When he woke up the following morning (without an alarm clock, which was something new), he found himself still entwined with Haruhi's body. Surprisingly, she was still fast asleep. In an strangely good mood (most likely due to the fact that he was well rested for once), he smiled as he watched her sleep. "Haruhi," he called softly. Her eyelids began to flutter, and she slowly began to wake up. She stood up and rubbed her eyes, and his heart skipped a bit as he noticed how cute she looked. What is wrong with me? Cute isn't supposed to be in an Ootori's vocabulary.

"G' morning, Kyoya. Thanks for letting me sleep with you." He chuckled as she went to her room to get ready. As he changed into his school uniform, a grin crossed his face as he recalled what had happened yesterday.

He heard her wake her father up as he got ready, and by the time he went to the kitchen, Ranka and Haruhi were eating breakfast. Haruhi, already dressed, blushed slightly when she saw him, and when Ranka looked up and saw him, the cross-dresser flashed him a goofy smile. "KyooooYAAAA! How NICE to see YOUUUU!" Kyoya cringed internally at his overly dramatic greeting, but he was used to it after years of being best friends with Tamaki and maintained a respectful smile. He saw Haruhi grimace.

"Good morning, Ranka. I'm glad to see that you are well." Ranka bubbled with excitement, and Haruhi now looked like she wanted to disappear.

"I'm EVER so grateful that you came yesterday. Haru here was just telling me about how you came in and helped. Not that I'm shocked, of course." Kyoya was pleasantly surprised and smiled in Haruhi's direction. The brunette simply flushed a deeper scarlet.

"It was not any trouble." Ranka nodded empathetically.

"I woke up too late to prepare breakfast, so we are having cereal. Want some, Kyoya?" Haruhi asked, coming out of her embarrassment. Ranka looked pleasantly surprised at the lack of an honorific at the end of the name but didn't say anything. Kyoya sat down next to her and poured himself a bowlful of cereal and milk. When he was done, Ranka cajoled him into eating some more.

Kyoya wished that all his meals were like this. The atmosphere was warm and friendly, nothing remotely close to what he was used to. Back at the mansion, dinner was mostly quiet, and if a conversation was started, it was mostly about furthering the Ootori Group and what it would take to lead the zaibatsu.

After breakfast, Ranka insisted that they head off to school early. Kyoya shot him a look, but Ranka simply smiled. He practically flung their bags and coats at them, and they were unceremoniously ushered out the front door. They stood on the stairs and looked awkwardly at each other. Ranka was definitely not inconspicuous about what he thought about Kyoya and Haruhi.

Kyoya finally took out his cell phone and dialed his driver's number. "I am calling Hotta right now. It's rather cold out and I insist on giving you a ride."

"Kyoya, that's a bit too much for me. I can walk to school." He frowned, and she laughed. "Fine," she said, surrendering, "I accept."

He called Hotta and instructed him to pick the two up as quickly as possible, to which Hotta replied that he would be there in the next fifteen minutes. Satisfied, Kyoya put his phone back in his bag. An idea crossed his mind, fueled by what had happened the previous evening. "Haruhi, do you think Ranka saw us sleeping on the couch?"

Haruhi furrowed her eyebrows, but then her face lit up and she snorted. "Probably. That would explain why he was so excited this morning. Again, thanks for sleeping with me." Utterly naive.

Kyoya smiled. It was going as he had planned. "You know, I think you owe me." Haruhi deadpanned, and he internally laughed at her expression.

"What do I owe you?" Kyoya pretended to think about it.

"I think a kiss would suffice." Haruhi turned beetroot red, and for a moment he thought that he had gone a bit too far. However, she started to smile. Still a bit red, she nodded.

"I think that's fair." Kyoya grinned. He put a hand on her chin and gently raised her head so that she was looking up at him. He leaned forward and pressed his lips against hers. She responded by threading her fingers in his hair and pulling him closer. He put one hand on her waist and the other behind her neck. Her lips were softer and sweeter than he had expected. For perhaps the first time in his life, he enjoyed something sweet. His fingers began to slide down the back of her neck, tracing its shape. He felt Haruhi smile against his mouth. "It seems that you have done this before, Kyoya," she remarked as they pulled apart.

Another plan hatched in his mind. "Perhaps I have," he replied, smirking. There was no way that he would pass an opportunity to pull at her a bit.

"Really? You say this now? Doesn't seem like you." Haruhi deadpanned, as if she felt that she should have known better. Kyoya's smile softened, and he swept away some stray hair on her forehead.

"But this was my first kiss that matters." It was true. All of his other kisses had been fake, only used to placate some of the more annoying girls his father asked him to get to know. Tamaki had even kissed him once before, but that was just, in the blond's own words, "practice" (whatever the hell that meant). As predicted, Haruhi's face turned tomato red. She quickly muttered something incoherent and looked away. He put a hand under her chin and gently moved her head so that she faced him.

"Aww, did I find your weakness?" Haruhi's face turned an even darker shade of red, and she muttered something darkly under her breath. It sounded suspiciously like, "Tamaki got to you."

"Go to hell," she finally said out loud. It was hard to take her anger seriously when she was a full head smaller and looked like a thirteen-year-old.

"I'll see you there, then," he replied with a mock seriousness. Haruhi laughed, the sound buoying around them.

"You are quite different without your Shadow King persona. If I didn't know you well, I would think that you're acting quite out of character. Actually, you sort of are, but...You know what I mean," she said happily but slowly, as if she was thinking of the best way to word what she was thinking. A grin was still on her face. A sleek black Mercedes pulled up, and Kyoya and Haruhi got in.

"I'm just happy, I guess." He did not know how long this high of a new romance would last, but he was sure that they would stay together as they learned more about each other. Are we together? He, perhaps overly optimistically, hoped she saw it that way.

Unfortunately, he could not stay up on a cloud forever. A certain thought nagged him during the ride to Ouran, but he pushed it away and kept smiling. But, when they finally arrived at Ouran and he caught sight of a certain blond, his bubble burst for good.