Bright realizations

Chapter 2: Second light
by Reiyuka

"Enter."

Kyouya often wondered if his own voice sounded that cold and distant. Correction, he had often wondered that after starting the Host Club together with Tamaki. He carefully opened the door, closing it with equal care after taking that scary step across the threshold. "Ah, Kyouya!" The monarch of the Ootori family had a voice that boomed authoritively wherever he went. Kyouya smiled calmly at his father as he explained, "Father, I just came to tell you that I've invited Haruhi to come have tea with us this Sunday." He had called Haruhi first thing that morning and was pleased to have her father on the phone first. Ranka had taken to him like flowers to the sun ever since he had first called him for some pictures. Truthfully, he had no idea why. Explaining the reason of his call to her father had made sure that she couldn't deny the invitation, though, since her father would push the issue.

At the sound of her cheerful consent, however, he wondered for a moment if he had even needed the failsafe. His father seemed pleased as he nodded, "Very good. What took so long, though?" Kyouya smiled distantly as he replied, "Haruhi is a good student, father. During school she spends all of her time studying, but now that we have a short break she found that she had time enough to join us for tea." That was a lie, of course – well, sort of, Haruhi was indeed a good student after all. He had told his father that he had invited Haruhi multiple times before – after all, the old man asked about her every other sunday, when the whole family sat down to tea – but that she sadly had to decline each time. His father, however, nodded contently, "Excellent. It's a shame that your brothers won't be able to join us tomorrow, but I'm sure that the young ladies' presence will be more than enough." Kyouya bowed lightly, showing his agreement and bidding his father farewell.

He had almost made a safe exit – just two steps, dammit! – when his father called him back, "Oh, Kyouya? The young lady does know what to wear to our family gathering, I assume?" The edge in his fathers' voice suggested that if Haruhi dared to come to the event dressed as a boy, he'd be sorry. "Of course, father," was his simple reply. Kyouya bowed once again before elegantly hurrying out of the room. Haruhi would know what to wear, though... right?

"Young Master, Ootori-kun for you on line 2."

Cheerfully, the blonde yelled "Merci!" through the impressively large entry hall of his fathers' small mansion near the school. With a swoop of his arms and legs, he dropped himself in one of the large fauteuils that occupied most parts of the house. A quick press here, a light going on there and Tamaki picked up the phone with a chipper, "Kyouya, mon ami! To what do I owe the pleasure of your call?"

The young man on the other side sounded more stern than usual as he stated, "I have no time for this nonsense, Tamaki. I'm looking for the twins, are they with you?" The blonde blinked a little, simply shaking his head at first before realizing that Kyouya had no way of seeing that, "No, not here. Aren't they on vacation with their mother?" The Dark King of the host club groaned a little at his side of the line and Tamaki concluded that something definitely was off. That suspicion became a simple fact as he heard Kyoya mutter, "I can't believe I forgot that. Or that none of the servants at their house knew where they were. What kind of servants are they, anyway?"

Amusedly, Tamaki tried to calm down his oddly frustrated companion, "What's the emergency, Kyouya? Maybe I can help." He could almost see Kyouya run a hand over his eyes in exasperation as the man tiredly explained, "Haruhi is coming over for tea tomorrow. And don't start," he intervened before Tamaki could even begin to make horrid exclamations at what this would do to his poor daughters' commoner mind, "It was my fathers' idea. He's been harping at me to invite her for months now." The blonde felt that there was more behind it than that, so he questioned, "And?"

After a short silence, Kyouya admitted, "And... she seemed depressed yesterday, so I asked her over. I couldn't not go through with it after I'd asked her, of course. Otherwise I would've kept on saying how Haruhi was too busy." A wide, obliviously happy grin spread on Tamaki's face. Of course it was a sad thing that Haruhi had been depressed, but Kyouya had done a nice thing. Kyouya! And for Haruhi, his daughter, even. Haruhi! "Does mom like our little girl?" he teased, the wide grin widening as he imagined Kyouya's snarl. "Don't be so daft, Tamaki! You said you'd help – now are you going to?" Tamaki kept on grinning on his side of the line, leaning back into the large, dark-red fauteuil as he pondered the multiple possibilities of his beloved daughter and his beloved best friend getting together. Ah, what a wedding that'd make!

"I still don't see the problem, though." In about five seconds and twenty sentences, Kyouya explained the issue of the clothes. With a maniacal grin, Tamaki decided to embark on mission "Get Haruhi to wear the correct dress". It took him only a little while longer to realize that the solution was pretty simple. "Kyouya, just find a dress you think is appropriate, attach a note to it explaining the hows' and why's and have it delivered at Haruhi's." In exasperation, Kyouya yelled into the phone, "I KNOW THAT, you idiot. That's why I was looking for the twins – they know what suits Haruhi well. I don't even know her size." Tamaki blinked a little in surprise. Boy, Kyouya was really freaking out about this. The only other time Kyouya had lost his cool was when he had been assaulting Tamaki himself. The maniacal grin widened. "You know Haruhi as well as I do, Kyouya," he replied, the cheerfullness coming through in his voice, "Just get something with as little frills as possible. And don't you have her size in your files?"

The other side of the line remained silent for a while. Idly, Tamaki played with the cord of the phone, wondering if his ami would yell again. The Low-blood pressure Shadow King was very agitated at the moment, after all. Instead, he murmured a soft, "I knew that... thanks." and hung up.

Tamaki blinked at the receiver in his hand. "Um... you're welcome?"

-

- In a dark room, a second light bulb on the wall burned brightly. -

Authors' notes: Me again! And an update, in time, huzzah! The next chapter is slowly becoming extremely large and there's not really an ending in sight, but ah well. I'll probably shorten it a lot eventually, but for now it'll have to do. Next update will be on wednesday, I hope you'll look forward to it.

Thanks again to the reviewers and those of you who added my story to your alerts list. Again, I hope I won't dissapoint you. Happy reading!