Chapter Text
I knew this day was coming, but seeing it all play out in front of my eyes still has me frozen in disbelief. No matter how hard she tried to keep the situation hidden from me, I already knew that Haruhi now had an 8 million yen debt. She could try to excuse staying late after school as extra studying in the library all she wanted, but shooing me home instead of inviting me along made it obvious. We were both scholarship students after all, both of us needed good grades to keep attending Ouran Academy.
But how did it get to the point where I had to watch my precious younger sister work as the host club’s dog? Haruhi must have lost her mind if she thinks I’d leave her to suffer this alone, even if I knew things would get better eventually. I already promised Dad I’d look after her, we both know how oblivious she can be sometimes. It’s no wonder she got stuck as an errand boy. No matter how much she’d try to argue that it was her own responsibility I can’t just stand aside without helping. That’s how I ended up witnessing a bunch of rich kids freaking out over normal instant coffee as if it were forbidden fruit.
"I'll go back and get something else. Excuse me for not buying you guys expensive coffee,” Haruhi sighed in sarcastic apology. Oh dear, she’s already exasperated by them and things are just getting started. You’d think the naive ignorance of Ouran’s elite students was overly exaggerated in the anime and manga, but you’d be sadly mistaken. Though I don’t believe a vast majority of them mean it maliciously, they really make it seem as if anyone in a lower tax bracket than them must be living in poverty.
"No, I'll keep it." Tamaki’s resolute statement makes the crowd of girls and fellow hosts gasp in shock, "I'm going to give it a try!" Their reactions make it seem as if ingesting something like ‘commoner’s coffee’ was a serious undertaking. "I will drink this coffee!" he exclaimed. What a brave man, taking one for the team and bravely venturing into such dangerous territory as instant coffee. Go ahead and clap all you want folks, this is surely a momentous occasion.
If I rolled my eyes any harder I’m sure they’d pop right out of my skull. While everyone was distracted by Tamaki’s theatrics, I silently snuck beside Haruhi. Though we may not be identical like the Hitachiin brothers, Haruhi and I were still fraternal twins. Due to the lack of funds for two overpriced Ouran Academy uniforms, we weren’t dressed the exact same, but our equally androgynous figures, shaggy brown hair and ugly matching glasses made it hard to tell who was who at first glance. The biggest and pretty much only noticeable difference were our eyes. Though Haruhi’s were soft and doe-eyed, I took more after our father’s sharp eyes. I’d been pretty content letting Haruhi have most of the spotlight throughout our lives, calmly observing from the sidelines. Maybe that was why I was so surprised when Tamaki turned and addressed me directly, "Alright Haruhi, get over here and make me some of this commoners' coffee."
“Um… Senpai, I’m not Haruhi.” I got out in a confused daze. Pointing slightly to my right, “Haruhi is right here.”
The frozen shock on the faces of everyone nearby was kind of hilarious, I almost wish I had a camera. Tamaki himself seems to have turned into stone. Oops, couldn’t have our male lead petrified forever. “Sorry for the late introduction, Senpai, I’ve been heading straight home after school until recently. My name is Fuyuki Fujioka, nice to meet you,” I greeted with a slight bow. Whether it’s actually nice to meet him is up for debate, I can almost hear Haruhi’s inner monologue of ‘damn rich people’.
‘Wh-wha- How-?!” My polite greeting seems to have helped shake off Tamaki’s petrifying shock, as he gracefully extends his own after only a second of confused stuttering. “I didn’t realize our dear piglet was hiding a brother! And one nearly identical as well. How am I just hearing about this now?” His questioning gaze slides over to the Hitachiin twins’ still frozen forms, dramatically pointing at them in accusation. “How the hell could you keep something so shocking from me?! Haruhi is in your class!”
“W-we didn’t know, boss, we swear!” The twins exclaim in unison, hands held defensively, “Haruhi may be in our class, but we’ve never really paid much attention to him before he became the host club’s dog, and even then we didn’t notice the other scholarship student was his brother!”
“ Other scholarship student? I didn’t even realize there was more than one!”
“How surprising, I always thought it was just one! I guess them having the same last name and appearance it was hard to notice two of them.”
The barely hidden whispering from the crowd of girls surrounding us was a little disheartening. I knew I kept a bit in Haruhi’s shadow this whole time, especially keeping away from her forcible ‘employment’ at the host club until now, but not even noticing there were two scholarship students at Ouran? And even in the same class as another pair of twins? Ouch. It should be impossible for an entire student population to be so dense.
“Um, yeah, I’ve been here the whole time. I’m in the same class as Haruhi, I’m surprised no one has noticed. The chairman made an exception for the two of us when we both aced the scholarship exam, even though we’re only fraternal twins he felt it would be unfair to give an offer to one of us and not the other,” I explained with a slight deadpan expression and an arched brow. Like seriously, you’d think with their twin complex at least the Hitachiins would realize the importance of twins -even fraternal- being recognized as two separate people.
“Yeah, guys, I thought you two already knew Fuyuki, considering we’re all in the same class. How could a pair of identical twins not notice there were two of us?” Haruhi’s blunt statement seems to have hit things on the head, as Hikaru and Kaoru both looked away with slightly guilty expressions.
Uh oh, the mood seems to have unintentionally drifted into an awkward direction. Time to step in, “Well, don’t let me interrupt anything, Senpai,” I addressed Tamaki directly now. “I just wanted to check in on Haruhi and maybe have a chat with Kyouya-senpai, if that’s okay with you? I know Haruhi would probably try to keep doing everything on her own, but I’d like to help work off her debt.”
“Wait, Fuyu-”
“Shush, Haru-chan, the big kids are talking,” I silence her with a hand over her mouth. “There’s no point in trying to talk me out of this, I already let you ‘trick’ me into going home early so you could come to the host club after class.”
“What a wonderful brotherly bond!” The air around Tamaki seemed to sparkle as roses bloomed around his joyous expression. “How could I deny such a stunning display of commoners coming together to lend a helping hand? Go ahead and talk with Kyouya to sort out the details, new piglet,” as he shooed me off to the side he turned to Haruhi, “Alright then Haruhi, go ahead and make me some of this commoners' coffee.”
With the mood sufficiently back on track, I shuffled off to the side with Kyouya. His knowing smirk was a bit ominous, even with future knowledge. Of course he knew everything from the beginning, none of this was really a surprise to him. He must’ve really liked seeing the other hosts squirm, we were almost kindred spirits at that moment. Too bad he was a stingy, rich bastard holding an 8 million yen debt over my younger sister’s head.
“So, you wanted to speak with me?” Wow, his polite expression may fool everyone else, but I could tell he was super smug about this whole situation. Two unpaid workers for the host club for the ‘price’ of one? What a steal! “I heard you wanted to volunteer to help pay off Haruhi’s debt. I’m sure I can speak for all the hosts that we’d be glad to welcome a new worker.”
While Kyouya’s widening smile seemed like a bad omen, I could do nothing but accept his terms. Thank fuck we wouldn’t be stuck as just errand boys for much longer.