Contrary to the belief of most, Tamaki wasn't entirely stupid.

He was eccentric, yes. What with his various schemes and crazy half-baked ideas that somehow (most probably due to the intervention of his more level-headed friends) almost always evolved into something quite fantastic, if he did say so himself.

Not to mention the sheer scale of his energy was nothing to laugh at either— in his exasperation, Kyoya often compared it to the unholiest of sugar rushes. And while that was all good and dandy, Tamaki also knew that his overzealous nature and reckless tendencies caused his friends no end of trouble.

But he liked to hope that he had his heart in the right place and that was what mattered the most, wasn't it?

If not, then he was pretty much doomed.

At least he had his dashing looks and charming personality to fall back on, if all else failed.

Still, he had a point amongst all the rambling, and the point was that he did in fact have a brain, to the surprise of many.

(Upon hearing the news, Hikaru and Kaoru had outright fainted from the shock.

Tamaki, with all seriousness, suggested throwing them in the pool.

Like the killjoy he was, Kyoya vetoed that particular idea in order to continue having a living, breathing best friend. The Twin's following revenge would be sweet and oh so satisfying— for them).

Along with a brain, surprisingly enough, Tamaki also had the marvellous wonder that was eyesight.

So the blond could quite easily see that it really wasn't Kyoya's proudest moment when his last two brain cells decided to abandon him, packing up and heading somewhere nice and toasty warm near the start of his Word-Vomit-Turned-Explanation / Half-Betrayal / Possibly-Full-Betrayal / Whatever-the-Hell-It-Was Fiasco.

Everyone emerged from that Hellish meeting drained.

(Thankfully, his darling Antoinette was more than willing to snuggle up with him, even if she gave him wet, slobbery kisses in return).

The following day was just plain unnerving.

A collective cloud of unease had settled over the Host club, who waited in tense anticipation for the ticking time bomb to detonate. All throughout the day they sat on edge, wondering what would be the single spark to set off the oncoming nuclear meltdown.

But neither Haruhi nor Kyoya seemed in any rush to continue their feud. For the most part, both parties kept their distance. Maybe that was what Tamaki found most unusual— the two had gone from close friends, to practically strangers in a single night. The air between them was stagnant and turbulent, filled with everything left unsaid, tainted by secrets and half-truths and little white lies.

Neither of them took the first crucial step to bridge the gap.

In fact, neither of them seemed to even acknowledge the gap was there in the first place, leaving the remaining hosts armed only with masking tape to try and repair that big, gaping creavess that had amassed between them.

For the most part, Tamaki let them be.

They strung thin sheets of paper over the cracks, and pretended like they weren't there.

But they were.

No amount of tissue paper could cover it up. They were exposed, vulnerable, raw flesh peeking out through not-so-perfectly cultivated facades. Kyoya was falling apart at the seams, haggard stitching loosening, that strong wall falling apart bit by bit, and all he could do was watch. Haruhi was no better; twitchy and flighty, she was so far from the confident girl the hosts were used to seeing.

Well, to Hell with that.

Like he was just going to sit around again.

Tamaki would trust Kyoya with his life. Willingly. Without question, or even the most fleeting of doubts. Tamaki would trust Kyoya, his best friend, his brother, with his life.

And there lies the problem.

Kyoya was by far the most self-sacrificing dumbass to exist on this goddamn planet. That moron would wholly and completely neglect himself for the sake of his friends, and Tamaki absolutely hated him for it.

So no.

No.

Those two needed to grow the hell up and learn to talk to each other rather than be shitty little five year olds all wrapped up in stupid mistakes. A group chat was made, hosting had officially been cancelled for the day, and the assigned members gathered in a somewhat nervous huddle in the safety of Music Room #3, decked out in appropriate spy gear.

"Are we all here?" Violet eyes panned the group, before giving a satisfied nod. "Good, then we shall begin. I've gathered us all here to discuss the present state of things between You-Know-Who. I think we can all agree that we are equally unhappy about how they're handling this disagreement."

"Understatement of the year." Hikaru muttered, slouching further against his table.

"As things stand," Tamaki continued, shooting the redhead a short glare for his interruption. "Haruhi is still rather annoyed at Kyoya, who in turn is annoyed at everything and everyone... including himself. Well, mostly himself, really. Now, we need to change this as soon as possible! To do this, I propose an intervention."

Whiteboard pen in hand, Tamaki ripped the lid off with his teeth, poise dripping with the elegance that came naturally to him.

"The Cheer up Haruhi plan?" Kaoru recited, amber eyes roaming across the header Tamaki had printed out in neat characters, clearly unimpressed. "Boss, you could've at least come up with a more creative name than that."

"Yeah," Hikaru had the same scrutinizing gaze. "Can we call it something else? Something cooler?"

"Quiet, you two doppelgangers. We don't have time for your petty nit-picking."

He was met with a less than enthusiastic reaction from said twins, and was promptly nailed in the head by a ball of paper.

"Boo!"

"Spoilsport!"

Tamaki could almost certainly feel a vein in his temple throbbing. Two seconds away from snapping back at the demon pair, sweet, sweet angelic Honey swept in with all the innocence that his small, stuffed-rabbit tooting, eighteen year old self could muster. Which was a lot. "Well, I like it." He chipped in, with a smile akin to a pout, lethal enough to stop a girl's heart at several feet. "It's short and sweet, just like Haru-chan."

And that just about cinched it.

Hikaru and Kaoru digested this information for a split second, before nodding slowly, relaxing back into their respective perches. "I guess it'll do."

"Now, back to the task at hand. Does anyone have any ideas?"

"I think we should just leave her alone." Was Honey's sage advice, the small boy contently swinging his feet back and forth. "Haru-chan likes peace and quiet, so we should just stay out of her way."

"Yeah. Don't bother her." Mori agreed, sternly.

Tamaki deflated, an audible hiss of air sounding as he sagged in on himself. "But— but that might take forever!"

"We don't have forever." Hikaru said, shifting in agitation.

"I can barely stand another day watching them like that." Kaoru added, scowling.

Honey considered this with a tilt of his head. "Okay… I think I get it. We wanna make Haru-chan and Kyo-chan make up as fast as possible, right?" Struck with a second wind, Tamaki nodded frantically. "So to do that, you want to cheer Haru-chan up so she's more likely to forgive Kyo-chan?" Tamaki's head was practically a blur. Honey happily clapped his hands together. "Then we should do something Haru-chan likes!"

Hikaru visibly sweat-dropped. To his side, his twin mirrored his expression perfectly. "I thought we already established that?" The redhead whispered, head bowed close to Kaoru's ear.

"So did I. He looks like he's solved some giant mystery."

Still, the two elected not to comment, considering Honey could quite easily snap them like a twig.

"That begs the all important question." Tamaki said, with a grand flourish. "What does Haruhi like?"

Hikaru cocked an uncertain brow. "Food…?" He offered, voice tapering off at the end.

Apparently that seemed like a reasonable answer, for Tamaki added it to the list.

"Books!" Honey exclaimed.

"Fancy tuna!" Was Kaoru's contribution.

"Fancy tuna counts as food." Hikaru disagreed, which elicited a hurt whimper from his twin.

"Hikaru, you're so mean. How could you just embarrass me in front of everybody like that?"

"Oh, Kaoru." The redhead breathed, gently turning his chin back to face him, hands clasped in his. "I'm sorry. I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Do you think you could find it in yourself to forgive me?"

"Hikaru!" He sniffled, accepting the offered embrace… and then yelped when the whiteboard pen smacked him upside the head. "Ow! That hurt! What was that for, Tamaki-senpai?"

"Quit messing around! This is a serious problem, you need to focus!"

"We're bored!"

"Yeah, and we're never going to get anywhere with this stupid plan of yours." Kaoru commandeered the pen, while Hikaru hip-checked the blond out of the way. "Move over, we'll take it from here." Addressing the eldest two with a bright smile, Hikaru continued. "Ignore everything he just said, what Haruhi really needs right now is a good laugh. That always cheers us up, right Kaoru?"

"Right," The redhead nodded, carelessly wiping off Tamaki's not-so-detailed plan, much to his anguish, if his high-pitched whimper was anything to go by. "New plan: We prank Tamaki-senpai relentlessly—"

"Why me?!"

"Because you're an easy target, keep up, Senpai."

Kaoru clicked his tongue, shooting Tamaki a glare when he opened his mouth to whine some more. "As I was saying, practical jokes always improve people's moods, the crazier the better. Trust us, we'll have Haruhi smiling in no time."

At which point Hikaru made the childish move of sticking his tongue out at the blond, and Tamaki made an equally childish move and pulled the whiteboard away from the two, holding it out of their reach. "You fools lack the finesse needed for this task, you're off the mission. Haruhi is far too mature for something like that. She is—"

"Right behind you."

Two things happened at once.

Tamaki and the twins both screamed and the whiteboard went sailing through the open window, apparently landing on several metallic objects and a stray cat.

Looking like she was clearly questioning her choice in friends, Haruhi sighed. "I'm fine you guys. This is really unnecessary."

Having recovered enough to form sentences that were probably coherent to somebody somewhere in the world, Tamaki managed what was quite possibly his least eloquent conversation to date. "WHATAREYOUDOINGHERE?"

Kyoya had followed in behind her and looked as though he sincerely regretted it. Instead, he held up his phone, which was open on their not-so-secret group chat. "A word of advice, Tamaki. Next time you hold a secret meeting about someone, don't add them into the group chat discussing the said meeting."

He felt more than saw the colour drain from his own face. "How long have you been in that?"

Haruhi observed him with mild interest, apparently finding his plight somewhat amusing. "Since the beginning. I was curious to see how long it would take for you to notice."

So yes, that was not exactly his proudest moment.

Flustered, Tamaki spent about an hour huddled in his Corner of Woe, with only his precious Kuma-chan and a carelessly thrown blanket to keep him company. For the remainder of that night (and well into the morning), Tamaki planned relentlessly, finally settling on what should have been the most simple and obvious solution all along.

Upon entering the classroom, he immediately straddled his chair, turning to face Kyoya, who was sipping some unidentified liquid from a thermos flask.

His planned speech disappeared in an instant, replaced by suspicion and disappointment. "Is that coffee?"

Kyoya raised an eyebrow. "Clearly it's poison."

"Kyoya."

Lazy eyes blinked up at him, registering his typical warning tone. Still, he took another deliberately long sip before answering. "Mhm. It's coffee."

"Did you have breakfast?"

"Mmhm." Tamaki levelled him a severe look, which had Kyoya rolling his eyes. "Yes, Tamaki, I had breakfast. It would've been hard to skip with Bana practically force-feeding me. According to him, I'm far too skinny—"

"You are."

"—And need to be eating more." Kyoya finished, with a tired huff.

"You're sulking because he's right." His sing-song voice raised a half-hearted glare and a careless swipe with Kyoya's notebook, which missed by about a half mile. "You can't deny it. I bet you skipped dinner last night to work late again."

"You have no evidence to prove that."

But the guilty twitch of his eye betrayed his otherwise cool front. "Kyoya!" He whined, flopping over the boy's desk. "I thought we talked about this! You need to take more care of yourself. You're going to drop at this rate!"

With a heavy sigh, the bespectacled boy adjusted his glasses. "Is there any special reason for this interrogation?"

And now there was a warning note in his voice which Tamaki knew was a sign not to push any further. Still, this was important. Sometimes the boy needed a little tough love. Tough love, in this instance, equated to Tamaki surgically removing Kyoya's head from his ass. God, the things he did for friendship.

"Can't I be concerned about my friend?" He asked, bottom lip jutting out in a pout.

"You don't need to be."

His pout thinned into a sharp line. "Like Hell I don't. Kyoya, I'm not going to just watch you kill yourself over this."

The boy's eyes widened, head swivelling to assert that their conversation was still private. "Lower your voice, Suoh—" Oh, yeah. He was mad. Just great. "I'm not an idiot. I can take care of myself."

Tamaki was so, so tempted to shoot back with a scathing reply. Because clearly he couldn't.

But the last thing Kyoya needed right now was a second fight with a friend, so he held his tongue, however hard it was to do so. After a moment, Kyoya's expression softened somewhat. Cupping his hands around the flask, he tucked it a little tighter to his chest. A precautionary measure in case Tamaki tried to snatch it from him, as he had done several times before, with varying degrees of success.

"You can relax, it's not going anywhere." He mumbled, chin resting on his palm.

His friend cocked his head to the side, somewhat confused. "What?"

"I said it's not going anywhere."

Kyoya's brows furrowed in exasperation. Setting his flask down, he took him by the wrist to move his arm away. "Tamaki, I can't hear you when you've got your hand over your mouth like that."

The boy offered a sheepish smile. "I'm not going to take your coffee. You really do look like you need it today."

Kyoya searched his face for a moment, eyes narrowed. Then he let him go, breath exhaling in a deep sigh. "I can't tell whether that's an insult or not."

His smile took on a teasing lilt. "I prefer not to comment."

"Ass."

Tamaki allowed the harmless swipe to connect with his shoulder, chuckling softly. With pride, he noted the light had returned to the bespectacled boy, too pale-cheeks fading into a healthier parlour, and the deep crease between his brows had become less pronounced. His coffee, too, remained forgotten at his side while he busied himself with organising his notes to begin the day, shuffling paper with expert ease.

Maybe, he thought, his super power was the power of annoying people so much that they did what he wanted?

A finger prodded his forehead. "Quit staring at me with that weird expression. It's not flattering at all."

Tamaki pouted. "I wasn't staring."

"I think maybe you need to consult a dictionary some time." While Kyoya nonchalantly corrected his notes, Tamaki sank into his crossed arms with a childish huff. "Oh, do quit those puppy eyes. Whatever it is you want, would you at least give me the illusion of a choice?"

"Who said I wanted anything?" He replied, with a bit of a whine to his voice.

"You've been acting weird ever since you arrived. Just spit it out already."

At his silence, Kyoya cocked an eyebrow, and Tamaki's pout transformed into a sheepish smile. "Fine, I'll cut to the chase. You've been hogging our daughter all to yourself these past couple of weeks, it's my turn to have some quality father-daughter bonding time with Haruhi. I've already sorted everything out, so you don't need to worry. I'm going to escort her back to her apartment today in one of our more modest cars, and we can have fun there until her father comes home. What do you say?"

From where they had been widened during Tamaki's declaration, steel orbs narrowed. Kyoya took a couple of seconds to digest these words, lips pursed tightly in thought. "Have you talked this through with Haruhi?" He queried, with a false air of calm.

The blond shrugged. "Not yet. I wanted to make sure you were aware of it first."

"I suppose the decision is up to her."

Despite his even tone, Kyoya was clearly more bothered than he let on. Still, he didn't protest, and in the end Tamaki wasn't quite sure whether or not he was relieved by that.

Haruhi, for the most part, just rolled with it. Whether it was a testament to how tired she was, or whether she was just relieved at the fact that she wouldn't have to endure an awkward couple of hours with Kyoya, he couldn't tell. But when the time came for them all to head on home, Haruhi had followed an oblivious Kyoya half the distance towards his car before she realised what she was doing and swerved right on back round, glaring when Tamaki struggled to contain his laughter.

He was actually a little nervous, wondering what they could possibly do to kill all those hours until Ranka arrived.

He needn't have worried, though.

They ended up popping popcorn in Haruhi's microwave and lying out across the spare futon, occasionally throwing up a piece to catch in their mouths. (Tamaki was a lot better at it than she was. Hers mostly ended up bouncing off her forehead, much to her ire).

Exhibit A, Haruhi tossed up another piece, which ended up landing in his mouth. "You're terrible at this."

"I meant to do that." She argued, but her annoyed pout suggested otherwise.

"Now, now, Haruhi. It's okay to admit when you're wrong."

The strained silence hit him like a two tonne truck. Haruhi's already airborne popcorn hit him directly on the nose, but he barely noticed it. He could almost hear the crickets chirping in the background and briefly thought how appropriate a tumbleweed would have been right about then.

Chewing on his bottom lip, Tamaki slowly flipped to face her. Haruhi was staring determinedly up at the ceiling, arms wrapped tightly around her slight frame, the popcorn bowl resting forgotten between them.

Somewhere in the apartment, a tap was dripping and through the open window he could hear the bustle of the street below.

Picking at his cuticles, Tamaki tried to figure out what to say. Anything would've been better than that total nothingness.

"Say, Tamaki-senpai… do you think I was wrong?"

The unexpected words left him floundering for a moment, surprise overwriting all his basic functions. "I think," He began, hesitantly. "I think it's more complicated than that."

She sighed, the futon dipping slightly as she shifted onto her side, doe eyes meeting his. "I figured you'd say something like that."

"Yet you asked anyway," He replied, not unkindly. "Perhaps you wanted to hear those words all along?" That rose a small, wan smile from the girl. He echoed one, far brighter, and gently took her hand. "Haruhi, the way I see it, nothing is ever that black and white. So labelling either of your actions as right or wrong in itself wouldn't be right."

She considered that with a tilt of her head. "I can see where you're coming from."

He scanned her features, noting with fondness the way her nose wrinkled in concentration as she aimed another piece of popcorn. She managed to catch this one— just barely— and grinned triumphantly. "I suppose the real question is; do you think you were wrong?"

To preface this, when he woke up that morning, Tamaki never expected he'd have to practically Heimlich the girl, saving her from a rather unfortunate demise. Death-By-Popcorn wasn't exactly the best way to go. It certainly earned points for comedic effect, though.

Once she recovered from her short choking fit, she shot him a very disgruntled look, eyes watering. "I hate you..." A cough. "So much right now."

"I didn't expect you to choke!" He exclaimed, more than a little frazzled. "Are you alright? Are you dying? Oh god, you're dying! I killed my only daughter, how could I? I'm an awful human being!"

"I'm fine. You don't need to call an ambulance." She pulled his phone from his hand and then cocked her head to the side. "Or a hearse. The point is, you're being dramatic. Take a couple of deep breaths and calm down."

It was as if she'd flipped a switch. One moment he was panicking, the next he was cool as ice, suavely sweeping his hair back and flashing her a winning smile. "I'm perfectly calm, Haruhi. A picture-perfect example of serenity, if I do say so myself. Why, if you were to look up 'peaceful' in the dictionary, you'd find my picture."

"More like obnoxious." She muttered, with good humour.

He clutched his heart, keeling over in an act that was all playfulness. "You wound me, dearest maiden!"

She was smiling and for one glorious moment Tamaki thought that everything was okay again. But then the light left her eyes and her lips slowly curved down, brows bunching together in a harsh line. Gnawing on the inside of her cheek, she observed him gingerly, somewhat shamed.

"Is…" Her fingers gripped her shirt. Hard. "Is Kyoya-senpai okay?"

Tamaki's own smile dimmed as well. Pushing himself up into a sitting position, he crossed his legs underneath him, gesturing for her to do the same. She copied his pose, movements dripping with uncertainty underneath his serious gaze. "I think you already know the answer to that question." She looked down, fingers playing with the threads of her shirt. "I don't think he's been okay in a long time. I don't think either of you have, really."

"But?" She asked, confidence returning to her.

"How do you know I wasn't going to just leave it at that?" He replied, slyly.

A smirk worked its way onto her face which could be described as nothing but 'shit eating'. "There's always a 'but' with you. I still can't tell whether that's a blessing or a curse."

"I'm just going to ignore that complete and utter betrayal." He sniffed, with mock hurt. "As I was saying. I don't think either of you have been okay in a long time. But most of that isn't down to anything the two of you have done. It's a stressful situation, so it's almost granted that you're not going to be at your best. However, you both certainly haven't been helping each other out on most fronts. That's the issue here."

"Yeah. I guess we do need to work on that."

"And soon." He agreed, seriously. "You know as well as I do that this is getting more dangerous." He nibbled on some popcorn, eyeing her with sympathy. "Look, I know you're angry, and you have every right to be, but Kyoya didn't mean to hurt you. He's exhausted, he blurted it out without thinking and now he's beating himself up about it. He just doesn't need this right now. Hell, neither of you need some stupid fight. You just wanted to protect us, and he just wanted to protect you."

Head bowed, she traced her finger across the blankets with far too much concentration. Still, even with her hair falling around her face, he could still see the pinch in her cheeks and the creases in her forehead that betrayed how deeply she was thinking. "You want me to forgive him?"

"I want you to talk to him." He corrected, softly. "Forgiving him would be nice, but that's entirely your choice."

Her response was merely a hum of acknowledgement.

Giving an amused snort, he tapped her hand to attract her gaze. "You're both too stubborn for your own good. This has dragged on long enough, okay? You can't keep waiting for him to make the first move, because he won't. When that boy puts his mind to something, not even Hell itself can stop him. And right now, he's determined to stay out of your way. God, Haruhi, that dumbass thinks you hate him."

"I don't hate him." She seemed almost insulted at the idea, which Tamaki supposed was a sign of her sincerity. "I never said I hated him."

"Then tell him. I can't stand to see that kicked-puppy face any longer."

She leant back, stretching her arms out above her head. Maybe to delay answering. Definitely to delay answering. "We've been hard to deal with, I know. Sorry for being such a pain. But I needed time… I don't know, to think things through. Mori-senpai told me not to rush into it, he didn't want me to say something I'd regret."

Sighing, Haruhi mussed with her hair. "When I planned to sort this out, I wanted it to be sincere. Because he would know if it wasn't. And I would, too. And he really doesn't deserve that right now. There wouldn't be any point to it at all if I didn't mean it, right?"

"Right." He observed her curiously, thumb and forefinger resting against his chin. "Are you ready now?"

With a deep breath, she nodded. "Yeah. I think I am."

A/N: I'd like to start off with a huge apology for this chapter being a little over a week late, I didn't have much time to work on it, and Tamaki is literal Hell to write. Never again.

Just a heads up that the next couple of updates may also have to be Tri-weekly updates- I'll keep a schedule on my profile to let you all know.

Anyway, I'd like to thank everyone who supported the last chapter, every review/ favourite/ follow really brightened my day

(We're over half way now. This fic may even end up being even shorter than I first imagined as I am merging ideas and lengthening chapters-I initially estimated that the very last chapter would be posted just after Valentine's Day, but that may change now).