Ouran High School Host Club Fan Fiction ❯ Pride, Arrogance and Vanity ❯ News ( Chapter 5 )

I once knew a girl in the years of my youth

With eyes like the summer, all beauty and truth

But in the morning I fled; left a note and it read:

“Someday you will be loved.”

You'll be loved, you'll be loved

Like you never have known and the memories of me
Will seem more like bad dreams;

Just a series of blurs like I never occurred.

Someday you will be loved.

“Someday You Will Be Loved” (Death Cab for Cutie)

 

A/N: Ah, so I've decided in the course of planning this out that the rating will have to go up. Not something I want to do but it can't be helped. It's just some of the language and a couple of drug references and sexual innuendos might offend someone and I really don't want to be reported or bitched at. If you don't like that kind of thing, I apologize in advance, but I hope you continue to read.

 

Other news: Most pairings have been decided and the poll results state that I'm going to tie in Kyouya and Haruhi's relationship in with this story! ….I think that's it….

 

 

France: 8AM, Suou Mansion

 

Tamaki sat down his morning paper from Japan and looked at his wife across the table. She looked back and raised an eyebrow, “Spit it out, Tamaki.”

He rubbed his eyes in a tired manner, deliberately prolonging the announcement, knowing that it would annoy her. When she finally sighed heavily and reached for the butter knife, he answered, “Kyouya Ootori is getting married.”

“Well now, that's a surprise.” Ayame pushed her glasses up higher on her nose and looked amused, “I thought his father hated Fujioka-san. I wonder what he did to get Ootori-sama to let them marry.”

“He isn't engaged to Haruhi.” Tamaki whispered and looked sad.

“What? Then who?” Ayame looked up from buttering her toast.

“An American heiress.”

“I doubt it. Tamaki, my love, as much as Ootori-sama wants his third son to inherit, he'd never let him marry an American. He hates them too much. Quit toying with me and finish your breakfast.” She resumed buttering her toast, as if that solved the matter. Tamaki, however, didn't agree.

“It's been arranged. The paper says that in order to inherit the Ootori fortune, he must marry. Remember when Takahashi-san sent in his sister's picture to Kyouya's father? That's what it was for: So that Kyouya could choose a bride. Kyouya must have chosen the only American who responded to the `summons.'” Tamaki smiled. “He has more of the Hitachiin twins in him than he'd like to think. He never does anything unless it amuses or benefits him, and lately it's been the first one he's been more concerned with.”

Ayame smiled at her husband. He had been a thorn in her side for years, until Haninozuka-san had asked her what she really felt for him. For a while she'd been angry with him for asking such a ridiculous question, until she had realized that it wasn't crazy at all. She loved him. In fact, she'd loved him since she'd first seen him. He'd just made her so angry that he flirted with other girls and made money doing it!!

“I wonder if I could call him and talk to him without getting my head bitten off. He'll want a friend but will never admit it, especially if he's being forced when he just came out of a serious relationship with Haruhi.”

"My dear, that was 3 or 4 years ago," She said with mild admonishment.

"Yes, but you and I both know he still feels the pain." They gave each other a look that said she knew perfectly well but just did not like to see it. "You know what? I think I will call him."

“Ah, Tamaki-kun, you are a good friend.” Ayame rose to walk around the long table to wrap her arms around him. “He would be glad to hear from you.”

“Do you really think so?” Ayame was rarely ever this caring and gentle, so Tamaki intended to get every compliment he could out of her while her mood lasted.

“Of course, you idiot. Now, pick up the phone and call. I'm going to see our daughter."

Oh, well, Tamaki thought, So much for that.

 

 

Sweden, Haninozuka mansion, 12 noon

 

“Haru-chan!” Hani cried as he looked over his own Japanese morning paper.

Haruhi looked up from her omlette questioningly. Why was he interrupting her breakfast? She'd been up four hours before the rest of them and was starving. They knew the deal: The Five of them slept late and Haruhi was not disturbed during her breakfast. “What?”

Hani huffed. He'd grown up over the last 12 years since the Host Club and no longer cried at every little thing that went wrong or at every rude comment. In fact, the darker side of him seemed to come out more often than not. Haruhi and Mori blamed his wife and her curses.

“Kyou-kun is getting married!” He looked shocked, and strangely unhappy and happy all at the same time.

“What??” Everyone except Mori shouted. Mori had already read the paper, and once he determined the pros and cons of telling everyone himself, he let Hani share the news.

“Kyouya? Married?” Hikaru scoffed. “Never. He has been too much of a cold bastard since Haruhi left him.”

“Hikaru!” Haruhi hissed. As much as she loved Hikaru, she didn't like the rude comments he made about Kyouya, no matter how badly he'd broken her heart. Kaoru sometimes made snide remarks, too, but never within what he believed to be her earshot so she could never quite make them out and call him out on them.

“Takashi, did you know?” Hani looked up at Takashi who nodded.

Everyone sighed, knowing what was going through his head: Let Hani do the talking. His cuteness will keep Haruhi from killing the messenger.

Sadly, he was correct in his assumption.

“It's too soon for him,” Mori whispered. The group sitting around the table nodded in collective agreement except Haruhi, who sat and stared into her tea.

“It's been arranged.” Reiko said calmly. They all turned, and began to ask how she knew such things, and she continued, “It says so in the paper. She was chosen from a list of women that his father deemed worthy to marry him and came over by plane about 2 days ago. His father is claiming it's a `love-match'”

With those words, she sipped her tea and went back to reading the spell book that rested next to her porridge bowl.

“Hani,” Kaoru whispered, “You sure picked a strange one.”

“Kaoru, Haruhi has disappeared,” Hikaru said lightly to his brother. His apparent lack of concern told his brother that this was not something that Hikaru knew how to handle.

“I'll go find her.” Kaoru slid his chair back and rose from it. He traveled down the long corridors of Hani's home and went to the place where he had always found her after their fights in any of their homes: The window with the best view of the garden. It was like her sanctuary. Even then, when she and Kyouya had been engaged, it was the place where she went to relax and think.

He'd followed her so many times that the shock of finding her here should have worn off, but still, there she stood after every quarrel or bit of bad news.

"My mother loved flowers," She whispered as Kaoru approached.

"Did she?" He rested his hand on the small of Haruhi's back. It was so routine, this following and listening. He followed and she spoke of her mother. The facts about her mother were different every time, but the location and order of events remained the same. Eventually, the facts about her mother slipped into why she was angry or upset.

Needless to say, Kaoru had learned a lot about Kotoko Fujioka since here daughter had been engaged to Kyouya. He had also learned a lot about Haruhi.

Thoughtful and just a bit naïve was their Haruhi. She was never angry with them without what she believed good cause. She was so accepting of everyone, even Kyouya's father when he had refused his permission for their marriage almost 4 years ago. That was the first time he had followed, as Kyouya had followed Yoshio Ootori and shouted that they couldn't stop him. The words she had spoken to him that day still stuck with him and he was sure that they always would:

"Okaa-san once told me that all things happen for a reason." There had been tears in her voice and her eyes. "If there is a reason for such a cruel thing then I don't know of it."

"I don't know of one either." He had responded. It had been their shortest conversation, but their most important. When she realized that it was Kaoru behind her and not Kyouya, Haruhi had buried her face into his sweater and cried.

"Oh, Kaoru, what am I to do? He just sat there, and stared like an idiot. He didn't even try to defend me. He claims to love me, but…" It was there that the strong-willed Haruhi Fujioka had broken down into wracking sobs.

"He does love you. He went after his father-"

"But not when I was in the room." Her voice iced over, and still tearful Haruhi turned to look at Kaoru, "If he cannot defend me now, what is he to do when he finally does get the courage to stand up to his father, who will then threaten to disown me? Do you really think I mean more to him than that stupid corporation he is to inherit? He will leave me, Kaoru, and there will be nothing I can do to stop it, because if I do I will never find work as a lawyer in Japan again. He will choose his inheritance over me; he is Kyouya and cannot love me more than it."

Kaoru could not believe the words coming from her mouth. She truly believed that Kyouya did not love her enough to give up everything to be with her, even though he had admitted as much to them before.

"I can't let that happen, Kaoru. I need to be the one to break this off. Otherwise, his life is in jeopardy and mine with it."

Kaoru's heart had broken for the youngest Ootori when she spoke those words, but part of him had rejoiced. He could love her. He could love her and give her so much more than she ever dreamed of. Now that he had given her the love that she needed, she broke his heart once more. This time, his heart did not break for Kyouya, but for her.

Haruhi stared out of the window and said, "Yes. We had a small window box that she grew wildflowers in every year. She said that life wasn't complete without beauty. Kyouya brought flowers to lay in offering every year after he learned that. He even swore to her in a prayer that no one loved me more than he did. But, he didn't. Now he is getting married. I told you that he did not love me."

"Stop lying to yourself, Haruhi." He said gently.

She turned to him and gazed thoughtfully before turning back to look at the gardens, "I would argue with you, but you know me better than anyone and whether I believe my own lies or not, you can tell when my truth is not always whole."

Kaoru smiled, and she smiled in return; a small smile, but a smile nonetheless. His world had been so small before her, as had Hikaru's. Hikaru's world was still small, but Kaoru's had widened enough to let him sense her emotions.

Haruhi spoke again, "It's so soon. I moved on quickly but last week Kyouya was still sending me emails and telling me he loved me. How could he get married so soon?"

"You heard Reiko-san: It's been arranged. You and I both know that what the papers say about it being a "love-match" is crap."

"Hmph."

Well, thought Kaoru, at least her mood is improving slightly. "Listen, Haruhi, the least you could do is give him a call and tell him you're happy. If he wants the world to believe it's a love-match, then you of all people should let him know that you fell for it. It will please him, to know that someone he believes to be just as brilliant as he is, if not more, fell for it, so that he can tell himself that the rest of the world will believe it, too."

"Kyouya is too smart for that."

"Not where you're concerned, he's not." Kaoru said cheerfully, "Now get your arse down the hall and make that phone call, my love!"

Haruhi sighed, realizing that, as usual, Kaoru had performed the difficult task of turning her bad mood into a slightly irritated, but better, one. One day, she would find out how he managed to do it, so that she could make herself immune.

 

 

A/N: My Goddess, the chapters get worse as I go! Argh! Constructive criticism is appreciated to the extreme!(As are rave reviews!!! hint hint. wink wink.)