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 if you check our closets, you will find a couple of fancy dresses!
It seemed odd to Haruhi that she had accomplished so much in the last few weeks. She'd stumbled into the Host Club, made a friend, and enjoyed quietly studying, both in solitude and in the company of said friend. Then she'd gotten a makeover, joined a ridiculous Club, become wildly popular with the female population of the school, and mastered the waltz. Most surprisingly of all, she hadn't minded the disruption of her schedule one bit.
She was now at a Host Club event, dancing with a smiling girl.
She was the fourth smiling girl to ask her if there was something wrong. "Haruhi-kun, are you okay? Are you having a nice time?" each girl asked her, to which she would reply, "Of course I'm having a good time. You're such a good dancer, Kojima-chan." And the girl would giggle, and after the song was over, Haruhi would walk her back to her seat and thank her for the dance, and then go to look for the next girl she was supposed to dance with. (Kyōya-sempai, of course, had charted out specific dance partners for all of them.)
Finally, the seventh girl asked a more direct question. "Who are you looking for, Haruhi-kun? I'd hate to think that you'd rather be dancing with someone else."
Haruhi hadn't even realized that she'd been neglecting her partner, so she laughed and said, "I'm just looking for Takashi."
The girl blinked at her. "Why?"
Haruhi thought for a moment, then came up with a reasonable explanation. "Um... I suppose it's because he's been tutoring me. Teaching me how to dance. And I guess I want to make sure I'm doing a good job, and see if he's nearby to correct me if I misstep."
The girl giggled. "I can't imagine him following. That must have been funny to watch!"
Haruhi laughed along with her. "No, he taught me to follow first, and then I danced with Hani-sempai while Takashi watched and made sure my feet were in the right place."
"Well you haven't stepped on my dress yet, so your feet must know what they're doing!" said the girl, and Haruhi laughed. "Mori-sempai must be a good tutor."
Haruhi quietly nodded. "Yes."
During their first break from dancing, she wandered over to the snack table. Unsurprisingly, Hani-sempai was already there, and Takashi was with him. She greeted Hani-sempai cheerfully and smiled at his cousin, who smiled back. She blushed a little and quickly looked away, wondering again why seeing Takashi smile at her sometimes made her feel... well, the way she felt at that moment: warm and excited and calm and happy and embarrassed. She almost resisted the urge to look at him again. She didn't quite manage it, but consoled herself that it was only a glance, and that she didn't turn her head to do it.
She was pretty sure he noticed it anyway.
Luckily, Suō-sempai chose that moment to do what he did best: he called everyone's attention to himself and spoke at length about nothing, using excessively flowery language to do so. She wasn't really listening to him, but it gave her something to pretend to focus on as she simultaneously tried not to think about how her friend's smile made her feel, and tried to figure out what those feelings meant.
She was still deep in thought when her arms were grabbed and she suddenly felt herself being dragged backwards. Again? she thought. I'm being kidnapped again?! She looked to either side of herself and found that her latest abductors were the twins. The last time they'd dragged her like this had been...
"Oh, no! You are not giving me another makeover!"
"Eh, you worry too much, Haruhi-kun."
It was at this point that they reached their destination. They stood her back on her feet and opened both of the doors of the room they'd taken her to. She wasn't sure what it had been originally, but it was currently set up as a dressing room. Kyōya-sempai was standing there with his notebook in hand and his glasses flashing ominously.
"Excellent!" he said. "If you'll just step into the dressing area, Fujioka-kun?"
"What- What's going on?!" she demanded to know. "I thought you promised not to kidnap me again!" She noticed that Kyōya-sempai's grip on his notebook tightened, and resisted the urge to smirk. The only part of the makeover she'd enjoyed was the flurry of panic when Kyōya-sempai had realized that his notebook was missing. Her father's calm, "What's happened? The way you and your men are acting, you'd think someone had been kidnapped," had stopped them in their tracks, as Kyōya-sempai realized exactly where his notebook was, and why it had gone missing in the first place. Luckily, the youngest Ōtori had taken it well, and her father wasted no time in returning the item in question once it was clear that his point had been made. The Host had apologized to her and her father, and promised that it wouldn't happen again.
Only now it had.
Kyōya-sempai cleared his throat. "Yes, well, you'll be happy to know that we have your father's permission this time; in fact, he styled the wig himself."
"Wig?" she asked with dread. The twins smirked and gave her a little shove into the curtained off portion of the room.
Within the space was a dress, the aforementioned wig, and a small table covered with tubes and jars. Makeup, she realized with disgust.
"Haruhi-kun," one of the twins said, "You've got ten minutes to get dressed before we come in to do your makeup!" She blanched and hurriedly began taking off her suit.
Twenty minutes and many loud protestations later, Haruhi emerged from the dressing room. She waited impatiently and glowered at her captors while they inspected her.
"Hm... passable," was Kyōya-sempai's verdict.
"Are you kidding?" one of the twins (she wasn't sure, but she thought it was Hikaru-kun) exclaimed. "She's unrecognizable!"
The third and final member of the "Dress up Haruhi" triumvirate remained silent. "Hm..." he said finally, studying her reflection in the mirror. "She needs something... more."
There was a moment of contemplation before inspiration struck. "What about this?" Haruhi asked, pulling the navy ribbon out of the pocket of her discarded suit. She'd kept it with her ever since she and Takashi had shared strawberry cake together, as a token of their friendship.
"It's perfect!" Kaoru-kun said, tying it up in the wig she wore. "You look adorable."
"Thank you," Haruhi said, "But there's one more thing." She pointed at her feet and glared at Kyōya-sempai. "I am not, under any circumstances, wearing the heels. I cannot walk in them. I certainly can't dance in them. If you were planning to kill me, there are faster methods, and I'd prefer you use one of them."
Kyōya-sempai shrugged, smirked, and held up a shoebox. She cautiously hobbled over to him, took off the lid, and sighed in relief when she saw what it held: a cute little pair of flats. "Thank you, Sempai," she said, taking the box and switching shoes. "Now, would you please tell me why you felt it necessary to put me in a dress?"
The Shadow King merely smiled. "Enjoy the rest of your evening, Fujioka-hime."
Haruhi could hardly believe what she was doing. In a daze, she walked back into the ballroom. The lights seemed brighter somehow than they were before. Maybe it was because the twins had crimped and slathered her eyelashes with mascara. Or maybe it was just the wonder that every girl felt when they walked into a room that held a prince waiting to dance with her.
Then she saw him. She watched his expression as he noticed her standing there, and saw his eyes light up and a smile spread across his face as he recognized her. He approached her and bowed.
"Haruhi," he said, holding out his hand to her.
"Takashi," she replied, smiling back up at him and placing her own smaller hand in his.
They danced.
They'd danced together before, many times, but this time was different. Was it the setting? The guests standing around them? The live instrumentals? The fancy clothing? No, she didn't think so. She barely noticed those things. She forgot about the people who might be watching them, didn't hear the music, and they could have been dressed in rags for all the difference it would have made.
It was in the way they couldn't take their eyes off each other, the way he held her closer to him than he had when they'd just been practicing, the way they couldn't stop smiling and didn't need or want to speak. It was in the way she could feel nothing but his hands, see nothing but his face, and hear nothing but the beating of her own heart.
It was in the way he looked at her and the way he smiled.
The realization of what this feeling was hit her like a ton of bricks, literally knocking her off her feet. She jerked out of his arms with a gasp and found herself sprawled on the floor. She lay there, breathing too quickly and staring up at him with wide eyes.
He stared at her, too, clearly surprised. He considered her for a moment, and then his eyes softened. He smiled a little, bent forward, and offered his hand.
Oh, she thought, before a hesitant smile crossed her lips. She slowly raised her hand, once again placing it in his. He lifted her to her feet. She stumbled a bit standing up, and ended up standing very, very close to him. She almost had to look straight up to see his face. When she did, she found that he was already looking down at her. He smiled at her again, and her heart sped up in response.
Maybe this "being in love" business won't be so bad after all, she thought with a smile.
Near one of the walls, where they'd been standing and watching the couple carefully, the twins were exchanging high fives, the Shadow King was smiling mysteriously, and Haninozuka Mitsukuni was jumping up and down, hugging Usa-chan and spinning around in excitement.
Authors' Note 10.4.13: Not long now until the end! Thank you for your reviews, follows, and favorites. Right now we are buried in projects, but if you want to add more to the list, pm us or head over to iwillwriteyourfic DOT blogspot DOT com.