At what price,love?

Chapter 21

~oOo~

The elevator door slid closed behind Kyoya and Haruhi, leaving five guys feeling oddly bereft. "They'll be back," Hikaru said to comfort his brother and the mushrooming Tamaki, "as soon as they realize they can't get through the lobby."

"They'll get through the lobby," Mori said.

The twins looked over at him. "You don't realize what the paparazzi can be like."

"No one will get within 20 feet of them," Mori said.

The twins clearly didn't believe him but Mori declined to elaborate further.

Honey gave them a funny look. "Takashi is right, I'm not impressed by that 'B' team that Kyo-chan assigned to Haru-chan, but Tachibana-san and his group were trained in martial arts by the Haninozuka and in security by the Morinozuka. They're as good as they get. Even Sato-chan and Chika-chan would have a hard time getting past them... "

"Also, I told the MI5 guys we were training yesterday their homework assignment was to keep the reporters away from the new 'Hitachiin Girl' for 24 hours," Mori added.

"When did you do that?" The twins demanded in unison.

"When Kyo-chan handed us his phone," Honey piped up.

Tamaki's mushrooms were overflowing the couch and spreading across the room. "Why does everyone get to follow them except us?"

There was a profound moment of silence in the room.

"Going out to breakfast does sound like a date to me..." said Hikaru.

"Definitely a date," agreed Kaoru.

"You know, Takashi," Honey said, "it wouldn't be a very good homework assignment if no one was there to grade it."

"Hn," agreed Mori.

~oOo~

The lights in the briefing room dimmed ever so slightly, focusing attention on Colonel Robert Miles at the front podium. "Listen up team, we have an unscheduled exercise to test our ability to adapt quickly to situations for which we have no advanced warning. This is a graded exercise and we will be evaluated on it." He flashed an image of a young woman with brown hair and enormous chocolate eyes up on the screen behind him. "This is our principal: 'the Hitachiin Girl' a.k.a. Haruhi Fujioka. Seventeen year old Asian female." He put up the pajama shopping photo. "Approximately 16 hours ago, she was photographed with teen idol Hikaru Hitachiin ..."

"My daughter says that's Kaoru," called a voice from the back of the room.

"Hikaru, possibly Kaoru, Hitachiin," the colonel allowed. "Because she was heretofore unknown, the media has gone into overdrive. They will be everywhere. For the purposes of this simulation, we are to regard the media as potential assassins, their cameras as weapons and our principal as their target." There were scattered chuckles around the room. "If they speak to her directly, that is scored as a kill. Every photo uploaded to the internet counts as a wounding shot. Five wounding shots count as a kill. Potential complication: The principal will likely be found in the company of this man." Col. Miles flicked another image up onto the screen. "Kyoya Ootori, youngest son of Japanese billionaire Yoshio Ootori, and as such he has 24/7 security. Their primary is not your problem. The media can photograph and harass him to their hearts' content. However," he flicked a picture of Team Kyoya up onto the screen.

"Jesus Christ, is that Seizaburo Tachibana?" said one.

"What the hell is he doing guarding a teenager? That man has done high-risk extractions and presidential details," said another.