One-shots

Courageous- Kyoya Ootori- Ouran High School Host Club

  She came to the host club every day, and requested Kyoya every day without fail. She was in Kyoya's class, and before she began coming to the host club he didn't know much about her except that she was intelligent, but daydreamed a lot and did not pay much attention. Anytime he saw her she was staring out the window with a melancholy expression on her face. But it didn't really affect him, so he never asked her what was going on. He never paid much attention until she started coming to the host club and he read her files.

She loved music, and was a very fast learner with anything musical. However, according to her file she was a terrible dancer, and her etiquette was not great. He guessed it was because she didn't care to learn. From his understanding, her family business was restaurants, and she had no intention of taking charge of the business, much to the chagrin of her family. The scarcity of interviews in the press with her proved that she had no desire to be in the spotlight. Whenever she came to the host club, she would talk about a lot of different things, but would answer vaguely and change the subject immediately if her future with her parents' company was brought up. He would engage in conversation as expected, but mostly would let her talk. She spoke about all sorts of lighthearted subjects, but she shone when she talked about her music. Kyoya found himself more and more drawn to her passion, and found himself wanting to listen more to her and know everything about her.

Although she avoided the topic like the plague, he admired her ability to be able to choose for herself that she wasn't going to take over a company she had no interest in. To be able to take the drop in social status to pursue what she wanted was something that he wasn't sure he would ever have the courage to do. While getting to know her did not advance him in his goals in any way, he found that he didn't want to stop. She came to the host club every day for a month, and then she missed a whole week. He told himself and the club members that he was going to look for her out of worry for her as a guest, but he knew deep down that he was worried about her not for the club's sake, but for his own. He ended up searching all over the school until he ended up on the roof.

But there she was, on the roof. Leaning against the railing and staring out at the campus with that melancholy look on her face. It was the same one she always had when she was staring out the window in class, and while before he never asked about it, he was compelled to walk to her and lean on the railing next to her, keeping her company in silence until she was ready to say something. If she was ready to say something. They sat like that for a few minutes before she finally spoke.

"Do you ever feel like you're being so pressured to do something you don't want to do, and you feel like you're drowning?" Kyoya did know what that felt like. He felt the pressure to succeed and be better than his brothers even though he just wanted to be successful in his own way. Although her courage was slowly changing his mind about that.

"Of course," he answered honestly. "I think everyone feels that way sometimes."

"I got into a fight with my parents again. I'm sorry if I worried you. I want to go for music, but my parents want me to take over the business. I'm a musician, not a chef. I know I'm not very good at dancing, but I love music and everything about it, and I don't think not being able to dance should stop me. And I certainly don't think my parents' obsession with having me as an heir should dictate everything I do. I have siblings. Let one of them have it." The more she spoke, and the more he listened, the more he was certain that he had fallen for her sometime in the past month of listening. Before he knew it, he had taken her hand in his and pulled her away from the railing. She stared at him with wide eyes. "Kyoya?"

"May I have this dance?" She continued to stare at him in confusion. "You said you don't know how to dance, but you like everything about music. I could teach you?" She blinked before a slow smile spread over her face.

"But there's no music." He grinned, and her heart leaped at the sight of a genuine smile on his face.

"You're good at almost anything music, right? How about you sing us something." Her smile vanished almost as quickly as it appeared.

"I don't really sing in front of people." His grin turned into a smirk.

"Well, you want to be a performer, right? You should practice in front of me." She blushed and began to sing a simple tune. He led her in a dance around the rooftop, and she smiled and laughed as she sang. The sound was the most beautiful music he had ever heard.

When they finished their dance, she smiled breathlessly up at him.

"I'm surprised you came to look for me. But I'm glad you did. Normally I work through this alone, but it turns out that you're actually decent at cheering me up. You may seem cold, but you also appear to know all the right things to say and do." Kyoya smiled at her, and leaned in until his face was close to hers. Without allowing him to say anything, she closed the distance and kissed him lightly. "Thanks Kyoya. Let me return the favor sometime." She winked and walked away, leaving him standing stunned on the roof with a stupid grin on his face, wondering when exactly he managed to fall so in love with her.