"Haruhiiii!" I heard Hikaru scream-whispering behind me.
"Hey! The girls are going to be here soon!" Kaoru added.
I turned away from my computer to see Haruhi leaning up against the back of her hand, clearly falling asleep.
"Let my sweet daughter sleep, gentleman! Dealing with Kyoya all the time must be simply exhausting!" Tamaki screeched. The twins laughed.
"He probably spends every second of their time at home doing... Kyoya things..." Hikaru giggled.
Haruhi groaned. "What exactly is a 'Kyoya thing', huh?"
"...Business stuff?" Kaoru shrugged.
"While I do keep on top of my 'business stuff', I'd hardly call it my entire personality." I said, turning back around to my computer.
Haruhi stood up off the couch and heard her start walking towards me. She made a point to flick each twin on the forehead as she passed. Before she got to me, I reached down and grabbed her bag, and held it up for her.
"Thanks, Kyoya." She said, opening the front zipper of her bag, and pulling out one of her candies. I put her bag back on the floor for her.
"How did you even know that's what she was going for, Kyoya!?" Tamaki squawked.
"Maybe sleeping with someone gives you some kind of weird, sexy telepathy." Kaoru snickered. Hikaru snickered, even though I could tell how much he disliked the comment.
"While I'd prefer if you would refrain from speaking about our personal lives so crudely..." I began.
"He isn't entirely wrong." Haruhi laughed, shoving the wrapper from her candy into Kaoru's mouth as she passed.
Tamaki shrieked, "HARUHI, DADDY DOESN'T WANT TO HEAR TH-" He was quickly cut off by Kaoru, who was spitting out the wrapper.
"HARUHI, YOU'RE JUST EATING THESE? Just the WRAPPER is sour!"
"It's just candy, don't be a baby, Kaoru." Haruhi said, sitting back down.
Hikaru cackled, "Yeah, Kaoru, I bet I could eat one of those and not even make a face."
"OH, YOU ARE SO ON." Kaoru yelled.
"I want to partake as well!" Tamaki raised his hand, shuffling his way over to them.
Hunny shook his head. "Nuh-uh. I don't like sour candy." He pointed up to Mori. "Takashi does, though!"
"Mmm." An expected response.
"Have at it, then." I sighed, reaching into my bag to pull out a piece for each of them. I kept an extra bag with my things in case Haruhi ran out of her supply in her bag.
Haruhi turned around in her chair to face them all. She looked at me and smiled, then eyed my phone, then back at me.
I picked up my phone to a message from her. "Any bets?" It read.
"I suspect Mori-Senpai won't be phased." I typed back to her as the Hosts sat, opening the wrappers.
"That's a safe bet, I think." She replied.
They all gathered in a circle, candy in hand. "Ready, lads?!" Tamaki shouted.
"GO!" Hikaru yelled, and they all popped it in their mouth.
There were about five seconds of silence until all hell broke loose, even by Host Club standards.
Tamaki spit his out almost immediately, making all sorts of miserable sounds.
Kaoru shook his head like a toddler, "IT'S LIKE EATING EIGHT LEMONS ALL AT ONCE."
Hikaru started pounding his fist on the table. "IT'S... NOT... EVEN THAT... BAD..."
Kaoru tightly gripped his thighs. "YOU. FUCKING. LIAR." Hearing Kaoru swear was impressive. Hikaru tended to be the more fowl-mouthed of the two.
Haruhi started laughing so hard that tears fell down her cheeks. She looked at me and pointed to Mori, entirely unable to contain herself.
Mori was leaning on his hands that were firmly planted on the table in front of him. Parts of his face subtly twitched every few seconds.
"Haruhi! How on EARTH do you eat these for FUN?" Tamaki yelled between sips of water.
Through the tears of her laughing fit, she managed to get out, "They're good!"
"Battery acid." Mori muttered. This was the final straw for Haruhi. She was absolutely doubled over laughing.
Hikaru shouted to her, fists white-knuckled on the table, "WHY ARE YOU LAUGHING, HE'S RIGHT!"
"I don't think my cheeks will ever look the same..." Kaoru said, dejectedly smacking his head to the table, still powering through the candy.
"What even are these!?" Hikaru added.
I smirked. "I had those imported from America. They seem to be quite fond of torturing themselves with various candies that tend to either be very spicy or very sour. I myself prefer the spicy ones."
"They aren't even that bad!" Haruhi wheezed. Seeing her laugh this hard was starting to make it difficult for me to maintain my composure. Even Hunny-Senpai was starting to laugh now.
After another few moments of suffering, Mori spoke again. "...It's fine now."
"Yeah..." Hikaru's fists eased up. "Now it just tastes like a regular lemon candy."
"It's good now, but it wasn't worth the trauma." Kaoru said, finally sitting up from the now drool-covered table.
Hikaru laughed. "Dude, gross!"
"You have drool down to your NECK, asshole!" Kaoru laughed back, pointing at his brother.
Tamaki whimpered. "Kyoya, that's a cruel joke, giving us a different candy than her!"
Haruhi, wiping the tears from her eyes, stood up and walked over to me. I handed her a candy from my bag. She showed them that the wrapper was the same, opened it, and put it in her mouth. Just as usual, she didn't react at all.
"YOU'RE A MONSTER, HARUHI! HOW?!" Hikaru screeched.
"WHAT EVEN ARE YOU?!" Kaoru added. Haruhi immediately went back to laughing as she actually enjoyed her candy.
"I like them!"
"Another one." Mori said flatly. It silenced the room.
"Senpai, there is no way you..." Kaoru started. "LIKE THESE?" The twins finished together.
"Yeah." He said.
Hunny chimed in, "I told you, Takashi likes sour candy!"
After the candy debacle, club activities went as normal. The girls were thoroughly enjoying everyone talking about the 'devil candy', and a few even asked what they were so they could purchase them for themselves. Clearly, I'd have to look into getting some of those 'challenge candies' that would probably make these look no different from a lemon bar.
As we cleaned up, the twins and Tamaki were still complaining about the candies.
"My cheeks hurt." Kaoru whined loudly.
"I think my tongue is gone." Hikaru whined, somehow even louder.
"A sweet cake never tasted so delicious..." Tamaki cried, eating a little leftover piece of cake.
"You guys are ridiculous." Haruhi said as she went around and picked up plates, smiling to herself.
Haruhi was now 13 weeks along, which according to her doctor, made the child, ironically, the size of a lemon. I still had trouble wrapping my head around it. A child. My child. Was inside of her.
Though I still found the situation to be, admittedly, quite terrifying, the fear was slowly being replaced by excitement. I grew attached far faster than I had expected to. I didn't think I'd have any kind of emotional bond with them until they were born, physically in my arms, but that wasn't true. Sometimes, I was annoyed with them for making Haruhi so ill, so frequently. But every night, without fail, as we go to sleep, I place my hand on her stomach, and I fall in love with this child all over again.
I also never could have imagined that expecting a child would be such a deeply bonding thing for Haruhi and me. We'd been together for just about six months now, but it felt like I'd loved her for an eternity and more. As we went through each day, it got harder to remember life without her. I've never smiled so much. Just being around her made me happy.
She'd grown more confident with her place in our home. She had actually gotten pretty close with my sister, who absolutely adored Haruhi. Fuyumi loved to tease me about proposing to her, but I knew full well that I would make that step the moment I thought Haruhi would be comfortable with it. I'd already put a lot of thought into it. How I would do it, where, with what ring... But I knew that when she was ready, I'd talk to Tamaki. As much as it pains me, it's something I really want him to be a part of, assuming he doesn't 'divorce' me when he finds out about the child.
"Hey, Kaoru?" I heard Haruhi say quietly, among the shouting of some argument Hikaru and Tamaki had gotten into. She nodded for him to follow her to the kitchen.
We were planning on telling him tonight. We decided to follow through with letting him know first. She was right, he really had earned it. He'd been an amazing friend to both of us, and I believed as strongly as Haruhi did that he'd be a wonderful 'uncle' as well.
We still hadn't told anyone in my family. I knew Fuyumi would be the first to find out, then my father. I shuddered at the thought. Nothing scared me more than that. I knew in my heart that it didn't matter what he said, and that Haruhi, the child and I would be fine with just my personal accounts alone should he chose not to aid us financially, but it was still me telling my father that he was going to be a grandfather out of wedlock, a rather large taboo in our world.
I would always hold the deep fear that our child would end up like Tamaki did. The illegitimate child who was so deeply despised by his grandmother. I didn't want that for our child, and I would do everything in my power to prevent it. Even if it meant our child not knowing their grandfather.
Haruhi interrupted my spiraling thoughts with a slight nudge as she leaned down to me. "He'll be over tonight, no Hikaru." She whispered, kissing my forehead before leaning back up. Tamaki and Hikaru liked to poke fun at us when we showed any amount of affection, but it was painfully obvious how jealous they both were. I tried to avoid it where possible, out of respect, but I would be lying if I said kissing her in front of them didn't give me a slight sense of pride.
My phone buzzed as Haruhi walked back towards the kitchen with another handful of plates and cups.
A text from Kaoru. "Should I be honored to be the secret-knower, or terrified? Is this going to end in a hit or something? Is this about the sexy telepathy joke? It was a good joke!"
I responded. "I suppose you'll find out tonight."
I could see him getting antsier by the moment, and he basically ran out the door as he and Hikaru left, the rest of us not far behind them.
As we walked to our car, Haruhi looked up at me. "Hey, Kyo?"
"Hmm?"
"You've never tried any of these candies either, have you."
"Absolutely not."
She smiled that trademark Hitachiin smile.
"I repeat, absolutely not."
"Come on, please!"
"No."
"Just one!"
I sighed. "What do I get out of it?"
"My everlasting love?"
"I have that anyway."
She raised her eyebrows. "Oh, the CONFIDENCE, Kyoya! Are you SURE about that?"
"Yes, I am. But, I suppose if you were to eat one of my spicy ones, I could try one of your sour ones."
She groaned. "Those crazy cinnamon ones?! Aw, come on!"
"Do we have a deal, Love?"
She sighed and held out her hand. I shook it.
When we arrived home, we did just that. I held one of her sour ones, and she held one of my spicy ones.
"Okay" She huffed. "GO."
We each ate our respective candy, staring each other in the eye. It only took a few seconds for my face to wince on its own, I no longer had any control of it.
She laughed. "YOU'RE A BABY, TOO!" She joked, even though I could see her eyes watering and her face turning red.
"It seems you're also struggling, my dear Haruhi..." I managed as straight-toned as I could.
"I can handle fire."
"And I, battery acid."
I felt myself begin to clench my fists. The others were right, these were insane.
We heard a loud knock at the bedroom door. "Hey, if you're practicing telepathy, please stop, I'm walking in in three...two...one!" Kaoru walked in and froze at the door. "This isn't even kind of what I was expecting."
Haruhi waved her hand in his general direction. "Who looks like they're handling the candy better, Him or me?"
He paused for a minute. "Definitely Haruhi. Kyoya's trying too hard." He's got me there. "I thought these didn't mess with you, Haruhi?"
"SPICY." She said, fanning her hand in front of her mouth.
I handed him one of my candies. "OH. I've had these. Hikaru hates them, but I really like them. It's one of the only snacks I can buy myself that he won't steal." He laughed. "Guess you're not so tough now, huh, Haruhi?"
She held the bag of her candy up to him. "Want another?"
He took a physical step back, "Absolutely-fucking-lutely not."
