DISCLAIMER: I own none of the original OHSHC characters. Rated T for language, violence, and sexual content
Chapter 1- The Arrangement
It was a sunny but crisp morning at the Ootori residence.
"Kyoya," Yoshio Ootori called for Kyoya's attention. Kyoya looked up from his plate of breakfast.
"Chiyo Hamasaki will be transferring into your school today. You will pick her up after school and bring her back here, understood?"
"Yes, father." Kyoya looked back down at his food and continued eating.
"Welcome!" said the Ouran Host Club when the music room door opened.
"Come with me, my princess. I will make all your dreams come true. Together, our bond of love will have a happy ending" The Ouran Host Club was dressed in fairy tale cosplay today; Tamaki was dressed as a prince charming (to no one's surprise), Haruhi was dressed as the Pied Piper of Hamelin, Mori was dressed as a wolf, Honey was dressed as Little Red Riding Hood, Hikaru was Hansel, and Kaoru was Gretel, Kyoya was dressed as…
"Kyoya?" Tamaki called to Kyoya who was about to leave the music room, "You're our wizard today! Why are you leaving so early?"
Kyoya turned his head to look at his group of friends, "Sorry for not telling you this earlier, but I have to leave early. I have a meeting with someone." And with that, he left the music room.
"Where's Kyo-chan going?" Honey mumbled as he snacked on his basket of sweets.
"I don't know." Tamaki said, bewildered but that changed all too quickly, "How could he not tell me?!" he whined.
"It's Kyoya's business, if he doesn't want us to tell us, we should leave it at that." Haruhi said, tugging on her costume.
"Or…" Hikaru and Kaoru had a mischievous glint to their eyes.
Tamaki, Hikaru, and Kaoru was a little less than subtle, trying their best to sneak across the school courtyard but their cosplay was too obvious; that and the host club was never a subtle group in itself. Everyone was staring at them and Honey, Haruhi, and Mori were just walking behind the little rascals in front.
They got to the closest pillar as possible and poked their heads out, looking at Kyoya's family limo parked by the front steps of the school. Kyoya was there, waiting for a girl walking down the steps. The group couldn't see the girl's face since she was walking toward Kyoya and his limo. Haruhi noticed that he was using his charming host smile.
The girl could feel so many pairs of eyes on her and she looked to her side and peripherally saw what she felt. The girl stopped right in front of Kyoya, "Is it just me, or is a bunch of people in cosplay looking at us?" Kyoya looked up at the pillar that the group was hiding behind. The sunlight reflected off his glasses as he gave the group a sharp and steady glare. Tamaki, Hikaru, and Kaoru screamed and ran away, "Ah! He saw us!" Haruhi, Honey, and Mori nonchalantly followed the other three back to the music room.
The girl didn't catch his glare since she could only see the sun reflecting off his glasses. Kyoya quickly looked back at the girl with a smile, "Don't worry about them. They're harmless." He ushered her in the car and got in himself. The limo drove off.
"Hamasaki's, please sit." The Ootori and Hamasaki families sat down on their respective sides of the living room.
"So, Ootori-san, how are your medical clinics going?" Makoto Hamasaki asked Yoshio.
"It's going fine right now. But I would like to cut to the chase right now." Makoto cleared his throat and nodded. He stopped his pleasantries and waited for Yoshio's cue. The Ootori clan was in a much higher social and financial standing than the Hamasaki family was.
The Hamasaki's were not even a clan. Mokoto has worked extremely hard to get his family where they are today. He's made a name for their family in the upper class but still small. This moment is a breakthrough for the family so if Yoshio is establishing himself as the Alpha at this meeting, Makoto must humble himself.
Yoshio looked at the Hamasaki girl, "Hamasaki-san, do you know that your family is an up-and-coming medical research facility? There is a lot of funding that needs to go into this. We, the Ootori clan are very interested in investing your family's research." Chiyo nodded, "I understand." Another moment of silence fell upon the heavy atmosphere.
"In order for this investment to come closer, we have decided to make...an arrangement." Yoshio motioned to Kyoya.
"We have a couple more things to discuss and set up, so Kyoya," Yoshio looked to his son, "Take Hamasaki-san for a walk while we discuss some details." Kyoya nodded and walked up to the Hamasaki girl and held his hand out. She took it and they walked out to the garden.
"May I call you Kyoya?" The Hamasaki girl looked at him. Kyoya was about a head taller than her, around 5'10"-5'11". Dark hair, dark eyes behind thin-rimmed glasses; a very handsome man.
"If so, then may I call you, Chiyo?" Kyoya looked down to the 5'4" girl. She had dark brown eyes compared to her honey colored hair; she was very beautiful.
She smiled and nodded, "So, who were those people behind the pillar earlier?"
"They are…my friends. Half of them are a bit more than nosy; I think you might meet them soon enough. They're nosy, but harmless." She smiled, "Why were they in cosplay?"
"Well, my friends and I are in our self-made elective after school. It's a host club where we have different themes every once in a while and entertain the girls of our school. You can come by tomorrow if you like."
"That's nice." She didn't have much to say about it, it sounded strange but she couldn't judge too early until she visited the "elective."
"What elective where you part of in your last school?" he asked her. They came to a gazebo and they sat down on the bench.
"I enjoy music. I've been taking violin classes since I was 7." She looked down at her hands.
"Oh? What's your favorite piece to play?" he asked.
"I don't know. Normally, I just start playing anything that first comes to mind. I actually like Western music so I enjoy making violin covers of different songs. If they're classical pieces, I would try to make my own arrangement."
"That's very impressive."
"Master Kyoya." Seizaburo Tachibana called out to his master. Kyoya got up and lend a hand for Chiyo to get up as well. They got back to the living room.
"You two will be married by this time next year. During this time, we will have you live with each other in order to get to know each other. You will use the Ootori estate we have in the next town over, which is even closer to Ouran Academy." Yoshio announced. Both the Ootori and Hamasaki families got up and looked at the new…couple.
The room fell silent. Damnit, I knew it. Chiyo and Kyoya thought the same thing but they maintained an emotionless face.
"You two will move in this weekend. Shall we adjourn to the dining room for dinner?" Yoshio motioned the group out of the room to the next. Chiyo and Kyoya just stood there, taking things in.
"I knew this would happen…but I thought I would be more emotionally prepared about this…" Chiyo said quietly and looked down. Her voice was quiet but Kyoya heard her loud and clear in the silent room.
"Are you alright, Chiyo?" Kyoya asked. Who was he to ask that? He, himself, wasn't emotionally alright with this. If he let down his emotional guard for one second about this, he was going to break everything in the room.
Chiyo looked up with a smile, "I'll be fine. Let's go eat, Kyoya!" She grabbed his hand and started walking towards the dining room.
What?! Kyoya let his emotions get the best of him for a second before regaining his composure. Surely this bothers her, how could she smile right now? But nevertheless, he found the same smile on his face the moment he stepped into the dining room with her. He realized, this smile was the same fake one as he uses on the guests of the host club; hers was the same type of smile. If he wasn't so busy thinking about the arranged marriage, he would have contemplated to have her join the host club, also disguised as a man like Haruhi. She wasn't okay with this, neither of them were. But what was the point to emotionally invest in this? This only provided merit for each other's families. This…was strictly business.
A/N: Hey guys, despite asking people to show interest in my other story, Strigoi, in order for me to continue, I will not do the same with this story. I'm gonna continue this story purely for my own creative benefit. I really hope people who read this story will enjoy this story, nothing makes me happier than people liking the things I create. If anyone of you want/would/could, let me know of your support because that's awesome!
Just so you guys know, there's more to the struggles of this year-long engagement other than Chiyo proving herself and Kyoya's priority. They have to work on their own boundaries, learning how to trust each other and forming companionship...maybe love? If things don't work out, will the engagement be called off? These questions might take a long time to answer, but please be patient. Other authors who read my story, understand the curse of the writer's block, be patient. To be fair TO WARN YOU: My story develops a little dark as it goes, live up to it's T rating so what you see in the first three chapters or so, I think I did a fair job in depicting the original OHSHC characters but Kyoya is different, still mature, just different.
One more thing, I don't read the manga series. I use their wikia and the anime to gather my research and timeline. Hopefully I stick to the personality and relationships but also balance out what i want to do with the plot. And when i think of Chiyo's face, I think of Keiko Kitagawa, very pretty Japanese actress. Which is funny because when i think of Kyoya, i don't automatically think about the live action actor of Kyoya (though i think putting their pictures together is very cute), but the anime himself! It's like a dream where real life and cartoon mash together and because it's a dream, you find it completely normal.