Unbeta'd and unrevised. GASP. Sorry Ashley, I cared more about uploading it quickly rather than the quality of it… (I know, bad, bad, bad) Anywho, I present you all a poorly-written little piece filling the gap between the first and second episode of Ouran. AND HEY, I QUOTED WORD FOR WORD OF THE ENGLISH DUB. WHICH IS AWESOME, BY THE WAY. GO. WATCH. IT.

Disclaimer: I don't own Ouran High School Host Club. BUT FUNIMATION DOES BECAUSE THEY'RE DUBBING THE SERIES. WHICH IS AWESOME, BY THE WAY. GO. WATCH. IT.

THE TROUBLE WITH SPRING IS

It blooms when you least expect it.

Ahh, spring.

Spring, the season where small pink splotches on trees would bloom and reveal themselves as delicate cherry blossoms; spring, the season where sunlight would peek through fluffs of clouds and shyly tiptoe across the sky; spring, the season where people no longer wore scarves and long coats and tight cotton chullos, but sleeveless dresses and tweed hats and smiles as warm as the sun.

Spring, the season of love.

("You say every season is the season of love, Boss!"

"Either pick one or the other, will you?"

"Oh, shut up, you two!!")

Yes, spring was the season of a new beginning, a fresh start on a clear path. A rejuvenating awakening each morning, a clean, pure oxygen to breathe and dance in, and, every once in a while, a slight pulling back when one feels something grazing his or her cheek; then light laughter, when that person finds out it was nothing but a drifting sakura petal.

Unfortunately, this year, the cherry blossoms were not quite in full bloom yet. No, these flowers hung limply from their stick branches, small and closed and reserved like they were just waiting for someone to come and open them up. Tamaki sighed, his fingers sinking down the window pane, as he turned back to the brightly-lit music room.

When will the cherry blossoms bloom for a new beginning?

Tamaki did not have to gloom over the slow pacing of seasons for very long, however. After all, there was a new addition to the host club, an interesting phenomenon the king busied himself figuring out and deciphering this strange, peculiar person.

Haruhi.

Ah, Haruhi. Haruhi was that cute brown-haired boy who had recently (and unwittingly) joined the host club after breaking their costly vase. His commoner ways were unusual, and he did go on earlier about it's what's on the inside that counts (an attempt to console himself from the harsh truth of beauty in this world, that poor boy!), but nonetheless Tamaki was quick to take interest and fond over him.

Mostly because he was just so… so… cute!

The scholarship student looked just like a girl! Indeed, Tamaki had seen his potential from the very beginning! The big auburn eyes, the gentle curl of his brown hair, they were all just so irresistible that the blonde host could not contain himself whenever glancing towards the new member.

So he gushed, and hugged, and squeed, and maybe even in one particular time glomped Haruhi whenever he could.

"You sure have been keeping an eye on him," Ayanokoji commented, her tone indifferent and her eyes unusually attentive.

And that was just fine. It was only because he was excited that Haruhi was developing his own techniques as a host. It was only because he had taken Haruhi as his own apprentice and just wanted to praise him.

Haruhi was a boy, so there was nothing absolutely wrong.

("Thanks a lot, you guys, I'm gonna go change.")

And it also meant there was nothing absolutely wrong with going inside the changing room while Haruhi was dressing into a dry uniform.

("Haruhi, here you go. I brought you some towels—")

But at that moment, when Haruhi turned around, the white shirt draped over his skinny elbows, the thin pink undershirt hanging loosely from his body, those auburn eyes staring back at Tamaki with a confused expression but a different expression…

"Haruhi."

"Yeah?"

"So… you're a girl?"

"Biologically speaking, yeah."

And there SHE was, the same Haruhi as before, but in an elegant yellow dress like a girl should be in.

Tamaki's world crashed.

She—she—SHE went on about something, something about genders and lower than an average person's, as she was fixing the bow on the collar of her dress (nevermind that she did look good in that dress, no no no not now, Tamaki was in no condition to think of such things of a GIRL), and then Kyouya said something with that sly grin of his (why didn't he tell him in the first place?! Why?!), and then the stupid stupid stupid twins added a "yeah" in the most stupidest way and Tamaki should have expected those twins not to say anything because they were after all the Hitachiin twins but already they knew about Haruhi how was that even possible Tamaki bet that they had planned a perverted scheme on Haruhi to find out that Haruhi was a—GUH.

Tamaki's brain was in such a stupefied state that he could not produce a proper response when Haruhi spoke to him. Haruhi. Haruhi. Haruhi. Flashbacks of him and Haruhi jumbled into his mind. Tamaki hugging Haruhi. Tamaki twirling Haruhi. Tamaki touching Haruhi. Why didn't he realize that all those times—

"You know, I have to say, senpai, I thought you were pretty cool earlier."

Haruhi is a girl.

And all of a sudden, Tamaki's cheeks felt very hot, and he had to cover his face up before anyone could see.

---

Tamaki did not bother to look out the window for any blooming cherry blossoms. There were much more pressing matters at hand. … Pressing matters he desperately wanted to avoid.

But, being the creator of the host club, he knew full well that the club was inevitable. It was held every school day afterschool. Every host was expected to attend. And not once had the king ever been absent to his duty.

So when the shrill sound of the last period bell rang, shivers ran down Tamaki's spine. He sat still in his seat as his other classmates packed and left to go to their own clubs or home. The blonde did not budge until he started squirming and finally could not take it any longer and spun his chair around to the spectacled student behind him.

"You know Kyouya, I actually don't feel very well, so could you just go to the host club and tell everyone that I won't be able to make it today while I call for a limo?"

"That's odd, since you seemed fine all day until the bell rang just now." Kyouya finished setting the textbooks in his bag and gave a wary eye at his friend.

"It must have caught up on me suddenly, and I'm not surprised either since spring is crawling so slowly nowadays and it's still cold!" Tamaki coughed dramatically into his fist.

"See, it's worsening as we speak! What if this common cold develops into something even more serious, Kyouya? What if a few days from now you suddenly see me on my death bed? And I die right in front of you because you wouldn't let me go home just this once?!"

"Then I suppose that's something the both of us will have to worry when you're on your deathbed," Kyouya replied, tilted his glasses, and stood up with his bag. "Let's go, Tamaki. Everyone else is waiting."

He made a whimper, and then trudged after the black-haired boy out the classroom.

Great, he pouted, now I'm going to have to see her…

("Welcome to the host club!")

…

("Farewell, ladies! We'll see you tomorrow! And be ready for our exciting new theme next week!")

The girls giggled as Tamaki smiled and waved. When they walked off into the hallway until they were nothing more than yellow specks, he sighed contently and closed the door. Another job well done for hosting. The fine ladies of Ouran Academy were so graceful and delectable; no, no, all ladies of Ouran Academy were like that…

Then he turned around and met face-to-face with Haruhi, the lady dressed in a boys' uniform.

"Ha-Haruhi!" the blonde sputtered, but with a quick jump back he only ran into the door instead. Suddenly his palms were sweaty and he couldn't keep his fingers off his hair. "Uh, hello, Haruhi, what do you… want…?"

The new member stared up at him (gah! Why did she have such big, brown eyes?!), blinking at his sudden change of attitude, but continued on anyway. "I just wanted to ask you, Tamaki-senpai, since Kyouya-senpai told me I should be talking to you instead…"

No, she shouldn't! She was the last person he wanted to talk to! Was Kyouya taking such delightful joy in worsening the situation even more?!?!

"… What is this whole 'theme' in the host club taking place next week, anyway?"

"H-Huh? Oh, the theme. Well, we're still deciding on what it should be," Tamaki scratched his cheek nervously. No matter how much he blabbered on and on, Haruhi still continued to gaze those eyes up at him, never looking any other direction. "It's just where the club members dress up in a certain cosplay to liven things up… a little bit… I mean, l-like, pirates and waiters and… stuff."

No, Tamaki did not like talking to Haruhi at all! This was exactly the type of thing he dreaded the most. She was a girl, but he couldn't even properly form sentences around her. Not after what they had been through. If only she had entered the clubroom dressed normally, with longer hair, then everything would have been different!! There wouldn't be any awkward pauses, any throats running dry, any embarrassing crack of voices…

"Oh."

But if that was so, why did she seem fine?

"Hmm, I see. That seems kind of weird, but then again, this is a host club…" Haruhi muttered. Then, she pursed her lips thoughtfully and placed a finger on her bottom lip. It made Tamaki swallow hard and want to go run and hide in a corner. Was she acting all innocent on purpose? What was she planning? And then she just had to blurt out the question: "Oh, but if I'm going to be in costume for the first time, aren't you guys going to need my measurements?"

Tamaki's cheeks immediately flared red with that thought. "NO! You won't! You're not…"

"What?" She raised an eyebrow. "So I'm not going to be in costume?"

"You're… no, uh…"

"Senpai?"

"Y-Yes?! What?!"

From the corner of his eye (Tamaki had been looking left, right, any direction other than where Haruhi was), he could spot her staring accusingly at him. Her tone had turned from mild disinterest to an annoyed impatience. But what was even more nerve-wrecking was that her eyes never left him.

"How come you're not looking at me?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Tamaki coughed, and his unsteady hand desperately searched for a doorknob from the door behind. "Look, Haruhi, I really have to get going. I'm sick, so you shouldn't stay too close."

"No you're not," she spoke defiantly. "Ever since I joined the host club, you've been avoiding me."

His fingers only roamed against the flat frame of the door. He did not know what to say, but was fortunate to have his bangs shielding most of his vision from the brunette. Tamaki could only see her hands placed over the blue blazer of her hips. That should be a yellow dress. It shouldn't be a jacket that does nothing for her figure! It's supposed to be a skirt that would hug her hips!

"Look, I'm not all that fond of being in this club either," Haruhi continued, more aggravated that he still refused to make eye contact with her, "but if you really have that much of a problem with me as a host, you can just say so in the first place. And for goodness sake, the doorknob is right here!"

She reached for the handle that had been on Tamaki's other side and opened the door. He almost fell back, but before he could actually make his escape, Haruhi had already walked out of the room, stomped down the hallway, and left with an angry huff.

Once again his tongue was stuck in his mouth, unable to call out her name. The twins strolled right behind him.

"Geez, Boss," Hikaru (or was that Kaoru?) said. "We thought you liked Haruhi, but to hate her so much that you'd even repudiate her presence…"

"Very low of you, Boss. Tsk, tsk, tsk." The other twin shook his head solemnly.

"That's not it!" Tamaki shouted, and a part of him was glad to regain his voice back. "That's not it at all, you idiots! It's just…"

"Just what?"

It was the twins' turns to stare up at him, their cat-like eyes gleaming devilishly, but even so, he could at least respond to the two and even yell at them and knock their heads over. Why couldn't he with Haruhi? (Not the yelling and knocking heads part, but talking normally.)

When he thought about it, Tamaki honestly had no idea. There was just something about her that whenever he'd look at the girl, his chest would tighten and he would force himself to pull back. If he even fathomed the idea of interacting with Haruhi, boy to girl, girl to boy… why, the very idea felt… wrong.

And he didn't know why.

"But you know, Haru-chan is still a girl!" Tamaki looked down at the shorter blonde. The third-year had a finger over his chin, his Usa-chan hugged in his other arm and flowers floating around his face. "Whatever the reason is, she is still a girl."

"You're…" Tamaki's eyes widened like a light switched over his head. "You're absolutely right, Honey-senpai! How could I have been so rude to a lady?"

Yes, even though Tamaki was still unsure of the reason why he felt more comfortable avoiding her, Haruhi was still a girl! He had focused too much on how Haruhi needs to … to be a girl and why is Haruhi … instead of acting like a girl that he forgot that she was a girl. Yes, she was just like any other client of his, albeit a strange, slightly tomboyish one, but nonetheless…

Why, that must be the reason why she was angry before! Haruhi was simply upset that he was not doting on her like he did with the other ladies. She needed his charm and attention too. No, she craved for it. Ah, sometimes a girl can't help but be a girl.

And with determination (and maybe a tiiiiny bit of doubt, but that was not important), Tamaki decided tomorrow he would grant her wish and treat her like the lady she deserved to be, be it dress or blazer!

---

Tamaki was wrong about the shrill sound of the bell as he had imagined it from yesterday. It did not screech in any way at all; the bells were more like exquisite chimes, dancing for all ears across the campus to hear.

He was in quite a chipper mood this morning. Tamaki had woken up at the precise hour of six, dressed and ate breakfast early, had a lovely chat with the maids, and not once did Shima-san scold him for being irresponsible or anything of that sort. Spring was arriving soon as well, and the blonde took a smell of the fresh, cool air across the garden.

He came to the school earlier than usual, but students were still meandering around the campus. Many girls were happy to see him first thing in the morning, and they all agreed that he had greeted them today with extra flair and sparkle.

Little did they know that there was one particular girl he was looking for.

And sure enough, Tamaki was able to spot her, her short brown hair, blue blazer, and black trousers walking out of the library. When he popped out behind a wall in front of her, she was startled enough to almost drop her books.

Alright. You can do it, Tamaki. Just act natural, like you would do if she was any other girl.

(But if that was so, why was there a small voice in the back of his head that told him she wasn't quite like any other girls? It was probably because she was wearing boys' clothing. Yes, that must be it.)

He had taken several deep breaths behind that wall, recited a few lines under his breath, and really just jumped out in front of her the moment he heard her footsteps.

"Good morning, Haruhi."

A sentence. Good. Even better, a greeting. Tamaki oh-so-casually placed his arm on the wall and leaned closer towards the girl. "What brings a lovely face like you here?" he asked seductively, his eyes staring deeply into hers.

Haruhi blinked, a bit confused by his sudden atmosphere. "I go to school here."

"Yes, of course you do! It was your brains that got you into this elite private Ouran Academy, after all!" He wanted to move closer, clasp their hands together, brush a strand of her hair away, anything, but couldn't. That same tugging feeling came back again. So all he could do was speak. And that was good enough, he thought.

"Haruhi. Your lovely brown hair, as smooth as it may be, can only shine so much in the sunlight like my love for you…"

"Huh? What's with the sudden interest in my hair?" the girl gawked up at him and was a bit peeved the blonde was blocking her way. "I don't know what you mean, since we ran out of conditioner today, and my dad took the hairbrushes when he went to work..."

Gulp.

"E-Even if you didn't have enough time to properly groom yourself this morning," Tamaki continued, his voice a little higher than before, "your face is still beautiful as ever! It seems as if it's gleaming even brighter every day."

"But we're in the shade."

Tamaki looked up to see the wall of the library that he was leaning on (or, to put it more appropriately now, slumping on) big enough to cast a shadow over the two. He made a mental note to tell his father to demolish the walls and build a better, shorter building.

Though Haruhi's face was darkened, he could already tell she had a suspicious look on her features.

"Are you trying to mess with me?"

"Never, my d-d-d…" There it was again. Something was pulling him back. But this was a desperate situation for him, so he had to pull through. "d… DARLING!"

His stomach churned. Why did it feel so weird to call her that?

"Uh…"

Tamaki stopped and turned at the direction Haruhi was looking. A few feet away from them, students had been staring at the two, whispering in hushed voices about the odd couple.

"Why does Tamaki seem to be flirting with Haruhi?" "Yes, yes, I think I heard one of them call the other 'darling'..." "My, this all sounds so scandalous!" "Maybe, it's... boy love!!"

All at once, the crowd stopped their breath and gawked at the two. Tamaki stared back, horrified that they had mistaken the two hosts as boyfriend and girlfr... H-He couldn't even say it!

But before he could really have an opportunity to say anything, Haruhi had already shut him up with a death glare.

"Now I know what you're up to," she seethed. "You're trying to get me kicked out of the host club!"

"N-No, Haruhi! You're wrong!" he hastily explained, his face burning hotter with each word. "I was only attempting to woo you!"

The horde of girls squealed at his reply, but Haruhi was less than pleased. She circled her way around the frozen boy, muttering a "you're despicable" under her breath before she went to her first class and the girls surrounded their prince to comfort him.

You're despicable… despicable… He stood there, unmoving, forgetting to close his mouth.

"It's alright, Tamaki! Even if Haruhi isn't quite ready to jump into that sort of relationship yet, you must still fight on!"

Despicable… despicable…

"Yes! I'm a Haruhi fan myself, but if you two are happy together, everyone else will be happy too!"

Despicable… despicable…

"T-Tamaki?! Please, staying huddled up in that dark corner is no good!!"

---

It did not matter whether the cherry blossoms were in full bloom or not. The blonde host was much too deep in his own dilemmas to care about the seasons and his surroundings. Instead, he stayed as a dark, molding figure next to Kyouya after club hours.

Oh yes, his relationship with Haruhi was going somewhere. It was tumbling downhill, and he suspected it would be any time soon that the two would reach to the dark depths of loatheness! The whole afternoon, Tamaki could not bear to look at Haruhi – and when their eyes actually did lock, the girl would shortly snap her head in the other direction, scoff, and walk away. And then he'd be back to his corner of woe.

To make matters worse, his own best friend was refusing to help him out.

The switches were turned off, so the only light that glowed through the windows belonged to the setting sun. Kyouya would be done typing on his laptop soon, and if not he'd probably finish his work at home. His typing was even more rapid than usual. The less time he spent talking to Tamaki, after all, the better.

"I've told you already, we're not going to compensate that scholarship student's debt on our own."

Tamaki glared behind the table (he had been slumped to a lowly figure as he was begging Kyouya to let go of the charges). "Why not?! We have enough money to replace that vase, and you know those twins were exaggerating when they said what the bidding price was!"

The spectacled boy pressed a key, and a 'ding' sound came from his processor. He had saved his file, but Tamaki remembered Kyouya would always read over his work after he finished it. What was supposed to be proofreading was replaced by a shut of the laptop.

"That may be true, but she's still responsible for her damages," he tilted his glasses up with a finger and gazed at the princely host, "and I'll make sure that when she leaves the host club, we'll have received every single penny of that debt."

Tamaki slowly moved a few inches away at the dark glint from behind the cool type's glasses. But besides the menacing aura, he found himself envying his friend.

Kyouya and Haruhi… they were able to get along. Well, maybe get along wasn't the best term to call the pair's interactions, but they could still at least cooperate with the other. Tamaki was wise enough not to tell this to Kyouya, but he suspected his classmate was actually taking a liking to their new member.

In fact, everyone in the host club was getting used to Haruhi except him. It could be seen through their easy and un-awkward conversations, their being together, their activities together.

Kyouya was, creepily, taking a lot of fun tormenting Haruhi with his friendly little reminders of her debt. He'd flip open his notebook, say something about her current or future state of the money she owed, and then she'd gulp and either nod her head dejectedly or try to bargain her way out of the increase. Either way, he'd still hide a smile behind those lips, as evil as it was.

Honey eagerly wanted to spend more time with Haruhi, so he'd often come over and shower her with cakes and sweets. The two ate enough snacks (though most of it on the senior's part) that they even knew each other's favorite flavors. Plus, wherever Honey would go, Mori would go; and while the two did not speak much with each other yet, they seemed to share a sort of quiet rational line whenever their eyes met.

But the twins, those stupid, devilish, ill-bred doppelgangers, they were the ones who talked the most with Haruhi. And out of all the host club members (yes, even the king himself!), Tamaki deemed their acts the most inappropriate. Though their conversations were in hushed murmurs, he did not trust their sneaky expressions, especially when their arms slung over her small shoulders and they leaned in a little too close to his liking.

He wanted to march up to the trio and slap the two redheads away from her, but why? Why should he do that? It wasn't his place to interrupt them and keep the three apart. And yet, every time they touched her, every time they grinned and called 'Haruhi!' merrily in unison, something boiled underneath him. He was always irritated by Hikaru and Kaoru, but this jealousy was not the norm. It was something else, and he couldn't put his finger on it.

Tamaki continued to ponder more over his confusing feelings circling Haruhi until Kyouya stuffed the laptop in his bag.

"Ahh! Kyouya! Wait for me, we'll both ride home in your car!"

"Get your own limo, Tamaki."

Ah-ha. See. It was no argument that Kyouya liked to remain cold to the blonde, and yet everyone knew the two were best friends. But with Haruhi, they weren't friends. He felt something different whenever he talked to her, whenever he looked at her, whenever he thought of her.

Tamaki didn't know if he was supposed to feel different or not.

And with such an awful, gut-wrenching feeling in his stomach whenever he thought about it, Tamaki was sure he didn't want to either.

---

No sunshine today.

The sun hid behind the light gray clouds. Tamaki sighed at the chilly weather. Something must be wrong with him. He had looked forward to the season, but today he found the cold spring air unwelcoming. Even the ladies noticed he was more detached than usual. They concluded it was probably because he was tired waking up in the early morning, and after all, this week had been very long; what he needed was a break, a weekend off to relax… and with that thought, the ladies were certainly glad today was a Friday.

But to Tamaki, it made no difference what day it was.

Not to sound melodramatic, but the king was feeling, maybe, a little, well, just a teensy bit… depressed.

He blamed this on Haruhi.

She haunted his thoughts constantly, bringing him worry and unease and discomfort. What was even more aggravating was that he didn't know why. But he was done being frustrated, and thus he resorted to sighing numerously in the most un-content and displeased way he could express.

Sigh.

He gazed at the scenery, at the birds woken early in the morning in all their chipper happiness.

Sigh.

He rustled fingers through the blonde locks of his hair restlessly, heaving his shoulders down and turning the other way.

Sigh.

The girls secretly cooed together with hearts in their eyes at his new look: the troubled, lonely prince.

... Sigh.

No, he wasn't being melodramatic at all.

Tamaki continued wandering around the Ouran campus. Though a horde of fangirls were following him to witness and squeal over more of his 'moe' stances, he still felt a bit lonely in the morning and wished the bell for first period would ring already.

No one would dare wake up Kyouya so early anyway, and if they didn't wake the shadow king up they'd definitely have some sense not to stir Honey either. That meant Mori must be at home if Honey was still in bed. And as for those wretched twins, well, it was probably best not to start off the morning seeing their faces.

Tamaki couldn't forget there was another member in the host club now, though.

For a brief moment, he wondered what Haruhi was doing.

He found his answer when the prince bumped into a figure carrying a towering stack of books.

The tower collapsed into a scattered pile of open pages and two students sprawled on the floor. Tamaki was not hurt; in fact, he worried more over the other person, who was shorter and seemed much smaller than him…

"Oww…"

A familiar voice spoke, and Tamaki could then instantly register who it belonged to. It was the same voice that he mistook as a boy's, the same voice that was prone to desiccated deadpan responses, the same voice that had been the cause of his sentence to corner of woes lately, the same voice that he had desperately wanted to avoid but was always playing in his head; yes, the androgynous voice belonged to no other than…

"Sorry about that," Haruhi apologized, but then peered from over the books, "I wasn't looking and—Tamaki-senpai?"

"A-Ah! Haruhi!" Tamaki quickly scrambled himself together. "No, it was my fault. I got too lost in my thoughts to pay attention…"

He hurriedly stacked the books together to help the girl, until he took odd notice of the covers.

Thick pages, tiny lettering, old style fonts in hardbound leather. All business, all law, all work. He stared at them, and new questions about the girl popped in his head.

Every morning, just like before, was she always in the library? Every time, did she always borrow these books?

"Haruhi…" Tamaki spoke, while handing the books to the girl, doubtful of whether she'd be able to carry all of them to class or not, "… What do you do in school, besides the host club?"

"Huh?" She accepted the books and her arms nudged them in a straight stack. "Well, study, of course."

"Is that all?" he inquired.

"I guess so." She raised an eyebrow. "What's with all the questions?"

Tamaki gawked at her. As expected from the beginning, she was a bookworm. But this, this was all too much!

He bolted up so abruptly that the books were almost knocked off from her hands again. The blonde hardly took any notice though, as he announced, "From now on, I'm going to make sure you'll have the most fun ever in the host club!"

Haruhi blinked confusedly at the sudden declaration and turned her head around at the throng of girls, who stayed a few feet nearby to spy upon hearing another odd interaction between the two. She wondered, with suspicion, if he was trying to cause a second controversy like that other time.

"Uh, you know, a promise like that is…"

"I know it's none of my business," Tamaki pressed some more, "but letting your youthful high school years go to waste like that is unacceptable! You should have fun, get experiences of all kinds, and be carefree!"

The brunette narrowed her eyes dubiously and stood up, carrying the books with a grunt. "Seems to me that you're the one who's too carefree."

He grinned.

"But I'm also the one with the smile on his face."

She fell silent for a moment, as if she didn't know how to respond. But ideas and scenarios were already forming in Tamaki's head, and he gladly expressed them to the girl.

"We have a lot of events in the club, Haruhi! I think you'll like them. And I already have a fantastic idea of our cosplay theme when we come back to school on Monday, thanks to someone dropping a magazine on my desk! Oh, I know! Your costume can be a matched pair with mine! Don't ask what the theme will be about, it's a secret for now. Ohh, but I can just imagine all the costumes you'll wear in the future! You'll look so CUTE! With that kind of 'natural' look, we can probably dress you up with anything, and I assure you the clothes will look…"

He stopped his long ramble when Haruhi suddenly burst out laughing. She covered her mouth with her free hand to contain the giggles, and he gawked at her, perplexed.

A blush crept on Tamaki's cheeks as he watched her hide the smile behind her hand and unsuccessfully stifling her laughter.

He had spoken too much and too inappropriately; she was probably laughing because he had gone off on gushy talks of the weird activities they'd be doing! Immediately, he felt like a pervert. A humiliating pervert.

"Sorry," she said, and tried to regain herself, this time both hands carrying the books. "It's just that you reminded me of my dad with the whole dress-up thing. Putting me in a bunch of outfits is exactly the type of thing he'd do. Now that I think about it, you two are kind of similar…"

Tamaki's mouth gaped open, with no words that came out, and then they closed. He stood stunned at the teenager in front of him.

Haruhi's father? Him?

And at that moment, everything became clear. An invisible weight lifted off his shoulders, and he felt such relief and happiness filling up inside of him.

The adoration over Haruhi's cuteness, the quickened heartbeats every time she came near, the over-protectiveness of her from the Hitachiin twins, they all had a perfect explanation.

He was Haruhi's father.

(And, surely, the small gaiety he felt when Haruhi smiled was because he was Haruhi's father too.)

He felt like laughing tears of respite after all that inner turmoil he had gone through, but the bell rang and the two both snapped their heads up. Haruhi was the first to take her leave.

"I'm still not sure about the paired match thing, but as long as it isn't too indecorous," she said, before straightening the books up and walking away.

Tamaki wasn't sure if clothes for a tropical paradise would be considered indecorous for early spring, but he spun around and watched her leave, pointing a finger pompously at the girl.

"Just remember what I said about having fun, Haruhi!" he called out. "I guarantee you, someday, you'll be telling me that everyone loves the host club… and you'll finally admit that you love the host club too!"

His avowal was ignored by the girl, but not for the other ladies of Ouran Academy. As the king walked to his own first period, he spotted a few girls hiding behind a wall, tissues wafted over their eyes as they quietly mourned over something along the lines of 'Tamaki being rejected by Haruhi' and 'Tamaki being placed only in a father position'…

He wasn't quite sure what they meant. After all, he was Haruhi's father. There was no rejection in that.

So he shrugged, and continued on, oblivious.

---

The weekend passed by and Haruhi refused to wear her Bali costume the following Monday. More weeks strolled through and he comforted her during the thunderstorm. Then they talked about his childhood in the rose maze, and then he saved her from the vile lips of Benio at the girls' academy.

... She also saved him too, from making the biggest mistake of his life, and they both embraced and landed with the softest fall one could ever make in the river.

Somewhere, along the way, Tamaki noticed her small figure was always there.

And somewhere, along the way, Tamaki noticed the cherry blossoms had finally bloomed.

End.