Disclaimer: I do not own "Ouran High School Host Club" or any of the characters in this wonderful manga/anime in any way.

Missing his heart

Previously in chapter ten… "…Oh god, what have I done?" Kyoya ran through the monologue out loud, grateful that the divider was up and his driver was listening to the radio.

Chapter Eleven

Haruhi couldn't sleep that night. The next morning, despite the lack of sleep, she was in a good mood. Ranka teased her, "You're as giddy as a school girl in love. Hmmmm could you possibly be said school girl in love?"

His teasing was met with a resounding "DAD!!!" as she prepares to leave for school. Shoveling one last bite into her mouth, Haruhi grabs her school bag and heads out the door on her way out to school. Her father calls after her, "Don't forget that I am going to the club tonight… I haven't seen it in almost seven months, ok? I won't be home for supper." Haruhi is met on the stairs by a slightly disheveled Kyoya, who speaks up for her in response to Ranka's statement, "It's ok, I will make sure that she eats well tonight." Turning to face her, "You will give me the pleasure of your company tonight for dinner, right? Seeing as I have already told your father that I would make sure that you ate properly."

"Senpai, what are you doing here? Umm and I guess I will join you since you already promised my dad."

"Kyoya"

"I'm sorry, what did you say?"

"It's just Kyoya. Please drop the honorifics if we are going out. And I am here to escort my girlfriend to school. Even if I can't tell the world that she is my girlfriend, yet. Or did I misunderstand what happened last night. I may have been jumping to conclusions when I assumed that someone who does not frivolously kiss others, kissed me, that it was acceptance of my proposal to date." Adjusting his glasses, he hid the spike of emotions and questions that flashed across his face. Was I wrong? Does she actually hate me, and it truly is someone else that she cares for? His mind was reeling a mile a minute until she spoke.

"Ehh, No, I mean Yes... I mean… You are correct, I don't carelessly kiss people. But are you sure that this is what you want? Me, I mean… that I am who you, the Great Shadow King, and third son of the Otori family wants to date? The me who is constantly increasing instead of decreasing her own debt to the Host Club? The one who you once agree that there was no merit in getting involved with, that night at Nekozawa Mansion? Kyoya, please… may we discuss this rationally later, after school? I am a little confused with some things, and would like to talk them out before I agree or reject you. Please?" She knew that this would not be easy, specially hiding it from the other club members. But more importantly, she wanted to know why he would ask her out, when prior to this, he had not seemed to care at all.

"Ok, we will go to dinner after club today. We can discuss it then. Is that ok?"

"Yes, that is fine."

"Great, now will you please get in the limo, so that we can go to school?"

Haruhi climbed into the limo and settled back against the plush seat, resting her head back and her hands by her side. Kyoya settled in next to her, and slide his arm behind her head to allow her to rest easier. He took her hand in his, and brought it lightly to his lips. He did not let go of her hand again until he had stepped out of the limo and helped her out as well. Then, and only then did he make any effort to let her hand go. He had wanted to kiss her properly on the lips, but decided against it, since she had reservations about dating him. He knew that this would not be easy, but he also knew that he had a deadline to meet. He didn't have time to make mistakes and have to backtrack.

School went as usual, and club activities kept Haruhi very busy, but she did find… no, correction, she made the time to apologize to Tamaki for snapping at him the day before. He, of course, bragged to the other hosts about what a good daughter he had, and that she must really love her daddy to say such sweet things. This had everyone rolling their eyes, mumbling such things as "typical Tamaki". And of course, the closing of the club for the day was punctuated by the twins asking to come over to Haruhi's house to play. "Not this time, please. I have too much to do. Dad will be going back to work soon, so I have to prepare for that. I promise though… soon! Not this weekend, probably, but maybe next weekend everyone can come over and we'll have a get together to celebrate dad's return. Ok?"

The Hitachiin twins grumbled and reluctantly agreed.

Kyoya, who was still sitting at his normal spot with his laptop open, smiled silently. Even though she hated lying to her friends, she had done a good job of putting them off for a little while longer. No one knew that they had dinner plans this evening, and if he could help it, no one needed to know either. Not that he minded a little bit of competition on a normal basis, but this was no normal circumstance. And, Tamaki overly enthusiastic, as usual, also offered Haruhi a ride home.

Trying to not repeat the incident from the day prior, she calmly replied that she had plans. Although Tamaki didn't let it go at that, she continued on and remained calm, not showing her frustration. Kyoya noted this and decided that he would reward her. Opening the ledger spreadsheet he reduced her debt to the club by 10% remarking only "for good deeds" in the comments field. "I just need to tell her about it, and that would be a great ice breaker for dinner tonight", he reminded himself.

After the guests all left, the hosts made their way out, one by one. Finally it was just Tamaki, Kyoya and Haruhi left. Since it was normal for Kyoya to be the last one to leave, usually working on something on his computer, he continued to sit in his normal place under the pretense of working on the laptop. Haruhi, painstakingly slow to complete her cleaning tasks in the first place, drug it out even further by only taking the cup but leaving Kyoya's saucer on the table. Hoping that Tamaki would leave before she finished, she packed up her belonging, and started to say goodbye to Kyoya when she "incidentally" saw the saucer. Dropping her bag, she took care of the saucer and slowly as she could. It was done, yet Tamaki had not left. He was milling around, not doing much of anything. She picked up her bag again, and bid both boys a good night. She knew that if she didn't keep her dinner with Kyoya a secret that there would be hell to pay. No luck. Tamaki followed her out and insisted over and over again that he would give her a ride to where ever it was that she needed to go. He was more persistent that she had ever seen him before. Finally as she was about at her limit, just seconds before she started to scream at him to leave her alone, Kyoya exited the building and called to her. "Ranka just called and asked me to give you a ride over to his shop to pick something up. I hope you don't mind Tamaki, I didn't know that you hadn't left, so I promised him I would see that she was taken care of. Of course, Father, if I had known that you were only milling around to sexually harass our daughter, I would have left the job it to you, since it is more out of my way that it is yours."

Tamaki looked as if his security blankie had been taken away by a big bad kindergarten bully. "I was not sexually harassing my daughter. I was trying to look out for her and only offered her a ride."

"Ahh, ok, well since I informed Ranka that I would be the one transporting her, I guess we should be going. Have a good evening Tamaki. See you tomorrow." Kyoya strode confidently over and escorted Haruhi to his limo. Tamaki stood there gaping at them as they drove away.