BLOOM [OHSHC]

Chapter 22 - Mr. Grumpy Gills

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"So you met her parents? What a curious development, Kyoya... I didn't realize you and Michiyo were that far along in your relationship."

Typing away on his laptop, Kyoya sat in his empty guest bedroom, phone cradled between his shoulder and his ear as he called Tamaki for his near-daily host club update. Milky moonlight poured in through the window, spilling over his duvet and sheets. The bedside lamp tossed golden light across the bed. "There's no relationship between the two of us besides our... friendship," he said hesitantly. Was that what he and Michiyo had? Just friendship? After everything they'd gone through, the label somehow didn't seem like enough. "The Kimuras were..."

"Beguiling? Mysterious? Enchanting? Everything the tabloids say and more?"

"Awful," Kyoya finished with a scowl. His hands balled to fists over his keyboard as he wrestled with the lingering frustration from the previous day. "I've never heard parents speak to their child in such a disrespectful manner. To be honest, I'm surprised that Michiyo didn't curse them out earlier. She held her composure for nearly five minutes before losing her cool and storming off."

"That bad, huh?"

"Worse. I'm downplaying the unpleasant nature of the interaction for the sake of brevity," Kyoya said. He relaxed enough to continue scrolling college websites while they spoke, distracting and distancing himself from his brief interaction with the Kimuras. "Anyway, how are you and Haruhi faring, Tamaki? Closer, I presume? Suntanned and giddily in love, as you wished?"

"No, no, no, Kyoya. Stop that. We're talking about you and Michiyo right now, not Haruhi and I and our fabulously epic love story," Tamaki fired back, not missing a beat. "Do you really have no updates? You're a terrible gossip and terrible at changing the topic, and I do mean that in a bad way."

After a soul-cleansing, bone-deep sigh, Kyoya closed his laptop and pinched the bridge of his nose, eyes falling closed while he debated with himself. Should he tell Tamaki about Sunday Fortner? About the suspected interaction between Michiyo and Kaoru? About the way Mori looked at her like she was the sun? "Of course I have updates, Tamaki," he said stiffly. "What kind of friend would I be if I didn't?"

"Okay, then spill. Haruhi and I need some deets!"

"Haruhi's not... there, is she? In the room?" Kyoya asked carefully.

"Of course not, Kyoya," Tamaki laughed, "I'm a gentleman of the highest caliber, after all! Haruhi retired to her room for the evening, and I have not bothered her since!"

Kyoya highly doubted that... but he did need to vent a little bit. Tamaki, with the title of 'best friend', would not blab any secrets out of fear of death via Black Onion Squad. "I heard a conversation the other day that I was not supposed to hear," Kyoya said, "Between Michiyo and her fake boyfriend, Sunday Fortner."

Tamaki perked up at that. "Oh? Do tell."

"They... called off their fake relationship," Kyoya said, unsure if he really felt that this was his secret to tell. "I'd been sleeping, and woke up to them talking about ending things."

"Wow... and they didn't notice you eavesdropping, Kyoya?"

"I..." he sighed, "I pretended to sleep."

"How devil-may-care of you," Tamaki teased. "So? Did they end it?"

"It seems so," Kyoya said.

"Well... that's good news for you."

Kyoya's brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

Tamaki sighed into the phone. "Kyoya, darling, you are awfully dense for someone so smart... You really don't see it?"