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Chapter 3

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Kyoya glared from under his duvet as a sprightly blonde whacked him a few times in the shoulder. Another, shorter one was bouncing on the end of the bed, yelling something about pastries and sunshine and trying to link it to whatever they had planned for this day's kidnapping.

Tamaki stopped trying to beat Kyoya's shoulder into his collarbone and leaned back, thoughtfully grinning. "It's what all the commoners do who can't afford to talk to the owners of various universities."

The Ootori sat up, somewhat displeased. "I don't care about other universities, if you hadn't realised; I go to university. You go to university, everyone in my room, who quite frankly should not be here, goes to university."

Tamaki tapped his chin. "But we don't all go to the same one! Orientation week is a way to see everyone else's lifestyle!"

"Of which, mine incurs not waking up to a planned mobbing every morning."

Most of the host club were studying business in one form or another. The twins were doing a duel with the arts and management in order to take over their mothers fashion business, Tamaki was studying international enterprises as the heir to the Suoh Empire; of which Kyoya joined him for once a week as the heir to the Ootori group, all whilst juggling his medical degree. Mori and Hunny were doing art history, for no reason at all really other than that Hunny had developed a fetish for an ancient Egyptian recipe of baklava. Mori had forced him to do a duel in business as well to make their time at college more than one long, tedious lecture about how humans have messed up over time. Haruhi was studying law, just like her mother.

Hunny stopped bouncing on the bed and began pulling things out of Kyoya's closet, turning his room into an area of designer chaos. "Haruhi is at university today too, the convention is at her college so we should all go visit her!"

Mori stood by silently, catching various items of clothing and throwing them to the twins who advanced on the Ootori.

Kyoya snatched a shirt from Hikaru and paused before deciding to lay back down with the offending item covering his head. No one was scared of his morning moods anymore, they had ceased to be menacing and had become somewhat masochistic. Every day was another day to be reminded that he had messed up royally, so much so his blood should be blue.

Everyone else's life kept moving forward, as did his; but only in one aspect. His career was going well, but where Tamaki was engaged to Haruhi, the twins had each other, Mori had Hunny and Hunny had cake, he had nothing. Just a void and the knowledge that the only thing that would ever fill that void wanted nothing to do with him.

Tamaki pulled the shirt off and tugged his friends arm until he was sitting up. "It's going to be fun! There will be lots of commoners at the scholarship stand and cafe coffee and..."

"Cake to go with the cafe coffee!" Hunny beamed, once more on the bed, crawling up Kyoya's lethargic form.

The victim cringed; loud, high pitched noises.

"And the riding academy is there!" The little blonde finished.

There was a long silence, almost awkward but more apprehensive. The Jockey Club was where trials were held. Where the Olympic horses were kept. Where the Olympians were kept. It had become the Athletes Village of Japan's equestrian team. The main street in Tokyo had advertised the team for the 2012 events. Yuuki's face had appeared, smiling down on the city and the masses, of which Kyoya had been fatefully a part of. She had told the world that she would see them in London before fading into one of the Olympic rings. Then there was a billboard. A big one just outside the Medical Institute where Kyoya was studying. It pictured the representatives of each sport, one athlete, one swimmer, one gymnast and an equestrian. It was as if fate were trying to make him miserable.

In the end, Tamaki tugged Kyoya's arm hard enough to make the man fall out of bed. It was then that he took on his menacing morning persona and gave the host club reason to cower in the lounge while he dressed.

-

Yuuki lead Zero towards the paddocks just as morning began to set in. Her instructor had let her off early because her son was starting college that day and she was eager to check out the convention being held on the campus. It seemed that every other university in Japan had converged on the Tokyo grounds; a few fans of the somewhat limited riding celebrity had sat in the stands and watched as Yuuki took Zero around a mock-up puissance course. They were dedicated to fight the sunrise and the grogginess that came with not routinely having to see it. Some of them followed the girl, at a distance, as she released her horse for a half-rest day. Her routine allowed her half a day off Friday and a whole day off Sunday.

Yuuki slid the halter over Zero's head. "There you are, go frolic with Tim."

Tim was one of her team-mates horses, his show name was actually Zeus' Thunder but not even the owner of the horse liked the name; and thus dubbed him Tim at the last Olympic games. It was an ongoing inside joke that surrounded the gold medallists of 2008. Yuuki's life revolved around riding, she sat in a lecture once a week about the processes of London; how to get used to the weather, the ground conditions, how to respect another's culture and all the things that had been said three and a half years before. She wanted to study psychology but knew that being so close to 2012 made it impossible.

Zero turned his head eagerly to Tim before returning to Yuuki. He pressed his soft nose to the hand that wasn't holding the halter and snorted.

"Okay, ew." The girl laughed, it was a rare occurrence and it felt like her face was cracking. She reached into her riding boot and pulled out a small metal box. The horse tried to eat it and the girl had to push his face away as she retrieved a sugar cube from inside. Yuuki offered it to Zero but put it in her own mouth last minute.

"Ha." She was in an unusually witty mood that day. A mood that shouldn't be unusual, but was according to current circumstances. The girl pulled a face, it was incredibly sweet. She forced herself to swallow. "Okay, ew again."

Yuuki gave Zero the remaining cubes and then put the box back in her pocket. Seeing all was gone, the horse disappeared, disinterested.

"You're going to kill your horse that way." A familiar voice called from behind her.

Suki was leaning against the fence, the small group of fans still standing where they had stopped some way behind.

"You're going to kill yourself if you stay around here in your condition." Yuuki climbed over the gate, feeling too lazy to open it.

"What condition?"

"The one where you are now a whole two people."

Suki laughed. "I'm not riding today." She was dressed casually in pair of jeans and a blouse. It looked like she could have gone riding. "And neither are you for the rest."

"Are we doing something?" Yuuki smiled and waved shyly at the group of horse-lovers that rotated as she walked by.

"I'm looking after my niece while hubby's sister explores going back to university. You should come with us to the student film festival; their showing a Disney take-off."

"Disney? At college?"

"It's a 'for the kids' program thing."

"Well, you could defiantly go to that." Yuuki smiled softly and buried her hands in pockets of her riding jacket.

"Yes, well. You can come to that as well, but hubby and I decided that its time you went out."

"And seeing a kids movie isn't going out?"

"Hardly, you're more suited to a screening of Les Miserables."

"That's not funny." Yuuki unlocked her room and ushered her friend inside.

Suki laughed again. "No, seriously. The tenth anniversary cast was reunited by whoever owns this university and is playing at the theatre tonight for the arts students."

"Really?" Les Miserables was Yuuki's favourite play, she had wanted to see the TAC version but had missed out on tickets.

"Really really."

"Tenth anniversary cast?"

"The tenth." Suki attacked the girl's pantry and checked the date on a packet of biscuits "You know, these go off tomorrow."

Yuuki turned the kettle on. "Go for it."

"You don't want any?" The woman offered the open packet, revealing a row of chocolate coated, caramel and wafer goodness.

The younger girl cringed. "I don't like them."

"When why did you buy them?" Suki exasperated.

Yuuki shrugged. "Because, I wanted to try something different."

Trying didn't work. She couldn't be anything other than she was, everyone else in the world was taken. Nothing else fit correctly other than the person she had been in the last year at Ouran, and that person had got lost somewhere and was proving hard to find.

-

"LES MISERABE!" Tamaki ogled a poster on the wall of the drama faculty. "LES MISERABLES!"

The blonde clambered around the paper, viewing it from as many angles as he could, obviously excited.

"What's Les Miserables?" Haruhi quipped, her head cocked slightly to the side. Her class had just ended.

Kyoya pushed his glasses up. "It is a famous stage musical, following the lives of several French characters over a twenty year period in the 19th century, following Napoleons defeat and going into a revolution."

Tamaki turned to his fiancé and grasped her hands. "It is the tale Jean Valjean, as he seeks to redeem himself from his past mistakes. It is an epic tale of good, evil and the law, captured in a sweeping story that explores the tragic, yet beautiful history of France, the stunning architecture of Paris, politics which I'm sure you would be interested in, moral philosophy for Kyoya," he said with a sadistic glint in his eyes, still mad at the man for his stupid mistake "antimonarchism for the twins, justice for Mori, and romance." His eyes were sparkling, his love for his birth nation still evident.

Kyoya didn't need to be asked, he had already pulled his phone out and called the man who owned the university if he would be so obliged as to let his good friends and allies, the Ootori's, have a private balcony to that nights event.

Tamaki was spinning Haruhi around. "You should be able to associate with the musical!" He began to sing. "At the end of the day you're another day older, and that's all you can say for the life of the poor, it's a struggle, it's a war, and there's nothing that anyone's giving, one more day standing about, what is it for? One day less to be living."

Haruhi seemed somewhat offended.

-

Yuuki dressed for the evening at Suki's house. She had brought a cocktail dress for the evening and been scowled at for bringing flats as opposed to heels.

"You have to wear heels!" Suki cried, her niece, Riki, sitting on her lap. The little girl nodded.

The girl sighed. "I don't have any here."

"Well, I do." The woman put the child on her bed and pulled open her closet, revealing a row of designer shoes. She pulled out a white pair and handed them to her friend.

"White?"

"Your waistband is white."

"Yeah but..."

"And you're Alice Band!" The little girl cried.

Yuuki stared at her, betrayed. She didn't want to wear heels.

Suki held them out.

The teen took them. "What about you?"

"I'm pregnant, remember?"

"Oh, so you can ride horses but you can't wear heels." Yuuki scoffed, pulling the shoes on.

Riki stumbled off the bed with all the mannerisms of a three year old and walked over to the girl, she pointed up. "You're Anastasia!"

Obviously the movie that they had shown had rubbed off but not enough for the child to understand that Yuuki had dark hair, not auburn, and was a half, not Russian.

Suki laughed at how the little girl had managed to lighten the mood. "And who were Anastasia's parents?" she lifted Riki up to her hip.

"Nicholus and Alezandra!" A pair of chubby hands waved in the air.

"Nicholas and Alexandra, very good!"

"Ans her sisters were called Olgha, Tatlenana and Marisa!" She clapped.

"Olga, Tatiana and Maria, well done! Little history buff coming through already."

"Ans her brother, Azexi died because he was sick."

"He did." Suki pressed the girl's nose with her index finger.

Yuuki was impressed at how such a young mind could hold so much information; hers had been like a sieve. "And what was their last name?" She wanted to see the child try to pronounce that.

"Rachmaninoff" Riki said fluently.

Yuuki frowned. "Rachmaninoff is a pianist."

Riki scowled. "No, it's were Rachmaninoff."

"It was Romanov."

"Rachmaninoff."

"Romanov."

Riki stuck her tongue out. "MEH!"

Yuuki made the same reply, only it was less dignified on someone of her age.

"Your Anastasia, you should know your last name!"

"Yeah well..." She couldn't come up with a comeback. "Your face."

Suki burst out laughing.

Yuuki stared at her friend. "Should she even be coming tonight? Les Mis is rather...vulgar in places."

"Oh, she won't understand. She'll probably fall asleep, her mother wants her 'refined' and Broadway is apparently good enough."

"She's three!"

"And you lost an argument to her, even though you were right."

Yuuki crossed her arms and pouted, her feet already hurt.

"Alright, doompity." Suki put her niece down. "Go to your uncle. Tell him we're almost ready"

A deep voice reverberated down the hall. "Almost!? How much time does it take?" He had been listening in the whole time, just as his wife would have to him. They were still five at heart.

"Oktay." Riki shuffled to the door and stopped at the door, glaring at Yuuki she made one last attempt. "Rachmaninoff."

-

When the group arrived at the theatre they discovered their seats had been moved.

"I'm sorry, we were overbooked and had to move you up to the second balcony."

"Why?" Lee, Suki's husband asked. "We booked a week ago."

"Well, the gentleman who booked a few hours ago is apparently incredibly important. Someone of your business stature should understand that sort of arrangement." The usher said.

Lee sighed. "Okay. Is it still a private room?"

"Yes, sir. We are also including complimentary cheese, wine and chocolate."

"Oh, good. Second balcony it is." Suki started to head for the stairs.

Yuuki followed her. "You are still supposed to eat for one, you know that right?"

"Not when there's two of me."

"It's me too." Lee caught up.

"Which is why I'm getting cravings so early."

They laughed. Yuuki felt she had to look away, their relationship was so deep, inexplicable and not understood by anyone but them. She knew that that felt like.

Riki tugged Yuuki's dress for the millionth time. "Yuriki?" She had decided to combine their names together.

"Yes?"

"How did Aunty Suki get a baby in her tummy?"

The girl opened her mouth to speak and hesitated. "Uh...well...hmm..." She paused. "Ask your parents."

"Can't you tell me? Pweez?" She had an adorable lisp.

"Uh..." Yuuki thought for a moment. "Well, when a mommy and a daddy love each other very much...um...no, I can't tell you. Ask your parents." The whole topic of relationships, let alone intimacy, still freaked the girl out a bit, more so than it had before. She had flunked biology because she was too embarrassed to study for the reproduction test, even though most of it was on mitosis.

"Can I have a baby in my tummy?"

Yuuki decided then and there that children were harder to get along with than adults. "No."

"Why?"

"Because, you can't yet."

"Why?"

"Because....you just can't. Stop asking me." Yuuki replied, flustered.

Suki was laughing silently to herself and Yuuki glared at the woman. Her husband then took his turn after catching on to their conversation.

"What Yuuki means is, she doesn't understand herself."

"I do so!" The girl paused awkwardly. "I just don't want to."

The adults laughed as they took their seats. Riki forgot all about her questioning and attacked a box of chocolates. The teen played her hand up her neck, suddenly very shy and introverted. Her fingers caught the chain on her skin and she moved her hand away. Not tonight. Tonight she was going to enjoy the play.

-

Kyoya took his seat with the rest of the host club and waited silently. Les Miserables. The miserable ones. Or one at least. He wondered if Yuuki felt the same. If she still loved this musical.

"Does this have lea salongalea salongaLea Salonga in it?" The twins asked in unison.

"Probably."

"Do you think you could get us backstage to meet her?"

"Probably."

"Will you?"

"Probably not."

Hikaru, probably, waved a small flag with the songstresses face on it. "But she's so pretty! She would be a great new face for our mother's label!"

"Please?" The other twin asked.

Kyoya pushed his glasses up and ignored them.

"Why won't you let them?" Haruhi asked from her seat behind Tamaki. The blonde was leaning forward so far it was as if there was no one sitting between them.

"Yeah, why?" The twins asked accusing.
"I won't be used for petty gain." He replied.

Hikaru and Kouru leaned back, defeated. Haruhi knew when to drop a topic.

"Kyoya-chan?" Hunny had brought his own cake. "These are pretty good seats! Centre first balcony and everything! How much did they cost?"

"Why?"

"So we can pay you back, of course." Hunny beamed.

Everyone turned to the master of loans. "Don't pay me back."

Shock registered on everyone's face. "What?" Tamaki turned around.

"Why are you so stunned? Is there something wrong with buying friends tickets to the theatre?" He drummed his fingers on the armrest.

There was a silence. He had changed. Not a lot, but enough for people to notice. Enough to be Kyoya, but for the better. The lights went down. Les Miserables started its progression to the end.

-

Suki spent half the time of the first interval covering Riki's ears.

"Why can't I hear?" The girl asked.

"You're not old enough." Her aunt replied.

"Can I listen to this song?"

Suki looked at Yuuki, the girl nodded. "This one's clean."

"Finally." The woman said, setting the child back in her seat.

And now I'm all alone again
Nowhere to turn, no one to go to.
Without a home, without a friend
without a face to say hello to
But now the night is near
And I can make-believe he's here
Sometimes I walk alone at night
When everybody else is sleeping
I think of him and then I'm happy
With the company I'm keeping
The city goes to bed
And I can live inside my head
On my own
Pretending he's beside me
All alone
I walk with him 'til morning
Without him, I feel his arms around me
And when I lose my way, I close my eyes and he has found me

Yuuki stared as Lea Salonga sang On my own. For the first time, she understood what it meant.

I love him
But when the night is over
He is gone
The river's just a river
Without him, the world around me changes
The trees are bare and everywhere the streets are full of strangers
I love him
But every day I'm lonely
All my life I've only been pretending
Without me, his world will go on turning
The world is full of happiness that I have never known.

Kyoya had used her for petty gain. He would probably be happy without her, his world would continue to rotate without her. A world where he had friends who weren't animals and a family who he was still bound to.

Riki crawled onto Yuuki's lap, bored by the song. She wrapped her hands around the teens where that sat at her throat.

"Can I shee?" The child asked.

Yuuki looked at her hands, clasped around her pendant. She wasn't ready to let go yet. She wouldn't accept that her leaving had left him the same. The girl shook her head at the child. "No." She said softly.

"Why?"

"Because, it's not for you to know."

Riki was adamant and began clawing at Yuuki's fingers, frustrated as the tired child she had just turned into.

"Don't Riki." The girl scolded.

"I want to shee!" The child tugged on Yuuki's hands, there was a click behind her neck as the clasp snapped from the force.

The lack of pressure pulling back on the child's hands threw her back slightly, Yuuki reached her arm behind the girl and let the necklace go, not knowing it wasn't attached yet. Her eyes drew away as the pendant bounced on the floor. Yuuki's heart faltered. Her final piece of him, her final good memory had been removed. It was like saying goodbye forever, it made the past real. Acutely so. Yuuki realised sharply that she didn't want that. That she had made a mistake. The necklace slid under the ridge of the balcony and the girl could do nothing to stop it sliding over the edge.

The girl swiftly put the child back in her seat, and quickly rose.

"Yuuki?" Suki looked up, out of the trance the musical had put her under.

"My...I...I have to get something." The teen's voice faltered.

"Oh." The woman lifted her purse. "While you're there, can you get me a bottle of water as well? I can't drink the wine." Pause. "Yuuki?" She was gone.

The girl ran through the empty corridors of the theatre and tried to work out where the balcony below them had been. Her desperation to get it back frightened her.

Yuuki rounded a corner and found the staircase that lead to the door of the private balcony. Centre, first balcony. It read. Exhaling she hoped it was there and began to slowly climb the stairs, calming herself so that the people inside wouldn't think she was a breathless maniac.

The door opened and a man in a suit with dark hair appeared, Yuuki didn't look up at him at first, she was too busy trying to steady herself. He didn't move from the top stair and the girl looked up.

Her heart faltered for a second and her lips parted slightly in shock. Her regaining of composure technique disappeared completely as Kyoya stared down at her.

They had both wondered what would happen should they ever meet again. Would the world cease to exist? Would time stop just for them? Neither of those things happened, the world continued to revolve as it always had but the moment could never have been explained.

Kyoya was holding the pendant in his hand, the chain dangling over his palm. He didn't say anything. The item had fallen right into his lap and he had recognised it with shock. He hadn't planned anything, he wouldn't have either. The variables about their meeting were too wide; he didn't know how she, or even he, would react. But sometimes, Kismet happens.

Yuuki stood on the bottom step, not knowing what to do. Kyoya dropped his foot from the top level and made his way slowly towards her, wondering if she would vanish and hoping deep down that she wouldn't. It was like approaching a deer and praying it wouldn't run away, praying it would let you cherish the few seconds you had close to it and hopefully retie a bond that man had severed a long time ago.

Kyoya had found that the clasp hadn't broken; it had been built to open when forced suddenly and had just slipped on front of the circular piece it stayed behind. It was easy to slide it back. The man stopped when he reached the same step as Yuuki.

She didn't know if she had breathed or not in the last minute. Kyoya was there. So close she could touch him. The girl saw that the necklace wasn't broken, or that he had fixed it. She turned and lifted her hair out of the way, giving him silent permission to do what they both had wanted to re-do for so long; get close. Kyoya let the pendant drop gently against her collarbone and let the top of his finger brush against her neck, wondering how she would react. He didn't know it, but Yuuki's heart palpitated in that moment, fearful. The girl brought her fingers back to the pendant and turned to face the Ootori. They were as close as they had been the night they had begun to fall. The night in the snow. She couldn't look him in the eye and kept her gaze planted on his shirt pocket. It was enough. It was him. For the first time in a year and a half she felt like a piece of her had lined itself up to be put back in place.

Kyoya stared at the top of Yuuki's head. She hadn't grown a bit, her skin was still as pale as it used to be and her hair just as dark. It was Yuuki. But she was missing something. She was broken inside, just like he was. After all the time and hurt, they could still read that in each other; still understand an emotion that was not on show.

Suddenly the door opposite them opened and a group, laughing and talking emerged. It was time for the break. Yuuki knew that she wasn't ready to talk to him; she wasn't ready to face him. But she had been with him, for just a moment. And that was all she could handle without falling apart in front of him.

The door Kyoya had emerged from opened and he looked up, hoping the first out wasn't going to be Tamaki. It was. The blonde bounded down the stairs.

"Where did you go Kyoya! You missed the One day more song! It was magnificent!"

He made no reaction to Yuuki. The Ootori looked back to where the girl had been standing. She was gone. This time he knew he hadn't been dreaming, he hadn't imagined it. She had been there and she had let him in ever so slightly. She had told him in her own way that she was suffering just as much, that she regretted everything equally. Yuuki knew how much she had hurt him and she understood what it felt like. Each to their own, they had damaged each other equally and wanted to repair that hurt once more, only, they didn't know how. Not when they had died to themselves a long time ago.

-

Ooh
Standing by a broken tree
Her hands are all twisted,
She's pointing at me,
I was damned by the light comin'
Over all as she
Spoke with a voice that,
disrupted the sky.
She said,
"Walk on over, yeah
to this bit of shade,
I will wrap you in my arms"
And hold you safe,
"Let me sign,
let me sign

(Let me sign, Robert Pattinson)

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I heart Les Miserables. ^-^

So, you know the drill. Let me know what you thought. Honestly.

Blessings and thanks for reading,

-pp