Author's note: So glad to see you're all still with me on this trip. *grins* It's not even close to done. At any rate, I thought I'd mention here this is AU - just in case anyone missed that fact, LOL Anyway, here's a small chapter that is both fluff and necessary. Enjoy. :)

His heart felt lighter as it always did after playing. It was bittersweet to sit down at the piano. As much as he loved it, it brought to mind his mother – sweet, loving, kind Anne Sophie. He wished he could talk with her now. Even more than that, though, he wished he could hug her, even if they didn't speak. He missed her so much. He knew he had to abide by his grandmother's wishes, though, so he pushed his sadness to the back of his mind, let it fade to melancholy. Besides – he really should go find Kyoya. Standing up, he closed the cover over the keys and headed out to look for his friend.

He didn't have to look far. As soon as he stepped out of the room the quiet brunette stood up from where he'd been sitting on the floor in the hallway. Tamaki blinked, confused.

"Kyoya? What on earth were you doing sitting on the floor?" The other boy's dark eyes were filled with something that looked like resolution – maybe something like resignation? It was an expression Tamaki had never seen gracing the youngest Ootori's face.

"Thinking," Kyoya replied quietly. Tamaki didn't need to ask what his lover had been thinking about.

"Me too," he responded. Without another word he began to walk down the hallway, feeling Kyoya fall into step beside him. A spur of the moment suggestion - "Would you care to go sit in the garden? It's lovely out there today." - and a response just as swift – That sounds fine." - and the duo made their way out the back door, heading past the main paths to the smaller, secluded rose garden. It was a place Tamaki took special pride and comfort in. His mother had always grown roses and her son loved them as much as she did, so shortly after he'd moved to Japan he'd asked the landscapers to set aside a modest garden on the back of the property for him. They did as he asked, planting trees and laying paths to his specifications and designs, but when it came to the rest he had insisted on doing it himself. He hand-picked every rose bush individually, and though the estate gardeners kept an occasional eye on it, Tamaki preferred to care for it himself. He spent many an hour in his garden when he needed to be alone, but this was only the second time he'd invited anyone to accompany him. The first time had also been Kyoya, but it was shortly after they met and they only passed through on a tour of the grounds.

This time he wasn't alone in his garden. This time, the comfortable seat he occupied would not be facing an empty matching chair. It was a little strange, he though as they both sat down. A little strange – and a lot wonderful. Having the man he loved sitting across from him, surrounded by the light perfume of a dozen varieties of roses and shaded by the dense leaves and flowers of the scattered mimosa trees, it was a romantic dream come true. All he had to do now was find out what Kyoya had been thinking of, what connections he'd drawn. And, the thing Tamaki worried about most; whether or not his friend truly planned to stay his friend.

"The roses are in bloom," Kyoya said mildly. "The last time I saw these bushes they'd barely been in bud." Tamaki nodded, smiling fondly at his little haven.

"They are beautiful, aren't they? They've finally become what they were meant to be." He hadn't meant his statement to come out sounding like a proverb, but he had to admit it was a bit appropriate for their current situation. At least, it was to his mind. For a long while the two simply sat there experiencing the tranquility and the quietness.

"I don't know where to start." It was odd to hear the Shadow King sound so uncertain but the blond understood and stayed silent, letting Kyoya take his time to give voice to the words in his head. Dark eyes glanced from flower to flower before settling on the ground between their feet.

"I am my father's third son. No matter how he wheedles and hints I know he will never pass my brothers over in my favor. I have been aware of this for years. He thinks he has me convinced that if I work harder, achieve more, I will be named his heir. He plays games, building a world of matchsticks and thinking he has me believing it stone. He is wrong.

"If you and I were to continue any kind of intimacy and were ever found out, there is no doubt in my mind how he would react. He would insist on roundly beating the shit out of me, and I would allow it rather than give him the satisfaction of fighting back. After which he would remove me from the family. He would strip me of everything Ootori and cast me out with the trash where he would say I belonged."

"Kyoya – that doesn't matter. I know we'd make it someh -" to Tamaki's shock, Kyoya shook his head as he interrupted.

"The future I've just painted doesn't worry me at all. The money, the name – those were never to truly be mine, at least not in the ways that matter to our peers. That's why I began long ago to lay foundations for my own...empire, if you will."

"I know about some of your business acquisitions. Is that what you're talking about?" The blond was confused when his friend laughed out loud, the rich sound feeling like so much velvet.

"Tamaki – those are hobbies. They are my way of trying to preserve what I can of my family's holdings before my father's poor decisions and those my brothers will doubtless make after him destroy it all." He looked up to meet Tamaki's eyes, pride and amusement infusing his entire bearing. "I have something to confess, Tamaki, something no one else knows." His smile was honest, his eyes alight with the fire of accomplishment.

"What is it, Kyoya?"

"As of this point last year, I could have bought and sold the entirety of the Ootori group several times over on any day and still made it to dinner on time." Tamaki goggled. He knew his friend was a shrewd businessman, but this?

"Kyoya...that's amazing!" His lover leaned back, looking smug and satisfied with himself. If what he said was even close to being true – and knowing Kyoya it was – then the brunette had every right to look as satisfied as he wanted.

"It is, isn't it? Not even out of high school and I am already ten times more powerful than the man that thinks he owns me. Granted, much of my financial base is dispersed right now, but I have it arranged so that, on the day after we graduate, a few phone calls will solidify all of my holdings...and, incidentally, merge the shares I have in every Ootori business, corporation, and subsidy in existence. If things stay as they are, my father and brothers will awaken one morning to find they have been bought, that instead of being masters of all they survey they will instead owe their livelihood to the spare heir." Kyoya chuckled, a sound equal parts mild amusement and mild vengeance. Tamaki didn't know what to say, so he said nothing. A few seconds later his friend smiled. It was a soft smile, a bit of a shyness within it, and Tamaki hadn't seen it save for during the previous night's lovemaking.

"Tamaki – I will need someone I can trust to stay by my side. Even though I will shortly own my family, I am not fool enough to believe they will acquiesce quietly. I'll need someone to stand with me when things get rough. Because they will. More than anything, I know my father will not surrender without a fight. I would..." For the first time that morning Tamaki saw Kyoya's true feelings in his eyes; the fear, the worry, the hesitant hope he tried so hard to hide. The Shadow King had finally dropped all of his masks, and the golden-haired one loved him all the more for it.

"I would...very much like it if...you..." Kyoya paused.

"Anything, mon amie."

"If you would be the one to stand with me." Tamaki's eyes filled with tears but his voice was steady when he replied.

"Of course. Anything you want, or need. I'll be there." He could tell his friend was struggling with his inner self and left his chair to kneel before Kyoya, drawing him in for a hug. He found he couldn't hold back his tears anymore and clutched the other boy, sobbing quietly. To his eternal delight Kyoya's grip tightened as well and they stayed in each other's arms for a while. However, when Tamaki pulled back slightly to gently press their lips together, Kyoya pulled away entirely. Puzzled and hurt, Tamaki made a small sound of disappointment and went back to his seat, trying to hide the rejection he felt.

"There's something else, Tamaki," Kyoya said quietly.

"Whatever it is, it doesn't matter," the blond said, trying to figure out what about the last few minutes had prompted his love to withdraw.

"This does," the brunette insisted softly.

"What is it then?" Kyoya sighed and visibly steadied himself.

"Tamaki, I love you. You know these are not words I say lightly." For a brief moment the Host King's heart soared. Kyoya loved him. The world was a perfect place! But his friend's expression made him worry.

"What's wrong?" Another sigh.

"I have to be honest with you. I do love you...but in my contemplating I've come to realize there is someone else that I love as well."

"Who?" the blond asked, puzzled. Kyoya looked completely dejected.

"Haruhi."