Christmas Party

[arthoniel]

Title: Christmas Party
Fandom: Ouran High School Host Club
Characters/Pairings: Kyouya, Tamaki, Haruhi... I guess there's Tamaki/Kyouya if you tilt your head and squint.
Warnings: None. I guess a warning for fluff...?
Author's Notes: Written for ang_the_adverse in the holiday_ouran Ouran Secret Santa exchange! Honestly, I think this is the longest fic I've ever written. Like, ever. It's not absurdly long or anything though... I usually just do drabbles, and this is just over 2k words. But still. It's a thing. Anyway, I tried something new while writing this, which is always fun... and hopefully it worked! ...And hopefully it's all clear. But anyway. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

 

Kyouya Ootori did not stir from the car seat he was sitting in, even though he had arrived at his destination. The weather was disgusting outside, an awful mixture of rain and snow as the temperature hovered at just around freezing, and he wanted to savor the car’s warmth for a few more moments before he would have to open the door and brave the elements. He finally leaned over and put a hand on the door handle, sighing. The wet drops that had fallen on his car door window slid down the glass looking like teardrops, and although Kyouya was not a poetic man, he could momentarily appreciate how the wet drops sliding down outside looked like the teardrops that were falling inside of his soul (which he did have, no matter what Haruhi not-so-subtly thought), born of having to deal with this miserable weather. For no one but his best friend, Tamaki Suoh, would he do this. And most of the time, not even Tamaki could convince him to leave his dry, warm, cozy home in weather this gross. It was dark and wet and cold. It would have been awful if it weren’t for Christmas.

With another sigh, he turned the door handle, and stepped out of the car. One of his men was there outside, holding an umbrella for him, and Kyouya took it with a word of thanks, waiting until his servant had taken out his own umbrella before moving. He started walking towards the entrance to Ouran Acadamy, considering how pathetic he had become. He had come all this way to his school, even though it was nighttime, simply because Tamaki had told him a few days earlier that he was holding a Christmas party, and he needed his best friend there. Kyouya had been dubious at first (Was this a Host Club thing? It was? But the date was for only two days before Christmas, right? Isn’t Christmas a time for family? That’s really why you set it for two days before Christmas, as opposed to Christmas Eve or Day? But was a big, Host Club affair really something they ought to be doing over break? Oh, it was supposed to be a small, intimate gathering? It was really only supposed to be for the immediate Host Club members- by invitation only? And Tamaki had really organized it all himself? That was actually possible?) but Tamaki had managed to convince him to come, and so… here he was. Why Tamaki had felt the need to hold it at the school with its giant rooms for what was going to be a small party, he didn’t know… but he had given up trying to figure him out.

The moment he entered the central ballroom that Tamaki had told him to meet the rest of the club in, he instantly knew that he would have to quiz his friend later on the definitions of the words “small” and “intimate”. Instead of places set for himself and the other six Ouran High School Host Club members to relax and eat in, he found a full ballroom set up and ready for dancing in, along with easily enough dancers to fill it. Female dancers. Customers. This is not what Kyouya had been expecting. And although he, obviously, handled the situation with all the grace and charm expected of one of the Ootori family sons (quieted down the fans of his that got excited at his entrance, gave them all his compliments, and quickly retreated to some side room that was clearly meant for Host Club members only), he was very much less than pleased, and under his breath he muttered ceaselessly about what an idiot that Tamaki was.

Having no idea about the current emotions of his dark friend, on the other side of the room that idiot was surveying the room before him with pleasure. Everyone seemed to be having so much fun! So many of the lovely princesses had smiles on their faces, and seeing them all made him happier than almost anything else could. His happiness was nearly complete when his lovely daughter (Although he would never call Haruhi that here- he wasn’t stupid!) approached him, in her host disguise but still looking as herself as ever. The only thing that could have made it better was for Kyouya to be there already too! But then Haruhi started talking, and he leaned over to listen to her.

“Uh, Senpai?” she began.

“Yes, Haruhi?”

“Did you see Kyouya come in just now?”

“Oh, Kyouya’s here? Wonderful! I was wondering when he’d get here!”

“But Senpai… he looked really annoyed.”

“Huh? Annoyed? Why?”

“Well, I dunno, but he walked in and he got that look on his face like he wasn’t expecting something but wants to hide his surprise, and then went into the East Sitting Room.”

“Huh? What look are you talking about, Haruhi?”

“You know the look he was wearing when you told him that you wanted to turn the third music room into a temporary beach, with a wave pool and everything?”

“Yeah?”

“That look.”

“Oh. Well then, I better go find out what’s going on! I need Kyouya to be here for this, after all!” Tamaki said, and began striding off across the room. Haruhi began to follow him a step later, and began to speed walk to keep up with him. One of the many disadvantages to her height, or lack thereof, was that every step he took was about the same as a step and a half of hers.

“Um, Senpai?” she began as they were walking. “How did you describe this party to Kyouya when you told him about it?” she then asked, remembering how Tamaki had described it as a “small dance party with only a few people there, not very much actual dancing, but a wonderful buffet table” to her, and it had clearly turned out to be more than a “small dance party”.

“I just told him what it would be- a small Christmas party for the Host Club and our friends!” he told his “daughter”, an oblivious smile on his face.

“I-If you described it that way, don’t you think he might be a little angry right now?”

Tamaki stopped walking and turned to Haruhi, surprised. “Angry? Why would he be angry?”

“This isn’t exactly a small party, Senpai. Look at all of the people here!”

The Host Club King looked concerned and thoughtful for a moment, but then he smiled almost patronizingly at his newest Host. “Haruhi, you grew up in poverty, but this is small for a high society party! Kyouya obviously knows that- I’m sure he’s not angry in the slightest!” he said before beginning to walk towards the sitting room again, Haruhi following him once more, attempting still to protest against the upperclassman’s ignorance.

This was not “small for a high society party”, and Kyouya was indeed angry. Back across the dance hall in the sitting room, he paced, talking to himself, trying to get his emotions out so his nerves would be calm later.

“That idiot, coming up with this whole extravagant ball and calling it a small party! When he said he’d organized it himself, my intuition told me that coming here would be a bad idea… well, next time he says something like that and my intuition speaks, I’ll know to-”

“Listen, Haruhi!” Tamaki said as he continued walking towards his best friend. “Even if he didn’t expect it to be this size, Kyouya’s constantly organizing this kind of thing for the Host Club, right? So there’s no way he can be angry! He loves this kind of-”

“Stuff his head down a toilet!” Kyouya said angrily, continuing in his tirade, finishing his list of threats of things he would do to his club’s president once he got a hold of him. “I don’t care if it’s classless or something that only commoner bullies normally do, he deserves it! And if I do that, I’m sure the rest of the Host Club will also want to come and-”

“See over there, Haruhi!” Tamaki mentioned to the short girl beside him as they drew ever closer to the East Sitting Room- only a quarter of the ballroom away now. He gestured towards a fairly large buffet table, covered in dishes of wonderful foods that Haruhi had barely even dreamed of trying. “That buffet has all sorts of good food on it, including some of Kyouya’s favorite things! He can’t possibly be mad after seeing that! And I think there’s some fancy tuna there too, if you want to try some too! I know that that’s something you’ve-”

“Wanted to just stay at home, but no, I can’t do that- it’s nearly Christmas! I already knew that he had a habit of getting the stupidest ideas in his head, but this need that he had to be together for this over-commercialized holiday is possibly one of the stupidest! I wouldn’t even be here if I didn’t know that he wouldn’t just come crawling over to my house if I refused with those puppy-dog eyes. The ones where he always manages to get what he wants, somehow. It’s just ridiculous too, how he knows he can get nearly anything he wants if he just gives me that-”

“Look the sitting room is right there! I didn’t even notice it was so close!” Tamaki turned to her slightly and smiled knowingly when she tried to argue one last time, to try to finally convince him that Kyouya would be angry, and spoke before she even had the chance to get anything real out. “Haruhi, Kyouya is my best friend. I know that he-”

“Just-”

“Does-”

“Not-”

“Want-”

“To be-”

“Here you are, Kyouya!” Tamaki said, bursting through the door. “I was wondering when you’d get here, and then Haruhi told me that she saw you come in through the doorway and then go into this sitting room, and she said that she thought you might be angry, but I didn’t know what she was talking about, and besides why would you be… oh you are angry,” Tamaki said all in a rush, not noticing the murderous look on his friend’s face until the end.

“Tamaki…” Kyouya began in a dark voice that even Tamaki Suoh couldn’t mistake. Haruhi even took an inconspicuous step back, not having seen Kyouya in his full “Dark Lord” mode before. “…You could have told me that this was a formal event. I would have worn something much nicer if I had known.” Haruhi blinked in surprise, but Tamaki just grinned, thinking nothing of what just happened.

“Oh, I’m sorry, you’re totally right, Kyouya! But if you want, you can just use one of the old suits from the Host Club storage- I’m sure there’s something in there that’s nice enough!”

“I’m sure there is too, Tamaki.” He looked at his closest friend, and then briefly at Haruhi. “Shouldn’t the two of you get back out to the main party, though? Being two of the Hosts, I’m sure you’re missed by the girls.”

“You’re right! Haruhi, we’ve got to get back out there! Alright then Kyouya- we’ll see you out there the moment you’re done changing! Haruhi, let’s go!” And with a grab of Haruhi’s wrist and a flare of exuberance you couldn’t realistically find in anyone else, the pair of them were gone.

Kyouya walked over to a nearby couch and sat down for a moment. That idiot. He should be mad at him. He had every right to be mad at him. But… he just couldn’t do it. Tamaki may have been a moron, but he was the most well-intentioned moron on the face of the Earth, and no matter what he did, like always, Kyouya could never get permanently angry with him. He turned his head to look at the doors that lead to the ballroom, and, muffled through the door, he could hear some musicians begin to strike up a dance- a waltz. He chuckled dryly to himself before getting up again, intending to go to the Host Club storage and find a suit.

“You better appreciate this Tamaki… I won’t be so nice about your idiocy next time.”

There was a window next to the door leading into the hallway connecting to the clubs’ storage rooms, and as Kyouya passed it, he noticed that it must have gotten colder outside, because instead of the rain/snow/slush that had been coming down earlier, it was purely snow now. There weren’t any wet drops on the window, either.

Kyouya passed through the door, giving one more look back to the direction of the ballroom.

“Merry Christmas, Tamaki,” he said quietly and to himself, so no one would ever hear his lapse into real emotion. “…You idiot.”