Work Text:
Haruhi had always thought as a kid that she’d be mostly solitary in life, just a few friends that she saw infrequently. She had friends at school, a small social circle, but they weren’t the kind to be invited to parties or weekend hangouts. The most they all did together was go to the park, or do homework at someone’s house. It was nice, enough for her.
When she passed the Ouran entrance exam it was exciting and exhilarating, but also nerve-wracking knowing she would be starting a brand new school with nobody she knew. She’d tried to help Arai sign up for the exam, too, but he’d chickened out at the last minute, for some reason.
All she wanted to do at Ouran Academy was keep her head down, make some friendly acquaintances at most, and just graduate; maybe make valedictorian if she was lucky. She never expected to be popular, or have a large group of friends, go on vacations with them… but then the Host Club happened, and her life was basically turned upside down, something she thought she’d have to be dragged kicking and screaming to; (she’d done a little kicking and screaming, actually) but to her own surprise, she actually liked the chaos. She liked the host club, maybe even loved them like a family unit. Maybe.
She definitely loved Tamaki the most. Even enough to say it to him, to say ‘yes’, to say ‘I do’ at the altar and wipe a single tear from her cheek while the man in front of her bawled and sobbed and blew his nose loudly into a handkerchief that the best man shoved into his face.
Of course, the others still stayed close too. Groomsmen at each others’ weddings, Haruhi as a bridesmaid, she hung out with them and their spouses all the time, way more social than she ever thought she’d be, while still able to be the best lawyer at her firm, keeping a good balance of work and social obligations, and very happy in wedded and familial bliss.
Haruhi and Kyoya’s offices are near each other, so for their lunch breaks they meet up at a coffee shop that sits perfectly in the middle of their buildings, ten minutes each way. Kyoya drives a sleek black Lexus, and Haruhi walks, leaving her car at the office, half because she enjoys the short walk, and half because Kyoya makes fun of her cute Mini Cooper at any opportunity. They sit on the outdoor patio with two takeout paper cups and sandwiches, a little round wooden table with a small circular fake candle; a plastic flame with an LED inside; because Kyoya’s disgusting smoking habit prevents him from entering businesses, like he’s a vampire. His silver wedding ring glints in the sunlight as his hand wraps around his cup, not unlike Haruhi’s own golden band. His entire outfit is black and white, and with his pale skin, black hair, and grey eyes, he looks like he’s monochrome.
He smoothly pulls a cigarette from his breast pocket and coolly flips the cap of his lighter off, leaning forward to light the tip when Haruhi stops him with a wave of her hand.
"Uh, can you do that later? I just... I'm not a fan of the smell."
She laughs awkwardly, and Kyoya raises one eyebrow. He flicks the lighter closed and takes the cigarette from his lips, setting it back in his pocket with no argument or questioning, but Haruhi knows better than to think he’s accepted her reasoning at face value, because he’s Kyoya. He looks at her from the corner of his sharp, thin eyes like a cunning snake in cat eye eyeliner.
To be fair that’s how he looks at everyone, but Haruhi can tell by the glimmer in his steel grey eyes that he’s already figured her out. There’s no such thing as a secret when he’s around.
The fake candle on the table suddenly flickers on.
Honey invites her shopping after work with a large wall of text in all caps and with a barrage of emojis related to the invite; bags, makeup, toys, boba tea and dango. That let her know that they were definitely going to the nearby shopping mall, where there were always popup carts selling sweets and boba.
He’d dragged her around a makeup store first; picking up white foundation and black eyeliner and lipstick for Reiko and her corpse paint look; while Haruhi picked out a cheap pair of plain black rounded earrings for herself, then they took a break and sat at a table on the top floor, overlooking the balcony and the rest of the visible mall while they sipped at their boba and swapped flavoured balls of dango, and then they stopped by a toy store.
She stops, looking down at a variety of fruits and vegetables with little happy embroidered faces and pink blushes. The strawberry was cute, but that wasn’t the one her eyes had landed on. It was an avocado, with a happy face right below the brown stalk on top, and two long arms encircling the pit on its belly, which had a smaller face with a smile and closed eyes. Almost like a mother and sleeping baby. She reached out for it slowly.
“Haru?” Honey calls, turning around with a plush rabbit in his arms that was about half a foot taller than he was, and Haruhi jumps and wrenches her arm back. He seems delighted to have startled her, and then drags the rabbit back down the aisle with him, squeezing through the tight shelves. He looks like a little kid who’d won the grand prize at the local fair at the bottle shooting stand, and Haruhi had seen him do that first hand just the year prior as a grown man.
“Whatcha found?” He asks, tilting his head, and Haruhi flusters, reaching up and grabbing the red strawberry instead, knocking over a family of hugging grapes in the process, of which she quickly scoops them up and throws them back onto the wrong shelf, then grimacing and trying to correct her mistake so a worker wouldn’t have to fix it later.
“Strawberry.” She blurts out, stumbling off to the counter with her fruity friend (another to the long list of fruity friends she already had), and Honey watches her go, turning his head back to the shelf. A plush tumbles down from the shelf above onto his head, and he catches it. A yellow light bulb, with arms and legs. He smiles, tossing it back onto the shelf.
With his free hand he picks up the avocado and takes the gift and the oversized rabbit up to the register, hiding it away behind the large lagomorph. He manages to casually sneak it into her shopping bag while she’s occupied trying to jump into his oversized truck; he’s on the way to driving her back home when Mei sends her a text inviting her to her boutique, and Haruhi wonders how many more of her friends she’ll see in one day. Honey drops her off outside the boutique, where the woman is waving at her through the window, platinum blonde hair with red streaks, tanned skin, thick eyelashes, pink eyeshadow and lipstick, and long blue square nails. Gyaru style wasn’t Haruhi’s preference, but she knew what a beautiful woman looked like.
Hikaru and Kaoru are at Mei’s boutique with her, which Haruhi was only minorly surprised about. The three were good friends, but the twins did have a habit of simply running off on vacation whenever they wanted with no warning, returning weeks later to throw souvenirs at everyone.
Kaoru was in the industry, joining his mother and friend, but Hikaru had chosen their father’s gaming company instead, alongside Renge, so it wasn’t necessary for him to be there. He was anyway, it was never a surprise.
Mei was the one who’d invited Haruhi over to do some freelance modelling, but the twins had taken over instead while the blonde was busy gathering everything from her back storage, shelves stuffed with rolls of fabric and more than a few loose pins and needles on the floor from times she’d opened up her sewing kit upside down.
Hikaru had wrapped her up with the measuring tape like a mummy, while Kaoru was at least pretending to do his job, getting measurements that never really changed at all, same height, hat size, foot size.
“Hey, you’re gaining weight! Must be all that fancy tuna.” Kaoru wrapped the tape around her waist, noting that the number had gone up by a couple of inches.
“Milord really does like feeding you.” Hikaru chimed in, flicking the dangling sushi roll earring on her right ear.
Both twins gave each other an odd, knowing look as they continued to measure her up for an outfit that she realised she didn’t even have any knowledge about yet, she wasn’t even sure if it was a dress or pants, but she sure knew whatever it was wouldn’t fit in a few months.
“Hey, wait a minute-”
“Are you-”
Haruhi turns her head away for just a second, and the oversized light used for photoshoots clicks on, blinding the brothers and causing them to both fall to the floor, covering their faces, howling, and rolling around in pain. Mei peeks out from around it, looking sheepish, and Haruhi can only laugh, untangling herself from the measuring tapes they’d tied her up in and making a break for the door before they can recover.
She’s on the way home when Mori intercepts her with a simple text, a sushi emoji. Most of his texts were emojis instead of words, but the caveman-esque communication wasn’t hard to understand, and if he ever had anything important to say (though it was by his own measure of importance) he’d break out the words. It was usually just a single sentence. She liked that about Mori, he was like an anthropomorphism of a library. Solid, intelligent, and silent.
“How’s work?” He asks, barely sitting down before he starts stabbing his chopsticks through the middle of a roll and bringing it to his mouth. They were seated by the conveyor belt of an all you can eat sushi place, picking whatever they wanted from the moving track or ordering from a menu.
“Good. Yours?”
“Good.”
They both nod, feeling peace in the quiet around them. She’d heard before that outsiders see it as an awkward silence, but she likes it. Mori likes to listen, not to interject with his own conversation. He’s mentioned before that the group of friends is like a podcast to him.
Haruhi manages four plates of food while Mori slowly goes through his second, but he doesn’t judge or raise an eyebrow. They’re both big foodies, she just happens to eat faster than he does.
“Missed lunch?” He asks, and she shakes her head.
“Nah, I went out with Kyoya for my lunch break, and I ate dessert with Honey after work.”
“Oh. But you’re still hungry?”
Haruhi pauses.
“It was just snacking.” She blurts out quickly, but she knows he knows. A light at the end of the conveyor belt flashes, signifying nothing in particular.
Tamaki returns home from work at the academy at the usual time, completely missing all the cars parked along their long drive, and enters their house to a completely decorated living room and everyone standing around wearing party hats. The twins each pop their confetti poppers over his head as he enters, one hand still on the entrance lightswitch as he flicks it up and down a few times, but can’t get it to turn on.
“You guys remembered my birthday!” He grins, then pauses. “Wait, it’s not my birthday. You guys forgot my birthday!” He points an accusing finger at the group. Kyoya gives him the middle finger, Mori blows his little party horn, and Haruhi steps forward, handing him a thin white folder.
He flips open the folder, holding a photo in his hands with his mouth agape and his eyes wide as he looks down at the sonogram and then up at his wife, who’s kind of awkward and embarrassed in how she stands, tapping her foot and finding interesting patterns in the ceiling as she waits for him to come to his senses.
“We’re having a baby?” He squeaks, and the entrance light finally flickers on.
“Finally, he figures it out.” Kaoru comes up to his right side.
“We thought you’d never get it.” Hikaru comes up to his left.
“I-I just came home!” Tamaki balks, holding the photo to his chest like it’s a precious treasure. “I couldn’t have possibly figured it out faster!” He argues as he’s accosted by the two coming up and pouncing on him, dragging him down to the floor.
“Tamaki’s a daddy, Tamaki’s a daddy!” Both of them chant like it’s a teasing insult, and they’re all laughing and wrestling on the floor.
Honey pulls on a rope and activates a trapdoor letting loose a bunch of balloons and paper confetti, and the smart device on the bookshelf starts playing music without anyone asking it to. Haruhi looks up, baffled, wondering how the hell the trapdoor had appeared so quickly, but Mori crouches down next to her and blows his party horn directly in her ear before she can ask. Kyoya kindly ruffles her hair to get all the confetti out of it.
“I love you, Tamaki.”
She smiles up at him as they sit on the couch together, watching the rest of the club dance and sing and drink; head on his shoulder and her big brown eyes sparkling, and his face blooms bright red immediately.
“I love you too, Haruhi.” He squeaks again, overwhelmed by all the emotions.
She never expected something like this as a kid, a group of close friends who understood her and cared for her so deeply, an extension to her small family, but she wouldn’t have it any other way. She did kind of dread the amount of spoiling their baby would have with their five silly uncles, but she could live with it, and them.