Haruhi had never been to Kyoya's house before. It was just what she had expected, a massive luxurious mansion that was big enough to house everyone in her apartment building and everyone they knew, plus their pets. What really surprised Haruhi was the size of Kyoya's room. It was bigger than her whole apartment.
He had a king size bed with navy covers, next to it was a cabinet where a lamp rested. There was a well organised desk next to the right. In the centre of the room was a black leather sofa with a coffee table made of glass in front of it. There were two doors on Haruhi's left. Kyoya said that was his closet and bathroom. The room was simple but elegant.
The bookcase was the only thing that didn't look pristine. The books were stacked vertically in order to fit more on the shelves, there was an array of genres, everything from business to medieval fiction, if a book had been written about it, you could find it in that bookcase. Apart from the chaotic bookcase, there was nothing in the room that could tell a visitor about the personality of its occupant. Well, any visitor that wasn't Haruhi. As she looked around, Haruhi thought that the room was a perfect representation of Kyoya's personality. It was practical and well organised, nothing out of place, everything was the way it was supposed to be. Just how Kyoya liked things to be.
Over the last two months Haruhi felt like she was closer to getting to know the real Kyoya. He would call or text her two to three times a week to play basketball. They had even got to the point where he would tell her what the disagreements with his father were about. Sometimes they were about his grades, which were never good enough in the eyes of Yoshio Ootori. Sometimes they were about his involvement with the host club. Sometimes they began as lectures about how he was still a long way from proving himself worthy of being the Ootori heir and ended with Kyoya saying something that was often taken the wrong way. It wasn't that Kyoya didn't think about what he said, it was that his father would misinterpreted his meaning and was too stubborn to apologise when he eventually realised what Kyoya meant. Haruhi had to admit that she enjoyed having the privilege of being the one to hear all this.
It was Saturday when Kyoya invited her over to tutor her in science. Haruhi discovered that she enjoyed spending time with him without the rest of the club. She found Kyoya to be an interesting conversationalist and he could actually be funny when he wanted to be. There were times when he would threaten to raise her dept but Haruhi had figured out how to tell if he was bluffing or not, so she was able to relax more in his presence. She couldn't read him as well as she could the others, but she was getting close. She was disappointed that she had yet to learn anything new to add to her list.
"So what is it your struggling with?" Kyoya asked her as he handed her a cup of tea. There were sitting around the glass coffee table.
"Writing these equations, I get the numbers mixed up and the answer never makes sense." Haruhi explained as she sipped her tea. Kyoya nodded his head as he looked at the page in textbook that she had brought.
"I think I know where you're going wrong. Let me show you." Kyoya said as he picked up a pencil and attempted to explain how to solve the equation in a way she would understand.
They spent the next hour and a half studying. Kyoya explained the equation in a way that Haruhi found much easier to understand than how the teacher first explained it. He helped her to make notes to summarize the previous chapters they had covered in class. They were making such good time that Haruhi was even able to make a start on an assignment that wasn't due until the week after next. It turned out that Kyoya was the perfect study partner, he was patient and took care to make the material clear. Once they had accomplished all the work they set out to do, Kyoya asked if Haruhi would like some lunch, when she had accepted (after being reassured that he would not be adding anything to her dept), Kyoya went to order something from the kitchen.
"Try not to break anything." He said with a smirk before leaving the room. Haruhi stuck her tongue out but he had already closed the door.
Haruhi stood up and stretched her arms above her head. She put her hands on her hips and looked around the room. She wasn't normally a nosey person, but Haruhi wasn't willing to let the opportunity to find out more about the shadow king slide. She started at the bookcase, Haruhi always thought that if you wanted to know someone, you should see what kind of books they read. Books often told you more about a person then the actual person did. When she didn't find anything that surprised her she moved on to the closet.
Kyoya's' closet consisted sixty percent of expensive looking suits and forty percent casual ( but still expensive looking) pedestrian clothes. There was an old looking pair of converse but still nothing out of the ordinary. Just when Haruhi was about to give up in her search for answers she spotted the bedside cabinet. Haruhi smiled.
She knelt down in front of the cabinet and slowly opened it. Inside was a pile of thick books. Haruhi took the top one and read the title. 'Astrology: Secrets of the stars', the spin was broken and the cover looked worn, this book had been read a number of times. Haruhi flicked it open to a random page and landed on a page that was about the Aquarius sign, her sign. She noticed that the page had highlighted passages and notes written in the margin.
"The Aquarius is creative and charming. They are future oriented and once they have set themselves a goal that will not themselves be distracted." Haruhi read aloud. The passage was highlighted in blue and had an arrow pointing to a note in the margin. 'Shows this in her commitment to her studies and desire to follow in mother's footsteps.'
Haruhi started at the page in shock. She knew he had read her file, so it didn't surprise her that Kyoya would know her star sign. What surprised her was that he thought about her when he read this page enough to make notes about how her personality fit the sign. He even used her favourite colour to highlight it. There were other annotations on the page, all about how Haruhi fit the sign, even examples of times she displayed 'Aquaries behaviour'. It didn't look like he wrote about anyone else.
Haruhi was so preoccupied with her discovery, that she didn't hear the door open. She didn't hear the two plates being placed on the table and she didn't hear the footsteps coming from behind. She only looked up from the book when she felt someone breath in her ear. She gasped, put her hand to her ear and turned to see Kyoya staring down at her with his arms crossed. She couldn't read his expression.
"What are you doing?" He asked, not taking his eyes off the book in her lap.
"Oh... well I um... I didn't break anything." Haruhi assured him as she held her hands up.
"That's not what I asked you." Kyoya said through gritted teeth. Haruhi gulped.
"I was being nosy and I found these. I'm sorry I had no idea you liked astrology." Haruhi admitted.
Kyoya stayed quiet and continued to stare at her. He was like an animal trying to decide weather or not he should attack the prey that stood before him. Eventually his expression softened and he knelt down next her and picked up the book. He signed before making eye contact with Haruhi.
"When I was ten my sister made a comment about our compatibility as siblings. Fuyumi is a Virgo which is very compatible with a Scorpio. I must admit when she told me about it I was curious so I started asking her more about astrology. She bought me my first book on the subject and I finished it in one night. It was this one actually." Kyoya explained with a faint smile. Haruhi couldn't help but smile at the thought of a young Kyoya curled up in bed with a book.
"My father would never have accepted his children studying such superstitions, so it became our little secret. Talking about our horoscopes and looking over the books together is one of the things I miss the most about her living here." Kyoya confessed, still looking at Haruhi as he said it. She smiled.
"That's pretty wonderful, having such a strong connection with her must be wonderful. I always wanted siblings." Haruhi said with a soft. She remembered her father talking about how he and her mother were planning on having more children when they found a bigger place to live, but it wasn't meant to be.
"It's not all that great. My sister is the only one I actually like, I tolerate my brothers at parties and family dinners but that's about it." Kyoya told her, there were times when he wished it was just him and Fuyumi and it wasn't just because it would mean there would no competition for the position of Ootori heir.
"Tell me about it." Haruhi said suddenly, pulling Kyoya out of his thoughts.
"About what?" He asked.
"Astrology, tell me about it." Haruhi clarified with a bright smile. Kyoya just smiled back at her.
The two sat at the coffee table, eating their lunch and pouring over Kyoya's books. He showed her the pages on the other hosts sign. He showed her the notes he made about examples when they showed 'sign behaviour'. As an example, he showed her the page on pieces, which was Honey's sign, and pointed out the note he made about Honey not liking to be woken up next to 'moody' on the list of traits the sign possessed.
"See nothing to do with blood type." Kyoya told her, reminding her of the time the others were afraid of waking Honey up after spilling tea on his bunny rabbit. Haruhi laughed at the memory.
The two continued to pour over the books until one of the maids informed then that Haruhi's father had called and was concerned because she had not returned home. Haruhi checked her watch and saw that an hour had passed since the time she told her father she would be home. She thanked the maid and began packing up her textbooks and notes. Kyoya asked the maid to call for the driver to take Haruhi home.
As they drove towards Haruhi's neighbourhood, Kyoya noticed the difference between his and Haruhi's neighbourhoods. Tall, proud mansions with manicured gardens were replaced with apartment buildings that were desolate with graffiti. Although he knew nothing too bad had ever happened where Haruhi lived, a part of him still worried for her safety. When they pulled up in front of Haruhi's building and the driver opened the door, Haruhi turned to face Kyoya.
"What did you say your sign was again? She asked.
"Scorpio, why?" Kyoya replied.
"Just asking. See you on Monday Kyoya Sempai." Haruhi waved with a smile as she stepped out the car.
Kyoya waited until she was in her apartment before telling the driver to return home. As the car turned around Kyoya smiled to himself. He wondered if he should be concerned about how far he was letting Haruhi into his world. She already knew two things about him that his best friend didn't even know. Kyoya was very worried, but he wasn't going to let it show.
Meanwhile Haruhi was sitting at her desk. She apologised to her father about being late, since she was with Kyoya her father quickly forgave her tardiness. It would have been a completely different story if she had been with Tamaki. As Haruhi sat at her desk she dug through her bag to find her notes to go over again. She was surprised to find an extra book in her bag. It was the astrology book she had picked up when she found Kyoya's stash, the one his sister gave him. At first she thought she grabbed it herself by mistake, but then she noticed a piece of paper that had slipped from in between the pages. She immediately recognised the handwriting.
'Keep it as long as you want, when you're finished I'll let you read the rest. Be careful with this one, it's my favourite.' it read.
"He really is the shadow king." Haruhi thought to herself. She carefully placed the book down and turned on her laptop. She typed in the key words and clicked on one of the sites that came up. She smiled at what it said.
'Scorpio and Aquarius have character traits which are not traditionally compatible, but that just makes their relationship all the more interesting.' The page read.
"Interesting is definitely the right word." Haruhi thought as she pulled out a notebook and opened it up to a certain page. She added another point to the list she had started.
Things Haruhi didn't know about Kyoya sempai
1. He likes to play basketball when he is upset
2. He is interested in astrology
Author's note: I checked online for the hosts signs so they should be right but I had to make up the sign for Fuyumi. I do not own Ouran host club.
