Scared

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The first time she scared Kyoya was when they went to the beach.

Tamaki was NOT subtle in his heavy-handed manipulation to make it so Haruhi wouldn't be seen in one of the designer swimsuits the twins would inevitably bring. Still, Kyoya liked the idea of a beach holiday and the opportunity to increase the club's success at the same time. And it was a little funny watching Tamaki try to be subtle.

"You know, I think we should take the host club to the beach!"

"Yes, that was already the plan, or so I thought"

"No, I mean we should HOLD the Host club at the beach! Think of all the fun we could have! The beach games, the swimming, the sun, the princesses will love it! And all we need for costumes are our swimsuits!"

"I don't think Haruhi could get away with a swimsuit"

"She can just wear summer clothes!"

"Hmm….Sounds interesting"

Tamaki glowed Kyoya's unspoken agreement of his idea.

"And we need watermelon! And Shells! And fireworks!" Tamaki's voice droned on as ideas popped into his mind and out of his mouth, completely oblivious to the list Kyoya had already written down in his notebook.

The trip seemed to be going so well. The princesses were having a wonderful time, the club was doing an amazing amount of business, he was collecting all sorts of pictures to sell later, and they had even managed to get Haruhi to enjoy herself collecting…dinner.

Looking back, Kyoya almost had to admit that it was almost fair how she had scared everyone. After all, they had spent most of the trip trying to scare her. They had given up when she found a way to scare all of them instead.

"Ha-ha-haruhi! He's…He's…!" The girls panted out of breath, pointing to a large rock by the beach.

She could be seen on the rock, two large boys threatening her. Again, Kyoya automatically began delegating. He knew he could trust Takashi to save Haruhi heroically, so he covered the other problems.

"Kaoru, Hikaru, stop those boys. Ladies, if I could ask you to make your way back to the house? We have this under control." Turning around, he saw Haruhi fall to the water, and a brief question flashed through his mind, "can she swim?" before Takashi, true to his style, dove in after her. Mentally checking that off his list, he turned to the next necessity.

Knowing what he would likely find up on the rock, he dashed up after the twins to find them fighting (and winning) against the two thugs.

Seeing where this could go quickly, Kyoya politely asked the girls who were staring in shock to follow their friends up to the house. When they were out of sight, Kyoya faced the problem of stopping the twins from damaging the Thugs enough that he would need to call on his more shady contacts to hide evidence.

"Kaoru! Hikaru! Would you rather beat these two miscreants up or would you rather see if Haruhi is all right?"

Both twins froze and then looked at each other as if considering the consequences of one more punch. They turned to him and asked in unison "Just a little longer?"

The thugs, seeing Kyoya as their salvation started pleading with him to "get these crazy punks off them."

The twins, on the other hand, saw that their fun was over, and it was time for the Shadow King to have a turn. They stepped back from their victims and adopted twin pouts. These pouts slowly turned into evil grins as Kyoya "took their ID cards and respectfully asked them to leave" before turning them over to his secret police. Who, in turn, would turn them over to the local police. Eventually. Probably.

At dinner, Tamaki tried to show his worry in his usual clumsy way. Kyoya quietly snorted at his declaration that he wouldn't talk to her until she apologized. Yet another example of Tamaki's complete inability to manipulate others. Still, that was one of the reasons Kyoya liked Tamaki. Haruhi reacted, for once, in an expected way, chafing at the obvious manipulation. She probably didn't realize what Tamaki was mad about. Kyoya excused himself, leaving the others to explain. They really were the best people for the job.

Kyoya was enjoying some quiet contemplation when Haruhi bolted into his room. He was surprised at first, that is until he heard the tell-tales sounds of someone being violently ill. He wrinkled his nose. How disgusting. Still, she had quite a shock, followed by a lot of food her stomach wasn't used to. And he couldn't very well kick her out. She might make more of a mess. Instead he waited patiently for her to finish disposing of her dinner. As she wasn't being hounded by any of the other members of the host club, he could trust that that was all that was wrong.

As he sat, his mind automatically reviewed the day, making sure all his checklists were complete, that everything that could be done was. He had just mentally checked off getting flowers to the distraught girls when the image of Haruhi falling through the air flashed through his mind. He re-assured himself that Tamaki had dived after her, that task was complete. The image flashed again. He shook his head, dismissing it. She was fine! And at the moment, being ill in his bathroom. As the image came into his mind again, he was forced to examine his own thoughts and feelings. He had been…scared. Someone he knew could have come to grievous harm, and he, with all this checklists and planning, had been surprised. Not only that, but she was someone he…cared about. Hm. Yes, he could say he cared about her. He preferred knowing her. She was entertaining. She was educational. The others in the club enjoyed her company making their company more pleasant.

Objectively, he noticed that the knowledge that he was not indifferent to her combined with the fear he had felt about her and the frustration of her not realizing how much danger she was in started to form a hot anger in him. Objectively, it was fascinating, and if he focused, he could separate himself from his anger enough to keep it under control. Thankfully, this was a practice he had long since perfected.

He held onto the disconnected feeling when she came out, and tried, in his own way, to scare her in return for all the fear she had put them through in such a short time. For a moment he thought he was successful. He had thrown her on the bed. He looked down on her, trying to make a point, to make her feel fear. To make her understand how they had felt. There was a long silence and then she broke the spell with a simple sentence.

"You won't do it Kyoya-sempi."

He paused

"It wouldn't do you any good. You wouldn't gain anything from it."

His curiosity and intellectual side overrode his anger and he rolled off her, no longer angry, just tired.

It was a little later that Tamaki came in and Kyoya saw the shock and rage take over his face as he registered what he thought was going on. Suddenly too tired to deal with this, Kyoya jammed the lotion in Tamaki's face and walked off, away from the enigma and the simpleton who had taken over his bedroom.

"Nothing to be gained from it. An intriguing notion, in its own way." Walking down the hallway, he flipped open his cell phone and dialed a now familiar number.

"Hello, Mr. Fujioka? This is Ootori, Kyoya again. Yes, I'm sorry Ranka. She's doing well. She ate a bit too much crab in one go and got an upset stomach. That sound? Yes, there is a thunderstorm. " Pause. "Yes, I was wondering about that. Don't worry, we're taking care of her. Thank you for letting me know. I hope you enjoyed that movie I sent you. No, purely a work of fiction. Our Huni-sempi cried after that take where he intimidated Haruhi. Of course. Have a nice evening!" He snapped the cell shut and mentally delegated Tamaki to taking care of Haruhi through the thunderstorm. He probably was the best person for the job, after all.


Ah! So he admits his interest! Kinda. Sorta. It's how someone who is used to looking at things objectively would start, honestly. I'm trying to grow this interest slowly.