Emi

If I hadn’t known Eri’s moods as well as I did, I might have said something when I slipped into her room later that evening. Knowing her as I did, however, I was completely aware that one wrong word on my part she she’d kick me out of her room altogether. Instead, I locked the door behind me and perched on the end of her bed, where I could lightly rub circles on her back. She’d buried herself under her blankets, but I knew that there was little chance she’d actually fallen asleep.

Eri was a person of habit. She wasn’t the type that could fall asleep at anytime of day unless she wasn’t feeling her best. Something like this wouldn’t change that fact about her.

While I rubbed her back, I tucked my knees up to my chest, wrapping my free arm around them. The buzz of my phone in my pocket caught my attention a few minutes later and I slipped my arm from around my knees to tug my phone out. My brow furrowed in confusion as I flipped it open to a text from a sender simple labeled as “dumbass #1”.

‘How was the family business?’

My hand on Eri’s back stopped moving as I studied the text, attempting to decide how to reply. As a result, I barely noticed her shifting beneath my hand until she spoke.

“Is something wrong?”

I shook my head, turning it to give her a reassuring smile.

“Nothing, lay back down.”

With a small frown, she did as I’d asked, tucking the blanket back over her shoulders. Turning my attention back to the text, I removed my other hand from her back and quickly typed out a response.

‘Family business means family, dumbass. You’re not family, you don’t get to know.’

Almost instantly, I received a response.

‘Tell Tono that. We’re siblings in his mind, remember? So spill.’

‘Delusional families don’t count.’

‘Do too.’

I gritted my teeth and was about to respond as my phone vibrated again, this time with the ID “dumbass #2”.

‘Delusional families definitely count.’

‘I’m deleting my number from your phones tomorrow.’I replied in turn, although I wasn’t that sure how well that would go. Two verses one, the odds weren’t in my favor.

My phone reacted violently a moment later as two texts came in at once. Predictably, they said the same thing.

‘Good luck with that.’

I chucked my phone across her bed and simply glared in it’s direction.

“Dumbasses.”

“Emi?”

“It’s nothing,” I replied immediately. “I was just thinking about how some people shouldn’t be allowed to own technology. It’s a crime towards the human race, well, that’s if they’re human. I wouldn’t be surprised if they weren’t.”

“... alright…”

________________________

Luckily both of the boys left early the next morning so that they’d have time to find their first class before it started. As a result, Eri and I managed to escape to school without having to run into them. It took a bit of effort, but I managed to avoid the twins curious questions as well. Although, my attempt at deleting my number from their phones just ended in them snatching mine and “improving” their names in my contacts to “Genius #1” and “Hot 1”. I changed the names back the moment that they were looking away.

The next few days followed the same pattern, although there were a few times when I had to get creative to avoid running into Kitaru and Hiroshi. Eri brightened up when it became obvious that their college classes kept the boys from being able to torment us constantly.

All of this put together meant that things continued as they had been doing before those idiots showed up. Although Eri and I quickly learned that when the host club was involved, calm wasn’t always a good thing, or a permanent one.

“Hikaru! Kaoru!” Tamaki shouted, tearing into the room.

I propped myself up on the couch, taking in Tamaki’s irritated expression with interest. The two devils in question were seated in front of the clubroom computer, not seeming to be surprised, or concerned, about Tamaki’s anger in the first place. Their interest in the computer happened to be the only reason that when the meeting time rolled around today I’d managed to doze on the couch instead of be harassed.

“I left you both in charge of the club’s website because you promised to do it seriously,” Tamaki continued, seething.

“That was a dumb move,” I cut in. “When do they ever do anything seriously?”

Ignoring me, the twins focused their now bored expressions on Tamaki.

“Huh? We are doing it seriously,” Hikaru retorted.

“Yeah, we stayed up the whole night yesterday,” Kaoru added.

“In order to create this masterpiece- Haruhi’s composite photograph,” they finished together.

Intrigued, I hopped up from the couch and walked over to get a better look at the picture they’d pulled up on the screen. As soon as I did, I started laughing.

“That’s perfect.”

“We even added a retro phrase for him,” the twins added, sharing my amusement.

At that moment, Tamaki pulled the twins away from the computer as both Honey and Haruhi joined me in looking at the screen.

“Haru-chan, you’re so cool!” Honey declared.

“Outrageous! Do you know you’re wasting your talents by doing this? Shame on you!” Tamaki shouted.

“That’s obviously Tamaki’s body,” Eri commented, peering over my shoulder at the screen.

“I know, that’s what makes it amazing,” I replied. “Think about it, it’s like… Tamaki and Haruhi’s lovechild.”

Haruhi’s face slowly flushed a bright shade of red and she quickly spun away from our conversation to the one currently going on between Tamaki and the twins, which had apparently turned into what sort of clothing they should have put Haruhi in. It seemed that he didn’t disapprove as much as I’d originally thought.

“Please everyone; let’s not do this,” Haruhi demanded, her irritation obvious even to me.

Tamaki and Honey seemed to decide to ignore her request, continuing to pick through the outfits. I agreed with Honey when he curiously questioned Tamaki about why he owned the outfits, who in turn plainly ignored the question as he picked out yet another to show off. The twins, having lost interest in the conversation, dropped themselves back in the chairs they’d been occupying prior to Tamaki’s outburst. Similarly losing interest, I returned to my position on the couch, settling on my knees so that I could peer over the back at where everyone was without much effort. Eri stayed where she’d been standing by the computer, studying the picture with a furrowed brow. Perhaps she was trying to decide whether or not to volunteer to fix it.

“Sigh… we seem to have nothing to do these days,” Hikaru complained. “Haruhi, can we go to your house and play?”

“No way!” she replied bluntly. “You’ll laugh.”

Pouting, the twins glanced towards where I sat. With a scowl, I ducked behind the back of the couch.

“Emi~” Kaoru called out.

“We know you’re there~” Hikaru added.

“Can we come over to your house?” they finished together.

I glared daggers at the cushion blocking me from their line-of-sight.

“What do you think?” I retorted. “No way in hell.”

They gave identical sighs and I shifted so that I could watch the events once again, realizing that if I took my eyes off them they might very well sneak up on the couch.

“Fine,” Kaoru replied. “Then, Haruhi, can we spread rumors of you being a girl? I’m so bored.”

Haruhi blinked, then gave a resigned expression.

“Hey… what am I to you guys, really?” she asked.

The twins glanced at each other, then back to her with those smirks of theirs.

“That goes without saying,” they chimed together. “You’re a ‘toy’.”

I rolled my eyes.

“A toy? You two really are full of-”

“If you guys like toys, please join my club~” a voice called out from the door.

I jumped, glancing in the direction then lowering my head so that it was just above the back of the couch. The dark-violet cloaked president of the Black Magic club, Nekozawa scared the hell out of me sometimes. Magic and curses weren’t exactly my forte. Just like horror movies, horror video games, suspense games, and just all around creepy pastimes. Put that altogether and being around the black-haired boy deeply unsettled me.

“Currently we’re organizing the world’s ancient magical artifacts exhibition. If you join us now, we will also throw in a wonderful cursed voodoo doll for you folks.”

“Why must he appear out of the shadows,” Haruhi commented, her expression mirroring what I imagined Eri was wearing.

My sister, having abandoned the computer, appeared next to Haruhi and Kyoya as the boy adjusted his glasses.

“Because Nekozawa-senpai doesn’t like the light,” Kyoya replied easily. “It’s said to shorten lives.”

“Yet the lighting in the classroom doesn’t bother him?” Eri wondered aloud. “He does attend classes…”

Kyoya turned to face Eri with a slightly thoughtful expression.

“Perhaps the fact that he needs to be there over-rules the problem?” he replied, his tone just as amused as hers had been.

Eri shook her head.

“That wouldn’t work, would it?” she questioned. “He’s too frightened of-”

“What’s a cursed voodoo doll?”

“Is this too much light?”

I looked on in utter horror as the twins shined lights on Nekozawa. Where they wanting to be cursed? The person in question shrieked, fleeing the room as the twins looked on with what almost resembled bored expressions. Tamaki, at least, wore a look that seemed appropriate as he stared at the two of them in despair.

“What’s wrong with you two… looks like neither one of you have experienced real terror…”

If anything, the twins looked less than impressed by Tamaki’s words.

“He’s got the right idea,” I interjected. “What the hell’s wrong with you? Are you really that stupid?”

I caught Eri rolling her eyes before she realized I was watching and carefully removed the amusement from her face. The twins simply started laughing.

“No way.”

“You believe in all of that?”

“Seriously?”

Tamaki, seeming not to have noticed that no one was paying attention, or at least no one that I was aware of, simply continued talking.

“...it’s even too scary to say it aloud. After that incident, my exam papers were filled with a jumble of nonsensical, illogical, incantations, probably curses. When I realized that he situation seemed…”

“Of… of course I don’t!” I retorted. “I just… being rude… is stupid.”

The twins glanced at each other, then snickered.

“Of course.”

“It’s not that you believe in any of it,” Kaoru added.

“You’re just annoyed that we’re being rude-” Hikaru continued.

“When you’re ruder than that on a daily basis.”

I glared at them, attempting to find a snappy comeback, and failing. Seeming to feel that they’d won, the twins turned their attention back to the still rambling Tamaki and the somewhat confused, albeit amused, looking others.

“Come to think of it…” they commented. “All those who speak ill of Nekozawa-senpai, their-”

“He won’t actually believe that-

“Will change to-”

“Will he?” Eri questioned.

Rather certain that the twins were just messing around, I easily disregarded the idea. Not, of course, without a mental image that I doubted I ever wanted, or needed, to have within my lifetime.

Unsurprisingly, Tamaki wasn’t so sensible. After everyone managed to calm him down and convince him that there was no chance of that happening, he proceeded to lecture the twins thoroughly and prohibit them from taking customers for two days, as well as assigning them cleaning duties.

There was something satisfying about watching the two of them mope.

Or at least, that was what I told myself as I watched them laze around on the couch, taking up all of the space I would normally occupy. At least I wasn’t trapped between them with the mood they were in. Instead, I had the pleasure of enjoying a piece of cake with Honey as I happily watched them sulk and whine from a safe distance away.

“Emi-chan’s giggling again…” Honey told Eri, who sighed, her lips twisted up a bit in amusement.

“She has a sadistic edge to her, if you didn’t know. She was almost expelled from our old school for punching another girl. The only reason she wasn’t was because the school didn’t want to upset our parents. No one told them that they wouldn’t have been surprised.”

Honey’s eyes grew wide.

“Really?”

From a short distance away, Kyoya paused, obviously intrigued.

“I thought that was what I’d heard,” he mused. “If I remember right, she shared a different reason with your classmates on her first day of school, however.”

I rolled my eyes, turning my attention away from the twins for a moment.

“Well of course I did. Why would I start class by telling everyone that I broke another girl’s nose?”

Eri started to say something else, but at that moment another conversation caught my attention. A few girls meeting with Haruhi must have asked her something about the twins, because the words that caught my attention were priceless.

“Hikaru’s speech and behavior sometimes reveals ten percent more evilness.”

Hikaru seemed shocked and me… well, I burst out laughing. Abandoning my cake, I joined up behind Haruhi who seemed not to have meant anything by her comment.

“How right you are,” I agreed cheerily. “Although I don’t think ten percent covers it that well.”

As I spoke, I was acutely aware of the conversation going on between the twins a short distance behind me. Rather pleased, I spun and shot them a cheeky grin as I finished. Neither one seemed to notice as a result of how caught up in their conversation they were.

“If we were to talk about evilness, that should really be your forte, Kaoru.”

“Please don’t spout nonsense, Hikaru. It’s always been me tolerating your stubborn ways.”

“Even if I am the brain behind the plots, the one who deeply planned every execution is you, Kaoru. If you don’t like it, then don’t do it, fool.”

I watched in amazement as the twins rapidly dived into a very un-twin like, passive argument. Well, passive until that comment.

“Hikaru, actually, you like Haruhi, right? It’s so obvious, you are always touching her.”

“Huh?” Hikaru demanded, his face flushing red. “You’re one to talk! You like Emi, don’t you? You’re always dragging her into things! Why’d you even have to say something like that? You really are an idiot.”

“Him? Like me?” I demanded. “What the hell are you on?”

Unsurprisingly, I went ignored. Tamaki, brought in by the Haruhi comment, pushed himself into the conversation. Meanwhile, I was debating whether stepping in and giving both of them a well deserved hit on the head would be worth it. I settled on no, it wouldn’t be. If they were pissed at each other, maybe that meant I’d get to relax a little.

Little did I know how wrong that was.

_____________________

“Hikaru?”

I stared at him, shocked. He simply raised a hand in greeting, not seeming to find anything wrong with the fact that his hair was flamingo pink.

“What the hell did you do?”

“You’re attracting a lot of attention…” Haruhi informed him.

“Pink, why pink?” I demanded.

Eri had stayed at home, declaring that while she wasn’t sick, she wasn’t feeling that well. The two boys had a project to do at school, so I decided that she’d probably be alright left alone.

“Cause it looks good on me,” Hikaru informed me. “I’m cute, right? From today onwards, I’ll be the pink one. I can’t stand when other people keep mistaking me for that Kaoru.”

“Ah…” I began, catching sight of an angry figure in the doorway. “Kaoru… you heard that, right?”

Seeming to decide not to dignify Hikaru’s words with a direct response, Kaoru stalked over to take his seat.

“Good morning, Haruhi, Emi,” he greeted. “Last night, just when I thought I could finally get to sleep alone, I had such a horrible nightmare. I can’t believe that I dreamt that I dyed my hair pink. What a disgusting thing to do! It’d make me look stupid!”

“You don’t need help looking stupid,” I informed him. “Although, I suppose you’re right, pink is a rather stupid color to dye someone’s hair.

Hikaru calmly pulled Kaoru’s chair out right before he sat down, his own response to the statement. Left in an undignified heap on the ground, Kaoru immediately pulled the chair out from under his brother. I simply watched, amazed, as they began flinging things at each other. Well, that was until I got hit by a stray object, that was when I was about to jump into the fray. The only thing that stopped me was the arrival of our teacher.

Unfortunately, the mess continued after class.

“Emi’s coming with me. Why would she want to go anywhere with your dumb-looking head?” Kaoru snapped, grabbing ahold of one of my wrists the moment I’d gathered my things.

“Please, she’d probably rather come with me, than with you, you never did deny liking her! That probably creeps her out,” Hikaru retorted, grabbing my other wrist.

No, until that moment, I’d forgotten that accusation.

“You’re the who said it! That probably means you do, which makes it worse!”

“I hate both of you,” I declared. “Go to hell and take your arguement away with you!”

Unsurprisingly, they ignored me and it wasn’t the only time. That argument seemed to occur each time we switched rooms. Then there happened to be the blow-darts, and then the water-bucket.

I was still wringing water out of my dress when we finally made it to the cafeteria. I wish I could say it went uphill from there, but no, it only got worse when the twins started throwing food and got us all in-trouble. Conveniently, they escaped the punishment. When the host club and I had finally finished cleaning up, I collapsed into my usual position on the couch, exhausted. The other members of the club sat in similar states around the room.

“If this situation persists,” Kyoya commented calmly. “We will have to cancel the brotherly love settlings. I can assure you that the request rates will definitely decrease. I’ll think about their penalty later… oh, hey, Haruhi, Emi. You two don’t have to worry about any responsibility, okay? Even if the sentence that sparked this catastrophe was made by you…”

“Wait, I can understand her, she said it, but why me?” I demanded.

His smile was friendly, but there was this dark aura surrounding him when he responded.

“Are you telling me that you in no way had any hand in encouraging them to fight?” he asked. “Or that you had no chance to intervene and perhaps prevent this from happening?”

“Oh… well…”

“But no need to worry,” he continued. “It’s not like I minded cleaning the cafeteria or upsetting the vice-chairman.”

“Um…”

“No need to worry at all.”

I had to wonder why Eri found him so fun to be around. Personally, I found him irritating and slightly, although I’d have never admitted it, intimidating.

“This is the first fight between Hika-chan and Kao-chan,” Honey added, his depressed air a welcome change from the murderous one Kyoya gave off.

“Really?” I asked, shocked. “How’s that possible? I mean, even Eri and I fight. We do it all the time.”

Honey shrugged, stuffing a bite of cake in his mouth as Mori nodded his agreement with Honey’s statement.

“I’ve known them since kindergarten,” Honey supplied. “Even though I never talked with them. They were always playing alone by themselves.”

“Yeah…” Tamaki agreed. “I’ve only know them since junior high bug… they looked odd among other people.It didn’t seem like they wanted other people to come close by. Their personalities were worse than now, too.”

He sighed, then shook his head, leaning in to patt Haruhi on the head where she stood next to me.

“Come to think of it, I feel that these fights and quarrels may not be a bad thing. At least their world has expanded.”

I frowned, biting my lip to keep from commenting. They had never fought before? It seemed sort of impossible, but… with how close they were, I couldn’t completely find myself against the possibility. Something about the idea bugged me, however. I found myself attempting to figure out what it was, which caused me to miss most of what caused Tamaki to sudden take off after the twins who’d appeared out of nowhere.

“You don’t think…” I finally commented to Haruhi as she started for the door.

She paused, then glanced back at me with a faint smile.

“You had the same thought?” she asked.

I nodded, hooking my arm around hers and tugging her towards the door.

“Yup! Let’s go! You can be my Eri for the day!”

“Huh? Emi-chan, slow down!”

By the time I made it down to where Tamaki and the twins had ended up, I was even more upset by what I saw. Enough so that I froze for a moment upon reaching them.

“This is a cursed voodoo doll I got from Nekozawa-senpai!” Kaoru declared. “Your name has already been engraved on the back of the doll, Hikaru. Now I will let you taste the same anguish and pain as the voodoo doll.”

“Hey… this is going too far…” Haruhi warned them.

“You think?” I demanded, stepping letting go of her arm and striding forward. Not seeming to notice me, Kaoru continued talking until I drove my fists home on both of their heads. “Bakas!”

“Ouch!”

Haruhi, looking impressed for a split second, eyed the two of them with a bit of concern as they nursed their heads.

“I had a similar thought,” she commented. “Although… I don’t think I would have hit them that hard.”

I shrugged.

“I have a lot of pent up anger,” I replied easily. “Most of it caused by them.”

“Fair enough.”

With that, I turned my attention back to the two idiots in question.

“What did you think you were doing?” I demanded.

“Don’t use that kind of thing for such a stupid quarrel,” Haruhi added. “Both of you are bad, and causing trouble for people around you is worse!”

“Apologize to everyone!” I agreed.

“If you two don’t make up and shake hands now, you two will never set foot in my house in this lifetime.”

“Or mine!” I added on, placing my hands on my hips and glowering at them. “Well, you still won’t… but…”

“Hm…”

“Then…”

Instantly I had a bad feeling as the twins stopped nursing their heads to grin at each other. Without a word, Kaoru turned the puppet around to reveal a blank back as Hikaru whipped a script out of thin air.

“If we call a truce, can we go to your house?” they questioned.

“Wait, what?” I demanded, snatching the puppet away. I may have hated it, but it was safer in my possession. “No, wait, never! I never said that! Never, ever! Don’t forget I added on that you still aren’t allowed! You’re never coming within a mile of my house!”

Neither one of them seemed impressed with my words. They just grinned.

A/N: Okay, this wasn't my best chapter in the story, but I finally decided I had to stop being a perfectionist and get this out there so that I could continue the story and it wouldn't be on hold forever.  Hope you enjoyed, and I would really appricate it if you guys could look at the author's note a chapter back and give your opinion! 

Oh, and while I have several more canon arcs I plan on continuing, from now on it will be less cannon and more created things, so I hope you look forward to that! It's been bugging me how closely this book follows the manga!