CHAPTER 35

Haruhi feels protective of her friends.

It is unfortunate that Kaoru and Kyouya-san, both intensely private people, have been pushed to this stage in front of an audience. They stand there numbly, making Haruhi regret not giving them advanced warning that their neighbours, especially the bookshop owner with a fetish for yaoi, have long taken an interest in the interrelationships of Antique's members.

In Renge-san's words, there's something fishy about several single beautiful people (a while ago it had been 'beautiful men', since Renge-san apparently only realized Haruhi's biological sex when Haruhi went back to a more respectable manner of dress after Tamaki-san came to the country) working in a cake shop for such long hours together.

And then, Tamaki-san reminds her of why she can always count on him.

She sees it: the deliberate crook of his wrist that upsets the serving tray he's carrying.

Silver tray, priceless antique jasperware of various magnificent hues, tea, coffee, sugar cubes, milk, luxury cutlery and meticulously crafted edible masterpieces all come tumbling down to the polished wood floor in a splendid cacophony.

Tamaki-san gasps, suitably horrified.

Haruhi, typically not fond of making a scene, is going to make one on purpose.

"Tamaki-san!" she cries in dismay. Actually, she really is – at this rate, she and Tamaki-san will be giving Kyouya-san their firstborn.

"I'm sorry!" her boyfriend howls. "I scalded my fingers on the pot! Kyouya, please don't kill me!"

Kyouya-san barely reacts, much less looks like he's going to murder anyone. He doesn't seem to register that Tamaki-san is giving him the opportunity to haul him into the kitchen to 'discipline his employee in private'.

Remarkably quick on the uptake, Hikaru leaps into the fray too. "Seriously, you're the only person on earth who goes bankrupt from working! Kaoru, come on – no, you stay here, we'll get the mop to clean it up! Haruhi, make a list of the broken items for Kyouya-san."

He steers Kaoru away masterfully while Tamaki-san continues bawling in the background about paying off his debt with blood, sweat and tears; Haruhi begins to catalogue, louder than necessary, the victims of her boyfriend's blunder for Kyouya-san to record mechanically.

All in all, in Haruhi's opinion, they are being wonderfully distracting.

Fuyumi-san realises that she has done her brother a disservice and attempts to help, and that's when things go even more terribly wrong.

She had stood up from her table to express her kind compassion to Tamaki-san – who's still hogging the spotlight admirably – and in doing so she rounds the decorative bookcase partitioner and catches sight of the three gentlemen in suits that the staff have befriended.

Her face darkens at once – never has she looked so fearsome and so much like Kyouya-san's sister.

"Come with me, Kyouya-san," she orders in a voice of steel that is apparently a family trademark.

Kyouya-san snaps his head up, visibly thrown. "Fuyumi-neesan?"

"Let's go. At once." She retrieves her handbag hurriedly.

"Why? What's wrong?" Tamaki-san asks, laying off the task of gathering up the shards.

"Where are we going?"

Fuyumi-san takes hold of his arm without explaining further.

"Neesan, I can't leave during opening hours." Kyouya-san resists her dragging.

The three gentlemen in suits have risen to their feet. "Fuyumi-sama."

She turns to them, eyes flashing angrily. "You have no right to be in this shop. How dare you show your faces?"

At the commotion, Hikaru and Kaoru dash out from the kitchen. The customers and staff are following the proceedings like spectators of a tennis match, their heads going back and forth between the parties.

"Fuyumi-sama, we mean no har – "

"Silence yourselves. Hurry up, Kyouya-san."

"Wha – Fuyumi-san! What's going on?!" the twins question fretfully.

"Kyouya-san, let's go!"

"Fuyumi-sama, we have not said anything – "

"Hotta-san, you know Fuyumi-san?" Kaoru darts forward to hold on to Kyouya-san's other hand to stop her from pulling him away.

Distraught, Hikaru adds, "Fuyumi-san, they've never caused any trouble!"

"Said what to me? Do you have something to say to me?" Kyouya-san asks those three directly.

Haruhi startles at the sound of someone speaking into her ear. She had not noticed Tamaki-san coming up behind her. He says her name once and moves over to Fuyumi-san, where he tries to extricate her from Kyouya-san. Haruhi understands the message; she assists her boyfriend in his endeavor, and though Fuyumi-san struggles against them, eventually they uproot her from the shop and leave with her instead, trusting that the twins will update them when they return.

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19/06/2012