A/N

ta-dah! it's chapter 25!

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Ouran, and probably never will. The plot is mine, as well as any OC's that I may use in the future. Use my plot without permission, and I predict that ninjas will attack you soon.

"Haruhi! Open the door!"

Haruhi groaned. Kaoru was already here, and she still hadn't picked out an 'appropriate' outfit to wear.

"It's open!" she called out, as she dug through her closet again, searching through her jeans.

"Hmm, looking for clothes? Why didn't you just say so?" Kaoru asked nonchalantly as he leaned against the doorframe of Haruhi's room.

She blushed lightly, and shrugged. "I am capable of picking out my own clothes, you know. Plus, shouldn't it be the other way around? The girl picking out the clothes for the guy?"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. This doesn't apply when the guy is a fashion designer and the girl's idea of nice clothes is wearing non-holey jeans and a nice t-shirt." Kaoru lightly pushed Haruhi to the side, and began looking through her clothes.

"Haruhi, why do you still have this? There are holes all over it!" Kaoru exclaimed as he held up an old t-shirt that probably used to be white, but was now a rather odd shade of yellow-grey.

"To be honest, I have no idea. I haven't looked through my closet in a while, and I don't have people that care enough to weed through it all," Haruhi replied from the living room, where she had returned to studying. It seemed that her 'date' was going to be spent with a complete role reversal of the guy caring more about the clothes than the girl.

Kaoru eventually emerged with a large bag slung over his shoulder.

"What's in there?" Haruhi raised an eyebrow at him.

"Oh, just your old clothes. I was gonna go donate them or something."

Haruhi sighed. "Let me look through it, in case you decided to give away something I wanted to keep..."

She opened the bag, and the first thing on the top was a pair of sweatpants that she had just bought yesterday.

"...KAORU HITACHIIN!"

After Haruhi had finished ranting to Kaoru about how 'her clothes were hers and he shouldn't just bust into people's closets and take their clothes,' they finally left the house after Kaoru had picked some clothes for Haruhi: light grey skinny jeans and a loose black top.

"So, what exactly are we going to be doing?" Haruhi asked, as she tucked a bit of hair behind her ear.

"Hm... I don't know, do you have anything particularly in mind?" Kaoru asked. Truthfully, he had no experience with girls and dates, his current situation being a snap decision because he was bored.

"Well... I guess we could go shopping? To replace some of the stuff you got rid of... BUT NO DRESSES OR SKIRTS."

Kaoru sighed. "Damn."

"Miss, how many items would you like to try on?" the dressing-room attendant asked.

"There's twenty," Kaoru helpfully supplied.

"I'm sorry, but there's a seven-item limit... oh!" Evidently, the attendant had just realized who Haruhi was with. "I'm sorry, please come this way."

Haruhi shot Kaoru a confused look, but Kaoru just shrugged and gestured towards the attendant.

She led them to a separate partition of fitting rooms, these much larger and more well-furnished than the other simple 'bathroom-stalls-wthout-the-toilet' rooms she had seen before.

"Please, if you have any needs, just ask." She bowed respectfully, and left.

"What was that all about?" Haruhi asked, dumping some of the clothes on a nearby ottoman.

"The high-and-mighty-rich-bastard-treatment, Haruhi. You should probably get used to it," Kaoru said, putting the stuff he was holding on a chair.

"Get used to it? Why would I ever have a need to do that?"

Kaoru sighed. Sometimes, this girl was just so clueless... "Well, let's see... you're best friends with six of the hottest, richest, most influential young men in Japan... yep, is that not reason enough to get used to it?" he asked, counting on his fingers. There's one more reason, but there's no way I could ever actually say it...

"Nah. I don't like mooching off people like that," Haruhi remarked, as she held up one of the shirts that Kaoru had picked. "Speaking of mooching, I can't afford any of this..."

"I get you free clothes all the time, this is no different. Besides, I designed, partially designed, or had a say in some of the design in practically everything in this store. So no biggie."

Kaoru could hear a mutter of "damn rich bastard..." as Haruhi grabbed a few things and stalked off to one of the rooms. He just laughed.

"Haruhi, are you done yet?" Kaoru asked. It had already been an hour, and he was itching to look at some other stores too.

"Um... yeah, I guess so." She stepped out of the room, holding a large bundle of clothes.

"You gonna get any of em?"

"Eh... I liked a few of them, but I—"

"Which ones did you like? Try them on, I wanna see!" Kaoru clapped his hand and pointed back to the room.

"Like I said, total role reversal..."

Haruhi ended up getting a knee-length black shirt with lace detailing, that she actually rather liked. It was easy to move in, didn't look too flashy, and it didn't know any more butt than she would ever risk being seen in public.

"Okay, what should we do now?" Kaoru asked, holding onto the bag with one hand and Haruhi's hand with the other. She's not letting go or pushing me away...

"Food?" she asked, a cutely hopeful expression on her face as she looked up at Kaoru.

"I should have expected this," he said, laughing. "C'mon, the food court is this way."

'Food court' for this sort of mall meant stands that sold gourmet food, cooked to order, by professional chefs. Not surprisingly, Haruhi immediately headed for the sushi stand.

Three orders of toro later, Haruhi was happy and in a very agreeable mood, so Kaoru decided to do a little shopping of his own. They walked into a different store, and Kaoru grabbed a few things for himself. "Haruhi, I'm just gonna try on a few things, 'kay? I'll be back in a flash."

"Hm? Kay..." Haruhi seemed to be thoroughly engrossed in the kitchen appliances, so he decided just to head for the fitting rooms and do this quickly.

When he emerged about ten minutes later, Haruhi was now looking at a variety of frying pans. He poked her shoulder lightly. "Ha~" poke. "Ru~" poke. "Hi~" poke.

"HUH? Oh. Hi Kaoru! Isn't this pan amazing? Nonstick, and it has superior heat transfer..."

"Oh, sure, Haruhi. Did you want me to get you anything?" He was a little miffed that she seemed to care more about cooking items than him, but that was to be expected from the little tanuki.

"Nah, it's alright. Were you going to buy those?" she asked, pointing at the clothes he held.

"Oh, yeah. Was there anything else you wanted to do?"

"Not particularly..."

Well, that was awkward... They both thought on the car trip home. Silence filled the car, but neither one seemed to be close to breaking it.

The chauffeur pulled up to Haruhi's house, and was the first to speak for the twenty-minute ride. "Fujioka-sama, we have arrived. Would you like me to help you with your things?"

Haruhi looked startled. "Ah! No, that's alright. Thank you, though."

She got out of the car and took the bag. "Thanks, Kaoru, see you tomorrow!"

"See ya."

Kaoru slumped in his seat, with his head in his hands. First date: bombed... he thought. It was awful. I was too self-centered, I should have picked something she would have liked to do, ARGH!

"Kaoru-sama, we have arrived at the mansion." the chauffeur's voice cut through Kaoru's mental-beating-up.

"'Kay, thanks." He got of of the car, and let himself into the house.

"HIIIKAAAAAAA!" he called out, once he had gone inside.

"KAAAOOOOO!" came the loud reply. "I'M IN OUR BEDROOM!"

Kaoru went into their room, where Hikaru was playing video games.

"Sup, Kao?" Hikaru asked, his eyes never straying from the game.

"Bombed a date."

Thud.

Hikaru dropped his controller, and turned around with wide eyes. "Come, Kao-kao, and tell your older brother about this. I gotta hear this. Really."