Chapter Eleven: Celebration (Part Two)
By the time Kiiro stepped out of the shower the second tone of Kyouya's alarm was chiming- to no avail of course. She turned on her hair dryer, surprised when it did little in the way of drowning out the sound of his ear-piercing third alarm. When she exited the bathroom she found him asleep sitting up against the headboard.
"How can you sleep like that?" she snickered into her palm. "Ne, Kyouya! No more sleeping, we've got to check out in two hours." she climbed up on the bed, bouncing a bit in an effort to wake him up.
He cracked one eye open, fixing her with a weary glare.
She tilted her head, smiling, "Have I incurred the wrath of the Demon Lord?" she sat in his lap, straddling his hips.
"I wouldn't call it 'wrath'." he murmured into the crook of her neck, wrapping his arms around her waist.
Her face flushed, catching his meaning.
He smirked at her, "How is it still so easy to make you blush?"
She kissed him, feeling one of his hands venture up into her hair trailing shivers in its wake. She leaned into him, fingers gliding up his stomach and across his chest. His mouth was travelling down her neck, warmth blossomed wherever his lips touched flooding her face and swirling in her stomach. She kissed his temple, running her fingers through his hair. He lowered her back onto the bed beneath him, covering her mouth with his as he ran a hand down her stomach slipping into her underwear. She moaned against his lips, bringing her knee up to his side. He broke their kiss so he could strip her of her shirt, pull her panties down until she could kick them off.
"You're getting ahead of yourself." Kiiro murmured against his neck, pushing his boxers down.
"I'll only have you for less than two hours." he purred into her ear, "Forgive me if I'm impatient."
"I suppose I can excuse it this once." she laughed a little breathlessly, fingers trailing down to cup him.
He nipped at the crook of her neck, making a sound low in his throat.
Kiiro finished tying up her hair as Kyouya appeared in the mirror, wrapping his arms around her waist from behind, whispering in her ear, "I'm not sure if I can survive a week apart now." he said with a smirk.
"A week?" Kiiro scoffed. "I give it four days before Tamaki wants to throw a Christmas Party."
"Christmas Parties are one thing." he ran his thumbs over her stomach, "I meant something else entirely."
Her cheeks were getting pinker by the second, "I-it's just a week." she had to clear the stutter from her throat.
He shrugged, still smiling at her in their reflection, "You're right. I'll live." he released her. "I worry about you, though."
"What do you mean by that?" she cocked an eyebrow at him.
He was looking at her as a hungry wolf looks at a defenseless rabbit, "You'll miss me, won't you?" he trailed a hand down her neck, giving her goosebumps. "It'll be some time before we can return to Boston." he leaned in so he could whisper to her again. "Before you can return to my bed."
She suppressed the urge to stiffen at his words, "Of course, you'll miss me just as much." she drew one of his hands out of his pocket and brought his fingertips to her lips. "Ne, Kyouya?" she sucked on the tip of his pointer finger, meeting his eyes and batting her eyelashes.
She didn't miss the sharp intake of breath he tried to quiet, nor did she miss the way his eyes seemed to darken.
She skipped away from him with a mischievous grin, scooping up her suitcase before the door, "I'll be going first, then. See you around, Kyouya." she winked at him as she headed out into the hallway between suites. Giggling as soon as she closed the door behind her, leaving him to look on after her.
He smiled, leaning against the bathroom doorway. Things had certainly gotten interesting.
Margot sidled up to her as she walked to her family's car from the hotel's entrance. Interlacing her hand with her younger sister's, "Don't look so glum, you'll see him again in a week." she said with a knowing grin.
Kiiro smiled back, "Glum, huh?"
"Mhm." something seemed to catch her sister's attention. "What is that?" she pointed to her neck.
"What's what?" she attempted to look at where Margot was pointing to no avail.
Margot pulled her aside, whispering harshly, "A hickey? Really, sis." she began rummaging through her purse.
"Wha-! Really?" she clasped a hand to her neck.
"Yes, really." Margot produced a compact of concealer. "Thankfully your complexion is the same as mine. If Mom saw this she'd have a fit." she proceeded to blend the makeup over the mark on her neck. "Though, I have to admit, I'm more than a bit surprised to have discovered your wild side." she smiled appreciatively.
"I-it's not like that!" Kiiro defended herself.
"Please, it's not like I'm disappointed. Far from it. I'd always assumed Kyouya was a stick in the mud." her smile widened with her teasing.
Kiiro's face was red as a beet, "Margot!"
"What? You guys are engaged now, it's not like I'm judging."
"Margot! Kiiro! Are you coming?" their mother called from beside the family car.
Margot snapped the compact shut, pulling Kiiro along by the elbow, "Sorry, Mom!" Margot hurried to catch up with her sister in tow.
"Miss Kiiro, you have visitors in the first sitting room." a maid informed her as she was reading in her library.
"Visitors?" Kiiro stood, "I'll be right down, Ueno-san."
'I just saw everyone this morning.'
She made her way to the sitting room, assuming to find maybe one or two of the hosts waiting for her there. Imagine her surprise when she found the whole lot of them there- bar Kyouya.
'Scratch that. I should have assumed that from the start.' Kiiro slumped.
"Kir-chan~! We brought cake~!" Hani called out to her, announcing her presence to the group.
"Ah, you didn't have to Hani-senpai." Kiiro said, though she was sure her cooks would appreciate not having to bake again for the Haninozuka heir, the memory of last time was likely still fresh in their nightmares. The aforementioned cakes were artfully arranged on the coffee table.
"Takashi said it's only polite to bring a gift when you visit~!"
"Mm." Mori nodded, smiling at her in greeting.
Kiiro turned to the maid waiting beside her, "Would you mind bringing tea?"
"And a coffee for you, Miss?"
"Yes." she observed how Tamaki looked as though he was dying to say something. "Um, two shots of espresso, if you please."
The maid bowed and left for the kitchen.
The Twins made a space for her to sit between them, "Hello, everyone, to what do I owe the pleasure?" her eyes did not leave the excited Tamaki.
"We're throwing a Christmas Host Ball!" Tamaki announced, looking more relaxed now that he was finally able to say it.
Kiiro blinked once. Twice. "King..."
"Yes?"
"Why are you telling me this now?! Christmas is less than a week away!"
"Yeah, and we'll have it Christmas Eve!" he smiled sunnily, unaware of the ridiculous burden he was placing on her.
"That's in five days!" she practically shrieked. "I would love to hear what Kyouya said about this."
"Kyouya-senpai was busy talking to is father." the twins explained.
"So this is your way of asking the other parent?" she muttered, head in her hands.
Tamaki nodded cheerfully, "I was thinking about all of the poor girls of Ouran who must be missing us terribly, we've already been away half a year."
Kiiro shot a look of helplessness at Haruhi, who only smiled apologetically.
"I was thinking we could get ice sculptures and a snow machine!" their king rambled. "We'll have boughs of holly and mistletoe!" he blushed, sneaking a glance at Haruhi.
"Tamaki we've talked about your capriciousness! There's no way I can assent to this! I'm only so good at planning!"
Tamaki looked like she'd stricken him, "But, all of our poor customers."
"Will have to patiently await of their prince at the end of Spring."
He wilted in the corner of her sitting room.
"Wow! Nice rejection, Kiiro-senpai!" Hikaru applauded.
"In record time, too!" Kaoru clapped.
Tamaki looked over at her, his watery puppy dog eyes in full effect.
Kiiro drew in a sharp breath, resisting with all of her willpower.
The Twins started their stopwatches.
Tamaki's lips trembled.
Kiiro's staring contest continued.
He placed a hand at his cheek, brow furrowing as though he would break out in tears.
Kiiro swallowed, her heartstrings tugged.
Tamaki whimpered, imploring her.
She broke hanging her head, "Goddamit, Tamaki, you're a cruel monarch."
He jumped up, pulling Kiiro out of her seat and dancing with her in quick circles, "Thank you, Kiiro! You're the best! This party will be amazing!"
She broke free, glaring at him, "We'll have it at your mansion, it'll be the only appropriate venue on such short notice." she said tersely.
"Of course! No problem!" Tamaki cheered, acting like a loving puppy whose owner had returned.
Kyouya was led into the room, "I thought I would find you all here." he spied Kiiro who sat dejected between the twins. He raised an eyebrow, turning to Tamaki, sighing, "What are we planning, now, Tamaki?"
Tamaki latched onto his friend, "Kyouya, it will be beautiful! We're having a Christmas Ball! There'll be a huge tree and a buffet and red and white roses everywhere!"
Kiiro whined as the list of things she had to obtain grew.
Kyouya placed a hand on her shoulder, "How long did you survive the puppy dog eyes?"
The Twins held out their stopwatches," Fifty-three seconds."
Kyouya's eyebrows rose, impressed, "That's a new record for you, Kiiro, I'm surprised." he leaned on his elbows against the back of the sofa.
"Should the ice sculptures be swans? Reindeer? Angels? No! No! Ootoro?" Tamaki continued his chattering, unperturbed by Kiiro's depressive state. "Wouldn't you like ootoro sculptures, Haruhi?"
"Will there be cake~?"
"There will be plenty of cakes, Hani-senpai! Ah! We should make cookies ourselves! What a heartwarming gesture that would be!"
"I'm not letting you near another stove, senpai, not after last time." Haruhi said flatly.
"We're not cooking, Tono. We're back in Tokyo, where we have people to do that for us." the twins dismissed his silly idea.
"But how moving it would be!" Tamaki began to prance about the room posing dramatically this way and that. "A gentleman's cooking capturing a ladies heart!"
Kiiro's coffee had arrived along with everyone's tea, she took the cup from her maid, blew on it until the steam dissipated completely and then swiftly downed the entire thing.
Kiiro saw them all out after their initial bout of planning, Kyouya was the last to leave, "So we're up to, what, three ice sculptures, forty-five bouquets of roses and enough boughs of holly to ring the Suoh's first ballroom?"
She sighed, "And four snow machines, and a sprawling buffet, and a massive tree complete with lights, ornaments, a jeweled tree skirt and a crystalline angel on top."
"Nothing less for our King." he rolled his eyes.
She leaned against him, "I missed you last night. Promise me something?"
"Mm?"
"We'll, always share a bed when we get back to Boston." she looked away, embarrassed.
"Kiiro, I thought that was a given." he tilted her chin up, pressing a quick kiss to her lips.
She smiled, "Good."
Kiiro's family, all of which were incredibly busy people, held their Christmas on the twenty-second, before returning to Los Angeles- or Paris- in Margot's case. Which, happily, left Kiiro plenty of time to acquire the many services and objects needed for Tamaki's ball. This close to the holidays the obtaining of anything was obscenely difficult, but, thankfully, a bit of name-dropping (Suoh and Ootori being the most successful she discovered) was more than enough to get her exactly what she needed.
She was called up the day before the party well before ten and therefore well before when she would prefer to wake up on a school break.
"Kiiro! I hope I didn't wake you! I was just calling everyone up to remind you that we're baking the cookies for tomorrow's party today!" he announced.
"I thought Haruhi pulled the brakes on that plan." Kiiro mumbled.
"You know, how that is." she could practically hear the gallic shrug.
"So you admit to being coddled?" she said incredulously.
"I am an only child." he laughed. "I'll see you in a half hour?"
She sighed heavily, "Yeah, I'll be there."
The cookie baking had managed to be not a complete disaster. Tamaki's cookies as well as those made by Hani and Kiiro had turned out edible, if a little misshapen. The twins were only persuaded to make any when Kiiro insulted their artistic pride. Kiiro of course had thrown out the batch of Tamaki's cookies that the doppelgangers had ruined with capsaicin. Mori's cookies were both appealing to the eye and the taste buds, along with Haruhi's of course, and those made by Kyouya's bodyguards- seeing as how Kyouya simply refused to be persuaded to participate.
Haruhi and Kiiro cleaned up the bulk of the mess, but even Haruhi was relieved when Tamaki's maids appeared to take care of the rest of the flour-covered, dough-sticky counters and floors. It looked like a tornado had hit the kitchen.
"Wah~! Takashi look~! It snowed even more~!" Hani sang as he skipped out into the snow.
"Mm." Mori watched as his cousin frolicked happy through the snow.
"It's been forever since the last good snow." Haruhi smiled softly, "My Dad and I always made snowmen whenever there was enough snow."
"How cute!" Tamaki spun her around in a hug. "I want to make snowmen with you!"
"Impressive, there's actually a few inches out here." the twins joined him out in the cold. Only Kiiro caught the mischievous glance that passed between the two mere seconds before a snowball came flying toward her.
She ducked and the snowball smacked Tamaki square in the face.
"Oomf!" he staggered backward, red faced. "You shady brothers! This means war!"
Kiiro scooped up a snowball of her own, "That would have hit me if I didn't move!" she flung the ball at the pair.
It missed them by about four feet.
"Wow, nice aim, Kiiro-senpai!" they laughed so hard tears were coming out of their eyes.
Tamaki returned fire, hitting Hikaru's head, "Don't get distracted on the battlefield!"
Kiiro nodded at him, quickly building a fort out of snow.
The snowball fight was underway, with a flurry of ammo flying across the Suoh's backyard. Hani, Mori and Haruhi were cheerily making snowmen- and snow rabbits- a ways away from the action.
"Hikaru, I've been hit!" Kaoru declared, clutching his side where Kiiro hit him with a very lucky shot.
"Kaoru! No!" his older brother held his hand.
"Stay strong! You'll have to go on without me!"
"Why are you acting in the middle of our fight? Weirdos!" Kiiro sent another snowball flying, missing yet again, to her horror it nailed Kyouya, who was reading on the patio.
She froze, eyes wide.
"Kiiro?" he looked up over the rims of his glasses. "Was that yours?"
"It was an accident I swear!"
He stood.
She abandoned the fort, taking of in the opposite direction. He pursued her slowly, easily dodging the snowy fire from both sides of the battle. She rounded a bush, faking right, he didn't fall for her bluff, scooping up an armful of snow before he caught her by the wrist. He proceeded to dump the snow down the back of her coat.
"Kyouya!" she screeched, trying to shake the snow off. "Cold, cold, cold!"
"You shou-"
He was interrupted by a snowball to the arm, courtesy of Tamaki.
"You're dead, Tamaki!"
Tamaki grinned with childish glee, Kiiro took the opportunity to escape.
"You couldn't have hit him before he dumped snow down my shirt?!" Kiiro said between bursts of laughter.
"I didn't want to get hit back point blank!" he explained.
Kyouya's snowball hit him in the chest so hard it nearly knocked the air out of him. Kiiro's best response was to build the fort higher. Sadly, their defense against Kyouya greatly depleted their defense against the Hitachiins, who gladly took advantage of the distraction.
Kiiro dodged yet another snowball from Hikaru.
"You can't dodge forever, Kiiro-senpai!"
He was promptly hit in the face by one of Kyouya's snowballs.
"What the hell, Kyouya-senpai! You can't protect Kiiro-senpai if you're not on her team!"
"I'm not protecting her." he sent a snowball flying into Kiiro's leg. "See?"
"Tamaki! We're getting massacred!" she whined, taking cover from Kaoru's fire behind the blonde.
"Don't use me as a shield!" he cried, still laughing.
"Usa-chan homerun~!" Hani announced as he joined the fight, attacking the twins.
"Thank you, Hani-senpai!" Kiiro cheered as Mori formed more snowballs for his cousin to throw.
"You might as well join in, Haruhi." Kyouya smirked at his junior.
Tamaki promptly became useless as he strived to save her from every hit. From that point it devolved into an every man for themselves brawl. Kiiro was the first to fall back in the snow exhausted, "I give up." she attempted to catch her breath.
"Kir-chan, are you making a snow angel~?" Hani lay down to her left, moving his hands and legs in the snow until his angel had a robe.
"I wasn't meaning to, but good idea." she copied his actions as Mori proceeded to make a snow angel on her other side. She sat up, appraising them, and began drawing wings in the snow for her angel.
"Make wings for mine and Takashi's, too~!" Hani hopped up.
"If you don't mind." Mori added.
"Of course." Kiiro grinned, tracing wings out for her seniors.
"Oy! Our wings will be way cooler than Kiiro-senpai's!" the twins announced, abandoning the snowball fight.
"Wings? The two of you ought to draw horns." Kiiro raised an eyebrow at the two.
"And devil's tails." Tamaki said in agreement.
"What should my angel have?" Haruhi mused.
"Tanuki ears?" Kiiro teased with a laugh.
In the end, even Kyouya was persuaded to make an angel after much goading from Kiiro and Tamaki's best puppy dog eyes.
