Bitter Sweet

"Kyoya smile! It was your idea to come here in the first place." The young lady bounced as she shook a dark haired man's shoulder who glared at the wall in front of him.

"I don't see much need to smile right now, Renge." Kyoya slumped uncharacteristically next to his fiancée as they waited for their hostess. He took the time to look around the spacious room, 'It's too big for her taste; her mother must have designed the house for her.' A smirk escaped him as he saw the collection of toys, ranging from robots to dolls, surround and clash with the classic European look of the parlor. 'She still has that small rebellion side though.' He straightened his posture when he heard the distinct sounds of heels walking towards the room.

A maid opened a set of double doors on the left side of the room to reveal the owner of the home in a simple blouse and skirt and a smile welcoming them. "Hello, I'm sorry you had to wait. My partners thought it would be amusing to hold an impromptu business meeting with the board of the company." She spoke with a distinct French accent.

Kyoya stood along with Renge and bowed slightly in greetings and respect. "It's no trouble at all, Marceline. We took advantage of the time to admire the room anyway." He gently took her hand and kissed the back of it as if it were the faintest whisper. "I must say it has been a long time, Marci."

She laughed nervously at the old pet name. "But we last saw each other at Tamaki's company benefit and that was only a few months ago." Marceline explained.

"Any time spent away from you feels like a long time for me." He whispered to her.

Her smile faded as the words reached her but she quickly recovered as she turned towards Renge who was looking around the room in admiration. "Renge, it's been even longer since I last saw you. And I've got to admit that I never expected a visit from the both of you together." Marceline stated as she looked between the two. "Let's sit; I'm sure you two would like some tea."

Renge laughed as they sat down and waited for a butler to serve them each a cup. "Actually, Kyoya suggested we come see to tell you the news in person." She grabbed Kyoya's hand and rubbed it in a comforting manner causing Marceline to look between them in confusion.

"I didn't think you deserved to hear what I had to say through a letter like everyone else." Kyoya asserted without breaking any eye contact. "I also wanted to know how you would feel about the subject."

Marceline took a small sip from her cup of tea as she looked at them with a nervous smile. "Well what is it?" She chuckled. "You're starting to make me feel nervous."

Renge set down her own cup after taking sip and bounced with excitement as she looked at Marceline. "Well, in case you haven't noticed my hand yet…" She slowly hid her left hand in a playful manner before she thrust it out towards her friend. "We're getting married!" She shrieked and jumped up to hug Marceline, not noticing the shocked look she had on her face.

"O-oh…Oh that's incredible news Renge!" She recovered. "Whe-when did this happen? H-How?" She asked breathlessly.

"Oh well you know how Kyoya is." She laughed. Marceline couldn't help but cringe at the sentence. "He just had to make a scene of it and did it when his father had just named him the next head of the company.

Her head snapped towards Kyoya's face looking for a reaction but was only met with his predictable mask of a smile. "Wow…" She said with a giant gulp of tea.

"I know! Isn't it romantic?" She said wistfully as she was sucked into the depths of her fantasy. "And that's not even the best part though!" Renge squealed. "Kyoya promised to let me take care of the entire wedding and to make it what I want…" Marceline was soon lost into Kyoya's haunting eyes as Renge's rambling faded into the background. 'Would he really get married?' A hand was soon shaking in front of her that pulled her out of her thoughts. "Hellooo, did you hear what I just said." Renge pouted.

Marceline laughed nervously as she rubbed her arm a bit. "I'm sorry, I didn't catch the last bit."

Her pout deepened into a frown at the thought of being ignored. "I asked if you could tell me where the bathroom is."

"O-oh, let me show you." She stood to lead Renge out of the room when a hand soon caught her wrist. Marceline looked down to Kyoya's face as he rubbed her wrist gently with his thumb.

"I'm sure one of your maids can show Renge where it is." He suggested.

"No, I can manage." She said with a small tug on her wrist.

Renge laughed though from the other end of the room, getting both their attention. "Oh don't worry about it Marci I'm sure I won't get lost." She said as she followed a maid. "Besides, Kyoya hates getting bored.

Marceline couldn't help but feel a bit vulnerable as she stood in front of Kyoya with her wrist caught in his hand all alone in a room. With a forceful pull she soon found herself sitting uncomfortably close and next to him. "What are you doing?" She asked as he ran a hand through her hair and possibly pulled her closer.

"I'm doing what I want." She shuddered as she felt his breath brush along her lips as he got closer. She forcefully pushed him back and stood with a glare towards him.

"What do you think you're doing, Kyoya?" She breathed. "How could you do that after you just told me you're getting married? It doesn't make sense! And Renge, what would she think? Oh god." She rambled.

Kyoya merely readjusted himself and crossed his legs as he watched Marceline with a smirk. "You make it sound as if we actually did something."

She stopped at his words and sat down on her seat across of him. "You really are a Dark Lord." She glared. "I don't know what game you're trying to play, but it's completely unfair to Renge."

He took a casual sip from his cup of tea as he stared at her from over the rim. "Do you really think Renge suspects nothing?" He asked as he placed the cup down with his pinky muffling the sound. "She isn't that naïve. As long as she has me as her husband and some semblance of a happy marriage she doesn't care what I do with other women."

"Well I don't want to be the other woman!" She yelled. "I thought we had taken care of all of this our last year of school. I thought we were fine now." Marceline looked down at her hands as disappointment filled her.

Kyoya gave an annoyed huff. "You were the one who decided we had taken care of everything. You were the one who thought we were fine. I had no choice!" He yelled.

"It's not my fault you only wanted to gain my company." She fired back. "Besides, you were in love with a girl who was only too excited to get away from you."

Kyoya glared back at her at the accusation. "You don't even know what you're saying." He quieted. "You know full well that you are the only one I could love."

"Yes, that's why you decided to tell me you are to be married. Because you love me?"

"Because I wanted another chance." He pleaded.

She scoffed at his words. "It's a bit too late for that, Kyoya. You should have taken advantage when you had the chance."

"I didn't know-"

"That you loved me?" She cut him off. "I find it hard to believe that you know now."

The silence consumed the air as the stared at each other. Kyoya gave a small laugh as he looked up at Marci's pouting face. "After all that we've been through, all this time that we've been apart, we still manage to get into arguments about nothing."

She gave her own small laugh. "I don't even know what we're really fighting about."

Kyoya moved to sit beside her once again as he took her hand and tried to look at her face. "Remember the first time we danced with each other?"

Marci looked at him with sad smile. "You mean when you gave me that horrible engagement party and avoided me like the plague?"

"No." He replied firmly. "I mean at that festival Haruhi had invited us too." Kyoya frowned as he saw her flinch at the name. "Where we found ourselves actually liking each other, where we had our first kiss."

She turned her face away blushing as Kyoya approached her face. "How could I forget? It was also where you first told me you only wanted my company and ruined the night."

He let out a frustrated sigh as Marceline continued to push him away. "I was young and ignorant." He took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes. "Why can't you understand that I was afraid? We had many good times together." He grabbed her hand, but she still wouldn't look at him. "Please, Marceline. Please give me another chance." He begged.

She looked at him in disbelief. Who was this? Kyoya never begged, never asked, never felt remorse. Did he really feel this strong about her? "Bu-but, you never seemed to care, when I was with…"

"When you were with others?" He laughed sardonically. "It took everything in me to not get into a fight with your past boyfriends. The fact that you only had two relationships made it harder for me to swallow."

She looked at Kyoya in confusion. "What? Why would you want me to have more relationships?"

His smirk didn't quite reach his eyes as he stared at her. "Because then I would know they wouldn't be as serious as our own."

She blushed at his words and felt her breathing hitch as he grew closer to her, only this time she didn't push away. His lips gently kissed her own and she was quickly swept into the memory of their first kiss under the moonlight surrounded by numerous commoners and not caring who saw. It was simple and yet it was the most passionate kiss she had ever experienced that managed to take her breath away.

In a second, the spell was broken by Renge's loud heels clicking down the hall way towards them, signaling their separation. "Kyoya! Father called and said he wanted to go over the wedding budget with you." She yelled with her mobile in hand. "Come on. You know how he hates waiting."

Kyoya stood from his seat and stoically bowed towards Marceline. "Thank you for letting us come into your home, Marci." He outstretched his hand in an invitation to kiss her own. Hesitantly, she accepted.

"It's always a pleasure to have you here." Her eyes widened as she felt something in between her fingers but waited until Kyoya and Renge were both gone before checking what it was. A small piece of paper was folded neatly in her palm that she quickly opened to reveal a familiar type of writing.

Meet me in the park where we danced tomorrow.

-Kyoya

She shook her head as she realized she had been smiling while reading the note. 'No! I don't want to be his mistress.' Marceline thought in frustration. Or did she? In all honesty, Kyoya had sounded like he wanted to be with her. She had never seen him act so out of character, then again he always was full of surprises.

She would have to think about it.

As Marceline made her way to her office for more work, her eye caught the date on one of Tamaki's knick knack calendars he had given her when he came back from a trip to America. 'What?' The date read in a large cartoonish font; February 13.

A small smile broke through her face which then turned into a chuckle that soon transformed into full blown laugh. She couldn't stop even as tears streaked down her face and even as she knew it wasn't that funny. "So cliché…" She breathed as she caught her breath. They had always joked about clichés and such when they were "together", the fact that he remembered and joked with her like this gave her a bit of hope.

"I guess I do have plans tomorrow."

AN:

This is my first one shot ever :) Tell me what you think. I don't know if you can tell, but I was inspired by Gwen Stefani's song Cool and the idea of her music video going in a very different direction.

-Michelle Rabbit