sam_storyteller (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
sam_storyteller) wrote2005-07-01 03:01 pm
sam_storyteller) wrote2005-07-01 03:01 pm
Entry tags:
Ouran Host Club: Games of Risk: Kyouya/Renge, PG.
Fandom: Ouran High School Host Club
Summary: Kyouya Ohtori is a gamesman above all else, and he's looking for a partner for the biggest game of all. Kyouya/Renge.
Rating: PG.
Warnings: None.
Now available on AO3!
First posted 9.17.06
***
Kyouya Ohtori had never really thought of his brothers as brothers, not in the way that other children had brothers and sisters.
By the time he was old enough to know and name things like familial relations, they were already in high school and very rarely home except for breakfast (often not then) and sometimes special family events like charity parties, which Kyouya wasn't allowed to attend anyway. Kyouya's brothers were a towering presence, but that was all they were: two dark, forbidding chess rooks in the distance, as inscrutable and unknowable as gods. They were all subject to his father, who was so far beyond a god as to simply be a force of the universe, but they were powerful and puzzling creatures nonetheless. From a very young age he had known that they were also competition but until he was twelve or thirteen he hadn't bothered to try direct confrontation, knowing himself incapable of succeeding against the divine.
His sister was different -- he loved his sister without qualification and she was the only person in the world he was confident loved him unconditionally in return. But she was also older, already flirting with boys as a junior-high student by the time he was allowed to attend Ouran, the mythical training ground for the gods.
The gap between his brothers was just over a year, and his sister was only a year and a half younger; he had come six years after his sister. The discrepancy did not bother him until biology class, when he realised what all this gestation and ovulation and fertilisation meant.
It meant Kyouya Ohtori was an accident. At best, an afterthought. His father had 'two heirs and a mare' as the English saying went; sons to manage his company and a daughter to marry off in some trade agreement or business merger. He had no need of a third son. Years later Kyouya would read a book of French fairy tales from Tamaki's bookshelf and understand a little better the power of being the third son, but at the age of thirteen he knew only that he had been unwanted, certainly by his brothers, probably by his father, and likely by his mother, who died when he was two.
But all this was information better known than unknown, because information was power. Kyouya did not intend to accept a trust fund from his father and go fecklessly off to Tokyo to live a shiftless life, as he saw some of his peers were preparing to do. At thirteen he was already a gamesman. He played to win, of course, but he played as well for the love of the game, and the higher the stakes or narrower the window of opportunity, the better the game. He wasn't interested in repetition; he wanted games where he had one shot for one goal, preferably a goal he could never achieve again.
The greatest game, the ongoing game, was the game of Inheritance. He had learned to play it by watching his brothers, though he wasn't a serious contender until he was sixteen. Managing a Host Club was fairly classless, of course, but he was managing it, and the club turned a profit.
Now, when the game was speeding up, when his brothers had finally noticed his entry into it -- now was not the time for wandering eyes or thoughts. But sixteen is sixteen, with all the hormones and urges that attend it, and sometimes a chess master longs for the diversion of Daruma-san-ka-koooo-ron-da!
Haruhi was attractive, in her boyish way, and she was intelligent and kind. She understood a great deal about Kyouya, perhaps more than Kyouya liked, but she was also, well -- boyish, and unsubtle. She didn't take hints well. She was a nice person, but as sexless to Kyouya as a doll. No, more like a teacup. Pretty and useful, nice to have around, but ultimately not very challenging.
There were plenty of girls to choose from at Ouran, even more so because Kyouya was one of the elite Host Club. Every day, women paid him for the pleasure of his company. Kyouya did not disappoint. He had senpais, peers, and underclassmen who regularly attended the club, women whose families were in all walks of wealthy life, from shipping to production to farming. These women were accomplished, graceful, gracious, intelligent, subtle, good businesswomen and sometimes keen gamesmen in their own right. And yet...
So was his eldest brother's wife, so was his older brother's girlfriend. His father had made it amply clear that the game was not won by imitating those already in the lead. It didn't work in business, after all. So Kyouya didn't want a woman who would grow up to be a good businessman's wife. Well, not primarily.
There was always Tamaki. He was the son of a powerful family and Homo was on the upswing, becoming very trendy and hip among the young, wealthy crowd. His own careless bisexuality bothered him not at all. Kyouya harboured no illusions that Tamaki was unattainable, either; in a week, two tops, he could have Tamaki eating out of his hand (and naked in his bed).
But Tamaki wasn't much of a challenge, was he.
His eyes fell on Renge, as they always did when he was working and thinking at the same time, especially when the Host Club was open. When she'd come from France he hadn't seen any real need to correct her on her erroneous assumption that she was his fiancee. These things sorted them out in time, and besides, who knew? She might make a good wife.
She knew how to manage business; their costs had gone down fifteen percent since she'd taken over concessions. She seemed reasonably knowledgeable about the world in general. She had a cheerful disposition and made friends easily. And...
She had an understanding of a sort he had never encountered before. She knew about manga and doujinshi and anime, she knew about fashionable trends and loved to discuss popular culture, even if she wasn't really aware she was doing it. She could tap into society, put herself directly in tune with what people were thinking, wanting, needing. She acted foolishly about it, but not indecorously.
Renge was different. She possessed all the things that an Ohtori would desire in a wife, but also a sort of noisy genius that was completely outside of the experience of his father and brothers. Renge was a wild card, and Kyouya liked nothing so well as a wild card.
Unless it was a challenge, and she was that, too. Renge was not Tamaki to be easily manipulated, and though her Otaku heart loved all things romantic, she herself kept a very careful distance from romance. As Kyouya himself did.
"Renge," he said, as they were going over accounts one day, far from the rest -- Tamaki and the twins planning their next cosplay, Mori and Hunny studying with their heads bent low over their coffee cups, Haruhi clearing away the last of the debris from that day's activities. "Renge, do you like games?"
"I like some," she answered cheerfully. "I like role-playing games, and strategy games -- "
"What about bigger games?" he asked, and she cocked her head, more shrewdly than many would have imagined she could.
"Are you playing one?" she asked.
"I am."
"Third son?"
"Well, I call it Inheritance," he said with a smile.
"That's a game of risk."
"Do you like games of risk?"
Renge tapped her finger on her chin thoughtfully. "What do I get if we win?"
"Wealth. Power. Me," Kyouya added temptingly.
"And if we lose?"
"You've wasted a little time, maybe a little money."
"The risk is all on your side, then," she observed. "Do you mind?"
"Not at all. Would you like to have dinner on Friday night?"
"Thank you, I'd be pleased to meet your family," she said.
Then she smiled knowingly.
"Tell me, Kyouya, how much of you do I get, when we win?"
END
Summary: Kyouya Ohtori is a gamesman above all else, and he's looking for a partner for the biggest game of all. Kyouya/Renge.
Rating: PG.
Warnings: None.
Now available on AO3!
First posted 9.17.06
***
Kyouya Ohtori had never really thought of his brothers as brothers, not in the way that other children had brothers and sisters.
By the time he was old enough to know and name things like familial relations, they were already in high school and very rarely home except for breakfast (often not then) and sometimes special family events like charity parties, which Kyouya wasn't allowed to attend anyway. Kyouya's brothers were a towering presence, but that was all they were: two dark, forbidding chess rooks in the distance, as inscrutable and unknowable as gods. They were all subject to his father, who was so far beyond a god as to simply be a force of the universe, but they were powerful and puzzling creatures nonetheless. From a very young age he had known that they were also competition but until he was twelve or thirteen he hadn't bothered to try direct confrontation, knowing himself incapable of succeeding against the divine.
His sister was different -- he loved his sister without qualification and she was the only person in the world he was confident loved him unconditionally in return. But she was also older, already flirting with boys as a junior-high student by the time he was allowed to attend Ouran, the mythical training ground for the gods.
The gap between his brothers was just over a year, and his sister was only a year and a half younger; he had come six years after his sister. The discrepancy did not bother him until biology class, when he realised what all this gestation and ovulation and fertilisation meant.
It meant Kyouya Ohtori was an accident. At best, an afterthought. His father had 'two heirs and a mare' as the English saying went; sons to manage his company and a daughter to marry off in some trade agreement or business merger. He had no need of a third son. Years later Kyouya would read a book of French fairy tales from Tamaki's bookshelf and understand a little better the power of being the third son, but at the age of thirteen he knew only that he had been unwanted, certainly by his brothers, probably by his father, and likely by his mother, who died when he was two.
But all this was information better known than unknown, because information was power. Kyouya did not intend to accept a trust fund from his father and go fecklessly off to Tokyo to live a shiftless life, as he saw some of his peers were preparing to do. At thirteen he was already a gamesman. He played to win, of course, but he played as well for the love of the game, and the higher the stakes or narrower the window of opportunity, the better the game. He wasn't interested in repetition; he wanted games where he had one shot for one goal, preferably a goal he could never achieve again.
The greatest game, the ongoing game, was the game of Inheritance. He had learned to play it by watching his brothers, though he wasn't a serious contender until he was sixteen. Managing a Host Club was fairly classless, of course, but he was managing it, and the club turned a profit.
Now, when the game was speeding up, when his brothers had finally noticed his entry into it -- now was not the time for wandering eyes or thoughts. But sixteen is sixteen, with all the hormones and urges that attend it, and sometimes a chess master longs for the diversion of Daruma-san-ka-koooo-ron-da!
Haruhi was attractive, in her boyish way, and she was intelligent and kind. She understood a great deal about Kyouya, perhaps more than Kyouya liked, but she was also, well -- boyish, and unsubtle. She didn't take hints well. She was a nice person, but as sexless to Kyouya as a doll. No, more like a teacup. Pretty and useful, nice to have around, but ultimately not very challenging.
There were plenty of girls to choose from at Ouran, even more so because Kyouya was one of the elite Host Club. Every day, women paid him for the pleasure of his company. Kyouya did not disappoint. He had senpais, peers, and underclassmen who regularly attended the club, women whose families were in all walks of wealthy life, from shipping to production to farming. These women were accomplished, graceful, gracious, intelligent, subtle, good businesswomen and sometimes keen gamesmen in their own right. And yet...
So was his eldest brother's wife, so was his older brother's girlfriend. His father had made it amply clear that the game was not won by imitating those already in the lead. It didn't work in business, after all. So Kyouya didn't want a woman who would grow up to be a good businessman's wife. Well, not primarily.
There was always Tamaki. He was the son of a powerful family and Homo was on the upswing, becoming very trendy and hip among the young, wealthy crowd. His own careless bisexuality bothered him not at all. Kyouya harboured no illusions that Tamaki was unattainable, either; in a week, two tops, he could have Tamaki eating out of his hand (and naked in his bed).
But Tamaki wasn't much of a challenge, was he.
His eyes fell on Renge, as they always did when he was working and thinking at the same time, especially when the Host Club was open. When she'd come from France he hadn't seen any real need to correct her on her erroneous assumption that she was his fiancee. These things sorted them out in time, and besides, who knew? She might make a good wife.
She knew how to manage business; their costs had gone down fifteen percent since she'd taken over concessions. She seemed reasonably knowledgeable about the world in general. She had a cheerful disposition and made friends easily. And...
She had an understanding of a sort he had never encountered before. She knew about manga and doujinshi and anime, she knew about fashionable trends and loved to discuss popular culture, even if she wasn't really aware she was doing it. She could tap into society, put herself directly in tune with what people were thinking, wanting, needing. She acted foolishly about it, but not indecorously.
Renge was different. She possessed all the things that an Ohtori would desire in a wife, but also a sort of noisy genius that was completely outside of the experience of his father and brothers. Renge was a wild card, and Kyouya liked nothing so well as a wild card.
Unless it was a challenge, and she was that, too. Renge was not Tamaki to be easily manipulated, and though her Otaku heart loved all things romantic, she herself kept a very careful distance from romance. As Kyouya himself did.
"Renge," he said, as they were going over accounts one day, far from the rest -- Tamaki and the twins planning their next cosplay, Mori and Hunny studying with their heads bent low over their coffee cups, Haruhi clearing away the last of the debris from that day's activities. "Renge, do you like games?"
"I like some," she answered cheerfully. "I like role-playing games, and strategy games -- "
"What about bigger games?" he asked, and she cocked her head, more shrewdly than many would have imagined she could.
"Are you playing one?" she asked.
"I am."
"Third son?"
"Well, I call it Inheritance," he said with a smile.
"That's a game of risk."
"Do you like games of risk?"
Renge tapped her finger on her chin thoughtfully. "What do I get if we win?"
"Wealth. Power. Me," Kyouya added temptingly.
"And if we lose?"
"You've wasted a little time, maybe a little money."
"The risk is all on your side, then," she observed. "Do you mind?"
"Not at all. Would you like to have dinner on Friday night?"
"Thank you, I'd be pleased to meet your family," she said.
Then she smiled knowingly.
"Tell me, Kyouya, how much of you do I get, when we win?"
END
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Back to work...
P.S. I would like to second vwlphb's comment about a sequel showing dinner with the family.
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Daruma-san-ka-koooo-ron-da! *fangirls you*
Also, I got this image of all of Kyouya's prospectives flashing by, especially Haruhi and Tamaki, with little pink boxes of text under them that said, "No challenge," and then a big blinky "X" and sound effects. :)
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Yes. This pairing works. I like your Kyouya. I can't wait until Renge meets the family...
/starts motor and ebil laughter
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I love it when you get inside his head. I like his evaluation of Renge, too...as a wildcard. It suits her.
And that final question is priceless.
But...any chance of a sequel?
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I don't even really know what I mean, other than YAY. *insert generic offer of childbearing here*
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You can torrent download 1-13 as a set from Lunar, and most of the subbed episodes are on youtube now as well, though they usually get split up into three "chapters" per episode.
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*iz ded* Why, Sam? Why must you put images like that into my already smutty mind? Now I wants me some Kyouya/Tamaki!
Maybe it's just me, but this pairing didn't resonate with me. In "Keep the Customer Satisfied" I liked that little hint of Kyouya/Renge, but this time it just didn't go over well. You lost me at his conversation with Renge. And I didn't like the way he thought of Haruhi. But even if I didn't like the pairing it was excellently executed. While reading in I knew exactly where Kyouya was coming from.
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Hope you don't mind my OT post, Sam. I very much enjoyed it--I agree pretty much with
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1. No smut??! Sam, I am disappointed in you!
2. What the heck does "Daruma-san-ka-koooo-ron-da" mean?
Otherwise, I really liked it. Kyouya reminds me of Vetinari in the same way that Teddy Roosevelt (we're learning about him in History) reminds me of Vimes. There are similarities, but the differences are too numerous. Very very nice. I think I will join the ranks of those who are begging you on my knees, in any outfit you wish me in, to write a sequel.
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Daruma-san-ka-ko-ron-da (I'm spelling phonetically) is the game they play in the Newspaper episode, when Tamaki stands against the tree and everyone else inches closer whenever he's talking. I find it really memorable because it introduced me to the Daruma doll, which has a really interesting mythology around it. :)
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(which isn't untrue)'cause I thought it was a euphemism for sex. Whoops.no subject
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Arrr! Happy Talk Like a Pirate Day, mate!
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(I found this story through
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...Renge was a wild card, and Kyouya liked nothing so well as a wild card.
Now I'm hearing this jolly sonorous chuckle coming from up around the stars somewhere, and I swear I never came anywhere near "Games of Risk" before the Kyouya in my own head observed that Haruhi was his wild card (the Joker, specifically) in a different game.
Hmmm. Ouran Hive-Mind? I dunno. Weird coincidences aside, this story is fun and insightful, and I wish I'd checked it out sooner.
Your observation to another commenter, on the balance of the 'Kyouyaheadspace'-writing in this story stands out to me. Partly because I've been grappling with that same balance for three weeks, and in the end I think he won. What I've written is really a treatment, a character study. Not a proper readable story at all.
Now because you have managed a proper, readable story despite the headspace-challenge, I hope you don't mind my asking how you do that?
This issue of what Makes A Story is a massive obstacle to me, one I couldn't bully into shape even after 7500 words, and that's so frustrating. But I don't mean to rant. Just to point out once again that your writing is admirably put together, and your facility with solid storytelling is something I really hope to grasp one day.
Soon, preferably. Before madness sets in. XD
Okay, gonna read this again now just for fun.
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It does start with character studies, because those teach you how a character will react. So -- chin up and keep working, I guess :D
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(*salutes*)
Aye-aye Cap'n Sam!
OH! And I neglected to mention before, that this bit in the story is sexy as hell:
..."What about bigger games?" he asked, and she cocked her head, more shrewdly than many would have imagined she could.
"Are you playing one?" she asked.
"I am."
"Third son?"
"Well, I call it Inheritance," he said with a smile.
Just. omg.
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(Anonymous) 2007-05-05 02:55 pm (UTC)(link)no subject
Thank you! You really made my day!
Oh, and if you have time or muse, can you perhaps please write more of this pair? They are interesting together don't you think?
Is there any possibilities for continuation of this fic? ^____^
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As I have so much time to waste *insert sarcastic tone*, I read the comments for this fic and I can understand at how others absolutely adore your writing style but is a bit uncomfortable with this pairing as Renge is so very much different than Kyouya.
But I feel that is what makes you a good writer, for being able to write Renge's character which seems hidden from the manga but is so Renge. And to be able to pair her with Kyouya (one of the most complex character in Ouran I personally feel) needs a good skill and understanding and ability to write these two characters out.
I am no writer and what I'm saying here may not make sense, but I really like your writing skills and your way of writing this two unlikely-to-pair-up character. Besides..isn't it interesting to imagine HOW Kyouya can control Renge? XD
Do write more of this pairing please? *smiles*
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It's a nice fic.
somehow, you make it workout for KyouyaRenge to be a couple.
it's kind of interesting
hope to read more of it...^________^
*I know this from my friend
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(Anonymous) 2012-06-02 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)1sunfun