Work Text:
Soulmate AU: In this world, you can only see the color of your soulmate's hair until you realize you've fallen in love with them.
A boy sits in the old music room - somewhere they hadn't been in a very, very long time. They had graduated just about two years ago, and the memories were beginning to fade. Though the host club never officially disbanded, some members had distanced themselves. Tamaki promised himself that he wouldn't let the club drift apart, but he had since given up on that dream. The only person that Tamaki had stayed in full contact with was Honey - the rest... he hadn't heard from in weeks, some even months. Monthly check-ins and the occasional brunch were all he had with the old club. Except for Kyoya. He hadn't seen Kyoya since graduation.
Tamaki walked along the edge of the room, staring at the walls. He saw the few dinks and scratches, ones that he himself had put there on accident during his shenanigans when he was enrolled. He stared out the windows, staring down at the fountain. The same fountain that he saw Haruhi digging through many years ago. The blonde sighed and looked away. Haruhi rarely talked to him anymore. Ever since Haruhi had found her soulmate, they had been off living her life with them. When Tamaki had found out, he didn't even attempt to stick to his father-like role over Haruhi - how was he supposed to discredit soulmates when he didn't even have one of his own?
Tamaki Suoh had never seen color before - his world was completely black and white. Everything around him was a shade of grey; despite the sadness of not having a soulmate, Tamaki tried his best to shine bright. Besides, he was going to be alone for the rest of his life, so why not at least make it interesting?
He left the window and went to the piano that was now covered up by a stack of various books and files. It hurt his heart to see such a beautiful instrument be treated this way, with such disrespect. He removed the items and sat on the bench, fingers gently hovering over the keys. He thought to himself - "what should I play?" but before he could even answer the question himself, his hands began playing. Mozart's sonata for two. The same one that he had played what, six years ago? It felt like decades. But he played the song, first quietly. The keys seemed to move before his fingers could, and at one point he found himself stalling. The music was beginning to fade from his memory. Suddenly, the black and white keys were just blending together. He was used to not seeing the colors, but his vision began to blur more than usual. It took him a few seconds to realize he was crying. The music had begun to fade, the club was pretty much disbanded, and poor Tamaki was alone. He found himself wandering through his mind and ended up back where it always went to - soulmates. He tried to shake his thoughts away along with the tears and restarted the song. This time, it was much louder. Louder than he had played before, louder than he ever liked to play. He hoped that he could drown out the thoughts that kept plaguing his mind.
Down the hall, a man heard the piano. He ended the phone call with a, "forgive me, but I must get going. Something had just come up." and began walking toward the song. As he expected, the music was coming from the old music room. The one that he had left for, what he thought was, the last time years ago. He gently pushed the door open and saw a familiar scene. The man he hadn't seen since graduation was sitting there playing as loud as possible, reminiscent of his last few days as a student. He stepped into the room and gently shut the door, shuffling the binder in his hand to the side of him. He watched Tamaki play for a bit until the blonde's fingers came to a sudden stop in the middle of the song. The hands hovered, before angrily shoving themselves into pockets.
Tamaki was frustrated. The memory was fading. His precious memory of the ones he loved dearly, his closest friends, was fading. Sometimes he had difficulty remembering their voices. Tamaki rubbed his eyes angrily, then set his hands back on the keys. Right before he was about to begin playing once again, he was interrupted.
"Tamaki, do you have to play that loud?"
A familiar voice echoed through the room. Tamaki looked up from the keys, heart pounding. He spun and saw the man that he had longed to see for years - Kyoya Ootori.
"Kyoya!"
He stood up quickly and rushed to the man. "Hello, Tamaki-" Kyoya was cut off by the sudden collision of Tamaki into him. The blonde's arms wrapped around him tightly, almost taking away Kyoya's ability to breathe. Surprised, Kyoya's heart fluttered; nobody had hugged him since... Since graduation. Since the last time the club had ever been together as a whole.
"I can't believe it's you," Tamaki laughed as he brushed away his tears from earlier. "It feels like it's been years, Kyoya. Where have you been?"
Kyoya sighed and avoided eye contact. "It has been years. Two, to be exact. I... I have been here. I do monthly visits at the academy to visit the headmaster. We have business with them, but I'm sure you knew that."
"Uh, yeah," Tamaki sighed. The conversation went quiet. "You never called."
That struck Kyoya. "I wasn't aware that you had something to talk about. If you had, you should have said something. I'm sure I could get you a meeting in-"
"No, Kyoya. It's not business-related. I thought we were friends, y'know?" Tamaki walked toward the piano. "I mean, after all we've been through together - why would I had thought any different?"
He laughed to himself.
"But... after the first month of unanswered calls and texts, I got the message."
Kyoya walked closer to Tamaki, who was now sitting back at the bench. "I apologize, then. I had thought that my role in the club was simply to be the man behind the curtain." He looked away for a second, glancing through the window. His mind wandered back to that time years ago when he watched Tamaki and Haruhi in the fountain together. His heart began to crack. Kyoya looked back at Tamaki. "Perhaps we should-"
Tamaki's hand was running through his hair absentmindedly, revealing a small strip of hair underneath the usual blonde. It had colors. Every single color in the rainbow.
"You dyed your hair."
Tamaki looked up at Kyoya, running his hand through the spot. "Yeah," Tamaki laughed, "I got it done after graduation. I... I wanted people to think that I had a soulmate."
Kyoya hummed, and then there was more silence. "You didn't play the full song, I believe."
"Huh?"
"You stopped halfway through. Why?"
Kyoya and Tamaki locked eyes. Tamaki's still looked wet, his blue orbs shining. He looked back at the piano, hands resuming position. He played the intro of the song gently, before stopping again. "The memories are fading, Kyoya." He hummed. "I... I forgot how it goes. I promised myself that I would never forget the time I spent here, but I can only feel it slipping away."
"Perhaps you have early-onset dementia, Tamaki. You should get that checked out-"
"No, Kyoya," he laughed gently, "it isn't that. I know it's not that."
Tamaki's laugh. It was one of the only things that made Kyoya's heart flutter - even after all this time, it still held true. From the moment that Kyoya and Tamaki met, he knew that there was something special about the blonde. No matter what, he couldn't stay mad at him. His laugh sent butterflies through Kyoya's entire body, leaving him with nothing but a racing heart and a lonely feeling.
"I believe the new music room has a library of sheet music, perhaps it's there," Kyoya said. Tamaki sighed. "I don't think I deserve to remember, Kyoya."
Kyoya laughed. "That's nonsense and you know it, Tamaki. Let's go."
Kyoya's laugh. It was low, but still meaningful. He rarely showed any sort of emotion - but when he did, Tamaki noticed. Tamaki's heart danced every single time that he heard that gentle yet hard laugh. It brought him peace. Tamaki wondered to himself what a soulmate felt like. In high school, he thought it was whatever Kyoya's laugh felt like to him. Clearing his mind and shaking the thoughts away, Tamaki stood up and walked alongside Kyoya into the hallway. They walked for a while in silence, before Kyoya's phone began ringing. It was the song that Tamaki had set it to back in high school - the one that everyone in the club had. He pretended not to notice and kept walking while Kyoya looked at the screen. He clicked it off before setting it into his pocket.
"You don't need to answer that?" Tamaki questioned. "All I do is work, Tamaki. I think this is a much more entertaining situation than having to discuss sales and business strategies all day." The blonde smiled. It was the same old Kyoya, he had barely changed.
They arrived at the new music room a few minutes later. The door pushed in smoothly, and the two split up to search through the shelves for the music. Tamaki pretended to look through a book of music while he secretly was watching Kyoya; fixated on this mission to find the sheet music, he scanned every book on all the shelves. Suddenly, he pulled out a book and flipped through it. He stopped on a page and looked up. He had caught Tamaki staring at him.
"Well, this appears to be it."
He handed the music to Tamaki, and the memories came flooding back. He made his way over to the piano very slowly as he read every single note. When he got there, he heard the door open. He looked up to see Kyoya standing there in the doorway. "Where are you going?" He asked.
"Surely you're not going to play that on that piano. Let's return to the old music room - surely your memories will return there."
Tamaki's heart fluttered. He walked with Kyoya again. The phone rang two more times during the walk back - both times, the old ringtone played and Tamaki's heart danced inside him again. Both times, Kyoya clicked his phone off and returned it to his pocket. When they entered the old music room, they stopped at the entrance. They weren't expecting it to change, but it felt different. They gazed into the empty room that was once full of life - and suddenly, both of them felt empty.
Tamaki played the song, hands dancing boldly on the keys. Kyoya stood at the window, gazing out onto the academy campus. The song was about to come to its natural end, but was once again cut short. This time, it was on purpose.
"You noticed my hair was dyed, Kyoya."
He spun around and looked at the blonde who was now looking at him. They made eye contact, and Kyoya stepped closer. "Hm?"
"You only saw in black and white, if I remember correctly - did... did you find your soulmate?" Tamaki's voice faltered. He didn't know why he was so upset over this realization - he knew that he didn't have a soulmate himself, so why would he expect Kyoya to be any different when they shared the same experience? Kyoya thought to himself for a second, trying to recall any moment where he would have realized that he had fallen in love with his soulmate.
"I do not recall that, no," he said. "I had woken up one day and I was able to see colors."
Tamaki stood from the bench and walked toward him. "You never questioned it?"
"Well," Kyoya began, "I had just assumed that perhaps my soulmate either was just born or just passed. I am unsure of which option I prefer, but it was the only solution I could come to."
Tamaki walked past Kyoya and leaned against the window. "When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me?"
Kyoya turned to him. "I believe it was about a month after graduation. I didn't think to tell you," Kyoya lied, "I just came to that conclusion and moved on with my life. If anything, it made business easier. It would not be a good look for me to have no soulmate, of course."
Tamaki turned to Kyoya, eyes filled with tears. When the two locked eyes, the tears began spilling out. "Tamaki," Kyoya spoke gently, "what's the matter?"
"Kyoya," Tamaki cried with a smile as he reached his hand around to the back of his head, "You never told me your eyes were brown."
His eyebrows furrowed before it struck him. Everything that Tamaki had said lined up with Kyoya's story. This was the moment he had yearned for his entire life - the one that had kept him up at night, thinking it would never happen. The moment where his entire world blossomed around him - the one where he had realized he had fallen in love with Tamaki Suoh.
For the first time in his life, Kyoya felt truly happy. It felt like the world was falling apart in the best way possible. Everything he had thought about himself was false - he had a soulmate. He deserved to be happy. Kyoya Ootori had someone who loved him, and that person was standing right in front of him.
Tamaki was staring into Kyoya's dark brown eyes. Some might confuse it with black, but Tamaki had only seen black and white his entire life - he could see the difference. There was a whole new world around him. But right now, the only thing he wanted to do was look at Kyoya. Kyoya's light pink skin. Kyoya's dark blue sweater. Kyoya's dark brown eyes.
Kyoya was frozen. Not in fear, but in shock. He had never expected this moment to happen. His entire life, he truly believed that he didn't have a soulmate. It was all he had ever known about himself. Unloveable Kyoya.
"Kyoya?" Tamaki broke the silence. The brown-eyed man snapped back to reality, suddenly unfrozen. "I..." he trailed, "I honestly thought that I would never find you."
"I'm right here, Kyoya."
The two leaned in and for the first time, they felt complete.
--
--
--
"Haru-Chan!"
Honey got up from his seat and ran toward the door of the music room when he heard it open. When Tamaki turned to the door, he saw Haruhi standing in the entrance with Honey wrapped around her. Their hair was much longer now, though just above her shoulders. She wore a plain shirt and jeans - besides the hair, they appeared exactly the same.
Haruhi smiled and wrapped her arms around Honey, happy to see him again. She made her way to the table and set her bag down on the floor.
"Am I the last to arrive?"
"We only just got here, so don't sweat it" Kaoru spoke. "Yeah, but we think boss and Kyoya have been here a while."
Haruhi's eyes darted to the two who were sitting next to each other. "Haruhi," Tamaki smiled, "it's so good to see you!"
"You too, senpai. I wish we all hung out like this more often. I hate to admit it, but I missed you guys," she said as she sat down at the empty table. "How have you all been?"
Hikaru spoke up. "We've been great! Kaoru and I are helpin' out the family business, same stuff as always." Kaoru nodded.
"Takashi and I hang out all the time! It's so awesome!" Honey exclaimed. "We are together most days," Mori agreed.
Haruhi smiled. "That's great, guys. I always knew you all would be successful. I've just started college, and I gotta say I'm really loving it. I do miss our time together sometimes, though."
They agreed and continued to talk. Suddenly, Haruhi chimed in the conversation again. "Tamaki-senpai, Kyoya-senpai," she began, "you both have been awfully quiet. Are you fighting or something?"
Kyoya glanced at Tamaki, who just smiled at Haruhi. "Actually Haruhi," the blonde said, "Mommy and daddy have something to announce to you all!" He stood up and forced Kyoya to stand with him. "Oh, god," Haruhi sighed into her hand, "I was hoping you wouldn't remember that stupid nickname you gave yourself."
The table kept their eyes on the two as they stood here. "Well, I have no idea how to say this," Tamaki started. "But, Haruhi-" he turned his attention to her. "I think your shirt is a lovely color today."
Haruhi smiled. "Oh, thank you Senpai, but I don't see how that matters right- wait a second."
Tamaki was practically glowing. "That's right, boys! Mommy and Daddy are soulmates!"
The twins groaned loudly as Honey cheered. Kyoya stood silently, a slight smile on his lips. "What?!" Tamaki yelled at the twins, "You don't think I deserve love, is that it?! Or maybe you're just jealous because-"
"Calm down, boss. We're happy for you too, just not for our wallets." Kaoru spoke angrily, leaning away from Tamaki. Honey cheered again, louder this time. "You can pay me in cash or check! I'll take either!"
Haruhi laughed. "You had a bet on Tamaki finding a soulmate?" She questioned. "Not necessarily," Mori spoke, "they had bet that Tamaki and Kyoya being soulmates. Hikaru and Kaoru believed that they never would, but Mitsukuni believed it. He was right, obviously." Kyoya was standing with his arms crossed, eyes only looking at his soulmate. Haruhi noticed the difference between old Kyoya and the new one. He seemed happier, more content with life. Previously, Haruhi could see that there was something missing in his life. She smiled to herself, happy that they had finally connected.
Tamaki was still fuming but calmed down when Kyoya placed his arm on his shoulder and brought the blonde back. "I also have another announcement to make," Kyoya started. Everyone, including Tamaki, looked at him. "Huh?" the blonde asked. Kyoya opened his binder and took out a stack of papers that were stapled together. He held it up, and let the table look at it. "What is it?" Haruhi asked.
"It is a signed proposal to have this music room officially repurposed into the new official Ouran Academy Host Club, along with rebooting the club itself with school funding and a commemorative seal placed in the concrete of the new rose garden they're building."
After the club had graduated, there was nobody to continue it. The day they stepped out of that music room for what they thought to be the last time, that was the moment the Ouran Host Club had ended. But now, with this proposal, it was beginning anew.
"Kyoya-senpai," Haruhi laughed, "that's amazing!"
"Woah, a commemorative seal? Like, of us?" Kaoru asked. "That's awesome!" Hikaru said.
"Woah! We're gonna leave a legacy!" Honey yelled. Mori expressed his happiness in a smile.
Tamaki was still frozen in shock. "You didn't tell me about this," he whispered. Kyoya smiled at him and gently took Tamaki's hand. "I wanted it to be a surprise for you."
After the excitement had died down, the group continued to chat. Kyoya had gotten food brought to the music room. And for the first time in years, the Host Club was together again.
When the development was finished a year later, the club had gathered to see it for the first time together. Kyoya stood in his bathroom, straightening his tie. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the tiny box that he had owned for almost a year. It flipped open with a push, and the ring inside shined brightly. His finger brushed against the large rhinestone and with a smile, he closed the box and put it back into his pocket. He glanced at himself one last time before calling out. "Love, are you ready to go?"
Tamaki appeared. "Of course I am. C'mon, let's get going. You look great, by the way."
Kyoya smiled. With a kiss, he grabbed the hand of his soulmate and led him to the car.