Kyoya savored the relative silence. The bustle of the commoner crowd was peaceful when he compared it with the daily insanity he was forced to suffer at the hands of the Host Club. This visit to the Asakura shrine was a prime example. He could have opted out of it, but Tamaki would have whined. A delusional Tamaki in father-mode at a festival fawning over Haruhi was far easier to tolerate than a whining Tamaki in his bedroom at home. Such was just a simple fact of life.
Besides, Tamaki and Hikaru’s little conversation had been truly worth coming out for. It was about time that someone managed to make Tamaki think about his real feelings for Haruhi. He rubbed his forehead in exhaustion; lord knew he’d tried more than once. He looked around, his eyes picking out the various members of the club. Honey and Mori were in front of a food vendor, unsurprisingly. Hikaru and Kaoru were being harassed by Mei. Once Hikaru finally gave up on Haruhi, Kyoya had a strong feeling that something would blossom between those two. He knew that they’d all probably gotten their gifts for Haruhi already, as had he. The only one still running around looking for something was most likely Tamaki.
It was why he participated in these little games, if he were honest with himself. There was something vaguely endearing about the blond when he was running around like a fool – which was most of the time. It was odd, however, that Kyoya didn’t see him now, though. Come to think of it, he thought as he scanned the crowd, spinning slowly on the spot, he hadn’t seen Haruhi in a bit either. In fact, the last time he’d seen either of them, they were heading in the same general direction. So it was finally happening. He was searching for a bench to watch the others his name being called caught his attention.
“Kyoya!” Tamaki’s voice was urgent. “Haruhi is missing!” Kyoya turned to face his friend, prepared, as always, to diffuse Milord’s panic.
“Missing?” he repeated calmly. “Did she run away from you?” He knew he’d hit a bull’s-eye when a blush suffused Tamaki’s face.
“We were talking,” he panted, out of breath from his mad dash. “And then she just stood up and shouted at me! She said she was going to find a bathroom and then she just vanished!”
“Let me guess – you made another idiotic comment about being her father and she finally let you have it?” Kyoya smirked.
“For once, just listen to me,” Tamaki pled desperately. “Whatever I did or said to upset her isn’t important. She was there, not two yards in front of me and then she was just gone. She even dropped her ring,” he whispered, opening his palm to reveal an ootoro shaped ring.
“No wonder she ran from you if this is what you offer her as tribute,” Kyoya scoffed. His own gift was tucked safely away in his pocket, which he patted softly in reassurance.
“Kyoya, please,” Tamaki begged. “Help me find her.” Their eyes met, violet and steel clashing, and in those depths, Kyoya saw something that made his blood run cold: fear. It hit him then that Haruhi was really missing. Without a word, he pulled out his mobile and dialed a three; Haruhi’s cell. Instead of a ring, he got voicemail immediately.
“If Haruhi isn’t answering, Milord, it’s probably your fault,” the Hitachiin twins said in perfect unison. The poor girl probably didn’t even realize that they’d recorded that. He sighed and ended the call. As he pushed the number one and waited for the ever-ready Tachibana to answer, Haruhi’s husky feminine voice whispered over his memory: you’re more like him than you think. Even as Kyoya barked orders into the phone, fear making him more brusque than usual, he wondered, not for the first time, if this were true. Was he, kami forbid, as clueless about his own feelings as the vapid blond at his side? When he hung up the phone, he reached out and gripped Tamaki’s shoulder in comfort.
“We’ll find her, mon ami,” he swore. “I promise that we will find Haruhi, and I will destroy whoever is behind this.” Tamaki’s eyes widened at the menace in his voice, but he merely nodded in response. Hikaru, Kaoru, Takashi, Mitsukuni and Mai arrived as Tachibana and his men appeared, providing a welcome distraction.
And he was mentally calling himself ten kinds of a fool. Oh, not on the level that Tamaki was – even in his currently pathetic state, he wasn’t nearly that moronic. Kyoya had never suffered fools lightly, and to discover that the fool in this situation was himself was – revolting. Whatever he did or did not feel about Haruhi was irrelevant at the moment, he acknowledged silently. She was in love with Tamaki and it appeared that he’d finally realized he felt the same way about her. Any chance he might have thought he’d glimpsed in her eyes in the past was surely lost to him now. And even that didn’t really matter. All that mattered was if they didn’t find Haruhi soon, there was a very good chance that his best friend might lose whatever shreds of sanity he possessed. He would be far better off focusing on who might be behind this kidnapping.
While it was entirely possible that someone unconnected to the Host Club had kidnapped Haruhi, he had a strong suspicion that it was one of two people. Despite what he’d said to his best friend, if it were one of them, he didn’t even know where to begin getting revenge; but if it was the other…there was no place in Japan that he could hide. He brought his attention back to the group, where the Hitachiin twins were shouting at Tamaki for making Haruhi run away from him, leading to her kidnapping, Honey was crying and Mori was standing silently into the distance, a faint tightness around his eyes betraying his concern.
Kyoya turned to Tachibana, and started to give out directions. He directed Tamaki to show the ‘police’ where he found the ring, Tachibana to the bathrooms to search for signs of Haruhi (on the off-chance that she was actually there) and Mitsukuni and Takashi to search the perimeter of the temple. The twins were shouting for something to do, and Kyoya was on the verge of telling them that they could shut the hell up if they were so desperate to do something.
In the confusion, no one noticed the black car gliding silently to the entrance of the temple. Nor did they notice Haruhi slipping out of the car and walking towards them, as though coming from the bathroom, ducking behind the ever-vigilant eyes of Tachibana. No one, that is, save Takashi.
He was a fool, he acknowledged. When Haruhi appeared behind them, he’d been overcome with an irrational urge to sweep her into his arms and make sure she was real. But Kyoya was first and foremost an Ootori, and Ootoris did not display relief so visibly. And they certainly didn’t show jealousy. But Kyoya found himself battling just such an emotion as Tamaki wrapped her into an inexpressibly tender embrace.
Haruhi barely had a chance to school her face into ignorance before she felt herself folded into familiar arms. She’d known, from the moment she’d seen her assailant’s face, who was behind her kidnapping. She couldn’t fathom the reason, but she’d certainly been less panicked knowing who had given the order. It was only when the reason was revealed, seated across from the powerful figure in the back of the black imported limousine, that she’d felt the panic and fear grip her so hard she’d swear her heart had stopped. No matter how much it hurt, she would do what had been asked of her. She wouldn’t ruin his future – not when it was within her power to make all his dreams come true.
She allowed herself to savor Tamaki’s warmth for just a moment before pushing him away. Eyes the color of steel watched her carefully, coldly, and she could only imagine how much he was adding to her debt for the cost of deploying the Ootori secret police on her behalf.
“Senpai, what is going on?” she demanded. “I told you I was just going to find a bathroom!” She looked up and caught Tachibana giving Kyoya a nearly imperceptible shake of his head. The gray eyes became a storm of epic proportions and she knew she was caught in her lie. Those eyes appraised her coolly and she shivered slightly. Luckily, everyone else seemed to buy the situation as another one of Tamaki’s overreactions. His stupidity was exclaimed over, sending him off to the side to sulk and cultivate mushrooms.
“I propose we end this outing,” Kyoya suggested.
“Yeah!” Kaoru shouted. “Let’s have a party at our house!” While the others gave their raucous agreement – even Tamaki left his corner of gloom, eyes alight with excitement – Haruhi desperately wondered how to get out of it.
“Haruhi, are you feeling well enough for a party?” Kyoya asked quietly. She shook her head, at once grateful and wary. “I thought as much. I’ll escort you home while the others go to the party.”
A general outcry arose at that, led mostly by Tamaki, but Kyoya, of course, managed to calm him immediately. “Am I not her mother?” he asked the blond, more to drive the Hikaru’s point home more than any real desire to claim her, she guessed. However, clinging to the remains of their ‘family’ was clearly more important than she’d realized.
“Of course!” Tamaki’s entire demeanor changed instantly. “Haruhi will be perfectly safe with Mother. Feel better, daughter!” he called as he led the others off. She fought off a feeling of abandonment.
Kyoya was silent until they were safely ensconced in his car. Tachibana slid into the driver’s seat and Kyoya slid the dividing window up, offering them a measure of privacy. She tensed, waiting for what she was sure was coming. She was not disappointed.
“You’ve got exactly one chance to tell me the absolute truth,” he threatened, pinning her with a cold glare. “Start talking.”
“I’ll tell you, Kyoya-senpai,” she answered dully, tearing her eyes away to stare out the window. “But first, tell me how much is left of my debt.”
“For the love of God, Haruhi, I’ll erase your damn debt if you’ll just tell me who Tachibana has to kill!” he burst out.
“What!” she exclaimed.
“How can I make it clearer?” he asked. “You were kidnapped today, and for whatever reason, you don’t want the others to know. That’s fine, since you seem to be unharmed – for which I am very grateful – however, the person responsible will still pay with their life!” His voice was warmer than she’d ever heard it, but the anger laced into it was more chilling than his most calculating tones.
“You can’t kill Tamaki-senpai’s grandmother!” she cried.
“Suoh-sama?” His eyes widened briefly and then narrowed in calculation. “How much did she offer you?”
“WHAT!” she repeated, louder this time.
“You asked about your debt – which, by the way, is currently at fifty-two million yen. She wants you out of his life, and she offered you money, no doubt. So, I’ll ask again, how much did she offer you? Is it enough to free you of the Host Club?” He wasn’t looking at her now and the numbness of the past hour receded in the face of her mounting fury.
“You rich bastard!” she shouted without the usual hint of affection in her favorite insult. “Not everyone can be bought!”
“What did she offer you, then?” he asked, looking at her as though she were an interesting speck of dirt on his perfectly polished shoes.
“His future,” she whispered sadly. “He’ll be heir, and he’ll be able to see his mother whenever he wants. All I have to do is break his heart.”
“How are you going to do that?” he scoffed. “You can’t even properly break Hikaru’s heart, and Tamaki is far more resilient than Hikaru – not to mention your feelings for him are far stronger.”
She was silent. As always, Kyoya knew too much, saw too much. As always, his information was impeccable. She silently fumed; the Shadow King, indeed.
After a few moments, he continued. “Obviously, telling Suoh-sama that you won’t do it out of the question, or you would have done it immediately.” He paused and she nodded stiffly, facing the window once more. “Why not just give Tamaki the option?”
“I couldn’t live with myself if he gave up his future for me,” she whispered. “His mother…” she couldn’t continue.
“You think it likely?” he asked scathingly. She shrugged. “I do.”
Haruhi turned to look at him, her eyes impossibly large. “Tamaki is hopelessly infatuated with you, and it would be just like him to stupidly choose you for the here and now. You have dreams, and whatever feelings you might have for him, one day in the not too distant future, you will leave him to pursue those dreams. Despite your best efforts, eventually Tamaki will be left alone, and having forsaken his family for you, he will have nothing to fall back on.” He pushed up his glasses. “I won’t let that happen.”
“You really are a cold bastard. I doubt you even have a heart – or if you do, it’s encased in ice.” Her voice was shaky, but there was no mistaking the venom in her tone.
“You’re absolutely right – and fortunately, that ice is too thick for your somewhat dubious charms to melt. I have no desire to be so foolhardy as to sacrifice my future for something so trivial as love,” he answered coolly, and she wondered if she imagined the flash of something that almost resembled pain in his eyes as he spoke.
“As fascinating as this has been,” she retorted, keeping her tone even, “I’m afraid I’m far too busy at the moment to humor you any longer with the details of my personal life.”
“Ah, yes…” he muttered. “And now we come to the point, do we not? You need a solution to your little problem – and despite what you might say about it being your personal life, might I remind you that you still owe a substantial debt to the Host Club, and until it is paid off, your personal life is my business when it affects the profits of the club?”
She looked at him in something that closely resembled hatred. He held up a hand to silence whatever angry retort she might have made and continued to speak. “Has it occurred to you that if you were to give Hikaru a favorable answer to his feelings, Tamaki would be forced to concede defeat?”
“I will not use Hikaru that way! Unlike you, I actually care about my friends’ feelings!” she declared hotly.
“Mori-senpai is very fond of you,” he offered as the car glided to a stop outside her building.
“No.”
“What about me?” he threw out.
“You?” she asked, incredulous. “What possible merit would you gain from it?”
“Other than the obvious,” he stated, with a pointed glance down her figure, “there is the fact that my father has expressed his admiration of you on several occasions. He would probably name me heir.”
She stared at him in amazement.
“What do you say, Haruhi? What about me? I have no heart to break, as you’ve already pointed out.” His voice was smooth, silky as he leaned down to whisper the offer in her ear. She pulled away.
“You’d gain your inheritance and so would Tamaki-senpai,” she pointed out, “but what would I gain?”
“Besides the honor of doing the right thing, which I am sure means very little to a commoner like you, it would hardly be seemly for my fiancée to be indebted to the Host Club. Your debt would be purchased, by me, and you would be free to leave the club if you wished,” he said, slipping back into his business mode as if nothing had happened.
“F-Fiancée?” she stuttered.
“Of course,” he answered smoothly. “My father is hardly going to name me heir just because we are dating, nor is Tamaki likely to give up unless he knows all hope is gone – which means that you would not have fulfilled your end of your little bargain with Suoh-sama and he would not gain his inheritance – or his mother. No,” he continued amid her splutters, “it would have to be an engagement.”
“Engagement? Between us?” she repeated stupidly. “For how long?”
“I’ve always believed in a forever sort of marriage, myself, Haru-chan.” He chuckled at her outrage.
“I can see you need time to consider this offer,” he cut in. “You can give me your answer in the morning.” He lowered the window and his eyes met Tachibana’s in the mirror. “Please escort Fujioka-san upstairs.”
The older man nodded and got out of the car, walking around to the back to let Haruhi out. “I’ll be by in the morning for your answer,” Kyoya whispered as she exited the car, and to her mind, it sounded vaguely like a threat.
Kyoya watched as Tachibana led her upstairs, his eyes narrowed. The plan was cold, he knew, but she would agree. There was nothing she wouldn’t do for Tamaki; he recognized the symptoms because, after all, there was nothing he wouldn’t do for the boy, either. And Tamaki would find out the truth about their engagement, of course – if necessary, from Kyoya himself. Despite what he’d said to Haruhi, he believed his best friend had the right to choose his own future. And perhaps, if everything went according to plan – and when did it not, after all – their meddling relatives would be put securely in place by the time he was finished. He smirked and unknowingly repeated Haruhi’s earlier thought; Shadow King, indeed.
