-

The Buffet Line: Deleted Scene

-

The Host Club gathered one windy Friday night and contemplated where to eat dinner that evening. They had all decided to go out together, but had not decided where. Tamaki kept trying to include Haruhi's budget into the matter – he thought it was smaller than what it was and even suggested trash diving. The girl was sorely offended.

Yuuki pulled her hood up and buried her hands into the pockets of her jacket. The bitter September wind was wriggling its way through her clothes and into her skin. She stood beside Mori, using him as an impromptu wind barrier. Kyoya was on her other side, casually rebutting any ideas the Souh or the Twins threw into the mix of non-ideas. She was leaving for London in a few weeks. She had only just got the hang of the idea of 'them' again. Entirely her, entirely him – one relationship. It made her smile inside, knowing that after everything that had happened, he still wanted her, she still wanted him. They still wanted 'them'. It was a marvel Yuuki didn't think she would ever get used to.

"What about The Venice?" Kyoya voiced his idea.

Yuuki rocked on her feet, ill at ease standing outside when they could well be inside. "The entree there is as much as what you would pay for all of us at a buffet."
"A buffet?" Tamaki blinked. "Like when commoners pay a certain amount of money and then have to chose their own courses and combinations?"
"You've never gone to an all-you-can-eat before?" The Cunxin wondered at what the rich did for fun. Surely they had been to a buffet. Maybe sharing salad tongs was not on the agenda.

"No." The twins chorused.

"Doesn't everyone use the same plate?" Hikaru asked congenially.

"And you use one set of cutlery for the whole meal?" His brother finished.

Yuuki shrugged. She and her riding friends had gone to buffets often. Mostly because they couldn't decide on McDonalds or Subway. "It's hygienic."

"So is getting vaccinated." Kyoya pointed out flatly.

"Ahhh, but it is not entirely unpleasant."
"Speak for yourself." Hani said stubbornly. Recalling a moment in life.

Yuuki smiled. "They have an all-you-can-eat dessert table?"

At this, the short blonde joined her side. Haruhi pointed out that she had gone to a buffet line at a wedding and found it good. Because of this, Tamaki joined the 'commoner food' team. The twins, not wanting to be outdone by Tono, enthusiastically pointed out the positives of mass produced soup.

Yuuki stared at Kyoya. "And you? It's cheap."
"Is it quality?"
"Yes." Came the happy reply.

The Ootori pushed his glasses up. "Do you even know where one of these places are?"
"Nope." Yuuki withdrew her previous statement in saying so, but held her ground. "You can go to The Venice by yourself or you can come with the team?"
"The team?"
"Go team, go." The girl cheered her tone just above a whisper. "Wooo, right?"
"Wrong." Kyoya smiled. "But I'll come." Even if just to be with her.
Yuuki threw her arms around his torso. "Awesome."
"Awesome?"
"Awesome." She confirmed. Victory. Rare victory. Rare, sweet victory.

After an hour of looking for a place that did buffet and half an hour of waiting for a table, the fun began. Hani immediately headed for the dessert seeing as he didn't have to wade through courses to get to it.

"So...we can eat courses in whatever order you like?" Tamaki queried to Haruhi.
"Its not really a course, Tamaki. You take what you want and then eat it. If you want more, you go back for more."

The blonde paused. "Amazing!"

Haruhi smiled and led him to salad, seeing as that would follow closer to what he was used to. Salad, fish, main, dessert. The twins were in awe at how much people put on a plate. Dessert cheese and entree salad was put on the same plate. It was a world upside-down.

Yuuki stood in front of Kyoya and drummed her fingers on the back of her plate as they stood in a line. "Tacky, right?"
"If you're talking about the chairs, tacky is an understatement." Came the flat reply. The chairs were wicker and made of red, blue and orange weave.

"Oh, it's fun." The girl smiled at him over her shoulder. "Admit it."

Silence. Amused silence. Only she would think that standing in a crowd of people, one of which inevitably had the flu and was going to pass it on, was fun. Especially when food was involved.

"At least pretend to have fun." Yuuki said to him.

"I'm having fun." Kyoya replied.

"You just don't know what to make of it?"
"No I,"

She cut him off. "It's okay. It's not supposed to make sense. Masses of food, masses of people, little money. It's a buffet. When I was ten I went to a sleepover where we had dinner at a place like this. We put ice-cream, jelly beans, chilli, mince and gravy into a bowl and dared each other to eat it."

"Did you eat it?" Came the stoic reply.

"Of course. I was ten."

"Did you throw up?"
Yuuki turned to him and looked guilty. "It was meat and ice-cream in one. Three of us threw up."

"Ah. Lovely." The Ootori couldn't help but be amused. Here he was, standing in a line of commoners, waiting to serve himself. It was unheard of. It was unorthodox. But Yuuki was there. That was unorthodox too. She should have been on the other side of the world. But she wasn't. She was standing with him, behind a man shaped like a sloppy bowling ball, serving herself potato-bake.

The girl who could move through a five course meal with airs and graces and then use a fish knife to butter bread. The world was a strange place to those who only explored one side of society.

Kyoya was beginning to see the world as it was, not the world as he was raised to see it. He saw people. Not clients. He saw ways of doing things that seemed so strange to him, but so normal to others. He saw her. The girl who rode horses. Who chose him.

Yuuki turned around to Kyoya again. "Do you want potatoes?"
The man eyed the cream vegetable. "I'll pass."
"Sam was right. They did boil them, mash them and put them in a stew."
"Sam?"
"You know, Sam and Frodo?"
"Oh." Not really.

"Lord of the Rings."
"Right." Yes. Knew that one. The Ootori wondered at how people linked something fictional to something common. Maybe fiction was more lifelike than he gave it credit for.

Over the course of the evening, Yuuki showed him how to eat an entree, soup and a main at the same time and look normal doing it. She then showed him how to put three flavours of ice-cream into one bowl and then four toppings as decoration.

Hani had already done that though. He was onto the Pavlova and chocolate mousse. In one bowl.

"They taste so good together!" He exclaimed.

"Who knew?" Haruhi said to herself.

Tamaki was surrounded by all the food types on offer, examining them and marvelling at how they were all served at once. Mori just blended in. He was good at that. The twins had ended up with the same meal in the same order. This amused Haruhi greatly, though she never said so.

When the evening ended, talk of another trip to an all-you-can-eat restaurant began.

Yuuki wandered down the sidewalk beside Kyoya. They had ended up near the back of the group.

"Cold?" He asked, peering down at her.

The girl had her shoulders hunched closer to her body. "Uhuh. Full?"
"Not really."
"Then you defied the purpose of all-you-can-eat. You're supposed to eat until you can't."
"That's disgusting."

"To you. But I agree."
Kyoya made a mental note to take Yuuki shopping for a better jacket. He then scratched that mental note and came up with a better idea. "Are you full?"
"Nope. Like you said, disgusting."
"Then you'll fit."
"Huh?" She eyed him, wondering if he'd taken up some strange hobby since she left. The memory was still bitter, but it behind her.

The Ootori undid the button holding his jacket closed. He was wearing the sort of trench coat you see rich men wear in Manhattan. The stylish sort that wasn't tacky enough to be in the matrix but warm enough to be adopted by society.

Kyoya held one side open for her. He had been warm all the time. "Come on, it's cold."
Yuuki pulled her hands out of her pockets without thinking and wrapped her arms around his torso. He was wearing a cream turtle neck that probably cost a lot more than her whole outfit put together. The girl wondered at how she got to where she was. Got to where she had been. Got back to him. Him. Always him.

Instead of having an internal debate about what had happened to them, Yuuki relaxed for the first time in a long time and felt warm all over. He smelled the same, moved the same, spoke the same. He held her, though, a little closer. A little firmer. As if willing her to stay. Keeping her close.

"Better?" Came the smug question.

"Uhuh." Yuuki tried to match her step with his and avoid his feet at the same time. Being as close as a hug and moving at a walk were not two things designed to go together.

Eventually they dropped behind Tamaki's debate about how hygienic it was to put meat and salad close together when you were a commoner using ethanol. Haruhi told him that ethanol had nothing to do with it and prayed that he hadn't tried the salad. Salmonella was not something she wanted her fiancé to have. Either way, she held his hand steadily and smiled inside. Everything was turning out. Yuuki leaving had not only hurt Kyoya, but the rest of them. It felt like something was missing. That's just how the Cunxin was. She was a little force. So human and so oblivious to the fact.

Haruhi glanced back and saw that Yuuki and Kyoya were trying to coordinate themselves to each other. His jacket didn't reach around both of them, but they were close enough for it not to be a problem. Yuuki then managed to trip on one of his feet and nearly take them both out in the process. She laughed at the event and never let him go.

She wasn't going to let go. Haruhi watched them pause for a minute and smiled to herself. She didn't know why, but they worked. She worked well with Tamaki – though normality said she probably shouldn't. Odd things happened with love. It could change your life for better or for worse. It was about decisions, waiting, learning, planning. It wasn't just romance and kisses. It was compatibility.

It was like standing in a buffet line when you had never been to one before. You didn't know the rules and didn't know that there weren't any except human ethics. There were boundaries that could be crossed, odd mixes could be made, strange things could happen – but it turned out as good or as bad as you wanted it to be. You could find out that pavlova and mousse are a great mix. You could find out that ice-cream and mince are not.

Kyoya and Yuuki were a good mix. They'd taken the risk and tried to be apart, and now they were back together. Like potatoes and gravy, cheese and wine, Pringles and Nutella. Opposite things that just worked well together. Similar beings that complimented each other. Things that seemed alone without the other.

Yuuki paused on the pavement and blew a strand of hair off her face. "We should go 'left, right, left, right' because I'll get lost."
"Last time I checked, you thought left was right." Kyoya added.

"That was one time. It's easy to get mixed up." Pause. "Not for you maybe, but for me –yes."

The man smiled softly and kept her warm, even if it was hard to do. He wanted to be with her, even if it meant stumbling a little before getting it right. It was right. "You are..."
"Affable, amiable, admirable," Yuuki spoke over him cheekily. "And that's only the A's."

Kyoya laughed. "And I'm the egoist."
"Its catching."

"Uhuh."
"Uhuh." She mocked.

"Don't mock me."
Yuuki smiled light-heartedly. "But its fun."
"You'll never win."
"I will. My wit is sharper now."
"Uhuh."
"Like a double edged sword."
"Uhuh."
"Yep."
"Sure." Kyoya added, humoured. She made him smile. There hadn't been a lot of smiling without her. Just thinking. Working. Grinning and bearing it.

"Oh, whatever." Yuuki stared up at him. "We had a year apart and have a lot of catching up to do." They'd been back together a few months and still felt like they had missed something.

"Catching up spending-time, catching up this-sort?" He indicated their one-person-jacket predicament.

"Both." She smiled and softened expression. "I like this. I missed this." Being close to someone. There was something comforting in the warmth of another. It didn't have to be intimate, but rather supportive. Just being there. Simple as that.

Kyoya kissed the corner of her mouth. In love or not, he was still forward and went for what he wanted. What he wanted though, was for her to be happy. With him. Yuuki wanted the same. She kissed him back. Happily. Affably. Agreeably. Amiably – and that's only the A's.

They'd both learnt something new that night. Kyoya had learnt how to stand in a buffet line and put up with ugly chairs. Yuuki had learnt how to get warm quickly and happily.