K~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I rolled my eyes at Tamaki's gushing phone delivery. "Haruhi, meet us at the McDonalds by the commoner's shopping mall." He was always like that when talking to his fiancée. I didn't even have to look in the rearview to know he was grinning like fool.

"So, Tamaki, was Haruhi at the concert tonight?" Sly girl. She knows the right questions.

"Oh, yes, she was. I couldn't really see her from the stage, but she promised to come, and she doesn't break promises to anyone, especially me." If you ask the right questions, you can get all the information you want. I couldn't contain my amusement and allowed one side of my mouth to quirk upward.

J~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I looked in my review mirror at the backseat to see Kyoya smirking to himself again as he messed with his cell. He smirked more than any one person I had ever met.

"Kyoya, I never properly thanked you for the great addition tonight. Thanks so much for joining us. I know you didn't have to do that, but it really added the missing component to the music as you said earlier. The original was composed for a cello orchestra and voice, but the piano is used more often."

"You are welcome. I saw the cello sheets in your studio when Tamaki returned to practice, and I had heard it with cello orchestra, so I thought I would help you out." He continued debonairly, "By the way, you really have great poise on stage. If I were the audience, I never would have known you hadn't expected a third musician."

I was flattered by the praise, but it wasn't anything I hadn't heard or known already. It is nice to have what you know confirmed, though. However, Kyoya was being far too winsome at the moment for me to fully trust what he was saying. From what I had witnessed of him, Kyoya Ohtori only did precisely what he wanted in as rational and calculating a manner as possible. He struck me as a person to have ulterior motives for everything.

"I do wonder why you would decide last minute to perform in a concert. You don't strike me as a man who does anything on a whim," I mused.

"What are you trying to say, Miss Mooreson?" He was still looking at his phone. One of my biggest pet peeves was when people pay more attention to their devices than the person with whom they are conversing. But, he does seem to be able to multitask quite well: a full blown, attentive conversation and what I assume is business. Nice.

"Only that I don't think you did this out of the goodness of your heart or for the love of music, even if I wish that one or both were true." I sighed. I wanted him to warm up a little bit.

"Hm." I could tell he wasn't ruffled at my assessment. On the contrary, he was smirking widely. Why, I do believe he's smiling! He killed the smile before he spoke. I assumed that he didn't want even the slightest sound of enjoyment creeping into his voice. "You are quite right, ma'am. I do have more than one reason for playing tonight, but I honestly did think you needed the cello. And, I was right. The music was much better this evening as an ensemble than this afternoon as a soloist with piano. Although, you carry the piece well as a soloist, it loses its spark without one cello, at least."

"You are a bit smug. Aren't you?" I chuckled. "No matter. I still want to know what you want in return or who you needed to impress."

He sighed as he spoke. "Why do think I needed to impress anyone or want something?"

"Because you pretty much admitted to having ulterior motives for playing."

We pulled up to the fast food joint, and I parked.

"Maybe I understand that you recognize musical talent as a legitimate standard of intelligence. Maybe I just wanted to make sure you'd remember me," he whispered as he opened and closed my car door for me.

"As flattering as that sounds," I scoffed a bit, "I'm really having a hard time believing you, Kyoya."

"As the lady wishes," he replied and we all walked inside.

K~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Maybe I understand that you recognize musical talent as a legitimate standard of intelligence. Maybe I just wanted to make sure you'd remember me." I can't believe I just said that. It didn't matter that she remember me. It just mattered that she feel obligated to return the favor. Oh, well. That little speech may be in my favor later.

I decided to let the incident pass. But, I still can't believe I said that!