Situation: Kyoya and Zaira's Engagement Party

A/N: This was actually pretty fun to write. I hope you enjoy, and this scene just might appear in the second book of the series!

Zaira

It wasn’t the first time in my life that I’d been unreasonably terrified. As such, it didn’t surprise me that I couldn’t find the will to grab the doorknob and let myself out of my room. If anything, the only surprising part of this whole affair was that I’d managed to shoo the maids out without alerting them to just how nervous I’d become.

“Zaira-sama, the guests have begun to arrive.”

My heart thudding in my chest, I simply stared at the door, still unable to force myself into motion. If I went down there, I had a feeling everything was going to change.

It would be official.

It wasn’t a bad thing, nowhere near a bad thing. There was no one else that I’d rather go through this with. No, the problem was that it was so… public. Crowds weren’t the easiest thing for me to handle anymore, despite how far I’d come in the short time since the events in France.

Why did I think about that?

My eyes fell to my hands, which began to shake slightly. When I was alone it was all too easy to recall that moment. The way it had felt in my hand, the rage that might have allowed me to actually fire it off.

“Zaira-sama?”

Shaking my head, I managed to dislodge the memory. My current problem laid in the present, not the past.

“I’m coming!”

My shaking stilled as I glanced towards the closest mirror to make sure everything was still perfect. My red hair fell just past my ears in rather curly strands, my face touched-up with a light coat of makeup. The simple dress that Fuyumi had shown up with for me just hours ago still seemed to be a pristine, snowy white. The delicate material hugged my frame and fell just past my knees, the collar seeming to be made up of similarly snowy white flowers. The sides beneath my arms a silky material that I doubted I ever wanted to know the price of.

“Zaira?”

I froze, with one foot having taken a step towards the door. If anything just hearing his voice made all of this sink in that much more.

“If you don’t come out, you’re going to be late,” Kyoya continued. “Should I just go tell the guests that you’re too scared to come down?”

The slightly teasing tone his voice surprised me and irritated me at the same time. Quickly closing the distance between me and the door, I tugged it open to give him a well deserved glare.

“I’m not scared!’

Kyoya raised a single brow and I couldn’t help taking that moment to admire his appearance. As usual, Kyoya’s hair was perfectly in place and his glasses perched just-so. His outfit consisted of a traditional black-and-white suit, something I realized matched my own dress perfectly. As I studied him, Kyoya’s eyes swept over me as well. An expression I read as curiosity appeared when he lifted his eyes back to mine.

“I’m glad you’re not scared,” he mused. “I’d hate to see you ruin that dress by causing some accident out of nervousness.”

“Didn’t you say that we needed to go down?” I demanded.

His lips twisted up as he offered a hand in my direction.

“I did. Are you ready?”

Suddenly nervous once again, I bit my lip, glancing towards the direction I could already hear the voices of the guests coming from. My eyes were pulled back to him, however, when he silently grabbed my hand instead of waiting for me to take his.

“They’re just people.”

“Important people,” I grumbled mutinously.

“Not that important,” he retorted easily. “It’s not their party, it’s ours.”

I blinked, feeling my nervousness beginning to peek once again.

“Our party.”

He nodded, starting down the hall and pulling me after him with a simple tug of his hand.

“Exactly.”

“Is that supposed to calm me down?” I muttered.

It was as if the only thing keeping me from darting back to my room at that moment was the warmth of my hand in his. A soft, impatient sigh escaped his lips as he stopped walking and spun around to face me. Kyoya’s expression was unreadable as he closed the small distance between us in an instant, his head tilted towards my own.

“What is there to be upset about?” Kyoya countered, his voice soft. I doubt that even the servants standing near the end of the hall could hear him. “Are you having second thoughts?”

“N-no!” I sputtered immediately, flushing red as I did. “That’s not it!”

A pleased expression formed as he leaned his head closer.

“Then are you afraid to let other people know that you’re happy with this?”

“....no…”

This time my response was harder to give. After all, it took an intense amount of effort to respond when his face was only inches from mine. What made it worse was that I knew there was no chance he wasn’t aware of that. That pleased expression of his turned smug this time.

“Do you have a problem being seen with me?”

He raised the hand that wasn’t holding mine and lightly laid it on my shoulder. It was all I could do to take the breath needed to respond.

“...n-no.”

“Then there’s no problem.”

Within a split second he’d dropped his hand and spun around, that smug smile in place. My cheeks began to burn even hotter, although this time it was from anger.

“You did that on purpose!” I snapped.

He glanced over his shoulder as he started tugging me along the hall behind him.

“Hm? What did I do? Please, enlighten me,” he questioned before turning his eyes back ahead of him.

“Like hell I will!”

“You should really stop talking to the twins, your language is getting out of hand.”

“Kyoya!”

I could see his amusement as he stopped at the top of the stairs, letting me join him at his side. His eyes flickered to me, then down to the small crowd that had already gathered below us. None of the guests had seen us yet, but I knew it was only a matter of time.

“It was your own fault for being so affected,” he murmured under his breath. “Besides, you don’t feel nervous anymore, do you?”

I opened my mouth to respond, then shut it as I fell short of knowing exactly what I wanted to say. My eyes stayed on him for just a moment longer and I could have sworn that he seemed even more smug than before. Gritting my teeth, I did my best to paste on a smile, realizing that we’d begun to attract attention.

There was no way I was going to admit that he was right. It wasn’t fair. Admitting he had been right would feel like I was giving into something. I wasn’t about to lose. Instead I simply squeezed his hand as tight as I could in retaliation as we started down the stairs. I was pleased to see his smile falter just slightly before returning to it’s perfect state.

“They’re here!”

“Kyoya-san! I was so happy when  I received your invitation.”

“Zaira-chan, it’s so nice to see you!”

“Kyoya-kun, it’s been too long. I see your fiance is just as pretty as I’d heard!”

“She’s foreign, isn’t she?”

“Zaira-san, it must be so wonderful to already be engaged at your age!”

The tide of voices seemed to simply wash over me as we entered the crowd and began greeting people. The way to the ballroom was a very slow, very annoying path. For some reason, though, I didn’t feel nervous anymore. If anything I felt frustrated that so many people I hadn’t even spoken to before seemed to know my name and pretended to be on excellent terms with me. At the same time, I was used to this sort of thing. It wasn’t any different no matter where you went.

“Kyo-kun! Zaira-chan!”

I felt relief flood through me the moment we entered the ballroom. Honey was in front of us, that cheerful grin on his face the moment we’d stepped in. Right behind him became the rest of the club. It wouldn’t be as hard to get through the party with them there.

What surprised me as we greeted them, then moved on to say hello to others, is how easy it seemed to be. Sure, I blushed a lot, it was hard not to when there were compliments and comments flying this way and that. Yet, it was nothing like my nerves had been building it up to be. By the time that we’d all sat down and gotten through dinner, I found myself almost relaxing.

Which might have been why I was so shocked by what came next.

“We have a request,” the twins announced as they stood, sharing a look between the two of them.

The fact that they were talking didn’t come as a surprise, there’d been an entire line of people standing to make their own little speeches, most of which seemed to just wash over my ears. None of them had been anything more than another influential group wanting to make sure their complements were heard.

“A kiss!” Hikaru declared.

“Isn’t that supposed to be something that happens at these parties?” Kaoru added.

Kyoya’s smile faltered for the second time that night.

A murmur went through the tables of guests. It was obvious that the idea had become overwhelmingly popular within a second. My cheeks felt as though they were on fire, and Kyoya actually seemed to be surprised enough to not respond right away. He recovered a second later, however, and turned his gaze to me, raising one brow questioningly. If anything, my face just grew hotter.

A kiss?

In front of this many people?

Kyoya didn’t say anything, obviously not planning on helping me make a decision. That was a habit of his that I really, really found annoying. In situations like this wasn’t he supposed to help me? If anything he seemed to find them amusing!

Maybe he thought I wouldn’t do it. He knew me well enough, knew how embarrassed I’d be just by the idea of it all.

That thought made the decision easier. Without warning, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his. Kyoya froze, shocked, as I lingered with them there for a moment before pulling away. A cheer went through the crowd as he just stared at me.

I felt pretty proud to be able to get that sort of reaction from him.

“I guess…” I murmured under my breath just loud enough for him to hear. “I’m not the only one who gets affected by such things.”

“Does that work?” Kyoya asked, pulling himself together in order to shoot a rather frightening smile in the direction of the rather smug twins.

To me, however, he lowered his voice a second later. His face was slightly red, although it was obvious he wasn’t going to show just how embarrassed he’d become.

“Is it really that surprising?” he questioned. “It’s hard not to react for the person you like.”