Over the next couple days, pretty much every single time I saw Kaoru in person, he'd make hand motions like he was taking photos of Haruhi when she wasn't looking. Or asking me for them. Not seriously, but he was a Hitachiin after all. It'd be out of character for him to not harass me pretty much 24/7 about Haruhi.

He and I had actually become decently close friends through all of this, much to the annoyance of Tamaki and Hikaru. The fact that Kaoru and I spoke more frequently confused and irritated them both.

Tamaki would always be my best friend, and it was incredibly difficult not bringing up Haruhi to him. He'd tell me all about it if he started dating someone, and normally, I would at least talk to him a little about it, but the fact that he had a thing for Haruhi just made it a lot more complicated.

"Haruhi." I said, laying on her bed. She looked back at me from her homework.

"What's up?" She replied.

"I want to tell Tamaki. About us." I told her, honestly. "I just can not find a scenario where it works out desirably." She put her pen down and came and laid next to me.

"We'll figure out a good method eventually. Hopefully soon. I'd be lying if I said I didn't want to talk to Hikaru and Kaoru about you."

"Well you at least have Kaoru."

"They're always together! I never get one or the other, they're a package deal." She laughed. "Plus, I'd love to actually get to hold your hand at school. I've almost done it about a million times." She smiled, grabbing my hand.

We both turned as we heard a knock on her door. She got up and answered it. It was one of the butlers that worked more closely with my father.

"Miss Fujioka… and Master Kyoya…" He added, seeing me behind her. He looked past her, and at me. "Master Kyoya, your father has asked me to inform you that there will be a rather large formal party here tonight, and you and Miss Fujioka are to both be in attendance." He paused, seeing the surprised expression on Haruhi's face. "I was also to tell Miss Fujioka that she will be seeing familiar faces, as the Suoh's, Hitachiin's, Haninozuka's and Morinozuka's will all be in attendance." Haruhi slowly looked back at me.

"Thank you. Will that be all?" I asked him. He said no, bowed, and went on his way.

She turned her whole body around and stared at me. "Are last second party invites just a casual thing for you rich people or something?!" She asked, a little bit frantically.

"Not too common, no. But it does happen occasionally." I told her. My phone went off. A text from my sister.

"Just heard about the party. Bringing a dress and wig for Haru! Be there in a few." Well, that made that part easy, I suppose. I showed Haruhi the message. She kind of groaned.

"This is really happening isn't it?" She paused. "At least your sister has good taste, I guess."

"You're bound to get some comments from the twins' mother, my sister is quite a fan, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if that was what she brought."

"How am I supposed to play off being able to afford that!?"

"Well, how about this." I got up, and held her hands. "Haruhi, would you accompany me this evening?"

She smiled. "Well, I guess it would be better than going alone." She teased.

"You said yes to a date with Kaoru once, nothing suspicious about you saying yes to me, as well." I smirked at her. "Plus, the idea of getting to dance with you in front of Kaoru 'Can-I-See-The-Pictures' Hitachiin sounds delightful. Besides, you can always say I gave the dress to you as a gift for being my date." She smiled.

"Ah yes. Kaoru 'Will-Never-See-The-Pictures Hitachiin." She added. I would always be thankful that she found my odd sense of humor, well, actually humorous.

She took a moment to think. "Okay. So. Wig and dress will keep any of the club guests who attend not suspicious…" She must have continued her thought in her head.

"You'll be perfect, Love. You always are." She blushed as I kissed her head.

"I suppose it's a good thing I've been trying to teach you to ballroom dance, hm?"

"Maybe I won't even step on your toes." She smiled.

Several hours went by. Fuyumi was in Haruhi's room helping her finish getting ready. I was in my own room, tying my tie and looking in the mirror to be sure I looked presentable. It was an odd feeling. I wanted to look good, not for the sake of the Ootori name, but for her. I wanted her to at least be comfortable enough to have fun. I was going to try for her.

A heard a knock on my door. I opened it to Fuyumi, who was completely ready herself, as well as her husband.

"Kyoya. You're going to die. She looks incredible. Go see!" She said excitedly, pointing to her room. "Everyone is here, and they'll be calling our names to introduce us at the party in a few minutes. Meet us by the stairs!" I nodded. She was always far more excited for parties than myself.

I went down to Haruhi's door. Took a deep breath, and knocked. "Come in!" She said from the other side. I opened the door and could barely even articulate thoughts when I saw her.

She looked beautiful.

"It's a lot, I know." She said, awkwardly fumbling a few pieces of hair.

Fuyumi had brought a wig that was Haruhi's hair color, but reached her mid back. It had a light curl and was parted on her left with a longer side bang. Her dress was nothing I'd ever expected to see Haruhi in. It was a deep navy colored, halter necked gown, the necklace I have her having over the fabric. It was skin tight until it hit her hips, where it draped straight down, barely a centimeter above the floor. The fabric was very sparkly, and I could almost imagine how it would look in the spotlight as we walked down the stairs to greet everyone.

As she walked towards me, I also noticed that the dress was slit to her upper thigh. Is this how Tamaki felt when he saw her in "girl clothes"? Her makeup was light, but accentuated her eyes extremely well.

"Is it that bad?" She asked.

"Haruhi. I actually don't believe I could put into words how gorgeous you look."

"You look like Tamaki staring at me in a sundress." She laughed. God she was beautiful when she laughed.

I grabbed her and kissed her, holding her close. As I pulled away from this kiss, I said "You take that back. Or I might just have to punish you later…" I growled in her ear.

"Well, you should see what's UNDER this dress…" She replied, knowing it would actually kill me inside. Even if I'd never tell her that.

I gave her a chaste kiss on the neck, before I took her hand. "Ready for the part of the evening you'll hate the most?" She groaned.

"Fuyumi told me about the whole 'Now presenting blaah blah blaaahhhh…' thing. I'm actually dreading it!" She faked a smile. "Also, Kaoru has texted me about ten times telling me everyone was here already, and asked if I was even coming. So. I guess this will be a surprise for everyone."

We gathered ourselves, holding hands as we walked to where Fuyumi was.

"Took you long enough!" she said. Before I could even say anything to her, her and her husband's names were announced, and the spotlight hit them, and they made their way down to the party.

"How many people are going to be staring at me?"

"A lot."

"Very comforting, thank you."

The light applause ended, and the announcer began to speak again.

"And now, presenting, Mr. Kyoya Ootori" She held onto my arm as we walked into view at the top of the stairs. I had asked them to leave Haruhi's name out, in case any club guests were here. I could see the Hosts near the back of the room. As we walked down the stairs, I could see each Host process the fact that the girl holding on to me was, in fact, Haruhi.

Haruhi was looking ahead. Not at anything, though. I was pretty sure she was focusing on not falling. She wasn't great in heels.

She sighed quietly as we got to the bottom. She did it, and was clearly a little bit proud. I was also proud of her.

I could see the Hosts making a mad dash for where her and I were standing. Just as I got caught up talking to a few party guests, she was swept away from me.

I excused myself to go off in the direction they'd taken her, back to the back of the room. They all were basically surrounding her, asking her a million questions, I was sure.

As I walked up to everyone, I could hear Tamaki telling her she looked "Just like how Daddy always imagined". I could almost feel her wanting to punch him in the face. Kaoru and Mori shared a glance at each other, then to me. Kaoru, when no one was looking, wildly gestured at Haruhi, and mouthed "How?" to me. Followed by a brief thumbs up from Mori, which I was not expecting at all.

"Well I see you've all found my date for the evening." I said to them all.

"HOW COULD YOU NOT TELL ME YOU ASKED HARUHI TO COME TO THIS EVENT?" Tamaki wailed. "Had I known, I'd have asked her myself!"

"Yeah, seriously!" Hikaru added.

"You could have just asked me if I was coming." Haruhi said, clearly already annoyed.

We all talked for a long while, each of us talking to assorted other guests we knew as they came and went.

Everyone got on the subject of Haruhi's dress. "Kyoya gave it to me when I said I'd come to the party." She started telling them. She paused for a moment as she heard the band begin a new song. They'd begun playing the same song that I played in the gazebo the weekend we began seeing each other.

I walked between Hikaru and Tamaki, and extended a hand to Haruhi. "Would you care to dance, Haruhi?"

Everyone just kind of stared at me, with the exception of Kaoru, who was looking at his brother.

"I- Uh. Yeah. Yeah!" She was caught off guard. It was cute. She took my hand and walked away with me to where people were dancing.

We danced through the entirety of the song. She looked genuinely happy. She was even able to ignore the fact that we could both see every Host staring at us. "I asked first." I said to her.

She smiled. "And how could I refuse the Shadow King?" We danced and talked for a good while, losing track of time before we walked back towards where everyone was still gathered. Before we even got there, Hikaru approached Haruhi, grabbed her wrist and pulled her away, towards a quiet corridor.

"I need to talk to you for a sec, Haruhi."

"Oh! Okay okay!" She said, trailing behind him.

I walked up to everyone else. Kaoru subtly nodded his head towards where Hikaru was taking Haruhi, and Mori then quietly excused himself and went off in the same direction.

"Why does everyone get alone time with her but me!" Tamaki yelled, before being called over by his grandmother to a larger group of people, leaving just Kaoru, Hunny, and myself.

"Haru-Chan looks great!" Hunny said, excitedly. "You two looked super duper cute dancing together!" I didn't even know what to say to him.

"I'd have to agree, she does look lovely this evening." I said, ignoring the 'cute' comment, even if Haruhi would think it was sweet.

Kaoru went off and followed Mori, who was just standing outside of the corridor Hikaru took Haruhi down.

"Kyo-Chan?" Hunny looked up at me.

"Hm?"

"I know about you and Haru-Chan!" He said. I froze. There was no way Mori told him anything. Kaoru either. "I don't know any details or anything, but I know that pretty necklace was from you! And she looks at you differently now! A lot differently then any of us! I think Takashi knows too. I mentioned it to him and he didn't seem surprised at all!"

I paused before saying anything to him. "It's that obvious, hm?"

Hunny smiled. "Not really! I'm just really good at telling when people are in love! You love her a lot, don't you Kyo-Chan?"

I'd never actually been asked that before. Not by Kaoru, or even Fuyumi.

"I do." I wasn't sure why I kept going, but I did. "She makes every part of every day better. Work is something to finish so I can be with her instead of something to invest every second to."

Hunny smiled his biggest smile. "I'm really happy for you guys!" He stopped and looked around me, back to where everyone else went. "Hey, where did Takashi go?" He pointed to where Mori had been, now replaced by a slightly anxious looking Kaoru.

Hunny and I both walked over there.

Kaoru looked up at me. "Okay, don't kill him." That's not a very encouraging thing to hear when you walk up to someone that has an irrational brother who happens to be with your girlfriend at the moment.

"Why would I be considering homicide?" I asked. He looked down at Hunny and back at me. "He knows, it's okay."

"How did he find out?!"

"Oh! Kao-Chan knows too? What about Hika-Chan?"

Kaoru vigorously nodded no, and put up a 'shh' finger.

"Hikaru definitely snuck some sake." Kaoru said, through clenched teeth. "Not a lot, but enough to make him more confident than he should be."

"Where'd Takashi go?" Hunny asked.

"I sent him in there. Hikaru is kind of intimidated by hi-" Kaoru got cut off by the sound of Haruhi yelling from the corridor.

"Hikaru! Please give me some space!" She didn't sound scared, just upset. Kaoru and I quickly walked into the corridor to see what was happening. Haruhi was backed up against a wall. Mori had his hand on Hikaru's shoulder, pulling him back from her.

"WHAT DID YOU DO?" Kaoru yelled at Hikaru, before grabbing his arm and pulling him back towards the actual party.

"I didn't do anything! I was trying to compliment her! I didn't mean to upset her!" Hikaru said in retaliation. He sounded genuine.

Mori and I could both tell that Haruhi looked really out of it. Mori turned towards the party, ushering Hunny with him.

"Haruhi, what happened? Are you alright?" I leaned down a little bit to look her in the eyes. They were starting to well up with tears. "I'll have him killed if you want, you know that." She kind of smiled.

"No, no, he didn't do anything. He just got a little too close. He...He smelled like my dad..and…" I put my hands on her shoulders. She was shaking. "I know he wasn't going to do anything. But… he was holding onto my wrist too tight, and I felt trapped, and god, that smell… it…" She started crying.

I pulled her in close to me and hugged her tightly. She threw her arms around me too.

"I'm sorry, I'm totally ruining the party." She half laughed.

I pulled away from her and looked her in the eyes. I put my hand on her face.

"You could never ruin something for me because you're upset. If anything the party is ruining the fact that I can't take you upstairs and just lay in bed with you and hug you until you feel better." She smiled a little.

"You're safe now. From all of that. But I will never judge you for still being hurt by it. I'd be more concerned if you were just totally alright." I wiped a tear from her eye.

"I'm here, and you never ever have to apologize for how you feel. To any of the Hosts, not just me. They all love you. I love you." She hugged me, and I kissed her forehead. "It's okay to not be okay, you know." She nodded.

"I love you, too, Kyoya. And I think I'm okay now. It's kind of passing." She took a deep breath. "Wasn't expecting to get emotional, tonight. Good thing I had 'Mama' around…" she joked.

"Is now really the appropriate time to bring out the Mama joke?" I smiled at her.

"It is always the right time for the Mama joke." She laughed, wiped the tears away from her eyes.

"Your makeup still looks beautiful, if it makes you feel any better."

"Your sister really came prepared with the waterproof stuff."

We stood laughing in the corridor alone for a few more minutes before returning to the party. We didn't stick around much longer, though. We snuck away back upstairs, telling a few family members that Haruhi wasn't feeling well.

We got upstairs and locked my door. She very quickly took the wig off, ruffling out her real hair, making it a little messy. She went into my bathroom and took what little makeup she had on off, and came back out pretty quickly.

"Hey, could you unzip this for me?" She asked pointing to the dressed zipper on the back. I did as I was asked, and was very glad I did.

She was right when she said I'd enjoy what was under the dress. A lacy, purple thong. That was it. She threw one of my t-shirts on while I got into more comfortable clothes as well.

We spent the rest of the evening in my bed, watching whatever shows or movies she wanted. She deserved it for surviving both a party and a new step of emotionally recovering from all she'd been through.

I couldn't have been more proud of her.