Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran HSHC.

Note: This is the final chapter. Thank you to everyone who read and reviewed and favorited this story. It made me so happy that so many of you enjoyed it. I hope you like the ending!

Chapter 14: A New Game

The Ootori family's party was lavish, in the way Haruhi had expected. Sorbets of purple, pink, and peach roses were tastefully arranged on white-clothed tables. Waiters were offering guests champagne, sushi, and delicate English cakes on antique bone china plates (Kyoya had made sure Haruhi was given fancy tuna). An orchestra was playing Vltava, which Kyoya had told her was a symphonic poem by a composer named Smetana.

Surprisingly, Haruhi found she was enjoying herself. Several guests had come to pay their respects to Kyoya and talk about business. Even more surprisingly, Haruhi found the conversation interesting. She hadn't known much about The Ootori Group, but she was learning that they were involved in many different industries, even in the legal world. Kyoya introduced her to an investigative prosecutor, who talked to her about opportunities in his office and gave her his business card.

"Having fun?" Kyoya asked her, his expression hinting at a smile.

"Arigato, senpai," Haruhi smiled. "I'm having a lot of fun!"

Kyoya adjusted his glasses, his expression careful. "Good," he said simply.

"Where is your father?" Haruhi asked. She had been looking for Yoshio all evening.

Kyoya offered her his arm. "Shall we take a turn around the ballroom and look for him?"

Haruhi took his arm rather self-consciously. They walked slowly through the crowd so that Haruhi did not trip in her delicate gold high heels. People turned to look at them, some smiling in their direction, others whispering to one another as they passed. Haruhi looked up at Kyoya questioningly.

"Ignore them, Haruhi," he said. "They are merely gossiping about who you are, and what this could mean."

Haruhi's shoulders slumped. "Now I'm even more uncomfortable," she said.

"Haru-chan!"

Huni-senpai bounced into view, followed by Mori, the twins, and Tamaki.

"Haruhi, what are you doing with the demon lord," chorused the twins. "Your Highness, Mother's molesting Haruhi!" they sniggered, as they enveloped her in a twin hug. Tamaki turned white. "Mon ami! My beloved daughter! Treachery!" He started turning to ash.

"Tamaki, please refrain from getting ash on the ballroom floor and alarming my father's guests," Kyoya said, pushing up his glasses. "Haruhi and I are engaged to be married."

The other host club members gasped. Tamaki turned into a rocket and exploded over the ballroom. Startled guests looked up to see what had happened.

"My lord! My lord!" chorused the twins, running after him.

"Congratulations, Haru-chan, Kyo-chan!" Huni said, beaming.

"Ah," Mori agreed, nodding.

"No," Haruhi said, holding up her hand, her expression frigid. "It's not like that."

A crystal glass was being tapped up at a podium at the end of the ballroom. Yoshio was standing there, looking down at his guests.

"I have two very special announcements," Yoshio said to the crowd. "Firstly, out of all my sons, Kyoya has proved to be the most adept at handling business matters under pressure. He will be the successor of The Ootori Group." There were gasps from the crowd, and then an outburst of clapping.

"Secondly," Yoshio said, holding up his hand for silence. "I would like to announce the engagement of my son Kyoya to Miss Fujioka Haruhi, who is with us tonight." Everyone applauded, even Yoshio. Kyoya smiled. Haruhi was furious. She tried to squirm out of Kyoya's grip, but he held her tightly.

"I'm certain the Ootori Group will prosper under the careful management of my son, and the support of his future wife."

There was more applause, and a babble of conversation from the excited guests. Haruhi could see Tamaki being led toward them by the cackling twins, his rubbery body wobbling between them.

Haruhi wrenched her arm from Kyoya's grip and rushed to the stairs at the base of the podium, just as Yoshio descended the staircase.

"Mr. Ootori-sama, I think there has been some kind of misunderstanding," she said firmly. "Kyoya-san and I are not engaged."

He looked at her severly. "Anyone can see my son is in love with you, Miss Fujioka. You are the best candidate for my son. Moreover, your father has already agreed."

"But I have not agreed," Haruhi said, growing angry. "I have plans to go to law school, using money I will earn myself. I don't want or need your assistance."

He looked at her thoughtfully. "That's a fine ambition, Miss Fujioka-san, but rather an idealistic one."

Haruhi looked at him in surprise.

"You need money to go to the sort of law schools that would satisfy either your intelligence or your ambition, and connections to be a successful lawyer. That is how our society works. I think you have witnessed that for yourself tonight, yes?"

Haruhi thought about the business card tucked into her gold clutch. She raised her chin stubbornly.

"There is nothing wrong with accepting help from others, Miss Fujioka-san," Yoshio said, waving his hand as if to dismiss her words. "You will marry my son Kyoya, and you'll be very happy together. After all, weren't you the one who told me he's outstanding? You risked a lot to chide an influential patron of the school you attend, just to defend his son. I wonder why you did that, if you don't love him?"

"Because Kyoya-senpai is a treasured friend," Haruhi said passionately.

"And the best marriages are based on friendship, trust, and communication, are they not?" he asked her. "It seems to me, from my short time at the Ouran Host Club, and from what Kyoya tells me, that you and my son always seem to end up together, talking. Almost as if you are both in your own little bubble, away from the other members. As you get older, Miss Fujioka, you may understand the significance of that. But I do not have the luxury of waiting for you to catch up. Your feelings for Tamaki Suoh are a teenage girl's passion, that would fade in time."

He bowed to her and left them standing near the podium.

Kyoya slipped his arm through hers, but she shook him off, too confused and shaken to speak.

"Am I that repulsive, Haruhi?" Kyoya asked her, adjusting his glasses.

"No," Haruhi said, "But-"

"Would I be a terrible husband?"

Haruhi pointed her finger at him, the ribbon on her gold dress fluttering at her chest. "You would be a good husband, senpai, but this is too much!"

Kyoya sighed. "Our engagement will be in the newspapers tomorrow."

"Then we'll break it off!"

"So you'll humiliate me and put my succession in jeopardy?"

Haruhi knew she was being manipulated. It was Kyoya's hobby in life. But she also knew he was right. Worse, her mind was spinning like the planets in Tamaki's brain theater after Yoshio's words. She knew she had feelings for both Tamaki and Kyoya. She had felt so jealous when Tamaki had left Ouran with Eclair-san. She hadn't known she was capable of feeling that way before the fair.

But then why did she and Kyoya always end up talking every day, discussing the other members, and their lives? She talked to him more than she'd ever talked to anyone, even more than the twins. In the midst of her misery over Tamaki's disappearance, she had still felt worried for Kyoya when his father had criticized him.

She felt safe with Kyoya, no matter what he did. He was reliable. He noticed when she was in trouble. He took action immediately, whether it was ordering her fancy tuna on the phone, or remembering that she was changing clothes in the music room. Kyoya anticipated everything. Which meant he must have anticipated his father's announcement, Haruhi realized, her eye twitching with annoyance.

"I'm going home," she told him bluntly, and began to make her way back through the ballroom, but kept getting stopped by all the guests offering their congratulations. Kyoya quickly caught up with her, and he spent the next hour graciously accepting good wishes, while Haruhi fumed on his arm, chomping hard on as much fancy tuna as she could.

Kyoya's room, midnight…

"You ate too much tuna," Kyoya said, when Haruhi came out of the bathroom. He had taken off his glasses, and his face looked younger and softer in the dim light of the reading lamp he had lit.

As soon as they had reached the doors of the ballroom, Haruhi had begun retching, and Kyoya had quickly taken her upstairs to his quarters, where she could be ill in private.

"Gomenasai," she said, wiping her mouth with the soft cloth he held out to her. He put a glass of water into her other hand, which she sipped gratefully.

He led her to his bed, and sat her down on the plush duvet. Kyoya's room was sparse. A few papers were neatly stacked in files at a low table. A laptop lay closed next to them. There were three photographs on his dresser.

One was of Fuyumi, trying food at a commoners' market, and smiling under a big hat. Another was of The Host Club dressed as samurai. The third showed Haruhi at the dance party, after Tamaki had nearly left them forever.

Haruhi remembered how Kyoya had snatched her from Tamaki's arms, then given her back, just like when he had pushed her into the carriage to chase Tamaki. But just for a moment before the push, she had felt him grip her shoulders tightly, as if reluctant to let her go. He really was kind, she thought.

The photographs were the only color in a room full of white furnishings. It seemed more like a guest bedroom than Kyoya's room, Haruhi reflected. The remains of a takeout meal had been stuffed into a trash can. He probably ate here alone almost every night, she realized.

Haruhi took a deep breath. "Kyoya, where is your mother?"

"Travelling for work again," Kyoya said, without a trace of emotion.

"Oh." Haruhi said thoughtfully. There were no pictures of his parents or brothers in the room. "Do you miss her?"

"Not particularly," Kyoya said. "We don't interact much on the rare occasions she comes home."

Haruhi looked down at the bed, her small hand sinking into the duvet. He sat down next to her, crossing one long leg over the other.

"My family are very different to yours, Haruhi."

She looked up at him thoughtfully. "But I don't think you would want that for your own family in the future, Kyoya-kun."

He looked surprised. "That's an interesting notion, in its own way."

He hesitated for a moment, and said: "Do you still have feelings for Tamaki, Haruhi?"

Haruhi looked up at him. He looked back, his eyes fierce with jealousy. She wasn't used to seeing Kyoya look so intensely emotional. Her eyes widened in surprise. "I'm not sure," she answered truthfully, frowning. "But after thinking about my feelings for both of you, I wonder if it's possible to love both of you, in different ways."

"I see," said Kyoya, smiling bitterly down at his hands.

"What I mean is," said Haruhi. "Your father made me think about who I really spend the most time with and why. And it's you, not Tamaki-senpai."

Haruhi reached out to touch his face, making him turn back to look at her, startled.

"I may not know how I feel yet, but I want to find out," she told him. "All I know is that we do end up being by each other's side a lot, don't we?" She smiled at him.

Kyoya nodded shrewdly. "I don't believe I've ever had such a good rapport with anyone else. Strangely, you also encourage me to disclose personal anecdotes without any benefit to myelf."

Haruhi sighed. "A trial engagement," she said.

Kyoya raised his eyebrows.

"I'll enter into a trial engagement with you," she told him. "On the conditions that I continue to live at home with my father, you don't pay him the allowance, and you and I will eat dinner together every night."

Kyoya's mouth curved in amusement. "The allowance will have to stay in place. But I think we can come to an agreement on the other terms."

"But what about your father?" Haruhi asked in surprise.

"He'll agree if I speak with him," Kyoya said. "However, you may have to move to a more suitable apartment."

Haruhi nodded in resignation.

"How long will this trial period last?" Kyoya inquired, whipping out his notebook and producing a pen from thin air.

"I don't think we can set a time limit on my feelings, senpai," Haruhi said, putting up a hand to stop him.

"Kyoya-kun," he reminded her. "Very well. I've been needing a new game to play. I no longer have the "Win-the-Ootori-Group-Succession-Game after all. Although you may be a trickier conquest."

"Senpai?"

He dropped his notebook on the bed, then cupped her face in his hands and kissed her, his mouth pressing urgently but softly against hers. Haruhi couldn't help but think that her feelings for Kyoya-kun were the strongest after all.

THE END.