A War of Words
Summary: Tamaki's determined to find the right words. But so far, things aren't going well. He never hated logic so much…
Pairing: Tamaki/Ayame (You know, the girl in chapter 17? This might one of the first stories with this pairing… First of many maybe? -nudge nudge, wink wink- ;D )
I hope you like it, and I'd love to know what you think~!
Tamaki loved beauty. In fact, he adored it.
And he strived for it with every fibre of his body.
Not just the physical beauty of the world around him or in the people that he met, but in everything in life. He wanted the radiance of love and the splendour of a wholesome family. He wanted the pretty joy of a smile and the gorgeousness of an honest heart. He wanted to bring together everyone he cared for and watch the pure beautiful glamour that shone from their love.
More than anything, he wanted this dream of a simple and downright beautiful life to be his reality. He treasured his image of it and, with every step he took and every life he touched, he felt himself getting even closer.
Maybe it was because of this, that Tamaki found himself with a remarkable eye for the perfection in every single person he met.
Despite all of the sceptical sneers and disbelieving teases, when he talked to a girl in the host club he always meant every last word he said with an honest sincerity. He was never more serious than when he was poetically whispering all the gorgeous perfections he saw in each unique costumer. Because really, what greater sight was there than when a young girl's eyes lit up with wonder as he span an elegant truth of her eyes, or her hair, or her particular shape of face?
Nothing on earth compared to it, in Tamaki's opinion.
But in all of his endeavours to acknowledge the beauty of the world and let everyone rejoice in it, there were two girls who were never impressed with his poetic words.
One of them was, of course, Miss Fujioka Haruhi.
Though he saw many beautiful aspects about her - not least her remarkable strength of character and her adorable eyes - she always drew up a huge wall of indifference between them that his compliments could never get through. Not a day went by that he didn't try to express how he saw her and not a day went by that she didn't casually shoot him down with a harsh word or two.
Though in Haruhi's defence, she did tell the twins to stop harassing him when he sat in the corner to sulk about his failure.
The other held much more intriguing standards than just blatant uncaring.
Miss Jonouchi Ayame.
While Haruhi preferred to spare him a few uninterested words or simply ignore him until he moved onto a less metaphorical topic, Ayame suffocated him in waves of deadpan logic, which brought about her nickname - the dreaded 'Miss Morse'. But despite all that, she still regularly designated him and spared him a greeting whenever they met. It was as if she was challenging him to a war of words:
You don't impress me. Should you really be saying such illogical things to try to please girls? I'm sure you can do better than that, really. Don't insult me by not being able to come up with an adequate phrase yet still be higher up than me in the ratings.
Impress me.
Her standards and way with words caught onto Tamaki's interest despite himself and her muffled yet shining beauty sharpened his resolve.
Only once, other than the time they had first met, had Tamaki ever held her face gently in his hands and whispered words that made her eyes widen and glisten and her cheeks shine.
Only that one time.
But Tamaki would do anything to see that look - full of such hesitant wonder and innocent earnest - in her eyes again.
Because, in that moment, she was the most beautiful being he had ever seen.
Tamaki smiled slowly to himself as he stared out in approval at the courtyard, which had been draped in tiny golden lights like stars, mirroring the sky above him. There was an elaborately decorated hall behind him, bright and alive with the glamour of the Host club's annual party, which opened out onto the balcony on which he stood, made of smooth pale stone.
All was silent apart from the soft, slow music from the final dances behind him and the quiet hum of insects, hidden in the handsome trees.
Feeling rather giddy at the splendour of it all, he turned happily to the girl beside him, whom he had escorted outside so she could see the beautiful winter night for herself. Ayame glanced back at him quickly before becoming very interested in the sky above them, her face pink and passive.
"Ayame." He smiled softly, pointing up and ducking his head slightly so he could offer her his legendary 'look from below' look. "How beautiful the stars are! They remind me so much of your eyes, silver and clear, full of more clarity than any mere mortal could possess!"
She looked at him.
"Are our surroundings not gorgeous? With the darkness of the night and the glimmer of the stars, it almost seems as though we are the only ones alive…"
She cocked an eyebrow.
"But, alas! You outshine it all, princess, just as a glowing beacon outshines a mere candle."
She cocked the other eyebrow.
"Your beauty seems to radiate and make our surroundings sparkle even more, like a well-polished diamond! Look, even the stars shine brighter as you walk beneath them, my princess-"
"'The stars shine brighter'?" Ayame suddenly repeated sharply, giving the sky an unimpressed stare before she ruthlessly continued.
"What a ridiculous thing to say. Stars are millions of light-years away so even if I could change them by walking here, it would be years and years until you would actually be able to see anything. And in any case, stars would only 'shine brighter' if they were at the end of their life and thus expanding into giant balls of poisonous gas."
Tamaki blinked.
"So, are you suggesting," she went on, a dangerous glint in her eyes as he spluttered in horror, "that I make stars die when I look at them?"
"N-No! It was j-just a princely and romantic comparison-"
"I fail to see any romance in it."
"But my starry night princess-!"
"You really should think before you say such reckless things."
And with that, Ayame strode off to sample the buffet.
And, though it may just be his imagination, she seemed to have a happy skip in her step as she left Tamaki to turn to dust under the weight of her suffocating logic.
"Milord?"
"Yes?"
"What are you doing?"
"Reading."
"We can see that, lamebrain, but-"
"-why are you reading a dictionary?"
Tamaki paused and lowered the leather-bound book slightly to glower at the twins, whose impish faces were fixed into identical, incredulous smirks. It was the beginning of what should be their weekly meeting, but Tamaki had so far abandoned his seat as head of the club to read what was, as Hikaru and Kaoru had brilliantly pointed out, a dictionary.
"This," he began pompously, pointing at it with a dramatic flourish, "is a fountain of knowledge! You devils probably won't understand this, but our language is full of beautiful words just waiting to unleashed! And I will find them!"
Kaoru raised an amused eyebrow and Hikaru snorted mockingly.
"Milord, you know just about every word ever to exist, ever. I've never heard anyone who can talk as much drivel as you." Kaoru pointed out cynically, propping up his head on a fist so he could regard his huffing upperclassman. "Why do you want to know more words?"
As Tamaki sniffed and muttered something under his breath that sounded idiotically like 'your mind is too corrupted to understand my humble search for beauty', Hikaru jumped up and snapped his fingers, swapping a quick smirk with his counterpart. He waggled his eyebrows a bit and Kaoru laughed in creepily perfect understanding before they both rounded on their 'king' again.
"But, you know, there is one person who can talk even more than you and totally run rings around you, isn't there?" Hikaru grinned wickedly, baring his teeth. "You wouldn't be trying to impress anyone, would you, Milord?"
"I don't know what you're talking about." He huffed again, hurriedly stuffing his nose back into the boring-looking book. "I'm simply widening my vocabulary."
The twins' smirks widened even more, and Tamaki honestly wouldn't be surprised to see devil horns sprouting from their flame-coloured heads. Perfectly in sync, they leaned forward and narrowed their eyes teasingly, enjoying themselves much more than they should.
"It's so sweet, Milord-"
"That you're trying so hard-"
"To find the words-"
"That'll impress-"
"A-"
"Cer-"
"-tain-"
"Cus-"
"-tom-"
"-er~"
"Stop it!"
The twins sniggered evilly as Tamaki finally dropped his precious dictionary to stare at them with the same horrified air as one would look at a possessed child.
"Don't do that!" He shivered. "It's creepy enough when you finish each other's sentences - if you start finishing each other's syllables I'm sending the both of you to an exorcist!"
"Huh." Hikaru paused in their teasing to tap his chin, looking thoughtful as he glanced at his twin. "True. We haven't done that before." He grinned. "It was kind of cool."
Kaoru beamed back at him. "Hear hear. High-five for the twin moment, bro."
Tamaki sighed as they slapped each other's hands, looking triumphant, and quickly took advantage of their distraction to try to find his place again - though it really should have occurred to him just to move away from them instead. As Tamaki had his head lowered, buried in the depths of his book, he didn't notice the girl who suddenly slipped through the doors, primly holding a pile of files as she scanned the room.
The twins however, did notice.
Seemingly intent on making their dear king's life miserable, they sniggered wickedly and both stood up dramatically, sticking their hands on their hips and regarding Tamaki with a mockingly innocent look.
"Really Milord," Hikaru began with a theatrical sigh, "stop reading the dictionary!"
Kaoru swiftly took up the baton, "Will memorising a lot of words really impress Miss Ayame?"
Tamaki blinked up at them blankly. "Why are you emphasising stuff…?"
There was a sudden, sharp cough behind him and Tamaki turned to find, to his complete and utter horror, Ayame standing next to Kyouya (to whom she had been delivering the files and who was looking mildly amused), giving him a painfully deadpan look.
"Ah… Uh… Good… Good day princess… Heh…" Tamaki spluttered, shooting the smirking twins a deathly glare.
Jerks.
"It's no good memorising words," Ayame spoke up crisply, slight irritation leaking into her voice, "if you can't even string them together into a tangible sentence. If you wish to impress people, surely there are better things to read than a common dictionary of no real final intent or purpose."
Her glasses suddenly flashed with a scary resemblance to Kyouya, and Tamaki shrunk back into his seat. "It shocks me that someone who is apparently so academically gifted, can't even hold true to his claim of being able to charm with his words and has to lower to reading such dull material."
In a nutshell, she thought he was an idiot.
Succeeding in suffocating everyone with her unstoppable tidal wave of harsh words, Ayame finally nodded to Kyouya and swept out of the third music room. She only paused at the door to spare Tamaki a passive glance and comment, "Remember, you're in charge of class again tomorrow. Don't forget to make a proper entry. And use a ruler."
And with that, she left them.
There were a few moments of silence. Then-
"Smooth move," Haruhi remarked dully, rolling her eyes.
Tamaki retreated to his corner of woe to sulk as both twins slung an arm around Haruhi and burst into hysterics at their king's failure.
Sometimes, he really had to wonder why he chose to invite Hikaru and Kaoru into the club.
Ayame sighed softly as she drew another refined sip from her china teacup; though the bitter taste was sharp on her tongue, it was also accompanied with a subtle sense of inner relaxation, or as much as Ayame allowed herself to feel anyway. The end-of-term tests were coming up soon and she had been revising madly for them, even going as far as reading whole novels of foreign literature just to brush up. She was determined not to lose out to Tamaki this time.
She had been determined all the other times as well, but that was beyond the point.
This time, she wouldn't lose.
Despite all this however, Ayame had found herself wandering into the third music room and into the bright atmosphere of the Host Club, in which she hadn't been to for several weeks due to her reverent studying. Kyouya had welcomed her with a polite smile and escorted her to a table, where she had to wait with a cup of tea as her only company until Tamaki arrived; she had never known him to be late before but primly shrugged it off.
She took another sip from her cup and gave the room a sweeping glance over its elegant rim; her eyes narrowed slightly as they flickered across the Hitachiin twins, one of whom seemed to be sitting on the other's lap. She had never quite forgiven them for that hair comment…
"Princess!"
She blinked in surprise and looked up to see Tamaki finally walking up to where she sat, pulling a hand regally through his hair in a subconscious model pose as he smiled warmly at her. In his hand was a stunning bouquet of irises, all deep purples and blues, and his face was lightly flushed, as if he had just ran over from the other side of the school - which he had.
When he had found out who his next designation was - ten minutes prior - he had hurriedly scrambled out of the room and sprinted to the greenhouse, where he had already got the gardening club to promise to keep a flourishing bunch of irises safe for him for when a certain costumer visited again. It was sweet… in an idiotic sort of way.
"For you." He smiled suavely as he passed over the fragrant flowers, bowing slightly to complete the 'gentleman' image he was going for. "Your namesake."
"Mm." She murmured quietly as she looked down and ducked her face into them, all to hide the sudden and shamefully warm blush spreading across her cheeks.
Looking rather chuffed with himself, Tamaki finally sat delicately down next to her, instinctively flicking his hair in a way that he knew looked gorgeous.
He smiled pointedly at his guest as he ignored the devilish smirks from Hikaru and Kaoru on the other side of the room, who were mockingly fawning over a dictionary. They fluttered their eyelashes at it and slowly kissed its spine before loudly guffawing at the forced expression on their king's face.
Tamaki furiously made a mental note to put both of them on cleaning duty.
That'll teach them.
"Is there any reason for the flowers?" Ayame suddenly spoke up and lifted her head, having apparently recovered. She slowly placed the bouquet primly in her lap and gave him a mildly questioning look.
Tamaki beamed, delighted that she'd asked, and lifted a finger up with a flourish, looking royally smug.
"You see, princess," he began, pausing dramatically in his usual manner, "the Host club is very interested in commoner's culture, and so we are offering an once-in-a-lifetime service for a few privileged costumers!"
He paused to check if she was listening, and happily took her arched eyebrow and sceptical look as a good sign. "Commoner's have the most fascinating festivals every winter and each of our members is taking one of their regular costumers to experience it with us, as a thank you for visiting our club so often. And-"
"Oh?" Ayame sharply interrupted him, seeing where this was going. Though she was (secretly) flattered that he would choose her to ask to the strange commoner event, the illogic behind such a choice prodded her to speak out. "I'm hardly so inactive that I have the time to be a regular costumer here." (Tamaki winced.) "I've been more than occupied with my studying to visit here in the last few weeks. Surely there are better choices?"
"Heh… yes, well, there are other factors involved…" Tamaki muttered sheepishly, having natively hoped that she wouldn't ask - because if it had been any other costumer, she would be too busy squealing to ask.
Ayame quirked an eyebrow. "Such as?"
"Such as… how… pretty you are!" Tamaki beamed in relief at finding a - to him - perfect answer and thrust out his hands in a princely pose. "Yes, yes! You see, the princess I escort to this seasonal event should be the personification of winter's rare yet stunning beauty! And so you are!"
He suddenly placed a delicate finger under her chin to look at her eyes, smiling suavely as he stared into their depths for a second before he continued.
"The rare silver in your eyes is like the glittering snow, which beautifies all it touches with its fleeting and gentle caress! And yet, as much as your soft beauty reminds me of winter, it also echoes and compliments the warm summer rain, as well as the rainbow compliments the sky! You are as stunning as the iris flower, after which you are so… appropriately named… my… princess…"
His tattle slowed down to a nervous silence when he noticed the way she was wrinkling her nose in distaste, like a queen faced with a burnt dinner.
"Princess?" He prompted sheepishly, wondering wildly whether the twins were doing anything twin-ish behind him to offend her (like pretending to make out with a dictionary for example).
She gave him an unimpressed stare.
"Your hands smell of compost." She informed him, to which he blanched in horror and hurriedly withdrew his hands to inspect them; water might not hurt his looks, but mud sure would.
Ew, mud.
But Ayame had only just started her logical word wave of doom:
"Though really, why do you always have to resort to complimenting people with flowers? I would have thought someone of your apparent intellect could think of something a little more realistic." She retorted dully, only pausing slightly to spare him a sceptical look before she ploughed on.
"A flower isn't the most romantic comparison. I fail to comprehend why so many girls seem to be so flattered by it. Is it not true that a flower's allure comes primarily from its petals, which are only so colourfully dyed to encourage reproduction and attract insects? All of which I detest. Am I so like a flower?"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"…"
"… Would… that be a yes, then…?"
So, somehow, it transpired that Tamaki was to escort Ayame to the winter festival.
Tamaki was, of course, ecstatic.
What better time to try to express her beauty to her than when they were surrounded by such an exciting atmosphere? This time, he was determined to find the right words. After all, how could he rest when such an intriguing girl didn't even know how especially beautiful he found her? He had already wrote down a few compliments he could offer to her - each one with the aid of a dictionary and stretching over at least 500 words - but none of them seemed quite right.
Tamaki frowned slightly to himself (only slightly - he didn't want to get wrinkles) as he thought about it. He had never been so stuck for the right words before, and likewise, he had never been so determined to find them.
He sighed softly.
… Maybe he should get a bigger dictionary.
Tamaki hovered slightly in the spacious foyer of Ayame's mansion as he waited for her to come down from getting ready. He had, as expected, arrived far too early so had no one to blame but himself as he hovered around the entrance hall awkwardly.
Like the girl herself, it was every inch a scholar's home; the furnishings were a polished dark wood and lined his surrounding in elegant carvings. There was a neat, yet stunning flower arrangement in a small alcove to one side, while the other was taken up with a large and sophisticated painting - a sign of the rich and educated.
He smiled slightly in bemusement as he spotted a sliver of what looked like a well-loved library though a slightly ajar door. There were a few modestly dressed maids standing nervously next to it, who periodically trotted up to him and asked if he needed anything, as if they were worried about what he thought of them.
"No, no." He told them each time with a polite and patient smile. "I'm fine."
He was just thinking about what words to use - would she appreciate it if he just shouted every pretty word he knew at her? He could think of countless after all - when Ayame herself finally walked rather awkwardly into view, unused to someone waiting for her. Host club service or not, it felt suspiciously like a date and Ayame had limited experience in such things.
Limited being another word for 'never-had-a-date-before-because-she-was-too-busy-studying-and-was-completely-thrown-off-by-the-whole-thing'.
Amazing how much one word can mean, isn't it?
She paused at the foot of the stairs and watched with mild bemusement as Tamaki stared vacantly into space, utterly oblivious to her presence. His lips fluttered slightly as he raged a wordless debate with himself, on a topic that only Tamaki could ever think up, never mind waste precious brainpower on; did 'lovely' count as a beautiful word, or just a pretty word?
One of the great mysteries of life.
After hovering for another long second, unsure of what to do, Ayame finally resorted to coughing sharply to announce her presence, quirking an eyebrow when Tamaki jumped dramatically before looking up at her.
She was wearing a traditional Japanese kimono, the robe a deep smoky grey; silver threaded flowers cascaded down the side and pooled around the hem, catching the light subtly. The elegant obi around her waist was a deep, rich violet, matching with the collar and sophisticated ornament that graced her hair. Her hair had been tamed and pulled back into a prim, twisted bun, with a few wavy strands hanging to frame her face delicately.
Everything - from the silver flowers to the dark ornament - seemed only to exist to compliment her unusual eyes, which shone like diamonds.
As Ayame took a step forward, Tamaki held his arm out to formally escort her and opened his mouth to compliment her in his usual long-winded style, but for the first time in his life…
He didn't know what to say.
All of his hundreds of phrases that he had worked so hard on suddenly fled from his mind like water through his hands. No words seemed beautiful enough to describe how he felt.
Ayame cocked an expectant eyebrow as he watched him, suspicious at his silence. Truth be told, she was almost disappointed as she placed her arm properly in his and commented, "You're silent, for once? Well, I suppose it's better to keep your mouth shut than to open it and simply let out a torrent of irresponsible words that fail to-"
"Ayame," he interrupted her softly, bowing slightly as he placed her hand in his and held it up in pure western style. And then, instead of his usual song of lyrical praises and princely comments, he spoke two mere words, a smile gracing his lips.
"You're beautiful."
She blinked and, with a sudden rush of pink to her face, looked at him. Tamaki smiled blissfully to himself as he watched her translucent eyes soften and her lips part slightly with the unfamiliar flattery of his simple words.
For, when he spoke such small words of such sincere clarity, what else was there for her to say?
Phsaw. Done. That took ages. Tamaki, you romantic nerd! D:
I really enjoyed writing about Ayame, the girl who gets flattered by simple words but likes you to try and be poetic anyway, just so she can crush your attempt under her well-educated boot. She's like Haruhi and Kyouya combined. With grades complex. Scary, ne? XP
And this is my first story without one of the twins as the main character! -Insert Kaoru's epic gasp face here- Shocking, isn't it? I want to write about them now~! XD Still, I liked making them torture Tamaki… -evil laugh-
Neh, I don't really like this story as much as I did when I started it. The end was too tiresome. But I hope you enjoyed it anyway~!
Please tell me what you think~! Reviews equal cookies~!