As expected, the day went on slowly. Haruhi did help Kyouya find four different presents that he deemed suitable for his sister, however the whole trip took five hours for them to find the other three presents. By the time he said that the last present, a vanity table with a heart shaped mirror, was enough Haruhi was about to drop from exhaustion and hunger.

"Are you alright, Haruhi?" Kyouya asked, sounding bored as he looked at her.

"I'm fine" Haruhi replied as coolly as possible. He would have left it at that if her stomach hadn't grumbled loudly right after.

"Let's go get something to eat" he said, giving her no option just turning and walking towards one of the many restaurants.

"No thank you" Haruhi said, hurrying to catch up before he asked for a table.

"I don't remember asking. I'm hungry." Kyouya replied, not slowing down. He walked up to the hostess. "Table for two"

The waitress was looking at her seating charts and said "That'll be forty-five…." She trailed off as she saw who was standing there and quickly said "Ootori-Sama! Follow me, please" and with that she started off towards the back of the restaurant.

Kyouya smirked and Haruhi just mumbled "rich bastard" as she followed Kyouya to their table.

"What was that Haruhi?"

"Nothing" Haruhi replied, with a slight glare.

Kyouya again smirked before turning and giving his order to the waitress, who smiled at him before turning a glare at Haruhi.

Haruhi was unsure why this woman was glaring at her and opened her mouth to say something about it before Kyouya said, "She'll take the same as I'm having"

The waitress quickly put her smile back on as she turned to Kyouya, nodding at him before hurrying off to put in their order.

Haruhi and Kyouya sat there in silence, waiting for their food.

"This won't be added to your debt, Haruhi. You can just count this as an added bonus for helping me today." Kyouya said, suddenly.

Haruhi just nodded, still lost in her own thoughts.

"What are you thinking about?" Kyouya asked. He couldn't help it. She was the one host he couldn't figure out. The rest of them were simple, but not Haruhi.

"What I have to do when I get home."

"What do you have to do?" Kyouya asked, trying to make conversation for some reason.

Haruhi raised her eyebrow at all of the questions, unsure of what Kyouya was trying to do. He wasn't usually this curious about her life or anything that wouldn't help him further his business ventures.

"Um, I have to do the laundry, make supper for dad, finish up my homework, study for tomorrow's test….." She trailed off as her cell started going off.

"Hello?" Haruhi answered.

"Where are you?" Hikaru demanded

"I told you where I was going" Haruhi replied, defensive now because of his angry tone.

"We drove by your apartment to bring the book you left in our car and your father answered the door when we knocked. He wouldn't tell us where you went. Where are you?"

Haruhi winced at that. She wasn't usually so careless about leaving her things. "I'm at the mall"

"Why didn't you just tell us that in the first place? We would have went with you" Hikaru asked, sounding hurt and angry at the same time.

"I'm with a friend, I couldn't bring you guys and I didn't want you to follow me" Haruhi replied, still mad at her thoughtlessness.

She could see Kyouya was curious about what was going on but she was doing her best to ignore him.

"What friend? A guy?" "See! That's why I didn't tell you. You always freak out when I want to hang out with anyone else!" Haruhi told him, ignoring the question.

"So it is a guy." Hikaru said, hotly.

The waitress put the food down at the table. "Thank you" Kyouya said, waving her off."Wait, was that Kyouya?" Hikaru demanded.

Haruhi hung up the phone as Hikaru started ranting.

"The twins know I'm out with you now"

Kyouya raised an eyebrow, "Oh?"

"They heard you thank the waitress"

"Hmm, this will make things interesting tomorrow" Kyouya muttered to himself while to Haruhi he said "I see"

Haruhi was surprised that that is all he had to say but decided not to push her luck saying anything else and just started eating her food.

Once they were finished, Kyouya paid and they left the mall. The whole way to Haruhi's house was quiet. She was glad the day was over because she didn't think she could take much more silence. When they pulled up to her house, Kyouya set his laptop down and walked her to her door. Haruhi was surprised he bothered but didn't say so.

"Thank you for the bracelet and dinner, Kyouya senpai"

"I thought I told you, for today I'm just Kyouya" Kyouya replied, pushing his glasses up.

"Thank you Kyouya" Haruhi amended.

"You're welcome." Was his reply before saying "Goodnight, Haruhi-san""Haruhi" Haruhi said.

He smirked "Goodnight Haruhi""Goodnight" She replied before going inside to a squealing Ranka."How was your date with Kyouya?""It wasn't a date"Ranka's face fell but then his smile came back as he said "Haruhi! You look so cute!" and so the night went, her dad talking excited idly about her 'date' and Haruhi ignoring him as she made him dinner and worked on her homework.

Finally, Ranka left to go to bed. He had to get up early and had tired himself by getting so worked up about Kyouya and Haruhi's outing.

About an hour after, Haruhi finished with all of her chores and homework and went to bed herself. As she lay there, she just couldn't stop thinking about the trip. She kept fingering the bracelet. She realized that even though Kyouya acted cold and businesslike, he really was a nice guy underneath. "I'm going to get to know him better" she decided, as she finally drifted off, Kyouya still in her thoughts.

Meanwhile, in his room Kyouya was also thinking about their outing, only his thoughts were very different.

"Why did I actually enjoy today? I should be furious that the twins found out I was out with Haruhi but instead, I'm almost glad." He thought as he smirked at the reactions he knew he would be getting from them and Tamaki tomorrow. He knew they all liked Haruhi and would all be jealous that he spent 'alone time' with her.

He finally shut his laptop to go to bed and as he drifted off, his last thought is "I'm starting to realize why they find this 'commoner' so interesting.

The next day at host club

Hikaru and Kaoru had not said a word to Haruhi all day. In the club Haruhi walked in and immediately heard "Haruhi! Why didn't mommy and Haruhi invite Daddy to come with them? That was mean of you!"

"Because you're annoying" Haruhi replied, sounding bored. Really she was upset at how the twins had ignored her all day but she wouldn't let that show.

"Mother! Haruhi's being mean!" Tamaki whined.

"She was telling the truth" Kyouya responded, not even looking up from his laptop.

Tamaki ran off to a corner and sulked, as the twins turned to Kyouya "What do you want with Haruhi?"

Kyouya looked up at them, pushing his glasses up and answering "What do you mean?"

"Why did you go on a date with her, yesterday? What are you planning?" Kaoru asked, glaring.

"It wasn't a date, idiots" Haruhi replied for Kyouya before rolling her eyes at them.

"Oh really? What do you call it then?" Hikaru asked, sarcastically.

"Helping a friend" Haruhi replied, "like I told you on the phone, if you would have listened"

Hikaru moved to stand right in front of Haruhi, still visibly upset "I would have been more apt to listen if you hadn't lied to us in the first place" He spit out "Why did you lie to us""Leave Haru-chan alone. She had her reasons" Honey cut in before Haruhi could respond and before Hikaru or Kaoru could say anything else.

Haruhi smiled at Honey before going to her clients and leaving Hikaru where he was.

The twins finally went back to their clients, realizing they weren't going to get anything else out of either of them and not wanting to upset Honey.

Once they left, Honey turned to Kyouya and said "I know that you both say it wasn't a date, and I believe you but I also know you like Haru and I'm just going to say this once. If you hurt her, I will hurt you"

Kyouya, who hadn't even admitted to himself that he liked a commoner, looked at Honey with surprise in his eyes, saying "I don't know what you're talking about, Honey senpai"

Honey just stared at him until Kyouya sighed and gave the small blonde what he wanted "I promise not to hurt her"

Honey nodded, then suddenly smiled big and said "Takashi! I want cake!" "Ah" Takashi answered and their clients all went "Aww!"

Kyouya shook his head at the whole exchange and went back to his laptop. His mind refused to focus on what he was typing though and his thoughts kept drifting to what Honey had said "I know you like Haru…" He didn't like her, there would be no merit to liking her. She couldn't further his family's reputation or company and Kyouya only did things that helped him, right?

"Kyouya senpai!" Haruhi called again."Hmm?" Kyouya asked, coming out of his thoughts, finally."It's time to close up." Kyouya nodded at her and said, "Will you straighten the club room before going home?"Haruhi was shocked that he had asked instead of ordered her to do it so she just nodded "Sure, senpai""We'll stay and help!" the twins said together.

Kyouya sighed, finding it funny how quickly those two got over their anger. At Haruhi at least. He could tell by the looks he was receiving that he was far from forgiven.

He packed up his laptop and walked out, following Honey, Mori and Tamaki.

As he walked out the door he heard "Bye Kyouya"He waved over his shoulder, not looking back so that she couldn't see the smile he had for her not using an honorific after his name.

"Where'd you get that?" Kaoru asked, pointed at the bracelet."It was a present" Haruhi replied, smiling at the bracelet.

"It's pretty" Hikaru said, pulling at it a little.

Haruhi was glad they hadn't pushed to find out who had given it to her, knowing they wouldn't be happy with the answer. She knew that Hikaru had feelings for her, she wasn't as clueless as she allowed them to think. This wasn't middle school anymore. She was a little more observant. She just didn't feel the same way and figured that if she acted oblivious, she wouldn't have to hurt his feelings. That was the same with Tamaki.

"Ready to go?" Kaoru asked."Yep" She replied going out the door with the twins on either side, smiling at their jokes and trying to pay attention to them, even as her mind wandered back to her bracelet. "what charm could I get for the rest of them?" She thought. "Something sweet for Honey. But what for Mori-senpai? And what for Kyouya?"

She was thinking about this, her whole walk home and so she didn't notice there was a person standing outside her apartment until she practically walked into the person waiting at her door.

"Haruhi, I was wondering…." came the voice that shook her out of her thoughts.