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

Disclaimer: We do not own Ouran High School Host Club, but we do have a couple of Physics books between us.

It seemed odd to Tamaki that there was so much going on after Host Club hours these days. Mori-sempai was teaching his protegé to dance. Hani-sempai was used to amusing himself while his cousin attended the Kendo Club's meetings; he either left without his cousin or sat out of the way, thoroughly engrossed in enjoying cake with Usa-chan. The other three were having lots of extra meetings; apparently they wanted to make sure that the next event would be perfect.

He would also have gladly put in extra effort, and he volunteered multiple times to take over as Fujioka-kun's dance instructor, but Kyōya thought that the disruption to the newest Host Club member's training would hurt more than Tamaki's excellent instruction would help. Tamaki reluctantly agreed, and gave up his attempts to take over the teaching duties from Mori-sempai. Whenever he volunteered to help in the extra meetings that Kyōya was having with the twins, they assured him that they were merely finalizing plans and that they had everything under control.

Pausing at the door after Club hours one day, his eyes passed over the dance lessons, which had just begun. He noticed that Fujioka-kun and Mori-sempai really did dance well together. Even though Mori-sempai was very tall and Fujioka-kun very short, they... fit, somehow. Maybe it was because Mori-sempai was a very good teacher; Tamaki considered that Kyōya may have been right in his choice.

He sighed, a little disheartened that he wasn't able to be of use to any of his "subjects," but happy that the club he started was willing and able to function without his encouragement.

Not long after Tamaki's departure, Hani left, too. The twins and Kyōya plotted. Mori and Haruhi danced, smiled, and blushed. The plotters observed this with satisfaction, but soon enough it was time to call it a day. The twins headed home to play video games, and Kyōya to finalize the takeover of a rival company. Haruhi and Mori, however, headed out to the tree.

Unsurprisingly, she hadn't been able to get as much studying done as she had before she joined the club, so she was looking forward to this time in the tree. She was dying to make sure that she understood the lesson that she'd had that day in Physics, so she opened her book the second he set her in the tree. However, instead of saying he'd see her later and immediately heading off down the hill, Mori-sempai stayed where he was.

"Mori-sempai?" she said, blinking at him when she noticed he was still there.

He smiled at her. "No kendo this week," he replied.

"Oh!" she said, blushing. "I'd forgotten! Er- should I just go home, then?"

He shook his head and climbed into the tree. She was surprised at this, even more so when, instead of climbing onto the adjacent branch, he sat next to her. It was a wide branch, easily able to hold their combined weight, but she wasn't expecting him to suddenly be so close!

"M-Mori-sempai?"

He smiled at her and she blushed. "I'll help. With your studying."

"Oh! Right. Er- thank you, Mori-sempai!" She forced herself to stop staring into his eyes, and looked instead at the book on her lap. "Well... I wanted to make sure I understood this correctly..."

Once they got started, she found it wasn't too difficult to concentrate on schoolwork, but every now and then his arm would brush against hers, or she'd look at him and be surprised all over again at how close he was to her.

They had just about finished when Mori-sempai looked up at the sky and hopped down from the tree. Haruhi got to the bottom of the page she was reading, made a note to look into the last section further, and then closed her book.

"Haruhi," he said, as she stuffed her Physics textbook into her bag. "May I offer you a ride home?"

"Wha-" Haruhi began, startled by the offer. "Don't trouble yourself, Mori-sempai, I'll be fine."

In response, he glanced upwards, where the sky was beginning to darken into night.

"I'm out late all the time," Haruhi told him as she handed down her bag. He took it, but said nothing.

The silence stretched on as she waited for him to help her down; instead, Mori-sempai just looked at her. She blinked at him. He crossed his arms.

"Erm... Aren't you going to get me down?"

He continued to stare at her. "It's late."

The staring contest continued for several moments before she laughed and gave in. "All right. But just this once, and only because it's already dark!"

He smiled and lifted her down.

They began the walk to his car. "You know, when you first took me to the tree I thought you had been ordered by Suō-sempai to walk me home. I thought it might be a treat for first-time visitors to the Host Club."

"Customers come to be happy. It was my duty to find you a place that you liked."

She blinked in surprise. "Thank you, Mori-sempai. I really appreciate it... I love coming here to study. It's my favorite place on campus," she said, and smiled at him. "So you've definitely done your duty as a Host: you've made me happy."

"I like to make you happy," he said, ruffling her hair with a smile. "I'm glad you came to the club."

She blushed. "I'm glad, too. If I hadn't, then I'd never have met you, and I'm... I'm glad that we're friends, Mori-sempai," she said.

They reached the car in silence, Mori smiling and Haruhi blushing. The ride home was equally quiet, with only a "goodnight, Haruhi," from Mori-sempai as she got out of the car.

Author's Note: If you like The Unbroken Vase, give us an idea for a new story! (pm either of us or go to iwillwriteyourfic DOT blogspot DOT com!)