(Hullo all! This is muh first fic of the new year! This is the prize for AnimeBestie, the winner of my comment contest! AS per the usual, I don't own OHSHC. Boo hoo.)

Falling in love was sort of weird. Haruhi never figured that the one she fell for would be one of the (in)famous boys of the Host Club, but she also hadn't thought that she would have ever involved herself in any of the hijinks that were routine there. Go figure.

And she especially never considered that the one she fell for would be Kaoru of all people.

She had to admit, that he was… er. A lot of words came to mind when thinking of him, not necessarily all of them glowing praise. Irritating, maybe? Orrrr… vexatious? Ooh, not that word. She liked that word. It sounded sort of like a cocktail-of-the-day at some slinky nightclub. Not that she went to those, of course, being the bookworm of the Host Club. One could dream.

Haruhi wasn't the type of girl to get all moony-eyed over her boyfriend, or attached by the hip to him like those obnoxious couples that were practically one being (get married already, damnit!), or be stalking him like those ϋber obsessive girlfriends. Kaoru liked that about her. She sort of treated him the same as she always did, but they were closer. A lot closer, but not in THAT way, you perv.

When he had first asked her on a date, she froze him out with that endlessly clueless air-knife of hers. It was fascinating, and a bit painful. But Kaoru was not a quitter. He would make it clear to even the blindest human out there that he wanted Haruhi as his girlfriend.

There was one song that Kaoru never understood.

Lovin' you is easy because you're beautiful…

It was so wrong, he couldn't believe that anyone found that song anything other than insulting. It was easy to love her because she was smart, and loving, and strong, and very determined, and never sunk to the level of the ones who tried to belittle her. And she was beautiful, but that wasn't the point. A song that would be more appropriate:

Because you're amazing... Just the way you are…

Yeah, that was a lot better.

Haruhi never really got the concept of 'owning' someone in a relationship. It sounded wrong. You belong to me? Sort of stalker-y. And it felt like someone had more power than the other, and that NEVER made sense in a relationship. But when it came to Kaoru, she could tweak that statement a bit. You belong with me.

Their first date was to a library. Really. They had browsed the many rows of books together, with Kaoru focusing on fashion and style magazines and Haruhi looking at law and cooking books. Once, their hands had brushed while walking beside each other. They had both looked shocked and blushed a little. And held hands for the rest of the date. Kaoru walked her home after they had checked out some books, and she went inside her house, then puzzling over if it was a 'date date' or a 'friend date'. For two hours. Well, it WAS Haruhi, after all.

When Haruhi announced to the Host Club that she and Kaoru were sort-of dating each other, Kyoya started laughing. And calmly held his hand out for the others to grudgingly slap wads of cash into his palm. As usual, Kyoya had correctly predicted that they would have ended up together. Damn him and his telepathy!

Surprisingly, Tamaki was ok with the whole dating thing. Maybe he had matured a little

" My little girl has a boyfriend! Ohh this is so cute! HARUHI! You must not let him do anything to you! If he tries anything DADDY WILL KILL KAORU FOR YOU!

Or maybe not.

Ranka was ok with them together though, which was what really mattered.

Kaoru felt sort of bad keeping the secret from Hikaru, even though it had only lasted a single day. He had wanted to scream it from the rooftops, announce it on the P.A. system, and send a mass email to the world. Haruhi had wanted to date him! It was a miracle!

But he had still felt bad keeping it from his other half. Keeping secrets… it felt wrong. They were twins, brothers… After 24 hours of stifling guilt, he finally admitted it. Hikaru just smiled at him and gave him a hug.

" Kaoru, it's ok. You can have your own life without me, I don't mind. You two make a cute couple."

They decided to go to different universities, and keep in touch.

They broke up.

They didn't keep in touch.

Of course.

6 years later, they met up again, purely by chance. She asked him to dinner, to catch up.

Long story short, they got back together.

Going dress shopping is overrated. How many kinds of white dresses are there in this world? And WHY ON EARTH WOULD YOU PUT DIAMONDS ON IT? The amount of ootoro Haruhi could buy with just one tiny stone… it was enough to make her feel ill. She honestly didn't know WHY they had to have such a complicated ceremony. She would have been happy just signing a piece of paper at the register's office. As long as they got over the formalities, what was the difference? They were still married. Damn rich people.

It had taken Kaoru three days and a major shopping spree to plan the perfect proposal. He decided to take her to the most fabulous restaurant in Paris, and give her a bouquet of red roses: they HAD been her rose color in the Host Club, anyway.

It had turned out that she had gotten an emergency call at her office, and couldn't make it to dinner that evening. Or for several weeks after. She was working on a seriously high-profile case, which meant no time for Kaoru. Finally, he got so irritated that he proposed when she was lying on the couch, half-asleep.

"Haruhi, will you be my wife?"

"Eh? No, I don't want to wear that… I hate bunny costumes…."

"WHAT?"

"Huh?"

Haruhi finally roused herself and blinked at him.

"Were you saying something, Kaoru?"

"Er, I asked if you would marry me?"

"Of course."

It was the best day of his life.

When Haruhi had gotten to her senses a couple minutes later, she actually realized what had happened.

"Hey Kaoru, did we just get engaged?"

Of course, the other Hosts found the story hilarious, and related it at the wedding. It could be said that the bride and groom were less than amused.

When Haruhi had her first child, she was laughing. Even through the pain of delivery, she couldn't stop. Kaoru naturally inquired as to what was so funny.

"I was just thinking of the time that you dyed your hair blue. You looked so stupid."

Yes, there was no way that Kaoru understood Haruhi fully just yet. But they had more than enough time to do that.

THE END.

(A/N: Here it is, and here it be, and…. something. Thanks for reading, and kindly enjoy and review and crap. Thanks (again) to all who read this ridiculous story, and to AnimeBestie for winning the contest!Don't worry, I will resume working on 'A night I'd rather forget', eventually, Haruhi's chapter is majorly bitching me out, but I WILL DEFEAT HER!)

IMPORTANT NOTE: Which Host should drunk Haruhi hook up with? Leave it in the comments!