AUTHORS NOTE: This chapter is a time-lapse. It takes on almost a year. I chose key moments and put them in, the story will continue after school but writing a whole year, chapter by chapter, would be tedious for not only me, but you as well. In this chapter you can expect:

- The beach – Driving lessons – A confession – Tamaki – V for Vendetta – Sydney -

So, like it, love it, hate it. Whatever. Just enjoy it. (Rin on the Rox)

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Chapter 13

-

It was the summer Hunny and Mori graduated. The summer Haruhi and Tamaki finally fell in love. The summer Yuuki won her Grand Prix and the summer Kyoya surpassed his brothers and rumour started that he would one day be heir to the Ootori group.

The Host Club had gone to the beach and spent allot of time wondering about what would happen to them now that two members had left the school and soon the rest would. Hunny and Mori assured them that they would come to the Host Club and continue hosting until the rest graduated the following year; even so, it didn't feel the same.

Kyoya seemed relaxed now that he didn't have to prove himself anymore; he was finally taking a short break before throwing himself into his final year of school. He would sit under an umbrella and watch his friends play on the beach, Yuuki at his side, drawing in the sand. They had become inseparable.

"Okay." She looked up. "Capital of Laos?"

"Vientiane"

The girl threw sand at him. "Fine. You win."

"I win every time Yuuki."

"Only because you say some obscure country like... Azerbaijan, when I play."

They had been playing the capitals game, or, Yuuki had been playing the capitals game. Kyoya had just been answering questions.

The girl dug her feet into the sand at the bottom of her towel. "What's going to happen if that's on a geography exam?"

Kyoya smiled. Azerbaijan would never be on a geography exam. "You'll be fine." He had already planned the year out, just as he planned everything.

The next day, he taught Yuuki to drive.

"Accelerator on the right." He watched her as she concentrated and gripped the steering wheel so hard her knuckles went white. "Yuuki, relax."

"Okay." She exhaled and closed her eyes before flooring it and then slamming on the brakes.

Kyoya looked some ten years older. "Keep your eyes open next time." His voice was hard.

"Sorry." Pause. "Can't I learn in a different car? Something...cheaper? Like...a Volvo? Or Tamaki's Porsche even?"

The Ootori's car had an engine that sounded like a monster. It sat outside the front of the summer villa and roared as the pair tried to make heads and tails of Yuuki's driving ability.

"Relax. Accelerate, gently."

Yuuki put her foot down gently, nothing happened.

Kyoya pushed his glasses up. "Pedal on the right."

"Oh. Sorry." Yuuki touched the accelerator. The car lurched forward and stopped abruptly, throwing the pair into their seats.

"What did you do that for?"

Yuuki drummed the wheel. "It was moving."

Kyoya couldn't decide whether to be amused or angry. "I'm sorry to tell you this, but that was the point."

"I'd be better in an automatic." She stared out the windshield.

Kyoya laughed. "This is an automatic."

Yuuki looked at him, confused. "What's the difference with a manual then?"

"It has three pedals." He smiled as her face registered shock.

She stared at him. "I guess I would be better in an automatic then."

"I guess so."

They both decided that it was best Yuuki didn't hold a drivers licence.

The host club sat in the lounge of the holiday house and watched the Maserati bunny hop around the large, circular drive, roaring in distaste at its abuse.

"At least it's not my car." Tamaki said, smiling at the scene.

"Your car would be easier to replace." Hikaru said.

Kouru joined him. "Yours could only feed one African village for the rest of eternity. His could feed the whole country."

The blonde turned to them, his eyes blazing. "At least I can now save those children with the leftover money! Daddy is a good man!"

"Kyoya could too, now that he is heir to the Ootori group."

Tamaki lunged at the twins, who stepped sideways, allowing the man to face-plant on the marble floor. Everyone in the room had guessed Kyoya and Yuuki's status, even though the couple hadn't said anything about it. They kept silent like, hiding the full extent of their emotion and character from everyone but each other.

-

Yuuki found herself a new riding instructor and when school started again, she rode every morning for an hour and a half and every afternoon for two before coming inside to study. Some days the Host Club would come and watch, others she would be on her own. Most days, when she retreated from the shower and began her homework, Kyoya would enter and sit near her. Tapping annoyingly on his laptop as he controlled business and the host club.

"That noise is incessantly annoying." Yuuki turned to him one day. She was tired and stressed.

"You're the one clicking your pen." He didn't look up.

The girl stopped instantly and scowled at him. "That's not the point."

"Want me to leave?"

"No." She said stubbornly.

"I'm not going to stop typing."

"Then I'm not going to stop clicking my pen." She leaned over the table and put it in his face and began clicking it.

Kyoya grabbed her wrist. "Can you at least act your age?"

"Teenagers are the most notorious children of all." She grinned at his scowl.

"What am I then?"

"An egoist."

He didn't let her hand go. "If I was an egoist, then I would be self sufficient and self indulgent."

"You're denying your title." Yuuki tried to lean back as he contradicted his previous statements as to his nature. Kyoya still had her wrist.

"I am still essentially a selfish creature, I crave your company for myself much more than I should. Still, I find myself wanting to please you, for you. Before you came into my life I could make all kinds of decisions now I'm addicted. I have to know what you think." Pause. "What do you think?" He didn't take his eyes of his laptop and continued typing with his free hand. Still Kyoya essentially, but his words contradicted everything that others thought him initially to be.

"I think..." Yuuki was about to say something profound, but was too focused on trying to pry his fingers off her wrist. "I think I really need my hand back."

Kyoya let go and the girl lost her balance, she had been leaning away from him and suddenly had no force opposing her own. She fell on her back and stared at the ceiling.

"I find myself doing things at a loss for your profit. I do everything because I love you." Kyoya didn't stop his business.

Yuuki sat back up and thought for a moment. "Wait, what?"

"I was talking about reformation."

"No, I know. What was the last thing you said?"

Kyoya stopped typing and looked at her. "I think you heard me."

"Me too." She replied, not only to hearing him, but to his love as well.

There was a lapse of silence. "Yuuki?"

The girl looked up, Kyoya had stripped his walls down and she could see right into him. "Yes?"

"I mean that."

She smiled and looked at her page, blushing, before looking at him again. "I love you too."

---

Sometimes I wish I was smart
I wish I made cures for...how people are
I wish I had power
I wish I could leave
I wish I could change the world
For you and me

Sometimes, I wish I wish I was brave
I wish I was stronger
I wish I could feel no pain
I wish I was young
I wish I was shy
I wish I was honest
I wish I was you, not I

(Let's start over, Blink 182)

---

Yuuki sat in Zero's paddock, her back to a fence post, just watching her horse.

Her horse. The girl smiled. Every time she rode she thought of Kyoya, every morning and evening, when she wasn't thinking about him, she was with him. It was Friday evening and homework could wait.

The long grass tickled her bare arms. Zero came over to her and put his head near her face.

"Hey pretty boy." Yuuki cooed, rubbing his blaze. "You did good today." They had trained dressage, not his strongest asset.

The horse blew into her face when he heard his owner's voice, his way of saying hello.

"Yeah, I love you too." She ran a hand up his neck. Zero pressed his soft nose to her chest, he smelt like sweet hay.

"I do, really."

He snorted.

"That's unfair. You need to get over the fact that you aren't the only male in my life now. I don't love you any less; it's just that...I seem to have grown enough to love more."

Zero began to nibble her pants in a friendly manner; it was an old habit of his.

"You wouldn't know, would you? You've been gelded."

The horse lifted his head and flicked his ears, somewhat offended.

Yuuki laughed. "It's true. Couldn't ride you as a stallion, you're a handful as it is."

"That is a conversation I want to know nothing about." A voice called out from behind her. It was Tamaki.

"You sure? I could go into the details." Yuuki stood up and brushed the dirt off her pants. Zero slid his head over her shoulder and eagerly waited for Tamaki to reach them.

The blonde and the bay had become friends and Souh often came to visit the horse after spending time with Kyoya most afternoons.

"No, its fine." He raised his hands and laughed.

Yuuki moved out of the way as Zero tried to crush her between himself and the rail in an effort to reach Tamaki. "I see where I sit in this relationship."

"Daddy wins every time." The blonde offered Zero a cube of sugar.

"You shouldn't feed him those too often. He'll get fat."

"Yeah. And you will too." He replied sarcastically. "You both are training so much its practically impossible. I've seen you at school; you eat like a sparrow anyway."

"I do not; you just eat like a horse...for lack of a better word"

"I'm a boy and a Prince; I need to keep myself sustained in order to keep the ladies entertained."

"I think it's the yellow uniforms. Very off putting from any form of food. Makes me feel sick most days."

"They are rather hideous. Someone needs to save the ladies of Ouran from that awful colour."

"You're the superintendent's son. Change them."

Tamaki paused to think and instead of answering went back to a previous part of the discussion. "When you said that Zero wouldn't know...you didn't mean that you and Kyoya..."

"No! Gosh Tamaki. Get your mind out of the gutter." The girl threw a small stone at him.

"Hey, just asking. People are wondering about you two."

"What are they saying?"

"They just...suspect things."

"What things? And who are they?"

"Mainly Hikaru and Kouru. You live together, come on Yuuki. Its exceptionally romantic, you can't help but have people talking. The beautiful princess melts the cold Romeo.." Tamaki's eyes went wide and he clasped his hands together dreamily.

"We don't live together, together. There are boundaries." She replied indignantly.

Tamaki grinned. "That's so sweet! And Kyoya respects them? How lovely. I want to tell some people!"

"Tamaki. Please." Yuuki was going red from embarrassment; intimacy was a topic she got shy even thinking about. They had to read a romance novel for literature studies and she had tried to read parts of the book with her eyes shut, failing miserably and then getting even more embarrassed when Kyoya asked why she was blushing.

The blonde knew this; he wasn't the type to rub it in either. "Fine, I won't tell people. Except Haruhi."

"Why do you find the need to tell people?"

"Because, Kyoya...in love...it's...spectacular! We should base a day at the Host Club off it even, or write a book...make a movie...." He began to think. Yuuki didn't see how that idea would work.

The girl ducked under the paddock fencing and said goodbye to Zero. "I think that you should calm down and go home."

"I can tell Haruhi?"

"Only Haruhi." Yuuki was sure he would have told anyway, but giving him permission ensured he would only tell the people she had mentioned.

-

That evening Yuuki and Kyoya watched a movie. Yuuki had seen it before, in English. She said it was much better in its original context, allot of the meaning got lost in translation. Kyoya didn't see how a man in a Guy Fawkes mask could get lost in translation.

"However, this valorous visitation of a by-gone vexation, stands vivified, and has vowed to vanquish these venal and virulent vermin van-guarding vice and vouchsafing the violently vicious and voracious violation of volition." She quoted in perfect English.

"You want to kill the evil people, some really evil people and some really evil political people." Kyoya brought them back to their own language.

"Very good." Yuuki smiled at him. "Alliteration is so much fun."

"Not in Japanese."

"And that's why were multilingual." She picked up the DVD box and read the back.

Kyoya watched her; she was sitting cross legged, like him. Yuuki's hair was out and had got rather long. It waved in places and looked black in the light, even though he knew it wasn't. She was wearing a plain white t-shirt and her black track pants. She was simple, beautiful, fragile.

The girl looked up. "What?"

"Nothing." Kyoya turned his attention back to the movie.

Yuuki pulled his foot, half removing the sock. "What?"

He looked at his sock and turned his gaze on her, not answering.

"I'm sorry." She laughed as he pulled it back on, obviously displeased. The weather was turning cold again.

Kyoya swung his legs so that his feet were on the ground. "I was thinking...about chemistry."

"What inspired that?" Yuuki looked at the movie; the main character was busy plotting. "The film could hardly be a muse."

"You are." He didn't turn to look at her.

"Oh. That chemistry. Not periodic table chemistry."

"Not periodic table chemistry." This time he turned to face her.

Yuuki moved across the couch and leaned her back against him. She held out a Pocky stick, a questioning look on her face.

"I don't care for sweet things."

"It's not really sweet."

"What is it then?"

"Breadstick with chocolate."

Kyoya took the stick and looked at it before trying some. He paused before speaking. "I don't care for it."

Yuuki sighed and let her head drop on his shoulder. "That was anticlimactic."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"You didn't." She pulled another out of the box. "More for me."

Kyoya smiled softly and ran a hand down her arm before letting it rest silently on her waist.

The next morning, Kyoya's sister came for a weekend visit. The house was silent and she crept around, looking for someone who was awake. When she reached the lounge she discovered the couple, sitting as they had been halfway through the movie. Both asleep.

---

Derry down green
color of my dream
A dream that's daily coming true
And when the day is through
I will come to you and take you on
Your many charms

And you'll look at me
With eyes that see
And we'll melt into each other's arms

You'll be my queen
And I'll be your king
And I'll be your lover too

(I'll be your lover too, Robert Pattinson)

---

Winter arrived with exams and another cold snap. Yuuki took Zero to Sydney to compete in the Bates Three Day International. It was summer in Australia and the pair had to spend a week in climate training to prepare for the event. Yuuki was missing two weeks of school in order to be there, she found comfort in extra study with Kyoya. When Yuuki missed Kyoya she would call his mobile, knowing that while at school it would go straight to voicemail. She listened to his steady voice before she went into the ring and smiled, knowing he would be thinking of her. It calmed her nerves. The pair won the competition, but only just, having been let down in dressage.

On the last day of the Grand Prix, Yuuki was putting Zero into his stall when her mobile rang.

"Hello?" She held the device between her shoulder and ear, needing her hands to take her horse's halter off.

"Busy?" A familiar voice said from the other end. Yuuki smiled.

"Give me a minute." She put her mobile down and tended to Zero. "Hey boy. Guess who's on the phone?"

The horse began to chew on Yuuki's shoulder, creasing her jacket. "Oi." She pushed his nose away. "I know he's your rival, but don't take it out on me."

The girl picked her mobile up. "You there?"

Kyoya's voice was smooth and calculating, just like she remembered. "Rivals?"

Yuuki laughed. "You heard that?"

"Your horse doesn't say hello I gather."

"We can try. Start speaking."

The girl held the phone up to Zero's ear. The horse flicked them forward for an instant, identified the sound and turned the around.

"No, he does not say hello." She tucked a stray hair behind her ear. "How are you? Shouldn't you be at the Host Club?"

"Time difference Yuuki. I'm fine. You're missing a lot of work."

"I know." The girl leant against the wall of the stall and rubbed her horse's head. "You'll help me catch up, right?"

"If it will give me merit."

"I won. You'll get merit."

"Congratulations. I wish I could be there for the ceremony."

"It's boring. You wouldn't like it. Just podiums and cheques."

"I'd get to scope out Australia for business. I hear that they are in dire need of good hospitals, and doctors, dispute the xenophobia. My father is interested in a corporation down under, so to speak."

"Yes, well, they're all pretty warm and fuzzy. Lively bunch."

"Not to your liking."

"I'm English by birth; the penal colonies weren't considered a social event until recently. Friendly people, lots of sun, pretty country. It's nice, but you're not here."

"Mmm. That was exceptionally generic."

Zero flicked his ears as his master laughed. Yuuki wrapped an arm around his head. "You know me."

"Well I miss you to if it's any consolation."

The girl smiled, imagining him doing the same. She liked it when he said what he was actually feeling deep down, not just on the surface layer.

"That is consoling, especially with all those girls at the club."

"Tamaki does that, I don't. Their families need to be positive about me."

"Uhuh. Always the pacifist."

"Profit is profit."

"What are you doing?" Yuuki tickled Zero's nose, it was soft against her touch.

"I am talking to you." Obvious first, Kyoya's basic rule. It keeps others at bay and stops them wondering. "And I'm checking the stock market."

"Is it good?"

"It's getting there."

"Aren't we all."

"You come home tomorrow right?"

"Flying out this evening."

"See you at the airport."

"You'll be there a while. I have to get a horse through customs."

"I'll bring my laptop."

"I know you will. Bring the clipboard too, just in case."

"Alright."

"Love you."
"Love you too."

"Oh Kyoya?"

"Yes?"

"Sleep sweet." She could imagine the ghost of a smile lifting the corners of his mouth and his gaze lifting from what he was doing.

"See you tomorrow."

-

Seasons are changing
And waves are crashing
And stars are falling all for us
Days grow longer and nights grow shorter
I can show you I'll be the one

I will never let you fall
I'll stand up with you forever
I'll be there for you through it all
Even if saving you sends me to heaven

'Cause you're my, you're my

My true love, my whole heart
Please don't throw that away
'Cause I'm here... for you
Please don't walk away
Please tell me you'll stay

(You're Guardian Angel, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus)

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You know the drill, rate and review.

Let me know how this chapter turned out, I was a little apprehensive about skipping through such a time frame. I feel I touched on what I needed to, kept everyone in character (Kyoya is human...in as much context as one can say that...and despite how cold and calculating he is in the manga/anime, he does show a soft side. I try to display that whilst still keeping him as...Kyoya.) But still, we'll see.

Next chapter:

- Formal (or prom, but not really) – Final days of school – Exams – An argument -

(Not necessarily in that order)