Love was fragile. As fragile as the piece of glass twirling in his hand, fingers ghosting over a reflection as he stared at nothing in particular. The male frowned, looking at the fragility glass withheld. The piece to a broken frame scattered across the floor, a box lingering nearby filled with frames and photographs of happy times. Now, he felt he was locked in a choke hold of nostalgia. Wishing to fix something he couldn't. How vulnerable this family has become. The idiot who made it...will soon destroy it. His own self destruction...

Kaoru knew.

Kaoru knew he was as vulnerable as the glass in his hand, as vulnerable as the picture on the ground. The picture of the entire Host Club, all laughing and being jubilant. There was an arm not belonging to his brother around his waist, the male who owned the arm throwing a piece sign as Kaoru laughed and leaned on his shoulder. Hikaru was showing Haruhi something, the rest of the members looking at some sort of object in their hand. Even there, in still frame, Kaoru could see moving fragility and vulnerability. He looked at Tamaki's face, looking at the King who held all the keys, but kept jumbling them up.

Milord... The first to distinguish, the first to give us what we wanted. A fond smile danced slowly across the younger Hitachiin's face, golden-brown hued eyes almost sparkling, waiting for tears to spring loose as he dropped the glass, as well as the photograph. Both fell to the floor as Kaoru looked at the blood on his finger. He twirled to hard and fast on the glass, and it hurt him. He went too fast, he moved on too soon, and ended up hurt.

Footsteps sounded off through the Third Music Room, a tall gentle shadow looming over Kaoru as the color red seeped forth just slightly. The younger male turned his head to see a certain blond, who was more than concerned and serious. He reached out to take Kaoru's hand, examining the injury the glass imposed, the injury the reflection gave him.

"Kaoru...? How...?" Tamaki asked in that idiotic way. Kaoru didn't pull back, instead keeping eye contact on the second year, unaware of his vulnerability that stood out more than a simple cut. The king noted the facial expression, looking back at Kaoru as he moved his free hand to one of the boy's cheeks, wiping water, no...a tear. Fragile as glass, fragile as the frame he wanted to keep. "Hikaru's waiting for you outside."

Outside our world?

"I know, I was...just putting a picture back..." he whispered, eyes not leaving blue pools. Kaoru practically searched them, his own eyes darting slightly as if he was reading a book. Suou Tamaki noticed, and smiled gently, moving to take a napkin that mysteriously appeared out of his back pocket. He pressed gently against the cut, letting blood collect on white.

"Be careful. You shouldn't damage your perfection," the blond said quietly, almost to himself as he smiled. Always one with words, even if he was an idiot. Always knew everything. Kaoru sighed, nodding his head as he pulled back slightly. I'd be perfection if I was just like Hikaru. The youngest knew he was different, knew he couldn't compare anymore to his brother. He looked back up at his first true friend, putting on a false emotion, along with a smile. "You smiled more at the picture."

The smile faded.

"You know...love is fragile. As fragile as glass, and as vulnerable. You love Hikaru. You love him so much you'd part with your own true feelings in sake for his," Newfound intelligence? Probably. Kaoru blinked at Tamaki's words, wondering if he had prepared the speech he was listening to. Or maybe he suddenly acquired psychic powers, who could tell. "You're as fragile as love, as fragile as everything in this world."

"I am not. I'm only afraid, like every other human being on this Earth."

"Afraid of what?"

"Of losing my fantasy. Of letting it turn all back into the muddy pumpkin it once was. Afraid...afraid of losing you!" Kaoru shouted, moving his position on the ground, moving away from the other as he paused. I'm not afraid of losing him... His eyes met the other, who was blinking back in that innocent and idiotic way. The innocence that withheld even after they met. There was a short silence, Kaoru still unsure of how he came up with the last part. It was out of nowhere, out of some vast space in his mind. Something he couldn't recollect that caused the reaction to shout it. He was vulnerable, weak, unable to restrain the tears that soon collected in his eyes, overflowing like an over watered vase.

Tamaki moved in a quick motion to pull the male into a hold, not caring if the napkin had long since landed on the floor admist silence. Kaoru gasped lightly as he opened his eyes. He didn't need someone's comfort, he didn't need anyone to repair broken glass. He could remain vulnerable and mask it, he could--

"I won't let you lose me. How can I let go of love?" Tamaki asked, smiling lightly. Kaoru almost couldn't understand the idiot's question. The rhetoricalness of it all, the randomness... Nothing clicked. He looked up, feeling his tears wiped again. It was too sudden, everything was too sudden. One second he was looking at fragility, the next he became it. Kaoru was silent, still blinking at the other as if he were the sky. "A pumpkin can't be ruined if there's someone to help it grow."

"Tamaki..." he saw a smile trace the male's features again, almost wondering if this male was only pretending to be such an idiot, hiding under a mask just like the younger individual. Individuality. He feared it. He feared being his own person, yet...he had someone to ride his carriage for him, and that someone was looking at him as if it were forever since they met. The room almost started spinning, before Tamaki held onto Kaoru with such warmth, it made all fragility fade into nothing.

"You won't be an empty fragile vase if I fill you with love, will you?" he whispered, holding on as if afraid to let go. Kaoru couldn't decipher the cryptic messages, but he shook his head anyway. Love? Love would remain just as fragile as a vase, Kaoru knew. Tamaki didn't have to know, yet.

So the redhead let him be the support, to be the thing holding glass together.

To be the passenger beside him in a carriage fit for two

a/n;; Because I felt the world needed more TamaKao, and because I'm a sucker for metaphors. When you think on it, TamaKao actually makes a whole lot of sense, especially if Hikaru and Haruhi end up. I know...the situations may not make sense. I know I fail at grammar. But...don't you see how true to words some of this may seem?

Discuss.