To Chase a Criminal
By E.M. Megs
Part 3: Blossoming
Kyoya was a very casual person when he was not at work. Somehow, she found it odd to see both the work and home sides of him in one day, as she got used to doing. He also was tremendously good at keeping his professional and personal lives completely separate. While at the office, she was merely his secretary. Granted, she was a rather close secretary, but he never showed her any affection there. And he was not an affectionate person to begin with.
However, once out of the office, out to dinner as he was prone to convince her to go, he seemed to transform in front of her eyes into a relaxed, casual man with whom she genuinely enjoyed spending her time.
They'd been out to dinner almost every night since the thunderstorm. She knew how busy his schedule was, but for some reason, every night he managed to be free around dinner, and sometimes after too. He called it 'their time'. She called it 'I'm sick of work and ready to spend time with you'.
Tonight, they were having a picnic in the park upon her request. The food was eaten, he was sitting with his back against a tree, letting her prop up against his chest. She could hear his heart beating from her position. It was steady, content. She shut her eyes. Why did this feel so perfect? He was a criminal. She was supposed to be chasing him. But this was absolutely perfect. So perfect in fact that she started wondering what he was doing to her.
And when it would end.
She felt his hand leave hers in favor of sweeping hair out of her face. She smiled as his fingers trailed down her face. His hand left her again. She frowned slightly and let her eyes flutter open to find his staring down at her. The corners of her lips twitched up in amusement as she turned to face him, sitting on her knees. She brushed his bangs out of his face. They were getting a bit long.
The thought was pushed out of her head when he leaned forward and kissed her. She pulled back quickly in surprise, watching a small frown take over his face as his eyes searched her face. "Was that… too soon for you?" he asked, looking a bit insecure for once. She found it oddly cute and shook her head.
"You just surprised me," she murmured, leaning back and returning the kiss with one of her own. She sighed when she pulled back again. "Most of the time you're so…" she trailed off and sat back on her heels, trying to think of the correct word. "… Distant. You're so distant most of the time that when you do something that actually acknowledges my existence it's surprising for me."
He scowled now. "I don't acknowledge your existence most of the time?" he retorted.
"I didn't mean that," she mumbled. "I mean, that is the first time you've kissed me and we've technically been dating for nearly a month."
"I see," he teased gently, "I'm not moving fast enough for you." She turned her eyes away toward the sky with a chuckle. She was still looking up at the stars when his arms wrapped around her waist, pulling her closer to him. Her breath hitched when he growled, "Well, we'll just have to fix that, won't we?" She suddenly felt as though his eyes were staring straight into her soul. The intensity of his gaze combined with the heat of his hands on her waist made her face feel like it was burning. He chuckled at how wide her eyes were and the color of her face. "You really are beautiful, Haruhi," he breathed, lips meeting hers gently.
"And you're quite handsome," she replied nonchalantly, lips curling into a smile as he released her. She almost missed the small eye roll that he gave her when they stood. "What?" she asked, bumping his shoulder gently.
"Nothing," he murmured. "Just didn't think you'd actually fall for my charms."
She snorted. "Your charm has nothing to do with it." When he raised an eyebrow she continued, "It has to do with your kindness. And your concern. And your… strange way of showing affection. And your ability to separate your professional and personal lives in a way that makes this work."
"And perhaps a bit of my charm," he added for her, with a mischievous smirk.
"Perhaps a tiny bit crammed in with your decidedly good looks," she agreed. He chuckled softly, a hand reaching around her to find a place on her waist.
"My family wants to meet you," he murmured as he began leading her away, picnic basket in hand.
She glanced at his face uneasily. "Why would they want to do that?" she asked with a nervous laugh. Meeting his family was not necessarily on her agenda of things to do while she was spying on him.
"Why not?" he retorted. She didn't have an answer that she could easily tell him. "Exactly. How does Saturday night work for you?"
"I don't know… I'd have to check with my boss," she said, her tone playful though underneath she was bristling with apprehension. He gave her a pointed look as she pulled out her phone and texted the twins while pretending to check her - their - schedule. "I think I'm free."
"That's what I thought. That night is our monthly all family dinner anyway, so it's perfect."
She dreaded the idea of meeting his entire family - brothers, sister, siblings-in-law, parents, nieces and nephews in all.
~o~
"What do you do Miss Fusao?" She nearly spilled her wine when Yoshio Ohtori asked her the question. She choked a bit on the sip she'd been taking. Kyoya glanced at her out of concern. She'd been determined to blend into the background through this entire dinner. Apparently the Ohtori patriarch had other ideas.
"I'm-" she broke off and coughed a bit more, clearing her throat out. "Sorry. I'm a secretary."
"My secretary," Kyoya corrected her gently.
"That's hardly good business conduct, Kyoya," Yuiichi muttered sourly.
"Like you didn't meet Mayuri the same way," the younger retorted. Yuiichi's wife scowled a bit. She felt the ice of the glare between the two brothers from her seat next to Kyoya. "At least Haruhi and I are managing to keep it out of the news."
"Enough," Kyoya's mother, Mayumi spoke gently, "This is a family dinner, you two. I won't have you arguing at the table. Take it elsewhere."
"Thank you, Mother," Kyoya said politely, tipping his glass at her before taking another sip of it. Haruhi glanced over at his glass apprehensively. His grip on it was anything but light and she'd been counting how many glasses he had.
This was his fifth and they weren't even halfway through the main course yet.
Something was putting him on edge and she wasn't sure if it was his father's presence or Yuiichi's disproval.
"Sorry I'm late," Akito's voice wafted over them as he hurried through the door, his lab coat over his arm. "Was finishing up on the victims of a car crash at the hospital." He glanced at his younger brother with a twinkle of a smile. "And I checked up on Lucienne and your goddaughter on the way home, Kyoya."
Kyoya smirked a bit with pride at the mention of Akami Suoh. Akito kissed his pregnant wife, Sachi, and his son, Kaede, on top of the head before taking the empty place next to Sachi. "You're due any day now, aren't you, Sachi?" Kyoya asked.
"I'm due in three days. Something tells me that he's going to take after his older brother though," Sachi murmured, a happy smile on her face as she ran a hand through her 8-year-old son's hair. Kaede made a face and asked if he could go play with his cousins. At his question, the other children at the table bounced excitedly. All except for Yuiichi's oldest son, Hajime. Haruhi looked at the 12-year-old curiously. He caught her gaze and stared back with the kind of refinement she would have expected from his father, not him.
"Finish your vegetables first," Sachi told Kaede. The boy pouted for an entire millisecond before scarfing down his vegetables in a few bites. Akito scowled at his manners but waved his hand, saying he could go play. Mayuri excused Mai after inspecting her plate. Yukima had already had Fuyumi's permission when Kaede had asked.
Kyoya took her hand, startling her into looking at him. "You're alright?" he asked softly. She nodded, a bit dazed. She felt kind of light-headed. It must have been the wine.
"Hajime, you're excused if you want to go," Yuiichi murmured to his oldest child.
"Thank you, Father," the boy replied quietly, sliding out of his seat and into the living room with a book in hand.
"He enjoys reading?" Haruhi asked, smiling a bit.
Yuiichi glanced at her and nodded. "He can be very peculiar to other children. Where others his age are being rambunctious and ridiculous, he's quiet. It's quite nice most of the time."
"Except when we want him to talk to us," Mayuri added.
"He's a lot like Kyoya when he was a kid," Mayumi muttered, finishing off her plate. Kyoya groaned at the thought of the embarrassing childhood stories that his mother could unleash. He didn't expect Fuyumi to rise to that challenge though.
"Quiet, respectful, obedient, intelligent," Fuyumi listed his traits with a grin at her younger brother. "Except for that wild streak you had when you were 14 or so. That was when you met Tamaki, if I remember correctly."
"Fuyumi," Kyoya growled in warning. Haruhi gave him a funny look, wondering what could be so embarrassing about Kyoya meeting Tamaki.
Then the image of Kyoya cornered in his chair by the blonde came to mind and the pieces clicked together. "Oh," she said softly in surprise. Everything made a bit of sense now. Tamaki and Kyoya's closeness was not just out of their friendship and the amount of time that they'd known each other. The youngest Ohtori sighed and muttered something about entertaining the children. He got up, leaving her as prey to his family.
"You're the first woman he's had interest in," Fuyumi said slyly once her youngest brother had departed.
"We were starting to wonder," Mayumi added, voice quiet. Her gaze was directed toward her youngest son, who had sat on the couch in the adjoining room near Hajime and had started tickling Yukima. Haruhi looked toward her boyfriend's father, who's hand was clenched in a fist at the current topic of conversation.
Was that why his father was so cold towards him? Because he was - or had at one point - been interested in men? She turned in her seat to look over at her boss and boyfriend. Yukima, Mai, and Kaede had decided that the best way to beat their uncle - who at the moment was not their uncle but a demonic tickle monster - was to band together and tickle him. She giggled as Kyoya fell over with a grunt and chuckled as children piled on top of him.
He deserved so much more than someone that was only with him to spy on him.
Later, when they were on their way home, she was completely silent, contemplating where she was right now both emotionally and in her investigation. Where she was going. Where was she going? "You're quiet," he commented with a glance in her direction.
She hummed in response. "Just thinking."
"About what?"
"You. Us. My job." He frowned but didn't say anything. "You and Tamaki were a couple?"
She noticed his grip tighten fractionally before he replied, "Once upon a time when we were teenagers. Before we realized that the world was a cruel hard place. Before he met Lucienne when we were 21." His grip tightened again and he abruptly pulled over.
"Kyoya?" She looked over at him, unsure as to why he had stopped. They were still at least 10 minutes from her apartment.
"He left me for Lucienne, 6 years ago. And I let him because I wanted him to be happy." He stopped and took a deep breath, running a hand through his hair. "At the time, I thought that… I was finished with romance. Completely finished with it." He looked over at her with a smile.
"I'm your first relationship since then, aren't I?" she asked, reaching her hand across the center console hesitantly. Guilt somersaulted around in her stomach. Because she knew that this could only end with him hurt. And that was the last thing she wanted. The last thing she wanted was to hurt him. Especially not when he apparently had already been hurt by Tamaki. He nodded, squeezing her hand. "Is the entire Tamaki… thing… The reason that your father…?"
"I'm sure that's part of it," Kyoya stated bluntly. "He never really liked that I was attracted to men more often than women. Of course, I supposed I'm kind of a disappointment in his eyes, business-wise too."
She scowled. From what she'd seen, he was business genius. "How so?"
"He doesn't support certain… venues that I use for business." She caught on to his meaning almost immediately and, though this could have been the kind of information she'd been looking for to catch him as a criminal, she didn't ask any further.
She didn't want him to incriminate himself without even knowing that he was doing so.
The guilt in her stomach curled into a tight knot.
~o~
When his birthday came around, he made no comment about it. She wouldn't have even known if Tamaki hadn't sent her a text message to clear up Kyoya's schedule a bit for that evening so they could throw a surprise birthday party for him.
Alright. It's on your head when he finds out though. - HF
She sent back, shaking her head with a smile as she looked through his schedule on her phone. He had several important meetings that evening, two of which, she knew couldn't wait until the next day. She bit her lip and cautiously moved three more minor ones from that afternoon on to the next morning, replacing them with the two important ones.
That left his entire evening free after 6 PM. She smiled a bit as she made the proper calls to the different clients that she had just shifted around. All were very eager to shift their schedules to accommodate Kyoya Ohtori. She sighed and shot a quick text to Tamaki saying that he'd be ready by 6:30.
She glanced at the clock. 10:40. He was going to be in his current meeting for another 20 minutes. That still didn't mean that she couldn't knock and warn him of the change. She strode to his office door, knocking twice.
No answer came except for a huge crash. Alarmed, she opened the door to find the man that Kyoya had been meeting with surrounded in a lake of broken glass and water, rage tearing at his face and a gun in his hand. Haruhi stared at it then looked toward Kyoya quickly. He shook his head at her a tiny bit, eyes a bit wide. "Police?" she mouthed, fear bubbling in her chest as the man shouted and waved the gun around carelessly. Again, Kyoya shook his head. "Akito?" A small nod this time. "Security?" Another nod. She hurried back out to her desk and pushed the little red security button on the underside of her desk.
She heard Kyoya talking calmly. Haruhi honestly didn't care what Kyoya had done to upset him or what the man wanted, she just wanted the gun out of his hand and him out of that office.
She heard a gunshot right when she noticed Lucienne coming out of the elevator. Against her better judgment, Haruhi ran in the office to find Kyoya, a bullet hole in his shirt that made her stomach do flips, and standing over his former client with a gun of his own. "Kyoya," she stated calmly, now trying to defuse the situation with her boyfriend and boss. Lucienne came up behind her.
"Kyoya, put the gun down," Lucienne commanded, authority in her voice. "You hate getting your hands dirty."
"He shot me," Kyoya spat.
"Well then, it's good you were wearing a bullet-proof vest then isn't it? I'll take care of him from here."
Haruhi raised an eyebrow at the dainty blonde Frenchwoman. She was going to take care of him? Her and who else? She didn't have nearly the muscle strength needed to dra-
Lucienne strode forward, lifting the man up by the arms single-handedly and yanked them behind his back. "YOU'RE A BASTARD, OHTORI! YOU AND YOUR ENTIRE BUSINESS!" Kyoya twitched a bit and smoothed the front of his shirt, finally noticing the hole in it.
"Dammit," he growled, locking the gun and tossing it onto his desk. Haruhi closed the office door behind her, shutting her eyes and tapping her foot for a moment to collect her thoughts.
"What the hell was that?" she finally demanded as he walked to the closet door.
"An angry client," he stated, "I do get them every once in a while." He pulled a new shirt out, unbuttoning the one he had on with one hand.
"No. I mean…" she stopped, took a deep breath and continued, cursing herself when he voice shook, "I hear a gunshot… And I run in here… And you're shot… And…" She broke off again, drawing another shaky breath and hating that she had been so frightened that he was hurt. He pulled off his shirt, revealing the bullet-proof vest underneath it, a fresh bullet lodged in it. His eyebrow was raised in question. "Kyoya, I thought you were hurt. Fatally hurt. And that… scared me."
Finally, he seemed to understand. He finished buttoning up his shirt and strode over to her. His hands found their way to her shoulders but she shook them off, favoring holding onto them herself. "If you'd been dead when I came in here…" He shushed her gently, pulling free one of his hands to cradle her face. She closed her hand over it. He pulled her close, letting her wrap her arms around his neck and hold him there.
"I wouldn't have been dead," he told her carefully.
"But if you had been. If you weren't wearing that vest…"
"Then what?" He brought his other hand up to hold her face, fingers spread out behind her head. His right thumb stroked her cheek gently. He lowered his head and kissed her, giving her more affection in the office than he ever had. "I was prepared for him to blow up," Kyoya whispered when he pulled away to breathe, "Trust me a bit more, Haruhi."
"I do," she said quickly, "You know I do… I just… There was a frightening moment when I didn't care at all about my own safety, I just needed to get to you and make sure you were okay."
"And? I'm okay. You don't have to worry. I'm okay." She sighed, letting her head rest against his chest, breathing in deeply and letting his presence wash over her and calm her. When she lifted her head he asked her what she had needed when she knocked.
"I moved your schedule around a bit. Your two extremely important appointments have been moved up by a few hours. The three more minor ones that were in those slots are now on the agenda tomorrow morning."
"Why the change?"
"I dunno. It might have something to do with the fact that it's your birthday and I wanted to go to dinner tonight."
He mulled it over a moment then murmured, "Fair enough." He pressed his lips to hers again. "How'd you know it was my birthday?"
"Now that," she said, backing away from him toward the door again, "is my secret. I'll send in your next client when they arrive."
~o~
The place that Tamaki had chosen was somewhere less than ideal for both Kyoya and Haruhi. When they first arrived, Kyoya doubted that Haruhi had chosen it immediately. It was too loud. Much too loud for her to have chosen it for a simple one-on-one dinner. "Haruhi…" he growled when she led him to a table where Tamaki, Lucienne, Fuyumi, Akito, Hunny, and Mori were all sitting.
"It was Tamaki's idea," she interrupted. "He takes all the heat on this."
"Happy birthday!" the six chimed as he approached. Hunny - who frankly Haruhi was surprised to see there at all considering his rivalry with the Ohtori - bounded forward and hugged the birthday boy. Mori patted his head.
"Hey Haru-chan!" Hunny exclaimed, coming to her now and letting Fuyumi have at her little brother.
"Err… Hello, Hunny-san," she muttered, unsure really of the small blonde's presence. "I… thought you and Kyoya hated each other."
"Only professionally," he replied with a brilliant grin, "Personally, we've been friends since high school."
"Really…" She stopped that train of thought right where it was and shook her head to clear it. She glanced over at where Kyoya was chatting with his siblings. Unbelievable. That man had two lives so completely separate from each other that one of his professional rivals was one of his closest friends in his personal life.
And yet, he couldn't quite separate his friendship with Tamaki and relationship with her completely. Somewhere along that separation, the line blurred slightly.
Still, unbelievable.
Kyoya held a hand out to her, inviting her back to his side as he sat down. "You're not mad are you?" she mumbled to him.
"No," he murmured after a moment. "I'm a bit ticked at Tamaki though. He knows I hate surprises." His nose wrinkled slightly in a way that she found oddly endearing. In fact, it was endearing in a way that made her lean forward and kiss him with a smile. He raised a curious eyebrow at her affection to which she just shook her head.
"I'll make it up to you."
"And how, may I ask, do you plan to do that?"
"You'll find out."
"I believe that I just stated that I hate surprises, Haruhi."
"It won't be a surprise, then," she replied. Then her brain registered that Lucienne and Tamaki were both there. "If Tamaki and Lucienne are both here, what did they do with Akami?"
Kyoya chuckled. "I believe they left her with Tamaki's parents for the night."
"They live in Japan?"
He nodded, picking up the glass of liquor that had been placed in front of him by his older brother, who gave him a mischievous grin. "You're taking me to the hospital if I get alcohol poisoning!" Kyoya called after him as Akito disappeared into the crowd with a cackle. Haruhi noticed a similar glass sitting in front of her now and raised an eyebrow at it as her boyfriend answered her question. "Yes. Right here in Tokyo in fact. Yuzuru runs the academy that Tamaki and I went to high school and middle school at and Anne-Sophie owns a small portion of her family's wine industry in France."
"Is that where the delicious wine always comes from?"
Kyoya chuckled into his glass and nodded.
"And how is your newest nephew?" She always forgot to ask about Akio - Akito and Sachi's most recent child born back in August.
"Ask Akito yourself," he snorted right as the doctor was coming up to them.
"Ask me what?"
"How your lovely little boy is doing."
"Oh, he's fantastic. I've never seen a baby with such a strong immune system."
"He gets it from our family," Kyoya muttered.
"Yes, but Kaede didn't have that great of an immune system, if you'll remember."
"We were in the middle of a pneumonia epidemic when Kaede was born. Not to mention that Sachi had it when she gave birth to him."
"And he almost didn't survive."
"How old is he now?" Haruhi interrupted the mini argument between the brothers.
"Almost four months."
"Oh! Wouldn't it be just wonderful if someday your nephew and my little girl got married!" Tamaki jumped into the conversation. Akito seemed to twitch at the very idea of his son marrying a Suoh.
"No," Kyoya immediately put down the thought. "You're a big enough nuisance as it is without being related to you."
Tamaki looked like he'd been struck with lightning as he hid behind his wife. Haruhi looked on with amusement, sensing Kyoya's point strongly. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed Lucienne refilling his glass and silently counted for him. She promised herself that she wouldn't let him have more than two and no more than half a glass herself.
She caught Fuyumi's eye and left Kyoya's side when curiosity got the better of her. The woman looked like she wanted to talk to her, which Haruhi could understand seeing as she hadn't really gotten the chance to talk the last time they'd seen each other. When she approached, Fuyumi smirked a bit, remaining silent.
"You look like you have something to say," Haruhi commented carefully, allowing Fuyumi to take control of the conversation.
"Yes…" the Ohtori woman trailed off, thinking for a moment before stating, "I really hope you're not planning on hurting him."
Haruhi scowled. "I don't think I follow…"
"I know who you are, Haruhi Fujioka," Fuyumi said with a low voice. "It was not difficult for my husband to connect your Interpol file with the alias one that Interpol created for you." Haruhi felt dread begin to pool in her stomach, instantly killing her festive mood. "And I sincerely hope that in your determination to bring my brother down, you don't end up crushing the little bit of his heart that he has left."
"I wouldn't," she whispered, "I don't want to hurt him." She ran a hand through her hair. "You haven't told him?"
"No. And I'm not going to. It's none of my business. He trusts you. Fully. He rarely opens up to anyone as much as he has for you. It's ironic really, seeing as you're just dating him for the information he could lend to your investigation."
"I'm not just dating him for that," Haruhi snapped.
Fuyumi raised an eyebrow. "Was that not the point to begin with though?"
"It was… But…" She stopped and sighed, shaking her head. "I don't want to hurt him, Fuyumi-san. I just want to put an end to his criminal activity."
"I hope you know that if you end his criminal activity you finish off a part of him that can't be replaced. It's fully integrated into him. If you want to bring his crime circuit to an end, he'll have to go with it."
Haruhi shut her eyes, willing the woman's words to not worm their way into her heart. "Yes. Don't remind me." She looked down at the glass in her hand and finished it off with a long hard swig.
There went her 'half a glass' rule.
Akito and Lucienne's conspiracy to ensure that she and Kyoya always had full glasses led to many of Haruhi's alcohol consumption rules for the night being shattered into a thousand pieces. By the time it came time for them to head home, Kyoya was a bit wobbly and she'd had a bit more than the half a glass she'd allowed herself to have.
Kyoya was not exactly drunk, but he wasn't completely sober either. And he still insisted on driving. "Do you need help, Haruhi?" Tamaki asked her, always the polite prince.
"No. We got it, Tamaki." The blonde had had his share of drinks as well. His wife was driving them home, seeing as she had somehow completely avoided drinking that night.
"Are you sure?" Lucienne inquired, "I could easily swing the two of you home on our way."
She again declined them, opening the passenger's side door and sliding into Kyoya's car. He looked over at her as she got in, pulling on his seat belt. She was slightly surprised by how sobered he seemed to get once they were in the car. "Don't give me that look, Haruhi. I can control my alcohol intake a little. And I can hold my liquor rather well no matter how much Hunny and Mori might tease me about past excursions."
"Your knees were wobbly."
"I also wasn't allowed to stand for three hours." He smirked a bit as he turned the key in the ignition. "I believe I had perhaps two or three. You, however, very much passed your half a glass limit with a definite three." She stared at him, frowning, enticing a chuckle from his mouth as he put the car in reverse and pulled out of his parking spot. "Your concern in endearing."
"I also live close enough that we could have walked."
He snorted, pulling out on the street. "That you do. However, then my car would still be here, leaving us stranded when we went to work in the morning." She had nothing to say to that and resigned herself to looking out the window for the short car ride. "You and Fuyumi seemed to be having a deep conversation for a bit there."
She shrugged. "We were just talking about work." It was partially true.
"I don't have to worry about embarrassing stories being told to my girlfriend when I'm not around then?"
She smiled a bit, her mind turning over Fuyumi's words again in her head. "No. You don't have to worry about that." He pulled into the parking lot of her apartment complex and turned off the car. He opened his door after a few seconds of waiting to see if she'd continue. She slid out of the car too, pulling her jacket tighter around her and taking his hand as they walked toward the door of her apartment.
Haruhi knew that he would say goodnight at the door and leave. He always did. However, tonight, she found herself yearning for him to stay. Even if he just took the guest room like he had after their meeting with Kuze. She didn't want his presence to leave her. When he stopped at her door and leaned down to kiss her, she pulled back before he could. He frowned a bit. "What's wrong?" he asked.
She looked away from him, feeling that guilt rolling around in her stomach again now more than ever. Then she sighed and shook her head, pulling him into a kiss. One hand found it's way to her waist, the other her head, holding her there as he deepened it. Her lips parted slightly. He pulled away. "Goodnight, Haruhi," he murmured, pressing his forehead to hers.
She tightened her hold on his collar. "Stay," she whispered.
"You had too much to drink."
"I don't care. Stay." She looked him in the eyes, desperate for him to know exactly why she wanted him there. She didn't want him driving. She wanted to know that he was happy and safe. That she wasn't hurting him as Fuyumi had said. "Please." She stood on her toes and kissed him again, one of her hands raising to his neck and fingering the hair at his nape. He let out a small groan.
"I don't want to take advantage of you."
"You aren't. I want you to stay." He sighed. "I didn't have nearly enough to drink to make me drunk, Kyoya. Stay."
"Alright," he finally relented tiredly. She smiled and unlocked her door, keeping one hand wrapped around his the entire time.
When she closed the door behind them, she closed it on the world.
~o~
It became so much harder for her to pretend that she was just his secretary. And infinitely harder to spy on him. Just the occasional dinner was no longer enough. The twins contacting her every week or so didn't help either.
She suddenly hated that she had ever joined Interpol. She hated that they were having her do this to a man that didn't even deserve it. He was the leader of an organized crime circuit but none of it was intensely serious. He was not murdering anyone that she could tell. Nor was he allowing any wars to go on in other parts of the world by smuggling equipment.
He did more shipping of medical supplies than he did anything criminal, for crying out loud!
She didn't want to do this job anymore. And when she realized that while sitting at her desk one day she closed her eyes against the tears.
Due to the information that she'd already collected, there was no way that Command was going to allow her to drop this now. "Haruhi?" Kyoya's voice coaxed her to open her eyes and look at him.
"Yeah?"
He didn't say anything for the longest time, just stood there leaning against the doorframe to his office. "You're upset. Why?"
"It's nothing," she murmured. He frowned and strode to stand in front of her, squatting so that he was closer to eye level with her.
"No it's not 'nothing'. You're practically crying."
"Kyoya, it's nothing." He shook his head, his eyebrows furrowing a bit. His hand reached out and brushed against her cheek, pushing her hair back behind her ears.
"You can tell me."
"It's nothing you can fix," she revised her statement, looking at him.
He looked at her for a while then sighed and tugged her forward to brush his lips against hers. "Alright. You've been my secretary for nearly a year though. And I believe that you haven't used your vacation days." She shook her head. "How about… We go on vacation together?" She stared at him, not believing that he was actually asking her this while they were still working.
Actually…
She looked at the clock. It was 8. Technically, she was done with work for the day.
"Would that help at all?" he added quietly, taking her hand and squeezing it.
"Yeah," she murmured. "A vacation actually sounds nice." It did. But a vacation from her secretarial duties did not mean a vacation from her spying, which was the thing that she actually needed a vacation from.
"Good. Because I have one built into my schedule from tomorrow until Wednesday. No meetings for 5 days."
"Where are we going?"
"My family owns a villa in the mountains. It's beautiful this time of year."
"Okay." He stood and offered his hand to her, which she took gratefully.
"We can leave tonight if you can pack that quickly."
She tried not to grin.
~o~
The mountains were beautiful as Kyoya had said. It was cold outside, but inside the villa it was warm. Kyoya was also very warm, as she discovered waking up next to him every morning.
"Haruhi! Where are you?! It's like you've dropped off the map or something! Call us!"
She tsked as she checked her voicemail while Kyoya was still sleeping.
"Haruhi, Matisse wants an update from you. Call ASAP."
"By the way, we don't know why you aren't answering your phone, but happy birthday anyway!"
"Happy birthday, my Haruhi! I can't believe you're 29! Daddy's starting to feel so old! Your mother would be so proud…"
She deleted them all, running a frustrated hand through her hair. She could go out to the middle of nowhere in the mountains and would still be plagued by her father and colleagues from Interpol. She couldn't get away from her real job. Her real life. The one where she was required to catch the man that she cared more about than she had ever planned to. She closed her eyes and leaned against the rail on the closed in deck, looking out at the snowy world.
She felt a pair of arms wrap around her from behind and almost immediately felt the warmth of Kyoya's presence surround her. She hummed happily, turning her head into his chest. The stubble on his unshaven cheeks scratched against her cheek as he kissed it and let his lips trail down her neck before letting his chin come to rest on her shoulder.
"Happy birthday," he murmured in her ear. She smiled. Of course he'd remember that it was her birthday. He'd probably planned this entire vacation around her birthday on purpose.
"My father thinks it's unfair that you get to spend my birthday with me when he hardly even gets a phone call." She felt the vibrations of his chuckle in her back.
"I suppose it is a bit unfair," he agreed, "But then again, I am very selfish and you did agree to come with me." She turned in his arms and let him kiss her good morning properly.
And by properly that meant trapping her against the railing and kissing her until they both needed to breathe.
"I love you," she breathed when he came up for air. He gave her a funny look, brushing his lips against hers again.
"What?" he prompted breathlessly, a slight look of confusion on his face.
"I love you," she said again, looking up at him and meaning it even though she knew that this was just digging a deeper hole for her. There would be no coming back from this. When Interpol finally decided they had enough to prosecute him, she wouldn't be able to do anything but stand by and try not to cry at the look of betrayal on his face. He didn't say anything, just pulled her to him and pressed his lips to the top of her head. He didn't need to say anything for her to know that the feelings were reciprocated.
She felt herself smiling as she embraced him.
"Hungry?" he asked when he finally released her.
She nodded and let him take care of her, leaving the twins and her father to wonder about her for just a little longer.
~o~
Kyoya and Haruhi's first anniversary was spent working at her apartment. She was repainting her kitchen and he was tearing his hair out in frustration at the legalities surrounding a court case. One of KOMSS former employees was suing him for misconduct, something that she found ridiculous seeing as Kyoya was one of the politest men she'd ever met on first impression.
"Haruhi!" he called from the living room where he'd set up a temporary office just so he could get out of the actual office where he'd been going stir crazy. "Can you look over these claims for me?"
"Sure!" she replied, setting down her paint roller and wiping her hands off on her jeans. When she walked out, she sat down in the place that he had cleared for her on the couch and snatched up the papers that he held up for her, already pouring over a new paper. Her eyes scanned over the document, taking in the small details of the proposal for compromise that he'd set up. She made a few marks on it with a red pen. "Looks good," she muttered after a few minutes. "Though I would suggest lowering the amount of money offered. She doesn't even have any proof of this so-called misconduct. There's no reason for you to give her more than her lawyer cost."
He frowned and took the pages back, looking over the number that she had circled a placed a down arrow next to. "Ah, thank you for catching that," he murmured, leaning over and kissing her cheek distractedly. "You are fantastic."
"You aren't so bad yourself," she replied fondly, running her fingers through his hair while he got back to work. A knock on the door spurred her into jumping up to answer it, scattering some of Kyoya's papers in the process. "Sorry!" The surprise waiting for her on the other side wiped the smile right off her face.
"Didn't think you could avoid us forever, did you?" the twins chorused, sticking their heads in the door. She stared at them, her former grin turning into a grimace.
"I… Wasn't avoiding you," she stated, voice a bit strained as she tried to force it down the octave it had jumped. She leaned in closer and lowered her voice. "Kyoya's here… It's not really a good time."
They didn't pay any attention to what she said, just marched right in the door. "We didn't come here all the way from Okinawa just to be turned down!" Hikaru stated with a Cheshire grin identical to Kaoru's. She suppressed a groan as they strode straight into the living room before she could drag them back.
Kyoya looked up at their entrance and raised an eyebrow at his girlfriend. She rolled her eyes and shrugged. "Kyoya, this is Hikaru and Kaoru Hitachiin. We went to high school and college together and apparently they felt the need to drop by unexpectedly when they were not invited."
She did not bother thinking up aliases for them, though she did notice the glimmer of recognition in his eyes at the mention of the twins' names. She remembered belatedly that he had files on them and saw them as a threat because they were Interpol.
Then again, so was she.
And again she felt that horrible guilt fill her, nearly threatening to overwhelm her.
"Hikaru, Kaoru, this is Kyoya Ohtori, my-"
"Yeah," they interrupted her quickly, "We know who he is."
She pursed her lips at their rudeness. Kyoya didn't react more than the regular eyebrow raise, keeping a surprisingly good calm appearance on even though she just knew that his brain was currently running through every possible mistake he could have made to bring them here.
She also happened to know that it was nothing that he did that had brought them here. That was entirely her fault.
"So is he why you were avoiding us?" Hikaru asked, leaning against his twin.
She sighed in irritation. "I already told you… I wasn't avoiding you."
"You haven't spoken to us in months."
"You didn't-"
"Oh yes we did."
She threw her hands in the air. She knew they were right. She knew it and she didn't want to admit it. They were two of her best friends and as much as she loved them she honestly had been trying to put off all contact with her real life. Admitting that was too much. She didn't want to acknowledge the fact that eventually - and if the twins were there now it would probably be soon - she was going to have to reveal herself to Kyoya as a spy.
And then he would undoubtedly hate her.
"I'm not doing this with you two right now," she muttered, pushing past them back to the kitchen where she could take her anger out via angrily painting the walls.
"Do what?"
"Your stupid little games. I'm not some kind of toy." She doused her paint roller in pale yellow paint and slathered it on the closest wall. They did not seem to understand the emotion she placed behind the words seeing as they had followed her into the kitchen.
"Listen," Kaoru said in a low voice, "Matisse sent us to check on you."
"You haven't called him and you haven't answered any of our calls for two months. We were worried," Hikaru added.
She sighed, feeling her anger melt a bit. They were just worried. "You shouldn't have showed up like this. You could have texted," she mumbled, pushing the paint on the wall around with the roller in her hand.
"You weren't answering our texts either."
She didn't know how to answer them, so she told them the truth. "I don't want to be part of this anymore. I just want to pretend like Matisse and Interpol don't exist and that this investigation isn't happening. I wish I'd never brought it up."
The twins now wore identical frowns. Everything they did was identical and it was infuriating. It felt as though she was getting twice the emotion with only one actual person sometimes. "Why? What changed?" Kaoru asked her, his eyes, as always, showing more understanding than his twin's.
"I discovered… That he is not a bad person. Not like his record would like to claim. He does not deserve this. He doesn't deserve me. And he especially does not deserve to have his freaking heart broken in two again when I have to leave."
"Matisse thought that was the case," Hikaru muttered, though he looked and sounded like he didn't want to believe it. "And he told us to tell you that you can't lose sight of your assignment. You can't just throw it away when you are the one that has worked so hard to bring it to this point. Don't throw that work away Haruhi."
"I don't want to do this anymore, Hikaru," she whispered, "Can you understand that?"
"I kind of can," the older Hitachiin replied, "But Matisse won't. So what do we tell him?"
She sighed. Her career depended on this assignment. If she didn't follow through then her job at Interpol would be finished. She wouldn't be able to get it back no matter how much she tried. She rolled more paint on the wall to buy time. "Tell him… Tell him that I believe this investigation should be dropped based on the fact that we have not found nearly enough relevant information. And if he believes the contrary then someone else should be placed here in my position."
Her job didn't matter. She could find a new job. She couldn't find another Kyoya.
"Okay," Hikaru muttered, looking at her like he had wished she would say something different. He turned to the door without even saying good bye.
"We'll be in touch," Kaoru murmured, "And answer your phone this time." She nodded with pursed lips as she watched the two leave her apartment.
"What was that about?" Kyoya asked as she shut the door behind them. She glanced over, noticing his tight jaw and strained back almost immediately. He'd been placed on edge by their very presence.
Time for damage control.
"Oh nothing. They think that not talking to me every day is a crime. Honestly, they act like children sometimes."
"You know that they're Interpol agents right?"
She debated whether to tell him the truth and found herself nodding. No more lies. Or at least as few of them as she could manage without completely blowing her cover. Without hurting him. "They were recruited by Interpol, I went to law school. Interpol tried to get me too. I turned them down."
"Why?"
"I didn't like the idea of being stuck in an office attempting to control all the crime in the entire world. It's just not possible. And I felt as though I could help more people by becoming a lawyer."
"And yet you ended up as a secretary… Interesting."
She sat down next to him again, slipping her hand into his and squeezing tightly. "But if it weren't for that secretary job, I wouldn't be sitting right here with you now."
His shoulders relaxed to her relief. "Right you are," he muttered, pecking her on the lips. "Go finish the kitchen. I'll come help once I finish this."
"Kyoya, it's going to take you longer to finish that then it will for me to finish the kitchen."
"Well then, I'll cook dinner." His voice sounded amused. His eyes were back on his paperwork and computer screen. She smiled and gave his hand one more squeeze before heading back to her painting.
Internally, she still thought about the twins' visit.
She absolutely dreaded the day that was coming very soon.
~o~
Lately, they had been staying at her apartment, sleeping in her bed, eating her food. Kyoya had practically moved in with her, but she didn't complain. As long as she was able to remain near him, she didn't care where they were. It had been only two weeks since the twins had come by.
Only two weeks. And much, much too soon.
"Haruhi!" Kyoya yelled. He never yelled. Never full out, angry yelled anyway. Something was wrong. And she had a feeling that she knew exactly what it was too.
No. It was too soon.
"What?" she called back, stalling for time. When he didn't reply, she drew in a deep breath to gather together her nerves before heading back to her bedroom.
He was sitting on the bed calmly - though his eyes told a completely different story. In his hands was the accordion file folder that she used to keep all of her files on his and his company, the section on him was completely empty and sitting on one of his knees. She swallowed, willing her emotions not to show on her face.
"I think we need to talk," he said icily.
~o~
A/N: WOO. Another part done! I am GOOD. This is the longest part yet, and also the easiest to write since a lot of it was just check ups with the couple at different places throughout their relationship.
Looks like Haruhi's in trouble. Why, oh why, did you let your emotions get the better of you, Haruhi?!
Kudos to: mythogeek, DannisaurLove98, She Promised Us Lamingtons, and The Amendable Snow Freak