Hey there! Chapter 28! Thanks to all my reviewers, lilith dracul, happyface811, BloodLily16, Square Root of Three, JustACreepyFangirl, The Peculiar, KayDizzle, skiddliebop, iluvmycorgie22, and guest reviewer FairyGirl206. You guys rock! Anyways, Enjoy!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ouran High Host Club. I do, however, own my OC(s) and plot.

Eyrie sat there cradling her head in her hands. She was sitting in the living room of her home, various men walking in and out. Her grandmother stood there directing them, even though she didn't know how to wire a TV so that it acted as a big webcam, she liked to be in control of things. Eyrie only look up when the noise seemed to vanish and the only thing she saw was Tristessa looking at her expectantly.

"Well deary? It's time."

They briefly discussed a strategy, one that Eyrie knew would soon be thrown out the window but it still gave her comfort. She stayed seated but moved forward slightly so that she was ready to stand at any moment. Her grandmother remained standing. After a bit of tinkering and fuss, Eyrie's father appeared on the screen.

"Mother! How lovely! When was the last time we spoke? It's been to long!" He gave a sickly sweet smile and Eyrie's top lip curled into a sneer. He obviously couldn't see her in the screen.

"Oh yes, much too long." Tristessa's voice was smooth with an underlying tone of deceptive innocence. "Tell me, Ressy, has anything happened while I was out of the loop? Is there any news?"

"Oh, of course not, Mother Dear, you would be the first to know if there was." Sorpresa Omorfie stretched his smile to the point that Eyrie thought it would surely break.

"Yes, well, you see, that's what I thought as well but then I heard this little gem of news that I thought was simply golden, ivory, and silver, if you catch my meaning." The innocence remained in her voice but her eyes glowered. "The most valuable little tidbit you see. And I thought to myself: well there must be a mistake, my son would have said something, surely. But that was a fleeting thought. I didn't entertain it, seeing as how my source is just the bee's knees!"

Sorpresa's face was noticeably more tense than before but he tried to hide it by widening his smile. "Oh? And who was the source of this valuable little tidbit?"

Eyrie slowly got up and stood next to her grandmother, her front fully facing Tristessa and her arms clasped behind her back while she kept her eyes gently shut. She heard her grandmother scoff softly and knew that her father must be turning red.

"Mother what the hell are you doing with that? You had better step away lest you be contaminated by her lies. I don't know what she told you, but it isn't true."

Eyrie, ever so slowly, opened her eyes and turned her head toward her father. He was snarling and part of her was surprised he wasn't foaming at the mouth. Her eyes were still only half opened and looking at him with a 'checkmate' sort of expression. His disgusted façade cracked and for a moment she saw a hint of worry cloud his expression.

"Oh good. Now that you're showing your real face, we'll discuss what we called to discuss." Tristessa clapped and rubbed her hands together. Her son scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Don't you make that face at me or your daughter Sorpresa Omorfie, or so help me god!"

He immediately straightened and looked forward, like some sort of military officer. Eyrie tried not to let it show how much she was enjoying her grandmother's little show of power.

"Now. I hear my granddaughter was brought into a lovely little agreement a few months ago. What was it called? Oh yes. An omai. Ressy, would you like to explain why my darling Eyrie is engaged at her young age?" Tristessa put on her innocent act again.

"Who she will marry isn't official yet but it would be disgraceful to our family to break a promise like that-" Eyrie's father immediately became defensive but his tirade was cut off when his mother gently raised a hand, silencing him.

"I don't recall asking for any of that. What I do recall is asking you why."

Sorpresa took a deep breath, as if he was gathering courage.

"I...thought it would be best for the family to expand our reach."

"Really? Is that the only reason?" Tristessa asked, narrowing her eyes. When her son remained silent she pursed her lips together to keep them from curling in disgust. "It would be in your best interest to tell the truth, seeing as I can unravel your entire business, ruin your entire information network, and destroy the very home you are sitting in, with a couple quick phone calls. They can be there in a matter of seconds."

A growl ripped through his throat and Eyrie let out an airy, calculated laugh. His head snapped toward her and he glared.

"What?" He barked.

"Oh, nothing Father. I simply find it ironic that your choice reaction is growling. To think that you would actually growl like the dog you are. At least Uncle has some decency...not to mention sense."

Tristessa tried desperately to control her facial expressions as a smile tried to fight its way onto her lips. She looked at the floor, her face turning red with effort, as her son raged. He was throwing out random, generic insults that seemed to bounce off Eyrie as she stared at him with a raised brow.

"Fine, Mother, you want the truth?! The truth is, I don't want anything to do with the bastard standing next to you and the most socially acceptable why to do that is to pawn her off on some poor, unsuspecting little boy who lives off Daddy's money and will make life a living hell for her, which is a bonus for me! Why would I even do something like this if it would only make her happy?!"

There was a moment of hysterical laughter that made him sound like he was in pain rather than rejoicing. Tristessa looked at him with pity.

"I had hoped, one day, that you would find someone to truly love and be able to see the error of your ways but now I understand that that will never happen." Eyrie's grandmother gave a heavy sigh, uncharacteristically saddened. "Very well. I approve of Eyrie's choice of husband and they will be married as soon as they are finished with high school...and I will make sure they have every means necessary to take you down."

Eyrie shut her eyes and lowered her head slightly when she heard the edge of pain that cut through Tristessa's voice as she spoke the last words.

"You cannot be allowed to continue this way much longer. And you're daughter will be greater than you ever were." Tristessa raised her head high and swept out of the room, leaving Eyrie standing there in the same position she had been in since she stood up.

"Mother! Mother, wait! What do you mean, her choice? Has she chosen a suitor? Mother!" Sorpresa's eyes searched the screen as if they could magically produce the answers to his questions.

Even when he is desperately lost, he refuses to see me.

Eyrie picked up the remote, gave the TV one last look of pity, then clicked the power button, silencing the questions.

"So you told your father? I am assuming that went as well as my calculations presume."

Eyrie gave a little smile in Kyoya's direction, recognizing the effort he made into making that joke.

"Well, if your calculations said that he was angry and my grandmother had to tell her oldest child that she disagreed with his personality, then yes. You assume correctly." Kyoya glanced up from his notebook for a brief moment to study her face. She looked surprisingly content, waving at some of the customers, sewing the occasional tear Tamaki would accidentally make in his cosplay outfit when he was too flambouyant in his movements. Lately the girls had begun to ask for her cake specifically so they had added that job to her position as manager as well. At the moment she had distributed the sweets and was sitting in her spot next to Kyoya. They hadn't noticed before, but this had become a routine for them and falling back into it required little effort.

"Eyr-chan!" Hunny leaped in the air and landed in Eyrie's lap, hugging her tight. "We wanna ask you something!"

Eyrie looked at him suspiciously and then noticed Tamaki and the twins standing behind him, wearing overly innocent expressions. "Whaaaat?"

They all clasped their hands underneath their chins and inched closer to her, their puppy dog eyes seeming to grow bigger and bigger.

"Eyr-chan." Eyrie tore her eyes away from the three idiots with the puppy dog eyes and looked down to see Hunny giving her an extra cute expression. She blanched and leaned back slightly, already knowing that she would give in to whatever he asked her to do. "Will you please, please, please, dress up with us at our next club activity? We really want you to!"

"What is the activity?" She asked weakly.

"A butler café! But we want to expand for this activity so we thought that you could be a maid! That way boys could come in and have fun too!" Tamaki beamed at her and the twins nodded in unison behind him. Eyrie turned to glare at Kyoya.

"This would have been easy enough to slip into our moments of silence earlier. You obviously knew about this. They can't even breath without having to go through you to have it approved." Eyrie raised a brow and crossed her arms. Kyoya smirked and pushed up his glasses.

"Well, this way is more interesting; don't you think?"

Eyrie's eyes widened a bit then she gave him a look that was a mix of amusement and knowing.

"Is this pay back for...?" She let the sentence hang and Kyoya began writing in his black notebook again.

"Who knows?" He said, his voice giving nothing away.

"Well if this is revenge then I will simply have to accept." Eyrie gave Tamaki and the other boys a mischievous look. "I suppose I'll dress in a maid costume and flirt with various boys."

Kyoya's writing slowed then stopped. Eyrie bit the corner of her lip to keep from laughing. Tamaki and the other didn't notice, they were to busy rejoicing.

"Haruhi will dress up as a maid with you so that you don't feel lonely!" Tamaki smiled. His expression dropped when a shout from the other side of the room, where the girls were, rang out.

"No way in hell Sempai!"

Tamaki went into the corner and the host club fell into its usual chaos. Eyrie slipped back into the kitchen, not the least bit surprised when she heard someone else enter seconds after her. She continued put ingredients into a mixing bowl when he finally spoke.

"A maid outfit? It would be extremely unbecoming to flirt in such an outfit." Kyoya leaned against a counter and stared at the ground.

"Well it was approved by the vice president of the host club and hat he says goes, from what I hear." Eyrie gave him a small smile before going over to lean next to him. "You can't get jealous if it was something you approved."

"I'm not-! Ugh, jealousy has nothing to do with it, I was simply stating a fact." He insisted, making sure not to look away from the spot on the floor, looking stern.

"Hmm." Eyrie stood in front of him and uncrossed his arms. Kyoya raised a brow at her. Then she placed her hands on his chest and leaned close to him, staring him straight in the eye. He tried not to feel frantic. "Do you want me to flirt with you instead? Because all you have to do is ask."

"Tch. Of course not!" He tried to look annoyed but ended up looking grumpy instead. Kyoya looked away and pursed his lips in frustration.

Why can I function in highly stressful social settings but as soon as we make physical contact, I can't even make the right facial expressions?

"Mm. How 'bout this. I promise that none of my flirts will ever mean anything unless they are directed at you." Eyrie slid a hand up his chest to his shoulder and Kyoya waited for his heart to explode from his chest. "All better?"

"Guh." Kyoya's lip curled and he squeezed his eyes shut, disgusted with himself. "That didn't have anything to do with anything, so that promise is useless, but keep it if that's the kind of thing that makes you happy."

Eyrie smiled and gave a small giggle. "You're cute."

"Cute?!" Kyoya glared at her. She just smiled. He fought a blush and hoped that he was still giving her the angry look he thought he was. Eyrie placed her index finger on his nose for a moment then went back to baking a cake.

"You should probably get back out there. I think this is the last cake." Eyrie tried to keep her breath steady, not wanting Kyoya to know how much being near him affected her. She could hear the slightest ruffle of clothing and jumped slightly when she felt a gentle fingertip trail down the side of her neck. A feathery sigh escaped from her lips, causing her mind to jolt and her lips to snap together.

"There. Now I'm not the only flustered one." Kyoya said in a stiff voice before striding out of the door.

Not the only...? Does that mean he got flustered when I touched him?

Eyrie slid down until she was sitting on the floor. She placed a hand over her neck and turned bright red.

I guess the butler café isn't the only interesting thing I learned about today.

Eyrie sat around, waiting for the other hosts to finish getting ready. Her face was blank and when the hosts did come out she refused to look them in the eyes. They were all dressed in sharp-looking butler uniforms, each with their own different color rose in the button hole. Eyrie had picked the roses for them from her garden. When they came out the hosts stop dead and stared at Eyrie in her maid outfit. When she caught them staring she shot them a death glare. Haruhi and Mori sweat dropped and Kyoya simply continued scribbling in his notebook while the others failed to notice. Haruhi couldn't quite figure out what exactly Eyrie didn't like about the costume. It was the generic type of maid uniform, black and white, but the hem was a bit higher. Eyrie's legs were slender and athletic but the most eye-catching thing the outfit accentuated was Eyrie's waist. While she was slender, her hips flared out and her bust was slightly bigger than the Ouran boys uniform would have others believe. It was as if someone had fashioned her out of an hourglass.

"Eyr-chan! You look so cute!" Hunny, Tamaki, and the twins all looked at her with big, star-filled eyes.

"Marvelous! You will have many masters vying for your attention this afternoon, sweet maiden!" Tamaki made an exaggerated twirl around her before holding her hand to his heart, looking off into the distance while everyone else continued to admire from afar.

"No I won't they'll all be scared off." Eyrie mumbled, tugging her hand away and turning her face away so that they couldn't see it. "This was a bad idea. I'll just drive everyone off. Go without me. I'll just change really quick and meet you there."

The hosts shared a look of confusion.

"Eyrie-sempai...? What are you talking about?" Haruhi asked hesitantly. Eyrie clutched her collarbone and bug her fingernails into the exposed flesh.

"The dress...has no shoulders...no sleeves..." Eyrie whispered in a strained voice. Haruhi looked at Kyoya, wondering if their Shadow King had any idea what was going on, but ws shocked to see that he was staring at Eyrie over the top of his glasses and looked as if he was trying to solve a particularly hard math problem.

"Yea, we know. We picked it out ourselves. This was the cutest one there, you should thank us. We knew you would look amazing in that." The twins said proudly. They were about to continue when Mori clamped a hand down on their shoulders.

"Stop." They stared at Mori in surprise but the taller boy wasn't looking at them. He was watching his cousin walk over to Eyrie, who still had her face turned away. Tamaki was frozen, staring down at her with a solemn expression. He hadn't moved or talked since Eyrie had pointed out the missing fabric. Hunny ignored him and gently reached up to remove Eyrie's ridged hand from her collar bone, holding it gently in his.

"Eyr-chan...are you embarrassed of your scars?" He asked softly. Eyrie whipped her face around, her expression frantic.

"No! I'm not embarrassed! My scars are important! It's just..." Eyrie bit her lip and looked down, looking more timid then they had ever seen here. "It's just that no one else understands how important they are so they just assume things and...they get scared. If I go with you guys everyone will be scared and leave. So I'm going to change. I'll meet you guys later."

Hunny grasped her hand tighter, holding her in place. Tamaki walked around her and grabbed her other arm, bending down to examine it. All along it were smaller cuts and dots, none of which he had noticed at the ball. They were very faint. Hardly noticeable, until you got to her shoulders. Her shoulder had multiple, thick scars, curving around to her back. The top half of her back that was exposed and littered with scars, making her look like someone had attacked her with a scalpel.

"What are those from Eyr-chan?" Hunny asked softly as he looked at her back.

"Well I had to have a lot of different surgeries done in a hurry and they could be bothered with stitching the wounds tight enough to prevent scarring." Eyrie said it as if it was the most normal thing to talk about, like the weather, or what she had for lunch. "I don't mind them."

"That's because they're a part of you." Tamaki said lightly, giving her a soft smile. "Your scars are part of who you are."

The other hosts were silent as they continued to stare. Now that they gave her legs more than a fleeting glance, they could see that her legs had various scars on them as well.

"What are they all from?" Haruhi asked softly, without thinking. She blushed and held out her hands to Eyrie, ready to apologize. They were all a bit shocked when Eyrie actually responded to the question.

"Well most of the ones on my legs are from car accidents and the ones on my back are mostly surgeries. I have a couple bullet wounds but you can't see them." The twins looked as if they would be sick and Hunny and Tamaki looked like they were about to cry. Eyrie smiled and winked. "But they were all worth it so don't make those faces."

"If you're this proud of them, why don't you want to show them off?" The twins asked bluntly. Eyrie blushed and looked away.

"Because it would make things awkward for you guys. All the girls would ask questions you wouldn't want to answer and eventually you'll start feeling really embarrassed to be associated with me. I just don't want you guys to feel obligated to protect me." Eyrie shrugged.

"Silly Eyr-chan!" Hunny giggled and smiled up at her. Eyrie looked at him in surprise and then scanned the other faces in the room. The twins were shaking their heads and rolling their eyes while Haruhi smiled. Tamaki flipped his hair and chuckled. Even Kyoya gave a small scoff.

"What?" Eyrie asked in confusion.

"You're so funny sometimes! We already told you! Don't worry about stuff like that! We love you! Right Takashi?" Mori solemnly nodded and the rest of the hosts nodded and smiled. Eyrie looked away.

"Ok, well, I guess it'll be fine. I probably won't have any customers anyway so I'm worrying for nothing. Come on." She strode out the door.

"Oh."

"My."

"God."

The hosts stared with wide eyes at the line that seemed to hold all of Ouran's male student body, including some of the teachers. Eyrie sweat dropped and nearly faded out of reality as she stared at it. The female guests had already been let in and were commenting on the line, giggling and gossiping.

"Um, excuse me, miss. Do you know why all these boys are here?" Haruhi asked a girl in the table closest to them.

"Oh their here to see Dark L- I mean Eyrie-sempai!" She beamed a few of the other girls wandered over to join the conversation.

"Yea isn't it great? As soon as we told them they looked so excited." The girl named Hana giggled.

"Told them what Miss Hana?" Eyrie asked, finally coming out of her shocked state.

"Oh. Well we didn't know what the hosts were doing to advertise your presence as a one-day host and we wanted to make sure that everyone knows. Eyr-chan is so cute, we didn't want anyone to miss it!" Hana smiled, missing the look of surprise on Eyrie's face.

"Right! We wanted to show you how much people want to know you! We figured this was the best way since you're kinda unapproachable during class." Another girl laughed nervously and rubbed the back of her head.

"Oh...thank you..." Eyrie replied awkwardly, making Hunny giggle.

"C'mon Eyr-chan! Let's go say hi!" Hunny grabbed her hand and pulled her towards the long line. Mori followed close behind. The hosts watched as she was introduced to Nekozawa, Haruhi's class president, even Bossanova.

"It seems I'll have to make some adjustments to her management duties." Kyoya said, jotting something down in his notebook.

"Huh?" The other hosts turned to him.

"Well look at them. She'll be of more use if she acts as a host as well. And besides, she won't be able to get to all these people today. They'll have to come back as customers." The girls around him that overheard squealed with excitement and immediately scuttled off to spread the news. "Now which of you will be the one to tell those men and Eyrie?"

All eyes shifted to Haruhi, who drooped and dragged her feet over to where the line began.

Soon everything was all in order, a group of specially selected boys seated in Eyrie's area, the rest were eagerly rushing to the computer lab to get on the host's website to make reservations at Eyrie's new table in Music Room 3. The rest of the event went along in a flurry of movement and by the time the hosts got a moment to observe Eyrie's methods, all of the boys at her tables had hearts in their eyes; except for Nekozawa, who's eyes held a bizarre cat figure that the hosts didn't want to dwell on too long. The host watched closely when she went over to a table of third years.

"Masters. I brought your cake."

The hosts tried to keep their jaws from scraping on the ground as they watched Eyrie blush prettily and shyly look down. She fiddled with the serving tray she was holding, like she wanted to stay and chat but didn't know what to say.

"Eh? Nekozawa is still here?" One of the guys asked, squinting in the direction of the president of the Black Magic Club.

"Pretty girl like you. You shouldn't have to deal with a creep like that." Another guy leaned forward on his elbows and smiled in a way that suggested that he was confident in his charm.

"Oh no!" Eyrie held out her hands and waved them around, her eyes innocently wide, then looked away in embarrassment, rubbing one arm with her free hand. "Nekozawa-sempai is very kind to me. Please be nice to him! But umm...if I was in any danger...I'm sure my masters would be able to save me."

Eyrie smiled shyly and looked at them through her lashes. The boys blushed and basked in her innocent aura, officially won over.

"Of course we would Eyrie-sama!" One of the boys swooned, the others to busy staring off into space, immersed in their fantasy worlds. Eyrie gave a cute smile and went back to the sweets cart to get another table's order.

"What." The twins said blandly, not even posing as a question. Their faces were flat, the same as the other host's.

"Eyr-chan seems...different." Hunny sweat dropped.

"Shhh!" Tamaki waved his hands, trying to silence them. He was leaning forward and wore the same expression he reserved for his Japanese dramas.

"Sempai, this isn't a TV show." Haruhi said but only got a frantic wave of Tamaki's hand.

"Oh look! She's going over to Nekozawa-sempai!"

The hosts jumped in surprised and looked around to see that the female guest were as captivated as they were by Eyrie's performance.

"It seems our customers will be just as eager to see Eyrie work as they will us." Kyoya stated, pushing up his glasses. The other hosts shrugged and turned back to the male side of their outdoor café.

"Master?" Eyrie's voice seemed more sultry and mature than when she had been dealing with the other third years. "Your cappuccino. I made it special."

"Thank you Miss Omorfie. Or do you prefer Eyrie?" Nekozawa asked, his creepy voice giving the girls and Tamaki the shivers. Eyrie didn't even flinch.

"Which does my Master prefer?" She asked demurely.

Nekozawa blushed and the everyone around them watched with wide eyes as Eyrie interacted with him using a seductive voice and confident movements. Ever table was different, getting a different version of the same girl. By the time the club was over the girls and guys alike were 'kya'-ing harder than ever as they left while the host club stared at Eyrie who was waving to her customers.

"That was quite a performance. Thanks to that business should be better than ever. Good work Eyrie." Kyoya said without looking up from his notebook.

"So how did you do it?" The twins asked impatiently.

"What do you mean? I performed." Eyrie wiggled her eyebrows and smiled mischievously.

"We didn't know you could act Eyr-chan!" Hunny said around a mouthful of cake.

"I'm a rock star. 90% of what we do is acting." Eyrie stated blandly as she walked away, heading towards the changing rooms.

"I think its really cool sempai."

Eyrie raised her brows at Haruhi who had blurted out what she wanted to say before properly explaining herself.

"Alright? Thank you?" Eyrie cocked her head and squinted.

"No, I mean your scars. I think it's cool that you're proud of them." Haruhi said. She had walked in as Eyrie was buttoning up her uniform shirt.

"Well for once Tamaki was right. They are a part of me now. They will be there with me forever, a constant reminder of the things I went through and what I experienced, not to mention the people I cared about. I refuse to regret them because the fact that I can make that decision proves that I'm alive and kicking. So, in a way, my scars are a beautiful life lesson wrapped in dead tissue and jagged lines."

Eyrie ruffled Haruhi's hair as she walked past her. Haruhi turned to follow her with her eyes, squinting as if that would help her see the really person inside Eyrie that they all only got glimpses of. She was happier around them now but she could say everything yet nothing. It was frustrating, always having to hear about Eyrie's heartbreak and feelings from other people.

Well at least we've heard it all. I doubt there is anything else to tell.

Inside her car, Eyrie sneezed.

I hope you all liked it! Please review! It took a little longer than the other chapter because I recently started another fanfic! I would be honored if any Uta no Prince-sama fans would check out my story Breaking the Barrier. Thanks for reading!