"What do they think they're doing? I bet they're plotting something evil. They're always up to something." This was not the first time he had had this conversation. He held the phone away from his ear as the person on the other end continued rattling off random worries.

It hadn't even been a whole day since they'd gotten to Karuizawa. They'd only gone because Tamaki was being paranoid over Haruhi. Again. Why? He couldn't be sure. But the Shadow King was willing to admit this would be a fun adventure. However, having Tamaki talk his ear off, for the thousandth time, about what the twins may be plotting, was not what he considered fun.

"Tamaki, go to sleep. It's almost midnight," Kyoya complained. All he really wanted to do was sleep, but Tamaki was insistent that he stay up and listen to his never-ending worries.

"What if they do something to her? I won't stand for this!" Clearly, he wasn't listening.

Kyoya let out an audible sigh. Tamaki could go on forever about this. "Shouldn't you be more worried about them in the daylight? They're not likely to make a move in the dark," he pointed out.

This seemed to get through the blonde's worries and he was quiet for a moment. "Yeah, I suppose you're right. I'm going to get up early so I can keep an eye on them!" Before Kyoya could respond, he hung up.

Kyoya tossed his phone on the nightstand and collapsed back into bed. Tamaki had been talking to him for almost three hours. Just because Misuzu found the twins' "brotherly love" more "refreshing" and gave the only spare room to them, Tamaki had been freaking out. It didn't take long for sleep to overcome him.

He heard a crash and forced his eyes open. He had expected to see Tamaki standing by the door of his room, fussing over something he broke, but instead he found himself staring out at a vast expanse of gray. Confusion clouded his mind as he glanced around. Where am I? he wondered.

The wind kicked up, whipping his hair back. He winced, feeling a stinging in his eyes. He slid his glasses off and rubbed his eyes to get the stinging sensation to stop. When he did, he settled his glasses back into place. Unfortunately, the stinging returned. He ignored it this time and glanced around, watching the gray dust fly through the air. Dust? That doesn't make sense. Something didn't click right with this. Why would he be surrounded by dust?

He crouched down and scooped up a handful, letting it fall between his fingers. The realization hit him like a shock-wave. Sand. I'm in the desert! He stood again, looking out over the desert. It was hard to tell, but he could barely see the rise and fall of sand dunes in the distance. He looked up at the sky, but it was gray too. A whole different shade of gray. Even the sun was gray. I'm in the desert and everything's in black and white. What is going on here? He wasn't sure what to think about this. None of it really made sense.

"Kyo-chan!"

He spun around to see a shadowy figure in the distance. He couldn't see who it was, but by the nickname, he assumed it was Honey.

"Kyo~ya~"

That obnoxious tone was obviously Tamaki. No one else ever addressed him in such an annoyingly sing-song way. He noted a second, taller shadow had appeared by the one he assumed was Honey's. This, he guessed was Tamaki's shadow.

A third shadow joined the pair, taller than the both of them. This third shadow stood beside the shorter one of the two and the shadows seemed to half-merge. Mori. It had to be, since he'd gone straight to stand by the presumed Honey.

Soon after, two identical shadows slunk up from behind a sand dune to stand, one on each side of the little group. Hikaru and Kaoru. But they weren't alone. Another shadow followed closely behind them, taking its place just behind "Honey", but to the side enough that small boy's shadow was still visible.

The whole Host Club was here in this hot, seemingly nowhere desert. The question was: what were they doing here? He forced his feet forward, beginning the trek to where his friends were waiting for him.

"Hurry up Kyoya, or we'll leave you behind!" That was Tamaki again. Leave him behind? Kyoya wasn't aware they had been going anywhere. None-the-less, he picked up his pace to try to catch up to the rest of them.

He had the odd feeling that he was being followed, but it didn't last long. He figured it was nothing. But then he saw something out of the corner of his eye. His curiosity got the better of him and he turned his eyes to the thing beside him. He stopped dead in his tracks as the shadow ran ahead of him to join the rest of the Host Club. He watched as the group of six welcomed their friend before turning away again and heading back in the direction they'd come from, their group now complete.

"What in the world...?" His voice trailed off, thoughtful. His shadow had run off with the Host Club and he was left standing in the all-too-hot desert by himself. It didn't make sense. He set off again in the direction the Host Club had gone, in hope that he would find something that way.

He hadn't been walking long before he felt something cold and wet splash up his back. He whirled around to find that Tamaki was standing there, an empty bucket in his hands. Kyoya also noticed that he wasn't in the desert anymore. He was in a field that appeared to stretch for miles. The consistent thing, though, was that everything was still in black and white.

His lips turned down at the corners. "What was that for?"

Tamaki smiled brightly. "I don't know what you mean," he said innocently, shaking his head. But he was still holding the bucket, so the innocent act wasn't working.

Kyoya let out a soft sigh. "Honestly, Tamaki, you can't expect me to believe that," he said.

Tamaki pouted. "C'mon Kyoya, lighten up. It summer, let's do something fun!"

"Summer? But it was just..." He trailed off again, thinking. Last he knew it was winter. Seeing Tamaki's confused look, he forced a smile. "Right. What do you want to do then?"

"Let's play hide and seek!"

"But there's only two of us."

"So? You count, I'll hide. Ready? Go!"

Kyoya didn't have time to respond before Tamaki took off. He sighed again, but started counting. He only got as far as twenty-three when he got bored of it. He decided to go look for Tamaki, even though he hadn't counted to fifty like he was supposed to.

He reached the tree-line quickly enough, despite the field's seemingly endless silhouette on the horizon. Just past the trees he spotted a little cottage. He had no doubt Tamaki was inside. He weaved through the trees until he stood at the door. He hesitated a moment before pushing it open.

The inside was cute. Standard, for a simple little cottage in the forest like this. The thing that stood out most to him though was the roses. There were roses everywhere. In the wallpaper, in bouquets scattered around the rooms, in the decor. But the frequency of them didn't matter much to him. It was that they were in color. Light, pastel colors, but still colors.

He searched the rooms thoroughly, careful not to miss anywhere the blonde could be hiding. He checked the master bedroom last. He searched for a few moments before finding his friend underneath the bed. "Found you," he said, a slight smile on his face.

Tamaki wiggled out from his hiding place, bouncing lightly on his feet, a bright smile lighting up his eyes. "Your turn to hide then," he said, turning on his heels to go count.

Kyoya didn't end up going far. He hid himself in the closet just a few feet from where he had found Tamaki. He didn't have to wait long before he heard Tamaki's footsteps echoing through the little house. Apparently he hadn't wanted to count to fifty either. Oh well.

He waited a full two minutes before he heard the bedroom door open. He listened as Tamaki searched the room. It only took Tamaki half a minute to search before he seemed to have come to the conclusion that he knew where Kyoya was.

"I found you," Tamaki said before the closet door cracked open. Kyoya could see the faint smile on his friend's face. "It's my turn to hide now."

The back and forth process continued for a few more rounds. Kyoya was it again and he found Tamaki, once again, in the master bedroom of the cottage. This time, he was hidden between the nightstand and the bed. "You're it," he said simply, turning back towards the door to find a hiding spot. He stopped, though, when he felt something grab his wrist. He shifted his gaze back towards Tamaki, who had flopped across the bed to reach him.

"Hang on a sec," the blonde said, sitting up properly on the bed. He pulled his Kyoya closer so that his friend had no choice but to reluctantly sit next to him.

"What is it?"

Tamaki remained silent for a moment and Kyoya couldn't help but wonder what could be going through his mind. "Tama-?" His question was cut off by Tamaki, who had, very suddenly, leaned over and pressed his lips against Kyoya's.

It took the darker haired male a few moments to register what had happened. He felt his cheeks flush and glanced up to see Tamaki's cheeks were beet red and he was staring at the floor.

Kyoya placed a gentle hand on Tamaki's cheek and tilted his head up. He smiled. It was a real, genuine smile, one that didn't often grace his usually cold features.

Tamaki smiled slightly in response. He had expected rejection, but this was a surprising, yet quite welcomed, acceptance. Happiness bubbled up inside him and he pulled Kyoya into a more passionate kiss.

Kyoya jolted awake to the loud beeping noise that was echoing through the room. He glanced around to find he was in his own room again. He searched for the source of that obnoxious noise and found it was his phone. He picked it up and checked the caller id. Tamaki. He also noticed it was only 4:30 in the morning. What is that moron doing up at this hour? He wondered. With a sigh, he flipped the phone open and pressed it to his ear.

He instantly regretted the decision. "MAMA!" Tamaki's shout forced him to pull the phone away from his ear.

"What is it now, daddy?" he asked, playing along with Tamaki's little game as he always did.

"I had a nightmare that the twins were torturing my poor Haruhi," he complained.

Kyoya smacked his palm to his forehead. "You woke me up at 4:30 in the morning to tell me about a nightmare?" he said with disbelief.

"Will mommy comfort daddy for the night?"

He sighed again, knowing he wasn't going to win if he fought it. "If it'll make you happy, I'll be over in a few minutes," he mumbled tiredly.

He could almost hear the smile in Tamaki's voice. "Yay!" The line went dead and Kyoya complained to no one in particular as he got dressed.

You don't owe that airhead anything. Why are you doing this? A question he found himself asking all the time. He didn't know why exactly he gave in to all of Tamaki's demands, but he did. Besides, maybe this wouldn't be a pointless expedition. His dream was weighing heavily on his mind. He had to see. He had to know. If he didn't know how Tamaki actually felt, he might go crazy. He needed to get this straightened out. And there was only one way to do that.

He pulled on his sneakers and laced them up quickly, setting out for his friend's house just a few streets away.

It didn't take long for Kyoya to walk to Tamaki's house. He hadn't wanted to wake anyone to drive him over and he didn't mind the walking. The cool night air woke him up a bit. He didn't bother knocking, he just walked in. Tamaki was waiting for him on the grand staircase. He nearly fell under Tamaki's weight as the blonde tackled him.

"Kyoya! I missed you!"

Kyoya raised an eyebrow. "You just saw me a few hours ago and we've been talking all night," Kyoya pointed out.

Tamaki pouted. "Yeah, but that's not the point," he said childishly.

Kyoya sighed. "I missed you too. Now would you try to get some sleep? You'll be no help to Haruhi if you're sleep deprived."

Tamaki nodded. "Yeah, you're right. C'mon."

And suddenly, Tamaki was dragging him up the stairs. Kyoya was always amazed by the blonde's ability to switch moods so easily. He let Tamaki lead him to his room and he slid of his sneakers, setting them beside the bed.

He sat on the edge of the bed for a few minutes before deciding to check on Tamaki to see if he was actually trying to sleep. When he got to the room a few doors down from his own, he could hear a light snoring. He must have been pretty tired. Kyoya noted. He moved to stand beside his friend's bed. Tamaki looked so peaceful and innocent when he was asleep.

Kyoya hesitated a moment before gently kissing his friend...more than friend?...friend good night. He turned to head back to his room but something caught his wrist. Before he could react, he felt Tamaki's soft lips pressed against his own. He felt his cheeks grow warm, but he didn't really care.

Tamaki smiled slightly. "Good night Kyoya."

"Good night, Tamaki." With that, he returned to his room for the night, thoughts of the blonde haired boy racing through his head. He didn't understand this feeling. Was it... love? He wasn't sure. What would happen now? His endless thoughts prevented him from sleeping, but the Shadow King didn't mind that much. All he had to do now was figure out just exactly who Tamaki was to him and how to make this work.