"Tono." Kaoru snapped his fingers in front of the Host King's face, hoping to get his attention back. Not that he could blame him. If Hikaru had been bent over like Kyouya currently was, Kaoru had to admit to himself that he'd be distracted too.
"Nice view?"
Tamaki's head snapped back, staring at Kaoru as if he was the most terrifying thing he'd ever seen. "What?"
Kaoru shook his head and tapped on the pages in Tamaki's notebook that were covered in doodles. "We can do this. This theme. It's easy enough."
"Oh. Okay." The normally bombastic blond was uncharacteristically quiet, a slight blush rising to his cheeks. His eyes unfocused yet again, gaze shifting to the left.
Kaoru leaned forward, chin on one upturned palm. "You can swing that way, right?"
"What?" Tamaki's attention belonged to Kaoru again, pale cheeks flushing a deeper red.
"You can swing our way, right? Come to our place to approve the costumes?" Kaoru smirked.
Tamaki released a held-back breath, nodding. "Of course."
"Probably something you can't take your eyes off of," Kaoru added, loving the way Tamaki's eyes opened wide with panic.
"What are you talking about?"
"The costumes," Kaoru answered innocently. "They always are, aren't they?"
"Oh, the Hitachiins never disappoint." Tamaki's voice was high and nervous, and Kaoru could tell that he was trying to train his eyes away from anything but the floor.
"Definitely someone – oops." Kaoru giggled at the mistake that wasn't a mistake at all. "I mean something you could fall in love with."
Tamaki raised an eyebrow. "Yes. Like I said, they always are."
Kaoru narrowed his eyes, feigning examination of something in Tamaki's sketches. "Interesting how you want Kyouya-senpai's shirt to show off his shoulders. Now how did you think of that?" He smiled, resisting the urge to laugh.
The tips of the blond's ears turned pink, and he grabbed the sketches back. "If you're just going to patronize me -"
"Patronize you?" Kaoru put on his best offended face. "Au contraire! I'm simply admiring your creative genius."
Tamaki wasn't buying it. A pout had taken up residence on his lips.
"Your ideas are always full of such passion, and lust!"
"Lust?" Tamaki repeated.
"Definitely lust."
Tamaki studied his drawing yet again. "I don't see lust."
"Everyone else does."
"What?"
"Nothing."
"What do you mean by that?" The King demanded.
"You know what I mean."
"No." Tamaki's voice was very small, very afraid and very confused. "I don't."
Kaoru suddenly felt Hikaru's breath on his ear, and leaned his chair back to be able to fully see his twin. "Mmm?"
"Our car is waiting."
"Ah." He dropped his chair back to normal position and grabbed his bag from under the table. "Later, Tono."
Hikaru peeked over Tamaki's shoulder at the picture, pausing for just a second. "Why is Kyouya-senpai's shirt so impractical? He'd be constantly fighting to keep it from falling off."
"Mm-hm," Kaoru said from across the room in a tone that made Tamaki very unhappy indeed.
Not nearly as unhappy as he became when he heard Kaoru's hushed words to his twin.
"Maybe we should just forget to make a shirt for Kyouya-senpai. If he starts out half-naked, he won't have to go through all the hassle."