Summary: Haruhi didn't exactly become the great lawyer she wanted to be and she's lost contact with the host club members. What happens when the twins contact her for the first time needing her help? Haruhi/Hikaru or Haruhi/Twins (not sure which yet).

Warning: This will likely have lemons in later chapters. If you don't like that, don't read.

Disclaimer: I don't own, if I did Haruhi/Hikaru would be a canon couple.

.oO***Oo.

Haruhi sat in her tiny, unair-conditioned office working quietly. She had succeeded in her dream of becoming a lawyer like her mother but the dream wasn't all it was cracked up to be. She wasn't some big time lawyer who made millions, her name wasn't in the paper every day, she didn't get to pick and choose her clients.

That was one of the reasons she quickly got out of criminal law. Her first criminal case had been a burglary and the man she'd represented had been guilty. Oh she'd gotten him off, she would have lost her job if she hadn't, but she had trouble living with the guilt when the next time he came before a judge it was for murder. "Burglary gone wrong" is what the press called it, her name was never mentioned but that didn't stop the guilt from eating at her for months afterward.

Her desk was small but that didn't stop her from having one or two pictures displayed. One of her and Ranka at her graduation from college and one of the Host Club before it disbanded, it was one of the rare photos where she was dressed like a girl with the rest of them. Originally she'd displayed one of the more common ones where she had been dressed as a boy but the clients questioned her and her boss had told her to take it down.

Feeling particularly nostalgic, she picked up the picture and studied their faces. Haruhi couldn't help but wonder what they were like now; she hadn't seen most of them since a couple months before she'd graduated Ouran University. They'd fought over something so insignificant she couldn't even remember anymore. Did they still remember her? Their little commoner friend who cross-dressed as a boy from freshman year of high school until she graduated college? If they remembered her or cared about how she was doing they certainly didn't make it known, she hadn't heard from them in over 5 years. How old would that make them all now? The twins would be her age, 27, Tamaki and Kyoya 28, and Honey and Mori would be 29.

She smiled sadly trying to imagine what their lives were like now. Honey had opened his own bakery and toy stores with Mori's help, that she knew because there was one right down the street from her office. He'd made Usa-chan the mascot and logo for the company. She'd heard that Kyoya had started his own business under another name that had eventually bought out his father's medical group when he hadn't allowed him to succeed the company. She hadn't heard much about Tamaki or the twins though.

Tamaki had rather avoided her after they'd broken up after university. For all his pomp and circumstance, he'd brushed her under the rug as soon as his grandmother asked him to. "Commoner trash" she'd called her. What hurt the most was that Tamaki hadn't even defended her, just given her a sad, apologetic look as she walked out of his life forever. Any contact she'd had with Kyoya had been cut off after that, he made it obvious where his loyalties laid, not that she was surprised. There was no merit in siding with her.

The twins though… They'd remained good friends until busy schedules had driven them apart. Hikaru studied under his father to take over his father's software company, Kaoru studied under his mother to take over her line and create one of his own, and Haruhi had to study for her bar exam.

(AN: For those who don't know, the bar exam is basically the lawyer's certification test)

A knock on her door drove Haruhi out of her reverie. Huh, funny she should think of them all of a sudden… Maybe she should try getting a hold of them again, it had been a while since she'd tried last and Kaoru and Hikaru had always been her best friends through high school and college.

Haruhi set the picture down on her desk in its proper place and prepared for her next case: a man suing his father's estate because he was disinherited. What was he expecting... his father wasn't even dead yet... She groaned, it was basically her job to tell the man that they were unlikely to win but should he wish to pursue the matter Ohashi & Goda (the law firm she worked for) would be more than happy to represent him… for a hefty price.

That evening when Haruhi walked in the door of her two bedroom apartment, she went right to her room and dug up her box full of pictures from high school. She looked over picture after picture, recalling old memories. Oh how she wished she could go back to that time. The world was much simpler then and she still looked forward to a life of fighting for the poor, defending the innocent, righting all the wrongs in society.

Now look at her.

Fighting the good fight and defending the innocent were all well and good but she had bills to pay and the innocent were too often poor. Pro bono work doesn't pay the rent or put food in her stomach. So now at the age of 27 she was working for some fat, greedy git who charges ridiculous rates and makes as much as he can of his clients. At least he paid well. Not the best but certainly nothing to scoff at.

What was the cost of her morals, her pride, and her dreams, you ask?

$75,000 a year plus benefits.

Haruhi sighed, maybe she should find another job? One that would at least allow her to be a bit pickier or not gouge her clients? She certainly had enough saved she could live off it for quite some time while she found another, but no, undoubtedly any job she found would be just as bad… No, she would stick with her morally bankrupt boss for now. At least that way she was financially secure.

Financially secure and hungry, it was past dinner time.

Haruhi had just put the chicken in the frying pan with the phone rang. Grumbling about people needing to learn a sense of timing, she answered and quickly returned to the stove to keep the chicken from burning.

"Haruhi?" She paused her stirring… that voice was familiar but she couldn't place it.

"Yes, what can I do for you?"

"Its Kaoru and Hikaru…" Haruhi frowned as she took the chicken out of the pan and placed it on the waiting plate. Kaoru's voice sounded so… broken.

"Funny you called, I was just thinking about you two today. How are you? How's Hikaru?"

"Haruhi, we're in trouble. We need your help."

At this, Haruhi laughed. "What'd you do? Take one of your pranks too far and finally piss off someone with the ability to do something about it?"

"Our parents are dead." The laughter died in her throat. "And due to a 'technicality' our aunt has inherited both our mother's and father's companies as well as their entire estate. All we have is the money that was in our name when it happened."

"Oh, Kaoru... When did this happen?" she asked sadly. She had liked Yuzuha and Seiryo (AN: I don't know the dad's name so I made one up).

"About two weeks ago, did you hear about the plane that crashed on its way back from the Bahamas? We managed to keep it out of the news that that was our private jet. We found out this morning about the technicality." Haruhi couldn't help but wonder why they didn't call her sooner but knew better than to question, if they didn't want her there than it wasn't her place to question them. "Haruhi, we don't know what to do and we don't have anyone else to turn to, all our relatives kinda hate us... Can you help us?"

"If that's what you want, of course I'll help you... but if you know enough to get a hold of my home phone number surely you realize I'm not exactly the big wig lawyer I planned on being. Don't you want a lawyer with a big record?"

"See that's the thing... Like I said, all we have is the money that was in our names when it happened. We barely have enough to live off of let alone hire an expensive lawyer. We probably won't be able to pay you unless we win our inheritance back," Kaoru informed her.

Ah, that would explain it then. They were contacting her because she was their last option. Wait... "Barely have enough to live off of, where are you two staying tonight?" Absently she wondered if they 'barely had enough to live off of' like they were used to living or living like the rest of us were.

"Probably a hotel or something. We haven't really gotten that far."

Well at least they had grown up a bit over the years. Had this been high school or even college they would have simply shown up at her door and assumed it was ok to stay with her. "Nonsense. Where are you? You can stay here tonight."

"We're at the door."

Haruhi sighed, "What door?" A knock at her door answered her question. She opened it to reveal two disheveled, tired looking twins. Ok, so maybe they hadn't matured that much since college. She stood aside indicating they could come in and they did so, heading straight to her couch. "You look tired."

"And hungry," they both informed her and she sighed. They definitely hadn't matured much since college.

"I just finished dinner, come on." She led them to the kitchen table and got out two extra plates and silverware. Fortunately, she had made extra so she'd have leftovers so there was enough for three of them.

She unfolded the mattress from her couch, grateful she'd gotten a sleeper-sofa for when her father came to visit, and got two pillows from the hall closet. Both twins merely watched as she put the sheets on the mattress and made up the bed for them.

It didn't take much convincing to get them to go to bed right after dinner. Once she had them tucked into the bed she went to her office (which was really just the second bedroom with office furniture in it). She worked in there until it was her own bedtime.