(a/n) – so, the votes were pretty close. actually completely dead even...

so i flipped a coin. best out of 3 at least.

sorry avatar people! i'll still do the avatar snippets if a random idea comes to me that i absolutely have to put down, but like i said i will be focusing on ouran, and not actively thinking up story ideas for the avatar snippets. once ouran is done i might switch over.

Emiya Clan – Ouran 02

Takeshi moved through the halls with a purposeful stride. He paid no attention to the first year students throwing confused glances at him, nor to the increasingly levels of conversation that erupted in his wake.

Turning into a doorway, he scanned the room briefly, but found no trace of his quarry. He caught the attention of a boy with glasses, "Excuse me."

"Yes, Sempai?" first year asked.

"I'm looking for Haruhi Fujioka," Takeshi replied. "Do you know where sh–he might be?"

"Fujioka-kun?" Kazukiyo Souga blinked thoughtfully. "I believe he left with the Hitachiin twins once class was over. Did you want me to pass along a message?"

"Thank you, but I can find him with that," Takeshi said. He quickly leaned back out of the door and retraced his path to the main building.

As he marched down the hallway, his mind flashed back to the extremely unhelpful conversation between himself and his parents.

ooo

"There's no reason to refuse your Ashikabi just because you think you don't like them," Father had said. "If you weren't compatible, they wouldn't have triggered a Reaction in the first place."

"At the same time, you shouldn't force yourself on the young lady," Kaa-san had warned him. "Doing such a thing would be highly improper... I hope you'll at least try to discuss the matter with her and try to make her understand your position."

"But I can't break the masquerade," he had protested. "The more people who know about us, the more dangerous it becomes for us. You told us that, Father."

"I did," Shirou had admitted. "But I think you're smart enough to know just how much is safe to divulge. Once you've explained everything, hopefully it will all work out. If it doesn't even after that... then we'll review our options. I've never actually tried to use Rule Breaker on a Sekirei and I'd rather not start experimenting on one of my children if I don't have to."

"So then what can I do?"

"Try to ignore it through sheer force of will?" Miya-kaasan had suggested. "Although the fact that you Reacted at first contact with her is troubling, from all appearances the girl is not magical at all, so hopefully it won't be too severe. Unless Dear's research has been completely useless..."

"What?" Father had spluttered. "I'll have you know I spent a lot of time collating what little data we had on that subject."

"Yes..." Miya-kaasan had said with an odd note to her voice. "I know my dear Husband has put a great deal of effort into it. And I believe he should take a break and think long and hard about other important matters."

"Oh?" Father had lifted an eyebrow. "And what might those be?" he had asked as he leaned in towards Miya.

Takeshi had quickly vacated the room after that, fortunately missing his Mother's reply.

ooo

After bracing himself mentally, Takeshi pulled open the door to the Third Music room.

"Welcome, Takeshi Emiya-sempai," Ootori smiled ingratiatingly from behind his clipboard. "Honey-sempai is occupied with his duties at the moment, but I can let him know you're here looking for him."

"Actually, Ootori-kun, I was looking for Fujioka-san." Takeshi emphasized the honorific slightly, and he watched as the second year's eyes narrowed slightly behind his glasses.

"Walk with me, if you would Emiya-sempai," Ootori beckoned him forward, then turned to walk the perimeter of the room as Takeshi followed. "I assume from your wording that you are concerned for Haruhi-kun?" he said in a low tone.

Takeshi grimaced beneath the polite mask he held over his face. "I know Fujioka-san is a female, Ootori-kun," he said blunt, though equally quiet tone.

"I admit I'm surprised," the black-haired student said. "The signs are not obvious, had I not looked up her previous school's records when she was first admitted I might have been caught off guard as well." They came across one of their customers staring at a sculpture and his voice rose in volume. "Minoan pottery, on loan from the Mediterranean Fine-Arts gallery." The girl looked up in surprise, then swooned as Ootori gave her a winning smile. "If you'd like, I'm sure Tamaki would be more than happy to tell you all about it. He has some very fascinating insights on the culture as a whole."

"I think I will, thank you!" the girl flushed as she looked over towards the King of the Host Club's table.

Ootori scribbled a small note onto his board and nodded at her. "You'll be his next customer then, Honda-san. I'll be sure to make the necessary arrangements."

"Thank you!" she waved.

"Where was I?" Ootori's voice and smile dropped as he continued pacing the room. "Oh yes. Well, If you can, Sempai, I'd appreciate it if you kept quiet about this arrangement for now. Haruhi-kun unfortunately did accumulate a rather large debt for the pottery she destroyed, although Tamaki has allowed her to pay it off through her labors."

"What sort of jobs are we talking about here?" Takeshi scanned the room, but didn't see anybody running around, doing errands or maintenance on the furniture. In fact, he couldn't see his potential Ashikabi at all, though his headache told him she was definitely present somewhere.

"I believe the phrase 'she cleans up nicely' would be most appropriate here," Ootori was saying. "It was Tamaki's idea to have her work off as a Host herself. If she manages to have up to one-hundred customers call upon her as their designated host, her debt will be considered cleared."

"As a wha– You can't be serious?" Takeshi looked around some more. "Where is she?"

"Third table from the left, I believe her own classmates have designated her today."

Takeshi mentally counted off the tables, then blinked as he saw a rather attractive-looking boy seated there surrounded by a trio of giggling first years. He did a double-take, "That's her? She's in a boy's uniform!"

"Indeed," Ootori made his own review of the various tables and scribbled another note onto his clipboard. "As you can see, if Haruhi-kun is to have any chance of clearing this debt, it requires that the student body as a whole does not realize she is a female student."

"How much is it?" Takeshi spun around.

"Roughly eight-million yen," Ootori said without even checking his board.

Takeshi blanched, "That much?" He shook his head and narrowed his eyes at the Club's Second in Command. "I'll pay it off for her, let her go."

Ootori lifted an eyebrow. Rich as the students at Ouran were, even that amount was nothing to simply throw away casually. "I believe that would a decision best left up to Haruhi-kun herself." He decided not to give into his curiosity regarding the Emiya family's financial situation – at least not at the moment. He checked his watch, then the schedule on his clipboard, "She should be done with her current customers shortly. I'll let her know you want to speak with her."

He turned to head back for the entrance, then paused and glanced over his shoulder. "Emiya-sempai, I ask you again not to divulge this information to anybody else, especially Tamaki." His smile suddenly seemed genuine, if rather dark. "I'm rather curious to see how long it will take him to figure it out."

ooo

"Emiya-sempai?"

Takeshi kept his head down for a moment. He'd let himself zone out from the world, meditating lightly to gather his mental strength in preparation for ignoring his headache 'through sheer force of will' as his Mother had suggested. The increased buzzing in his head and that apologetic voice let him know exactly who was asking for him, so he lifted his head and stared into the wide, brown eyes of his potential Ashikabi.

"Kyouya-sempai suggested you wanted to ask me something," the cross-dressing girl prompted.

"Ah, yes," Takeshi swallowed to bring some moisture back into his suddenly dry mouth. "Fujioka-san, I just wanted to tell you first: I know who you really are. I also wanted to ask if you were happy doing this."

"Hm?" Fujioka blinked in surprise. "Thanks, I guess. As for... well, this," she waved at her uniform. "I don't really mind, I guess. It's a pretty ingenious plan, everybody was really nice to give me this chance to pay it off."

"Would you rather go to classes as your true self, though?" Takeshi asked. "If it's just the debt, I can ask my family to help you out there. You wouldn't have to do this."

"Oh no!" she waved her hands in front of her. "No, I couldn't possibly ask you to do that for me. It was my own clumsiness which got me into this trouble. I should be the one to work it out."

She hadn't even asked him why he'd offered. Her first thought had been to make sure nobody else would suffer for her own mistakes. The thought both warmed him, and also increased the intensity of his headache. He squeezed his eyes shut and ruthlessly squashed the feeling down as best as he could. "I see," he said, opening his eyes again. He was startled to find her leaning forward, peering into his face closely.

"Are you okay?" she asked. "You looked a bit like that yesterday, just before you had to go to the nurse's office." She lifted a hand to his forehead, "You're not having a relapse, are you?"

"I'm fine!" he said quickly, leaning back out of her reach. He ducked his head in apology as she lowered her hand with a confused expression. "I'll be fine," he reassured her. "I'm sorry, but can I ask another request from you?"

"You just did, but I'll give you another," she said with an easy smile. He winced again as another spike of pain shot through his head.

"It's kind of unusual, so I apologize," Takeshi said. "But I do have... a condition. It is recurring for the time being, so I'd appreciate it if you could keep quiet about it."

"That's fine, I guess I have a few things I have to keep quiet about too. One more thing wouldn't hurt." She leaned forward again, "Is that it?"

"Well, no," he admitted. "I think you can help with resolving this... condition. It just involves you and I..."

"Mhmm?" she tilted her head questioningly, her eyes showing nothing but trust.

"You... well... do... to me..." oh, how the hell could he possibly explain this? He knew what Matsu-kaasan and Kazehana-kaasan would tell him, but that just wasn't proper!

"Do what?" she asked.

He hung his head, "Would you like to be friends?"

"Huh? Sure, why didn't you just say so?" Haruhi said brightly. "Does this mean you'll be joining the Host Club too?"

He twitched. On one hand, he really needed to stay away from her until he could find away to resolve this Reaction. On the other hand, if he joined he'd have a much higher chance of getting to know his potential Ashikabi, especially since she was disinclined to leave it.

"I... suppose," he said with wry grin. "If only to keep Haninozuka-kun from bugging me every day."

"That's great!" she said. "Although if you're going to be working with us, you probably shouldn't be too formal with your fellow club-members. Can I call you Takeshi-sempai, then?"

He twitched again, "That's alright, Fujioka-san."

"No, no," she shook a finger admonishingly. "Still too formal. Try 'Haruhi'."

"Haruhi... san."

"I guess that'll work." She beamed at him, which both set his heart fluttering and his headache pounding once again, and extended a hand. "Let's work hard together, Takeshi-sempai."

He stared at her hand for a few moments, then slowly grasped it, trying valiantly to ignore the sudden explosion in his head. He fought the urge to pull her into him and smash her lips against his, instead he just smiled grimly. "It'll be my pleasure, Haruhi-san."

ooo

He woke up in the nurse's office again. He dimly recalled Fujioka – no – Haruhi-san announcing his decision to the rest of the club members. Ootori-kun had looked at him with a subtle smirk, while Haninozuka-kun and Suoh-kun had both tackle-glomped him to the floor. His headache had flared at that moment, and he didn't remember much else after that.

He quickly rolled out of the comfortable bed – even a nurse's office at Ouran was far too classy to merely have a simple cot – and gathered his jacket and school supplies a thoughtful student had left there. Once he had finished getting dressed, he checked the time and let himself out. It was well after hours, though from the time on his watch it seemed the Host Club was still in session. The rest of the corridors were almost completely deserted, the echoes from his footsteps reverberating through the halls.

In the peaceful quiet, he suddenly heard a splashing sound coming from outside. He stepped over to a window and frowned. Two floors down, from the hallways where the first-years had their classrooms, he saw a female student upending a school bag into a nearby fountain. He pulled out his cellphone and flicked it over to camera mode. One of Matsu-kaasan's designs, it functioned almost as well as a high-end digital camera.

He zoomed in on the figure and his frown deepened. It appeared to be one of his classmates, Ayanokouji-san if he wasn't mistaken. He suddenly recalled she had been in the Host Club while he had been visiting, being tended to by a Suoh-kun who was obviously distracted by how Haruhi-san was faring at her first day on the job. Confused but too far away to do anything else, Takeshi snapped several pictures of the furious girl as she finished throwing everything into the fountain and stormed away. He thought for a moment, then flipped through his phone's address book for a new number he'd recently added.

There was a few moments while he connected. "Ah, Ootori-kun? ... Yes, I'm sorry, Kyouya-kun? I just had a question about one of your customers..."