The Angel in the Snow
Chapter 2: Day 2 – Shopping
The world shook as the feared Shadow King opened his eyes…early. Kyouya rubbed his eyes, and realized that the reason he was awake at whatever ungodly hour it was was because of the boy jumping up and down in front of him due to his excess energy. Kyouya felt his blood pressure grow at a faster than normal rate. Tamaki. Fearfully, he turned his face towards his desk clock and read the time…6:00 AM. His blood pressure spiked.
"Kyouya, wake up! It's a brand new day and I've decided-" Before Tamaki could even finish his sentence, Kyouya had already gotten up, and with his cold eyes shining, chucked Tamaki out of his room and locked the door, then stormed back to his couch and tried to regain the sleep that had been robbed from him so unfairly.
Kyouya rolled over, and after rubbing his eyes, sighed. Another day with Tamaki…hopefully he's learned his lesson about waking me up before I'm ready… Kyouya quickly changed, put on his glasses, then slowly walked down the stairs. As he reached the middle of the stairs, however, he came to a stop as a delicious aroma floated towards him. What could that be? Did Tamaki already order breakfast?
Kyouya walked into the kitchen to see something he hadn't been expecting- Tamaki cooking breakfast. Despite the fact that Kyouya had known him for years, and that Tamaki constantly talked about himself, he had not known that Tamaki could cook. As Tamaki turned around to flip the omelets he was making, he stopped humming and almost jumped- obviously not expecting Kyouya to be out of bed yet. Once he recovered from the surprise, he smiled brightly.
"Good morning Kyouya! I felt sort of bad for waking you up early, so I decided to make breakfast!"
"I didn't know you could cook." Tamaki shrugged.
"It never came up."
Once Tamaki finished with everything, they both sat down and began to eat. After a few minutes of silence, Tamaki put down his fork and said,
"Kyouya, I figured out what we're going to do today." Kyouya raised an eyebrow.
"And that would be…?" Tamaki's smile became wide.
"Christmas shopping! I thought that we could get a tree and then buy some decorations to put on it." Kyouya sighed inwardly. Has no one told him how crowded the mall gets the week before Christmas? Well…maybe it won't be too bad…? Kyouya put down his fork, a form of surrender.
"Alright- we're going right after breakfast though. The mall is going to be crowded…"
The mall was crowded. Upon entering and finding a small area that wasn't stuffed with other late shoppers, Tamaki spun around, the familiar wide grin on his face and sparkles in his royal blue eyes. The entire place was decorated with faux Christmas trees and wreaths, as well as fake soft snow on the banisters. In the center of the mall a local school choir sang a familiar Christmas carol.
"My friends, let's raise our voices in song
And decorate the room
On the special day known as today
Let's celebrate a merry Christmas
I was so excited, I couldn't sleep
But even though I'm low on sleep, I'm fine
Ding dong- Listen, in my heart
The bells of happiness ring
You can hear it too, can't you?
This joyful carol"
Kyouya blinked. The main girl singer is pretty good… His thoughts were interrupted as Tamaki, who had been dancing and clapping to the song, bumped into him. Smiling, his cheeks faintly flushed, Tamaki said,
"Isn't this wonderful, Kyouya? How could you come to a place like this and not get into the spirit for Christmas?" Kyouya turned away quickly, and shrugging, Tamaki went back to listening to the song. However, if Tamaki had seen Kyouya's face, he would have been shocked to see a small, almost true smile grace his face. Shaking his head, Kyouya rid himself of the smile, and grabbing hold of Tamaki, dragged him over to the shops. …let's just get this over with…
It had only been a half an hour, but Kyouya was already carrying three bags of tree decorations, and Tamaki was out of sight, having run off into the crowd, yelling about something 'special' he had to get. Kyouya looked down at the giant bags of ordainments and sighed. We're going to need a pretty big tree if we're going to use all of these… Pulling out his cell phone, Kyouya quickly punched in the number of the tree place his father normally got their tree from and dialed. Finally, someone on the other end picked up.
"Hello- Hayashi Christmas Tree Farm. How can we help you?"
"Hello Hayashi-san, it's Ootori Kyouya. I was wondering if you could deliver a large tree to my house. Payment will have to be in plastic, if that's alright with you?"
"Of course, Ootori-san! I'll get that tree over there right away!"
"Thank you Hayashi-san." Kyouya closed his phone and looked around. Still no sign of Tamaki…where could he have gotten to? Kyouya sighed. I guess I should go find a present for him now that he's gone…
Kyouya walked back towards the entrance of the mall, now balancing four bags in his hands. He had successfully found a gift for Tamaki- a gold colored diary with the words, "The Prince's" on the front. Tamaki would be the type that keeps a diary…he'll like it.
When he had been paying for the gift, Tamaki had texted him, saying he was waiting outside for Kyouya. As Kyouya exited the building and into the cold outdoors, something caught his eyes. Tamaki was indeed standing out by the sidewalk, but surrounding him were a few girls that he was quite obviously flirting with.
As the image burned into his eyes, he felt his heart-beat speed up as his blood pressure rose. He became angry…so much that he felt he could spit venom at the lot of them. All the while, he was wondering to himself, why? Why am I so angry?
He didn't want to admit it, but it wasn't the first time he had felt this way. No, the first time he had felt this strange, venomous pain, was half a year ago, when he had seen Tamaki walk down those stairs with the French girl he soon ran away with, except back then, it had been a bit different. Kyouya had felt not only angry and venomous, but also betrayed and…alone. It was something he never wanted to experience again.
He stormed up to the group of them, and without even thinking about it, grabbed Tamaki by the arm and dragged him off, heading in the direction of home. Tamaki looked surprised and glanced at Kyouya in confusion, but didn't try to pull away.
"Kyouya, is something wrong?" Kyouya tried to keep the malice out of his voice.
"Do you have to flirt with every girl you see?"
Tamaki blinked. "Isn't that what we normally do?" Kyouya sighed and shook his head, deciding that maybe silence was best for now.
As they reached the gates guarding the Ootori home, a new problem presented itself to Kyouya. Thinking quickly, he shoved Tamaki into the bushes to the side of them. After a second, Tamaki's blond head popped out, a few leaves stuck in his hair.
"Kyouya why-" Kyouya motioned for him to lower his voice, then said,
"I ordered a tree while you were skipping through the mall, and Hayashi's already here with it. If he sees you following me home, he might report it to my father- they have close ties. So, just stay here until Hayashi leaves." Tamaki nodded, and taking a deep breath, ducked back into the thick bush.
Kyouya greeted Hayashi, then quickly opened the gates so that Hayashi could get the tree up the driveway and into the house. Once the tree was set up, Kyouya quickly slid his credit card through the pay machine Hayashi had brought, and after saying thank you and watching the man drive away, Kyouya quickly ran back outside to fetch Tamaki.
"Tamaki, you can come out now." Tamaki's figure burst out of the bushes, covered in twigs and leaves, and a few minor scratches.
"You owe me one for that, Kyouya." Kyouya raised an eyebrow.
"How do I possibly owe you? If you weren't bumming at my house for the week, there would have been no need for you to hide in a bush. If anything, you owe me."
Tamaki pouted. "I'm not bumming at your house, I'm keeping you company! It's supposed to benefit both of us!" Kyouya shrugged and began walking back up the driveway.
"Sure…whatever you say…" Tamaki raced after him, yelling,
"You know its true Kyouya Ootori! By the end of this week you're going to be on your knees thanking me for saving you from a lonely, cold Christmas!" Kyouya laughed at the thought.
Yeah, like that will ever happen…
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A/N: Hey everyone! Sorry for the delay- I decided to participate in NaNoWriMo, and family issues came up as well...so this was put off quite a bit. But I'm back on track now! So...the song lyrics used in this chapter are from "Yorokobi no Carol" by the voice actor for Tomoyo Daidouji from Cardcaptor Sakura, just in case you were wondering. It's a cute song! So, my profile will be constantly updated on story progress, so if you're wondering about when the next chapter will be out, check there. So, thanks for reading, and please leave a review if you have time!