Chapter One

"Okay, Tama-Chan, you can let go now!" Honey giggled at a sobbing Tamaki, who was clutching Honey's tiny arm in sorrow.

"H-Honey!" Tamaki moaned. "Dear, s-sweet, naïve Honey! You don't know the dangers of the world! There are people out there who would eat a little boy like you up!"

"Tama-Chan, I'm older than you!"

"Still, as your king, I know much, much more about this hazardous world than you do! Once, I even ventured all the way to a-"(Tamaki gulped, a look of supreme horror on his face), "Convenience store! It was awful! Men who looked like they wanted to hurt me were everywhere, and have I even mentioned the smells? The horror! I-"

"Tamaki,' Mori spoke as he laid a large, capable hand on Tamaki's shoulder. "Mitsukuni will be fine. He will only be gone for the day." "

Don't tell me you're not even going with him!" Tamaki cried, launching himself into Mori's arms while somehow still managing to hold on to Honey.

"Mitsukuni and I agreed that he needs to learn how to do things without me." Honey smiled and popped a sphere of orange candy into his mouth. Mori managed to pry Tamaki off of Honey's jacket, and turned to address him.

"Mitsukuni will be fine." Mori said gruffly. Tamaki gave one last lecture about the dangers of calling women with weapons 'Princess' before slithering away and sulking in his corner.

"Mitsukuni," Mori said softly. "You will be fine, won't you?"

"Yup! I have Usu-Chan with me! But Takashi… I'll miss you…" Without a word, Mori scooped Honey into his arms and gave him a large, loving hug. When he set him down, Honey looked up into Mori's face, his eyes beginning to fill with tears. Tenderly, Mori smoothed Honey's hair back and, making sure Tamaki wasn't watching, kissed the small boy gently on the forehead. Just as Mori's lips lifted off of Honey's forehead, there was the loud sound of a horn honking.

"That's my bus!" Honey declared, gathering Usu-Chan and a small bag into his arms. "I'm off to the Sohma Hot Springs! Bye-Bye Takashi! Bye-Bye Tama-Chan!" With a cheery wave, Honey skipped out the doors of Ouran Academy and into the cheerful spring day. The sun beat warmly at his back as he crossed the beautiful Rose gardens and headed toward the large, sleek white van parked in the street beyond. As he boarded the vehicle, Honey was greeted by four others sitting around and chatting lightly.

"Why hello there!" A girl with long brown hair and smiling blue eyes greeted him warmly.

"Hi, my name is Honey and this is Usa-Chan!" Honey said, holding out Usa-Chan for all to see.

"You can go sit up front, Honey! There's more room up there and you don't have to listen to Kyo blabber on all about how he fought bears." A grinning boy who bore an uncanny resemblance to Honey invited.

"That's it, ya little punk!" A red-headed boy cried as he pounced on the smaller boy. Faint cries of "whaaaaaah, Kyo's hitting me!" Echoed through the back of the van.

Honey plopped into the passenger's seat next to a frantically apologizing woman and promptly fell asleep.

"That little boy was really cute!" Tohru exclaimed after the fighting had calmed down. "You know, he looked a lot like Momiji…"

"So you think I'm cute than, Tohru?" Momiji inquired.

"Well, of course!" Tohru responded brightly.

"Hear that?" Momiji demanded. "Tohru thinks I'm cute! Tohru thinks I'm cute! She thinks I'm cuter than either of you!" Kyo jumped up and Yuki looked away and blushed.

"Why would I care who she thinks is cute?!" Kyo demanded, edging ever closer to Momiji.

"Whaaaaaa, Kyo's scaring me!" Momiji whined, burying his face in Tohru's lap.

"Get off 'er, ya little runt!" Kyo roared, practically jumping on Momiji and Tohru. Tohru squealed and tried to remove Kyo from a crying Momiji. Yuki, hearing Tohru's cry, leapt into action and yanked Kyo and Momiji off, dispensing them onto the floor.

"When will you two ever grow up? Stupid Cat, jumping on a lady like that! Where are your manners? And Momiji, just please be quiet and sit down." Momiji did as he was told, (and only sniffling pitifully twice), took a seat across from Tohru.

"Yeah, Kyo, you pervert! Doing that to a lady!" Momiji chimed in after several minutes of silence; apparently realizing no one was noticing his tears. Kyo was in mid pounce when Yuki grabbed his collar and slammed him against the cheap metal wall, their noses almost touching.

"I said stop." There was something in the way Yuki's violet eyes flashed that made Kyo, if only for a moment, stare dumbstruck at him.

"G-get off me ya damn Rat!" Kyo demanded upon finding his voice. Yuki released Kyo, who glared murderously after him as he walked calmly away. As you can very well guess, the following thirty minutes were spent in silence.

Honey smiled softly in his sleep, his face a mask of pleasure.

"I wonder what he's dreaming about…" Shigure (whose eyes really should have been on the road) said softly to Ritsu.

"He does look happy," Ritsu replied thoughtfully, his lovely caramel eyes gazing down at Honey. The van began to drift slowly sideways as the two chatted idly about dreams.

"Once I had a dream where I married one of Tohru's little high school girl friends! It was odd, bur I enjoyed it because we-"

"SHIGURE THERES A TREE!" Ritsu shrieked, and Shigure snatched the wheel and veered sharply to the right, narrowly missing the offending tree but crashing roughly into another car, causing the van to nearly cave in. The van swayed precariously before emitting a large cloud of black smoke. "Oh dear! I'm so sorry! I distracted you! I don't deserve to live on this planet anymore! I-"

"Ritsu, I'll go check on the children. You make sure our visitor is alright." Ritsu nodded and Shigure leapt out of the van, his coat swirling in the smoke. He yanked open the door to the back seats and took a breath before looking in, afraid of what he could see. "Yuki?! Kyo?! Momiji?! Tohru?!" No response. Shigure hesitated before diving into the smoky entrails that, only moments before, were the back seats.

"Shigure…?" A voice cut through the smoke.

"Yes! Yuki? Thank goodness! I was afraid I was going to have to buy another passport and flee town!"

"Shigure you idiot," Yuki muttered.

"Is everybody alright?"

"Yes, we're fine…" Yuki replied, his face coming into view, quickly followed by Kyo, Tohru and Momiji. Kyo had a scrape on his cheek, Momiji was crying, and they all had a pretty bad cough, but they appeared to have no serious injuries.

"Excellent," Shigure exclaimed. "I was so worried about you children. I wouldn't be able to live with myself if one of you had been hurt because of me. Now, who wants ice cream?" Momiji, immediately forgetting that he was supposed to be crying, leapt on Shigure with a happy squeak. "I see Momiji would like some! Anyone else?" Kyo glared at the now grinning Shigure, Yuki shrugged impassively, and Tohru went on and on about how she couldn't possibly let Shigure pay for it.

"Wait, how are we supposed to get there when ya crashed the damn van?!" Kyo grumbled, his temper flaring.

"Well… I suppose we'll hitch-hike!" Shigure said a bit too happily.

Chapter Two