What Doesn't Kill You Makes You Stronger

Chapter Thirteen

The entire room stood in shock as they saw the scene unfold. Tamaki's face had quickly went from it's usual ivory tone to a shade of red that was darker than a rose itself. Within milliseconds of their separation, Kiyomi had covered her mouth and only had a slight glance into Tamaki's pleading eyes before turning right around and running towards the exit as fast as her dress would let her. Was this part of the kiss from the king? No, that was strictly on the cheek. What the hell was this though?

"Kiyomi! Come back! Daddy didn't mean it!"

The twins let out a synchronized 'ooh' as they turned towards their ridiculous king.

"Rule number one of the host club:" Hikaru started.

"Surprises at the end always make it more fun." Kaoru continued, high fiving his twin and giving a cheshire grin towards Kyoya, who had been the one to bring up the saying in the first place.

"And in this case," Kyoya cut in.

"this is the biggest surprise we've ever seen!" Everyone chorused together.

Tamaki turned his embarrassed head towards them and pointed menacingly at the twins, getting ready to yell at them before he heard the loud 'thump' of the door closing at the other end of the hall. Shaking his head and ignoring the foolishness of his friends, he ran down the stairs, three steps at a time, and ran right through the crowd until he himself had finally made his way through the door and was out running.

He didn't know where he was going, he just kept making his way through the courtyard of the school. Somewhere around there was a small little brunette who he had just kissed and he had to find her. The only plausible thing to do was go back through his memory and think of any places of interest for her on the school, but the throbbing in the back of his head was making it hard. Only when he reached a point of interest did he remember something.

"I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to bump into you!"

"No no, it's my fault, I should have watched where I was going." Tamaki answered, pulling her back up and picking up her books.

The girl stammered, not giving him a coherent response.

"What's your name, princess?"

Once again, he received a lot of stammering.

"Can you please say that again? My hearing must be messing up today."

The girl took a deep breath, and cracked a wide smile.

"My name's Kiyomi Nakahara, class 2-B."

"Nice to meet you, beautiful. My name is Tamaki Suou."

As she tilted her head in confusion, Tamaki had immediately noticed the wide tree behind her as she started ruffling through her papers. It was just blossoming beautiful cherry blossom petals and there was already an entire hoard of them on the ground. They were really beautiful, just like the girl in front of him. When Kiyomi found the papers, she looked back up and cleared her throat.

"You're Tamaki Suou?"

"Last time I checked I was."

She once again referred to the paper in her hand.

"I've been looking for you! I learned last night that I'm supposed to be your escort through the school; I guess there could have been a better way for us to meet, but this works too. Welcome to Ouran!"

Tamaki smiled at the girl as he held out his arm for her to take, which after a bit of brief hesitation, she finally took.

"I noticed that you were looking at the cherry blossom tree." Kiyomi started, turning around to gaze at the majestic tree ahead of her. "This beauty has been around for decades, longer than the chairman himself." She noted, adding a small laugh.

"It most definitely is a beautiful tree." Tamaki added, sticking his hands in his pockets as he looked at the tree again. Kiyomi gave him a vibrant smile, reaching her hand out to touch the rugged bark encasing the inside of the tree.

"I think so too, that's why whenever I'm sad, I come here, it's easier to forget things when you're surrounded by beauty, don't you agree?"

Of course! He looked in front of him, standing there was the tall cherry blossom tree. It's petals had started to fall once again, but this time, it's magnificently vibrant pink color was fading as the days grew colder. Near the tree was a blue sash, just like the one that encircled Kiyomi's tiny waist, if ever there was a better guess as to where she was, Tamaki didn't think of it that night.

"Kiyomi?"

The petite girl peeked her head out to see who was near her, but quickly retracted it when she noticed the blonde. Slowly, Tamaki made his way over to her and sat down next to her. She cringed a bit at his touch, but started to relax once he started speaking.

"I'm so sorry, Kiyomi. I slipped on a banana peel and I fell." He started, rubbing his eyes and leaning his head back on the trunk.

"No, I should be sorry, I caused such a scene, but I was panicking and I didn't want everyone to see." She replied, leaning her head on Tamaki's shoulder, who then put his arm around her to pull her a bit closer.

"Well that doesn't matter, it wouldn't have happened if I had been more careful on where I was stepping."

"How about this: if I forgive you, will you stop blaming yourself?"

"Probably not, but it's at least worth a shot, isn't it?" He chuckled, looking down at Kiyomi, who's eyes seemed to have their own starry night sky in them.

"I forgive you, Tamaki." She answered, looking at Tamaki as he stood up and offered his hand to her. She gladly accepted it and in one quick motion, was pulled up on her feet and into his chest. Immediately he took advantage of the situation and embraced her, putting his head into her hair. She wrapped her arms around him too, hoping the moonlight would mask the intense rosiness of her cheeks. (Which it did quite easily to our oblivious king.)

Once they separated, he held out his arm for her once again, waiting for her to take it. After a moment, she graciously accepted it without hesitation.

"Let's go join the party again, shall we?"

A:N: I know, short chapter compared to the last one (Which was literally twice as long as this one) but I just wanted to get a bit of TamaKiyo fluff in there haha,the main purpose of this chapter completely filled out what I planned for when I wrote the storyline way back when :)

Speaking of the storyline, I went back over it yesterday and may Jesus help any of you who really stick with this story because wow it takes a serious turn. It gets really fluffy and lovable but at the same time it's serious and lots of broken hearts and arguing because apparently I like bringing pain to my readers haha. (No seriously, I felt pulling on my heart strings as I read it and that's saying something considering that I'm the author and the only time I cry is when I finish a tv show.)

So anyway, read and review please!