Tales of the Stars

Book 1 : Homecoming

Chapter 15

Kyoya pulled away from the sleeping girl before him. Kissing her had been a silly notion and getting no result made him feel even more ridiculous for trying. Tamaki's absurdities must have been rubbing off on him. As he got up he felt a slight resistance on his shirt sleeve. Staria had a grip on it. He looked at her again to see if she was faking being asleep, but she was indeed still unconscious.

"Don't want me to go I see." He mused at the situation. "Well too bad." He unwrapped her fingers from the fabric. "I already gave you incentive to wake up and you denied me, so now you get to wait." He moved her hand so it was once again resting across her stomach. "It's probably better you didn't wake up to that." The raven haired boy took a seat again, next to the bed rather than on it, and took out his lap top. He could easily watch over the girl and get the club finances in order at the same time.

There was a constant rhythm of beeping and key board clacking filling Staria's ears. It was really annoying. Didn't whoever was making that noise know she was sleeping? Staria opened her eyes to locate the culprit, only to find herself staring at a ceiling of florescent lights and a hospital smell invading her nose. She didn't try to move but flicked her eyes around to assess that she was indeed in a hospital bed, hooked up to a couple of machines and an iv of something.

She hated hospitals. They always gave her the creeps. She could have sworn she'd just been taking a nap. Her dreams had been giving her more insight to her other self as well, so she was disappointed to have it end so abruptly. As she became more awake she realized her whole body ached. How long had she been out? Why was she in the hospital? She turned her head to the source of the typing noises and spied the one who'd give her answers. When she realized it was Kyoya she was flooded with the memories of the dance and the monster attack. Her head hurt from it and she winced in pain.

The movement got Kyoya's attention. He looked up from his computer to see Staria reaching up to hold her head. He got up, setting the laptop aside, to make sure she was ok.

"Take it easy Staria." He put his hands over hers and pulled them away from her head as she calmed down. "Are you alright? You've been asleep for the past two days."

"Are you kidding me?" Her voice was still groggy and little lower than normal from all the sleep.

"I wish I was. Just relax, I need to call the nurses and inform them your awake finally." He pressed the button on the intercom and did as he said.

"Is everyone else ok?" Staria asked, trying to sit up some. Kyoya helped her by pressing the button on the bed to elevate the head of it.

"Yes, amazingly only you were sent to the hospital. All of the girls went home without a scratch and from what I could tell they don't remember the attack at all. That's a miracle in itself."

"That's good." Staria relaxed a little. "I've really just been sleeping for two days?"

"Yes, you have, and you've had everyone worried. Tamaki only agreed to go home and rest if I promised to call him if you woke up."

"Then shouldn't you do that?" She asked.

"Let the idiot sleep a bit." He placed his hands on the railing of the bed and leaned closer to her. "Besides I have some questions for you to answer before he get's his turn." Staria turned red on instinct and the heart monitor reflected the speed jump of her pulse. Kyoya chuckled a bit and gave her space. "Relax, I'll let the doctor make sure you're alright before our little chat." He loved that she reacted so easily to things.

The doctor assigned to Staria came into the room before another word could be said.

"Nice to see you awake Miss Chiba. I'm Dr. Keida." the man, a little shorter that Kyoya, introduced himself. "I'd like to do a little examination just to make sure everything is alright. We think you've just had a sever case of exhaustion or anemia."

"I'll leave her to you doctor. Staria I'll be back in a while. I'm going to let everyone know you're alright." Kyoya said and made his exit.

Tamaki jolted awake when he heard Kyoya's ring tone on his cell phone.

"Is Staria ok?" He asked frantically.

"Calm down, idiot. She's fine, and awake I might add. I told you I'd call remember."

"Thank you Kyoya! I'm on my way right now." The blond was struggling to change cloths and juggle his phone at the same time.

"Take your time, she's not going any where just yet. Dr. Keida's doing an exam to make sure she's healthy enough to be released. I already sent Mamoru a text message, since he's at work, so no need to worry about contacting him either." Kyoya tried to think if there was anything else that would put the blonde's mind at ease. "Though you can text the others that Sleeping Beauty's awake." He smiled as he said the last bit.

Tamaki paused and smiled too, "Sleeping Beauty huh. Alright I'll be sure to do that. Did her prince wake her up?"

"Shut up. First off you're the prince character in this operation, not me, and no I did not wake her up with a kiss. You read too many fairy tales."

"And you should read more. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Like I said take your time. Good bye Tamaki." He hung up and put his phone away. Taking his glasses off Kyoya rubbed the bridge of his nose. He'd slipped up and gave Tamaki ammo to tease him with, but on the bright side Staria was awake. Now maybe they could start to understand what happened.

"Everything seems to be in order Miss Chiba. You're in perfect health." Dr. Keida gave her a smile.

"So I can go home?" Staria asked hopefully. She didn't want to spend another moment longer than necessary in that place.

"As soon as we finish the release paper work yes, you'll be free to go. Though do try not to over work yourself. I know being a student can be ruff but you need to take care of your body as well. Make sure you keep getting proper nourishment and rest daily, not just when you feel you have time."

"I will. Sorry for the trouble I've caused…." She just played along knowing that mentioning the attack would just cause problems.

"It's alright. I'll tell Master Kyoya he can come back in."

"Ok….but may I ask why you're referring to him that way?" Staria was a bit puzzled.

Keida laughed, "The young miss doesn't know? This is the Ohtori family's private hospital. We're not open to the general public unless there's a national emergency. Master Kyoya had you rushed here after you collapsed."

"Oh….I see. Stupid question…." She knew that Kyoya's family had dealing in the medical world but not to that extent.

"Should we contact anyone for you?" The doctor asked one last question.

"No Thank you, Kyoya was taking care of that."

"Very well. Just relax, it'll be a little while before the paper work is complete." Dr. Keida paused just outside the doorway, stopped by some one but not talking loud enough that Staria could hear him.

Her mind started to wonder to other things. What exactly did Kyoya want answers to? She was guessing he'd want to know what happened to him when he was possessed, and how exactly she brought him out of it. As she pondered over it the devil himself walked back in the room.

"I hear you get to go home soon." Kyoya walked over to her.

"Oh…um yeah. They just have to do some paper work." She smiled, but it was on the weak side from her over thinking.

"You're sure you're alright?" Kyoya gave her a doubtful look.

"I guess, I mean I don't really know what happened. I'm sure as hell not about to tell them all about the monster attack and weirdness that followed."

"Good. We did the best we could to cover up the whole incident." He sat down on the edge of the bed with her. "I have to ask though, what did you do before you passed out?"

"I'm not really sure. I was just checking on everyone and then something kept telling me that everyone was going to die. That creature, whatever it was, was taking everyone's life energy, but somehow it wasn't taking mine. I don't know how it worked but I think I somehow gave my energy to everyone…"

"And that in effect caused your body to be overwhelmed and you passed out. But you have no idea how you did it?"

"No….just something started talking to me…I know I sound nuts… please don't have me committed….but I figured at the time what did I have to loose. We were all going to die any way. So I listened to it. It said to focus on everyone one and let it do what needed done."

"So something else possessed you in a way."

"I guess, but I still had control. I was still me."

"Unlike me and those girls who lost it." Kyoya finished for her.

"Yes…" Staria looked down at her hands.

"Hey, don't go all quiet on me." Kyoya tilted her chin back up. "I'm not trying to make you feel bad about anything. I just want to understand what happened." Staria looked at him seeing a gentleness in his eyes that he usually didn't show off.

"I'm sorry if I did anything to hurt you then." He continued, "And thank you for bringing me out of that state."

Staria tried her best not to blush, but knew she was turning pink, "It's alright….I wasn't hurt. I actually stayed pretty level headed through it….I was more worried about that fact that something was wrong…." She was muttering getting more flustered thinking about the incident. "I just knew you were still in there somewhere…."

"So you tried talking me back to my senses?"

"Yes…though that didn't really work…so I took a different route…." her cheeks were bright red as she spoke.

"Is that why you gave me a kiss instead?" Kyoya asked. He had gotten closer to her without realizing it, but if he moved she'd notice as well. He had her talking and didn't yet have all the answers he wanted.

Staria started to look away, "It was a silly childish idea I know…but it was all I could think of. And it worked….so it wasn't wasted…." she trailed off and Kyoya could see the hints of tears forming in her eyes. What would have been wasted? He thought for a second. Then it dawned on him. He cupped the girl's cheek in his hand and turned her back to facing him.

"Staria, did you give your first kiss to save me?" Kyoya waited for her to answer him, already being pretty sure of his assumption. He was touched just by the thought of it. He'd personally never really thought of a first kiss as a big deal, but knew that it could be for most girls. The fact that she'd sacrificed that precious one time act to help him made his heart ache. He watched as she bit her lower lip and finally nodded, unable to voice her answer. He wrapped his free arm around her waist, the other still cupping her cheek, and leaned his forehead against hers.

"Let me make it up to you." He said softly and started to lean in to capture her lips once again. He blinked, however, when he found two of Staria's fingers on his lips instead.

"Not here…please." She was blushing hard but made a point to keep eye contact. Kyoya sat back, letting his hand go from her face but kept the other on her waist. She'd rejected him again, granted she didn't know about the first time but still.

"Don't get me wrong….but I've been asleep for two days after a monster attack. I just don't want the memory you're trying to give me to be in a hospital with me in need of a shower, a toothbrush and a change of cloths."

Kyoya paused for a second before smiling and doing his best to stifle a laugh. "Alright you have a point there, but I owe you, and I always repay my debts."

"With interest?" Staria couldn't help the pun. It was too fitting to the financing host. Kyoya raised an eyebrow. Her innocent comment could easily be taken as open flirting and he was going to take advantage of it.

"If that's what the princess demands." He said in a seductive tone and stood up to leave her hanging on his words. "Tamaki probably forgot about a change of cloths and I doubt you want to leave in your gown. So I'll call and have something brought over. One of the nurses can show you to the staff locker room if you'd rather not wait to shower."

Staria was thrown off once again at his quick shift in tones. "I can wait till I get home…"