A/N: OH HEY. Guess I decided to start writing again after all? I had a free night, so I'm using it while I can, cause my week is all booked for the foreseeable future. So after rolling around on my bed for 5 minutes yelling "DERP!", I finally got off of my butt and decided to be productive. And instead, I wrote this :D *bricked* But seriously. This took me a while to come up with, hence the lacking of updates.

Also, no, this wasn't put on hiatus! D: The last chapter was just a notice as to the possible lack of fast updates.

And you can also add another thing onto the list of why I haven't posted this yet: Anime! *hit by traffic cone* I started watching 4 different animes recently: Bleach (Left off on ep. 7), Death Note (ep. 2), K-ON! (Finished season 1 earlier today, looking for season 2) and Vampire Knight (I read most of the manga, and I left off when *SPOILER* Yuuki finds out she's Kaname's vampire sistah and they proceed with teh incest, *END SPOILER* and I left off on ep. 4).

DISCLAIMER APPLIES HERE. Derp derp derp.

Enough with this note! On with the story!

"Hello? Earth to Haruhi? Are you still with us?" Blinking, Haruhi finally noticed the hand waving in front of her face, attached to one of the twins, both of whom were staring at her, confused about the spacey look on her face.

"Huh? Oh, sorry. I got a little lost in thought for a moment."

"Is that all you commoners ever do is think? Don't you have people to do that for you?"

"Oh, shut it Hikaru. That joke got old before you said it." The annoyed tone in her voice must have been enough to get the troublemakers to back off for once. Sighing, she pushed herself off of the wall she was still leaning on. "Anyway, I should probably be going. I still have to go to the market before the sale ends tomorrow."

"But Haruuuhiiiii, you haven't met our new friends yet!" Tamaki complained dramatically, as the trio of foreigners stood there, looking a bit embarrassed by all the attention they had received so far.

The taller one – Al, was it? – stepped forward. "Don't worry about it; we can get to know each other later!" He said, grinning. "Besides, we still have to unpack." The short one – Ed? It was going to take a while to get used to the foreign names- groaned at the prospect of unlading boxes, but Winry nudged him in the side, effectively silencing him.

"Oh, you shouldn't have to do that; give me a second and I'll have a team of movers here to-"

"That's okay, Tamaki!" Al refused. "But thank you for the offer though, that's very generous of you." Haruhi mentally rolled her eyes; if only Alphonse knew how much he was stroking Tamaki's already too-big ego.

"But it's no big deal at all, I think I have one on speed dial-"

"Tamaki, maybe you guys should just let them unpack already?" Tamaki looked over at her with the face of a scolded puppy. Sighing, she added "I'll let you go to the market with me if you'll leave them alone," even knowing she would regret it.

Tamaki's face lit up at that; he had such an odd obsession with anything related to being a 'commoner.' "You heard her men, to the market!" Honey and the twins cheered, following Tamaki as he made a mad dash down the stairs, and nearly running into him when he suddenly stopped, halfway down the steps. Turning around, he looked back up at Haruhi.

"Haruhi… Where's the market at?"

Sighing, Haruhi ran a hand through her short hair. She still didn't understand why she continued to be part of this crazy group. Making her way over to the stairs, she hid a small smile from the group. As much as she disliked admitting it, she really had grown attached to the eccentric group of teenage boys.

"Just follow me, okay? And don't get distracted and run off again like last time either!"

Silently, Ed thanked Haruhi for taking his crazy cousin off of their hands. As the group left, he turned around picking up the apartment key from the ground where it fell when Tamaki attacked him. Unlocking the door, he stuck his head inside.

"Huh, strange place Mustang picked out," he said, walking inside and flipping on the light switch, blinking as his eyes adjusted to the bright fluorescent lights. The first thing he noticed was that the apartment was already furnished with any essentials they might need; the rest they could go buy after they finished settling in.

The second thing that stood out was the floor. The part closest to the door was lower than the rest of it. There were a few pairs of slippers near the ledge, one for each person.

"What's up with the floor?" Al's question mirrored his thoughts exactly.

Winry walked in then, carrying her bags and a suitcase, no doubt filled to the brim with Automail parts. "Oh, I've seen this before! It was in one of the cultural pamphlets I picked up at the airport. You're supposed to take your shoes off and wear slippers or go barefoot inside the house. I'm not sure why exactly, the pamphlet didn't explain that part." Setting the bags down, she bent down to take her shoes off. "There were a couple other odd customs too, like if the floor has a tatami mat, you have to be either barefoot or only have socks on, so you won't damage it. They even have special slippers for use in just the bathroom."

"It seems to me like this country is obsessed with footwear," Ed muttered. "It's all so strange; I don't see why it matters what you wear in your own house." Turning around, he headed back to the cab to get the rest of the bags.

Alphonse took off his shoes and found a pair of slippers, stepping into the room and walking down into the hallway to see the other rooms. There were two bedrooms, one for him and Ed, and another for Winry. There was also a bathroom, a dining room, and one small empty room that they could probably turn into something else later on. The rooms were all about the same size, and barely furnished. It was a good thing they would still have access to Ed's military funds. And if Ed complained, they could always get a reimbursement later. After all, this was a mission, and it was necessary for them all to blend in, so if certain furnishings were needed for the mission to be successful, then so be it.

Ed came back in a few moments later, with the rest of the bags, dropping them rather noisily on the wooden floor before kicking his shoes off and walking to the room, flopping down onto a couch. "Well, that's all the bags; what now?" he asked, propping his feet up on the short table in front of the couch.

Winry glared at him. "Geez Ed, we've only been here for half an hour! Can you try to act civilized for the first day at least?" Ed rolled his eyes, but complied and took his feet off the table.

Turning around, Winry dug through one of her bags, pulling out three copies of what looked like some sort of instruction manual, and handed one each to Ed and Al. "Here, read these. Lieutenant Hawkeye gave them too me before the plane took off; they're the school's handbook."

Al was impressed. "It's pretty big for a handbook. What all could they have put in here I wonder," he said, flipping through the pages, trying to make sense of the confusing kanji characters scattered on the paper. "I think this chapter might be a list of rules… and this one is a list of the classes."

Ed looked over at Al's book before flipping to the same page. "Yeah, it is a class list. I wonder what they offer as electives here." Ed slowly read through the list, translating in his mind, but stopping on the middle of the page. After staring at the same two or three characters for a minute, he tapped Al on the shoulder. "Hey, do you have any idea what this says?"

Al leaned over and looked at the words. "I think that says it's a mechanics class."

At the mere mention of the word 'mechanics,' Winry began to squeal. "Oh I was hoping they would have a class like this! Japan is famous for having some of the most advanced electronics and mechanics in all of Asia!" Ed automatically tuned her out as she continued to talk to herself about all the exciting things she might learn to help her with her Automail business, choosing to go back to the list of electives.

"Let's see… Cooking, art, classical music… Don't they have anything else here? I've seen public high schools with better elective options than this!"

Al just shrugged. "Well, it is a school for the rich. Obviously the cultural difference would call for more refined activities." Turning a few pages ahead, Al began to browse the list of after school clubs. "They may not have many good electives, but they do have so interesting clubs! They have a kendo and a judo club, so they obviously must have a few students talented in martial arts."

Ed scoffed. "They're probably not anywhere near as talented as sensei is. She'd probably kick all of their butts in a matter of minutes!" Al shuddered. Although he didn't comment, he did agree with that face; their teacher was a force to be reckoned with.

"They also have a science club. And one for art, one for music, and… a host club? What's a host club?"

Winry stopped obsessing about Automail long enough to reply. "Isn't that what your cousin called all of his friends, the host club? Maybe you could ask one of them," she said, going straight back to her Automail fantasies.

However, before either brother could reply, a knock sounded at the door. Ed was too busy complaining about his inability to read Japanese, and Winry was too deep in thought to have noticed the knock, so Al went to answer the door.

"Hello?" He asked, peaking around the opening of the door to see who it was. Thankfully, he recognized her. "Oh, hello Haruhi!"

Haruhi smiled. "Hello, Alphonse. I just came by to see how you guys were adjusting. It must be pretty tough to have to learn the culture of another country in such a short time."

Al laughed. "Actually, I think my brother is the one having the hardest time. For someone usually so smart, he just can't seem to understand written Japanese." Stepping back, Al opened the door wider. "Come on inside, Haruhi!"

Winry looked up from the handbook, tilting her head backwards to get a view of the doorway, "Oh, Haruhi! Nice to see you again. How are you?"

"I've been better," she sighed, stepping into the apartment and taking her shoes off. "Those idiots wore me out; dragging me down every single aisle of that supermarket."

"Why were you at the supermarket?" Al asked, confused. "I thought rich people had personal shoppers."

Haruhi looked over at Al for a moment, a bit taken aback by the question. "Oh, no, I'm not rich! Not even close!" She added with a small laugh.

Ed stopped ranting at the handbook long enough to jump into the conversation. "Then what's with the uniform? I thought everyone at Ouran was some stuck-up rich bastard." Al glared at him for his use of language, before turning back to Haruhi.

"Actually, I'm a scholarship student, like you three. I was able to attend Ouran for my brains instead of my wealth, which I guess is pretty lucky, considering they rarely give scholarships out." Haruhi leaned up against the wall. "I don't have a car and chauffer, or maids and butlers working in a mansion. I actually live in this apartment building too, a few rooms away, just me and my dad. It's been that way almost as long as I can remember, ever since my mother past away."

"Well, I guess we can relate on that," Al said with a sad look. Ed just stiffened, turning his attention back to the book. "Our mother passed away when I was 9, and our father had left us while I was too young to remember him."

"Wow, that is tough. Where did you stay after that?" The question was innocent enough, but Haruhi could sense that the brothers and their friend really didn't seem to want to talk about it.

"We, ah, stayed with Winry and her grandmother. They were nice enough to take us in. After about a year though, we moved to Central City, to attend the Amestrian military school. Winry came to join us about two years later, since Resembool, the town we're from, is rather small and a bit far behind in education standards." Al responded with the background story Mustang had created for the mission.

Haruhi seemed to buy the story. "So, what's it like in Amestris? Is it different from Japan?" She asked, hoping to change the subject to something a little less mood-dampening.

"Oh, it's very different!" Winry exclaimed. "Amestris is so quaint and old fashioned, but Japan is so advanced! The cars and airplanes, the building structures, computers and phones, it's so amazing!" Haruhi noticed that she had a bit of a dreamy look n her eyes as she listed all the ways Japan was more advanced than her home. "It's just such a shame that you don't have Automail here. Then it would be perfect, even better than Rush Valley!"

"Automail? What's that?" Haruhi asked. Winry noticed her mistake too late, covering her mouth while Ed glared at her for screwing things up. Automail was one of those technologies that Amestris kept on the down-low, a secret for their own citizens. The neighboring countries knew what it was, but none of them knew how it worked, and it was near impossible for foreigners to get a license to learn how to make it.

Fortunately, Al came to the rescue again. "Automail is just a type of prosthesis. Winry's parents were doctors, so she's always held an interest in that kind of thing." He managed to explain, without giving out too many details.

Haruhi seemed to get the hint that whatever it really was, it was something they shouldn't talk about. "So, what else is different? Culture-wise, to be specific," she clarified.

"Well, for one thing, we don't have this crazy floor system," Ed complained, barely loud enough to hear, although he shut up again when he saw the metallic flash of Winry's wrench from the corner of his eyes.

Had this been an anime, Al would have had at least a thousand sweat drops fall down his face at this point. "Aside from the floors, we're a military state. Most people who don't run a business of their own work for the military to defend our country. Our last leader passed away during a riot, and since then, many other countries have been trying to take advantage of all the pandemonium." Al figured it was safe to say that much; it was nothing a quick search online wouldn't have told her anyway,

"What about your hometown, Resembool was it? Is it a busy city or rural?" Ed stiffened again; he knew that she wasn't trying to pry, but just talking about home still brought back bad memories.

"Well, it's definitely rural. Our main export is probably sheep's wool." Ed replied, trying to make an effort to be social. "It's one of those small towns where everyone knows everyone, and therefore they know everyone's business. Like Al said, the school's pretty far behind. It's really just a small one-room schoolhouse, but considering most of us grew up to take over family farms, there wasn't much of a call for a degree in something like quantum physics." There was a small hint of homesickness in his voice, as much as Edward would deny it.

"There wasn't much to do there, so we usually ended up making up all sorts of crazy games. Anything from simple stuff like hide and seek, to games like tag where all the kids in the village played." Al picked up where Ed left off. "It may not have been the most exciting place to live, but it was better than Central in my opinion. Central was crazy then, what with the rebellions in Ishval."

"Ishval? Where's that?"

"It's one of the regions of Amestris, in the west. It used to be a separate country, but the military annexed it in. In a nutshell, the Ishvalans were upset with that, and that's what lead to the Ishvalan rebellion." Al replied. "But enough about our home, can you tell us anything about Japan?"

"Sure, why not?" Haruhi shrugged. "But what do you want to know?"

"Well, would you mind explaining what the host club is?" Ed asked, pointing to the club name in the handbook.

Haruhi walked over and picked up the book, reading over the list. "I still can't believe that Kyoya-Senpai convinced the school to actually list us as a club," she muttered, hand the book back to Ed. "It's a pretty useless club. All we ever do is waste money to flirt with girls, who actually spend money for the false compliments. In short, it's a waste of time."

"It's a club… to flirt with girls?" Al asked, somewhat confused. "That does seem somewhat odd… But then, why did you join? Not that I have anything against that!" he hastily added, hoping not to seem rude.

"I originally joined because I had a debt to the club. I… accidentally knocked over a vase worth eight million yen," she explained, somewhat sheepishly. "I've paid the debt off, but even If I did leave at this point, I'm sure Tamaki would probably come up with another excuse to follow me around."

"Wow, impressive debt," Ed whistled. "But if you really wanted him to leave you alone, you probably could have just told him off."

"Yeah, I suppose, but I've got too much free time as it is. At least this way I'm able to have some fun instead of sitting at home, bored out of my mind." Haruhi pushed herself off the wall and walked towards the door. "Anyway, I should probably get going now. I didn't mean to intrude like this, you guys probably still have a bunch of unpacking to do. Sorry for the interruption!"

"Oh, don't worry about it!" Winry said cheerfully. "It's nice to know we won't be alone at Ouran at least, or here in the apartment either!"

Al nodded. "Thanks for stopping by!" Haruhi waved, heading out the door for her own apartment, and Al turned around and yawned before heading for one for the bedrooms. "Well, I don't know about you two, but I'm beat. I'm going to head to bed early, see you in the morning."

Winry stood up and stretched before heading to her own bedroom. "That actually does sound like a good idea Al. I'll see you two in the morning."

Ed stood up and followed suit as well, not bothering to change as he flopped down on his bed in his and Al's room. "So, tomorrow's our first day, right Al?"

Al rolled over on his bed to face his brother. "Yeah, I guess it is. I'm actually a little nervous, what about you?"

Ed shrugged, though it wasn't noticeable when he was lying down. "Not really. I'm more worried about all of the insane crap Tamaki's going to make us do. I swear, if I had known he went to Ouran, I would have turned down this mission in a heartbeat."

"Oh, I'm sure we'll be fine brother. Tamaki won't be able to force us to do anything against our will."

"Yeah, " Ed agreed. "But I still can't wait to see how tomorrow turns out," he added sarcastically.

A/N: OMFG. IT'S FINALLY DONE. ;A;

I had such a bad case of writer's block. I started this on Saturday, and didn't finish until late at night on Monday. I was too lazy to update the author's note at the beginning though. I want to post this before I end up falling asleep at the keyboard, so sorry, no review replies today, I'll add them for the next chapter though! Sorry for the long wait, but hopefully the next chapter will come sooner since I actually have some ideas for it. I did my best to make this one long, but I have a feeling I was just rambling through most of it. ._. Anyway, R n' R, por favor! :3

Also, I have a beta for this story now! Thanks to Insanity Drives for taking the job! I didn't have this chapter beta'd, but from this point on, he'll be checking over this crap for me! owo