"Mother!"

He sighed, but did not look away from his laptop. Such a thing seemed entirely unnecessary. Usually, Tamaki's issues were entirely trivial and did not, by any means, require Kyoya's full attention. For the most part, they had something to do with making Haruhi wear something feminine, or organizing more Daddy-Haruhi time, and the host club's King almost inevitably realized somewhere along the way that he wasn't really interested in Kyoya's opinion, and that he didn't really need Kyoya's help with whatever it was.

This stage in the process of "helping" Tamaki was something that The Shadow King liked to call waiting for him to figure out how to do it on his own. The sooner he could move on to stage being able to actually get something done around here, the better.

It was a rather tedious process that he'd really rather if he didn't have to deal with, but the fact was that he did have to. Because Tamaki needed for somebody to pretend to listen to him while he ranted and raved about one thing or another, until he figured out how to deal with whatever was troubling him. And this person who pretended to listen, of course, had to be Kyoya, by process of elimination. Haruhi wouldn't bother even pretending to listen to him, and since the twins were more often than not part of his problem, neither of them could take on that role, Honey didn't have the attention span for it, and Tamaki would probably never be convinced that Mori was listening.

Come to think of it, Mori had been acting sort of different, lately.

It was hard to tell the difference in his moods, and it was unlikely that any of the rest of the club (excluding, perhaps, his cousin) was even aware that he had moods at all. But Kyoya knew. Kyoya always knew. He never did anything about it, but he always knew what was going on. It was just so much more entertaining to be a spectator.

But unfortunately, when it came to why Mori was in any given mood at any given time, he wasn't sure if anybody possessed the skill to understand such a thing. Maybe Honey did. He suspected that nobody else ever would. But that was okay with him, because the reason that he had been upset lately was irrelevant, as long as he dealt with it before it affected the club's profits. This was the true importance of the matter.

When he heard a mention of hotel rooms, it occurred to him that what little attention he had previously been paying to Tamaki had drifted bit by bit towards the club's oldest member, and he was now completely lost as far as what Tamaki was talking about. He decided that this was probably for the best, and returned his eyes to his laptop.

"Should we stay at the same hotel as we stayed at last time?"

What was he on about now? "Yes," he said, still not completely sure what he was being asked about, but every hotel that they had stayed at since the host club had been made, had been owned and run by the Ootori family or their business partners. "So where is it that we're going?"

Tamaki stopped talking and dropped his arms, which had been up near his face as he paced around and pondered out loud the arrangements for something that Kyoya did not understand the details of. "Back to Kyoto. Haven't you been listening?"

"Partially." Not at all. "Why do you want to go back? We've already done all there is to do there."

"But we had so much fun while we were there! I'm sure everybody would love to see it again!" They had gone to Kyoto last week. He was sure that nobody would be interested in going back so soon. "But the room situations were very badly organized last time."

Now that, he had to agree with. Kyoya had been sharing a room with Tamaki.

"It was a bad idea to let Haruhi stay in the room next to those unscrupulous twins!"

"Hmm."

"So, this time, you and I will take the room in between them."

"Hmm." They weren't going back.

"Haru-chan!" Tamaki's plans were thankfully interrupted by the greeting squeal of Honey-senpai, as Haruhi walked into the room. Must she always be so late?

"Haruhi! Guess what Daddy has planned for us this weekend!" chirped an enthusiastic (overly so, since the thing that he was excited about wasn't actually going to happen) Tamaki as he rushed over to the girl who walked in. "We're going to Kyoto again! Won't that be great?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Kyoya saw that Mori had gone stiff, and Haruhi's eyes darted towards him just for a second, before she dropped them to the floor. "No."

And suddenly he understood.

--

Mitsukuni was the only one who seemed genuinely excited about this news. His eyes widened in childlike wonder, and it would almost make somebody think that he hadn't been in Kyoto just four days earlier. He floated about animatedly as if he was imagining what it was like in Kyoto, as if he hadn't seen it all before.

"We aren't going." said Kyoya plainly, pushing his glasses up on his nose. "We went last weekend, and I'm not going to waste more money on something that is completely pointless." He turned back to his laptop to indicate that the discussion was over, but Mori supposed that it was also so that he couldn't see Tamaki's puppy eyes.

"Mom! You said we could go!"

"I was unaware of this."

Tamaki slumped off towards his corner dejectedly, pouting all the way there. Although he didn't enjoy seeing the host club's King so upset, he was glad that he hadn't gotten his way in this particular instance. Mori did not want to go back to Kyoto any time soon, especially not with the host club. Especially not with Haruhi. That would just bring back memories that he was having a hard enough time ignoring without Tamaki suggesting that they go back to the scene of the crime a week later.

Well, in reality, there was no way that he could ever really ignore the memories whether they went back to Kyoto or not, but it would still be awkward. Even more awkward than it was anyways. By not speaking, or expressing his emotions, Mori gave himself the luxury of being able to appear completely comfortable no matter what kind of situation he was in. But, much to his displeasure, he was often much less comfortable than he seemed to be.

Besides, there was really no point in going back, even if one were to look past the emotional distress that it would create for Mori. They had been there last week, and they had seen everything they needed to see, so there would be nothing to really do if they went again this weekend. Nothing, besides avoid Haruhi in every way, shape, and form.

And that, he was doing a perfectly fine job of from here.

"I'd rather stay here anyway. I need to study," explained Haruhi as she settled down into one of the chairs and opened a textbook.

"Mother!" whined Tamaki, clearly upset that he hadn't gotten any attention since retreating to his corner. "Your daughter studies too much!"

When the King wasn't happy with what Haruhi was doing, she was Kyoya's daughter, but when the twins were "sexually harassing" her, Tamaki was Daddy. There were times when she belonged to both of them, but Mori had yet to figure out the variable that made it so.

Mommy wasn't listening. Daddy was feeling ignored. Haruhi kept studying. Mori pretended not to be watching her. Honey served himself a slice of cake.

It was as if things were starting to go back to normal.

Had they really ever not been normal? It wasn't as if he'd talked to Haruhi that much before things had happened. But for some reason, it seemed like such a chore now. Because he knew that she was still waiting for him to say something to her that he couldn't find it in him to say. And he knew very well that it would be a lot easier for both of them if he just said it. But he couldn't say it, because he couldn't lie about something this important. But at the same time, he couldn't tell her the truth because she'd find a way to talk him out of his decision, and he didn't want that. He couldn't want that.

So he said nothing, and hoped it would go away. This was his solution to everything.

It seldom worked.

"Haru-chan! Haru-chan!"

He hadn't noticed that his cousin had stood up from the table and begun to run towards the chair that Haruhi was sitting in, and before he could scold himself for being so careless, he saw Haruhi stand up as well, and turn away from the student that she didn't appear to have seen flying towards her. He latched onto her before she even saw that he was coming, and twirled around her using her neck as a pivot, and flew away from her. He watched in fear of his falling and hurting himself, and stood up in preparation to go and catch him, but the tiny senior landed gracefully on his feet, so Takashi was able to relax a little bit, but only until he saw Haruhi dizzily trying to regain her balance, step backward and trip over her other foot.

He didn't even notice himself move, but a second later, he was standing behind her, catching her by the waist and lifting her back to her feet. He thought for a moment that she might not have wanted him to touch her, but he wasn't going to apologize. He couldn't have let her fall. Saving her like this had become a reflex, and he wasn't sorry for that. Because if he wasn't there for her, who would be?

She looked up at him in surprise, and he thought for a moment or two about how to proceed, staring down at her in unreadable discomfort. Then he smiled, and reached out and ruffled her hair as he walked past her to return to Mitsukuni, who had already resumed his position at the table with the cake. The short boy giggled as his cousin sat down across from him, and smiled a mischievous grin that would have been easy for anybody except for Takashi to confuse with innocent cheerfulness. And as he swallowed another forkful of cake, Mori inclined his head as he saw that only one of his cousin's eyes was closed.