(Warning: This chapter contains a blatant manga spoiler in the second half that's kind of already been alluded to... If you don't care, keep reading, but if you do keep reading and get upset by it, it's not my fault!)

But you expect me to jump up on board with you and ride off into your delusional sunset?

"I'm sorry, Sempai, but I think I just misheard you," Haruhi began, flustered. "Could you maybe say that just one more time?"

"What I said was," Kyoya was suddenly embarrassed. "I think that I'm in love with you."

Haruhi stood perfectly still, eyes unblinking, as though she were stuck in time. She couldn't process his words. I think that I know what he just said, but what do those words mean to him?

"Could you please say something, Haruhi?" he was growing less and less confident with every silent second he spent listening to her inhale and exhale, unable to breathe himself.

"I… don't know what to say, Kyoya-sempai." She stammered, shifting her groceries once more, realizing that they grew heavier by the moment.

"Oh, here, let me help you with those." He took the groceries, and she unlocked the front door. They walked in together.

The Kyoya-sempai I know wouldn't offer to do something like that…

"Haruhi," He said, placing the large bag of groceries on the counter, "You know, it's very rude to ignore a confession of love like that."

"It is. I know that," She began to unpack the bag to keep herself busy. "What should I say to something like that? I'm not really sure…"

"That's ridiculous. You've been confessed to so many times, how could you not know how to react to a confession?" His blood pressure momentarily rose. She shrugged her shoulders, avoiding eye contact. Seeing that she was absolutely clueless, he decided to prompt her. "Tell me what you think of me. Tell me whether or not you return my feelings at all."

"Um, how do I feel about Kyoya-Sempai?" She pondered aloud. At last, she found exactly the way to describe him. "You're cold, but not as cold as you act. When I'm alone with you, it's hard for me to think clearly and I have difficulty expressing myself properly. I've often wondered why you are the way that you are, but every time I think about it, it becomes more clear how little I actually understand you."

He stiffened at her words, thinking that they were a little too harsh to be followed a confession of her own.

"To continue," She didn't dare meet his gaze, although his eyes bore into her soul. "I often find myself annoyed by you, or feel that you are annoyed by me. You put up walls so that people don't get too close to you…"

"Haruhi, if that's the way you feel, you can stop now." He leaned back on the wall behind him, letting her words sink in.

"I'm not finished yet, Kyoya-sempai." She looked at him for the first time since entering the house. "Despite all that, in the end, to say that I don't care about you… would be a lie."

"Haruhi? What are you saying?" His eyes met hers and her face grew warm.

"What I'm saying is… You're important to me. I think that maybe if I had time, I could come to accept and return your feelings, but more importantly, I want to be able to do that."

"Really?" He fought a grin.

"Absolutely, Kyoya-Sempai." She smiled.

"Please don't call me that," He rested a hand on her head.

"Then just… Kyoya?" she tried it on for size and decided she liked the way his name felt without honorifics. She looked up at him. "Hey, Kyoya?"

That feels so much better. I could get used to calling him that.

"Yes, Haruhi?"

"Do you want to stay for dinner?"

"I'd be honored."

xxx

Hikaru pounded on the door to Mori's dojo, almost knocking it off its frame. "Moooo-riiii-sempai! Open up!"

"Hikaru?" Mori pulled the door back. "Again?"

"Yes! I need to talk to you, straight away!"

Mori stepped aside, allowing Hikaru to barge into the room. They were alone. Mori was somewhat used to Hikaru's sporadic intrusions, usually, he came barging in whenever something went wrong between he and Haruhi or Kaoru, begging for advice.

"Do you need help cleaning up?" Hikaru asked, trying to be polite.

"I already did." He looked around, thinking he had done a pretty okay job at that.

"Oh. Sorry, Mori-sempai… Well the reason I came here was because I need advice and Kaoru isn't being helpful at all! He's being totally bias about the whole situation, taking Kyoya-sempai's side and everything! Can you believe that?" He said it all in one breath.

"What situtation?"

"Oh, right," Sometimes Hikaru forgot that Mori wasn't a mind reader. "So, on the day that you and Honey-sempai visited, I left my English notebook in the second library room. I went back to get it, but as I passed the pool house, I saw Kyoya and Haruhi… embracing. And they were all wet! Like they'd taken a swim together!"

"So?"

"So… I got jealous again. I was so jealous that I couldn't even bring myself to go to school the next day! But I didn't want Haruhi to know I how jealous I was, because that isn't cool and obviously to get her to like me, I have to be cool, like Kyoya-sempai… So I made Kaoru promise not to tell her why I wasn't there."

Mori nodded to show he was paying attention.

"Okay, so when I stayed home, I made a plan: The Get-Haruhi-To-Like-Me-By-Being-More-Like-The-Shadow-King Plan! It was really good. I got fake glasses and everything, but then Haruhi and Kyoya got into a fight or something, so I thought maybe being like Kyoya wasn't a good idea, after all since she was mad at him."

"Mhm."

"You should have seen her face, Mori-sempai. She was so upset. I couldn't go on just NOT saying anything… So when I got home I called him to find out what happened and to calmly explain that I wouldn't stand for him bullying Haruhi." Hikaru explained.

"Calmly?" Mori scoffed.

"Okay, so I chewed him out… That's not the point. The point is that when Kaoru heard me… calmly explaining myself… he took Kyoya-sempai's side saying it was none of my business! What'll I do? What if Kyoya tell Haruhi how jealous I was? And she starts hating me?"

"Hikaru?" Mori interrupted.

"I mean, if she doesn't already. I think she might maybe hate me because I went out and got glasses in the first place—"

"Hikaru!" Mori's deep voice was a little louder than usual. Not much, though: just enough to catch Hikaru's attention.

"Y-yes?"

"I think you should calm down."

"O-okay." Hikaru's voice grew soft. "Then what should I do?"

"You've already told her how you feel?"

"Yes! She rejected me flat out, remember?"

"Then, now you stand back and let her figure out how to be happy on her own."

A.N.: This chapter gave me a headache or two… I'm sorry about manga spoiling Hikaru's confession/rejection, but I guess you were warned! Mori is so hard to write, but when I'm finished I usually like how he turns out…

When I'm at school, I write down all my ideas for this story in one of my composition books. Whenever anyone asks me what I'm writing, I close it quickly, give a vague answer and laugh thinking I feel like Kyoya :)