AN: I want to thank everyone who read my last fic and i really hope this meets everyone's expectations. I also want to thank my Beta Monedameow who stepped up to the plate for me. This story time line is set over seven months and i have almost the whole thing written so there will be a fast chapter release time, hopefully.

Also, i do not own Ouran High School Host Club because if i did Haruhi and Mori would already be together.

Of Respect and Friendship

By Buddhistbabe

Haruhi took a deep breath, flattened her skirt and clasped her hands together in front of her. This was her attempt at trying not to feel like a fish out of water. While actually; she standing in a huge room, all around her there were men and women wearing expensive dresses and suit, eating expensive foods and discussing topics that Haruhi found irrelevant to her, she couldn't help feeling out of place. Yet she expected this in the moment she stepped foot into the room, after all she was at Kyoya's graduation party, and everything connected to him was connected to money and prestige.

She had been there for almost a half an hour now, walking around and attempting to look like she fit in. She knew none of the faces, there was no one really relatively near her own age. She was at least expecting to see Tamaki, knowing he and Kyoya were best friends, yet she had seen neither hide nor hair of her blonde friend. The Hitachiin brothers were not even invited to the party, and they had known Kyoya for longer than Haruhi had, but that didn't stop them to dress Haruhi up for the party.

Now she was wearing a black dress, with a form fitting and elegant cut, with white sash places on her hips. For once she and the twins had agreed on what she should wear. But her mind wasn't on her dress, it wasn't really even on the party itself. Her mind was plagued with thoughts on why she was there in the first place.

The twins had mentioned that they had no business ties to the Ohtori Corporation, so they were never expecting to be asked to come. But this didn't help to make clear why she was there, there were no merits in inviting her, and if Kyoya's family was anything like him they only did what they could later take benefits from.

The thought was still on her mind as she wandered around at the party, watching the faces of the people talking around her. Haruhi was wondering how much longer she had to be there before she could make a polite exit, until she saw what appeared to be two very familiar silhouettes walking through the door. She blinked and the pair was gone, but figuring she had nothing to lose she walked around in search the pair. She didn't know if she could believe her eyes, but she was very happy to see she was correct. The pair were Huni and Mori-sempai.

"Haru-chan?" asked the Blonde, looking up from a piece of rich cake and blinking with surprise. "We didn't know you were invited! Were didn't think any one from the Host Club was invited, Did we Takashi?" Bubbled the blonde.

The tall man next to him shook his head in agreement.

Haruhi smiled at her friends, relief spreading through her body just to see them.

"I didn't know you would be here either, but I am very glad to see you. I haven't see Tamaki here."

"Oh he wouldn't have been invited, this isn't a normal graduation party, this is a business party."

"A business party?" Haruhi asked is a confused voice.

"Yeah, all people here are potential business partners, and inviting them to a gathering like this is a sign that the Ohtori family is trying to make a deal with them over something. A surprisingly large amount of business is done at a party like this. All of the rich families do it through them". After finishing his explanation, Huni moved onto another type of dessert.

"You are potential business partners?" she asked the pair looking at them with wide eyes wondering what they could offer the medical company.

"Yup! Kyoya's father wants us to start training the Ohtori personal army for them."

"What?"

"Of course we won't actually do it, we are a serious dojo, not a place to train bodyguards and hit men"

Mori nodded in response with Huni.

"But Haruhi, why are you here?" asked Huni peaking up at her through his blonde bangs.

"I have been wondering that myself" she answered honestly with a hint of nervousness in her voice. The tone was picked up by the taller of her two companions, who looked at her with sympathy.

The next hour past with relative swiftness, that came with being in good company, even if one of them never stopped having something in his mouth, while the other one never opened his. Yet she felt better knowing they were there with her. Huni kept pointing important people out and fielding questions asked to her by strangers, and Mori stood next to her silently, eyes gliding across the room. She knew that they both were, in a way, doing something to protect her.

Another thing that occurred during that hour was the slow building up of a headache for Haruhi. It could have been the noise, or the mixing of over a hundred of the most expensive colognes and perfumes, but what ever it was, it was causing a headache that was almost immobilizing her. She tried her best to hide it, and show no signs of pain on her pale face but her quiet friend soon noticed.

She felt a hand on her shoulder and found the owner to be Mori.

"Haruhi, what's wrong?"

"Nothing" she laughed, which caused her headache to grow, and Mori to narrow his eyes. "Actually I have a really bad head ache; I just think I need to get some fresh air."

Her tall companion nodded, separated Huni from the dessert table and led both of them down a corridor leading away from the ball room full of people. The trio were in search of a patio or a door to the outside, but Kyoya's house proved to be bigger then Haruhi could even imagine. It felt like they were walking deeper and deeper into the belly of a beast, until they heard Haruhi's name come from behind a cracked open door.

"It was you who invited Fujioka Haruhi to the party, I think I see your intentions behind that." said an all too familiar voice.

"What do you mean, can't I invite my son's friend to his party." Countered the second voice, which was Kyoya's father.

Both of the voices laughed at that statement.

"You didn't invite any of his other friends. Tamaki was so disappointed, not that he could have made it anyways, being in France for the next year." The second voice revealed why it was so familiar, it was Ouran's Chairman, Mr. Suoh.

"I believe it's time we discuss what we talked about last year, concerning our special scholarship student. I know you want to have Kyoya marry her but I really do believe she is better suited from Tamaki."

"From what I have learned from Kyoya, It seems that she finds your son to be too foolish. I doubt she could ever be convinced to marry him."

"But marriage is an affair of the heart, and no one knows the heart better than the French. The advantage Tamaki has over your son is that he is already friends with her, and in a time could win her heart."

"I must disagree; respect is what is needed in marriage, and that something she couldn't find with your son, who lets his French heart fall in love with so many different women. It seems that the girl respects Kyoya, and he out of all my sons has never once disappointed me. He has never let me down yet. He can win her heart if I want him to."

"But you are forgetting that your son comes off cold, which never can be used to win a heart, let alone a marriage."

"We shall see"

"Would you like to place a bet on this? Who ever son wins the girls hand in marriage gets… well I have always had my eye on your spring home in Hawaii.

"I would personally like to get my hands on the extra land I know you are holding in Europe."

"Fine then it is a deal."

"Well I believe it is time to join the party once again, I want to go speak to Miss Fujioka, before the hour becomes too late and she leaves."

The sound of rustling could not break Haruhi from her trance. She was transfixed to where she was standing, staring at the door that at any moment would open, and the men would realize she had overheard everything. There was a noise in her ears which sounded like rushing water, and her legs were not responding. That's when she felt a strong hand that took hers and brought her back to her senses, Mori was pulling her away from the door.

Huni was already running ahead of the pair to check that the coast was clear. The last thing they wanted to do was run into any people of importance who would want to stop and chat. The pair wanted to sneak the stunned and hurt Haruhi away from the party as fast as they could. The hand in hers was leading her through the twisting corridors that originally lead them so deep into the mansion. Soon they found themselves once again in a sea of people, and it felt as if they were swimming against the current of the masses. The tall gentlemen made easy work swimming upstream through the people and bring Haruhi with him. In no time they were at the main doors and out into the street.

She felt Huni grab her other hand and pull her away from Kyoya's mansion at a quick pace, but her mind did not register what was really going on. She was working on to many ideas and facts at once. The last time she was like this was when Tamaki almost left for France with Eclair. Her mind was running through what she had overheard. The fathers of two of her closest friends, wanted to marry her into their families, which happened to be two of the most powerful around. That they were betting over her like she was a race horse. They were staking their sons, her friends, against each other to marry her, Haruhi, plain, commoner Haruhi. She didn't know how to feel, she was surprised, shocked, hurt but most of all angry. It was her anger that was winning in her conflict of emotions, she had always heard the expression seeing red but for the first time she was actually experiencing it.

Her two rescuers could feel the tension rising in her; they could see her face turn flush, and her eyes narrow. They exchanged glances with each other wondering what they could do to help their friend.

Then suddenly they stopped, arriving at their destination. The jolt of her lack of movement caused Haruhi to look up and she see that she was standing in the middle of a park, not to far from Ouran High. Her friends lead her to a bench and sat her down, where the anger inside her could no longer be controlled.

She bowed her head and started breathing quickly, rage building up inside of her, and angry tears pouring down her face. She felt as if the trust of her friends had been broken, but not by them, by their fathers. How would she be able to ever interact with either of them, knowing that they were really trying to win a bet for their fathers?

She didn't know what she could do; she did not have the slightest clue as to go about stopping this bet, without giving away the fact that she had overheard something she shouldn't have. She didn't know how she could get away from two of the most powerful families around; they had their hands in everything, including her education and future. As she discovered her helplessness her tears of anger slowly became tears of confusion and then finally pure sadness.

"What will I do?" she asked the pair of sat on either side of her, Huni was holding her hand and Mori's arm was draped behind her. "How can I escape those men, and their bet? There is nothing I can do, is there? Nothing I can do to get away. They don't even understand marriage, using it as a tool, and using me as a toy. They are right that marriage is about friendship and respect but you need to have both for the marriage not one or the other. And at the moment I feel neither respect nor friendship to either of their families or their sons.

She breathed deeply letting out the last bit of anger. She felt drained and lost then added weakly "But most importantly marriage is about love, and love can not be built with out either friendship or respect. I refuse to become a prize for the Ohtori and the Suoh."

The last part took the last of her will power and strength to say, and she gave into the warmth that she felt around her shoulders. She closed her eyes and leaned into the warmth falling asleep, with tear streaks still on her cheek. What she didn't realize was that warmth that she was falling into was actually Mori's chest, and she had no memories of ever being carried home in his arms.

Huni watched his cousin softly carrying their distressed and sleeping friend. While he was never known for his size or for his keen observation skills, one thing he did know was his cousin, and he saw the look of pain in his eyes. While Mori wasn't looking down at Haruhi, instead looking out in front of them, the blonde knew his cousin's mind was engaged in trying to think of a plan to help the girl.

He too was running ideas through his head that could help remedy the situation; he had no come up with one by the time they reached Haruhi's home. Her father was there waiting, it was his night off work and he had been waiting for Haruhi to be home half an hour ago. He was about to call Kyoya when he saw his daughter being carried into his apartment.

Huni sat and explained the situation to Haruhi's father, while Mori took the sleeping girl to her room. The party, the overhearing of the bet, and his daughter's response, Haruhi's father absorbed it all in a very similar way as Haruhi, and almost with as many tears too.

Mori appeared back in the living room after setting Haruhi out on her bed and Mr. Fujioka disappeared to change his daughter out of her dress and into something all more comfortable for her to be sleeping in.

"I would do anything to help" Huni said determinedly to his taller counterpart.

"So would I Mitsukuni, so would I" Mori said in a sad voice.

That was when an idea stuck Huni and once Haruhi's father returned, he wanted Mr. Fujioka's opinion.

"I won't let either of them play like this with my daughter, what is your plan?"

The three spent the next hour in a deep discussion before the two cousins left for a few hours of sleep.