Author's Note: A new chapter, so that means another AN dedicated to answering your reviews!

Scherherazade: This is supposed to take place in a medieval society (dealing with lords, kings, knights, etc.), although a different thing in this is that the sons of kings are called "lords" until they are married and named officially heirs of their family (which will be mentioned a bit in this chapter and in future chapters). Yes, it is unusual for women to read, other than women of high society, outside of a few basic things for life (like dealing with prices on the market and such), but in Haruhi's case, she learned from her parents (hey, can a twelve-year-old girl in this kind of society know the kind of things she did?), and any further education she gained from her life as a thief. Kyouya takes advantage of her smarts as he commands her to do what he wants. And yes, the other Ouran members will make an appearance. Hopefully that helps!

DarkRavie: Well, in Chapter Three, Kyouya already revealed in their struggle that he knows who Haruhi really is, which is a thief trying to protect herself. Now, as for the regaining of her family's land, that I can't reveal since it would be a big spoiler for later chapters. As for who took her family's land, it was an unnamed family friend that Ranka had named to watch over Haruhi as she tried to run it. Hope that answers your questions!

And now, onto the chapter! Yay!

Chapter Five: Dances And Dresses? Oh Hell No!

Haruhi sighed, taking a break from her long hours of drying and folding laundry to look up at the sky. It had been five days since she came to the villa and became the personal servant of the dark lord Kyouya Ohtori. She made no progress on figuring out a way to escape her new prison, much to her chagrin, and instead found her work load increasing each day.

"After this, I'm not doing anymore laundry. If he tells me to do anymore, I'm telling him to go to hell," she muttered, folding over another shirt and placing it in the wicker basket.

"Haruhi, can you help me with lunch?" Mori asked, and Haruhi nodded, looking back at the laundry still hanging on the line before going back inside the villa.

Kyouya tilted his head on his hand, his expression bored, as he read through the mail that had arrived that afternoon. Most of them were letters from his sister, Fuyumi, describing every detail of her newlywed life, while on occasion there were letters from his older brothers, his father, and other diplomats that followed the Ohtori name.

Placing the ninth letter of Fuyumi's to the side after the long read, he picked up the next letter, his brow perking at the address. "Tamaki? What does that idiot want this time?" he asked aloud with a chuckle as he opened the letter with renewed interest.

As he read it over, he couldn't help the smirk that crept over his lips, "So finally he's getting married and taking on the Suoh name for good. Excellent for him, I mean that sincerely. However, there inlies the problem of myself having an escort to his engagement ball. After all, on this short notice, finding an escort will be difficult."

He sighed, smirking as he pushed up his glasses, "Ah well, I guess I will go with the next best thing."

Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Haruhi sneezed.

That night, as Haruhi cleaned up the kitchen alone after dinner, humming to some self-created tune, she didn't expect the dark lord to enter the room.

"What an odd surprise. Thought you'd be stuck up in that hole of a study all night like usual," Haruhi remarked sarcastically, her eyes looking up from the dishes to acknowledge his arrival.

"Ah, good Haruhi. You're alone. Perfect. I need to talk to you about your next assignment over the next few days," he said, leaning against the counter across from her. The brunette quirked her brow as she wiped her hands on her apron and turned around to face him, "What are you blabbering on about?"

"My best friend, the Lord Tamaki Suoh, will be named the official heir of the Suoh castle as well as celebrating his engagement to Lady Éclair Tonnerre. He had sent me an invitation to his engagement ball, where I will be attending."

"...Okay," Haruhi said slowly, "And what does this have to do with me? What, do you want me to watch the villa while you're gone or something?"

Kyouya smirked, "In one week, you will attend the ball. As my escort."

Her eyes widened and for a moment she felt faint; Haruhi Fujioka, the genius master thief, attending a fancy ball full of delegates, lords, and other members of royalty?

"Oh hell no! You can't make me do that!"

"...I can't believe he's making me do this."

"Oh, it's not that bad, Haru-chan! Besides, you look so cute in a dress!"

"I looked cute in dresses when I was six."

She glared at her reflection in the mirror as the tailors worked on the violet-and-green dress that she wore, making sure it fit her like a glove (much to Haruhi's misfortune). Hunny watched with earnest, his arms holding her usual clothes for when she was ready to change, his eyes wide and sparkling as he saw his second favorite person (Mori was still his first!) become all dolled up for her first ball.

"Can I please, please get out of this dress now? It looks perfectly fine!" Haruhi said, pulling her arm away from the tailor again whom insisted on stabbing the needle into her arm as he made his stitches.

"All right, all right. But now you get to learn how to dance with Takashi!"

"Oh joy."

"One, two, three, four. One, two, three, four. One, two, ow-"

"Sorry!"

Mori nodded, shaking out the pain in his foot, "It's all right. Now, let's start again. One, two, three, four. One, two-"

"How adorable!"

"Ow."

"Sorry!"

Haruhi sighed, looking over at the table where Hunny had a cake just waiting to be eaten, "Let's take a break. I'm getting tired from dancing this entire time, and besides, it is almost lunch. On top of that, I'd like to enjoy the outdoors without being all sweaty and yuck."

Mori nodded, following her over to the table and taking his seat as Hunny cut the cake into fours. "You're a fast learner, Haru-chan! By the end of the week, you'll sure to be the belle of the ball! Well, probably next to Lady Éclair," he said, his mouth full of cake.

"I doubt that. My skills are in the form of thievery and household chores, not dancing and pretending to be some sort of high-class, snooty gal," Haruhi replied, "Besides, as it stands right now, all I'm doing is stepping on Mori's feet."

"Well, that's a little better than what Kyou-chan is doing. He's been practicing with Elaine-chan, the produce marketkeeper's daughter, and she's been yelling at him the entire time," Hunny remarked, and the young thief couldn't help but laugh.

"Somehow knowing that just made all of this better."

Okay, that's it for this chapter. The next chapter will be up soon, so ja ne!