Chapter 26: I'm A Bigger Fan Than You Are!

Haruhi knew something was coming. It had been too calm today. To normal of a week. Something had to happen.

Naturally, nothing else in the world seemed to agree with her. All of her teachers had interesting lessons, and she had understood each and every topic with ease. Her classmates were oddly calm through the day, a few harmless jokes exchanged during lunch but that being about it. Her sister was in a great mood, currently dancing around the club room to the most recent batch of music her American friends had sent her, humming along as she pushed the first teapots around to each table. The others watched in amusement as she spun around before placing one down in front of Haruhi.

Spotting the less-than-thrilled look on her sister, Jin paused the MP3 in her pocket, "Haru? Are you okay?"

"Yeah." The shorter brunette settled deeper into her seat, "I'm just being pessimistic."

"Oh really? How so?"

She shrugged, "I'm guess I've gotten so used to things being crazy around here I'm not used to… calm."

"What is it with you jinxing these things?" Jin laughed and ruffled Haruhi's hair, "If it's bugging you that much, then maybe you could create a problem around here? I do think it's your turn."

"Don't even joke about that, Nēchan." She shrugged and planted a quick kiss to Haruhi's forehead, walking off and pressing the 'Play' button again. As her sister moved away, Haruhi watched her go.

I could create a problem, easily, if I told you about my entire dream.

It was true, Haruhi had told her sister about her weird Wonderland-esque dream. Mostly because of how her mother was in it and there were just some things that needed to be discussed between siblings. But she had left out a few things… like the many kisses Jin and Kyoya had shared, not to mention their apparent marital status. As far as Jin knew, Kyoya had remained as a caterpillar the whole time in the dream, and Jin herself hadn't shown up until the court scene.

Haruhi still wasn't quite sure what to make of it all. She had gotten the symbolism just fine on her own; Nēchan made Kyoya-senpai more human, and the two balanced each other very well, both complete opposites as well as equals. Still, pairing your sister with her classmate in your dreams? That was just… creepy.

What made it almost worse, however, was that not even a day before she'd had the dream Haruhi had been having what seemed like the 50th conversation with her own classmates about how 'Nēchan and Kyoya-senpai are just friends, why are we even still talking about this?' Only now she was having second thoughts and this whole thing was now a big mess.

However, the biggest problem in all of this was that Haruhi couldn't even talk to her sister about it. Can you imagine? Her number one confident with everything , no matter what , was unavailable regarding her impending existential crisis. All Haruhi could do for the past 24 hours was watch her sister, watch Kyoya, watch their reactions when they were together, and wonder.

It was a miracle she hadn't started screaming in the middle of lunch when she realized that Jin and Kyoya apparently didn't seem to care which lunch they were sticking their chopsticks in as they went over the club's financials. Kyoya even swatted Jin's utensils away with his own in order to grab the last of her strawberries, losing his final mackerel slice as a result. Haruhi had looked up and down the table to see if anyone else was seeing this most blatant act of flirting, but she appeared to be the only one.

With all of the realizations she was suddenly having, Haruhi felt like her brain might actually melt out of her head.

Thankfully, it had yet to come to that, but at the same time she'd go crazy if she had no one to talk with about whatever was going on between her sister and the Shadow King. She was also worried that the next time she saw Jin sitting atop of Kyoya's school desk she might actually shout at them to just kiss already.

"Haru! Haru!"

The brunette jumped in her seat, nearly falling out of it in the process, as her sister ran over to her. For one moment of pure panic, she was worried that somehow Jin knew what she had been thinking even without eye contact.

Thankfully Jin just ran up to her, holding her phone out in front of her with an extremely large smile on her face, "Haru! Haru! It's Nathan Fillion! Nathan Fillion is 'Captain Hammer'! I knew I recognized his voice!"

"What?"

Jin bounced on the balls of her feet, "From Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog! That's what I've been listening to all day and I just got it! Captain Hammer is played by Nathan Fillion!"

"Wait… are you serious?"

"Yes! Look, look look look!" She held her phone up, and on it was a google search for all the actors that had a part in Dr. Horrible, and sure enough Nathan Fillion's photograph was over the name 'Captain Hammer'."

"Oh… my… gosh! How did we miss that?"

"I don't know!"

"Ah… what are you two talking about?"

The girls faced the rest of the host club, who had gathered around with curious looks on their faces, "Nathan Fillion plays 'Captain Hammer' in this little play thing Nēchan's American friends sent her! We haven't watched it yet, but we have listened to the music, which is why it took so long for us to recognize him!"

The twins looked unimpressed, "Nathan Fillion?"

"Who's that?"

Jin gaped at the red heads, pressing a hand on her chest as if they'd personally offended her, "You don't know Nathan Fillion? "

"No, who is he?"

"He's a very talented actor in America. Nēchan's in love with one of the shows he was in. She likes to quote it all the time. I think she has a thing for Nathan Fillion, too."

Jin rolled her eyes, "It's not a thing ."

" Riiiiight. You've saved your thing for-"

"Haru!"

The girls laughed, unaware of the tense silence just behind them.

"Well, we should probably get back to work, huh?"

"I feel like you just stole my line, Nēchan. You are the one who decided to have a Fangirl attack." As the brunettes laughed and parted ways again, they still managed to not notice the slow curiosity and slight irritation taking over their friends faces.

"Boss? We've got another game we'd like to play."

Tamaki jumped up out of his seat, briskly walking away from the twins with his hands flailing around above his head, "No! No no no, no matter what it is I won't! Last time we played one of your games Jin was knocked unconscious! And I know what you want this game to be about! I say no! "

"But Boss!"

"We know you're just as curious as us!"

"No!"

"Oh? So you're not curious as to who Jin has a thing for?"

The blond gave pause, peeking over his shoulder, "I… no. W-well… why should I care about that? Why should any of us care?"

Hikaru turned his head towards Mori and Honey while Kaoru faced Kyoya, "Because, after all-"

"-she's never really been all over us, and we're the best looking guys at this school."

"So why not figure out-"

"-what makes her tick?"

Tamaki's lips pursed, "I'm sure you meant that in a perverted way."

"Our point still stands!"

"As does mine! I will not play any stupid game you come up with!"

"Ah, really? But this was just starting to get interesting!" The six whipped around to see Jin leaning up against a nearby pillar. She smiled at them all before walking over, "A game where you try to figure out what I fangirl over? That sounds fairly entertaining if you ask me."

"Really, Jin-chan?" Honey bounced over from his couch, "You want us to play it?"

"Sure. Why not? It would keep you out of Haru's hair for a while."

The twins tilt their heads, "It would?"

"It will when I set the rules. You boys have a bad habit of not setting boundaries so people won't get hurt. Rule one, you can't harass Haru for any answers. Anyone in violation of that rule loses. If you make three incorrect guesses you're out, too. If you haven't guessed them all within the next hour, you get one clue. Winner is whoever gets all of them correct before hosting hours are done."

The six boys contemplated the rules. Simple, easy to remember, and probably a cut back on cheating.

"What's the reward?"

Jin smiled, "The photographs Kyoya showed you all when we went to the beach. Whoever wins gets both sets of pictures."

A few jaws drop.

"What if no one wins?"

"Well then, since Haru and I already know the answers, I suppose that means we'll get the pictures."

Kyoya couldn't help but chuckle. Is this her way of reclaiming those photos? Interesting. "Very well, we accept these conditions. Now, how many answers must we collect?"

"Nine."

" Nine?! "

"Is there an echo in here? Yes, nine answers. Don't forget that you already have one, so at least you have somewhere to start. Good luck~"

* Time Skip *

It didn't take long for the guests to learn of the game. After all, when you sit down across from a handsome boy and he looks like he'd just been told he couldn't use his family's helicopter for the weekend, you tend to ask about what was wrong.

Thank goodness for them all, the clients thought it was funny how the boys wanted to know who Jin Fujioka found just as interesting as they did the hosts. And they were all fairly curious, too.

"So… you already have one answer, right?"

"That is correct. She is a big fan of Nathan Fillion, and apparently a television show he was a part of."

The dirty blonde tilted her head in a cute gesture, "Is that what you were looking at on your laptop when I was walking over? The shows he was in?"

Kyoya nodded, fake smile in place, "Exactly. And I believed I got a match. I just have to confirm it." Out of the corner of his eye, a flicker of shimmering brown hair caught his attention and he turned. "Ah, just who I- oh, hello Haruhi. Where are your guests?"

"They had to leave early for their volleyball practice today. I was just getting some tea for my next clients so Nēchan wouldn't have too."

"How thoughtful. On a similar note, do you think you can call your sister over here? There's something I'd like to discuss with her."

"Why don't you call her yourself? Aren't you two, like, besties now?"

Kyoya's eyebrows rose a millimeter at the short girl's mildly harsh tone, "Is that so? My my my, Haruhi, it almost sounds like you're jealous."

"Not jealous. More cautious, really. Anyways, she's already on her way over so I think I'll take my leave." And she was gone. Kyoya was a little shocked at how clipped Haruhi's words had been, but was quickly distracted by the very girl he wished to see suddenly swooping in.

"I heard my name. What kind of trouble are you getting into now?"

Kyoya's guest giggled, "Your brother was being very overprotective of you. It was cute."

"Overprotective, hm? Well, Kyoya has been borrowing a decent portion of my lunchtime with Haru. He probably thinks you're going to steal me from him."

The ravenet cleared his throat, trying to diverge from that particular topic and looked up with a smirk, "I looked up Nathan Fillion and the television shows he appeared in. There was one in particular I have a feeling is on your list."

"Do tell."

"Firefly."

The corner of Jin's lips twitched. She peered at him through her eyelashes as she gave his guest a slice of strawberry cake, "Now why would you say it was that one?"

"Because I happened to see a certain quote or two from the show I've heard you use before."

The brunette straightened up, shaking her head, "I knew I'd slipped up somewhere! Oh well, congrats, Kyoya. You're now one ahead of the others."

"Nope!"

The three of them were suddenly eight as the other hosts popped out of their various hiding places around them, all of them with various levels of pride on their faces.

"Thanks for that, Kyoya-senpai!"

"Now we're all even again."

"Two down, seven to go!"

Tamaki, Hikaru, Kaoru, Mori, and Honey took off back to their guests at the look on Kyoya's face. Jin's jaw was dropped and she quickly moved along with her cake cart, honestly surprised by how serious these boys were taking this competition. Kyoya attempted to not be annoyed, but he really wasn't surprised. Especially not with those particular photographs involved.

Jin might be mistaken thinking this will be harmless.

As the ravenet went back to entertaining his guest for the time being, the other black-haired boy and his blond counterpart were whispering to each other. Heads bent low, brows furrowed, the two looked equal parts confused and annoyed.

" Come on, Takashi! We know Jin-chan better than the others! We should be ahead of them! How did Kyo-chan get something before us?! "

" Mmm. "

" Wasn't there something she was a real big fan of when we were kids? "

" Books. "

" Oh yeah! Jin-chan loved to read during breaktime, remember! She was so cute curled up in the corner of the dojo! "

" Mitsukuni. Focus. "

" Right! But… books isn't going to help. She's probably lookin for a specific series or something. Wasn't there one series she really liked? She started reading them when we were in middle school. What was the name?"

" Can't remember."

Honey's mouth pinched as the poked at his forehead, " Come on… stupid brain… " Memories flickered through the two boy's heads like a fast forwarding movie. A much shorter Jin Fujioka smiling at the two of them whenever they asked her how the story was doing before she launched into a long-winded attempt to get them interested in the series themselves. The way she would either sit completely still when she read or she'd be flopping all over the window alcove trying to get comfortable. How she'd hold her breath if the character was underwater. That one series she got way too into when the three of them were in middle school with books that were almost too thick for her hands to hold.

And an oddly vivid memory they both recalled at the same time of a newly teenaged Jin chucking a green hardcover book away from her, tears slowly trickling down her face. Said book coming to a stop in front of the boy's feet -thankfully undamaged, as it was a library book- and them looking down at the title.

A flash of the book's cover appeared in Honey's mind, of a black-haired boy with glasses and a very old looking man with a long beard, everything tinted green except the letters that were risen from the rest of the cover so Jin could trace them while her eyes were closed.

Jumping up to his feet, Honey shouted the name at the top of his lungs.

"Harry Potter!"

The other sounds from around the room faltered to a stop. The blond looked around from his spot on the couch to see everyone staring at him. A strange bashfulness colored his cheeks as he slid off the furniture and walked over to Jin, who was attempting to reign in a smile.

"Harry Potter… that's my first guess."

"And why do you choose that?"

"'Cause Takashi and I remember how you used to read it all the time when we were younger. You read through the series twice all the way through before you even finished middle school."

The brunette smiled fully and presented a slice of lime-flavored cake with a frosting rose in the middle of it to her friend, "You'd be correct, Honey-senpai. Congratulations."

The blond smiled, but then he saw the smirks on the other boy's faces. They all had three answers now. But as he sat back down on his couch, cake in hand, and their next guests complimenting him on remembering something from all those years ago, he decided it would be okay.

After all. It was still anyone's game.

* Time Skip *

Jin was calmly sitting across from a small group of girls when the clocks struck 4 o'clock. She closed her eyes as she sipped her green tea, and when she opened them they were surrounded by the other hosts (save for Haruhi).

"Yes? Is there something I can help you with, boys?"

"Cute. Real cute, Jin-senpai."

"What's the hint?"

The brunette shrugged, set her cup down, then smiled around at her friends, "You're looking for five series and four people."

"...That's it?" Tamaki sounded nearly offended, so Jin rolled her eyes.

"Fine, if that's not enough for you, all the people are male and two of them are actors. The three series you haven't named are often grouped together by their viewers even though they've never made a crossover. Also, none of them are from Japan."

Kyoya propped open his black journal and made a few marks in the back of his book, "So… we still need to find two actors, one other male, and three series that are an unofficial group."

The girl nodded, "Correct. Now, begone so I can continue to entertain these lovely ladies." The boys did as they were asked, offering their apologies to Jin's guests before moving away. She smiled at them, "Sorry about that, where were we?"

"O-Oh. I had a question." Jin nodded her head and the short blonde blushed, "I… I remember Haruhi once said you could sing. Have you ever been in a group or a choir or in a musical?"

"Actually, yes. All three of those, incidentally. The musical and choir were both one time things, but I made a lot of music videos with my best friend. We specialized in making our own acapella renditions and small little blurbs of popular pop songs."

The four girls across from her looked like they might explode with excitement, "Can we hear some of those videos?"

"Of course! I have some on my phone-" Jin paused, her face freezing. She rummaged in her jacket's pockets a few times, expression slowly changing from concern to panic. "U-um, if you ladies could excuse me for a moment." The elder Fujioka quickly ran from her seat to her school bag, throwing the books inside onto the tile beside her, ripping open pockets. Haruhi ran over and stopped her just before she went to shake the bag upside down.

"Nēchan! What's wrong?"

"My phone, Haru! I can't find my phone!"

"Hey, Nēchan, calm down! We'll find it! Did you have it when you came into the club room?"

"Yeah. It was in my right side pocket. But it's not in there any more!"

Haruhi's eyes narrowed, then she frowned, stood up, and called out, "Hikaru! Kaoru! I know you took Nēchan's phone! Give it back!"

From behind a nearby pillar, the two boys slipped into view. The brunette felt her eyelid twitch, reminded of the Cheshire cats from her dream, which lead to less necessary memories.

"Why do you think we took it? We're not just thieves or pickpockets!"

"Yeah, Haruhi! Where's the trust?"

She cocked her eyebrow.

"Fine."

Kaoru fished the iPhone out of his pants pocket and started messing with it, flicking through the three 'pages' she had, "We just wanted to use it for clues, since Jin ruled you out for questioning."

Haruhi tilted her head, "Of course you would. But how'd you even get into her phone in the first place? Isn't it password protected?"

"Yeah, but it wasn't hard to guess the four digit combo."

"4-2-7-8. That's the English spelling for 'Haru'."

Jin shrugged, "I figured no one who knew my nickname for Haru would pickpocket my phone from my pocket!"

"Eh… pickpocketing is still a really strong word."

"We prefer the term 'borrow'," Kaoru tossed the device back to its owner, who caught it easily, "Besides, we got enough from it anyways."

"You did?"

The redheads grinned, "We both get three guesses… but even if one of us gets out, we're going to share the pictures anyways, so we have 6 guesses technically."

"So, to start off, Vincent Marcus."

Jin clenched her jaw, obviously upset at the loophole the 1st years were using, but answered anyways. "You found my Vine account, huh? And no, not him."

"Brandon Calvillo."

"Nope."

"Chris Melberger."

She shook her head. The twin's eyebrows narrowed in confusion.

"Meechonmars."

"No."

"Alx James"

"Again, it's a no. And you're out Kaoru." The brunette turned to the only remaining twin, "One last guess."

Hikaru frowned, shared a glance with his brother before sticking his chin out, "Thomas Sanders."

"...Yes."

The twins grinned and high-fived, "Yes! We got one!"

"And now that we have the guy who's not an actor… I'm going to guess Percy Jackson for one of the series."

"You're both out."

Their smiles fell away faster than in Jin had smacked them off, "Wait, what?!"

"But you… like… you're super into Greek Mythology! And you got Haruhi to start reading them in class too!"

"I might really like the series and the characters, but it's not one of the nine."

The twins gaped at the girl, but they were ignored when Jin realized the rest of the hosts were listening in. "You know, you guys are pretty terrible at this. You're all listening in on each other's guesses. Are you making this a team effort on purpose?"

Tamaki was quick to shake his head frantically, exclaiming how important it was to them all that they play the game fairly but it was too easy to overhear something in the music room. Realizing they weren't going to reclaim the Fujioka's attention any time soon, Hikaru frowned deeply and turned around. How could he and Kaoru already be out of the game? He wanted to complain, but the rules were the rules. Not that he was happy about it. Kaoru turned as well, feeling very similarly to his brother, but grabbed Hikaru's hand to keep him from running straight into Kyoya.

Their glasses-wearing Senpai gave them a smug smile, "Hikaru? Kaoru? By any chance does Jin have a phone case?"

"Yeah…"

"...why?"

"What did it say?"

The twins shared a glance before grinning wickedly at their Senpai, "Why would we tell you?"

"Yeah… what would we get out of it?"

The ravenet's smile twisted into a smirk, "If I win, then I will give you Haruhi's photos."

The 1st years gave each other another significant look, similarly to the Fujioka's 'mind-reading' before turning back to Kyoya.

"What was it you wanted to know again?"

As the final half hour began ticking away, the remaining four boys in the competition were starting to worry. They still needed two people and three series. This contest was a lot harder than they thought it would be…

Tamaki personally was having a mild panic attack. He'd been dealt the worse hand of them all, and it was starting to show. He didn't have the history with Jin like Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai did, and while he was her classmate, she and Kyoya were significantly closer. Besides, Kyoya was possibly the most motivated out of them all to win.

He peeked over his couch at his best friend who was frantically jabbing away at his laptop. Even if he was the only one who believed it -the twins had been majorly skeptical when he'd asked them about the actual possibility of Jin and Kyoya- he knew that his closest classmates had a thing for each other. Despite everyone else being blind to it.

Across the room, Honey-senpai was making his desperation a little obvious, "You're still looking for actors, right Jin-chan? I guess Emma Watson!"

"...Honey-senpai. Male actors."

"Oh… then Rupert Grint!"

"Still no."

"Daniel Radcliff!"

"No. You're out, Honey-senpai."

The blond pouted and sat back down on his couch as Jin moved towards the twin's table. Tamaki pressed his lips together. So… even being her friend for a long time doesn't guarantee that you know her all that well. Then Mori-senpai might be an easy out, too. This means she hides her obsessions well… so Kyoya might not find them either. In fact… the only person in this room who might have the slightest idea would be...

The blond's eyes slowly drifted towards the only other brunette in the room. He shifted in his seat. He really wanted to win… but he didn't wait to cheat. However, there was no way he'd get through this on his own. And didn't Jin make her rule about Haruhi not bothering her about it? What if he could convince Haruhi to help him on her own terms?

Without a second thought, Tamaki jumped to his feet and started walking towards Haruhi. He glanced around the room, making sure no one was paying him much attention. Sure, it was a little difficult when you're as handsome as he was, but at the moment the other hosts seemed to be absorbed in their current activities. Kyoya was intently reading his computer screen, Honey-senpai was eating cake with a big smile again while his cousin watched, and the twins were chatting kindly with their guests. Odd… I thought they'd be much more upset about losing the game first. I wonder why they're so calm about it...

"Senpai? What is it?"

Tamaki jumped back a step, so lost in his thoughts he hadn't noticed that he was now standing directly beside the short-haired brunette, "Oh, nothing! I mean, I just wanted to know about a few things you and your sister do together. Like… do you go out to watch movies? Play games? Attend festivals? Comic Con?"

"You're out, Tamaki."

The blond whipped around to see Jin standing right behind him, "What? Why?"

"No bugging Haru, remember?"

"I wasn't asking about-"

"You're not as sneaky as you think, Hun. I'm sorry."

Tamaki's mouth fell open. He was out. He lost.

Noticing in the impending sulk-fest, Jin laid a hand on her friend's shoulder, "Listen, Tamaki, it's not that big of a deal, okay? It's just a game."

"Jin?"

Tamaki fell into a ball at her feet the moment Jin turned away from him. She cast him one last concerned look before returning her attention to the ravenet, "Yes, do you have a guess, Kyoya?"

"I do believe so."

Kyoya was smirking, so Jin was preparing herself to say yes when Haruhi spoke up from behind her, "You didn't cheat like Tamaki-senpai almost did, right?"

Haruhi wasn't looking at the two 2nd years, casually swirling some milk into her new cup of tea, but her tone had been slightly clipped. That was like a huge red neon sign to her sister, but she was interrupted again before she could speak.

"Actually, I caught a glimpse of her phone case when Hikaru and Kaoru stole it-"

" Borrowed ." The twins called out from the other side of the room.

"-and I looked up the quote that was on the back. I wish to make a guess on the three series. Supernatural, Doctor Who, and Sherlock… from BBC, of course."

Jin smiled, "You would be correct, Kyoya. Well done.

"Nēchan, fifteen minutes left."

Jin looked up at the clock. 4:45. Fifteen minutes, two players left in the game, and two more correct guesses that need to be made. When she looked back, she found herself surrounded by guests. They had created a ring around her and Kyoya, whispering among themselves. Raising an eyebrow, she shrugged at the boy in front of her before shouting out, "Looks like we've got ourselves a showdown!"

The girls cheered and pushed Mori-senpai into the ring. He stumbled a bit before straightening out and walking over to stand beside Kyoya. Haruhi took one look around before slipping over to the inside of the ring, dragging Tamaki's limp body along behind her. She ended up facing her sister from where she was, watching with a strange curiosity and stepping on the blond's fingers whenever he tried to cuddle her legs.

Jin smiled at the two boys in front of her, "Alright you two. Neither of you have a single strike against you. In the next thirteen minutes, do you think you can correctly guess the two remaining actors?"

"Mmm."

"I believe so."

"Very well, then we'll just have a little tennis match then. We'll start with… Mori-senpai. Your first guess?"

The tall male remained stoic looking as ever, but inside his head his mind was running frantically. Mitsukuni had ruled out all the actors from Harry Potter… but she did have both Nathan Fillion and his television show on her list. So perhaps she was looking for an actor from one of the three shows Kyoya had mentioned…

"Benedict Cumberbatch."

Jin smiled, but shook her head, "No. Great actor, but unfortunately no. Kyoya?"

"David Tennant."

"Oooohh, good one. But no."

"Martin Freeman."

"Again, it's a no…"

"Jared Padalecki."

"Close… but no."

The guests were pressing in even closer now. Not a single pair of eyes could tear itself from the tension in front of them. The two boys had one strike left for the both of them, and they were no closer to guessing the actors. It looked like Jin had this one in the bag.

Mori's eyes narrowed slightly. Close? "...Jensen Ackles." He stared at his friend's surprisingly blank face. It didn't even look like she was breathing as they met for an impromptu staring contest.

"Yes."

The girls let out a cheer, which grew louder when Kyoya smirked and correctly guessed Misha Collins. Jin smiled at the two boys, "Well, now it's really getting interesting. You both know all of my fangirl-inducing shows and actors and even the one Viner… but who wins, hm? Time to play a 'Sudden Death' round."

The group let out a gasping breath, drawing nearer to each other. Everyone in the room was surrounding the three hosts, watching with baited breath as the brunette began to explain.

"Considering this game began because you boys wanted to know who I have a 'thing' for, that will be your final round. Between Jensen Ackles and Misha Collins… which one of them do I have a 'thing' for? Kyoya? Since you've made more correct guesses than Mori-senpai, you'll be the one to make the guess. Take your time with it. If your guess is correct, then you win the pictures. If not, they go to Mori-senpai."

The ravenet nodded, bringing his hand up to his chin. He appeared to freeze like that, eyes glazing over behind his glasses. As he did so, Haruhi studied him and her sister. Kyoya-senpai is actually getting into this. You know, I'd always assumed that if he liked someone, he'd be very calm and cool about it, treating the relationship in almost a business sense. But… he's doing things I never would've imagined him doing. He jokes around with Nēchan, allows physical contact, and actually shows emotion. It's strange… but at the same time a really nice change in his character. Oh... ick, what am I thinking? He's all over my sister!

"Misha Collins."

Jin stared blankly at the two boys in front of her for the longest time. The circle of students around them leaned in closer, each of them feeling as though the seconds were stretching longer and longer as the brunette kept putting off her answer.

"Why?"

The boy shrugged, but the way his right foot shuffled backwards told of his slight nervousness, "I can't give you a very valid reason this time. He just seems more like your type." The brunette nodded, her face giving away nothing to anyone.

Except Haruhi, who felt the corner of her mouth twitch in amusement.

"Correct! You won, Kyoya!"

The room erupted into cheers. A few of Mori's fangirls cooed over the runner-up, but he didn't look too upset by it. In fact, there was a small hint of confusion in his face as he watched Kyoya's shoulders draw back, smirk taking it's usual spot on his lips. Painstakingly slow, the winner drew six photographs out of his jacket's pocket, where he must've placed them once the competition started so no one would try to steal them away.

He turned around to face Haruhi with a very smug look that she nearly marched over to smack off. Thankfully she realized he was looking at Tamaki before she made a move.

"Well, it looks like the best man wi-"

A hand appeared over Kyoya's left shoulder and plucked the photos out of his grip. His fingers fluttered in the air for a moment, confused as to why they weren't holding anything anymore. Turning around, everyone's eyes returned to Jin, who was looking at the pictures in what looked like honest curiosity.

"Jin?"

"I'm really sorry, Kyoya… but I believe you all lost today."

"...What?"

"Look at the time."

As one, the room faced the clock tower standing outside the window.

5:13. Hosting hours were over.

"Game over. You didn't answer in time."

The girls began to laugh, walking away from the circle to leave the room, leaving only the hosts. Once the others came to realize that no one had won and the pictures were now in the Fujioka's hands, the thrill of the competition decreased, replaced with slightly disgruntled contentment.

All except for one of them.

"You cheated. "

"I did no such thing."

"You drew the game out until we ran out of time! That qualifies as cheating!"

"Kyoya, 'Sudden Death' started after hosting hours were already done. The only reason I kept the game going was because I wanted to know who would've won if you hadn't run out of time."

In all their years of knowing one another, even if from a distance, not one person in the room could ever recall a time when Kyoya looked so shocked and outraged at the same time. The glasses wearing boy appeared to be stuck between shouting out death threats or calling in his police force to demolish the establishment. As his jaw muscles twitched dangerously, Jin smiled happily in front of him, looking through the photos in her hands one by one.

Once she verified that she had all six of them, the brunette looked back up at the angry boy and winked, "It was a pleasure playing with you all."

She walked away, prompting the others to do the same, if only to escape the impending disaster zone. They were each half impressed with Jin's cool head when facing an angry Kyoya, while also wondered if the next time they'd be seeing their female friend she'd be in a coffin.

The last boy standing still could hardly think. He tried to go through his memories of the past 20 or so minutes, curious as to how he missed the clock ringing at the hour or if Jin had given any hints when she knew she had won. Not finding any, the boy walked over to his table, fuming.

Most of the others were starting to head out the doors as he began packing away his things. Tucking his laptop roughly against his textbooks, Kyoya attempted to calm himself down. There was no reason for him to be so worked up over this. If their roles had been switched, he would've done something similar. Except he wouldn't have lead anyone on. He would've claimed victory as soon as the clock struck 5.

Did she want to make sure I'd hand the photos over? Is that why she waited? Because she didn't trust me to admit defeat?

The thought made him angrier still and he snatched his journal up off his table, nearly knocking a tea cup off its plate and sending a small paper flying out from between the leather covers. Groaning in frustration, he bent down to scoop up the page, but stopped just short of touching it.

His eyes widened as he looked at it.

It was a photograph. One of Jin.

Surprised hardly covered what he felt as Kyoya opened his journal. Placed on top of his many papers were the two other photos that had been in his possession less than five minutes ago. He looked back at the one on the floor and picked it up. Noticing a small indent showing from the back, right at the bottom, he turned it over. In hurried, but a surprisingly neat scrawl, was a note.

'Since they are now mine to give to whomever I please, I think you deserve a little reward for knowing me the best. Take good care of these. I mean it. If I see these on our auction page I will hunt you down.'

The ravenet lifted his head just in time to see Jin and Haruhi walking out the door. The taller brunette met his eyes over top of her sister's head and gave him a wink, the doors falling shut behind her.

He looked back down at the photos, given to him out of free will, and couldn't help but wonder if there had been another, personal reason Jin had wanted to win. So she could give someone her photos instead of making them win it. She got to chose who got them.

He smirked, slipping the third picture into his journal and carefully tucking it into his bag.

She certainly is a fascinating woman...

* In the Hallway *

"Here you go, Haru."

The shorter of the two girls took her photographs from her sister's hands quickly, "Dad has copies of these, right?"

"Yup."

"Good." Haruhi nodded before she quickly ripped the photos in half. It was a little hard, but she did it pretty well. After a few more rips, she tossed the confetti into a trashcan. Jin just smiled down at her.

"Satisfied?"

"Very. I'm just glad that we got those pictures back. Want to rip yours up, too? Like you said, Dad has his own copies, we don't really need them." Haruhi had made the offer in good faith, but the blush on Jin's face told of a very different story. When she didn't receive an answer right away, Haruhi's eyes narrowed.

"Nēchan… you do have your photos… right?"

"Ahhh…"

"Nēchan, what have you done?"

The taller girl blushed harder, her face twitching as she tried to school her features into a 'non-caring' sort of look, "I was just being fair. I mean, we don't have a real need for them, but Kyoya did win… sort of."

"You gave them to Kyoya-senpai? "

"He won them."

"He ran out of time."

"Which made them mine to give to him. You have to admit he did very well in a short amount of time with very little to go on. I felt it was fair, and I only gave him mine, if you forgot. You tore yours up."

Haruhi looked away, staring out the windows they were passing in an attempt to clear her head. She could see Jin's reasoning, sure, but now she was stuck. It doesn't seem like Nēchan is unaware of her feelings for Kyoya-senpai… but she's not admitting to it. She's coming up with these excuses, and so is he. It's almost like Kanako Kasugazaki and Toru Suzushima again, so why haven't I said anything? I know that if this was going on between Nēchan and some other boy, or Kyoya-senpai and… I dunno, a guest of his, I'd tell them flat out to stop being so stupid and get together. What makes them being in a relationship together so difficult for me? Is it because… if it ends well Kyoya-senpai will be my brother-in-law, and if it doesn't it could ruin the club? Is that it?

"Haru? You okay?"

Haruhi jumped, train of thought going wild as she regained her bearings. The two of them were standing outside of the school by the bike rack. When had they gotten there?

"Haru?"

"Hm? Oh, yes, I'm okay, Nēchan."

"Are you sure? I think you were zoned out the entire walk down here."

"Just lost in thought."

Jin nodded, crouching a little to be eye to eye with her, "Do you need to talk about it?"

The short-haired brunette entertained the thought. If she could have a conversation with her sister about Kyoya-senpai, then maybe she could make some sense out of it all. Or get Jin to figure her own feelings out. That would be a help to everyone, right?

But at the same time…. Maybe Haruhi didn't need to say anything. Jin and Kyoya were two of the most sensible and intelligent people she'd ever met. There really wasn't much doubt that the two would figure each other out, but in their own time.

"Actually, Nēchan, I think I just figured it out myself. Thanks, though."

Jin tilted her head, "If you're sure…"

"I am."

"Alright! I'll get the bike!"

Haruhi watched as Jin ran over to unlock her bike from the rack, a random smile and blush appearing on her face before she could stifle them. Haruhi smiled to herself, too. What exactly to I have to worry about? After all, my subconscious seems to think the two of them will be good for each other. So… let's just see how this goes.