A Love Confession

A/N: Manga-based; it's pretty much the same as the anime, but this part wasn't included, so possible tiny little spoiler involved. Ye be warned, ne?
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It had been a long week since the day Mori had been intoxicated with sleepiness. Haruhi had been extremely shy around him for the duration of that time. His words kept replaying in her mind; he thought she was cute, and since he’d said that when he wasn’t himself, it seemed all the more a true confession to the inexperienced girl.

Mori, on the other hand, had had no idea that he’d said such a thing. In fact, to him, the entire incident had never taken place. What he had done didn’t register in his memory. The only ones who knew of the occurrence were the members of the Host Club, and the few guests that had been there that day.

Knowing that fact, Haruhi didn’t know how to respond to the situation. Did he really think she was cute, or did he just say that because he was trying too hard to flatter her as he’d done with the other girls? She wanted to find out, but she couldn’t just bring it up in casual conversation. Mori would answer her honestly, but she understood that he was very shy about such things, and she wasn’t sure she could handle the truth.

Thought he’d always been very quiet, Mori had always been her favorite of the Hosts. She enjoyed all of their company, but out of all of them, his was always the most welcome and most sincere. She liked talking to Tamaki, but he touched her too much, and just made too much fuss; same with the twins. Honey was just… Honey. He was cute, yes, but almost sickeningly so sometimes. She just couldn’t figure him out.

But every time Mori looked at her, especially in those rare instances when he smiled down at her, Haruhi’s heart would skip a beat, sometimes several. Even the first time he’d discovered her true gender by picking her up and lifting her high in the air, she had to admit that his mental and physical strength were amazing.

Little did Haruhi know, but that Mori thought the world of her.

He had always reserved a special place in his heart for his Honey, but he never thought of the boy in a sexual way. That would be too much for Mori to handle, being in love with Honey. He loved him only as a brother loved another brother (Kaoru and Hikaru not counted among those, as they are an extreme case). No, Mori had never really felt a deep love for anyone other than Honey and his brother Satoshi. Then again, he’d never met anyone like Haruhi before.

She was perfect; slightly innocent, yet extremely knowledgeable and intelligent about scholarly subjects. Other than her personal experiences with the Hosts, Haruhi had never been around luxury and such high class. It was an alien world to her, and she was doing perfectly fine with it by most accounts. The part that she was having issues with was concealing her gender, which was made easier with the help of the Host Club.

Mori had noticed in the last week that the sweet, darling girl had been avoiding him. Every once in a while he would catch her glancing at him while she thought he wasn’t looking, only to quickly turn away and act like nothing had happened. This puzzled Mori, as he didn’t remember saying anything unusual to the girl. As far as he was concerned, he had done something subtle to offend her, and she had taken it badly. He wanted to clear the air between them, since he felt it was entirely his fault that she was no longer talking to him. He decided that the sooner he found out what was wrong, the better. In fact, he decided that he’d find out that day.

*~_~* time lapse *~_~*

Haruhi began her long walk home. Usually she took the bus, but it was a beautiful autumn day, and she felt as though she needed to clear her head somehow. She had noticed Mori watching her most of the afternoon, which in itself was unsetting; it seemed, however, that no one else had noticed. That made her feel paranoid, and she thought maybe she’d made up the whole thing in her head.

She didn’t notice when the stoic man came up behind her until he had his hands on her shoulders. Startled, Haruhi dropped her books as she turned quickly to defend herself. Seeing that it was just Mori made her feel better, but she couldn’t hide the blush that covered her cheeks.

“M-Mori senpai…,” she stuttered, “you startled me.”

“Gomen,” he replied quietly, looking intently at her face. “Haruhi, I have to ask you something.” He removed his hands from her shoulders and, walking around her, began picking up her strewn belongings. When he’d gathered them all, he handed them to a very confused Haruhi.

“What did I do that made you avoid me?” The question caught her off guard. Had she been that obviously avoiding him? Then again, Mori was all about being subtle, so she supposed it was no surprise that he had noticed.

“Um… Well…” Haruhi had trouble thinking of what exactly to say. To tell him what he’d done would embarrass him, but she figured the truth was best. “Last week, you told me that you thought I was cute, right before Honey made you take that nap… I wasn’t sure if it was the truth or not, since, you know, you weren’t yourself.”

She was certain there was no way she could cover her blush as she waited for Mori to say something, anything, in response to her confession. Thought she didn’t really want to look at him, she forced herself to raise her head and look him in the face. He was watching her intently; except for a slightly startled look in his eyes, his face bore the same unreadable expression as it usually did. Thinking that maybe the truth wasn’t the right thing to say after all, she bowed slightly and dismissed herself. “I should get home. Dad’s gone tonight, so I thought I’d get some chores done before he returned.”

As she turned to go, a hand gently caught her arm. “Haruhi.”

“Hmm?” Was he about to tell her off? Not knowing what to expect, the girl waited patiently.

“Haruhi,” he said in his solemn voice, “I do think you’re cute.” At that moment, Mori smiled, a small but pure smile. “I love you.”

The girl was at a loss. She had expected him to say he’d been out of his mind, and that he’d apologize but couldn’t really think she was cute or anything like that. A love confession had been the last possible circumstance she’d thought she’d have to face. But instead of feeling worse, Haruhi felt better. Immensely better. So much better, in fact, that a broad smile crossed her face. Before she knew it, she’d responded with, “I thought so; and I love you too. I just didn’t realize it until then.”

Mori’s smile got even wider at that, and he even blushed slightly. “Your dad’s not home tonight,” he said to her. “Would you mind if I came over?”

“Of course not,” she replied. “Come on, I’ll make dinner!” Giddy with joy, she grabbed his hand and hurried off in the direction of her apartment. Still smiling broadly, the tall man gladly followed.

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A/N: Ok, so R&R is a good thing to do! Lemme know what you think.