As I may have mentioned, I'm making this story up as I go, and have no outline to follow. Because of that, I had a severe case of writers block which I only just now overcame. Sorry for the (very long) wait, but I think they should be faster from here on in. Maybe... two more chapters after this. As always, love to my beta, Leafygirl.

"The twins are here."

Nekozawa felt as though all the blood had drained from his body as an extreme sense of dread washed over him. Just what he needed- humiliation in front of his entire family. Of course, he knew that in all likelihood even the Hitachiins couldn't be so undignified as to cause a ruckus at a family event they weren't even invited to. In all practicality, they sincerely wanted to wish Kirimi a happy birthday. But just by seeing them, he was overwhelmed with doubt. Surely, they had something malicious planned, if only in a subtle, untraceable way, it seemed inevitable.

Hikaru and Kaoru had come bearing and extremely large, extremely cute teddy bear for Kirimi, much to her squealing delight, and they could hardly be dismissed after bringing so much joy to the birthday girl. They had also come, for whatever reason, bearing some small camera equipment.

As Nekozawa went to his sister, Haruhi approached the twins with a scowl. "What are you doing here?" she asked, and then added, "And what's with the camera?"

The twins grinned at her. "We wanted to explore Nekozawa's house too," Kaoru began. "We didn't think it was fair or just that you and Tono were invited, but not us. Since we're so delightful, and everything!"

"We told the doorman we're AV students, here to film the party," Hikaru explained. "But we came to look for ghosts! We got a camera, and an audio recorder!"

"Although maybe we should film the party a little, for appearances," Kaoru noted. "Get a few shots of Kirimi in case they ask us to send them a copy."

"Ooh! What if we put Kirimi in a white kimono, and filmed her running down a dark hallway?" Hikaru lit up with his idea, and Kaoru grinned beside him.

"That would be awesome! Who do we ask about that?"

Haruhi rolled her eyes. "If you wanted to film ghosts, why didn't you just ask Nekozawa for a tour or something?"

"Because then we would have to talk to Nekozawa," Hikaru replied obviously.

She groaned in frustration, throwing her hands up in defeat.

"Fine. This isn't even any of my business. I'm going to go tell Nekozawa why you're here. Maybe you can interview him or something," she added with another roll of her eyes, and left them.

When she was gone, Tamaki approached the twins carefully, and with tearful eyes he proclaimed, "Thank God you're here!"

Hikaru and Kaoru responded with identical looks of quizzical disbelief. "I think that's the first time I've ever heard him say that," Kaoru noted.

"It will probably be the last, as well," Hikaru agreed. "What's up, Tono? You get cursed already? You've only been here, like, five hours."

"It's not me whose been cursed!" he desperately responded, leaning in close with an air of conspiracy. "It's Haruhi! Were you aware of this? She's friends with Nekozawa! As in, they've been hanging out when we didn't know it!"

Hikaru's expression resembled Tamaki's when he had first found out, a mixture of betrayal, shock, and horror. Kaoru just looked skeptical.

"What do you mean?" Kaoru asked, an eyebrow raised in question. In a forceful gesture, Tamaki grabbed Kaoru's shoulders and regarded him very seriously.

"She told me so herself! They both told me! They said that Haruhi went on a trip with his club once! And he helped her with her homework!"

Hikaru was beginning to join in on his club president's panic. "Asking someone to help you with your homework is almost code for 'we should make out'!" he shouted, and Tamaki gasped as he pictured the scenario in his head- books opened, candles lit, Nekozawa suddenly dropped his pencil, leaned towards her and…

"No, no, no! That couldn't have happened!" he cried, abolishing the thought from his head with a violent shake.

"You know I hate to be the voice of reason," Kaoru began, "but I don't think that proves anything. Okay, so, Haruhi being friends with Nekozawa and not telling us is suspicious. But that doesn't mean-"

"But there's more!" Tamaki interrupted. "When Haruhi wasn't looking, Nekozawa actually threatened me!"

"WHAT?"

"He told me personally that he likes her, and then he told me I'd better 'watch out'! How else am I supposed to take a statement like that?"

"Oh, he is so dead!" Hikaru declared, taking a step forward, but Tamaki put a halting hand on his shoulder.

"Wait! I don't think Haruhi knows anything about it! She'll be mad at us if we get in a fight with him!"

"He's the one she should be mad at!" Hikaru turned furiously on Tamaki. "Is she friends with us or him?"

"It's not gonna be us if we go throwing fists and accusations," Kaoru replied, concerned. "If we wanna protect Haruhi from him, we're gonna have to go another route. We have to think of something."

"You're right… we have to think…" Hikaru responded slowly, trying to force himself to calm down. After a very brief moment of contemplation, he finally decided, "We should hire someone to kill him."

"I've got a better idea." Tamaki whipped out his cell phone. "I'm calling Mom."

Across the room, Nekozawa's mood, previously one of the better ones he'd experienced in a long while, had been completely poisoned as he listened incredulously to Haruhi's explanation. He frowned heavily, rubbing his temples.

"So... ghosts," He repeated doubtfully. "They came to film ghosts. TODAY."

Haruhi could only shrug in response. "They did bring cameras," She tried to defuse the situation, uselessly. Nekozawa sighed as he glanced up at the pair from across the room. Tamaki had joined the twins, and the trio argued for a moment, then seemed to come to some sort of consensus, while glancing over at him with varying degrees of mistrust. Nekozawa narrowed his eyes. He had performed enough curses to know when he himself was being cursed. He knew they were talking about him- that Tamaki was fouling the twins' opinion of him as they spoke. The Hitachiins had never liked Nekozawa, and he didn't like them. But he especially didn't like that they were undoubtedly finding out about his and Haruhi's relationship through Tamaki's somewhat biased opinion. Certainly while Nekozawa enjoyed his and Tamaki's rivalry, the twins, identical devils that they were, would respond more maliciously than their club leader. They would bully him endlessly, try and force him away from Haruhi. They were sadistic. It was, to Nekozawa, an undeniable fact.

Tamaki pulled his cell phone out of his pocket then, and began punching some numbers. The twins took this opportunity to glare openly at Nekozawa from across the room. One of them (Nekozawa wasn't sure which) looked more hateful than the other, but the message from both was clear: stay away. In response, Nekozawa drew up to his full height and looked down his nose at them defiantly. His piercing blue eyes flashed dangerously at them, making his reply quite clear: try me. They were challenging him. And he was so up to it.

"I won't deny that this mansion has its share of spirits," Nekozawa started, a statement to which Haruhi was grateful Tamaki hadn't overheard, "but I confess, I find that motive suspicious at best."

Haruhi sighed in agreement. "They'll leave if I do," she said with a defeated look. "I can take them out of here, if you like."

Nekozawa thought about it for a moment. He didn't really want her to leave, but he also really DID want the twins to leave, and he surmised she was certainly right about the twins being willing to accompany her out. He carefully weighed his options and decided that, with this many Host Club members here to compromise Haruhi's attention, not to mention his humiliating rejection by her on the balcony moments ago, his fun was officially over.

"That might be best," he admitted. He narrowed his eyes at his three adversaries, who were all pressing their ears against Tamaki's cell phone and arguing with someone on the other line. He brought his hand up to his chin in contemplation.

"Before that, though," Nekozawa began darkly, "I suppose I'd better go and greet them. They are guests in my home, after all."

Haruhi did not miss the strangely malicious smirk that ghosted across his face as he purposefully strode over to the collected group.

"Kyouya!" Tamaki panicked into the phone, "We have an emergency!"

There was a pause on the other end, and Hikaru and Kaoru could almost hear the sound of their vice president's face falling into his palm. "What is it, Tamaki?" Kyouya sighed a moment later.

"It's Nekozawa!" Tamaki continued hysterically. "You were right that he's known Haruhi's secret for a while, but you were wrong not to worry! We have another Kasanoda situation! We have to stop this!"

"Tamaki..." the frustration was clear in Kyouya's voice, "on what basis do you say this? Because I don't trust your judgment in this matter."

"On the basis that he told me so! Clear as a bell!"

This piqued Kyouya's interest. "What do you mean?" he asked, a little too slyly.

Tamaki didn't catch the cunning note in his friend's voice, and went on to recount the night's events. What he couldn't have guessed, however, was Kyouya's reaction.

"Well," Kyouya smiled into the phone with some sort of insidious glee, "that's coming along nicely."

Tamaki stared at the phone in horror. The twins pressed their ears in closer, curious.

"How can you SAY that?" he finally bellowed, aghast at Kyouya's treachery. "What does that even MEAN?"

"I mean I hope it exactly follows the Kasanoda incident," Kyouya calmly explained. "After that happened, our patrons realized that Haruhi was popular with boys as well as girls. Her popularity went up tenfold, and she sold much more merchandise on the website. The memory of it is fading, however. I was hoping a similar incident would spark a renewed interest. Hmmm..." he hummed thoughtfully, "I wonder if there's a way to convince Nekozawa to make a public spectacle of his confession..."

"Kyouya, what the Hell!" Hikaru snatched the phone away from his senior, "That's a terrible plot! You can't use Haruhi like that!"

"Oh, Hikaru, you're there too? What a surprise," Kyouya noted with absolutely no surprise at all. "You may think I'm a schemer, but I'm just making the best of an obvious situation. Nekozawa has clearly liked Haruhi for several months now. If I can turn a profit from this inconvenient situation, at least we'll come out ahead."

Now Kaoru grabbed the phone. "What do you mean, 'several months now'? Why didn't you say something sooner?"

"Because then you all would have tried to stop it, but instead you just would have driven the situation into a place where I can't control it. Nekozawa and Haruhi are both stubborn. Anything any of you say or do isn't going to deter them, in fact it might drive them together faster. The best way for this to end is the same way the Kasanoda situation did: he finally confesses, and she turns him down. Preferably on camera."

Tamaki grabbed the phone back. "But how can you be so sure she'll turn him down?" He whined. "I mean, you should see this guy tonight! If I didn't know who he was, I would have asked him to join our club!"

"Haruhi's priorities are school first, this club second. She doesn't have time for a boyfriend, and she knows it," Kyouya continued. And he knew that to be true. Of course, that didn't necessarily have to mean that Haruhi held no feelings for Nekozawa. She clearly did; clearly to Kyouya, anyhow. He seemed to be the only one who knew that. Even Haruhi didn't seem to understand her own feelings. But even if she did, a rational, logical girl like her would save dating for later, knowing it would take up too much of her time and her scholarship depended on her staying at the top of her class. Yes, Nekozawa would eventually tell Haruhi his feelings. And Haruhi would turn him down. Kyouya was counting on it.

He then sighed, trying to summarize his thoughts. "The only way for this to end with everything back to normal is for you three to not do anything," he began sternly, "or you might make things worse. Don't drive them together. Just let this play out naturally."

Tamaki, Hikaru and Kaoru exchanged nervous glances. It couldn't be denied that the Shadow King would have planned for everything, and was probably right that their meddling might only turn around and bite them. But they would still prefer that Nekozawa not confess to Haruhi at all. They would prefer to banish him from the club and leave him to quietly decay in the Black Magic Club like he'd been doing for so long before. But what could they do about it now?

"...Okay," Tamaki finally surrendered, deflating visibly. "You're right. We'll just have to... trust Haruhi."

Kyouya sighed. He hated hearing Tamaki sound so powerless. "If you feel like you must do something," he began, "Go ahead and keep Haruhi busy. Not noticeably busy, like you're trying to distract her- she'll catch on to that- but enough that she only has time left for studying. That will help remind her that she doesn't have enough time in a day to fall for anyone. And whatever you do, don't mention Nekozawa. Don't say anything to him, either, or he might try harder."

This was enough of a plan to invigorate the Host Club King, and he smiled at the suggestion. "That's a great idea, Kyouya!" Just then he noticed the party in question approaching, and paled. "I have to go now. I'll call you later!" With that hasty promise, he snapped the phone shut in time for Nekozawa to stop in front of him.

"What an amusing turnaround." Nekozawa's smile, though genteel, was entirely forced. "It seems this time I am the host and not the uninvited guest. I suppose I deserve that. Now! I hear you two are on a ghost hunt? Curious though your timing, your location is very well chosen!" His words were playful, but his eyes held contempt.

In reply, Hikaru turned on the video camera and pointed it at Nekozawa.

"I think we found a ghost already," Kaoru began, unbothered by his senior's baleful glare. He gestured to Nekozawa's peculiarly pale ensemble. "Hey Hikaru, how much do you think we could make if we sold this video? It's pretty rare footage." He grinned.

"Our website gets pretty high traffic from the girls at our school," Hikaru replied with equal malice. "It probably wouldn't take long for it to get around."

Nekozawa cursed under his breath. He had seen their camera, and knew he wasn't wearing his wig or cowl, but somehow hadn't put two and two together. A video like this could completely ruin his reputation! Quickly though, he thought of a counter attack. Turning around, he grabbed a hold of Haruhi, who had followed him back to her club mates, and pulled her in front of the camera. To add insult to injury, he wrapped his arms around her possessively, grinning at the camera like a devil.

"How delightful, a commemorative video! Do be sure to include the lovely lady Haruhi! Send me a copy, will you?"

"Dammit!" Hikaru swore, flipping the camera's viewfinder shut angrily. "That was smart."

"Can't we edit out the end?" Kaoru asked. Hikaru grimaced.

"Ah, she was behind him the whole time, you can see her."

"I'm getting kinda tired of people using me as weapon in pointless arguments," Haruhi blandly sighed, pulling herself away from Nekozawa. He, along with the twins, had common sense enough to look abashed. She finally rounded on the twins, her arms crossed. "Have you said happy birthday to Kirimi, yet? Because if you have, we should get going."

"We have," Kaoru replied with a slight frown. "We got her a teddy bear."

"We thought about getting her a flashlight," Hikaru continued, a menace clear in his voice as his eyes slid over to catch Nekozawa's glare, "since she's afraid of the dark. But we figured she probably has plenty already."

That was intentional. Nekozawa glowered hatefully in silent reply. Haruhi threw up her arms in defeat.

"Okay. Great. Now say goodbye."

"Already? We just got here!" The twins whined in unison, but they both knew it was a good idea to leave, because if they didn't, there was a pretty good chance they would try to beat the living Hell out of Nekozawa. That itself would completely mess up that whole 'don't drive them together' plan when Haruhi undoubtedly took Nekozawa's side for the assault- an assault he was completely deserving of, in their opinion.

Tamaki, ever the gentleman, was the first to bow. "Thank you for hosting us today, Senpai," he said with as much appreciation as he could muster, given the situation. "And send my love to Kirimi, as well."

"I will," Nekozawa replied graciously. "Please take care on your way home, Suoh-Kun. I will see you in school."

"Thank you for having us." Haruhi bowed. "Have a good night, Nekozawa-Senpai."

"You are welcome back anytime, Haruhi." He smiled, well aware that Tamaki and the twins were still hovering around. "I hope we can get together again sometime."

Haruhi was not completely oblivious to what was going on around her. She could read the threatening looks in her classmates' eyes. It didn't take a lot for her to understand that Tamaki had told them that she and Nekozawa had been hanging out, and they weren't too impressed with the situation. She didn't know they would do, but she guessed there was a chance that they would take out their jealousy on Nekozawa. She knew enough about them to know that they didn't like to share (a trait that extended to friendship), and weren't above bullying. This was exactly why she had been so hesitant to tell them in the first place. But as long as everyone already knew everything anyway, she may as well make her thoughts on the matter perfectly clear.

"Yes, we should," she agreed. "In fact I think I owe you for helping me with my paper and loaning me your book. You should let me buy you lunch one day."

It was a bold move, and she would probably suffer for it later from her club members, judging by the horrified looks on their faces. But it was better they knew now that she still intended to be friends with Nekozawa, and didn't want it to be a secret anymore. They were just going to have to get used to that.

Of course, a part her worried that she was only asking Nekozawa out (more or less) just to prove to her club mates that they had no say in who she held relationships with and shouldn't try to control her. It's not that she didn't want to go to lunch with him, and not that she didn't owe him like she said, because she certainly did. However, after their exchange on the balcony, the nearly-almost-but-not-quite situation she had been a willing participant of, Haruhi thought it would actually probably be better if she didn't see him at all for a little while. But it was a bit late now.

The man in question, meanwhile, was actually sort of stupefied by her offer. Nekozawa stared at her for a moment, replaying her words in his mind. Had Haruhi just asked him out? By the looks on her club mates' faces- Tamaki, bewildered and betrayed, and the twins seething in unfocused rage- she certainly had. Nekozawa couldn't help the victorious grin that split his lips at this development. And while normally he might be so inclined as to reply, "Oh, that won't be necessary," or perhaps offer to turn it around and buy her lunch instead (a suggestion she actually probably wouldn't have appreciated anyhow), he decided, in light of the situation, to go with a different plan.

"That would be my pleasure, Haruhi." He smiled handsomely. "But I will only accept on one condition."

Haruhi blinked in surprise at his response. The twins cracked their knuckles behind her, prepared to lay the smack down if he said anything out of line. Tamaki prayed that she changed her mind and refused.

"What condition?" She couldn't help but ask.

"Call me by my first name," was his simple request.

It seemed innocuous enough- they had been friends for a while and she still addressed him quite formally. But she addressed her club mates by their names, and Nekozawa even used hers. He wanted everyone to be on the same level. And while under normal conditions he would have made this request in private, there was a certain dark intent to asking her in front of his rivals. This war would be fought on even ground, now.

Of course, this plan would all go to Hell if Haruhi, blinking owlishly up at him, didn't actually know what his name was, a terrifying thought that suddenly occurred to him.

"Um..." She shifted a little, strangely uncomfortable with the intimacy of the request. Her club mates hoped she would turn him down. Getting his name wrong would be a hilarious blow, but it probably wouldn't daunt him- it never stopped Kasanoda.

"...Umehito," Haruhi finally said, testing the name out. Nekozawa's heart skipped a little. He genuinely enjoyed hearing her say his name, rivalry or not. He wanted to hear her say it all the time.

"Haruhi.," he softly replied. "I look forward to our lunch. Have a good night."

Blushing, Haruhi bowed quickly and turned to hide her embarrassment. She made for the door, Tamaki swiftly on her heels. Hikaru and Kaoru, however, lingered.

"Umehito", Hikaru mocked, spitting the name like it tasted bad.

"Whatever you're plotting," Kaoru started in a low voice, "it isn't going to happen. Not one person in this club is going to stand for it."

"If we so much as see you in the same room as her," Hikaru growled, "we're gonna make you regret it."

Nekozawa smiled darkly at them; his eyes were narrowed and vicious, his blond hair falling into his face. He wanted to tell them there was nothing they could do to stop him. He wanted to warn them about the torrent of curses they were about to be subjected to. He wanted to say that he was ready for anything they had for him. He even wanted to tell them that they were already too late.

Instead, he snapped the battery plate off the camcorder in Hikaru's hand and pulled out the memory card in one slick motion. He held it up briefly for them to see before pocketing their only evidence of him in a white suit. Years of shuffling tarot cards for an audience had given him a deftness to his hands which the twins, more or less expecting a verbal reply, just couldn't have seen coming.

Without a word, the satisfied smirk still clear on his face, Nekozawa bowed, and gestured towards the door. With a scowl, the Hitachiins turned towards it and stormed out.

So the whole don't-encourage-Nekozawa plan was clearly a bust, but at least they still had the keep-Haruhi-too-busy-to-date plan. Hopefully they could manage to at least not screw that one up, because so far, Kyouya had been completely right. At this rate, they were just going to drive Nekozawa and Haruhi together.

Nekozawa, meanwhile, watched them go with darkened eyes and a devilish grin. Passing by his sister, he patted her on the head, wished her a happy birthday, and then swept up to his room, pulling out his cell phone as he went.

"Reiko-Chan. We need to have an emergency meeting of the Black Magic Club. ...The party is still going on here, is your place available? ...Perfect. Call the others. I'm on my way."

Snapping his phone shut, he slammed the door to his room and began pulling off his party clothes, changing instead into black trousers and a black silk shirt. It was night already, no need for his cloak, so instead he grabbed a long black coat and pulled his wig smoothly over his hair.

"This is going unexpectedly well," he muttered. "But those twins are going to be an obstacle. Something must be done."

He pulled Bereznoff onto his hand with a tug, grinning at the puppet.

"You wanted me to use magic. Let's use some magic."

The puppet might have smiled in reply, but it was probably just the movement of Nekozawa's hand as he reached over to his book of curses, and grabbing it, fled quietly from the mansion.