Why can I not stick to these things so well? I gotta keep writing.

Thanks for reading, whoever bothered. This chapter may or may not be a filler, but either way, this is mainly the hosts busting eachother's chops. I realize some of them are acting a bit OOC. This is intentional and is even addressed.

TAMAKI

It's funny how sometimes people can get the same idea at the same time. Usually, I have to give the club incentive to go along with my plans, but this time the Twins came to me with the idea of Keindrich becoming a host. Of course those guys would want to have their "little brother" close at hand, not only for comfort but probably for a scheme as well. With a childhood friend as an asset, they're bound to win my darling little Haruhi over. Then again, I can tell he's loyal to me-I'll just have to keep an eye on my little kohai. As per usual, though, Kyoya was...

"Absolutely not." ...a little less agreeable.

"But Kyoya, he'd make an alright host."

"No, no spoils system. Especially after that incident yesterday. Or is it that you have a crush on him now?"

"I do not." As you could imagine, I did indeed blush considerably. When I noticed this, I tried to sound extra-cool again. "I'm simply concerned for him."

"Then be concerned. But as a host, not a boss." He turned on his heel and hurried out of the room, but not before coming face to face with Haruhi. "Excuse me." He pushed past her and went down the hall.

"What's got him so upset?"

"For whatever reason, he doesn't want Kein to be in the club."

"I understand." What? "If nothing's wrong with how things are, then maybe there's no need to change things. He seems happy just being a close friend."

I slumped. "Fine. Maybe it's for the best that we support him as friends rather than co-hosts."

"Besides," Kaoru added, "he seems to like being a guest just fine."

"And imagine how flustered Kein-chan would get if a bunch of girls suddenly got a crush on him." Honey giggled as he pet his rabbit Usa-chan.

"Or worse-if he didn't get any customers at all. #foreveralone!" Hikaru snickered at his own mean joke.

"Hika-!" Kaoru and I shouted.

"Aw, c'mon! He's a little fuss-budget. He's likely to have a slow day or two."

"But you shouldn't mock the clients," Kaoru said it sternly, but I could tell he was holding back a smirk too, "'fuss-budget' or not. Where'd you even get that word?"

"Ayanokoji. Tonnaire. Yamasi. Genda. Need I say more?"

"No I meant the word itself."

"Who's Genda?" We faced the door again to find Keindrich standing with a few little tea boxes at hand. "I saw a trio of people the other day. Two had patches on their blazers saying 'Genda'. They said-the two said-that if I insulted their heir again, there was going to be trouble. I'll assume they meant Katsumi, but Yamasi Inc. is a small pharmaceutical company."

Kyoya entered behind him, flipping through his book. "That company is linked to Genda Industries, a rivaling medical company to the Ootori group. Yamasi works as a small branch of the company. As both heirs are women in this academy and regular customers, it is especially important to keep out of conflict. Hence, we serve them both."

"But I never seen them at the Host Club before."

"In the past, they'd come here almost every day. Miss Nakomi was one of my guests and Miss Katsumi was a patron of Mori."

Keindrich gazed up at Kyoya curiously. "Um, Kyoya-sempaii?"

"Hm?"

"You know an awful lot about the students here. You can even remember stuff about some people without missing a beat. How come you know all this stuff?"

"It's part of my job. Some people are in circumstances that require special action. Such as yourself having a short temper."

"Y-yeah..."

"Were you to become a member, it may put you in jeopardy."

"M-me? A member of the Host Club? No...no thank you."

Kyoya stopped writing and gazed back at him. Keindrich cringed. "It's not that I don't wanna be part! I just don't wanna put you guys in jeopardy. I almost got in a fight," he leaned over to address me, "and mind you, Tamaki, it was before your warning." I glared, wishing he hadn't brought it up again. "And I know you don't condone violence. I wasn't picking a fight, per se, but I was a little tactless. I told you my story already."

"I see. We still appreciate your patronage as a guest." Keindrich relaxed. "Anywho, why do you ask about my knowledge?"

"I was wondering what you really knew about Yasuko."

"Oh, come on." Kaoru laughed and bowed his head. "You don't really think that Katsumi was telling the truth about her being ambitious? She wouldn't really just hook up for-"

"Oniisan, I made absolutely no reference to ambition. I was merely curious as to how you of the Club perceived her." He faced him and pouted. "Unless of course it's a guilty conscience speaking."

"It wouldn't have been hers, that's for sure," Hikaru countered. "She actually enjoyed some of our sadistic jokes and made some of our own." He pointed to his twin. "Even made Kao blush like a cherry once."

"Hikaru!" Kaoru elbowed him playfully.

"Okay, I was pretty bad too, but if you'd heard her that day..."

Kein scratched his head. "Now are we talking mean 'sadistic' or the sado-masochism kind of 'sadistic'?"

Hikaru and Kaoru stared at him, now demonstrating the aforementioned cherry-blush. My jaw dropped to the floor. Kyoya hid a smirk with his book. Haruhi and Mori face palmed. Honey tried to hold in his laughter.

Keindrich groaned. "Oh, like you've never heard such things. I remember hearing about a certain Miss Kirimi Nekozawa bringing up a rather disturbing concept."

I would never forget the first time Kirimi came into our Club. The very first thing she says to us: "It's a reverse harem!" How do you explain that-a girl five years old at the most-saying that. I covered my ears. "Don't start talking about that now! I don't wanna think about my little girl saying such things!"

Haruhi twitched and began to laugh as well.

Whoops! There goes that little habit. When I learned about Haruhi's dilemma of being confused for a boy, I became determined to help her become as suave as myself. I even regarded her as my metaphorical daughter following in my footsteps. But Keindrich was indubitably a boy. And I haven't known him that long. And he wasn't there at the time.

Keindrich grinned. "Aw, so thought of Kirimi as your 'little girl' too?" Thank goodness that flew under his radar. He got in Haruhi's face and purred. "You di'n't tell me you had a widdle shishter!"

She swatted him away, still laughing. "Oh, don't you start with that too! You're more of a 'daddy's girl' than I am!"

"Am not!"

Hikaru grabbed a lock of his hair. "Oh, yeah? Well you've been doing your hair up awfully pretty lately."

"It was your maids' fault! Why do they gotta give me girly hair?"

"Our mom's side of the family is style-savvy. Of course we're all gonna catch on soon enough!"

"But I'm not a girl!"

Kaoru suddenly stared at him. He met his gaze and grimaced as the redhead strode over and took a hold of Kein's wrists, making him drop the tea boxes. "I'm sure you don't object that much. You must have tried something of the like before."

"What kinda guy you take me for? I don't do that stuff. It's bad enough I got this corrupted by you guys."

"Not even once?"

"That's enough now, Kaoru. She said no," Kyoya admonished.

"She?!" His voice had a strange nuance to it. For some reason I found myself focusing on him. His face was flushed and his eyes nearly blended in. "Really now? You too, Kyoya?"

Kyoya stared as well. "I'm sorry, Keindrich. It was honestly a slip of the tongue."

Okay, what did I miss here?

He shook his head, chuckling in an increasingly shaky voice. "It's okay. I understand. I'm just..." He fell to his knees, convulsing with...laughter?! "Ahaha-I'm sorry! The faux pas was-ss just too funny! I mean I t-t-do it all the time, but I figured you were a-making a j-jab at me-hee!"

"Uh-oh! Kein-chan has the giggles!" Honey said, giggling himself.

"Keindrich, you are a very strange boy," Kyoya said.

"Jester type~" the twins sang.

"No!" he said, pointing his pen at them. "Bad. We are not going there."

"But Kyo-"

"No."

I guess it was just the sharpness of his voice that brought everyone into another fit of laughter. Renge must've strolled in at some point because the next thing I heard was her shrill voice: "What on Earth is going on here? This is not in any of your characters!"

I rose to my feet again. "My apologies, Miss Renge. It has been a long week for us all. I guess you could call this a mutual nervous breakdown."

"Does that kind of thing even happen?"

"Anything's bound to happen in a reverse harem," Kein answered.

Renge covered her mouth and blushed. I stammered once more looking for a "Dao-kohai! You shut your mouth right now, you knave!"

But nobody could. Unfortunately, we were unable to regain our composure in time to open shop. Most all of our customers turned and left because we were obviously not well. You can imagine how disappointed I was. But as Honey-sempaii had said before, we had caught a case of the giggles. Though Kein was evidently a pervert, we each relieved a little stress that day because of it. I sometimes missed these days off. The Host Club used to get into so much trouble on such days, but we would always look back fondly on these times.

Now I'm wondering just how much Yasuko told him about us. How is it that in mere months Kein has become like a little brother to us?