A/N: I am glad all of you liked the interaction that Haruhi had with Hunny's father. I felt like we saw the interaction between Hunny's mother and Haruhi, so we needed to see the interaction with Haruhi and his father. I also felt that he might be able to give her a different perspective than everyone else. I really like putting the family dynamic in there because it is about more than the hosts and Haruhi is staying with Hunny and his family. Here is the new chapter, I hope you enjoy and if you have time, please review and let me know what you think.
Chapter 42 – Dinner Drama
"Haru-Chan, time to wake up," Hunny tried to coax the woman to awaken. He had gotten home about twenty minutes ago and decided to clean up before he started looking for his girlfriend. Opening the door to her room, he found her sleeping soundly cuddled up with his favorite pink bunny. He couldn't resist and took out his phone to take a picture before walking over to the bed to rouse her for dinner. Brushing his hand over her soft cheek, he tried again, "Haru-Chan, wakey wakey. Time for dinner."
Slowly opening her eyes, Haruhi looked up and her eyes met those of the man of her dreams, literally. Smiling, she stretched a bit and then whispered with a sleepy voice, "Hey. How was the dojo?"
"It was good and I will tell you about it later. Right now everyone is headed down for dinner," Hunny spoke quietly leaning down and giving her a kiss, "Are you ready to get up?"
Haruhi nodded and let Hunny help her to sit up. She placed Usa-Chan on her pillow and rubbed her eyes before she got out of bed and stretched once again. Turning when she heard her boyfriend giggle, she furrowed her brow and inquired, "What?"
"Sorry Haru-Chan, but you hair is sticking up. Did you have a good nap?" Hunny teased.
Running to the bathroom and taking a look in the mirror, Haruhi saw that her hair was sticking up and she had severe bedhead. She wasn't sure how it was possible since she was probably only sleeping for an hour or two and she thought she had slept hard, but the evidence was clear… her hair was a mess. Turning on the water, she splashed some water on her face and wet down her hair a bit to help it lie down. When she exited the bathroom again, she spun in place and asked, "Is this better?"
"Yes, it is. You look beautiful," Hunny smiled as he walked up to Haruhi and brushed her bangs out of her eyes, "Let's go to dinner before they send a search party." Pulling her out of the bedroom, he started to walk down the hall when they both heard a squeal coming from another part of the house and the couple stopped in their tracks. "Damn it! I forgot I told him he could come to dinner," Hunny grumbled.
"Please tell me I am hearing things," Haruhi quietly pleaded. When she heard another screech that asked where his daughter was, she knew she wasn't dreaming and Tamaki was looking for her.
"He called me and I wasn't going to let him come over because honestly I would rather kill him than let him within 100 feet of you, but those two devil twins called him and told him that they got to spend the day with you. Tama-Chan called me in tears begging me to let him come over for lunch. I tried to tell him no, but he wouldn't listen to me. I finally gave in because I didn't want to argue with him any longer. He called right before class and it was either say yes to get him off of the phone, or continue to argue with him. I took the easy way out," Hunny explained already regretting his decision.
Straightening her shoulders like she was about to walk into battle (and let's face it, she was), Haruhi took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She looked at Hunny and gripped his hand a little tighter, "Well, he is here now and we are going to have to face him sooner or later. At least this way, we get this over with and we can tell him to go home after dinner. Just don't let go."
"I won't Haruhi. Sorry that I invited him without telling you first," Hunny replied.
Smiling at her boyfriend, Haruhi said, "I am not mad at you. I think I would have done the exact same thing. However, I do believe that if we don't get down there, he could cause problems, and I don't know if you brother has the patience for him. I know my father doesn't."
Hunny's eyes widened at that statement, "I thought your father went in earlier today!"
"He did, but he came home before I laid down for my nap. He is going back into tonight and should be leaving any minute, but he will run into Tamaki if we don't… Too late," Haruhi groaned as she heard another voice raised calling Tamaki a worm and pest.
Pulling her down the hall and downstairs, Hunny rushed into the living room in time to see Tamaki land on the ground and become Ranka's new foot stool. Hunny looked at Haruhi and could see the shock and alarm on her face. "It will be alright. Your father hasn't killed him yet and they have known each other for years," he said trying to assuage her worries.
Haruhi slowly turned to give Hunny a disbelieving look before turning her attention back to her father and Tamaki. The former host club king was writhing on the floor while Ranka literally walked all over him and pushed his face into the floor with a well-pedicured foot. "Dad?" She says trying to get the older man's attention.
"Oh Haruhi my darling baby girl, did you have a good nap?" Ranka inquired putting more pressure on Tamaki's face, "Mitsukuni, I think you have a pest control problem. This one had the audacity to waltz in here and ask for his daughter."
"Haruhi! Daddy came to see you!" Tamaki attempted to say, but it came out garbled thanks to the foot on face disease he was currently experiencing. He tried to reach for her, but every time he lifted a hand, it was kicked.
"She is not your daughter and never will be! She is my daughter and you are nothing more than the dirt beneath my feet!" Ranka yelled. He could be scarier than Kyoya when he got riled up.
"Dad, don't you have work tonight?" Haruhi asked in an attempt to separate the two eccentric men.
Ranka clasped his hands together against his chest dramatically and exclaimed, "Oh you are right and if I don't leave now, I will be late! Maybe I should stay though. You can never be too careful with a rodent of this magnitude."
Hunny tried to insert himself and become the diplomat in the room, "Ranka-Chan, you are always more than welcome to stay, but if you would like to go to work, I will make sure that he doesn't do anything to Haru-Chan. I will protect her with my life and make sure he stays away from her. We all know who her father really is, and we know he is a phony father."
"I knew I could count on you! Don't let him anywhere near my little baby or he might corrupt and damage her. You are the one I trust! Haruhi, if he bothers you too much, make sure you let Mitsukuni know," Ranka gushed before running to his daughter and pulling her in his arms. "Of course if you want daddy to stay, I will."
Trying to free herself from her father was like trying to free herself from Tamaki, nearly impossible. She was able to get out, "I will be fine here. You can go to work." A couple more swings and twirls and she was finally liberated.
"I will see you later then dear. Please take care of her Mitsukuni. She is precious cargo!" Ranka declared as he ran out the door and into the waiting car.
As soon as Ranka was out of the house, Tamaki jumped up and ran towards Haruhi, but was stopped before he could reach her. Grinding to a halt in mid run, Tamaki whined, "Hunny, I just wanted to say hello to my precious little girl. She wants to see her daddy, don't you Haruhi?"
"You are not my father. He just ran out of the house and no, I would rather not be crushed again so soon after I just got out of a death hug," Haruhi glared.
"B-B-But Haruhi!" Tamaki cried out.
"Tama-Chan you heard her. You can say your hellos from where you are. You do not need to swing her around the room and cut off her air supply," Hunny ordered and would not budge from his spot in front of his girlfriend effectively blocking access for Tamaki.
Tamaki wailed, "She doesn't love me anymore. Hunny is trying to brainwash her and she is rebelling and being mean to me." He ran to the nearest corner in order to pout.
"Tama-Chan, you need to get out of that corner and if you grew any mushrooms, you will have to clean the mess up. I will not subject our maids to your tantrums. I let you come over for dinner tonight because the twins called and teased you about lunch. Honestly, I really didn't want you to come over tonight, but you are here and you will behave. If you cannot act with decorum and manners, you can leave now," Hunny threatened him with a dark aura starting to form. He knew that Tamaki would react to it and start acting properly, at least for a bit.
Tamaki jumped up from the corner and looked around to make sure that he had not started to grow his mushrooms yet and announced, "Of course Hunny. I know my manners. Forgive me for being rude. I hope you and Haruhi are doing well this evening."
Rolling her eyes, Haruhi responded, "We are both fine. Let's just go in for dinner."
"Let me escort you to the dining room my beautiful Haruhi," Tamaki offered with a flourish and a bow.
"No thank you Tamaki. Mitsukuni will be escorting me," Haruhi stated bluntly and linked her arm with Hunny's before Tamaki could reach her.
"But Haruhi, I just wanted to accompany you. Well if I cannot escort you, may I request you as my dinner partner?" Tamaki begged grasping at straws to have Haruhi close to him this night.
"I am sitting next to Mitsukuni," she deadpanned.
"But I can sit on your other side!" Tamaki cried out.
Shaking her head, she looked at Hunny who gave her a small shrug (he wasn't any help), and then turned back to Tamaki, "Fine, if there is another chair beside me, you can sit there, but if not, then you may have to sit next to someone else." What she did not mention was that the someone else could have been Chika.
Hunny escorted her into the dining room where they found Satoshi sitting next to Chika on one side of the table, Hunny's parents were at the heads of the table, and three empty chairs waiting for them across from Chika and Satoshi. Hunny muttered, "Looks like today is your lucky day Tama-Chan." Leaning down, he whispered in Haruhi's ear and she walked towards her seat alone. He approached Tamaki, but addressed the room in general, "We will be right back. No need to wait for us." Grabbing Tamaki's arm, he pulled him out of the dining room.
"What did you do that for Hunny?" Tamaki questioned his former senpai. Even though Hunny was smiling, a sense of dread overcame the younger man and he gulped.
Suddenly the smiles and total cuteness was gone, replaced with a more serious and darker Hunny. "It is easy Tamaki: I had a couple of things to say to you. Stop trying to throw yourself at Haruhi. She has been through enough and she has made her decision. I love her and will be there for her as long as she wants me, and she loves me too. You can pretend to be her daddy all you want, but that is not going to give you special privileges with her. I know everything you did to her and I will not let you hurt her again. In fact right now, I want to do nothing more than teach you a lesson for treating a lady like she was nothing more than a toy for your amusement. Stop being over the top and stop trying to force her hand, or I will make sure that you cannot do anything like that in the future," Hunny intimidated Tamaki with a deadly aura surrounding him. He turned to look at the direction of the dining room and then back to Tamaki. Smiling once again, he stated, "Don't worry Tama-Chan, I will take care of her and make sure she is safe. Now, let's go eat dinner. Okay?"
Following Hunny back into the dining room, Tamaki was slightly (ok a lot) unnerved by the shorter man. Firstly Kyoya threatened him and now Hunny, were the twins and Mori going to line up next? Thinking about the two conversations he had with his friends, he had to admit that Hunny scared him more than Kyoya in this situation. "You are just observing and being a friend for right now," Tamaki reminded himself as he made his way to his place at the dinner table and sat down next to Haruhi.
Hunny sat down after Tamaki and pretended like he didn't notice the questioning look from Haruhi. He knew that they were going to be talking later and started to mentally prepare himself for the confrontation. There was always the possibility that it would be short, simple, and full of understanding, but this is Haruhi and that was not always the case when she was involved. He knew he was correct when she leaned over and whispered, "We will be discussing what happened later." Maybe preparing for death was a better option right now.
"What have you been doing lately Tamaki," Haruhi asked politely to break up the silence at the table. Usually it was livelier at the dinner table, but tonight there was an underlying current of tension that filled the room.
"I have been working with my father a lot in order to learn the ins and outs of the family business. I have an office at Ouran now," Tamaki answered with a huge smile on his face. "I am not bragging, I am just answering her questions. If it shows me in a good light, then that is all the better," Tamaki thought to himself. It was habit to think like that and try to win her over. He knew he needed to stop, but a change like that was going to take more time than 24 hours.
"How do you like it?" Haruhi continued.
Tamaki finished chewing his bite and then responded with, "I didn't think I would like it, but it has been fun so far. I get to work out of the school for the most part and there are a lot of good memories for me there."
"That is good, Tamaki," Haruhi smiled.
"Are you trying to gather students to create another host club?" Chika sneered.
Tamaki turned towards the youngest Haninozuka and stated, "Well, a couple of students have asked me about the host club, and I would encourage it if any of them were serious, but alas so far no one has been earnest about forming one."
"Yasuchika, you need to be nice!" Satoshi growled at his best friend and cousin.
Glaring at his cousin, Chika probed, "Why do I have to be nice to him? I wasn't exactly being rude, but tell me why I have to be nice."
"Because he is your elder!" Satoshi declared.
With that last comment, laughter rang out at the table and the tension seemed to have been broken. Conversations started at the table and included the dojo, school (both Ouran and Todai), and life in general. Everyone seemed to steer clear of any topic that had to do with Yasu or Haruhi's current situation. Overall, it was a good dinner and everyone seemed to have a good time.
When dinner was over, Haruhi, Tamaki, and Hunny made their way to the library in order to have dessert and coffee in there. The maids brought in two whole cakes for Hunny and two cake slices for Haruhi and Tamaki. Neither of them was fazed by the amount of cake brought in for Hunny, if anything they were surprised it was only two cakes.
Haruhi sat down on one of the love seats in the room and Tamaki was about to make his way to sit next to her, when he caught the eye of Hunny and instead moved to the other couch across from her. Hunny took his place next to his girlfriend and proceeded to eat his cake.
"Have you decided to take Kyo-Chan up on his offer of security?" Hunny asked Tamaki when they were alone in the room once again.
"Yes, he is going to set me up with a bodyguard and my father has also increased security. Kyoya is running checks on everyone on my security team. I think it is the same for Hikaru and Kaoru," Tamaki explained taking a sip of his coffee.
"That is good. If you need any help or want to brush up on your self-defense training, let me know. I am sure Takashi and I could help you," Hunny offered.
Blinking at the man who had threatened him only about an hour ago, Tamaki gave him a nervous smile, "Thank you Hunny. I will let you know. Are you learning some new defense moves Haruhi?"
"Yes, Mitsukuni is training me in karate right now," Haruhi stated.
"Excellent! It doesn't hurt to have that knowledge handy," Tamaki gushed as he fought the urge to pull her in his arms for an embrace.
Nodding, Haruhi agreed with her friend, "It's true. It saved my life once and I am sure it could save my life again."
"Saved your life?" Tamaki probed.
"Yes, I know I told you what happened when I was packing for Karuizawa. Using what Mitsukuni had showed me before, I was able to get away from Yasu," Haruhi asserted.
Tamaki had not thought about that; she had told him. Clearing his throat, he tried to brush off his faux-pas and hoped that Haruhi wasn't offended by his err, "Yes, of course."
Haruhi pressed on not really acknowledging the blunder, "Yep. I think that learning more will only benefit me in the long run. Plus Mitsukuni is great teacher and it lets me participate in something he is passionate about."
Hunny felt his chest swell with pride and a warm feeling spread throughout his body. Haruhi was always so blunt that sometimes she just said whatever was on her mind. Sometimes it could cut like a knife, or it could build someone up. Her latest comment was like receiving a slice of his favorite piece of cake and being told he could have more. His smile grew and he suddenly wished that he was alone with the girl so that he could kiss her until they were both breathless. "Thank you Haru-Chan, but you are also a good student. I like teaching you and having that time together in the dojo," Hunny grinned brightly.
To Tamaki it was a knife to the chest. Kyoya had been right, Haruhi and Hunny are happy together. He could see that Hunny truly loved Haruhi, and if he wasn't mistaken (and he didn't think he ever was), Haruhi loved Hunny also. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but he was happy for her. Haruhi deserved sunshine and rainbows, and he had given her nothing but grief in the end. He lost the girl, but at least she was with someone he knew would look out for her and love her properly, not like he had done.
When dessert had been consumed and the coffee finished, Hunny and Haruhi said their goodnights to Tamaki as they walked him to the door. It had been a good visit and the couple got the impression that the former president finally learned that he needed to back off. They weren't sure what changed his mind, but they were not going to complain. It was one less thing to have to deal with.
Walking into her room, Hunny closed the door when he entered after Haruhi. He watched her walk over to the bed and pick up the pink bunny and plopped herself down on the bed. Knowing that a storm was brewing, he sat down in the oversized chair closest to the bed and waited.
"What did you say to Tamaki before dinner tonight?" Haruhi queried.
"I just told him that he needed to calm down and behave," Hunny answered vaguely.
Glaring at him, Haruhi stated, "You can either answer me or leave."
Hunny rubbed a hand over his face and sighed, "I told him that he needed to dial it back on the daddy thing and to stop trying to force himself on you and in your life. I also told him that you and I were happy and that he didn't have a chance in hell with you. I also informed him that I loved you and as long as you wanted me at your side, I would be there."
"You know I could have dealt with him myself, right?"
"I know you can Haru-Chan. That is not why I did it though. You have enough on your plate right now and yes, I want to protect you, but every time I think about what he did to you, I want to punch him for even thinking about treating a woman like that, especially you. He needed to know that I was not going anywhere and that I wanted to make you happy."
"Anything else?"
"I might have told him that if he kept acting like that, he would have to deal with me."
Shaking her head and exhaling loudly, Haruhi got up off of the bed and sat down in Hunny's lap. She laid her head on his shoulder as she held onto the bunny, and felt him wrap his arms around her kissing the top of her head. "I know you love me and I know you want to beat the shit out of Tamaki, but I think we have bigger fish to worry about than someone that has a misplaced daddy complex. I know that he is over the top, and he doesn't listen, and he acts without thinking, but he is still our friend and we have been dealing with his theatrics for years." Shifting her head so that she could look up at him, she smirked, "However, thank you for getting him to back off a little. Hopefully this will cut down on the number of phone calls and text messages I am getting from him."
Hunny was not expecting that ending. He heard her start to giggle and soon felt himself laughing with her. He couldn't fault anything she said, but he didn't regret anything he did for her. Leaning down to capture her lips, he rejoiced in the fact that she was his and he held her heart; of course she held his heart and has had possession of it for years.