This thing sat, almost completely finished, on my computer for almost two weeks before I could think of an ending. DX It was extremely annoying, but I think I finally got it. Please enjoy.

Disclaimer: I own neither Ouran High School Host Club nor the song by Taylor Swift on which this fic is based. I just wanted to have a little fun.

Something to Share

It would be almost six years before they saw each other again.

The next time that Kyoya met Kaoru Hitachiin was when Tamaki finally convinced the infamous Hitachiin brothers to join his Host Club. Of course, Kyoya knew that he must have seen Kaoru around school at one point or another, but Kyoya had long since pushed the memory of that embarrassing incident into the recesses of his mind. From the blank expression on Kaoru's face when they were introduced – eerily identical to the one on his brother's – when they were introduced, Kyoya could only assume that the younger boy had done the same.

And so, they maintained an appropriately-functional relationship throughout two full years of club activities. That is, until the day the Saint Lobelia Zuka Club appeared and none-too-subtlety threatened to make off with the Club's favorite cross-dressing honors student.

Kyoya arrived at the club room somewhat early the next day, cautious of Tamaki's grand plan to hold Haruhi's affection. The caution only increased when he found that the Third Music Room was unnaturally quiet, completely empty except for their usual Host Club props. Hearing a rustling noise from one of the adjacent dressing rooms, he approached the door with slow, careful steps. "Tamaki?"

"Ah – Kyoya-sempai!"

Kyoya barely had time to register the voice as Kaoru before the door opened and the twin's head popped out.

Kyoya's glasses slid down his nose and his eyes widened slightly in surprise. He knew the details of Tamaki's insane plan and knew that these…costumes…were crucial to that. But he had never expected to see the girl from the frog pond again.

Kaoru's golden eyes blinked at him from behind his curly pigtail extensions. His neck and shoulders were mostly bare, though Kyoya could see a few lacey, sea-green frills that were being held against his chest by crossed arms. His face bare and honest, he looked, for all the world, like the Kaoru-chan that Kyoya had been sent to play with as a child, all grown up and truly lovely.

At the last thought, Kyoya's heart jumped straight up into his throat and he had to force it back down.

Kaoru blinked at him innocently. "Is something wrong, Kyoya-sempai?"

"No," Kyoya cleared his throat and pushed his glasses back into place. "Of course not."

"Ah, good," Kaoru smiled. "Then you can help me!"

Before Kyoya could respond, Kaoru had grabbed him by the arm and dragged him into the dressing room. Kyoya found himself surrounded by stacks of cardboard boxes, costumes, props, mirrors and one pretty, elaborately-dressed Kaoru in an exceptionally frilly, showy sea-green and yellow dress.

"I need you to lace me up, if you would," Kaoru continued brightly, apparently not noticing Kyoya's stare as he turned his back. The laces on his bodice were spread open just slightly, hanging loose and only held up by his arms. "I seem to have come undone."

"Where's Hikaru?" Kyoya asked, raising one eyebrow curiously.

"He went to help Tamaki and Hani-sempai get into their costumes," Kaoru sighed, shifting the bodice around carefully. "He helped me get into this thing, but it came loose somehow. So, would you…?"

Kyoya nodded absently and stepped forward, grabbing hold of a lace with each hand. Kaoru smiled at him in the mirror and let go of the bodice, standing perfectly straight so that his posture would be correct. "Milord sure gets some pretty crazy ideas in his head, huh?"

"Mm-hm," Kyoya muttered non-committally as he tugged the laces tighter and tighter.

"You don't have to be worried, though. Hikaru and I found a nice dress that ought to suit you. You'll be able to stay cool and refined even as a woman."

"Mm-hm." Tug.

Kaoru turned to the mirror and adjusted his pigtails coyly. "It might be a bit awkward at first, but it's easy enough to get used to wearing a dress."

"Mm-hm." Tug tug.

"Of course, I can't really talk. Hikaru and I have been doing this ever since we were little kids," Kaoru smirked, the gold of his eyes glinting off the shining surface of the mirror. "But you know all about that, don't you, sempai?"

Kyoya stopped and looked into the mirror, meeting the teasing gaze of Kaoru's reflection. There was no denying it. "What do you remember?"

"Not too much," Kaoru's grin softened and his eyes dropped down as Kyoya tied off the bodice. "Certainly not everything. I remember being very mad that Hikaru wasn't there. I remember that dress was hot and the water was cool and the ladies at the party all looked like sticky frogs. And, I remember…"

He turned suddenly to face Kyoya head on. Suddenly, his hands were on Kyoya's face, palms pressed against his cheeks and fingertips resting on the frames of his glasses.

"I remember your eyes," Kaoru said, his voice impossibly soft. "Once I finally got to see them, I remember, they shined, just like little stars."

Kaoru was close, impossibly, personally close, but Kyoya found that he had no urge to push the smaller boy away.

"I've wondered if they still look that way," Kaoru whispered, lifting the metal frames off his sempai's nose. "Behind all that glass, do they still shine…?"

Reflexively, Kyoya closed his eyes as the glasses were lifted away. He reopened them seconds later, looking down at the green, peach and orange blob that was Kaoru. His gold eyes continued to shin in spite of Kyoya's lack of focus.

Kaoru smiled so softly that Kyoya almost couldn't see it and set the glasses aside.

"I knew it," he whispered. "It's just like I remember. They haven't changed at all."

Kyoya leaned in, the shapeless blobs of color that had been swimming before his eyes slowly reforming themselves into Kaoru's face. "They're not the only thing that hasn't changed."

"Oh?" Kaoru smiled coyly, cocking his head to one side. "What is that supposed to mean, sempai?"

Kyoya paused a moment, wondering what had prompted him to say something like that in the first place. Of course Kaoru had changed. It had been years, they had both grown. It was just the way of things. So why? Why did everything in this dressing room feel so much like that confusing afternoon by the pond…?

"You know, Kyoya-sempai, you've gotten rather close."

Kyoya realized that, in his desire to see the younger student better and therefore disprove his own inner conflict, his face was now so close to Kaoru's that their foreheads were only a hair's breadth from touching. It should have been awkward, uncomfortable…but it wasn't. And, if the calm, content smile on the red-haired boy's face was any indication, Kaoru felt the same.

Kaoru continued to stare up at Kyoya with eyes that looked exactly like the pools of gold paint that were inevitably left behind whenever Tamaki felt the urge to indulge his creative side. "So…what did you mean, what you said about things not changing?"

"I meant you," Kyoya said, and knew it to be true. "You're still…the strangest girl that I've ever met."

Kaoru laughed an honest, pure laugh that was completely unlike the cruel cackle he acquired when he was mocking someone with Hikaru. Slowly, he closed the gap between them. Kyoya dipped to the left at the last moment and guided their lips smoothly together.

The kiss was shy and chaste, but not quite as inexperienced as the first that they had shared. After thirty silent seconds, Kaoru pulled away just enough to look Kyoya in the eye again. His hands were pressed flat against the Shadow King's chest in a way that seemed almost uncharacteristically hesitant. "Was…Was that okay?"

Kyoya smirked. One hand moved to slide under Kaoru's chin as the other slid around his thin, corset-bound waist. "Why wouldn't it be, Kaoru-chan?"

Kaoru kept on staring directly into Kyoya's eyes, his expression calm but stern. "You're really serious? This isn't just some stupid game?"

"I don't know. Is it?" Kyoya retorted. "After all, you're the one who started this."

"I'm not playing around."

Kyoya leaned in and kissed him again. "Then neither am I."

This time, when they broke apart, Kaoru was smiling the same soft, sweet smile as before. He began drawing circles on Kyoya's chest with one finger, averting his gaze and blushing a soft pink. "You know I…after we…met, I never did tell Hikaru about what happened. I was embarrassed at first, I guess, but then…it was just too special to share…"

"Kyo~ya! Ka~aoru!"

Tamaki burst through the dressing room door, his usual exuberant flamboyance only exaggerated by the bright red dress and extra-large wig on his head. He brandished the Victorian-style fan in his hand with a vibrant laugh that seemed strangely similar to Renge's. "Isn't this just fabulous? Once Haruhi sees how boldly we embrace our femininity for her sake, there's no way that she would abandon us! Don't you agree?"

Kyoya slipped on his glasses and regarded Tamaki sullenly as the Host Club King batted heavy eyelids covered in far too much eye shadow. On the other side of the dressing room, Kaoru continued to adjust his fake pigtails in the mirror. Both were counting their luck stars that Tamaki was too dense to notice the way they were forcing their haggard breathing to slow.

"Tamaki," Kyoya sighed after a long moment of contemplation. "Is that make-up really necessary?"

"But of course!" Tamaki snapped the fan closed brightly. "We must prove to our darling Haruhi that we are willing to be everything the Zuka Club is and more! But don't worry, Kyoya! The brothers have truly outdone themselves this time, and I'm certain that Mother will look beautiful, no matter what!"

Somehow, the sentiment seemed less credible coming from Tamaki than it had when Kaoru had said basically the same thing, and that thought only deepened the scowl on Kyoya's face. Kaoru, meanwhile, just laughed in a way that wasn't quite cute but wasn't quite evil, either, and patted Kyoya's arm brightly. "You better hurry or you won't be ready in time, Sempai."

Kyoya huffed, pushing his glasses up his nose to mask the fact that he had been placated by the touch. He allowed Tamaki to drag him out of the changing room by his arm, making sure not to glance back at Kaoru as the underclassman followed along behind them.

Not that he didn't want to look back, of course. The moment…moments…that they had experienced belonged exactly where they were now: between the two of them. It was something that had only begun to grow, outside of the reach of others, and it would be wasteful to reveal it before it had revealed its full potential.

Kaoru, Kyoya decided, had been exactly right: Some things were simply too special to share.

Fin.