Haruhi slipped.
Someone had spilled some of their expensive bottled water on to the clean ceramic tiles of the floor, and nobody had bothered to tell the janitor that there was a spill, because at Ouran, most of the students expected that the janitor just instinctively knows when there's a mess, and rushes over to clean it. As that was not the case, Haruhi, lost in the world of a complex reading assignment, slipped, and fell.
And was caught.
Righting herself, she turned to thank her savior when she caught a glimpse of a black sleeve. Knowing full well that Ouran's uniforms were not black, she set her teeth, vainly hoping that perhaps one of the staff members had taken to wide sleeves in black linen, and... Bereznoff hand puppets.
Sigh.
Facing Nekozawa fully, she politely bowed. "Thank you. Sorry for the trouble."
"Oh, no," he replied with an abashed smile, "I'm the one who should be sorry. It was my fault entirely."
"Oh," Haruhi noted with raised eyebrows, "you mean you spilled the water?"
"Not at all!" He said, and he lowered his face to hers conspiratorially and continued with a dark smile, "…But I did curse you to slip on it."
The expressions on Haruhi's face ranged from surprise, to disbelief, to confusion, to irritation, and ended on apathy.
"...Okay," was all she said.
"I know what you're thinking," Nekozawa started, not actually knowing at all what she was thinking. "It's terrible, really. Someone came to me this morning and wanted to buy a curse. I was surprised, too! On you, of all people! I of course can't tell you who it was but they were very persistent. You were meant to slip and fall into the puddle, and soak your uniform, right in front of everybody. It was going to be hilarious!"
"...Okay." She said again, and this time added, "then why did you catch me?"
"Because it was such a shame," Nekozawa replied. "I didn't think you deserved it. So I changed my mind at the last minute."
Haruhi had no idea if she should thank him or not. The story was pretty outrageous. But she supposed, if even a little bit of this was true, he did go back on a bargain for her.
"Well thank you for... deciding not to humiliate me," she said with a quick bow and a frazzled look. "I'll be going now."
"If you'd like revenge on the person who did this," he grinned as she walked away, "Come to the Black Magic Club, and we can arrange a counter-curse!"
She was out of sight before he finished. He knew she wouldn't come. But that was okay. Because catching her was completely worth the cost of making up that story.
Now he should probably get a janitor to clean up the water he spilled.