"Kaoru-san, are you alright?" curiosity, and maybe just a tad of worry, echoed in his classmate's voice.

"Yes," he replied nonchalantly as he watched Hikaru burst out laughing.

"Hikaru, it wasn't that funny…." Haruhi tried to brush the situation off casually, "Anyone can accidentally step on dog poop…" she blushed angrily.

"Er, you're not in love with Haruhi-san are you?" the girl tilted her head questioningly. He spat out his coke, shocked.

"Why would you think that?!"

"Because, I was there in episode 45," the girl said, pulling a blank face. "You know, when you and she discussed what you would do if both you and Hikaru wanted the same thing but couldn't share it. And episode 50 too."

"Really?"

"Yep, I helped Misuzu bake those cookies," she laughed nervously, "But I bet she didn't tell you that, Misuzu's a bit of a glory hog."

The sudden slap of the teacher's ruler against the blackboard caused her to squeak in shock. Flushing lightly, she raced off to her desk. Kaoru stared at the back of her head in surprise as the teacher picked up a piece of chalk.

She wasn't one of the regular customers, hell; he had never noticed her until today.

"Settle down class, it's time for you chumps to start on chapter ninety two," the teacher instructed as he wrote it up on the board with green chalk. "I expect you all to finish with both the chapter and the twenty questions pertaining to the chapter by tomorrow."The glass groaned.

The pinkly tinted girl quickly flipped open the book as she chewed her bottom lip nervously. Her eyes had been dark brown, he recalled as he faked reading. She wore the boys' uniform, but her long black hair signaled her feminine gender. She had been fairly short, about 5'2" at most. Her hair was up in a messy bun, and she wasn't exactly super skinny, but she hadn't been fat either.

Smack!

He swiveled around to look at the perpetrator. Ah, apparently you just can't seem to study today Mr. Hitachiin," the teacher sighed as he stalked off. Rubbing the slightly sore spot on his head, Kaoru faced the board. The girl was openly smiling as she looked at him, giggling. Their eyes met for a moment, before the two sophomores burst into flames and looked down at their worksheets.

'Ah, what an interesting development…' the watcher chuckled darkly to himself, what remarkable luck to have seen one of the Hitachiin brothers do something so… innocent. Now all he had to do was report his finding.


"Welcome!" the doors to the Host Club opened once more to display a scene of Edo Spirit.

"Oh, Tamaki-sama, I fear I may not ever be allowed to return here," a curly haired blond tearfully wept upon his shoulder. "My schoolmates fear it may not be good for me to become so attached."

"Fear not dear maiden, even without the ground can a flower bloom, and so shall our love," Tamaki crooned as he embraced the blushing maiden.

Haruhi sighed, her own inner surprise, and unsurprise, cast a gloom upon her.

"Bun-Bun can fight too!" Hunny cheered as he threw Bun-Bun up into the air while the surrounding girls 'kyaah'ed' in happiness. Mori stared out the window blankly, oblivious to the giggling girls surrounding him.

"I just remembered, we have a special tea ceremony, with a limited attendance permitted," Kyoya smiled radiantly. As the girls rushed forewords to place a hold on their attendance.

"Ha-ha, I beat you again Kaoru!" Hikaru held up his sakabato in a cheer.

"Hush Hikaru, you know I always beat you at getting into bed at night!"

Hikaru leaned in, creating a dramatic scene, "Yes, but your energy never passes mine does it not?"

"You're dirty Hikaru!" Kaoru tried to shout out as the two leaned in closer together. The girls went wild, screaming in elation.

"Oh, I hope I'm not interrupting something," the , somewhat toneless, voice amazingly managed to pierce the loud screams of the fan girls. The girl from his class stood, staring up at him blankly, "I never realized you two were like that. I guess I was wrong." She turned towards Hikaru, "I apologize for interrupting your… moment."Turning around, she swiftly walked towards the door.

"Hold up!" Kaoru pushed his way through the crowd to make his way to the girl's side. "You didn't interrupt anything, er…."

"Mitsuki Thao."

"Mitsuki. It's just how my brother and I always act."

"Right, I'm very sure that's what you spend your time doing. Am I supposed to guess that you are into incest or not."

"Well…"

"There's no need to answer," she smiled up at him suddenly, " I was seriously joking, there's no need to get offended. Actually, I was going to give you your homework." Mitsuki picked through her stack of papers, and handed him his homework. "Bye."

"Wait!" he lunged forewords, shutting the door before she could leave. Kaoru flushed lightly when she looked up at him questioningly. To tell the truth, he didn't really know why he was doing this either. But he really didn't want her to go. "What I mean is, you could finish your writing essay here, I'll tell my chauffer to drop you off at your house later!"

Mitsuki looked up at him with wide eyes. She hadn't expected that! Valiantly, she held back the blush threatening to take her over. "I suppose I could study here, but I can walk home thank you very much." She looked away, her glasses bumping against the wooden door.

Kaoru held in a cheer of triumph. Gently, or as gently as he could in his excited state, he shoved her over to an unoccupied table. Making sure she wasn't going to leave, he scooted back one of the chairs to take a seat. Upon her questioning eyes settling on him, he explained, "I'm no good with science; I suppose you can help me?"

"Sure." How could she say no? He was looking at her, smiling so much that his eyes were squinted. I'd make her feel guilty if she did say no…"Do you even know what the wetland ecosystem is?"

"Let me think…." He paused and frowned, thinking. Finally, he chirped, "Nope!" she burst out laughing at his cheerful reply.

"Goodness, Kaoru, and I always thought you were at least a bit smarter than your brother!" Mitsuki chuckled to herself as tears gathered in the corner of her eyes. Kaoru smirked and laughed along with her.

Meanwhile, six sets of eyes watched the two, all of them surprised at the scene unfolding in front of them. Hikaru was especially surprised; even he hadn't seen Kaoru like that with any other girl besides Haruhi. She looked considerably female compared to Haruhi. Her hair was long, reaching to her butt. There was a small wave where a hair tie had obviously been, and her eyes were two shades darker than Haruhi's, giving them an almost black look. She was wearing blue glasses that didn't completely cover her eyes.

"I'm surprised; I've never seen Kaoru genuinely flirting with a girl before!" Hunny said, his voice lowered in shock. "Look, even Bun-Bun is shocked." The stuffed doll had his hands up in shock where its mouth should have been.

"He's probably just playing around with her."

"What?" Haruhi looked up at Hikaru, wondering what he meant by that.

"It was something we used to do in junior high," he explained, "Kaoru or I would pick out a girl who we knew had a crush on one of us. The game was to pretend that we were the one she liked and then trick her into saying that she didn't care which one of us she had seeing how we both look the same."

"Father is ashamed," Tamaki curled up sadly in the corner, "It's all Father's fault for letting his sons get so out of hand." The corner immediately gloomed causing Hikaru and Haruhi to sweat slightly in panic.

That was, until Kaoru began to bray like a donkey.

"Shut up! It's not funny!" Mitsuki argued angrily, blushing and looking like she was on the verge of laughing as well. "Okay, maybe it's a tiny bit funny…" She began to laugh with him, her eyes leaking tears of pain and joy.

"Ouch! My ribs! My…ribs! Help! Hahahahaha!" Kaoru toppled off the side of his chair, causing Mitsuki to laugh even harder than before.

"But you've gotta admit, Kaoru doesn't look like he's playing games." Tamaki commented, rubbing his chin in thought. "Oh, I've got it maybe Kaoru-!"

"Has a crush on Mitsuki!" Renge threw her arms up in some sort of victory. "It's a common manga principle, he likes her but can't admit it because he's not sure exactly what the strange emotion invading him is!"

"Renge, our life isn't some sort of manga plot," Haruhi pointed out.

"You never know!"

"I'm pretty sure it isn't, if it were, Milord would have more in that empty skull of his," Hikaru spoke up, the voice of reason for once.

Renge looked up at Tamaki momentarily. "You may just be right." She sighed forlornly. "This would've made a great manga plot though." Pointing at the current panting couple, who had finally managed to control their laughter, she announced, "Mitsuki comes from a fairly well off family, and attends this school due to the fact that she's one of the brightest people ever to exist, aside from Haruhi of course. And Kaoru, wealthy but crushed due to losing his true love looks towards Mitsuki for the warmth he would've found with her."

Haruhi asked, "Kaoru had fallen in love with someone?" The other members of the club gave her a disbelieving look.

They huddled together, leaving out a pondering Haruhi. "She really is dense, isn't she?"

"Maybe she's sick?" Hunny suggested.

"No, this is Haruhi one hundred percent."

Without really noticing the time passing by, the club members got ready to go home.