She had the servants vacuum twice a week, and if they failed she would grit her teeth and do it herself. The carpet had to be pristine, she would say. That was why the children could not enter the formal rooms unless they had recently bathed - not that they were ever dirty. The Ootori children were as clean and polished as silver.

Kyouya had always been a neat person by nature. In theory he should have been delighted to see his four-year-old son scrubbed to the bone and dressed in spotless white. It should have brought joy to his heart to see his daughter's room free of any personal clutter, decorated only with professional portraits of her family.

Instead, he felt a deep, hungry nagging. He thought of a small apartment, organized and well-kept, but littered with schoolbooks and CDs and sisterless shoes.

Haruhi did not vacuum twice a week. He could say that for certain.

And with this on his mind he left his suit crumpled on the bedroom floor, in the smallest sign of rebellion he thought his wife's delicate heart could stand.