Title: Surprising Revelation
Author: Sakura Moon
Summary: He thought he had all the facts about her, but apparently he didn't know one little thing. She knows martial arts.
Disclaimer: I don't own the characters or even the plot bunny.
Author's Note: This is a Secret Santa x-mas fic for 3kame for the holiday_ouran livejournal community.
----------
Fingers typed furiously on the keys of the laptop. A young male in his late teens was sitting in the back of the limo. Dark eyes glared at the screen in front of him. On the screen were numerous graphs, pie charts, and a variety of numerical data. "This won't due." He muttered harshly to himself as he analyzed the contents.
"Kyouya-sama. I'm afraid we might be late for the evening meeting with one of your brothers." The chauffeur said from the front.
Kyouya gave an impatient sigh as he narrowed his eyes to the driver. "And tell me how we're going to be late?" Eyes penetrating to the back of the driver's head, the driver couldn't help but shivered a little at the intense gaze he had felt.
Hands tightening to the steering wheel, the driver answered. "You see sir. There was a little problem with the navigation…."
Hearing that from his driver, Kyouya quickly peered through the tinted windows. He noticed how the streets were not lively, were cramped, and if he was a 'normal' person, Kyouya would have described this place to be creepy. The surrounding walls of different buildings were covered with deteriorating paint coats and broken pieces of bricks crumbling to the ground. A couple of shady people lingered around the street here and there, all minding their own business. Kyouya pushed his glasses up, since it had slipped down to his nose, and grinned pleasantly to his servant. "Oh? Since when have we started taking shortcuts while driving?"
The driver gulped and inwardly cringed. But no, Kyouya wasn't going to stop there; he kept going.
"After all, I thought the primarily purpose of shortcuts was to make one arrive to a destination earlier than expected. Not the complete opposite such as this case." Leaning back, Kyouya glanced one more time through the window, noting that the limo had started going slow to accommodate to the speed limit here.
"It won't happen again sir."
Kyouya stared at the man before him harshly. "Make sure it doesn't." He replied icily, irritated at the lack of competence. 'Note to self: make sure his wages get cut by twenty percent.' Then, his mind went back to why he was even out this late at night. For reasons unknown, his elder brother had called him in today suggesting that they meet up at a certain restaurant to discuss about their future. Something along the lines of 'brotherly talk.' Kyouya scoffed. Like his brothers would really do such a thing.
A very familiar figure appeared within his range of sight.
He stared at her. 'What is Haruhi doing walking by herself in this kind of place so late at night?' Kyouya thought to himself, denying the fact that he was concerned about her. No, he was merely concerned about the host club's little pet toy. If anything were to happen to Haruhi, the revenues would go down and there was absolutely no way Kyouya could allow that to happen.
Kyouya felt his eyes narrowed as he stared at Haruhi, walking with a handbag. His eyes became narrower as he noticed a couple of unpleasant men following said girl. Really, one of these days Kyouya should increase her debt for her lack of self-preservation.
"Stop the limo." He quickly got out of the limo and walked in stride to where Haruhi was.
Haruhi glanced over her shoulder by chance. Her eyes widen when she saw three men right behind her, all with predatory glances. She only managed to grab a hold of her bag—hands clutching against the beige-colored strap—and turned around to face thembefore suddenly one by one, the men were taken down. Haruhi had to step back a little bit so one of the men's hands wouldn't hit against her foot. Then she glanced up at whoever did that.
"Senpai?"
Kyouya only looked at the thugs with hidden disgust. Then he stared at Haruhi. "I must say Haruhi, I know you commoners can't afford decent transportation, but do you really have to walk through a place such as this?" He waved his hand at the now deserted alley.
Frowning a bit, Haruhi blankly stared back at Kyouya. "Senpai…I can perfectly take care of myself."
"That may be," Though his tone suggested otherwise. "But I'm afraid I had to intervene, Haruhi--"
She continued staring at him, and then an idea formed in her mind. "Ah, I get it. Thank you Senpai, but you didn't have to worry about me."
Glasses flashing, Kyouya smirked. "Who said anything about me being worried? I did that merely for my benefit."
"And what is that?" Haruhi tilted her head to the side, curious to know what his reason was. A pleasant smile appeared on his face. She unconsciously took a step back once she had realized that it was the very same smile he gave to the host club's customers.
"How would you think Tamaki would react? …When he finds out that his daughter had been assaulted last night?" Kyouya's eyes danced in amusement as Haruhi made that face; one that she often wore whenever she felt flabbergasted by the King's or twins' actions (though Kyouya himself did not acknowledge that she often gave him that look as well, he liked to think that he's better than those three to warrant such a facial expression).
He continued on, while pushing up his glasses as he explained to her. "Of course, he would have to find this out from myself—since it's highly doubtful that even you can hide some evidence of your assault with your commoner ways—and that would make me be the witness and if Tamaki learns that I didn't do anything to prevent…well you could see how stopping these thugs would prove beneficiary to me."
Haruhi could only stare at Kyouya. Then, she turned around and started walking a little bit. "Well thank you for the help senpai. I'll see you tomorrow at the host club." With a couple of shopping bags in her left hand, she left him standing there.
Two minutes later, a slim black limo was seen driving along the road. An eyebrow twitched and eyes narrowed, Haruhi glared at the tinted windows. "Why are you still following me Kyouya-senpai?"
The window rolled down and Kyouya's statue-looking face appeared. "What are you talking about? I'm merely heading in the same direction as you all, but as you can see this area is narrow and so my driver must abide to the speed limit."
"Well, I'm sure you have some important meeting to go to and I wouldn't want my debt to increase because you were late." Haruhi bluntly said.
He retorted back, "Then you better hurry home if you're afraid that you'd make me late." Staring at her directly in the eyes, Kyouya continued. "Since you wouldn't want your debt to increase, I insist on giving you a ride home then."
"No thank you." Was all that she said before speeding up the pace of her walk.
The limo increased its pace to match hers and it was not before long that a loud sigh escaped from her mouth. She knew when the battle was lost and turned to face to the half-down window where there was a hidden amused smirk lingering around that bastard (she could just tell even though she couldn't see it). "Fine, you win senpai."
Stopping the limo, the driver got out of his seat and opened the door for Haruhi. Thanking the man, she entered and sat on the opposite side of Kyouya. The limo started to move again, though with a faster speed than previously; Haruhi crossed her eyes and looked anywhere but the shadow king.
Ignoring the fact that his little kouhai was all but blatantly not paying attention to him, Kyouya proceeded as if nothing had happened and continued on with his normal routine, which was typing some inputs into his laptop. However, his mind kept going back to that almost assault, and soon, something began to form.
'Hm. Haruhi really needs to know some self-defense, but there is no question to the fact that she wouldn't seek help from Mori or Hunny-senpai.' Kyouya made a small tsk-ing sound. 'There's also the matter of tomorrow's theme for the host club.' Then as if some higher being had given him a new insight to life, a brilliant idea formed. Kyouya allowed himself to show a tiny hint of smile escaping from his stoic mask. Tomorrow would be very interesting indeed.
----------
Girls in yellow dresses swarmed out of the music room; each saying goodbye to their designated hosts. As the last girl left the room, the hosts turned to each other. Haruhi was at her usual corner, the place she would always sit so that she could have some time to herself. Though that always wasn't the case as the twins or Tamaki would often invade her personal bubble so that she had no choice but to give up her small mental sanctuary. Speaking of Tamaki, her attention was brought by the blonde 'king' as he stood in the middle of the music room with a rose in his hand.
"Excellent work today my fellow servants!" Tamaki grinned and his front bangs moved daintily to the other side of his face. "I, the brilliantness that is me, discovered a new cosplay theme that we're going to do for tomorrow."
The twins shared a mischievous glance to each other and arranged themselves to be on either side of Tamaki.
Hikaru placed his right arm on Tamaki's left shoulder. "Mi'lord is being very humble indeed." His twin made the similar action as well, only on Tamaki's right shoulder.
"His ego is rather overflowing, isn't it Hikaru?" Kaoru asked, smirking slightly to his twin as they watched Tamaki's eyes widen when the statement settled in his head.
"Overflowing like the Nigeria Falls."
Tamaki's eyes widen even further, and he broke away from the twins' hold and sprinted toward Haruhi. He grabbed both her shoulders and stared at her with mad worried eyes. "Daugther! Tell me it's not so! I'm not an over egotistic--"
Haruhi cut in, still staring at her notes from class and said in a rather blunt and uncaring tone. "You are."
Snapping a small black notebook shut, Kyouya wanted to rub his eyes from the usual routine. He took a small glance at Tamaki, who was huddled in a small corner mumbling nonsense over himself and giving off that aura of sadness. Kyouya sighed internally and took another glance at Haruhi, remembering last night's events. 'I might as well remind that idiot about the suggestion before he looses it in that turmoil of his.' Kyouya walked over to where Tamaki was and coughed slightly. "Father, perhaps now would be a good time to discuss plans for our new cosplay theme for tomorrow?"
And as if a cloud has been lifted, Tamaki swiveled his body around and dazzled the rest of the host club members with his radiance. "Mother is absolutely right!" Violet eyes gleamed. "Tomorrow's theme shall be ninjas!" Tamaki was about to continue, but certain thoughts led to certain visualizations and so his eyes became dazed.
Seeing the stupefied grin and facial expression on Tamaki's face, Kyouya felt that he better continued on the conversation. "And for that matter, we enlisted Honey-senpai to teach us the basics of martial arts. For authentic purposes as we will be performing a small skit for our customers."
"By basics, you mean actual moves?" Kaoru asked, wanting to clarify things a bit.
Haruhi was staring at Kyouya, her head tilted slightly to the right. "But senpai, I don't think it's necessary--"
"Then it wouldn't be authentic now would it?" Kyouya interrupted, already predicted what Haruhi was going to say. "If we don't give out our most realistic and best performance, you can be assured that the loss of expected revenue will be added to your ever-so-slightly decreasing debt."
Haruhi's shoulders slump a bit as she was reminded of her debt. To this very day, she cursed whoever was idiotic enough to have left an expensive vase right in the middle of this very room. "How long will this take Kyouya-senpai?"
"However long Honey-senpai needs to spend his time to teach us the basics, Haruhi." Kyouya should not been so surprised by Haruhi's lack of eagerness to do such activity. He scribbled something in his notebook. 'This is, after all, for her own good.' Kyouya lightly tapped his pen on Tamaki's head. "We're waiting for you Tamaki."
Tamaki was shaken out of his fantasy dream. "Right. The skit is going to consist of a group of bad ninjas kidnapping a princess for their wicked deeds and a group of good ninjas will come and save her." As he went on about how the dashing leader of the good ninja and the tears of joy the princess will gave him as she continued on thanking him for being such a good hero and what not that Kyouya felt he had to interrupt the idiot's daydream, once again.
Coughing slightly, Kyouya pointed out to Tamaki that his skit idea would expose Haruhi as being a girl and once that happens, she would no longer be allowed to participate in the host club activities because they weren't sure how well their customers would take to that revelation. It was no surprise to Kyouya and to everyone else sans Tamaki as to who would play the part of the princess in Tamaki's skit. "Perhaps, we should do a battle skit? It would be a good chance to show the manly side of us."
"But Haruhi's not manly at all," Hikaru pointed out from his seat on one of the many sofas. "Though, it would make others believe that Haruhi is a guy."
"Fine, we'll go with that idea." Tamaki pouted a little; he so badly wanted to see Haruhi in an overflowing pink dress. "Honey-senpai, if you would please?"
Honey bounced off his chair after taking the last bite of his strawberry cake. "Yay! By the time I'm done with you guys, you'll be able to defend yourselves!" Bright brown eyes moved down to each person one by one, but lingered a little bit longer when they reached to Haruhi before moving on to Kyouya. Last night, Kyouya had called him asking whether or not he would be okay with teaching the host club some basic martial arts—something about learning self-defense. Kyouya really didn't go into the details as to what brought this up, but Honey has his suspicions.
As Honey taught everyone the basic set, with Mori aiding him in the lesson, Haruhi fought back the sigh that wanted to leave her body. No matter what she said, she always ended up in their ropes, doing things such as this. It was really a waste of her time, Haruhi noted as her arms mimicked Honey's movements. The time could be better spent studying for the upcoming exam tomorrow.
Dark eyes narrowed as its owner stared at Haruhi, watching the young girl copying the basic set rather gracefully. Kyouya was a little bit surprised to see how natural the girl was doing those movements, as if she already had done this before.
"Okay, everyone pick a partner. We're going to do a small practice to see how well you could do it. Person A gets to be the victim while Person B is the attacker. Person A has to defend him or herself from Person B." Honey glanced at everyone. Normally, he would be all happy and cutesy, but when it comes to training, he was a completely different person—that everyone saw.
The twins immediately headed straight for Haruhi, as well as Tamaki. They glared each over and Haruhi could only sighed in exhaustion as she felt the sparks between the guys flew rapidly and tension was rising. All she really wanted to do right now was to go home, finish her chores and study. Then, she felt it. Both her arms were being pulled by the three stooges. The twins with her left arm (though it was mainly Hikaru who was grabbing on it, Kaoru was right by his side) and Tamaki with her right. And they were both pulling her toward them.
Haruhi could feel her eyebrow ticking.
The next thing Tamaki and Hikaru knew, they were both on their backs staring up at the ceiling. There was silence in the music room as every guy stopped and stared at Haruhi, who rubbed her shoulder a little. Meeting the gazes of each and every single one of them, she only stared back, confused as to why they were staring her like that. 'No matter,' she thought as she faced to Honey. "Is it alright if I can leave now Honey-senpai?"
"Sure Haru-chan! It seems like you already know what you're doing." Hunny's bright smile brought a warm fuzzy feeling to her stomach. Quickly gathering up her belongings, Haruhi thanked Honey for the lesson and walked out—not wanting to see the Kyouya's intense stare that she felt from behind.
The door shut quietly and Kyouya went back to his laptop, but not before muttering. "Well, this was rather unexpected."
----------
It was nearly sunset when Haruhi managed to finish all the house chores. Luckily for her, there wasn't that much to do as her father had done some of it before leaving off to work. As she settled herself in her room with textbooks opened, there was a sudden knock on her door. Grumbling, Haruhi could only think of the worst—that being Tamaki or the twins harassing her about her little demonstration today. She opened the door and stepped back a little; shocked. Instead of who she had guessed, it was someone she did not assumed would be coming to visit her at all. "Kyouya-senpai?!"
In a long black coat, Kyouya stood at the door, staring beadily at Haruhi. "May I come in Haruhi?"
Nodding, she welcomed Kyouya in and seated him at the living room. "What brings you here senpai?" Haruhi poured the tea out and handed him a cup.
"Today was a rather interesting event," Kyouya smirked to himself as he watched Haruhi froze from her movement. "wouldn't you agreed Haruhi?" He didn't gave her a chance to answer. "Though, I must say…since when you know martial arts?"
Haruhi should have really known this wouldn't be a polite visit. No, it had to be an interrogation visit. She sighed once more, having the feeling this would be a long visit. Sitting down right across from Kyouya, Haruhi explained to him. How ever since she was young, her father had enrolled her in a community marital arts class—being worried over her safety considering how 'independent' she is (quote her father). Especially since at times, her father wasn't able to be there for her because of work and sometimes, his work tends to happen at night time. Haruhi went along with it to ease her father's conscience. Even now, she still attends to the same class, except she had advanced through and became a black belt. All while she was telling her story, Kyouya's expression never changed. Though she detected a slight movement in the eyes. When she was done explaining to Kyouya about how she knows martial arts, he placed down his cup.
"I see. So that night, you could have defended yourself?" Kyouya referred back to the previous night where he had saved her from unruly men.
Haruhi nodded. "Yes, enough to allow me to escape from them." Then as if something new popped in her brain, she asked him this next question. "Is that why we're doing a ninja theme tomorrow? Because you wanted me to know some self-defense?"
Kyouya chuckled to himself a little; surprised by once again her high level of perception. "It was only a coincidence. Last night gave me an idea of how much sales we'll gain from doing this tomorrow. That is all that I'm ever concerned with."
"If you like to keep yourself in that little world of denial, go right ahead." Haruhi said, not believing a single thing that Kyouya was saying. Past experiences with him taught her that somewhere inside of him…he cares. She smiled at him, one that truly showed how thankful she was. "Thank you for worrying about my safety Kyouya-senpai."
He was taken back by the brightness of her smile. Feeling strange, he stood up. "Well, I expect you to take better care of yourself then Haruhi." Remembering the move she did to Hikaru and Tamaki, a small smile appeared. Apparently, there are some things that he doesn't know about Haruhi. Stopping at the door, Kyouya turned and gave her once last glance—one that spoke of finding all of her secrets. "I wonder what else you've kept from me that I haven't discovered."
Haruhi furrowed her eyebrows in confusion at that statement.
"I'll be looking forward to uncover all that defines you…Haruhi." With that, Kyouya shut the door himself and left her apartment complex---suddenly looking forward for the next personal time with Haruhi.
After all, an Ootori must know all.
~The End~