A/N: Hello once again, all! Another Ouran fiction! Huzzah!

This was a quick idea I had while eating pudding this evening—but as I thought it through it began to look not so little anymore! I hope you enjoy, anyhow.

Something slightly similar to this happened to me last year; I'll love the guy forever for doing this for me.

And thinking this out brought up the question: where do insanely rich people go to shop? I suppose the servants get the groceries at normal grocery stores, but…?!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran! If I did, I would not be holed up in my house for three weeks until school starts and going RAVING. But alas, it is Hatori Bisco-sensei who is free to roam the world… not I.

"Pudding."

Haruhi had spoken without thinking. The thought had simply burst into her mind and, without even realizing it, she had blurted it out for all else in the Third Music Room to hear.

Despite the fact that she dressed as a boy—despite the fact that, for the most part, the entire school thought she was a boy—Haruhi was still, when it came all the way down to it, a woman. And every once and awhile, all women get strange cravings; it was a side-effect that simply came with puberty, and there wasn't really a way to get around it. Even Haruhi had to suffer through cravings; and since they were often cravings for strange foods that she could never dream of getting a hold on (ootoro immediately comes to mind), she tended to end up suffering all the worse.

But this craving was exceptionally strange in all circumstances—it had simply snuck up on her so quickly that she didn't quite have the time to consider the consequences for voicing it.

And she immediately regretted it.

Her fellow members of the host club all immediately stopped what they were doing to look up at her inquiringly, and she found herself (as she often did) wanting to shrivel up under their stares.

"Pudding?" Hikaru repeated, over the hand-held video game he was playing with his twin.

"What about pudding?" Kaoru asked.

Haruhi glanced around the room to see the reactions of the others. Hunny, who was sitting at a table along with her and Mori, had looked up from his slice of cake, his fork half-way up to his mouth, was now blinking up at her innocently. Mori was staring also, looking mildly interested (but mostly keeping an eye on Hunny).

Kyouya had paused from his typing in his laptop; as the moments wore on he returned to whatever he had been doing before. And Tamaki—Tamaki, who had been pacing along the windows, muttering to himself, trying to come up with another brilliant idea for next week's cosplay, had frozen where he was and turned his head to observe Haruhi, an excited look, for some reason, blooming across his face. He fell silent and began to inch closer to where the girl was sitting.

"Ah, yes… I'm sorry," she said finally, looking down into the depths of her tea cup. "I was just sort of thinking aloud. I suddenly had an urge to eat pudding…"

Tamaki inched closer.

"I never knew you liked pudding, Haru-chan!" Hunny squealed, flowers seeming to burst out of each of his words; he continued the consumption of his cake.

"Well… I don't particularly like it, sempai," Haruhi replied slowly. "My father used to buy pudding cups for me when I was a child. I think he ended up eating more of them than I ever did." She almost felt like laughing at the recollection. "And they often sold them at school. They're a very popular snack."

Tamaki snuck closer.

"Sorry, Haru-chan, but I don't think we have any pudding!" Mori nodded silently in agreement. Then a lightbulb seemed to light up above Hunny's head. "But you can have some of my cake!" A plate holding the half-eaten slice of cake was pushed under her nose, and she gently pushed it away.

"Thank you, Hunny-sempai," she said, chuckling slightly. "But I think I'll be fine."

Tamaki scooted closer.

"I could call someone and get pudding delivered, Haruhi," Kyouya offered, holding up his cell phone; a light flashed across his glasses, making his face unreadable.

Haruhi suddenly noticed a rather menacing aura coming off of him. "N-no thank you, Kyouya-sempai…" she stuttered. And how much would that cost me? This thought, thankfully, was kept within the confines of her mind.

Tamaki took one tiny, excited leap closer…

Without another word (though Haruhi imagined she could hear an evil laugh emitting from him), Kyouya went back to his typing.

The twins went back to their video game.

And Tamaki slid closer…

As Haruhi turned back to her tea, she noticed a strange sort of presence behind her. Slowly, very slowly, she turned her head, knowing what she was about to face and dreading it very, very much.

What she saw were two glowing eyes—she barely had time to think, oh no, before she was swept up in a rather tight hug.

"Oh, Haruhi!" Tamaki exclaimed, spinning her around. "Oh, my dear daughter Haruhi! You must have what you want!"

Haruhi felt it unnecessary to struggle in his grasp; she knew if she ignored him he would eventually have to put her down. Nor did she feel it necessary to listen to what he was babbling on and on about. "Daddies exist to give their beloved daughters what they desire! And what kind of father would I be, if I were not to give Haruhi what she wants most in the world? Pudding—ha! It is almost an insult, how easy it would be for me to acquire pudding! And then I would give you the pudding! And you would love it! You would love it! Ah ha ha ha ha!"

Her mind had long since wandered to other things; therefore she was not paying attention when he swiftly dropped her and she swayed on her feet for a moment, nearly losing her balance before regaining her composure.

Tamaki was already half way out the door. "I shall return soon from my quest, Haruhi! Await my return!" The door slammed behind him.

Haruhi stared after him, slightly in awe.

"I doubt he'll come back," Kyouya said, startling her out of her stupor and causing her to whirl around to face him. He hadn't looked up. "It's getting late, Haruhi. You can go home now."

She hesitated, looking back at the door for the briefest of moments before giving Kyouya a little nod and striding across the room to gather her things. On her way out the door she looked over her shoulder and said, "Goodbye, everyone. See you again tomorrow."

It was to the general mumblings of farewell (and the high-pitched "bye-bye" of Hunny) that she closed the door to the Third Music Room. Things've been quiet lately, she thought, feeling slightly relieved, as she made her way to the exit.

Except for Tamaki. On the quiet days, Tamaki seemed louder than ever.

It was with a mission in his heart that Tamaki set out into that fine spring day.

His first stop on the quest was (as it seemed he had easiest access to) the second mansion's kitchen.

He must have given one of the maids a near heart attack when she walked in to find him rooting through the huge refrigerator, because he heard, behind his back, a loud squeal, closely followed by the sound of scattering footsteps; when he paused to look over his shoulder, he was alone. He returned to his task.

"Pudding cups… pudding cups…" he muttered, shoving aside jars and containers of unknown food stuffs aside in his search. He was very wrapped up in this that he did not even notice when another person entered the kitchen and came to stand directly behind him. When a voice spoke, he jumped a foot or two in the air.

"What might I ask you are doing, Young Master?"

"Sh-Shima!" She had startled him; it took a few seconds for him to regain his composure. He quickly struck a dramatic pose and exclaimed (in a very dramatic voice), "I am looking for pudding cups!" He shrunk down and stood so close to the old woman that their noses were nearly touching, looking at her with wide eyes. "Do you know where I could find some?"

She blinked at him and scooted back a few feet before replying.

"Might I suggest trying the supermarket, Young Master?"

"Of course!" he cried, straightening up and pointing an attractive finger to the ceiling. "The supermarket! Ingenious! Brilliant, simply amazing! Why didn't I think of it at first? Of course! The supermarket! Of course they would have pudding cups!" And he ran out of the kitchen, out the front doors, and straight into the limousine that was waiting for him.

As he stepped foot into the commoner's supermarket and took one sweeping look about the scene that lay before him, Tamaki felt his heart lighten. He knew now that he was in a place that would, most certainly, have pudding cups.

He could see it now: Him, arriving at Haruhi's door, bearing the luscious pudding cups that she had for so long been longing after. And her, staring at him in surprise, before hugging him viciously and thanking him over and over for the pudding.

"Ah, yes," he sighed affectionately, imagining the look of excitement that would be placed upon Haruhi's face as she took the pudding cups from him. It would be such a lovely sight, and how he would feel for it!—he would have succeeded as a father, bringing his daughter true happiness!

He was so caught up in his fantasies that he gave quite a start when someone tapped him on the shoulder from behind.

"Huh? …Oh!" he exclaimed, spinning around on his heel to see a middle-aged woman standing behind him. "Can I help you, my dear woman?" He put on as much charm as he could, reviving himself from his zoned-out state and standing in a very attractive manner.

However, the lady did not smile. "Would you mind moving to the side?" she asked him.

He blinked in confusion.

With a sigh, the woman rolled her eyes. "You're blocking the doorway."

Tamaki finally noticed, for the first time, that he was, indeed, standing right in front of the door of the supermarket, blocking the woman's entrance. "Oh! Please excuse me!" He jumped aside and fell into a deep bow. "I was so careless! Please forgive me—" But when he raised himself back up to his full height, the woman was already gone. With a shrug of his shoulders, he continued onward with his journey.

The supermarket, it seemed, did not have any pudding cups.

It was a ridiculous thing to think of—that a grocery store would not carry pudding cups! The masses loved pudding cups—or this is what Tamaki assumed. So why would the supermarket not have pudding cups?

An hour later he was bordering on despair, wishing he could find a nice corner to curl up in and mope, after he had scoured the entire store in his search for pudding. He had been up and down every single one of the isles seven times each (and eight times down isle 13, if you counted the time when he had forgotten himself and accidentally gone down that one instead of the next one) and had found no evidence of pudding whatsoever.

It was disheartening. And slightly sickening. And so many other adjectives with bad connotations that he didn't feel like listing in his head at the moment.

And at the moment, he was slumped disgracefully over a display of cans of chicken broth—which wasn't very comfortable, if you were wondering. But he was exhausted.

And still pudding-less.

Which only added to the exhaustion.

He imagined Haruhi, sitting all alone at home and staring wistfully out of the window, wishing desperately for pudding. What kind of person was he, denying her this? How could he live with himself, being unable to grant her dearest wish? He was the worst sort of person.

Tears of frustration and self-pity leaked out from underneath his eyelids; he wanted to scream, he wanted to run around madly, he wanted to find pudding cups…

When Tamaki felt a light tap on his shoulder, much like the one from an hour prior to this, he was very slow to turn his head and face the person standing beside him. The man was wearing the plain green apron proclaiming his belonging to the store, and he had a skeptical look upon his face. "…Yes?" Tamaki weakly acknowledged him.

"Excuse me, sir, but I'm going to have to ask you to get off of the food display."

"Oh… yes… sorry…" Tamaki slowly stood up, but his head hung discouragingly low. He stood there, unmoving, simply staring at the man with a very dejected look on his face (very different from typical Host Club King behavior).

The store employee cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Um… is there… is there anything I can do to help you, sir? Is there something I can help you find?"

At this, Tamaki instantly brightened up; the expression he now wore made the man beside him think forcibly of a puppy-dog. "Really? Do you mean it? Will you help me?"

"Uh…" came the uncertain reply. "Uh… yeah. It's kind of what I'm getting paid for."

"Hooray!" Tamaki spun around a few times before stopping and facing the store employee and saying, very seriously, "I'm looking for pudding cups."

The man stared at him in disbelief. "Pudding cups?" he repeated incredulously. With a hefty sigh, he pointed at something behind Tamaki. "Right there."

"Hoh?" the blond squeaked, swiveling to see what the other was pointing at: The top of the shelf directly above where he had been slumped. Sure enough, at the very top sat a lone package of chocolate pudding cups.

He was so surprised he nearly fainted. In fact, he was half-way to the floor in a swoon when he caught himself—there were more important things to do right then than fainting! "I must retrieve the pudding!" he thought out loud; the words came out a bit louder than he intended, causing a few people passing by to throw him odd looks.

(Meanwhile, the employee snuck away. He really didn't want to have to deal with such an idiot.)

Author's Note: Well, it turned out being longer than a one-shot—but if all goes well, I should be able to finish it in two chapters. I could've fit it into one, but it probably would've been too long. And that might've sucked a little bit.

So anyways, here's the first chapter. I hope you liked it. I'd love comments; constructive criticism is good also. But mean comments aren't very nice. So… yeah.

The conclusion should be up soon! This has been—Rin