Chapter Eleven:

Kyoya woke up Friday, November twenty second and knew that it was going to be an interesting day. He had finally managed to get out of the hotel and he was back in their condo. Things were normal again. Sort of. Bobby had disappeared somewhere, and had yet to return to the house while Kyoya was actually awake. If he hadn't been receiving periodic texts that said she was okay, and if he hadn't seen dishes in the dishwasher that he hadn't used, he would have thought that the redhead had befallen some tragic accident. Thankfully that wasn't the case. Still he had to wonder where Bobby was spending all of her time.

After taking a few minutes to achieve full morning cognitive capacity, he slipped out of his bed and made his way to the stairs. He opened his bedroom door and sluggishly took the stairs slowly. The house was quiet. Another odd moment. Friday mornings, Bobby usually was sitting on the couch typing up one of her novels or working on extra studying.

As Kyoya stepped into the living room he found Bobby curled up on the couch asleep. She was just barely covered by one of her many warm blankets. This one had a scene of a wolf howling up at the moon. He had only recently discovered that Bobby kept that blanket in the coat closet. So she had finally appeared. Kyoya looked around and paused when he saw a wrapped gift on the dining room table. He walked over and pulled a card with his name on it off the top of the silver wrapping. Happy Birthday!

Kyoya looked back at Bobby as she turned over and was facing the inside of the couch. He couldn't for the life of him understand why she of all people would give him a gift, and as a result he felt that this was Tamaki's planning. He picked up the box and shook it slightly before he put it back on the table. He moved to grab the letter opener that Bobby kept hidden in the drawer with all the tape and school supplies that didn't always need to be on a desk.

Being overly meticulous, he opened the wrapping and pulled the box out and just looked at it. There were no discernible markings on the box that would tell him what kind of gift Tamaki got him. He shook his head, thinking that it was likely something useless like a photo of the Host Club.

He pulled the top off the box and blinked at what was inside. He wasn't even entirely sure how to respond to such a thing. He closed the box and turned around and stared at Bobby. He wondered where she had been. What had she been doing that kept her away from the house? Not that he cared, he reminded himself. Still, there was something curious about the way that Bobby had been sneaking around. Granted, Kyoya himself had been pretty secretive about his own agenda.

He knew that there was a merger in the works for Kana and Kaoru's family companies. But there was still a lot that the youngest Hitachiin twin didn't know, and Kyoya as the man with a plan, seemed to be able to find out more. Kyoya, in the effort of helping Kaoru, and his own stock portfolio, had taken to looking into the Iwate Family and their many companies. He knew that there was something very unusual, but he had yet to find any definitive proof. So while Bobby was running around doing whatever it was that she was doing, Kyoya had found ways to occupy his time.

Kyoya picked up the box and opened it again. He stared at the leather bound book inside and mulled over what Tamaki could have possibly meant by sending him a copy of Much Ado About Nothing. It wasn't a Shakespearian play that Kyoya was familiar with, and he had to wonder what it meant. He would look up a description later. As he crossed the living room a flash of silver caught his eyes and he looked on the floor to see that there was wrapping paper under the coffee table. Another card was on the table. He picked it up and looked at it and then at Bobby.

The card had been for him but the message was crossed out because of a simple misspelling. The card was from Tamaki, but now he recognized that Bobby had written it out. Did she know what was in the box? Had Tamaki enlisted the help of Bobby to ensure that Kyoya got his present, but then forgot a simple card?

Kyoya walked over to the window and looked out at the busy Boston street.

"What time is it?" Bobby muttered five minutes later, drawing Kyoya out of his reverie.

Kyoya looked at the wall clock and smirked. "Eleven."

"Oh fantastic," Bobby groaned.

"What time do you work?" Kyoya asked.

"I don't," Bobby answered. "The office closed after this week. The lawyer is retiring, his clients have been given new representation, and I'm out of a job that I didn't particularly enjoy anyway." She sat up and rubbed the sleep from her eyes. She pulled the blanket up to her chin and sat cross-legged. "Happy Birthday."

"Did you help Tamaki get the book?" Kyoya asked.

"So it was a book," Bobby hummed as she stretched. "The blond idiot just forgot the card, but he mailed the gift to me and asked me to make sure you got it."

"Why didn't he just mail it to me,"

"Because it arrived a week ago and he thought you would open it before today," Bobby answered as she pulled her knees up and hugged them close. "So how have you been?"

"I think the better question is where have you been?" Kyoya countered. "I was starting to think I lived alone. A development I enjoyed. New boyfriend?"

Bobby's lip curled up in disgust. "What makes you think I have a new boyfriend?" she asked.

"You've barely been home and you haven't been playing pranks on me. That leads me to believe that your attention has been turned on someone else," Kyoya said.

Bobby shook her head as she rolled her eyes. "So I must be off having sex," she muttered. "You do realize that the reason Bradley was cheating on me was because I wouldn't have sex with him."

Kyoya paused for a moment and turned to look at Bobby. "So you weren't intimate with him?"

"Do you ever recall me not coming home at night?" Bobby asked. "I liked Bradley, but I wasn't going to do the naked tango with him. Not all college students are sex crazed. At least not this particular college student."

"I just thought that you were intimate with him."

Bobby shook her head as she moved to the coffee maker and turned it on. "That's not how I'm built."

Kyoya looked at the book as he followed the redhead to the coffee pot. "What do you mean?" he asked as he stopped at the counter. He looked at her curiously. He had always looked at Bobby and just saw her as straight, though they had never once had an open discussion about their sexuality. It was just a crude topic. Still, her response intrigued him.

Bobby bit her lip as she looked up at the ceiling as if trying to form her explanation. "I'm asexual," she said simply. "I'm not sexually attracted people. I'm not filled with intense sexual lust. I want a relationship, but the sexual attraction on my end is missing. I liked Brad because I thought he was smart, and clever, and interesting. That's where I find people attractive. Their personalities, their brains, who they are as people will top their overall appearance. That's where my attraction for him rested. I never really thought about having sex with him. I mean, sex is. . . I can still. . ." She groaned as she rubbed her temples knowing that her own explanation was vague and confusing. "Putting my own feelings regarding relationships into actual words is so hard. I'm sorry, Kyoya. I just. . . I don't see people that way. Never have, never will, but I know that there are things I want and wish to experience, but they don't undermine who I am as a person or lesson my feelings on sexual attraction. I just don't. . . get it. Do you understand?" She leaned against the counter and bit her thumb as she looked at the ground.

Kyoya actually found he did understand what she meant. But when you spent years with a group of people who presented as any number of sexualities under the moon and stars, understanding that Bobby's attraction to people wasn't based on a sexual one was pretty simple for him to understand. Attraction was an interesting concept for him even if he didn't really think about it all too often. However, Bobby's ability to be open about it with him was a development that he actually enjoyed. Now that they were back in the condo, they were slowly slipping back into the normal rhythm of their odd banter-filled friendship.

"You said you thought Bradley was smart," Kyoya said. "You changed your mind?"

"He's a brilliant actor, but he can't fake intelligence. He's just smart enough to get into a private university, but he's lazy. After a couple of months with him, I started to see that I didn't really have anything in common with him, and I tried to make the relationship last, but he wanted things that I wasn't sure I wanted to give. He tried to make it seem like he was okay with it all, but he clearly wasn't."

"Is your twin asexual?"

Bobby shook her head but didn't elaborate. "Kyoya, can I ask you not to talk about this to anyone?" she asked quietly. "Even though we play tricks on each other, I do, to some extent, trust you." She didn't even look at Kyoya as she made the request.

"It's none of my business," Kyoya said. It really wasn't. What did he care that the woman didn't feel sexually attracted to people. It was her prerogative whether or not she wanted to reveal this, and it sounded like she was willing to talk about it, but only if asked outright. "It's an unexpected development, but-"

"What I can't be flirtatious and asexual at the same time?" Bobby laughed in disdain, shaking her head as she turned around and leaned against the counter. "I may not be sexually attracted to people, but I do find people to be good looking, and I am very tactile. I touch things, people, and I love to cuddle, but I'm not-"

"I understand," Kyoya said cutting her off with a placating smile. This was a sensitive topic for her, and he was always one to manage a situation. "I was going to say that I can kind of see it now that you've said something. You like people once you get to know them. But you tease on an intellectual level; it's never sexual with you. You're highly sociable, and maybe that's why I thought you were flirty, but it's not that. You're just nice to everyone. A real people person."

"People exhaust me, Kyoya," Bobby said dryly. "My dad doesn't know, and it's a bit of a chore having to explain it every time, but if you want to ask questions later, we can talk about it. Anyway, it's your birthday, what would you like to do?" She easily shifted the conversation from herself to the birthday boy with a smile. The conversation on her sexuality was over, and now it was time for Kyoya.

"Study," Kyoya said simply. Bobby clearly didn't want to talk about herself, and Kyoya was happy to have the attention on him. It was his birthday after all.

"Cool," Bobby said with a shrug. To each his own, she thought. "And what would you like for dinner? I'll guess that you want spicy Indian food. I have to do one nice thing for you today. After that, I'll go back to playing tricks."

"I wouldn't want to think you're going easy on me," Kyoya said with a smirk. He looked at the couch. "What time did you get home last night?"

"Four."

"In the morning?"

"Yup," Bobby nodded as the coffee maker beeped. She pulled the pot down and grabbed two mugs. She held one out to Kyoya and he happily took the cup.

"Do you think that next time you can make it to your bed?"

"That's too much work. So, Indian Food?"

"I would be agreeable to that."

Bobby rolled her eyes. "You always sound like you're acquiescing and not that you actually enjoy Indian food." She poured herself a cup of coffee and held out the pot to pour Kyoya some.

"Sorry, I will attempt to keep my speech less formal around your less than superior intellect," Kyoya said as Bobby poured some coffee into his cup.

"Shut up," Bobby said with a smirk.

"So intelligent."

Bobby and Kyoya both laughed as Bobby turned to doctor up her coffee. Bobby took her coffee cup to the couch and sat down and wrapped herself in the blankets as she grabbed the TV remote. "I'll keep the volume down low," she said.

"You haven't been coming home at night because you're helping Kana, aren't you?" Kyoya asked suddenly as he walked over to the couch. He sat down and looked at Bobby. "I don't know what you're doing, but you're doing it and it involves your nights. What are you up to?"

"I'm looking for someone. Rather, Max is helping me find someone while I sleep in the backseat of my car," Bobby clarified as she pulled up on of the crime shows she regularly watched. "Yuzuha was scammed by someone, and they disappeared. I have reason to believe that they disappeared to Ye' Old Boston. But I can't find him. I need a money trail, but I can't get my hands on Iwate financials. It's a frustratingly hot mess with too many moving pieces, and not enough man power."

So she saw it too. The huge gaping hole in the entire Iwate Family Story. He sipped at his coffee and stared ahead. "You think the Iwates hired the man to scam Kaoru's mother."

"Makes sense up here," Bobby said tapping her temple. "There's just something hinky about the entire ordeal. And I've been trying to wrap my head around it all."

"Hinky?"

"Suspect. It means suspect."

"I know what it means, but it's not really technical language is it."

"English is filled with loose, made up words without technical merit."

"But you're speaking Japanese."

"Hinky isn't a Japanese word, is it?"

"I'm not going to win this argument, am I?"

"Not a chance," Bobby smirked.

0o0o0o0

Kyoya was reading a book as he sat in his first class seat to California. He would have preferred a private jet, but first class on one of the best airlines wasn't half bad. And while he was thinking about what he would have preferred, being woken up while the moon was still out was unacceptable. Unfortunately, he was up and there was nothing he could do about it. As he turned the page of his book, he felt the plane make a turn. They would be arriving in San Francisco any minute and he was certain that Thanksgiving was going to be an interesting experience.

He shifted slightly as a heavy weight fell on his shoulder. He looked down and found Bobby's red hair. Taking a deep breath, he told himself that it would only be for a half hour and that he could let Bobby sleep. She hadn't slept at all that night; instead she was running around Boston again. The two of them were so close to finding what they were looking for, they only need to find the missing puzzle piece.

As the intercom came on, Bobby jolted awake and blinked a few times. "Whas happenin?" she asked in sleepy English.

"The plane is going to land soon," Kyoya told her.

Bobby yawned as she sat up all the way. She looked at their feet and found Kyoya's laptop sitting on top of his backpack. "Have you found it yet?" she asked after a minute of just staring at the laptop.

Kyoya shook his head and closed his book. "Did you find your man?"

"He's not in Boston anymore. Max is looking for him in New York while we're gone," Bobby answered.

A half hour later the two were walking through San Francisco International. As they approached the security checkpoint, Bobby paused and stopped Kyoya from going any further. She glanced over and saw Kana and Kaoru waving enthusiastically. "Kyoya, we can't tell them what we're doing. Okay?"

"I hadn't really planned on it, but why not?"

"Because if they know and someone's watching them, then our plan to look into the financials and the scammer can go up in smoke," Bobby said. "Trust me, Kyoya, we're swimming in waters I'm familiar with. The less people who know, the better."

"I can work behind the scenes."

Bobby nodded. "Behind the scenes," she said. "Now come on. I have some snuggle struggles that can only be fixed by a Kana hug."

"Snuggle struggles?"