(no subject)

[just_a_commoner]

Who: Kyouya, Haruhi, and Tamaki
When: Afternoon on the 29th
What: Cafe time and timey-wimey mixups!

Haruhi was sure she wouldn't have to wait long, so she went ahead and ordered three coffees, saving a table right inside the cafe next to the window where she and Kyouya usually did lunch. The cafe certainly looked a lot different than it did when she had visited last week. Had there been a remodel...? It was quaint.. painted differently. Older tables. Weird. She took out her pocket schedule and went over it once again, making certain that her dates had indeed been correct. But like the five times she'd looked at it previous, her schedule had been completely wiped blank and replaced with one from over a decade ago. What kind of weird joke was this?

Comments

[nomeritsgained.livejournal.com]

Kyouya took his usual seat, barely giving the third cup of coffee a passing glance as he did. Like Haruhi, he noticed the differences, but his memory provided a far different reasoning. Unless the cafe had decided to do a reconstruction, there was something far more of a nuisance than office squatters and court date mix ups. Pushing it to the side for the moment, he gave Haruhi a nod, taking his coffee.

"Company, today?"

[growinmushrooms]

Tamaki had been drifting back and forth along the street at regular intervals, waiting for Kyouya-sempai and Haruhi-sempai to arrive. Now that he saw them, he left off haunting the sidewalk and drifted inside, a cloud blown on the wind.

He had never had sempai before. He wasn't certain what it would be like. Would they take him under his wing and educate him in the arts he had yet to master? Of course they would be as kind and gracious and nobly intimidating to him as he had always been to those dozens of lost souls to which the Host club had provided guidance... but... he had been so close to Haruhi accepting him as a 'buddy' rather than a sempai. And Mother being older and wiser in the ways of the world than Father was going to change the dynamic of the Club completely, he was sure. Still,,, it could be... an adventure?

With this thought process visible (and possibly audible), he swept up to the table, determined to make the best possible second first impression.

[just_a_commoner]

Haruhi greeted Kyouya with her customary smile that she had used when they were working in school together. She was just about to answer his question when she noticed who could only be Tamaki seemingly gliding in on a cloud made of his own ego, and her jaw dropped.

Ryoji had been right. Something was definitely strange. Time was broken somehow, she was sure, and she probably had the island to blame. "T...Tamaki..?" She said mindlessly. Apart from being a little taller, little about Haruhi had changed save for the little bit of length to her hair and the bit of jewelry on her left hand. "Is that... really you?"

1/2

[growinmushrooms]

Ah! A challenge!

"Do you think that anyone else could truly imitate the King of the Host Club?" he asked. "Who else would have this profile? Or look so flattering from this angle?" As he demonstrated his authenticity, his eyes swept across grown-up Haruhi's hand.

2/2

[growinmushrooms]

He froze, momentarily, then scampered backward, retreating to the safety of Kyouya's shadow.

"Ah.... Oka-san..." But wait. Would this be... Oka-sempai? No, that was ridiculous. Oka-sama? Maybe. But...

He darted back the other way, into his seat, and looked nervously back and forth between the two of them while sipping his coffee.

[nomeritsgained.livejournal.com]

Seeing Tamaki float in along the wind and flail about nearly made Kyouya smile. He masked it with a disdainful look over his glasses at the childish antics. There was no doubt in his mind that this was, indeed, Tamaki. So that was who Haruhi had invited to their meeting. Well. This could be interesting. Then he saw Tamaki's eyes catch the ring, and Kyouya was watching Tamaki all the more closely as he fidgeted in his seat.

"Suou." He flipped through the notes on his clipboard, his attention back to Haruhi. "Do you have any of the Shinjoku files on you, Haruhi?"

[just_a_commoner]

Haruhi couldn't even think about the case. Here Tamaki was... younger than she had left him the night before, and just as she'd remembered him being... in high school. He'd been so much more mature last she saw him... "But.. what?" She then thought about what Ryoji had said about her being older... how things had gotten mixed up.

"I... I think I have a few." Haruhi picked up her briefcase - the one Tamaki had gotten her for Christmas all those years ago - and opened it, sorting through it to hand Kyouya a few pieces of paper, but then turned to look at Tamaki, still amazed. "Tamaki.. How old are you...?"

1/2

[growinmushrooms]

"Eighteen," he said, somewhat dazed, eyes fixed conspicuously on the ring on Haruhi's finger. "How old is..."

[growinmushrooms]

He turned red and trailed off. That was a question that was never correct for a Host to ask a lady. Even if he wasn't sure if she was old enough yet to... for Daddy to... to give away her hand in...

"That's... a very stylish briefcase?"

[nomeritsgained.livejournal.com]

Kyouya took the papers, flipping through them silently. His attention was on Haruhi and Tamaki, never fully on the facts and numbers in front of him. This was intriguing. Fascinating. Seeing how both of them were handling the situation was far more beneficial then reviewing the information he knew verbatim. Besides, he had no doubt Haruhi would win this case. Not that he would tell her that.

Instead, he leaned back a little in his chair, sipping coffee and quietly observing past the pretense of reviewing his paperwork.

"Ten years, it seems, made quite a difference. I had forgotten how juvenile your antics were in High School."

[just_a_commoner]

"So this... this is really happening?" Haruhi seemed to deflate, the stress of the day completely overwhelming her and causing her to slump into her seat. Ten years in the past. Who knew what was going to happen now? She turned her coffee cup idly, staring into it while she tried to collect her head.

"So... If this is the past... what do we do? Do we need to be careful or anything? Not step on any butterflies or something?" she then looked to Tamaki again, who looked so much more vibrant and youthful and the eye he had on her ring. "Is.. something the matter?"

[growinmushrooms]

"Ah... No! Father is... I... I'm certain that Haruhi must be... very.... happy?" Distraction, disorientation, and dismay rendered him even more incoherent than usual, but his fixation on the ring made it the obvious center of his failed conversational gambit.