An Exchange of Few Words

Disclaimer: I do not own Host Club.
A/N: I am SOO sorry this took so long to get posted! Oh, I'm a fiend, an absolute fiend. I hope you all can forgive me. I'm just overwhelmed by the response this has gotten! I can honestly say that I've never gotten so much response from just the first chapter of any fic I've ever written! Thank you all so much! It's very, very flattering for me. I guess this fandom is really popular! Yes, this is a multi-chapter fic, and I'm guessing it'll be about 15 chapters. I'll try to be quicker about updating. Heh. Once again, thanks so much for reading!

Chapter Two: Surprise

xXx

Their second kiss was a surprise.

At the club, things were always happy. There was always a positive air, a pleasant feeling– and anything that upset the easy-going atmosphere was quickly either remedied or forgotten. The kiss between Kyoya and Haruhi– and all the unpleasant feelings associated with it– was pushed out of everyone's mind. No one mentioned it and so, it seemed, the entire incident had been forgotten. Things went on just as they always had.

About a week after the incident, Tamaki found himself sighing unhappily as he watched Haruhi studying.

"Mother," he said, turning to Kyoya, "why doesn't our daughter want to spend time with us? What have you been making her do that's caused her to miss so much school work that she has to make it up during club time?"

"Once again, Tamaki," Kyoya remarked, "your idiocy amazes me." Tamaki pouted. "Have you forgotten already that it's exam time? Haruhi has been so busy trying to juggle her regular studies and her time with you that she forgot to start studying for her exams."

Tamaki gasped. "No! Haruhi must pass! This is vital for her scholarship!" He began running about the room wildly, asking the girls who were enjoying the other hosts if they wouldn't mind postponing their visit. After the giggling herd had been properly dispatched, Tamaki grabbed Haruhi and pulled her over to Kyoya.

"Haruhi," he said sternly, "we have seen how you're falling behind in your studies, forced to take out your books at all hours, never resting, never seeing the light of day!" At this point he was close to swooning."

"Do you need something, Tamaki-sempai?" Haruhi asked coldly.

Tamaki immediately flew to his "corner of woe".

Haruhi sighed. She rubbed her forehead in exasperation, cursing herself for thinking that the other hosts would let her have even a moment of peace. "I'm trying to study," she said in lieu of apology. "Could you please wait until I've taken a break?"

The president gasped and sprang back up, promptly running over to her. "That's exactly why I need to talk to you! Everyone knows that two heads are better than one, so let Mother help you! Let Mother be your tutor - then surely you'll get much more knowledge crammed in your head." He nodded happily, as though there was no doubt that his plan was brilliant.

Haruhi sighed. "Tamaki-sempai..."

Kyoya stood up. "No, I don't mind at all. But know that I do charge for my time." He smirked rather evilly.

Before Haruhi could protest, Tamaki had rounded up the other hosts and shooed them out the door. With an embellished wave he followed after them, closing the door behind him.

Haruhi groaned. "Do I ha - "

"Yes," Kyoya interrupted. "All protests would be completely futile."

She sighed. "That's what I thought."

She took her books and they moved over to one of the abandoned tables. Kyoya cleared it off and they sat down. "What will we be working on?" he asked.

"Mathematics. Everything else I think I've covered well enough on my own." He glanced over at her, seeing the look of frustration on her face.

"There's no need to look so sour," he said. "If I agree to do something, I do it all out. And though I may have ulterior motives for helping you, I'm still going to help you."

Haruhi grinned half-heartedly at him. "I'm sorry, Kyoya-sempai. I realize that. I wasn't doubting your ability to help me." She sighed again and opened a book and took out the paper she had been working on. "Let's get started, then."

So they did.

After a few minutes, he glanced over at her again. She wasn't gorgeous by any stretch. She passed just as well for a boy as she did for a girl. A small, very feminine boy, of course, but no one had really doubted her.

However...

Even though she wasn't breathtakingly beautiful - and she definitely wasn't - she was not without a certain appeal. She was common, yes, but she possessed a personality that was all her own. Haruhi spoke her mind. Haruhi always spoke her mind. She didn't put up with nonsense, always the practical and sensible one. There weren't many girls out there who were like her; she had certainly proved herself as one of a kind.

And in that way, she was richer than any of the other members of the host club.

But, of course, that didn't matter to Kyoya. He was practical in his own way: cold, anti-social, with finances eternally on his mind. He was a businessman to his core. And just like most businessmen, he was well aware of the greed most commoners were ruled by. (Most people, he would later realize, but then, he had been brought up to be biased.) Haruhi, however, didn't seem to care about money. After she had what was necessary for her and her father to live, she didn't seem to care about money at all.

And though he wasn't nearly as obsessed as Tamaki was, Kyoya still found Haruhi to be a very interesting specimen.

She, however, didn't seem to feel the same way about him. He was just another rich boy - a weird, extravagant species that - though she interacted regularly with - she would never understand. She didn't even seem to want to understand them.

Kyoya was not used to being so unimportant in anyone's eyes.

He glanced over at Haruhi once again as she worked beside him. What was so special about her that gave her the right to bo so indifferent, he wondered. Kyoya was used to taking what he wanted, but... Even if Haruhi was what he desired, there was no way for him to obtain her.

"Ahh, Kyoya-sempai?" Haruhi said suddenly, breaking the boy out of his reverie. "I need you to check this problem for me. I think I made a careless mistake somewhere, but I can't seem to find it."

She moved closer to him, taking her paper with her. The warmth coming from her body didn't feel at all unpleasant, and Kyoya deliberately left his arm just a little too close to hers.

"So..." She sounded slightly impatient. "Could you please look through my work for the error?"

He nodded briskly and pushed his glasses up. She had made a careless mistake - accidentally changing a number in the problem. "Ahh," he said smugly, almost as though he'd made a brilliant deduction. He made to push the paper towards her, but he really only pushed it further away - so she'd have to lean nearer to get to it.

"Right there," he instructed her. He pointed to the mistake with his pencil. "Do you see? You changed the number."

She leaned down to look at where he indicated, inadvertently moving closer. "Oh, of course. That was stupid of me." She checked over the rest of her work silently. "But do the other problems look all right, Kyoya-sempai?"

"Yes, Haruhi," he said gruffly. "The other problems look fine." He turned his head to look at her, smirking devilishly. A plan had already been fully formed in that devious brain his handsome head housed.

"Mmm... Haruhi?" he murmured indistinctly, just loud enough to get her attention.

"What? Kyoya-sempai, did you - "

And without warning, he pulled her head down and kissed her hard - lips warm and soft over hers. She was too shocked to move even a single muscle.

A short moment later, he pulled away. She gaped at him silently, her mouth open, a stupefied expression on her face. "Tutoring you has been pleasant, Haruhi," he said, as casual as anything. He pushed in his chair. "I'll see you tomorrow at club time, then. Goodbye." And with that, he left a still-shocked, still-gaping Haruhi standing there as he sauntered out the door.

"Oh... my - did that really just happen?" she asked herself incredulously. "Did Kyoya-sempai actually... kiss me?" She shook her head to clear out all the fuzziness. That certainly hadn't been expected. In fact, it had come as quite a shock. Kyoya wasn't the sort of guy to just kiss random girls, but Haruhi was sure that he didn't hold her in any particularly high regard.

"Was he just... bored?" she asked herself as she gathered up her books, attributing a motive of the twins to the club's "shadow king".

There wasn't any reasonable explanation for his behavior. Yes, there had been that accidental kiss a week or so before, but she had forgotten all about it. Hadn't he?

Was he trying to teach her another lesson? Had he meant to shock her, so she'd forget all he had taught her so she'd have to have another study session (and there-by adding to her debt since he was making her pay him)? Did any of the other club members have something to do with it? Had he set up secret cameras to capture the moment so he could sell it to rabid fangirls for more money?

Haruhi didn't know what to think. So, as was her custom, she pushed the issue out of her mind. There was just no explaining all the eccentricities of the rich.

'Yes,' she thought to herself, touching a finger to her lips in retrospection, 'there's just no explaining the rich.'
xXx

End A/N: I hope everyone enjoyed this second chapter of "AEOFW". I'll try to get the third chapter up soon. We get a week off for Thanksgiving, so I'll have much more time to write. Heh. Thanks again! Personally, I think that this chapter was even better than the first, and I'm hoping that will become a trend. I know the chapters will become longer. This is just the foundation. Well... Thanks for reading! Review, please. I know I have no right to ask, but I'd still appreciate it! Thanks again!