Chapter 3: When Tamaki's World Stood Still
Haruhi's shoes pounded the stairs as she dashed up them, breathing hard and feeling the burning of her lungs. When she reached her stop, she leaned against the wall and took in all the air she could. Her vision was black and fuzzy around the edges from running so hard, and her legs felt like jelly. She knew that tomorrow she would be sore, but it was nice to race her dad like old times. Haruhi looked around for him and saw him coming up the stairs slowly.
"Hey, dad," she panted, "I won." Ranka nodded and patted Haruhi on the back.
"Just like old times,"
Tamaki's heart just wasn't in his ice cream. Kyoya could tell; he knew Tamaki better than almost anyone. The blond sat and pushed his vanilla ice cream (which you could hardly tell was vanilla since he put so many toppings in it) around in its paper cup and frowned listlessly. The twins were asking to test taste every flavor, and Hunni was on his fifth strawberry ice cream, with Mori warning him that he'd get a brain freeze if he ate too fast. Kyoya sat and observed the clubs antics, keeping his eye on his French friend. He made sure that nobody was listening, closed his notebook, and turned to Tamaki.
"Is something wrong?" he asked. Tamaki looked up at him curiously.
"No, why?"
"Because you haven't touched you melting mass of sugar and calories." Tamaki pursed his lips and set his spoon down.
"Haruhi got a letter from someone today,"
"Well what's wrong with that?"
"It was a love letter,"
"Oh," Kyoya smiled knowingly, intrigue in his voice, "have you finally decided to confess?" Tamaki's face turned red and he glared.
"Th-There's nothing to confess! I've told you before that she's like a daughter to me!" Kyoya raised his hands in mock surrender, smiling at Tamaki's obliviousness to his own feelings. Tamaki took a breath and began to tap out piano scales on his leg, a nervous habit that Kyoya had noticed but never remarked upon. "She's moving, too," the blond finally spoke, biting the inside of his cheek. Kyoya was surprised that he hadn't known this sooner, and raised an eyebrow.
"She is? When?" Tamaki shrugged and sighed, for once silent since Kyoya had met him. He saw the sorrow in Tamaki's eyes and realized that Haruhi must be moving far enough away to change schools. "Oh," he muttered, making eye contact with his friend.
"Yeah," Tamaki responded with equal melancholy, "oh,"