Title: Lessons In Commoner Technology
Author: Cella
Fandom:Ouran High-School Host Club
Ship: Haruhi/Mori
Summary:Spring Cleaning with the Host Club: imminent catastrophe, coming your way. HARUHI. TAKASHI. On why we hate Tamaki's bad timing.
Spoilers: None, really.
Dedications: To sharingank, for her prompt: 'vacuum cleaner'.
A/N: Not particularly serious, and quite possibly not IC. But this is Ouran, what did you expect? Un-betaed.

Lessons In Commoner Technology

Tamaki tilts his head to the right in an aesthetically pleasing way, and surveys the machine before him.

"What…is that?" he asks.

Haruhi looks away from the shelves she's cleaning. "That's a vacuum cleaner, senpai," she answers dully, and returns to her shelves.

Tamaki takes a fearful step back from it. "It's so huge."

Haruhi sighs, annoyed, and turns around to glare at him. "You were the one who volunteered to come help me for Spring Cleaning, senpai. So stop being such a coward."

Tamaki's lip trembles, and he retired in one of the small corners, dark aura enveloping him in sorrow.

The twins emerge from the kitchen, rubber gloves in their hands and a frown on their face. "Haruhiiii!" they croon together. "What are we supposed to do with these?"

Haruhi twitches, and turns toward them, "You put them on your hands, so that you don't get chemical burns. Then you take that bucket over there, and scrub the kitchen."

Hikaru holds the gloves in front of his face. "What kind of company makes these?" He starts turning the gloves inside out, much to Haruhi's chagrin.

Haruhi sighs, wondering how on earth she let them come help her for Spring cleaning. It's not as if she couldn't have done it with her father. But no, Tamaki had insisted, complete with a passionate speech and sparkly confetti flowing around him. And Haruhi had to say 'yes', or else he'd have kept on going and going, and she was ready to kick him if he did that. And so, with a quick 'please,please,pleaaase' call to 'okaa-san', the Host Club was assembled to help Haruhi with her Spring cleaning. She had given them all chores in hopes that they'd do them and leave her alone. They were simple chores, like vacuuming the living room, or cleaning the kitchen's cupboard--but shitty rich bastards like them obviously couldn't work with that.

And now they were complaining that the rubber gloves weren't made by Armani. Haruhi fumes, and snatches the gloves from the twins' hands. "Alright, I'll do the kitchen. You two dust the library shelves." She hands them each a duster, and stomps her way to the kitchen.

It is already occupied.

"Hunny-senpai, wha--"

"Haru-chan!" the short boy sings, "Look, look! Takashi and I bought cake for you!" he smiles, but then the smile fades away as he frowns. "We bought it for celebrating when we finished the cleaning, buuuut…I really wanted some cake, so I ate half of it already," he murmurs.

"That's okay," Haruhi says, tiredly. "We can save the rest of it in the fridge until we're ready."

"Okay!" Hunny-senpai says, smiling cheerfully again. "Ne, Haru-chan, what do I do? Huh? What do I do?"

Haruhi places the remaining cake inside her fridge, and closing the door, she ponders. "Hmm, I guess you can arrange the plushies in my room."

"Really?" Hunny-senpai asks, very excited.

"Sure," Haruhi smiles. "I was going to throw some away, so you can decide which ones to keep and which ones not to."

Hunny's lip trembles a bit. "Thr-throw them away? But…but why?"

"It was getting crowded in my room," Haruhi mutters. "Please don't cry, Hunny-senpai. You can…um…you can always keep the ones you like…"

"Okay, Haru-chaan! I'm on my way then!" he signs, and skips towards her room.

Haruhi's ready to scrub the kitchen spotless. She turns around and sees Mori-senpai still in the kitchen. "You're not going with him?"

"I want to help," he declares in a deep voice.

"Well," Haruhi says, scratching her head. "Tamaki's vacuum cleaning, the twins are dusting the library shelves, my father is doing his own room, and Hunny-senpai has his own chore. And um, last I saw, Kyoya-senpai was ordering my books in alphabetical order. I don't know what to give you…"

"What were you doing?" he asks.

"I was going to scrub the kitchen, and then the bathroom, but--"

"Then I'll help you," he decides, and grabs the extra pair of gloves from her hands.

They set to it.

The Fujioka residence resembles anything but a house during Spring cleaning. In the main bedroom, Haruhi's father is wiping the dust away from a frame, all the while talking to the picture of the woman there. He's been doing this for quite a while, so while the framed picture of Haruhi's mother is spotless, the rest of the room, frankly, isn't.

In Haruhi's bedroom, Hunny's moving plushed toys from one corner to the other. He first decides on throwing the brown bear, and puts him on the left. Then he decides that he likes the bear, and moves him to the right. And so on, and so forth, until Haruhi's room has become nothing but a pile of plushed toys.

In the living room, Kyoya--who has finished placing the books by alphabetical order--is sitting on the couch and amusing himself by watching 'otou-san' struggle with a piece of machinery he had only before seen his servants use. The twins, in turn, have decided that torturing their tono was more important than dusting the shelves, and have joined Kyoya on the couch.

The only room where work is done is the kitchen. Which is, technically, not a room. Either way, Mori is taking the plates, cups, glasses and bowls out from the higher cupboards and placing them on the table; then he cleans the cupboards until they're spotless and returns the plates and rest to their rightful place. Haruhi is doing much of the same, only she's dealing with the lower cupboards, because she can reach those. In between the cleaning, and in between Haruhi crawling around Mori's legs to reach her cupboards, they maintain idle talk.

Haruhi is mildly reminded why she found Mori so interesting from the beginning. She was beginning to forget how nice his voice sounded when he actually talked, or how soft and large his hands were when they petted her head affectionately. Haruhi was not a girl of great expectations. She knew that while she did raise a few glances her way in her young days, right now hardly anyone would pay her mind. Especially if they thought she was a boy. But that was the thing, Mori did know she wasn't a boy.

Haruhi shakes her head to clear away those thoughts, and stands up from the ground. "I'm done, that's the last cupboard. What about you, Mori-senpai?"

"Almost done," he says.

"Okay. I'm going to grab a soda, do you want one too?"

"Aa."

"I should probably ask the others if they want one," Haruhi murmurs. She turns around to give Mori his soda. He takes it from her hand, fingers brushing. Haruhi flushes under his gaze. "Maybe I'll ask them later."

"Hnn," he answers, smiling slighty before he downs his drink. Haruhi, flustered, drinks her own beverage meekly. She is surprised when Mori leans down, cups her cheek with one hand, and brushes her cheek. "You had something…" he says. His fingers glide down her face, thumb brushing over her lips.

"Do I…have something there, too?" she asks, breathless.

Mori looks from her eyes to her mouth, and leans down a bit more.

"HARUHI!" comes the cry from the living room.

Mori and Haruhi jump away from each other, both avoiding the other's gaze while blushing hard. Hikaru's head pops into the kitchen, mouth open and ready to say something. He pauses, noticing their faces, but recovers fast. "Haruhi, come quick. Our Lord has lost control of the vacuum cleaner, and now it's following him around the living room."

"Well, tell him to turn it off," Haruhi says.

"But we don't know how. Haruhi, please, we need your help!" he says, and disappears from the kitchen.

Haruhi sighs, and spares a shy glance towards Mori. He catches her gaze, and her breath catches. "I…should go and…"

"Aa."

"And, then maybe…um…we can start on the bathroom, and--"

"Haruhi, help your 'tou-saaaan!"

"--and if nothing terribly bad happens until them, we'll have that cake. So…um…about what--"

"Haruhi," Mori says, patting her on the head. "Go help Tamaki. We'll finish this afterwards."

"Yeah…finish…this…sure…" Although she doesn't know which 'this' he's refering to. The kiss? Or the cleaning? Hopefully, not the cleaning.

"HARUHIIIII!"

She flinches. And stomps toward the living room. "Honestly, senpai, it's just a vacuum cleaner!"

"Yes," the twins chorus, "Just a vacuum cleaner, tono. You have to learn to surpass your fears."

"Shut up, you demons! You caused this! You infernal contraptions of--oh, Haruhiii, you'll save your 'tou-san, won't you?"

"Okaa-san in Heaven, what have I done to deserve this?"

:end:"So, where were we?":
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