I do not own or have any rights to the Ouran Highschool Host Club manga/anime.

A/N: Hello! It's been a while but I'm back to try again. The beginning of the story takes place in episode 8 of season 1, which is one of my personal favorites. It follows the episode with my take on Kyouya's thoughts. Starting with the next chapter, I'll begin to veer away from the plot of the anime. I hope you enjoy!

"It looks awful gloomy outside there, huh? It looks like it's gonna rain," Hunny noted as he watched the sky darkening through the large, decorative windows of the grand dining room.

"It's not just gloomy outside," Kaoru added from his seat by the window, beside his twin. "Just take a look at Tamaki-senpai." His gaze shifted to one of the many pillars lining the long room where Tamaki sat on the ground, curled into himself, looking quite miserable. Hikaru and Kaoru shared a glance and rolled their eyes.

"Come on, quit moping, boss," Hikaru complained.

"You shouldn't have picked a fight with her in the first place," Kaoru agreed.

Before the Host Club's king had a chance to respond, or the twins had a chance to further badger him, the dining room's double doors opened. Mori had returned with Haruhi, at Hunny's request, and all attention left the sad blond man. Haruhi wore a long, flowing, blush colored dress, with frills around the neckline and sleeves, and a small, red bow on her chest. The eyes of all of the club's members were glued to her, rarely having seen her in feminine clothing, and a hush took the room.

But of course, silence never lasted long with the twins around. "Haruhi! Where'd you get that dress?" they asked in sync as they, along with Hunny, crowded her for a closer look.

Haruhi shook her head, glancing down at the uncharacteristic garment. "From my dad," she explained, sounding only slightly irritated. "He must have repacked my bags when I wasn't looking." She touched the bow lightly with both hands. "He's always trying to get me to wear this frilly stuff."

"That's awesome!" the twins cheered, grinning widely. "Way to go, dad!"

"You look so cute, Haru-chan!" Hunny cooed.

Eventually, everyone took their seats. The tension in the room was palpable. No one was entirely sure how it happened, but Haruhi ended up sitting directly beside Tamaki. He looked like a spooked animal while she still had the same look of mild irritation that she had gotten while talking about her father moments before.

Finally breaking the heavy silence, Hikaru mumbled, "Well, this is uncomfortable…" which, of course, was not very helpful.

"Yeah," Kaoru agreed. "Kind of awkward…"

Hunny glanced at Haruhi, forcing a strained smile. "Let's dig in, Haru-chan!" he suggested, trying to brighten the mood. He and Mori each held up one of the large, steaming crabs from the many plates of fresh seafood lining the table. "These are the crabs we caught! I bet they're delicious!"

Wordlessly, Haruhi picked up a crab leg and cracked it open. The sudden, sharp noise caused Tamaki to jump. Kyouya had to resist rolling his eyes. The other second year could be childish at times, but this was getting a bit ridiculous. As he and the others, with the exception of Tamaki, began filling their own plates, Haruhi continued to loudly enjoy the food.

"These crabs taste in-crab-ible!" she praised, her mouth half full of food. "Get it?" It was easy to see that she knew that her passiveness caused her senior great discomfort, and she seemed to relish in it as she ate crab leg after crab leg.

With each new crack, Tamaki seemed to be more and more stressed, maybe even getting close to panic as he resisted the urge to speak to her. Across the table, Kyouya could hear the twins quietly betting on when Tamaki would break.

Finally, unable to stay quiet, Tamaki hesitantly asked, "Don't you think you've had enough? Give it a rest!"

Haruhi picked up another crab leg without looking at him. "Excuse me? I thought that you weren't speaking to me."

When she cracked open the seafood, it was like a punch in the face to the Host Club's king. He whimpered slightly. "You trying to be cute?" he accused. Haruhi shot him a silent glare as Hunny watched, mouth wide open.

Finally having enough of the tension, Tamaki stood from his seat, slamming his napkin down beside his plate. "Okay, fine. I get it. It seems you refuse to admit that you were wrong. See if I care, then. I'm going to bed." He started walking toward the exit, hands in his pockets. "Kyouya, would you show me to my room, please?"

Though he phrased it like a question, Kyouya knew he didn't have a choice. "No problem," he said, dabbing his mouth quickly with his napkin. He had finished eating quite some time ago and was more than happy to return to his own room. They had sat down for dinner so quickly after coming in from the water that he hadn't had the chance to take a shower. "Well, excuse me everyone…"

Once the doors had closed behind them, Tamaki lost his composure. "I can't believe her! Acting like nothing even happened! Why is she doing this to me? She's so mean!" he cried.

Kyouya rolled his eyes, pushing Tamaki toward a door. "Go take a shower and stop being to ridiculous," the vice president instructed, his tone just a hint more gentle than usual. Despite their many differences, Kyouya did have a soft spot for his best friend and didn't like seeing him so upset. He also didn't like having to deal with all of the problems that Tamaki seemed to fabricate so late in the day. Not to mention he still had work to do before he could go to bed.

After a few brief words, and a few sniffles from Tamaki, the two parted ways, closing the doors to their respective rooms. As soon as the door shut, Kyouya let out a breath, leaning against the door. What an absolute headache that this seemingly profitable weekend had become. He took off his glasses, setting them beside his bed, before going to take a short, hot shower.

When Kyouya was suitable clean, he exited the bathroom and pulled on a pair of pants, leaving a towel around his neck to collect the water still dripping from his hair. He sat down on a chair and began drying his hair with the towel.

Almost immediately after he had sat down, a small form burst into his room, into his bathroom, and slammed the door shut. Kyouya considered this for a few moments. Deciding that the only person it could have been was Haruhi, considering the intruder's height, he simply waited for her to return in lieu of calling security. While her appearance was sudden, Kyouya wasn't surprised. After all, the newest host had devoured seemingly half of her body weight in seafood which was bound to make her feel sick, and, unlike the others, this was her first time at the beach house.

Minutes passed before the bathroom door slowly opened. Haruhi stepped out, into the bedroom, hesitantly.

"Are you okay?" His voice startled her and she jumped a bit.

She quickly bowed and said, "I'm apologize, sir. I didn't mean to intrude." She didn't recognize him? Then again, the mistake wasn't unbelievable, as she had never seen him without his glasses. Or half dressed.

"Don't be silly. It's just me," Kyouya clarified, continuing to dry his hair.

Recognition dawned on Haruhi's face, her eyes widening slightly. "Kyouya-senpai?" She stopped for a moment, glancing down at her feet. "Kyouya-senpai, I'm sorry...I didn't mean to make everyone worry about me today." It seemed that she was finally starting to understand why Tamaki had been so upset.

"Thanks, but I wasn't especially worried," Kyouya responded passively, moving to his feet. He took a drink from the water bottle that sat on the table beside him. "Although, I did have a hard time separating Kaoru and Hikaru from those two punks." Kyouya had reached the cliff just after the twins only to see the younger club members beating the intruders quite violently. He honestly hadn't known that they were so strong, but it seemed that their anger acted as fuel for their aggressive actions. "They almost beat them half to death," he chuckled. And Kyouya might have let them, if not for the legal problems it would have caused.

Although he may not have been worried when Haruhi was pushed from the cliff, he was enraged. She was a valued member of their club, so of course her wellbeing was important. That's what Kyouya told himself, anyway. She was an asset that needed to be protected. But even he didn't believe that was the only cause for his anger.

Haruhi began to look uncomfortable as he continued. "And because of you, I had to send each of the girls a bouquet of flowers to apologize." Kyouya set down the water and moved casually across the room. "They've been looking forward to this trip, and we don't want to disappoint them.

"I'll pay you back for the flowers, senpai," Haruhi offered as she watched him stop beside a set of light switches.

Kyouya almost laughed. "Each bouquet cost me 50,000 yen. That's a grand total of 600,000 yen, Haruhi." Kyouya placed his hand on the dimmer switch for the main light and slowly moved it down.

He turned to face her in the near darkness, he innocent, doe-like features turned to look up at him. "Uh, why'd you turn the lights off…?"

Kyouya felt his pulse begin to race. The others always ogled over Haruhi, especially when she wore feminine clothing, calling her cute and comparing her to a doll. But here, in his room, all the lights off, Kyouya couldn't imagine any word being enough to describe her beauty. Her soft features, big eyes…

"If you want…" he said, lowering his face toward hers, "You can pay me back with your body." Kyouya grabbed her wrist as she let out a cry and tossed her onto the bed beneath him. His bed.

"Surely you aren't so naive as to believe a person's sex doesn't matter. You've left yourself completely defenseless against me." It was almost too perfect. She wasn't fighting, wasn't afraid. Could it be that she also…?

"Ah…" The startled expression she wore changed to one of understanding. "You won't do it, Kyouya-senpai." Kyouya pulled back ever so slightly, unprepared for her words. This was not one of the scenarios he had imagined this situation to take. "Because it wouldn't do you any good. You wouldn't gain anything from it."

Kyouya couldn't conceal his slight smile. "You're right." But she wasn't. She couldn't have been anymore wrong. Nevertheless, he shifted away from her, sitting on the edge of the bed while she still lay where he had tossed her, watching him. "You're a fascinating young woman Haruhi." He watched out of the corner of his eye as she sat up.

"But I've learned something from this," Haruhi concluded. Kyouya glanced at her, putting his glasses on. "I never realized what a nice guy you are, senpai." He chuckled darkly in his head. Nice guy? What kind of a nice guy would handle a woman the way he had? Now that everything was becoming calm again, Kyouya felt uncomfortable with his actions. He had lost control of himself, something he never let happen. "You're just trying to prove what Tamaki-senpai said earlier."

Of course her thoughts went straight to him. Tamaki. His best friend. The one man to which he always seemed to come second. Kyouya rose to his feet, looking away.

Haruhi continued, "I know you're trying to prove his point, that you're just posing as the bad guy.

Before Kyouya had a chance to think about her words, a soft knocking came from the door. "Kyouya?" called Tamaki as he opened the door. "Do you have any lotion? This sunburn is worse than I-" The blond second year stopped mid sentence as he realized the scene before him. Kyouya fought the urge to laugh. How it must have looked to him, with Kyouya half dressed, with Haruhi sitting on his bed, with the lights off, Kyouya could only imagine what was going through Tamaki's head.

The desire to laugh was quickly extinguished as shock in Tamaki's lavender eyes melted into a look of hurt, of betrayal. And then to fury. Any sympathy or regret that Kyouya may have begun to feel was gone in an instant. "You bastard-!" Kyouya cut Tamaki off, hitting him roughly in the face with a tube of lotion.

"Here. Use as much as you want, you big goof," Kyouya said as he walked past Tamaki and out of the room, letting the door close behind him. Nothing he could say would have calmed Tamaki, not when he was emotional and irrational. Better to let him cool off, even if it meant leaving him with Haruhi. Haruhi… He replayed the scene in his head, thought about what she said, and one thing kept repeating itself: "Nothing to be gained from it, huh?" Kyouya said softly to himself as he walked down the hallway. "An interesting thought, in its own way…"

I hope you enjoyed the beginning of the story! I'd love to hear your feedback, and thoughts on where the story could go! Thanks for reading!