http://hostclubdaddy.livejournal.com/ (![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png)
hostclubdaddy.livejournal.com) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
shifted_logs2009-11-16 09:51 pm
hostclubdaddy.livejournal.com) wrote in shifted_logs2009-11-16 09:51 pm
(no subject)
Characters: Mom (![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
hostclubmommy) & Dad (hostclubdaddy)
Location: The Third Music Room
Time: after this
Summary: Mom and Dad need to have a talk due to Diva the home-wrecking whore.
Warnings: ummm....no? idk? I always fail at coming up with good warnings.
Tamaki sat in his spot in the window, and watched as the Hitachiin's car drove off. Everyone was on their way home and there were no convenient bags left behind which would probably result in someone coming back at an awkward time. That was good at least.
Still, for feeling ready to burst at the seams all day, he was finding it hard to figure out how to breach the topic.
Finally with a sigh, he got up and dropped down onto the sofa next to Kyouya.
"Is there anything you wanted to tell me about?" he asked, trying to seem as casual as possible, which probably wasn't very casual at all.
There was a hint of disappointment, and oddly enough hope in the question too. He'd at least give Kyouya one more chance to come out with it and tell him. Maybe he just hadn't found the right time. He probably didn't want to worry Haruhi and Kaoru. If he at least told him now then there wasn't anything to be angry or hurt about. He'd much prefer that.
Of course Kyouya had noticed Tamaki's behaviour the entire day. Of course he had not brought it up. Tamaki, Kyouya had learned, had to be allowed to blurt things out on his own time. This had never stopped Kyouya from choosing when Tamaki's 'own time' would be, but today he knew that they would both pick the same hour. Everyone was gone and would not be returning. It was best to take care of this now instead of waiting for Tamaki to come bounding over to his house to interrupt his studies.
What bothered Kyouya---because, certainly, very little else truly did---was that he had little idea what Tamaki might be upset about. This could easily be attributed to the Plane and was another reason Kyouya disliked the place. He had no idea how Tamaki wanted him to answer that question. So as Kyouya calmly closed his notebook, he said, "You want to talk to me about something."
The 'I have no idea what you're on about this time' was implicit.
Maybe Kyouya didn't understand the question. It was obvious from Kyouya's tone he had no idea what Tamaki was asking about. Still, the fact remained that Kyouya knew that Diva was a self proclaimed 'insane criminal' and even when given the opportunity, still didn't feel this was something important enough to share.
She was an insane criminal who murdered people, plural. He was still having a hard time comprehending that piece of knowledge. The fact that Kyouya knew was almost as difficult to swallow as the reality of what kind of person could do the things she had done. In a strange way it was a little more upsetting that Kyouya had kept something like this from him, especially remembering the way Diva revealed that part of the story to him.
I'm surprised Kyouya didn't mention anything, as close as you two seem to be.
"Is there anything you wanted to tell me about Diva?" he asked.
The hope was gone from the question this time. The tone now was accusatory and waiting for an answer, although the disappointment still lingered.
Kyouya had too much control to turn to Tamaki in surprise. He had calculated a number of possibilities of what Tamaki might want to talk to him about, but this has not been within his numbers. So he placed his notebook on the table in front of him and calmly settled his sight on Tamaki. He crossed his legs and met the accusation without flinching.
"Is there something you would like to tell Haruhi about Diva?"
He flinched at that, not even considering the prospect. Of course he would have to sit Haruhi down, and Kaoru, too. He didn't want them to be caught by surprise or hurt like he had felt upon hearing about Diva...and the fact that Kyouya knew.
"You always do that when you've done something wrong. Anyway, I just found out. You should have told me."
He crossed his arms and sat back, looking straight ahead instead of at Kyouya.
"She was surprised you didn't tell me, you know?"
He set his gaze on the opposite corner of the room where the piano was tucked away. Maybe after they were done fighting and made amends he could play for a little while before going home.
Kyouya allowed Tamaki his behaviour. In some ways, that was Kyouya's own level of immaturity. He would not respond to what Tamaki did, and by ignoring it, he devalued it. In other ways, it was Kyouya's maturity that allowed him to give Tamaki room to do whatever he wanted.
Most of all, it was Kyouya's common sense. Tamaki was never easy to manage.
"What does the surprise of strangers matter?" Diva was a threat and not much more than that. Aside from her threat, she was among the masses of people who did not matter very much at all. "What did you do when you found out?"
It would be troublesome to add that into his calculations.
He frowned, facing Kyouya once again.
"She seemed like a nice person, didn't she? I just didn't understand how she could do things like that and then she didn't even seem very sorry. I don't think she likes doing them, I don't think she could, but - she just seemed to think it was okay."
He sighed leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hand.
"I think she's very sick right now, she said that she's being starved and she might soon be blind. I wanted to know why or how she could do those things she did, but she looked so pale and tired, I couldn't right then. I felt sorry for her."
He sat up and leaned back against the sofa again.
"I wish you had told me."
Tamaki's weakness for sick women, Tamaki's weakness for French women, Tamaki's weakness for women. Tamaki's weaknesses would kill Kyouya by how much trouble they were. Kyouya watched his friend's movements impassively. He said, "She did not seem like a kind person. She seemed like the sort of person capable of holding two contradictory thoughts and feeling they could coexist happily." Almost brutally, he added, "She seemed like the sort of person who could kill her 'beloved' for an imagined betrayal without recognizing the wrongness of her actions except abstractly."
With years of training weighing on his words, Kyouya said, "Insanity is pitiable but redeemable, if not curable. Criminal insanity is simply dangerous. I did not want you or Haruhi confronting this person about her actions. You are both reckless people."
Kyouya had, in part, been buying time to find ways to protect them. The truth was nearly inevitable and Kyouya regretted the miscalculation that had allowed Tamaki to get it from the wrong person first.
He nearly asked Kyouya if that was a bit harsh, but he stopped himself, not sure what really could be too harsh under these circumstances. He stared, slightly dazed as he took in Kyouya's words. He looked away at the last part about Diva. He still couldn't quite comprehend any of this.
"I still don't understand it, though. How could someone do something like that to someone they love?"
He really couldn't even understand how you could hurt someone like that period, stranger or enemy even. He could understand the need to protect or defend, but willingly doing those kind of things over and over and over, and the whole idea made his head hurt.
"You should have more faith in me, in us. I would have told you. Anyway, if she told you so freely, what's to stop her from telling Haruhi, too? She told me, didn't she?"
Yes, and Kyouya hadn't expected her to. He had thought Diva would have had enough understanding of what Tamaki was to know it was better not to tell him. But if she did do it---because she was insane enough to think it inconsequential, because she wanted to test Tamaki, because she thought it was the right thing to do---Kyouya had something else to concern himself with.
(He had done research on opera singers, searching for any record of Diva. There were none. Diva did not exist in their world, which was almost unfortunate.)
"I wonder what a person like that might do to Haruhi if she took a stand against her the way Haruhi sometimes does? Do you really think we can stop Haruhi from doing something foolish in that place?" If only they had Mori and Honey. "Neither you nor Haruhi have experience with truly malicious people. The twins would say that it's your purity." He didn't need to look around at the music room, the ornate walls and the pushed-aside tea sets, to know that Tamaki didn't live in the same world as people like Diva. Money had nothing to do with it; Tamaki just had the power to create his own beautiful space in the middle of cruelty and suffering.
Yet even with that power, Suou Shizue was the same person. Tamaki could change some things, but a harsh reality was still a harsh reality. And this new reality had rules Kyouya hadn't even begun to understand. "I'll have to reconsider my strategy. Forbidding Haruhi from going near Diva is too suspicious, and there is no guarantee she will listen to me. Kaoru may be able to help us."
He blinked, surprised as the thought of any real harm coming to any of them hadn't occurred to Tamaki. It had in the vaguest of senses of course. Diva was a dangerous person, and being around a dangerous person could lead to very bad things. He still remembered Haruhi taking on those boys at the beach. She didn't see anything wrong with taking on three guys much bigger than she was, would she be even more brazen with one person?
Even then though, the truth was the truth. She would probably find out, and what if they weren't there with her when that happened?
"We should still tell her. It's better if she finds out from us."
Kyouya took an educated guess at Tamaki's thoughts and quietly suggested, "Those three boys were nothing compared to Diva. When Haruhi confronted them, we had my family staff, Mori-sempai, Honey-sempai, and both twins to take care of the problem. That isn't available to us in that place."
This was the undercurrent reality that haunted his choices for the Plane. Tamaki was right. Haruhi would find out eventually, and Kyouya wanted to control how. But her morals were strong, even with the influence Ouran and its society had had on her. The probability of Tamaki having one of his flashes of insight and completely understanding how to solve the problem was not something Kyouya liked to gamble on, particularly not now.
"She won't do that again. She said she wouldn't."
His words were definitive, but there was still some doubt there. Even now, Haruhi was still so intent on handling everything on her own. She had gotten better, but she still had that stubborn streak. It was both admirable and frustrating simultaneously.
Even as their conversation wandered though, the fact still remained that Kyouya had known all this and kept it entirely to himself. Much like Haruhi, he was also convinced he had to carry these burdens on his own. It wasn't a very healthy attitude for either of them to have.
"You shouldn't do things like this either, keeping this kind of thing to yourself. You should have told someone."
Ahh, that. He thought he'd dragged Tamaki sufficiently away from the idea to have it disappear. Of course, he stood by his position. He had woven his reasons into the conversation even as Tamaki stopped the accusations, so that Tamaki could have some understanding of the 'why.'
"Because a club is a family, and families do things together?"
Not Kyouya's family. Not Tamaki's family. Not the Hitachiin family either. Haruhi's mother was dead, and the Morinozuka and Haninozuka families split off into pairs. This was Tamaki's stupid ideal, but Kyouya could not disabuse him of it.
"Well maybe that, too; but that wasn't what I meant to say."
He let his hands rest on his knees, fingers bouncing against them with a mixture of restlessness and perhaps nervousness every few seconds. He could understand the logical arguments that Kyouya was making, but Tamaki's feelings regarding this entire episode went slightly beyond the logical ways of thinking.
"I just wish you let yourself depend on other people instead of always worrying about taking care of everyone else. That must have been a very scary thing to learn, and then not even being able to tell anyone else had to make it worse. Even if you don't trust Haruhi or myself with that information, I wish you told Kaoru or someone so you weren't carrying around all that worry by yourself."
Although, he hated to admit it to himself, but there was the slightest pang of possessiveness and maybe even jealousy at that thought. He did want Kyouya to be able to depend on other people, but knowing that Kyouya would choose to go to someone else first was not a very pleasant thought.
Kyouya watched Tamaki's nervous habits with all the idle interest of someone who had memorized them. Tamaki was an impossible thing, but Kyouya had a good guess of what he wanted from him. The question was not if Kyouya could give it - Kyouya could not sincerely promise to stop trying to protect the things he valued, nor could he sincerely promise to stop hiding half the information he had - but if Kyouya was willing to pretend to give it.
He adjusted his glasses and, with a sigh, bought himself more time. "It's true that she is beyond the usual level I deal with. I still interact with that type of person more than any of us do." The 'any of us' was a deliberate word choice over 'any of you.' "Kaoru has had interaction with criminal elements before, but that was on on a different level."
He knew Kyouya well enough to know he had ways and means of getting things done. He knew his friend knew different kinds of people than the rest of them did, contacts he had made in the business world or resources he had discovered along the way. Still, Tamaki really never considered how many of those people might actually be what one defined as criminal, and never anything to this degree.
"You've interacted with this type of person in the past?"
Kyouya looked at Tamaki curiously for a moment, as if gauging how much he could possibly understand. He settled on the truth, and nothing less. "I would not associate with criminals. It has no merit. But many corporate leaders have caused death and suffering. Very likely, they have hurt people on a larger scale than Diva has, and without meeting a single one of their victims."
The carelessness in his words was borderline callousness. The Ootori group, though its fingers dug deep, would never get themselves caught up in something so greatly damaging for their image in the medical field. Many others, in this world Haruhi couldn't understand, had no reservations. Profit was profit.
His words and delivery caught Tamaki by surprise. The matter of fact way this information was delivered, as if it was of little import. He had some idea that people would take harsh tactics to get ahead, but still his mind had never really thought to connect this with death or suffering, not really. The same way pirates and vampires seemed romantic, cruelty and malice seemed like foreign things that belonged in another world.
"And you're okay about associating with these types of people?"
The reply was the principle on which he'd founded so much of his life. "It's good business."
In a world like theirs, someone like Tamaki should be crushed. He wouldn't be able to last ten seconds outside in the reality. Yet here, Tamaki had been able to reshape Ouran to better fit his ideals of a kinder place. So perhaps, out there, there was some hope...
"Not doing so is as impossible for us as it is for commoners not to support these practices through purchases. Neither we nor commoners can afford to cut them out of our lives."
Tamaki thoughtfully digested what Kyouya had said. He was sure Kyouya thought this was an absolute truth, but it was a truth Tamaki himself couldn't swallow. These sounded like the same kind of rules that dictated what a third son's role should be in the world.
"That's the problem. You act like it's impossible, but you're wrong. Just because that's the way it's done, doesn't mean that's the way we have to do it."
He was sad for a moment he had left Kuma-chan in the their classroom. It would possibly be nicer if he was here right now, too. Tamaki hoped that this would all be over soon at least. He'd still at least like to play the piano for a little while before Shima forced the driver to drag him out of the music room.
"I wouldn't associate with people like that," he said definitively.
As if he thought Tamaki was stupid, as if he thought that hope was so pointless it was insanity, Kyouya said, "An idiot like you wouldn't."
Kyouya hoped that Tamaki never would.
"Does that mean you won't associate with Princess Diva?"
He hadn't really thought about that question. He had been so caught up in trying to figure out the present, he hadn't even stopped to think about his future actions.
"I think she's very lonely, and I think that might be why she does some of the things she does."
He wasn't really sure what to do in this situation, but a sense of obligation and guilt had kicked in. A gentleman doesn't abandon a girl in need. This wasn't any regular girl though. Even if that was the case though, surely no one was beyond becoming better. Everyone deserved a second chance, didn't they?
Still though, Diva's actions were far more severe than the average persons. Did second chances still apply when a person did such horrible things?
"A reason is not a justification." Or perhaps it was, and Diva did deserve compassion and a second chance. Kyouya didn't care. He wanted Tamaki away from her. He wanted this club to be safe. Diva wasn't and her redemption had no significance to Kyouya. "Or are my reasons for hiding this from you enough to justify it?"
And watching Tamaki's profile, watching the emotions play across his friend's face, Kyouya wondered how far and where he should push, wondered when he should stop. What was enough?
He hated this Plane. It had rearranged everything. Kyouya sighed and leaned back into sofa. "You have been thinking of the piano since we started this discussion."
"I never said it was a justification," he said, his voice a little lower. "Just because I feel sorry for her, it doesn't make the things she did right."
He let out a small sigh and leaned back against the sofa as well. His eyes traveled towards where the piano hid, and a small smile played its way across his face as he turned to face Kyouya again.
"It looks like you caught me. Renge-kun would say I need to work on being more mysterious."
Better. "'Mysterious?' You're having delusions again." Kyouya put his hand over his head, a thumb to one temple and his finger to the other. The slightest headache was slipping under his skull. He spoke on without a wavering note. "The only mysterious thing is how much of you is sincere. Once they learn you are incapable of any deception, all the mystery is gone."
What was mysterious to Kyouya was how Tamaki kept it all in perfect balance. After years of careful analysis, he'd pinned it firmly on luck. Lots of luck, and a very reckless sense of will.
Tamaki pouted, shifting where he sat so he could bring his feet and knees onto the sofa as well. He wrapped his arms around his knees, hugging them and resting his chin on top.
"I could be mysterious, and I would be capable of deception if I tried."
Ninja and spies could be deceptive and honourable, couldn't they? Yes, it was completely possible, Kyouya just wasn't thinking of this in the correct way. He let go of his knees, springing up quickly so he was now kneeling on the sofa, looking down on Kyouya with anticipation and excitement.
"I could be a great ninja or spy! They make their livelihood balancing both mystery and valor!"
He let himself sit back down on his knees and calming down a small amount. He still looked to Kyouya, eager for his reaction to this brilliant argument.
"Samurai have honour, not ninja," Kyouya replied, effortlessly smashing into Tamaki's idealism without an ounce of remorse. "And Mori-sempai already has that covered."
He didn't want Tamaki picking up a sword and swinging it around recklessly. He could get killed that way, and where would Kyouya's profit be?
"I'll ask him if I can attend some of the Kendo Club meetings! I would be an ideal pupil, and with a guest appearance from me I'm sure the Kendo Club's membership would soar!"
He shifted again where he sat, moving so he was sitting properly on the sofa once again. He looked over to Kyouya.
"Just say you're sorry, okay?"
He gave his friend a smile that said please. Until that happened it all still lingered just a little, no matter how distracted Tamaki got by other things. Once Kyouya said he was sorry, this disagreement between them could be forgotten.
Kyouya looked at Tamaki, his glasses opaque and his expression impassive. He hated that word. It was demeaning and, almost invariably, insincere when he said it. What did Kyouya truly feel regret for? It was a very short list of items. But to give Tamaki peace of mind, there were a number of distasteful things that Kyouya was willing to do.
Kyouya mapped out the grains on the table in front of them, then said, "It wasn't my intention to cause you any suffering."
It was close.
The smile faded away, replaced by a frown.
"A reason is not a justification," he said, repeating Kyouya's sentiment from earlier.
He wanted this to go away, and all that took was Kyouya acknowledging that what he did was wrong. Except he wouldn't.
"Accept that what you did was wrong and apologize."
"I'm not Haruhi," Kyouya retorted. It was unintentionally harsh, but he didn't like Tamaki commanding him. Trips across the country were one thing, but this was another. Part of it was control, or petulance, or both. Part of it was some small sliver of him that wanted to be honest, with Tamaki if not with anyone else. He had no regret for his actions, only for his miscalculations.
But he also wanted this gone. Not in his mind, of course. Kyouya did not forget. Perhaps Tamaki didn't either, but he did put things to rest, particularly if they were unpleasant. The words hung in Kyouya's mouth, because he could not say them outright without showing himself, clearly, not to mean them. On strangers, it would work perfectly. On Tamaki, it would be obvious. What could he say? Not that he wouldn't do it again---that was a lie---nor that he thought it was wrong---that was very untrue.
Kyouya stood up, sweeping up his notebook. "The course my actions took was regretful," he said. The leafs were brushing against the far window. "It will not be repeated."
He wanted that to be enough, because he wasn't sure he could twist anything else out. He hated the Plane.
"No. Haruhi wouldn't avoid the discussion or try to fool me into thinking she was apologizing."
Tamaki knew he could be naive about things at times, but he still could see what Kyouya was doing. He sighed again, tired, and stood up. Even if Kyouya just apologized for the way Tamaki had to discover this news, that would be enough.
"When you have something more to say on the matter let me know."
He moved towards the far corner of the room, away from Kyouya, and sat down at the piano there, absently playing with the keys but not committing to any song or melody in particular. He hated having these disagreements. Tamaki wished he could just force himself to forget it, but it still felt like nothing was resolved. It took too much effort to pretend everything was all right again, when it didn't feel like it was, and he didn't want to have to pretend those things with Kyouya.
Besides that, he thought, arguments make relationships stronger. He read that in a book somewhere. So maybe this was all very good, because once it was resolved he and Kyouya would be closer than ever. This might be a blessing in disguise, really.
"You do not ask Haruhi to do the impossible, and when you do, she is smart enough not to try to meet your demands." In that way, Haruhi had quite outdone Kyouya. She didn't strive to always please a frivolous, whimsical idiot of a boy. She simply was as she was without any expectations, and that was enough. But Kyouya's place demanded a performance. Sometimes, he enjoyed it. Rarely, he failed. He never enjoyed failure.
Kyouya walked to the piano and leaned over the side, so that all the keys (and the player idly tapping them) were at an angle to him and his vision, so imperfectly framed.
"I can’t regret trying to protect you from a dangerous person. You should know that." Kyouya watched Tamaki's hands and not his face. "If you promise not to get into trouble with others, I will tell you next time I learn someone is dangerous." It was hardly an ultimatum. It was just the best Kyouya had to offer.
"I don't ask the impossible of you."
He really couldn't think of anything that would be impossible for Kyouya to accomplish. The concept seemed foreign to him, and the argument a strange one for Kyouya to choose.
"You can regret the way I had to find out at the very least."
He absently played some more, his focus on the keys and not on Kyouya, even though he wasn't really playing anything at all.
"Why do you think I would try to get in trouble with them?" He finally looked up at Kyouya, fingers stopping where they were, but still resting against the keys, as if waiting to start moving once again.
"That, I regret a great deal." He pressed the pad of his finger down on a low note, holding it there, then looked up to meet Tamaki's eyes.
"Because," Kyouya said, "like Haruhi, you rarely understand the danger you are in. In Ouran, the worst that can happen is you will win the anger of a yakuza family. If your family is not enough to protect you from the consequences, my family's staff can cover that. This is not available to us on the Plane. If you offer your anger to dangerous people, they may retaliate. If you offer them your kindness, they may take advantage of it."
Tamaki wasn't truly an idiot. He was thoughtless and idealistic, but he had insight into people that could be quite startling. That wouldn't stop him from getting hurt. "I do regret not telling you earlier," he said, expressing another meaning with his reiteration. "I further regret that this situation with Diva has occurred."
He felt a weight lift when Kyouya said that. It was what he wanted, and now it felt like he could let go of whatever hurt feelings or anger he felt concerning Kyouya keeping this from him.
He gave Kyouya a small smile and let his fingers find the high note that matched the low note Kyouya held down. His gaze was focused once again on the keys, still not playing anything quite yet, just holding down that note for a few seconds. He finally released it, his fingers once again resting lightly against the keys. He looked back up at Kyouya.
"If you ignore them they continue acting the same way. How can you turn a blind eye to that type of behavior?
"I keep a very careful eye on it." Kyouya lifted his finger from they piano to give Tamaki free reign. Instead, he let his hands rest against the piano and hold his weight.
Yes, Kyouya kept an eye on this behaviour, but a third son learned very quickly that one never attempts something without the appropriate resources. Without the appropriate power. What was this Host Club but the best bid Kyouya had ever made to get him enough power for his desires? Oh, it was something he enjoyed, too, but it was an incredibly profitable pleasure.
"It is not within any of our abilities to prevent or stop the actions of dangerous people. Or are you a secret martial artist like Honey-sempai? Your power, Tamaki, comes from your charms and your money. Money could accomplish what you desire. Charm cannot. On the Plane, our money means nothing."
How badly he wanted Tamaki to understand their position.
His fingers curled up into the palms of his hands and away from the piano keys. His head remained bowed, eyes on the keys. He could understand what Kyouya was asking of him and why he wanted this from Tamaki. Kyouya wanted them safe, there was nothing wrong with that. Tamaki just wasn't sure how he was meant to ignore these things.
"I don't know how else I'm meant to react."
He looked up at Kyouya.
"What did you do when you found out about these things?"
"I said I could not agree with her actions but found them understandable."
Distantly, he calculated measures of pain and proportioned them to the angled bones in Tamaki's hands.
"What I always do when I find myself despising someone."
One day, with a smile, a glass of wine, and no words, he would thank all of his family for teaching him how to act around distasteful people.
"Why would you say you found them understandable?"
This entire discussion made him feel very ill. It seemed almost worse to look at these terrible things and say nothing. It felt as if silence was another way of condoning things that could not be condoned no matter the circumstances.
"Because I do not choose to fight murderers when I am trapped in strange places." Not that it had ever happened before. "And because I don't yet know the measure of her. If honesty endangers myself or my companions, I abandon it."
He knew Tamaki was suffering and could not think of any way to protect him from it. Perhaps he really was the mother of the group.
He nodded. "I guess so."
He released his fingers, letting them stretch over the keys once again. His head was bowed, watching his hands and the piano, but still not ready to commit to any melody, although his fingers seemed to seek out a nocturne of some sort.
He stopped on the end of an e minor scale, looking back up at Kyouya, the last part of his statement resonating.
"Do you think my honesty with her could have endangered any of you?"
Kyouya's eyes widened then. He had not even thought of that. Could Tamaki had endangered them? Yes. It was obvious to anyone that the Host Club was not just a random group of individuals. If anyone wished to hurt one of them, they could easily attack one of the others. If Kyouya didn't know Diva yet, then he couldn't say what she might do.
"It's possible," he said. "I don't know." Lying would have been nicer.
He opened his mouth to respond, but found no words came out.
He felt very lost then. This family he had worked so hard to create and maintain would be undone because of some stupid impulse of his. Kyouya knew better, Tamaki should have as well. The notion that he had put any of them in danger felt like too much. Was this that selfishness they had all mentioned to him before?
"I'll apologize to her and that will fix all this."
He wished that there weren't people like this, he wished that Diva didn't do the kind of things she did. He wished Diva never committed these crimes, and for a split second it had nothing to do with victims and everything to do with how difficult this all was now for Tamaki and Kyouya and this entire family Tamaki had created. He wished she hadn't done those things because then he wouldn't have to worry about potentially endangering this family of his. Her victims were almost secondary. He thought maybe that might have been a part of his selfishness as well.
Calm and almost disinterested, Kyouya said, "I would prefer if you not speak to her at all, if possible." Kyouya knew that he had almost immediately seized upon his friend's guilt and tried to use it to his advantage. He knew that this was in its way a cruelty to Tamaki, and that he should set himself to comforting his friend, not using his insecurities.
But how else could he protect them? Mothers keep their family safe, or something idiotic like that. For Kyouya, it was a matter of protecting his investments. "I think that would be our safest course of action. I'll need your assistance in telling Haruhi."
He would tell Kaoru all on his own.
Tamaki nodded. "I won't, I promise."
It bothered him then how easily one piece of knowledge could undo them all. He wished he didn't even know. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, knowing a person that could do those kind of things was out there right now. It was less pleasant knowing they could feel justified in these actions. Maybe it would be best to spare Haruhi and Kaoru from having to know. He wrung his hands briefly.
"Maybe we shouldn't tell them. It might be for the best if they don't know."
Fathers protected their children from cruel realities, didn't they? It wasn't wrong to try to protect them from this.
Kyouya had no nervous habits (they had all been trained out of him) but his mind felt like a pair of wringing hands. He did not enjoy doing this to Tamaki. He did not enjoy this expression on Tamaki's face.
"If she told you, what is to stop her from telling them? We need to inform them to keep them away from her." Kaoru he could trust to listen to that request. Haruhi... Haruhi was capable of surprising Kyouya. He didn't enjoy that in this particular situation.
Knowing he had to sit back and bite his tongue and avoid trying to right an obvious wrong was difficult. Knowing he would have to do that to Haruhi was almost even more difficult. He didn't like the idea of inflicting this kind of feeling of inner conflict on her. Kaoru he thought would know how to handle it better. Despite everything, he seemed to have a handle on knowing how to restrain himself. He was more like Kyouya in that way. Tamaki was grateful then that Hikaru hadn't come to this place with them. Even apart from this newest situation, Tamaki wasn't completely sure how they would have had to manage Hikaru in that type of environment.
"There isn't another way?" he asked.
He would be happy if Haruhi never had to learn about any of this. He understood then perhaps why Kyouya hadn't told him about this when he found out.
"Unless you can think of a suitable lie that would have the desirable outcome..." For Kyouya, though there was a slightly sickened feeling in his stomach every time he really thought of it, the victims were nearly inconsequential. None of that was within his sphere of influence. This crime Diva had committed---this crime of endangering the most profitable endeavour he had ever engaged in---was what he held against her.
Unlike most of his companions, however, he could smile, agreeable and polite, no matter what he was presented with. "If she finds out from us, we can control her response."
He was simply fortunate that Tamaki hadn't made the wrong move. A stupid oversight of Kyouya's to leave that opportunity.
His elbows moved up, coming down on the keys. He left them there and rested his chin in his hands.
"I don't want to control her response," he said, his voice coming out with a small whine to it. "I don't want any of this."
He couldn't help pouting. He looked up at Kyouya, his eyes wider and sadder and a touch more pleading than before.
"Make it go away."
Kyouya could do almost anything. If anyone were capable of fixing this situation for them, it would be Kyouya.
Without effort or intention, a soft and well-kept smile slipped across Kyouya's lips and stayed there, just for Tamaki, just to take that suffering away. 'Anything you want.' It was his old refrain. Yes, Tamaki kept asking the impossible of him. But Kyouya loved a challenge, and there was merit in supporting Tamaki's whims.
"I will." However he had to. "Stay away from Diva and I can."
And then, (for his first magic trick, this slow disappearing act), the edges of his smile shifted, hardened into something crueller, and he said in a voice with no mercy, "If you stop playing such discordant notes. You're going to break the piano that way."
He smiled when he saw that smile of Kyouya's. It meant everything would be taken care of and everything would be all right. Mountains could be moved and what was wrong could be made right. Kyouya would make sure of it and all this could become some distant pain that he could tuck away somewhere.
"You really are like God or Buddha!"
His eyes widened again though, traces of fear and remorse playing across them as he quickly removed his elbows. "I couldn't really break it that way! You're just making things up now!"
He played a short minute of Chopin, then smiled in triumph. "See, it's perfectly fine!"
"You only were lucky this time. If you break the piano in here, that will come out of your personal finances and not the club budget."
That was done. Somehow, now that Tamaki was to have no part in it, everything was easier. When the Shadow King could move without the real King knowing his actions, even challenges seemed less of a weight.
Tamaki looked completely aghast at the suggestion.
"I would never break a piano! I'm an expert with pianos and their care!"
As if to emphasize his point, he did a few scales gently up and down the keys.
"In fact it sounds better now! Earlier was just a new tuning method I've created and perfected!"
"What sort of lies are you trying to sell me now, deceiver king?" As he watched Tamaki's antics, he started guessing at ways and means of accomplishing the task set to him. Haruhi he could keep from Diva. How could he keep Diva away from the club? There was a way and if anyone could find it, Kyouya could.
(Tamaki's faith-without-reason was catching. Kyouya didn't think he'd ever find the cure.)
"I thought you said I was incapable of deception! You're just the king of contradiction!"
He began playing the piano again, partly to prove a point that it indeed did sound absolutely fine and partly because the action of playing was calming to his nerves from earlier. The anxiety had diminished greatly, due to Kyouya. He barely remembered that part of the reason for that anxiety to begin with was Kyouya. Kyouya had apologized and promised to fix all of this. That's all Tamaki needed to feel at ease once again.
"I'm going to invite Fuyumi to the club for your birthday. It will be fun for her to see how loved you are by everyone! She'll be able to relax and enjoy herself more than she would if she visited you at home, too."
"You're not inviting my family to the club without my permission." Despite Tamaki's fluid words, Kyouya didn't miss Tamaki's implication about Kyouya's home life. Tamaki certainly would not invite Kyouya's father or brothers. Just Fuyumi, the nice one. The one who got dark words whenever she returned home to see him.
With idle cruelty, he picked out ways of rejecting the entire proposal. "You will embarrass Haruhi by having a party with all of us together. She will not be able to afford a suitable present."
"Don't worry, Haruhi will be okay!"
Tamaki smiled, he had all ready taken that into consideration. He would just talk to Haruhi and try to convince her to give Kyouya some mementos and leftover objects he might like to auction off. He still wasn't sure what he would get Kyouya, but he could ask Haruhi for help picking it out, and then he could say the gift was from both of them. Problem solved.
"Anyway, Fuyumi really wants to see what you're like here in the club! Whenever I tell her about what you're like here, at times she can hardly believe it. Then again, she says you're different from your brothers too, so it's not too hard to believe. But she still wants to see it! She thinks it would be fun to see you with all your friends."
Kyouya's eyes narrowed. "When have you been talking to my sister?" The fact that Fuyumi and Tamaki had some bizarrely similar traits had not escaped Kyouya's discerning eyes. Some strange irrational part of Kyouya wanted to hit Tamaki for talking to Kyouya's sister. It had no real logical basis, but for a good couple of years, Kyouya had ceased to ignore his impulse to cause Tamaki physical harm.
Tamaki had about five seconds.
Tamaki's ability to sense hostility had somehow switched to off, as he remained cheerful and carefree. "Oh, we talk on the phone sometimes. And..." he stopped short, getting up from the piano so he could talk to Kyouya a little more secretively, despite the fact that they were alone in the music room. He pulled a map out of seemingly nowhere and showed it to Kyouya proudly.
"We have been going out to eat together so we can create a map of commoner's gourmet restaurants and treats!"
With great calm, Kyouya punched Tamaki in the shoulder. "You're a bad influence on her."
Tamaki shrunk away, rubbing his injured shoulder. "Bad influence?"
He sat down at the piano again, looking utterly dejected, and looking up every couple seconds to offer up Kyouya a pair of puppy dog eyes.
Kyouya easily destroyed the threat of Tamaki's puppy dog eyes by putting his hand in Tamaki's face, thus blocking out his eyes. "From now on, you are forbidden from any actions other than those necessary to survive and playing the piano. Everything else you do is too much trouble."
Tamaki flailed from behind Kyouya's hand.
"I am not trouble. Everything I do is aimed at making things more fun for everyone! You can't forbid a king from acting how he pleases!"
He stopped his flailing, pushing Kyouya's hand away so he could see Kyouya's eyes. "Anyway, most of the time we just talk about you. She likes getting to hear how you're doing. She worries about you, you know. You take on a lot of things. It must be really stressful to be a third son."
The puppy dog eyes were gone, and replaced with a small pleading smile.
"Maybe you can start to take it a little easier every now and then?"
Kyouya, at times, wanted to accuse Tamaki of having some sort of memory disorder. Was it not Tamaki who just demanded the near-impossible of him? Would it occur to Tamaki that he was responsible for a large portion of Kyouya's stress? The competitive third son of the Ootori family, quietly counting up the profit until he had the power to take his own family's company out from under their fingertips without any real effort, that was Tamaki's creation. Being a demon required a lot of effort, but it was worth it all.
At least the emotion in Tamaki's eyes was not pity. Just concern. "Not when I have to clean up after all of your messes." He didn't mean it at all.
"I don't leave messes to clean up! I'm very tidy in everything I do!"
The way Kyouya said this didn't give Tamaki any reason for true concern. There was still that instant reaction of outrage at the accusation, but nothing too serious. It was an emotional reaction and involved the standard flailing that really was inconsequential and would most likely be easily forgotten once this brand of teasing and torment was dropped.
This was the kind of flailing he was all right with, because there was nothing sinister or dark or difficult. There were no layers or consequences. It was simple and that was okay.
"Your forgetfulness makes you untidy. Shima-san must despair of you." It was nice, that equilibrium that sustained their daily lives. This was something Kyouya could maintain without effort. Kyouya did not support complacency, and yet...
He was content with this. Really, it was remarkably that Tamaki could flail around that much while seated at a piano.
"Ah, don't bring up untidiness around Shima! She'll make me endure a lecture for almost all of the weekend."
He calmed down then. He looked at the clock. He'd left Kogenai outside without much word of when he'd be out. Usually he would at least give him a call. He should give him and Shima a call.
"I should call her and let her know I'll be home shortly. Before I do, maybe I can tell her that we're going to have a birthday dinner for you at the second mansion? I can invite Fuyumi. We can celebrate with the rest of the club later. That way it can be a little more relaxed, just the three of us."
He felt badly for Fuyumi. He knew she wanted to be closer to her family again, but being married somehow meant she was no longer welcomed at home. It would be good for her to be able to spend time with Kyouya on his birthday, especially without her father and brothers there. He respected the men of Kyouya's family, but it was hard to be completely comfortable around them at times. It would be nice for brother and sister to spend time together without having to worry about the expectations the rest of their family had for them.
Kyouya hesitated, a slight indecision that would normally be masked by a smooth and gracious smile. Tamaki had earned more than a few of those back when they first met.
"I'd prefer that."
If Fuyumi did come home for Kyouya's birthday, she would have the common sense not to mention that she was at the Suou second mansion with Kyouya as well. Not, of course, that his father would protest Kyouya's presence in Tamaki's home on that day. But some things were better kept quiet in the Ootori household.
"Three birthday celebrations, then? I suppose it's acceptable."
Tamaki beamed at Kyouya, then leaped off of the piano bench, giving Kyouya a huge hug. He nuzzled him for a few seconds, then bounced back off before Kyouya could retaliate.
"This will be so much fun! You'll have at least three birthday celebrations! I'm sure the princesses will want to throw you one as well. Plus our class will want to celebrate the momentous occasion, too! It will be a day full of festivities to celebrate your birth!"
He bounced away, moving to his bag to pull out his cell phone. He happily called Shima, ignoring the small concerned lecture she gave him, and informing her that they needed to prepare for a birthday dinner for Kyouya.
He hung up, bouncing back over Kyouya's way, with his bag in hand.
"Shima says I need to go home now, but she said that the entire staff will get to work right away making the preparations! We'll have all your favourite foods! It will be lots of fun! They might even sing you a song!"
He tagged Kyouya's arm lightly, still smiling. "Come on and pack up so we can walk out together."
Kyouya shoved Tamaki's head away in a retaliation so mild that it almost insulted Tamaki's crimes. "It's not the Emperor's birthday, idiot." Kyouya's birthday had never been greatly celebrated, and not just because he was the unnecessary son. His family simply didn't put much occasion to it. Tamaki certainly cared about it far more than Kyouya ever had.
"I think we can limit ourselves to the three. Commoner's good sense."
"Only three?"
Tamaki backed away, dejection written all over his features. He wasn't sure how to limit it to three. They were all ready set on a birthday dinner with Dad and Mom and Sister. Surely the class would want to celebrate Kyouya's birthday, too. He was very popular, how could he not be? Then of course there were all their guests at the club. While he did enjoy all the princesses and classmates, it would be nice to have a celebration with just the hosts as well, where they didn't need to worry about entertaining anyone. Then of course there were Kyouya's other friends in the school as well, that fell outside of that group. Maybe they could throw a big party to include all those groups, but Kyouya still needed to celebrate with his Ootori family as well as his Host Club family. There would need to be at least four. Three would not work. He tried to calculate how to do this. Excluding any of the four events was unacceptable.
"Kyouya," he whined, moving back next to Kyouya and tugging on his sleeve. He looked at his friend pathetically.
"We need at least four."
He continued thinking, and then an idea dawned on him. He continued tugging on Kyouya's sleeve, this time more enthusiastically.
"I know! We can stretch them out over the week if you like! We can celebrate your birth week instead of just limiting it to one day! That way all the people who care about you can share in the happy occasion!"
Kyouya had no desire to understand what was going on in Tamaki's mind at that moment. "One is more than enough." He battled to detach Tamaki's fingers from his sleeve. "You're wrinkling my shirt."
Kyouya wanted to say it was the French in Tamaki, but Tamaki's father was not the most reserved man either. In other ways---in more worrying ways---he could hold back. But this sort of decadence had to be from him, if not necessarily from Tamaki's mother.
His eyes widened in alarm.
"Kyouya," he whined again, still tugging on the sleeve pathetically. "We need to have four."
If Tamaki resembled anything at the moment, it was a child pleading to his mother for a toy at the shops. He couldn't leave without this, he needed it desperately, at least for this moment. In time something else would come along and distract him, but for now this felt like the most important matter in his life. How could one limit themselves to only one party? That would mean someone needed to be left out, and the thought was horrifying.
Was it half-twisted material instinct? A weakness of character? Did Kyouya simply have a bad habit of giving in to Tamaki's every desire?
"Fine. Four."
On the contrary, it was Kyouya's good sense. If he set safe boundaries and gave Tamaki free reign, the results were bound to be profitable. Now that they had negotiated the number, Tamaki couldn't go back on it without violating a rule of honour Kyouya would make up, if called for. The Ootori family's celebrations would be muted at best, and events at Ouran were typically as beneficial to him as they were decadent. The party at Tamaki's house would end up being low-key simply because Kyouya could be as rude as he wanted in front of Tamaki and Fuyumi.
All in all, it was a positive result.
Tamaki released Kyouya's sleave, and clung onto him instead, enveloping his friend in another hug. He jumped off, bouncing still, grinning ear to ear.
"It will be a super fun birthday! Better than the year before or the year before that or the year before that!"
He was practically floating off the ground, so caught up in what kind of parties they would throw and what kind of presents and themes and surprises and it was all too much to think about.
Kyouya absently withdrew a pin and popped his balloon-esque companion with it. "If you cause me any trouble I forbid you from holding any birthday parties for me for the next thirty years."
Because while he knew Tamaki did all of this out of the kindness of his heart, he also knew Tamaki did this because he was extremely excitable and found it fun.
Tamaki fell back down to earth, offering a pout and puppy dog eyes to his friend.
"Kyouya," he whined, drawling out the syllables in Kyouya's name. "That's too harsh."
"Then you will need to be careful." Kyouya fixed Tamaki with a pitiless expression, throwing up his powerful mental barriers against the puppy dog eyes. "Or is the Host Club King not confident in his abilities?"
Tamaki's chest puffed out, as he stood taller than he had been. "Of course not. With my overseeing the planning, catastrophe isn't even an option. I will have to keep a careful eye on those doppelgangers, and I'll need to make sure to keep Honey-sempai from getting to the cakes too soon. Although, we might not even want cakes, since you're not very fond of sweets..."
Tamaki's voice drifted off as he began to mentally calculate what needed to be done to ensure all three events under his watch went off without a hitch. Shima and the household staff were overseeing the private dinner with Fuyumi, so Tamaki wasn't so worried about that. There was still the matter of the private party for the Hosts though, and the larger party for the entire school. He wondered briefly if Fuyumi might know what the Ootoris were planning for Kyouya's birthday, so Tamaki wouldn't repeat anything at any of his events.
There. That would occupy him for days. Even Kyouya had almost forgotten the reason for this discussion. And as Tamaki planned for extravagant and ridiculous events (with Kyouya carefully nudging things along, but not so overtly as to offend Tamaki's pride), Kyouya could work out schemes for dealing with the problems the Plane had given him.
"The only person I know who dreams while waking," Kyouya said, grabbing his laptop and notebook and slipping them into his bag so they could, finally, go home.
hostclubmommy) & Dad (hostclubdaddy) Location: The Third Music Room
Time: after this
Summary: Mom and Dad need to have a talk due to Diva the home-wrecking whore.
Warnings: ummm....no? idk? I always fail at coming up with good warnings.
Tamaki sat in his spot in the window, and watched as the Hitachiin's car drove off. Everyone was on their way home and there were no convenient bags left behind which would probably result in someone coming back at an awkward time. That was good at least.
Still, for feeling ready to burst at the seams all day, he was finding it hard to figure out how to breach the topic.
Finally with a sigh, he got up and dropped down onto the sofa next to Kyouya.
"Is there anything you wanted to tell me about?" he asked, trying to seem as casual as possible, which probably wasn't very casual at all.
There was a hint of disappointment, and oddly enough hope in the question too. He'd at least give Kyouya one more chance to come out with it and tell him. Maybe he just hadn't found the right time. He probably didn't want to worry Haruhi and Kaoru. If he at least told him now then there wasn't anything to be angry or hurt about. He'd much prefer that.
Of course Kyouya had noticed Tamaki's behaviour the entire day. Of course he had not brought it up. Tamaki, Kyouya had learned, had to be allowed to blurt things out on his own time. This had never stopped Kyouya from choosing when Tamaki's 'own time' would be, but today he knew that they would both pick the same hour. Everyone was gone and would not be returning. It was best to take care of this now instead of waiting for Tamaki to come bounding over to his house to interrupt his studies.
What bothered Kyouya---because, certainly, very little else truly did---was that he had little idea what Tamaki might be upset about. This could easily be attributed to the Plane and was another reason Kyouya disliked the place. He had no idea how Tamaki wanted him to answer that question. So as Kyouya calmly closed his notebook, he said, "You want to talk to me about something."
The 'I have no idea what you're on about this time' was implicit.
Maybe Kyouya didn't understand the question. It was obvious from Kyouya's tone he had no idea what Tamaki was asking about. Still, the fact remained that Kyouya knew that Diva was a self proclaimed 'insane criminal' and even when given the opportunity, still didn't feel this was something important enough to share.
She was an insane criminal who murdered people, plural. He was still having a hard time comprehending that piece of knowledge. The fact that Kyouya knew was almost as difficult to swallow as the reality of what kind of person could do the things she had done. In a strange way it was a little more upsetting that Kyouya had kept something like this from him, especially remembering the way Diva revealed that part of the story to him.
I'm surprised Kyouya didn't mention anything, as close as you two seem to be.
"Is there anything you wanted to tell me about Diva?" he asked.
The hope was gone from the question this time. The tone now was accusatory and waiting for an answer, although the disappointment still lingered.
Kyouya had too much control to turn to Tamaki in surprise. He had calculated a number of possibilities of what Tamaki might want to talk to him about, but this has not been within his numbers. So he placed his notebook on the table in front of him and calmly settled his sight on Tamaki. He crossed his legs and met the accusation without flinching.
"Is there something you would like to tell Haruhi about Diva?"
He flinched at that, not even considering the prospect. Of course he would have to sit Haruhi down, and Kaoru, too. He didn't want them to be caught by surprise or hurt like he had felt upon hearing about Diva...and the fact that Kyouya knew.
"You always do that when you've done something wrong. Anyway, I just found out. You should have told me."
He crossed his arms and sat back, looking straight ahead instead of at Kyouya.
"She was surprised you didn't tell me, you know?"
He set his gaze on the opposite corner of the room where the piano was tucked away. Maybe after they were done fighting and made amends he could play for a little while before going home.
Kyouya allowed Tamaki his behaviour. In some ways, that was Kyouya's own level of immaturity. He would not respond to what Tamaki did, and by ignoring it, he devalued it. In other ways, it was Kyouya's maturity that allowed him to give Tamaki room to do whatever he wanted.
Most of all, it was Kyouya's common sense. Tamaki was never easy to manage.
"What does the surprise of strangers matter?" Diva was a threat and not much more than that. Aside from her threat, she was among the masses of people who did not matter very much at all. "What did you do when you found out?"
It would be troublesome to add that into his calculations.
He frowned, facing Kyouya once again.
"She seemed like a nice person, didn't she? I just didn't understand how she could do things like that and then she didn't even seem very sorry. I don't think she likes doing them, I don't think she could, but - she just seemed to think it was okay."
He sighed leaning forward and resting his elbows on his knees and his chin in his hand.
"I think she's very sick right now, she said that she's being starved and she might soon be blind. I wanted to know why or how she could do those things she did, but she looked so pale and tired, I couldn't right then. I felt sorry for her."
He sat up and leaned back against the sofa again.
"I wish you had told me."
Tamaki's weakness for sick women, Tamaki's weakness for French women, Tamaki's weakness for women. Tamaki's weaknesses would kill Kyouya by how much trouble they were. Kyouya watched his friend's movements impassively. He said, "She did not seem like a kind person. She seemed like the sort of person capable of holding two contradictory thoughts and feeling they could coexist happily." Almost brutally, he added, "She seemed like the sort of person who could kill her 'beloved' for an imagined betrayal without recognizing the wrongness of her actions except abstractly."
With years of training weighing on his words, Kyouya said, "Insanity is pitiable but redeemable, if not curable. Criminal insanity is simply dangerous. I did not want you or Haruhi confronting this person about her actions. You are both reckless people."
Kyouya had, in part, been buying time to find ways to protect them. The truth was nearly inevitable and Kyouya regretted the miscalculation that had allowed Tamaki to get it from the wrong person first.
He nearly asked Kyouya if that was a bit harsh, but he stopped himself, not sure what really could be too harsh under these circumstances. He stared, slightly dazed as he took in Kyouya's words. He looked away at the last part about Diva. He still couldn't quite comprehend any of this.
"I still don't understand it, though. How could someone do something like that to someone they love?"
He really couldn't even understand how you could hurt someone like that period, stranger or enemy even. He could understand the need to protect or defend, but willingly doing those kind of things over and over and over, and the whole idea made his head hurt.
"You should have more faith in me, in us. I would have told you. Anyway, if she told you so freely, what's to stop her from telling Haruhi, too? She told me, didn't she?"
Yes, and Kyouya hadn't expected her to. He had thought Diva would have had enough understanding of what Tamaki was to know it was better not to tell him. But if she did do it---because she was insane enough to think it inconsequential, because she wanted to test Tamaki, because she thought it was the right thing to do---Kyouya had something else to concern himself with.
(He had done research on opera singers, searching for any record of Diva. There were none. Diva did not exist in their world, which was almost unfortunate.)
"I wonder what a person like that might do to Haruhi if she took a stand against her the way Haruhi sometimes does? Do you really think we can stop Haruhi from doing something foolish in that place?" If only they had Mori and Honey. "Neither you nor Haruhi have experience with truly malicious people. The twins would say that it's your purity." He didn't need to look around at the music room, the ornate walls and the pushed-aside tea sets, to know that Tamaki didn't live in the same world as people like Diva. Money had nothing to do with it; Tamaki just had the power to create his own beautiful space in the middle of cruelty and suffering.
Yet even with that power, Suou Shizue was the same person. Tamaki could change some things, but a harsh reality was still a harsh reality. And this new reality had rules Kyouya hadn't even begun to understand. "I'll have to reconsider my strategy. Forbidding Haruhi from going near Diva is too suspicious, and there is no guarantee she will listen to me. Kaoru may be able to help us."
He blinked, surprised as the thought of any real harm coming to any of them hadn't occurred to Tamaki. It had in the vaguest of senses of course. Diva was a dangerous person, and being around a dangerous person could lead to very bad things. He still remembered Haruhi taking on those boys at the beach. She didn't see anything wrong with taking on three guys much bigger than she was, would she be even more brazen with one person?
Even then though, the truth was the truth. She would probably find out, and what if they weren't there with her when that happened?
"We should still tell her. It's better if she finds out from us."
Kyouya took an educated guess at Tamaki's thoughts and quietly suggested, "Those three boys were nothing compared to Diva. When Haruhi confronted them, we had my family staff, Mori-sempai, Honey-sempai, and both twins to take care of the problem. That isn't available to us in that place."
This was the undercurrent reality that haunted his choices for the Plane. Tamaki was right. Haruhi would find out eventually, and Kyouya wanted to control how. But her morals were strong, even with the influence Ouran and its society had had on her. The probability of Tamaki having one of his flashes of insight and completely understanding how to solve the problem was not something Kyouya liked to gamble on, particularly not now.
"She won't do that again. She said she wouldn't."
His words were definitive, but there was still some doubt there. Even now, Haruhi was still so intent on handling everything on her own. She had gotten better, but she still had that stubborn streak. It was both admirable and frustrating simultaneously.
Even as their conversation wandered though, the fact still remained that Kyouya had known all this and kept it entirely to himself. Much like Haruhi, he was also convinced he had to carry these burdens on his own. It wasn't a very healthy attitude for either of them to have.
"You shouldn't do things like this either, keeping this kind of thing to yourself. You should have told someone."
Ahh, that. He thought he'd dragged Tamaki sufficiently away from the idea to have it disappear. Of course, he stood by his position. He had woven his reasons into the conversation even as Tamaki stopped the accusations, so that Tamaki could have some understanding of the 'why.'
"Because a club is a family, and families do things together?"
Not Kyouya's family. Not Tamaki's family. Not the Hitachiin family either. Haruhi's mother was dead, and the Morinozuka and Haninozuka families split off into pairs. This was Tamaki's stupid ideal, but Kyouya could not disabuse him of it.
"Well maybe that, too; but that wasn't what I meant to say."
He let his hands rest on his knees, fingers bouncing against them with a mixture of restlessness and perhaps nervousness every few seconds. He could understand the logical arguments that Kyouya was making, but Tamaki's feelings regarding this entire episode went slightly beyond the logical ways of thinking.
"I just wish you let yourself depend on other people instead of always worrying about taking care of everyone else. That must have been a very scary thing to learn, and then not even being able to tell anyone else had to make it worse. Even if you don't trust Haruhi or myself with that information, I wish you told Kaoru or someone so you weren't carrying around all that worry by yourself."
Although, he hated to admit it to himself, but there was the slightest pang of possessiveness and maybe even jealousy at that thought. He did want Kyouya to be able to depend on other people, but knowing that Kyouya would choose to go to someone else first was not a very pleasant thought.
Kyouya watched Tamaki's nervous habits with all the idle interest of someone who had memorized them. Tamaki was an impossible thing, but Kyouya had a good guess of what he wanted from him. The question was not if Kyouya could give it - Kyouya could not sincerely promise to stop trying to protect the things he valued, nor could he sincerely promise to stop hiding half the information he had - but if Kyouya was willing to pretend to give it.
He adjusted his glasses and, with a sigh, bought himself more time. "It's true that she is beyond the usual level I deal with. I still interact with that type of person more than any of us do." The 'any of us' was a deliberate word choice over 'any of you.' "Kaoru has had interaction with criminal elements before, but that was on on a different level."
He knew Kyouya well enough to know he had ways and means of getting things done. He knew his friend knew different kinds of people than the rest of them did, contacts he had made in the business world or resources he had discovered along the way. Still, Tamaki really never considered how many of those people might actually be what one defined as criminal, and never anything to this degree.
"You've interacted with this type of person in the past?"
Kyouya looked at Tamaki curiously for a moment, as if gauging how much he could possibly understand. He settled on the truth, and nothing less. "I would not associate with criminals. It has no merit. But many corporate leaders have caused death and suffering. Very likely, they have hurt people on a larger scale than Diva has, and without meeting a single one of their victims."
The carelessness in his words was borderline callousness. The Ootori group, though its fingers dug deep, would never get themselves caught up in something so greatly damaging for their image in the medical field. Many others, in this world Haruhi couldn't understand, had no reservations. Profit was profit.
His words and delivery caught Tamaki by surprise. The matter of fact way this information was delivered, as if it was of little import. He had some idea that people would take harsh tactics to get ahead, but still his mind had never really thought to connect this with death or suffering, not really. The same way pirates and vampires seemed romantic, cruelty and malice seemed like foreign things that belonged in another world.
"And you're okay about associating with these types of people?"
The reply was the principle on which he'd founded so much of his life. "It's good business."
In a world like theirs, someone like Tamaki should be crushed. He wouldn't be able to last ten seconds outside in the reality. Yet here, Tamaki had been able to reshape Ouran to better fit his ideals of a kinder place. So perhaps, out there, there was some hope...
"Not doing so is as impossible for us as it is for commoners not to support these practices through purchases. Neither we nor commoners can afford to cut them out of our lives."
Tamaki thoughtfully digested what Kyouya had said. He was sure Kyouya thought this was an absolute truth, but it was a truth Tamaki himself couldn't swallow. These sounded like the same kind of rules that dictated what a third son's role should be in the world.
"That's the problem. You act like it's impossible, but you're wrong. Just because that's the way it's done, doesn't mean that's the way we have to do it."
He was sad for a moment he had left Kuma-chan in the their classroom. It would possibly be nicer if he was here right now, too. Tamaki hoped that this would all be over soon at least. He'd still at least like to play the piano for a little while before Shima forced the driver to drag him out of the music room.
"I wouldn't associate with people like that," he said definitively.
As if he thought Tamaki was stupid, as if he thought that hope was so pointless it was insanity, Kyouya said, "An idiot like you wouldn't."
Kyouya hoped that Tamaki never would.
"Does that mean you won't associate with Princess Diva?"
He hadn't really thought about that question. He had been so caught up in trying to figure out the present, he hadn't even stopped to think about his future actions.
"I think she's very lonely, and I think that might be why she does some of the things she does."
He wasn't really sure what to do in this situation, but a sense of obligation and guilt had kicked in. A gentleman doesn't abandon a girl in need. This wasn't any regular girl though. Even if that was the case though, surely no one was beyond becoming better. Everyone deserved a second chance, didn't they?
Still though, Diva's actions were far more severe than the average persons. Did second chances still apply when a person did such horrible things?
"A reason is not a justification." Or perhaps it was, and Diva did deserve compassion and a second chance. Kyouya didn't care. He wanted Tamaki away from her. He wanted this club to be safe. Diva wasn't and her redemption had no significance to Kyouya. "Or are my reasons for hiding this from you enough to justify it?"
And watching Tamaki's profile, watching the emotions play across his friend's face, Kyouya wondered how far and where he should push, wondered when he should stop. What was enough?
He hated this Plane. It had rearranged everything. Kyouya sighed and leaned back into sofa. "You have been thinking of the piano since we started this discussion."
"I never said it was a justification," he said, his voice a little lower. "Just because I feel sorry for her, it doesn't make the things she did right."
He let out a small sigh and leaned back against the sofa as well. His eyes traveled towards where the piano hid, and a small smile played its way across his face as he turned to face Kyouya again.
"It looks like you caught me. Renge-kun would say I need to work on being more mysterious."
Better. "'Mysterious?' You're having delusions again." Kyouya put his hand over his head, a thumb to one temple and his finger to the other. The slightest headache was slipping under his skull. He spoke on without a wavering note. "The only mysterious thing is how much of you is sincere. Once they learn you are incapable of any deception, all the mystery is gone."
What was mysterious to Kyouya was how Tamaki kept it all in perfect balance. After years of careful analysis, he'd pinned it firmly on luck. Lots of luck, and a very reckless sense of will.
Tamaki pouted, shifting where he sat so he could bring his feet and knees onto the sofa as well. He wrapped his arms around his knees, hugging them and resting his chin on top.
"I could be mysterious, and I would be capable of deception if I tried."
Ninja and spies could be deceptive and honourable, couldn't they? Yes, it was completely possible, Kyouya just wasn't thinking of this in the correct way. He let go of his knees, springing up quickly so he was now kneeling on the sofa, looking down on Kyouya with anticipation and excitement.
"I could be a great ninja or spy! They make their livelihood balancing both mystery and valor!"
He let himself sit back down on his knees and calming down a small amount. He still looked to Kyouya, eager for his reaction to this brilliant argument.
"Samurai have honour, not ninja," Kyouya replied, effortlessly smashing into Tamaki's idealism without an ounce of remorse. "And Mori-sempai already has that covered."
He didn't want Tamaki picking up a sword and swinging it around recklessly. He could get killed that way, and where would Kyouya's profit be?
"I'll ask him if I can attend some of the Kendo Club meetings! I would be an ideal pupil, and with a guest appearance from me I'm sure the Kendo Club's membership would soar!"
He shifted again where he sat, moving so he was sitting properly on the sofa once again. He looked over to Kyouya.
"Just say you're sorry, okay?"
He gave his friend a smile that said please. Until that happened it all still lingered just a little, no matter how distracted Tamaki got by other things. Once Kyouya said he was sorry, this disagreement between them could be forgotten.
Kyouya looked at Tamaki, his glasses opaque and his expression impassive. He hated that word. It was demeaning and, almost invariably, insincere when he said it. What did Kyouya truly feel regret for? It was a very short list of items. But to give Tamaki peace of mind, there were a number of distasteful things that Kyouya was willing to do.
Kyouya mapped out the grains on the table in front of them, then said, "It wasn't my intention to cause you any suffering."
It was close.
The smile faded away, replaced by a frown.
"A reason is not a justification," he said, repeating Kyouya's sentiment from earlier.
He wanted this to go away, and all that took was Kyouya acknowledging that what he did was wrong. Except he wouldn't.
"Accept that what you did was wrong and apologize."
"I'm not Haruhi," Kyouya retorted. It was unintentionally harsh, but he didn't like Tamaki commanding him. Trips across the country were one thing, but this was another. Part of it was control, or petulance, or both. Part of it was some small sliver of him that wanted to be honest, with Tamaki if not with anyone else. He had no regret for his actions, only for his miscalculations.
But he also wanted this gone. Not in his mind, of course. Kyouya did not forget. Perhaps Tamaki didn't either, but he did put things to rest, particularly if they were unpleasant. The words hung in Kyouya's mouth, because he could not say them outright without showing himself, clearly, not to mean them. On strangers, it would work perfectly. On Tamaki, it would be obvious. What could he say? Not that he wouldn't do it again---that was a lie---nor that he thought it was wrong---that was very untrue.
Kyouya stood up, sweeping up his notebook. "The course my actions took was regretful," he said. The leafs were brushing against the far window. "It will not be repeated."
He wanted that to be enough, because he wasn't sure he could twist anything else out. He hated the Plane.
"No. Haruhi wouldn't avoid the discussion or try to fool me into thinking she was apologizing."
Tamaki knew he could be naive about things at times, but he still could see what Kyouya was doing. He sighed again, tired, and stood up. Even if Kyouya just apologized for the way Tamaki had to discover this news, that would be enough.
"When you have something more to say on the matter let me know."
He moved towards the far corner of the room, away from Kyouya, and sat down at the piano there, absently playing with the keys but not committing to any song or melody in particular. He hated having these disagreements. Tamaki wished he could just force himself to forget it, but it still felt like nothing was resolved. It took too much effort to pretend everything was all right again, when it didn't feel like it was, and he didn't want to have to pretend those things with Kyouya.
Besides that, he thought, arguments make relationships stronger. He read that in a book somewhere. So maybe this was all very good, because once it was resolved he and Kyouya would be closer than ever. This might be a blessing in disguise, really.
"You do not ask Haruhi to do the impossible, and when you do, she is smart enough not to try to meet your demands." In that way, Haruhi had quite outdone Kyouya. She didn't strive to always please a frivolous, whimsical idiot of a boy. She simply was as she was without any expectations, and that was enough. But Kyouya's place demanded a performance. Sometimes, he enjoyed it. Rarely, he failed. He never enjoyed failure.
Kyouya walked to the piano and leaned over the side, so that all the keys (and the player idly tapping them) were at an angle to him and his vision, so imperfectly framed.
"I can’t regret trying to protect you from a dangerous person. You should know that." Kyouya watched Tamaki's hands and not his face. "If you promise not to get into trouble with others, I will tell you next time I learn someone is dangerous." It was hardly an ultimatum. It was just the best Kyouya had to offer.
"I don't ask the impossible of you."
He really couldn't think of anything that would be impossible for Kyouya to accomplish. The concept seemed foreign to him, and the argument a strange one for Kyouya to choose.
"You can regret the way I had to find out at the very least."
He absently played some more, his focus on the keys and not on Kyouya, even though he wasn't really playing anything at all.
"Why do you think I would try to get in trouble with them?" He finally looked up at Kyouya, fingers stopping where they were, but still resting against the keys, as if waiting to start moving once again.
"That, I regret a great deal." He pressed the pad of his finger down on a low note, holding it there, then looked up to meet Tamaki's eyes.
"Because," Kyouya said, "like Haruhi, you rarely understand the danger you are in. In Ouran, the worst that can happen is you will win the anger of a yakuza family. If your family is not enough to protect you from the consequences, my family's staff can cover that. This is not available to us on the Plane. If you offer your anger to dangerous people, they may retaliate. If you offer them your kindness, they may take advantage of it."
Tamaki wasn't truly an idiot. He was thoughtless and idealistic, but he had insight into people that could be quite startling. That wouldn't stop him from getting hurt. "I do regret not telling you earlier," he said, expressing another meaning with his reiteration. "I further regret that this situation with Diva has occurred."
He felt a weight lift when Kyouya said that. It was what he wanted, and now it felt like he could let go of whatever hurt feelings or anger he felt concerning Kyouya keeping this from him.
He gave Kyouya a small smile and let his fingers find the high note that matched the low note Kyouya held down. His gaze was focused once again on the keys, still not playing anything quite yet, just holding down that note for a few seconds. He finally released it, his fingers once again resting lightly against the keys. He looked back up at Kyouya.
"If you ignore them they continue acting the same way. How can you turn a blind eye to that type of behavior?
"I keep a very careful eye on it." Kyouya lifted his finger from they piano to give Tamaki free reign. Instead, he let his hands rest against the piano and hold his weight.
Yes, Kyouya kept an eye on this behaviour, but a third son learned very quickly that one never attempts something without the appropriate resources. Without the appropriate power. What was this Host Club but the best bid Kyouya had ever made to get him enough power for his desires? Oh, it was something he enjoyed, too, but it was an incredibly profitable pleasure.
"It is not within any of our abilities to prevent or stop the actions of dangerous people. Or are you a secret martial artist like Honey-sempai? Your power, Tamaki, comes from your charms and your money. Money could accomplish what you desire. Charm cannot. On the Plane, our money means nothing."
How badly he wanted Tamaki to understand their position.
His fingers curled up into the palms of his hands and away from the piano keys. His head remained bowed, eyes on the keys. He could understand what Kyouya was asking of him and why he wanted this from Tamaki. Kyouya wanted them safe, there was nothing wrong with that. Tamaki just wasn't sure how he was meant to ignore these things.
"I don't know how else I'm meant to react."
He looked up at Kyouya.
"What did you do when you found out about these things?"
"I said I could not agree with her actions but found them understandable."
Distantly, he calculated measures of pain and proportioned them to the angled bones in Tamaki's hands.
"What I always do when I find myself despising someone."
One day, with a smile, a glass of wine, and no words, he would thank all of his family for teaching him how to act around distasteful people.
"Why would you say you found them understandable?"
This entire discussion made him feel very ill. It seemed almost worse to look at these terrible things and say nothing. It felt as if silence was another way of condoning things that could not be condoned no matter the circumstances.
"Because I do not choose to fight murderers when I am trapped in strange places." Not that it had ever happened before. "And because I don't yet know the measure of her. If honesty endangers myself or my companions, I abandon it."
He knew Tamaki was suffering and could not think of any way to protect him from it. Perhaps he really was the mother of the group.
He nodded. "I guess so."
He released his fingers, letting them stretch over the keys once again. His head was bowed, watching his hands and the piano, but still not ready to commit to any melody, although his fingers seemed to seek out a nocturne of some sort.
He stopped on the end of an e minor scale, looking back up at Kyouya, the last part of his statement resonating.
"Do you think my honesty with her could have endangered any of you?"
Kyouya's eyes widened then. He had not even thought of that. Could Tamaki had endangered them? Yes. It was obvious to anyone that the Host Club was not just a random group of individuals. If anyone wished to hurt one of them, they could easily attack one of the others. If Kyouya didn't know Diva yet, then he couldn't say what she might do.
"It's possible," he said. "I don't know." Lying would have been nicer.
He opened his mouth to respond, but found no words came out.
He felt very lost then. This family he had worked so hard to create and maintain would be undone because of some stupid impulse of his. Kyouya knew better, Tamaki should have as well. The notion that he had put any of them in danger felt like too much. Was this that selfishness they had all mentioned to him before?
"I'll apologize to her and that will fix all this."
He wished that there weren't people like this, he wished that Diva didn't do the kind of things she did. He wished Diva never committed these crimes, and for a split second it had nothing to do with victims and everything to do with how difficult this all was now for Tamaki and Kyouya and this entire family Tamaki had created. He wished she hadn't done those things because then he wouldn't have to worry about potentially endangering this family of his. Her victims were almost secondary. He thought maybe that might have been a part of his selfishness as well.
Calm and almost disinterested, Kyouya said, "I would prefer if you not speak to her at all, if possible." Kyouya knew that he had almost immediately seized upon his friend's guilt and tried to use it to his advantage. He knew that this was in its way a cruelty to Tamaki, and that he should set himself to comforting his friend, not using his insecurities.
But how else could he protect them? Mothers keep their family safe, or something idiotic like that. For Kyouya, it was a matter of protecting his investments. "I think that would be our safest course of action. I'll need your assistance in telling Haruhi."
He would tell Kaoru all on his own.
Tamaki nodded. "I won't, I promise."
It bothered him then how easily one piece of knowledge could undo them all. He wished he didn't even know. It wasn't a pleasant feeling, knowing a person that could do those kind of things was out there right now. It was less pleasant knowing they could feel justified in these actions. Maybe it would be best to spare Haruhi and Kaoru from having to know. He wrung his hands briefly.
"Maybe we shouldn't tell them. It might be for the best if they don't know."
Fathers protected their children from cruel realities, didn't they? It wasn't wrong to try to protect them from this.
Kyouya had no nervous habits (they had all been trained out of him) but his mind felt like a pair of wringing hands. He did not enjoy doing this to Tamaki. He did not enjoy this expression on Tamaki's face.
"If she told you, what is to stop her from telling them? We need to inform them to keep them away from her." Kaoru he could trust to listen to that request. Haruhi... Haruhi was capable of surprising Kyouya. He didn't enjoy that in this particular situation.
Knowing he had to sit back and bite his tongue and avoid trying to right an obvious wrong was difficult. Knowing he would have to do that to Haruhi was almost even more difficult. He didn't like the idea of inflicting this kind of feeling of inner conflict on her. Kaoru he thought would know how to handle it better. Despite everything, he seemed to have a handle on knowing how to restrain himself. He was more like Kyouya in that way. Tamaki was grateful then that Hikaru hadn't come to this place with them. Even apart from this newest situation, Tamaki wasn't completely sure how they would have had to manage Hikaru in that type of environment.
"There isn't another way?" he asked.
He would be happy if Haruhi never had to learn about any of this. He understood then perhaps why Kyouya hadn't told him about this when he found out.
"Unless you can think of a suitable lie that would have the desirable outcome..." For Kyouya, though there was a slightly sickened feeling in his stomach every time he really thought of it, the victims were nearly inconsequential. None of that was within his sphere of influence. This crime Diva had committed---this crime of endangering the most profitable endeavour he had ever engaged in---was what he held against her.
Unlike most of his companions, however, he could smile, agreeable and polite, no matter what he was presented with. "If she finds out from us, we can control her response."
He was simply fortunate that Tamaki hadn't made the wrong move. A stupid oversight of Kyouya's to leave that opportunity.
His elbows moved up, coming down on the keys. He left them there and rested his chin in his hands.
"I don't want to control her response," he said, his voice coming out with a small whine to it. "I don't want any of this."
He couldn't help pouting. He looked up at Kyouya, his eyes wider and sadder and a touch more pleading than before.
"Make it go away."
Kyouya could do almost anything. If anyone were capable of fixing this situation for them, it would be Kyouya.
Without effort or intention, a soft and well-kept smile slipped across Kyouya's lips and stayed there, just for Tamaki, just to take that suffering away. 'Anything you want.' It was his old refrain. Yes, Tamaki kept asking the impossible of him. But Kyouya loved a challenge, and there was merit in supporting Tamaki's whims.
"I will." However he had to. "Stay away from Diva and I can."
And then, (for his first magic trick, this slow disappearing act), the edges of his smile shifted, hardened into something crueller, and he said in a voice with no mercy, "If you stop playing such discordant notes. You're going to break the piano that way."
He smiled when he saw that smile of Kyouya's. It meant everything would be taken care of and everything would be all right. Mountains could be moved and what was wrong could be made right. Kyouya would make sure of it and all this could become some distant pain that he could tuck away somewhere.
"You really are like God or Buddha!"
His eyes widened again though, traces of fear and remorse playing across them as he quickly removed his elbows. "I couldn't really break it that way! You're just making things up now!"
He played a short minute of Chopin, then smiled in triumph. "See, it's perfectly fine!"
"You only were lucky this time. If you break the piano in here, that will come out of your personal finances and not the club budget."
That was done. Somehow, now that Tamaki was to have no part in it, everything was easier. When the Shadow King could move without the real King knowing his actions, even challenges seemed less of a weight.
Tamaki looked completely aghast at the suggestion.
"I would never break a piano! I'm an expert with pianos and their care!"
As if to emphasize his point, he did a few scales gently up and down the keys.
"In fact it sounds better now! Earlier was just a new tuning method I've created and perfected!"
"What sort of lies are you trying to sell me now, deceiver king?" As he watched Tamaki's antics, he started guessing at ways and means of accomplishing the task set to him. Haruhi he could keep from Diva. How could he keep Diva away from the club? There was a way and if anyone could find it, Kyouya could.
(Tamaki's faith-without-reason was catching. Kyouya didn't think he'd ever find the cure.)
"I thought you said I was incapable of deception! You're just the king of contradiction!"
He began playing the piano again, partly to prove a point that it indeed did sound absolutely fine and partly because the action of playing was calming to his nerves from earlier. The anxiety had diminished greatly, due to Kyouya. He barely remembered that part of the reason for that anxiety to begin with was Kyouya. Kyouya had apologized and promised to fix all of this. That's all Tamaki needed to feel at ease once again.
"I'm going to invite Fuyumi to the club for your birthday. It will be fun for her to see how loved you are by everyone! She'll be able to relax and enjoy herself more than she would if she visited you at home, too."
"You're not inviting my family to the club without my permission." Despite Tamaki's fluid words, Kyouya didn't miss Tamaki's implication about Kyouya's home life. Tamaki certainly would not invite Kyouya's father or brothers. Just Fuyumi, the nice one. The one who got dark words whenever she returned home to see him.
With idle cruelty, he picked out ways of rejecting the entire proposal. "You will embarrass Haruhi by having a party with all of us together. She will not be able to afford a suitable present."
"Don't worry, Haruhi will be okay!"
Tamaki smiled, he had all ready taken that into consideration. He would just talk to Haruhi and try to convince her to give Kyouya some mementos and leftover objects he might like to auction off. He still wasn't sure what he would get Kyouya, but he could ask Haruhi for help picking it out, and then he could say the gift was from both of them. Problem solved.
"Anyway, Fuyumi really wants to see what you're like here in the club! Whenever I tell her about what you're like here, at times she can hardly believe it. Then again, she says you're different from your brothers too, so it's not too hard to believe. But she still wants to see it! She thinks it would be fun to see you with all your friends."
Kyouya's eyes narrowed. "When have you been talking to my sister?" The fact that Fuyumi and Tamaki had some bizarrely similar traits had not escaped Kyouya's discerning eyes. Some strange irrational part of Kyouya wanted to hit Tamaki for talking to Kyouya's sister. It had no real logical basis, but for a good couple of years, Kyouya had ceased to ignore his impulse to cause Tamaki physical harm.
Tamaki had about five seconds.
Tamaki's ability to sense hostility had somehow switched to off, as he remained cheerful and carefree. "Oh, we talk on the phone sometimes. And..." he stopped short, getting up from the piano so he could talk to Kyouya a little more secretively, despite the fact that they were alone in the music room. He pulled a map out of seemingly nowhere and showed it to Kyouya proudly.
"We have been going out to eat together so we can create a map of commoner's gourmet restaurants and treats!"
With great calm, Kyouya punched Tamaki in the shoulder. "You're a bad influence on her."
Tamaki shrunk away, rubbing his injured shoulder. "Bad influence?"
He sat down at the piano again, looking utterly dejected, and looking up every couple seconds to offer up Kyouya a pair of puppy dog eyes.
Kyouya easily destroyed the threat of Tamaki's puppy dog eyes by putting his hand in Tamaki's face, thus blocking out his eyes. "From now on, you are forbidden from any actions other than those necessary to survive and playing the piano. Everything else you do is too much trouble."
Tamaki flailed from behind Kyouya's hand.
"I am not trouble. Everything I do is aimed at making things more fun for everyone! You can't forbid a king from acting how he pleases!"
He stopped his flailing, pushing Kyouya's hand away so he could see Kyouya's eyes. "Anyway, most of the time we just talk about you. She likes getting to hear how you're doing. She worries about you, you know. You take on a lot of things. It must be really stressful to be a third son."
The puppy dog eyes were gone, and replaced with a small pleading smile.
"Maybe you can start to take it a little easier every now and then?"
Kyouya, at times, wanted to accuse Tamaki of having some sort of memory disorder. Was it not Tamaki who just demanded the near-impossible of him? Would it occur to Tamaki that he was responsible for a large portion of Kyouya's stress? The competitive third son of the Ootori family, quietly counting up the profit until he had the power to take his own family's company out from under their fingertips without any real effort, that was Tamaki's creation. Being a demon required a lot of effort, but it was worth it all.
At least the emotion in Tamaki's eyes was not pity. Just concern. "Not when I have to clean up after all of your messes." He didn't mean it at all.
"I don't leave messes to clean up! I'm very tidy in everything I do!"
The way Kyouya said this didn't give Tamaki any reason for true concern. There was still that instant reaction of outrage at the accusation, but nothing too serious. It was an emotional reaction and involved the standard flailing that really was inconsequential and would most likely be easily forgotten once this brand of teasing and torment was dropped.
This was the kind of flailing he was all right with, because there was nothing sinister or dark or difficult. There were no layers or consequences. It was simple and that was okay.
"Your forgetfulness makes you untidy. Shima-san must despair of you." It was nice, that equilibrium that sustained their daily lives. This was something Kyouya could maintain without effort. Kyouya did not support complacency, and yet...
He was content with this. Really, it was remarkably that Tamaki could flail around that much while seated at a piano.
"Ah, don't bring up untidiness around Shima! She'll make me endure a lecture for almost all of the weekend."
He calmed down then. He looked at the clock. He'd left Kogenai outside without much word of when he'd be out. Usually he would at least give him a call. He should give him and Shima a call.
"I should call her and let her know I'll be home shortly. Before I do, maybe I can tell her that we're going to have a birthday dinner for you at the second mansion? I can invite Fuyumi. We can celebrate with the rest of the club later. That way it can be a little more relaxed, just the three of us."
He felt badly for Fuyumi. He knew she wanted to be closer to her family again, but being married somehow meant she was no longer welcomed at home. It would be good for her to be able to spend time with Kyouya on his birthday, especially without her father and brothers there. He respected the men of Kyouya's family, but it was hard to be completely comfortable around them at times. It would be nice for brother and sister to spend time together without having to worry about the expectations the rest of their family had for them.
Kyouya hesitated, a slight indecision that would normally be masked by a smooth and gracious smile. Tamaki had earned more than a few of those back when they first met.
"I'd prefer that."
If Fuyumi did come home for Kyouya's birthday, she would have the common sense not to mention that she was at the Suou second mansion with Kyouya as well. Not, of course, that his father would protest Kyouya's presence in Tamaki's home on that day. But some things were better kept quiet in the Ootori household.
"Three birthday celebrations, then? I suppose it's acceptable."
Tamaki beamed at Kyouya, then leaped off of the piano bench, giving Kyouya a huge hug. He nuzzled him for a few seconds, then bounced back off before Kyouya could retaliate.
"This will be so much fun! You'll have at least three birthday celebrations! I'm sure the princesses will want to throw you one as well. Plus our class will want to celebrate the momentous occasion, too! It will be a day full of festivities to celebrate your birth!"
He bounced away, moving to his bag to pull out his cell phone. He happily called Shima, ignoring the small concerned lecture she gave him, and informing her that they needed to prepare for a birthday dinner for Kyouya.
He hung up, bouncing back over Kyouya's way, with his bag in hand.
"Shima says I need to go home now, but she said that the entire staff will get to work right away making the preparations! We'll have all your favourite foods! It will be lots of fun! They might even sing you a song!"
He tagged Kyouya's arm lightly, still smiling. "Come on and pack up so we can walk out together."
Kyouya shoved Tamaki's head away in a retaliation so mild that it almost insulted Tamaki's crimes. "It's not the Emperor's birthday, idiot." Kyouya's birthday had never been greatly celebrated, and not just because he was the unnecessary son. His family simply didn't put much occasion to it. Tamaki certainly cared about it far more than Kyouya ever had.
"I think we can limit ourselves to the three. Commoner's good sense."
"Only three?"
Tamaki backed away, dejection written all over his features. He wasn't sure how to limit it to three. They were all ready set on a birthday dinner with Dad and Mom and Sister. Surely the class would want to celebrate Kyouya's birthday, too. He was very popular, how could he not be? Then of course there were all their guests at the club. While he did enjoy all the princesses and classmates, it would be nice to have a celebration with just the hosts as well, where they didn't need to worry about entertaining anyone. Then of course there were Kyouya's other friends in the school as well, that fell outside of that group. Maybe they could throw a big party to include all those groups, but Kyouya still needed to celebrate with his Ootori family as well as his Host Club family. There would need to be at least four. Three would not work. He tried to calculate how to do this. Excluding any of the four events was unacceptable.
"Kyouya," he whined, moving back next to Kyouya and tugging on his sleeve. He looked at his friend pathetically.
"We need at least four."
He continued thinking, and then an idea dawned on him. He continued tugging on Kyouya's sleeve, this time more enthusiastically.
"I know! We can stretch them out over the week if you like! We can celebrate your birth week instead of just limiting it to one day! That way all the people who care about you can share in the happy occasion!"
Kyouya had no desire to understand what was going on in Tamaki's mind at that moment. "One is more than enough." He battled to detach Tamaki's fingers from his sleeve. "You're wrinkling my shirt."
Kyouya wanted to say it was the French in Tamaki, but Tamaki's father was not the most reserved man either. In other ways---in more worrying ways---he could hold back. But this sort of decadence had to be from him, if not necessarily from Tamaki's mother.
His eyes widened in alarm.
"Kyouya," he whined again, still tugging on the sleeve pathetically. "We need to have four."
If Tamaki resembled anything at the moment, it was a child pleading to his mother for a toy at the shops. He couldn't leave without this, he needed it desperately, at least for this moment. In time something else would come along and distract him, but for now this felt like the most important matter in his life. How could one limit themselves to only one party? That would mean someone needed to be left out, and the thought was horrifying.
Was it half-twisted material instinct? A weakness of character? Did Kyouya simply have a bad habit of giving in to Tamaki's every desire?
"Fine. Four."
On the contrary, it was Kyouya's good sense. If he set safe boundaries and gave Tamaki free reign, the results were bound to be profitable. Now that they had negotiated the number, Tamaki couldn't go back on it without violating a rule of honour Kyouya would make up, if called for. The Ootori family's celebrations would be muted at best, and events at Ouran were typically as beneficial to him as they were decadent. The party at Tamaki's house would end up being low-key simply because Kyouya could be as rude as he wanted in front of Tamaki and Fuyumi.
All in all, it was a positive result.
Tamaki released Kyouya's sleave, and clung onto him instead, enveloping his friend in another hug. He jumped off, bouncing still, grinning ear to ear.
"It will be a super fun birthday! Better than the year before or the year before that or the year before that!"
He was practically floating off the ground, so caught up in what kind of parties they would throw and what kind of presents and themes and surprises and it was all too much to think about.
Kyouya absently withdrew a pin and popped his balloon-esque companion with it. "If you cause me any trouble I forbid you from holding any birthday parties for me for the next thirty years."
Because while he knew Tamaki did all of this out of the kindness of his heart, he also knew Tamaki did this because he was extremely excitable and found it fun.
Tamaki fell back down to earth, offering a pout and puppy dog eyes to his friend.
"Kyouya," he whined, drawling out the syllables in Kyouya's name. "That's too harsh."
"Then you will need to be careful." Kyouya fixed Tamaki with a pitiless expression, throwing up his powerful mental barriers against the puppy dog eyes. "Or is the Host Club King not confident in his abilities?"
Tamaki's chest puffed out, as he stood taller than he had been. "Of course not. With my overseeing the planning, catastrophe isn't even an option. I will have to keep a careful eye on those doppelgangers, and I'll need to make sure to keep Honey-sempai from getting to the cakes too soon. Although, we might not even want cakes, since you're not very fond of sweets..."
Tamaki's voice drifted off as he began to mentally calculate what needed to be done to ensure all three events under his watch went off without a hitch. Shima and the household staff were overseeing the private dinner with Fuyumi, so Tamaki wasn't so worried about that. There was still the matter of the private party for the Hosts though, and the larger party for the entire school. He wondered briefly if Fuyumi might know what the Ootoris were planning for Kyouya's birthday, so Tamaki wouldn't repeat anything at any of his events.
There. That would occupy him for days. Even Kyouya had almost forgotten the reason for this discussion. And as Tamaki planned for extravagant and ridiculous events (with Kyouya carefully nudging things along, but not so overtly as to offend Tamaki's pride), Kyouya could work out schemes for dealing with the problems the Plane had given him.
"The only person I know who dreams while waking," Kyouya said, grabbing his laptop and notebook and slipping them into his bag so they could, finally, go home.
Re: ignore the account lol
no subject
the Goddamned MommanOotori Kyouya. He can depose governments at whim.no subject
Watch though, next time she will try and talk to Tamaki like nothing happened.
no subject
no subject
BUT SHE WILL THINK YOU'RE GAY
JUST LIKE RAY B|
no subject
And he's made enough money off of them to buy out corporations.
Subtext: the source of Kyouya's income.
no subject
BUT GUESS WHAT DIVA IS LOSING HER SELF-DISCIPLINE
so
o3o hi tamaki~~~
no subject
no subject
no subject
(but that icon....sooooo cute.)
no subject
IF KYOUYA WILL EVER LET HER TALK TO HIM AGAIN :|
no subject
no subject