"What do you mean I can't go?" He asked frustrated.

"I'm sorry Tamaki, you're grandmother forbad me to take you," his father explained.

"You've disobeyed her before, why is now any different?"

"She threatened to cut me out of the family business if I do so."

"So that's it...?" Tamaki asked in disbelief.

"I'm sorry," the chairman sighed. Tamaki scoffed.

"For letting her kick me out of the house or for the fact this is the first time I've seen you since it happened?"

His father bit his lip, no words could lessen the guilt he was carrying. He couldn't even look his son in the eye.

"If there's nothing else, can I be dismissed?"

The chairman nodded. "I'll see you when I get back."

Tamaki stormed out of his father's office. How could he let her control him like that?!

"Tamaki-sempai!" Haruhi shouted, running towards him.

"What?" He snapped. Haruhi paused and saw the hurt in his eyes.

"Did something happen with your father?"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Sempai?"

"I-I have to go." He began to turn towards the end of the hall.

"W-wait, Tamaki!" She grabbed his hand.

"Just leave me alone, Haruhi!" She jumped back. Letting him go, she watched as he strutted down the hallway. She slid to her knees in disbelief. Did he just shouted at me? She had never seen Tamaki angry, she didn't even think he could get angry.

"Haruhi." Kyouya came walking out a corner. "I heard yelling, did something happen?"

"Sempai..."

"Is he okay?"

She shook her head. "Whatever's going on, it must be pretty bad."

•••

Tamaki slammed the door, locking it behind him. He couldn't control it anymore. His grandmother hated him with all her heart and his father was avoiding him every chance. It hurts, Tamaki thought as he brought his hand to his pounding heart. Tears would be pouring his face if he wasn't so angry at his grandmother. He could handle the insults she threw at him, the way she looked down on him, even, despite how agonizing difficult it was, being separated from his mother. But this time she went too far.

"Damn old hag!" He threw a porcelain saucer across the room, shattering it into tiny pieces. But that wasn't enough, he reached for the clock on the nightstand and screamed as he hurdled it to the wall. "Why?!"

He did the same to a teacup, a hardcover novel, and a hand mirror until he collapsed from exhaustion and landed his arm on one of the broken glass shards. He laid on the cold floor, staring at his bleeding wrist among the mess of torn pages and smashed china. It should hurt, but he was too numb to feel anything. Through the buzzing in his ears he could hear pounding on the door.

"Master Tamaki!" shouted Jima-san. She kept twisting the locked door knob. He tried to get up but his limbs felt too heavy to move. He felt his eyes closing but before they did, he whispered, "Je suis désolé," and allowed sleep to take hold of him.

The next day...

Kyouya arrived at the Suoh's second residence in a pair of skinny jeans and a plaid shirt. They usually hang out on Saturdays to discuss club plans, only for Tamaki to drag him to a parade or some commoner event happening nearby. He rang the doorbell and the housekeeper answered.

"Good morning Jima-san," he greeted with his host smile, "is Tamaki available?"

"I'm afraid Master Tamaki has fallen ill."

"What?" How can this be? He was fine yesterday. "May I see him?"

"I was told not to allow visitors in," she told him, and then added, "however, I have no control if someone was to sneak inside the house through the kitchen backdoor while I let Antoinette out for her walk."

"Thank you, Jima-san," Kyouya grinned and ran to the backdoor.

•••

Tamaki curled up under the plush quilts, a few coughs left his throat. By the time the staff had managed to unlock the door, he had gotten a slight fever from falling asleep on the floor.

A knock interrupted Tamaki from a poetry book he was reading.

"Come in," he croaked, his throat sore from the screaming.

"I hear our poor prince is sick again," Kyouya joked as he entered Tamaki's chambers. The blonde was sitting up, supported by countless feather pillows, and was too tired to argue why he was here so he let him in.

"Hey."

"You look terrible."

"I know. So, um...how's Haruhi?" Tamaki mumbled. The raven-haired boy crossed his arms.

"You mean after you were finished shouting at her?" Tamaki looked away. "She's fine. She's not angry but she's concerned for you. We all are."

"Kyouya, I'm fi-"

"Yeah, I know the answer," he said slightly annoyed. He was getting tired of hearing him constantly say 'I'm fine'.

Kyouya looked around the room. Everything was exactly in the same place, as if he never moved in with his father. The scratch marks on the wall are new... Kyouya's attention snapped back to Tamaki when he heard him starting to cough roughly.

"You sound terrible too. How did you get so sick?"

"Uh..." He walked over and sat on the edge of the bed, leaning over to feel his forehead.

"Hmm...you're a little warm. But it's nothing serio-" he stopped his eye caught something. He grabbed Tamaki's right arm and before he could react, Kyouya pushed his sleeve up to reveal a white bandage wrapped around his wrist.

"Tamaki, what is this?!"

"It's nothing," he moaned, pulling his arm back.

"That's not nothing! My family owns a health care zaibatsu, you think I can't tell a serious injury when I see one? What happened?" Kyouya demanded.

"I-I cut myself..."

"On purpose?!" he asked, alarmed.

"N-no! I fell on some broken glass." He knew there was more to it than what he was willing to say.

"There's something you're not telling me. What is it?"

"Kyouya please!" he begged.

"Just tell me!"

"I can't!" Tamaki strained his throat too far and had a coughing fit.

"Breathe, Tamaki." Kyouya began rubbing Tamaki's back as he struggled to catch his breath.

"Master Tamaki?!" One of the maids barged into the room with a of water in her hand.

"He'll be okay, bring the glass over here." She did as she was told and bowed on her way out. Kyouya turned backed to Tamaki. His coughing had subsided and his breathing was shallow. He handed the blonde prince the glass of water.

"Thanks," he breathed out. Kyouya felt nervous, afraid to put any more stress on the lead host. But he had to ask.

"Why don't you trust us?"

"I do!" Tamaki's raw voice cracked. Kyouya told him to calm down, he didn't need to lose his voice completely. "It's just...I can't. It hurts so much to think about it...I just want to forget and pretend it never happened." Tamaki put his head in his hands.

"Tamaki-"

"I promise, Kyouya- I'll go back to being the beautiful princely host everyone wants. Just pretend there's nothing wrong."

Kyouya looked at the blonde desperately trying to avoid talking about this. He couldn't just pretend that his friend wasn't getting himself hurt or sick. But there was no way he was going to get him to reveal anything, especially not in the state he's in.

"Ok, I'll go along with it." Tamaki smiled weakly, a genuine one for the first time in days. "Go get some sleep. I'll see you on Monday." Tamaki nodded sleepily until his head fell on his shoulder. Kyouya shook his head and tucked him in before leaving.

•••

Her voice drifted into his ears like a gentle breeze. Tamaki stirred a bit, rolling over to his side as he slept. The voice became louder, her lullaby bringing Tamaki into the consciousness. He moaned like an irritated child would and laid on his back. He gave in and listened to the sound that woke him. It was beautiful and soft, almost lulling him back into slumber. The words were barely audible but he could recognize the voice singing to him. He sprung up, looking for the owner of the voice. There was no one else in the moonlit room. Tamaki leaned back into his pillows, his breathing slowing down. It was just a dream...only a dream...

He closed his eyes but couldn't fall asleep. Now that he was awake, he was fully aware of the soreness in his throat and itchiness of his wrist under the bandage. But above all, he became aware of how lonely he felt since he left his father's place. This sucks, he thought as he scratched over the white cloth. All he could think about was how his father had betrayed him. How he never fought for him and had simply let his grandmother evict him. How he was never there to comfort him after-

No, don't think about that! Think happy thoughts. Beautiful, happy thoughts... And with that on mind, he closed his eyes once more.