[FIC] Ouran/xxxholic: The Price of a Wish - Part Two

[evocates]

The Price of a Wish – Part Two

Authors: kagayachou and the_dw
Characters/Pairings: Kyouya, Tamaki, pre-Tamaki/Kyouya
Rating: PG
Words: 3744
Summary: Ouran/xxxholic fusion; in an alternate universe, Kyouya and Tamaki never met at Ouran, but their paths were destined to cross - this time, in Ichihara Yuuko's shop. No prior knowledge of xxxholic is needed to understand this.

Odd chapters posted at Kagaya’s journal, Even chapters posted at Dream’s journal:
[ Prologue ] [Part One]

Tamaki grabbed Kyouya's hand as he pulled the darker-haired boy enthusiastically into the sake store. Nodding to the owner, who promptly ignored him and Kyouya both, the blonde went straight for the back of the shop to where he knew, from his first trip here with his father, the premium stash was stored.

"What type of sake do you think Yuuko-san likes, Kyouya? Yamahas? Sokujo-moto? Kimoto? Nigori?" he walked through the many rows with large porcelain jars or the rare wooden barrel, still holding onto Kyouya's hand. Taking a deep breath, he inhaled the rich, spicy smell of the alcohol and smiled slightly. These smells would make him dizzy if not for the fact that he had already built up a rather substantial alcohol tolerance due to all the wine he had taken while in France.

The smell didn’t affect Kyouya much either; since working at the witch’s shop, his alcohol tolerance shop up due to the fact that he was to serve her sake at practically every meal - including snack breaks. Sometimes, due to the nature of her work, he supposed Yuuko had to find a way out of thinking about all those obsessive/compulsive people who ruined their lives through her when they could just as well do the same without her... just slower.

Despite his concern as to why Tamaki kept hanging onto his hand, Kyouya automatically replied. "Ichihara-san is particularly fond of Kimoto sake. She claims it has a wilder, gamier flavour. I think she meant the daiginjo-shu subclass when she said top quality though."
 
Tamaki nodded in what he hoped was an expert fashion, stroking his chin slowly. “Well, we can buy two crates of daiginjo-shu and one of kimoto, so she can have both? I know there's some high-grade kimoto around here..." he lifted his head and caught the owner's eyes, waving his arm rather comically, before turning back to Kyouya.

"So do you want anything?"

 Kyouya felt his eyebrows shoot up at the words coming out of Tamaki’s mouth. For one, he didn't think the boy would offer him something just like that. And as or what he was saying about the sake...

"Daiginjo-shu is a type of premium sake," he tried clarify as politely as possible. "A type that can be brewed from a Kimoto yeast starter."

Tamaki's Japanese was good. That was probably why Kyouya felt surprised that he had to correct the other boy. But then, not many people were trained to memorize types of sake, and cigars, and precious gemstones like pearls, for instance, from at a young age, as Kyouya was.

"Thank you for your offer,” Kyouya smiled, “but three crates of daiginjo-shu would be enough... you don't have to pay more."

Tamaki blinked, and then laughed sheepishly, reaching up to rub at the back of his head. Somehow, he managed to – completely on accident – destroy his own neat hairstyle in as few movements as possible. While Kyouya fought down the urge to reach out and comb his hair back down, Tamaki blushed slightly, fidgeting as he stared at the floor in embarrassment.

"Ah, I see, I see! So that's what you mean by sub-class! I didn't know that!" here, he blinked again, leaning towards Kyouya. "But Kyouya, you're so smart to know that! Have you been here before? Oh, you can teach me all about the Japanese culture!"

He swept out a hand flamboyantly, and didn't (by luck, most likely) hit any of the jars and barrels around him. "I've always wanted to see the Namahage in Kyoto! And a kotatsu! Does your house have a kotatsu?"

 "Kotatsu?" Kyouya was having a hard time following Tamaki's train of thought. He lived by himself. He didn't need one of those blanketed heater tables - they were for families more than anything. "No," he shook his head. "I live alone now." He smiled vaguely to show that there were no hard feelings. "I just use extra blankets."

As for Tamaki's enthusiastic wish to travel around Japan, Kyouya could just manage a weak smile. "I'd be happy to teach you what I know about Japanese culture... However, I don't have enough money to take you around Japan..." He wondered if Tamaki would try to take him around Japan instead. As attractive as the prospects were... the idea just made him feel as though he’d become in debt to Tamaki, and Kyouya didn’t like it.

Tamaki stepped backwards, instinctively knowing that something was wrong, that Kyouya was uncomfortable, and that he should back off.

"We can talk about that later!” He shook his head smiling, “We still have to buy Yuuko-san's sake, right?" He turned around, waving more frantically towards the storeowner, who (finally!) saw him and started in their direction. "Three crates of daiginjo-shu, right?" He cocked his head backwards, his smile widening as he looked into Kyouya's eyes.

 What made Kyouya so wary all of the sudden, he wondered. Was it because of his frequent touches? Kyouya lived alone, after all, and he wasn't like anyone Tamaki knew... Maybe he didn't like to be touched? That wouldn't do!

Tamaki frowned slightly, a small crease appearing in between his brows as he thought. He would make it his mission in life to make Kyouya like being touched, or, at the very least, to like being touched by him.

Tamaki nodded decisively. Yes, that was what he should do. They were best friends, after all.

Kyouya just nodded and let the blonde take care of the deal. As long as his new friend wasn't being duped, Kyouya felt content to stay in the background and let Tamaki handle things. Somehow, despite the fact that Tamaki came off as a little silly, Kyouya couldn't shake the idea that the blonde could be trusted with... some sort of intuition.

Perhaps it was luck.

When the deal was done, and the crates were loaded into the back of the Royce, Kyouya was once again amazed at Yuuko's foresight. One more crate would not have fit.

 Tamaki entered the car after Kyouya did, pulling down the screen again. Kyouya seemed more comfortable with the screen there, and Tamaki didn't mind the slight darkness. He leaned back to his seat, humming softly. It was a French song, something he was learning to play on the piano, and it filled the silence while he thought of what to say.

"Say, Kyouya..." Tamaki smiled brightly, turning towards the other boy. Kyouya was quiet, but Tamaki didn't mind. He liked having someone who would listen to him without judging, and Kyouya did just that. "Do you have an email? We can arrange meetings, and I don't have to go to Yuuko-san's shop to find you... I don't think I can enter again anyway, because my greatest wish is already fulfilled." his smile brightened involuntarily.

Hearing those words, Kyouya couldn't help but smile. "I believe that's how it works," he nodded. It just meant he'd be the one to lug those crates into her house. But the more hard work he did, the sooner he'd be able to have his wish fulfilled as well.

"Here." Taking out a small, black notebook and pen, he wrote down his email address and ripped out the page cleanly, handing it to the blonde along with his notebook. "What's yours? And is there a number I can dial to find you? Have you gotten a cell phone yet?"

It still surprised Kyouya how he actually felt willing to be the best friend that Tamaki wanted.

Tamaki took the piece of paper from Kyouya's hands and stuffed it into a pocket, inadvertently crumpling it. He took the notebook and pen and scribbled down his email address (his more personal one, the one only Father and Mother knew of, not the one that he gave to most of the school) and his cell phone number before thrusting the black book back to Kyouya.

"Here you go. We can become pen pals and write to each other daily!" He grinned. "It'll be fun!"

 Pocketing the pen and notebook again, Kyouya nodded agreeably; Tamaki's smile was infectious.

By the time the car reached the shop again, Kyouya received clarification that Tamaki was indeed attending the prestigious Ouran Academy, and in turn, told the blonde about his own school, which was attended by more 'commoners' that Tamaki seemed to be so fascinated with.

 "Do you need help carrying all that in?" Tamaki frowned worriedly at Kyouya. He wished he could help, but, as he predicted, he could no longer see Yuuko-san's shop. Instead of a small, old-fashioned house, all he could see was an empty field and two wooden posts topped by silver crescent moons.

It was rather disconcerting.

The chauffeur now stared at Tamaki in puzzlement. Tamaki opened his mouth to ask if he could see the store, but he thought better of it. This was far too personal a question to ask, after all.

“It’s all right, thank you,” Kyouya shook his head. "Hard work is my price," was all he felt like explaining at that moment. He gritted his teeth then and checked if he could lift the boxes.

Barely.

He sighed. Starting off towards the house, he looked over his shoulder and said, "I'll be right back," before disappearing into it to find... something. A trolley, perhaps, or something to open the crates, so he could carry the load in separately.

Maru and Moro cheerfully greeted him as soon as he entered the shop. Kyouya slid right past them however, because he'd long since learned that the girls, due to their obscure wishes, could never step outside of Yuuko's shop again. Besides, they were short, spry, little creatures. He couldn't imagine them being able to help.

Asking Yuuko was out of the question too. If he wanted something from her, he would, again, have to pay some other price. He went into the kitchen and pulled the hammer out of the toolbox. He just needed to pry the nails loose from the crates.

During his search through the storage room for a trolley, it occurred to Kyouya that something was amiss. Throughout the time he spent with Tamaki, he never felt uncomfortable. He never felt the pressure of some vengeful spirit trying to push him down, or smelled anything as vile. The walk through the sake shop felt almost the same as any errand he ran for Yuuko when she gave him a protection charm.

When he exited the shop again, he threw Tamaki a speculative look, and then shook his head. He pulled the trolley out after him, and headed towards the crates.

Tamaki was no little relieved as he watched Kyouya appear from seemingly nowhere, carrying a hammer and a trolley. He feared, somewhat, that when the dark-haired boy had disappeared, everything he had just experienced would be an illusion, a figment of his imagination. It was almost too good to be true that he had a best friend now, someone who understood him and someone he understood. He couldn't believe that all of that had happened just because he had gotten lost. It was almost as if it was...

Fate.

'Well,' Tamaki smiled, nodding to Kyouya as the other boy came towards him, 'I'll have to give Yuuko-san a proper gift if or when I see her again.' After all, three crates of sake certainly weren’t enough; Kyouya's friendship was worth more than that, surely.

Though he didn't notice Kyouya's speculative look, he definitely saw the shake of the head. "Is something the matter?" he asked, tilting his head to the side, eyes wide and curious. With a hand, he motioned to the chauffeur to load the trolley with the crates.

Kyouya looked from Tamaki to the driver, and then Tamaki again. "Thank you," he addressed them both. To Tamaki, he replied honestly.

"I just realized. With you, I... wasn't..." He looked around then, in the air, to make sure. "There's no spirits around us. They usually just wait for me outside the shop, but right now... it's just the three of us." He nudged his glasses, hoping the chauffeur would believe him too.

Tamaki blinked, "Oh? That's- Wait, Kyouya..." he frowned, lips unconsciously forming into a pout. "You were chased by spirits constantly? Is that a bad thing? It must be a bad thing, or else you won't think of the spirits not bothering you as a good thing, right? Are you all right? Have they ever hurt you? It's odd that they don't appear when you're with me... maybe I should give you a few strands of my hair? It's blond, so it must be light and that'll chase away the bad spirits away since all the legends say that they don't like the light..." He rambled on.

Beside him, unnoticed by Tamaki, the chauffeur smiled, just a small quirk of the lips, as he listened to the young master babble while loading the trolley with the heavy crates. The man was pretty much prepared to believe anything now that he’d seen the two boys enter and disappear that ‘empty lot,’ and since his young master seemed just fine with Kyouya’s presence... he might as well just leave them some privacy after he’s finished unloading the crates.

Meanwhile, Tamaki's words were making Kyouya flustered. He was plain confused as it was, which made him all the more curious as to why Tamaki's presence seemed to help him. It disturbed Kyouya. He couldn't remain mildly interested. He was actually concerned.

And also concerned that the driver was doing everything for him. He quickly started moving the crates onto the trolley with the man as he answered Tamaki as best he could.

"I don't think it's your hair, Tamaki. I've been around other blonde people as well... Basically, as Ichihara-san would say, my soul looks delicious to hungry spirits, so they just want to eat it," he shrugged, then grunted, shifting his weight to accommodate. "Being surrounded by too much negative magic, and ... 'supernatural' things can make me physically sick, because I sense them with pretty much all my senses."

Tamaki's frown grew more severe. "If they make you physically ill, doesn't that mean that they hurt you as well?" He didn't like that. He didn't like that at all. He waited until Kyouya had put the crate down, then, without thinking, he reached towards him and grasped the other boy's wrist in a strong grip.

"They harm you, don't they?" It wasn't a question. Tamaki squeezed Kyouya's wrist tighter, walking forward swiftly until their foreheads were almost pressed together. "I don't like it, Kyouya. I don't like it when any of my friends get hurt, much less my best friend. If my presence somehow chases away these spirits and they don't hurt you, then I'll stay with you, if you'll allow me to. If not, if not," he waved his free hand around, careful not to smack Kyouya in the face, "I'll find a way to get those bad spirits away from you, so you won't get hurt by them any more."

Kyouya was not aware that he had stopped breathing until his body really needed him to take a deep breath. He took it in with a ragged gasp, sighing the other boy's name out, but otherwise remained speechless as he looked into those determined violet-blue eyes.

Tamaki was too good to be true: that was all he could think.

"... You can't..." He let out a soft laugh, "Stay with me... forever." He wasn't even sure if he was actually asking that. "You're the heir of the Suoh family, aren't you?" Kyouya tried to sound mocking, reflexively. "How would you do that - come with me to my school, or something? Don't worry, Tamaki - I'm working on it... I... That's my wish: I don't ever want to be bothered by magic things again. That's why I work here. As I said before, hard work is the price of my wish."

Tamaki ignored his slightly-bitter tone with barely any effort. "Technically speaking, I'm not," he shrugged. "Not yet, anyway. But this isn't about me, Kyouya. If... If I can't go to your school," he couldn't - not now, when Grandmother was watching his every movement and Maman might be hurt - "you can come to mine! Ouran has a scholarship position open. It has been there ever since last year, but no one had been able to pass the entrance exams yet. However..." Here, he took a deep breath, and smiled widely, confidently, "I'm sure that you can. I'm sure."

He didn't know how he was so sure, but the knowledge that Kyouya had more than enough ability to enter Ouran was extremely solid. There was no doubt about it. He just knew.

"Scholarship program?" Kyouya blinked in surprise. "It must be very new." At the back of his mind, he was fairly certain he hadn't told Tamaki about his academic level. With Yuuko, the topic definitely didn't pop up. He filed away Tamaki's words about his family for later analysis, and asked instead, "What makes you so sure that I would be accepted?" He leaned back with a wry smile. "I'm not asking because I doubt my ability. But what are the chances of getting in at all, if no one's passed the entrance yet?"

Tamaki shrugged again, biting his lip, "I don't know how I know, but I just do. It's... I just have no doubts at all about it, Kyouya. I can even see you entering Ouran's gates as a student if I try hard enough!" he smiled suddenly. "But that doesn't matter, does it? You can, I know you can. I've seen the entrance exams papers by accident - Father's the Chairman and I'm clumsy - and the questions aren't very hard. You can do it!"

But now that Kyouya had brought it up... Tamaki, too, was puzzled about his own knowledge about things like these. Like how he was never gotten angry at Father for missing a birthday or not being able to visit, because he knew that Father was busy because a proposal failed and Grandmother was angry. Or like how he tried to stop Maman from going out into the gardens one day because he knew she would sprain her ankle. Or even how he tried his best to talk Grandpère from making that particular business deal, for he knew that would be their downfall.

Somehow, he just knew these things. But, until now, he had never thought about it. It was all very strange.

Kyouya stared at him for a moment. "You can see things... if you try hard enough?" The scholarship could wait 'til he found time to look it up in the evening. The idea that Tamaki had some form of clairvoyance or precognition was...

Very interesting was an understatement. A power like that would be incredibly useful - far more than what Kyouya was stuck with - being a monster molestation magnet.

However, Tamaki shrugged, feet shuffling on the floor as he fidgeted, unable to stop moving even for few seconds. He rocked on the balls of his feet and stuffed his hands in his pockets. "Yea. But my head hurts if I try, and sometimes I get a big headache without seeing anything. It's very frustrating," he pouted involuntarily, crossing his arms.

Suddenly, he smiled. "You're the first person I've told this to, Kyouya. I've never talked to anyone about this before. Not even Maman. She just would be worried anyway."

Kyouya nodded, and spoke quietly but clearly. "It's probably for the best, not telling people about supernatural things. People either become frightened of what they don't understand, frightened of you... or they try to exploit you however they can."

He had a very negative view of people.

"And trusting me so easily when it's only the first time we've met... What are you thinking, Tamaki?"

"I'm probably not thinking at all," the blond said, chuckling softly under his breath at himself. "Maman has always said that I don't think through things enough... I depend on my instincts too much and, well," he rubbed a hand across the back of his neck, smiling sheepishly, eyes on the floor, "my instincts tells me to trust you."

The blonde really wasn't comfortable talking, or even thinking, about these things, but Kyouya wanted to know, and Tamaki didn't like hiding things from his friends, much less his best friend.

"Besides," he looked up into Kyouya's eyes, "I don't think you would exploit me or anything. I may have known you for less than a day, but..." here, his tone turned earnest, "I feel like I've known you for all of my life."

Kyouya tore his eyes away, looking to his side. He had to blink to keep this swell of emotion back, and his eyes felt wet. He swallowed thickly, and when he looked back at Tamaki, he fiddled with the frame of his glasses as he spoke as neutrally as he could.

"That's a very interesting perspective..."

Every fiber of his being screamed for him to let Tamaki be his best friend as well now, and let Tamaki gain his trust - well, the rest of it anyway, since the blonde was already making a lot of progress. Kyouya glanced towards the chauffeur who had politely gone back into the car to let them talk in private, then at the crates on the trolley.

It seemed like he wouldn't need the hammer, since the trolley could still move under the weight of all that sake.

He looked back at Tamaki when he couldn't seem to avoid it any longer. "I'll email you tonight," he said. "Or email me, if you like." Kyouya had no doubt the other boy would do just he said he would. "I'll be working at this shop every weekday after school.”

The odd, vulnerable look that passed Tamaki's face was something he simply did not want to see often. And thinking back to how sad Tamaki sounded when he said he wanted a best friend... Kyouya correctly guessed that the blonde was scared to lose him somehow.

"I get home by 8... sometimes 9, but you should be able to catch me around the shop, and..."

He cut himself off when he realized he was about to give his weekends away, too. With a smile, he moved back, and said instead, "... It's nice to meet you, Tamaki."