TITLE: Your Highness!
SUMMARY: When a stranger knocks at the door of the Fujioka household, it leads to trouble for everyone, including every member of the Host Club being asked by their parents to make Haruhi their betrothed!?
STORY PAIRINGS: Haruhi+Tamaki, Honey+Mori

PLEASE NOTE: This story is rated M. According to the FF site, that means it has to be appropriate for ages 16+ WITHOUT explicit content, which includes adult language, themes, and suggestions. This story meets those requirements.

CHAPTER 11
Masterless

Thirty minutes later they had all been forced onto a plane ride home. Kaoru was being consoled by his brother. But the words he was saying to him clearly

didn't seem to be helping. Haruhi and Tamaki were in silence, it still felt unreal. That didn't just happen. It couldn't have happened...

Kyoya was on the phone speaking the country's native language to whoever was on the other end.

Mori.

He was a few seats ahead of everyone. Holding Usa-chan and staring out the window. He gave no sign of remorse or sadness. Even though Haruhi knew he was probably hurting deep down, it still felt strange to see him so stoic after losing the one person who was likely his entire world.

Several minutes into the flight Kyoya sat down with Tamaki and Haruhi returning his phone back to his pocket looking slightly defeated.

"Who were you calling?" Tamaki asked halfheartedly.

"Every connection I could think of. This isn't as cut and dry as one would hope. Legally, morally, he has no need or reason to stay, it's just honor that he's doing this for. In the end, we can't make Honey-senpai leave if he doesn't want to…"

"He wants to!" Kaoru snapped loudly glaring in their direction. "Honey-senpai would come home with us if-"

Mori had gotten up and walked over to Kaoru at this point placing a hand on his head. Kaoru stopped talking looking down at his feet, shaking from the tears in his eyes.

"Mitskuni knows what he's doing. This was his decision. Respect it," he said the words without emotion, but the sense that Kaoru had just been scolded by Mori was felt in every corner of the plane.

He sat back down beside his brother looking miserable.

"Mori-senpai... Your family's rules of honor. Is there anything we can do to make Honey come back home to us?" Haruhi asked in an almost pleading tone.

"The Haninozuka family is known for their sense of duty and keeping promises. He could have returned with us, but that meant tarnishing the ideals that are the very foundation that his family stands for. I'm not happy about his decision. But I agree with it. In his shoes, I would have done the same thing."

"Yeah," Tamaki laughed half heartedly and the next sentence he spoke was somewhat uncharacteristically cold for Tamaki, "But we all know Honey-senpai would have stopped you."

"...probably," Mori answered sitting down with them.

"Even more so than his being forced to stay here," Haruhi said frowning. "His uncle is there. The man who hurt him so badly before... Is Honey-senpai even going to be safe if he stays?"

"..." The silence that met those words was defining.

The sentence that Hasaru had said to her in their first meeting seemed to be echoing in her mind, "This is a nice little weapon you've just acquired Princess. I hope you know how to use him properly."

Or even Beignet's words just a short time ago, "You'll be the loveliest weapon in my arsenal."

Exactly what did they have planned for Honey? Why did they even want him?

"All your weapons remove them and put them on the table," Hasaru demanded of Honey after the Princess had instructed him to follow his uncle. Hasaru opened the door letting Keishin and her highness in first before Honey followed. It appeared to be a random spare room they had entered, but it was lavishly furnished like all the other rooms in the castle. Her highness sat down and a servant that had been waiting in the corner brought her tea.

"I'm waiting," Hasaru glared down at him.

"All of them?" Honey asked innocently.

"Yes all of them," he snapped clearly annoyed.

Honey started removing all the weapnos on his person one by one. Her highness looked more and more surprised as the pile got bigger. Eyeing it over her teacup apprehensively. It accumulated to some climbing gear, a good number of Shuriken, a dueling stick that could be pulled out to grow longer, a few smoke bombs, and most surprisingly of all, a small handgun was placed on top.

Even Hasaru looked surprised at this and eyed Honey.

He picked up the weapon, personally he didn't mind guns as a weapon but he knew Haninozuka's family was very much against them. Few things in their family was more dishonorably than using a gun in a fight.

"Oh, I see it's a flare gun. In case you get lost," he pointed out figuring that was the only possible explanation. He aimed it out the open window and fired.

BANG! It was not a flare gun. A bullet shot out of the end. He was taken aback by it. The safety hadn't even been on. He opened up the bullet chamber, and found that was the only bullet in the whole gun. "Why would you have this?"

"I didn't like the idea of dying by poison," Honey stated simply. "Too much can go wrong."

And instantly Hasaru understood. All fighters in Honey's family carried a small vial of poison. Meant to be the worst-case scenario escape plan in the event that they fall into a situation in which there was no escape. That bullet had been meant for Honey himself.

"I see..." he answered softly putting the gun back down on the pile. "Is that everything?"

"Yup."

"Finally," Keishin sighed clearly sounding annoyed. "Alright Hoeny let's talk. We want you here to train an army for us, it's ne-"

"No."

"I'm sorry?"

"I'm not here to train anyone. I'm here to protect her highness so that's what I'll do."

"But I want you to train them as well Honey," she injected smiling in an overly sweet way at him.

"…" He eyed her a moment, and then added. "I suppose I'll have to then. How many soldiers are we talking about?"

"A few hundred, but we'll have you have you train them in smaller groups of 40 and we would like them all trained using your families' forbidden technique," Keishin explained.

"That I won't do," Honey answered immediately.

"But Honey, I want-" the Princess began, and he interrupted her.

"I won't!" his word was firm, finalizing. Admittedly somewhat rude considering who he was talking to.

"Honey," she stood up walking over to him. "This is an order, from your Princess."

"I don't care."

Her eyes widened in surprise.

"Your highness, you will do well to remember that while I am now in service to you I am not a weapon or your slave. A fighter servers their Master out of respect and admiration. I protect, that's what it means to be in service to someone. Anything extra I do, it purely at my own discretion. That technique is forbidden for a reason," he turned to Hasaru glaring one of his uncharacteristically dangerous looks at him. "It's the technique that killed your Mother, my Grandmother. I was the last person she taught it to before her passing, out of respect to her I promised to only use it in the most desperate of times."

"Alright, then teach it to me, and I'll train the soldiers in it," Hasaru demanded.

"No."

The idea that Honey was refusing their wishes so adamantly appeared to upset Keishin. They clearly hadn't expected it at all figuring that he would be honor bound to obey them.

"Is their nothing we can do to change your mind," Keishin asked.

"Their is nothing," Honey answered.

Honestly what were they supposed to do, none of them were really in a position to threaten him. Hasaru was probably the only person who even stood a chance at fighting him and even if he did beat Honey in a fight, then Honey wouldn't be in any position to do what they were asking of him.

They couldn't just threaten to hurt him with pain, that only worked on weak minded people who feared pain and Honey didn't seem the type.

"C'mon now. Your ability is so unique. Truly the ultimate technique for war. A soldier that can go into a state of mind where they don't feel fear or pain. They don't get tired or hungry. They can fight for days on end as long as their limbs are still in tact," Keishin explained. "Imagine a whole army of these soldiers. It would be a force completely unrivaled by any other army in the world."

"You think that's a good thing," Honey frowned. "Soldiers running off their fighting and training instincts alone, men and women unable to recognize friend from foe. People fighting until their bodies physically give out on them. They would be basically be a one time use army, none of the soldiers would likely be able to fight again assuming by some miracle they survived. How does that idea not terrify you?"

"It might terrify me," Keishin admitted frowning. "If they were someone else's army."

Honey's frown deepened.

"I'll train your soldiers if that's what you really want," he turned back to the Princess. "But I will not teach anyone that technique."

"Maybe that's a fine compromise," the Princess said eyeing Keishin somewhat meekly.

"…" he shrugged.

"So if I'm training these soldiers, who exactly will be protecting the Princess?"

"We have other soldiers for that," Keishin answered dully. "I doubt she'll be in any danger, the people who were going after Haruhi will likely have learned their lesson."

"Yeah, sure they have…" Honey turned to his uncle. "When should I begin training them?"

"Actually, we can start today. I can have them assembled in an hour."

"In the meantime," the Princess turned to a servant standing off to the side. "Please show Honey to his room."

Honey followed the servant wordlessly and when the door closed Keishin got to his feet. "The whole point of having the brat stay here was to get an unstoppable army using the technique you told us about Hasaru! I don't see the point of any of this if we're not getting that! The brat isn't as much of a pushover as I had thought he would be…"

"Calm down love," Beignet said softly. "I'm sure we can find a way to convince him."

"Look, if nothing else, if he could just show us the technique. I'm sure I could mimic it and then I'll train the army," Hasaru grinned.

"We already tried having you train our army, you sucked at it, and they learned nothing. Honey already has a known track record for being a good teacher. It has to be him… But I do want to see this technique in action. See if it's as good as you claim Hasaru."

"How do we get him to show it to us?" Beignet asked.

"It simple," he grinned. "Selfless fools like him are easy to manipulate when the safety of someone they care for is on the line. Who does Honey care about most?"

"That servant of his has followed Honey around like a puppy since they were kids," Hasaru sat across from the Princess accepting some tea that was handed to him by another servant.

"Exactly how are we supposed to capture Mori, he's damn near as skilled as Honey is and he would just be a pain to capture."

"We don't have to actually capture him, just let it slip that something unfortunate might happen to him if Honey doesn't show us the technique."

"Really, you think Honey would honestly be worried about Mori's safety when he knows damn well how skilled he is?" Keishin picked up the gun examining it. "Then again, a gun can kill a soldier regardless of skill…"

"Let's have him start training our men. I'll come up with something and have that technique's secrets before you know it," Hasaru promised.

"We'll leave it to you then, my Princess and I have wedding plans to make," Keishin threw the gun back down and walked over to her highness extending his hand. "Come along Princess."

"I'll never tire of hearing that," he reached up taking and the two of them headed out.

Honey was sent to his room, which was small and no where near up to the standards of rooms he would normally be given. But the state of the room didn't bother him as much as Hasaru was probably thinking it would.

He had far more to think about.

Train their men. He had figured they wanted him for something like that. It didn't make sense to have him remain here to protect the Princess when she had someone like Hasaru around. And they would have known it would create some hostilities between her and Haruhi. Regardless of her not having a royal status, they were technically sisters. And knowing the high standing that her friends had… It didn't make sense to try and make an enemy of her and the host club. So they could really only be after his skills as a fighter and want that passed on to an army.

But…

He never thought they would know about his Grandmother's forbidden technique and he thought Hasaru, despite what he thought of their family, would have had more respect for his Mother than to share one of her most well-kept fighting secrets.

She hadn't taught her sons the technique and probably wouldn't have even taught him if she hadn't not wanted the technique to die out.

"I hope you never have to use it."

Those were the words she said to him after he had Mastered it completely.

And while he stressed to the Princess that he wasn't her weapon or her slave that wasn't exactly true. If he just constantly went around refusing her orders, that would be dishonorable and tarnish the entire Master servant position that his family established.

For example, Mori himself could have refused orders from him at any time, but to do so would have shown him in a bad light among his family.

He would not teach anyone that technique no matter how many times she ordered it but he couldn't go around deny her commands for him left and right. He pulled out his phone. Countless missed calls and texts from his friends. Not one from Mori…

So… He was going to obey his last command to him to the end. He smiled. He'd be lying if he said their wasn't a small part of him that wished Mori would have tried to save him from this, Mori wasn't his servant anymore after all and so he had no obligation to obey his commands.

There was no point dwelling over what was already done. This was his life now. He would have to accept that.

He put his phone in a drawer beside his bed making a mental not to not talk to anyone from the Host club for a while. It would only make this harder.

His bedroom door opened. "C'mon Mi-chan I'll show you to your first group of soldiers that you're to train."

He left with him, wondering what the best and brightest of Kishon's forces would be like.

"He's still not picking up," Kaoru said frowning at his phone while they were waiting for cars to arrive at the airport and take them home. "Mori-senpai why don't you give him a call. He'll probably answer a call from you."

"No."

"But Mori-senpai," Hikaru interjected looking annoyed. "We've all tried to call him many times, you haven't tried once. You're the closest to him, he'll probably answer if you call."

"No."

"MORI-SENPAI! Why are you acting like this! You're pathetic!" Kaoru snapped. He was on the verge of tears again. "Ugh this bullshit, the one of us who is supposed to care about him the most doesn't even give a shit! But he's not your Master anymore so this isn't your problem! I see how it is, why don't you go enjoy your new Masterless life while we all try to figure out a way to actually help—"

CRACK!

Mori's fist had collided with the pillar at the right of Kaoru's head. It happened faster than any of them could see, and Kaoru's eyes were widened in shock.

"HEY!" Hikaru started to run forward only Kaoru put a hand on his shoulder to hold him back.

"You know nothing," Mori responded dully. Pulling his hand back it was covered in scratches and blood. Mori looked down at his hand, his face showing no sign that he was in pain. "I received one last order from my Master, and I will fulfill it, to my dying breath."

"…"

"Mori-senpai… I… I'm sorry…"

Haruhi grabbed a handkerchief from her pocket and grabbed his wrist, "Here you can wrap your hand in this…"

Mori pulled it away, "I'm fine."

One of their cars pulled up.

"This is your car Haruhi," Kyoya explained. "We'll discuss all of this in Music room 3 tomorrow. So do come."

"Yeah okay," she climbed in the back and to her surprise Mori climbed in the back with her and closed the door before any of the other Host Club members could question it.

"Ugh, Mori-senpai, you live in the opposite direction of me."

"I just want to see you get home okay."

"That still? I'm not a Princess anymore, so theirs no reason for this."

"Regardless…" he leaned back looking down at his injured hand.

"That looks like it really hurts," Haruhi frowned. Are you sure you don't want to use my handkerchief?"

"No."

"…"

"Mori-senpai…"

"You don't need to make small talk," he explained. "Let's just get you home safe."

Despite more attempts, to console him, Mori-senpai ignored her. He was hurting far more than he was letting on.

"Here they are," Hasaru opened a door to a courtyard were a group people were gathered. They were all wearing matching rags of varying degrees of shabbiness. They appeared to all be children varying in age and size, but still clearly children.

"What is this?" Honey asked looking genuinely worried.

"Children, most were sent to work in mines, but these were chosen to be trained by you."

Honey's eyes widened, looking genuinely shocked. "They're children…"

Hasaru laughed, "Duh, I just said that."

"Why are they here?"

"Families who can't pay their taxes, were able to forgo their debts by offering one of their children to be in service to his majesty."

"They're slaves…" Honey frowned.

"I prefer to look at them as children accepting their only chances for some kind of future," he explained. "Good luck."

Hasaru left closing the door and Honey frowned clenching his fists. He wasn't training soldiers like he thought. These were just scared children with nowhere else to go…

"Are you new," asked a little girl who had walked up to him.

"Hold old her you?"

"Seven…" she answered frowning. "Were you taken from your parents too?"

"No," he answered. "I'm… I'm here to train you all. What's you're name?"

"Kana," she answered. "You're really going to be our training."

"I know I don't look it, but I'm actually really strong!"

"Oh… I'm not strong at all. I'm no good at fighting," she suddenly looked like she was on the verge of tears. "And I'm scared of everything… I don't… I don't know what I'm going to do here. Besides I'm just a girl… Girls can't fight."

"That's not true," Honey explained.

"Yes it is," she sniffed.

"It's not," Honey put a hand on her head. "I've had two Teacher's in my life, both of whom were women."

"You were trained by women?"

"Uh-huh,"

"You must not be very good then; we're going to die the moment they send us into battle… I knew it…" she turned, walking away, looking genuinely defeated.

At that point many of the other children had come over to figure out what he was there for, and the story was pretty much the same. Scared children, none of whom seemed to have a desire to fight or learn the art.

This was going to be harder than Honey thought...

Clearly I really really suck at updating. XD Well I've been re-watching and re-reading Ouran lately so I felt inspired to get back into this.