bored411: Haruhi is trying to look out for Kosuke's best interests, but yeah, reeling from the shock of everything amplified it to smothering a bit. If she weren't in such shock, she would have tried to have a calmer conversation about what's going on and why Kosuke agreed to all of this. Haruhi knows more than anyone everything Kosuke has been through and dealt with over the years, and pretty immediately caught on to the idea that she's just doing this for money's sake. Unfortunately, even if the conversation had gone a lot calmer, Kosuke would've lied anyway. Thanks for the review!
lillyannp: Ohhhhh thank goodness. Thanks so much! I knew the argument was going to happen but I really wanted it to feel natural. It's a personal pet peeve of mine when characters get into an argument that just comes out of nowhere, you know? Thank you!
I wanted to post this chapter yesterday, but the site was being a butt and wouldn't let me :P But here it is, chapter 18! Thanks so much to everyone for all the reviews, follows, and favorites so far!
The good news is that it works.
It seemed that everyone else had been convinced that Kyoya and Kosuke already fancy each other a great deal. They kept it believable. Of course everyone knows Kyoya enough that they would boggle at him if he just melted into a puddle whenever his fiancée drew closer, so he minds himself to just make his smiles look less charming and more sincere and make his voice take on a warmer tone as he speaks of her. It goes a long way. Kosuke also does well to keep a pleasant smile and bashfully tuck some hair behind her ear during talks of marriage and happiness and such. Though she doesn't throw herself onto Kyoya, she does make a point to lightly touch his arm as she says she's going to go get a drink, or, after he makes one teasing joke at her, punctuating it with a well-timed nudge to the side.
After that party had finally—finally —wound down, and a steady stream of attendees were now leaving through the door, Kosuke and Kyoya had been rendered stationary to give thanks to everyone for coming and listening to their last few congratulations. It seemed that Kosuke had made a recoverable impression among everyone: a kind and polite woman who just didn't enjoy crowds much, so everyone did their best to make her feel at ease by not talking about work or business in any way. Kyoya overhears her getting at least four invitations to some party or another.
The Zukas and Reiko congratulate him again, Hani remarking that they already look "so happy!" The twins half-jokingly ask if Kosuke set some kind of curse on him to make the Shadow King become infatuated with a woman so quickly—again, half-jokingly. Haruhi is tough to describe—it's as if she's convinced but is still confused. She's the only one that frowns when she sees them together.
(This time, the idea that she might be jealous didn't even appear. She wasn't and never would be and Kyoya wasn't going to consider the notion.)
Most importantly, as Fuyumi was leaving, she wrapped her arms around him and pulled him to her so she could whisper, "I'm sorry for blowing up at you earlier. I'm such a worrywart."
"You're forgiven," Kyoya had told her, and just narrowly avoided interruption when Tamaki appeared as well.
"We hope you two didn't mind the surprise party," he had said. He and Fuyumi put on identical sorry-not-sorry expressions. "But you know us. We couldn't help ourselves."
"And you—" Kyoya did not hear Kosuke approaching, but then Fuyumi was reaching out and gathering his fiancée's hands in hers and squeezing them tightly. "We need to hang out as soon as possible. I want to get to know everything about you."
Kosuke had smiled and nodded, perhaps even sincerely. "I'll try to set a day aside as soon as I can."
Tamaki's grin had gone softer, and his eyes—to Kyoya's and Kosuke's alarm both—became water-lined. "Look at you two," he'd said, even though the two of them had hardly glanced at each other since Kosuke had walked up. "I just know you're going to be happy together."
"Don't they already get along so well?" sighed Fuyumi. "If this is how you two are already, just imagine how much happier you'll be in the future!"
Kosuke had warmly joked, "We'll see!" at the same time Kyoya had said, "I'm sure we will be."
He was quite certain that if he'd had the ability to read Kosuke's mind, she would have been thinking something along the lines of, I seriously doubt it.
And Kyoya would have been thinking the same thing.
Because here is the bad news: his fiancée has now proven that she is going to be a Problem. With a capital P.
Kyoya had run through their conversation over and over again just to try and figure out what he'd done wrong, but he keeps coming up short. He had politely asked her to please just touch up on her knowledge of Amida Health for his sake, her sake, and their families. True, he'd put a little more focus on his sake, considering he was going to be married to her, but the point still stood. She was agreeing with him…until she wasn't.
Kosuke had said point-blank that she understood that what she said and did could affect him in some way or another, and yet, when he then kindly requested she remedy one behavior specifically, that was just too far. In two seconds she'd gone from agreeable and cooperative to stamping her feet and saying he was "scolding her like a five-year-old child."
She had said that she was embarrassing herself more than him…so why not do what Kyoya advised and educate herself? If she wants to go with the momentary cover of "my father saw potential in me," that was well and good, but what reason was there to snap that at him like it was his job to come up with that? Like he was pushing blame onto her for his shortcomings?
Granted, he was wrong when he said all arranged marriages were leaders coming together with leaders. It truly is more about the connection formed between two companies. But Fuyumi and Tetsu can't compare to them. Fuyumi never wanted any employment with Ootori Medical, and she was never setup to expect much—but she was still an Ootori, thus why Tetsu was set to wed her. Kyoya is already working towards some kind of role in Ootori Medical and is going to be marrying Kosuke because she will be leading Amida Health one day. So sure, not every arranged marriage will be "leader and leader," but it shouldn't be "person well-trained in business operation and person who can't even list one kind of business model."
And then they started talking about the dinner, which just—
Kyoya apologized for walking out. He completely understood that that was unacceptable and yes, probably humiliated Kosuke much like how her naivete to Amida Health has and will embarrass him. However, he did have a reason, just like she did to be texting on her phone—which, by the way embarrassed him. It seemed that entire ordeal was just one miscommunication after another, but is Kyoya expected to just shoulder all the blame for it?
He tried reminding himself that Kosuke has been, and is going, through a lot. She has lost her mother and stepfather. She has two younger siblings to take care of. She's just uprooted her entire life to come out to Tokyo on short notice. Kyoya can perfectly understand that all that would cause a great deal of stress.
That didn't make it okay to just take it out on him because he was the easiest target. He'd said she needed to be careful about their impressions on others, she agreed, he added that she should know more about her company, which she also agreed with—but exploded on him regardless. Either all her frustrations came bubbling up all at once at him, or Kosuke Amida has a fragile pride, and the slightest bit of criticism is "scolding" and "condescending."
So this is what he's going to have to look forward to for the rest of his life. Putting on a smile and acting lovesick in public, snapping at each other like angry dogs in private.
Fun.
Is this really the woman Tamaki and Haruhi gushed and fawned over so many times? Even a man as patient and forgiving as Tamaki wouldn't put up with someone so temperamental.
It's almost a shame, because when they were talking about their idea to pretend to be infatuated with each other for their friends' sake, he supposed he sort of…connected with her for a moment? Perhaps connected was too strong a word, but she was afraid of the same thing he was afraid of. She'd had the same idea for how to deal with it and had already set the plan in motion.
Alas. All for naught.
At least the silver lining of this is that he won't have to worry about making time in his schedule for her anymore. He imagines she'll be wanting to spend her free time with him just as much as he wants to.
This isn't what Kyoya wanted, but just like Amaya Domen had to figure out, Kyoya wasn't going to deny reality just to make someone happy. Amaya learned that he doesn't just immediately fall to others' feet and beg for their love. Kosuke learned that he doesn't let problems go unaddressed.
Before, he often dreaded any time alone, knowing that his brain would—without his consent—turn to thoughts of Tamaki and Haruhi, and he'd get distracted with pathetic feelings of jealousy and longing. That's still a problem, but at least alone, he doesn't have to convince anyone that he's smitten with Kosuke, and he certainly doesn't have to worry about his fiancée's presence.
It's been three days since the party. He's been back at Ootori Medical for far shorter than he wishes, doing far less work than he's capable of. He's had to talk of Kosuke—particularly when students tell him things like "She's in my class, she seems really nice!"—but thankfully, all he's seen of her is a few passing glimpses in the halls. She waves to him and smiles once because she knows people are watching. Tamaki continues to blow up his phone to ask if he wants to go on a double-date with Haruhi sometime, the twins are trying to get him to figure out Kosuke's dress measurements, and Hani wants to know if he wants to go on a triple date with all the couples now part of the Ouran Host Club.
Haruhi is remarkably quiet. Likely not near as used to or as chipper as her fiancé is about their best friends being engaged. Kyoya is unsure if he wants to talk to her or not. Any and all talk of Kosuke sounds sour to him now, but Haruhi has always had a calming effect on him.
He's particularly keeping an eye on Fuyumi, especially now that she "knows" how much he "likes" Kosuke already. He wouldn't be surprised if she already had more surprises in store.
She does surprise him when he returns home from work—a measly five hours, like getting engaged was his "real" job this entire time and now he's just there for filler. It's just not with anything to do with Kosuke.
"Mom's coming home tonight and I need you to help me get dinner ready!"
Fuyumi grabs his free hand—the other hasn't even put down his briefcase yet. She tries to drag him to the dining room, but all she manages is a brisk walk.
"I'm assuming she told you this?" Kyoya asks. For just a split second, he's—annoyed. So many times he's called and messaged his mother, and the closest he gets to a response is this?
"Of course she told me, don't be dumb." Fuyumi drops his hand once they're in the dining room and runs to a cardboard box sitting on one of the chairs. "Now can you please help me? We only have an hour to get all this set up!"
She throws the box into Kyoya's arms and pulls out a bag of confetti for herself. Confetti. Kyoya takes a look inside and sees several…interesting items, like cone-shaped party hats, another bag of cheap paper confetti, and (when he pulls it out and dangles it) a string of laminated letters that read WELCOME HOME!
Not quite on par with the fully-catered surprise party she'd managed to get the entirety of Ouran University invited to. "Where did you buy these things? A dollar store?"
"The close one with the green roof. You know the one!" Fuyumi takes handful after handful of confetti out of the bag and arranges it so meticulously between the candelabras. For some reason, the manufactured bits of paper clash with the double-figure karat gold. "Are you just going to stand there?"
Kyoya picks up the banner, stretches out its whole length just by spreading his arms apart, and looks back at the doorway. "We may need another one of these. Or five."
"Look, this is on extremely short notice, okay? She just texted me that she's coming home two hours ago!"
Fuyumi sets a little sprinkle of confetti on a plate, then hesitates, clearly unsure. Kyoya finally sets the box down, figuring, why not? Cheap decorations aside, there's no harm in any of it…Though he is going to legitimately struggle to find a place for the tiny banner. "It's odd for her to come straight home after a trip."
"Well." Fuyumi coughs. "She traveled a lot. She's probably just tired."
"She wasn't 'tired' the last time she went to Taiwan. Went straight to another meeting."
"She…didn't just go to Taiwan. She also went to Cambodia. And Bangladesh. And Sri Lanka."
For what? Kyoya asks it with his eyes, but Fuyumi can only answer, "Maybe she just decided to have an impromptu vacation?"
"Without inviting any of us? I would have said no, obviously, but she usually sends a dozen calls asking if we want to join her."
"What matters is that she's coming home, and we're going to have a nice family dinner for her." Fuyumi finally sets down the confetti on the plate, satisfied, only to then scoop it all back up and chirp, "Oh! Get the name cards."
The cards are on thin, folded cardboard, but at least his Fuyumi has impeccable handwriting. Kyoya flips through them: Mother, Kyoya, Fuyumi…but then he also sees Akito and Yuuichi. "You have asked our brothers to attend, yes? Or is this just wishful thinking?"
His sister smiles very proudly. "Oh, they're coming, don't worry."
He flips to the last card: Father. "So all six of us will be here?"
"Six?" Fuyumi ticks off her fingers, but her eyes go from chair to chair. Then she stamps her three-inch heel on the floor. "Oh, I knew I forgot something! Kosuke should be here, she hasn't met Mother yet. Do you think if I call now, she'd be able to make it?"
"Less than an hour is very short notice," Kyoya replies very easily. As much of a surprise as this dinner is, he would very much enjoy another Kosuke-free evening. "She'd be happy to meet Mother at another time, I'm sure."
"Have we ever all been together?" Fuyumi asks morosely. She fiddles with a crooked candle. "Tetsu is going out of town tonight, Nanako has a soiree she has to go to, Itsumi is still visiting her grandmother in Prague…At least all the Ootoris will be here."
"So Father is coming."
"Well…" Fuyumi tucks a silky strand of hair behind her ear. Her version of rubbing the back of her neck. "If I can tell him in the next hour. He hasn't been picking up."
Fuyumi's lips pull together, and even as she goes on setting up the decorations, Kyoya knows she's upset. He knows that this idea Fuyumi has, of their family being the kind to just always be available to each other at any given moment, to be the type that comes together for dinner just because…it's not going to happen. The Ootoris stopped being that sort of family a long, long time ago.
Still, he doesn't want to make his sister any more upset than she already is, so he goes back to trying to figure out where to place the banner. He thinks maybe they're just going to have to string it between the candelabras and hope it doesn't catch fire.
It does occur to him that his mother will undoubtedly want to be informed of anything and everything that has happened—including her youngest child's fiancée that she has not met yet. So Kyoya will, at least for a while, have to resume his roll of the infatuated lovebird. Very well. He'll just power through it.
In the end, the decorations turn out probably as good as they were going to get. It seems common enough sense to not put bargain-bin decorations on a table cloth shipped straight from the core of Taipai, but he's done teasing his sister about it. They only end up in argument about table arrangements. Fuyumi wants their parents to sit across from each other width-wise, Kyoya thinks they should go the traditional route of lengthwise, being the heads of the family.
The hour dries up, and Kyoya and Fuyumi are still the only ones in the dining room. Kyoya tries not to look at his watch too often. He'd been hoping that (though he's not happy with having so much free time) he'd be able to do at least some work on the Project. They spend five minutes past the hour just sitting in front of the doorway, waiting. Fuyumi is fidgeting as much as she allows herself, running her hand down the front of her dress, ever-so-slightly tossing her hair over her shoulder.
"Should we be worried?" Kyoya asks, just to try and calm her down.
Fuyumi's brows knit together. "Why?"
"She always said that three minutes was the limit on being fashionably late, and if she's ever later than five, we need to call the police."
He waits to hear Fuyumi laugh, or something, but after five seconds of straight silence, he looks over to her. She has her phone out and has just stamped in 110.
Kyoya reaches over and snaps the phone shut just before she can hit call.
"That was a joke."
"I can't tell when you're joking," she pouts.
Finally, they hear footsteps on the other side of the door. Fuyumi straightens her spine, Kyoya readjusts his tie. Even if he has to talk about Kosuke, he'll be glad to see his mother again, if only to know that she's been well.
He already has his mouth open in greeting when the door opens and someone besides his mother steps through the door.
"Why aren't you at a hospital?!" Yuuichi yells as soon as he steps through the door. Kyoya can't help but reel back—he could count on his fingertips the amount of times his oldest brother has raised his voice. He beelines to Fuyumi, all but grabbing her head in his hands to twist it from side to side. "Can you breathe? Do you feel nauseous?"
His eyes then go to Kyoya, and flash with fury. "Why are you just standing there?!"
His attention is brought back when Fuyumi gently pulls his hands away from her. Her smile may look sweet, but it's filled with satisfaction. "There you are! We were waiting for you!"
Yuuchi blinks one, two, three times. He takes a step back to look at his sister up and down, then to Kyoya, then to their best attempt at a good dinner setting. His Ootori-gray eyes fill more with outrage with each second that passes, until finally he barks at Fuyumi, "You said you were having a severe allergic reaction! That you thought you were going into anaphylactic shock!"
"Turns out I'm fine," Fuyumi hums. "But thank you for coming! At least now you can stay for dinner with Mother."
Kyoya and Yuuichi look to each other with mirrored expressions of narrow-eyed, open-mouthed bafflement. Kyoya finally finds the sense to say, "You got Yuuichi to come…by telling him your life was in danger."
Fuyumi only winks at him. "Told you he and Akito were coming."
Yuuichi takes his glasses off so he can press his fingers into his eyes. Kyoya has honestly never seen him explode on their sister in any way, but he would not blame the man if he did now. Kyoya himself is far beyond appalled and he wasn't even the one lied to.
He folds his arms and fixes Fuyumi with the most withering look he can manage—which he knows he can, very easily. "You don't need me to tell you that that is nowhere near acceptable."
"Over the past few years, I have figured out a code when it comes to the three of you," Fuyumi sniffs. "If you legitimately have something going on, you're specific. 'I can't, Fuyumi, I have to meet with a client today,' or, 'Itsumi is sick, we won't be able to come.' But, if all you say is 'I'm busy,' that always means, 'I want to do work that I don't really have to do.' Or, let's be honest, 'I don't want to.' So just knowing how you and Akito responded to my invitations earlier, I know you are both free for the evening."
Before Kyoya can respond, Yuuichi puts his glasses back on and gives Fuyumi a withering look of his own. Kyoya has been told that he has a six-feet-under glare—a glare that has "probably actually killed someone," as the twins have put it. He wonders how others would react to Yuuichi's, because Kyoya prides himself on his steely spine and even he feels the intensity of it even when it's not directed at him. Fuyumi loses any last trace of pride—her face falls into a guilty frown and her arms fold as if to protect herself.
"Fuyumi," Yuuichi says in a calm, quiet voice that still rumbles like thunder. "You are my sister. I love you and I respect you. But I am going to tell you one time and one time only: don't you ever play a trick like that again."
Fuyumi looks away for a moment just to catch some relief. He might be pushing it, but Kyoya very much does not want something like this ever happening again, so he adds, "I hope you weren't expecting everyone to just laugh it off."
He takes no pride in how Fuyumi crumbles just a little bit more, but it needs to be said. She says time and again that he is the only brother that actually makes the slightest effort to talk and be around her on a regular basis—which is obviously why he wasn't called here under such a lie, but if she ever did so to him, all that "slightest effort" would take a long, long absence. And to be frank, this is not going to convince her brothers to see her more often.
Fuyumi finally straightens up her back and says, calmly, "I'm sorry. That was immature of me. And manipulative."
Still outraged, but satisfied, Yuuichi looks down to his wristwatch. His eyebrow twitches. "Well, even if I only want to and don't have to, there is work I would like to get done. Fuyumi. Kyoya."
He turns to leave, and Fuyumi hurries to him, calling, "Whoa, whoa, whoa! If you don't need anything done tonight, what's the harm in staying?"
Yuuichi raises a brow. "Is there something important that needs to be discussed?"
"No. Not every conversation with another person needs to be about next year's projections, you know." Fuyumi quickly remembers that she has no place to argue about anything right now, and backtracks at Yuuichi's glower. "Mom is coming home tonight and it would just be nice if we all had a welcome-home dinner."
Yuuichi doesn't take his eyes off of her, but he clearly contemplates for a moment. "When was the last time we threw a dinner party just because one of us was coming home from a business trip?"
"My point exactly." Fuyumi looks between them both, pleading, "I know this seems weird, but it shouldn't be. Family members wanting to see each other is normal. What's weird is that we can't remember the last time we all so much as stood in the same room together. And it's our mother, Yuuichi. Can't we put time aside for her?" When Yuuichi does not immediately responds, she adds, "You know how hard Kyoya has been working, and he had no problem doing this tonight."
Thanks for putting me in the spotlight, Kyoya thinks, but he knows his sister means well. This just…isn't them. Even if it shouldn't be weird to do this, it just is, and doing stuff like this out of the blue only makes things stranger. The Ootoris are not a family who has dinner together just for the sake of it.
Yuuichi knows that as well as he does, and Kyoya knows that he's waiting for his response. On the one hand, he doubts he'll manage any more than a begrudging acceptance from Yuuichi. On the other hand, he knows that if he leaves, Fuyumi will be crushed.
So finally, he says, "She has been unusually quiet ever since she left. It would be nice to talk to her and know that everything is fine."
Yuuichi looks from him to Fuyumi, and from her to the doorway. Finally, he lets out a sigh and turns his back to the exit. Begrudging acceptance. Best that could be managed.
Fuyumi is, of course, over the moon. She bounces on her heels for a moment—Kyoya really wishes she wouldn't do that—and trills, "Fantastic! Dinner should be ready any second now."
Exactly three seconds later, Akito comes rushing into the room, out of breath and gripping a medical kit with a death-like vice. "Why aren't you at a hospital?!"
Oh, if looks could kill…Fuyumi tenses up as Kyoya and Yuuichi level her with identical glares, simply in disbelief at how low she's sunken. This time, she defensively squeaks out, "We've all known one another our entire lives, and you should both know very well that I don't have a peanut or a shellfish allergy. Let's talk about that for a minute, shall we?"
Akito is about as happy as his brothers about the stunt, but after another round of harsh scolding and sincere apologies, he agrees to stay. Fuyumi looks about as happy as a child in a candy store, and ushers everyone to go ahead and sit to look "more inviting and less stiff"—this leads to yet another argument about who is supposed to sit where.
So in the in, Fuyumi succeeded in—for once—getting all of her brothers together at the same time. Under very unmoral pretenses, but it works. Some part of Kyoya actually admires such a sly scheme, and the same part wants to tell Fuyumi that she shouldn't have explained her "codes," because now none of them will simply say "I'm busy" to her next invitation.
However, the point still stands that this is not something the Ootori family does. Kyoya understands the appeal of the get-togethers you see on holiday letters or television commercials, where everyone is smiling and laughing over a meal, getting caught up with their loved ones. Those things sell because people like the schmaltzy kind of sweetness. It just isn't them.
Which is why they are all sitting here in total silence.
The ticking of the clock on the far wall is gunshot-loud. It seems all four of them have made a competition to see who can avoid eye contact the longest. Every now and then the kitchen door opens and the head chef will peek out, see Fuyumi's hand wave, and duck back in. Dinner was meant to start at six. It is about to strike seven.
From the corner of his eye, Kyoya sees that they have all picked their own "casual" fidgets. He himself has readjusted his tie and glasses about a dozen times now. Fuyumi takes the smallest sips of wine possible to not refill the glass. Akito readjusts his table setting. Yuuichi keeps looking down at his wristwatch as if the one on the wall doesn't cut it.
It's after the millionth time that he does this that Fuyumi finally sighs, "You said you could stay."
"For a dinner that should've started an hour ago." Yuuichi pulls his phone from his pocket, checks the screen. "Have any of you received anything?"
They all take looks at their phones, but every answered is a murmured 'no.' Fuyumi is the only one that attempts to make another call, but after six rings, she hangs up again.
Maybe she's like I was, Kyoya muses to himself. Maybe something's going on and she just doesn't want to put up with all the barraging.
This time he's on the other side. Trying to get through to someone that just isn't answering you. He wants to say that he's justified, but if all the others were as miffed as he feels now when he didn't respond to any of their messages or calls, he can understand.
"Well!" Fuyumi straightens herself up, puts on a smile. "There's no point just sitting here in silence. We should all get caught up. How has work been?"
She gets three words in response, one from each brother. "Manageable." "Busy." "Fine."
"Has everyone calmed down now that they don't have to worry about DomenMen anymore?"
"Mostly." "Somewhat." "Hard to tell."
"Did we have to make any big changes to accommodate?"
"Not many." "A few." "It's too early to tell."
Fuyumi's smile fades more and more until she just ducks her head, takes another tiny sip of wine, and leans back into her chair. If it were just the two of them, Kyoya would not have nearly as much trouble talking to her and giving her more than monosyllables. But having his brothers be here just makes it seem so strange—they might as well be strangers listening in on their conversation.
His phone buzzes in his pocket. He doesn't check it immediately, somehow already knowing that it's not his mother. He doesn't want Fuyumi to perk up just to be put down again. So he waits just a moment, then pulls it out as if he's just mindlessly looking at something.
From: Tamaki
When Haruhi comes back there'll be a new rollerblading place open in Tokyo. Doesn't that sound fun? All four of us should go as soon as possible!
Kyoya doesn't answer. At least he can tell Tamaki later that his mother was over for dinner.
Speak of the devil:
Just as he tucks his phone away again, footsteps start to sound from the hallway. It's impossible to mistake Jin Ootori's footsteps. The click of her heels goes to a slow beat as steady as a metronome: one, two, one, two. ("I don't hurry for anyone," she once said.)
They all straighten in their seats. Fuyumi puts on another sugar-sweet smile. If Kyoya is scowling, he tries to remedy it.
The footsteps slow as they come forward. Kyoya sees his mother before she actually appears: black hair pulled back into a bun, makeup as precisely applied as a porcelain doll's, probably with a mink shawl draped around her shoulders because she argues that mink shawls are in fashion year-round. She'll walk in and address them all by name first, because that's what she always does—state your name as if to remind you of what it is.
Jin Ootori may have all the affection and warmth as her daughter, but that doesn't make her any less regal. She may only be asking how your trip to Bali went, or how your nephew is doing, he's gotten so big, but the room will always quiet to listen to her. Jin is fifty-four years old now, and she's still sought out time and again to feature on magazine covers and perfume advertisements because her elegance has not aged a day past twenty.
In short, Jin Ootori—mother of three sons and one daughter, whose role as socialite is sometimes just as important as her husband's as the head of Ootori Medical—is smooth and sophisticated, the sheer image of the elite.
The person who walks through the door is not Jin Ootori. It just looks like her.
"Childreeeen!" she cheers as she sways in and falls against the doorway. Everyone at the table jumps in alarm, but it's Akito who's already prepared to run and catch her in a moment's notice. "You're all heeeere! I can't believe it!"
Even Fuyumi, who would have undoubtedly squeezed the breath out of her mother if she'd come in as she was supposed to, stays rooted in her seat. All she can do is blink and gawk. Yuuichi has his hand curled up by his collar as if to clutch an invisible string of pearls. Kyoya probably doesn't look any better than them—likely he's gaping, too, in confusion over the fact that that. is his mother?!
It—is Jin. Somehow. Some way. The same way the Ecce Homo just kind of looked like Jesus Christ after its "restoration." She's wearing heels, but how she's standing upright in them and how she kept up her usual temp is beyond Kyoya. She has a mink shawl, but it isn't around her shoulders so much as it is precariously draped around one and then wrapped around her opposite hip. For a split second Kyoya thinks her bun may just be lopsided, then he realizes there isn't one at all: she's chopped all of her hair so it's hardly an inch longer than a pixie cut.
"Hey!" She pouts. Her makeup is still impeccable, though it's hard to tell if her smoky eyes are supposed to be smoky or if they've just melted that way. "Aren't you going to say hello to your mother? I raised you better!"
She is drunk. Very drunk. Jin Ootori, who last got slightly intoxicated twelve years ago at a Christmas gala and refused to have a single one of her children see her for five days after from sheer shame, is now falling-off-her-feet drunk.
"Mother," Akito finally says. He stands to his feet. Clearly still convinced she's about to topple. "Are you…okay?"
"Better than okay! Look at all of you…All my beautiful babies, sitting in one room." She stumbles in Yuuichi's direction, and finally he darts up to his feet to meet her halfway. Instead of collapsing, she throws herself onto him, squeezing him tight enough to suffocate. "Makes me so nostalgic!"
The chef peeks out of the door again at the commotion, and despite all four sober Ootoris trying to discreetly wave him back, Jin exclaims, "Oh, aren't all of you so thoughtful? Serve the meal, serve! I've kept you all waiting long enough!"
She somehow manages to make it to her seat—whether he's more surprised with her balance or her ability to make out her name on the card, Kyoya is unsure.
As the kitchen starts to bustle behind the door, the Ootori children look at one another helplessly. Not even Yuuichi seems to know what to do. Jin picks up pieces of confetti like she's never seen such things in all her years.
Finally Kyoya speaks up. Trying to tiptoe around the obvious isn't going to help. "Mother, what's wrong?"
"I told you. Nothing!" Jin plucks up her napkin and spreads it across her lap. The movement is elegant, but she neglects to notice the confetti on the napkin, and doesn't blink as it all goes fluttering onto the floor and the table. "Actually, what's wrong is that I haven't gotten a single hello from my own children. So much for a welcome-back…"
Fuyumi gets out a "He—" before Kyoya continues, "You're drunk."
Jin bats her hand at him, makes a puh-shaw sound. "Drunk! Listen to yourself, Akito!"
"I'm Kyoya."
"As if I'm one to ever get drunk! I had a few cocktails on the plane ride over. I'd hardly call that enough to get someone drunk."
Yuuichi has finally moved past the shock enough to start shaking his head—partly disdain, but it being his own mother, mostly disappointment. "Alright. Let's get you somewhere where you can lie down—"
Jin's hand slaps down on the table hard enough to pierce their ears. She's as much of a master of the Ootori glare as the rest of them, but it's just not working right now. She's managing an angry pout at best, and as the servers come forth from the dining room, they hesitate in the door to wonder if it's really worth it.
"I want all of you to…" Jin pauses for a moment, holding a finger over her pursed lips and closing her eyes briefly. Kyoya thinks she's collecting herself for a moment. Then he realizes she burped. "…to sit down so we can all have a nice family dinner. I will not be coddled by my own children."
No words pass between any of them, but a conversation is had. Kyoya gets it through his glower that this is entirely unacceptable. Fuyumi begs through a shaking smile to not upset their mother any further. Akito exclaims through wide-eyed glancing that he just wants to know why she's acting like this. Yuuichi sighs through a slow blink that it's not like they can just wrestle her away from the table.
So they all sit down.
The servers provide the piping-hot soup before them. Kyoya's never been drunk before, but he imagines it doesn't inspire much appetite. Yet Jin is slurping away at her lobster bisque with no problem.
"So!" Fuyumi exclaims, her enthusiasm dampened but not extinguished. "We have a lot to catch up on."
Jin nods fervently. "We absolutely do. Now, how are things looking among our employees? I heard morale took quite a drop when we found out the Domens were leaving."
Yuuichi's jaw works side to side. He picks up his wine glass before the server has stopped pouring. "Though we did have a handful of withdraws, and we cut back on some slightly unnecessary positions, things have largely calmed down. Employees' dispositions have notably improved."
"It's a bit unfortunate," Akito adds. It's as hard for him as the rest of them to be casual. "Things have almost improved too much. You can tell people have been making more of an effort just to make them less likely of losing their jobs."
Kyoya is reminded of the employee who tried to take care of the glove supply himself. Can't disagree with that.
Jin snaps her fingers without actually getting them to snap. "There's an expression for that! All the hubbub must have…um…"
She thinks hard through her alcohol-riddled mind, but she's gritting her teeth with frustration. She squeezes her eyes shut, and it's then that Kyoya sees that her wine glass has already been filled. He looks between it and Fuyumi, back-to-back, begging her to do something with it while Jin isn't looking.
Fuyumi hesitates, of course, but right when it seems like she's worked up enough courage to reach for the glass, Jin once again smacks down on the top of the table—this time with elation. Fuyumi snaps her hand back at once.
The metaphor that Jin had forgotten was: "Lit a fire under their asses!"
Jin Ootori was friends with both Ryuu Wada and Francisco Madruga. Despite living on other sides of the planet, the two men were the owners of the Madruwada coffee company—their coffees known for being highly expensive, highly popular, and overall the most delicious money could buy. The two men had first had their own companies, and each man had a handful of sites across the world where they harvested their gold. Brazil, obviously, but also Colombia, Panama, Vietnam, India…Madruga even had his very own Black Ivory made in Thailand. (Kyoya has been told that it is absolutely sublime, but he is not going anywhere near it.)
The two men joined their companies, and for thirty years lived in elite, blueblooded glory just from coffee beans. It was more accurate to say that Jin was friends with Wada's daughter, Sayaka Wada—and though she'd only met Madruga a few times, mostly when she and Miss Wada flew across the sea to visit his own daughter, Priscila. But when news broke that the two men had come to a horrible dispute and were considering splitting up their companies once again, the sheer stress that Miss Wada endured had Jin calling both men to beg them for a parlay.
The whole meeting took a grand total of thirty minutes, and everyone came out laughing. Jin Ootori was a woman who spoke so succinctly and smoothly that she'd managed to save an entire empire with just tea and crumpets.
She had also just screamed "asses" loud enough that the Madrugas probably heard her all the way in Brazil.
The Ootori children all react similarly: staring straight ahead for a minute, hardly even blinking. Akito was taking a sip of wine and just kept the glass there at his lips with the deadest expression Kyoya's ever seen on him.
Jin is just cackling. "I should've been here to see it…You know I pride myself on our employees just as much as the rest of you, but I just think it's real funny how everyone tries to do their job extra well when they think they might lose it. It'd be nice if 'extra well' was the norm."
"Isn't that the truth?" Fuyumi chuckles. She definitely does not chuckle like that. "I'm just glad things have gone back to normal."
Jin's smile slowly but surely sank. She took a sip of her soup, and they all did the same. It was already getting cooler, but Kyoya didn't have much appetite.
"How was your…trip?" Akito asks.
"It went well. You know me; I could go to the worst cesspit in the world, and I'd still love to travel." Jin tries for a teasing grin, but it doesn't stay. "Why do you say 'trip' like that?"
She turns in her seat just so to face him head-on, propping her elbow up on the table but without resting her chin on her palm. This is the only way she ever puts her elbows on the table, and only in private. While she faces Akito, Fuyumi eyes her wine again.
"Well…" Akito clears his throat. Yuuichi is watching this entire exchange, unimpressed. "It just took longer than we were all expecting, that's all."
"Yes, I know. I'm sorry I didn't tell you all I was going to take longer. I got caught up in it all. We should all go to Bangladesh as soon as we're able. I forgot how magical it was." Jin takes another slurping sip of soup. "And I'm sorry that I haven't been so responsive this time. I hope you're not too angry with me."
Not angry, just disappointed, Kyoya thinks to himself.
He can't shake the feeling that something is just so terribly wrong. His mother does not get drunk. She does not go without contact for so long. Kyoya knows that this is supposed to be a nice, pleasant family dinner, but he can't just sit here and try to smile through this.
"Mother," he says.
She turns to him chipperly. Maybe he should've waited: Fuyumi's hand withdraws again. "Yes, love?"
"If I may ask, what kept you from returning when you heard that DomenMed was leaving?"
Fuyumi's chiding exclamation of his name is hardly more than a hushed whisper. Regret comes immediately. To be a killjoy is one thing, but has he lost his bearings again? Has he disrespectfully snapped at his parent?
Yuuichi speaks. "I think it's a fair question."
Jin reaches for her…water glass (a sigh of relief is had) and doesn't take her eyes off of them as she drinks. For a second, she almost looks like her usual cool, sober self.
"The simple answer is that your father assured me he had everything under control." Jin tilts her head just so. "What's that face for, Yuuichi?"
The eldest son looks up from his bisque to meet his mother's gaze. His face is remarkably calm, and yet, somehow still unimpressed. "I don't believe I'm making a face."
"No. You don't…I have no idea how you do it, but you're the one person I know who can make a face without making a face. It's incredible." Her mother's drunken ramblings encourages Fuyumi to try for the wine glass again. "I just wouldn't blame you if you're wondering why I didn't come home anyway. Doesn't matter if it's 'handled' or not…It's a family emergency. Isn't that right?"
There is a sharpness creeping into her voice; her red smile has taken on a wry curve. Fuyumi hesitates; Akito fidgets. Kyoya only narrows his eyes because he knows she isn't looking at him. What's going on?
Yuuichi keeps his cool and only blinks back at her. "I suppose that's also a fair question."
"It is." Jin nods slowly, gaze sliding away from her son as getting lost in thought. Kyoya thinks she's leading towards the answer—a prologue as specific and spot-on as that seems introductory—but instead she flashes her teeth and trills, "But everything worked out just fine! We no longer have to deal with Daisuke Domen throwing his temper tantrums, our company is saved, and millions of jobs are spared."
Fuyumi finally closes her fingers around the stem of her glass and starts to pull away.
"And Kyoya…"
Jin locks eyes with him. He just waits. She doesn't look like his mother.
"My youngest boy, already engaged. And at the best time possible, am I right?" She laughs like she has people laughing with her. She does not. "But really, truly…I always knew this was going to be a bittersweet day. Elated to see you married, haunted by the realization of how old I am."
Jin presses a finger to her lips again. Burps.
"You know…" As she says that, she straightens up in her seat, and keeps her lips pursed down on the 'oh.' "Your father and I had a conversation not too long ago about just this. How your…marital status would be handled." She flits a hand about. "It's so strange, the conversation lasted such a long time, yet we were on the same page. We agreed that we would just let you…"
Then she just flings an arm up, smiles, and leaves it at that.
…What the hell does THAT mean? Kyoya's really trying to translate that in his mind, but what is the meaning of, We agreed that we would just let you (swing arm as if having a stroke)? Even Yuuichi frowns in confusion. Where on Earth did their mother's succinctness go?
"I suppose it's a good thing that…Well, nevermind." Jin clasps her hands together. "I do think we should all have a toast for Kyoya, hm? We can say it however way we want, but I do believe he has single-handedly saved our family with his marriage. Come on, children."
She stands to her feet with a clatter of silverware. The rest of them reluctantly follow suit, but Kyoya is the last to stand. He doesn't feel like celebrating. He also doesn't feel like causing a scene, so he stands to his feet and picks up his wine glass.
"To Kyoya," Jin cheers, a gulps down a drink of her water.
There isn't so much a chorus of his name as there is one repetition, a mumble that almost sounds like his name, and then nothing at all from Yuuichi. Kyoya just takes a sip of his wine.
As Jin sets her glass back down and settles into her seat, she catches sight of her daughter doing the same—except she's only putting down one of her two glasses of wine. "Fuyumi!"
Fuyumi freezes. Her hand goes stone still on the stem.
"Goodness, my dear, don't go so heavy on the wine." Jin picks up (unbeknownst to her) her secondary glass of water. "That much will knock you out cold."
Fuyumi breathes a sigh of relief. Then she blinks.
"Mother," Kyoya says, but it takes him a second to decide which of two questions to ask. "My apologies, but you didn't quite answer why it was you didn't come back—"
"Hold on." Jin holds up one perfectly manicured finger. Her dark eyes go from one seat to another. The fact that she's having to count only makes Kyoya worry more. "Why isn't your fiancée here?"
Kyoya answers, "She was busy. This was called on rather short notice."
("Shorter for some than others," Yuuichi grumbles. Fuyumi takes a deep breath.)
Jin pouts again. "That's such a shame. I was looking forward to meeting her."
"I'm sure she'd love to meet you soon." Kyoya takes another sip of bisque. It is officially room-temperature. "We can try to arrange a meeting."
"Do," chirps Jin. She takes another drink of water, and her lip curls in disappointment at the fact. "What's she like?"
Kyoya recites the rundown he's already memorized. "She's very…mature. Very polite. Unfortunately we don't share any classes, but anyone can tell she's passionate about her studies. And I have to admit, she's a great source of conversation."
Jin's eyebrows rise on her forehead. "My word, Kyoya. Am I detecting warmth in your tone?"
Kyoya makes a slight smile—punctuation. His acting skills have not failed him yet.
Fuyumi is smiling, too, but wide and unrestrained, almost dancing in her seat. "He's just being coy. They're already so infatuated with each other. You can tell as soon as she walks into the room."
"Well, isn't that splendid!" Jin raises a finger again and leans down to gather her clutch purse from the floor. Kyoya hopes there wasn't anything breakable in it, because its landing on the floor was not graceful. "Here, Kyoya. I don't know when I'll be seeing her, but I want her to get this as soon as possible. Just let her know it's from her future mother-in-law who can't wait to meet her."
She produces a thin red box and stretches across the table to give it to him. Kyoya takes it coolly enough. This is harmless. Actually, now that he thinks about it, should he be getting Kosuke gifts to further the message? Will he have to ask her to wear them in public as proof, since he's fairly sure she'd just toss them as soon as she made it home?
He opens the box and almost hums in amusement. Despite never meeting the girl, his mother has gotten a necklace of gemstones that are almost the exact shade of blue as Kosuke's eyes. This should be easy enough for her to wear, especially if he emphasizes it's not exactly from him. Whether he should call to tell her, or just wait until he sees her again, he…isn't…sure…
"Kyoya?" Jin asks, a bit alarmed. "Kyoya, what's wrong? Is there a gemstone missing?"
Kyoya hadn't meant to let his brows furrow, but he had reason. "Mother, her name isn't Kinuye."
In seconds flat, Fuyumi has stretched over to him to look. Even she can't stop herself from snaking her neck back in alarm. Jin blinks for a minute, all too aware that her other sons are borderline boggling at her, and exclaims, "Yes it is!"
Kyoya doesn't know how to argue without being disrespectful. "No, it is not."
"Her name is Kosuke," Fuyumi exclaims. She rips the box from Kyoya's hands to look closer, as if the letters will somehow morph into the correct form.
Jin's mouth opens and closes several times. Kyoya hesitates for what to say next. He does not want to embarrass or ridicule his mother—she is much like Fuyumi in that he has a certain soft spot for her, but with the addition that she is his mother. It does not matter if he's a grown man now, he will not disrespect her. Yet, shouldn't she know his fiancée's name? Her future daughter-in-law's name?
You still don't know what happened. If it was enough for this to slip her mind, it could very well be very bad…
Kyoya gently takes the box back, closes it, and extends it back to his mother. Jin takes it back, eyes boggling. "It's only a necklace, Mother. It's nothing to worry about."
"Right…Nothing to worry about." Jin clears her throat and tucks the box away…only to pull out another one, with a brighter smile. "Well, at least you can still give her this!"
Something keeps Kyoya from getting his hopes up. A glance to Fuyumi tells him she's just as wary. The square black box is smaller, but when he opens it, the bracelet inside looks no less expensive. Diamond and sapphires loop around on a silver chain, coming together to a small pendent engraved with initials.
They're just…not Kosuke's.
"Mother."
Jin is once again looking ponderously into her water. She is very obviously debating if she should call for some more. She perks when she's called, though, and responds, "Yes?"
"What do you think Kosuke's initials are?"
"Excuse me?"
"Her initials." Kyoya raises his eyes up to her from the bracelet, only giving one slow blink. "What do you think her initials are."
"Oh, honestly." Jin glowers at him. Again, the drunkenness dulls the effect. "Granted, I shouldn't have forgotten her first name so easily, but please don't let that make you believe I'm incapable of remembering her last! I am going to keep track of the family name that will be joining with hours!"
"Of course, Mother, I meant no offense. Obviously you know that Kosuke's last name is…?"
"Uchida. Her name is Kosuke Uchida. You have made your point." Finally her glower gets some of its heat back. It's just this one specific situation that keeps Kyoya from feeling any of it. "I don't appreciate your attitude, Kyoya."
She waits for an apology and does not get one. She looks at each of her children in turn. Akito is staring at her. Yuuichi is staring into his empty wine glass. Fuyumi is staring at Kyoya. Kyoya is staring at nothing at all.
"Her name is Kosuke Amida."
Jin's head snakes back so far it's a wonder that it doesn't fall off her shoulders. "What?!"
"Kosuke Amida. The only daughter of Shigeo Amida. The Shigeo Amida that owns Amida Health, the medial technology company we are partnering with after DomenMed's leave that Kosuke will one day inherit."
His mother's face is thoroughly twisted. Appalled at him, at what he's saying. She's still looking at all of them, her eyes going back and forth like a tennis ball in a match, like she's waiting for them to announce that it's all just a silly joke. Unfortunately, no one is laughing. No one is so much as smiling. Finally all of her children are looking at her, and it is not to laugh and exclaim, "We're just kidding!"
Finally: "Shigeo Amida doesn't have a daughter!"
Kyoya snaps the bracelet box shut because it's the only physical action his body will currently let him do.
For so long—days and days now—he had been so frustrated with the fact that his fiancée knew nothing about her own birthright. He, who had poured blood, sweat, and tears into refusing the idea that he will never do anything for his family business, that he would do everything for it, being engaged to a woman who he questioned knew the meaning of the word "conglomerate." It was so utterly embarrassing to him. A point-blank confirmation that he was the last ditch effort that his father just threw at the wall to see if it would stick.
The fact that his mother doesn't even know his fiancée's name is so much more embarrassing and appalling that for a long minute, Kyoya doesn't feel anything at all. It's so much that it numbs him.
He doesn't really mean to speak, but his mouth moves to ask, "What family with the name 'Uchida' did you think she was a part of?"
Jin does not answer. She stares into her tepid lobster bisque as if she'll just disappear from the room.
This cannot be happening.
Please, God, I am begging you, let this not be happening.
First he starts losing his mind, thinking that walking out of the first dinner with his fiancée after giving her the silent treatment is acceptable. Now his mother has lost every last part of her composure to become a drunk who didn't even know the name of the woman her son was marrying. Is Yoshio going to start ruffling his hair every time they meet? Will Fuyumi start giving him the cold shoulder?
Now, Kyoya is done with giving the benefit of the doubt. Something is wrong. He can tell on his siblings' faces that they know something is wrong. Jin is just as much of an Ootori as the rest of them. An extended vacation with no communication is one thing, but it there is no fathomable reason why she wouldn't come running home once she heard her family's empire was crumbling, why she didn't even know who her future daughter-in-law was.
So Kyoya slides the box back across the table and sits up straight. His brothers similarly brace themselves. Fuyumi pulls herself back into her seat, chewing her lip.
"I think," Kyoya says, very slowly, "that there are some things that we need to discuss."
"I second that," says Yuuichi. He raises his chin. "I think I speak for all of us when I say that something is clearly wrong and we need to know what."
Jin slowly—not steadily, but slowly—stands to her feet. She rolls her shoulders back, and straightens her mink shawl. She sniffs. She's trying to be herself.
"I understand and I appreciate the fact that you are all concerned." She clicks her tongue. "I have been away for quite some time. I have not been communicating to you all properly. I had every intent and purpose of discussing all of this. However, I was hoping that…"
She pauses, and closes her eyes. Not quite burping, but Kyoya doesn't think she's pausing, either.
"I was hoping that we could first have a calm dinner first. You may have been trying to act otherwise, but it doesn't take a genius to tell that none of you were very keen on this from the moment I walked through the door."
To Kyoya's surprise—and from the look of it, Yuuichi's and Akito's—it is Fuyumi who blurts out, "You came here drunk."
"Again: I am not drunk. Stop insinuating as much." Holding her head a little higher, Jin continues, "I am sorry if I have behaved in such a way that upset you, but I am not going to sit here and be scolded. Now, if we could just…"
Jin closes her eyes again, but this time, she presses her palm against the lacquered table top. Yuuichi reacts before Kyoya even understands what's happening. He's already turned in his chair.
"If we could just return to a…a pleasant…"
Both palms press against the tabletop. Jin swallows deeply. Fuyumi looks at her brothers helplessly, but Kyoya only frowns deeper.
"Yuuichi."
Yuuichi's jaw pulls tight. "Yes?"
"Please come here."
His footsteps seem deafening as he closes the distance between himself and his mother. Jin holds her chin high, as if it will change the fact that her first son towers over her by a foot. For one second, her only movement is the bobbing of her throat as she smiled.
Primly, she tells him, "I need you to hold something for me."
Yuuichi squints at her. "Alright?"
Jin nods…and falls.
So short isthe distance between her and Yuuichi that Kyoya at first thinks she's trying to hug him. But then he sees that her arms are limp, and her face looks uncomfortably mashed against Yuuichi's blazer. After a moment, Yuuichi's arms seem to be the only thing keeping her upright.
To his credit, Yuuichi at first only blinks a few times. Then, like water freezing to ice, his eyes go steelier and steelier realizing what's happening.
Fuyumi is breathless. "Is she…?"
For the first time in his entire life, Yuuichi says, "Yep."
Akito finally rushes over to help, but what is there to do? Kyoya follows close behind Fuyumi, feeling like nothing more than a spectator. Their mother isn't bleeding, she has no broken bones, she's had no drastic injuries for them to worry about. She's just so intoxicated that she'd passed out.
"What do we do? What do we do, what do we do?" Fuyumi oh-so-gently pulls her mother's face away from Yuuichi's front. Her blushed cheek has left the faintest pink mark on his blazer. Then, realizing that she doesn't exactly have anywhere else to put her mother's head, Fuyumi just as gently places it back. "Do we—We should lay her down on her side."
Akito's eyes seem likely to boggle out of his skull, especially when they turn to Fuyumi. "Why?!"
"In case she vomits," snaps Fuyumi. "You're the one that works in a hospital! You lay them on their side so they don't choke if they vomit."
Kyoya carefully unwinds his mother's mink shawl from her elbows. It isn't doing her any good anymore. "Let's work on actually lying her down first."
Though he is far from smiling about it, Yuuichi carefully lifts his mother up from beneath her knees and back. Akito watchsd them go through the doorways to make sure Jin doesn't get clipped, and Fuyumi keeps a hand on her mother's ear in case her head starts to loll. Kyoya walks ahead to the nearest guest bedroom to open the door and pull back the blankets on the bed.
"Easy, easy," Fuyumi whispers as Yuuichi gently lays her down. Looking more helpless than Kyoya has ever seen him, Akito goes to taking off his mother's heels from her feet.
As soon as his mother is safely on her side, Kyoya reaches down and pinches her earlobe as hard as he can. At once, Jin makes a muffled squawk and swats at his hand.
At the same time, Fuyumi swats his shoulder. "Why did you do that?!"
"To see if she'd respond." Kyoya doesn't mean to snap at his sister in such an 'Obviously!' tone of voice, but the sheer bizarreness of what's happening is building up too much. "We should probably call a doctor."
"Hold on," Yuuichi scoffs, pulling his phone from his pocket.
Fuyumi kneels down to Jin's side, asking, "Yuuichi, why don't you check her?"
"I'm calling a doctor," is all Yuuichi says coolly, but then he glares down at his sister as she grabs at his pant leg and gives it a sharp tug.
"Let Kyoya call the doctor while you check her. It's your mother, not some annoying paperwork to finish!"
Though he glares daggers at her, he does give the phone to Akito, who fumbles to carry on the explanation to the doctor on the other side of the line. Kyoya keeps prodding at his own mother like he's five years old and she's a weird new animal he's found in the grass. Thankfully, Jin keeps murmuring and squirming, at one point mumbling something that sounds close to, "Stop it, Yoshio…"
He steps out of the way as Yuuichi kneels down. He's more hands-on, pressing his palm to her forehead, lowering his head to her chest to check her heart rate and breathing. When he tries to open her eyelids, she swats at him hard enough to hear.
Yuuichi is tending to Jin, Fuyumi is waiting to do anything at a moment's notice, and Akito is confirming on the phone that the doctor is on his way. All the while, Kyoya is just standing off to the side. Dumbly, he checks his watch. It hasn't even been an hour.
What the hell is happening? He thinks, and even the voice of his own thoughts sounds tired.
As he lowers his hand, he realizes that he is worthless…again. Just standing aside and watching, not contributing to the family effort. It's such a stupid thought, not at all called for, but Kyoya feels awfully…'extra.' Not needed, not useful, just kind of there. The same way he feels whenever he's in an Ootori Medical meeting.
He gives Fuyumi a light touch on the shoulder, telling her, "I'm going to go tell the chefs to leave."
She just jerks her hand at him. Kyoya hesitates in the doorway: the image of all his siblings around his mother seems oddly picturesque. The exact opposite of what the Ootori family is supposed to look like. Despite his less than stellar feelings for the woman, Kyoya is thankful now more than ever that Kosuke did not come tonight.
The doctor's verdict has them all sighing in relief. Jin is certainly drunk, but he's seen people drink much, much more and stayed on their feet. So essentially, it was just a 'Jin' thing. She didn't seem to be in any danger of anything life-threatening. He instructs them to keep an eye on her, make sure she's on her side just in case she vomits to avoid choking—Fuyumi looks like she's about to smile before she remembers that now is not the time—and to call for help again if she gets worse.
In a way, it's almost like their mother has nothing more than a bad cold. Even now, watching her slumbering on the bed, Kyoya thinks she looks rather peaceful.
She is the only one who feels as such.
"Honestly, Yuuichi!" Fuyumi's voice sounds sharp, even muffled behind the door. "Could you stop acting so annoyed for five minutes? Are you not worried at all?"
"Worrying won't do her any good, will it?" Yuuichi drones back. "There's four of us here. Even if Akito left with me, you and Kyoya are more than capable of using a cellphone."
"It's going to take a minute for an ambulance to come if it needs to. It would be better if you were there to help until it arrived." There's a very brief pause. "Don't sigh at me, Yuuichi. Your mother is passed out and all you're thinking about is getting home to sign more papers. I know paperwork is your one true love, but she'll wait for you, I promise."
"Screaming at me isn't going to help, either. If you want a medic on hand, fine. Akito can handle it just fine. You know that. The only reason you want us all to be here is because we're family."
Fuyumi snaps something back at him, but Kyoya decides to just drown them out. On the other side of the bed, Akito sighs.
It's no use, Fuyumi, Kyoya wants to tell her. Yuuichi's made up his mind; there's no changing it now.
"Mother didn't call you either, did she?"
Akito almost startles him with the question. He isn't looking at Kyoya, just Jin. She snorts in her sleep.
Sighing, Kyoya replies, "No. I hadn't heard from her since she left."
"Not even when the news broke out?" Kyoya shakes his head. "I just can't think of a reason…"
He trails off, but Kyoya gets the point. He agrees. No matter where she was, there was no way his mother would hear so little that she wouldn't even know Kosuke's name.
True, I never talked about her over any voice messages, he thinks, but why would I ever think she'd need to be informed? She would have known I was engaged before I did.
Akito swallows. Kyoya hears it from the other side of the bed. "I couldn't shake the feeling that something was wrong. I asked, but she would never answer."
It occurs to him that this is the first "meaningful" conversation they'd had in a while. Between the meetings they'd attend together, or even just the text messages they sent one another, their communication had been solely work-related for long enough for this to be considered weird. Though their current situation isn't exactly "normal," either.
"Something is wrong," says Kyoya. "She just won't tell us."
Akito doesn't say anything. For the first time, Kyoya tries to guess what the problem is. Did it happen before or after she left? Was it something so stressful that it had her lengthening her relaxing getaway, or was it ever a getaway at all? Was it something that could hurt Ootori Medical? Had she done something that might embarrass all of them, and was that why she refused to speak of it?
Something is very wrong with his mother and Kyoya's topmost concern is how it's going to affect their company. He isn't proud of himself.
After what felt like hours of Fuyumi and Yuuichi hissing at each other behind the door, but what was more likely a few more minutes, Fuyumi returns. She looks outraged. It's a very odd expression for her, but it's a look that certainly reminds that she's as Ootori as the rest of them. From her curled lip, Kyoya wonders if she deliberated using one of her heels to bludgeon her brother's head in.
"Okay," she breathed in a tone that spoke to how not okay everything was, "It's just going to be us. Unless you want to leave too, Akito?"
To his credit, it seems that Akito was going to decline even before his sister shot daggers at him with her eyes. "No, I'll stay. I'll just…get caught up on work tomorrow."
Fuyumi looks a bit relieved. Not much, but a bit. "Alright. Well, we need to keep an eye on her through the night."
Kyoya stood back up to his feet with a sigh. He should have figured it would be a long night. "We'll take turns, then. Four hours for each of us. I'll take the first shift."
"No, you'll take the last shift." Fuyumi is already taking her chandelier earrings out. "I'll take the first shift."
"I usually stay up past midnight anyway."
"Which is why I want you to take the last shift." She prods his leg with the toe of her shoe. "Go on and get to bed. Akito will come get you at five."
It'll be hard to go to bed four hours earlier than normal, Kyoya thinks, but he digresses. Fuyumi take his place at Jin's side. He doubts that he's going to be able to go sleep at all.
He surprises himself. At five in the morning (or rather, 5:06 in the morning), he's waking up to Akito shaking his shoulder and murmuring, "Your turn." Kyoya crawls out of bed and tiptoes around in the dim early light to get dressed. He deliberates if he should even bother changing out of his pajamas, but in the end, he goes ahead and puts on slacks and a button-up.
Four hours go by in near silence. At the very least, he gets back the work time he'd thought he'd lost. He spends the early morning hours finishing up his latest workload, then the Project. Or maybe it's Projects, now. He's come up with a dozen different budgets at this point. Each one is a different escape route for them—if they're ever in the same position as they were with DomenMed again, then maybe they can use one of these to save themselves. Kyoya sincerely hopes that they will never, ever have to, but the experience has him wanting a plan just in case. Every few minutes he looks over to his mother. Every ten minutes, he gets up and makes sure she's still breathing and hasn't gone cold.
At 9:34, when he'd usually be in the very middle of his day, Jin starts to stir. Kyoya shuts his laptop at once and goes to her side. For a minute, she just stirs, a few short, sleepy sounds coming from her throat.
At last she opens her eyes—they're puffy from sleep, and her smoky eyeshadow is far past intentional at this point—and stares dazedly around the room. It takes a minute before she even sees Kyoya, and when she does, she slurs, "Yoshio?"
Kyoya isn't disturbed that she's confused. Last night she'd probably been more intoxicated than she'd been in her entire life. Kyoya is disturbed by the tone of her voice. She almost sounds angry, like she's warning him to say 'no.' Which he does.
"It's Kyoya," he says, and Jin's face contorts in confusion.
"Kyoya? What are you doing here?"
"I live here." Jin looks around the room once again, and Kyoya sighs. He's going to have to recap everything. "After you told Fuyumi that you were coming home, you came here to have dinner with her, Yuuichi, Akito, and me. You were very drunk and you passed out halfway through. You're in one of the guest bedrooms."
It doesn't seem like she hears him that much, but the more he speaks, the more Jin's eyes clear with understanding. When he finishes, she finally looks wide-awake.
The first thing she says is, again, "Kyoya."
"Yes, Mother."
"I need you to turn around." When Kyoya frowns, justifiably, she adds, "Just turn around."
Awkwardly, Kyoya obeys and turns his back to her. He's left staring at the door. "Can I ask why?"
There's a shuffle of fabric. Just judging by her muffled voice, she's stuffed her face into her pillow.
"Because I can't have you looking at me right now."
Kyoya sighs, and he isn't even sure if it's in relief. She finally sounds sober…er. More like herself, certainly. But with the million questions that last night gave him, he feels annoyed that she isn't immediately answering them all, even if her memories are shot.
"Mother," he says, "I don't think any less of you, I promise."
"You're lying. I can tell in your every syllable that you're lying." She groans. "I'm going to have to spend weeks in here. I won't look presentable enough to be in public—I won't even be able to look at myself in the mirror to brush my teeth, let alone do my make up."
"You drank a little too much alcohol and passed out. You haven't committed any crimes, and you haven't hurt anyone."
"Don't try to console me, Kyoya, let me be ashamed." She pauses—can she even breathe right now?—and asks, "Are the others still here?"
"No, it's just me, Fuyumi, and Akito now."
"Oh, that's nice. I'll only have to face seventy-five percent of my children in this disgusting state. Oh, strike me down..."
Kyoya sighs again. "I think your health is more important right now, Mother. Do you feel nauseous? Do you want some water?"
"I want to die."
"I can't help you with that, but I can get you some water."
"No. No, just…Turn around. Look at me, just don't see me."
"Alright." Kyoya actually thinks he can do that. He turns back around to look at his mother, and makes himself just see that. No puffy eyes or line of drool going down her chin, just his mother.
She sniffs, trying to straighten herself. She runs her hands through her hair, but there are too many flyaways to count. She also seems to remember that she's chopped her hair short, because for a moment she looks confused as to why her hair isn't winding between her fingers. But she composes herself, pursing her lips, rolling her shoulders back.
"I owe you an apology," she says. "All of you, but I'll do it one at a time so I can get through it better…I should not have allowed myself to become so intoxicated before I arrived. My behavior was wildly inappropriate and offensive."
At least she's apologizing, he tells himself. Still, he worries that last night wasn't just "last night." He prays that it was just an abnormal occurrence and not the finale of a weeks-long psychotic episode.
"You don't forgive me."
His jaw works side-to-side. "I forgive you, Mother, but I have some questions that I would like to be answered."
Her composure slips again. She blinks. "Questions?"
It's hard to keep his temper down. Is he talking to a brick wall? It's as if she's confused on purpose. If this was anyone but his own mother, Kyoya would probably be smashing his head against the wall right now. As-is, he takes a breath and speaks carefully.
"You went on a very long vacation and didn't talk to any of us for weeks. Even when DomenMed left and we were struggling to keep everything together, you didn't come back. Despite knowing that I'm engaged, you did not know my fiancée's name or the family she comes from. Then, when you finally return home, you're so drunk that you faint. Something is wrong…and I wish you would tell me what it is."
Again, the more he speaks, the more her eyes glaze over. Even though he doesn't want her to be offended, he thinks he'll be angry if she does. These are real, genuine, serious concerns that she shouldn't just dismiss because she's the Ootori matriarch who can say and do as she pleases. Were her closing words from the previous ending her, or the alcohol? To be faced with questions she needs to answer, and then to raise her nose and call them "disrespectful"…
Oh, hey. It's Kosuke all over again.
Thankfully, to his immense relief, Jin's eyes go down instead of narrowing at him. She picks at a tiny strand on the Egyption cotton sheets. She may not have had any reason to be sheepish in her life. She's Jin Ootori; 'sheepish' isn't in her dictionary.
Yet that's the only word for describing the look on her face. For just one moment—one moment, a mere second, no more—she looks as though she's about to cry, and sheer panic grips Kyoya. It's gone as quickly as it comes.
"I will," she says at last. Her tone is firm, as if more to herself than him. "I will. Bring your siblings in here first. You should all hear this."
Not quite excited, Kyoya does as he's told. Akito and Fuyumi have only just arrived to the dining room for breakfast. Akito quickly but calmly sets his coffee down. Fuyumi lets her spoon of oatmeal clatter to the table (still covered in dollar-store confetti, to Kyoya's slight annoyance) and they all return to the guest bedroom. Jin has pulled herself up to a sitting position, legs crossed primly over the side, and though she has her chin held high, her eyes are still downcast.
"Mother," Fuyumi sighs as soon as she steps in. "Are you okay? How do you feel?"
"Nothing a bottle of ibuprofen won't fix, love. Just come here."
Akito swallows, nervous. "Do you want some water? The chefs are making breakfast."
"No, no more dillydallying. I need to say this to you all now. One of you, call Yuuichi."
Fuyumi does, puffing up once again as she taps the digits into her phone. Yuuichi picks up quickly, but when Fuyumi says, "Mother's awake and she needs to talk to all of us," her next sentence is, "Mother said so, Yuuichi! Stop being so stubborn!"
Jin snaps her fingers once. She keeps the phone to her ear just long enough to say, "Yuuichi, listen and listen well," hits the 'speaker' button, and gives the phone back to Fuyumi. "Can you hear me?"
"Yes, Mother," Yuuichi sulks.
"Good. Now. Children." Jin folds her hands over her crossed knee. They will always and forever be referred to as 'children', even though the youngest of them all is twenty-one and the oldest thirty-two. "There is something that I need to tell you all that you should have known a long, long time ago. Though I admit that part of the blame for not telling you sooner falls to my own embarrassment, it was mostly the wish of your father that you not be told right away."
Her voice takes on a slight mocking tilt, but this isn't new. For the length of their parents' marriage—over thirty years now—they were no stranger to small, petty skirmishes. Jin poked at her husband's stubbornness and pride and in turn he often scoffed at her emotionality. It didn't mean they were any less happily married.
"However, seeing as how rightfully upset you are all now, I see it only fair to tell you now."
Yuuichi's electric voice cuts in, "If Father didn't want this discussed, then perhaps—"
"You're going to hear this, and now. If your father is upset with me for overriding his authority, then I will deal with that on my own. Now, listen."
Kyoya doesn't know what to think. Doing the exact opposite of what Yoshio Ootori wants is always a bad idea—borderline fatal. Each and every Ootori Medical employee who has dismissed his demands thinking that their own was better has been swiftly fired. The Ootori family are no strangers to this, either, especially the children. Growing up, speaking up when they were told to be quiet, staying up when they were told to go to bed, any and all kind of disobedience was quickly punished.
And of course, Kyoya, who was told time and time again, from the day he was born, to be mindful of everything he said, did, and took part in, was slapped across the face in front of all his peers when his father found out he was wasting time in a host club. "Maintain your image," he was told, and then he joined a club dedicated to flirting with girls.
Later, he was instructed to keep out of the affair with the Tonnere Group. He did not, and even today, years later, his father is enraged.
On the other hand, just because his father was the one to extend the family name, it does not mean that his wife is in any way, shape, or form expected to just submit to him. If Kyoya ever had a problem with the things his father said or did, he'd force himself not to. But even so, sometimes he thought (never saying a word) that his father sometimes forgot that his wife was his equal. He sometimes made decisions without her input, and her just concerns with such were dismissed as him "knowing better."
So he doesn't know whether he, like Yuuichi, should advise his mother not to go against his father's wishes, or if he should be like his other siblings, and accept that she is just as able to do as she pleases.
They stand there, waiting for Jin to speak. And they wait. And they wait.
Finally, after a good fifteen seconds of silence, Jin says, "Maybe I should do this one-by-one after all, I can't stand all of you seeing me like this—"
All four of them say together: "Mother."
"Yes, yes, of course. Just…Turn around."
Kyoya has to do it first so Fuyumi and Akito can see what she means. Both of his older siblings—and perhaps Yuuichi, too, even hearing this through the phone—sigh as they turn their backs to her.
Concern starts to build again. Kyoya tells himself not to worry about the company, or even the rest of them, and to just worry about his mother and what's happening to her, but it's hard. He remembers the panic and fear when DomenMed left, and if something of a similar caliber is coming, he doesn't know what he'll do.
Jin says, slowly, carefully, enunciating her every syllable with clear precision:
"Your father and I are divorcing."
Kyoya had a million questions.
Now he has ten million.