Playdate

Fandom: Ouran High School Host Club

Characters: Suoh Tamaki and Ootori Kyouya (friendship)

Notes: Post-series, post-manga. Best thing about writing Ouran? The Tamaki and Kyouya dynamic. Also, please do not set children on dogs to ride as a horse.

I posted an M/MA Kyouya/Renge out to AO3. It was only fair that I posted something here too.

Ren = lotus

Tamami = jewel

He adjusted the weight sitting on his hip as he felt his shirt being grabbed. The bundle in his arms cooed and gurgled, allowing a drop of drool to hang from his lower lip. He reached into the bag hanging on his shoulder, pulled out a small wiping cloth, and dabbed the drool off of his son's face. The infant responded with another gurgle.

He reached out for the door, knocking hard against the wood plank. Kyouya didn't wait long before the front door of the two-story townhome opened.

"Ah!" the man of the house greeted Kyouya with a smile. "Hello!" The blond man said happily and stepped aside, allowing Kyouya to step through the threshold. "Come now, Princess, say hello to Kyouya-oji and Ren-kun!"

The little infant girl cradled in the French-Japanese man's arm said nothing, only stared at the dark haired, amber eyed infant with her own quizzically large dark brown eyes.

Kyouya closed the door behind him. "She's looking more like her mother every day," he complimented. Except for her dark blonde hair, a genetic mixture indicating her father, of course. "Say hello again to Tamami, Ren. And her baka Otou-san, Tamaki," Kyouya waved, trying to get his son to imitate.

Tamaki gasped. "Kyouya, don't teach your son such terrible words! What if he actually holds steadfast to them?"

But the boy only laughed, and waved just like his father.

"Ah, you're too adorable for your own good, Ren-kun. Come on, let's go to the back." Tamaki led the guests through the house towards the backyard. They walked through the townhome, decorated in a mix of contemporary and classic design, with soft beige, gold and eggshell upholstery and warm woods. Tamaki opened the door, allowing the spring air to enter the living room.

Kyouya's eyebrow lifted. There, dead center in front of the petite grassy backyard stood a formidable play castle of pink and purple plastic. It took up a good half portion of the backyard, with a large doghouse wedged snuggly against it. "You really bought it…" he recalled the text message conversations he had when the Frenchman spotted it in a catalog one day while his wife was taking a nap.

("I don't think 200 square feet for a playhouse is excessive at all! Neh, Kyouya? What do you think?"

"Are you asking me because you already know Haruhi will not approve? And, a playhouse that big would probably need a building permit.")

"Princesses are born princesses and deserve the castle of her dreams," Tamaki insisted as he placed Tamami down on the grassy patch in front of the patio.

"You know she currently has the memory of an earthworm, and therefore will not remember any of this," Kyouya placed his own child down on the grass beside the girl. Both infants began to crawl around slowly, enjoying the cool grass in the shaded areas of the garden.

Both men sat on a large porch swing sitting in the center of the patio, away from the outdoor grill and outdoor dining set. "Nonsense!" Tamaki began to rock the porch swing gently, as he pointed to his friend. "The exact details may not be there, but I believe we retain the memories of feelings, even in infancy. Memories of warm hugs, sweet kisses, of adoration! Besides," Tamaki pulled out his phone from his pocket and opened his photo gallery. "I take pictures every day and will print them out so she has an album to admire when she's older! See!" he scooted closer to Kyouya as he scrolled through the shots, "There she is crawling on the drawbridge, there she is sitting on Antoinette like a horse…"

He let his friend show him a few more pictures before he added, "How long do you plan to keep this monstrosity?"

"Well, it does have attachable additions to it that I want to buy, but Haruhi insists we move into a house with a sizable lawn before we do that. So we have room for not only the castle, but so Antoinette and her puppies could run around."

"If you need a real estate agent, let me know," Kyouya invited. "Speaking of your wife, what is Haruhi doing today anyway to call for this playdate?"

Tamaki stood from his seat and paced over to the sliding door a few steps away. "She's preparing for a case over at the office. And since you told me Renge was entertaining a friend from out of town, this seemed like the perfect day! Be right back." Tamaki disappeared into the house, but reappeared after a few minutes, with a stemless wine glass in each hand. "Red or white?" he asked as he stood in front of Kyouya.

Kyouya reached for the white wine. "Thank you."

Tamaki rejoined him in his previous seat. They both took sips of their own drink and watched quietly as their children played together, pulling at the grass blades and petting the puppies that crawled around them.

"Who would have thought?" Tamaki mused.

Kyouya tilted his head toward him.

"Who would have thought that us, two incomparably rich and handsome men, would become the best for friends in our teen years, and then continue our indestructible friendship into adulthood?" Tamaki commented. "Do you realize it's been 10 years since we first met?"

Ten years, really? Then again, it was true… granted, he was sugarcoating it just a tad. Tamaki knew Kyouya originally befriended him due to his status, but Tamaki always put a lighter spin to reality.

("It was destiny, Kyouya, fate. We were meant to be in each other's lives!"

"Why must you make it sound so inappropriate?")

But it was true, things were so different from how he saw life as a teen. He thought he was stuck as the third son, most likely buried under thankless work, and possibly alone. Kyouya superseded his brothers as the heir to the Ootori Group in a matter of a few years, and he even married of his own choice, not duty.

"Now we're married to the loves of our lives, with kids… You plan to have more kids, right?"

"The thought has crossed my mind briefly," Kyouya admitted.

("Kyouya, can you at least wait until Ren can walk before you try to make a second heir?"

Honestly, he'd rather not.)

"We're not in a rush," Kyouya told him. "And you?"

"We should move into a house before we try again," Tamaki told him.

("We're both single children. We know how it's like. I think it would be nice for Tamami to have a little brother or sister."

He dropped the salad bowl on his foot, his face turning beet red. "Do-you-um-er-?"

"Not now! Geez.")

They continued to watch their children interact. How Ren would smile as the dogs jumped around, how he would try to imitate the dog barks with his own high pitched squeal. How Tamami didn't say much, just looked around quietly, observing with a straight face.

"They're getting along swimmingly," Tamaki smiled.

Kyouya nodded in agreement.

Ren pulled a yellow dandelion weed from the grass and held it out to Tamami. For the first time since Kyouya met her, he heard her giggle.

The sound of broken glass took his attention; Kyouya turned to his friend. Tamaki stood frozen, wine glass now broken shards on the deck, red wine spilled. "He's.. he's…" Tamaki's limbs began to shake and then, as if he were a volcano, he exploded. It first started with a scream, then fire enflaming his deep violet eyes to lava red and orange. "HE'S THE ENEMY!"

Kyouya's glasses gleamed opaque and he adjusted them to sit higher on his bridge. What would happened if things turned out well between Ren and Tamami? The Ootori heir and the Suoh heir? Kyouya would probably actually have to spend his holidays with Tamaki and family, seeing as they were to be his in-laws, but that wouldn't be too bad, considering the benefits…

No. Ren can decide his future for himself. Like his mother, like his father, he will have a mind of his own. He can at least make his own decision of who he'll choose for a life partner…

The two children stared at the flabbergasted blond man from across the yard.

And then Ren's eyes seemed to glimmer, challenging the older Suoh, forming a smirk on his lips, resembling his father, the Shadow King.

Kyouya's eyebrows rose.

Tamaki wailed.

"Good job, son."