argenteuvipera: Thanks for the review! No, Minami isn't being bullied. Her reason for being upset will be explained soon, though. Everything Amaya brags about is 100% true, it's just a running joke lol. As for the loan shark, stay tuned until the next chapter. I'm very happy that you hate Shigeo lol. As I was writing his evil monologue I was thinking Man this guy sucks. I know I keep saying that communication between Kyoya and Kosuke is going to be a huge factor in this story, but I really do promise that the matter is coming up soon. The two have A LOT to talk about.
emma: Thanks so much! And stay tuned for the next chapter, as the mystery around Emiko finally gets some time in the spotlight.
bored411: "If Shigeo Stops Kosuke from Cooking We Riot." Lol, thanks for the review!
Akari Wolf Princess: God it is so tempting to just straight up kill Shigeo ngl. And I'm happy that you're angry with Kosuke! This chapter and the upcoming ones are when we're finally getting into the "YOU HAVE TO COMMUNICATE" part of this story and Kosuke is going to get a huge reality check. Thanks!
Hi everyone! Sorry for the wait on this one. Been very busy and struggled to keep up with my writing schedule. Hope you enjoy!
The pages Kyoya's planner have become a gradient. Black, gray, white. A little less with every page. Not for neglect, but what's the point when he can't even predict the next ten minutes?
The school break takes away his last bit of rhythm. Now he is free to his father's beck and call. He's starting to keep track of his records, not to be vindictive, but because he can't not notice them. Fifty-two hours is the longest he's gone without a full meal. Forty-one hours is the longest he's gone without sleep.
Play music just quiet enough not to disturb, just loud enough to keep him awake. Have coins permanently in his pocket so that he can stop for no more than twenty seconds at a free vending machine. If he is to be his father's son, then he won't even break a sweat.
Kyoya knows he's being worried about. He can feel the eyes on his neck when he leaves a room. Two weeks pass without an impromptu meal with Fuyumi, and she snaps, marching to Ootori Medical and politely demanding she be joined in the cafeteria. As Kyoya sits across from her, teeth gritting when they go far past his typical ten minutes of lunch, she finally sighs, "Is this really still going? What's the point anymore?"
Kyoya had had the same thought, in a moment of weakness. It's been months. It looks permanent. Or worse, his father has forgotten that this was a punishment to begin with.
That thought comes and goes. Kyoya is proud of himself. Sometimes he passes employees deflating as they sit down, or clenching their jaws to keep a yawn in, all while following completely predictable schedules. He is going above and beyond them.
Which is not to say that Kyoya is not in want of some things. He has had little to no communication with any of his friends as of late—far too busy to send them a text message, let alone meet in the city for a day out. He can't even remember the last time he talked to Haruhi.
He tries with Kosuke the most, because time with her is what he wants the most. When he's at his weakest, he wonders if he would prefer a soft bed or a talk with her, and the answer is always the second.
The want worsens when he catches word of Minami. Kosuke texted all the details to him, and he could tell from the way she wrote, the continuous promises of she's never done something like this and it won't happen again that she is worrying herself sick. As she is wont to do.
It certainly isn't good, and yes, Ouran students are held to high expectations regardless of age. It just isn't the mountain she's probably making it out to be. The emperors and empresses they know just do not have enough time to care about what silly thing so-and-so's baby sister did at school.
Kosuke doesn't know that, though. Even now, almost a year into this, she's still convinced that the slightest thing will turn society against them. Now, to be fair, her poor dancing skills proved that somewhat true, but because it involves one of her siblings that she would live and die for, Kyoya can only imagine how inconsolable she is right now.
She'd even missed out on the Rising Chef competition she and her culinary friends have been raving about for weeks, the one Kyoya would have gone to if only he could have. The Hosts, the students, everyone but the person who wanted to be there the most had been there—and of course, that makes the worry multiply tenfold. No one seemed to have cared that the team made second place, just that Kosuke hadn't seen the silver trophy. Kyoya could probably set up a voicemail for all the fretting calls he'd gotten.
Tamaki reports that she's doing well. He, the Zukas, the Hitachiins, and a few of the other culinary students (read: not Amaya) had thrown a little watch party just for Kosuke, and she'd been just as enthralled as if she were really there. It just isn't enough. Kyoya hasn't seen that she's okay.
This is why, when Yoshio sends him home at the remarkably early time of five o'clock, Kyoya considers doing something. Soft bed, or Kosuke.
Kosuke. Except, he could just be called right back. Go and risk further annoying his father, don't go and risk neglecting his fiancée.
Kyoya goes home, and doesn't doesn't spend that much time fretting over it anyway. He falls asleep so fast, he wakes up with his shoes still on his feet.
Seven o'clock in the morning. Thirteen hours of sleep: another record.
Kyoya goes through his morning routine with a stiff back and aching legs. Fourteen hours. Fifteen hours. Kyoya takes out the Project in the meantime. It's the only thing he allows himself to do in-between summons.
A little past 9:30, his phone vibrates, and Kyoya stands as he answers. Except it's not Yoshio, but Kosuke.
He hesitates. It seems ridiculous. Fifteen and half hours already, he thinks to himself. Why are the next three minutes any different?
He pulls the message up. It simply says:
Hello is thsi Kyoya
A troubling start.
He responds, Yes. He considers ending it with a question mark.
Hi r u doing anyting today
And more trouble. R? U? She almost never misspells, either.
I don't know yet, but I would say probably. Is something wrong?
This response takes a bit longer.
No no thing is wrong do u want to do sumthing today
I doubt I'll be able to. What did you have in mind?
Do u want 2 go to th
Do u want 2 goto
Do u want 2 go to the ac
Do u want 2 go to the ak
Kyoya hits the call button, but he's hung up on immediately. Then he gets another message:
I cant talk out loud I dont wan Kosuk e to hear
To which Kyoya replies, obviously, Who is this?
Hitsuij
Hitsuji
Well, that answers one question and creates a hundred more. Kyoya's fingers hover over the buttons. How does one text a six-year-old…
Hi, Hitsuji. Why don't you want Kosuke to hear you?
She doesnt knwo I took the fone nd she allways fins me when I wisper so I cant talk out loud
Is there something happening today? Why do you want me to come over?
Kosuke is sick tody and she cant take us 2 th
Kosuke s sicktoday and she cant take us 2 the acq
Kosuke is sick tday and she cant take us 2 th fish plac
Kyoya starts typing out, Why don't you let Kosuke explain? It's the only sensible response he can come up with.
He only stops when he gets:
I ha
I hvet2
I hae 2g
I hav 2 go now cuse Koske is calli ng mee but if u wantto u can com ovv er I woud like tha t we cn goo 2 the aqwue
Kyoya considers his options.
If Hitsuji still has the phone, then calling Kosuke will be pointless. He could try reaching out to one of their friends, but he doesn't know how to translate Hitsuji's messages to them. It could be that nothing is wrong at all, just a child being a child, but Hitsuji has never once used his sister's phone to ask Kyoya to come over. Or to contact Kyoya, period.
Of course, Yoshio could still beckon him at any given moment.
Then again…Kosuke's house isn't that far off from Kyoya's usual route, and it's technically closer to Ootori Medical. If Yoshio did call him any time soon, he'd already be out of the house.
Kyoya leaves the husk of a mansion shortly after. Waiting for the poor chauffeur to bring the limousine around, he reminds himself he has to get his license soon.
For the few times Kyoya has visited the Amida mansion, he has always entered the same way. The attendee, Miyuri if he is not mistaken, will open the door for him, tell him where Kosuke is, and then bow and leave him be.
This time, however, Miyuri lets him in but asks him to follow her to the lounge. Kyoya sits alone, phone still silent in his pocket and suitcase at his feet, wondering at the change. Then he recalls, just a few moments before the door opens again, that Kosuke's father has elected to spend more time here. Kyoya had overheard his father talking to Mr. Amida over the phone in the elevator one day; he'd explained he simply felt he was spending far too long away, especially with everything to settle between Amida Health and Ootori Medical.
His future father-in-law enters the room folding a pair of reading glasses. He looks just as he did at the party, which makes Kyoya realize this is the first time he's been completely alone with his future father-in-law.
Kyoya bows to him, and Shigeo responds with a nod. "Kyoya. It's good to see you."
"It's good to see you, too, sir. I hope you have settled back into your home well."
"How has your work been?" He looks at Kyoya's suitcase. "Coming from or going to?"
"Coming from, sir. Work has been going very well."
"So what is it that brings you here?"
The edge takes him off guard. Am I not supposed to be here?
"I'm here to see Kosuke, if I may."
Shigeo gives a pursed-lip nod, as though that were the only answer. "I can only assume she invited you here."
There's something going on here and Kyoya isn't supposed to be a part of it.
He feels a need to protect Hitsuji, even if he does not know why, from the sharpness of Shigeo's voice. "No, sir. I only came to visit. It was not my intention to barge into your home without invitation. I truly apologize."
Shigeo considers this answer. With a look down at his wristwatch, he nods in a vague direction and says, "She's in her room. Miyuri will show you the way. Goodbye, Kyoya."
"Goodbye, sir."
Kyoya follows Shigeo out, but once Shigeo disappears to the door at the end of the hall, he waves Miyuri away. He follows the known path to Kosuke's bedroom door, eager for answers, praying for his phone to be quiet just a little while longer.
He knocks twice, and almost instantly, the door pulls open. Hitsuji does a little hop on his feet when he sees Kyoya, exclaiming, "You came!"
"What? Hitsuji, who's at the door?"
Hitsuji pulls the door open a little more. Kyoya steps into a cloud of minty air. It wafts from a diffuser puffing atop a bookshelf. Hitsuji picks up the little bottle beside it, and sloshes the oil inside. "It smells like candy, doesn't it?"
Kyoya nods, but his eyes are on Kosuke, lying in her bed with her head sandwiched between her pillows and an ice pack. A trickle of water runs down her forehead as she turns her head toward him.
"Kyoya?" She moves to sit up. "What are you d—Oh, oh, ohhhh no. No. No moving."
She doesn't make it more than a foot upwards before her face crumples like paper, and she falls right back down. Kyoya sets his suitcase down and goes to her side, but he can only watch as she grimaces through a pain pulsing through her skull. She presses the ice pack closer, begging it to work.
"What's going on?"
"Migraine. I've gotten them before, but it's been a while." When the pain seems to lessen to a throb, she cracks her eyes open. "What are you doing here? Shouldn't you be at work?"
"Hitsuji asked me to come here."
"Wha—When?"
Kyoya fishes his phone out from his pocket and shows her the slew of messages. She feels around the blankets of her own phone to squint through the light and confirm.
"Hitsuji! When did you use m—" She stops and sighs, either because it doesn't matter or because her rising voice is hammering into her cranium. "Why did you ask Kyoya to come over?"
Hitsuji looks up from being entranced by the peppermint oil. No doubt he has already been told, impossibly, that it will not actually taste like peppermint candy. "You said if we needed help we could call someone like Kyoya or Tamaki or Haruhi."
"What do we need help with?"
"You can't go to the aquarium with us because you have a headache so I thought Kyoya could help and take us instead." Hitsuji turns to Kyoya to explain, "That's what I was trying to say earlier, I forgot how to spell 'aquarium.'"
Kosuke sinks just a little further into the pillows. "Hitsuji, buddy, no. I told you to only do that if it's an emergency. If you're hurt or lost or something, not just because we can't go out."
"But he's already here."
"That doesn't make it okay. Come on, Hitsuji. You knew what I meant."
He sheepishly turns the bottle in his small hands. Kosuke reaches for a cooling cup of ginger tea on her nightstand. Kyoya takes the icepack while she sips at it.
"So what exactly is the problem here?"
"There isn't a problem." "Kosuke's too sick to—"
Kosuke gives Hitsuji a look. Back to the peppermint oil. "I was going to take Minami and Hitsuji to the aquarium today. We're just going to have to do that another day now. And if something like this happens again, we are not going to call our friends to ask them to take us to the aquarium instead. Isn't that right?"
Hitsuji sets the bottle back on the bookshelf. "That's right…"
"And we're not going to take my phone without my permission again. Isn't that right?"
Hitsuji watches the diffuser puff with droopy eyes. "That's right…"
Kosuke swaps the tea for the icepack, and as more water drips down her cheek, she winces apologetically up at Kyoya. "I'm sorry, Kyoya. Everything is fine. You didn't come here all the way from work, did you?"
"No, I—"
His phone rings.
Of course. Kyoya doesn't have to look at the caller ID to know that his pager is going off. Kosuke grimaces at the sound, and Kyoya's apology as he heads for the door is mistaken for a goodbye. "Bye. Hitsuji, tell Kyoya you're sorry and say goodbye."
"Sorry, Kyoya. Bye, Kyoya."
Kyoya would say something, but he knows he's just two rings away from missing the call. He darts into the hallway and answers. "Hello?"
"Where are you right now?"
Kyoya thinks he only asks out of habit. The only answer that would make Yoshio hang up the phone is 'school.' So, because no other answer matters, Kyoya is honest. "I'm at the Amida mansion."
For once, Yoshio pauses on the other side of the line. "Why?"
"Kosuke asked for my assistance with something."
"Be specific."
Kyoya would swallow if the phone weren't so close to his throat. He's not late yet, he hasn't been summoned yet. What's worse, he thinks, a truth or a lie?
His three-second grace period comes and goes. "Kosuke's feeling rather ill today, and won't be able to take her siblings out on a trip that she had planned for them."
"So why are you there."
"She wanted to know if I could take her siblings for her." Not the truth, but he still feels like he has to protect Hitsuji. Why is that?
"And you said…?"
"I haven't said anything yet. I'll tell her that I won't be able to. I should be there shortly, the Amida estate is—"
"No." Yoshio pauses again. "Do that. And tell her I said I hope she feels better soon."
The get-well wish is clipped out in the most obligatory manner, but Kyoya is left reeling regardless. He comes far too close to questioning his father, even opening his lips. Thankfully, he answers with, "Yes, sir."
"Let me know when you're done."
Then Yoshio hangs up.
So, being so trapped in a giant snowball fight between college-age adults that he cannot come into the office is ridiculous. It truly is. But missing work to take two children to an aquarium is acceptable?
No, this makes sense. Maybe he's remembering what he ordered me to do before. Just because we're engaged doesn't mean that the Ootoris can afford to let their good graces with the Amidas slip.
Either way, Kyoya can't disobey his father.
There's just the smallest fraction of outright pleasure in following orders for once.
When Kyoya opens the door again, Kosuke blinks at him, then down at his feet. "Oh! You forgot your suitcase. You're going to need that."
"No." Kyoya tucks his phone into his pocket. "If you wish, I could take Hitsuji and Minami out."
The siblings exclaim "Really?" in a duet. One excited. The other, baffled.
"You—wh—" Kosuke blinks between Kyoya and her brother (doing a toe-tapping victory dance), and almost drops her icepack to the floor. "Kyoya, you really don't have to."
Hitsuji stops with a crushed, "What?!" Kyoya sets the suitcase down by the armchair and unbuttons the blazer of his suit as he says, "No, let me. There are worse places than the aquarium to spend a day."
To this, Hitsuji argues that the aquarium is in fact the best place in the world to spend a day, and as he does Kosuke keeps frowning. Usually, this would be Kosuke's not-letting-anyone-else-help self, but Kyoya understands the hesitation this time. The closest he's come to caring for the children was at the Halloween Festival, and not only was that with the help of the other Hosts, but it was also just Hitsuji. As in, the child that didn't loathe him, and the child that wasn't fresh out of being grounded.
"I…I guess, but only if you really want to…"
"I do."
"YAY!"
"Hitsuji!" Kyoya holds him a hand at him while Kosuke whimpers in agony. "Volume."
"Sorry. Yay."
The door opens again, and then pulls back a few inches when Minami lays her eyes on Kyoya. The bag of peppermints in her other hand crinkles. At the very least, she does not shrivel at the mere sight of him, but she's a deer in headlights. She has to rip her gaze away to explain to her sister, "I got more peppermints."
"Minami! Minami!" Hitsuji bounces up to her, a little rabbit. "Kyoya's going to take us to the aquarium!"
Minami's eyes snap to her sister. Explain. Now.
"If you still want to go to the aquarium, Kyoya can take you and Hitsuji."
Kyoya thinks Kosuke means to emphasize that want. Hitsuji just keeps bouncing and bouncing while Minami doesn't move a muscle, big brown eyes looking between her siblings and Kyoya in turn. Kyoya has never seen her have to compute so hard to come to a decision before. Even curiouser, her answer to do you want to go with Kyoya is not an instant, fiery NO.
Even curiouser, her answer is, "Okay."
"Y—!"Hitsuji slaps a hand over his mouth. "Yay…"
Kosuke blinks up at Kyoya, just as stunned as he is. They both shake it off as the children leave to get ready. Kyoya leaves his things with Kosuke, who asks him once last time if he is really okay with this. This time, when Kyoya confirms, there's doubt.
It's not that watching the children is going to be harder than any of the work Kyoya does at Ootori Medical. It's just that he has vast experience with one and none with the other.
The ride there goes fine enough. Minami sits silently on one side of Kyoya while Hitsuji jabbers on the other side, asking about what kind of fish they'll see and if turtles count as fish and if they're going to see goldfish like Kosuke's old pet, Bubbles.
It's when they enter the aquarium that Kyoya begins to…
Hm. Not worry. Worry implies fear. He can save his family's company from being overtaken by the Grand Tonnere Group, he can take care of two children. Apprehension.
The main hall of the aquarium is topped with a dome of green glass that casts the effect of rippling water down on the floor below. Hitsuj marvels at the emerald ripples falling over his body, but Minami keeps her head down the entire march to the front desk. Hitsuji takes his ticket with an enthusiastic thanks and Minami takes hers with a murmur.
I can't exactly make her enjoy this, Kyoya thinks as they dive in. A smooth voice welcomes them to the aquarium and tells them of all the amazing creatures they will be seeing today. Though, if we have an entire lifetime to share ahead of us...
The first exhibit is the Coral Reef, and it's a realm of rainbows. Inside each bright blue tank, among the blooms of coral, technicolor life is thriving, almost too much to take in. Over here, lionfish drift in red and white tangles. Over there, sea nettles pulse in orange clouds. A yellow moray eel lurks in the brush. Hitsuji cannot contain himself. He runs to the first tank he sees, so fast he almost crashes right into it.
"Look at that one, look at that one!" Hitsuji bounces on his heels as a fish striped and spotted swims in front of his face. "It looks like a cheetah. What's it called?"
Kyoya looks at the placard for him. "That's a sweetlips."
"'Sweetlips?'" Hitsuji snorts. Something pink peeks out from the coral, but no matter which way Hitsuji moves, he can't catch it. "Why won't that one come out?"
Then Hitsuji taps a fist against the glass, and Kyoya pulls it away. "Don't do that."
He points to a sign, one of many, reading PLEASE DO NOT TAP ON THE GLASS. Hitsuji frowns at it. "Why not?"
"It scares the fish." Hitsuji only frowns deeper. How to explain…"What if you were in your bedroom and a giant kept knocking on your window?"
Hitsuji thinks that over. "Okay."
Kyoya sees another small hand moving, and almost tells the same to Minami. But she's only hovering a finger in front of the glass, drawing shapes in the air as a curious little butterfly fish follows. Once she catches Kyoya watching her, she snatches her hand back.
Don't tell me she's going to actively refuse to enjoy herself?
She does. Hitsuji leads them through the rest of the hall, pointing out every last little creature he admires, sometimes the same one twice. He asks why he doesn't see these fish at the pet store, and Kyoya explains that a swordfish and a goldfish aren't exactly the same thing. Minami, meanwhile, only speaks when Hitsuji speaks to her, nothing more than uh-huh and no. She looks at her feet more than the creatures. When they exit the Coral Reef and enter the next, "Coldwater Creatures," she deflates at how much more there is to go.
Kyoya can't force her to have fun, but this is getting ridiculous, isn't it?
Throughout Coldwater Creatures, Hitsuji's exclamations of Look! climb higher and higher in pitch until he's squeaking. A giant octopus spreads its tentacles across the glass of one tank, and Hitsuji hover-traces its suckers with his finger. A seal floats straight up from the depths like a big blubbery balloon, almost sending Hitsuji into hysterics.
Hitsuji becomes Kyoya's personal tour guide, though his observations are limited to cool and whoa. The only tank he strays far away from is the spider crabs. He takes one look at their great, sprawling legs and makes Kyoya promise not to make him go look.
Ironically, Minami melts a little in Coldwater Creatures. The otters are asleep when they come, but she's content to watch them bobbing hand-in-hand in the water. She's even intrigued by the smaller things, the anemones and the sea stars. It's when a beluga whale hovers around to watch them that she finally lets out a whoa of her own. And then she ducks her head down to her chest.
A pair of sea turtles has Hitsuji squeaking looklooklooklooklook!—he's practically frothing at the mouth. Kyoya hovers a hand above him and just prays that he won't have to haul his unconscious little body out of here. "I see them."
"Sea turtles are my favorite fish! Wait, are they fish?"
"No, they're reptiles."
"They're still my favorite. What's your favorite fish?"
Kyoya just says the first thing that pops into his head. "Megalodon, I suppose."
The baffled look he gets almost makes Kyoya chuckle. "'Meh-guh-loh-don'?"
"It's a species of shark that's gone extinct. Do you know what that means?"
"None of 'em are alive anymore, right?"
"Right. They were the biggest sharks to ever exist."
"I thought whale sharks were the biggest?"
"Well, they're the biggest sharks that are still alive."
"Ohhh. Cool!" Hitsuji peels his eyes away from the turtles and the belugas to join Minami in front of a smaller tank, merely a cube. "What is it?" he asks.
Minami's frown deepens as she circles the tank. "I don't know. I don't see anything."
Kyoya takes a look for himself. "They're sea dragons. Look there."
He points them out, hiding amongst the flora. Even Hitsuji, who wants to look at the "big stuff" and not "the regular fish," is mesmerized watching them. Seldom does he try to read the little placards of information, but he asks Kyoya to narrate for him. Minami, however, steps back and stops seeing the tank. As though she'd rather think it was empty than have Kyoya point anything out to her.
Clearly I've done something unforgivable, but what?
Inside of Coolwater Keep is the Penguin Pool. This exhibit has the largest cluster of children around it, for a very good reason. Run along the tank, and a penguin will chase after you, racing you from one end to the other. The children run themselves red, huffing through their laughter, until one of their parents tells them to let someone else have a turn.
It takes almost ten minutes for Hitsuji to make his way to the front. Children and adults alike wave him forward, and he takes off. The penguin jets from one end of the tank to the other with him, stopping when Hitsuji stops, slowing when Hitsuji slows. Kyoya can't deny how endearing it is.
There was another aquarium, in Europe, that his family had gone to when he was younger. While Yoshio was in a meeting, Jin took her children out for the day, somehow snagging them behind-the-scenes passes to the largest aquarium in the country the same day. Kyoya can't quite remember when that was. Akito was young enough to chase the penguins with him, while Yuuichi was old enough to stand to the side and watch like an adult.
The children and adults try to wave Minami forward, but she shakes her head, even though she'd been watching her brother with green eyes. Kyoya asks, "Are you sure you don't want to?"
Her folded arms squeeze tighter. "No."
Another child takes her place instead. Even Hitsuji is baffled, flushed red as he pants, "Why didn't you do it? It's fun!"
"I don't want to."
"But it's fun. We can do it together!"
Minami's arms squeeze tighter and tighter until she's in a knot. Kyoya tells Hitsuji, "It's alright if she doesn't want to."
Hitsuji clearly disagrees, but that's that when the door of the exhibit swings open and a young man in a wetsuit comes in with a bucket of cold fish. The penguins swarm around the bucket, and the humans swarm around the glass.
The aquarist introduces himself as Shinya, and as he tosses up fish for the penguins to gobble down, he asks if anyone has any questions about penguins. Hands go up at once. Where are these penguins from? How many different penguin species are there? How long can penguins stay underwater?
The children stay, so Kyoya stays with them. Though, to be honest, he is enjoying this himself. When he catches movement from the corner of his eye, he thinks it's their move to go, and instead finds Minami squeezing her arms around her brother's waist so hard he's bending in half. Her short legs are shaking with effort, her face is turning red, but Hitsuji's sneakers aren't even a foot from the floor. He's holding a hand up in the air, but it's collapsing with his lungs.
"Minami." She only squeaks. "Minami, what are you doing?"
She releases her brother with a fwuah, her legs turned to jelly. Hitsuji rubs his twisted belly and grumbles, "I wanna ask a question…"
"What do you want to ask? I can ask for you."
"No, I wanna do it."
No other choice, then. Kyoya bends down until he can wrap his arms around Hitsuji's legs and balance him against his shoulder. Shinya sees Hitsuji pop up above the crowd, laughs, and says, "Hey, little buddy. You got a question?"
"Yeah! How long do penguins live for?"
"Good question! Penguins that live in captivity can live up to thirty years. Out in the wild, it's closer to twenty."
Hitsuji pats Kyoya's shoulder to let him know he's satisfied. Hitsuji's sneakers come back to the floor while Minami asks, staring down at her feet, "Can we keep going?"
Hitsuji affirms that it's okay. They carry on out of the Penguin Pool into a wide-open, rounded area simply called "The Cove." This area is all about hands-on learning—every surface is covered with fun facts. One section hosts a series of dark boxes for brave souls to stick their hands in and guess what it is their fingers have reached. There are two ring-shaped pools on either side, one homing horseshoe crabs and the other stingrays, and visitors glide their fingers across their backs. The tallest wall shows the depth of the ocean, with a tiny diver at the very top and dark shapes at the bottom. Press a button to the corresponding light, and a voice will tell you which creatures thrive at which depth.
Six-year-old Kyoya would have been beside himself here. Hitsuji bolts to the middle of the room, where two aquarists stand over a crowd of children sitting criss-crossed on the floor. One holds up treasures like coral chunks and conch shells, letting the children pass some around, while the other explains their origins. Also with them is a giant jellyfish mascot with a rosy smile and big, vacant eyes, whose presence just seems…unnecessary at best. The children try not to look into the soulless depths above his mouth.
Hitsuji plops himself down in the back of the group. Kyoya stands beside him, and Minami stands a little farther away, refusing to be with either of them.
Kyoya says, quiet so as not to interrupt, "If you want to do something else here, you can. Just stay where I can see you."
Minami gives him a quick look. "No."
"Do you want to sit down, then?"
"No."
Alright, Kyoya tells himself as the aquarists wrap up their talk on jellyfish and what to do if you're ever stung by one at the beach (with the jellyfish mascot sheepishly turning away). Option one: Pull her away to talk and leave Hitsuji alone. Option two: Confront her here and risk making a scene. Option three: Do nothing and let her stay miserable.
If this is just a fraction of what Kosuke endures on a daily basis, then Kyoya has not been giving her nearly enough credit.
He takes what he thinks is the safest option available, and whispers to her, "Minami, is something wrong?"
She responds with a sneer. Don't.
Kyoya is at a loss. He'd been offput by her attitude to him before, sure, but he'd marked it up to wariness of a stranger, multiplied by that stranger becoming a staple of her life, doubly multiplied by the rest of her life being tossed upside down.
This is pure dislike. She's angry at him. And no matter how many times he recalls every last interaction they have ever had, he cannot figure out what he did to deserve it.
Maybe I said something condescending once? He ponders. Or maybe she's upset that she never comes along with Kosuke and I when we go to events…
"Alright, everyone. Let's see if you guys know a thing or two about shark dentistry!" One of the aquarists reaches down into the box at her feet and pulls out a rectangular display of shark teeth, the smallest at one end increasing to the largest at the other. She points to one and asks, "Does anyone know which shark this belongs to? I'll give you a hint: it has stripes!"
A little girl raises her hand and chirps, "A tiger shark!"
"Right! Now, what about this one? Another hint: it's a very sour shark."
Another hand goes up. "A lemon shark?"
"Yep! Now…" The aquarist points to the largest of them all. "What about this one?"
All hands go up, so the aquarist has everyone count to three and say it together: "Great white shark!"
"You guys are on a roll! Yep, the biggest one here is from a great white! You wouldn't want this biting you, huh?" The children shake their heads and shiver. "Now, this may be the biggest tooth you see, but great whites aren't the biggest sharks. That title goes to whale sharks. And they can have thousands of teeth! But they're very, very small. That's because they're vestigial. Does anyone here know what that means?"
Only Hitsuji's hand goes in the air.
"Yes?"
"I thought megalodons were the biggest sharks?"
The aquarist's eyebrows go up, impressed. "Ooh, we've got an expert here! Has anyone here heard of a megalodon before?"
A few hands from the older children go up. The aquarist goes on to explain the mystery of the extinct megalodons, bigger than buses, with jaws big enough to stand in. Minami is the only one not enraptured. She keeps stewing to the side.
Kyoya even considers texting Kosuke for advice, but only for a second. I can pull off a fifteen-hour shift on two cans of coffee, I can deal with one grumpy child.
One of the aquarist bends to another box at their feet. "You know your stuff! Want to get something out of the Bio-Box?"
Hitsuji practically dances his way there. He takes a long time deliberating his prize, and when he picks it, Kyoya only sees that it's soft and purple. The session ends shortly after. The children say goodbye to the aquarists, and Hitsuji marches up to Kyoya and thrusts his trophy at him.
"Here!"
It's a bright purple octopus with shiny black eyes and little green spots. "Do you want me to hold onto it for you?"
"No, I want you to have it!"
"Oh? Why's that?"
"You were the one who told me about megalodons. This is to be fair. You like it?"
Kyoya is, admittedly, a bit flustered. He distinctly remembers the day he'd been dragged unconscious to the shopping center, and was in such a foul mood that he sent a little boy crying to his mother with one look. He does not have a sterling history with children.
But Hitsuji is looking so eagerly at him, Kyoya doesn't think he'd be able to say no even if they weren't soon-to-be family.
"It's very nice, Hitsuji. Thank you."
"Aren't you gonna wear it?"
"Wear it?"
Hitsuji shows him where the underside of the octopus goes inward.
Oh. It's a hat.
Kyoya looks at the hat, then Hitsuji, then the many adults walking past. The children are the only faces he recognizes, but if they weren't? Haruhi would probably cackle, the twins would snap pictures, and his father would probably slap him across the face again.
Alright. This, he really will do only because Hitsuji is soon-to-be family.
The humiliation is instant the second the tentacles come down around his neck and ears, but Hitsuji's delight…doesn't really make up for it at all, but Kyoya will cope.
When an aquarium worker exclaims that it looks great on him, Kyoya is (very) annoyed, but he understands it's just a joke. When the aquarium worker asks if he and Hitsuji want to take a picture, he is reluctant, but Hitsuji is so pleased, he agrees.
When the aquarium worker asks if they want to take the picture with Jumbo the Jellyfish, Kyoya is aggrieved, but Hitsuji is excited, so he lets the giant smiling mascot put a stinger-hand on his shoulder.
When the photo of Kyoya wearing a purple octopus on his head while he's side-hugged by a huge smiling jellyfish pops up on the giant television screen looking down at the entirety of the Discovery Cove, eliciting chuckles all around, Kyoya is wishing for death, but Hitsuji is delighted, so he just grits his teeth and deals with it.
When the worker asks if they want to purchase the photo, the only thing that has Kyoya allowing this to leave the walls of this building is the expectant smile on Hitsuji's face.
If this is a fraction of what Kosuke deals with on a daily basis, he doesn't give her nearly enough credit.
"What do you want to do next?" Kyoya asks Hitsuji while their photo is still on the screen for all the world to see. If he sees another worker with a camera, they're just going to have to walk in the other direction.
"Can we pet the crabs?" Hitsuji is already starting for one of the ring-shaped pools, but he stops short. "Where's Minami?"
Kyoya looks to where she was just standing, but of course she isn't there. Neither is she petting crabs or stingrays, or reaching her hands into the mystery boxes.
Kyoya doesn't see her at all.
Which is bad.
Very, very bad.
His immediate thought is, What would Kosuke do? But then, the answer would be, Losing her mind. Kyoya can practically hear her hyperventilating next to him, a belligerent mess, just as she was when they lost Hitsuji at the Halloween Festival.
The difference being that back then, Kyoya had told her she didn't have to worry, because it was a school function and surely none of these students would do Hitsuji any harm.
This is a huge public building in the middle of Tokyo, brimming with strangers.
Kyoya keeps his composure, but inside, panic is brewing. Again, put the "family" part aside. A child was left in his care and he's going to be responsible if anything happens to her.
When he looks down to tell Hitsuji he needs to follow him to a security guard—wondering if Kosuke would ever forgive him for this—he finds that Hitsuji is gone, too. That almost makes Kyoya finally lose it, but Hitsuji comes up just a second later, pointing behind him. "She's in the theater. Can we watch the movie?"
The theater is a room shaped like a half-moon, with seven rows of seats climbing to the back wall. The ten-minute short film, Wonders of the Sea, plays every fifteen minutes, with two left until the next showing. There are only a few people inside, and Minami is one of them, sitting on the back row with her back against the wall and her arms folded.
Of course, Kyoya is relieved when he finds her, but his patience has been worn thin. Hitsuji asks if he can sit in the front row, which works out perfectly. Kyoya lets him sit down and joins Minami at the back, keeping her within arm's reach with Hitsuji in his line of sight.
Minami naturally shuffles further away from him, and when she gives him another look, he gives her one of his own. That makes her arms squeeze tighter, but she stays still.
He waits until the theater goes dark and the screen goes blue with seawater to finally say something. A smooth voice begins to describe the ocean like poetry, and no one but Minami can hear Kyoya when he says, "Don't do that again."
Minami glowers up at him, so he reiterates, "I know you're not happy to be here, but you can't run off. Kosuke would tell you the same thing."
The film plunges beneath the surface of the sea and into the coral reef below. Sea turtles (Hitsuji perks up), clownfish, tangs, and all other sorts of colorful creatures glide among anemones, but Kyoya can't appreciate a second of it. Perhaps he should do this later, but then, when does "later" become "now?"
"I don't know what I did that upset you," he says to Minami. "But I would like to, so that I can apologize."
Minami unfolds her arms to grip the edge of the seat. She brings her shoulders up to her ears. It's almost funny—right as she does, a hermit crab on the screen ducks into its shell.
"Is it something that I said? Did I do something that hurt your feelings?"
Her tiny knuckles go white. "No."
"Could you tell me what, then?" She refuses. "I'm not asking because I'm angry, or because you're in trouble. I just want to help."
The film dives deeper, into the twilight zone. A squid pulses through the water. A hatchetfish glimmers even in the darkness. The narrator continues.
Just when Kyoya is about to throw his hands up, Minami mumbles, "You don't even like me."
Kyoya's brow sinks deeper. "What makes you think that?"
"You don't know me, so you can't like me, so we can't be friends, so don't say you want to help me."
"I want to get to know you. Is that what you're upset about? That we still don't know each other?"
"No!" Minami freezes. None of the other audience members turn to look at her, voice drowned by the music and narrator. "No."
"Then what?"
"You don't…You're not one of us."
"What do you mean?"
This time, her silence is one of frustration. The creatures on the screen change from the lovely to the uncanny. Skeletal bristlemouths and gaping pelican eels. Hitsuji fidgets on the front row as a toothy anglerfish beckons prey to its maw with its lantern.
"You—You weren't with us when we were in Karuizawa, when Mommy and Daddy died, and you're not like Airi and Sugimoto, either, so you're not—We aren't in a family together."
"So you feel like I'm a stranger?"
"You can't…You can't just make everything better! That's not fair!"
The theater goes dark as the film delves into the midnight zone. Then, a galaxy at the bottom of the ocean. Lights in bubbles, jets, and ribbons. A siphonophore, a neon spine, fills the screen and casts everyone in electric blue. They are all mesmerized.
"What's not fair?"
"It's not fair to—We—You—" Minami sputters, furious at her mouth that just can't get the words out. "It's not fair that you get to make everything better! You're—new. You're…!"
Her lip starts to quiver, and her big brown eyes start to fill, but it doesn't scare Kyoya. He knows it's the pain of catharsis, ripping off a bandage.
"Let me ask," he coaxes. "Does this have to do with Kosuke?"
Minami's head jerks, like it isn't sure whether to nod or shake. It's not a yes or no question and she's too young to comprehend that.
"Do you feel like everything has just happened too fast? You've gone through a lot, Minami. It makes sense to be overwhelmed."
"Overwhelmed?"
"Feeling like it's too much all at once."
She thinks that through. Kyoya can barely see her now. The creatures are becoming nothing more than huge question marks in murky water—a tentacle here, a fin there. The narrator explains that there are so, so many more things in the ocean that just haven't been discovered yet.
"I want Kosuke to have friends. Because she was really lonely. I like Haruhi and Tamaki and Grandma and Grandpa and all your friends at school, but they're not the same."
"As me?" She nods. "Why is that? Because I'm closer to Kosuke?"
"Because you…Because everyone else makes Kosuke happy, but it's only for a little bit. You don't…you…"
She wraps her arms again, but this time, it's to hug herself.
"It's not fair."
"Do you know why it's not fair?"
She sniffles, but somehow the dam does not break. Minami, even as young as she is, somehow manages to keep it together, and Kyoya can't be impressed by that. Because he knows that that must be from experience. Crying hurts and exhausts and once you're done crying, nothing is fixed.
"All you d—All you do is make her happy." She hiccups once, and takes a deep breath. "And all I do is make her sad. That's not fair."
Kyoya had been carefully schooling his expression throughout this conversation, to look attentive and not scornful, open without judgement. And he knows how to keep a straight face, but that almost makes his twist. "What makes you think that you make Kosuke sad?"
"I do. I always do. I ru—I ruined all the fun she was gonna have with her friends 'cause I got in trouble. When we do some—something fun, and something bad happens, I try not to whine or anyth—anything like that, but she still gets sad just because of me. She was never happy back home. She—She al—She always had to take care of us and clean the house and cook food and make sure we had money and birthday parties and—and—and she always said she wasn't tired or sad or anything but she was lying. We made her sad all the time but she wouldn't tell us 'cause she didn't want to hurt our feelings. But y—she met you, and…"
She can't go any further than that. It gets too messy. Kyoya knows how aggravating the messiness of feelings can be. Oh, Kyoya knows.
Minami has started to rub at the tears before they get the chance to fall. Of course, Kyoya does not touch her. He looks to the backs of the audience, wishing that he could make this private, that she wouldn't have to worry about being heard.
When the tears stop spilling over, he tells her with no uncertainty, "Minami, you do not make Kosuke sad. She just worries about you, because she loves you."
"She shouldn't worry. I'm okay…"
"If you told Kosuke that you're worried about her, she would tell you the exact same thing." She doesn't protest that. "You must have been worried when Kosuke was sick this morning. Are you angry at her because she made you sad?"
"No!"
"Neither is Kosuke angry at you just because she worries about you."
Minami sniffles still. Even if Kyoya was as good as explaining the heart as Kosuke or Haruhi, he still doubts he'd be able to do much good. This isn't a problem that can be fixed.
"Kosuke worries about you because she loves you. You worry about Kosuke because you love her. It doesn't feel good either way, I know, but you can't love someone without worrying about them."
She gives him the first glance since she began. "Do you worry about Kosuke?"
"Very often. I know what you mean. Kosuke has a tendency to—"
"Tendency?"
"She very often says that she is perfectly fine when she is not, and I can tell. That doesn't mean that Kosuke makes me sad, though. It just means I want to help her."
"But I don't need help!"
"I know, but that's not how worrying works. Kosuke says that she's perfectly fine, and you still worry. You say you're perfectly fine, and Kosuke worries. There's no fixing it. That's just how it works."
She sniffles again. "That's dumb."
"It is, very much so." She sniffles again. Or was that a laugh? "Do you want to know something that I found out when I got older?" She neither nods nor shakes, just waits. "Not everything has a solution. Sometimes, things just are what they are. But also, just so you know, I'll never make Kosuke nearly as happy as you and Hitsuji make her."
"You're just saying that to make me feel better."
"Not at all. When you were going on your…'Big Day,' was it? She wouldn't stop talking about it. She told me she tried to make her schedule so that she could come to your karate practice next semester. She told me the other day that you and Hitsuji made pancakes all by yourselves, and she was tap-dancing."
Another sniffle-laugh. The film is coming to an end, and Hitsuji is starting to get restless. For every glowing dream is a nightmare with teeth—Kyoya can see his fear of the ocean physically manifesting. Minami starts to pull the hem of her shirt straight in post-tear embarrassment.
"I'm sorry that you feel that way. Do you feel better now that you've talked about it?"
Minami jerks her head in a nod. A dragonfish, a long black shadow with fangs, slithers past the screen, and that's it for Hitsuji. He flees to the back of the theater to Minami and Kyoya and plops himself down between them, every inch of his body curled inwards.
When the movie's over, Hitsuji leads them back outside, eager to enter the next hall and bleach his eyes of everything he'd just seen. Kyoya has to put his octopus hat back on at Hitsuji's request, and doesn't care anymore. He does not "make everything better," not at all, but maybe he's come a little closer to making just a little tiny thing better.
As they enter the Rainforest Hall, Minami speaks quietly so that Hitsuji doesn't hear her, and Kyoya almost doesn't himself. "I'm sorry for being mean to you."
"It's okay," he promises. She doesn't look at him as she says it, because the sting of ripping off the bandage is too fresh. Kyoya hopes that she'll talk to Kosuke, so that Kosuke can do what he can't.
Inside the Rainforest Hall, birds sings and frogs croak. An arapaima resides in the biggest tank, the king of the castle, and Minami asks Kyoya if arapaima are related to megalodon.
Unsurprisingly, they spend the most time in the gift shop than anywhere else. Kosuke had given Hitsuji and Minami 4,000 yen apiece, and they walk out with a penguin plushie, a shark tooth in a display case, and a giant sweatshirt with a sea dragon stenciled across the chest. They eat a late lunch in a restaurant in the aquarium, burgers and chicken, and Hitsuji is relieved that nothing on the menu is fish because "that just seems…bad."
Hitsuji barrels through the door of the mansion when they return and zooms right up to Kosuke's room. Kyoya takes the opportunity to send his father a message that he's done. He obeys on autopilot. By the time Kyoya and Minami make it to Kosuke's room, she's already admiring her new penguin plushie. She's sitting up in bed, and though the room is still minty, the icepack is gone.
"That's so sweet, buddy. But I wanted you to get something for yourself, not me."
"I did!" He holds up his little shark tooth. "I wanted you to have something since you couldn't come."
"I shall cherish him forever. What else did you get?"
While Minami shows her the giant sweatshirt (pajamas), Hitsuji complains, "We tried to get Kyoya to get something, but he didn't want anything."
Kyoya leans against the doorway, arms crossed, and defends, "T-shirts that say 'You've Got to be Squidding Me' aren't my sense of fashion, sadly."
Kosuke blinks at him. And blinks at him again.
And smiles. And snorts.
And Kyoya realizes he's still wearing the hat.
"No, no, you look very handsome!" Kosuke chokes around her laughter as he plucks it off his head and tries to smooth out his hair. "The polka-dots really bring out the color of your eyes."
"Here!" Hitsuji shows her the glossy photo that he had come so very close to forgetting about as they were leaving. It's more than one. They come in different sizes. Some are for wallets. "Some of the people were talking about sharks and I told them about a big, extinct shark called a megalodon that Kyoya told me about and we got to take a picture with Jumbo the Jellyfish."
Kosuke is simply too happy as she beholds it, and Kyoya says in no uncertain terms, "This does not leave this room."
"Oh, come on!"
"No."
"You've got to be squidding me!"
"Kosuke."
"Fine. Can I at least have one on the shelf?"
"You have to turn it over whenever anyone else comes in here."
"Deal. Now, you guys tell me all about it."
Minami and Hitsuji try to take her there with their words, every last inch of the place. They get so excited they start talking like Kosuke has never even heard of fish before, but Kosuke keeps herself from laughing at them, and asks the questions the children want to be asked. Both are so engrossed they hardly look at anything, but a few times Minami looks to Kyoya for support, tell her how big the arapaima was and remember how small the sea dragons were? Kosuke almost boggles through her smile, and between her rambling siblings gives him a look to ask just what on earth changed here, but Kyoya just returns it with a look promising explanation later.
Kyoya had found the children endearing before, but that had made him nervous. Endearing isn't enough for family—especially not when they still haven't figured out if Hitsuji and Minami are going to live with them once they're married. Kyoya knows who Kyoya is, and thinks his interactions with the children were running on a generous tolerance.
All throughout the day, though, just the three of them, has been pleasant. He had actually enjoyed himself being around two children who couldn't keep up with half of his vocabulary. He knew that he only saw a snippet of the truth, though. One day he'd have to experience a tantrum, or an accident, and the children will do things that they must be scolded for because they are children. The idea is not so daunting anymore.
Hitsuji wants to show Kosuke what a dragonfish looks like, and goes on a search for some paper and a pen. As he scribbles away, Kosuke gives Kyoya a look of thanks.
Walking in the summer heat with his slacks and collared shirt must be catching up to him. Warmth spreads across Kyoya's neck, and he pulls the collar of his shirt for some relief. Just then, his phone vibrates in his pocket.
Good. Say your goodbyes and come over.
Thirteen hours of sleep, a meal, and good company. Kyoya should be recharged by now.
"I'm afraid I'll have to take my leave now," he says as Hitsuji takes his shark tooth from its box. "Take care of yourself."
"Guys, thank Kyoya for taking you out today."
The children chorus, "Thanks, Kyoya!" Hitsuj is too enraptured by the tooth to even look at him, but Minami says it with full eye contact and a wave. Kosuke is so gobsmacked, her lips fumble. "Tha-Thanks for taking them, Kyoya. I really appreciate it."
"Of course. They were good company."
"You take care of yourself, too."
The three siblings wave until he shuts the door behind him, and the hallway is cold. He still has the octopus hat in one hand, and though Kyoya certainly can't take it to his office with him, he knows he isn't going to throw it away.
Chapter Summary:
While Kyoya is home on a very rare break from work, he receives messages from Hitsuji asking if he can come over. It turns out that Kosuke has come down with a migraine and is unable to take the children to the aquarium as they'd planned. Kyoya (with his father's permission) takes the children instead. Hitsuji enjoys himself immensely, but Minami's dislike of Kyoya is a giant elephant in the room. Finally, Kyoya asks her outright what the problem is. With some coaxing, Minami confesses that she's upset that Kyoya makes Kosuke happy, while Minami just seems to worry her. Kyoya does his best to assure her that that's not the case and that Kosuke loves her very much - it's just that worrying is a part of loving someone. The two have finally buried the hatchet. At the end of the day, Kyoya is surprised at how pleasant the day turned out, and feels better about becoming an official part of Kosuke's family.