Oh dear, what am I doing starting another story. I could cry, but my muse wouldn't leave me alone. I am still working on The Best Years of Her Life (got a good amount of Chapter 19 done!) and will update soon. So, please enjoy. Drop a note if you like where this new story is going!

Please note: This is an extremely AU fanfiction, therefore, I am not going to use honorifics. In this world, they don't speak Japanese, French, or English. (Or any of the other languages those crazy smart Hosts speak!) Heheheh.

Disclaimer: Ouran High School Host Club belongs to Hatori-san. I do not and will not profit from this fanfiction. This will be my first and last disclaimer. It will apply to any and all chapters I add to this work of fanfiction.

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Chapter One

Tonight, we meet.
Tomorrow, we exchange fire.
And so, the war begins.

"Run, run, run. As fast as you can." The taunt sang out through the trees, carrying a sugar-coated tune, yet the malice stung like a poison-tipped thorn bush. A young elf hurdled over fallen trees, gasping for air as her pursuer continued to sing sweet, deathly melodies. Low hanging tree branches scratched at her arms, but she kept pushing through the underbrush. If she paused, even for a much needed breather, she would die.

A knife shot passed her head, nicking the edge of her pointed ear, but she bit back the cry of pain at suddenly split cartilage. Ducking a branch and grabbing it, she used her momentum to make a sharp turn and make a precarious break for it along a barely trodden path. Her shoulder protested the motion of almost being pulled apart, but she had to ignore the pain.

"Oh, wherever did you go, Sweet Blood?" The vampire was much closer than before, allowing the underlying hunger in his tone to be heard. The nickname chilled her blood like a dunk into a glacial river.

Panic startled to bubble in her chest, forming sobs that shortened her already labored breaths. In a last desperate attempt, Haruhi grappled with the iron clasp the vampire had snapped on her wrist before he began the hunt. It grew hot against her skin as a warning against her attempts, and she cursed with every beat of her running feet the Mages who discovered nullification magic.

That damn clasp had drained her of every single tiny drop of magic. There was nothing left. There was nothing left to do but run, and curse vampires for their tendency to lose their minds over elf blood. Haruhi reminded herself that this vampire was probably a good man, just a street vendor who had forgotten to take the medicine that prevented blood rages, but she cursed him, just as she cursed her own self for wanting a lazy evening stroll around the bustling market square close to her apartment. Chicken was on sale, but she had lost her grocery bags in the river separating the square from the forested park. She cursed wanting to make a celebratory dinner for school starting the next day.

An image of her father giving her a smothering hug spurred her on, her legs continuing to carry her so quickly that trees became a blur, even with her sharp eyesight – she would never admit that it was tears instead of running velocity that obscured her vision. Elves were known for their agility and speed, only outmatched in swiftness by one other species. Vampires.

Haruhi gasped as a sharp pain erupted from her neck and a massive weight crashed into her back, sending her sliding along the dirt path. Only barely managing to keep her face from being sanded away, her torso took most of the damage with clothes ripped away and chest bleeding from multiple shallow lacerations. The vampire perched victoriously upon her lower back, almost purring with unbridled glee at catching his prey.

"I've never smelled, mmm, or tasted, anything more delicious in all my years," he murmured, shivering as he licked at the tip of her ear. Haruhi tried to struggle, but her body lacked any sort of response to her commands. Horror left her mind reeling when she realized that she had been bitten. Vampire saliva was one of the most fast-acting paralyzing agents known to Magic-kind. Now, she truly had nothing left in her, though the tears still poured from her eyes. When his tongue flicked along the punctures in her neck, she attempted to scream as loudly as her spent lungs would allow, but even her vocal cords were locked.

Then, there was light.

Haruhi was sure she was dead, for there was a blond haired boy flying through the air and he glowed with a light as bright as the sun. Tears became a blessing as they soothed her eyes from the harsh beacon she couldn't look away from. The boy struck her attacker so hard, it was almost four seconds before the vampire landed an impossible distance away. She couldn't see if he recovered from the assault.

The glowing boy with brown eyes stared in the direction he had kicked his victim into long range submission. If Haruhi could have trembled at the murderous look in his eyes, she would have. He was Fae, one of the High Order Magic-kind, and a user of Light, the purest and most powerful of the elements.

But when he looked down at her, she cried in relief at the grin that lit up his features. The vampire's venom finally reached its full potency, and her vision swam briefly before she blacked out. She welcomed it, for after what seemed like an eternity of fleeing, she was safe.

"Takashi, what did Mister Fujioka say?"

"He is consulting with the police, then he will come."

"Good. I hope he isn't worried. That vamp is going to spend a long time in prison, yeah?"

"Ah."

Haruhi slowly opened her eyes, brows furrowing immediately at the room's high vaulted ceiling and soft beige wood paneling. Anxious, since it was very apparent that she was not in a hospital, she sought out the other occupants, ready to flee again. The sight of the smiling Fae child who had saved her tamed the beginnings of a panic attack, and she managed a feeble smile in return.

The tall Fae standing protectively beside the boy held a carefully blank expression, his firm grey eyes watching every move she made while sitting up in bed. Scary. Haruhi gulped and moved her gaze back to the boy. "Thank you," she murmured, rubbing the wrist that no longer donned the enchanted iron clasp, then brushed her fingertips over the soft blue shirt that had replaced the destroyed one. "I owe you–"

"You now have a Debt of Life to me," the boy quickly interrupted, then shook his head dismissively. "That is something we will settle later. I am Mitsukuni Haninozuka, Fae-kind. Please call me Honey, and this is my cousin, Takashi Morinozuka, also Fae-kind. Call him Mori." He motioned to the tall, dark-haired man, who nodded respectfully.

Haruhi returned the gesture and held her hand out to the boy. "Honey, Mori, I am Haruhi Fujioka, elf-kind…" She trailed off as yelling could be heard in the hall outside the room, and her eye twitched with recognition of the panicked wailing.

"My darling baby girl must be crying for her daddy! Haruhi! Haruhi!"

"I am so sorry," she muttered to the amused Fae as her father burst into the room and beamed brilliantly when he set eyes on her. Ranka swept her into a great bear hug, crying piteously in relief over her escape from a "crazed vamp" and how her "life's light could not be extinguished before her time."

Sighing with slight embarrassment at the blond Fae's giggles, Haruhi patted her father on the back and pushed him away. She assured him of her already full recovery and blankly told him to calm down.

Mori stepped in, quietly assuring Ranka that all Haruhi needed was a good night's rest, while Honey took the young elf aside. "You go home and don't worry about anything, Haru. I'll come find you soon." He winked, giving Haruhi the sense that he was much older than he appeared to be, despite the extra familiar way he used her name. Averting her gaze, she rubbed the back of her neck and shoved away the shyness that he had exposed.

"Thank you again, Honey." She met his eyes one last time, then said with a very serious, formal air, "Until I have saved your life, I will always–" A finger was pressed firmly to her lips, and she stared down at the blond in shock. He only grinned, pushing her out of the room after her father, and had a servant show them to the car that would be their way home.

Honey turned to study his cousin, who had relaxed as soon as the elves were out of the room. The blond's face darkened. "Takashi, they're not your enemy."

The dark-haired Fae said nothing, only clenched his jaw and stared at the door through which the elves had departed.

When Haruhi fell upon the soft mattress, exhausted after the nightmarish ordeal and spending an hour reassuring her father that she could start school the next day, only a second was allowed for peace before her brain plowed full speed ahead like it had been charged by a lightning strike. Debt of Life. Debt of Life. Debt of Life. Debt of Life!

Until she saved Honey's life, he considered the debt fulfilled, or one or both of them died, they would share a sacred magical bond, one that would require her to acquiesce his every request. Essentially, she was his slave. There were laws restricting the types of favors a holder of a Debt of Life could expect to be performed, but for Low Order Magic-kind, like elves, many times their suits against their holders were dismissed without being investigated. Haruhi hoped that Honey wasn't that type of Fae.

She despised how their society was governed. The system of High, Middle, and Low Orders only encouraged the hate that flowed relentlessly and without a stopper in society, and she herself was guilty of misplaced hate toward High Orders. Squeezing her eyes shut, she forced out all of her angry thoughts. Haruhi reminded herself that gratefulness was all she needed right now. 'I am alive.'

Honey's selfless deed that night had reignited her faith that Magic-kind could live peacefully without classifications; there were not many High Orders who would have taken the time to save an elf. Sleep came easily when she pictured his big, innocent brown eyes smiling up at her.

The next morning, after Haruhi had changed into the modest yellow dress that was required of Ouran's female population and eaten a decent breakfast, she repacked her bag and made to leave the apartment. Still shaken from the previous night, she let out a terrified scream when she opened the door to see her father standing outside it, trying to catch his breath.

Ranka let her calm down before shoving Tokyo's daily newspaper in her face.

Female Elf Assassinated High Magic-Order Council Member

Taiki Ootori, Mage-kind, Brother to Yoshio Ootori, was killed late last night by a female
elf. She was spotted fleeing the building where the crime took place and is described
as tall, around five feet nine inches, with long black hair. This comes as a shock to the
Ootori family, and they wish to warn all Magic-kind of the dangers that female elves…

That snippet of writing was enough to chill her blood, and she was secretly glad that her dad took the paper away before she could finish reading the article. When it came to conversations between High Orders, Haruhi had heard, elves were considered dirt in their mouths…but, when it came to female elves, they were poison on the tongue.

She gritted her teeth. There was no foundation for that. There were as many male elven criminals as there were females. Ranka had once voiced an opinion that he thought maybe the High Orders placed mountains of blame and hate on female elves so they would be targeted and killed, so elves would eventually die out.

Ranka had tried to take back that particular opinion after Haruhi spent the next half hour throwing up, and never mentioned it again.

Her dad caught her attention by letting out a great sigh. "Haruhi, I…I've talked to Ouran's chairman. He agreed to let you attend the school disguised as a boy...as a safety precaution, and has already altered your student record."

He produced a gift from the chairman, a boy's uniform. Haruhi paled, since the single yellow dress had been her gift, and her dad was quick to sweep her into a tight hug. "Don't worry, Haruhi. Chairman Suoh wants you at the school. He believes you deserve this. I know you deserve this education." Ranka pulled back and smiled brightly. He hoped that would ease her worries. "The chairman wants to see you on Friday after your last class. Please go meet him."

"I will," she promised, pulling her makeshift planner out of her bag and writing in the meeting so her dad could see. "Don't worry about me, Dad." She gave him her strongest smile and excused herself to the bathroom to don her brand new boy's uniform.

"One last thing." He sounded apologetic when she stepped from the bathroom, and motioned for her to take her hair out of its ponytail. Haruhi complied and nodded when she was ready. Ranka lit a tiny fire spell in his hand, and she marveled at how he used it to burn her hair away without leaving behind the awful smell.

When she checked the mirror and saw her new haphazard hairstyle, Haruhi could only cringe. Her dad promised to take her to see his hair stylist this week, but she waved him away. She was unrecognizable, and that was all that mattered.

Haruhi's sweaty, trembling hands reached for the knobs that opened the doors to Music Room 3. Her first day at Ouran High School had been mostly uneventful during her lectures, with quiet classrooms that listened intently to the teachers. She had kept to herself, not uttering a word except to answer a teacher's question. She hadn't even taken the time to identify the Kinds of High Orders that sat close to her, and only focused on the educational material.

The curriculum at Ouran was leaps and bounds ahead of the public schools open to Low Orders, and Haruhi could not have been any happier when the lunch bell rang so she could start reading one of the seven books that her first period teacher had given her. He had said they were a required reading from middle school and the chairman wanted her to have them, and gave her a thick stack of law and government-oriented texts.

Her morning could not have gone better, but in the halls, the teenagers of the richest High Order families gathered to whisper darkly.

"That's Kotoko Fujioka's son…"

"Traitorous witch. I heard Kotoko had to renounce her family name when she married a Low Order."

"What could Chairman Suoh be thinking, giving an elf a scholarship?"

"He's out of his damned mind, that's what! It's barbaric! Elves have no right to High Order education!"

Haruhi had hidden behind non-prescription glasses, passing through students as inconspicuously as possible, and taken refuge in a blooming cherry blossom tree that resided in the West Courtyard to eat her lunch. From then on, she vowed to eat lunch in the classroom.

The past twenty-four hours had taken their toll on her, physically and mentally, and she opened the doors to the abandoned music room, looking forward to having a quiet place to study and a large room to practice the shield spell she would have to perform in front of her class on Friday. She had avoided the libraries. If one more foul word had been uttered against her mother, Haruhi would have covered her fist in fire and decked the idiot.

"Welcome!"

An ensemble of six gorgeous boys stared at her, handsome smiles failing their flawless faces to be replaced by wide eyes and mouths open in shock. Haruhi stilled, muscles paralyzed as though vampire venom had surged through her veins again, but the combination of the door slamming shut and the tall blond jumping to his feet startled her so badly a fire shield erupted over her skin. She skittered to the side, looping around the blond as she tried to even her breathing.

Mage.

Two figures stepped out of her sight, she didn't know them. She wasn't sure if the blond would hurt her, so she kept her eyes on him. Another Mage, a black-haired boy wearing glasses, watched carefully with narrowed eyes and stood beside his friend, studying her control over the fire that covered her. The blond moved toward her again, holding up his hands and opening his mouth to speak–

CRASH!

A fine vase shattered over the floor, having been sent flying from the pedestal Haruhi careened into. She had lunged for and barely missed the vase when it teetered over. She couldn't believe she had let it fall. Fire continued to flicker over her pale skin, warm and comforting in the shield spell, but she was fearful no more. Instead, she was appalled at her own stupidity.

Two pairs of hands grasped her arms with no amount of hesitation to the flames covering her, and, if possible, Haruhi paled even more at how their flesh did not burn, but absorbed the fire shield until the spell was completely gone.

Dragons.

Attention Best Years readers: You are rewarded with a 100 virtual strawberry cakes if you spotted where Ronnie was mentioned in this chapter.