September 24

"Princess!" A wad of fabric was shoved into my arms the moment I stepped foot in the host club. "Put this on." I pulled away from it to see that Tamaki was holding up a medieval style dress and a pair of flats in both hands.

"Why?" I asked, very confused as Tamaki pushed me toward the changing rooms at the back.

"Because!" He responded, eagerly handing the dress to me. "Today's theme is medieval, and you're part of the host club, so you get to dress up with us. Plus, he's about to show up, and you need to look the part." Still confused, especially after his last statement, I walked into one of the changing rooms and put the dress on. It was a beautiful blue color, and probably the nicest, softest dress I've ever put on. I stepped out of the changing room and switched out my shoes just in time to see Tamaki step out of the stall next to me, newly dressed in a fancy getup of his own. He gasped, squeezing my cheeks and gathering me in a hug.

"Kaiyo-chan, you look so cute!" Fighting my way out of his grip (gently, to spare his feelings) to avoid getting a rib broken, I turned toward the mirror on my right. To my surprise, we actually did look quite good.

"We look great, Tamaki-senpai. You picked really good costumes," I commented. He flipped his blonde hair, letting it billow in a light breeze that was coming from absolutely nowhere.

"Of course we look great, but it's not because of me. Kyouya picked out and ordered all of our costumes individually, and he always takes into account our best features when doing so." Tamaki offered me his arm playfully, and I took it, laughing as we walked back out to the main room.

"Wait." What Tamaki said had just registered in my head. "Kyouya-senpai hand picked all of our costumes? I only joined the team yesterday. There's no way these costumes got shipped overnight." Or maybe they did. I never knew with rich people. They could have a delivery jet for all I know.

"He ordered them sometime last week or the week before, maybe," Tamaki said with a wave of his hand, the time of the order clearly important to him. Before I could respond, his eyes lit up again.

"Oh! Congratulations on officially joining the team! We'll have to celebrate after all the guests leave." Before I could respond, the front doors opened in front of us and Kyouya-senpai walked in. He had his phone in his hand, and he was reading over something before looking up from the screen. The second his eyes flitted upward, Tamaki-senpai dropped my arm and cleared his throat.

"Kyouya!" He said, in an overexcited way that was too much, even for him. "Go put your costume on!" Tamaki rushed away and came back in a split-second with his outfit. From the blurry glance that I caught as Tamaki pushed him to the changing rooms, there was a blue shirt and black pants (I think). The blue color looked familiar, but I couldn't dwell on it, because the twins suddenly came bursting into the music room dragging Haruhi, Mori-senpai, and Honey-senpai with them. The latter two were already dressed in their matching outfits, looking like charming jesters.

"Go change!" The two third-years and Haruhi were hauled off to the changing room by Tamaki, who seemed to be working with the twins to assault everyone into their costumes. Hikaru and Kaoru then made their way over to me.

"Kaiyoka! You look great!" Said Hikaru, walking around me in a circle. "Except..." He trailed off, looking over at Kaoru, who nodded.

"I agree." He said. I didn't even have time to ask what they agreed upon before Kaoru reached behind me and pulled my hair out of its ponytail. He and Hikaru critiqued me for a second, matching looks on their faces that I was sure they got from their mother. They both nodded again, and then Kaoru tied half of my hair up in an elegant bun, leaving the rest of my hair to hang loose.

"There," He said, seemingly satisfied. I was almost too overwhelmed with everything happening to thank the two of them, but I managed to before the rest of the club came out of the changing rooms, looking like a medieval court party. As I looked over each costume, I got stuck on Kyouya's. It looked very good on him, but it was no wonder I thought his blue shirt looked familiar- it's the same color as my dress.

"Places! We're about to open!" Tamaki yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts. I took a seat at my table as the hosts all stood by the door in their various poses.

"Welcome to the Host Club!"

*

"I'd like to make an announcement!" I started cracking up, because Tamaki didn't even have to alter how loud he was speaking to get people's attention; he was already yelling.

"This marks the first day that the host club books are now available for sale!" Tamaki yelled happily. Every female in the room, aside from Haruhi and I, began screeching. "There are only 150 copies in this week, so get yours early today!" The room turned into an open brawl as more girls than ever flocked around Tamaki, waving money around desperately. His lavender eyes lit up at all the guests, shining excitedly. I wondered why Kyouya wasn't doing that, since he handles all the budgeting of the club, but it all made sense when I heard,

"Miss Sahni." From beside me. I turned around quickly to see Kyouya sitting in the chair across from me with his hands folded in his lap. "Congratulations." He smiled at me, in that same half-smirk way he always does.

"Thank you," I said, still watching the girls and Tamaki out of the corner of my eye. "I really wouldn't have gotten this opportunity without your offer, so thank you." He nodded, flipping his black book open and idly tapping his pen on a page.

"If I may, I'd urge you to start another, longer book right away. Maybe two, if you're the type of person who writes more than one work at a time. The girls will get an eyeful of this story, but we'll only be able to provide them with what you write. Do you understand?" He asked. I nodded.

"Of course. I've already started another one and I have other ideas down. The day I gave you my manuscript, I started writing the next book. And this one's about your rather eccentric best friend, so your sister's in for a treat with proofreading this one." I laughed at the look on his face- a mixture of horror and resigned defeat.

"Very well," He said with a slight sigh. "I'll leave you to it." He stood up, straightening the lapel on his purple blazer as he did so. He took a step back toward his destination, but stopped and turned back to me.

"And by the way, nice costume." He said. I raised an eyebrow, smiling.

"As far as I'm aware, you picked them out. Self-flattery doesn't look good on anyone, Senpai." He looked surprised at my comment, but he defaulted back to that signature smirk.

"An interesting take, in its own way. I meant you look nice," He re-worded as he turned away. Without waiting to hear my response, he walked away, aiming toward Tamaki. I felt my face begin to warm, and I pushed my glasses up, letting my hand linger in front of my face in an attempt to hide an oncoming blush.

*

"Congratulations, Kaiyo-chan!" Honey-senpai cheered, handing me a piece of marble cake. I don't know how on earth he managed to get hold of a marble cake, because I had only informed him that it was my favorite kind 45 minutes prior.

Then again, it was Honey-senpai.

"Yeah." Mori-senpai chipped in his two cents for speaking, placing a hand on my shoulder and smiling down at me. I felt a sense of pride wash over me.. I thanked them both while Honey-senpai handed me another piece of cake.

"It's pretty cool that you wrote a book, Kaiyo-chan." Hikaru and Kaoru commented. "We didn't think you'd actually do it." I rolled my eyes; the twins always had to poke fun at someone. It was never serious with them.

"Thanks, guys," I said sarcastically. "Glad to know you two are on my side." They both laughed, pulling me into light hugs.

"You did it, Kaiyo! You wrote your first book!" A new voice joined the fray. As she saw the look I gave her, Haruhi corrected herself. "Well, you published your first book." I smiled, giving her a hug.

"Yeah, I did. I'm really proud of myself, actually," I admitted.

"As you should be," Kyouya-senpai said coolly. He walked over and handed me a printed copy of my book, with a hardcover back and illustrated sleeve and everything. Even my name was engraved on the spine. "You've done well." I took the book from him gently, unable to believe that I was holding it. It hadn't occurred to me that it would be printed until right then.

"Thank you, Senpai!" I exclaimed, opening it up and leafing through the pages. "This is amazing." I glanced in awe over the words I'd written in print-book form. I began to wonder if this is how real authors felt, but I guessed I was one of them now.

"I'm glad you like it," He said, smiling at me. He gave me a true, genuine smile, which was almost a better present than my book. The first time I met all of the other members of the host club, I got a real smile from them. It's taken me this long to get a real one from Kyouya-senpai, and I could barely believe it.

"I'm so proud of my daughter! You did amazing, Princess!" Tamaki-senpai said, approaching me with his own cake from Honey-senpai. I couldn't help but laugh as a thought popped suddenly into my head. I couldn't recall either Kyouya-senpai or Tamaki-senpai ever calling me by my actual name. Not even my nickname; it had only been 'Princess' or 'Miss Sahni'. And it was funny- usually, people didn't stray from the standard Kaiyoka or Kaiyo, but I didn't seem to mind as much with these two. They were really growing on me. All of them.

"Welcome to the family, Princess." I couldn't help but laugh softly as Tamaki-senpai threw an arm around me and smiled in my direction. I really did feel like I was part of a family.