AUTHORS NOTE: Because sometimes things don't turn out how you want them to.

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Chapter 14

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Yuuki woke up in the middle of the night to her mobile ringing. There was no ID for the caller and she was tempted to leave it, but a curiosity gnawed at her for an instant long enough.

"Hello?" The girl said groggily, sitting up and turning her light on. Her eye's throbbed from the sudden abuse.

"Yuuki?" A voice called from the other end. "Yuuki?"
"Who is this?" She pushed her hair out of her face.

"It's your father."

Yuuki didn't reply, she just breathed down the line in disbelief.

"Yuuki?"

"What do you want?" Her voice lost all softness.

"I want you to not sign those papers, Yuuki." He sounded desperate. Pleading.

Yuuki crossed her legs. "Why?"

"Because I was wrong about you."

"Yes, you were."

There was silence and a muffled sigh. "Why would you divorce your mother Yuuki?"

Yuuki stiffened. "I didn't. I divorced you. If you don't remember, you're the one who sent the papers."

"I want you back Yuuki."

"I'm not sure that's what I want." She spat back.

There was another long pause. "They're trying to buy the company, using the misuse of you as an accusation, proof that we aren't fit to run the business."

"I don't believe it." Yuuki leant against the headboard. "You just want to use me so that you can keep your precious millions."

"No...Yuu.."

"No, Mr Cunxin, I've heard enough."

"I want you back, you're my daughter and I was wrong."

"You were right about two of those things."

"You signed the papers."

Yuuki didn't reply. She clenched her jaw.

"You're just going to let the Ootori group take us over, all those decades of work?"

"The Ootori's?" Yuuki leaned forward. Kyoya said...

"Who else? Seeking to expand their empire."

He said he would never use her. "I don't believe you."

"As soon as you signed yourself away from me, you basically signed the Cunxin group to them. They are the ones who took you in. Politics favours them, the world favours them. It hates me because I sent the papers."

Yuuki balled her fist. "Why should I believe you?"

"Because, I'm your father, you can't divorce that, not really." He sounded sincere. Yuuki remembered the times before her mother died, he had loved her. She had been his princess.

"You don't have to move back, but please, Yuuki..." Her father continued, knowing that there wasn't much to be done now. She hung up and threw her phone across the room. He didn't love her, he didn't want her back. She wasn't that stupid.

But, what if he was right? Kyoya had said that the Cunxin group would help his family's discrepancy with that French company.

The girl swung her legs over the bed and marched into Kyoya's room. She leapt up the stairs with ease and stood at the foot of his bed before reaching into his closet and removing a pair of shoes. Yuuki promptly threw these at the sleeping Kyoya. It all made sense when she didn't want it to.

He groaned and rolled over, not yet fully awake. The girl went for another pair, Prada this time, with stiff leather and whippy laces.

"What?" He was grumpy.

"You bastard." Yuuki hissed at him.

There was a moment of silence as the light was flicked on. Kyoya reacted to the dim light by flinching. "Excuse me?"

"I just got a phone call from my father."

"Your ex-father Yuuki." He sat up, groggy.
"You're breaking his company apart with me as the cause. You used me to get your hands on another business. The medical industry not good enough for you? Don't own enough resorts? Theme parks?"

"Yuuki. Calm down."

"I will not calm down!" The girl threw her hands in the air, already angry at her father and furious at what he had revealed to her. He had lied and told the truth and as much as she hated to admit it, she could now tell the difference.

"Remember what I told you the first time we had this argument?" Kyoya looked at the shoes on the bed and floor, frowning, frustrated.

"Yeah, French Company."

"Yes, the French, it's going to them."

"For your benefit."

"Yes. It helps. Why are you so upset?"

"You used me Kyoya! You knew I didn't want to sign those papers but I did it for you! FOR YOU! Because I love you." She still referred to the present tense, despite her anger and hurt. "And you threw it in my face, just like every other person I know."

"I still think it was best that you divorced them."

"Why? Because you can't divorce your own family?" She shot back.

Kyoya pushed his glasses up, he didn't move out of bed. "No Yuuki. Because you're better off without them."

"Everyone needs a family Kyoya. Even you know that. I don't have anything now. What do I do on their birthdays? Father's day? Just forget? People don't just forget. You just wanted your precious capitalist empire. Everyone needs a family! But it looks like you needed to get rid of a discrepancy more than you needed to look after me. You lied to me. You cheated me. You used me!"

"Yuuki, calm down." Kyoya did not like being woken up, but he didn't like not having his bearings even more.

"You know, you always thought yourself second rate and I never believed it. Not until now. This minute." Yuuki used her finger to point at the ground, indicating that moment.

Kyoya froze for a second and finally woke up. "This coming from you."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"You're always claiming you're not good enough, you bowed to your father's standard of you. You always believed you were second rate, you even convinced yourself that you knew it!"

Yuuki put her hands on her hips and went to speak but didn't get the chance.

"It's always about you, your broken heart, and your Olympic dreams. You only want the Olympics because it's all you ever knew. You never tried for anything more."

"And you've tried for it all, all for yourself. Even at another person's expense."

"I didn't use you without cau..."

"Yes yo..."

"Shut up." Kyoya snapped. "Stop yelling at me for one second. I didn't think you wanted to be with your family, not really. Even if you said you wanted to. You don't want that business and you and I both know your father doesn't deserve it. What use is it then? Why not give it to someone who can use it properly?" He was calculating, menacing almost.

"Like you?" She shot back, her arms crossed.

"Yes, like me." Kyoya reached for his glasses and put them on.

Yuuki stared. "So you admit it?"

"Admit what?"

"You used me to get at my father's business; you planned this from the beginning. I didn't have to pay you back for anything because 'oh, you cared too much about me.' My left foot you did. All you cared about was getting your sly hands on something you had no right in attaining."

"It had merit. It had profits, potential, the seeds a first son would grasp at. It was my chance."

"And what was I? A play thing to pass the time?"

Kyoya slid his glasses up characteristically and turned his cold gaze on her. "To be honest, I expected nothing to come out of it. When it did, I almost stopped what I was doing."

"No, but your too greedy for that. You figured losing a love was better than losing a business. Some toss-up." Yuuki took a step away, her heart freezing for a moment. He had admitted she had originally been his toy.

"I thought maybe I could have both." Kyoya said, realising he had miscalculated somewhere. He thought he could hide it from her until it was over and not fall for her in the process. But he had, he had re-planned. He would keep it a secret and tell her later.

The girl hissed. "Well, you can't have both. After graduation I'm leaving, you can have your little enterprise, but you can't have me at it's expense." She turned sharply and swiftly exited the room, hoping no one in the house had heard their argument.

Kyoya didn't sleep the rest of the evening, he went through every move he had planned and tried to work out where things went wrong. Yuuki's father had called her. He had told her that the Ootori group was, essentially, shaming him into handing over the Cunxin Agricultural Business. He had told her he wanted her back. Yuuki knew her father didn't, he just wanted his company. He had no daughter. Not anymore. Not a lot had changed from the beginning; the only difference was that there were now two cracked hearts, fighting not to shatter. Both of which were too stubborn to admit that the other was wrong.

-

The next day at school, Yuuki sat on her side of the car and stared out the window. She put a wall between them that screamed at him to be silent. To dare say anything. Kyoya stared straight ahead, not typing, not writing. Just staring. When she got out of the car she slammed the door and turned her back on him as she walked to the main building.
"I'll get a cab this afternoon." The girl said flatly over her shoulder, pausing for a moment to gauge his expression.

Kyoya flinched for a millisecond before retaining his icy demeanour.

In class, Tamaki greeted both with his usual cheer. Yuuki smiled, soft and forced while Ootori just took his seat behind the blonde, practically freezing everything around him.

"Is...everything okay?" Tamaki enquired, leaning on the desk next to him.

Yuuki pulled the boy's sleeve back to look at the time, only eight hours to go. "Dandy."

"No it is not." He replied defiantly. "And I shall make it my duty to repair whatever damage occurred between you and Kyoya."

"Hm." Was the reply.

At lunch Yuuki sat across the table from Tamaki, poking her food with a fork. A seat scraped beside the blonde and she raised her head, dreading the daily routine. Kyoya always arrived slightly late. It was part of his meticulous routine. The girl replied by scraping her seat on the floor and dumping her food in a nearby bin before escaping to a study hall.

Tamaki leaned over his friend. "What happened?"

Kyoya pushed his glasses up. "She found out."

"About?"

"Me."

The blonde pondered for a moment. "Wait! No! Kyoya, you used her?"

"How do people know these things?"

"It's not hard to guess. But oh, what a tragedy."

Kyoya glared sideways at Tamaki. "She didn't know I what I was doing. That I needed her business."

Tamaki sighed. "No one knows what you're doing. Ever. Your unpredictable, mysterious, cold, dark, kind of scary and your always seem to be hiding some devious plan."

"Thanks for the uplifting sentiment."

"Kyoya, Kyoya, Kyoya." The blonde head shook. "Yuuki is a princess and should be treated as such."

"No Host Club jargon."

"No, seriously. You can't treat a woman like that! You can't 'need' her business; you should always tell a woman your motives."

"This coming from you."

"The girls at the Host Club know we're just acting. You are my friend, Kyoya, but seriously!"

Kyoya didn't reply. It was true. He was a jerk. And yet, he couldn't find himself from still wanting the Cunxin enterprise.

Tamaki stood valiantly and slammed his fist on the table. "You need a course on how to be a gentleman."

"No. I'm not going to do that. I'm not your puppet."

"Your loss." He sighed. "You don't run into a girl like that every century. Except Haruhi. But...she's mine. So...hands off."

Kyoya pressed his forefinger to the bridge of his glasses and closed his eyes. Tension gave him a headache.

Yuuki found Haruhi in the study hall. She was bent over a copy of Gone with the Wind and was obviously having trouble making sense of the English.

"Hey." The girl put a dictionary beside Haruhi. "That will help. Language studies are a killer."

The other girl looked up from her work. "Thanks." Pause. "Where's Kyoya?"

Yuuki knew that was coming. "Quite frankly my dear, I don't give a damn." She quoted. His greed could swallow him whole to, just like it had Scarlett.

Haruhi blinked, her friend never said anything harsh about a living being in the whole time she had known her. She knew she wanted to, but had never seen it come to a head. "Is everything okay?"

"Don't trust men. Ever. They only function for themselves." Yuuki said.

Haruhi stared up at her friend. "I don't get it?"

"You don't need to. I can't wait to get out of here."

"You're coming to the formal right?"

"Formal?"

"The 'last dance'." Haruhi reminded her.

Yuuki pinched the bridge of her nose. "Yes. No, I remember now. I even bought a dress for that."

"You have to come. It's the last thing you will do with the senior cohort." Haruhi sensed de'ja'vous, Yuuki looked like Tamaki had the day before he almost ran away.

"Yes, I'll have to say goodbye to everyone somehow. As soon as that's done, I'm leaving."

"Where?" Haruhi expected an answer like Tokyo, somewhere close.

The girl paused and looked at the Host Clubs most notorious secret. The girl who was a guy and vice versa. "I think...I think I'll go home."

"You can't go back to your father." Haruhi looked perturbed.

"Not that home."

"Which one?"

"The one I was born in. Where my mother was born. She rode for Britain."

"You're going to England?"

Yuuki clenched her jaw. "I have dual citizenship for there. I booked my flight last night. It's difficult to get a carrier plane willing to take Zero. Olympic horses need pilots with insurance. This time next week, I'll be on that flight."

She was right. Finals were over, the only thing left to do was graduate, attend the formal and pack her bags.

"Haruhi?" She touched the girls shoulder. "I'm sorry. I really like you, but I can't be here anymore. I can't...I can't get hurt again. Please, don't tell anyone. It will be easier."

Haruhi nodded, it seemed like an Ouran trend to have people fleeing from and to the things they wanted. Tamaki went for his mother, just as Yuuki was doing. But she would find nothing. Even so, she was leaving something behind. She was leaving her father's guilt trip, her brother's indifference, her school life that had pushed her to extremes, a riding school she blamed for catalysing her divorce and the man who had manipulated it.

-

That evening Yuuki rode for an hour longer than usual thanks to not having to wait for the Host club to end before going home. She studied for an hour more and slipped into the shower.

Something thunked against her chest as she ran her hand up her neck. Her fingers had caught the chain on her neck and slipped free. The necklace sat on her collarbone, gleaming in the wet, winking up at her. Yuuki lifted the pendant with her fingers and stared at it a moment before clasping her fist around it. She tugged but backed out in the last second, still grasping the jewel. The girl closed her eyes and cried. She wanted to hang onto what they had cherished in the quiet moments she knew Kyoya couldn't be faking. He was a host, and he could woo whoever he wanted, but there was something unexplainable between them. Something special. And, even though he had thrown it away for greed, she hadn't. Not yet. Yuuki loved how, when he called her name or even smiled in her direction, she got the best feeling. It meant that, even if just for a moment, she was the only thing on his mind. The only thing.

Yuuki stood under the flow of hot water, drowning in the steam, and she cried. She finally let her walls down in her own world and mourned her losses.

Her father.

Her brother.

Her mother.

Her friend.

All abused and tore at her in their own unique way. She needed to escape.

After ten minutes, Yuuki turned the water off and wrapped herself in a towel. She had one more week. Seven days. Just One hundred and sixty eight hours. Only ten thousand and eighty minutes.

One week until a lifetime without the things she hated, but had loved the most. She couldn't even claim Zero as her own, but deep down she knew Kyoya wouldn't be chasing her down for a horse.

-

You're staring at the same old view
Held on fast--it became old news, and I
I'll be gone 'fore long
At least I'm gone now
Hallelujah for that

Now you know what you lost
Now you are the thieves that you pardon
Search for need that will never come
Hallelujah for that

There's more for their own now
It's time for me to forget
I don't need a reason to, so
So long stray dog
You're only joker, no
Joker no more

Oh, to each their own
But when you can call on your mind
Just crying to hold back tears sometimes
Wasted, wasted
Before you forget what you came here for

You need to see the signs
And you need to stop wasting time
And selling the same damn story
A story that you heard before
And I waited for you but you were long gone

Stray dog
You're only
Only stray joker, no
Joker no more
Stray dog

(Stray Dog, Robert Pattinson)

-

Kyoya lay on his bed, still in school uniform. The ceiling didn't prompt any thoughts. It was quiet. No one was clicking a pen. There was no smell of white musk and rose. There was no smile. No irritating questions about physics. No detailed philosophy on life, the universe and everything.

No fullness.

He had just received an email from a lawyer, Yuuki's father wanted to negotiate a price. The business was his as soon as he replied. Something was digging into the back of his head. Something sharp.

Kyoya brought his wrist forward and looked at the watch. It had a dial that allowed the wearer to set two times, local and international. Yuuki had set it to London time.

"Because that's almost where the world starts." She had said.

"Greenwich technically."

"Being exact never left room for enjoyment."

He could almost hear her in the lounge below his bedroom, tapping away with her usual, unusual antics that always seemed to strangely make sense.

Kyoya's laptop beeped. He looked at it, there was a new email. It was Tamaki.

I worked it out.

Why you should get your act together.

Why she's perfect for you.

It's the way she makes you laugh on the days you don't even want to smile.

T.

Kyoya didn't type back. Tamaki knew when and when not to say things, even if it didn't appear that way. Tamaki could always make a woman happy. He would always sacrifice something to do so.

Yuuki had sacrificed a lot for him. Her life as she had known it. She didn't even have a family name to hold up to anymore. Just a title and a gold medal.

And soon, she would be gone. Forced out of her new life by the creature who had brought her into it. The creature who pursued measures beyond Kohlberg's stages of moral development, one who created his own law within the bounds of government. One who did not consider others until after considering himself. One who manipulated and could not be called human. He had felt himself changing since he met Yuuki. That frightened him, it meant that inheriting the Ootori group would become almost impossible. The one possibility in his life, the one goal, began to fade. At the time he had minded greatly, but there was a point, one snowy Christmas afternoon, that he hadn't.

Kyoya emailed the lawyer back.

-

I should never think
What's in your heart
What's in our home
So I won't

You'll learn to hate me
But still call me baby
Oh love
So call me by my name

And save your soul
Save your soul
Before your too far gone
Before nothing can be done

I'll try to decide when
She'll lie in the end
I ain't got no fight in me
In this whole damn world
So hold off
She should hold off
It's the one thing that I've known

Once I put my coat on
I coming out in this all wrong
She standing outside holding me
Saying oh please
I'm in love
I'm in love

Girl save your soul
Go on save your soul
Before it's to far gone
And before nothing can be done

Cause without me
You got it all
So hold on
Without me you got it all
So hold on
Without me you got it all
Without me you got it all
So hold on
Without me you got it all
Without me you got it all
So hold on

(Never think, Robert Pattinson)

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Oh twisty cliffy. I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Review and tell me what you thought.

Blessings,

-Peterpauper