At what price,love?

Chapter 18

"That's all you're taking?"

Haruhi looked at the small carry-on sitting on the bed in her old apartment next to the open, almost packed suitcase. It was odd; the apartment didn't quite feel like home anymore. Neither did Osaka. Maybe she didn't have a home anymore. The closest she'd come was when all six of the guys had dropped her off at Fuyumi's to spend the night then hung around to watch some old Humphrey Bogart movie called The Maltese Falcon that Tamaki assured them was awesome and would totally prepare them for going to San Francisco. It was a good movie but had nothing to do with the city. Still, sitting on the couch, surrounded by the guys while they threw popcorn and insults at each other ... maybe home wasn't a place. Maybe it was people. Hikaru poked at the carry-on like it was distasteful, bringing her back to the present. "Well it's a long flight and I know the seats are small and I didn't want all of my leg room to be taken up by a bag stuffed under the seat in front of me."

The twins rolled their eyes. "Oh Haruhi. That's just a joke on TV and in movies. Real airplane seats aren't like that. Trust us, we've flown a lot."

"And I didn't want to go over my bag limit."

Hikaru looked confused. "There's a bag limit?"

"There is according to the website," Haruhi said. "Look, you guys probably just never noticed. They probably just bill any fees to your credit card. But I don't have unlimited funds so I don't want to pay a bunch of money to bring a bunch of clothes that I'm not even going to wear while I'm there."

Kaoru looked up from his phone. "Huh, she's right. There is one. But it's like ten suitcases. Three before they hit you up for extra fees." He showed her the phone.

"And that's great for you rich bastards in first class..."

"You know the club paid for your ticket, right?"

"You know I can't carry three suitcases by myself, right?"

The twins looked kind of disappointed but sighed their acceptance. "Well OK, but if you're only taking one suitcase then we've got to be very picky about what you bring." They opened up her suitcase and looked in. "Ick, ick, no way, out of here..." With each comment, they picked an item of clothing from her bag, held it between the thumb and forefinger by the fingernails, touching it as little as possible, and dropped it on the floor.

"Hey, I like those," Haruhi said.

"They're hideous," Kaoru said.

"Yeah, but they're comfortable. And you're not the one wearing them."

"Haruhi, you're going to fashion week in Paris, which means everything you wear has to be designer. And since you're going as a guest of Yahuza Hitachiin, 99% of what you wear needs to be Hitachiin. So unless you're bringing 100 outfits, you don't get any say in this," Hikaru said.

"He's right," Kaoru said. "You'll embarrass our mom."

Haruhi did like their mom quite a bit. She wouldn't want to embarrass her. She scrunched her lips over to one side, wondering if she just lost the argument when the doorbell rung. Reprieve. "But we won't be in Paris the whole time," she said over her shoulder heading for the door. "Don't take anything else out of my bag."

Haruhi opened the door to a pretty girl on a cell phone. "Are you sure this is the right address? Oh it is. Never made mind."

"Momoka," Haruhi blinked. "What are you doing here?"

"Kyoya asked me to come by and help you pack."

"No need," Hikaru yelled back. "We got it."

"Oh please," Momoka said, brushing into the apartment, "What would guys know about packing a girl for a trip?"