Perfect Just the Way You Are

Kyouya x OC REMAKE

10/22
Reedited.

A/n: I am ashamed. So here's a redo. Hopefully, it's better. And in IC. And worth it enough for you to review? :)
It's much shorter, I suppose, but I tried to do this within two hours, at 11:00 pm. Now, it's 1:30 am. :i I'd really appreciate reviews.

Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club. You know, if we're being sued for this, while bother making a fanfiction . net in the first place?

Etsuko Suoh, half Japanese, half European. Simply a pawn on the chessboard of the wonders of which it was to belong to the Suoh family. For her, what is was like to have blond hair, to have foreign colored eyes - the color which was the putrid green. She was well mannered as the rest of them - speaking as fluently as the rest of them as well. Yet, the fact that she couldn't look nothing like her fellow Japanese classmates, made her an outcast. She couldn't fit in.

Often, the young girl wondered, if it gives you no use to have such a 'special' characteristics, when you are the most loneliest person in the world, and no one could notice you, as you pass along silently, why bother having them?

And that was the just of which was the depressing life of an Etsuko Suoh.

She came not long after Tamaki did, in fact, some would say that she was the extra 'copy' to have once they would be bored of a male. Such a thing wouldn't happen, of course, for Tamaki was intensely popular. Few wondered about such a thing, but others scoffed, shook their heads and went on with their lives quietly, while other boasted that there was absolutely no way, for the girl was much too 'plain' to be as extravagant as the blond, blue eyed male.

What was so boring about Etsuko? Not much, really, in a way, it intrigued the youngest son of the Ootori family. She quietly attracted the attention of others too, as Kyouya observed. But they'd then stop to think about where they had seen a similar person before, and before they could ask, she'd disappear, and they'd forget.

After all, she was merely Tamaki's cousin. Kyouya looked at his clipboard hidden among some books. She was brought up normally along with her 4 other siblings, she had no issues whether mentally or physically. There was nothing outstanding about her that made her stand out in the crowd. Easily noticeable blond hair within a crowd of brunettes, red heads, dark haired, orange brown, would fade away as she did as well, off to be her secluded self. Her grades are slightly better than average, always in the top 20, often a place at 11. Her appearance, at first glance, was 'pretty', with her Caucasian 'gifts' of blond hair, and green eyes that made her different, of course, from the Japanese females, save for those who dye/bleach their hair and the like. But other than that, she was a no one.

Etsuko didn't talk. She didn't even bother to glance at you should you pass by her in the hallways. She was an anti-social cloud, quietly walking along, minding her own business. She had no friends. And Kyouya would hear about it from his 'best friend' Tamaki, who'd be jabbering off about it in his ear often. It was rather annoying to no end. And this happened for the entire year of the ending of their first year of high school at the Ouran Academy.

But then, a sudden change happened.

Upon the beginning of their second high school year, she was talking to every single student, like she had finally noticed they existed. A suddenly introverted wallflower, to a social butterfly.

She talked to the students of companies and industries of lesser power, to the ones of greater. This included Kyouya, the youngest Ootori son, as well. When it had happened, of course, there was not much conversation between the two, but she and Tamaki, who happened to butt in, hit it off very quickly, like they finally noticed that they were cousins. It had been confusing Kyouya to no end. There were no records, no anything, as to why there was the sudden change, why she was doing this, there was absoutely nothing.

His private information network (which will be strictly classified, mind you) gave him nothing than already what he already knew.

Etsuko Suoh, half Japanese, half Caucasian. July 19, Cancer. Blood type O. Age 15. Grade average B. Looks are slightly pretty. Family name? Important. Has appeared in several modeling photo shoots as a minor girl, one or two pictures, at the very least. Her schools or life before Ouran Academy, was a blank sheet.

Nothing. It was absolutely nothing worth a bit of importance. Kyouya Ootori had lost several nights of sleep due to this.

She would occasionally visit the Host club. So he found a small chance of which she would open up. But he stressed in a disappointing matter: there was nothing still. She was merely polite, she didn't say much about herself, there were still traces of her being quiet, not used to the sudden matter of speaking to others. It was strange. And so, that was what the Dark King was thinking about briefly, as he sat in his seat, furiously writing away, with his laptop beside him on the table, as the final of their customers gone.

Scribble here, scribble there, the expenses for the next cosplay event that idiot Tamaki ordered for here an-

"O-Ootori-kun?"

His pen stopped writing as his line of thought was interrupted, and he paused. Kyouya was almost startled. Which was the keyword: almost. He was so flustered about the Suoh as he worked himself to no end, that the fact that the girl in question was as if she noticed his distress, and appeared before him, so she could taunt him. He glanced up with that fake gentlemen's smile, his voice was perfectly calm, and covered all disturbance. "Yes, Suoh-san?"

Her mind seemed to have focused on something, as shown to his through her eyes, with a mind determined. How curious. "Erm, not to bother you or anything, but," she nervously laced her hands together, looking to the floor instead of his face. "Would it be alright.. Erm, K-kyouya-kun." His eyebrow raised comically as he looked on paitiently. She stammered."I-is it okay if I call you that?"

Kyouya gave a small pause like he was considering it. "It's nice to consider using a more casual form of addressing each other," he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, "but I believe it's fine to acknowledge each other as we are now, there's no need to go further." He smiled, not genuinely of course, looked away and he picked up the pace on his writing again.

"O-oh. Right." There was a moment of silence. "Sorry." She apologized, but then added, ".. For asking." It sounded hurt. He could see her scurry away quietly from the corner of his eye, as she sat down beside Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai, greeting her cousin Tamaki, and as well as Haruhi and the twins. Honey-senpai seemed to have urged her to go and do what happened moments previous, and then looked at him suspiciously, frowning. Kyouya glanced back to his work. But his mind kept going back to his fleeting thoughts.

He felt a pang of regret. It was small, but it was there. Why did he say no? It was certainly better to improve his relationship with the Suoh family, if not, even further. Allowing her to call his by his given name casually, was no crime after all.

Perhaps her strangeness caught onto him.

A certain blond, blue eyed block of annoying seemed to have heard through the grapevine as what had happened earlier in the Third Music Room that afternoon. He called, of course. Immediately, upon Kyouya picking up, he didn't have a chance to finish saying hello.

[Kyouya!]

"What is it Tamaki?" Kyouya said through the phone, towel around his shoulders, pants loosely hanging off his hip, glasses on the table. The bathroom door closed behind him, and he dried his wet hair.

[You evil black demon! How dare you reject Etsuko-chan? She fell into despair because of you!]

Kyouya sighed. "You seem to be overreacting, and having the wrong idea." She fell into despair?

[Overreacting? Wrong idea? Kyouya, listen to me! You -]

"Tamaki. All it was really, was permission to call me by 'Kyouya-kun'. I didn't see a point to it."

[What?]

Kyouya didn't say anything as there a slight pause. It didn't last long.

[Why wouldn't you let her do that, Kyouya?]

Tamaki sounded annoyed, tensing on his name.

"I don't know, Tamaki."

[You don't know? What blasphemy is this!] The anger came back.

"I'm not repeating myself." Kyouya narrowed his eyes, as he sat on his comfortably large bed.

[Kyouya, I don't understand how you think sometimes.]

Likewise.

[In a sense, Etsuko-chan is just a timid rose, and you refuse to smell her!]

".. Tamaki. How in any way throughout our entire friendship, did that make sense?"

[Because! Kyouya, the female, like Etsuko, is like a rose, truly all like princesses, but really their scent is wha-] He wasn't dealing with this crap.

"I'm hanging up."

[W-wait! I still haven't finished on what I have to say! You have to treat Ets -]

Beep.

Kyouya placed the phone down, and threw his towel over to hang over his chair by the desk. His head is held in a stressing matter, as he heaves a heavy sigh. When he thinks about it, why as it that he had been researching her so hard? Was it because of the unsuccessfulness that caused him to take it out on the subject at hand?

He sighs again, and mutters quietly, but it sounded like it echoed in his mind. "I am truly becoming strange."

Etsuko Suoh did not understand why.

She didn't understand a lot of things. Such as why she was incredibly clumsy and so disorientated that she was the definition of ungraceful. Or why she preferred coffee over tea, which was a pain, since it caused more skin blemish issues that she didn't need at this point in her life or ever. Or perhaps why her sisters looked at her as role model, or as to why her mother found so much disappointment and fault in her.

She was a low self-esteemed girl, of course. It caused her to shrink away to a quiet, secluded girl that pushed almost everyone away. Etsuko. "Joyful child". She further disappointed her mother by what she is, a depressive loner, and was opposing her own name. It was true. She wasn't as 'joyful' as it is put.

It was only then that her mother tried to put some sense into her to, at the very least, 'socialize with the other children of companies, expand the company!' Tamaki helped reassure her that she would be able to do this when she tried to talk to his best friend, that she found much difficulty to do. Etsuko envied her cousin, Tamaki, for that.

But really, she envied Kyouya Ootori. She envied his brilliant coolness. Which explained his 'type' in the Host Club that he and Tamaki created. It was almost ridiculous how much she envied Kyouya. He was intelligent, and beautiful, and simply on good terms with everyone. According to Tamaki, Kyouya was a Demon King. She had to scoff at that. He always seemed so.. friendly. She fell in love at first sight.

But she couldn't understand it now.

He downright rejected her, in her simple small request to allow her to call him "Kyouya-kun". It was sad in a sort of reality. Her self-esteem blew up, the courage that had gathered up slowly to say such a thing went back to hide in what corners of her mind it was used to.

Etsuko simply couldn't understand as to why he didn't want her to call him by that.

It hurt, to be humiliated. To be rejected. It hurt, a lot.

The skinny girl stared at herself in the mirror, poking at her cheeks, and her hips, and then her thighs. She hated her image. If she could, she'd erase it all, and throw it away. Mind, and spirit, of what was left, would alight with her. 'Etsuko' didn't have to have a physical shape. Why couldn't she just exist as a spirit or something mentally? Because it's not possible, stupid. Her conscious told her, that it was overreacting to be thinking like that. But it was how she was, who she was. That was she kept repeating to herself every night before going to sleep.

She hated her long, blond hair. Why not have it short, and a dirty brown, even? She hated her green eyes. Why not black, and dark? So Estuko wouldn't have to worry about how different she was? She hated how pale she was. It was her fault, after all, being separated from doing soccer and basketball, to instead being forced to do tennis and track, of which she refuses to do, caused her to barely leave the house anymore, much less, go outside. School was an exception.

Why was she like this?

She threw a pillow at a wall in a way to sort out her anger. But she was interrupted suddenly by a loud rapping onto wood. A house-maid knocked on her door. "Suoh-gokujinsama?" Embarrassed to be interrupted in her own self-indulging, hatred rant, caught by surprise, she called out after only a few moments. "Y-yes?"

"There is a visitor here to see you, Etsuko-gokujinsama."
"..And, w-who may that be?"

"An Ootori Kyouya-sama." Her eyes opened to the point it almost hurt.
"W-wha - ! I-I'll be right out."
"I shall tell him to wait in the living room, then?"
"Y-yes."

She seemed shocked to have seen him. But Kyouya couldn't have blamed her, he did, after all, 'drop in unexpectedly'. The truth behind this was, that Tamaki had dragged him along to here (after making sure he had gotten his rest, of course, no one liked it when Demon King Kyouya awoke from the interruption of his rest) and then abandoned him here once the doorbell was rung. When the housemaid opened the door, he didn't have time to walk away, and he'd look stupid if he didn't state that he was here to visit somebody, if not otherwise.

As he sat quite comfortably on the leather couch in the large living room, he saw her figure going down the steps, long platinum blonde hair bouncing in movement, normal-pajama silk clothes were clinging to her lean form.

"O-ootori-kun, what's bring you here?"
"Supposingly, Tamaki had brought me along here, but he then disappeared off to somewhere." He spoke the truth. "I decided to visit anyway." He sipped a cup that was served to him calmly, and gave another gentlemen's smile.

There a silence as she sat down on the couch opposite to the one he was sitting on. He sipped some more tea, and placed it down on the table. "Kyou- I-I mean," it amused him slightly to see her mess up in which terms she were to acknowledge him by. "O-Ootori-kun," she corrected herself, as his attention was directed toward her. She seemed stuck on conversation. "I'm been wondering about this for a while.."

"Feel free to ask." He nonchalantly said.

"..Why is it that you give so many fake smiles?" Shyly she asked.

He blinked once. And then twice. "Hm?" He certainly wasn't expecting a question like that.

"Your.. your smiles. " She tried to look at him straight in the eye. "They're not real, are they? I-I mean.. I was just pointing ou-"

He chuckled darkly. "Are they now?"

".. Sorry."

She poured some more tea for him. ".. I-I was just wondering.."
"Go ahead and ask." He quickly said, to at the very least, get away from the subject, since he had just succeeded into moving away from the question, and prevented himself from answering it, no matter how pathetic it seemed.

"..H-how come I'm not allowed to call you Kyouya-kun?"

There was an awkward silence. A good 5 minutes of nothing said.

"I'm.. not very sure why myself, Suoh-san."
More uncomfortable silence.

".. I, I really like you, Ootori-kun."

That took him by the biggest shock of his life, for now at least. He couldn't even sip any more tea, his pupils dialated and his joints froze up. ".. Do you now." He said it slowly, as to not stutter.

"Y-yes.." Her face was flushing madly in a bright red. "Ootori.. no, Kyouya-kun," now, she was standing up. "I really, really like you."

Kyouya was still processing this through his mind. At a lost as to how to react. He couldn't simply brush her off right, much less, in her very own home. He looked at her. At her blond hair, and her green eyes. At her 'slightly pretty' face that seemed much more amazing now, fascinating, even. He looked, at a lost for words, unable to move.

"... You don't like me back?" The expression on her face was hurt.

Kyouya had to say something. "I.." But he didn't know what to say. This creature in front of him, who was standing now, in front of him, who had caught him at a loss for words, he, Kyouya Ootori, did not know what to say.

She gotten closer, face madly blushing. Slowly, but it went by so fast for him, she took hold of his face, and lightly brushed her lips against him, amateur hands shaking, and breath warm. It was a light kiss.

"I really, really like you, Kyouya." She whispered in a quiet voice, he could hear her breath against his lips. "Suoh-san, no, Etsuko.."

Kyouya took hold of her hand on his cheek. He couldn't look at her in the same way anymore. Just who was this girl? This girl, who had blond locks, and ivory skin, and green eyes? Why was she was such a mystery, a human of which had escaped the hands of being processed into information from Kyouya? Who was Etsuko Suoh, exactly, and why was he, Kyouya Ootori, so fascinated by her?

"This is my answer."

"Ootori-kun?"

He took hold of her hand, and pulled her closer, into a much more longer kiss. His heart beating faster, and he was sure that hers was beating faster as well. It felt.. exhilarating. And strange. But wonderful, at the same time. He pulled away, eyes fluttering open, and he looked straight at her.

".. You can call me Kyouya."

A/n: It was extremely lame, I understand. But you cannot blame a girl for trying to attempt fluff. Was that even fluff at all? /sigh.
~iceyxrain00 or, now, ~Nate Marshall Lee