Chapter 1 | From This Day Forward, You're Our Musician

Way beyond the life of the bright city of Tokyo was the countryside. Most city folk don't realize much of the peace that resides with the people that life there. Another advantage towards this relaxing scene would be most people that live in this land also belonged to those of high power and fame.

Beyond the bright city lies a house surrounded with as much plant life as possible and the residents were the Shiraga family. Every day their home would be surrounded with as much music as possible. Music ranging from classical Liszt and many more to soft lullabies. The family was a well respected bunch by the community. This family, especially the husband appreciated music so much that very few members have become devoted to the business, a small business it may seem, but not unnoticed.

Today, Shou Shiraga and his beloved wife, Estella, decided to sit down and have a nice relaxing cup of tea in the parlor that gave light and meant for relaxation and had a beautiful view of the garden and the forest was not too far away from view. Shou Shiraga, a handsome man for his age and like most japanese males, had black hair with a very neat cut. However, it wasn't his neat attire or his gentlemanly manner that people noticed about him; it were his eyes that caught everyone's attention - a pure, light icy blue color that was partially hidden behind his rectangle-rimmed glasses and a mole on the right side of his lower lip. Everyone knew who he was since he was the nations, if not the world's, most famous pianist.

"How are you today, my love?" He asked gently to his wife as he wrapped his arms around the blonde haired woman's round belly. In another room were the five sons that they had together. From oldest to youngest: Natsu, Yuuki, Arata, Fuyu and Ikuto. They were very happy that they were blessed with five sons, but if felt incomplete. Estella laid her hand on top of her husbands and smiled at him so lovingly - they were the type of couple that loved each other to the ends of the earth. You know, all that mushy gushy stuff.

"In a few weeks our new child will be born." She said as she felt her husband rub her belly and quickly kissed her cheek.

"What do you want it to be this time, my dear?" Shou asked even though he knew the answer to that. It would be nice to have another female member in their family and maybe they would get lucky this time.

"I would like this little one to be a girl."

This was a day that the Shiraga family would remember.

Shou stood next to his wife, holding onto her hand as Estella squeezed so hard that it might have turned purple now. Their five sons were all waiting patiently in the lobby and looking at each other as a new member of the family will be coming into the world. As if it took forever, the cries of the child could be heard from behind the door and the boys cheered, hugging each other and smiling at the fact that they would getting a new baby sister or brother.

"Congratulations, Mr. and Mrs. Shiraga. Its a healthy baby girl." The doctor said, handing the newborn to the nurse who carefully wrapped her with a clean sheet and cleaned her up nicely to then give the girl to her parents, all in happy tears. The newborn quieted down when Estella had her in her arms and carefully touched the smooth and fair skin of her child.

"Our first daughter.." Shou said as he was now holding the little baby girl in his arms and gently whispered a beautiful name for the little girl, even more beautiful than what Estella had in mind.

"Hello there, my little Haruka." Shou smiled, slowly cradling the child and blinded by the way his wife was watching him grin like a fool in front of their newborn.

"Haruka..what a pretty name.."

Sixteen years later

The outside weather was just perfect; it wasn't too hot or too cold for an early spring day.

This time of year would be a time all students of Japan would be returning to school. As for one though, it would be her first time going to school. Everyone in the country knew who her family is, more specifically her father. But it's been a while since she was in Japan and hardly knew much about her family other than the occasional visits to her school in England and a few video chats. It seemed more of a shock to her that the family cared about her this much or at least it seemed to look that way. Through her entire elementary and middle school life, she studied abroad in England with a few acquaintances of her father in Europe that offered to keep an eye on her. She thought she'd be in the country all her life, but life always seemed to offer surprises as her uncle offered to sign some paperworks to attend Ouran Academy where he taught Music Appreciation and various other music related courses. Ouran Academy is a private school that had the nation's richest sons and daughters attending. Her uncle even offered to have the girl live with his family and even help her with studies and to everyone's surprise, Shou granted the request.

Haruka, at first, was unsure about the whole idea of moving back to Japan, but then grew to like the idea and didn't protest anymore when she had her things packed and ready. She was right now in her old room of the Shiraga manor, looking at all her things of when she was five years old, seeing that it was still the same after so long. Several of her suitcases were already downstairs and here she was looking at her once lively room now turned into a simple office. It wasn't that she wasn't going to be gone for long, but it hurt that they had to convert her room into such. Once she was done, she headed out downstairs and stopped midway, thinking for a moment.

"Do you have everything you need, darling?" Estella asked her, trying to clean up her face a little more than necessary. Haruka rolled her eyes, wincing a bit and nodded her head at the previous question.

"Have you heard from father?" The black haired girl asked in a slight British accent. At first glance, you could easily tell that this was Shou Shiraga's daughter. Haruka had the same neat and elegant black hair and they shared the same shining, icy blue eyes that some questioned if they were both foreigners, which they weren't.

"He's in America right now and he'll be home in a week from now." Her mother answered a little sadly though she wanted to sound more happy and sincere, but it was proving to be difficult. Haruka noticed this sadness and tried to smile her best to comfort her mother, whom smiled back sincerely and shook off her sadness.

"You know, the week will fly by soon and he'll be here. I know it." Haruka said and Estella agreed. It didn't take long for a sleek silver car to drive by, revealing the driver to be Haruka's uncle, Roderich. Roderich Edelstein was a fellow pianist that her father met in Europe for a competition and they became close friends, rivals and brothers. At times, they were called "Mozart and Haydn" due to their close friendship, especially when Roderich ended up marrying Shou's sister, Ren.

The Austrian smiled at his niece and waved at Estella, quickly getting out of the car and helped put the suitcases in the trunk.

"Are you ready, Haruka?" Roderich asked and his response was a determined nod and they were quickly on their way to the city where Estella watched the car drive away with Haruka opening a window and let the air blow through her hair and looked at the rearview mirror, seeing her mother wave at them.

"They turned my room into an office."

"You weren't expected to come back to Japan. Yet, here you are." Roderich attempted to be funny, but got no reaction from the ravenette.

"Cheer up. Ren will be so excited to have another girl around the house. It'll be fun, I promise."

"Anything to get far away from his hold."

It didn't take them too long to reach Roderich's home; it was similar to the Shiraga manor except there were no neighbors. They were outside the city limits and the city was just as she imagined when they passed through. Roderich's wife, Haruka's aunt and her father's sister, Ren, was standing by the driveway with their fourteen year old son, Reiji.

"Haruka! It's so good to see you again!" Ren said, already enveloping the teenaged girl in a hug when she stepped out the car to greet her family properly. It seemed she was having trouble breathing that Reiji had to pry his mother off his cousin. She apologized quickly and took a good look at the blue eyed girl.

"Look at you! You really are the splitting image of you father!" Haruka's aunt said and all of them took some of her luggage to her new room and on top of her bed so she'll unpack. The family left her to unpack after telling her dinner will be ready soon. She nodded and opened the window to let in the cool breeze of today roll into the room. Finally, away from the family house and moving into her uncles home to go to school here in Japan. Hopefully, things will turn out for the best.

Roderich had decided to head onto school a little early as Haruka was getting herself ready and eat a bit of breakfast. Her cousin Reiji left already because during some school break, he joined a club and it was mandatory to arrive to school earlier than others. Ren always commented on how different those two were and yet how similar they are. Her son does play the piano like Roderich, but that's a story for another day.

Being driven to school was something Haruka wasn't used to, especially back in London. She would normally walk to school and try not to attract too much attention. Not long after, the school was in view and Haruka didn't waste time to step out of the vehicle, walking the same direction most Ouran students were walking. The nervousness was awaken as some students were staring at her as she walked by them.

"I shouldn't be nervous. I must keep calm.." She thought to herself, thinking positively or at least for a little bit.

"I'm finally here. They have an amazing music program here thanks to uncle Roderich. I'm going to be apart of the music world soon.. I'm my father's successor, but I'm not too keen on that idea."

One of her first stops was the office to receive her schedule and the receptionist that was on duty was very kind and noticed Harukas name, wanting to tell her father that she enjoys Shou's music. Haruka only nodded and told the receptionist he'd be glad of such praise. With her schedule and a map, she was ready to go and walk around the school to find her classes. God forbid, this place seemed bigger than Buckingham Palace.

"Class 1-A?" Haruka questioned herself and followed the map to the direction of the room number and it took her a good while before she stopped in front of a door.

"This is it. Okay Haruka, time to make a great impression!" She thought and pushed the door open and watched as every eye turned towards her then towards the teacher, who happened to smile at her, motioning the ravenette to walk forward to the front of the class.

"Miss Shiraga, I presume?" The teacher asked, receiving a nod from the ravenette.

"Alright, why don't you present yourself to the class?" The teacher asked. With the best smile she could muster right now even when others were now whispering once they heard her name.

After her name, their attention was drawn in by the blue eyes, seeing them in only foreigners or as contact lenses. No other girl in the entire school happened to have such a unique eye color and even a few foreigners were lucky to even see blue eyes these days, then eyes went towards her long, black hair - a small elephant diamond hairpin held her front bangs to the side. The new girl wore her uniform right, the yellow dress with some black lace oxfords and white cotton socks. A small bow followed by a soft voice.

"Hello everyone. I'm Haruka Shiraga. It's a great pleasure to meet all of you and hope that we can all get along."

"Thank you, Miss Shiraga and it's a pleasure to have you in our class. Let's find you a seat… uh.. the seat next to Fujioka is empty so that'll be your new home" The teacher told her politely and walked over to the seat with whom she assumed was Fujioka, raised their hand to let them know where they were at. Haruka stared for a bit to take in her features, seeing that they were quite a natural beauty with big doe-like eyes.

"Hi there. Guess we're neighbors now. I'm Haruhi Fujioka." The brunette said with a friendly smile that the ravenette couldn't help but smile back.

"Pleasure to meet you." After their quick introductions, they faced the front of the class and ready to be taught. Haruka looked around and noticed that everyone was facing the teacher, seeming that they didn't really care about a new student and if they did, they understood that she didn't want to be overwhelmed with anything. That seemed fitting for the young girl, but…

"Bloody foreigner! Go back to where you came from!"

"Look! It's the musical twit!"

No.

Things were now different for her. She wasn't the same as in London, at least, that's what she hoped she wasn't. Besides, her uncle was here so at least someone very close to her was their by her side if worse came to show.

'Now that I think about it...don't I have his class last?'

Lunch had arrived sooner than Haruka would have asked and she just followed the students that went on to the lunch room, a bit overwhelmed with how different it was from her previous school. She looked all around, biting her bottom lip and walked up to an empty table, however, a hand rested on her shoulder and looking over, was a bit shocked that Haruhi was there, smiling at her gently with her own little lunch, which seemed homemade.

"You can sit and eat lunch with me. I know how it is to be the new kid around here." The brunette offered, a weight being lifted off from Haruka that she didn't know she had until she sat down from across the brunette.

A wave of easiness washed over her as she continued to talk to the brunette, finding out a few things from her new acquaintance and slightly sharing some common likes.

"A scholarship student?" Haruka repeated to which Haruhi just gave a simple nod.

"Yeah, I've been aiming to come here since middle school. How about you?"

"My uncle teaches music here and I just now heard about Ouran about two weeks ago."

"Really? Well I guess that explains that accent, I mean." She commented and Haruka attempted to stifle a giggle.

"That's alright. If it soothes your curiosity, I was in England for the last eleven years. I started feeling a little homesick so here I am."

"Your english must be fluent then. Lucky."

'Japan isn't so bad after all. It was a jolly good idea to come back to Japan to attend high school. So far, everyone seems polite.'

Haruka Shiraga's world revolves around Classical music. When it's not perfect, then what's the point in playing it? Her father was the prime example of that, enforcing those lessons to the sixteen year old as much as he could before she moved to England. But these days, she hasn't felt much joy in playing as she did years ago so she moved onto playing much more modern music and even so far to write small tunes.

It was exhilarating to play something new, but no matter how much she tried, a force pulls her back to reality. She was her father's only child that inherited an extraordinary talent in music and she had no say in what she wanted to do.

"You must become the best, my little Haruka. You are a genius! You are to be a genius when you get older. Haruka, you must succeed me when I no longer can play."

"We are not finishing this lesson until you memorize the concerto! We'll be all night if we have to!"

!

The wide eyes and the sharp gasp Haruka made must have shocked the brunette who looked at the girl, reaching a hand over, but Haruka didn't seem to react at all. Not even to voice. Haruhi tried once more and Haruka's blue eyes blinked and looked at Haruhi's brown eyes, mentally slapping herself for even acting like this in public. She just couldn't believe it. She quickly shook her head and smiled brightly.

"So sorry! I must have felt a very powerful chill. I'm fine, Haruhi."

'What if I told you that there was a pianist hated the piano? Total irony there. But.. here we are. I dislike the piano...because of all the hurt I've received. And yet, I still play it.. maybe because I try to hold onto some hope that maybe one day, I'll enjoy the sound of the piano once more. Until then, I guess I'll just pretend.'

The last class of the day was with her uncle Roderich with all the other students, mostly girls, whispering or muttering about how attractive he was even though he was of hearing proximity. To anyone that's curious, Roderich Edelstein is a world-class composer, called "Mozart" by Shou Shiraga. He won various competitions as a pianist when he was younger, advancing towards creating original compositions, even marrying to the sister of the world-class pianist.

Other whispers were about Haruka, being the new student and everything.

Roderich looked around the entire classroom, everyone seemed to be in their seats. He cleared his throat loud enough to be heard by the students that were still whispering and it all turned silent when he took a book and glanced at everyone carefully.

"As you all know, there happens to be a new student here at Ouran Academy. Miss. Shiraga, would you please stand up for a moment?" Roderich asked, smiling lightly and Haruka obeyed, quickly taking a small bow to her fellow peers and sat back down. The violet eyed man kept a straight face and went on about how I was his niece, to which a few were about to say something until he interrupted their train of thought.

"Just because she's my niece doesn't mean she'll receive special treatment. She'll be treated with the same exact strict training that I'll give you all this year. I will not tolerate any horseplay around here nor procrastination and I expect everyone to be kind and courteous to everyone and I mean everyone, understood?"

"Yes, Mr. Edelstein."

"Good. First lesson today in Advanced Music Appreciation, the elements of music. The key elements would be melody, rhythm, texture, tone color [timbre if you will], dynamics, harmony, and musical form. Melody is the succession of music sounds perceived as belong together. It's based on pitches, notes if you will."

Roderich was passionate about music appreciation, specifically music in general. It felt like a breath of fresh air being around the composer. This was paradise, far more carefree than those other teachers in London and it didn't feel as if she was out of air. She didn't suffocate at all under this pressure if there was any.

'This is heaven compared to the hell I've been through.'

Class was good for the most part and even though that she had learned most of this back in London, there were some bits that she didn't know and would like to about them for better insight. Haruka was like this all through class, focused and only stopped when she felt tapping on her shoulder, looking up at her uncle's eyes who seemed to be smiling down at her. In his hands were a few papers with some handwriting and scribbles in them.

"You'll laugh at the responses these children wrote down in their introduction sheets." He said, handing a few over to her niece. Haruka looked over just a few and was shocked over the answer for question three.

What is it that you wish to learn from this class?

Nothing much. I only applied for the class since I thought it would be easy.

'They have no shame!'

"Anyways, I've talked to the chairman and he explained to me it's mandatory for students to join a club. I'm going to be busy for a couple more hours until we go home so you're free to look around to see if anything will fancy you. Just call me to tell me where you are and I'll pick you up."

Those were his words and Haruka smiled, getting up from her seat and wondered out to the halls of the enormous school. Pulling out her phone and headphones, she scrolled through various playlists and settled on a specific song.

Saint-Saens - Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor, Op. 28

"These are accompanists scores. You're not an accompanists, you're a pianist. I want you to get rid of these by the end of the day."

"To hell with you wanting to become a composer. There are jobs for your uncle, but he was lucky and he had to stoop so low as to be a composer of modern music. You won't. It'll be a sheer miracle to ever become a composer on your own. You may be able to play a few instruments, but that won't change a thing in this world. The world is unkind to new things."

Top floor, South wing

Upon the end of the North corridor is the room of the unused and unattended third music room.

Or at least, it seems to be unused.

'This might be a good place…I brought the ink with me today for nothing after all.'

Opening the door, a bright light had shone and without a doubt, roses were flying out the room. Not only that, upon opening the door, Haruka had discovered the Ouran Host Club.

"Welcome."

A group said in unison as Haruka stared and removed her ear pieces, Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso in A minor, Op. 28 still echoed close to her ears. All she could do was just stare for brief moments until she coughed awkwardly and bowed, her head still kept low.

"Very sorry! I must have made a mistake." her voice was soft and she obviously felt eyes on her. The one boy in the middle was about to say something when the brunette host of the group noticed the familiar ravenette and walked over to her.

"Haruka? What are you doing here? I thought you went home already." Haruhi was in front of her and at least wished for their friend to lift up her head. Slowly, but surely, Haruka did that, semi-weary of the group behind them.

"Uncle Roderich stayed behind in the class to do some grading. He said that I should walk around the school to join a club."

"Well, the music clubs are around in this area, but they're in the first floor."

Oh.

"That would make sense, so they wouldn't carry any heavy instruments-"

"We exist too here."

The two girls were interrupted by one of the boys behind Haruhi. Haruka looked over at them and clenched her hands together for some small comfort.

"You said you're looking for the music clubs? As Haruhi said, you're in the right department, but they're at the bottom floor." One of the twins said to Haruka, his arm resting on top of his brothers shoulder. Haruka bowed once more and announced her leave, however, a blond male with blue-violet eyes stopped her as she was heading towards the door.

"Why leave now? You're the new student everyone's talking about right? We've been all wanting to meet you since Haruhi has told a lot about you."

The blue eyed girl stopped, turning around for everyone to see her clearly. Everyone, well, almost everyone held their breath when they noticed the icy blue eyes of the new girl and the somewhat pale features of her skin excluding the light blush making its appearance on her cheeks.

She hesitated to speak and glanced back at Haruhi. Would they be as nice as Haruhi was? Honestly - she was tired of meeting new people when she much prefer the company of instruments; the collective dust, the familiar scent of resin, the ink, and new parchment. At least they didn't talk back or said anything cruel. For the sake of being left alone, she might as well introduce herself and them them have their turn before she dismissed herself.

"I'm Haruka Shiraga, class 1-A. Very nice to meet you all." Such a monotone voice, but it looked like no one noticed it. The boy in front of her smiled, taking a theatrical bow, held her hand as he kissed the top of it gently. Shivers passed through her spine as her cheeks heated up from such contact. Shouldn't this kind of stuff happen when you're going out with someone? Don't couples do this?

'I'm entirely confused.'

"A lovely name for a lovely girl. Welcome to our lovely Host Club, I'm Tamaki Suoh, the man of your dreams."

'Not likely.'

The tension around Haruka was thick, repenting her decision of ever coming upstairs before looking into the downstairs rooms. First impressions always mattered to Haruka and right now, the first impression towards this blond fellow was that he was an…

"Idiot." Out loud, she realized her mistake and watched as the blond fellow seemed to deflate and go to a neglected corner before she heard some laughter coming from the twins. Haruhi had to stifle her laughter in front of the others, reminded of her first encounter with the club and called Tamaki obnoxious.

"You're something alright." The first red-head said, controlling his laughter enough to be able to talk. His twin seemed to be doing the same, but he couldn't help in laughing some more.

"It wasn't my intention to say it out loud. I'm very sorry...Suoh-san?" Tamaki's eyes widened and stood up quickly, flashing another smile at the girl before suddenly embracing her in a hug.

"That so adorable! Unsure of how to call me! So cute!"

'I take it all back… I definitely take it all back… but his name seems so familiar though. Where did I hear it before?'

"Tamaki, unhand that girl. She looks uncomfortable." A new voice was heard in the room, the raveonettes head turning to see another male with black hair, wearing glasses as well. Assuming that they were friends, Tamaki slowly pulled away from the hug that he created and pouted lightly. Haruka, keeping a straight face, watched such interactions.

"Four year winner of the Glasgow pianist competition, two years of playing with the London Symphony Orchestra. The youngest of our generation to win the Towa competition before you moved to England, a prodigy with a name; the "Mozart of the Millenials". Haruka Shiraga, daughter of the world-class pianist, Shou Shiraga." It was silent for a couple of minutes before Haruka broke into a small, but sincere smile.

"Looks like you've done your homework…"

"Kyoya Ootori."

'Ah. Another name that I've heard of, but can't quite recall.'

"Kyoya makes it his mission to know about everyone that walks through those gates. It's just his thing." said someone.

"Whatever helps you sleep at night, I suppose." Haruka muttered, grabbing her phone again and went through the playlist again. It didn't go unnoticed by a younger looking individual who ran up towards the girl, grabbing her by the arm and twirled around with her.

"Ruka-chan!" He called out, smiling brightly than anyone should during school. The music prodigy looked down at the boy, her eyes widening and questioning whether she was seeing alright or not. Hard to tell if they were high school year, but he was wearing the high school uniform.

"You're the famous pianist, right? Wow, you look even cuter in person!"

'Too cute.'

"And who might you be, love?" The short blond giggled at the accent, blushing lightly and somehow summoning flowers to surround him.

"Your accent is amazing, Ruka-chan!" It was hard to not smile at his attitude. Maybe he'd come in handy sometime.

"I'm Mitsukuni Haninozuka, but you can call me Hani!"

"Honey?" Haruka repeated in english, no one seemed to correct her.

"Yep!"

"Well, very nice to meet you, Honey-senpai. Did I get it right? I'm actually still learning Japanese, so you'll have to forgive me if I make any mistakes."

"No worries. It's great already.'

'Definitely too cute for his own good.'

"You're more than welcome to stay during club hours. If you'd like, there's a piano just behind these curtains." Kyoya said, walking over to the said curtains and pulled them back to reveal the piano that he was talking about.

Steinways & sons.

The way that she ran towards the piano said something to the others as her hand ran across the known black and white keys.

'She didn't even notice club hours have started!'

'She hasn't even requested water or anything..'

'Her concentration is quite scary.'

'She hasn't even played one note yet on that song.'

Uh, because she's working on a song that she wants to be finished by today. Roderich knows about it, so he was considerate that Haruka may have wanted some time to herself and without influence of another musician.

The scribble sound of paper and pen ended when she cleaned up her pen and stuffed them back into her satchel.

Taking in a deep breath of air, she looked at the keys of the piano and played around a bit before she was satisfied with some of the keys. If someone was around, they would have seen a twinkle in her eyes and would have also wondered what goes on in her mind. Finally..

Mozart - Twelve Variations on "Ah vous dirai-je, Maman", K.265

Everyone had shrugged off the simple song that they must have been taught in elementary school, but forty seconds in, they never expected the extra bits. She ended it abruptly when she wanted something faster

Schubert - Klavierstucker in E-Flat minor for piano D946/1

One brave soul had enough courage to go up to the curtain and pull it back all the way to see how the prodigy played. Most were quite shocked at how she concentrated on just this score. Her eyes never wandered to look around, but stayed focused on the keys and her hands. Nothing, but Schubert's music played, almost as if his own spirit was possessing the young woman to play this. To Haruka, there was a slight blue for this E-flat minor, her eyes widening when she saw the color and she was not going to let it go away. She played faster, she played harder, she played with all her might to get that color to grow.

Echo's of hands clapping and cheers surrounded the prodigy's ears, but she stared at only the small color that faded away.

'Why can't I see blue anymore?! Am...I really that unhappy?'

"Ladies and gentle host club members! I have come to a conclusion!" Tamaki stood up from his seat as all eyes, excluding Haruka's, watched what he could do next.

"You have all heard it here. Starting tomorrow, Haruka Shiraga will be the Host Clubs' musician!"

"Haruka, where do you plan to study after high school? Are you going to choose Julliard like your father? There's the question in what you'll be majoring as well."

"I know what I want to major and where I want to go. Vienna is where I want to go and live out my dream of being a composer."

'I never signed up for this...Will this delay my dream to study in Vienna?'