A/N: This chapter has been edited and had content added to it, although there have been very little to no removal of content from the original. I hope you enjoy!

Haruhi still didn't quite entirely get the hype about the Twins, even after they spent a good amount of time explaining it – not that she couldn't understand at all, it was just, to incomprehensible exactly *how* popular they were when they loved to bedevil and torment their customers in many ways – but there was one thing she could understand and sympathize with, she thought, as she glanced at Kyōya-senpai. That was the taboo.

It was deliciously against the norm for a relationship like theirs to exist, just like it was for Hikaru and Kaoru – whom she could actually tell apart thank you very much; because it wasn't that hard once you actually got to know them – to have the feelings they truly did share for one another, and she looked away and thought about the Twins again until Tamaki came pounding into the room, annoyingly yelping about the Twins' edit of the Host Club webpage.

Frustratingly, Haruhi had to admit that it was a good photoshop of her, but… it was still an extreme invasion of her privacy to do that without asking! Glancing over at Kyōya-senpai revealed a small smirk and she decided that, you know what? Caring was just far too much effort. Kyōya-senpai owned her, after all, and if he had no problems with it – hell, had probably even encouraged it for the drama and reactions, at minimum, not to mention the sales potential – then she didn't either, not that she would let that stop her from being herself and being honest about her instinctive reactions. This or something similar would happen again, and while her beloved senpai didn't ever want her truly upset, she knew that he found her "bristling and posturing" to be adorable, as he had told her as much before.

Right as she started daydreaming about that moment – it had come with some very delicious kisses, after all – the King went into some creepy fantasy of his own… Sigh. Tamaki was just as entirely delusional as they said, a complete creep, in all honestly, how obsessed he was over her when she couldn't give two shits about him; to think she would ever do something like that for him! Ugh, never! …She wasn't even going to touch on whether she would ever do it for Kyōya-senpai, though, as she knew the idea would make her blush far more than the more subtle one her owner had told her he adored; yeah, not touching that thought, not even with a ten foot pole!

She moped at their supposed King's ideas, until the girls mentioned wanting to see her "crossdressing", and she saw the dress that the creepy perverted King had found for her. At a glance towards Kyōya, she decided that if it came up, she would let herself be persuaded into dressing up, but not for their sakes, no. This was to make Kyōya-senpai happy.

As he slunk off, she demanded that the Twins stop being so obnoxious, in her own way of course, and they told her that they considered other people to be toys, which was very sad to know. Maybe they weren't entirely serious, but she felt that they really were serious, and it was sad that they didn't have any true friends, that their world was so narrow as to consist of only each other; how lonely… Even Kyōya-senpai, who owned her and controlled her and dominated her, thought of her as a person, and not an object.

Maybe she could help, somehow, by broadening their world? If they knew she could tell them apart no matter what they did – they were not the same person and had very different personalities after all – maybe they would realize that it was okay to include other people in their world… Because other people could genuinely care and know them for themselves.

Tamaki was completely ridiculous and entirely absurd with his fear of Nekozawa and Beelzenef, his over-exaggeration of the events after stepping on the cloth puppet, and how he was trying to scare everyone into staying away from the Black Magic club leader. Kyōya made it quite clear that everything that happened had an entirely logical reason behind it, and his adorable Haruhi scoffed under her breath as she heard him ruthlessly tearing down Tamaki's delusions, not that Tamaki cared, rolling her eyes as she apparently decided to ignore the "King" full-sale.

Of course, Nekozawa was his own special brand of delusional as well, but when he looked over at Haruhi, Kyōya was pleased to find her rolling her eyes yet again as the Twins flipped the flashlight on, and Nekozawa and his doll sped out of the room. She clearly wasn't buying any of the bullshit they were selling; good for her! Honestly, he hadn't thought she would fall for it; his pet was delightfully pragmatic and practical, although he could tell she was definitely curious as to why Nekozawa was like that.

Then Tamaki got over-dramatic, yet again, and everybody ignored his dramatics, yet again. This… well, Kyōya had been about to think it was becoming a trend, but to be entirely fair and honest, it had always been a trend; simply becoming more noticeable since Haruhi's entrance into their lives.

Oh, but her response to the Twins asking to visit her place had merit, and although he fully supported the idea of letting Tamaki go nowhere near Ranka-san, as that was a disaster waiting to happen – he was just the sort of frivolous, unreliable, and flaky kind of person that Kyōya's correspondent couldn't stand and would want nowhere near their daughter (after "meeting" Ranka-san, Kyōya had understood a lot more about Haruhi in general, especially the gender obliviousness, although Ranka-san embraced theirs in several ways while Haruhi simply did not care, possibly in part because Ranka-san was so much more outrageous about it) – he knew that he had to let it happen eventually, if only to have another supporter in tearing down any claim that Tamaki might think he had on Kyōya's Haruhi.

If Hikaru and Kaoru didn't somehow manage it themselves, he would find a way to make a Club visit to his pet's place happen.

Haruhi could tell them apart.

Their worldview was shattered and disrupted by this reveal, enough to shock them into complete silence as she explained how (and it was true, that of the two of them, Hikaru was the more combative one, regardless of how they acted)but not so much that Hikaru and Kaoru were going to give up their determination to visit Haruhi, especially not when Kyōya-senpai was egging them on by pushing up his glasses and smirking.

So they manufactured a fight, picking at each other, prodding what could be considered open wounds by others but were just amusing to each other, and waited through Renge's ridiculous speech and comments before starting up again.

Within the following week Haruhi would find a way to "fix" the "explosion" and they would have their way. They wondered how long she could last out before blowing up at them, and at watching Kyōya-senpai slyly glancing at Haruhi, they decided that it would probably be a day or three longer than it could have been, because he wouldn't be able to resist slightly comforting her with his domination game; Kyōya-senpai wasn't like them after all – he cared for Haruhi and wanted her to be happy, in his own way.

They didn't care if anybody else was happy so long as they were enjoying themselves.

This fight was splendid, but going a bit too far. He wondered how much more of it Haruhi could take, but then again, just this morning he had cornered her and kissed her until she couldn't even stand up straight, so possibly that was making it easier for her to bear up under the undoubtedly massive stress of two people she considered to be friends fighting so viciously. Besides, his pet might be straightforward and blunt, but the only way those Twins would stop this absurd fight was if she invited them to her home, which… he could entirely understand her reluctance – none of his friends were as grounded as he was about anything – and wouldn't add more pressure to her by making her come to that realization before she was ready to do so.

As he watched her from across the room, Haruhi glanced at him and he raised an eyebrow at her, making her realize she had to deal with this on her own for now, and she nodded firmly. Ah it was a delight to see her determined to work things out to please him, despite knowing he was also egging the situation on to an extent.

Of course, then the twins started a food fight, and Kyōya decided that, sometime soon, he would take her out to eat, so she could actually enjoy a fancy meal. Looking at her, he decided it wouldn't be on their first date; no, he had to work up to a full course meal in a fancy restaurant; but he had some ideas regardless.

After lunch, however, facades had to be kept up, and – without saying it outright – he blamed her for the situation, and she blushed again, just the tips of her ears, at his manipulation. Now she had double the incentive to fix this.

He tuned Honey out and focused on his work. He knew this already.

Day three of the fight dawned gloomy; overcast and depressing and with the chance of a storm, and Haruhi so was not up for dealing with this crap. She avoided the dining hall and finished her lunch rapidly, only to have a classmate tell her that Kyōya-senpai wanted her. Obediently, Haruhi left the classroom and followed him to a deserted area, where she got pushed against a wall and had large hands slide into her hair, pulling it lightly and gently, with blunt but manicured nails scratching at her scalp softly and making her shudder. She murmured, "I'll fix this, I promise. Haruhi is a good girl."

He wanted her to get this over with for some reason – maybe because she was the only one who could? – and so she would do it, gladly. She just.. Was already sick of dealing with them, even after only two and a half days! A mouth latched onto the junction of her neck and shoulder and she whimpered as a light mark was left on her skin, where nobody could see it. Oh damn, that was just.. Mnph! So, so hot!

Then Kyōya-senpai kissed up her throat, licked and breathed along the shell of her ear, and kissed his way across her jaw before claiming her mouth in an intense kiss, then pulling away and kissing her forehead, leaving her to regain her composure as she shuddered with need.

Kyōya-senpai had distracted her perfectly from her irritation.

Haruhi didn't give a damn that the doll probably wouldn't actually do anything; that was one step too far! Way too far, unacceptable, actually! Yes they were irritating everyone around them, and yes they were being toddlers and brats, spoiled rotten little jerks who had never fought and didn't know how to stop now that they were doing so. But doing something with the intent to harm a family member was something Haruhi would absolutely not tolerate! So she slammed a fist onto each head of pink hair and blue hair, grabbed the wooden doll, and smashed it against the floor before Kaoru could come anywhere close to finishing writing Hikaru's name on it, then thoroughly vented her spleen at the two inconsiderate ass-hats.

Oh shit. Oh no, oh no. Those smiles as Haruhi obediently stepped in and ordered them to make up, were trouble. Capital-T Trouble, in fact, Crap, crap, crap! She looked at Kyōya-senpai, who just raised an eyebrow at her, and felt her knees weaken as she realized that he had been one hundred percent behind this deception too, and probably helped begin it, rather than just encouraging it to new heights to make it clear how ridiculous they were being and to increase Club sales when the fight was finally over. He wanted… Kyōya-senpai wanted to see her home, which, agh!

Yes, it was a big step but she had been exclusive with him for over two and a half months now; being a big step wasn't the issue here. The issue was that they were rich, and compared to the mansions her club mates likely lived in, her home was sparse, spartan, tiny and undignified! Not that it should matter, but she was highly worried about how they would collectively react to it! Not Kyōya-senpai though. She knew that whenever he came by himself he wouldn't play into the bullshit that the rest of the club would act out as a group.

As they completely revealed their purpose, she read the back of the doll rolling around on the floor – it was pretty well made to not have actually broken when she threw it down trying to break it – and let her distraught emotions show. This was a disaster!

"Today, Pink is Kaoru, and Blue is Hikaru. You switched your colors, eh?"

Haruhi was an interloper, a gatecrasher, an intruder, and they couldn't do anything about it, because she was Kyōya-senpai's pet and they weren't ever going to be stupid enough to genuinely push their most scary senpai. Ah, well… This could still be interesting, Kaoru thought, as he slid his gaze to Hikaru, who met his eye, and slid his gaze forward again.

Interesting, indeed.