SMALL COMFORTS
by Sky

Summary: Kyouya gets a late night visitor. One-sided Kyouya/Tamaki.
Rating: R, some sexual content.
Word count: 2690
Notes: Takes place pre-series. This is based on the anime version.

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SMALL COMFORTS

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In the Ohtori household, night time belonged to Kyouya.

The whole house was quiet; there were no invading siblings or servants trailing at Kyouya's heels like little lost ducklings; no father to please by empty platitudes which only served to further avoid and distance.

Kyouya had learned many tricks over the years - tricks how to please and fool others, but the constant parade of facades was ultimately tiring. Sometimes he was glad that his mother had left, just one person less to keep up with pretences. He met his mother during holiday occasions, when he and his siblings would go to an obligatory family visit, loaded with pleasantries and old bitterness. They had been estranged from their mother too long to feel guilty about lying, which served Kyouya well as lying was his specialty.

But nowadays he was genuinely glad to see his mother happy and in good health, even if that was with another family. It had been only after he had met Tamaki that he fully learned to appreciate this, and he had been surprised to realize that some of his old, stale bitterness was starting to release its hold on him.

But not completely.

Dealing with people was ultimately tiring, which is why Kyouya cherished the nights when the rest of his household was asleep. He stayed up late without pesky interruptions and if anyone asked, he was studying and his grades would be his first witnesses. No one would take notice that during the night Kyouya's personal account, of which his family had no knowledge, had accumulated and gained a zero at the end of the total. And that as well was Kyouya's alone.

Kyouya wasn't an Ohtori for nothing. He knew which bee nests to poke to create a convenient chaos. While the swarm was distracted, Kyouya himself sneaked behind the scenes - fully disguised of course - to collect the honey to himself. Of course, he was wise enough not stir trouble in his own nest. He had firmly stayed away from the field of medicine, since it wouldn't do to start competing with his own family.

Yet.

Instead he went for where the big bucks were; entertainment, hotels, restaurants, theatres. He bought shares and gained himself extra zeroes.

He supposed he should thank Tamaki for introducing him to the profitable market of entertainment values. Yes, the host club they had just started thrived because their clients had time on their hands - and people who had spare time were also the ones to have spare money. Money bought time, simple as that.

Surprisingly, Tamaki had taught Kyouya quite a lot of things.

Kyouya took off his classes and rubbed his eyes. There were some downsides to being a night person, poor eyesight and excessive sleeping habits for one. There was a cliche to be made about him and Tamaki. Kyouya rised with the moon; his appearance suitably dark and mysterious - some would say a bit scary - while Tamaki was the poster child for all things sunny. Tamaki would never stay up after ten in the evening and he would be guaranteed to be the one to wake you up at six in the morning. And the irritating thing was that Tamaki even woke up completely without any period of sleep disorientation. Yes, he jumped out of his bed wide awake, ready to start the day with excess enthusiasm and assumed everyone else would do the same.

Kyouya smiled ruefully. Well, Tamaki had learned his lesson after he had made the mistake to assume the same of Kyouya. Never again would he try to wake up Kyouya at six in the morning for a western style waffle breakfast. Kyouya had made sure of that.

Ah, he was doing it again.

He was supposed to be working, not mulling over how goddamn irritating Tamaki was.

Annoyed at himself, Kyouya snapped the laptop cover shut and stretched. He shut off the desk lamp and dragged himself to bed. His body dropped down like a dead weight. He had barely managed to close his eyes and pull the covers over himself, when he heard a knock.

The red alarm clock display informed him that it was half-past midnight.

A fucking knock at twelve thirty. This better be good.

Wrapping himself in a bath robe, he opened the door and did not hold back the irritation in his voice.

"Yes?"

"I'm so sorry, sir, for waking you at this time." The maid who had dared to disturb the beast bowed deeply. "But you have a visitor and well, we didn't know what to do with him."

Kyouya stared at her for a beat. He could just go to sleep and let the servants deal with it. But he was curious.

"Who is it?"

"It's Suou Tamaki-san, sir."

Kyouya supposed he shouldn't be surprised, who else was crazy enough to show up at his door after midnight, but Tamaki wasn't one to stay up this late. He fought back the little sprout of concern that had started niggling at him. Mostly, he just felt the same annoyance that he had come to associate closely with Tamaki's presence.

"All right, where is he?"

He followed the maid to the dining room area, where a few of the older matrons were already fussing about. Tamaki had been seated to a high-backed chair, with a blanket hung over his shoulders and a steaming hot mug between his hands. He looked up as Kyouya entered the room, but didn't greet Kyouya with his usual cheery manner. Instead, he just shivered miserably.

"Sir, he just showed up at the door, we had to let him in. Poor thing was soaking wet, such a dreadful weather outside and it's not safe this late..." One of the matrons was babbling on, but Kyouya silenced her with a wave of his hand.

"That's all right, I'll take care of him. You can go back to sleep." He dismissed them.

To Tamaki, he said, "Let's go to my room, you can sleep on the couch."

He started walking back, not bothering to see if Tamaki was following him. Which of course he was.

Once back in the warmth of his room, Kyouya watched Tamaki slouch in and locked the door behind him.

Kyouya crossed his arms and sent a glare of boiling menacity at Tamaki. Tamaki didn't seem to take much notice of Kyouya's hostility as he was too busy shivering with visible tremors swaying his entire body.

"What the hell are you doing, Tamaki? Do you have any idea what the time is?"

"Sorry, Kyouya. I'm sorry..."

"Well, you must have some reason for showing up here in the middle of the night. And I can't wait to hear what nonsense you've come up with this time."

"I - " Tamaki looked at him with big eyes full of his damnable sincerity, "I didn't want to be alone. So, I came here." To his credit, even Tamaki seemed to realize that this was a bad idea, seeing as his cheeks had taken on the shade of a boiled radish.

Kyouya felt like banging his - or preferably Tamaki's - head against the wall. Sometimes he wondered if Tamaki was actually clinically insane. It would explain quite a few things. He made a note to himself to get an appointment for Tamaki from his family psychologist. At the very least he'd pay to get some pills that would reduce Tamaki's regular idiocy.

"So you came here - at half-past midnight, in your pyjamas - and you didn't even think to call me first? How did you get here anyway? Don't tell me you walked."

"I - I asked my driver to drive me here."

Kyouya rolled his eyes. Whatever they were paying Tamaki's chauffeur he could bet it wasn't enough.

Tamaki coughed.

Only now Kyouya took notice of his pyjamas that actually were soaking wet and clinging to Tamaki's skin. They were also making quite a mess on Kyouya's Persian rug.

"Come on." He took hold of Tamaki's elbow and led him to the bedroom. He rummaged through his closet and found a pair of old pyjamas he hadn't used in ages. He handed them to Tamaki and all but threw him to the bathroom.

A moment later Tamaki emerged from the bathroom in Kyouya's pyjamas, looking marginally less like an asylum escapee.

"All right, here, take this and go to sleep on the sofa." Kyouya handed him a glass of water and a sleeping pill he always kept in his medicine cupboard, they were courtesy of his family hospital after all.

Tamaki took the pill as offered, but pouted at him about the sleeping arrangements. "Can't I sleep with you on the bed?"

"No, you can't." Kyouya ground his teeth. How much more irritating could Tamaki get?

Tamaki sat on the bed, radiating misery. "But I'll get nightmares."

"You are not five," though he sometimes doubted it, "You can deal with it."

"But Kyouya..."

Kyouya started to feel his own tiredness taking the better of him. "Fine. Sleep on the bed, if that's what you want, but I'm sleeping on the couch. And don't think you're going to get away with this."

Kyouya went back to his desk, clicked the lamp on and opened his laptop with a loud snap. He started typing furiously, although afterwards he had no recollection what he was typing and why.

Tamaki regarded him for a while before collapsing on the bed. Apparently the sleeping pill was kicking in.

"Kyouya, do you hate me?" Tamaki mumbled.

"Tamaki, go to sleep."

"You're always so upset. Are you mad about something?"

"No, I'm not mad," Kyouya snapped and then had to massage his temples as he was developing one hell of a headache. "I'm worried about you, okay? Why the hell would you go wandering around at night in pyjamas? You're not living in one of your fantasy worlds, you're living in this one and it's an ugly place. You need to have at least some sense of self-preservation in that idiotic head of yours."

"Nothing bad happened. I was with my driver."

"Yeah, I bet he was very pleased that you woke him up for a night ride on a whim."

"Kyouya, do you think I should learn how to drive? Then I could come here at any time without bothering anyone else."

Kyouya refrained from commenting how Tamaki and operating a moving vehicle was a disaster waiting to happen. After no further comments for a several minutes, Kyouya glanced over and saw Tamaki had fallen asleep finally.

He closed his laptop and sighed deeply. Honestly, sometimes he had no idea how to deal with Tamaki and yet it seemed like Kyouya was the only one who made any effort to look after him.

He sat on the bed next to Tamaki. It was really wide enough for them both without awkward accidental contact, but...

Kyouya felt Tamaki's forehead for any signs of fever, since he had been pretty drenched in the rain. The skin under his palm was damp and heated. Kyouya brushed a strand of wet hair from Tamaki's face. Without really thinking about it he let his finger trace along the edge of Tamaki's fair eyebrows, the high cheekbones and ending up with his finger resting on the soft curve of Tamaki's lips.

Kyouya swallowed.

It's not like he hadn't thought about it. Or played with the possibility in his mind during those idle hours of the night, when there was no fear of interruption. The only person daring enough to interrupt Kyouya's life had been Tamaki. And he had done it through sheer idiocy that Kyouya had to admit he found somewhat endearing at times. Yes, Kyouya could admit Tamaki was tolerable at times.

Times like these.

Kyouya much preferred the muted darks of nights. He could blend in with the shadows and observe others without ever being observed in return. But the darkness was also oddly flattering on Tamaki, who usually only bloomed during daytime, but now, in Kyouya's bedroom where the only source of light was the dim circle of a night lamp, Tamaki seemed to glow like a pale luminescent flower.

Kyouya smiled ruefully, if he ever were to call Tamaki a sleeping beauty aloud he would not hear the end of it, but the term arose to his mind every time he watched Tamaki sleep. It could be that it was the one time when Tamaki's exuberant personality wasn't overshadowing his looks.

Kyouya leaned his head down until he could feel his lips brushing lightly against Tamaki's. His heart beating, he waited for Tamaki to wake up at any moment, but it seemed like the sleeping pills were doing their job.

He slid one hand under Tamaki's loose pajama top, Kyouya's pajama. His hand was burning at the point of contact and he wasn't sure if Tamaki's fever had anything to do with it. Encouraged, he shifted so that his hands were on either side of Tamaki's body and he was sitting on top of Tamaki's waist.

Swallowing nervously, he set his crotch on top of Tamaki's and felt an exhilarating rush with the contact. He was hard with so little effort. His hands shook a bit holding his weight as he lowered himself to give another small kiss on Tamaki's lips and moved his hips in slow movements.

Then Tamaki shifted in his sleep and Kyouya lost the contact.

He retreated to the bathroom, ignoring the wild beating of his heart.

As he slid his hand over his erection and jerked himself off, he contemplated on how fucking stupid he was. He had lost control of himself again, and once again because of Tamaki. No, every time solely because of Tamaki, but for varied reasons. Arousal was one to add to the list.

He reminded himself again that Tamaki was an irritating idiot with a childlike world view and full of obnoxious flair to share. And he also made Kyouya crazy with lust.

Kyouya had never dated anyone, nor had he felt the need to. He studied and made money, he was in it for the business and if there was no profit for him, then there was no point to pursue it further. He didn't think it would be too difficult for him to get a date with a decent enough girl if he ever craved physical contact. But so far, the effort of managing a relationship, even for sex, just didn't seem worthwhile.

Tamaki was a different matter. Tamaki just was. There. All the time. Kyouya had never asked to be Tamaki's friend nor did he pursue someone to be his best "mate". Tamaki had done all the work in their relationship. Kyouya just followed suit as Tamaki declared Kyouya his bestest of pals.

In a way, Tamaki was easy maintenance. Kyouya sometimes wondered why Tamaki seemed so attached to Kyouya when there were plenty of candidates who would treat Tamaki with more respect than he did. Maybe it was the theory of opposites attracting. Kyouya wasn't sure.

But the reality was that Tamaki had come to him, Kyouya, when he felt alone and scared. And Kyouya had taken him in. Perhaps Tamaki needed someone like Kyouya. A strictly business type who would refuse to be overwhelmed by Tamaki's dramatic personality, someone who would look after Tamaki in a practical manner the way Kyouya found himself doing more often than he wanted to admit.

Kyouya snorted. And now he was contemplating his relationship with Tamaki while he was jerking off. How fitting.

As he returned from the bathroom all cleaned up, he wondered whether he should try to bring this up with Tamaki. Tamaki was easy maintenance and perfectly willing to do most things Kyouya suggested to him. Why not this.

But Kyouya was put off by Tamaki's childlike behaviour. Tamaki might act the romantic prince with girls, but it was just that - a romantic act. Nothing to do with reality. Kyouya had no doubt that Tamaki had never dated anyone, probably not even kissed any of the unfortunate girls to fall under his charm, even if there had been plenty of opportunities. Tamaki's rose-tinted world view just didn't mesh with the real world. And Kyouya dreaded to see the day when reality would come crashing down on Tamaki.

Kyouya intended to protect Tamaki from that inevitability as long as he could.

And so, while Tamaki slept peacefully on Kyouya's bed that night, he slept restless on the sofa.

Shadow king protecting the white prince.

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END