OHSHC: Triplets
By: Marina StormFire

Summary: Imagine Haruhi as the youngest of triplets—and all three go to Ouran High as Scholarship students. The vase never gets broken, and the three of them DON'T join the Host Club.
Disclaimer: I don't own OHSHC OR its storyline. I only own my ideas and Other Characters.

Pairings:
Hikaru x Haruhi
Kaoru x OC (Satsuki)
OC (Narumi) x OC (yet to be named. Suggestions?)

Narrative by character
Yelling by someone outside the current conversation
Emphasis
'Thoughts'
/Flashbacks or dreamstates/
YELLING

A/N: This chapter takes place the day that the Host Club kidnaps Haruhi… and cause her problems from the get-go, and Narumi rips right into them. Another note, is that in reference to Haruhi, only when she's with her siblings will she referred to as her true gender—a girl, and when she's on school grounds or around other students or the host club members, she'll be referred to as a boy.

Answered Reviews to:
InvisableTarget: Congrats! You got it right! I tried to make it a little difficult, but with only the Prologue and the first chapter to go on, you're the first (and only one) to guess it right! ^_^

shadowridder221: In answer to your review, I wanted to even the odds in the Fujioka family, with two men(?) and two girls in the household. It would also serve having a protective sibling to both the girls, and they don't really have to necessarily rely JUST on their father, you know?

Chapter 2: Apologies

Even as the hosts entertained the young ladies, they couldn't help but feel bad about their behavior against the triplet—Haruhi Fujioka… a boy with heart problems.

To the sky was blue was to say that the stunt that was pulled was a severe miscalculation on Kyouya's part. And it wasn't a pleasant thing to admit to himself, even more so that it was only an attempt into asking the Fujiokas to join the club because of the potential he saw in their familial relationship would bring in more customers—he hadn't taken into account that there could've been really BAD repercussions, and it would've been his fault. When he'd presented the idea to the club members the day before after they had closed for the day, everyone seemed to agree that it was a good idea… now though, it seemed that he, as the one who instigated and planted the idea, would have to apologize… though he had no idea HOW.

The thoughts of the other 3 members was indifferent at best, but they were concerned as well for the well-being of their kohai.

"Ne, Takashi… think Haru-chan will be alright? He looked little more than pale." A diminutive blond asked in between customers, to his much taller and quieter cousin.

Takashi Morinozuka said nothing in response, but hoped that the younger boy would be alright.

/With the Triplets/
Satsuki was careful when going down the flight of stairs, carrying her sister—staying near the railings to help keep her balanced. She made it down the first flight of stairs, when Narumi caught up to them.

she looked at her big brother. "Did you tear them a new one?"

Narumi sighed, and ran a hand through his newly trimmed hair. "Yeah. Now we have to hope that they learn something from it." He glanced at Haruhi, who had her eyes closed and was leaning her head on Satsuki's shoulder. Gently placing a hand on her back, he asked quietly, "Haru? You okay?"

Slowly, Haru's eyes opened, and whispered, "No… not really. My chest hurts… and I forgot to bring my medication…"

Narumi and Satsuki glanced at each other, worried. "How 'bout I take him for now, Satsuki. You look like you need a break." Satsuki looked over at their big brother, well-aware that they were still in the school.

"Sure, my arms are pretty tired."

Carefully, the both of them maneuvered, with very little help from, Haruhi—so she was draped over her brother's back, nearly asleep. With their sister settled, they carefully made their way down the second flight of stairs, and off the school grounds, toward home.

As soon as the three of them made it back to their 3-bedroom apartment, Narumi went straight for the girls' room to deposit his little sister on her futon, and taking off her shoes. Satsuki had gone straight fro their only bathroom to look in the medicine cabinet for Haruhi's heart medication. Quickly finding it, she read the instructions, and tipped the bottle til two little pills popped out into her palm. Capping the bottle, she pocketed the pill bottle and gripped the pills, headed to the kitchen to get a small cup of water, before heading to the room she shared with Haruhi.

"How is she, Narumi-nii?" Satsuki asked, as she deposited the pocketed pill bottle on the bedside table that separated their two futons, and sat on her own.

Narumi set the back of his hand on their sister's forehead, and frowned a little. "She's a bit warm and starting to breathe a little hard. Do you have her medicine?"

Satsuki nodded, and handed Narumi the pills, as he started to shake her gently awake. "Haru, hey there… you need to wake up to take your medicine…" Narumi said, as he gently, but firmly rubbed her arm to coax her awake.

Haruhi's breathing hitched slightly, and she started coughing. "Easy, Haru, easy…just breathe…" Satsuki murmured, just loud enough to help their sister. Slowly, Haruhi managed to get her breathing under control and blearily looked up at her older siblings. "Hurts…" was all she managed, before grimacing at the pain in her chest.

Narumi brushed Haruhi's bangs out of her face, and quietly told her, "I know it hurts… but you gotta take your medicine to make the hurting go away, okay?"

Haruhi didn't like her heart condition—much less the medication she was on, but bared with, as she allowed her siblings to help her sit up and gave her the cup of cold water to help the medicine go down. As soon as she'd taken the medicine, her siblings helped her lay back down to rest from that day's shenanigan.

"Rest for a bit, Haru. We'll take care of the house chores and dinner, while you rest up." Satsuki said quietly, as she motioned for Narumi to move so that she could pull Haruhi's blanket over her.

"Mm-kay…'night, nii-chan, nee-chan…" Haruhi mumbled, as she succumbed to the land of dreams.

"Sleep well, little sister." Narumi and Satsuki said together, as they left the room, to get the chores and dinner for that night started… and to prepare an explanation for Haruhi's condition for their dad.

/Next day/
The Fujioka trio walked into school, as if nothing had happened the day before, and the Hitachiin twins were rather startled at the slight pallor the youngest Fujioka sported and had gotten worse when he spotted the twins, and headed straight for the teacher, and said something to cause the teacher to frown momentarily then soften to an understanding nod replying quietly, to which the triplet bowed. The teacher smiled kindly and said something else, and the triplet nodded, turned and headed back toward the classroom door, while the teacher picked up his classroom phone, dialed a few numbers, and spoke quietly to someone on the other end, nodded a couple times, and replied (presumably it was to say "thank you" and "goodbye") before hanging up.

The twins looked at each other wondering what the teacher and one of their scholarship classmates were whispering about… and were further worried when the boy turned back to his siblings briefly, nodded and received a couple relieved grins and nods, before heading out the classroom door to some unknown destination.

They both frowned, wondering what was going on, and if the boy was deliberately avoiding them because of their part in the "kidnapping" the day before. But before they could corner and ask one of the other two remaining triplets where their brother was off to, the teacher called for the class to come to order and took attendance, and skipping Haruhi's name—presumably because he knew Haruhi was here and elsewhere in the school, then proceeded to the day's lesson.

When homeroom ended, the twins tried to talk to the remaining triplets, but to their immense disappointment, were summarily ignoring them. It wasn't until lunchtime just after their 4th period class—Geometry, that they finally got a glimpse of the missing triplet out the window they'd chosen to sit beside. He was eating a bento lunch with his siblings outside under the trees. Watching the two triplets give the missing triplet some papers and a couple notebooks—the twins surmised that Narumi and Satsuki had taken it upon themselves to lessen some of the work for Haruhi and had picked up his homework and notes to go with them for him to copy.

And it wasn't 'til a little while later, after their 6th period class—Japanese History, when they had Study Hall, did they finally find the last member of the Scholarship Trio. In library #4 on the second floor of the school on the upper floor—sitting at a table near the railing overlooking the rest of the library, sat the last Fujioka sibling, looking ensconced in his work.

With a glance at each other, the twins—by mutual agreement, went up the stairs to the upper floor to where their classmate was studying. Moments later, they were standing at the boy's side, waiting for him to acknowledge them. They didn't have to wait long.

"Can you be helped?" the Fujioka asked, blandly sarcastic, as he took notice of them. They surprised the boy, when they both just set an arm around the other's shoulder, and replied, "We just wanted to introduce ourselves, we're…" they pointed to themselves in turn at this point. "Hikaru Hitachiin." Hikaru said, winking at the seated boy. "and Kaoru Hitachiin." Kaoru finished, as he smiled gently at the seated boy.

The boy could only blink when they further surprised him when they untangled their arms from around their brother and bowed to him at the waist.

"We're really sorry for yesterday." They apologized together, and waited for his reply.

Haruhi had had a really peaceful day, and was only surprised when she noticed the presence of her twin classmates; even more so, when they first introduced themselves and then bowed to her when they apologized. Slowly, she put down her pencil and turned in her chair to face them, regarding them just long enough to make them wonder if she was going to forgive them or not, even as she thought back to what the homeroom teacher had said…

/Flashback/
Haruhi and her older siblings had just entered the classroom, when she had seen the twins that had practically kidnapped her the day before and didn't want to be anywhere near them right then. She was reminded of how little of her homework she had done the day before, when she'd woken up from her nap and dinner was just about done. Quickly walking toward the teacher, she became nervous, unsure if the teacher would understand at all.

"Sensei, I had a bit of an incident happen yesterday… and I wasn't able to get any of my schoolwork done. The incident caused my heart problem to react. I was wondering if I could get some leniency just for today and do up my schoolwork in the library and turn it all in at the end of the day…?"

Much to her surprise, the teacher, who had frowned at the beginning, was now showing softened understanding, and replied, "Just for today, Fujioka. I'll leave your schoolwork with your siblings and trust that they'll give it to you at a later time."

She was much relieved and bowed in thanks. "Thank you, Sensei." When she'd straightened, the teacher smiled kindly at her, saying, "Not at all. I'll give the school attendants a heads up and they'll give the librarians a heads up to give them a call when you show up at whichever library you arrive at, hmm?" she had nodded, turned and had walked back toward the door, before looking back at her siblings, nodded at them that everything was alright, and received relieved nods in return, and walked out the door to make her way to Library #4 on the second floor of the school, alerting the librarian there, they called the attendants office to let them know that Haruhi Fujioka had arrived at the library for the day.

And she'd been there since working on her schoolwork from the day before.
/End Flashback/

"You can consider yourselves forgiven, ON ONE condition…" she stated, bringing herself out of recent memories, and raised her voice slightly on the last three words when it looked like the Hitachiins were going to ignore everything else.

"What condition?" the twins asked simultaneously, which would've been funny if she didn't do that with her siblings every so often.

"Keep in mind that there could be bad consequences for your actions someday if you don't think before you act. Try learning from yesterday's mistake and don't repeat it." She told them. The twins seemed to actually listen and take her words to heart.

"Deal!" They said, grinning. Haruhi smiled back slightly, and grimaced slightly at the slight pain in her chest. Residual pain from the debacle the day before; Leaning down, she reached for her bag and rifled through it for a moment before withdrawing a pill bottle and a small water bottle.

Kaoru and Hikaru became worried when they saw their classmate grimace. "Haruhi?" Kaoru asked tentatively, pulling out the chair next to her and sitting in it.

"I'm fine. Just residual from yesterday. It takes a couple days for me to get back to normal." She reassured them, as she tapped out a couple small pills, opened the bottle of water, and downed the pills with a swig of water following seconds later.

Hikaru moved to sit across from her at the table, and started taking out his homework for the day, when he noticed several books on the table with one common topic—flowers. Puzzled, he picked up a book and waved it in front of Haruhi to get his attention. "Flowers, Haruhi? Really?"

Haruhi flushed slightly, and replied quickly before they could tease her, slightly agitated. "It's not what you think. They're for inspiration." And suddenly found herself the center of both twin's attention. Reluctantly, she brought out her sketchbook from under her notebooks and homework. "They're for several designs I have in mind…" Almost immediately, she found her sketchbook in the middle of the table and pages rapidly, yet carefully, flipped revealing one clothing design after another.

Both Hitachiins looked at each other, then at Haruhi.

"Will you come with us to the Host Club?" they asked, and regretted asking when they saw shadows in their classmate's dark brown eyes.

"No," she said flatly. "I have my schoolwork to catch up on and turn in after school lets out today. I can't afford to let my grades slip, even at the start of the year." She told them firmly. Slowly they nodded, even though they barely had any idea just how hard the triplets had to study to get into such a prestigious school such as Ouran.

"Do you mind if we look at these?" Kaoru asked, carefully watching the boy's expression.

"I don't mind, but I need that for a little later." Haruhi told them, as she went back to doing the previous day's work, nearly done with five classes worth of schoolwork. And her sketchbook would be needed to make up the designs for her other two classes—Art class-Jewelry and Sewing class. Those two classes would need her sketchbook to log her designs to pass her midterm exams.

Hikaru moved to stand next to his younger twin to look at the sketchbook designs and had a blank piece of paper between them to 'talk'.

'What was it that you wanted to tell me yesterday, Hika?'

'Haruhi was working on a dress design during sensei's lecture.'

'A dress design? During class? Did you get a good look at it?'

'In order: Yes. Yes. And no. It might have been something else altogether.'

'Well, at least we'll be able to ascertain that for sure now that we got the sketchbook to tell whether what you saw yesterday was the dress design he was working on yesterday was the one you saw or not.'

Hikaru nodded in agreement, and went back to looking through the sketchbook at some of the most outstanding and most beautiful designs he'd ever seen… until something caught his eyes.

Several minutes later, she finished her assignments and needed her sketchbook back for her designing ideas fro her other two classes. Putting down her pencil, she stretched her arms above her head, stretching leisurely… and felt her spine pop in several places.

"Ow…" she groaned, wincing as she turned her body one way then the other. Until she heard the twin's gasp of what sounded like shock. She looked at the both of them, who were staring between her and the sketchbook, puzzled. "What?"

They turned the sketchbook toward her, revealing a recent design of her windbreaker with the design of a rose on the back. But that wasn't what was shocking. One of the twins was tapping something in the top left hand corner of the page. What looked like a simplified lotus with the crescent arms of the moon. She remembered that particular design had come to her when she started designing her "Flower line" of clothes. She had taken it up as her personal design logo and called herself "Tsukiren" meaning, "moon lotus". It was fitting she felt.

She looked up at them, who were still staring at her. "Something you wanna say?" she asked them, her mouth quirking up into a half smile, half smirk.

"You're Tsukiren…" Hikaru whispered, still stunned. When he'd first noticed the logo, he couldn't believe it. He'd heard of the costume designer, Tsukiren. Even seen several of her designs online, but no one had seen the designer in public. He assumed that the boy was just a big fan of Tsukiren, until a look at several of the designs and when they had been drawn and branded with the same logo in the corner made him think otherwise… that this boy was, indeed, the famous designer. When he pointed the logo out to Kaoru, he was just as surprised.

Kaoru, too, had heard of the designer… had even ordered quite a few clothes from Tsukiren's Arabian costume line, and was just about to boost himself up to fanboy status of Tsukiren's fashion line—nevermind that his own mother was the worldwide famous fashion designer. There was just something about the designs themselves…. The last line that was posted online, was a tasteful Modern Times/Victorian era mix. Where there were some tops (but not all) that were tastefully trimmed in a little lace that could be worn at formal and some casual functions, but not enough to qualify as something to be worn as underclothes. And the dresses that were made had a modern times quality that also had a hint of goth-victorian era in it with minimal ruffles in the skirt and bits of lace that were stitched to the ruffles in an asymmetrical line in the overskirt, that could be worn at some formal functions or even as a costume to a *Renaissance Festival.

They had both gone through each and every design carefully and with each one, there was that same logo.

"Yes." Haruhi said simply. There wasn't much else to say to that.

Kaoru looked at the design, then back to Haruhi for a moment, before a thought occurred to him, and glanced at the uniform the boy now wore. "Did you make that uniform too?"

Haruhi's eyes went wide for a moment before she nearly burst out laughing… at least someone was asking about the change in clothes, if nothing else. "No, I didn't. The shirts, trousers, blazers, and ties were all store-bought. We'd gone to a crafts/sewing shop to get the odds and ends we'd need to make the Ouran uniform. Putting the odds and ends together and stitching them onto the blazers and ties were all my handywork." She told them, before turning pages til she came to an unfinished sketch of some kind of jewelry design… looking reminiscent of her logo.

"What class are you working on now, Haruhi?" Kaoru asked curious, as Haruhi worked on filling in the minute details.

"Art class-Jewelry." Haruhi replied, as she erased an errant line and darkened another. She sat back and studied the outline and minute details. "I was thinking of making it a glass-beaded necklace… but maybe that's too impractical. I want it fashionable, but not too gaudy or flashy… not too simple, but not too complex either…" she murmured now, lost in her thoughts and ideas, completely ignoring her company, as she got back to drawing out what she was going to do with the design of her logo.

Hikaru and Kaoru watched her work fro several minutes, and were startled when her voice reached their ears. "Are you here to do your homework or to skip class?"

Still looking at the boy still working on his jewelry design, they replied, "It's our Study Hall."

Pausing to look at them individually, she shrugged. "Okay." And went back to her design. Several minutes later, she turned the page and started on something of another dress design in an asymmetrical pattern. She paused, slowly tapping the eraser end of her pencil on her sketchbook… and stared at the outline of the design.

The twins could only look at the boy, as she worked, but then when they were reminded of their own schoolwork, pulled it all out and got to work quietly.

/With Narumi and Satsuki/
The two older Fujiokas were rather relieved that their homeroom teacher was understanding of their youngest sibling's condition and allowed her to do up yesterday's homework to turn in at the end of the day and to have today's work done for the next day with her older siblings help.

They'd managed to meet outside for lunch so that they could give Haruhi that morning's homework assignments and the notes for them to be done for the next day, with a promise to get the afternoon's work for Haruhi and help her with it when they found a quiet place to study. Which in any case Narumi's choice: remain in the library or choose somewhere else, and knowing him, it was probably going to be in the kendo dojo.

"Hey, Narumi-nii?" Satsuki whispered, during their 6th period class—Biology, as they were working on the worksheets given at the same lab desk.

"Hmm? Need some help, Satsuki?" Narumi asked quietly, not wanting the teacher to come over to check on them for their low whispering. They were allowed to talk to their lab partner—but not too loud though to prevent distracting everyone else.

"No…it's not the work. You think Haruhi's alright?"

Narumi glanced at his sister, then continued on his current worksheet. "I think Haruhi is just fine. Sensei told us at the end of Homeroom that Haru could be granted leniency just for today considering his condition and with a librarian as a supervisor, our sibling will looked after AND kept on-task. We won't have to worry so much, except when it comes to them who HAVE to eventually apologize for that stupid stunt yesterday."

Satsuki nodded slowly and went back to working on her current worksheet. Her thoughts drifted every now and then to the Hitachiin twin boys—somehow feeling drawn to one of them…she mentally gave herself a good shaking. She and Narumi had done their absolute best to avoid even so much as speak to the twins in their class. But they couldn't be avoided forever. They still had their last two classes together with them.

"Don't think so much about the Hitachiins, Satsuki. Whether they manage to corner our sibling, and make him accept their apology or not, is his prerogative. The only thing you and I can do is stand by and watch and accept whatever happens." Narumi murmured, as he flipped through his biology textbook for the correct answer to a specific question on the worksheet he was working on.

Blinking slowly, Satsuki looked at her brother, somewhat owlishly. "How did you…?"

"You're one of my siblings, Satsuki," Narumi murmured, interrupting her. "we're triplets. We're connected to each other and Haruhi. Haruhi and I will always know the general gist of your thoughts, same for Haruhi and you knowing my general thoughts, and so on. We were born together, and that's the way it will always be. Nobody can change that."

Satsuki softened her eyes at her big brother, before going back to her worksheets. She'd almost forgotten that particular aspect of their triplet connection. "Yeah…" she whispered, only audible to Narumi's ears. The boy-triplet's mouth tipped up in a small soft smile, without looking at her, and finished writing in an answer on is worksheet.

The rest of the day went by quietly, with the twins slipping them a short note saying that they found her in Library #4 on the second floor and had apologized and further details would be told later when school was let out for the day. Both the older siblings looked at each other, pocketed the note, and continued with their sewing designs.

They both knew that their designs wouldn't top their baby sister's, but they could come pretty damn close with only a little bit of guidance.

/With Kyouya/
Guilt was an unfamiliar feeling to Kyouya Ootori, a feeling that had been eating away at his conscious since that near-serious misstep the day before with the kohai—Haruhi Fujioka. He'd seen the younger boy walk onto the school grounds earlier that morning with both his brothers (who was who escaped him entirely at the moment), but had no such luck in finding the boy between classes to slip him a note of apology. He'd had a quick glimpse of him during lunch time—but not at any other time since. With his last class being Study Hall, he set about looking for which class the boy would be in by texting the twins and getting a text back that the missing triplet was in Library #4 on the second floor, on the upper floor.

Slowly, he made his way to Library #4 and wondering what the hell he was going to say by way of an apology. He made it to the library just as the final bell chimed and everyone was to be in class at that time. Scanning the upper floor, he found the missing Fujioka… and the twins. Wondering what the hell was going on, he made his way to the upper level—his mind going two different ways: one part wondering just how he was going to apologize and the other part wondering what in the world the twins were doing here, instead of in class.

Of course, he noticed the number of students right there in the library in general, were scattered about, with a teacher supervising with the help of the librarian and their assistants.

He didn't, on the other hand, realize that he'd stopped only a few feet away from where the missing triplet and the twins were working, until the bland voice of the Fujioka penetrated his thoughts.

"Hmm? Something you wanted…?" the boy trailed off, not knowing his senpai's name, which was kind of expected. There had been no introductions the previous day.

"Kyouya Ootori-senpai." The dual voices of the Hitachiins introduced simultaneously, to which the boy nodded.

"Kyouya-senpai, then," the boy acknowledged, and looked in the second year's direction, almost but not quite startling the older teen. "was there something you wanted?"

Kyouya found himself nodding to one of the two spare chair. "Is one of those chairs free?" he asked, mentally kicking himself when he saw the younger boy's eyes darken so as to be a near-black color. 'Probably looking for an apology from me.' He thought to himself, and focused on the boy's answer.

"Nope, my older brothers are around the library picking up some books for a class project and plan on joining up soon."

Slightly disappointed, Kyouya moved to another table far enough away to seem like he was just out of earshot, but was close enough that he could watch and listen to their quiet conversation.

A/N: Chapter 2 is up! I'm happy I managed this. R&R plz, I look forward to more positive reviews! Enjoy the chapter!

OH! Before I sign off, a note: The Renaissance Festival isn't a figment of my imagination and takes place sometime in August, where you can dress up in medieval clothes- dresses, armor, or even peasant-type clothing. I'm just not sure if Japan has this Festival. It's really fun though. ^_^

L8rz!
~Mari-chan~