Edit on 03/06/12: I've gone back over the story and used my enhanced knowledge of grammar to clean up this old piece of mine. I haven't added anything new or removed any parts that were there before, but hopefully it reads a little nicer. Thank you so much to all my dear reviewers :)

The idea for this story sprung from a very interesting observation that I made about Ouran High School Host Club: The rich people constantly go on and on about how terrible it must be to live as a commoner, how it would be impossible for such a person to truly understand their high society world. At the same time, they themselves are too absorbed with their own ridiculous rumors, fantasies, and delusions to understand anything about the world outside their gilded walls.

The students of Ouran High School are completely detached from reality. They don't believe that anyone could truly find happiness and satisfaction from things like hard work and having a casual life.

But what exactly do "commoners" think of them in return?

Commoner Pride

Contrary to popular belief, Haruhi did stay in touch with her friends from junior high. Someone as well liked as she had been didn't have any trouble getting to know people, and she didn't want to lose those dear connections just because they now attended different schools. Besides, enrolling in an elite academy where there was no chance that she would know anyone could be intimidating and lonely. It made sense, when surrounded by a foreign environment full of strangers, to want to maintain contact with friends who were familiar and comfortable.

Yeah, right. This was Haruhi. She was never fazed by anything.

"Haruhi-kun, is it really true that you shop in a…grocery market?"

"A commoner store! I've heard that it's so small and dirty in places like those, and that suspicious people are always lurking around!"

"N-No, it's really not as terrible as that…"

Still, it was always nice to have people around who knew and understood you, who really appreciated you for who you were, which was unfortunately completely impossible for the "common folk" in Ouran High School. That was why Haruhi chose to stay in touch with her old friends. It helped her hold onto her sanity.

That wasn't to say that it was easy. First she had to juggle classes and host club duties with taking care of her father and maintaining their home. Even more importantly, she had to make sure that she kept up with her studies; her scholarship depended on her high grade point average, and if it fell too far then she would lose her spot at the school. That was probably the most difficult part, what with all the strange outings that the host club always arranged.

Sometimes it was worth it, though, to free up just a half-hour every other day and talk on the phone with someone, to rant about the rich bastards and all their oddities. It was important to be able to do that.

"What? My lovely daughter goes to bad places like that?"

Haruhi closed her eyes and sighed. She had long since learned that whenever Tamaki got started, he was already on a roll. At this point, it was best to simply tune him out and leave him to his fantasy world until he decided to revisit earth. Letting his loud voice filter into the background where it was nothing more than a stream of distant babbling, the little hostess gazed out the window and wondered whether she would have any time to make a phone call that night…

OoOoOoOoO

Walking down the corridors of Ouran High School, a very peculiar person was drawing a lot of attention to herself. It was Saturday, a half-day of school with only the weekend ahead. As soon as classes had ended, this person had hopped on a train and traveled to the elite academy where she planned to spend her afternoon. Her presence alone earned her plenty of turned heads, considering how much she stood out with her traditional Japanese school uniform and the worn school bag that swung in her hand.

Haruhi was going to be so surprised! Technically, this person didn't even need to come to the school at all. She could have visited Haruhi at home or called her on the phone, but hearing all about this bizarre academy and a very strange club made her curious. She wanted to see it for herself.

And she was amazed. This school was so big and shiny! She'd never seen so much grand detail, so many expensive things, such refinement, and all in such a spacious and light atmosphere! It was simply overwhelming – and that was the excuse she was sticking to for why she couldn't find her way. She was not lost.

Finally, after asking several people for directions and making many, many wrong turns, the girl found herself standing in front of two large doors. The sign above them read quite simply, 3rd Music Room. If the directions that she received were genuine, then this was where Haruhi's club took place.

OoOoOoOoO

Rather than holding activities, Saturday was used as a planning session for the host club. The members met and discussed what they would be doing for the next week, and this was generally when any ideas for a themed occasion would be scheduled and shaped out. Haruhi sat on the couch and listened to Hunny's excited suggestion about something to do with stuffed animal decorations. Was he…really eighteen years old?

Just as she began to let her mind wander and think about how much studying she could get done if she was at home, an echoing click resounded from the main doors. The room fell silent and all heads turned in its direction. Customers weren't entertained on Saturday.

The door swung out just enough for whoever was there to step through. Everyone was quite surprised to see just who that was, but none more than Haruhi. The hosts saw an average girl of medium height with long, dark hair and dark eyes. She was pretty in a simple kind of way, especially with her plain school uniform and that worn out bag, and she was most definitely not from Ouran High School. A commoner.

Haruhi, however, saw someone entirely different. An old friend.

"Ah, excuse me," the girl began politely as she stood in the doorway. What sort of club was this? All the guys were so handsome! "I'm looking for Fujioka Haruhi. I was told that the club she participates in is held here."

"Akina?" Haruhi exclaimed and quickly stood up from the couch. For a moment, all Akina could do was stare. She recognized the voice, of course, but…

"Haruhi…?" she questioned incredulously. What seemed to be a small, feminine boy on the couch suddenly transformed into a boyishly dressed girl with short hair. It took a moment to comprehend the change.

The hosts in the meantime watched the two girls in a lost way, unsure of what to do with this latest development.

OoOoOoOoO

"Haruhi's friend?" the twins repeated in unison, tilting their heads in curiosity.

"That's right. I knew her in middle school, but she's changed so much since then." Akina smiled. She seemed to be the object of sudden fascination for all these boys, and for some strange reason, she couldn't shake away the feeling of museum-goers surveying a particularly rare and unusual object. Hm.

"All I did was cut my hair," Haruhi responded with a light, embarrassed smile in return. So much fuss over the way she looked.

Tamaki took this as his cue. Stepping in front of Akina, his well-practiced method of charm and flirtation quickly took charge. He held her hand delicately with a bow that was just slight enough to be coy yet deep enough to be gracious.

"It is the greatest honor," he began, "To meet a lady who has had the privilege of knowing Haruhi for a longer period than myself. Ever since Haruhi entered my life, the world has gained so much light and color that I wonder how I could have considered anything beautiful before that time. And yet…" Pausing here, he lifted his enticing, half-lidded eyes to hers, "To now know that I was deprived of two such visions makes my heart ache with sorrow. The world, which was merely beautiful before, is suddenly so glorious for your presence that my unworthy eyes cannot bear to see it."

Akina looked at the man in front of her with something akin to awe. Akin being the key word, because it wasn't quite him that she was fascinated with so much as his monologue.

"Wow…that was almost like a poem," she said with amazement. "Did you rehearse that? The bow, the look, the tone of voice - it's all so perfectly staged together!"

Tamaki stared at her blankly.

Akina turned to Haruhi excitedly, "Wasn't that great? Is this a drama club then? He's such a good performer!"

Haruhi once more smiled awkwardly, "Well, no, this is actually a-"

"It seems she isn't affected by milord's advances," the twins smirked deviously, stroking their chins in thought.

"Neither is Haruhi," Kyoya speculated thoughtfully, more to himself than the others. Pushing his glasses up on the bridge of his nose, he glanced at Akina. "Could it be…a trait amongst commoners?"

The suggestion immediately threw the rest of the hosts into complete shock. Without question, they all supposed that it must be true. And why not? There was a clear correlation, and the genius Kyoya surely knew of such things, right? Tamaki, of course, was the first to react to this latest discovery in his own melodramatic way.

"How terrible!" he cried, drawing the back of his wrist over his forehead tragically, "That commoners must suffer not only from a lack of money and refinement, which breaks the spirits of beautiful women forced to slave their days away in menial labor!"

Akina looked at him perplexedly. Haruhi sighed and glanced off to the side with disinterest.

"If that were not bad enough, the oppression of the simple folk takes away their ability to feel the fire and stimulation that give life its flavor! How tragic it is that only those who can afford a life of ease and comfort are capable of walking through it with open eyes, able to appreciate its beauty and the heavenly gifts that are given to them! Those who are untroubled by the need to earn money, wasting their talents in the pursuit of any tedious task they can find for a meager salary!"

Akina's eyebrow twitched and her grip on her school bag tightened. Haruhi, noticing this, turned back to her hesitantly.

"The miseries of the common folk are too heartbreaking!" Up until then, Tamaki's monologue had been accompanied by overly dramatic gestures and movements all around the room. At that point he returned to Akina and once more took her hand, this time in a solemn and sincerely sympathetic gesture.

"Princess, while you are within the prestigious halls of Ouran High School, please let it act as your sanctuary! Cast aside all your troubles and worries for this brief moment in time, so that you may feel the splendor of a dream. Even if it shall not last when you return to the wretched routine of everyday life, you will always carry the memory of an Eden that you knew once upon a time."

Unfortunately, Tamaki misunderstood the enraged flare in Akina's eyes for something else. Perhaps those worries and troubles that he was talking about.

"Is that really true, Akina-chan?" Hunny decided to speak up as well, tugging at her sleeve and tearing up sadly. "Do you really live like that? It sounds so terrible!"

He promptly began crying, and Mori obligatorily came to lay a large hand on his shoulder and mutter a monosyllabic word or two to cheer his cousin up. The twins meanwhile made some snide remark about commoners and their terrible luck. Akina didn't even listen to it; hearing what Tamaki had said was quite enough. At first, she thought that someone would stop him, ideally by jumping in and giving him the slap that he deserved. Instead they were following up on his idiotic rant!

She would not tolerate it anymore.

"Who do you think you are?" she yelled, making everyone around her jump in surprise. "How dare you talk about me in such an offensive way!"

Well, to say that the hosts were shocked was putting it lightly. They all stood together and watched the angry commoner speechlessly. Haruhi stood somewhat off to the side but was no less enraptured by the scene that was about to play out. Akina herself faced the hosts with shoulders squared, fists at her sides, head high, and an infuriated gaze locked on the group.

"When I came here, I expected to meet people with manners, who know how to treat others with respect! You're just a bunch of spoiled, rotten brats!"

STAB (spoiled, rotten brats)

"How dare you draw unfounded conclusions about the states of other people's lives? That shows the highest level of ignorance and impertinence that a human being can have!"

STAB (ignorance and impertinence)

"It's shameful and disgraceful to act in such an uncivilized way, insulting someone who's right in front of you!"

STAB (shameful and disgraceful) STAB (uncivilized)

Akina abruptly turned to her friend. "Haruhi! Just what kind of club is this, filled with such terrible people?"

STAB (terrible people)

Haruhi scratched her cheek, smiling nervously in an attempt to lighten what she was about to divulge. "Ah, well…you see…this is actually a host club."

Akina stared at her. "Host…club?"

"Yes, the girls at this school come to the host club for, er…companionship...of sorts. You see…I'm kind of indebted to them, and I'm working it off by performing as a host. That's also why I wear the boys' uniform."

If the hosts had hoped that this bit of news would placate the girl, they were dead wrong. If anything, she looked more horrified than before.

"Host club? Hosts are practically male prostitutes!"

STAB (male prostitutes)

"It's no wonder that they're so vulgar, then! Such suspicious people are forcing you to disguise yourself as a guy and flirt with women? Are they threatening you with unspeakable things if you don't comply? That's disgusting!"

STAB (vulgar) STAB (suspicious people) STAB (disgusting)

"You shouldn't be involved with such a dishonorable club like this, full of disreputable men!"

As though she had summoned it herself, a bolt of lightning streamed into the room and struck through each of the hosts. When it disappeared as suddenly as it came, what was left could have been mistaken for a pile of corpses lying in the center of the 3rd music room.

"D-Dishonorable club…disreputable men…" Tamaki mumbled almost incoherently. Akina might as well have plowed him over with a train. His great club, his pride and joy, completely discredited. His entire character and existence thrown down into the dumpster in one fell swoop. The other hosts around him were all in similar states.

All except for Haruhi, of course.

"N-No, it's really not as terrible as that…" she tried to say, feeling the distinct sensation of déjà vu.

She couldn't help but sigh in exasperation for the umpteenth time. As Akina grabbed her wrist and dragged her away from the disreputable men, though, she couldn't help but to glance back at them.

'Well, they do kind of deserve it. At least now they know what it's like.'

Before she even managed to finish that thought, Ouran's hostess was whisked away from the club, leaving the pile of defeated rich bastards behind. It certainly was nice to have good friends she could turn to.

"The hosts hold themselves above the mundane lives of commoners with their strong beliefs in chivalry and honor. One day they meet a commoner who holds herself above the rich bastards, who seem to be self-serving and completely uncouth. Somewhere there was a misunderstanding."

That was basically the inspiration for this piece. I hope you all enjoyed it and saw the humor - please review to give me any thoughts or constructive criticisms. Thank you for reading!