Disclaimer- I don't own Ouran High School Host Club

Chapter 7

Almost There

"I'm so going to kill you two," Kimiko seethed at the bored and completely disinterested twins that were lounging like lazy cats on a blue and gold trimmed sofa in the third music room. Their arms were slung over one another and they were flipping through a magazine with expressions of sheer boredom on their faces. They looked every bit the spoiled, rich brats they were in Kimiko's opinion.

The fake smile she had been donning all day was gone. The sweet and silky, slightly shy, tone she had been speaking in all day had gone as well. So was the demure and charismatic smile she had managed to plaster on her lips. Her cheeks had taken on a reddish tint, out of anger now instead of fake embarrassment and her green eyes were narrowed angrily as she slammed the door to the music room behind herself and strode over to the twins, carelessly dropping her bag in the middle of the room as she walked, her unbelievably comfortable black loafers clicking on the marble.

"Oh, were you talking to us?" Hikaru asked innocently, gazing up at her with bright eyes that were meant to convince her they were the most angelic and kind hearted people in the world.

Kimiko didn't buy the act for a second.

"What did we do?" Kaoru inquired, blinking like a lost puppy at her.

Kimiko took a deep breath, fighting the urge to just lunge at the both of them and knock them senseless. All day, every single time she would start up a conversation with a boy and play whatever part she needed to play to get his attention, the devilish twins showed up and ruined everything. Either by being far too friendly towards her, engaging in some kind of weird twincest moment, or being rude to whoever she was speaking with and chasing them off. Needless to say, she wasn't expecting to get any requests anytime soon.

"You have five seconds to get up and run before I really do try and kill you," Kimiko seethed. "One."

"She's not serious," Hikaru said.

"Two."

"Nah, she likes us too much," Kaoru added.

"Three."

"Besides, we saved her from a bunch of boring and ugly guys," Hikaru continued.

"Four," Kimiko ground out.

"Yeah, she should be thanking us," Kaoru finished.

Kimiko took a deep breath and prepared to lunge at the twins, but a pale hand laid itself on her shoulder. She glanced coldly at the hand and then followed the blue sleeve that covered it up into the half hidden face of Kyouya Ootori, the hand's owner.

'Why does it have to be him? This is his fault. The damn meddling, manipulative, too smart for his own good, devious bastard,' Kimiko thought grumpily. 'I used to have such great self control...Now look at me, screaming like a banshee and I probably look like one too right now.'

"What exactly is the problem here?" Kyouya asked in a voice so annoyingly calm and collected that Kimiko had to stop herself from screaming at him like a spoiled child and declare that the twins and their antics were the problem.

"No idea," the twins shrugged in unison.

"Really?" Kyouya replied, clearly not believing the twins and their answer. "So you did nothing to make Kimiko angry?"

"Of course not."

"I see. So you're both denying that you've been following her all day and sabotaging her every chance you got?"

"How'd you know?" Kimiko asked, confused about just how Kyouya knew about what had been going on all day. Once she thought about it though, she wasn't surprised he knew. He seemed to know everything and have eyes everywhere. "And if you knew, why didn't you do anything?"

"You're a big girl and regardless of what Tamaki might say, I'm not your mother," Kyouya replied, his face blank except for a slight frown like twitch when Kimiko looked away, stung by the retort.

"It wasn't sabotage," Hikaru pointed out.

"We were helping," Kaoru insisted.

"Helping?!" Kimiko loudly protested. "You call scaring off every single person that I may have been able to get to request me, helping?"

"Well, yeah," they replied.

"They were boring," Hikaru sighed.

"And ugly," Kaoru added.

"I don't care if they're as boring as a blank sheet of paper or as ugly as hell, just as long as they request me! I should make you two pay for the potential requests you made me lose!"

"Not a bad idea, Kimiko. After all, they do need to learn that interfering with the club's profits is something that they shouldn't do," Kyouya said, pushing his glasses up on his nose and fixing the twins with a look that made them gulp.

"W-we're sorry, Kyouya-senpai," Kaoru began.

"It won't happen again," Hikaru finished, after an elbow to the side from Kaoru.

"Good, see that it doesn't," Kyouya replied with a quick smile before turning his attention to Kimiko. "Since it doesn't appear that you'll be entertaining anyone today I don't suppose you'd mind helping me with a few things?"

Kimiko sighed. "Do I have a choice?"

"Not really," Kyouya answered much too happily.

"You want me to what?" Kimiko asked disbelievingly, tweaking a brow at Kyouya and looking from the screen of his laptop to him.

"Just don't go snooping around outside of this program and when you've finished, let me know. I'd like to see the finished product."

"This stuff actually makes you money?" she inquired incredulously.

"You'd be surprised just how much, actually," Kyouya replied.

"The girls here really need to get lives," Kimiko mumbled. "Fine, I'll do it."

"Thank you, Kimiko. I have somethings to do and a few guests to entertain today, I'll check on you later."

Taking the seat that Kyouya vacated in front of the shiny laptop, Kimiko sighed boredly and set to work on organizing a number of pictures of the Host Club members. It didn't take her long to notice that there weren't any of Kyouya and an idea slowly began to form in her mind and before long, a devious smirk had formed on her lips.

"Whatever you're thinking, I suggest you stop, you won't get away with it," Kyouya said, walking up behind her to see how far she had progressed.

"I have no idea what you mean, Kyouya," Kimiko replied in mock offense, tilting her head back and smiling innocently. Tilting her head back was apparently not a good idea, it made her realize just how close Kyouya really was to her. She could smell the light, barely there cologne he wore, and actually see his eyes pretty clearly for once. He was quite striking, she noted, his features were very refined and the air of Machiavellian mystery, though at times creepy and intimidating, was also something that drew her to him. When Kyouya lifted a brow at her, his lips quirking slightly in amusement as if he knew exactly what she was thinking, Kimiko mentally shook off her thoughts and reminded herself she couldn't stand the Ootori. "I have all of the photos sorted, I just need to arrange them. Your silly magazines will be done soon."

"I see that. Not bad work so far, I'm impressed." He graced Kimiko with the closest thing to a real smile she had seen him give and it nearly took her breath away.

Kimiko snorted. 'Probably still fake,' she thought to herself, but didn't bother to reply as Kyouya walked off again.

"Kimi-chan! Kimi-chan!"

"Hello, Honey-senpai, Mori-senpai," Kimiko greeted the two third years that walked up to her. She was sitting at a round table, her chin in the palm of one of her hands as she stared at the laptop before her.

"Whatchya doin'? Wanna have some cake with us? I brought a chocolate cake."

"No thank you, Honey-senpai, I'm a bit busy at the moment."

"With what?" Honey inquired, trying to peak around the table at the laptop screen.

"Uh, nothing," she said, closing the laptop screen and smiling nervously. "Just something that Kyouya asked me to do for him."

"Oh, that's right you're Kyo-chan's assistant. But I thought that you were a host now too."

"I am, but today wasn't a very good day and I didn't get any requests. Looks like I might be forced to work a bit harder than I was expecting."

"Poor Kimi-chan!" Honey cried. "We'll request you, right, Takashi?"

Takashi shrugged.

"See. Now you have two requests!"

Kimiko went silent for a moment, she was debating about whether or not to accept Honey's offer. She wasn't sure Kyouya would agree, then again, Kyouya was nowhere to be seen. "Thank you very much, Honey-senpai." She smiled happily at the older boy and moved the laptop aside. "Would you like some coffee to go with the cake?"

"Yes, please," Honey cheered, hopping into a chair and giggling boyishly.

"How about you, Mori-senpai, would you like some coffee?" Kimiko asked as she stood from her seat.

She got a quick nod in reply.

"Be right back," she chirped, walking to the pantry to prepare a tray of coffee.

"Two requests on your first official day as a host, not bad."

Kimiko jumped, squeaking in surprise at the monotonous voice that had addressed her from the shadows.

There was a small, dry chuckle followed by the appearance of Kyouya as he stepped out of the shadows. "Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."

"Then you shouldn't hide in the shadows in the pantry," she grumbled, choosing to ignore the tall, thin boy as she set a silver tray on the counter and retrieved three blue and silver tea cups.

"It's such a shame that they won't count towards your quota."

That statement got Kimiko's attention and she looked up at Kyouya. "Excuse me?"

"They're fellow Host Club members, you can't expect them to ignore their own guests just so that they can help you," he explained.

Kimiko raised a brow, but remained otherwise emotionless. "Their guests can come and join us then."

"I suppose, but then their guests wouldn't be getting their full attention. The hosts are here to make their guests happy, not ignore them."

Kimiko would have protested further, but she was saved from doing so when Tamaki bounded into the pantry, a big, cheesy smile on his face as he beamed at Kimiko. "I'm so proud of you!"

"Huh?"

"Two requests on your first day! My daughter is so talented! Give Daddy a hug!"

Kimiko screamed as Tamaki charged at her and engulfed her in a bear hug. A thought struck her and she decided to see just how much of a sap Tamaki could really be, she knew he was smart, but she also knew that he was a sucker who easily fell prey to tricks. "I'm glad you're happy, Tamaki-senpai, but Kyouya just said that the requests don't count."

"What?" Tamaki cried, dramatically turning to face Kyouya who sighed in annoyance. "You can't do that, our daughter has worked so hard!"

"Yes, but since the requests are from Honey and Mori-senpai-"

"Honey and Mori-senpai," Tamaki interrupted, a confused look on his face. "What're you talking about, Kyouya? Yasushi-san and Tamotsu-san have asked to see Kimiko-chan, they're outside."

"Who?" Kimiko questioned, completely uncertain of who Tamaki was talking about.

"Yasushi...The architectural engineering family?" Kyouya asked.

"Yeah, that would be him," Tamaki nodded.

"And Tamotsu. He's the son of the finest silk retailer in Japan."

"Right again. They're both second year, class A students," Tamaki stated.

"Who?" Kimiko asked again.

"Ryota Yasushi and Shigeo Tamotsu."

Kimiko stared at Kyouya, waiting for further explanation. Which she was apparently not going to get judging by the empty stare she was receiving.

"I'm so proud!" Tamaki cried again, turning around to try and wrap his arms around Kimiko again.

Smacking the blond upside the head and knocking him off balance and sending him crashing to the floor, Kimiko frowned. "Don't touch me."

'My cheeks feel like they're going to fall off and if I have to laugh at another one of Tamotsu's jokes, that are really more like insults to anyone that isn't himself or his best friend, Yasushi, I think I might have to fake a heart attack.' Kimiko's thought process was determinedly sour and annoyed as she sat across from the two boys who, despite their own beliefs, were the most useless people she had ever met.

Ryota Yasushi was a rather good looking guy. He was tall, muscular, but not overly so and he had amazing blue eyes that were quite the contrast to his long, well kept black hair. While he had good looks to rival the members of the Host Club, his personality was seriously lacking. His only interests seemed to be sports and girls for he tried to flirt with any that walked by. Manners were something he didn't bother with, why should he, he was rich after all. His daddy spoiled him and all he had to do was get decent grades in school so that he could take over the family business one day.

'And likely ruin it in a month,' Kimiko thought distastefully.

Shigeo Tamotsu wasn't much different. Looks wise, however, he was nowhere near as gifted as his friend. He was short and built in a way that made him blend in instead of stand out in anyway. He too had no manners, no morals and constantly hit on Kimiko in a way that made her want to throw her scalding hot tea in his face and then throw the cup at him for good measure.

In all, these were the type of people that Kimiko couldn't stand. They had a lot of money, which wasn't particularly a bad thing, but they flaunted that fact and because of that fact they felt that they were untouchable and beyond reproach. And unfortunately, they were. Kimiko would have loved to speak her mind as she usually did, but knew that doing so would only put her in further debt with the club and would make no difference anyway. Nothing she said would ever change the boys or their attitudes.

"So, Aratoshi-san, I hear you're no longer engaged," Tamotsu said, his voice grating on Kimiko's nerves.

Taking a small, delicate sip of her tea, Kimiko nodded. Once she had lowered her tea cup carefully to the table, she demurely folded her hands in her lap. "You've heard right, Tamotsu-senpai. My engagement was ended just the other day."

"Well, that's good, the Harashi family is worthless. They would have soiled your family name. I can't believe your mother was going to let you marry him, I'm glad she changed her mind," he arrogantly explained, the way he was implying that Kimiko wanted to marry Katsuro, making her desperately want to throttle the boy.

"Yes, well, I am too," she replied, barely keeping the edge out of her voice.

"Hey, Aratoshi-san, is it true that you're going to be living by yourself? I heard your mother was moving back to America," Yasushi inquired.

"That's true too, but I won't be alone. I have several bodyguards and full time staff at the house," she replied, smirking and nearly spitting tea all over herself when she noticed that both boys had gone pale for a moment while looking behind her. Her trio of black clad guards wasn't too pleased about her predicament with the Host Club and refused to leave her alone in the presence of the two boys. They apparently knew more about them than she did, and were currently hiding in the shadows of the pillars behind her. Or they had been anyway.

"Kimi-chan, Kimi-chan!" Honey cried, skipping towards her, his Usa-chan held tightly in his arms.

"What is it, Honey-senpai?" she asked worriedly, noting the way he seemed to be rather upset, his bright eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"It's Takashi, he went to get tea and he hasn't come back yet. I'm worried, will you help me look for him?"

"Um.."

Kimiko could hear the whispers and snickers of her two guests and was barely able to keep herself from kicking them in the shins under the table and then none to gracefully grabbing them by the collars and throwing them out the nearest window like the garbage they were. They were making fun of Honey and his stuffed rabbit as well as saying rather nasty things about his height and demeanor.

"It's alright, go ahead, Kimiko. Your time is up for today anyway," Kyouya told her, abruptly appearing out of nowhere and startling her when he walked up behind her.

"Now I know why you're called the Shadow King," she murmured to herself, folding the small napkin she had in her lap and setting it on the gold plated snack plate she had been using, she stood up.

"I'm sorry, did you say something?" Kyouya inquired, gracing Kimiko with his unsettling and knowing smirk that let her know she would somehow be paying for her comment later.

"No, nothing, Kyouya. Excuse me, it was a pleasure meeting you both," Kimiko said, bowing slightly and shyly smiling at her guests before turning her attention to Honey.

She squeaked, her eyes widening when her hand was suddenly in the smaller, but incredibly stronger boy's grasp and she was flying towards the pantry. There would have been a very big mess that would have included a broken table, a broken tea set and a bruised Kimiko, but thankfully Mori was there to catch her before she could go careening into anything when Honey stopped with no warning just after running into the pantry.

"Thank you, Mori-senpai, I'm beginning to think you're my knight in shining armor or something, you always seem to be around to keep me from falling on my face," Kimiko laughed embarrassingly as she righted herself and smoothed her blazer.

"Mission accomplished, good job, Takashi," Honey said seriously, putting his hands on his hips and nodding approvingly at the tall boy.

"Uh, what mission? And weren't you looking for Mori-senpai?"

"No, we were rescuing you. I just said I was looking for Takashi to get you to leave," Honey replied.

"Oh, why?"

"Those boys may come from good families, but they're not very respectful and we didn't like having to watch you be nice to them even though they were being mean. Right, Takashi?"

"Yeah."

"That was nice of you, but I didn't need rescuing. I'm a Host to pay off a debt, I don't care who I have to entertain as long as it lowers my debt," Kimiko explained truthfully.

"You might not care," Kyouya began, stepping into the pantry to lean into the wall by the door and fold his arms over his chest. "But this club does have standards and they don't meet them. They will still count towards your quota, but they have been asked not to return. I'm a bit surprised, as well as impressed, that you were able to keep up your little act the entire time. You didn't stop them or even try to get them to behave themselves."

"I'm not their mother, Kyouya," she retorted. "Besides, why would I stop them? You wanted me to entertain all types of people which would require me to behave as they want me to. I did what I was expected to."

"No, you didn't. As a Host, you should have asked that those two refrain from acting inappropriately, but you didn't. You allowed them to make the other guests uncomfortable-"

"You can't hold me responsible for the actions of two stuck up little rich kids who don't even know how to dress themselves without ordering a maid to get their things. If I had spoken up, like I wanted to, they would have been unhappy and left, possibly causing a big scene in the process. Then you would have added a bunch of money to my debt for causing the scene and probably have told me that I would have to find two more guys to request me since I chased the first two away!" Kimiko was once again, tinted pink in the cheeks while she ranted at an uncaring Kyouya who appeared to not be listening to a word she said.

"You're probably right, but since you didn't do anything I'll need to add the cost of several bouquets that will be sent out as an apology to the girls that were made uncomfortable to your debt."

If it hadn't been real life, Kimiko would have sweat dropped. As it was, she just slouched in defeat and groaned pathetically.

The week ended with Kimiko receiving several more requests. One from a shy third year, class A student that Kimiko had actually enjoyed spending time with and who had already become a regular. He had visited her the day following the disaster with her first two requests and since that was a Wednesday, he had visited her two more times that week, on Thursday and Friday. His name was Katashi Sato. He was a few inches taller than Kimiko, with a kind face, bright amber eyes and golden brown hair. He was thin for his height and Kimiko kept offering him cake and sweets, all of which he ate, much to her surprise. He had been very shy at first and had only come to the Host Club to see Kimiko because she "accidentally" bumped into him in the hall before class that morning and had run away in embarrassment before he could return one of her notebooks...Calculating and manipulative? Not at all...

She had found that once she got Katashi talking, he was actually quite amusing. He was knowledgeable on all kinds of subjects and he was extremely nice. They had a lot of similar interests, they had read many of the same books, listened to some of the same music and like her, he too had spent a lot of time in the States. They had lots of things to talk about and Kimiko found that it was actually quite easy to smile and laugh and be herself around the older boy and even blush when he teased her for liking to read Shojo manga, something that she had accidentally let slip while they had been talking about books.

While she was greatly enjoying Katashi's company, there were those that weren't quite pleased with how close the two seemed to be getting. Like Hikaru and Kaoru, who spent much of the time that Katashi was visiting with Kimiko, spying on them. Even Tamaki who had started off being a proud father and constantly praising Kimiko, who usually ignored him or pushed him away and caused him to cower in his corner of despair, was taking to spying on them as well. Honey thought it was great that the shy and quiet Katashi Sato had found someone he could open up around and be himself around, Mori agreed with Honey of course. Kyouya, didn't seem to have an opinion, though he did seem mildly annoyed by the fact that Kimiko was quickly approaching her quota and was insisting that for every ten requests that she got after her first quota was met that another five percent be deducted from her tab. She had started out at twenty percent, but seeing as how she knew that would never work had lowered it to a level that was a bit more reasonable in her opinion.

Her only other request had been a second year class B student whose father was insisting he befriend her. Their family was in the shipping business and he thought it could be beneficial to try and get close to Kimiko. Of course, getting close to Kimiko was really more like, 'persuade her to change shipping companies and make us lots and lots of money!' His name was Rikichi Jiruga and all the teenager wanted to do was was spend time with his girlfriend, who was unhappy about her boyfriend being forced to meet with Kimiko at the Host Club. It didn't take long for the girl to find that she was a fan of twincest and she ended up spending the afternoon with the twins, however.

In fact, Kimiko was almost jealous of the girl. At least the twins were entertaining, but Rikichi, well he was boring. Insanely so. All he did was talk about his family's company and stats. No matter how hard Kimiko tried to steer the conversation to other things or point out that she wasn't in charge of the Aratoshi businesses yet. Most of her time was spent boredly listening to him speak and watching with envy as everyone else enjoyed themselves.

Kimiko insisted that since she brought the girl in and had probably gotten the twins a new regular customer that the girl's first visit go towards fulfilling her quota, after all if it weren't for her the girl never would have come to the club. After much debating and pleading, Kyouya had given in if for no other reason than to get Kimiko to stop pestering him all the time.

By the end of the week, Kimiko had had four people request her and since Katashi had requested her a total of three times, she was up to six requests total. Four more and she would have the ten she needed before the party, she knew that would be no problem since Katashi had promised to visit her all of the following week as well. All she had to worry about now was the Christmas party, ten people had to request her at the party, one person requesting her ten times wouldn't work.

"I'm almost there," she muttered to herself, walking out of the third music room to go home and enjoy a quiet weekend alone.

Her mother and step-father were leaving for the States that evening and would be leaving her to herself in the manor for who knew how long. She could only hope that it was long enough for her to finish school, turn eighteen and finally be able to free herself from the woman's hold. Then she could make sure that her mother never messed with her life or her father's business that would be hers in only a few more years.

"Almost there," she sighed, glancing up at the clear blue sky as she exited the school building and smiling hopefully.

~A/N~

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