Note from the Author: Here's something I don't do very often- I split this chapter into three parts...Ah well, I just couldn't extend a scene long enough to be a chapter and I probably would have bored you had I done that anyway, haha. The next chapter is already halfway finished so I expect to have it up soon, so don't expect to wait too long. As a side note- I have reached ten chapters! Woot! Congratulations and thank you to all you have "loyally" read all the way to this point. You have made me abnormally overjoyed! Thank you!

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Ouran High School Host Club or any of the characters, no matter how much I may want to.

It was obvious Kyouya was angry, no matter how silent he remained in order to contain said anger. Tamaki hadn't felt his life threatened by Kyouya like this for a long time. It was scary.

"Permission to speak…?" Tamaki asked quietly, almost in a squeak. Kyouya was quiet for a minute, but eventually answered.

"Permission granted," he said simply. Tamaki felt about two pounds of tension leave the car. That left forty-eight more and Kyouya would be relatively happy again.

"Um, well…" Tamaki started poking his fingers together as he made odd sounds, as though he were going to say something but made no plans of doing so in the near future. After many "um"s, "uh"s, and "well"s, Kyouya spoke again.

"Permission denied," he changed, turning his head to look out the dark window of the limousine, hinting he was no longer going to consider giving his attention to the one who had caused him an inconvenience that night.

"No! Wait!" Tamaki cried in desperation, grabbing Kyouya's arm and obnoxiously shaking him around until Kyouya had to rip the death grip of off him.

"Then just say it," he ordered Tamaki in frustration. Tamaki quickly reverted back to his nervous position, but hid his hands from view- so he wouldn't be tempted to follow through with any more distracting poking.

"I almost told her…" Tamaki finally said, not wanting Kyouya to pretend he didn't care again.

"Oh?" Kyouya sounded interested for the first time in a while, "And why didn't you?" Tamaki didn't really have a strong answer to that question. He had an excuse for one moment in the day, but why he never tried again- he didn't have an answer to that.

"Well…Hunny and Mori showed up, and then, I just, couldn't try to tell her again. I guess I let my troublesome nerves get the best of me."

"Apparently so," Kyouya plainly agreed after a sigh from Tamaki, "But you got one step closer, correct?"

"Maybe, but I don't think I'll do anything like that again," Tamaki stated with a little played laughter as he attempted to make the mood light-hearted.

"Why not?" Tamaki lost the happiness from his smile when he realized his attempt had failed.

"I'm really not sure."

"But you are in love with her, aren't you?" Tamaki rested his head on his hand and let the faint hint of happiness back into the smile he refused to let go of.

"Yeah…I am."

The chair smashed to the floor, leaving it dead quiet in the room, except for the heaving breathing of an enraged Hikaru and the sigh of Kaoru, who was now rolling his eyes at the sudden change in attitude his brother was having.

"And what happened to the 'just-give-up' idea you had exactly?" he asked. Hikaru got ready to toss the lamp on the desk the chair had been at, but Kaoru smoothly reached out and snatched it, leaving his twin to grab air.

"I never said anything like that!" Hikaru yelled, "I'm not giving up! Not without yelling at that idiot first! He made a move without letting me know about it first! I used to tell him when I was going to try anything! And I never did anything like that!" He began to stomp his foot repeatedly on a pillow by his feet- one he had previously thrown when he had been by the bed -while angrily muttering to himself "idiot" with every stomp.

"Hikaru?" Kaoru began, his headache telling him it was time to update Hikaru on what really happened. He was still a little angry himself that he wasn't in "the lead" but he hadn't planned on going as far as Hikaru. He'd rather keep the house intact.

"What!?"

"Milord didn't kiss Haruhi. Or do anything of the sort." The room was dead. Not just silent, but dead. The tension, the sound- everything, just disappeared. Hikaru took one last slow stomp on the pillow.

"Huh?" he asked. Kaoru sighed before decided to explain the true story, which meant the revealing of his being at the park as well. Once the story was told, all Hikaru could do was fall over.

"Why didn't you just say that before?" he tried to ask calmly through gritted teeth. Kaoru just shrugged. Hikaru jumped back up onto his feet, fists clenched in mild victory and determination.

"That means he doesn't have the guts," Hikaru laughed maliciously.

"Mm-hmm, that's right," Kaoru spouted with nonchalance for lack of anything better to say, "I'm going to bed. We just missed a whole day of work, so we're getting up early tomorrow and we're finishing late- no questions asked."

"But-"

"What did I just say?" Kaoru interrupted, using his new found evilness to add to his words, making them sound like a threat more than anything else.

"Fine…" Hikaru whined, "Now get out of my room." He pointed to the door, pouting over the fact he had to work unnecessarily long the next day.

"Fine…" Kaoru whined back before quickly adding, "But you're getting up early tomorrow whether you like it or not" and slammed the door. Hikaru shouted a groan of complaint.

"But I'm depressed, remember?" he tried to call after his brother, in a final attempt to win this battle, but the absence of a response told him he had lost.

Haruhi collapsed back on her bed, arms stretched out on either side of her, letting out a long, exhausted breath. She closed her eyes and let the phone she had been talking on only seconds before fall from her hands. The gentle thud must have called the dog over, because she immediately rose from her corner and went over to the bed to joyfully lick Haruhi's fingers.

Ignoring Antoinette, Haruhi continued to look sorrowfully up at the ceiling, trying hard to find a reasonable argument against (or just forget) her dad's words. She was a lawyer. It shouldn't be hard…but Haruhi couldn't think of anything to disprove his point. It was all true…It was hard to disprove the truth. Really hard.

Haruhi moaned and turned over, pulling her now sopping wet fingers away from her dog and bringing them under her pillow, to further shove her face into it. When she realized it probably wouldn't do her any good at all to attempt to suffocate herself, she lifted her head halfway, and pathetically stared at the wall.

"No…" she moaned again, before proceeding with banging her head against the fluffy pillow in her arms, "No, no, no, no…" She turned her face towards the dog, still at her bedside.

"It's not true, Antoinette," she denied, "It's not, it's not, it's not…" But no matter how many times she denied it, everything else around her told her otherwise. The spinning in her head, the pain in her entire body, the heavy pounding of her heart, the lack of concentration, the trembling in her fingers, the butterflies in her stomach…It all told her one thing and one thing only.

Haruhi was completely, utterly, unmistakably in love.