Swan Song

TamaHaru ficcy. This isn't really angst or tragedy, but it didn't seem right to put it under general either. There also isn't too much romance in it. If there was a genre called 'cliche' (with an accent on the e that I can't type) though, this would fit snugly underneath it.

x Swan Song x TamaHaru

'Oh, please, Haruhi! It's not as if you don't like my piano playing, right?'

Haruhi sighed, looking at the pouting Tamaki with his puppy-dog eyes. 'I'm busy, Tamaki-sen-'

'Shh!' Tamaki immediately put his finger to her lips. 'What did I tell you about that?'

'...Oh. Tamaki. Happy?' Haruhi said, more to appease Tamaki than anything else. 'Will you stop bothering me now?'

'See?' One redhead popped up suddenly beside Tamaki, a devilish grin on his face.

'You're bothersome, Tamaki.' Another redhead popped up as well, grinning the same grin as his identical twin.

Castle Tamaki was put under siege by the devilish twins Hitachiin, and Castle Tamaki was clearly failing to keep up its security.

'Haruhi doesn't want you at her office,' Kaoru informed Tamaki cheerfully.

Hikaru nodded. 'She never says anything positive about you. "Tamaki, go away." "Tamaki, you're bothersome." "Tamaki, could you please shut up?"'

Tamaki sulked in a corner. 'Fine. I won't play piano for you ever, Haruhi.'

Haruhi went back to her work diligently, paying no attention to Tamaki's antics. The twins' grins grew wider.

Tamaki glanced up every few seconds, the pout on his face growing ever wider.

Haruhi finally gave in. 'I'll listen to you play once if you just leave me alone, Tamaki. I have to work for my money, unlike certain individuals.' She sent a pointed glare at the twins and Tamaki.

'Hey, we work,' Hikaru protested.

Kaoru added, 'And you should know, as you are the only commoner to own a closet full of Hitachiin designs.'

The two then chimed, 'Not that you ever wear any of them willingly.'

Haruhi shrugged, and turned to Tamaki. 'I'll come by your house or something to listen to you play some time later. So could you please leave me alone?'

Tamaki beamed.''Oh, my lovely daughter! I'm so glad-'

Haruhi sent him a scathing glare. 'Now.'

---

'Haruhi, you promised.'

Haruhi sighed upon hearing Tamaki's persistent whine. 'Tamaki,' Haruhi said in what was supposed to be a consoling tone. The consoling part, however, was covered by Haruhi's irritated expression. 'I have been working on a very important case for three weeks already. I'm sure I'll find time for your piano playing after.'

'But, Haruhiiii,' Tamaki pleaded. 'It won't take more than ten minutes! Or even five, if I play a shorter song. Please, Haruhi? You could just come by for a few minutes after work, or during your lunch break.'

'I have to eat during lunch break,' Haruhi informed him, 'And after work, I'm eating afternoon tea with my real dad.' Haruhi didn't tell Tamaki that she actually worked through lunch break, and that she had another meeting with a prospective client after work. She didn't need Tamaki after her for working extra hours. She couldn't help it – they were people who needed help.

'But I'm like your father, right?' Tamaki continued to whine. 'So couldn't I come-'

'No,' Haruhi responded immediately. 'I need to finish this before work ends, Tamaki. I'll call you when I have time, okay?'

Tamaki smiled. 'Okay then,' he said cheerfully, leaving Haruhi's office. 'Call me soon!'

Haruhi watched Tamaki's retreating back, and then focused all her energy on her work. There was no time for frivolities like piano, she told herself. But she did have to call Tamaki. She had promised. Maybe she'd just tell him that they'd have to postpone their piano playing... was it a date?

---

Haruhi felt that there was something amiss with her office. There wasn't anything visibly wrong, but she just had this feeling. She had had this feeling for a while, maybe a week or two. What was wrong?

And then she realized. It wasn't because there was something in the office that shouldn't have been, but because there was something that should have been in the office but wasn't there.

She called Kyoya. 'Kyoya-senpai? Where's Tamaki?' she asked, sounding to all the world like an uncaring bystander.

Kyoya took in a breath. Almost like a gasp. Haruhi immediately held her own breath. Something had to be wrong.

'You don't know?' Kyoya asked. 'Nobody told you?'

'What was I supposed to be told?' Haruhi almost snapped at Kyoya, but held herself back. Why was she so angry anyway?

'...Tamaki. He's in the hospital.'

---

Haruhi burst into the hospital room, her brown eyes wide with terror. She immediately looked to the bed where one blond lied, with his eyes closed.

'What happened?' she asked softly to the occupants of the room.

'It had all been a joke,' a shorter blond said, his eyes angry. 'Some idiot had thought it'd be funny to throw something out of his apartment window.' His eyes welled up with tears though. 'And Tama-chan just had to act the hero, and save the old lady who was about to get hit.'

Haruhi looked to Kyoya, who simply said, 'We already have the culprit in custody.'

Haruhi turned to Tamaki, and said quietly, 'Is he going to wake up?'

'There isn't much of a chance,' Hikaru said, suddenly getting up, his hands balled up into fists. 'You should have let me beat up the guy, Kyoya-senpai!'

'Do you think Tamaki would have wanted that?' Kyoya said shortly.

Hikaru sat himself back down, and Kaoru slung an arm around his shoulder.

The Host Club sat around Tamaki, all silent, wondering what was to happen.

'He's awake!' Hikaru said excitedly. 'He woke up!'

The members of the Host club, who had been sitting in the hospital's waiting room, immediately rushed into Tamaki's hospital room.

Tamaki was sitting up and beaming at them. 'Good morning! Oh, my dearest daughter came to see me!'

Hunny ran up to him, beaming as well. 'Morning, Tama-chan!'

'Don't hug him,' Kyoya said warningly. 'He's still in critical condition.'

Hunny immediately slunk back. Tamaki pouted. 'Does that mean I can't go-'

'You're not allowed to leave the hospital room,' Kyoya said sternly. 'Now, Hikaru, Kaoru, let's go pick up breakfast for Tamaki. Hunny, Mori, could you go and make sure that Suoh-san knows where to find Tamaki?'

Kyoya turned to Haruhi. 'Make sure Tamaki doesn't try to leave his bed, or there will be dire consequences for you.' Kyoya smiled at her, and she shivered.

The foursome left the room, leaving Haruhi and Tamaki in the room.

'How are you, Tamaki?' Haruhi asked.

'Well, I've been better,' Tamaki admitted. Tamaki, despite his beaming face, looked paler than usual, and his eyes had bags underneath them.

Haruhi let out a low chuckle. She looked around the bland hospital room, with its white walls and its white bed. 'I bet you can't wait to get out of here,' Haruhi said.

Tamaki said with a smile, 'Why don't you let me play piano for you?'

Haruhi frowned. 'Kyoya-senpai said-'

'Please, Haruhi?' Tamaki pleaded. 'It'd really mean a lot to me.'

'Fine,' Haruhi relented. 'But where will we find a piano?'

---

'Why on earth do they have a piano in a hospital?' Haruhi asked Tamaki, a single eyebrow raised.

'This is an Ohtori private hospital, only for the rich,' Tamaki said, grinning. 'So they need some sort of music to play, to keep the mood light.'

Haruhi thought inwardly that keeping the mood light in a hospital wasn't really what should have been on the hospital staff's minds. But then, it was part of the Ohtori company.

Tamaki sat himself on the bench, and closed his eyes. He rested his fingers on the keys of the grand piano, and played a scale, as if familiarizing himself with it.

Haruhi sat down at a nearby chair, and closed her eyes as well.

The music started soft, a creeping melody, full of small leaps and little skips. The song seemed to dance through the room with tiptoed feet, lightly gliding about. Haruhi found it strangely akin to the feeling she had first felt upon stepping on Ouran grounds, a bit giddy, but still cautious.

It then turned more extravagant, with a multitude of strong chords, the song deep and full of emotion. Haruhi felt her own heart swayed by it, this so immense expression of feeling. Almost as if she was meeting the Host Club again for the first time. Now that she thought of it, had she not broken that vase, she never would have known Tamaki and the otheres in the way that she did now. There was something that was simply providential in their meeting.

Then, there was a sort of slow, mysterious mood. The notes were far apart, and created jarred, discordant sounds that somehow came together to form a beautifully macabre aria. Haruhi felt as if she was back at Ouran, graduating once again to go on to Tokyo University, and dancing with Tamaki, who had come back for the occasion. She had laughed at him, thinking him ridiculous for flying back from his university in Europe just to meet with her once more.

Then, the notes grew quieter and softer, with the song ending on a single, almost inaudible note. Haruhi didn't know what to associate the finale of the song with, but it created an irrevocable sadness in her. She didn't understand how a song could create such emotion, such feeling.

Haruhi left her eyes closed, trying to keep the song in herself. There was simply something magical about Tamaki's piano playing, like it was pure light embodied into the music notes.

She heard Tamaki shuffle over, but she kept her eyes closed. Once she opened her eyes, things would be normal again, and she would be back in the hospital. With her eyes closed, she could keep the melody in her, the music alive.

She felt something brush her cheek lightly. 'Thank you, Haruhi' was what she heard next, the soft voice of Suoh Tamaki. In this one moment, Haruhi finally understood how all the girls at the Host Club that she had thought so foolish felt when they designated Tamaki.

'Tamaki?' Haruhi said, shocked. She opened her eyes. Nobody was there.

---

'Do you know where Tamaki is?' Haruhi asked, breathless, running back into Tamaki's hospital room.

Nobody answered.

Haruhi looked to the bed, where Tamaki seemed to be sleeping. There was a smile on his face, a wide, innocent smile.

'Is he gone?' she asked, but she already knew the answer.

Kyoya gave a single nod, his face emotionless.

Then it hit her. He really was gone. There were to be no more of his brilliant smiles, his so innocent laughs, the antics that she had been so vexed by. They were all gone. What was she to remember him by?

But then his last song came to mind, his swan song, that had evoked so many emotions in Haruhi, of their memories together. Haruhi realised that that had been simply Tamaki's way of saying goodbye..

'Thank you, Tamaki,' Haruhi whispered, the smallest smile on her face, sure that wherever Tamaki was, he was listening. 'Thank you.'

x owari x wouldn't a review be just lovely? x awinchan