Yukie watched with her wide eyes as Kyouya walked towards his father. But in her eyes, this wasn't the Kyouya she knew and loved. He seemed meek, submissive… different. There wasn't at all a hint of authority like the one he wore around the other Host Club members, and slightly around her. Placing her cup of tea down on its saucer, the girl stood and made towards Kyouya, but before she could advance three steps, a slender hand gripped around her arm restricting her movement.

Looking back to find Haruhi holding her back, Kaoru and Hikaru just behind her, Yukie's brow knitted together, a silent question asking them what happened, but both of them just shook their head, before all four pair of eyes continued their gaze at Kyouya and his father.

"This is what you've been associating with? Didn't I tell you to stop it last year?"

Kyouya met his father's steel hard gaze straight on, but didn't make a move to respond. "So tell me, what do you get out of being in this club? The girls? Or maybe you just want to have fun?" his father sneered at Kyouya, the elder man's face a picture of a more then disapproving parent. Kyouya never did understand that no matter what he did, his father would just never approve. His elder brother's were perfect in their father's eyes, but Kyouya was just Kyouya, and he could never please the elder man. Never mind that he could handle the business twice better then any of his brother's could.

"I told you to befriend the idiot son of Suou, and not to start this ridiculous farce."

Now that was just going too far.

"I did not befriend him because you asked, Father. I befriended him because I wanted to. And the Host Club is no joke. It is a business, a game that only the rich can play. Unless you can't figure it out? In which case I'm sorry to say Father, but I have no time to give a detailed explanation, as I have customers waiting."

No one could have predicted what came next, but really it was expected after what had happened last year. The man's palm landed straight on Kyouya's cheek again, a reddening palm print there. And that was just enough for Yukie to stand. The girl wrenched her hand away from Haruhi's grip and ran towards Kyouya, kneeling next to the dark haired Shadow King, the girl gently caressed his red cheek with her fingers, helping him to sit up as she did so. "Kyouya-icchi, daijoubu?" the girl asked softly, her facial expression contorted in pain for him.

Kyouya nodded, but his gray eyes switched to his father as soon as he heard the elder man scoff, forcefully pushing himself up and standing in front of Yukie when he found his gaze trained directly on the petite girl's form. "So this is the company you embezzle yourself with in school, Kyouya? The bastard daughter of Sohma?" he mocked, sneering at Yukie as he did so. The girl bit her lip at the name, but before she could respond, Kyouya already did so, in a tone so bitingly cold it could freeze the Sahara desert. "She's a thousand times better then anyone else. At least Yukie is honest and pure, unlike the lying schemes that surround the business world. Unlike what you do everyday, Father."

Ootori Yoshio's eyes pinched, and then glared at Kyouya as he did so. "Who is she to deserve your words so? Unless… she's a special one?" he smirked, a sly look coming in to the eyes of the elder Ootori, but Kyouya's reply was immediate and forceful. "Don't touch her Father. You can do anything you want, just leave her alone."

Kyouya's father smirk, and gave one last look at Yukie, before replying. "We'll see." He said shortly, and then turned to walk out, leaving in him a wake of shock and silence, one that was broken when Yukie took Kyouya by the shoulders and turned him around, before using her thumb to rub against the red spot against Kyouya's cheek again, her facial expression a mixture of anger, confusion and sadness all at once.

"Yukie? Promise me you won't ever go and see my father on your own."

"Kyouya…"

"Promise me. I won't have you near him alone."

Yukie sighed, but conceded and nodded in agreement, before taking him by his hand and led him to sit down at the chair she was at earlier, and then hurried towards the Club pantry to take a cloth and wrap ice in it, before returning to Kyouya, and started rolling the damp piece of cloth against the cheek. "Its not fair. I'm sure you're much better then your brother's anyday. Your father is just blind."

"It doesn't matter now."

"Doesn't matter? But you have to take over the company. You're the best candidate for the job. Your father just has to realize that."

"If you're around, it really doesn't matter what I do."

Yukie paused her motions, and then looked at him to find that Kyouya's gray eyes were indeed trained on her, and they showed that he wasn't at all joking. The girl blushed, and Kyouya smiled when he saw the red flooding her cheeks. Maybe everything won't be so bad afterall?

-x-x-x-

Sitting on Kyouya's bed, Yukie was perfectly content to lie on her stomach with a book opened up in front of her, her legs swinging in the air as she flipped the pages of the book she had pried out of Kyouya's collection. The man in question himself was seated at the table, his fingers typing away at the laptop. Both has been like this for hours now, ever since they returned from school in the afternoon, but it was a comfortable silence they shared.

"Oh darn. Its evening, Kyouya-icchi. I should go."

"I'll send my driver to send you home."

"Daijoubu! I want to walk. It's a nice evening, with a good wind. Comfortable walk."

"But I can't come with you Yukie, I'm busy." Kyouya replied, his gaze never once moving from his laptop screen, not even looking up when Yukie came over to wrap her arms around his shoulders and press a kiss to his cheek. "Its okay." She said, after withdrawing from her hug around his shoulders. "I'll be fine alone. Its not a long walk to my house anyway. I'll call you once I get back home."

"Careful. And remember to call me once you get home."

"Hai, Kyouya-icchi. Ja,ne." Yukie said, and then bounced off towards the exit of the Ootori Mansion, finding herself on the sidewalk on the way home not long after. The weather that evening was indeed good. The breeze was just nice, and the pristine silence that greeted her walk was calming, soothing and perfect. The girl's gold hair fluttered as the wind blew, and her steps were even against the pavement.

But that was before someone suddenly came up behind her, grabbing her by the shoulders.

"Wha-"

The girl wasn't given a chance to finish that single syllable, as a cloth was clasped over her mouth. All it took was one deep breathe of the chlorofoam, and the girl was out cold, getting dragged off to goodness knows where.