At What Price, Love? (Chapter 2)
~oOo~
Kyoya really wasn't looking forward to this morning. He located Tamaki sitting by the window in Music Room 3 before the start of class. "How are you doing?" Kyoya asked.
"I'm fine," Tamaki lied, giving Kyoya a smile that almost made him believe it.
"I took Haruhi to dinner last night."
"Oh? Thank you. I know her father works late and eating by yourself is almost like having no family at all." Kyoya would bet anything Tamaki ate alone last night.
"No Tamaki. I took Haruhi to dinner last night."
"Oh," Tamaki looked away. "How did it go?"
"Better than I expected," Kyoya paused. "She still cares about you, you know. And she doesn't understand why you ended things."
Tamaki looked up sharply. "She can't know. She'd go straight to my grandmother and tell her off. Then my grandmother would have no reason not to destroy Haruhi's life. This is not some quaint movie where the old lady wants a good fight and will respect and admire the one who stands up to her. That woman has destroyed my father's life twice over, my mother's life twice and now mine. We need to keep Haruhi clear of her."
"Mori suggested we should find Haruhi a patron, someone your grandmother would think twice about challenging. Maybe a Haninozuka or an Ootori."
Tamaki nodded. "That … that would make sense…but…not you. You're my best friend and I still love her. I don't think I could bear to watch…"
Kyoya looked out the window. "Yes, I can imagine how hard it would be to watch the woman you love end up with your best friend."
~oOo~
Kyoya avoided Haruhi the entire day, which wasn't hard. As they were different years, they had different classes and Haruhi usually found a quiet place to study during lunch. Even so, Tamaki was looking around the cafeteria for her.
"She's not here," Kyoya said with a touch of exasperation. "So stop looking for her."
"You know, you guys want to be more discrete in your choice of pronouns," Hikaru said as he sat down.
"Why?" Kyoya responded in a conversational tone. "If the rumor goes around that our prince may actually have fallen for one of the girls, it can only improve our end of year sales."
And it did. Website traffic was up even before the end of the school day and the flock of twittering girls around Tamaki was almost unmanageable. The whole thing would have been amusing if not for the pain it caused Haruhi. "Would you mind if I leave early?" she asked.
Yes, by all means, let's get you out of here. Bad enough that you have to endure all this without it playing out right in front of your eyes. "Of course not," Kyoya looked thoughtful. "You seemed disappointed that we went to a restaurant last night. Would you like to come to my house for dinner tonight?"
Her head shake was more of a denial of the question than a refusing answer. "I have a French test tomorrow."
"Then you won't have to interrupt your studies to make dinner." Seeing her skeptical look, he added "I have a literature paper due tomorrow. I promise studying will get done."
They quickly tidied up after their guests and slipped out of the room unseen by Tamaki, who remained surrounded by girls reluctant to leave, his sorrowful goodbyes convincing each of them that she was the one he had secretly fallen for. When the last one finally departed, his princely demeanor held up for about five seconds before dropping away completely. He scanned the room taking note of who was there and who was not. "Haruhi is gone?"
"Yeah," Hikaru answered. "She and Kyoya left almost as soon as their guests did."
"She… and Kyoya?" Tamaki sounded forlorn.
"You idiot!" Kaoru slapped his brother upside the head. "Why did you tell him that?"
"What? I didn't say they were going anywhere together, I just said they left together."
"Left… together?" Tamaki rushed to the window, but if they had passed that way, they were long gone.
~oOo~
As the car pulled up, it dawned on Haruhi that she'd never been to Kyoya's house. Sleek, clean, modern lines. It suited him. She wondered briefly if the house you grew up in shaped your personality.
Kyoya blithely informed the housekeeper there would be one more for dinner and that they would be in his room until it was done. Haruhi's steps slowed a bit at being told they would be in his room rather than in a common area. She tried to think of a way to suggest, without being rude or making demands, that maybe his bedroom wasn't entirely appropriate and if his family wasn't around to inconvenience…
He led her to a medium sized living room, negligently dropped his book bag and gestured at one of the couches. It took a second before it clicked. This was his bedroom. It was the size of her whole apartment. Or slightly larger. Trying not to gawk, she glanced around at the split level room. The downstairs held a conversation pit with white couches around a low coffee table; a large writing desk sat to one side and there was a row of dressers along one wall. A picture of the Host Club sat on a shelf, partially obscured by books, belying its importance to its owner. Upstairs was the sleeping loft. She averted her eye so as not to seem inappropriately curious. Somewhat to her surprise, he sat on the floor in front of the coffee table, popped open his laptop, and immediately started working. After a brief hesitation, she sat on the indicated couch, pulled out her French notes and began studying. For the next 45 minutes or more, the only sounds in the room were the keyboard, the flipping of papers and the occasional soft whisper as Haruhi tried to teach her mouth to form strange words. "Juge d'un homme par ses questions plutôt que par ses reposes."
"Réponses," Kyoya absentmindedly corrected her pronunciation.
"What?" she said.
" 'Réponses.' " Kyoya repeated. " 'Judge of a man by his questions rather than by his answers.' "
"What did I say?"
"By the way he lies down. Which, I suppose is also a way to judge men, but not the one Voltaire intended."
"Réponses," she said, giving him a mock glare before returning to her homework.
He continued to watch her. No idle conversation, no snooping around his room, just sharp focus on her studies. God, even in this setting, she was perfect. She read for a few more minutes before she closed the book, set it to one side and arched her back in a long, sensuous stretch. She opened her eyes to find him staring at her. "What now?"
Unwilling to admit the true direction of his thoughts, he glanced meaningfully at the book. "Know everything?" he teased.
"It's hard to be the top student in your French class when you're the only one who hasn't been to France." Her answer came out a little more tartly than she had intended.
Kyoya smiled at her tone. "We can speak French during dinner, if it would help."
"How many languages do you speak?"
"Four. Mandarin, English and French."
"That's three."
"Japanese, Haruhi."
"Oh." She craned her neck over to look at his computer hoping to find something to tease him back. "How's your paper com… that is not a literature paper."
"No, I finished the paper last night."
"You said it was due tomorrow."
"It is. But I finished it last night. Those are financials for a British biotech I'm thinking about buying."
"Wait… you're buying a biotech company?"
"Well," Kyoya admitted reluctantly, "most of my personal capital is still tied up in the Ootori Group so I'll have to put together an investment pool to do it. And possibly leverage the buyout, though I'd rather avoid that…"
"Kyoya, you're 18."
He looked at her like that was irrelevant. "This will not be the biggest buyout I've done."
They may have been sitting only inches away from each other, but "You and I do not live in the same world," she said.
"Nobody lives in my world," he said softly. "Nobody but you even knows it exists."
"Come on. Surely you father knows…"
"My father?" Kyoya snorted in derision. "He slapped me in public for making a success of the Host Club. How would he react if he thought I failed at something?" His voice turned bitter. "Tamaki's family is obsessed with his existence, however warped a way they have of showing it. In my family, nobody pays attention to what I do. I'm not even the extra son. I don't even matter."
"Kyoya." She reached out and lightly touched his arm. As soon as she did, the tension in his shoulders disappeared and his voice took on a light, almost conversational tone. "Not that it matters to me," he said. "It's not about acknowledgement. It's about being able to win the game in a way they don't even see coming."
She kissed him softly on the cheek. "Don't lie to me Kyoya. Lie to the rest of the world if you have to, but don't lie to me."
He turned his head and his lips brushed up against hers so lightly she barely felt it. He placed on hand on her waist and the other on her shoulder and kissed her again. His arms slid around her and with each subsequent repeat he held her a little more tightly and his kisses deepened until she wondered if he was going to crush her under his passion. But abruptly, he stopped. One arm was still firmly around her waist, but the other hand was touching her face as if she was made of the finest porcelain. "Be with me," he said.
She wasn't sure what he meant and she waited a moment too long to answer. She could feel the walls coming up between them. "I'm sorry," he said. "It's too soon…. I know you need time… time to recover…"
"Recover from what? I don't even know what happened! One minute we were together and the next he'd moved on." In a small voice, she added "I don't even know what I did."
"You didn't do anything, Haruhi. Tamaki's life is… complicated. If it helps, he's in as much pain as you are."
Tears started to slip down her face. "You know, don't you?"
"Yes," he said. "But I promised I wouldn't tell you. All I can say is that he truly believes he made the right decision and he will never go back on it."
~oOo~
A cluster of girls hovered just inside the door of Music Room 3 admiring Tamaki's Byronesque suffering as he stared out the window, wispy bangs shading his violet-blue eyes. The twins loitered near the door acting as perimeter guards to keep them from disrupting the scene and to make sure they had a premium vantage point for whatever came next. They didn't have long to wait.
Kyoya was not half way across the room when Tamaki rounded on him. "YOU BASTARD! How could you do this?!"
"Ooop! Club meeting. Members only," the twins said as they shoved the girls out of the room and closed the door behind them. They turned back to watch the train wreck unfold.
"I asked you to stay away from her!" Tamaki shouted.
"But I never agreed," Kyoya answered coldly.
"This room is sound proofed, right?" Hikaru asked.
"Should be," Kaoru answered. "It is a music room after all."
"Was that really too much to ask?" torment laced Tamaki's voice.
"You mean leave her shattered and in tears wondering what she did wrong? Yes, that was too much. Do you have any idea how long she cried last night?"
"She… cried?"
"You not the only one suffering, Tamaki. And because you're making such a spectacle of your misery, she can't openly show hers."
~oOo~
Haruhi intended to drop her books off before running down to the school office but found a crowd gathered around the door. As soon as they saw her, the sea of girls parted allowing her passage, while watching her in morbid anticipation. O-Kaaayyy she thought, cautiously opening the door. Hikaru grabbed her and pulled her in, slamming the door behind her.
"What's going on?" she said, her eyes flicking from Tamaki to Kyoya, glaring at each other. "Are you guys fighting?"
"No," Kyoya replied, his voice dripping with ice. "We're finished." He turned. "Come, Haruhi," he said taking her hand.
"Haruhi, don't go with him!" Tamaki voice cracked in anguish.
All the anger and hurt from the last few days boiled over all at once. "You're the one who broke up with me, senpai."
Silence filled the room in the wake of their departure. Tamaki turned back to the window and leaned against the glass.
Kaoru pulled out his cell phone. "Honey-san? Were you and Mori-san planning on coming by this afternoon? Because the boss and Kyoya just had a fight. Like, a real fight. Like, a friendship ending kind of fight. And we don't know what to do."
The twins looked at each other and drew a deep breath. By unspoken agreement, Hikaru went to Tamaki while Kaoru went to find Kyoya.
~oOo~
Kyoya and Haruhi had stopped at the railing that overlooked the school's entry foyer. "Are you going to be ok?" Haruhi asked.
"Yeah…"
"''Cause I kinda need to go see the counselors this morning."
"Why?" Kyoya asked alarmed. "Your scholarship is not in danger, is it?"
"… I don't think so…" she was surprised. "No, I just need to add my aunt to my emergency contacts. She kinda disowned my dad when he started… um … dressing. Anyway, they started talking again recently so this is kind of a peace offering I guess. It was weirdly important to him that I do this."
"Oh, then you'd better do it." Kyoya watched her descend the stairs and cross the foyer to the office. Kaoru walked up and leaned on the rail beside him. "Going to push me off?" Kyoya asked conversationally.
"Nah," Kaoru answered. "I mean I totally would if I thought I would get Haruhi out of the deal, but she'd probably just wind up with Hikaru or milord anyway so there's no profit in it."
Kyoya gave a short laugh.
"So how long have you been in love with her?" Kaoru asked.
Kyoya was silent for as moment. "Since the beach at Okinawa."
"That was almost two years ago."
"I can count." Kyoya took a deep breath. "I was thinking about it that night … and I realized that I felt a deep, visceral pleasure watching you two beat up those punks. And when Tamaki pulled Haruhi from the sea, I realized that I wanted to be the one to carry her into the house, to make sure she was alright … I thought … I thought if I could just distance myself from her, the feelings would fade … so I was rude to her. Cold. Even cruel. But she saw through it every time … And every time she saw through it, I fell a little more in love with her."
"You love her that much?"
"I love her that much."
"Well," Kaoru slapped Kyoya's arm twice in rapid succession, "if you and the boss don't manage to make it up, I'll be your best man."
~oOo~
Apart from Kyoya's absence, the room looked much as it did when Tamaki explained to the Hosts the real reason he was ending things with Haruhi. Honey leaned over sympathetically. "Tama-chan, you are right. Kyo-chan should have told you what he was going to do. And you have a right to be mad. But try to give him a break. She's not only his first love, she's his first girlfriend."
"His…first…love?" Tamaki repeated, dazed.
"His first girlfriend?" Hikaru said a little taken aback.
"He's been in the Host Club all the way through high school," Honey pointed out. "Hard to have a real girlfriend when you spend every afternoon flirting with between two and five other girls."
"His first love," Tamaki said again, still trying to grasp it.
"You're not the only one to notice she was special," Hikaru put in.
"He loves her," Tamaki said.
"He's loved her for a long time," Kaoru confirmed.
"And the thing is," Honey said, "men like you who are charming and funny and outgoing, you can have a dozen loves. But men like Kyo-chan, they only get one or two in a lifetime."
"He loves her … If he loves her … Men, if he truly loves her, we must get them together!" Tamaki said, raising his arm in command.
"Uh boss? They're already together," Hikaru said.
"Yeah, that's kind of what caused this problem to begin with," Kaoru added.
"We must plan the perfect romantic getaway for them." Tamaki began pacing the floor. "But where? Rome? Venice?"
"Still no passport, Boss." Hikaru said.
"Then we must take care of that too."
"I'm pretty sure it's illegal for us to get her a passport," Hikaru said.
"Yeah, she's gotta do that one for herself," Kaoru added.
"Hmm. That makes it trickier. Honey-san: find the most romantic spot in Japan."
"Yes sir!"
"Mori-san: she will never accept this as a gift from us. Therefore we must convince her that she won it as a free giveaway from the supermarket."
"Got it."
"Hikaru, Kaoru: Kyoya is terrible at romance. You must order her flowers and candy and write romantic notes that we can sign Kyoya's name to and give her."
"On it."
"And I," he said quietly as they scattered to do their jobs, "I will wish my best friend luck in winning the heart of the woman he loves."
