Disclaimer: Bisco Hatori owns Ouran and all its characters.

This is set after the volume 18 special chapter, so... spoilers if you haven't read it yet :'D this is written for Ouran Contest's "Abnormal" oneshot challenge, but I also dedicate it to all the wonderful people who read and reviewed Duet and who are still doing so. Eeee, it makes me so happy!

Haruhi had never exactly been "normal", but anyone's standards. Raised for most of her life by Ranka (or, as she preferred to call it, raising Ranka for most of her life), her perceptions of things were far different from those of other people. When most people saw a transvestite, they were at least a bit curious, but to Haruhi it was an everyday part of life. This was only one example, but it was the most glaringly obvious in Tamaki's eyes. There were a lot of odd things about Haruhi, he mused as he watched her finishing her homework assignment, lying on his stomach on her bed in the small Boston apartment with Antoinette swishing her tail beside him, but he loved her all that much more for them.

"Are you two going to sit there and watch me the whole time?" Haruhi asked, and Tamaki laughed a bit.

"Of course," he replied grandly, smiling as she turned to look at him over her shoulder. "We have to be there to whisk you away the moment you finish so that we may journey to the park, my fair princess!"

"Do you really have to talk like that?" Haruhi asked him, though she didn't really sound annoyed.

"Why yes, as a matter of fact," Tamaki got up and moved over to her, leaning down to sling his long arms around his girlfriend's shoulders. "At the moment my acting class is doing our rendition of Romeo and Juliet, and I must practice outside of class whenever I can!"

"Oh..." Haruhi said, turning most of her attention back to her homework. "Well, could you do it a little quieter? I'm almost done. Just a few minutes of quiet."

"But alas Haruhi, my voice cannot be stifled, for I am playing the handsome and dashing Romeo, a fitting role for my own personality, I must admit! And so I must remain fully practiced for the play which we will be performing— "

"If you're Romeo, that means you have to kiss somebody," Haruhi informed him bluntly, not looking up from her homework. Tamaki paused, his blood running cold for just a moment and his eyes widening to almost unrealistic proportions.

"Wh—what?" he asked, his lips trembling.

"Romeo kisses Juliet before he takes his own life," Haruhi deadpanned. "It's the finale. Didn't you read the script?"

Tamaki grabbed the rather thick script from where it lay on the bed beside Antoinette, who barked happily. "I... had only glanced at it," he admitted gingerly, flipping through the stapled pages a bit. "Are you... absolutely sure?"

"Yeah," Haruhi replied, glancing up at him. Any normal girlfriend would probably have been rather distressed at the prospect of Tamaki kissing another girl for a play but Haruhi was taking it all in stride. "Haven't you ever read the play before?"

"Well to be honest... no," Tamaki admitted with a slow sigh. "I... haven't really read much American literature."

"It's British," Haruhi pointed out. "And I'm surprised a guy like you hasn't read that play."

Tamaki flipped through some of the ending pages of the play, skimming over passages of tragedy that made his eyes moisten, and then came upon the dreaded sentence. There it was. Romeo bends to kiss Juliet. Gasping, he raised his eyes from the page, fixing them on Haruhi, and then the hysterics began.

"Oh Haruhi, had I known when we were doing auditions I would never have tried for the romantic lead! Never!"

"You didn't think there'd be any kissing in a romantic play?" she asked, raising an eyebrow and pushing her chair back from her desk, apparently abandoning all hope of getting anything else done on her homework.

"I... hadn't really thought about it! I just heard that he was a dashing man of great passion and I couldn't miss the chance to audition as him! But I cannot allow my lips to touch those of a woman who isn't my precious Haruhi! I'll... I'll drop out of the play, that's what I'll do! I'll drop out and I'll let someone else play Romeo, that's it!"

Haruhi had moved beside him while he was panicking, and he stopped at the soft feeling of her hand on his arm. Her small hand was warm and it was soft, and it calmed him quite a bit to feel it. She was staring up him with those large brown eyes of hers that had somehow always reminded him of an adult's eyes, though she was younger than he was.

"Really senpai, it's okay. You can kiss someone else if it's just for a play," she was smiling just a little and it made Tamaki's heart jump pleasantly. Although they had been friends for nearly two years now and had been dating for eight months, every time she smiled at him it still felt like the first time. "I know you really wanted to be in this play, and you don't have to drop out of it just because of something silly like this."

"Silly?" he asked, completely unable to fathom the idea. To him it was a major, crushing situation the likes of which his fragile heart could not take, and apparently to Haruhi it was... silly?

"Yeah. Silly. It's just a play. You'll be acting. And you can even just fake a kiss if you want. I don't know why you're making such a big deal out of this... though I guess I should be used to this kind of thing from you by now." Haruhi shook her head. "Honestly, senpai, I think you take things way too seriously."

"But... but you're my girlfriend and... kissing another girl would be..."

Haruhi cut him off as well as took him by surprise as she took hold of the collar of his shirt and gently pulled him down to her eye level. It looked like it was taking her a moment to gain her bearings—oh how cute—before she pressed her lips gently to his. Tamaki melted happily into the kiss. It wasn't often that she showed such affection without prompting and it made him feel very special and very warm everywhere. Haruhi kissed him just as chastely as always, her lips warm and soft and so completely safe that he forgot for a moment what his current drama was all about and just kissed her, cupping her face gently so her neck wouldn't get tired and letting himself get invested in the warm and sweet romance of the moment.

Finally, Haruhi pulled back, but a little red in the face despite how many times they had already kissed in the course of their relationship. Tamaki sighed happily, his heart warm and his lips thoroughly satisfied for the time being. For a moment he simply grinned down at her, going through his mind and trying to figure out exactly what it had been that they were talking about before. He often completely lost his train of thought when they kissed. Oh, right. It had been about the play. About kissing another girl. Kissing another girl! Panic set in again momentarily but Haruhi's calmness soothed him.

"See, how that kiss meant something?" she asked patiently, and Tamaki nodded vigorously.

"It meant everything!" he gave her vocal affirmation as well, not even wanting to risk the fact that she might think it hadn't somehow. He was very generous with his reassurances. "Absolutely everything, Haruhi! It warmed my heart so—"

Haruhi pressed a finger to his lips to shut him up. "Shhh. My point is that it means something because we love each other. Kissing someone you don't love doesn't mean anything, and you don't feel anything from it. It's not like when we kiss."

She would know that, wouldn't she, Tamaki realized, remembering that time he had accidentally caused the loss of her first kiss to Miyako-chan. He flinched just a bit at the memory. Slowly, he nodded. He personally had never kissed anyone but Haruhi on the lips, and he would have to simply trust her assurance. She was rarely wrong, after all.

"So... it's okay?"

"It's okay," Haruhi said with a firm nod, smiling at him a little in that wonderful way of hers. "I'm not going to be mad, and it's not going to hurt things between us. Just have fun with your play, okay?"

"Okay," Tamaki said almost meekly, slipping his hand through hers and holding it gently. "Can we watch a movie now?"

"But my homework—"

"Can wait," Tamaki finished for her, pulling her close against him and watching her face flush. He held her like that for a moment, staring deeply into her eyes with a loving and penetrating gaze that eventually made her squirm. She didn't seem to want to look at him now and it made him chuckle. Just a little.

"Fine," she agreed, and Tamaki gave a small whoop of joy, taking her hand and pulling her into the living room and noticing that rather than looking annoyed, she had a smile on her face. They selected a movie to watch together (after quite a bit of bickering), and then as they settled down on the sofa, Haruhi held comfortably in his arms and close to his heart, Tamaki kissed her on the top of the head. He was grateful for moments like this, moments that so easily could have not happened, and he held her a little closer, smelling her rather feminine shampoo and not minding that her ever-growing hair tickled his chest where the top few buttons of his shirt were undone.

"I love you so, so much, Haruhi," he whispered passionately against the back of her head and was pleased to note that she did not stiffen or stammer in reply this time, as she had so many times in the early days of their relationship. Instead she pushed a little closer, and Tamaki could almost feel her smiling.

"You too," she replied warmly, one hand reaching up to ruffle his hair affectionately. At that moment, everything was utterly perfect, and Tamaki did his best not to weep with joy. He pressed this moment into his mind so he could look back on it with a warm fondness when they were married and had twelve children together, or maybe twenty, if he had his way. Even when the rest of the former host club burst in later to ruin their alone time, Tamaki could not really bring himself to mind too much, because through it all there was a wonderful notion running through his head.

He and Haruhi may be, in his eyes, as romantic and tragic a couple as Romeo and Juliet, but they had a bright, long future together, and it stretched for miles and miles.