"The Refugee" by Pekorimomo
Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club
Chapter Three
Tamaki fumbled with his bed sheets. A stream of yellow rays shot through the dark green curtains and landed on his already yellow hair, rivaling its brilliancy in sheen. He rubbed his eyes and sat up. He felt really tired.
As if on cue, a maid came briskly through the door right to his bed. She held out a robe. "Tamaki-sama, breakfast is ready for you in the dining hall."
"Thank you," he murmured, still half asleep. Rubbing them some more, his eyes perked up. "What day of the week is it?"
"It is Saturday, sir, and it is snowing outside," she replied cheerfully.
He suddenly jumped an energetic burst from hearing the special word, earning a quick yelp from the young maid.
"Snow?!" he shouted, staring at the maid with wide eyes while leaning towards her, absolutely elated.
"Wwhy—why yes, sir," stammered the maid, cheeks red from having him so close to her now. "And I believe it is just over fifteen centimeters."
After the dismissing the maid and completely forgetting about the plate of hot poached eggs waiting for him downstairs, Tamaki ran to the phone and dialed.
Funny, he thought, Kyouya's cellphone was off. Was it that early? He then phoned the twins.
"Hello? What is it, my lord?" a groggily Hitachin said.
"Hikaru, Kaoru, we must get everyone together today for a wonderful snow fight to celebrate what is man kind's most wonderful gift—the period of being young! This is the time of our lives, when the rest shall be eclipsed in comparison!" Tamaki called out with great enthusiasm.
"…No, it's eleven o'clock," he paused, "and we have to help our mother out today with a project. Try Hunny and Mori-senpai."
"They're in Austria," the other twin called out in the background.
"Oh," said Hikaru, "then get Kyouya."
"He's not picking up!" Tamaki half-whined, half broken-hearted to find that none of the Host Club would be able to spend time with him today. "Why is the world unfair to me? Only my dear daughter is left! We'll have lots of fun today."
"She's not free today."
"HUH? How do you know this?"
"We already asked her to go to the hot springs with us last week, but she said she was busy this week."
"You guys are planning fun things behind my back!"
"Yup, pretty much," he grinned smugly. "I'm going, bye."
Hikaru turned the cellphone off.
"What did Tamaki want?" Kaoru asked, sitting on the bed, while typing something away on the laptop.
"Eh, he wanted us to go snow fight with him, since Kyouya, Hunny, Mori, and Haruhi were all busy."
Kaoru laughed. "I bet Kyouya knew this would happen after he saw the snow so he turned off his cell."
"Wouldn't surprise me."
---
Haruhi fiddled around with the hole in her glove on the pinky. She brought her palms to her mouth and blew a bit of breath into them, trying to warm her fingers. It was a really cold afternoon, and she wondered profusely why Kyouya had asked her to meet him in the city square of all places. Her legs were starting to tire, because she had arrived a tad bit early, so she walked over to the empty fountain—not running because the water had trouble going through the plumbing in the winter—and sat down on the edge. Truth be told, she was a bit too nervous for her liking.
To the left of her sightline, a tall figure wearing a top-notch black winter jacket with an equally expensive-looking scarf walked briskly over to her. His shadow loomed over her as he stopped, catching her attention. She looked up.
"Good afternoon, Haruhi," he said, "thank you for coming here on time today."
I wouldn't dare to be unpunctual with you senpai, she thought sardonically, with various worst-case scenarios of what he was going to do to her running through her head at the moment. "It's no problem," she replied hastily. "What are we doing today?"
"Well," he scanned the square and noticed a couple drinking hot chocolate together, both smiling, "today, I would like to ask you to help me with a task, and I'm afraid that you are the only one that can help me."
"What is it?"She asked a bit too sternly. She wanted to cut to the chase already.
"I am looking for a Christmas gift for my older sister. Although she has been brought up in the Ohtori family and has now married into another prestigious household, she still nurtures a great fondness for, well shall we say, 'commoner things.'"
"Uh huh…" Was all Haruhi said, not sure how to reply.
"I know that it is already past Christmas, but I wasn't able to find anything that I thought she'd thoroughly enjoy before."
"Uhhhh…"
"And so," he continued calmly, "I need your advice and opinion on what to purchase her, because I must say, knowing what is popular and not regarding to commoner products is more of an acquired taste, one of which I do not have."
"So today, I have to help you find a present for your sister?"
"Yes, today I'm employing you to help me."
"Employing me?" She did a double take.
"I plan to cut off a portion of your debt to the Host Club from helping me today. And, the extent to which my sister likes the gift will determine how much of a percent raise I will cut off from your debt."
"So if she likes it more, I'll have more debt cut off?" Disbelieving what he was saying minute by minute.
"Precisely. I'm glad we were able to work this out."
She sighed, pointing to the west. "Alright then senpai, why don't we start at that clothing store over there?" So this was the dreadful task that had haunted her imagination and nightmares last night.
Hmm…she thought as she picked up a glove. His sister was from a wealthy family, and would definitely already have many gloves and assortments of clothing that were of superior quality than this. She would have to find something not available to rich people. She pulled her brows up in thought.
He took a quick glance at her expression. Was she enjoying herself? Of course this ruse was just a deliberate scheme to get her to spend time with him. If he was to gain her affections, more time was for development was needed; however, he admitted, he really did need to get a present for Fuyumi. At least that part of the story was true.
She led him out of the clothing store. Maybe this wasn't so bad a task after all.
---
Kyouya sat on the park bench, holding a lime green gift bag on his lap. He stared at the snowy trees and the frozen pond upon which children were skating on. After two and a half hours were they able to find something that wholly satisfied Haruhi as the present that would be the one to reduce her debt the most. He breathed in the cold air. It was nice to be out once in a while.
Haruhi finally came back with two cups of steaming drink.
"Here senpai, it's hot chocolate," she smiled, as she handed one over to him.
"Where did you get it?"
"There was a vendor at the south gate of the park. He's always there around this time of the year." She took a sip, and then looked at him.
"Drink some, it'll warm you up," she insisted, glancing at his cup. Then she added, "It's all right, you know, if you're afraid of hygienic problems with buying off vendors in the park. I've been buying off the old man for years now, ever since I was six."
"Since you were six?" he asked casually.
"Yes, my mom and dad often took walks to the park with me." She took another sip. By this time, Kyouya's eyes were darting from the pond to her lips, trying to avoid staring at her directly, but couldn't really help it. The reason he wasn't drinking was because that he was taken off guard after her first drink. After dipping her lips ever so slightly into the sweet smelling liquid, they emerged rouge and a bit swollen. And her face was pale from the cold, but her cheeks rosy from the warmth she was holding. His mind went spinning.
---
"Oh Kyouya! I love it!" Fuyumi exclaimed.
"I'm glad," he replied. Of course, he was glad that she enjoyed it, but inside, he was more glad that he had decided to hand her the present at the beginning of her visit so as to divert her attention away from cleaning his room. Seriously, that woman was horrendous at house hold chores.
The present had consisted of a cook book for simple breads, cakes, and pastries, with a rolling pin, table spoon set, and baking pan. She held up the red checkered apron, beaming.
"Senpai," Haruhi asked as they entered a book store, "come to think of it, I've never met your sister before. What kind of a person is she?"
"She's kind, energetic, and married."
"Huh," she replied, wondering why Kyouya couldn't think of a better adjective for his sister than 'married.' She continued, "what does she like doing?"
"Cleaning my room, meddling with my things when I'm trying to work," and then he slightly smiled, "She always overanalyzes my doings and actions…"
Haruhi smiled knowingly, thinking that Kyouya really liked his sister.
"She cleans your room…so I guess that means she likes doing work for herself, with her hands."
"Yes, I suppose so."
She picked up a book with a beautiful decorated cake on the cover. "I think she'll like this."
"Kyouya, I'm so happy, thank you," she said again, as she walked over and gave him a hug. He patted her on the back, "I know you'll do wonders with this book," already imagining what sort of 'wonders' she'll come up with. Hopefully the kitchen at her mansion had an extra oven for her to practice on.
She let him go. "But, Kyouya, I have to admit, I'm a little surprised that you came up with this all on your own."
"Why is that?"
"Well, I've always thought that you didn't like commoner things. How could you have known what to buy?"
"Fuyumi-nee san, these aren't just commoner things, they're also baking things. I have some knowledge in that area."
"Yes…" she wondered, not letting this go, "but you came up with this idea all on your own? It seems almost a bit too, sentimental, for you. Who helped you?"
"Nobody." It would be bad to let her know that he spent an afternoon with a girl, because then she'd never leave him alone with her exclamations of joy and happiness that her little Kyouya finally fell in love.
---
Haruhi came out of the bathroom with a towel draped over her shoulders, as to not to get her shirt wet. She sat down by the TV and turned it on, drying her hair in the process. She saw the jacket that she had hung on the doorknob by the heater to dry. She walked over and felt the sleeve, it was indeed toasty. Picking it up to place back into her room, a small package fell out of the pocket.
She saw it on the floor and picked it up. The small silver purple box was small enough to fit into her palm. What could this be, she wondered, pulling the elaborate ribbon away and opening the box.
She was startled, reading the card.
"Thank you for today."
---
A/N. I wanted to wish you all a good winter break. I, like most people I think, have left my work off into a corner...
