Kyoya gripped the metal bar in front of him, fighting down the fear and panic that rose with his Ferris wheel cart's ascent into the sky. Unlike his usual calm and collected self, he could feel his brain turning to mush by the second, an utter jumble of incoherence that, honestly when he thought about it, wasn't all that different from the way he had been acting all day anyway. Only this time, the cause was far more life-or-death-oriented and, sadly, not at all beautiful and cinnamon-scented.

Breathe in. Breathe out. Kyoya tried to calm himself down. Surely, a reputable street fair such as this one had gone through the proper safety measures to obtain their official licensing, right? Surely, they must have had to register their equipment with the city or the state or at least some official board of international Ferris wheel safety in order to remain in operation, right? Logically, Kyoya knew that this had to be the case. And yet… he still couldn't seem to push the growing panic out of his head.

"S-so Ms. Shouji," Kyoya stammered out, trying his best to make conversation with his guest despite his internally petrified state.

"Are you finding this street fair up to your liking?" Kyoya swallowed, forcing himself to tear his eyes away from the increasingly distant ground beneath them.

He turned to look at Nanako and awaited her answer, in the meantime trying not to think of the many, many ways they could go plunging to their deaths at any given moment.

Nanako smiled in return, her tinkling laugh reverberating off the metal structure they sat on and into the open air.

"Oh, of course it is, Kyoya," she replied. "Isn't it obvious?"

She nudged his leg playfully, and for the second time that day, Kyoya felt a bolt of lightning course through his entire body. Although he was still technically the host in this situation, she could have said anything at all, and he would have followed her lead. In fact, he would have followed her to the ends of the earth if it meant being in the presence of her beautiful espresso hair and her intoxicating cinnamon scent.

"Yes, well I guess it is," Kyoya chuckled, watching as Nananko swung her legs beneath her and looked around with awe. How could one girl be simultaneously so mature-looking and worldly yet reduced to such childlike joy at the experience of a commoner's street fair? It was truly a sight for him to behold.

"You know, Kyoya," Nanako said, turning to look at the glasses-less shadow king. "I didn't know what to expect when I heard of your high school host club."

Kyoya nodded. He often got that response from those who weren't familiar with Ouran's eccentric ways. Or, more specifically, the Ouran host club's eccentric ways.

"And now?" He asked tentatively, more eager for an answer than he'd like to admit. "What do you think of us, now?"

"I—" Nanako turned to look at the horizon, her eyes drawn to some distant point beyond the range of Kyoya's natural vision. Kyoya waited with bated breath for her answer, because what he had really meant by that question had been, what do you think of me now and my friends and the life that I've chosen to live.

A flicker of emotion passed over Nanako's face, too fast for Kyoya to identify. When she finally replied, though, her voice was tinged with a soft trace of sadness.

"I think you make a lovely family," she smiled wistfully.

Before Kyoya could ask about it, however, he felt her lips crashing onto his, soft at first and then stronger and hungrier. For a moment, Kyoya was frozen in shock, his mind not fully comprehending what was going on as Nanako's soft, cinnamon-y smell enveloped him from all sides.

Perhaps he was trying to process the fact that her cherry lips. Were on his. And her graceful hand. Was touching his face. And—

Kyoya stopped trying to identify everything that was going on in the moment and let his instincts take over. Leaning in closer, he let himself be immersed in the cloud of fragrance that had been torturing him for days, fully inhaling Nanako's cinnamon-filled scent and letting the invigorating oxygen it held course through his body. His left hand moved to cradle her face as his right hand wove its way into her luscious waves, finding their perch of support at the back of her head.

Without having known it at the time, this is what Kyoya had been wanting to do all week. Or rather, hoping for and wishing for and never in his wildest dreams believing he would actually get the chance to do. This girl –this woman—in front of him had been plucked straight from his list of everything he could have wanted in a girl. And more. She was exactly what he wanted in a girl.

For a fleeting second, Kyoya thought, he could have loved her. But the feeling of her lips on his quickly edged out any other thoughts on his mind and drew him back into the moment at hand.

When they finally came apart, they were both breathless and flush-cheeked, pulling back just far enough to look at each other in a happy, contented silence.

With a lurch, their carriage came to a stop, no doubt waiting for another batch of passengers to get off and on the ride. Suddenly, for the first time since he had gotten on, Kyoya remembered how high up they were and felt the familiar feeling of panic beginning to rise in his chest again.

Instinctively he reached to Nanako for comfort, though she was already one step ahead of him. Reassuringly, she placed her hands on top of his, which had gone back to gripping the iron bar in front of him like his life depended on it –as far as he was concerned, it did.

"Kyoya," Nanako said, lightly brushing her thumb back and forth on the back of his hand. He couldn't decide which he liked better –the sound of her voice or the feeling of her touch. Either way, both were working in conjunction to calm and soothe him right now.

"Look at the sunset," she pointed, looking past the roofs of all the buildings they were now high up enough to see over. "Isn't it beautiful?"

And there it was again. The kind of wistful sadness she had had in her eyes right before their –Kyoya still couldn't believe it was real– kiss.

"N—Ms. Shouji," Kyoya corrected himself before he accidentally called her by her first name.

"You can call me Nanako," she interjected automatically, speaking with her eyes still lost in the colors of the sunset.

"Yes, Nanako," Kyoya began again, a slight thrill going through his body at the sound of her name coming out of his mouth for a change.

"Are you alright?"

Kyoya raised his eyebrows in concern, following Nanako's gaze into the swirl of tangerine-clouded sky until she turned to face him again.

"Yes, Kyoya," she said slowly, as if she were carefully weighing each word in her mouth before speaking it.

"I will be."

"Well that's good," Kyoya replied, although he still detected a tinge of melancholy behind her words.

Nanako smiled wistfully again, but this time transformed it into her signature smirk-smile as she turned to look at him again.

"Let's just…enjoy this moment, ok?" she pleaded with her eyes, leaning in to meet Kyoya's lips again in a soft embrace.

Kyoya nodded. Clearly, she didn't want to talk about what was bothering her right now. As for her lips on his…how could anyone argue with that?

Turning to run his hands through her soft, wavy hair, Kyoya kissed her back, letting himself once again get lost in the moment. For all he cared, he and Nanako were the only two people in the world right now. Him, Nanako, the Ferris wheel, and the setting sun –these were the only things that mattered to him in this moment.

So it came to be that on a Tuesday afternoon, the youngest Ootori son kissed the girl of his dreams against the watercolor orange glow of the Tokyo sunset.

It was a perfect day.