A/N: I just finished episode 6 of season 4 and had this scenario pop into my head. While I understand why the guys in Haruka's life don't confess their feelings for her, I found it really refreshing for a guy to be like "Hey, I like you and we get along. Want to go out?" I figured Van deserved some love for his guts and honesty.

Haruka checked her watch for what felt like the hundredth time. Late. She was going to be late. She quickened her pace, wishing she wasn't wearing heels and a skirt today. The song for the commercial was due at 10:00 AM and it was 9:45.

Haruka had everything ready last night, but when she turned on her computer that morning, it crashed and she lost everything, including all the drafts she had of songs for STARISH. Of course, she couldn't worry about the drafts at the moment. Her reputation as a professional was on the line.

She'd spent the morning rushing to write the song for the commercial on paper, having to write three drafts before she felt confident she had the same song that her computer deleted. She'd been planning on emailing the song to the company, which was what they'd agreed on. But Haruka hadn't dared put anything on her computer in case it crashed again and she had been the only one around since STARISH were all at an interview that morning.

Haruka glanced at her watch again, wishing she could slow time down. As she was staring at her watch, her heel caught on a crack on the sidewalk. A strong gust of wind blew at the same time and the song flew out of Haruka's hand as she stumbled. "No!" She cried, her hand uselessly reaching for papers beyond her grasp. If the papers blew into the street she'd really be in trouble.

The papers fluttered higher, carried by the wind. One was almost within her grasp, but the other was too high and going straight for the street. Desperately, she grabbed for the page nearest her, only for someone else to get it first. The next moment, Haruka's rescuer caught the second page as well.

"Thank you!" Haruka breathed earnestly. She put one hand over her racing heart as she closed her eyes and sighed in relief. "I don't know what I would have done if—" Haruka broke off as she opened her eyes and caught sight of her rescuer, too shocked to continue.

A tall, handsome man with slightly curled brown hair grinned down at her. "Don't worry about it. What kind of a guy would I be if I couldn't rescue a damsel in distress?"

"Kiryuin!" Haruka exclaimed in surprise. "What are you doing here?" Then she gasped as she remembered what she'd been doing before she'd tripped. "I'm sorry, I have to go."

"What's wrong?" He asked, a little alarmed at the panic in Haruka's voice.

"I'm going to be late! I should have had this emailed already—but then my computer crashed and—I need to go!" She looked at her watch again. 9:53.

"Where are you going?" Van asked.

"TGI Media Incorporated," Haruka answered absently, gathering her papers from Van. "I have to get this song to them for a commercial they're shooting this week."

She made it one step passed him before he grabbed her arm and pulled. "Come," he said. "I know a shortcut." Without waiting for her to respond, he turned down an alley, pulling Haruka along behind him. Haruka looked back at the street desperately, but she didn't know this area very well. It was likely that Van did know a faster way, and Haruka didn't believe he'd do something to sabotage her. Not intentionally, anyway.

She hurried to keep up with Van, having to jog to keep up with his long legs. They crossed a street, went down another alley, turned and corner, and there—"There it is!" Haruka exclaimed excitedly, running ahead. Van let her go and she turned to give him a grateful look. "Thank you,Kiryuin!" She called before running inside the building.

Pausing a moment, Haruka tried to get her breathing under control and straighten her clothes before walking up to the front desk.

"Good morning, may I help you?" A pretty secretary asked.

"Yes, my name is Haruka Nanami. I have a song that TGI is using for a commercial this week. I'd arranged to email it, but I had technical problems…" Haruka trailed off and flushed. This secretary didn't need to hear the story of how Haruka's morning had gone. "Anyway, I'm here to deliver it in person instead."

She held the papers out, but instead of taking the song, the secretary held up a finger, signaling for Haruka to wait a minute as she picked up the phone and dialed. She spoke quietly and a few minutes later, the VP Haruka had been working with for the concept of the commercial appeared.

"Miss Nananmi!" He cried happily. "I heard you have a song for me."

"Yes," she said, standing straight and holding the papers out for him. "I'm sorry, I know that we agreed I'd email the song to you this morning—"

"Don't apologize," the VP brushed off. "Technology fails us all at one time or another, it's always good to have a back-up plan." If Haruka had really had a back-up plan, she'd have been smart enough to back-up the song on a thumb drive. Going forward, she'd vowed to do just that. "We've partnered with more than one composer or song-writer who had problems and lost their work. What did they do? Call and ask for an extension, saying there was nothing they could do, but here you are, delivering your work in person. I imagine we'll be contacting you to work with you again, Miss Nanami."

"Thank you very much!" Haruka said as she bowed to the VP, her cheeks flushing with pride. She was so grateful and relieved, she felt like she was walking on air as she stepped outside. The sight of Van leaning against the outside wall of the building made Haruka jump in surprise. She'd been so grateful that the VP hadn't been upset with her that she'd forgotten he was there.

"Thank you, Kiryuin," Haruka repeated, bowing to him. "I wouldn't have made it here on time if not for you."

"Don't worry about, it Ha-chan," Van said. "I'm happy I saw you and was able to help. Say, are you busy now?"

"Busy?" Haruka repeated. She needed to start working on songs for STARISH's new CD coming out that year since she'd lost all the songs she'd been working on, but if Van needed something from her, she didn't want to tell him no. "I guess I'm free for the rest of the morning. Is there something I can do for you?"

"Sure," Van agreed with a smile. "Let me take you to brunch."

"Brunch?" Haruka asked, blinking rapidly in surprise.

"Yes, brunch," Van said encouragingly. "That enterprising meal between breakfast and lunch for those who forget breakfast or who burn too much energy in the morning to wait until lunch. With how much of a rush you seemed to be in, I'm betting you didn't have time to grab breakfast this morning."

At that exact moment, Haruka's stomach rumbled loudly. She blushed and covered her belly with one hand while Van laughed. "Looks like I was right about you missing breakfast. I know a really great place just a little ways from here."

He looked at Haruka enquiringly as she bit her lip. It was only two or three months ago that Van had asked Haruka out. While working with Van and Ren to compose a song for the two of them, he'd told Haruka he wanted to be with her. She'd answered him honestly, telling him that she could only think about music right now. He'd graciously accepted her answer and they'd still worked very well together to develop a song for him and Ren. If she said yes to brunch, would this make Van think she'd changed her mind?

Van watched the indecision on Haruka's face and correctly guessed her thoughts. "I'm not asking you out on a date," he promised, holding his hands out as though to show that he was innocent. "You're here, I'm here, we're both hungry…and we get along well. And it's always nice to make more friends, right? We meet so many interesting people in our industry, it'd be a shame to not take advantage of that and get to know all different kinds of people, don't you think?"

His motives weren't completely innocent, of course. He'd hadn't given up on Haruka in the slightest when she rejected him. He just needed to go about things differently. Van was the kind of guy who knew what he wanted and went for it, but Haruka was someone who had to think things over. She didn't rush into things. Van had been up front and honest with Haruka about his feelings for her, but he knew now that he had to go slower with her. She had to get to know more about him first. Once they grew closer, he was confident about his ability to make her fall for him. Assuming that one of the members of STARISH secretly pining for her didn't decide to make a move first, of course. That's why spending time with her this morning was too much of a golden opportunity for him to pass up.

"Plus, I'm starving," Van said, clutching an arm over his stomach dramatically when Haruka still didn't agree. "I didn't skip breakfast, but I'm the kind of person who burns a thousand calories in an hour just from all the energy I expend. I'm 100% dedicated to whatever I'm doing at the moment."

"I know," Haruka said, her lips curving and laughter in her eyes. "I learned that from working with you and seeing you on set for the court drama you did with Jinguji." She bit her lip again before saying, "I guess it's all right if it's not a date."

"Great!" Van exclaimed, his eyes lighting up. He grabbed Haruka's hand and started forward. "You're going to love this place, I promise."

~.~

"How did you end up joining HEAVENS, Kiryuin?" Haruka asked. The two were seated outside of a picturesque café. Potted flowers and curling ivy decorated the space. Kiryuin's choice of dining surprised Haruka since the place seemed a little feminine, but she had to admit that her parfait was delicious.

A quick grin lit up Van's face. They'd spent the first couple minutes talking about projects each were working on, but he'd hoped the conversation would turn to more personal topics. "After HEAVENS lost the Princes of Song contest, they felt they needed to make a change in order to pull off a strong and daring come back. I think Raging Ōtori considered a lot of things about how to create a whole new HEAVENS without changing what fans loved about the band. Eventually, he decided that new faces were what HEAVENS needed. Of course, the new members had to match the image of the band and fit in well the current members."

Haruka resisted the urge to ask if Van knew why Ōtori decided HEAVENS should have seven members. Syo claimed it was because they were just copying STARISH. She had a hard time seeing Ōtori making a decision based on STARISH, mostly because of how much pride he had. And even if that was the answer, Van was unlikely to tell her that. Unlike many of the members of HEAVENS, Van seemed to hold little, if any, hard feelings towards STARISH, but he was still unlikely to admit that his band's manager had copied from Shining Sataome.

"I was already an actor and working to break into a singing," Van explained. "Music was my first passion, though I do love acting. I ended up acting on a show with Kira. We got along well and talked a lot about music. When Kira learned how much interested I was in music, he introduced me to Ēichi. Ēichi felt like I matched HEAVENS' image, so he had me sing a couple songs with them, and that was that."

"Wow," Haruka said, surprised at how simple it all sounded. She wondered how the other three additional members of HEAVENS had joined. "That's wonderful you were able to break into music. You're so talented. The duet you and Jinguji did together was amazing, and you looked so cool performing with HEAVENS during the two SSS auditions."

Van was stunned for a minute, surprised at how easily she complimented him. A warm flush went through his body at her words. Trying not to show how affected he was, he grinned and exclaimed, "See, you do want to know more about me!" The first time he asked her out, he said that he wanted to get to know her better and asked if she wanted to get to know him better. Ren had shown up before she could give him an answer. "Of course, I want to learn more about you too. How did you end up involved with music?"

"I was really sick when I was little," Haruka said, staring down at her parfait and smiling sadly. "For my health, I went to live with my grandma in the country. She loves music and was always playing the piano. She taught me to play and we'd play and sing together for hours. When I came back to the city, it was a struggle for me. I wasn't used to so many sounds and sights. There was one day when I felt overwhelmed and was worried I might collapse…A song of Hayato's came on and it totally captured my attention. I decided that I wanted to make music like that. I wanted to make music that could lift people up and brighten their days."

Van stared at Haruka in rapt attention as she spoke. He could relate to what she was saying. Being interested in music, he'd played close attention to the Princes of Song competition, knowing that he could learn a lot from the participants. He'd remembered hearing that the woman composer for STARISH composed the songs for both bands. The moment he'd heard HEAVENS song he knew he had to meet the composer. He'd looked her up afterwards. Haruka Nanami. He knew at that moment that when he became a singer (because it had always been when and not if in his mind) he wanted to sing music composed by her. Then another thought occurred to him.

"Does that mean that you're a Hayato fan?" He asked. He remembered the scandal/surprise when it came out that Hayato was actually Tokiya Ichinose and he was joining the Shining Saotome Agency. For the first time he wondered if Tokiya's transfer had anything to do with Haruka since he joined as a member of STARISH.

Haruka blushed and looked down at her parfait again. "Of course. He was the one who inspired me to want to be a composer. I loved his music more than anyone else's." Her blush deepened as she looked up at Van and confessed, "I had a poster of Hayato on my wall while I was at Shining Saotome's school. Of course, I didn't know that my classmate Ichinose was actually Hayato."

Van smiled in amusement, but couldn't deny the spark of jealousy he felt. "Do you still have the poster of Hayato up?"

"No!" Haruka exclaimed vehemently, shaking her head vigorously. She felt no need to add that she still had the poster. It just wasn't on her wall anymore. "I do have a poster of STARISH from their first concert on my wall though," she added. "They all signed it and gave it to me as a gift." That reminded her that she needed to replace it with a new one of STARISH since her current one didn't have Cecil in it.

"Any other posters up in your room?" Van asked curiously.

"Well," Haruka said before pausing. "When I started writing songs for Quartet Night Kotobuki found out about my STARISH poster. Afterwards, he gave me one of Quartet Night signed by all of them. I didn't ask for it, though." She felt it would have been rude to not hang it, so she put it on the opposite side of the wall of STARISH's poster.

"I see," Van said, nodding thoughtfully.

He looked at Haruka's finished parfait and his empty plate and sighed. "I guess we should both be getting about our mornings then." He took out his wallet at the same time as Haruka. "What are you doing?" He asked her.

"Paying," she said, blinking at him innocently. "To thank you for saving my song this morning."

"Oh no," Van said, shaking his head. "This brunch wasn't for you to say thank you. It was an opportunity for us to get to know each other better." He winked at her. "Such opportunities should never be wasted. You know how I feel about seizing the day. And no man worth his salt would ever make a woman pay for him."

"Oh, well, thank you very much," Haruka said, giving a half-bow from her seat and looking adorably flustered.

~.~

Two days later, Haruka received a poster of HEAVENS signed by them all. She stared at it in consternation before looking around her room. The boys of STARISH would not be pleased if they saw this in her room. Her eyes fell on her closed door. Maybe she could put it there. They never came all the way inside her room and would never see it there.

A/N: This is my first attempt at a one-shot and my first time writing for Uta no Prince Sama and I'm not sure what I think of it. For now I'm marking the story as incomplete just in case season 4 gives me other ideas for one-shots like this. Reviews letting me know what you think would be appreciated