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Warm, golden sunlight streamed through the windows while you walked through the hallway. It was quiet, though the sounds of your fellow students playing outside or being rowdy in their closed classrooms could be heard. You counted the steps of your shoes tapping on the marble floor while heading to the famous Music Room 3. You had heard of the stories about Music Room 3, with the Host Club and all that. It interested you, but only to a degree.
Your parents were worried you weren't being very social, and encouraged you to join a club or something. You didn't particularly like any sports, and you didn't want to put in effort into something like a book or art club. You made good grades, and participated in your class events, so you were a good student, just too lazy to bother yourself with the responsibility of a club. So, you decided that you would go to the Host Club and hang out for an hour after your classes ended. That way, your parents wouldn't worry so much.
The sign to the room hung above the door, signaling you were definitely in the right place. Not knowing what to expect, you took a deep breath in, grabbing the ornate handle and pushing it open.
Immediately, the scent of roses hit you, as well as the smell of freshly brewed tea. You blinked, looking around in interest. Of course the interior of the room was the same as the rest of the school, though there were multiple tables, chairs, and couches spread all around in the style of a café. You recognized the faces of a few girls in the room, as well as the hosts. Of course you recognized Tamaki Suoh, him being the headmaster's son and all. But you were only a first year, so there weren't a lot of people you knew in school yet. You hadn't gone to Ouran Academy for any previous schooling, but you were catching on quickly to who was who.
"Can I help you with anything?" There was a boy to your left who spoke up once you closed the door behind you. When looking in his direction, you found he looked vaguely familiar. Dark hair and eyes, with a pair of smart glasses framing his face. Who was he again?
"Uh, yeah," you began, suddenly feeling a lot more nervous. You were a stranger in this world, and you wondered if that was obvious on the outside. "I sort of just wanted to hang out and play on my phone. I'm not really looking for...conversation or anything. I don't know how this works. Like, at all. I don't really want to just hang out in the library, it gets too loud in there."
The boy looked at you, an eyebrow raised.
"Alright. I understand completely. I will be your host for the evening then, if you don't mind,” he said, gathering up a laptop and a few notebooks. You watched him for a moment before he gestured for you to follow him, so you did. A little ways from everyone else, there was a set of two couches and a table, where he set his things on. You sat on one of the plush, velvet couches, and he on the other.
“Would you like anything to drink or eat?” he asked, peering at you from behind his glasses.
“Thanks for the offer, but no,” you replied. He nodded.
“Alright, then. By the way, I feel the exchanging of names is in order. My name is Kyoya Ootori, and yours is?...”
Ah, crap. You knew this guy looked important, and he totally was. The Ootori group was extremely powerful, and you'd be in deep water if you ever crossed this guy.You felt nervous all over again, hoping you hadn't made a bad impression on him. Though, when you replied with your own name, he smiled.
“Good to meet you then. I believe I've heard about you before, but we've never gotten the pleasure of meeting each other in person before this. Thank you for coming to our host club today.”
“N-No problem. It's my pleasure, really,” you said, rubbing the back of your head shyly. You couldn't tell if it was just your imagination or not, but his expression seemed to soften ever so slightly at your response.
*
Going to the host club after class became part of your routine. It was awkward and a little weird the first few times, being stared at intensely by the other guests while you just sat across from Kyoya, not speaking or really even looking at each other. Even the other hosts, whom you assumed were Kyoya’s friends, stared at you as if you were some sort of alien. After the third time, you just had to stop paying attention to them, and tune out any whispering you heard. It didn’t seem to affect Kyoya, so why would you let it affect you?
Something you started to notice was that, as soon as you walked in, Kyoya was sitting at at the couches, waiting for you. He would glance up as the door opened, smile, and go back to doing his work. Did he know when you were coming, you thought to yourself. Did he just always sit there, and you joining him wasn’t a big deal? You couldn’t ask a question like that all of a sudden, it wasn’t that important anyways. But you did wonder about it. Did he wait for you?
Probably not.
A week after you started going to the host club, Kyoya surprised you while you were in the middle of typing a message to an internet friend. He set his work down, leaned back against the cushion of the couch, and looked at you with an interested expression.
“Why do you keep coming here?” he asked, rather bluntly. It wasn’t an aggressive question at all, he sounded genuinely curious. You blinked.
“Didn’t I tell you? I just wanted a place to hang out,” you said, but your answer didn’t seem to satisfy him.
“Yes, you did tell me that. I don’t understand it though. Except for our first interaction, we’ve hardly spoken at all. You do realize that our guests come here mostly for conversation, right? That’s what a host club is for.”
You opened your mouth to reply, feeling defensive, but there was nothing remotely rude about his curious expression. He was right. The very definition of a host club was a place to go for conversation. But you didn’t feel the need to talk to Kyoya, you just enjoyed his company while you relaxed. Even if you didn’t speak at all, you still had a good time in the hour spent with him.
“If I’m going to be honest, I just enjoy your company. I don’t have a lot of friends who live around here. In fact, most of my friends are people I met on the internet. It’s nice just being near someone who doesn’t expect anything of me,” you said finally, looking at him honestly. He quirked an eyebrow, just as he did the first time you met, but shrugged his shoulders.
“If it makes you happy, then I have nothing to complain about. Truthfully, I enjoy your company as well. You are certainly the most quiet guest I’ve ever had,” he said, almost playfully. You smiled, and before you had the chance to say anything in reply, he spoke up again. “Though, I hope you know, you can speak if you’d like. I’m not saying full conversation, but if you have a something to say, it’s not like it would be a bother for me to reply. That’s what I’m here for,”
“Alright. Then, I do have a question,”
“What’s that?” A small smile played at Kyoya’s lips, curiosity still prevalent in his eyes.
“What kind of cake is the host club serving today? I’m starving, and it looks delicious.”
*
“What’s your favorite color?” you asked suddenly one day, nestled in a corner of the couch with a book in your hands. Kyoya looked up from his work, unphased.
“Purple. Why the sudden question?”
“I felt curious. What’s your blood type?”
“AB.”
“Ah, isn’t that supposed to be unlucky or something?”
“Some who believe in such things say it makes a person have mood swings.” He replied contentedly.
“Huh. That’s not very fitting you, I don’t think.” You had always seen Kyoya as quite the calm and collected guy, never anything else. He smirked ever so slightly, turning back down to his laptop. You blinked, shrugging your shoulders and going back to your book.
*
When taking your usual seat one day, a few weeks later, you noticed an abundance of flowers all around the room. More so than usual, which was hard to beat anyway.
“Hey, Kyoya. What’s up with all the flowers everywhere? It looks like a florist’s shop in here,” you asked, trying to identify all the bouquets you saw.
“It was an idea of Tamaki’s. He said it would make the room feel more romantic and vibrant,” he said in response, tapping away at his keyboard. You nodded, getting out your own things when he suddenly stopped.
“My favorite flower is the rose. What is yours?” He asked, almost uncharacteristically. You paused to look at him, a little surprised.
“I like honeysuckle flowers! They smell really nice.”
“They do.”
With that, he went back to working. What a strange guy.
*
“You look absolutely terrible,” Kyoya said, his voice the most blunt you had ever heard it. You made a noise in response, plopping down on the couch and covering your face with your arm. You normally had pretty good manners, but right now, you didn’t care about looking polite. You felt as terrible as you looked.
There were dark circles under your eyes, and your entire face looked absolutely fatigued. In fact, your entire demeanor was just exhausted, from the way you walked to even how you were laying. You felt like you had been carrying around a thousand pounds of bricks with you, and that even more bricks were resting on your neck. A splitting headache made it a little hard for you to see, and all of these symptoms had just come on in the past few hours. You had woken up fine, but as the day went on, you began feeling more and more horrendous.
It had been about two months since you had made going to the host club part of your routine, and you had grown quite familiar with not only Kyoya, but the rest of the hosts too. You knew them all by name, and the same with you as well. But Kyoya was still the one you spent the most time with overall, and today was no exception.
“I feel terrible,” you said, just above a whisper. Today, the club wasn’t very full at all.
“Why don’t you go home then?” he replied, his brow furrowing in what seemed like concern.
“Don’t want to walk home. Can’t get a ride home for while. Kind of just want to die on this couch.”
“Please don’t die on the couch. That would look bad for the club.” Normally, you would have laughed in reply, but you kept still in that moment, which made Kyoya’s concern grow tenfold. “Okay, but really. Have you been to the nurse’s office? Do I need to take you there?”
“Not been yet. Too far away, yknow. Can’t I just lay here for a bit?” You mumbled this, turning onto your side to face him. Your eyes were squeezed shut, trying to block out the harsh light that was making your headache worse. You heard Kyoya set his laptop down on the coffee table, and walk around to where you were. Suddenly, you felt his cool hand resting on your forehead, then your cheek.
“You seem overheated. I’ll get you some water, and if you aren’t feeling well before the hour is up, I’ll see to it you get home myself.” He spoke very quietly as to not disturb you, and though at the time you didn’t quite comprehend what he was saying, he was being completely genuine.
*
“Kyoya, what’s wrong with that sleepyhead?” Tamaki suddenly appeared out of nowhere beside Kyoya, though he was hardly startled at all.
“That ‘sleepyhead’ isn’t feeling well. I’m getting them some water right now, they seem a little overheated,” he replied, grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge in the storage area. He looked at Tamaki, who had a dramatic expression on his face.
“Our guest isn’t feeling well?! That won’t do! We should take them to the nurse’s office immediately!”
“They seem fine just resting right now. Though, they might be more comfortable if they had a blanket,” Kyoya said this as he was passing by Honey and Mori’s table, casting a quick glance over to them. Honey perked up, his eyes shining with purpose.
“Give me just a moment ladies!” He said happily to the young ladies at the table with him. Within moments, he was carrying a light blanket with him over to you. Though, once he got to where you lay sleeping, he frowned. He didn’t want to have to throw it over you and adjust it too much, possibly disturbing you. He looked up at Mori, who had almost read his mind as he took the blanket from his older cousin. With extreme precision, Mori laid the blanket on top of you before giving Honey a thumbs up. Honey giggled, skipping back to his table where his teary eyed guests were waiting.
“Oh Honey-senpai! Mori-senpai! You’re so nice!!” They squealed in delight. Kyoya smirked, having now returned to his place across from you and looking quickly towards the twins, who had just begun some sort of story.
“Hikaru is such a baby when he’s sick! He whines and complains so much!” Kaoru hummed, leaning on his twin, who shoved him away in a bashful manner.
“I am not!” Hikaru protested. “It’s you who’s the complainer! You get a cough and you talk about how you’re dying!”
“You’re just saying that! Only I know the truth!”
“Come on guys, knock it off.” Haruhi grumbled, smacking the redheaded twins on the back of the head. Though you weren’t aware of what was going on, Haruhi was looking out for you and trying to redirect the conversation elsewhere. “You shouldn’t bring up a topic like that when a guest of ours isn’t feeling well.”
Kyoya smiled good naturedly, looking back towards you now that everything seemed to have been put in motion. It wasn’t a bother to him at all that you felt bad, but he did need to make sure that everyone else was distracted by the fact you looked just a bit out of place. Or, at least he needed to make sure you looked natural by getting the other hosts to seem comfortable with it.
Though you had looked troubled when you first arrived that day, your appearance now was much more relaxed. Your eyes were shut gently, and your chest rose and fell slowly, signalling you really were asleep. Kyoya tilted his head a little, drinking in the sight. He had never seen you so relaxed before, and it was a look that suited you nicely. There had been many times in the past several weeks he had considered inviting you to become a host, though you weren’t the best at conversation. Bit by bit, he was learning more about you with each visit, just through the few comments you made back and forth with each other, and he found himself almost eager to see you each day. There was a warm feeling in his chest when he thought about you, just as there was when thinking about his other friends. Though, somehow, this felt different.
You reminded Kyoya of Tamaki, in a way. You both were completely honest with your feelings, no matter what, and he admired that. Kyoya, on the other hand, had to keep his true feelings to himself in some cases, and didn’t feel as though he could be one hundred percent true to himself as you and Tamaki could. He smiled thinking about that. You had mentioned before that you thought Tamaki was a little loud for your tastes, which had made him laugh. He felt the same way as you, sometimes.
Though you weren’t aware of it, Kyoya stared at you for quite a long time, just watching you as you slept. He hadn’t meant to at all, and found himself internally flustered when he finally caught himself. Though he didn’t show it on the outside, he cursed himself out. If you keep this up, people will start to notice. That might be bad for the host club’s business if they think you’re interested in someone, he thought to himself.
He paused.
Was he interested in you?
He looked at you again, and your serene sleeping expression. Your face twitched ever so slightly while you dreamed, and he smiled. He could definitely watch you for hours, that’s for sure. And he wouldn’t mind meeting you outside of the host club.
He was pretty sure that was the definition of interested. But could he ask you out?
Maybe.