This is Our Music Room 3
Prologue
Grief was an interesting concept. It comes in stages, they told him. They said he was in denial.
"You poor thing" they said, after he finished shaking his head, when they told him they were dead.
But it wasn't that he didn't believe them. He smelt the smoke. He saw the flames burst through the windows. He watched as the ceiling caved in. His club room was on fire, and he knew they were trapped inside.
He knew they were gone, so denial wasn't what he was feeling. Somehow he knew denial would have given him more comfort, but he wasn't allowed that luxury. No. What he felt was something that started somewhere much deeper inside his heart. It was meaner. Ugler. This feeling made his stomach hurt. He was angry because this was unfair. Why didn't they let him save them? He probably could have. Why did they hold him back?
The sound he made hurt his own ears, when he watched the roof collapse and the chairman, his father, had to hold him with both arms bound around his chest to stop him from bolting towards the flames.
Where was Kyoya? The twins? Hikaru? Kaoru? Did they make it outside? Takashi and Mitsukuni were fast, but no one had seen them in hours, and they didn't come when he called for them.
"Stop! They're still inside!" he must have looked like an animal, trying to pry himself loose, "They need help. Please. I need- let go! I need them. Let go! They're gonna die."
It was unfair, so that feeling? it wasn't denial. He just wouldn't accept it. God told him they were gone, and he said "No." He wasn't crazy, but something came up. They had condemned the south win last year, and now, they wanted to tear it down, rebuild, and he wouldn't let them. He said his friends were inside that room. That worried his father, and they had him sent away.
His therapist asked him, with caution in her voice, "Tamaki, your friends, are they with you now? Do you hear them? Do they talk to you?"
No. That's impossible. Did they think he'd lost his mind?
"They're gone," he said, like he'd done, over and over since then. Did they want him to lie? Fine. He would lie, until eventually, the doctors deemed him "normal" whatever that meant, and he was allowed back to school.
Grief is what his classmates said, in careless whispers around the school. Tamaki must still be grieving. Which must be why the Chairmen took pity on his son, and considered the hallway, down north corridor, of the South wing, condemned, but off limits.
"Neh, Milord. Where have you been? The guests will arrive soon, stupid."
Tamaki smiled, carefully shutting the door behind himself, as the twins looked up from their card game.
"You know what they say, A king is never late," he chirped, and Hikaru immediately rolled his eyes, "everyone else is just early."
"Whatever," Kaoru boo'ed him, stupid king. Where was a rotten tomato when you needed one? "Just get Kyoya-senpai off our backs would'ya? Somethin' about the budget for the luau. Said we splurged. Go deal with it."
He knew he'd say that. It was like clock work. And when he'd join Kyoya at the table, Kyoya will tell him the twins spent most of their savings on a dolphin, and a pool, for their new dolphin.
Tamaki shrugged, used to it by now. "If you insist."