And here is Chapter two. I have to say, this is a bit of a slow chapter, it's one of those annoying times where you have to do something, but it's annoying and slow to read. It's even explaining something important, so it's not like you can skip reading it...
Oh, just to note. The story is third person, but it's written as what Neku knows, hence Haruhi.
So good luck. I hope that you enjoy.
Getting used to Tamaki was a pain. It really was. First there were the unexpected bursting into his room at ridiculously early times, then there were the times that he looked around his room without permission, especially when he found Tamaki rooting around in his tin. Anywhere else, and Neku might not have minded too much. But that tin held a lot of his memories of the game. When he checked, he was relieved to find all of his pins still there, as well as the notes he made of his three weeks in the game.
Neku turned over on his bed, trying to drown out the knocking on the door. The brutal knocking that seemed to amplify with every beat. He pulled his head under a cushion, trying to force himself back to sleep.
"Neku, wake up!" He heard Tamaki call from the hall… He hoped. "It's the first day of the school year. If you don't hurry up, you'll be late! And Father will be angry about that."
Neku sighed, pulling himself upright. He never was a morning person. He slipped out of bed and walked into the bathroom, preparing for the shower he hoped would wake him up.
Neku learned something new before he even stepped into Ouran Academy. He could now safely say he knew what extravagance looked like in all its glory. The school was huge, he didn't even want to think about how badly he'd realized the scale of the map he'd been given. He was honestly glad that he'd brought it with him.
As the car stopped, he noticed a man waiting for him, and briefly wondered if he should have tried to tame his hair. He shook his head, that little part of him sounding too much like Shiki for his liking, and opened the car door, climbing out despite the slightly surprised look of the driver, already halfway out of the car himself.
"Mr. Sakuraba, I assume." The man said, offering out a hand to shake.
"Chairman Suoh." Neku replied, shaking the hand. There was no mistaking them as family, he seemed to have a side to him exactly like his child. "And could you call me Neku?"
"Certainly. And I apologize for not being able to greet you." He said. "But you have no need to worry, I have dealt with the problems of your scholarship, and you are welcome into the school officially." He smiled. "Does the building impress you?"
Neku looked again at the building, then nodded. "Definitely."
Suoh laughed. "I think my son could learn a lot from you. Is he still running around everywhere?"
"And being loud…" Neku grumbled, tugging at his blazer when he noticed that it wasn't sitting on his shoulders properly.
Suoh laughed. "Yes, that's my son. He's harmless, but he can be a little weird sometimes…"
"It's more often than that."
"Yes, that's very true." Suoh chuckled, then gestured. "Well then Neku, I hope that you enjoy your time here at Ouran Academy."
"I hope I will as well." Neku sighed, offering another handshake before walking into the building itself.
His lessons were not bad, for a first day. It seemed that there were different sections of the school for different years, and two of the buildings in the grounds were for the Middle and Junior school, so there was a lot less walking than he had originally suspected. He started with the registration of his class, encountering a pair of twins who reminded him far too much of Joshua. But maybe more mischievous.
And man, was he creeped out when they started to flirt with each other, almost every girl in the class stopping and staring at the display. The guys were either looking jealous of the twins, or pointedly not looking. One was writing something in a book, the only girls not staring at the twins talking to him.
After that his lessons were ranged, but all enjoyable. He had gotten to choose his subjects out of a range he didn't even know was so large. So first came History – it was always fun to see if he could spot any mentions of the Reaper's Game before it became what it was today. After History came two sessions of Chemistry, where he was introduced to the only thing the school seemed to only own one of, an NMR spectrometer. He was surprised, but not as much as he might have been if he didn't know the school. He also was walked through safety in the lab – as per safety regulations – and then began work on hydrocarbons. Listening to names, he recognized several big ones in the petrochemical industry.
After those sessions came lunch, and Neku's scholarship apparently covered the food, he noticed as he lined up to collect his food, ordering a duck dish he vaguely recognized. Within five minutes, he had his dish. It was as he was about to take his first mouthful when the twins from his form appeared on either side of him.
"You know that not having dessert is bad for you." One spoke, leaning on his shoulder. Neku rolled his eyes. He heard a sigh and another person sat opposite, the boy from earlier who was writing. He put down a box, taking off the lid to reveal a small pile of rice and what looked like beef in a broth.
"Hikaru, Kaoru, stop it." He sighed, pulling out a pair of chopsticks and picking up a piece of beef, slipping it into his mouth.
"You're no fun Haruhi." The two replied in sync, taking the seats next to each of us, opposite each other.
"Sorry about them." Haruhi spoke, smiling slightly.
"I know how to deal with those sorts of people." Neku replied. "I have a friend in Shibuya just like them."
"Oh, so you're the new scholarship student." The twin next to me replied. "I'm Kaoru, by the way, and the one who isn't me is Hikaru." Hikaru choked slightly on the mouthful of rice he had taken, and took a drink of water before he began to cough.
"I'm Neku." He said, nodding.
"My name's Haruhi." Haruhi smiled, before taking a bite of rice. "The other scholarship."
"Nice to meet you." Neku nodded his head, taking a bit of his marinated duck.
"Haruhi, remember to hurry~" Hikaru semi-sang. "We've got to get to the Host Club."
"Yeah, Tono said he's bringing someone along." Kaoru added.
"I feel sorry for that person…"
"Right." Haruhi spoke, taking the last bites of her meal before putting the lid back on the box, taking it with her. "I'll see you in form, Neku." He added, smiling. Neku held up his hand in farewell, then returned to eating his duck.
"There you are!"
Everyone in the library shushed Tamaki as he stood at Neku's table. The teen had been reading up on the NMR spectrometer in the Chemistry labs, and was now being interrupted by the boisterous blond.
"What?" Neku asked quietly.
"You're coming with me." Tamaki spoke, more quietly this time, pulling Neku to his feet without letting him pick up the book. "Come on! I want to introduce you to some people!"
"Great." Neku said. He could have been fine knowing Haruhi and the twins, as much as those two creeped him out. Evn if Shiki would have pushed him into meeting more people, he would have been comfortable with that little group. And now Tamaki was dragging his to meet his friends. And knowing these people, he'd have to be polite to them by courtesy, and he'd have to pretend to become friends with them…
"We're here!" Tamaki shouted, letting go of Neku as he stopped outside of a set of double doors. Neku looked at the sign above the door.
"Music room three?" He asked, fighting back an urge to scream. As much as he liked music, he couldn't play for the life of him.
"Yep." Tamaki threw open the doors and stepped in, only for a pile of petals to fall on his head, startling him.
"Sorry Tono!" A voice spoke from above, sounding almost bored. "We were setting up the petal shower." Neku blinked, recognizing the voice. "Hey, where's your 'special guest'?"
Neku looked through the doorway, upwards. On a ladder and leaning over the door, was a surprised, familiar face. "Are you Hikaru or Kaoru?"
"Neku?" Whichever twin it was almost fell off of the ladder, barely catching himself before he fell.
"Hello Neku." Neku looked across the room to see Haruhi, laying a table towards the middle of the room. A tall, dark haired teen with glasses as sitting at one of the chairs, writing something into a notebook.
"Welcome to Ouran Academy's High School Host Club!" Tamaki explained, a rose appearing in his hand, offed out towards Neku.
"Tono, stop scaring the new guy!" The other twin said, appearing from behind a sofa.
"Yeah, Tama-Chan…" Neku was surprised by the voice behind him, even more so by the tall, dark haired teen that appeared behind him, a little kid with blond hair looking half-asleep on his shoulders. "You shouldn't be so mean…" He added.
Tamaki looked flustered, blubbering slightly, and the teen with the glasses sighed. "I apologize for our leader's actions." He sounded serious, but he was wearing the smallest hint of a smirk. "I welcome you to the club room Neku. My name is Ootori Kyouya. Behind you are Morinozuka Takashi and Haninosuka Mitskuni. The twins are Hitachiin Hikaru and Kaoru, and this is Fujiyoka Haruhi." He spoke. "Please ignore our leader as most of what he says is either idiotic or unintelligible."
Neku smirked slightly, deciding that he liked Kyouya. "Thanks for the welcome."
"Now then, let's see about getting you ready…" Tamaki spoke.
"Wait, ready for what?" Neku asked, suddenly slightly nervous.
"Well, you are becoming a Host. Hikaru, Kaoru, what do you make of his clothes?"
"Fine Tono!" The twins replied.
"Kyouya, contact…"
"Wait a minute!" Neku shouted, interrupting Tamaki. "Do I get a choice?"
"You don't want to join the Club?" Tamaki asked.
"No." Neku replied, walking away. He headed for a set of double doors and passed through. It was only after they closed that he realized that wasn't the way out. Instead, he pulled out a pin from his pocket and tossed it, catching it, before focusing and moving a chair in front of the door, lodging itself against the handles so it wouldn't open unless he wanted.
That was something Neku wanted to thank Joshua for. A while after the Game, Joshua appeared and let the group know that they still had access to their Psyches, and any pins they'd collected. That had given Neku a lot of choice. The four of them had been careful to keep the Psyches secret, and so far they were successful. Neku himself didn't use much past the Psychokinesis pins he had. It hadn't been like they'd been attacked by Noise since they'd gotten back to the RG, it was just a little gift.
He sighed as someone tried to open the door and fail, hearing knocking that reminded him so much for that morning. He looked around the cupboard for a while, then cleared a table, placing some of the pins he kept in his pockets on it, and began to flick them, reminding himself of Tin Pin Slammer, deciding not to open the door until the end of the day. Until then, he'd play.
And there we go. Just for the record, I like the twins. It's just I image they would unnerve Neku a little.
Well, I hope you enjoyed this chapter, despite it being one of the boring ones. I looks forwards to seeing you guys next chapter. And who knows, maybe then we'll see another of the important characters in the individual canons.
For the record, this is anime-verse. And I know, I know there are inaccuracies in terms of year groups, but I don't really care. In my book, everyone in Ouran was held back a year and no one is complaining. Hence Hunny and Mori are going to be regulars.
See you guys next time.