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Chapter 16 (The Date)

Haruhi woke up in her bed, still fully clothed, and very confused. She remembered watching TV with Takashi, so how did she get here? Then she was hit with sudden realization. She fell asleep, leaning against Takashi. She felt her cheeks heat, and they burned even more when she realized he must have carried her in her room and put her in her bed.

She quietly stood up and walked over to her door and listened for any noise. After hearing nothing but silence for several minutes, she figured Takashi was still asleep. She nodded and quickly thought up a plan for the morning, figuring out everything she would do before Takashi woke up. She walked over to her closet and quickly sorted through her clothes.

'Why can't I find anything nice?' Haruhi inwardly groaned. She settled on a light pink tank top, blue jeans, and a pair of black shoes. She sighed and regretted not having cuter clothes. 'Now I should make breakfast, Takashi will probably be up soon,' she thought, and blushed when she realized what she called him, even if it was just in her head.

Haruhi quickly rushed out of her room and started to make breakfast, while inwardly yelling at herself for calling him that in her head, and for not having better clothes, and most of all for falling asleep cuddled up to Takashi, and that last one made her whole face turn red.

She tensed when she heard Takashi's door open, but quickly forced herself to relax so he wouldn't suspect anything. She quickly finished cooking breakfast and put it on plates as Takashi walked in. She noticed that he was already dressed, wearing a simple t-shirt, jeans, and shoes. She didn't realize that he had such normal clothes…

"Ohayou," Haruhi said with a smile.

"Ohayou," Takashi said tiredly.

"How'd you sleep?" Haruhi asked.

"Fine, anata wa?" Takashi asked.

Haruhi nodded in response before saying, "sorry about falling asleep on you, and thank you for carrying me to my room."

"My pleasure," Takashi said with a small smile, which Haruhi returned with a shy smile of her own. Takashi helped her carry the plates and drinks to the table before they sat and ate in the comfortable silence that usually accompanied every meal. When they had almost finished off their food, Takashi broke the silence and said, "Where should we go today?"

"D-Didn't you say the movies?" Haruhi asked as she stared at her plate.

"Yes, but if you wanted to go somewhere else, that would be fine," Takashi said.

"N-no, a movie would be great," Haruhi said as she smiled at him.

Takashi nodded in response and said, "Do you want to go somewhere to eat too?"

"Sure, then we don't have to cook or clean," Haruhi said with a small giggle. Takashi smiled.

After they finished the last of their food, they cleaned up and left for the movie theater shortly after. The trip was silent, but unlike usual, it wasn't the comfortable silence. They were both tense and it was rather obvious to the both of them. They tried to relax, but the little bits of idle chatter didn't help. If anything, it just made it worse, trying to think of the next thing to say.

At the movie theater, Takashi bought the tickets and the popcorn, candy, and drinks. Haruhi had tried to protest, but he simply said it was his treat. They sat in the back row and idly ate their popcorn while they watched the previews. A few times their hands would brush or either Takashi or Haruhi would grab the other's hand on accident, which made them both blush. Although to Takashi's credit, he hid it well.

Once the movie started, both Takashi and Haruhi relaxed. They finished the popcorn not long into the movie and switched to their candy instead. Takashi was bored with the movie within ten minutes, but pretended to be interested for Haruhi's sake. And instead of watching the movie, he watched Haruhi. She was so into the movie, watching it as though it was the best movie in the world. He watched as Haruhi accidently grabbed his drink and started to sip on it, not noticing the difference in taste. He almost laughed but he managed to keep it in.

'At least she likes it,' he thought as he smiled at Haruhi, who was completely oblivious to anything around her. When the movie finally ended, they cleaned up their mess and walked out of the theater.

"Did you like the movie?" Haruhi asked.

"Hai," Takashi lied.

"No, you didn't," Haruhi said with a smile tugging at her lips. Takashi just blinked. How did she know? "I wasn't quite as oblivious as you may have thought," she said simply.

"Then…you knew it was my drink?" Takashi asked.

"N-Nani?" Haruhi asked with her eyes widening, and her cheeks turning red.

"You drank from my drink," Takashi said.

"G-Gomen!" Haruhi said, turning bright red.

"Daijoubu," Takashi said calmly. "Then what did you notice?" he asked.

"I wasn't really into the movie until about thirty minutes in, so I noticed you staring at me," Haruhi said, the blush lessened but still on her small cheeks.

"G-gomen," Takashi said, his own blush rising. Haruhi giggled, surprising Takashi.

"Ne, I'm not really hungry yet, you wanna walk around the park for a while?" Haruhi asked, surprising and confusing Takashi more.

"Sure," Takashi said.

Haruhi took Takashi's hand, hid her blush, and led him to the park. Haruhi didn't let go of his hand the entire time they were there, and although they were both tense and blushing at first, they soon relaxed and enjoyed it. Neither of them knew how long they were there, but they didn't care. They left when they were hungry and went to a simple buffet restaurant. They ate in their usual comfortable silence, and it all seemed right again.

The two smiled at each other as they paid and left. On the way home they held hands again, and they were both much calmer about it this time. They paused in front of their house and Takashi suddenly grabbed Haruhi and pulled her close and held her protectively. Her heart was beating too loud to hear what he said, but he seemed to think someone was following them. He called out, demanding the person come out. Haruhi could vaguely hear someone run off, but she wasn't even entirely sure what was going on, so she didn't really pay attention.

"Let's go inside," Takashi said to her quietly. She just nodded and response and let Takashi lead her inside and watched as he looked around outside before locking the door.

"What happened?" she asked when he turned back to her.

"Someone was following us," he said simply.

"Who?" she asked, panic starting to sink in.

"I don't know, but they're gone and we're safe," he said as he pulled Haruhi into a comforting hug. "You're safe now," he said as he stroked her hair soothingly. She hugged him and found herself so at ease in his arms. She felt safe…protected…loved. Wait, loved? Takashi didn't love her!

Takashi felt Haruhi tense suddenly and pulled back enough to see her face. He saw that her face was red and felt her forehead for a fever. She looked at him and he swore her face turned an even brighter red, which he didn't think possible.

"Daijoubu?" he asked. She just nodded. "You should rest," he said as he started to lead the stunned girl to her room. "Are you sure you're alright?" he asked.

"I-I'm fine…I-I guess I'm just a little surprised that someone would follow us," she said quietly.

"Don't worry, I'll protect you," he said with a reassuring smile. Haruhi relaxed and smiled back at the taller man in front of her. She was so glad that Takashi lived with her now.

End of chapter 16~ Hope ya like~ lots of takashi/haruhi goodness~ x3 And it's the first chapter in this fic to actually get a title! *shocked gasp* Don't get your hopes up, it will probably be the only one unless I think of a really good title for the remainin chapters. Anyway, as you can probably tell, I've only been updating this story lately. Well that's because for one- I'm so inspired to write it! And for two- I want to finish it up for you guys~ So please let me know how I'm doin so far, or in other words, R&R! Luv ya, bye~ =^^=