Kyoya trailed after Nala as she led the way to his office, her short clipped steps, and stiff posture emphasizing the discomfort she was feeling. Stepping into his office after her, he quietly shut the door, and turning around found her pacing in obvious distress.

"What is it miss Fuyumi?"

Now that, that set her off. Spinning to face him, her face flushed with anger she pointed at him.

"What is it? What is it! That's all you have to say? You literally gave me a promise ring and didn't tell me! Who does that!" She began pacing again. "Honestly Ootori I know you don't have much tact but I didn't expect you to have this little tact! It's ridiculous, plain ridiculous damn it and now I'm gonna start crying because I was hoping you would ask me out because I really like you but I didn't think it would go down like this and oh shit I said that out loud I'm shutting up now."

Maka cut herself off and the anger seemed to drain from her leaving her looking just embarrassed as her face went beet red and she looked away from him.

Kyoya looked at her without expression, his dark eyes unreadable as he seemingly thought over what she said.

He hadn't thought about the repercussion when she found out what the ring meant, but then again, he let his eyes trail over the room as he thought about that. She had a horrible tendency to make him forget what the repercussions of certain choices would be, and when she laughed, which she didn't do often enough in his opinion, it made him feel light inside.

Kyoya shied away from that thought with annoyance deciding he had been spending too much time around Tamaki. Finally, he looked back at Nala who was still standing red faced in front of him

"I think we need to talk."

*V*V*V*V*V*

Kaoru's eyes followed Nala and Kyoya as they stepped into the boy's office. The twin couldn't shake the feeling that he had lost, that letting that door shut had also shut out any hope he had for getting Nala. He snarled softly at himself before turning away to leave the room.

His tiger had never been sure about Nala, and hikaru hadn't cared for her any more than as a friend and fellow host, but kaoru knew he had felt something. There was something about her, about how she acted that had made him sit-up and take notice of the pretty brunette when she had stumbled into their lives. He didn't know what it was, but his tiger no longer cared. Someone he had thought might be his prospective mate would have felt the connection too, but it was obvious that Nala didn't.

Maybe it's time to stop giving Kyoya such a hard time about it.

Hikaru, who had been watching his twin quietly until then shook his head.

"Nah it's too much fun to tease him over this."

Kaoru grinned slyly at him before nodding and stepping out of the room with his brother. And in that moment, he relinquished all claim he had thought of putting on Nala.

She's Kyoya's now.

*V*V*V*V*V*V*

Meanwhile, inside the office and oblivious to what was happening in kaoru's head, Nala was watching Kyoya quietly. His first words weren't what she expected.

"It's your fault really." He pushed his glasses up on his nose with the tip of a finger. "You had to come prancing into the club and disrupt the order and peace we had after Haruhi came, and you got both myself and Kaoru tied up over you."

Nala's heart fluttered at his words, but he continued speaking.

"I didn't care very much at first. It was all to keep Haruhi happy so tamaki would be happy, but then that shifted. During the beach trip when you took on that man by himself and then confronted me about it when I told you you should watch out for your own back you showed something that no one has ever shown me. And that was complete selflessness."

Nala looked down at the floor, a blush burning her cheeks as Kyoya spoke.

"I come from a home where that would get you destroyed, we take what we want," she could all but feel him staring at the ring he had given her, "and we don't ask."

Here she interrupted him, her voice breathless, her green eyes huge and bright as she stared up at him.

"What are you telling me Kyoya?"

He froze for a moment, as if her using his first name threw him off for a second.

"I'm telling you," and here he stole a page from Tamaki's book by catching her chin with his fingers so he could keep her head tilted so she was looking up at him and couldn't look away. His dark eyes were bright, alive in a way she hadn't seen them before. "That I want you."

Nala's mouth dropped open.

"Please don't be messing with me Ootori, I don't think I could handle that right now. If this is a prank then I won't be happy." She looked down at the ring on her finger, and tugged it off, holding it out for him. "If this is a joke, then you better take this ring back right now so I can walk out of this room and out of your life. I'd rather take on Tokiya alone than have this be a pretense or a farce you're putting up for the other students, because in case you haven't been able to tell, I really like you. You and your stupid smirk, and your protective streak that's a mile wide, and your secret way of caring for people without wanting them to see it. I really like you, so if you're playing with me you better tell me right now so I can go to the nearest store and buy chocolate ice cream to drown my sorrows in."

Nala's voice grew stronger as she spoke, and a passionate blush had spread over her cheekbones and made the tips of her ears turn pink as she stared at him. Her greens eyes flashed with determination, and if one looked close enough a spark of fear lay in their depths. A fear of rejection and loss that Nala had felt one too many times for that spark not to be there in the face of his bold words of caring.

After a lifetime of loss and heartbreak from the men in her life, Nala well deserved that spark of fear, even though she knew in the back of her mind that it was irrational and she was probably overreacting because really, when did Ootori do something halfheartedly?

Fingers curling around her hand and catching the ring between both of their palms snapped Nala out of her thoughts, and she looked up to find Kyoya looking down at her.

"Miss Fuyumi, the first time I saw you, you were covered in blood, you were limping, and you're eyes were terrified and full of fear, yet you challenged me that day in a way no one ever has before by standing up to me so blatantly. So," Kyoya uncurled his hand from hers, and took the ring out of her grasp causing Nala's heart to clench painfully as she waited for his next words. "I would like to have the pleasure of properly asking you with this ring, if," He slid it over her ring finger, "You will do me the honor of being my girlfriend?"

The utter silence that filled the room for a moment, was broken by a sniffle. And with horror Kyoya found that Nala was crying.

"You," She sniffled again as a tear slid down her cheek, "You are the first man who I've ever cared about who hasn't thrown me away like trash. Who hasn't walked away, or abused me in some way, and I don't know where this will go, but you know what? Yes, I would love to do you the honor of being your girlfriend Kyoya Ootori."

He smirked at her, and his moment of romance seemed to disappear as he stepped back from her and his normal attitude of collected coolness returned.

"Good, I don't know how I would have managed to, mm, persuade you if you'd said no."

Nala's eyebrows shot up, and she wiped her tears away as a small grin of her own slid over her lips.

"I'm sure you would have managed, but I think we should go out there and tell the rest of the hosts, I think tamaki and Haruhi had a bet going on about when this would become official."

Kyoya shook his head, and muttered something about how juvenile the hosts were, before shrugging his shoulder.

"And I'm sure Tamaki will moan and complain when he finds out he's lost."

"What makes you think he lost?"

Kyoya raised an eyebrow at Nala.

"HAve you ever met them?"

Nala snickered.

"True, I bet Haruhi batted those big ol' eyes of hers at him and he probably forgot what he was betting on and made a bet for something totally irrelevant."

"Mm." Kyoya adjusted his glasses, and once more a look of seriousness settled over his face. "But now Nala, your enemies will have to get through me to get to you." His glasses glinted, and his smile turned evil. "I wish them the best of luck with that."

**Authors Note**

Guys I was gone for wayyy too long, but here's a new chapter! I should be back to my schedule now of posting every 2-3 weeks now that a bunch of crazy stuff in my life has calmed down! A special thank you to those of you who left some really sweet reviews on my last chapter when I mentioned how everything had just been going south for me, so thank you all from the bottom of my heart. Now, it's about dang time that this happened, but it was insanely hard to write this chapter, so I hope you all approve. As always, feedback is much loved and appreciated, and I'm now off to post this and begin the next chapter. Enjoy!

Shout out too…

acompletenerd + WhatisDoneLEtItbe + Cal-Kitty + Victo557 +

OtakuWhovian1224 (Thanks all for the follows and favs! You guys are the best!)

Hostyamada (Thank you so much your review was so sweet, as are you! I understand the aggravation of not being able to put ones life together but I hope everything works out for you as well! Hugs back from me :) )

repy (thank you :) I'm ok-ish it's a process, but no my foot was a separate accident from running track and not taking care of myself well enough during the beginning of the season.)

ktmyldy28 (Thank you :) time will heal it all hopefully. And yes, in all honesty I do not understand why Kyoya has such a problem with being a romantic. Things would go so much more smoothly if he would just figure it out and get over himself.)

Let'sDotheTimeLordpAgain (he really does. With what he jut did it's no wonder Nala's mad at him)

LukeSkywalkeer (Ah yes you are the unfortunate victim of some of my earlier chapters. don't worry though I'm planning on heading back and re-editing this as soon as I have some time set aside for it.)

Guest (Why thank you haha! I'm glad I was able to make you giggle. I'll count that as an accomplishment :P Flustering people tends to be what I do best

!)

OtakuWhovian1224 (hehe)