"Cause you left the frays from the ties you severed
When you said best friends means friends forever…."


It hadn't been something Kyouya had planned; he'd never meant for things to take this route. He hadn't wanted to date Haruhi. All right, that was a lie, but he hadn't intended to, not at all.

What he had wanted, and had been striving for, was for Tamaki and Haruhi to be together. He'd seen how much Tamaki cared for her, and knew how happy it would make him to be with her. And so, Kyouya had been, secretly, trying to get Haruhi to date him.

It had all been very calculated. He asked her occasional questions that might reveal something about how she felt for Tamaki; he'd often found ways to get them alone together, even if it were just for a couple minutes; he found excuses to raise her debt any time it appeared to be that she was about to pay it all back, just so that Tamaki could be near her more often.

Kyouya did like Haruhi. It was hard not to, really. But, for once, he decided to put aside his best interests, and instead put Tamaki's forth.

It was all planned. Eventually, with the constant time alone together, and the things he found out about her that he casually let slip to Tamaki (that her favorite flower was lilacs, that she adored strawberries), something was bound to spark between them.

What he hadn't counted on was Haruhi having feelings for him, and not Tamaki.

It came out quite suddenly, that she liked him. Haruhi had just blurted it out in her own blunt way one day while he was trying to figure out how she felt towards Tamaki. Kyouya had been surprised, though he did not show it, and (now this was an incredibly hard decision) told her that, currently, he wasn't interested. If she'd been hurt by what he'd said, she didn't show it.

But, she hadn't given up, which made things extremely difficult. How was he supposed to steer her towards Tamaki if she kept giving him knowing smiles, and, on the rare occasion they sat side by side, crept her hand over to his, to try and hold his hand? Though Kyouya was the master of being professional, he was only human, and could only take so much of the flirting.

He had really done his very best to set the two up. It wasn't his fault that Haruhi wasn't interested in Tamaki.

One day, during classes, he happened to run into Haruhi on his way to the bathroom. She was running an errand for a teacher, and had smiled brightly upon seeing him. And, Kyouya knew then that he couldn't resist that smile any longer.

They'd exchanged a few words, and, just before the two parted, he gave her hand a gentle squeeze. It was the most affection he'd allow himself here, in school, and he was sure she would understand.

And she had. After the Host Club departed that day, she had stuck around another moment or two with him, and it was then they had their first kiss.

Later that night, Kyouya lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, for one at a complete loss for what to do. Something had started between him and Haruhi, something that could utterly destroy Tamaki (or, at the very least, his ego). But Kyouya was sure that this was something that Tamaki would take a while to recover from, and their friendship would be in terrible shape.

And so, he asked Haruhi to keep things quiet, until he broke the news to Tamaki. But, that didn't mean the two of them stopped seeing each other.

The day that Tamaki had caught them, they'd been dating for almost a month. It was stupid to use the third music room as a make-out place, Kyouya now realized; not just that Tamaki had returned, but that any student could have walked in- any student that didn't know Haruhi was a girl. His reputation could have been ruined. But, at the time, it had seemed perfectly fine.

They had kissed, briefly, and then it wasn't so brief, as Haruhi kept returning the kiss; Kyouya was more than happy to oblige, and continue. Somehow they'd ended up on a sofa, and that was when Tamaki had found them. They didn't realize anyone had come back into the room, being thoroughly distracted by each other, until the door slammed loudly.

Kyouya had immediately sat upright, his heart pounding (both from the fear of being caught, and kissing Haruhi); he had, as soon as he untangled his legs from Haruhi's, gone to the door to check the hallway. It was deserted.

In his head, he was trying to think of a way of to figure out a way to find who had caught them and make sure they stayed silence on what they'd seen, when he heard Haruhi call behind him, "Tamaki forgot his bag."

He looked back into the room. Haruhi, still a little disheveled from their activities (her hair was delightfully messy, her jacket unbuttoned and her shirt untucked), was holding Tamaki's backpack.

And then Kyouya was sure it had been Tamaki who'd seen them. He'd probably been on his way back to get his forgotten bag, had seen the two of them, and, knowing Tamaki, had been entirely unable to handle the situation, and fled.

"I see," was all he'd said in response.

The drive to Haruhi's house had been quiet, Kyouya trying to figure out how to explain things to Tamaki. There was a very small chance that Tamaki would be mature about this, but he wasn't about to count on things going that way. No, he was sure that Tamaki was…reacting in his usual dramatic way.

"Are you all right?" Haruhi had asked.

Kyouya looked at her for a moment before responding. "Yes." In reality? No, he wasn't. This was going to be tricky to patch up. He'd have to talk to him, calmly to make sure Tamaki stayed calm, and explain what had happened.

Yes, Tamaki would surely be upset, but he was sure he'd understand. Tamaki would most likely yell, and make a big scene.

Kyouya just didn't expect to be punched.

His glasses had cracked in the punch. Tamaki hadn't hit him in the eye, but the cheek; he'd only just barely hit his glasses, but he'd punched with enough force to crack them. Kyouya had felt then that the best course of action would be to leave, and talk to him about it the next day, when he'd calmed down.

Tamaki had reacted much worse than he'd feared. In the limo ride back to his mansion, Kyouya hoped that their friendship would still be all right.


Aaaaaaaaaaaan update! Yay! And almost a year later; no, I'm not slow…. Heh heh….

Anyway, hope you enjoyed it. I think there'll be another installment at some point; hopefully it won't take as long as this chapter took.

Please leave constructive criticisms (this means you Ashawee).