Work Text:
it was roughly 9:00 o'clock when tamaki burst the door of his bedroom wide open and zoomed down the stairs, stumbling on his way. or at least he tried to, only to find himself frozen at the door, his leg in the air and his hand stuck on the door handle behind him. he couldn't move, it was like time stopped. why?
because he caught a glimpse of a figure right outside his door, just on his left, the ever-familiar maid uniform of his household. a figure he immediately recognised, standing with a cart of dirty and clean bedsheets.
the figure had been his new maid whom he'd only had a handful of conversations with (if their exchange of words could even be called ‘conversations’, mostly consisting of requesting her to do things), and who somehow had caught his attention within a few days of her arrival. so much so he’d made a nickname for her.
and if there was one thing tamaki had come to realise in the past six months, it was that his type was plain girls.
not that the woman before him was ‘plain’, but she had to be, to keep her job; all women working for the suoh household needed to keep their accessories to a minimum, their hair tied, their nails short and any body modifications hidden. and that's how tamaki liked it.
"are you leaving, mr tamaki?" her voice snapped him out of his little trance. he blinked quickly and brought his foot down to the floor, not able to get his eyes off her. "shall i clean your room?"
"ah- ah, yes. yes i have to go and- wait, wait! i'm late for school!" he suddenly remembered and put his legs to work, letting go of the handle and sonic sprinting down the stairs to exit his house. before the woman could utter another word, he was gone.
she simply shrugged, pushed the cart in tamaki's bedroom and sighed at its state. tamaki wasn't too messy of a person, but when he was in a rush he tended to throw his stuff everywhere in his search for outfits.
‘jeez, this boy.’ you thought.
the floor below your feet wasn't dirty, it just had stuff. stuff you'd have to pick up and put in their place, as if you were some sort of maid. well, you were, but you still felt that you had the right to complain.
you lowered yourself to pick up one of the shirts and ended up cracking your back, rolling your eyes at how much this job stressed you out and made you feel old already.
as you tidied up all the clothes that needed to be put back in the closet, your ears picked up the (expected) slow thumping of footsteps reaching the bedroom door, before there was a soft thud heard of a body falling on the bed.
“did you figure out it’s may 1st, mr tamaki?” you asked the boy without turning to look at him. usually that would be considered rude, but tamaki had stopped caring about being formal with you. you didn’t understand why, but at least it probably meant you were doing something right. right?
he let out a small “mhmm…” groan in response. he felt embarrassed at how weirdly often he confused his school days with his vacations. “i’m tired…” he murmured in his pillow, and you finally turned to look at him.
he actually did look a bit tired, having fallen face-flat on his bed and burying his face into his sheets with his arms limp next to him. you felt a bit awkward, so you turned back to your tasks.
“you can always sleep again, mr. tamaki. i’ll let you be.” you reminded the boy, to which he frowned. he liked having you in his room. he didn’t want you to leave, but he didn’t want to say that.
“how many times have i told you not to call me that?” his lips made a weird shape.
“right. sorry, mr. tamaki, but if someone heard me talking to you informally, i’d be fired on the spot. i’ve said this many times but—” you gave him a smile which he probably didn’t realise was sarcastic, “—i like my job.” you reminded him.
“…but yniee…” tamaki whined childishly, using the nickname he’d made for you which he knew you found gross, and stared at you with puppy eyes.
you put the boy’s remaining clothing in its place and turned back to bow your goodbye and let him rest.
poor tamaki didn’t know you’d lied; you didn’t particularly like your job, honestly it felt quite degrading at times, but you did need it.
truth was, the opportunity to serve the suohs had seemingly fallen from the sky for you. you’d lost your job — your boss had started laying off workers before he went completely bankrupt — and your landlord announced she’d be raising the rent and your monthly college payment was coming up as well.
you, though majorly ashamed, had asked your parents to let you move back in with them temporarily while you searched for a new job. not your proudest moment, considering you’d made a whole fuss about moving out when you turnt 18.
regardless, your parents tried their best to support you. however, losing your home and job all at once took a bigger toll on your mental health than they were prepared for.
so, after about a month of your jobless depression routine, your friend invited you out for a bite to try and help out a bit.
“by the way… about that job of yours.” she got your attention. “i talked to my parents about it, and—“
turns out, having wealthy friends has a lot of perks. one of them being, them casually (?) knowing one of the richest families in japan, and also coincidentally knowing that they’re looking for new staff (??).
it ticked you off a bit when you learnt what the job position was, but beggars can’t be choosers, can they? especially when the salary is thrice what they got in their previous job.
that’s how you ended up in front of the comically gigantic mansion of the suoh family, your eye twitching when it was revealed to you you’d specifically be serving the ‘young master’ of the house - a boy almost four years younger than you.
“if anything, he should be calling me senpai!” you remembered murmuring one day, receiving a glare from another maid who hadn’t talked to you since.
back in the boy’s bedroom, you moved to grab the handle door but were immediately stopped by him.
“make my bed.” he tried to command but it honestly came out as a pathetic whine, since he never tried ordering you around out of intimidation. usually his ‘commands’ included a small “please”. maybe he really was tired? or you annoyed him with your refusal to be informal with him?
(in reality he was just trying to seem dominant and failing. you hadn’t done anything.)
taking another glance at his room, you noticed things you hadn’t before; mainly wrappings from foods he’d probably binged on the night before while playing some otome game - you don’t know how he even knows what those are. you look back at the boy whose face is still buried in his pillow, only slightly raising his head so he could look at you with one eye, and shake your head.
“you’ll have to get off for me to do that, mr ta—“
“it’s tamaki.” he frowned.
you stayed quiet for a couple of seconds.
“okay. you’ll have to get off for me to do that… tamaki.” you hesitated, anxiety pulsing through your veins at the thought of crossing the line as a servant. sure, under any other scenario you wouldn’t be in trouble, but—
wordlessly, tamaki brought his hands to lift himself off the mattress, stepping off and dusting himself clean as if he hadn’t just been acting like he’d been working in the mines all night.
he didn’t turn to look at you, because god forbid you notice his cheeks staining with a pink hue at the informal language, and cleared his throat before walking to the chair of his desk. you couldn’t lie, it felt weird and uncomfortable to have your boss stay in the room while you did your tasks, but you couldn’t exactly kick him out.
while changing his bedsheets and fixing his covers, you sneakily glanced at him, only to find him staring at his hands on top of his crossed knees. they were turning red from the cold.
you’d be damned if you’d dare let a suoh be cold.
“…tamaki.” you hesitated, “shall i bring you some mittens? you look cold.” you offered. “or maybe i should just turn on the air conditioning?” you asked yourself.
the boy looked up at you momentarily, suddenly feeling bold. he licked his dry lips nervously and went for it.
“i’d rather you warm me up instead.”
he was a host after all, wasn’t he?
“pardon?” you did a double take, eyes widening at his words, hoping you’d heard wrong or misunderstood. “uhm… i apologise tamaki, i think i misheard you.” you gave a nervous smile.
“i said, i want you to warm me up instead of some mittens.”
oh no. nope, nu uh. you were not about to lose your job over a kid.
“i’m afraid i can’t do that, mr. tamaki.” you swallowed.
“didn’t we agree on dropping the formalities?” he cocked his head to the side and smiled widely, and somehow you felt mocked.
your mouth opened to respond, but words didn’t seem to be able to escape, so it just closed again. you cleared your throat, trying to get away from the weird situation that’d just been created. you bowed again and turned around to continue cleaning up the remaining mess, while tamaki sat up and dropped back on his bed, watching you lazily.
jesus, that stupid boy.