shoutout to quill273, who said they were going to keep their fingers crossed for a happy ending involving kaoru. i tried my best.
They are on a date that isn't quite a date. She smells of cotton candy and cheap laundry powder, and he won her a gigantic stuffed teddy that she grips by the paw. She says, "I'd better hide this from Tamaki-senpai."
Kaoru snorts. This is their first date, but it isn't supposed to be; a long time ago, Kaoru was meant to guide her around Karuizawa, except he sent his brother in his place. Haruhi's face is pensive, unreadable, and he wonders if she's thinking about that ill-fated adventure now, on a park bench at a funfair.
Probably not, though. The only person who overthinks more than Kaoru is Tamaki, and Tamaki isn't here.
"Best not to induce an aneurysm in him until he at least finishes high school," he agrees, and Haruhi smiles.
"I mean, he knows this is happening," she says slowly, as if she's trying to work out what to say as she says it. It's unlike her - if Haruhi wants to say something, she says it, no qualms. "But also, I don't think he knows this is happening."
She slips her hand in his, and Kaoru's heart beats doubletime. Haruhi's face is still facing the sun, and Kaoru wonders what she'd look like skiing in the Aspen, or surfing in Hawaii. He wonders, and then he decides to stop wondering and start appreciating the fact that he's here with Haruhi and his twin is actually okay with that (supposedly) and she's holding his hand and the sun is setting.
"He's oblivious," Kaoru tells her. "A girl with brains like yours hasn't figured that out already?"
"Hmph," Haruhi says, and for a moment he fears that she's going to rip her hand away. Instead, she smiles up at him, her bangs obscuring the light in her eyes. She needs a haircut. "Can we talk about something else?"
He laughs. "Sure. How about you test me on my English verbs?"
"And not schoolwork, either," Haruhi decides, pinching his ribs. "Tell me a joke, or something. You're supposed to be good at that."
"Traditionally, I'm part of a matched set," Kaoru reminds her. "Did I ever tell you about the rabbit Hikaru and I used to have?"
"No," Haruhi says, sitting up. She turns to face him, intrigued. "Go on. Tell me."
"It was a white rabbit, a dwarf. The only thing Hikaru and I couldn't agree - ever - on was a name for it, so it never got one, and of course, we didn't look after it. We had maids for that. One day, we went on vacation to Korea, and when we came back, the rabbit had died of loneliness."
"That's horrible," Haruhi says, appalled. It's the sort of reaction Kaoru used to ache for from other people. Now, it just makes him sad. "Weren't you upset?"
"A little," Kaoru shrugs. "The maids buried it in the garden, and my mother told us that if we'd named it, perhaps we would've loved it enough to take care of it. Hikaru and I were seven. And from then on...we decided to treat our classmates like that rabbit. We never bothered to learn their names, in hope that they left us alone. Until we met you, Haruhi."
"I'm not a rabbit," Haruhi says. "Or a pet, or a toy. I'm not just something you can discard."
"You're not," Kaoru agrees. "And I guess I don't need to agree with Hikaru about everything anymore."
She kisses him goodbye under a sky not yet full of stars. Haruhi tastes vaguely like fruit, and when she pulls away she's smiling gently.
"We should do this again," she commands him imperiously, and he grins back at her. "Next Sunday."
"Alright," he nods. "I'll see you at school, Haruhi."
He turns to get back in the car, and she yells after him, "Kaoru, wait!"
Kaoru glances back. Haruhi is stood in her doorway, the teddy bear hanging over her arm. "If you could name the rabbit now, what would you call it?"
He laughs. "I'd call it Haruhi," he yells back to her, and her eyes shine.
I love you, he thinks, and she shuts the door behind her.
Haruhi's a name too pretty to be wasted on a rabbit, anyway.