AUTHORS NOTE: when you are sick, if it lasts for more than two days, do not continue to self-prescribe yourself 'at home drugs' (i.e. paracetamol, ibuprofen, and copious amounts of codeine...) because they will mask the fact that you are actually ALLOT sicker than you first imagined. Doctors will freak out when you turn up claiming to have the flu and then they will give you a mule's kick worth of antibiotics.

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Chapter 10

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Traditionally, Yule festivities last from December 25th till mid January. Traditionally, Ouran High School and the Host Club bent traditions for their own purposes. Either way, the night had been a great success.

Yuuki had crawled into bed at 1am, her past discrepancies with the world nothing more than a nightmarish reality shrouded in a dream. She lay in bed and stared at the ceiling, her fingers drawing lines on the covers before moving to trace the line of her neck. The girl smiled shyly to herself and rolled over before going to sleep.

Kyoya sat on the edge of his bed and pulled out his phone, he pressed it to his ear and listened, eyes closed, face thoughtful. He didn't speak. When the line went dead he closed his mobile and put it next to his glasses on the night stand before disappearing under the covers.

As per usual, Yuuki woke up before everyone else. She made her way to the kitchen and attacked the orange juice. It was one of her oldest habits and nothing was going to come between her and morning beverage. Nothing except Kyoya's father.

"Miss Cunxin" he addressed her formally

Yuuki bowed quickly out of respect "Mr Ootori, sir"

"Did my son keep himself in line last night?" his voice reverberated in a stern manner around the room

"Yes, sir, I believe so" She was dressed in her pyjamas; long black track pants and a blue hoodie. The girl felt a little exposed.

"You're the first awake" he remarked "Early riser?"

"I am, sir"

The man unwrapped the newspaper that had been sitting on the countertop; he was dressed in a business suit "You are good friends with Kyoya"

Yuuki wondered why he was asking questions, most people talked about the weather "Yes, sir"

"Why do you use English honorifics as opposed to Japanese?" Mr Ootori was reading his newspaper

"Um, I learnt to speak English and Japanese at the same time. I guess it's my hybrid language. I'm sorry if I offended you" She knew how the Japanese were with their honour and title

"No, no, I was just curious. Tell me, what do you think the financial market is doing right now?"

What a strange question "I can't be sure, sir, but seeing as its coming Christmas...I'm guessing it's alright with consumer spending...but it has been unusually cold so electricity use may have gone up for heating and thus reducing the amount of money families, especially in the lower class, can spend. We are a capitalist society so, I'm guessing things will be alright as long as people keep buying, selling and no natural, political or economic disasters occur." She lifted her voice at the end, making her statement half a question.

"Mmmm" Kyoya's father was menacing, he made Yuuki uneasy "How old are you?"

"I turned sixteen on September second"

"What do you want to be in ten years?"

Yuuki wondered about the barrage of questions, it was like being with the careers counsellor "In ten years...I hope to have gone back to the Olympics"

"Be one of the gods hey?" he seemed amused

"Kyoya got me thinking about psychology" Yuuki offered him some orange juice, he declined.

This good the man's attention "Psychology?"

"It takes three years to get the degree; it takes four for an Olympics to come around. I could do both and it seems that either occupation doesn't have a set age limit" She had only decided this last night, laying in bed with her walls down and her emotion on neutral.

Mr Ootori showed no emotion. He was intimidating, calculating and foreboding – he was not a man Yuuki would want to cross, ever.

He rose to leave after receiving a message from his driver.

"Thank you, sir. For letting me stay here" The girl said as he left

Kyoya's father nodded curtly and disappeared through the doorway. Yuuki started breathing again.

-

It was a week and a half till Charismas and Yuuki hadn't bought a thing. Kyoya found her in the kitchen, leaning against the counter with a teaspoon in her mouth.

"Why are you awake?" he was still groggy, up early for an Ootori youth

Yuuki stood upright "Why are you?"

"Because, it's daytime"

"Exactly" she was still in her pyjamas and slightly unnerved by her discussion with Mr Ootori just moments before.

Kyoya took the orange juice from her "You look like you're on edge"

"Your father and I had a discussion this morning"

"Oh?"

"Actually, it was more of an interrogation. I was surprised he didn't ask my height and weight along with my life dreams"

"He's like that with other people's children. He's already decided out fate, why not discover what everyone else is doing so that he can manipulate it" his voice was bitter

Yuuki took her juice back "Is everything okay between you and him?"

"If there was something to begin with then yes, my father's sons are his business partners and future employee's, they aren't his relatives" Kyoya pushed his glasses up

"Hmm, I think I maybe, just might, possibly, know what that feels like"

The man ran a hand through his hair and sighed, the snow was falling thick outside. The trees were laden with white foliage. Yuuki stared at it through the window and wondered about Zero. He loved the snow.

"What are you thinking about?" Kyoya asked

The girl turned and went to say 'nothing' but changed her mind "Zero"

"You'll see him again"

"He won't be mine"

"What does that mean?" Kyoya stood beside her, giving Yuuki tingles up that side

"He's being auctioned and I can't afford him, even with my savings. I could buy a house or three with my savings but I can't buy my horse"

"He cost that much?"

Yuuki nodded "Prize winning horse flesh, owned by the Cunxin's, it's like putting the word Gucci on a plain t-shirt and increasing its price tenfold."

Kyoya didn't say anything; he just stared out the window with her. The snow had kept coming strong for three days now. An onslaught of white and bitter wind that looked pretty but lost its charm when experienced. Of course, snow could be beautiful when it wasn't trying to decimate the surrounding habitat. Life's just funny like that.

After five minutes of thought Yuuki stirred "I need to go shopping. What's happening Christmas?"

"About midday the club heads to someone's house and we do the presents, lunch come dinner, fireplace, traditional things"

"Like family"

Kyoya pushed his glasses up "Like family"

The problem with having successful parents is that they stay successful, they have their own festivities to go to and once their children are old enough to arrange their own they push them out of the nest unconsciously. Haruhi was probably the only person that might not be there on Christmas, but her father probably had a party as well.

Yuuki could feel the tension in the room, she didn't like it, and it was uncomfortable. A cloud that each person carried above them, that had nothing to do with anyone else but affected them anyway.

The girl put on a smile "Let's go shopping"

Kyoya had the same urge to get out of the present situation, but not the same to go shopping. He agreed anyway.

-

"You know, you're so much easier to be around when you're not trying to manipulate capitalist society" Yuuki limped through the mall an hour later.

It was five stories high and full of every high class brand name from Armani to Vitton, it was a rich girl paradise, a watering hole for the rich and famous of Japan.

Kyoya paused outside a Dolce and Gabbana "Who say's I'm not manipulating? And your allot slower on one leg"

Yuuki leant on her right foot and nodded "Yes, yes I am, which is why you're safe at the moment. Is it a constant need of yours to always be trying to get to the top?"

"Yes, hungry?"

"Focus, we're here for gifts"

"I'm hungry" Kyoya turned and walked away, glancing over his shoulder for Yuuki to follow

She hadn't moved. Her arms were crossed and she had an expression that 'I'm going to play his game.' Stubborn woman. The man sighed and headed back, shopping was not his favourite pastime.

"Fine, what are we buying them?"

"I was going to buy Haruhi Marc Jacob's Daisy perfume; she needs to be more feminine"

"That's what I was going to buy her"

"Buy her a blouse, or a belt...or chocolate..."

Kyoya raised his eyebrows "Then I'm getting Tamaki the golf set"

"No way" Yuuki walked into the store they had been standing outside "I was going to...wait...what would Tamaki do with a golf set?"

"Play golf, duh" he was smiling as he said it, so the girl couldn't glare at him for his back chatting.

She picked up a jacket "I don't think Tamaki would play golf" pause "I really like this"

"Tamaki will play anything. He's like a puppy, give him a new toy and it becomes an obsession. You have a jacket; actually, you have a few, nice ones to...and one looks allot like that"

"If you buy the golf set, I'm buying the perfume. This is a really nice jacket" She held it up.

Kyoya took it and put it back on the rack before whispering in Yuuki's ear "Capitalist societies remember? You're being manipulated"

"I can't work out who's doing it better, the store or you" she turned to him "You were manipulated to buy those clothes"

He couldn't come up with a comeback, Yuuki didn't buy the jacket. No mention of the night before had been made between the pair, but the fact that there was no awkwardness suggested that the event had been something enjoyed equally by both parties. Yuuki pulled into a Fendi store.

"Hikaru and Kouru" they were surrounded by sunglasses

Kyoya picked up some aviators "Don't they have a pair already?"

"You might be filthy rich Kyoya, but your still a boy" Yuuki sighed, men would never enjoy shopping or appreciate it to the extent a woman would.

"I resent that"

"No you don't"

"Okay, no I don't" he slid the glasses on her head.

Yuuki fell in love with them "You might be a boy, but when you try, you have great taste"

Kyoya laughed "I'll tell Tamaki to get them for you"

She smiled and put them back before finding something for the twins. She ended up buying them Ray Bans instead.

Two hours and many shopping bags later the task of gift shopping was complete.

"Are you hungry now?" Kyoya stopped outside a restaurant

Yuuki tried to keep walking but he caught her arm "We need wrapping paper"

"Stop being a girl" he asked for a table and pulled her to it

"I can't stop being a girl, not without a lot of hormone treatment" Yuuki said stubbornly

Kyoya sat her down "Be nice"

"Fine"

"Fine" he couldn't help but smile "You're so immature today"

"Pray, do tell how?"

"Stubborn, slightly reckless, intelligent but only for fleeting moments and erroneous for most of it"

"If this is about the sixty percent off thing..."

Kyoya laughed as a waiter came to get their order. He ordered for them both before Yuuki could open her mouth.

"There better not be wasabi in that" she said

"There's not"

"Good"

Kyoya stared at her; Yuuki was preoccupied with the goings-on of the other side of the glass wall that looked over the rest of the mall. She was people watching.

"What are you thinking?" he leant forward

Yuuki pointed to the third floor where a small child was having a tantrum outside Gucci "I was thinking that, if I had any maternal feelings to begin with, then they just disappeared"

"You don't like kids?"

"Not yet" she pulled a face. Later she was sure that kids would be something to want, but at present little brats were not her cup of tea, she was too young.

"You're too young anyway"

"You always read the last half of my thought pattern"

"Everyone needs a map to begin with"

Yuuki looked at Kyoya, he had a point. Ever since the night before, she had found no problems in understanding him – even if that understanding could not be explained in words. Unconsciously her hand went to her neck and she remembered the action that had thrown her impasse.

"What are you thinking now?" Kyoya broke into her memory

Yuuki frowned playfully "That's my business"

-

It was late afternoon when the pair arrived back at the Ootori estate, laden with bags full of gifts and wrapping. They hadn't bought anything for each other, deciding to do the no-gifts thing that always failed for at least one member of the party. The driver assured them that their purchases would be brought to the house from the garage and that they should both head inside, away from the cold. The couple thankfully agreed.

Yuuki began to cross the short walk to the front door and discovered a new patch of ice. She began to slip but turned in time to grab Kyoya's jacket. He, in turn, began to fall over at the sudden force pulling him towards the ground. After a few seconds of scrambling and laughter they managed to right themselves and exchange a look of intimacy – remembering Yuuki's first slip up. As soon as the girl took her next step, she slipped again and the process of staying upright began again. Except, this time, it failed and they fell.

"Damn gravity" Yuuki hissed, half laughing, from her location in the snow and ice.

Kyoya had come close to face planting beside her and was covered in snow drift; he righted his glasses and began laughing. "I'm going to be upset and relieved the day your leg heals"

"Why upset?" Yuuki sat up

Kyoya wrapped his hand around the back of her head and pulled her mouth softly to his, kissing her gently.

"That's why" he whispered

Yuuki blushed and pressed her forehead to his. "Me too then"

After a few lingering moments they both stood up and headed for the front door. There were a few more hairy moments on the way there, but romantic moment or no – it was too cold to stay outside. They were both falling for each other, faster than they first thought, and it had nothing to do with ice or snow.

-

Yuuki sat in the lounge with a spread of wrapping paper and sticky tape. She put the bottle of cologne she had just wrapped on the low coffee table and pulled the pen out of her mouth.

Mori was written on the bottom corner, she would write a card later. Yuuki had to change her clothes once inside, snow had seemed through everything and become a freezing, wet mess. She was currently dressed in a cream turtle neck and a pair of navy blue track pants. A fire was going to her right and warmed the room. The snowfall outside had turned into a raging snowstorm and the wind was clawing at gaps in the glass, howling for entrance. Yuuki looked out the giant glass window and smiled, she loved storms, fireplaces and wrapping paper.

Suddenly her quiet moment was broken by a small force sticking a bow to her head.

"Kyoya" Yuuki peeled it off "You broke into my bubble"

"What bubble?"

"You know...the personal space bubble" she used her arms to emphasise a circle around her "The bubble that gets invaded by creepy old men, exceptionally small children, that strange Renge girl at the host club and...now...bows" Yuuki stuck it to his knee.

Kyoya was sitting on the couch behind her, pretending to wrap presents "How wide is the diameter of this bubble?"

Yuuki moved her hands in a circle around herself again "About this wide"

"That wide?"

There was an enormous thunder clap that rolled through the house, the girl started. Kyoya took the scissors away from her.

"How wide is it now?" leaning over her shoulder, he put his face close to her ear.

Yuuki exhaled "Somewhat smaller"

The house was empty and ominous, Kyoya's father and brothers were stuck in Tokyo because of the storm and the house servants had been dismissed to get home moments after Kyoya saw the forecast, proving he did do things if they went against his earn-all-nothing-without-profit policy.

Yuuki didn't like the setting, the fire, the solitude, the storm, Kyoya... it was too seductive and that scared her.

"It's ten days till Christmas, why are you wrapping?" he was still at her ear

"You study two weeks before an exam, I wrap ten days before an event"

"Every time?"

He was so close, Yuuki shivered "No, but I like to be ahead of things"

Kyoya sensed something was wrong, he had promised not to get into the situation they were getting into. The girl didn't want that sort of relationship and he would respect that. He would not do to her what he had done to Haruhi, even though that was a different circumstance. He had been teaching her a lesson and Yuuki didn't need that, she was teaching him.

Kyoya leaned back against the sofa "Sounds like a plan" he extended his hand "Sticky tape, I'll cut for you"

The girl breathed again and handed him the tape. She asked for a bit a minute later, to which nothing was produced. Yuuki turned and laughed as she watched Kyoya have an argument with the sticky tape, one he promptly lost.

She sat next to him and pulled it off his jersey, muttering about men's failure to multitask. He replied that he hadn't been multitasking and then realised that he had insulted himself. Yuuki smiled at his blunder, he never blundered in public, and he didn't let others see that point zero one percent of his personality that allowed him to mess up. She appreciated that he had let her see that, already he had displayed a respect for her boundaries and had shared a secret that few would have ever guessed.

Kyoya watched as Yuuki took her place back at the coffee table, his face written with an expression even he wouldn't have been able to read.

-

Your eyes are full
Full of the future of us
The air changes as you look across
At me in that wondering way

It is as if
I knew you before we spoke
Do our hearts know something we don't?
Converging, conspiring, without giving us any say

You sing me to sleep
Talk down my walls
Look through my windows as I wait
You could be the thief
I give the key to

You're ruining me
With secrets and gestures and looks
With sonnets in second-hand books
Playing the chords in me nobody knew how to play

You sing me to sleep
Talk down my walls
Look through my windows as I wait
You could be the thief
I give the key to

It fits in your hand like the water in rain
Unlocks our two different selves
And shows we are the same
Rather than wait til I
Put me out for the taking
You're breaking
You're breaking
You're breaking into my heart
And I'm letting you

Your eyes are full
Full of the future of us...

(The Thief, Brooke Fraser)

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