Thrice Unlucky

The third daughter of a noble family, the well-loved child, she's held the world in her arms before. Her father's taken her aside many times and told her about the family, the Tonnerre family, distinguished and successful, famous and upright - and he's told her about what she has to do, what is expected of her. Eclair loves her father, loves her mother, loves her siblings, and most of all...

She's only heard of him in stories - a blond haired, purple-eyed genius who plays the piano and enchants women to him like no other man can. She's dreamt about the music he would play, if he would play for her, the songs she would accompany him in on dances. A boy, the sole apple of his mother's eye; a boy, the sole heir to a large empire and corporation.

A boy, Suoh Tamaki.

The third daughter of a noble family, the well-loved child, she's never really known what it's like to be happy before. The youngest always gains her mother's attention, but there is so much more she has to achieve before she can call the right kind of attention to herself. She's not deaf; she hears them speak sometimes of how she draws man to herself because of how she looks, and who she is. Nothing more, nothing less - it hurts her to think this, but the world she holds in her hands, the toys she is given, the gifts she gets that are beyond necessities...

She wonders sometimes what it's like to be free, and to be able to do what one wants. Called by her father into his office, she signs away her wings when she promises to marry the man her father wants her to marry. Another family, wanting power, wanting to escape the Tonnerre's claws. When he tells her who they are, for a moment her eyes brightens and Eclair remembers the tales of the fairy prince and dreams.

Dreaming that someone would sweep her off her feet and take her away.

The third daughter of a noble family, the well-loved child, she's no stranger to emotions carelessly expressed on a person's face. Suoh Tamaki is sorrowful, Fujioka Haruhi is jealous - the rest of them she ignores. The Ohtori family she knows, one of the mass companies that will soon belong to her world, but the rest of them do not belong. With those binoculars of hers, she spies on him - the handsome prince that will soon be hers. He smiles and waits on the other females, never coming close enough to her table, as if he knew. For a while, she was afraid that he would not touch her, until...

When he's commanded to take her around, there is a quick stupefied look on his face. Eclair greets him politely, and when they are alone, she lets her hand linger over his a second too long, and he flinches slightly. Of no matter - she knows she has something he wants and if that is what she must do to gain him, she will.

She will do anything to bring him into her world.

The third daughter of a noble family, the well-loved child, she's never had anybody smile specially for her before. Her father's lips are strained, her mother's bitter - her siblings' busy, and the housekeeper's worried. So when the carriage rubs dangerously against the side of the bridge - for just one second, her heart stops when she sees Fujioka Haruhi's face, filled with love and concern and anger and everything that she, herself, could never muster.

When the horses rear and Fujioka Haruhi is sent flying into the waters, when Suoh Tamaki tries to jump, she grips onto his clothing and glances up at him pleadingly. Leave her here, come with me, I can give you what you want, I can show you your mother -

But her heart is stopping, and Fujioka Haruhi is falling, and Suoh Tamaki is looking at her with pity and love - so she lets go.

And he whispers to her: arigatou.

And he smiles.

The third daughter of the family, the well-loved child, she's held the world in her hands before, but, now, the world has shaken and the glass broken; this time, Eclair Tonnerre has lost both her handsome prince and the fairytale.

owari.