Mother in Heaven…. I seem to have found myself in another strange place…
Haruhi lifted her head off the pillow and found herself staring out of a large bay window. Outside, tree branches were tapping on the glass, barely obscuring the cityscape of Paris.
I thought you could see the Eiffel Tower from everywhere… Haruhi laughed to herself. Isn't that the kind of thing Tama thought about Mt. Fuji when he came to Tokyo? After much internal monologging, she on jetlag being the culprit to such a childish thought.
She shifted her leg and hit something warm and soft. Oh. Slowly she turned around towards the other half of the bed. Lying there with his mouth agape, drooling slightly, and his arms wrapped around a pillow, was Tamaki.
Oh. She felt herself blushing. How could she have possibly turned down Anne Sophie when it was told to her that they would be sharing a room on the duration of their trip.
" I figured a loving couple would like to sleep together, non?" Anne Sophie had explained upon directing them to their room. Of course, Tamaki was ecstatic. It had been such a long trip, and the thought of already causing a faux pas at the de Grantaine's seemed not worth the fight. She couldn't help but also feel a bit excited about the prospect of being a, well, real couple. So much time in Boston was spent studying that Haruhi had to admit that she often left her relationship to the wayside…
She watched Tamaki for a bit longer; he had begun to make a sigh-like snore. She reached out her hand and brushed some of his hair out of his eyes. Even in this new place, with all of his family now watching, Tamaki seemed so proud to be by her, even though she knew nothing of this silly rich person world…
Yeah, I guess this isn't so bad after all.
Tamaki shuffled his feet a bit, then blinked his eyes open at her. A lazy, half-asleep smile drifted onto his face, as he reached out his hand to grab hers.
"Haru, darling, you are awake." He beckoned her close and she timidly followed his gesture to lay down beside him, taking the place of the pillow he had been spooning moments ago. He wrapped his arms around her body and placed his chin into the nape of her neck so she could feel his slow, deep breaths on her skin.
"How is my Haruhi this morning?" Taking note of how surprisingly un-idiotic he sounded being this romantic, she sunk into his chest and closed her eyes to feel his heartbeat on her back. This is nice…why did I not want to do this more often.
They only slept together a couple of times in Boston— once or twice because of a thundershower that hit overnight, and another, because in a moment of weakness perhaps, Haruhi finally gave in to the need to be close to him in such an intimate way. He never pushed her to do anything, though he would tease. She went at her own pace, and though she could tell he was restraining himself, he seemed happy to follow her lead. She would never admit it, but all those times she had felt a stirring in her that she had never felt before. It was a weird sensation— to want to feel as close to someone else than you had ever felt before. Even closer than laying together in bed..
The smell of coffee. Her eyes blinked back open and she slowly lifted herself up from Tamaki's hold. He quickly shifted in his sleep to draping his long arms around her waist as she sat up and realized that they were probably sleeping in to late.
She carefully removed Tamaki's arms from her, and pulled herself out of bed. Quietly, she put on the first thing she grabbed out of her bag, and padded down the hall searching for the kitchen or wherever there could possibly be breakfast waiting.
The apartment was considered "small" by Ouran standards, but in Paris this was real estate only the elite could afford. 3 floors, in one of the oldest districts of the city— though Haruhi was caught off guard by how humble the decor was. Instead of the galant display of wealth of the Host club's family estates and Ouran itself, it seemed Anne Sophie had an eye for a more subtle artistic flair. Still, being in a home with original Mucha paintings seemed a bit daunting.
Wandering down, following her nose, Haruhi stopped abruptly as she heard a voice speaking just farther along the hall. She started to move slower; something about running into someone in a house she didn't know and in a country she had never been to seemed weirdly scary to her. She noted to herself that maybe she was getting some sort of onset social anxiety finally after a 2 years of dealing with people who were nothing like her.
She crept closer and realized the smell of coffee had been wafting from the same room that she had heard the voice. As she got closer, she could see through the crack of the opened door that it was Anne-Sophie. She was still in bed, but was reclining up out of the covers. In front of her was a plate of bread that she was picking pieces of to then swab with butter and jam before eating. Her head was tilted to the side to hold a phone to her ear— for someone so sickly and being Tamaki's mother she seemed to have so much youth in her. She made a tinkling laugh and continued to speak, "Ah, non, je ne sais pais quel temps…Tama-euhh, Rene excuse-moi, et il petite copaine, Haruhi.."
Despite trying to stay as quiet as possible, somehow Anne-Sophie had sensed her there. She licked her fingers that had been disposed of jam and butter, and took the phone from her ear to peer towards Haruhi's hiding place in the hall.
"Allo? Ah, Haruhi, please, come in!," She shifted herself to one side of the bed along with her breakfast, and patted the now empty spot beside her.
"Please, join me. I would take my calls in the sitting room— but I'm just so used to being cosy here in the mornings!"
Haruhi timidly walked between the doors as Anne Sophie bid adieu to whoever she was speaking to. It felt so strange, crawling into bed with a strange woman like this, but yet, she looked so much like Tamaki; had such an energetic quality to her— was this the same feeling she had when she spent so many times with her own mother?
"Ahhh, I am glad you are awake! Did you sleep well?" Anne- Sophie pulled a pot of coffee from her bedside table and filled her own cup, but handed it to Haruhi.
"There, please, to save the trouble of walking to the kitchen. My germs are harmless." She offered the rest of her breakfast as well, which… seemed weird. Weren't there supposed to be waiters? To be everything at an arms length for rich people? If this had been Kyoya's home, they would have killed someone before sharing a cup of coffee.
"Ren—Tamaki says you are not so much like the people he school's with. The more I hear about you, the more I like you. He tells me you are, how do I say…humble."
" A Commoner." Haruhi says as she hides her face behind the cup.
"Commoner? I don't know this word." Anne Sophie frowns, you can tell by her eyes she truly thinks she has offended.
" Poor! I'm poor. But I don't think that's what you meant in either respect— You were giving me a compliment and I completely ruined it."
Anne Sophie bursts into laughter, nearly overturning the breakfast on the bed and splashing Haruhi's coffee out of her cup.
"Pauvre! Dieu! Who could ever care about silly things like that!"
It seemed like nothing could surprise Haruhi anymore, but this took her aback. After a year of only hearing about her social status, how her relationship with Tamaki might not be "good for business," all the gossip about gold digging… to have his own mother not care? It was the opposite she had assumed.
" You looked surprised." Anne Sophie might as well have been a mind reader.
" Ah, uhm.. I mean, yeah. I guess I'm used to social status being a big deal. I mean, I don't care, but it seems like I'm a minority when it comes to Tamaki's future, or even just girlfriend."
" Ohh, but you came to the right place then!" Anne Sophie winked. " Not to stereotype, but we French will die for love— just look at what love sowed for me: an already married man from a far off country… I should have never even blinked an eye. Yet, love is love, and Yuzuru loved me too, and here we are with a beautiful son. How could I regret those things now? The path love took me?"
Haruhi stared at Anne Sophie for maybe too long.
"You…you are Tamaki's mother." Haruhi and Anne Sophie laughed together.
Anne Sophie sighed, look the cup from Haruhi's hand and took a small sip.
" Oh, upon further thought, please don't be upset if I mistook a boundary by putting you both in the same room. I jus—-
" Its perfectly fine." Haruhi smiled. "In fact, weirdly enough, maybe this trip is what we needed all along."
Before she knew it, Anne Sophie had reached out her arms and pulled Haruhi towards her. Neither of them spoke.
Mother in heaven. You will never be replaced. But I found a mom too, who I think I am willing to love. And I think you would love her too.