup, bro."
Fingers snapped. "Maple syrup!"
"Yeah, what about it?"
"You were licking it off my fingers when she was looking."
"I'm not following." Hikaru's brow creased.
"Of course you're not."
"Hahaha, very funny. Alright, back to Haruhi please. What were you saying?"
Kaoru cupped his chin in thought. "Well, think. Why else would she have the Renge look on if she wasn't thinking like Renge?"
"So basically, you're telling me to put Renge in Haruhi's shoes?"
The younger nodded and watched with great amusement as his brother's face morphed from skeptical to utterly horrified. Hikaru clapped his hands over his eyes and kept them there as if to erase the picture that had just formed in his mind's eye.
"But Kaoru, Renge and the others only think of one thing whenever we do our act, and that's…" He couldn't bring himself to say the T-word. Let's just say it almost rhymes with 'alkahest.'
Kaoru nodded. "Yeah. Well technically, 'the look' is on their face whenever they think about the general idea of it all."
"Which is?"
"Geez. Sex, of course."
Hikaru's face of terror changed once again; into a huge grin this time. "So what you're saying is that Haruhi was thinking about it? I mean… She was acting that way because she was getting turned on? Dude! We turned Haruhi Fujioka on!"
He started laughing like crazy.
The grin was returned. "Yeah, well I can't think of anything else. Besides, it makes sense. Pregnant women are like that, it seems. One of the weird side-effects they get."
The boisterous laughter subsided into chuckles. "And you learned this from…?"
"Sex-Ed. Really now, don't you pay any attention at school?" His voice was getting playful. "Do you pay attention to anything at all?"
Hikaru shook his head in disbelief. "I do, just not as much as you, Kaoru. You picked up all this weirdness just by watching. Honestly, there is such thing as observing too much, you know what I mean? I think Kyoya-senpai is rubbing off on you. It's creepy! You probably even know what underwear I'm wearing today."
Much to his surprise, Kaoru answered even that without missing a beat.
"Let's see… I'm pretty sure you're wearing those Calvin Klein boxers you bought from our trip to America a year back. The red ones with the white circles print. Am I right? What do you say?"
"I say that you need a life."
He just waved as he stood up. "Whatever. Listen, I'm gonna go check on Haruhi, okay? Come along if you want... Eh, what am I saying? You know you want to. I know you want to."
"Smart aleck," Hikaru called after him. All he got in return was a mischievous wink before his twin vanished out the door.
He was already following suit when he was caught by a silly whim. He tried to think better of it (Nah, he can't be that good), but his curiosity took over and he simply couldn't resist the urge. He peeked outside to make sure that Kaoru was safely down the hall before proceeding to take a look under his pants. His lip twitched.
"Lucky guess," he mumbled.
A/N: Whee! I got it through! Okay, just to clear things up; this the first segment of the 'Haruhi's Life With the Hitachiins' part that I'm working on. This means that the rest of the Host Club won't be making very big appearances, because it's time for everyone to focus on our little trio and the developments that just might happen... *evil grin*
So, in the next one... Let's just say that a pair of redheads (who the hell could that be) are going to try and coax a turned-on Haruhi out of her shell--but how, exactly? :D
Wait a bit to find out!
(P.S. = Don't forget the poll in my profile! ;P )
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