"Haruhi…I simply cannot understand why he won't talk to me!" Tamaki flopped across the floor of Haruhi's small-yet-adequate apartment. Haruhi rolled her eyes for what must have been the tenth time since His Majesty's untimely arrival approximately half an hour previously. He had been nothing but a pain, barging in and making himself entirely too comfortable, though staying true to his personality in doing so. Unlike some people lately…
"Tamaki-senpai, I don't understand what's going on with you two right now either, but would you please stop flailing around so much? You're going to knock something over soon if you keep that up." He straightened his posture immediately and began to make apologies, also overdramatically. Haruhi sighed, fully aware that he wouldn't leave unless she gave him some kind of plan to solve his problems. "You said you've been calling him three times a day for the last two and a half weeks, right? And he never answers the phone?" Tamaki nods emphatically. "Well, if calling isn't changing anything, why don't you go to his house and confront him face-to-face? I'm sure that would, if nothing else, tell you if he really is done with you or if he's just mad right now." And it would get you out of my apartment, she thought to herself.
Tamaki jumped up from the floor. "That just might be the best idea you've had yet, Haruhi! I don't know why I didn't think of it myself! I'll go right now, and catch him before he eats dinner. He does tend to eat at a rather off-beat time…" he trailed off with a sad smile for a moment, as he remembered eating with Kyoya for many meals, as both friends and more than that. It wasn't long, however, before he shook himself out of his little reverie and bolted out the front door, nearly leaving his shoes behind him. Haruhi shook her head and smiled. For all that he was annoying as hell, he was still pretty funny sometimes. She settled back down to do her schoolwork after closing the door behind him, hoping for both her sake as well as the other club members that those two sorted out their problems sooner as opposed to later…
Sitting in the plush surroundings of the back of his limo, Tamaki was oddly calm for once. He sat still, the only sign of the energy within him waiting to be expended being the slight bouncing of one leg. For all that he was boisterous when happy, he could be just as quiet and still when he was upset. And to say that Tamaki was upset would be a sever understatement at that point.
It had all started a little over a month ago, when he had begun to notice something that made him feel just sort of sad at first, but over time made him feel really hurt. He and Kyoya had been going out for around seven months, and he of course gave himself completely to whomever he might be with. But during the last few weeks, he had noticed that it seemed like Kyoya was holding something back from him whenever they were together, especially when they were alone. It was like he wasn't comfortable being himself around Tamaki anymore, and for all that he tried to drop hints and things that he loved Kyoya just as he was, even when he was being a little mean to him. Tamaki realized that sometimes he was a little too over-the-top, and he appreciated when someone would let him know to bring it down a few notches.
He heaved a heavy sigh, thinking back to the last time he and Kyoya had talked, when he'd been just so hurt and upset and said some things he knew at the time he would probably regret. He never should have escalated things to the point of saying he wanted to break up, because he didn't, he really didn't, he just wanted something, anything, to let him know that Kyoya still cared. But without Kyoya to let him know when to stop, he didn't really know how. This was one of the many reasons why he needed him around, at least as friends, if nothing more than that. That would all depend on how things would go when he arrived, he supposed.
The other thing that reminded him of just how badly he'd screwed up was the phone calls. Yes, for the first week after the ugly fight that ended it all, he had been angry. He was angry that the one he loved more than just about anyone (aside from his mother) was hiding part of himself for some reason he didn't feel the need to explain, and he was angry that Kyoya seemed almost more like himself that day than he had in a while, the usual cool, calm demeanor and snarky comments peppered through the argument paradoxically making him angry but also comforting Tamaki, knowing that at least that Kyoya was still there, somewhere, even if he didn't want to share that with Tamaki anymore. But after a week or so, he really just wanted his best friend/boyfriend back, or at least wanted him to acknowledge that Tamaki existed. He'd started calling three times a day, once in the morning and twice in the evenings, leaving a voice message each time. At first the voice messages had been a little confrontational, demanding Kyoya call him back because they needed to talk. Over time, however, they had become more and more pleading, and it was hard to stop himself from crying at this point. He only just managed to hang up the phone before he burst out sobbing after the last call today, and decided he needed to head to Haruhi for comfort. His little girl was such a good listener, and so smart too…he smiled to himself, momentarily lost in a happy thought before the car stopped. He had arrived at the Ootori estate, and it was time to follow through on his plans.
He got out of the car and walked up to the front door in something of a floating haze, probably sparked by the adrenaline of the situation. He realized that he'd been standing there for an unacceptable amount of time, staring at the door, when he heard his driver call out to ask if everything was okay. He offered back his usual bright smile and an affirmation, and knocked authoritatively on the door. He was startled when the door opened seconds later, revealing Kyoya himself instead of the usual maid. In fact, he was so startled that he forgot to speak, and Kyoya, upon realizing who it was, slammed the door shut in Tamaki's face. This once again spurred him to action, knocking on the door again, only to be greeted with silence.
He keeps standing there, trying to fight back the tears that are threatening to start up if he only lets them. He didn't come here just to be ignored. If that were what he wanted, he could have just stayed home.
"Kyoya! I know you're in there! Open the damn door and talk to me!" he shouted. The door stays shut for a moment, then opens slowly, stopping after only a few inches.
"What do you want, Tamaki? I have things to do, you realize, that are more important than listening to the random ramblings of someone with nothing to do but annoy me constantly for attention." Kyoya stared at him, obviously highly unamused.
I guess I'll have to find some way to make this worth his time, then.
"Kyoya, I need to talk to you. I'd rather not do it out here where my driver as well as whatever grounds staff you might have lurking around can hear us though. Please let me in?" he begged. After a few seconds, Kyoya steps back and allows the door to open enough to let Tamaki in. "I'm glad you let me in. I was afraid I was going to have to start shouting for everyone to hear."
"I wouldn't put it past you to do just that," came the snarky remark. Kyoya began to walk away, towards the staircase across the entryway.
"Hey! Where are you going? I haven't even started talking yet!" Tamaki shouts, confused. Kyoya turns around and gestures for Tamaki to follow.
Oh, right. I suppose he really woudn't want everyone working inside to overhear us as well.
Once they're finally behind the closed and locked door of Kyoya's bedroom, Kyoya gestures for Tamaki to speak. After swallowing a deep breath, he began to speak.
"Kyoya, I'm sorry. I didn't mean what I said, about breaking up with you. I was mad, and hurt, and I thought I was losing you one way and I just had to say something to make you show me you still cared, but I messed up. And I lost you in a different way. And I don't know what to do now, because I miss you, and I can tell I hurt you, because you won't even talk to me outside of when I push you into it in a public place and then it's just polite small talk and it feels so empty and I think you probably hate me but I need you even if it's only just as friends because I don't know when enough is enough and I-"
"Enough. You're rambling, and if you keep flailing your arms around like that, you'll knock something over." Kyoya pushed his glasses up his nose, and spoke again. "I have no idea what you mean when you say you were afraid of losing me. I was always right there, even in the middle of the night when you interrupted my studies with whatever harebrained scheme you had just come up with for the club."
"Kyoya…whether or not you want to believe it, I'm not always the clueless idiot everyone seems to like to think I am. I do admit that I can be very obtuse sometimes, but I know the difference between how you normally are and how you were acting before our fight. The Kyoya I know, that I fell for, is a very snarky person. He can be cool, verging on cold, and calculating, and sometimes downright mean. He was never afraid to tell me exactly what he thought of me and my ideas, which was good, because I don't really look at myself very objectively. But lately you'd been tiptoeing around me, not telling me 'Tamaki, that's frivolous, there is no way in hell we're doing that' and instead telling me 'Whatever you think is best'. Kyoya, I need you to be honest with me. The last thing I need is another yes-man. I appreciate you being so awful sometimes because I know that it means you care, or else you'd just let me go make a fool of myself constantly. It seemed like when you stopped being so harsh it meant you'd stopped caring, that it didn't really matter what I did. I was afraid you didn't love me anymore." Somewhere in the middle of his impassioned speech he'd started crying, and now he let out the sobs that had been somewhere deep inside him all this time. It felt good to let it all out.
Suddenly he felt arms around him, pulling him in close for a somewhat painful and clumsy hug. He felt Kyoya breathing harshly in his ear, as if he too were having to fight back tears. It was somewhat comforting to know that he wasn't the only one that was so upset.
"Tamaki…it seems as though I'm the one who really needs to apologize here. You see, I thought I wasn't really a good enough person for you. I thought that someone so annoyingly upbeat and cheerful, so positive as you are needed someone who wasn't always trying to rain on their parade. So I decided to try to be nicer in general, not just to you, but also to our friends, to be more worthy of you. I can see now that that was a mistake, to say the least." He chuckled a little, tightening his grip on Tamaki. "But, if you like, I can go back to being my usual unpleasant self. It was becoming a bit overtaxing to constantly be kind. It was hard to see much of a reward in it for me."
Tamaki laughed, sniffling a little still. "Yes, I would much prefer that. Quite aside from upsetting me, I think the other members of the club were becoming concerned that you were plotting something, particularly the twins. You generally aren't that nice unless you've got someone under your thumb."
"That can be arranged. Although now that you say that, I might keep it up with the twins for a while longer. A little paranoia never hurt them."
The following day, Kyoya and Tamaki strolled into Music Room #3 together, looking the happiest their friends had seen them in a while. Haruhi and Mori both heaved sighs of relief, if only because they were glad the weirdness that had been bad enough to get them concerned was over. The twins were still on edge, as Kyoya had been extremely kind to them, holding the door for them earlier in the main entryway of the school. For now, everything was just as it should be.