"Oh, there you are! I was getting a bit worried, you know?"

Haruhi watched as the owner of the pension approached her with a very motherly air—which would normally be a little awkward, considering that the owner was a man. Well, a transvestite, actually. She sighed. That probably explained why she was used to it and didn't feel the least bit awkward.

"I just thought I'd hang the linen to dry. Sorry if I made you worry, Isa—I mean, Misuzu-chi."

Misuzu looked her up and down, making tutting noises. "You father didn't put you here for the sole purpose of working for me. Really, you should take some time to relax, dear."

"But I have to do something in return," she opposed. "You did let me have a free room…"

"Think nothing of it. I really do appreciate your help, but you shouldn't be working so hard in that state… Oh, I think there's a customer. Rest up, alright?"

Haruhi nodded politely and said that she'd be right in, but her voice was drowned out by a helicopter passing by overhead. She sighed. It didn't matter anyway; in the back of her mind she knew that later in the afternoon she'd only be in the kitchen washing the dishes or out back sweeping the porch. It just felt weird to kick back and do nothing all day; sure, transvestites she could get accustomed with, but that, there would be no way. Besides, she found it hard to relax knowing that she left school. She was reassured by the office that she would still be able to go to Ouran (much to her surprise), but it wasn't her scholarship she was worrying about.

There was no question that she was thinking about six specific people. She was a little guilty about not telling them about her departure, of course. Haruhi was just positive that a certain blonde had already come up with a crazy theory about her disappearance. In fact, she always found herself half-expecting the Host Club to pop up in Karuizawa all of a sudden; not that she wanted them to. It would just make a bigger mess. And that's why she left in the first place.

Okay, maybe that isn't the entire reason.

When it all came down to it, Haruhi knew that her reason for leaving was the twins. She just didn't like the idea that her presence was causing a massive gap to form between Hikaru and Kaoru. It just wasn't right. Besides, if one of them did something stupid, it would be on her conscience, and she didn't want a thing like that weighing her down for the rest of her life.

Her father was against the whole idea of her staying at Karuizawa while he was away on a trip. Ranka had said that she wouldn't be able to escape anything by running away. But then Haruhi had patiently explained that she wasn't running out on anything, not at all. She was merely giving the twins and herself time to think and straighten things up. Once that happened, she'd go back. All she was waiting for was a go signal to tell her that it was the right time to tell them everything. Any sort of sign would do…

Well, I better get back indoors. A little peeved, Haruhi hurried to get to the reception area. Maybe she could find something to do there while Misuzu's back was turned, like now for instance. He was busy negotiating with someone who the ladies in the room were craning their necks to see. She couldn't care less and sat down on an empty chair.

"Here's your room key," she heard the pension owner say with a smile. "Thank you for choosing to stay at Pension Misuzu!"

Haruhi saw the tranny approach her and stood up; ready to do what was requested of her. Misuzu seemed rather excited.

"A young man just checked in, he said someone recommended this place. Oh I hope this keeps up, just look at all the attention he's drawing!"

"Uh, yeah, that's great."

"Well, I was hoping you could show him to his room, dear."

"Of course."

Haruhi headed over to the guest (squeezing through a few ladies along the way).

"Follow me to your room, sir?"

He turned around. "Wow, so you still act with poise even when you're outside the Host Club."

For a moment, Haruhi gaped at the redhead who stood in front of her.

He flashed a sunny grin. "Nice apron, by the way. It looks good on you, Haruhi."

"…Kaoru?"

--

Hikaru grunted and rolled over in bed to grab the annoying thing that had been making a racket for the past five minutes, making a point of chucking it out the window. Finally his hand met the source of the noise. It was his phone. He still considered throwing it though, especially since the person calling was…

"Tono, this better be goo—"

"Hikaru! Have you gotten any word about Haruhi's whereabouts? Do you know—?"

"Wait, what the hell are you talking about?"

"—because I'm afraid Kaoru might be planning to—"

"Why, what's happened to him?" Hikaru said, a tinge of concern suddenly becoming audible in his voice before he could do anything about it. Oh, damn. He tried to cover up right away. "Listen, I don't have time for this. Whatever Kaoru's doing, leave me out of it!"

Then he hung up and looked at the clock. 7:30 in the morning. He groaned and flopped himself on his stomach, keeping a mental note to not hold any conversations when his brain was still asleep. Several minutes later, he was blissfully traveling back to Dreamland when suddenly…

Tanken Usa-chan to issho, takarabako sagashite~!!!

"For the love of—" Hikaru grumbled, fumbling for his phone again. "Hello, Hani-senpa—?"

"Good morning Hika-chan!"

Good morning. Haha, funny. And what's with the overly cheerful voice? Is the world mocking me today or something?! "Ah, good morning…"

"Takashi and I were wondering… Are you doing anything for the weekend?"

His brow contracted with slight puzzlement. "Eh? No, I haven't really planned anything..."

"That's great! Then you can come with us on our trip!"

"I don't know, I'm not really in the mood for going anywhere right now…"

"Aww, but Hika-chan! We'll have lots and lots of fun~!"

"Uh, where are we gonna go, anyway?"

The voice at the other end gasped. "You said we!!! That means you're coming with us! Yay! Takashi, Hika-chan said yes!"

"What? Hold on, I didn't—"

"We'll pick you up in thirty minutes!"

Click.

Hikaru still held his phone to his ear, then finally returned to his senses (read here as snapped). He leapt out of bed. He hadn't had a proper night's sleep since he had that clash with his twin, and now people were going around trying to wake him up when he so desperately wanted to sleep in; he may not be Kyoya or Hani, but even for him it was too much torture. Hikaru stomped over to his window and opened it, yelling out for all to hear.

"Hey, world!!! I'm awake now, happy?! WHAT MORE DO YOU WANT FROM ME?!"

Exactly thirty minutes later…

"Hika-chan! We're here!"

Hikaru looked up from his bed, startled to see Hani and Mori standing by the doorway.

"What the—the door was locked!!!"

"Eh?" Hani said, jumping up on the bed and propping himself up on his elbows. "Was it locked, Takashi?"

"I don't think so," the tall one said.

"Anyway," Hani went on cheerfully, facing the younger. "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, I guess." The Hitachiin stood up a little undecidedly. "But you haven't really told me where we're going…"

Childish eyes winked at him. "You'll see once we get there!"

--

I feel stupid.

There really was no other word for it, in Kaoru's opinion. Sure, he had made up his mind to go to Karuizawa to see Haruhi. But Karuizawa was a fairly large place, and he was sure Kyoya didn't mention exactly where the pension was. During the flight, he was in a tizzy; he couldn't reach Kyoya's phone, and the pilot (being new) only knew the location of the landing strip.

He never expected her location to be so easy to find.

After he got off the helicopter, all he had to do was walk up to some random guy (who Kaoru guessed was about his age, and weirdly enough, was arranging watermelons in front of a produce shop) and ask him where Pension Misuzu was. The guy (no, Kaoru never bothered to ask for a name) offered him a car ride to the place. Before he knew it, Kaoru was standing in front of the bed-and-breakfast, a bit surprised. Honestly, it never crossed his mind that a place run by a commoner could ever be at a large scale. Haruhi would have called that biased.

Anyway, enough of that. So, most people would have thought that Kaoru should have been relieved about locating Haruhi so quickly. But the point was that he had been so worried about being able to find her that he never really got to thinking about what he would do once he did. Right now, Kaoru couldn't have been more appalled with himself. He standing in a room he actually paid for, but that wasn't the deal; the bigger thing was that he was standing in a room, alone with Haruhi, and his voice wasn't coming out.

Which brought the thought back to his mind.

I feel stupid.

"So, are you going to tell me what you're doing here?"

"Oh, please don't go jumping for joy at my presence."

"Hmm, did I stutter?"

"Tch, killjoy. Hmm…" Kaoru scratched the back of his head. "I had nothing better to do, so I came here for the weekend."

He had managed to throw out a compliment earlier and was currently joking around; that was only about as natural as breathing for Kaoru. But now… Ah! She's using her 'doe-eyes' technique on me! What do I do, what do I do, someone help me!!!

"Really?" Haruhi looked at the ground for a moment. "Hikaru's not with you… You're not still fighting, are you?"

His reply was nothing but an embarrassed grimace.

"I wish you'd stop…" she mumbled.

Kaoru noticed that she said the last part dolefully. Oh yeah, she's blaming herself for all this, isn't she? That's why she left…

"Well, since you're here already… How about you help me unpack, Haruhi?"

"What?" she asked in a huff. "Why should I do that?"

"Uh, you may have noticed that I'm not the greatest packer in the world," Kaoru said sheepishly. "I'm probably not the greatest un-packer either."

The brunette took one look at the open suitcase on top of the bed; things were stuffed in there pell-mell. She could just imagine what the state of the room would look like if the boy was left to his own devices, and she shuddered, especially since she was going to be the one to clean it up anyway.

Haruhi sighed in defeat and removed her apron before plopping down on the bed. Then she started to take clothes from the case and fold them up neatly. In the meantime, Kaoru been eying her and noted something peculiar about her. He just couldn't put a finger on it, but now that she had taken off that lacy apron… It became utterly obvious.

"Kaoru, what are you doing?"

"Eh?"

He followed Haruhi's gaze all the way down to his hand, which was hovering just above her lower torso. Horrified that he had done that involuntarily, he withdrew his hand quickly.

"Sorry!" he blurted out. "It's just…" Kaoru's eyes only kept traveling back to the girl's abdomen. "The baby bump is cute," he finished somewhat lamely.

It was true; there was a teeny bulge right there under her stomach. Haruhi looked at it.

"You think so?" A tender expression crossed her face. "Did you wanna touch it? You can barely feel it, though."

"Can I?"

"Ahaha, go ahead."

So Kaoru did, and after a while he lifted his hand and smiled at Haruhi. "What do you say we get out of here after you finish up there?"

"Are you saying that you're not going to help unpack your own clothes?"

"Well, you're already doing such a good job; I might just get in your way…"

Haruhi snorted.

--

"Mitsukuni," Mori said in a low voice. "What were you thinking?"

The pair stood in the Haninozuka cottage's kitchen. Hani had been humming to himself while prancing around, taking cakes and various other and pastries out of the pantry, the refrigerator, the cupboards, and every other nook and cranny in the kitchen (how the sweets had gotten in there, Mori didn't know; but he wasn't surprised in the slightest). At his cousin's question, though, Hani lost his bright and breezy demeanor.

"Look at him," Mori went on.

Hani didn't need to be told where exactly to look; he knew that his cousin meant 'out the window.' He knew what he would see, too: a brooding Hikaru. The boy had gone to straight to the yard right after he dumped his stuff in the guest's bedroom and was there still, looking morose.

"H-Hika-chan…" Hani choked, tearing up. "He looks so… Miserable! Waah!"

Mori placed a hand on his cousin's light caramel locks. "Then why did you bring him with us? And here, of all places?"

"Kyo-chan told me to," he sniffled.

"But isn't this the place where…"

"I know! That's why I was against this at first, but Kyo-chan insisted that this was for those three's own good…"

There was a little pause as Hani nibbled on a sugar cookie from the counter. They both looked back out the window at Hikaru, who was currently occupied with punching the poor, innocent grass. Then a cheery little tune suddenly started chirping from Hani's pocket. He fished out his cell phone.

"It's Kyo-chan!"

He was hesitant for a split second, but after receiving a reassuring glance from Mori, he answered the call.

"Hello~!"

"Hello, Hani-senpai. Are you at Karuizawa already?"

"Yes, and we have Hika-chan with us too!"

"That's good. I just received word from Tachibana that the other two are on the move."

After a while in which Kyoya told his senpai the details, Hani hummed in reply.

"You want us to follow after them, right?"

"That's right, senpai."

"But Kyo-chan, why are we doing this…?"

"To get the club up and running again. We won't get enough customers without the trio."

"Ah, I see."

"Well, thanks again, senpai. Give me call about how everything turns out."

He hung up, and Hani's face looked more knowing than anyone would have thought possible.

"You know, Takashi…"

"Hmm?"

"Kyo-chan really must love the Host Club more than the rest of us do. He wants us to stay together just as much as Tama-chan does. I wonder why he doesn't admit it."

"Who knows?" Mori said, smiling a little down at his wide-eyed cousin. "Though that isn't really the problem right now… Where did Kyoya tell us to go this time?"

Hani beamed this time. "We're going somewhere that's lots of fuuuun~!!! Go get Hika-chan; we're heading off to…"

--

"An amusement park?" Haruhi deadpanned.

"Yeah! Isn't it great?" Kaoru said with enthusiasm. "I've never been to a commoner's—"

"I don't need to hear it."


A/N: Okay, I'm sorry! You guys had to wait extra long for this chapter, and it's only a filler!

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For some of you, this might be starting to sound extremely familiar. If you have a feeling about what's coming up next, please keep it to yourselves; don't put in in the reviews because I don't want the manga to be spoiled for anyone who hasn't read that far yet. And besides, you can't be sure that I'll make it turn out that way. BWAHAHAHAHAHA. ;D

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And if you noticed, someone made a minor cameo appearance in this chapter! Pixel cookies to the one gets it first! XD

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In all honesty though, I feel like such a rotten writer now. D: Please don't kill me. I love you guys. *puppy eyes* Once again, I thank you for your awesome feedback. They really helped me pull through. XD

Every time you click the button
Someone from the Host Club
Gets the urge to hunt you down
and give you a
kiss.

l
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