Disclaimer: OHSHC is not mine. It's called fanfiction for a reason.
I totally apologize for the last chapter. For those of you who read the A/Ns, all I can say is that it was reeeeaaaally late when I finished it and I was extremely tired. And for those of you who don't… meh. Whatever. Happy you read my story, at least. And please, please, please review after you've read it.
Anyway, here is chapter 11 of Need You Now with, as I promised, more Tamaki in it. Enjoy!
Tamaki had been under Emilie's … care for a while, and he was absolutely sick of it. The girl was obnoxious, overbearing, and not the least bit like he would expect a fiancée of his to act. Not that he believed her to actually be his fiancée, not after he overheard her trying to have Haruhi killed. Even if he didn't remember the girl, there was no way he would take kindly to someone trying to kill her.
Unfortunately, he was the best person to draw information from her. Not that it was easy, and he'd barely gathered any. But she was starting to get suspicious, and he knew he wouldn't be able to play the part of the loving fiancée for much longer. Not when the mere sight of her repulsed him. He would need to get out of there before he made a mistake.
With a groan, he pulled himself from bed and unlocked his bedroom door. He would escape, no matter what.
A slow, twisted smile wound its way onto the twins' faces. The plan Kyoya proposed was interesting, to say the least, and it challenged their mischief-making in ways the Host Club had never done. They'd been traveling for days, and it would be a relief to finally get away. Kyoya had decided that the kidnappers' guard would be down after nothing going wrong. The twins high-fived each other, and were about to pull their greatest prank yet when the car swerved to the side before stopping abruptly.
The three of them were thrown to the side, and their combined weight forced the door open. Apparently it hadn't been locked – a fact that Kyoya would never admit he overlooked. Kyoya was first, and his glasses went flying as he skidded along the asphalt, into the dead grass that lined the road.
The twins followed shortly after, but they rolled instead of skidding. Years of running from angry adults had taught them how to escape with minimal harm. Had they been anywhere else, they would have been yelling with unrepressed glee. However, even the twins knew that their lives could depend on their silence.
A car door slammed shut, and the sound echoed through the empty landscape. Nothing but scraggly trees on spread across the dead hills surrounded them. The only sound that could be heard was the faint clicking of the car's engine.
"What the hell do you think you idiots are doing?" the driver yelled, forcing the hosts' attention from their lucky escape – and the twins' disappointment of an opportunity to let chaos reign. There was no response from whoever he was talking to, and Kyoya decided to risk detection to find out who their savior was.
Before he could, his ears picked up the soft thud of a body hitting the ground, and several other, heavier ones followed. Part of Kyoya wanted them to belong to the kidnappers. The other part figured that he already had several plans for escaping from them and it would be better to risk what they knew. But it was all useless.
A small blonde head peaked out from the other side of the car. "I was right, Takeshi! It was them I saw in the car. And you didn't believe me!"
Kyoya had never been so happy to see the oldest host. He stood, brushing himself in the process before walking around the car. "It's a pleasure to see you." He looked around and saw Mori standing near their own car, and he acknowledged him with a nod. "The twins are here as well."
Hunny nodded before grabbing Kyoya by the hand and dragging him over to Mori. "We were heading to pick up Tama-chan when we saw a car pass us. It looked weird, and I thought I saw you in the backseat, so I turned around and forced them off the road."
A sense of pride came from Hunny, and Kyoya reached out to pat the boy on the head. His hand froze, however, when Hunny's words registered. The boy was too short to drive any normal car. No one ever expected him to get his license, much less actually drive anywhere. But parked in front of the kidnapper's car was a car that seemed perfect for his senpai – short and compact.
A small smile made its way onto his lips as Hunny went to find the twins. Mori had already sat in the passenger's side. The urge to laugh almost overwhelmed him as he saw him sitting with his head tilted so he could fit. Not that it really helped – his temple still rested against the top of the car.
He must've been exhausted if he actually felt like laughing.
Tamaki's footsteps echoed down the hall as he made his way to the front door. His stomach growled at him, demanding the food he hadn't given it in days, but he no longer trusted the plates that were sent to him from the kitchen. The night after he flushed his food down the toilet the first time, he'd caught the cook putting a powder into that night's stew. He normally wouldn't be suspicious, but it had been given to the cook by Emilie herself.
There had been a couple of power bars stashed in one of the drawers with a note. For her next victim. The ominous words sent shivers down his spine, and that only further cemented his thoughts on Emilie. Clearly he wasn't the first prisoner, but he did wonder about the fate of the one who had put them there.
Unfortunately, he only had enough for the following morning, and Emilie had already begun questioning his weight loss. It would be risky to stay any longer, and the only information he'd gotten was that the girl need professional help.
On the top floor, there was a small attic that hadn't been used in years. When he'd first found it, he was tempted to escape that night. There was a rope with knots at regular intervals with a weight on its end. It was just long enough to reach the first balcony.
He would have, and not looked back, but the only way down from that balcony was a vine of roses climbing alongside the house, complete with wicked thorns. It was almost as if they'd been filed to points.
So instead of being rash and mutilating his hands beyond all recognition, he decided to find a pair of thick leather gloves to protect himself from the worst of the thorns.
It was much easier said than done.
At first, he thought it wouldn't be hard to go into town and purchase some, but he always had an escort with him. "In case you have another episode," she'd told him, though he knew it was only to prevent his escape. The weather was still dry and hot anyway, so it would look suspicious if he bought winter gloves.
It was also impossible to shake his guards for even a moment. He'd tried everything to distract them – women and men, musicians and jugglers, not even alcohol would give him an opportunity. But it didn't matter anyway because no one was selling them.
That brought him to his current exploration of the house. He still had about half an hour before the guards would change shifts outside the mansion, and if he timed it just right he would be able to avoid the cameras as well. He needed to get out, if for nothing else but food. He wouldn't come back – it would be much harder to get in than out, and would bring up more questions than he'd like to answer.
He continued down the halls one by one and eventually reached the set of thick wooden doors – more suitable for a fortress than a house, in his opinion – but he'd overestimated the time he would need to get there. In his mind, he'd have to race down hallways that twisted and turned in themselves as quiet as he could, find hiding places behind statues and grandfather clocks and vases full of flowers to escape the housekeeping staff, and lose his way three or four times. But instead, he just took a couple turns and walked down the stairs.
It was incredibly lucky that there were no cameras in the house proper, most likely having to do with Emilie's… pets. And he was sure that there was more than one she had collected.
Cloaked in the shadow behind the winding staircase, Tamaki heard the grandfather clock chime a quarter to two, and his head began to pound.
The Host Club stood on a balcony overlooking their annual ball. It was the grandest event of the year, and anyone lucky enough to be invited had to be Kyoya-approved – not something that was an easy task. It was their first function with their new member, and all the girls were ecstatic at having a new toy to play with.
The party itself was uninteresting and plain, though Tamaki would never admit that to anyone but himself. It paled in comparison to the few functions his father had hosted in Japan that he'd been able to attend, and there was something missing from his own. A smile broke onto his face. He realized what was wrong.
He needed a twist.
That party was too predictable, too… He shuddered to even think the word. Normal. Granted, they'd been playing matchmaker all night with that tragically separated couple, but no oe else knew about that, He wanted something everyone could enjoy. He just didn't know what.
It was nearing midnight, signaling the need to announce the queen of the evening upon whom he would bestow a kiss. She would be lucky, to say the least. He picked up the microphone in front of him and called out her name. "Konoko-sama, you have been selected by the Host Club to be tonight's queen!"There was applause for the girl, and even more glares, as the girls congratulated her half-heartedly.
Kyoya took the microphone from him then and announced, "However, tonight's kiss will not be given by the King. Instead, the honor will be given to Fujioka Haruhi in honor of his first ball."
How dare he! That was something he had always done, and what if… what if… what if it was Haruhi's first kiss? He couldn't let his precious daughter's first kiss go to another girl! He wouldn't just stand there and do nothing.
Tamaki raced down the staircase to where the host and the customer were meeting. There was only a little bit of space between them, and he could make it time. Just as he reached out to stop the peck on the cheek, Tamaki felt his foot go out from under him, and his face slammed to the ground. Not to mention that he'd accidentally pushed the two girls together in a real kiss.
The clock struck midnight,
Well, he had wanted a twist.
Tamaki pulled himself from the flashback with an unidentifiable ache in his chest. It was almost time for him to leave, and he wasn't quite sure what he thought about his latest flashback. But instead of dwelling on it, he made his way to the double doors and pushed them open as quietly as he could.
He sighed in relief as he saw the guards in the distance and the cameras turned away from him. Luck was with him as he sprinted away and rolled into the bushes that would act as his cover. Crouching low, he slowly walked to the front gate, the branches and thorns snagging on his white silk shirt. He could feel the wounds open and blood slide down his arms, but he didn't care. He was almost there.
Voices floated towards him as if someone was talking to the guards. But the country property was too far away to be considered close to anyone, and the guards never talked among themselves.
"Please, I need to speak with Emilie as soon as possible, It's an emergency about her fiancée." About him? The only emergency he knew about was that he'd escaped – and nobody knew about that yet.
The guards reluctantly let the girl who'd spoken onto the grounds with directions to the main house. His breath caught in his throat as their eyes met through the bushes, and he surged to his feet. "Tamaki!"
Haruhi limped towards him as fast as she could before throwing her arms around his neck and kissing him on the lips. His first instinct was to kiss her back, and he did for a moment before pulling away. "What are you doing here?"
She grinned up at him. "Rescuing you."