Erudition
By Keiraun
Ratings: T
It was fun to write about someone other that Haruhi and Kyouya for a change last chapter. That's when I came up with a new plot idea, a new story premise I will be starting at the end of Erudition. It's going to be a Mori/Haruhi piece, but the premise will be a surprise for all those who will read it after I finish Erudition.
That's not to say that Mori/Haruhi is my new OTP or something. I'm still a Kyouya/Haruhi girl all the way, I just liked the premise when it came to me I thought 'Wow, I really want to write this fic!' and so I will. But, as for now, Erudition, and Kyouya/Haruhi, is my priority.
"It's a lovely evening for a walk, isn't it?" Haruhi said as the two began their twelve block stroll through downtown Tokyo.
"Sorry," Kyouya sighed, "It's just I didn't want to surprise Morinozuka-sempai with the realization that my home is also yours and what that thus entails."
"I understand," Haruhi offered him a smile, "you do what you have to. A little walk is a small price to pay." He smiled back at her, at ease.
For a moment, Ootori Kyouya considered taking her hand. It would be an acceptable action for him to initiate, he considered. It's would show his fondness towards her in a subtle, unintimidating manner and would open future opportunities to demonstrate his affections.
"It's odd seeing Mori-sempai without Hunny-sempai, isn't it?" Haruhi mused, looking down at the neatly kept sidewalk.
"Not really. They still live together, and are very close and nearly inseperable, but things have changed considering their new circumstances."
"New circumstances?" Haruhi asked.
"Well, you see," Kyouya explained, "they went to the same college, and they both received their Business degrees. Hunny-sempai, upon completing his four years, opened his dojo. Mori-sempai, on the other hand continued on to get his masters and soon his doctorate degree in business in a rather nice school up in Kyushu. He should be getting it in about a year. Then he'll take over the Morinozuka/Haninozuka family business. One of them had to be ready to retain the company, and Mori-sempai took control so that Hunny-sempai could chase his dreams."
"Wow," Haruhi sighed, "that sounds like something Mori-sempai would do. I can see him being a very good leader."
"When the news was released last fall, stock for their company started to climb very steadily. It seems investors agree."
"You seem to have kept track of them fairly well," Haruhi smiled.
"I would see Mori-sempai probably four or five times a year at different galas and events. We stayed in fairly close contact. Tamaki too."
"Really," Haruhi sighed, something bitter in her voice, "I fell off the radar with you all rather quickly then, didn't I? You were all still friendly and I was left to myself. I just assumed we all went our separate ways, not that I was the only one you all separated yourselves from."
"It wasn't quite like that, Haruhi," Kyouya replied, slowing his pace slightly.
"Really? You saw Mori-sempai and Tamaki-sempai regularly after school ended, and I never saw you again until you had no place left to turn, Kyouya. At least Mori and Tamaki wrote to me occasionally. Why didn't you just ask Mori-sempai for help, then?"
"I didn't want to risk ruining him or…"
"Oh, I guess ruining me and my life is just nothing, then?"
Kyouya felt some slight animosity building in him. She was assailing him, no questions asked. He could feel himself begin to walk faster.
"Mori-sempai asked to escort me Tamaki-sempai's wedding," Haruhi called ahead. When Kyouya nearly stopped in his tracks, she caught up to her companion.
"Well," Kyouya scoffed, "I hope you have a good time."
"I didn't say yes. Yet." Haruhi replied, looking over to Kyouya.
"Oh," Kyouya responded, "I'm just hoping I have the funds to get there."
"Well," she replied, reaching into the pocket of her formal jacket, "Tamaki-san sent me these." She waved two first class tickets to Paris in front of Kyouya, smiling. "For me and 'a guest'."
Kyouya blinked a few times, "Well, that's awfully kind of him. Do you have any specific guest in mind?"
"Do you have any specific travel opportunities available?" she retorted.
"Haruhi…"
"I can't imagine how much it would hurt Tamaki-sempai if you weren't there," she said with a sigh, looking down at the ground again. "So your presence will be my gift to him, whether he knows it or not."
"Thank you, Haruhi," Kyouya said with a soft smile as his frustration slipped away.
And she smiled back wistfully in return.
They had dinner late that evening, and it was at dinner that night that Kyouya explained his overall plan. He would work for enough hours to earn enough money for a trip to America, a rental car for a week, and a month of hotel stays. He would arrange for a job with the Jenson Marketing and Shipping Firm, which was a company run by his roommate from a summer stay in Maine. It was an Australia-to-America company, nothing his brothers would he have heard of or be interested in.
Kyouya had talked to Jenson a few days before. He had offered Kyouya a job on the spot, but with a lack of funds Kyouya knew it was impossible for him to pursue it right away. He concocted a believable story, but promised to be up as soon as possible, but maybe not until May. Jenson assured him the position, and they caught up about all sorts of things, business in the states, friends from the villa they lived in, their personal lives.
Haruhi was surprised by Kyouya's seemingly genuine interest in the life of another person. She could remember years ago how Kyouya simply floated through most of his life, not making connections with another unless it was directly to his benefit.
But questions had been gnawing at her all afternoon, and it seemed as though their situation was calm enough to ask. They finished eating, and Kyouya put the seven o'clock news on and sat upon the couch to watch.
"Why didn't you ever contact me after high school?" Haruhi called from the kitchen.
Kyouya blinked at her several times before cracking a slight smile. "Well, it's a fairly long story."
"Well, we have a fairly long amount of time," she replied, placing the last dishes in the sink to soak before sitting down beside him on her living room sofa. He flicked off the television before taking off his glasses and polishing them clean on his sleeve.
"After high school," he began, placing his glasses down on the coffee table beside the remote, "my father pressured me to begin courting a woman to stand beside me as I led at least a part of the company. Someone who would be an asset before all else."
"And so you couldn't be seen around with commoners," Haruhi concluded.
"Hardly!" Kyouya replied with a laugh. "My father was pressuring me to make you my wife."
"Me…," she gasped, "why?"
"You were the best female student at Ouran within the past ten years, statistically. Not to mention having a corporate lawyer in the family would certainly be helpful, as we wouldn't have to pay you and you would go out of your way to benefit us. Also, we'd have apt and intelligent children who would ensure future generations of superior Ootori. All that tripe."
"Wow," she sighed.
"I considered it, for a bit, I mean, making you mine. I considered tricking you somehow, or maybe have blackmailing you, something calculated and underhanded. I didn't like those sorts of plans, though, they weren't particularly fair, especially to a friend. The plan I considered most was to offer to pay your way through school, a sort of business arrangement sort of deal, something where we would both get something we needed."
He offered her a rather wry smile, and retrieved a cup of water from the kitchen before coming back to the couch.
"You never did, though," she said, picking up his glasses and looking at the pale frames.
"What kind of life would that be? Spending the rest of your days with someone just because it's convenient? Though at that point in my life I could have cared less about who my future wife was to be, I didn't want to do something unreasonable to someone I respected.
"So, I told my father that Suou Tamaki had already placed his interest in you and that it would cause issue for me to do the same. Then, my father talked to Tamaki's father, and then Suou Yuzuru made issue of gaining you into the Suou family. It took Tamaki almost a year's time of being with you as a friend to realize that he probably could never gain your affections. He also concluded that it would be wrong to press the issue of courtship on you. So he transferred away so that it wouldn't be an issue at all."
He took his glasses from her and placed them back upon his nose.
"And so," Kyouya concluded, "you and I not maintaining a friendship was my fault, and Tamaki's departure from your life was completely mine as well."
Haruhi fell silent and Kyouya couldn't help but feel nervous.
"I'm sorry, Kyouya," she said after what seemed like years of silence, "for being so rude to you earlier."
And so with her anticlimactic response, Kyouya took her hand in his and smiled. She smiled back shyly and leaned against his shoulder and they watched SMAP reruns into the night.
And the following month before Tamaki's wedding was spent with calculated touches that neither could interpret, lingering eyes that seemed to hold just a bit to firm, doors just open enough to see within, and talk.
The talk revealed less than anything else about what was occurring between them.