bored411: 40 chapters in and we finally have a hug lol. I did promise it would be a slow burn! Thanks for the review :)
scars from the sun: LET'S GO LET'S GO
Lillyann: Enemies to lovers is great, but enemies to friends to lovers? *Chef's kiss* It occurred to me that in the entirety of OHSHC (the anime, at least) I can't think of a single instance in which Kyoya initiates physical affection. It's 100% always someone else (i.e. Tamaki) doing it. Hence why this has to be a slow burn (and why I am fully convinced Kyoya is touch-starved and I will die upon this headcanon hill lol) Thank you!
Akari Wolf Princess: No spoilers, but you've got a good idea of where the fic is headed ;) Like I know Kyoya is hands-down the most composed and hardest-to-affect of the Hosts, and I know he's a smooth talker, but no one can convince me that this guy wouldn't be at least a little awkward when it comes to actual, legit romantic feelings. I'm running with that belief and multiplying it by him already having feelings for other people that he could never voice, let alone act on. But anyway thanks so much for the review!
Madison: Every chapter I write, the need for Ouran Season 2 grows stronger...I need more canon Kyoya content ;_; Thank you!
bbymojo: As I said above, I fully believe Kyoya doesn't know how to compute with physical affection. Like
Kyoya: *always composed, never gets shaken by anything, one step ahead of anyone, always know what to say and do*
Also Kyoya, when he's hugged: Waht teh heck
Happy New Year! I hope everyone was able to celebrate well! Here's looking to a new year with hopefully a LOT of chapter updates (and maybe the finishing of this fic? We'll see!)
Thank you so much for all the favorites, follows, reviews, etc.! They are always appreciated too much to put into words!
The main estate of the Ootoris is about what Kosuke had been expecting. Very sleek, very modern, and very, very big. A planetarium more than a house, really.
Kosuke felt confident enough when she left the Amida mansion, but now she runs her fingers through her hair and straightens out the front of her sweater as she walks up the countless stairs to the front door. The dress code was casual, but a place like this could make an evening gown look like a burlap sack.
She'd already been buzzed in past the gates, so the door opens without her knocking. Instead of an attendee, though, she's greeted by Fuyumi Ootori. Her sweet, dear future sister-in-law…
"Kosuke! It's so good to see you!"
…that Kosuke had forgotten about.
For Kyoya's brothers, she'll cut herself some slack. They almost never come up and she's never met them to begin with. She knows more about Yoshio than of them.
Fuyumi, though, she doesn't have much of an excuse. She's met her multiple times, was more welcomed by her than by Kyoya, and she sent both Hitsuji and Kosuke birthday presents. Kosuke feels ashamed of herself for forgetting about her, and learning that she'd been overseas with her husband for the past few weeks does nothing to help.
One of the pros of talking over the phone is that no one can see your face when you're grimacing.
"Fuyumi, hi! I—Oh. Okay…" Kosuke chuckles, half-fond and half-surprised, as Fuyumi pulls her into a hug straight away. It's a bit awkward, since Kosuke is still holding onto her gift bag. "It's good to see you, too. I'm so sorry I never called…"
"We were time zones away. I was going to be surprised if anyone called. Now come along." Fuyumi's sleek navy jumpsuit and the string of pearls around her neck have Kosuke feeling less than frumpy, but then she says, "Oh, don't you look nice? Tetsu and Kyoya are just in here."
As soon as they walk into the lounge, Tetsu jumps out of his seat. Goodness, I'd forgotten that I'd forgotten him, Kosuke chides herself. "Hello! It's good to see you again."
He keeps it to a greeting bow, but they both smile widely at one another. "It's good to see you, too. Happy early birthday, Kyoya!"
Kyoya has stayed put on the loveseat. He stops holding his chin up with his hand and replies, "I hope this wasn't too much of an inconvenience."
Kosuke understands and appreciates the apology. The plan for Kyoya's birthday was supposed to just follow the tradition that Kosuke had just been introduced to, going wherever he pleased the day of with their friends. Fuyumi had thrown this curveball at her just last night. Kosuke had had some kind of sixth sense, because for some reason she'd kept the night before Kyoya's birthday purposely available.
It could have been a problem, but it wasn't. Just the opposite, in fact, because Kosuke will seize any opportunity to make sure that this birthday is a good one. He's more than earned it.
"Not at all," she answers. "Besides, I think this makes us even."
She isn't thinking when she says it. Fuyumi asks with innocent curiosity, "What do you mean?"
The more time she spends with Airi and Sugimoto, the closer her tongue comes to slipping about them. Her brain can't compute eating dinner with them one night then lying about their existence the next morning.
"Um…Nothing at all. Just a little inside joke. So, will your parents be joining us tonight?"
The answer is so obviously yes; an unnecessary question.
Or so she thought. Fuyumi's smile loses its light.
"Father was never going to be available, I'm afraid. Mother would have, but she'd already made plans. She'll be here tomorrow, though."
The disappointment is palpable, but Kosuke doesn't know what to say. Not when she's disappointed, too. Tetsu steps forward with a confident clap. "I'm sure tonight will be great, anyway."
Kosuke tries to help. By distraction. She lifts up her gift bag. "Where should I put this? Is there a place set aside, or—"
"Oh, there they are!" Whoever 'they' are, Fuyumi perks right up seeing them. She takes off, followed at a mellower pace by Tetsu. "Hold on just a moment!"
The footsteps and voices are muffled down the hall, enough for Kosuke to feel comfortable asking Kyoya, "Are you excited?"
A childish question, maybe, but how else does she phrase it? He doesn't look miserable in any sense, but there's a sort of preemptive tiredness in the way he sits—not tired, but planning to be.
"I'd be more so," he answers, "if I had an idea of what Fuyumi has in store."
"Oh, it can't be anything too crazy, I'm sure." Kosuke tries to hide that she knows one thing that will happen tonight with a shrug. "Unless she's planning to surprise us with the entire school again."
Kyoya huffs a laugh and says, "We'll see."
This time, when Fuyumi and Tetsu return, there are four strangers in tow—but on sight, Kosuke knows she's looking at Kyoya's brothers. Both have dark hair, gray eyes, and the stunning good looks that all the Ootoris seem to possess. The younger has a softer look to him, taking after his mother. His eyes are rounder, decidedly boyish, which he seems to be making up for by a permanently furrowed brow. The older, in Kosuke's opinion, looks like a halfway point between Kyoya and Yoshio. He has high cheekbones and a thin nose, but Kosuke doesn't fear looking him in the eye.
With them are two women, probably their wives, whose names Kosuke is certain she has never heard. The one standing at the younger brother's side seems to burst with color, though perhaps that's by standing amongst the dark beauty of the Ootoris. Her eyes are green, her lips red, and her hair a rich chestnut that falls in natural curls down her shoulders and back. The woman standing by the older brother is really only a bit on the short side, but standing next to him she looks tiny. Her dark hair is cut into a modern pixie style, but with her heart-shaped mouth and petite frame, she looks like Snow White herself.
"Okay, Kosuke, come here, come here!" Fuyumi takes her arm and pulls her over to them. "Finally, you all get to meet! This is Akito and Nanako, and this is Yuuichi and Itsumi."
"Welcome to the family!" Nanako greets her by taking both of her hands and shaking them; new, but not unwelcomed. "It's about time I got to say that."
Itsumi's hello is so quiet it's almost mute, but her smile is sweet as they bow to one another.
She can't help but notice, with worry in her belly, that neither Yuuichi nor Akito smile in turn to her. They bow, but it's stiff. Professional.
"Well, I see you two stuck to the dress code," Fuyumi tuts as she looks over her sisters-in-law—Nanako in a long dress with a cardigan, Itsumi in slacks and a blouse. "But why do my brothers look like they're about to go to a business meeting?"
Akito straightens his blazer in defiance. "There's nothing wrong in the way we've dressed."
"There's no use in fighting it, Fuyumi," Nanako sighs. "I told him a million times to take it down a notch. The most I could do was get his tie off."
In response, Yuuichi straightens the tie buttoned under his collar. "It's my opinion that the first meeting between new family should be formal."
Kosuke looks down at her cable-knit sweater and chews her lip. Does that mean he doesn't like that I didn't dress up?
While Yuuichi doesn't look at her, Itsumi does with guilty eyes and a bit lip. "At least we're all meeting at last," she says, and even at normal volume her voice is light. "That's what matters."
"Exactly!" Kyoya had been standing just a bit behind Kosuke, but now Fuyumi grabs him by the arm and hauls him forward. "But what matters more is that we've got a birthday to celebrate!"
At this, Akito raises his chin. "Is this where you finally tell us what we're doing?"
"Not yet!"
Fuyumi walks past all of them and goes to the doors that they had just walked through, throwing them open with a gust of the cool night air.
"Come on, everyone!"
The Ootoris (and the one Amida) look at one another, some brows furrowed and others raised.
Yuuichi is the one to ask the obvious. "What do you mean, 'come on'?"
"I mean, come on." Right on cue, a limousine pulls up in the driveway, sleek and spotless. The chauffeur rounds to the other side to pull the doors open. "We'll be traveling tonight!"
Akito is squinting at his sister so hard his eyes are almost shut. "What was the point of all of us coming here in the first place?"
"For all of us to meet there, I would have had to tell you where to go, and that would have ruined the surprise. It's not that far away, I promise!" She claps her hands. "Chop, chop!"
Surprisingly, Kyoya is the first to start walking, followed by Tetsu. Nanako pulls Akito forward, and Yuuichi lets out sigh that can be seen but not heard as he and his wife follow suit. Kosuke brings up the rear, looking between the car and the mansion, a bit anxious.
Fuyumi waits outside the limousine as they all crawl in, thankfully. Kosuke leans close and whispers, "Will we be back in time for…?"
"Oh, of course we will, don't worry! Now in you go."
Somehow Kosuke only remembers that she's still holding the gift bag when it bumps into the limousine. "Oh, let me take this back inside. It'll just take a second."
"You can just leave it in the limousine, don't worry. In you go!"
She just pushes Kosuke in then, so she has no choice but to awkwardly shuffle her way to Kyoya's side. She puts the gift bag at her feet as the door slides shut behind her.
Once the limousine is in motion, Kosuke is prepared for the questions. Nanako takes the first one. "So, Kosuke. Kyoya says you like to study cuisines, is that right?"
She glances to Kyoya, but he gives away nothing. Maybe it just got through the grapevine. "I do! I just think it's so interesting how foods are so different all over the world. I actually just finished a book about international desserts! So many of them started in different countries. Like churros! Historians think they originated in China—"
"—but got their sweetness and star shape in Spain!" Nanako laughs at Kosuke's stunned face. "I love learning about other cultures, but Spain has my heart! I must have travelled there a million times already."
Akito clicks his tongue. "A million seems like a low number."
Kosuke can't tell if he's joking or if he really is bitter. Either way, Nanako just keeps smiling. "Ignore him. He thinks I love Spain more than him."
"You do," he counters.
"I do right now."
The…fight(?) ends there with no lingering tension, so Kosuke supposes that this must be the norm for them. Itsumi speaks next, asking, "How do you like Tokyo so far?"
"I love it! I never run out of things to do."
"That's good! It took me some time to get used to it, myself."
"Oh? Where are you from?"
"Sappado. The same but different, I suppose." She giggles. "I was hopeless the first time I moved out here. Every time I walked out the door, I had to call someone to come find me. Isn't that right, Yuuichi?"
"A bit of an exaggeration," her husband replies. "Though not much."
Nanako and Itsumi take turns asking her questions, determined to know her inside and out. Itsumi is delighted to learn about the tiny garden Kosuke has been keeping up, having a strong green thumb herself. Nanako seems to have initiated some kind of game, where Kosuke will name a dish from another country and she will share a story from travelling there.
Through the conversation, Kosuke learns much about her eventual sisters-in-law. Nanako and Akito were originally matched some years ago—Nanako's father leading one of the top oil companies in Japan—but Nanako wanted to go out and see the world, and was vehemently against being tied down to Japan. She talked her father out of the engagement. (Here she took a glance to Kyoya, who said nothinig.) That would have been the end of it—no one says it, but from what Kosuke can tell, she was only one of many potential brides—but the two ran into each other during a return trip, and "something just clicked." Apparently they have worked a compromise so that she spends a third of the year travelling, staying in Japan two months and then leaving the third. Sometimes Akito joins her, and sometimes not. It seems a bit complicated to Kosuke, but since the two seem content with it, who is she to judge?
Itsumi, meanwhile, comes from a family who owns a highly successful line of retail stores in the United States. Her and Yuuichi's story is simpler—just a match arranged by their families. Itsumi's older brother had "spared her heirdom," so she pursued a field in education instead. Apparently she's on her track to become a teacher at Ouran Elementary, and Kosuke is aghast at Kyoya for not telling her so sooner. Itsumi hopes to climb up the ranks, but until then, she's working on a "side project," an initiative to get playgrounds built in smaller communities. Her small voice grows as she explains how some children in Japan live a half-hour or even a full hour away from the nearest playground, limiting their access to socialization, exercise, and (most importantly) fun. It sounds so busy to Kosuke, especially with Yuuchi being only second to Yoshio at Ootori Medical, but Itsumi assures her that she and Yuuichi spend plenty of time together.
Kosuke doesn't mind the conversation, she loves it, but...
Yuuichi and Akito are hardly saying a word. They only speak when spoken to; they never chime in with anything.
Maybe Kosuke would have preferred it if she could tell that they were angry with her, horrible as it sounds. At least then she could know that there was an answer to be found. A solution.
As is, it seems that the older Ootori brothers just don't care. They don't want to learn more about her. They hardly seem to want to talk to their sister when she speaks up.
Even worse is that Kyoya doesn't even seem to notice. He seems downright chipper compared to his brothers; at least he throws his two cents into the conversation every now and then.
Maybe this is their way of welcoming me? Kosuke ponders. By acting like it's no big deal that I'm here. That's fine. I guess. But I want to know more about them…
The windows of the limousine are dim, but Tokyo still shines through in dull fireflies. Fuyumi announces that they've come close to their destination by hitting a button that blocks out the windows entirely—and while Kosuke marvels at that, and Nanako and Itsumi sit straighter, Akito and Yuuichi just seem ready to get out of the vehicle.
Fuyumi steps out first, then Kyoya. She covers his eyes with her hands and guides him forward, trilling with excitement while the others exit the limousine one-by-one.
Kosuke is the last to leave, and she takes the one second of privacy to pull herself together. The night is only just beginning.
Her feet touch the asphalt right as Itsumi says—not excitedly, not with disappointment, just pure surprise—"Oh."
There are lights and lights and lights. Spinning lights, flashing lights, lights changing colors. The biggest and brightest are gilding a Ferris wheel as big as the moon. Not too far from it is a scarlet tangle of a rollercoaster. There are spinning swings and a drop tower, a pendulum ride swooshing through the stars, and to fill in the spaces there are stands selling foods and souvenirs. Near to the entrance is an arcade covered in technicolor comets. Among it all is that unique amusement park cacophony of chatter, laughter, and adrenaline-pumped screams of delight.
How long has it been since Kosuke went to an amusement park? She can't remember, but she didn't think the drought was going to end tonight.
"It's just like the one we went to as children that one time, remember?" Fuyumi sighs as she remembers. "Mother bought out the entire place for the day, and it was our own little kingdom."
Now, Kosuke could think of a thousand better and more charitable uses for the money spent on renting an entire amusement park, but she keeps them to herself. Even if she didn't, she wouldn't sound half as outraged as Akito does when he exclaims, "This is what we're doing tonight?"
"Yes! It'll be fun! I don't hear the birthday boy complaining."
So Yuuichi does for him. "I'm not exactly dressed for a rollercoaster."
"And who's fault is that? Look, you don't want to ride anything, fine. Play some games. Eat some food. Win Itsumi a prize. Speaking of—Tetsu!" Fuyumi winds her arm with her husband's. "That giant pink panda has my name on it!"
"I think it'll be fun," Nanako offers. "I see some bumper carts over there. Count me in!"
She knows it's not her fault, but Kosuke would like it if her first meeting with her future brothers was a little more eager. So she chimes in. "We could stroll around for a minute and see what all there is. Oh, we could get some food! It smells great."
Akito looks at the clouds of steam that spill up from the stands, the bottles of sauce and the sweat on the brows of the cooks. "I'm not exactly exciting to eat food so...open to the elements."
Kyoya finally speaks, but only to say, "Kosuke does have an eye for picking out the best."
"I'll pass, thanks."
"Alright, come on now." Nanako gives her husband a little shove forward. "We're already here, we might as well enjoy it."
Itsumi hums as she takes in all her options. She's wearing heels, and Kosuke feels so sorry for her. "I'm not one for rollercoasters or swings, but what about the Ferris wheel, Yuuichi? I'm sure the view up there is great."
"You lead the way," Yuuichi says, just teetering on a grumble.
They all finally move forward, some faster than others. Tetsu says that that they should all probably be back here by eight or so, and then he and his wife continue for the pink-panda game in a quick but composed jog.
Kosuke tries to think of another way for them all to stick together, but they're all gone before anything ever comes from her mouth. It's just her and Kyoya now. The gold clock just under the arched entrance says it's almost six.
So that's about two hours out of the night that the other Ootori brothers won't be spending with her. If they get back to the mansion at eighty-thirty or so, there'd still be time to do her part of the evening, but that's assuming they're all willing to stretch the night out a little further.
She realizes that Kyoya is waiting on her, and lets out a little "oh" as she gets her feet moving again. Right. Tonight isn't about you, it's about him. Speaking of which...
"Are you...happy to be here?" She tries to turn to him, but the crowd is thick, and the two have to weave their way through. "I think it's really sweet that Fuyumi brought you here, I do, it's just that..."
"This wouldn't have been your first choice for me?" Kyoya tucks his hands into his pockets. He came closer to the dress code than his brothers, just slacks and a clean shirt. As a cool wind sweeps by, though, Kosuke thinks he might have been better with a blazer after all. "It's not the place so much as the company."
She noticed that he never really talked about his brothers, but she'd marked that up to them just not being that close. Busy schedules, or the age gap between him and Yuuichi. It had never even occurred to Kosuke that they might not have been on good terms.
Apparently her thoughts are on her face. Kyoya raises a hand. "What I mean to say is that if she only brought me here, I would not have—" There's a chorus of screams from the rise-and-drop ride, and Kyoya flinches. "—Well. I would have minded the volume, but I've been to worse places and enjoyed myself thanks to who I was going with."
She's sure that he's referring to all the misadventures the Host Club had pulled him into, but she still asks, "Like an office supply store in the middle of the night?"
The corners of his mouth tease at a smile. "Or a random shoe store to replace broken heels, yes."
Kosuke chuckles, but it fades. It hasn't exactly helped her thoughts, but what she's more worried about is Kyoya. "So...Who is it that you would rather not be h—Oh my goodness, what am I saying?" She gives herself a little slap to her forehead, thoroughly ashamed. "Don't answer that."
"Let me put it like this. You wouldn't take your siblings to the opera, would you?"
Kosuke tries to picture it, but all she's getting is two children literally dying of boredom. She shakes her head.
"I wouldn't have taken my brothers here. That's all that I meant."
Kosuke nods, once and slowly. She sees his point, because she felt the same way when they were on their first date and she was scrambling for a way to save the night. It's hard to have fun when you know your company is miserable.
But Hitsuji and Minami are children, and Kyoya at least tried to meet her halfway. Besides, this is Kyoya's birthday—not Akito's, not Yuuichi's. If she were in their shoes, she would think she'd at least try to put on a happy face for one evening.
She waits a minute to see if Kyoya will say anything further, but he doesn't. He just keeps looking at their surroundings, subtly sneering at some things but regarding others with some interest.
Kyoya is perceptive, isn't he? So if he didn't think anything was wrong with the way Yuuichi and Akito have been acting, then there must be nothing to worry about.
Then again, Kosuke thinks, maybe making awful first impressions is just a thing with the Ootori men...Wait, no. No, no. You've already forgiven him for that, you can't hold it against him anymore.
She physically shakes the thought off, which Kyoya thankfully doesn't notice. It's probably just one of those cases where he knows them well enough to not see certain things anymore. Maybe they're always like this, so he doesn't see a problem with it. Which isn't good, but—Argh! Stop it!
"What do you want to do?" she asks him. They've been strolling for a few minutes now, and he's made no sign of stopping. "See anything that interests you?"
"If you want to try your hand at getting a..." Kyoya looks to the arcade. Nearest to the doors is a line of claw machines packed with every toy and plushie known to man. "...giraffe in a tutu, be my guest."
"It's your birthday." She sticks her nose up, pushes invisible glasses up her face, and puts on her best impression of him. "We're here to help you celebrate."
His mouth pulls at her, neither frowning nor smiling. "It's not that I don't see the fun in playing games, but I don't have much care for ones that are rigged against the player."
"They're not all rigged. Or at least, not as much as they want you to think." She hides her mouth behind her hand. "I know the trick, myself."
"Lead the way, then."
He's the priority tonight, she reminds herself as they make their way over. Make sure he's having a good time first and foremost.
Trying to impress his brothers...That can come second.
The good news—the only news that matters—is that even though he isn't clicking his heels, Kyoya clearly has fun for the rest of the evening. They walk away from the claw machines with a koala plushie (Kosuke, two tries) and a kickball (Kyoya, seven tries), both gifted to the nearest and most jealous children. After a few rounds of skee ball and pinball, they leave the arcade, and Kosuke coaxes Kyoya to go on just one ride with her. They one they pick lifts them up into the air in a little rocket, exciting but without any screaming passengers. Probably the only reason Kyoya agreed to it.
They pass by many souvenirs without stopping, until they come upon one little boy bouncing on his feet for a plushie of the park's dragon mascot. It's a stunning 6,000 yen, so his mother tells him to please pick something cheaper, but the cups and caps can't keep his eyes away. Kyoya goes to the far end of the stand, hails down the second attendee, and slides him a few bills. All he does is nod his head in the boy's direction, and then they go before they can be discovered. It's so sweet Kosuke could hug him.
But she won't, not after how horrifically awkward it was last time.
Anyway, other than grabbing some cotton candy from a vendor (and Kosuke subjecting Kyoya to a lengthy explanation of how spun sugar originally began as a luxury of the rich in Europe), this is how their night goes, with no trouble.
Well, almost. At a basketball game set up outside, the attendee gives Kosuke a bunny plushie, saying that "that winner over there" told him to give it to "the blonde cutie." Said winner is a forty-something man who winks at her when she looks over. Kyoya tosses the bunny to a nearby child and promptly leads Kosuke away.
All in all, Kyoya enjoys his birthday outing and only complains about the volume. And that man. And the complicit attendee.
Sometimes they catch a glimpse of an Ootori or a Shido through the crowd, but they only cross paths a few times. Fuyumi and Tetsu show off their giant pink panda, Nanako gives them directions to the carousel, and Itsumi affirms that the view atop the Ferris wheel is indeed amazing.
Akito and Yuuichi continue to say and do nothing.
To Kosuke, anyway.
Them not talking to her? Disappointing.
Their incessant bitterness? Aggravating.
She knows it's ridiculous, disrespectful, to say that about people years older than her, but it's true. Akito has to complain about being an adult in a place for children, and Yuuichi has to complain about the "undignified" people screaming on the rollercoasters. Akito won't go into the arcade with Nanako because he wouldn't be "caught dead" in there. Itsumi offers Yuuichi some cotton candy and he turns away with a grumbled, "I think not."
Kosuke just doesn't understand why they are so unhappy about anything and everything. Even if she could, do they really have to be so vocal about it? It's like they need everyone to know they don't want to be there, even when "there" is a birthday trip for their little brother.
At first Kosuke tells herself that they aren't really complaining to Kyoya, but then she realizes they're not talking to Kyoya at all. No What have you done so far, no Are you having fun—just I don't like this and I don't like that.
Their last stop of the evening is the carousel. Unsurprisingly, Kyoya walks past the horses and the swans and sits on one of the benches. Kosuke sits beside him (on a horse) and tries to enjoy the moment, the music and the lights and the dancing animals, but she can't when her mind is so stuck on the ocean's distance between her and the brothers—between Kyoya and his brothers.
Maybe they're just having bad days, she tells herself again. That one last hope slips through her fingers, though, when she realizes that no one else, Kyoya including, seems to think they've had a bad day.
At a quarter to eight, she and Kyoya head for the front of the park, and she knows this will be her last chance of the evening. If she can't get some kind of spark going between her and Akito and Yuuichi while they're all in one place, she'll just have to wait until next time. But when will that be?
Then again…They could meet tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after, and it won't do any good if the Ootori brothers have a bad day every day.
Akito, Nanako, Yuuichi, and Itsumi are already waiting when Kosuke and Kyoya walk up to them, but Fuyumi and Tetsu are not. This surprises no one.
"That was fun." Apparently, two hours of walking around in heels hasn't hurt Itsumi at all, for which Kosuke is appalled and jealous. "Wasn't it?"
Yuuichi hums, because a grunt would have been rude, apparently.
Nanako waves her arm over her head. "There they are!"
The limousine has already pulled up for them all, but the only one to get in is the giant pink panda, when Fuyumi runs up and throws it inside. She tells the driver she'll tell him when to come back, and sends him—and their ride—away.
Akito warns (Really? Kosuke thinks. Warns?), "Fuyumi…"
"Just one more thing," she promises, out of breath but smiling. "One more thing, I promise! Follow me! Everyone!"
Kosuke doesn't think they're going to have time for her surprise now, and her chance with the Ootori brothers is probably gone. Another night wasted.
Oh well. She waits to hear what Kyoya has to say, if this is what he wants to do.
"One more thing," he accepts. Not without a sigh, but he is again the first one to start following his sister.
Akito scoffs, and Yuuichi sighs. Thank goodness, Kosuke grumbles in her mind, otherwise I would have never known they didn't want to do this.
The "one more thing" is all the way on the other side of the park. Their group winds their way through the crowd, even thicker than when they first got here, for at least ten minutes. Nanako tells her husband to stop pouting, and on the inside Kosuke is cheering for her. They pass by the same little boy from the souvenir stand, hugging his dragon plushie like it's his best friend—Kosuke gives Kyoya a nudge, but all he does is smirk.
Their destination is one of the few buildings in the whole park, long and rectangular, a rich purple with black trim. The walls are painted with masked figures that beckon them inside. Above the entryway, blinking lights spell out HALL OF MIRRORS.
"Oh, wow," Nanako exclaims. "I've never seen one of these before."
"Pretty neat, huh?" Tetsu waves them forward with a boyish grin. "How about it?"
"Just one thing as a group." Fuyumi presses her hands together and pleads with them. "All we have to do is walk through!"
This time Kosuke neither listens nor looks for Yuuichi or Akito's reaction, and just turns to Kyoya. It looks like fatigue is finally starting to set in, but if only because they're already here: "It should only take a minute."
So they walk up the stairs, and at the top there's a man in a great feathery mask and a tailcoat awaiting them. "Greetings, travellers!"
("Have mercy," groans Akito.)
"If I may request you all to peruse that there post before you enter the entrancing Hall of Mirrors?" The masked man reaches over with a cane and taps on a board covered in swirling letters. "And good luck finding your way out of there! Few ever do…"
Tetsu is the only one who tries to read that there post, and Fuyumi pulls him along when he only gets a glance. Kosuke and Kyoya stop to look it over, though it doesn't seem like much. Don't run, try not to touch the mirrors, make your way to the end...
"'Must be sixteen years or older to enter'?" Kosuke reads aloud. She looks to Kyoya, but he, too, is frowning at the last line. "Why?"
"Kyoya! Kosuke!" Nanako's voice calls from inside, a bit tinny. "Come on!"
While they take the last few steps into the darkened doorway, Kyoya offers, "It's probably just flashing lights and smoke."
Kosuke hums and nods. She's been to some shows and such before that were preceded with a warning of "some effects might be frightening for young children." Once they happened, there were always screams of five-year-old terror from the crowd.
The inside of the building is at first so dark that the two of them have to stumble their way through. Once they make it to the actual hall of mirrors, it is a spectacle. Dozens of Kosukes and Kyoyas, everywhere they look. The one place with no one seems like a little pocket of a room, a dead end meant to get people lost and confused.
But it's also cramped—so much so that they have to walk single-file. Someone ahead apologizes for bumping into another.
"Good thing I'm not claustrophobic," Kosuke tries to joke to Kyoya's back. He doesn't respond, and she doesn't blame him. If he wasn't excited to go in before, how could he be now?
Then Kyoya stops moving, so Kosuke stops moving, and somewhere ahead Akito asks, "What's the problem?"
"I can't see anywhere to go." Itsumi's voice is hardly audible. "What about back there?"
They all turn left and right, but find either themselves or someone else. Kosuke begins to feel that maybe she's not not claustrophobic.
There isn't any music in the Hall of Mirrors, which makes it all the more jarring when two bleats sound off. Then again.
"Is it a fire alarm?" someone exclaims.
While everyone else keeps turning, Kyoya looks down. Underneath Kosuke's feet, there's a strip of floor darker than the rest. When the beep-beep sounds off again, the strip flashes red.
She and Kyoya share a quizzical look. She steps back.
Kyoya disappears, and Kosuke is left staring at Kosuke.
It takes too long of a minute to figure out what had just happened. Before, there was a Kosuke to her left, and now there isn't.
Figuring out doesn't bring her much relief, however—she had been at the end of the group, so now it's just her and Kosuke, Kosuke, Kosuke, Kosuke, and Kosuke.
"Alright," she says aloud, because who else is going to hear her? Herself? "Just gotta find the way out, no big deal."
She wonders if anyone else got separated, and if so, who's alone and who isn't. Oh, THAT'S why no kids are allowed in here.
She's tempted to just double back and get out of here, but maybe—maybe—this'll be fun.
So she walks forward, and another Kosuke walks toward her, and when the two are toe-to-toe and two more Kosukes are to her left and right, she doubles back and actually, this isn't that fun at all.
Sometimes she thinks she hears footsteps, maybe people knocking on mirrors. They're thick; it's hard to tell. It's not like anyone is in danger. It'll take five, maybe ten minutes and then they'll all be together outside. Hopefully.
Two more times the alarm goes off, taking away one Kosuke and replacing her with another. Once she thinks she catches a glimpse of someone, but they're gone before she can call out to them.
By the third switch, Kosuke is just ready to get out of here. She's tired, she's dizzy, and she was already in a bad mood to begin with.
This is why, when someone who is not Kosuke walks to her, making her scream, she doesn't beat herself up too much for it.
Akito reels back from her as she reels back from him. "It's me!"
"I can see that," she fires back as she tries to catch her breath.
For just a second, it's her and Kosuke and Akito and Kosuke and Akito and Kosuke and Akito and then it's her and Kosuke and Akito and Yuuichi, and she screams again.
Yuuichi is a bit more understanding, holding his hands up to her and repeating, "Calm down, calm down."
Is this how I'm going to die? Kosuke wants to bellow. Scared to death by some Ootori man or another?
When she gets a hold of her bearings, she takes a second to look around. She, Yuuichi, and Akito are in the biggest pocket so far, a wide-open circle with probably enough room that the whole group could have fit in. This makes them breathe a little easier, though not much. Naturally, the brothers' patience have run out. Yuuichi is simmering and Akito is boiling.
"Alright, I'm done with this!" Akito spins around and around, but only finds himself. "There's got to be some kind of stop button somewhere!"
"I've looked," Yuuichi tuts. "It's no use."
"A fire alarm, then. Something that would let us all out!"
Yuuichi responds by pointing upwards at the spigots that stick out of the ceiling. "Even if there was one you could pull, doing so when there isn't a fire will likely get you in legal trouble."
"And not having any kind of stop function isn't legal trouble? What if someone were hurt and needed to get out of here? What if there was an emergency and no one could leave?"
"None of that is happening right now, so just calm down. You're just making this annoying night even more so."
"The doors will switch again in just a minute." It's a fight to sound reassuring and not just tell them to suck it up already. Of course, it would be just Kosuke's luck to be stuck with her worst two options. "Just hold on."
Just a minute passes, then five minutes, then ten, and the mirrors stay sealed. Akito keeps pacing the space, and Kosuke sits down. Nervousness is starting to creep in. This can't be right.
At exactly the ten-minute mark, Akito rounds on his older brother and barks, "I don't think sitting here and twiddling our thumbs is going to do much good!"
"What would you have us do?" Yuuichi drones back. He's leaning back against a mirror, arms crossed. "Shall we tear our way out through the walls?"
Kosuke guesses that this must be some kind of technical malfunction or something, but knows that voicing that guess will help no one. She does voice her next lightbulb idea, though. "Hold on, I'll text Kyoya and see if he's already out."
She pulls her phone out. Then she puts it back into her pocket just a second later.
"No service..."
Akito seems to pull some of his hair from his scalp. Then he goes for the nearest mirrors, shoving his fingers in the slivers between them. He doesn't even get a full first attempt before Yuuichi snaps, "Oh, would you stop already!"
"Well, I'm not just going to wait until they decide to let us out of here!"
His hand slips on his next pull, and he grunts as his nail catches. Kosuke speaks up, "Akito, don't...Don't get yourself hurt. That'll be worse."
Akito resigns himself to their fate at last, leaning back against the mirrors so hard they wobble. Kosuke has always hated the loopy, quirky music that places like this have, but now she'd kill just to have it spare her from the silence. She doesn't even want to try to lighten the mood.
"I told you so."
Yuuichi only quirks his brow up at his brother. "What?"
"I told you, whatever Fuyumi had planned for tonight was going to be more trouble that it was worth."
"Alright, Akito, you were right. Congratulations. Is that what you wanted to hear?"
Aktio is quiet after this, and Kosuke closes her eyes—seizing the opportunity to neither see nor hear them.
Bitter. They're so bitter, they're leaving a taste in her mouth like coffee grains. How Jin and Fuyumi could be in the same family as these two is beyond her.
"Kosuke."
She almost jolts. Yuuichi is looking right at her for the first time—speaking to her for the first time, and one of her mirror reflections reaching out and grabbing her couldn't have been more jarring.
"I hope you would accept an apology."
Maybe one of the switching mirrors hit her head. First talking, and now apologizing? It's too good to be true.
It has to be. She feels like a tween again, hearing Okina telling her that the frozen pond is safe to skate on even though the surface looks papery thin.
"It's okay," is the only answer she feels safe enough to give.
Her wariness is proven correct.
"Fuyumi just…" Yuuichi pushes his glasses up his nose. Kosuke could have laughed, could have thought so that's where Kyoya gets it from. "She doesn't think things through very often."
Kosuke is so confused she can't speak for a moment. "What…did Fuyumi do wrong?"
Akito leans his head back until it hits the glass. "If she had told any of us that this was her plan for this evening, we would have told her it was a bad idea."
"Why was it a bad idea?"
He squints at her and gestures all around them, because clearly she's a blind idiot. "Would we be in this situation otherwise?"
"It's not like Fuyumi planned for us to get stuck here."
Akito drops his arms but doesn't exactly concede. Yuuichi continues, "Even so, I don't see why this would be her first choice for Kyoya's birthday."
A voice at the back of her head warns Kosuke to just drop it. The worst possible thing she could do is get into a fight with Kyoya's brothers and turn an uncaring impression into a negative one. Knowing that is why she doesn't say what she wants to: The only bad thing Kyoya had to say about tonight was that YOU TWO wouldn't like it.
She's stubborn, though. She might be able to keep herself from throwing fuel to the fire, but she can't put it out, either. "Kyoya hasn't complained."
Yuuichi's eyes only narrow just so, but Akito raises a brow so high it hits his hairline. "Really?"
"I probably wouldn't have brought Kyoya here, either, but he's not a pushover. If he really didn't want to be here, I'm positive he would have said so at the entrance."
"Yes, well." Yuuichi clicks his tongue. "When it comes to Fuyumi, it's not so much being a pushover as knowing when the battle is lost."
Akito agrees, "It's no disrespect, Kosuke, but you don't know Fuyumi like we do."
Maybe not, but I know Fuyumi infinitely better than I know you.
She waits to see if they're going to say anything further, but they don't, so Kosuke just—gives up.
Whatever. Fine. If they want to be so miserable, let them be miserable.
"Ah, I see." Kosuke crosses her legs and folds her hands in her lap. "So Fuyumi is just a horribly selfish person who doesn't care about anything but what she wants?"
Eyes on her nails, she can't see the way they look at her. But oh, does she feel it, hitting her like a burst of flame.
"Now hold on just a second!" Akito's voice is already sharp, and the small space turns it into a razor. "We never said such a thing!"
Kosuke really tries to be endeared by this sudden, fierce protection of their sister, but she just can't. Not when they're not making any sense anymore.
"No? Then what are you saying?"
"What we're saying—" She almost flinches. Akito's voice was sharp, but Yuuichi's is low and warning, the voice of a man experienced in putting people in their place. "—is that even if her heart is in the right place, she should think things through better."
"If that's all, why is it such a problem?" She looks between them in turn, but they say nothing, like she's speaking a foreign language. "Why not just politely say that you appreciate the thought, but that this just isn't for you?"
"Because there's no point," Akito scoffs. "Fuyumi is determined to spring these surprises on us every single time we get together, and there's no convincing her otherwise."
Kosuke pauses. Constant surprises maybe would be inconvenient, at worst annoying, but there's a discrepancy here. "Why is that?"
"Because she thinks it's the only way she'll ever see us," Yuuichi answers.
"Well, if she does this 'every single time you get together,' it sounds like this is the only way she'll ever see you."
They spare her furious glares this time, but their sighs aren't much better. Akito pushes himself off of the mirrors and walks to another set of them, pushing against them to find some kind of give. Yuuichi checks his cellphone, but even his billion-yen device won't pick up a signal here.
He tucks it back into his blazer pocket, then fixes Kosuke with a long look, debating if he wants to continue this conversation.
"I want to make something clear." His voice teeters on the line between warning and reasoning, trying to level with her and talk her down at the same time. He couldn't sound farther from a brother if he tried. "It's not that we don't care about Fuyumi, it's that we don't care for these surprises. And yes, perhaps we don't see her as often as we would like, but the fact is we're a very busy family and can't always take such luxuries."
Kosuke tilts her head this time, uncomprehending. "Were you busy tonight?"
"No, because for once she gave us a word of warning."
"So this wasn't a surprise."
"Coming here was a surprise, if you do recall." Kosuke has to bite her tongue so hard she tastes copper, just to keep herself from snapping at him to stop talking down to her the way he is. "She's closer to Kyoya than Akito or I, and I would've thought her surprise would be more appropriate. A show, maybe, or perhaps some private yacht ride."
"She told you to dress casually, and she told Kyoya the same. Wouldn't he have spoken up then if he had a problem with that?"
"We've told you," Akito grunts as he gives another set of mirrors a shove. "Trying to change her mind is a losing battle."
"Even if she knew that Kyoya wouldn't have liked her plan for his birthday?"
He's pushing so hard against the mirrors now his hands leave sweat prints on the glass. He's breathless as he turns to her, lips pursed. "Alright. Let's assume that Kyoya actually didn't mind coming here tonight, which, mind you, I still don't buy. That doesn't mean the rest of us are very happy to be here."
"By 'the rest of us,' you mean the two of you and only the two of you?"
Akito glowers down at her, and she meets it. She tells herself that she wasn't the one who ruined this.
"And what makes you think only Yuuichi and I have been unhappy tonight?"
"Oh, I don't know." Kosuke gives an over-exaggerated, childish, petty shrug. "The fact that you two haven't stopped complaining since you got here? Actually, no, I'm sorry. Since you got to the mansion."
"Do forgive us if we thought there were more worthwhile things to do tonight than this. Honestly, it's our fault for getting our hopes up. I honestly thought she was going to let us stay at the mansion for a nice, mature dinner."
"If that was what you thought, why did you start complaining the second you got there?"
She's in such a blaze now, it's almost disappointing when Akito starts to sputter. Where his brother stops, Yuuichi continues, standing upright again and looking down at Kosuke in the absolutely worst way he could.
Unimpressed. Disappointed.
"I can somewhat admire you for defending Kyoya and Fuyumi, but I don't much care for your insinuations against mine and Akito's characters. I won't be accepting such judgements from someone who's still a stranger to me."
An ache spreads through Kosuke's neck. She's been clenching her jaw, and judging by the pain in her palms, digging her nails in, too. Her last chance to save her image in Yuuichi's eyes is to apologize profusely, she knows. Wave the white flag.
She's disappointed, too.
"I would like it if we weren't strangers," she clips out. "I would really like it if we weren't strangers, that's why I was excited to meet you two tonight. I thought maybe you'd feel the same way, but I guess you'd rather talk about how you'd rather be somewhere else than try to get to know each other better."
This at least seems to make him pause. His finger taps on the bend of his elbow, and his gaze, though still demeaning, takes on a considering glint.
"Then I wish we could have met in better circumstances."
"Alright, that's it." Kosuke pushes herself up to her feet, walks as far from the two of them as she can, and joins in the pounding and pushing. "We've got to get out of here. I can't stay with anyone as—as—as illogical as you two for another minute."
It's the tamest insult she can spit out, but she might as well have called them stupid, or asinine, or annoying, since Akito still exclaims "Illogical?!" in the most horrified, pearl-clutching voice imaginable.
"Yes! Illogical! Just—Completely incomprehensible!" Kosuke starts counting on her fingers, composure be damned. "You don't think that Kyoya wanted to come here even though he would've said so, but apparently he didn't because Fuyumi couldn't have been convinced otherwise, but not because she's selfish, but she still for some reason deserves all the ridicule in the world just for surprising you all, even though it wasn't a surprise, and even though you knew we weren't going to an opera or a yacht you're still mad that we didn't, but somehow you also hoped we were just going to sit and drink tea, but you were complaining about that, too. You two just didn't want to come here period, but you'll never admit it because it has to be someone else's fault."
She could see how they're looking at her with the mirror, but she refuses to even look.
"And if you guys think I'm a disrespectful stranger who doesn't know her place after saying that, fine. But you don't get to demand that I not think you two are bitter people who like to find things to complain about."
Then the universe decides that they've all had enough. The alarm goes off, and one of the mirrors switches.
Kosuke mutters her thanks and beelines for it. The only bad thing about finally getting out is that there's no way to avoid her reflection when she's looking for exits. She looks dull now, a lump of coals that have lost their fire.
She tries to get it together before they exit, which, mercifully, does not take too long. The world outside seems so much bigger and sweeter now. The cool wind on her skin is just heavenly.
All the others are awaiting them. Nanako is not-yet-but-soon-to-be arguing with the attendee at the door, who has dropped his persona to explain that he really doesn't know why it's taking them so long, ma'am, and he doesn't know how to get them out since he just started last week, you see.
Itsumi is the first to see them, and she exclaims a relieved "Yuuichi!" and jogs over so she can hold her husband and he can hold her. It's a shockingly tender act for someone so…Anyway. Kosuke averts her eyes.
Though she doesn't run to him, Nanako's exclamation of Akito's name is no less relieved. "There you are! What took you so long?"
"Oh, I'll tell you what took so long. This death trap of an attraction, that's what!" He jabs a finger into the poor attendee's face, shaking with rage. "Do you have any idea—?!"
"Alright, alright, take it to the side, Akito. Spare everyone else your screaming."
Nanako shoos her barking husband away. Fuyumi watches them go, her seemingly permanent smile gone. "Did you really get stuck in there?"
"Yes. The mirrors wouldn't switch."
Kyoya frowns deeper than he was. "I thought you said you weren't claustrophobic."
She'd either grumbled or spat out the words—either way they leave a sourness in her mouth, which she swallows. Whatever happened, she isn't going to run out screaming about it. "Just frustrating, that's all."
"Well, at least everyone's alright," says Tetsu. "Though I think that's enough excitement for tonight."
"Agreed." Kyoya nods to his sister. "I think it's time to pull the plug on the evening, Fuyumi."
"Yes, I think you're right. Come on, everyone! We've had our fun."
Nanako has to drag Akito away by his ear before the eight of them can begin their final trek back. There's a tension, the worst kind, the kind that only Kosuke feels. While she and the elder Ootori brothers try to avoid any eye contact, Tetsu and the women share their stories of the evening.
The only other quiet person is Kyoya, which Kosuke realizes too late. "Did something happen back there?" He mistakes her silence as confusion. "You seem quiet."
Just her. He didn't pick up anything from his brothers. How is that fair?
Well, brooding does seem to be the norm for them, she thinks without any mirth.
Ah, crap.
She screwed up.
Very badly.
Is she scared? Well, not exactly. It's not like some choice words are going to end an engagement so set in stone.
That's her one and only solace, though. After all the effort Kyoya has given her to get along with her overbearing grandparents and her icy little sister and her lovable handful of a little brother, she returns the favor by tearing his brothers to shreds the same day that they meet.
No doubt they'll go to Kyoya to warn him of what a cheeky little busybody she is—probably they'll advise him to muzzle her at every outing, lest she be so horrendous to someone less forgiving. She can see them now, pacing in circles around Kyoya, talking about her nerve and audacity.
She won't be able to defend herself. Surely Kyoya knows what his brothers are like, and if he refrained from lambasting them all night, then she could have, too.
And really, when she knows how difficult it is in his family right now, that was just careless of her.
She wants to hold onto the sliver of a hope that Akito and Yuuichi will hold off until after his birthday, though. They have to have that much tact, because Kosuke must.
That said, there's no point dismissing it or lying about it. At some point she gave Kyoya a list of all her tells and now she can't hide anything from him, not without annoying him to no end.
Plus, he might take it better with a heads-up. Hopefully. "I…will tell you after your birthday, alright? Just don't worry about it until then."
He squints at her. "I wasn't worried before, but I am now."
"Well, stop. It's nothing to ruin your birthday over. Please?"
She couldn't have gone about it in a worse way, but at least he nods. With pursed lips, but he nods.
On their way back to the limousine, they pass a security guard, who Akito beelines to for Round Two of his lawsuit threatening. While the others stop, whether to help him or stop him or just watch, Kyoya keeps walking, and Kosuke follows. It's disappointing that that was where he hit his limit with his brother, but at least there is a limit.
Seeing the gift bag still on the limousine floor delights Kosuke so much that she dives for it as soon as she's inside, resulting in a kind of fall-twist maneuver that lands her in a seat but has Kyoya startling. She waits until she's fully upright and secure before she holds it out to him. "Okay, now open it."
"Now?"
"I need to know if you like it already. Go on."
He pulls it over to him, and Kosuke starts rambling before he gets the first bit of tissue paper out. "So I couldn't think of one big thing that you might like, so I got you a bunch of little things that I thought you would? So that's an aromatherapy candle—I know you said you don't get much sleep at night, so I thought it might help if you fall asleep faster—and those are some snack bars in case you get hungry at your office but can't go get a meal. No coconut, promise. That's a little attachment you put on your desk for coffee cups, in case you run out of room or you're worried about it spilling. And that's a cushion, since you said that sitting down for so long makes your back sore. You can adjust it how you like."
Kyoya pulls everything out one-by-one, only stopping to give the lavender candle a sniff. Otherwise he doesn't ooh or ahh, which doesn't help.
"I thought about maybe getting you a—a watch or a tie, or something, but then I thought, well, what if he already has the one I get him? Then I thought maybe you'd like stuff that you could use, so I got all of—that. But if you don't like any of it, that's fine. I wanted to surprise you, but I could've just asked what you wanted. I can get you something else—"
"No, this is all great. Thank you."
"You sure? You don't want anything else?"
"I'm sure." As he looks through all the little things, he has that same look in his eye that he had when he saw that calligraphy set in the store. He's not squealing or gushing, but he is appreciative, and Kosuke will take that as a victory. "Thank you, I mean it."
"Of course. Happy birthday." Kosuke smiles, and he gives a small one back, and it sparks a giddy feeling in her chest…that feels too much like the start of that joy that had made her hug him without permission just a week ago, so she tries to stop it by looking away. "So, did you have fun tonight?"
"I did, actually. Though I'm not going into another House of Mirrors in my life."
"Oh, no. I don't think I'm going to be able to look in the bathroom mirror for a week."
Fuyumi returns first, and upon seeing the gift bag, exclaims, "Ooh, what'd you get?" and swipes it for herself. The others step in one-by-one. Tetsu pulls the giant pink panda into his lap and Kosuke and the Ootori brothers avoid eye contact.
"That was a fun time!" Tetsu blows pink fur out of his face. From where Kosuke sits, it looks like there's one giant panda with a second pair of human legs. "Wasn't it?"
Akito tugs his blazer tighter around his shoulders. "I'll have a fun time sending my lawyers after that cluster of safety violations."
Kosuke turns her ring on her finger to distract herself (although looking at the Amida insignia never has comforted her). Even if she did have the gall to say anything in front of anyone, she supposes he's not wrong about how dangerous it really was.
"Oh, stop that." Nanako drives her elbow into her husband's side. "A bad ending doesn't mean a bad trip. I thought it was nice. It made me feel like a kid again."
"We're adults. I don't see why we should want to feel like children."
"Alright, I don't want to hear any of that from a man who whooped when he won at skee ball."
There's a sputter—Itsumi trying to stifle her laughter. Akito rounds on his wife and declares, "I did not whoop."
"All that talk of ugh, I wouldn't be caught dead in there, and then you made more of a commotion than any child around us. Now, granted, it did take you ten rounds to get that win, so—"
"Alright, alright, that's enough." It didn't seem possible, but Akito's face flushes pink as Itsumi and his sister giggle at him. He crosses his arms and turns away but definitely does not pout.
Kosuke is pleased to see some humanity in him, annoyed that his hypocrisy continues, but most of all tired and intent to just drop it. It's not like one stranger screaming at him was going to change his entire personality.
"By the time we got to the Ferris wheel, the line was so long we didn't try it." Fuyumi pauses to take a sniff of the candle, lets out a pleased hum. "How was it, Yuuichi?"
He takes a moment to answer. "It's a bit too cold to sit a hundred feet up in the air. That said, it was a nice view."
She's let it go, really, but Kosuke is still surprised. A halfway compliment. Sort-of positivity.
Of course, she doesn't look over at him, because I-told-you-so is an insufferable thing to say no matter how right one is.
Then again, maybe she was already insufferable. Logically, people do listen better when you politely and calmly explain your concerns to them, instead of going off like a bomb the way she did. And again…they're years older than her, and she did kind of butt into family business.
Apparently she was so afraid of Kyoya's birthday being ruined that she threw all her tact out the window. She'd told herself she was some kind of hero for that before, but now she isn't so sure…
"Oh, goodness, Kosuke." Fuyumi pulls out the box of snack bars and shakes them. "My only criticism is that you should have gotten a hundred of these."
Kyoya pulls his gift bag back over to him, wary of anything else inside setting her off. "You say that like I starve myself."
"You do," Kosuke and Fuyumi retort in a unison that would have made the Hitachiin twins jealous. Kyoya just shakes his head.
As she hands the box back to her brother, Fuyumi suddenly jumps, dropping it to the floor. "Oh, no, Kosuke! I lost track of time so badly!" She looks at her ruby-studded wristwatch and deflates. "Oh, it's so late now…"
"No, no, it's okay!"
Kyoya asks, "Is something wrong?"
"Kosu—" Fuyumi stops herself. "She…."
"I was going to cook dinner tonight," Kosuke finishes for her. She appreciates Fuyumi trying to keep it a secret, but there's no point anymore. "It's okay, Fuyumi, really."
"Is there a reason you can't?" Nanako leans around her husband to look at Kosuke, head tilted. "I mean, if it's too late for you, then no worries. I've just heard so much raving about Kyoya's master-class chef of a fiancée…"
"Well…If I get started once we get back, then probably it'll be ready closer to ten, and it looks like everyone's ready to get back home and crawl into bed now."
Tetsu squashes the panda's head down to make eye contact. Kind of. "I don't mind! All I've had to eat this evening has been cotton candy, so."
"We—" Itsumi glances to her husband. "I don't mind staying a little while later, either."
Nanako taps Akito's knee. "What say you? I'm going to stick around."
Akito looks at his wristwatch, too, and sneers at the time. Nanako shrugs, assuming with good reason that that is his answer.
However, Akito looks to his younger brother and asks, "It's your night, Kyoya. It's up to you."
Even Kyoya quirks a brow up at this. It's a bit sad, that he looks more baffled than anything else, but—really, Kosuke has to drop it already.
Kyoya also takes a look at the time (is Kosuke the only person in this car not wearing a wristwatch?), then to Kosuke, leaning back in his seat. "I wouldn't mind."
"Great!" Fuyumi pulls herself up and toddles hunchbacked to the divider behind the driver's head. "Let's see if I can get us there a little faster…"
Yuuichi doesn't look at Itsumi when she asks, "What about you, love?" He doesn't look at anything, really; he just gives a long, hard look into nothing.
"I'll come, but I won't linger for long." He loosens the tie under his collar. Then, after thinking about it, he slips it off entirely. "I've got to get up at five-thirty tomorrow as it is."
"Same goes for me," says Akito. "I can't stay until midnight."
Nanako gives him a slap on the back that was affectionate but makes him cough. "That's the spirit, Cinderella!"
Even if Kosuke could take this as a victory in a not-condescending, not-conceited, not-holier-than-thou way, she doesn't think she could. She just feels…sad, more than anything. An effort is good, but why is it an effort to begin with?
She'd thought that she wasn't reciprocating all Kyoya had done to connect with her family. Now she's wondering if she ever could have.
So slightly, invisible to anyone but herself, Kyoya's foot pushes lightly onto hers. I joke about how often he scares me, but how often do I have to make him bring me back to the real world?
She pretends like she'd just zoned out and says nothing of it. She'd promised she wasn't going to ruin Kyoya's birthday. More than that, if she wants to figure out Kyoya's family, she's going to have to put in the work.
But tonight, though, it's just Kyoya. And finally getting to fulfill that promise to cook paella.
And there it is! Wasn't expecting this chapter to be so long—the last few have been around the 7k or 8k mark, and this hit a whopping 11k+!
I think I'm overall happy with how this chapter turned out, but of course I always like to hear what you guys think, especially about the fight scene. Did it make sense for all the characters, or no? Did it feel forced? Please let me know your thoughts!
Also, I know a few long-fic writers who include summaries at the end of the chapters so readers can keep up with everything that happens, especially after breaks. I think that's a pretty good idea! I'll see about adding some to previous chapters later.
As for this chapter, here's the tl;dr:
Fuyumi invites Kosuke, her brothers, and their wives to go out for Kyoya's birthday. Fuyumi surprises everyone by taking them to an amusement park. Kosuke is excited to get to know Akito and Yuuichi, but is disappointed when they show no interest in talking to her—then she's angry when they keep complaining throughout the night. The last thing the group does is go into a Hall of Mirrors, and inside Akito, Yuuichi, and Kosuke get stuck together. The three of them get into a fight, during which Kosuke goes off at them for how they've acted all night. They kinda-sorta hear her out but they're still tense when they leave the park. Kosuke gives Kyoya her gift and the group heads back to the Ootori mansion so Kosuke can cook them dinner. Kosuke is concerned about how distant Kyoya is with his brothers.