This story is the joint work of Stella Malodi and CatrinaSL. The excellent cover art was commissioned from SF; you can find his work on DeviantArt (pm CatrinaSL for the link to his page). Special thanks to fringeperson and My Ashland for their beta work.

Disclaimer: We do not own Ouran High School Host Club, but we'e both felt that weirdness that comes with new contacts.

It seemed odd to Haruhi that her hair was still such a bother to her. After all, she'd had the fancy haircut, and there was quite a bit less hair, but what was there was determined to blind her. She pushed it out of the way and watched some students do warm-ups on the field below her tree.

She'd come here before school in her new haircut, new contacts, and new uniform, feeling exposed and unlike herself, hoping to calm down a bit before showing off her new look to the school.

"H-Haruhi?" She jumped about a foot in the air. Apparently her attempts at calming down had not succeeded.

She turned to face him and smiled shakily. "Good morning, Mori-sempai." She glanced down at her uniform. "Ah- Ōtori-sempai, er, Kyōya-sempai arranged for me to have an upgrade. I'm going to be helping in the Host Club. Er- you know. Serving tea, or cake. He said he might even have me stand in as a host, probably just if someone gets sick, or something. Of course, I'm not really like any of the Hosts, so I don't think their customers would really be happy with me as a substitute. Maybe he was kidding about having me Host girls. I don't know why he'd want me to do that. I mean, I'm a girl myself, and I'm not really the 'Host' type- not that I'd mind if he did want me to, I think it could be fun chatting with girls, but I'm not really sure how to be a Host, and I'm not charming or adorable or comforting, or-or anything, really. I'm just me, and I," she paused and gulped. When she continued, her voice was quiet. "I just don't know what I was thinking, coming to school looking like this; I feel like I'm playing dress-up, or trying to pretend that I'm someone I'm not, trying to pretend that I'm not just a 'commoner with a lot of nerve,' and I look ridiculous!" She was babbling and she knew it, but she was nervous. He was just standing there, staring at her, and-

"Haruhi," he said, smiling. "You look very nice."

She blushed furiously. He laid a hand on her head and ruffled her hair affectionately. She looked at her feet and hunched her shoulders a bit. "I'm a little nervous," she admitted. "About the new look and working with the club and- and everything. I just don't know what to expect. What's it like, being in the Host Club? It's probably kind of different from the Hosting end of things."

"It can be fun. Mitsukuni enjoys it." He tilted his head to the side, considering her. "You'll do fine. You're cute. Just be yourself."

She blushed, but laughed, and said, "That's probably the best plan. I'm not a very good actor."

She glanced at the fields and saw that they were mostly empty. She looked at the clock tower and saw the reason why: class would be starting soon. "Oh! We should probably get to our classes. I'll see you after school, I guess- the Host Club is meeting today, right?"

"Right." He smiled and ruffled her hair again.

They chatted as they walked, and she hadn't even noticed that he had walked her to class until he stopped and she saw where they were. She started to (rather belatedly) protest, but he just shook his head, leaving her with a wave and a smile- much to the astonishment of her classmates.

Haruhi didn't realize this; she assumed their reactions were due to her changed appearance. But Kyōya would have been pleased to know that girls were already whispering about the mystery of Haruhi-kun and Mori-sempai.

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