"You're leaving?" Kyoya barely noticed the tiny rocks that dug into his bare heels into the sand of the playground, looking to his girlfriend as he slowed his swinging. Natsume kept swinging, pumping her legs and throwing her weight around so that the swing went higher. Her tawny eyes were sparkling with something unspoken and the red light of the evening caught the purple and blue strands that made up her raven dark hair.

"For what?" he asked when she finally stopped beside him. "And how long?" He eyed her as she picked at her stark white cami and cropped olive Joie capris.

She blew out a breath, her chest and shoulders heaving dramatically. "For the summer, to hang with Karen in Spain."

He raised a skeptical eyebrow at her and she felt the heat spread to her face. Ever since she had told everyone she was leaving for Spain to hang out with Karen for the summer, it was as if they all thought the same thing. So what? She was entitled the right to change her mind, wasn't she? Just because she didn't do it often didn't mean she didn't do it.

"What? I changed my mind!" She scowled lightly, crossing her arms tightly over her chest. "Is that so wrong?"

"That is the lamest excuse you have ever come up, Natsume. And you know it." He said it so dryly and with so much sarcasm she couldn't help but laugh, the sound filling the silence of the playground. Sliding of the swing, she dropped into his lap and he openly welcomed her, wrapping his arms around her waist and resting his chin on her shoulder. She leaned back and closed her eyes, wondering how this had all began to change, and what the future held.

"So what made you decide to hop a plane and see Karen?" he asked, tracing the blue vein running from the inside of her wrist to the end of her elbow. Natsume shrugged with one shoulder, her tawny eyes reveling that she was far too excited and too far gone to be talked out of her decision. He eyed her, his fingers gliding along the creamy skin of her toned arms. Obviously, she had been able to contemplate this for a few days, or else he would be able to convince that she should stay.

Besides, it was useless to argue with her. She probably had a million responses to just one of his questions. That's how Natsume worked. She had been raised to come up with quick answers, to defend what she was rightfully hers. For a second, his stomach burned with contained anger with her father and his father-in-law. Reiji had done everything in his power to make Natsume just as "perfect" as his other daughters. And while he thought he had failed, really, she had been perfect all along.

At least for Kyoya, she had been.

Her eyes fell on him and a smirk graced those heart-shaped lips he was so familiar with. "Aren't you going to try to convince me to stay? I'm pretty sure other boyfriends would try."

"I'm not like other boyfriends."

She laughed again and played with the braided leather bracelet around her wrist, smiling. "True. You're my effin' ticket to fame."

"Good to know where I stand in your world." There was so much amusement and sarcasm in that one comment it forced her to turn around and kiss him just hard enough to leave him breathless.

With a knowing smirk, she patted his heated cheeks and batted her eyelashes. "I promise to call you before you go to bed. And if I go out somewhere, I promise to send you some pictures. I'll even get you a souvenir, because I know you want one."

"Preferably wine. I haven't tasted real Italian wine before." He titled his head and gave her pleasant smile. "And bring enough for both families. My parents are wondering what's going on between us."

Natsume slid her arms around his shoulders and tossed her hair back with a flourish, giving him her charmed smile. "Let's keep them guessing. I like to keep out of the limelight until things are really up to standard."

Both his eyebrows rose in surprise. "Really? I thought you worked best amid chaos and calamity."

"I do," she said slowly, then grinned down at him. "But so what? I like to be sure my shit's gonna work before I show anybody. What's the point of showing something that's going to embarrass you the minute you walk out with it? I've had far too many experiences."

He began to push the overloaded swing with his heels, nodding. "A smart move. It wouldn't be wise to revel something only to have it not work."

"I bet you've had a lot of failures in the past."

He smiled pleasantly at her. "No. I'm perfect."

She slapped his arm playfully, not able to stop the grin blossoming across her lips. "Whatever! You're supposed to learn and improve from your past mistakes! You're such a liar!"

"And you're a tease. But I don't say that to often, do I?"

She smirked and pressed himself against him, lowering her eyelids. "If I'm a tease, you're a prune. I bet you didn't even know how to flirt before you met me, Kyoya."

"Contrary to your belief, I work in a host club." He held her a little closer and shifted so that they wouldn't fall off the swing. "I learned all the tricks of trade, both in love and in life."

Her tawny eyes went heavenward as she rolled them, ignoring his chuckle. "Whatever. But I've been at this a little bit longer than you."

"I don't think fluttering your eyelashes at your history teacher in elementary school counts as flirting, Natsume."

Her laughter rang in his ears she ducked her head and pressed their lips together. Hormones kicked in and before anything could become way too serious, a car horn burst their bubble. Natsume grumbled as Kyoya regained control of his mind, though his friend was having second thoughts.

Natsume cast him a playful wink. "When I come back, I'll teach you how to rap in Spanish."

He raised an eyebrow as she slid from his lap and slipped back on her white platform flip-flops. "Rapping in Spanish?"

"Yeah," Natsume grinned, reaching high into the air and stretching with a felines grace. "Karen's friend, Marissa, is from Mexico City, the state, and her father used to work with a famous Spanish rapper. Karin also knows how to have a civil conversation in three different languages."

"So do you."

Natsume smirked as Kyoya stood from the swing and grabbed his own sandals. "True. But she knows how to sing in Latin and I have yet to learn anything in Latin."

Kyoya rolled his dark gray eyes skyward as she sauntered past him. "Latin is a dead language. Why would you need to learn anything in Latin?"

"For the hell of it," was her immediate response.

Of course.

--X--

It was seven in the morning and Natsume felt like shit. The seventeen year old stared at the flight names from her perch at the airport's Starbucks. She had only had one venti Frappuccino and a chocolate muffin, but even so, she still felt like throwing a major hissy fit. Of course Reiji would be an ass and wouldn't let her use the private plane. Instead, she had to wait like everybody else and fly first class, international. Yoko had said it would be like an adventure before her adventure.

Natsume didn't want an "adventure before her adventure."

But when she told Yoko this, Reiji said he could make it a real adventure and bump her ass back to coach. That made her shut up and for the first time in a long while, Natsume had felt like bitch slapping the shit out of him.

A sigh escaped her lips at the memory. Reiji had been happy that she and Kyoya were getting along better. In fact, he thought that the whole arranged marriage was really going to go off without a hitch. But the thought to Natsume made her feel as if she was wearing her favorite silk scarf around her neck and pulling it tight. She didn't know if she could actually go ahead with the plan of marrying Kyoya. But it was something for the future. Maybe when they were older, like thirty, she would consider it. Plenty of women got married at the age of thirty.

Reaching up, she ran her newly manicured hands through her romantic raven dark curls. They feel about her shoulders and framed her face in a way that highlighted her high cheekbones and old money genes. In her turquoise drop waist strapless minidress and matching Christian Louboutin bejeweled cork platform strappy sandals, she looked like a woman ready to hit the town. But soon, after a seven-hour plan ride, she would look like a woman ready to take a shower and pass out in her suite's bedroom.

She drummed her purple nails on the fake granite tabletop and shifted in her chair. She had wanted to call Kyoya, force him to come down here and stay with her. But she hadn't wanted a long, drawn out goodbye. It would create publicity, especially since they were from families that were well known and created far too much buzz for their own good. It would only sour her mood even more if paparazzi gathered to watch their PDA.

A sigh escaped her purple lips. Wasn't there ever a moment when she could just have a friend stand by her and not generate anything more than gossip?

Someone took the seat across from her and glanced up, only to gasp in surprise. Kyoya tossed a casual smile at her, looking perfectly put together in a green Ralph Lauren polo and Calvin Klein jeans with lamb skin loafers. Natsume felt her eyes grow moist behind her Dior wrap-around tortoise shell sunglasses and her skin turned hot and flushed.

She cleared her throat, but couldn't stop the tremble. "What are you doing here? I thought for sure you would still be asleep."

He reached across the table and gently took her hand in his, running his thumb across the smooth skin. "It would be impolite not to show you off on your 'adventure'."

A shaky laugh left her lips and then he was out of his chair and sitting next to her, his arms around her as she sniffled into his chest. He smiled into her romantic waves. "And it's always nice to see you get overemotional."

"I am not," she croaked around the cottony lump in her throat. He only rubbed her back as tears slid down her blotchy red cheeks. It was a boldfaced lie, but she still fought like crazy keep hold of the shreds of dignity she had. Crying in public was so not for her. Her skin turned blotchy red and she trembled. Crying in general meant she was weak. But when it came to Kyoya, it just made her feel like one of those pathetic girlfriends who whined when their boy toy didn't buy them exactly what they wanted for their birthday.

"Say cheese!"

She burrowed herself farther into Kyoya's chest, hiding her face from Tamaki's unforgiving digital camera her voice in a just as unforgiving hiss. "You brought them along?"

"Yes, unfortunately." He sighed as the twins and Honey began singing about kissing in trees. "They were waiting for me when I walked out the house that morning."

Natsume wiped her tears on his shirt before forcing herself to lift her glasses and give them a firm glare. "No pictures. I mean it Tamaki."

"You're no fun!" Hikaru grumbled as Kaoru smiled at them. "What's the point of coming here if we can't take pictures of Ouran's hottest couple?"

Haruhi rolled her eyes at them and Natsume raised an eyebrow at her pink polo and tan cropped capris. "What? Can't I look nice for once?"

"For me?" Natsume gasped dramatically, and then laughed as a blush colored Haruhi's face. "You look great! Just like a girl! Maybe I'll even bring you back some heels and a dress." She wiggled her eyebrows suggestively, causing Haruhi's face to color even more.

Tamaki stopped fiddling with his camera and threw an around both Kyoya and Natsume's shoulders. "Today, we celebrate something very special!"

"Such as?" Kyoya commented dryly, crossing his arms and giving Tamaki a cold look.

Tamaki didn't shrink away, but instead tightened his hold on them. "Why, Natsume going away on her adventure, of course!" His voice was, as always, cheerful and loud, attracting the attention of everybody within a twenty-meter radius.

Honey threw himself from Mori's shoulders to Natsume's arms, grinning like he was a child in a candy store. "Yeah! An adventure for Natsume! I'm so excited for you!" His eyes grew wide and she couldn't help the swelling of her heart at his overwhelming sweetness. "Are you gonna bring us back souvenirs? Like Italian candies and cakes?"

She patted his head. "Of course! What kind of friend would I be if I didn't bring you some foreign candies and cakes back? I might even send them ahead of time since they won't stay very fresh on the ride back."

His eyes lit up and she laughed, handing him back to Mori. "I'll bring something back for everybody." She smirked at Tamaki, who was heartily pumping Kyoya's hand. "Even you, Tamaki."

He flashed his princely smile and kissed her hand, bowing deeply and elegantly. "I thank you for your gratitude, Miss Natsume. It will be a pleasure to receive a gift from you."

"Of course," Natsume said, tossing her hair over her shoulder with a flourish. She pulled Kyoya towards her and gave him a hard kiss for him to remember her by. "I'll see you guys later."

And with that, she grabbed her bags, gave Haruhi one last hug and set off on her adventure, the entire Host Club shouting their support behind her. It was . . . a good feeling. A feeling of finally being accepted into the one group she never thought she could join.

That's it. That's the last chapter.

Sorry that took me a while. But I'm pleased with this ending. It's very . . . fluffy XD And even has some humor^^

Anyways, I'm thinking I might redo this story, make it longer, and more characters, you know?

Make up for all the stuff I didn't do here^^

I hope you enjoyed!

Love ya, 'cause ya love me! ~CocoaAngel95 :'] Until next time! XD