Omg guys I swear the reason this chapter is in so late is that I kept on getting error messages every time i tried uploading a new document! But, it's finally here! Thanks again Chadick and CrimsonSnow, you guys really helped me out with your beta readings!

Anyways, hope you enjoy. (Btw. 20000+ hits, whoo!)

Tamaki screamed. The sound that erupted from him was a blood curdling falsetto that any professional performing tenor would have been proud of.

"Wha-what? Nooo!" He rushed to Haruhi from the doorway and dropped to his knees in front of her. He embraced her passionately as twin rivers of tears flowed from his eyes. "What a cruel trap you've fallen into, Haruhi!"

"Tamaki-sempai, I—"

"Oh!" He gasped and lifted his face from the navel of her shirt, where a wet spot now formed. "At least you still retain your voice! Do speak again! Your sound may be your only feminine feature now. Say my name, call me Daddy."

"Tamaki-sempai! What are you talking about?" She attempted to push him off herself by the shoulders but he stubbornly clung to her.

"I had hoped that I would not be too late. I left soon as you called. But…I see that you've become a man after all!"

"Whoa, wait a minute! I'm not a—I'm jus—"

Tamaki wasn't listening. He quickly pulled apart the front of her blazer and proceeded to yank it off. His hands then started to frantically rove over her dress shirt, which covered the tailored layer of padding that added masculine bulk to her frame. "Maybe the procedure won't cause permanent damage if we hurry! I just need to see…"

"No need to do that!"

Haruhi was suddenly able to muster a lot more strength and pushed him a good five feet away. But the gesture did not faze Tamaki. It only interrupted him so that he could develop a new but related train of thought.

"Sempai…?" After seeing him stay where he landed with his head down as if in a state of deep, depressing contemplation she wondered if she should approach him and try to explain things again. He sprung up before she had a chance to do anything however.

"Haruhi! You have to show me it!"

"…Huh?"

"I mean…" he looked down, "it."

Haruhi stared back for a moment, not registering. Then, her eyes popped and she became ashen.

"Come on, it must be small so it wouldn't be too much work to cut—"

"That's it, too far!" She saw his hand going for her and slapped him away hard.

"That really is too far, Tamaki." A cool but amused voice remarked from behind the two and they turned around to see Kyouya coming down the stairs. He was wearing dark pants and a shirt but his hair was still mussed. It seemed he had been in the middle of his wake up routine when he heard the commotion outside his bedroom.

"Calm down for a moment and see what you were really panicking about." He strolled to Haruhi's side and casually lifted the wig and net underneath it off her head. The dark, smooth hair that had been kept in a tight pile immediately cascaded down just past her shoulders. An audible gasp was heard escaping from Tamaki's throat.

"Wait, there's more." Kyouya disappeared from the hall into the living room and reappeared soon, holding an opened chrome briefcase displaying the rest of the "kit" that would help disguise Haruhi as a male. A faint, strangled sound came from Tamaki and he moved his hand slowly towards the case, as if reaching for his savior.

"All right, so now you've seen." Kyouya snapped the lids close millimeters away from the other man's fingertips. "She's probably also wearing the padding beneath her shirt right now."

"…Ah." Tamaki stayed still for moment, taking in all that he was told. Then he collapsed pitifully onto the floor and moaned, "I have been the victim of a cruel joke but I'm glad to see that Kyouya is not a complete monster after all."

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The next day, Tamaki insisted that he would go along with Kyouya and Haruhi on their "operation." It seemed he intended to become as much involved with Kyouya's project as possible. He decided to start by coaching Haruhi on the finer points of male seduction.

"Now it's true, Haruhi, that you've proven to be popular with young princesses in the past, but this girl who you once entertained has become…a woman."

"Uh huh…"

Kyouya watched her blank reaction in the rear view window. Though there was enough room for all three of them to ride backseat, Tamaki had dashed in while holding on to her wrist and insisted that Kyouya ride shotgun next to the driver. He had obliged the blonde dono as usual and now sat listening to the conversation behind him, feeling faintly nostalgic. Haruhi was going to play host again, after all.

"…Now, a good trick is to look off somewhere for a bit while she's talking but turn back to her when she reaches punctuation. Then make eye contact and smile…like so. Let me also demonstrate…"

Does it feel good to talk to Haruhi like the way she was in high school? Back to a time when her gender could be bended and disguised?

Kyouya stared away from the picture of the present Haruhi in the mirror and looked off as he thought about the past.

What did you see in her then? Do you still feel the same now?

He looked back to the mirror and saw Tamaki cup Haruhi's chin lightly with a curled index finger and thumb.

"…Now, pay attention. Subtle touching is important." Kyouya watched him moved his hand down to rest momentarily on the side of her upper arm.

"Eye contact again, Haruhi…" Their gazes locked together and Kyouya looked away.

"I think you've told her enough, Tamaki. Haruhi is really only there to insinuate herself into a renewed friendship. Besides, we don't want her to appear sleazy."

"Sir, we're here." The driver interrupted them before Tamaki could respond.

"Good," Kyouya glanced at his watch. "Right on time. Drink this, Haruhi." He handed her a small bottle of colored liquid.

"What's this?" she asked.

"It'll mask your feminine voice for up to three hours. Slowly take all of it down, you might feel a slight irritating effect at first but that only means it's working."

"All right…" She looked uncertainly down at the bottle in her hands before downing it. She discovered that it had a tangy citrus flavor that was not unpleasant and felt a tickling sensation at the back of her mouth. A moment later her throat was feeling scratchy.

"I—" Her voice cracked at first but she was shocked by its hoarseness. She cleared her throat and tried again. "It's working." She said. The sound of her words was deep and raspy. Though it wasn't anywhere as deep as his own or Tamaki's, Kyouya nodded in satisfaction. Subtle makeup had been applied to give her nose the illusion of a broader ridge as well as making her jaw line more pronounced. Her eyebrows had also been thickened.

"All right, you're ready to go."

Haruhi waved goodbye to the men and left the car first, moving in the direction of one of the restaurants at the resort. The instructions that Kyouya had given to her were surprisingly simple: go to the restaurant, ask to be seated at a table in the front garden, and if Takahashi shows up, say hello.

Haruhi sat down and opened the menu that the waiter had handed her. She scanned down briefly and had no idea what to order. Everything looked good but foreign to her. Usually when she had gone to fancier restaurants with her Ouran friends they would make recommendations. When the waiter came back she asked him what he thought was good and agreed to order what he suggested. Afterwards, she looked around at her surroundings. The weather had turned even milder and she was perfectly comfortable sitting outside with just her jacket providing thicker insulation.

The garden she was in was not as fully populated as it would have been in springtime but had some nice evergreens and hardy species of flowers that gave off mild aromas. To the left of where she sat was the coastline and she could make out the white sails of boats passing by and occasionally a few dots of color that were the people onboard. To the right of her was a fountain decorated with equestrian figures carved in. Around it was a small town square of sorts.

"It's nice out here, guys. I'm sitting and waiting now." If anyone nearby saw her speaking he would have thought she was speaking to no one, but there was a small microphone hidden inside her shirt. Across the street, Kyouya and Tamaki were listening to its feed. It was an one-way communication.

Sitting inside a coffee shop with a wide glass window, the two high school friends ordered their drinks as they joined in on the wait.

"How do you know that the hime will be there?" Tamaki asked when their server went away with their orders.

"Call it an informed hunch." Was all that Kyouya would say. He had actually found out that Takahashi had signed up for golf lessons at courses nearby and would surely be passing by Haruhi since both the restaurant and the courses were in walking distance of where she stayed.

A few minutes after their drinks were brought to them, Tamaki perked his head up, looking through the window.

"Look, is that her?"

Kyouya followed his gaze and saw a young Asian woman with short hair wearing a white blouse with capris stop in front of Haruhi. The two women looked at each other for a moment in surprised recognition.

"What do you hear?" Tamaki asked, since there was only one earpiece and the other man was wearing it.

Kyouya smirked in success. "Takahashi is talking now. She's saying that she didn't expect to run into Haruhi-kun like this. It's a pleasant surprise for her."

They watched as their newly arrived kouhai seat herself across from Haruhi, smiling brightly as she did so. Haruhi smiled back and soon they were reminiscing about old times and brushing up on each other's current affairs. Kyouya noted that Takahashi sounded a little too cheerful for someone who with deep financial difficulties. But, then again, appearances are just appearances.

"How is my little nekko cat doing?" was something Tamaki would occasionally ask as he flipped through the tour guide they had bought to the café with them.

"Your 'little nekko' is doing fine."

Kyouya watched Takahashi lean forward attentively. He could hear a hint of flirtation in the conversation between them. The other girl seemed glad to show off her newly matured womanly charms and Haruhi, was of course, unwittingly responding with equal charisma.

"So, are you going out with anyone, Haruhi-kun?" He heard her ask.

"Not really." was the answer.

"What? That's no fun! You're nineteen already and still aren't seeing anyone? But you've gotten even cuter, Haruhi-kun!"

"Thank you Takahashi-san, but I've always been too busy with school work to worry about that."

"Oh? That's right, you were in the top of class in high school, after all…but hey, I have a question."

"Yes?"

"Did you ever like anyone when you were in high school? You don't have to answer if you don't want to, I mean, it's just a silly question, but we were always curious about you..."

There was a brief moment of silence and Kyouya sat still in wait, feeling more anticipation than the girl who asked the question.

"Actually, I'm not sure." She answered finally.

"Not sure?"

"Well, just recently I thought about the way that I had been in Ouran and the people I knew there. I don't think that I can be called a romantic person, but if I hadn't been so busy and thought of romance as something that I might have enjoyed…or if I had slowed down to think about some of the people who were always near me…"

"Haruhi-kun…aww."

"Kyouya? What are they saying?"

"Nothing, really. I was just lost in thought." He had remained still and looking downward with his fingers ready at—but not picking up—the cup handle for several minutes. He bought his drink up to his lips and sipped so as to not alert Tamaki.

"They're finishing up now and making plans to meet later." Kyouya reported a few minutes afterwards. "They've exchanged phone numbers and…Haruhi had already mentioned that we were on the island too and…we are of course invited to dine with her and Haruhi anytime…Takahashi is leaving now."

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After dinner that night, Kyouya stood outside on his room's balcony and let the cold breeze blow droplets from his hair. He was only wearing a shirt over his pants and had no socks on, but the chill felt good. He looked over the private pool at the back of the rented villa towards the coastline.

"Come in." He called out when he heard a knock at his door.

"Kyouya-sempai, aren't you cold?"

"No, it feels nice. Wrap something around yourself and join me for a bit." He heard her small feet padding around on the floor till she stopped at a chair.

"I'm going to use your jacket." She found it slung over the chair.

"That's all right."

She went to his side. "What a nice view." The narrow balcony was slightly crowded with a small table and chair placed on top. They had to stand close together, shoulder to shoulder.

"Tamaki suggested…" She held up the guide that had been flipped through in the café. "that we go shopping in one of the local towns soon. In fact, there might be a fair tomorrow. What do you think?

Kyouya didn't respond, so Haruhi kept talking, outlining some famous shops in the guide. He nodded halfheartedly, pretending to care till he couldn't take it anymore.

"Haruhi, do you realize that before Tamaki came here we were a man and woman, alone together in a rented villa in the middle of a foreign country? Do you realize that you swam in a bikini when I was free to watch and there was no one else around us?"

"I—sempai, why are you—"

He turned towards her and she saw that he had a dark look on his face. He was almost angry. "Do you realize that you're a flirt who has been flirting with me?"

"Kyouya!"

"Earlier, when you had said that there were people you might have thought more about…could one of them been me?"

She stayed silent for what seemed like eternity to him while staring into his eyes with that maddening, wide and honest gaze of hers. What was she thinking? Was she going to say no?

"Yes, you were."

He leaned towards her without a second thought and kissed her. His hands went to cup the sides of her face, as if he wouldn't let her go. Her lips were stiff and resistant at first but he immediately parted them and went in for a deep one. A small "Ah!" escaped from her and he quickly hushed her up again. He suddenly felt so needy, so hungry for this. He took in her lower and upper lip and then pushed his tongue in. It slicked over hers and ran against the roof of her mouth. He heard a gasp stifled in her throat and felt her small hands pushing against his chest.

"Ah…sempai!" she was barely able to let out. He knew he wasn't being gentle at all. He was overwhelming her and he wasn't able to stop himself. Her lips would be swollen the next morning.

"Hey, Takahashi had just called and invited all of us to dinner for tomorrow night. I really feel nostalgic now…" Tamaki froze. He had walked in through the open door and was presently staring at the other two on the balcony. Kyouya let go and Haruhi quickly pushed herself away. Her hand flew to cover her now tender lips.

With awkward expressions and confused emotions, the three of them stared off uncertainly at each other. A sense of tense drama fell over the room.