So, Mister Writer's Block. We meet again.

Ahem. Sorry for the late update. Only half of it was Mr Block's fault though; all of my updates will have to be pretty slow until the end of January when my exams finish (where upon I'll lock myself in a room and write until my fingers bleed). In fact, if I update fast, it means I'm writing instead of revising and all reviews should begin with 'GET BACK TO WORK, YOU LAZY DERP.'

Yeah. So. I hope you enjoy this chapter! It's stolen the last chapter's title of being the longest chapter so far (6000+ words…);;

Shooting stars

Despite all flamboyant displays of idiocy and monotonous barrages of logic, when Tamaki and Ayame were together they made a very majestic couple, especially when they made an effort like tonight; the personifications of gold and silver standing arm-in-arm in a hall that faded in comparison, even more so when Tamaki started to play up the romance. As he had a tendency to do.

"Observe," he simpered, flourishing a hand towards the golden-framed landscape before them and making sure to add in a flick of his hair, which he knew looked good (Ayame didn't notice, but several girls across from them did and dissolved into high-pitched giggles). "An apparently ordinary landscape, and yet when I look deeper I see such extraordinary beauty, which reminds me only of you, mon chéri."

Ayame's eyebrow twitched ever so slightly as she wordlessly peered at the painting through her delicate glasses, her curly hair twisted into an elegant knot.

Tamaki happily continued, rather enjoying himself. "The silver pond, catching the moonlight in such an exquisite way, reminds me of the mysterious and beautiful depths of your eyes, which I could stare into forever…"

The 'mysterious' eyes in question still didn't look very impressed.

"See the delicate way the artist has illuminated the scene; how beautifully they have soaked everything in silver moonlight. Truly, I can't help but envision how exquisite you would look, my dear, bathed in such light…"

Ayame's eyebrows rose sceptically.

"The smooth body of the lone tree reminds me of your flawless skin-"

"Please don't compare me to a lump of wood," Ayame cut in un-romantically, before adding with a motion to the label, "Have you seen what this painting is called, Tamaki? You do realise you're likening me to a 'barren and abandoned wasteland', don't you?"

Tamaki blanched in horror comically but before he could splutter, 'Tha- that's such a misnomer!' or, 'I mean it in the most flattering way possible!' or maybe even, 'And yet I still made it sound beautiful - aren't you impressed?', she smoothly continued.

"I think your useless flowery words at that portrait were phrased better, really," she commented, as though she was grading him.

Tamaki paused, wiggling his nose slightly in serious thought (Ayame - to her horror - found this extremely cute and quickly busied herself with her complimentary glass of champagne) before a smug smile spread over his face.

"Well, I suppose it's an insult," he whispered suavely and entirely truthfully as his violet eyes gazed into hers, "to compare the beautiful woman I love to anything - for nothing, even the beauty of a painting, can compare to you…"

Her heart thumped hard at that and Tamaki smiled softly as he watched her blush furiously and smother a smile by muttering, "Oh, do shut up." As he chuckled, she, slightly flustered, glared at a gawping passer-by before patting down an escaping strand of curly hair almost self-consciously and commenting quietly, "You better not let the artist hear you say that."

The only reason they'd chosen today to come to the gallery over any other was because the artist, along with several magnificent private pieces, was going to be there to open the exhibition. Tamaki had already made a point of congratulating the man heartily for the show before he'd even looked at any of his work, and he was now looking around for the artist almost eagerly, as though they were already friends.

"Oh yes! He might want to paint a portrait of you - I'd love that! Ce serait merveilleux!"

"Don't even think about it."

Tamaki was about to happily respond when a flash of colour caught his eye. Well, okay, there was a lot of colour there. But what he saw was a colour he instantly recognised as being the colour of rust and fire and devilish demons being sent out from hell's deepest depths to wreak havoc and torture God's chosen one…

In other words, he noticed the hair of one of the Hitachiin twins on the other side of the room.

He smiled and only stopped himself from calling out to wonder who the twin was with. The fashionably dressed redhead looked over at a painting and Tamaki instantly recognised the smiling face as Kaoru's, though he was surprised for a second that he was accompanied with neither Hikaru nor Haruhi - though he was sure that if his daughter had been there he would have spotted her instantly, because fathers could do that.

It was only when Kaoru moved slightly away from the crowd, pointing something out, that Tamaki spotted a petite girl next to him whom he'd never seen before, with dreamy grey eyes and a decisively podgy nose.

Apart from her dress, everything she wore seemed to be woolly; woollen tights, overlarge sheepskin boots, several long cardigans, a knitted satchel and finally, to complete the odd look, a stripy bobble hat with fluffy ear flaps, a pom pom perching on the top of her head like a cherry on a cake. It was hard to decide whether she looked ridiculously cute, or just plain old ridiculous. Apparently the people around her had decided on the latter as she was getting more than her fair share of odd looks; the short dark-haired girl however, seemed blissfully oblivious to this. She smiled mildly and stared at the painting Kaoru was motioning to with wide-eyed appreciation.

Tamaki raised a bemused eyebrow and smiled softly as he took in the happy look on Kaoru's face as he chatted animatedly to her, before finally shouting out to him, unable to restrain himself any longer.

"Kaoru!"

The younger twin visibly jumped before blinking and looking around until his golden eyes found Tamaki, who was waving enthusiastically; a strange look formed on his face. If Hikaru was there, he would have translated it half as, 'Oh look, it's Tono!' and half as, 'Get lost, you silly git'.

"Greetings, mon ami!" Tamaki chirped as, oblivious to Kaoru's thoughts, he merrily trotted over to him like a happy puppy, Ayame following him at a much more leisurely pace. "I didn't expect to see you here!"

"Likewise," Kaoru muttered dryly, casting a glance over to Mari before he allowed his hand to be clasped and eagerly shook by his blonde friend. He sighed. It wasn't as if he didn't like seeing Tamaki and it was nice to meet up… but did they have meet up now? He'd been waiting weeks for this stupid exhibition to open so he and Mari could go to it together and the prospect of it turning into a double date seriously sucked.

"Hello," Ayame greeted lowly in a tone which clearly stated that she hadn't warmed up to the Hitachiin family at all and, despite his thoughts, Kaoru couldn't help but teasingly smirk at her. She pointedly pretended not to notice, and he pointedly pretended not to laugh.

An irritable frown was just touching her face when Mari randomly spoke up beside him. "You have very nice eyes, Mister Kaoru's friend," she said. "Very purple."

Kaoru blinked and looked over at her. She was staring at Tamaki in mild curiosity, his suave violet eyes in particular, seemingly nonplussed at the sudden appearance of two strangers. Tamaki looked positively delighted.

"Indeed! They are a rather dashing colour, aren't they?" He beamed modestly, oblivious to Kaoru's dramatic eye roll, before he took Mari's hand and raised it almost to his lips, as par tradition (Ayame was used to this and, with the patience of a saint, merely sighed). "My name is Tamaki Souh, my dear. A pleasure to make your acquaintance."

"Oh… Okay," Mari replied, looking bewildered and even more lost than usual - Kaoru couldn't really blame her. Tamaki's romantic quirks took a little getting used to.

Kaoru suddenly noticed the strange expression wrinkling Tamaki's princely features as he looked slowly over Mari's face; his deep eyes were crinkled in thought and slight confusion was furrowing his brow in a rare show of thought.

Finally, he opened his mouth and asked, appearing perplexed, "Have we met?"

Mari's eyes widened and looked back at him wordlessly, which made her look like a deer caught in the headlights, but she was quickly relieved of having to answer.

"Trust me Tono, I'm sure you haven't," Kaoru answered for her in a sceptical drawl. Before Tamaki had a chance to pursue the subject, Kaoru quickly made a point of looking over his shoulder and said in an overly bright tone to the shorter girl, "Hey Mari, I want to go and look over there again."

At the sound of his voice, she blinked out of her stupor and shook her head slightly, as though clearing it from dust bunnies, before looking up at him blankly. "…Pardon?"

Kaoru couldn't help but smirk slightly as he pointed over in a random direction again, with no real idea nor care of where he was pointing to as long as it was in the opposite direction. "I really liked over there. Shall we go look again?"

Mari cocked her head thoughtfully, apparently oblivious to the fact he just making an excuse that she should run with, and then mused, "What was over there? I can't remember."

"Me neither," he said brightly. "So let's go and remind ourselves."

"That's a good idea," Mari answered seriously, nodding, before letting an easy, mild smile touch her face. "We don't want to forget anything."

"Nope." Kaoru grinned back happily before suddenly feeling the pointed weight of two pairs of knowing and, in Tamaki's case, amused eyes upon him. He coughed, blushed, and then muttered almost gruffly, keen to escape, "Uh, I- I'll see you later then, Tono. You too, Ayame… Bye…"

"See you, Kaoru!" Tamaki chirped back for both of them, smiling as he watched Kaoru hurriedly grab Mari's hand and pull her away from them, acting remarkably like an embarrassed teenager trying to escape the ultimate horror - an old family friend with a lot of chubby baby photos.

As he watched them disappear around into the crowd however, the soft smile fell away and a subtle frown returned to Tamaki's face as he furrowed his brow slightly in thought; he couldn't help a niggling feeling that he'd seen that girl - Mari, was it? - somewhere before. He hated not remembering a face, especially as his friend seemed to have taken a liking to her, and so was desperately scanning his brain for a name or a memory to link to the face.

Ayame noticed his furrowed expression and, with a slight frown of her own, softly tapped his elbow. When he blinked and looked down at her, she asked promptly, determinedly not letting any uncontrollable concern leak into her voice, "What's wrong, Tamaki?"

"Mm… I'm just trying to remember where I've seen her before…" he said slowly, looking musingly at the direction that they disappeared again and tapping his chin in a way that made him feel intellectual. "A few years ago, I think, but I just can't recall… where… Hmm."

She sighed and, resisting the temptation to urge him not to strain his already easily strained brain, pointed out logically, "Does it really matter? Surely if… the twin… is serious about her, he'll introduce you properly eventually."

Tamaki paused for another split second before suddenly beaming brightly, recovering so fast it was if someone had simply flipped a switch in his brain. "True, mon chéri! I'll just have to wait until then, non? In the meantime, let's go and see Monsieur Artist about that portrait!"

Ayame scowled.

Kaoru only realised that he'd walked in a totally different direction than the one he'd pointed to when he saw that they'd walked into one of the gallery's rooms that they hadn't looked around yet.

This practically put neon signs over his already transparent escape excuse, but he found that he didn't really care. If he knew Tamaki and his rarely-seen-but-always-present warm understanding, which he did, he knew that he wouldn't have bought it anyway. He was probably just happy to see his friend on what seemed to be a date - but really, Kaoru reminded himself with a sigh as he let go of Mari's hand, it was only a between-friends-date. Which wasn't nearly as good.

Mari curiously glanced once around the new room, stuffed her hands into the small pockets of one of her colourful cardigans and said brightly, "They seemed nice."

"Mm." Kaoru paused before smiling over to her and admitting, "Yeah, they are. Believe it or not, that blonde one was the first friend me and Hikaru ever made." He paused for a second before musing slowly, "Ne, it's weird to think of it like that now."

"He seems like he'd be good at being a First Friend," she responded seriously, nodding in thought and cocking her head as she considered something. "But I've never met a lord before. That was quite exiting."

"A… lord?" Kaoru blinked and stared at her blankly for a few seconds - it felt like a bit of a role reversal - before he finally realised what she meant. He instantly snorted in laughter. "Oh. 'Tono'. Nah, he's not actually a lord. It's just a nickname me and Hika made up because he speaks in such a stupid pompous way." He chuckled to himself, eyes twinkling. "I guess it sort of stuck - I barely even realise that's what I'm calling him anymore."

"Oh... A nickname," Mari parroted, a mild smile coming to her face after a second. "That's nice," she commented sincerely, before randomly floating forward to look at the collection of acrylic paintings.

Kaoru smirked quirkily and let his golden eyes wordlessly trail after her for a few long moments, before he finally trotted next to her. The room was small and box-like compared to the grand main hall and the walls were snowy and white, like a blank canvas, an artistic contrast to the explosions of colour and surrealism in the abstract paintings.

The redhead was looking at one such painting and trying to decide whether it was a person, a parrot or a guitar, when Mari suddenly noticed a doorway embedded into one of the pristine walls, purposely placed to blend into the background unless they made an effort to bring it into attention. She cocked her head with child-like curiosity before wandering a few paces over to it. A scarlet rope was slung across it at just above waist-level, making it clear that it was a no-excess area.

"What do you think is there?" she wondered aloud mildly, squinting into the gloomy hallway that she could see beyond the shadowy doorway. "Maybe an exhibition that isn't ready yet. Or it could be something illegal," she added casually, as though this was a perfectly acceptable possibility.

Kaoru decided that the cubist painting must just be a person-parrot mutant wielding a guitar, and glanced over at her. She was on her tiptoes and leaning inside the door slightly as she squinted her eyes to read something he couldn't see; her mouth silently formed the words as she read them.

He caught an older woman giving her a completely disapproving glare and, with a horrible mental image of ending their first date - first between-friends-date - by being thrown out of the gallery, quickly walked over to her.

"Hey, Mari, I don't think we're allowed to-"

Kaoru froze half sentence, aghast with himself when he realised, horrified, exactly what he was doing. Could it be that he, Kaoru Hitachiin, one of the famous twin pranksters of Ouran Academy, was actually telling her not to trespass into an interesting and forbidden part of the gallery? Good lord. Horrible mental images or not, his younger self would be ashamed.

Therefore, without another thought on the subject, Kaoru stepped closer to her and, while pretending to look at a painting of a cubist banana, muttered out of the corner of his mouth, "Don't make it obvious but… is anyone looking at us?"

Mari blinked owlishly and then glanced around mildly. "…No," she confirmed after a thoughtful pause. "Just that old lady who - oh, she's looked away now. No one then."

Kaoru grinned. "Excellent."

Then he wordlessly grabbed her hand firmly and pulled her towards the door, ducking neatly under the rope barrier. Mari seemed quite bewildered, but luckily had enough sense to duck under it too, one hand to her head to secure her stripy bobble hat. The corridor they came to was shadowy and hollow, and the walls were embedded with dark doorways at regular intervals. A sign above their heads that Mari had been staring at declared the unopened part of the museum to be an exhibit on installation art, meaning each of the rooms would be a piece of art in its own right.

Painfully aware that anyone could spot them from the other room if they just stood there, Kaoru darted down the dark corridor with Mari in tow, feeling pleasantly rebellious, which he hadn't for a while. Most of the doorways were completely covered by heavy black curtains, but in one doorway the dark material had fallen to the side; within he could see the dim light reflecting on what appeared to be two spotless chairs and a table set up for afternoon tea, complete with little china tea cups and mock sugar biscuits.

Strange thing was, it was all hanging from the ceiling. Mari gave a little delighted giggle when she spotted it.

The younger twin smirked to himself, but fought the overwhelming temptation to look at her face for himself and instead slinked up to the end doorway, which he had chosen to head for because of little other than how far away it was from the crowded hall. He slipped into the chosen doorway, pulling Mari along with him. They couldn't tell whether the room they came to was big or small, cluttered or empty; as the heavy curtain fell back across the entrance it blocked out all the light, so they were standing, backs to the doorway, in complete darkness.

Mari had been giggling quietly since they saw the gravity defying tea set, but in this dark room her chuckles seemed to echo happily around them. Kaoru's own laughs soon joined them as he smiled blindly in the general direction of their clasped hands, feeling a recognisable thrill sparkling around giddily in his chest, born from sneaking into somewhere he shouldn't. It was a feeling he always associated with countless memorable incidents with Hikaru; the fact he could associate it with Mari made him unexplainably happy.

"I've never done anything like this before," she suddenly commented between her giggles, sounding bemused. "Do you do this a lot?"

"Well, you know…" Kaoru breezed over the question vaguely, flapping an unseen hand airily and grinning. "As Hikaru would say, 'forbidden' isn't in our vocabulary. Think anyone saw us? I can't hear anyone."

There was a pause and Kaoru imagined Mari cocking her head as she listened to the curtain, messy dark hair brushing over her dreamy grey eyes. "Mm… me neither… But they might just be very good at being very quiet. Like ninjas. I've always wanted to meet a ninja. I'm sure they would be very interesting."

"I'll introduce you to my dad sometime," Kaoru commented in an offhand manner, before deciding he didn't want to be sightless anymore and so let go of Mari's small hand, very reluctantly. "Lights…" he mumbled to himself as he groped along the wall, smooth fabric meeting his fingertips.

After a few moments of feeling his way blindly across the wall, he managed to find what felt like a smooth flat switch, which he hoped was the lights. He pushed it through the fabric and, after a prompt click, a dim light began emitting from something behind him.

He blinked; after stumbling around in the dark, he found that he was now facing the corner so the first thing he noticed was that the walls were smoothly draped with shimmering black material. The only stretch of wall that was breaking the illusion of deep blackness in the flat walls was in the corner, where the material was pinned back to reveal a plain sliding door; Kaoru guessed this would be covered when the exhibit opened and wondered curiously that was behind there.

He suddenly heard Mari make a sort of awed noise behind him, so glanced round to check out the rest of the room. He raised his eyebrows in appreciation when he saw it and just stood there for a few moments, drinking it in. Mari randomly sat down, Indian style, back leaning against the wall so she could look up at it and after a few moments, Kaoru joined her, his legs splaying out before him.

The shimmering black walls gave the illusion of the black sky, deep and never-ending, embedded with a small cluster of soft stars that seemed to drift further into the deepness yet float just before them at the same time. The artist had hung a scatter of diamond shaped crystals from the ceiling so they hovered in the middle of the small but deep room like stars, the string that held them totally invisible, very slowly turning in small orbiting circles. Gentle light shone from a beautifully carved angel frozen in their midst and as the light hit the floating crystals, it split.

Speckles of multicoloured fragments of light drifted over the walls, over the angel, over them, moving in a slow dance as the stars drifted.

Kaoru smiled at it before wordlessly turning to Mari and watching the rainbow-like fragments move across her almond eyes. The room was beautiful and, if you ignored the uncovered door and small pile of tools to one side that showed it's postponement, truly a room to get lost in.

"Pretty, isn't it?" Kaoru said softly after a second, slightly amused at the awed amazement on Mari's face as her eyes greedily drank everything in.

"It's like we're sitting in the sky," she wondered breathily, "with the stars."

I'm awesome at picking doors, Kaoru decided smugly, looking back to the room.

For a few minutes, they just sat there next to each other, dozily watching the crystals drift around above while tiny fragments of multicoloured light danced around them.

Eventually Mari said quietly, "If you stay in here long enough, I think you could forget anyone else exists. It's like we're the only people in the world."

She made this odd and poetic observation in such a casual way that Kaoru had to smirk. He couldn't help but wonder whether having the ability to say such unusual things so easily was a good trait or not; some people would find it easy to laugh at, or not be able to make an adequate response that didn't sound awkward. It didn't take Kaoru long to decide that either way, he liked it.

Before he could say anything back however, she added mildly, "Is this how you felt with Hikaru?"

Kaoru blinked owlishly and for a few moments just stared at her, suddenly thrown off. "...What do you mean?"

"You said you were always together, alone, until you met your First Friend. Sometimes, it must have felt as if you were the only two people in the world. Like this." She paused. "It must be nice to have a twin," she added almost wistfully, still looking at the drifting stars as though mesmerised.

Kaoru opened his mouth to respond, but found he couldn't, as though he'd run out of words without even saying any. He just took a slow, deep breath and continued to stare at her, something swelling in his chest and pressing against his lungs. He felt strange, torn. Half of him was in wonder of hearing her endearing observation of his and his dear twin's 'world', while the other half heard that last comment and felt… sad. She'd said it such a casual and accepting way, but to him it sounded terribly lonely. Not sad, but lonely.

He watched her in the dim light for a few more seconds - really, it was odd she hadn't noticed, but she was about as aware of her surroundings as a sea cucumber - before finally admitting softly, "Yeah, it was a lot like that."

She glanced finally over to him, as if she was mildly wondering whether he was just humouring her, to find his soft golden eyes staring back, closer than she thought he was.

"I've always been trying to branch my world out more and not be so dependent," he said quietly, "but sometimes I think I just... really, really like that feeling of being separate from the world, being alone with someone I love. I just need to find someone else to be with."

Almost without thinking, he then cupped her face softly and lent closer, his breath warm on her lips. He hesitated nervously for a second but she didn't pull away, so he finally closed his eyes and tentatively brushed his lips against hers. Hesitantly at first, then lingering a little longer, brushing away a strand of her hair indulgently with his fingertips.

After a few long moments, he drew away from the kiss and hovered a few inches from her for a cautious second before letting his eyes slowly open again. As he did so, Mari, slightly pink-faced and rosy-lipped, broke the intimate silence by accusing randomly, "You just stole my first kiss."

Kaoru stared at her. He lasted only five seconds before he snapped and burst out laughing uncontrollably, rocking back onto his hands. He had to bite his fist to muffle his guffaws and managed to smother them into sniggers, too amused to be embarrassed as he snickered, "Aha… Seriously?"

"Yes," she said, smiling mildly and blushing slightly as she watched his reaction, showing amazing nonchalance by not getting offended. She cocked her head and asked curiously, "Is that a surprise?"

"Well… kinda," Kaoru chuckled, golden eyes still shining wickedly bright in Hitachiin-like amusement. "S-sorry for laughing. It wasn't that- It was just how you just said it like that…" He paused to chuckle and teasingly grin at her, while brushing a flyaway lock of her short dark hair behind her ear; he would have ruffled it if she wasn't wearing a hat. "Aww, you're awesome."

Mari smiled at him and then looked down to her small hands, a pink flush spreading over her cheeks and podgy nose, finally looked slightly embarrassed and, a slightly giddy Kaoru decided, very cute. Being a Hitachiin and Hikaru's twin, he couldn't help leaning closer again and teasing devilishly, "Are you mad that I did?"

The blush darkened, to Kaoru's slight delight, and she seemed to uncharacteristically trip over her words. "I- Tha-that is-"

But she was cut off by a sudden sharp bark from behind the curtain, which promptly smashed the secluded illusion they had built up. "Oi! This area is off limits!"

Kaoru jumped in surprise and instantly scrambled to his feet, while Mari simply blinked from the floor, bewildered.

"Ah, crap," he mumbled, shifting hurriedly to the curtain to listen; he could hear someone - probably security - stomping around the hallway, checking in all the rooms, coming steadily closer and occasionally snapping, "Come out immediately! Damn kids."

Realising that the mental image of being forcefully kicked out - or worse - might come true after all, Kaoru quickly put his years of doing what he shouldn't to good use and began to scan the room for an exit, mind whirring. As Mari slowly stood up with a strange look on her face, as if the guard's shouts had reminded her of something unpleasant, Kaoru's sharp eyes locked onto the should-be-covered door. He quickly hurried over and slid it open; apparently the room could do more than what they had seen, as this seemed to be a tech room, full of switches and wires and empty coffee mugs.

He quickly held a hand out to Mari. "Quick," he whispered urgently, though the effect was ruined slightly by the grin on his face. "We can hide in here."

But she still had that odd, thoughtful look on her face as she stared at her writhing hands, before finally looking up at him and saying almost nervously, "I've... I've got to tell you something, Kaoru."

Terrible timing is cute until it gets us into trouble. "Can you tell me in minute, maybe?" he asked conversationally, before jumping when the guard shouted irritably again, closer than he thought. "Quick," he repeated, grabbing her hand and pulling her into the small tech room, sliding the door quietly closed after them.

Mari blinked, as though waking up from the worried thought she'd suddenly had, and looked around the room as Kaoru stuck his ear at the crack in the door, listening hard to the guard's quickening progress. We should be okay in here… the guy's probably just sticking his head in all the doors to see if we're in there, he won't search properly yet…

But, he realised with a start as he heard a muffled bang from the room next to theirs, they'd left the lights on. Crap. The damn lights. It was too late to run out and turn them off now. It was going to be obvious where they'd been and more importantly, where they were now hiding…

Mari suddenly brought him out of his frenzied thinking with a light tap on his shoulder. "We should get out, don't you think?" she asked seriously.

Kaoru blinked up at her, questioningly quirking an eyebrow, and she mildly pointed over to a wide, dark-rimmed window set into the wall, the trunks of trees visible through it, showing they were on the ground floor. A key sat merrily in the lock.

He grinned wildly. "Brilliant idea."

It occurred to Kaoru ten minutes later that he really should have thought of security cameras before cheerfully skipping into a restricted area and messing around with the exhibit. One thing was for certain, neither he nor Mari (nor Hikaru, consequently - the curse of sharing a face) was going to be able to walk past the security booth and into that gallery for a long while.

Still, it had been worth it.

The guard had been right on their heels when they jumped out of the window and legged it down the street, only stopping once they were four whole blocks away, by which time they were both heaving for air and clutching stitches in their sides, born from both running as fast as they could and laughing loudly as they did so. The evening February air was cold and bitter against their skin so, even though she was warm enough in her woolly attire, Kaoru made a point of immediately calling her a taxi; though, as she did look pretty snug, he let it slide when she rejected his offered jacket and instead wrapped it around himself.

As they stomped their feet and waited for the taxi, still grinning as the rebellious rush drugged their heads, Kaoru suddenly remembered what Mari had said when they were escaping.

"Oh yeah," he said thoughtfully, rubbing his hands together for warmth. "What was it you wanted to tell me in the gallery? We didn't really have time then..."

Mari thought for a second and then, as she remembered with a sinking feeling what she had to say, she instantly grew uncomfortable. She frowned down at her boots and rubbed a mark on the pavement with her toe. "Oh... yes, well, you see... Um."

He raised his eyebrows, more concerned than anything else raise, and was about to reassure her that she didn't need to tell him if she didn't want to when she burst out, "It's my birthday tomorrow. My twenty-first."

This obviously wasn't what she was planning to say initially, but it still threw him off.

"What?" he spluttered, mouth falling open. "Really? Ah, you should have told me! I could have gotten you something."

"I don't... you don't have to get me anything... But, can you come over sometime? I haven't got work but I- I need to talk to you."

He smiled easily, his mind busy whirring with sudden ideas. "Yeah, sure. Hey, I could take you out for dinner and you can talk to me then! In fact… you could come to mine for dinner, and then Hikaru and Haruhi could meet you…"

His eyes were suddenly shining bright and a happy grin lit up his face as he thought of it. It was perfect. He suddenly couldn't wait. Finally being able to introduce her to Hikaru. And Haruhi too. All of his important people. But as what? A girlfriend? Could he say that now? It seemed silly to ask…

His exited train of thought derailed and his grin faltered and fell slightly when he noticed the hesitant look on her face, her grey eyes crinkled. He shifted his feet awkwardly, suddenly feeling disillusioned. "Ah… Sorry. You don't… have to meet them."

"Oh… No, it's not that," she confirmed, shaking her head, the pompom on her hat bobbing around as she did so. "I'd like that very much. It's just… I need to talk to you," she repeated, uncharacteristically nervous. This seemed to be the crucial point; she looked like she was forcing herself not to get distracted and stay on track, in a way that was almost child-like.

A taxi suddenly turned into the street, its yellowing lights pooling across the road. Kaoru motioned to it with a wave before glancing back down to her and saying kindly, "Okay. I'll come over about one when it's my lunch hour then, if you like. So we can talk. Uh, everything's okay, isn't it?" he added, pulling his brows together into a worried frown that Hikaru fondly called his 'I-worry-too-much-and-I've-found-another-problem-that-doesn't-really-exist-because-I'm-a-worry-wart' frown. Needless to say, Kaoru didn't like this name.

"Yes, everything's okay…" she muttered lightly, eyes averted and locked onto the taxi as it pulled up to them. She wrinkled her nose for a second, looking as though she was trying to untangle her timeline and work something out. She either managed to solve it, or just gave up such practical thinking, because then her face smoothed and she smiled dreamily up at him. "Yeah… See you then. Thank you for the date. It was fun. I've never climbed out of a window before."

"First time for everything," he quipped with a half grin at his commoner friend.

He paused hesitantly, before finally deciding to shrug off that niggling concern about what Mari wanted to say and was getting so nervous about. Hikaru always said he over-thought everything and Mari was caught up by strange things; yeah, he thought to himself brightly, everything's going to be fine. In fact, tomorrow's going to be great.

Cheered up immensely by this thought and by the feeling of the wonderful time he'd had in general, Kaoru opened the taxi door for her and mock bowed, much to Mari's amusement. He couldn't say for sure who moved first but, just before she ducked into the car, a small, shy kiss was shared.

"Goodnight, Kaoru…"

He grinned. "Night, night."

Mari settled into the scratched leather car seat as it began to move, rumbling beneath her like an old tiger. Kaoru had cheerfully told the driver the address of her apartment block for her and he had now disappeared into the gloom as the taxi unhesitatingly swerved away; he'd assured her that he could get home fine by himself.

Her constantly drifting thoughts found their way to him and there they lingered, on the rich red of his hair and the soft gold of his eyes. She closed her eyes and a hand subconsciously floated to her mildly smiling lips as she let her mind go back over the night in dreamy detail.

She had to tell him tomorrow. She should have told him earlier, really, but she didn't want to so she'd put it off. She always did that, put reality off, just so she could stay in the illusion just a little bit more. She didn't know what he'd think of the reality. Or of the fact she'd neglected to tell him for so long…

Liar.

A ghostly feeling of possible hurt and betrayal began to creep up on her and Mari quickly scrunched her eyes up tighter. No, she didn't want to think of that. It upset her to think of it, so she plain didn't want to; instead, she tried to fall back into the memories of today. But then her eyes flew open as she realised where the taxi driver was taking her, where Kaoru had told him. Her apartment. She'd almost forgotten she didn't live there anymore.

Mari shifted forward and lightly tapped the glass that separated her from the gruff driver. He seemed faintly grumpy at the interruption but nevertheless lowered the volume on his radio and opened the window.

"Wha's up, love?" he drawled, sparing her one look before he turned back to the road.

"I'm sorry, Mister Taxi Driver, but my friend gave you the wrong address. I don't live there anymore."

Irritation swept over his bulldog-like face, which was already looking pretty annoyed at being called 'Mister Taxi Driver'. "Blimey, yeh could've told me tha' before I drove 'alf the way there, couldn't yeh?" he grumbled, though as she told him the right address his eyes widened and his face paled slightly.

Unnerved and unused to having someone like that in his old car, he turned all of his attention back to the road and muttered, "Righ' away, Miss."

8)

Gosh, that was hard to write xD I'm fretting about whether I got everyone and everything across right, especially the bit at the end. Gosh, gosh, gosh. I was so concerned about how I was going to write the end that I got all nervous writing it. A bad sign? Aha...

As an extra tidbit, it's almost been a year since I wrote the first chapter of my very first Ouran story, '101 ways…' It's so weird. I like to think I've improved…;;; Um…;;

Yeah. I hope you liked it! Pretty please review!

xxx

P.S. How do you make an amateur-wannabe-author-in-training squeal, hyperventilate and burst into happy flames all at the same time? Pounce upon her unsuspecting self with adorable HikaHaru fanart! :D Thank you so much KinKitsune! Link's on my profile so everyone please go and see it! It's adorable and awesome and amazing and made me grin for ages. Even the next day, when my teacher announced that I was having a biology test, I was grinning as I cried in dismay. Good stuff.

P.P.S. I'm thinking of doing NaNoWriMo next November; it looks fun (I probably won't have time but, you know, I'll try anyway). Has anyone done it before? Or, even better, want to do it with me? xD