It probably shouldn’t have surprised me that my uncle was enthusiastic with his permission for me to go to the dinner. Actually, I think it surprised me more that he insisted on sending one of our drivers to the school to drop-off an outfit for me to change into before the event.

When I thought about it, however, that really shouldn’t have surprised me either.

After picking up the package from the office, I accepted Tamaki’s offer to let me use the changing rooms in the music room. As I pulled the dress out of the bag, however, I simply stared at the object for a moment. For once I didn’t mind his obsession with new dresses to fit the occasion. The majority of the dress was a simple off-white tone and it was outlined with black. There also happened to be a simple crisscross black design stitched into the skirt of the dress. Put all together it made for an extremely simple dress suited for both casual and formal events.

I might have even chosen it given the chance.

Because of the simple nature of the dress, it was extremely simple to slip it on as the host club cleaned up after their activities. When I stepped out of the curtains, annoyed by the lack of mirror in the changing room, I drew the attention of several of the hosts.

“Kawai!” Honey declared, coming out of nowhere with a hug. Similar to my first experience with Honey’s hug, I stood there, unsure of what to do. “Very kawai, Nao-chan!”

“Um… thanks…” I muttered, eyes flickering away from him as he released me to the others in the club.

The twins had already turned away from their curious looks to whatever they’d been doing before I came out. Tamaki seemed to be considering a reaction similar to Honey’s, which I found myself hoping he would decide against. Kyoya, like the twins, had already lost interest.  Mori was still looking in our direction with that hard to read expression of his, but that might  have been because Honey was with me rather than my coming out in the dress.

“Nao-chan!” Tamaki declared, sweeping me up in his hug as well. “You should we-”

He cut off as I was suddenly out of Tamaki’s hold and dangling in the air. I didn’t really need to look to guess that I was being rescued by Mori. There’d been several occasions when I’d seen him rescue Haruhi in a similar manner from such situations involving Tamaki.

“... can you put me down?” I asked and was instantly sat down to my relief. I’m not sure what I would have done if he’d refused like he had done at the tournament. “And Tamaki-san? Please don’t touch me, it’s disturbing.”

Unsurprisingly, my words sent Tamaki to his corner. Ignoring him I turned around and offered Mori a smile that laid somewhere between real and the normal one I put on for people.

“Thanks, Mori.”

He nodded, then turned his attention to Honey. It wasn’t until then that I realized Honey had picked up my things from where they’d laid. When he caught sight of my frown, he just grinned and handed one of the two bags to Mori.

“We’re helping,” he explained, and despite the cheery tone of his voice I got the feeling I wasn’t allowed to argue.

Biting the response I wanted to give, I simply smiled once again and shrugged.

“Alright. Shall we go?”

___________________________________

I think every minute that passed between Ouran and Honey’s house made it easier and easier for me to relax. I’m not certain what it was about being around Honey, but he made any stress just… disappear.

“We’re here!” Honey announced.

I nodded and reached for the door-handle.

“No!”

Shocked, I paused, glancing over my shoulder at Honey. He just grinned at me and urged Mori out of the vehicle.

“...Honey?”

“Takashi will get if for you!” he informed me.

Once again I saw that look on Mori’s face that seemed to be one of surprise, but was so small that it was hard to tell if it was. A second later he nodded and started around to my side.

“But I’m right here,” I protested. “If one of us is going to open the door, why not me?”

Honey just grinned and put a finger to his lips. Even more confused than before, I turned and offered Mori a smile as he pulled open the door. It wasn’t his fault he had to put up with this random whim of Honey’s, knowing Mori he probably didn’t even care.

“Thank-you,” I told him as I stood, noting the fact that my stuff had already disappeared from the seat.

There wasn’t really any reason to argue that side of it either. I’ll admit, it was nice not having to carry everything. At the same time, I’d been raised as the sort of person who took care of their own stuff, it wasn’t my cup of tea to be allowing this.

Mori nodded in response and the two of them began leading their way into the house, Honey chatting happily the entire way.

“I called home after class was out,” Honey told me. “Okaa-san is really excited to meet you!”

“What exactly have you told her about me?” I questioned warily. “Why would she be excited?”

Honey shrugged, that happy smile still in place.

“A lot of things~.”

How helpful.

“Come on!”

At Honey’s urging, I stopped asking questions and quickened my pace. Soon enough we were entering the front door of his house. Along the way we’d been greeted and bowed to by several people, but I simply wrote that off as a Haninozuka thing.

No, the shocking thing of this entire matter was that the moment Mori opened the front door a kid came flying out. A kid, I quickly realized, that looked practically identical to Honey beyond the glasses settled on his face. I was about to say something when I realized that his flying out was in order to attack Honey, who quickly retaliated. Concerned, I checked to see if Mori was going to step in, if not I certainly considered doing so. When I looked at him, however, Mori simply shook his head. I frowned and tilted my head in confusion.

“It is tradition,” he explained. “Whenever Haninozuka men see each other, they must fight.”

“... oh.”

The kid must have been related to Honey, which made sense with the huge resemblance between them.

Sidestepping when the battle came too close to comfort, I was relieved to discover that within a minute later Honey had wrapped up the fight in his favor. The kid stood up and rubbed his side, giving Honey an annoyed scowl.

“I’ll win next time,” he muttered and Honey simply shrugged.

“Nao-chan~,” he called, turning his attention back to me. “This is Chika, my little brother.”

The little brother in question adjusted his glasses with a curious, yet skeptical look in my direction.

“Yasuchika,” he corrected. “You’re a friend of Mitsukuni and Taka-nii?”

I nodded, hesitating for a moment before offering a very shallow greeting bow. He was obviously quite younger, since he was wearing the uniform belonging to Ouran’s middle school, so it didn’t make any sense to give him anything more than a shallow bow. My eyes flickered up to Chika’s face for a moment and I caught sight of a bit of curiosity crossing through it once again before he settled on a small scowl and offered a bow in return.

“Yes, I am,” I told him in reference to his question. “Morioka Nao, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Chika pursed his lips, recognition flickering across his expression.

“Oh, so that’s who you are.”

My eyes shot to Honey who simply shrugged once again, that familiar grin on his face. I had a bad feeling about all of this…

“Yasuchika!” a voice called out from beyond the door. “Where are you? I want to- Taka-nii! Mitsukuni! You’re home!”

A figure appeared in the doorway, adding to our already crowded group on the pouch. I instantly had an idea of who the kid was, seeing as he seemed to be a miniature replica of Mori. My guess was that within a few years they’d probably be rather identical. Well, if it wasn’t for the big grin on the kid’s face. That was an instant give away that he wasn’t Mori.

I was about to ask Mori about my guess when the kid spotted me.

“You must be Nao-senpai!” he decided. “You look exactly like Mitsukuni described you!”

I blinked and again looked at Honey. I wasn’t that surprised when he once again just shrugged with that grin.

“Um… yeah, that’s me,” I muttered after a moment. “You’re Mori’s little brother?”

His eyes lit up as he gave an ecstatic nod.

“I am! Has Taka-nii been talking about me? No, that’s not right. Has Mitsukuni? What’d they say-”

I held up hand to stop what seemed was to be an endless flow of questions.

“No, it’s just obvious,” I answered truthfully. “You look a lot a like.”

If anything, he seemed even happier.

“You think so? It’s nice to meet you, by the way, I’m Morinozuka Satoshi.”

“I do, and it’s nice to meet you as well,” I replied.

Satoshi grinned, then turned his attention to the others.

“Right, Yasuchika! I need you!”

Without waiting for any thoughts on the matter from Chika, Satoshi grabbed the back of Chika’s collar and started dragging him back into the house. Chika began complaining, but didn’t actually struggle to get free as he and Satoshi disappeared around the corner at the end of the hall.  

What just happened?

“Come on, Nao-chan~” Honey urged, startling me out of my thoughts.

With a nod, I followed him and Mori into the house and down the hall. Within a short time we’d reached Honey’s room where we deposited all of our things. A quick glance at my watch told me that there was probably still a good time left before dinner. Honey, seeming to be aware of what I was doing, declared that we’d play a game until it was time to go join the family for dinner. Mori didn’t have anything against the decision, although I doubt he would have voiced that if he had, so we all ended up sitting down to play some board game I didn’t recognize.

Which meant I was hopelessly lost as soon as we started.

It probably didn’t help that the game was in English, which happened to be the only class that I’d even been in danger of failing. This fact seemed to surprise Honey, who then spent most of his time translating the different cards as things popped up. It seemed to be some sort of scenario game.

“I landed on… the purple thingy…” I muttered, leaning over to grab the card with my left hand.

My eyes flickered over the squiggly lines that supposedly represented words, and I managed to pick out a few.

“You… something… dark alley…. knife or…” I paused, handing over the card to Honey’s waiting hand. “What is this game?”

“I don’t know, but I got it at this weird shop. There were lots of things that I think Neko-kun would have liked!” Honey replied.

“... that’s not comforting,” I replied, hesitating. “Honey… how did you even end up in there?”

He looked thoughtful for a moment as his eyes flickered over the card.

“I can’t remember, Mori and I were exploring and just ended up there… It says ‘You’re in a dark alley when a stranger comes up to you and demands your wallet. You have two choices. You can give over your wallet, or you can stab him with the knife in your pocket. Which do you choose?”

I blinked.

“... why is there a knife in my pocket?”

Honey shrugged, still studying the card.

“If you stab him you have to go to jail,” he informed me, pointing at the little black box on the corner of the board- a place that I’d already ended up in several times during the game.

Honey had gone there once, Mori, surprisingly, hadn’t touched the box at all. As a result, he was the one closest to the mansion at the end of the road of dots that the game board mostly consisted of.

“If I hand over the wallet?” I asked with a sigh.

“You get to go forward two dots but have to hand over all of your money,” Honey informed me.

“... … I thin-”

“Mitsukuni! Taka-nii! Nao-senpai!” a familiar voice cut in as he pulled open the door into Honey’s room. “Oji-san said to tell you guys that the cooks have the table set for dinner.”

“Satoshi,” Mori greeted, being the first of us to turn his attention away from the game to stand.

When he offered me a hand, I took it, grateful to get away from the ‘entertainment’. If I never played that game again, it would be too soon. He dropped my hand once I’d stood and I began rubbing it with my cast covered one. It felt strange, I noted. Where our hands had touched, the skin was warm.

I dismissed that in favor of joining Honey as he declared that we should head to dinner. Both Honey and Satoshi began chatting excitedly as we started down the hall, and I couldn’t help but realize that Satoshi and Mori seemed to be complete opposites. If what I’d seen earlier was any indication, it was easy to guess that Chika and Honey were probably the same.

My eyes instantly located the dining table the moment that the door leading into the room was slid open. There were already four other people sitting at the table and I was easily able to guess who belonged to which side of the family from looking at them. My guess was proved right a second later as the introductions began. The first to notice we’d come in was a slender blonde woman with dark blue eyes.

“You must be Nao-chan,” she greeted with a bright smile. “It’s so nice to finally meet you!”

Again with the finally meeting me. What exactly had Honey been talking about me for?

“I am,” I replied, painting a pleasant smile on to hide my confusion. “You must be… Honey’s mother?”

Her smile grew even brighter as she nodded and stepped away from the table. I was about to offer her a bow when instead the woman pulled me into a hug.

“That would be me!” she declared as she released the hug a second later and put her hands on my shoulders, stepping back as if to study me. Throughout the entire exchange I was simply frozen in place. “Haninozuka Kiku, you can just call me Kiku-san. Too many Haninozuka around here, right, Nao-chan?”

It seemed I’d discovered the source of Honey’s ability to jump to first names at will. I was the only Morioka present, so my last name would have been fine. Despite this thought running through my mind, I found a real smile tugging its way onto my lips.

“Yes, Kiku-san,” I replied.

Kiku grinned, releasing my shoulders and pulling me towards the table with her.

“Well, then it’s time you just meet the others, isn’t it? This grouchy looking man here is my husband, Mitsukuni and Yasuchika’s father, Yorihisa. You can just call him… Hisa-san, alright?”

I gave the man she’d indicated a quick study. He was rather short, like Honey, and had the same dirty-blonde hair with brown eyes. His facial features were mostly hidden by a small gray-spotted beard and mustache. Unsurprisingly, Yorihisa looked disgruntled at the idea of someone my age who had just met him calling him by what was obviously a nickname. Sheepishly, I met his greeting nod with a smile, unsure of what quite to say following Kiku’s announcement.

“This similarly grouchy looking man sitting across the table is Morinozuka Akira, Takashi and Satoshi’s father. Akira-san will do just fine for him.”

This time a darker haired man was pointed out to me, although I could make out faint streaks of white pushing their way through the black. Like Yorihisa, Akira had a small mustache and beard set, which was streaked with white that stood out more than in his hair. The man’s dark eyes flickered over me curiously, then to Mori as if asking a question. I took a chance to look to Mori as well, simply to discover that his expression didn’t seem any different than usual.

“And I’ve heard that you already met my son Yasochika and Akira’s son Satoshi,” Kiku finished, gesturing towards the two boys. “This was going to just be a direct family dinner, but I’m glad that you’ve joined us! Now, Mitsukuni normally sits here,” she continued, gesturing towards a seat that seemed to be next to her own. “And Takashi sits over here, next to him, but I’ve decided to do something a little different that I’m sure you’ll like. I’m going to give you Takashi’s seat, and just scoot him down one. That sound alright, Nao-chan?”

Slightly confused, but grateful all the same, I nodded and received a bright smile in return.

“Good, good! Now let’s all get seated, shall we! The cooks said that everything was ready to serve!”

With her announcement, Kiku ushered me into my seat and then flitted over to take her own. Without a word, Mori pulled out his chair and sat down, as did Honey, although he wasn’t nearly as silent. He’d instantly begun chattering to his mother about everything that had gone on at the club today. His being distracted, however, gave me a moment to figure out  what had been bugging me after all of the introductions.

Where was Mori’s mother?

A/N: Would have continued further, but this seemed like a good spot to stop. Plus, I'm tired and needed to get this out, lol. Hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! It took way too long to figure out how to write all the family members. They get so little air-time in the manga. Meaning the father's appear once or twice and the mothers not at all. I hope you guys like how I've decided to portray them! Anyways, you know the drill! I love, love, love comments!