"I'll accompany you to the exit." Kyoya had said after giving me the cherry blossom.

Personally I'd wanted to shove it up his nose and demand a straight answer. But that would have been counter-productive.

He led me through a few corridors, "There's a back door this way." He said. Then after a short pause he said, "The Hitachiin twins weren't laughing at you, you know, they were laughing at me."

Pfft! Yeah, okay.

"It's true.", he'd read my mind, "When your extensions got stuck in my hand I thought for a second I was holding the dead cat. They were laughing at the face I made."

I remembered Kyoya's horrified expression as he'd looked at his hand, and I couldn't help but let out a giggle. It was pretty funny.

We reached the exit, "This is Hotta, one of my bodyguards."

A tall scary man was standing by the sidewalk. Hmph! My own bodyguards were also scary, in fact, Kinjo had a scar across his face that made a little girl cry once. That's right, Kyoya, I am just as good as you. I just can't show you without risking blowing up our engagement and, more importantly, our business contract.

Yeah, I was all about not being counterproductive.

A phone started ringing, Kyoya took out his and checked the number. "I'm sorry, I really have to take this."

And he left me alone with his scary bodyguard. I started to fidget, I wanted to be in my car headind home before Kyoya got back.

"Meew!"

I jumped and looked at Hotta.

"Meew!"

Oh. My. God. He ate a cat.

"Kotoku-san," he put his hands in front of him and one of them was holding a duffel bag, something poked the top of the bag from the inside. "I'm sorry, but please don't tell master Ootori."

"Aaah! Why do you have a cat trapped in a bag?!" Ok, I take it back! Ootori's bodyguard is scarier than mine!

He unzipped the bag and a tiny head popped up, the cutest gray kitten I ever saw, "It's the cat that that waitress was chasing. The one responsible for you and master Kyoya's embarrassment." He sighed and continued, "The staff here would just kill it," I gasped and looked at Hotta, he was very serious, "Could you please take it, Kotoku-san?"

My mouth fell open, from the corner of my eye I saw my car pull up next to us, Akutagawa jumped out and opened the door for me. "Kotoku-san, is there a problem?"

Hotta stood a little straighter but he handed the bag to me. "Please, Kotoku-san, master Ootori will not want it."

I made the mistake of looking at the adorable kitty. Its front paws were hanging from the opening and it was looking straight at me. So my heart's not made of stone, so sue me.

"I can't keep it for long." I told Hotta, taking the bag.

"Master Ootori, that was a quick call." Hotta said nervously.

"It's not your custom to monitor my calls, Hotta.", Kyoya's voice sounded a few feet behind me.

I gasped and jumped inside the car. Akutagawa closed it behind me.

"Good-bye!" I called. Akutagawa sat next to me, "I'll be expecting your call!"

And Kinjo drove off. I sighed.

There was a different kind of silence in the car.

"Yes, I know my father is allergic." I told them. The silence eased, "I'll figure something out."

Something soft nudged my hand. I looked down at the kitty I'd just saved, its fur was short and smooth, but it was still a kitty. Poor thing, I thought, surely it lost its mother. He had a white spot on his chest and the fur on its whiskers and chin was white, making it look like he had a beard and mustache.

"Ooh, you're so cute!" I said to the cat, using the only too well-known voice we use with animals and babies. "You look like a cat Santa Claus!" I giggled. How strange it felt that the little thing responsible for my humiliation that day was the only little thing able to cheer me up. How can life be so full of contradictions?

Even though I was expecting it, I still jumped when my cellphone started ringing. It was my dad, of course, freaking out.

"Where are you?" I could hear him chewing.

"Hi, Dad. No, I'm fine, I scrapped my shoulder a little, but other than that I'm golden."

"Unsher guh keshun!" Answer the question, I was a little used to dealing with my peeved up father to understand mouth-full-of-food speak.

"I'm on my way to Grams'." I said, I really needed to talk to my grandmother, "Did you tell her about-" I couldn't find the right word, "this yet?"

"Not yet. Isn't she still in Turkey, or something? Ah, the meeting's started. Be sure to schedule another meeting with the Ootori boy as soon as you can." He said and hung up.

I sighed, "Love you, too." I said into the phone before snapping it shut.

I leaned against the seat and watched the scenery pass by. Dad wasn't always like this, when I was a kid, after my mom left, my dad was in pretty bad shape. Literally, he'd gained almost 200 pounds. But he was pretty good dad, I mean, I could tell he only wanted the best for me. However, ever since I got in college he became a bit more worried about my future, so he was doing the only thing he knew how, he was handing me over to be some other guy's problem, a guy who could absolutely afford my every want, and whose name would allow me inside the prestigious group he could never get in.

I sighed and not for the first time, I wished my dad was a little more like my grandfather.

Thirty five years ago, oil was discovered in my granddad's backyard. He and my grandmother were barely middleclass citizens, working two jobs so my dad could finish college. So when and oil company waved a big check at my granddad he took it and sold everything. As it turned out, the oil was too deep for them to extract it, so they declared it a failure.

Meanwhile, my grandfather had invested in the stock market. And he kept investing in the stock market, in three years he'd tripled the money he'd invested.

With that money he bought his property back (at a very cheap price), and bought a technology company that was about to shut down from lack of funds. He renamed the company Kotoku Inc. and from that company came the technology that made it possible to extract the oil from his good old backyard.

From then on things were pretty great for the Kotoku family. Sure, occasionally we lost money in the stocks, or someone or another tried to fraud us, but, like I told my father: we were one strong mountain.

By the time we reached my grandmother's apartment building I was half asleep. I groggily climbed out of the car and crossed the gate, I kept the kitty cradled in my arms. I was expecting scratches once he met Grams' yapping Yorkshire terrier Urusai.

As I was headed towards the stairs I spotted a familiar face.

"Oh, hi, Haruhi."