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 some awesome cousins.

It seemed odd to Takashi that he was feeling jealous of his cousin. He didn't understand why he would feel that way, but there it was. He just couldn't seem to stop the ridiculous thoughts that crossed his mind when he watched Mitsukuni and Haruhi dance. Perhaps it was just because he'd enjoyed dancing with her, and was disappointed that it was over. He did enjoy dancing, so it would be natural to be jealous that Mitsukuni was now dancing with Haruhi, while he was left watching from the sidelines. That had to be it. After all, what other explanation was there?

He'd almost managed to convince himself that it was just the dancing he missed when Haruhi glanced at him and smiled. His heart beat faster and he finally recognized what he had been feeling.

He smiled back.

He spent the rest of the dance practice watching her. Since that was what he was supposed to be doing, Haruhi and Mitsukuni took little notice of it. He stared at her, wondering what he should do now. He supposed he could just go on as he had been, pretending that he hadn't just realized that he was in love with Fujioka Haruhi, but that seemed like a stupid thing to do; well, long term, anyway. While he was still figuring things out, it would be best to try to keep things casual.

So, when dance practice ended, he smiled at her; after they'd walked as far as their car, he ruffled her hair and waved goodbye.

Haruhi waved back, but she was... concerned. On their walk from the music room, he hadn't smiled or made a single monosyllabic noise. He hadn't even looked at her, that she had seen, and she would have seen, since she was often looking at him, waiting for him to get involved in the conversation as he always did. His stoic expression at their parting was enough to convince her that no, she wasn't imagining things.

The next day the was no school, and therefore no Host Club and no dance practice. Her feet would have been grateful for the reprieve, but she was so busy with her weekend shopping, cleaning, and studying that she barely had time to think!

What thoughts she did have were of Mori-sempai.

She strained to remember everything she'd said during her last dance lesson and the subsequent walk to the car, but she couldn't think of anything in the conversations that would upset anyone. Perhaps it had been something that she hadn't said. Had she accidentally offended Mori-sempai?

When she returned to school the next day, she didn't see Mori-sempai between classes. She hadn't even realized that she normally did until suddenly... she didn't. She was worried, afraid that he was sick or something had happened, but he seemed perfectly healthy when she saw him at the Host Club.

She was a Host now, but she still did more of the menial chores than the other hosts. As she worked, she'd look around the room to see what everyone was doing. Usually, when she checked on Mori-sempai, he'd notice she was looking at him after only a moment or two. He'd smile or wave at her, sometimes he'd just nod. But he would always notice her and he would always do something to acknowledge her.

Now, however... She'd glance at him, and he'd be looking out the window, paying attention to Hani-sempai, or sometimes just staring off into space. That was normal. What wasn't normal was the fact that he kept looking out the window or taking care of Hani-sempai or staring off into space. He didn't notice that she was checking on him, or if he did, he was pretending that he didn't.

She watched him for a few days, noting the changes in his behavior. The more she saw, the more concerned she got. She didn't understand what was happening. Was he angry with her? Had she done something to hurt him? She didn't know what to do. Finally, after watching and worrying for most of the week, inspiration struck.

She was in the Third Music Room; club hours had ended, and she was waiting for the rest of the Hosts to leave so that she and Hani-sempai could start their dance lesson. Mori-sempai wouldn't be attending this lesson or the next. Instead, he would be training with the kendo club. As she stood patiently, her gaze wandered over the room and fell on the two cousins. She watched them, how they acted when they were together, how well they knew each other, and it suddenly occurred to her that if anyone knew what was going on with her tall, silent friend, it would be Hani-sempai.

"Hani-sempai," she began in a quiet voice as soon as they were alone, "do you know what's going on with Mori-sempai? He's been..." she paused, struggling to articulate the things she'd noticed about his recent behavior. "He just hasn't been acting like himself around me. It's almost like he's avoiding me, and I don't know why," she said with a helpless shrug.

Mitsukuni suspected he knew what was going on, and thought it was good that his cousin had realized his feelings, but hoped he wasn't going to be an idiot about it. "Do you want me to talk to him, Haru-chan?"

"Could you?" she asked, looking immensely relieved.

"Of course," he said with a little smile. "Now, when you're leading, you need to be a little firmer; you're telling me with your hand where we're gonna go, okay?"

Authors' Note 9/20/13: *gasp* Minor angst! What's that doing in our fluff-a-thon? Oh well, hopefully all will be well by next week.

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