a/n: Oh wow chapter 10 already? Well goddamn, aren't I just the master of doing lots of chapters without much romantic progress at all! I'm so good at this. Also, not updating consistently :D

(Found this old unfinished chapter while on lockdown for COVID-19. Stay indoors and wash your hands. Stay safe.)

Chapter 10: What Started As…Learning

"Welcome senpai! Please, come in. You can take your shoes off here. Sorry we don't have any slippers for you to use."

"That's quite alright. I walk barefoot around my own home all the time, though my mother often scolds me for not using the silk slippers she buys."

Haruhi laughed as she ushered Nekozawa into her small home. He tried not to outwardly marvel at how tiny the space was compared to his own mansion, but she caught him looking around anyway. The young girl just hoped that he kept quiet about it, unlike her friends when they first visited.

"I can close the blinds if you're not comfortable senpai. That coat you have on looks pretty warm."

He shrugged off said coat and removed his shoes by the door. Haruhi observed this and took note of his attire in the process. Renge promised them that they would be protected against Kyoya's surveillance outside school grounds so he didn't need to wear a ridiculous disguise when he visited which was a relief. Even so, showing up in his usual black cloak would definitely warrant the unwanted attention of a nearby police officer.

It was probably with the help of Kuretake that he showed up dressed in a long, stylish black coat, black jeans, and some dark brown loafers. When he removed the coat she saw that he was wearing a plain black v-neck sweater that exposed soft looking pale skin that she had never seen before. The wig was still on though but his bangs were swept to the side to show his bright blue eyes. She pointed at a hook near the door for him to hang his coat on. She didn't want to get caught staring at him for a bit too long. It was just weird to see him without his usual cloak on, she concluded.

"I can handle a bit of sunlight, though probably close the blinds just a slight bit. Renge has helped me conquer some of my fears but I'm afraid it's still too soon for me to start basking in it. Besides, I know I have become quite used to it, but I don't think it would be good for you to study in a dimly lit room. Your eyes would probably worsen."

She wanted to mention that she often spent late nights studying which probably messed up her eyes anyway, but she kept quiet about that. Even though he portrayed a 'brotherly' gentleman in their acts she knew that he was genuinely caring in real life too. She was determined to actually spend the whole day studying for her exams without many distractions.

"You can sit on that table in the living room. I'll go make us some tea and then we can start."

Haruhi went to go make the tea for her guest, but when she came back she found him looking around the small space of her living room very confused.

"Something wrong senpai?"

"You might think this very ignorant of me to ask Fujioka, but…um, where would your chairs be?"

She stared at him blankly, wondering if he was actually serious or not. When the distress on his face and the reddening of his cheeks didn't seem to go away, she realized that he was actually being serious.

"We have tatami mats on the floor so we kinda use those as seats. If you're too uncomfortable though, we do have some cushions for you to use."

His mouth just moved into a small 'oh' as he awkwardly sat himself on a cushion at the edge of the square table. His long legs made his descent a little less than graceful and Haruhi almost laughed. Well, she did snicker which earned her a pout and weak glare from the red-faced black magician.

"Don't you have things like this at your house senpai? I mean, your dad's Japanese right?"

"Although that may be true, my mother usually handles everything that goes around inside the manor, and that includes all of the furniture. She relents to my father's preference for the gothic era, but she made sure Kirimi and I were raised by the standards of her family. Think of it like growing up in a gothic Russia my whole life."

She nodded along. It would make sense though, at least from the small bits that she's heard about his mother. It did kinda sound like she would be the type to heavily push her ideals onto her children. She's gone so long without a mother that she forgot what it was like to have one. It was kind of sad really. When she glanced around her own home she immediately noticed how bland and neutral everything seemed to look. Everything was generic and felt like something was missing, probably any sign of a feminine touch. Her mother would have definitely been disappointed with the lackluster decor. When bright blue eyes turned to her with a look of concern, she knew it was time to stop thinking of her for the time being.

"Oh, um here's your tea senpai. Sorry, but we only have green tea. If it doesn't suit your taste though I could always get you some water."

"Nonsense Fujioka, If I can handle a mouthful of catnip while praying to our cat deities then I can surely handle some tea."

Haruhi looked horrified, but then her face changed after Nekozawa's serious expression cracked with a sudden sly smirk. She was especially taken aback when he started snickering.

"That was just a joke. Catnip is reserved only for our altars and never for our consumption. The look on your face though!"

Oh so he was cracking jokes now huh? She felt slightly annoyed at having been pranked, but she thought it was kind of funny to know that it came from Nekozawa. She lightly smacked him on the arm. After feigning offense, she she started laughing along with him. A few minutes passed before they both finally straightened out.

It was comical that Nekozawa would try to pull a prank on her, even more so that she didn't seem to mind it all that much. Strange considering how much she hated it when the twins pulled them on her.

"Jokes aside, I'm sure you're eager to start this tutoring lesson. I scoured my entire study and found all the texts, notebooks, and workbooks I had when I was a second-year. Perhaps I went a little overboard with preparation but I figured you would want as much material to study with as possible.

He opened the bag beside him and Haruhi couldn't help marvel at how big it was, and that's not a joke for the internet to enjoy. She couldn't believe that she hadn't noticed it sooner! It was amazing that Nekozawa managed to bring the bag all the way to her apartment, she was more amazed at how much he actually invested in his studies unlike the other students at Ouran.

She didn't realize that her upperclassman was as strong as he was intelligent, then again he did manage to smash through a window and jump off a three story building…

The young girl eyed the books with wide eyes. There were certainly a lot of lessons she had yet to learn in there. She was very eager to get her hands on them to say the least.

Nekozawa made a neat stack of books to the side of the table and smiled slightly at himself for lighting the sparkle in Haruhi's eyes. He thought that it was adorable, though voicing this comment might be a little inappropriate. For now, it was his little secret to keep.

"What subject would you like to start with?"

"My weakest right now is literature. Science and math are my best ones so I don't really need much help with that."

He nodded and dove into his stack to pull out a specific workbook. He flipped through its contents while formulating a lesson plan in his head. Haruhi found herself strangely fixated on watching him. She reasoned it was probably because it was strange to see him acting like an actual student instead of his usual eccentric behavior.

"What do you have the most trouble with?"

"Um, my grammar is fine. It's just understanding the context more in-depth. There's always a hidden meaning to poems and writing that I always seem to miss."

(Wrote this two years ago. Disregard the lessons being taught here, it's purely for plot. I am a nursing major, not a literature major.)

Nekozawa hummed to himself as he leaned back. He almost fell because he forgot that the cushion he sat on had no back support, but even that didn't seem to break his concentration. It didn't stop Haruhi from smiling in amusement though. He really was a pretty interesting guy.

"The way I have always looked at it, there are more than one way to interpret something. even normal, every day sentences can mean something deeper than what we perceive at face value. For example, say something Fujioka."

"Um, I did laundry today?"

"Alright, well what can you infer from that sentence alone? You can understand several things from it."

She made a face as she thought about it. He suppressed the urge to grin at her. It was like when Kirimi was thinking hard about something and he wanted nothing more that to pat her head. Did that mean he wanted to pat Haruhi's head? Perhaps he did…but she didn't need to know that.

"I don't get what you mean senpai. I just did the laundry today, it just means I washed clothes today right?"

Haruhi raised an eyebrow at him as he smiled patently.

"Then let's think of it as a series of events. The face that you did laundry today meant that you had dirty laudry the day prior yes? And now that you've done it we can infer that you will wear clean clothes tomorrow. A sentence, especially one that contains an event, will always mean that there is a before and an after. But of course, that's only thinking of it in a series of events."

Haruhi nodded along as she diligently wrote notes down.

"We can also think of it as a series of emotions. So, we can assume that you probably felt irked at having dirty clothes that needed to be washed, and you felt relief once everything was clean."

She nodded again.

"Literature is the written account of people's emotions and how they lived. When we put ourselves in their mindsets, then apply that into the context of their stories, then we've discovered a new perspective onto words on a paper."

Haruhi could understand the concept in theory, but she was still having a hard time applying it to her texts. Nekozawa saw her confusion and showed her the text he was holding.

"Let's use Edgar Allan Poe for example, my personal favorite might I add. He lived an absolutely wretched, pitiful life. But that would be the assumption that someone else would have don't you think? Now, if we were to place ourselves into Poe's mind, how do you view his writing?"

She thought hard about his past, at least the past she learned about in her class. What he went through was just absolute tragedy, like a story written by a cruel and sadistic author. Haruhi tried to apply his situation to herself.

If she had lost her entire family the way he had…someone precious to her like he had…

A flash of black hair and bright blue eyes briefly crossed her mind and she violently started shaking her head.

Nekozawa quirked an eyebrow at her but didn't say anything. He assumed this was part of her learning process.

"I uh, I don't understand still senpai."

"Through his struggle he still found the passion to write. Now, most writers write for different reasons, but I believe that in Poe's case, it was a release from reality. He wrote these stories to make a statement, to put into words feelings he held inside him. Take for instance his poems about his beloved. Isn't it amazing that with everything he's been through, he still had room in his heart to love as much as he did?"

Haruhi nodded, if she really thought about it then…wasn't it beautiful in a sense? Not just morbid anymore, but lovely in a strange way. Love that transcended tragedy. She was starting to understand a bit.

"He lost so much, gained so little from his writing at the time, but he still had to passion to write and be heard." She muttered quietly.

"Exactly," Nekozawa nodded with a small smile on his face, "if we think about the author's circumstances at the time, and their ability to keep writing through strife or backlash, then wouldn't that open a different meaning to their work?"

Haruhi briefly thought about the man right in front of her. Despite all he probably went through with his condition and his hobbies, he still appeared strong and went through life with a purpse. She wondered how he could've done so. Maybe it was for his sister, maybe it was for himself. Was he selfless or selfish? Did he live for himself or for others? She realized that she didn't know, all she knew and ever focused on were the facts in front of her. There was a deep curiosity in her to know more about him. What motivated him to keep going? Haruhi herself lived with a single goal in mind, to become a lawyer like her mother. But…she had a feeling that Nekozawa was a little more complex than she had originally thought. She wanted to know everything.

"Shall we continue then Fujioka?"

"Haruhi" she blurted out without thinking, surprising even herself. "It's okay to call me Haruhi you know. Since we're friends now."

He blinked at her blankly and for a moment Haruhi felt embarrassed under his gaze. He's already called her name before as part of their acting at the clubroom so it shouldn't feel as nerve-wracking as it was now. It was just calling her by her name right? Even her club members called and guests called her by her name and she didn't bat an eye about it.

"I'm honored you feel that comfortable with me Haruhi, you can call me Umehito as well." He smiled at her and it made Haruhi's breath hitch for an unknown reason. "Since we're friends now"