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Yoshio quickly masked his utter shock with cold steel. He pointed at the door. "Get out. Take your precious friends with you. And when you learn what the world is really like, then don't come crawling back to me, Kyoya." How would Éclair Tonnerre react now that her scheme to overrun the Ootori Group was finished?
The answer was simple. Éclair began to sway on her feet. Her doctor had advised avoiding stress and anything that would cause shock until she was 'fully' recovered. Well, that prognosis was meaningless now. The stress and surprise that had accumulated inside of her for the past few hours was more than enough to flood her with dizziness. Tamaki carefully caught her by the upper arms.
"Are you okay? Can you walk?" he whispered to her gently. She nodded. Tamaki looked at his father. "I think we'll excuse ourselves, then. We'll let you all get back to your meeting." The chairman nodded, indicating that would be for the best. Tamaki guided Éclair around the table, stopping by Keiko's chair. "Will you be staying or coming with us, Keiko-chan?" he invited.
Keiko looked from Tamaki to her father, who was glaring at her as a sign to say nothing and stay where she was. Anger boiled in her stomach. She had been treated more as a human being from the boy she had known for just a couple of days than by her own father. She stood and before she followed her friends out, she announced, "If Kyoya will not be a part of the Ootori Group, then I refuse any form of diplomatic relations between it and the Tadeshi Company." Giving a small, mocking curtsey to the rest of the business people in the room, she followed the rest of her friends, of which Kyoya had also joined and helped support Éclair.
After shutting the door behind them, Tamaki took a deep breath and whooped in exhilaration. "That was incredible!" He put his arms around Kyoya's shoulders on one side, and Keiko's on the other. "You two were absolutely brilliant! You really stood up for yourselves in there! Kyoya!" Tamaki fixed his best friend with a dazzling smile. "I've never been so proud of anyone in my life! You were sensational!"
Éclair bumped the wall as she leaned against it in support, whispering incredulously, "That…didn't just happen, did it?" She fixed Kyoya with wide blue eyes. "You didn't really…just choose us over the Ootori Group, did you, Kyoya?" It was an idea that she couldn't possibly wrap her head around. His family's company and his father's approval meant everything to Kyoya. They were the reason that he had been willing to go through with the engagement in the first place. How could he throw them away so easily? What had changed his mind?
Kyoya looked over at Éclair and felt an unfamiliar heat on his cheeks. "I was never going to impress my father, nor defeat my brothers. It wasn't because I didn't try hard enough or I had given up; my father simply does not respect me enough to adhere to my wishes. Why would I continue striving for something that is impossible?" He thought for a moment before replying in French, "'There are few things in this world that can change your goals in life.' You just happen to be one of them."
He realized, too late, that although he had quoted Major Shrewd in French to show Éclair how he felt about her similar statement before, Tamaki could still understand every word. His face grew warmer. Keiko smiled, oblivious, and leaned against Tamaki as she listened to the group.
Éclair's face turned the same color as her dress and she tried hiding her burning cheeks behind her hands. Her heart was racing at a million beats per minute. She had changed Kyoya's goals, and that was why he had chosen her? Was it possible that Kyoya felt the same way about her as she did for him? But why? Kyoya was wonderful: brilliant, honest, kind, handsome. She had none of those things. Yoshio Ootori may be a child-abusive monster, but he was right about her. She was manipulative and conniving and self-obsessed. What could someone like Kyoya Ootori possibly see in someone like her?
Tamaki had to contain his gleeful laughter. He hadn't fully understood Éclair's earlier sentiment in French, but Kyoya's made the Shadow King's heart an open book. The blond held Keiko close to him. "Let's go get something to eat together. I'm famished."
"After being stuck in that stuffy room all morning? I'm all for it," Kyoya answered rather quickly, grateful to be escaping the situation. "However, you must get rid of that tie before we're seen together in public. I will not allow it." Together, the group began following Tamaki, with the boys in front and Keiko and Éclair trailing a little bit behind.
"Oh, right!" Tamaki removed the offensive piece of clothing and gestured to the overpass. "All the best restaurants are over that way. I'll toss it over the side when we cross." It was the second most satisfying option for disposing of it, since Tamaki didn't have a lighter on him and he doubted any of the others did either. He casually moved closer to Kyoya and whispered in his ear, "It looks like romance is finally in the air for you; congrats."
Kyoya's face burned again after it had just cooled down and he grumbled, "I don't know what you're talking about. I'm perfectly satisfied being friends with Éclair. There's no need to read any deeper into it." He slipped his hands into his pockets to hide the fact that his fingers were fiddling nervously at the suggestion. He honestly still didn't know how he felt about Éclair aside from the fact that he deeply cared for her.
"Are you kidding me?" Tamaki tried to keep his incredulous voice down so that the girls wouldn't overhear. "You're going to insist on remaining friends? After all that has happened? Do mere friends throw away their entire life's work for each other, Kyoya?" For someone who had devoted seventeen years to a lost cause, his best friend could be awfully uncommitted.
Kyoya sighed quietly and glanced over his shoulder at the girls behind them. "I'm not like you, Tamaki," he explained in a low voice as he turned back to his friend. "I don't believe in 'true love' or any of that. I've never focused on it. If that's really what I'm feeling then I won't really understand that because I've never paid any attention to it and it was never really a concept I learned growing up, either, which I'm sure you can understand given my home life. Just…give me some time to figure it out for myself."
Tamaki sighed dramatically. "Okay. I guess I understand. I'll give you time to figure it out. I just have to say one more thing: if what is between you and Éclair isn't 'true love' or doesn't morph into that over time, I will be very surprised."
Meanwhile, the girls, oblivious to the conversation that the boys were having, had yet to say a word to one another. Finally, Keiko glanced up at Éclair with a knowing smile. "That was a brave thing you did in there.
Éclair looked at her quizzically. She had been called some colorful adjectives over her almost eighteen years of life, but never brave. She shook her head. "That wasn't brave. It was selfish. I didn't think about how it might cause trouble for you all."
"But if you hadn't done so then Kyoya and I would probably be on our way to get married right now."
Éclair chuckled softly. "You'd have to wait until November, anyway. Unless you two were planning to go abroad for your wedding." A wedding that, thank goodness, would never take place now.
Keiko tilted her head slightly, amused at Éclair's denial. "Maybe you don't think that much of it, but you helped convince Kyoya to say no to his father. Actually say no, and hold his ground. It was a rather bold statement for someone who always hid behind niceties."
"I am more than happy to concede that what Kyoya did was brave. He was able to step outside the frame. I doubt I really swayed the situation one way or another. If I hadn't intervened, Kyoya would have just walked out the door and not come back."
"Yes, you did," Keiko insisted firmly. "If it weren't for you, then Mr. Ootori would have just threatened Kyoya into submission again. I know you saw him reaching for Kyoya's arm." She looked down slightly. "I've never been one for being brave like that, so the fact that you risked your entire company just to help Kyoya really says something about you. You're a very kind person."
Éclair had seen Yoshio going to grab Kyoya's wrist so that he could yank his son back 'into place'. And it had caused something to snap inside of her. But still. "Everyone keeps saying that; that I am kind, and I don't understand why. Yoshio Ootori is wrong about many things but he isn't wrong about me."
"I think he is," Keiko said honestly. "You are very kind. You've shown how selfless you can be when it comes to someone you really care about. You don't have to be selfless for everyone in order to be kind, Éclair. Showing that you think of even a few people before yourself shows how kindhearted you really are."
Éclair managed a smile. "Thank you, Keiko. For the record, I think that you are braver than you think. If my father had been there, I don't know if I could have stood up to him."
"Come on, you two," Kyoya called, waving them over. He and Tamaki had stopped at an intersection and the blond had gone ahead when the crosswalk light permitted them to walk while Kyoya waited for the other two.
Éclair walked faster in order to catch up to Tamaki and Kyoya, so they could cross the street before the light turned red. She couldn't meet Kyoya's eyes, still a little embarrassed and stunned by the whole situation. From the other side of the street, Tamaki waved his hideous yellow tie in the air and waved to his friends. "Hurry up, you slowpokes, or I'm going to leave you!" With the encouragement, Keiko hurried across and hopped back onto the sidewalk to join him in egging the other two to hurry up.
The pair walked, and there was a short moment of silence before Kyoya suddenly screamed, "ÉCLAIR!" that was drowned out by the loud screeching of tires and the deafening honk of a horn. Strong hands pushed Éclair forward the last couple of feet onto the sidewalk. She hit the pavement with a thud, bruising and scraping up her legs. And then, there was a terrible crash and a crunching sound that tore at her heart. She turned around to see Kyoya lying lifeless in the road, hit by a bus that had been coming at her.
The next chapter will be longer than this one. Thank you for reading!