At what price,love?

Chapter 4

~oOo~

The morning was a riot of color. Kyoya led Haruhi into the resort breakfast room where green plants adorned white pillars. Broad windows opened onto a cerulean sky accented by fluffy white clouds. Haruhi herself was dressed in a gauze broomstick skirt of graduating yellow, ranging from palest lemon cream to a sensuous goldenrod. Her top was artfully layered wine red chiffon. Sleeves that should have been long were slashed and flowed behind her like wings when she walked. Hikaru's design. Funny, only two years ago nobody could tell them apart. Now, the Host Club could get them every time and even tell whose work was whose. Haruhi again. Somehow she'd taken two people whose personalities were dangerously close to merging and turned them into distinct individuals, and she had done it without in any way lessening how close the two of them were. No wonder they were crazy for her. She'd curbed Tamaki's more manic impulses and provided him with much needed grounding while simultaneously luring Kyoya into mischief. How many times had he leaned over her shoulder and whispered "I'll cancel a third of your debt if you do this Haruhi...?" then drove himself to his most creative to find a way to add to her debt so she couldn't ever clear it. She became the little sister Honey and Mori had always wanted. Well, maybe not so much Mori. He looked at her with something other than brotherly affection sometimes. But he seemed unwilling to compete against his more flamboyant friends. Kyoya could sympathize. Whereas Honey might appear oblivious and carefree, but he was always the first to notice who interacted with her, and how they interacted with her. He didn't seem to care which of his close friends ended up with her, but it was definitely going to be one of his close friends. Nobody else was good enough for her.

The hostess seated Kyoya and Haruhi when a flash of blonde hair caught his eye. "Excuse me for a moment," he said. He left the dining room and found Tamaki and the twins by the front desk with their bags.

"Leaving?"

Tamaki shrugged. "That is the rule isn't it? We leave halfway through the date and you get the rest of it to yourself?"

"Thank you for this by the way," Kyoya said. "She never would have come if she thought I had been paying."

Tamaki nodded. "Sorry about the cats."

Kyoya looked at the twins. "And thank you for the clothes."

"We didn't do it for you," Hikaru said a little sourly.

"Nevertheless, they treat her better because she looks like she belongs. And I deeply appreciate that."

Honey and Mori came up. "Ready to go?" asked Tamaki.

"Do you think I could sneak back into the dining room to get one last piece of cake?" asked Honey.

"No!" they all said.

"If it's any consolation, the ice cream on the way out is pretty good."

Honey scrunched his face. Ice cream was not as good as cake. But it would do in a pinch.

"Oh and keep an eye on the weather," Tamaki said

"I've seen the forecast," Kyoya said. He searched for a way to smooth things over. "Next week, why don't we all have dinner together?"

"Around the kotatsu?" Tamaki asked hopefully.

That stupid thing was the ultimate symbol of friendship and family to Tamaki. "If you want," Kyoya answered. He looked over his shoulder into the dining room. "I should get back before she comes looking for me."

"Take care of her," Tamaki said in a soft voice.

"Always."

As Tamaki watched him go, he could hear the squabbling begin behind him. "A kotatsu is kind of redundant in a heated house, isn't it?"