Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club, all characters and storyline belong to their perspective owners.
He sat on the bench, staring grimly at the waves of the ocean. How long had he been sitting there? Hours? He had not kept track of the time. All that he knew was that when he first came to walk across the boardwalk, sit on the bench, and bury himself in his thoughts, the sun had been in the middle of the sky. Now it was starting to turn an orangish color and hovering low over the water.
What a fancy piece of work you are, Tamaki, he told himself.
What had he done in life to bring him to this point? Certainly, he had never asked to be the son of his father's mistress. It had never been his fault that his father's legal wife had been unable to have children, and thus, he became instantly infamous in the Suou family the day he was born. His mother, frequently poor in health, had become a scapegoat in the family. Tamaki remembered helping his mother the best he could when he was growing up...it was the least he could do for her. No one else cared about what happened to her.
Then boom. One night he found that she was going to be taken away, and he was the heir of the Suou family fortune. Despite the fact that Tamaki and his father knew the underlying truth of how Tamaki came into existence, and the fact that no one paid heed to Tamaki until the question of a heir came up, Tamaki had tried his best reconcile with his father, Yuzuru Suou.
That was the one of the many times Tamaki found himself all alone. Sleeping in a huge mansion for the first time had made it worse, but he had eventually grown used to it. The fact that he could go days without seeing a single person other then the house maids did not help either, but he had survived that as well.
"Merde."
When he was alone, sometimes he would speak to himself in French. There was no one else around to know or care.
Sinking down in the bench, digging his bare feet in the sand, his mind strayed over the last few months. Why was he here and not at Kyouya's wedding? The announcement of the wedding had been the last straw for Tamaki. For years, he had somehow convinced himself that he was fine. He had not needed anything that was unnecessary. Other people were less fortunate, as it seemed to him, and he could use his skills to help them.
That was until he heard that Kyouya's father was arranging a marriage between Kyouya and Haruhi.
Haruhi.
Almost immediately, he felt himself trying to desperately beat down another wave of tears. For weeks he had been congratulating them, helping out as much as he could, and then last night after returning home, Tamaki simply collapsed.
"Haruhi," he murmured to himself. Damn it, why her? Out of everyone in the world, why did Kyouya's b*****d father have to pick Haruhi? HIS Haruhi.
He sat on the edge of the retaining wall, sucking on a Popsicle. A grin spread across his face, "This is good."
"I thought you would like it," Haruhi beamed, "Senpei, haven't you ever had a Popsicle before?"
"Oh heavens, no," Tamaki said, taking a bite out of it, "Eating anything remotely like this in the Suou house 'would disgrace the long history of our family if we were to play around with simple commoner traditions'," he mimicked the tone of voice of his grandmother. He then shivered as Haruhi laughed.
"Careful, you'll get a brain freeze."
He laughed, "In France, I used to spend evenings like this with my mother. We'd stop and get something like a pastry and eat it in the park."
"Sounds wonderful," Haruhi let her feet dangle over the water.
Tamaki nodded, "Say, Haruhi?"
"Hm?"
"Can..." he blushed slightly, "...can we do this again tomorrow? We'll go for a walk. I'll treat you to something this time."
Haruhi stared at him for a moment, and then smiled, "Sure."
"No," he told himself out loud. He was not going to think about it, about all those walks, all those times when he wanted to simply tell her the truth. Haruhi Fujioka was the person that had kept him sane back then. Back when his family was always on his tail, his mother was missing, and he was used to the fact of being utterly alone.
Like he was now.
How had everything come to this point? Now, he could barely breathe without her there. Being the steadfast rock that she was, Haruhi was a wonderful amazing girl. More amazing then any girl he had ever met. The ironic part of it was that she paraded through high school as a boy, when Tamaki believed that she had been easily the most beautiful girl.
"Senpei?"
He stopped mid-staircase, it was late in the evening after Tamaki had taken her home from one of their many walks. Turning to see what it was she wanted, Haruhi fidgeted slightly in the spot were she stood.
"What is it, Haruhi?" he asked.
This was the last walk they would be going on. After graduation, Haruhi had been accepted into a prestigious law school in Tokyo, and Tamaki was heading off to Cambridge in England. It was last time he was going to see her since she was leaving tomorrow, and he would be leaving not soon after.
"Are you..." she blushed, "You're...not going to be alone, are you?"
Haruhi was embarrassingly observant. Tamaki really did not want people worrying about him, especially Haruhi. He did not think that he 'himself' did not really matter in the long run.
"I..." he shook his head, walking back up to her, "...I'll be fine. There will be lots of new people to get to know. What about you, Haruhi? Are you going to be lonely?"
She frowned, Tamaki knew she was onto him. He changed the subject much too quickly in his nervousness, which was a tactical error on his part.
"Don't change the subject," she replied, "You're being sent to a place where you don't even have any friends or family-"
He could not take it anymore. Her words were coming too close to him, so close that he could start to feel the emotions creeping in the back of his mind and making his heart beat faster. Stepping forward, he threw his arms around her.
"Thank you," he replied, pressing his face into her hair. Holding her like this always made him feel better, no matter how desolate he was feeling, "Thank you, Haruhi, but I will be fine."
"But..." she tightened her grip on the back of his jacket, "...I don't want you to be alone."
Gritting his teeth, he shook his head. If she was looking at him, she could have seen the tears in the corners of his eyes.
"I...I will be fine," he said, pulling out a smile, "I'm good in social situations, you know that."
Tamaki did not expect her to lay her hands on his face and look into his eyes. Seeing the tears, despite his happy-go-lucky smile, she sniffed herself, "You don't look fine, Senpei."
"Haruhi-"
He watched in shock as she stood on her tiptoes, and touched her lips to his eyes. Never before had he let anyone other then his own mother get seriously close to him. Despite his years of running the Host Club, he never really took things seriously.
"You're not alone, Tamaki-senpei," she replied, a sad smile on her face, "I'll be waiting for you, okay? You're not alone any-"
He kissed her back. Pulling her small frame into his arms and kissing her with everything he had, knowing that she would probably get angry. Days of emotional and physical turmoil of having to deal with graduation and his family was taking a toll on him. Keeping up a happy facade for such a long time was difficult, even for him. Simply hearing her tell him these things was more then enough to make him forget everything else for a moment.
She stumbled backwards, and he pressed her back against her apartment door. Not caring that someone might be out to see them, he took her face in his hands and kissed the side of her jaw, following the line of her neck down to her collar.
"Tamaki-"
"I wish I could have met you sooner," he whispered into her ear, "Maybe...maybe things wouldn't have turned out the way they did."
She was not fighting him. For that, he touched his forehead to hers.
"Haruhi?"
Her eyes glanced up at him, her cheeks were almost as red as his, "Yes?"
"You know, for a long time...how much I've loved you?"
Her mouth opened to say something back, and then she closed it.
"No one is coming home tonight," she replied instead, "Father is out at a party and isn't coming back until a few hours before I leave tomorrow."
"I really want to come in."
Pulling on his collar, she tilted her head back to speak in his ear, "Good."
Tamaki covered his eyes with a hand. Damn, he was stupid. How could have known back then that it would have been better to go his entire high school years without speaking to anyone? It would have been easy to manage, and then he would not have had made acquaintances that would worry about his well-being.
Tamaki remembered that night like it was burned into his mind, he could not forget it no matter how hard he tried, and he could not bring himself to run off with another woman just to make himself forget. Haruhi was bonded into his mind and there was nothing he could do about it. At this point, he seriously considered never marrying at all. It would be a great satisfaction and revenge against his grandmother, knowing that the family line would end with him, and he would never have to force himself to love someone else.
Tamaki knew he would love Haruhi forever.
He told her many times back then, and even after telling her so many times it never seemed like enough. After they parted to go to college, they met every so often. She would tell him how much she worried about him, he would worry about her, and then they would spend a wonderful vacation together. Afterwards, they would return to their lives, and have to be content with writing every so often.
I dreamed about you last night...
It was the first sentence of the letter Haruhi had written him before the announcement. That was the day that he had decided to hell with everything, run off, and marry her. Tamaki knew that he could easily live a life without his fame and fortune. It was that fact was part of the reason why his grandmother withheld the whereabouts of his mother from him. She did not want Tamaki to get up and blow off the whole family for his freedom.
Pulling open the collar of his loose shirt, Tamaki looked at the chain. There was a golden engagement ring around his neck, the one that had been meant for Haruhi. He had reached a point where he knew that if he did not have her for himself, he was going to go nuts. Which, in the end, had happened. Haruhi Fujioka was taken from him, and now he had lost his mind.
They all stood in the room; Mori, Huni, the twins...they were there as well. The Ootoris had been holding a party in honor of Kyouya's twenty first birthday, and everyone was there. Tamaki had spent most of the night fluttering around the room, getting to know people and new faces, and enjoying himself. Although he did not hear half of what was said, his mind was stuck on a particular woman that was standing not ten feet from him.
"Haru-chan!" Huni grinned, "You look so pretty!"
Haruhi was wearing a long, midnight blue gown. It was strapless, with matching gloves, and a simple rhinestone necklace with matching earrings. She looked beautiful.
Kyouya's father stepped up to the podium, tapped the microphone, and began to make a few announcements. Tamaki ignored this, and turned to nab Haruhi before the speeches took up his entire window of opportunity.
"Tamaki," Kyouya snuck through the crowd, grabbing his arm, "There's something I need to talk to you about."
"Okay," Tamaki replied, "Can it wait? I've got something important that I need to do."
"I'm afraid not."
Tamaki made a face at the look of worry on his best friend's face, "Just give me five minutes. I'll be right back, I swear."
"Tamaki-"
Weaving his way through the crowd to Haruhi, who stood off to the side, he leaned over her shoulder. Tamaki smiled, touching his nose to the inside of her neck.
"Guess who?" he asked.
"Where have you been?" Haruhi whispered back.
"Mingling," he replied, "Can you step outside with me a moment? There's something I want to talk to you about."
"Sure," she said, nodding.
Before he could take Haruhi's hand, the speech made by Kyouya's father suddenly came into his mind.
"...after long negotiations, it's been decided that my son Kyouya will be engaged to Haruhi Fujioka."
Tamaki remembered the applause, and he remembered glancing across the ballroom at Kyouya, who had a shocked, stricken look on his face. Kyouya's father had wanted to arrange a marriage with Kyouya and Haruhi for years. Yuzuru Suou had adored Haruhi as well, much to Tamaki's amusement, and had originally tried everything possible to block all attempts at the arranged marriage.
After noticing Tamaki's feeling for the Fujioka girl, his grandmother had blatantly announced that anyone of the Suou family 'associating' with commoners would be instantly disowned from the family. Personally, Tamaki would have welcomed it, but his father was not too keen on that idea. To make matters worse, his grandmother had a personal meeting with Haruhi without anyone knowing. She had made it clear that if Haruhi did not marry Kyouya, then she would never be able to get into any law schools in Japan.
Tamaki had came to Haruhi himself after that, and told her to marry Kyouya. Her dreams were important, and she should not sacrifice them for him or anyone else.
He dreamed about Haruhi every night and day since then. Watching her trying on her wedding dress, putting together plans, and walking around town wearing a wedding band that was not his. There had even been times that he had even gone on the wedding preparation trips to help out.
His eyes drifted to his watch.
6:05pm.
The wedding had started at six.
He was now alone again, sitting on a park bench, staring at the ocean. His best friend was getting married to the girl that was he in love with. Tamaki did not blame Kyouya at all, he was not at fault. All that he could do was demand that Kyouya take care of Haruhi and make her happy. Tamaki was not an idiot, he was well aware that Kyouya was in love with Haruhi as well.
Letting out a sigh, he gripped the ring around his neck and tore the chain off. Holding it loosely in his hand, he strolled away from the bench and to the end of the beach.
He was going to let it all go and return to his life of being alone. It was what he was used to.
"Good-bye, Haruhi," he said out loud. Raising his hand, he was about to cast the ring into the ocean as he caught something out of the corner of his vision. His eyes grew wide in horror as a white blur was running towards him. Lowering his arm, he turned around to take in the site before him.
Haruhi was running down the boardwalk lining the sandy beach. She was holding her white heels in one of her hands, and gripping the ends of her long, silk wedding gown as she ran. Her feet were dirty, and her hair was beginning to come out of its style to fall in front of her face.
The beautiful dress was covered in lace and diamonds. Not ostentatious like some other wedding dresses, but it suited her well. Her short hair was gathered up onto her head in a manner of pins and white roses, and there were rhinestones that doted her hair. A pair of long, diamond earrings matched the huge necklace that fanned down her neck to dip below her collar bone.
Tamaki stopped breathing, "Oh god," he picked up his pace towards her, "Haruhi! What's wrong? What are you doing here? The wedding-"
"There isn't..." she stopped in front of him, "...there isn't going to be a wedding."
It was two miles from the church.
"Did..." Tamaki frowned, "Did you run all this way? You could have been hurt! With bare feet...Haruhi what were you thinking!?"
He did not know why he was angry, but once in a while she aggravated him to no end.
The girl that he was in love with was not married or getting married at that moment.
"You're impossible!" she yelled back at him, still trying to catch her breath.
"I'm impossible?" he roared, his suppressed frustration from the last few weeks coming to the surface, "Running two miles in a wedding dress without shoes? What's wrong with you? This is your wedding day! People came for all over to see you get married, Haruhi," he reached for his cell, "I'll have a car come and pick you up-"
"NO!"
He stared at her, there were tears streaming down her face. Without a second of warning, her shoes slipped from her hands as she threw her arms around his neck. He tripped, and sunk to the ground, his long legs stretching out on either side of her. The wedding dress flowed over the ground, surrounding them.
"Haruhi," he murmured, "What are you doing here?"
"I couldn't marry Kyouya."
"You...you left?"
"I had to," she pulled back, but, placed her hands on his face to keep him from looking away, "I love you."
I love you.
The words hit him harder then he could take. Shaking his head violently, grabbing her hands, "You silly girl! You can't just leave because of me! Everyone's probably worried about you-"
She rose to her knees, and kissed him. Having to tilt his head back, his breath cut off as her lips moved over his.
"As always, you never worry about yourself," she smiled at him, her eyes sparkling with the light from the setting sun behind him, "That's why I have too."
His mouth fell open.
"Tamaki," she smiled, it was the first time she had ever called his name without some sort of title attached to it, "I love you. Not Kyouya, or any of the others, only you. Understand?"
"But..." he stuttered, was this actually happening? Had she really left the wedding for him?
"You," she touched her forehead to his, "Just you. You're always protecting me, let me protect you for once."
He kissed her back, pulling away the long lace veil, and letting her hair fall away freely. He loved burying his fingers into it. The white, crystal stones in her hair glinted in the setting sunlight. After a few moments of kissing her, he pulled her head back and kissed the inside of her neck.
"What was that for?" she blushed.
"To make sure you were real."
Laughing, she grabbed his hand and pulled him to his feet. Taking the necklace from his hand before he could protest, she drew the previous ring from her finger, and replaced it with his.
Looking at the band for a moment, she smiled, "I believe this belongs to me."
Tamaki watched her, not even bothering to rub the tears out of the corners of his eyes. Shaking his head, he suddenly felt like laughing. He really was not alone now. As long as he had her, he would always be okay.
"Yeah," he took her hand in his, picking up their shoes as he pulled her back towards the boardwalk, "I believe it does."
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