A/N: Nao's dress is to the side. Along with a random AMV.

Perhaps my uncle had some sort of obsession with dolls when he was younger.

"The neckline is too low in that one, try on the next!"

I never would have thought I'd end up trying on dresses for him for two hours straight. The fact that my uncle had some sort of fashion ideal in his head surprised me. Although, I guess it didn't surprise me as much as the fact that he had the patience to stand there as I put on dress after dress.

"You look twenty sizes bigger. Next."

Or maybe he was just enjoying making fun of me. That was another highly probable possibility.

As I walked down the hall from my bedroom to show off yet another dress, I could feel my annoyance building to a boiling point. Once I'd informed Uncle about the party being put on by the host club, he'd instantly called out his favorite designers to our house, demanding they bring along a large selection of dresses with them. From what I could tell from the material and the styles, each dress probably cost more than a commoner's house.

"Why couldn't you have inherited something beyond your athletic ability from your mother," I heard him mutter as I turned in a circle to demonstrate the dress. "That woman was a beauty. How did you end up so plain?"

By this point I was imagining having my kendo sword with me so that I could strike him with it. How many times did he plan on insulting me within a short time span?

"Perhaps we should dye your hair."

Feeling something snap, I gripped the fabric of my dress tightly in my hands and glared at him.

"I am not your doll," I muttered, then raised my voice a bit louder. "I am not dying my hair."

Uncle Harou froze, then his expression became cold.

"You will do whatever I say," he said, his tone leaving no room for argument. "If I tell you to dye your hair, you will. Luckily for you, that was just a passing whim. It wouldn't be as simple as that to make you look prettier. You're too short and lack needed things, such as curves. You should feel lucky that I decided to take you in as you are."

I stiffened, once again reminded of the fact that Uncle was indeed taking care of me. The only reason he was standing here for hours on end, and contemplating dying my hair, was because he needed, no, wanted, me to play the perfect daughter. As someone being completely provided for in every way, it was only right of me to do as he wished.

"I'm sorry," I replied, my voice quiet and even. Any anger I'd been feeling had drained away into a numb feeling.

What was I thinking? There was no better word to describe me than to call me a doll.

I wear clothing chosen for me, a smile painted on by a need to please others, and move as I'm told.

The perfect daughter.

The perfect doll.

"I spoke out-of-place. Of course I will do as you wish, Otou-san."

"I would expect nothing less," he replied instantly. There was still a coldness in his voice and expression. "Turn around once again."

I did as I was told and a thoughtful expression appeared on his face. With a sigh, Uncle nodded to himself and gave a snap of his fingers.

"That will do. I expect you to make an effort to look nice by putting on make-up and perfume, and doing something with your hair for the Christmas party," Uncle said.

"I will."

"Good, now go get changed while I settle the matter of the dress with the designers."

________________________________

Later that week found me standing at the entrance to the party, my entire body stiff as I stared around at all the people. I was expected to socialize with so many people? Would they even recognize me?

I pulled up a mental image of what I'd seen in the mirror before I'd left home earlier. My chestnut hair was pulled up into a half bun, the free hair cascading just past the base of my neck in its natural curls. My lips and eyes stood out more than usual as a result of the lightly placed black mascara and slightly bright, but basically natural colored lipstick. The dress I wore was a color that laid somewhere between peach and orange, and only hand one strap, which crossed over my left shoulder. It also had a ribbon of the same color that was tied in a bow around my waist and the dress itself fell just a few inches past my knees.

For once I looked almost nice, although before I'd left my uncle had continued to complain about how he'd wished I'd inherited my mother's looks.

As people passed by on both sides of me, I found myself questioning once again why I'd agreed to this party in the first place, although I already knew the answer. Between Honey's innocent question and my uncle's stubbornness, I would never have had a choice other than this. Still, why was someone like me, standing in the middle of something like this?

Quickly moving towards the wall, I made my way around the room, while making an effort not to be noticed by anyone. Perhaps I'd be able to find an empty room off of this one, a room where I could hide out for the rest of the time.

Just as I was about to reach the stairs, however, I felt a hand descend on each of my shoulders.

"Nao-senpai came?"

The synchronized voices caused a shudder to run through me.

Apparently I wasn't that good at sneaking around a crowded room.

I turned around, shrugging off the hands. Not at all to my surprise, the owners of those hands turned out to be the Hitachiin twins.

"It's Kaoru and Hikaru, right?" I asked, putting on my best friendly smile.

Since they were friends with the two boys I'd been ordered to become friends with, it would probably be best if I didn't make enemies of them, but instead attempted to at least be on friend-like terms with them as well.

"Which of us is which?" they asked together, each of them holding a smirk.

I almost scowled, but easy changed the expression to one of puzzlement before it surfaced.

"I'm sorry, but I don't really know you well enough yet to be able to tell."

The two exchanged looks, then shrugged.

"I'm Kaoru."

"I'm Hikaru."

"I see..." I responded, taking note of which they said was which.

Hopefully they weren't lying.

"Was there something you two wanted?"

The two of them seemed to consider the question, then looked at each other. A moment later, they nodded, seeming to have recalled whatever it was they approached me for.

"Honey mentioned you earlier," Hikaru said.

"He was wondering when you were going to arrive," Kaoru added.

"He's over there," the two of them finished together, pointing across the room.

I glanced in the direction, easily guessing that the crowd of girls was were the little senpai was located.

"Oh."

We stood there for a moment, staring at each other.

"Aren't you going to go over there?"

I hesitated, then gave them the closest thing I could imagine to a sheepish look at that moment.

"I wouldn't want to interrupt."

One of them looked like he was going to say something, but at that moment he was called out to by one of the host club fangirls. I felt relief flood through as they were forced to go entertain their guests instead of making a comment on my words. At the same time, however, my eyes flickered back to the crowd of girls that pinpointed Honey's position.

I guess I was here tonight to see him and Mori. My Uncle would be upset if I didn't at least have one conversation with them while I was here.

I had just started in Honey's direction when Mori cut through the fangirls. Honey said something to them at the same time, and the group reluctantly dispersed. Seeing this, I hesitated.

However the second I stopped walking, my eyes met Mori's. His expression didn't change, but he said one word, catching Honey's attention. Immediately looking to Mori, he followed Mori's line of sight to me.

"Nao-chan!" Honey called out, waving his hand back and forth excitedly.

Amusement flickered through me, and to my surprise, I found myself offering him a genuinely friendly smile. His actions were just too similar to those in my memories of my little brother. My hesitation gone, I crossed the small distance between us.

"Honey, Mori," I greeted them.

"You have a pretty dress," Honey replied, cheerily. "You look a lot better in that color than in yellow!"

I laughed, quickly pulling together a good response in my mind.

"Of course, yellow has never been my color. Also, you look very nice in your suit."

He still looks like an elementary student, even when dressed up like this, I thought to myself. It was cute, the kind of cute one felt when looking at a small animal or child. Perhaps all of this was why I found him so easy to deal with. Honey, if he were the age he acted, would be around the same age as my little brother had been.

"Mitsukuni," Mori said suddenly.

Honey glanced at him, then realization crossed his expression.

"Oh!" he began, looking back to me with an apologetic smile. "We have to go do something, we'll be back real soon."

He started to turn away, but then paused for a moment, and looked back to me. A happy grin appeared on his face, and he began bouncing on his heels excitedly.

"Nao-chan, you could just come with us," he declared. "You already know the secret so everyone should be fine with it!"

Surprise shot through me.

"You keep inviting me to things," I said before I could help myself. "Why? You don't even know me that well."

He simply gave me an even bigger grin.

"'cause Nao-chan's in my class," he said simply. "But you never talk to anyone, or do anything but what people want you to. It's fun to see Nao-chan actually talk!"

And with that, he grabbed a hold of Mori's hand and darted through the crowd. I hesitated just for a moment before quickly, but carefully, following after them. A moment later they seemed to have found what they were looking for.

"Haru-chan!"

Honey came to a stop just long enough for Mori to sling Haruhi over his shoulder, then took off again. Not quite sure of what else to do, I once again followed after them, curiosity filling me. Why were they kidnapping the cross-dresser?

"Here she comes," one of the twins said as Haruhi was dumped into a room a bit down the hall from the main room.

"Wah? Hey," Haruhi complained. "What are you..."

"Okay, okay, no complaints," the other twin commanded while shoving a pile of clothing at her. "Just go change your clothes! We don't have much time!"

"Huh?"

All I could do was watch as Haruhi was forced into a changing area to put on the clothing she'd been given.

"Morioka-senpai?" Kyoya asked, causing the others to realize I was there as well.

"What are you doing here?" the twins demanded.

"I brought her~" Honey declared with that grin of his. "Nao-chan looked bored!"

They all gave Honey a blank look. He just shrugged and turned back to the curtain that was hiding Haruhi.

"Haru-chan~ Are your ready yet~?"

Seeming to decide to pay attention to the problem at hand, and put the matter of me off for later, Kyoya turned to face her as she exited from behind the curtain. I was surprised to discover that Haruhi in a dress was actually a cute sight.

"Ready?" Kyoya asked, giving a smile. "The time limit is twenty minutes until the climax of the party. We already seen Suzushima-san to classroom 11-C."

Haruhi was instantly shoved into a chair before she had the chance to say a word, and attacked with make-up and hair brushes. They even stuck a wig on her. Once they were finally pleased with their work, I edged my way around so that I could join the group looking at the results.

"She doesn't look bad," I murmured under my breath.

"Of course she doesn't," the twins chorused proudly.

"Our mother is a fashion designer," one of them added.

As we spoke, Honey stepped closer to Haruhi to pull her to her feet. He gave her one of his happy smiles as he gave her instructions on whatever it was they were wanting her to do in this get-up.

"Guys, you shouldn't come to this room all together!" Tamaki complained as he suddenly burst into the room. "You need to attend to the guests-"

He broke off as he caught sight of the twins creation.

"Our best try! How is it, Tono?" One of the twins asked.

"We even put makeup on her!" the other added.

"Ahh...yeah..." Tamai replied, looking starstruck.

"Haru-chan's cute!" Honey declared. He then turned to me with an expectant look. "Right, Nao-chan?"

I hesitated, then gave him a nod.

"Yes."

"Alright! Haru-chan, try your best!"

And with that, everyone began filing towards the door. Well, everyone except for Tamaki. He simply stood there with a red face, looking the opposite direction of Haruhi while covering his mouth with his hand.

Looking between him and the others, a thought occurred to me that I decided to ask Honey and Mori about when I got the chance. It came soon enough, after they'd seen Haruhi off to do her job, the rest of the host club members, excluding Tamaki, hurried back to their duties at the party. I carefully made sure that I caught up with Mori and Honey before they got surrounded by fan-girls.

"Does Souh-san like Fujioka-san?" I asked them.

Honey's eyes got wide at my question, and a second later he simply gave me that childish grin of his.

"I wonder."

Then, without offering any other answers, he grabbed my hand and gave me an even larger grin.

"Nao-chan, Nao-chan, you know how to dance, right?"

Startled, I only nodded. Of course I knew how to dance, I'd competed for years.

"Good!" Honey declared happily. "Then we can dance after the event! You haven't danced yet, right? Here, come on!"

Without being given a choice in the matter, I found myself being lead over to a window with Mori tailing us.

"Look, Nao-chan!" Honey said happily as he pointed down at a Christmas tree in the courtyard below. "Watch this, it's what Haru-chan was making happen, since Tama-chan wanted to help!"

Curious, I watched, just as I'd been instructed. A moment later a girl came rushing by, a boy right behind her. The boy caught her by the hand, and something was said that made the girl look as if she was going to cry, but in a happy way.

Afterwards, just as he had said he would, Honey pulled me into dancing with him during the last waltz. It worked out rather well because of our similarities in height. I actually began to enjoy myself as I ran through the entirely too familiar motions. Half-way through the song, however, Honey asked me to stay where I was, a grin dominating his face. Darting across to where Mori was, he tapped Mori on the back, causing the couple to stop moving. I then saw his lips moving as he animatedly told Mori something. Whatever it was, it caused Mori to glance over at me, then back to Honey and give a nod, no emotion in his expression.

The girl he'd been dancing with happily released his hands and took up Honey's instead. What surprised me the most about it, though, was that as soon as that was done, Mori crossed the distance to where Honey had left me.

"Mitsukuni said to dance," he said, the words simple, but enough.

I nodded, and took up hands with him. Unlike with Honey, however, it was a bit different. Mori was at least a foot, maybe two feet, taller than I was. As such, I had to lean my head back so that I could see his face, and the movements ended up slightly awkward as I tried to adjust to the difference in the way I stood with him in comparison to Honey. I'd never really branched out in dance partners, mostly because I mainly performed in solo competitions.

"You're small."

Startled, I realized that Mori had actually spoke to me without having to be given a reason. I said the only thing that came to mind.

"You're tall."

A/N: I'm going to end the chapter here, because it feels like a good spot.! I'm trying to decide between taking a bit longer than usual so that I can come up with an original plotline to use to use, then skip to the resort, or whether or not I want to just do Renge's chapter next, and do an original plotline after it. Comment with your opinion!

Also, I decided to have some fun! Comment with Japanese boy names you like, and I'll pick one out for Nao's brother! I'll also give the person who mentioned the name a dedication with the next chapter. Edit: Name has been picked out!

Anyways, you know the rest of the drill. Vote, follow, comment, etc. Bye for now!