Paying in Naivete
Author: Phoenix Angel Suyari
Rating: PG-13
Genre: General
Pairing/Characters: Hikaru/Haruhi/Kaoru
Archive: Just ask.
Disclaimer: Ouran High School Host Club is the genius of Bisco Hatori. And it is my honor to play merrily along in her perfect little universe.
A/N: Major spoilers if you’ve not read the manga at all. Minor if you have.
Summary: Haruhi finally leaves the country.
Haruhi really didn’t know how she got herself into these situations.
“An Aston Martin is a car,” said Kaoru with a wide grin. He tugged her hand and Haruhi followed obediently, more afraid of getting lost than anything else.
“It’s over here,” Hikaru added helpfully, pointing across them.
Haruhi blinked. It wasn’t just a car. Sleek and shinning, it looked more like a creature waiting to pounce. She faltered just barely and Kaoru gave her hand a bit of a reassuring squeeze. Hikaru draped his arm about her shoulders; chest leaning into her back in a way that made it entirely easier to breathe.
“Nice, huh?” he said, and his breath warmed even as it sent the hair by her ear helter-skelter.
Haruhi nodded and the twins shared an impish grin above her head.
“Come on, we’ll take you for a ride.”
“You can sit on my lap.”
“Boys,” said their mother, turning toward them for the first time since they’d arrived. “Why don’t you give Haruhi-chan a moment to catch her breath?”
Haruhi felt relieved, even as they both pouted.
“Come on, we’ll show you your room then!”
Their mother turned back to the group she was with and gave a small smile.
---
She should have expected they’d find a way around it. Hikaru and Kaoru had been inviting her over to their various estates from the moment they’d met her. And their strengthening friendship only made them more anxious to drag her around to exotic and lavish places.
Haruhi was well aware her father was in on it this time. After all, there were certain requirements to acquiring a passport she was sure needed some kind of parental signature. On top of which, it wasn’t like her father to make last minute, completely random and out putting plans on a whim. Well, perhaps that wasn’t entirely true, however he’d always been concerned about her directly after.
The smile and wave and flowery envelope should have been her second clue. The Rolls-Royce that lazily rounded the corner and picked him up should have been an even bigger tip. But, Haruhi had always been the type to not ask when it really didn’t affect her immediately. And then, rarely when it affected her later.
So when Hikaru and Kaoru showed up at her door an hour later, practically pounding it down, she should have been more suspicious. But, having turned their invitation down twice already – as well as Hunny’s, Mori’s, Tamaki’s, not to mention Kyoya’s generous offer, complete with low interest rate – she figured they were just bored and opened the door to let them in.
By now, Haruhi should have learned that the boys of the Host club had likely never heard the words ‘no’, ‘never’ or ‘leave me alone’ before meeting her. Neither had they learnt what they meant, despite all the time they spent with her, and every utterance she gave.
“Surprise!” they crowed in tandem. And Haruhi quickly found herself blindfolded, hefted over a strong shoulder and carted off with great speed. Thankfully, they’d at least had the grace to close the door behind them.
---
They hadn’t bothered to remove the blindfold until the plane was safely off the ground. Once it was whisked off – quite dramatically – she’d blinked several times before their twin cheshire grins came into focus.
Haruhi rubbed at her eyes and gave a sniff. As she looked around, the private jet seemed to twinkle in greeting. She could only sigh. For there really was no escape when one was 50,000 miles directly up.
---
Haruhi felt she really should know something about Monaco. Unfortunately, she’d never much been interested in geography – and the boys talked so much about so many places, she’d be much dizzier on average if she paid them any mind at all.
So it was, she could only turn her head side to side and stare in abstract awe at the beauty of the first stamp in her newly acquired (and still mysteriously absent) passport. She found – much to her dismay – that being out of her own country made her extremely uncomfortable.
She’d barely stepped unto the ground before she was uncharacteristically clutching at Hikaru’s side. He looked down in surprise when he felt her arms tighten about his, shoulder to his back. Then he smiled warmly and freed his arm gently, wrapping it about her waist and drawing her close in a half embrace.
He didn’t mention her slight shiver, and thankfully neither did Kaoru. Though he did move over to her other side and stroke back her hair with a cheeky grin.
---
Surprisingly, they were accompanying their parents on the trip. Their mother had a fashion show later in the week and had – Haruhi would find out later – called her father and asked that Haruhi join them in the warm Mediterranean environment.
As a companion. As a friend. And as Haruhi would not find out, potentially more.
---
Her room was enormous. In fact, Haruhi had the distinct impression it was larger than her family’s entire apartment. Perhaps even larger than if combined with the apartment next door. It made her stomach uneasy and her nerves jittery.
She had her own bathroom, her own lounge. There was a balcony, complete with furniture and a small bar. Large, windows that stretched from floor to ceiling all along two of the four walls. There was even a domed skylight made entirely of stained glass and expensive crystal.
The bed alone was too big. Haruhi idly mused that all of her middle school friends could have slept comfortably in it without colliding if there were some sort of sleep over. The sheets were pristine and inexplicably soft. The pillows absorbed any touch like sponge.
Thin drapes hung from the wiry canopy several feet up. Haruhi didn’t know what they were for, but was pretty sure she wouldn’t be touching them. Or most of the things in her room. At all. Ever.
“Haruhi!” called Kaoru from the other side of the massive mahogany doors. He pounded on one twice. “Are you done?”
“What?” she called, feeling very distinctly out of place.
There was an echoing annoyed sigh. (Hikaru was likely with him.) “Change your clothes and come to the beach!”
Haruhi looked around her. “I don’t have anything,” she pointed out. After all, she’d been abducted. There’d been no time to pack.
The sigh returned, and this time it was Hikaru who spoke. “Check the closet,” he drawled, as if she were hopeless.
Turning around, she scanned the room. If it were smaller, perhaps she’d know where half of anything was. As it stood….
Hikaru gave a sort of half growl and pushed the door open. Kaoru followed him in and they crossed over to her. The younger came up behind her and wrapped his arms about her middle, hugging her close as the elder proceeded to the closet.
Haruhi found the damned internal twitching eased at his touch, and she sunk back into the firm support of Kaoru’s body as she would a wall back home when she was feeling particularly weary. Except Kaoru was warm. It was almost as if he radiated it. She sighed internally as his warmth seeped into her trembling bones, smoothing against them like experienced hands over sore muscle.
When something flew across her lagging vision – her eyes having lulled closed slowly – she started. Kaoru chuckled softly into her hair, chin safe from collision.
Hikaru grinned widely as her eyes widened at the bikini.
Then she sighed and leaned back into his twin. “I’m sure it’ll look lovely on you,” she said. Kaoru laughed outright, and Hikaru swung it closer.
He clucked his tongue and curled her hand about the hanger’s neck. “Rule number one. Haruhi, while we’re here, you are to dress like a girl.”
She sighed at the implication that the next three weeks or so would be one big game, but consigned to play anyway. Hikaru and Kaoru could get into a lot of trouble if you didn’t play along from the beginning when it was virtually harmless, and profoundly less hazardous to one’s health and/or reputation.
She nodded.
“Rule number two.”
“No complaining,” said Kaoru, and she looked up at him. “We’ve taken a lot of time planning this, and you’re going to co-operate. Okay?”
“Fine.” She looked between them when another rule wasn’t forthcoming. “Is that it? Two rules?”
“That’s fine for now,” they replied. When she raised a curious brow, they added, “Well, if you knew all the rules…”
“…It wouldn’t be as much fun.”
“Now would it?”
Haruhi gave a mental sigh and vaguely wondered if she still had time to call Hunny and tell him she’d love to run off to Germany with him. Could he please, please come get her right now?
---
It had been a long time since Haruhi was treated as her own sex for more than five hours at a time. She found she’d rather forgotten how pleasant it could be.
Everything in her closet was either a skirt or a dress. The twins had gotten her a hair stylist and a make up artist for her own private use, and they did good work, she had to admit.
Haruhi had never much cared about appearances. They had never made much sense to her. Even as her father tried his hardest to keep her as cute as possible. Long hair, curled lashes. Lip gloss and heeled shoes. She hadn’t really gotten the point until she’d been forced into a male role.
Now - much to her surprise - she found she rather enjoyed all the fuss.
People looked at her differently in the expensive clothing and professional attention to detail. As she strolled along the streets heads turned, people whispered. She didn’t speak the language, but the tone made her feel warm inside.
Proud almost.
Although, it could also just be the set of marvelous mirrored images on either side of her. Hikaru and Kaoru acted really differently in public. She felt very much like a princess. Blushing profusely when they caught on and started calling her hime-sama in soft whispers to her ear at the most scandalously inappropriate moments.
It didn’t occur to her right away that many people knew whom the Hitachiin brothers were. It wasn’t directly obvious to her that they looked rather like lovers. She wasn’t aware that people wondered; that they tried to work it out. Knowing no one had ever cracked the twins world of ‘us’ before her.
Hikaru and Kaoru paraded around as if they didn’t care. And Haruhi – who’d not only grown accustomed to their apparent need for constant contact as a form of reassurance, but now required it herself for stability in a strange new world – didn’t notice at all.
The twined limbs, the secret giggles…She was quite used to being constantly between them, and thus a walking piece of furniture. Arms thrown haphazardly – possessively - about her didn’t phase her one bit, and so she did not take their actions into account when wondering over the reactions of those around her. Unaware that she’d been absorbed into the ‘us’ and therefore no longer a form of disinterest and unimportant like the ‘them’.
---
Considering the atmosphere, Haruhi hadn’t expected it to turn so dark so quickly. And after Hikaru had broken some boy’s nose, and Kaoru had wrapped her in his shirt – she still wasn’t sure why, but then she still didn’t know the language – they’d left the beach and returned to the mansion.
Hikaru sulked and Kaoru was quiet. Haruhi, in an attempt to cheer them up offered to make them something to eat.
An hour later, she was apologizing most sincerely to the head chef and his kitchen staff for the flour that covered most every spot of the industrial kitchen. Bowing still as Kaoru – laughing hysterically – grabbed her wrist and dragged her out after him. Hikaru wiping at his eyes and clutching at his stomach, white as a ghost in all the flour.
Protesting their interruption, she failed to notice the warm smiles of the staff.
---
Later, clean, fed and very much entertained, the twins walked her back to her room, a feather light kiss to each temple sweetly before she closed the door and padded over to the overlarge bed. She considered it while changing into her pajamas and eventually decided to crawl into the middle and hope she didn’t simply disappear.
It was hard enough to feel comfortable. Her room was quiet and warm, the sheets welcoming and the pillows like clouds beneath her. But the room was too large, the darkness everywhere. Being a practical person, Haruhi couldn’t simply sleep with the lights on. So she threw the covers over her head and hummed to herself – a theme song from some show Tamaki loved and she’d never once seen, her mind supplied.
It seemed to be working. That was, until the first bright flash permeated the layers of fabric above her. A long, low rumble following behind.
Haruhi bit back a squeak and burrowed under the covers, head beneath mountains of pillows that almost drowned out the storm. Unfortunately, she was closer to the sea here than at home, and while she’d managed to muffle it, the storm began to rage outside.
It also seemed determined to last twice as long.
---
Hikaru gave a soft snort as Kaoru sat up to the tugging at his arm.
He rubbed at an eye sleepily and turned to face the intruder. “Haruhi?”
Hikaru pushed himself up at that, looking sideways.
Haruhi was standing by Kaoru’s side of the bed, clutching a pillow. Her bottom lip was trapped between her teeth, which he could just barely see behind the curled hand and edge of pillow she was hiding behind. It wasn’t until the flash that he noticed there were tears, Kaoru catching her in strong hands as she started.
“Oh,” they said.
Kaoru moved around, and drew her close, right into the bed. He settled her between them, and Hikaru could feel her trembling. Her skin was cold, as if she’d wandered the halls for hours and he shifted over to trap her side against his front.
Kaoru had fixed the sheets and was settling against her other side as the deep rumble accompanied a new flash, just outside their window. Haruhi whimpered and shoved her face into his neck. His twin smiled at him as he stroked her hair, urging her onto her side so he could rub her back.
Haruhi’s arms twined about his neck, and he pulled her close, sighing at the perfect fit. Kaoru lay back, spooning up behind her, and Hikaru looked up at the ceiling, catching the way the light danced above them.
Kaoru had told him once he’d invited her to their bed. Hikaru had chuckled then, and teasingly initiated a plan, never believing they’d ever manage it. But with her between them, he was surprised to find himself feeling complete in a new way.
He could see the feeling reflected in Kaoru’s eyes, as the younger whispered something to the back of her neck, following up with a kiss. Hikaru reached over, to twine their hands over Haruhi’s side. He could feel her calming, body relaxing between theirs.
---
The storm melted away in their embrace. Haruhi could hear it one minute, trembled at its threats, and the next…
She’d debated going. It wasn’t as if she were a child after all. Besides, she’d dealt with storms like this on her own for years. She was positive, given enough time and resources, she could overcome it. Hide, lying awake all night; rub at her eyes sleepily the next morning, smile and say she’d slept alright.
Hikaru and Kaoru would know she was lying, but they’d keep it to themselves and tease her later.
The stronger the storm became, the closer…she’d run out of songs. She’d run out of jokes, and stories, and memories. Until a single memory played over and over obsessively. Driving her up and out of bed into the storm’s echoing fury.
It had supported her through the long walk, and gave her the courage to open the door. To walk inside, over to the bed and shake Kaoru awake. Ready to force him to make good on his offer if need be.
She should have known she wouldn’t have to.
---
Haruhi fell asleep, safely entwined and comfortably smothered between Hikaru and Kaoru. Her whole body encased in security. Their bodies like a dual shield that withstood the storm and warmed her from the inside out at the same time.
She fell asleep to the feel of their chests rising and falling, the sound of the air making its way through, the smell of their skin and the brush of their hair, whispering against her as surely as the lips pressed to the back of her neck, warm secrets, tiny caresses that soothed her at the core.
She’d never felt safer in her entire life.
---
“And here we are at the Marina before the race.”
“ARGH!” cried Tamaki, stealing the photograph and rounding on them. “That’s enough! You abduct our daughter and take scandalous pictures! Mother! It’s time to discipline them most severely!”
Kyoya looked up from his ledger and made a noncommittal noise.
“Wow! Haru, you look so cute in this!” squealed Hunny, waving a picture of Haruhi in a bikini in the air.
Tamaki threw a fit and lunged at the nearest twin.
Haruhi sat in the vacancy left behind once they’d bolted from the couch and tried not to blush as Hunny picked out his favorite pictures of her. Mori leaning over his shoulder nodding appreciatively.