"Kyoya, do I really have to go to this thing?" Haruhi asks walking into her apartment talking to Kyoya on her phone a few weeks later and waving to her dad, who was getting ready for work. She throws her bag on the couch and sits down.
"I'm simply asking for you to be my date for one evening Haruhi." Kyoya sighs on the other end.
"To a ball hosted by your family." She argues trying to ignore her dad who is already at this point standing next to her trying to listen in on his daughter arguing with her boyfriend.
""Haruhi it would only be for one evening and my father really wants to see you there."
"Why on earth would your father want me to accompany you to some fancy ball?" she asks curiously pointing out the time on the clock to her father, who would be late if he didn't hurry.
"Apparently we're meeting Yuuichi-niisan's possible fiancé and he wants all of us, including you to meet her."
"And I couldn't simply meet her at one of your family dinner's, that's where they met me."
"Haruhi that situation was completely different. My family approves of you and I think my father is curious as to whether anyone else in our society will be, so he wants you to meet people simply as my date instead of as my girlfriend in order to get used to the idea of attending."
"Why is it to meet new people, you rich folk have to do it at some big gathering?" she asks pointing out again the time on the clock to her father, who seemed to refuse to move.
"Haruhi, if my father didn't know you are used to social gatherings I'm sure he would have never asked me to bring you."
"Oh great, I guess I can blame working in the host club for that one. I knew I would be able to blame you boys for something someday."
"Haruhi," Kyoya growls trying to hold in a laugh.
"…all right, all right Kyoya I'll go with you." She sighs finally giving in and wondering whether her father was waiting for her to accept, as he finally waves good-bye and runs out the door.
"Really?" he asks, his voice guarded.
"Yes, I mean it Kyoya. It can't be any worse than an outing with the rest of the club could it?" She asks
"I don't know Haruhi, if you consider a night of being bored to death worse than no." He sighs.
Haruhi giggles at the thought of Kyoya actually not liking social gatherings. "Do you not like them either then?" she manages to ask.
"As you know from the host club I am more of a planner of these types of events. Actually attending and socializing takes a different type of strategy." He tells her.
"Which you know how to pull off quite well, but I suppose a shadow king enjoys the dark rather than the light." She laughs
"I would make a comment, but I'm afraid you're right." He smirks
"So, I finally gave in are you going to tell me when this dance, or whatever you're calling it is?" she asks
"8th of January," he replies
"What it's only the middle of October, exactly how far does your family plan ahead Kyoya?" she asks shocked
"The Ootori family plans years ahead Haruhi, let's not forget my father already wants you as part of our family, though we are both still only in high school." He points out.
"True enough," she sighs knowing everyone in the family was expecting her to be a part of them someday. "By the way did you hear what the twins did today?" She asks getting off the subject.
"Something about a stupid school-wide test of courage thing for Halloween this year right?" he groans
"Yep, they filled out all the paperwork and turned them into the chairman." She sighs remembering that afternoon in the chairman's office. "And of course being Tamaki-sempai's father he approved of the idea immediately."
"Damn it, so do we know the rules yet?" he asks
"All I know so far is that it's going to be class against class, as in all the A classes against one another and all the B classes against each other and…well you get the idea. All the classes have different areas of the school to play."
"Damn those twins, Tamaki is going to be all for it, if it means going up against them. I know already he won't shut up about it for the next two weeks."
"I'm sure you can handle Tamaki-sempai, at least you didn't get put on the planning committee."
"My condolences," he mutters, causing her to laugh.
"I was on it last year too, there's not much difference except more people and the chairman is overlooking the plans every now and then." She tells him.
"Are you sure the chairman isn't checking up on you?" he asks nonchalantly.
"Kyoya is this another hidden meaning comment?" she groans.
"Not at all, I was just wondering if you wanted to know something about the chairman and my father, after all it concerns you." He said.
"All right what is it?" she asks curiosity getting the better of her.
"Apparently the chairman and my father, at the end of the Ouran fair made a bet. Both want you to marry their son and are both very curious to see who you will choose." He states "Funny enough on the same night, you chose me in the clubroom."
"So your father obviously won that one, but does the chairman know that?"
"I doubt it; true to his word my father has kept our relationship secret, as far as I know."
"Not that I'm surprised, but how on earth did you find out about their bet?"
"I was messing with my father's computer when I found a file marked 'Private,' so what other choice did I have but to look inside it to find your school file and a note at the bottom talking about a bet with Suoh."
"Peter Rabbit would find it wise to stay out of Mr. McGregor's garden." Haruhi quoted a line her mother used to tell her all the time.
"Ah, but this particular rabbit is smarter and can easily outwit McGregor." Kyoya smirks
"You actually know that old children's tale?" Haruhi asks laughing to herself.
"Of course, one of the maids would read it to me; after I would get tired of whatever my father would have them read to me." He tells her "surprised?"
"A little bit," she admits "I just didn't expect you to know it."
"Really Haruhi, just because I'm rich doesn't mean the stories I read as a child are any different from what you used to read." He points out.
"True enough," she shrugs
"Actually I'm more surprised you are chastising me about snooping into my father's computer, when he has a file about you in there." Kyoya sighs
"Please Kyoya; you have a file on me and everyone in the school. I've gotten used to the fact that with your family I can't keep anything a secret." She laughs "except it seem, a secret relationship with the youngest son."
"Yes, but that took a lot of planning on both of our parts." He points out.
"Yet we managed to hide it for as long as we did."
"Point taken," he laughs "Okay I'll let you go I've got a meeting in about twenty minutes, see you tomorrow Haruhi and thank you for agreeing to come."
"Not a problem Kyoya, talk to you later."
"Bye, I love you"
"Love you too Kyoya, good-bye." She says ending the call 'Well that was fun' she giggles to herself picking up her bag and heading into her room to start on homework.
"How the hell did the two of you end up on this planning committee?" Haruhi asks after school about a week later in the school office, as she stared at Tamaki, who was smiling widely at her and Kyoya, who looked like he wanted to be anywhere else at the moment.
"Ask this idiot," Kyoya growls pointing to Tamaki.
"Isn't this great Haruhi, now the host club can make sure that this year's Halloween test of courage is the best one yet?" Tamaki says excitedly.
"First off Sempai it's the first school-wide test of courage so there's really nothing to compare it to. And second, how the hell did you two get on this committee?" she asks, as the twins and the rest of the planning committee, including Tamaki's father walked into the room.
"I asked my father and he didn't mind if Kyoya and I help with the planning so here we are." He tells her
"Something tells me you don't agree with what we're doing at all." She asks turning to Kyoya, though already knowing his answer.
"Not at all, I find this completely pointless." He tells her
"Oh so it's going to be us against Tono eh Kaoru?" Hikaru says mischievously
"Isn't this going to be fun I hope you're prepared to be scared out of your mind boss." Kaoru adds
"No I'm going to be protecting my Haruhi from the two of you." Tamaki tells them boldly, causing the girls to cheer in excitement and the rest of the boys to watch in confusion.
"Uh boss, you do know Haruhi will be on our team against you right?" Hikaru points out
"In case you've forgotten it's going to be class against class." Kaoru adds leaving Tamaki to start arguing with the two.
'Damn it we'll never get anything done now.' Haruhi sighs, sitting down in the now vacant seat next to Kyoya. 'The twins will start making fun of Tamaki-sempai, the others will watch and laugh at their stupidity, and the chairman will help the twins tease his son. At this point I could go home and no one would notice.'
"You thinking the same thing I am?" she hears Kyoya ask
"About how this meeting isn't going to happen today, yeah I kinda figured that out as soon as Tamaki-sempai opened his mouth to the twins." She groans
"…Well do you have the general idea about the rules and what's going to happen?" he asks
"Yeah they're in my bag, but I thought you were against this idea completely?" she asks looking over to him.
"I am against it, but I thought since the others are obviously distracted this will be a good time to see if we can work together on something." He tells her and leaning over to whisper, "after all we are a couple aren't we? We should be able to get at least one project done well together."
"You're right, let's see how much we can get done without them." She smiles grabbing her bag and pulling out the paperwork and notes she had taken from the last meeting.
"Here give me those it'll be easier if I type all this out, just start telling me any other things I should know." He tells her opening his laptop, as she hands him the notes and they start getting to work. The noise the others were making completely forgotten.
Yuzuru Suoh, patriarch of the Suoh family enjoys three things golf, theatre, and relentlessly teasing his son. When the twins began harassing his son, though he knew they we all there to work on a school activity that would take place in about a week, he couldn't help but join in the fun of watching the two 'devil' twins, as they were called, mess with Tamaki.
He was about to stop this seemingly endless argument between Tamaki and the twins, when he turned and saw Haruhi and Kyoya at the other side of the room talking about, it seemed, the test of courage tournament. 'That's odd I thought Kyoya-kun was against the idea of this tournament.' He thinks as sees Kyoya give her a small sincere smile. 'I guess Haruhi-san got him to change his mind.'
"Kyoya, I really think we need some sort of adult there to supervise. There are going to be at least 200 students participating in this thing and a few ambulances probably isn't going to be enough." He hears her argue with him.
"And I agree with you Haruhi, but who do you expect to get to supervise a whole bunch of teens on Halloween night?" Kyoya asks her.
"We could just ask your secret police to watch us." She mutters
"Haruhi, they're trained to deal with real problems, not to babysit a bunch of high school students trying to scare the crap out of each other." He points out
"Relax I was only kidding Kyoya." She laughs
'Funny that's the second time she's called him 'Kyoya' in five minutes. I wonder if those two are closer then they're letting on.' Yuzuru thinks remembering his conversation with Yoshio after the Ouran Fair months ago. Focusing again on his son and the twins, who at this point are running around yelling 'pervert.'
"Haruhi daddy's sorry he didn't help you and mommy plan out the tournament like I promised." Tamaki and the twins were hugging her about an hour later, after almost everyone but the club members and Tamaki's father had left.
"Sempai get off of me I can't breathe." She growls breaking free of their grasps. "Look it's no big deal Kyoya-sempai and I got it all figured out anyways."
'So it's back to Kyoya-sempai now?' Yuzuru thinks as Kyoya comes up to him with a printed file.
"Haruhi and I have the night planned out, but we would like you to look over the file and approve everything. We have also made a few minor changes in the positions the different classes will be expected to play in." he tells him in a manner reminding Yuzuru of Yoshio.
"Yes of course Kyoya-kun well done." He comments taking the files. "Actually do you mind staying a few minutes to talk?"
"Not at all sir," Kyoya bows slightly.
'They're way too much alike in both appearance and manner.' He thinks, as the others begin to leave the room all still trying to ask Haruhi about the changes she and Kyoya made. "You and Haruhi-san must work really well together if you are able to plan out a whole evening involving hundreds of students within an hour." He comments skimming through the file, which included blueprints of the school and where each class was to play. 'Where on earth did he find blueprints like this?' he wonders sitting down.
"You give us too much credit sir, we work on things like this all the time in the host club and it's not much different." Kyoya states sitting down across from him.
"So my son and the twins do that often then?" he asks
"Almost every day, Haruhi and I have learned to just ignore it and go on with what we're doing."
"Even if the arguments between them involve Haruhi-san?"
"It always involves Haruhi sir."
"I imagine it does," he chuckles Kyoya remaining emotionless. "So when was the last time you talked with your father Kyoya-kun?" he asks curiously
"It has been about a month since I last actually talked to him face to face." Kyoya admits "He mostly likes to talk to his sons through e-mails, letters, or the occasional butler."
"Is that so?" Yuzuru mutters wondering if Yoshio talked to his son about their bet.
"Did you need to speak to him about something sir?" Kyoya asks
"Not at all, I was just curious if he told you anything about his thoughts on young Miss Fujioka."
"So you saw her stand up to him at the Fair too?" Kyoya sighs
"Video cameras are wonderful inventions Kyoya-kun."
"Yes they are sir, but I'm afraid I am still not sure if my father is mad at her or not. I'm hoping he forgot the incident completely and leaves her alone."
"So you care for her then?"
"She is a very dear friend to me." He confirms
"Well I think I've kept you long enough Kyoya-kun, well done again on finishing the project." Yuzuru tells him, as Kyoya stood up and bows again.
"Thank you again sir and I'm sure I will talk to you soon." He says walking out of the room, closing the door behind him.
'Damn, it seems as though I am losing my bet with Yoshio.' He laughs to himself staring down at the file. 'I suppose it's about time to talk to Tamaki about it.' He sighs standing up to look out the window, only to see Kyoya meet Haruhi by the fountain outside and watch as she got into his limo, both seemed to be smiling. "Though, I may already be far too late.'
"Okay I know we all agreed to meet at my place before we headed over to the school, but I did not agree on the two of you dressing me up." Haruhi snapped at the twins, as she walked out of her bedroom wearing a vampire costume, she assumed was originally for her last year.
"Aww come on, it's just for fun tonight." Hikaru tells her
"Besides we're limited in what we can dress you up in without revealing you to be a girl." Kaoru points out.
"I wore my uniform during the tournament last year, why can't I just do the same this year?" she asks
"This year the whole school is there to join in the fun and it's no fun to all be wearing our uniforms. It was in the rules you and Kyoya-sempai wrote out anyways, all participating must be wearing costumes." They chorused
"We didn't come up with that, you two changed some of the rules before it was posted." She argues
"Yea, yea so punish us, look we're going to be late if we don't hurry let's go." Hikaru drags her to the door, as Kaoru grabs her bag.
"There you three are we were starting to think you weren't coming. It's about to start." Vice-president of 2-A Momoka Kuragano states as they walk into their classroom.
"Sorry Haruhi here didn't want to dress up." The twins tell her.
"Yea so somehow it's my fault, when you two managed to come into my house and lock me in my room until I changed into a costume." Haruhi growls taking her place next to Momoka, to no one's surprise their president decided to play hooky this year. "Okay so everyone knows the rules, we are to go out in groups of three and try to obtain some sort of object from the people we are trying to scare and bring them to our classroom. So try to have fun and remember to only go out to scare when you are assigned, no cheating." She tells them looking around the room. "…hey has anyone seen Hunny-sempai?" Noticing an absence of the blonde in the classroom and knowing both Hunny, Mori, and a few other graduated students were given special permission to participate in the event tonight.
"I'm here, sorry Haru-chan I was heading to my old classroom with Takashi when I remembered I'm on your team." Hunny said walking through the door wearing a pink bunny outfit that to no surprise made all the girls squeal."
Minutes passed as everyone began talking about what they were going to do to scare both their underclassmen, and their Sempai's. The twins of course only had one person in mind to terrify and Haruhi was almost starting to feel bad for Tamaki when the clock tower outside struck 9:00 and all of the lights suddenly went out in the halls.
"All right that's our cue to start." Some of the boys were cheering and began heading out into the halls.
"Have fun, and be careful" Momoka tells them as four groups headed out into the halls.
'Damn those twins where the hell did they go? Haruhi wonders a few hours later while exploring the dark hallway on her own. 'Like I don't already know though,' she sighs knowing Tamaki was around here somewhere. 'It's already 11:00, I wonder what made Kyoya and I decide that the host club would do the last round.' She was about to go around a corner when she suddenly hear footsteps starting to slow down, as if they had just come from running away from something. 'Please, please don't let it be Tamaki-sempai.' She thinks about to go around the corner when a hand suddenly covered her mouth from behind.
"Struggle and I'll resort to my usual method of dealing with you." A familiar voice muttered.
"Kyoya-sempai, what the hell?" she snaps turning around to see him smirking and wearing his usual Ouran uniform.
"Scare you?" he asks
"Hardly, your tactics are usually the same, but that sound I heard earlier was that you?" she asks cautiously.
"Please, I sneak around like shadow. If I'm coming up behind you, you would never know it until the last second." He points out. "Why did you hear something?"
"I thought I did, but I must've imagined it." She sighs leaning against the wall and folding her arms against her chest. "And what the hell, we're all supposed to be dressed up in costumes not our usual uniforms."
"If you know someone with enough guts to ask me to dress up then please go ahead Haruhi." He laughs
"I'll pass thank you, but if you were so against this in the first place why are you here Sempai, you know there are a lot of people who didn't come tonight. If you didn't want to do this then I'm sure you didn't have to." She asks
"I could be asking you the same thing Haruhi, but as I already know your reason I'll only tell you that we both know there is a certain blonde idiot who would be devastated if both his daughter and…wife, as he calls me, miss out on such an event."
'So we're both doing this to keep Tamaki-sempai happy,' she thinks as Kyoya moved closer to her. "Apparently neither of us can help but try and make him happy can we?" she asks now looking up at him, as he traps her in a type of cage.
"Apparently not," he mutters
"Shouldn't you be helping your partner scare someone and 'steal' and item from them?" she asks "I'm sure Tamaki-sempai could use your 'demon lord' help right about now."
"Shouldn't you?" he argues "What about the twins?"
"The twins and I got separated almost as soon as we left the classroom, besides they don't need my help in scaring anyone, but it's impossible not to be frightened by you, when you really get into something." She laughs
"I can't seem to scare you." He points out
"Yes, but I am well aware that you put on an act, besides you know what scares me."
"Yes, it seems the only thing that scares you out of your mind is a simple storm." He smirks, humor in his voice.
"Well sorry I'm not you," she smiles up at him, knowing he was only teasing.
"I'm not perfect you know there is something that scares me, but being you I'm sure you already know what it is." He mutters leaning in close their lips only inches apart.
"Humor me, what is the great Kyoya Ootori afraid of?" she dares
"I-" he starts, but is cut off by the sound of a girl screaming a floor above. Causing the two of them to break apart. "It amazes me how loud you girls can scream; most likely the whole school heard that." He smirks freeing her.
"It's almost time for the classes to be judged to see who wins, we should get back to our classrooms." She says turning away from him. "See you later Kyoya-sempai." She waves heading back down the hall.
As Haruhi turned around the corner Kyoya decided to head upstairs to see what had happened upstairs when he heard a voice behind him.
"You should have kissed her you know."
Recognizing the voice Kyoya sighs and turns around to be faced with Mori. "So you saw that did you Sempai?" he smirks "Let me guess you were the noise Haruhi heard before I showed up."
"Yes," he answers simply
"What are we back to the one word sentences Sempai?" Kyoya asks leaning against the wall and knowing he wasn't getting out of this one easily. 'First Hunny, now Mori all they have to do is fit the pieces together and they'll know something's up.'
"Kyoya, what are your actual feelings towards Haruhi?" Mori asks
"I love her, but I don't want to risk breaking up the club." He sighs looking up to face him "What you just saw was me almost losing control for a moment. I won't let that happen again." 'I feel like I'm talking to a priest.' Kyoya thinks looking at Mori's choice of costume.
"And if she feels the same way?" he asks
"Then I don't know Sempai." Kyoya sighs "If she actually did feel the same way, then I suppose I could try to make something work, but you know the biggest problem would be my family and I'm not willing to go against my father." Mori was silent as he continued "Look you know how my father is I just don't want to risk Haruhi getting hurt; besides Tamaki seems like her better choice."
"That's-"Mori was cut off as the lights in the halls finally came back on.
"We should head back to our groups Sempai. I'm sure your brother is looking for you." Kyoya says heading back to his classroom. "I'm sorry, but I'm not going to try anything with her. Tonight was only a spur of the moment and it won't happen again." He confirms disappearing around the corner, leaving Mori staring off after him.
Hey Haruhi there you are." The twins say running up behind her before she entered the classroom. "Where have you been? We've been looking all over for you."
"Sorry I ran into Kyoya-sempai two floors down, took me awhile to get away." She shrugs walking into the classroom.
"Whoa, did he scare you?" Kaoru asks
"Not even," she says
"You scare him?" Hikaru wonders
"As if anything can scare our Shadow King." She points out
"Point taken," they mutter going over to their seats to tell the rest of the class about their tag team against Tamaki.
"Haru-chan," Hunny shouts running over to the door and hugging her.
"Hey Hunny-sempai, did you manage to scare anyone?" she asks
"Only Chika-chan, but I didn't do anything except walk up to him." He pouted
'The pink bunny suit probably reminded Chika of a bigger Usa-chan.' Haruhi thought
"Hey Haru-chan did I hear you say you ran into Kyo-chan?" he asks "did you tell him?"
"No Sempai I didn't, like I told you before I don't plan to tell him.
"But-"
"I'm sorry Sempai really I am, but bottom line it won't work out okay," she says. The look on Hunny's face made her want to tell him right then and there. Instead she simply and walked over to where the twins were talking and laughing.
About another hour later everyone was gathered in the main lobby to hear which classes had won. "The winners of this year's test of courage tournament are classes 2-D, 1-C, 2-B, and 3-A." Yuzuru Suoh announced.
"What how did we lose to Tono?" the twins ask
'If you two hadn't just been trying to scare Tamaki-sempai, and scared more than one person we may have won.' Haruhi sighed watching as Tamaki was cheering with the rest of his class Kyoya, she noticed, was trying to sneak away. 'It is really late I should probably ask the twins to take me home.'
"Well I'm sick of this place, hey Haruhi ready to go home?" Hikaru asks suddenly.
"Yeah I'm coming," she calls grabbing her bag and following the twins out the door to their car.
"Ne Takashi, did you have fun tonight?" Hunny asks his cousin, as they walked out of the school.
"It certainly made me think about some things." Mori answered
"Huh, what do you mean?" Hunny asks jumping onto Mori's shoulders with ease.
"I ran into Haruhi and Kyoya."
"You mean when they ran into each other?"
"Yes, I was running downstairs when I thought I heard footsteps. So I stopped and waited for someone to come around the corner, when who should it be but Haruhi. If Kyoya hadn't tried to scare her I wouldn't of known that it was her. I meant to leave, but the way they were talking to one another caused me to stay. So I hid behind a pillar and watched them if that young woman hadn't screamed upstairs when she did Kyoya would have ended up kissing her." Mori tells him.
"What, so did you manage to talk to him?"
"Yes, and like Haruhi did for you he admitted he loves her."
"What-?"
"Kyoya made some good points though Mitsukuni even if he did try to pursue her, his family wouldn't approve of her at all. You know he can't go against his father and he would rather protect her from getting hurt then to try and be happy, besides he thinks she's better off with Tamaki." Mori argues.
"So what would he do if he realizes Haruhi loves him back?"
"That is for the two of them to discuss on their own. We shouldn't interfere anymore; just let those two figure it out on their own."
"And if they never figure it out?" Hunny asks sadly
"Then it's their loss," Mori replies, though with sadness in his voice, as they both stepped into their limo that would take the two of them home.
Sorry for the delay guys curse the thing we call writer's block, but really I don't know how I feel about this chapter. I hope you like it though and I hope to update real soon, hopefully faster then I did this one. xD