Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran high school host club.

Chapter 25: Waistcoat

"Tamaki."

"Yes, Mother?"

"You do understand that this was to be a date?"

"Yes, but you've been in such a foul mood since I sat down! You're supposed to be happy!"

They were sitting in a private booth of a fancy restaurant, the black haired Demon King cradling his head in his hand. "Then why did you sit down?"

"But… I wanted to help you!" The Blonde Prince pouted.

"You know how you can help?" Kyoya said, lifting up his head and glaring at the hyper boy.

"How?" Tamaki said excitedly.

"BY GOING AWAY."

Looking sad, Tamaki turned his head so that he was looking melodramatically into the middle-distance. "Buh…but…" He sniffed.

Kyoya rolled his eyes and sighed. "And you can take your melodrama with you." He cast a small, sideways glance over the top of the Blonde head of hair to find Kaoru looking straight back at him. Kyoya sighed again. He wanted to punch the airheaded Prince into the next century. For a brief moment, he allowed himself to imaging the sweet sensation of Tamaki's right cheek impacting against his fist, but he just sighed again.

If only a week ago… no, if only an hour ago, he would've been able to punch the boy without having to think about the consequences of hitting the Suoh heir. He had finally thought that he was free from the restraints, the shackles that were the Ootori name in its entirety. But no. The name had once again reared its ugly head and the problem was, this time he couldn't reject it. Because this time, however disagreeable the words it was saying were, they were too full of truth to deny.

And so he had to sit here, pretending like he didn't want to beat the boy to death.

Kaoru sighed and reached out a hand.

He patted the Blonde tiredly. "Don't worry, Sempai. He's just in a bad mood right now. I'm sure he didn't mean it."

"Kaoru." Kyoya said through clenched teeth. "bad decision."

Kaoru frowned and looked at the raven-haired boy with a confused expression. "What? Why?"

"You'll see." Kyoya sighed.

"I'll see? What?" Kaoru said. He tore his eyes away from the jet black ones to look down slightly. At Tamaki. "Oh. Crap."

Tamaki's eyes had swollen to the size of watermelons; the violet orbs glistening with tears. "Devilish twin~!" He engulfed the small redhead in a massive, snuggly hug. "Mummy's being mean to me~!"

Kyoya squinted at him. His determination not to punch the blonde wavering more than slightly. "Tamaki, get off of him." He growled.

"See~? Mummy didn't even say plea~se!" Tamaki whined, snuggling closer.

"TAMAKI. Get off of him!"

"Mother~!"

"Tamaki!"

"Mother!"

"TAMAKI!"

"STOP IT." Both older teens looked to the younger. "Sempai. Let go of me. I can't breathe."

Tamaki pouted but released his grip, his lower lip trembling and his already big eyes enlarging.

Kyoya caught his eye and raised an eyebrow, grinning like a toddler who'd won his parent's approval over his brother.

Seeing this, Kaoru rolled his eyes. "That meant you too, Kyo. Stop it. Do you really need to bicker like this? Sometimes I wonder which of us is the younger."

Tamiki snickered slightly, causing Kyoya's eye to twitch. "Well at least I'm not the one acting like a puppy and getting attached to the first person who shows kindness to me." He said haughtily, still glaring at the blonde.

"That's certainly not what it seemed like last night." Kaoru instantly replied, before his eye size increased slightly and he coughed awkwardly into his fist. He blamed his brother's influence for that sounding a LOT dirtier than it did in his head, and hoped that no one else thought the same way as him. After a couple of seconds had passed, he looked back up to see that Kyoya's head was turned ever so slightly away. So apparently Kyoya was also suffering from Hikaru-dirty-mind-atitis.

"Ne, ne, why are you both blushing?" Tamaki asked curiously.

Kyoya seemed to choke on something, so Kaoru decided to brave this one. "Uhm… it's…" An inside joke? That would probably just get Tamaki even MORE interested. The one thing about idiots was that you couldn't predict just HOW they would react to even the simplest things. "Uhm…" Suddenly, he caught a flash of something out of the corner of his eye. Something red.

"KAORRRRRUUUU"

All three boys turned towards the source of the mighty bellow, the whole restaurant falling dead silent.

"Hikaru?" Tamaki said timidly, recognising the boy first.

"KAORU! WHY DID YOU HANG UP ON ME!"

"Why the hell are you out of hospital?" Kyoya interjected, standing. "You're not even supposed to be getting out of bed!"

"WHY DID YOU HANG UP ON ME!"

"Hikaru! Calm down!" The younger twin finally said.

Hikaru scowled at them before sitting down in the seat opposite them, propping up his crutches against the table and looking over his shoulder as two more people arrived on the scene. Yuzuha and Yoshio.

"Mother?" Kaoru cried at the same time as Kyoya snarled: "Father."

Both parents nodded at their corresponding child before smiling at the other. Then they both turned to stare at the blonde. "I'm very sorry, Suoh-san, but this is private business. Would you please leave?" Yoshio said, before turning back to his son, assuming (correctly) that Tamaki would leave them instantly, scared out of his mind. "We deemed it appropriate to temporarily allow Hikaru out of the hospital."

"WHAT? He's sprained his ankle! Surely he should at least be in a wheel chair?" Kyoya said, wondering what kind of doctor his father was to be allowing patients out of their beds just hours after they'd been diagnosed.

"I'm fine, Kyoya." Hikaru said pointedly, not looking at the older boy but instead at his brother.

"Fine." Kyoya said dismissively. "I'm sorry for worrying about you." He added, watching Hikaru growl and roll his eyes.

"Why are you here, Hikaru, mother? And Ootori-san too?"

"Although your brother put it rather… crudely… I have to say that I agree with Hikaru's earlier sentiment, Kaoru."

"What earlier sentiment?" Kaoru said hesitantly.

"From when we were talking on the phone." Yoshio replied, his eyes showing no remorse.

There was an awkward pause as Kaoru ran what he was about to say over in his head a couple of times.

"That I should 'fuck' Kyoya?" Kaoru spluttered. All attempts at modesty had failed so far, so now it was time for the blunt method.

"Well if that's what you so wish." Yoshio said, not breaking eye contact.

"But only AFTER your wedding day!" Yuzuha piped.

There was a silence as Kaoru radiated disbelief for a while, only to be broken by a certain twin's laughter. "What do you want now, Hikaru?" Kaoru sighed.

Shaking uncontrollably, Hikaru pointed a finger at Kyoya.

Who was as red as a ripe strawberry and staring determinedly blankly out of the furthest window.

"Oh my! Kyoya-kun, are you alright?" Yuzuha asked, placing her hand on his forehead, checking his temperature against her own.

Somewhere along the line, Kyoya had managed to sit back down, but shocked by the sudden coolness against his forehead, Kyoya recoiled, and in doing so, managed to knock over not only his, but everybody else's complementary drinks. As the six glasses collided with the rich wooden table, there was a great clatter. He winced as icy water splashed all over him and started to drip down his shirt.

Thoroughly rejuvenated, he stared down at himself with disbelief. He was never clumsy. Ever. He was the 'cool' host. He didn't do clumsy. "Today really has NOT been great." He muttered, standing up. "S'cuse me. I'll just go and ask the waiter if they have any towels."

Kaoru made to go with him, but Kyoya held out a hand. "Don't worry, I'll be fine by myself." He whispered, ruffling the younger's hair. Although he felt guilty leaving Kaoru alone in the firing range of the dangerous trio, he really didn't think his mind could withstand being alone with the boy after only one sentence was left whirring around his head. He hurried off, spotting a waiter very soon.

Kaoru huffed and sat back down, not pleased at all by the abandonment. He looked up to see three pairs of glittering eyes staring back at him. He inched back as far as he could in his seat, feeling extremely horrified, vulnerable and all 'round uncomfortable.

"So?" Hikaru asked eagerly.

"So? So what?" Kaoru asked in reply, considerably less eagerly. In fact, not eagerly at all.

"So…" Hikaru grinned, "how far HAVE you got with him?"

Kaoru banged his fist gently on the table. "Is that the ONLY thing you EVER have on your mind? How many times have you asked me already?"

All three of them simply grinned at him with varying degrees of cockiness, humour and pure evilness.

"I'm not telling you!" Kaoru said, exasperated.

"Pity me, I'm disabled?" Hikaru said, pouting pleadingly.

"I'll fucking kick your ankle if you pull out the disability badge on me, brother."

"Oh really now?"

"Just. Fucking. Dare. Me."

"I da-" Hikaru stopped as he was whacked around the head. "Ow!" He yelped, turning to face his attacker. "Oh wow, Kyoya you're looking mighty fine"

"None of the waiters had a spare shirt." Kyoya growled, sitting down. "They only had a waistcoat."

"I'm certainly not complaining." Kaoru said, staring and making no effort to hide it. Kyoya's quite thin body and definitely defined upper body muscles were displayed, the waistcoat too small to be buttoned up, and only serving to hide a very small amount of his front, more a token piece of cloth than being of any actual help.

Kyoya blushed again, trying to pull the scrap of cloth further around his body. "Right. Well. It's been great. Really it has. But can we go now? I'm starting to feel slightly uncomfortable. And although I have to admit that I am mightily handsome, I'd appreciate it if I could keep some of my modesty intact."

"No."

"Father. Please."

"No, Kyoya. You're not escaping this time."

"Escaping? Escaping? I don't understand what you want from us anymore. Only an hour ago, I thought I was going to be on a date with Kaoru. And then I'm told that he's my fiancé? And then that all of the plans I've made, all of the work I've put into building up a future for myself that doesn't involve being moulded into the submissive 'third son' you've always wanted me as, have to be completely crushed because, guess what, I have no chance of ever achieving it! So I agreed. I submitted. We agreed. WE submitted." He paused for a breath. "We listened to you after you listened in on us. There is no escaping from you, and you know it! So will you PLEASE just let us have some time ALONE in which we won't be spied on, taunted, teased and generally MADE FUN OF?"

Yoshio grinned. "That's the attitude you need." He stood up, as did Yuzuha who helped up Hikaru. All three of them bowed their heads slightly at the two stunned boys. "Excuse us." He said, before leading the strange party out of the doors.

Only after he was no longer able to see his father anymore did Kyoya slowly turn to face Kaoru. "I think… I think…" He tried clearing his throat, but still no words came out.

Kaoru shrugged, dumbfounded. His hand automatically rose up the back of his head and he rubbed his scar. "What just happened?"

"What, indeed." Kyoya sighed.

"What do we do now?"

"I haven't the faintest."

A/N: I'm thinking that I may have to wrap this story up in the near future, because it's getting to the point where I'm constantly struggling to write new chapters…. Hm… I have a couple of ideas of how to continue from here, and I think I have the ending worked out.