Category: Mild Romantic Fluff

Characters: Haruhi Fujioka, Takashi Morinozuka

Requested By: anubislover (Tumblr)

Haruhi's big brown eyes were sparkling gleefully as she beheld the splendorous ice cream cone clutched between her hands. The tip of her tongue swiped across her lips in anticipation as she watched the thick glob of strawberry syrup slowly drip down the strawberry and vanilla scoops, carrying with it chunks of frothy whipped cream. She could already taste the tart berry mixing harmoniously with the sweet vanilla. America is the best! She thought in utter glee as she tromped down the boardwalk to where her friends were sitting at a table adorned with a shady umbrella enjoying their own dairy confections.

They had been studying abroad in America for some time now. They wanted to immerse themselves completely in the culture, so of course participating in the yearly Spring Break festivities had been high on their to-do list. They were currently spending the holiday at the southernmost tip of the country, among thousands of other high school and college students at the sunny, white, beautiful beaches of Florida. They had only been there for two days but were all sporting very impressive tans from the sheer intensity of the sunlight that soaked the pan-shaped state. After two days of beachgoing revelry, the teenagers had elected to spend a day perusing the local boardwalk, and it was there that they had discovered the ice cream shop whose product Haruhi was currently drooling over.

"Wow, Haruhi! That looks delicious!" Hunny breathed with big eyes locking onto Haruhi's treat. "Can I try some?" Hunny of course was partaking in his own ice cream, a cookie sundae, and had enjoyed it with such relish that his lips were ringed by smudges of chocolate sauce. Haruhi didn't much care (after all, it looked delicious and she would ask to try if she was in the same boat), but as she took a plastic spoon and went to procure some of the concoction for the blonde boy to try, Mori suddenly spoke up from beside him.

"Mitsukuni, you still have plenty of your own left. Let Haruhi enjoy hers." Haruhi blinked in mild surprise at the tall, quiet boy. It was rare that he openly admonished Hunny, but, then again, he was particular about curbing Hunny's insatiable sweet tooth. The smaller boy sniffled miserably and sunk down in his chair, looking the perfect picture of a scolded child. Tears bubbled up in his eyes as he stared pitifully at his half-eaten bowl of ice cream; Mori continued to gaze at him pointedly until he obediently shoved a spoonful of it in his mouth with a subdued "Okay…"

"Yeah, Haruhi has to save plenty for the rest of us, right?" Hikaru said teasingly over her shoulder. Haruhi gasped in affront as his arm reached around and grabbed her wrist in an effort to guide the ice cream cone up to his mouth. She elbowed him roughly in the ribs, desperate to protect her treat.

"You've got your own! Buzz off!" she growled. Kaoru was chuckling from his seat, eyes glittering as he watched his brother try to wrangle a bite of the ice cream from the very annoyed girl.

"Don't mess with a poor girl and her sweets, Hikaru. You may lose an eye."

"What does my monetary situation have to do with it? I just paid good money for it and I'm gonna eat it! Me!" she punctuated the statement with another well-aimed jab to Hikaru's ribs; with a high-pitched whine, he sunk down behind her. However, his action was just enough to jostle Haruhi's arm, and she wailed in dismay as the two scoops of ice cream slipped off the cone to smear down the front of her white tank top before falling to the ground with two wet splats. Her bottom lip wobbled a little as she stared wide-eyed at the two liquidy balls of dairy product melting on the concrete. "I… really wanted that…"

"What have you done?!" Tamaki screeched as he wrenched the twin up by the front of his tee and viciously shook him back and forth. "You made Haruhi cry! Apologize, then commit seppuku!" Hikaru could not respond as his brain was repeatedly knocked around in his head, and by the time Tamaki finally stopped shaking him, he was the mentality of a drooling toddler.

"Boss, you killed him!" his brother wailed as he jumped up from the table to cradle his unresponsive brother. "Hikaru? Hikaru, can you hear me? Don't go into the light!"

"Stars… So beautiful…" the twin cooed with an airy giggle. Kaoru wailed and hugged him close before looking angrily at Tamaki. "Look what you've done to him!"

"Look what he did to Haruhi's ice cream! It's no less than he deserves!" Tamaki seethed back while pointing at the now-puddles of ice cream. Throughout the entire exchange, Haruhi just watched the balls slowly become deformed and melted. She really ought not to be that upset; it was just ice cream. There was plenty of it in the world and it wouldn't be the last time she ate some. The cream was now running in rivulets down her white shirt, dying it vanilla and pink. I shouldn't be upset, she thought as tears pricked the corners of her eyes. Her lips shook as she tried to hold them in. She didn't want the boys to see, because they would feel obligated to buy her another to make up for it, and that wouldn't do. However, the fact that Haruhi couldn't stomach spending more of her pocket money on another cone made her want one, badly. She knew she would feel guilty if she demanded that, though. So she just stared, watching the colors mix together as they inched towards the toes of her sandals.

"Haruhi." The girl looked up as she was addressed to find Mori towering over her. Quickly, she used her forearm to rub her eyes, lest he figure out she was crying.

"Oh, um, yeah?"

"You're shirt's dirty. Here." Her eyes nearly bugged out of her head as he just stripped himself of his tee-shirt, right then and there. Of course, they were in Florida and walking around bare-chested certainly wasn't taboo, but it was just how nonchalantly he did it that made her flush. She stammered some sort of thanks out before tossing the useless waffle cone in the trash and pulling off her own soiled tank top. She was wearing a bikini top underneath and the boys were still squabbling with one another (with Hunny playing doctor with his stuffed animal to try and revive the still-stunned Hikaru), so she wasn't too worried about flashing anyone. She quickly slipped Mori's shirt over her head, laughing a little as the hem dropped down to her knees.

"It feels like I'm wearing a dress," she smiled up at him. Somehow, the kind gesture made her feel better. Her eyebrows inched up as he crouched down in front of her, bunching up the fabric of the shirt in his hand to pin it at her waist. "Hey, what're you-?"

"I've seen many of the girls do this," he remarked as he reached out to slide a spare ponytail from Hikaru's wrist. The twins had been tying their hair into little buns to keep the heat off their necks, since their hair was considerably long. Mori took the tie and quickly wound it around the bunched fabric, then pulled it through to make a little knot of fabric just at Haruhi's waist. When he stepped back, she turned her body this way and that, appreciating the stylish flair.

"Thanks, Mori," she smiled up at him again. A faint haze of pink dusted across his cheeks as he grunted a reply. Haruhi glanced behind her to see Kyoya filming as Kaoru and Tamaki squared off with pool noodles they had apparently purchased from the nearby pool toy shop. A small crowd had gathered around them, thinking they must be street performers. Haruhi groaned at that absolutely theatrical performance they were putting on, because she didn't doubt that in the moment they were seriously trying to maim each other. Hunny was standing on the edge holding Hikaru's limp body crying about how he wouldn't have wanted them to fight. "Jeez, they're like children," she muttered.

Mori did not respond. She figured he had sat back down to quietly watch the two fools do battle with the pool noodles. "You guys, it's not that serious," she called. She then sighed in defeat as they completely ignored her, charging each other with screeching battle cries before viciously whapping each other over the heads with the pool tools. She rolled her eyes and slumped down in one of the chairs, watching a smirk inch up Kyoya's face as he filmed the entire ordeal with his smart phone. No doubt he was concocting a scheme to make money with it. Ever the shrewd businessman, their Kyoya. Hikaru was groggily rousing in Hunny's arms, asking what day is was. I won't be shocked if Tamaki gave him a concussion, she thought wryly.

"Hnnh?" she grunted as she was tapped lightly on the shoulder. It was Mori, obviously, but she was too busy staring owlishly at the exact replica of her dropped ice cream cone hovering in front of her face. Robotically, her hands rose to wrap around the thick waffle cone before she finally tilted her head back to glance at him. His face was light pink and his gaze concentrated on the ground.

"You looked upset…" he mumbled bashfully. His grip relaxed so that Haruhi could take the cone, and she pulled it to her body, still gawking up at him because it was just such an overwhelmingly kind display. Mori had always been sweet to her. All the boys had, in their weird ways, but Mori especially so. His gestures were always ones that caught her totally by surprise and sent her heart to beating fast and hard. He scratched the side of his head as he finally looked at her, expecting her to enjoy her treat. Her brain finally resumed working.

"Oh! Thank you so much!" she stammered quickly before jumping forward to take a huge bite of the ice cream, which was already beginning to melt onto her fingers. As the creamy concoction spread over her tongue, she let out a satisfied "Mmmmmm!" It was just as delectable as it looked. She pulled back, licking vanilla ice cream and strawberry sauce from her lips as she tossed a glance back out into the street. All four of the fools were going at it with pool noodles now (with the athletic Hunny clearly dominating) while Kyoya filmed and took donations from the passersby. They certainly weren't paying a lick of attention to the two still seated under the pavilion. As Mori eased back into his seat, Haruhi thrust the cone out to him. As he looked at her in bewilderment, she insisted, "Try some! You paid for it, so you deserve at least a bite." His dark irises stared at her, flicked down at the ice cream, then back to her. With his vision trained on her face, he slowly leaned forward, one big hand wrapping over hers to hold it steady as he took a tentative bite of the soft cream.

"… S'good," he mumbled after retreating. Haruhi smiled, pleased, before pulling it back and chomping down on it again. She watched Hunny chase the other three boys around the asphalt for a few minutes, gradually working her way through the ice cream, before it dawned on her that she and Mori had pretty much indirectly kissed. Her face flushed the hue of the strawberry syrup almost immediately after the thought crossed her mind. How could she?! She had been so stupidly blissed out that she hadn't even considered the implications- and poor Mori, too sweet to refuse her, had obliged. Silently freaking out, she peeped at him through the corners of her eyes. He had one arm resting on the arm rest with his chin in his hand, watching the pool noodle fight with lidded eyes. He must have felt her steaming gaze on him, because his dark eyes flickered to meet hers. With a quiet squeak, she returned to eating her ice cream with gusto, trying miserably not to seem suspicious.

Of course, she ate it too fast and earned herself a brain freeze.

"Agggh!" she groaned loudly as she pressed her stinging head into the cool metal of the table. Her hand, still holding her half-eaten ice cream, shook violently as she reeled in the onslaught of the white pain.

"Brain freeze?" Mori asked. She could tell his voice was closer but had not the will nor the strength to discover how close. She gave a wheedling whine in response. As she was pitifully thinking about how the ice cream would melt all over her while she tried to recover from the brain freeze, it was plucked out of her hand.

"Hey… What?" she whimpered, forcing her head to turn to crack an eye open.

"Wouldn't want it to go to waste, right?" he shrugged. She blushed as he began nonchalantly licking at the cone.

"B-but…"

"S'all right," he remarked in a soft voice. The way he looked at her then sent a shudder up her spine and suddenly she was way too hot as well as reeling in a brain freeze. He can't be doing that on purpose, right? Not Mori… He's just being himself… She peered at him out of the corners of her eyes again. He was once more watching the street, but like he had a sixth sense, his eyes were back to her in almost an instant. She bristled with a squeak and buried her head in her arms, feeling like she was cooking in an oven and burning in the cold at the same time. Suddenly she was hyper-aware of his tee shirt draped over her body. It was all too much for Haruhi to process at once and soon her mind was just a swirling pool of mush like the long-melted ice cream below.

"Mori?"

"Huh?"

"Why?" She didn't look at him. She couldn't bear to. He knew well enough what she must be asking about, so there wasn't the need to look at him. Besides, she was afraid of what kind of expression he could be making right now. For all she knew, her fried-frozen brain could be making a whole mess of the situation needlessly. The silence prickled at her skin insistently, and she lamented the few seconds he took to respond.

"Because," he said in that soft voice tinted with undeniable affection, "you're just too cute, Haruhi." A small shriek like a pterodactyl's was torn from her body as every muscle she had tensed at once. She could hear him chuckling next to her. Of course the quiet one is just too slick! She thought with steam practically pouring from her ears and nose as her body burned like fire. Oh, it moved her, almost too much. How the hell was she going to be able to look at him with a straight face now? Especially shirtless. She shifted uncomfortably, both elated and mortified that she was wearing his shirt right now.

I take it back! America sucks! She griped with no heart in it. "Haruhi?" Oh, the way he called her name did things to her. Entirely without control of her body she lifted her head to look at him, red-faced and wide-eyed and embarrassed. He smiled sweetly and put his big hand on top of her head to gently ruffle her short brown hair like he did all the time, except this time it was different. "Don't think about it too hard."

"That's kind of impossible." He chuckled it again. The sound rang hollowly in her chest, pulsing through her cells and uplifting her for some reason. His laugh was low and gentle, but she liked it, a lot more than she had realized. Oh, her brain was mush, for sure. Her hands had begun wringing compulsively in the thick fabric of the tee. Oh, too hell with it all! She thought wildly before jumping forward to kiss him lightly and quickly on the cheek. It was his turn to blush from head to toe. "There! That's that!" she said gruffly before shoving her hand in his to hold it clumsily and tightly. She jammed her elbow on top of the table to shove her cheek into the other hand, angrily watching the pool noodle fight still obliviously taking place in the street. It took a few seconds for her mind to finally piece together. "The kiss was for the ice cream."

"And… this?" he asked slowly while holding up their linked hands. He stared at it as if it were a foreign object, novel and confusing.

"That's for everything else," she pushed out through the side of her lips as a stupidly giddy smile threatened to appear on her face. She could feel his heavy stare on her. Yeah, she really didn't know what the hell was happening, but she might as well run with it because Spring Break, right? He dropped his arm down after a few seconds. Their clasped hands hung between their two chairs.

"Okay." She snuck a glance to see his other hand over his mouth, the edges of the smile he was trying to his peeking up above his fingers. Seeing it made her smile too, though she tried her best not to make it too obvious.

"So, can I keep the shirt?"