Morning Sensitivity


He was surprised they hadn't figured it out earlier, really. His poor baby was always working, and her schedule was a busy one. Clean, cook, laundry, shopping, studying, and going to their host club. In short, Haruhi didn't sleep much. You wouldn't tell it by looking at her, but she was not exactly a morning person in the strictest.

He swore the only reason she didn't grumble as much on school mornings was because she hadn't slept enough for her waking up to really matter.

As much as he hated it, there was really nothing he could do. His adorably hardworking daughter seemed determine to run only on naps. So at his insistence (and her body's demand) on Saturdays, she slept. She would stay up even later than usual doing everything that needed to be done, and then sleep the whole day away. She positively loved it.

Of course, it meant that should she be awoken by something in the actual morning hours, she is not entirely pleased.

Ranka refers to this as her 'Saturday Morning Sensitivity'

Sometimes, she really just deserved to lavish in that feeling of sloth.


It was a Saturday (God how she loves Saturdays) and she had finally gotten to sleep, her book demanding to be finished. Four AM really isn't that late, if anything, it's early. Yet apparently the hosts disagree with her, because it's three hours later and she's absolutely pissed because there is no god damn way she is doing this on a freaking Saturday. The knocking continues.

Maybe they'll leave

They don't leave

Please...?

"Haaaruhi! Come out and play!"

"Kyoya, Haruhi isn't answering! Why is your daughter ignoring me?!"

Kyoya's daughter? Tamaki-senpai must be really annoyed.

"Haruhi open up this door for your father this instant!"

...let them suffer.

She goes back to sleep.


Apparently this is a mistake, because half an hour later she gets a call from the shadow king himself. Needless to say, he is not pleased.

"I assume there is a reasonable explanation towards why you left me standing outside your door for thirty minutes."

Me, not us

She can't help but feel bad about it when he puts it that way, or maybe she's just terrified of him (is this how Stockholm syndrome starts?).

"Kyoya-Senpai,"

(She can practically hear his eyebrow raise)

"It was a Saturday." She finishes

"If I'm going to suffer, than I expect you will too. Time is money Haruhi, a lesson you should've learned by now." Her debt increases.

She's annoyed by this, angry even, considering he's the same way, but is too tired to really care.

She hangs up.


Monday is hell, and the hosts (Tamaki-senpai and the twins) won't stop asking her where she was.

She forbids them from coming to her house on Saturdays.

Come Saturday, there are 6 rich and handsome boys standing outside her door.

Again.

She answers this time and only Hunny seems to notice the aura around her

"Haru-chan...?"

"Oh Haruhi! I knew you didn't mean it when you said we weren't allowed to come! Kyoya said you were serious, and I had to explain to him how ridiculous a notion that was!"

Then he opens his eyes (metaphorically and literally) and Mon dieu, what is this demon child staring up at him where his daughter should be.

Then she does something that surprises them all by grabbing Kyoya and pulling him into the apartment, slamming the door behind her. He merely sighs.

The knocking resumes

"Sorry Senpai, but Mother and I need some girl time." and all they can hear from behind the door is an 'eep' because her tone is closer to a growl than anything

"Care to explain Haruhi?" She turned to her hypertensive senpai and knew he was suffering just as much as she

"I'm leaving with or without you, but I'm going to go find somewhere I can sleep in peace." She is not sure where, but she's sure one of her middle school friends would understand if she called them up. Heaven knows that they'd seen her sleep deprived on a Saturday enough to know it was for the best.

"They're going to try and find us."

"Haruhi? What are you and Mommy doing in there?"

"Let them try."


He calls his driver and the minute he shows up the two open the door.

Despite the many questions asked, no explanation is offered. The hosts begin to walk towards the limo that is waiting for them and Haruhi gets in first ("ladies first"), swiftly followed by Kyoya. Before anyone else can enter, the door is closed and shut. He rolls down the window just enough so that they see the glint of his glasses and that infernal smirk.

"Girls day out, you boys can call your own limo."

Then they're off and the others are left standing dumbstruck.

They didn't go to his house (not his usual one at least) because that would be the first place the others would look. No, Kyoya has the driver take them to one of the 'small' properties his family owns about an hour away. They sleep during the car ride, because it's still only seven. When they get there Kyoya grousally shakes her and they each walk in that still half asleep state inside, where she ends up falling asleep in Fuyumi's room because it's closest and he's in the guest room next door. Her body is a log.

She didn't get up again until 3 PM, and when she did she immediately began wandering around the house until she finally opened a door with a stove. The kitchen. The fridge was stocked, and she couldn't help but be shocked as Kyoya had told her his family rarely used this house.

"I called ahead."

Haruhi jumped at his voice

"Oh." She opens every cabinet and learns where everything is "I don't suppose you have any preferences."

"I would enjoy something edible and a cup of actual coffee." She rolled her eyes

"We'll see."


"Haruhi,"

"Senpai." Haruhi took a sip of her (admittedly delicious) coffee

He pursed his lips

"I have a proposal for a mutually beneficial agreement.

"I assume it involves avoiding the hosts when we'd rather get a reasonable amount of sleep?" Kyoya nods "Than I accept. I should probably call dad and tell him where I am."

"No need, Ranka is aware of where you are and will be every Saturday henceforth, not including days when we have previous engagements."


They fall into routine, spending their Saturdays at various places. Never ones that the hosts will easily think of, and never the same place twice in a row. They wake up, Haruhi makes (a ridiculously late) breakfast, brief pleasantries are exchanged, and they disappear off to their own devices.

The hosts never find them, though a few others had.

Namely Kyoya's sister.

Apparently she'd stayed a weekend at the house last week, and had forgotten something she deemed important enough to go all the way there to personally retrieve.

The sight before her is a strange one. Her little brother is sitting in a cushy armchair eating an obviously homemade breakfast and there's this tiny girl next to him eating the same thing. Fuyumi is quiet as she watches. The girl says something just low enough that Fuyumi can't quite make it out, but Kyoya gives the smallest smile in return. It is a genuine smile, free of malice and ulterior motives. It is a smile she can honestly say she hasn't seen in years (a rare sight even then).

It is a somewhat sad moment when she realizes this, but she is far too happy to notice. This girl had made her Kyoya smile. Maybe she could accept that he could be more than her Kyoya. Only assuming that he becomes this girls as well.

Fuyumi later learn her name is Haruhi.

This fact becomes extremely important the day father comes home from the Ouran fair, and she hears him as he walks down the halls, mumbling his thoughts aloud (he likely thinks no one is there).

This girl would make a fine Ootori bride.

Fuyumi disagrees.

This girl would make a fine bride for her Kyoya, not for an Ootori.


They graduated eventually, and the (now former) host club would not have time to try and whisk her away on Saturdays. She feels oddly empty. It has been months, and she still can't shake the habit of waking up at 6 AM on Saturdays, only to go right back to sleep.

It disturbs her.

It disturbs her until the day a knock sounds at the door just after she has her early wake up, and when she opens it Kyoya Ootori is standing before her.

They are silent for a beat.

"Are you going to invite me in" It is not really a question or request

"Kyoya," It takes a fair bit of will to remember that he is no longer her senpai

"Haruhi." She now understood why he used to hate it so much when she did that.

"It's six AM on a Saturday."

"Tamaki called me, he wishes to have a get together for ice cream. Preferably within the next thirty minutes."

"That sounds positively heinous."

"It does. I propose I call us a car."

"Make sure the fridge has plenty of eggs, I've been trying out new ways to cook them."

They act as if no time has passed since the last week they did this.

It makes her chest feel tight.


Despite no early plans from any of their associates, they relapse into old habits and resume their old pattern. They are in college now though, and sometimes they have so much work that they just bring it all and spend the night. Sometimes they spend weekends.

Sometimes he shows up at her door on days that are decidedly not Saturday, and times that are past six AM, and she makes them lunch (or when he wants real food he'll take them out). They aren't really dates.

Yet she hasn't gone on a date since the day he showed up at her door proposing they resume old habits, and they do spend an awful lot of time together.

They don't even realize that they're (sort of not really) dating until the day that Tamaki mentions how Haruhi's favourite author is signing books down the street and Kyoya says that her favourite author died three decades ago. This isn't such a big deal (he's still the shadow king) until Haruhi realizes that she knows just how he likes his coffee and tea and that he always walks her all the way to the door.

Haruhi is oblivious though, and upon noticing these things she still doesn't realize that they're (kind of almost basically) dating, instead she just pays more attention. When she pays more attention she sees all these little things she had hardly even realized she likes.

After this she (somewhat nearly not quite) wishes that they were dating.

Maybe someday they (really entirely officially) will.

Then he won't go to her place, they'll already be at theirs, and maybe then they won't feel the need to get away together quite so much.

Perhaps then they can sleep all Saturday, and it will finally be (not just in the same house) but (truly) together.


A/N: I really like the idea of this but at some point I lost steam and abandoned it. I really wanted to post it though so I came back and closed it off, sorry if the ending feels rushed. I just couldn't stand having it in my pile of unfinished one shots any longer.

Somewhat inspired by morning sickness, which was what I considered calling this. I was actually really on the fence about that, and even considered having a forward flash of Kyoya waking up suddenly to her vomiting.

Story word count at 1,955

-Lucas_Glbert