Section 38: Gifts that Keep On Giving
They had agreed to meet up the day following Christmas, no doubt because Thomas had foolishly bought presents for everyone and wished to distribute them as close to the actual holiday as he could manage. But the arrangement worked fine for everyone else, Kyle included. He was actually looking forward to the day with much anticipation, when suddenly, before he'd quite prepared himself, the day came.
Kyle usually made it a point to arrive first. Thomas was his best friend, after all. He considered it his place to help set things up for the rest of the club as if they were his guests as well. Today was different. He purposefully waited a full half hour past the time he would usually leave before gathering up various parcels into a large gift bag and disembarking for Tom's house.
His timing had been well planned. He was the last person to arrive, quietly slipping through the door and being noticed only by Thomas, who nodded at him, and Regina, who merely pursed her lips testily at his tardiness. Kyle gave her and impudent grin, set his bag on the floor, and joined the others.
It was clear from the decorations strewn about the room that Christmas was the Smith's favorite holiday. It being only a day since Christmas passed, their great tree was still standing in a place of honor near the sofa where Thomas, Freya, and Regina were sitting. The fir tree was strewn with white lights that blazed brightly despite the sunlight pouring in from the windows, and it was this light that played on the faces of Henry, Hilary, Keith, and Tyler as they sat on the ground, surrounded by various brightly wrapped packages. Michael sat slightly removed from the general group in an arm chair, curled up and intently focused a new game, recently acquired as a Christmas present from his parents.
"Hurry and join us, Kyle!" Thomas called cheerfully, "We're just waiting on you! I bought presents for everyone."
Kyle smiled at his friend's predictability and wordlessly sat in the only remaining arm chair.
"So we can open these things now?" Tyler asked, "I want to know what's in it!"
"Hold it right there!" Regina demanded. She stalled not only Tyler but the twins as well from grasping their gifts with greedy, outstretched hands, "I don't know about you all but I didn't just come here today to exchange gifts and drink eggnog!"
"There's eggnog?" Henry asked.
"I hate eggnog," Tyler stated.
"What is it you were expecting, Regina?" Keith finished, shaking his head at Tyler and his brother alike.
"Practice. This is a club meeting, is it not? So I propose exchanging gifts in character."
"That's a great idea!" said Thomas, "that way we have some experience interacting with each other, not just the fans."
"Precisely," Regina replied, though she was looking at Kyle rather than Thomas, "And I fully expect everyone to be in character. No excuses this time."
Kyle offered her his most endearing smile, "Oh? Are you looking at me, Regina? Don't worry I'm prepared this time."
He was conscious of Thomas glancing between himself and Regina, a concerned expression on his face, but he refused to look at him. He continued to focus on Regina, who was smiling now that her challenge had been accepted.
"Good! Then Hilary and I will both be playing the part of guests today. The rest of you already know your roles. Just think of this as another Host Club event. And stay in character!"
"Wait, are we starting now?" Tyler asked as Thomas handed him a present.
Regina rolled her eyes, "Yes, Mori-sempai, we're starting now."
"Oh!" Tyler smiled, then recalled himself and tried not to smile, kept smiling, and finally suppressed his amusement enough to assume a sober expression, though his eyes were still dancing with mirth.
"Then I would like to begin by passing out my gifts for everyone!" Thomas exclaimed, hardly needing to act in order to participate in Tamaki's characteristic flamboyance. He quickly dispersed several packages of rather large size to each of the so-called host club members. "And wait a moment," he commanded before Michael and Henry could hastily tear apart the wrapping, "You ought to all open them together."
Obediently, the hosts waited until their King counted to three, then they all began unwrapping their presents at the same time. They probably could have finished simultaneously as well, but what with Henry, Tyler, and Michael all savagely ripping apart the wrapping paper, Kyle slowly pulling apart the tape and folding the paper up, and Freya falling somewhere in between with Keith, they ended up finishing at rather odd intervals. One by one the hosts pulled out their gifts. Each had been given an Ouran Academy uniform.
"They're finished!" Thomas declared when he saw the questioning glances of a few of his hosts, "And that's a complete package for each of you! Shirt, pants, jacket, and tie! I even managed a few sweater vests in my spare time. You know, just in case we wanted to adopt the summer uniform at the con."
"It does get rather hot during the dances," Kyle said, nodding sagely. Then he noticed Regina was frowning.
"Gee, you really churned these out, didn't you Tom?" Henry was saying, then he also took notice of Regina's look and corrected himself, "I mean milord."
Hearing his bizarre title made Tom realize he was supposed to be acting as well, and he hurriedly turned to Freya, beseeching her approval above all others, "You do like it, don't you Haruhi? I know you can't afford the uniform on your own, so I thought you might like to accept this. I made it especially for you, a gift from this doting father to his daughter."
"What?" Freya said, inspecting Thomas's needlework, "You're not my dad."
Thomas behaved in the crushed manner such a blunt statement would be expected to illicit in him, but he was saved by Freya's next candid remark, "You did a nice job, though. I don't think I could sew as well."
Kyle smiled privately as he watched Thomas go into ecstasies over Freya's compliment. The others were also doing their job to stay in character while handing out gifts, and Kyle was pleased to see the frown fade from Regina's face. Still, she looked like she was growing restless.
"Tamaki," said Kyle, smoothly cutting into whatever foolishness he had been spouting to Freya, "I hope you haven't forgotten our guests?"
"Certainly not!" Thomas said with an enchanting smile and a toss of his fair hair. He bestowed upon Hilary and Regina a most princely smile and offered them each a small yellow box tied neatly with a blue ribbon, "For you, mademoiselles."
Hilary smiled more than Henry liked upon receiving the gift from Tom. He liked it even less when she opened the box and exhaled in awe.
"Oh it's… It's too much Tamaki!"
"For you, nothing is too much," Thomas replied, sliding onto the floor next to where Hilary was seated, successfully managing to invade her personal space. Henry wanted to strangle him.
Hilary continued to gaze at the gift - a beautiful silver bracelet adorned with a multitude of small, glittering gemstones. Surely it was costume jewelry, cubic zirconia… But then again this is exactly the sort of extravagance to be expected of Thomas, well known to have more money from his parents than he knew what to do with.
"I selected it to match the sparkle in your eyes," Thomas said tenderly, to which Henry snorted audibly and Keith snickered behind his hand.
"And why did you buy the gift for Miss Regina?" asked Henry contemptuously. Regina was still seated on the couch holding a delicate bottle of perfume in her hands and trying to watch everyone at the same time, "Are you trying to tell her she smells and had better cover it up?"
"How rude!" Thomas cried with indignation, "I bought it because the scent is reminiscent of my own natural fragrance, and I wanted her smell it and think of me as I often as I think of her!"
This was too much, and the twins fell into a fit of uproarious laughter. Kyle was amused as well, though his was more by the look on Regina's face than Thomas's words.
She was clearly torn between repulsion at being so referred to by a first cousin, and a desire to stay in character. Character won out, and she smiled at Thomas fondly, "Thank you so much, Tamaki. I shall cherish it."
She leveled her sights on Kyle then, and the frown reappeared. His moment had come.
"Miss Hilary," he began, choosing to lavish his attention on that girl rather than the expectant Regina, "Are the festivities to your liking?"
Hilary jumped, she had not expected to be addressed by Kyle so suddenly, "Oh, yes! I love Christmas don't you, Kyoya?"
"Yes I do," Kyle said with a soft smile, "Though I confess, I like it less for the presents and more for the general feeling of good-will and friendship of the season."
"O-Oh? Is that what you like? That's wonderful, Kyoya. It's too bad it can't be that way all year."
Kyle smirked, this was exactly what he wanted to hear.
"Yes…" he said, "It is a pity. We would be remiss if we took these precious moments for granted… Which is why I have prepared some exclusive photographs to commemorate the camaraderie of the season!"
With sudden flourish, Kyle produced a handful of photographs seemingly from nowhere and presented them fan-like to Hilary. The shiny images revealed themselves to be pictures taken at the playground when the group had their snowball fight.
"What the…?" began Henry, who was quickly joined by his brother in chiming, ""When did you take these?""
"When we were snowball fighting, of course," Kyle said simply, "And I got some pretty good shots, too."
"We can see that! But when did you have a camera? We… We never saw you taking any of these! And some of them are close ups!"
Kyle tacitly ignored them and focused on Hilary, "Supplies are limited. If you buy now I can throw in an extra print for every five you buy. Buy twenty and I'll even throw in a limited edition 'Ouran Calendar' for the new year."
""You made calendars?""
"When did he find the time?" Tyler asked Michael, who was unable to answer due to his state of shock.
"So what do you say, Miss Hilary?" Kyle asked, showing off his best salesman grin.
Hilary considered the photos he offered. They were very well done, and actually had the appearance of professional photo shoot. It was hard to believe they were all candid shots. Kyle was a diabolical genius.
"Well…" Hilary muttered, dropping character, "I think I would like a few… Of Thomas and… Maybe Henry?"
The boys in question caught each other's eye, then quickly looked away.
"Sold!" Kyle said, quickly pulling out a portfolio, again, seemingly from nowhere, and offering it to Hilary to peruse the entire selection.
"Hold it!" Tyler yelled, "You're not seriously going to sell those, are you? What's my cut?"
"Yeah!" Michael agreed, "It's gotta be somehow illegal you taking those and selling them without our permission!"
Kyle laughed at them, "Relax, I'm only playing the part. I actually have pictures for all of you. Consider them my Christmas gifts."
As he spoke, he reached for the gift bag and began pulling out wrapped packages. He handed them to Hilary and Regina in addition to each host.
Henry unwrapped his to find a picture of himself and his brother furiously throwing snowballs to whatever poor individual resided outside the frame. Keith's was similar, only Tyler also appeared in the shot, bravely taking a snowball in the chest to protect Michael. The brothers looked at each other and smiled, then quickly assumed identical expressions of disdain.
"Lame gift, Kyle," Henry said.
Keith nodded, "Kinda sentimental, don't you think? Couldn't you have gotten something a little more… pricey?"
"Sorry, but I'm not allowed to do much shopping nowadays." Kyle said, winking at Regina, "And don't even pretend you don't like that present, you ungrateful prick."
Rather than take this as an insult, the twins only laughed and debated which of them was the "prick." Kyle was pleased. It seemed his hard work had not gone to waste. Regina loved her gift, a rare group shot of the whole host club - minus Kyle - and even Freya seemed to enjoy her gift.
Only Thomas was silent while the others discussed their presents. He was staring at the photo Kyle had selected for him. It depicted himself and Freya, hand in hand as they had been when she led him to the safety of the tunnel. Freya was smiling, but Thomas couldn't help but notice the strange look on his own face. He didn't know how to describe the expression. He wondered what it was he had been feeling at the time the picture was taken…