Chapter Text
The new kebap restaurant at Shibuya somehow managed to become the new niche amongst the elites, even with ever-rising healthy food trends. Restaurant owner said that the reason why it became so popular is because of their inexplicitly delicious meat. He wasn’t wrong, but not completely right. The writer who works at a magazine wrote in her rich kids of Tokyo corner that is dedicated to giving insights about these untouchable people’s life attributed this sudden success to it’s extravagant decor, full of authentic turkish rugs, pitchers and fezs. She wasn’t wrong either, but still missed the mark.
The real reasons for this restaurant’s success was currently eating around the corner, spread around the table. The former and actually only members of once legendary host club was having their weekly dinner.
Initially, Tamaki and Haruhi came to this place on their own, because ever since their summer vacation to Turkey, Haruhi was having very vivid dreams about shish kebab. She wanted a quiet place where nobody would approach them, she found this place on a forum of foodies. Tamaki was beyond ecstatic to go to a ‘commoner’s restaurant’.
While she was devouring her meat, Tamaki chatted with the owner about their fascinating decor that reminded him of the host club’s cosplay days. After their meal filled with Tamaki’s chatter, Haruhi texted this exciting discovery on their text-chain and Hikaru and Hani was extremely intrigued. They decided to meet here for dinner sometime, and the rest is history. Their once ‘hidden gem’ was now for everyone to consume, the tables were full of their former schoolmates from Ouran who as always, have so much time on their hands. This turn of events didn’t bother the hosts; on the contrary, they were happy to serve for their customers as always. Well, most of them.
Hitachiin twins predicted this beforehand, they were the trendsetters of this small community and aware of it, thank you very much. Kyoya was glad that their dinners turned into an opportunity to rekindle old friendships that have potential to transform into business deals. Years didn’t take away any of Tamaki’s enthusiasm or his poise as a host, always the King and a humble servant at the same time. Hani loved being just ‘adorable Mitsukuni’ he maybe was the heir of one of the scariest families in Japan, but for these girls perception of him never changed since high school. Mori, being the most accommodating person in the world, was right beside his cousin as always. At first, the only girl host wasn’t very content with the sudden crowd. She had her reasons for it.
10 years have passed since their innocent, carefree days in Ouran ended, and it was only this year that their paths finally crossed in the same city. After their off-spring in America, they scattered around the world. Kyoya studied economics in London, Hikaru somehow managed to get into Cal-Tech, Kaoru surprised everyone with his dramatically different path and chose Paris to study in a very exclusive fashion school. Somehow the one person Haruhi spent her university days with was Mori-senpai, since they both studied Law at the University of Tokyo, along with Tamaki who was a business student. Mitsukuni went to Kyoto, to become an electrical engineer.
Despite their extreme privilege, their transition to adulthood wasn’t smooth for any of them, Haruhi expected this, but she knew some of them had a rough time evolving into the men they were expected to be. While Haruhi was scraping her way to the top, she observed the sheer pressure they were under, born from the competition among the ones that are already there.
Therefore, she wanted to enjoy this dinner they can all have before everyone goes into different paths again. Or life get in the way with different tricks and obstacles for them. But the shenanigans of her lifelong friends among these girls felt like Music Room 3 in this weirdly decorated (in her opinion, Tamaki was very offended by that remark) Turkish restaurant, so she chatted with Renge-chan with an easy smile on her face. They still called her ‘Haruhi-kun’, she enjoyed it.
But as one dinner was had after the other, she began to sense something different in two of her friends. She couldn’t pinpoint what made her feel uneasy whenever she sat between Kyoya and Kaoru, it felt almost like she was interrupting. Following her intuition, Haruhi’s paid more attention to these two, and being the quiet person that she is, Shadow King actually didn’t notice these observant eyes.
She found it odd that Kaoru accepted Kyoya’s request to tailor him a suit for his upcoming business meeting, because she distinctly remembered that Kaoru found tailoring a suit ‘tedious’. She didn’t comment on it, but noticed Hikaru knitted his eyebrows momentarily. Tamaki begged Kaoru to do one for him too, was declined immediately. He whined about it for the rest of the dinner, and most would interpret Kyoya’s expression while watching him as a ‘sarcastic smirk’. But to his family, to Haruhi, he just seemed… very happy.
Her intuition gained more direction when a faint blush kissed Kaoru’s cheekbones the moment Hani-senpai asked how the suit was going. Kyoya froze maybe for a half of a second before taking a sip from his wine. Kaoru turned to Hani with his signature sly smile, the one that stole and broke many hearts, and said ‘it’s a work in progress’.
Kaoru didn’t show up at the restaurant next week, somehow they were running into more and more friends there. Tamaki asked where he was, contrary to his devilish façade, Kaoru was actually one of the most prompt people in the world, it was unlikely of him to cancel without a notice. Hikaru just brushed his shoulders. “Aaah who knows, maybe he has a date. I heard from Misuzu that the tennis guy was in town.” Tennis guy was actually one of Kaoru’s summer flings when he came back to Tokyo during the holiday. Haruhi’s eyes turned to Kyoya involuntarily, and his eyes were fixed on his computer, expression rigid and controlled, Haruhi noticed the absence of his default business smile. Then Hani-senpai said “Kao-chan would never ditch us for a date.” And his shoulders relaxed so slightly. The girls looked at Hani’s receptive smile and remembered hers wasn’t the only watchful eyes on the table.
It was Kyoya’s turn to skip the dinner at their 4th meeting, this time the restaurant was overwhelmed with the rich kids of Tokyo. Only the six people on the table knew the reason for his absence, his big business deal was today. “You’ll see,” Tamaki swinged his fork at Mori, accidentally dropping his meatpiece at his plate- “Kyoya is going to conquer that meeting today. He will show everyone what he is capable of.”
Mori took his time chewing Tamaki’s meat and slowly swallowed it. “I read some of that company’s contracts with other businesses. Their contracts contain a lot of loopholes that might decrease Kyoya’s margin.”
Up until that point, Kaoru was somewhat inattentive to the conversation, playing around with his lahmajun and not taking a bite. “He will find them.” he said. “And he will make them regret even considering tricking Kyoya Ootori in the first place.”
Everyone caught the emotion in Kaoru’s eyes, while theirs were filled with surprise. You could see this look in his eyes when he looked at Ageha, his work and Hikaru. It was a rare emotion for Kaoru Hitachiin to show- pure pride.
Today, Kyoya was sitting in the corner with his legs crossed, carrying the only suit tailored by Kaoru Hitachiin. Haruhi didn’t understand fashion at all, Kaoru usually pays a visit to her wardrobe once a year, screams at everything and gives her wardrobe a makeover, regardless of Haruhi's constant protests. But even she felt like this suit could only be worn by Kyoya. This would look borrowed on Tamaki, Hani on anyone else. She had no idea how Kaoru created a suit that doesn't have a distinct feature at first glance, but once Kyoya carries it, everybody somehow know he is the only one that can. Haruhi averted her gaze from the suit, once again, the guilty feeling of invading something personal filled her chest. She threw a playful smile at Kaoru and he winked in return. It all made sense now.
Many people came just to compliment the suit, some even dared to ask him where he got it from, which was considered rude amongst elites, Haruhi didn’t know why. Kyoya just smiled politely and said ‘it was custom made by the most talented tailor in the world. But I would like to keep the name to myself.” Kaoru was resting his face on his hand, swirled his wine glass on another and kept on talking with Haruhi and Misaka-san, he didn’t even looked at Kyoya, but everyone else around the table were. Tamaki looked really confused, Hikaru’s face almost identical to his, even Mori’s eyes widened a little. But the king composed himself quickly and distracted everyone by offering everyone chai.
On their car ride home, Tamaki was sitting on the passenger seat, the smell of wine oozing from him. He had a puzzled expression on his face. “Hey, Haruhi. I am going to tell you something but you will take it to the grave with me.”
She sighed at her lover’s usual drama. “Just tell me, please.”
“Can you roll the window? I want to get some fresh air.” Annoyance passed Haruhi’s stomach. “I won’t tell anyone that you requested this till I die.” she said.
Tamaki took in a big sigh and didn’t say anything for a while. Even though Haruhi’s annoyance grew, she kept the witty remarks to herself, because she knew that Tamaki was actually trying to select his words, which indicated the delicacy of whatever he wanted to discuss. Normally, words came out of his mouth with either grace or stupidity but never with caution. “So today, you know Hikaru pulled my chair as I was about to sit, right?”
Haruhi let out a small laugh and nodded.
“Well, when I fell I saw four legs, that were kinda… tangled, you know?” She understood what he implied but didn’t make a remark.
“It was a crowded table.” she said simply.
“Yes, but it was tangled like ours was tangled beneath my family’s dinner table.” Haruhi looked at Tamaki’s adorable tipsy smile, and her own lips formed a grin at the memory involuntarily. She actually almost killed Tamaki that night because she sat with a blush on her face the entire dinner. “I see.”
“They pulled away really quickly but…” he kept on studying Haruhi’s face that was fixated on the road and his eyes widened in shock. “You already know whose legs they were, right?”
Haruhi’s smile grew. “I have a guess.”
Tamaki started swinging his hand frantically while his signature drama tears washed his face. “I cannot believe you Haruhi, you knew that Kyoya was COURTING Kaoru and you didn’t tell me anything? I thought we are supposed to share everything? Huh? How am I going to trust you ever again?”
“You say that a lot for a person who sets their passwords as haruhiisamazing123.”
“You know that I am forgetful!” Tamaki yelled in a high pitched voice.
Haruhi sighed at her husband’s high-pitched voice.
“I didn’t ask either of them about this. I just… noticed some things over the weeks and made a guess.”
Tamaki came closer to Haruhi. “Tell. me. everything.”
Haruhi declined this request and Tamaki talked about their wedding vows integrity for the rest of the way, completely forgetting that they weren’t married yet. He threw up the moment they get into the house. “I will never drink again… tell Kyoya that I will never drink again… ”
“Why would I tell him that?” Haruhi hanged their coats. “Come on, I will bring you some aspirin.”
“I love you so much. Haruhiisamazing123.” She couldn’t help but laugh at her fiance, he was just so fucking adorable. Haruhi found herself thinking the same thing more and more over the years, this man managed to enchant her more and more as the years passed.
*****
“But do you think they will be okay?” Haruhi finally asked the question that occupied her mind for the last few weeks. “Everybody know that Kaoru is gay. But even we don’t know anything about Kyoya’s love life. Isn’t his family conservative?” She kept on fiddling with Tamaki’s golden hair, it soothed her. Tamaki took her free hand. “Mon amour, if I know Kyoya just a little bit, he wouldn’t even come 5 inches near Kaoru if he wasn’t ready to face the… consequences.”
“Do you think it’s that simple?”
“I believe so.”
“How?”
“Did you know that Ootori’s suits are actually special? They have a family tailor that makes suits just for them and forbidden to make for anyone else. Reserved just for the Ootori family, no one even knows his name, they are probably hiding him in Atlantis. And when you prove yourself worthy, the Padisah- Yoshio-san, actually gifts you one of these. Both of the Kyoya brothers have them.”
“Not Fuyumi of course, because misogyny.” Haruhi said angrily.
“Sounds like something just like the Ootori’s would do. They are almost as extra as the restaurant's decor. ”
“Hey! Don’t come for their exquisite, ethnic-”
Haruhi put her finger on Tamaki’s lips. “I am going to choose all of our furniture.”
“So will Kyoya be worthy after he closes the deal?” she continued.
“No.” Tamaki said and a playful smile appeared on his face. “Here when it gets interesting. I actually ran into Fuyumi today, and she was very sad because apparently, there was a turmoil at Ootori residence, because - now listen to this, Yoshio-san already offered him the suit. Just making this deal an opportunity is a huge deal by itself, Akito couldn’t even arrange a meeting for years, according to my father. He wanted Kyoya to go to the meeting with a classic Ootori power suit. And he declined
“Why?” Haruhi repeated curiously.
“Well,” he placed a tender kiss on her forehead. “Knowing my best friend, I can only call it love. Good night, my dear.”