Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran or any characters.
Chapter 7:
Haruhi was wearing the fanciest dress that she had ever been near. It was a Hitachiin original. Mrs. Hitachiin had called Haruhi and ordered her to come over and try it as soon as she learned about Kyoya and Tamaki's graduation ball. She apparently found Haruhi extremely fun to play dress up with, just like her sons, the twins, did.
Haruhi thought she looked extremely nice in it. But she was afraid to sit down; actually she was afraid to move period. It had been nice to see Kyoya's reaction when she showed up thirty minutes prior to the ball starting though. His eyes had widened a little and he had appeared dumbstruck for about half a second. Then he had remembered to breathe again, walked up to Haruhi, took her hand, and kissed it as he said "You look stunning my dear" as he looked up into her face."
Then Fuyumi had gasped from a doorway and while running over to hug Haruhi she exclaimed "Haruhi you look stunning! You will be the belle of the ball!" As she was leaning over to hug Haruhi she suddenly froze. "I think I may be afraid to hug you, that's a Hitachiin original isn't it?"
Haruhi had nodded. During Fuyumi's little escapade Kyoya had entered back into his shell, she had wondered if he would ever come out of it entirely.
Haruhi remembered this entrance as she stood in the ballroom with Hikaru, Kaoru, Mori, Hunny, Chika, Satoshi, and Mamoru. She really did feel uncomfortable wearing such a fancy dress and her feet were killing her, she could barely walk in these heels. It was a pale blue sleeveless dress. It featured a fitted bodice that artfully balanced an elegant asymmetrical floor length skirt, underlain with tulle so that it had volume. That volume was all that stopped people from seeing Haruhi's legs shaking from wearing and walking in these heels.
She and the boys were waiting for Mr. Ohtori to take the microphone and make the announcements. On the stage with him were Kyoya, Tamaki, and Mr. Suoh. Kyoya had his host club smile on and seemed at ease. Tamaki looked a bit more serious than normal. He had been that way for a while now actually; ever since he had started following his father around and learning the family business. Mr. Suoh just looked extremely pleased with himself and seemed to be bursting with pride.
Mr. Ohtori spoke then "Ladies and Gentlemen, I would like to thank you for coming here tonight to celebrate something wonderful with Mr. Suoh and myself." He then turned towards Mr. Suoh who stepped up and took the microphone from Mr. Ohtori.
"I thank you also good Ladies and Gentlemen. Tonight we celebrate Tamaki Suoh's and Kyoya Ohtori's graduation from Ouran Academy and their acceptance into Tokyo University! One of the most prestigious universities in the world as you all know. Mr. Ohtori and I are so proud we are fit to burst. Though I don't believe Mr. Ohtori would admit that" Mr. Suoh smiled and looked around the ballroom at all the guests. He then handed the microphone back to Mr. Ohtori, who was giving him a small glare for that last comment.
Mr. Ohtori smiled a small smile and then said "Now a round of applause for our graduates and then let the party continue!" Mr. Ohtori said this with a little more emotion than usual.
The rest of the ballroom seemed to have caught his emotion and were all applauding now. Some of the students there were actually cheering. The past and present members of the Host Club were some of these students; though they were all overshadowed by Renge. Who was screaming at the top of her lungs, much to the annoyance of the red-haired French girl standing next to her, who was giving her glares that would make Kyoya proud.
Kyoya and Tamaki had bowed a little as the applause started. But after this they just stood there and smiled at everyone in the crowd.
Kyoya felt his gaze keep drifting towards Haruhi, which wasn't good. She wasn't the only one here to celebrate his graduation and acceptance. It would be rude to not smile and look at everyone. So he forced his eyes to avoid Haruhi. As the applause died down the music started back up. Taking this cue, Kyoya grabbed Tamaki's arm and dragged him off the stage. For some reason Tamaki seemed to be in some sort of shock. As they started to walk off someone called out "Kyoya!"
Kyoya stopped and turned. It was Mr. Tachiki; he had another man with him. Kyoya looked at the obviously European man and then back at Mr. Tachiki. "Hello Mr. Tachiki. Are you enjoying yourself?"
"Yes I am. I just thought I should introduce you to…" Mr. Tachiki was suddenly cut off.
"Mr. Roux?" Tamaki suddenly exclaimed. A shocked look was on his face.
"Tamaki? Is that really you?" The European man had a look of surprise on his face as he said this.
"Yes, Mr. Roux it is. Remember I moved here about four years ago?" Tamaki replied.
Mr. Tachiki looked back and forth between the two of them for a moment. Then he spoke "Well Kyoya, I was going to introduce you to Ambassador Roux, from France. But it appears your friend Tamaki has met him before."
Kyoya nodded and opened his mouth to add a verbal reply when suddenly a girl came rushing up.
"There you are father. I was looking for you when our hosts made their announcement. And then I got stuck next to some horrible girl that screamed my ears off. I'm ready to go whenever you are. Zackarie is becoming very annoying. He seems to think that all the pretty girls here should be falling in love with him the moment they see him. Mother has already said she is ready to leave if you are. So can we please go?" The girl said all of this in one breath; she didn't even notice that her father had been talking to people. That or she didn't care.
Kyoya rather thought it was the later. What was it about girls from France? Were they all like this?
Ambassador Roux pointedly cleared his throat before he spoke "Alianore did you not notice I was talking to someone when you came over here like tornado on a rampage?"
Alianore opened her mouth to speak when she was stopped by someone throwing their arms around her and twirling her around.
Kyoya almost lost his calm at this. He had never seen Tamaki do this with anyone but Haruhi…
"Ali! Ali! I can't believe it's my Ali! Did you miss me? Did you? Did you? Please say you did! I missed you terribly myself." Tamaki said all of this as he twirled Alianore around and around.
Suddenly though Tamaki dropped her and was clutching his head. Alianore had apparently hit him hard on the side of the head. As Tamaki stepped back shaking his head she started shouting at him. "Tamaki! How dare you greet me like that? Especially after the farewell you gave me when I last saw you?" Tamaki looked shocked as she said this. "Don't you remember the farewell Tamaki? You don't? Well guess what? Neither do I! Why? Because you didn't give me one! One day you said you would pick me up the next day to go on a picnic and then the next day I hear you've gone and moved off to Japan. I thought maybe your grandmother kidnapped you and that you would write me. But noooo…. I never hear from you for four years! Four years do you hear? I know you're an idiot, but really, you don't remember to write once in four years?" Alianore paused to catch her breath for a moment and as she did this she looked around the room. Almost everyone was staring at her; she had been quite loud after all. She seemed to realize this though and said "Father, I will be in the car. Goodnight." She then turned gracefully and seemed to sail out of the room, granted it was with the speed of a tornado.
Kyoya found the expression on Tamaki's face to be very interesting. Tamaki looked like he had just discovered that girls were human and not just objects to be worshipped. But if you looked underneath that look...it looked like his heart had been ripped to shreds.
Tamaki seemed to shake himself. Then turned and smiled at Ambassador Roux "It was nice to see you again sir, please pay my respects to your wife. Goodnight." He then turned around again and walked towards the nearest entrance.
Kyoya waited a moment, said goodnight to Mr. Tachiki and Ambassador Roux and then followed after him, he had the feeling that Tamaki would want some questions answered and that job was usually Kyoyas.
Haruhi had almost reached Kyoya, she had wanted to congratulate him and give him her gift, when the scene had unfolded right before her eyes. Tamaki had had a girlfriend in France he never contacted? She couldn't believe it. Tamaki was an idiot, sure, but he was much too nice and considerate to ignore someone like that.
Suddenly there was a voice next to her. "Jeez, my sister is an idiot. I can't believe she still loves him." Haruhi looked over to see a fairly tall blonde-haired boy say this.
Haruhi assumed he must be the tornado's sister. So she asked "Did you know Tamaki when he lived in France also?"
The boy turned and looked at her. His eyes seemed to widen a little at the girl with the glasses and long brown hair looking up at him. He then narrows his eyes and smiles a perfect host club smile "I don't believe I've met you princess, would you do me the honor of telling me your name and then consenting to dance with me?"
Haruhi's eyes widened a little. Princess? Honestly, what was it with these rich French people and their pet names? Princess was almost as bad as daughter.
"Well Princess? Will you tell me your name?" the boy asked again.
Haruhi saw no harm in it. So she replied with "My name is Haruhi and I won't dance with you unless I learn your name first."
"Well Princess, my name is Zackarie Roux. That was my sister, the living tornado, causing that scene over there, she dated Tamaki when he lived in France. But I really don't care. I just want to dance with a beautiful girl such as you." He ended this with a dazzling smile and held out his arm for her to take.
Haruhi figured dancing with him wouldn't be so bad, he actually reminded her a little of Tamaki. But why in the world had he asked for her name if he didn't plan to use it? She sighed before she took his arm so he could lead her onto the dance floor; which is where she was when Kyoya came back from checking on Tamaki.
Kyoya closed the door to the study as he walked inside. "Tamaki, what was that about?"
Tamaki looked up at Kyoya silently; there were tears in his eyes. "That was the girl I planned to marry."
Kyoya mentally sighed when Tamaki said this. Really? Tamaki had a fiancé/ girlfriend back in France? "Well, she didn't seem to want to marry you out there. Why didn't you write her Tamaki?" Kyoya asked.
"I know she didn't look happy Kyoya, she had every right to not be happy. I never wrote her because of Grandmother. She found about the relationship on our flight back to Japan. I was writing a letter to Alianore and Grandmother took it and ripped it up. She told me that no foreigner was good enough for a Suoh and that I would have to marry a good Japanese girl to make up for my father's mistake."
Kyoya just stared at Tamaki, his eyes were wide and he was standing completely still. But his mind was racing faster than a bullet train. Tamaki was in love? His grandmother wouldn't let them be together? But the poor girl didn't know this? Why hadn't Kyoya known this? He was supposed to know everything. Information was power and it stopped him from being blindsided like this. As Kyoya tried to think of something appropriate to say Tamaki continued.
"That's why I like Haruhi so much you know. She reminds me of Alianore a lot. That's also why I call her daughter you know. If I didn't then I might fall in love with Haruhi and then Grandmother would take her away also. You understand don't you Kyoya? Giving up things you want for your family that is."
Kyoya just nodded at Tamaki. He felt like he had when he realized that Tamaki had seen through him. No wonder Tamaki had wanted to see so many things and go so many places when he got here. He was trying to get over a broken heart.
"Will you go now please Kyoya? Both of the guests of honor should not be missing from the party and there is no way I can go back. Please give everyone my regards; I believe I shall go home now." Tamaki then walked past the shell-shocked Kyoya and left.
A minute later Kyoya shook himself and started to walk back to the ballroom. With his mind going a million miles a minute he found it hard to think straight, but under all of the thoughts racing through his mind he knew one thing: He had to help Tamaki and failure would NOT be an option.
As Kyoya re-entered the ballroom his eyes immediately started looking for Haruhi. He couldn't find her immediately, which worried him, and then he found her. She was dancing with some blonde-haired boy. If Kyoya didn't know better he would think it was Tamaki.
Kyoya made his way across the ballroom. He hadn't had a chance yet to dance with his girlfriend and he figured he had better do it soon or people would talk. He also wanted to dance with her, which he found strange since he usually didn't like to dance.
Kyoya passed the twins on his way to Haruhi. They were currently talking to the Koenig twins. Kyoya chuckled a little at the scene he passed. The Hitachiin twins had never met the Koenig twins before and were trying to use their normal brotherly love act to impress the girls. It wasn't working. Kyoya heard the girls say quite loudly as he passed "Chiye can you believe it? These boys seem to think that being a twin would impress us." "No I can't believe it Masaye, why would we think being a twin is impressive? It's not like we're twins ourselves or anything. Oh, wait, yes we are!" The girls then giggled at Hikaru and Kaoru.
As they turned to walk off, they saw Kyoya; he gave them a small bow as they tipped their heads in acknowledgement before they all continued on their ways.
As the song ended he tapped the blonde boy on the shoulder and asked "Do you mind if I have this next dance."
The blonde boy responded with "Only if the Princess wants you to." He gave Kyoya a small glare as he said this.
Haruhi saw Kyoya start to ready himself for a battle of words and wit, she really didn't want to deal with that today. So she hurriedly said "Zackarie, why would I mind dancing with my boyfriend? Thank you for the dance." She then took Kyoya's hand.
Kyoya felt his heart warm for some reason when Haruhi called him her boyfriend. Then he began to dance with Haruhi and put thoughts of the blonde boy out of his mind, both blonde boys actually.
Mori and Hunny were standing with Chika and Satoshi as they watched Kyoya sweep Haruhi into the dance.
"So, do you think they are going to realize they love each other soon?" Hunny asked.
Chika scoffed "No, not really, Kyoya would never believe he could care about someone. Just look at his sister Fuyumi. He loves her but would never admit it."
Satoshi agreed with his younger cousin. "It would take something unexpected to get Haruhi to become actively moving in this relationship and to get Kyoya to admit his feelings to himself."
Mori grunted "Kyoya is passionate, but almost an idiot like Tamaki."
Hunny giggled a little at Mori's comment. "That is so true Takashi!"
All four of them watched as Kyoya and Haruhi danced across the room.
Mamoru stood on the edge of the dance floor by himself. He was watching Kyoya and Haruhi dance, they were so beautiful together. Why couldn't they see their facade was now just a mask, hiding their true relationship? Then he heard a comment come from the boy next to him.
"Jeez, they really are boyfriend and girlfriend. How did a beautiful princess like her end up with a shadowy monster like him?" Mamoru noticed it was the blonde boy Haruhi had been dancing with before Kyoya came up.
"That's easy, it's because he's the Yang to her Yin." Mamoru said this in perfect French, he had heard the blonde boy's accent, one the subjects he had studied when he lived in England during his childhood.
The blonde boy looked shocked as he looked down at the short black-haired boy. Then he said back in French "Really? What are Yin and Yang? I'm Zackarie Roux by the way." He held his hand out for Mamoru to shake.
Mamoru looked at it for a moment and then he shook it while saying "Nice to meet you Zackarie, my name is Mamoru Tachiki."
The two smiled at each other and for some reason Mamoru was sure they were going to be best friends...
Mr. Ohtori stood next to the stage with Mr. Suoh.
"So Mr. Suoh, did you know about this girl and Tamaki?" Mr. Ohtori asked.
"No I didn't, but I must say I am intrigued, she seems to be passionate enough for Tamaki and the Roux's would be a good connection. But I would have to do something about my mother, obviously Tamaki didn't write because she told him not to." Mr. Suoh replied
They stood their silently for a moment as they looked around the ballroom. Then Mr. Suoh spoke again "So, Mr. Ohtori what do you think about Kyoya and Haruhi? Just looking at them you can see the love shining in their eyes."
"It's not a problem yet Mr. Suoh. Neither of them will admit their feelings to each other and their relationship is to young to start growing on it's own. When that occurs...well, then I may have to do something." Mr. Ohtori replied
"Well, good luck with that. Have a pleasant evening Mr. Ohtori, I'm glad you agreed to throw this ball with me for our sons." Mr. Suoh and Mr. Ohtori nodded at each other and then went their separate ways for the rest of the evening.
Later That Night:
All of the guests had left and Haruhi was sitting on the edge of the stage with Kyoya.
"Kyoya I think I found an answer to the seventh member problem for the Host Club." Haruhi said.
"Oh? What would that be?" Kyoya asked.
"That blonde boy, Zackarie Roux, he reminded me a bit of Tamaki and I think the others would like him. He seemed to take pleasure in flirting with girls and making them seem special. Do you think we should ask him?" Haruhi said.
"Well, ask him if you want to Haruhi, it is your club now." Kyoya stated
Haruhi looked curiously up at Kyoya "What do you mean it's my club now?"
"Just what I said Haruhi, don't play dense. Do you really think Tamaki and I would trust anyone else in the club enough to make them President?" Kyoya said staring at Haruhi pointedly.
Haruhi froze; did Kyoya say what she thought he said? "Kyoya, you made me President? Who is Vice-President then?"
"That's your choice now Haruhi, you are President after all. Tamaki wanted to tell you this himself, but since he left early I figured I could tell you. So who do you want to be Vice-President?" Kyoya said as he looked closely at Haruhi, wondering who she would choose.
Haruhi thought for a few moments. She couldn't signal out one of the twins, they had to do everything together so would probably refuse anyway. Chika wasn't mature enough yet and Satoshi was too busy trying to keep Chika in line. They didn't even know if Zackarie would join them, so she figured Mamoru would be a good choice. He was probably most suited for it anyway.
"I would like Mamoru to be Vice-President" Haruhi said "He would do the best job and he would make a good President when I graduate next year."
Kyoya started to write this down when his pen gave out on him. He tossed it across the room and started to get up. That was until he felt Haruhi's hand on his arm. He looked down, Haruhi was holding a small, narrow present. She offered it to him.
Kyoya sat back down and took the present. When he opened it he found a beautiful wooden box. Inside on a velvet cushion was a gold pen. When Kyoya picked it up he saw something engraved on it: Kyoya Ohtori: The Shadow King.
Kyoya started laughing so hard he almost fell off the stage. Haruhi laughed with him. They laughed like this for a few minutes. Then Haruhi said through gasps for breath "I knew…you needed…a permanent…pen and…I could….not resist."
Then Kyoya then read the pen out loud "Kyoya Ohtori: The Shadow King" Haruhi lost it again and was laughing so hard she fell backwards. Kyoya was laughing with her and while trying to stop her from falling backwards he fell also; so that they both ended up laying there on the stage.
Kyoya felt at peace for some reason as he lay on the stage next to Haruhi trying to catch his breath. He looked down at Haruhi looked up at him. Kyoya couldn't resist all the way anymore, so he leaned over and kissed Haruhi on the forehead. As he pulled back he heard her gasp.
Haruhi just lay there after the kiss and thought 'what is it with boys and kissing me on the forehead? First Tamaki, then Hikaru, and now Kyoya…'
Kyoya looked at Haruhi, she looked so serious. So he sat up, jumped off the stage and then helped her down. Kyoya smiled down at Haruhi, she smiled back. Right now would be the perfect moment to…but Kyoya stopped that train of thought. This was a façade of a relationship, not a real one. She would probably not appreciate him kissing her. So instead he held out his arm to her, she took it, and Kyoya led Haruhi out to the limo so that he could take her home.
Author's Note: Well it's almost three in the morning here now and I couldn't sleep. I was tired but this chapter kept going through my head and I couldn't sleep. So I just got up and wrote it. It's my longest chapter yet. I think I'm as addicted to this story as some of my readers are. I can't do anything but work on writing it when I have my laptop nearby. Maybe it's because I know how the story ends, but the journey is surprising me. The character's are telling me what they want to do now, not the other way around. Like I originally had an entire different backstory for Zackarie and Alianore. Now that it's written and published I maybe I can get some sleep. I have a busy few days ahead of me... I hope y'll enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.
