The Mask Maker

Part 2: The Game is On

It was a cold autumn day, half way through October. In between being commissioned for costumes for Halloween I had been drip feeding wrong and conflicting information to the right people knowing it would get back to Kyoya. I started and ended rumours, I told lies and half truths. Because so few people knew my identity to begin with I was in complete control. My world was one of my own creation as was my identity and the way people perceived me. The real kicker?

Kyoya Ootari and I were classmates. We shared a majority of our classes (except for the fact I was taking the art elective).

It was glorious. I got to watch as he tried so hard to figure out how I was, only for all of his theories and ideas to completely unravel. I always sat around the middle of the room, knowing both the very back and the very front would be suspicious. Outside of my costumes and my masks I was smart but not unremarkably so. I kept to myself for the most part but had enough connections (I wouldn't count them as friends) to protect me. I was an average, unnoticeable, unremarkable student.

He didn't suspect a thing.

Every day I would see him taking down or crossing out notes, gradually getting more and more frustrated. I thought eventually he would leave it alone and stop caring because there was nothing I had to offer him. Throughout the year I had helped out with various things for the club and been commended for my work, such as helping out (and then laughing my ass off) with trying to keep Haruhi here. I had costumes I had made for the drama club that they had asked to borrow, approaching the abandoned art room I worked out of with more caution then really nessecary. I was harmless, really, but Kyoya still didn't know who I was.

And so to find me at the Hitachiin twins mansion, working with their mother (mask in place of course) must have been a shock. I watched as he and the rest of the club waltzed in to find the twins, only to come across the two of them messing with me as I tried to sketch something out for their mother for her Halloween line. She had needed an extra pair of hands and after hearing about me from her two sons she had asked them to approach me and I had been working with her for the past month or so. The room I worked in was like a large living room that had been turned into a studio and I was loving it.

"Why do you keep your identity hidden?" One of the twins asked as I had arrived that day

"We know what you're doing. You can't keep people out forever. It's a game to you now, isn't it?" The other asked

I had one twin either side of me, one sitting on the desk I worked at and the other draped dramatically across the floor beside me. After trying to fool me with their weird "Twincest" act and failing way back at the beginning of working with the family they had become almost friends of mine. I laughed at their questions and put down my pencil to roll out my shoulders and crack my neck.

"You're right, it is a game," I said with a laugh "A game that I am in complete control of. My world is my own and Kyoya Ootari keeps trying to conquer it. It's like I'm the final boss and he's trying to figure out how to fight me but every other player and NPC are just giving him misleading information."

The two boys laughed and ran over as the host club arrived. I nodded at Kyoya with a smirk, and he gave me a small head tilt back. Our usual exchange was broken when he excused himself from the group and made his way over to where I had gone back to work. He watched me for a second, observed the way I moved and worked. I let him, well aware of his presence but not acknowledging it.

"You can't keep up appearances forever," he stated, but I kept working "I will find out who you are (f/n). Working with the Hitachiin's was not a smart move on your account."

At that I looked up with a raised brow. I leaned back in my chair and crossed my arms across my chest. Despite his bold declarations and emotionless demeanour I could tell he still didn't have a clue. I laughed a little to myself and watched as his shoulders slumped, almost unnoticeably. He thought he had me figured out, thought he could bully the information out of me. There was no way.

I moved my eyes to what I could see from just behind Kyoya. The other members of the club were playing around and joking on their own but had not moved from the position that Kyoya had left them in, like they were waiting for him. Despite his uncaring demeanour he cared for them as much as they cared for him and they wouldn't start anything without him.

"I think the others want you," I simply stated, shifting my (e/c) eyes back to his own dark, unblinking ones "You should join them, Ootari."

And with that I turned back to my work, bowing my head but secretly watching him retreat through my lashes. I had him more figured out then he had me that much was clear.

Kyoya's POV

I still knew nothing about her. I had been chasing my tail trying to find out something, anything, but if anyone did know anything no one was giving anything up. Any time I did manage to get information out of someone it all clashed or conflicted. Between rumours and fake information it was hard to tell what the truth was and what was real or not. She was prolific in the school for her work I knew that much, but that was also all I knew.

I didn't know her name, her age, who she was friends with, what year level she was in, what her parents did or if she was a commoner here on scholarship. What I did know was the carefully crafted, cocky persona covered by a mask. And yet she somehow had figured out how to read me better then almost anyone I had ever met. I had to keep my facade up stronger around her then anyone else.

When Tamaki suggested bonding exercises for the host club outside of club hours I was sceptical but decided to go along with it. It might be an oportunity to get some new, less expensive ideas flowing. Because of how busy Hikaru and Kaoru were with helping their mother with her Haloween line it was simply more efficient to meet them at their home. What I didn't intend on was seeing her there, working alongside them and almost getting along. She had a twin either side of her as she was hunched over a sketch. When the twins bounded over to us I excused myself and stepped away, moving closer to the masked woman at the desk. This time is was a beautiful (f/c) half face mask and matching hair. I watched her work for a while, waiting to see if she would acknowledge my presence but eventually loosing patience.

"You can't keep up appearances forever," I stated, but she kept working "I will find out who you are (f/n). Working with the Hitachiin's was not a smart move on your account."

I thought maybe I could bluff my way into information. At that she simply let out a small laugh and leaned back in the chair she had been sitting in, crossing her arms and raising her brow at me. I felt myself deflate a little and she must have noticed because she smirked at me, shifting her eyes to look past and behind me at the others who had clearly chosen to wait for me.

"I think the others want you," she simply stated, shifting her (e/c) eyes back to my own "You should join them, Ootari."

I felt her eyes on me as I turned on my heal and retreated, but when I looked back she was hard at work once more.