Takashi knocked on her front door in the late afternoon and Kimiko answered, "Oh, Mori-senpai, here to see Hoshiko I'm assuming? She's still sleeping from her trip but I'm sure she won't care if you go up there."

"How long has she been sleeping?" He asked heading for the stairs.

"About five hours."

"Thank you."

When he arrived at her door he quietly opened the door, not wanting to knock and wake her up. She was laying in her bed, still wearing her clothes from the fight he assumed, and saw she had one leg sticking out from under the sheets, her head turned towards one of her arms with hair lying on it. He quietly approached her and pulled the sheets to cover her leg before sitting down slowly on the bed to move her hair out of her face. As his hand gently cupped her face she smiled in her sleep leaning into his hand murmuring his name. Takashi couldn't help but smile and lean down to gently kiss her.

Hoshiko felt lips on hers and recognized the scent of the man kissing her. She smiled sleepily wrapping an arm around his neck. He pulled away and as she opened her eyes she was met by his steel grey eyes and a small smile that only belonged to Takashi. She ran her fingers down his cheek, "I could get used to waking up like this."

"I didn't want to but you said my name."

"I was dreaming about you." She sat up.

"Good or bad?" He smirked.

"Always good or very good." She leaned in kissing him, "I missed you. It was only a week but I really missed you."

"I missed you too. Your performance was amazing, more impressive by the fact you did it in a week."

She laughed, "Thanks I was pretty nervous."

"I was too." She blushed as he kissed her again, he had been nervous for her? The thought made her heart flutter for some reason. She smiled into the kiss as he put an arm around her before breaking the kiss and hugging her, "I'm proud of you. Your dad would be too."

"Thanks." She wrapped her arms around him, "Takashi."

"Hmm?" He responded not wanting to let her go.

"Will you stay the night? I missed you a lot especially when I was crying and I want you here even if we're asleep."

He pulled back and smiled at her, "You need rest."

"That's all I want to do, is rest in your arms. Will your family allow it?" He nodded at her, a blush coming over his face thinking of her sleeping in his arms, his family would have to say yes.

"Let me check." He grabbed his phone. She sat there as he talked to his dad and explained he would be staying the night at a friend's house and would go to school the next day from there, having a spare uniform in his car. He got off the phone and smiled, "I can stay."

She smiled and moved over in the bed as he took off his over shirt and socks, "Do you need sweat pants or something?"

"If you have them." He smiled.

"Wouldn't have offered if I didn't." She laughed getting out of the bed, he blushed seeing her in the same type of clothes she wore when she had woken up at Haruhis house when they came over. She pulled out a pair of pants from her drawer, "These were my brothers, they may be a bit short but they're better than anything that's mine."

"Thanks." He kissed her temple going into the bathroom to change. He was surprised that the pants fit him so well, but her brother did look to be only a few inches shorter than him. He came back out and got under the sheets holding an arm up for her to curl up next to him.

They both got comfortable and he asked her about things that happened on her trip and she told him everything until they both eventually fell asleep.


Kyoya was pacing back and forth waiting for Hoshiko to arrive at the club room. He was worried about how she would react to finding out that her mother had visited his father the day before. The others in the room couldn't help but notice his strange behavior. When the club room door opened and she walked in he immediately walked up to her, "Delany-senpai, I need to speak with you. Privately."

"Okay." She said a little shocked when he put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her into the store room they held all of Hunnys sweets. Haruhi stood up when she heard the door lock.

"That was a little strange of Kyoya-senpai."

Hunny followed her look to the door, "Yeah. That's not like him at all when we're preparing to open."

Takashi didn't say anything but kept his eyes on the door, waiting for anything to happen.

Hoshiko turned around and looked at Kyoya who had his head down, "Kyoya what's going on."

"I'm sorry." He kept his head down, "Delany-senpai, I truly am."

"What's happened?" She felt a pit in her stomach.

"Your mother visited my father yesterday, to arrange a marriage between us." He still couldn't look at her but he could see her freeze, "He was very excited about the idea."

"Is he giving you a say in the matter?" Her voice was quiet.

"He has informed me of it but has yet to make a decision." Kyoya looked up at her, "So I wanted to make you an offer."

"If it's of marriage, I decline." She crossed her arms, angry, mostly at the situation, not necessarily at Kyoya depending on his answer.

"You know that I have no intentions of marrying you." He pushed his glasses up, "But I may be able to convince my father to give us some time. To wait until you finish your album and turn eighteen so that the offer is no longer good. If I can strike a deal with my father to wait five months the deal would no longer be on the table. We may have to pretend to date until then though. This will also keep your mother from trying to marry you to more unfavorable suitors. I wanted to talk to you before I did though."

"Why? Why would you do this?" She was shaking, angry at the situation, thinking about Takashi.

"Because I want your fathers company to stay under your control. I'm on your side and if I can make this work with my father then I want to take the time to prove to you that I am worthy of a position at your company. And to help train me in the way the entertainment industry works, I don't have so much pride that I won't admit I know nothing about it. I want you to be able to trust me no matter what." He now looked at the floor, "But it may make your relationship with Mori-senpai even harder than it already is."

She smiled at him, "Should have known you would have figured it out."

"I've had my suspicions since we returned from Karuizawa. When we watched the awards ceremony it confirmed what I had been thinking."

"I'm sure he'd prefer us fake dating then actually getting married." She looked sad and his heart hurt at the situation, "It's not even five months until my birthday. We just have to make it that long."

"I understand. We can work around the set 'tutoring' schedule the two of you have been using for the past few weeks if we have to prove to them that we're dating."

"Thank you. I should talk to him about it tonight though, just to make sure he's alright with it. Can you wait until later? I'll text you after I've talked to him? It wouldn't seem right to make this decision without him."

"Of course. If we have to come up with something else then we will." He smiled at her, "I was afraid you'd take this worse than you did."

"I'm fuming actually. My career has taught me how to control it though." She gave him a sad smile walking past him, "You've proven one thing to me though, that you know when not to make certain decisions alone."

Everyone watched as she walked out of the room and went at sat on the windowsill instead of her normal spot with Hunny and Takashi and then looked to Kyoya as he walked out of the room and watched as he sat down at a table on his laptop.

Haruhi and Takashi couldn't help but be worried as she put her headphones in and leaned her head on the window.


She was quiet the whole way to her house and Takashi just held her hand, he wasn't sure what she and Kyoya had talked about but he knew it was something that really worried her. They walked into her house and sat down on the couch, she didn't look at him. She felt horrible to ask this of him, to ask him to watch her pretend to date someone else. She felt him take her hand and she knew she couldn't wait any longer, "Takashi?"

"Hmm?"

"Does it bother you we can't be a normal couple? That we have to hide everything?" She couldn't even look at him, she might be about to hurt him and it hurt her to even think about doing that.

"It's temporary." He turned her face to look at him and could see the tears in her eyes, "Hoshiko, what's wrong?"

Tears fell from her eyes as she told him what she and Kyoya had spoken about and his heart stopped, Kyoyas father could reject the idea of dating for a few months and just go through with the engagement agreement if he wanted to. When she was done explaining it to him he wrapped his arms around her and held her head to his chest, "Is it too much for me to ask of you to not only hide everything but watch Kyoya and I pretend."

"Hoshiko…Hoshiko…" His body trembled, "Hoshiko, if it means I won't lose you, I'll do anything you ask."

She looked up at him and he wiped a tear from her cheek, "I can't be away from you for the rest of my life. I know there's nothing between you two. I trust you."

"If at any point you're uncomfortable with what's happening, anything at all. Tell me. We'll call it off immediately." Takashi kissed her deeply and she melted into his arms.

He pulled away and whispered, "Just a little bit longer."

"I'm so glad I have you."