"Kyoya-kun!"

The third born Ootori had been walking down the hallway of Ouran Academy when a slender hand reached out from around a corner and grabbed the front of his school blue blazer and white shirt. Before he could even react to this sudden action, he was being pulled around the corner by the slender hand. His glasses slipped down his nose and he moved to push them back to their rightful place.

"Kyoya."

This time he could place the voice. "Matsuri?" he questioned, as he brushed the wrinkles out of his shirt and blazer. "What are you doing?"

Without speaking, she pushed a piece of paper into his hands.

Kinjo-san,

We would be most honored if you would come and speak with us today at 12:15 pm in the 1A literature classroom. If you accept, please send the attached acceptance card with one of our student representatives located in the library, dining hall, and front entrance way of the school before eleven am.

Thank you,

Representatives of Ouran University

Kyoya glanced down at his watch, 10:45. He then looked at her for the first time since she'd pulled him into the hall. She looked fine, her dress was wrinkle free and her dark hair was pulled back into a perfect braid. However, it was her eyes that looked a little frantic. "Matsuri?"

"I don't want to talk to them," she told him, leaning against the wall across from him.

Kyoya rolled his gray eyes and sighed, he had not time for her tomfoolery today. He then pulled the attached acceptance card from the note she handed him. After reading over it, to ensure that he wasn't committing her to anything, he took a pen from his shirt pocket and signed her name on it. "I don't believe that you have a choice," he told her as he left the hall she had pulled him down.

Startled by his actions, she stood still for a moment confused as to what happened. Had he just... Matsuri pushed away from the wall she was on before chasing him down the hall. When she caught up with him, he was walking with his hands folded behind his back, her acceptance card pinched between his index and middle finger. "Kyoya-kun!" she hissed and she ran up to him, the honorific a complete afterthought, reaching for her card to take it from him. "Kyoya. I don't want to talk to them!" She reached for him again only to have him move his hand just slightly out of her reach without turning to look at her.

"Matsuri," he said, stopping and turning to face her. She'd made a motion to reach for the card as he turned and she ran face first into his chest. Rubbing her nose with her palm, she took a step back from him. "You're being ridiculous." Her pink lips formed a pout as she dropped her hand from her nose. "You are. Instead of hiding around dark corners," he gestured towards the space that they had just come from, "you're going to go and talk to these representatives and you are going to hear them out. You are not going to do this, Matsuri. You're second in class, an athlete, incredibly talented, and come from an extremely well-off family. You are not going to play the scared little girl because that's not who you are. So, if you are going to play around, I will take this to the representative."

Matsuri reached behind him and took, snatched really, the card, exhaling. "I'll take it." The dark-haired girl walked away from him and towards the entrance of the library. Once she got to the library door, she reached out to twist the door knob. However, she froze, her fingers twitching over the door. After a slow inhale, she twisted open the door and walked in. The Ouran University student rep was easily located. With no conversation, she handed the rep the card and left.

"Painless?" his smooth tenor questioned as he fell into step with her when she left the room. When she didn't reply, just folded her arms across her chest, he groaned audibly. How could she be upset with him? "Matsuri. You were being silly."

"Kyoya," she said quietly.

"You can't hide from things and just hope they will go away. It doesn't work that way. You have to face things," he continued as if she had not said a thing.

"Kyoya," she said a bit louder.

"- head on. Otherwise, you'll just-"

"Kyoya!" she half-shouted. He turned his gray eyes down to her, surprised that she was raising her voice at him. "Thank you," she said reaching over and giving his hand a soft squeeze. "I can always count on you to tell me when I'm being, what was it, ridiculous."

Kyoya stood dumbstruck. "You're welcome?" he said carefully. "Wait; you wanted me to-"

"I didn't want you to sign my paper, that was a little much, but I did want you to tell me I was being ridiculous, well, I would have said silly but it's all the same," she answered. "Like I said, thank you."


Of course, the calm that Kyoya had bestowed upon her did not last until her interview with the representatives. It started with a creeping sensation in her mathematics course, one that started in her toes as a sort of gnawing feeling and slowly made its way up to her fingertips until her hands were shaking. So much so that, Ami reached across the aisle and placed her hand on hers to keep it from shaking. Her attempt was in vain, because as soon as Ami released her, Matsuri's hand started to shake.

Halfway through the class, she had to stop taking notes because they had become all but indecipherable. Instead, she sat with her pen in her hand, nervously tapping it against the paper, causing plenty of darkly colored dots on her the corner of her paper, and looking blankly at the board. Suddenly, something fell onto her desk, a half-folded paper.

Calm down.

Matsuri looked up towards Kyoya, who was sitting three seats in front of her and a row to her left. His back was turned to her and he was diligently taking notes.

I am calm.

Matsuri placed the note on Ami's desk and watched it as it made its way up two seats and watched it fall on Kyoya's desk. His eyes fell on the note, but he never stopped writing as he flipped the note open with one hand. It was then that he looked away from his notes and over his shoulder at her with an accusatory glare in his eye. He simply held open the note so she could see her handwriting. Normally, her characters had her signature feminine touch to them, however, today they were sloppy and totally illegible. She frowned and looked down at her notes and Kyoya took that as a sign that she understood and turned back to his notes.

After class, Kyoya placed his hands on her desk, flipping her notebook shut. Matsuri looked up at his towering form, frowning. The light on his glasses kept her from seeing his eyes but she was sure that his gaze was disapproving. "Do you need me to tell you that you are being ridiculous again?" he said as he watched her push her notebook into her bag when she had completed her task he reached down and shouldered her bag.

"No," she huffed. "No, I'm fine." Kyoya reached over and grabbed her hand, his fingers lacing with hers for a moment. It was then that she noticed that her hand had started to shake again. "Ugh!" she exclaimed in frustration. The fact that she couldn't keep her hand from shaking was driving her insane. She had never been this nervous about anything.

Kyoya pulled her out of her chair and led her out of the room. They were silent as they walked down the hall, Matsuri's hand shaking in his, although their fingers were no longer laced together. Kyoya pushed open the door of Music Room #3 and tugged her into the room, before shutting the door behind her. He dropped her bag on the floor and turned to her, taking her face in his hand.

"Matsuri. You need to calm down," he told her, his gray eyes finding her brown ones. "Hey."

"I'm trying!" she said exasperatedly.

Kyoya glanced down at his watch and exhaled. He released his grip on her face and took a step away from. "What do you need, Matsuri?" she questioned, his logic taking over again. "What will help you calm down?"

"I don't know," she said waving her hands around frantically. "I'm just nervous."

Kyoya walked away from her, pushing his hands into his pockets. Matsuri's eyes tracked him as he moved, inhaling and exhaling in a tempo that made her heart pound in her chest. He then shifted his hands from his pockets to folded behind his back as he moved around the room and she watched, standing with her hands fisted in the fluffy fabric of her yellow dress. He stopped in front of a piano, leaning against it and pushing his glasses up his nose.

"Has that-"

"-always been here?" he finished for her. "Well, it is a music room, isn't it?" He gestured for her to come to him, and after a moment of hesitation, she obeyed. Instead of standing next to him, she flopped down on the piano bench and placed her elbows on the keys, causing a tasteless dissonant chord. Kyoya flinched. "You are being very dramatic," he told her as he pushed her elbows off the keys and lowered the lid. "Yen for your thoughts?" he questioned.

Matsuri offered a half-hearted chuckle at the words he uttered. "I've told you already," she offered. "They can only have bad news for me. 'Sorry, Kinjo-san, while your playing is decent, you are a liability'," she said in her best impression of an Ouran University Representative.

"One time, Matsuri?"

"A first impression can last a lifetime," she mused, hanging her head.

Kyoya rolled his gray eyes at her, scoffing. He reached over and pulled her up from the bench. "Am I going to have to drag you down the hall again?"

Matsuri shook his grasp, sighing and pushing a piece of stray hair from her eyes. "No," she whined. "No. I'm going to go. I am. I just am not in a mood to receive bad news. "

"So pessimistic," he said.

Matsuri gasped loudly, her eyes wide with some form of amused irritation. "You're calling me pessimistic? You!? You are calling me a pessimist?"

"I am a realist, Matsuri."

"Well, Realist Ootori Kyoya, please tell me what they might have to say. Realistically."

"They could be calling you in to offer you a spot on the team, saying that your playing was superb despite your recklessness. Not to mention that your grades are great," he told her.

"Or..." she pushed.

Kyoya pushed away from the piano. "Or you could be right and they have called you into the room to laugh at you and deny you. The likelihood of that scenario happening is very low." She looked as if she wanted to say something and to let her know that he didn't want to hear it he started back towards her backpack and held it out to her. "Come on, Suri, be reasonable and less pessimistic, if you will."

"Fine!" she exclaimed as she brushed the wrinkles out of her skirt and tucked that loose strand of hair behind her ear. "I will go," she marched over to him and snagged her bag from his hand and tossed it onto her back, "to this meeting and talk to the representatives and if they say anything like what I said, you have to tell me that I'm right and you're wrong."

With that, she pulled the door open and looked over her shoulder at him. "Go or you'll be late," he said, shooing her away. She glanced at the clock in the hallway and gasped, not realizing that it was that late. Without so much as a goodbye to Kyoya, she turned and ran down the hall. "That a girl," Kyoya muttered, as he left the room walking in the opposite direction that she'd just run off in.


Kinjo Matsuri knocked on the 1A literature classroom door at 12:14 pm. After knocking, she took a half a second to adjust herself. After running down the hall, only stopping to get water at the fountain around the corner, she had come to a frantic stop in front of the door. This door. She tucked her hair behind her ear and rubbing her forehead on the inner part of her sleeve to remove any sweat from her forehead.

"Come in."

Matsuri reached for the doorknob and once again, her hand froze over the doorknob. This time, Kyoya's intense gray eyes weren't on her, pushing her to enter the room. Instead, she had to find something within herself. She had to push herself. So, she did, wrapped her fingers around the doorknob and twisted it open.

"Kinjo-san?"

"Yes." The raven-haired girl said with a low bow.

"I am Ono Haru, the head of the human sciences faculty and this is Takana Airi, the head women's tennis coach at Ouran University," the man, Ono-Sensei, introduced. The woman next to him offered Matsuri a soft smile and gestured to the single seat on the opposite side of the table.

"How are you, Kinjo-san?" Takana-sensei asked her.

"Well," Matsuri answered immediately, not giving herself any time to hesitate or over think. "Yourself?"

"I am doing the same," she replied.

"Kinjo-san, let's get started, shall we?" Ono-sensei said, interrupting them as he opened a folder in front of him. Takana-sensei tilted her head to the man with a smile. "Your grades throughout your time at Ouran have been," he paused looking for a word. In that moment, it was clear to her that this man was not one to give praise. "Acceptable," was the word he settled on. "You have recently become second in your class." When he lifted his eyes to her, she nodded acknowledging his statement as correct. "The recommendations from your teachers here are adequate. They all say that you are a hardworking and personable student; that you are able to face challenges with great flexibility." He looked away from the papers in front of him and towards Matsuri. "Based on this, you are a fit for Ouran University. Congratulations. Tanaka-san."

"Yes," the woman looked down at the papers in front of her. "You have been playing tennis for Ouran Academy since your middle school years. You were on the club team and upon reaching your first year of high school, you were placed on the competitive team. This year was your first year as a captain, yes?" Matsuri nodded. "Your Sensei sent a raving recommendation." Takana-sensei held up two pages stapled together in her Sensei's handwriting. Matsuri could only make out a few words but from what she could see Takana told the truth. The woman lowered the paper and folded her hands on top of it. "Your teammates also hold you in a high light. They say you are a strong leader, that knows when to push and when to let go; the difference between work and play. As you know, we watched one of your matches."

"I was ill," Matsuri countered before the Sensei could say anything about the match. "I should have sat the-"

"During the match, we saw, the current captain and I, a determined player. One with a fiery look in her eyes. A player with superb technique and quick footwork. A player that is calm on the court even in the face of great trial. The Ouran University Women's Tennis team is more than happy to offer you a position on the team."

Matsuri blinked rapidly, confused. "You are?"

"We are. Miwa-chan, could you come in?"

The door behind her creaked open and Matsuri turned over her shoulder to see the person who entered. A tall woman with short red hair. A woman that looked most familiar to her.

"Miwa-senpai!" Matsuri said happily as she pushed away from the table, standing to hug the older girl.

"You know, when I saw you playing, I couldn't believe that I had trained such a reckless girl. You are such a calm person, Matsuri-kun that it was quite amusing to see you in such a state. I insisted that you be offered a position on the team, not because I trained and perfected your spin shot, but because it's rare to see a player with such passion," Miwa told her. "Do you accept?"


"Kyoya-kun!" Matsuri whisper-shouted as she half-ran into the dining hall, again the honorific was a complete afterthought. "Kyoya-kun!" She spotted him at his usual table, sitting next to Tamaki and writing something down in his notepad. Leave it to Tamaki to make Kyoya work through his lunch period. Haruhi and the twins were sitting on the opposite side of the table, watching the scene before them. She approached the table, placing her hands on it loudly. "Kyoya."

The glasses wearing boy looked up from his notepad and to Matsuri, who had an incredibly giddy look on her face. The first smile that he'd seen on her face all day. "Painless?" he asked, echoing his phrase from earlier, a smirk on his lips.

Matsuri laughed and sat across from him. "Completely."

"Did you accept?" he asked, pushing a lunch tray towards her.

The thought to thank him for getting her lunch didn't cross her mind, and he didn't seem the least bit upset that she didn't. She opened her strawberry flavored Ramune and smiled. "Yes."


A/N: Here's another chapter for you all! I hope you enjoyed it. I just have a couple of things to say. So firstly, the next chapter addresses Haruhi and her schooling. If you are familiar with the manga, then you know what I mean, if not you'll just have to wait and see. So, for those familiar with the manga, I have taken creative license over that. It's not a big change or anything like that, I will stay true to the plot of the last few chapters of the manga, but the story is about Matsuri, so I had to throw her into the fray. So just be on your toes about it. Secondly, I assume everyone has enjoyed these past few Matsoya/Kysuri (I have a ship name for the because let's be honest, they're my OTP) centric chapters. I really love writing them, because they are so different but similar at the same time. This next chapter will take a break from that and is Haruhi/Matsuri based, but after then we go to Disney! Okay, leave me a review and tell me how much you love Kysuri (that's my favorite).