Chapter Eighteen

The two sat quietly across from each other on the train in their own car. There was a table between them with a plate of chocolate éclairs and two glasses of sparkling cider. Chikako had snorted at the irony when they were denied the bottle of champagne.

"I can co-own a company, but I can't enjoy a bottle of Dom Perignon with my husband?" she had snapped at the attendant in English before Kyoya had ushered her away.

"It's lovely," he assured the server. "Thank you very much." Out of habit, he bowed but caught himself and hurried away with his wife.

Now, in the car, Chikako was glaring out the window at the Boston countryside. The ride had taken longer than the simple hour she had described earlier, which was ticking her off. Especially since she could tell Kyoya wanted to say something about it but was holding his tongue.

Finally, not being able to take it any longer, she erupted by groaning and smacking the table, loudly. Her hands against the thin wood made their drinks shake and Kyoya reached out to save their cups from tipping over.

"What the-?" he muttered.

"Just say it, already. Rub it in. I didn't plan at all for this stupid trip. I get it!" she yelled in English, speaking so quickly that Kyoya's face contorted in confusion.

"Um, Chikako? Speak slower, please?" he replied in English as well.

"I. Ruined. Everything," she growled, syllable by syllable.

"Ah, well," Kyoya stumbled. "I wouldn't say that."

"Why did you have to come?" she snapped, sitting back in her chair and nibbling on her thumbnail, anxiously.

"I'm sorry?"

"Yeah, you better be sorry."

"No, no, I mean, 'excuse me?'" Kyoya quickly corrected himself. With a sigh, he carefully constructed the question, "Are you alright?"

"No."

"Why?"

Chikako took a deep breath but refused to answer.

Kyoya pressed his lips together and leaned across the table. His English had gotten a lot better since the last time she had seen him; America was good for his pronunciation. "I'll listen to music or something while you and your friend catch up. I don't really care about all that girl talk anyways, remember? I barely pay attention when you and Haruhi talk nowadays." He smirked at her, knowing it was her kryptonite. "You've turned her into such a girl, Chi-chan."

She calmed a bit at the nickname and a smile settled on her cheeks. The two were quiet until her loud ringtone broke the silence. She dug out her phone and saw her friend's caller I.D. on the screen. She had almost forgotten that the two still had the other's number.

"Leah?" she answered, excitedly.

"Chi-Chi!" the girl replied, ecstatically. "How close are you?"

Chikako glanced over at Kyoya and grimaced. "Um, about an hour longer, I think."

Kyoya blinked and searched through their paperwork hanging out of his laptop case. He flashed Chikako their train ticket arrival time and she nodded, waving him off. "Yes, yes, I believe we're going to be arriving around five thirty. Just in time for dinner, don't you agree?"

"'We'? Are you and Jake still together-? Oh! Are you both coming?" Leah exclaimed over the phone.

Chikako cleared her throat and held the receiver away from her ear. "I'll be in the hall," she whispered to her husband in Japanese. He rolled his eyes but nodded and fished out a book to read.

Once in the hallway, Chikako went back to talking in English, this time a lot quicker so Kyoya wouldn't have a prayer of listening in. "Listen, Leah," she whispered. "I'm not with Jake anymore. Far from it, actually. I'm married. To someone else. He's Japanese and we've been married for almost a year, now, and-"

"Whoa, wait, Chi-Chi," Leah said. "You're not with Jake. You're married. And you've been married for almost a year, now? Um, I'm sorry, but what?"

Chikako chuckled, desperately. She stretched her face with her taut fingers and moaned, softly. "I…Yeah, that's the gist of it, I s'pose."

"Why are you talking so quickly and…oddly? I mean I know you learned English in England. I remember the accent, but why all the abbreviations?"

"So my husband won't be able to listen in."

"He can't speak English?"

"Well, no, he can, but he's not as skilled at understanding British accents or slang."

"Ah, uh, okay, but why don't you want him to be able to understand what we're saying?"

"'Cause he doesn't know 'bout Jake and I don't want him to."

There was a long silence. "So, I guess that takes that conversation starter off the ticket?"

"Yeah, it does. In fact, I never wanna hear of or see Jake again." She sighed. "Don't ask. Actually, Leah, I'm really glad you called when you did. I was dyin' over 'ere worryin' 'bout it."

"Okay, Chi, I get it," Leah chuckled. "I won't talk about Jake at all. Deal. Now, will you please talk normally again?"

Chikako took a deep breath and smiled. "Yes. I'll see you around dinner."

"Wait, Chi!"

Chikako sighed. "Yeah?"

"I…" Her friend laughed, humorlessly. "Well, damn, Chi-Chi, I've missed you. How have you been? I mean, it doesn't sound like you've had an easy couple of years since we last saw each other, and if we can't talk about Jake around your husband… Do you want to talk about him now?"

Chikako looked down at her feet and leaned against the train windows, facing her car's sliding doors. Through the glass she saw Kyoya reading a copy of The Great Gatsby in English, his finger carefully following every word. She saw his brows furrow and then raise as he tried to understand and go over the sentence again, calmer. He did this with each paragraph and then each page. His concentration and dedication were too endearing for her to look away.

She smiled to herself. "Honestly, Leah? No. I don't want to talk about him. In fact, I know this sounds harsh, but Jake could be dead for all I care. I can't tell you exactly what happened, but Jake hurt me. A lot. He's not at all the guy I thought he was. He's…" She shook her head. "Anyways, I want to talk about you and your life and my new life and who I am as Mrs. Chikako Ootori-Akiyoshi rather than who I was as Little Chi-Chi."

Leah laughed. "Well, can I talk about him real quick, then?"

Chikako knew that it was futile saying no. With Haruhi, if you told her you didn't want to talk about something, she let the topic drop forever. Chikako had forgotten how self-absorbed and thoughtless her old friends were. "You get three quick questions."

"Deal."

"Okay, what's your first?"

"How did you and Jake break up?"

"My parents told me that we were moving back to Japan. This was the month after you moved back to America."

Leah made a small noise of sympathy. "Oh, that's too bad, sweetie."

Chikako shrugged. "It was for the best. Next?"

"How did you meet your husband? Also—and this isn't my third question but more like a part b of this question—what's his name? Your husband, I mean."

Chikako continued watching him through the glass as she spoke, quietly. "His name is Kyoya Ootori-Akiyoshi. We combined our names when we were married for, er, legal reasons. We met through an arranged marriage, actually."

"Arranged marriage?" Leah exclaimed. "That's so-! I mean, that's not exactly…"

Chikako smiled. "I know, it's not, what's the word? Kosher? Well, not in the U.S., anymore, I suppose, but it's not completely unheard of in Japan," she explained. "In fact, it's fairly common among aristocratic families."

"You're aristocratic?"

"Y-Yes, I thought…I thought you knew that…"

Leah laughed. "Oh that's right! You were the rich bitch everyone hated."

"Leah!"

"Oh calm down, I was just teasing."

"Oh, you suck!"

The two laughed and the train went through a dark tunnel, cutting off Chikako's connection. She clicked off her phone and stood up straight again. "At least it ended off on a high note," she muttered to herself. Staring at the blank screen, she added in her head, Although, she had one more question to left to ask…

She hoped that question wouldn't haunt the rest of their trip.

Leah's dorm room was small, quaint, and everything Chikako was admittedly happy she had missed out on. Thin, white walls plastered with posters of bands she would never dream of listening to and loud neighbors above and to the sides of the room thumping the halls and ceiling as they raced around their own flats doing heaven knows what.

Leah greeted Chikako with a warm hug and Kyoya with a firm handshake. "I've heard so much about you!" she exclaimed, obviously lying in her loud, American drawl.

Kyoya and Chikako smirked at each other before walking in together. Their legs moved in sync with on another, like someone had wound them up methodically before letting them free in tandem. Chikako twirled around the dorm room with a grin on her face. Kyoya took the initiative to sit down at a breakfast nook table tucked away by the windows in the corner.

"So, no roommate?" Chikako asked Leah.

Leah shook her head. "Nope! Ain't it grand? I get all this room to myself. I mean, I have to pay a little extra, but who cares when you have your own bathroom, you know?"

Chikako chuckled. "I guess I can't argue with that."

"Sorry, sorry," Leah chuckled, "I know you're a stickler with money and all. Well, I guess not really, being rich now, right? I mean, I guess you were always rich but when you got that job in the U.K. and started saving money, you were so-"

Chikako grimaced, silencing Leah's comment as she glanced over at Kyoya. He furrowed his brow at her like he wanted to comment on this memory but didn't say a word. Instead, he just took out his copy of The Great Gatsby and let the two girls gab in peace.

"Oh! I almost forgot!"

Leah scuttled around Chikako, toward her sliding closet. She rooted around the top shelf for a while before yanking down a hefty blue scrapbook.

Chikako blinked, mouth wide. "Is that…?"

"It's from my U.K. trip! I'm a big scrapbook-er and I thought you might like some photos in here."

Chikako pressed her lips together but Leah shook her head. "Don't worry," she whispered. "I won't show you any of the ones with him in them."

Chikako nodded and the two plopped down next to each other on the double bed.

They sat like that for an hour. Leah glanced over at Kyoya as Chikako flipped through the pages, smiling nostalgically at the years gone past. Every time she passed by Jake's face, Leah would look over and quickly flip the page. Though they had never been the best of friends in England, Chikako realized that Leah was still a fairly attentive and caring person. Chikako smiled at her every now and then, gratefully. She didn't really want to see Jake ever again. If she died in one thousand years and saw him in the afterlife, it'd be too soon.

"So, can I hear a little bit about you and your husband?" Leah asked, quietly.

Chikako blinked and looked up at her. "Uh, sure, what do you want to know?"

Leah shut the scrapbook and rested her head in the palm of her hand, as if she was getting herself prepared to here the best love story since Shakespeare's time. "How did you really meet?"

Chikako glanced over at Kyoya and noticed that at some point while she and Leah were skipping down memory lane, he had put headphones in. The music was loud enough for her to make out some of the words and she smiled to herself.

"Well," she started, turning back toward Leah, "It was arranged by our parents."

"Uh-huh, you told me that part. But, how does that work, exactly?"

"We sort of knew each other, well, of each other, so I can't say that I was shocked something like this had happened. Our parents arranged it for an assimilation of our corporates' businesses, so we…"

Chikako stopped talking when she saw how lost Leah looked. Chikako laughed. "I'm speaking English, right? Sometimes I switch back and forth, so if I start doing that, just let me know, okay?"

Leah chuckled, half-heartedly. "Oh no, don't worry, you speak English better than I do! I'm just having trouble understanding how that can work out. Also, how you can be okay with all that. Guess I'm not royalty, though."

Chikako furrowed her brow, hurt by the backhanded comment. "I'm not royalty, Leah. I'm still Chi-Chi."

Leah's smile was gone as she glanced over at a distracted Kyoya, engrossed in his novel and music. She sighed and turned back to her friend, lowering her voice. "Be real, Chi. You're different and… he's the reason why. I mean, don't get me wrong, I don't mind the new you and all, but-"

"What do you mean, 'the new me'? I'm still the same person, Leah."

Her friend snorted, thoughtlessly. When Chikako cocked an eyebrow at her, Leah pressed her lips together, preparing to explain herself.

"No, you're not. You used to be so loud and ridiculous and funny and free and…" She paused. "Fun. Now, you're a little…contained."

Chikako felt stabbed by the word. "Contained?" she echoed, like it was the worst slur someone had ever used against her.

Leah sat up straighter and idly braided her hair. "Yeah, I mean, you don't act like you're a teenager. You act like an adult. Aren't you still like seventeen or eighteen? You're still a teenager, technically, but you act like you're thirty. You crossed your ankles like a princess when you sat on my bed and you've been giving me all these small, knowing smirks, like you're entertaining some little kid and not a friend. It's kind of been pissing me off, to be honest."

Chikako looked over at Kyoya, who was still oblivious, and then back at her friend. Leah wasn't wrong. Chikako had changed, but who could blame her? It was been a long, hard few years. She didn't have the strength to be wild and have fun. In fact, she didn't have any inclination to be her old self. That old Chikako had been so easily swayed by childish people and flighty friends. That old Chikako had been the girl who had so easily handed her heart over to a boy who manipulated it until it shattered.

"Ever since I left the U.K.," Chikako began, slowly, "My life has been drastically different. I've been held to certain standards and had to abide to certain rules. I've had to live the blue blood life and that life included being married to a man I barely knew and leaving a life of partying and carefree fun. I'm sorry if you don't like that, but you don't have to, because it isn't your life. It's mine."

Leah made a face. "That sounds miserable, Chi-Chi. You don't strike me as the kind of person who would so easily give up. I mean, did your parents threaten to cut you off or something and you gave in like some ri-?"

Chikako sighed, interrupting her friend's rude question. "No, that's not it at all. I… You couldn't even possibly begin to understand my situation, Leah, and it doesn't seem like you're going to try."

Leah frowned. "What?"

Chikako stood up from the bed, decisively. "I think it's time Kyoya and I leave."

Kyoya looked up from his book and paused his music. "Chikako…?"

Leah jumped to her feet as well. "What? But Chi, we didn't even get to have dinner!"

Chikako narrowed her eyes. "Do you honestly think, after all the assumptions you just made about me without even giving me a chance to defend myself, that I would go to dinner with you and pretend like nothing's wrong?"

"Chi, I didn't me-!"

Chikako shook her head. "No, you did mean it. You think I'm a spoiled rich princess who dropped everything that made her happy in pursuit of money and comfort, right? Well, you're wrong."

Leah crossed her arms. "Really? I don't believe that for a second, but look. I'll give you a chance to defend yourself. See? I can be reasonable."

"What?" Chikako spat, incredulously.

"You can't seriously keep deluding yourself, Chi-Chi! You were head-over-heels in love with Jake and now you're acting like some forty year old virgin who was forced to settle!"

Chikako gawked. "You're out of line, Leah. You have no right to make accusations like that."

"I'm just trying to help you open your eyes and rea-"

"Help?" Chikako choked, laughing, humorlessly. "Jake was toxic! I hate him and I told you that I never want to hear his name ever again. I told you to not mention him and here you are, breaking that small promise.

"I went back to Japan, back to aristocracy, and back to my family because that's where I belong. It's where I'm safest and where I'm most useful. I am intelligent, powerful, well bred, and cunning enough to know where I belong. I don't have to time to be proving myself to someone like you!"

The room was quiet as Leah choked back Chikako's harsh words in shock. Kyoya was on the edge of his seat, eyes wide, not quite sure what she had just done. Slowly, he rose to his feet and inched toward his wife.

Chikako glanced at him and pressed her lips together. "We're leaving Kyoya."

He looked over at Leah and she pursed her lips, looking down.

"It was…nice to meet you, Leah," Kyoya murmured as he quietly backed up his things.

Leah's gaze flitted over to him and then back to Chikako. "You too."

It was quiet for a while before Leah said, "I'm sorry."

Chikako was already headed toward the door when she heard this and turned, hesitantly. "Do you mean that?"

Kyoya followed as Leah nodded. "You're right, Chi. I can't begin to understand your situation. I wasn't forced to marry someone I barely knew and I didn't have to drop everything for my family. I can't even imagine what that's like, so…I'm sorry I made assumptions."

Chikako took a deep breath and let it out, slowly, calming herself down. Kyoya was impressed at his wife's patience. If Leah and Chikako had had this fight a year ago, Chikako might have shredded the poor girl to pieces. Even though he hadn't exactly caught on to what the fight was about, Kyoya knew that Leah was in the wrong and not Chikako. That was plenty of ammunition for his wife to blow up and here she was calming thinking the situation through.

Leah had been right about one thing, though. Chikako wasn't a child any longer.

"You're forgiven," Chikako said, softly. "I'm glad that I got the chance to see you again, but I'm sorry that it ended like this."

Leah furrowed her brow and took a step toward her friend. "It…doesn't have to. Come on. Stay. We'll have dinner at the dining hall and you can get the chance to taste some truly awful campus food," she teased, lightly.

Chikako didn't smile. Instead she shook her head and turned back toward the door. "I can't," she said, firmly. "Kyoya and I have a long ride back and we can't waste anymore time."

Without another word, Kyoya and Chikako left Leah speechless. The two headed out of the building and toward the station to ride back to his apartment and catch a meal in their car. As they were walking out, Kyoya reached out for Chikako's hand to stop her. She glanced behind her to see she had been walking slightly faster than him, so she slowed her gait to match his.

When they arrived at the station and were boarded into their car, Kyoya finally opened his mouth and asked the one question Chikako had been dreading since the day she met him.

"Who's Jake?"

A/N: Hello my lovelies! I am so sorry that it has taken me so long to update! This chapter has been collecting dust on my hard drive for so long that I forgot I hadn't posted it! I'm awful, I know :P Anyways, thank you so much for being patient and I hope all your summers are going well! I'll try my best to post the next chapter in a timely fashion, but my summer job has me swamped :/ Regardless, I love you all and I hope you take some time to post a review and let me know what you thought of this chapter and of the story so far! You know how I love hearing your thoughts!

~Kit Koko