So, it's been almost six months or so since I last wrote any fanfiction. Decided to try it again. Not sure how it will work, or how well I'll write it. I got the idea from something I was working on in my mind. Reviews will be welcome for encouragement as always.

Chapter 1: The Explanation

Kyoya was an honest man. Or, at least as honest as any business man could be. He could at least say that he honored his agreements. In the end, what more could anyone ask for? Nowadays, people are lucky if someone honored legal documents.

Whatever happened, he honored his printed and spoken agreements. That didn't say he never found any loopholes or built any into his agreements.

This being said, the betting must be discussed.

More importantly, the bets with Tamaki.

They started out innocently enough.

I bet you that I can make Haruhi smile first.

I'll bet you won't eat that commoner's food.

I bet you can't make the twins shut up for more than ten minutes.

That one had been hard to win.

At the end of it all though, the betting had been going on for at least two years. They became harder and more frequent. None of the club members knew about the betting. Usually, when Kyoya beat Tamaki, no one wondered about why he was acting strange, as it occurred rather often. And when Tamaki won, there was often a new theme for the club.

But I dither.

With this background, let's continue onward to the story.

Tamaki rushed into the club room excited.

"Guys! There's a school festival coming up! We have to come up with an idea!" Tamaki looked at the club members with glee, stopping to stare at Haruhi. "We can have a booth that represents commoners! Like a Takoyaki booth!"

The club rolled their eyes at him.

"You do realize this is supposed to reflect how well we can run a business and to showcase our skills, right?"

Tamaki ignored Kyoya and stared at Haruhi, somehow expecting her to agree that it was a great plan.

The twins, however, slung an arm each around his shoulder. "Boss, how could that possibly be a good idea?"

"It's a tribute to the commoners! Can we do it Kyoya?"

"We'll see."

Others barely looked at Kyoya, knowing he'd manage to put a stop to this.

Kyoya, on the other hand, had plans to go with it. He always enjoyed making a new bet, and Tamaki was certain to agree to this one.

"Please Kyoya?" Tamaki tugged on Kyoya's shirt, trying to look as pitiful as it would take to make him agree.

"Why don't we talk about this later."

"Yeah! Come on guys, let's do our best today!" Tamaki raced off to check that everything was set up for the girls.

Kyoya, on the other hand, sat at his usual table with his notebook, a sanctuary of sorts amidst all the girls who would normally bother him. Most of the time, regardless of what he was actually doing, everyone assumed he was doing something important. In actuality, most times he just wrote what came to mind. Almost like a diary.

Sometimes he actually worked. There were plenty of times he actually worked, but when he didn't, he kept a paper of his calculations close by in case anyone got too close.

As the girls slowly filtered in, a few glanced in Kyoya's direction, but all of them found their way over to other hosts. Kyoya noted who each girl was, wrote down their name and who they requested.

He liked to keep track.

Looking around the room, he watched each of the hosts.

As per usual, Tamaki was surrounded by women. They hung on his every word.

Kyoya knew these girls were relatively smart, though they never acted that way here. On the other hand, many of them were here only to find a husband that their families would approve of to run the family business.

Mori and Hani were sitting with a few girls. Mori supervised Hani as he ate his fill in sweets.

Kyoya felt several stabbing pains where his wallet was. Hani's sweets obsession cost far more money than almost anything else in the club. With the exception of Tamaki's themed costumes, of course.

He barely glanced at the twins all over each other. Their fans generally watched them, squealing loudly instead of talking to them.

Finally, he glanced at Haruhi. He was most surprised at her success. For someone who wasn't bred to entertain, but she seemed to have a certain charm.

He shook his head and turned back to his notebook.

He then began writing about a few things that were on his mind and waited for the end of the club.

At the end of the day, when all of the girls filed out, waving at the members, they closed the doors and relaxed.

"These girls get more obnoxious every day!" Kaoru said, leaning back in his chair.

"They never know when to stop talking!" Hikaru added.

"They aren't that bad." Haruhi commented from her chair. "They're just…strange sometimes."

"You're too nice sometimes Haruhi," the twins chorused. Haruhi shrugged and began to pack her things up.

"We'd better get going or we'll be late for class."

"Got it Haruhi!" The twins skipped out after her to their next class.

Tamaki, in the meantime, had been shouting something about the despicable twins or some such thing. Most of the club ignored him by now.

Mori carried Hani out of the club room, also heading towards class. The two waved at Tamaki, though he didn't seem to notice while he was brooding in the corner.

Now that the others were gone, Kyoya toyed with the idea of telling Tamaki about the bet, but decided that it would be best to tell him after school. Instead, he wandered over to Tamaki and hit him on the head with his notebook.

"We need to go before we're late for class."

Tamaki jumped up.

"Oh! Yeah! You're right. We mustn't let our grades fall any."

Kyoya ignored the comment, not sure if it was meant as an insult to his grades being just a bit lower than his, but decided to brush it off. "Let's hurry up then."

Once school let out, Kyoya held back, putting his things away in a more orderly fashion than many of his peers.

Tamaki tapped his shoulder, his bag at his side.

"What are you doing, Kyoya? You don't usually take this long."

"I have a proposal for you."

Tamaki took a step back. The majority of conversations that started this way, never ended well.