The Duchess {OHSHC}

Chapter 15

Kyoya Ootori paced endlessly around the windowless room, devising plan after plan, only to scowl and toss what he had been thinking about.

This behavior had been going on for what seemed like hours, and the rest of the room's occupants were beginning to get annoyed.

Every so often someone would pipe up with a: "What if we-?", only to be cut off by the intellectual teen shaking his head before they could even finish speaking.

"I've thought of everything." Kyoya hissed, running his hand through his hair fitfully. "Alicia is counting on me to get us all out, I know it. We can't just wing this! We need a solid, foolproof plan in order to safely exit the compound..."

Haruhi Fujioka rolled her eyes for what seemed like the millionth time since Kyoya was first thrown into the room. His intelligence was just getting in the way right now.

What they needed was something sudden and spontaneous. What would Alicia do...?

Haruhi's eyes lit up and she turned to look at the hosts.

"Tamaki-senpai." She called out, cutting Kyoya off mid-rant. All eyes turned to the commoner as she gave the host club king the most disgusted face any of them have ever seen. "I will never look up to someone with a weird father fetish like you." She spat.

Tamaki's expression dropped and he just stared with a look of immense hurt on his face as the host club's resident female continued.

"I don't understand why I even hang around you, Idiot King." She sneered. "I already paid my debt. I guess it's more out of pity than anything else. I might as well just transfer to Lobelia when this is all through."

Everyone stared in horrified shock at the normally blunt girl's venomous words and at the effect they had on the blonde teen before her.

Sitting in the corner growing mushrooms wasn't enough for this, and Haruhi knew that. No, she needed a bigger, more genuine reaction from the theatrical boy.

Tears pooled into Tamaki's eyes and he clutched one hand on the fabric over his heart. Without saying a word, the blonde collapsed into a fetal position on the ground and silently wept.

Everyone stared at Haruhi in absolute silence. Then, without any warning, the commoner let out the shrillest, most high pitched and girly scream any of the males had ever heard.

"OH MY GOD!" She screamed. "HELP, SOMEONE HELP! I THINK HE'S HAVING A HEART ATTACK!"

Everyone stared at the girl in stunned confusion at first, but the Capone brothers caught on almost immediately.

What would Alicia do?

As Haruhi screamed her head off, Damien ran to the door and began pounding on it with all his might. "Hey! Some kid had a heart attack in here!" He shouted out in Italian, trying to get the attention of one of the guards posted in the hallway outside.

Dominic nodded to Haruhi and clapped his hands together as hard as he could while the girl cut off her screams with a dramatic yelp. "SHUT UP BITCH, HE'S ALREADY DEAD." The younger of the two brothers shouted.

The Hitachin twins caught on next and grinned at each other deviously. "HEY! DON'T YOU HIT HARUHI, JACKASS!" The called out together, playfully jumping on top of the large man and sending him crashing to the ground with a loud THUD.

Mori, having been woken up by Haruhi's initial scream, stood painfully from beside his still unconscious cousin and moved to one side of the door while Ritsu took up the opposite side.

Even Tamaki had caught onto the act, dramatically clutching at his heart and moaning in fake pain on the floor.

Kyoya could only stare in shock as the door to the chamber opened.

"What the fuck is going on in here?" Unnamed Thug #2 snarled, bursting into the groups' cell. The man only had an instant to take in the pandemonium when two fists caught him on both sides of his head and he crumpled to the floor.

As Mori and Ritsu rubbed their bruised knuckles, all panic ceased and everyone turned to look at the gaping Kyoya.

"How did you...?" He trailed off as Haruhi helped Tamaki to his feet and Mori lifted Honey into his arms.

"It's simple, Kyoya-senpai." Haruhi grinned. "What would Alicia do?"

The specked teen blinked in surprise at the answer. Of course, how had he been so stupid? He was going about this with a far too analytical mindset. While Alicia was far from the type of person to rush blindly into a situation, she would use the resources and people around her to her advantage in order to get what she wanted.

And that's exactly what he had to do.

Kyoya grit his teeth and nodded. "Alright, Damien and Dominic, you're the largest so you stand in front. Kasanoda, you're behind them. Haruhi, Tamaki, and I will make up the middle with Mori-senpai and Honey-spenpai behind us. Hikaru and Kaoru, you stand at the back as lookout. We're going to run, got it?"

The group nodded and got into position, running out of the cell as fast as they could collectively go.

-*-*-*-

"See, isn't this nice?" Vanel Diamond sighed, staring dreamily out over the ocean from a lounge chair beside his pool. "The sea is so beautiful once you just stop everything to look."

The blonde man stared for a few more seconds before sighing again. "Alright, bring her up."

One goon with his arms submerged in the pool nodded and brought what he had been pushing down back up to the surface.

Alicia gasped as air finally graced her blue-tinged lips and began coughing up the water that had begun to fill her lungs. She clawed at the arms of the goon that held her but could say nothing as her throat burned and water poured down her body in waves.

Vanel glanced at a stopwatch in his hand and raised an interested eyebrow. "One minute and thirteen seconds." He hummed. "Impressive. Now, what do you have to say about that princess?"

Alicia coughed and sputtered, still unable to speak, though she did manage to raise one hand and turn up her middle finger in her father's general direction.

Venal sighed once more and 'tsk'ed with a disappointed shake of his head. "No, that wasn't it either. Oh well, let's see if you can break your record."

Alicia's bloodshot blue eyes widened and she wasn't even able to take half a shaking breath before she was submerged once again.

Vanel stood from his chair and turned to walk inside. "Alphonse, do watch your sister for me, will you? She can come in when she's ready to apologize." He hummed with a wave to his son over his shoulder.

Alphonse Diamond grinned and stared down at the blonde girl thrashing about at the bottom of the pool. "Oh, she'll apologize alright. I'll make sure of that..."