1: Legacy

10:00 – Just before the start of Calculus

"We can't be in the Host Club forever, you know," I commented, watching Hikaru take a sip of coffee (yes, the instant kind) from the flask I had kindly obliged to bring for him (upon request).

Kaoru frowned slightly and looked at me. "What do you mean?"

I sighed and turned to him. "Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai are graduating this term. Ouran doesn't have a university department. No matter where they go, they won't be in school anymore. We'll all have to graduate eventually! Haven't you guys been in any other club in junior high?"

They just stared at me pointedly.

"Oh, right."

x

15:03 – Host Club activity

"Tono!" the twins cried in unison, bursting into The Third Music Room that was decorated to look like a forest. I walked in slowly behind them, regretting for the 5347th time for telling them about the issue.

They had gone on and on for five hours in class, during lunch, then in class again.

"He's in the changing room," Kyouya-senpai didn't even look up from his little black book. He was wearing a strange straw skirt. The Hitachiin brothers stopped running around in circles and shot off tangent into the changing room.

I heard Tamaki-senpai scream.

x

"Oh my goodness, the daughter's right!" Tamaki-senpai walked out of the changing room regally with only a leather loincloth strung around his waist. (Don't ask me how he can be regal with only a loincloth.)

Then he pointed at me.

If that was what he was going to wear out, why did he even bother screaming in the first place…I thought, sighing inwardly.

"Haruhi!"

"Yes…?"

"We have to take action!"

"…Okay…"

"We have to build an empire for Ouran!"

I felt my eye twitch and repeated, "Build an empire for Ouran? What for?"

Tamaki-senpai guffawed, his hands on his hips. "Just imagine – we graduate into Ouran University, then we become bosses of Ouran Corporation! And we pass our retirement years in Ouran Hospice-!"

"So when we die our corpses will be undertaken by Ouran Undertakers, right?" Honey-senpai chirped all of a sudden from the table where he was eating a chocolate cake, spilling some crumbs on his skirt of leaves. I shuddered at how ominously cute he was as Mori-senpai requested him to eat carefully.

"Ahaha," the blond waved the comment away, "that can be done! As long as we are around, the Host Club will NEVER close down!"

"That's great!" chorused the twins, clapping. They had already changed into matching leopard print loincloths. (What kind of setting it was, I wasn't too sure.)

"No, it's not," I put a hand on my forehead in slight exasperation. "Don't you guys understand? It's not a fairytale world out there. Each of you have your own responsibilities, you have to take care of your family businesses, succeed your predecessors-"

"Our daughter has seen too much of the world, Okaa-san," Tamaki-senpai suddenly glided to Kyouya-senpai's side, his eyes watering. Kyouya-senpai looked up at him.

"She's right, you know."

Tamaki-senpai seemed to fall into a chasm of oblivion and disappeared to a corner of the music room, silently drawing circles on the floor.

Just then the door clicked open. Even though I had not changed yet, we quickly gathered into formation and announced, "Welcome!"

"Ah! It's an Aborigine theme today!"

"Kyouya-kun, you look ravishing!"

"Thank you."

"Oh, Honey-senpai, we brought you a cake!"

"WAI! Really!"

"Haruhi-kun, let's sit over there… Why aren't you changed?"

"I… just arrived too…"

"Ooooh please change!"

"Ehehe, not today…"

Sighing inwardly, I muttered under my breath, "These rich people."

x

17:16 – After all the guests have gone

"Back to the issue at hand," Tamaki-senpai gathered all of us around his settee. "We have to devise a plan to ensure that the spirit of the Host Clubs surges on throughout the generations!"

"We can merge the Host Club with the Haninozuka Family that has been around for MANY generations! Right, Takashi?"

"…Mm."

"Why not we just register it as a permanent club – one that will never close down - with the relevant association?"

"Which association does that?"

"I don't know…"

I looked at Kyouya-senpai to be the voice of reason, because he was the only one (besides me, of course…) who hadn't spoken. Kyouya-senpai pushed his spectacles further up his nose bridge and spoke.

"We could just do what the other clubs do, actually."

"What?" the rest chorused.

"Get successors."

Tamaki-senpai looked highly violated. "But Kyouya, we are a unique club! This is our brainchild! It BELONGS to us!" he threw his hands up in the air and tilted his chin skywards.

I decided to speak up. "I agree with Kyouya-senpai, actually."

"NO!" Tamaki-senpai crumpled down onto the floor, his head in his hands. "Don't do this to me, Haruhi!"

Suddenly, a rumble shook the floor and we heard the sound of a high-power motor. Not long after, Renge spiraled up on her platform.

"Ohohohoho! It appears that the Host Club has met a crisis! Let me, the manageress, solve it for you all!"

"Ehe, thank you, Renge. But I believe we can solve it on our own…"

"Nonsense!" screeched the caramel-haired otaku. "I am a part of this club as well!"

"Yes, we need all the help we can get!" Tamaki-senpai held out a hand to her. "Be our ally, Renge-kun!"

Renge smiled at him craftily. "Actually, I'm more for the idea that you graduate like how you should and let the club get successors."

"WHAT!" everyone on the 'other side' shrieked.

She cackled and put her hands on her hips.

"I know where this is going…" I whispered to myself, making a silent groan.

"THE HOST CLUB IS LACKING IN CHARACTER! With all of you out of the school, I can finally put in new members with the right kind of characters that girls like! Ohohohoho!"

"Renge-kun's graduating along with us, aren't you?" Kyouya-senpai coolly stated. I saw Renge's eyebrow twitch and she spun around to face Kyouya-senpai.

"That's not important!" she huffed. "Now, all of you listen to me!"

"Takashi, I want to eat more cake!"

"Hmm, I wonder what's for dinner later…"

"I have to get home to prepare dinner!"

"Haruhi's making dinner!"

Renge screamed. "FINE! DON'T LISTEN TO ME! I SHALL LET ALL OF YOU SOLVE YOUR OWN STUPID PROBLEM! HMPH!"

With that ending note, she disappeared down into wherever she stores the high-power motor.

x

"We still haven't come to a conclusion," I sighed.

"Why do we have to let other people take over our club…" sulked Tamaki-senpai.

"Okay guys, listen. Just be more open to the idea! It may not be too bad. We can have a Hall of Fame and ten years down the road when we visit Ouran again they'd probably have a Host Foundation set up already!" Kaoru grinned.

Tamaki-senpai just stared. "Traitor..."

"But Tono, I'm just being truthful!"

"…Traitor."

"Hmm… You're right! We can even train people how to be hosts! Workshops and all that stuff," Hikaru warmed to the idea, ignoring Tamaki-senpai's crestfallen expression.

"Oh! And whenever we visit we can eat cakes!" Honey-senpai cheered. Mori-senpai nodded agreeably.

"Recruitment will also be an interesting experience," Kyouya-senpai smiled. He probably had something up his sleeve.

I walked over to Tamaki-senpai, who was drawing circles in his corner.

"Tamaki-senpai?"

He looked at me with his puppy dog eyes, and I knelt on the floor beside him.

"Don't be silly, Tamaki-senpai," I tried to moderate my tone. "Nothing is yours forever."

He looked at the floor before looking at me with his puppy dog eyes again.

"It won't work this time, Tamaki-senpai," I affirmed more gently. "It's something we can't avoid. Even if you manage to make everyone change their minds about not recruiting new people, it wouldn't change the fact that you have to graduate."

Tamaki-senpai looked at me forlornly and for a moment there our visions locked.

You poor thing…Just like a child.

"Come on, Tamaki-senpai," I got to my feet. "Just get yourself together."

"Will it really be all right if we let other people take over…?" Tamaki-senpai bit his lip in apprehension.

"Tamaki-senpai," I assured him patiently, "Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai are graduating this semester, but you and Kyouya-senpai aren't. When you do, there'll still be the twins and me. And after we graduate, there'll be those people we've trained with our own hands! Not all of us will graduate at the same time."

Tamaki-senpai brightened up. "Oh yes, that's right! We won't all be graduating at the same time! That's great! Haruhi you're SO smart!" Tamaki-senpai picked me up and held me tightly.

"Ehehe, yes, yes…" I muttered, not able to believe that he hadn't realized it all this while.

The twins moaned, "Stupid Tono…"

"Tama-chan didn't realize it at all, right Takashi?"

"Don't think so."

Kyouya-senpai could only sigh at the president.

"Right!" Tamaki-senpai let go of me and pointed to nothing in general. "Let's make ourselves a legacy!"