As promised, Mori had driven her to and from school, a true gentleman. Hani was with them in the morning, but after their Kendo practice stayed behind and Mori was alone with her in the car on the way home.

"I'm- sorry." She started.

"Hm?"

"About yesterday. I practically ignored you after the guys showed up. And- I was a bit blunt about calling.. eh.. 'us' off. I hope I wasn't heartles-" A warmth on her hand made her stop mid-sentence.

"It's okay, Pumpkin." Mori's hand rested gently on hers.

Cheeks reddening, she looked down. "I hope so."

"I was the one who rushed it. I'm sorry." His head bowed slightly.

"What! No, it's fine!" She shook her hands in protest. "Besides, I mean, I'd rather it was you!"

"Really?" His head lifted.

"Y-yea. I feel intimidated by just about everyone in school, even Haruhi a little. So it's nice, between real life issues and club activities, to get my mind off things and hang out like this."

"I'm glad."

She felt.. safe. "Hey, Takeshi?"

"Hm?"

"I need advice. I don't- know what to do. My father is making bad decisions, and I don't know how to stop him. I know I want to take his place one day, but I have no idea how, or what to do to keep him from making mistakes before then."

"Speak to him."

"How? He never has time for me any more."

"You won't know, if you don't try."

A deep sigh left her lungs. How was she supposed to do that? "I guess."

"Don't give up. You can do it, you have the strength. You just need to find your courage."

"Yea." She smiled.

"Ah, we're here."

"Thank you, Takeshi, for looking out for me. When I needed a break you swooped in like a valiant- well. I'm not sure what exactly, but you came to my rescue nontheless. See you tomorrow!" She waved happily at him before jumping out of the car and running into the house.

"Looking out.. for her?" His head tilted as the car pulled away from her house. "Mitsukuni.. I don't think I'll have a girlfriend before our year is over."

-x-

"Dad!" Pumpkin yelled, seeing him sitting at the dining table, lawyer next to him, sipping tea. "What the hell- what /is/ all this!" The table and floor surrounding them was covered in papers and folders, knee high in stacks.

"Oh, Pumpkin.. we're being audited."

Her eye twitched. "WHAT!? How? What did you lie about!"

"Hey, that's some assumption you're making there, young lady!"

"Well, it's got nothing to do with me, good luck." With a grunt, she threw her bag over her shoulder and started to go upstairs.

"Not so fast!" He stood quickly, pointing at her. "If you're planning to learn how to business things, you're going to need to learn wto deal with a situation like this!"

"Well unlike you, I won't be making stupid decisions, like stealing other people's MONEY!"

"HOW DARE YO-"

"NO, DAD. How dare you!" She took a deep breath in. This was it. "I saw that bank account and all the purchases you've been making with my money from Mom! I don't know what you were thinking or why you did it, but if that's really how you want to deal with this situation, then by all means!"

"You have no idea what you're talking about!"

Her eyes glinted as she glared at him, mirroring Kyouya's demon glare. "I know all too well. And the next time you take me for an idiotic child, you'll have hell to pay! Keep in mind, dad, I plan on taking over this business, whether you like it or not! Even if that means sweeping it from under your feet and running it like it's supposed to be! You're unfit for your position and honestly, I'm glad you're being audited! Maybe now you'll learn your lesson and get your life in order before your companies get swallowed up by somoene else! If you don't.." She panted heavily "You'll have me to deal with, as I plan on being your competitor!"

There was a silence. "You plan on.. making a noodle company and other foods?"

"What? No! Not like that, I meant- Gah! I meant that I'd be fighting you for ownership and leadership of this business! Don't you dare think you're going to just hand over a bankrupt ruin to me with a ribbon and call it a day!" With that, she stomped up the stairs, ignoring everything else he had to say. But, she meant it. And it was freeing, finally saying what she planned, and to her father. Yes, this had to be the right course of action! The only problem was, she'd now have to work to get there, and it wouldn't be easy. The issue was, what was her next course of action? Sitting at her desk, she looked across at the lineup of books. A Japanese language book, a geography book, a couple of romance novels, a music magazine and a business encyclopedia, traveling edition, given to her by her mother. "Oh mom.." Smiling a little, she picked up this book and flipped through it. "First chapter. Self Confidence is Key. Well duh, I know that much! Second chapter. Get Your Feet Off the Ground. UHG!" Slumping her head over on her arm she let the book drop to her desk. "This is useless, written by an amateur. Even I can see that. Oh!" An idea struck her and she jumped up, running to her closet and fishing out a small box. Inside layed a trinket, about the size of her palm, perhaps a little smaller. "A WWII pendant. This is perfect." She'd sell it, and use the money to start saving up for the Ultimate Takeover. "Kissin Foods. HAH! Soon enough, it'll be Pumpkin Foods! Ahahaha! I'll have stores all over the country, selling our products, and no one will stop me! Noodles, chips, drinks, candies- we'll have it all! BWUAHAHA!" Laughing maniacally, she held up the pendant over her head and tilted her head back, continuing her laughter into the night.

-x-

"Gooood morning, Tamaki-kun, Ohtori-saaan~" Pumpkin was grinning widely as she slid into her chair at her desk.

"Oh, Pumpkin-chan! You seem really happy today. Is everything well?" Tamaki's face lit up.

"Well, my dad's being audited and he's bankrupt, and we're probably going to be selling off everything we own-"

"Whaa..! How is that a reason to be happy?"

"Because." The smug look returned to her face. "Today's the day I put my Ultimate Takeover plan into action. Today is the day- that I take things into my own hands!" She laughed again, that sort of maniacal, loud, slightly obnoxious laughter that had reason to make some people cringe.

"Do you have to be so loud about it?" Kyouya muttered as he stared at his book.

"It's the first day of the rest of my life! Of course I can't be quiet about it!"

"Okay, okay, silence! Class is about to start!"

"Yes sensei." Everyone muttered.

The end of the day couldn't come fast enough. The moment the bell rang, Pumpkin was the first out of the class, rushing to get to the Music Room. But as luck would have it, she ran head first into something. Or rather, someone.

"Hey, watch it!" A rough voice came from the person, and as he turned, she felt the blood drawin from her face. It was Kasanoda, and while she'd seen him in the club room, out here, it looked.. freightening. Irishida and his posse were easy to deal with, but this guy was the real deal.

"S-sorry." She whispered, unable to move.

"Hey, kid! Why are you just standing in the hall like that!" He sounded so angry.

"Just. Just going. To class. No- club. I'm going to club!"

"Hey, you're that gay girl, right?"

"Ah!" Her back stiffened. "That- that's what they call me- I guess."

"Say, listen. Could you.. Eh, could you do me a favor?"

"What.. is it?" Her head tilted and he leaned in to whisper, making her gulp hard. "You want me to what!"

"Please, gaygirl!"

"I have a name!"

"Uh- uhm-"

"It's Pumpkin!" Him being so annoying made it easier for her to open up her irritable side despite his physical overbearing appearance.

"Please do this for me, Pumpkin- I'll owe you big time!" His hands clasped together and he bowed toward her.

That sent a lightbulb off over her head. She could get people to owe her things if she did favors for them. "If I do this, you'll be in my debt?"

"Yes!"

"To be determined as I see fit?"

"Eh.. well.." His head slowly lifted. "As long as it's of a similar calibre, I guess it's alright!"

"Fine." Hah. She'd have this whole school under her thumb before she graduated! Pumpkin's inner self laughed maniacally as her eyes went red, arms raised, and everyone bowing before her in her mental picture.

"Thank you, Pumpkin! Thank you!" Kasanoda ran off, leaving her to her evil inner thoughts.

"You'll be late again, Sagano-san." Kyouya's voice brought her back to reality.

"I'll walk with you!" She jogged up next to him, falling into his walking pace.

"Wouldn't you much rather spend time with your boyfriend? You get so little time as it is with him." She noted a tone of irritation from him. Why would he care anyway?

"What do you mean? Kasanoda?! No way!"

"Don't act dumb." He shoved her to the side and into Mori, who caught her shoulders.

"Oh! Mori-senpai.." Sweatdropping, she took a step back and looked up at him before turning quickly on her heel to face Kyouya. "Hey, don't shove people like that!" But he'd already walked away.

"You okay?"

"Yeah." Sighing, she walked next to Mori. "Hey, where's Hani-senpai?

"He went ahead of us."

Strange, she hadn't seen Hani outside of club for awhile now. Was he trying to do things outside of school, and being the adult one? He really was different outside of club activities.

"Pumpkin."

"Huh?" She stopped and turned to face him just as he leaned down and toward her, intending to kiss her cheek. But, her head turned too quickly and his lips planted directly on hers. Eyes wide, she felt her breathing stop as she stared at him. His lips were soft and warm, but unmoving. A sharp inhale through her nose, and she got a whiff of him. It was a calm smell, something she'd smelled from him before, but being this close, it was relaxing and a bit overwhelming, but in a good way. As her eyes began to close, he stood up quickly, face quite red as he stormed off to the music room. What the heck was that about!? Blinking quickly, she put her fingers to her lips. She'd kissed boys before back in Germany plenty of times but none of them were as.. what was the word she was looking for, reserved? As this. Smirking a little, she felt her cheeks go red as she ran to the music room. As usual, she was the last to arrive.

"Three minutes today, Purple-chaaan~" The twins greeted her as she entered the room.

"You two are keeping count now? That's rude!" Crossing her arms, Pumpkin stamped over to Tamaki. "What's the theme today, Tono?"

The twins looked excitedly at each other as she'd started using their nickname for Tamaki.

"Today we are fabulous! Wearing the costumes of the studious, we'll be seen far and wide as the smart and rich, fabulous attendees of O-"

"Basically, we're wearing our school uniforms." Haruhi cut him off, but she didn't sound as though she intended to rain on his parade.

The young man still sat in his corner. "Daughters shouldn't interrupt daddies when they're talking." He pouted, muttering to himself.

"T-Tamaki-senpai.." Haruhi kneeled next to him. "You want to do it again?"

"No!" He turned around and stared at her a good minute.

Haruhi's face started going slightly red as they stared at each other. "Sen..pai?" She whispered softly.

"Haruhi," he started, eyes going over her suit. "what's that bump?" He reached out and poked her waist pocket.

"Oh, it's a bouncy ball I got at the supermarket. They gave it to me free for my purchases." She took it out of her pocket and held it up as she spoke. The look on Tamaki's face was that of a child overcoming a recent bad feeling, eyes wide and finger at his mouth. "Would you like to play with it?"

"Can I, Haruhi?"

"Sure.." She handed it to him, and he went bounding away, forgetting he was upset.

"A gift from Haruhi, a gift from my little girl!" He chanted as he ran after it.

"Sooooo." Pumpkin started, standing next to Haruhi.

"What?"

"I saw that."

"Everyone did, it's not like I'm hiding that I give gifts!" The younger girl turned around and started walking away.

"I think you liiike him~" Pumpkin whispered in Haruhi's ear as she walked behind her.

"Don't say such weird things like that, senpai!"

"Oh, that reminds me!" Pumpkin grabbed Haruhi's arm. "After club today, meet me outside in front of the hedge maze, okay?" Smiling, she walked past and began preparing her tray for tea.

"Why can't you just tell me here?"

"It's a seeecret~" Pumpkin winked at her, placing a finger over her lips. But doing that reminded her quickly of Mori, and her eyes glanced his way. He had his back to her, hunched over at a table with dread lines around him with Hani buzzing around him asking concerned questions.

"Fine, fine." Haruhi prepared her own tray as Pumpkin walked away.

"Hey, Mori-senpai, are you okay?" Pumpkin sat next to him, to which he gulped and sat straight, avoiding eye contact with her.

"He won't tell me what's wrong, Pu-chan! I'm worried about him!" Hani frowned as he sat in his spot, uneaten cake before him. That had to be a sign that he was truly worried about Mori.

Sighing heavily, Pumpkin leaned in and whispered to Hani.

"Oooh. Oh Takeshi! It's okay, if that's all it is! Hahaha!" Grinning wide, Hani finally took a big bite of cake.

Mori finally glanced Pumpkin's way in question.

"Don't worry about it, senpai." She smiled. "It's not like it was my first time doing something like that."

"Hmmm? Doing something like what?" The twins appeared like cats behind Pumpkin.

"None of your business." She tilted her head and closed her eyes. "If you really want to know, you can ask Mori-senpai yourself."

"Hmmmm?" They both slithered across from Mori and grinned at him mischievously.

"Did you do something with Purple-chaan?" One of them asked.

"Something like this or that?" That had to be Hikaru.

Sighing, Pumpkin made a face at them. "Come on, give him a break. You can see he's having a hard time."

"Oh, what's the harm?" Hikaru asked.

"It's just a question."

"Because it's inconsiderate. How would you like it if I started asking you guys questions about what you do at night?" She was just trying to get them to see it from another perspective, but it backfired a little.

"Oooooh, so it was at night? And besides," Kaoru asked.

"We would totally tell you what we do!" Hikaru grinned and stroked his brother's chin.

"You don't have to act like that right now, you perverts." She stood, noticing Mori was slumping further in his dread lines. "And I really don't care what you do, that's your own business. Although talking about it so openly like that, it's kind of gross, Hikaru." He looked at him and thumped his arm before returning to her tray to take it to her table, ignoring the stares she was getting from the twins.

-x-

After club was over, Pumpkin went home, leaving the meeting of Haruhi and Kasanoda to fate. All she could think of was how the son of a Yakuza was in her debt. Well, that and she kissed Mori. Or rather, Mori kissed her. In her mind's eye however, she saw herself being the one to advance the situation when it happened and she couldn't help but giggle to herself as she walked out of the front gates.

"Pumpkin." Mori's voice caught her off guard and she almost jumped out of her skin.

"Gah! What- oh. Hi." His limo had pulled up next to her as she was walking. "Oh, I'm so sorry! I forgot I was riding home with you." She reached for the door as it was opened for her by Mori.

"Let me." He said, stepping out of the car to allow her in first.

"T-thank you." She got in slowly and sat. 'I would have done that myself.' She thought to herself as she pulled on her seatbelt.

As they went on their way, she noticed quickly it was a very quiet car ride. She should have been used to it by now, especially with Mori, but now it felt a little awkward.

"Listen I-"

"Pumpkin-"

Laughing softly, she motioned to him. "You first."

"No, you. I insist."

"R-really, it's okay!" She set her mouth in a line and tilted her head a little, waiting for him to speak.

After a moment of what seemed to be of him gathering his courage to speak, he opened his mouth. "Thank you, for diverting the twins away from me."

"Oh, really, it's fine. Besides, they're really irritating sometimes, and you seemed to be a little upset. And after today's.. mishap, I knew figured they'd want to get all the details about it."

"Mishap.. yeah.." He took a slow breath inward. "What were-"

"Well, it looks like we're here. I've got to go, I'll see you in the morning?"

"Mhmm." He nodded, keeping his gaze down.

Jumping out of the limo, she closed the door before he could move and ran into the house. Exhaling hard, she pulled off her shoes and sat on the edge of the hall floor, feet dangling into the floor area. 'Dangit. Why did I not want to talk about what happened? It's not like anything bad happened.' Sighing softly, she pulled on her slippers and wandered into the kitchen and prepared a noodle package.

"Pumpkin!" Her father's voice boomed as he walked into the dining room.

She cringed for a second, as she'd forgotten with all the events going on that she'd put a plan into motion in her mind. "Y-yea, dad?" She asked, trying to sound casual, though she probably seemed bored or irritated.

"Do you have that pendant from your grandfather?"

Her head tilted, heart leaping into her throat. She'd put it in her book bag last night with the intention on selling it after school. "What pendant?"

"Don't act dumb! Your mother gave you a pendant from her father for your 5th birthday! Where is it?"

"Dad! I was 5! You really think I'd keep something like that all these years?"

"I know you were really close with her family, it seems something you would do!" He wasn't wrong.

"Seriously, dad, even if I had it, what do you want with it?"

"What do you think? I'm going to sell it and use the money for the company!"

Damn him. The color drained from her face though and she shook her head. "Don't ever. Ever. Do something like that again! I am not a pawn in some money-hoarding game you're playing! I am supposed to be your daughter, and I came back to be with you, and this is how I'm treated by my own father? You disgust me!" Shoving past him, she stamped upstairs and pushed open her door to a complete mess in her room. Apparently he'd gone in there and trashed the place looking for it. Feeling rage course through her veins, she grabbed the small jewelry box on the floor and opened all the small compartments to find anything of value was gone. "DAD!" She screamed before stamping down the stairs. "What else have you stolen from me?!"

"It's hardly stealing if it belongs to you to begin with!"

"What the hell kind of thinking is that! I'm your daughter, and you stole from me!" The way he looked at her made her realize his thought process. He had this belief that he was the head of the house and the women in the house owed him everything because of it. "Fuck. You. This isn't feudalism Japan!" Grabbing up her book bag, she stamped to the door and had it half open he shouted back.

"Get back here, this isn't over young lady!"

"It is now, old man!" Throwing the door open, she saw at her gate the host club members standing there with very unhappy looks on their faces.

"Pumpkin!" Tamaki shouted, pointing at her. "We need to talk!"

"Pumpkin!" Her father called from behind at the same time. "We're not done here!"

This was, to say the least, a very unwanted predicament.

A/N: I haven't forgotten this story, I'm actually kind of excited for the upcoming chapters! Beware of some upcoming naughty bits though!