a/n: Hi there! This is chapter three of The Essence of Magic. Ouran High School Host Club is the property of Hatori Bisco, who I am not.
So, I thought about skipping this scene...but I think this makes it more believable. In case you're wondering it's the evening of chapter two.
"A new kind of soft drink?"
Tamaki watched as Haruhi warily inspected the cup in front of her. She looked at him from the corner of her eyes, mistrust written plainly across her face. (Her wonderfully feminine and delicate face, a face surely of the same scope as that of a renaissance carved angel.)
"I don't want to drink it." She declared flatly.
"But, Haruhi---"
"I mean, what if you put something weird in it?" She emphasized the weird in a way that stung him mercilessly.
"I would never---"
"Oh? Wouldn't you?"
"No!" Tamaki yelped, painfully distraught as the situation crept swiftly from its planned action.
"Not even a love potion? I'll never be able to trust you again! I hate you, senpai!"
"N….no….!"
"Tamaki, I'm trying to study."
Tamaki looked up from his daydream at the sound of a cutting, terse voice, laced with immediate and dire threat.
It didn't take him long to realize that his overactive imagination had gotten loose again, and the glazed look in his eyes was not lost on Kyoya.
"You're thinking about Haruhi."
Tamaki watched as Kyoya set aside his book, leaning back to regard him from behind the impenetrable lenses of his glasses.
He pressed his head against his forearm for a moment.
"How could I not?" He asked softly. "She's all I ever think about. She's all I want….to think about."
"And? Are you going to waste your days dreaming of her? Or are you going to move on?"
"Move on!" Tamaki exclaimed, shocked. Was he truly hearing this from his dearest friend?
"I can't move on, Kyoya. There's nowhere…for me to go. Days and nights blend into fancy, the real world is receding, and if I tried to move against this fierce current, I fear my life and reason should be swept away along with everything else."
"So you're saying, option B." Kyoya pushed up his glasses.
"Excusez moi?" Tamaki was shaken out of his melodrama. "Since when does love have options?"
"Everything has options. In your case, there's option A---accept the fact that Haruhi does not feel the same way about you and continue to live your life as you always have---blundering your way through the affairs of others, stepping on the toes of officials with a smile on your face, etc, etc.
"And there is also option B: You do not accept Haruhi's feelings and continue to strive for her affection, despite the fact that it will undoubtedly make her all the more disagreeable."
Kyoya cast him a dark look.
"You make it sound…terrible," Tamaki muttered.
"I make it sound the way it is. I would be more sympathetic about the situation if you hadn't been the one to cause it." Kyoya checked himself when he caught the beginnings of tears. Having a distraught fool for a study buddy was bad enough. Having a distraught, hysterical fool on his hands was not something he was feeling up to at the moment.
"Look. I….I'm sure it will work itself out," he lied through his teeth.
Tamaki's face instantly brightened; he leapt forward and seized Kyoya around the waist, burying his head in his friend's shoulder.
"Thank you so much, Kyoya. You're right, you're absolutely right. I'll stop avoiding Haruhi, I'll talk to her tomorrow."
Sometimes even the shadow king was disgusted with himself.
Much later, after Tamaki had helped drag out the guest mat, and all the lights were off, Tamaki asked, "Kyoya?"
"What?" No doubt his friend was tired of listening to him by now, but Tamaki went on.
"Do you believe in magic?"
There was a pause of perhaps a full moment, and Tamaki wondered if Kyoya had actually fallen asleep.
"What kind of magic? I believe in sleight of hand. I believe in hypnosis." Obviously, Kyoya expected him to be referring to something else.
"Um….well…what about a love potion?" The words sounded faintly ridiculous, even to his ears.
"Tamaki. No. Just…no. Go to sleep."
Tamaki obliged, falling into a sleep made comfortable by the knowledge that should he have a nightmare along the lines of his daydream, his emotional anchor was only a whisper away.
a/n: Just establishing the Tamaki/ Kyoya friendship. (I imagine they sleep over often.) Expect Nekozawa in chapter four!