The hosts were gathered at their rarely-used long meeting table. Everyone was sitting nicely, or relatively nicely. Daichi was sitting on top of the table next to Kyoya, who was working diligently on his laptop. Honey was climbing down from Mori's head and into a seat of his own (accompanied by Usa-chan of course). Hikaru and Kaoru were sitting on either side of Haruhi, who was half-asleep already. No one blamed her really. It was Friday afternoon, and everyone was ready for the weekend.

Everyone but Tamaki that was. The prince type was looming over Kyoya, staring daggers at his computer screen. "This is not happening. This can not be happening, Kyoya! Check again."

"Tamaki, would you just—"

"Check again!"

With a sigh heavier than the Titanic, Kyoya scanned through the spreadsheet on his laptop. "You have seventeen guests booked for Monday."

"Yes, yes, and how many does Haruhi have?" Tamaki demanded.

"Eighteen," came the measured response. Kyoya adjusted his glasses and finally shut his laptop. Daichi took this as his sign to crawl into Kyoya's lap. "The majority of them are groups, truthfully."

"What's the big deal, Tamaki-senpai?" Hikaru asked.

"Yeah, Haruhi only has one more guest," Kaoru added.

"Are you really gonna be jealous over that?" they asked together.

Daichi smiled, nestling his head into Kyoya's blazer. "Yes," he murmured. Tamaki made a dramatic gasping sound that made Daichi laugh and poke his head back up. "S-senpai," he started, "s'okay."

"Daichi is right," Haruhi finally commented. "I only have one more guest. That doesn't make you any worse of a host. You still do a great job, senpai."

"You. . .You really mean that?" asked Tamaki rather slowly. His expression seemed to genuinely change, and Haruhi smiled at him. "So. . .you would be willing to give me one of your guests so I had more?"

"Wow, I can't believe you really asked that, boss," the twins remarked, looking expectantly between Tamaki and Daichi.

Daichi turned his attention back to the inside of Kyoya's blazer, and that seemed to be the end of his participation in the conversation. "Tamaki," Kyoya said finally, "we really should be going. You're just going to have to handle having seventeen guests after the weekend. Now, everyone, you are all free to go. Daichi and I will see you on Monday."

And that was that. Grateful to finally be done for the week, Haruhi, Kyoya, and Daichi were the first ones to leave. Then the twins, Honey, and Mori made their way out. Finally, Tamaki skulked the entire trek from the music room to the limousine waiting for him outside.

The weekend felt much too short for most of the hosts, just as it does to teenagers across the globe. However, when Monday came, they all arrived at the host club cheerfully and on-time. Before any classes began, Tamaki and the twins had some guests scheduled. The other hosts hung around of course, wanting to represent the club well.

The first of Tamaki's guests arrived. Then the second, and finally the third and fourth. But then...there was a fifth...and a sixth...Ten minutes passed, and Tamaki was entertaining eight guests, four more than anticipated!

"I don't understand this," the blond told Kyoya once the guests had left. "I thought you didn't schedule over the weekend."

Kyoya shrugged and adjusted his glasses. "Usually, I don't. But these guests were clamoring for you, Tamaki. There's more where they came from too."

Indeed there were. In between classes and during club period, Tamaki found himself nearly with too many guests to handle. By the end of the day, the usually chipper host was utterly exhausted.

Daichi was helping Mori clean up used tea sets when Tamaki plopped onto a couch in the music room. The last of the guests had just left, and finally he could call it a day. The boy loosened his tie and blew his bangs out of his eyes.

"I just don't understand," he said aloud. "Where did everyone come from?" There was a giggle, and Tamaki immediately recognized it as Daichi's. His head snapped in the direction of the collared host, who was doing a poor job of hiding a smile. "You did this, Daichi?" He received a small nod and sat up straight. "But how? Why?"

Daichi tapped a finger to his temple. "Know yo-you wanted m-ma-more," he explained, adding in a little shrug. "T-told soccer f-fa-fa-rends."

"Daichi. . ." The puppy type walked over to Tamaki and took a seat next to him, patiently waiting for his to process what had happened. Finally, Tamaki looked up. "I can't believe you would do that for me just to make me feel better." He laughed once, sadly. Then, he smiled, and thankfully it was much more fondness than pity. "I think I might have had more guests than I could handle today. Or should have anyway. The truth is that the amount of guests I have does not determine how good of a host I am. As long as I make every last one laugh, smile, and feel loved! Thank you, Daichi!" He threw his arms around the shorter boy, pulling him into a brotherly embrace. "Thank you for reminding me of what I have known deep down all along!"

When Daichi pulled away, he swore there was a tear or two in Tamaki's eye. He didn't mention anything of course. That would have been rude.  Instead, he just squeezed Tamaki's hand and smiled. That was all Tamaki needed to be reassured in himself. He let Daichi go with a glimmer of hope and pride on his face.

"Daichi," Tamaki whispered to himself, "you are a true host."