WARNING: THIS STORY CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE ANIME AND MANGA. READ AT OWN RISK. Thanks.

"Haruhi! You're not going to say yes, are you?"

"Haruhi! My little girl! She's too young for marriage!"

"Haru-chan! Are you going to do it?"

"…"

Everyone was screaming at her, save for Mori, who just held a look of shock and bewilderment. Haruhi's face began to twitch uncontrollably as she half-smiled and glowered her eyes.

"Kyoya-senpai… You're not serious, are you?"

His face fell a little bit but he quickly recovered as he stood up and again loomed over the small girl.

"I require nothing but your consent," he explained, not really looking at her but looking past her at Tamaki. Kyoya couldn't really see it too much just yet, but he knew that by the end of the night his blond friend would possibly be heartbroken, if he wasn't already. Kyoya couldn't even imagine what this felt like for him.

Sure, Tamaki was an idiot, but he was an idiot who knew what he wanted. Well no, that wasn't really correct either, considering all the Club members minus Haruhi had to tell him how he felt about the girl before he himself realized it. But now that he knew what he wanted, he knew what he wanted and wanted to protect it for as long as he could. It was just his way of keeping everything the same.

So for now, the Host Club's king just sat and stared at silence at what was unfolding before him, probably more confused than anything at the moment.

When Kyoya looked back down at Haruhi, she had a finger to her bottom lip and her head tilted slightly. "What makes you so interested in me, senpai?"

He pushed up his glasses and looked away slightly. Would he have to pretend to be interested? It wasn't as if he could really tell his whole life story here… Besides, if he pretended to hold interest for her, it would rack up more sales in the Club. Then maybe, if they cut back on the field trips slightly, he would be able to make enough to slip out of this whole mess altogether.

So he tried his best to make it look convincing.

He held his breath for a few seconds to make his face red and then turned farther away from Haruhi to stare out the window, hoping to catch the attention of either the twins or Honey-senpai so they would notice the fake blush spreading over his cheeks.

It worked, and soon enough the twins noticed his expression, head down and face red and hot.

"Kyoya-senpai! Do you maybe like Haruhi?" they asked together.

"What?!" came Tamaki's voice from the other side of the room. "Kyoya! You're Mommy! You can't develop feelings for your daughter!" He appeared right in front of Kyoya, pointing an accusing finger at the older male.

Hikaru piped in. "What about you, sir?"

Tamaki gulped. "What…about…me?" He ran over his and Haruhi's situation in his head. It was true… They had told him that he wasn't allowed to be Haruhi's father anymore since they had developed what they called 'romantic feelings' for each other…but he still thought of Haruhi as his daughter. But they kissed... Was that wrong?

"Am I…in the wrong?" he asked nobody in particular.

"Tamaki, allow me to explain," Kyoya spoke now, recovering from his prior fake embarrassment. Tamaki glanced over at him, a defeated expression on his face. "If word gets out that Haruhi and I are engaged, don't you think more ladies will start coming to the Host Club? Think about it."

He then pulled out his calculator and started doing random addition problems, trying to make his argument more valid. "We average two hundred customers a day, right? Of those two hundred, roughly seventy-five request Haruhi, and one hundred request you. You two are almost equally popular in the Club. Now, today especially, Haruhi was significantly more popular than you, and all the rest of us, combined. Just imagine what would happen if Haruhi and I were together, per se. Wouldn't that make her even more popular?"

"Kyoya-senpai, that doesn't make any sense – "

"Be quiet please, Haruhi. These are business decisions," he shushed her.

"But Kyoya-senpai, wouldn't it make more sense to put Haruhi and tono together, then?" Kaoru asked. Kyoya glared over to him with the "Yes you're right but I don't want Tamaki to figure that out" face. The redhead got the hint and soon both twins were quiet. Luckily for Kyoya, Honey didn't speak up either.

Tamaki stayed silent, thankfully, trying to decipher just what Kyoya meant by all of this gibberish he was spewing. He supposed he didn't really have a reason to distrust Kyoya… After all, he was his first friend when he moved to Japan and wasn't fluent in the language yet.

Kyoya continued nonetheless. "Just imagine all the profits we would make!" he exclaimed finally. "We would make enough money to go to Fiji, the real Fiji!"

"But Haruhi doesn't have a passport," Hikaru chided.

Haruhi sighed. Of course Kyoya was only in this for the money. "Kyoya-senpai, I appreciate the offer, but I'm going to have to decline." Everyone's face was shocked, speaking what their mouths didn't. "As much of an idiot Tamaki-senpai is, I'm perfectly happy being with him, and I don't really want to change that any time soon."

At this, Tamaki ran over to her and hugged her around her shoulders, holding her close to himself. "Haruhi, my little girl! I'm so happy to hear you say that!"

Her face dropped, and she wriggled herself out of his grip. "Thank you for trying to prove my point," she told him sarcastically. Tamaki sunk down to the floor, a weight returning to his person. She looked back over to Kyoya, seeing his face plastered with shock and embarrassment (actual embarrassment this time).

"Maybe we can think of other ways to bring in more money, right, senpai?" she asked innocently, smiling at him.

Kyoya felt so ashamed of himself. Had he not asked correctly? No, surely he had, unless he messed up somewhere in his position…but that couldn't have been it either. Though he was young, he remembered going to the family get-togethers and watching as his brothers proposed to their respective wives. From what he remembered, and if he was remembering it correctly, he was doing everything right – other than the lack of romantic feelings, of course, but now that he was older he learned that one doesn't have to love the other person in order to marry.

In any case, he sucked up his feelings of self-pity and nodded towards the petite girl, but he didn't let it slide. He was far too determined to surpass his brothers to let this slide. "Everyone, might I please ask you to leave the two of us alone for a few minutes?" He pulled his signature move while staring down at Haruhi below him. He didn't pull his eyes away even as Honey and Mori exited through the door to the small apartment (so as to give them more privacy, considering the house's size) and the twins dragged Tamaki out by his shirt while he shouted obscenities at the pair still in the common room.

After the apartment door slammed shut, Kyoya settled down a bit. Good. Now they could talk like actual human beings, mature adults. Honestly, it seemed like nobody else in the entire Club had a sensible mind on his shoulders – save for Mori-senpai, probably. He seemed intelligent enough, anyway.

He opened his mouth but Haruhi beat him to it.

"Kyoya-senpai, isn't marriage illegal at my age?" she asked with that innocence in her tone again.

He knew she would ask this. She had ways of getting out of things, even if she didn't realize it. "Not if you're given parents' permission." And he believed he would have no trouble getting Ranka-san's permission, given his relationship with the transvestite.

Haruhi didn't reply. So Kyoya-senpai was really serious about this?

"Oh, wait, Kyoya-senpai," she said. "Can't we just pretend to be together? After all, no customers know about me and Tamaki-senpai yet so they wouldn't get suspicious. We don't have to get married."

Kyoya winced. Was this why his father was so interested in her? Her common sense? Her intellect? In any case, he had to come up with something fast, some other excuse that explained why they couldn't just pretend to be together…

"Yes, but think of how excited the ladies would get to hear about our engagement," he said lamely, hoping she would bite.

"Ano…" she hesitated. "I suppose that would make more sense…" She then glanced down at the ring on the table, sparkling in the dim light of the common room. "But why did you get a real ring, then? You could have easily used a fake, less expensive ring, and still make it believable."

"I have my own reasons, Haruhi," he retorted at last, no longer able to come up with excuses.

Haruhi shifted around on her feet for a few moments. "Kyoya-senpai… This isn't real, is it?"

At this, Kyoya felt a little like himself again. "Do you want it to be real?" How did she figure it out so quickly?

"That's not what I asked."

His face fell. He lifted his head up and stared straight past her towards the door to the apartment. "We should call the others in."

"Kyoya-senpai – "

He walked away, leaving Haruhi to herself for a few seconds, while he reached the door and pulled it open, allowing the hooligans to all step through the narrow frame at once, pushing and shoving each other to see which one of them would see Haruhi first. Of course, the first male to actually make it through was Tamaki.

The blonde ran over to Haruhi and grabbed her shoulders, staring straight into her eyes.

"Haruhi! Are you okay?!"

Haruhi blushed a little, not used to his face being so close to hers quite so often anymore, and looked away. "I-I'm fine, senpai."

The twins followed right after Tamaki and, after seeing the scene, applauded. "Good job, tono! Good job showing Haruhi you care!"

Haruhi wriggled away from Tamaki and glared at him. "Wait, so you only asked if I was okay because Hikaru and Kaoru told you to?" Her eye began to twitch and Tamaki cowered in fear.

But just then the door opened, saving Tamaki from the wrath of his girlfriend, and as they all looked over to see what caused the racket they saw Haruhi's father closing it tight. The trans turned around and saw the Host Club members and smiled.

"Oh! Hello, everybody! What a pleasant surprise!" He turned towards Kyoya. "Kyoya-kun, this was your doing?" He remembered a particular phone call just earlier that day explaining the boy's plans for after school, although he hadn't said what it was.

The Ootori boy seemed to recover from his previous stressful talk almost immediately as he pushed up his glasses and greeted the redhead. "Ah, Ranka-san. Yes, I planned a surprise birthday party for Haruhi today. I hope you don't mind too terribly."

Naturally, for obvious reasons, Ranka was unable to resist the Ootori charm and waved it off with a flick of his rest. "Oh, not at all!" Then he remembered something else, grabbing his purse and pulling something out. It was a little box, no bigger than his hand. "Haruhi, I got you a little something."

He made his way through the kitchen and into the common room to hand the box to his daughter. "It's not much, but at least I remembered this year!" He scratched the back of his neck nervously as his daughter grimaced at him, recalling last year when her dad forgot all about her sixteenth birthday. He tried to make up for it the next day by buying her favorite oatmeal, which was a little more expensive than others, but she stayed angry at him for at least that week.

In any case, though, she opened up the box and took out the tissue paper to see a small ring. She sighed and put the box down, walking out of the room, not answering when her father asked her what was the matter. Kyoya piped in.

"I apologize. This is my fault. Let me go talk to her." He took the case and waltzed off to the outside world where Haruhi went, which was sort of funny because that's where they shooed everybody else just a few minutes prior.

He found her leaning against the siding of the building, closing her eyes. She opened them once she heard the door shut behind Kyoya. He hid the ring inside of his pocket right now – his left one, as his right one held the other ring that was sort of more important.

"Haruhi, did you even look at the ring?" he asked in monotone, already knowing the answer. This is so out of character.

"I didn't have to. It's another ring," she replied with equal enthusiasm. She sighed. "I'm ungrateful, right, Kyoya-senpai?" She shook her head when he didn't reply. "My father tries so hard to make me happy, and I always take that for granted."

He didn't really know how to respond to that. Should he say yes, she was being ungrateful? Or did she have a right to be upset? He didn't know her life. He couldn't make fair judgments based on what he saw alone.

"Maybe you just need some time alone to think about things," he stated rather calmly. He hoped she wouldn't catch onto what he was trying to do.

"What do you mean – "

"Come stay at my house tonight," he offered – though his voice made it sound more like a demand. He turned and faced her now, staring straight at her.

She looked away. "Kyoya-senpai, I couldn't possibly – "

"I didn't think you were the type of girl to turn down offers," he joked, smirking when she turned around to look at him again.

Then she smiled. "You're right, senpai. Maybe a night out is what I need. Just a night away from Dad." For some reason, she felt like she could trust Kyoya more than anybody in the Club at that moment.

Kyoya reached into his left coat pocket and pulled out a small box, which Haruhi recognized as the box she saw just minutes before in the house. It had her dad's present to her in it. She was about to object when Kyoya spoke.

"This is a family ring, Haruhi. If you'd had looked at it, you'd have known that."

He gently took the ring out of its case and ran his fingers along the smooth surface of it. This was no cheap ring, he noticed as he did so. Ranka-san had obviously been lying when he told Haruhi it was just 'a little something.' Of course, this ring was nothing in price compared to the other ring that he held in his pocket, but it was quality material for sure.

Haruhi made an 'O' shape with her mouth and just stared as Kyoya ran his fingers over the sterling silver. It was a very beautiful ring, she realized. She was supposed to wear that? She'd always been afraid of wearing jewelry because she was so clumsy… What if she spilled her drink on it? What if it fell off while she was running to school?

She thought she had run out of clumsy things to do after she pulled the stupidest stunt of her life – knocking over that stupid vase in Music Room No. 3. Well, granted, it wasn't such a horrible mistake now… She did have amazing friends because of it. In fact, looking back at it now, it wasn't a mistake at all. It was somewhat of a blessing. She was truly blessed to have her friends.

She was blessed to have Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai. Though the latter never spoke and the former spoke a little too much at times, she was glad to call them both her friends. She was sad to watch them leave Ouran Academy, but once they announced that they'd be back at least once a week, since they went to the same university, she was happy. The Club really wouldn't be the same without them there.

Then there were Hikaru and Kaoru. Though they looked so much alike, she could tell them apart; though, it seemed like she was the only one who could tell them apart. She remembered hearing them complain about how nobody could ever tell them apart, but then she came along. Of course, there was always Tamaki, but most of the time he relied on blind guesses and good luck.

Speaking of the blonde… She was ecstatic to have Tamaki-senpai in her life. Sure, he was a bit of an idiot. No, he was a huge idiot. But no matter what, he was pretty much the first friend she'd made at the Academy, and their friendship had definitely strengthened after he figured out her fear of thunderstorms. From then on their relationship progressed through her eventually finding out about his family life and wanting to help him reunite with his mother. And that was a good day when it finally came, because she was able to tell him her feelings. Though it was awkward now with everything, she hoped nothing would change between them.

"Haruhi?"

"Hai?"

And then there was Kyoya. He was weird, to say the least. He suddenly sprang this whole 'marriage' thing on her, and she was supposed to just go along with it? She honestly couldn't believe that Tamaki-senpai was acting so calmly about it (relative to his normal behavior at these outbursts, anyway). Wasn't he at least somewhat upset?

But really… Kyoya-senpai. He was an odd one for sure. Sometimes she wished she could get to know him just a little bit better so that she might have an inkling of an idea of what went through his head all the time. It seemed she knew so little about him, because it was true.

Then she remembered that she agreed to stay over at his house tonight. What a stupid decision that was.

All those thoughts dissipated as she felt pressure on her left hand. To be more precise, her left ring finger. She snapped out of her trance and glanced down at the cause, which was Kyoya sliding a white gold piece of jewelry onto her finger.

Wait… White gold? A sparkling diamond in the middle that shined in all colors of the rainbow? Left ring finger?

"Kyoya-senpai… I think you've got the wrong ring," she said suddenly.

"No, I don't."

A/N: All right just give me one rant and then I'm off. I dunno if any of you are confused about when this takes place, but the way I see it in my head, it's probably right after [SPOILERS] Tamaki and Haruhi see his mother off at the airport and they confess their feelings to each other. Well okay, not RIGHT after. But you get what I mean, hopefully. The whole America thing doesn't happen in this story, but the Eclair thing did. I guess this is more based off the anime than the manga, except that little detail with Tamaki's mother. I guess we'll just have to see what I implement next then.

Once again, thanks for all the reviews and favorites! Oh, and the follows too. Those make me look good as well :) Next chapter on Sunday! Hopefully I get over my sickness :l

~CGA