Chapter Ten
Ashes
The door creaked open at 2:06 AM, and Kyouya opened one eye, watching the figure slip in and close the door behind them; the sliver of hallway light disappearing and plunging the room back into near-darkness.
There was silence as the intruder's eyes adjusted to the lack of light, but a slight scuffling told him that the newcomer was groping his way toward the bed.
"You're late."
Tamaki froze with one hand on the bed, and a minute later he let out a sigh. "You sacred me, Kyou. I didn't think you'd still be awake," he said in an undertone. "And what do you mean, I'm late? You told me not to come; how did you know that…"
"I tried to reason how long it would take you to break down and come here regardless, and my guess was 2:00. It is now…" he squinted at the clock again. "2:08. Therefore, you're late."
"I wanted to come earlier, but some of your servants were loitering outside of my door," Tamaki replied, somewhat miffed that Kyouya could still predict his every move. It had always seemed to be a challenge for the other man; knowing what Tamaki would do before the blonde even seemed to know for himself; but Tamaki had a feeling that what he had come to talk about might change all of that. "So? Am I welcome?"
"Always." Kyouya shifted over in the bed and allowed Tamaki to climb in, which he did.
"Can…we talk?"
"About…"
"Us."
Kyouya blinked and stared out the window, his eyes making out the fuzzy outline of the ¾ moon. "Yes," he slowly replied, for once having no idea what Tamaki was up to.
And Tamaki knew it. Kyouya never hesitated; even for a second; so this meant that Kyouya had attempted to figure out what Tamaki had come to talk about and failed.
"Good. Kaasan, remember that I told you once I saw Haruhi again I'd know how I felt about her?" he asked.
"My memory is perfectly fine, thank you."
And this was also expected, Tamaki thought absently. He had gotten the better of Kyouya, so the dark-haired man was responding by being even more snappish than usual.
So, undaunted by Kyouya's sarcasm, he pushed on. "Well, I saw her today, and…"
"Yes?"
"I…" Tamaki sighed. "I love her, Kyouya; you know I do. But I had to figure out if it was platonic or..."
"You know what platonic means?" Kyouya snorted.
Once again, Tamaki chose to ignore the obvious barb as he continued, "…or something more. And I think I know." He paused again for effect, but it was obvious that Kyouya's already thin patience boundary was growing thinner by the second, and a low growl from his throat made Tamaki hastily resume his train of thought. "At this point, I don't think it would be possible for me to love her as anything other than a part of my family," he admitted.
"Meaning…"
"Meaning…I want to give us a chance, Kyou. After all," he added, and Kyouya could tell he was smiling, "We've been married for almost eight years anyway."
Kyouya allowed himself a brief smile at the flippant comment. "True enough. So…you're breaking the news to the rest of the Host Club, then?"
"If…if I have to." Tamaki lightly touched Kyouya's shoulder. "But…"
"Yes? Regrets already?"
"My grandmother."
"Ah, yes," Kyouya nodded.
"Do you think…do you…"
"She'll never accept it," Kyouya stated bluntly. "However…my father may. After all, he's been trying to get a viable alliance with the Suou family for years. The obvious way to do so would be to instigate a marriage, of course, but since my sister is already married and you are the only possible Suou heir, that wasn't a possibility either. You know he asked me to befriend you in order to deepen our alliance?" he questioned, slightly curious as to how Tamaki would take this. It was something that he had thought it best to never mention, but now it seemed the time for secrets was long past.
"So, when did you stop acting on your father's wishes and start acting on your own?" Tamaki's tone was completely neutral, so Kyouya rolled over in order to see him. He had propped himself up on one elbow and was staring down at his friend, violet eyes blinking slowly in the moonlight.
"You can guess, no doubt."
"The day you sexually harassed me?" Tamaki was smiling, his eyes half-lidded.
"I wouldn't call it that," Kyouya snorted.
"It was an awkward position…"
"Shut up and go to sleep." Kyouya was inwardly pleased that Tamaki took his admission well, but now he was back to being obnoxious. He rolled back over and closed his eyes.
"Love you, too."
Kyouya contemplated this for a moment before shrugging it off. Tamaki professed love for everyone; it was too early to hope that he meant it in a serious way. Instead, he gave his friend a warning: "You know you can't be found here in the morning."
"No worries, Mom! Besides, you never wake up before eleven, and I'm always up by at least six thirty," Tamaki winked. "I'll be long gone before the maids even dare to set foot in here."
"Don't wake me up when you leave."
"I won't."
Kyouya could tell that Tamaki was rolling his eyes. A slight rustling told him that the blonde was getting settled beside him, but he still stiffened as Tamaki wrapped him in a tight embrace from behind. Kyouya stayed as still as possible until Tamaki's breathing evened out, and at that point he knew that Tamaki wasn't planning on letting go of him anytime soon.
And so, trying not to take too much pleasure in the fact that they were lying like lovers, he closed his eyes and soon drifted into a dreamless sleep.
000
"My; my; my, Kyouya-san…"
Kyouya was too tired to form a coherent thought, but he knew one thing without even thinking about it: it was far too early to be dealing with this.
"Go away," he growled, burying his face in the pillow and trying to ignore the fact that, in place of the calming moonlight, now the bloody sun was shining in his eyes.
"But, Kyouya-san…shouldn't you at least lock your door if you're going to have guests in your bed?"
"Fuyumi-neesan, you know I'm not fully awake before eleven, so why are you in my room at…"
"9:43," Tamaki supplied. Kyouya took a second to register the fact that it was long past 6:30 and Tamaki was still wrapped around him, but he shrugged it off in favour of confronting his sister.
"9:43," he repeated.
"My; my; my, Kyouya-san…you have a man in your bed?" she moved toward the bed as if trying to catch a glimpse of the type of man her little brother would sleep with. "Who is he? Where did you find him?"
"Fuyumi. Leave." Kyouya knew he was being impolite, but he couldn't be bothered to care. He was not dealing with this.
"Don't be rude." Tamaki sat up and smiled brilliantly at Fuyumi; the effect was not lost at all despite the fact that his hair was somewhat ruffled from sleeping. "Fancy meeting you here, Fuyumi-san. I must say, you're looking more radiant than ever." He executed a half-bow from his sitting position.
"My; my; my…Tamaki-sama?"
"Indeed, my dear," Tamaki nodded sagely. "But I believe that your darling," he punctuated this with a swift flick of Kyouya's hair, "brother still needs his beauty sleep, so perhaps this conversation could be continued later?"
"Of course! Forgive me," she giggled. "I suppose I can't find anything wrong with Kyouya going to bed with you," she winked at Tamaki, who enthusiastically returned it.
"Tamaki, don't give her the wrong idea. We didn't sleep together," Kyouya grunted, still refusing to open his eyes.
"Of course," she smiled. "I'll see you two downstairs."
As she left, Tamaki flopped back on the bed, trailing his fingers through Kyouya's hair.
"Why didn't you leave?"
"Hmm?" Tamaki's hand slowed.
"Don't stop," Kyouya opened one eye to glare at him, although he should have remembered that what froze everyone else in their tracks had no effect on the blonde. But Tamaki obeyed regardless, his elegant fingers combing their way through Kyouya's dark locks. "But this morning; you said you'd be out by 6:30."
"I woke up," Tamaki admitted slowly. "But I was comfortable. And I guess I must have just fallen asleep again. Jetlag, you know," he added. "You want to go back to sleep?"
"I'm awake now."
The purple aura of evil that always surrounded a tired Kyouya was dissolving, but he still looked horribly grumpy.
"Good. We have an hour to kill," Tamaki pointed out.
"You realize that, coming from anyone else, the implications behind that would be…"
"Of course, but I wasn't…I don't…" Tamaki looked nervous as he hastily shook his head. His hand trailed down to rest on Kyouya's chest, and he could feel the slight rise-and-fall of the other man's chest as he breathed. "I mean, what you and Kaoru…"
"I know. Don't worry; I'm not going to make a habit of bedding young and attractive men," Kyouya smiled up at Tamaki, his normally stormy eyes for once completely unguarded and calm.
"Good. Because I'd get jealous."
"You're not jealous of Kaoru, are you?" Kyouya asked, raising one eyebrow slightly.
"No. I know why you did it, and I can't blame you," Tamaki shrugged.
"Hmm…" Kyouya sighed. "Well, I suppose we have to get ready. We don't want to keep my sister waiting." He attempted to sit up, but Tamaki's pressure on his chest increased and he swung his leg over so that he was straddling his friend. Leaning close, Kyouya noticed that his breathing quickened slightly and an obvious look of worry flashed across his countenance.
Kyouya, for his part, took advantage of Tamaki's hesitation and pushed himself up on one elbow, capturing the blonde's lips with his own.
Despite the fact that both of them knew it was coming, the kiss was unexpected. The others they had shared had either been completely impulsive or without a sense of total seriousness on one of their parts, and they had always felt urgent and unfamiliar, as if they were crossing a line that had no right to be crossed. But somewhere in the last few hours, something imperceptible had changed without them realizing, and neither bothered trying to take the time to cipher out what it was. All they could focus on was the kiss. And the kiss…
It was slow and languid, completely natural and comfortable, and with none of the haste that would proceed it turning into something more serious. They both accepted that this was as far as it needed to go at the time; and, in truth, it was more than enough. Kyouya pulled away reluctantly and reached to place a hand in the small of Tamaki's back. His other hand fit between the blonde's shoulder blades, and Tamaki took the opportunity to lower himself gently onto Kyouya, keeping himself propped up on his elbows.
Neither of them spoke; after all, there was really nothing more to say between them; and Tamaki settled for tucking his head under Kyouya's chin and closing his eyes. Kyouya was about to tell him that it was time to get up, but…he decided against it with an inward shrug. They still had time, after all.
And it was still far too early.
000
"Here. Put your foot…ouch, Hikaru, that was my head!"
"Sorry. It's dark."
"Look. Here. Alright, now push up and grab the…Hikaru!"
"I got it; I got it."
There was an audible 'click' and the window swung open. Hikaru leant down to grab his brother's hand and bodily pulled him through; both of them ending up sprawled on the large bed.
"Well, we can still do it, Kaoru. We can still sneak into our own bedroom."
Hikaru struck a triumphant pose, and then they both dissolved into laughter, but a rattling at the door stopped them.
"Who's in there?"
"Mom," the mouthed to each other. Hikaru sat back against the headboard with one knee bent in front of him, and Kaoru practically moulded against his brother, making it almost impossible to tell where one ended and the other began. Hikaru kept one hand on the light-switch, and he and Kaoru shared another grin in the moonlight.
"I'm warning you; I have security…"
As she pushed the door open a little farther, Hikaru flicked the light on, and she was greeted by a happy, "Haha, konbanwa!"
"Wh…" she blinked, taking in the unbelievable sight in front of her. Her sons. Her sons who had not spoken in three years. Her sons who, to the best of her knowledge, were silently feuding. Her sons…who were currently acting like the last few years had never happened.
"Hi-Hikaru? Kaoru?" she blinked again, obviously incredulous. "How…"
"You told me to call him," Kaoru smiled.
"Yes, but…"
"Come on, Mom! Look a little happy to see us together!" Hikaru snorted.
"I am happy! Of course I am…but all of this is so unexpected. A week ago could barely convince you to talk to your brother, Kaoru!" she looked at the younger twin, for once having no hesitation in addressing the correct one. Kaoru smiled at this, because when they were younger, they often tried to fool their mother as they had tried to fool everyone else. He knew that some people thought it was odd that their own mother didn't know them apart, but she was often away on business trips…and, with her business, that often meant spending inordinate amounts of time on other continents. Which was why having Hikaru and himself stationed elsewhere in the world helped ease the burden of her job a great deal.
Hikaru noticed, too, and asked flippantly, "No trouble telling us apart now, hey, Mom?"
"Not at the moment," she admitted. "But, knowing you two, by next week you'll have switched looks again, just to confuse me," she sighed.
"Unlikely."
"Why's that, Kao-chan?" Hikaru asked with an uncertain blink.
"Because I'd have to get five earrings for my left ear, and it really wouldn't suit me," he explained, reaching up to finger his (mercifully) unmarked ear. "Besides, it would hurt."
"Nah; 's not that bad," Hikaru shrugged. "But…you realize what you just did, Kaoru?" he asked after a slight silence.
"I admitted that we're different. I admitted that something that fits your personality would only clash with mine. I think it's time we did admit it, Hikaru: we aren't the same. We have a lot of similarities, but we're our own people," Kaoru said in a quiet voice.
"You're right, of course. But for so long we've…or, at least, I've…been afraid to admit it," Hikaru nodded. "But I have to agree with you on the whole pierced-ear thing. It'd look weird," he grinned, ruffling Kaoru's hair. "But," he looked back up, "I thought you had a show in Italy tomorrow, Mom."
"I do, but my flight doesn't leave for a couple of hours. I'll let the two of you sleep, though," she started to back out of the room, but stopped as she reached the doorway. "Oh, before I forget: I've been waiting to tell you boys this for a long time, but I swore I wouldn't until both of you were getting along and speaking again, and now that you are…I want you to know how proud I am of both of you. With you running the business overseas, it gives me a lot more time to spend with your father, as well as more time to actually work on designs instead of running all over the place showing them off. With the company expanding, it might not be very long at all before I decide to take less responsibility and pass off some of the management duties to somebody else…and both of you have done exceptional with what I've set you to do so far, so I see no problem in, one day, making the two of you co-owners of the Hitachiin fashion empire!" she concluded with a broad smile.
"Awesome!" Hikaru was beaming, and he pumped a fist in the air.
"Thanks, Mom!" Kaoru added, sharing a smile with his brother. He turned back to his mother, then, and asked, "How long will you be gone for?"
"Only a couple of days. Will the two of you still be here when I get back? I have a feeling we have a lot to catch up on," she added.
"Yeah," Hikaru nodded. "We'll probably stay about a week. Some of our old high-school friends and us are planning a mini-reunion."
"Oh, your friends from the Host Club?" their mother blinked. "I always wondered what became of them. That Tamaki Suou was probably the best thing that ever happened to you; I've never seen the two of you more extroverted than on the day you told me that you were part of that club," she smiled in approval. "Well, I hope you have fun."
"We will," Kaoru assured her. "Have a good trip, Mom."
Their mother stood in the door for a few more moments before sighing and adding, "Well? Aren't you even going to give your mother a good-bye hug?"
The twins got off of the bed and embraced their mother, who winked at them before walking out of the room and closing the door.
"We did it, Kaoru!" Hikaru grabbed his brother and danced around the room, turning the exclamation into a kind of war chant. "We did it; we did it; we did it…"
"Hikaru!" Kaoru finally pushed himself away from his brother, laughing hysterically. He got a hold of himself and asked, "Was there ever any doubt?" He walked back to the bed and leant against the headboard. "But come on, let's get to bed already. Unless you're too hyper, now…"
"Nah. I'm tuckered, actually." Hikaru shrugged. He stretched and flopped back on the bed, motioning to Kaoru, who came over and clambered on top of his brother. "Good to be back?"
"You know it."
" 'Course. You think Tono and Kyouya are getting it on?" he asked with a suggestive waggle of his eyebrows.
"Hikaru, you pervert!" Kaoru swatted his brother's shoulder. "No!"
"But someday?" Hikaru asked seriously.
"Yeah. Yeah, I'm pretty sure they will," Kaoru admitted with a smile.
"They make a good couple."
"Yeah," Kaoru said again, letting out a sigh. "They really do." So Kyouya got his happy ending after all. But will mine ever come?
"Want to go to bed?" Hikaru's voice interrupted his inner monologue. "I'll leave my boxers on, just in case we have new maids. Don't want to scar them for life, after all," he winked. "Or…you could undress me, since you're already on top of me," he said in a sultry voice.
"Hikaru!" Kaoru turned a bright shade of red.
"Aw, it's cute that you're so shy. Let me up, then?" Hikaru asked.
Kaoru obliged and Hikaru took his clothes off; Kaoru forced himself to turn away as he took his own shirt off. Of course, he and Hikaru had seen each other naked many times in the past, but now that he had admitted how he felt…he thought it was wrong to watch his brother undress. He slid into the bed and a moment later Hikaru joined him, embracing him firmly. Well. If Hikaru was still willing to give him this much, he should be satisfied with it.
" 'Night, Kao-chan."
" 'Night, Hika-chan."
They fell asleep almost instantly, identical smiles gracing their identical faces.
Ah, long break again…gomen. But work has, once more, kept me frantic busy, and two parties (one staff and one going-away) took up the last two evenings quite nicely.
But I'm posting again! And I am once again truly amazed at the response this little ficcy of mine is getting!! I'm almost finished writing it. I'm probably ¾ of the way through the 20th chapter, so all in all it's been about a three-month endeavour. Whew!
On another note, I learned something about myself last night: I can be calm in a crisis. Our last party was more-or-less interrupted as a joke wrestling match ended up in one of my co-workers receiving a rather nasty concussion. It was almost like those things you see in the movies: he honestly could not remember what had happened. And it was kind of scary, so it ended up in a group of us waiting in the hospital until 2:00 in the morning. I think he'll be okay; I haven't heard anything to the contrary, and he was doing a lot better by the time we left the hospital, but all of us that worked at the same place were incredibly calm, so I was extremely proud of all of them!!
The song that inspired this chapter, 'Ashes,' is sung by Clay Aiken. Who is my hero. Honestly, I'm partial to rock music, but Clay is my exception.
And on another note…I went to see the Off-Broadway version of Spamalot this week (which was incredible, by the way), but it makes me want to see the real version (with Clay, of course)!!
Maybe one day I'll get to New York…
Another long note!! But that's it. Really. I'm done.