Chapter 4: Chat Behind the Scenes, Part 3

The Host Club was open, but Haruhi had not yet any clients and stood next to Kyoya, watching over Music Room 3. Kyoya was noting something down in his file, as usual.
"Kyoya, I have a question." Haruhi said.
"Go ahead." Kyoya answered.
"I wonder about you and Tamaki."
"About what, more exactly?"
"How come you two had sex?"
Kyoya looked up from his file, "He likes me but since he's homophobic he doesn't want to admit it. So I seduced him, and he liked it."
"Has it happen more than once?"
"Not really, but he has tried to kiss me from time to time, and sometimes he has even been successful in his attempts. I don't know if kissing friends is normal for him, after all he's half French and grew up in France. In France most people greet each other by kissing cheeks." Kyoya said and adjusted is glasses with his left middle finger. Haruhi looked thoughtfully at him, and he continued, "Well, since he has been trying to kiss me on the mouth some of the times, I guess it's not French habits."
"That sounds like he likes you, romantically or sexually. Or both."
"I guess so."
"And what about you? Do you like him?" Haruhi asked and looked at him. Kyoya didn't answer. Haruhi looked at Hikaru, Kaoru and their clients, feeling happy to have the two siblings in her life, then she looked back at Kyoya and said "You're not going to answer are you?"
"No." he said, almost as laconic as Mori would have said it.
"Why?"
"Because, if I lie you will figure it out, and if I tell you the truth you will ask me more questions."
Haruhi sighed, "Do you know you're a bit stubborn sometimes?"
"Do you know I can make your debt bigger?"
"Fine." Haruhi muttered and walked to Tamaki instead. She sat down in an armchair next to him and looked at him while he hosted his clients. He bragged a bit too much, he was too self-centred, at least if you asked Haruhi, but the clients didn't seem to mind Tamaki's ego. Tamaki should have a break soon, and Haruhi would have time to talk to him before she would go on duty, so she sat there, waiting for his break.

A couple of minutes later the costumers went to their classes, while Haruhi and Tamaki stayed there. Tamaki gave Haruhi a big smile.
"My lovely daughter…" Tamaki started, but Haruhi interrupted.
"I'm not your daughter. Ranka is my only father and that's how I want it to be." she said, giving Tamaki a weary and a bit angry look. Tamaki looked a bit hurt, but not as hurt as he does those times when he sit in his gloomy corner.
"I have a question for you Tamaki."
"Go on my fair daught…"
"Stop that already." Haruhi said with an angry glare. But she realized that if she hurt Tamaki too much he wouldn't be able to answer her question, so she forced a smile before continuing, "It has come to my attention that Kyoya and you are… How to say this, hmm… You two have had sex, haven't you?"
Tamaki looked like he had just seen a ghost. Haruhi prepared for having to catch him if he fainted. Tamaki locked his hands in his lap and stared down on them.
"Tamaki? Are you alright?" Haruhi asked a bit concerned.
"I don't know." he said quietly.
"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to…"
"No, I'm fine. I'm just confused."
"It's okay to be confused."
"I don't understand why I have these feelings."
"You mean, towards Kyoya?"
"Yes."
"It's just normal to get those kinds of feelings for a friend. Really, you shouldn't worry about it."
"But…" Tamaki started, then he looked up at Haruhi with watery eyes, "I'm a man, and Kyoya is also a man…"
"Oh, that…" said Haruhi, feeling dense for not realizing what Tamaki's problem was. She just thought Tamaki was confused of his feelings towards Kyoya because Kyoya is manipulative, or something like that. But then again, Tamaki is probably Kyoya's only real friend, so Tamaki probably doesn't think of Kyoya as manipulative. She continued, "Well… We do all have different views on love, no matter if it's romantic, sexual or platonic love. I, for instance, don't care about which sex or gender a person have."
"What's the difference?" Tamaki asked, looking suspicious.
"Between what?"
"Sex and gender."
"Oh, well, simplified, sex is what organs you have and gender is what you feel like. For example, my sex is female, but I don't feel particularly female nor male. The latter is called non-binary."
"You're non-binary?" Tamaki asked, looking a bit puzzled.
"Yes."
"Okay. I don't understand. I guess I just have to accept it."
In this case Haruhi was glad that Tamaki was this protective of her, because otherwise he would probably not have listened to her and he would surely not have accepted it, and he would probably also rant about it. He didn't accept the twin's incest. And he certainly did not accept the relationship of the council members in the Zuka Club at Lobelia Girls' Academy, since the three of them, Benibara, Chizuru and Hinako, were both homosexual and polyamorous. It happened that he started to rant about the twins, to the twins, from time to time, but Haruhi could make him stop only by giving him an angry look. Haruhi thought of how to come back to the subject she was there to talk to him about. They were quiet for a while until she knew how to continue.

"Trust your feelings, Tamaki. Even thought most people don't have this experience it's totally normal to like someone with the same sex as oneself."
"How can that be?" he asked, looking a bit sad, "Men and women are meant for each other, that's why they're able to have children, but men can't have children with men, and women can't have children with women." he said, looking very dejected.
"Well… It's not that simple really. Not all adults can have children, some people are sterile, and some don't want children at all…" Haruhi began, and then she had to really think how to put things to make Tamaki understand. Tamaki saw that she was thinking and kindly waited, for once. Haruhi continued, "Also, our world is over-populated already, we don't loose anything on people not having biological children. People can adopt, and you don't need to have certain sexual organs to be able to adopt a child…" Haruhi looked at Tamaki, who looked like he was about to say something, but she was fast to continue, "And before you say a child needs a mother and a father, think of how you only had your mother for a lot of years, and now you only have your father. And my mother died ten years ago, so I'm basically only raised by my father, and I turned out pretty good don't you think?", Haruhi looked at Tamaki and he nodded, "Also, there's not that much differences between men and women, for example, none of our clients know I have female sexual organs, they don't even think about it, because why should they? It doesn't matter for them, I'm their host, not their partner. They thought I looked like a boy in the clothes I wore the first days here at Ouran, and they continued to think I looked like a boy when I started to use the proper Ouran uniform. They don't realize this because men and women are very alike, except for how we are raised to act depending on our sex. Since my dad is, what people call, a transvestite, I learned that it's not the sex that makes the gender, it's the society's expectations that makes the genders, and the gender norms change with the time. Nowadays most men have short hair, in other times they were expected to have long hair."
Tamaki looked down on his hands again. He was surprisingly calm. Haruhi looked at him, and then she moved her eyes to the other side of the room, to look at Kyoya.
"You know what? If you think you like him, in another way than platonic, you should really trust your feelings and give it a try. I don't know what Kyoya feels about you, but I think he likes you too, even though he also have a hard time confessing it even to himself." Haruhi said, then she looked back at Tamaki and gave him one of her typical cute and affirming smiles, one of those which made almost anybody thinking that she was a smartest and kindest human being they have ever met.

Tamaki suddenly raised from the sofa, giving Haruhi an enchanting smile. Haruhi looked a bit shocked, since Tamaki had been quite sad just a minute ago.
"Thanks." he said, with a serene smile, and walked over to Kyoya.
Hikaru and Kaoru ran over to Haruhi, and looked as surprised as Haruhi herself.
"I have never seen him that content." said Kaoru.
"What did you say to him?" said Hikaru.
Haruhi didn't answer, she just looked at Tamaki, now talking to Kyoya. Kyoya's arms fell down, he dropped his pen and his file, all papers spread over the floor. The triad looked at them. Honey and Mori looked at them. All the clients looked at them. Kyoya blushed, or maybe he reddened by angriness, it was hard to know. He looked down on the floor. They couldn't see his eyes, his glasses were in the way, but he was clearly uncomfortable. Tamaki looked a bit worried. No one had seen Kyoya blush before. No one had seen Kyoya so startled that he would drop things. Kyoya looked at Tamaki, and Tamaki tilted his head, almost unnoticeable, because of confusion. Suddenly, Kyoya grabbed Tamaki's wrist and dragged him out of Music Room 3, slamming the door.
"Haruhi, what the hell did you say to Tamaki!?" the twins exclaimed in unison, while shaking her, to wake her up from the surprising outcome of her conversation with Tamaki. She looked at Hikaru and Kaoru, still with the shock in her face.
"I told him very much. Now I'm not sure if what I did was good or bad."
"We don't care about all the things you said, what was the spirit of the conversation!?" the twins cried out, looking worried, still shaking Haruhi.
"Calm down." she uttered, "You make it hard to speak…"
The twins stopped to shake her and sat down on the sofa next to Haruhi. Honey and Mori came over, excusing themselves to their clients.
"I just… I just… I think I just convinced Tamaki to give his feelings, for Kyoya, a shot…" Haruhi said, looking really worried. Honey gasped and put his hand over his mouth, Mori froze by shock, Hikaru and Kaoru looked scared. What they just had seen couldn't be any good for Tamaki, that was for sure.

Author's note: Uh-oh! Cliffhanger ;)