101 Uses for a Shinai

by mcangel1976

Side story to my Bitter series, but can be read as a stand alone. Satoshi made a joke to Kyoya that there were 101 uses for a shinai. Kyoya asked him to write them down that they could be sold to the customers for extra profit. He did as he was asked and here is the result. The first chapter lists all 101 uses and the following chapters are one shots that go with them.

10. Number 4 - A Clothesline

A/N: I'm back with another fun filled installment of things you can use a shinai for. Enjoy!

#4… Clothes line – hey when you have nothing else, it works great!

Haruhi kept glancing back and forth from her basket full of wet clothes to the broken clothes line and she wanted to kill Tamaki yet again. The gang had shown up unannounced to her apartment for the first time ever because supposedly their club president had some sort of dream that she was living in a rundown shack without food. That in itself had caused several tick marks to appear over her head and Mori had had to calm her down multiple times the day before. After they had eaten hotpot with her father (which dear reader we already know the results of that initial meeting), Tamaki and the twins noticed the clothes line outside and started asking questions, and then the blond idiot started to hang on it because the twins dared him. In fact, they had hung him out to dry with the clothes pins that they found, and the line broke. Those three were supposed to have fixed it, but when she came out the next morning, it was broken again.

Sighing, Haruhi rubbed a hand over her face in a desperate attempt to quell the rising ire (yah dear reader, it wasn't working). The more she stood there looking at the line and thinking about the basket of clothes she had at her feet, the angrier she got and the more she wanted to let loose her dark aura on certain unsuspecting (or probably at this point suspecting) hosts… if only they were there.

A knock at the door forced her to leave her murderous thoughts and stomp through the house (albeit quietly so that she did not wake her sleeping father). Ripping open the door, she was about to lay into the visitor when she found her boyfriend and his brother standing on the other side of the door, "Hey Takashi, Satoshi. What are you doing here so early?"

"We came to fix your clothesline," Mori stated as he stepped into the apartment and started to remove his shoes, placing a kiss on top of her head as he walked in.

Satoshi entered as well and as he was taking off his shoes he said, "Yah, Taka-bro said they broke it. We brought a new line, so hopefully it will work. If not, I have a backup plan until we can properly fix it."

"A backup plan?" Haruhi questioned tilting her head to the side. She gazed up at the taller of the two men and gave her boyfriend a questioning look.

Shaking his head, Mori stated, "Don't ask."

Alas the line that they brought was too short, but true to his word, Satoshi set her up with his brilliant backup plan. Using the line to tie two shinai to the polls, he told her, "You should be able to hang your clothes on those for now. Taka-bro and I will get the new line and get your clothesline fixed by this afternoon, but first we are all supposed to have lunch with our parents."

"Crap! I forgot!" Giving the makeshift clothes line a worried glance, Haruhi realized she didn't have much of a choice and started to hang her clothes praying it would hold and her clothes would actually dry.

"Don't worry, we use this method when we go camping," Mori whispered in her ear.

Nodding, the brunette smiled, "Thanks." After she finished hanging the clothes, even she had to admit that the idea seemed sound and it seemed to be working. "Thanks to both of you. Let me go and get ready and we can go."

The trio left to get lunch and Haruhi left the clothes to dry hanging on the two shinai. On their way home, they stopped at the hardware store and got a new clothesline (dear reader, they measured this time and got the right size). Finally returning home, Haruhi checked her clothes and found they were dry and using the shinai had really worked. Amazing.

She removed the clothes from the shinai and let the two Morinozuka brothers fix her clothes line. It may not be something she needs to ever use again, but if by some chance her clothesline is broken again, Haruhi knew shinais would work just as well and she would use them… as a temporary fix. Thankfully though, Mori and Satoshi were able to fix her clothesline and the other hosts were banned from coming within 20 feet of the clothesline in the future.