Chapter 5

Yuuki rose after her last period on Friday, she didn't have any classes to take and someone had already booked the arena so she couldn't lunge Zero.

Her classmates eyed her curiously as she mastered her books and crutch and made her way through the door. Practically everyone had asked to see her gold, to which she replied that it was at home.

The celebrity was dying away; no one at the school was really a big fan of equestrian unless they did it themselves.

"Are you coming to the third music room today Yuuki?" Tamaki appeared at her side

"Third music room?" she had no idea what that meant "Is that a code for something?"

The blonde paused, amused "You must be the only girl in the school who doesn't know where the host club is situated"

"Oh, I'm sorry" Yuuki apologised

"What for?"

She juggled her books against her sling to balance them "I...don't really know. For not knowing?"

Yuuki had been apologising about not knowing things her whole life, it had become a habit.

Tamaki took her books and walked off with them "If you want them back, come this afternoon"

"No! Tam..." she reached after him and sighed, he was already gone.

Yuuki swore under her breath in English.

"It's not that bad" a voice came from behind her "you might enjoy yourself"

Kyoya had a hand in his pocket and a book in the other "I didn't know you were so proficient in English?"

Yuuki went red for a moment, she never swore "Um...I was born in England, my mother was the daughter of an agricultural firm there – met my father at a function"

"You're English?"

"I'm half, like Tamaki is half French"

"How did you pick that?" he seemed curiously bemused

Yuuki navigated through the crowd of students "He has blonde hair, really strange, violet eyes and knows how to woo X chromosomes into submission"

Kyoya smiled "Haruhi didn't pick it"

"Haruhi is a girl right?"

Kyoya stopped in his tracks and pushed his glasses up, silently impressed "Yes"

"It's a secret?"

"Yes"

"Okay"

"You're not going to ask why?"

Yuuki kept moving "if it has anything to do with you, I probably don't want to know"

Kyoya matched her slow pace "What does that mean?"

"Calculating, devious, mysterious; you're not a person I want to owe anything too"

Ootori eyed the girl "And you're bizarre, exceptionally fragile and will probably end up owing me something"

"It's quite the possibility" and it was, Yuuki knew it.

"Quite"

Kyoya was smiling, but it was different this time. As if they had passed a social boundary into another region of acquaintance.

A few minutes later they were both standing at the base of a huge staircase. Yuuki hadn't even realised that she hadn't been headed anywhere in particular. She and Kyoya had started talking about people, Yuuki guessing what they were like and Ootori telling her if she was right or wrong.

People reading seemed to be something she had a knack for.

"Where is this?" the girl asked

Kyoya looked at her out of the corner of his eye; she was a good head shorter than him so he ended up turning his head a bit. "The third music room is up the stairs at the end of the hall"

Yuuki turned to him "Well, stairs confirmed it, bad idea and I have..."

"To lunge Zero? The arena is booked"

It clicked "You planned this?"

He pushed his glasses up and smiled again before Mori and Hunny appeared.

The former put an arm around the girl's waist and turned her so that her good side was against him before lifting her. It was like hugging a bear without arms while flying. Hunny was on his shoulder and said a cheery hello.

Yuuki made a little cry of surprise and shot a glare at Kyoya as he followed behind.

Mori made little effort of carrying her up the stairs before setting her on the floor once more.

And now it would be a struggle to leave down the stairs.

"Um. Thank you" Yuuki said to Mori.

He smiled gently and walked down the corridor.

Kyoya was smiling evilly and Yuuki didn't talk to him, she just followed the pair already gone.

"You'll thank me one day" he said, matching her halted stride

"Whatever" Yuuki stuck her crutch under his leg and he tripped

"You'll thank me one day" she shot back, now even

Kyoya had to fix his glasses "And I'm the deviant"

The girl smiled and opened the door to the Third Music room.

Inside, Mori, Hunny, Haruhi, Tamaki, Hikaru and Kyoya were all seated around various tables, preparing for the afternoon.

"Yuuki!" Tamaki spread his arms wide and wrapped them around the girl "You came!"

The girl pushed him off, he had pressed to hard against her sore shoulder "Whether I came or that I'm just here is open to debate"

Hikaru and Kouru smiled in unison before speaking "Kyoya is the shadow king, you can't expect anything with him"

Shadow King? Yuuki wondered "Apparently, he owes me now"

Kyoya chuckled as he sat and opened a laptop "Apparently"

He was having fun with his little game. It was the hardest he had toyed with, unpredictable, quiet, shy and yet exceptionally curious. She was more than she credited herself for.

Yuuki just found him annoying and a little bit scary.

Haruhi was told that Yuuki knew she was a girl and they spent the afternoon conversing. They were allot alike; Haruhi was just a little more spontaneous with her thoughts than Yuuki was.

The customers arrived in a gooey fangirl mess and a few of them decided to use Yuuki as company, asking a flurry of questions about the previous Saturday.

"Do you have your gold medal here?" one asked

In truth, Yuuki did, she took it on long journeys as a sort of good luck charm, she didn't want to tell another person that it was at home so she said yes, she did, in a safe place.

"Can we see it?" another gushed

Yuuki felt particularly unglamorous with her broken leg and sling, the attention wasn't helping. "Not right now, it's too difficult to get it"

"On Monday then?" the first girl asked, her eyes alight.

Kyoya paused in his hosting to hear her answer

"Maybe, if the arena is taken"

The man smiled and carried on what he was doing. Yuuki could find another way to keep her horse fit as far as he was concerned.

That afternoon, Kyoya and Haruhi walked Yuuki back to her dorm.

In the courtyard that separated the stable and the dorm sat a car, a VW Tiguan to which a horse float was attached.

Yuuki paused; something was being loaded into the float.

Her eyes widened for a moment in fright "No!"

Her friends started at the sudden outburst and were surprised when Yuuki made her way hurriedly towards the car.

A man with hair dark like his daughters was making his way from the back of the float to the front of the car.

"What are you doing?" Yuuki cried, getting closer

"Teaching you a lesson" her father hissed

She didn't understand and said so

He turned on her "you ruined our name with your little hero antics. It was all over the news. 'The Olympian miscalculates a jump'" he laughed mockingly "How did you not slow down? Maybe you're as bad at riding as you are at everything else after all"

"Why are you taking Zero away?" her horse whinnied a greeting from the trailer, not understanding that they were being separated

"It's not like you can ride him, one less distraction so you won't be worthless at proper school life"

Yuuki was angry and confused "What is your problem? I'm good at things, you just never give me the chance to be"

Her father laughed

"Let my horse out"

"Make me" he leant against the car, amused

"Let my horse out!" she yelled at him.

Kyoya appeared behind her "Mr Cunxin, it would be wise of you to release the animal"

"Oh" he looked the other man over "and who are you?"

"Ootori Kyoya and you do not want to make enemies with my family, sir" he said it in a very civil manner but the threat was still evident.

"Ootori group business and mine does not overlap, thus my offending you would have no effect on the economy. People need the Cunxin group as much as they need yours."

He had a point; Kyoya still looked him in the eye "All the same"

Yuuki got confidence from her new friend and dared to say what she wanted to most of her life "You're taking it out on me because mom died right?"

Her father hesitated for a moment "Your mother didn't die Yuuki, you killed her"

His daughter was shocked at his words "I did? It was your fault!"

He hit her. Hard. "You little brat!"

Kyoya took a step forward in retaliation; Haruhi had decided to stay out of it until she was asked to join in. Yuuki stopped Ootori, she refused to touch the abused area in her father's presence, nor would she allow a friend to get hurt defending her.

"I ought to disown you" Mr Cunxin hissed in Yuuki's face

"Then do it" she said quietly back

Her father leaned back "Fine. There's no point paying your school fees if you're going to fail at it anyway"

He got into his car and slammed the door.

"Let Zero out!" Yuuki gripped the open window "Don't you dare drive away with MY horse!"

Kyoya and Haruhi couldn't do anything as Yuuki's father closed the window and accelerated away.

The girl dropped her crutch and tried to run after the horse float.

They could all hear the thud as Zero got upset by the commotion and kicked the back of his cabin.

Yuuki stared at the empty rode.

Kyoya opened his phone and was about to ask the guards at the gate to stop the car when Yuuki put a hand on his arm and stopped him.

She left her walking aid on the ground and limped to her dorm. Haruhi tried to talk to her but got no response.

They followed the girl up to her dorm, Kyoya convincing Yuuki to use her crutch to get up the stairs halfway there.

"I'm tired" were the first words they got out of her before the girl closed the door in their faces.

Two hours later, Kyoya had come back to the dorm and got a key to Yuuki's room from the warden. He just told the woman that Yuuki would be moving out and he was here to help.

Room nine was silent when he entered.

The dining room, kitchen and lounge were all empty.

The bedroom door stood slightly ajar.

Kyoya pushed it open and discovered a large Louis Vitton suitcase on the bed, half filled with clothes.

Yuuki hopped out of a door near the one he stood in and dropped more inside, turning she met his gaze before continuing on her way.

He followed her into the walk in robe and carried a pile of pants to the suitcase before he sat on the bed and watched her bring the last of it. She had already packed her other bags.

"The car is downstairs. I talked to my father"

Yuuki paused as she tried to zip the suitcase up, it got caught on some clothing and she couldn't get it out of the way with her incapacitated arm. Kyoya did it for her.

"What do you mean by that?" she asked, standing up straight

"I was surprised he agreed, but seeing as your the daughter of Cunxin enterprises and not yet disowned, he has allowed you to stay in the spare room" pause "one of the spare rooms"

"I can't go to Ouran anymore Kyoya, I can't afford that, even on my savings" she ran a hand through her hair

"We would pay"

"This is part of your my ending up owing you something prediction, isn't it?"

He smiled in a hushed manner "Just being opportunistic"

"Very sadistic of you"

"I'm not a sadist"

"Just manipulative"

Kyoya stood "I would like to have you close by"

Yuuki pulled her suitcase off the bed and rolled it to the door "Why?"

"I can't...read you like I read others. If I'm going to be honest, I'd say it was an obsession"

"Trying to understand me?"

"Yes" his words held caution after having laid down an emotion on the table.

"Well, I don't even know. It's a pretty worthless exercise anyway"

Kyoya's jaw tightened "You are so full of it"

"Excuse me?"

"You're just going to give up? Is that it?"

Yuuki got a small fright at his outburst "I..."

He cut her off "I'm the third son, the THIRD son, if I can buy my father's business from an opposing company and give it back to him before I'm out of school, then you sure as hell can stay at Ouran and prove your father wrong to"

Yuuki stood silent "But..."

"Don't. I'll teach you myself if I have to. Where were you going to go anyway?"

The girl shrugged hesitantly, feeling raw inside

Kyoya opened his mobile and called the driver and asked him to come to room nine to fetch Miss Cunxin's luggage.

Yuuki stared at him, not knowing what to do. Everything had happened to fast. "Why...."

Ootori relaxed a bit "Would I do something if it was a loss in the long run?"

"Probably not..."

"Exactly. My father can make it very difficult for yours to divorce you"

"I don't want you going to the trouble..."

"You need to get a grip Yuuki. Stand on your own two feet" pause "hypothetically"

She laughed and wrapped her free arm around the man she had found a friend in "I really do, don't I?"