He went to her, of course. How could he not? He couldn't bear to see her so sad, and he needed her, a soothing balm to his soul. He didn't think she would appreciate him following her, but Angry Shana was better than Crying Shana.

He knelt in front of her, wanting to badly to draw her into his arms. "Shana." The one word had an astounding effect on her. She gave a hiccup and her sobs ceased completely, although he could still see her shaking. He tried to pull her into his arms and she shrank back, away from him.

His heart clenched at the sight. "Please," he whispered brokenly. "Don't do that." He couldn't stand having her shrink away from him, like he was so abhorrent to her. His arm was still outstretched, and she raised her head and slapped it away from her.

"Don't what." Her voice was cold and emotionless, carefully controlled. "Don't be mad at you for cheating on me with some skank?" As she spoke, her voice grew louder, the anger seeping into her tone. "And not just any skank, but the skank who has tried to ruin my life just because she didn't want a roommate who was younger than her and not into partying the way she was?" Her voice grew louder and louder, until she was practically shouting at him.

He flinched. There were so many things he wanted to say, to defend himself against her accusations, but he couldn't. She was right, and there was nothing he could say to redeem himself in her eyes. There were so many things he wanted to tell her. He wanted to throw himself at her feet and beg for her forgiveness. They had been endgame. Then he had ruined it all.

She lurched slightly unsteadily to her feet, and stood with her arm braced against the wall. "No, Kyoya, I can't do that."

All the anger seemed to dissipate instantly, and she hunched over as she walked back out of the library. Now that the haze of anger had passed, she felt weak and slightly giddy. Leaving the library, she wandered the campus until she found a bench, and sat heavily. Leaning against the backrest, she watched the snowflakes drift down from the heavens, and whimsically tried to catch snowflakes in her glove, but they always melted before she could bring them closer to her face to look at them.

It reminded her of her relationship with Kyoya, so beautiful, but when subject to anything, it would melt into nothingness. She took her hand out of her wet glove and rubbed her face with it; her cold hand felt good against her face, where salty tears were drying and felt rather uncomfortable.

She sighed as she slipper her hand back into her glove, standing up to leave. She turned around and tried to figure out where she was, but she had wound up in unfamiliar territory and wasn't sure how to get back.

"Damn," she muttered, annoyed. Taking a guess, she wandered down the path, hopefully in the direction she'd come from. "Just my crappy luck, I guess," she muttered as she scowled to herself.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" The voice suddenly sounded behind her, causing her to whip around in a panic. Her hand automatically sought her can of mace in her bag. "Stay back!" she cried, brandishing the can like it was a sword. Before she could spray, Michael pushed her can down gently. "Chill, chill! It's only me!" he told her, trying not to laugh.

"Oh," she said sheepishly, blushing. "I'm sorry," she said genuinely. "It's just that I'm kind of lost and stuff," she finished lamely.

He smiled. "Well I know the way back, so why don't you just follow me," he offered. "How did you wind up here, anyway?" he asked curiously. "Few people come here, and especially not in winter."

"Uh…" Shana was stumped for a moment. "Well, I was just walking, and somehow got lost," she fudged, unwilling to tell him just why she'd gotten lost there. "Where are we, anyway?" she asked, trying to change the subject. Her ploy worked, although Michael gave her a look that said he knew she was trying to dodge the subject.

"We're still on campus, we're just in a kind of isolated place. No one really comes here, but I think it's really nice," he said rather conspirationally. She looked around, and noticed that there were some sakura trees around them. They weren't in season now, of course, but it would be a beautiful place to come to in the spring. Then she automatically wondered if Kyoya would think it was as nice as she did, and got sad again.

"So… how's it going?" Michael asked, his gaze straight ahead. When she looked up at him, confused, he turned to look at her. "I mean, I heard about your breakup. That really sucks, huh." Shocked and stunned, she stopped in her tracks. "How did you know?" she asked accusingly.

He shrugged. "Chantelle told a whole bunch of people, and it's a hot topic on campus now." When she was silent, he continued. "You know, it might do you some good to talk about it. I promise I won't spread it."

She was silent for a moment, contemplating it. If what he'd said was true, and she was a topic of gossip on-campus, then she probably had nothing to lose anyway.

"Well…" she began.

"Who the hell is this Michael asshole. He thinks he can just come into the picture and steal Shana from me? He's wrong." Kyoya muttered as he paced the living room floor of Tamaki's apartment. Tamaki simply watched him, his violet eyes following Kyoya's movements.

"From what you're saying, she's pretty damn pissed at you, so are you sure it's a good idea to still be so possessive of her? Right now you're acting like the jealous bastard, and we both know how much she likes that," Tamaki said, looking bored, although he was anything but.

He was more perceptive than most people gave him credit for, and he knew that more than half of the reason why Kyoya was so upset was because he had no right to tell Michael to screw off, and he knew it.

Tamaki continued. "Obviously the begging didn't work. Maybe you should try something else now."

Kyoya turned to glare. "I'm sure you had a field day with that," he snapped irritably. Tamaki had to smother a grin, because it had been rather amusing. "Not at all," he lied smoothly, although he felt a twinge of guilt for lying to his friend.

He stalked over to the couch and slumped down on it hopelessly. "Well, Mr Princely, do you have any ideas?" he asked, although the words tasted bad in his mouth. He couldn't believe he was actually asking for advice from Tamaki, of all people, but it seemed he had no more clues.

Tamaki jumped up excitedly. "Oh, I was just waiting for you to ask!" he sang delightedly, spinning around. He danced around the room, retrieving his laptop. While he set everything up so that the laptop was hooked up to the projector in the room and showing a PowerPoint presentation, Kyoya reclined on the couch, wearing his usual inscrutable Shadow King mask.

Tamaki gave him a long presentation on what he had to do, which mostly boiled down to calling a Host Club reunion ball, and getting Kaori and Haruhi to drag here there to listen to his 'grand speech', which would be about how she'd changed his life and how he desperately wanted her back. Then of course, she would fall into his arms and they would live happily ever after.

And as much as he thought it was a lovely idea, and might just do the trick, he was loath to tell his idiot best friend that, as it would surely lead to an emotional outburst. However, when Tamaki finished his presentation and stared at Kyoya with a mix of pride and anticipation over his reaction, he found himself mumbling, "It's not a bad idea. I suppose it might work."

Then he braced himself for the inevitable explosion, which followed soon after. "KYOYA!" Tamaki squealed excitedly as he hugged Kyoya tightly. "I knew you would love it!"

Trying stiffly to squirm out of Tamaki's grasp without crumpling his clothes any more than they had already been, he raised a brow. "I highly doubt that you can claim all credit for it," he said dryly. This plan was too structured, too non-ridiculous, for Tamaki to have come up with it by himself.

"Well, the others helped," he said, glossing over that part smoothly.

The plan was simple, really. The Host Club would host a ball, and Haruhi and Kaori would drag Shana along. Kyoya would give a speech, and formally resign from his post as a host, although he would still take care of the club's administrative work, because he had found someone he could not stop thinking of, even when with another girl.

For Kyoya, who was usually so private and apathetic about everything, this would be a huge ordeal. He shuddered at the thought of having to announce his private affairs to every one of the crazy fan girls, but steeled his nerves when he remembered that it was for Shana. He was going to get her back if it killed him, and at this moment, he was pretty sure that it would.

"Fine," he finally said, cutting into Tamaki's monologue about how amazing this plan was. "I'll make the arrangements."

As Kyoya called people and typed on his laptop, making arrangements for the location, the food and beverages, and the printing of invitations for the event, Tamaki watched him with a small smile on his face.

It was refreshing to see Kyoya in such a tizzy; usually the other man's demeanour was so calm and affixed that Tamaki occasionally felt like pouring iced water on his head just to see how he would react. He also thought it was rather adorable that Kyoya was so flustered over a girl; something he never would have expected of the cold-as-ice host.

Oh, how the mighty fall, he thought with a small twist of his lips. He was happy for his friend; he'd worried often that Kyoya would always be too focused on his life goals to take the time to look for a little romance, but it seemed that love had managed to sneak up and bite him hard on the ass.

"Wow, that sounds really bad," Michael told her, when she finished telling him about her shameful story. "But you know, it sounds like he really is sorry. Why don't you talk to him, just let him explain himself. He might surprise you. And it sounds like you really miss him too, so it can't hurt to just hear him out."

He toyed with her hair as she digested his advice. "Maybe I should," she agreed, turning to look at him.

It was then that she realised he wasn't just messing with her hair, he'd made not one, but several small braids that he'd somehow managed to twine together. She stroked them gently, wondering how he'd managed to do that. She couldn't even do it.

"How…" she asked, surprised. He batted her hands away. "Don't touch, you're messing it up." Obediently, she placed her hands back in her lap, letting him braid her hair, as he wanted to. The action was oddly reminiscent of what she did with late-night sleepovers, since Kaori had been obsessed with her hair since she'd dyed it back to her natural colour.

When he was done, he did an intricate twist and managed to hold it all together without the use of a hair tie.

"Wow, that's really impressive," she told him, admiring his handiwork.

He smiled almost sadly, casting his gaze downwards. "Well, my parents didn't seem to think so."

She turned to look at him, silently asking him to elaborate, although she already had an idea of what he was saying. "Are you gay?" she asked the question with no recrimination. In her opinion, there was nothing wrong with that – she knew better than most what judging and discriminating against someone could do to that person.

He said nothing, but nodded almost imperceptibly. She could tell that he was nervous; scared that she would jump up and run away from him in horror, tell everyone and ruin his life.

Instead, she hugged him tightly, letting him know beyond the shadow of a doubt that she accepted him for who he was, even if others wouldn't. The quiet acceptance and support he felt from a near stranger, something his parents hadn't even given him, was more infinitely profound than anything he'd felt before.

He raised his arms and hugged her back tightly.

Shana and Michael became very close friends; finding that they had so much in common and they complemented each other's personalities very well.

Haruhi and Kaori were worried; they knew about Kyoya's plan and their role in it, but how could he win her back if she was already with someone else? Shana and Michael seemed so inseparable, and so good together, that it wasn't hard to see why they were worried.

Kaori had even broached the subject with her once, asking her why she hung out with Michael so much now. "Are the two of you together?" Shana had abruptly started laughing so hard she'd almost fallen off the bed she was sitting on. "No, Kaori, don't worry. I'm not his type," she said cryptically, gasping the words out between peals of laughter.

She'd refused to tell them what she'd meant, but although they wanted Shana and Kyoya to be together, they couldn't deny that Michael was good for Shana; she'd been happier in the week that she'd started to hang out with him, than in the weeks before that.

Kyoya was, of course, furious and upset. He worried that he wouldn't be able to win her back, worried that she was going to sleep with him, was going to give him a gift that Kyoya had claimed for himself in his mind. Archaic as though it sounded, Shana was his, and he had no intention of letting her go.

He threw himself into a frenzy of planning, outdoing himself as he put together a beautiful and extravagant event. Before he sent the invitations out, he held hers in his hand for a moment, wishing as hard as he could that Haruhi and Kaori would do their part, that she would be at the ball. There would be no meaning to the ball, and all his effort would have been for naught, if she didn't turn up. Please, please, let her come.

With that, he sent the invitations out.

Phew! Haha I hope you guys enjoy this chapter, it seems awfully stilted and disjointed to me. :/ Let me know what you guys think of it please! (:

One more thing. (This part is shameless self-promotion and you can skip this if you want though hahah) I made a blog! peachyhikaru (dot) wordpress (dot) com :D Please go there and check it out if you're interested hehe, I post about everything there, commentaries about anything and everything, reviews about some animes that I follow (some ZnT and Shakugan are up there) and fanfiction ideas (other than animes; I'm thinking about branching out of this genre) are also posted there, so you can comment and leave suggestions and opinions there. I love hearing from you guys!

Until next time,

Love,

Peachy Hikaru (: