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

"Do I make you uncomfortable, Haruhi?"

The brunette inched away from her boyfriend's face, her own flushing with a brilliant red. She turned away and acted as if she hadn't heard him at first.

"Have I found your weak spot?"

The blonde nudged his face into her neck, smiling as he heard her squeal with what he believed to be embarrassment.

"Tamaki-senpai, I…"

He turned her chin so that her face was mere inches from his, and was about to press his lips to hers when she was awoken by her own heartbeat.

Haruhi jolted up, trying desperately to ignore her shallow breathing and flushed face. She'd never had a dream like that before. This was weird.

She couldn't really complain, she figured. At least it was something that actually happened, rather than something that only happened in dreams. It was more of a flashback than anything. She remembered it was the day before their first date to the amusement park, and Tamaki-senpai had just figured out how to get her to blush. It was quite annoying, to be honest, because after he knew it, he spread the knowledge to the other Hosts, namely Hikaru. After that point it was just pointless torment and embarrassment on her part.

Her feet met with the carpet and she slowly stood up, thankful that the prior night's events didn't lead to her and Kyoya-senpai sleeping in the same bed. She guessed she had the doorknob's lock to thank for that.

She tried to think more about last night, but when she tried voicing her thoughts quietly she realized she was quite parched. Surely nobody would mind if I got something to drink, right?

Haruhi put a hand to her forehead as she made her first few steps to the door. Despite the room being almost pitch-black she looked back to make sure that the Shadow King was still asleep in his respective bed before closing her hand around the doorknob and twisting it. With a quiet click of the lock turning, the door was opened and she stepped out into the hallway, making sure to close Kyoya's door behind her.

She let out a sigh of relief. At least there was something out of the way now. Then she glanced all around her at the wide open space of the hallway. It was at least ten feet wide, she noticed as she began to move her feet again. What time was it, anyway? The darkness in senpai's room suggested late night, though the lights throughout the house suggested early morning at least. Perhaps they just left them all on throughout the day. It must've been nice to have that kind of money.

She made her way around a corner, finally, and from her recollections of prior visits and last night in particular, she was able to find the kitchen where she assumed water would be, bottled or not.

This brought her to the thoughts she didn't really want to have resurface – the whole deal with what happened last night.

It seemed that Kyoya-senpai's father was almost expecting to see her, which was weird considering she believed Ootori-sama didn't even notice her before. She was just another commoner. Who was she to him? She should have been nothing, but last night told her that Kyoya's father actually held some interest in her. Well, at least if he didn't, he put on a good play pretending that he did.

On a counter next to the fridge she found a little cooler, and while she didn't know much about rich people – if anything – she decided she might as well check it to see if there was any fancy water. Much to her appeal, when she opened it she found some. It was KamiNoMizu brand, apparently. She'd never heard of it before. But when she took off the lid and took a drink, she couldn't stop. It tasted so good, if water ever could. She didn't bother checking the label for more details, instead relishing in the clean, pure taste.

Last night's dinner in particular was strange, though.

It was roughly seven-thirty when she and Kyoya returned to his house for the night (which Tamaki wasn't entirely thrilled about but Ranka didn't seem to mind), but when they walked through the door and greeted the servants, they were informed that the last meal of the day had been prepared just minutes earlier and that the family was all waiting for them. Haruhi stole a glance at Kyoya, who seemed completely unfazed by all of this. But she was confused.

It made sense that the family was waiting for Kyoya, but to have them wait on her, too? That was strange. She did remembered Kyoya calling home when they were in the limo to tell someone that he was on his way back, but he never once mentioned her name.

"Haruhi?"

She looked up at him, snapping out of her thoughts.

"Shall we go?"

"Oh." Geez, she must've looked like an idiot just standing there. She nodded and followed Kyoya into his house.

They made their way to the kitchen and suddenly she felt very self-conscious about her choice of clothes for the night. Kyoya-senpai had told her it didn't matter what she wore and not to worry about it, but she felt significantly underdressed now that she looked at the Ootori family.

The man at the head of the table, whom she presumed to be Kyoya's father because of the memories she recalled of the Ouran Fair, was dressed in a magnificent black suit with a black tie to go along with it. If she didn't know better, Haruhi would've guessed that he was at a business dinner.

The woman next to him seemed a little bit too old to be Kyoya's sister, so Haruhi guessed that she was his mother. She had beautiful black hair neatly tied up into a bun. Haruhi could see no loose strands sticking out anywhere. She had a serious expression on her face, but when she looked over to see the two teenagers walking in, she immediately smiled. The brunette could instantly tell that she was nice.

Next to Kyoya's mother sat a man who looked older than Kyoya but younger than his father. Haruhi guessed he was one of his older brothers. She didn't know his name.

Come to think of it, she didn't know the name of his other brother, who she guessed was sitting next to his oldest brother, or his sister, who sat on the other side of the table next to their father, either. They were complete strangers to her. She remembered Kyoya talking about his family once or twice, but he'd never mentioned names, she didn't think.

Still, she felt bad when she couldn't greet them all by name as she awkwardly took her seat in between Kyoya's sister and himself, as he commanded. Haruhi smiled awkwardly yet sincerely at all the faces that stared back at her. Why had she decided to listen to Kyoya-senpai tonight and come to his house again?

"Dinner looks delicious," she announced just loudly enough for them to hear her. And it did. It was some sort of fancy cut steak with a side bowl of salad, along with some other small appetizers she didn't know the names of.

Nobody answered her, instead digging in to their own food, especially the three Ootori sons.

Dinner dragged on in silence for a few moments before the head of the family began to speak.

"Everyone, I believe Kyoya has something he would like to share with us."

Haruhi glanced over at the Ootori boy, wiping off his mouth with his napkin. He swallowed before talking.

"Otou-san, you are much better with announcements than I am." He didn't even look up at his father, keeping his eyes closed with his napkin a little away from his face.

His father didn't look away from Kyoya, but he did fold his hands together, his mouth in a grimace. "Very well." He did a quick glance around the table at his wife's and all his children's faces, and Haruhi's. "Kyoya has just brought home his new fiancée."

There were a few shocked expressions around the table, mainly from Kyoya's two older brothers. For the most part, the ladies at the table weren't very surprised, as if they'd already known about the whole ordeal.

Haruhi gulped. They all knew about this marriage? Kyoya-senpai…? What's going on?

As if he could read her mind, Kyoya looked down at her when the commotion quieted down and gave her a somewhat apologetic look, surprising her. Kyoya never apologized for anything. This sure was a weird night…

"More importantly," Kyoya's father began again, "Haruhi, what are your plans after high school?"

The girl finished pushing her food around with her fork and glanced up at the man. "Ano… I want to be a lawyer, like my mother."

Naturally, the Ootori man had already done his extensive research on the girl, so he knew her birthday, hobbies, friends, grades, background, etc. While a bit unnerving, he only did so to make sure her commoner lifestyle wasn't just a play. He'd seen many a rich man play the commoner card in his years of business management.

Nevertheless, he appeared surprised by this revelation. "Oh, a lawyer?"

"Hai," she replied, eyes returning to her food. She was usually comfortable around adults, but tonight this was just weird, as she'd already thought many times.

It probably didn't help that both of Kyoya's brothers were giving her awkward looks every now and then.

"That sounds promising. You might be able to work at the Ootori law firm just outside of town."

Haruhi's eye twitched.

Dinner passed painfully slowly for Haruhi, with the Ootori head pestering her about her hobbies and interests, but Kyoya didn't seem to mind. In fact, he hardly talked at all. It wasn't exactly out of the ordinary, but she expected that he might be at least a little bit more comfortable around his own family.

After the meal finally ended, Kyoya excused both himself and Haruhi to head back into his bedroom. Kyoya's father behind them didn't say anything until he noticed the very small suitcase Haruhi had with her.

"Kyoya."

At this, the Ootori boy turned around and faced his father, instantly knowing what he was going to say to him.

"Haruhi, dear, go back to our bedroom now, would you?"

Our bedroom?

Thinking that now wasn't the right time to debate the situation, she did as told and made her way back to where she thought she remembered Kyoya's room was located. A few hallways and doors later she found it. She opened the door and set her suitcase down, dreading what the night would bring.

Kyoya's family sure was strange. Though, she guessed she probably couldn't say that because of her father being a cross-dresser and everything.

Haruhi sighed, remembering that she didn't really need to come here to Kyoya's house. Why had she agreed, anyway? She told him she wanted to get away from her father, but surely she could have stayed over at Mei-chan's house or something. It wasn't necessary that she spend her time here tonight.

Or was it?

The Ootoris seemed a little bit too knowing of this whole scenario. How could they have known that Kyoya and she were marrying? (It still bewildered her, actually.) Surely Kyoya hadn't talked about it with them, because at dinner it was quite obvious that he didn't talk about much of anything with them.

Did they set this up?

Haruhi laughed at herself. Of course they hadn't. After all, what would they gain, if anything, by Kyoya marrying her? Absolutely nothing, right? She was a poor girl, a commoner, surely no one that could bring merit to the family.

But still, this whole thing made no sense whatsoever. Why did they know about it? Or, at least, even if they didn't, why had they acted like they did?

She hadn't realized she was sitting on the white couch in the room until the door opened and in stepped Kyoya, shutting it behind him.

"Hopefully dinner didn't make you too uncomfortable," he said lamely, walking over to her.

"N-not at all. I'm just tired," she replied just as lamely, not meeting his eyes.

Kyoya smirked. "I suppose we should get ready for bed, then." He began to strip his shirt off and when Haruhi finally turned her gaze towards him she noticed this.

"Kyoya-senpai, what are you doing?"

"Undressing," he answered in an un-amused tone, his shirt halfway up his chest. She could see his abs jut out from the skin and looked away embarrassingly. So he really did work out.

"Never mind that, I'll just sleep here." She brought her legs up to the couch and lay down on her side, facing the inside of the couch so she wouldn't have to put up with the Shadow King.

He chuckled. "If you insist." When he began climbing up to his own sleeping area, however, he stopped to talk to her again. "I trust that you'll have your things moved in after this weekend?" He asked it as if it was a question, but Haruhi knew it wasn't.

But that didn't stop her from being confused. "What?" She poked her head up to stare at the Ootori boy.

"My father requests that you live with us now that we're engaged." He quickly thought back to just minutes prior when he spoke with his father. He also insisted that the two start sharing a bed, but…that could definitely wait. After all, it was hard enough keeping up his 'cool' ploy whenever he talked to Haruhi about the matter of their new marriage.

"Oh." She probably should have expected that. That didn't mean it made any more sense of this situation, though. Maybe she'd feel better in the morning.

Yeah, that was it. Just wait for morning.

She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the sounds she heard from Kyoya resuming his undressing just tens of feet from her, instead focusing on twisting the white engagement ring on her finger.

She felt a little cooled down and more like herself after a while passed in her thoughts. It was only when she opened her eyes at long last, however, that she noticed a girl with black hair staring back at her.

Haruhi gasped and fumbled with her bottle of water so as not to lose it. She panted as she tried to regain her breath from nearly being scared to death. She turned around to apologize to the lady, who was furiously doing the same.

"Sorry! You scared me!"

"I'm sorry! I didn't mean to scare you!"

Haruhi sighed in relief as she recognized her from last night's dinner. She had black hair and, while she didn't exactly look like Kyoya, Haruhi could tell that she was his sister.

Kyoya's sister sighed as well. "I usually come out here around this time to grab a late night snack," she explained. "I didn't expect to see anyone else here."

Haruhi tried her best to muster a smile. "I should apologize as well," she said, ignoring the fact that just seconds prior they both had already done so. "Sneaking around in someone's house late at night probably doesn't make me look too good."

"Nonsense." The Ootori girl brushed it aside. "But…since we're both here and all, why don't we talk?"

Haruhi tilted her head. "About what?"

"Well…"

She stopped when her stomach growled, and she looked down and back up again, laughing. "I suppose my stomach should be calmed first. Would you like anything?"

Haruhi thought for a moment but didn't realize she was hungry until her own stomach growled. She laughed sheepishly. "I could go for something."

"Oh! I almost forgot! My given name is Fuyumi." She stuck her hand out for the other girl to shake it.

"I'm Haruhi," the brunette said while taking her hand and shaking it.

"Yes, I know," Fuyumi said while opening up the fridge. "I've heard much about you."

Haruhi glowered his eyebrows in a slight confusion. Who had talked about her? Kyoya-senpai?

Fuyumi then grimaced. "There's never anything easy to prepare in this house." She sighed. "Would you wait here for just a few minutes? I'm going to go wake one of the cooks. I hate to do it at this hour but I don't know how to cook," she said sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head and laughing a little. She reminded Haruhi of Tamaki.

The smaller girl nodded and soon enough Fuyumi was walking away from her to some unknown location, at least by Haruhi.

This sure was an eventful night. Still, if what everything she had been told was true, she'd soon be coming into – well, marrying into, really – a lot of money. It was kind of funny when she thought about it. Growing up, she'd never known what it was like to be rich. Sure, she'd known what it was like to have money, but not so much that it appeared wherever she went. She'd been able to enjoy a few extra dollars for a candy bar at the supermarket quite a few times, but this, her new life, would be completely different from any of that. She was going to gain so much.

…Of course, that meant she was going to lose a lot as well - for instance, her relationship with Tamaki. That darkened her spirits a bit. Even though they never went out together, just knowing each other's feelings calmed her down and told her that she was wanted, if only by one person. He gave her hope.

But now she was going to lose him. She actually felt guilty and selfish now that she realized she actually wanted to come here tonight by her own accord.

Well, it wasn't really her fault that she was getting married. She was practically dragged here by Kyoya after he slid the ring onto her finger. She tried to object but he didn't listen to her, as always. So it wasn't like she really wanted to go through with this marriage…hopefully Tamaki wasn't too dense to understand that.

But then again, it was Tamaki she was thinking about. Still, she wished she was able to see him now, if only to explain the situation at hand to him.

"Sorry to keep you waiting, Haruhi!"

She turned around to watch Fuyumi and one of the cooks of the house come into the kitchen. The male cook seemed sleep-deprived and Haruhi felt guilty again, waking up a cook in the middle of the night just for a snack. She should've told Fuyumi that she would cook something – but then again, thinking about it, she didn't know how to work all these fancy kitchen gadgets. She was used to a stovetop, oven, and microwave at her own apartment, but here they had a wood stove and things she'd never even seen or heard of before.

She smiled at the black-haired girl and made sure her eyes said 'thank you' to the cook.

"Come on, we should sit. Tetsuya won't mind too much if we talk." She looked over at the cook, who had his back turned to the ladies and began preparing food.

Haruhi reluctantly followed Fuyumi over to the table and seated herself across from the older girl. She still couldn't help but think this was a bit…abnormal. Why was everybody from the Ootori family being so nice to her? It just didn't make sense. She wanted answers. But before she could open her mouth to ask, Kyoya's sister across from her began to speak.

"I know about your situation," she said lowly, contradicting her previous statement about the cook not caring whether he heard them or not. Maybe she was just creating drama.

Still, the girl intrigued Haruhi. "What do you mean?"

Fuyumi smiled. "This whole marriage thing. I know it was arranged."

Wait…arranged? So that meant the Ootoris actually did set this up? But why? What did she have to give them? She had nothing to her name, she wasn't an heiress to a company or anything like that.

"What?"

"My father set this up. Kyoya-san never told you?"

What…no, Kyoya-senpai hadn't told her anything beyond what was crucial, she suspected. Why would he keep that a secret? Was he embarrassed of it? She had no way of knowing.

Haruhi managed a small shake of her head, and Fuyumi continued as if it was just common knowledge now.

"I went through the same thing a few years back," she reminisced, staring at her folded hands for a few seconds. "It isn't as bad as most make it out to be…but it wasn't what I wanted." Fuyumi looked at Haruhi now. "Is this what you want?"

"Ano…" This question caught Haruhi off-guard, though she wasn't entirely sure what to expect anyway, having barely known the Ootori girl. "I was dragged into this, really, without any explanations or anything. What I want are just some answers." She thought for a second. "Why me? What can I possibly provide for this family?"

Fuyumi looked away. "I honestly have no idea what my father's motives are. But I remember never knowing what his motives were for his own daughter to get married those years ago, either." She bit her lip. "But… If you ever need help with anything, or just want to talk, or maybe even get out of this whole situation, come find me."

Haruhi's mouth fell open about half an inch. All of this made no sense. Was she still dreaming? Everybody in this family was so weird.

Then the cook, Tetsuya, made his way over to the table and placed down two plates with the same food – some crab and a few minced vegetables. This was a late night snack?

But then she realized it was crab. She'd eaten crab with the Host Club when she first started to work for them. It was the night that she and Tamaki had really grown closer to each other.

She sighed inwardly. Maybe she'd take up the girl's offer just so that she would be able to see him.

A/N: Meh. Not my best chapter in the slightest. You guys probably feel that way, too. And it's only the fourth chapter in T_T. Oh well. Next chapter will be better. TamakiHaruhi moments, yay!

Also, I knoooow Fuyumi is way OOC. I kinda sorta meant for it to be that way. It just works better with the story. Besides, as Haruhi's thought enough in this story, the Ootori family is very weird. Everybody in the family is. Anyway, next chapter includes TamakiHaruhi and MoriHaruhi. And it's not pre-written this time so I actually gotta put some work into it. Yay.

So uh...yeah. I promise this will be one of the only, if not THE only, boring chapters in the story. I just thought you all might want a filler-ish chapter. It explains stuff, though, if only to Haruhi.

But yep. See ya Thursday, guys!

~CGA