Alternate Version of Dangerous Thoughts

Most of this will seem familiar because it was already posted to A03 as is. The difference is in the sections at the end.

---

“I figured it out.”

“Hmm?” Kyoya didn’t even look up from his laptop, but then she knew he didn’t need to—or at least she suspected he didn’t. She hadn’t fully figured out all of how it worked, and she had a feeling that he’d deny it even now, but she knew enough where she felt like confronting him, even if she knew she wasn’t likely to get the truth from him.

“Why you do something so counterintuitive as trying to hide your kind side.”

Kyoya’s amused smile suggested two things—one, that she was an idiot for thinking he had one, and two, that she had no idea what she was talking about. She had expected as much, but that still gave her a moment’s pause, and she wanted to back away now, but she refused to give in.

“It’s a defense mechanism,” she said, and he leaned forward, that same smirk on his face. “It is. You’re not all about merits, though I have to wonder if by now you’ve gone a bit insane, after spending as much time with Tamaki-senpai as you have.”

“His idiocy does seem in some ways to be contagious.”

Haruhi laughed. “True, but… you really can read minds, can’t you?”

“This is not an afternoon cosplay, and I’ll thank you to keep from mentioning any kind of superpowers to Tamaki.”

She shook her head. The more she watched Kyoya, the more certain she was of it. “I think you can, and part of why you’re always so tired and act like an evil lord is because you need it to shut out the thoughts coming from so many other people. Host club has to be like torture for you, but you sit here with your numbers and your plans and shut Tamaki-senpai out. Yet you never miss anything, and even if it looks like you’re not paying attention, you can answer any question we ask.”

“This is quite the theory you’ve developed, but your proof is rather lacking.”

She grimaced. Maybe she didn’t have much proof, but it wasn’t like Kyoya to let anyone get much of any proof, nothing that could be used against him.

She considered giving him something to act on, but he wouldn’t. He wouldn’t give into something like that when he was denying it now. Not unless it was something he really wanted, but she couldn’t think of anything Kyoya would want from her.

“You can leave now.”

She nodded, starting for the door, but his voice stopped her.

“And if you were to have any ideas about suggestive thoughts or fantasies to unnerve me or get me to admit I could see into your mind—”

“I wouldn’t do that,” she said, horrified. “Who do you think I am, Tamaki-senpai? Ew. No.”

She fled the room and shut the door behind her, leaning against the wall.

As she tried to calm her breathing, she saw things in her head, moments between her and Kyoya that belonged in one of Kirimi’s books full of debauchery. Her cheeks burning, Haruhi covered her face with her hands.

Damned mind reader.

---

Her dreams were getting worse.

Every night since her confrontation with Kyoya, she’d had a dream—she couldn’t entirely call it a nightmare because she did enjoy herself in the dreams, as embarrassing as that was—about him, and they were growing steamier and even… kinkier by the night.

She’d figured it was just hormones around that particular time of the month and it would pass.

It had been two months now, and it showed no signs of passing. It just got worse. And worse.

She had to do something about this. She didn’t know what, but something. It had to change.

She couldn’t keep thinking about Kyoya like this.

She just… couldn’t.

---

“Is something bothering you, Haruhi?”

She looked up from the dishes she was clearing, almost dropping them at the sound of that voice. She didn’t want to hear it, but even as she thought that, she could feel herself react to it, and she’d never, ever, thought she was one of those girls, but she was getting more than a little desperate, especially after how sleep deprived she’d become. She couldn’t avoid the dreams, and she never felt rested in the morning.

She turned toward him. “I swear I will take back everything I said if you make them stop.”

Kyoya frowned at her. “Make what stop?”

“You know what I mean. You have to. It’s not like… you’ve smirked at me before, so I know you’ve noticed how big a fool I’ve been making of myself. You do, and you know why. I can’t even look at you without thinking about that. And I know others have noticed, too. Not just other hosts. Some of my regulars have asked about it. I think the only one who hasn’t noticed is Tamaki-senpai.”

“He does fail to see much of what is around him and sadly believes it to be part of his charm.”

Haruhi frowned. “You know, it’s hard to understand why you are friends with him. Even after what you told me and what he’s said about you—”

“My reasons are my own,” Kyoya said. “You are exhausted and likely to break something. Go home before you do and increase your debt.”

She shook her head. “There’s no point. I can’t sleep like this. I need it to stop. Please. I won’t tell anyone else about my theory. I haven’t, and I won’t, so just… make them stop. No more dreams. Take them out of my head.”

Kyoya blinked. “You believe I gave you dreams?”

“You’re the mind reader.”

“Hmm, even if I were, the term you just used is ‘reader,’ implying that what I do is ‘read,’ not that I can actually influence anyone. And while other men might find it flattering to be fantasized about, it is more of a nuisance to me. That is for Tamaki, of anyone, I should think. The twins are unwilling to let others close. As for Mori—”

“Just make them stop.”

“Again, it’s not my doing. Perhaps you should go see someone in the Black Magic Club to see if you have been cursed and—”

“That’s not funny,” she said, grabbing hold of Kyoya’s coat. “This is your doing. I wasn’t dreaming about you before that day I told you about my theory. Now I can’t stop, and it’s your fault. You told me—”

“I told you not to fantasize as it would not do you any good in making me prove this theory of yours. Why would that make you think that I caused you to dream of me?”

“Because you told me not to.”

“You employ some dangerously flawed logic.”

She wanted to hit something and ended up knocking her head into his chest. “Make it stop. Please. Just make it stop. I don’t care if you add to my debt or deny me fancy tuna for life. Just please. Make it stop.”

Kyoya pushed her back. “I can see your desperation, anyone could, but this is still excessive. I also very much doubt you’d like my methods for doing so.”

She frowned. “What do you mean?”

“I’ve read in certain psychological journals that often illusions like this can be offset by the stark contrast with reality. That is to say, should I do any of these things you dreamed about and actually attempted to seduce you, it may well end any such fantasy you have about me.”

She continued to frown. “That’s what I want.”

“You want me to seduce you?”

She went red. “That’s not what I said. Ah, damn it, stop—that’s it. I’m going. I’ve got to get out of here. I… Goodbye.”

She didn’t hear him laughing as she left, but she knew he probably was, and smirking, too.

---

She refused to sleep. She wasn’t going to dream about him again.

She looked at her bottle of instant coffee and grimaced. Would that even be enough? She was already exhausted. She didn’t know how much longer she could keep her eyes open, and she hadn’t been able to keep the words on the page straight, not once, so none of her homework was done. She was going to fail her classes. All of them.

And she wanted to blame it on Kyoya, she really did.

The knock on her door made her jump, and she couldn’t calm herself enough to move, not at first. She shook and wanted to cry, tense as she was. This was ridiculous, but she couldn’t seem to make it stop.

“I know you’re in there, Haruhi. Open the door.”

“Kyoya-senpai? What are you doing here?”

“Let me in, and I will tell you, but I refuse to have this conversation through a door.”

Haruhi rose and went to the door, seeing him there in the darkness, looming like a true evil lord in the shadows. That should scare her, really, but he didn’t. She was afraid it might turn her on, and that thought made her blush.

Kyoya ignored it, thankfully, and shut the door behind him. “I believe I know the source of your problem.”

“What?”

He adjusted his glasses. “As much as you wish it to be me, it is not. There is no merit it pushing fantasies on you. Do you not see the parallels?”

She put a hand to her head. “You mean… since I knew you wouldn’t rape me, I should know you wouldn’t violate my mind?”

“Essentially, yes.”

She grimaced. Okay, he had a bit of a point there. “Um...”

Kyoya walked away, going down the hall to her bedroom. She grimaced, about to block him from entering her room. She didn’t need another invasion of privacy. “As I thought.”

“What?”

“You got a new neighbor about two months ago, didn’t you?”

She stopped. They had, and her father probably told Kyoya that, so she didn’t know why it was a question. Kyoya just knew these things. “Um, yes. What does that have to do with—”

“You wish to believe in powers beyond those of normal humans, yes?”

“What?”

“If I told you your neighbor had the ability to affect your dreams, would you believe it?”

She swallowed. “Um… No? I… I know I said you could read minds, but you really do seem like you can sometimes. It’s… uncanny what you do, but you denied it, and that doesn’t mean other random people can and… how would that even work?”

“In simple terms, he feeds off the energy released by your dreams.”

“What?”

“The more intense your dreams, the more he can feed, but as that inevitably takes a toll on you or anyone else he might do this to, he has to move a lot. That does not mean he has not been suspected of criminal activity. However, given the age of some of his other neighbors, they concluded the deaths were from natural causes and dropped the matter.”

“Deaths?” Haruhi grabbed the wall. “Please tell me you are kidding.”

“Does this actually seem like a matter I would joke about?”

“I… No, but I want it to be one because this is… creepy and scary and… if it’s true, is there even a way to stop him? I suppose your family can make him disappear, but… does that mean he’d die? And would that be my fault?” She leaned back against the wall. “Can I wake up and find this was all a dream yet? Maybe it’s one of Tamaki-senpai’s insane fantasies instead?”

“While his are… extreme, they do not have the ability to influence others, though sometimes I think he believes he has the ability to warp reality to his will, a belief somewhat encouraged by his status as the only son of rich parents who have the ability and servants to grant most if not all of his wishes.”

She shuddered. “The idea of him being able to warp reality is honestly frightening.”

“We all have things about ourselves we fear.”

“What’s yours?”

He didn’t answer, not that she thought he would. She thought about asking him about all of the others in the club, though she supposed that it was obvious for some of them. Kaoru feared losing his twin. Hikaru feared letting anyone close. Did a fear of running out of cake count?

“Stop being superficial.”

She stared at Kyoya. “Did you just read my mind? Wait, is that what you fear?”

“No.”

“Oh.” She shook her head. She was being stupid. Of course Kyoya wouldn’t tell her that, and why was she back on the mind reading thing? Well, he had said some really strange stuff about her neighbor, but he still hadn’t admitted that he could read minds. “Is there anything we can do about the whole dream eater thing? Wait, why do I know that—”

“I believe they use it for multiple pop culture references but it’s also in mythology.”

“Okay, but how do we stop him? Can we? Without making him disappear?”

“Possibly. If your mental walls were stronger, he might not be able to access your dreamworld and alter it to his purposes.”

“He’s that much in my head? How?”

“You are a remarkably open book. Oblivious, but open. You have no idea how many times you say ‘damned rich bastards’ in a given day, do you?”

“I… Uh… Wait, if you’re admitting you know that, does that mean you admit that—”

“Your facial expression gives it away every time.”

She flushed. Again. “Oh.”

She closed her eyes, trying to figure out what she should do. She knew that Kyoya’s explanation was a bit crazy, but after the last couple months, she could accept crazy. She supposed it had something to do with Kyoya’s air of authority. Few challenged him. Few would dare. If he said it, it was true, it almost had to be, even if it was insane.

“So… Walls? How do I build walls? I can’t run numbers and calculations through my head. I haven’t been able to do my homework. What do I do? Or when will I wake up from this?”

Kyoya leaned in close to her, putting both hands on her face and letting his forehead touch hers. His glasses bumped her skin, not in a funny or erotic way like in her dreams, even if this was a very intimate pose all of a sudden.

“Kyoya?”

“Reading doesn’t require a physical connection. This does.”

“What?”

---

She dreamed of fences that night. Large, tall walls, thick and secure like might be around a castle, ones that couldn’t be climbed over and wouldn’t go down in a simple storm. Someone would need a strong battering ram or a bomb to destroy it.

She felt safe.

And she slept better than she had in months.

---

She woke in the hallway on top of Kyoya and almost screamed her head off.

He opened his eyes, gave her an evil lord glare, groaned and went back to sleep.

On her floor. In the cramped hallway.

“Kyoya, did you do that for me? The wall?”

He didn’t answer, but he didn’t need to. She leaned back against the wall and smiled as she watched him sleep. He really was a nice guy, much nicer than he would ever let anyone know. She smiled, strangely pleased to know he’d let it slip around her.

He’d helped her build walls, and she was grateful for that, but she was even more glad to have slipped past his.

---

"Should I be worried that others have abilities like his? Or like yours?"
Kyoya gave her a dirty look, and she figured he was about to disavow his again. He rubbed at his neck and sighed. "Tamaki's fantasy world is not an ability, much as it would seem impossible to be capable of such a thing under ordinary circumstances."
She smiled slightly. "I already knew that."
"Mori."
"Mori has an ability? Is this because he can charm any animal he wants?"
Kyoya shook his head. "Surely you have noticed that he rarely speaks. And that he can quell certain overzealous parties with a single word."
"Mori... Wait, so he calms them?"
"Don't be obtuse. Any spoken word from Mori is equivalent to a command. People must obey him if they hear his words. Most of them, anyway."
"Not you, though." Haruhi was already trying to remember if that had happened to her.
"No, not to me," Kyoya said. "I suppose that is one thing this curse is good for."