FicWad

Save the King

"I leave that idiot to you," Kyouya said, and he was proud, so very proud, that his voice did not shake.

Haruhi's already-large eyes widened as he pushed her upwards towards the carriage. Hikaru caught her, pulling her inside. They would get Tamaki back, Kyouya told himself silently for the third time in the past ten minutes. They were the only ones who could.

And there was suddenly a voice in his ear, a harsh "What are you /doing/?!" before Kyouya found himself in midair and thrown bodily into the carriage. He turned, gaping involuntarily when he saw Mori-senpai's hard glare and Honey-senpai's frown.

"You shouldn't entrust other people to get back what you love most, Kyou-chan," Honey-senpai said, and his voice was low, serious. There was none of its customary playfulness in it.

"What are you-" he started to say, but then Hikaru whipped the horses and he was thrown backwards into the carriage, nearly landing on Kaoru and Haruhi. They both gave him a smile, and Kaoru grabbed his arm, pulling him into the seat beside them.

"Honey-senpai's right, Kyouya-senpai," Haruhi was smiling, and there was something that almost seemed like encouragement in it. Kyouya thought that he must have looked ridiculous, gawking at them with his mouth open like that. He closed it with a snap, then opened it again to asked them just what were they thinking, and didn't they know that they had just ruined his plan?

Never mind that he had only came up with this so-called plan just seconds ago, in the car park when they were surrounding by his own family police.

"Tono's an idiot/," Hikaru growled out suddenly, and Kyouya blinked as the carriage speeded up. "We have to bring him back, we /have to."

"Hikaru..." Kaoru said, and Kyouya could swear that there was a small amount pride in that voice. Pride and worry.

"If he hadn't shown up, Kaoru and I would have been left behind by the world. We wouldn't have made the friends we have now. It's because of the host club, because of tono, that we met Haruhi. For that host club to end just like that..." Here, his voice became choked, and he closed his eyes. "I don't want that to happen!"

"Hikaru, be careful!" Kyouya shouted, grabbing at the reins. But it was too late, the carriage tripped over a large rock, and Kyouya cursed loudly as the thing balked, flying over the terrain. He grabbed at Kaoru and Haruhi, the only two he could reach, and watched in horror as Hikaru was thrown off, falling into a pumpkin patch.

"Hikaru!" Kaoru screamed, struggling against his grip. Kyouya let both of them go, and saw Kaoru tearing through the grass to reach his twin, Haruhi following close behind him, holding up her skirts.

"Damn it, /damn it/!" Hikaru was hunched over, holding his right arm to his body. "Are we going to end like this... tono!"

Tamaki.

It all led back to Tamaki, didn't it? Kyouya narrowed his eyes and didn't laugh, looking up to the setting sun. They all came together because of that idiot and now... Now, they were breaking apart, crumbling into pieces all because of that very same idiot.

Irony at its finest.

The reins were still in his hands, there was another plan forming in his mind. A much more reckless plan, one that would be more benefiting of the Host Club's King instead of its Shadow King. But that was the whole problem, wasn't it? The King was gone, and now it was time for the Shadow King to step out of his shadows to take the reins, to bring the King back.

Without the sun, there wouldn't be any shadows. With /Tamaki/, there wouldn't be a /Kyouya/. Everything is cyclic in this way. One thing leads to the other; a force applied to this end will cause an effect on the other.

In the beginning, he was planning to give Haruhi the reins, to let her save Tamaki, because he believed she could. But now she was worried over her friends, over Hikaru's broken arm. Only Kyouya remained, and if he didn't take the reins now, there was a high probability that Tamaki would be gone forever. But if he took the reins, he could bring Tamaki back.

For one of the very few times in his life, Kyouya decided to be selfish and follow his emotions instead of his logic.

"Kaoru!" he shouted, climbing over to the driver's seat. "Take care of Haruhi and Hikaru! I'm going to chase after that idiot!"

It was only when the carriage was moving, rocking almost unsteadily over the rough, unpaved roads that Kyouya realised that he had no idea how to control the horses. He gripped the reins tighter in his hands, urging the horses to go faster even though his logic told him to slow down or he might be thrown off. He ignored his logic with some effort.

If he was going to follow his emotions, why should he not follow them till the very end?

The bridge was coming into sight. He urged the carriage faster, faster, until the wind in his face was painful instead of soothing and tears came into his eyes from trying to see in the cutting wind. But he urged the horses faster some more, because he could see Tamaki now, seated in Éclair's red car.

The bridge was directly below him. All he had to do was to drive the carriage lower. He knew it could take it, that the horses could do it, but there was a cowardly fear in his heart that couldn't be dismissed.

'You are going to fall at this rate,' a voice was telling him. 'You might die.'

He was closer to the red car now, so close that he knew that when (/when/, not if) he drove the carriage down, he would be able to reach Tamaki, to talk to that idiot, to tell him not to leave them.

But he was afraid.

"Fuck this," he growled under his breath and pulled the reins tight before snapping them. The horses flew from the road, and for half an eternity, for five seconds, they were suspended in mid-air and Kyouya could not breathe.

Then carriage landed with a jolt, and the horses continued to gallop. The car was directly in the line of his sight now.

"Kyouya!"

The idiot had seen him. Good. He urged the horses faster, to catch up to the damn car. Now that he was so near to them, he could see that Éclair's eyes were wide and she looked so very shocked - he supposed that he would be too, in her place. After all, who would expect their fiancé's best friend to ride after him like some knight in shining armour?

Kyouya certainly didn't, but then again, Tamaki had the knack of doing the unexpected. It wasn't surprising that, after spending so much time with him, Kyouya started being more unpredictable as well.

"Kyouya, what are you doing?! It's dangerous, stop the carriage!" Kyouya narrowed his eyes. The idiot was trying to order him to stop?

"Tamaki," he said, calm as you please. He took a deep breath, "YOU COMPLETE UTTER MORON/. WHAT THE /FUCK WERE YOU /THINKING/?!"

The idiot was looking so very dazed now, as if he had just received one of the greatest shocks in his life. That description was suitable - Kyouya had never lost his temper before, not since middle school, but he supposed that this situation warranted it.

"Nobody wants you to /leave/, you idiot!" he pulled the reins back, so the horses wouldn't smash into the car. "We want you to /come back/! Right now!"

"Stop the carriage!" Tamaki was still trying to order him? Kyouya felt his anger rise even further.

"What part of what I've just said didn't get into your THICK SKULL, Tamaki?! We don't want you to leave! None of us would ever want that!" He was taking liberties here, he knew, but this was a desperate situation. The others would understand.

"But... the host club had caused so much trouble for everyone, especially /you/, Kyouya... Your father..." Tamaki's mumbling was hard to catch over the roaring wind, but Kyouya managed to hear most of it. His eyes narrowed even further.

"YOU MORON!" he roared. "Do you really think that that was your fault? I told you, I expected that. I don't blame you for it, you IDIOT. WHEN have I even fucking hinted that it was your fault?!"

He took another deep breath, wiping his eyes at the back of his hand. The wind was really painful. "You need to differentiate between a joke and the truth! You keep telling us to see the truth, but what about /you/?!" His throat was getting sore from all that screaming, and he swallowed back something that he refused to acknowledge as a sob.

"We've known each other for least three years, Tamaki, and you still can't tell when we're being serious and when we're joking?" He shook his head, lips trembling. "I'll tell you this right now: we're very serious when we say that we want you to /come back/, Tamaki! So come back to us! All of us!"

'To me,' he didn't say.

"We..." he took another deep breath, steadying his voice. "All of us, we love the Host Club. It gives us somewhere to be ourselves, and that's why you created it, right? If the Host Club is gone, then the twins will retreat back into their own world, Haruhi will escape to her books, Honey-senpai won't be allowed to have sweets any more, and Mori-senpai won't be able to see Honey-senpai happy. Why don't you see that? Why don't you believe that instead of taking our teasing as the truth?!"

The words were coming from somewhere deep inside him; his heart, perhaps. The carriage was shaking badly, but he ignored it, completely intent on Tamaki's face. He leaned forward, releasing a hand from his tight grip on the reins, holding out towards Tamaki just in case that idiot missed the message.

Tamaki's eyes were wide and mouth slightly open, gaping at him. Then, after what seemed like an eternity, he reached out a hand, and Kyouya thought that everything would be alright now, because Tamaki was coming back and he wasn't being more stupid than he usually was.

Éclair (why had he suddenly forgotten her presence?) suddenly pressed a hand to Tamaki's arm, and she was looking away until the only thing Kyouya could see was her hair. She was holding Tamaki back, stopping him from coming back, and, right now, all he wanted to do was to shout at her so she would let go and Tamaki would come back.

But before he could, the carriage jerked, hard. Two of its wheels had trapped themselves against the wall, but it couldn't stop, bucking sideways. It smashed against the wall, sparks flying everywhere, some towards Kyouya's glasses.

And Kyouya was falling.

He swung himself forward, hands barely managing to close around a railing. His body smashed painfully against the concrete, knocking his breath from his lungs. The pain exploded from his chest and he gasped, vision going black for half a second before it came back to him, blurry.

"KYOUYA!" Tamaki's voice was loud, too loud, and...

Did the idiot just /jump from the bridge/?!

"YOU DUMBASS!" He barely had enough time to shout, much like /think/. Kyouya pressed his legs against the concrete wall and leapt towards the blond. He caught Tamaki's white blazer and pulled him forward. Violet eyes had widened almost comically when the blond saw Kyouya coming towards him, and the darker-haired boy had to suppress a small smirk at that.

Then Tamaki had wrapped his arms around Kyouya, hugging him so tightly that he almost couldn't breathe. "I'm sorry," the blond said, barely loud enough to be heard.

"You better be, you idiot," Kyouya scolded, but he found himself smiling uncontrollably.

They hit the water with a loud splash.

"I've never known you to be so reckless, Kyouya. Or did you plan this from the beginning?" Tamaki asked. Kyouya's arm was slung around his shoulders, and he was half-carrying, half-dragging his best friend.

"Unfortunately, no. If you weren't so stupid, I wouldn't have to be reckless," Kyouya grumbled acidly as he limped along, a hand on his ribs. Impacting with the water at such a high height just seconds after hitting a solid concrete wall /hurt/. He probably had a bruise now.

"Why did you chase after me?" Tamaki asked, and he sounded so genuinely curious that Kyouya had to smack him.

"Didn't I tell you? We want you to come back, Tamaki," he paused, sighing. "You've saved us so many times, so it's only fair that we save you at least once."

Tamaki's eyes widened again but, before he could speak, Honey-senpai's voice interrupted them.

"Tama-chan! Kyou-chan!"

"Tono!" the twins shouted. "Tono, tono," Hikaru said, grinning, "You have to be saved by Kyouya-senpai after you jumped from the bridge to save him!"

"You're blind, tono, /blind/!" Kaoru continued, an identical grin on his lips.

"W-What I didn't - oi!" Tamaki protested, letting go of Kyouya just seconds before he was pounced on by the twins, who teased him mercilessly.

Kyouya sat down, wincing as he rubbed at his ribs. He looked upwards and saw Mori-senpai and Haruhi, standing next to each other outside the car. Mori-senpai was smiling barely noticeably at him, and Kyouya returned a smirk.

'Thank you,' he mouthed, for was it not Mori-senpai who threw him into the carriage in the first place?

Mori-senpai's smile widened while Haruhi laughed softly, shaking her head. Beside him, Tamaki shrieked as Kaoru and Honey tickled him as 'punishment' while Hikaru burst out laughing as he watched them, injured arm in a cast.

'It is surprising,' Kyouya thought, sitting back as he watched them, 'how much difference one person can make.'

But he wasn't surprised at all. Not in the least.

End

Omake:

"Kyouya, may I have this dance?"

Tamaki was a fool because he was holding out a gloved hand towards Kyouya, a bright smile on his lips even as half the school held their breaths, waiting for Kyouya's answer. The other half continued with their lives, oblivious - these were the males.

"What?" Kyouya blinked. Had he been spending so much time on his cell phone that his hearing was going?

"May I have this dance?" Tamaki repeated, smile dimming slightly. In the background, Renge, and most of the female population, bit their lips, watching.

Kyouya blinked again. Well, his hearing wasn't going at the age of seventeen... which meant that Tamaki was being an idiot, but that was nothing new. He shrugged, 'Why not?'

For second time for the day, Kyouya decided to be unpredictable - he knew that everyone was expecting him to refuse, to slap Tamaki's hand away and call the blond a fool. So he placed his own gloved hand into Tamaki's, whose smile brightened. It was like the sun coming out from the clouds, and Kyouya couldn't help but smile back as well.

"Yes."

Upstairs, Suoh Yuzuru and Ohtori Yoshio choked on their drinks in the midst of an argument about Fujioka Haruhi as they watched their sons dance with each other. Kyouya wasn't leading, Yoshio noted, and wondered why he wasn't more surprised.

"Well," Yuzuru said dazedly, "Maybe not that friendly."

End, for real, this time