Title: Fascination
Fandom: Ouran High School Host Club
Author: kitsunerei88
Rating: G
Genre: Introspective
Pairings or Characters: mild TamaHaru
Warnings: Not beta-ed. Written in less than half an hour. Written for the Children Drabble contest at ouran_contest
Summary: Sometimes, Haruhi wondered if he had simply never grown up.
Word Count: 272
Disclaimer: Not mine.

Fascination

He fascinated her.

His dramatic hand gestures, his elegant, eloquent manner of speech, his – often foreign – mannerisms, his hidden intelligence, natural curiosity, his sense of openness and fun. His open friendliness to everyone and anyone. His dramatic tears when he didn’t get what he wanted. The way he curled up in the corner, sobbing about how the world was against him.

These, all these things, made Tamaki Suoh fascinating.

Sometimes, Haruhi wondered if he had simply never grown up.

Sometimes Haruhi wondered this in an extremely annoyed manner. Sometimes she wondered this in an indulging manner. Sometimes even in a distant, psychoanalysing manner.

Sometimes she was curious. What was it like to be a child, wholly irresponsible, yet sometimes insightful? She didn’t remember. After losing her mother at four, she had taken over the household duties. Not, definitely, what most people would consider a stellar childhood, but until now she had never realized this.

Tamaki Suoh had not had a stellar childhood either, Haruhi remembered. Yet here he was, still a child in many respects. A child playing pretend in his own made up world, the Third Music Room.

She wondered what that made her. Was she regressing to childhood simply by being near him? By being a part of his game of pretend? She played the role of the daughter, when she was not playing at being a pirate, knight, or a court noble.

Why?

It didn’t matter, she realized. She didn’t care.

There were only three things that were important.

First, Tamaki Suoh was still in many ways child.

Second, his childish tendencies rubbed off.

And third, she enjoyed it.