Kyoya and Hanako grew close quickly, and they didn't even realize how easy their interactions became. They had come to an understanding that suited them both, and it wasn't that long ago that he realized how much faith his new staff member had in him. Everything seemed to be going well.
He was in search of Hanako on this particular day because Tamaki wanted to go find some obscure forest where a movie was filmed that he knew nothing about, and Kyoya didn't want to bother with the task of hunting it down. The door to her bedroom was ajar, and he heard hushed tones coming from inside as he approached. Kyoya knocked softly before opening the door slightly, and he stilled. She was crying. Fuyumi had her arms wrapped around Hanako's shuddering frame, and the younger girl took sharp, shallow gasps of air in as she cried into her own hands.
He had never seen her cry like this before. There were times when he and his father would visit her and hers after Akina's death. He only ever saw her fighting back such an intense combination of hate and sorrow that fresh tears seeped out of the corners of her eyes. He attributed the restraint to her training at the hands of the Haninozuka family. The huddled mess of tears and tangled hair with the heels of her palms pressed against her eyes and fingers pulling at the baby hairs on her hairline was completely unknown to him. Hanako was so consumed by her grief that she didn't heed his arrival, but Kyoya's sister turned her sympathetic gaze to him, helpless to stop what had happened.
Hanako felt Fuyumi's movement, and she lifted her head with great effort. Her skull pounded from all the tears she spilled, and she knew that she didn't looke beautiful for once in her damned life. She knew her eyes were swollen and her face red. Her lips could have been punctured by how hard she bit the skin to stop the cries from escaping. Snot and tears could have trailed down her entire face. She knew it was impossible to hide the evidence of her misery, but she tried anyway. She had been through enough humiliation for one day.
Kyoya didn't say a word. He intruded on something personal and private, but he couldn't seem to look away. A strange feeling gnawed at his gut as he gazed upon her pathetic form. His slate gray eyes turned hard but not disdainful. He was angry, but he didn't know why.
Fuyumi rubbed slow circles on Hana's back before gradually rising to her feet and looking meaningfully at her younger brother. "I'm going to step out for a moment," she said before exiting the bedroom. It was the first time they were ever alone in her bedroom.
Hanako coughed sharply. It sounded dry and painful. She wiped her face on the back of her black sleeve. Ever since her first official assignment as his guard, she wore the suit everywhere, and the sleeve was a mess of snot and tears now. She found some sense of decorum and sank her nails into it, but she looked as though she could fall apart at any moment.
His feet moved of their own volition, carrying him across the floor of her private quarters. He took the space where his sister had been sitting moments ago, but he kept his hands on his knees. He was not the empathetic one. Providing comfort did not come easily to him, but for the first time in his life, he wished it did. He didn't ask her what was wrong. It felt stupid to ask if she was okay. If she wanted to tell him what put her in such a state, she would tell him. She didn't owe him any explanations.
"Takashi is breaking off our engagement," she croaked with a joyless smile. As soon as she felt that she regained some footing, the ground disappeared from under her. Everyone in the world was laughing at her. Fate was laughing at her. If the universe thought it was funny, maybe she was the only one missing the joke.
Kyoya remained impassive, but he did care. "Did he say why?"
She shook her head. Takashi had not breathed a word of why. He had not even been the one to tell her. Yoshio handed her a letter from the Morinozuka household simply relaying his desire to terminate their arranged marriage. It could have just as easily been an email. "I have nothing left to offer the Morinozukas," she determined hollowly. It was the only logical explanation. That, or he no longer loved her. Perhaps, he never did. Fresh tears burned in her dry eyes, and she roughly scrubbed her palm over her eyelids. "I thought that our engagement was more than a business agreement."
The admission was her undoing, and salty streams ran down her face more quickly than she could wipe the tears away. "You must think I'm stupid." That couldn't be further from the truth. Kyoya had no words to offer her that could better the situation. Anything from him would just sound like a lie whether or not he intended for it to be.
He did the only thing that made sense. Kyoya wrapped his arm around her shoulders, and he pulled her into his chest, wrapping his other arm around her other side the way he saw Fuyumi do for her. He wasn't a hugger, and it felt strange for her to be so close to him. However, as bizarre as it was, he wasn't bothered by it. He didn't care that his shirt wrinkled in her hands as a soundless cry wracked her body. He didn't even care that his chest felt wet from the tears falling on the fabric. She defended his honor when he had done nothing to deserve it. She trusted him to fulfill an inconceivable task so wholeheartedly that she bet her life on it. She saw through him in a way nobody ever had. A new, entirely unfamiliar emotion replaced his anger, and he was surprised by how unbothered he felt.
{OR}
"Peeping Tom!" the twins cornered Kasanoda as soon as they saw him. The hosts used Hana's staff keys to access their favorite shortcut through to the club room, and they caught him just as he closed the door on Hauhi. Kasanoda cried out in distress, and his legs shook so badly he could have slid to the floor. The brothers didn't seem so scary earlier…
"You saw."
"Didn't you, Bossa Nova?"
Hanako's eyes held the unfolding scene with approval. Apparently, Hikaru and Kaoru paid attention to the interrogation tactics lesson, too. "No1 I didn't see!" He shook his head vigorously, and Hana's gaze narrowed. Even she could have lied more convincingly, and he was supposed to be yakuza. "I mean, I caught a glance, yeah, but it was all so fast that I didn't – it was just an accident! I swear to you that I am not a pervert!"
Mitsukuni passed between the twins. "Of course you would say that. Sure sign of a guilty conscience." Kasanoda crawled up the wall with a shudder. He didn't know how lucky he was that this was the Host Club and not the Zuka Club.
Hanako nodded in agreement. "What do you want me to do with him?" she asked Kyoya beside her.
"Nothing, yet." He wanted to see where this would go.
"Red alert. He's on to Haruhi's little secret."
"That's not good."
"So, let's hear it."
"How much of her maidenly terra incognita did you actually see?"
Kasanoda slumped against the door, "Well, she was changing so I saw her underwear." The twins were back on him in an instant, repeating what he said back into his face. Hanako shifted her weight onto her other leg. The impropriety astounded her, but at least he sounded embarrassed and apologetic.
"So what do we do?"
"There's only one thing to do," Hikaru declared. "We have to induce amnesia. Hold him." Kaoru slid up behind Kasanoda and restrained the boy, and Hikaru procured a baseball bat.
Finally, Kyoya spoke up, no longer entertained by the direction they were following. "That's enough, you two. Leave assault and battery to the professionals."
"What are you? Made of ice?" Kaoru demanded. "How can you be so calm about this?"
Hikaru used the bat to point at Tamaki, "Look! The boss is so deep in shock, he's regressing!" Indeed, Tamaki shriveled into a steaming mess in the corner, but Hanako would deal with him after she dealt with the young man they took under their wing.
"Have a heart, senpai! What if it was Hana?" Kaoru challenged furiously.
"That is an entirely different matter," Kyoya shot down the comparison. "Well, now that it appears the proverbial cat is out of the bag. Let's talk." The dangerous aura radiating from the girl on his right and the sharpness in his eyes made a terrifying combination, and Kasanoda vaguely wondered if he somehow died and wound up in hell.
"Haruhi is compelled to hide the fact that she's a girl due to certain mitigating circumstances. While we can't physically force you to cooperate exactly, there is something I would like for you to bear in mind. Coming from the sort of family you do, I'm certain you hear all sorts of juicy little rumors. Enough to know what is true and what is not. Take the Ootori family's private police force, the Black Onion Squad. Or should I say Hanako's Black Onion Squad? It is said that they can be mobilized against our enemies in the blink of an eye. Supposedly, their commander's a vicious woman, slow to forgive and quite brutal in her punishments. You have heard of them, right?"
Poor, terrified Kasanoda's shrunken pupils jerked towards Hanako, and he could have died right there and then under the weight of her gaze. He could see the restraint she practiced in the way her muscles tensed and relaxed under her jacket. Worse than that, the dark aura flaring around her made Kyoya's seem pleasant.
"I was just starting to think that you weren't all that bad," she clicked her tongue against her teeth disappointedly, and the sharp sound sent a shiver down his spine that could have toppled his already weak knees. "It'd be a shame if you disappeared." It was like her gaze turned to knives, and he thought it'd be a mercy to die from that instead of whatever she had in store for him.
The door behind him opened, and the heavy atmosphere dissipated as soon as Haruhi joined them. "Come on, guys. Stop scaring Casanova," the honor student scolded them before turning to the yakuza heir. "Sorry about all this."
"Hey, Fujioka." Kasanoda's voice trembled, and he was surprised nobody tackled him for opening his mouth.
"Look, it's all right. Doesn't really matter to me. You can tell whoever you want to."
Hana tapped her forehead with the flat of the clipboard in staccato motions. She worked that math out in the previous term. Haruhi wouldn't pay back her debt by the end of the school year if her real sex was revealed. It wasn't a viable option, regardless of whether or not Haruhi cared about if others know. On top of that, Hanako couldn't wrap her mind around how little Haruhi cared about the intrusion upon her person. The impropriety astounded her. However, it was Haruhi's body and her choice to determine what was and was not problematic. Regardless of Hanako's opinion, and she had to respect that, even if she didn't understand it.
The body guard caught the blush on Kasanoda's apologetic face, and so did her godbrothers. Beside her, Kyoya held the bridge of his glasses up on his nose. It was one of his tells, and she felt a familiar churning of the few contents in her stomach. She hadn't expected that. In fact, she hadn't felt that uncomfortable sensation since the day when they shared cakes around the Fujioka's table and Takashi passed his strawberries to Haruhi. A concerned frown pulled on her lips.
"Well, well, Bossa Nova." She decided that it was better to focus on Hikaru's derisive drawl.
"Since you know she's a girl, are you in love?" Kaoru's question elicited a tormented wail from their leader, and Tamaki finally fell over onto his side against the marble floor. Meanwhile, Kasanoda only went rigid and couldn't even offer an answer to the twins' questioning.
Hana clapped her hands twice. That was enough for one day. "Alright. It's time to close up for today. Kasanoda, if you'd please see yourself out, I'm afraid we still haven't finished our work for the day."
"Okay," the mean-faced boy squeaked and scurried out along the far wall, trying to keep as much distance between himself and the intimidating hostess. The main door slammed shut in the distance.
She nodded with some satisfaction at how well they seemed to have gotten their point across. "Haruhi, please finish up in the kitchen, and would the rest of you do something about Tamaki?" she pointed to the steaming lump on the floor that was the shell of Tamaki Suoh. "After that, you're all free to go."
They enacted her no-nonsense instructions immediately. Haruhi ducked into the kitchen,Takashi lifted Tamaki onto his back easily, Mitsukuni readied a chaise, and the twins started fanning air onto his face. Soon enough, everything was put away, Tamaki was set out onto velvet cushions, and everyone else had gone home. Kyoya locked the front doors while Hanako reviewed the notes from that afternoon. Her employer had been particularly quiet during the day, but none of that apparent disinterest was reflected on paper.
With his usual eloquence and promptness, Kyoya recorded every interaction, reaction, and prediction associated with his club's members. The only person she didn't see anything written for was herself. He joined her at the small table, pulling out the chair across from her and sliding the key across the wooden surface.
"I can always have Kasanoda sign a non-disclosure agreement," she remarked, flipping through the templates she had at the back of the folder.
"That won't be necessary." Kyoya's response surprised her. He was meticulous in these things, and this was the standard response to a potential information leak.
"How can you be so sure about that?" Hana flipped back to his notes, wondering if she missed an answer in the margins.
Kyoya held her gaze evenly, and she arched a brow in question. Something was different, but not wrong. The connection felt too intimate, too familiar, too open. Yet, she couldn't look away. Hanako found herself unable to force the casual veil over this interaction, and it seemed like he wouldn't draw it up, either. "No reasonable person would consider acting out with you on standby."
A sense of pride filled her at his praise, but it was nothing he had never said to her before. "Thanks for the vote of confidence," she wanted so badly for it to sound breezy, but it didn't. She blushed terribly at the sincerity in her tone, and as soon as she felt the heat rush to her neck, Hanako shook her head and emptied her thoughts of ridiculous notions. The girl cleared her throat, the perfect picture of poise and grace when she spoke again, "Why are you so nonchalant about all this?"
"Why wouldn't I be?" he countered, maybe a little to hastily. "Where would the club be if I reacted like Tamaki everytime something like this happened?" he pointed over his shoulder to the young man moping on the red cushions.
It was a valid point, but it did nothing for the suspicions Hanako harbored. She was neither blind nor stupid. Hana knew these young men in a way very few people had the honor of knowing them. She could describe their hopes and dreams even if they themselves hadn't figured out the words yet. She knew, perhaps before they did, when there was something they wanted for themselves. It could have been a blessing or a curse. The foundation of their kingdom was changing, and the walls they built to keep it safe crumbled slowly. Soon, they'd have to decide what mattered more to them, and Hanako wouldn't be spared from making her own choice. Although, maybe they could hold off on that for just a little bit longer.
"We'll have to do something about him before tomorrow," she said instead.
Kyoya already busied himself with the daily review, "I'll take care of it." She nodded in acceptance and started her own work. They slipped into their routine easily. It was always safe for them to do so. Even their work revealed the fractures in their foundation and the changes on the horizon, but at least, they had the security of knowing it hadn't yet breached the walls.
{OR}
The arctic came to the Host Club. It was a completely unforgiving, unwelcoming atmosphere, and it all came from the girl standing at the front of the room. The chill didn't quite reach the main floor, but anyone standing within range of the waiting room got caught in the tundra. Kasanoda stood his ground with his hands shoved in his pockets, his gaze trained on the toes of his shoes, and a sheepish blush across his cheeks.
"Kasanoda," she greeted icily. "What do you want?"
"I-I'd like to make an appointment with Fujioka," he stammered out for the first time. Her caramel eyes narrowed on him with suspicion and distrust.
"No," the girl dismissed him flatly and wrote a note in her calendar for the day.
"Hey, wait a minute!" he protested loudly, "I'm a legitimate customer and want to see Fujioka."
"I'm not going to allow a pervert like you anywhere near my friend," she informed him promptly.
Embarrassment and frustration came together for him, and he was reminded of her constant derision throughout his apprenticeship under Morinozuka. "You got some kinda issue with me, Negida? Ever since we met you've had an attitude. What's that about, huh? I'm a nice guy and I'd never do anything to hurt Fujioka!"
Her eyes narrowed into dangerous slits, but she didn't rise to his insistent tone. "Did you just raise your voice at me?" her voice cut through him like a masterful katana.
The so-called first year beast shrank back pitifully and squeaked, "No, ma'am."
Hanako sighed, and the intimidating aura around her dissipated. "First of all, it's 'do you have' not 'you got'," she corrected, reluctant but permissive as she recalled the change of heart she came to the other day. "You're a gentleman in these halls, Kasanoda, please act like it. Secondly, I'll let you in, but you'll get what's coming to you. Please, seat yourself." The gargoyle faced boy brightened immediately, and he was too happy with the unexpected change that he didn't even take note of her ominous warning. Ritsu passed her and crossed the floor to Haruhi's section, and Hanako filled a slot for the walk-in appointment on the calendar.
"I'd like to request Fujioka." Hanako heard Kasanoda's statement as she walked towards the kitchen in order to inform the requested host. The room burst into screams and squeals or excitement, and Hanako sighed into the padfolio. She should have told him that she handles all the appointmens. The mechanism under the floor whirred to life, and Hana pressed her forehead against the leather. Renge was going to be talking about this for weeks to come.
The guard slipped into the kitchen where Haruhi was fixing fresh tea for the guests, "Kasanoda's asking for you."
Haruhi looked up, "Oh, sorry, senpai, I'll step out for a sec."
Hanako shook her head and tapped her finger against the cover of the padfolio meaningfully, "He's a walk-in. Don't worry about the other pots, just bring out the tray you have done." Obediently, Haruhi picked up the tray by its handles, and Hanako held the door open for her.
"Huh, okay. That's pretty cool of him," Haruhi said in passing. Hana followed her out but hung back near the door. Her eyes passed over the floor, and she identified each of the hosts. The walls wouldn't last very long, now. They all watched from their places spread out across the room as Haruhi brought the tray to the sofa and took a seat next to Kasanoda.
Hana felt a sharp pinch on her arm and looked at the twins scowling at her with their arms crossed over their chests. "What'd you let him in for?" Hikaru demanded. The twins followed on her heels like a single entity, shoulders pressed together as they marched.
"Yeah," Kaoru agreed. "We need to get rid of him." Hanako came to a stop next to Kyoya and handed him the clipboard, and the twins pressed their backs against the marble pillar to spy on Haruhi's appointment. They looked back at the two second year students with matching looks of irritation. "Hey, don't just stand there, Kyoya-senpai. Get him out of here!"
"If he's getting along with his goons so well now, why does he need to be here in the first place?" Hikaru demanded, some of his jealousy rearing its head.
"He has kept Haruhi's secret so far," the club's vice president noted mildly, "and since he is, after all, a paying guest, I can see no reason to eject him."
"But the other guests are afraid!"
"Oh, no, I think not. Observe," he pointed with the end of his pen at the guests admiring Kasanoda's appointment. They were about to be flooded by guests brought in via word of mouth. "See? We're just fine. Thanks to him, we may even set a new record."
"You money-grubbing enabler!" the twins shook their fists and grumbled through gritted teeth. Seeing that they wouldn't get anything out of Kyoya, they turned to his personal assistant.
"Hana, you have to do something about this!"
"He's a threat! A real threat!"
"He's a legitimate customer," she replied to the melodramatic twins, "and the boss won't let me do anything about it."
"Oh, no, she's giving him the adorable smile."
"The one which no man can resist."
"You two know that it's rude to spy on people, right?" Hanako reminded them, but she already knew that it was no use.
"Wow," Mitsukuni popped up beside them. "Usually you guys wouldn't waste any time interrupting the two of them."
They turned to the shorter host with unimpressed expressions. Cute as Mitsukuni may be, they knew he already knew what the hold up was. "Yeah, but our hands are tied. After our screw-up in Karuizawa, Haruhi would never forgive us if we butted in."
"Karuizawa was really your screw-up, Hikaru," Kaoru shot back grumpily. Hikaru groaned at the reminder, and then the brothers turned to the shell-shocked blond slumped against the other side of the pillar. Kyoya sent Hanako to the Suoh second house to drag him to campus, and he slithered through the halls the entire day before settling into that spot.
"Hey, boss, are you done being shell-shocked yet?" Hikaru demanded.
"Yeah, we could really use our king right about now." The brothers didn't give him any time to recover before they picked him up and launched him at the table. The blond walked the rest of the way robotically.
"Are you sure it's a good idea to send him in this condition?" she questioned their judgment.
"Well, it's better than doing nothing!" Hana wasn't sure that was accurate. Haruhi relocated Tamaki to the other end of the sofa, and she distracted him with a toy. "That moron!"
Hikaru pulled out his cellphone and called Tamaki, a vein throbbing on his forehead. "Earth to Boss! Will you snap out of it already? The longer you sit there like an idiot playing 'robot', the worse the situation becomes for all of us. Now, listen to me carefully. You can't let this happen. If she and that two-bit thug hit it off, she's going to spend her life as a mob wife!"
That seemed to scare Tamaki into action. Hana turned to her employer as Tamaki shot to his feet. "Don't you think now's the time to put an end to this nonsense?"
Under normal circumstances, he would have agreed wih her. It really would have been the perfect time to step in and save their king from stepping past the gates. If they hadn't been trying so hard to hold up a wall that had to fall, he would have agreed. "
"This has been a long time coming," he stated definitively. She knew that he was right. They were building up to this moment ever since Haruhi first opened the gates to their kingdom. It was the end of the path they chose to walk together, where the one they walked diverged into many different directions. A small frown darkened her features, but she fell silent and watched the scene at the center of their kingdom. Tamaki was in the middle of the fiercest, most long-winded lecture that Hanako had ever heard from him.
"Why are you harassing my Haruhi?" he concluded in a screech, swinging Kasanoda around with surprising strength. "As her father, I forbid you to see her."
"Wait, what?" Kasanoda's brows drew together in confusion. "You're telling me that you're Fujioka's dad? You have got to be kidding me. That's just not possible."
The family portrait that Tamaki painted for them all was unraveling before their very eyes. It was an illusion that filled the gaps in Tamaki's own life, and out of respect and understanding of his loneliness, they had allowed him that. It was time that they let the walls crumble.
"Okay, so, what, are you married to her mom then?"
Tamaki began to sweat as Kasanoda picked apart the basis of his lecture.
"So I guess you really aren't her father, are you?" Tamaki burst at that one, and Mitsukuni ran to catch him.
"You better not be expecting me to clean this one up," Hanako said to Kyoya as the deflated host came to the realization that he was not, in fact, Haruhi's father.
"I wouldn't dream of it," he replied coolly.
"Hey, look, he's waking up," Kaoru observed. They formed a circle around Tamaki, the six of them who built the kingdom together, all wondering what would happen next.
"I need to sort this out."
"Sort what out, exactly?"
"If, supposing, I'm not my Haruhi's daddy after all,..."
"We don't have to suppose it, boss," Hikaru pointed out.
"Then, how can it be that I find her so utterly adorable?" Shock registered on everyone's faces, including Hana's. It didn't matter how long they had been waiting for this moment or how long they tried to keep the walls from crumbling and the foundation from quaking. Maybe this would be the day that they were forced to take the diverging paths.
"Uh, what are you talking about?" Kaoru questioned.
"When she's with another man, why is it that I become so insanely jealous? I'm not her father. I have no right to be so protective. No right whatsoever."
"So, then, uh, tell me what exactly is with the whole 'making Haruhi your wife one day' thing?" Hikaru prodded.
"I know," the sullen boy on the floor looked up, "Daddy's don't typically want to marry their little girls when they're all grown up, do they?"
"Even you must know the answer to that one," Hanako replied with a shake of her head.
"What about keeping her from kissing anyone?" Kaoru asked.
"I only wanted to preserve those precious lips," Tamaki admitted.
"Preserve? Really?" the younger twin repeated with a strained expression. It was beginning to sound like the questioning between Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf. Back and forth with an answer they weren't sure they wanted at the end. "That's a very interesting choice of words, sir. You think everything is absolutely perfect just the way it is now, and having this family setting will keep it all from changing, right?"
Hana and Hikaru perked up at how the youngest brother seemed to be pushing his point more than usual. Tamaki's family portrait was unraveling, and Kaoru was the one pulling on the strings. "Hey, Kaoru?" Hikaru sounded in an unusally small voice. Hana put her hand on Hikaru's shoulder, and he looked back at her for her input. She shook her head subtly, and he pulled his mouth in a confused, tight line.
"I don't understand," Tamaki answered the line of questioning. Hanako's hand slid off of Hikaru's shoulder and she melted into the background, removing herself from the equation so that she could see all of them together.
"Actually, he's got a point," Kyoya spoke up with a lens between his fingertips. "I mean, you're delusional, yes, any halfwit could see that, but who knew that you were so…?"
"Tama-chan's completely blind when it comes to himself," Mitsukuni declared.
"They're all blind," Hanako muttered under her breath. She thought that nobody heard her, but Kyoya turned his head ever so slightly to look at her. For the first time in a long while, he had no idea what she meant by that.
Hikaru didn't notice the loss of Hana's hand on his shoulder, and he turned to his twin. "Kaoru, just what did you mean by things changing?"
"Oh, nothing. Just a little theory I have. Which I'm probably completely wrong about," he looked over Hikaru's shoulder and made eye contact with Hana, silently asking for her help.
The girl sighed heavily and stepped forward to sling her arm around Kaoru's shoulders, "You're too deep for these guys, Kao." One day, the walls would come crashing down, and Tamaki's family portrait would completely come undone. Then, they'd all see those things that they hid on the other side of the walls. Maybe this just wasn't the day that it would happen.
{OR}
Kasanoda's attempt to confess to Haruhi was neither the best nor worst confession that she had ever witnessed. They were acting as if the audience didn't exist, but thirty sets of eyes were on them, and while they were all distracted with the confession, Hanako observed the rest of the scene. Takashi watched with his hands on his hips and a distant expression on his face. Mitsukuni held Usa-chan to his chest and observed with large, attentive eyes. Hikaru and Kaoru clenched their fists and looked on in anticipation. Tamaki looked like his entire world was about to come crashing down, and Kyoya watched with rapt attention as all of this took place.
He had the best poker face of all of them. Kyoya wore a fake smile as easily as he wore a flat expression. He kept people guessing with his insincerity, but when he was intrigued, he had a tell. Hanako didn't see his tell. All she saw was the way he held the clipboard and the light glinting off his glasses.
"Does it bother you?" she asked, emerging from the background and coming to stand beside him as Kasanoda tried to confess. She had her suspicions that it did. Hanako was far from stupid, and she knew that Kyoya wasn't immune to anything that affected the rest of them. It stood to reason that if the rest of them were coming to their own realizations about their feelings, then Kyoya would be, too.
"Does what bother me?" he asked lightly. Maybe it sounded too light. Maybe he intended for it to be dismissive. Maybe he meant to be vague. He was the kind of man who wouldn't answer a question straightforwardly if he could avoid it.
"Nothing," Hana replied forcing most of the sadness out of her voice. Most, but not all. She decided to move on. Haruhi inadvertantly rejected another confession. She had a knack for that, it seemed. Haruhi's obliviousness clearly had not improved since she rejected Arai. In a way, Hanako thought, looking from Haruhi to Tamaki, they really are perfect for each other.
The music room suddenly filled with sympathy for Kasanoda from all audiences. Renge showered the scene with excess rose petals, and there were so few dry eyes in the house. The guests and the hosts ran to him, and in a moment, Kasanoda had more friends than he knew what to do with. While they whipped themselves into another fuss, the three host club founding members and Takashi remained in place, unmoved by the drama.
"What's the matter, Tamaki?" Kyoya asked.
"When I think about how Bossa Nova must have been feeling, my heart goes out to him a little."
"That's strange, isn't it? I mean, as Haruhi's father, you shouldn't feel sympathy for the man who tried to take your precious little girl away, now should you?"
For a moment, Tamaki seemed to seriously consider what his best friend said, but in the next, he was back on his feet, stretching his stiff limbs. "We better hurry up and go play kick the can before we lose daylight, right?" he evaded answering the paradox that Kyoya proposed, but even his bumbling idiot act wasn't enough to fool them. Nonetheless, they let it go, and soon, the Host Club was moving its activities outside for the rest of the afternoon.
"He's hopeless," Kyoya remarked. He was left behind by the other two second year students as they gathered everyone for kick the can, and it was just him and Morinozuka left in that little space. They regarded each other briefly, both of them holding their cards close to their chests. Although, it didn't matter how much either one of them denied it. Both of them knew the truth that was shared between them, even if neither of them admitted it out loud.
"Takashi!" Mitsukuni called from the crowd. Slowly, dark gray eyes broke contact with slate ones, and he tucked his hands in his pockets as he dutifully joined his cousin. Kyoya wrote a note in the margins before slipping the pen in place and snapping the leather binding closed.
"Kasanoda," Kyoya said to the red haired young man when he joined the throng moving outside. It was the first time that he addressed the younger student since not so subtly threatening him the other day. "Why was it you so quickly grew attached to Haruhi when Hanako was present as a girl this whole time?"
The mildly spoken question caught Ritsu completely off-guard, and he wondered if this was a trap that the Shadow King set for him. It definitely could have been, but he answered anyway because these guys weren't really that bad despite all their talk when they cornered him outside of the dressing room. Ritsu hadn't really thought about it. Negida felt off-limits for some reason, and he never considered her as someone he could like. She scared him, for sure, but in a weird way, he respected that she could intimidate him like that. "I'm not into her style, I guess," Kasanoda mused. "She's pretty cool, but I kinda feel like she could probably kill me in my sleep, ya know? Uh, and she's my senior. Besides, she's Morinozuka-senpai's girl, and I'm not that kind of guy."
Morinozuka's girl? Kyoya repeated silently. Well, she hadn't been that in a very long time. "Is that so? It's an interesting thought, Bossa Nova," the Shadow King mused before walking ahead and falling into step with the black haired girl who withdrew her hand out of her pocket to take the clipboard from Kyoya just as he started to hand it to her.
{OR}
"Hyper Starlight Kick!" Tamaki announced before he punted the can into the air. The club members and their guests all scattered, and Kasanoda raced after the can. Hanako watched from under the shade as Tamaki caught Haruhi's hand in his and tugged her towards the rose gardens. Kyoya moved beside her and cast a good-natured half-smile over his shoulder towards her. She took the cue to follow, and they strolled leisurely after their friends. Across the field, she saw two heads of amber approaching with familiar, soft smiles on their faces. It seemed that the path wasn't diverging. They came from different directions and converged at a singular point. It was a hidden nook built into the hedges. Stone pillars held up a ceiling of the same material, protecting the metal table under which Tamaki and Haruhi hid.
"Hey, what are you doing?" Tamaki demanded of the four. "This hiding place is only for Haruhi and me, got it?"
"What kind of rule is that?" Kaoru teased.
"Yeah!" Hikaru agreed, "And for that matter, why do you and Haruhi always have to hide together in the first place?"
"Idiot! It is perfectly natural for a father to hide with his daughter!"
"Are we back to that?" Hana questioned.
"Some might disagree," Kyoya pointed out, earning chuckles from the three godsiblings. Haruhi shushed them, and it was clear that she was the only one invested in the game. Mitsukuni and Takashi watched from the branches hanging over the rose garden as the other hosts continued on the shared path.
Mitsukuni pulled his feet up onto the thick branch and scrutinized each of his friends below in this brief moment that he and Takashi had to themselves, "So Hika-chan may seem oblivious, but deep down he's beginning to understand his feelings? And even though it's clear to the rest of us how Tama-chan feels, he's still completely in the dark about it himself?"
"Yeah," Takashi confirmed. The only person below them who he had his eye on was the dark haired girl whose long curtain of hair was pulled back into a high ponytail that the Hitachiins were tugging on playfully. She was smiling despite the protests against their teasing, and it was the kind of smile that only ever appeared in moments of security and comfort.
"Then what about Kao-chan and Kyo-chan?" Mitsukuni asked. "Between the two of them, I'll bet there's someone even more oblivious than Tama-chan is."
That was what Takashi was afraid of. The chances were that Kyoya was in the same boat as Tamaki, but what would that mean for Hanako? Of course, Mitsukuni was considering that as well. "Then, there's Kyo-chan and Hana-chan. The two of them are so wrapped up in bureaucratic red tape that they don't have the freedom to explore their feelings." Mitsukuni's gaze turned sympathetic and he looked at his cousin, whose dark eyes never left Hanako's face. "Can you really wait that long, Takashi? Nobody knows how long it's going to take for them to get free of that. Would it really be the worst thing if Kyoya was in love with Haruhi?"
A dark look passed on the blond's face, but Takashi's didn't change. Mitsukuni just wanted his friends to be happy, but more than that, he wanted Takashi to have the happiness that Mitsukuni knew he deserved. His cousin's face was unreadable, but Mitsukuni knew that he was considering the possibility. He had stepped back because he loved her. He let Hana go out of respect for her and, to a lesser extent, Kyoya, but everything would be easier for him if Kyoya was in love with Haruhi. Then, Takashi wouldn't have to keep his distance from Hana anymore. At least, Takashi would be able to be honest with her.
Mitsukuni lifted his gaze to the green canopy and continued, "Considering that, I wonder if something really big is gonna happen before we graduate."
"You never know," Takashi answered, watching how Kyoya's hand wrapped around Hana's wrist to draw her under the table with them. He watched how she tucked her long legs under her and squeezed underneath the iron wrought table between Kyoya and Kaoru. His heart squeezed painfully when Kyoya finally wrapped his arm around Hanako's waist to draw her closer and make more room for the others. Takashi sighed heavily, and for what felt like the millionth time that past year, he wondered if he was making a terrible mistake.
Then, he saw her smiling, again, glowing with a soft light in her eyes as she crowded under the table with her friends, and he knew the answer to Mitsukuni's question. He could wait. He would wait for as long as he had to, because he knew she was worth it. He'd wait through this life and into the next for her. If that was what it took, then it was what he would do.
{OR}
It was the night of Fuyumi Ootori's engagement party, and it was the first event that Hanako didn't accompany Takashi to. It was her first real assignment as Kyoya's bodyguard, but Takashi still wanted to see her. They planned to meet in the foyer for a quick moment on the way to and from the restrooms. He saw her walking towards him from across the foyer, and he meant to cross the floor to meet her. Then, he realized that her attention wasn't on him. It was on the man and woman speaking in the middle of the floor. Without having a real answer as to why, Takashi pressed himself against the wall.
"Kyoya is the most handsome of the three, but you're right, with two older brothers ahead of him, he doesn't stand a chance of becoming the family's patriarch," the woman was saying.
Hanako stalked up to them like a jungle cat, muscles roiling under the black satin that caught the light in its threads. Takashi recognized the burning look in her eyes from years of sparring with her on the mats. Fierce and determined, she had identified an opponent.
"That's funny," her sweet voice carried a poison in every word. "My parents always said that Kyoya Ootori was the most like his father out of the three sons. If anyone has the backbone and the drive to succeed his father as the patriarch of the Ootori family, it's Kyoya."
For Kyoya, it had been a moment of immense pride. For Takashi, it was one that shattered everything he thought he knew. The fervor in her voice as she defended Kyoya was too strong for Takashi to ignore, and as it echoed in his mind, he was reminded of how easily his fiancee and her charge had started to interact. He stepped off the wall, and Hanako finally noticed him. She crossed the floor, past the stunned adults to join him.
She smiled at him with love and affection plain in her kind face, and her brow furrowed when she took in his expression. Recognizing that he was bothered by something, but not certain what it was, she reached out and touched his face with her finger tips asking, "What's wrong?"
Takashi's hand covered hers, and he pressed her palm to his cheek, turning his face to kiss her warm skin. "It's nothing," he said, but he knew that what he had seen was the beginning of the end. There was a connection between Hana and Kyoya Ootori that even they didn't understand, and they never would if he stood in the way.
He wanted to. He wanted so badly to stop the two from realizing what he was beginning to see, but when he gazed into her eyes, soft and warm, he knew that he couldn't do that to her. He couldn't ask her to be with him if he didn't even give her the chance to realize her own feelings, even if they weren't for him. He loved her too much to ask her to marry him if only to save her company. They were dutiful people, the Morinozukas and the Negidas, and if he didn't give her the chance to be selfish, then she would never want for herself. He couldn't ask her to be his when she might want someone else. He loved her and knew that she loved him, but they were young and inexperienced. She already lost so much agency of youth. He wouldn't ask her to give up more for him.
"Hanako," he said with more emotion to his voice than she expected, "I love you."
Her caramel eyes melted for him, and his heart hurt to see it, "I love you too, Takashi."
Be that as it may, she wasn't ready to commit to him, and he couldn't ask her to. Not yet. The time would come one day, but this wasn't it. This wasn't the way he wanted it to happen.
Three weeks later, the Morinozuka household rescinded Takashi's offer of engagement to Hanako.
{OR}
A/N... Thanks for reading! I honestly don't know how I feel about this chapter. It's not quite what I envisioned, and I might rewrite it later on. I only have one more chapter pre-written for next week's update, so after that one goes up it may take a bit longer to get the last few chapters up.
Special thanks to everylittleflowers, Anon, 0palescence, Springcrazy, purplekittycatofthemoon, Einklley, weirdunusualchick, and Guest for reviewing! It looks like we have a pretty good balance of readers rooting for both Kyoya and Takashi!
I just wanted to let everyone know that the questions are really just for me to get to know you guys and what you're thinking about the story, and I love hearing from you! That being said, I've been working on this plot for roughly six years, and I do have a final couple in mind that isn't going to change. However there's about 60 chapters between now and then, so there's still a whole wild ride to get there :)
I hope you all keep reading until the very end! Thank you for your support!
Were you surprised by the reason why Takashi broke the arranged marriage? Was this what you expected?
Next time: A lifetime ago... She was looking for Ootori.