Author's Note: A crossover with Ouran... this first chapter is pretty short; however, make no mistake, my intention is for the following chapters to be much, much longer. Will they actually be longer? Who knows, but that is what I am planning to do at least. Maybe I'll even come back and expand this chapter at a later point.
Oh, and I openly admit I just looked on Google Translate for the French sentences, though I at least took the time to learn whether I should use neuf or nouveau. I would appreciate it if someone could correct me if it turns out to be horribly mangled French, as most of what Google Translate translates is.
Chapter 1: Hot and Cold
"Ah, here we are at the prestigious Yamaku Academy!" The blonde, handsome Tamaki Suou dressed in typical school attire shouted to no one in particular with a radiant smile on his face. People turned to look at this unexpected source of noise with bemused expressions on their faces. The male students began murmuring to each other as soon as they saw this obviously foreign outsider, but Tamaki did not have a chance to notice due to the frankly ridiculously large masses of girls running up to him excitedly.
"Oh, oh, what's your name?" "Where'd you come from?" "How do you like Yamaku so far?" The swooning crowd inquired.
"Tamaki Suoh, my dears," Tamaki looked at his crowd as he said so, his smile never wavering even as he glanced over girls with missing arms or horribly scarred visages. It was unnerving to him, sure, but he would not let such a petty matter dissuade him from his goal of spreading happiness.
As he looked over the crowd, he spotted a girl with crutches lacking both of her legs desperately trying to make his way to him. It completely eviscerated his heart.
"Crowd, please disperse for a second," Tamaki said with a smile, gesturing with fluent sign language as he said this. The crowd obliged, allowing Tamaki to make his way to the girl. "How are you this fine day, my dear?"
Blushing luminescently, the girl answered shyly but excitedly, "Oh, I'm g-great!"
Tamaki pulled a red rose out of nowhere and knelt, offering the rose to the girl in one fluent, practiced motion. The girl giggled and her blush deepened.
"My day was going badly, but now that you're in it, it's become the best day of my life," Tamaki said with a seductive smile.
"So handsome!" "So charming!" "So charismatic!" The crowd of fangirls veritably screamed, their affection of this random stranger growing by the second.
Alas, this moment was not to last. The bell suddenly rang, causing the ever growing crowd and the girl to yelp in surprise. The girl soon composed herself and smiled at Tamaki as she headed toward class.
"Hope to see you soon, Tamaki!"
"It's the only thing that keeps me going, my dear!" Tamaki waved goodbye to her before proceeding to take a good look at the school and ponder. This being his first day, he was told to make his way to the headmaster's office but he saw no need to hurry there.
Tamaki observed that Yamaku had a main building for school activities, the male dormitories, female dormitories, and a gymnasium, all much more colossal in size than most schools. To Tamaki, Yamaku gave off a feeling of extravagance due to the pristine cleanliness, beautiful designs, and its general size. This school was certainly nowhere near as luxurious as Ouran, but it was certainly sufficient for him.
As he thought of Ouran, memories of his old school came flooding back to him. It was a magnificent school for sure and his father was the chairman but... his memories of that place were not as fond as most people would expect. There were definitely many good moments, but they all felt transient and forgettable even mere minutes after they took place. Reflecting over the variety of torments he suffered through at Ouran, he thought back to the event at the prestigious school that pained him most.
Éclair Tonerre... I wonder what has become of her now. Has she moved on and found someone else or does she live in eternal grief now...?
"So, you are Tamaki-sama of the famous Suoh family, yes?" A bespectacled, young man with well-kept black hair, quite dashing and smartly clad in a suit and tie, walked up to Tamaki with an affable grin, startling him out of his pondering. "French on your mother's side if I recall correctly?"
"Mon ami, you are absolutely correct!" Hiding his sadness, Tamaki leapt in the air happily while the bespectacled man quickly typed this information onto his laptop, his gaze still focused on Tamaki's face. "So, comment vous appelez-vous, mon neuf ami?"
"Je suis Kyoya Ootori de la famille Ootori, connu pour leur travail dans le secteur medical," Kyoya said, speaking in fluent French. He returned to his native language and continued, "My dream to is to one day inherit the company from my father and continue to continue its research in various cures for afflictions formerly deemed incurable before The Ootori Group actually created them.
And I think you can help me with my ambitions, Tamaki Suoh.
"Wonderful, wonderful, Kyoya, mon ami! That is quite impressive that you can speak French so fluently!"
"It must be a pleasure to find someone who could speak your native language so fluently, Tamaki-sama."
"Indeed it is, Kyoya, indeed it is! And here I thought I would be the lone student here who could speak French just like... my old school," Tamaki said with almost imperceptible hesitation. Kyoya, however, caught it and quickly looked at his laptop.
Interesting... he attended Ouran before transferring to Yamaku due to a mild case of cardiomyopathy... Kyoya pondered as he quickly glanced at his records on Tamaki. What possible reason could he have for disliking Ouran? And wouldn't Ouran be a better alternative, considering the vast wealth of Ouran? Kyoya typed this information onto his laptop, eager to analyze it further in the future.
"And what are you typing there, Kyoya?" Tamaki asked curiously. He also wished to ask what Kyoya's reason for attending Yamaku was, but he feared that would be too personal and so restrained himself from asking.
"Just Student Council business on behalf of our great Queen Hakamichi. She had assigned me to profiling all the new arrivals to Yamaku years ago when I first joined the Council and I feel I have done so adequately in your case as well as every other... Additionally, if you wish to know what my reason for coming here is, I suffer from a little known condition known as... deafness."
Gah! A mind reader? Tamaki thought, a startled expression quickly appearing on his face. Tamaki could see the blatant amusement showing on Kyoya's face even as he tried to hide it. Well, a mind reader is perfect for my club!
Wait a second, deafness?
"I must also point out I am far from a mind reader; yes, I am an expert at reading lips; yes, I do pull that trick often," Kyoya said amusingly as he walked away. Shock overcame Tamaki again but he soon shook it off and ran to catch Kyoya. He tapped him on the shoulder lightly to catch his attention when he managed to catch up to him.
"Kyoya!" He yelled, making sure the forcefulness and passion of his words could be heard even though Kyoya could not actually hear them. Kyoya turned to look at him with a quizzical expression. "Would you like to start a club with me?"
While Kyoya was startled by this sudden inquiry by a person he had only met mere minutes ago, he collected himself quickly and answered smoothly, "What club, Tamaki-sama?"
"The Yamaku Academy Host Club, where boys with too much time on their hands entertain girls who also have too much time on their hands!" Tamaki shouted with a smile.
"What?" Kyoya hoped he had misread Tamaki's lips. "You mean to say you want to start a... male prostitution ring?"
"Oh no, no, not at all! A host club is far from a prostitution ring! Well, I mean, at least this particular one is not. Us hosts will merely provide food and drink to our patrons and charm them with our divine appearances and personalities. No sex involved, I promise you!"
Us hosts, eh... Kyoya repressed a sigh and forced himself to smile.
"Well, Tamaki-sama, when you put it that way... " It sounds just as bad... "It sounds wonderful!"
France's classical romantic air must have taken over his mind... This is going to be much harder and MUCH more annoying than I had originally thought...
"Woohoo! Mon ami! Mon ami! Let's begin recruiting right after classes end, Kyoya!"