Title: It's Not a Mask
Summary: Jack doesn't wear a mask, who he is at school is the real him. He's not hiding his gender, nor is he in the Host Club because of a debt or blackmail of any kind. He thought his life was pretty good when he was with the host club, but when his secret is revealed Jack will unwillingly become who he's not. This fanfiction is not about a girl pretending to be a boy. This is a story with a transgender protagonist, Jack is a female to male trans guy.
Warnings: This fanfiction heavily involves transphobia and homophobia in the later chapters. If you're uncomfortable with either or are triggered by said things, then continue at your own risk.
Chapter Length: 2592 | Total Length: 4169
Chapter II
What's the Plan?
"Ready to wreck the last club in Ouran?" Danny sighed, as they looked at the doors of the club.
"It's a Host Club – what's the worst that we could do?"
"You said that about the sewing club."
"It wasn't that bad."
"That girl had to get stitches."
"Well she had the skills to give them herself." Jack chuckled a little darkly.
Danny rolled his eyes. "Dude. Sometimes you scare me."
"Grow up. Seriously. All they do is serve tea to people and shower them with compliments. Or at least, I hope that's all they do." Jack informed his friend. "In the real world they serve alcohol and stuff, and they've all got this particular look. Sometimes they're sleazy as well, but hopefully it's more diverse and easy going than the real world. After all this is the society for rich snobs."
"Well, let's find out shall we? No point delaying our failure." Danny sighed as he pushed open the double doors to the music room.
The room that they had entered had an array of sofas dotted about. Many were filled with girls in yellow poofy dresses, with a few blue clothed men dotted about. Plenty of them had cups and saucers of tea, along with several plates of cakes per table. All in all the room reminded Jack of a pleasant cafe.
"Girls..." Danny muttered.
Jack rolled his eyes. "Oh, get over yourself. Don't go chatting them up just yet, wait until we've joined at least."
"But—! Oh fiiine." Danny sighed as he gave up.
"Welcome." A dark haired bespectacled man greeted the two of them. He barely even looked at them, opting to continue writing in the black book he held in his hand. "May I ask what your business is here?"
"We're here to pick up chicks." Danny muttered as he looked at all the girls, winking at one who glanced his way. He was swiftly greeted with a smack upside the head by his friend.
"Ignore my idiot friend. We're actually here to see if we can join your club." Jack said, his voice confident as he held a hand behind his neck. Something he usually did when asking for something.
"Are you now?" The guy stopped writing, his interest peaking as he looked to the two in front of him, looking at them for the first time since they arrived. He shut his book and looked them up and down. "Your names?"
"I'm Jack Dawson. And the desperate loser is Danny Bradwell. We need to join a club to pass homeroom, and no other clubs will take us."
"And you've come to the end of your ropes and wish to join us here at the delightful Host Club. We're honoured." The man said, his voice dripping with hidden sarcasm. His eye roll was unable to be seen by the pair due to the white glare ever present over his glasses lenses.
"So...can we join?" Danny asked hesitantly, his gaze straying away from the girls of the room for the first time. His smile hopeful as he looked slightly down at the man in front of him.
"As happy as we would be to accept, we decline." The guy said, with a cheerful smile that didn't quite reach his eyes. "Jack Dawson, lives with his five brothers, father owns Dawson Chocolatiers. The family isn't very well known, and isn't plugged into the social ladder much, but you remain in class 1-B because of your grades. Had your family name been a stronger name in the social ladder then you would have been admitted into class 1-A. Doesn't sound impressive thus far."
"M-man...that's more than a little creepy..." Danny stuttered as he froze up.
Jack on the other hand paled. What other things could this guy know about him?
"Daniel Bradwell, only slightly known in the social ladder because your mother had ties to the royal family in England, thus when the name is mentioned in conversation it isn't completely ignored. Your grades are average, putting you in class 1-B. But you're in the bottom of your class, any slip up in an exam and you'll be downgraded to class 1-C. Not at all impressive, such as the case with Dawson."
"Dude. So not cool." Danny exclaimed fear written on his face.
"Woah! Okay. We get it. We're not welcome here." Jack sighed, regaining his cool. "It's fine, we'll just leave if you want us to leave so bad."
"Thank you, enjoy your day." the guy said with a pleasant smile as he walked off once again.
Jack and Danny turned around, leaving the way they came.
"M-man that guy was creepy..." Danny sighed, once they closed the door.
"We're not giving up just yet." Jack said, his arms folded and his jaws flexed. He wasn't one to get angry easily but now he was livid. Just who gave that guy any right to poke around for other peoples' personal information!
"What?! Why? Didn't you hear that creepozoid back there? No way." Danny reasoned, also opting to fold his arms. "I mean, I get it for the chicks in there man. But we could just go to a dog park or something."
"He pissed me off! That's why!"
Danny sighed, realising that there was no chance to reason with his friend when he got angry. The two had started to walk towards their lockers ready to collect their stuff for the day. "And how else are we going to join?"
"We ask the other members. There are meant to be seven there, right? Well, we track them down and ask them. One of them has to be the president. If it turns out that the freak with the glasses is the president, then we can give up."
Danny heaved another sigh. "Fine. Where do we start, scheme-lord?"
"Okay, so they call the Hitachiin twins the little devils of the Host Club. Devils love pranking and thus we're going to prank them. They'll either get angry and we'll enter a pranking war with them, or they'll just laugh and ask us to hang out with them. Either way, we'll strike up a conversation or argument that's when we ask to join."
"Sounds good." Danny nodded. "But why the hell am I the one holding the string?!"
"Because for starters you're taller. Secondly, I thought of the plan. And third because my arms would ache for holding it for as long as we need." Jack explained as he continued on his game of Pokémon on an archaic looking game-boy. He had been playing it for a solid two hours straight, a new record for him. Worth missing two classes for it.
"What?! Those are lame excuses! You hold the damn thing." Danny exclaimed in anger and he pushed the string to Jack's face, his hands cupping around the gaming device.
"No, go away." Jack said, swatting at his friends hand. "I'm almost finished battling this gym."
"Dude. You're just being lazy." Danny said, folding his arms. "I'm going to let go."
Jack didn't even bother looking up. "You wouldn't dare."
"Watch me." Danny said, his voice calm as he let go of the string, far before the twins had even come close to them. Unfortunately, a teacher had happened to walk underneath and thus the glue and various glitter colours landed all over her. "Shit."
Jack looked up with wide eyes before he yelled. "RUN FOR YOUR LIVES." Abandoning his gym battle.
"So what's the plan?" Danny asked, he held a box in his hands as the two were peering around the corner of the courtyard. "Please tell me that it's a better plan than the last one."
Jack rolled his eyes and ignored his friend's comment. "From my information in which I picked up from the lovely girls in 1-B, Mitsukuni 'Hani' Haninozuka can't say no to cake. Especially strawberry cake. We're going to 'accidentally' run into him and initiate conversation. Sat we're going to take these strawberry cakes to the club we're going to join, but them say we haven't decided on a club."
"And if you're right, he'll invite us to the Host Club! Good plan." Danny grinned.
"Here he comes! C'mon let's go." Jack whispered to his friend, pushing him out from behind the statue they had hidden behind. The two then walked forwards until they had "accidentally" walked into Hani.
"Oh, I'm really sorry lil dude!" Danny said, as he picked up the box once again.
"It's no worries!" the small blonde replied before he skipped along.
The two just stood there staring at him as their chance walked away.
"Damn, and I really thought that one would work." Danny muttered.
"Are we still formulating plans or should I just stop asking?" Danny sighed.
"I'm not giving up that easy, this one's really simple actually. I'm going to go over to the tall guy over there, ask him what club he belongs to then ask if I could join. He's friends with the small blond dude that we walked into ten minutes ago."
"Sounds cool, but lemme use your game-boy." Danny said, sitting on a bench.
"Fine, just don't break it." Jack sighed, passing the electronic over to his friend before taking a deep breath and approaching the tall guy who seemed to be waiting for someone. "Uh...excuse me?"
The guy turned his head down towards Jack, "Yeah?"
"Uh, you're Takashi Morinozuka right?"
The guy nodded.
"You're in the Host Club, right?"
He nodded once again.
"Do you think I could join up?"
The guy shrugged.
"Oh. Uh. Okay. Thanks. Um. Bye." Jack said awkwardly before he walked away.
"You get in?" He asked without even looking up.
Jack heaved a sigh. "Maaan these guys must really not want people in their club."
"Eh, let's just give up. They sound pretty boring anyway."
Jack was persistent. He wasn't going to give up until he asked everyone in the club. "But dude." he started. "You won't be able to hook I with any of the cute girls they seeerrvveee."
Jack smirked, he knew he had his friend on a hook. After all there was no way that Danny could resist the offer of an all access pass to hit on girls.
"...Fine."
"I'm not even going to ask." Danny sighed as they followed a brown haired male.
"Oh you better. This one is all you." Jack smiled up at his friend innocently.
"Wait, what?" Danny's head snapped down to look at his friend confusion plastered all over his face. "What're you wanting me to do?"
"Work your magic on him." Jack shrugged. "You're charismatic man, ask if you can go join or something. Flirt if you have to, apparently this guy has another one after him too so I dunno maybe it'll work or something."
"But, I'm not the gay one of us two!" Danny whined as his friend pushed him forwards.
"Too bad, you don't want to get your parents angry for flunking the easiest class right? Suck it up and just do it already! I thought up every other plan." Jack protested.
"FINE! Just get off me." Danny sighed as he walked towards the guy. "What's his name?"
"Haruhi Fujioka if I believe correctly."
"Alright. Wish me luck dude." Danny sighed, running a hand through his hair and checking his breath. He then strode up to Haruhi with his usual charismatic smile on his face. "Hey there man, Fujioka right?"
"Haruhi" seemed to blink up at Danny in confusion. "Yeah." He nodded.
Danny's heart jumped. The idea of hitting on a guy definitely didn't appeal to him. He chickened out.
"UH NEVER MIND SEE YOU AROUND." He blurted out before almost sprinting back towards Jack. Jack could only slap his palm to his forehead as he watched the display. Of course.
Haruhi looked back at Danny confusion written on his face before he shook his head, moving to continue on his way.
"What was that?!" Jack exclaimed, his voice slightly hushed as he stared at his friend.
"I got scared!" Danny cried. "I don't hit on dudes! I don't like leading them on if they actually are gay. Then I feel like an asshole. Besides, he was too cute to be lead on."
"Dude. Are you sure you're straight?" Jack chuckled.
"Dude. I can appreciate looks when I see them. After all, you're super fucking hot, bro. No homo and all that." Danny laughed.
"No homo, you homo."
"How many is left anyway?"
"Just one. And we'll have to go to the club room for him..."
"Welcome! Oh? And how may I help you handsome men?" The blond in the room smiled charmingly at the two.
"Oh! Woe is me!" Jack exclaimed dramatically from his position where he laid on the floor, his hand outstretched as he reached towards Tamaki, an over the top expression of woe on his face.
"Woe it us!" Danny chorused, also in the same position as his friend.
"What's wrong? Can I help you two?" the blond asked, rushing over to the two boys.
"Could you?" Danny asked in a hopeful voice, "Maybe..."
"You see...we've been rejected from every club in school. Not one of them will take us! All we want to do is make friends and have a full high school experience!" Jack explained before starting to fake cry. However, in his head he couldn't help but smirk beyond belief. He had been told that Tamaki was a sucker for sob stories. He couldn't say no when someone told him on.
Thus, this plan involved pretending to have a sad story, being over dramatic with it. Maybe add a few tears into the mix and bam. One hundred percent increase on the chance to get in.
"Oh, that's horrible!" Tamaki cried. "I can definitely help! You see, I'm the president of the Host Club. We'd love to have you join!"
Behind him on a sofa, a bespectacled dark haired man sighed.
"Really? Oh, bless your kind heart!" Jack grinned as he jumped up from the floor, helping his buddy up afterwards.
"Success!" Danny grinned, before holding his hand out for his friend. Jack grabbed the hand and did the "should hand bump" handshake, their usual celebration of success.
"Heck yeah it was." Jack then turned back to the blond. "I'm Jack Dawson, and this is my best friend Danny Bradwell."
"Welcome to the Ouran Host Club! My name is Tamaki Suoh, the King of the club. This is Kyoya Ootori, he's the vice president, and organises the club's budget and such." The blond introduced himself, before introducing the guy behind him. "We're both in class 3-A. The other members haven't arrived yet, but we'll be sure to introduce you to them when they do!"
Jack couldn't help but grin. For some reason, his heart raced with excitement. He would usually be cautious when branching out and trying to make new friends, but this was a fresh start. No one but Danny knew who he was, and no one would find out.