SS- Hey y'all. 'M really tired right now, so no notes, sorry.

Disclaimer: Ouran High School Host Club and all affiliated characters belong to Bisco Hatori-shishou, and Inuyasha and all affiliated characters belong to Rumiko Takahashi-sama, no matter how much I may wish otherwise.

WARNING: Um. . .not really anything drastic. Yet.

Rating: M

Title: Portrait of Takashi

Kagome scoffed, slapping her friend on the shoulder. "Oh, real nice, I don't see you for five years, and this is the greeting I get? Don't I feel loved now!" Haruhi smacked the flippant girl on the back of her head. "Ouch! Uncalled for much? Anyways, remember how Mom moved me and Souta out to Gramps's shrine when Dad died? Well, Gramps died a month or two back— the crazy old man left me the shrine in his will, can you believe that? Anyhow, Mom decided that she needed to move back out to the city, so I got transferred here on a special recommendation scholarship."

While the two were chatting, a few things went unnoticed by them. One, the customers had all left the room; two, the Host Club was staring at them in growing confusion and frustration, and three, most of the Host Club (in this case, Mori was the exception, being the first to realize instead of second-to-last) was once again under the mistaken belief that the newcomer was a guy. Oops! It finally got to be too much for the twins' curiosity.

"Ne, Haruhi-chan, what gives?" the diabolic duo enquired. "This new guy shows up, and you just ignore us?" Haruhi smiled at them before rolling her eyes over towards Kagome. The other girl giggled.

"Sorry, sorry! I'm Higurashi Kagome, class 1-A. I just moved back to the area today, so I came to check out the school. Me and Haruhi are good friends, and when I found out she was in this club, I just had to come by and see her! It's been so long, for both of us to have been without each other," Kagome admitted. "We grew up right next door to each other, been best friends for as long as either of our parents can remember."

"After Mom died, I was always hanging around Kagome's mom, literally hanging off of her apron strings," Haruhi continued fondly, "and Dad didn't mind, because then I wasn't alone when he had to work late. She was the one who taught me how to make Mom's recipe's, never got angry at us. Hey, come over here." She pushed her friend over to a nearby couch.

"Why?"

"Because I wanna do your hair."

"Why?"

"Because it's nice and long and pretty."

"Why?"

"Why not?"

"Good point," Kagome nodded sagely, turning so that her back was to her best friend.

Hunny bounced up to them, Mori following with a small tea set. "Haru-chan, Gome-kun! Would you like to have some tea with us?" Kagome, looking a bit perturbed, pointed to herself.

"Gome. . .kun?" Hunny nodded brightly, one of his trademark grins plastered to his face. Kagome pointed to Haruhi next.

"Haru. . .chan?" Another nod. Haruhi, seeing what this would lead up, indulged in a fit of silliness that she ordinarily wouldn't show in front of the boys. She took Kagome's wrist in her hand, and swung the finger to each of the members in turn.

"Tamaki-sempai; Kyoya-sempai; Hikaru-kun; Kaoru-kun; Hunny-sempai; Mori-sempai." Kagome twisted her body around to grin at the short-haired girl. Haruhi grinned back.

"Good. Now that my dim-witted friend was smart enough to introduce us all," she blithely ignored the playful smack she received, "I would love to have tea with you and Mori-sempai, Hunny-sempai!"

"NOW JUST WAIT A SECOND!" Tamaki shouted, "JUST WHAT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO COME IN HERE, INSULT MY DAUGHTER, AND PRY HER ATTENTION AWAY FROM THE DATE WITH MORI-SEMPAI THAT SHE WON'T GO ON?!?!" Kagome gave a slow blink, taking in the fact that his chest was heaving from the exertion and his face was red with effort, and reacted accordingly.

"One, I know her father, and, similar though you might be, you aren't her father," she said simply. "Two, I've known her for fifteen years, I'm her best friend; I have seniority in this. Three, I do believe that she accepted the man's invitation for a date, so, whether you like it or not, I don't care, she will go on a date tomorrow, and you have no say in the matter." Kaoru and Hikaru watched in awe as she sent the King through every stage of grief known to them so far, bypassing the fungus growth stage, and skipping straight to the supernova of his soul!

Simply superb, this Higurashi Kagome was. And then, two little light-bulbs light up somewhere, and the demon twins finally remembered something. They'd heard their mom speak of a young woman named Kagome before. . .

"Now, Mori-sempai," Kagome had continued on, refocusing her attentions on the taller

of the two seniors, "can I assume that this will be the first date you've gone on with Haruhi?"

"Um, Mori-sempai," Haruhi murmured, her fingers carding through Kagome's hair, "just what exactly should I be wearing?" She looked up at him through her bangs, a move she had unconsciously used whenever she was nervous, and was a bit startled to find that he had been intently focused on their interactions. Unnerved once again by being the sole focus of that penetrating gaze, she began twining her fingers uselessly through the thick black hair, until an exasperated Kagome finally pressed a brush backwards.

"Whatever you feel most comfortable in," he declared finally, thinking back to the outfit he'd seen her wearing on Saturday night. Haruhi paused in her ministrations, raising her eyebrows in a gesture of surprise.

"You sure?"

"Mm."

"Hey, hey, Kagome," Hikaru looked up at the ceiling innocently, "why do you wear the boy's uniform?" The room froze for a moment. Tamaki looked up, frowning.

"What other uniform would he wear?" The group sweat-dropped simultaneously at the sheer thickheadedness.

"There are days when I truly do despair of you, Tamaki," Kyoya sighed. "Do you really mean to tell me that you can't tell?" The blond cocked his head.

Kaoru chimed in, "Milord took an entire week before he knew about Haruhi, do you really think that he'd get it in only a few hours?"

"You've got no room to talk," Haruhi retorted. "It took you guys four days to figure out that I was a girl!" Tamaki frowned, looking around the room before his eyes landed on a smiling Kagome. Smiling. . .color rushed to his face, turning Tamaki into a ripe tomato as the meaning of their words finally reached him.

"WHY DO YOU DRESS LIKE MEN?!?!?!"

Kagome tossed her head back with a great roar of laughter. Haruhi giggled, burying her head into the shoulder before her and wrapping her arms around her friend's waist to try and still the motion, inadvertently tickling Kagome. Mori smiled indulgently at them, knowing in a way that Tamaki hadn't that there was nothing to feel threatened by in their actions.

As the laughter dwindled, Kagome decided to answer. "It's nice and comfy," she offered, "and I would rather wear comfortable clothes than suffocate in that hideous yellow contraption! So the next question is this: why would you dress up in gowns, hmm? Do you find them. . .comforting?" Her voice was just this side of innocent, her eyes glittering with mischief. Tamaki spluttered, trying and failing to form a coherent thought.

"As interesting as that theory is, there is something that I've been wondering about," Kyoya deftly redirected the topic. "Are you related in any way to the fabled priestess Kagome of the Shikon no Tama?" A pause took over the room as the guys all shared significant startled visages. Kagome smirked at him.

"You guys really are young," she remarked, not unkindly. "Why don't you take down the magic that's suppressing your auras, and let me see your real forms, hmm? Then we can talk." Even the ever cool Kyoya was shocked enough by her proclamation to allow his jaw to go slack.

Kali- No, we're seriously tired. SS has been testing for the CA Standards test for the last few days, and then the SAT is this Saturday. Wish her luck.

Athene- Many thanks to GabbyKat13, Death by Squishy, preciousteddybear, sveta89, KuroxTenshi, Lindsay-chan, and special thanks to Slavaskia for knowing where the word angiosperm comes from.

Kali- Flames will be used to torture the stupid French teacher who has no notion of A) fun and B) the right way to grade.