Disclaimer: I have no rights over any Ouran characters.

"Really, Haruhi, I don't know why you're so worried," Mamoru said.

Haruhi glared at him over the papers she was reading. "If your father finds out you're barely involved in this case then I'll be out on the streets looking for a new job."

He shook his head, "Father's out of the country for two months. You'll have this wrapped up by the time he comes back."

"And what if someone decides to tell him about this?"

Mamoru quirked an eyebrow at her, "And who, exactly, would tell him? Most of the people that work here really like you and just want to see you succeed."

"And everyone else?"

He flashed her the most devilish grin she'd ever seen him give, "Well, let's just say that they've come to realize that my father won't always be in charge here."

"You and Kenichi threatened them, didn't you?"

"Threaten is such a nasty word. Rather, we made sure they knew all the facts."

"Yeah, sure, whatever you want to call it," she muttered, glancing up at the clock.

"Kyoya should be here soon, he always arrives five minutes early."

"Oh, Kyoya is it?" he said with a smile as he began gathering his things to leave the conference room.

She gritted her teeth, "Mr. Ootori will be here very soon."

Mamoru laughed all the way out the door.

Haruhi had barely concealed her annoyance at Mamoru and his teasing when Kyoya walked in.

She immediately stood up, smiled, and gave him a welcoming bow.

"Hello, Mr. Ootori, I hope you're having a good afternoon."

He smiled pleasantly back at her, "It's been reasonably successful. I hope you have information for me that will make it even better."

He took a seat across from her and Haruhi started talking.

"I certainly hope so. I've been doing research and I've had people here fact checking over the past three days. With all of that information I believe I have a solution to your family's issue."

"That's good to hear, what is it?"

"Well, in my personal opinion, it is of the highest imperative that we solve this before any news of it reaches the public. While we here at Tachiki and Sons are of the opinion that zaibatsus are still looked at favorably by the general population, too much attention will cause a very loud minority to voice their opinions. This would give your family's enemies ammunition that we can't let them gain. So we need to stop it before it gets any bigger."

Kyoya nodded in agreement, "And how do you plan to stop this from occurring?"

"First, to prepare for the worst, the Ootori Group should do some things to get good press coverage. Charity events, discounts on necessary medicine for a time, basically anything that will make people think fondly of the Ootori Group."

"Sounds like a good plan so far, please continue."

"The second part involves creating a series of presentations, each one completely honest, but tailored to fit the person or group the presentation is aimed at. In these presentations we'll highlight all of the positive and negative effects a zaibatsu has on the economy. And then be sure to point out that the positive outweighs the negative, in both the short and long term."

"Why do you want to mention the negative?"

"We're doing that so it is obvious that the positives outweigh the negatives. We'll be sure to point out the fact that every economical system has their flaws, but that when it comes to Japanese society the zaibatsu has not outlived its usefulness."

He nodded and stared down at the surface, Haruhi could tell that he was thinking deeply.

She let him have a few minutes to think while she checked over her notes to make sure she hadn't missed anything pertinent.

"Will you be doing all of the presentations?"

She shook her head, "No, at the moment I'm currently compiling a list of everyone we need to speak with and examining the information that we have on them. I'll be doing most of the presentations, but we believe that some of the people will respond better to either Mamoru Tachiki or you doing the presentation. I'll have the list completed and emailed to you before close of business hours today."

"That sounds very reasonable and I'll be fine with doing some of the presentations." He pulled out his tablet and opened it up, "May I ask when you believe the first presentation will be?"

Haruhi pulled up her calendar, "It's scheduled for ten in the morning next Monday."

His eyebrows rose, "Next Monday? You're moving quickly, may I ask who the meeting is with?"

Haruhi smiled at him, "We're meeting with Mr. Toshimitsu Motegi, Minister for Economy, Trade, and Industry."

"So, you're choosing to go for the most important ones first. May I ask why?"

"Because, we'll know by the end of the day on Monday if this plan has a chance of succeeding."

He grinned at her, "You were that sure of me saying yes to your plan?"

She put on her best Chiye smirk, "How could you say no? It is the best plan possible."

He threw his head back and laughed.

Haruhi watched him, wondering if she would ever stop wanting to be around him.

XXX

Over the next several weeks Haruhi spent lots of time with Kyoya. She prepped him for his presentations and was there to assist him when he did them. He was also there when she presented quite often, since his presence showed how serious the Ootori Group took this situation.

Prepping for these presentations required long hours of going over every detail and making sure that everything was perfect. Haruhi couldn't remember how often they'd poured over files together, completely forgetting about the food they'd ordered until it was long cold.

Not that that stopped her from eating it.

The only time they actually ate when the food arrived was when he ordered sushi and sashimi. Even then, they were pouring over notes in between stuffing pieces of fish in their mouths.

She'd just stuffed a particularly large piece of tuna in her mouth when she'd glanced across the table at him. He'd been watching her with the most adorable little wrinkle on his brow. She'd raised her eyebrows and given him a questioning look, half wondering if she had soy sauce dribbling down her chin.

She almost didn't catch it, but he drew back a fraction of a centimeter and gave his head a minuscule shake as the wrinkle disappeared from his brow. Then he turned to look back at his laptop, as if he hadn't just been staring intently at her.

Her eyes narrowed. No, he wasn't going to look at her like that and then pretend nothing had happened. She hurriedly chewed the delicious tuna and swallowed.

"Mr. Ootori, is there something on my face?"

He froze for a half-second and then looked up at her, his eyes moving over her face and then settling for a long moment on her lips. Haruhi had the to fight the urge to bite her lip. She felt her heartbeat speed up and the room definitely got a few degrees warmer as his eyes lingered. She felt as if her own eyes were drawn to his lips. She wondered what it would be like to kiss him. They'd moved so beautifully together when they'd danced, surely kissing would've been just as magical. Maybe if she hadn't left that night she would've found out. But she hadn't had a choice. The longer she stayed the more likely it was that someone would recognize her. And while she had no problem with Kyoya learning she had modeled that night, one had only to look at his friends to realize how decent a human being he was, he would likely lose confidence in her as a lawyer.

And that would never do. She had a zaibatsu to protect.

That thought drew her away from his lips and she focused her eyes on his before clearing her throat.

"Mr. Ootori?"

He blinked and then jerked his eyes up until they locked with hers.

"Oh, I apologize Ms. Fujioka. My mind was a million miles away."

She almost snorted, that was a lie, his mind was just focused on something else, just like hers had been.

"And, no, you don't have anything on your face. I just have a bad habit of staring off into the distance when I think."

That was a lie, and she desperately wanted to call him on it. But now wasn't the time. Maybe later, when the zaibatsu was saved and she knew she wouldn't be out of a job for doing this...

Grabbing another piece of tuna she smiled at him, "That's good. And don't worry, we all have our little quirks."

She quickly stuffed the tuna in her mouth and turned back to her work. Determined not to think too much about the very unforgettable man across the table from her.

XXX

Before Haruhi knew it, all the presentations were done and all they could do was wait.

Haruhi did not like the waiting; especially since they'd been waiting for three weeks for confirmation that all plans to dismantle the Ootori Zaibatsu were set aside.

It didn't help that this waiting meant that she was no longer spending hours in Kyoya's company. She came to miss the way he pushed his glasses up or wrinkled his brow when he was thinking hard. Unless they were talking about the presentations they hadn't said much, but just being in the same room as him, working together, was nice.

So, while she waited to hear some of the most important news of her career, she was also pinning for a guy that had only shown interest in her as a lawyer.

Well, except for the interest he'd shown in her when she was 'Princess'.

And, to make matters worse, Mr. Tachiki was due back any day.

She heard a throat clear behind her, turning she found Mamoru standing there.

"Yes?"

He grinned at her, "Guess what Haruhi?"

"You finally asked Zackarie out?"

His eyes bugged out, "NO! Why would you…" he blushed.

She giggled, "Okay, Mamoru, what is it?"

"Kyoya Ootori just called the office. Apparently his father had some meetings today and got confirmation that everything had been settled."

"Really?" she smiled.

"Yep! And Kyoya would like to take us to dinner on Friday as a thank you celebration. I already accepted for both of us."

Haruhi rolled her eyes, "Of course you did."

He turned to go, but stopped and looked over his shoulder, "Haruhi, wear a dress."

"Mamoru, it's a business dinner, I'll be in a suit."

He grinned, "Oh, no, you won't."

Before she could respond he turned and walked away.

There was no way she was wearing a dress to a business dinner! Hadn't Mei drilled her on what outfits to wear during certain occasions? She wasn't going to screw that up just because her friend was trying to play matchmaker.

Nope, no dresses for her.

XXX

Haruhi glared down at the frothy pink confection that Mei had forced on her. This is why she didn't really care about the rules of when you were supposed to wear something.

The rules kept changing! And they made no sense, or, rather, they made less sense then they had before.

'Only business suits during business meals,' Mei said years ago.

'Of course you're wearing a dress to this dinner!' she'd said just hours ago.

Sometimes Haruhi really wondered how she'd been friends with Mei for close to seven years.

But, at other times…well, Mei was a great friend - if a bit too exuberant at times.

The taxi came to a stop in front of Chez Matsuo Shoto and Haruhi paid him before getting out.

That was another thing that annoyed her. Because of this dress she'd been unable to take the subway. She was much too worried about getting it dirty, when it wasn't even hers.

Rather, it was a dress Mei had 'borrowed' with the twins help from Ms. Hitachiin.

Haruhi took a deep breath and then headed for the door of the restaurant. A nicely dressed gentleman opened the door for her and Haruhi walked inside.

The restaurant wasn't much brighter than it had been outside, in fact…

Haruhi looked around as she approached the maître d. This restaurant was rather romantic, not at all like what she'd expect for a business dinner.

"May I help you, miss?" asked the maître d.

"Yes, I'm here to meet Kyoya Ootori and Mamoru Tachiki."

He smiled at her, "Ah, you must be Miss Fujioka, please follow me."

He led her to a small table in a very romantically lit courtyard. Haruhi was beginning to think Mei and Mamoru were planning something. And when she'd told them not to! She should've known better than to trust them not to interfere.

Kyoya stood up as she approached.

Mamoru was nowhere in sight.

Kyoya's smile was rather interesting. There was a bit of surprise in it, as if he couldn't believe she could look like this.

Haruhi smiled back at him, well, maybe Mei was right, wearing a dress was the right choice.

The look on Kyoya's face told her that he was off center. She supposed he was trying to fit the current image he had of her in with the extremely professional lawyer he'd spent the last two months working with.

"Good evening, Ms. Fujioka. That's quite the dress. It looks to be a Hitachiin," Kyoya said.

Haruhi smiled at him, "It is a Hitachiin. A friend of mine is obsessed with their dresses. She lent me this for the evening."

"Really? It looks like it was made for you? In fact…"

He leaned over and studied her closely.

"I do believe I've seen you in a Hitachiin dress before."

Haruhi's heart sped up and she had to use all of her practiced skills to keep the wrong emotions from showing on her face.

Personally, Haruhi thought honesty was the best approach, but now didn't seem like the time. Also, though she didn't want to admit it, she was feeling a bit panicked. This was not how she'd intended to reveal that they'd met before. She wanted to wring her friends necks for putting her in this position.

"I don't see how that's possible. You see, I'm not much into dressing up. I greatly prefer my business suits."

He quirked an eyebrow, "Is that so? Because I could've sworn I'd seen you in a gorgeous turquoise dress. I do believe we danced. I'm surprised you don't remember."

Haruhi looked at him with the most confused expression she could manage. She didn't quite know why she wanted to keep this a secret from him, but, for some reason, it seemed like a good idea.

"I don't–"

She was abruptly cut off by a phone ringing.

Kyoya pulled his phone out of his pocket and answered it with a quick, "One moment, please."

"Hello?"

"Oh, what happened?"

"I'm so sorry to hear that. But, of course you need to stay with him. Don't worry, Ms. Fujioka is here."

Kyoya chuckled, "Don't worry, your absence won't stop us."

"Alright, have a good weekend. I'll see you on Monday."

Haruhi watched as Kyoya slipped his phone back into his pocket.

Kyoya smirked at her, his glasses glinting in the candlelight.

"Now, where were we, Princess?"

Author's Note: I feel bad that I'm not getting this out until Monday, but life is busy, especially since it's the end of the semester for me. This chapter also required more editing as I needed to add an entire scene.

Enjoy! :)